What the Zell?

I woke up this morning in an identity crisis. Are the republicans telling the truth? Could I hate America? Am I working to destroy our culture from within? If I vote for John Kerry, am I endangering my four boys?

I had to shake it off. It was all part of the phantasmagorical dream of Zell Miller’s sad trajectory

Right next to turd farmer: The most thankless job in the unniverse

Being George Bush's Ambassador to the United Nations has to be the most thankless job in the universe. Given the contempt the entire party wore on its collective sleeves throughout the convention, how do we try to win international support?

Frame the discussion

For all of us involved in attempting to counter the language ninjas of the Republican party, George Lakoff should be req1uired reading.

Listen to George Bush frame the war in reasons for going to war in Iraq in terms of 9/11, yet again:

Do I forget the lessons of September 11th and
take the word of a madman, or do I take action to defend our country?
Faced with that choice, I will defend America every time.

Now, if you are like me, that makes your head hurt because it so obviously isn't a real choice. Weren't there other options? But how do you talk about it without jumping down the throat of the nice Republican grandma with whom you are conversing?

Here's how:
Monday, August 30: All terror, all the time
Tuesday, August 31: Pull yourself up by your bootstraps — if you can afford the boots
Wednesday, September 1: Red-meat night frames Kerry

Let's slice and dice...

Here are a couple of good pieces on Bush's acceptance speech.

William Saletan at Slate examines the the gaping holes in Bush's effort. He points out that the President seems to be campaigning on the idea that we have overcome a lot of adversity-- and much of the adversity is of his own making.

Juan Cole takes the business view of El Presidente. He asks us to consider Bush's record of achievment in business terms. Here's the CEO Test for Bush.

Where oh where is the Republican mainstream?

Libertarian blogger, Ken Layne:

What is fueling the party faithful? How do self-proclaimed conservatives maintain their righteous frothing at the mouth when it is abundantly clear that their party hasn't the slightest resemblance to Conservatism? How do you avoid Exploding Brain Syndrome when the hated opposition looks like Barry Goldwater compared to your insane tax-cut-and-spend Big Government rampage?

(Yeah, I'm aware that Republicans have done little but wildly expand the size, scope and cost of the federal government since Eisenhower warned us of the Military Industrial Complex he helped build. But at least in Congress, the Republicans of the 1970s, '80s and early '90s served as a useful speed bump for the Democratic majority's spending sprees ... until the short-lived "Gingrich Revolution" was replaced by Tom DeLay's decade-long Pork Festival.)

God doesn't belong to Republicans or Democrats

Hey prayer works!

Sojourners, 40 religious leaders and 40,000 people have released a petition that God doesn't belong to a political party. That's a theology I can live with:

WASHINGTON, Aug. 30 /U.S. Newswire/ -- More than 40 Christian leaders and 40,000 faithful citizens signed a petition declaring that "God is not a Republican...or a Democrat" and that the Religious Right does not speak for them. The petition refutes claims by Jerry Falwell that "Evangelical Christians...need to get serious about re-electing President Bush" and by Pat Robertson that "George Bush is going to win in walk...the Lord's just blessing him." The petition calls for all Christians to take back their faith and appears as a full-page ad in Monday's The New York Times, paid for by nearly 3,500 supporters of Sojourners, the national Christian magazine and organization that initiated the petition.

Read this. It will cheer you up.

Ya think?

Powell: U.S. Misjudged Insurgents in Iraq

Zell Miller endorsed John Kerry (before he developed political tourettes)

Here's Zell Miller's ringing endorsement of John Kerry, whom he calls an "authentic American Hero," in March of 2001. It's a little different than the poisonous turd he lobbed at us tonight. See for yourself, it's still up on his website. [via atrios]

Alan Keyes calls Mary Cheney a selfish Hedonist

Alan Keyes is insane.

While we are talking about Mary Cheney, where was she on the podium last night? Evidently the closet is alive and well in the GOP.

Alabama Campaign Veterans for Truth

It was inevitable. On the heels of the Swift Boat smears the pendulum of attention would have to swing back on the President. What about that forgotten year in Alabama, anyway? Why hasn't Bush ever provided evidence that he showed up in Alabama? Why has not one person stepped forward to vouch for Georgie?

Well, now someone has. Linda Allison has stepped forward to confirm what everyone knows. While John Kerry was in Vietnam winning purple hearts and getting shot at George W. Bush was staying drunk, trashing his apartment, peeing on cars, challenging his father to fights and loafing on the job.

More of this kind of information is sure to surface. Fred Barnes, the string that was pulled to get Georgie into the Guard it the first place, will appear on 60 minutes later this week.

Cheney, Miller get all hot under the collar: GOP the party of rage

I gotta tell ya. I'm glad the Republicans showed their true colors tonight. One can only hope that the swig voter will have tuned in to listen to Zell Miller's diatribe and recongnized the source of the partisan divide. Listen well, my friends. A vote for Bush is a vote for four more years of the party that truly believes the ends justifies the means. If you don't agree? Well, your colors run. Notice please, how often Madison Square Garden was filled with boos for Democrats. With a GOP victory this November, there is no doubt that that kind of behavior will carry into the halls of congress.

Aren't Democrats supposed to be the angry ones? I thought Zel Miller was going to explode tonight. I really can't imagine a more negative fusilade of rhetoric coming off of the podium. In expression and content his speech was a totally mean-spirited performance. If there are people on the fence reading this, do me a favor. Go listen to Barrack Obama's keynote speech and compare it with what you heard tonight. Notice the feeling of hope and optimisim, of love for America? Wouldn't you rather put your faith in the strength of the American people as opposed to placing your fear in the hands of the terrorists?

ps. And oh by the way, if you didn't pick up on it, the basic Bush strategy from here on out will be to try to scare the crap out of every man, woman and child in the US of A by uttering a simple chant: 9/11 (Iraq, Iraq), feel afraid, Bush will make you safe, 9/11(Iraq, Iraq), feel afraid, Bush will make you safe. They will repeat again and again their sorry case for attacking Iraq. They will ignore the econoomy, the enviroment, education, health care. They will imply directly and through groups like the Swift Boat Vets that a vote for Kerry is a vote for the death of your family.

pss. After I wrote this I watched Zell Miller challenge Chris Matthews to a duel. What a whack job.

Steve Baldwin makes me wince

In other news, Steven Baldwin is definitely high on Jesus. He really wants our president to be "guided by God." Baldwin is mighty smug. He says he doesn't want to seem like he has a political agenda. That, of course, is a lie. He didn't specify which kind of God. Ron Reagan asked him on Scarborough Country if it would be ok if the President was guided by a Hindu God. Baldwin didn't know who that was. I'm glad he has found Jesus.

Frankly, though, I want a President that is scared of God. I really, really, really don't like it when the guy with his finger on the button thinks he knows what God is saying.

It, you know, makes me want to pray.

Down the Rabbit Hole with the GOP

At the GOP convention today the syrup flowed. Old Timey gospel ruled. The republicans painted a world in which our greatest weapon in the war on terror is our good intentions. It's a world where a marker of integrity is to carry on with strength and resolution despite the negative opinons of your countrymen and most of the world. It's a world where the superiority of the American Way is assumed, that backwater countries will keel over with gratitude if we invade them. It's a world in which the pure benevolence of America's intentions is sorely misunderstood: OH!If they only knew how good freedom will feel once we get done kicking over their rice bowls, arresting their men and killing all who dare resist. And the flag waves.

It's a world in which Republican women at an upside down feminist event called, "W is for Women" can say with a straight face that the GOP is somehow the party of women's rights.

I watched lots of people that reminded me of my grandparents (and I say that fondly), or my friends from small town Minnesota (and I say that fondly) try to dance. Yow.

Then I watched Mssrs. Mccain and Rudy play carnival barker to the GOP circus.

I have to wonder what the Bush's have on Mccain. I think he's making kissy face so he can run in 2008 when the Bush's will burn the dirty pictures and throw him a presidential bone. Lord knows his speech was packed with enough cliches in the hand to choke a bird in the Bush. I sort of liked the fact that he coopted a little FDR "date with destiny" lingo.That's always good for a quick lump in the throat. But seriously, can you say "Straw Dog?"

Those who criticize that decision [to go to war in Iraq] would have us believe that the choice was between a status quo that was well enough left alone and war. But there was no status quo to be left alone

Cmon. The choice was always been, and still is, between a poorly thought out strategy in which we confront terrorists primarily by ourselves, and primarily with our military at the cost of our international integrity and a strategy that incorporates our military but also accounts for the consequences of using it. Mccain most certainly knows this. What a player.

Rudy sang the 9.11 blues and he has every right to sing them. You won't hear me saying much bad about Rudy. He's a brave guy and showed us all how to behave in the face of something so distressing it isn't really comprehensible. I will give a shout out to Rudy. He was relaxed and effective. He stuck in the shivs where it counted. I disagree with his politics, though. Rudy's politics stink.

His speech is smoke and mirrors. In this passage he says we owe it to the dead to vote for George Bush:

They are hearing from us in nations that are now more reluctant to sponsor terrorists.

So long as George Bush is President, is there any doubt they will continue to hear from us until we defeat global terrorism.

We owe that much and more to those loved ones and heroes we lost on September 11th.

That just aint so. I do not owe a vote for George Bush to the memory of anyone who died in 9.11. Let's get serious. Bush. 9.11. Bush. 9.11. Bush. 9.11. Bush. 9.11. Bush. 9.11. Bush. 9.11. Bush. 9.11. It's a powerful message but what does it mean? Forgive me, but it's pretty tough to miss the fact that a bunch of Islamic Fascists flew planes into the Twin Towers, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvainian weed patch. Rudy says Bush has stayed the course. Rudy says Bush is strong like a bull. Rudy says that's a good thing. But we all know what staying the course after all evidence indicates it would be far better to change direction leads to don't we? It leads to catastrophic success.

I guess I always knew that President Bush would campaign on the smoke and ashes of the World Trade Center. If the election wasn't about the war before, it is now.

Ed Schrock dials up a hard fall

I am sure my fellow bloggers will be rubbing their hands with glee at the resignation of Representative Ed Schrock from West Virginia. He's a serious family values, social conservative Republican. You know the type: Self-righteously married, kids, bible thumper, anti-gay marriage, pro-life.

A closeted gay man.

At some point, in an age of future enlightenment, it would be nice to acknowledge the fragile state of the human condition. Someday, Republicans will mute the urge to place themselves on moral pedastals from which they can only plummet. Someday, Democrats will drop the unseemly glee with which they celebrate the fall of a tortured Republican moralist like Schrock (or more recently William Bennet or Jack Ryan).

Indeed, it would be very easy to wag the finger at the self-righteous as the tumble off the pedestal. But it's too easy and too sad. On the other hand, if you live in a glass house...

Catastrophic Success defined

Bush called the Iraq war a catastrophic success yesterday. For the first time in his administration, I guess I totally agree.

Catastrophic success. That's when you achieve your objective with such radical success that it creates a catastrophe. As in - George Bush's effort to invade Iraq without the faintest clue of the consequences was a catastrophic success. My two-year-old's effort to run headlong into a brick wall was a catastophic success. Given the fact that there are more than 1.3 million more poor people in the US than there was last year, Bush's economic policies are a catastrophic success.

I love it - love it! Just when I was posting about the Republicans knack for shaping our political language, they come up with something that is too clever by half. I hope he uses it the rest of the campaign.

More Pictures of GOP Protesters

Lot's more pictures of the NYC Protests here.

*Snap,* Here's an idea: Let's start armageddon

Talk about shadowy agencies. You'd think the Bushies would be slightly more worried about keeping track of the help over at the DOD instead of getting uppity about 527s. It is beginning to look like Douglas Feith is in cahoots with Israeli Intelligence to destabilize Iran. His office may be doing an end run around cooler heads in the administration, and in doing so, jeopardizing all of us. You'd think they would have learned their lesson with Chalabi. But no. Check out Juan cole's riveting analysis of these extremely weird and disturbing revelations. For further clarification on the developing scandal, read The Washington Monthly's, Iran-Contra II? Fresh scrutiny on a rogue Pentagon operation, , by Joshua Micah Marshall, Laura Rozen, and Paul Glastris.

Deparment of Justice redacts Supreme Court: What you don't know can't hurt them

I have repeatedly maintained that the greatest reason to vote against Bush in November is not the substance of his policies. Don't get me wrong, I think the substance of his policies is largely, if not entirely, reprehensible. However, they represent a point of view that is at least somewhat defensible. A policy of preemption? Ok. I can list a lot of reasons why that's not a good policy and some why it is a good policy. In my book, the reasons why it's bad far out number the reasons why it is good. For me, it's virtually the same on every issue - I believe the President to be wrong and wrong-headed on most policy positions. On that basis alone, he would never win my vote. But that is the second reason not to vote for Bush.

The number one reason not to vote for President Bush is that the Bush Administration's policies are implemented with a style that can only be called fascist. I know that is a loaded term. I know what I say when I say it. I truly wish there was a way around it. But there isn't. The core of the Bush administration is fascist. Yet they are blind to it. That's what makes them real fascists and really scary.

America is free largely because its government is powerfully transparent. People get to know and learn what their representatives are up to and if they don't like it they can kick the bums out of office. Good American elected servants understand this contract with the public. They seek openess. The various institutions of government controlled by Congress are transparent also, in spirit. When they are not willing to give transparency, the checks and balances built into the republic deliver it. Throughout America's history, many a scandal has died an ignoble death under the scrutiny of the public, or repudiated in the courts, or the legislature.

This is the American way. Yet President Bush and his administration do not believe in the transparency of government. They fight for the wrong things-- instead of fighting to improve our lots, they fight the hardest for more power. Instead of fighting to get to the bottom of ugly situations - say the root causes of 9/11- they fight for the power to conceal the root causes of ugly situations. Then by extension, they fight for the power to conceal aspects of your goverment with which they simply disagree. Once that power is held in their hands, they use it to further bury our government from our view. They do this in our name - as in, "This is for your own good." But it most certainly is not in our own good.

Earlier this month I noted in this blog that John Ashcroft issued orders to remove documentation on how citizens may retrieve information from the government from public archives. That documentation amounts to instructions for citizens on how to hold their government accountable. The Bush Administration, Ashcroft in particular, doesn't want you to see it. That's facist.The ACLU is taking the Justice Department to court to challenge the authority of the Patriot Act. The irony is that the Patriot Act gives the DOJ the power to censor the documents admitted to court.

Take a look at how they use that power. I'm telling you, these guys are very uncomfortable with the concept of freedom, at least your freedom. They are more comfortable when they have a lot more of it than you do. That's what they fight for the hardest; that's why I don't trust them; that's why I think they are fascists.

Getcher pictures of the NYC protests here!

Annatopia has a first hand account of the protests at Majority Report. She is also kind enough to post an index of photos and a few movies here. Please download the pics and movies to your disc drive so the server doesn't get slammed.

Say hello to the fringe right

The loony right

Why government intelligence is an oxymoron

We are a gigantic confederacy of dunces if there ever was one. Just when you think the government can't get more stupid, it fires 15 of our priceless language experts because they're gay.

Let me ask you something. If someone came to you with information that could save your family, but it came from a gay person, would you refuse to hear it?

That's what I thought.

GOP blames protests, solar flares on Kerry

There is nothing the GOP won't spin. Runninng against a war hero? No problem. Just turn him into a megalomaniacal liar who manipulated the enemy, the army chain of command and his shipmates in order to create a glorious war record he could use in a presidential campaign 35 years in the future.

A million plus people on the streets shouting their lungs out about about your crummy policies?

No problem. The protests are Kerry's fault.

Perhaps the Democrats could blame the GOP for I don't know, Iraq? The economy? The health insurance crisis? Oh wait... that's not spin.

Seattle Times Endorsed Bush in 2000 - Now endorses Kerry

The seattle times endorse Bush 4 years ago. This year they are endorsing Kerry. If you are looking for a list of talking points about why responsible Americans need to vote for Kerry, this is it.

Pakistan teeters on the edge

I don't know about you, but the prospect of Pakistan under the rule of Islamic fundamentalists scares the crap out of me. No matter who wins in November, this is the cruelest of realities. If you want a good case of the willies, read Pakistan Losing Grip on Extremists.

Character witness: Fred Barnes made room for George in the Guard

The Prez is a lyin sack, take infinity. Just like Bush didn't have anything to do with the recent attacks on Kerry's war record, he didn't have anything to do with pulling strings to get into the National Guard. Of course he didn't. He asked a friend to ask a friend. It's the way the Bush family does business. Papa didn't soil his hands with Willie Horton. Dubya didn't direct the knee-capping of John Mccain.

Just ask Ben Barnes the ex-Lt. Gov. of Texas. He's the string a friend of a friend pulled to get Dubya into the National Guard.

Mommy, why are there more poor people?

The NYT asks a simple question:

If the economic turnaround his here, why are there more poor people than ever?

People Reluctant To Kill for an Abstraction Unite!

Things I like: The manifesto of People Reluctant To Kill for an Abstraction by George Saunders, and his book Civil War Land in Bad Decline.

Gen-you-ine inside scoop

For some inside scoop on the recent flap over the DOD cozying up to Israeli intelligence, check out War and Piece. Laura Rozen has been working the beat on this for several months. [from Talking Points Memo]

Language like a chisel: Republicans use words to shape thought

This is an interesting article that intelligently discusses something you probably already know:

The republicans are brilliant at using language to sculpt our political thinking.