Vituperative & Foulmouthed?

An acquaintance has wondered if my blog could be considered 'vituperative & foulmouthed' as the Washington Post's David Broder has described certain 'liberal's' blogs.

I like to consider myself as 'progressive' though I wouldn't be surprised to be described as a 'vituperative liberal' by some. Such are the labels used by word gamers these days. I consider myself simply as an 'environmentalist' for example, but invariably find people like me now painted as 'extreme' or 'radical environmentalists' by the likes of Alaska's Senator Ted Stevens or Congressman Don Young even though I've not changed nor done nothing more extreme or radical than publicly express my opinion. Such are the words games that politicians play to marginalize those who don't agree with them. It is just a fact of life today in America.

I do try not to be foulmouthed. A friend once told me that swearing and being foulmouthed was just a manifestation of a lack of imagination and intellect, not to mention vocabulary. I've always considered myself to be 'center of the bird' in the words of comedian Pat Paulsen who humorously ran for President back in Nixon's time. He claimed that having too much left wing or right wing just caused you to fly around in circles. I agree. But, being a 'progressive centrist' lately has meant being shoved (without moving!) way over to the left by the Neo-cons who have now pried the country so far to the right. I did an inventory once not too long ago and realized that I have actually voted for more Republicans than Democrats in my life.

But, my views are changing over the past few years. I now perceive we live in neither a democracy, nor the 'capitalist' society that I've always believed in. Instead, I've belatedly recognized the US is actually under 'corporatism' or 'corporate statism' no matter which party holds the White House. Though admittedly this is far more true under Republicans. In fact, under the present administration our country can quite accurately be called Fascist as I understand the term. My countrymen may not like to hear that, but in my humble opinion that is very close to the truth.

Partisan Irresponsibility

There’s a well deserved Republican leadership meltdown ongoing over the scandal involving Florida Republican Congressman Mark Foley & congressional pages. Foley ‘resigned immediately’ on 29 September, 2006 following disclosure of his inappropriate e-mails to male pages. It is widely speculated that Foley is in fear of further disclosures.

Ironically, Foley is a high profile opponent of chid pornography and served as cochairman of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children. He was sponsor of child protection legislation, but his e-mails to boy pages show a definite pederast slant of his own. Maybe all Foley’s ‘protesting too much’ is akin to his being a wolf in sheep’s clothing. The biblically inclined like to point to Matthew 7:15:

“Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing,
but inwardly are ravenous wolves.
You will know them by their fruits.”

Foley may be subject to criminal prosecution under the very laws he helped write and pass. If so, his would be a classically apt example of being ‘hoist by his own petard’. This cliché was made famous by William Shakespeare in Hamlet:

“There's letters seal'd: and my two schoolfellows,
Whom I will trust as I will adders fang'd,
They bear the mandate;
they must sweep my way
And marshal me to knavery.
Let it work;
For 'tis the sport to have the engineer
Hoist with his own petar:
and 't shall go hard
But I will delve one yard below their mines
And blow them at the moon:
O, 'tis most sweet,
When in one line two crafts directly meet.”

As Shakespeare meant it, “hoist” means “blown up” as in bomb. A petar(d) is literally a buried bomb (mine). Being hoist by your own petard means being caught by your own booby trap! How fitting in this instance.

But the real story isn’t about Mark Foley. We will always have pederasts, perverts and child molesters among us. It’s the responsibility of other adults to protect the children against them. The real story is the partisan cover-up of Foley’s antics by the GOP leadership for well over a full year. Like the Catholic church covering up and hiding the predatory abuse of children by the priesthood, the Republican leadership made a cynical choice to protect their Republican turf instead of the children.

Astoundingly, Foley's excusers have gone so far as to blame the teenage pages themselves. Matt Drudge calls them ‘little beasts’. You can listen to his ranting for yourself here: MATT DRUDGE

It is unbelievably ridiculous, except that it is also a serious failure of responsibility. That the Republican leadership would choose to cover things up and leave the teenagers exposed to Foley’s overtures is criminal in many people's opinions. To their credit some Republican leadership are calling for a full investigation and censuring some of those whose responsibility it was to have taken action. This story is far from over.

And for Alaskans, what response do you think we have had from our lone congressman, Republican Don Young? Unsuprisingly, U.S. Rep. Don Young is not joining the call for House Speaker Dennis Hastert's resignation over a former Florida congressman's online messages to underage boys.

Meredith Kenny, the Alaska Republican's spokeswoman, said "It's not in his character to comment on someone else's personal problems. Well, not problems, someone's personal matters," "He's not going to get involved in this."

I thought it very apropos that the web site for ex-Congressman Foley's 16th Florida District now terms the position as "The Honorable Vacant" and the "Leadership" as "None":

It's All in the (Business) Numbers

Number of workplace arrests made by U.S. immigration authorities in 1997: 17,554[U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement]

Number in 2003: 445[U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement]

Percentage change since 1999 in federal prosecutions of white-collar crime: -25[Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (Syracuse, N.Y.)]

Chances that a U.S. company settling a corporate crime case will illegally deduct some or all of the settlement to the IRS: 3 in 5[U.S. Government Accountability Office]

Average percentage by which U.S. senators’ investments outperform the stock market each year: 12[Alan J. Ziobrowski, Georgia State University (Atlanta)]

Chance that the CEO will quit or be fired within eighteen months: 1 in 2[RHR International Company (Wood Dale, Ill.)]

Average performance rating, on a scale of 1 to 100, of top U.S. government managers who are political appointees: 62[David Lewis, Princeton University (New Jersey)]

Average for those who are career bureaucrats: 70[David Lewis, Princeton University (New Jersey)]

Estimated amount the U.S. would save each year on paperwork if it adopted single-payer health care: $161,000,000,000[James G. Kahn, University of California, San Francisco]

Percentage change since 2000 in the average amount U.S. workers spend on out-of-pocket medical expenses: +93

Harper’s Magazine

Failing the Grade

The war in Iraq has emerged as the dominate issue for the ‘06 elections. Politicians of both parties franctically try to distance themselves from their almost universal previous support for this illegal and ill-conceived war.

The American public is increasingly disenchanted with the war and the world at large now widely views the US as being a bullying aggressor in Iraq. Nonetheless we continue to hear President Bush cry “Staying the Course” and his people running this war compare those who disagree to traitors and Nazis and characterize them as 'unpatriotic'.

Bush’s poll numbers have plummeted and Republicans overall are being blamed for this situation. The rush to distance themselves and disown the war has become a stampede, but it increasingly looks as if Republicans will be hugely punished in the upcoming election.

While both major parties are complicit in the Iraq War fiasco, a look at the stated goals by this administration for the war, and the progress towards those goals validates the overall public view on the war. I have taken the trouble to prepare a ‘Report Card” to illustrate this.

If this administration were in a public school they would be sent back a grade and that is just what might happen soon:

In (The Christian) God We (Must) Trust

So, you always thought that freedom of religion in the US means freedom of any religion and even freedom from religion if you so choose? Well, think again according to Katherine Harris - the Floridian who ruled in Bush's favor in the 2000 election fiasco. Ms. Harris you may recall, was the red lipstick smeared motormouth who so blatantly supported Bush while assuring everyone she was merely doing her job as the then Florida Secretary of State.

Ms. Harris, now a Florida Representative to Congress (R-Fla.), and a candidate in the Sept. 5 Republican primary for U.S. Senate, said her religious beliefs "animate" everything she does, including her votes in Congress.

She said this week that God did not intend for the United States to be a "nation of secular laws" and that the separation of church and state is a "lie we have been told" to keep religious people out of politics. "If you're not electing Christians, then in essence you are going to legislate sin," Harris told interviewers from the Florida Baptist Witness, the weekly journal of the Florida Baptist State Convention. She cited abortion and same-sex marriage as examples of that sin.

But like other Far Right Wing nut cases running for office recently, Harris is seriously down in the polls. Two entire campaign staffs have resigned en mass in the past few months and her poll numbers are running well under 20% approval.

Many in her own party in fact have indicated they may vote for her Democratic opposition.

Seems our country - even in Florida - is finally waking up.

Running For Cover

They had to rush GWB to the hospital the other day. Seems he got undressed to take a shower and noticed all these little round bruises all over his body.

They ran all sorts of tests;
The tested him for this;
And, they tested him for that;
Then they tested him for the other;
They even tested him for testes;
All with negative results;
They re-ran all the tests;
They checked into liver spots;
They checked for adverse cocaine reactions;
They checked for alcohol poisoning;
And even marijuana reactions;
They checked on his swollen spleen;
They checked on his bi-polar disorder;
And on his paranoid dementia; A
nd, his manic depression;
And his Attention Deficit Disorder;
And his speech disorder;
And nothing they checked him for;
Could cause the circular bruising symptoms;

Finally in desperation, a senior aide asked if anyone had checked him for pole bruises -

"Pole bruises?" asked one doctor.

"Sure, pole bruises," answered the former aide for Newt Gingrich & Tom Delay. "You know those spots folks get from being poked all over with 10 foot poles." Sure enough . . . .
Like I've always said - by the time the next elections comes around you won't be able to find anyone who will admit to voting for this guy . . . but we sure as hell aren't going to ever let 'em forget!

I'm getting a real kick out of everyone running for the door these days when he shows up . . . too bad our country's paying the price.

Partisanship

The problem with political partisanship is that supporters often lose sight of reality in their zealotry. This is unbelievably true for Bush apologists. It simply doesn’t matter to them what is or isn’t so. Even when Bush admits something, he retains many vociferous defenders in absolute denial. Case in point from a video clip of Presidential press conference played on the Jon Stewart Show:

GW Bush: "You know, I've heard this theory about everything was just fine [in Iraq] until we arrived, and kind of 'we're going to stir up the hornet's nest' theory. It just doesn't hold water, as far as I'm concerned. The terrorists attacked us and killed 3,000 of our citizens before we started the freedom agenda in the Middle East."

Cox News Service reporter Ken Herman: "What did Iraq have to do with that?"

GW Bush: "What did Iraq have to do with what?"

Herman: "The attack on the World Trade Center?"

GW Bush: "Nothing."

Yet many people in the face of all reality even today still insist Iraq was behind the 9/11 attacks, though the numbers are finally dwindling as common Americans come out of our fear-induced coma.

But see, that’s the thing about reality: It’s real. It doesn’t go away just because someone insists on something else. Saying something’s so doesn’t make it so no matter how many times it is said.