Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

In Bush's infamous "State of the Union Address" he dramatically declared that the U.S.A. was militarily threatened by Saddam Hussein.

Pausing, and speaking with grave, almost hushed tones, Bush defined the threat that was heard around the world.  Weapons of mass destruction, along with processing yellow cake Uranium for nuclear power, sent visions of a mushroom cloud above the land of the free, the home of the brave.

This was enough to prompt a misled Congress to literally leap to their feet, robot style.  The Vietnam War debacle, where 55,000 U.S. service personnel sacrificed their lives, thinking the U.S. was under the much publicized threat of Communist domination, and all Asia might fall victim to a "domino effect" of first Vietnam, then all of Asia becoming Communists.

This projected theory worked effectively just like weapons of mass destruction and the frightening mushroom nuclear cloud scare tactic worked.

Standing at or top of the list of why the Republican putatively "Christian love" right wing hates Bill Clinton is because of his deft political skills, which helped him to wrest their presumed monarchical possession of the presidency and then renew his White House occupancy for a second four year term.

After having seen how the hate mongering, frequently racist antics of Lee Atwater along with fellow henchman George W. Bush and others attacked Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis in 1988 by using the Willie Horton Case and the pledge of allegiance as wedge issues, Clinton in 1992 used a shrewd ploy to enable his candidacy to fight back against hate campaigning.

In addition to instituting what was termed the War Room in Little Rock, Clinton launched a Rapid Response Team.  It was coordinated so deftly that George H. W. Bush, used to getting away with excesses in 1988, was stunned when the Democratic responders had thoroughly rebutted his acceptance speech at the Republican Convention in Houston before he finished delivering it.

If there is one person who is probably smoldering more than any other Democrat at this moment it would figure to be Hillary Clinton.  The bilious Republican right has unloaded venomous insults against Hillary through the years at an equivalent level to the political Molotov cocktails figuratively hurled at her husband.

You might find the above question absurd!

However, Morris Roth of Fort Lee, New Jersey in the Letters to the Editors of the New York Times on September 3 wrote the following:

"The Republican Convention dispels any doubt that Senator John McCain is running for President Bush's third term.

"Katrina, the economy, windfall profits for the oil industry as gas prices spiral out of control and eavesdropping on Americans -- but it is the war in Iraq that is Mr. Bush's albatross and everlasting legacy, which Mr. McCain supports at our peril."

I was apparently one of the few viewing Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell's speech at the August 26 session of the Democratic National Convention in Denver.  While at the ensuing Republican conclave in St.Paul we would hear Rudy Guiliani exhort wealthy delegates averaging $500,000 per person and deliver a ringing mantra of "Drill, baby, drill!"

Those same delegates that, on the evening of John McCain's presidential acceptance, would examine every aspect of offshore drilling, conveying to the uninitiated that Big Oil was every bit as lonely as the tallest and loneliest girl on senior prom night.

Why hadn't the "left wing media" of which the Republicans frantically proclaimed have nothing to say of the grim reality described by Rendell that afflicted middle class Americans?

Three succinct paragraphs from Rendell's speech defined what is happening in America today as one group of citizens seek to come to grips with reality while the others, notably Republicans adept at circumventing the truth, present a picture grounded in tunnel vision fantasy that avoids reality.

You remember George W. Bush.  He's the one that the "principled" Republicans allowed an eight minute speech by satellite before being dismissed.

You also remember Dick Cheney.  He was sent on a foreign mission to Georgia and other  regional spots where his acute oil sniffer has picked up the scent of potential trouble.  He was never heard even on satellite.

Meanwhile, as Republicans distance themselves from their current leadership, John "Mr. Maverick of Principle" chooses as a fresh "voice of reform" Alaska's Governor Sarah Palin, who, in the midst of a continuing ethics struggle in her home state, has jumped forth to fill the shoes of Bush and Cheney as spokesperson of Big Oil.

Wednesday was quite an evening in St. Paul as Rudy Guiliani, who had previously fought tenaciously to convince New York City voters to elect him their mayor, promising that he is not one of those right wing hate-oriented kooks and even seeking to seal the deal with a comedic drag queen appearance on Saturday Night Live.

It was a sad, sickening spectacle.  With dark, foreboding war clouds hovering menacingly over a wildly cheering audience, cheerily Republicans near a crucial election whose outcome could man more death, destruction, debt and disgrace.  Will it be another downward spiral once again for the U.S.A.

First off, if you love the principles that founded the United States of America over 232 years ago, in the name of God, these cheering Republicans have ignored the winged warning of George Washington: "Avoid foreign entanglements!"

The entire convention of flag-waving Republicans has ignored the realty of this inspired warning.  The dazzling hero, candidate for president of the United States, Senator John McCain, was eulogized by Fred Thompson.  

When Thompson told the Republican audience the only thing McCain did reveal was to give the torturing interrogators some misinformation, naming someone they might be interested in that was the name of a Green Bay Packer football player.

As a collective insult to the better nature of America and its people, the tragic spectacle of the Republican Convention in Minnesota represents the nadir of the political process, highlighted by back to back demagogic speeches long on invective and insults and devoid of truth and reason.

Here was Rudolph Guiliani, formerly comedic "drag queen" on Saturday Night Live, oft-married and mayor of a city attacked by right wing Republican fundamentalists as "godless" and "sinful" pandering to the basest natures of those who had formerly attacked him with impunity.

This was the same Guiliani who was spurned by the numerous fat cat, overrepresented symbols of wealth and Bush tax cut recipients that constituted the howling masses on the convention floor as he delivered a speech in which he came close to declaring that Democrats who opposed the Bush misadventure in Iraq as traitorous.

While Guiliani declared that the delegates and the nation could and should be entrusted to John McCain's judgment, this was the same candidate who declared that New York City's corrupt former Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik would be a great choice to head the Department of Homeland Security.

A Seattle Times September 2 article on election 08 and the Republican Convention contained the headline:

WITH EYE ON STORM, DELEGATES SOLIDLY BACK PALIN

NOMINEE ANNOUNCES PREGNANCY OF HER 17 YEAR OLD DAUGHTER

The Seattle Times News Service story written from St. Paul contained the following:

Republicans assembled for their national convention along with those delivering talking points on television and radio are speaking with one voice on the subject of the pregnancy out of wedlock of the party's vice-presidential candidate.

"Leave this alone!" is the cry, as Republicans are angered by the media daring to even mention the subject.

Fox News commentator and syndicated columnist Michele Malkin has once more gone ballistic, as she did in the 2004 presidential election when she angrily told Chris Matthews that John Kerry might have been his Vietnam War battlefield citations after he "shot himself."  

When Malkin was understandably scorned for her absurdity, she blamed the whole thing on Matthews and appeared on Brian Lamb's C-Span early morning show the next day to sharply condemn the MSNBC talk show host.

1.  We should all be proud of going to war in Iraq on the basis of lies and distortion.

2.  We should not worry a second about the skyrocketing national debt, which is greater than all the national debts combined since the U.S. was founded 232 years ago.

3.  The best reason for having children in the U.S.A. now is because they can be saddled with paying off the bill (our national debt) that Republican hero George Bush has gifted us with.

4.  You should demand that Bush speak at your convention so he can glibly explain how he achieved this monumental debt.
   

John McCain's recent choice of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, rather than being an odd selection, is a snug fit with the Republican Party's reversion to the dark ages through what has been termed the neoconservative movement.

Palin falls into resonant comfort with paleontology, the study of fossils.  McCain's salute of the Alaskan as a force for "reform" decisively reinforces that he is far from the agent of change he portrays himself to be and fits snugly with such neocon stalwarts as Bush and Cheney along with Grover Norquist, Bill Kristol, Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Paul Wolfowitz.

Palin's identification with paleontology and the Paleolithic begins with a view that was once held to be within the exclusive province of the far right and that traditional conservatives embracing anti-abortion agendas avoided.  

Before he launched his political career and was an ardent right wing talk show host in Southern California, future Congressman Robert Dornan let it be known that, while he opposed abortion, he made exceptions in the areas where rape and incest were factors.

Americans have been rallied and media blitzed to go to war in Vietnam as well as in Iraq.

The "war cry" has been to bring democratic rule, and it has worked powerfully.  Marches and parades with flag flying enthusiasts have rallied the troops to war most effectively.  Count on the U.S. war machine to go into high gear, along with accompanying high profits.

John McCain would like us to believe that when Georgia invaded South Ossetia, we should congratulate Georgia for pouncing on Ossetia that wants to remain an independent state backed by Russia.  McCain went so far as to say, "We should all become Georgians!"

Does that sound like someone respecting democracy?

No sooner does Barack Obama in his historic acceptance speech accuse John McCain of being "clueless" about the basic issues confronting a U.S. president than the Arizona senator makes a choice validating this charge.

It is significant that a snap poll on the Washington Post Online consisting of more than two thousand respondents labeled the choice of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as poor by a 49-42 percent margin over those who thought the selection to be good.

Last night after Obama's dramatic speech the only comment McCain could summon was that the senator from Illinois was still not prepared to serve as president.  Less than twenty-four hours later he jolts the political establishment, including angering two prospective nominees for vice-president, Mitt Romney and Tim Pawlenty, who reportedly felt used, by selecting a running mate largely unknown outside Alaska.

The 72-year-old McCain had sighted overall experience as an important barometer for both tickets as he criticized Obama.  

Barack Obama overcame huge underdog odds to score a surprising victory in the Democratic Party presidential primary battle due in no small measure to brilliant oratorical skills and a sagacious precinct captain's political instincts.

During a political period shaped by that fascinating new creature, the Internet, the Illinois senator showed that he has the finesse and instinct to frame issues and bring the successful American mainstream into the fold in the tradition of three of the Democratic Party's most brilliant politicians.

Those skills took Franklin Delano Roosevelt, John Fitzgerald Kennedy and William Jefferson Clinton to the presidency and Obama proved tonight that he is part of that tradition.

In this new Internet era of the early twenty-first century the word "framing" has become of primary significance as shorthand for dotting the I's and crossing the T's of voters in search of electoral success.  Tonight Barack Obama demonstrated before a shouting throng of 75,000 in Denver and a huge audience of viewers throughout the world his thorough mastery of political delivery.

Why is it that Iraq, Afghanistan and Georgia, where oil pipelines run across these nations, is where U.S. interests lie?

Has our foreign policy degenerated into who controls the oil?  If that is the case, it means that big business is in charge.

However, the new reality of Bush's latest move seems to illustrate vividly what dictates U.S. foreign policy at this strategic moment in U.S. history.

A headline in the August 27 USA Today on the world news page read in bold black print:

As a mother and now a professional, can someone please enlighten me or set me straight on this about Alaska's Sarah Palin.

If a mother gives birth on April 18 and now has a 4-month old, can she do mothering and be a campaigner for highest office?

Become a veep who is ready there to handle world crises and step into the role of running the country? Mother of an infant child?

John McCain's speech and policy constructs on Global Warming have gotten a bit of attention from the Energy Smart blogging world. The following are few of the worthwhile discussions to date.

Wonkroom's McCain Wants it Both Ways on Global Warming: Ends up attacking his own plan highlights the contradictions inherent in John McCain's messaging, trying to create an appearance that he represents a middle way between Global Warming deniers and a strawman of those pursuing "crippling regulation".  What is a McCain example of crippling regulation?  Increasing energy efficiency in building codes. Message John:  this is profitable path toward change.  That radically liberal group, the business consulting firm McKinsey and Company, "has found that mandatory energy efficiency standards, far from being crippling, overcome present market failures and policy distortions and can drive massive return on investment. Is McCain calling McKinsey "extreme"?"

UPDATE 8/30:

Original cortex post (before the Gallup update)>>

Obama 4 points up, or all tied up?

USAToday buried the headline. The poll number finding from last weekend (before the convention hooplah) with Obama ahead – is below.

Obama holds a 47%-43% edge over McCain among registered voters and a 48%-45% edge among likely voters.

[In the USA TODAY/Gallup Poll a month ago, Obama led McCain by 3 percentage points, but McCain held a 4-point lead among likely voters.]

And Obama is pulling a few points higher than this now following the Dems confab and coverage of Denver.

Amid skyrocketing oil, gasoline, coal, and electricity (coming to a neighborhood near you) prices, 2008 offers Americans quite serious and stark choices between knowledgeable, impassioned, and thoughtful candidates when it comes to findaing paths toward a prosperous 21st century economy, on the one side, and Fossil-Fool candidates focused on tightening our shackles to the ever-more costly (pollution, financial, otherwise) and archaic oil-coal based energy system.

Possum was an easy, albeit sentimental, choice for membership in the ranks of the Energy Smart Act Blue page.  A fellow blogger, concerned about energy and environmental issues, who has dedicated himself to Crashing the Gate to bring more sensible policy-making, including on energy and global warming, to Washington, DC.

Join me after the fold for some indications as to why.

Dear David Broder,

You sir, are a role model.  You are widely known and well-regarded as both "the dean of political journalists" and as a Pulitzer-prize winning author.  I'm sure you agree this status compels you to follow the highest ethical standards of your profession.  

As a member of The Society of Professional Journalists, you also know you are obligated to follow their Code of Ethics.  It is with dismay I note you apparently violated many of these important ethical principles in your recent column, A Way Back to the High Road?  

After reviewing the attached list of particulars, I hope you will promptly correct these mistakes, thereby avoiding permanent damage to your reputation and credibility.

Al Gore gave us a momentous challenge this past Thursday by calling upon us to have the same spirit that birthed this nation to address the climate crisis and make no mistake about it, this is just as much an issue of Democracy as it is an economic, environmental, or national security issue.

In April Thomas Sowell, a respected conservative scholar, wrote an insidious column undercutting Barack Obama and attacking preemptively the presumptive stupidity and gullibility of an American electorate that would elect him President simply to make a little history. (http://www.townhall.com/col umnists/ThomasSowell/2008/0 4/29/an_old_newness )  

This would not be particularly noteworthy were Sowell not an African American, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, a "conservative think tank" located on the campus of Stanford University, one of the nation's leading research universities.  Over the years, Hoover salved the wounds and offered succor to some deeply troubled (and in trouble too) conservatives, among them former House Speaker Newt Gingrich,  and the architect of the U.S. disaster in Iraq, who Germany has indicted for war crimes, the former   Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

Like them, Sowell seems to be exceedingly bright: Howard-to-Harvard, A.B.; MA from Columbia, Ph.D. from Chicago, a full three degrees above the G.E.D. he earned in the Marine Corps after quitting high school and fleeing North Carolina at age 17.  Although a self-described "libertarian," like the zealous conservatives who surround him Sowell unhesitatingly massages information to suit his purposes.  His transparently partisan "think pieces" are routinely fraught with half-truths and re-heated reporting. Critics might say that some essays cast him as a bit of an "Uncle Tom," never mind the term itself is often recklessly misapplied and as last week as, Sowell would say, "affirmative action" is.

By Jason Miller

"God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it?"

-Nietzsche

by Mikhail Lyubansky

This is heresy I know, since most of the White majority likes to pretend that it's colorblind, but race needs to be part of the calculus in the November election for all voters. Of course, it was never not going to be part of the equation. And race is certainly part of the explicit discourse for Black voters, as it always is. My point is that it's high time white folks join in the discussion and acknowledge that it matters. Because it does.

Here's what's at stake in November: For the first time in history, there is a real possibility that "The Man" won't be White. The implications will take years to sort out, but here are some very early thoughts about why the candidate's race is important enough to influence our vote. Because the implications of a Black President are somewhat different for different identity groups, I break it down accordingly. But, and make no mistake about this, all other things being equal, having a Black President would benefit all Americans -- well almost all.

Had I not put my foot down, had I just gone along with and not said regulations were being violated, I'm sure I would still be there.  It's about doing the right thing.
-- Gina Gray, American Hero

Who is Gina Gray and why does she make us all proud?

By Jason Miller

7/26/08

For Sylvia

We have enslaved the rest of the animal creation, and have treated our distant cousins in fur and feathers so badly that beyond doubt, if they were able to formulate a religion, they would depict the Devil in human form.

-William Ralph Inge, Outspoken Essays, 1922

Blatant speciesist and self-described "liberal Republican" William Saletan recently penned a predictably narrow-minded and weakly argued anti-animal rights editorial for Slate Magazine.

Originally bowing to the will of Microsoft, Slate is now economically beholden to the Washington Post. Billed as "liberal" (which simply means they're sycophants to the filthy status quo as they call for "reform" to a hopelessly degenerate system), naturally Slate was more than happy to provide Saletan a forum for his unbridled arrogance and bigotry.

The topic below was originally posted on my blog, the Intrepid Liberal Journal.

David Iglesias is the prototype twenty first century Republican: charismatic, Hispanic, an evangelical Christian and a captain in the Navy Reserve who served for many years in the Navy's Judge Advocate General Corps ("JAG"). In  1998, Iglesias campaigned to become Attorney General of New Mexico against the heavily favored Patricia Madrid. He nearly pulled off an upset and the Republican Party took notice. In 2000, Iglesias paid his party dues and worked for George W. Bush's election.

The topic below was originally posted on my blog yesterday when the interview took place.

Shari'a is a code of law based on the Koran. In the Muslim world, many want to replace corrupt autocratic regimes with the Shari'a and establish traditional Islamic states. Western countries regard the Shari'a as a threat. Islamic parties are winning elections on it. Militants have used the Shari'a to justify acts of terrorism. Meanwhile, secular minded people find their most severe provisions repugnant.

In his latest book, The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State (Princeton University Press), Noah Feldman tells the story behind the populist movement in the Muslim world to establish the Shari'a. Feldman addresses questions about why the Shari'a is popular in spite of its harsh code and whether the Islamic state can succeed.

Americans United for the Separation of Church is sounding the alarm on the Republican "faith based" initiatives. This initiative completely violates the Constitution, particularly since to date ONLY Christian organizations have been given money.

There is no ambiguity in the line our Founding Fathers drew separating Church and State. Our Founding Fathers were very outspoken in their ideas. For example, Ben Franklin very specifically gave his opinion of government funding of religious institutions: