Kindred Spirits

From Obama '08

"There is Nothing Off the Table" (John McCain)

We don't have to do a thing.
McCain is doing everything for us!
He will flip-flop his party until there's no more breath left to sustain it.

Anti-Choice is Murder

I added a long post to Swiftspeech based on Bushit' recent rant to outlaw not only abortion, but contraceptives. (Strangely, he made no mention of vasectomies. Never was good at speaking in public.) I particularly resonate with Ayn Rand's quote. Bushit's policies are akin to putting reproductive rights for both men and women back 100 years.

What's next? Will women lose their hard-earned right to vote? I wish I were being facetious, but given the vicious conservativism that characterizes our current political, sociological, and diplomatic blunders, I find myself unsure.

I cannot project the degree of hatred required to make those women run around in crusades against abortion. Hatred is what they certainly project, not love for the embryos, which is a piece of nonsense no one could experience, but hatred, a virulent hatred for an unnamed object...Their hatred is directed against human beings as such, against the mind, against reason, against ambition, against success, against love, against any value that brings happiness to human life. In compliance with the dishonesty that dominates today's intellectual field, they call themselves 'pro-life.'

— Ayn Rand

Capitalists—Abortion Profile

The capitalist view encompasses positions with which I vehemently disagree, but also provide choice reading on point at this site that answers the: Question: What is the essential political issue concerning abortion?

Dated, but on point...

McDumb As Bush

Apt Truthiness...

From Bad President, the calendar...

God Wants Me To Be Vice President

Predict John McCain’s Veep Selection!

Test your claims to punditry. Predict who the McCainster is going to choose to possibly save his GOP bacon!

One prediction to a customer. Winner’s or winners’ name or names will be posted (Linked to your site!) in the right margin for one month.

{your name here}

Pundit of the Month

Contest runs until 31^st July or McCain’s announcement, which ever comes first! So don’t procrastinate!!

Prime candidates are listed below in 1^st comment, but there’s nothing to stop you from writing in a candidate.

Go for it! You have nothing to lose but your pundit rating!

McCain is not Bush III!

Bush was McCain I & II!

From The Economist of March 2002, the real truth is revealed:

Back then, the two men appeared to have nothing in common... in 2000 ... the biggest differences between Bush and McCain were in foreign policy. The Arizona senator campaigned for a policy of “rogue-state rollback”— by which he meant preventing disruptive small-country dictators getting their hands on weapons of mass destruction, if necessary by arming the local opposition. Mr McCain was the only candidate on either side to promote this theme, and hardly anyone took him seriously. Mr Bush, in contrast, talked about managing great-power relationships and repairing the damage done to America's ties with China, Russia and Europe after, as he saw it, eight years of Clintonian inconsistency. Mr McCain spoke stirringly or scarily, according to how you see these things, about “national greatness”. Mr Bush called soothingly for greater humility in projecting American power abroad...

Yet, if you look at the ideas that currently animate Mr Bush's presidency, they are about as McCainiac as you can get without having spent five years as a Vietnamese prisoner-of-war... In his state-of-the-union speech in January, Mr Bush... delivered his famous warning on the “axis of evil”, rhetorically reformulating Mr McCain's “rogue-state rollback”.

Suddenly, “national greatness conservatism”—Mr McCain's amour fou—has become the passion of the White House too ..... Despite his [2000] defeat, he laid much of the groundwork for Mr Bush's post-September presidency ..... This transformation contains an irony and a question. The irony is that, because the president dominates his party in a way the maverick Mr McCain could never have done, Mr Bush has proved a better spokesman for McCainiac ideas than Mr McCain could ever have been...

Drown in Hell: Bush Rescinds Father's Offshore Oil Ban

President Bush yesterday lifted a presidential ban on offshore oil drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf that was implemented by his father, escalating a confrontation with Democrats in Congress over how to cope with soaring gas prices.
...
Business groups widely hailed Bush for lifting the presidential ban and pointed to estimates by federal geologists that there may be as much as 17.8 billion barrels of oil in areas currently off limits. But some oil companies have conceded that limits on skilled manpower and drilling equipment would make it difficult to increase offshore drilling in the near future. Oil company executives have said they would most likely focus on the eastern Gulf of Mexico if the moratorium is lifted.

The move by Bush addresses an issue already being disputed in the presidential campaign. Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), the presumptive GOP nominee, has endorsed opening more of the Outer Continental Shelf for exploration. The expected Democratic nominee, Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), opposes lifting the moratorium.

Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton said yesterday that Bush's proposal "would merely prolong the failed energy policies we have seen from Washington for 30 years."

But McCain argued, "If we can show that we have significant oil reserves off our coasts, that will clearly affect the futures market and affect the price of oil."

The presidential ban has been in effect since June 1990, when President George H.W. Bush issued a directive to the Interior Department limiting offshore drilling to areas off the coast of Texas, Louisiana, Alabama and limited parts of Alaska. In 1998, President Clinton extended the order through 2012.

Bush says offshore drilling could yield up to 18 billion barrels of oil over time, although it would take years for production to start. Bush also says offshore drilling would take pressure off prices over time. In addition, the president has proposed opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for drilling, lifting restrictions on oil shale leasing in the Green River Basin of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming and easing the regulatory process to expand oil refining capacity.

Senator Boxer retorts: "Today, President Bush is giving another gift to the oil companies that will do not one thing to lower gas prices for the American people. This proposal is something you'd expect from an oil company CEO, not the President of the United States."

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Pappa Bush needs to take that wayward son over his knee and slap some sense into him, if that's at all possible. This blundering idiot won't even listen to his father who, by the way, insisted that General Schwarzkopf not invade Bagdahd. I consider this a disgrace on par with invading Iraq. He is committing environmental genocide and doesn't know or care. What kind of America is this when Bush, Sr. is starting to look "not so bad" by comparison to his mentally challenged offspring?

While We Surge in Iraq, Afghanistan Is Going down the Toilet

A Massive Prison Escape in Kandahar for Taliban Fighters

1,000 fugitives, including around 400 Taliban militants, were freed from captivity. In the Taliban's most sophisticated operation yet, two months in the planning rockets, truck bombs and suicide bombs were used in a 30 minute battle. in the same 24-hour period, four US soldiers were killed when a roadside bomb exploded in western Afghanistan.

"Too many OB-GYNs aren't able to practice their love with women all across this country"

I stole this post from my co-blogger Wednesday, and here we are fighting the same fight from the 1950s. Face it, folks, when it comes to women's rights, we live in a regressive society.

Just in case McCain doesn't pan out...

"The Bush administration is developing a regulation that would define abortion as "any of the various procedures -- including the prescription, dispensing and administration of any drug or the performance of any procedure or any other action -- that results in the termination of the life of a human being in utero between conception and natural birth, whether before or after implantation," the New York Times reports. The draft proposal leaked to the Times also would require all recipients of aid from HHS to certify they will not refuse to hire health care workers who object to abortion and certain types of birth control.

According to the Times, to receive funding under any program administered by HHS, researchers, clinics, medical schools and hospitals would have to sign "written certifications" that they will not discriminate against people who object to abortion or certain contraception..."

[Continues]

Yes, and then there's that pesky Equal Rights Amendment...

Bush's Missile Shield Is Not Needed in Europe

Iran this week test-fired missiles which it said were capable of reaching Israel and U.S. bases in the Middle East. Washington says the shield in Europe is needed to defend against any missile attacks from countries such as Iran.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov sees it differently:

The tests in Iran have only confirmed that Iran at the moment has rockets with a range of up to 2,000 km (1,243 miles). That confirms what we have said before ... That is that the current idea of deploying a U.S. ... missile shield in Europe, with its parameters, is not needed to monitor and react to these particular rockets with this range ... We continue to be convinced of the invented nature of discussions about the Iranian rocket threat as a motive for the deployment of the missile shield in Europe ... Overall we are in favour of any problems which are linked to Iran being resolved through negotiations, political and diplomatic methods, by bringing Iran into a mutually respectful and concrete dialogue ... Not through threats that are voiced periodically .....

World leadership has devolved from Washington.

What's the Plan?

T. Bone Pickens says:

The Swiftspeech Award

This bumbling bloganthology, whose name capriciously changes, has received some highfalutin award from Swiftspeech. The award is called the Arte de Pico. It looks silly to me. In itself, it matters nothing. I have never heard of it. What carries weight, which will weigh a ton, is that Swiftspeech has even acknowledged The Message.

Swiftspeech is on the other side of the spectrum: creatively, artistically, aggressively, courageously, pounding out the gawdless liberal truth on multiple fronts each day. To truly merit this prestigious Swiftspeech Award in the future should truly challenge all of our collective talents and energies. I proudly accept the Arte de Swiftspeech award on behalf of my fellow mediocre bloggers on staff.

Stella, from Swiftspeech, is welcome to a page on this site (not that she needs it!) anytime she emails me. I cannot find her email or I would send her a Blogger Invitation today.

Independance Day Greetings From....

Baghdad!
Large crowds of Shiites on Today denounced the security pact Baghdad is negotiating with Washington for a long-term US military presence in violence-wracked Iraq.

In Baghdad's Sadr City, the bastion of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, Shiite men, women and children shouted anti-American slogans as they demonstrated against the security deal after the weekly Friday prayers.

Protests against the security agreement reverberated across all Shiite regions of Iraq. In the central town of Kufa, protesters chanted anti-US and anti-Israel slogans. Devotees shouted,

No to America! No to Israel! We reject signing the agreement with the occupation.

Bush Had to Invade Iraq...

Richard Engels, My Five Years in Iraq