The Party of...

I was about to write about the "Party of No," morphing into the "Party of Slow," in regard to their whining and crying about being rushed to confirm Judge Sonya, but then there's the "Party of Jello," as in the continuing saga of the party in search of(?) a spine: The Democrats and their lack of a stand on health care.

I give Ed Schultze credit for his introductory rant and rave to open his radio show yesterday. I've been pissed in the past at Ed for being a Bush-Toady like Obama water carrier. I will never forgive Obama for helping to pass the Freedom Is Superfluous Act, and I get sicker by the day as Obama continues to further trash the Constitution, in grand Bush fashion, by helping to whitewash Bush's torture regime. Ed gave Obama a free pass in the first case, and a couple of weeks ago, I called him on the carpet for continuing to do so.

Apparently I wasn't the only one pissed at Ed; yesterday he knocked it out of the park. In a nutshell: Grow a pair Dems. You're the MAJORITY. Act like it. Do what you were elected to do. If the refuckyoucans want to obstruct, make them go all the way. Make them filibuster. And not just for one night. Make them show their true colors. Act like you represent the American people for once.

I know Ed feels in part that there's no point in trashing Obama, since the refucks are already all too ready, willing, able and happy to do so. But we're not Refucks. We're better than them. We have principles. Unlike them, we'd rather DO good, than look good. We'd rather DO right than appear right. Or at least that's how I believe it should be.

I don't know where you can go to hear his rant, but it's got to be out there in a podcast or some such thing. It's well worth a listen.

Put that in line with Thom Hartmann today. A little more calm and subdued, but no less urgent: Call your Senators and Representative and let them know your preference for a single payer healthcare option. I did so, and I'll write up the results in the morning. I was NOT totally pleased.

You know, If you're not insured through your employer, and you need a coronary bypass or some such procedure, assuming you don't plan to roll over and die, you have three options:

1) Spend the rest of your life in debt
2) Go bankrupt*
3) Commit a crime and go to prison where health care is provided.

*Oooopppsss.... can't do that any more. Not since our Obama's vice preznit got together with Bill Frist to take care of the Frist family's Hospital Corporation of America through "reform." They left us the prison option. And homelessness. So sweet of them. So... My calls...

First I called Jim McDermott. Good old Bagdad Jim. (and I use that as a term of endearment) According to his aid, he's been in favor of Single payer since... I forget the year. 93...?

Next up was Patty Murray. She's in favor of the "public option." According to her aid, she can't/won't back single payer because there isn't the backing necessary to pass it. 'scusa me... The way something gets the backing it needs to pass is by people backing it. It gets lonely out there in the lead sometimes. You're not a rookie Ms Murray. This is your third term. Lead. Secondly, the public option is a compromise position. You don't start the negotiations at the compromise. That's where you end up. You start by shooting for the moon.

And finally, Maria Cantwell: No position as yet. WTF? ?...but as she's a member of the Senate finance committee..." The Committee chaired by Max Baucus? Yes. Who didn't include anyone representing single payer insurance to the hearings on reform? Yes. The one who had defenders of single payer insurance arrested? Uhhhhh... Has she voiced an opinion, issued a statement on those arrests? Uhhhhh...

and she has no opinion. Way to go Ms Maria. I really wish we could get rid of you.

Sotomayor...

OK. Here's the deal:

They hate her, because Obama picked her.

Fucker never learns either. He bends over backwards to try to meet these assholes in the center and they still fling shit at him.

Who was the C'tard on the Judiciary Committee who walked out of the hearings on Roberts/Scalito after saying that the issue of SCOTUS appointments was settled when Dubya stole his election(s)?

Of course we know the things Refuckyoucans say, don't apply to them.

Our Ever Further Journeying to Banana Republicanism

GM.... Chrysler... the ripple effect that will tear the guts out of our whole economy.

Everything is right on schedule.

You didn't still believe there was ever any intent to save anyone other than the investor class...? Come on.

I'm not forgetting the loans to these companies. They were a part of this. But the efforts were never about saving jobs or workers or retirees. It was all about breaking unions and well... collateral damage/shit happens. PLant closings... job losses... wages cut... benefits cut...

Now what was this I was hearing about the recession ending? ???

Bull shit.

Read This:

Right here. Right now. All the way to the end.

It says it all.

Cheney responds. Again.

O'Donnell vs the Scar

Or reason vs assholidity. And while we're at it, throw in Big Orange: The Boehner. (and remember: when two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking)

Lawrence had to go back to 1984 and Barry Goldwater to try to come up with someone crazy enough with enough conservative credibility to counteract ...

Ahhh.... The Scar is a "Burkian Conservative." He believes in restoring social order. Now how do you restore/keep order? Small government? No government? Privatization of...? anyway...

O'Donnell brings up Goldwater, because Goldwater ALSO accused the CIA of lying to him over aspects of the Reagan-HWBush Iran-Contra affair: the mining of Nicarauguan harbors. Of course because there's a Democrat making accusations, all of a sudden the CIA is a bastion of truth and honesty (Orwellian style?), and Goldwater by 1984 was no longer a true conservative.

David Gregory -- water carrier for corporations, corruption and conservatards, "This is not where the White House wants to go. No one comes away clean."

I am NO fan of Nancy Pelosi. If she lies, throw her to the wolves with the rest of the war criminals, but NONE of this is the heart of the matter as Mika says. The heart of the matter is this:

by WHOM and WHEN was water boarding/torture ordered?

Try them

Convict them.

Sentence them.

If there are no investigations, if there are no prosecutions -- and I do not mean "truth commissions" -- the fate of this country will be sealed. Our reputation cast in stone.

How was this country put on the level of Nazi Germany, Pol Pot's Cambodia, Nicaraugua under the death squads, Argentina with "the Desaparecidos."

What makes us better than the Taliban? Than al Qaida? What? ???

I've gotten compliments and comments over time regarding my blog title. Countries go through all sorts of ages/times: The Gilded age, the Age of Enlightenment. This country, right now IS in the midst of the Great Endarkenment. The regime of George Dubya Bush, and his criminal henchmen have literally turned out the lights of intellect and reason. They have neutralized this nation's moral compass. They have turned one of the greatest documents of all time, the Constitution, into toilet paper, and the government it once defined into a Banana Republic.

If we had Bananas.

Cheney Being Cheney...

I keep hearing lots of wonderings about the motives behind Dick Cheney's Magical Media Tour. Is he trying to Piss in the jury pool as Thom Hartmann puts it? Is he trying to double dog dare the Dems and call their bluff? Or shame them into doing things his way? Is doing this out of fear? Malice? Some sense of duty?

So many theories; so little time. Sometimes we over complicate things, and avoid the simple explanation right beneath our nose. I believe we're doing that now.

As a child, studying and reading history, about tyrants, dictators, despots and the pain, suffering and wars they created, one of the ideas that seemed to always be implied if not stated outright was:

That can't happen here. Not in America.

It's this same idea that leads to the Bushian idea that democracies are automatically stable and good. We've fought a lot of wars to keep the peace and make the world safe for democracy. Destroyed a lot of villages to save them. If there's evil in the world, it 's not us.

I've said for a long time now that Dubya's genius was encapsulated in his idiot persona. It was an act, formulated to be a smoke screen for his evil nature, intent and actions. Cheney on the other hand has never made the slightest effort to disguise his nature. Shoot a guy in the face? Hush it uo and wait for him to apologize. The American people don't think the Iraq war has been worth it in blood, treasure, etc. "So?"

Dick Cheney is defending torture, because it's his. He's the proud poppa. He's defending his baby's honor. His masturbatory fantasies cum to life.

This fucker... Is really one truly evil mother fucker.

Pushback? Against What?

Push back during sex, is one thing. I mean, unless you believe the woman should just lie back, spread and take it without moving...

I'm not so sure the Refuckyoucan crew at Faux Noise didn't purposely pick Mother's Day as their day to talk about pushback against the Democratic American efforts to investigate and prosecute those who created, justified, promoted etc the Bush crime family's enhanced interro torture (don't be squeamish... say it with me... you can do it) program. The latest talking point is that because Nancy Pelosi, and other Dems, knew about the techniques/program that we should back off from any actions. An idea to which I give a resounding

Bull Shit! !!!

The Cheney-ista's idea that because we got "good information," their actions were/are justified, is an idea that could not even come to light without bordering on lawbreaking. It is a felony: Treason, to reveal classified information. Pelosi may be an accomplice in that she approved torture; she MAY be an accomplice. She would definately have been a felon if she had gone public with information from classified briefings/documents.

Pelosi, Reid, Rockefeller... whoever, knowing about this matters not. I honestly do not fucking care. Not one whit. How else can I say it? This is a program, an episode in American history that should NOT have existed. Those who took part in it, MUST be prosecuted.

We just recently shipped a former Nazi prison guard off to face prosecution for war crimes. 29,000 counts of being an accomplice to murder, if my memory serves. He was a guard. Like Linndie England and Charles Graner. He was following orders. Like the CIA interrogators. Acting "in good faith" that what he was doing was necessary for the defense of his country. Unlike the FBI agents who walked out... refusing to take part in the torture.

But he was on the losing side: "Their" side. Is that what reeeeeeally makes the difference?

What else am I missing here?

Investigations, Truth Commissions... anything short of prosecutions, in the same courts, under the same laws that apply to the lowliest of all of the rest of us "little people," is pure bull shit. It's obvious that Bush and his crew wanted to skirt US and international law. They surrounded themselves with hacks that believed the same thing -- the David Addingtons -- and would show them the way -- John Yoos. They need to face the consequences. As does Ms Nancy.

As far as I'm concerned, if Obama knew about this shit, he needs to resign and be prosecuted as well.

If they're innocent, a jury of their peers will say so.