The media’s self-righteous outrage in covering John Edward’s affair is so over the top that one has to wonder why it is protesting so much.  Why are the reporters and anchors so personally outraged? If they have a problem with affairs, what about McCain’s cruel and calloused ditching of his first wife, who was crippled, for a younger and richer woman?  What about that lobbyist lady friend of his that was mentioned in the New York Times?  Or who was that Ms. what’s her face with Dick Cheney on that infamous hunting trip when he shot one of his friends in the face?  

Last night I switched channels from MSNBC’s Hardball to CNN’s Wolf to Faux’s whomever (didn’t hang long enough to find out b/c I refuse to have my intelligence insulted by a bunch of water carrying bushie propagandists).  It was all the same:  John Edwards, John Edwards and then John Edwards.  Fuming, I turned off the idiot box and blasted off the following email to Hardball.

I am sure everyone has heard the economic advisor for Senator John McCain and former Texas U.S. Senator Phil Gramm’s words of wisdom last week.   Apparently Mr. Gramm is impatient with the American people and he graciously volunteered to serve as our personal life coach and economic counselor for the day.  

It sure is nice when one of our former U.S. Senators decides to descend from the bubbly stratosphere of wealth where 1% of the nation’s people reside.   Those of us below should feel blessed when a resident of this realm decides to pay us a social call.  And we should feel especially grateful when the bubble dweller decides to give us a little pep talk and reassure us about our financial well-being.  

This forthcoming General Election is a bigger battle than many of us realize and we have a hell of a lot of work to do. No more drama about Obama’s "refinements" on policies, please.  Most of what Obama has said about Iraq, for example, has been exaggerated and blown out of proportion by a McCain loving media.  The McCain campaign spouts off a Republican talking point and the media will predictably lead its political news coverage with the very same talking point.  

This election is ours to win but it also ours to lose.  It is time to climb into the trenches and get to work.  The Presidential campaign is only just beginning to get ugly.  

To ensure a strong win and mandate from the American people, the Democratic Party needs a landslide.  Otherwise, the Democratic Party and the American people will have to suffer through at least 4 more years of bitter partisan infighting and sniping.  We will be the losers again.  Nothing new will be accomplished.  Ordinary folks will continue so suffer the consequences of endless oil wars and a wretched economy run by corporate greed mongering pirates and their enablers in Congress. The war in Iraq will not end anytime soon if we have a divided Congress, either.  

A fellow former volunteer from the 2006 Barbara Radnofsky (Texas Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate)campaign sent a very interesting article to our group this morning.  It is a piece written by a  non-partisan, non-profit watch dog organization  regarding  the 94 Democrats who have had a change of heart and now support Bush’s FISA.  

Many of us have been extremely perplexed, to say the very least, as to why some of our House Democratic lawmakers would cave into an ongoing Republican assault on our civil liberties.  Sadly, it seems that one of the driving forces behind the votes may be money related.  

The article  is written by Pamela Heisey of MAPLight.org.  Below is a profile of MAPLight:

This diary is the result of a comment I posted on http://www.dailykos.com/... a troll's Diary.  That would be bethrsingleton who has finally been banned from this community.

Earlier today I had headed over to DK from the Dallas blog where I had been posting comments in response to some dumb racist right wingers on Obama.  I posted my comments and headed back here for some R&R after having been in the pathological wacko world of the right wingosphere.    However, when I noticed bethrsingleton’s diary above, for a split second, I thought I was smack back in wacko world.  The diary was very short and had little if any substance.  It was merely an attack on Barack Obama.

Retrieving my sledgehammer I posted the comment below in an effort to share my experiences in the right wingwackosphere with others in this community.  I hope others here will do likewise.    By sharing our experiences we may become more efficient in outing the trolls.  

Yesterday I noticed a piece on Raw Story ("Talk host to Obama: Preempt swift boating") http://rawstory.com/... in which GoLeft TV’s Mike Papantonio describes what he believes will be an impending swift boat attack on Barack Obama.   Papantonio fears Democrats will do what we did when Kerry was ruthlessly attacked in 2004.  Very little.

Naturally the guy behind the forthcoming smear campaign is none other than former U.S. Attorney and Rove minion, Tim Griffin.  Griffin is no small time player in the Bush world of low life fear and smear.   According to the article:

Griffin, the McCain campaign's Director of Research, brings his experience from his time as Deputy Research Director for President Bush's 2000 run. He would also serve as a legal advisor for the "Bush-Cheney 2000 Florida Recount Team" during the battle that would culminate in Bush being awarded the presidency by the Supreme Court in Bush v. Gore. Griffin would later work as aide to White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove from September 2005 to September 2006.

Carollh wrote a diary below revealing one of HRC supporters had organized the Wright event at the National Press Club yesterday.

http://www.dailykos.com/...

I have been wondering if there were any behind-the-scenes-dirty-tricks behind all of hoopla surrounding the recent Reverend Wright issue.  After all, the timing for Wright’s speeches Sunday and yesterday are potentially damaging to Senator Obama’s campaign.  I figured if there were any dirty tricks involved, they’d surely come from the McCain camp.  Not so fast.  According to Raw Story.com today, and the diary above, the organizer for the Reverend Dr. Wright’s talk at the National Press Club yesterday was organized by Ms. Barbara Reynolds.  

http://rawstory.com/...

After having watched Reverend Wright’s speech to the NAACP on CNN last night, I have to say that this evening’s coverage of the speech on MSNBC’s Hardball is over the top.  Talk about blowing something way out of proportion.  I ripped Tweety a new one tonight.  I hope others will follow suit.   Tweety’s problem, I think, is that he and his colleagues are outraged b/c Reverend Wright tacitly outed the media for serving as willing accomplices to the evil doings of our government.  The cable TV news pundits are screaming today much like Lady MacBeth did centuries ago.  None of the above can wash the blood of its sins of commission and omission from its hands.

Talk about propagandists for the right, fear mongering, hate mongering and whore mongering for the big bucks.

hardball@msnbc.com

I am as mad as hell and I am not going to take it anymore.  
Network 1976.

After watching at least 30 minutes of Obama bashing on MSNBC's Race to the White House show on Thursday night I decided to put my anger to work.   The show regularly includes guests Rachel Maddow (the lone voice of reason), John Harwood, and two right wingers, Pat Buchanan and Joe Scarborough. The two right wing boys tend to outshout the other guests and either David Gregory is unable or unwilling to turn their mics off.

It would have been helpful to the American people if the pundits in punditry land had put W. and Cheney, the two most incompetent, corrupt and morally bankrupted President and Vice President in recent history, under the same microscopic scrutiny when they were running for office and later after two elections.  

After watching the mainstream media spin Clinton's meager win in PA. as if it were a land slide and after having read some of Clinton campaign's disingenuous  myth making that is attempting to portray her as the front runner, I felt compelled to write to the DNC.  I hope many others will do likewise.

Dear DNC:
After having watched almost 24 hours of media spin and disinformation on the PA. outcome, I think it time for the DNC to step up and take charge.  HRC needed an 18-28% win to remain a viable nominee.  She won by 9.something.  After her Rovian assaults on Obama, her negatives have shot up.  Polls today indicate that 60% of Americans no longer trust her.

I am a middle aged straight voting D loyalist. I have contributed money to campaigns and have volunteered for Democratic candidates in every state in which I have lived.  I raised my only child to be involved in the political process since he was 5 years old when I would take him to the voting polls with me.  He is now a college student who will graduate next month and is an active volunteer for Senator Obama's campaign.  The energy and enthusiasm that Mr. Obama has generated within this group of young voters is inspirational.

I am sick and tired of hearing the pundits ask ad nauseum why the new kid on the block can't close the deal.  This is the right wing spin - I heard it from Mary Matalin's own mouth one Sunday on Meet the Press recently.  

The real question should be why can't HRC close the deal?  After all, she is a former First Lady of the U.S. and Arkansas, with at least 20 years of name recognition, whose spouse is a former and (was) a very popular President. HRC has been elected twice in New York as its U.S. Senator and she has vast personal financial resources, powerful friends and allies within the Democratic Party.  Mrs. Clinton also has the backing of the powerful Democratic machine in PA., her father’s roots in Scranton and the advantages of having a rock star type husband and sophisticated daughter who can actively campaign for her all of the time.
   
And yet despite her vast resources Hillary Clinton barely won Pennsylvania.
 
Worse, she had to go down into Rove's sewer to even squeak by at 10 or 8.6 or 9.whatever tiny percentage by which she won.  

And every other nightmare the Bush Administration has visited upon the American people as well as to the innocent victims in Iraq.

Yesterday on Daily Kos blogger Billary Redux revealed the Sean Hannity/George Stephanopoulos collaboration in ABC’s preparation of questions for Senator Obama.   Billary was spot on with this scoop because last night’s "debate" was a really a right-wing attack fest on Senator Obama.  

http://www.dailykos.com/...

I was able to catch most of the debate on and off last night.  I sat in profound shock during the first part of the debate.  I was sick and nearly vomited.  Is this really a Twilight Zone re-run I asked myself?

There they were.  Two moderators and one candidate had tripled teamed Senator Obama as if he were an evil enemy from a foreign land.   It was the ugliest, the most shameful and disgraceful debate I have ever watched in my middle aged life.  

I read the most extraordinary article yesterday on The Huffington Post written by Frank Schaeffer who is the son of a powerful leader of the Religious Right, the late Reverend Frances Schaeffer. Essentially Mr. Schaeffer (the son) insists Reverend Wright is being demonized for remarks that are not too unlike those expressed by his father in earlier years.  The difference of course is that Reverend Schaeffer’s remarks were considered heroic by the Republican Party of Reagan, Bush I and Ford at the time while today had the same words been spoken by Reverend Wright they would be considered treasonous.

Mr. Schaeffer points to the obvious double-standard for Reverend Wright.

When Senator Obama's preacher thundered about racism and injustice Obama suffered smear-by-association. But when my late father -- Religious Right leader Francis Schaeffer -- denounced America and even called for the violent overthrow of the US government, he was invited to lunch with presidents Ford, Reagan and Bush, Sr..

In a diary I posted on December 20 here, "Texas War Hawk Senator Cornyn a Draft Dodger?" and on December 26 on Texas Kaos "Why Texas Deserve Better than Senator Cornyn, Part I," I asserted that rubber stamp for W. and war hawk Cornyn shirked military service during the Vietnam War when he had every opportunity to serve. While a college student, he had drawn a very low draft lottery number and yet he somehow managed to hide behind a student deferment when such were not supposed to be available at the time.  Senator Cornyn likes to talk big and tall about a global war on terror as long as he and his don’t do the fighting.

This diary will disclose Cornyn’s rather interesting rise to political power in Texas.   The way I see it, Cornyn’s candidacies were essentially both enabled and purchased by a group of the Texas GOP rich, politically connected and very powerful people.

Like W., Texas U.S. Senator Cornyn did not serve in the Vietnam War.  Both men were of military age at the time and as we know, both are right wing war hawks today.  And yet neither was willing to fight in a hot war when they had every opportunity to do so.   Cornyn will blindly and routinely supports W.’s war-mongering policies each and every time, as only a true Republican rubberstamp would.    

It is apparently so easy for swaggering cowards to send others off into the killing and maiming fields.  

I find it rather interesting that Cornyn, who went through the 1971 draft lottery, managed to escape military service altogether as well as a sure ticket to the murderous rice paddies, despite the fact that he drew a very low draft number.  Cornyn drew number 28.  Numbers 0-97 were supposed to have been inducted into the military and most called would ultimately be shipped to Vietnam.   I wonder what happened to Cornyn’s peers who drew numbers 27 and 29?  Were they as lucky? What happened to them?  What are their stories?

Now that some of the Texas Taliban in DC, specifically Rove and Delay, got their slimy butts kicked out of DC, consequently and most unfortunately for Texans, the GOP Taliban are back at home in Texas to raid our Constitutional rights, freedoms and resources.  I am telling you folks, these people are a national disease.  They are desperados who realize their national gravy train has gone over the cliff and now they are fleeing back to their nesting place in order to find new venues to satisfy their addiction to money, power and greed.   There is never enough money to satisfy these vultures’ lust for cash, power and control.

The American voters got it and tossed the GOP majority out of our Congress in 2006.  The corrupted and incompetent GOP have racked up $474,727,126,173. as of 5 minutes ago in the unnecessary and immoral human calamity called Iraq.  Yesterday we learned that W. and Cheney have been lying about and misleading us on Iran’s nuclear weapon program, knowing all along that Iran scrapped its weapons program years ago.    And under the Bush Administration’s brilliant leadership our national debt now grows at $1 million per minute.  As Dennis Kucinich has recently observed "We're borrowing money from China to finance the war in Iraq."

The entire lot of the Republican Party voted for an American styled dictatorship this week, in complete and total lock step, in our very own U.S. House of Representatives.  I saw the episode unfold in real time before my very eyes on CSPAN.   The voting tallies that appeared on the TV screen informed me of the ideology that relentlessly drives the neo-conservative movement in the U.S. today.  Fact of the matter is the neo-conservative and present day Republican belief system has little in common with the bare bones of democratic principles.

This week, our esteemed Republican lawmakers voted for principles that are typically intrinsic to a fascist styled dictatorship in which accountability and oversight are conveniently non-existent.

Republican lawmakers who view the world through precisely the same lens as W. and Cheney will fight to the death (ours, not theirs, thank you) to keep the American people terrified, uninformed and stupid through under funded schools.  The Republicans, who both voted with W. and against SCHIP, and who also failed to join Democrats in overriding W’s unconscionable and contemptuous veto of the SCHIP bill has revealed its party’s true colors.  

I recently attended a meeting held by some of Harris County’s precinct officials and election judges, most of whom are extremely hard working and deeply committed volunteers.  A subset of this group has formed a committee to investigate voter suppression and integrity concerns in Harris County (Houston area).   They toil away relentlessly in a tireless attempt to guarantee equal and fair access to the county’s elections in this Tom Delay gerrymandered state.  This is no small feat given the GOP is in charge of about everything here.  The challenges the volunteers face are significant and difficult.  Fortunately for voting Democrats in Harris County, we have such committed and patriotic defenders of both our state and national Constitutional rights.  We had better hope and pray they never give up because as it stands now, our democracy here is hanging on by mere shreds.