You can't teach an old dog (not) to live in glass houses--(Yahoo provided the subject line --I inserted the "not")

(As I was preparing this screed about the shenanigans of Gov Sanford, I accidentally hit the Yahoo button that generates those subject lines that sometimes rather strain at humor...damn near perfect subject line this time...)

Even though he cried in public & everything, I feel, I feel a remarkable lack of compasson.  Mark Sanfod was part of the Newt's Lynch Clinton Mob back in the day so there's a certain justice in seeing him hung by his own, well, you know, whatever...

Had he been successful in refusing South Carolina's stimulus money, I have little doubt that the cost would have been some shortened lives, not to mention a incalculable but significantly larger amount of unnecessary suffering. 

And this was one of their leading presidential prospects...

Right now, according to one poll, Sarah Palin is the single most popular Republican presidential contender.   If there are any realists left in the Republican Party, though, I doubt if she can win a primary.  Mitt Romney, anyone?  His personal life is squeaky clean by most accounts.  I bet he drinks root beer on the sly though.

R.
 
http://gg9-tto.blogspot.com/

Yahoo!

A Yahoo defeated.  Maybe there's hope for Texas after all.  (If nothing else, the lege didn't want the state to have to deal with the lawsuits...)

Governor corrected, Creationist Don McLeroy rejected:
In a rare rejection of an appointment by the Texas governor, the Senate Thursday ousted Don McLeroy as chairman of the State Board of Education, with his supporters claiming the Bryan dentist was the victim of his strong religious beliefs. McLeroy is a devout Christian who believes in creationism and the notion that the Earth is about 6,000 years old. He has steadfastly argued that Texas students should be taught the weaknesses of evolution. 
 
 
 

 
http://gg9-tto.blogspot.com/

They don't deserve an apology...

Sotomayor's opponents that is, for the out-of-context comment 8 years ago that a Latina could render a better judgment than a white male...In context, her remark shouldn't be exceptionable to any sane, unbiased person. 

I don' understand why she and apparently the White House should dignify the vicious attacks on her by apologizing for ANYTHING. 

R.
 
http://gg9-tto.blogspot.com/

For me this calls to mind a certain principle: Puh-leez don't throw me in that briar patch!

Tomorrow: RNC Could Rename Democrats As "Democrat Socialist Party"
By Eric Kleefeld - May 19, 2009, 5:01PM
The Republican National Committee could potentially take a very bold, politically momentous move tomorrow. I am speaking, of course, about the upcoming vote on a resolution to declare that the Democratic Party should be renamed the "Democrat Socialist Party."
 
 
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Already polls show that as many as 47% of the public are either undecided or actually prefer socialism to capitalism.  The more the Republicans try this tack, the more the sting is going to be taken out of the word and the sooner it can become a viable option...
 
R.
 
http://gg9-tto.blogspot.com/

Thank God for Tennessee!

At last--a state legislature even more retrogressive than our own (meaning Texas): 

Tennessee state senator calls guns in bars a 'dreamy scenario'

Share on Facebook By David Edwards and Stephen Webster

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Of course, a good portion of white Texas is ancestored out of Tennessee (and me, too). 

R.

 
http://gg9-tto.blogspot.com/

Some news continues to be good...

Senator Jeff Sessions, Rethug from Alabama, sez he is open to a gay or pro-choice Supreme Court nominee.  Senator John Thune, Rethug from one of the Dakotas, sez that's a "bridge too far."  Sessions, of course, is a lying sack of sh*t.  If he isn't in this case, it's because he's realized it's ultimately more important to pander to the money boys of the Rethug party than it is to the social conservatives, i.e., he might support a gay, pro-choice nominee to the Supreme Court provided he or she is a follower of Ayn Rand and wants to put the country on the gold standard.   But I am enjoying the spectacle of these conflicting Rethug pronouncements.   You would think that some political consultant would have told them not to gear up to opposing Obama's choice of Supreme Court nominee until he had named one.  It only solidifies their image as the Party of No.   If S.L.A. Marshall is right that discipline is something that arises out of
morale, then the Rethugs have a gaping wound in their esprit de corps.

In other news,  Specter has reportedly flipped again on  EFCA.  I am lacking in trust though it would be the smartest thing for him to do politically & Specter always seems to do the smartest thing for himself politically--after huffing and puffing a lot about doing the Right and Principled Thing..
 
Pelosi is going to continue to push for both the Health Plan & cap & trade despite pressure from the Blue Dogs    I would really like something more Draconian than "cap & trade" but I reckon that's just my Inner Stalinist talking--not that Stalin ever gave a flip about the environment. 
 
R.
 

 
http://gg9-tto.blogspot.com/

I like it where they are...more thoughts on Afghanistan

The better angels of my nature lead me to believe that even the Good Guys need to be constantly looking over their shoulder or else they will become Worse Guys, or worse yet, Bad Guys.  On that basis, I hope that some day the Republicans get it together well enough to become a party of sufficient appeal to the electorate to credibly threaten the Democrats.  That's the better angel.  (My Inner Trotsky, yea, my Inner Stalin is constantly whispering...a different prospect)

But right now, despite their huge majority, the Democrats have enough DINOs in their ranks to credibly threaten a Good Guy agenda--an agenda that would be even better if it weren't for the DINOs, so right now the Democrats don't need the threat of a revitalized Republican Party to keep them in line. 

I hope the Republicans stay stuck in their self-induced political purgatory at least through Obama's second term.   Health care reform (minimally with a public option),  a decent energy & environmental policy, EFCA, the beginnings of an effective strategy to help secure a (relatively) civilized rule of law in Afghanistan & Pakistan, education reforms (sans vouchers),  financial regulation, withdrawal from Iraq, accountability for the Bush torture regime, an end of the drive toward privatization of government services...that's all I want.  Oh.  And a peaceful solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.  That would be nice too.   And, actually, all of those are doable & politically feasible in terms of the what the public wants, DINOs notwithstanding.  (DINO--Democrats-in-name-only)

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I did not realize that even after the Soviets left, the Communist government in Afghanistan hung on for another three years.    Despite the brutal civil war that ensued, I suspect the Communist did manage to plant the seeds of modernism in Afghanistan, or else you wouldn't have the several organizations for women's rights that exist in Afghanistan. 

I have an overbelief, ungrounded in actual research, that the liberation of women is the key to success in bringing a minimum of social justice to Afghanistan and similar societies.   More later--if I can find out what I'm talking about. 

R.

http://gg9-tto.blogspot.com/