Fantasyland Humor: Craig R. Smith and Abuse of the Presidency.

Our resident right winger over at Stumpburners posted this article titled Abuse of the presidency. It was published by WorldNetDaily. That's a place that right wingers go to get their strange beliefs validated. It was written by Craig R. Smith. It was the first time I'd heard of him, but he's apparently very big in Right Wing Fantasyland.

Now you may be wondering why I would be putting an obviously right wing article, from an obviously right wing source here. Because it's unintentionally funny as hell.

Mr. Smith's article will be in bold.

For the benefit of our country, I hope and pray respect for the office of the president returns with the new president in 2009. The abuse the presidency of George Bush was forced to tolerate has been nothing short of obscene.

Yeah, poor little rich kid George W. Bush has been obscenely abused by the evil left and now may be traumatized for life.

I guess Mr. Smith feels that we should follow his example on respect for the office of president. This is from a 2006 article at, you guessed it, WND.

Make no mistake about it. Jimmy Carter is not an American citizen. He is a
citizen of the world. His views are so misguided that he would be relegated
to a
spot next to Michael Moore or Cindy Sheehan had he not been president
of the
United States. My God in heaven, what were we thinking at the time to
elect a
nut case like this in the first place?

The man just oozes respect.

Just last week, someone referred to the president as "that bastard Bush." The former first lady, senator and presidential candidate gently nodded her head in approval and answered the foul mouth with, "Well, there is a lot of truth in that."

While it's true that an elderly lady did say "Bush the bastard" at a Hillary town hall meeting, Hillary did not say, "Well, there is a lot of truth in that". Here's the real story.

BRIDGETON, Mo. -- An elderly lady in the audience at Hillary Clinton's town
hall outside of St. Louis prefaced a question about a rumored U.S.-Mexico-Canada
economic union this morning by saying "Bush the bastard..."

Hillary smiled, head bobbing slightly, and didn't say a word in
dissent. The crowd roared in approval.

The woman, speaking during a question-and-answer session focused on
trade competition and pocketbook issues, asked about a widely-circulated
conspiracy theory that President Bush was pushing for the creation of a North
American "Amero" currency that would replace the greenback dollar.

"He has this all planned for 2010," the questioner said of Bush.

"Let me say that I've heard that story and there's not a lot of truth
to it," Clinton responded, adding that if it was real she would kill it in a
"bird-dog minute."

This is what passes as journalistic excellence in Right Wing Fantasyland.

For years now Mr. Bush has been called a liar, betrayer, dummy, bastard, fear monger, murderer … just to name a few. The Democratic Party has spent the last seven years attacking the man and the office. Now the next president will attempt to sit in the Oval Office and command respect. Be it Democrat or Republican … good luck!

Well, you've got to admit that Bush is a liar and he has betrayed this country by lying his way into Iraq. Dummy? I prefer idiot, but dummy is certainly apt. While not a bastard by birth, he managed to grow into one. (an offensive or disagreeable person) Fear monger? Since 9/11, his whole presidency has been based on fear mongering. Murderer? Hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqi civilians are proof enough for me.

"Command respect", until the righties manage to turn this into the Fascist States of America, a president will continue to have to earn respect.

I wonder if the Democrats have ever taken a moment out of hating George Bush to consider the long-term damage they will have inflicted on the presidency by attacking everything President Bush said or did. They made a cottage industry of these attacks two years into a war talking about how the "dummy" duped them into it. Who is the idiot in that equation? Being duped by a dummy is nothing I would list on my resume if I were applying for the job as leader of the free world.

Well let's just change history here. What I've seen is most Democrats doing is rolling over for George W. Bush. Any damage to the presidency is self-inflected.

And it's pretty obvious here who's been duped by a dummy.

I can only imagine the outcome if the attacks Mr. Bush has weathered had been leveled on George Washington while fighting the British prior to becoming our first president? Could you see Mr. Lincoln being called a liar and a crook during the Civil War? How effective would FDR have been fighting the Nazis if Charles Curtis was screaming, "He betrayed us. He played on our fears," as Al Gore did?

History is extremely malleable in Right Wing Fantasyland.

The contrast between Washington's record and
Gates's brilliant victory was one factor that led to the so-called Conway
Cabal--an intrigue by some members of Congress and army officers to replace
Washington with a more successful commander, probably Gates.

The Radical Republicans were furious with Lincoln's decision. On
5th August, Wade and Henry Winter Davis published an attack on Lincoln
in the New York Tribune. In what became known as the Wade-Davis
Manifesto, the men argued that Lincoln's actions had been taken "at the
dictation of his personal ambition" and accused him of "dictatorial usurpation".
They added that: "he must realize that our support is of a cause and not of a
man."

As World War II began, Roosevelt was among those concerned at the growing
strength of the Axis Powers, and he found ways to help Great Britain, the
Chinese Nationalists, and later the Soviet Union in their struggle against them.
This prompted several ambiguous isolationist leaders,
including air hero Charles Lindbergh, to criticize
him as a warmonger who was trying to push America into war with Nazi
Germany, Fascist Italy, and Imperial Japan. This criticism was largely silenced
in the public arena after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, but was
occasionally replaced by the private belief that FDR knew of the attack
beforehand.

Ever since we invaded Iraq, the Right has tried to place in in the same context as just wars. Unfortunately Iraq would be more accurately compared to the Mexican American War, the Spanish American War and Granada.

There is a better-than-equal chance there will be a Democrat sitting in the Oval Office as our 44th president. Should that president be treated in the same manner George Bush was treated during a time of war? Will the Democrat leader of the Senate talk about losing the war after the president sends troops to fight in foreign lands?

You know if the Iraq War was thrust upon us, as WWII was, there might be some merit to this. But since what actually happened was, Bush lied his way into this war for no actual national security reasons, there is no merit in it.

And I can assure you that any Democrat president will recieve the same treatment, by those of us on the Left, if he does anything even close to as stupid as what George W. Bush has done.

I am all for free speech, and I love a country that embraces dissent. But when we elevate dissent to ad hominem attacks on the president with troops in harm's way, we are treading on very treacherous ground.

First of all, telling the truth is hardly "ad hominem attacts", except in Right Wing Fantasyland.

Second, criticism of Bush has very little effect on the troops whose biggest concern is survival, since they're not too crazy about Bush anyway.

When people in America were claiming Bill Clinton ordered air strikes to deflect the Lewinsky scandal, I was very vocal with my criticism. Pundits were all singing the "Wag the Dog" song. The leaders of the Republican Party were not part of the choir.

Considering that the Clinton "Wag the Dog" drama was nothing more than right wing myth, it's hardly surprising that the leaders of the Republican party didn't want to jump in the middle of it.

In fact, a lot of Republican leaders backed Clinton.

"A parade of Republican Senators — including John McCain of Arizona, Richard G.
Lugar of Indiana, John W. Warner of Virginia and Jesse Helms of North Carolina —
voiced support for the President's decision to strike now. All are prominent
party spokesmen on defense and foreign policy matters."

The time for debate is prior to a presidential or congressional decision. There will always be plenty of time to analyze, criticize and attack after the fact; but not during. Once the order is given, we only lessen the chance of success when the very folks who gave the authority to make the decision attack the motive.

What this all comes down to is whatever is convenient at the time, to push the Right's agenda, will be used. Check this out, AT LEAST TEN REASONS TO OPPOSE INITIATION OF WAR ON IRAQ.

Funny how things suddenly changed with a Republican president. And don't give me that 9/11 changed everything garbage. It didn't change the fact that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11.

Decorum has been thrown out the window by a power hungry Democratic Party that will sacrifice anything to regain power. Even if the presidency, military and ultimately the country are the offering. It's as if Democrats suffer from Munchausen by Proxy syndrome. If they destroy the presidency, military and the country they will have something to fix once they take up residency at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

As you can see, in Fantasyland, it's the Democrats destroying the military, the presidency and the country. Granted, there's plenty of Democrats who share the blame. But that's because they were gutless and backed Mr' Smith's idiot president, who ultimately sholders the responsibility for the mess we're in now.

It is bad enough when Moveon.org or Cindy Sheehan is hammering the president. I understand the idiots like Sean Penn and Susan Sarandon attacking the Bush Oval Office. Calls for impeachment from future Secretary of the Dept. of Peace Kucinich are a certainty. Hugo Chavez, Michael Moore and Ahmadinejad attacks should be expected. But former presidents? Former vice presidents? The Senate majority leader? The speaker of the House? Have we lost any sense of decorum in politics today? Has it truly become a no-holds-barred approach?

Decorum? In politics? What a sheltered life Mr. Smith must lead. Politics, by nature, is a cutthroat pursuit.

The real problem in politics today is that the Democrats won't get down in the mud with the republicans and stand up for what's right and in the process we get screwed.

I applaud Mr. Bush for not lowering the presidency to the level of attacks he has had to endure. I appreciate the respect he still holds for the office. He will not return attack for attack. He will continue to do his job as he sees fit. Right or wrong. And for that I have a tremendous respect for the man.

Only in Fantasyland could someone have tremendous respect for a man, that has so far, done everything wrong.

Poor delicate, flower that is President Bush thrust into the fetid sewer of American politics. How come I feel no sympathy for him?

Mr. Bush has clearly made a number of mistakes, and I am confident history will deal with each one in the proper way. He has however made the safety of this nation his top priority for the last seven years. I only hope it will be the priority of all future presidents.

Have you ever noticed how concerned the Right is with their safety? You might say obsessed. They certainly put their safety above the Constitution. We know that they are willing to give up their rights and ours to feel safe. But what do you expect when greed and paranoia are the prime motivations in your life.

The next president will be faced with very serious problems. That is without question. I just hope the Democratic damage inflicted on the office does not diminish the ability of the office and its resident to lead us going forward. Hindsight may be very painful to the Democrats in what their Bush-hating folly produces for the long-term image of our country.

OK, make that greed, paranoia and hypocrisy.

One thing I can assure you: You won't see Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney acting like Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton or Al Gore. That is for sure. The Bush administration has too much respect for itself and the country for that to happen.

OK, make that hypocrisy, greed and paranoia.

We know what Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney will be doing after they leave office, selling themselves to the highest bidder.

I just want to leave you with this.

"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we
are to stand by the president right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and
servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."
Theodore Roosevelt

Later.

Conservative Political Action Conference, Dick Cheney, Ann Coulter and Grand Delusions.

Vice President Dick Cheney gave a speech Thursday morning to the Conservative Political Action Conference.

The Conservative Political Action Conference is a get together for thousands of like-minded people who share a natural aversion to the truth. Indeed, they generally think that the truth is just a satan inspired, liberal conspiracy to make them look and feel foolish. Like they need our help.

It's put on by American Conservative Union along with sponsors Human Events and the Young America's Foundation. Here is a list of their cosponsors this year, a Who's Who of who wants to screw you.

At the bottom there's a link to a video by Max Blumenthal of the inside of last years Conservative Political Action Conference.

Dick Cheney, speaking this morning, was a big hit with the crowd, whereas John McCain, speaking later, was booed. Hardly surprising, since Cheney is the embodiment of the Right's Great American Hero mythology. While poor John McCain reminds most of them of what they're not. A man.

In a break with tradition this year, Ann Coulter was not invited to spout inanities. These have always been a big hit in the past. I guess the organizers figured she was just getting too soft on liberals. But Dick Cheney would fill her empty shoes, and probably her bra, nicely.

Then Vice President Dick Cheney stood for a resounding standing ovation at this
35th annual assembly organized by the American Conservative Union – Cheney
called the crowd of many young as well as older people filling a Washington
hotel ballroom “the heart and soul of the conservative community.’’

"Heart and soul of the conservative communnity", Cheney's words, not mine. Be sure to check out Max Blumenthal's video to get an idea of the conservative community's "heart and soul".

Cheney went on to say a lot of goofy things and I'll repeat all I can. Example, last year in office.

“We’re not going to waste a moment of it,’’ Cheney told an adoring crowd here.
“We’re going to revitalize America’s economy at a time of challenge, and we’re
going to stay on the offensive in the war on terror.’’

I'm sure that we're all relieved that Bush and Cheney are going to revitalize the economy. But the only economic measures this administration have ever taken are tax cuts for those who already have all the money.

While keeping up the offensive on terrorism may be great news to a room full of paranoids, the rest of us know that it just means more domestic spying and less rights. Damn, I miss the Constitution.

Don't believe me? Check it out.

The vice president made a pitch for making the president’s tax cuts
permanent: “Letting the Bush tax cuts expire would be one of the largest
government money grabs in American history, and we must not let it happen,’’
Cheney said.

And he made a pitch for the war.

“Guiding this nation through a time of peril is a very tough job, and the
right man is in it,’’ the vice president said. “The absence of another 9/11 is
not an accident. It is an achievement.’’

The crowd rose to its feet cheering Cheney on this.

“As the president has made clear many times, we are dealing with a
strategic threat to the United States,’’ Cheney said.

He also made a pitch for the modernization of the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act, including the administration’s demand of legal immunity for
telecommunications companies assisting the government in surveillance of
suspected terrorists.“Those who act in good faith to defend this country… should
not be hassled by lawsuits and trial lawyers,’’ Cheney said.

He went on to talk about taking human rights seriously. And he does, if those humans are white, conservative, straight and extremely gullible. Oh, and we don't do no torture. And any troop reduction will only be done by the commanders on the ground in Iraq, whose careers depend on keeping a childlike president happy.

Since the best joke is saved for last, here's the finale.

Cheney also offered a personal testament to the courage and determination of
the president whom he has served for seven years.

“I have been proud to stand by him,’’ said Cheney, citing decisions which
Bush has made as president. “And would I support those same decisions today?
You’re damn right I would.

“When the last chapter is written,’’ Cheney predicted, “it will be said that
our nation became more prosperous and more secure because George Bush was the
president of the United States.’’

And the crowd applauded the C in CPAC.

Isn't it just amazing that people can still function in society and be so distanced from reality?

Max Blumenthal's CPAC 2007: The Unauthorized Documentary.

Enjoy your Friday.

Later.

Right Wing Fantasyland: Bush is Lincoln, Limbaugh's a Hero and McCain's a Liberal, Jesus Wants War and All Democrats are Gutless.

In Right Wing Fantasyland George W. Bush is now Lincolnesque. Where else could this be possible?

But if they can turn Ronald Reagan into an avenging angel sent from Heaven to smite the evil liberals, then turning a vacuous wimp into a real man should be a snap. Especially, since the inhabitants of Right Wing Fantasyland are there because of their fear of the truth.

This must be a Karl Rove scheme, he is pushing it and he, probably better than anyone else, knows just how gullible the people who make up the Right are.

Rove was a deputy chief of staff for Bush. Rove says Bush's ability to get to
the nub of the thing" was similar to Abraham Lincoln's.

Of course, the folks at Myths r Us are doing their part too. Check out the video at Crooks and Liars.

You know, I think I really learned a lot from this propaganda documentary from
Pravda Fox News. I really don’t know how it is that I hadn’t noticed previously
how much George Bush is just like Abraham Lincoln, the founder of
the Republican Party, or that Bush is already known for giving “some of the
most eloquent and visionary speeches ever delivered by an American President,”
just like the Gettysburg Address!

Gullible is probably not a strong enough word.

Eloquent? George W. Bush? They have very low standards in Right Wing Fantasyland. And where else can visionary and delusional be interchangeable.

This could only happen in Right Wing Fantasyland. It's the only place that a lying, draft dodging, drug addicted, girlie man can mock a certified war hero. This is from 2004.

“So we are nearly two days into the latest regurgitation of the National Guard
flap and CBS hatchet job on George W. Bush, and McCain is nowhere to be seen.
Where is he? Where is he condemning this exposé into George Bush’s “honorable
service,” quote, unquote? He hasn’t been seen since that Monday at the
convention. I’m wondering if McCain’s been taken prisoner and being held as a
POW by the Kerry camp, in the Kerry Hilton, somewhere in the basement of the
DNC. The McAwful Hilton [an apparent reference to DNC chairman Terry McAuliffe].
I mean, where is McCain? Really. I mean, the question is — to me — is serious.”

I found this quote even more telling.

Everybody seems to hate Romney. I think they're just jealous, you know,
when that kind of hatred comes up. I think in McCain's case he hates him because
he runs ads that tell the truth about McCain's record, but more interesting to
me, why all these types love McCain. I figure it's gotta be the POW story,
they find that honorable, but I also think that they hate Bush, and McCain hates
Bush, or McCain's opposed Bush in a whole lot of things.

Please allow me to answer for us.

Nancy boy, you finally got something right, we do honor John McCain for his service in the military and his time spent as a POW. Fortunately, McCain didn't have a pimple on his butt to use for an excuse for not serving his country. I wouldn't vote for McCain, but I'll be damned before I made light of his military service to this country. Something that you have no concept of.

In Right Wing Fantasyland they've even managed to turn the words of Jesus into a call for war.

These are busy days for Christian Zionists. While President Bush recently
returned from his trip to the Middle East "optimistic" that a peace agreement
between the Israelis and Palestinians could be reached by the end of the year,
Pastor John Hagee's Christian United for Israel (CUFI) is setting forth plans to
put the kibosh -- if not on the entire peace process -- on any agreement that
would sanction the division of Jerusalem. And Dr. Mike Evans has launched a
"Save Jerusalem Campaign" while Joel C. Rosenberg's Joshua Fund is planning a
major celebration in Jerusalem in honor of Israel's 60th anniversary.

I hate to say anything bad about anyone's religious beliefs, but these people are nuts.

Now we'll leave Right Wing Fantasyland and return to the real world to get some idea of how Right Wing Fantasyland became such a popular spot to relocate.

Our Democrat leaders won't contradict them. Here's Grover Norquist's explanation of the Democrat party in Congress. It's accurate.

When the Republicans won in 2004, conservative movement leader Grover Norquist made a famous statement:

"Once the minority of House and Senate are comfortable in their minority status,
they will have no problem socializing with the Republicans. Any farmer will tell
you that certain animals run around and are unpleasant, but when they've been
fixed, then they are happy and sedate. They are contented and cheerful. They
don't go around peeing on the furniture and such."

Any real Democrat would be peeing on Norquist's leg.

Later.

Redneck for Barack Obama.

Since, thanks to the stupid early primaries and the media, the choices have been whittled down to two for the so-called Super Tuesday, I'll glady vote for Obama.

If you find it incongruous that a redneck would vote for an African-American or if it causes you to doubt my redneck credentials, I'll be happy to explain myself.

First, what exactly is a redneck? Everybody has their own opinion, but I'll rely on Merriam-Webster.

Main Entry:
red·neck

Pronunciation:
\ˈred-ˌnek\
Function:
noun
Date:
1830
1 sometimes disparaging : a white member of the Southern rural laboring class

I guess I'm considered white, I was adopted so who knows. Personally, I like to think that I'm like most Americans and am a mixture of a little bit of everything.

Some may argue that Oklahoma is not part of the South. But let me remind you that the last Confederate general to surrender was Cherokee Chief and Brigadier General Stand Watie, from and in Indian Territory, that's Oklahoma.

Rural laboring class? I grew up on a small ranch and my Dad owned hay trucks. Once I was big enough to pick up a bale of hay I spent my summers on the back of those trucks. Trust me, labor is not a strong enough word. Hell, I even went back to hauling hay after I got out of the Army, 'cause Dad was having a hard time finding hayhands.

Now that you've got my C.V., we'll get down to the bone in this meat.

Just because a person is brought up ignorant is no excuse for staying that way. Let alone to be wallowing in ignorance and actually being proud of it.

I'm certainly not ashamed to be a redneck, in fact it comes in kind of handy when debating politics, rednecks tend not to have a lot of backdown in them. When the debate gets to the point of the other side calling names, they always do when you debunk their crap, the redneck thick skin helps too.

Almost all the Conservatives have left the local discussion boards, they've started their own and won't let any of us in. But I miss the good old days of being called traitor,communist, etc.. That was back before most of the rest of the country started realizing that Bush was little more than a lying idiot.

Anyway, I took the long way around to saying this, I'm a white Southern, redneck, male and I'm voting for Barack Obama to be the Democrat candidate and again to be President of the United States.

I don't care what color, what sex, what sexual preference, what religion or lack thereof, I'm going with the person who I think will stand up for the regular Americans. After all, they're what makes this country great. Well, them and the Constitution.

Get out and vote!

Later.

Bush Gives Environment Coal Sholder, Cutting Services to Protect Tax Cuts, GOP Civil Rights, Huckabee Didn't Come From No Monkey & Radical Religion.

Coal fired power plants are a subject near and dear to me. Well maybe not dear. The AES corporation and my whore politicians were nice enough to build one about a mile away from my front door. It makes a lot of noise and it's lit up like a Christmas tree, I guess I should say Holiday tree, just to tick off the Right.

The biggest problems I have with it is trying to dodge the coal trucks and I've lost my night sky to the south. But then, I have no way of knowing how much carbon dioxide it's putting out.

To get to the point, in his State of the Union address, Bush said, “Let us fund new technologies that can generate coal power while capturing carbon emissions.”

But after all these years we know that what Bush says has very little to do with reality. The next day his Secretary of Energy cut the funds on clean fossil fuel energy.

Yet just 24 hours after his SOTU declaration, Bush’s Secretary of Energy
Samuel Bodman indicated the White House was pulling the plug on the ambitious
FutureGen project, a clean coal plant that was touted as “the cleanest
fossil fuel fired power plant in the world.”

In defense of Bush, you've got to admit that it's hard to do the right thing and subsidize the nation's wealthy at the same time.

BTW, I stole the image from the Texas Sierra Club, click on it to go to their site for better information than I can give.

In another attempt to insure the status quo, Bush is proposing cuts to Medicare and Medicaid instead of raising taxes on the wealthy. If you think about it, it makes sense. Let's face it, with fuel prices like they are, it takes a lot to keep a private jet in the air. A lot more than than keeping a '98 Honda or whatever on the road that the peasants are driving back and forth to work.

Hell, any Social Darwinist will tell you that they've earned it.

WASHINGTON — In his new budget, to be unveiled Monday, President Bush will call
for large cuts in the growth of Medicare,
far exceeding what he proposed last year, and he will again seek major savings
in Medicaid,
according to administration officials and budget documents.

Since Social Darwinism has worked so well with the tax cuts and the economy it's only logical to apply it to civil rights. Even more.

Washington, DC – This morning, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in
Washington (CREW) and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR) hosted a
press conference call with the NAACP and MALDEF to demand that U.S. Attorney
General Michael B. Mukasey rescind a Bush legal memo that authorized deceptive
appointments of exclusively partisan Republicans to the bipartisan Civil Rights
Commission.

Now I don't want the Religious Right to feel left out, so you can go to Pharyngula to get a video of Huckabee saying that Biblical creation should be taught in public schools. This site will soon be on my links list. You've gotta love a site that proclaims "Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal". It's written by PZ Myers, an actual biologist.

And just what if the Religious Right were to take over? Some will say this wouldn't happen here, we're Christians. History says otherwise.

A young man, a student of journalism, is sentenced to death by an Islamic
court for downloading a report from the internet. The sentence is then upheld by
the country's rulers. This is Afghanistan – not in Taliban times but six years
after "liberation" and under the democratic rule of the West's ally Hamid
Karzai.

The fate of Sayed Pervez Kambaksh has led to domestic and international
protests, and deepening concern about erosion of civil liberties in Afghanistan.
He was accused of blasphemy after he downloaded a report from a Farsi website
which stated that Muslim fundamentalists who claimed the Koran justified the
oppression of women had misrepresented the views of the prophet Mohamed.

Scared? You should be.

Later.

Huckabee vs The Constitution, Gerald L. K. Smith, Al Mohler, Earl Paulk Jr., Losing the Science Race, Antarctic Ice Loss, Inflation and Spying on Us.

We all owe Mike Huckabee a big "Thank You" for admitting that the plan of the Religious Right is to basically do away with the United States as we now know it.





If you don't know it, the Religious Right has a higher calling than patriotism, love of country or compassion for their fellow man. Their calling is to do away with what they call Man's Law (the Constitution) and replacing it with their particular interpretation of what they call God's Law (the Bible), thereby insuring their entry into Heaven by, in their view, handing our country over to God on a silver platter.





What else could you read into the following quote from the Right Reverend Governor Huckabee?

"I have opponents in this race who do not want to change the Constitution," Huckabee told a
Michigan audience on Monday. "But I believe it's a lot easier to change the
Constitution than it would be to change the word of the living god. And that's
what we need to do -- to amend the Constitution so it's in God's standards
rather than try to change God's standards so it lines up with some contemporary
view."

There's an awfully lot of us that at one time swore an oath to defend and uphold the Constitution and as far as I'm concerned that oath still holds. So, Governor, you and your ilk can keep your filthy, covetous hands the hell off my Constitution.





If the Religious Right were ever able to get what they want, in no time the country would be torn apart by the different Christian factions arguing over whose interpretation of a particular verse was the right one. That's why we have so many churches all over the place. Christians can't agree about their own beliefs. And you thought all those churches were a sign of great religiosity in this country. Nope, just great contention.





Jim Pinkerton, a Huckabee aide, advocates putting the police in front of every mosque in this country as a way to defend "Christendom". The Crusades didn't work the first time around.





The modern Religious Right has taken on and expanded the views of now dead Arkansas preacher Gerald L. K. Smith, kindly put, he was a nut.

Smith's perceived giant would be the modern religious right. Smith ought to
be of interest since he was one of the founding fathers of the movement
according to author Glen Jeansonne. Smith once sought the office of President
of the United States forsaking his ordination as a minister in the Christian
Church. Much like Pat Robertson and Arkansas preacher Mike Huckabee, Smith felt led to
another platform.





Drawing his parallels form the folklore of Gulliver's giant, Smith believed
the silent majority of American voters had not yet been aroused from slumber.
They, like Gulliver's giant, were held down by small impotent pygmies who held
great sway over the giant by their evil and orchestrated efforts to harness and
hold the great being. Smith, founder of the famous Passion Play in Eureka
Springs, Arkansas, wrote, "We have been overrun with pygmies, poisoners and
traitors. Ten thousand organizations have sprung up for the purpose of
crystallizing this shackling process, this porgram of bureaucratic regimentation, this innoculation of treason's
poison. To the short sighted and faithless, America has been drugged, opiated, shackled and
subdued." A few years later leaders like the late TV preacher James Kennedy
reasoned with his faithful followers that the ACLU, which he called the anti
Christian liberal union, was out to destroy Christianity. The preception by James Dobson's crowd is that a
small faction in the nation keeps the lid on the majority opinion which they
represent.





To those who might think I am stretching it a bit linking Smith's racism to
the early religious right I assure you I am not alone in this. A more recent
point is the report that Al Mohler is now being promoted as the next president
of the Southern Baptist Convention. Mohler, a seminary president in the SBC has openly stated that
white women need to be more fertile. He stated such in Al's blog Aug. 15, 2005.
Some in the Dominion movement have given up on restructuring the society by
legislation and have adopted the idea of expanding their base by reproduction.
Thus the more births, the more future voters. Mohler stated that the cultures who birthed the
nation are not keeping up with the other cultures in the country.





Gerald Smith, who once in the 30s wrote Hitler asking for an audience, is
buried under the 70 foot statue known as Jesus of the Ozarks. Whether or not
Gerald's giant exists is subject to a great deal of speculation today. Some
claim it lived a short life and is now dead. A lot is at stake and lots of
people are counting on their opinions about this giant propelling someone into
office.

Apparently Al Mohler's kind of a nut too.





If you think that preachers are made of a stronger moral fiber than the rest of us...

(AP) An 80-year-old leader of a suburban megachurch who is at the center of a sex scandal has
been charged with lying under oath for saying he had sex outside marriage with
only one other woman, court documents show.





Former church employee Mona Brewer is suing Paulk, his brother and the church on allegations
that Paulk
manipulated her into an affair from 1989 to 2003 by telling her it was her only
path to salvation. In a 2006 deposition stemming from the lawsuit, the
archbishop said under oath that the only woman he had ever had sex with outside
of his marriage was Brewer.





But the results of a court-ordered paternity test revealed in October that Paulk is the
biological father of his brother's son, D.E. Paulk, who is now head pastor at the church. As part
of Brewer's lawsuit, eight women have given sworn depositions that they were
coerced into sexual relationships with Earl Paulk.

Oh well, there was a time when I considered nookie a higher calling.





If the Religious Right ever did take over, we wouldn't have to worry about things like the U.S. losing it's edge in scientific and technological innovation. After all, science is just a liberal plot to make people who don't believe in global warming and evolution look stupid.

Many Americans remain ignorant about much of science, the board said; for
example, many are unable to answer correctly when asked if the Earth moves
around the Sun (it does). But they are not noticeably more ignorant than people
in other developed countries except on two subjects: evolution and the Big Bang.
Although these ideas are organizing principles underlying modern biology and
physics, many Americans do not accept them.



“These differences probably indicate that many Americans hold religious
beliefs that cause them to be skeptical of established scientific ideas,” the
report said, “even when they have some basic familiarity with those ideas.”

Science means nothing to the Right as long as scientific conclusions differ from the Right's agenda. Global warming is a good example. Here's the NYT's John Tierney whoring for the Big Polluters.

When the Arctic sea ice last year hit the lowest level ever recorded by
satellites, it was big news and heralded as a sign that the whole planet was
warming. When the Antarctic sea ice last year reached the highest level ever
recorded by satellites, it was pretty much ignored. A large part of Antarctica
has been cooling recently, but most coverage of that continent has focused on
one small part that has warmed.

Is that so? No. Here's the latest.

The Antarctic ice sheet is losing as much as 36 cubic miles of ice a year
in a trend that scientists link to global warming, according to a new paper that
provides the first evidence that the sheet's total mass is shrinking
significantly.

The new findings, which are being published today in the journal
Science, suggest that global sea level could rise substantially over the next
several centuries.

I guess that taking a look at what our current faith-based president has wrought would be the best argument for keeping people who believe that they are doing God's work out of politics.

God must think that we are too well off, for He has sent a plague of inflation to afflict us.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Wholesale inflation shot up in 2007 by the largest
amount in 26 years even though falling gasoline costs allowed price pressures to
moderate in December.

The Labor Department reported that wholesale inflation was up 6.3
percent for all of 2007, reflecting a huge increase for the year in various
types of energy costs ranging from gasoline to home heating oil.

And I guess that God told his man in the White House that the rest of us can't be trusted on our own and a close eye needs to be kept on the sinners.

National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell is drawing up plans for cyberspace
spying that would make the current debate on warrantless wiretaps look like a "walk in the park,"
according to an interview published in the New Yorker's print edition today.

Lord protect us from your followers.

Know Your Enemy: Right-Wing Nuts, Protecting a President from Free Speech, The Free Market, Religious Right and Wrong, Iraq Full Circle & Voter Fraud

You've probably never heard of Jim Goodnow, but Jim is a veteran who owns a bus, The Yellow Rose, that he uses to haul Iraq Veterans Against the War around the country.

Friday night he pulled into a New Jersey truck stop to get some sleep and someone torched The Yellow Rose. Jim is OK.

Let this be a lesson for all of us. We are not dealing with rational, sane people, when we're dealing with the Right. Let's face it, these people consider the draft dodging, drug addicted, liar Rush Limbaugh a great American patriot.

The majority of the Right is made up of people who need to be led, need to be told what to do, told what to think and have and have a strong belief in the infallibility of their convictions, which have been given to them by somebody else.

So if you think that sweet logic is the way to reason with the Right, dream on.

For the last seven years the Right has gotten everything they wanted and the results are obvious. They have achieved their goals. The fact that they have ruined the country and done away with our Constitution is of no consequence when compared to getting what they want.

Think I'm hyperventilating here? OK, how's this for irony.

With the original First Amendment "Freedom of Speech" looking on, admirers of
the U.S. Constitution in the Washington D.C. National Archives Building today
were ordered to leave for wearing tee-shirts reading "Impeach Bush and Cheney."

Make you sick? It should.

The Right is always telling us how bad government regulation is. The rest of us are expected to follow certain rules. Why is it so good for us, but so bad for business. It's simple, unbridled greed doesn't function well when regulated. The laissez faire free market system, just like mercenaries, is more trouble than it's worth unless it's well controlled.

We're learning once again why government needs to protect capitalism from
itself.

Back in the 1930s Franklin D. Roosevelt came to the rescue of the
so-called "free market" with a series of new programs and regulations to restore
trust in the nation's financial and corporate institutions, whose excesses had
thrown the country into the Great Depression and ruined the financial well-being
of millions of Americans.

Roosevelt and many of the reformers of his day recognized that the
interests of business don't exist in a vacuum, that the fortunes or misfortunes
of businesses can have a profound impact on even the most innocent of
citizens.

Laissez faire advocates like
the late Ayn Rand and Milton Friedman protested, saying that nothing should
"interfere" with the "free market" and that unfettered competition would right
the marketplace. History has proven them wrong.

Time and time again, corporate America has shown that greed, unless
checked by government oversight, will unjustly ensnare the unwary.

I know this is somewhat rude, but just how stupid do you have to be to believe the crap put out by the Right? Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of room for improvement on my side. But if it's just pure evil you're looking for, look to the Right.

They've wrapped themselves in the flag for years, masquerading as some sort of uber-patriots and ever since Ronald Reagan they've been passing themselves off as uber-Christians to boot.

BTW, how's that working out?

Fortunately for the Right, hypocrisy is apparently no longer frowned upon by the Religious Right.

Mike Huckabee
campaigns as an ardent upholder of traditional marriage. On his website
he says he led the move in Arkansas to adopt the practice of "covenant"
marriage, and that he supports amending the U.S. Constitution to prohibit gay
people from marrying. He and Mrs. Huckabee say
they believe in the New Testament edict that “a wife is to submit herself
graciously to the servant leadership of her husband.”

But if you can tell a lot about a man by the company he keeps then it
appears that Huckabee’s moralizing about the sanctity of marriage
is mainly just for show. For example, he takes advice on political strategy from
Dick Morris, the sleazy Fox News Clinton-hater who was outed in a tabloid
magazine over a decade ago by his paid mistress — and who was one our nominees
last year to the GOP
Adulterers Hall of Fame.

Huckabee
has tried to keep his relationship with Morris on the q.t. (He even lied
about it to George Stephanopoulos.) On the other hand, he was brazenly
unashamed to have former Sen. Tim Hutchinson, one of Arkansas’ most notorious
adulterers, serve as his surrogate in television interviews in Iowa and New
Hampshire.

What makes Hutchinson’s betrayal of his
wife particularly scandalous is the fact that, like Huckabee, he is an
ordained minister as well as a Republican politician who won elections by
presenting himself as an adherent of moral values, including, of course, the
sanctity of marriage.

I've never been overly concerned about the Religious Right. Here in Eastern Oklahoma, which BTW, is a shining jewel on the buckle of the Bible Belt, we just about have a church on every corner. Now all these churches are reading out of the same book and they are all reading something different. Oh yeah, they also think that all the others are going straight to Hell.

So this facade that the Religious Right puts up about all the Christians in this country belonging to some monolithic movement is a crock. Case in point, no matter how well you brainwash your children...

WASHINGTON — Much of the national leadership of the Christian conservative
movement has turned a cold shoulder to the Republican presidential campaign of Mike Huckabee, wary
of his populist approach to economic issues and his criticism of the Bush
administration’s foreign policy. But that has only fired up Brett and Alex
Harris.

The Harris brothers, 19-year-old evangelical authors and speakers who grew
up steeped in the conservative Christian movement, are the creators of Huck’s
Army, an online network that has connected 12,000 Huckabee campaign
volunteers, including several hundred in Michigan, which votes Tuesday, and
South Carolina, which votes Saturday.

As you can see, even the people who have banded together to replace our Constitution with their religious beliefs, don't even get along with each other.

How about the Right's magnum opus, the Iraq War? Well after months of BS, the folks who perpetrated this deadly farce, finally settled on removing Saddam and the Baath Party as the reason for the sacrifice of life and wealth in Mr. Bush's little war. Where are we five years later? Reinstating the Baath Party.

BAGHDAD - Iraq's parliament passed a benchmark law Saturday allowing
lower-ranking former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath party to reclaim government jobs, the first
major piece of U.S.-backed legislation it has adopted.

Traveling in Manama, Bahrain, President Bush hailed the law as "an
important step toward reconciliation."

So we have spent hundreds of billions of dollars, and they were worth something when this started, and we are responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths just to try to get things back like they were before we invaded. Brilliant!

The Right has another brilliant plan, making sure that only the right sort of people get to vote. In other words, Republicans.

There's a war on across the country over who will be allowed to vote in
2008. One of the key battles in the election was fought on January 9 before the
Supreme Court.

The case is called Crawford v. Marion County Election Board. It tests
an Indiana statute, passed in 2005, requiring voters to present a
government-issued ID before they can cast a ballot. The law is aimed at alleged
fraudulent voting by unregistered or noncitizen voters. Republicans insist that these
voters pose a major problem, despite the fact that every systematic study of the
question has concluded that this kind of fraud--called "voter impersonation"--is
all but unknown in the United States right now. In fact, authorities in Indiana
could not point to a single case of voter impersonation in the state's history.

The more restrictive the law, the greater the likelihood that it will tip a
close election by turning away legal voters--mostly the poor, minorities and the
elderly. It's not a coincidence that these voters tend to vote Democratic. In
fact, the State of Indiana, in its filings with the Supreme Court, admits that
the litigation represents "politics by other means." This flippant attitude
toward the right to vote permeates the state's argument. Unfortunately, the
Supreme Court has shown signs that it shares the view that turning voters away
from the polls is constitutionally unimportant.

Now don't be thinking that all this will go away after we have a Democrat President, it won't. Greed is an incredibly powerful motivator to these people and they will do whatever it takes to have things their way. Hang in there, we'll fight them and we'll beat them.

Enjoy your Sunday, you know that Monday's going to pretty much suck.

U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Tom Donohue, Rich Getting Richer, American Health Care Sucks, Big Pharma goes Olive Drab, John Ashcroft and Deadbeat FBI.

U.S. Chamber of Commerce president President Tom Donohue let the world know where working folks stand in the land of the free.

If you're a candidate and you're for the working class, then the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is against you. And they're going to spend big bucks to try to stop you.

WASHINGTON -- Alarmed at the increasingly populist tone of the 2008 political
campaign, the president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is set to issue a fiery
promise to spend millions of dollars to defeat candidates deemed to be
anti-business.

"We plan to build a grass-roots business organization so strong that when it
bites you in the butt, you bleed," chamber President Tom Donohue said.

I have no doubts that Mr. Donohue knows what he's talking about when it comes to butt biting. After all, it's just the same as butt sucking, except he has to use his teeth. He has to have a stressful job, having to be sure that he's not biting when he should be sucking.

And what has Mr. Donohue's butt biting and sucking gotten us? Let's take a look.

The income gap in the United States is greater than anywhere else in the
developed world. Conservative analysts attempt to justify the disparities as a
necessary step to economic growth, arguing that the rich are being rewarded for
innovation and risk-taking, while the poor experience smaller but meaningful
gains. Everyone benefits in the long run.

But according to numerous recent studies, income and net worth have
actually been DROPPING for all but the top 10 percent of American households.
Because of escalating home mortgage expenses, healthcare, and childcare costs,
the average two-income family today has less disposable income than one-income
families had 30 years ago. The expected "trickle-down" effect has not occurred.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the Gini coefficient (a measure of
inequality) has grown steadily over 35 years, from .394 in 1970 to .469 in 2005.
Low-wage earners find it increasingly difficult to escape the burdens of
poverty. The Economic Policy Institute found "significant income correlations
between parents and their children," to the degree that "it would take a poor
family of four with two children approximately nine to 10 generations -- over
200 years -- to achieve the income of the typical middle-income four-person
family."

Impressive, huh? The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is actually proud of the work it's done to shovel as much wealth as possible from the bottom to the top. How Republican of them.

And by using this same formula, these scumbags have worked the same magic for health care as they have for the workplace.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - France, Japan and Australia rated best and the United
States worst in new rankings focusing on preventable deaths due to treatable
conditions in 19 leading industrialized nations, researchers said on
Tuesday.
If the U.S. health care system performed as well as those of those top three
countries, there would be 101,000 fewer deaths in the United States per year,
according to researchers writing in the journal Health Affairs.

And if you're one of those right-wing cretins who still believe that American health care is far superior to any other country's, I'd suggest that you read this.

You hear it over and over again, in casual conversation and in serious
debates among experts: If we create universal health insurance here in the U.S.,
then we'll end up with less responsive, less advanced medical care. Few
arguments have done as much political damage to the cause of universal health
care. And, as wonks like me have been arguing in recent months, few arguments
fall apart more quickly under scrutiny.

After all, if universal health insurance means long queues for treatments,
then why aren't patients in Paris or Hamburg waiting months for routine services
— while patients in Boston and Los Angeles are?

If it means getting rushed, impersonal treatment, then why do France and
Germany give new mothers more than four days to recover in the hospital, while
insurance companies in the U.S. push new mothers out before two?

If it means making do with less advanced technology, then why does Japan have
more CT and MRI scanners per person than we do?

Yes, we owe the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, along with their partner the Right Wing Propaganda Machine, a lot. Without them many more of us might be able to live the American Dream.

Here's a couple of neat things that the Chamber's philosophy has brought about.

The joining of Big Pharma and the military with the idea of drugging our troops for their own good. I think it's so that they won't realize how they're being screwed over.

In June, the Department of Defense Task Force on Mental Health acknowledged
"daunting and growing" psychological problems among our troops: Nearly 40
percent of soldiers, a third of Marines and half of National Guard members are
presenting with serious mental health issues. They also reported "fundamental
weaknesses" in the U.S. military's approach to psychological health. That report
was followed in August by the Army Suicide Event Report (ASER), which reported
that 2006 saw the highest rate of military suicides in 26 years. And last month,
CBS News reported that, based on its own extensive research, over 6,250 American
veterans took their own lives in 2005 alone -- that works out to a little more
than 17 suicides every day.

Posttraumatic stress injuries can devastate the lives of soldiers and their
families. The suicides that are so often the result of such injuries make it
clear that they can be every bit as lethal as bullets or bombs, and to date no
cure has been found. Treatment and disability payments, both for injured troops
and their families, are a huge budgetary concern that becomes ever more daunting
as these wars drag on. The Psychological Kevlar Act perhaps holds out the
promise of a prophylactic remedy, but it should come as no surprise that Big
Pharma has been looking for a chemical intervention.

I really think that the cheapest and most effective thing we can do for the troops is to bring them home.

I'm sure the U.S. chamber of Commerce is proud of former Attorney General John Ashcroft, it's not what you know but who you know.

WASHINGTON — When the top federal prosecutor in New Jersey needed to find an
outside lawyer to monitor a large corporation willing to settle criminal charges
out of court last fall, he turned to former Attorney General John
Ashcroft, his onetime boss. With no public notice and no bidding, the
company awarded Mr. Ashcroft an 18-month contract worth $28 million to $52
million.
That contract, which Justice Department officials in Washington learned
about only several weeks ago, has prompted an internal inquiry into the
department’s procedures for selecting outside monitors to police settlements
with large companies.

Oh well, Ashcroft can say a prayer and anoint himself with a little oil and probably slide right out of this.

And the Chamber can be particularly proud of the fact that Big Business interests now trump national security interests.

Telecommunications companies have repeatedly cut off FBI access to wiretaps of alleged terrorists and criminal suspects
because the bureau did not pay its phone bills, according to the results of an
audit released yesterday.

The report cited a case in which an order obtained under the Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Act -- which covers clandestine wiretaps of terrorism
and espionage suspects -- was halted because of "untimely
payment."
"Late payments have resulted in telecommunications carriers actually
disconnecting phone lines established to deliver surveillance results to the
FBI, resulting in lost evidence," Fine said in a seven-page summary of the
audit's findings.

You know, this is a pretty sorry state of affairs, the FBI might accidentally stumble onto a real terrorist plot while they're busy spying on us and the phone company cuts off their service.

So thank you U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Republican Party and the dog vomit Democrats that voted with them, you have brought incredible changes to this country in the last seven years.

And to end, Happy Birthday Boo Boo! (My wife Retha) Thanks for putting up with me for the last 24 years.

Enjoy your Friday.

Redneck Liberal vs The Right Wing Propaganda Machine: Hillary & Slick Willy

OK, let's check out an e-mail I received, subject Hillary & Slick Willy.



This is a long one and it gives us a ton of Fantasyland Facts.



Don't let this give you the impression that I support Hillary Clinton for president. I just don't like seeing garbage represented as fact. And that applies across the board.



The e-mail is in bold.

HILLARY & SLICK WILLY

~PLEASE REMEMBER THIS WHEN HILLARY RUNS FOR PRESIDENT~

REMEMBER THIS FOREVER -- It is worse than you thought and remembered and well worth reading.

P.S. This was written by a Democrat.

Things are really going bad for you when your credibility is so low that you have to claim it was written by the enemy.

Dear Mr. Ex-President Clinton: I recently saw a bumper sticker that said, "Thank me, I voted for Clinton-Gore." So, I sat down and reflected on that, and I am sending my "Thank you" for what you have done, specifically:

Ah, specifics. Then it must be accurate.

1. Thank you for introducing us to Jennifer Flowers, Paula Jones, Monica Lewinsky, Dolly Kyle Browning, Kathleen Willey, and Juanita Broderick. Did I leave anyone out?

True, but I don't remember him giving them any taxpayer money or losing any troops because of them.

I remember them introducing themselves, usually surrounded by a lot of Republicans.

2. Thank you for teaching my 8-year old about oral sex. I had really planned to wait until he was a little older to discuss it with him, but now he knows more about it than I did as a senior in college.

Bob Jones University?

Since keeping an eye on your own kid is your responsibility I won't give you credit for blaming Bill Clinton for your son's sex education.

When my son was about seven, he came knocking on my bathroom door. "Daddy, what's a dildo?" I couldn't help but laugh. Him and his nine year old sister were watching something on BBC and she sent him to ask. I told him, he told his sister and I have something I'll remember from now on.


3. Thank you for showing us that sexual harassment in the work place (especially the White House) and on the job is okay, and all you have to know is what the meaning of "it" is. It really is great to know that certain sexual acts are not sex, and one person may have sex while the other one does NOT have sex.

Monica coerced?

As for the rest of it, it leaves the impression that who ever wrote this has a very limited experience in the subject. For example, when your partner grimaces and shouts "What is that?!". You had better come up with a damned good explanation of what it is.

Masturbation is a sexual act, but I wouldn't consider it sex.

And it's certainly possible when two people are getting it on, that one of them may not be involved. Just ask any wife.

I'll take another one, 'cause after all these years I'm tired of hearing Republicans whine about Clinton's sex life. Especially since we've been lied into a war for no purpose and the economy's in the crapper.

The Right has strange priorities.


4. Thank you for re-introducing the concept of impeachment to a new generation and demonstrating that the ridiculous plot of the movie "Wag the Dog" could be plausible after all.


Yeah, who'd ever heard of impeachment before Bill Clinton. If you check, I believe that you will find that, in fact, the Republicans brought up the whole impeachment idea. And what did the impeachment proceedings accomplish? Clinton's approval ratings jumped 10 points to 73%. Most Americans felt that impeaching a pretty good president over lying about a blow job was just ridiculous.

The Wag the Dog theory might be sound a little more plausible if Clinton had actually started a war for no good reason. But who'd be stupid enough to do that?

5. Thanks for making Jimmy Carter look competent, Gerald Ford look graceful, Richard Nixon look honest, Lyndon Johnson look truthful, and John Kennedy look moral.

Jimmy Carter was pretty competent, and still is.

I have disagreements with some things that President Clinton did, but to call Bill Clinton incompetent is absurd.

If you really want to drive the point home, replace all the names above with George W. Bush.

6. Thank you for the 73 House and Senate witnesses who have plead the 5th Amendment and 17 witnesses who have fled the country to avoid testifying about Democratic campaign fund raising.

22 people were convicted. A lot of them were friends of Clinton and Gore. Bill Clinton was never charged with anything to do with Chinagate.

Still there were Democrats engaged in activity that was neither lawful or ethical. Point for the Right.

7. Thank you, for the 19 charges, 8 convictions, and 4 imprisonment's from the Whitewater "mess" and the 55 criminal charges and 32 criminal convictions (so far) in the other "Clinton" scandals.

Actually 14 people were convicted in the Whitewater investigation. Bill and Hillary Clinton were cleared of any wrongdoing by the independent council.

But since you want to be specific, exactly one Clinton Administration official was indicted or convicted. That was Wes Hubbell who was convicted on an embezzlement charge committed before he joined the Clinton Administration.

Here's some more specifics.

* nine Bush administration officials fall under the “indicted/convicted/pled guilty” category;

* 13 Bush administration officials fall under the “resigned due to investigation” category;

* and three Bush administration nominees “failed due to scandal.”

The Bush numbers are a year old.

* Number of Reagan administration era convictions in the Iran-contra scandal: 14 (two overturned on appeal).


* Number of Reagan officials convicted for illegal lobbying: 2 (Michael Deaver; Lyn Nofziger, overturned on appeal).


* Number of Reagan officials convicted in Housing and Urban Development scandal: 16.


* Total number Reagan era convictions: 32

8. Thanks also for reducing our military by half, "gutting" much of our foreign policy, and flying all over the world on "vacations" carefully disguised as necessary trips.

Clinton did cut back on military spending, but he didn't reduce the military by 50%. In fact the military spending was cut more in Daddy Bush's four years than it was in Clinton's eight years.

If you choose to deal in facts rather than right-wing myth making, the president who has done the most harm to our military is currently sitting in the White House.

I have no idea what "gutting most our foreign policy" means. But if it was foreign policy left over from the first Bush Administration, if he gutted it, that was probably a good thing. I do have some idea of where the U.S. stands in world opinion now, compared to the Clinton Administration.



China has a better image than us now. Whatever you think of Bill Clinton's foreign policy, it had to be better than what we have now.

Vacations? OK, let's talk about vacations.

President Jimmy Carter (D) Georgia:
79 Days (over 1 term - 4 years)

President Ronald Reagan (R) California:
335 days (over 2 terms - 8 years)

President George H. W. Bush (R) Texas:
543 days (over 1 term - 4 years)

President William J. Clinton (D) Arkansas:
152 days (over 2 terms - 8 years)

President George W. Bush (R) Texas:
250 days (as of Aug. '03, less than one term!)


As of last August Barbara's little cowboy has spent 418 days on vacation.
9 Thank you, also, for "finding" millions of dollars (I really didn't need it in the first place, and I can't think of a more deserving group of recipients for my hard-earned tax dollars) for all of your globe-trotting. I understand you, the family and your cronies have logged in more time aboard Air Force One than any other administration.


I have no idea of what "finding" millions of dollars is in reference to. But Bill's made about $40 million in speaking fees over the last six years.

Clinton's logged more time on Air Force One than any other administration. Well except for George W. Bush.

10. Now that you've left the White House, thanks for the 140 pardons of convicted felons and indicted felons-in-exile. We will love to have them rejoin society. (Not to mention the scores you pardoned while Governor of Arkansas)

Does the Right really believe that people are simple enough to think that Bill Clinton is unique among presidents when it comes to pardons? Hell, Bush has pardoned 113 so far and they had served their sentences. He also commuted Scooter Libby's sentence before he could turn on the White House for outing a covert CIA agent.

11. Thanks also for removing the White House silverware. I'm sure that Laura Bush didn't like the pattern anyway. Also, enjoy the housewarming gifts you've received from your "friend."

Both claims are just wrong. No silverware was stolen and there was no destruction to government property by the outgoing Clinton Administration.

Ditto on the housewarming gifts.

12. Thanks to you and your staff in the West Wing of the White House for vandalizing and destroying government property on the way out. I also appreciate removing all of that excess weight (China, silverware, linen, towels, ash trays, soap, pens, magnetic compass, flight manuals, etc.) out of Air Force 1. The weight savings means burning less fuel, thus less tax dollars spent on jet fuel. Thank you!

Keep repeating it and people will accept it for fact. Well the people who'd vote for Bush will believe anything. Same as above, No Truth in Clinton White House Vandal Scandal, GSA Reports.

13. Please ensure that Hillary enjoys the $8 million dollar advance for her "tell-all" book and you, Bill, the $10 million advance for your memoirs. Who says crime doesn't pay!

I'm sure they will enjoy the money for their books, I would.

What crimes? It must be Right Wing Fantasyland crimes. In the real world, when someone has been investigated as much as Bill and Hil has, if there were crimes committed, we'd know about it.

14. The last and most important point - thank you for forcing Israel to let Mohammed Atta go free. Terrorist pilot Mohammed Atta blew up a bus in Israel in 1986. The Israelis captured, tried and imprisoned him. As part of the Oslo agreement with the Palestinians in 1993, Israel had to agree to release so-called "political prisoners." However, the Israelis would not release any with blood on their hands. The American President at the time, Bill Clinton, and his Secretary of State, Warren Christopher, "insisted" that all prisoners be released. Thus, Mohammed Atta was freed and eventually thanked the U.S. by flying an airplane into Tower One of the World Trade Center. This was reported by many of the American TV networks at the time that the terrorists were first identified. It was censored in the U.S. from all later reports. Why shouldn't Americans know the real truth?

It must be fun to live in Right Wing Fantasyland, where you can change reality like the rest of us change socks.

Needless to say, all the above is not true, it's not even close.

I want to thank Snopes.com for the great job they do at sifting the diamonds from the dunghill.

Claim: A convicted terrorist released by Israel at the insistence of the United States participated in the September 11 terrorist attacks on America.

What a guy!!

If you agree that the American public must be made aware of these facts, please pass this on. THANK YOU (once again) for spending my taxes so wisely and frugally.

SINCERELY, A U.S. Citizen

PS. Please pass along a special thank you to Al Gore for "inventing" the Internet, without which I would not be able to send this wonderful, factual e-mail.
You would think that by now everyone would know that Al Gore never claimed that he invented the Internet. But Right Wing Fantasyland is where people go to escape the fact that they can't handle the truth.

And wait, there's more.

AND THE REST OF THE STORY: Hillary Rodham Clinton, as a New York State Senator, now comes under the "Congressional Retirement and Staffing Plan," which means that even if she never gets reelected, she STILL receives her Congressional salary until she dies. (Would it not be nice if all Americans were pension eligible after only 4 years?)

If Bill outlives her, he then inherits HER salary until HE dies. He is already getting his Presidential salary until he dies. If Hillary outlives Bill, she also gets HIS salary until she dies. Guess who pays for that? WE DO!

It's common knowledge that in order for her to establish NY residency, they purchased a million dollar-plus house in upscale Chappaqua, New York. Makes sense. They are entitled to Secret Service protection for life. Still makes sense.

Here is where it becomes interesting. Their mortgage payments hover at around $10,000 per month. BUT, an extra residence HAD to be built within the acreage to house the Secret Service agents.

The Clinton's charge the Federal government $10,000 monthly rent for the use of that extra residence, which is just about equal to their mortgage payment. This means that we, the taxpayers, are paying the Clinton's salary, mortgage, transportation, safety and security, as well as the salaries for their 12 man staff -- and, this is all perfectly legal!

When she runs for President, will you vote for her?

How many people can YOU send this to?

WAKE UP AMERICA!!!!

This last one has been floating around the net since 2001. Is it true? Of course not.

But there are tons of people who receive this crap and just take it for face value. Are they simple? Yes. Are they gullible? Yes. Do they vote? Yes. Are they the reason that we've had an idiot for president the last seven years? Yes.

See the problem?

Later.