The News & Observer in North Carolina has an article about the losing Dole senatorial campaign and their explanation of why the famous "godless" ad was necessary.

Dole's campaign thought it would run such an ad only as a last resort. And then it would be the mildest version of the ad.

So says Fred Davis, the Hollywood-based media consultant who produced the ad, which became one of the most discussed TV commercials in the nation during the past election.

Critics of the ad from the right and the left accused Dole of questioning Hagan's faith.

Hagan, a Sunday school teacher and elder in her Presbyterian church in Greensboro, called the ad "despicable" and ran her own ad accusing Dole of "bearing false witness against fellow Christians."

A candidate thus reveals the presence of a sufficiently clear and present danger to failure of the campaign as to justify hiring a spin doctor to empasize the trivial at the expense of the important.

But Davis insists the commercial was not designed to question Hagan's faith. He said it was about her decision to attend the fundraiser.

"It was about her judgment," Davis said in a telephone interview last week. "I never questioned her faith. A lot of people questioned that in hindsight. But that's not the point."

"That's not the point?"

How appropriate. The point is that all over this country candidates keep shallowly trusting consultants and advisors, effectively handing over their own sincerity and honesty in asking for votes based on reality.

Instead, they bring into play hired mind-slingers to create and promote the shallowest of messages using Viagra or Cialis tactics.

They hand over their own integrity regarding political ethics. They do not  encourage thoughtful civic participation by bringin a fast-talking narrow-minded snake oil sales person into the game.

They declare then that civics takes a back seat to deceptive marketing.

This elevation of suppossed 21st century political and media sophistication to a pedestal defined by  30-second messaging  is a sacrament of worship that will not make us a better nor wiser society.

That is what "the point" is. 

This guy Davis produces an insulting piece of ad-trash that assumes a  tremendous stupidity and gullibility of voters

- an ad that lowered the civic standard in an entire state

- and calls it a meaningful piece about judgment.

It was a meaningful piece about judgment .... his employer's Mrs. Dole's.

There has to be a more honest living than being a professional manipulator.

Posted SwanDeer Project at 8:04 AM PST

Updated: Sunday, 9 November 2008 8:36 AM PST

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A candidate illegally fund by sneaky corporate lobbyists cannot really promise "change" by riding the coat tails of Barack Obama and asking us to vote for Barack and Dino ... no, he can't.

Dino is left promoting his own deceptively packaged change as well as hoping we won't recognize the truest friends he has. 

Posted SwanDeer Project at 11:44 AM PDT

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Republicans have single-partyedly fractured their base out in their last remaining bastion states. 

This headline and the following comment titles at Democratic Underground say it all.  

Idaho's flagship newspaper endorses Obama. 

Idaho Statesman endorsement: America needs Obama's steady hand

[Comment titles]

Idaho???

W0W! Idaho!! -- and Powell Endorsement

Holy Shit!!! Idaho???

Idaho?

Latest list of newspaper endorsements ... 76-19

62% for McCain Idaho?

and this: 

Hell definitely just froze over. Salt Lake Tribune (Utah!) endorses Obama!

The Salt Lake Tribune has been there since the 19th century. In the twentieth century the Tribune is the successful competition to the other daily there, The Deseret News - more the voice of Utah conservatism and the LDS Church.

In terms of profit and loss, endorsing the Democrat for president would not be a wise economic decision unless ...  

Nationwide: The rest of the Red Wall looks like a dam about to break:

Newspaper Endorsements for Obama:

Raleigh NC News & Observer

 Bryan-College Station, Texas Eagle (next door to Crawford)

Tuscaloosa News Alabama

Nashua N.H. Telegraph

Houston (Texas) Chronicle

Austin (Texas) American Statesman

Cleveland Ohio Plan Dealer

Posted SwanDeer Project at 9:21 AM PDT

Updated: Sunday, 19 October 2008 9:30 AM PDT

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"McCain says his life changed while he was in Vietnam, and he is now a different man," Dramesi says today. "But he's still the undisciplined, spoiled brat that he was when he went in."  

 

At Fort McNair, an army base located along the Potomac River in the nation's capital, a chance reunion takes place one day between two former POWs. It's the spring of 1974, and Navy commander John Sidney McCain III has returned home from the experience in Hanoi that, according to legend, transformed him from a callow and reckless youth into a serious man of patriotism and purpose. Walking along the grounds at Fort McNair, McCain runs into John Dramesi, an Air Force lieutenant colonel who was also imprisoned and tortured in Vietnam.

McCain is studying at the National War College, a prestigious graduate program he had to pull strings with the Secretary of the Navy to get into. Dramesi is enrolled, on his own merit, at the Industrial College of the Armed Forces in the building next door.

There's a distance between the two men that belies their shared experience in North Vietnam — call it an honor gap. Like many American POWs, McCain broke down under torture and offered a "confession" to his North Vietnamese captors. Dramesi, in contrast, attempted two daring escapes. For the second he was brutalized for a month with daily torture sessions that nearly killed him. His partner in the escape, Lt. Col. Ed Atterberry, didn't survive the mistreatment. But Dramesi never said a disloyal word, and for his heroism was awarded two Air Force Crosses, one of the service's highest distinctions. McCain would later hail him as "one of the toughest guys I've ever met."

On the grounds between the two brick colleges, the chitchat between the scion of four-star admirals and the son of a prizefighter turns to their academic travels; both colleges sponsor a trip abroad for young officers to network with military and political leaders in a distant corner of the globe.

"I'm going to the Middle East," Dramesi says. "Turkey, Kuwait, Lebanon, Iran."

"Why are you going to the Middle East?" McCain asks, dismissively.

"It's a place we're probably going to have some problems," Dramesi says.

"Why? Where are you going to, John?"

"Oh, I'm going to Rio."

"What the hell are you going to Rio for?"

McCain, a married father of three, shrugs.

"I got a better chance of getting laid."

Dramesi, who went on to serve as chief war planner for U.S. Air Forces in Europe and commander of a wing of the Strategic Air Command, was not surprised. "McCain says his life changed while he was in Vietnam, and he is now a different man," Dramesi says today. "But he's still the undisciplined, spoiled brat that he was when he went in."

McCAIN FIRST

This is the story of the real John McCain, the one who has been hiding in plain sight. It is the story of a man who has consistently put his own advancement above all else, a man willing to say and do anything to achieve his ultimate ambition: to become commander in chief, ascending to the one position that would finally enable him to outrank his four-star father and grandfather.

In its broad strokes, McCain's life story is oddly similar to that of the current occupant of the White House. John Sidney McCain III and George Walker Bush both represent the third generation of American dynasties. Both were born into positions of privilege against which they rebelled into mediocrity. Both developed an uncanny social intelligence that allowed them to skate by with a minimum of mental exertion. Both struggled with booze and loutish behavior. At each step, with the aid of their fathers' powerful friends, both failed upward. And both shed their skins as Episcopalian members of the Washington elite to build political careers as self-styled, ranch-inhabiting Westerners who pray to Jesus in their wives' evangelical churches.

In one vital respect, however, the comparison is deeply unfair to the current president: George W. Bush was a much better pilot.

Page 1 of 10

Posted SwanDeer Project at 6:45 AM PDT

Updated: Monday, 6 October 2008 6:48 AM PDT

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When John McCain arrived  at the Hanoi Hilton one of his former classmates from the U.S. Naval Acadmey was already there 

From Brave New Films

Watch it. It's only 4 minutes long 

Posted SwanDeer Project at 8:19 AM PDT

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"There was one man who was presidential tonight, that man was John McCain."

Let's see ... McCain never looked at Obama during the debate.

Not looking at your opponent is "presidential?"

This very much was the "don't talk to your enemies - don't look them in the eye" foreign policy expert practicing his "presidential" craft for a nationwide audience.

McCain campaign continues:

There was another who was political, that was Barack Obama. John McCain won this debate and controlled the dialogue throughout, whether it was the economy, taxes, spending, Iraq or Iran.

The McCainers are right. There was one who was political. That would be the older white-haired fellow who was obviously too afraid of his opponent to look him in the eye.

You know ... that guy who stared anywhere but at Obama while repeating and praising his own 30+ years of politically-expedient decision-making.

... political choices that consistently fell on the wrong side of what's best for America and it's individual citizens.

But perhaps the most annoying, insulting and embarrassing declarations were his blatant patronizing self-praise remarks about his love, concern and loyalty to military veterans.

Talk is cheap. Veterans perhaps more than any other American voters, look at what The Man Does more than What The Man Says.

Were we to hear that kind of talk up close at the Elk Snout Tavern on Willapa Bay, McCain would have been tossed out on his lying ass ... more than likely by the American Legion and VFW patrons drinking with him.

More from old-white-eyes' guys:

There was a leadership gap, a judgment gap, and a boldness gap on display tonight, a fact Barack Obama acknowledged when he said John McCain was right at least five times. Tonight's debate showed John McCain in command of the issues and presenting a clear agenda for America's future." --Jill Hazelbaker, McCain-Palin 2008 Communications Director

I have to hand it to them. The leadership, judgment and boldness gap WAS on display tonight. The gap defined mostly by the political ex-fighter jock who has yet to make a positive and socially redeeming political decision since taking the lead flight position of the republican attack formation.

Unfortunately, all we've gotten since he took the lead position have been foolish and rash decisions. Look at who he put out there as wing man - er - wing woman.

That's keeping faith with veterans? Putting a cadet as next in line for command authority?

Unfortunately the McCain campain's "clear agenda" seems to be an assumption that the majority of the electorate wants Patton for President.

I don't recall that Patton refused to look enemies in the eye. In fact, Patton did look directly into the face of either Marshall Zukov or another general meeting with him immediately after the end of hostilities in Germany at the birth of Cold War hostilities.

Staring into his opponent's eyes, Patton - minus McCain-style repeated blinking - told the interpreter to call that officer a "sookensin" (my transliteration from Russian) - a son of a bitch.

So I guess McCain can't do a Patton either. He just stands there trembling and afraid of being open and honest cause honesty might let loose the real McCoy, er, McCain. Honesty might include releasing and revelaing again his still immature temper.

As a veteran, I don't think I want him to try his way of keeping the faith with me or my family ... especially the ones serving in the military.

And about the "at least five times" Mr. Obama said McCain was right?

Five times in a 90-minute debate?

That would be like Muhammad Ali acknowledging that Joe Frazier connected on five swings out of two-hundred during the Thrilla in Manila.

Posted SwanDeer Project at 9:45 AM PDT

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SGM Larry A. Myers U.S. Army (Retired) has a blog, The Sergeant Major's Thoughts on That

A veteran of 27 years in the United States Army including combat tours in Vietnam, Myers has written one of the definitive veteran's perspectives on the current legitimacy of John McCain's assertion that he is qualified to lead this country.

His diary of 9/10/08, Honor - To Have And Have Not was cross-posted to KOS and has comments nearing 300 as of this morning.

Myers says what many veterans are thinking but have not publicly acknowledged. Honor and conscience are some of the strongest traits any soldier desires of his commanders. For years most in this country have assumed that these traits were part and parcel of what makes a military officer and a United States Senator.

There was a time in 2000 when I was seriously supportive of McCain and somewhat distrustful of Clinton and Gore. I did not know all I needed to know about McCain back then because he was BUSHwhacked out of the Republican nominating activity and became the McCain we never knew.

The McCain that brazenly stands before the electorate and lies right into our faces seems oblivious to how his image has so severely deteriorated or the vast disgust he generates daily with every public appearance.

Myers:

... once one's honor was compromised it was a permanent and oft never fading blemish. ... I believe that even the most honorable and well intentioned people with the most hard earned sense of honor can fail and that they can be guilty of being dishonorable and I believe that that has happened in the presidential race.

I would go further than Myers. We assumed much about John McCain that was apparently not true and would only be revealed - as has been the case with McCain - when he is under pressure or suspects he won't be held accountable.

If I go thru the pro-forma motion of recognizing his five years POW suffering for his country, I also have the right to declare respectfully that I reject the idea that POW suffering automatically creates excellent presidential material.

Here 40+ years after his POW crucible, McCain is self-revealed as an ordinary or perhaps even typical mediocre Naval officer who did not extinguish himself as a leader of men.

There are other veteran military officers much more capable and preferable to McCain as a CIC. If I were God and able to appoint any veteran of my choosing to be president, John McCain would not even be on my long list, let alone my short list.

Myers seems to agree with me:

... past honorable service and dedication to duty and country does not immunize one against poor judgment, failure or even from doing the wrong thing. I believe that ones honor is not something one does once and then puts it on a shelf where it shines forever. Honor is second by second, minute by minute, hour by hour and year by year. It is only as untarnished and undiminished as ones past and ones last action.

Myers goes on to say that his previously expressed disappointment and sadness with McCain lies in a conclusion that the candidate is not an honorable man today.

In my world of definitions, an honorable man is a man of class, respectful toward women and someone who refuses to be crass. In my world of a veteran's experience, the definition of a military officer as a class act does not include the a poorly thought-out and hasty rashness that sometimes becomes an attribute a fighter jock needs in the middle of aerial combat. As the oft-used asset of a commander of men or the chief national statesman or leader of the free world, poorly thought-ought and hastily rash decisions are to be feared and avoided constantly.

When McCain resorts to good ole boy fighter-jock back bar humor, he fails to be outstanding in his chosen field. He reduces himself, his candidacy, his wife and his running mate to mere props behind which he plays with his saber and pretends that the presidency is nothing more than a game of RISK.

Myers also explains how wrong it is to use lies to get somewhere with the implied promise that once elected you will not lie anymore and return to straight talk.

The reason I say this is because I am observing and hearing reported by every major news organization in this country that he and his running mate are participating in and personally articulating blatant lies. These are not the actions of honorable people. When one is aspiring to the highest and second highest public offices in the land it is incumbent upon one to speak truth and only truth and to communicate about those issues that are vital and of importance to the citizens of the nation. It is not honorable for individuals to speak lies to the citizens and make unproven accusations against those whom they oppose. When one opposes another person in vying for public office it becomes even more important to insure that one speaks the truth and deals with issues and substantive differences and not innuendo and accusation.

Most veterans know full well which officers had class and who had no need to demand respect. They also remember which officers were not classy and who those were who could get them all killed.

Myers continues.

The fact that John McCain is a former Naval Officer and a sitting United States Senator makes this lack of honor horribly reprehensible. But I think what makes this lack of honor so disgusting and even more vile is that he would lose himself to the point of using his own sacrifice and service as a shield to commit such petit dishonorable acts of lying. Conservative, liberal, or Independent, share his beliefs or not, it would be morally reprehensible for anyone to support someone who displays so little honor.

Honor is what has been lacking from the first day of George Bush's presidency and of his Republican dominated congressional support system.

Craven is a more apt description of the Republicans in congress who rubber-stamped the Bush/Cheney/Rove definition of the political abuse and denigration of genuine patriotic American Civic participation in government.

Honor is the last thing we are seeing and have come to expect from the flag-waving pseudo-corporate patriotism sold to American's as Republican snake oil. McCain with the advice of Republican spinners is demonstrating the worst of our society at this significant moment in American History.

Myers concludes with this about honor:

Our honor as a nation is not just blemished but in tatters and we cannot endure another four or eight years of the same. If for no other reason than the fact that John McCain and his vice presidential running mate have publicly lied and continue to lie this nation needs to insure that he does not occupy the office of the president. Our nation needs honor above all else at this crucial point in our history. With honor comes respect and from these come all else.

Enlisted American veterans like me are much more numerous than retired admirals and generals. We have always been most often the first to recognize flaws in their officers primarily because they deal with them at the level of execution rather than chain of command.

These are the truths American veterans need to recognize.

Tags: McCain, commander-in-chief, leadership

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Posted SwanDeer Project at 8:40 AM PDT

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or Youtube

Posted SwanDeer Project at 7:56 AM PDT

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For those who have claimed the mantle of "family values"--I hereby question and scoff at your support of Sarah Palin. - Carla Axtman

McCain and his spinners apparently thought they could call forth the 2004 Evangelical Gullible Base back from wherever it faded. I doubt they can ... but they are again trying to poison the country with a fake piety that belittles every parent in the country.

Family values are not tools of the opportunistic - to be summoned when needed and hidden in the closet when expedient.

One of the Pac Northwest's premier bloggers gives us a truth some do not dare bring up.

Carla Axtman at BlueOregon.com

Its not as if I don't understand what its like to have a wonderful and beloved job in politics. I've had that. But when my teenagers (who were not actually in any trouble or crisis) began to show signs of needing their mother's guidance and presence in a more profound way, I gave up that job to do what I knew was right for them.

Isn't that what "family values" is supposed to be all about? Or is being a secular progressive a "family-values" nonstarter in the eyes of conservatives, no matter what? And does being an anti-choice, book-banning, global-climate-change denier mean otherwise, no matter what?

Sarah Palin either deliberately placed her pregnant, 17-year old daughter directly into this ridiculous media scrutiny--putting her in the position of being eaten alive by the rabid tabloid press--or she didn't know that her child was 5 months pregnant. Neither of those scenarios speaks especially well of Ms. Palin as a "family-values" candidate, in my view. All of this for a high-profile, high-power political job.

The hypocrisy of this woman being placed as the standard bearer of social conservatives is staggering. And all of us who sport a uterus are supposed to be able to relate to this woman because...so does she? We're all supposed to be blind to what's going on with her family and embrace her alleged "pro-family" policy stances because its worked out so hunky dory for them...? Seriously?

I don't see how a "family values" man could relate to her either.

Tags: Palin, family values

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Posted SwanDeer Project at 8:36 AM PDT

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Last June, when Iowa was inundated with massive floods, Iowa officials asked
the presidential candidates to stay away. Barack Obama did. John McCain
and his entourage arrived to insure he got some photos. George Bush
showed up, too.

Today, John McCain, Cindy McCain and Sarah Palin
are flying to Mississippi for a pre-hurricane photo op. They're meeting
with state officials. The Governor of Mississippi, Haley Barbour, used
to chair the RNC, "invited" them -- so he's letting his staffers be
used for the politicking on the eve of a massive hurricane striking. Do
the McCains and Palin really need to show up with all of the staff,
their security and the press? McCain did it in Iowa during the floods.
Now, he's doing it during Gustav:

Mr.
McCain plans to go to Jackson, Miss., which is inland, with his wife,
Cindy, and his newly-selected running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska,
his campaign said. Mr. McCain will take only a small pool of reporters,
and will tour a hurricane center with Gov. Haley Barbour, the
Mississippi governor.

Senator Barack Obama said that he had
talked to the Louisiana governor and other officials. He added that he
was monitoring the storm, but was planning no tour of the coast because
he wanted to stay out of the way.

Come on. Only "a small
pool of reporters"? Those reporters are the whole point of the visit.
McCain could get this briefing over the phone or as a web conference
(not that he knows what that is). He doesn't want information. He wants
pictures. This is just another example of McCain putting politics first.

Posted SwanDeer Project at 8:03 AM PDT

Updated: Sunday, 31 August 2008 8:05 AM PDT

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They are putting Sarah on the ticket to appease Social Conservatives ... or demonstrate/prove to those S.C.'s that an electoral base needs to be wider and more tolerant than the position where the religious right has McCain tethered.

The Dem convention was extremely powerful and effective. Given the gifted rhetorical abilities of all those prominent speakers who set the table and complemented Obama's special oratorical skill, this contest is a speechifying mismatch.

Make no mistake, the election won't be decided by we Internet intellects who can't get through the day without our own or someone else's analysis that is less than ten minutes old. It will be decided by blocks of voters prompted by rhetoric that capitalizes on outrage more than anger.

The Dem's have a tremendous opportunity with that national outrage just ripe for the picking while Repubs don't have much if anything to rile the nation against the Democrats.

No Republican of prominence can compete with any of the Democratic top-tier orators. Furthermore, Republicans do not have a single position that can be proclaimed and proven as a superior or better alternative to what Democrats are describing and promoting.

Going along with McCain's choice seems to be either an extraordinary demonstration of Republican strategic helplessness or worse.

Perhaps having been unable to field a more universally popular candidate able to combine all the varied conservative concerns, they have conceded. They are leaving all the principal decisions to McCain himself.

Or ... from the pool of stupidity where most available political consultants and spinners swim Republicans netted only from the shallowest end of that pool.

Regarding McCain ... about the second or third time he revealed his mysogynistic (sp?) tendencies combined with such silliness as "Bomb Bomb Iran" and his inability to communicate real humor, I realized that Johnny guns is nothing more than the bottom-tier type officer that most veterans knew at one time or another during their careers;

the kind of officer who thought his collar insignia made him a Patton by osmosis but in reality was not capable of remaining competent as a leader of men or squadrons once out of his cockpit and flight suit.

I've said before that conceding the POW time to Johnny Guns in no way concedes that such an experience alone makes him the equivalent of this country's actual military commanders who rose to the top mostly on their own merits.

From a Commander-in-Chief standpoint based on military background, experience in war, strategy, tactics and an appreciation of the value of diplomacy, McCain truthfully is closer to George Bush on the skill level than he is to Wesley Clark, Colin Powell, Tommy Franks or even those currently serving in the JCS.

Posted SwanDeer Project at 1:16 PM PDT

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Candidate Rossi has been running ads in the Pacific County papers declaring himself to be "A fresh voice for Pacific County."

That "fresh voice" deception is easy to see through even out here in the boondocks since there is nothing new in the current state Republican or Rossi's proposals that differs from what they've been offering for the last 20 years.

The transparency in the Rossi ad is its insulting assumption that voters this year are paying little attention to the economy and its financial impact in their individual lives. It also insults us in the same way Republicans ignored our inadequate health coverage two years ago and instead preferred to create a fairy tale about "frivolous lawsuits."

Rossi is also candidate of a national party that truly betrayed the American voter.

But of course no Republican is willing to defend the party's failure in Iraq with any kind of enthusiasm or catch phrase. That party's authorship of the tragic waste of humanity in Iraq and needless placing of our soldiers in harm's way will be remembered as a betrayal of America's core values for as long as there is an American History to be taught.

But I digress. Sticking to state politics, candidate Rossi however, keeps blithely tossing out shallow sentences totally absent specifics to back up his claims. He makes the kind of economic talk that might work in boardrooms but never where workers gather in their communities to examine their options.

To wit:

The incumbent raised taxes and increased spending by 33%, but taxpayers aren't seeing a return on their investment.

What party geniuses came up with that as a marketing plan?

On payday the question is whether or not the earnings will cover the expenses. The next thought is more likely anger at the employer - especially if that employer would rather contribute company profits to associations like the BIAW than consider a wage or benefit increase for workers.

When Washingtonian's pay tax on a new washing machine or set of tires, how many of them actually then stop to ponder whether or not that tax will be used wisely?

Furthermore, how many actually think the governor is the one doing the taxing? By his slogan Rossi would have you believe that the governor dictates to the legislature how they will vote regarding taxes.

Well, maybe Rossi is trying to fool us into thinking that as governor he could do that.

And in this county where Tim Eyeman vehicle licensing tax foolishness cost us adequate bus transportation, how many residents here actually think about increased government spending percentages?

Probably only those who remember the good old days when the buses ran more often on more routs. To restore the good old days would require increased spending for public transportation.

I don't think Dino the CEO who would run state government as a business would have such a memory for the good old days.

"You're on your own" would be more accurate for Republican economic governance.

The assumptions that drive Rossi and his party's strategy truly prove the false economic bubble that constitutes their theoretical world.

Otherwise, the truth revealed by a seemingly oblivious Republican candidate, party and financial support base is that they take Washington voters for suckers - thinking that we are shallow and too dumb to think critically.

The next part of the deceptive ad declares that

DSHS, Department of Ecology are run by Christine Gregoire's appointees. These agencies are unresponsive.

Immediate reaction is a question about appointees.

Is Rossi declaring that he would not appoint the head of those agencies? In Rossi's case that might be good since he has yet to appoint a good and truthful idea as something worth while to promise voters.

Worse for Rossi, during the winter storm that devastated much of SW Washington, while those agencies - particularly DSHS - were responding big time, where was Dino Rossi and what was he doing to help out?

I know first hand what DSHS and Governor Gregoire were doing. I doubled my working hours for 3 solid weeks helping victims in DSHS offices in Grays Harbor and Pacific Counties.

So how RESPONSIVE was candidate Rossi?

Well, I read that he had a visit with a friend - a storm victim in Lewis County - but other than that Dino seemed content to stay high and dry on the sidelines kibbitzing and taking pot shots at Governor Gregoire.

Meanwhile, Governor Gregoire was more than doubling her working hours including lots of time and effort trying to get George Bush (Rossi's Republican Role Model) off his dead ass and declare the counties as disaster areas.

Gregoire was also rallying the State's congressional members to help in the "wake-up-the-President" effort.

But to my knowledge Mr. Rossi did very little to come to the aid of his potential voters.

Talk is cheap. It was cheap last December and it's cheap currently in shallow and meaningless slogans.

"A governor who will make a difference?"

Give me a break. All talk, no substance and an insult to all of us.

That kind of makes of Rossi with his unproven assertions about DSHS and the administration of Chris Gregoire one Republican hypocrite willing to mislead local voters with false rhetoric and unproven declarations.

Finally, let's talk briefly about that puzzling timing of his most recent political ad - the one that aired immediatlely following Senator Obama's acceptance speech at the Democratic convention.

Why did he run his ad at that moment?

The principal suggestion that comes to mind is that it was the only effective way for a Republican to speak to an attentive audience.

Apparently neither the State Republican Party nor its gubernatorial candidate could think of a better way to get the attention of voters.

So their solution was to ride Obama's coat tails.

Doesn't that say more about the weakness and lack of message of the Republican party and its candidate - needing a Democrat to attract voters so they could have an audience?

Tags: Rossi, Republicans, Washington State, Willapa Bay, Pacific County

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"Whether the cause of this linkage - which is not absolute, of course - is metaphysical, social or psychological, we do not need to decide in order to observe that it exists." (Dean, page 9)
Metaphysical, social or psychological?
How about 50 years later we use the words supernatural, socio-pathic, psycho-pathic or just plain Left Behind?

Here's the list as quoted in Dean's book.

(1) There is a transcendent factor vital to successful government.

(2) Human nature is corrupt, and therefore conservatives reject all utopian solutions to social problems.

(3) Tradition must be respected, and when change is unavoidable it must be undertaken cautiously

(4) Governmental power must be diffused and limited by adhering to the "separation of powers" and "checks and balances" of the Constitution.

(5) Direct democracy must be rejected because people are not well informed and are easily misled

(6) [Conservatives believe] in States Rights

(7) Each branch of government must be autonomous and must resist encroachment or usurpation by any other

(8) Public support of limited government must be encourage in order to keep government in check

(9) The Constitution's principles have permanent value

(10) Government must be decentralized and localized so that power is diffused

(11) Private enterprise should be encouraged.

(12) Morality begins with the individual

(13) Congress should be more powerful than the executive branch.

Having successfully and specifically exploited number (5) for seven years, the current Republican talking point Presidential electoral project implies that the (1) "transcendent factor vital to successful government" is FEAR.

The corruption of human nature is considerably less dim than the corruption of the corporate nature. The abuse of corporate "personhood" identity has deteriorated to volumes of legislated non-Constitutional inequality: specific partisan legislation on behalf of non-mortal corporate "persons" at the tragic expense of human citizen persons.

Our contemporary Republican self-styled "conservatives" of this generation have no notion of change undertaken cautiously and gradually. What has become unavoidable is change based upon greed.

Invoking the fear-based metaphysics of (1) against those described in (5) above, we see a Republican suppression of separation of powers, checks and balances and all that lie in the venue. This was quite aptly expressed by Naomi Wolf last year in her history article:Fascist America in Ten Easy Steps.

Included in those "Ten Easy's " are

Set up and internal surveillance system

Harass citizen's groups

Arbitrary Detention and Release

Target key individuals

Control the Press

Dissent = Treason

Suspend the rule of law.

Yeah, and so much for autonomous resistance of encroachment and usurpation.
States Rights.

State's Rights?

"No Child Left Behind" and the Abandonment of Common Sense?
Imperialist invasion and occupation supported significantly by National Guard and Reserves?

Limited Government?
Well, the Conservative Republican version was probably still alive in the 70's, when Goldwater and Dirkson told Nixon to get his ass out.

By the 1990's limited government merely an on-going talking point until the Gingrich-Delay Republican unwise governance.

Until of course the manipulated election of a manipulated candidate so short of wit, wisdom and maturity that he will be without peer the most incompetent Republican ever to sit in that office.

Permanency of Constitutional Values? Enter the pulpit-pounding hypocrisy of today's social conservatives who dominate a party that has included the not-infrequent talking point of Gay Marriage as the overriding issue facing this country.

Yeah, and so much for decentralized localized government and diffused power.

"Private enterprise" - in terms of small-business entrepreneurs is the talking point joke behind which big business sucks at all the biggest troughs. Under the current Republican Conservatism, the Depart of Labor should be renamed the Department of Corporate Welfare.

Morality begins and ends with the individual. It doesn't spill and splash from a pulpit nor self-promote itself as an artificial and manufactured construct entitled "Morale Values."

Congress more powerful than the Executive Branch? I think that means that legislation and policy are the purview of represented electorate. Execution of the law - putting into effect the will of the people - every four years that's what we hire (or rehire) the President to do.

If we "conservatively" applied this last notion, future candidate posturing during presidential elections would be mere taking point politics and implied influence sans a lot of the "when I'm President I will - " nonsense.

This is what John McCain and his party have come to and what they are asking voter permission to continue. If the majority vote him into office this people will confirm what most of us already suspect.

Aptly described by Oliver Lange in Vandenberg - The Journals, 1971

"We proved the lie, were served up with a gagging portion of our own vintage distillation of apocalyptic horseshit
-- all the narcissistic swill about indomitable spirit, invincibility, courage and nobility of purpose --

and demonstrated once and for all to those who looked on with interest a fact long suspected:

that this nation, through a self-administered indoctrination of spurious righteousness, larded with the false rewards of superfluous luxury,

had at last achieved the most tractable, malleable -- let's face it, spineless -- people to walk the face of the earth."

Posted SwanDeer Project at 8:54 AM PDT

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My friends, when you're a Republican Presidential Nominee you have to use the endorsement of the support you HAVE , not the support you'd like to have.

February 27, 2008, 6:22 pm NY Times: Mega-Church Pastor in Texas Backs McCain By Elisabeth Bumiller

... the pastor of a San Antonio mega-church, Rev. John C. Hagee, endorsed Mr. McCain for president.

Mr. Hagee, who argues that the United States must join Israel in a preemptive, biblically prophesized military strike against Iran that will lead to the second coming of Christ, praised Mr. McCain for his pro-Israel views.

... Mr. McCain, who has been on a steady search for support among conservative and evangelical leaders who have long distrusted him, said he was “very honored'’ by Mr. Hagee’s endorsement.

Asked about Mr. Hagee’s extensive writings on Armageddon and about what one questioner said was Mr. Hagee’s belief that the anti-Christ will be the head of the European Union, Mr. McCain responded that “all I can tell you is that I am very proud to have Pastor John Hagee’s support.'’

Evangelist John C. Hagee, televangelist of the 19,000-member Cornerstone Church in San Antonio has these profound views of what's best for the United States of America:

“We are the generation that will probably see the rapture of the church. In Christian theology, the first thing that happens when Christ returns to Earth is the judgment of nations. It will have one criterion: How did you treat the Jewish people?

Anyone who understands that will want to be on the right side of that question. Those who are anti-Semitic will go to eternal damnation.”

“Twenty-five years ago, I called a meeting of evangelists to discuss such an effort, and the conversation didn’t last an hour. This time, I called and they all came and stayed. And when the meeting was over, they all agreed to speak up for Israel.”

“I’ll never forget that night [May 15, 1948 when Israel formally became a nation]. I was 8 years old at the time and in the kitchen with my father listening to the news about Israel’s rebirth on the radio. He said, ‘Son, this is the most important day in the 20th century.’ “

"Well Islam in general -- those who live by the Koran have a scriptural mandate to kill Christians and Jews."

On the ferocious Old Testament God who'd rather kill than forgive.  

"All hurricanes are acts of God, because God controls the heavens. I believe that New Orleans had a level of sin that was offensive to God, and they were recipients of the judgment of God for that.

The newspaper carried the story in our local area, that was not carried nationally, that there was to be a homosexual parade there on the Monday that the Katrina came. And the promise of that parade was that it would was going to reach a level of sexuality never demonstrated before in any of the other gay pride parades.

So I believe that the judgment of God is a very real thing. I know there are people who demur from that, but I believe that the Bible teaches that when you violate the law of God, that God brings punishment sometimes before the Day of Judgment, and I believe that the Hurricane Katrina was, in fact, the judgment of God against the city of New Orleans."

On Harry Potter

"As millions of people anticipate the release of the latest Harry Potter book and film, we're reminded once again of Satan's ongoing attempt to deceive and destroy. The whole purpose of the Potter books is to desensitize readers and introduce them to the occult."

Hagee has those who "endorse" him: “

Like Joe LIeberman

"I begin by thanking your founder, Pastor John Hagee. I would describe Pastor Hagee with the words the Torah uses to describe Moses, he is an "Eesh Elo Kim," a man of God because those words fit him; and, like Moses he has become the leader of a mighty multitude in pursuit of and defense of Israel."

Well ... maybe not. - Orthodox Rabbi Brad Hirschfield, vice president of the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership in New York: 

"I truly believe John Hagee is at once a daring, beautiful person and quite dangerous. I sincerely recognize him as a hero for bringing planeloads of people to Israel at a time when people there were getting blown up by the busloads.

But he also believes that the only path to the father is through Jesus. That leaves me out.”

Lord, let's make a deal ...

If I stipulate that the End Timers are right about who will be leaving and those who'll be left behind.

If I stipulate that according the ET'ers, I deserve to be left behind, you, God, will forego all the death and destruction pyrotechnics, leave me behind

... and get these self-righteous literalist children the hell out of here!!!

Take them!  Take them NOW already!!!

Posted SwanDeer Project at 8:28 AM PST

Updated: Saturday, 1 March 2008 8:53 AM PST

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McCain: Talking straight

for power and glory 

This is why the consistent idealism and determination to stay true to his constituency contrasts Obama with the most currently significant Republican flip-flopper.  

December 2005:

"We've sent a message to the world that the United States is not like the terrorists ... What we are is a nation that upholds values and standards of behavior and treatment of all people, no matter how evil or bad they are. And I think this will help us enormously in winning the war for the hearts and minds of people throughout the world in the war on terror." 

October 2007: 

 "When I was imprisoned, I took heart from the fact that I knew my North Vietnamese captors would never be treated like I was treated by them. There are much better and more effective ways to get information. You torture someone long enough, he'll tell you whatever he thinks you want to know."

February 2008: McCain votes against the Torture Ban.

Maybe we should add this observation to John's previously knightly warriorly pronouncements:

There are much better and more effective ways to share trustworthy information. If you need to pander to a fickle support base and betray your values and those of your  country, you'll tell them whatever you think they want to know. 

 

More on this from Ariana 

Posted SwanDeer Project at 9:27 AM PST

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Even Oregonians are asking what happened to Dino Rossi this time when his own party doesn't know how to count votes.

Dino is the Reflublicans grand icon of vicitmization. He is THE prestige of the Reflublicans. What greater moment than to step to the plate and take one for the team!

Kevin at PK 

Posted SwanDeer Project at 6:38 AM PST

Updated: Wednesday, 13 February 2008 6:49 AM PST

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