Hell Yeah!

A Modest Proposal

Clearly I'm the most qualified person in America to define the DNCs position on the War in Iraq, so I will take this opportunity to do so. Nobody else from the party has really offered a complete, workable nuts-and-bolts plan to, in order of priority, stabilize the chaos we've created there, form something called "The Iraqian Dream" and get our troops home.

Nobody wants American soldiers in harm's way, but like the expensive item in the antique store, you broke it, you bought it. Amazingly, the bulk of our armed forces come from places that have consistently voted "red", and I'm sorry, but y'all really did break this one - a very expensive antique called Iraq, and you have to stay to clean up after yourselves.

Anyhoo, my plan is different from the Democratic Party's, and certainly from the Republican Party's, because it has a component that seems to be omitted everywhere I look: Social Justice.

There's never any mention of creating an equitable society, one that gives the locals hope for a future in which they have a participatory voice. "Elections" over there are a farce and the people have no real choice. That must change.

The first phase of this plan is a media blitz which is sort of a mea culpa, but not an outright apology. We are a man, after all, we don't apologize. But the point of this campaign would be to inform and assure the people of several things. First that the goal would be stabilization and autonomy. True self-governance. (This would involve tearing up the oil production and distribution contracts that were signed by puppet governors after our invasion.). Secondly, that UN troops, composed mostly of Muslims from neighboring states, as well as Western countries would enter to restore order and secure the populace. The United States' role in this process will be one that diminshes progressively over time. Neighboring states will gladly participate - they are seriously endangered by an unstable Iraq.

Democratic elections, with publicly financed campaigns would be held as soon as possible, and a constitution would be drawn up and implemented by duly elected members of the governing body.

In a nation with new hope, and real promise of a peaceful, prosperous future, tyrrany and terror are much less likely. Terrorism is a road of despair and impotent rage. Our democracy proved that universal suffrage and rule of law can be uniters, not dividers. With a 2/3rds majority requirement for laws, oppression by a tyrranical half is not possible, and horse trading becomes a means of conflict resolution. When all ethnicities have a vested interest in cooperation, and are viewed equally in the eyes of the laws of the land, civil war, insurgency and unrest are much less likely.

All reconstruction contracts held by foreign companies would be cancelled and new contracts negotiated that required (unlike our post-Katrina contractors) local workers who would be paid a living wage, with appropriate benefits.

Oil contracts would be voided, and the petrol infrastructure would be nationalized. Foreign management of the resources would be necessary, but revenue would be structured like Venezuela's system: 80% of revenue to the country, 20% to the foreign entitiy. Traditionally, that formula is inverted - with 80% of the revenue leaving the country. All petrol industry activity would be closely overseen by a committee drawn from many nations to prevent abuse or scandal.

Habeus Corpus would be enacted, and all prisoners who haven't been charged with a crime will be immediately released.
Terrorists imprisoned for nonviolent reasons would be released.
Terrorists imprisoned for violent crimes would be sentenced humanely.
All torture would be immediately banned. Any infamous torturers in any uniform will be tried in The Hague for crimes against humanity.

A sustainable infrastructure would be constructed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Might as well do it right from the start.

With the promise of a bloodless future, one of peace for themselves and their children, and with a concrete plan to humanely restore order where today there is chaos, the people of Iraq would welcome these troops as liberators, with rose petals and sweetmeats, and see that the despair that leads to terrorism is no longer their own despair.

The British learned during the Troubles in Ireland, that the process of infinite detention and torture was by far the best recruiting tool the IRA ever could have wished for. We failed to learn from this history, and are repeating it.

The time has come to put what we've learned to use.

Let's Hear it from the Horses' Mouth

OK, enough with the politicking, posturing, platitudes and pandering.

We want debates.

The people deserve them. People seeking office are morally obligated to open their views to scrutiny greater than a soundbite or campaign flyer.

Debate NOW.

If you can't find anywhere hospitable, you can use my backyard. I'll clean off the picnic table - perfect for a stage/podium. I'll grill organic cheeseburgers for everyone and get a keg of beer. I'll set up a PA and mikes I have from band days, so everyone can be heard. Hell, I'll even moderate, but be warned: candidates who go over their time limit will get squirted with my kid's super soaker.

I'll invite all the neighbors - Kelly needn't worry, they're mostly Republicans. And they'll come, cause like all good Republicans are drawn to burgers and free beer like moths to a flame.

I'll make sure the Beacon Dispatch knows about it, so that'll take care of the press. I'll set up my camcorder so it looks like there's TV there. We can stream video over my cablemodem connection to youtube.

A John Hall - Sue Kelly backyard debate would be better than to-the-death steel cage wrestling, and what better way to bring your message to the people than an old style backyard throwdown?

Whatever you need, you got it.

Whatever you need.

Just get the show on the road!

Republican Duck Hunting

As we get closer to the election, some things of note have happened in areas traditionally considered Republican strongholds. Places like the 6th Congressional District in Illinois, where a "Social Conservative" (read: stands fast on all the non-issues of the day like flag-burning, while supporting unbridled spending") Republican is facing a strong challenge by Democrat Tammy Duckworth.

Republican Peter Roskam, has trotted out the usual pack of dodges, but has repeatedly employed the doomed Republican strategy of painting Democrats as "Cut and Run" appeasers.

The great irony is that this chickenhawk, this bold and courageous armchair warrior with no military or particularly, combat experience, is being challenged by a woman who served in Iraq, and left her legs there. Her chopper was shot down in Iraq by an insurgent weilding a rocket propelled grenade.

Roskam calls a woman, who walks on artificial legs with the assistance of a cane, a cut and run Democrat.

The gall is incredible. It's clear the idea, that Tammy Duckworth will not be running anywhere soon, because of Mr. Roskam's party's gross incompetence, hubris, mismanagement, strategic failure and stupidity, is totally lost on this man who hopes to represent the people of the Illinois 6th.

It is my sincerest hope that the people of the 6th aren't as stupid as he is, and contribute to and vote for Duckworth.

Who can seriously say that a war is better conducted by people who totally lack experience in it?

When you are presented with the opportunity to vote for a candidate who has real experience in the military, particularly in Middle Eastern combat, you are duty bound to vote for that person.

It's a bitter and sad irony that the total combat experience of the Democratic party vastly outranks that of the Republicans, but somehow the American people are stupid enough to accept (and vote with) the notion that Republicans are somehow more qualified to run a war.

Please visit Tammy Duckworth's website here and contribute to her efforts if you are able.

damnation

I would like to recommend you peruse the recent "timeline" published in Mother Jones Magazine (available here on their website). It's the most damning compendium of publicly available news items that demonstrates (usually using the liar's own words) the greatest bait and switch of all time.

I'm sure that this will be summarily ignored or dismissed by members of the 666th Estate (Neo-Con media), but they're becoming increasingly marginalized with every passing day.

Please check it out. Anybody with a brain and sense of justice will already be aware of almost all of this, though probably not in as organized a fashion as this. Those lacking in those basic elements of humanity - neo-cons - will have chosen to ignore this.

As an aside, I'd like to say I find it extremely gratifying to watch as the content of Fox programs become progressively smuttier, aimed at tittilating the repressed prurience of the vapid and morally bankrupt viewers of that network. It's also a sure sign that revenue is dropping like a rock.

Attention Rednecks!

This is a country song I wrote recently.

One of these days I'll record it on my 4track and put up an mp3.

In the meantime, I thought it might amuse a few people.

Attention Rednecks, Living in Red States
Go git on that uniform, you're shippin' out today
you're heading to Iraq, to help them find some dub-em-dees
and bring em back to the man whose daddy sold em to hussein

Attention Rednecks, yer an army man today
Jump up on that humvee boy, that ain't got armor plate
you couldn't find no weapons there, but y'all can still have fun
just bring them folks democracy through the barrell of a gun

Attention Rednecks, put money in the plate
and say a prayer for BillyBob in Dubudubidai
cause he'll be doin' stop-loss tours til he turns sixty-five
and that's if he's a lucky one and makes it out alive

You'd fill the bed of your pickup truck, if you had to haul their lies
They got no shame, and who's to blame? you hicks who closed your eyes

Attention Shoppers, eatin' off blue plates
wrap your ass up in that flag with jesus and the saints
when you're out raidin' garbage cans to put gas in that old truck
there'll be nothin left there for you that the govmint hasn't took

Attention Rednecks, you don't pay as you go
cause you keep electing criminals who're stealing all your dough
you suckers will buy anything the bushies got on sale today
just put it on your credit card, you got nine kids who can pay

Attention Rednecks, down in the Red States
Y'all said God put hurricanes on places that he hates
Well one of you sure pissed him off and you'll be down for years

but maybe ya'll can make it up by passing laws against the queers

Who can say it ain't climate change, without cracking a smile

So drive your truck, with any luck your kids might just survive

Attention Rednecks, here's how it's gonna be

y'all are gonna shut your mouths so the rest of us stay free
just stay home on election night, drink beer and watch TV
look! Paris Hilton milked a hog! That's one you gotta see!

Tax and Spend Liberals vs. Borrow and Spend Neo-Cons

"They're not spending my tax dollars, they're spending my Debt Dollars"

Sue Kelly has released her campaign's first ad directed at John Hall in the race for the 19th congressional district. I suggest you listen to the ad here, then continue reading.

It comes down to this: John Hall is a big bad tax and spend liberal. His plan is to nickel and dime you poor overstressed citizens of the 19th (how'd we get that way, Term-Limit Sue?), and use that money to buy new Cadillacs for immoral baby-factory crack mothers on welfare, the type them yankee liberals have always had a tear in their eye for.

Sue, on the other hand, supports making the "tax cuts" permanent. She doesn't mention those are exclusively for the top 1% of rich Americans. YOU, dear Schmuck, did in fact get a little bump in your obligations, while richies get permanent welfare from Uncle Scam.

How can she do such wonders while cutting taxes?

The answer is simple: the same way most Americans do it, by splurging on credit.

Sue Kelly does not wish to raise your taxes, because that's politically unpopular. She wishes to raise your DEBT - because she and her slimy colleagues in DC will have retired to cushy Directorships on lobbyists clients' boards, or died of old age by the time the bill comes due.

So, I'll never refer to Washington as "wasting my tax dollars" again. From now on, they're wasting my Debt Dollars.

When you hear the President speak about the "savings" we'll achieve by cutting VA services for returning vets, don't think of it as a tax savings (they spent all the tax revenue ages ago), think of it as if you're going to have a slightly smaller balance on your credit card statement. The credit card company in this case is, I'm afraid, China.

Sue warns that Hall actually supported a tax increase on gasoline! Horrors! Naturally she's outraged: Sue would rather save time and give the money straight to Exxon and Big Oil. She did that to the tune of half a billion of your debt dollars in the last Energy Bill.

Ironically, Sue opposes raising taxes as vigorously as she opposes cutting spending on "security", war, pharmaceuticals and oil. It's not news that this government has collectively spent more of your debt dollars than all of our previous governments *combined*.

What I found most striking about this ad, which was the first dirty shot at the mainsail of the Hall campaign, was that it had nothing of substance to say.

She can call names as much as she likes, but her positions on almost everything are indefensible - and in the case of this commercial, unmentioned.

Not a word to push the paranoid button of the district's "security" sissies.
Not a word about "staying the course" in Iraq.
Not a word about Iran.
Not a word about North Korea.
Not a word about detainees.
Not a word about torture.
Not a word about immigration.
Not a word about mercury in wildlife (it ain't just fish anymore, now it's the pigs, chickens and cows you eat)
Not a word about Indian Point.
Not a word about a crashing dollar.
Not a word about booming raw materials and commodities prices.
Not a word about inflation.
Not a word about deflation.
Not a word about no-bid contracts to her Dear Friend Dick Cheney's company Halliburton.
Not a word about what SHE would do differently, and those are all situations she is *directly* responsible for creating. It's important to never forget dear reader, that she's toed the line with the party in power for as long as it's had absolute power. Her votes created these fiascos.

She's responsible. Directly. No blaming liberals for the massive national debt. No blaming liberals for poor response to Katrina. No blaming liberals for billions wasted in no-bid contracts to her friends.

Liberals have been an outvoted minority since the Bush reign began.

There's no one around here to blame but Sue herself.

So let us do so.

If you are actually stupid enough to vote for a candidate on such non-issues as flag-burning, gay marriage, prayer in schools or stem cell research, then vote for Sue Kelly. You deserve eachother.

Otherwise, give generously to the John Hall campaign here

Take Sue Kelly's Pledge? Hah!

This is one the funniest things I've ever seen, from Sue Kelly's campaign website:

Take Sue's Pledge

In recognition of her hard work, her effectiveness as a legislator, her tireless efforts to secure our fair share of federal funds and create new jobs in New York's 19th Congressional District,

I hereby pledge to vote for Sue Kelly in the race for Congress in the general election to be held on November 7, 2006.

Fun Stuff

I set up this website for a laugh after An Inconvenient Truth came out. Visit it and vote your head off. ReElect President Gore

Sue Kelly's Criminal Record

The Times Herald Record printed a that I found interesting and worthwhile reading. It gives a nice, balanced overview of Kelly and Hall, but interestingly includes a comment on the Dem primay by Kelly's strategist: "They nominated their most liberal candidate"

Later, you'll see if you read the article, is a side by side of the two candidate's positions on major issues.

Kelly is a notorious Bush policy enabler, so her positions are as predictable as her loss in November:

- make the rich richer through top tier tax cuts, the great (struggling) unwashed masses be damned
- "stay the course" (as though Republicans actually have a plan other than to make Iraq a Democratic problem in '08)
- enrich the HMOs, health be damned

All this amounts to is "more time, we need more time. Thing's will be great soon!".

Tax cuts for the rich are justified on the premise that when the rich become extremely rich, they indulge in wonderful things, and the poor benefit by catching scraps of the wonderful things that fall off their tables.

If you've ever seen anything like that work (since the middle ages, of course), please raise your hand, because that "economic philosophy" really translates to this: let's make the public treasury a mega-millions ATM for our rich cronies, while we tax the hell out of the little guy.

Privatized healthcare is a disaster. Too many people are left out, and an absurd number of Americans are impoverished by catastrophic illnesses that occur while they're uninsured. And Kelly made damn sure they couldn't seek debt relief in bankruptcy court.

To say (as Kelly does regarding healthcare) "let's preserve what the private sector does best" shows the hubris that only a person on the Government's coverage plan can have.

Iraq: what do I need to say about that? It's a disaster. The only reason the Republicans want to "stay the course" is because it is how they can continue to make the public treasure an ATM for halliburton, blackwater and the like.

Let's set aside the justness of the invasion and consider this one point: the first no-bid contract that was given to a company in which a key player (halliburton/cheney) holds substantial equity and influence made the rationale for invasion a farce and exposed it for what it is - a money making endeavor hiding behind a flag.

On energy, Kelly supports "renewables". And seems to support higher mileage requirements, though I can't find anything substantitave to quote. What idiot doesn't?
She opposed the expansion of HEAP (home heating assistance) benefits to the poor and opposed legislation that would have raised penalties for companies that price gouged.
Go figure. Maybe she's hoping Hugo Chavez will help out again this year.

Of course, I'm sure that she's counting on energy being less of an issue this year. In case you haven't noticed, the price of gas has dropped dramatically in the last few weeks - timed very nicely with the elections. So far, the only pandering element missing at this point are the pre-election orange alerts of the sort we got before the election in 2004.

Hall wants us out of Iraq, he wants us to build hydropower turbines around the state and he wants everyone to have health insurance.

If doing the right thing is extremely liberal, then perhaps that's the card Hall will have to carry.

I don't consider Hall's positions to be extremely liberal at all. I consider them common sense and unlike anything I've seen from the Republicans, they are in the best interests of the people of America, not large corporate interests.

Kelly's voting record is more like a criminal record, and the crimes have been against America. It's time she paid the piper. Let's let her have her ball back so she can go home.

Get out there on Nov 7th and send the bums packing!

Take back the 19th CD

I came across this gem of a blog last night. If you've ever wondered specifically (as opposed to simply on principle) why Sue Kelly is a waste of desk space in DC, here's the rundown:

http://take19.blogspot.com/

There are a million reasons why Sue Kelly is unfit to govern, and he's got most of them there.

It's the real deal, more than a long series of rants , and certainly the result of a lot of research and effort.

So, next time Uncle Jimmy gets on about how Republicans are the only ones who can be "trusted" to "stay the course" and keep us "safe" from "terrorists, killers, ne'er-do-wells and evildoers", throw a few "reality based" bits his way, and let him stir them into his Schlitz.