Dirty Campaigns: As American as Apple Pie

Anything for a Vote by Joseph Cummins

We get a lot of insults these days when pundits, pontificators and political apologists for one side or the other toss accusations and innuendoes around like parade candy. If you disagree with Mister 22% (Bush) you’re a traitor. If you’re a soldier and you disagree with the way the war’s being managed, you’re a “phony soldier.” If you’re trying to get Democrats elected you’re “soft on terror,” and if you object to the shredding of the Constitution you’re “Islamofascist” or “feminazi” or just the standard commie pinko hippie scum. It just never seems to get old.

My 85-year old Mother, who watches Fox News religiously (I don’t know why) gets very upset lately whenever the subject of politics comes up among the brothers and sisters. Which is a shame, because we all love to talk politics, even if we don’t agree about everything. It wouldn’t be so bad if her blood pressure didn’t rise so visibly just before she goes into the O’Reilly rant about “hate, hate, hate!”

So I’ve decided the best thing I could do for her at this stage of her life (besides go spend some quality time just being with her, taking care of things for her, and listening to her stories) is buy her a copy of a new book by Joseph Cummins, entitled Anything for a Vote.

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Filed under Books, Campaigns, History, Humor, Hypocrisy, Media, Propaganda, Slime Machine | Comment (0)

What’s Going On?

A Surge in Racism, or Just the Demise of PC?

Nobel laureate, co-discoverer of the structure of DNA and chancellor of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory James Watson got himself into a bit of a pickle after opining in an interview with the UK’s Sunday Times (published Oct. 13) that he isn’t hopeful about our attempts to help Africa because Africans just aren’t as smart as other humans.

Within a week Watson had been soundly denounced by his scientific colleagues, the debate over cultural bias in intelligence testing was reignited, and the subject of modern day “New Eugenics” became prominent in dozens of internet forums and political websites.

By the end of the week Watson found himself out of a job as Cold Spring Harbor desperately tried to divert unwanted attention from its sordid history as the scientific base of American eugenics in the early decades of the last century. He also had his book tour cancelled and was sent home to “think things through.”

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Filed under Eugenics, Genetics, Media, Racism, Science | Comments (2)

Another SCHIP Update:

Republican Slime Machine Targets Injured 12-Year Old

Graeme Frost speaking to reporters after delivering the Democratic radio response to Bush’s SCHIP veto.

Just when you thought Mister 22% and his Brownshirts couldn’t go any lower in their efforts to prevent millions of children from accessing health care through the State Children’s Health Insurance Program [SCHIP], they managed to find yet another sub-basement cesspool from which to spew slime.

When Bush vetoed the SCHIP legislation passed by both the House and Senate, the Democratic response was delivered by courageous 12-year old Graeme Frost of Baltimore, Maryland. Graeme and his parents, who earn ~$45,000 a year but get no employer-provided health care and with 4 children cannot afford $1,200 a month for private coverage, went public with how the SCHIP program helped them after a 2004 auto accident left Graeme and his younger sister seriously injured and hospitalized for five months.

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Filed under Bush, Health Care, Republicans, SCHIP, Slime Machine, Talking Heads, Veto | Comments (2)

Limbaugh’s Dittoheads vs. U.S. War Veterans

My goodness! The war between Rush Limbaugh’s chickenhawk dittoheads and veterans of the current U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan has certainly lit up the airwaves and internet for the past couple of weeks! It’s getting so heated that it just might be time to buy some popcorn futures (or take up dealing OxyContin…).

In case you’re one of the few who missed it when the fireworks started, right wing hate pundit Limbaugh (who got out of military service during the VietNam draft due to boils on his fat ass) created quite a stir when he libeled some Iraq war veterans on his daily radio show [date] by calling them “phony soldiers” and likening them to “suicide bombers.”

His beef wasn’t that they hadn’t volunteered to serve, or didn’t serve at the front for more time than they’d bargained for, or that some of them were badly injured. It was that they started speaking out against the war once they got home.

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Filed under Anti-War, Media, Propaganda, Talking Heads, Veterans | Comment (0)

Bush Vetoes SCHIP, Governors File Suit

Dems Struggling for Override Votes

For the fourth time during his reign of terror, George Bush used his veto pen to reject reauthorization and expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance program [SCHIP], in defiance of the wishes of a solid 72% majority of the American people and a Veto-Proof majority in the Senate on this completely bipartisan bill.

The 6.6 million children who were covered did have their coverage extended through November, the SCHIP funding from last year expired this past Sunday. The 4 million more children this bill would have covered are SOL, as usual.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic leaders are scrambling to come up with the two dozen extra votes they need to override the veto, but it’s not looking very hopeful. Senator Edward Kennedy weighed in over at Daily Kos with a challenge to the President, but then he’s a Senator holding a veto-proof majority on this legislation.

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Filed under Bush, For-Profit Insurance, Government Lawsuits, Health Care, Republicans, SCHIP, Veto | Comments (2)