I have decided to take up JU's top banana Dr. Guy on his suggestion that most of my blogs could serve as links to counter arguments that "all Dems are idiots." In the event some are interested, I humbly submit some excerpts:
From Draft Dodging with Honor February 10, 2004.
Having nobly or heroically performed in a war does not in itself give rise to integrity of character. Bush’s father was heroic in WWII; yet as vice president his character was questioned over the Iran-Contra Affair [ arms for hostages] and as president pardoning those involved; nevertheless, he escaped unscathed. Granted it took guts just to get into a jet, let alone flying one, but Bush W is not Rab from “Jag”; for he soon lost interest — in fairness, he did serve over five years — and went to bigger and safer endeavors. Unquestionably strings were pulled to get him this privilege; still, he was not alone as in that time there were many others — for one, Clinton hiding behind scholarly studies. However, that is not the point: the issue is that the records of his last year of duty is incoherent, and thus reflects on his character. Cleland referred this to the eighteen minute tape of the Nixon days.
Cooking The Books April 22, 2004
I was embarrassed during the 2000 campaign when the Democrats kept harping on the soaring DOW, which to the average person means very little since the books are always cooked to suit the whims of the time. The millions of modest stockholders that politicians are always heralding possess a piece of the action by pensions mainly in mutual funds which seem never to rise or fall very much. There are scandals, of course, where a corrupt company cajole employees to invest in their employer, such as Enron. I was also ticked that Gore and the Democrats had forgotten the stunning quote “irrational exuberance” put forth several years before by the Federal Reserve. Rubinomics, too, had misled the voter with the phony projection of surpluses, even though we still had a five trillion dollar debt, most of which makes the nation beholden to foreigners.
Another embarrassment was constant reminder of the twenty some-odd million jobs created during the Clinton years. This was the very same bird that parroted the seventeen million jobs Reagan created during his reign. Neither mentioned that in the main these were very low paying jobs to absorb the loss of manufacturing jobs crossing the borders or heading overseas. Voters are fish that can be counted on to take the bait and thrown onto the grill fired by cooked books.
Gross, Adjusted Gross, or Taxable Income? January 30, 2004
Wesley Clark’s tax plan bothers me — not the rolling back the windfalls for the super rich — when he proclaims that families of four with incomes of $50,000 and under will pay no taxes and every family earning beyond to $100,000 will receive a $2250 tax credit per child. This proposal only aggravates the animosity of those in favor of the Bush status quo favoring the rich but tossing peanuts to the unwashed. In one sense Bush is right on lowering the tax rate on the poor to 10%, which is what it had been before Senator Bradley pushed for “tax-reform” in the late 80s by increasing the minimal rate to 15%.
Cubans w/o a Country January 14, 2005.
747 Cubans left over from the 1980 Boatlift, were finally released from indefinite captivity after serving their crimes — from petty theft to murder. The reason for the eternal captivity was that Fidel refused to readmit them. Why not send them to Iraq as election officials or Afghanistan to work in the poppy fields?
Blue Collar Bleached October 13, 2004.
The transition from New Dealers to Reagan Democrats was easy for these tough-minded individualists to forget whence they came — unions that earned them good pay with fringes, and the G.I. Bill which facilitated home ownership and training in their trades. Still frothing at the mouth over the flower children and the despicable new left presumed to be on drugs, the blue collars faded in the turmoil of the wash and starched their work shirts with stiff opposition to anything liberal. Soon blue collar Catholics, oblivious to their own origins of fighting against prejudice, absconded from left of center what once was private family beliefs to the evangelical public arena of moral issues. Meanwhile the blue collars were so faded that they were indistinguishable from the white collars of Wall Street. Thoroughly scrubbed by the new adoptive party, the blue collars reached the cycle of no return — so washed out that “values” were more important than daily bread.
A Dishonest Look at Head Start November 9, 2003
Broder, moderate columnist, is dead wrong on the tampering of Head Start, which he himself admits is a marvelous program and its shortcoming is simply a result of total commitment. He fails to see that "fixing" it is indeed the stepping stone to wrecking what already works. Head Start suffers from the very same malaise as public education —the nation’s gross neglect of school age children in the quagmire of poverty.
Bush, The Godfather January 11, 2005.
Since the electorate could not absorb Kerry’s nuances, how will this enfranchised body fare when faced with the fine print of nuances from Wall Street when privatization is passed? I suppose, Bush the godfather, who ironically does not trust the duped on their own even to invest in a Christmas Club, will find compassion to urge the Mafioso of brokers to go easy on the poor souls..
Case for Impeachment? December 16, 2005.
The difference between Bush lies and Clinton’s is a matter of lying under oath. Clearly Bush didn’t. His only oath was to uphold the Constitution as President and Commander in chief. He had done that by going, however reluctantly, to Congress for approval, which he received regardless of the underlying nuances. Still, he did go to the UN for further acceptance, in one respect it was an ultimatum.
The irony of all this is that he did not as commander in chief need do either; for, the cease-fire of the Gulf War had been violated many times and it would have been his right to police the cease fire of an existing war, ending once and for all unending infractions with the strategy to force an unconditional surrender and unseat Saddam from power. However, a dictator’s obduracy is insufficient grounds to invade a country under these circumstances, lest Bush really look like a warmonger. Thus, he chose the path of unbelievable pre-conditioned deception in exaggerating and dramatizing the threat.
Notwithstanding this deception, it is not impeachable, even if deliberate, which it was, because Bush could easily claim that the disinformation was to confuse the enemy in Iraq, not — lest the strategy be leaked — the Congress and the American people. Nor is incompetence reason for impeachment... he is loyal to a fault to those who slavishly follow his commands and feed him misinformation on the status of combat, just as he had intensely misled them for the invasion in the first place....Accountability also is unimpeachable, even though he admits he was misled by Intelligence but would have gone to war anyway! And he would quickly point out that John Kerry said the same thing!
Class Warfare: or telling it like it is? November 18, 2005
Upward mobility has dropped dramatically since the golden years immediately following WWII and the GI Bill— thanks to college grads saddled with huge student loans and the fact there are few opportunities in an economy rigged for those of the inherited class — affirmative action for those with connections. Oh, one can argue till blue in the face that there are greater opportunities for the Horatio Algers and fall back on those who made it during the internet bubble by ignoring that these are exceedingly rare cases. But the glaring fact remains that the number of dead-end jobs have grown astronomically since the Reagan Revolution. Still, this is not a right or left matter: both progressives and conservatives have contributed to this sad state of domestic affairs by allowing the money class with its huge contributions access to legislation that protects and enhances its capital, putting the nation right back into the 20s when no one gave a damn but ever conscious of his own self-seeking gains. It was out of control then as it is now, resulting in more and more of those who are at a dead-end. Even most of the post college people trying to make a buck for themselves are stymied by huge personal debt and no well-off parents to bail them out.
Cultural & Social Values July, 11, 2004
What harm is there to the rights of NASCAR if I am indifferent to the sport? Does that mean I am automatically against big cars, and for stricter auto-emissions? And even if I am does that imply a non sequitur leading to barring auto racing — just as pro-gun alleges that gun-laws are against happy hunting? Who cares that Whoopi Goldberg jokes nastily about Bush? Does that imply that Rush Limbaugh when he is nasty to the other side should be censured, too, or for that matter relegated to the restricted airwaves of Lawrence Stern? Why should there be a dual standard of criticism — one for the President and quite another for the Presidential candidate? And is it not devastatingly symbolic that Hollywood money is from punky and funky actors, but that corporate money or private donations is somehow minted as a warranty for intelligent and benevolent politics? The misconception that liberals somehow are at war with the rich even though they are responsible for the longevity of Ted Kennedy, the nomination of Kerry and Edwards, election of John Kennedy and FDR — all of whom are or were wealthy — omits the crucial factor that these men have deep concerns for the “little” people as opposed to the wealthy in the likes of Bush, Reagan, and Cheney who champion the oligarchic investment class and no such sentiment in their midst as the Kennedy legacy: because of your gift of wealth be kind to your country.
Don’t Blame The Left December 29, 2005
At a time when Congress is attempting to work out some rather reasonable restraints on the administration’s surveillance operations, defense lawyers are throwing a monkey wrench into the fray by outlandish lawsuits and appeals in behalf of convicted terrorists. The first reaction will naturally be that liberals are in support of this countermove, which is ridiculous as it would undermine their pursuit of lightening up on the Patriot Act and surveillance.
Final Word April 17, 2005
Though most agree, including pro-choice, that abortion is a nasty process, and one who decides on it, however, is not violating life as we know it; to this woman it is the consequence that a new life would have on her who honestly feels she is not capable of facing. No other is in a position to call her flat out a murderer, but this does not rule out a pro-lifer from attempting to gently persuade the woman to do otherwise — but there it ends — even though in the final analysis the woman may suffer remorse. Nevertheless, there is no excuse for pro-lifers to infringe on others the right to condoms and preventive drugs as though all thus engaged are promiscuous villains. Abstinence is an ideal for some; sex is reality for most.
That ninety percent of Americans are worshipers do not give them the right to unravel the fibre of politics which since the age of enlightenment — Islam, too, until it shut down its philosophers — has always been secular predicated on humanism. It is worth noting here that the coarse individualist is no longer the captain of his soul as is an enlightened humanist, but rather open to cronyism, peer pressures, and radical authority bereft of reason. In this regard, it is imperative to keep in check encroaching cultism and decrepit cultural values that undermine the general will of secular laws hinged on pragmatic wisdom. There is no question that homosexuality runs across the grain of nature because it defies the law of propagation and in this sense must by reason be assessed as irrational. Yet at the same time, reason must recognize the reality of this aberration without venom and accept it for what it is without, however, encouraging such orientation. By the same token the Catholic Church, too, must give up the ghost of celibacy serving as an impetus for homosexuality within its walls. Evangelism, too must be kept in a box as it is self -evident that Jesus is not on the Supreme Court, nor did he write the Constitution.