The one thing that should end Marty Chávez’s political career is his utter disdain for others. A month or more ago, he sniped that Diane Denish has done nothing. Now he says the same of Tom Udall. Yes, only Marty accomplishes anything in the public arena — all others are good-for-nothings in his view. Yet another Republican quality. mjh
Monthly Archives: November 2007
Does Anybody Like Duhbya?
As you read this, keep in mind that Viguerie is an arch-conservative who despises Duhbya for betraying true conservatives. Here, he finds something to praise in Duhbya’s actions.
Having been out of touch with the majority of America all my life, I won’t gloat over Viguerie and his cohort’s absolute disconnect with reality — one of the things that joins them to Duhbya. Too bad conservatives worked so hard to get Duhbya elected twice.
Richard Viguerie Praises President Bush, Criticizes Congressional Republicans, on Water Resources Bill Veto Override
(Manassas, Virginia) Richard A. Viguerie issued the following statement regarding the override of President Bush’s veto of the $23 Billion Water Resources Development Act:
“President Bush deserves great credit for vetoing an outrageous bill filled with irresponsible pork barrel projects. But the Republicans in the Senate and House who voted for override his veto have shown their continual addiction to Big Government and wasteful spending.
“Only 54 Republicans in the House and 12 Republicans in the Senate voted to sustain the President’s veto. That is pathetic!
“What is really unbelievable is that the vote came so close on the heels of this year’s Republican election defeats in Virginia and Kentucky. And this, after the 2006 election disasters for the GOP, shows that either they don’t understand the anger of the voters or they deeply believe in Big Government.
“The Republican brand has been destroyed by the kind of Big Government legislators who voted to override the President’s veto of the Water Resources Development Act. The American people no longer identify the GOP as the party of fiscal responsibility. Republicans who act like Democrats are destroying the Republican Party.
“Most grassroots conservatives are unhappy with the top-tier Republican presidential candidates, and they have closed their checkbooks to Republican national committees. Many big-spending Republican politicians will be shocked to find themselves under attack in the 2008 primary and general elections, as conservatives begin the process of once again (as they did starting in the 1960s) of driving the Big Government Republicans out of office.
“Conservatives hope President Bush will keep his veto pen in action throughout the remainder of his term in office.”
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Richard A. Viguerie pioneered ideological and political direct mail and has been called “the funding father of the conservative movement” for his role in helping build dozens of conservative organizations. He is the author of Conservatives Betrayed—How George W. Bush and Other Big-Government Republicans Hijacked the Conservative Cause (Bonus Books, 2006).
So, Viguerie is prepared to lead the most conservative back to the wilderness. Buh-bye! mjh
Write On!
OK, I’ve been hiding behind the Hollywood writers’ strike. The truth is, I’ve been too busy with *work* (said with a Maynard G. Krebs intonation) to blog.
While I’ve never been a member of a union — in fact, I’m not a member of much of anything — I do sympathize with the goals of unions to represent the interests of workers . I think the decline of unions coincides with the rise of the disgusting rich and the shift in the entire society away from work and towards get-rich-quick schemes. After centuries of capitalism, we all agree money is worth more than labor. With every lottery ticket, you say, “I should be rich and the quicker and easier the better.” But no one should be stinking rich. Certainly, it shouldn’t come easily.
At some point, the only power a worker has over the boss is to withhold labor. (Similarly, the only power soldiers have over warmongers is to refuse to fight.) When no work gets done, even the rich may notice as they move from one gated community to the next.
So, I can’t really identify with the Hollywood writers’ strike. Granted, I believe we all deserve pay that is more than a pathetic fraction of the few people at the top. However, we don’t all deserve nor get $200,000 for 20 weeks of work, 20 hours per week. Work in which we sit among witty colleagues having a lot of fun. (Yes, it’s still work, but not quite the same as scrubbing toilets.) Mind you, the world desperately needs more humor and laughter is better than bloodshed. Perhaps striking writers could use this time to bring comedy to the homeless. mjh
STRIKE!
Survey Says….
[mjh: Unfortunately, this survey does not include Udall.]
Survey: 2008 U.S. Senate Election in New Mexico
http://www.surveyusa.com/client/PollReportEmail.aspx?g=207c667a-0838-4211-867f-6843c87ee5cc
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GOP Faces Growing Peril In 2008 Races – washingtonpost.com
Senate Prospects Dimming, By Jonathan Weisman and Chris Cillizza, Washington Post Staff Writer and washingtonpost.com Staff Writer
Sunday, September 2, 2007; Page A03
A Senate electoral playing field that was already wide open for 2008 has become considerably more perilous for Republicans with the retirement of Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.) and the resignation of scandal-scarred Sen. Larry E. Craig (R-Idaho).
Republicans need a net gain of just one seat to take back control of the Senate, but they have 22 seats to defend, and campaign cash is conspicuously lacking. Warner’s retirement raised to two the number of open Republican seats, and both of them — in Virginia and Colorado — are prime targets for Democrats.
“It’s always darkest right before you get clobbered over the head with a pipe wrench. But then it actually does get darker,” said a GOP pollster who insisted on anonymity in order to speak candidly.
Random Favs
Today’s random set of my flickr photos (reshuffled daily) contains two of my all-time favorites. mjh
Colorado Ranchers Angry Over Army Site Expansion
Colorado Ranchers Angry Over Army Site Expansion, By Peter Slevin, Washington Post Staff Writer
[T]he Army believes it has a current deficit of 2 million acres needed for training, a figure expected to grow by 2011 to 5 million acres, or 7,812 square miles — an area about the size of New Jersey. …
WALSENBURG, Colo. — The U.S. Army wants 418,000 acres of private ranch land to triple the size of its Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site, a training area considered suitable — some would say essential — for preparing American warriors to do battle in the Middle East and Afghanistan. The 1,000-square-mile facility would be 15 times the size of the District [of Columbia (DC)]. …
Colorado may not be alone. Military planners foresee a need for 5 million more acres for training facilities by 2011.
In Piñon Canyon, where prehistoric dinosaur tracks lie near a surviving section of the 1800s-era Santa Fe Trail, the Army sees an opportunity when other training grounds are overtaxed by the demands of war. The move is also part of a long-term reorganization of the armed forces.
To Colorado business leaders, the expansion would help consolidate and enhance the state’s growing role as a military hub: It is home to Fort Carson, the Air Force Academy and the U.S. Northern Command.
But the government’s appeal to patriotism when ranchers could be forced to sell property that has been in their families for generations leaves many landowners cold. They remain skeptical of the claims of national security and frustrated by the lack of answers.
They are also infuriated by what they consider callousness among proponents of the expansion, such as the comment from state Sen. John P. Morse, a Colorado Springs Democrat, that “patriotism is about accepting your cost, even when it is disproportionate.”
“It’s rude. It ain’t right. It’s not American,” said Stan White, who could lose more than two-thirds of the 9,000 acres he ranches in Walsenburg. “We take our military and our country very seriously, but we’re up against something we can’t get ahold of. If they get this done, it’s a national disgrace.”
The land under discussion is an arid plateau that occupies a sparsely populated slice of Colorado near the New Mexico border. It lies alongside 235,000 acres acquired by the Army in the early 1980s. The open spaces provide rambling room for 67-ton tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles to practice maneuvers within a few hours of Fort Carson, home to a dozen Army units.