I had a disgusting incident last week at Wal-Mart. As I was standing in the check out line with my wife and son I noticed a guy in the line next to me with a bright yellow T-shirt on that said in bold print, words I can not say in the newspaper. I followed him out and asked him, “Who he thought he was wearing that shirt in public.” I told him he had no right to wear such a thing where children and others could read it. He said he didn’t think it was any of my business and I told him I did think it was my business and that others shouldn’t be forced to see such obscene and vile words against their will. I yelled at him and told him, “I bet your kids and wife are really proud of you” as they all walked away to their car. I was so mad I called him a name and was ready to jump on him. It just hit me wrong. I spoke to a lady behind me and asked if she saw his shirt and she said she had and there was someone else in the store with something about as bad. I wonder what that guys kids are going to be like in ten years. You know, I ‘m no self-righteous prude and I’ve used these words before but I would never walk into a public place with them on my shirt. Kids can’t go to an R-rated movie that has these words and images so why should they have to be exposed to them at Wal-Mart? I can see the guy going to a strip bar or his local Confederate Flag Klan meeting with it on but not here. People who know me know I am a stanch believer in a person’s 1st Amendment right to free speech and separation of Church and State but this goes beyond that, and then it hit me. Well what do you expect stupid rednecks to do when they turn on TV and see their President and Vice-President saying the F-word and some others just as disgusting to the U.S. Congress and international politicians? Monkey see, monkey do.

Have you ever heard of Aristotle's Fallacies? It is part of Aristotelian Logic. Just watch TV commercials or read / listen to speeches by politicians and bosses and see if you can pick out the fallacies they use to convince us of their point of view.

It's a lot of fun. Watch TV and write down all the ones you pick up on. It will improve your critical thinking skills. Don't accept everything you hear as truth. Analyze it and see if any fallacies are included.


Argumetum ad baculum - Appeal to force or a threat in order to convince one of their point of view.

Ad hominem - Attacking the messenger when you don't like the content of what they say.

Affirming the consequent - Assuming opposite of a statement to be true. If P then Q, therefore P. Just because Q may be true it doesn't mean that P is also true.

Appeal to Authority - Argumentum ad verecundiam - truth depends on credibility of whoever says it.

Appeal to fear - Argumentum ad metam or terrorem - used much in politics and sales. If you don't follow me & do as I say then something bad will happen to you.

Appeal to pity - Argumentum ad misericordiam - Believe me because I am the underdog - regardless of my positions - It took me 10 years to do this so you must believe that it is right.

Appeal to tradition - Argumentum ad antiquitatem - It's always been done this way so it must be right.

Appeal to probability - Just because something can happen means it WILL happen.

Argument from Ignorance - Argumentum ad ignorantiam - only true because it has not been proven false - this argument is used by most ditto heads ad naseum.

Begging the question - petito principii - circular argument or reasoning

Biased sample - A survey of OUR delegates says our guy is most popular in country

Correlation implies causation - cum hoc ergo propter hoc - just because two events occur together they are claimed to be cause and effect. It may be just coincidental.

Equivocation - using same word in different meanings (figure of speech) Do women need to worry about man eating sharks?

Hasty Generalization - Leaping to conclusion without listening to whole appeal

Post hoc ergo propter hoc - ( After this therefore because of this) (post hoc) coincidental correlation - The rooster always crows before sunrise therefore the rooster causes the sun to rise.

Straw man argument - Misrepresentation of opponents' position - (argument is easy to refute but your opponent doesn't argue that position) This fallacy is used continuously by the bush administration. In a debate bush will say, "some people say we should ignore the terrorists but I say we must hunt them down" The inference is that his oppenent takes the straw man position when in reality it is completely untrue.
Ex: Some people say these children are just embryo spare parts and not worthy of our protection but I say they are wonderful children and we should veto this bill in order to protect them. When in reality no one takes the position that these children are not worthy of protection.

False dilemma - black and white thinking - false dichotomy - Only two opposing points of views with nothing in between. You're either for us or against us.

Harry Truman said, "War Profiteering is Treason!" Did you hear that "Halliburton" Cheney and the rest of you Military Industrial Complex Traitors?

George Bush (I) said, "Anyone that would expose the identity of a CIA agent is guilty of treason." Did you hear that "w," cheney, Rove and Libby?

So who is the enemy? Is it al Qaeda or U.S. veterans and patriots? This is a good question in light of ongoing right-wing swiftboating attacks against anyone that challenges bush and his coven of right-wingers. Kerry, Gore, Richard Clarke, Max Cleland, Joseph Wilson, James Webb, Paul Hacket, John Murtha, the 911 widows and now Cindy Sheehan. They are being attacked by this group of republican chickenhawks who can only survive by being on the offensive rather than defending their own cowardly history of cutting and running from their military duty. Why does this type of smearing work? It works because it is simple. It is done professionally with billions of dollars and the right-wing media’s support. It tells a story of a good and evil character. It doesn’t matter if it is true just so it raises questions about someone’s character. Political communication is not about truth. It is about framing. The general public wants to be told who to like and who to hate according to Karl Rove. It’s very simple just like the minds of those who fall for these lies. We are in a war against terrorism. So who is the enemy? Are they terrorists or fellow U.S. citizens? Right-wingers want you to believe it’s the later so they can stay in office. It makes you wonder who the real patriots are in this fight.

Everything incompetent about the George W. Bush administration - Iraq, Katrina, 911, domestic spying, Terri Schiavo, nominating Harriet Miers, Dubai Ports, torture, debt, Social Security privatization, no WMD's - are the actions that make the soul of the American public cringe in shame and pray that the last five years have been just a bad dream. Someone who will act against every core principle Americans hold sacred to their hearts - separation of church and state, freedom of the press, the right to privacy, the right of habeas corpus, the Geneva Convention, doesn’t deserve the benefit of the doubt. The Bush administration and Congressional Republicans say America cannot "cut and run" until the mission is complete and victory has been achieved. Here's the question that should be asked --What is the mission? How would one know when victory is achieved? The original mission, the American people were told, was to destroy Sadaam's weapons of mass destruction and to break his links with Al Qaeda. This mission was, of course, based on lies. After the original rationale for the “mission” collapsed, we were then told that the mission is to bring stable, secular Western-style democracy and free market capitalism to Iraq and to provide a democratic role-model for the rest of the Middle East. This mission has almost entirely failed. I don’t believe any objective observer, without a partisan agenda, believes this “mission” can succeed in the foreseeable future. According to Bush/Cheney we have turned so many corners in Iraq that we are back where we started with nothing to show for it. The Iraqi police and army—the forces that are supposed to stand-up so that American troops can stand down-- are riddled with corruption and private milita who torture, kill and terrorize members of other sects. Even Sadaam’s notorious rape rooms and torture chambers are coming back under the command of sectarian militias. There is increasing ethnic cleansing in mixed Sunni-Shiite neighborhoods. If this is not Civil War what is? So the question remains—What is the mission now? What would it mean to win? We need to know before we turn another corner in this futile war.

With each day comes more evidence of this administration’s failures. Iraq Chaos, bombings and Civil War, North Korean missiles, Israel / Palestinian battles, Iranian Nuclear Weapons, Global Warming, Energy Prices, Health Care Crisis, Terrorism, Constitutional Violations and Religious Fundamentalism, both Muslim and Christian. What additional evidence is needed to prove the intellectual dishonesty and utter incompetence Bush and his right-wing neo-cons have brought to our country?

Excrement In the News

There were a couple of scatological incidents reported over the 4th of July holidays.

From NPR News:

"Bird droppings could be a threat to the shuttle re-entry."

And from the WayneMadsenReport.com:

"Even Bush's crap is classified top secret. According to our Austrian sources, Austrian newspapers are currently abuzz with special security details of George W. Bush's recent trip to Vienna. Although the heavy-handed Gestapo-like security measures meted out to Viennese home owners, business proprietors, and pedestrians by US Secret Service agents and local police before and during Bush's visit received widespread Austrian media attention, it was White House 'toilet security' (TOILSEC), which has Austrians talking the most. The White House flew in a special portable toilet to Vienna for Bush's personal use during his visit. The Bush White House is so concerned about Bush's security, the veil of secrecy extends over the president's bodily excretions. The special port-a-john captured Bush's feces and urine and flew the waste material back to the United States in the event some enterprising foreign intelligence agency conducted a sewage pipe operation designed to trap and examine Bush's waste material. One can only wonder why the White House is taking such extraordinary security measures for the presidential poop.

"In the past, similar operations were conducted against foreign leaders to determine their medical condition. However, these intelligence operations were directed against dictators in countries where even the medical conditions of the top political leaders were considered 'state secrets.' The Israeli Mossad conducted one such operation against Syrian President Hafez Assad when he visited Amman, Jordan in Feb. 1999 for the funeral of King Hussein. The Mossad and its Jordanian counterpart installed a special toilet in Assad's hotel room that led not to a pipe but to a specimen canister. Assad suffered from diabetes and cancer and the operation was designed to discover the actual medical condition of the ailing leader. During Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev's visit to Washington in 1987, the CIA reportedly placed a special trap under a sewage tank to collect the Soviet leader's bodily waste for analysis. More recently, the CIA was reported to have collected waste samples from Ugandan President-dictator Yoweri Museveni's toilet when he visited Washington.

"Even Bush's toilet paper was flown in from the U.S. Air Base at Ramstein, Germany. In addition, Bush's food was flown in from the United States and tested with special chemicals before he ate it. Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, who was shot by a firing squad in 1989, was the last major European leader to constantly use a food tester. The last frequent state visitor to Vienna, who always relied on a food tester, was Adolf Hitler."

Lorelei Kelly

07.07.2006
Today's GOP: When you Run out of Ideas, Attack the Constitution!

9/11, Iraq, Afghanistan, Supreme Court, George W. Bush
During the Cold War, foreign policy stopped at the water's edge. For the most part, elected leaders, in a common cause against an ideological foe, abandoned partisanship to join a united American democratic ideal. Well, those days are really over. Late last week the House GOP leadership demonstrated that the water could be a reeking sewer and they'll still take off their shoes and jump right on in.


After Thursday's Supreme Court ruling (Hamdan vs. Rumsfeld) rejected the Bush administration's plan to try Guantanamo detainees before military commissions, Majority Leader Boehner attacked Democrats who-- upon hearing the result-- praised the Rule of Law and acknowledged the importance of cautiously moving forward in the realm of post 9/11 military justice. Boehner and the GOP echo chamber pounced-- accusing the Democrats of wanting "special rights for terrorists" while acknowledging how this talking point would rally the conservative base for November 06. Time to take the gloves off. This kind of language demands that we make a clear distinction between politics and policy. Congressional conservatives--in a fit of self-hate for their own institution-- are attacking our constitution. Their disgraceful talking points, purely to rile their base, serve to undermine another American institution as well--the US military. This at a time when our military needs our support-- getting to the bottom of abuses within the ranks with a thorough and orderly process is vital to its own preservation.

This contemporary conservative (as opposed to real conservative) breed of democracy slander rhetoric is not "just politics". There are no exuses for political talking points that rationalize threats to the foundation of American thought and practice. Today's conservatives, for example, love to brag about how they value the military, but the truth is that they have few military values.

And I don't even mean values like common sacrifice, internationalism, teamwork and careful planning. How about just protecting the constitution? Military professionals, when they sign up, swear to defend the constitution, not the Commander in Chief and his feudal tendencies. Our military, deployed all around the world, is risking life and limb to build institutions that uphold American-style rule of law and constitutional values. What is the Army lawyer--stationed in Afghanistan--supposed to say to the locals when asked about presidential power? Republican talking points would prescribe that he shout the query down--and accuse the questioner of treason.

Remember, the abuses at Abu Ghraib AND Guantanamo were exposed by the military's own investigators and prosecutors. Neal Katyal, the plaintiff lawyer who argued the Supreme Court case-- was initially drawn into this struggle by the military JAGs assigned to Guantanamo and who--in collaboration with Human Rights organizations--have carried out a lonely battle to uphold America's international decency and the rule of law.

Conservatives are screaming bloody murder about the Geneva conventions, yet the Court also refers to the military's own Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ Article 36) in its decision. Article 36 of the UCMJ requires that the rules for military commissions be roughly the same as those for courts martial (which generally are used for offenses committed by our own soldiers). The UCMJ also requires that military commissions comport with the laws of war, which include the Geneva Conventions.

In Hamdan vs. Rumsfeld, the Supreme Court affirmed that the Executive Branch does not have unlimited war powers--this gives all Americans a chance to hold the president's feet to the fire on whether or not he values the constitution--much less the Declaration of Independence and its call for the "decent respect to the opinions of mankind". What is this plea but an old fashioned way to talk about global "hearts and minds"? Isn't this the primary struggle in the Global War on Terror? Do conservative operatives even think about how their talking points put our people at risk? In Iraq and Afghanistan but also every other place US soldiers, diplomats or citizens live?

As Reagan Justice appointee Bruce Fein says, it seems that today's leaders

"have never struggled with the lofty ideas and ideals of great philosophers and the Founding Fathers sufficiently to appreciate that the history of liberty is the history of procedural regularity and the rule of law"

Apparently today's conservative leadership is so corrupt that they have actually become what they hate--relativists who "go with the moment" which, in this case means compromising American greatness for their power base. Their rants about political correctedness and their caricatures about the 1960's i.e. tie-dyed hippies with their psychic crystals and lax values --are meaningless in the face of this anti-democratic onslaught. Do they even care?

I'm afraid to answer my own question. But all signs point to the negative.

I feel the foremost threat to the world is Fundamentalism. Yes, the same kind of religious and political fundamentalism that Al Qaeda, Islam, Christianity and Right-Wing neo-cons espouse. In both religion and politics, fundamentalists are the primary cause of today’s wars and hatred of those who are of a different belief. There is no middle ground for the fundamentalist. All issues are black and white. You are either with us completely or you are the enemy. Those are the stark terms they use. Christian fundamentalist neo-cons believe that Muslim fundamentalists are evil terrorists and visa-versa. Even within their own country these fundamentalists polarize their fellow citizens and church members. They say theirs is the only truth about religion and politics and that their interpretation of scripture and the Constitution is the only correct one. That is OK in theory if everyone agreed but the reality is that in a diverse world people don’t all think and believe the same. The question is, “what is the best means of governing and worshiping that would allow for all the variations in people to coexist?” Well I am prejudiced but I think our Constitution and the concept of the Separation of Church and State are the best examples of how to respect others religion and political views. It had worked pretty well for the first two hundred years of our country up until Christian fundamentalists and right-wing neo-cons took control and started mandating conformity to their world view and agenda. It has caused a polarizing culture in both religious and political circles. These fundamentalists use pure power to enforce their views and will not rest until all are legally converted to their viewpoints. Diplomacy is for wimps in fundamentalist minds. Force and power is the common denominator in politics and religion. That is why we are engulfed in war and judgmentalism today internally and world-wide. Fundamentalism is harmful and must be stopped. I am a member of a Church that works to reject religious fundamentalism. It is a worthy cause and one that I feel strongly about. I feel the same about politics. Both major parties in America must reject political fundamentalism if our nation is to survive. We must respect others views on politics and religion. That is the principle that America was originally built around.

I can think of nothing more pleasurable than to watch local right-wing neo-cons erupt in rabid seizures over the truth about their GQ imperialist president. This truth telling to conservatives is like Ali doing the rope-a-dope. They are like Pavlov’s dog on speed. Their arguments are as empty as their Vodka bottles. Right-wingers don’t like the reality of failure by their leader. We are to the point now that Iran and North Korea’s, Ment Lee Ill, thumb their noses at us and know our military is too stretched to force our will on them because of our failure in Iraq. Instead of addressing the issues that have demoralized and weakened this country by bush/cheney they choose to attack their critics and the independent media. Right-wingers are facing the reality that even their imperial leader may be required to follow the rule of law. The Supreme Court completely rebuked this administration’s proclivity to ignore our Constitution’s guarantee of checks and balances in their ruling on Hamdan’s Guantanamo military tribunals. Bush chose to ignore Article 3 of the international Geneva Treaty concerning torture and has admitted to telling Cheney to retaliate against Joseph Wilson. Now he could very well be prosecuted for War Crimes. He can not ignore due process or withdraw from an international treaty of which the U.S. is a signatory. No man is above the law in this country and America represents more than one person rule. We have a democratic republic; not an oligarchy. Congress and the Judiciary have not issued the President a blank check regardless of how he feels. Cheney served under Nixon and experienced the resignation and trauma of Watergate. He has carried the belief since that time that the President has unlimited power especially in times of war but the Constitution will not be mocked. In his presentation to the Supreme Court, Nixon's attorney, James St. Clair, argued, "The President wants me to argue that he is as powerful a monarch as Louis XIV and is not subject to the processes of any court in the land. Of course we know how that ended. Gonzales is now saying the same thing in defense of Bush. There are many monuments in Washington for Presidents. None for Nixon or Johnson except the Viet Nam Wall. Years from now Bush’s monument of shame may be a cage wrapped in barbed wire and under it engraved in marble the words of Justice Stevens:”The executive is bound to comply with the RULE OF LAW.”

Bombs Bursting in Air
by Cindy Sheehan

The rockets red glare,
Bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night
That our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that Star spangled banner yet wave,
O'er the land of the free,
And the home of the brave.

The star spangled banner has been in the news quite a lot lately. Some "courageous" Senators, including one of my own, Dianne Feinstein and everyone's favorite left-wing liberal, Hillary Clinton, bravely stuck their necks out to support an amendment that would make it illegal to burn the flag of the USA under certain circumstances.

Heaven forbid one of these pussillanimous public servants introduce, or even support a bill, that would call for an immediate end to the occupation of Iraq…or to even require that the President set a timeline for the withdrawal of our troops from a deadly quagmire of an occupation while they are handing him more money to wage the war crime in Iraq. As our nation's children are trying to only survive in the worst of circumstances, and by surviving are committing reprehensible atrocities on an innocent population which (especially in Ramadi right now) is having bombs burst in air all around them, that our Senate would even consider taking away first amendment rights from Americans is wretchedly ironic. Call me naïve, but I always thought that we elected our representatives to protect our rights, not take them away from us.

When I look at the star spangled banner I think of my son who began wearing a uniform with the flag on it from the time he went into scouting at the age of 6. I also think of one of the last pictures taken of Casey when he was awaiting deployment to Iraq from Kuwait. He was standing in a tent holding a bottle of water, wearing his desert cammies with an American flag patch on the chest. When we buried him a few weeks after that picture was taken, I was handed a folded flag which reminded me of the swaddling blanket that I wrapped him in to bring him home from the hospital almost 25 years before.

The star-spangled banner, which I can now see whipping in the wind outside of an airport terminal where I am writing this from does not fill me with pride: it fills me with shame and that flag symbolizes sorrow and corruption to me right now. The flag represents so much lying, fixed elections, profiting by the war machine, high gas prices, spying on Americans, rapid erosion of our freedoms while BushCo literally gets away with murder, torture and extreme rendition, contaminating the world with depleted uranium, and illegal and immoral wars that are responsible for killing so many. A symbol which used to represent hope to so many around the world now fills so many with disgust.

When I look at that rectangular piece of cloth that has red and white stripes and white stars on a blue field, I wonder what the Iraqi people think when they see American tanks and other vehicles rumbling through their streets carrying doom with that symbol emblazoned upon them. Or, what could our flag possibly represent to them when their women are being raped and burned to conceal crimes and entire families are being killed by soldiers whose uniforms carry that symbol? I am sure that the flag symbolizes death and destruction to them which I hope they are not confusing with freedom and democracy.

I often get told that I should "love America, or leave it." This is ridiculous logic and empty rhetoric. I love the country that I was born in and I love Americans…I am an American and so are my children. Casey was born and died a fine American who was abused by the same leaders that are abusing the world as I type. I could leave if I wanted to and, in fact, have received many offers to be an ex-patriate in many friendly countries. However, I want to stay and fight for my country. I want my country and the flag that symbolizes it around the globe to stand for something that we can all be proud of again.

BushCo and the neocon regime embarked on this disastrous misadventure in Iraq to prove to the world how strong and virile Pax Americana is. Their abjectly failed mission, which was evil and corrupt from the beginning, has not proven how strong our nation is, but, on the contrary, how weak. However, the neocons have managed to prove, that how, with the "mightiest" war machine in the world an insurgency in a country smaller than the state of California can hold their false freedom and deadly democracy at bay. One other thing that the neocons have proven is that America is no longer the moral touchstone of the world but is a nation that commits torture and crimes against humanity with the presidential seal of approval. BushCo has destroyed any credibility our nation ever had in the world and all of us need to fight to regain it and thereby redeem our own souls.

I implore you, while you are enjoying your potato salad and fireworks on the 4th to reflect on what the star-spangled banner means to you. If our flag symbolizes the same thing to you as it does to the neocons, then by all means, enlist and go to Iraq to let some of our soldiers come home that are tired of suffering and committing war crimes for Halliburton, Dick and Donny.

If, however, you realize that the flag no longer waves "o'er the land of the free" and you would like it to again, we invite you to come out to Camp Casey this summer and help us fight for the heart and soul of our nation. If you realize that while you are "oohing and ahing" over the pretty fireworks in your home town that there are real bombs bursting on the people of Iraq, killing them and destroying their nation for no reason other than Dick Cheney wanted to, then you need to digest your 4th of July BBQ and get out and show Dicky and the world that we mean business when we say we want our troops to come home to save them and our brothers and sisters in Iraq.

Thousands of peace loving and war hating members of the human race from all over the world are planning on coming to Crawford, Tx to Camp Casey again this summer to stand, sit, or camp in the face of the neocon war machine and prove to the world that there are Americans who will courageously speak for the people of Iraq and our soldiers who have no voices but who just want to be left in peace.

Come to Camp Casey.

We have room for everyone and everyone is welcome.

Cindy Sheehan is the mother of Spc. Casey Austin Sheehan who was killed in Iraq on April 04, 2004; Founder and President of Gold Star Families for Peace (www.GSFP.org) and author of Not One More Mother's Child. Cindy is also the very proud mother of Carly, Andy, and Janey Sheehan who hold down the fort in Vacaville, California.

An inconvenient group of patriots joined together to speak truth to power and were all demonized and swift boated by the chicken-hawk republican right-wing. Should honorable veterans like Jack Murtha, Max Cleland, John Kerry, Al Gore, Joe Wilson, Chuck Hagel and Jimmy Carter be allowed to celebrate Independence Day like the rest of this “holier than thou” administration? Well, according to right-wingers they are all traitors and undeserving of being called true American patriots. When did speaking truth about war, the environment, torture, and honesty become a treasonous offense? According to George Bush, Carl Rove and this administration anyone who dares to question our present “war time” leaders about anything they do, is guilty of un-American activities. When did holding our leaders accountable for their lies and deceptions become unpatriotic?

SAFIRE: Look, I don't speak for the Times. I've been in the Times for 30 years disagreeing with Times editorial policy right down the line. On this one, I think they did the right thing. Here we are on Independence Day weekend, 230 years ago, celebrating what was the resistance to a king who said "We're going to hang you for treason." And here we have a Long Island congressman, happens to be named King, who's saying "treason" and "put these reporters in jail." I think there's a big fundamental thing going on here now, and across the board, of "get the press, get the media." And, look, I used to write speeches for Spiro Agnew, I'm hip to this stuff, and, and I can say that it gives you a blip, it gives you a chance to get on the offensive against the, the darned media. But in the long view of history, it's a big mistake.

A note on John Harwood, WSJ who says: "First of all, that editorial wasn't kidding when they said there's a separation between the news and the editorial pages at The Wall Street Journal." He goes on to prove it, saying, hey. The terrorists aren't stupid. This isn't a surprise.

Maybe if gay marriage and flag burning caused global warming the republicans could get something done about it.


What you are seeing out of the republicans is typical politics over principle. When you don't like the message just change the subject and attack the messenger. In this case it is the press. Of course the president doesn't mind the press reporting secrets he leaks to them, like the identity of CIA covert agents. It's equal reporting from both sides of an issue this administration despises so much. I hate to use the "f" word but Fascism has come a long way in this country in the last six years. I'm not saying "w" is like Hitler. He is more like the bastard child of Paris Hilton and Francisco Franco.

Right-wing republican evangelicals claim that gay-marriage will destroy our traditional family values. They say, “Homosexuals threaten the very institution of marriage.” What will the children think? They say a handful of flag burnings each year violate their rights yet it is OK to see a stars and stripes bikini clad pole swinger at the local gentleman’s club picking up our sacred “In God We Trust” currency with something other than their hands. Why isn’t that illegal? Why the hypocrisy? It seems to me that the institution of marriage, a child’s upbringing and our traditional family values are being threatened by divorce and unemployment much more than some right-wing trumped up gay bashing, fear mongering PR campaign. Maybe if these right-wingers were something other than self-righteous divorced hypocrites their appeals would mean something but I don’t think most reasonable people pay much attention to them. Why don’t they just leave the gays alone? They have plenty of 2 X 4’s in their own eyes to deal with before they start throwing stones at others. If divorce was a legal obstacle to holding public office I don’t think there would be many conservatives in Washington to enact this ridiculous legislation. Divorce is the major threat to the American family. Why not address that with a Constitutional amendment?

One can tell it is an election year because instead of governing and trying to be responsible with the citizen’s money and lives, the republicans are repeating Carl Rove’s game plan of attacking gays, liberals and anyone criticizing their war based on lies. They can’t run on their record of debt and lies so they resort to the tried and true method of demonizing their opponents. Our leaders have failed in all aspects of their jobs and we are never to criticize or question their motives? Since when did holding your elected officials responsible for their failures become unpatriotic? No wonder this country is so polarized. There is nothing I could say that would expose the hate and vitriol of these right-wingers more than their own words. Several recent letters from right-wingers show the shallowness and naïveté of their reasoning and logic. The results of their six years of destructive governing are as empty as the U.S. Treasury.

I must have touched a nerve with my little one paragraph comments, concerning the failure of our present right –wing leadership in Washington, in order to prompt the outpouring of the 31% of the local Kool-Aid drinking neo-cons who still believe their leader is God’s gift to America. I find it comical to read the delusional observations of conservatives who think they know better than our Savior, our liberal founding fathers and our secular Godless Constitution. What is it about the 1st amendment and the gospels they find so threatening? Didn’t Jesus say to go into your closet to pray, unlike the hypocrites who want to stand in public and pray just to be noticed? Our founders didn’t mistakenly leave God out of the Constitution. It was intentional in order to prevent people just like our present right-wing fundamentalist republicans, from establishing a theocracy. Maybe our local right-wingers should go back to high school and retake their civics and American history classes in order to enlighten their minds to the realities of our form of government. Listening to right-wing radio and TV propaganda will never replace truth. Commenting on other right-wing incoherent rants is futile. Their logic is so far gone, their letters stand as a testament to irrationality. No outside criticism is needed.

These right-wingers must be living in an outer limits parallel universe if they believe our present leadership is successful. The Republican Party is so far to the right today that, real moderates feel as though they don’t know their own party. It is controlled by fear mongers and paranoid fundamentalists who reject objective truth and reality. To say that, “the right fringe of the party is sparsely populated, and does not wield any significant power within the party” is the height of absurdity. To say that, “the repu party consists of a majority of fiscal conservatives” is so pathetically false that one can only laugh at the thought. Just look at the budgetary results of the last six years under Bush and the republicans. They control all branches of government and have no one to blame but themselves. They are an utter failure and have driven us into endless debt and a war of lies. The first year of this administration took a huge surplus given them by Clinton and placed us into nine trillion dollars of debt that our children will have to pay for. They can not govern and prove their ineptness in every area such as disaster relief, wars, finances, health care, the environment and terror warnings. The only thing they are good at is politics. They sure know how to demonize their opponents by questioning war heroes and amputees’ patriotism in order to win elections. At one time these types of vicious tactics were used only against our international enemies but today the republicans see fellow Americans in the other political party as the enemy. My party, the libertarian party, has the opportunity to show the others how it should be. For right-wingers to say liberals have no answers, only complaints, just look at the results of eight years of Clinton/Gore. What is it about peace and prosperity they resent so much? Republicans have polarized this country beyond anything I have ever observed in my lifetime and are making US citizens fearful of each other with their demagoguery. They claim moral, political and religious superiority and anyone that doesn’t follow their dictates does not deserve to be an American. Our founders would not recognize this county today. Unless our leaders moderate and accept all citizens as equal and worthy and work for the common good we are doomed to be, a house divided. United We Stand; Divided We Fall. That is no empty slogan. If fundamentalist Republicans would practice the principles of Christ’s teachings instead of using Jesus as a partisan political hatchet man then maybe we could once again be a great nation governed by our secular Constitution that assures liberty and equal justice under the law. If right-wing fundamentalists insist on forcing their personal religious beliefs on this diverse country we will destroy ourselves. Our Constitution guarantees “freedom of religion” and “freedom from others forcing their religion on us” through the law. If the Republican Party doesn’t wake up to this reality we will be viewed by future historians as a wonderful democratic experiment that failed due to ignoring the principles on which it was founded. Liberals accept conservatives as equal citizens. They just don’t agree with their policies and inclination to force others to accept their fundamentalist view of religion and theocracy. Is that wrong? Why are they so bitter and angry at those who differ from them? What are they afraid of?