Crandolph’s Barbaric Yawp

Link to article.

Sen. John McCain, interviewed on CBS’s "The Early Show," maintained that "one of the very big mistakes early on was that he didn’t have enough troops on the ground, particularly after the initial victory, and that’s still the case."

Sen. John Kerry, Bush’s Democratic opponent in last year’s presidential election, told NBC’s "Today" show that the borders of Iraq "are porous" and said "we don’t have enough troops" there.

Sen. Joseph Biden Jr., appearing on ABC’s "Good Morning America," disputed Bush’s notion that sufficient troops are in place.

"I’m going to send him the phone numbers of the very generals and flag officers that I met on Memorial Day when I was in Iraq," the Delaware Democrat said. "There’s not enough force on the ground now to mount a real counterinsurgency."

Biden argued, "The course that we are on now is not a course of success. He (Bush) has to get more folks involved. He has to stand up that army more quickly."

This is in response to recent polls showing a majority of Americans favoring a withdrawal from Iraq.  In other words, these 3 chuckleheads - including the recent and possible future Democratic presidential nominees - have managed to stake out a position on Iraq which is both more dangerous and less popular than that of George W. Bush.

Incidentally, here are some links to what the American-directed "real counterinsurgencies" called for by the ‘liberal’ Biden have looked like in El Salvador, Nicaragua, Vietnam, Angola, East Timor and what at times seems like half of the goddamn world.

Just a reminder, here is the Green Party of Philadelphia website.  New members always encouraged.  You’re welcome.

Nike has stolen Minor Threat/ Dischord cover art for an ad campaign.

This one is too good to be true: some libertarian-leaning folks are attempting to seize and destroy Justice David Souter’s home to make way for a hotel/museum as an eminent domain ‘economic development’ project.  It couldn’t happen to a better target and one hopes the other 4 justices who voted for this enormity will be similarly afflicted.  Perhaps once judges fear the real-life consequences of their decisions they will think a little more about how those decisions affect regular people of humble means.

Apparently no statement is too outrageous to make for the sycophants over at MoveOn when the topic is Democratic Party ‘leadership.’

After being dressed down by syndicated liberal columnist Norman Solomon for abandoning their anti-war base, and following recent polling that as many as 60% of Americans of all political backgrounds want out of Iraq, the Silicon Valley millionaires who run the site have decided to start mentioning Iraq again.

I really do have to quote this dispatch from MoveOn dated June 23:

‘Should we work together in a major campaign to get Democrats and Republicans in Congress on board with a responsible exit plan? Or should we focus on other issues, either in Iraq or here at home?"

Well, if that isn’t leadership I don’t know what is.  After raising millions of dollars from anti-war Americans and organizing millions of people for a slate of candidates who wished to raise 40,000 additional troops for war last year (while doubling Special Forces), MoveOn is now wondering aloud whether or not to do anything about Iraq now that a majority of the public is finally on our side!

It gets ‘better,’ from the same dispatch:

“Polling shows that nearly 60% of Americans say they oppose the Iraq war—including half who say it was a mistake. At the same time, Republican critics of the war grow by the day. Democrats are beginning to speak out. House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi called Iraq a "grotesque mistake" and Senate Leader Harry Reid called Bush policy, "disconnected from the reality on the ground."

None of that has stopped Pelosi from directing the House Democrats to vote overwhelmingly (we’re talking a 20:1 ratio here) in favor of the Bush war budget, Bush Homeland Security budget, Bush special Iraq-specific war appropriations bill and Bush intelligence budget.  Scroll down in this very blog for the gruesome details.  This is "beginning to speak out?"  Spare me.

Anti-choice zealot Senator Reid (D-NV) has also voted for these appropriations, and in fact the entire complement of Democratic Senators voted unanimously in favor of the FY 2006 Bush war budget with a rider that pushes this country to establish a national ID card for its own citizens.  The painful details surrounding that are also available in this blog, below.

Even more damning, Pelosi just voted against a milquetoast Iraq resolution request which the House defeated 128-300.  She countered with an even weaker fence-sitting proposal of her own, which I’ll allow her own press release to describe:

"“Specifically, my amendment would require that the President, within 30 days of the enactment of the defense appropriations bill, submit to Congress a report identifying the criteria that will be used to determine when it is appropriate to begin to bring our troops home from Iraq. It does not require the troops to be brought home by a particular date; it requires only that the means for judging when they can be brought home be shared with the Congress." (emphasis mine)

Keep in mind that this woman is supposed to be providing leadership in an opposition party.  She can’t bring herself to do that even after the public opinion tide has already turned.

The primary "speaking out" Pelosi has done lately regarding the Middle East has been to join in threatening Iran-with-a-terminal-N, that problematic larger Muslim country east of Iraq,  on behalf of Israel, which she did before the powerful foreign lobby AIPAC.  Some might question the parlaimentarian leader of a major political party giving a lauditory speech to a group currently facing espionage charges against her own country, but not Pelosi.  Some of her charming prose:

"There are those who contend that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is all about Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.  This is absolute nonsense. In truth, the history of the conflict is not over occupation, and never has been: it is over the fundamental right of Israel to exist."

Holy cow.  That would sure be news to Israeli peace groups who insist that the occupation is the issue.  It gets better; we need a scapegoat:

"The greatest threat to Israel’s right to exist, with the prospect of devastating violence, now comes from Iran. For too long, leaders of both political parties in the United States have not done nearly enough to confront the Russians and the Chinese, who have supplied Iran as it has plowed ahead with its nuclear and missile technology."

Iran poses no such threat to Israel,not that this should be, in any event, the driving force behind US foreign policy.  It is, in fact, Israel which has the capability of incinerating all of Iran’s population centers with nuclear weapons.  In fact a charming Israeli hawk saying noting this runs "The Arabs have the oil, but we have the match!"  Hardy-har.  (For the record, Iranians aren’t even Arabs.)  Considering this and the fact that the U.S., with the world’s largest nuclear arsenal, has already overthrown an elected Iranian government, one can hardly react with surprise that Iran wants a toy of their own.

Pelosi reaffirms her allegiance to a foreign power:

"America’s commitment to the safety and security of the State of Israel is unwavering.   America and Israel share an unbreakable bond: in peace and war; and in prosperity and in hardship."

This wasn’t quite enough:

"In the words of Isaiah, we will make ourselves to Israel ‘as hiding places from the winds and shelters from the tempests; as rivers of water in dry places; as shadows of a great rock in a weary land.’  The United States will stand with Israel now and forever. Now and forever."

Lower curtain, cue applause.

Pelosi shared the stage with evil neo-con Richard Perle and the disgusting carpetbagging Senator Hillary Rodham-Clinton (D-IL/AR/DC/NY): read on if you dare.

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Also of interest is this item, posted on Answers.com, on the relationship between MoveOn and Groundswell Sierra:

MoveOn has also thrown its unquestioning support to a group called "Groundswell Sierra," which advocates that the Sierra Club moderate its positions to appeal to the center-right, opposes board candidates with the most progressive positions such as Ed Dobson and Karyn Strickler (2004) and Jim Bensman (2005), and endorses conservative candidates for the Sierra Club board, including an elected Republican official from North Carolina. This would seem to contradict Wes Boyd’s own statements.

The DNC toadies MoveOn and self-bashing Philadelphia gay group Liberty City Democratic Club have launched an Anybody But Santorum ship which should fare every bit as well as the S.S. Anybody But Bush did in 2004 and the H.M.S. Titanic did on her maiden voyage.

When these folks say Anybody But…, which suggests maximum choice, what they actually mean is the totalitarian Nobody But…, the blanks filled in with the names "John Kerry" and "Bob Casey, Jr."

Senator Kerry is still actively opposing gay marriage, even just within the State of Massachusetts, which is what the sexual minority lobbying groups have earned from the Democrats in exchange for being a loyal voting block which donated millions to the Kerry campaign in 2004.  This isn’t even to mention the barring of transgendered-supportive language in the 2004 party platform (note how the headline and conclusion of the article to which I link directly contradicts its contents!) and President Clinton’s ruinous and craven "Don’t Ask Don’t Tell" policy (one cooked up while Democrats held the White House and both Houses of Congress; the excuse being..?).  DADT should be contrasted with the actions of President Truman regarding military racial discrimination back in the 1940s; Truman was hardly some sort of radical, and African-Americans were hardly giving the sort of money to the Democrats that the gay lobbies do now.  As for votes, well, the average African-American of the day simply couldn’t.  Compare and contrast, friends.

So much for the recent past, now we look to the future and the 2006 PA Senate race… which appears likely to pit rabidly Catholic anti-gay, anti-abortion Senator Rick "Lube and Feces" Santorum (R-PA) against rabidly Catholic anti-gay, anti-abortion Bob Casey, Jr.  Casey is the son of contraversial former [rabidly Catholic anti-gay, anti-abortion] PA Governor Bob Casey, Sr., now deceased.  Casey’s primary qualifications appear to be his father’s name, and his extensive connections to the corrupt and frequently ineffective statewide Democratic party chiefs.  The generally unpopular Casey Jr. ["struck out"/"went off the rails with his train"] against reporter-choking, death warrant-signing Ed Rendell in the last gubernatorial primary.

(For those keen on irony and hypocrisy, Rendell signed one of his 38-and-counting death warrants specifically because choking a woman, as a particular perp did, is held to be an especially heinous murder technique!  If pattern-seeking is more your thing, consider that Ed is not the only PA politician with this nagging citizen-choking habit.)

Casey then rode the family name and Kerry coattails to the State Treasurer’s position just last year, and started the position which he is immediately campaigning to leave in late January 2005.  For some reason this isn’t being discussed as odd or irresponsible.

In case you forget what Dad Casey was like:

"A fierce pro-life advocate, Casey refused to campaign for candidates (even Democrats) who supported abortion rights - including his own lieutenant governor - when he sought to succeed Casey. In 1992, Casey refused to endorse Democratic presidential nominee Bill Clinton due to his stance on the issue, and as a result was denied the opportunity to speak at that year’s Democratic National Convention."

How was Dad Casey originally elected to office, anyway?

"After a decade practicing law, Casey made a fourth bid for governor in 1986, billing himself as the "real Bob Casey" to distinguish himself and make light of the mistaken identity follies of the past. Dubbed "the three-time loss from Holy Cross" by detractors, Casey hired James Carville and Paul Begala to his campaign staff, two then-generally unknown political strategists.

Unlike his three previous tries, Casey won the Democratic primary, defeating Philadelphia district attorney (and future governor) Ed Rendell. He then faced Thornburgh’s lieutenant governor, William Scranton III in the general election. The race was considered too close to call until the week before the election, when the Casey campaign staff, led by Carville, launched the now infamous "guru ad" which attacked Scranton’s practice of transcendental meditation. The ad campaign depicting Scranton as a "dope smoking hippie," complete with 1960’s-era pictures of the lieutenant governor wearing long hair, a beard, and tie-dyed clothing. Casey defeated Scranton by a razor-thin margin of 79,000 votes."

I see, then, he won by bashing experimental religious practice and the flower of social liberalism.  Fantastic.

But at least the old man toed the Catholic line all the way and opposed the death penalty.  We’ll take it.  Same with the son, right?

"Casey, like his father, is a devout Catholic and opposes abortion. However, he has drawn fire from some Catholics over his support of capital punishment, which his father opposed."

Casey has also found time to oppose stem cell research and has no particular problem with the Iraq war.  So we’re essentially talking about a reverse Panglossian situation in which Casey Jr., drivin’ that train high-on ordained, is the Worst of All Possible Worlds.  "Penn-syl-vania, better watch your speed…"

Now, here’s the kicker:

MoveOn and Liberty City have already announced that they’re lined up behind Casey in 2006, even though the Democratic primary is a year away.  It gets worse: There is a completely liberal, untainted candidate running against Casey in the primary, Chuck Pennacchio.  Follow the link to his website.  He is pro-choice and supports full rights for sexual minorities.  He also opposes the Iraq War, which is of course the majority position now in America.

MoveOn sent out an email last week to their Pennsylvania mailing list downplaying Pennacchio and building up Casey the only possible way an organization that sucks money and time away from the liberal grassroots could - by completely avoiding Casey’s positions on all relevant federal issues.  What a bunch of turds.

As for Liberty City, this was in the most recent edition of City Paper:

Democrats running against Santorum include conservative Democrat Bob Casey Jr., currently the state treasurer, and Chuck Pennacchio, a pro-choice liberal. Despite his opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage, Casey will likely get a lot of the gay and lesbian vote in both the primary and the general election.

"I see it as more of an anti-Santorum vote than anything," said Michael Marsico, Liberty City co-chairman, when asked about Casey’s socially conservative views. "We can work with Casey."

Now, Marisco was one of the drunken half-wits from Liberty City who screamed and spit at me and members of my volunteer corps while successfully collecting signatures for ballot access last year at Equality Forum.  Apparently he can’t work with me even as I campaigned on a platform of full equality and respect, but as a loyal Democrat he can work "with" (I believe the operable preposition is "for" if not "under") any rabid homophobe the party machinery sends his way.  Mikey Boy’s problem with me was that he feared my candidacy would take votes away from, and I’m not making this up, I have witnesses, the aforementioned John Kerry!  Liberty City were in fact giving out Kerry stickers at the event, in between mimosas, and I would refer the reader to the beginning of this article to see what good that did them.

Philadelphia’s shitty City Paper has put the boot into "fringe candidates like Charles Pennacchio" before and probably will again.  It seems the local ‘alternative’ press would rather write people off on behalf of an ineffective and corrupt machine than stand and fight for their supposed beliefs by giving an honest citizen running for office some respectful press.  What a rag.

The Big Tent of the Democratic Party is big to admit socially weak groups of people who exchange their time and money for a total lack of influence, a situation that has grown so tragicomic that the component groups have become trained to request not a damn thing in their own best interest, not even in their own party’s primary.  Organ grinders would give their eye teeth to get that kind of training out of a marmoset.

Who just won public kudos from the animal rights movement?  Our very own far-right Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA), a man whose name is synonymous with… well, let’s face it, with "the frothy mix of lube and fecal matter that is sometimes the byproduct of anal sex."  Or, failing that, opposition to abortion and homosexuality (a strange combination to oppose when you think about it, no?).  I have to say it’s good to see that in some small way the man is not totally, cartoonishly evil, in the manner of Lucifer or Henry Kissinger, and is perhaps only 99% or so of the way there.  There are only so many of those public figures a body can track at once.

You very well may have seen this news item already.  Did you note that all of the stories reference his 2 year old German Shepherd named Schatzie [sic]?  For those who haven’t had the benefit of 3 years of high school German with a native instructor (somehow I was able to do this in Philadelphia public school), a months-long tour of Germany for work and a brief relationship with a young German woman, Schatzi is a term of endearment.  In the colloquial it roughly means "sweetie," although I believe it to be derived from the word for "sparrow."  It also happens to be a "European" (read: "Teutonic" … read: "jackbooted") restaurant in California with a bizarre Ahnold association and stranger website.  Funny name for a dog that can bring you down by the arm with the intent of getting you in an ideal position to rip out your throat.

Don’t get me wrong, I happen to have grown up with German Shepherds and find most of them to be wonderful pooches.  They can be as affectionate as any other dog, and are extremely smart, loyal and, erm… protective.  I’d be tempted to suggest the cliche that anyone who loves this breed to the point of naming his own something cute "can’t be all bad," but the fact of the matter is that we have historic evidence which fails to support that assertion.  It’s the cutsie-pie German nomenclature that has me a little worried.  I mean, I’m partially German-American myself, but we never named a dog something along the lines of Kommandant Klink.

John D. Loudermilk is probably best known for Indian Reservation (The Lament of the Cherokee Reservation Indian) but in light of the Supreme Court’s lamentable eminent domain decision I bring you his…

In the course of last year’s rough congressional race I had the extreme good fortune to meet Mr. John A. Murphy a few times at various panels and conferences at which one or both of us spoke.  Murphy is a tireless democracy and anti-war activist with a commanding intellect and speaking style, one who doesn’t suffer fools gladly and who has zero tolerance for mincing quasi-liberals standing in the way of change.  His keen eye for hypocrisy, willingness to speak honestly about the issues and devastating wit make him one of my favorite political figures/commentators.

A few months ago Murphy called me to discuss the (written and unwritten) rules and process for ballot access in a PA congressional race.  I’m happy to say that my brutally frank description of the situation has left him undaunted and that he will be running as a Green for PA’s 16th Congressional District in 2006.  May he have ample opportunity to skewer the competition in as many public forums as possible!  Murphy is also involved in the most important domestic endeavor in which citizens of this commonwealth could be involved, the Pennsylvania Ballot Access Coalition.  Please visit the link and join the fight.

CounterPunch published a piece by Murphy today, a dissection of the Pennsylvania Democrats’ $4,000,000+ series of anti-democratic lawsuits and dirty tricks against the Nader 2004 campaign.  Not a single elected Democrat at any level made a peep about these and similar actions in over 30 states, preferring instead changing Illinois law and looking the other way in Florida to aid George W. Bush get on the ballot in those states after the Republicans somehow missed certification and filing deadlines.

Where to begin ranting against the two recent vicious Supreme Court decisions in favor of municipal eminent domain seizures and against medical marijuana for the terminally ill?  These were two low, mean decisions calculated to hurt people when they are down, afflicting the afflicted and only comforting the self-righteous and comfortable.

Note that it was SC ‘liberal’ John Paul Stevens who penned the two vicious decisions for the slight court majorities, which in both cases were opposed by Reagan appointee Sandra Day O’Connor writing the dissent.  O’Connor wrote more eloquently on the ability of money to affect the political process and rights of the individual to live in peace than anything I’ve seen out of the Democratic Party in decades.  One wonders, between Ron Paul’s consistent anti-Bush voting record and these two recent decisions, if honest conservatives (real ones mind you) aren’t our best hope of escaping this dark era with some rights left intact.  There don’t seem to be any liberals in positions of authority with any spine nor taste for a fight.

Alexander Cockburn beat me to the punch on ranting, and I suggest you read his excellent short column on the decisions and follow the George Corsetti links as he was an eyewitness to the destruction of Detroit’s Poletown on behalf of GM.

On the marijuana for the terminally ill/pained/nauseous front, the court’s ‘liberals’ again turned their back on decency, legislative process, privacy rights and mercy and kicked the sick while down.  Disgraceful is a word which comes to mind.  Once again O’Connor had to write the dissent, quoting Madison and citing legislative process.  What time is it when Reagan appointees are the ones making the most sense?  The real world impact of this decision is already kicking in in California,  where the federal raids have begun of previously legal pot clubs for the seriously ill.

All of this is to be remembered the next time a dedicated Democrat starts lecturing you about the need to vote for some corporate mediocrity because of the great job the party has done in stocking the federal courts.

It’s just a running joke anymore, isn’t it?  Vote tally.

With over 60% of Americans opposing the Iraqupation at long last, Congress continues to act as if they’re appropriating funds for fighting Emporer Tojo on December 8, 1941.

Dissecting the corpse of representative democracy, we find a scant 17 Democrats joining 2 Republicans in opposing the Bush war budget, which for those keeping track is some $409,000,000,000 (borrowed and needing to be repaid with interest).  This is far and away the largest discretionary federal budget item, depriving the American people of decent spending in just about every other budget area as well as tax relief when appropriate.  Needless to say the entire Philadelphia ‘liberal’ complement of piss-poor faux representatives voted to beggar America’s cities and poor on behalf of the war machine.  A great big sloppy wet kiss to Reps. Brady, Schwartz and Fattah for that.

Bernie Sanders voted for the war budget as well, severely tarnishing his star in my eyes.  This rightward turn appears to be tied to his Senate bid, so as not to be painted a peacenik freak next year.  We don’t need this sort of chickenshit cop-out now, Bernie!  This behavior is just pathetic; on top of everything else, it’s not as if a handful of right-leaning votes will erase whatever criticism of the proud record he had which his opponent(s) have in store.  Sanders may be aping the patented Democratic formula (taking a craven position on a hot-button issue while selling out your constituents in exchange for tactical stupidity) in order to win favor with the party, which has not warmed up to him.