Rush Limbaugh Is An Idiot

I hate to borrow from the soon to be Senator from Minnosota, but Rush Limbaugh is an idiot. I have listened to him off and on since I returned from Kuwait in 1991. He used to be funny. He used to be entertaining. Today, he is just dangerous.

I don't blame Rush though. I blame the Republican party. In the total vacuum of leadership, Rush has emerged as the only Republican with any (albeit bad) ideas.

Look at what the party has become. Their presumed front runner for 2012 is Sarah Palin, an intellectual lightweight. Those elected are seen as obstructionists with few real solutions of their own. The outgoing President Bush has absolutely no credibility as a party leader. John McCain sold out to the far right and gave up his credibility in the process of losing to Obama. Is it any wonder that a guy who never completed college would emerge as the leader of the Republican party?

Here is the problem though: Rush's ideas are not backed by fact. He can say anything he wants and if he yells loud enough, then people take it as fact. Of course, when he is wrong, he doesn't have to stick around to take credit for it. Or worse, he can just restate his position as if he never said it in the first place.

The GOP needs to stand for something that matters. Rush is only concerned with increasing his listening base so he can earn more from advertising.

Rush is an idiot who has no place in making policy any more than the Hollywood set who speak to policy. The GOP should not listen to him. If they truly want to reinvent themselves, they should start by distancing themselves from entertainers.

Are America's Best Days Behind Us?

In the local paper, The News Virginian, a gentleman claimed that America's best days are behind her. This he believes based upon the election of Barack Obama. In fact, he thinks that America has lost her way because we don't "put God first like we used to."

Well, here is a short list of all the great things America has accomplished putting God first:

1. Owning other people as property
2. Mass genocide of the native peoples
3. A bloody civil war
4. The occupation of the Philipines and the subsequent counter insurgency in 1899 to 1903 where thousands were slaughtered.
5. The internment of Japanese Americans
6. The anihalation of two Japanese cities by Atom bomb
7. The witch hunts known as McCarthyism based upon thoughts
8. The propping up of dozens of despots and dictators
9. The lie that was the Gulf of Tonken
10. Segregation
11. Lynching
12. Wiretapping citizens
13. Suspension of habeaus corpus
14. Torture

We will soon hear the truth

Over the next few months, we will hear the truth about what the Bush administration did and how badly they really screwed things up. We already know a number of things that were done wrong and that Bush and his cronnies could not cover up. But soon, we will find out the things that they succeeded in covering up.

I expect the warrantless wiretapping will be a major story. But there will likely be more whistle-blowers after the fact. Here are my expected subjects:

1. WMD's we will find out the truth about the lack of WMD's and how they knew there were none before the invasion.
2. 9/11:
3. Katrina and the aftermath.
4. I bet someone who was actually thought to have died or disapeared, will show up alive from one of the Bush secret prisons.
5. We will also find out about the threats made to whistle blowers.

HOPE DAY 3!

The End of the Nightmare

Today, January 20th, 2009 will mark the end of the long, dark, national nightmare which we call the Bush Administration.

As George Bush spends his time spinning his legacy, I thought it might be time to discuss the worst of his failings. Bush and his supporters state that "he kept us safe". Of course, he kept us safe except for when he didn't.

We know now that Bush was warned that Bin Laden was determined to attack the US. In response to this, Bush told the aide that, "you've covered your ass, now let's move on".

I am having a hard time forgiving the president for this act. The list of failings go on and on, but this one act was likely the worst. Without 9/11, there would be no Afganistan, Iraq (with the lies that got us there), runaway deficits, torture, warrantless wiretaps, suspension of habeas corpus, Gitmo and secret prisons.

Of course, we will never know whether the Bush administration would have been able to stop the attacks. It is certain that had they done something, then the chances would have improved, by how much is unknown.

While the last 8 years (8 years and 3 months if you include the Florida crimes), will likely go down as the worst presidency of the modern era, we can hope that the next 8 will be remembered as the best.

A Message to My Father

My father is a very well educated man. He holds a Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine from the University of Georgia. While I wouldn't put him in the group of intellectual elite, he was always well versed in politics, history, and the world at large. He will turn 70 in April. I turned 40 last May.

This past year we have grown apart. This is largely due to the political season and my support for Obama. While I expected my father, who is a life-long Republican to be upset with my support for Obama, I did not expect the fisure between us to be so vast.

Since I am a former Marine, an MBA, and a life-long Republican, you could have considered my vote to be secure in the GOP column. However, I have grown to see myself more as an Independent this year. I don't agree with all the views presented by Obama, I do see more that I like than I dislike. I believe Obama is the right man to run this country for the next four or eight years based upon what the country needs right now.

Where I see a rational discussion about what is best for America, my father sees conspiracy. He has believed at some point during this year that Obama is a secret muslim, a secret socialist, an anti-American mole, a liberal, a pupet of secret groups, a terrorist, and most recently, the mastermind behind the mortgage meltdown.

Of course, he will never say that race has anything to do with it. My father, a lifelong moderate (if there is such a thing) rascist suddenly doesn't see race. By moderate rascist, I mean he was never militant. Instead, he simply believed, when pressed, that the all races other than white were somehow inferior. He always thought that they would, when given the option, choose the wrong path--the easy path.

He, like so many of his generation, were raised in an environment that supported this view.

Somehow, my father's views did not stick to me. I went off to the Marines when I was 18 and served with people of every possible race or mixture of race. My experience in the military helped me see the world as it was, just like me. So how could I be any better or worse than anyone else?

So my message to my father is simple: your hatred is killing you.

I see a man who used to laugh, believe there was good in people, reach out to the world around him and hope for the future. Now, I see a man who thinks everyone is out to get him, tax him, take what is his, and ruin his country. I see a man who no longer things that our best days are ahead of us.

Has he left office yet?

Last week, we saw even more evidence that the Bush Administration is completely incompetant. Why? Just 3 months ago, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson stated that the US banking system was sound. Then all of a sudden, they realize that they were wrong and he needs $700 Billion without any oversight at all in order to fix the problem.

I agree they need the $700 Billion to buy up the bad securities and fix the market. I don't agree that they need to do it with no oversight. Give me a break. Do you really think it is wise to give anyone in this administration authority without oversight on anything? Every single thing they have touched has been screwed up. Every single thing! Iraq, Katrina, The Justice Department, Guantanomo Bay, fiscal policy, foreign policy... Shit! Name one thing they have gotten right.

Paulson may be a smart guy, but he is stupid by association. The Bush Neo-Conservatives will go down as the dumbest group ever to run this country. The only way to out-do them is to put in McCain-Palin. Let's see, bottom five in his class and a creationist nut-job who thinks Bush is a smart guy.

I don't pray much, but... GOD HELP US.

Are we at the turning point?

I am beginning to feel like we are at the turning point. Things have been bad for a while, but most of you haven't noticed. Here is the list of what was bad and how it is turning for the better:

1. Habeas Corpus. Over the past 7 years, the Bush administration has routinely set aside the Constitution. Specifically, the concept of Habeas Corpus (produce the body) which protects us from unlawful arrest without a crime or charges. This has been the most shocking part of the attack on the US Constitution in a long time. (Yeah, I know Lincoln did it too.) Luckily, the Supreme Court has ruled that all people detained by the US Government must be charged and tried in a court of law. This is huge.

2. The surge is over. At the end of July, American forces in Iraq will be back to their pre-surge numbers. I don't care whether the surge worked or not. I do care that we are re-deploying our forces in Afganistan where the real threat exists. The Iraqi people must stand up for their own security and it is beginning to look like they are doing just that. Now, we need some of the Patraus faithful to handle the mess in Afganistan and crush the bad guys once and for all. (No more Tora Bora.)

3. Commodity Prices are Dropping. Over the past year, huge money flows have moved into commodities. Incredible fortunes have been made. This is the same lemming investment bubble that we saw in the late 80's in junk bonds, in the 90's in currencies, in the late 90's in equities, and in the 03-06 years in the mortgage backed securities. The bubble needs to burst and the money needs to spread out among all investment classes. I doubt that it will, but it needs to.

Financial speculation has replaced the old boom-bust-boom of the early industrial age. Money can flow quickly into an investment class and run up huge returns. But after the profits are made, it moves on and leaves a mess behind. It has happened time and time before and will happen again. We need to be prepared for $110/barrell oil in the next 12 months. That will devastate the next area of the money flows: green technology.

4. The Religious Right is Fragmented. Over the past 14 years, the religous right has grabbed power. It started with the Contract with America and moved on with G. W. Bush. With it came the absolutism of religous belief which has no place in a democracy. The republic must have compromise. With religous absolutism, there can be no compromise. The sign came when McCain was asked whether he supported health plans covering birth control like they do Viagra. He couldn't answer the question for fear of losing the support of the Christians. He, however, is not a true believer. So now the Religious Right has no champion. I believe the pendulum has swung back in the direction of reason.