Hillary's Blames Us, Hillary's Right Wing Connections, Hillary's ill Use of Chelsea, GOP Switch for Obama, Iraq Still a Mess & General Deceit.

I've honestly wanted to avoid the internecine warfare going on right now in the Democrat party.

I picked my candidate quite awhile ago and by all indications he's going to win. So I decided, why add to the rancor.

But here I am adding to it.

It's not because Hillary's blaming MoveOn.org and the activist base of what is supposed to be her own party for her poor performance in the primaries.

Which in itself is an incredibly stupid move for such an incredibly intelligent woman.

The calls for her resignation will treble by the end of this weekend. With
every new sign of her contempt for the very voters she wants to step on in her
ascent to the presidency, it ought to be clear that these voters are voting for
their own silencing and negation when they vote for Clinton. It ought to be
clear that they are voting against the very beliefs that make the Democratic
Party the greatest party in the world. If Clinton isn’t proud of that tradition,
then she shouldn’t be running as a Democrat. If Clinton isn’t proud of the
Democratic base, then the Democratic base in Pennsylvania ought to leave it up
to the Republicans to win Clinton the primary nomination.

Clinton ought to know that the Democratic base doesn’t
split...not these days. In the last several years, the Democratic base has grown
strong together, united by the disparagements of the right wing, which for too
long and too often mocked and taunted “Northeast liberals.” We grew stronger
together, and we stood strongly together when we all shared in the victories of
2006. All of us, united as a party in a way we had grown unaccustomed to.

It's not like the Clinton campaign is actually fooling very many folks. After eight years of politics Karl Rove style, it's starting to get obvious, as well as old.

And the Clintons are running as the Rove Republicans. If they fail to
destroy Barack Obama as effectively as Karl Rove -- George W. Bush's master of
the dark arts -- destroyed Al Gore and John Kerry in 2000 and 2004, with tactics
just as brutal but even more personal, then they will have driven American
politics to a critical point. They will have shown that the paradigm that has
reigned in US politics for at least two decades has been shattered.

That's what is being tested this week. It may be the most important
vote in America until the final one, in November.

Obama has been pummelled by a Democrat in ways never witnessed in a
primary campaign.

I'm not even writing this because Hillary's seems to be getting cozy with the same right wing that did it's best to destroy her family. Although, I do find that kinda sick.

(CNN) – Hillary Clinton's campaign is pointing to its Pennsylvania primary
endorsement Sunday morning by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review - the latest in a
stunning series of recent rapprochements with previous conservative media
foes.

The Tribune-Review is owned and published by conservative Richard Mellon
Scaife — a frequent critic of the Clintons who helped fund The Arkansas Project,
a series of exhaustive investigations into former President Bill Clinton.

The New York senator famously built a relationship with former critic
Rupert Murdoch, whose New York Post frequently blasted both Clintons. The
Australian-born media baron even hosted a fundraiser for her during her second
Senate run.

But over the past few months, her presidential campaign has taken its
apparent embrace of former media adversaries to a new level, sending reporters
articles that praise Clinton and attack Barack Obama drawn from conservative
outlets including the National Review and the American Spectator, and quotes
from Republican pundits like Ed Rollins and Grover Norquist.

And former President Bill Clinton made an appearance on talker Rush
Limbaugh's show the day of the Texas and Ohio primaries - contests in which the
conservative radio host had urged listeners to vote for Hillary Clinton as a
means of sabotaging the Democratic nominating process.

This, in the long run, is probably a good thing. There is going to be a fight in the Democrat party over the direction that the party is going to take anyway, so this will be a good way to get the lines drawn and see who wins. The Democrats are going to have to be either a progressive party or Republican lites. Blue Dogs, watch out.

Hillary's win at any cost campaign is bad enough, but what makes me so dead set against her is the way that she is exploiting her daughter, who I think is just an all around good person, to pressure delegates. Bill and Hillary should be ashamed to put their daughter in that position. They should be ashamed to put the delegates in the position to have to explain to Chelsea why they think her mother doesn't deserve to be president.

WASHINGTON — Nancy Larson’s most difficult conversation was, by far, the
one with Chelsea Clinton.


“It was just heartbreaking,” said Mrs. Larson, a Democratic
National Committee member from Minnesota and, more to the point, a
superdelegate who had initially pledged herself to Senator Hillary
Rodham Clinton. This was last Saturday, after the former first daughter
learned that Mrs. Larson would be shifting her allegiance to Senator Barack
Obama.

“She is a delightful young woman who loves her mother very much,” Mrs.
Larson said. “She was really pushing me. She kept asking me why I was doing
this. She just kept asking, ‘Why? Why?’ ”

I think that I can answer the "why".

A lot of folks are sick and tired of George W. Bush and the extreme Right, even Republicans and the right wing smear of Hillary still sticks in a lot of people's minds. McCain's positioning himself to be a bush clone and that leaves one choice. Fortunately, this choice is quite impressive. Here's a couple of examples of what's happening around the country.

What's happening in Bucks mirrors trends throughout Pennsylvania, where the
state Democratic Party has added a remarkable 300,000 voters since January.
Nearly half of these Democrats, according to the state board of elections, are
new or previously unregistered voters lured by the excitement of the
Clinton-Obama race. The other half are former Republicans and independents who
switched to vote in the Democratic primary, mostly for Obama. Before the March
24 registration deadline (only registered Democrats may vote in the April 22
primary), the Obama campaign made an all-out effort to convert disaffected
Republicans, otherwise known as "Obamicans."

And if it's happening even here in Oklahoma, I'd be willing to bet that it's got to be nation wide.

Oklahoma-based journalist Richard L. Fricker was surprised when chatting
with his Republican niece to find that she wasn’t happy with John McCain and was
open to voting for Barack Obama -- but was hostile toward Hillary Clinton, a
pattern that the latest Washington
Post poll also has detected.

She and her husband embraced Republicanism a decade ago, during the sordid
scandals of the Clinton years and her ties to the GOP grew stronger during the
early stages of George W. Bush’s presidency amid the patriotism around 9/11 and
the “war on terror.”

Today, however, they are planning to vote for Barack Obama, if given
the chance.

Meanwhile, as I sit here and bitch about Hillary, we have American troops putting their lives on the line for no reason in Iraq.

BAGHDAD, April 20 -- Heavy fighting broke out in Baghdad on Sunday following a
particularly deadly night in the eastern part of the city. The clashes came a
day after Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr threatened to wage an open war against U.S.-backed Iraqi security forces.

Yeah, Moqtada's pretty upset and I think that's he's holding the strong hand in this game.

A full-blown uprising by Sadr's Mahdi Army militia would be a major setback to the security
improvements in Iraq over the past year, credited largely to his cease-fire order
last summer. The Mahdi Army, which waged two bloody rebellions against U.S.
troops in 2004, has shown in the past how quickly it can gather thousands of
fighters.

"Do you want a third uprising?" Sadr said in the statement.

The smart answer would be no.

In yesterday's post I had the NYT's article on the military analysts that the media are using to give us the low down on Iraq. It's basically a scam to to put make up on a pig by ex-military officers who also have financial intrests with defense contractors. What a racket. Here's more on that.

NEW YORK The front-page David Barstow epic in today's New York Times on how
the Pentagon, starting in 2002, assembled a crew of retired military officers to
disseminate propaganda via all-too-willing network and cable news outlets is
drawing wide attention (see other story). Barstow aptly refers to this as "a
kind of media trojan horse."

Even if it confirms what many have already sensed the details are truly
damning and shocking -- more Orwell than oh, well. And it continues up to the
present day, with the revelation that Gen. Petraeus met with members of this
propaganda group just two weeks ago (he had met with them previously, as well).
"Anything we can do to help," one analyst described this most recent meeting.

The entire lengthy article, and special interactive and original source
features, are posted at www.nytimes.com. But a few angles:

Check out the link for the angles. It's a good read. A sorry situation, but a good read.

Once again I'll leave you with what passes for humor on the right. Remember that this is put out by the crowd that elected George W. Bush. I may be a country boy, but I know irony when I see it.

The old rancher said, "Well, ya know, Obama is a 'post turtle'."

Not being familiar with the term, the doctor asked him what a 'post turtle' was.

The old rancher said, "When you're driving down a country road and you come across a fence post with a turtle balanced on top, that's a 'post turtle'."

The old man saw a puzzled look on the doctor's face, so he continued to explain. "You know he didn't get up there by himself, he doesn't belong up there, he doesn't know what to do while he is up there, and you just want to help the dumb ass get down."

Sure sounds like the Bush presidency to me.

It's Monday and you know the money you make this week won't buy as much as it did last week. You have my admiration.

Later.

Bush and McCain Liars Inept & Crazy as Hell, Iraq Sinking Fast, Expert Military Analysts Fraud, The Hell With Kids and a Little More Right Wing Humor.

Homeland security has been a big deal since 2001. Well it's been a big deal for the Bush Administration and the Republican party. In fact, it seemed even more important than even the Constitution. Importance of that magnitude has to be taken seriously. Right?

Before you answer, remember that we are dealing with the Bush Administration and the Right Wing Propaganda Machine.

But if you're one of those folks who's been thanking God that the nation's security has been in the hands of real he-man Republicans, instead of us wimpy liberals, here's the report card from the GAO.

Here is the title of a report from the Government
Accountability Office on combating terrorism released today:


The
United States Lacks a Comprehensive Plan to Destroy the Terrorist
Threat and
Close the Safe Haven in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal
Areas.

That is not some line buried in the report. That is the title. Wow.

This GAO report may be the most damning condemnation of the Bush
administration's counter-terrorism efforts. The report goes on to say that
the
Bush administration has failed to develop any plan to address the Al Qaeda
threat.
Worse, the report finds that Al Qaeda is now able to attack the United
States and
represents the "most serious" threat to this country.

No comprehensive
plan for meeting U.S. national security goals in the FATA
has been
developed, as stipulated by the National Strategy for Combating
Terrorism
(2003), called for by an independent commission (2004), and mandated
by
congressional legislation (2007). Furthermore, Congress created the National
Counterterrorism
Center (NCTC) in 2004
specifically to develop comprehensive
plans to combat terrorism. However,
neither the National Security Council (NSC),
NCTC, nor other executive branch departments have
developed a comprehensive plan
that includes all elements of national
power—diplomatic, military, intelligence,
development assistance, economic,
and law enforcement support—called for by the
various national security
strategies and Congress.

Feel kinda stupid yet?

Don't feel too bad. They have some success stories. Most of them are like this.

April 18, 2008 -- A 74-year-old Holocaust survivor on her way to Rockland
County to
visit her family for Passover was arrested at a Florida airport for
shoving
a cop, authorities said yesterday.

But the 5-foot-1 granny said she was
manhandled by security.

Damned terrorists!

But it looks like granny is only the tip of the iceberg.

According to Newt Gingrich the whole left wing of the Democrat party are terrorist "admirers". And we all know that a good family values Republican wouldn't lie. Except maybe to his wife about his affairs.

Speaking to Sean Hannity on Fox News Friday night, former House
Speaker Newt
Gingrich told the conservative pundit that "the left wing of
the Democratic
Party, frankly, kind of admires American terrorists."
Gingrich then went on to
say that "they don't mind at all that Farrakhan is
anti-semitic. They
shrug off
Jeremiah Wright."

But even worse is that the next president might just be a dupe for the terrorists themselves. This information comes from the headquarters of John McCain, the man who wants to carry on the Bush legacy.

(CNN) — John McCain’s campaign sent supporters a fundraising e-mail Friday
that claims Hamas approves of Democrat Barack Obama’s foreign policy
vision, and
is hoping for his victory this fall.

“Barack Obama's foreign policy
plans have even won him praise from
Hamas leaders,” writes McCain deputy campaign
manager Christian Ferry. “Ahmed
Yousef, chief political adviser to the Hamas Prime Minister said,
‘We like Mr.
Obama and we hope he will win the election. He has a
vision to change
America.’”

Change America! Just when things are going so well. They must be mad.

You'd have to be crazy to want to change things now. For the tenth time we see the war in Iraq is winding down and victory is just around the corner.

A 48-page report written by a former aide to Donald Rumsfeld and issued by
the Pentagon's premier military educational institute has called the Iraq
war a
"major debacle" whose outcome is "in doubt."

"Measured in
blood and treasure, the war in Iraq has achieved the
status of a major war
and a major debacle," the report's opening line reads. "As
of fall 2007,
this conflict has cost the United States over 3,800 dead and over
28,000
wounded. Allied casualties accounted for another 300 dead."

Published by
the National Defense Institute's National Institute for
Strategic
Studies, a Defense Department research center, the report does not
reflect
the official views of the Pentagon or the Defense Department. But it
delivers a scathing indictment from the key educational arm of the US Armed
Forces.

Despite a few early setbacks, the Iraqis are starting to love us, just like Cheney said they would. And a man of Cheney's vast military experience should know what he's talking about.

Although that comment was not explained, it clearly implied that al-Maliki
was
deliberately undermining the U.S. objective of eliminating the Mahdi Army by
using U.S. and British troops.

Bush administration suspicions of al-Maliki's intentions could
not have
been eased by the fact that a delegation of pro-government parties
traveled to
Iran to ask the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard
Corps (IRGC) to
negotiate a ceasefire with the Mahdi Army. That ploy move, which did result
in a
tenuous ceasefire, raised the possibility that al-Maliki intended from the
beginning that the outcome of the Basra operation would be a new agreement
that
would prevent the deployment of U.S. and British troops to fight the
Mahdi Army
during the summer.

The Shiite south has become the most anti-occupation region in the country.
The British polling firm ORB, which has been doing opinion surveys in Iraq
since
2005, found in March that 69 percent of respondents in the south
believed
security would improve if foreign troops were withdrawn, and only
10 percent
believed it would get worse.

We also have proof of how well things are going in Iraq from all those military analysts that the mainstream media trots out for their "expert" analysis.

Hidden behind that appearance of objectivity, though, is a Pentagon
information apparatus that has used those analysts in a campaign to generate
favorable news coverage of the administration’s wartime performance, an
examination by The New York Times has found.

The effort, which began
with the buildup to the Iraq
war and continues to this day, has sought to exploit ideological and
military
allegiances, and also a powerful financial dynamic: Most of the
analysts have
ties to military contractors vested in the very war policies
they are asked to
assess on air.

I'd suggest that instead of retired generals, the media use E-4's and E-5's for some real honest analysis on the situation in Iraq. They might not be able to give the big picture, but all the little pictures would give us a better understanding of the war in Iraq.



The most wealthy in this country really owe George W. Bush a lot. The man is willing to break the law and let American children suffer and die to protect their tax breaks.

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration violated federal law last year when it
restricted states’ ability to provide health insurance to children of
middle-income families, and its new policy is therefore unenforceable,
lawyers from the Government Accountability Office said Friday.

I'll leave you with a little right wing "humor" that I got in an e-mail. Just to show you the kind of idiots that will be running the show if we give up.

In response to a number of complaints that FOX News doesn't show enough Black
and Hispanic people on the network, FOX has announced that they will now air
'America's Most Wanted' TWICE a week

Hope yours has been a good weekend.

Later.

Democrat Debate Debacle, Bush Thinks We're Stupid, McCain May Be, Diplomats Say No, Afghanistan Undermanned, Hedge Fund Fun & Right Wing Smears Obama.

Yeah, it looks like today's blog is going to mostly about clowns. Not the funny, ha ha clowns, the dangerous, WTF kind.

I guess the best place to start is with the Democrat debate, held in Philadelphia last night.

ABC put on the show and Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos provided the entertainment.

In what should have been a serious debate on the issues, Gibson and Stephanopoulos turned it into a Fox News watcher's wet dream.

Here's what a couple of real journalists had to say about the clowns from ABC.

Will Bunch of Attytood and the Philadelphia Daily News.

An open letter to Charlie Gibson and George Stephanapoulos

Dear Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos,

It's hard to know where to begin with this, less than an hour after you
signed off from your Democratic presidential debate here in my hometown of
Philadelphia, a televised train wreck that my friend and colleague Greg
Mitchell has already called, quite accurately, "a
shameful night for the U.S. media." It's hard because -- like many other
Americans -- I am still angry at what I just witnesses, so angry that it's hard
to even type accurately because my hands are shaking. Look, I know that "media
criticism" -- especially when it's one journalist speaking to another -- tends
to be a genteel, colleagial thing, but there's no genteel way to say
this.

With
your performance tonight -- your focus on issues that were at best trivial
wastes of valuable airtime and at worst restatements of right-wing
falsehoods, punctuated by inane "issue" questions that in no way resembled the
real world concerns of American voters -- you disgraced my profession
of journalism, and, by association, me and a lot of hard-working colleagues who
do still try to ferret out the truth, rather than worry about who can give us
the best deal on our capital gains taxes. But it's even worse than that. By so
badly botching arguably the most critical debate of such an important election,
in a time of both war and economic misery, you disgraced the American voters,
and in fact even disgraced democracy itself. Indeed, if I were a citizen of one
of those nations where America is seeking to "export democracy," and I had
watched the debate, I probably would have said, "no thank you." Because that was
no way to promote democracy.

Be sure to read all of Will Bunch's letter.

And Greg Mitchell of Editor & Publisher.

Clinton-Obama Debate: ABC Decides Top Issues Facing Americans Are Gaffes, Flag Pins and '60s Radicals

NEW YORK In perhaps the most embarrassing performance by the media in a
major presidential debate in years, ABC News hosts Charles Gibson and George
Stephanopolous focused mainly on trivial issues as Hillary Clinton and Barack
Obama faced off in Philadelphia.

Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the health care and mortgage crises, the
overall state of the economy and dozens of other pressing issues had to wait for
their few moments in the sun as Obama was pressed to explain his recent "bitter"
gaffe and relationship with Rev. Wright (seemingly a dead issue) and not wearing
a flag pin while Clinton had to answer again for her Bosnia trip exaggerations.

The media thinks we're all stupid. At best, they're only half right.

Oh, and George W. Bush thinks we're stupid too. Being, at best, half right far exceeds expectations for Bush though.

After his latest shenanigans, I've come to the conclusion that George Bush is
the first US president to march backwards. First we had weapons of mass
destruction. Then, when they proved to be a myth, Bush told us we had stopped
Saddam's "programmes" for weapons of mass destruction (which happened to be
another lie).

Now he's gone a stage further. After announcing victory in Iraq in 2003 and
"mission accomplished" and telling us how this enormous achievement would lead
the 21st century into a "shining age of human liberty", George Bush told us this
week that "thanks to the surge, we've renewed and revived the prospect of
success".

John McCain either thinks we're stupid or else he's trying prove that he is.

Take his position on the new G.I. Bill.

Just a few days ago, appearing on ABC’s “The View,” John McCain talked
about the importance of increasing the size of the U.S. military. To entice more
volunteers, he said, the government should focus on
incentives: “[O]ne of the things we ought to do is provide [the troops with]
significant educational benefits in return for serving.”

Naturally, then, McCain indicated a few days later that he’ll withhold
support for a bipartisan measure to renew and expand the GI Bill for a new
generation of veterans.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the presumptive Republican presidential
nominee, seemed to give a thumbs down to bipartisan legislation that would
greatly expand educational benefits for members of the military returning from
Iraq and Afghanistan under the GI Bill.

John McCain crapping on the troops. Something just doesn't seem right about that, does it?

What really seals the deal is McCain's plan to help out the working class, by cutting corporate income tax and a repeal of the alternative minimum tax. 93% of those benefiting from the repeal of the AMT make $200,000 or more. And since clowns are supposed to be funny, he wants to drop the federal tax on gasoline, for a few months, as a sop to the actual working class. A measure that would actually do more harm than good.

Sen. John McCain yesterday offered sweeping rhetoric about the
economic plight of working-class Americans, promising immediate assistance even
as he spelled out a tax and spending agenda whose benefits are aimed squarely at
spurring corporate growth.

In a speech billed as the most comprehensive
summary of McCain's economic vision to date, the candidate proposed to eliminate
the alternative minimum tax, slash corporate income tax rates and offer a grab
bag of other business breaks. His most direct proposal for relief to
working-class voters was a call to suspend the federal gasoline tax for the
summer driving season.

"The effect," he told an audience at Carnegie Mellon
University in Pittsburgh, "will be an immediate economic stimulus, taking a
few dollars off the price of a tank of gas every time a family, a farmer or
trucker stops to fill up."

Poor John's so out of touch that he thinks that we can afford to fill up.

The State Department sure enough has a clown running it. It seems that the State Department is having a hard time finding diplomats to staff it's offices in Iraq. Duh!

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Associated Press has learned that the State
Department is warning diplomats they may be forced to serve in Iraq next year
and will soon identify prime candidates for upcoming vacancies in Baghdad and
outlying provinces.

A cable sent to all foreign service officers says the department is
facing a looming crisis to fill about 300 jobs that will come open in 2009 in
Iraq and that it may not get enough qualified volunteers. If it doesn't, the
department will begin selecting diplomats for compulsory duty.

Needless to say, the diplomats were none too happy. And some made their feelings known. The Secretary of State responded.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Tuesday that she had been
personally offended by the critical comments of some diplomats who questioned
the ethics of sending people against their will to a war zone. One diplomat,
during an October session held at the State Department to explain the policy to
employees, called the forced assignments a "potential death sentence" to loud
applause.

"I was deeply offended myself, and deeply sorry that these people who
had self-selected into this town hall went out of their way, to my view, cast a
very bad light on the foreign service," Rice told a House panel.

Fortunately, as Baldric would say, I have a cunning plan. Since the diplomats are needed for 2009 and the entire Bush Administration will be jobless and we know how much Republicans abhor public assistance, we can gainfully employ them all as diplomats in Iraq. I think that would make us all happy.

This is not funny, but I can assure you that there is a clown neck deep is it. Violence in Afghanistan is growing. The commander wants more troops, with good reason. Just 7,000 and he would be happy. Guess what? The cupboard is bare.

WASHINGTON – While America's attention remains focused on Iraq, violence is
escalating in Afghanistan, worrying senior U.S. defense officials and commanders
who are struggling to find some 7,000 more American and European troops to
combat resurgent Taliban and al-Qaida forces.

And just what are these troops fighting for? Well, partly for folks whose cupboards are anything but bare. Hedge fund managers.

Hedge fund managers, those masters of a secretive, sometimes volatile
financial universe, are making money on a scale that once seemed unimaginable,
even in Wall Street’s rarefied realms.

Their unprecedented and growing affluence underscores the gaping inequality
between the millions of Americans facing stagnating wages and rising home
foreclosures and an agile financial elite that seems to thrive in good times and
bad. Such profits may also prompt more calls for regulation of the
industry.

Since 1913, the United States witnessed only one other year of such unequal wealth distribution — 1928, the year before the stock market crashed, according to Jared Bernstein, a senior fellow at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington. Such inequality is likely to impede an economic recovery, he said.

Here's a bunch of big time clowns. Their current gig is trying to make Barack Obama out to be a Marxist for the Right Wing Propaganda Machine. They know their job and they do it well. But it looks like people would catch on since they're all using the same words. And that's not a coincidence.

Yesterday, the Weekly Standard’s Bill Kristol claimed
that Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-IL) now-infamous “bitter”
remarks were Marxist in nature. On Fox News’s Hannity And Colmes last night,
former Bush adviser Karl Rove echoed Kristol’s over-the-top characterization,
saying “it
was almost Marxian“:

Even before Obama’s poorly worded comments last week, many on the right have
been making a concerted effort to cast Obama as a socialist
and a Marxist.
For months
now, right-wing talker Glenn Beck, who also hosts a show on CNN Headline News,
has been referring to Obama as a “socialist“:

On Fox News Radio yesterday, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) said that it was “a
good question” to ask if Obama is “a Marxist,” though he said he would
“hesitate” to call him one himself.

UPDATE: As Newshounds notes,
Fox News’s Brit Hume and Charles Krauthammer made similar charges on Fox’s
Special Report last night. Watch it:

At least these clowns don't think their listeners are stupid. They know it.

But that's at the high end of the Right Wing Propaganda Machine, for the Conservative Intellectual, if you will. I know it's an oxymoron. They also have a very effective low end (cheap) method of getting their message across to the super gullible.

I received an e-mail the other day. It's all over the right wing blogosphere now, just Google in '' What a Black Columnist has to say about Obama " and you'll see I speak the truth. I'm not going to post the whole thing, you can find that here, but here is the last part of it.

According to The Book of Revelations the anti-christ is: The anti-christ will be a man, in his 40s, of MUSLIM descent, who will deceive the nations with persuasive language, and have a MASSIVE Christ-like appeal....the prophecy says that people will flock to him and he will promise false hope and world peace, and when he is in power, will destroy everything. Is it OBAMA?? I STRONGLY URGE each one of you to repost this as many times as you can! Each opportunity that you have to send it to a friend or media outlet...do it!

It's sick and what's worse is that it's sad that there are people in this country that are so

apathetic and uninformed who will believe it.

Have a good Thursday.

Later

Obama's Right, Hillary's Bitter, McCain's Bemused, GOP Screws Voters, Gays Take Over, World War Oil, Iraq & Food Fight.

"You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them.And they fell through the Clinton Administration, and the Bush Administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not."

"And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."

This is what all the ruckus is about. I see nothing there that is not true. In fact, it seems a well thought out statement, instead of an off the cuff remark.

Anyone from any rural area in this country, I would think, should be able to relate to this with no problem. And I'm talking about folks who consider themselves Caucasian, especially males.

You grow up hearing how, in America, as long as you work hard and do right, life is going to be great. You might not get to be super rich, but you will do well. Then, at some point, reality slaps you across the mouth and let's you know just what a sucker you are.

Now most folks figure that there has to be a reason that things aren't working out like they were supposed to. And the Right Wing Propaganda Machine is more than happy to give a litany of reasons that explain why they're in the situation that they're in. All of them wrong, of course.

Now don't get me wrong, most of these folks are good people. Unfortunately, they have just picked up the wrong information and run with it.

I was going through the channels the other night and ran across a call in talk show and they were talking about how the white male was the persecuted group in this country. And they were absolutely serious. Thank goodness Reno 911 was on the next channel.

Religion and guns are just sacrosanct. It's understandable that someone less than happy in this life fervently believes that there's going to be another one where they will be able to live like Paris Hilton. For a lot of them, that's all they've got. And if it's one of those denominations that's been holding hands with the political right wing, you understand what I mean. They no longer just have Satan to worry about, now there's liberals, democrats, and anyone who doesn't believe exactly like they do. Thinking's not required, in fact, it's frowned upon.

Guns, thanks to the NRA any mention of anything less than any kind of weapon for anyone and suddenly you're a communist wanting to take every one's guns away. I'm a country boy and have had guns since I was 12. I believe that people should be able to own firearms. But, I also think that there are some people who shouldn't be allowed anywhere near a weapon. I think that there is way too many gun related deaths in this country. And I think that there should be some kind of solution. But to a lot of people, that makes me anti-American, anti-Constitution and some kind of limp wristed, liberal, wimp. I guess one out of five's not bad for anyone who believes the crap that the NRA puts out. I guess that pretty well covers the antipathy part, too.

Anti-immigrant and anti-trade just goes back to the lack of good paying jobs. What I don't understand and it seems so obvious, is why blame the immigrants when it's American employers who don't want to pay a living wage to American workers. That's who you should be pissed off at. Same thing with trade. Trade is a good thing, when it's done right. Trade should benefit both partners. What we have now is mostly a one way thing, plenty of trade coming in and very little going out. It does work for Wal-Mart though.

So what we end up with is more of a lack of education and I don't mean the formal kind. We've had the Right Wing Propaganda Machine pounding this crap into people's heads for years. On the surface what they say sounds plausible. If the Left had been doing it's job and explaining the fallacies of the Right's diatribe, I wouldn't have had to write all this.

I should have just posted Mark Karlin's editorial from Buzzflash. He did it much better than I could.

Obama's statement could have been said more fully, and not so elliptically,
and that would have explained the difference between respect for traditions and
beliefs, and exploitation of those very same characteristics for political gain
by those who are exploiting the working class.

But, in the end, as he did with race, Obama is touching upon a third
rail of truth that neither party wants to discuss much. The "K Street Lobbyists"
are very pleased with the masquerade and demagoguery that achieved, and now
accelerates, the slide of the middle class towards a lower class fate.

The working class will have its faith, hunting, and small town
"values," but it can't have them if they don't have jobs.

And after Obama's remarks, they can't say that they weren't warned by
an honest politician.

Damn! Someone else put it better than me too. Oh well, my readers deserve the best. Here's Tom Teepen.

And folks who are scrambling to make ends meet look up to a sky bright with
the golden parachutes of corporate executives who bailed out of companies they
had flown off course.

Obama is right, too, that in the place of good times, or even
just promising ones, we've been offered a string of goofy distractions - phony
threats to gun owners, hyped outrages like the nonsense crusade against "Happy
Holidays," scares about Mexicans taking over. The bread and circuses of the Bush
imperium.

Here is how we choose a president: Not by a sensible assay of
which candidate would bring knowledge, insight, good purpose and moral courage
to the office but which is left standing after a year long game of contact
gotcha. Life imitates? well, not art alas. Reality TV.

There's one big thing that I really like about Barack Obama. He says that one of the first things he's going to do is look into potential crimes of the Bush Administration. I really think that Bush, Cheney and Rove would look great in orange jumpsuits.

Obama said that as president he would indeed ask his new Attorney General
and his deputies to "immediately review the information that's already there"
and determine if an inquiry is warranted -- but he also tread carefully on the
issue, in line with his reputation for seeking to bridge the partisan divide. He
worried that such a probe could be spun as "a partisan witch hunt." However, he
said that equation changes if there was willful criminality, because "nobody is
above the law."

I guess that since I have devoted so much time to Obama I'm obligated to at least mention the other two.

First we'll go with Hillary. BTW, back in May 2006 I suggested that we keep Hil on the Hill.

A couple of days ago Hillary was supposed to give a speech at th Philadelphia County Democratic Party's Jefferson-Jackson Dinner. She did, but no one was paying any attention and she quit after five minutes. It's looks like that should have told her something.

PHILADELPHIA -- Hillary Clinton was forced to cut her normal stump speech
short when a chatty and meddlesome crowd kept her from grasping their attention.
Clinton, who was addressing the Philadelphia County Democratic Party's
Jefferson-Jackson Dinner, spoke for just over five minutes, despite having the
press arrive almost two hours beforehand.

The crowd never settled down during her remarks. A spokesman for Clinton
denied that she cut the speech short, and told reporters that Clinton was
advised by her Pennsylvania team to deliver “a short speech" given the set up of
the event.

And poor old John McCain. I admire the man for what he went through in Nam. But it's really time for him to take a break.

The Right is just all atwitter over McCain's proposed dropping of the federal gasoline tax from Memorial Day to Labor Day. They think that all taxes are the work of the Devil anyway.

Unfortunately, there's some drawbacks with this plan.

The 18.4-cent gas tax goes into a Highway Trust Fund, which pays for roads,
bridges, subways, etc. So there's a legitimate policy question here: If
you suspend that tax, what are you doing to an already-deteriorating
infrastructure system? (After all, remember that bridge collapse in
Minneapolis/St. Paul, where interestingly the GOP convention takes place in
September.)

Matthew Jeanneret, a spokesman for the American Road & Transportation
Builders Association, tells First Read that suspending the federal gas tax for
three months could cost $9 billion from the federal highway trust fund. And if
that lost $9 billion is replaced by general Treasury revenues, that will
increase the size of the deficit. "It might be good politics," Jeanneret says of
the McCain measure. "But it is shortsighted, and it won't do anything to
stimulate the economy."

And even worse, his advisers are telling him not to even mention deficit reduction. Wouldn't want to cut off the gravy train to their friends.

Earlier this year, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) proposed a deficit-reduction
plan in which he would balance
the budget by 2012. “[T]hat’s my
goal. … It has to be our goal, because we’re mortgaging these young people’s
future,” he said in February.

Now, McCain’s advisers are abandoning this tough talk. The New York
Times reports that chief economic adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin said the next
president should not
even talk about balancing the budget, adopting a “so be it” approach to the
costs of the Iraq war and McCain’s corporate tax cuts:

I had mentioned earlier that white males feel unloved and persecuted. Well, they're not taking it lying down. They're fighting back, to the detriment of the country.

Since the 2004 election, activist lawyers with ties to the Republican Party
and its presidential campaigns, Republican legislators, and even the Supreme
Court -- in a largely unnoticed ruling in 2006 -- have been aggressively
regulating most aspects of the voting process. Collectively, these efforts are
undoing the gains of the civil rights era that brought voting rights to
minorities and the poor, groups that tend to support Democrats.

In addition, the Department of Justice (DOJ), which for decades had
fought to ensure that all eligible citizens could vote, now encourages states to
take steps in the opposite direction. Political appointees who advocate for
stringent requirements before ballots are cast and votes are counted have driven
much of the DOJ's Voting Section's recent agenda. As a result, the Department
has pushed states to purge voter lists, and to adopt newly restrictive voter ID
and provisional ballot laws. In addition, during most of George W. Bush's
tenure, the DOJ has stopped enforcing federal laws designed to aid registration,
such as the requirement that state welfare offices offer public aid recipients
the opportunity to register to vote.

Did you know that gays, in an evil plot, are taking over America one town at a time? Me either. But those fine folks over at the American Family Association do and they are putting out a video to warn us hetros and let us know how to fight it. Ah, life's so exciting in Right Wing Fantasyland.

The presentation in the AFA trailer…”They’re Coming to Your Town,” tells
the tale of an uncharacteristically diverse resort town’s government infiltrated
by “a handful of homosexual activists” and bent to their will through the
enactment of the town’s domestic partner registry on June 22, 2007.

“Watch, and learn,” says the trailer, “how to fight a well-organized
gay agenda to take over the cities of America, one city at a time.”

A chilling article by Joe Lauria tells us of the lengths the people who are running this country will go to in order to preserve the profits of the oil companies. I hope he's wrong, but it sounds just a little too close to the truth. It's well worth the read.

The American oil wars are being launched out of weakness, not strength. The
American economy is teetering and without control of the remaining oil it will
collapse. There will be massive chaos in any case, when only enough oil remains
for the American elite and whomever they choose to share it with.

That will leave an oil-starved China and India, both with nuclear weapons,
with no alternative but to bow to America or go to war.

It's not about greed any more. It's about survival. Because the leadership
of this country was initially too greedy to switch from oil to solar, wind,
geothermal and other renewable alternatives, it may now be too late. Had the
hundreds of billions of dollars poured into the invasion and occupation of Iraq
been put into alternative energy the world might have had a fighting chance. Now
that is far from certain.

What is certain is that these wars are not about democracy. They are not
about WMD. The coming one will not even be about Iran's nuclear weapons project.
It's about the oil, stupid.

I don't want us to forget our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. With the MSM being so giddy over Obama's supposed faux pas in San Francisco, our troop are getting short shrift in the media. So here's the Security developments in Iraq, April 15. Just remember that these are all signs of success.

Finally I like to end with some good news. That won't be the case today.

First gasoline prices and now food prices. Once again the working class gets screwed and not in the good way.

The U.S. is wrestling with the worst food
inflation in 17 years, and analysts expect new data due on Wednesday to show
it's getting worse. That's putting the squeeze on poor families and forcing
bakeries, bagel shops and delis to explain price increases to their
customers.

U.S. food prices rose 4
percent in 2007, compared with an average 2.5 percent annual rise for the last
15 years, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. And the agency says
2008 could be worse, with a rise of as much as 4.5 percent.

Well, at least it's hump day. The weekend can't get here too soon. Neither can January 20, 2009.

Later

Bush, Petraeus, Iraq, Afghanistan, Crooked Contractors, China Gets Rich, The Dollar, Food, Big Biz Loses One and Jimmy Carter.

Well, Mr. Bush's grand adventure in Iraq is still ongoing, still a mess, still staying the course and still no end in sight. Our troops deserve better. Much better.

Mr. Bush in his own words is handing his mess to the next president, from 2006, "WE'RE not leaving, so long as I'm the President." In fact, he has submitted a budget that doesn't even cover the costs of the war after he's gone.

Of course, that's when the Right Wing Propaganda Machine will start working overtime to convince us all that the Democrats blew the great opportunity for democracy, peace and love in the Middle East. And there are plenty of idiots out there who'll believe it.

Juan Cole has written an excellent article about the three wars that are actually going on inside Iraq. That's just the wars, all the little feuds aren't even mentioned.

AT LAST WEEK'S Iraq hearings on Capitol Hill, amid the talk of progress,
withdrawal timetables, and casualty numbers, one crucial question was largely
ignored: How much of Iraq can American troops really expect to
fix?

American leaders and media tend to focus on the insurgency in
Baghdad and its environs, but that's only a small part of the total picture.
When the United States toppled Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003, it engendered a
series of power struggles around the country.

Today Iraq is embroiled in three separate civil wars, only one of which
has involved US troops in a significant way. These three conflicts have
generated most of the country's violence, and are intensively reported on in the
Iraqi press, which I follow closely.

The next president will inherit these ongoing Iraqi and regional
conflicts - and the vexing question of how, and whether, America can address
them. Amid the high-level generalizations about the Iraq war, these are the
conflicts the candidates - and the country - really need to be
considering.

Fortunately for Bush and most of the right, is the fact that they exist in a fantasy world, where science, history and above all facts mean nothing. From The Ostroy Report.

"Fifteen months ago, Americans were worried about the prospect of failure in
Iraq," The Decider told a small White House group Thursday, attempting to
bolster support for the war. "Today, thanks to the surge, we’ve renewed and
revived the prospect of success."

Bush obviously has strange ideas on the definition of success.

To make matters even worse, the commander of our troops in Iraq is more interested in pleasing Bush than in the welfare of his troops.

The recent armed conflicts there, paced by the powerful Sadrist faction,
are the rock in the road that Petraeus and Crocker have had to get around since
these hearings began, as the ill-timed flare-ups have provided ample evidence
that the "surge" strategy may not be working as either a security measure or a
means to sectarian reconciliation. The Bush administration has little choice but
to spin every dire crisis as a sign of evident success, so Petraeus offer[ed] an
argument [on Wednesday] that Maliki's response to Basra was evidence that the
government is essentially functional...

All of which sounds hopeful, or, at least it would, were it not for the
fact that Petraeus spent the [previous] day suggesting precisely the
opposite.

To be fair we should check out some of that success.

Things must be going great in Baghdad. After all, it's kind of the showplace of the success that President Bush says we're having in Iraq.

THE toll from fierce fighting in Baghdad’s Sadr City has risen to at least
200 dead and more than 1,000 injured, according to doctors in the besieged
suburb.

US and Iraqi troops killed at least 13 gunmen in heavy fighting
there yesterday against the Mahdi Army loyal to the radical Shi’ite cleric
Moqtada al-Sadr.

The reports from Sadr City hospitals suggest far higher casualty
figures than previously reported, although they cannot be independently
verified. Dr Qassem Mudalal, the director of the Imam Ali hospital, said: “There
are 230 killed, I can confirm, in the hospitals of Sadr City. I’ve been living
in the hospital for two weeks.

“I can’t leave because of the siege and it’s too dangerous to be on the
streets because of snipers and bombs.”

He said most had died from shrapnel wounds. Other doctors claimed
only a minority of the dead appeared to be militants.

We've been training Iraqis to "stand up so that we can stand down" for five years. Surely that has to be a success. Doesn't it?

BAGHDAD (AP) -- Iraq's government moved Sunday to restore discipline within
the ranks of the security forces, sacking more than 1,300 soldiers and policemen
who deserted during recent fighting against Shiite militias in Basra.

The failure of government forces to capture Basra despite superiority in
numbers and firepower was an embarrassment to al-Maliki, who ordered the
offensive and personally supervised it during the first week.

During the attack more than 1,000 security troops - including a full
infantry battalion - refused to fight or joined the militias, handing them
weapons and vehicles.

OK, maybe that wasn't the best example of the success that Bush and the right dream about, but what about privatization. We spend a tremendous amount of money on defense contractors.

So how do you think your tax dollar funded contractors are helping this country in Iraq?

According to the testimony of John Owen, “Conditions there were deplorable,
beyond what even a working man should tolerate. Foreign workers were
packed in trailers tight. There was insufficient equipment and basic needs –
stuff like shoes and gloves. If a construction worker needed a new pair of
shoes, he was told, ‘No, do with what you have’ by First Kuwaiti managers. The
contract for these workers said they had to work 12 hours a day 7 days a week,
with some time off on Friday for prayers."

I had the opportunity to visit some of the areas where the Filipino people
live. These people are here to do our laundry and to clean our bathrooms and
showers . They are very hard working people who have to live in very sad
conditions. They have been placed in little trailers that have small beds and
they are not allowed to go out of their working places alone. They must be
escorted back and forth from their work place to their 'homes' .and they must be
at their gate by 10 o’clock. Filipinos have their own place to eat, travel in
their own buses and they have no recreation or any other activities other than
work and are not permitted to interact with others here.

Kinda makes you proud to be an American.

In Afghanistan, the opium poppys have been planted, so it's time to grab the old AK and kill some Americans or Brits.

KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN -- For weeks now, the men in black turbans have been
coming. They travel in pairs or small groups, on battered motorbikes or in dusty
pickups, materializing out of the desert with Kalashnikovs and rocket launchers
slung from their shoulders.

With the advent of warmer weather, villagers say, Taliban fighters are
filtering back from their winter shelters in Pakistan, ensconcing themselves
across Afghanistan's wind-swept south.

I guess that Bush is really lucky that he has that strong economy that he and the mainstream media have been bragging about for the last few years.

But if our economy is so strong, why is China making all the money.

SHANGHAI, China (AP) -- China's central bank says the country's foreign reserves
topped $1.68 trillion by the end of March, up 40 percent from a year earlier.

It's a good thing that Bush has made sure the dollar stayed strong. Boy, did that MBA from Harvard come in handy.

Last November, president George W.
Bush, in an interview with Fox
Business Network, summoned his inner high-school cheerleader. "We have a
strong dollar policy, and it's important for the world to know that," he said.
"And if people would look at the strength of our economy, they'd realize why I
believe that the dollar will be stronger." Since then, the greenback, which had
been slumping against foreign currencies for years, has wilted like spinach in a
sauté pan at the Olive Garden. Given that the typical audience for Fox Business
Network could comfortably fit into Rupert Murdoch's downtown Manhattan loft,
it's no surprise the world failed to get the message. The greenback last week
hit new lows against foreign currencies. The dollar is so sad, we should
consider renaming it the dolor.

One more problem that we and the rest of the world had better get ready for is the shortage and high price of food. There's going to be a lot more starving people in the poorer and undeveloped countries. Here too, for that matter.

This article is well worth reading. You'll want to get that garden started, we are about to see just how important food is.

Unlike past food crises, solved largely by throwing aid at hungry stomachs
and boosting agricultural productivity, this one won't go away quickly, experts
say. Prices are soaring and stand every chance of staying high because this
crisis is different.

A swelling global population, soaring energy prices, the clamouring for
meat from the rising Asian middle class, competition from biofuels and hot money
pouring into the commodity markets are all factors that make this crisis unique
and potentially calamitous. Even with concerted global action, such as rushing
more land into cultivation, it will take years to fix the problem.

And we waste our time and resources invading Iraq for no logical reason.

Fortunately there is some good news to talk about. Big Business lost one in the courts and that can only be good for the rest of us.

The National Association of Manufacturers suffered a major blow Friday in
its legal battle against the new ethics and lobbying law.

Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the U.S. District Court dismissed
the group’s challenge to a key provision of the law. The group took issue with
the clause that would require disclosure of the member companies of “stealth
lobbying” coalitions.

And former President Jimmy Carter knows that to reach a workable agreement, all sides must be a part of it. I believe Jimmy Carter is about the only living ex-president that has done something worthwhile, instead of trying to get richer. No wonder the right ridicules him so much.

WASHINGTON (April 13) - Former President Carter said he feels "quite at
ease" about meeting Hamas militants over the objections of Washington because
the Palestinian group is essential to a future peace with Israel.

"The position of the government is that Hamas is a terrorist organization
and we don't negotiate with terrorists. We think that's a very important
principle to maintain," Hadley said. "The State Department made clear we think
it's not useful for people to be running to Hamas at this point and having
meetings."

Carter demurred.

"I feel quite at ease in doing this," he said. "I think there's no doubt in
anyone's mind that, if Israel is ever going to find peace with justice
concerning the relationship with their next-door neighbors, the Palestinians,
that Hamas will have to be included in the process."

It's Monday. So get to work, you're there to produce. At least until your company can find cheaper labor.

Later

No Hillary or Barack, 10X$ Military vs Education and Right Wing Humor.

I don't want to do the Barack/Hillary thing. You can find it everywhere and as far as I'm concerned, it's moot anyway. Barring something cataclysmic, Barack's going to be the Democrat candidate and the next president.

So, to find something worth mentioning.

OK, one real issue and then a load of BS.

Where Do Your Tax Dollars Go? According to the National Priorities Project, 40 cents of each of your tax dollars go to the military and 4 cents go to education.

"Taxpayers can take stock of how the federal government spent their 2007 income
tax dollars: over 40 percent went towards military spending, while education
received just over 4 percent. This publication shows how the median income
family's 2007 income tax dollars were spent for every state and 200 cities,

towns and counties."

Here's a lot of right wing political cartoons. I can only guess that this is what passes for humor on the Right. It's bad enough that someone finds these funny, but it's really disturbing that people actually believe they're factual.

And now for that load of BS.

What a waste of artistic talent.

We've seen what seven years of leadership by the people who find this stuff relevant has gotten us. This is just fantasy land humor to validate the beliefs of the good, God fearing, Republicans whose fantasies are a necessary part of their lives.

Later.

Rednecks for Barack Obama, A Small But Growing Movement and Mark Morford.

Well, it looks like Barack's done something that I would have thought to be near impossible. He's seems to be getting quite a bit of support from, wait for it, rednecks. This can be nothing but good, for Barack, for rednecks and for the country.

My personal opinion is that we have a kindred spirit in Barack. You noticed in the little Iraq/al-Qaeda discussion that went on between McCain and Obama, when McCain played his "Father knows best" character and admonished young Barack that there were indeed al-Qaeda in Iraq, unlike most of our spineless Democrats, Barack hit McCain between the eyes with the truth. That there were no al-qaeda in Iraq before McCain and the idiot decided to play John Wayne. Refreshing.

So it looks like Barack don't have a lot of back down in him. And that, my friends is a redneck quality. It's not to be confused with the blind stubbornness of the Petulant Prince, which is rooted more in megalomania, but rather in a well thought out position of what's right and what's wrong. And standing up for what's right is always a good thing. Especially when it's not popular.

Dave in Arkansas sent me his My Space, so I'm posting it. Rednecks for Obama. You gotta admit Barack over a Confederate flag is ballsy, yet coolly ironic.

BTW, check out the comments from other rednecks and let's hope there's a lot more.

I get my stitches and staples out Monday, so I hope to be more active here. Thanks for checking out Redneck Liberal.

I'll leave you with a really well written article about what we all know is going to happen if Barack wins the nomination. And I don't see anything stopping him.

How
to hate Barack Obama
Right now, deep in the GOP dungeons, they're
planning their racist, disgraceful assault. Whatever will it be?
By Mark Morford, SF Gate
Columnist
Friday, February 29, 2008

The name thing is just too damn easy. Childish, sophomoric, a given.

Of course, this doesn't mean they won't use it. A lot.

I mean, my God, his middle name is the same as Dubya's irrelevant
little dead arch-enemy and his last name rhymes with that of the most-wanted
terrorist in the world and this one's pretty much already in the can, nothing
much for the right to do with Barack Hussein Obama's moniker except
"accidentally" mispronounce it as "Osama Hussein" over and over again on Fox
News and at McCain rallies and across Wal-Mart's loudspeakers so trailer park
denizens across Bush's 'Merka will get even more confused and panicky and start
loading up the bunker with Ding-Dongs and Coors just in case the Muslim radicals take over.

Later.

Redneck down, but not out. Liberals are nuts, says right wing nut.

A quick update, I'm back home and I hope to be posting again soon. I seem to be having to relearn some basic stuff.

I'm pretty doped up right now and am about to hit the hay. But first, I have to mention the doctors, nurses and everyone I had the pleasure to meet at the OKC V.A. Hospital.

Veterans in Oklahoma are incredibly lucky, both our hospitals have dedicated, caring people who are generally just fun to be around. I wouldn't trade either for any civilian hospital. One big difference between OKC and Muskogee is the food. If you have to go to OKC, pack your own food.

Someday I'll tell you the story of DeBakey V.A. Hospital in Houston and how they let me lay in bed with peritonitis for 24 hours. That was 24 hours after I started telling them that I was pretty sure I had peritonitis.

So now I'm going to enjoy my pain pills and my own bed and tomorrow I'll try to get caught up on what's been happening while I was away.

Later.







I'll be gone for a while.

Operation on neck bones, OKC V.A. Hospital, Tuesday morning.

I say I'll be home in three days, doctors say no. Looks like a battle of wills.

But before I go, I'll leave you with something that you should find amusing.

WASHINGTON – Just when liberals thought it was safe to start identifying themselves as such, an acclaimed, veteran psychiatrist is making the case that the ideology motivating them is actually a mental disorder.

"Based on strikingly irrational beliefs and emotions, modern liberals relentlessly undermine the most important principles on which our freedoms were founded," says Dr. Lyle Rossiter, author of the new book, "The Liberal Mind: The Psychological Causes of Political Madness." "Like spoiled, angry children, they rebel against the normal responsibilities of adulthood and demand that a parental government meet their needs from cradle to grave."

But then, the denizens of Right Wing Fantasyland have been a little ticked off ever since a real study showed what makes conservatives tick. We still don't know what makes them cruise public restrooms.

BERKELEY – Politically conservative agendas may range from supporting the
Vietnam War to upholding traditional moral and religious values to opposing
welfare. But are there consistent underlying motivations?

Four researchers who culled through 50 years of research literature
about the psychology of conservatism report that at the core of political
conservatism is the resistance to change and a tolerance for inequality, and
that some of the common psychological factors linked to political conservatism
include:

Fear and aggression

Dogmatism and intolerance of
ambiguity

Uncertainty avoidance

Need for cognitive closure

Terror
management

Sounds 'bout right to me.

Still liberal, still proud and now, according to the Right, psychotic.

Later