Op-ed: The Conservative Movement: Principally a bankrupt ideology

The headline of Tuesday’s Washington Post reads: “FEMA Plans to Repay Faith Groups for Aid”. The article, which reports on efforts by Congress and the administration to reimburse faith-based organizations for the aid they have provided in the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, primarily emphasizes the problems such reimbursements would create under the doctrine of separation of church and state. From a more fundamental perspective, however, the push for reimbursements by Republican leaders and conservative groups illuminates just how ideologically bankrupt the conservative movement has become.

Reagan Republicans, Republican Revolutionists, and the Bushies used to argue for limited government based on the principle that private charity was the more effective and virtuous avenue for directing aid to the needy. This argument was a corollary of the proposition that private markets always produce more efficient outcomes than markets marked by government intervention. The theory went that instead of devising big government programs concerned with the general welfare we should shrink government, cut taxes, and let charitable organizations funded by private donations provide solace and support to those in need. This principle was no small part of the conservative ideology. And, as we find out, it’s no part at all of the conservative practice.

Bush, Cheney, Rove, Frist, DeLay, Norquist, Abramoff, George Will, the Heritage Foundation and the rest of the Conservative Movementarians remembered the tax cutting part of the formula, at least for the jet set crowd. Unfortunately, in their haste to raid the piggybank they seem to have forgotten the part about private charities being the better resource for allocating altruism. Under the proposed scheme private charities will become public charities financed by the U.S. taxpayer. To make matters worse, the religious right has evidently begun taking its cues from Halliburton. Why compete in the private sector when the Republicans have opened Uncle Sam’s wallet like Bill Bennett at Bally’s to anyone on the Right side of things?

Apparently the point is not – as free market capitalists would have us believe – that government prima facie should not undertake certain activities, rather the point is that government should give money to Republican constituencies to undertake those same activities. (It’s considered a bonus if there’s a chance to proselytize along the way.) Then instead of bloated government, we’ll have bloated fat cats. Of course we’ll have bloated budget deficits too but that doesn’t matter to the folks who are lining their pockets and stocking the coffers of the RNC. If you’ve got an invite, it really is a Grand Old Party!

The conservative movement has gone from the principled (but wrong) argument that government should not intervene to provide for the general welfare because it crowds out donations to private charities, which otherwise would achieve more optimal outcomes, to the unprincipled (and still wrong) practice that churches that open their doors to those in need should suckle off the teat of Lady Liberty. Market intervention is market intervention. But apparently conservative ideology is more malleable. In any case, the doctrinal wellspring of conservatism has run dry. Say an ode; hold your nose.

-This post was written by Brookland Clipmonkey.

Outrage of the week: What they always wanted

An excuse to ravage our nation's natural resources.

Finally, a call for sacrifice

President Bush loves to say that we are a nation at war. At every opportunity he mentions this to remind people that he's tough and to justify his misguided policies. But he's never asked any of us to sacrifice for the war in Iraq or anything else. After five years of running up the national credit card bill, giving us tax cuts, prescription drug benefits, and a war we cannot afford, Bush has finally asked us to do something for the good of our country.

Too bad President Bush is not following his own advice.

Corruption and fiscal mismanagement

The recent news that a Bush administration official is ensnared in a corruption probe and the rampant waste, fraud and abuse by companies working in Iraq and on the Katrina cleanup with ties to the Bushies and Republicans in Congress will be the party's downfall in 2006.

Must-read: Richard Cohen on Bush and race

Cohen gets it right in today's Washington Post (where the opinion pieces are still FREE- screw you, NYT), it's incompetence, not racism. Money quote:

We owe the poor our special consideration. We especially owe the black poor an appreciation of their plight and their dolorous history. But in general it was incompetence, not racism, that slowed the relief effort -- incompetence on the local and state levels, too, and incompetence on the part of black as well as white public officials. The search for racist scapegoats does the poor no good. This relief effort ought to start, above all, with some clear thinking.

Live to fight another day

The Washington Post said it first Sunday, but this clipmonkey's been saying it for some time. John Roberts should be confirmed by a solid, nearly unanimous vote.

Roberts has proven himself fully qualified to serve on the Supreme Court. Admittedly, he was not the most forthright nominee in confirmation hearing history, but his credentials are impressive and nothing came up during his hearings that disqualified him. Of course, many left-wing clipmonkeys would prefer Laurence Tribe or Mario Cuomo or some such liberal, but we lost the election last November and we can't change that.

Left-wing interest groups are creating hysteria over Roberts, as they did with Justice Souter's nomination a while back ("Stop Souter or women will die"). They may even be right that Roberts will vote to overturn Roe v. Wade. Unfortunately, little can be done a) to predict that, and b) to make President Bush pick someone acceptable to the left. That's why Democrats should conserve their ammunition in case Bush nominates some genuine nut such as Janice Rogers Brown for the high court.

For now, though, Senate Democrats should show this president the same courtesy extended to Bill Clinton and his nominees Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer, nearly unanimous support. The best we can do is hope that Roberts recognizes that many Americans do not grow up with all of the opportunities that he had, and start working to help win the majority in the Senate in '06 and the presidency in '08.

Outrage of the week: Lights on for Bush, off for everyone else

From Brian Williams' blog:

I am duty-bound to report the talk of the New Orleans warehouse district last night: there was rejoicing (well, there would have been without the curfew, but the few people I saw on the streets were excited) when the power came back on for blocks on end. Kevin Tibbles was positively jubilant on the live update edition of Nightly News that we fed to the West Coast. The mini-mart, long ago cleaned out by looters, was nonetheless bathed in light, including the empty, roped-off gas pumps. The motorcade route through the district was partially lit no more than 30 minutes before POTUS drove through. And yet last night, no more than an hour after the President departed, the lights went out. The entire area was plunged into total darkness again, to audible groans. It's enough to make some of the folks here who witnessed it... jump to certain conclusions.

We are all liberals now

Standing in front of the Magic Kingdom, President Bush proposes a lavish effort to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina and confront poverty with "bold action." Tom DeLay says there is no fat left to cut in the federal budget. MSNBC host, former Republican Congressman, and Bush lackey Joe Scarborough is reexamining his views on the role of the federal government. Newt Gingrich is working with Hillary Clinton on improving our health care system.

What's next, Rush Limbaugh calling for an end to the war on drugs?

The Onion gets it right once again

Halliburton Gets Contract To Pry Gold Fillings From New Orleans Corpses' Teeth

September 14, 2005 HOUSTON—On Tuesday, Halliburton received a $110 million no-bid government contract to pry the gold fillings from the mouths of deceased disaster victims in the New Orleans-Gulf Coast area. "We are proud to serve the government in this time of crisis by recovering valuable resources from the wreckage of this deadly storm," said David J. Lesar, Halliburton's president. "The gold we recover from the human rubble of Katrina can be used to make fighter-jet electronics, supercomputer chips, inflation-proof A-grade investments, and luxury yachting watches."

Bush's accountability moment

Yesterday's acknowledgment by President Bush that he accepts responsibility for the federal government's failures in responding to Hurricane Katrina is a breakthrough for the president and for this nation. For a guy who refused to acknowledge any mistakes during the 2004 campaign, this was an act of maturity that has never before been seen in this man. Maybe W. has finally grown up.

Now if he'd only accept responsibility and work to correct another miserable government failure, the war in Iraq.

Outrage of the week: Another out of touch member of the Bush Aristocracy

From MSNBC:

At a school in Mississippi, it was first lady Laura Bush defending the government’s response to Katrina. “I think we’ve seen a lot of the same footage over and over that isn’t necessarily representative of what really happened in both — in a lot of ways,” she said. “Overall, it was a very good response.”

Laura Bush faults media coverage, but was she even there? How would SHE know? What is she basing this on? How would she explain the still yet unrecovered bodies in the streets? How about the scathing assessments from impartial entities like the Red Cross, who have described conditions as "horrendous"??? (I went to a volunteer training this past weekend, the local director read a national memo assessing the very dire conditions.)

Also, on the "same footage," she's right to a degree. But so what? That's because news teams under pressure like that can't keep constantly collecting new footage every 10 seconds. It's impossible. It's the constraints of the situation, not an indication things are overblown.

By the way, did you hear what Barbara Bush said earlier this week?

-This post was written by the original clipmonkey.

Tax cuts + a war of choice + a natural disaster = fiscal doom

As the situation in Iraq continued to worsen this summer it was starting to become clear that the war was no longer an endeavor our government could afford. Still, Republicans in Congress continued their relentless pursuit of tax cuts for the wealthy, at least until this week. Now that Hurricane Katrina has invaded our political landscape and Congress has responded with over $60 billion to get us through the next few weeks, it is becoming clear that something's got to give.

Will it be their beloved tax cuts or the misguided effort in Iraq?

What goes around comes around, Dick Cheney

Remember Dick Cheney's salty words for Sen. Patrick Leahy on the Senate floor last year? Well, watch this.

One casualty that was worth it

One of the items at the top of the Republicans' post-recess agenda was a permanent repeal of the estate tax. But the disaster along the Gulf Coast and the tremendous harm it wrought on the region's poor people have taken this issue off the table, at least temporarily.

In recent years, the Republicans have tried to recast the estate tax as the death tax, fabricating sob stories of family farmers and small business owners who have been devastated by the tax. In reality, though, the tax impacts a minuscule number of people, encourages charitable giving, and rarely, if ever, has cost a family its business. Nonetheless, the Bush Administration continues its march toward returning America to a Dickensian England-like state.

Stopping this repeal is one bit of good Hurricane Katrina did.

Op-ed: America fails its poor (again)

The images of impoverished, desperate and largely African-American people roaming the streets of ghost-towns, collected on rooftops, gathered inside and outside of stadiums, ravaging stores for food and water, and looting unnecessary items is a tragic sight. It is but another instance of our government's failure to address the needs of poor Americans.

Whereas nearly all those of means escaped to friends, family, and hotels via their own automobiles or rental cars, those left behind had little with which to help them escape. They were stuck depending on a government that is supposed to be the envy of the world. A government with nearly limitless resources. A government that spends over $2 trillion each year.

We're well aware that the Bush Administration has been dismantling FEMA since 9/11. We know by now that our environmental policies have been endangering parts of the Gulf Coast for decades.

But few people know that those most devastated by the hurricane and its aftermath are victims of another quiet tragedy that attacks more Americans every day. These are the victims of a poverty rate that continues to rise, a health care system that falls short, and an "economic recovery" that leaves them, and most other Americans, behind. And for those just above the poverty line, many states are cutting the few supports that prop them up in our society.

Now, in their greatest hour of need, our government has failed them once again. Some will blame President Bush for not investing enough in emergency preparedness and sending National Guard troops on a mission few of them signed up for. But this is a larger failure that goes beyond the particular ideology of one president or one party. It is a failure of a nation that has largely turned its backs on poor people and scapegoated them for the struggles they are often born into.

Maybe this catastrophe will get Americans and our government to recognize that while we have pacified the poor, we have still failed them. Warehousing poor people in abysmal schools and tightly-packed jails and prisons are not anti-poverty policies.

Mr. Bush, we've seen the conservatism. It's time for the compassion. But we also need to show some compassion of our own.

Op-ed: John Bolton: Straight from Rough-and-Ready Creek

My girlfriend and I recently made our annual sojourn to Northern California’s Lost Coast to attend a 3-day reggae festival. The drive requires a short jaunt through the sweltering Illinois River Valley in southwestern Oregon. As we passed the dried-up remnants of Rough-and-Ready Creek, I noted that a few earnest homeowners had taken it upon themselves to let all passers-by know their true feelings about the UN. Their comments can be summarized in two statements: 1) The US should get out of the UN because it undermines US sovereignty, and 2) UN payments are a global tax and taxes should be avoided at all costs. All messages were painted in red and blue on large white backdrops.

I don’t know if John Bolton has ever visited the area around Rough-and-Ready Creek, but his latest end-run at the U.N. proposal on humanitarian relief, genocide, and terrorism indicates that he more than sympathizes with the residents. The White House and Bolton are conducting an all-out blitz on the empowerment initiatives in the U.N. These proposals are meant to strengthen international resolve on fundamental issues such as genocide and terrorism. Instead of picking and choosing where to act based on geopolitical significance, these new measures would require wealthier nations to stand and act together against the maladies of our time.

Yet let’s be honest. John Bolton wasn’t chosen by the Bush family to cooperate with Kofi Annan’s plans or provide insightful leadership in revising the U.N. charter. Instead, Bolton denounces plans for increased aid to poorer countries as a global tax and insists that any definition of terrorism cannot apply to state-sanctioned forces.. Bolton is essentially a walking monkey wrench, meant to undermine the current negotiations and disrupt any policy that the administration deems a threat to US unilateralism.

So take heart citizens of the Rough-and-Ready. Your voice has been heard in the highest offices of the country, and your views are being carried forth with rabid ferocity.

Under the radar: Bush takes on our national parks

While much of America is focused on the war in Iraq and more recently on the natural disaster along the Gulf Coast, the Bush administration is quietly destroying our national park system.

In typical Bush administration fashion, a person without any park service experience was tasked with revising the park system's basic management policy document. The draft revision that is circulating within the Interior Department will allow off-road vehicles, snowmobiles, and Jet Skis to roam about in nearly every national park under the guise of providing "opportunities to use and enjoy" the parks. Now that's what I'm looking for when I go to a national park to quietly commune with nature – the roar of such vehicles in the background. Since when did it become necessary for people to use a motorized vehicle to enjoy the national parks? Maybe it was when the obesity rate of our population began skyrocketing…

One of the reasons that Hurricane Katrina had such a powerful impact on the city of New Orleans is because the wetlands that protected that area for years have been destroyed over the past couple of decades. While Mississippi and Louisiana struggle to recover from this terrible natural disaster, the Bush administration will likely miss one lesson that could be learned from this tragic event – we must learn to protect and conserve the environment in which we live.

-This post was written by Cleveland Park Clipmonkey.

Have oil, will bargain

Western Sahara, a large, sand-filled land bordering Morocco, Algeria, and Mauritania recently found itself in the news after the head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Richard Lugar, paid a visit under the direction of President Bush. Senator Lugar was tasked with mediating the release of 404 Moroccan soldiers that had been captured by the West Saharan political front Polisario during their long-standing feud with the Moroccan government over self-determination.

Morocco continues to claim Western Sahara despite the fact that no state currently recognizes Moroccan sovereignty over the region. What crucial US interests would prompt such an intense and active diplomatic effort in this 30 year-old post-colonial hangover? The big “O” of course.

Kerr-McGee, the infamous Oklahoma energy concern that was the defendant during the Karen Silkwood contamination trial, along with French oil giant Total/Elf, contracted with the Moroccan government to explore Western Saharan waters with the hope of finding new oil reserves. However, given the uproar over the status of Western Saharan sovereignty, the exploration consortium fell apart leaving Kerr-McGee the only company still willing to continue work. The company has a number of influential board members including former Haliburton Chairman William E. Bradford and former Arthur Andersen Audit Division Head, Robert O. Lorenz.

Oh, those ties that bind!

Chaos in New Orleans

As anyone who has ever been to New Orleans knows, the city needed a good washing.

But this is ridiculous.

Must-read: Fareed Zakaria on oil dependence and foreign policy

DC Clipmonkey just returned from a nice trip to Vermont during which he filled up his gas tank 7 or 8 times to the tune of roughly $25 at each stop (Obviously, he doesn't drive an SUV). DC Clipmonkey loved shelling out $2.50, $2.60, $2.70 per gallon and hopes that the price of gas continues to shoot up. Because only then will Americans start taking the problem of our addiction to oil seriously.

In an insightful commentary about oil consumption as foreign policy, Fareed Zakaria describes how our dependence on oil has us in a Catch-22 situation with brutal regimes throughout the Middle East.

This week, the Bush administration made a half-assed attempt to address the problem, but it will probably take $5 per gallon gas prices for our government and the American people to change their ways.

Bring it on.

A responsible path out of Iraq

The left-wing blogosphere is salivating at Bush's plummeting poll numbers, claiming they are a justification to bring the troops home. But nowhere in their emotional cries is an answer to the question of what is right both for Iraq and the U.S. Moveon.org, Daily Kos, The Nation, Cindy Sheehan, et al. are simply and irrationally spouting for our government to bring the troops home.

What happens if we abandon Iraq and a civil war breaks out? What happens if Iraq becomes like Afghanistan under the Taliban? What happens if Iran then invades Iraq? As Colin Powell foretold, we broke Iraq, now we own it. We may not have wanted this war, but we now owe it to the Iraqi people to help them stabilize their country.

Unfortunately, Nicholas von Hoffman may be right in this satirical post. On another note, this clipmonkey leaves it to George Will to remind us of the danger Democrats are courting.

A couple more differences between red and blue America

There are many obvious differences between the residents of red and blue America. In red America, they like to shoot guns, execute people, and watch NASCAR. We in blue America like to drink wine, attend gay pride parades, and listen to NPR. But there are a couple of other notable differences in the news today-

• Because the Bush Administration has failed to act, a group of nine blue state governors has just reached an agreement to reduce power plant emissions in the Northeastern United States. Another three blue state governors from the west coast are in the early stages of a similar process.
  
• Obesity continues to rise and yes, red staters have a bit more heft.

Outrage of the week: Making George Orwell proud

After cooking the numbers on the cost of the Medicare prescription drug benefit and altering reports on global warming, the Bush administration is at it again. This time they're lying to us about racial profiling by police.

These guys are indefensible.

So much for the Ten Commandments....

Not only is Pat Robertson praying for more vacancies (i.e. deaths) on the Supreme Court, now he's openly promoting assassination of a democratically-elected leader. According to Wednesday's reports, a few other Christian groups were too busy to disagree with Reverend Pat. Pretty soon they'll be installing statues depicting the Nine Commandments in a government building near you.

This kind of insane rhetoric is exactly why laws defining the separation of church and state need to be cast in iron and coated with titanium.

Buyer's remorse

It's too bad presidential elections are held every four years. Check out the bad news for Bush here. There's even more startling news for Bush in his state-by-state approval ratings here.

Op-ed: Bush's stain on our nation

There are plenty of reasons to despise President Bush- his favoritism for the wealthy, his blustery talk (especially given his unwillingness to serve in Vietnam), the fact that tens of thousands of people have died because of his policies, or his use of religion for political purposes.

But no reason stands out more than his administration's stance on torture. In endorsing torture, Bush has brought shame on our nation and endangered us all. Our soldiers in Iraq are the most vulnerable because of this policy, but ultimately, all of us are at a greater risk of terror because our president did not clearly and emphatically lay out a policy that banned torture.

By "playing cute" with the Geneva Conventions, as Sen. Lindsey Graham likes to say, President Bush has necessitated that members of Congress set the rules by which we treat detainees. Republican Sens. Graham and John McCain have admirably led this effort. It's just embarrassing that it has been left to them. Members of Bush's own military urged the Administration to prohibit torture, but shiny-loafered lawyers at the Justice Department tried to redefine the meaning of torture and the meaning of the Geneva Conventions.

Millions if not billions of people around the world hate us. Some can't stand our cultural and economic dominance. Others loathe us because of our support for Israel or our stationing of servicemembers in the Middle East. Still others hate us because we coddle repressive regimes while talking a good game about freedom and democracy.

Then there are the paranoids who hate us because they believe we want to destroy them. They think we want to wipe out the Arab world. And now, with the invasion of Iraq and the events at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, and God knows where else, we've fed their paranoia. We have no designs on empire, despite what many liberal conspiracy theorists say, but who is going to listen to us now?

The damage to our nation's standing has been done. The question is now what we can do to repair it. Unfortunately, Karen Hughes is not the answer.

About John Roberts

DC Clipmonkey finds it ridiculous how folks on the left and right are getting into such a tizzy over John Roberts. To those on the left, who the hell did you expect Bush to nominate, Alan Dershowitz? To those on the right, please read the New Testament before we discuss this any further.

In total, the guy seems like a solid conservative who also happens to be a decent human being. Leave him alone and save your fire for some battles you can actually win.

Punished for adultery, but not for torture

The perversion of moral values by conservative Christians has not only taken over our political landscape, but also our military. Yesterday, the Army relieved Four-Star General Kevin Byrnes of his command because of an extramarital affair he had with a civilian.

Although Gen. Byrnes's affair is clearly a violation of the military's code of conduct, it certainly is not a crime that endangers us all and humiliates our nation. No, that crime would be practicing torture on detainees. Despite abundant evidence that the use of extreme tactics was approved by officials at the very top of the US government, not a single high-ranking member of the military, or any of their civilian enablers, has faced any significant punishment for this dark episode in American history. In fact, the only person punished in a significant way is Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, the useful idiot "in charge" of the Abu Ghraib prison.

Not even Lt. Gen. Jerry Boykin, the fellow who once claimed about a Muslim adversary, "I knew my God was bigger than his," has been disciplined for making this and other more outrageous statements WHILE IN UNIFORM. The guy hasn't even been punished for failing at his actual duties- finding Osama bin Laden and aiding in the Iraq War. Boykin alone may be responsible for turning more people into anti-American terrorists than President Bush.

Remember, this is the same military, aided by civilian enablers, that runs out the few Arabic-speakers serving in it because they're gay.

God help us.

None of this is to say that adultery is not wrong, but there is a question of proportionality. Is it a greater crime to hurt your family or embarrass and endanger your country?

Dems and values

Regular readers of this site know that DC Clipmonkey bristles with rage at Republican claims that their party better represents the albeit-nebulous term "moral values." The idea that a party that eagerly supports the death penalty, torture, and bombing other countries, shows little regard for the environment, and cuts funding for services to the poor at every opportunity, is morally-upright is laughable. This month's Harper's describes the absurdity of this notion in great detail.

Ultimately, it is merely a function of marketing. Republicans are simply better at it. But many Democrats are finally getting the point, led by the Rev. Jim Wallis. In today's NYT, Wallis lays out how the Democrats can reclaim the values mantle.

Excerpt:

"...somebody must lead on the issue of poverty, and right now neither party is doing so. The Democrats assume the poverty issue belongs to them, but with the exception of John Edwards in his 2004 campaign, they haven't mustered the gumption to oppose a government that habitually favors the wealthy over everyone else. Democrats need new policies to offer the 36 million Americans, including 13 million children, who live below the poverty line, as well as the 9.8 million families one recent study identified as 'working hard but falling short.'"

Outrage of the week: Drunken sailors in Congress

Like a band of sailors rolling into a port town full of bars and prostitutes, members of Congress continue to empty their wallets, actually our wallets, via the latest transportation bill. Here are some of the more egregious earmarks:

• $200,000 for a deer avoidance system in Weedsport, N.Y.
• $330 million for a highway in Bakersfield, Calif.
• $480,000 to rehabilitate a historic warehouse on the Erie Canal.
• $3 million for dust control mitigation on Arkansas rural roads.
• $2.3 million for landscaping on the Ronald Reagan Freeway in California.

The worst perpetrator of all, as always, was Alaska, which means "the land of government waste" in the Inuit Language. The third-least populated state received $941 million - the fourth most in earmarks - courtesy of its lone representative, Transportation Committee Chairman Don Young. $231 million of it was for a bridge near Anchorage to be named "Don Young's Way."

Even worse, Congress is hiding how much it actually spent behind some accounting tricks that would make Enron proud. So much for fiscal conservatism.

A middle finger to the world

Nominating John Bolton through a recess appointment is a giant f-you to the rest of the world. The guy is insane, incompetent, and a human affront to the United Nations. This appointment reminds this clipmonkey once again that we need to reclaim our country from these corrupt, Bible-misusing, torture-loving, UN-hating, innocent people-bombing, oil-loving, job-outsourcing bastards ASAP.

Here's what this clipmonkey wrote when the Bolton nomination was first announced.

A new litmus test for the post-9/11 world

Are you pro-torture or anti-torture? The Bush Administration, its Attorney General, and many of its cronies are clearly supportive of it, even over the objections of the military.

Republican Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham, however, stand with Human Rights Watch, the ACLU and Amnesty "Gulag" International.

Where do you stand?

Robert Reich posits some interesting questions along similar lines.

Ripping us off left and right

They present themselves as patriots. They claim to be good Christians. But in reality, they are just corporate lackeys ripping off taxpayers.

• 52% of Republicans who have left Congress since 1998 have become lobbyists.
• The energy bill contains $14.5 billion in corporate tax breaks including $1.5 billion for Tom DeLay’s pals.
• Homeland Security funding continues to go down the toilet.

When are the red-staters going to wake up?

Outrage of the week: Bernard Goldberg and the coarsening of our culture

"Journalist" Bernard Goldberg has just written a book, now second on Amazon.com's bestseller list, blaming liberals for all that is wrong with American culture. The right-wing tirade targets various left-of-center figures including Paul Krugman, Jimmy Carter and John Edwards (????) for coarsening our culture while failing to hold Rupert Murdoch and other conservative media moguls accountable for the damage they've done.

The laughable thing about this is that Goldberg, a correspondent on the show Real Sports, gets his paychecks from HBO, a channel whose bread and butter is airing movies and television shows that display sex, violence and profanity (Please note, DC clipmonkey loves HBO because it is the only intelligent programming on television, but he fully acknowledges that much of its content is not appropriate for underaged clipmonkeys.). Even more laughable, in defending his book on television this week, Goldberg asked a woman to "shut up" repeatedly.

Stick to sports, Bernie.

The next Supreme Court battle

While much of Washington is gripped with determining how good or evil John Roberts actually is, this clipmonkey is taking a few moments to look at another man who we'll be hearing a lot more about soon- Antonin Scalia, Bush's likely nominee for chief justice when Rehnquist steps down.

Justice Scalia is an interesting character. He is the father of nine children. He's pals with Ruth Bader Ginsburg. He goes hunting with Dick Cheney. He doesn't like reporters. Like so many others in the Republican establishment, he has a son who feeds at the business-government trough. Most intriguing of all, though, he fancies himself a higher authority on the death penalty than the recently departed Pope John Paul II.

From Catholic News Service:

In public appearances Scalia not only has defended the death penalty as constitutionally solid, but he has argued that the church doctrine approving of capital punishment dating to St. Thomas Aquinas in the 13th century and St. Augustine in the fourth century still prevails. He has said that more recent teachings of Pope John Paul II are not obligatory because they were not spoken ex cathedra, Latin for from the chair, meaning the pope intended them to be accepted as infallible teachings of the church.

Talk about a God complex......

Thanks again, Ralph

Regarding the Bush nomination of John Roberts to the U.S. Supreme Court: Guess it’s time to get another "Thank-you" card in the mail for the danged Nader people. (Maybe I’ll just mark out the parts that apply to me in the "Thank-you" card that me and the 52 other Barry Commoner/LaDonna Harris people got 25 years ago. Shoot. I’m sorry, I’m sorry!)

Republicans and race

RNC Chair Ken Mehlman's recent statement that his party was "wrong" to exploit racial tension to win votes is an incredible affront to all those concerned about race relations in America. This guy wouldn't even have a job if Republicans hadn't used race to bludgeon Democrats throughout the South.

There are certainly other issues that have hurt the Democratic Party in Dixie – gun control and abortion rights, to name a few – but none has been more devastating than its efforts to accord African-Americans the same rights as everyone else in America. Sadly, Republicans continue to exploit racial tension to this day.

President Bush, who spoke at the notoriously bigoted Bob Jones University while campaigning for president, has opposed affirmative action even as numerous top-ranking former military officials have said that its preservation is a matter of national security. And just two years ago, Haley Barbour won his race for Mississippi governor by sending coded messages about where he stands on race relations.

If Jesse Helms, Lee Atwater, Haley Barbour, and so many of Mehlman's other forebears in the Republican Party hadn't exploited racial tension, the world would be quite a different place....

Outrage of the week: Rick Santorum on Boston

Once again, Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum has gone too far- this time blaming the Boston Archdiocese's child sex abuse scandal on the liberalism of the Boston area. From The Boston Globe:

"It is no surprise that Boston, a seat of academic, political, and cultural liberalism in America, lies at the center of the storm" [said Santorum] of the clergy sexual abuse scandal. In a brief interview with The Globe on Tuesday, Santorum reiterated his view that the ''basic liberal attitude" in Boston fostered an environment where sexual abuse of children could occur.

This incredible affront to the state of Massachusetts is Falwell-esque and utterly beyond the pale. It's particularly absurd given that Massachusetts, far from being some orgiastic sexual haven, has the lowest divorce rate in the nation. Even worse, Santorum's "values" were on display this week as he successfully conned a school district in Pennsylvania to pay for the home-schooling of his children in, umm, Virginia.

Fortunately, like the plucky Red Sox, Bostonians (The Globe and Ted Kennedy) are hitting back. For more about the hideousness of Sen. Santorum, click here.

Screwing the troops

Those yellow bumper stickers proclaiming "I support the troops" probably help a lot of people feel good about themselves. For most, the stickers are a meaningless symbol and a self-congratulatory indulgence.

For the few who actually do something to support the troops, such as sending a son or daughter off to war or visiting a wounded soldier in the hospital, this diatribe is not for you. But for the rest who ask kids from the wrong side of the tracks in places like rural West Virginia, inner-city Detroit, and east Los Angeles to sacrifice their lives so that they can continue to drive their SUVs, you should be ashamed.

The "support the troops" rhetoric and imagery belies the reality of what President Bush, and by extension, those who voted for him, have done to the young men and women in the military:

• Repeatedly misled them about the reasons for the Iraq war.
• Failed to send enough troops to secure Iraq, leaving American soldiers more vulnerable to attacks.
• Endorsed the use of torture and humiliation, enraging many Muslims and further endangering the troops.
• Invoked policies to chain people to the military well beyond the commitments they've agreed to.
• Provided inadequate funding for veterans.
• Watched military divorce rates skyrocket because of these disastrous policies.

If you really want to support the troops, click here.

London

Today's bombings are deeply tragic, but they are also an important reminder that the Bush and Blair governments have taken their collective eye off the ball of stamping out terrorism. The war in Iraq has drained our finances, hurt our military capability, and distracted everyone from the threats we face at home.

Instead of being bogged down by the debacle in Iraq, we should be combing the mountains of Afghanistan and Pakistan, clamping down on the radicals in southeast Asia, and investing in effective counterterrorism measures at home, rather than hassling grandmothers in airports.

The best of a bad lot

Wookin ' pa nub

Christian conservatives are apoplectic at the prospect of Bush nominating Alberto Gonzales to the Supreme Court because he has not met their litmus test of clearly and publicly opposing abortion with the fervor of a fire-breathing dragon.

It's difficult for clipmonkey to say this, but President Bush, PLEASE nominate Alberto Gonzales. Yes, he may be an enabler of torture. Yes, he may have let innocent people be put to death while serving as Governor Bush's counsel in Texas. But if the folks on the right hate him so much, he must be a pretty reasonable guy.

The religious right steps up (finally!)

For years, the religious right has focused obsessively on restricting abortion rights, electing Republicans and demonizing gays. In the process, they've painted themselves as a rather un-Christian lot.

But there is good news out of the recent Southern Baptist Convention and from the National Association of Evangelicals. Apparently a few of them started reading the New Testament again and figured out that Christ was far more concerned about another issue- poverty.

At long last, the religious right is responding to that call and working to alleviate world poverty.

Outrage of the week: The boondoggle of homeland security

Republicans once claimed to be the party of fiscal responsibility inveighing against government waste, calling for limitless tax cuts, and proposing a constitutional amendment to balance the budget. But now that they're controlling the levers of power in Washington, they seem to have forgotten their former selves. In recent weeks we've learned:

• The Transportation Security Administration has been engaging in rampant waste;
• Dick Cheney's old company, Halliburton, demonstrated the worst contract abuse ever observed by one Pentagon procurement official; and,
• The FBI continues to throw away money after blowing $104 million on software to create a huge database of open cases.

It almost makes me miss the Republicans of old.

Walking into an ambush

As Americans prepare for another 4th of July weekend of flag-waving and freedom-loving, it's important to remember the words of Samuel Johnson- "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel." In recent months, the corruption of the current Congress and the corruption by any other name of the White House has been exposed. So what have the Republicans fallen back on? That ol' reliable wedge issue they love- a constitutional amendment to ban flag-burning.

Republicans have used the flag-burning issue to taunt Democrats for decades now. The taunting reached its apex during the 1988 presidential campaign when rumors abounded that Kitty Dukakis had burned an American flag to protest the Vietnam War during the 1970s. Of course, it's hard to get those patriotic juices flowing when you see a prospective commander-in-chief looking like this. But Republicans have carefully and strategically used this issue to paint Democrats as disloyal Americans. Karl Rove's recent statements about the Dems' response to 9/11 were notable only because they were so blunt.

Unfortunately, Democrats (and their liberal allies) know the patriotism trap is out there and keep walking into it again (Amnesty International) and again (Durbin) and again (flag-burning). Of course, Americans should be able to burn the flag if they really want to. And of course, a responsible government whose military has a significant problem with mistreating detainees should appoint an independent entity to investigate the problem.

But the leadership of this government doesn't care about principles of free speech or accountability, it just cares about maintaining and enlarging its power.

The road back to the majority

The worst thing about being a Democrat these days is that fear that we will be in the minority for many years to come. Given the results of the last election it almost seems that no matter how dishonest the Bush administration is, no matter how poorly it runs the war in Iraq, no matter how rapidly it drives our economy into a ditch, no matter how large the deficit becomes, Americans will stick with the Republicans. Even worse, there is the fear that even if voters did turn on the Republicans there are too few congressional seats up for grabs for Democrats to regain the majority.

But there's hope yet. Democrats just need to hold their current seats and pick up 14 more. If we help out and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee does its job, the following members of Congress are ripe for the picking:

• Tom DeLay (TX)- The stench of corruption has overwhelmed Congress' prime architect of sleaze. 2004 vote percentage= 55%.
• Randy "Duke" Cunningham (CA)- Already under investigation by the FBI and likely to soon be investigated by the House Ethics Committee, Duke might need to call in Coach K to win his next race. 2004 vote percentage= 58%.
• Don Sherwood (PA)- Just sued by a 29-year-old woman who claims he abused her during their five-year affair, this 64-year-old husband and father surely won't be duplicating his 2004 numbers. 2004 vote percentage= 93%.
• Bob Ney (OH)- Nearly every story about Jack Abramoff mentions this guy. 2004 vote percentage= 66%.
• J.D. Hayworth (AZ)- Also associated with Abramoff, Hayworth is probably a long-shot to defeat, but the Abramoff-DeLay odor is hanging around him now. 2004 vote percentage= 60%.
• John Doolittle (CA)- The Dr.'s ties to Abramoff could mean trouble. 2004 vote percentage= 65%.

Answering Rove, Part II

The funny thing about Karl Rove's recent statement about the way liberals responded to the 9/11 attacks, aside from its laughable dishonesty, is that President Bush himself responded to the attacks in a moderate, restrained way.

While the loathsome Ann Coulter was proposing that we "invade [Muslim] countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity," President Bush was visiting a mosque in Washington, DC to show the world that we should not lash out against Muslims. President Bush even patiently waited 4 weeks to attack Afghanistan.

What would Al Gore have done? Well, he probably would have started bombing Afghanistan within hours of the attacks, in part to shut up wing nuts like Coulter and those on the Fox News Channel. He would have acted quickly to show the terrorists that he was not a weak-kneed liberal.

Oh, and one more thing, Karl, you can bet that Al Gore would have kept our soldiers in the mountains of Afghanistan and Pakistan until he found bin Laden. That's where the real front in the War on Terror was before all the terrorists were lured to Iraq.

Tom DeLay's Washington

If you want to understand how Tom DeLay's Washington really works, read here and here.

Excerpts, from the NYT:

"One e-mail message from Mr. Abramoff directed his assistant to "pump up Scanlon," a reference to padding their billable hours for the Choctaws to meet an artificial $150,000 monthly target that the tribe testified it had never agreed to.

In 2001 alone, the Choctaws paid $7.7 million to Mr. Abramoff and Mr. Scanlon for lobbying work. But the pair spent just $1.2 million on the designated projects, keeping the remaining $6.5 million for "gimme five" - themselves - according to the e-mail and witnesses.

The tribe ultimately paid Mr. Scanlon as much as $15 million, and he gave Mr. Abramoff $5 million in kickbacks, said Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona and the chairman of the Senate committee."

And the WP:

"The number of registered lobbyists in Washington has more than doubled since 2000 to more than 34,750 while the amount that lobbyists charge their new clients has increased by as much as 100 percent. Only a few other businesses have enjoyed greater prosperity in an otherwise fitful economy."

F-bombs flying in Congress

Last week, the House of Representatives passed a bill to gut the United Nations calling the institution "corrupt" and an apologist for "tyranny and terror." Considering that many of the same people who voted for the "F#ck the United Nations Act of 2005" are embroiled in their own corruption scandals, it seems like they wouldn't want to be throwing around the c-word at this particular moment. But no, Majority Leader Tom DeLay even had the temerity to say:

"The U.N.'s corruption is so breathtaking in its scope as to be almost universal."

It was another big f-bomb from the American right-wing toward that institution that it reviles with such fervor. This week the Senate revived its own f-bomb to the UN, the nomination of John Bolton, despite recent reports that the world is safer now that the mustachioed monster has left the State Department.

During debate over Bolton's nomination, f-bombs directed at the UN and at the minority party in Congress continued to swirl around until Senate Democrats finally said, "Shut up, you right-wing nuts. This nomination is dead."

F-bombs are flying at this building

Unfortunately, President Bush has one more opportunity to hurl an f-bomb. He can install Bolton as Ambassador to the United Nations through a recess appointment, sending a clear message to the UN, to Democrats, and to the world- F#ck you all, I run this planet.

A rather cunning scam

That awful sewer smell is emanating once again from the House of Representatives, but this time it's coming from the office of San Diego Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham. Duke has weaved himself a web of self-enrichment that would make Jack Abramoff proud.

Apparently, Rep. not-so-Cunningham sold his house to a defense contractor buddy for $1.7 million. The defense contractor then sold the house for about $1 million. Another pal of Duke's, Elizabeth Todd, a realtor and donor to his campaigns, arranged both sales. The defense contractor lost $700,000, but has gained over $25 million in government contracts in recent years, partly due to the assistance of Rep. Cunningscam.

For more sordid details read here, but basically it's a case of you scratch my back, I'll scratch your back, and let's both scratch hers while we're at it. To make matters worse, Duke picked the wrong spokesman to vouch for him.

The back scratcher

The incredible shrinking presidency

To slow down the bad momentum in his disastrous second term, Bush is dusting off some of the old lies that served him well in his dishonest first term.

"We went to war (in Iraq) because we were attacked, and we are at war today because there are still people out there who want to harm our country and hurt our citizens," Bush said Saturday in his weekly radio address.

Jesus, save me from your followers

DC clipmonkey continues to scratch his head (that's what clipmonkeys do) over how right-wing Christians are so successful at convincing other Christians that a party that eagerly supports war, the death penalty, and tax cuts for the rich represents Christianity better than a party that avoids war, generally opposes the death penalty, and seeks to redistribute wealth (didn't Jesus say something about that?).

That's why he's especially perplexed that the Family Research Council (FRC), a group that "champions marriage and family as the foundation of civilization, the seedbed of virtue, and the wellspring of society," would issue the following statement about Sen. Dick Durbin's comments on the interrogation tactics used at Gitmo.

From the FRC's website:

Tony Perkins, a veteran of the Marine Corps and President of Family Research Council released the following statement:

"Senator Durbin seems to be more concerned about the welfare and comfort of terrorists than the well being of our men and women in uniform and the citizens of this country.

"Senator Durbin owes America an apology. His comments do nothing to help the morale of our hard working and dedicated troops. These men and women are doing their best and many work every day in conditions that most Americans, including Senator Durbin would have a hard time understanding.

"My time in the United States Marine Corps has taught me that life is tough and often unfair but Durbin's comments are a harsh and over the top criticism of people he does not know and of a situation he has not personally experienced.

"Senator Durbin may not agree with the efforts our troops are putting forth in Guantanamo Bay but to demean them and their efforts in such a way to liken them to Nazis and Soviet gulags is a grossly unfair and hurtful remark."

Sen. Durbin's comments are not the wisest way to call attention to the problems at Gitmo, Abu Ghraib, Bagram, and other prisons, but what does his statement, or Perkins' for that matter, have to do with marriage or family? Why is Perkins even talking about it? Should the Sierra Club put out a statement about teaching creationism in the schools?

Perkins' statement demonstrates once again that these right-wing Christians are not Christians in any sense. They are merely Republican flaks who feel greater patriotism to their own political party than any notion of morality or Christian values. Where is the statement condemning torture? Where is the statement expressing concern for all of the innocent victims of the Iraq war? Where are the statements about poverty in America and around the world?

Thankfully, Christians on the left (Rev. Jim Wallis) and the center (former Republican Senator John Danforth) are calling B.S.

Back to business

As President Bush's approval ratings continue to plummet, the administration has only ramped up its effort to hand the levers of power in this country over to big business. In recent days, it has:

• Spared tobacco companies $120 billion in damages for misleading smokers about the dangers of tobacco;
• Canned William Donaldson, the head of the Securities & Exchange Commission, who had pursued an aggressive corporate reform agenda in lieu of a more business-friendly director;
• Called for quick enactment of an energy bill that does little to promote conservation, but encourages drilling in everyone's backyard; and,
• Continued to mislead the world about global warming.

This administration may take Social Security over a cliff, drive our economy into a ditch, send the federal deficit rocketing into the atmosphere, but it won't ever stop gratifying Wall Street, the oil companies, the drug companies, and the other industries that brought it to power.

Bush vs. Blair on the Downing Street Memo

From a June 7 news conference with President Bush and Prime Minister Blair-

REPORTER: On Iraq, the so-called Downing Street Memo from July 2002 says, "Intelligence and facts remain fixed around the policy of removing Saddam through military action." Is this an accurate reflection of what happened? Could both of you respond?

TONY BLAIR: Well, I can respond to that very easily. No, the facts were not being fixed in any shape or form at all. And let me remind you that that memorandum was written before we then went to the United Nations. Now, no one knows more intimately the discussions that we were conducting as two countries at the time than me.

And the fact is, we decided to go to the United Nations and went through that process, which resulted in the November 2002 United Nations resolution to give a final chance to Saddam Hussein to comply with international law. He didn't do so. And that was the reason why we had to take military action. But, you know, all the way through that period of time, we were trying to look for a way of managing to resolve this without conflict.
As it happened, we weren't able to do that because, as I think was very clear, there was no way that Saddam Hussein was ever going to change the way that he worked or the way that he acted.

GEORGE W. BUSH: Well, I, you know, I read kind of the characterizations of the memo, particularly when they dropped it out in the middle of his race. I'm not sure who they dropped it out is, but I'm not suggesting you all dropped it out there. And somebody said, well, you know, we had made up our mind to go to use military force to deal with Saddam. There is nothing farther from the truth. My conversations with the Prime Minister was how can we do this peacefully, what could we do, and this meeting, you know, evidently that took place in London happened before we even went to the United Nations or I went to the United Nations, and so it's - look, both of us didn't want to use our military. Nobody wants to commit military into combat. It's the last option.

DC CLIPMONKEY: How did this guy become president?

Playing the religion card

Republicans used to hate it when liberals would yank out the race card. So it's particularly galling that identity politics has become the next big thing in the Republican Party. For Republicans, religion is the new race. They have cultivated a victimhood mentality in their legions of supporters and conned them into believing that there is a huge conspiracy by liberals to oppress Christians and undermine their way of life.

The current fracas over judicial nominees has provided the Republicans with ample opportunities to play the religion card. William Pryor, a "Christian", has been portrayed by the right wing as a man of faith being attacked merely for his "deeply held views." Want to know some of those deeply held views? According to Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy:

"Judge Pryor has also vigorously opposed an exemption for persons with mental retardation from receiving the death penalty, exhibiting more certainty than understanding or sober reflection. He authored an amicus curiae brief to the Supreme Court arguing that the Court should not declare that executing mentally retarded persons violated the Eighth Amendment. After losing on that issue, Judge Pryor made an unsuccessful argument to the Eleventh Circuit that an Alabama death-row defendant is not mentally retarded."

Pryor, who is Catholic, supports the death penalty for the mentally retarded? I wonder what JP2 would have thought of that. Unfortunately for America, Pryor was confirmed last week.

Ah, who cares about a few 'tards?

Howard Dean for US Senate

Although I must admit Howard Dean's line urging Tom DeLay to head back to Houston to serve jail time was warmly received by this clipmonkey, Dean has proven himself to be a poor spokesman both as a presidential candidate and now as the head of the Democratic Party. He is not the type to regurgitate talking points or stay on message. It's just not in his plain-spoken nature.

So what would be a good job for Howard Dean? US Senator. He would be the perfect person to fill the void left by Paul Wellstone. He could fire up the diehard libs, piss off conservatives, and ensure that Jim Jeffords' seat ends up in the hands of a real Democrat. Bernie Sanders has long been an intriguing figure on the left, but he's a little too reminiscent of another rumpled figure who once served in the House of Representatives- beam me up, Scotty.

Is Tom DeLay pro-abortion?

Tom DeLay fancies himself a good Christian. So it's a bit surprising to hear that he was once quite fond of the labor policies governing the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands- a place where female sweatshop workers were once (and may still be) forced to have abortions so that they can keep punching the clock.

Considering that the corrupt Christian pulled the plug on his dad in 1988, I guess we should have known. The "culture of life" blather is merely a ruse to gain power and pursue humanity-destroying economic policies.

The American Prospect lays out another important aspect of the DeLay scandal- much of the Hammer's sleazy behavior was perfectly legal.

Holding repressive regimes accountable, finally!

For decades, U.S. presidential administrations have given the Saudis a free pass on its horrendous human rights policies in the interest of maintaining our pipeline of cheap oil. But to the Bush Administration's credit, the U.S. government is finally being honest about what goes on in Saudi Arabia.

A report released last Friday listed Saudi Arabia and three other Middle Eastern "allies" (Kuwait, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates) as having some of the world's worst records when it comes to human trafficking. The State Dept. reported that roughly 800,000 people, mostly women and children, were trafficked across international boundaries last year. Many arrive in new countries only to end up forced into prostitution or left to beg for food.

And just as the Saudis are coming under increased scrutiny, so too are the Uzbeks, known for massacring civilians and boiling opponents. Way to go, President Bush (seriously)!

Left-wing idiocy watch

It's rare that I agree with President Bush, but he was right in saying the recent statement by Amnesty International Secretary General Irene Khan calling Gitmo “the gulag of our times” was absurd. DC clipmonkey is a committed left-winger himself, but Khan’s remark was untrue and ultimately obscures the larger issue, namely, that torture is bad.

Sadly, The Nation and other elements of the vast left-wing echo chamber are defending Khan. Khan's statement and the defense of it make those of us on the left not only seem unpatriotic, but also not very bright. Fortunately, an important voice on the left, that of E.J. Dionne, has it right.

Go away, Bill Frist, go away

Bill Frist has been feverishly pandering to Republican constituencies in recent weeks laying the groundwork for his failed bid for the presidency in 2008. After smooching the behind of the religious right on "Justice Sunday" and during the filibuster showdown, last weekend he went for the NASCAR fans, serving as the honorary starter at the Coca Cola 600.

At first glance, it would appear that Frist is a formidable presidential candidate. He has many of the same qualities as the current occupant of the White House- he's a (real) southerner, an Ivy Leaguer, and is from a wealthy family known for some sleazy dealings. On top of that, he's a doctor.

Unfortunately for him, he has one insurmountable skeleton in his closet- he likes to kill cats.

Paving the way for Hillary in '08?

Danica Patrick's 4th place finish at the Indy 500 Sunday was another step forward for women in America. Although she is the 4th woman to race at Indy, she did better than any of her predecessors and had a solid shot at winning the whole thing.

Meanwhile, an attempt by House Republicans to prevent women from serving in combat- a perplexing move considering that 35 women troops have died in Iraq thus far- failed last week.

These two moves may not mean much in the long run, especially with knuckle-scraping "Christians" running the country these days, but they give this clipmonkey hope that America is nearly ready for a woman president.

Back to school: Progressives of faith educate Bush

Kudos to Reverend Jim Wallis for his work to end the monologue on faith and politics by the religious right. At long last, left-wing Christians are speaking out about the right's hypocrisy and questioning its interpretation of the Bible.

Everything in moderation

John McCain captured the hearts of moderates as well as many on both the left and right during the 2000 election, but was ultimately taken down by the nasty political machine of Karl Rove. Since losing to President Bush, however, McCain has been a tremendous thorn in the side of Republicans. His opposition to the Bush Administration even had John Kerry approaching him to do the unthinkable- join Kerry's ticket for the White House.

McCain is despised by most Republicans for his reasonable stances on campaign finance reform, gun control, and government spending, and now that hatred may boil over because McCain chose to do the reasonable-compromise- on the filibuster issue.

McCain and 13 other senators demonstrated real leadership this week, giving the American people a nice reprieve from the "take no prisoners" approach to politics that dominates the current political climate. This is an important victory for the center and bodes well for other looming political fights.

Hopefully it will also be a lesson to Bill Frist and Tom DeLay about what true leadership is.

It's the hypocrisy, stupid.

The sight of a rattled Laura Bush covered in a black scarf after touring the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem gave this clipmonkey some hope that President Bush and company would recognize some of the turmoil that they've wrought in the Middle East and finally take an even-handed look at the region.

But no, within hours of her stressful visit to some of the world's ancient holy sites, the First Lady traveled to Egypt where she endorsed the half-assed democracy plan hatched by that country's long-standing autocrat Hosni Mubarak. Check out this political debate between Mubarak supporters and opposition groups seeking to participate in national elections.

In other Middle East news, the death penalty has been resurrected in the 51st state. I guess if it's good enough for Texas, it must be good enough for Iraq.

Circling the wagons?

Right-wing blogger Instapundit and the conservative echo chamber continue to pile on Newsweek for its recent mistake and are now going after the NYT for its latest report on detainee abuse, this time in Afghanistan. In this report, however, there is plenty of documentation and even gruesome detail about the goings-on at the Bagram detention center.

Much of the criticism of Newsweek has followed the line of, "those liberal journalists just don't trust the military. They're out to embarrass the government. They're all disloyal Americans. Their actions amount to treason, really." Actually, skepticism of the military makes quite a bit of sense these days. Just ask Pat Tillman's mom. Is she "circling the wagons" in defense of Newsweek?

Promoting democracy abroad, ridiculing it in the nation's capital

Now that we know Iraq wasn't a threat, the Bush Administration and its neocon puppeteers have started to portray their efforts in Iraq as part of a larger goal to promote democracy abroad. While many left-wingers detest the notion of America telling others how to govern, DC clipmonkey fully supports it as long as exceptions aren't carved out for repressive "allies" like Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan.

That being said, what's remarkable about all of this talk about democracy is the fact that there remains an egregious violation of it in Washington, DC. While DC residents have a city council with some power to represent them and a vote for president, they lack a voting member of Congress and cede ultimate authority for the city's purse strings and legislation to Congress.

Now, a group of Senators, many of whom are simultaneously trying to erode the minority party's rights in the Senate, is seeking to overturn the District of Columbia's 1976 ban on handgun ownership. Democracy in Baghdad, but not in DC? The abuse of power goes on...

Feeding the terrorists

In the days after 9/11, DC clipmonkey was stunned, angry and a bit vengeful, just like most Americans. Once it became clear to him that 15 of the 19 September 11 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia, he began calling for regime change to take down the Saudi royal family. Of course, that was never going to happen because our own royal family is enmeshed with the Saudis as Michael Moore and the more reputable Kevin Phillips have clearly shown.

Three and a half years later, DC clipmonkey's calls for regime change in Saudi Arabia continue unabated. This regime concentrates spectacular wealth in the hands of the very few (sound familiar?), oppresses its people, and even prohibits women from driving. While the latter notion may present an interesting solution to America's horrendous traffic problems, this regime has still got to go.

Worse yet, as The Washington Post reported Sunday, the bulk of the suicide bombers wreaking havoc in Iraq right now are Saudis. While that news certainly won't stop President Bush from holding hands with Saudi royal family members as he ambles around his Texas ranch, maybe it will get him to ask what the Saudi regime is doing to curb anti-American sentiment among its populace.

Bush is right to call for democracy and freedom in the Middle East, but he has been nearly silent on the actions of the Saudi government. And that silence endangers us for two reasons: it goes against our most fundamental beliefs as a nation and feeds the hatred that breeds suicide bombers. Not only do they hate us because of our culture, they hate us for our hypocrisy!

Oh, and there's one other way that we feed their hatred- by importing 1.5 million barrels of Saudi oil per day. Every day we enrich the royal family so they can live large and donate to the madrassas where oppressed Muslims learn to hate America. So, the next time you fill up your gas tank, think about the suicide bomber you're sponsoring.

The real scandal du jour

While the Bush Administration and the right-wing echo chamber hurl grenades at Newsweek for its Marion Barry-esque mistake (the b%*#h set Michael Isikoff up), a far more serious scandal was revealed in recent days that warrants a major investigation of the executive branch. According to notes taken by a British intelligence official at a White House meeting in July 2002, military action against Iraq was seen as "inevitable" fully seven months before the U.S. and a few brow-beaten allies invaded Iraq.

This revelation, which came out just days before the recent British election, has barely merited a peep here in the United States. In fact, The Washington Post covered it on page A18 of its Friday, May 13 edition, and hardly any other news outlet has covered it since. This is a scandal worthy of an impeachment trial. It makes the White House coffees, Travelgate shenanigans, and half-hearted fellatio of the Clinton years look like high school pranks.

Yet no one in Congress seems to care. The Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee won't even follow through on a commitment to investigate the Administration's decision to go to war. Instead, the subject has been changed to Newsweek's mistake. The abuse of power goes on....

The artistry of abusing power

Tom DeLay, Bill Frist, and even Washington gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi, may not know it, but they are painting a picture of a craven party, drunk on power, and insatiable in its appetites. Their respective quests for self-interest over the public interest have taken them and their cohorts to great lengths.

Two years ago, Tom DeLay ignored the tradition of post-census redistricting. This year, his pals in the House overturned long-standing ethics rules to protect him (since reinstated due to public pressure). In the Senate, Majority Leader Frist is on the verge of going "nuclear" so that 7 judges with truly bizarre views may be installed for life in our federal courts. Meanwhile, former Washington state senator Dino Rossi continues to try to overturn an election for governor that was decided months ago.

An albeit somewhat bloated Al Gore said it best in his recent speech on Frist's effort to eliminate the filibuster, "The proposal from the Senate majority leader to abolish the right of unlimited debate is a poison pill for America's democracy. It is the stalking horse for a dangerous American heresy that would substitute persuasion on the merits with bullying and an effort at partisan domination."

As DC clipmonkey wrote last week, the script has been written. Republicans would be wise to cast their hubris aside.

Under the radar: Bush overturns roadless rules

It hasn't gotten much coverage what with idiots flying airplanes toward the White House and the Michael Jackson freakshow ongoing, but last week the Bush Administration overturned one of President Clinton's crowning environmental achievements- a ruling to cut off nearly 60 million acres of national forest land from road-building or development.

The overturning of the so-called roadless rule is, of course, an enormous windfall to the timber, mining and oil companies who bankrolled Bush's recent campaign. It's sort of like what Thomas Frank argues in What's the Matter with Kansas? You vote to stop abortion, you get tax cuts for the wealthy. You oppose gay marriage, you get a repeal of the estate tax. You vote against "activist judges," and you get millions of acres of bald, ravaged mountains, buried rivers, and higher profits for oil companies.

Burning down the House

The playbook is already out there. Newt Gingrich put it together in the late 1980s. Slash, burn, rip, tear apart the Congress even if it costs you some friendly-fire casualties. As with then-Speaker Jim Wright and Congressman Dan Rostenkowski, there are villains in place including one particularly sleazy guy. And like Hillarycare, there is an incredibly unpopular proposal out there that would affect every American.

Many are ripping the Dems for not offering enough ideas. But what did the Republicans offer when Clinton was president? They offered investigations, bogus scandals, witch hunts, and payoffs to their corporate cronies. Since the Dems are in the minority, they can't perform the witch hunts with the same gusto. But why should they offer any ideas at all?

If the table isn't set for a major resurgence for the Democrats in Congress, then I don't know when it will be.

Bush's Social Security plan: The fine print

DC clipmonkey expressed support for President Bush's Social Security plan in its broad outlines last week and, on paper, he still does. But Paul Krugman (and DC clipmonkey's girlfriend) has raised some good points about the real motive behind the plan. Is it to starve the program enough to later kill it?

As much as DC clipmonkey abhors President Bush for his favoritism for the wealthy and cavalier attitude about the death penalty and torture, he still, for the moment, believes Bush's proposal is the only realistic one he's heard yet for keeping the program running to the end of this century. The Center on Budget & Policy Priorities begs to differ.

Go away, John Kerry, go away

Four years ago, a fine public servant who won more votes than his opponent was relentlessly criticized for losing a presidential election. You would have thought that he was the one being fellated in the White House during those ill-fated days after Monica first snapped her undies at that White House party. Liberals spewed venom at the mention of Al Gore. Their eyes would roll back in their heads before they would blurt, "He should have used Clinton more, blah, blah, blah" or "Lieberman was a lousy pick, blah, blah, blah."

Al Gore certainly made mistakes in the 2000 election, but he still won more votes than his opponent. Even Republicans admit that far more Florida voters intended to vote for Gore than Bush- reports estimate that Gore would have won Florida by roughly 25,000 votes had some of the shenanigans not occurred down there.

Fast forward four years later. John Kerry, who was soundly beaten, won't go away. And, at the end of the day, he lost because of what he said at that West Virginia forum, "I voted for the $87 billion, before I voted against it." Yes, John Kerry was and always will be a flip-flopper. Please step aside John Kerry. It's time to find out how sexist we really are.

Finally, some compassionate conservatism

After 4+ years of what's amounted to an orgy of redistributing money from the federal treasury into the hands of wealthy people, President Bush last night proposed plans to trim Social Security benefits on wealthy and middle-income retirees while increasing benefits for low-income workers.

While the Democrats are piling on Bush for sticking it to the middle class, this clipmonkey feels compelled to give the man some credit. For the first time in his presidency, he seems to be demonstrating fiscal responsibility and concern for the poor at the same time.

Way to go President Bush, hopefully he will succeed in this effort AND cost his party the majority in Congress!

Is the world better off?

It's been a triumphant several months for the Bush Administration with the fits and starts of democracy taking hold in the Middle East. Invading Iraq was a bold experiment ginned up by the neocons and one that may pay off in the long-term. But this week we've been reminded that nation-building isn't easy, especially when done at the barrel of a gun.

Even the right-wing mouthpiece known as the Washington Times has pointed out that life in Iraq isn't what it used to be for half of the population. Meanwhile, our State Department has acknowledged what Bush, Blair and others keep denying- the world is less safe because we invaded Iraq.

Fightin' back

Like many left-of-center clipmonkeys, DC clipmonkey has been in a state of depression since the election. He was pretty certain Kerry would win (despite his lack of affection for Mr. Kerry). Since the election, DC clipmonkey has had a hard time reading the news because he would prefer to remain ignorant than watch the systematic dismantling of a once-great nation.

However, during the past few weeks, DC clipmonkey has been heartened to see folks on the left show some cajones. Whether giving John Bolton a beat-down, slapping around Tom DeLay, ripping the Ethics rules changes by House Republicans, or blasting Bush's Social Security plan, the minority party in Congress is showing some signs of life. And the Republicans seem to be responding on ethics and Social Security, if only a bit.

Scalia's one of the people who started this mess

Justice Antonin Scalia fancies himself as the opposite of an activist judge, but Adam Cohen at the NYT points out that Tony has a long record of judicial activism. Of course, the most blatant act of judicial activism of all is the one that started this mess in the first place, yes, Bush v. Gore.

Karen Hughes, the face of America?

Karen Hughes has been chosen to head up America's public diplomacy effort, a fitting project for one of the people who foisted W. and his alienatin' ways upon us in the first place. The problem is she has the charm of Richard Perle, the diplomacy of John Bolton, and a face made for a burka. Worse yet, she doesn't even have any Muslims helping her.

Even without Ms. Hughes' glaring limitations, this will be quite a challenge. After all, we invaded a country under false pretenses, we've tortured and abused Muslims in strategically humiliating ways, and we don't do body counts of the civilians we kill on a near-daily basis. Fortunately, there are some people out there trying to show the world we do care about the lives of people other than Americans.

Welcome to Dickensian England

While John Bolton and Tom DeLay, two of Washington's finest, dominate the headlines, the House of Representatives has quietly tried to take the U.S. back to 19th Century England. Last night, House Republicans approved a repeal of the estate tax at a cost of $290 billion over 10 years. At a time of record deficits, this is an intriguing move especially given that many of the same people who voted to repeal the tax are talking gloom and doom about the solvency of Social Security.

The good news- wealthy heirs like Paris Hilton will have more time to make videos (you'll have to visit other websites for a link to that).

Michael Bolton would be a better choice

John Bolton is clearly unfit to serve as Ambassador to the United Nations. He has misled the public about threats from weapons of mass destruction. He has bullied underlings. He has shown utter contempt for the UN and diplomacy, in general. He has even displayed breathtaking hypocrisy on the issue of when the U.S. should intervene militarily.

This nomination is a clear and unequivocal "f*ck you" to the UN. And only one man can stop him- Sen. Lincoln Chafee.

I hate the Yankees, would you hire me to be their GM?

I despise the New York Yankees. Really hate them with every fiber of my body. My hatred is so intense that even in the days right after 9/11 I rooted against the Bronx Bombers with the same gusto as any other year. When Joe Torre was recovering from cancer? I didn't care. He's a Yankee.

So when John Bolton was nominated to be the next US Ambassador to the UN, I thought of the Yankees. This guy has made a career out of ridiculing the UN and now he's been nominated to work there. He's probably even spat upon the UN headquarters in New York. Thankfully, a few members of Congress are questioning why he even wants the job.

If it's legal, is it moral?

The amazing thing about the DeLay scandal is the fact that no one is mentioning the many truly sleazy, but legal shenanigans that DeLay has been involved in. For example, the current usury (bankruptcy) legislation passed by the Senate and rolling through the House has DeLay's dirty fingerprints all over it. Check out the Daily DeLay.

Another case involves the infamous K Street Project led by DeLay and some of the other leading Beltway cretins such as Sen. Rick Santorum and government-hater Grover Norquist. The project is an effort to prevent lobbying firms in DC from hiring Democrats. I guess DeLay's another "uniter, not a divider" from Texas.

A culture of hypocrisy

President Bush's recent comments about embracing a "culture of life" are laughable. When you look at the numbers of people who have died because of his official actions or inaction, Bush has NEVER erred on the side of life.

U.S. Soldiers killed in Iraq= 1,542 and counting.
Civilians killed in Iraq= 17,316 and counting.
Civilians killed in Afghanistan= 3,500+.
Executions in Texas under Governor Bush= 152.
Federal executions under President Bush= 2.

And who knows how many more people have died or will die because of President Bush's complicity with the NRA. In particular, we can thank Bush and Wayne LaPierre for allowing the assault weapons ban to expire.

He's no Pol Pot, but he's racked up some pretty good numbers. Fortunately, a few voices in the MSM are pointing out what a sham Bush's statements truly are. Special thanks go to Jonathan Alter in Newsweek and Nicholas Kristof in the NYT.

Papal haze

This clipmonkey wants to take a few moments to honor the Pope for his unwavering commitment to protecting human life. Yeah, yeah, DC Clipmonkey doesn't agree with the Church or Pope John Paul II on many things (particularly the role of women in the Church), but to hear a consistent voice calling on political leaders and citizens alike to respect human life is important.

When you have politicians shoving their faith in your face, talking about a "culture of life" while presiding over the deaths of countless innocent people in Iraq and Afghanistan, and numerous guilty, but living people in Texas, it's nice to know that there are some religious folks who respect all human life.