Labels: obama, progessive, proud progressive

There are several reasons why I am no longer a Republican.

• The party has sold its soul to religious zealots.
  
• The party's platforms and beliefs are based on hypotheses that have been proven wrong.
  
• The party eagerly assists those who would claim righteousness while performing very unrighteous actions.
• The party has abandoned its principle of a strong national defense.
• The party accepts - worse, encourages - fiscal recklessness.
• The party climbs on the backs of entrepreneurs to promote the growth and profit of wall street's worst.
• The party has tossed accountability and personal responsibility in favor in expedience.
• The party approves of winning - saying and doing anything - at any cost.
• The party's vision extends only to the next election.
• The party is in bed with the targets of the "Southern Strategy": the latter-day racists.
  

My imaginary friend is stunned and demands an explanation. He, and you, will have to settle for understanding each of these one day at a time. Stay tuned.

Labels: do anything, no longer a republican, recovering republican, redneck racist, republican, southern strategy, strong national defense, zealotsay anything

[ the folks at the Boston Globe must have read yesterday's post ]

The Boston Globe April 13, 2008

'THE CORE of John McCain's appeal as a candidate has always been his reputation for taking positions that offend special interests. This newspaper endorsed McCain in the Republican presidential primary late last year because - to quote ourselves - he "actually levels with voters even at significant political expense." But as his quixotic candidacy grew into the Republican nomination, McCain's "straight-talk express" started going off the rails.'

The Globe's editorial goes on to say pretty much what I said yesterday: McBush's image is unwarranted. Granted they said it more succinctly and eloquently.

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2008/04/13/mccains_expediency_express/

Labels: maverick, mcbush, mccaon, straight talk

If one reads a newspaper or news magazine, or if one pays attention to the broadcast media, or wastes time on the internet....

Everyone with an opinion [ and just as with certain body orifices - everyone seems to have one ] seems to think that John McBush - George W. McCain - is a maverick. In January and February of 2008 alone, McCain was called a "maverick" more than 1,300 times in newspapers and on television. [ Source: Free Ride, by David Brock http://www.amazon.com/Free-Ride-John-McCain-Media/dp/0307279405 ]

Maverick \Mav"er*ick\, n. In the southwestern part of the united States, a bullock or heifer that has not been branded, and is unclaimed or wild. In other words, he is not beholden to anyone but himself. He doesn't follow the party line, yada, yada, yada.

That's bullock puckey.. or heifer pies. You choose.

At this point I should mention that I have always admired the former John McCain - the one who still had a soul. In 2000 I voted for him in the primaries. I admire anyone who has honorably performed military service. In McCain's case, he was also a POW - one who was tortured because of his service to the USA. That makes him a big, big man. But along the way he kept his military/POW stature, but traded his soul for the votes of the least among us.

In his 20 years in the Senate, Bush Lite has voted with his party more than 80% of the time in 17 of 20 those years. Compared to most of the lockstep Republicans - who religiously follow orders 99.9999% of the time - G.W. McCain is somewhat out of the ordinary. But "branded, unclaimed, or wild"? Hardly. His brands and wild ways pale in comparison to the defiance of Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins, Lincoln Chaffee, Arlen Spector... If we were going to hand out awards for being political mavericks of the Republican persuation, those people (and others) would be in line way ahead of McBush.

He has taken some famously contrary stands:

• He opposed the use of torture - for any reason
• He railed against Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy - BECAUSE they favored the richest few
• He co-authored [ with 'liberal' Democrat Russ Feingold ] the law for campaign finance reform
• He was an advocate for Mother Earth and her global warming problem.
• He supported regulations on the marketing of tobacco.

What a risk! The public already overwhelmingly supported those. Before getting too excited about his untamed style, consider how many times he has changed his mind on issues after he decided to take another shot at being President:

• Torture? Now torture is OK.
  
  
• A statehouse displaying a Confederate flag? He used to call it a symbol of bigotry and repression. Now it represents a state's heritage. [ Um, John... that 'heritage' is one of bigotry and repression ]
  
  
• Religious hatred?According to McBush, back then Jerry Falwell was an "agent of intolerance." Jerry Falwell - and those religious wingnuts like him - became "inspirational." [ Yes, I know that Jerry Falwell is dead. Before he died, McCain publicly physically and orally embraced Falwell. ] Now he welcomes the endorsements of the most radical and intolerant "in the name of Christ" wackos. His 'spritual advisor' proclaims that the USA was founded, in part, to destroy Islam. [ Never mind that the Western world had ignored those backwards "moos-lums" since the end of the Crusades - May 18, 1291 ]
  
  
• Tax cuts for the wealthiest 5% of Americans? Then, bad. Now, why, those are good for the economy. He again struggles with history. ALL of our prosperous periods BEGAN with tax increases. I'm not saying that tax hikes are a good thing, but tax cuts for the wealthy have never improved the economy. Did I say NEVER!? Yes, NEVER!!
  
  
• Campaign reform? He favored it for several years. The law that manages our reformed campaign financing - there's a reason why it's called "McCain-Feingold". Guess what the reason is. Fast forward to now: when his 2007-2008 campaign was struggling to raise money, he favored public funding of campaigns. However, his fund-raising is no longer stuck in neutral, and he wants to weasel his way around the CONTRACT that he signed to use taxpayer money to run for office and to ignore HIS rules about how that system works. That's a triple-whammy: he turned his back on campaign reform, personal accountability, and respect for the laws of the land. Maybe Bush Redux thinks that's what mavericks do.
  
  
• Ethanol made from Iowa corn? "Ethanol does nothing to reduce fuel consumption, nothing to increase our energy independence, nothing to improve our air quality." That was then. But, in time for the 2008 Iowa Caucuses, "I do not support subsidies, but I support ethanol and I think it is a vital alternative energy source, not only because of our dependence on foreign oil but because of its greenhouse reduction effects"
  
  
• Women's health: McCain once said, "In the short term, or even the long term, I would not support repeal of Roe vs. Wade." Now he says simply "I'm Pro-Life". He has therefore aligned himself with 'Pro-life', of course, is a code word for 'No abortion, no matter what the circumstances. No death with dignity (preventing the terminally ill from chosing when, where, and how to die). No pregnancy prevention such as sex education.' In many cases the 'pro-lifers' tack on 'No contraception.' and 'No to ANY expression of natural human sexuality except "man gets pleasure/woman gets pregnant"'.

Those qualify as pandering in my book. A real maverick stands on principle. A maverick's positions don't shift with political expediency. G.W. McCain's (in)famous "Straight Talk Express" isn't going so straight anymore.

Labels: bush lite, campaign finance reform, confederate flag, expediency, falwell, free ride, george w. mccain, heritage, maverick, mcbush, mccain-feingold, pandering, racism, torture, wingnut