Lawrd Gawd, Billy Bob, but when wingnuts self-destruct, they really do it most thoroughly. They're in the midst of wedging themselves to death, and considering how shamefully they've used wedge issues in the past and present, I am enjoying this immensely.
Consider this point made by both Garance Franke-Ruta and Atrios about recent comments of Grover Norquist that the GOP's base — meaning their primary voters — are going to be against anyone who isn't lockstep behind Bush no matter what, and that the real issue for the GOP base isn't Iraq, it's Bush: Bush could decide to leave Iraq tomorrow and the wingnuts would turn on a dime with him. To use Norquist's exact words:
The base isn't interested in Iraq. The base is for Bush. If Bush said tomorrow, we're leaving in two months, there would be no revolt.
Hey, Republican primary voters! Grover Norquist just called you a bunch of sheep! Have some more Kool-Aid with your grass clippings.
This is why, as Atrios says, it's useless for McCain to TIG-weld himself to Bush's Iraq war policy: Because as Grover notes, it's not about Iraq, it about Bush. And since McCain's career is built on his "straight talk" fakery wherein he pretends to distance himself from Bush except where it really counts, McCain is toast with the wingnuts.
But here's the problem: In order to have a chance in the general election next year, Republican candidates for office, from president on down to dogcatcher, must start putting as much daylight, real or fake, between themselves and Bush as they possibly can. Yet the wingnuts won't countenance this: Even if they know that it's fake, even if they know it's just being done to fool the rest of America.
I've long thought that it's going to take more than just a good election cycle or two to cure America of the ills inflicted upon it by the authoritarian-minded wingnuts. It's going to take a true sea-change, and the complete and utter destruction and repudiation of the Republican Party brand. We found out with Watergate and Iran-Contra that if you let them escape justice, they will come back even worse than before, having learned nothing in the interim; a look at Bush's advisors and Cabinet members shows that. What a pleasure it is to find out that, despite the constant fluffing and support they get from the GOP/Media Complex, they are hell-bent on making it so that no sane American will want to have anything to do with them, ever again.
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Zed
Phoenix Woman!
Baa baa white (evangelical) sheep!
There will be no justice…. only the deaths of the worst of them will keep them from coming back in some future iteration …. Dems should start a list of the most healthy of them. They need to be tracked.
Just can’t get enough of the lake, that’s me!
My first, earlier today, now another.
I feel I’m blessed.
Must be dinnertime.
RT @ 3
Have you any wool? Well, then stop pulling it over your own eyes!
Halliburton’s leaving Iran is most disturbing. I really do want to hear Ms Speaker Pelosi rushing through a No Iran bill. She just might be more inclined to after being somewhat hung out to dry by Olmert while she was in Syria. I do not see Harry Reid having the balls!
they are hell-bent on making it so that no sane American will want to have anything to do with them, ever again.
I guess I’m sane then. Really, really sane. Furiously sane. Fanatically sane.
Who’d a thunk it?
Have you ever read the a*p*c/espionage transcripts. They are a must read. Hopefully Paul McNulty will not get taken out by the AG scandal
http://www.globalsecurity.org/…..ug2005.htm
Edited * by Mod over and over again. Please note.
Zombies.
I wonder how many iterations of the Republicans-trash-the-country, Democrats-fix-it cycle will be needed for the Democrats to achieve a permanent majority.
I fear that “We fixed the country” will always be trumped by “We’ll cut your taxes and attack anyone who looks at us crosseyed!” – at least, after the initial disgust wears off. Which takes about six years, apparently.
I love your postings here, PW! I’m thinking that if the base feels that way about Bush, they won’t accept any of his failures as a reason to reject him. They didn’t even mind his kick in their pocketbook. How many got screwed by his (and Biden’s) bankruptcy bill? How many will lose their homes from unregulated lending? How many have lost children to his meat grinder?
I once thought that if people were that hopelessly enthralled, there was nothing that the rest of us could do. But now, I think Bush himself will kill off their loyalty. Over the next few months, his extraordinary narcissism will cause him to act and speak in ways that will repulse all but his hardest hardcore. 10% will drink the Kool-Aid until the end, but we’ve got 18% of badly-traumatized refugees from BushLand to deal with.
Crabgrass. You have to stomp it out from the roots or it takes over.
So much to do.
Jane Hamsher @ 10
Except that zombies *like* brains…
laurie9 @
4
A stake through the heart so we KNOW they’re daid!
From the ashes
to my eyes
This 30% are the real ‘dead-enders’
Jane Hamsher @
10
Maybe we can resurrect Zappa’s Zombie Woo.
What a pleasure it is to find out that, despite the constant fluffing and support they get from the GOP/Media Complex, they are hell-bent on making it so that no sane American will want to have anything to do with them, ever again.
It’s sure something to watch. I’ve been sputtering for six years and I feel strangely calmer now…
The Republican Party becoming a permanent minority can only be good for Republicans.
So it has to be A*P*C not a*p*c?
Mod note: Yes, please.
Jane Hamsher @ 11
Now I’m envisioning John Hinderaker, the flesh rotting from his face but his hair lacquered in place and still sporting a Windsor-knotted tie, shambling towards the keyboard to make another blog entry.
Eli @ 19
And what’s good for Republicans is good for America.
Phoenix Woman @ 20
Now I’m envisioning John Hinderaker, the flesh rotting from his face but his hair lacquered in place and still sporting a Windsor-knotted tie, shambling towards the keyboard to make another blog entry.
NO!
STOP!
MAKE IT GO AWAY!
A P-W two-fer!!
nice…first off: I really enjoy your writing. Clean, clear, but not less filling… wait, I think I veered into a beer ad… anyways, always a pleasure to read your submissions…
and on to other news… ya know, this being a ‘John Doe’ really sucks… I have spent hours trying to find something to report to the authorities, but all of my neighbours seem…normal, boring, not threatening at all… I think I’m gonna get stripped of my ‘John Doe-ing’ papers when ‘Our Lady of the Concentration Camps’ gets wind of my incompetence – either that or she’ll promote me… heh heh
Eli @ 20
It’s ALL good for Republicans! Especially when we raise the tax rate on the top .01% to 50% of their income (80% if they were ever College Republicans).
What we are experiencing today is Nixonian dirty politics to the extreme. These guys are insidious. I could live three lifetimes, or whatever, and the damage these awful people have wrought would still be with us. That’s why it’s vital to have impeachment hearings and ongoing criminal investigations into this sordid administration. And any members of my Democratic Party who gave assistance to the Bush presidency in its achievement of subverting the constitution should also be dealt with harshly. We must set the example. For our children’s, children’s, children’s sake. I am adamant about this.
EPU’d from 177 on last thread:
dakine01 @ 167
greenwarrior @ 161: I’m in San Antonio.
i’m up in austin. let me know if you ever make it up this way.
and yes, delay is a real piece of work. i was at all those redistricting hearings. the first one (and it was supposed to be the ONLY one in the state til there was a big outcry) was supposed to start in the afternoon and i was one of the first signed up to speak. they started way late – a favored tactic – i got my turn to speak somewhere between 4 and 5 a.m. – made for some good bonding with a lot of people. it was the first time i’d been to the lege (pronounced ‘ledge’) as we call our state govmint here. i wouldn’t have ever believed it was that disgusting if my own eyes hadn’t seen it.
Great work, PW. What a splendid implosion.
Congrats ydd! Good zeds to you.
_________________________
My .02 on wingnut taxonomy.
Spirochetes.
Failure to fully eradicate the initial infection allow them to go “dormant” yet cause profound systemic damage. Continued failure to eradicate the infection results in a terminal phase of severe CNS injury (tabes dorsalis).
Best characterized by purulent initial lesions.
Protypical clinical example: syphillis
Oklahoma kiddo @ 26
I agree 100%. It’s that sense of “we’re too big for real consequences” which enabled these corporatists in the first place. That’s Gerald Ford’s legacy, and it needs to go.
greenwarrior @ 27
Yupper. And it was illegal as hell, by the way — redistrictings are only supposed to occur in the wake of every ten-year census. DeLay wanted one done even though the LAST redistricting was still being fought in the courts.
That’s another reason they had to take out Carol Lam. She was getting too close to nailing Mitchell Wade — who then would have squealed on everyone, including Hot Tub Tom. A dozen GOP legislators would have gone down the tubes.
Seriously,
Waxman, et al are performing a valuable service.
Once GWB is gone from office, he will deflate.
Justice would see him in the Hague, but I am not holding my breath.
But all the Kyle Sampsons, Monica Goodlings and other evil little hatchlings’ carreers must be cut short… stamped out before they can evolve into the next neo-neo-con stage.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 25
It’s what Nixon would have been if there hadn’t been Democratic House and Senates.
Mack @ 23
NO!
STOP!
MAKE IT GO AWAY!
Mwahahahahahaha!
Mack @ 31
Hatchlings is right – they’re all young enough to be around for the next 30 years or more. Eurgh.
Eli @ 12
Yep but are we ready to face that?
Onward Christian soldiers. You’re doing the work of the Lord. Follow your leader and don’t betray him when the chips are down. In 18 months, evil-doers will attempt to usurp the thrown of the chosen one. You’ll know what to do.
Mack @ 31
Yup. Fortunately they had to leave just enough of the Clinton-Carterites to keep the agencies running enough to pillage properly; that makes it easier for us to rebuild once the Bushistas are gone and making license plates.
I really do hope that 30 years from now we’re not saying the same thing about Kyle and Monica in the Jenna Bush White House as we say now about Don and Dick…
I fear that the 30% or maybe it is 25% of the electorate that is certifiably authoritarian is there for the long haul and have been around for a while. They used to lynch people. Now they celebrate having wars and listen to Imus since lynching is rather passe. this is why the world must be wary about the USA and why sane Americans must work their hearts out especially in the face of any future terrorist attack or any future economic downturn — that 30% could in a moment again be 50% and there is always an authoritarian ready and able to run. Rudy next time, who know who the time after that.
OT, but MSNBC and CBS Radio are suspending Imus for two weeks for his “nappy-headed hos” comment. They will run a fundraiser for his ranch on Thursday and Friday, however.
Mack @ 31
Knowing the right wing welfare system as we do, they’ll all find jobs, after jail, perhaps, in the Heritage Foundation, or AEI, or ACI, or the Hudson Institute, or Cheney’s playground, the Manhattan Institute.
There, they will be supported as they launch the next assault on goverment….
Eli @ 33
Especially if they’ve been infiltrating DoJ as “civil service” hires. Where they can undercut the next Dem presidency almost with impunity. Almost.
Robert Paehlke @ 39
montag @ 41
Of course, if most of the media weren’t a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Republican Party, we wouldn’t have to worry about *any* of this…
It’s imperative that the Bush political dynasty be crushed. If this doesn’t happen, I promise you they will be back.
dakine01 @ 42
They don’t “serve at the pleasure of the president”?
Eli @ 38
I don’t think the Bush family will ever be allowed near elective office again. Look at Jeb Bush — he essentially ran from office before he could be convicted of anything. Now Charlie Crist is governor, and while he’s still a Republican, he’s not a Bushie.
Helen @ 35
It’ll never happen. My father explained this to me many years ago: give the average voter a few years of propserity and they’ll start talking “private enterprise,” “risk taking,” and “individual initiative,” and they put on the cloak of respectability and vote Republican. But five them a few bad years and they start talking, “We the people,” and they vote for Democrats. It’s the Buddhist concept of “eternal recurrence.”
Phoenix Woman @ 46
You don’t think Jenna’s presidential material? What are you, some kind of sexist?
Two big differences from the 1990s to now:
1) We KNOW who’s screwing us.
2) We’ve mobilized to fight them — with our own media, our own think tanks, our own webheads. And we’re better researchers than they are.
Wigwam @ 47
So you’re saying the Democrats’ success and the Republicans’ failure *both* sow the seeds of their own demise.
Eli @ 38
See me at 35 – bear with me. I am from a “lower class” family and I have worked myself up. I am a true liberal; but we have to be careful about what America is about. “If you work hard – you get far” Bfore you scream at me – think about Fitz.
My beloved Congresscritter Emanual is appearing at a supermarket tommorow evenine.
Family duties permitting, I intend to go let him know that elections MUST have consequences, and lasting ones.
He has no local threat for his seat, but his asperations are a bit larger than my district.
Did i ever mention how annoying his beady little eyes and forked tongue are in person?
……
shudder
We need a Dem. President who will restore the rule of law by enforcing the law. If the Justice Dept has to be doubled and the prosecutions last a decade..go for it. The fundie-fascists have been infiltrated into even the smallest and most obscure gov’t jobs. They have got to be rooted out and replaced. The “one” that always reminds me of how amoral these ass-holes are is the “Lead Advisory Board”. This is a govt advisory committee that advises on Lead poisoning especially as it relates to children. Shortly before Clinton left office, he appointed a world’s expert on the effects of lead on children. Shortly after Bush took office, he named a Tulsa pediatrician who’s main claim to fame was testifying for the Lead Industry that the effects of lead on kids was unproven.
There are now thousands of these people in govt and they need to be removed. As the Justice Dept shows, the career, civil service positions are being filled after political loyalty to the cause is vetted. This is a huge problem and any Dem candidate who talks obout making nice with the Republicans after the election, is a non-starter. I am afraid Obama will fall into this group.
Phoenix Woman @ 31
Actually, it’s not illegal to redistrict between the 10-year census, it’s only very extremely customary. What was illegal was that it hurt minorities and so some of the redistricting got overturned. And the gerrymandering is illegal too. I don’t have a link but the districts were bizarre. Lots of long skinny looking things. Austin’s big enough for its own district and at one corner in town, you could step into 4 different districts. They wanted Lloyd Doggett out, our beloved almost completely progressive Lloyd Doggett. Even when I was temporarily redistricted out of his district, I never stopped thinking of him as my Congressman. Anyway, the districts went from downtown Austin to the Republican suburbs of San Antonio in one direction (with some nice intermediate swirls for creativity’s sake), in another direction to the Republican suburbs of Houston. Then one that snaked all the way down to the border with Mexico. At one of the hearings, I asked them if they knew how Vicente Fox (Mexico’s president at the time) felt about being in Austin’s extra-territorial jurisdiction. They looked at me like I(moi) was the one with 17 heads.
Veritas78 @
41
Were I to openly call a black female co-worker a “nappy-headed ho” on the job I’d be summarily fired. Even, say, if I worked in Corporate at CBS or NBC or whomever the fuck is Imus’s actual employer. Anybody know who actually cuts his paycheck? He should be terminated forthwith.
.
Bush won’t leave Iraq because then it would be too easy to impeach him. It’s really that simple. As long as he is in Iraq, he not only gets “war powers”, (which is why he went into Iraq in the first place, to get them) he also stays in the position of the head of our armed forces. If we were to impeach the President right now, it would leave our armed forces in the middle of a war without anyone in charge of them – or at least that’s how it would seem. So, it’s tricky for both sides.
But all these Repugs who lined up with Bush, they’re already gone. It’s pretty clear that the one thing everybody wants in 2008 is something else. No matter how dumb they are.
I just want to say, McCain lost it when he signed on to Bush’s torture bill. If that’s not an example of someone selling out, I don’t know what is. These Repugs are as lost as the Dems were when Bush had 90% approval ratings. How was that even possible?
Helen @ 51
Did you mean to quote Wigwam?
Who would have thought Newtie would be back. Or for that matter that Henry the K would still be advising world leaders. I wouldn’t count the Bush characters out. Not in a million years. Just call me cynical.
OT sorry, but:
http://blogs.abcnews.com/thebl…..peaks.html
dakine01 @ 16
Didn’t somebody recently do JUST THAT to Ceaucescu’s grave in Romania? Thot I saw that on bbc or sommit…
Hey – Marcy, Christy, Jane – just watched Josh Marshall’s video from TPM media on Pelosi’s trip. We’re taking over. Maybe by 2008 FDL and TPM will be co-hosting national presidential debates and FAUX will be begging yous guys for credentials and cocktail weenies!
I don’t think Josh is quite up to the reports you did from the Plame Safe House, but he DOES have a lava lamp.
driveby – later…
Eli @ 57
Did I?
greenwarrior,
I read your suggestions and will add this at some point:
115. The Bush back story: The time in the TANG, the transfer to the Alabama National Guard, the lost years, the 1976 DUI in Maine, the business bailouts, the governorship, hardline on drug crimes despite his own past history and a fast and loose approach to the death penalty
Helen @ 62
I dunno. It seemed like kind of a non sequitur to my comment about Kyle and Monica.
Robert Paehlke @ 40
maybe people are being lynched -
EPU’d from last thread:
earlofhuntingdon says:
April 9th, 2007 at 6:04 pm
Check out another strand of the US Attorney Gate firings.
Little Thom’s Blog points to a connection between Carol Lam’s firing and the derailing of USA investigations in Ft. Worth, owing to the mysterious deaths of two top lawyers in the local USA office, and concurrent departures of three others.
The connection: Medicare Fraud.
See, also, Rachel Paulose’s resume for inconsistent references to healthcare cases she may have worked on. Curiouser and curiouser.
http://littlethomsblog.blogspot.com/
Wigwam quoted me
montag @ 42
I’ve been noodling with the idea of RICO & think tanks.
Steve @ 54
As an ex civil service flunky (a GS minus 1) I can only think of one way. Mandatory certification for all professional civil service posts (lawyers, scientists, etc) from a board of non-wingers who CARE about the republic. These cheeze-whiz diploma kiddies won’t stack up. The few that somehow survive can be put on 24/7/365 blogger watch so that if they even spell their name wrong it goes out that night. The minute they suck up to a winger cause, hit em with internal professional ethics investigations, on LWOP. Finally, go after the bushies for CRIMINAL indictments after they leave office. Including Darth Cheney and Emperor Dubya-tine. Strip them and their enablers of as much wealth as possible. Make it so expensive the next bunch will pause before trying this again.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 27
Gore is the only one who fits..he looked at how bad the campaign and eight years of The Presidency will be and said “no”..I now believe he is not going to run. I then ask the question of who is the toughest, mean, ball-buster among the Dems..and it’s Hillary. She has taken everything the fascists could dish out for fifteen years and is coming back for more. The two terms of the next Dem president will make Bill’s eight years seem like a vacation. The fascists are looking at loosing the US Treasury, Political power and lots of prison time. They are going to fight to the death. I am looking for a dirty street fighter to deal with these thugs..and I don’t see Obama or Edwards in that role.
Haven’t read the comment thread yet, but it strikes me that part of the major problem to be faced, post-Bush, will be the extirpation of all the Bushies planted behind throughout the Executive Branch, each one a potential landmine.
How can this necessary extirpation be accomplished, legally?
eCAHNomics @ 68
Keep thinking. And Post when you get something. we have GOT to stop this. Now.
Georgesimian @ 56
That’s the terrible beauty of this.
The GOP primary voters demand fealty to Bush, even if it means losing in ‘08. So the Republicans, especially the presidential candidates, CAN’T distance themselves from Bush: If they do, they die in the primaries. But if they don’t, they die in the general election.
Steve @ 69
She may be tough enough – I’m just not sure whose side she’d be on…
Eli @ 64
Yep – you are right. Wrong quote on my part. Sorry.
Prairie Sunshine,
If you’re still around, I like your cabinet posts from the last thread.
Do you have a spot for Scott Ritter? How about our Valerie? What do you think about Jane for press secretary?
greenwarrior @
66
so these SOBs are killing people now?
Blub @ 76
What do you mean, “now”?
Eli @ 51
I think there’s a lot of truth in that comment. It goes to the core of our problem. Most people do not feel engaged in the government of our country. Their identification goes about as far as their identification with a favorite ball team. It’s rah, rah, but not much more. What’s left is self-interest, pig-lipsticked. So when things are good, and some shyster comes around and explains how things would be even better for them if their taxes were lower and if they weren’t paying for all those worthless f*cks who are lower on the scale than they are, they fall for it and vote Rethug.
We need better citizenship indoctrination, the kind they did a hundred years ago to assimilate the great wave of unwashed foreigners who landed here between 1880 and 1913. For whatever reasons, not all of them salubrious, the United States made an effort at civic education. Without that, the parasites will always find an entry point in the body politic.
eCAHNomics @ 68
Are contributions to reich-wing think tanks tax deductable?
Helen says:
See me at 35 – bear with me. I am from a “lower class” family and I have worked myself up. I am a true liberal; but we have to be careful about what America is about. “If you work hard – you get far” Bfore you scream at me – think about Fitz.
I won’t scream – but really – the fact that you and Fitz worked hard and were successful does not logically mean that anyone who works hard will be successful. Fitz in addition to working hard also has an awesome intellect – some people just have greater natural gifts than others, and some just get knocked senseless by life.
Edited to try and lose the italics
Eli @
46
Civil service hires are immune. That’s one of the reasons it has taken the Repub so long to gain full control. The firing rules are quite difficult. The hiring rules are supposed to be structured to be non-partisan but from what I’ve been reading here and elsewhere, that’s been kind of overridden by the BushCo folks. The DoJ is rumored to have totally revamped their hiring guidelines, cutting out the professional career staff. That’s supposed to be one of the curent Monica’s work areas. Bring in a lot of hatchlings from Regent and other reich-wing/fourth tier law schools and fellow travelor’s, hire them in civil service positions then use them as moles to undercut, sabotage, and spy on the next dem presidency.
FWIW, I think the GOP nominee will be McCain, simply for lack of another viable candidate.
Romney is a joke—an effete, stupid, self-destructing fool, as well as a herculean flip-flopper. Giuliani? I think the ties to mobbed up Kerik alone will undo him, although there’s plenty more that could take him down as well!
The other non-McCain candidates are just so horrible it’s not worth speaking of them.
McCain will be the nominee, and because he has to be, he will get the usual kiss-up coronation from the media—or from most of it anyway.
dakine01 @ 82
Shrug. They don’t need to be fired. They just need to be exposed for what they are.
S.O.S. from MA @ 71
The process begins with hearings, then investigations, then impeachment and or criminal prosecution.
The trick is not to drop the ball, but (legally)
ATTACK ATTACK ATTACK
Knut Wicksell @ 78
You’d think they’d want to identify with the team that keeps fixing stuff, and not the team that *always* fucks up…
dakine01 @ 33
And Butterfield’s Big Mouth. The survival of our republic hung on an empty-room congressional inquiry of hopeless congresscritters dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s.
Butterfield was asked how Nixon *knew* somebody had said something that supported his position, when there were no transcripts or other memos. It was a pro forma question, expected the “I don’t remember” pro forma answer.
Instead, Butterfield hemmed and hawed, and said. “It must have been the tapes.”
“What tapes?” asked the committee eyes widening.
“Nixon tapes all conversations in the oval office. That must be where he got that.”
Quod Erat Demonstrandum. Sic Transit Gloria Mundi. Exit Nixon, Stage Left.
Eli @ 74
That has been my concern; it has now become secondary to being tough. If any politician has been immunized to being swiftboated, it’s Hillary. I really think Hillary has blood in her eyes and revenge in her heart..Was it McCain who said her daughter was a dog? After the ‘08 election, the Dems will have large majorities and will drag her to the left.
eCAHNomics @ 67
Well, one can’t prosecute them for exercising their rights to free speech… the problem is that these people end up back in government, or advising those who do, one way or another.
The only, even close to sure, way to keep them marginalized is to educate the public about their little system of code words and subterfuge to enrich the wealthy at the public’s expense.
And, yeah, that’s an uphill struggle. But, it’s possible. The average schmo in 1929 thought things were going great, then. After they were locked out of their banks, etc., they were quite willing to listen to someone tell them just how badly they’d been screwed and that there was a way to fix it.
maunga @ 8
ya…fool me once….
Blub @ 77
URL, we want a URL! If this is even vaguely possible we want Josh and Adrianna and company in on it NOW!
Hugh @ 64
good on ya for taking this list on :})
Frank Probst @ 83
Is there any way to marginalize them out of the loop? Or make their jobs so unpleasant that they have to leave? I’m not talking harassment; more like just giving them all kinds of meaningless shit work to do. And maybe bring in a lot of cranky atheists in senior positions…
Fern @ 81
I won’t scream – but really – the fact that you and Fitz worked hard and were successful does not logically mean that anyone who works hard will be successful. Fitz in addition to working hard also has an awesome intellect – some people just have greater natural gifts than others, and some just get knocked senseless by life.
Edited to try and lose the italics
And we do what?
Eli @ 73
I don’t think she can win. But that’s not why I dislike the idea of her as the Dem nominee. Thinking back a few days ago to Christy’s post, where she had a YouTube of a West Wing episode… I want someone as a-political as a politician can be.
Marky @ 83
I don’t think so. There’s got to be some pliable alcoholic half-wit they can dig up somewhere.
Sauce for the goose, sauce for the gander. If the Rs can revamp ‘em their way, the Ds can rerevamp ‘em our way. But must have prez who’s aware of how deep the rot & diligent about excising it.
montag @ 89
Reich wing think tanks as criminal enterprises, plotting treasonous foreign adventures and anti-constitutional domestic ones?
montag @ 41
Hmm.
I wonder what proportion of the reichwing’s stink tanks and foundations are in substantial violation of relevant IRS codes.
The reichwing will always fund new ones, but the more of their “finishing schools” forced on the defensive or closed, the more work they have to do replacing them.
Guess I’m looking for all legal, non-violent ways to destroy the reichwing’s habitat.
Alfred Kelgarries @ 68
Yupper. And don’t forget our old friend the Fitness For Work Exam. I suspect a non-trivial number of the God Squadders would fail that sucker.
And it can all be done as Civil Service Reform — which is exactly what it is, after all.
There’s a reason that all those Christian ideology factories aren’t accredited: It’s because they suck.
Yupper. And the beauty of this is that these folk are all believers in “bleed the beast”; they can’t help but have tried to do some funny bidness (taking home government property like laptops and such) simply because they see it as their God-ordained duty.
A-yep.
Frank Probst @ 95
Heh. It’ll be this guy with a mustache named “George Rush”…
I am becomming a big beleiver in compulsary public service as part of higher education, perhaps a a creative financing option.
And, making such service prerequisite public policy level office.
One major problem in society has been the degradation of understanding of what the greater good means.
Pure market forces are a wonderful theory…they might even work if there were a clean environment.
But there is no such environment, and greed is not a force for the greater good.
Fixed.
[Mod Note; Please only nest 2 or 3 quotes at a maximum. Any more may break the margins. Thank You.]
Terry Olson @ 76
?Krugman for Secretary of the Treasury
Eli @ 78
What do YOU mean “now”?
URLs, we want URLs. Murder CANNOT become a viable political strategy. Anyone doubting this, take a quick peek at modern Russia. Putin is red-handed to the shoulder in journalist and other freedom-fighters blood. What he seems to have forgotten is that that sort of behavior put an end to the last oligarchy there, “president” Romanov…
kirk murphy @ 98
Lots and lots of them. Why do you think Bush moved to gut IRS enforcement of corporate and rich scofflaws? Just turning that around will do wonders.
Yupper.
Blub @ 77
IIRC the two deaths that were suspicious were in 2004.
Mack @ 102
And we thought public education was the answer – until “separate but equal” which did not work cuz education dollars are tied to property taxes
oh,
and i really miss being able to correct my horrible typing and spelling in IE7
i can always see those errors so much better after clicking Submit Comment
Eli @ 93: Ya mean, do to the hatchlings what they’ve been doing to the career/professional staff? Which is drive them out by making the job so onerous they’ll quit or retire? The only problem I see is the quickness that they’ll scream discrimnation and abuse of the system. They’re always real quick to invoke the rules and claim so n so’s not playing fair when sh*ts used against them, even when it is exactly what they’ve been doing. You know, standard reich-wing hypocrisy and all that.
eCAHNomics @ 97
But, those things have been carried out as policy by the government itself–with the approval of Congress, it must be added–so, if you’re going to apply RICO, it would have to be to the government itself…. Although, this past Congress certainly did its best to live up to Mark Twain’s aphorism: “American has only one native criminal class, and that’s Congress.”
I’m afraid the descent into the gutter can only be delayed, not halted.
I fully expect the marginalized right will in the coming days decide they might as well hang for a sheep as for a lamb. After all, three people can keep a secret if two of them are dead.
Channeling Nixon’s secret plan again, again:*
*Best business headline I ever saw: ‘K-Mart: Born-Again, Again’
Alfred Kelgarries @ 104
Several hundred thousand Iraqis?
Phoenix Woman,
Appreciate your thoughts. What we are finding out as each day goes by that the GOP has been systematically inserting sleeper type cells thruought the Justice Department and God only knows where else to disrupt the next truly elected Democratic President.
It is going to take decades to clean out the rubbish left by the bush administration over these last 6.5 years.
Black Adder! Black Adder!
Kudos if you get the joke.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 59
And call me in complete agreement.
S.O.S. from MA @ 70
False statements/misleading statements (resumes) will be one “for cause” tool for prying out “loyal Bushies” planed in Civil Service postions regulating…
everything anyone ever has, will, or does to make dirty money.
Mandatory Basic Competency Tests for all Government Employees.
Alfred Kelgarries @ 91
see my post at 66, which was someone else’s post from the last thread, which i epu’d to this thread.
the url from that post is:
http://littlethomsblog.blogspot.com/
Phule @ 119
No No – that’s what lead to it: Do You belive in God? What do you think about Roe V. Wade? Are you are a Christian? No No No
This is probably deep into EPU territory, but I’m posting a link to my absolute favorite Molly Ivins column. It was published on November 4, 2004, moments after Bush was ‘elected’ to his second term. She nailed him and the predicament we are in now with perfect humor and horror. I wish she was still around to see and write about what is happening now.
http://www.freepress.org/colum…..1/2004/980
Bust out:
A “bust out” is a common tactic in the organized crime world where a business’s assets and lines of credit are exploited and exhausted to the point of bankruptcy. Richie and Tony profit from busting out Davey Scatino’s sporting goods store in this episode.
This is what the Bush crime family has done to our government. It’s going to take years to repair the damage, we should make sure the guilty parties are brought to justice.
Jane Hamsher @
11
heh heh
helen,
here in Chicago a friend once observed that if our property taxes were an accurate reflection of public school quality, we would all live in frickin mansions
truth be told, we need state and federal dollars – and No Child Left Behind cut them
My daughter’s public school has Art and Music teachers because of aggressive fundraising (and a formerly questionable admissions program)
But, I think the civic values portion is best taught to young adults, who are also in the best position to contribute, perhaps even as Elementary School teachers, clerical and manual labor staff in public hospitals… places where they could ad value to public services while defraying some of the tax burden.
Beets the heck out of privatizing the debt for higher education.
Eli @
12
Democrats in permanent majority ain’t necessarily the good thing you imply, judging from Hawaii, which has had a legislature controlled by Democrats for a long time. What will happen is that the “Blue Dogs” and the “Progressives” will split into two de facto parties, probably with the Blue Dogs in control.
Be careful what you wish for. One party control is seldom good for more than about 4 years. Otherwise there’s no “checks and balances.” Haven’t the last 6 years shown us enough about that?
Bob in HI
Phule @ 116
I’m sure the plan is so clever, if it had a tail you’d call it a weasel.
Newt’s not really back;
he is just a sign of how desperate the Right feels.
He will pick up a little cash on the side and fade back to consulting and speaking engagements.
Alfred Kelgarries @ 87
And now we have news of the WH sub rosa e-mail system… Oh, please, Sweet Baby Jesus, let me see a year or two of “Bushgate” hearings… I promise I’ll never complain about anything else ever again…. (Has it ever dawned on the Feds that if they produced and sold CDs of those hearings they could probably retire the national debt? I’d buy SEVERAL sets… one for me, and others for the people who have forgotten history’s lessons…)
Would the present participle of “wedgie” be “wedgying?” I don’t think “wedging” works.
Phoenix Woman @ 100
That’s why I’m so scared of this wackos. I MYSELF AM A RECOVERING FUNDIE. (shudder). We absolutely must do five things:
1) Make the science educators KILL creationism dead dead dead. No more mister nice guy. Show everyone you can believe or not believe but the science is just there. Why? Because every fundie kid who doesn’t go to college because they “don’t believe in evolution” is one more walmart checker who’ll be vulnerable to every lie the current wingers can manufacture.
2) Make the wall between church and state and church and science out of neutronium again (it seems currently made of cheese-whiz). So that the next winger who has mandatory “Bible Study” in a government bureau is standing before a senate commitee the day after, on LWOP.
3) Reinstate the fairness doctrine. Kill hate radio (it is NOT talk radio. It is HATE RADIO and it is time we all started calling it that and nothing else!) by making it financially unprofitable.
4) Protect the Internet. It will break the current cabal (and it is clearly that, the justice dept stuff shows it is a long term plan) even if the MSM all sing the bu$hco company $ong. We have to keep it free, fair, and public.
5) Kill Pray TV the same way. Every network that shows a religious show for doctrine A must allocate equal time to Doctrines B through Z. And outlaw asking for money. The old line preachers Billy Sunday, Judge Rutherford (whack job but strangely prescient about how bad OTHER organized religious were…) and other all refused to ask for money in the early days of radio evangelism. Only after WWII when TV religion was viewed as a tool of anticommunism (ie atheist) cold war propaganda did that change.
Ghod I’m wound up tonight. Getting back from Lebanon and northern Iraq’ll do that to ya.
(Jon Stewart quote: The Required Daily Allowance of Car Bombs in the US is zero. Also the Required Monthly and Required Yearly Allowance. Until you’ve had to try to LIVE over there, you don’t realize how deadly that remark really is…)
Helen @ 120
WTF?
Every physician I know faces various forms of mandatory competency tests.
These tests entail neither religious tests nor professions of political allegiance.
Helen, the questions you cite have no place in Civil Service – and no place in competency tests.
Conflating religiopolitical affirmations with assessment of measurable competencies won’t help clean the sleeper cells of loyal Bushies out of Federal policy.
Alfred Kelgarries @ 105
URLs, we want URLs. Murder CANNOT become a viable political strategy. Anyone doubting this, take a quick peek at modern Russia. Putin is red-handed to the shoulder in journalist and other freedom-fighters blood. What he seems to have forgotten is that that sort of behavior put an end to the last oligarchy there, “president” Romanov…
and then there are all the “accidental” deaths of journalists at the hands of our armed forces in iraq.
Nixon was nailed because of his White House Tapes. Until the very end he refused to resign, but in the end he resigned to save his ass. He knew Ford was going to pardon him.
I suspect these RNC email accounts will be just like the “Smoking Tapes”.
Have you ever cornered a wild animal, maybe in your yard or somewhere? Once they know they are cornered they will fight to the “DEATH” to get away.
I see this happening with Bush. Marshall Law, some secret signing statement, maybe a buried provision in the Patriot Act. He will retaliate with DEATH force against anyone threatening him when he is cornered. And all of the United States Agencies will be temporarily neutralized. That means KAOS. How big is Bush’s private army now, you know BLACKWATER?
Bush has been using the KAOS theory for some time now to keep fear in the hearts of all Americans.
Unless we are prepared for his retaliation with countermeasures, some will die and he will escape, probably to Dubai!
Sounds horrible, maybe my tinfoil hat is too tight, but be a good Boy Scout, “Be Prepared”!
“Chance favors the prepared mind” or words to this effect.
Alfred Kelgarries @ 130
The better our educational system is, the better it will be for our economy and the worse it will be for Republicans who feed on uncritical ignorance.
Mack @
53
Well thanks for taking one for the team – give ‘em hell! And do report back. ;~)
Mack @ 125
Hey Mack – here in NYC – the city of NY has taken the state of NY to court for the last 15 yrs. They say – give us our fair share (cuz the city pays lots more in taxes than the burbs) Finally after 15 yrs os appeals during George P’s reign; after all the appeals; final the courts says give us our money. Annd it is still at a standstill. I don’t have kids and I am REALLY mad. GIVE US OUR MONEY
Go check out the course listing for first year law.
At Jesus’ General:
Jesus’ General Link
kirk murphy @ 132
Sorry if you did not understand. That’s what I said. The questions did not apply
tejanarusa – if you still around I left you a comment re: your 185 last thread about hopespringsaturtle.
Phoenix Woman, thank you, well said. The Bush supporters I know kept reminding me of the see-hear-speak no evil monkeys. But sheep is more accurate.
link from back upthread
You said it, in spades, especially about Creationism.
What we have to do is get people to start thinking again. We have to make critical thinking an integral part of education again or else this country will never regain the stature we have lost under the Boy King these past six years.
Excellent post! Good evening all.
Alfred Kelgarries @ 87
There’ve been some interesting posts picking up this sub-thread. Here’s another historical perspective from Your Official Old Fart.
As it happened, I was one of the lucky scientist/engineers at the foremost acoustics consultancy of those days, Bolt Beranek & Newman Inc. of Cambridge MA, in whose lab the famous “18-and-a-half-minute gap” tape was analyzed at the behest of Judge John Sirica.
It was our ironclad and incontrovertible finding, which we backed up publicly, that the erasure had been done deliberately by hand (not footpedal) — using the FWD, BACKWD, RECORD, and STOP pushbuttons on a particular Uher-brand tape recorder (one accessible only to Nixon and his Executive Assistant, the haplessly loyal Rose Mary Woods), that constituted the first proof that there was evidence tampering by “someone” (never proven who) at the White House.
What was erased (intentionally) has never been recovered from that day down to this, but was circumstantially important because it covered the first time since the break-in and arrests that Nixon got together with Haldeman and Ehrlichman since his return to the WH from Key Biscayne, where he had been when the burglary went down.
Our team took great pride in the fact that we had proven, for the first time, that what was on the tape was important enough for someone to have erased it clumsily and intentionally. This intensified the efforts of Ervin’s and Jaworski’s teams to extract more tapes from Nixon (by force of law) until one appeared containing the so-called “smoking gun” conversation, which totally evaporated Nixon’s political support and caused a group of Republican elders (including IIRC Senators Barry Goldwater, Hugh Scott, and maybe even Nelson Rockefeller) to walk down from the Hill to the Oval Office and tell Nixon that he had to resign or be impeached.
And now history may recapitulate itself, when (notice I don’t say if) the gwb43.com and/or rnc.com emails are recovered. This may be one instance where the NSA’s Total Information Program, which is said to clandestinely intercept and record all traffic on the ‘net, actually works to save the nation. I hope that its personnel are up to the moral task of locating and not destroying this precious information trove. I eagerly await the publication and discussion of those emails.
It would be more than fitting were George W. Bush’s political fate to be like Richard M. Nixon’s. This despite the fact that compared to George W. Bush, Richard M. Nixon (though reviled at the time) was (in retrospect) a statesman, a genius, a scholar and a saint.
Mack @ 109
Mack, someone here suggested I download and use Firefox, and boy, oh boy, do I ever love it. It’s free, it works, you can edit comments even if you missed something in preview… Give it a try! (My way of “paying it forward.”)
What does LWOP mean?
Marion in Savannah @ 145
Fine advice Miss Marion – I switched to Firefox too awhile back and do I ever love it too!
great comment, SOS from MA.
final ‘graph = LOL
thanks
Hey Kirk are you here?
Helen @ 148
Hi Helen :)
Would it be illegal for the State to refuse hiring folks with education from certain theological Universities? (Falwell, Robertson, Roberts etc.)
Also, I think public funding of charter schools should stop yesterday.
We’re good? If not tell me why and I can explain (Cuz I love your posts)
greenwarrior @ 146
Leave WithOut Pay!
Eureka Springs @ 150
What about refusing to hire people from schools that don’t meet a certain accreditation level?
Eureka Springs @ 151
Hear, hear! and a heartfelt Ding!
Lou Costello @ 153
thank you kindly
greenwarrior @ 146
Google saith: http://tinyurl.com/2qumqa which sez Leave WithOut Pay. I didn’t know either :)
newspaperbrat @
147
Me too, and I won’t miss seeing this, AARG…
Internet Explorer has Encountered a Problem and Needs to Close
Public funding is not the issue – Property tax funding should stop
Eli @ 154
IIRC, there are accreditation rules for the schooling but it’s been twenty-five years since I did any application for civil service positions.
Eureka Springs @ 150
Yes.
Agreed!
The latter demands a religious test
Article VI has Monica sweatin’ bullets.
Nice Article, that.
[ps thanks for the (quasi) simple answer opportunity!
greenwarrior @ 146
Leave With Out Pay. In otherwords, not fired but not getting paid. A Kiss Of Death in govmint pay grades.
dakine01 @ 159
I think Regents is at a really low accreditation level – these are not really educational institutions.
It is precisely Senator Clinton’s ruthlessness that first turned me off to her. Then came her constant triangulating and her vote to invade Iraq. And most importantly her view of the Middle East in general. Not to mention her arrogant ‘if you don’t like where I stand on Iraq, vote for someone else’ statement recently. Her aversion to taking political risks is another factor, and the sense that this Senator is not a person of principle. And don’t even get me started about her and her husband’s coziness with the Bush tribe. And I didn’t like her refusal to debate her Democratic labor friendly and peace candidate in the last election. And Clinton’s stubborn refusal to admit she was wrong in voting for the Iraq war doesn’t sit well either. Hillary? Nooo thanks.
ok kiddo, I thought you liked Hillary? ;)
Eli @
163
Tier 4 Law School, bottom of the barrel ; )
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/e….._brief.php
Here’s the answer: All States should spend the same – per student. Where you get the $ I don’t care. But stop this separate but equal shit – It does not apply.
Eli @ 163
I know I had to take a basic computer skills test to get my name on the civil service register in ‘82 for the Computer Specialist field. It was fairly simple and straightforward but methinks a large portion of the Regency folks would sruggle with a test that accentuated the basics of separation of church/state, BoR, and the Constitution as amended.
Phule @ 119
That would weed out the worst of the burrowers.
Another method would simply be to have a zero-tolerance policy for “borrowing” government property. Since the Bushies tend to see government not as a public trust, but as something to violate before killing, and since they don’t think they should follow any rules but their god’s own rules, nailing the worst offenders should be easy.
As for things we need to change, what the hell is home schooling? To my understanding, that’s truency, and child abuse.
Keeping a kid home because you’re afraid of the big bad world is the worst sin imaginable. When did this become legal?
WTF.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 164
Well Ok kiddo – Hillary was raised in a Republican home in a Chicago suburb.
Helen @ 166
I think basing public school funding on property taxes is monumentally unjust. It’s the perfect way to perpetuate poverty.
Helen @ 167
The problem with that is that some states are much “richer” than others, so paying X per student equates to Y from each citizen, whereas in smaller or poorer states X equates to Y times 3 or 4. It’s why a flat tax is regressive. We all pay “the same,” but 10% of my boss’s income he won’t even notice, whereas 10% of mine is a big bite.
Alfred Kelgarries @ 162
Yup. It’s where you end up if a) you’re out sick and you’ve burned through all your vacation and sick leave; or b) if you were naughty and they wanted to punish you just short of termination.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 164
And yet I’d feel forced to vote for her were she to run against any Republican. Which is, curiously, why I don’t think she can actually win the Democratic nomination. In the upcoming 2008 Presidential season of “ANY DEMOCRAT” there imho will be a huge push to support someone more inspirational and charismatic, less triangulational and DLC-linked, than Hillary Clinton. And I believe she and her camp are coming to understand this.
It’s a bitter pill that she earned fair and square, and I bet she’ll have to swallow it along with her pride.
Would it be considered poetic justice if Grover Norquist slipped on a bar of soap in the bathtub and drowned?
1,481 DAYZ AND THE KILLIN’ GOEZ ON AND ON AND..
Citizen phoenix woman and the Firepup Patriots:
“…the complete and utter destruction and repudiation of the Republican Party brand.”
Right on sister…root and branch, we gotta remove the poisoned tree root and branch!! America has had several chances to rid itself of fascism over the last 147 years beginning with the Civil War. Reconstruction was stopped with a grotesque political compromise that stopped the chemo-therapy that if allowed to run its course over another generation would’ve saved the country another 150 years of struggle. The period 1946-1950 after WWII provided the opportunity to get rid of the home-grown fascist oligarchy by pursuing the war profiteers and fascist sympathizers, and if FDR had been 10 years younger I think we would’ve gotten it done. Instead we re enfranchised folks like Prescott Bush and made ‘em Senators and shit (what the fuck??!!). Then after Watergate, we pardoned the Godfather of 20th Century American fascism and let the rest of his foot soldiers go scott free and never went after the war makers and profiteers. Again after Iran Contra when the same group of capos showed up in the middle of the treasury vault, we let ‘em all go under pardon. Now, when the reserve army of these same fascist bastards includes 4 year college campuses and legions of religious law school grads, we need to disenfranchise the lot of ‘em and dismantle the institutions they have built to perpetuate themselves.
Root and branch…root and branch I say and no pardons for any of the mother fuckers!!
KEEP THE FAITH AND TAKE NO PRISONERS!!
I’ve always wondered if Haldemann’s claim that Nixon averted a Russian nuclear attack on the Chinese boosted fusion weapons centers was true. I really didn’t see any other possible reason for the whole business, even if it did sow the seeds of the current economic imbroglio.
But yes, it is frightening to think that Emperor Dubya-tine makes Nixon look saintly. (shudder.)
Oh, and in case anyone thinks Dubya is REALLY a hick, read this post from Wonkette (worth reading for once, ghod i miss anna marie cox)
Why GWB Isn’t What He Appears
Also, we recently had an assasination attempt which could have taken out Bush AND Cheney (remember the lurking in the bushes pics? This is from that.) We owe the Pres of FORD for our continued survival/enslavement…
Was It An Assasination Attempt
Helen @ 151
Hi Helen -
we’re definitely good – and I so appreciate you calling attention to the double hit of “property-tax” based educational funding.
Kids who live in areas with poor schools get shit for funding.
What’s not to like?
As for the comment I was responding to, I honestly did not/could follow the logic, hence my comment.
OTOH…
Today in clinic I sat with some folks with some pretty scrambled thinking…they suffer from this, and don’t choose to endure it or walk about wwith it – but I do notice those days leave me more witless than usual.
Tonight I may well be simply incapable of comprehending very solid reasoning
– and I wouldn’t rule that out on my best days.
All the best!
kirk
S.O.S. from MA @ 173
In other words, “electability” isn’t a factor this time.
I think all of the three main Democrats are flawed, but they would all have a good shot at winning against the Rudy, Mitt or McCain, especially with Dubya as their shadow running mate.
Kirk – I am not suprised to hear YES to the question of legality..
But a person who studies (intentionally no less) ways to destroy the constitution should not be employed to serve, protect, and defend it… there must be a way…)
S.O.S. from MA @ 175
Oh I’ll probably end up voting for her too (not in the primaries) if she is the nominee, and hate myself for doing it. And that’s something else I resent, she is counting on people like me having no place to go but to her.
Bluetoe @ 176
what kind of slipshod thinking is this?
Eli @ 172
YUP – I am a single woman in NYC – NO ONE PAYS MORE TAXES THAN ME. But I believe that I can contribute more than others. And I will do that. As soon as I know that those kids get the education they deserve.
greenwarrior @ 156
It could be Life WithOut Parole……but that’s a bit much in this situation. 707
Urban Pirate @ 170
Another possibility would be to legislate that home schooling feeds into a “non-academic” track. So if you want to get into ANY college you have to take a GED exam, and the fact that you have a GED goes on your “permanent record.” (Lord, how they used to scare us with that phrase…) Maybe it’s because I’m an old fart, but GED says “too dumb or drugged or too much of a felon to have graduated,” and it may also turn into “too much of a fundie whack-job.”
Make the wall between church and state and church and science out of neutronium again
Not just getting religion out of government and public schools, but make sure that churches (right-wing in particular) stop pushing particular candidates and parties. If a minister tells people who or what to vote for or against: bye-bye tax break. On the other hand, telling people to vote their conscience: not a problem. Making sure they understand where that line is: that may be priceless, but it’s really sticky business.
Urban Pirate @ 169
hope I’m not seeming difficult or thread-hoggish…
Homeschools bother me as a dodge for abusers and domestic tyrants (basic child safety), as well as the use of public funds to support these activities.
Using public funds to support the Dominionists’ Home Guard creeps me out also.
OTOH, for GLBT kids, homeschooling can literally save their lives.
Ending that escape hatch will force many more GLBT kids to active/passive suicide as their sole escape from a school life of daily torment.
“having learned nothing in the interim”: Oh, yes they did. They learned that WE learned nothing in the event; they could do it again, and spiral upward. They lulled us to sleep, and our vigilance went on vacation.
The only silver lining to Hillary being elected prez is that it would piss off the Republicans something fierce. And I’m all for that. But what a terrible reason to justify a Clinton win. Small comfort.
Marion in Savannah @ 173
OK – so the “smaller states” should get fewer votes in the election? right?
I don’t think home schooling is bad by definition, but when the parents take control of their kids’ education *and* socialization, that’s pretty high stakes, and *really* easy to screw up, especially if you’re a crazy fundie.
At the very least, there should be some kind of accreditation hurdles you must clear, and some kind of regular supervision to confirm that the kid’s learning and not getting screwed up.
AZMatt,
Is that list of classes for Regents Univ. for real?
Here is where the next round of Gop recruiters are coming from:
Tom Monaghan (Domino’s Pizza) is building Ave Maria, which is going to be a huge university with homes & condo’s, stores and no condoms anywhere on the property. Tom is a very good friend of the Popeand a very big supporter of the Bush way of life.
snip
The town will be centred around a 100-foot tall oratory and the first Catholic university to be built in America for 40 years. The university’s president, Nicholas J Healy, has said future students should “help rebuild the city of God” in a country suffering from “catastrophic cultural collapse.”
Monaghan, 68, sold his takeaway chain in 1998 for an estimated $1 billion (573 million). A devout Catholic who has poured millions into religious projects — including radio stations, primary schools and a Catholic law faculty in Michigan — Monaghan has bought about 5,000 acres previously used by migrant farmers.
The land on the western edge of the Everglades swamp will eventually house up to 30,000 people, with 5,000 students living on the university campus. Florida officials have declared the project a development bonanza for a depressed area, and Gov. Jeb Bush attended a groundbreaking ceremony for the new university earlier this month.
http://dadahead.blogspot.com/2…..chive.html
Helen @ 191, how would you propose “All states should spend the same?”
S.O.S. from MA @ 144
Ooooh! That must have been fun.
“Five to nine manual manipulations,” if I recall correctly. There was no way in hell this was an accident. And Rose Mary Woods was far too competent for it to be an “accident”.
And unlike with the tapes, “erasing” one set of media doesn’t solve the problem — the e-mails are not only stored on the senders’ computers, but on the recipients’ as well. Plus, unless they were encrypted — and I’m guessing they weren’t, for the simple reason that these people are so dumb that they’re now using text messages on cell phones to communicate instead of e-mails — they could be picked up at any of the nodes they passed through on their journey from one machine to another.
Bush is the end result of the evolutionary process that started with the 1934 GOP putsch artists (the ones Smedley Butler stopped), was arrested for a time by Eisenhower, continued with Goldwater and Nixon, and grew strong with Reagan.
Nixon and Reagan were held back by Democratic Congresses and a media that, while still corporate, wasn’t as lickspittle in the service of power as it is now.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 188
Kinda sounds like why Republicans like voting for Dubya and assholes like him – it pisses off Fatty Fat Michael Moore.
OT: Global Warming Update for the day –
A friend is vacationing in Spain (from his USAID job in Afghanistan.) It’s rained the whole time; the people there say it’s the wettest Holy Week in a century.
Evening all. Been away from the computer today – did I miss anything?
Marion @ 186
GED is also dropped out of school (for whatever reason) and then got smart.
Or dropped out of school and joined the service.
It’s a high-school diploma by another name.
In case this has not been mentioned, home schooling is also a good option for some students with issues such as asperger’s syndrome, to name one.
Urban Pirate @ 170
Done well – and it can be done well – home schooling can be a not bad alternative to a really dreadful school or a school that can’t meet a kids special needs. I’ve know home schooled kids to turn out really quite well and have great critical thinking skills. But parents have to the skills to do a decent job of teaching, make sure that kids have regular contacts with other kids. Where I live, home schooling is pretty well monitored, and the expectation is that parents follow the provincial curriculum.
I do have issues with home schooling though – it can be a disaster in some cases, and is really only an option for reasonably well-off two-parent families.
Getting rid of Bushies is going to require close attention. The worst mistake Clinton made was not rooting out the scum from the first Bush group. It is a task that requires a multi-pronged approach, discipline and most of all, it has to be done in the dark. I would say we have a candidate who might have learned this lesson, and might have the will power it takes. As much as I hate to say it, that would be Hilary. Maybe Edwards, I hear rumors. But Obama, with all that peace and bipartisanship talk, I doubt.
Suzanne @ 199
Good evening!
Suzanne @ 199
There’s some cat riding the bus in the UK.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pag…..ge_id=1770
The home-schooling worst-case always reminds me of The Waterboy, with Kathy Bates as Adam Sandler’s crazy mother, saying things like, “Benjamin Franklin didn’t invent electricity! *I* did! Benjamin Franklin is the DEBIL!”
Redshift @ 198
Yeah, and I just got an e-mail from my idiot older brother in MI with the wing-nuttery “What global warming? More snow on the way.” I swear, I think the elves went into the hopsital when he was born and took my actual brother and left a doppelganger in his stead.
P J Evans @ 200
You’re absolutely right, and I’m sorry. Perhaps we can call theirs something else…
Redshift @ 198
And it snowed in Texas (D/FW) over the weekend, for the first time in April in the 27 years I’ve lived here
Eli @
192
I work with several homeschooling families on curriculum and evaluation, and they all have their kids in cub scouts, swimming, and other extracurricular activities. Some also do mornings at the science center once a week with other home schoolers.
Marion in Savannah @ 206
GEDus?
TRex and The Earth Invaders playing in the upstairs lounge
Cozumel @ 209
Just sleet and hail down here.
PW -
how tantalizing!
The same Smedly Butler USMC Gen who wrote of the US Marines’ “enforcer” role for US Big Money in Latin America…
- between the WW’s?
That Smedly Butler?
Please – do go on!
Last night Cerebrus…
Now this.
Nice to see the Reichwing lost their cloaking devices.
Eli @ 192
Yeah. And none of this “we want to participate inSuzanne @ 199
Oh, let’s see:
Karl Rove has become a male escort.
Pam “Atlas Juggs” Gehry and John Bolton got together with Ann Althouse to make some videos.
And world peace has been declared.
Anything else? ;-)
Alfred Kelgarries @
91
Little Thom has the story, w/links.
Karl Rove has become a male escort.
Poor thang is going to go broke and starve.
Suzanne @ 215
“I call this one ‘The Snake.’”
I hear you Kirk Murphy, and that must be tough, as are a million other things, but I believe kids from 5-16 years old should be in school with other kids that dont all sleep in the same house.
After 16, they can make other arrangements if need be. Just my feeling, and I’m amazed it’s been allowed to deviate from that.
Helen @
121
What? Helen, a competency test — and *most* countries have a civil service exam — is not a loyalty test. Compentency, as in, ability to do their job.
kirk murphy @ 214
Yup, that Smedley Butler.
Seems that he was a war hero from the Spanish-American War and World War One, and wildly popular with many Americans. (Butler’s WWI popularity came from the radical notion that field hospitals should have floors made of something other than dirt. So he scrounged up extra wooden slats that were intended to be used for trench floors and put them in the hospitals — and the death-by-disease rates plummeted.)
Anyway, he was so popular that when a group of American businessmen, in the wake of FDR’s win, decided to emulate Mussolini and Hitler — and use the American Legion as their shock troops — they went to Butler, then a Marine Colonel, to ask them to be their figurehead. They thought that since he was from the upper classes, he’d agree with them that Roosevelt needed to be overthrown and a dictatorship of the rich installed.
They guessed wrong. Butler played along, but only just long enough to get the dirt on the ringleaders, which he then turned over to the House Un-American Activities Committee. (Yes, Virginia, there was a time when HUAC was a force for good.) The richest of the goons managed to escape punishment, but Butler had stopped the coup and saved FDR and the nation.
The story wound up being suppressed, both because of the power of the rich industrialist coup plotters and because Smedley Butler had soured so much on warfare that he made the biggest mistake of his life by opposing America’s entry into World War Two.
You can find out more about him by Googling “Smedley Butler” and “coup” or “Roosevelt”.
HotFlash @ 220
A friend of mine, to the left of me by the way ; ) went to work as an Intel Analyst for The Bureau in 2003 (civil servant). No political litmus test whatsoever
Frank Probst @ 96
Pliable alcoholic half-wit’s must bear the Bush name for any hope of getting away with being a pliable alcoholic half-wit.
Helen @ 167
Why should every place be the same? Shouldn’t states, even cities, towns and neighborhoods, be allowed to decide their own priorities, assuming a mandated minimum educational standard is reached?
Hot Flash: Thanks for that ink to Little Thom. Nice blog.
Phoenix Woman @ 196
Damn straight. I remember thinking “I’m only thirty-ish and I’ll never do anything as fun, or professionally and nationally significant as this for the rest of my life!”
Your recollection is perfect (IIRC) ! :)
Correct-a-mundo. Part of the fun of “forensic acoustics” and its later incarnation (which might be called “forensic digital-data analysis” for all I know, I only originated the former term) is that every case is different, presents a differing picture of what the legal question is, what the evidence is, and what its provenance and/or validity is. I used to say that “the normal work of a scientist is INduction, whereas forensic work emphasized DEduction.”
It provided a fascinating break from the normal run of research, that’s for sure.
Nixon and Reagan were held back by Democratic Congresses and a media that, while still corporate, wasn’t as lickspittle in the service of power as it is now.
Right on, Phoenix Woman. Semper Smedley. Eternal vigilance. Backed up with blog power to light the fires under the media, and a new Congressional Majority to provide the force of law to rout this gang of criminals.
Urban Pirate @ 170
A major aim of the ‘modern’ ie, 20th C and later, educational system is to provide good, docile worker-bees. Home-schooling as a movement was started in the 60’s by people who were very concerned about the education their children got. Like most everything else, though, humans have managed to abuse this initially progressive idea. As a species we are geniuses at abusing things.
Bluetoe @ 176
Definitely. A limerick is a poem, isn’t it?
Urban Pirate -
Medical epidemiology demonstrates GLBT kids subject to peer abuse have rates of suicide/ suicide attempt/ educational failure greatly exceeding those of GLBT kids with peer support.
GLBT kids are already at far higher risk of suicide than other kids – adjusting for all other socioeconomic variables.
Children in compulsory schooling are subject to the state’s in loco parentis power. The state is obliged to provide safe accomodations for those compelled to endure the states confines in the public schools.
IANAL, and I pulled that ‘graph out of my ass to give me time to calm down.
Kinda.
As a physican and a human being and a person who learned fundamental values in a tolerant Protestant household, I am far more interested in objective meaasures of survival and health than in any other perspective.
Those who place the safety and survival of our young people as their first priority would do well to step away from teh ideology and any idiosyncratic opinions and towards the hard cold dead epidemiology on LGBT youth.
Those who fail to do so – out of fear, prejudice, or (self)hatred – choose to increase the number of hard cold dead LGBT youth.
Amateurs’ failed public health policy doesn’t spin well.
Too much dead weight.
With names and birthdates.
Urban Pirate @ 219
HotFlash @ 227
Maybe not as a movement but it’s been around longer than that. My Mom’s (RIP-2003) second husband, an Episcopal Reverend (RIP-2005), was home schooled in Oregon. Taught to read by reading the Bible, never saw TV or a movie until his 20’s, etc. A very smart guy but a sheltered, parallel universe
Oklahoma kiddo @ 190
I don’t care how many Republicans would be pissed off, I think we would have a bad president if HRC was elected. And we do not need another bad president.
The best take on the real repug party .They have to be destroyed in order for our democracy to work.
Helen @ 191
Well yes, in fact they do. You can inform youself on how the Electoral College works here.
Cozumel @
230
Forgot to add the context, he was 80 years old when he died
HotFlash @ 228
Definitely. A limerick is a poem, isn’t it?
Norquist’s politics make liberals mope;
They vanquish the USA’s hope.
But one frabjus day
He departed, they say;
He slipped on a wet cake of soap.
ccmask @ 225
Ditto. Sent it around for a look see, maybe more blogs will pick up on it. TPM especially.
kirk murphy @ 229
Also, with the Internet and PC’s, home schooling is going to change radically and in mainstream ways. My stepdaughter is a teacher in Jefferson County, colorado (big county around Denver Metro) and due to budget cuts she is doing the work of two teachers; she conspired with her sister-in-law (a PC programmer) to create a web application that did a lot of the heavy lifting on spanish and french grammar so kids could pass that NCLB test thing (don’t remember the name) and now language teachers everywhere are copying it and using it. Given the funding issues of modern education, partial home schooling using mandated internet curricula via web sites with verified ID online tests (Web cams?) may become the norm a lot faster than some expect. Just look at how a few blogs have driven the wingnuts into pure terror over the purgegate thing. The power of the Internet is just STARTING to show up. (I remember when AOL dumped a million customers onto the academic internet as a value add to compete against CompuServe. Yup, that’s how the modern Internet was born. I were there, with my little 486 running windows 3.1 and delphi 1.0.)
Cozumel @ 230
Home schooling always been around but generally out of necessity, not as an alternative where public schools are available. When public schooling came in so did truancy laws. Here in Canada most provinces have correspondence programs up to high school. Books and syllabi provided, send in assignments which are marked and returned, phone convs and on-line. School-as-we-know-it is good for some kids, not the right thing for others.
Yes, that’s just what criminal law is for.
Justifications for imprisonment:
1. prevention of more crimes
2. deter others from crime
3. rehabilitation
4. protect society
5. punishment
Incarceration doesn’t work all that well for these goals with the exception of one kind of crime: white collar crime. Those guys really hate prison, the shame, losing money, work, status, friends, marriage, and power and living with crass poor people. White collar criminals will do anything to avoid prison – even dying like Kenny boy. It’s going to be fun watching Scooter squirm trying to stay out of pokey. Delay is in total denial. Orange jumpsuit in his future.
There should be a deterance tipping point with all these crooks. They won’t return to crime if they spend enough time in there – or their friends. Should Nixon have gone to trial?
S.O.S. from MA @
71
Still working through the thread myself, but this says it for me. I suppose their process has to be addressed first, no?
I think the sea change has happened and only the balless, deaf Dems in DC don’t know it or like the fake news shows won’t acknowledge it.
Thanks to John Dean we know the authoritarians (sheep) number 23%. If the criminal in chief has a 30% approval rating doesn’t it mean that there’s 7% out there who actually are sheep? My brain stops functioning when I think of numbers too long so I’ve no idea if this true but anyway, the polls, the polls.
Impeach
“It’s going to take a true sea-change, and the complete and utter destruction and repudiation of the Republican Party brand.” [to cure America of the cult of republicanism.
This is foolery. Wingnuts aren’t going anywhere. They aren’t an ideology that is malleable; that anyone could learn a lesson about. The cult of republicanism is a personality type – a type of person that has been among us since the dawn of humanity. Their disease is fear and insecurity, which is why they are always governed by the lizard brain no matter what airs of intellectualism masquerade and sophistry they try to project. The cure is generational – it will take eons to work its way out of the system of parent-child hand-me-down traits. In the interim, the only thing to do is be vigilant in keeping their disgusting grubby hands off of the levers of power where they can maximize their infliction of damage. This fight has miles to go before anyone can sleep.
AND you can support public education. That’s why they’ve gone after it so adamantly, because a generation a hundred years ago had the brilliant idea that a sheep can be educated beyond following blindly. Public education is the vehicle for this over generations, which is why wingnuts hate it and see it as a threat. It IS a threat.