Posts under ‘Republican’

Wikileaks just notified people that they are releasing over $1 billion dollars’ worth of reports gathered by the Congressional Research Services (CRS). These reports are provided to members of the US Congress and are legally in the public domain. However, they are only released to the public with the permission of Congress in a complex system of permissions and protocols. Needless to say, attempts to free this information from the ‘red tape’ that keeps it from actually being released to the public have been met with resistance.Well, leave it to Wikileaks to strike a blow for transparency.

According to this well written piece from David Porter, also carried at HuffPo – US Army General David Petraeus is working to override US President Barack Obama.  

CENTCOM commander Gen. David Petraeus, supported by Defence Secretary Robert Gates, tried to convince President Barack Obama that he had to back down from his campaign pledge to withdraw all U.S. combat troops from Iraq within 16 months at an Oval Office meeting Jan. 21.

But Obama informed Gates, Petraeus and Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen that he wasn’t convinced and that he wanted Gates and the military leaders to come back quickly with a detailed 16-month plan, according to two sources who have talked with participants in the meeting.

Obama’s decision to override Petraeus’s recommendation has not ended the conflict between the president and senior military officers over troop withdrawal, however. There are indications that Petraeus and his allies in the military and the Pentagon, including Gen. Ray Odierno, now the top commander in Iraq, have already begun to try to pressure Obama to change his withdrawal policy.

So Newt Gingrich, the spokesperson for pious corporate racists (aka GOP) spouts off on O’Reilly about how advocates of Gay Rights are ‘radicals’ intent on Facism.

Thanks to Media Matters

con⋅serv⋅a⋅tive
/kənˈsɜrvətɪv/ [kuhn-sur-vuh-tiv]
–adjective
1. disposed to preserve existing conditions, institutions, etc., or to restore traditional ones, and to limit change.
2. cautiously moderate or purposefully low: a conservative estimate.
3. traditional in style or manner; avoiding novelty or showiness: conservative suit.
–noun
1. a person who is conservative in principles, actions, habits, etc.
2. a supporter of conservative political policies.
3. a preservative.

The dictionary definition above does not make it sound so bad. I mean, it sounds like part of a spreadsheet on a CPA’s laptop or maybe something out of home economics class. How can anyone have any objection to conservative thinking if it’s this benign? Well the problem for me has always been the wide chasm of disparity between their simple sounding identity and the racism, corruption, bloodlust and tyranny that they promote.

Big Oil, Defense Contractors, Wall St. Speculators and Lobbyists.

They should be afraid because they will no longer have ‘one of their own’ in the White House. Barack Obama is not one of them. He is not the grandchild or child of one. He didn’t take their money to fund his campaign or his career in the US Senate. Although he may have met their children in Harvard, but he did not go to work for them.

The topic of voter suppression comes up at election time and is largely regarded as tricks to keep votes from being counted on election day or stopping voters at the polling place doors. We hear about them all and will hear about some today. These attempts are both obvious and trivial compared to the greater, large scale voter suppression that has been going on for decades.