Daddy's Girl

Obviously, the apple don't fall too far from the tree.

From This Week to CPAC, Liz Cheney is out following in Big Dick's footsteps, lockstep for lockstep.  This includes the annoying smarmy, smug, smirky facial expressions:

And the also annyoning, but infinitely more terrifying, propensity for lying about terrorism in an effort to promote a specific political agenda.  We know that Dick Cheney stated that Iraq had "reconstituted nuclear weapons" (Meet the Press, 2003).  When that turned out to be not exactly true, he went on to say that Iraq had the "capacity to develop Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) (fundraising dinner, 2004).  In October 2004, knowing the WMD thing had been totoally wrong, he continued to say attacking Iraq was the right thing to have done (VP Debate). 

And when all else failed, he repeatedly mentioned Al Quaeda and Iraq in the same sentence/statement, giving the impression 9/11 and Iraq were somehow related, even when he didn't say so directly (Interview with John King on CNN 2006, for example).  He only admitted this was inacurrate in 2009.

Liz Cheney has become great at playing the same games as her father.  On This Week on January 10, 2010, She talked about Yemen and terrorisim.  She drew a connection between the Christmas Day underwear bomber and the Ft. Hood attack without missing a beat:

CHENEY: Well, I think that you've got to go back here and look at the way this president has dealt with terror since he's been in office. And the point of that ad was this notion that you cannot win a war if you're treating it as sort of an inconvenient sidelight.

The Obama administration counterterrorism officials, including John Brennan, were briefed by the Bush administration counterterrorism officials during the transition on Yemen and the threat from Yemen. In June of this year, we were attacked at Little Rock, at the recruiting station, by a terrorist who had just come back from Yemen. In September of this year, John Brennan traveled to Saudi Arabia, where he received a personal briefing from Mohammad bin Naif, the head of Saudi intelligence, who himself was the target of an assassination attempt using precisely the same weapon that the Christmas Day bomber used.


You know, you can go down this list on and on. In November, we were attacked...


(CROSSTALK)


STEPHANOPOULOS: ... had a record number of drone attacks and this year has personally ordered a record number.


CHENEY: In November, we were -- that's right. But in November, we were attacked at Fort Hood by someone with connections to Yemen, and (OFF-MIKE) attack. And even after that, after the president's press conference, when you had John Brennan and Homeland Security Chief Janet Napolitano brief, they both said they were surprised that Al Qaida in Yemen was operational. And Napolitano went on to say she was surprised that individuals would attack us.


So there is clearly a problem here. I disagree with George. I don't think that the events, the briefings that were provided this week have begun to give Americans any comfort that there is a real understanding of the threat the nation faces and what it's going to take to be able to defeat that threat.

In the transcript, it says OFF MIKE.  But I played it back 3 times, and what it sounded like to me and those watching with me was "someone with connections to Yemen, and the Christmas Day attack."  I played it back 3 times because it was slightly unclear and also ridiculously ludicrous.

Here's what she said as part of her speech at CPAC:

Now, this is on top of the money the U.S. taxpayer has already spent on Guantanamo Bay. This isn’t rocket science. My 9-year-old daughter, Grace — who is a genius, if I may say so myself — asked me about this recently. She said, “Mom, is President Obama really trying to bring terrorists into the United States?” (Laughter, applause.) And I told her, “Yes, Grace, sadly that’s exactly what he’s doing.”

What kind of a crazy woman portrays bringing terrorists to trial as dumping them freely onto American soil to her 8-year-old child?

Here's the link to her full remarks (click if you can stomach it).

Dick Cheney has proven to be very dangerous with the lengths he will go to to promote his own agenda at the expense of the truth and of America.  Liz Cheney (here is the link to her organization) is at least as scary as her father. 

Looks About Right

Because We're Talking About Other Human Beings, Not Some Subclass of Creatures Called 'Negroes,' That's Why!

Here's a perfect example of what is wrong with some people in America today.  Why is this racist crap even out there?  I received this email today, with the subject line "Why should we even care?"

Haiti background:



In the 1700’s what is now Haiti was called the “Jewel of the Caribbean,”and supplied about 40% of the world’s sugar. 

In 1791 the government of France passed legislation to phase out slavery in its Caribbean colonies and grant the former Negro slaves citizenship. Rather than becoming citizens, Haiti’s Negro population mass murdered all whites and Mulattoes who could not flee the Island in time. Most all of the white women and girls were gang-raped before being tortured and murdered. A fire had been kindled among half a million black slaves that would not be extinguished till the last of the colony's 40,000 Whites and the majority of free blacks and mulattos had been killed or driven from the island.


In 1804 only full blooded Negros remained and Haiti became the first Negro ruled nation.

The Haitian revolution dominated America’s debate over slavery. While both the north and the south agreed that slavery should be ended, southerners and a large percentage of northerners universally opposed having a large population of freed slaves living in their midst. The Haitian “Revolution” was fresh in every one’s mind.


Flash forward to 1915, then 2010.


First 1915. The “Jewel of the Caribbean” is now a desolate cesspool, that is exporting almost no sugar. The United States decides to “take up the white man’s burden” and send the U.S. Marine Corps to rebuild Haiti’s infrastructure and feed it’s starving population.


The United States gave huge amounts of money to Haiti and oversaw the building of 1,000 miles of roads, telephone lines, modernized its port, and helped Haiti to start exporting sugar once again.


The U.S. also put an end to the thousands of bandits along Haiti’s border with the Dominican Republic. The U.S. left in 1934 at the request of the then stabilized and very ungrateful Haitian government.


Haiti immediately sank straight back into total desolation and strife. In 1973 the United State once again began playing a huge role in Haiti, giving the Island huge sums of money in handouts each year.


In 1994 the Clinton administration once again sent the U.S. military to Haiti to rebuild the Island’s infrastructure.


In 1995 the U.S. Peace Corps went to Haiti in large numbers to train the Haitians in job skills. The U.S. government spent almost one billion dollars providing food and job training to the Haitians between 1995 and 1999.


Now, 2010. So when POTUS Obama says that Haiti has our “full, unwavering, support,” remember that they have had our full support since 1915.


What are the odds that the outcome will be different this time ?


Ps : I checked this info at 3 different sources to verify it’s veracity….Dick

Well, I don't know who Dick is, but he lives up to his name.  What a hateful, hurtful, racist, worthless, piece of crap bullshit email. 

Joe Stack's Facebook Fans

Well this is disturbing.

I don't really even know where to begin. I'm sort of in shock at the insanity of it all. Nearly 400 people, in less than a day, have come out to declare themselves "fans" of the philosophy of Joe Stack.

Four hundred people is not really very many people. So at least I have that fact to comfort me. In all of Facebook there are only 400 totally insane morons who would like to throw their lot in with the philosophy of a deranged terrorist (so far). I suppose that is something. I should probably just focus on that.

It is, however, really difficult to not focus on the insane statements on the comment board of the Philosophy of Joe Stack Facebook fan page. Like, super difficult. Because the comments are just so disturbing. They would be totally hilarious if it turned out this whole fan page was just one guy with a bunch of fake accounts doing some satirical piece lampooning the Tea Party People. Unfortunately, I don't think that's what this is. And because that is not what this is, this fan page is not really funny at all. Actually is equal parts scary and sad.

At least one person died in this attack. Joe Stack was a terrorist. He killed a person. With an airplane. By flying that airplane into a building. Like on 9/11. Remember 9/11? I was forced to endure countless 9/11 references to things that were only vaguely and sometimes not even remotely connected to the atrocities in 2001 for many years, generally by conservatives trying to prove a point. Now, a dude straight flies an airplane into a government building and some people are all MISSION ACCOMPLISHED banner about it?

What? The? Fuck?

CPAC: Getting Out the Big Dick (again)

Is Dick Cheney still the best these people can do? 



"Hey, jackass, get your government off my freedom!"?????

Are these people for real?  You're talking about a bunch of people who want to tell me
1.  Which religion's morals should govern my legislation.
2.  What I can or cannot do with my body in the privacy of my physician's office (but only if I'm female, it    doesn't apply to men).
3.  Who I can or cannot marry.
4.  Whether or not my friends can openly talk about who they love if they are serving our country in the military.
5.  That everyone is not entitled to equal access to healthcare as a basic human right when we live in a country where state-of-the-art healthcare is available.
6. That women are not entitled to equal pay or equal work. 

Need I go on?  Get my government off your freedom?  Get your hate-based prejudiced value system out of my government!

When You Can't Be There In Person. . .

. . . link up to a great post from someone else's blog.  Busplunge took activism seriously today with his pursuit of Roy Blunt's hypocrisy.  Go have a read.  And when you're done there, check out this post at FiredUp!

Activism Wednesday!

It's Activism Wednesday, the one day a week I want every single person who reads this blog to do something to make the country a better place.  And don't just change your Facebook status.

Have you written your Strongly Worded Letter yet?  Because it still looks like Congress are chasing their tails.  Put pens to papers or get out your keyboards and get going.  Complaining without action is just lazy whining.

Here's a little Jimmy Eats World to get you going:

Are you gonna live your life

Standing in the back,

Looking around?

Are you gonna waste your time?

                                                       Gotta make a move

                                                       Or you'll miss out.

                                                       Someone's gonna ask you what it's all about,

                                                       Whatcha gonna have to say for yourself?

                                                       I'm on my feet, I'm on the floor I'm good to go.

                                                       So come on, Davey, sing me something that I know,

                                                       I want to always feel like part of this was mine...

Baby, Bye Bye Bayh

Congratulations to Evan Bayh (Indiana), for making to the list of Democrats I really don't like, with folks like (former) Democrat Joe Leiberman (Connecticut).

Did you just wake up yesterday and discover you can no longer stomach hard core partisan politics?  Couldn't you have given a little more notice?

The filing deadline for the May primary is this Friday.  There absolutely has to be a candidate in place by June 30th.  Do you know how long it takes to find a viable candidate for Senate?

Did you really just wake up and think, "I think I'll screw over all the Democrats of the country this morning."

Bye Bye, Bayh.

New Supreme Court Robes

What's Up In the Missouri 7th Congressional District?

I just Googled Missouri 7th Congressional District.  I wanted to know the latest on the election, because Roy Blunt (R) is moving on to other pursuits this fall (happy dance, happy dance, happy dance).  I know it's only February, and the elections aren't for awhile, but the Google hits seem fairly disorganized for an election year.

Congratulations to Kevin Craig, who managed somehow to get his name first in the list of hopefuls who got a hit on this search.  His website informs me he is a Christian Libertarian running for Congress and uses the phrase Liberty Under God in big red, white, and blue letters a lot.  Mr. Craig feels he is the only candidate running who believes in that concept, and his website goes so far as to point out that he is the only candidate that Thomas Jefferson and company would vote for.  Someday I'll write up my post about what Thomas Jefferson really thought about mixing Christianity with government, and maybe Mr. Craig will stop by to read it.  According to the website, you are not a True Blue American if you do not vote for Mr. Craig.  Okey Dokey.  Moving on.

I had to dig a little bit to round up all of the Republicans who are running.  I already knew some of them, but some are relative unknowns.  You could have State Senator Jack Goodman, though his website will not load up so I can't get a link.  Auctioneer Billy Long's website tells me he wants to send a citizen to Washington.  Greene County Prosecutor Darrell Moore is running.  Mike Moon, who has a flashy "Moon on the Hill" graphic, describes himself as a Ronald Reagan Republican.  There are Senator Gary Nodler and Nixa businessman Michael Wardell, whose websites again won't load up today (seems kind of important, doesn't it?).  Finally, Jeff Wisdom (kind of catchy, Wisdom for Congress, isn't it?), whose website doesn't work but whose blog does.  If you want to vote for a Republican, or just vote in the Republican primary, it looks like you are going to have a lot of learning opportunities ahead in the next few months.  The filing deadline hasn't passed, and several other Republicans have also hinted at entering the race.

Democrats?  Hello?  Democrats?  Independents?  Hello?  (Taps foot.  Looks at watch.  Waits.  Taps Foot.  Becomes increasingly annoyed).

Ok.  Well, there is one candidate.  This guy.  Tim Davis.  If you go to his website, you will see there is no information.  Nothing on his position on the issues, nothing except his education information, where he is from, and where he goes to church.  I recently met Mr. Davis and asked him what information he would have me post about him on this blog.  He conveniently did not ask me for my contact information so that he could share that with me in the future.

I will tell you this:  Mr. Davis is a fiscal conservative and a social ultra-conservative.  He is not a candidate Sky Girl would ever endorse for the position of king of the treehouse, let alone Congress.  I am not sure why he is running as a Democrat.  It is an insult to the intelligence of the liberals of the 7th Congressional District that he thinks no one will notice that he is not what he presents himself to be.

So again I say, Democrats?  Independents?  Democrats? 

Misinformed or Misinforming?

Yes, Yes, Yes!  When they lie, we should call them on it EVERY time.  This is what I am talking about.  Finally!

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Pulling From Facebook

Part of the reason Reversing the Handbasket has been born is to give the folks over at Facebook a break from my political rants.  I need a social network site and a political forum.  So here's the scoop if you missed what's been up at Facebook in the past month:

Reagan/Bush Appointees Bury McCain-Feingold

In Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission:


Justices who voted to allow corporations to finance campaigns (basically voted that the Bipartisan Campaign Refrom Act is unconstitutional)

John Roberts, appointed by George W. Bush (R)

Anthony Kennedy, appointed by Ronald Reagan (R)

Antonin Scalia, appointed by Ronald Reagan (R)

Clarence Thomas, appointed by George H. W. Bush (R)

Samuel Alito, appointed by George W. Bush (R)

Justices voicing dissent:

John-Paul Stevens, appointed by Geral Ford (R)

Ruth Bader Ginsberg, appointed by Bill Clinton (D)

Stephen Breyer, appointed by Bill Clinton (D)

Sonia Sotomayor, appointed by Barack Obama (D)
 
Campaign for The Strongly Worded Letter
 
When the Democrats lost the filibuster-proof majority, I was really angry.  I decided to write what I called The Strongly Worded Letter.  I encouraged everybody I know on Facebook to do the same thing.  The instructions were to write the letter, post it on Facebook, post The Strongly Worded Letter Flair, and pass it on so others would do the same.  This led to Activism Wednesday, where I encourage Facebook friends to take political action of some sort once each week.
 
Incidentally, my letters to Congress and Obama came back to me, having been email forward to many people in Missouri.  It was an odd experience.  But never think that your little piece of activism doesn't matter.  Below is my Strongly Worded Letter to Congress:

Dear Senators McCaskill and Reid and Speaker Pelosi,

I am from Ozark, Missouri in Christian County. This is in the far southwestern part of the state, way down here in Sarah Palin territory. I hope you know what that means when I say that I voted for President Obama in the last election.

I have a few words to say to you and your colleagues in Congress about how you are blowing it for us, the dedicated Democrats of America. Those of us who are working hard in our two-income families. Those of us who take our two children to school, and Cub Scouts and soccer practices, and still have to figure out how to pay the bills. Those of us who had a car accident, broken arm, and MRSA infection in the same year in our household, so even though we have “good” health insurance, we owe the local hospital thousands of dollars. Yes, the real people who stood with you and said “yes, we can!” and got you all elected.

You are blowing it because you don’t seem to be able to understand how to use your majority in Congress to get anything done. When the Republicans and President Bush had a much smaller majority, I had my public lands taken from me and warrantless wiretaps granted as a “security necessity.” Wars were fought for reasons no one has ever explained where no weapons of mass destruction were found. The CIA gained enormous power and I lost my civil rights. No one batted an eye.

You people have let the image of our party shrink in the eyes of the country to the point that last night in Ted Kennedy’s stronghold a man who formerly paraded naked in a magazine was elected to Senator Kennedy’s vacant seat. You should be ashamed! Every day I get emails from people who believe, they actually believe, in the death panel rhetoric spewed by the right regarding the health care plan. They believe the outrageous cost estimates that are blown out of proportion and inaccurate. They believe these things because you people have given them a vast lack of counter information! My liberal friends and I have tried to refer them to FactCheck.org and other locations for correct information, but the big question is, why aren’t you out there providing the accurate information in the quantity the misinformation is being provided?

You folks need to work on the basic image of the party and fast. I never thought Obama would serve more than one term, though I hope I am wrong. I knew everyone would blame him for Bush’s failed economy and expect miracles. And the so-called “liberal media” lets people get away with calling the stimulus package passed before he was in office the “Obama” package on a weekly if not daily basis. So you likely have just 3 years to get it together. Three years, (you just wasted one), and you’re losing seats every time there is an election. So let me offer some suggestions:

1. Get Nancy Pelosi off television every time health care is discussed. She may be charming in person, and her constituents must love her because she keeps getting elected. But she comes across as really scary on national television, even to other Democrats. As a feminist, I’m so glad to have a female Speaker of the House. But when she talks about healthcare on television it’s like listening to Charlton Heston tell us we’re going to get the plan she wants us to have if she has to shove it down our cold dead throats. And I’m a person who supports her plan.

2. Get some sort of panels on television discussing healthcare in prime time. Make it like a Presidential debate if the other side needs equal time, but get our side out there selling the pros of the package. In fact, so many things have been proposed, even those of us who support the public option don’t even know what we’re defending anymore. The current proposal is like a vast sucking hole of information void, and that’s hard for Joe Citizen to defend to Joe Skeptic.

3. Pass some legislation and make a big deal of it on television. Flex some muscle. Trying to take the high road and be bipartisan is an excellent way to win a peace prize. It is a very poor way win any public respect. We need to have a balance of both, and our party is suffering from a huge image problem. Pass some legislation on something, and put it on television when you do.

4. Stop reading polls and listen to people like me. Educated people who watch the Sunday morning shows, read blogs, have hundreds of friends on Facebook, and have some idea of what the American public really thinks. You all get stuck in Washington with each other and your pundits and your advisors and you are totally out of touch with reality. Surely you have relatives or friends or something you could ask.

5. Watch John Stewart. He’s rude and crude, but he’s got it right about 95% of the time. Especially recently with regard to your total impotence about being able to accomplish anything in Healthcare. Visit his comments about what you might be doing while the Republicans are playing chess.

6. When the Republicans lie on television and the media doesn’t call them on it, you call them on it. They’d call you out in a second. For example, if Rudy Giuliani says there were no terrorist attacks since 911 while George Bush was President and Stephanopoulos lets it go, you point it out. Likewise, if Liz Cheney implies that the Fort Hood incident is related to the underwear bomber and Stephanopoulos lets it slide (This Week, January 10), whatever Democrat politician is at the table needs to point it out. I do not understand why the Republicans are so good at this and the Democrats are so bad at it. It gives them an advantage in image that we just don’t have.

You all have to make changes in Congress. I did not spend all of those hours, and neither did my parents, aunts, uncles, and cousins, in the Obama offices, and out knocking on doors and making calls in hostile Sarah Palin territory, so you all could throw it all away and accomplish nothing. Get on the ball. You have to do better. There is no other option if the lives of regular Americans are going to improve.

Sincerely,