Let’s be honest, we as Americans can be gullible morons sometimes.  How else to explains the last 7 years?  However, does the Conservative Right, and their mouthpieces like Rush Limbaugh, really believe constantly putting Barak Obama and Osama bin Laden’s names in the same sentaces are going to make the cast majority of voters believe Obama is somehow linked to bin Laden?  Granted, some very stupid and gullible Americans will belieave this shit, but the vast majority?  Well, I’d like to say no, but you never can tell in this country what American will believe when they hear enough times.

You know, I thought the Clinton administration had a revolving door but the Bush administration just might outdo ol’ Bill.  Oh, I can’t say I’m sorry to see Gonzales go.  The man never meant a constitutional amendment he didn’t want to circumvent.

Well, the answer to that question is both, and a whole lot in between. Ever since George W. Bush entered the White House there has been news story after commentary after article about how America was becoming a Conservative nation. I’ve called bullshit on that from the beginning. Bush barely won his first time and I think if Al Gore had been a better candidate (and I’m a Gore fan) I don’t think we would have had the Florida fiasco. Then came September 11, 2001, and all of America rightly stood with their Commander-in-Chief. Then came the 2004 election in which John Kerry ran a crappy campaign and Bush won again. None of which meant this nation was becoming more Conservative.

America is a large country with an eclectic mix of people who politics, more often than not, fall squarely in the middle. I would even say it’s slightly center-right, but certain not Conservative. At least not the brand of Conservatism handed out by the religious right, neo-conservatives, and by extension their man George W. Bush. Nor is America a Liberal nation, at least not in the sense that Fox news defines Liberalism. Unfortunately, as long as we have Rupert Murdoch’s well-paid loud-mouths and a compliant media that is fright to piss them off the idea that America is a Conservative nation will not go away — even if Karl Rove does.

Karl Rove is leaving the Bush White House.  It doesn’t mean a damn thing in terms of how this administration operates, but I say good riddance.  This man has done more to hurt this country than almost any other person in this administration and having him gone is a win-win.

What happened to my grandmother’s Republicans?  You know, the Republicans who worked to keep government out of your lives as much as possible?  Presidential never-gonna-be candidate, Sam Brownback, wants to tack on two amendments to a spending bill that would give the FCC greater control over violebt content and allow them to fine networks for “slips” of the tongue.  Like I asked before:  what happened to the Grand Old Party?  When did they decide to become America’s Nannies-in-Chief.

As someone who spearheaded the invasion of Iraq you’d think Dick Cheney would think twice about promoting the idea of war with Iran. But no, this moron seems ready, willing, and able to take our exhausted and over-extended military into yet another military folly.  I get that Iran having nuclear weapons is a bad thing, but they are not Iraq.  We can’t just invade this large, very rich nation because they won’t just fall over and surender.  The citizens of Iran may wish for greater freedom, but they will not accept an American or even international invasion lightly. Add to that Iran does have friends in the world, chief among them Russia, and we could find ourselves in a horrific situation that would not only takes thousands of thousands lives, but possibly weaken our military and national security to the point we cannot even protect ourselves.  This is a stupid plan and another reason why we need these fucking war hawks out of OUR government.

I’ve never heard of anything such as the “gay panic” defense until I read this article.  Basically, it’s a temporary insanity defense that allows a person to walk away from hate crimes directed at a homosexual person, even when it leads to that person’s death.  In the state Indiana, it could be used to free two sick bastards who have confessed to torturing, beating, and eventually killing a man simply because he made advances toward them!  It says something about how Americans view homosexuals (at least in some parts of this country) as something less than human.  That their sexuality something that warrants beating and torturing, and if the person dies in the process well that’s just the price they pay for being gay.  Shame on the people of Indiana if they allow these sons of bitches to get away with murder.

I just don’t get the whole a la carte programming initiative that some members of Congress and the FCC are trying to push.  They say they want to offer parents more control over what their allowed to watch.  Don’t they already have that in the form of blocking that is available from every cable and satellite provider?  The other issue is allowing consumers more control over their cable bills and again I think that’s a double-edged sword.  Will it be cheaper for consumers to pick and choose rather than pay $40 a month for 150 channels?  Something tells me the per network price will average more if you buy a la carte. 

The other issue is, like it or not, cable and satellite is a venue where niche networks that could not otherwise exist flourish; chief among them religious and minority programming.  I have a limited understanding of how licensing fees work with networks and providers, but I believe cable and satellite providers pay a per-user fee to the network owners in order to carry the network.  That fee is based on the number of subscribers system-wide, not just the people who watch the network.  If networks have to start surviving based on their Nielsen number I think you’ll see the number of available network fall drastically, starting with networks that are lucky to see less than a million real viewers; and that’s  a majority of the networks.  This seems like a bad decision all around and is coming from a misguided effort to provider greater choice and control to consumers.

I hope the voters of Connecticut are listening to the man they put in office when almost every other person on the planet thought it was time for Joe Lieberman to go.

If there was ever a case of the phrase having your cake and eating it, too, applied it would be to this poll.  So, a majority of Americans say they support the death penalty (a not surpising 62%); however, 40% of them say their moral beliefs will not allow them to serve on a jury that would decide if the death penalty would apply.  Not only is that load of hypocritical crap, it’s cowardly.  Their morality is OK with sending someone to die, but they don’t have the balls to make the decision themselves.