Scarabus

Any rational person who isn’t blinded by ideology would have to acknowledge that, while claiming to “protect” us from totalitarian evil, the Bush administration has, in fact, become totalitarian evil. Why would anyone consider that a good thing? Totalitarianism is totalitarianism, and evil is evil.

A part of the Rove/Cheney/Bush strategy for accomplishing that has been the subversion of America’s voting process. The dirty tricks are as numerous as they are disgusting. Hack the voting machines in Florida and elsewhere. Use “push polling” to deceive voters (think South Carolina when McCain got “Roved.”). Make sure that Republican districts have lots of voting machines, while Democratic districts have so few as to ensure that voters would have to wait many hours to vote (think Ohio in 2004). Pass “voter ID” legislation to ensure that comfortably well-off voters will be allowed to vote, while economically and especially Black, voters will be turned away at the voting points. [Think Indiana, and the Neo-Con SCOTUS. There has never been a documented case of false ID in Indiana’s history. But the legislature there passed a law requiring IDs that all well-off voters (many of whom are likely to vote Republican), and many not-so-well-off voters (many of them Black and almost all likely to vote Democratic), will have difficulty obtaining.

OK. On and on and on. The point is that Republicans have for decades been conducting a coordinated campaign to subvert the democratic process…all the while claiming hypocritically to believe in honesty, freedom, and democracy.

Look. This present set of strategies and techniques started among College Republicans (including Karl Rove and the incarcerated Jack Abramoff), while they were subverting campus elections. According to convicted Watergate conspirator Donald Segreti, they called it “rat fucking.” [I consider that fair justification for calling these conspirators “fuckers”! They themselves coined the phrase. In other words, to be “Roved” means to be fucked.]

Right now the Clinton campaign is reading from the Neo-Con manual for denying the true spirit and meaning of democracy. I defy anyone to compare recent comments (like “obliterate Iran”) and campaign strategy (”guilt by association,” Joseph McCarthy all over again) and detect a difference.

This is disgusting, contemptible, and scary. If it works, we will have denied the spirit of fairness and democracy in our primary election process and will have nominated a cynic who values winning far more than honesty, honor, and the spirit of democracy. Consequently, in the general election we will face a choice between Rove/Cheney/Shrub senile, and Rove/Cheney/Shrub female. Nice.

If we cannot tell the difference between you and our Neo-Con competitors, Senator Clinton, then why should we bother to vote? You’re offering us the prospect of a choice between, not the lesser or greater of two evils, but of a coin-toss between two equivalent evils.

Look! No one should claim to believe in the democratic system of government if she or he is unwilling to honor its spirit while campaigning. To do otherwise is either to demonstrate that the candidate thinks true democracy is too weak to play an effective role in our society and our world…or to demonstrate that the candidate is a cynical hypocrite.

In 1966 Richard Hofstadter published a book titled Anti-Intellectualism in American Life. In 2007 Al Gore published a book titled The Assault on Reason. The more things change, the more they remain the same. Yeah. I know it sounds sexier in French, but the posting software I’m using doesn’t provide an easy way to include non-English characters. Point is, stupidity rules in the U.S. Even educated persons—if they’re Republicans—pretend to be stupid.

Present example? Abstinence-only sex education. What follows is an excerpt from a Yahoo News article by Will Dunham (Wed Apr 23, 4:33 PM ET). The subject is testimony at a meeting of a Congressional committee chaired by Rep. Henry Waxman. I’ve inserted my own comments on what Dunham reports. Facts do have a well-known liberal bias. And conservatives do find facts and truth irrelevant at best, downright dangerous at worst. They will never, ever allow reality to penetrate the bubble within which they bask in blissful ignorance.

*****

Anyhow, here’s the excerpt:

Lawmakers cited government statistics showing that one in four U.S. teenage girls has a sexually transmitted disease and 30 percent of U.S. girls become pregnant before the age of 20.

This statistic is ghastly! All we read about in the MSM is how lots of well educated professional women are postponing marriage and pregnancy. Why don’t we hear about non-professional, working class Americans—the foundation of our democracy? America needs to look outside the walls of the Emerald City and see what’s happening beyond the gate. The statistic cited above shows what reality is about in a general way.

But let’s bring the statistics into meaningful focus: The 15 year old daughter of an acquaintance of mine is well into the second trimester of her pregnancy. The father-to-be is 16. (And, BTW, racist bastards who might be reading this, both of these adolescents are white. Focus on principle, not on prejudice.)

Republicans said [that] even if some abstinence-only programs do not work, others do, and it would be wrong to end the funding.

Said Republicans provided no well-vetted research to support that claim. Duh! But, just for the sake of argument, let’s stipulate that they’re right, despite the dubiousness of their unsupported claim. So what!! We should spend a gazillion public dollars to support a program that’s effective @ 5% of the time? We should damage 95% percent of our young people because 5% are doing OK? Sheesh!

Rep. John Duncan, a Tennessee Republican, said that it seems “rather elitist” that people with academic degrees in health think they know better than parents what type of sex education is appropriate. “I don’t think it’s something we should abandon,” he said of abstinence-only funding.

Where to begin!? OK, to start with, what the fuck does “elitism” mean in this context? Nothing, of course. It’s just a code word meant to promote the lie that Duncan is “just plain folks.“ Point is, to imply that education and parenting are mutually exclusive is obviously ridiculous. And you don’t have to be a highly educated logician to recognize that. How many Americans who are both sane and of at least average intelligence would deny that persons with advanced academic degrees can also be parents?

If he were honest, Rep. Duncan certainly wouldn’t do so, I hope. After all, having checked his website, I discovered that he himself earned a post-graduate academic degree. He graduated both from the University of Tennessee and from George Washington University Law School. And he is also a parent, father of four children. Now, both Tennessee and George Washington are respectable institutions. How likely is it that a person could graduate from both institutions without knowing that the dichotomy Duncan presents is both fatuous and stupid? Yeah, right! So why would Duncan embarrass the institutions that educated him by spewing such obvious nonsense?

Charles Keckler of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said the Bush administration believes abstinence education programs send the healthiest message.

So fucking what?!? Once again, let’s stipulate for the sake of argument that whatever Keckler means (and it’s hard to tell) is true. Regardless, it’s still irrelevant. The message might be “healthy,” (whatever the hell that means!) but the results are disastrous: This approach has no statistically meaningful influence on whether teenagers have sex, but it does leave them ignorant of the risks they face and of the ways to cope with them. Result? 25% of all teenagers get sexually transmitted disease and 30% are pregnant before age 20. The “message” might be healthy, pal, but the consequences are anything but healthy—either for the kids or for our society.

Stan Weed, director of the Institute for Research and Evaluation, a Utah-based group that researches abstinence programs, disagreed with the other health experts, saying research cast doubt on the effectiveness of broader, comprehensive sex education programs.

Wow! What a shock! A guy from the state that gives a wink and a nod to polygamist sects where children are forced into marriage with much older men says that children who aren’t yet married should be kept ignorant of how they might protect themselves from disease and unwanted pregnancy. Better either to force them into marriage or to send them in search of an abortion clinic, I suppose. (Nota Bene! This is not an attack on the citizens of Utah, LDS, or my friends and relatives who live in Utah.)

BTW, Stan Week holds an earned Ph.D. He’s one of the folks Duncan says parents should ignore. Sauce for the goose, sauce for the gander, Duncan!

Panel chairman Rep. Henry Waxman, a California Democrat, said, “We are showering funds on abstinence-only programs that don’t appear to work, while ignoring proven comprehensive sex education programs that can delay sex, protect teens from disease, and result in fewer teen pregnancies.”

Shame on you, Rep. Waxman! Shame on you!! What’s with the “don’t appear to work” crap? Manifestly they don’t work. The research is incontrovertible. Why would you equivocate and waffle? Show some courage! You know damned well that the choice is between research-based truth and fantasy-based ideology.

Karl Rove and Grover Norquist have agreed to let Shrub try his hand at conducting the chorus of the Right Wing Noise Machine.

The following article appeared today in the Birningham News. The Bush administration, in a conspiracy orchestrated by Karl Rove, arranges to have the Democratic governor of Alabama jailed on trumped-up charges. Now the city of Homewood brazenly arranges to stick it to the Democrats while making an in-kind contribution to the campaign of Republican John McCain. What the fuck are the Republicans doing to our nation!?!? Is this what they mean by supporting America? by supporting Americans’ freedoms? by supporting democracy?

McCain campaign gets almost 80% off on Homewood gathering space, plus free labor from Homewood Jail inmates

Thursday, April 24, 2008

KIM BRYAN

News staff writer

Republican presidential candidate John McCain got a deal when his campaign rented gathering space from the city of Homewood for a private fundraiser earlier this week.

His campaign was given a discount of about 80 percent off the standard booking rate for Rosewood Hall. In September, Jefferson County Democrats rented the same facility and were charged the full rate.

The McCain campaign was charged $250 to use two rooms in the hall, which normally would book for $1,200 on a weeknight. The campaign also was given free labor from Homewood City Jail inmates to set up tables and chairs for the event, avoiding a $100 set-up fee, but did pay a standard $50 cleaning fee.

Read the following excerpt from a story on Huff-Po and weep. The story originated from The Washington Post.

During his nearly four years as a translator for U.S. forces in Iraq, Saman Kareem Ahmad was known for his bravery and hard work. “Sam put his life on the line with, and for, Coalition Forces on a daily basis,” wrote Marine Capt. Trent A. Gibson.

Gibson’s letter was part of a thick file of support — including commendations from the secretary of the Navy and from then-Maj. Gen. David H. Petraeus — that helped Ahmad migrate to the United States in 2006, among an initial group of 50 Iraqi and Afghan translators admitted under a special visa program.

Last month, however, the U.S. government turned down Ahmad’s application for permanent residence, known as a green card. His offense: Ahmad had once been part of the Kurdish Democratic Party, which U.S. immigration officials deemed an “undesignated terrorist organization” for having sought to overthrow former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

The Bush administration told us they invaded Iraq in order to overthrow Saddam Hussein. Now, despite years of faithful service, during most of which his life was at daily risk, they’re denying him a green card. Why? Wait for it! Because before the invasion he had fought to try to overthrow Saddam Hussein!