Message To GOP: "Don't Worry - Be Happy"

"Democrats Win Landslide Victory"

From: Senator Bill Frist, M.D.
Date: Thu, May 29, 2008 at 3:59 PM
Subject: "Democrats Win Landslide Victory"

Dear Republican Supporter,

I have a real fear of waking up to this headline after the elections this fall. [...]

In key states, news accounts indicate Democrats are outpacing Republicans registering voters. We also know Barack Obama's campaign is utilizing the Internet to raise record amounts of money to support his campaign and Democrats nationally ... all in the hope that new voters and record resources will produce a Democrat landslide victory this fall.

There's so much at risk, and conservatives I talk with from all across the country are feeling the rumblings of "what could be." [...]

[...] I ask for your immediate help in supporting Republican candidates running for U.S. Senate by making a contribution of $10, $25, $50 or even $100 to the NRSC [...]

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Don't Worry - Be Happpy - Send Money$

A Nose For News

"Although the things I said then were sincere, I have since come to realize that some of them were badly misguided. In these pages, I've tried to come to grips with some of the truths that life inside the White House bubble obscured. Many of the conclusions I've reached are quite different from those I would have embraced at the start of the process…”

“…Most of our elected leaders in Washington, Republicans and Democrats alike, are good and decent people. Yet too many of them today have made a practice of shunning truth and the high level of openness and forthrightness required to discover it. Most of it is not willful or conscious. Rather it is part of the modern Washington game that has become the accepted norm.

As I explain in this book, Washington has become the home of the permanent campaign, a game of endless politicking based on the manipulation of shades of truth, partial truths, twisting of the truth, and spin. Governing has become an appendage of politics rather than the other way around, with electoral victory and the control of power as the sole measures of success. That means shaping the narrative before it shapes you. Candor and honesty are pushed to the side in the battle to win the latest news cycle.

Of course, deception in politics is nothing new. What’s new is the degree to which it now permeates our national political discourse.”

Scott McClellan
What Happened

At The Writers' Conference

by Bill Holm

After my rambunctious verbal assault
on two thousand years of Christian baggage,
three thousand of European mistakes,
a sprightly, pin-curled old lady with sad eyes
asks: “Why do you call it Christian baggage?”

This conversation can’t go on. We both know it.
How do I explain in three minutes
why everything has been dead wrong
since the beginning?
Authority made of paper, strategy in vestments,
charity wearing sidearms, risen corpses,
virgin mothers, just armies…Damn the logic!

My baggage is her furniture; she lives
in my fire sale, serves tea every day in thin
blue porcelain cups that she imagines me
smashing one after the other
with arrogant clumsiness, tossing them into
the fearful darkness outside her parlor window.

Local Borderline Cult Praises Their Fearless Leader

Even Libertarians See Randists as a Cult:

The Sociology of the Ayn Rand Cult by Murray N. Rothbard

Murray N. Rothbard (1926–1995), the founder of modern libertarianism and the dean of the Austrian School of economics, was the author of The Ethics of Liberty and For a New Liberty and many other books and articles. He was also academic vice president of the Ludwig von Mises Institute and the Center for Libertarian Studies
" Astonished that the Rand cult had any position on smoking, my friend pressed on: "They have a position on smoking? What is it?" The Randian replied that smoking, according to the cult, was a moral obligation. In my own experience, a top Randian once asked me rather sharply, "How is it that you don’t smoke?" When I replied that I had discovered early that I was allergic to smoke, the Randian was mollified: "Oh, that’s OK, then."

Republican Spin "McClellan -Stooge With New Masters"

American Spectator Story



A lot of these Republicans defections are predictable and self-inflicted: a Republican administration, seeking to curry favor with the press, brings in a liberal Republican or semi-conservative Democrat (like Dilulio) and then lo and behold this person finds he objects to that administration and later criticizes it. In this case, the Bush administration's self-inflicted wound was to hire a stooge who it first manipulated and then released into the world to be manipulated by others. They handed him talking points and he read them to millions; then his new masters handed him talking points and he wrote them up into a bestselling book.

This is the McClellan they knew.

Public Education Not Preparing For The Future

The education system is failing to prepare children and young people for climate change!


It seems almost obvious that children of school age should be well informed about climate change, an issue that will increasingly influence and shape their future way of life. For businesses trying to lower their carbon emissions and adapt to a changing climate too, it is essential that the education system equips the next generation of employees and employers with a fundamental and reasoned knowledge of climate change. In the UK, however, the government is responding slowly and cautiously to the growing pressure to improve climate change education in schools.

A government survey back in 2005 revealed that climate change was the issue of most concern to schoolchildren in the UK. These results coincided with the launch of a government-backed programme focused on youth involvement in the issue, the J8 Global Citizen Programme, first launched at the G8 summit in Gleneagles 2005.

Read more @Climate Change Corp.

And The Official Smear Word for Scott McClellan Is...

"Disgruntled"



Former White House press secretary Scott McClellan has a new book out titled "What Happened." The White House has labelled him "disgruntled." Follow the smear word as it travels through out the vast right wing conspiracy network.

Click here for the latest on Scott McClellan + Disgruntled.

Ponder This

An elderly man in South Carolina, named Tom, had owned a large farm for several years. He had a large pond in the back, fixed up nice; picnic tables, horseshoe courts, and some apple and peach trees. The pond was properly shaped and fixed up for swimming when it was built.

One evening old Tom decided to go down to the pond, as he hadn't been there for a while and look it over. He grabbed a five gallon bucket to bring back some fruit.

As he neared the pond, he heard voices shouting and laughing with glee. As he came closer, he saw it was a bunch of young women skinny-dipping in his pond. He made the women aware of his presence and they all went to the deep end. One of the women shouted to him, 'We're not coming out until you leave!'

Old Tom frowned and replied, 'I didn't come down here to watch you ladies swim naked or make you get out of the pond naked.'

Holding the bucket up he said, 'I'm here to feed the alligator.'

Moral: Old men can still think fast.

I Know Where You Can Stick It

Your flag decal won't get you
Into Heaven any more.
They're already overcrowded
From your dirty little wars.
Now Jesus he don't like killin'
No matter w hat the reason if for,
In addition, your flag decal won't get you
Into Heaven any more.
---
John Prine

Russian Communist Party Calls To Boycott Indiana Jones

Moscow, Russia (CNS) - The latest "Indiana Jones" has angered the leaders of the Communist Party of St Petersburg in Russia over the film's negative portrayal of their country's communist party.

"Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," the newest installment of the successful film franchise, centers on Indiana Jones, played by Harrison Ford, and his race against an evil Russian KGB agent, played by Cate Blanchett, to track down a legendary crystal skull. The film was set in 1957.

Apparently, Blanchett and her entourage's portrayal of the Russians didn't sit well with the real-life Russians. They are calling for a boycott of the film and even told Ford not to visit their country.

In an open letter quoted by Fox News, the Communist Party's ideology committee writes:

"Your work in this film is an insult to the Soviet and Russian people, who remember the difficult Fifties when our country was concluding its reconstruction after the Great War, but did not send merciless terrorists to the U.S.A."

They add that while they like the 65-year-old actor's other roles, they hated this newest one. They say Ford will be beaten if he ever comes to the country again. The letter continues: "You have no future in Russia any more. Speaking plainly, it is better for you not to come here. You will be beaten and despised."

What Do We Do Now?

"Our instructors at the Marine Officers Basic School were handpicked from among the finest young officers in the Corps. Almost all had been in combat, and many bore visible scars. As the months at school went by, they repeatedly and unendingly challenged us with an age-old mantra: What do you do now, lieutenant?

Just before we graduated, a tough but insightful lieutenant colonel who had fought in World War II, Korea and Vietnam gave us a speech, a warning that echoes in my memory almost every day. He recounted a story of a fight in Korea that went incredibly bad—where, for all his experience, he made an error in judgment.

“I had the enemy pinned down on a ridge,” he said. “I set up a base of fire and sent 13 Marines into the tree line in order to envelop the enemy. Thirteen Marines went into the tree line, and all 13 were killed. And, gentlemen, there is not a day that goes by when I don’t think of that.”

The colonel then spoke of the inalienable bottom line of combat leadership: While all Marines are equally in harm’s way, it is the leaders who must make the decisions about what to do, then live with the results. What he may not have realized is that he also spelled out the responsibility that sits on the shoulders of all leaders."



"...Our country is in the middle of a profound crisis. This crisis has many causes, but much of it has been brought about by poor leadership decisions at every level of government. In addition, our electoral process is dominated by financial interests that are threatened by the very notion of reform.

Elections shouldn’t be media circuses, nor should they be auctions where a candidate sells himself to the highest bidder. They should be moral contracts between those who wish to lead and those who are consenting to be led.

What, then, must we do?

In one form or another, this question is asked daily in every community and in almost every household around the world. In authoritarian societies, it’s whispered; in others, it is debated. In America, we quite frankly find ourselves doing a little of both.

Our challenges lie in improving the way we’ve been selecting our leaders. To the American voters, I offer this advice: Be as shrewd and ruthless in your demands on our leaders as the wizards running campaigns are in their strategies to get your vote. Do your part to send to Washington people who truly want to solve the problems of this country from the bottom up.

You won’t regret it. You will benefit from it. And the stakes could not be higher. Sometimes the business of politics seems silly. It can also be infuriating. But you must stay in the game, because you and your grandchildren will be the inheritors of both our successes and flaws."

Senator Jim Webb
A Time To Fight


Rollingstone: Virginia Senator James Webb: Washington's Most Unlikely Revolutionary .

Parade: What It Means To Be a Leader by Jim Webb.

Can Afford To Smell The Stinking Roses

"We are so anxious to be prosperous, we can't see the effect on nature and on us. I see pictures of the faces of the Delta and Northwest (airline) executives and listen to what they have to say. My God, it's awful. They say they can be a more prosperous company if they merge. Who cares? What we need is for them to be broken into five different competing airlines. We need more little airports and fewer shoe X-ray machines."

Bill Holm
Minnesota writer