At any rate, it’s really sweet to see the GOP hustle at developing their pheminist muscles. (No, I’m not talking about kegels.) To the conservatives out there who are new to pheminism, I’d like to offer a very brief rundown of the concept. I understand that you’ve dedicated your whole lives to harming women’s physical, psychological, and financial well-being, so there are bound to be early failures. Pheminism, like any asset worth having, doesn’t develop over night. You’ve got to practice!
First off, rushing to the defense of your VP, as though she were a Damsel in Distress and not a damn pit bull-skinnedmoose hunter is problematic. Read and learn. No, rape is nowhere near as bad as some boy being a big meanie, but I think the same concept applies.
Finally, it’s 2008, not 1968. Therefore, it’s probably not the brightest idea to call out supposed sexist attacks by reverting back to racist dogwhistles. While it’s admirable that you’re coming to pheminism in the 9th inning, better not to do it on the back of racism. That’s not how feminism works.
I guess some people think that if you repeat a lie long enough, it becomes magically true. Click here to learn why the Bush/McCain/McConnell energy “plan” is a great big FAIL!
Mr. McCain has now aligned himself with an administration that, even aside from its blame-the-environmental-movement tendencies, has established an extensive track record as the gang that couldn’t think straight about energy policy.
Remember, they didn’t just insist that the Iraqis would welcome us as liberators; on the eve of the Iraq war, administration officials were also adamant that regime change in Iraq would add millions of barrels a day to the world oil supply, driving oil prices way down. (In fact, Iraq’s oil output took five years just to recover to preinvasion levels.)
So why would Mr. McCain associate himself with these characters? The answer, presumably, is that it’s a cynical political calculation.
How can anyone really delude themselves into trusting Bush/McCain/McConnell/and the ever-desperate Northup on energy policy? All the sugar in the world wouldn’t make that snake oil go down!
There’s an excellent post by Pam Spaulding about a racist comment that Rep. Geoff Davis made at an event in which Sen. Mitch McConnell also gave the world the opportunity to see just how low class the Kentucky GOP can be. I can’t remember where I read it, but my favorite defense of Davis’s racist remark so far is that he was hopefully just drunk. Desperate measures, indeed.
It was the night of February 13 when Spitzer made the bone-headed choice to order take-out in his Washington Hotel room. He had just finished signing these words for the Washington Post about predatory loans:
“Not only did the Bush administration do nothing to protect consumers, it embarked on an aggressive and unprecedented campaign to prevent states from protecting their residents from the very problems to which the federal government was turning a blind eye.”
Bush, Spitzer said right in the headline, was the “Predator Lenders’ Partner in Crime.” The President, said Spitzer, was a fugitive from justice. And Spitzer was in Washington to launch a campaign to take on the Bush regime and the biggest financial powers on the planet.
Spitzer wrote, “When history tells the story of the subprime lending crisis and recounts its devastating effects on the lives of so many innocent homeowners the Bush administration will not be judged favorably.”
But now, the Administration can rest assured that this love story – of Bush and his bankers - will not be told by history at all – now that the Sheriff of Wall Street has fallen on his own gun.
It looks like Gov. Spitzer wasn’t the only one getting screwed.
The AP is reporting that the Bush administration issued nearly 1,000 false statements about national security in the two years after the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001:
The study concluded that the statements “were part of an orchestrated campaign that effectively galvanized public opinion and, in the process, led the nation to war under decidedly false pretenses.”
As far as I’m concerned, it’s just another statement of the bleeding obvious. But still, it gives me a massive headache this morning. Doesn’t Sen. Mitch McConnell know that ignoring something doesn’t make it go away? Time to send him packing so he and his BFF George W. Bush can have more free time together next year.
Republicans sure love their daddystate, don’t they? Oh, sure, they’ll raise stink about big government when it comes to public health or helping families, but damned if they’re not itching to bend you over their knees for a fierce spanking when it comes to issues of bodily autonomy or privacy.
In light of Mitch McConnell's despicable comments last week about our military deaths, its worth noting this story from the LA Times last Friday on how Republicans are hemorrhaging support from the military. Check out these numbers from the Bloomberg/LA Times poll conducted Nov. 30th to Dec. 3rd of active military, veterans and their family:
Was it worth going to war in Iraq?- only 36% yes, 57% no (was 64% yes in 2004)
Should we withdraw our troops now or within the next year? Or should we stay as long as it takes?- 58% withdraw, 35% stay
Do you approve of the way that Bush is handling the needs of active duty troops, veterans and military families?- 35% approve, 53% disapprove
What party do you trust to do a better job of handling issues relating to military families?- 39% Democrats, 35% Republicans
And military families in KY are quite aware of the fact that Mitch McConnell has rubber-stamped Bush's failed policies every step of the way. And let us not forget, it was Mitch McConnell that TWICE filibustered Sen Jim Webb's amendments to restore proper troop rotation and rest between tours, which both had broad bipartisan support and 58 votes. I noted back in July the LHL story on the shift in attitudes towards Bush/McConnell/Iraq in Ft. Campbell, where the strain on military families has reached the breaking point.
A few days after the Sept. 11 attacks, Bo Ward put these words on the sign at his 12-chair barbershop near the main gate at Fort Campbell: "President Bush, show no mercy. Kick their ass!"
But almost six years later, and after more than four years of war in Iraq, Ward's no longer so sure.
"Soldiers are tired; wives are tired; families are getting worn down," Ward said. "I know these boys can't just pick up and come home from Iraq, but we need some kind of exit plan."
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Kentucky has given heavily to the war effort. Fort Campbell's latest round of deployments will push to 23,000 the number of soldiers from the post serving in the Middle East conflict.
At Fort Campbell, the place Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, once called home, feelings about ongoing efforts in the Middle East and Republican leadership during the war are mixed.
On any given weekday, Ward's barbershop, the fort's largest, is a place where privates and senior officers sit side by side waiting for a trim. Ward chats with these soldiers as he snips away. And he says he thinks many of them now would be happy to see Washington set a date for leaving Iraq.
"Right now, you've got first sergeants and sergeant majors and E-7s and E-8s that are getting out of the army right and left," Ward said. "They're saying 'I've been deployed three times, I'm pressing my luck, I'm not going to give up my life and my family for something where there's no end to it.'"
Karla Tucker works at a furniture store just down the street where many military families shop. She also says that many soldiers, exhausted by repeated deployments, are deciding not to "re-up" as their enlistments end.
"These young men and women are coming back with all kinds of problems; some of them are on anti-depressants; their marriages are in trouble," Tucker said. "There are families right and left that are deciding not to hang around; they're leaving here and going home. I personally have not heard anyone say they're going to re-enlist. It's sad."
It is sad, and this war's tragedy goes far beyond even the high number of deaths and serious injuries. The effects of the war have taken a deep psychological toll on many soldiers returning, breaking up families and even leading to a 26-year high in the suicide rate among the Army's active duty. Below is the video of Lt. Col. Andrew Horne on MSNBC, explaining the strain on families from the extended tours that Mitch McConnell filibustered in order to maintain.
Military families know the role that Mitch McConnell has played in being Bush's lapdog in respects to Iraq, and what once helped him will now be an anchor around his neck as they turn on Bush. Just look at McConnell's recent poll numbers among those in Western KY (where Ft. Campbell is located). In just 2 months, McConnell's approval/disapproval rating went from 66/23% to 49/36%. Western KY is usually where Mitch pulls in his biggest amount of support, but if a candidate is able to significantly cut into this, Mitch could seriously be in trouble next year.
Meanwhile, Marine vet Jim Webb shows how you deal with a repetitive talking point regurgitator and Bush enabler on Meet the Press.
Can you imagine Mitch McConnell having to debate a tough Marine veteran like this in his Senate race next year? Someone that actually has a distinguished military record and can speak for the veterans and their families that have paid such a heavy price for their sacrifice to their country in Iraq?
