Hillary Rocks

Bullies

I didn't watch the Republican debate last night - there are not enough Tums in the world for that - but I did catch bits and pieces.

There was a question on waterboarding and Mr. Romney said that he will not disclose what we do when we interrogate so we don't give the terrorists a heads up. Senator McCain spoke back forcefully and said that waterboarding is torture and that is not who we are.

McCain was pretty great and, as he has personal experience, I'll bow to him.

Go over to Free Republic and read the comments or don't - ugh - but I'll post some here:

McCAin rambling about water boarding...

Whatever John, perhaps we should ask them if they like milk and cookies for Ramadahn...twit...


McCain you are an idiot - PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH...
COME ON ROMNEY....BACK INTO HIS FACE!!!! YOU GO SIR!!!

McCain is flat wrong on waterboarding KSM.
It is not a violation of geneva conventions as Al Queda are illegal combatants

McCain’s FAKE indignation about torture is sickening!
McCain would see our cities in nuclear flames instead of water boarding?

Bite me, McCain.

Someone needs to Waterboard InSane. Nice knowing ya John!

Pray for W and Our Troops

Lovely, no? Yeah sure, he fought in Vietnam and was a POW for years. They hate him.

It got me thinking why they hate McCain so much.

If you look at the Republican presidents since Eisenhower you see a pattern.

Eisenhower - fought in WWI, was Supreme Allied Commander in WWII. You never really hear his name bandied about as someone to emulate by Republicans.

Nixon - Quaker so did not serve in the military. Paranoid and a bully.

Reagan - fought WWII on the backlot of Paramount. Announced his candidacy for President in Philadelphia, Mississippi. Made ketchup a vegetable for the school lunch program.

George H.W. Bush- fought in WWII. Considered by the right as a wimp.

George W. Bush - National Guardsman during Vietnam. Left to work on a campaign - legally? - we'll never know.

The right loves the bullies. They have no respect for the men who actually served in the military. Why?

Let me quote Shakespeare:

And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

The bullies make them feel better about themselves since they certainly are not going to volunteer to serve. The bullies justify their own actions.

Sounds like Guilianni is right on target for them.

chicken hawk orgy.

Rudy is blowing. He is after Mitt Romney over the judge who let a killer kill again. This works on a "retail" level with voters. Ask Dukakis. And it might get him to the GOP nomination. It probably will. The GOP has been very good about not attacking the GOP - and by the time Thompson and the rest wake up to how easy a target Rudy is - it may be too late. Mitt, being desperate, may attack Rudy first. But he too is as easy a target for GOP types. A flip flopping blue state Mormon Governor.

More to the point, Rudy is laying down the end game now. He is making a gruesome bet that is simple. The bet is predicated on one thing: that messianic W will be unable to resist unleashing bombs on Iran. W believes his legacy depends on Iran - not Iraq.
Follow me here. Let's say that the reality of the economic trainwreck becomes apparent to average joes shortly. This is not hard to assume. The stock market is dumping 200 points every few days. Anyone who has been to a gas station or grocery store since friday knows the real inflation rate is closer to 8% than 2%. Suddenly the economy is a bigger issue than Iraq. This plays into Hillary's strengths on the Left. Iraq plays into her strength in the middle.
What can Rudy do? He is now a sure loser - to HER no less.
He can count on "events" like a nation suddenly engulfed in a war with a new enemy. "Security" and "terrorism" are his ONLY cards. Iran, once attacked, will play along perfectly.
Iran is not Iraq - the blow back will be swift and not confined to the region. Venezuela may well cut off oil. Even if they don't the price of gas will zoom. And what if the Iranians make good on their threats to hit us here?
He is betting Bush will pull the trigger on Iran - and if he does it in the summer all the better. The GOP convention will be a chicken hawk orgy staged to scare us into demanding a "leader" just like him. And many of those who have walked away from Bush will return to Rudy.
Who is boxed in now in this scenario? Not Rudy. The magnificent political skills of both Clinton's will be tested to the extreme. Can she insist the bombing was wrong? Not if she wants to win.
Rudy is a pathetically weak candidate.
Unless he can somehow stage manage a return to the one week in September of 2001 in which he mattered.

Crazy

OK - this may be one of my favorite paragraphs ever. This is from The Huffington Post in a blog by Paul Jenkins about the mysterious attraction of Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee.

I can see why Republicans are warming up to these guys, when their other choices include a candidate who I promise you will one day be deemed certifiable (Giuliani), a non-human (Romney), the oldest man alive (McCain), the second oldest man alive (Thompson), and Jason from Friday the 13th (Tom Tancredo).

Just so delicious. And true!

Mrs. Gloom, meet Mr. Doom

More "conservative" economists are seeing the writing on the wall. The evil, immoral economic policies of the George W Bush Years are creating a new Depression.

Check out what these bears have to say.

I wish Peak Oil was not real.

I wish the peak oilers would turn out to be wrong. But since I began reading and exploring the peak theories about oil a few years ago - every prediction seems to be coming to pass.
The housing crash. The real reasons for the war. The devaluation of the dollar. The every increasing price of oil. The promise of production increases that never come to pass. The hard place of needing an ever expanding economy coming up against the brutal rock of geological fact. These are all tangible now.
I can't prove the intangibles but I would bet on them coming soon: a severe shock to economy. A burgeoning realization that even the Saudis can't help us. A severe shock to the American psyche as we realize that cheap energy is never coming back - and as we realize just how badly we have been mislead in the 30 years since Carter told us the fix we were in. The coming confrontation with China, and God forbid, conflagration over Iran. The severe drop in population that must accompany restricted energy. All of this is about oil. There is still plenty. But it is not enough.
I live in the mecca of cheap fossil fuel: Los Angeles. Frankly, I have no idea what to do. I am not a survivalist but I was invited via email this week to participate in a community of those who plan on "surviving" in northern California. These are people I want to dismiss. But I cannot. The email came from a person who is being proven correct with every news cycle.

Even in the best case scenario a major re imagining of society will have to happen. Quickly. I see no evidence that most of us can - or intend to if we could- take the needed steps.
Sadly, I suspect, we will fight for our "way of life" denying that it is over. We will delude ourselves with "alternatives" for a time. I believe we will, collectively, panic. In that moment the worst sort of "leader" can emerge. I see no evidence that we will reject whatever bitter, authoritarian pills are prescribed.
So the only thing I have to recommend is that as many people as possible educate and contextualize the unfolding of the peak oil scenario. See world events through the prism of energy depletion. Sadly, it makes it all make sense.

McCain vs. Clinton

I am loath to give the GOP any advise - but if they had a half a brain (most of them do not) they would nominate John McCain.
The bile spewed by the Right against the very conservative McCain is idiotic in away that only conservatives can be idiotic (see Bill O'reilly) . However - if they want to beat Hillary in the fall McCain is the best choice.

Hillary will make short work of Romney. (She even wins Texas)

She will slowly roast Guliani, and dispatch Thompson and Huckabee. The former quickly, the latter slowly...

McCain, however, is trouble for Hillary. His strengths match her weaknesses. Unless, as it looks now, the economy sinks - in which case Hillary will win in a landslide. However, A Clinton/Webb ticket with a sour economy is pretty much unstoppable - and this is what I believe we will see in the fall of 08.

Chavez should shut up

GAWD - the man may be helping the poor in both the U.S. and his own country but he is trying to get Venezuela to pass a constitutional amendment that give him power for life.

Forget him. He has crossed over into Castro land.

I am glad the King of Spain told him to shut up. Maybe Queen Elizabeth will tell Bush to shut up, too.

Dear Pat Robertson, please define murder.

Dear Pat Robertson,
I was just wondering - is abortion murder or not? It seems to me that for 30 years you have been saying that abortion is murder. But then you endorsed pro-choice Rudy. Does God now think abortion is only murder when Pro-choice Democrats are in charge? I wonder. Because if I heard you and your ilk correctly over the years - and I think I did - you were all cock sure that a woman having an abortion was killing a child.
Since Rudy Giuliani supports the right of women to choice abortion - does this not make him an accessory to the murder of thousands of children?
How flexible your god has become, Pat.
Please don't fall back on the "compromise" is necessary in politics excuse, either. We are not talking about tax credits, or the minimum wage. If you meant what you said we are talking about murder.
As is almost always the case with the conservatives in this country - they mean what they say - only until it is not convenient and or it gets in the way of the acquisition of power. See you know and I know that of the GOP field only Rudy has a even a small chance of keeping Hillary out of the White House - even that is most likely going to become more remote as election day 2008 gets closer. But that small chance is enough for you to forgo your "principles".
Being as conservatism has all the hallmarks of mental illness - this is not surprising. You have the disease of pathological conservatism.
The simple reason Conservatives like you and William Bennett and that joke of a president in the White House are forever harping about "principles" is because when anyone scratches the surface even a little - you have none.

the S.O.B. Barry Bonds is a crook

God forgive me but I really really really really hate Barry Bonds. I am gleeful he has been indicted. I love San Francisco, but I loath the Giants so Barry going down for lying is fine by me. Now if the entire Yankees organization is sent into deep space, and South Bend, Indiana falls into a sink hole and disappears, and God himself rips out Tucker Carlson's voice box - it will be a perfect day!

Hopeful Signs. Trials for traitors.

Another post from our man LLoyd in the great Pacific Northwest. A hopeful op/ed - though a couple of sentences I can't go along with...I shall leave it up to you to figure which sentences I am talking about. Regardless - rock on, Lloyd.

Hopeful Signs


After years of complaining about politics in America I’ve had a recent spurt of energy. I see signs that real Americans have had it with the status quo and are taking steps to change things for the better.

I am not used to these feelings of hope and thoughts that we the people is anything but an inside joke on capital hill, you know where we are controlled from on a national scale. At first I thought it was something wrong with me, some kind of physical symptom of a disease or early stages of Alzheimers, but since no other symptoms have manifested themselves I wondering if it is a real feeling.

The last thing any of us want in life is having people laugh at us because of something foolish or stupid we’ve said. It has been safe for me to be the pessimist since Bobby Kennedy was killed, but that is exacting what the evil ones wanted. Now that I am much older I realize I helped allow them to have it all their way, by refusing to become involved at any level looks like that was a big mistake. I still do not want to sound like a fool but each of us will have to do something to stop this race to the bottom our country is on or we will have to explain to our grandkids how there was nothing we could do. If they point out all the ways we drug our feet we will be lowered in their eyes for handing over a mess to them. I do not want my granddaughter to think I am a coward or lazy for that matter.

So, after all those years of laughing at the phrase - get involved I find myself playing catch-up. I have no powerful friends at any level. The only weapons I have are my words and their exposure to the public. I want to help. I want America to rise again. So that people all over the world respect us and want to move here. We are the greatest country that ever existed. Our elected officials as a conglomerate have allowed our borders to vanish, our manufacturing jobs to be handed over to anyone that wants them, placed military weapons above the public educational system - requiring no child be left behind without funding it is a joke - and allowed the dollar to sink to the point that it takes thirty bucks to buy a hamburger in Europe.

I see hopeful signs: cities enforcing citizenship requirements for jobs, people against the Iran, I mean Iraq War, with the six hundred billion spent to date - ten times the administration’s initial estimate of its cost - Minutemen trying to stop the invasion from the south, Debold machines being scrutinized for software biases deliberately written into the code, cold hard questions raised about the Patriot Act’s disastrous effects on our civil liberties, and questions being raised about building seven at the trade center dropped by timed explosions.

They want us to settle for grumbling and complaining. THEY are traitors. Let us have Crimes Against Americans trials in which our leaders have to prove they have not harmed us deliberately for their personal gain and advancement. If the are innocent they will not stop the trials.

Peak oil trickles into the mainstream. Oil and the Irish potato famine.

The "peak oil" leakage into the main stream media may be turning into more of a babbling brook. Clearly, as this is THE issue we must all face immediately there is not enough coverage. But the LA Times ran a story today explaining what high oil prices mean to the price of everything else. Of course, once the MSM takes up the task of explaining how much food and oil are connected the public might see the fix we are in. Go here to freak yourself out. The best historical analogy is the Irish Potato famine. The terror in the boardrooms of CNN, Faux News and the rest is that the stock market will cave in if the rotten news about oil gets any play.
As well it should. The reporting on oil prices still contains the "anomaly" subtext. As if a giant oil field will be found any minute and oil prices will plummet. A giant oil field has not been found since the 60's....FYI... or better the magic Saudis will ramp up production. The Saudis probably CAN'T ramp up production.
After Katrina oil shot past $80. It is worth noting that there is no apparent event driving the 3 month price surge now. Demand has met, and probably passed, supply.
And to my small group of readers - here is my wish - that somehow each one of you told everyone you know to find out what "peak oil" means and find out quickly. Dick Cheney snidely remarked a while ago that conservation may be a "personal virtue" but is not worthy of public policy. Reality check : you are the public that is going to pay for the lack of policy. Dick has invested in reality. Check out where HIS money has gone. The VP knows the score.
I no longer believe that the U.S. will do anything sane about our lack of oil and the coming brutal adjustments. But what people can do is be aware of what is happening and why. We can, at the very least, make sane individual decisions in our daily lives.

The History channel did a serviceable hour about peak oil last night. It is a start.

Mexamericanada

The inaugural "outsider" submission here on Liberal Rapture is from Lloyd H. Frye. Lloyd is a writer living in Bellevue Washington. Other pieces by him can be read here and here.

Mexamericanada

The North American continent is one large piece of land. The people who live on the land are as varied as the landscape. And as in the old world, from which many have come originally, the people speak English, French, and Spanish. That is not to say other languages are not spoken in Mexamericanada, because they are, plenty of them. The number of dialects spoken on the continent, reflect the number spoken throughout the world.

The question is what language should be the “official language”? Since picking English would be unfair to Mexico with its dominant Spanish speaking population, maybe we should pick one that would force everyone to learn a new language. By changing all the road signs, books, voice mail answering machines, manuals, assembly instructions, labels, and brail documents we could generate trillions in new revenue with the change over. There would be an explosion in demand for certain professions. Teachers, interpreters, linguists, even therapists to help people deal with their sense of inadequacy in learning the new universal language.

I’ve taken the time to look up languages spoken by more than 10,000,000 people on the earth, and have taken the liberty to list some of them to chose from. Some of the more interesting ones are: Gujarati, Bhojpuri, Tamil, Marathi, Telugu, Panjabi, Javanese, and Bengali. If we picked one of these, no one would have an edge over the other in the scramble to learn and be proficient in speaking the new standard of Mexamericanada.

Maybe we should settle for a form of the Akkadian language used in ancient Babylonia, where the people were devoted to materialism and the pursuit of sensual pleasure just like us, here in Mexamericanada.

there is still plenty of blood for oil

In case there is anyone who can think out there who still believes the war in Iraq was NOT about oil - it gets no more obvious than this: We are building a military base ON TOP of an oil rig in the Persian gulf. This, of course, is almost sublime. It was always blood for oil. By not addressing this directly much of the "arugula" Left lost the anti-war argument years ago. Only peak oilers like me, and political numb skulls like ANSWER were left to screech the truth.
So be it. We made our bed 30 years ago when we laughed Jimmy Carter out of D.C. We have few choices now. One is to fight on, killing and being killed to ensure our "way of life" whatever that it. I suspect it is the right ot shop at Target for cheap air freshner and be entertained by Ellen and her doggy dramas. OR we can quickly, and brutally I fear, change our "way of life".
The facts on the ground are simple - we use 25% of the oil on earth to live the way we do. We have to go get that oil. Or we have to restructure every single expectation in American life. The chances are now essentially zero that we will do anything except continue an endless war.
Regardless, we are on the downward slope of peak oil. There is no alternative to oil. Nor will there be for our society. If we had begun the change 30 years ago we might make it through in a reasonable way. We did not begin 30 years ago. Biofuels are now offically bullshit. Who is going to trade bread for the right to get those cheap lead based toys at Walmart?
I am betting on bread. Besides it takes oil to grow all those bio "fuels."

Finally - the dollar is sinking like the Titanic. Why? By default the dollar is pegged to the price of oil. The less oil ones gets for a dollar, the weaker the dollar is. combine this with the gash in the hull that all those pretend mortgages created since 2001 - and what you have is a "financial" sector in severe flux. But that "financial" sector was always gaming us. The "house" (read Banks) just forgot that the number of suckers was limited. The suckers are leaving the casino without paying their tabs. Probably knowing their winnings were Disney dollars anyway.
This is BUSHENOMICS. Sucker punch the middle class and run for the hills.

Democratic whip latest to spew the amoral anti impeachment NONSENSE

Lets be clear: the impeachment of Dick Cheney is NOT a political decision. It is a moral and ethical imperative is a country that expects to live by the rule of law - not individual men.
In a heated exchange Thursday with liberal radio host Ed Schultz, Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the deputy Democratic whip, said the party, which dramatically swept into power last year, was more focused on other priorities. Voters asked Congress "to focus on withdrawing our troops from iraq, on expanding healthcare access. ... They did not ask us to spend any time on the impeachment of the vice president," Wasserman Schultz insisted.

IMAGINE A DISTRICT ATTORNEY DECIDING THAT SINCE HE HAD RUN ON CLEANING UP GRAFFITI THAT HE COULD NOT BE BOTHERED WITH BRINGING CHARGES AGAINST A SERIAL RAPIST BECAUSE IT WOULD TAKE AWAY FROM GRAFFITI FIGHTING TIME. CHENEY IS ALMOST CERTAINLY A CRIMINAL. THE DEMOCRATS ARE IGNORING THIS. THIS IS IMMORAL.

What a bank run looks like

The only person I know who actually knows what a bank run looks like is my 95 year old Grandmother. Well - one happened on Monday. Bet you did not know it because Britney spears underwear were not involved. A bank run in the U.K. matters because, frankly, all signs point to the U.S being next.
I don't understand most economics - but it doesn't take a genius to see that the Fed and the American media are fiddling while the dollar burns. "We are experiencing among our clients an awakening that the United States is in big trouble," said Erik Nielsen, chief Europe economist at Goldman Sachs. "It is not just the mortgage market."

Soros sees "serious" economic correction

Reaganomics: the idea that borrowing from the future - to pay for and profit in the present would appear to be finally imploding.
We need to vivisect all conservative thinking in the past 35 years. It is corrupt on all fronts. Economically is it amoral - as we see - over and over again, the disregard for the U.S. Constitution, Global Warming denial, the disregard for all the warnings about energy depletion, the utter corruption of the the government we see through out the Bush 2 regime, the junking of reality to create a war out of whole clothe... the list is endless... Conservatives DO HARM. American Conservatives have a place asagitators around the edges. But they should not be allowed to govern.

Strident I know. But facts are facts. The evidence since 1980 is clear. Conservatives do much more harm then good when they control government. The economic meltdown ahead is more proof.

Feinstein's web page on the day she voted for torture.

Game Over

We're running out of oil. We're running out of water. The polar ice cap is melting at a faster than expected rate. The Middle East is melting. We torture.

What's on the news? How Hillary did in the debate.

Why can't we focus on issues that are going to impact our lives?

What do we do when we don't have oil?

What are we going to do when there's no water to drink?

Sure there's going to be WWIII if we are all fighting for the last bit of oil. Florida, Alabama and Georgia are already fighting over water. Too much growth with no planning has lead to the problem. Sound familiar? Corruption certainly has allowed new housing developments to spring up where they do not belong. As Cindy Lauper said, "Money changes everything."

Is there a candidate in the mix who will deal with the horrific future we face? Do we have someone as prescient or as brave as Jimmy Carter?

Unlike Mr. Kunstler from John's post below I have to believe we still have a chance but we're going to have to make some changes.

Clusterfuck Nation

I wish everyone in this country would read this blog. The real emergency may be here. Oil has risen in price 53 percent THIS YEAR - and the main stream press is ignoring it. A brutal energy crisis is coming - and no one seems to know it. In a basic, very real, and non religious sense, we are in the "last days".

GAY sex sting nets another GOP "family" man-I kid you not - ANOTHER one!!

This is another one in Florida. This "family" man, and GOP Daytona Beach mayoral candidate was trolling for mansex in a Sears toilet. When will it finally be clear to all??? BEING CONSERVATIVE HAS CLEARLY BECOME A MENTAL ILLNESS. Insisting on dictating morality to others almost invariably means you are hiding from YOURSELF. Also - FYI - a Louisville Catholic School Principal was caught dressed as a woman in an alley....
I am telling you - conservative thinking leads to perversion, racism, greed, and war. The problem is CONSERVATIVE THOUGHT.
All public toilets should have a sign attached that says :CONSERVATIVES NOT WELCOME TO PEE HERE.

THe Iraq war is going exactly as planned

Pay attention - some of this is too much to buy - even for me - but Daniel Estulin understands the big stuff. Money = Energy. Energy = Money. The world supply of oil is peaking. Iraq is going exactly as planned. Esp good: his concise statements about Sudan

another GOP dude takes it in the ARSE

For Christ sake - WHAT IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE? Another GOP gets caught in the sack with a male prostitute, and says "he's not gay" - frankly - what is the point of the GOP GAY DENIAL anymore? Can they even be fooling their numbnutz knuckle dragging base anymore? Good lord, just enjoy your damn sex lives and stop telling the rest of us how to live.
If the GOPS were not such phony, mean bastards I would feel badly for them. But LORDY, how many gay bashing GOPS are gonna get caught with men? 40? 400? Is this why nothing gets done when GOPs control governments? - They are all being tied up by Jeff Gannons and "a man known in some circles as "Stallion" - swear this new GOP hypocrite was with the "stallion". The "stallion" took his wallet. THE GOP moron got so mad at the mean stallion HE WENT TO THE POLICE. Okay - stupid, yes - but more than that - it is arrogance. What was he thinking? He was thinking "the rules do not apply to me, I am a white guy in the GOP" Just like Larry Craig flashing his senate id and expecting the toilet grab to go away.
THE BUSH GOP is defined by one thing - more than reckless wars and reckless spending - ARROGANCE.
BEING CONSERVATIVE IS A MENTAL ILLNESS. THE EVIDENCE IS NOW OVERWHELMING.
Do conservatives feel the need to take it in the rump on the "DL" out of some guilt for being such pricks and cowards in their public life? If you want some man to tie you up- then GO FOR IT. Who cares? No one except the constipation constables from Colorado Springs. (i.e. Evangelical pricks) There are plenty of men who will do that for free, Mr. GOP. Craig made a list of them. And hey GOP horn dogs - GIVE YOUR WIVES A BREAK. Strange men named stallion banging your bums is fine by me - but A. SAFE SEX, boys! and B. Get clean with your spouses. Hiring hookers, either men or women, then going home to your wives - is REALLY unsafe and THE MARK OF A REAL COWARD.

You're Killing Me

I love John's post below.

Here's what we need to do.

Every Democrat today needs to only focus on water boarding and why it's WRONG. Every soundbite needs to be, WE DON'T WANT TO BE A COUNTRY WHO TORTURES. Don't give the media anything else to work with except that we will not accept torture as part of our arsenal fighting the "war on terror".

For those of us who don't watch 24 we know that torture doesn't work. We know the Israeli's do not torture because anyone being tortured will tell you what ever it is you want to hear. More importantly, we also don't believe that you win the war if you become the people you are fighting.

I have to wonder how John McCain stays in the Republican party as a former POW who was tortured.

Why can't Mukasey say that water boarding is torture? Because if he does everyone who has been involved in the practice will be subject to prosecution for war crimes. The person who did it and the people above who ordered/approved it. Goes all the way up the chain to President Bush.

And loyal Republicans don't want to see Bush and Cheney on trial at the Hague so Mukasey has to lie. They are willing to give up who we as Americans are to protect those two Bozos.