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.
   

Eight faces that I'm thoroughly sick of.

Ten faces that make me vomit, projectile style.

Now, the man on the stand he wants my vote,

He's a-runnin' for office on the ballot note.

He's out there preachin' in front of the steeple,

Tellin' me he loves all kinds-a people.

He's eatin' bagels

He's eatin' pizza

He's eatin' chitlins

He's eatin' bullshit!

Bob Dylan "I Shall Be Free"

I knew this would happen when they started campaigning for the 2008 election five minutes after the 2006 mid terms. I felt it coming, like the feeling I get when I eat a giant sausage sandwich with peppers and onions at midnight, I know that indigestion is in my immediate future.

I'm sick of politics, thoroughly, fed up, to the gills.... Urp!

I know, I know, being sick of politics is like being tired of living, OK so what what what do you do about it? Shut up? Quit bitching? Take up residence in the nearest hermitage? Find a cuckoo's nest and commit to it?

This week I discuss the debates (briefly), Bush's veto, Ann Coulter, and the terrible malaise Bush has placed over the Republican Party. If you visit my blog, don't forget to click on an advertiser or two since that helps me keep the blog going. As usual I also highlight local events and organizations for several states. And, if you want more political and social discussions, please check out our offerings on Culture Kitchen.

Does anyone believe that the denizens of K Street have, as of late, begun enriching the coffers of the Democratic Party because the lobbyist class now harbors a secret desire to create a system where a greater diversity of views can be promulgated? Yes, and Jack the Ripper stalked the streets of East London because he wanted to draw attention to the wretched plight of underclass women in class-stratified Victorian England.

Midterm Elections 2006: It's Always Darkest, Right Before ... It Goes Completely Black
by Phil Rockstroh

If voting could change the system, it would be illegal.
--Theodore Adorno

"I can't go on. I'll go on."
--Samuel Beckett

One's actions grow out of one's beliefs. Beliefs grow out of the ecosystem of our collective lives known as culture. In this way, cultures are organic: they germinate, sprout, grow, bloom, bear fruit, then fade in accordance with the climes and terrain of the times.

Does anyone believe that the denizens of K Street have, as of late, begun enriching the coffers of the Democratic Party because the lobbyist class now harbors a secret desire to create a system where a greater diversity of views can be promulgated? Yes, and Jack the Ripper stalked the streets of East London because he wanted to draw attention to the wretched plight of underclass women in class-stratified Victorian England.

at the cash registes of the companies that donate money to them.

We often talk about the Republican Culture of Corruption, the excessive cronyism that exists between current Halliburton Republicans and the military-industrial complex. In today's Republican party, there is the ultimate fulfillment of what President Eisenhower warned the nation against. But bad though the widespread Republican Culture of Corruption is, there is an even worse side to the modern right wing: the Culture of Intolerance and Violence.

One of the worst examples of this was the Delaware Pogrom.

Hate Crimes have been on the rise in America since 9/11, and, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, hate groups in America have increased by 33% in the past five years. A peak in attacks on Muslims after 9/11 was rapidly followed by an increase in anti-Semitism in the US and worldwide. There was a slight decline in anti-Semetic incidents in 2005, but incidents are still at disturbingly high levels.

See if any of this strikes you as familiar:

...this is more a reflection of a Democratic party that is rudderless... reflect splits within the party about what it means to be a Democrat -- and what a winning Democratic formula will be ... while Democrats have no shortage of criticism to offer, they have so far not introduced a strategy for governing...

Article after article expresses the opposite view of Republicans.  Though the recent plummet in Bush's popularity has opened some schisms between the administration and the rest of the party, Republicans are seen as being "united," and "on message," and "delivering a clear platform."

You think that's because Democrats are a big tent and Republicans are just a bunch of white guys who all think alike?  Partly right.  But what makes Republicans able to march in lockstep isn't their similarity -- it's because they've learned to exploit their differences.