Something New!!!

A nation is a society united by delusions about its ancestry and by common hatred of its neighbors.
-William Ralph Inge (1860 - 1954)

If anyone out there is still reading this I'd first like to say how sorry I am that I haven't written in quite a while, but there's hope. I now have a new outlet for my rants, and I've even brought in a partner in crime. Desperate times call for desperate measures. So, in that vein Deluded Dispatch has been created.

My friend Hyland (aka vuduvgn) is a fellow progressive (and total wacko) who has faced some of the same strife and familial conflicts that I have in recent months, and he felt our voices would be heard better in a unified place. Thus the new blog. Man, if I link to our freakin' site one more time, I might lose my blogging rights!

So, thanks for being here with me, and who knows, maybe this place will still get an update or two now and then. You never can tell.

Fight the power!

And so it goes

"a new world order"
-George H W Bush, and that Hitler guy

So there's way too much going on these days that gives me the willies. Everything from shutting down public libraries all over the country due to budget short falls (but at least taxes are low right?), to slipping legislation into spending bills that allows Congress to play Big Brother with our individual tax returns.

So, I guess the question I put to anyone who may actually still be reading this is, "What are we going to do about this crap?"

Use the 'comment' section below to tell me something you are willing to say or do to make a difference. I too am trying to think of active way to show my will and frustration constructively. Finding out about rallies and political action groups in your area is a great way to strengthen our collective "blues" (as in states, not songs).

Let's keep talking!

Yikes!

Very interesting scenario:

After getting convicted, DeLay could manage to stay free on bail for some time pending appeal -- probably multiple appeals. And while his appeals are dragging out month after month, or even year after year, what's to stop him from getting his enforcers in Texas to get the elected DA, Ronnie Earle, redistricted out of office?

Read the whole post here.

Very interesting indeed.

Breakin' all the rules

My vacations over

So the last couple of days have yielded quite a bounty of information that's pushing me toward a total freak-out!! So, let's go through the list shall we?

1) Bush's cabinet changes equal an even slicker, faster, more delirious Bush regime. You see, no longer will he have to deal with those annoying elder-statesmen his Dad made him hire. No, now it's all Texas buddies, all the time.

2) The total disaster waiting to happen in the CIA. With Porter Goss allowing the resignation of "Bush disloyalists" (that's my wording, not an actual quote), they're losing some of their most experienced clandestine intel officers. All in the name of streamlining the Bush war machine. Think you'll ever hear dissenting intelligence now?

3) The House Republicans have changed the rules so that Tom "The Hammer" DeLay will get to break the rules even more, and not fear any consequence (other than jail time of course). Funny that the Republicans created the rule ten years ago only to screw House Democrats, but now somehow, it doesn't apply.

4) Their next move? Try and eliminate the narrow margin Dems need to keep their filibuster power.

5) Privatizing social security. Turns out, they actually did want to privatize it after all. Funny, I coulda sworn Bush said...

Now, I know I usually link all of my assertions in this blog, but the truth is, I'm tried of reading this crap any more than I have to. It's all easily found by doing a Google News search on the keywords.

I guess I just wanted to get all of it out so you all can read it and realize what's going on here. They're really takin' over guys. And they want it their way, for good. The term "Permanent Republican majority" is something I'm not making up. It's real, and they want it.

One party. One God. One race? What's next?



Man, I'm becoming a loony... Please come and visit me in the UK. I'll be feeling much better then. Thanks.

Did they steal it?

I'm seeing a disturbing trend, and it doesn't surprise me one bit.

It seems that in county after county, in state after state, the fallibility of e-voting is becoming painfully clear. I'm not just talking about Ohio here either, it's everywhere. I just read a report about Indiana having Democratic votes in one county getting reassigned to the Libertarian candidate.

Excuse me? You've got to be kidding. No? Well then, I call "DO OVER!"

That's right, I'd like to take things back to the good old days of grammar school when any dispute was easily solved with the always fair, nonpartisan Do Over. You see, screwing up a few thousand votes here and there seems like a good enough reason to think that maybe, just maybe, there were some larger problems at hand. Nothing too bad mind you. Just a touch of Massive Voter Fraud.

Okay, okay, I know that the tidbits of info that are rolling in about a dozen or so isolated problems don't really amount to what I suggest, but it's important to remember that any amount of fraud that can be traced back to the Prez or his party would be just the Watergate we need. We all know in our heart of hearts that this guy wanted to win bad and would do (or authorize others to do) whatever it took to retain power.

Desperate people do desperate things. Remember the falsehoods that got a thousand (and counting) soldiers killed? Is it really so hard to believe that the same people who distort truth at the drop of a hat would think twice about rigging a few thousand untraceable machines? One of the largest manufactures of these machines was an outspoken Bush supporters fer cryin out loud!

This just in:

The Digital Encryption Standard 56-bit encryption key used by Diebold can be unlocked by a key embedded in all the source code, meaning all Diebold machines would respond to the same key. ...

... The implication is that by hacking one machine you could have access to all Diebold machines.

Oh crap! Time to saddle up the lawyers!!!

And so it begins...

No sooner had the digital ink dried on my entry yesterday, that I checked out a real bloggers site that I love (Talking Points Memo) and found that someone was already drawing the lines I spoke about, and doing so in the most brilliant of ways.

Read This

While I want to be careful of any potential Middle East culture bashing, I think it's important to remember how much already exists right now. Using the word "radical" every time the term cleric is used in the media will have it's subtle Rovian effects eventually.

Watch out for the brainwashing keywords. the term "weasel" will now = buy Finn stuff

Anyway, let's get these weasels.

Jesus loves blue

"Loveth thy liberal friend as he is closer to God"
-Something Jesus never said, but should have.

So, I don't get it. How is it that this once sorta wacky group lead by the likes of Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell and those gaudy folks on the "Praise the Lord" channel have now gotten legitimacy?

Is it that over the last four years we are so overwhelmed by moral-less liberal media that we needed to strike back at the slew of reality-based soullessness of our culture with zealotry? If so, how does Rupert Murdock's News Corp figure into that equation? Isn't he the one giving voice to all goes poor old oppressed conservatives flaunting their values on Fox News, all the while staring at Paris Hilton's chest on Fox?

Okay then, it must be the abortion thing. I mean, Bush championed the whole "culture of life" cause any chance he could get, right? So, it must be that most folks feel the unborn really do have rights beyond what exists legally today. In fact, it would seem that the unborn will have far more right to life than most adults and children far from the womb.

You see, this President is the guy who never deliberated more than thirty minutes (on average) about executing someone in Texas. The same President who allowed his attorney general to try and enforce the Federal death penalty against defendants in states whose attorneys general were not seeking the death penalty at all. Not to mention that the new US attorney general nominee was the same guy who would often leave out the defendants side of the story when briefing Gov. Bush on death penalty cases in Texas. I won't even get into the untold numbers of children who have died in Iraq because of this unfounded war.

I guess it can't be that then either.

The gay issue is a non-starter for me because the VP has a gay daughter that he has openly supported. I guess it's okay to know them personally, but never allow them into our cultural mainstream completely. God knows if they are treated like true citizens, then they are "endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights". We can't have that now can we?

So, what happened? When did we start believing the messages and ignoring the messengers?

With the events of the post-election world starting to take shape, I'm seeing a disturbing trend toward wound licking and finger pointing on the part of our Democratic leaders. All the while, there are real dangers beginning to take shape on our radar. This is one of my favorites:

A quiet battle is raging over the Bush Administration's plan to appoint a scantily credentialed doctor, whose writings include a book titled As Jesus Cared for Women: Restoring Women Then and Now, to head an influential Food and Drug Administration (FDA) panel on women's health policy.

This article lays out how the FDA will soon become a clearing house for radical anti-women policies in our healthcare system. In other words, if you're a woman, you will soon have no choice if this administration is left to it's own devices.

Here's my point. Don't let these guys tell you they have the moral right of way because the country's at their back. Messages are easily twisted, as Rove & Co. have so brilliantly shown. So it's time for a little spin of our own.

Any chance you can get, start drawing the line between this Administrations radical right ideals and their good buddies in repressive woman hating regimes around the world (like the Saudis). It seems like a stretch I know, but so was Saddam bombing the WTC. Somehow they got them to believe. The difference is, we have truth to back us up.

Reflection

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither Liberty nor safety."
-Benjamin Franklin

It is an interesting time for someone like me right now. I have a great concern for the events of the world and in my country, yet it seems I haven't done enough to have any real effect on them. I feel somehow responsible for the outcome of last week.

Not that I'm so delusional that I think that the fate of the world rests solely on my shoulders, I just feel that my personal level of commitment to change is a bit wanting.

I know of so many bright, motivated, empathic people like myself that have the ability and courage to see the inequity of the world and not shy away from it. We're all doing what we can, but problem is that it's at levels far too low to effect true change. We're not insiders or well connected Washington-groomed types. We're just people who give a shit and aren't fooled by wedge issues.

I read this message board entry by a 17 year-old high school kid who used the Mirror quote "How Could 58,941,293 People Be So Dumb?". Well, it wasn't long before Bush supporters showed up and started informing this kid that she was "too young" to have a valid opinion on anything. I started boiling-over with anger reading this stuff until someone who actually uses their mind chimed in with the fact that just one year from now, this teen could legally vote or even join the army and die for this country. Funny, it seems she in fact did have a right to a viewpoint after all. And one that is informed by very real dangers that will impact her.

This interaction showed me something important. Those who voted Bush are indoctrinated. They are not to be reasoned with for right now because they have drunk the Kool-Aid and are still high on its effects. The left needs to be aware of this. We need to stay away from the same dangers and delusions. We have the power of empathy and deeper thought on our side, not exclusionary doctrine.

It seems dangerous to try and meet these folks on their level. I'm tried of hearing everyone say that the left is "out of touch". It seems if anything, we're just way too bashful of how left we really should be. Look at Howard Dean. Everyone thought that this election cycle would be a knockout for GW, then along came Dean and he energized the Dems with is way left, anti-war platform. It wasn't until we got stuck with another middle-pleasing centrist that we became vulnerable.

I think this article say what I'm thinking quite well. An Edwards ranting "on message" day after day about the class warfare that exists today would have cleaned Dubya's clock. If all Americans need to hear is a repetitive message with a southern twang, Johnny E was our man.

Well, I'm done rehashing this stuff for now. I'll start writing about knitting or pottery to keep my blood pressure down.

Maybe.