Too Progressive

Over the past few decades Republicans have shown time and time again that they see nothing wrong with using American soldiers as political ploys. Touting their commitment to taking care of our veterans but not really ever backing it up with any sort of substantial legislation. Talking the talk, but not walking the walk, so to speak. Fortunately, Democrats have shown time and time again they are willing to look out for those who risk their lives looking out for us. The latest example being Senator Jim Webb’s “G.I. bill”:

Sen. Webb’s “New GI Bill,” which went into effect Aug. 1, returns a full measure of educational aid to Americans who’ve served since 9/11, when falling towers and a flaming Pentagon signaled the start of a long war against a new set of lethal enemies. The fierce fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan–between them, the wars have killed more than 5,000 Americans and wounded perhaps 10 times that number–justifies a robust GI Bill, especially since, as Mr. Webb last year told Free Lance-Star readers, “Seventy percent of the Marine Corps and 75 percent of the Army leave at or before the end of their first enlistment, so the all-volunteer military is not an all-career military. When the overwhelming majority are leaving at the end of one enlistment, you still have a citizen-soldier, and those are the people who have not been taken care of.”

A pretty scathing piece from Vivian regarding McAuliffe campaign pollsters. At least to those of us who actually expect our leaders to adhere to the law.

Two weeks ago the Democratic party held their convention in Denver, Colorado and spent an entire week offering up real solutions to the myriad of problems facing our nation.  Last week, however, Republicans met in Saint Paul, Minnesota and spent the entire time distorting the positions of the Obama/Biden ticket (more on that in a moment), smearing those who dare disagree with their regressive “platform” and doing their best to somehow separate themselves from Republicans currently serving in Congress and especially the failed Bush/Cheney policies of the past eight years.

Following the conclusion of the Republican convention, California Senator Barbara Boxer issued the following statement in response to fellow Senator John McCain’s acceptance speech.

Last night at the Republican National Convention, John McCain used the word “fight” more than 40 times in his speech.

In the 16 years that we have served together in the Senate, I have seen John McCain fight.

I have seen him fight against raising the federal minimum wage 14 times.

I have seen him fight against making sure that women earn equal pay for equal work.

I have seen him fight against a women’s right to choose so consistently that he received a zero percent vote rating from pro-choice organizations.

I have seen him fight against helping families gain access to birth control.

I have seen him fight against Social Security, even going so far as to call its current funding system “an absolute disgrace.”

And I saw him fight against the new GI Bill of Rights until it became politically untenable for him to do so.

John McCain voted with President Bush 95 percent of the time in 2007 and 100 percent of the time in 2008 — that’s no maverick.

We do have two real fighters for change in this election — their names are Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

The distortion of facts by Republicans last week (most notably, in my opinion, Mike Huckabee and VP nominee Sarah Palin) was actually so bad that the Associated Press accused the party of stretching the truth.  In fact, while guest hosting Countdown w/ Keith Olbermann on Friday night MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow said the distortion of facts (and clever yet extremely deceptive wording of the speeches) was so bad that it amounted to flat out lies:

Also, I wonder if the McCain campaign would care to explain why he (McCain) wasn’t wearing an American flag lapel pin Thursday night.

First, I just want to point out that Republicans have no plan for America and no plan to fix the problems we’re facing, we all know that, so they’ve resorted to attacking the stage Obama will speak on when he formally accepts the parties nomination tomorrow at Invesco Field in Denver.  THE STAGE!!  Really?  C’mon now.  Second, while I haven’t been too impressed with the way the convention has gone so far because I’d like to see them take a few more shots at McCain than they have, the media and many others seem to be thoroughly impressed with soon-to-be Senator Warner’s speech from last night:

Future Senator Mark Warner and Governor (also possible VP candidate?) Tim Kaine will be speaking together at the Science Museum of Virginia tonight in Richmond.  The event will cost $25 for Young Democrats, $100 for everyone else and is scheduled to start at 6pm.

Earlier today it was announced that former Virginia Governor and soon-to-be Senator Mark Warner would deliver the keynote speech at this year’s Democratic National Convention in Denver.   Via the Warner Campaign’s official press release: Mark Warner comments on the opportunity:

“I am excited about this chance to showcase some of the initiatives we launched here in Virginia and the results we achieved in our effort to help people compete in a changing economy,” Governor Warner said. “By working cooperatively with Republicans, Democrats and independents, we restored integrity to Virginia’s budget process and focused on bringing jobs to the hardest-hit regions in the Commonwealth. I’m pleased we will have a chance to share the Virginia success story at the Convention in Denver.”

[Earlier: Mark Warner to deliver keynote speech at Democratic National Convention]

The Obama campaign just sent an email blast announcing that they expect to surpass a record two million donors within the next few hours.

You can make history in the next few hours. We’re within striking distance of 2 million people owning a piece of this movement.

Our message of change is reaching parts of this country that are rarely touched by presidential campaigns.

We’re all counting on each other to bring the change our country needs.

Future Senator Mark Warner will deliver the keynote speech at this year’s Democratic National Convention in Denver.  Via The Associated Press:

Placing Warner in the national spotlight could help boost his campaign in Virginia, where he is trying to win the Senate seat of retiring Republican John Warner. Obama is also campaigning hard in Virginia, a state that Republican George W. Bush won in the last two elections but one the Obama campaign thinks could turn to the Democrats.

“Mark Warner is the future of the Democratic Party, and putting him on Tuesday night with Hillary Clinton is exactly right move for Obama,” said Arora, who shut down the VoteBoth.com effort two weeks ago under the assumption that Clinton would not be picked. “They highlight Senator Obama’s vision and leadership qualities.”

In 2004 the keynote speech was given by Barack Obama.

Well, apparently “bombing for peace” really is the mindset of the world’s ignorant and unenlightened (and here I am thinking it was just one half of a snarky anti-war slogan).  In giving what may be one of the most inane statements I’ve ever heard, Moscow’s number two diplomat in the United States, Alexander Darchiev reveals Russia’s reason for invading Georgia during an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer:

“Again, our goal is to force adventurous Georgian leadership to peace.”

And on that note, the main stream media and McCain campaign surrogates are all over Barack Obama for spending time with his family this week in Hawaii while the conflict between Georgia and Russia escalates.  In typical MSM and Republican party fashion they almost always fail to mention that both campaigns have already issued statements condemning Russia’s actions.  Also, speaking of vacations let’s not forget that President Bush, the poster boy of the Republican party vacationed (as he’s been known to do during times of crisis) in China during the first few days of conflict between Russia and Georgia.  On top of that, I’d also like to suggest to the MSM and McCain surrogates that perhaps they should inquire as to why George Bush was unable to convince his BFF Vladamir Puttin (aka Pooty Poot) into working towards a cease-fire.

On a completely unrelated note (except that it once again involves the MSM), I just wanted to take a moment to remind folks that what a politician does in his sex life should not be part of the vetting process for our elected leaders, especially compared to the judgement they will use and the policies they will put in place to better our society and solve the problems facing our country, our people and our planet.  While I certainly feel for Elizabeth Edwards and in no way condone John Edwards’ behavior, his (and any other politician’s) sex life is in no way going to help or hinder my access to affordable health care, affordable education and cleaner, more affordable energy.  After all, let’s not forget that if a politician’s infidelity mattered in the overall scheme of things, John McCain would not be a sitting senator or a candidate for president.

 Okay, this is really getting rather old!

Primary after primary so far this election year we’ve seen one thing remain constant: Democrats coming out to vote in droves and localities subsequently running out of ballots.  Specifically Democratic ballots.  I for one am sick of it.  You’d think after this was the dominating story in the first 20 damn states to hold an election this year that states following on later dates would see to it that enough ballots were on hand. It continues to happen, though.  It happened in Virginia on February 12 (most notably in Chesterfield county), it happened in Texas and Ohio, and I’m just going to go out on a limb and say that Democratic voters (specifically some minorities) will continue to be disenfranchised throughout the primary season and in to the general election.

More than 20 speakers took turns beating up on Chesterfield County election officials for three hours today at a State Board of Elections meeting at the General Assembly Building.

Chesterfield’s Electoral Board Members and its registrar declined an opportunity to speak at the start of the 10 a.m. meeting and listened until 1 p.m. as they were criticized for bungling the Feb. 12 primary election.

Some speakers, including two from the NAACP and two from the Democratic Party, said a shortage of Democratic ballots at nine polling places and long lines throughout the county led to disenfranchised voters, most of whom were minorities.

“I’ve looked at the precincts that have had problems in terms of long lines and running out of ballots — they are disproportionately comprised of black voters. This is an embarrassment,” said David S. Turetsky, a Washington attorney who served as an observer on primary day for the Democratic Party.

He accused Registrar Lawrence C. Haake III of ignoring problems.

“It was denial, it was arrogance and it was hubris,” Turetsky said.

This is completely unacceptable.  It’s not as if Virginia was the first state to vote this primary season.  It’s not as if we didn’t know that Democrats have been coming out in droves and it might be a good idea to keep some extra ballots on hand.  Democrats and Republicans alike ought to be outraged that this sort of thing continues to happen in election after election and state after state.

[Cross posted on Raising Kaine]

Hillary Clinton just doesn’t get it. Democrats are overwhelmingly rejecting negative campaign attacks between herself and opponent Barack Obama as evidenced in the last debate between the two where she was actually booed when the crowd perceived her to be attacking Obama. Then, on a campaign stop today in Ohio with Democratic Governor Ted Strickland, she lashed out at Obama in perhaps one of the most desperate (and sad) attempts to remain relevant this campaign season.

“Shame on you, Barack Obama. It is time you ran a campaign consistent with your messages in public — that’s what I expect from you,” Clinton said angrily, waving the mailings in the air.

“Meet me in Ohio, and let’s have a debate about your tactics,” she added.

Uh, Hillary, Obama never claimed he wouldn’t tell the truth. Your health care plan will in fact punish people who don’t purchase health care. And who do you think can’t afford to purchase health care to avoid government penalties you would impose?

Hillary went on to say:

“Enough about the speeches, and the big rallies, and then using tactics right out of Karl Rove’s playbook. This is wrong and every Democrat should be outraged,” Clinton said.

Since when is there something wrong with giving a speech or being an eloquent speaker? Since when is there anything wrong with holding huge rallies? I mean, have you ever seen a candidate fill 20,000 seat arenas to the capacity in large cities across the country? Since when have we ever had a candidate assemble such a diverse and energized coalition of voters so early in a Presidential election season? This is an exciting time to be a Democrat and Hillary Clinton trying to “divide and conquer” Democratic voters is a carbon copy of a page out of Karl Rove’s playbook.

All of this just days after she expressed how honored she was to be running against Barack Obama at the Democratic debate in Houston on February 21:

“No matter what happens in this contest…and I am honored, I am honored to be here with Barack Obama, I am absolutely honored, and you know…whatever happens, we’re gonna be fine, you know we have strong support from our families and our friends. I just hope that we’ll be able to say the same thing about the American people; and that’s what this election should be about.”

[Cross posted at Raising Kaine and Daily Kos.]

UPDATE:

That’s what I’ve been told by several people “in the know.” Really, I guess it makes sense from all sides too. Hillary and Obama both get a fair shot at the delegates, and Florida & Michigan get to be represented at the convention. Perhaps most importantly, though, is this solution will prevent the Republicans from swaying voters in those states by saying the Democrats “disenfranchised” them by taking away their delegates.

Thoughts?

Checkout this email I got earlier today from the Clinton campaign claiming victory in Florida. Notice also how they fail to mention that Florida was stripped of it’s delegates by the DNC for violating party rules and moving it’s primary up. Also, no mention of the fact that all of the Democratic contenders pledged not to do any sort of campaigning in Florida during the primary season. HAHA!

Subject: Victory in Florida
From: Hillary Clinton
Date: Wed, Jan 30, 2008 8:38 am

Dear Terry,

I know I told you our campaign journey would be filled with high-stakes twists and turns. But I never knew it would be quite as dramatic as this. And last night we celebrated another big moment in this campaign with our resounding victory in Florida.

Now we face the biggest day of the campaign on Tuesday, with 22 races across the country. And no one can predict the outcome.

In a race this close, whatever you and I do now can make the difference. Every campaign stop, every voter we talk to, and every dollar you give can be the difference on Tuesday. Only our online supporters like you can act decisively enough to make sure the excitement and energy of this victory carries through on February 5.

Love always,
The Democrats

and Co-signed,
The Republicans

Anyway, so we elect them (the Democrats) to Congress and what do they do? Exactly what we told them not to, of course!!!! In case you’re wondering, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama both voted against the measure, but only after it was already assured that it would pass. Hm, I wonder if Walnuts! McCain actually voted this time.

Bowing to President Bush, the Democratic-controlled Congress grudgingly approved fresh billions for the Iraq war Thursday night, minus the troop withdrawal timeline that drew his earlier veto.

“The Iraqi government needs to show real progress in return for America’s continued support and sacrifice,” said the commander in chief, and he warned that August could prove to be a bloody month for U.S. troops in Baghdad’s murderous neighborhoods.

Five months in power on Capitol Hill, Democrats in both houses coupled their concession to the president with pledges to challenge his policies anew. “This debate will go on,” vowed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and if anything, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (news, bio, voting record) of Nevada was more emphatic.

“Senate Democrats will not stop our efforts to change the course of this war until either enough Republicans join with us to reject President Bush’s failed policy or we get a new president,” he said.

Earlier: Keith Olbermann slams Bush, and the Democratic leaders

UPDATE: Looks like crazy McCain did vote, voting “yea” of course. I’ll post the full roll call when it becomes available.

Keith Olbermann’s special comment regarding the “compromise” between George Bush and Democratic party leaders to continue funding the war in Iraq entirely on George Bush’s terms: