What Are Democrats Afraid Of?

Well, this guy blames deadness of the brain
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/02/books/review/Gillespie-t.html?_r=1&ref=books&oref=slogin

Excerpt:
NBC/Wall Street Journal poll found that only 24 percent of American adults approve of the job the Democratic Congress is doing. That’s a decline of seven points from March. There are longer-lived trends that should worry the Democrats. In 1970, according to the Harris Poll, 49 percent of Americans considered themselves Democrats (31 percent considered themselves Republicans). In 2006, the last year for which full data are available, affiliation with the Democrats stood at 36 percent (the silver lining is that the Republicans pulled just 27 percent). If the Democrats are in fact the party of Great Society liberals, the problems run even deeper. The percentage of Americans who define their political philosophy as “liberal” has been consistently stuck around 18 percent since the 1970s, and the Democratic presidential candidate has failed to crack 50 percent of the popular vote in each of the past seven elections.

Why? -- Don't necessarily agree with the author but something is wrong. Policy and message needs to attract people, new people, more people. Need something to channel the energy of all those disillusioned young people, those people tired of the war.

NMP --

I've seen a great deal of information that directly contradicts the WSJ trend info...

I'll find you some links.

I think the Democrats have worse PTSD than the Iraq veterans. They seem to be curled up in a ball afraid to do anything!

Well yes - WSJ is quite conservative - didn't know they worked together with NBC. Interesting.

The 18-20% for liberals for several decades stands, as far as I know but there are alot of moderates and independents that can be pulled along on many issues.

These are the ones parties fight over, after consolidating their bases. Rove also focussed on registering 11 million new voters, so that even though Kerry got more voters than Gore, it threw off the popular vote balance. Then there was the cheating (disenfranchisement of voters, quirky machines, use of public funds for political activities, media control).

I wonder at grouping "The Democrats" - my own Congressman is a stellar example of courage.

NMP --

I guess what I'm talking about here are the people who are in leadership positions but refuse to lead.

This country has been divided on how to handle national security, and the Democratic Party included. When neither party has had a clear program for getting us out of Iraq, Bush at least could be made to look strong, a false front. Democrats were handicapped by the tide of paranoia after 9/11, as Republicans can traditionally make anything into a "defense" issue.

Democrats are the party of the worker yet have been repeatedly portrayed as unable to talk to regular folks, as the party of the elite and of Hollywood. Never mind that only the Republicans have elected actors such as Arnold, Reagan and maybe the Law and Order guy.

The framing on the abortion issue, the problem of how to be relevant to the South, the troubles with religious voters - these are not new obstacles. Bill Clinton had a way of speaking out of both sides of his mouth and each person heard him the way he or she needed to. There aren't many that politically savvy who can get away with it.

Democrats clearly lead on health care ideas that could really work. The party has swung to pro-business over the years enough that they should be able to handle trade and outsourcing concerns, as well as immigration. The Republicans are at least, maybe more, fragmented on those (related) issues.

Democrats need to figure out how to deal with national security, social issues and economic stress. Kerry did a good job but not enough people picked up on it and now we're paying. By 2006, some seats were won but from what I can see, everyone expects miracles and it's impossible to see where most of them are coming from. Something needs to be done and I suppose it's to repeatedly get into communication with them and pressure from the bottom up.

If we're not part of the solution (by making positive, realistic suggestions), then we may be part of the problem.

Register voters.

Call your representatives. Fax them. Email them. Stop them in the street when they are home. (I do that all the time, even though my Congressman is satisfactory - it took some time for him to help Kucinich on the impeachment thing - now we are working on Brian Baird, who came back from Iraq convinced we should let the "surge" have some time & people are freaking out here).

The problem is obvious. We know what we need to do and now we just need to do it.

It's also worth noting that if people are disgusted with the (barely) Democratic Congress, it's because they haven't accomplished what they were sent there to do on Iraq and lots of other issues. Like Joe Biden said, "we just don't have the votes."

I think many people don't realize that a larger majority will be needed to overcome the Republican willingness to stick to failed policy.
Their anger is about expectations v. performance.

Victoria
Yes I don't know where people like Reid and Pelosi are coming from so we have to keep up a tide of pressure on them.

& then we need to move forward and take more seats. There are more Republican than Democrat seats to defend. There are a few vulnerable Democrats, such as Landrieu in Louisiana (voters have had to relocate!) and Johnson in South Dakota (will voters support him still?)

Maybe the question is whether there is still hope with the political process. We have no choice. We have to do what we can do. Restating the problem is useless to us unless we have a plan and many contingency plans and multitask, every single day.

Victoria Ellen
I agree the anger is about expectations vs performance.
People need to be more realistic and get more bodies in there so there IS enough collective power to do something.

3 of 18 benchmarks were met in Iraq and maybe the same can be said of Congress - who knows

This is an "instant gratification" society - fast food, animated Congress that "morph" situations back into shape like cartoon world - that's what alot of people expect.

Politics is hard work - moves in cycles, incremental.

Cut off the money for Iraq. Send a bill with a timeline for withdrawal to the Village Idiot. If he vetoes it, send another. And another. (from the thread)

That is a plan. There needs to also be a way to counter the allegation that Congress is hurting the troops by not supplying them, not trying to end the war (which they will call "a precipitous withdrawal" now instead of "cut and run" because that worked for Nixon).

Quagmire accomplished and we are in a hell of a mess, damned if we do and damned if we don't (leave). Any problems and we will be blamed for a genocide. Should never have gone there, obviously, but everyone knew that who didn't fall for the "link" between 9/11 and Saddam and all the other lies. Many were vulnerable because of their nationalistic fervor and primitive desire for revenge, shocking to see among our own citizens.

Hurricane Katrina and Iraq Aftermath were shockingly similar and parallel examples of government ineptitude and poor planning, inability to be proactive. That alone should have done this Administration in and by 2004, yet so many people were too stupid. It's still hard to argue that "the whole country" can see much of anything except the next American Idol.

I went to Pelosi's website to see what is on the agenda for defense and it's different from the Republicans but certainly not antiwar. Only the 3rd point can be interpreted as putting on much in the way of brakes. My guess at what the Democrats are afraid of, even after all this time, is being judged as "weak on security." I don't know how much there is to work with.

We will work to:

Defend our Country

Fight terrorism with a greater focus on those who attacked us on 9/11, on homeland security, and on keeping nuclear weapons out of the hands of terrorists.

Improve our military readiness by rebuilding a 21st century force capable of projecting power and our ideals to protect our country and our interests.

Demand accountability and end the “rubber stamp” approach to Congressional oversight of the war in Iraq, the fight against terrorism, and homeland security.

Contrast that with McDermott's floor speech intro:

Mr. Speaker, a man from Kansas said, "Every gun that is made, every war ship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense a theft from those from hunger and not fed and those not clothed.

"This world is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists and hope of its children. This is not a way of life at all. In any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity that is hanging on a cross of iron."

Dwight David Eisenhower,
April 16, 1953.

I ask that the rest of my time be in silence for those who have died in Iraq. Americans and Iraqis.

CONTRAST THAT with intro to a speech by Brian Baird, also Congressman-D from WA state:

The invasion of Iraq may be one of the worst foreign-policy mistakes in the history of our nation. As tragic and costly as that mistake has been, a precipitous or premature withdrawal of our forces now has the potential to turn the initial errors into an even greater problem just as success looks possible.

As a Democrat who voted against the war from the outset and who has been frankly critical of the administration and the post-invasion strategy, I am convinced by the evidence that the situation has at long last begun to change substantially for the better. I believe Iraq could have a positive future. Our diplomatic and military leaders in Iraq, their current strategy, and most importantly, our troops and the Iraqi people themselves, deserve our continued support and more time to succeed.

--With that going on, do you think the Democrats are going to leave Iraq any time soon?

I disagree about there 'not being the votes.'

They should be voting on every bill they have on their agenda. Let the Republicans vote no. Let Bush veto it. Put it back in play again. Over and over they need to do it.

AND they NEED TO PUT IMPEACHMENT INVESTIGATIONS ON THE TABLE. To heck with if the votes are there. Set every inch of facts forward and let the 'public servants' stand up for truth and justice or let them rubber stamp the criminal regime. But each of us deserves to have a fighting chance at stopping the fascist regime in their tracks.

Laying there in a curled up position, protecting your parts, isn't getting the job done and it's not what they were voted into office to do.

Sparrow
They are bureaucrats.

Republicans need one seat to take back control of the Senate, but they have 22 seats to defend.

I really don't think the impeachment and antiwar movements are strong enough in this country yet to impact Congress much. Where I live, the sentiment is near-universal but it needs to be that way all over and it isn't.

I would be shocked if a Democratic Congress LED the way to impeachment and getting out of Vietnam. No one listened to McGovern, McCarthy or Robert Kennedy. They left Vietnam only after they had no choice. Why will it be different now? There were alot more people in the streets than there are now. Now they're all playing video games.

Remember the Hawks and the Doves? The Circular Firing Squad?
Democrats tend to be at each other's throats rather than unified. If anything temporarily unified them, it was Bush, but he is receding. Congress is (somewhat) controlled but elections are coming up. So the infighting has started in columns and the blogosphere.

The Presidential candidates will be fighting over who gets to control foreign policy. Even if the voters are dovish, the foreign policy history of the party (Democratic) is fairly hawkish. A case in point is that they didn't do that much to stop us from going into Iraq. That the war isn't working is ammo for Doves, as happened with fallout from the Vietnam war. Even if we DID enter the war, it has been unspeakably badly conducted. No planning, hasty invasion, unqualified people in charge, firing the Iraqi army etc. Of course when the government is dissolved, people retreat into their sects and into anarchy.

Where are the George McGoverns and what should they be doing to be effective and to actually be able to set foreign policy?

One of the major mistakes liberals make is that they think they have all the ideas they need. They think that all they lack is media access. Or maybe some magic bullet phrases, like partial-birth abortion. When you think you just lack words, what you really lack are ideas.

George Lakoff

Only writing because i have the time right now and no one else is.

The DailyKos recommended diary about imminent attack on Iran has over 1000 comments, ranging all across the board. This one stuck out to me, as relating to what we are talking about here today. This person is pretty much speaking for me, and then I still have to say "but how?" and according to this person, we need to somehow REFRAME but "being strong on defense" means:

Dems have struggled with the "strong on defense" issue for a long time. They allowed the Reagan GOP to frame them as weak on defense. That was a big mistake. There is nothing weak about admitting Vietnam was a quagmire and our best choice was to get out.

So now, we have neocons, in some cases religious right crusader neocons, pushing for more middle east wars. At what point will the Dems have the courage to admit that the so-called "global war on terror" was incorrectly framed by the neocons. The GWOT should always have been confined to Al Qaeda. There was no reason to attack Iraq and even less to attack Iran.

At some point, Dems need to make the case that being strong on defense means taking appropriate measured actions and not simply getting sucked into the neocons bad ideas.

Sidebar to Barack: Dear, it's no longer relevant whether or not members of Congress "showed leadership" on Iraq in 2003... What is relevant is whether or not any of you have the balls to show it NOW.

Cut off the money for Iraq. Send a bill with a timeline for withdrawal to the Village Idiot. If he vetoes it, send another. And another. Keep pushing them to do the right thing because they are WRONG, and the whole country knows it and is waiting for you to act.

You've got nothing to fear but fear itself. It's time to quit pussy footing around this pile of steaming dung, and stand up for America like we sent you there to do.

Hillary, JE, Barack... I'm going to keep calling you until you find your man-berries, so you better start looking for them.

Kisses and Hugs!

Posted by Victoria Ellen at September 2, 2007 11:23 AM

Now if only a majority of the 300 million citizens of the USofA, would find there balls and stand up and be counted, Fox Friking Propaganda would not get away with what they have gotten away with for the last 8 years. Being the face and mouth of the Bush and his Administration.

Posted on wrong thread.

Christy
Not so sure I want to get close to a water cannon.

Posted by: Not My President at September 2, 2007 10:51 AM

With no disrespect intended at all...But...

Women and children are dying every day in the name of our freedom, and our security.

Babies are starving and children are arming themselves because of what we have done.

Compared to what they are facing, facing water cannons is the least we can do for them.

Besides, why are you worried about water when they will most likely be shooting bullets anyway?

He threw out Posse Comitatus just for such an occasion. But, he forgot just who in the hell makes up the posse.

You wanna force georgie's hand?

Then call his bluff.

Christy
Did you watch the video? The water cannon will surely be tried out at APEC and beyond. I don't just post. I protest. I am not afraid of the police. That said, I do not endorse them having excessive force and applying it to legitimate protesters and using anti-terrorist law to do it, here or in Australia.

The whole reason I'm posting this stuff (about new weapons and tactics in Australia, and here) is because I'm trying to be pre-emptive to police brutality and overkill so I CAN protest. I am in solidarity with others such as in Australia if I agree with the cause. I have been protesting for years and years, for all the good it's done, and don't intend to stop now.

I spent all last Sunday one week ago protesting Bush. It's not as though I'm a big chicken. The guy you posted who was pointing the gun at the protesters? He was standing right in front of my face, which you saw if you looked at my video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51T6d6tN-rk

By the way, anyone who can make it go to DC Sept. 15.
I can't make it this time but we'll do it up here too.

Let me say I agree completely with the thread header. Not only are the Liberals/ Democrats right on the Iraq problem/ issue, most of the American people have figured out that Bush has been a disaster and the Iraq war has been a disaster.

My question is: Why can't the Dem. party leadership figure this out? Hillary is triangulating the Iraq issue like crazy - saying we can't withdraw too fast; we have to put pressure on the Iraqi government; we have to help the Kurds etc... etc.. Obama now seems to be triangulating on Iraq as well. Neither Senators Hillary nor Obama (nor Dodd or Biden for that matter) were calling for Att. Gen. Gonzales to be impeached or for his resignation.

The Dem. "leaders" are not leading. It was up to Senators Leahy, Schumer, Feingold, Jack Reed and some others in the House to put the pressure on Gonzales and force him to resign.

What a shame.

My theory is that the race for president, in this media/money driven age, has become more a beauty contest and a popularity contest than a discussion of issues and problems facing the country. Personally, I don't care how much Hillary smiles - or whether the jokes she tells on Letterman (which she didn't make up anyway) were funny or not. But to others this is important.

LET THE BEAUTY CONTEST BEGIN!!!!

My only question is why anyone acts surprised.

I am not saying you are chicken darlin.

I don't want to get hit by a water cannon any more than you do. I do not like jail.

My point is not that protestors become antagonists, my point is that slowly, by the day, your protests are coming to an end. Mine too. The Aussies too.

Every day they are getting closer to attacking another country and completely obliterating our way of life.

Protesting and civil disobedience are different phrases of the same logical chain of events. I am smply suggesting that we are in a new phase that requires radical action for a radical alteration of course.

I am not suggesting anything you haven't done before. It's a sit -in.

I know yall are vetrans at protesting. And I have learned alot about history and method here. But, no other time in history has brought us so close to the brink. The last time we were all here, as a society, we did not have so many fundamental and overlapping crisis. Flat out emergencies of state.

I know Nixon was a bad man and there was evil there, but, georgie has taken us much further. He has undermined our very foundation of laws, so much so the entire structure is about to collapse.

The only reason we would be met by a federal response would be because it is Fox News. It is VITAL that they not let it be swayed or confronted in any way.

As soon as they are, if they even were confronted once, the entire illusion they have created will shatter.

We keep saying 'Wake Up! Wake Up!". Do you know why it is not working?

Because they are not asleep, they are being mezmerized.

BRAIN WASHED.

Here is a good example. The comment someone said that the antiwar sentiment in their town is 'near universal', but it is not everywhere else.

But that is what makes it UNIVERSAL! It is everywhere. It is COMPLETE AND TOTAL. A solid majority.

But, no matter where you go, msm, or new line media, there is this narrative of, 'Everybody feels it, but no one can see everyone.'

They are lying to you. We the People are UNITED with more than 70% solidly making up the posse. Only the true believers are still left babbling about the Rapture and georgie slaying the islmohippimuslims.

Only them and FOX NEWS.

Well, one of those we can actually do something about. And we should, because they are about to railroad us into another land war in Asia.

Great rant, Vic. Speaking for the can-hoarders of the world, I don't think we are impressed with Bush at all. We started the hoard for the millennium nightmare, which was a Clinton issue, but after 9-11, the cans stayed in the cupboard and the go-bag by the door, because, you know what? We DON'T feel safer.

Posted by: Not My President at September 2, 2007 12:27 PM

The Republicans may be fragmented on immigration, but they certainly don't look like it.

Both on pro-nativist and pro-immigrant ends, I see the Republicans as winning the debate.

The Democrats really need to rewrite the immigration policy, so that people are let in based on market demands and the needs of the nation, not to fulfill some partisan objective as Republican immigrants do.

Posted by: karen at September 2, 2007 02:32 PM

Y2K was supposed to be an excuse for Clinton to declare martial law, and become President for life.

But what W has done since then is even worse - and he's closer to those objectives than Clinton ever was.

Hey Maliki, go Cheney yourself and burn in hell.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20559075/

Am I missing something?
Iraq has had one puppet after another.
It's a veritable puppet show.

Once again, there are no white knights who can solve all the problems, either in US or Iraq.

They go back decades here and centuries there.
Maybe ours go back centuries too, if in fact we are following in the footsteps of the European Colonialists and/or Romans.

Y2K was supposed to be an excuse for Clinton to declare martial law, and become President for life.

??

That is a new one on me.
It's the first time I've ever heard that theory.
I do wonder why after the Millennial scare (terrorists, Y2K computer scare) Condi Rice et al did not heed warning memos placed on their desks and read them through thoroughly?

Now if only a majority of the 300 million citizens of the USofA, would find there balls and stand up and be counted, Fox Friking Propaganda would not get away with what they have gotten away with for the last 8 years. Being the face and mouth of the Bush and his Administration.

Posted by: rossiann at September 2, 2007 01:36 PM
===========================================

Wow. I never noticed that "USofA" had the word "SOFA" in it... that explains some things.

Pentagon Pushes Apocalyptic Christianity
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/9/2/9333/92018

Completely unrelated .. just had a friend call from Paris and they now have hundreds of bicycle pickup and dropoff sites around the city, like Amsterdam used to have, but they're not free, though they are cheap! I would love to try it out & report back!!

http://www.velib.paris.fr/

Pentagon Three-Day Blitz Plan

Pentagon "Three-Day Blitz" Plan for Iran
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/090207A.shtml
Sarah Baxter of The Sunday Times UK reports: "The Pentagon has drawn up plans for massive airstrikes against 1,200 targets in Iran, designed to annihilate the Iranians' military capability in three days, according to a national security expert."

My Congressman told me in March that he was shocked they didn't do this BEFORE the 2006 mid-term.

I cant even type here what I want to see done to the so-called leadership of this country...

It does have the word ass in twice though.

It does have the word ass in twice though.

Posted by: monkey at September 2, 2007 05:07 PM

I am frightened to even think what I would like to see done to Georgie and this administration, I would never have thought the things that go through my mind were possible, and are so against the laws of the God that I believe in, not the friking laws of the church and the friking fundamentalist in the Middle East and America.

Republican Scandals in 2007
http://www.democrats.com/republican-scandals-2007

When Republicans were swept out of power in 2006, they blamed the Mark
Foley scandal for their losses and declared an end to Republican scandals.

So how's that working out?

Here's a list of Republicans scandals through August 2007. The Republican
"culture of corruption" is worse than ever!

Keep this list handy and send it to any Republicans you know who think
their party's scandals are behind them.

Source:
http://tinyurl.com/2jwnfj

January 23, 2007: Republican radio personality Scott Eller Cortelyou of
Denver arrested on suspicion of using the Internet to lure a child into a
sexual relationship

January 29, 2007: Republican former Jefferson County, Colorado, Treasurer
Mark Paschall indicted on two felony charges "in connection with an
allegation that Paschall solicited a kickback from a bonus he awarded one
of his employees"

January 31, 2007: Republican Congressman Gary Miller is named by
Republicans as ranking member of oversight subcommittee of House Financial
Services Committee despite the FBI's investigation into his land deals

February 14, 2007: Major Republican fundraiser Brent Wilkes and former CIA
executive director Kyle "Dusty" Foggo are indicted by a grandy jury for
corrupting CIA contracts

February 16, 2007: Major Republican donor Abdul Tawala Ibn Ali Alishtari,
aka Michael Mixon, is indicted in federal court on charges of providing
material support to terrorists

March 5, 2007: Ethics complaint filed against Republican Senator Pete
Domenici for his role in the Attorney Purge scandal

March 6, 2007: I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, former chief of staff to Vice
President Dick Cheney found guilty of obstruction of justice and perjury

March 8, 2007: Republican former U.S. Congressman and Speaker of the House
Newt Gingrich admits to extramarital affair

March 23, 2007: Former Deputy Interior Secretary J. Steven Griles, an oil
and gas lobbyist who became an architect of George W. Bush's energy
policies, pleads guilty to obstructing justice by lying to a Senate
committee

March 27, 2007: Criminal charges filed against Republican Pennsylvania
State Senator Robert Regola in connection with the death of a teenage
neighbor who was shot with the senator's gun; he is accused of three
counts of perjury, allowing possession of a firearm by a minor, recklessly
endangering another person and false swearing

March 27, 2007: Ronald Reagan's budget director, David Stockman, "indicted
on charges of defrauding investors and banks of $1.6 billion while
chairman of Collins & Aikman Corp., an auto parts maker that collapsed
days after he quit"

March 28, 2007: Robert Vellanoweth, a Republican activist and appointee of
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, is arrested on suspicion of gross vehicular
manslaughter and felony driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol,
after a crash that killed three adults and one child

April 18, 2007: The FBI raids the home of Republican Congressman John
Doolittle, investigating his ties to Jack Abramoff

April 19, 2007: The FBI raids a business tied to the family of Republican
Congressman Rick Renzi, as part of an investigation into his business
dealings

April 23, 2007: The FBI questions Republican Congressman Tom Feeney about
his dealings with Jack Abramoff

April 23, 2007: Federal auditors find repeat violations of federal
election law from the 2004 Senate campaign of Republican Senator Mel
Martinez

April 26, 2007: David Huckabee, son of Republican Presidential candidate
Mike Huckabee, is arrested at an Arkansas airport after a federal X-ray
technician detected a loaded gun in his carry-on luggage

May 4, 2007: Bruce Weyhrauch and Pete Kott, former Alaska state Republican
legislators, were arrested and accused of soliciting and accepting bribes
from the corrupt VECO Corporation

May 4, 2007: Republican state Assemblyman Michael Cole is censured and
stripped of his leadership position after the married father of two spent
the night at a 21-year-old intern's apartment

May 11, 2007: A field coordinator for Republican Congressman Patrick
McHenry is indicted for voter fraud in North Carolina

May 12, 2007: NBC News breaks the story that the FBI is investigating
Republican Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons for suspicion of accepting bribes
in exchange for securing government contracts

May 15, 2007: Connecticut Republican Party Chairman Chris Healy is
arrested for drunk driving (he pled no contest on June 1, but didn't
publicly disclose the event until June 11)

May 18, 2007: Republican former South Dakota State Representative Ted
Klaudt is charged with eight counts of second-degree rape, two counts of
sexual exploitation of a minor, one count of sexual contact with a child
younger than 16, two counts of witness tampering and one count of stalking
against two foster children in his care

May 21, 2007: Republican state Senate candidate Mark Tate is indicted on
nine counts of perjury and two counts of election fraud by a grand jury

June 11, 2007: Republican Senator Larry Craig is arrested for lewd conduct
in the men's bathroom of an airport

June 19, 2007: South Carolina Republican state Treasurer and South
Carolina Chairman of Giuliani for President Thomas Ravenel is indicted by
a grand jury on cocaine distribution charges

July 2, 2007: President George W. Bush commutes the sentence of former
Cheney Chief of Staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby following Libby's
conviction on obstruction of justice and perjury

July 3, 2007: A grand jury report declares that the sale of public land to
Republican Congressman Ken Calvert and his business partners violated the
law

July 11, 2007: Republican state Representative and Florida co-Chairman of
McCain for President Bob Allen is arrested for soliciting a male
undercover police officer, offering to pay $20 to perform oral sex

July 16, 2007: Republican Senator David Vitter holds press conference
acknowledging being on the D.C. Madam's list and past involvement with
prostitutes

July 16, 2007: Story breaks that Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski was
involved in a sweetheart real estate deal

July 19: Republican former state legislator Coy Privette is charged with
six counts of aiding and abetting prostitution

July 24, 2007: Michael Flory, former head of the Michigan Federation of
Young Republicans, pleads guilty to sexual abuse

July 26, 2007: Media report that Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski will
sell back land purchased in a sweetheart deal, following close scrutiny of
the shady transaction

July 29, 2007: Glenn Murphy Jr., recently-elected Chairman of the Young
Republican National Federation, is accused of sexually assaulting a
sleeping man

July 30, 2007: The FBI and IRS raid the home of Republican Senator Ted
Stevens following investigations into Stevens' dealings with the corrupt
VECO Corporation

August 2, 2007: Bush administration senior adviser Karl Rove disregards a
Congressional subpoena and refuses to testify before the Senate Judiciary
Committee

August 6, 2007: Investigation called for after House Republican Leader
John Boehner leaked classified information regarding a secret court ruling
over warrantless wiretapping

August 8, 2007: Republican Senator Larry Craig pleads guilty to
misdemeanor disorderly conduct following his June 11 arrest

August 9, 2007: Major Republican donor Alan Fabian is charged with 23
counts of bankruptcy fraud, mail fraud, money laundering, obstruction of
justice, and perjury

August 15, 2007: Republican state House candidate Angelo Cappelli is
arrested for perjury and grand theft

August 22, 2007: Republican political consultant Roger Stone resigns his
role with the New York state Senate Republicans after reports surfaced
that he made a "threatening, obscenity-laced" phone call to the 83-year-
old father of Governor Eliot Spitzer

August 27, 2007: Story breaks that Republican Senator Larry Craig was
arrested and pled guilty - he had not publicly disclosed the events to
that point

That seems like an awful lot of corruption, scandal, hypocrisy,
impropriety, and jail-worthy crime, huh? A lot of corruption. One might
say an entire Culture of Corruption.

Rossi, I want to thank you and Ally.

Remember that thing about me being unable to decide, back to school or writing ? Or both.

Well, I realized when I was trying to show you what Shreveport looked like that I had a third option. One better than both of the others.

I don't know why, but I never really thought it a serious option.

I am cleaning out my shop and turning it into an art studio. I am already doing commissioned works from my dining room, and it is way past time to get serious about it. I already have all the equipment I need to get started.

I have been paintng and drawing all my life, it is the only thing I truly love to do and never get tired of. And it is the only thing I do that consistantly pays off and keeps paying better and better. The last 48 hours has been very exiting.

Thanks to you two, the last few days have completely altered the course I am taking.

And as soon as I get my shop set up, I would like to paint something for you both.

Tell me what you like and give me three colors to work with, and I will try to have them ready by the end of the year.

Seriously, I do not know how to not sound corney about it, but thank you both, and I love you.

Posted by: rossiann at September 2, 2007 06:05 PM

Ditto that!

While on vacationing by the sea a few weeks ago, we saw a house who's mailbox said M. Malkin. The first thought to pop into my head was, if I had a baseball bat, I'd beat the crap out of that mailbox!

It turns out it's not her, but some other unfortunate soul with her first initial and last name, but I was very surprised at my gut response. And she's only their mouthpiece!

Posted by: Christy at September 2, 2007 07:38 PM

Christy, that is so cool! Good luck. I wish you the very best in your new venture. You have so much creativity and artistic talent (in both writing and painting) that I'm sure you'll be successful.

Posted by: Carol at September 2, 2007 08:19 PM

Yes. The rage is there for me and so many others too. It galls me to no end that Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are being led around like puppets on a stick. Ticks me off! Ticks off the 'normal' Republicans around here too.

Seems the only ones not for impeachment reside in Congress right now.

Posted by: Christy at September 2, 2007 07:38 PM

Christy, best of luck in your venture. You can definitely make it happen.

And you didn't have to thank me... I don't think I did anything at all re: this. :)

If I am ever in Louisiana (and I priced a few New Orleans packages recently), I'll definitely consider driving over to Shreveport to check your gallery out!

Posted by: Carol at September 2, 2007 08:19 PM
Posted by: sparrow at September 2, 2007 08:34 PM

You two are not alone in your rage.

I still live in a neighborhood where W '04 ovals are still considered a proud sign of patriotism. I can hardly contain the rage - in fact, the rage got so bad, that I had to cancel my Labor Day weekend road trip up to Blue California.

(I'll make it up there for Thanksgiving or Christmas.)

Red California is seriously detrimental to my well-being, for sure.

Posted by: Ally McRepuke at September 2, 2007 08:47 PM

I rarely see the ovals anymore. But I still see Kerry stickers.

Even when my daughter was in Indiana, by last December the stickers were disappearing and I only had a few people giving me the finger for my 'peace' bumper sticker.

I did however save all the people on my daughter's dorm floor from being filled with the R.A.'s propaganda on what a 'fine, good, man of character Bush is.' Don't ask me how.

sparrow,

It's the Kerry stickers that are long gone.

I do see Obama or Hillary stickers from time to time, but for every one of those I see, there are about 5-6 W ovals.

Great header Victoria. I agreed with you on so many points that I think I will send it to our weak-kneed opposition leader, because this is how we in Australia feel about our current - and hopefully soon tipped off to retirement - PM.

I haven't read the posts yet, and will do that now - before or after I vacuum - really, there's no contest is there?

Woz,

No hurry. You've got all day...er..night, while the rest of us snoozzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzze.

I would be shocked if a Democratic Congress LED the way to impeachment and getting out of Vietnam. No one listened to McGovern, McCarthy or Robert Kennedy. They left Vietnam only after they had no choice. Why will it be different now? There were alot more people in the streets than there are now. Now they're all playing video games.

Posted by: Not My President at September 2, 2007 12:59 PM

NMP - You're right there were more people on the streets back then - all over countries all over the world. There were concerts - HUGE - concerts with so many brilliant songs written and aired, non stop day and night. Eventually the bough breaks when there are enough bodies on that bough.

The current administration keeps everyone working non stop, so that there is no time to attend the concerts, and not enough time to join the rallies that were held week after week it seemed. Same in Australia - unemployment is low, but wages have eroded so badly that both parents have to work long hours and barely have time to do the grocery shopping. The only difference between then and now is that the gap has grown between the haves and the have-knots.

The have-knots are those who are kept tied by the current leadership, and that's all they'll have for the future - more have-knots. Unless of course, the Dems there and the ALP here part with some of the spending power they have to share amongst the have-knots by way of better health care - including mental and dental.

You have more people. In all other ways we are very similar. At the rate we're going right now we are turning out to be Little (Bush) America. No decent person wants that. Only the greedy.

Posted by: sparrow at September 2, 2007 11:00 PM

hahaha - yes. Thanks sparrow. At least if I'm not able to talk very long to myself here during your sleep hours, rossi manages to keep the door open and the light on.

Just got back from the gathering at the Code Pink house where we said goodbye and thank you to Evan Knappenberger, welcomed Desiree Farooz back from her time in jail (for a pretty bogus charge) and planned for the next three days with Bill Moyer of the Backbone Campaign.

I won't share what we will be doing, but we will be greeting Congress with some clear and direct messages.

There is a sense among us that it is now possible to go more directly at some of the issues, with the ending of the occupation of Iraq as a goal. Evan is working on a highly viable approach to using the stop loss issue, which garners a tremendous amount of agreement on the negative side even from warmongers, to bring the troops home immediately.

We also spoke with a Congressional insider who told us that the messages all of you have been sending the Dems during the August retreat seem to be sinking in, and to expect some more co-signers on several bills that had little life before.

So it was an evening of laughter and songs, and just a little hope in the arena of grim determination that has taken over the few who work so hard in DC.

We thanked Evan for giving us a new spark, a few great ideas, and we are ready to go ahead with the next few days of yet another effort to restore sanity.

Karen, I always find the things you are physically involved in - a comfort and an inspiration to hold onto what is right with the world. And Evan ..... well, what can I say? Thankyou doesn't seem anywhere near enough. And yet, that's all I have in the end. And all who know you, or know of you, are blessed.

There's a reason for all things in this world. At least I think so. And Evan has come from Iraq and from his life, with a monstrous lesson for our Hard-of-Heart and Steel-of-Soul leaders to teach all of us, how to get the message across, dramatically and peacefully. But most of all, hopefully it will be shown to the Hardest Heart of all, whose Buddies have done their worst for America and are now abandoning him.

And just when you thought it couldn't get uglier.

Business bigwigs weigh into US election
September 3, 2007

SOME of the biggest names in Australian business, including media magnate Rupert Murdoch, Telstra chief executive Sol Trujillo and retail entrepreneur Peter Lowy, have donated thousands of dollars to presidential hopefuls in next year's US elections.

Mr Trujillo and a number of his so-called "Telstra amigos" have given money to Republican senator John McCain.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/business-bigwigs-weigh-into-us-election/2007/09/02/1188671795906.html

Bloody morons!

Police spy on campus groups
Dylan Welch
September 3, 2007

POLICE have spent months secretly monitoring university political groups in the run-up to this week's Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation forum, documents obtained under freedom of information reveal.

A unit operating in the intelligence section of the NSW Police APEC Security Command has been in contact with security personnel at Wollongong University, Macquarie University and the University of Technology, Sydney, requesting permission to covertly monitor "IMGs", or "interest-motivated groups".

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/police-spy-on-campus-groups/2007/09/02/1188671795880.html

Some sense from 1/3 of the coalition-of-the-mad.

UK starts Iraq troop withdrawal
September 3, 2007 - 2:43PM

British soldiers are withdrawing from their last base in Basra, ending their permanent presence in Iraq's second largest city and paving the way for further troop cuts.

The pullout of some 500 troops from Saddam Hussein's former palace is a step towards Britain handing over security control of Basra province to Iraqi forces by the end of the year, paving the way for an eventual withdrawal of British forces.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/uk-starts-iraq-troop-withdrawal/2007/09/03/1188671827333.html

Karen
I shared Evan's writings with David Wade and he said they were powerful and that he should be connected with Soltz' group.
I didn't even know who that was so I looked around and it's VoteVets.

Glad you'll be spending time with Bill "Civil Unions for All" Moyer!

I dont know what is real anymore - there is no way to reality test. Everywhere I go lately there is a Ron Paul for President guy and a few of those 9/11-was-an-inside=job people.

Then my email is chockfull of immient Iran attack stuff plus media blitz planned by Cheney, Murdoch and the usual suspects.

This is scary.
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2007/08/if-there-were-a.html

On a different topic, I rode in an elevator with drunk college girls who told me how they were turned away from the Canadian border because they had guns, which they were outraged by.
This confirms alot of stereotypes about Americans and violence.

Seriously, I do not know how to not sound corney about it, but thank you both, and I love you.

Posted by: Christy at September 2, 2007 07:38 PM

Way top go Christy, Good for you, follow your heart.
Now the painting I will have to think about, after all you do have a couple of Muchas hanging if you want to take one down? Hehehehehe

Aussies 'have glass jaw over Iraq'
September 3, 2007 - 5:59PM

It's called the glass jaw syndrome, where the populace of a western nation can't bear the prospect of any protracted overseas military operation that produces casualties.

Professor Ross Babbage said Australia lost more than 500 troops in Vietnam and it took nine years before there was sufficient pressure to withdraw.

He said the US was in Vietnam for 11 years, losing more than 58,000 dead before it, too, was forced to withdraw.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Aussies-have-glass-jaw-over-Iraq/2007/09/03/1188783148122.html

Professor Ross Babbage said Australia lost more than 500 troops in Vietnam and it took nine years before there was sufficient pressure to withdraw.

He said the US was in Vietnam for 11 years, losing more than 58,000 dead before it, too, was forced to withdraw.

Posted by: woz at September 3, 2007 04:22 AM

Exactly, woz and we are all going to be there a hell of a lot longer, with a hell of a lot more deaths, Iraqi, Afganis, Americans, Coalition, Contractors, and probably Iranians to, you can bet on it.

Australian PM Posts YouTube Urging People Not To Join Violent Protests
The BBC reports:

Australian Prime Minister John Howard has posted a video on YouTube appealing to people not to join violent protests during the Apec summit in Sydney.
The city is hosting the gathering of 21 world leaders amid massive security.

Some are calling it Fortress Sydney, such is the scale of the operation to protect Australia's biggest ever gathering of world leaders.

Protest-proof fences have been erected close to the Opera House and other sites where meetings are taking place.

Read the full article
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6975546.stm
Watch the YouTube here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/09/02/australian-pm-posts-youtu_n_62870.html

You would think that we could not protest peacefully, Howie understand we "DO NOT WANT GEORGIE IN AUSTRALIA" tell him to stay cutting brush in Crawford.

"Redacted" stuns Venice (Brian De Palma Film Iraq War)
Source: Reuters

A new film about the real-life rape and killing of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl by U.S. soldiers who also murdered her family stunned the Venice festival, with shocking images that left some viewers in tears.

"Redacted", by U.S. director Brian De Palma, is one of at least eight American films on the war in Iraq due for release in the next few months and the first of two movies on the conflict screening in Venice's main competition.

Inspired by one of the most serious crimes committed by American soldiers in Iraq since the 2003 invasion, it is a harrowing indictment of the conflict and spares the audience no brutality to get its message across.

De Palma, 66, whose "Casualties of War" in 1989 told a similar tale of abuse by American soldiers in Vietnam, makes no secret of the goal he is hoping to achieve with the film's images, all based on real material he found on the Internet.

"The movie is an attempt to bring the reality of what is happening in Iraq to the American people," he told reporters after a press screening.
Read more: http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=ent...

I'm putting this one on my must see list!

Rossi and Woz,

Great to see all the protests in Aussie-land. Sounds like Murdock wants to take over the world so he can make more money. Hope you folks are successful in driving away the Bush lies.

Karen,
Thanks for the reports on Evan. Like Rossi and Woz, I know hearing those reports are heartening when everything else seems like it's going to hell in a handbasket.

Bush, Advisers Make Surprise Visit to Iraq

By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, September 3, 2007; 8:48 AM

AL ASAD AIRBASE, Anbar Province, Iraq, Sept. 3 -- On the eve of major administration decisions on U.S. strategy in Iraq, President Bush, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and top U.S. military leaders including the senior U.S. commander in Iraq, Army Gen. David Petreaus, arrived here Monday on a surprise visit for a series of unprecedented meetings with top Iraqi leaders and Sunni tribal sheiks in Anbar Province, where progress has dramatically lowered attacks in what a year ago was Iraq's most violent region.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/03/AR2007090300333.html?hpid=topnews

"The surge is working, the surge is working, the surge is working,,,,,"

sparrow, what do people do when they are told that they are NOT ALLOWED to do something that hurts no person or property? All Howard and his militia are doing is setting the challenge.

karen, does it work? Does saying it is so ...... make it so? Wouldn't that be great?

I tried clicking my heels but I can't find any red shoes.

HAHAHA!

Woz.

You forgot the magic wand.

The 'surge' is working if you ignore the deaths and ignore the fact that the rest of Iraq is being blown up. And I'm sure they'll find one safe spot and make sure they have heavy amory to guard them, while they sell their pre-packaged lies.

I'm so effing sick of politics--war, corruption, evil, war profiteers, greed, hypocrites...

-new thread--hummer-ing along...