Score Another One for the Flat Earth Society

Despite an overwhelming rejection of the Right Wing nutjob agenda two weeks ago, Bushie still seems intent on rewarding his insane base. The latest atrocity is his appointment of Dr. Eric Keroack to head the Office of Family Planning in HHS. What is remarkably kooky is that the Office is charged with "provid(ing) access to contraceptive supplies and information to all who want and need them with priority given to low-income persons" and Keroack is a wacky abstinence only person. Now, to be clear we are not talking about birth control to minors here. This is reproductive health services provided to ADULTS. And this guy, along with is crazy friends in the abstinence only community, want to deny contraception to consenting adults. Because, to people like this, sex is ony for procreation and if you indulge in it just for pleasure, well God has to punish you for being such a slut.

In light of this recent appointment, I can't help but wonder if the next NASA administrator will be someone who believes we live in geocentric solar system. Oh, shit.. I just gave them an idea.

Lessons Not Learned

So now that the election is over, we can get a better picture of just what has changed in DC. And the answer is not a damn thing. It's more of the same from both parties.

The Democrats are in the midst of a heated battle for the number two spot in the House. It pits Jack Murtha against Steny Hoyer. Both voted in favor of the awful, industry sponsored bankruptcy bill. Beyond that, Murtha was implicated in the ABSCAM fiasco as well as other ethical lapses. Hoyer is part of the DC insider network and had initially opposed Murtha's call for a phased withdrawal from Iraq. Hoyer has been a proud part of the establishment that cozies up and shakes down the corporate clients of K Street lobbying firms.

Is there a lesser of two evils here? If so, I am not sure. Both are ethically suspect. Both are out of touch with grassroots Democrats. But in the culture of DC and its slavish adherence to seniority, one of these two will become Majority leader.

Next up is the Chair of the House Intelligence Committee. The choice here seems to be between current ranking member Jane Harman and the second most senior member of the panel, Alcee Hastings. Harman was a vocal supporter of the Iraq debacle and has been weak on her criticisms of the Bush administration. Nor has she seemed too keen to investigate the run up to the war. (Also of note is Harman's extremely close relationship with AIPAC.) On the other hand, Hastings was actually impeached from the Federal bench. Granted, he was not convicted, but what sort of message does this send about the Democrats and their commitment to clean up the House?

There is some talk of Pelosi passing over both Harman and Hastings and selecting Silvestre Reyes. That sounds like a reasonable choice to me, as Reyes is currently the third ranking member of the panel and would appeal to Latinos.

What really gets me about the whole Harman-Hastings battle is that the Congressional Black Caucus is behind the move for Hastings. To me, this is one of the big problems with interest group politics- a willingness to turn a blind eye to corruption in favor of interest promotion.

On the Republican side, things are not that much better. Leave aside the potential for bloodbath on the House side between the establishment and the "conservatives." The Senate Republicans brought back Trent Lott to be the number two in their leadership. I realize that the GOP is now more than ever a Southern party, but to bring back someone with so much racist baggage is incomprehensible. Though at least it gives Americans a glimpse into the real beliefs of today's GOP.

Connections

Clean elections folks, Public Campaign Action Fund, asks whether the Republicans could pick someone without connections to Abramoff or other campaign finance scandals to head head the RNC. This comes after Sen. Martinez (FL) was named to succeed Ken Mehlman. Obviously, the people at Public Campaign are being sarcastic, because we all know there is no such Republican in DC.

People I Hate

You know you're bored when you start writing out a shit list.

1. Joe Lieberman- Is there a bigger douche bag in American politics? Holy Joe and his sanctimonious bullshit continues unabated. Just after the Democrats retake both houses of Congress and several state houses, Joe says that both parties are on probation and that this was not a major realignment. Can you be any more clueless than Joe Lieberman? The sooner he is out of public life, the better.

2. Fox News- It took less than a week for the right wing news outlet to link liberal blogs with terrorists. You now know the new Republican talking points for the next two years.

3. The morons who watch Fox News and think it's accurate- Yeah, you're really well informed. Please stop voting (and breathing).

4. Mainstream media- When will you stop repeating Republican spin as if it's reality? Guess what, most of the Democrats elected on Tuesday are centrist to center left. They are not conservative. This was NOT a victory for conservatives. The country expressly rejected "conservatives" like Bush and his congressional handmaidens. Oh, and maybe you might want to fucking notice that stem cells passed in MO, abortion ban tanked in SD and anti-gay marriage lost in AZ. Boy, what a conservative country, huh?

5. Jim Carville- Go ahead and mount your movement of one to take out Howard Dean and replace him with Harold Ford. It was you and your cronies in DC who said Dean's 50 state strategy was a silly waste. But, guess what, it fucking worked. We won races you and your pals in DC would have had us sit out. And we lost races your fellow DC boy Rahm Emanuel poured millions of dollars into. Maybe what you ought to do is get a job for the RNC when your wife takes over.

Feingold is Out of '08

This news makes me very sad. I was leaning heavily towards Feingold. There just aren't that many politicians with the integrity and character that Russ has. While I understand his desire for happiness in life, I regret his decision not to pursue the Democratic nomination.

Post Election Ruminations

Something that really stuck out to me last night as I watched the election coverage on CNN was the ridiculous spin and lack of journalistic honesty. At the time, it didn't bother me all that much, probably because we were kicking the crap out of the GOP. But what Bill Bennett, JC Watts and the rest of the gang on CNN were engaged in was a clever ploy to recast yesterday's results. According to the chattering class on CNN, the Democrats who won were "different" than regular Dems. We were told that these new congressmen were more conservative.

But that simply isn't true. Sure, Heath Shuler and Bob Casey are pro-life. And some others are more supportive of gun rights than your stereotypical Northeast liberal. Yet, on issues that really matter (Iraq, economy, environment, etc.) they all sing from the same hymnal. In fact, many of these so-called conservative Democrats are actually populists. If anything, their economic views are to the left of many "regular" Dems.

It is really sad and annoying to see the media allow Republican talking heads to spout off such obvious untruths without once calling bullshit on them. The simple fact is that Democrats scored huge wins in red districts with moderates and liberals. For every Heath Shuler, there is a John Yarmuth. In fact, there are no more than three or four newly elected Democrats who could reasonably be labeled conservative. There are many more who are liberal and even more who would be considered moderate.

So, this ridiculous Republican/media meme that conservative Dems retook Congress is simply insane. Shame on CNN and the rest of the media for allowing such nonsense to be peddled without challenge.

Two Out of Three

Ain't so bad. I picked Kirsten Gillibrand to oust frat boy wannabe John Sweeney in NY 20. And I hit that one. I also picked Jim Webb to knock that cracker, racist pick Macaca Allen out of the Senate in VA. And I hit a home run there.

But, on the negative side, I did go with Ford in TN Senate. It was a close race, and maybe if Ford was not African American I would have been three for three. And please don't see me any hatemail saying that race didn't play a role in cracker ass Tennessee. Take a look at the NRCC and Corker's ads. They were covert attacks on Ford's race.

P.S. I should apologize for any typos or incoherence, as I have polished off an entire bottle of champagne and I am clearly a lightweight as far as alcohol goes.

Big Night

So if you click on this you'll see that winning runs in my family. This time, it's my dad picking up a seat on the Barnstable County Assembly of Delegates. This latest result runs the Anderson record to 4-0 in local elections (two for dad and two for me).

Which means I need to head back home and win another election. I just can't allow my dad to break my record of wins. And 2008 just happens to be when I graduate from law school. Oh, and the current state representative is a Republican in a VERY blue state. Put two and two together and you might get four.