LTE: December 29, 2006

Regardless of his motives, whether to heal the nation’s “wounds” in the wake of the Watergate scandal, a simple act of compassionate or acting on a suggestion by White House Chief of Staff General Alexander Haig, Gerald R. Ford’s pardon of Richard M. Nixon had far reaching and unintended consequences.


The sight of a former president having his day in court would have sent the clear signal to the American people that our Constitutional system of justice works. Instead, by issuing a pardon before any indictments were ever handed down in any jurisdiction for Nixon’s involvement in the Watergate scandal, Ford short-circuited our constitutional system, and effectively placed Nixon above the law.

Rather than binding wounds, the pardon sent the cynical message that there is, indeed, two systems of justice: One for the politically powerful and well connected and another for the rest of the American people.

This was a lesson not lost on Ronald Reagan, with his alleged non-involvement in the so-called Iran-Contra scandal. Moreover the opera buffa of Bill Clinton, presided over by the late Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, the late William Rehnquist in a robe inspired by a character out of Gilbert and Sullivan’s comic operetta The Mikado, made the threat of presidential impeachment laughable.

Now we find ourselves with no powerful Constitutional remedy for a willful president who has led this nation into a ruinous and senseless occupation of a country that could really never do us any harm.

Perpare for Gerald Ford shit storm

O.K., so 93-year-old Gerald R. Ford dies in his sleep last night.

From the way the media is carrying on, you'd get the idea he was our greatest president and not just a footnote of history.

For the next month or so we're going to be deluged with the weepy-weepies about what a great guy he was. And maybe that is so.

But, Jesus christ, I wish these fucking media people would take a clue from the Amish when it come to dead. It's just a part of life. We bury, or whatever we do to the corpse, say a few appropriate words, for the living the recently deceased is past caring, and life goes on.

The worst part of all this national moaning is that poor Gerry's body is put on ice while all this bullshit goes on before it's dropped into the grave. How fucking dignified!

Bush:"Increase military to fight t'rr'r." So who pays?

Yes, indeed. Who will pay for pResident Bush's planned increase in the size of the U.S. Army and Marine Corps?

Charles Moskos, a military sociologist and professor emeritus at Northwestern University, said that without a draft, the burden of the war falls disproportionately on the working class. He noted that of his 1956 Princeton University class of 750 men, 450 served. In the Princeton University class of 2006 there were 1,108 men and women, but only nine have joined the military.

"They call this an all-volunteer military," Moskos said. "But in the United States we are paying people to die for us."

Moskos said the other advantage of a draft is that it is far cheaper than a volunteer military.
Chicago Tribune.com

The answer is, Mr. and Mrs. Middle America, you will.

By the way, the above quoted paragraphs were buried in a story by reporters Julian E. Barnes and Peter Spiegel. In fact the story ends on a curiously upbeat note:"The incentives* have borne fruit. The 2006 recruiting season, which ended in October, saw the Army pull in 80,635 recruits, just over its 80,000 goal. It has stayed above targets since then.

The big bug-a-boo is how to pay for it. Since raising taxes is anathema to Republicans and DLC Democrats alike, and don't expect the companies waxing fat profits off this Mess-O-Potamia to pay their fair share of protection money. Do expect further erosion of governmental services, except for police repression law enforcement, from Medicare to child care in the near future.

*By raising incentives and bonus money, adding recruiters and continuing to increase the military advertising budget, the Army should be able to sign up an extra 10,000 people a year within the current all-volunteer system, according to many military experts. But they add that an extra 10,000 soldiers would cost at least $1.2 billion extra annually.

How to stem the tide of illegal immigration and keep the war in Iraq going

I just had this wonderful idea. I was inspired by a statement by the current Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson, who said, Thursday, that society as a whole would benefit by a return of a military draft.

Now even though I'm anti-military--I think soldiers, like preachers, are given way too much respect in this society-- I agree with Nicholson's opinion that a draft "...does bring people from all quarters of our society together in the common purpose of serving." Of course, as soon as he uttered these words Nicholson was forced to retract same. Undoubtedly Nicholson got some heat from the Republicans for even fantasizing about putting the butts of their lily white young'uns in BDUs.

But now there's a dilemma of the "surge."

Dubya, after hearing Commander Milquetoast, Harry Reid, say that a "suge" of 20,000 to 30,000 more American soldiers into Baghdad might be a good thing, has coyly been tossing around the idea of, somehow, increasing the size of the U.S. Army and Marine Corps. But how to do that without either recourse to a draft or increasing pay and sign-up bonuses?

I have the solution: illegal immigrants.

Now look, according to the likes of Congressman Steve King, there is something like 11 to 12 million of these illegal critters running around the country. And even he acknowledges that our country is dependent on this hoard of undocumented, and unwashed, to kill our beeves, roof our houses and wipe our butts when we go to the nursing home. They, for the most part, would like to remain here as "legal" immigrants, but the system now in place for legal immigration is so labyrinthine and Byzantine as to make it all but impossible.

So here's what we do. Have the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE, gang round up every illegal, undocumented immigrant, alien, work they possibly can; tell'em they can be "legal" if they serve a minimum of five years in the Army or Marines; and ship their asses to Iraq! Hell, they can take their families too!

Simple, no?

This is so evil, I don't know why Ollie North never thought of it.

Prepare yourself for Democratic defeat in '08

Dave Lindorff has written a very perceptive op-ed post at BuzzFlash.com on how the Democratic leadership at the national level has already allowed itself to be out maneuvered by the Bush administration over troop deployment in Iraq.

Meanwhile over at TomPaine.com Phillip Mattera and Charlie Cray have pinned A Contract With Corporate America that concludes:"For too long, the federal government has been acting as a virtual captive of big business interests. The change in control of Congress is the first opportunity in years to start shifting power back to the rest of us."

Do you think any Democratic leaders at the national level read either one of these pieces? Do you think Nancy "Impeachment is off the table" Pelosi will call for investigations into how the president lies this country into Iraq? Do you think "Commander Milquetoast" Harry Reid, after blurting out this Sunday past he'd support a "surge" in troops in Iraq, will change his mind? Do you think the DLC plutocrats will lift their snouts out of the K Street trough to reform campaign fiancing, lobbying and electronic voting?

LTE: December 16, 2006

Des Moines Register

In the wake of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) roundup of “illegal” immigrants Tuesday December 12, 2006, The Des Moines Register reported that the starting wage at the Swift & Co’s Marshalltown facility is $11.50 per hour.

An interesting follow-up story would be to see how many unemployed and under-employed white central Iowans will apply for positions at the meat packing plant. More than likely Maid Rite will have an easier time filling staff positions at $8 per hour than will Swift & Co.

Since the advent of industrial scale meat processing in the 1870s, the packinghouse was traditionally the employer of first choice for new immigrants, Mexicans and Central Americans are only the latest. Perhaps an influx of Sudanese Muslims from Darfur will be the next?

But are “illegal” immigrants to blame for falling wages in the American workplace?

At this time in American history the nation is in a decades long rollback of union influence and workers’ rights. We hear the likes of Congressmen Tom Tancredo and Steve King denounce the waves of “illegal” immigration. Yet they, and their supporters, never call for the repeal of the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 or a federal ban on replacement workers, scabs, taking the jobs of striking union workers. Nor do politicians of either party propose a Marshall Plan to strengthen the economies of southern Mexico and Central America so the citizens of those countries stay home.

Yet the question remains: will the American consumer, used to sixty years of the cheapest food in the world, really be willing to pay more at the grocery store?

If the actions of the so-called Minuteman of Arizona were any indication: The average anti-immigrant American would rather sit on a lawn chair at the border and complain about illegals than compete in the workplace head-to-head, organize or lobby for changes in current anti-worker labor laws.

Sonuvabitch, Cockburn's right

If you've read any of my musings, thusfar, you know I have a love/hate relationship with Alexander Cockburn of CounterPunch.org, the son of a wealthy English peer and journalist who happened to be a socialist. Anyway, Cockburn's absolutely right in his weekend diatribe:

Here's comes Rep Silvestre Reyes of Texas, handpicked by Nancy Pelosi to head the House Intelligence Committee and he's calling for 20,000 more U.S. troops to be sent to Iraq. Reyes says they're needed to crush the Shi'a and Sunni militias. Didn't I tell to you right here, after the Nov 7 "peace moment" the polls, that the Democrats would fall into line behind Senator John McCain? The minute Jack Murtha made his run for House Majority leader the liberal establishment began to take a stand against all seditious talk of "immediate redeployment". You can scarcely open up the New York Times without tripping over a piece by Michael Gordon reporting yet another thoughtful military man--he put up General Zinni in this capacity last week--saying that the prudent short-term course would be to send more troops to Iraq.

Contrast this with the angry floor speech Republican Senator Gordon Smith of Oregon, the potato king of Pendleton, who said straighforwardly on Thursday night that he'd had it with the president that the US should "cut and run, cut and walk or whatever ... "
CounterPunch.org

Now how the fuck are 20,000 more American soldiers and Marines in Iraq gonna help anything?

As it stands now, there is only one option for getting Uncle Suckers out of Iraq: Cut-and-run. It sounds bad but the only way out is to pull the rug out from under the Maliki puppet-regime, let the Sunnis, Shi'ites and Kurds fight it out; redraw boundaries if necessary (the Turks are no longer significant players in the region and they've got to learn to deal with it) and come back and deal with the winners. Otherwise the only way these dunderheads of both parties in Washington, D.C. will pull their heads out of their collective ass is if a signicant majority of the U.S. Army in Iraq mutinies, as Marines are thoroughly brainwashed, a mutiny in the Corps is out of the question; or a major U.S. combat unit defeated in detail in the field, Diem Bien Phu in the desert as it were, by a suppossedly inferior enemy.

Viguerie: Bolton quitting bad for GOP

Aw, jeeze, how mellodramtic can this guy, Richard Viguerie, get. Here's his latest bullshit e-mail, designed to whip up the wing nuts and line his pockets with their cash.

(Manassas, Virginia) The following is a statement by Richard A. Viguerie, author of Conservatives Betrayed: How George W. Bush and Other Big Government Republicans Hijacked the Conservative Cause, regarding the resignation of John Bolton as Ambassador to the United Nations:

“There are only a mere handful of conservatives in significant policy-making positions in the Bush Administration. The withdrawal of Ambassador Bolton means there is one less. This is very discouraging to conservatives. Instead of fighting for Ambassador Bolton’s confirmation, the Bush Administration has once again thrown in the towel.

“Since the election, President Bush has sent strong signals that he will move left and seek accommodation with the Democrats who will be running the House and Senate. The President is following in the footsteps of his father, George H. W. Bush, who also abandoned the conservative base of the GOP.

“In addition to surrendering on the Bolton nomination, another danger signal for conservatives was the President’s comments at his November 8 news conference that he will work with the liberals to grant amnesty to illegal aliens. Still another was Treasury Secretary Paulson’s statement that the Bush Administration had ‘no preconditions’ on Social Security reform, which is code for a willingness to accept higher payroll taxes and cuts in benefits.

“It looks like the next two years will be painful for conservatives and possibly fatal for the Republican Party. ”

So George W. Bush isn't "conservative" enough, is he? How much more "conservative" does the little asshole need to be, Mr. Viguerie? To the right of Attila the Hun?

This is the same tired, old litany of right wing, anti-govenment screeds this guy's been spewing out since the Sixties. He's not changed, despite what some in the liberal blogsphere think. He is still portraying the Republican Party as the party of the dispossessed white, middle class in a life and death struggle with the evil forces of Rooseveltian-New Deal Democrats. Such hogwash. He's the frontman for corporate feudalism and the dismantling of The Constitution.

Bush pipedream of martial law near reality

Wow. Read this:

Take, for example, the John W. Warner Defense Authorization Act of 2006, named for the longtime Armed Services Committee chairman from Virginia.

Signed by President Bush on Oct. 17, the law (PL 109-364) has a provocative provision called “Use of the Armed Forces in Major Public Emergencies.”

Specifically, the new language adds “natural disaster, epidemic, or other serious public health emergency, terrorist attack or incident” to the list of conditions permitting the President to take over local authority — particularly “if domestic violence has occurred to such an extent that the constituted authorities of the State or possession are incapable of maintaining public order.”

One of the few to complain, Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt., warned that the measure virtually invites the White House to declare federal martial law.

Read the entire story here:CQ.com

I'm Baaaaack!

Jeeze, Louise, it's cold here. But never mind. This cold snap, if last year's Gobal Warming Winter is any predictor of this year's GWW, will not last long and by January we will be enjoying tempertures in the 60s. I'm back from sunny South Texas, were the natives, both Anglo and Chicano, are upset over the plans by the Depatment of Homeland Security to require passports for Americans to reenter the US from Mexico.

Me thinks the lady doth protest overmuch

Here's something to chew on...

Thanks for nothing, Dems

November 14, 2006

Thanks to all of you who voted for the Democrats during the 2006 election, deciding to take our country "in a new direction."

Thanks to you, we are headed down a path that includes more government programs funded by higher taxes (in effect, income redistribution from those who earn more than $150,000 per year); laws that reflect the "anything goes" mentality of immoral behavior (abortion, same-sex marriage, anti-family legislation); more porous borders that leave us vulnerable to another Sept. 11-type attack with no military funding to protect us.

All of this while the liberal media applaud their successful effort in helping to elect the Democrats. Yes, I am really looking forward to traveling down the path promised by the Democrats as they take us "in a new direction."

- D___ M______,

Ankeny.

I've often wonder what motivates folks such as the woman who penned this letter to the editor? Mostly I think it is guilt, why else would she be so incensed at "'anything goes'" laws unless she participated in all forms of the "immoral behavior" at one time in her past?

Dick Viguerie: Nancy Pelosi thanks you

So this right wing prick is fed up with the Bush Republicans, eh? Another e-mail from the king of bullshit, Richard Viguerie, designed to whip the Republican faithful, i.e. braindead, back into shape for 2008.

Top 10 Thank-You Notes for Nancy Pelosi to Send this Thanksgiving
By Richard A. Viguerie
Author
Conservatives Betrayed: How George W. Bush and Other Big Government Republicans Hijacked the Conservative Cause (Bonus Books, 2006)

Nancy Pelosi, who stands to be Speaker of the House when the new Congress is sworn into office, is a smart politician, and one of the smartest things she and other Democratic leaders did this year was to step aside as much as possible and let the Bush Republicans and their backers self-destruct. She must be overflowing with gratitude to countless Bushies, so to make the transition a bit easier for her, I have come up with the Top 10 thank-you notes she should put in the mail this Thanksgiving…

Nancy Pelosi says
thank-you to …

10. To Vice President Cheney, Bill Kristol, and their cell of “neo-conservatives,” for turning the Republicans into a Trotskyite party—just what Americans have always wanted.

9. To Rush Limbaugh, for his display of “compassionate conservatism” toward Michael J. Fox a week before the election.

8. To outgoing House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Illinois), for transforming a personal scandal involving Rep. Tom Foley into a GOP scandal.

7. To Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) and Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), for creating an engineering marvel worthy of the Roman Empire—their beloved Bridge to Nowhere.

6. To Ken Mehlman, Chairman of the Republican National Committee, for taking conservative issues off the agenda, except for his direct mail fundraising letters.

5. To former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas), for paring every wasteful dollar out of the federal budget, thus creating a nasty image of the Republicans as the party of Uncle Scrooge.

4. To Karl Rove, for not reading Conservatives Betrayed, which would have awakened him to the dangers of making real conservatives unhappy.

3. To “Brownie” (former FEMA director Michael Brown), for doing such a heck of a job during Katrina, letting Americans see how prepared the Bush Administration was for a scheduled natural terrorist attack.

2. To Jack Abramoff, philanthropist, for his unlimited generosity toward his Republican friends.

And,

1. To President Bush and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, for keeping their divorce a secret until the election was over.

Richard A. Viguerie, Chairman of both ConservativeHQ.com and American Target Advertising, Inc., pioneered ideological and political direct mail and has been called “the funding father of the conservative movement” for his role in helping build dozens of conservative organizations. He is the author of 5 books including the newly released Conservatives Betrayed: How George W. Bush and Other Big Government Republicans Hijacked the Conservative Cause (Bonus Books, 2006).

Richard Viguerie’s Conservatives Betrayed
9625 Surveyor Court, Suite 400
Manassas, Virginia 20110

Let's look carefully at this pile of eleaphant doo-do. In an earlier e-mail Viguerie is quoted from a press conference at The National Press Club, saying:“One thing this election was NOT is a repudiation of conservatism. The twin pillars of conservatism – smaller government and traditional values – have the support of the same voters who threw out the Republican Congress.”

Oh? How's he know this. A CNN poll told him so. I mean, what the fuck are "traditional values?" A pair of clean bib overalls and a loaf of bread for a nickle? And government smaller that what? General Motors? No, my friend, it's the same old "pro-business/fundamentalist Christian" bullshit in a new suit. This has been Viguerie's stock in trade for forty years. The "corrupt," "out-of-touch" Republicans have been swept out of office, praise Jesus, so it's time for real Republicans, the outsiders, to fight the BIG-GOVERNMENT-Inside-the-Beltway-Democrats. Such bullshit.

Oh sure, the old bullshitter is right about the monumental fuck-ups of corrupt Congressional Republicans. He's right about the president. But so what? He's got his palm out for the suckers to pony up for the Republican push to take back the government in '08.

And remember the old bullshitter said that Repugs shouldn't use Nancy Pelosi-as-Speaker of the US House of Representatives as a scare tactic? Well, he just did.

A letter from Ed Fallon

Dear Friends,

With the general election finally over, I again would like to thank everyone who supported my campaign and the campaigns of other good candidates. This January, at both the state and national levels, Democrats will have a truly unique opportunity to lead Iowa and America forward, and that opportunity is in part due to our efforts.

However, while many key victories were won on election night, the most important battles are still to be fought. In both Washington, D.C. and Des Moines, this new generation of Democratic leadership must prove it is worthy of the voters’ confidence. It is time to enact progressive legislation that puts people before profit. In Iowa, this long list of priorities includes:

* Voter-owned clean elections;
* Controlling urban sprawl;
* Better levels of financial support for all aspects of our educational system;
* Improved health-care access for all Iowans;
* Addressing a wide range of long-neglected environmental concerns;
* Increasing the minimum wage to a livable wage; and
* Redirecting economic development monies from corporate giveaways to small business development.

Over the next two months, I’ll take some much-needed down time to rest and to reflect on my options. (This much is clear: my life is firmly committed to public service.) Most of my and my co-workers’ efforts through the end of the year will focus on restructuring our organization so it can continue to provide a strong, grassroots framework for justice and political work. During this time, we will stop sending out weekly updates, and the website will be down to give us a chance to rebuild it. A new website will be launched and e-mail updates resumed after the first of the year.

Again, thank you for your help and support. I look forward to being back in touch with you after the holidays. May this season of political and seasonal transition be one of peace, comfort and reflection for us all.

Sincerely,

Ed

Dems win, assholes still with us

The Democrats won. And perhaps, at lesat in the US House of Representatives, won big. The Democrats sweep the Iowa Statehouse, except in the race for Secretary of Agriculture where Democrat Denise O'Brien goes down in a close loss to Republican agribusinessman Bill Northey.

The Secretary of Agriculture race proves once again that negative campign advertising works. O'Brien, an organic farmer, was quietly ahead in opinion polls for most of the campaign until it really bagan to look like she'd win. Then the Republicans cranked up the slime machine, and the Des Moines Register, jumping on the corn-based ethonol bandwagon, endorsed the Spirit Lake Republican MBA. Oh, well.

But the election isn't the real reason I'm posting today. Life goes on and, to resurrect a Seventies turn of phrase, up-tight assholes are still with us. To wit:

The owner of a Johnston-based hotel chain, Stoney Creek Inns, has pulled the CNN news channel from the cable lineup in his 10 hotels because he believes the cable network supports terrorists.

"Regardless of your views on the war, a recent CNN broadcast of sniper assassinations of American soldiers in Iraq is offensive," James Thompson said in a prepared statement. "We will not be a party to propaganda for terrorists."

Thompson founded Stoney Creek Inns 10 years ago. The company has locations in Johnston and Waukon in Iowa; East Peoria, Galena, Moline and Quincy in Illinois; Columbia and St. Joseph in Missouri, and La Crosse and Wausau in Wisconsin.

Tony Magro of Barrington, Ill., told the Wausau Daily Herald he was staying at the Stoney Creek Inn near Wausau when he noticed he could not find CNN on the television in his room. The hotel staff told him Thompson had instructed his employees to remove the channels because he thought CNN aids terrorists.

Please. CNN supports terrorists. That's the weakest horseshit excuse for dropping a television network I've ever heard. But that's a Republican baaaadass for you. The owner of a small chain of phony mountain lodges seeing phony terrorist under the beds in his cheesey hotels.

News item: Dobson to cure Haggard of homosexuality

Dis is rich:

Dobson to aid in counseling Haggard
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - Focus on the Family founder James Dobson will be one of the people overseeing counseling for the Rev. Ted Haggard, the evangelical pastor who was fired amid allegations of gay sex and drug use, a senior official of Dobson's organization said Monday.

The counseling process, called restoration, could take years, said H.B. London, vice president for church and clergy at Focus on the Family, a Colorado Springs-based ministry.

Here's how it works:
Dobson places Haggard in a room, the walls and ceiling of which is covered in pictures of young, muscular men. Dobson, a psychologist as well as minister, will instruct Haggard to look intensely at all the picutres and repeat: "I will not eat meat. I will not eat meat."

After repeating the formula over and over, in this case for months, Haggard is released a cured and changed man.

We jump to the near future about six months after the Rev. James Dobson pronouces his most famous patient "cured" of homosexuality.

Of course the good Rev. Dobson will of necessity need to cruise Colorado Spring's most notorious gay night clubs to make sure his star pupil doesn't backslide.

And it happened in the course of his rounds one night, Dobson walks into Club Q, 3430 North Academy Blvd and who should he see with his arms wrapped around two Navel Academy Midshipmen, in town for the Air Force Academy/Navy football game, but Ted Haggard.

"God damn you, you faggot sonuvabitch! You lied to me! You said you would not eat meat and here I find you in the arms of a couple of sailors!" thundered Dobson.

Haggard looks up at Dobson and smiles, "This ain't meat, Jim. This is seafood!"

Kerry was right the first time

On Monday John Kerry, U.S. senator from Massachusetts, said: "You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq."

Now the first I read about Kerry's so-called gaff was yesterday on a Taylor Marsh's HuffPo blog. I scanned the blog but it didn't register. Not a story, I concluded.

But every slip of the lip is a story to our "liberal" media. Yes, the "liberal" media is tripping all over its collective dick saying that Kerry said only stupid and uneducated kids enlist in the military.

Well, you know what, if they say that's what he said then he's right.

If, after... what three and a half, four years, in Iraq?... and you're a kid who enlists in the military and volunteers to go to Iraq, you are frigging stupid. If you're a high school kid who willingly feeds the killing machine, you are frigging stupid. If you're a high school kid who believes Bush's war on terror has to be fought over there so we don't have to fight'em over here, you are frigging stupid.

But if you're a high school or college kid who believes all of the above, doesn't enlist for the military--Because you know that some other poor slob will to it and your precious time and life chasing an MBA is too valuable-- you are frigging scum.

LTE: October 30, 2006

The Des Moines Register’s endorsement of Republican agri-businessman Bill Northey of Spirit Lake, for Secretary of Agriculture, indicates where the editorial board thinks Iowa’s agricultural future lies.

The endorsement alleges the race between the Democratic candidate, an Atlantic area organic-farmer, and the Spirit Lake agri-businessman, holder of a Masters of Business Administration from Southwest Minnesota University in Marshall,MN, is not about big agri-business versus small family farm. The editorial board must have been swayed by Northey’s campaign’s slick television commercials and well-designed Web site, largely self-funded with generous contributions from some of the Iowa Republican Party’s heavy hitters.

Denise O’Brien, on the other hand, is truly an old-fashioned Iowa grassroots, meet-the-people type of candidate, which the Register editorial staff waxes poetic about but rarely endorses. No slick television spots and only a free Blogger.com, http://deniseobrien.blogspot.com/ , Web site. Nor is O’Brien’s name listed on The Institute of Money in State Politics’ Web site, FollowtheMoney.org, http://www.followthemoney.org/index.phtml.

This contest presents the voters with a choice between expanding big agri-business or promoting family farming. It is a choice between expanding hog factories, greater reliance on monoculture row crops and further environmental degradation or traditional Iowa values and clean land, water and skies.

A Halloween message from Richard Viguerie

Funny the things one finds in his Hotmail junk-mail folder. Take for instance this e-missive from one of the original princes of Republican darkness, Richard Viguerie.

Richard Viguerie: Halloween Scare Tactics Won’t Work for GOP;
Republicans Must Propose a New Contract With the Voters and Promise to Govern Differently
(Manassas, Virginia) Richard A. Viguerie, Chairman of ConservativeHQ.com, warned Republicans that scare tactics against Democrats will not succeed in increasing social or economic conservative voters on Election Day.

“The big-spending, high-deficit, morally-deficient Republican Party hasn’t anything to offer conservatives except Halloween scare tactics about the Democrats. But since the GOP majority in Congress has engaged in an unprecedented spending spree, conservatives know that Democrats cannot be any worse and that divided government may lead to less spending,” Viguerie said.

“And conservatives have learned that, while Republicans sometimes provide significant symbolism on social issues, in truth, many of them have a disdain for values voters,” he added.

“Trying to frighten conservatives by yelling ‘Nancy Pelosi’ and ‘Harry Reid’ won’t work this time. As I mention in the Introduction to Conservatives Betrayed, similar tactics didn’t work in 1948, 1960, 1976, and 1992 either,” he said.

Viguerie said that, for the Republican Party to retain its majorities in the House and Senate, President Bush and Congressional leaders should convene a summit to spell out specifically what they would actually do if they were left in power. He said Republicans should enter into a new contract with the voters to include such items as:

A complete termination of “earmarks” and pork barrel spending in appropriations bills. Opposition to all increases in non-defense spending.

A constitutional amendment to balance the budget and limit taxes.

Making permanent all of the temporary tax cuts and pushing for significant additional tax relief.

Recommit to securing the border with Mexico to stop the invasion of illegal aliens.

Fighting hard for the confirmation of strict constructionists to the federal judiciary.

Energy independence through increased exploration for oil, development of coal resources, and expansion of nuclear energy.

Appointment of many more Reagan-type conservatives, rather than big-business establishment Republicans.

Senate confirmation of John Bolton as U.N. Ambassador.

“Many conservatives and moderates have tuned out the Republican Congressional leaders. But President Bush owns the world’s largest microphone. If he will use it to make serious promises on issues that grassroots conservatives can relate to, voters might give Republicans one more chance,” Viguerie said.

Richard Viguerie’s Conservatives Betrayed
9625 Surveyor Court, Suite 400
Manassas, Virginia 20110

This phoney bastard. He's been making the rounds saying that Bush and company have "betrayed" the conservative agenda. Utter bullshit.

Take note of what the Betrayer-in-Cheif said at a campaign stop for Third US Congressional District candidate Jeff Lamberti at the Iowa State Fair Grounds yesterday:"One big reason we're going to win is because the truth is the Democrats will raise your taxes[.]" Where did this come from?! Gee, this wasn't even an "issue" up to this point in the election but all of a sudden, from right field as it were, Bush just blurts out, "...the Democrats will raise your taxes[!]"

Mere hours before flying to Iowa the president put his "X" on a piece of paper authorizing the construction of a 700-mile fence along the U.S.-Mexico border. This is a boondoggle in the making, a Potemkin village of a project with all the stopping power of tissue paper. But it does meet the purpose of keeping poor, white, closet racists voting Republican.

Viguerie's agenda is the same old Republican bullshit he has pooped out for forty years. The same stupidity and ignorance of reality which so many middle class Americans mistake for common sense even though it makes their lives just that much more miserable.

Ever since Barry Goldwater's 1964 presidential election defeat, Viguerie and the Republican Party gained ground on new Deal Democrats by playing the outsider card. With the aid of Vigueries's blueprint the Republican Party framed itself as the perennial watchdog for the little guy against the villianous "big government" Democrats. For forty years the Republicans have run against the Washington establishment. But now they are the establishment, very deeply so.

So the problem for the old bullshiter, now, is how to make it seem as if Republicans are running against an entrenched Washington elitist establishment when, in fact, that is precisely what they are.

Viguerie's solution is elegant as it is simple. Declare Bush a traitor to the memory of the "sainted" Ronald Reagan. Tell anyone who cares to listen that Bush and the NeoCons are off the GOP reservation. And end by saying that maybe it serves the Republican Party its just desserts to lose the November election and have the vile Democrats, who might just impeach a "war" president, take over Congress.

Of course Viguerie doesn't believe a word he says. Why should he. He's in a win-win situation. Should the Democrats win, he just cranks up the old direct-mail, now e-mail, machine and the donations from Reagan cultists pours in. If Republicans hold on to Congress Viguerie will continue with his current theme that Bush and company aren't extreme enough and the donations from Reagan cultists will still roll in.

Richard Viguerie and all those like him are a cancer on the body politic. There is legitimate political speech and there is bullshit. Viguerie has developed bullshit into a high art.

Only a matter of time before China pulls the plug

News came across the wires overnight that Ford, the nation's second biggest automaker, will buy even more auto parts manufactured in China

Ford will buy between $2.5 billion and $3 billion in auto parts in China, said Bill Ford, chairman of the Dearborn-based carmaker. That compares with $1.6 billion to $1.7 billion last year. The parts will be exported to assembly plants in other Asian countries, the United States and Europe.

This means that tranmissions, engine blocks, running gear of all sorts and even interior assemblies will be manufactured under slave-wage conditions in China. Of course, this doesn't necessarily mean that prices of Ford products to the customer will decline. Oh, no. It means that Ford's executives and major shareholders will get a bigger slice of the profit pie while American workers are frozen out.

Ford needs cheaper parts from China, where an average manufacturing job pays about 10% of an equivalent union job in the United States, to meet its goal of cutting $6 billion in annual costs by 2010. The carmaker reported a $5.8-billion third-quarter loss as sales slumped in the United States.

I'd really like to know who is going to buy these cheaper-to-produce Ford cars and trucks when middle American is finding it harder and harder to make ends meet, despite everything Dim-Son and the Dow Jones average says.

Eventually the Chinese government, yes it's still technically Communist, will pull the plug. Why settle for profits based on purchases from one so-called industrial customer for parts when you can realize greater profits from eliminating the middle-man. The Chinese computer manufacturer Lenovo figured this fact out when it purchased IBM's PC divsion lock, stock and barrel in 2004. Pretty soon the Chinese auto parts industry will realize it doesn't need Ford, or the Ford family and major shareholders will think it wiser to sell the company to a wholly-owned Chinese venture and watch the dividends roll in. Either way it Joe Sixpack won't get anything for his money or the sweat of his brow.

The future for the United States of America looks pretty bleak from where I sit. Within ten years time, if the nation stays the course in all areas of human endeavor from its misguided foreign policy to the pro-population growth zeitgeist, America will be a Third-World hellhole.

November 8, 2006

What if the election doesn't go as we wish?

What if the Republicans retain control of both houses of the U.S. Congress?

What if the Democratic Party once again pulls defeat from the jaws of victory?

Will the American people, in a spontaneous uprising of disgust and outrage, march on Washington, D.C.?

Will the indignation of an election stolen, of a birthright trampled in the name of security, send the citizens of the country to the barricades?

We are a people ignorant of our own institutions.

We are a people asleep to history.

We are a people doomed.