Compassionate Conservatism? There really IS such a thing.

Once again, I heard someone on the radio talking right-wing excesses and calling himself a "compassionate conservative", the catch-phrase used first by G.W. Bush in 2000. When he and his minions use that phrase it is simply comical to think about.

First, he would have to be admitting that most conservatives are NOT compassionate, for him TO be.

Second, there are no conservatives that believe Bush and his lies and policies that ARE compassionate.

There are however conservatives that ARE compassionate. Well, sort of.

Those of us moderates still lean, for the most part, one way or the other. Moderate-to liberal. Or moderate-conservative. I have always considered myself the later. Some of my political philosophy falls under the liberal category. Some falls under conservative. Where us moderates usually differ from the rest, is that we, for the most part, shy away from the extremes....left AND right.

But a true "compassionate conservative" would have to be a moderate-to-conservative. The "compassion" comes from our liberal leanings. The progressive parts that say the poor need the help of those not so poor, but also the government. Liberals don't believe that our "compassion" needs to be spent on oil companies, who this year have topped the $25 billion mark for profits. Profits that come from the gouging that they are doing to consumers through prices at the gasoline pump. Liberals don't believe that any big corporate conglomerate has any need for government money. But yet the neo-conservatives, who stole their way into power in 2000, think that people dying on roof tops in New Orleans are a drag on the government, but ExxonMobil just needs a little help...can you say BILLIONS in TAX BREAKS???

In my definition of "compassionate conservatism", there are alot of us in the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. We actually make up the majority. We are actually the ones who really don't believe in red states and blue states. We believe in an America that once was. Where the people actually wielded the power. Where, for the most part, the government was actually "of the people, by the people and for the people."

There were, and should be, political parties, but they stood for something. Something important. They just didn't say that they believed in what the Founding Fathers stood for....they actually lived it.

Those kind of politicians are few and far between anymore. But they do still exist. Bill Clinton, Barbara Boxer, Arlen Specter, Colin Powell, Chuck Hagel are just a few of those who fit the bill. All of these good folks need to step up, as Bill Clinton actually did, and wrest control back from the extemities.

You know what happens when you finally let the extremes take control?

2050+ young Americans die in a war of choice.

Hundreds of poor people die from lack of response after hurricanes wipe out the most fragile of our society.

You build schools in Iraq, while refusing to pay for improvements in American schools.

You spend over $1 billion dollars a month nation building in the middle east.

Gas prices shoot to $3 a gallon at the pump.

The rich get richer and the poor get no help whatsoever.

Just for starters.

Join those of us in the middle. Those of us who are not rich, who actually got a tax INCREASE from George W. Bush. Those who are making, not only the financial sacrifice for Bush's War on Iraq, but whose kids are making the ultimate sacrifice while the Bush twins stay home and hit the bars, along with the rest of the "young republicans".

If something isn't done soon.......there will be no turning back.

Harry Reid, A Hero at the RIght Time

Boy oh boy. Let the Democrats finally get a little back bone, and give the Republicans just a little of their own medicine, and you can really make Bill Frist pout!

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, in the middle of a speech on the floor of the Senate last week, invoked what is called Rule 21, which throws the Senate into a secret session. This was done to force the hand of the majority to get moving on Phase Two of the investigation of how the White House may have manipulated bad intelligence to convince the Congress and the American people that we needed to invade a soveriegn country. The investigation, which is handled by the Senate Intelligence Committee, chaired by Senator Pat Roberts, had been stalling and ducking this part of the issue for nearly two years.

With the indictment of Vice-President Dick Cheney's Chief of Staff, I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby, on five counts of lying, the Democrats found some traction, and went to work. Now, Senate Majority Leader, Bill Frist came out into the hallway all red-faced and bumfuzzled, complaining about it being a slap to the face, and whined on TV about how they just weren't playing fair. I, myself, find that very interesting indeed, when it is the Republican majority in the Senate that is threatenting to change the rules if there are anymore filibusters of judicial nominees by the opposition party. Seems to me that the Democrats just kind of pulled their own "nuclear option" out of the bag, using a perfectly legal, ethical, and by the rule book move to get the attention of Hier Bush's party members.

I believe that the party of Harry Truman, John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, and Bill Clinton, should search around for the political guts left behind by these four leaders who knew how to play the political games and not only beat their opponents, but continue to beat them while they are down, and still make them feel like you were doing them such a favor that they wanted more of it!!

Republican's do not have the market on values and morality. They just have a different definition of these, and it is time that they are taken to task on it.

Harry Reid is my new hero. I just hope he doesn't let up, and continues to push the Party of the People until they overcome the robber-barons and the corporate criminals that have their hands in the cookie jar of the American taxpayer.

Right-Wing Locksteppers, We Hope You're Happy Now

For all of the right-wing Republicans that wanted a right-leaning Supreme Court, for the main purpose of over-turning Rove V Wade, congratulations, you may have succeeded in your cause, with President Bush's latest nomination. There will be a fight, but no doubt, Samuel Alido will take the seat left by Sandra Day O'Conner.

You did whatever it took to keep Bush in office, not to mention put him there, and hey, politics is a contact sport.

But at what cost?

2000+ dead American troops in Iraq, with no end in sight? Go ahead, tell me about the 1000's, maybe tens of 1000's of unborn that will be saved every year. I will just point out that these 2000+ had wives, parents, brothers, sisters, and children. They had their lives ready to go.

Ok, but you will tell me how they were all volunteers. You bet they were. And they fought for what the believed in. America. An America that they believed would never send them in harm's way without the best of reasons. But that isn't the real point here, is it? Look who isn't volunteering to go.

What unit are the fighting Bush twins in? How about the Bush nieces and nephews? (And I don't mean prison units either).

What outfit are Bill Frist's three son's serving in? How about Governor Perry's 20 year old or his 18 year old...are they in Afghanistan, or Iraq? I wonder if Texas Senator John Cornyn is going to encourage his two daughters to step right up and serve for this "noble cause"? And Senator Hutchinson, what about your two kids? Dennis Hastert has two grown sons, are they serving?

As we all know, none of these peoples children are fighting the "noble fight". The other problem is that war is about sacrifice. And never in the history of the United States have we gone to war and cut taxes at the same time. And most of these tax cuts go to the richest people. The same people whose kids aren't volunteering. Bush's War on Iraq is not only being fought by the middle and lower classes. It is being PAID FOR by them too!! The richest people are making the smallest sacrifices for a war started by rich, white, privileged president for his own agenda.

But then again, thank goodness for the SCOTUS turn to the right.

We are facing deficits as far as the eye can see. The Republican's are borrowing and spending at larger levels that the Democrats were ever accused of taxing and spending. Gas prices are up a dollar a gallon and that is down from the extreme heights of a month ago. And oil companies profits in the last quarter were in the billions and much higher than expected because of their profitteering off of the policies of two oil men in the White House.

Now throw in the fact that we really can't trust word one out of the White House. That we are at war under false pretenses. That Bush and his minions will go after friend or foe, if they even hint at telling the American public the truth. That we can't fund the federal mandates in our public schools, because the federal authorities don't think they are so important that they should send money to support them. That while hundreds of American's were dying in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, President Bush went out west for fundraising. That "Social Security Reform" which was the presidents biggest campaign promise in 2004, is buried and gone. And on and on and on.

And, if all you care about is Roe V Wade, then you must be happy, and I am happy for you. As for as the rest of us, who can see a bigger picture than that.....God Help Us!

For all of the right-wing Republicans that wanted a right-leaning Supreme Court, for the main purpose of over-turning Rove V Wade, congratulations, you may have succeeded in your cause, with President Bush's latest nomination. There will be a fight, but no doubt, Samuel Alido will take the seat left by Sandra Day O'Conner.

You did whatever it took to keep Bush in office, not to mention put him there, and hey, politics is a contact sport.

But at what cost?

2000+ dead American troops in Iraq, with no end in sight? Go ahead, tell me about the 1000's, maybe tens of 1000's of unborn that will be saved every year. I will just point out that these 2000+ had wives, parents, brothers, sisters, and children. They had their lives ready to go.

Ok, but you will tell me how they were all volunteers. You bet they were. And they fought for what the believed in. America. An America that they believed would never send them in harm's way without the best of reasons. But that isn't the real point here, is it? Look who isn't volunteering to go.

What unit are the fighting Bush twins in? How about the Bush nieces and nephews? (And I don't mean prison units either).

What outfit are Bill Frist's three son's serving in? How about Governor Perry's 20 year old or his 18 year old...are they in Afghanistan, or Iraq? I wonder if Texas Senator John Cornyn is going to encourage his two daughters to step right up and serve for this "noble cause"? And Senator Hutchinson, what about your two kids? Dennis Hastert has two grown sons, are they serving?

As we all know, none of these peoples children are fighting the "noble fight". The other problem is that war is about sacrifice. And never in the history of the United States have we gone to war and cut taxes at the same time. And most of these tax cuts go to the richest people. The same people whose kids aren't volunteering. Bush's War on Iraq is not only being fought by the middle and lower classes. It is being PAID FOR by them too!! The richest people are making the smallest sacrifices for a war started by rich, white, privileged president for his own agenda.

But then again, thank goodness for the SCOTUS turn to the right.

We are facing deficits as far as the eye can see. The Republican's are borrowing and spending at larger levels that the Democrats were ever accused of taxing and spending. Gas prices are up a dollar a gallon and that is down from the extreme heights of a month ago. And oil companies profits in the last quarter were in the billions and much higher than expected because of their profitteering off of the policies of two oil men in the White House.

Now throw in the fact that we really can't trust word one out of the White House. That we are at war under false pretenses. That Bush and his minions will go after friend or foe, if they even hint at telling the American public the truth. That we can't fund the federal mandates in our public schools, because the federal authorities don't think they are so important that they should send money to support them. That while hundreds of American's were dying in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, President Bush went out west for fundraising. That "Social Security Reform" which was the presidents biggest campaign promise in 2004, is buried and gone. And on and on and on.

For all of the right-wing Republicans that wanted a right-leaning Supreme Court, for the main purpose of over-turning Rove V Wade, congratulations, you may have succeeded in your cause, with President Bush's latest nomination. There will be a fight, but no doubt, Samuel Alido will take the seat left by Sandra Day O'Conner.

You did whatever it took to keep Bush in office, not to mention put him there, and hey, politics is a contact sport.

But at what cost?

2000+ dead American troops in Iraq, with no end in sight? Go ahead, tell me about the 1000's, maybe tens of 1000's of unborn that will be saved every year. I will just point out that these 2000+ had wives, parents, brothers, sisters, and children. They had their lives ready to go.

Ok, but you will tell me how they were all volunteers. You bet they were. And they fought for what the believed in. America. An America that they believed would never send them in harm's way without the best of reasons. But that isn't the real point here, is it? Look who isn't volunteering to go.

What unit are the fighting Bush twins in? How about the Bush nieces and nephews? (And I don't mean prison units either).

What outfit are Bill Frist's three son's serving in? How about Governor Perry's 20 year old or his 18 year old...are they in Afghanistan, or Iraq? I wonder if Texas Senator John Cornyn is going to encourage his two daughters to step right up and serve for this "noble cause"? And Senator Hutchinson, what about your two kids? Dennis Hastert has two grown sons, are they serving?

As we all know, none of these peoples children are fighting the "noble fight". The other problem is that war is about sacrifice. And never in the history of the United States have we gone to war and cut taxes at the same time. And most of these tax cuts go to the richest people. The same people whose kids aren't volunteering. Bush's War on Iraq is not only being fought by the middle and lower classes. It is being PAID FOR by them too!! The richest people are making the smallest sacrifices for a war started by rich, white, privileged president for his own agenda.

But then again, thank goodness for the SCOTUS turn to the right.

We are facing deficits as far as the eye can see. The Republican's are borrowing and spending at larger levels that the Democrats were ever accused of taxing and spending. Gas prices are up a dollar a gallon and that is down from the extreme heights of a month ago. And oil companies profits in the last quarter were in the billions and much higher than expected because of their profitteering off of the policies of two oil men in the White House.

Now throw in the fact that we really can't trust word one out of the White House. That we are at war under false pretenses. That Bush and his minions will go after friend or foe, if they even hint at telling the American public the truth. That we can't fund the federal mandates in our public schools, because the federal authorities don't think they are so important that they should send money to support them. That while hundreds of American's were dying in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, President Bush went out west for fundraising. That "Social Security Reform" which was the presidents biggest campaign promise in 2004, is buried and gone. And on and on and on.

There are people in our country that can't make ends meet. The economic "recovery" hasn't reached them. The tax cuts didn't reach them, and in most cases there was a tax INCREASE for them. The gasoline and heating oil prices ARE reaching them, and life just isn't what they need. And there are SO MANY of them that even KNOWING this and so far still support the Republicans and their leader in the White House, simply because they talk about being anti-abortion and such. Not realizing that THEIR PARTY has control of EVERYTHING, at least for the moment. They have controlled BOTH the presidency and the congress. They could without much trouble, have passed legislation for the President to sign, that would make abortion illegal. Something that they could have at least given their base supporters that could be tested in court. But they haven't. That would be because 65% of all Americans DON'T WANT abortion to be illegal again!! They can fool the faithful, but they lose their seats if they try to fool the MAJORITY!!

So, if all you care about is Roe V Wade, then you must be happy, and I am happy for you. As for as the rest of us, who can see a bigger picture than that.....well....

God Help Us!

Seeing the Deer in the Headlights for What He Really Is

Have you noticed lately, that even Republicans are beginning to stay away from George W. Bush in droves? There are many reasons for this.

One is the obvious. Bush's lies and decept are beginning to catch up with him. He is starting to appear more often with that "deer in the headlights" look on his face. The one he always had when he was drinking. Now don't get me wrong. The neo-conservatives and the rest of the Republican Party always KNEW that he was lying, but he was lying in ways that benefitted their agendas.

They knew the real reason for going into Iraq had nothing to do with terrorism or national security. They knew that when their "fearless" leader, (the one who was so scared of going to Vietnam that he took the rich boy's draft dodging deferment of the 1960's and 70's, the National Guard), talked about WMD's yet named his invasion on a sovereign country "Operation: Iraqi FREEDOM" (?), what it was really all about.

Even when it was against the best interests of their constituents, that they could sell them a "pig-in-poke", like "TAX CUTS FOR EVERYONE..YIPPEE!" that were only meant to really benefit the richest among us, by throwing out terms like "family values", "evangelical Christianity", etc. Just like the "Iraqi Freedom" idiocy, they have known that this entire administration has been about misdirection.

Bush and his cronies (and isn't THAT term beginning to finally be used) built their largest block of base by misdirection. And if you notice, did such a good job at it that actor/director Mel Gibson took a chapter out of their playbook.

The so-called evangelical Christians would be that block. Now unlike many Democrats, I have no fear in saying that I am a Christian. But these folks, the "evangelicals" as they like to be called, should look around and call themselves the extremely gullible right-wing of the extreme right-wing of the Republican Party.

George W. Bush, a former cocaine abuser, an alcoholic (who has "started" drinking again, according to insiders, but many say he never really stopped), etc., picks up a Bible, thumps it a little, says during his 2000 campaign for president that Christ was his "favorite philosopher" because he "changed my life", allows others to call him "evangelical" and "one of us", and POOF, his base is set!

Then he uses and literally abuses these people, (many of the very good people who didn't realize that they were "evangelical" until Pat Robertson and others literally made up the term), by getting them to support him on every front you can think of. I don't believe that if "evangelicals", on the heels of 9/11, had been asked about going to war against a country that wasn't involved in the attack on our homeland, and who really posed no threat to our country whatsoever, would have said "Yes". But, when they were lied to again, like the rest of us, but this time about WHY we were going to war.....they followed "lock-step" behind their leader, "knowing" that he had their best interests in mind and would never lie to them.

Mel Gibson saw this and when he made his wonderful movie The Passion of the Christ
saw an opening, and started pressing the "evangelicals" with free "making of's" documentaries which of course they saw as a reward from on high, and showed free of charge on their many channels on television. They also bought BLOCKS of tickets for church members. Advertised in the churches about dates and times. Got copies, when it was released on DVD, an showed them over and over to their flocks.

A movie maker's dream!! It is called FREE ADVERTISING!!

And they were so manipulated by him financially, just like they were manipulated politically by those "evangelicals" of such high moral values as Karl Rove(4 trips to the grand jury) Bush's chief politcal advisor and assistant chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby "along with Rove possible grand jury target for what should be treason, and chief of staff to the Vice-President", Tom DeLay former Republican House majority leader (indicted on money laundering and campaign law violations in Texas), Vice-President Dick Cheney "who told Senator Patrick Lehey of Connecticut to go f__k himself on the sacred floor of the Senate", and of course the coke-meister, drunk, liar, and person responsible for the deaths of, to date, nearly 2,000 American young people, and the maiming of thousands more of our children....President George W. Bush!!

It HAS to make you neo-cons and hardcore Republican Bush apologists just swell up with pride!! And of course, none of this is as serious as lying under oath about sex, so there is no way that Bush deserves to be IMPEACHED!

The time has come for Democrats, Liberals, Moderates, Progrssives, Independents, Whites, Minorities (especially since he showed you just how compassionate they are toward you in particular) and just everyone who believes in decency and at least basic honesty, to stand up and throw these bums out next November. Give the majority in Congress BACK to those who care most about us, instead of the wealthy, corporations, and particularly the oil companies. We have two oilmen in the White House, and no one to keep them in check, as it stands right now. Plus, with a Democratic Majority in Congress, there will finally be someone to hold George W. Bush and his entire regime of thugs, accountable for their crimes of treason and their crimes against humanity.

The Final Bush Legacy

Take a look, Mr. President. Take a look at exactly what the policies of your administration have done for the American people in the South, especially New Orleans. You have FINALLY shown in one week, what we, the loyal opposition, couldn't make the rest of the country see in the last 4 1/2 years.

You wanted tax breaks for the rich (disguised as tax cuts for all, yeah right!), and at the same time cut funding to the Army Corps of Engineers and the updating of the levees in New Orleans. You have protected your pals in the oil industry, who are reaping mega-profits on the backs of the average American's back, by a regressive tax, in the form of tripling the price of gas at the pumps.

You lied us into a war of choice in Iraq, not the War on Terror in Afghanistan and around the world, and NOW the MAJORITY of our NATIONAL GUARD which is supposed to be helping in the case of national emergency, is tied up in your folly in Iraq!! And what does that cost us? MORE AMERICAN LIVES!!

Mr. President, while people were dying by the minute in New Orleans, because you and your administration had screwed up FEMA SO BADLY that they didn't know which way was up, AND the afore mentioned National Guard situation, YOU went WEST from Texas instead of EAST so that you could attend FUND-RAISERS for your co-conspirators in this matter and others, the REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE!! You were even photographed, AFTER THE HURRICANE, goofing around with an electric guitar at an event, while YOUR OWN CITIZENS were SUFFERING AND DYING BY YOUR OWN STUPIDITY!!

Make sure that you try to put a REALLY GOOD SPIN on this, because I believe that by a LARGE MAJORITY, the American people are finally seeing thru your smoke screens; placing blame on others; making every situation out as rosie no matter how deadly it is; and making people think that you are just one of them, when those of us who were paying attention in 2000 heard you call a bunch of extremely rich corporate types, "my base..the haves and have mores"!

THIS is the legacy of BUSH 43!! The legacy of "compassionate conservatism"! The legacy of TWO OIL MEN in the White House! The legacy of the first successful coup in American history!

Now people are seeing why your co-defendent Dick Cheney didn't want the country to know who was in the Energy Policy meetings at the White House.

Sir, the truth is out and it is VERY UGLY!! And the country is seeing that your so-called Grand Old Party, has badly deteriorated into nothing more than your machine for enriching your friends and family, and helping you carry out your dream. The one you spelled out so effectively when you said, "it would so much easier if it were a dictatorship...as long as I am the dictator"!

Bush Compares Iraq to WWII

It may be time for us all to realize that just maybe, our president is back on the juice....or maybe snack.

Today, on the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II, a war in which his father and mine both served and left their childhoods in combat on foreign soil and hostile waters, George W. Bush attempted to prop up America's view of his war and occupation of Iraq by drawing comparisons between the recent "American Made" hostilities and the war against the Axis powers that brought their war to American soil by killing American service personnel at Pearl Harbor in 1941. (Kind of like the war RIGHTFULLY waged by this president after the sneak attack on America on 9/11.)

My father, who went to glory in 1989 shortly after Bush's father came into office and who served with dignity in Europe from 1944 thru 1946 and was wounded and crippled for life in the Battle of St. Lo, always took pride in two things. First was, until Vietnam, the U.S had never lost a war. And the second was that he lived not seeing the U.S. START a war of aggression on another sovereign country. He was ashamed of Vietnam....but he would be totally appalled at the idea of invading another country without provocation...of turning it into a battlefield of necessity.....of pushing for a government that would turn it into a THEOCRACY and attempt to sell the American people on the lie that it is really a DEMOCRACY....and that a Congress saw fit to impeach one president over lying under oath about a sexual relationship, without much change at all in personel and NO change in party control, would not even discuss impeaching a president who lied his country into a war that has killed so many of our young people, and who has done more damage to our credibility abroad than even Richard Nixon did with Watergate...or LBJ did with Vietnam...or Ronald Reagan did with Iran/Contra...and DEFINITELY MORE than Bill Clinton did with the Lewinski affair!!

I was raised a proud Democratic Patriot, by a proud Democratic Patriotic Veteran of America's proudest victory, WWII. There can be no comparison with the Bush occupation of Iraq, and World War II that any REAL AMERICAN PATRIOT could possibly make. Thus, Bush makes one.

If he wants to compare...there is always VIETNAM!!

Until later.......

Patience, Mr. President?

Now, "here he goes again"......as Ronald Reagan once said famously.

Today, in his weekly radio address, President George W. Bush asked the American people to have "patience" when looking at his occupation of what once was a soveriegn nation, Iraq....which he, of course, turned into quagmire worse than Vietnam, and in which we are, for whatever the reason could possibly be, trying to install a government that is, as sure as the President can't speak good english, going to be a staunch ally of Iran, as well as a theocracy, instead of the democracy that he promised. Of course, if a theocracy like the President wants for the U.S. is good enough for us, then.......hey.

But, to me, the surprise was Mr. Bush's use of the word, "patience". Like he even knows the meaning of the word!!

"Patience" would have been a WONDERFUL thing to have when the United Nations was conducting its inspections of Iraq for weapons of mass destruction. Weapons, that when they weren't being found, cause the Bush Administration's Chickenhawks to push th U.N. aside and militarily invade a soverign nation that had never been a threat to the U.S. Weapons that the adminstration KNEW, by then, weren't there. Weapons which gave them all of the excuses they could possibly need to pursue their only REAL reason for killing nearly 2000 American kids in the process....REGIME CHANGE FOR THE SAKE OF OIL!!

Boy, would patience have come in handy there. Just think, if Bush had let the U.N. finished their inspections, and proved to the world that Iraq HAD NO WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION, then there would be nearly 2000 families that wouldn't have had to attend funerals for loved ones too young to have to die for corporate interests. There wouldn't be the threat of a government that, in many ways, will prove to be even WORSE than Saddam Hussein's regime.

If the U.S. would have shown some "patience", there could've been THOUSANDS more American troops that could have been in and around Afghanistan and the regions around it, looking for Osama Bin Laden....the coward who actually was responsible for taking the lives of over 3000 people on American soil! THOUSANDS more troops to PUNISH those who were involved in 9/11...those who harbored and financed the terrorists!!

Of course, "patience" in that case, would have caused Bush and Cheney to not fulfill the campaign promises they made to their corporate buddies in the oil industry. There would have been none of the no-bid contracts for Cheney's old company, Halliburton.

And it would have required Bush to back up his threats, that proved to be so empty, of punishing the countries that DID harbor and finance terrorism...like Saudi Arabia. Or actually LOOK for Bin Laden, who Dubya used the phrase, "wanted dead or alive", when speaking of him earlier. And, you must know, that THOSE TWO instances, would have made meetings of the Carlyle Group very TENSE for his father, and all of their friends.

"Patience is a virtue" has been a phrase I have heard my entire life. But "patience" is something that is being expected of the people of the United States, by a President who chose not to have any himself, when putting our young people at risk for the personal gain of his cronies.

Until next time........