Playing Catchup: “Vittergate”, and Dimocrat Cave-In #2,689

Aight (or as my younger, more hip-hop enable nephew would say)…I’ve been swamped this last few weeks by tons of work, and only now have I had the chance to actually exhale and get some rest….so I guess that I have to update this blog of mine before it stagnates.

So, here we go:

Issue #1:  “Vittergate”: Dirty Diapers and Dirtier Sexual Hypocrisy

Ahhhhh, lookee here….my home state’s junior US Senator David Vitter busted with his hands in his Depends undergarments (oooh, diaper fetish!! Gotta love the freakery!) over at Debra Palfrey’s DC ‘ho house, and, allegedly, several other brothels in N’Awlins, too)..  Oh, the hypocrisy!!!  The seaminess!!  The sight of a hard-Right religious conservative (he openly sponsored an anti-gay marriage Constitutional amendment, and was one of the loudest voices for Bubba Clinton resigning over spilling his seed on Monica Lewinsky’s blue dress) having to fess up to his “sin”…while blaming the media and the Democrats for sticking their noses into his personal sex life. Hey, at least his wife didn’t give him the Lorena treatment as she once threatened.

And to think that Vitter actually got his political start as a replacement for Bob Livingston (the former Repub US House Majority Leader), who was also hoisted on his own pecker for his own sexual indiscrections.  And by basically the same source, too…Larry Flynt must have some love for the Great State of Louisiana, must he?? Or maybe we’re just oversaturated with right-wing sex perverts who want ot jail and kill everyone else for doing the things they do surrpendiciously and privately. I can say this for Mr. Vitter….at least he didn’t attempt to mount a horse.

For the moment, though, he does seem safe; the state Repubs have rallied around him for the most part, with some exceptions.  (There is a campaign afoot to get him to resign and get our present guv Kathleen Blanco to appoint former guv Dave Treen to fill out his term until the next scheduled election of 2010. So far, Kitty Blanks has balked, probably because her own party bigwigs would prefer insurance commish John Kennedy to take over rather than switch to the GOP and take on Mary Landrieu for the other Senate seat.) Obviously, I’d think that the national Dems would love to see Vitter fall, mostly to cover their asses if Holy Joe Lieberman decides to follow his voting record and bolt to the GOP; thus swinging the actual control to the Senate back to the Repubs. 

And of course, most of the liberal blogosphere is in total orgasmic overkill over the hypocrisy angle…as if it was only Repubs who visit brothels and engage in sex fetishes; and if this would in any way move the pure believers into exile and stunned silence.  Nice try, y’all, but knowing the Religious Right as I do, they probably won’t let a scandal like this one block their efforts at political takeover.  They already have Fred Thompson (Tennessee US Senator) waiting in the wings to play the role that Dubya played in the 2000 elections, when it was thought that the RR was toasted after the PTL/Jim Bakker scandals that rocked the evangelical communities back then.

I’ll just let Dr. Susan Block to fill in the blanks on Vitter and right-wing pols cloaking their inner sex freaks:

If Senator Vitter were not such a rabid social conservative, I would say leave the poor sorry schmuck alone with his God, his wife and his hookers. But this particular poor sorry schmuck is mightily trying to impose harsh, inhumane restrictions upon the sexual freedoms and rights to privacy of the rest of us, and he’s been doing it for years.

On the back alleys of the French Quarter, Vitter might be a tomcat, but in Congress, he’s a vociferous crusader for “family values.” He was an aggressive Clinton critic during the Lewinsky scandal, calling for the President’s resignation to “preserve the moral fabric of the country.” The New Orleans Times-Picayune quotes Vitter saying that “infidelity, divorce, and deadbeat dads contribute to the breakdown of tradition.” Vitter has also vowed to outlaw abortion in almost all cases, even when the pregnancy results from rape or incest (wonder how he’d feel if he learned he’s knocked up one of his hookers?). Senator Dave is a stern master with the kids too; he’s sponsored legislation to federally finance abstinence-only programs at the expense of real sex education. Of course, “abstinence education” has been proven to be spectacularly ineffective, in part because the kids simply lie about whether they’re having sex, having learned this behavior handily from their elders like Vitter.

The Senator has been particularly colorful in his metaphor for same-sex unions, having called them “the crossroads where Katrina meets Rita,” gaily mocking the agony of his own home state in the wake of the actual hurricanes. Vitter is so vehement in his condemnation of all things homo that he has introduced legislation calling for a Constitutional Amendment to ban gay marriage, stating that this is “the most important issue” of our time.

Vitter sounds like an Evangelical, but he’s Catholic. He’s also Southern regional campaign manager for the Giuliani campaign and was rumored to frequent French Quarter prostitutes even before his phone number appeared on Palfrey’s published records). Interestingly, Vitter first ran for Congress to fill the seat of Speaker of the House Bob Livingston, who resigned after his extramarital affairs became public during the Clinton Follies. While Vitter was campaigning, his wife Wendy was asked what she would do if her husband cheated on her. Mrs. Vitter responded: “I’m a lot more like Lorena Bobbitt than Hillary. If he does something like that, I’m walking away with one thing, and it’s not alimony, trust me.”

Ouch. Wonder if castration was one of Wendy’s prerequisites for the “forgiveness” that Vitter said she (and God) gave him when he confessed to his “very serious sin.” Is that a Catholic thing?

Nope, Doc Suzy…probably more of a “differentiat yourself from them librul Democrats” thing than anything else.

Anyways..I’m eager to see what other Repub freakery comes out of the woodworks, since Flynt says he has leads on up to 20 high ranking conservatives.  Should be plenty of fun.

——————————————————————

Issue #2: Iran: The Dimocrats Cave In…Again

Now…not nearly so funny or fun is the prospect of extending war into Iran…..and guess which “opposition” party decided to cast it’s vote for a possible military invasion??

You got it….your great Dimocratic Party caves in one more time (this from Chris Floyd’s “Empire Burlesque” blog)::

As you may know — unless you rely on the corporate media for your news, of course — yesterday the U.S. Senate unanimously declared that Iran was committing acts of war against the United States: a 97-0 vote to give George W. Bush a clear and unmistakable casus belli for attacking Iran whenever Dick Cheney tells him to.

The bipartisan Senate resolution – the brainchild (or rather the bilechild) of Fightin’ Joe Lieberman – affirmed as official fact all of the specious, unproven, ever-changing allegations of direct Iranian involvement in attacks on the American forces now occupying Iraq. The Senators appear to have relied heavily on the recent New York Times story by Michael Gordon that stovepiped unchallenged Pentagon spin directly onto the paper’s front page. As Firedoglake points out, John McCain cited the heavily criticized story on the Senate floor as he cast his vote.

It goes without saying that all of this is a nightmarish replay of the run-up to the war of aggression against Iraq: The NYT funneling false flag stories from Bush insiders. Warmongers citing the NYT stories as “proof” justifying any and all action to “defend the Homeland.” Credulous and craven Democratic politicians swallowing the Bush line hook and sinker.

To be sure, stout-hearted Dem tribunes like Dick Durbin insisted that their support for declaring that Iran is “committing acts of war” against the United States should not be taken as an “authorization of military action.” This is shaky-knees mendacity at its finest. Having officially affirmed that Iran is waging war on American forces, how, pray tell, can you then deny the president when he asks (if he asks) for authorization to “defend our troops?” Answer: you can’t. And you know it.

This vote is the clearest signal yet that there will be no real opposition to a Bush Administration attack on Iran. This is yet another blank check from these slavish, ignorant goons; Bush can cash it anytime. This is, in fact, the post-surge “Plan B” that’s been mooted lately in the Beltway. As you recall, there was much throwing about of brains on the subject of reviving the “Iraq Study Group” plan when the “surge” (or to call it by its right name, the “punitive escalation”) inevitably fails. Bush put the kibosh on that this week (“Him not gonna do nothin’ that Daddy’s friends tell him to do! Him a big boy, him the decider!”), but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a fall-back position – or rather, a spring-forward position: an attack on Iran, to rally the nation behind the “war leader” and reshuffle the deck in Iraq.

Of course, the United States is already at war with Iran. We are directing covert ops and terrorist attacks inside Iran, with the help of groups that our own government has declared terrorist renegades. We are kidnapping Iranian officials in Iraq and holding them hostage. We have a bristling naval armada on Iran’s doorstep, put there for the express purpose of threatening Tehran with military action. The U.S. Congress has overwhelmingly passed measures calling for the overthrow of the Iranian government. And now the U.S. Senate has unanimously declared that Iran is waging war on America, and has given official notice that this will not be tolerated. It is only a very small step to move from this war in all but name to the full monty of an overt military assault.

And just so you noticed, EVERY SINGLE DIMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE (including Hillary, Obama, Edwards, and Biden) voted for this proposal.  Hell, even Russ Feingold (who was praised among some quarters for being the “guiding light” in the earlier surrender on funding Bush’s war in Iraq, voted for this amendment.

So…tell me again about the difference between the two parties???

More updates later as I have time……

Playing Catchup: “Vittergate”, and Dimocrat Cave-In #2,689

Aight (or as my younger, more hip-hop enable nephew would say)…I’ve been swamped this last few weeks by tons of work, and only now have I had the chance to actually exhale and get some rest….so I guess that I have to update this blog of mine before it stagnates.

So, here we go:

Issue #1:  “Vittergate”: Dirty Diapers and Dirtier Sexual Hypocrisy

Ahhhhh, lookee here….my home state’s junior US Senator David Vitter busted with his hands in his Depends undergarments (oooh, diaper fetish!! Gotta love the freakery!) over at Debra Palfrey’s DC ‘ho house, and, allegedly, several other brothels in N’Awlins, too)..  Oh, the hypocrisy!!!  The seaminess!!  The sight of a hard-Right religious conservative (he openly sponsored an anti-gay marriage Constitutional amendment, and was one of the loudest voices for Bubba Clinton resigning over spilling his seed on Monica Lewinsky’s blue dress) having to fess up to his “sin”…while blaming the media and the Democrats for sticking their noses into his personal sex life. Hey, at least his wife didn’t give him the Lorena treatment as she once threatened.

And to think that Vitter actually got his political start as a replacement for Bob Livingston (the former Repub US House Majority Leader), who was also hoisted on his own pecker for his own sexual indiscrections.  And by basically the same source, too…Larry Flynt must have some love for the Great State of Louisiana, must he?? Or maybe we’re just oversaturated with right-wing sex perverts who want ot jail and kill everyone else for doing the things they do surrpendiciously and privately. I can say this for Mr. Vitter….at least he didn’t attempt to mount a horse.

For the moment, though, he does seem safe; the state Repubs have rallied around him for the most part, with some exceptions.  (There is a campaign afoot to get him to resign and get our present guv Kathleen Blanco to appoint former guv Dave Treen to fill out his term until the next scheduled election of 2010. So far, Kitty Blanks has balked, probably because her own party bigwigs would prefer insurance commish John Kennedy to take over rather than switch to the GOP and take on Mary Landrieu for the other Senate seat.) Obviously, I’d think that the national Dems would love to see Vitter fall, mostly to cover their asses if Holy Joe Lieberman decides to follow his voting record and bolt to the GOP; thus swinging the actual control to the Senate back to the Repubs. 

And of course, most of the liberal blogosphere is in total orgasmic overkill over the hypocrisy angle…as if it was only Repubs who visit brothels and engage in sex fetishes; and if this would in any way move the pure believers into exile and stunned silence.  Nice try, y’all, but knowing the Religious Right as I do, they probably won’t let a scandal like this one block their efforts at political takeover.  They already have Fred Thompson (Tennessee US Senator) waiting in the wings to play the role that Dubya played in the 2000 elections, when it was thought that the RR was toasted after the PTL/Jim Bakker scandals that rocked the evangelical communities back then.

I’ll just let Dr. Susan Block to fill in the blanks on Vitter and right-wing pols cloaking their inner sex freaks:

If Senator Vitter were not such a rabid social conservative, I would say leave the poor sorry schmuck alone with his God, his wife and his hookers. But this particular poor sorry schmuck is mightily trying to impose harsh, inhumane restrictions upon the sexual freedoms and rights to privacy of the rest of us, and he’s been doing it for years.

On the back alleys of the French Quarter, Vitter might be a tomcat, but in Congress, he’s a vociferous crusader for “family values.” He was an aggressive Clinton critic during the Lewinsky scandal, calling for the President’s resignation to “preserve the moral fabric of the country.” The New Orleans Times-Picayune quotes Vitter saying that “infidelity, divorce, and deadbeat dads contribute to the breakdown of tradition.” Vitter has also vowed to outlaw abortion in almost all cases, even when the pregnancy results from rape or incest (wonder how he’d feel if he learned he’s knocked up one of his hookers?). Senator Dave is a stern master with the kids too; he’s sponsored legislation to federally finance abstinence-only programs at the expense of real sex education. Of course, “abstinence education” has been proven to be spectacularly ineffective, in part because the kids simply lie about whether they’re having sex, having learned this behavior handily from their elders like Vitter.

The Senator has been particularly colorful in his metaphor for same-sex unions, having called them “the crossroads where Katrina meets Rita,” gaily mocking the agony of his own home state in the wake of the actual hurricanes. Vitter is so vehement in his condemnation of all things homo that he has introduced legislation calling for a Constitutional Amendment to ban gay marriage, stating that this is “the most important issue” of our time.

Vitter sounds like an Evangelical, but he’s Catholic. He’s also Southern regional campaign manager for the Giuliani campaign and was rumored to frequent French Quarter prostitutes even before his phone number appeared on Palfrey’s published records). Interestingly, Vitter first ran for Congress to fill the seat of Speaker of the House Bob Livingston, who resigned after his extramarital affairs became public during the Clinton Follies. While Vitter was campaigning, his wife Wendy was asked what she would do if her husband cheated on her. Mrs. Vitter responded: “I’m a lot more like Lorena Bobbitt than Hillary. If he does something like that, I’m walking away with one thing, and it’s not alimony, trust me.”

Ouch. Wonder if castration was one of Wendy’s prerequisites for the “forgiveness” that Vitter said she (and God) gave him when he confessed to his “very serious sin.” Is that a Catholic thing?

Nope, Doc Suzy…probably more of a “differentiat yourself from them librul Democrats” thing than anything else.

Anyways..I’m eager to see what other Repub freakery comes out of the woodworks, since Flynt says he has leads on up to 20 high ranking conservatives.  Should be plenty of fun.

——————————————————————

Issue #2: Iran: The Dimocrats Cave In…Again

Now…not nearly so funny or fun is the prospect of extending war into Iran…..and guess which “opposition” party decided to cast it’s vote for a possible military invasion??

You got it….your great Dimocratic Party caves in one more time (this from Chris Floyd’s “Empire Burlesque” blog)::

As you may know — unless you rely on the corporate media for your news, of course — yesterday the U.S. Senate unanimously declared that Iran was committing acts of war against the United States: a 97-0 vote to give George W. Bush a clear and unmistakable casus belli for attacking Iran whenever Dick Cheney tells him to.

The bipartisan Senate resolution – the brainchild (or rather the bilechild) of Fightin’ Joe Lieberman – affirmed as official fact all of the specious, unproven, ever-changing allegations of direct Iranian involvement in attacks on the American forces now occupying Iraq. The Senators appear to have relied heavily on the recent New York Times story by Michael Gordon that stovepiped unchallenged Pentagon spin directly onto the paper’s front page. As Firedoglake points out, John McCain cited the heavily criticized story on the Senate floor as he cast his vote.

It goes without saying that all of this is a nightmarish replay of the run-up to the war of aggression against Iraq: The NYT funneling false flag stories from Bush insiders. Warmongers citing the NYT stories as “proof” justifying any and all action to “defend the Homeland.” Credulous and craven Democratic politicians swallowing the Bush line hook and sinker.

To be sure, stout-hearted Dem tribunes like Dick Durbin insisted that their support for declaring that Iran is “committing acts of war” against the United States should not be taken as an “authorization of military action.” This is shaky-knees mendacity at its finest. Having officially affirmed that Iran is waging war on American forces, how, pray tell, can you then deny the president when he asks (if he asks) for authorization to “defend our troops?” Answer: you can’t. And you know it.

This vote is the clearest signal yet that there will be no real opposition to a Bush Administration attack on Iran. This is yet another blank check from these slavish, ignorant goons; Bush can cash it anytime. This is, in fact, the post-surge “Plan B” that’s been mooted lately in the Beltway. As you recall, there was much throwing about of brains on the subject of reviving the “Iraq Study Group” plan when the “surge” (or to call it by its right name, the “punitive escalation”) inevitably fails. Bush put the kibosh on that this week (“Him not gonna do nothin’ that Daddy’s friends tell him to do! Him a big boy, him the decider!”), but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a fall-back position – or rather, a spring-forward position: an attack on Iran, to rally the nation behind the “war leader” and reshuffle the deck in Iraq.

Of course, the United States is already at war with Iran. We are directing covert ops and terrorist attacks inside Iran, with the help of groups that our own government has declared terrorist renegades. We are kidnapping Iranian officials in Iraq and holding them hostage. We have a bristling naval armada on Iran’s doorstep, put there for the express purpose of threatening Tehran with military action. The U.S. Congress has overwhelmingly passed measures calling for the overthrow of the Iranian government. And now the U.S. Senate has unanimously declared that Iran is waging war on America, and has given official notice that this will not be tolerated. It is only a very small step to move from this war in all but name to the full monty of an overt military assault.

And just so you noticed, EVERY SINGLE DIMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE (including Hillary, Obama, Edwards, and Biden) voted for this proposal.  Hell, even Russ Feingold (who was praised among some quarters for being the “guiding light” in the earlier surrender on funding Bush’s war in Iraq, voted for this amendment.

So…tell me again about the difference between the two parties???

More updates later as I have time……

The End-Of-Summer Hurricane Hump Day Surreal Blowout*

My, my, my….how surreal has this week been.

First, you have Cruella da Harris (aka Katherine Harris, the Big Fixer of Campaign 2000) scoring a win in the Florida US Senatorial primary, despite being roundly avoided like the plague by the GOP bigwigs (including Dubya), as well as enduring countless defections and faux-pas (including the “church and state seperation is a lie” smack she pulled out her 34 C bra last week)….all for the right to get her ass dusted by incumbent conservative Democrat Bill Nelson in the general election. Keith Olbermann did a pretty funny sendoff on Harris and her victory last week on MSNBC’s Countdown; the clip can be located here (t/h to Crooks and Liars).

Then….we have the ongoing 2006 Upper Level Low Season (used to be called the 2006 Hurricane Season but due to a developing El Nino pattern and wind shears due to the presence of upper level lows and troughs (meterological terms, don’t ask), the storm total has been knocked considerably down from normal; quite a switch from the Season From Hell last year.  (Although, Hurricane Florence seems to be getting her act together as she barrels toward Bermuda; at last report she was approaching Category 2 strength at 100 mph and still strengthing; otherwise, she looks to become basically a gale storm in the Atlantic.  Looks good for the Gulf of Mexico so far, though we still have about a month and a half to go.

But that’s OK…because the Gulf now has a new worry to fear…..earthquakes.

Yup, that’s not a typo……this morning, the east-central Gulf of Mexico was the epicenter of a strong 6.0 temblor which was felt as far north as Tennessee and Georgia and as far west as Louisiana and Arkansas.  So far, no reports of damage and no aftereffects..but still pretty doggone scary; considering the location.

So….you will please pardon me if I feel a bit more than the usual paranoid today.

Yeeesh.

*”Hurricane Hump Day” refers to today, September 10, as the annual peak day of the hurricane season; from this day on the number of storms in the Atlantic/Carribean/Gulf of Mexico basin should decrease in numbers until the end of the season in November.  Although…we can still get some significant majors and even a few super-canes cranked up (Mitch in 1998, Wilma last year); so you never know.

 

St. Tammany Sheriff to NOLA Black”Trash”: Not In My Parish!! (or, Why David Duke Really Won)

Oh, but y’all are going to love this….this fool happens to be the Sheriff of St. Tammany Parish just east of New Orleans, which suffered a lot of the brunt of Hurricane Katrina last year. You would think that he would have too much on his mind for tending to his own needs to worry about the suffering in New Orleans proper…but noooooooooooo; he has to riff to the New Orleans media (in this case, TV station WDSU) on the threat of “trash” and “thugs” invading his fair parish.

Just listen to this clip, and tell me that David Duke still doesn’t have any pull here in Louisiana.

(From WDSU-TV via Crooks and Liars, also check out Pam Spaulding’s blog.)

I especially liked the “Chee Wees” and “dreadlocks” smack, along with the threat of “a visit from one of my deputies”…,funny, don’t most NO gangstas wear do rags these days???

I guess that Sheriff Strain would much prefer all the “trash” to be left in NOLA to be washed away clean by the next storm, ehhh??

He better have more than a few Black deputies, because if he doesn’t, I will make my journeys down I-10 or I-12 eastbound as brief as possible. Such bigotry already killed Black folk before (see the Gretna/Jefferson Parish police blocking the Crescent City Connection from Black evacuees attempting to escape Camp Abu Gumbo (aka the Superdome) during the height of Katrina); I’d rather not be a casualty now.

It doesn’t ever stop, does it???

When A Right-Wing Democrat Is Just A Plain Old Right-Wing Democrat (With Update)

It was people like her who made me an Left Independent to begin with:

Blanco signs abortion ban into law6/18/2006, 4:30 p.m. CT
The Associated PressBATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Gov. Kathleen Blanco signed a strict anti-abortion ban into law and a group supporting abortion rights condemned the move as an example of “misplaced priorities of politicians in Louisiana.”The ban has no immediate effect — it will only take effect if the U.S. Constitution is amended to allow states to ban abortion or if the U.S. Supreme Court strikes down its own 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that provides for a right to abortion.

Blanco signed the measure on Saturday. Planned Parenthood of Louisiana issued a statement saying the new law “endangers women’s health by criminalizing abortion at a time when the state is still recovering from Hurricane Katrina and scrambling to prepare for the start of the new hurricane season.”

The measure, sponsored by Sen. Ben Nevers, D-Bogalusa, includes no exceptions for cases of rape or incest. It would allow abortion only to save the life or the health of the mother.

Doctors found guilty of performing abortions under other circumstances would face up to 10 years in prison and fines of $100,000.

The law is similar to one passed in South Dakota earlier this year that is expected to land before the Supreme Court. A majority of the high court’s nine justices has voted to uphold Roe v. Wade in the past.

Let’s recap this, Clones:

The act was sponsored by a Democrat, passed in a majority Democratic legislature, and signed into law by a Democrat. It is just as strong as the bill signed in South Dakota which is designed as a trigger to overturn Roe vs. Wade.

So…will we be seeing mass protests from the usual women’s groups on this law, and the restriction of women’s basic reproductive choices??

Oh, but I forgot…Kathleen Blanco is a DEMOCRAT..and a woman to boot!!! We can’t put basic principles above the need to keep women in power…and besides, the Republicans are so much worse!!!

Hey, Kos and the DLC: Is this the kind of “swing voter” Democrat that you want us to “compromise” with???

And they STILL can’t make up their damn minds on rebuilding MardiGrasLand…..errrr, New Orleans, or adequately fund our crumbling infrastructure; or provide decent pay raises for teachers and their support staff.

Tell me again about how we have to stay in the party and win these people over, Dr. Dean…..please???

No thank you….I’d rather vote Green and Left than stay in a party that allows this shit.

————————————————–

Update: R. Francis R. (an Alexandria native) does the best job yet of analysis on the political background behind KittyBlank’s (my new gloss for our current neo-Repub governor) betrayal of “progressive? values:

[....] None the less, it is a disturbing move. It reflects a rightward trend for a state that is already so far right that Democrats here would be a Republican in any other state. But Democrats in the state have been a buffer to the more extreme David Duke Lite Louisiana Republican Party. Our Republican US Senator once won the endorsement of David Duke, and our Democratic Senator brags about voting with George Bush the vast majority of the time. But the one thing that kept Louisiana Democrats from morphing from kissing-cousins of Louisiana Republicans into their monozygotic twin siblings, was the overwhelming Democratic constituency in New Orleans. Mary Landrieu, in 1996, won her Senate seat in Louisiana by a mere 10,000 votes, but won New Orleans with 87 percent of the vote. Without New Orleans, Mary Landrieu would never have been elected Senator. In these post-Katrina days, the Louisiana Democratic Party is suddenly recognizing that fact. They acted as if they didn’t know that before with their complete neglect of New Orleans.But now that New Orleans has lost nearly 300,000 of its citizens to the post-Katrina diaspora, the likes of Blanco have realized that without New Orleans there is little chance of being re-elected. So, now she moves rightward (it is hard to believe that someone so conservative needed to move rightward, but such is the case in increasingly white constituency of Louisiana). To be fair, Blanco never said she was pro-choice. But she was more than willing to allow Louisiana progressives to believe she would never sign a sweeping abortion ban into law. She never pretended to be liberal or particularly sympathetic with progressive causes— she simply allowed us to believe she wouldn’t offend us as terribly as right winger Bobby Jindal. But, now she has. And it doesn’t matter to her. Blanco never presented herself as anyone with any clear convictions on anything; she just wanted to live in the governor’s mansion. She clearly wants to live there another four years.[...]The New Louisiana Political Calculus is this— with fewer African-Americans in the state, Louisianian Democrats can rid themselves of the stigma of being the “black party” or the “New Orleans party”. They can now be the white-lite party. Blanco sees this and will now free the Louisiana Democratic Party of any semblance of owing anything to those scalawags [sic] progressives.

(Excerpts from Truth, Justice, and the Progressive Way: Blanco Understands New Louisiana Political Calculus; click on link for full article)

(Excerpts from ; click on link for full article)

(Excerpts from ; click on link for full article)

Simply another case of how “lesser evil” candidates merely lead to greater evil than ever….and yet another signal that the post-Clinton (White) Democratic Party of the South will be far closer to David Duke and Jim Rarick (former John Birchite who was a pro-segregationist Congressman during the 60′s) than to the delusions of the Daily Kos/Jim Hightower liberal populist crowd.

Makes me glad that I dumped this party 20 years ago.

Well…Here I Am!!! :-)

Considering that this is not that new a venture for me, it has been a while since I decided to create a blog to post my more intimate thoughts on issues..but hopefully I will manage an update or two a week, at least.

This blog will mostly be my rants and raves on two particular topics that are gripping my brain:

1)
The total lack of respect for and misconceptions given to Leftists and feminists who support a more tolerant and open attitude about sexuality and sexual expression. You would think that the idea that adults should have the freedom to determine their own sexuality would be universal along the Left diaspora…but you’d be quite wrong. There has been a history of implicit or even explicit Puritanism among progressives that has perverted and divided progressives from time immortal; and thanks to the most recent sex panics brought forth by the Religious Right commisars who have gained power under the thumb of King George the XLIII…..errrrrrrr, I mean, President-Select George W. Bush; a new round of Left erotophobia and repression has been brewing. This blog is meant to serve as an alternative voice for those of us who call ourselves "sex-positive", and for Leftist sex radicals who believe that a more progressive and open-minded view about sexuality is essential to the revival of the Left politically and socially. (More on this in a later post.)

2)
Why the Democratic Party really, really, REALLY SUCKS as a genuine progressive counter to the Right, and how to build an effective alternative movement from the ground up. Being raised in the Red Boot state of Louisiana (and BTW…a nice SmackDog boot to the ass goes to the fool who switched the color scheme and dictated that red be a right-wing color rather than the traditional color of revolt and revolution), and having been witness to the smarmy behavior of conservative Democrats in power (from "populist" Edwin Edwards to our present guv Kathleen Blanco) and the repeated spinelessness of too many liberal Democrats (with some exceptions, of course), I have come to the conclusion that the Party of the Donkey has lived past its due date as an opposition party. After all, the best they could do to battle a President at the bottom of the ratings in 2004 was to nominate a candidate (namely, John Forbes Kerry) who basically adapted most of the "War on Terra" agenda (albeit with more of a smiling face and a bit more rainbowish patina); then just sit back and watch the noise machine of the Right shred him apart with Swift Boat vets and Ann Coulter/Bill O’Reilly missives.

And even that’s nothing compared to what’s in store if, as expected, Hillary Clinton gets the nomination in 2008, if her initial attempts to triangulate herself into a compassionate Republican in Democratic drag are to be believed. If a loyal Yellow dog Democrat like Molly Ivins is opposing your candidacy, then that says much. (More on this later, too.)

Now, these are only the present issues: I will do my best for variety sakes to mix in some not so serious issues, too. BTW..although some adult topics will be expressed here, don’t come here thinking that this is a porn blog and you can post sex spam or irrelevant links; there are other sites for that. I’m always looking for feedback and comments from anyone who views this blog; especially from any sex-rads, sex-pozzies, and progressives who would like to engage me in principled and mature discussion. It’s the trolls who want to poison the well with drive-by smackdowns whom I want to avoid…though if you really, really piss me off, I may use these pages to respond in kind. (But just in case, and for your protection, I will moderate the Comments section for pre-approval.)

To paraphrase George C. Scott channeling old General "Blood and Guts" in that classic monologue in
Patton::

All right, you sons-of-bitches (and
bitches, and
porn sluts, and other assorted radical riffraff)….you know where I stand. It is my extreme privilege to fight alongside you men and women anytime, anywhere.

 

And hopefully, you will come along for the ride, too. (I don’t mean that literally….at least not here.)