Why Can't Republicans Feel Shame?

To all conservatives, Republicans and other defenders of the current administration:

I have a question and it’s a serious one. I honestly want to know how you can continue to defend the antics of the Republican Party.

I am not talking about your beliefs on abortion, Iraq, gun control, the death penalty or any other policy-specific beliefs. For the most part I think I understand your positions on these issues and, while I don’t necessarily agree with you on most of them, I get it. I am pro-choice but my father and stepmother are adamantly anti-abortion. I know I am not going to change their minds and while I suspect that they hope for me to have a change of mind, our disagreement doesn’t stop me from loving them and having a very good relationship. I like to think things could be similar with you and me. While I may disagree with your beliefs, that doesn’t mean I can’t be respectful of you.

But seriously, how the fuck can you continue to defend this administration and the actions of the party to which you belong? You spent eight years bitching and whining about how Bill Clinton was just so evil because he was a philanderer. You supported impeachment of the President because he lied about an affair and you cackled with delight when he had to defend himself against charges that had nothing to do with the prosecution of his duties. But now David Vitter comes out and sets himself up as a holier-than-thou, bible-thumping champion of old fashioned anti-gay family values and you people sit idly by as he outs himself as being involved with at least one, possibly more, prostitution ring. You don’t even demand an explanation and he is only too happy to not provide you one. You defend his conduct with the most hypocritical arguments. Now, I know that he isn’t a part of the administration, but his stance on “family values” is one you agree with and you don’t even bat an eyelash, let alone pick up a telephone to demand his resignation. “But Clinton committed a crime,” you say. “He was a perjurer.” True enough, but do you not think hat Vitter also committed a crime? Where is your moral superiority and outrage now?

You continue to beat the traditional marriage drum, all the while countenancing and supporting the candidacy of serial groom Rudy Giuliani. You bitch and moan about Clinton’s “sham” marriage but you are more than happy to accept a guy who has been through three marriages. And not just ANY guy either: A Roman Catholic. Why aren’t you people ashamed of your party and actually trying to do something to change it?

And your hypocrisy doesn’t stop with “family values.” You argue that our brave troops are fighting “for freedom” but you refused to support Clinton when he was trying to end genocides and oppressive warlord regimes in Africa. You bitch about The Dixie Chicks expressing their own negative opinions about George W. Bush but you are more than happy to have a member of the congressional Republican leadership call Bill Clinton a “scumbag” on the floor of the house.

You stand by while John Kerry’s service in Vietnam is slandered. You buy books from junk-toting stick figure Ann Coulter whom you laugh with when she insults the memory of the dead son of a Senator and you think it’s just the funniest goddamn thing in the world when she calls that same senator a faggot.

You support the impeachment of a President for lying about a consensual affair with another adult woman but you cannot bring yourself to condemn a president who makes assertions of executive privilege that are astonishingly broad, mind-numbingly vague and breathtakingly arrogant. That’s quite a hat trick.

You are adopting a short-sighted scorched Earth policy and you will no doubt do more bitching and complaining if a Democratic president ever dares to make a similar assertion.

You spend the first six years of the Bush presidency whining about how the Democratic Party is the party of obstruction and how their use of the filibuster is antithetical to democracy. You demand up-or-down votes on all the President’s judicial nominees blithely forgetting how many of Bill Clinton’s nominations you scuttled when Clinton was in the White House and you were in the majority. You feel no cognitive dissonance when your own Republicans, now in the minority, filibuster perhaps the most important issue of the last or next ten years.

To borrow a phrase from Jerry Falwell, You caused this to happen. You are to blame. Not for electing the man or the party to office; I will give you the benefit of the doubt in having pure intentions. But you are causing this to happen every day when you fail to engage your own party. You are each and all of you hypocrites. You have no principals and you are godless. You believe only what is convenient and you are not willing to make any sacrifices for the betterment of this country. You have placed your party on a pedestal higher than that of the country you purport to love but seek to destroy. You clearly are beyond shame and any recrimination is wasted on you.

Even though you will not see yourself in this rant, you should be ashamed of yourself.

Spike.

Perhaps the Most Astonishing Abuse of Executive Power and Privilege Ever (Nixon Included)

Oh. My. God.

I apologize for that little cliché. Normally I don’t really care for it when people make a three word sentence into three one-word sentences. But I had to do it. My jaw was on my chest as I said the words and I had to physically lift my jaw, this the periods.

What could have invoked such paroxysms, you might ask? The Bush administration has just said that if Congress cites anyone for contempt of Congress for refusing to testify and the administration has invoked executive privilege, well, then the Justice Department will not be allowed to prosecute those individuals thereby cited. In shot, if Congress cites Harriet Miers or Josh Bolten or, frankly, anyone for contempt, the arm of the federal government charged with law enforcement will not be allowed to actually prosecute the cases. The Bush administration is giving immunity and a pre-prosecution pardon at the same time.

This is truly the administration’s biggest “fuck you” yet to Congress and you and me. If you want to know what really happened with regard to the US Attorney firings and think/hope that Congress might actually force some answers, well, you’re screwed. Congress can’t force people to testify unless it can actually charge them with contempt. The Bush administration cannot really “instruct” people not to testify but it can’t make its feelings known. Given the propensity for this administration to only hire loyalists, it seems pretty obvious what will happen here: The administration will tell people “we don’t want you to testify and we will rig the system to prevent you from being prosecuted if you do what we want you to do.

This is yet another stunning abuse of a President who places himself and his cronies above the rule of law. What do you want to bet that the Republicans in Congress just sit around and let this abuse go on?

What possible checks in the check and balances system our founding fathers devised can remain if the President says that he refuses to answer questions and invokes executive privilege. He refuses to allow anyone else to testify and, just in case someone might be prosecuted for breaking the law, he then enjoins his butt-boy Alberto Gonzales from prosecuting anyone. Even Nixon had people who would resign before stooping to this kind of behavior.

I love America, I really do. But why are people not angrier with this president? Why are people not calling their Congressmen and Senators and telling them to do something, anything, to mitigate the damages this President has created?

People tend to get the government they deserve, I guess, but I can’t for the life of me think of what I did to deserve this.

A Few Key Phrases Intended to Increase Page Views

I do not have any phtographs of Paris Hilton undergoing her body cavity search when she was going to jail. Do you hear me? No nude photographs and nothing to do with Paris Hilton's possible body cavity search.

I am the father of Nicole Richie's baby. Except that I am not.

Finally, proof of Simon Cowell's sexual orientation! Elsewhere.

Would you like to see free streaming porn at your office and not get caught? So would I.

It could be worse. It could have been your boss that caught you masturbating in the sink in the men's room instead of the janitor. (Borrowed from Brunching Shuttlecocks)

Do you need a spanking you bad little boy? Then you should find somebody who is into that.

What is the most disgusting, filthy sex act you have ever done? Wait. I don't want to know.

I apologize to people who have been hoping for some sort of reasoned critique or intelligent dialogue. (Fans of George W. Bush: I know you weren't looking for any such thing. Youre here for the prison film shot of Paris Hilton that do not exist as far as I know.)

An Open Letter to Cindy Sheehan

Cindy Sheehan, I love you. I can only imagine the pain of the loss you have suffered in the name of this war started by this false president. While I can only imagine the pain you feel, I have to tell you that I hope that the loss you have suffered might, in some small way, reduce the chances that I will ever feel a similar pain. It may be that the death of your beloved son is one of the things that will help keep my own children safe and out of harm’s way. Maybe if people realize that the death of your son is our collective responsibility as Americans, they will be less likely to send off my own kids to war.

And I am grateful that you gave the anti-war effort something around which it could coalesce. If it hadn’t been for you trying to get an audience with the President to have him explain to you why your loss was necessary, it may well be that the anti-war effort would only now be in its infancy instead of the far more advanced wave it has become. You did the Lord’s work that summer.
And don’t think that I have anything against impeaching George W. Bush. I am truly in favor of drafting articles of impeachment and I will do so now if I am asked.

But Cindy, and I say this with as much love and affection as I can muster for someone I have never met, you have to stop. You have to be quiet. You have to go away. You are on the verge of marginalizing yourself and the sacrifices you have made. You have gone from a poster child for ending this stupid war of terror to giving the appearance of being truly unhinged. Not that anyone would blame you if you did become unhinged but I don’t know if you want to display it quite so publicly.

First you sign off from public life with so many admonitions about America not being the country you wanted it to be. This is after you were seen partying with true America-haters like Hugo Chavez. I get it: You wanted to embarrass the president and you thought that hangin’ with Hugo might do the trick. And I understand wanting to leave public life as you must have been exhausted. I didn’t even mind when you admonished America, and by extension me, my wife and lots of people I care about, for not being what you want us to be.

But after all of that you have decided to threaten Nancy Pelosi with an insurgent (word used intentionally) candidacy. You will run for Nancy Pelosi’s seat in Congress if the Speaker doesn’t introduce articles of impeachment against President Bush within the next two weeks.

Now, I will be the first to admit that this Congress has been something of a disappointment to liberals like me. They haven’t shown nearly enough spine or been willing to go toe-to-toe with this very unpopular president and have been too scared of the White House saying that they don’t support the troops. But do you really think Nancy Pelosi is the ENEMY here?! Really? Why aren’t you running against a Republican? Nancy Pelosi hasn’t done everything correctly and she has been selected to play Den Mother to a fractious Cub Scout troop of congressmen, but I do believe she is doing the best she can. And you are threatening her? If anything, you might be actually HELPING her at this point given how loony you have been acting the past several months. She might use your candidacy to prove that she isn’t the crazy-eyed fire-breathing liberal everyone says.

You candidacy reminds me of Ralph Nader. Think about that. If Ralph Nader hadn’t run for President in 2000, Al Gore almost certainly would have been President. I know that is uncertain, but I believe it as do a lot of people a lot smarter than me. If Nader doesn’t run and Gore is President, we don’t get into this disastrous war. If we don’t get in this war, your son doesn’t get sent to Iraq.

If I sound mean, I apologize. But I am tired of the left eating itself. You are on the left. Way left and on the fringe, but you are on the left, and you are trying to hurt people who are on your side, Cindy. And hurting Nancy Pelosi does not help anyone. Your candidacy has about as much chance of succeeding as did Ralph Nader’s in 2000. And Ralph Nader destroyed his own brilliant legacy because of his pigheadedness and he the fact that he helped get Dubya selected President. Everything is related, Cindy, and while I don’t think that Nader meant for his actions to cause the harm they did, he is also on he hook for this tragedy in Iraq.

What unintended consequences will you create when you run for Congress against Nancy Pelosi? Think about it and then back out of the race. Do it in the memory of your son.

Affectionately,
Spike

Does McCain Have Regrets and Does Bill Clinton Also Justify Anything Bush Wants to do Ever?

I am not sure I can think of a significant politician in recent memory who has had a stranger journey than John McCain. It was McCain who was one of the “Keating Five” and despite the fact that McCain was at least tangentially connected to the saving & loan debacle, he worked his way back from that particular ignominy.

With a combination of charisma, war-related heroism and a willingness to not always say what had been focus-grouped within an inch of its life, McCain, despite some pretty conservative positions, actually positioned himself as a Republican that Democrats could get behind if he ever won the presidency. Admittedly, a lot of those Democrats only saw McCain saying he disagreed with President Bush and conveniently forgot all those times McCain supported him. People saw McCain leading the charge for necessary campaign finance reform and they extended that ostensibly liberal position into an assumption that McCain was one of those old-school fiscal conservatives who was more a Libertarian when it came to “social” issues” and would be an acceptable candidate, at least as far as Republican go.

McCain burnished his reputation by being a “maverick” and having his “Straight Talk Express” and pretty much positioning himself as the anti-establishment Republican. He helped for m the Gang of Fourteen to avoid the administration using the “nuclear option” when it came time to confirm the President’s Supreme Court appointees. He did a lot of stuff that gave him some measure of regard and goodwill with independents and some Democrats.

Most importantly, though, he allowed George W. Bush and Karl Rove to put him into a position where he thought he needed to kiss the President’s ass if he wanted to be President. McCain pretty much sold out everything he believed and he kissed the ring of the President because he thought that he needed to shore up the right-wing base having now done so well to make himself palatable with everyone who isn’t a Republican. There is little doubt that McCain could actually win the general election if he gets the nomination.

Unfortunately, there is even less doubt that McCain will never get the nomination. He is so estranged from the hard-right wing, despite the fact that he is pretty damn conservative, that he isn’t getting any money and he isn’t getting any support. Again, he cannot win the Republican Party’s nomination. To his credit, McCain realized what he had to do and he did it. He went to Lynchburg, Virginia and he kissed Jerry Falwell’s now-decaying ass. He has supported the President through this entire disastrous war and he is showing no sign of letting up. He has campaigned for the President. He acted like he was taking the tough position regarding torture of prisoners captured while waging the “War on Terror” but caved at the last minute and enable the President to get everything he wanted.

I wonder if it was worth it? Now that McCain is clearly not a factor for the Presidency, do you suppose he regrets kissing Falwell’s ass? Do you suppose he regrets not hitting Bush in the face for allowing Karl Rove to start an awful whispering campaign against McCain’s daughter in South Carolina? Do you think McCain wishes he had stood on his principles when the issue of torture of detainees came around? Or do you think that McCain instead regrets his attempts at campaign finance reform and would do it differently if given another chance? I would like to know what John McCain regrets doing and I would like to remind him that even though he will never be President, there is plenty of time left for him to do the right thing for the right reasons and that he can still make a difference in the lives of people all around the world.

* * *

Why is Bill Clinton an excuse for George W. Bush to do anything he wants? I am so SICK of people defending the President’s “commutation” of Scooter Libby’s sentence by reminding us that Bill Clinton pardoned Marc Rich and scores of other people. The fact of the matter is that every President has pardoned people that a segment of the population wishes would get sentenced to a week in the electric chair. We all need to get over it. I was mad about Bush the Elder giving a pass to Cap Weinberger. Some people were mad about Marc Rich. I am FURIOUS about Scooter Libby.

When Clinton pardoned Rich, I had a hard time defending Clinton. I still do. I am a big fan of Bubba Clinton but there is no way to say that it smells good when the President, as one of his final official acts, pardons the wealthy husband of one of his biggest financial backers. It just looks bad.

Why can’t the right wing make that same admission? Why can’t they just admit that Bush effectively pardoning Scooter stinks to high heaven and get on with it? Why do they need to justify it by saying that Clinton did pretty much the same thing? I keep hearing people raise this defense and I keep wondering if their mothers (assuming they all HAVE mothers) ever actually taught them that two wrongs don’t make a right. But the real issue is, now that Dubya has done it and the only defense that you right-wing nutjobs can raise is that Clinton did it too, I want to ask you this: Does this mean that you are OK with what Clinton did in pardoning Marc Rich? The way you keep referring to it as some sort of justification suggests to me that you are now giving your assent to what Clinton did.

So, answer the question: Do you approve of Bill Clinton’s pardon of Marc Rich? Yes or no. Because if you do not, then you can’t excuse Bush commuting Scooter’s sentence. And if you are OK with the way Shrub treated Scooter, then you have to give Bubba a pass for his handling of Marc Rich. There is no middle ground here unless you are a hypocrite and if you are admitting to hypocrisy, then I think that tells us a lot about what you truly believe and what you have at your core.
Spike.

The Right-Wing Hypocrisy Machine Spins Away

I love it. L-O-V-E it. I want to marry it. The hypocrisy shown by the right wing has, perhaps, provided the most delicious fruits of its own tree ever.

OK, that was a bad metaphor. But I am just so crazy with the president freeing Scooter libby that I cannot think straight.

When Bill Clinton pardoned about a kajillion people just before he left office, Marc Rich chief among them, Arlen Specter and the idiot wing of the Republican Party started bitching like there was no tomorrow. He whined wnd whinged for weeks about how there needed to be some sort of Congressional oversight whenever the President exercised his power to pardon. Now George W. Bush has gone out and "commuted" the prison sentence of Scooter Libby. the President decided that the sentence was "excessive" and so he is giving Scooter a get out of jail free card.

Where are you now, Arlen? Where is the tough talk about how the Congress should have some kind of review power when the President grants a pardon? I can't hear you, Senator Specter. Is it because Dubya and Vice-President Shooter have you in the back room while The Gimp watches them slap you silly and asking "Whose bitch are you? Are you our bitch? Are you MY bitch, Arlen?!"

And what about you, Mister President? I hope you will forgive all of the people who mistakenly refer to your actions today as a "pardon" and I am sure you will vociferously argue that this wasn't a "pardon" but was the commutation of an excessive jail sentence. But when those people refer to your abominable actions as a "pardon" they aren't mistaken; they are just accurately predicting the future. Anyone who really thinks that Scooter Libby won't end up pardoned by the Current Occupant of the Oval Office is so naive, so obvlivious and so unburdened by reality that all I know is that I want that person to invest in my business venture involving bringing home water from Mars so that we can irrigate the deserts.

Dubya has done something I didn't think was possible: He made me realize that I had some small smidgen of respect for him. I know this because as soon as I heard about the libby sentence commutation, I felt that last gauzy thread of respect disintegrate. I know I had it because I know it's gone.

So, we have a President who has promised stiff consequences for anyone in his administration who is found to have broken a law. We also have someone in his administration who is convicted of multiple felonies. And the "stiff consequences" the President promised? A commutation of the sentence. Wow. All of this from a President who couldn't even commute the sentence of Karla Faye Tucker. 30 months is "excessive" for Scooter Libby but death was too lenient for a woman who made a prison conversion to Christianity?

Disgustedly,
Spike

It's About Time This Idiot Posted Something!

I know, I know. It's been a long time since I started this blog and I have done nothing since then. Well, I am going to do nothing for awhile longer. At least a few hours. Sorry. Life takes precedence and you really don't care that much about my ramblings yet anyway. Maybe you will care someday. I just wanted to put something on "paper" because this tabula rasa thing is killing me.

For now, you can call me Spike. If I start writing lots of stuff that might offend people or get death threats for me or my family, I will probably keep the nom de guerre. If I write about puppies and trips to the beach, I'll let you know who I really am. Since I have no idea what I am going to write about, let's just keep things anonymous for now, eh?

First, a few things:

1) I am a really bad typist. I will do my best to proofread but please forgive my stubby, sausage-like fingers. Do not mistake bad typing for a lack of intelligence or assume that I don't know how to spell.

2) I am profane. I swear, a lot sometimes. If this offends you, you may wish to move along.

3) I am a liberal, trapped in red-state hell. You may wish to move along if this bothers you but you are welcome to stay and to state any agreements or disagreements with me, no matter how vehement.

4) I am a sports fan. Over time, I imagine my favorite teams will give away some personal knowledge of me but for now, I will keep that a secret too. I intend to write about sports, at least a few times here and there.

5) I am not sure how narcissistic I must be to assume that my blog will be of any interest to you, but thank you for catering to my vanity, at least in increasing my page views.

6) I make no promises that this will be a daily blog. Ideally, I will try to post daily, but I know myself well enough to know that this will not happen. I have a family, I take vacations, I am frequently a fundamentally lazy person, so I just don't see a daily entry anywhere in the long-term future. Perhaps if the government incentivizes blogging I could be persuaded, but I don't see that happening.