Time to Commit

Yesterday I did something I don't often do:  I put my money where my mouth is.

I have supported Tom Clements in these pages for some time.  His new advertising campaign confirms what I have felt about him:  he is a man committed to helping the people of South Carolina.  He is a true supporter of freedom, meaning the rights of individuals.

Jim Demint is also for freedom.  He supports the freedom of the wealthy to get wealthier, unfettered by taxation or regulation.  He believes in the freedom to deny individuals basic rights to privacy, the freedom to legislate what happens in your homes and doctors' offices.  He believes in the freedom to stop the federal government from functioning in order to keep power and wealth in the hands of the wealthy and powerful.

Jim Demint believes we all should be free to believe what Jim Demint believes.

Tom Clements promotes a different kind of freedom.  He believes workers have a right to earn a living wage.  He believes our privacy needs to be protected.  Tom Clements believes all Americans have the right to accessible health care, a good education, and the pursuit of renewable energy for jobs now and the preservation of our future.

Halloween is around the corner.  But Jim Demint is frightening in a very non-festive way.  Jim Demint is anti-American.  He is anti-freedom.  He is pro-wealth and power -- his own.

So we all need to get behind Tom Clements right now.  He has a great web site.  Tell your friends about him, and give him all the financial support you can.  Our future depends on it.

ClementsforSenate.com

Jim Demint, Freedom Fighter

"Once again we find that the only free speech Jim Demint supports is the speech with which he agrees."

The above quote was not by Jim Demint, but by me, paraphrasing Jim Demint.  We used to say, back in the day of projectors, "You could run film through him," regarding Jim Demint's psychological tendency to project his own evil on his self-sworn enemies.

So, given NPR's poorly timed firing of Juan Williams, leave it to Demint to jump upon the opportunity to denouce, not just NPR, but all publicly funded broadcasting.

The issue is not, of course, the firing of Williams.  The debate, to be honest, is of the conflicting roles of news and commentary.  Of course, most of us are able to distinguish, for example, Williams' airing his opinions on Fox, versus an actual news broadcast.  NPR, just as did the Agriculture Department with Shirley Sherrod just a few months ago, overreacted.  They overreacted fearing complaints by not just their critics but by their supporters.  In other words, they fell victim to the Democrats' fear of conflict.

By doing so, NPR has opened itself up to sworn enemies like Demint, who have, since the Reagan anti-government crusade began, been slowly decimating publicly funded media.  With the decline in government funding, NPR has been forced to depend increasingly on corporate sponsorship.  Meanwhile, Demint and his cronies continue to attempt to further cut funding, while increasing the amount of control they have over this once truly public media.

Considering the constant attacks and the need to beg for funding, it is amazing that NPR continues to be a strong and respected source for news.  So far, when funding is threatened, the American people speak up.  But there will always be attacks from people like Demint, and truly free and objective news will always be vulnerable.

I long for a return to the days when NPR did not have corporate sponsorship.  I remember when NPR did not have to fear repercussions from their government funders for decisions made in their best judgment.  If NPR did not have to live under the dictates of people like corporate senator Jim Demint, and their unfortunate corporate sponsorship, and of course, donations begged from their listening audience, they would be less fearful of controversy.  Perhaps Juan Williams' confused fears about Moslems on airplanes would have been just another strange day at Bill O'Reilly's place. 

Is It Over Yet???

Every once in a blue moon, less often for David Gregory, an interviewer asks a relevant question.  Sometimes they even make an astute comment.  Not about whether Christine O'Donnell is competent, or what are the voters angry about.  Questions like, what do you propose to do about low wages, poor schools, internet access for all?

Lots of good questions, and when they are asked, the candidates tend to scurry into a corner like roaches, using pat phrases like "ensure the safety of our homeland", "giving businesses the opportunity to compete", and "strong families are the true strength of America".  Now, I didn't make those phrases up; they came directly from Jim Demint's web site, and you have to know I didn't spend too much time wandering around in there to find that stuff.  There is only so much a thinking person can be expected to take.

The point is, those pat phrases are like the oil that once floated in the Gulf and is now coating the bottom.  And, to mix metaphors in an unappetizing sort of way, they are the meat and potatoes of election season.

I miss Tim Russert, but before he died, I would watch Meet the Press and yell at him because, since the election of 2006, he had been obsessed with the campaign of 2008, and not in a good way, but in a gossipy, sporting event kind of way.

I'm tired of hearing about Carl Paladino's dirty nasty emails and about Christine O'Donnell and witches -- have we all missed that in her ad denying she is a witch, and the creepy "I'm you" (no, you're not), she tossed out the same meaningless crap about the bad stuff Congress is doing in Washington and that she won't do.  And let's not expect her, or anyone else, to get more specific than that.

And if one does happen to back one of them into a corner, for example about jobs, the answer is always, renew the tax cuts, or better, stop trying to raise taxes.

So, I'm exhausted.  I keep watching and listening, but I can't imagine I'll hear anything new.  I just wish Matt Taibbi would do his next interview on Olbermann in his Viking costume.

Freedom-Lovers Strike Again

I noticed a few days ago that my car had been keyed, no doubt by some freedom-loving Demint supporter who was expressing his disapproval of my radical left-wing socialist bumper stickers.  It's an old car, and I just see the scratch as a battle scar in the "freedom" war.

Demint, as you may have noticed if you actually are awake for a few hours a day, likes to talk about freedom.  Some of the freedoms he believes have been sold down the river to the devil are the freedom to practice Christianity, the freedom for businesses to prosper, and the freedom of the wealthy to keep their vast wealth.  He claims his Christianity is the right one, the one God himself would approve of.

Businesses of course, deserve to prosper because we need them.  He does believe that if we allow businesses to do what they like free of regulation or taxation, we will all be free to prosper.

And if we don't prosper, it is because we are lax and lazy, and/or God just doesn't think we deserve prosperity.

Of course, Demint has been blessed by God.  I am assuming the person who keyed my car does not feel thus blessed.

Demint's Christianity reeks of the bitter and paranoid fables not of Christ but of Tim Lahaye.  In those fables, God serves man and man adores God because God serves him.  There is no turning the other cheek, or aiding the poor and weak.  So if you believe in Demint's God, your anger at the poor and weak is justified.

But Demint's Christianity serves Demint.  That leaves a whole lot of his supporters angry at what they have lost:  their jobs, their homes, their marriages, their security.

If they rail at Demint, and by his own assertion, God, they will be striking at their own long-held beliefs.  Insecurity does not lead to self-scrutiny.  Instead they rail at the enemy as Demint proclaims the enemy:  the poor, the needy, the suffering.  They call it "communism" and "socialism" because that is the name Demint has given the enemy.

And they fight that enemy by taking a key to my car.  When they walk away they are still angry, but feel better.

Just Who Does Demint Represent?

Jim Demint has a lot to say about "freedom".  But for Demint, it means the freedom to be a self-righteous faux-Christian bigot.  And I believe he has the right to be that self-righteous faux-Christian bigot.  But NOT on the floor of the U.S. Senate.

Demint believes that it is his God-given right to legislate his morality -- or, immorality, actually.  Like Joe McCarthy before him, he is a paranoid megalomaniac who clings rigidly to his hates and biases.  AND he has the power and capital to enact laws based on those hateful beliefs.

I wonder that, rather than demand his resignation, or that Congress reprimand Demint for his bigoted remarks, people are "demanding" an apology.  I imagine that Demint is facing a great deal of ostracism from members of his own party, so close to Election Day.  But he has apologized before. 

In the Washington Post, Rachel Weiner  points out that in 2004, Demint "apologized" for commenting that an unwed pregnant woman should not be allowed to teach in public schools.  He apologized by saying,

"[S]ometimes my heart disengages from my head and I say something I shouldn't - and that's what happened yesterday. I clearly said something as a dad that I just shouldn't have said. And I apologize."

Some apology.

Now, six years later, pockets full of cash from corporate interests determined to use Demint to enflame the voters, Demint is happy to spread his gospel of bigotry.  Now he relates that experience of six years prior as, really, a victory for, of course, Freedom:

"...everyone would come to me and whisper that I shouldn't back down. They don't want government purging their rights and their freedom to religion."

 In true Demint-speak, "everyone" was glad he was defending their freedom to religion.  That means that in a public school, Jim Demint and his followers have the freedom to express their bigoted religious beliefs.

My head hurts when I try to follow his logic, really.

But, the most important thing about this is that the Post goes on to talk about Tom Clements and his opposition to Jim Demint:

Tom Clements, the Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate, weighed in. "The public has the right to know the full extent of DeMint's plans to put public employees to a morals test and he should reveal details of who he would target and what the criteria for judgment are," said Clements. "DeMint's efforts to push his own zealous beliefs on all of us clearly demonstrate the extent of his radical agenda and show that he is not fit to be a senator."

We need Tom Clements in the Senate, fighting for our freedom.

We need right now to be free from Jim Demint 

Keep an Eye on Opie

You heard it here, I believe that Jim Demint is going to implode.  He may still have his pockets full of filthy lucre, and may still be spreading it around, but some day the boy is going to look around and realize nobody likes him.

So things aren't looking as grim for South Carolina, and now's the time to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat (for a change).

Send messes of emails to all your friends and family and let them know about Tom Clements.  He is the man that can bring us out of the dark ages.

Let's take advantage of all the good opportunity that comes our way whenever Jim Demint opens his mouth.

But Really, We Have a Candidate

I think it's wonderful that Charleston's own Nathalie Dupree has offered to throw her hat into the ring against the evil Jim Demint.  But this race is really feeling like South Carolina's version of Alice Through the Looking Glass.

First, unknown Alvin Greene shows up and upsets Vic Rawl, as well as a lot of voters, myself included, in the primary.

Greene's comedic lack of enthusiasm as well as frightening lack of credentials versus the extreme evil of Jim Demint led to the candidacy of Tom Clements.

Clements has the kind of background and enthusiasm that should cause us to breathe a sigh of relief and jump on his bandwagon.  Instead, there has been a bizarre invisibility thing going on, which tends to happen whenever a brave third party candidate tries to get involved in a race, regardless of how good he looks and how bad are the alternatives.

Now, after just a few days vacation in, yes, I'll admit it, a blue state, I come home to find that Nathalie Dupree has jumped in to save us from the likes of Jim Demint and Alvin Greene.

Which leaves me scratching my head and thinking, "Why doesn't somebody tell her about Tom Clements???"

So I thought I'd send this fine lady an email and ask her to send her support Tom's way.  Maybe you could do the same.

Who's Going to Control Opie?

Jim Demint, head swelled from flattery by the easily impressed media, has decided to step up and become the de facto head of the Senate republicans.  He has said that he will block any bills before the session ends unless they are on his desk 24 hours prior.

Now, I can imagine that our Jim is a slow reader, but we can be fairly certain he is too busy doing the work of the voices in his head to actually read any bills.  Apparently, this is the Demint version of holding one's breath so people won't forget you are there.

I know this is not the caliber of professional that I want in the US Senate.  But I also wonder what his "fellow" republicans are thinking about his bullying.  Are they actually afraid of Demint to the point where they won't just send him to his room?  I hesitate to say that a smack upside the head probably wouldn't hurt.

But here we all are, taking this bully seriously.  Just like they kowtowed to Joe McCarthy back in the 50's.

We need to seriously look at how dysfunctional this man is.  Other than an occasional appearance on Jon Stewart's  Thank you, South Carolina segment, Demint was pretty much a nonentity until he found his home in the Tea Party.  With a campaign bankroll that he doesn't need in South Carolina, he has been giving favors to Tea Party candidates most likely to return those favors in Congress.

His views of how government should be run are no less extreme than McCarthy's were 60 years ago.

Our overstimulated media has once again focussed on the "kingmaker" idea rather than his actual positions, which are, quite frankly, scary.  Jim Demint is a scary person.  His faux-Christian views remind one of a Salem witch-hunt, but he's not going after witches, he is going after single parents and gays.  He has learned to keep his radical views to himself and his kind, and has been able to do so by avoiding any public forum that does not cater to his extremist views.

Whether the South Carolina primary results were due to fraud or voter stupidity, it conveniently left him with no one to force him into public debates, and coffers full of gold.  Just too convenient, in my opinion.

So what do we do about Demint?  I think everyone of all parties, in every state in the country, need to listen carefully to every word he says.  Because he is NOT kidding.  He will destroy our government.  He will kill our schools, our jobs, our way of life, and do it in the name of his "God".

The media needs to pay attention to Jim Demint.  They need to wake up and tune in to what he is saying.  They need to report his candidacy in terms of what he is campaigning on, and what his actions have proved in his six years in the Senate.

If Jim Demint gets re-elected, and brings along his Tea Party followers, it will be a bad time for we the people of this state, and of this country.

If the Old Stuff Doesn't Work

I got to work today and the first thing I saw was Saturday's headline in The State.  Apparently, Nikki's ugly media blitz is beating Vincent Sheheen's not-so-nice ads.


So, I'm thinking, if the same old stuff isn't going to work, and I think it's fair to say it is not working, maybe it's time for Democratic and/or Liberal candidates to try something different.


Suppose Vincent Sheheen campaigned with other like-minded candidates?  Suppose he went on the road with Tom Clements, Green Party candidate for US Senate .  How about if they both came to Charleston and campaigned with Rob Groce, US House of Representative District 1 candidate, who is running under the auspices of the Working Families Party.


Now that they are campaigning together, they can pool some of their resources, run a real media blitz.  They can do interviews together, and explain how their philosophies and positions on the issues really do benefit the people of South Carolina.  Just think of the interest and free coverage they will have just because of the way they are running.


More important, they can focus on the issues, and the impact of their positions versus the destructive impact of the positions of their opponents.


Frankly, I'm tired of seeing ads that try to attack the character of the candidate.  I'm sure Nikki Haley is a lovely person, but her policies would devastate the people of South Carolina, except for those of us who happen to be corporations.  Her budget cuts would continue to devastate schools and libraries.  She would not support the social services that we desperately need as we try to survive the economic tsunami of the Bush/Sandford years; in fact, the ranks of the unemployed would continue to swell as she puts her campaign promises to her corporate sponsors into effect.


As for Jim Demint, I believe we voters have come to accept that he is "too big to fail".  But if our candidates -- and I don't mean Alvin Greene or Ben Frasier -- were united against Demint's hypocracies they would be heard.


And the most important thing our candidates need to do differently is to stop cowering.  I'm tired of hearing how Vincent Sheheen will work with the republicans and with big business.  If he actually stood up to these monied special interests, not only would he be newsworthy, he would get voters excited about going to the polls.


So, yes, we will probably lose, and lose big.  We have some top-notch candidates, who have thrown a lot of time and money into this, put their lives on hold for this campaign.  Isn't it time they stood together and told the voters what they could do for South Carolina?

Let's Be Rude

I believe Jim Demint's poor mom was so overwhelmed trying to do right by her family that she ended up, like all overworked moms, feeling guilty for neglecting her children, and when she could, spoiled them.

Because Jim Demint acts like an angry, spoiled child.  He has realized over the past year or so, that the longer he holds his breath, the more attention he gets.

His fellow republicans try, as you might imagine, to quietly get him calmed down, and end up promising him stuff to get him to behave.

And as with any bully, the more attention he gets, the more he bullies.

And we are left with Jim Demint, not holding his breath, but holding Congress hostage, and feeling mighty proud of himself.  He knows most of his "friends" don't really like him, but have to pretend that they do, because he could turn against them as well.

So he says he doesn't really like the "friends" he has, and he is going to go out and make new friends.  And they will all do what he says.

We all know that bullies are very fragile creatures.  They need to keep proving they have power by being ever bigger bullies.

What do you do with bullies?  You stand up to them, get in their face, and confront them, refuse to give in.  You face them down, make them answer for their behavior.

Or they become absurd and irrelevant, an embarrassment to themselves, and they fade away.

That is what happened to Joe McCarthy.  We may be wiser now.  It may be that we will never give Jim Demint the power to destroy lives and do damage to our Republic that Joe McCarthy had.

We'll just have to wait and see.

Meanwhile, we can get out and vote.  Even here in South Carolina we have options.

There is Alvin Greene who "won" the Democratic primary, but there is also Tom Clements, Green Party candidate, the true Democratic alternative.

What is important is to vote, and encourage family and friends, all over the country, to get out and vote.  If Demint wins, at least we can prove that there is opposition to his regime; his minions in other states are not liked or trusted, and all it will take is for we the people to get out and vote.

Time to Crash and Burn

All the talk about Jim Demint being a kingmaker makes me chuckle.  He's got loads of money, especially since his Watergate-style minions have been able to fix the primaries so that he doesn't have to run for re-election, and he's not afraid to say whatever's on his mind, and with conviction.

But the secret to his success is that he NEVER HAS TO FACE HIS OPPONENT.  From speaking on an empty Senate floor, to nasty anti-American sound-bites in front of a crazed Tea Party crowd, he has been able to pretty much have his image molded for him.  I say, "for him" because despite his advertising background, I don't think he's that swift with the pen.

I remember the good old days when Inez Tenenbaum was making him defend his faux-Christian right-wingnut positions.  I would never get tired of hearing him talk about not allowing a pregnant single woman to teach for fear she would influence our children.

But six years ago, the smaller Bush and Mark Sanford had only just begun to wreak havoc on our lives, and the dream of living high without paying taxes was very appealing to our electorate, and so he became Senator Demint.

Since then, he has made us proud by being featured on The Daily Show as South Carolina's "colorful socialist-fearing, Erkel-quoting Senator Demint".

Yes, Jim Demint is pretty darned sharp when it comes to quoting Erkel, and he can give you the plot line of nearly all of the episodes of The Andy Griffith Show, but don't think for one minute that that proves his intelligence.  When he is not reading from a speech, his sentences meander around words like "freedom" and "free-market" which tend to pop up with both irrelevance and irreverence.

I hate to say it, but Jim Demint sounds like a product of an inadequately funded education system.

He's also managed to alienate the real republicans in his party, with his megalomaniacal plan to seed the Senate with crazies who share his own psychosis, figuring that he has pretty much bought and paid for them.

But in the real world, Opie doesn't always win the fight, or get Andy's approval.  The media may be enjoying the tantalizingly creepy sound of "Jim Demint, Kingmaker", but face it,  if you take a close, more analytical look at the races, bullying his way into a state's primaries with a ton of money didn't get him all that much in terms of results.

He's bragging about republicans on the Hill asking him for favors in 2012, but I'm betting by then he'll be as much in demand as the smaller Bush was during the campaign of '08.

Christine O'Donnell Has Her Man-Pants On

Who knew a week ago what "man-pants" were?  We don't exactly know today, but it's so much fun to imagine, isn't it?

Christine O'Donnell would be almost as much fun as Sarah Palin was when she hit the national stage, except she's learned from Palin's mistakes, and her own.  She's an "English major" and as such, is proud of her use and abuse of the English language.

Take her own personal definition of feminism:

Asked if she considered herself a feminist, O'Donnell said: "Absolutely, but let me qualify that -- I consider myself an authentic feminist. Not as defined by the modern movement. And, let me clarify that a little bit more. I was an English major, so break it down: -ist means one who celebrates. As a feminist, I celebrate my femininity."

I remember my own high school English teachers being tickled when I was creative in developing arguments, even if I was wrong.  And that's how I see Christine.  Still caught up in the flattery she got in high school, and still being creative in developing arguments, even if she's wrong.

I have to admit, she's definitely more head-spinningly verbal and creative than South Carolina's Jim Demint; if I had a dollar for every time he used the word "freedom" I'd be a wealthy republican today.

And she will stay away from the tough interviews, although I think she has the "man-pants" to say whatever crazy thing she thinks about religion and sex, or, as they present themselves in her head, religionsex.  She'll just say it to her own circle of wingnuts, and when forced to speak to the general electorate, tone it down with some excuse about her being young back then, and never actually answering the question (Will we get to see her backside as reporters insist on answers, a la Jan Brewer and Sharron Angle, I wonder.).

As hilarious as they might be on the campaign trail, though, we need to keep in mind that Demint actually got elected.  Voters in this country haven't gotten any smarter or less gullible in the six years he has been attempting to run the country into the ground.  If you can't picture Christine giving a speech on the Senate floor, just think of people like Demint, and House Tea Partier Michele Bachmann.

And then round up all your friends and family, and VOTE.

The Blahs

I get exhausted hearing what "they" have to say:  the Limbaughs, the Cheneys, the whole new crop of Tea Party candidates that the wacko right wing has nominated to run the country, Sarah Palin and Jim Demint, who in my mind should be linked forever -- wouldn't they just deserve that?

I get exhausted and then I feel the need to get away.  In other words, stop learning, stop writing, and of course the next step is, stop voting.

This is where many of us are right now.  In South Carolina, where our corrupt primary system is about as likely to change as Boeing is likely to pay its fair share for the right to take advantage of our cheap labor, we face a difficult choice.

If we are republican, we are going to stand in line for as many hours as it takes to make sure the folks who are going to run our schools, libraries, roads, hospitals and fire and police departments into the ground get elected, because they've promised us they won't raise taxes.

And if we are Democrats?  Do we vote for Alvin Greene and Ben Frasier?  Or do we vote for good people with strong democratic ideals who don't have a chance to win because they are third party candidates, have no deep pockets, or friends with deep pockets, but who are taking the chance of their lifetimes to try to right the wrong that is our primary system and our broken government?

Or do we stay home?

For me, staying home is not an option.  I will stand in line with all the good ole' boys and gals, and I'll vote for Tom Clements for Senate and Rob Groce for Congress, and those good Democratic candidates that somehow slipped through the primaries into the general election.  Because it would be wrong to not cast my one little vote.

Because this year if enough of us don't exercise that right, we could lose bigger than we did during the Bush dynasty.

Kingmaker, or, Little Opie Grows Up

It's always fun to see what the media makes of our own good ole' boy Jim Demint.  It's fun to see him slugging it out with Sarah Palin to see who can be the Tea Party hero of the moment.

It's also enjoyable to hear the mutterings about Jim Demint on Capitol Hill.
 
And it's probably a good thing he doesn't have to worry about actually campaigning for himself, against someone who could actually confront him with some of his stupidity-based positions.

Like for example, "Uh, Jim, what exactly do you mean by 'Freedom'?  Because right after you talk about 'Freedom' you mention how the government should make sure gays can't get married and women can't make private choices about their own bodies.  You also don't seem to think everyone should have the 'Freedom' to go to the same quality schools, or receive the same quality of health care.  You don't even seem too concerned about whether people should have a roof over their heads.  You DO care about people having religion -- YOUR religion.

"So basically, Jim, what you're saying is that we all should have the 'Freedom' to be poor if we're poor, and have whatever religion we want as long as we follow the dictates of YOUR religion, right?  And we need to stop government spending, except for enforcing all those rules that come under the heading of 'Jim Demint's morality'?  Which, as I remember from your Senate campaign six years ago, remember, that was when you actually campaigned, had some pretty anti-American ideas about 'Freedom'."

Sadly, we won't get to hear Jim Demint debate anyone knowledgeable this year.  For our money, he has taken his show on the road, but for my money, I would say he hasn't taken it far enough.

Just Say No...Over and Over and Over

We all thought they were crazy when, after the pounding they got in the 2008 elections, the Republicans just shouted the same thing, but louder.  Repeating the dreaded "Obama--Pelosi--Reid" trilogy over and over and over again.  Accusing the Democrats of being left-wing radicals, and the more we moved right in the spirit of compromise, the more they accused us of being left-wing radicals.  Of refusing to listen to them.  Of refusing to compromise.

And, after two years of listening to the repeated lies and inconsistencies over and over and over, I see the voters hypnotically nodding their heads, right along with the discordant song Boehner and Demint are singing.

And what have the Republicans -- in one voice, over and over and over -- been telling us we want?  We want more conservative policies, meaning "cut taxes", which is about as deep as today's conservatives get.  We want the government to stop taking money away from businesses, because that's why we don't have jobs.

What's funny is that I don't even hear Democrats yelling back that it won't work because it didn't work before.  The more the republicans yell at the voters about us, the more defensive we get.

Remember when we first won in 2008, and we laughed in 2009 when the republicans accused us of not doing what they wanted?

What's also funny is that, even though the republicans have been saying in so many words that the changes they will make when they are elected is to return to the smaller Bush's fiscal policies, the polls are showing that the voters believe they will do things differently than they did the last time they were in charge of the country.

So we're in for a long election season, and I'm afraid a long two more years.  Of course, when they get elected, as long as they tell us we're happy to have them in charge, maybe it won't be so bad.  Unfortunately though, I believe they will continue to tell us it's the fault of Obama -- Pelosi --- and Reid, as we sink into the depths of our corporate-controlled despair.

Death Panel in Increments

In 2005, our Congress and our President, then the smaller Bush, decided that it was their right and responsibility to legislate that Terri Schiavo, in a vegetative state since 1998, should be kept alive through continued use of a feeding tube.  Not only did they bypass the courts, but more important, Terri's doctors, and her legal guardian, her husband.

On Sunday, five year old Kyler Van Nocker died of cancer, after not only fighting the cancer, but fighting the insurance company, HealthAmerica, for treatment.  Again, another party with an interest other than the health and well-being of the patient, steps in to dictate treatment.  For every well educated and well-armed parent or patient, there are innumerable individuals who suffer and die for lack of ability to fight this beast.

And then there is abortion.  Not the taking of a life, but the choice of a woman with her family, and with the advice of a physician.  A difficult choice that many women make because bringing a child into their lives would be wrong.  The cry of abortion as murder has been used by right wing extremists to fan the flames of hate and prevent fearful and insecure individuals from fighting for their own interests:  a living wage, better education for their children, and yes, guaranteed health care, all of which would decrease the incidence of abortion by improving the quality of life.

The screaming about "death panels" last summer was outrageous and beyond ironic, because we have the death panels already.

They are the religious fanatics who believe they have the right to step into our bedrooms and sickrooms and decide what we can and can't do when we have sex, and what we should do with a fetus that is in our bodies, and that a stem cell CAN'T be used to further research to save lives.

They are the legislators who fought against a public health care for all that would be non-partisan and even-handed, because it would cut into the profits of their corporate sponsors.  They cried about the deficit after building it, and then claimed the government would be the "death panel", when it was in fact the insurance corporation that truly determined who and when a patient would die.

And in fact they DO kill granny, and mom and dad, and even a five year old child, rather than pay for an expensive treatment or by disallowing large amounts of the cost, making health care unaffordable even with health insurance.

The "death panels" decide how much money to spend on our treatments.  Their representatives in Congress won't vote to pay a penny to keep a Terri Schiavo alive, but stand in judgment of a family trying to say good-bye to a loved one.  They won't fight for health care for all, even if it means a child will die, because it costs too much, it sets an expensive precedent, their corporate sponsors' profit margins will suffer.

The Jim Demints and John Boehners will stand against ObamaCare, because their money is on the insurance industry.  And yet they will cry out about "death panels" as though they don't know that they are the ones who have made death panels the law of the land.


If you were going to cook a frog, would you throw it in boiling water, or drop it in a pan of cold water and turn on the heat?


If you want to control people, you get them to agree that they need to give up some small freedoms.  You convince them that in fact it is other people that need to be controlled, and make laws against abortion.  You tell them how bad it would be if the government controlled their health care, that "free enterprise" is the American Way, and of course, the way of "freedom".  You control their doctors, and you allow doctors to be threatened and killed without standing against the murderers, until that treatment is no longer available.  You come up with reasons why government funded research is bad, allowing corporations to decide what gets marketed and by whom.  You cut funding for education, you cut funding for stem cell research, you cut funding for regulators to monitor the industrial research and corporations.

...and Voila! the frog is dead, and didn't even know it was happening.

When You're Wrong, You're Wrong

This is tough.  Alvin Greene, who I believe is trying really, really hard to look like he's running for US Senate, made an appearance today.  He appeared about as close to the SC border as you can get and still be in SC.  And unfortunately, he strayed from his jobs and schools mantra.  Mr. Greene stated that he's against gay marriage, and supports the military's current don't ask, don't tell policy.

So he's for jobs and schools and against gays.... Hmm... Could be a republican... They say they're for jobs and schools, right?

Actually, it was probably that time of the month when his handlers told him he should show his face.

That still leaves us with -- Nooooo -- Demint.  Can't do that either.  But no vote is just what Demint is anticipating.  Can you hear the republicans crow in November about the margin of votes that that corporate spokesman wins by?

But wait!  There is another green candidate out there.  Check out Tom Clements, and get after the SC Democratic Party to throw their support behind a legitimate candidate.

This one's too important to just ignore.  And whether you vote for Greene or Clements, VOTE.  We can't let Demint think he's won by a landslide.

And just maybe he won't win at all....

When You Can't Get It Out of Your Head

The strangest thing happened today.  In the middle of my day at work I began, for no apparent reason, to ruminate about the Demint quote from yesterday's blog.

This is the quote:

DeMint said he was "optimistic” about his re-election campaign, but he did say Greene’s nomination was concerning.

"It’s not healthy,” DeMint said. "I think the important thing is it’s not an embarrassment for our state and the Republican Party. We should consider the same people who nominated Alvin Greene, (Vincent) Sheheen and everybody else on that list.”  (Greenwood, SC Index Journal)


This is wrong on so many levels my head spins.  First of all, what's "not healthy?"  And by healthy do you mean sick physically, emotionally disturbed, or are you just attempting to begin to project a feeling of "dis-ease" to your listeners?

We still don't know what "it" is when he goes on to say the "important thing is it's not an embarrassment.

If "it" means "Greene's nomination", what could be unhealthy about a candidate on a ballot winning a primary nomination?  Because he then goes on to smear us (presumably) Democratic voters by saying "We should consider the same people who nominated Alvin Greene, Sheheen and everybody else on that list."

Okay, I'm still confused, but now I'm getting a little steamed.  It seems that we the Democratic voters are being accused of possibly embarrassing (Demint's) state and the Republican party.  And not only has (Demint's) state and the Republican party been lumped together, it seems that ALL the candidates -- "everybody else on that list" -- are interchangeable as well.

As I said yesterday, Demint's Jello-speak (no offense to Jello) has the effect of making one's eyes glaze over while being totally incapable of disagreeing with anything he says.  Because it makes no sense.  

So in the interest of "know thy enemy", pay attention to what Jim Demint says.  He is above all an ad-man.  It is his second nature to be disingenuous, to control people through vague but emotionally charged accusations.

If Alvin Greene's nomination to the U.S. Senate is "concerning" -- I assume Demint meant to say it concerns him, but in the interest of being all-inclusive wants all his listeners to be concerned, I say maybe he is right to be concerned.  It may be that in November he'll be back to being an ad-man.

Alvin Greene

because he's

Better than Demint

When You Can't Figure Out What He's Saying...

Jim Demint actually had a campaign event over the weekend at a senior center in McCormick, South Carolina.

As I read about the event in the Greenwood, SC, Index Journal I found that my eyes were glazing over, and realized it is that particular form of hypnosis that only Demint can perform.  It happens when what he says is such a mountain of word-jello that all you can say to it is, "What the...?"

Here's a quote:

DeMint said he was "optimistic” about his re-election campaign, but he did say Greene’s nomination was concerning.

"It’s not healthy,” DeMint said. "I think the important thing is it’s not an embarrassment for our state and the Republican Party. We should consider the same people who nominated Alvin Greene, (Vincent) Sheheen and everybody else on that list.”


Now I can't imagine that the man who stood on the Capitol steps and said that health care would be Obama's Waterloo could be worried about embarrassing South Carolina.  That's all I can say about the above quote, because otherwise I have absolutely no idea what it means.

Here's a word of warning, though.  Demint's Jello-speak works.  He's a guy who, as they say down South, "cleans up real nice".  He's an ad-man, and is a smooth talker.  So when he strings words together, chances are he's going to have you nodding in agreement, but he won't have said a darn thing that makes sense.  Which is why I can't even begin to get outraged about the above quote, much less try to analyse it.

I believe the only thing left to do with someone like Jim Demint, is vote him out of office.

Alvin Greene

because he's

Better than Demint

 

No Excuses

Alvin Greene has been indicted on obscenity charges.  The head of the South Carolina Democratic Party, Carol Fowler, is once again urging him to withdraw his name from the race, and he is once again refusing.

Are you wondering why?  I am.  Well, actually, I have a theory (as does everyone).  I believe that Alvin Greene's nefarious backers have assured him that if he stays in the race and keeps a low profile, they will pay all his costs, and maybe even a bonus, you know, just like on Wall Street, for a job poorly done.

I may be wrong.

But wouldn't it be something if Greene woke up one day, and said, I can't take this anymore, and withdrew from the race.

But then what?  Would Vic Rawl re-enter?  To my mind, he doesn't have the fighting spirit that would be needed to even cause Demint to come home from campaigning for his other Corporate Conservative candidate friends around the country.  I doubt that Demint would break a sweat over it.

Of course, the longer Greene stays in, the harder it would be for another candidate to step forward -- we don't have the deep pockets, and the friends with deep pockets, that Demint and his cronies have.

So maybe one day Alvin Greene will withdraw.  But it's not going to make a lot of difference.

If we want to get rid of Jim Demint, we do it with Alvin Greene or without:

Alvin Greene

because he's

Better than Demint