The Centretarian Scroll

Finally Someone Tells Bush Off. When the same for the Clintons?

What is really amazing is not that Bush has fallen to 28% approval but rather that 28%, over a quarter of the electorate, is actually still approving of him after all he has done to the nation. To still be for him one has to be a certifiable fool of the worst sort. He is the worst president in history and that 28% of die hard twigs (off the old Bush) are the most incompetent voters in history. As Bill Buckley said in any other so called democratic nation he would have been out on his ear because we are the only so called democracy that does not have a parliamentary system. Since congress is gutless we are stuck with him for another eight months or so.

That made the indictment of Bush by Olbermann on MSNBC all the more exciting to hear. To hear his speech just click here.

When will someone do the same for the second most dangerous family in recent history--the Clintons. There are at least two things the two families have in common. They are arrogant and they are willing to be as divisive as need be to hold on to power. Bill, the sexual predator, and his enabling wife Hillary are now going to create and end game that will compromise the democratic candidate. She has lost because she has been a lousy CEO of her campaign and she listened too much to Bill and his cronies on strategy. She is going to blame it on sexism and not incompetence. That way she and Bill can ensure that the party cannot come together. She and Bill are going to try to force Obama to accept her as VP (she is not a fool and knows very we she can't win).

Bush has been a prick of a Pol. Is that sexist? He has been a nasty negative candidate willing to compromise his abiltiy to govern to win. So has Hillary. Does that make her a bitch? I will quit using that. Hillary is not a bitch? She is a prick. I will give her the equality she seeks---she is a prick.

Distinguished Conservatives Who Were Not Rabid Right

I have the greatest of admiration for true conservatives like those pictured here.

Barry Goldwater was a giant, a true libertarian conservative and not part of the Rabid Right.

I admired Bill Buckley for his intellect, his commitment to reason and his love of music.

Ike was one of the greatest Americans of the last century. Rabid Rightist McCarthy called him a Communist. His big mistake was putting Rabid Rightist Nixon on his ticket. Since he kicked Hitlers Rabid Right ass I will forgive him for that. 

When I was a young man I was a Randite. She was a giant who wrote two monumental books -- The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. They explored the tyranny of collectivism. Like many great people she was not served well by her so called followers and they used her weaknesses against her. But she will remain a beacon of real conservative thought.

Libertarians like Ron Paul are not Rabid Rightists. They are the conscience of real conservatism. They light the way to a future in which principle matters.The Libertarians are the only party that require members to reject the initiation of the use of force to attain political or social goals.

Increasingly Rabid Rightists claim that if one is against abortion, which translates into government intruding in decisions that should be personal with advice of medical and spiritual advisers, against any and all taxes without reference to what the purpose of the funds might be, advocate for personal possession of all forms of arms and support all forms of of force including torture one is a conservative. There always was and there remains much more to conservatism than these phony issues. Rabid Rightism is conservatism for the simple minded. 

Nixonland

The modern era of divisive hate filled politics, taking great advantage of white racist reaction to the Civil Rights and Voting Rights legislation began with the man who more than any other defines the GOP today---Richard Nixon. The new book is called NIXONLAND and I recommend it. The seeds of the current derangement of politics were planted by this disgraced leader of the GOP. George Bush Jr's father was his greatest defender in spite of Nixon's egregious and occasionally tyrannical use of executive power. We should not have been surprised when Chaney sought a return to the imperial power Nixon lost leading 'W" by the nose. You will understand more about the deranged aspects of our current politics by reading NIXONLAND.

Lighthorse Harry Comment:

Today the Washington Post has a great article, too long to reproduce here, about all the racist episodes that have taken place in in the campaign so far. While Rabid Right wingers would like to declare racism dead because it helps hide the fact that they shamelessly exploit racism for political gain. It not the kind of honest bigoted exploitation that Southern Democrats like George Wallace used in his early career. In his later years Wallace pilot tested code issues like school busing, law and order and attacks on thoughtful types as pointy headed professors. His themes have been scrubbed by Public Relations types to become the modern GOP distortions we are likely to see this Fall. Racism is alive and well though much better camouflaged than in the 50s and 60s.

Racism does not surprise me. It is as American as Apple Pie. Given human nature when you put all the wonderful diversity of colors, ethnic backgrounds and religious points of view in the same county, as we pride ourselves in doing, racism to some degree is inevitable. At times we have managed it well and at times poorly. It is our dark shadow and we can only address it if we admit it. The Rabid Right wants us to deny it so they can exploit it.

What does surprise me, and disgust me, is to see a democratic candidate exploit it. Hillary Clinton and her sexual predator husband have done so. The only reason she remains in the race is to illustrate 'white people' will not vote for the 'boy' who dared challenge them. After she wins West Virginia she will crow and cackle over the proof white people will not vote for Obama. She is masterfully orchestrating racist sentiments for her own political advantage just like Wallace, that other Democrat,did. Lift the screen and under the elitism charge, is Wallace's ravings about thoughtful intellectuals. When she refused to say whether Barak was a Muslim she was a cynically cute as George at his worst. By the end of his life I think Wallace regretted what he did. Also he lived in less enlightened times. He can more easily be forgiven.

The Rabid Right has found a sister in Hillary. All the right wing pundits are lending her support. Of course they have their own agenda. They know they can beat her because her negatives have continued to grow. I think her flirtations with McCain are sincere. She needs to get out of the Democratic party and put on her old Goldwater Girl garb. However, I suspect Goldwater, who was more a libertarian conservative, would be about as disgusted with her as I am.

On a number of occasions in my life I have watched Pols create a climate in which lone nut assassins could dream of fame and public adoration by taking a gun and killing one or more humans. George Wallace created a climate in Alabama which welcomed bombers to kill those children in Birmingham church in 1963. The Pols of the Rabid Right in the old south created and atmosphere of hatred of JFK such that there was cheering in schools in Mississippi and Texas when he was shot. Those same Southern bigots called MLK Martin Luther Coon and created a perfect storm of an environment for his assassin on April 4th 1968. Then only a few months later those same Pols created an atmosphere of hate that was the perfect stage for RFKs assassin. There is no need for active collaboration or conspiracy. Pols who lead by division and hatred never pull the trigger themselves.

If Obama is killed Hillary will have helped create an environment in which it is more likely to happen because whites drew out their hatred and she gave it sanction. I do not think she intends to do so but intensions matter little if America kills another visionary. Hillary needs to be responsible and not give any sanction at all to racism.

A New Coalition or Party Death

Hillary Scarlett O'Hara Clinton is not a racist. She is power mad and arrogant. This is from a description of her USA Today comments:

Clinton has also started mentioning race more frequently. In an article published yesterday in USA Today, Clinton said she would have a larger group of voters to draw a winning coalition from because 'Senator Obama's support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again.' What happened to playing nice? Even as surrogates have called for a less bitterly fought campaign, California Sen. Dianne Feinstein publicly warned Clinton yesterday that she is concerned about the negative dividends of the contest. Some advisers have been quoted speaking privately about plans to keep the campaign's tone positive going forward. But the candidate only seems to be escalating her rhetoric.

In fact if the democratic party does not create a new coalition that does not depend on the George Wallace turncoats who have abandoned the party over and over we will continue to be a one party state. In the south people of a similar background and with similar bias long ago joined the GOP. In the North they cling to the party affiliation while regularly selling it it down the river. Hillary's coalition is of dinosaurs.

What the Clinton's continue to show is a lack of grace and lack of class.

Billary's Rove

Bill and Hillary have always had their own version of Carl Rove. Their personal pet weasel is James Carville. Rove comes across as a reasonable and articulate person in spite of his tactics. Carville is the low class version of Rove and he cannot hide his nastiness. He oozes sleaze from every pour. With regard to his latest attack on Obama the candidate, as usual stayed out of the sewer in which Carville lives:

"Well, you know, James Carville is well-known for spouting off his mouth without always knowing what he's talking about. And I intend to stay focused on fighting for the American people because what they don't need is 20 more years of performance art on television. And that's what James Carville and a lot of those folks are expert at ... a lot of talk and not getting things done for the American people."

Bad Management and a Bad Campaign

I began this campaign for 2008 with an open mind about Hillary and leaning in her direction. I had always assumed that the right wing hatred if her was their problem and I had been impressed that she seemed a good senator for NY in her first real political job on her own. I was never a big fan of Bill. I worked in Arkansas in the years when he was governor and talked with people who actively worked in his campaign and in his office. These were admirers of his and yet the first I ever heard of him one of his former aides said: "He will be president one day if he can keep his zipper zipped." Stories of his using the state police as pimps to get him women were common. The first I ever heard of Hillary she was described as: "Bill's backbone." I met him a couple of times and took an immediate dislike for him. He seemed a complete phony who would take any position to gain and maintain power. There is enough of the libertarian in me I do not trust people like Bill.

However, when I sat down to listen to one of the first debates with my youngest daughter I made a little speech about how great it would be to have a woman president. Ninety minutes later Hillary had turned both of us off. She did not inspire either of us while a number of other candidates did. Then gradually over the course of watching her I began to understand why her negatives were so I and I must admit I began to share the intense dislike that so many others have of her. I read four biographies of her. My dislike grew. During this campaign, but never before, I joined those with an intense dislike and distrust of Hillary. I came to see her as ever bit as dangerous as Dick Cheney and in fact very much like him.She scares me just as he does. No better evidence than her comments about obliterating Iran and her history of support for Bush and Cheyney's war until it might cost her politically.

As  CEO of her campaign Hillary is a failure and that is the best evidence she could not be a good President. She was the sure bet and the front runner and she blew it. Her biggest mistake was trying to run as Bill's wife, on his record and hiring a campaign staff of his people. She needed to run on her own as an agent for change rather than as an incumbent.

What was so great about the Clinton administration? In the first two years thanks largely to Hillary he lost the congress. With the help of republicans in congress he did balance the budget. He has to at least share that credit. Thanks to Alan Greenspan and the technology bubble we had a great economy. He had very little to do with it. And how did it end? His last two years were dominated by scandal and impeachment for the first time in this century. Unfortunately that failed so instead of Gore being an incumbent president we had Gore losing to Bush.  Instead of protecting America from what was a clear threat from Al Quida, Bill was preoccupied with the result of his sexual predation. Bill is at least partially responsible for 9-11.

What is the next step? Bill and Hillary have no life together or apart except for the raw pursuit of power.  I think she is quite capable of destroying the party and the country if need be to get power. Being sweet to her will only embolden her. We can only hope that someone has something on the Clintons the revelation of which would destroy them. In a dark back room somewhere they lay it out. The Clintons cannot give up power. They have nothing else. Only raw power will do.

The Nuclear Option

Hillary Plans To Steal The Election

This is from the Huffington Post:

Hillary Clinton's campaign has a secret weapon to build its delegate count, but her top strategists say privately that any attempt to deploy it would require a sharp (and by no means inevitable) shift in the political climate within Democratic circles by the end of this month.

With at least 50 percent of the Democratic Party's 30-member Rules and Bylaws Committee committed to Clinton, her backers could -- when the committee meets at the end of this month -- try to ram through a decision to seat the disputed 210-member Florida and 156-member Michigan delegations. Such a decision would give Clinton an estimated 55 or more delegates than Obama, according to Clinton campaign operatives. The Obama campaign has declined to give an estimate.

Using the Rules and Bylaws Committee to force the seating of two pro-Hillary delegations would provoke a massive outcry from Obama forces. Such a strategy would, additionally, face at least two other major hurdles, and could only be attempted, according to sources in the Clinton camp, under specific circumstances:

First, this coming Tuesday, Clinton would have to win Indiana and lose North Carolina by a very small margin - or better yet, win the Tar Heel state. She would also have to demonstrate continued strength in the contests before May 31.

Second, and equally important, her argument that she is a better general election candidate than Obama -- that he has major weaknesses which have only been recently revealed -- would have to rapidly gain traction, not only within the media, where she has experienced some success, but within the broad activist ranks of the Democratic Party.

Under that optimistic scenario, some Clinton operatives believe she could overcome several massive stumbling blocks:

-- Clinton loyalists on the Rules Committee would have to be persuaded to put their political futures on the line by defying major party constituencies, especially black leaders backing Barack Obama. Committee members are unlikely to take such a step unless they are convinced that Clinton has a strong chance of winning the nomination.

Former DNC and South Carolina Democratic Party chair Donald Fowler -- a Hillary loyalist -- would, for example, face an outpouring of anger from South Carolina Democrats if he were to go along with such a strategy.

A controversial decision to seat the two delegations, as currently constituted, would be appealed by the Obama campaign to the Democratic National Convention's Credentials Committee.

They Are Alike

Seared into my memory is June 1968. I had stayed up very late to get the final result of the California Primary. Finally Robert Kennedy appeared in the Ambassador Hotel to claim victory. I watched and went to bed. The next morning I turned on the TV and heard that RFK had been shot as he walked through the pantry after his victory speech. I felt numb. It seemed only a few days before I was eating lunch in the Millsaps cafeteria when the Governor's niece announced with some pleasure that John Kennedy had just been shot.  Like many young people in those days I was a Camelot kid inspired to service by these two brothers. Now they were both gone. I thought at the time the world would never be the same again. And it has not been. Until now. For the first time since they killed RFK I am inspired by a political figure. Barack Obama reminds me of Bobby. We needed a man with vision in 1968 We were in a war with no end in sight. We were a divided nation. And we are in an even more dangerous war now and we are even more divided now. We need a new kind of leader with vision and not the tired old pandering as illustrated by both Clinton and McCain in the absurd gas tax proposal. I am sick of that kind of politics. I will be for Obama. If he wins the nomination I will support him actively. If Hillary and Bill manage to steal the nomination I will support him when he runs again. If he is not shot down like both Kennedy brothers he will one day be president.The greatest hope for America is a black man. How ironic.

My second favorite candidate this year is Ron Paul. I admire people with convictions even when I have disagreements with them. In an interview with CNN Paul said he likes Barack Obama, who is a constitutional lawyer and who shares many of his convictions about the war in Iraq and the need changes in the Bush foreign policy. He sticks with his priciples and has said he is unlikely to endorse fellow republican John McCain. Like Obama he really answers questions when asked a question. Billary will promise anything to get votes and represents the kind of liberal that has given the term a bad name. 

Mass Media Has Damaged the Process

The performance of the electronic mass media in this election year has been either grossly incompetent or perhaps damaging enough to America and its future to be called treason. In the 1930s the journalists thought issues were more important than the image of FDR as a cripple. Today's mass media would have shown picture after picture of FDR's twisted legs and those helping him to stand and walk to sell their products and say to hell with the issues. That is what they have done this year. They make money for their sponsors when they hype the conflictual and the sensational images and stories. They do not make money helping the candidates express their positions on the critical issues facing the nation. They make money when they produce dramatic sound bites and when they do all they can to avoid exploration of issues. Selling out the good of the nation, which would come from exploration of the issues, to add to their power and profit, may constitute treason. If anyone dare challenge their profiteering they will get petulant on the TV screen. Nobody dare say the mass media emperor is naked. I just did.