I've been working on an action called "Don't Get Fooled again," which would feature George W. Bush and his cohorts over his presidential reign to remind America that it was his morally corrupt administration that led our country into the abyss. Who could have predicted that the GOP would kick-start it for me? Really, thanks guys and Bachmanns.

Back in January, I wrote a post called The Big Conservative Con Begins in 2010...."Don't Get Fooled Again" to point this out.

Typically con men feed on dishonest people, but in politics they focus on the unsuspecting. What we've learned from the previous decade is that conservatism is a total failure when it comes to governance. Under Bush and Cheney we've had a massive terrorist attack, two wars, torture and a global financial meltdown. We've had Hurricane Katrina expose how conservatives respond to Americans after a natural disaster hits two states. We've had government corruption at the highest order, which resulted in Cheney's chief of staff being convicted of multiple felonies. We had the horrendous Terry Schiavo affair. We had a news network actively become a propaganda arm of the GOP. We had Wall Street inflate a mortgage bubble that almost turned into another Great Depression.

I can go on and on, but because of a timid media, they will be allowed to perpetrate their newest con. "Only conservatism can save America," will be their motto. If the media actually acted like an independent monitor of the news, we might stand a chance against the new scam, but we know better. Drudge rules their world.

The GOP is brilliant at one thing, and that is tearing people down. Because they left this country in such tatters it's an easy scam to pull off, because hard-working Americans are vulnerable pickings. They have to try and survive in a world destroyed by conservative values. The con is easy. Just blame everything on President Barack Obama. All your job woes, all your fears about how your life will recover and the future that it holds for your children. If we had a real media that would expose the Bush regime for the manifest failure it was, it would be a much harder task, but we don't, and instead news programming has turned more into endless right/left opinion discussions.

"Don't Get Fooled Again" should be our national slogan, because even if we disagree as liberals in the way our president has handled the situation he was elected into, we are engaged enough to know what conservatism has done to this country...read on

Bush's conservative ideology, and the right-wing propagandists planted in D.C. who enabled him led us into two wars. We attacked a country named Iraq who posed no threat to us at all after a terrorist attack on our soil. Under his leadership -- with all the tax cuts he could deliver to the rich, and all the deregulation of every financial institution in sight -- he helped create a near-catastrophic economic depression which spread globally. Let's face it, his policies were totally awesome for the uber-wealthy and they milked it for all it was worth. But ironically, it was those same grand poobahs have who have tried to banish Bush into the cellar for the last few years so America wouldn't have to see his face or hear his voice, which frees conservatives up to blame Obama for all the problems we face now, including unemployment.

Because Bush is so reviled by America, I've pitched it a number of times within our Blue America PAC, but we haven't had a chance to fully explore it. And then, a gift comes along: Republicans chose to remind America for me. It was almost as if John Cornyn was caught shopping at Tiffany's and sending me an early Christmas gift.

Here's what Cornyn said:

But look, I think President Bush's stock has gone up a lot since he left office. People appreciate his resolve and commitment in the face of a national security threat like 9/11. He had his challenges, no doubt. We have, I think, learned a lot about things we could have done better as Republicans in terms of fiscal responsibility, but when he left office, the deficit was 3.2% of the gross domestic product, today it's about 10%. We've added $2.3 trillion to the national debt since President Obama got there. I think a lot of the people are looking back with a little, with more fondness on President Bush's administration and I think history will treat him well.

Continue reading »

Is the Righy Blogosphere embarrased by the Shiavo case?

via Democracy Guy

I've checked Instapundit, Powerline, and Little Green Footballs, and cannot find one single mention of the Terry Schiavo case on their front pages since the shit hit the fan on Friday. Could it be the Republican Party is embarrassing the fuck out of them? If I were a Republican, or even leaned that way, this, from the Washington Post today, on the idiotic notion of passing an emergency law that would apply to a single person, sure would embarrass the fuck out of me.

President Bush returned to Washington late this afternoon from his ranch in Crawford, Tex., to sign the bill, if it passes. White House officials said that if the bill arrives in the middle of the night, Bush will be wakened to sign it.

Of all the things to interrupt the President's beauty sleep...

Is the Righy Blogosphere embarrased by the Shiavo case?

The Democracy Guy

"I've checked Instapundit, Powerline, and Little Green Footballs, and cannot find one single mention of the Terry Schiavo case on their front pages since the shit hit the fan on Friday...read on"

I'm not one to usually bannter about why a site doesn't cover which issue because it's their business what they post, but these three major blogs consistently post about these types of stories. Why aren't they? Will they be put on the "Wall of Shame" from the website: Blogs for Terri?

The Culture Wars End Today

from ASZ: DOCTOR Bill Frist, Senate Majority Leader, makes a bullshit eighth-hand medical diagnosis for the media, and the TASS-US stenos dutifully lap it up. DOCTOR Howard Dean, newly elected chairman of the DNC, says nothing publicly.

The hypocrisy is stunning. Liz at Blondesense comments this morning:

Bush is changing his plans this weekend to rush to sign emergency legislation that might save Terry Schiavo's life if he can get federal judges to rule on this case. This from a man who had no problem signing a law to allow hospitals to pull life support from patients whose bennies had run out, were probably less sick than Schiavo and of course were of the brown skinned persuasion. This from the culture of life man who signed more execution orders than any other governor. This from the man who started a goddamned war in Iraq dragging young men and women from America to fight for his whimsy, get killed or mutilated and then shaft them...

The most absurd thing is that this is no longer about Terri Schiavo. You know it and I know it. It's about unbridled abuse of power. It's one of the final shots in the culture war for the collective soul of America.

And we lost.

Don't just take my word for it, either. Here's a learned legal opinion:

...Look, there is no other way to put it: this is the most blatant and egregious power-grab by one branch over another in my lifetime. Congress is intruding so far into the power of the judiciary, on behalf of a single family, that it is breathtaking.

Now that we've begun a new decade, the right wing will begin their new con game, and their "mark' will be the American people. What's a mark?

A confidence trick or confidence game (also known as a bunko, con, flim flam, gaffle, grift, hustle, scam, scheme, swindle or bamboozle) is an attempt to defraud a person or group by gaining their confidence. The victim is known as the mark, the trickster is called a confidence man, con man, or con artist, and any accomplices are known as shills.

Typically con men feed on dishonest people, but in politics they focus on the unsuspecting. What we've learned from the previous decade is that conservatism is a total failure when it comes to governance. Under Bush and Cheney we've had a massive terrorist attack, two wars, torture and a global financial meltdown. We've had Hurricane Katrina expose how conservatives respond to Americans after a natural disaster hits two states. We've had government corruption at the highest order, which resulted in Cheney's chief of staff being convicted of multiple felonies. We had the horrendous Terry Schiavo affair. We had a news network actively become a propaganda arm of the GOP. We had Wall Street inflate a mortgage bubble that almost turned into another Great Depression.

I can go on and on, but because of a timid media, they will be allowed to perpetrate their newest con. "Only conservatism can save America," will be their motto. If the media actually acted like an independent monitor of the news, we might stand a chance against the new scam, but we know better. Drudge rules their world.

The GOP is brilliant at one thing, and that is tearing people down. Because they left this country in such tatters it's an easy scam to pull off, because hard-working Americans are vulnerable pickings. They have to try and survive in a world destroyed by conservative values. The con is easy. Just blame everything on President Barack Obama. All your job woes, all your fears about how your life will recover and the future that it holds for your children. If we had a real media that would expose the Bush regime for the manifest failure it was, it would be a much harder task, but we don't, and instead news programming has turned more into endless right/left opinion discussions.

"Don't Get Fooled Again" should be our national slogan, because even if we disagree as liberals in the way our president has handled the situation he was elected into, we are engaged enough to know what conservatism has done to this country.

Devilstower at DailyKos reminisces about the previous decade also:

Don't forget the naughts, because this decade, no matter what anyone on the right might say, was conservatism on trial. You want less taxes? You got less taxes. You want less regulation? You got less regulation. Open markets? Wide open. An illusuion of security in place of rights? Hey, presto. Think we should privatize war by handing unlimited power given to military contractors so they can kick butt and take names? Kiddo, we passed out boots and pencils by the thousands. Everything, everything, that ever showed up on a drooled-over right wing wish list got implemented -- with a side order of Freedom Fries.

They will try to disown it, and God knows if I was responsible for this mess I'd be disowning it, too. But the truth is that the conservatives got everything they wanted in the decade just past, everything that they've claimed for forty years would make America "great again". They didn't fart around with any "red dog Republicans." They rolled over their moderates and implemented a conservative dream.

What did we get for it? We got an economy in ruins, a government in massive debt, unending war, and the repudiation of the world. There's no doubt that Republicans want you to forget the last decade, because if you remember... if you remember when you went down to the water hole and were jumped by every lunacy that ever emerged from the wet dreams of Grover Norquist and Dick Cheney, well, it's not likely that you'd give them a chance to do it again.

And they will. Given half a chance -- less than half -- they'll do it again, only worse. Because that's the way conservatism works. Remember when the only answer to every economic problem was "cut taxes?" We have a surplus. Good, let's cut taxes. We have a deficit. Hey, cut taxes even more! That little motto was unchanging even when was clear that the tax cuts were increasing the burden on everyone but a wealthy few. That's just a subset of the great conservative battle whine which is now and forever "we didn't go far enough." If deregulation led to a crash, it's because we didn't deregulate enough. If the wars aren't won, it's because we haven't started enough wars. If there are people still clinging to their rights, it's because we haven't done enough to make them afraid.

Forget the naughts, and you'll forget that conservatives had another chance to prove all their ideas, and that their ideas utterly and completely failed. Again.

The point of remembering bad events is to stop them from repeating. So remember, and remind others if they start to forget. Because really, this is one trip to the water hole we can't afford to repeat.

And as Digby points out:

I don't deny that the corporate Democrats are screwed up too. But they didn't invent this political world. As I quipped before, they just learned to stop worrying and love the money. This world of graft and corruption and unfettered greed was the conservative movement's idea of utopia. And they got it.

I got this via email yesterday, and gee, I hope the media covers this one (.pdf link to application for media credentials). Because there are all kinds of implications: Does the Catholic Church get to decide that, government health insurance will pay for the indefinite maintenance of someone in a persistent vegetative state because they've suddenly decided to up the ante?

And do Catholic hospital officials intend to override advance directives or medical powers of attorney? Remember, many people live in a community that has only a Catholic hospital. (While my father was dying from excruciatingly painful pancreatic cancer, he was denied a morphine drip by his Catholic pro-life doctor. The Saint said it might make dad might die a few hours sooner than he was "supposed" to, so this is more than a theoretical issue to me.)

I'd just like to remind everyone that the Catholic Church continues to make disapproving noises about unjust war and the death penalty, but I never see any public denouncements of the politicians who support them them. Instead, they throw their weight behind issues like this.

What would Jesus do? I'm guessing not this.

WASHINGTON-The full body of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) will take into account the most recent Catholic teaching on care for the chronically ill and dying when they vote on a proposed revision of the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services at their November 16-19 general assembly in Baltimore. The proposed revision states more definitively the moral obligation to provide medically assisted nutrition and hydration to patients in a "persistent vegetative state."

[...] "It would be useful to update the Ethical and Religious Directives by inclusion of references to these authoritative documents as well as byincorporation of some of their language and distinctions," said Bishop William Lori of Bridgeport, Connecticut, Chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee on Doctrine. "It is particularly appropriate to do so since the recent clarifications by the Holy See have rendered untenable certain positions that have been defended by some Catholic ethicists."

The current Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services says, "There should be a presumption in favor of providing nutrition and hydration to all patients, including patients who require medically assisted nutrition and hydration, as long as this is of sufficient benefit to outweigh the burdens involved to the patient."

Along with other changes, the proposed revision says, "As a general rule, there is an obligation to provide patients with food and water, including medically assisted nutrition and hydration for those who cannot take food orally. This obligation extends to patients in chronic conditions (e.g., the 'persistent vegetative state') who can reasonably be expected to live indefinitely if given such care."

To be adopted, the proposed revision must be approved by a majority of bishops present and voting at the November meeting.

Duncan has the latest.

I'd say the same thing for the Terry Schiavo case. The country was almost 80% against it, but the media was 100% for it.

Sen. Tom Coburn: Body Language Soothsayer

On MTP today, Sen. Tom Coburn said that because of his medical training he can tell if somebody is lying just by using their body language.

Download | play -WMP Download | play -QT

SEN. COBURN on Roberts: I've tried to use my medical skills of observation of body language to ascertain your uncomfortableness and ill at ease with questions and responses. I will tell you that I am very pleased both in my observational capabilities as a physician to know that your answers have been honest and forthright as I watch the rest of your body respond to the stress that you're under.

MR. RUSSERT: Do you believe as a physician you can tell whether a candidate for the Supreme Court is telling the truth?

SEN. COBURN: Mm-hm, I certainly have.

MR. RUSSERT: Has any--have you ever detected someone lying?

SEN. COBURN: Uh-huh, lots of times.

We have Bill Frist making a diagnosis on Terry Schiavo using old video tapes and now we have Coburn saying he can tell if you're lying just by using his keen training in body language. What's up with some of these republican doctors?

I didn't know that studying body language was a course given to doctors anyway. Can somebody find that class given in medical school. Why hasn't he been called before to testify in other very important cases? It seems to be more reliable than lie-detector tests. At least in Coburn's case, as reader Brian implies. Is this some new kind of faith-based pseudoscience?

Bill Bennett: The Exterminator

Like the Terry Schiavo case, Katrina is causing massive brain damage to some of the wingnuts.

Steve Gillard pointed me to Bennett's idiocy: Media Matters has the audio.

Bob makes a great point. President Bush was more than willing to interrupt another one of his vacations to jump on a plane, travel thousands of miles to Washington, sign Republican legislation on the Terry Schiavo case and fly thousands of miles back to Crawford all for the circus clowns, but interrupting a bike ride to take a walk down the road to meet with Cindy was just too much " hard work" for him. When it comes to God's Own Circus, the President will move heaven and earth.