This has been a very long election cycle that started almost two years ago. As an outside observer, while cruising alongside this very long and winding road in politics, I have to say I have learned an awful lot about so many things. I have seen inspirational and electrifying candidates and I have witnessed some mighty disingenious and dishonest ones.
The political pundits informed me about their notions of political history and demographics. I did not know another state of Alabama existed between Pittsburgh and Pennsylvania. Nor did I know New Hampshire is the Alabama of New England. I think it was Joe Scarborough who informed me about the coastal regions of Alabama, Mississippi and some of northwestern Florida. This area is known as The Redneck Riviera.
I had to scratch my head a few times when Chris Matthews and Pat Buchanan would refer to working class "ethnic whites" in the northeastern U.S. Then my memory took me back to a 1970's sitcom called All in the Family whose central character was Archie Bunker, a bigoted white working class guy who lived in Queens, NY. Archie must be the guy they are talking about, I thought. Archie referred to his fictional Polish-American son-in-law as "Meat Head" and "Pollock." He had other choice names for his daughter and son-in-law's ethnically and/or racially mixed friends as well. The creator of All in the Family had intended for the show to be a comical satire but this was lost on much of the viewing public.
I never knew a place like Wasilla existed nor did I know there is fringe political independent parties scattered across the U.S. from Wasilla, Alaska to Georgia (that would be U.S. Georgia) that want to secede from the U.S.
I learned a lot about narratives, closing the deal, pie, orange juice, coffee, hair styles, make up, gender, age, one's disposition, mavericks, mavericky, SNL, non-mavericks, a family in Texas who are the true Mavericks, Joe Six Pack and Joe the plumber who is worried about the 250K he saved to buy his boss's plumbing company. Since I have a brother-in-law in Ohio who is a plumber I called him to ask if he had socked away 250K in his piggy bank. Karl the real plumber in Ohio asked me if I was on drugs. Next I learned that Joe is not a plumber and Joe's first name is Sam. I also learned that there is a pastor in Alaska who will perform witch exorcisms. I learned the straight talk express alternates between a virtual hate talk express and/or lying express, depending upon on McCain's polling numbers and his and his campaign mangers' mood swings or the media spin cycles.
This diary is an expanded and updated re-post of one I wrote previously on Texas Kaos. This updated version is also cross posted on Texas Kaos.
As predicted, John Cornyn voted for the Wall St. bailout the other night. I never doubted for a moment that John Cornyn would ever in a day let down his buddies the fat cats. After all, the Republicans enabled Wall Street's financial melt down by voting for deregulation and lifting all "shackles," as they would call it, from their beloved soul mates on Wall Street.
Deregulate, Baby, Deregulate.
And boy did they ever do that big time.
Republicans dumbly believed Wall St. would police itself. Indeed, this is what a recently retired professor at the London School of Economics has to say about the U.S. financial melt down:
According to a diary written by blogger Jerome รก Paris on Daily Kos
today that includes data provided by the Sierra Club, John McBush has told more than a few tall ones on his voting record on energy bills. In a recent interview Walter Issacson asked John McCain to respond to Thomas Friedman's charge that the Senator did not support an extension of tax cuts for wind and solar energy companies.
WALTER ISAACSON: [...] Tom Friedman's column mentioned that you haven't been there supporting the tax breaks that need to be extended for wind and solar. Do you support those breaks, and will you keep pushing for--will you push for it at some point?
JOHN MCCAIN: Yes, and I have, and I have a long record of that support of alternate energy. [...] I've always been for all of those and I have not missed any crucial vote. But my citizens in Arizona know that when I'm running for the President of the United States I have to be out campaigning. But I of course I am for renewable energy.
All so he can expand his executive power. Senator Cornyn is a willing accomplice in this effort and he bears responsibility in the weakened state of our national security.
(Cross-posted on Texas Kaos and The Burnt Orange Report)
Shortly after posting a piece I had written previously entitled 'Senator Cornyn Stands By His Man on FISA" in which I criticized the Senator for supporting W.'s illegal warrantless wiretapping bill, I read a newspaper article written by Richard A. Clarke about Bush's destructive use of fear mongering. The former counterterrorism Czar reveals the ramifications for our national security by Bush's use of this mechanism and his political gaming with FISA and other legislation that impacts our national security
From the article I learned how W.'s political shenanigans with FISA are far more destructive and dangerous than I had initially envisioned. W.'s use of fear mongering on issues surrounding our national security are weakening us. And Senator John Cornyn and many other lawmakers are guilty of enabling W. in continuing in this appalling and irresponsible fashion.
G.W. Bush may be at a 34% or lower approval rating and yet our U.S. Senator John Cornyn continues to stand by the loser man time after time. W. has been under a 50% rating now for longer than any U.S. President including Richard Nixon, but oh well, why would clueless Cornyn care? And now our Senator is serving once again as a rubber stamp for W. in supporting the illegal warrantless wiretapping bill.
As is typical with the Republican Party, Cornyn plays the fear card on Islamic terrorists in order to justify his fascistic stand on FISA. You know, Senator, Rudy Boy spent millions of dollars and a boatload of weeks in Florida trying to scare the devil out of retired voters there about Islamic terrorism.
The Senator may be unaware of the fact that Rudy Boy was run out of Florida on a rail with his tail tucked tightly between his legs. Now the cowardly fool is clinging like a leach to McCain's coattails. I guess he scared himself. No one is buying the fear mongering anymore, dudes. Not even those you think you can scare the most. It would be far more compassionate and productive for you bullies to use your millions to support the health care benefits for poor children rather than terrify the elderly and retirees.
Earlier this week, Vince Leibowitz mentioned an article written on Texas Insider in which Senator Cornyn made clear his stand on FISA.
(This is a synthesis of comments I posted previously on the Burnt Orange Report. It is also cross posted on Texas Kaos. )
We Democrats are going to have to work very hard to win in 2008, despite the promising opinion poll results for our party and the Republican's abysmal record of failure on each and every level the party has touched. Remember how W. has turned to shit everything he touched when he was in the private sector? Well, now W. and his did the same thing to our very way of life.
To briefly summarize, for those who may have forgotten a fact or two about W.'s terrible legacy, let me provide a crash refresher.
Everyone on the planet on knows that W., enabled by rubber stamps such as our Texas Republicans John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison, managed to get us into the worst foreign policy debacle, (Iraq, of course), in recent history. We recently learned that it is Pakistan, not Iraq or Iran, that is the most dangerous place in the world and yet we remain mired down in a war that didn't have to be fought in the first place.
77% of Americans believe our country is headed in the wrong direction now and 64% of us believe we should not have gone to war with Iraq. W. Is at 34% approval - worse than Tricky Dick Nixon.
