Whatever I Want

Author Frank Schaeffer has announced he’s leaving the Republican party after receiving the following email message from Republican George Allen’s campaign supporters;

“First, it was the Catholic priests, then it was Mark Foley, and now Jim Webb, whose sleazy novels discuss sex between very young teenagers. … Hmmm, sounds like a perverted pedophile to me! Pass the word that we do not need any more pedophiles in office.”

Sleazy? Yes. Surprising in this political climate? Sadly, no. The bright side is that people of conviction on both sides of the political aisle are stepping forward and saying, “enough is enough.” They are turning their backs on divisive, partisan politics and moving to create an atmosphere of healing by their sheer force of will.

I know that I, to some degree, have fallen victim to the mire that we call politics today. I have found myself disliking (occasionally almost hating) some of the conservatives that trumpet their right-wing ideologies. I do attempt to remind myself that this cannot become “us” versus “them”. That there are good Republicans who want to do the right thing and, equally, that not every Democrat is principled and well-meaning. What I do revile is the current administration. This president who snuck himself into the White House under the guise of a “uniter” only to bring the most divisiveness yet seen in American politics.

This can’t be laid totally at George Bush’s feet. The Congress had begun to spin out of control during the Clinton administration. Republican’s getting in 1994 what surely must have seemed a long time coming to them - control of Congress. They came back with a vengeance and have pushed their agenda while marginalizing the Democrats (with some help from said Democrats) along the way.

The news media is also to blame in this sordid tale. Many seem to have forgotten the difference between news and commentary. It’s nearly impossible to get the simple facts anymore with having it spun in one direction or the other. If you’re listening to Rush Limbaugh or Keith Olbermann (sorry to mention you in the same sentence as Limbaugh, Keith) then you can know what to expect - commentary. But when Fox News claims to be fair and balanced with their news reporting - Edward R. Murrow must be rolling over in his grave. I only have this to say to the news media; Grow a pair.

Let’s hope that this movement of sorts can continue and politics can get back to what it should be; people with two different political philosophies working together to for the betterment of this great country.

Schaeffer story from The Dallas Morning News.

Just an informal poll here and, since my readership is somewhere around zero, it’s definitely not a representative sampling.

OK, election day is almost here. How do you plan on voting? Check the results from a month ago here. I know… only 10 votes. I’m hoping to get a couple more this time.

No personal data is used or retained.

President Bush and Vice President Cheney are turning it up to 11 in a full blown show that can only point out the helpless desperation the Republicans must be feeling. The Washington Post is reporting;

“However they put it, the Democrat approach in Iraq comes down to this: The terrorists win and America loses,” Bush told a raucous crowd of about 5,000 GOP partisans packed in an arena at Georgia Southern University in Statesboro, one of his stops Monday. “That’s what’s at stake in this election. The Democrat goal is to get out of Iraq. The Republican goal is to win in Iraq.”

Cheney claimed that the insurgents in Iraq have timed attacks to influence the election. It seems to me that violence in Iraq, or the threat of it, have worked in the Republican’s favor in the last couple of elections. It’s amazing to me that the Republicans time and again go straight to the fear-mongering and mudslinging when they feel that an election is close.

Of course the reason they do this is because they have no standing on the issues. What can they campaign on? Family values? Mark Foley, Tom Delay and anyone associated with Jack Abramoff reminded the American public that the Republicans have no moral lock in that area. What about the war on terror? Any independent study done in the last 3 years has failed to show the same rosy picture that the White House and Congressional Republicans tried to paint and support for the war (not our troops, the war) amongst Americans is at an all time low. What about the economy? Bush has been touting the economy but I think that’s with the hope that most Americans will take the overly simplistic viewpoint that because the price of gas is lower than it has been (coincidence?) and there is no apparent inflation that everything is hunky dory. This of course isn’t true. This administration has created the biggest budget deficit in the history of our country and with the current war in Iraq sapping $200 million or so a day it won’t be getting any smaller anytime soon. Sure we might be ok right now but what about our kids? Our grandkids? They’ll be paying for this for a long time.

So Bush and company will continue to sling mud and sell fear but I sincerely hope the American public has caught on and won’t fall for it this time.

I like Scott Adams’ (of Dilbert fame) blog. He has a way of telling the truth hidden in what seems to be a big joke. His latest comments on electronic voting are pretty much right on.

It’s funny that in today’s climate the people in media who really tell the truth are the ones who couch it as a joke.

The Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America is a non-profit group that’s working to help the troops as well as veterans of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. They encourage combat veterans to speak up and tell the American public about their experiences. They also track legislative issues and have a very interesting system for rating your congressional representatives.

I did a quick run through and couldn’t find any Republican who scored better than a ‘C’ as far as this group is concerned. Now it seems to me that this group leans left but you can’t discount their research. Their site is very impressive and they’ve tracked every veterans related issue before Congress since September 12, 2001. I can’t think of a better way to support our troops.

Electronic voting machines already changing Democratic votes to Republican - Several South Florida voters say the choices they touched on the electronic screens were not the ones that appeared on the review screen — the final voting step. Gary Rudolf touched the screen for gubernatorial candidate Jim Davis, a Democrat, but the review screen repeatedly registered the Republican, Charlie Crist.

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One of my favorite websites, Factcheck.org, is reporting that the Republicans are far more likely than Democrats to engage in mudslinging during this year’s House races. While Democrats tend focus on their opponents policy and performance issues, Republicans are much more likely to “demean an opponent’s character.” FactCheck.org does a good job of analyzing the offending ads.

Since character seems to be so important to many of the Republican House candidates I’m sure they won’t mind if voters take theirs into account based on these ads.

FactCheck.org is nonpartisan and acknowledges that there are inaccuracies in the Democrats campaign ads too and will cover those in a future article.

As I’ve said repeatedly; this is a website every voter should frequent.

WTF?! The New York Times is reporting that I.R.S. commissioner, Mark W. Everson, has ordered the agency to delay collecting back taxes from Katrina victims until after the mid-term elections. The commissioner, who’s close to the White House, has said that it’s standard procedure to postpone collections until after an election to “avoid casting the Internal Revenue Service in a bad light.”

According to the NYT article, this assertion has been contradicted by four former I.R.S. commissioners, who served under past presidents from both parties. They have said “that doing so because of an election was improper and indefensible.”

It’s nice to see the White House looking out for the hurricane victims - at least until after the election. I mean, who wants the bad press?

Think Progress is reporting that Secretary Rumsfeld think “it would be logical” that terrorists are ramping up violence in Iraq so that Democrats can win the midterm elections. When some right-wing radio host in one of the Dakotas who was interviewing him went on to say that the terrorists were trying to manipulate the American people, Rumsfeld agreed and said, “It’s hard. No one likes to think they’re being manipulated. They believe that they can make their own judgments and the like.” I trust Rummy on this; the Bush administration knows a thing or two about manipulating the American public.

Once upon a time your mechanic decided he was going to soop up your car. You didn’t ask him to; your car was running fine. After he started he found or created all kinds of other problems that needed to be fixed. And the cost kept mounting and all the time you didn’t have a car and had to take the bus. You started to wish that he never decided to soop up your car. It was fine before. Would it be better after he sooped it up? Maybe, but you’re not so sure. Then you start telling him that you just want him to put it back the way it was and he tells you that he needs to stay the course. That he won’t; he can’t go back. He needs to finish this job so that you can have the best car in town. Well, he hopes it’ll be the best car in town. If everything goes well. Besides, your car won’t run now. There’s all sorts of problems with the car and it’ll be dangerous for you to drive it. The car would be a danger to you and everyone else on the road unless he finishes the job - the job he started… that created all the problems to begin with… that made your car more dangerous than it was before.