Dominion

Now that Barack Obama has announced his running mate for the VP slot as Joe Biden, it’s time to focus on kicking McLame’s sorry, tired ass all the way up to and beyond November.

As expected,  McLame’s camp started  a heavy barrage of their typically pointless, distraction tactics once the Biden announcement was made. Jumping on Obama’s slip of the tongue by introducing Biden as the next President, a McSame aide said that Obama “slipped with the truth that his own experience is too underwhelming to be president.”  Yawn.  These lame asses have nothing on Obama.  They’re grasping at straws.

Another distraction the McIneedaCane camp used was calling out Biden’s own primary run up criticism of Obama.  Oh my goodness, that’s so damaging!  Not.

The fact of the matter is that the McIneedaCane camp has nothing on Obama and they have absolutely nothing on the real issues.  I can’t wait till we start to get into some serious political debate between the two so Obama can trounce McBush on the issues.

The title says it all.  In what is truly the basest, most vile political propagandist attack I’ve seen in my forty years, the McCain campaign launched a blatantly religious-themed attack ad likening Barack Obama to…what?  God?  The Messiah?  The Anti-Christ?  Just exactly what in the bloody Hell are they playing at?  Just when I thought they couldn’t crawl any lower, McCain and his campaign staff have shown that they are capable of being even lower than the shit from the damned serpent in the Bible.

Cnn.com just posted a review of the latest McCain political attack ad (see http://tinyurl.com/5qv5nx for reference, see http://tinyurl.com/6ht8jb for the video).

This is blasphemy of the highest (or should I say lowest) level. I think that it would behoove religious leaders to speak out against the McCain camp’s use of such obviously blatant exploitation of religion as a political tool.  If there are REAL CHRISTIANS in this country, it is YOUR responsibility to speak out against this patently offensive campaign.  It is a blight on the faithful, and it is offensive in the eyes of God.

Let’s see where your faith truly lies–with the conservative right-wing neo-con Republicans, or with your God.  You have an OBLIGATION to defend your God from such blasphemy.

Just to clarify, that title should say “is Lost”, not “has Lost.”  Although there’s nothing I’d like more than to read that headline the day after the election this November.

This man is at such an utter loss for any message of substance–any concrete plan for change to get us out of the Hell hole that we’re in at present–that he’s resorting once again to classic Republican playbook politics:  distract, divide, and lie.

The latest distraction is his campaign’s joke of an ad likening Obama to two worthless paparazzi trash targets, Paris Hilton and Britney Spears.  I don’t even know where to begin with this one (see The Huffington Post for the video: http://tinyurl.com/552o8e ).

OK, so Obama draws a lot of media attention (we’re sorry McSame, you’re just so…boring and repetitive–just like Bush) .  Comparing Obama to two pop culture trash divas has to be the single most asinine political jab I’ve seen to date from McLame’s piss poor campaign folks.

They must really be grasping at straws now since even the two points they make in their ad, that Obama is against domestic oil drilling (stupid idea by the way to push for domestic oil drilling NOW–that shit won’t even start to pay off for 10 to 12 years, what are we going to do NOW to help things out?) and that he allegedly wants to increase the tax on electricity, are totally misleading and in the latter case (the increase in “electricity tax”) pure b.s. (see The Washington Post for details: http://tinyurl.com/63ofkm ).

And now this poor, pathetic choice of a RepubliCON presidential candidate is practically crawling with his latest jab at Obama.  McCain has finally done it–he used the “Obama is playing the race card” attack.  Why?  He’s using this attack because he doesn’t have a fucking clue.  His so-called “plans” are more of the same reckless, disastrous policies that our current worthless president has been shoving down our throats for the past eight years and he knows that he’s suffering and he’s going to get his ass handed to him come November.

When you’re a RepubliCON and you don’t have a plan, you do what comes naturally:  attack, distract, and lie.  New election year?  Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

So in the latest free-press free-pass, John McSame’s historical revisionism got a sterile bypass when Katie Couric asked him on a recent CBS interview (Tuesday July 22nd, 2008) what his thoughts were on Barack Obama’s take on the troop surge in Iraq and the “Sunni awakening.”  This is from the transcript of the footage that CBS edited and aired:

Katie Couric: Senator McCain, Senator Obama says, while the increased number of US troops contributed to increased security in Iraq, he also credits the Sunni awakening and the Shiite government going after militias. And says that there might have been improved security even without the surge. What’s your response to that?

McCain: I don’t know how you respond to something that is as– such a false depiction of what actually happened. Colonel MacFarland was contacted by one of the major Sunni sheiks. Because of the surge we were able to go out and protect that sheik and others. And it began the Anbar awakening. I mean, that’s just a matter of history.

Actually, *real* history shows on record that the so-called Sunni awakening (also known as the Anbar Awakening) happened well before the surge was planned or even announced to the general public.

What kills me about this is that once again, McSame flounders the facts and uses his own ignorance of actual historical facts to demean his opponent.  Maybe McLame’s historical facts are just a psychological thing.

Naturally, the right-wing conservative lap dogs leap up to defend their party and presumptive presidential candidate whenever this kind of fuck up happens.  The kinds of defensive tactics that pop up are generally a few common flavors:

1.) Deny the screw up.  Never happened.  We didn’t say that.  What we actually said was (insert appropriate bullshit cover story here)… Then proceed to attack their opponent.

2.) Immediately attack their opponents but completely ignore the fact that a screw up was made.  Can’t you see that the other guy is on crack?

3.) Distraction tactic 101:  Draw attention to a non-issue (and simultaneously attack their opponent).

Which brings me to the weapon of mass distraction today:  Glen Beck’s latest conservative dribble about the unfair and imbalanced coverage that Barack Obama is receiving in the media  (http://tinyurl.com/5hjg98).

Is this really a public issue, or is this something that should be taken up with the media moguls directly?  Let’s see… What sells more–a young, fresh candidate with monumental momentum behind him and the genuine desire to get our country back on track for its population, or an aging cold-war era former military man who is stuck in the past and wants more of the same obsolete political and military tactics to rule them all?  I could be wrong Alex, but I’m going to say, “Who is the young, fresh Democratic candidate?”

This joke of a commentato, Beck, wraps up his whining with the following:

“But all of this points to a larger point: We’ve become a country that continually chooses the sizzle over the steak. McCain may not get my vote, but he gets my admiration for at least offering some substance and new ideas when he speaks. Obama, meanwhile, is like the rock star who’s realized that he can just scream unintelligible words into the microphone between songs, and the entire stadium will still scream. When your fans already love you, there’s no reason to risk it by offering anything that might be controversial. Remember the Dixie Chicks?

As candidates, Barack Obama and John McCain are ironically a lot like the way the media treats them: Obama is the glitzy magazine cover that screams for people to buy the issue, and McCain is the fact-filled article buried inside that makes you glad you did.”

How do I skewer thee?  Let me count the ways…  OK–”We’ve become a country that continually chooses the sizzle over the steak.”  Excuse me but this has been in the RepuliCON playbook for decades.  Scream as loud as you can and berate your opponent while not actually doing anything to fix the problem you’re bitching about.  All sizzle, no steak.  Look to the Senate yesterday when Harry Reid was trying to get a bill passed to curb oil speculators.  Republicans bitched and moaned about Dems not doing anything to help the people of this country out but there they stood, ready to filibuster and add myriad amendments to the bill to declaw it.  They

Next, Beck says, “he (McCain) gets my admiration for at least offering some substance and new ideas when he speaks.”  Are you kidding me?  Substance and new ideas?  You mean new ideas of substance like bombing Iran?  Killing Iranians with cigarettes (If McLame is so convinced that cigarettes can kill, why isn’t he “protecting” people in this country from them?)? Keeping us in Iraq for 100 years while we slowly create a new American empire in the middle east?  Yeah, those are great ideas, Beck.

Beck alludes that “Obama, meanwhile, is like the rock star who’s realized that he can just scream unintelligible words into the microphone between songs, and the entire stadium will still scream.”  Unintelligible words.  Right.  Glen, would you like to give us some specifics on that analogy?  Seems to me that the last time I saw Obama speak (which was yesterday, incidentally) he was extremely articulate and what he had to say made a heck of a lot more sense than McCain’s marble-mouthed mumbling rendition of “Bomb Iran.”

It’s Beck’s closing paragraph that really makes my skin crawl: “As candidates, Barack Obama and John McCain are ironically a lot like the way the media treats them: Obama is the glitzy magazine cover that screams for people to buy the issue, and McCain is the fact-filled article buried inside that makes you glad you did.”

McCain is “fact-filled”?  Anbar Awakening?  Czechoslovakia?  Iran supplying Sunni insurgents and/or Al Qaeda?  Seems to me that when you have a traveling companion who is constantly whispering in your ear to correct you on the “facts,” you’re full of something.

It’s a sad day in American history when an iconic American “institution” is sold to foreign interests, but it’s an even sadder day when that event gets a headline like this: “Foreign-owned Bud a wound to Americana” (see http://tinyurl.com/5wzzy8 for reference).

Where was that headline when George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Alberto Gonzales, and all of their other co-conspirators were raping the Constitution of the United States of America and breaking several Constitutional laws? That was, and still is a wound to Americana.

Where were the “major” news outlets when that was happening?

Where was the 100 point bold black text proclaiming, “President Bush Violating American Constitution“?

That we are losing our identity, and the day’s front page headlines in one of the “most trusted names in news” is paying closer attention to a beer company being sold to Belgians while our elected leaders are burying us in a financial hole so deep that it will take at least two or three generations to get out of it is a wound to Americana.

The saddest thing about all of this is that our elected Comonkey-in-Chief thinks that he has actually done good things for this country. Take a look around you at all of the good things that have come to pass on George W. Bush’s watch:

• The largest financial institutions (IndyMac, FreddieMac, FannyMae) are crumbling and being bailed out by the government.
• The housing market is collapsing due to lack of oversight and regulations watching out for shady home lenders.
• The so-called “War in Iraq” is costing us roughly $255 million PER DAY (http://www.nationalpriorities.org/).
• The cost of gasoline at the pump has risen 38% over the past year (average of $4.079 per gallon as of July 14th, 2008 compared to an average of $2.95 per gallon in July of 2007).
• The cost of crude oil per barrel has more than doubled in the past calendar year ($67.65 per barrel in July 2007 to $147.90 as of Friday July 11th).
• Free American citizens have been (and continue to be) spied on as their phone conversations are illegally wire tapped.
• Innocent American citizens were falsely accused of aiding terrorists and were illegally imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba for years without legal representation. They were also tortured by American military personnel according to the captives’ stories.
• A war with a foreign country was waged based on blatant lies and deception despite our governments’ possession of facts and information building a case that war was not warranted nor necessary.
• Presidential “signing statements” which invalidate certain provisions of laws passed by our Congress based on Bush’s interpretation and likes or dislikes of portions of those laws–in blatant violation of the Constitution’s provisions on the Executive Branches’ authority and powers.
• The funding of faith-based organizations with Federal monies in direct violation of Constitutional mandates protecting the separation of Church and State.

Shall I continue..? The list goes on and on. The atrocities committed by the Bush administration are myriad. Why isn’t every free press and media source crying out in protest about those great wounds to Americana?

What is Karl Rove running from? What is he hiding? Why does he insist on dodging subpoenas issued by the Judiciary Committee?

Rove’s attorney, Robert Luskin, issued a statement that Rove is allegedly protected by some alleged letter produced by the Justice Department stating that Rove is “constitutionally immune from compelled congressional testimony.” Wait a minute now–I thought no man was above the law–including the President of the United States of America (please, take that with a grain of salt). Why do they keep perpetuating this blatantly false assertion, and more importantly, what is our Congress going to do about it? (see http://tinyurl.com/58wzh2 for details)

Who else in this country is “immune” to appear before the congress to testify, and where does it specifically state in our Constitution that a person formerly in Rove’s position is immune to testifying? I call bullshit. Pile this on top of the other blatant violations of well established law, Constitutional or otherwise, that the RepubliCONs have been executing and you have a patent case of bullshit.

Further still, Karl Rove is irrelevant. His word means absolutely nothing. Nothing the man says carries any weight. He is a spin doctor, a propagandist, a right-wing talking point tool. He may have been very good at his job, but the bottom line is that he builds his propaganda on lies or cherry-picked pieces and fragments of incomplete facts.

I know what Rove is running from… He sees his political importance turning into political impotence and is running out of options to avoid being prosecuted for participating in violations of the Constitution of the United States of America. You can run, Rove, but you can’t hide.

Well, you knew it was simply a matter of time before the reigning king of religious and sexual morality (holding back the impending vomit) threw his hat into the mix and started criticizing Barack Obama and his vision for getting this country straightened out (no pun intended) and back to good old fashioned separation of Church and State as our Constitution calls for (see the cnn.com article here).

What makes me genuinely laugh is James Dobson’s use of the word “fruitcake” to describe Obama’s interpretation of the Constitution of the United States of America:

“Am I required in a democracy to conform my efforts in the political arena to his bloody notion of what is right with regard to the lives of tiny babies?” he said. “What he’s trying to say here is unless everybody agrees, we have no right to fight for what we believe.”

“What the senator is saying there, in essence, is that ‘I can’t seek to pass legislation, for example, that bans partial-birth abortion, because there are people in the culture who don’t see that as a moral issue,” Dobson also said. “And if I can’t get everyone to agree with me, than it is undemocratic to try to pass legislation that I find offensive to the Scripture. Now that is a fruitcake interpretation of the Constitution.”

It’s well known that Dobson is a champion of stamping out homosexuality, and it’s commonly known that the word “fruitcake” is a derogatory insult used to label gay men. So is Dobson covertly saying “Now that is a gay interpretation of the Constitution” or is he saying that Obama is gay? Hmm… If you ask me, Dobson made a “poopy” choice of words. Coming from such an allegedly articulate Christian fundamentalist, you’d think that he could express himself more concisely. Truth is, he probably wanted to say that was a “fucked up” interpretation (which I’m sure he did in private), but being the voice of morality and all…

James Dobson and the so-called “Focus on the Family” organization only have as much power as we allow them to have. If we buy into their right-wing Christian fundamentalist propaganda as truth, we leave ourselves open to losing every personal freedom guaranteed us by our Founding Fathers in the Constitution of the United States of America. They will move to strip you of your right to believe in any religion other than theirs–Dobson has already laid claim that another free citizen of this great country of ours (Barack Obama) is allegedly “…deliberately distorting the traditional understanding of the Bible to fit his own world view.”

Hello, Pot? Meet Kettle. Isn’t this the very thing that Dobson and his whack pack are doing–interpreting the Bible to fit their own world views? Are they really that god damned blind that they don’t see the err of their own ways? Honestly?

There was a band that was very popular in the 1980’s called The The. The founder was Matt Johnson. Matt wrote this great song called Armageddon Days Are Here (Again) which in my opinion is still so relevant and timely in our current world political and religious situation that we should make it our World Anthem.

The main chorus says:

Islam is rising
The Christians mobilising
The world is on its elbows and knees
It’s forgotten the message and worships the creeds

The world may have forgotten the Message, but more importantly, in this country, Dobson has forgotten the message:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…

Maybe Dobson should take his fruitcake point of view back to his Bible studies and read it and the Constitution more closely before he passes judgment on another man’s interpretation of either.

“Judge not, lest ye be judged.”
-The Bible, Matthew 7:1

Recently vice president Dick “Shooter” Cheney made a completely erroneous statement alleging that the Chinese were drilling for oil off the coast of the Florida Keys: “Oil is being drilled right now 60 miles off the coast of Florida,” the vice president said. “We’re not doing it, the Chinese are, in cooperation with the Cuban government. Even the communists have figured out that a good answer to high prices is more supply.”

Cheney cited columnist George Will as his source of information based off of a piece the Will wrote which said, “Drilling is under way 60 miles off Florida. The drilling is being done by China, in cooperation with Cuba, which is drilling closer to South Florida than U.S. companies are.”

Sounds pretty scary, no? The fact is, the Chinese are not drilling for oil anywhere near where Will and Cheney mentioned. According to the Associated Press, Cheney’s office issued an apology statement–more of a “clarification” actually, that said that the vice president had erred and that “It is our understanding that, although Cuba has leased out exploration blocks 60 miles off the coast of southern Florida, which is closer than American firms are allowed to operate in that area, no Chinese firm is drilling there…”

OK–that Cheney’s office issued a retraction is a small, positive step in the right direction of stopping the lie, but the remaining problem is that there are several congressional Republicans who are still spreading this blatant lie in a fear campaign despite the office of the vice president of the United States of America saying essentially, “No–the Chinese are not drilling there–we screwed up again with our information.”

For posterity of the fallacies spread by the Republican party, here is a list of Republican congressmen and senators who continue to use false information and fear tactics to promote their goals:

Rep. George Radanovich, R-Calif.
Radanovich recently wrote in a Modesto, California newspaper, “China, thanks to a lease issued by Cuba, is drilling for oil just 50 miles from Florida’s coast.”

When asked for a comment on this after Cheney’s retraction, Radanovich’s office told the AP that the congressman was in transit and not immediately available Thursday.

House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio
“…right at this moment some 60 miles or less off the coast of Key West, Fla., China has the green light to drill for oil,”this said as Boehner is pushing to open up more drilling off the coast of Alaska.

Rep. Roy Blunt of Missouri, one of the leaders of a GOP energy task force
“Even China recognizes that oil and natural gas is readily available off our shores, thanks to Fidel Castro,”

Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tennessee
“The people I represent can’t understand how we can possibly let China end up with rights to our oil and gas in the Gulf of Mexico because we say we’re not going to do it and they say, ‘OK, we’ll do it and we’ll work with Cuba, if we have to, to do it. That’s really asinine.”

Republican Political Strategy #1: Lie to get what you want. Screw the facts, they’re irrelevant. We’ll make the lie become truth the more we spread it.

Republican Political Strategy #2: Use fear and the threat of our democracy, freedom, prosperity, and well being as weapons to sway public opinion to achieve our goals and agenda. If you question us on this tactic, your patriotism is called into question and you’re a terrorist supporter.

So what is this all about? It’s about the raping and pillaging of our country for a few more drops of oil. It’s about big money forcibly trying to cram a few more dollars in their pockets, as if their billions upon billions weren’t already enough. It’s about ignoring a larger energy problem for a quick, temporary band aid fix that won’t leave us any better off than if we forged ahead and went with their plan. It’s about pushing to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.

Now is the time to reject the obsolete and impotent ideals of the Republican party for good. It’s time to let them know that we will no longer tolerate their lies and manipulation.

Here’s your media manipulation shot of the day: http://tinyurl.com/44jnxz

Notice the juxtaposition of a “grim” looking Obama next to a picture of a smug looking, shit eating grin bearing John McSame. Do you think that the cnn.com photo editor could have setup a more obvious false sense of struggle here? The story is about how the two presidential candidates are allegedly “neck in neck” according to old poll data that was cobbled together, analyzed, and averaged.

Are we to take it that based on the use of these particular pictures on this particular story that Obama is “worried” or “struggling” with this data, while McSame is grinning because he is doing better than Obama or is giving him such a tough run for his money? Rrrrright.

If you want a real measure of what the public thinks, do a new poll. Scrap all of the old garbage and start fresh. It’ s time to stop looking at the past and start thinking about now. I’m not saying that lessons of the past do not affect the future, but come on, you can manipulate poll data practically any way to show favor one way or another. Polls, schmolls. The real test is going to be how many Hillary supporters show their true colors and vote for their party’s nominated candidate or not.

From the cnn.com political ticker: http://tinyurl.com/6xf645

So here you have it, they weren’t really Democrats at all it turns out.  Angry primary voters vow to vote for John McSame if Hillary Clinton doesn’t get the Democratic nomination as the presidential candidate for 2008.

I could assume, I could speculate, I could hypothesize about why they would jump ship.  Several reasons come to mind:

1.) They weren’t really Democrats at all–they were closet Republicans engaged in some masochistic ritual of voting Democratic until now.

2.) They’re just plain idiots who want four more years of social and economic repression and recession (see the masochism comment above).

3.) They’re a bunch of cry babies too blinded by the vast array of pants suits to see that their horse in the race is willing to bend and break valid, legal rules in order to attain the highest office in our great country (Imagine what could be done with that kind of approach and power once that kind of leader became president…oh wait–that already happened with George W. Bullshit).

I can understand having immense passion for the political process.  Just read my blog, you’ll see I’m not kidding.  The problem is that people are so wrapped up in the “now” of this small part of the process that they’re not thinking clearly about the bigger picture:  the future of our country and economy, the future of our kids, and our future as we age and require more health care.

It baffles me that anyone could say that they would vote for a RepubliCON when at the same time they cry out for change and a new direction.   Can’t they see the hypocrisy of such a stance?  Cry out for an end to the illegal war that we’re mired in over in Iraq.  Cry out for more cost effective health care.  Cry out for an improvement in our financial and economic infrastructure.  Cry out for change.  Be responsible–put the stake in the ground now and let the  RepubliCON Right know that their ways will no longer be tolerated.

If you genuinely believe that you’re going to get more social reform that focuses on improving things for you and the common people of this country by voting for McSame, I honestly think that you’ll wake up one day to an awfully rude awakening when your personal choices about your body and your health care have been stripped away from you while you dreamed of a hollow victory because of the vote you cast.  You’ll find gas prices still eating away at your meager wages like a rabid cancer, and all the while, large corporations will be deeper in bed with the RepubliCON Right as they rape this country and its citizens of their hard earned wages and natural resources all in the name of a profit for their coffers.

Go ahead.  Sow your own downfall.  Jump ship and don’t vote for the Democratic presidential nominee.  Vote for an archaic, obsolete party who eat their own.  Just don’t bitch, whine, and complain to me or any other person about your sufferings and hardships when fortune plays its hand on you and yours.