Is it really true that bush's nominee for homeland security chief - Bernard Kerik was a private security gaurd to some Saudi Arabian family?

if so, where's michael moore? he deserves the NOBEL prize, not the oscars.

Two news Items caught my attention this morning and I wondered wether this is the future of the country after we have all so firmly determined that we are going to dilute our positions on various democratic sticking points...

the first had me wondering where the outrage was :

http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/11/22/hunters.slain/index.html

but I guess in our new avtar as a party that blames people for killing, not guns, the merchandise was truly blameless. It was the evil man that committed the crime.

The second looked more like the logical consequence of our new policy of appeasing the old robert byrd fraternity(BTW where was sen Byrd when   a certain georgia senator campaigned for the republicans? don't tell me that the PARTY has to stick up to the Klan types, and not vice versa)It's entirely understandable that there's no outrage here. Our backbones are now spaghetti in a pot:

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/22/nyregion/22cross.html?ei=5006&en=afd9377348d45e27&ex=11017 90800&partner=ALTAVISTA1&pagewanted=print&position=

So now I know we can welcome the brave new democratic party which appeases ALL the positions white men may take: pro gun, pro god , pro race politics, Anti abortion, Anti gay, Anti poor, Anti civil rights(we don't want to offend white men now, do we?) and pro confederacy. the new democratic party has thus morphed into the OLD democratic party of the reconstruction era.

salute the day...with a nazi fist.

Before the clinton library appropriates the use of these terms to describe monica lewinsky or ken starr, let us stand in a minute's silence for the latest straw man ...um...woman the republians have identified as a target for their smear campaign.

Tom De lay , the OTHER sleezeball from texas (which proudly claims the swiftboat vets for it's own) , who had the distinction of calling homeland security to track the fugitive democratic legislators from texas during the gerrymander episode(authored by Mr sleeze himself) , is now attacking Nanci pelosi saying she "violated laws" of campaign finance. this is akin to   Attilla the hun accusing george soros of having a traffic ticket.

The arrogance that these extreme partisans on the right seem to operate with comes from the certainity that they can hide behind the fact that the people they are attacking are partisans on the LEFT and truth from them will seem to a credulous and growing more so by the day, american public ,as if it is partisan blather.

Thus kerry's attack on george bush's fiscal track record will, to the stupid American voter, appear just as credible as a swiftboat veteran's attack on john kerry based on NO truth, but the facility that the first Amendment gives to John O neil to LIE blatantly.

What is a possible redress? can someone sue the teller of a "first Amendment" based lie? or should there be partisan attack dogs on the left, who willingly take on the tom delays on the right and use "the first amendment " against them?

The media(which is identified as a spoiler on behalf of the new democrats ) is useless here. It's just a bitch for whoever offers it better stories...or ads or both.

It's a war of Ideas that the democrats have consistently lost by taking the high road...and having the ground under their feet collapse , only because they overestimated the taste and class of some (most, it turns out) American voters.

We are all sleezeballs at some level. The republicans have successfully found their inner sleezeball...are in touch with it. We wait for our own delay to take care of business. There's much to do.

People WAKE UP. forget the election, forget the selection of a new DNC chair, forget the attempt to dilute ideology in the democratic party(guns/ gays/ abortion or religion).

Poter goss is making a CIA that can pretty much do what the president wants it to. unlike Joe Mc carthy's time , the technology available today is such that the cia can pretty much make John Kerry dance the two step if they so choose.

This is the most dangerous time for civil liberties. Most reignations in the bush cabinet are moderate, outsider non- neocons.

This guy is spending his capital ....to finish off all us.

and I'm Scairt....straight.

I mean, think about it. If john kerry has to run a second term, he needs not just distance from the clintons, but also a party chair that's sympathetic, charismatic....and has NO organization. that way the kerry folks can build their OWN organization.

dean is also a leftie in a very centerist way(as opposed to the union type gephart, or the neo- dems of the cliton/ rothenberg variety.

Dean would buff up kerry's populist image while keeping the party essentially northeastern/uppermidestern/ western(the will love a pelosi/ dean structure over in california/ washington) .He will also gear the democrats up for a SOLIDLY partisan fight in 08 , when the republicans will hope to be fighting more centerist battles, with some jeb bush type nominee running with the strength of hispanic/ african american voters(hopefully added to their evangelical / neocon base).

Dean also carries credibility on the internet.

Will this obstruct dean's presidential ambitions in 08? you becher.

Do we need to do the dixie? This is a question at the heart of every argument about god, culture or the south.

Let's ask the right questions here.The issue of Islamic terrorism has been married well by the republicans with the Old dixie values of segregationism and southern racism into a heady mix of patriotism, security and religious values.

The nationalism engendered by this neo dixie ideology is akin to (Heeeere comes the dreaded cliche) Naziism in its teleological dimensions. While it is tempting to assess the foot soldiers in the cultural battle as scairt stiffs that are resorting to the last desperate measures to protect their own, (which is the basis , I presume for the argument for the revival of dixiecrats, because I don't see the malevolence needed to propound the alternate theory...that we should author our own genocide to answer a nazi genocide... ) , How about, I suggest, a dose of the republican's own medicine here?

People take responsiblity for the choices they make. It should be the job of a party like the democrats to tell people that if they choose creationism, if they choose to use racism or it's 21st century morph, if they think president bush ....or pictures of fetuses will bring them their daily bread....or qualified employees...they think wrong. It's time for the city folk to take back the country...and put the nazi bumkins to work.

We should also take a hard look at all those farm subsidies ...and non profit exemptions that keep the idle rich....the idle rich.

And if some people turn dixiecrat they're welcome...to speak at the republican convention.

(this is a media rant)

1. Every media mention of september 11, september 11 families, brother of a sep 11  victim(brought in to promote some documetary film....etc.)

2. (I know this is veterans day , but still) Every news report/ article/show about how the bush administration is cutting benefits to the veterans. The ingrates STILL vote bush /republican 60-70% it's time to abandon the veterans to the wolves, I'm sorry to say....If they feel an overwhelming disgruntlement, they'll come to the democtats with no persuation.

3. Every "millitary analyst "that appears with unbridled propaganda on Analysis programs(lou dobbs tonight, Hardball, Whatever) about how the US can win the falluja fight. HEY IDIOT! We have the most well equipped foot soldiers in the world backed by some of the thickest armor and overwhelming air power and are going against rebels armed with 60 year old RPG's or (what are essentially) dynamite poured into lead pipes for weapons. There's no honor in killing 800 of them to every one of our dead. This is not a effing video game.

4. Watching coverage of Yaseer Arafat's death. Please stop.

5. EVERY video/soundbite of President Bush.I suggest he reclaim that seat next to dick chaney in the bunker.

6. Serious analysis of the "fortunes" of the democratic party. whom does it help? not the democrats. give them a leader and a cause. don't conduct a postmortem of the 2004 election hoping all that flesh will somehow yield a living party...or a platform.

 That means you, james (carville).

In any thesis, the single biggest factor that makes it fail is the Big Lie. If a thesis has a big lie, the ANTI- thesis does not need to work for the thesis to fail...on it's own.

Take the talk of 2008, for instance.

The democratic ranks seem to be filled with qualified but nevertheless unelectable candidates.

Hillary Clinton, who'se done everything right so far is a woman with a pro- choice record and a liberal agenda...she won't fly in the red (neck) states.

Howard dean is passionate and appeals to the base but he has difficulty ...um... relating to the rednecks with confederate flags in their pick up trucks.

John kerry is a senator from mass and is too much of a compramise candidate to win passionate partisan affairs.

John edwards is too lightweight to be considered seriously, even in his own state.

Al gore has too much angst to be president.

Bill clinton can't run any more and Al Sharpton turns off even his OWN base.

Barack Obama is black (and doesn't even have a southern accent).

So do we try to find the obscure midweasterner(Tom Vilsack) , the centerist democrat by circumstance(evan bayh) or choice(diane fienstein) in a desperate attempt to find acceptability among the south, the evangelical or the red(neck)?

It becomes surreal when one sees even a level headed person like nancy pelosi talk up god.

The big lie is that democrats need to develop republican penis envy to appeal to the red.

Hell,the lie  may even be that the red NEEDS appealing to to win a few more midwestern/ southern states. Missouri, (Iowa) , Ohio, Colorado, nevada, Arizona, New mexico...these states turned red not from deep conviction but from closely fought turnout battles, even when the right had a fighting ideology and the left....um...John kerry(whom we love dearly, but is hardly a votary of leftist causes that will get our left wing blood pumping red when he lays out his plans).

What the republicans  have had ever since GWB debated Ann richards in Tx is a Larger message (even an UNREALISTIC large message like an evangelical one) that resonates with enough voters across the country.All the small messages gain potency when the large message carries enough of the electorate with it. The democrats can't win by ECHOING the republican message(of evangelical christianity or something) but by having one of their own, that resonates well nationally.

The democrats have everything else...qualified candidates, partisan fervour, a national organization that will even be John kerry's bitch, and a cohesiveness that wasn't even visible during the clinton era.

The time to start the think tank work is NOW. the BIG message should be in place in the lower midweast by the 2006 elections. (and it can't just be universal healthcare.)