Hot Topic

So this is a pretty hot topic, or so it appears. I picked it up at And, yes, I DO take it personally. Now I wasn't born yesterday. I know how protective the political Right is of the Bush/Cheney regime. But this story could just blow up in their face. This could become a hot topic. As anyone who has come to the realization that things aren't what they appear to be down there in Washington knows, death threats issued from the public right-wing talk machine against the lives of those trying to spread what they know is the truth is as low as it goes. If the right-wing media are allowed to do this with no repercussions, this country is in deep trouble.
To make things worse, this involves the adopted son of President Ronald Reagan who has his own Radio America talk show.
So if this is still on YouTube, check out these videos:
President's Son Issues Murder Contract
President's Son Solicits MURDER

Energy Crisis

It's official now. Republican senator and candidate for president John McCain spoke yesterday of the "energy crisis." I don't know why he chose to speak of the oil price balloon that way, but he did. The problem isn't in our over- consumption of oil. The problem isn't that America's overbearing foreign policy has destabilized relations with the oil-producing countries and has led to destabilized prices on the futures market. The problem isn't the weakened U.S. dollar, the rapidly expanding national debt, or even the accelerating balance of trade deficit. No, the problem is that America is choking off it's own oil resources. The problem is that we aren't increasing our own oil production and consumption fast enough.
The problem according to McCain and other Republicans is that we aren't consuming enough oil because we don't have as much oil as we'd like to have.
Simple-minded or what!

O Puppet Strings

No, not Oprah...
I was just a bit unnerved by hearing small portions of Obama's presentation to AIPAC this week. AIPAC is the pro-Israel Jewish-American political action committee, certainly the strongest arm of Israel in American politics. AIPAC, though its apologists deny it, is one of the great puppeteers of the leaders in American government. It has strong connections with the purse strings of American political campaigns and has an extremely strong voice both in and over the mainstream media. When they suggest a politician do or say something, that political had better comply or else.
So I was unnerved by seeing Obama dangling on AIPAC's puppet strings this week. The video of his speech is on YouTube.
I can't seem to get a permalink to the article but today's Washington Monthly has a discussion of McCain and presidential powers. Seems McCain has flip-flopped a bit on his position. But the article ended with a boston.com link to a questionnaire answered by Obama on presidential powers. Some of his responses focus on how Obama views Bush's tactics in the Middle East. At least Obama doesn't appear to put Israel's interests above the U.S. Constitution the way Bush has been doing.
Whenever a U.S. President or a presidential candidate speaks as though Israel is our number one priority, I get concerned. Israel is Israel. The United States is the United States. Our best interests are not dictated by what is best for Israel, or at least that isn't the way it should be. Obama's AIPAC speech leaves me wondering. What is it with Israel and American politicians? Is it just the money or are they afraid of something else? Do Jews really have that much control over our country? I don't contest Israel's right to struggle for their existence. I contest their right to dictate to America. I don't contest the Holocaust, but I contest the right of the Jews to claim the high ground as victims. Let Israel be Israel. But sever the puppet strings with American politicians - somehow - before it's too late.

Fog Horns

I've been getting a kick from the orchestrated response of current and former White House public relations officials and political pundits concerning Scott McClellan's book exposing hints of the inside of the Bush White House. These current and former fog horns, Karl Rove, Dan Bartlett, Dana Perino, Ari Fleischer, as well as their media surrogates are featured in a cute video montage in Josh Marshall's TPM Veracifier.
Rove and Bartlett and others say they don't recognize this Scott. He's not the Scott they knew. He's sounding like some of the left wing bloggers.
Now... it's entirely possible that:
1. once little innocent Scottie realized he'd been duped and made to lie by the Bush people, used as their halfwit stooge, he quit his job and went and read all the leftish spin stuff and it rubbed off on him, tainted his brain.
But... it's also possible that:
2. once little innocent Scottie realized he'd been duped and made to lie by the Bush people, used as their halfwit stooge, he quit his job and went out and wrote a book about the truth and coincidentally, it looks like what the leftish bloggers write about.
There is a difference between those two perspectives.
Perspective one above assumes that there is no such thing as the truth, there is only left wing spin and the White House version, known to the left as right wing spin.
Perspective number two above assumes that there is the White House spin which is generally accepted by the right and then there is truth, and the reason McClellan's claims look like left wing blogs is because that's where you go when you want to read the truth. Maybe, just maybe, McClellan didn't need to poison his brain with left wing blogs. Maybe all he had to do was write the truth.
Or maybe there is some middle ground, like maybe McClellan did read the left and as one who clearly was used as a stooge and because his conscience was awakened or perhaps to protect himself from the inevitable day of reckoning, came to write his vision of the truth.
John Dean was the whistleblower in the Nixon team. I just saw a copy of his 2007 book Broken Government: How Republican Rule Destroyed the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial Branches. Looks like a good read.
I wonder if anyone would recognize Dan Bartlett if he wrote a book of truth, or Karl Rove, or Dana Perino, or Ari Fleischer. Not too likely.

Family of Dems

Yesterday I attended the Maine Democratic Party convention in Augusta as a caucus "Alternate" from my town. Attendance was apparently well above expectations so whatever the plan was for organization regarding registrations and using these Alternates to fill in for Delegates, it soon broke down. By nine in the morning the convention hall environment was in chaos.
This gave everybody an abundance of chat time and I managed to pick up on a few things.
I was talking with a small group of Hillary supporters, all ladies from my area, and they surprised me with one of their arguments for why Democrats should support Hillary. They said that if we support Obama and he wins, within a year or so he will be assassinated and that assassination would put America through a trauma that we can't afford to be going through right now.
Strangely enough, I couldn't think of a word to say in response.
That seems an awful lot like an abusive/codependent relationship to me.
Hillary supporters seemed quite concerned about Obama's church in Chicago. One lady called the church "militant" and when I asked why, she just casually said that's what it's referred to as. By whom I couldn't decipher... Hillary people, I guess.
On a lighter side, one topic that came up was Hillary Clinton's connection to a conservative D.C. prayer group for the Washington elite called "The Family." There's a book coming out this month about this group written by Jeff Sharlet that looks like a must read.