During Howard Dean’s speech to the Democratic National Convention, he said

something that puzzled the pundits: we no longer need to be ashamed to say we are Democrats. David Brooks, a conservative, mused, ‘when

have Democrats ever been ashamed to be Democrats?’

The problem is the word: it’s not ‘Democrat,’ it’s ‘Liberal.’ The Radical

Right has heaped scorn on liberalism and liberals for nearly 40 years. Even now, while Kerry undermines Bush’s security creditionals

(war-hero vs party-boy), the Radical Right couldn’t care less: Kerry’s a liberal and they’re going to make sure everyone in America

knows that, because everyone in America know being a Liberal is bad.

Why is liberalism bad? Don’t just spew the Radical

Rights’ refrain in response — think. In the last 30 years, a Republican President lied, cheated and stole and resigned. Another

cajoled us while making deals with dictators and death squads. The current one started with the big lie, ”I’m a uniter, not a

divider,” and went downhill from there. What, exactly, do Conservatives have to be proud of, or, why aren’t they ashamed of this?

What is the single greatest accomplishment of liberalism in the last 40 years? The Civil Rights Movement. Where were the

Radical Right and the Christian Evangelicals then? Well, many of them were Southern Democrats. Cleverly, the Republicans lured them

with talk against the Federal Government. The Federal Government is the Beast. On the surface, they talk about taxes and regulations. At

the heart is fear: fear of change, fear of loss of power, fear of others, of ‘them.’ We’ll call ‘them’ liberals, but, wink, you know

what we mean: blacks, hispanics, asians, gays, women — whatever you fear, that’s them over there, waiting to take your way of life away

from you. Lies that play on fear. Straight out of Nixon’s playbook.

Fear is at the heart of the control the Radical Right

and Christian Evangelicals hold over the Republican Party and, through it, all of America. We may not be able to do anything about

their fear and loathing, but we cannot let it stop us from progress and moving America forward again towards freedom and peace. America

IS a liberal nation, equality and justice are LIBERAL notions; the status quo, convention, keeping power and control are

CONSERVATIVE, and shameful. mjh

In Defense of the F-Word By Charles F. Krauthammer, washingtonpost.com

The F-word was used.

Washington is scandalized. The newspapers were full of it. Lamentations were heard about the decline of civility. …

Democrats, feeling darned outraged, demanded apologies. The vice president remained defiant, offering but the coyest

concession — that he “probably” cursed — coupled with satisfaction: “I expressed myself rather forcefully, felt better after I had done

it.” …

Ah, but the earnest chin-pullers are not amused. Cheney’s demonstration of earthy authenticity in a chamber in

which authenticity of any kind is to be valued has occasioned anguished meditations on the loss of civility in American politics.

Liberals in particular have expressed deep concern about this breach of decorum.

Charles Krauthammer is the

darling of the radical right. Here he presents a pseudo-intellectual dissertation on “fuck you” vs “go fuck yourself,” and gleefully

speaks of hurling insults at other drivers. Just in case anyone is actually offended, he speaks of Cheney’s ”alleged

indiscretion.” Alleged? Really? Did he curse or didn’t he? Where is that gutsy ‘you know where they stand’ manliness? Not to be

found in ”I probably said it.”

Krauthammer ends with contrasting the furor over Cheney’s witticism vs no furor over Gore

comparing Bush to Hitler and Stalin. And, in a way I’m sure he finds clever, says ‘fuck you’ to Gore.

Some might say there is a

difference between citizen Gore speaking to a partisan crowd and Vice President Cheney in the People’s House. Others cut Gore a lot of

slack as the true President deposed in a bloodless Supreme Coup — maybe attacking the usurper ”makes him feel better,” Dick.

As

a liberal, I don’t give a shit that Cheney, and Krauthammer, are assholes. I’m certainly not surprised. What’s significant is that

these are the holier-than-thou American Ayatollahs. These are the Christian right’s darlings. These are our mullahs, decrying the

decline of Western civilization at the hands of foreign infidels. These are the Compassionate Conservatives who want to restore family

values, defend marriage, leave no child behind. Fucking liars. These guys are coarse, common and mean as shit — and scared, to boot.

mjh

PS- The first few dozen time I used the word ‘fuck’ around my mother, she winced and covered her ears. I don’t mind using the

word, but writing it here in this public forum does make me very conscious of readers who don’t like it. I’m not saying I’m sorry,

just that I’m not indifferent or oblivious.

mjh’s Blog: Cheney says: Go Fuck Yourself, America!

mjh’s Blog: American Ayatollah

Search edgewiseblog for ‘Krauthammer’

William Bennett, America’s scold, still sells books and speaks

publicly after his gambling addiction was revealed. Lush, er, Rush Limbaugh bounced back quite quickly from his addiction to

prescription drugs — and his violation of federal law. Greg Payne has returned from alcoholism (and ‘assault’ with a can). What

makes these three models of redemption? Oh, yeah, they’re conservative. Is it too late for former Judge Brennan to join the

Republican Party?

The truth is, until conservatives took power, American’s believed crime was an aberration and one could pay

one’s debt and resume a normal life. Now, we have a larger percentage of citizens in prison than the old Soviet Union or China. Now, we

don’t punish, we torture. From Nixon to Reagan to Bush, we’ve grown meaner and more afraid, at home and abroad.

mjh

Report: World military spending nears Cold War levels

World

military spending surged during 2003, reaching $956 billion, nearly half of it by the United States as it paid for missions in

Iraq, Afghanistan and the war on terror [according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute]. …

Military spending

rose by 11 percent, which the group called a remarkable increase. The amount was up 18 percent from 2001.

The $956 billion spent

on defense costs worldwide corresponded to 2.7 percent of the world’s gross domestic product, according to the annual report.

”It’s very close to the Cold War peak in 1987,” said institute researcher Elisabeth Skoens, who co-authored the report. …

The United States led the world in defense spending, accounting for 47 percent of the total[mjh: !], followed by Japan with 5

percent and Britain, France and China with 4 percent each.

So the world (the US) is spending nearly as much today on

defense as we did at the height of the Cold War. Then, our enemy was a superpower with massive weapons of destruction and a huge army.

Now, our enemy uses box cutters and donkey carts. Something’s not quite right.

Could it be that the Military-Industrial Complex has

seized the opportunity to continue to grow fat on fear? Are you safer than you were 4 years ago? mjh

My sincere sympathies

go to those who mourn Ronald Reagan. Grief, sorrow, and misery are emotions each of us must feel more than once in life. I wish them

peace.

I, for one, however, do not mourn Reagan. He did much to shift this country further to the Right. His staunchest supporters

demonize and dismiss the Left. Yes, he was personable. His followers are much less so.

It was Reagan who popularized the notion that

the government is the enemy, a beast which must be starved. His genuine philosophy has simply become slogans for a White House as Chamber

of Commerce. The libertarian facade might be easier to take if the ”new conservatives” weren’t stuffing their pockets and sticking

their noses in our bedrooms.

While I absolutely appreciate the humor behind ”we begin bombing in five minutes,” that joke is the

lighter side of American absolutism and unilateralism. Less funny, but more lasting, was the casting of our enemies as simply

”evil.” We nearly bankrupted ourselves to bankrupt the soviets. How much must we spend to defeat a tiny enemy who uses box cutters

and donkey carts?

It is easy to see the breakdown in ”intelligence” even 20 years ago, when the former head of the CIA, Daddy

Bush, was ”out of the loop” on the Iran-Contra Scandal (ignorance is an excuse, it seems). Henchmen like Ollie North connect the

dots from Watergate to today’s dirty tricks. Yes, these are noble and honorable men who have serviced our nation.

Reagan lives

on as the model for the current administration (which borrows equally from another great Republican, Dick Nixon). In unilateralism, in

casting others as ”evil,” in bankrupting the nation, Bush honors Reagan, who, as Cheney said, ”showed us what we can get away

with. It is our due.” Inspiring leadership.

Still, even with huge mandates from the voters, Reagan didn’t seek to change

everything as completely as Bush has, without any mandate at all. And yet, Reagan did change everything forever, opening the door wide

for the truly Radical Right and American Fundamentalists.

It’s mourning in America for all of us. mjh

Several conservative columnists and cartoonists have made a point of attacking

”The Day After Tomorrow” as representing the liberal and unscientific view of Global Warming. Funny, I don’t recall

conservative outrage over Armagedon (asteroid threatens Earth) or Independence Day (aliens attack) or Jurasic Park

(cloned dinosaurs) or myriad movies centering on volcanoes, tornados, giant insects, etc. Why does global warming in particular set off

conservatives? Surely it has nothing to do with the fact that people get rich through fossil fuels, but not through asteroids, aliens or

clones (yet)? It can’t simply be personal profit that motivates conservatives. Heaven forfend.

What the conservative view

about global warming reminds me of, first, is the rejection of evolution through natural selection (aka Darwinism). Not only do

conservatives deny the science behind evolution, they make up their own fake-science and demand equal time. In turn, I’m reminded of the

trial of Galileo, sentenced for challenging the false view held by those with power. In this, I can’t quite see how conservatives

”profit” from a flat-earth view, but then, what is conservatism (or what used to be called ”reactionary” before that became

mainstream) than a resistance to change (aka progress)?

What we desperately need is for the majority to be capable of reasoning

beyond one movie or one book. mjh