Happy Turkey Day!
As we Americans today gather with family to enjoy a day off of work (at least for some of us) and to enjoy a lovely Thanksgiving dinner, we should pause to give thanks for all that we have. Here is a short list of things that I am truly thankful for:1. I am thankful for Virginia voters looking past the insane negative campaigning of Jerry Kilgore, and having the decency to elect Democratic candidate Tim Kaine. Kilgore ran a series off negative ads against Kaine since morally he is against the death penalty. One such ad, featured a woman sitting in a chair in a darkened room with her saying, “When Tim Kaine calls the death penalty murder, I find it offensive, and I don’t trust Tim Kaine to uphold that law.”
Despite that Virginia has the country’s second highest execution rate (right behind Texas), Virginia voters didn’t take kindly to the Republican dirty trick. As it turned out, The Washington Post found that two in three Virginia voters said the ad was “unfair”, and even 60% of those who favored the death penalty said the ads crossed the line. And even though that President Bush stopped by to campaign hard for Kilgore, on Election Day over 100,000 more Virginia voters signed onto the Kaine ticket, making this red-red state now run by a blue Governor opposed to the death penalty.
2. Meanwhile in other parts of the country, the GOP saw even more losses. They lost the governor’s race in New Jersey, and out in California every single one of Fuhrer Groppenegger’s ballot initiatives went down in flames.
3. The shame didn’t end there, as voters in Dover, Pennsylvania voted out eight, count them, eight school board members for shoving “intelligent design” down their children’s necks. This didn’t make wide-eyed Pat Robertson happy at all, and he (again) called down God’s vengeance upon them.
4. Meanwhile, Rep. Jack Murtha, a very hawkish Democrat, came out and spoke out against the war. Murtha called on the troops to be disengaged from Iraq, enraging the Republicans, as that had been their own plan going into the 2006 election. Ohio freshman Republican Jean Schmidt went onto the floor of the House saying that “cowards cut and run, but Marines never do,” making a jab at Murtha’s Marine service. It wasn’t long before a cowardly Jean Schmidt was forced to come before that very same House floor and apologize.
5. In further bad news for the GOP, investigations into the CIA-leak case continues, this time with it coming to light that Bob Woodward was told of Plame’s identity too. Very interesting, considering Woodward had been very vocal in the media about how the CIA-leak was not such a big deal.
6. And while that investigation continues, investigations into GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff heats up even more, with Tom DeLay’s dirty dealings coming more to light then ever before.
7. Meanwhile, with the Republicans hoping to expand their endless wars into Syria and Iran sometime in the future, Judy Miller has been relieved of her duties from the New York Times. Syria’s future WMDs stockpiles have just evaporated, to the chagrin of the Bush administration.
8. And while all these dirty dealings with the GOP has come more to light, and the approval ratings have tanked, their legislative wins have slowed to a crawl, with Americans everywhere becoming enraged with the GOP plan to privatize Social Security.
9. And most of all, I am thankful that progressive talk radio continues to grow all across the nation. A year ago Republicans were saying that shortly after the election Air America Radio would be toast. In a year and a half the company has grown from 2 lonely stations to 72 stations, adding an additional second line up, and kicking the pants out of every GOP nay-sayer who said they would be dead in the water from day one.
10. Happy Thanksgiving everyone! And whatever you do today, don’t forget to give thanks to that bird you’re eating too.
posted by Alva Goldbook at 7:09 AM
3 Comments:
Miami,
I wrote this piece in quite a rush Thanksgiving morning, and in my haste I forgot what I am most thankful for.
Indeed I am quite thankful for our brave men and women who have offered to give their lives to keep this great nation free. I can only hope, that thanks to good men like Representative Murtha that their nightmare in Iraq will soon be over, and they can come home, safe and sound.
Miami,
First you must question who exactly IS the enemy. Some marginal element of the “insurgents” are foreign fighters, and indeed terrorists. But what if the shoes were on your feet? If, say, France invaded us, and was able to overthrow our government, would you stand up and fight against them, and reclaim sovereignty to your own country? Do you honestly believe that all who would fight would be Bush supporters?
The “enemy” are now the Iraqi people, fighting against the puppet regime we’ve put in place. Once we leave, that insurgency will ultimately die out. Indeed, it is the ONLY way for it to die out.
Secondly, what is “winning”? Wasn’t the goal to take Saddam out of power? Or was it to bring “democracy” to Iraq? Or was it to bring Saddam to justice? When will the Bushies be satisfied? What are the goals? What does “winning” mean?
Murtha doesn’t want our military out because he wants to “cut and run”. He wants us out so we CAN win.
Thirdly, to even suggest that Murtha’s “measure” was defeated 403-3 is an OUTRIGHT LIE. Murtha did NOT introduce that measure, it was the GOP, in a display of political grandstanding. That measure called for an INSTANT removal of our troops from Iraq, and such a move would be immensely dangerous to our men and women. What Murtha called for was a gradual removal of our troops from the front lines, to the side lines, permitting the Iraqis to step up to the plate.
Murtha simply is not speaking for himself. He is speaking for the military brass. They are the ones who are calling for being moved back to a supportive role rather than a warrior role. When Rep. Schmidt called Murtha a coward, she was forced to apologize. Will you? It seems that you Reich wingers are all in favor of “supporting the troops” and “supporting the veterans” just so long as they TOW THE GOP LINE. For Schmidt to call Martha a coward is extraordinary low, considering this woman STOLE her election from an Iraqi War vet. Meanwhile, she sits up on her high horse calling whomever she wishes a coward, while never stepping foot into the hell that is Iraq. Jesus Christ had a name for people like Schmidt. That word is HYPOCRITE.
The Reich Wing does NOT support the troops. The only thing they support is the mass slaughter and disfigurement of the Iraqi People, our good men and women in uniform, and their undying thirst for Iraqi oil. That is not patriotism, rather it is the opposite.
Woodward goes downward!
Grand Jury testimony of Bob Woodward, longtime Washington Post editor, leaked by Rove-ing reporter (humor).
It is posted at: Bob Woodward Tells Grand Jury Who Leaked First
Bobbing and weaving, a tangled web we do. Book him, Danno.
Please keep my identity a secret. Double super Secret.
Middle-aged, Middle-of-the-road, Mid-Westerner
We can only hope that Fitz doesn't fizzle.
I think Mr. Fitzgerald's motto should be: "If you do a white collar crime then you will serve blue collar time." Look where he lodged Judith Miller. A few months in a blue collar jail and she was ready to sing. Unfortunately, she says she forgot the words
The Times & Post They Should Be A-Changin
Bloggers Request:
Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'.
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the Times & Post should be a-changin'.
Good Bye Sulzberger, Keller, Miller, and Woodward!
Fitzgerald's response:
Come politician's, journalists
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside
And it is ragin'.
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For a new jury and more indictments are a-comin'
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