If you aren't reading them, you should be

I read a lot of pol stuff first thing in the morning. The trio of Daily Kos, Billmon and Eschaton Atrios. Whatever. *l* are the in-depth guys. The rest of the links I read are mostly amusing, sometime bitter and always interesting, of course, but those three really challenge me.

Daily Kos I found back during the high days of the Dean campaign and I have been hooked ever since. I can probably credit Kos with my foray in to political commentary, of sorts, because he lit some sort of fire in me with his blog. I always know I can go there and read something that will inspire me, anger me or prompt me to think about something in a new way. I also love that he keeps me updated on races all around the country. Check him out. I bet he hooks ya.

You should also go to Billmon's Whiskey Bar daily. This guy makes my head spin. He really digs deep in to the issues and sometimes, I have to admit, I have a hard time keeping up. It's like a daily lesson in politics and I adore him for it. Like today, his commentary on the Bush campaign strategy is fascinating:

It seems ironic that a president who vowed to run as a "wartime" leader - and who has a real war (several of them, in fact) on his hands - is having such a hard time grasping the difference between shooting at people until they agree to obey you, and persuading people until they agree to vote for you. But then, so is his party.

He also touches on Capitol Hill Blue, the source of the article about Bush losing it. While the organization might be credible, that story might need to be taken with a grain of salt. It sure was fun to read, though. However, if what they are saying about Rove's new ideas about using Reagan in campaign ads is true, it may well prove they have lost their minds.

Last but not least is Atrios. He's kind of a nice mesh of Kos and Billmon. He's got some funny going on, too, which I love. I always learn something new, which is always nice. Today, he links to an article from the Chicago Sun Times asking Is U.S. like Germany of the '30s? I hesistate to go full out and compare Bush to Hitler. I think that's taking things a bit far. But the attitude in this country has been eerily similar to Germany before Hitler came to power. I happen to find Nazi Germany fascinating and I've done a fair bit of reading on it. Sometimes, I hear something out of the mouths of Right Wings in the government and ordinary citizens and it makes my stomach turn how much it reminds me of things I've read about the lead up to the Nazis coming to power.

Today many Americans celebrate a ''strong'' leader who, like Woodrow Wilson, never wavers, never apologizes, never admits a mistake, never changes his mind, a leader with a firm ''Christian'' faith in his own righteousness. These Americans are delighted that he ignores the rest of the world and punishes the World Trade Center terrorism in Iraq. Mr. Bush is our kind of guy.

He is not another Hitler. Yet there is a certain parallelism. They have in common a demagogic appeal to the worst side of a country's heritage in a crisis. Bush is doubtless sincere in his vision of what is best for America. So too was Hitler. The crew around the president -- Donald Rumsfeld, John Ashcroft, Karl Rove, the ''neo-cons'' like Paul Wolfowitz -- are not as crazy perhaps as Himmler and Goering and Goebbels. Yet like them, they are practitioners of the Big Lie -- weapons of mass destruction, Iraq democracy, only a few ''bad apples.''

See? I don't think you can argue against any of that. And that is very very scary.

One of my biggest complaints about Bush and his cronies is that they never admit to making a mistake. I don't trust people who can't admit when they are wrong. I am wrong all the fucking time and I like it. I learn more by being wrong than thinking I know all the answers. You can't look at things from other people's perspective if you can't ever admit you are wrong. You will only see the world your way and for the leader of a nation to think like that, it's a very dangerous thing. I mean, I am voting for Kerry no matter what, but if you are still undecided, try to think of it like this:

The strongest criticism that the administration levels at Sen. John Kerry is that he changes his mind. In fact, instead of a president who claims an infallibility that exceeds that of the pope, America would be much better off with a president who, like John F. Kennedy, is honest enough to admit mistakes and secure enough to change his mind.

Amen.

So, go read this guys. I'll still quote them and babble about what they post but I can't recap it all for you. ;)

Torture is as torture does

Yeah, so I've been quiet the last few days because, really, what more can I say about what's going on. Reagan is dead. That's the only news that you need to know.

Okay, not really. I haven't been brainwashed yet. Thank goodness for The Daily Show, or I would never get any real news. If you missed it, be sure to catch the repeat tonight. The fact that Ashcroft can get up in front of Congress and say the shit that he said, truly boggles the mind. Biden gets major props for getting to the heart of the matter. ETA Billmon, as usual, does an excellent job of breaking down Asscroft's time in front of Congress.

Even if you think torture is valid or you don't care about brown skinned people getting beat up because it doesn't affect you or whatever, all that is completely beside the point. I mean, you are wrong and shit, but that's okay. We allow that in this great nation of ours. The point of abiding by the Geneva Convention and agreeing to not torture prisoners of war is so that when our own soldiers are captured, they will be treated properly. I won't pretend for a moment that our leaders or our armed forces actually care about the rights and mental well being of the people we are fighting against. Because that would be silly and naive. However, we promised to follow a certain protocol and then broke our promise. Just like we agreed to not take pre-emptive action and then did it anyway. We always talk about being this great country with freedoms and opportunity and gosh, howdy-doo, we are an example the rest of the world should follow. So anyone who is spouting off about how this isn't a big deal and we should get to act this way because we are at war should keep their mouths shut when American soldiers are captured and tortured by opposing forces. We are leading by example and our examples suck.

And even if you don't buy any of that, explain to me how beating a man until he suffers brain damage helps the war on terror. If you turn his brain to mush, he can't fucking tell you anything. Of course, the man in this case is actually an American soldier who was undercover at the base during a training mission. The only reason he isn't dead is that the soldiers finally figured out he was an American and stopped beating him. How horrible for this man, to serve his country and become a victim of it's new hypocritical policies. We haven't heard about this in the media because...well, torture is part of war? Reagan is dead, therefore nothing else is news? We don't like to think about bad things? I don't know. All I know is that the Right Wing mouthpieces act as if torture is not a big deal when it is happening to other people. I have a feeling that just can't figure out how to spin this in a way that doesn't make them look like the hypocritical assholes they are. So they just keep quiet and hope it goes away.

How about we raise our voices and hope they go away?

Special props to This Modern World for the above link.

Dead men don't vote

You know, whatever. Reagan was President and he actually worked to get there, so there is automatic respect given, unlike our current president, who basically fell in to the job. Anyway, so there is that. But come on.

Anyway, I see that good ol' Dubya is honoring Ronnie's memory by changing his home page which I will NOT link to in to a giant "tribute" to Reagan. He's also sending out an e-mail directing everyone to their site. Um. Whatever. Death drives Web traffic! Woo! While you are here, donate to our evil overlord campaign.

I will not be the first to say this, but if Bush really respected Reagan and wanted to honor his memory, maybe he would have listened to Nancy when she made all her pleas for stem cell research to help find a cure for Alzheimer‘s. But that would mean putting aside his agenda to help someone else and that would never ever ever happen.

Americablog also does an excellent job of skewering W on his hypocrisy on Reagan. He just makes me ill. ILL! I swear, he probably pulled the plug on the old man himself, just to get a boost in the ratings. And honestly, that wouldn't surprise me at all.

Yeah. I am bitter.