OK, so here's something that makes me very skeptical. Check the video on that series that has Maher interviewing General Paul Eaton. Listen very carefully to what the general says about defunding the war - "No, that would be bad for our troops." This general is lambasting the Bush administration, but setting the stage for Democrats to continue the war. Talk about the military-industrial complex playing the field!

There is no military solution. There is no economic solution that would be amenable to the oil powers. There is no political solution while US troops are on the ground. How hard is that to understand? This general is having us on.

They are ignoring the "national intelligence" of the people, and instead have institutionalized the "national ignorance" of the neoCon republicans instead.

Now that preznit blush and the rubber stampers are at new lows, what is it that the people want?

In a recent survey on how to improve the economy, they said the best thing to do to improve the economy is to stop the Iraq war where dollars and blood flow needlessly into the mud.

Dollars need to flow into America and the blood needs to stop flowing.

There is no "national intelligence director" so we are going to elect one in November. And if the people's vote counts it will not be preznit clone, (a.k.a. McPreznit McCain) who wants another 100 years of wars.

Sorry Dredd, but sometimes you need to look across the party lines. Bush and the neocons have been bad, but they aren't really Repubicans...which Republicans should have admitted a long time ago to avoid the horrible position they are currently in.

McCain is the frontrunner because Fox News says he is. Pretty much all news is liberal, the simple fact is they are pushing our weakest contender to the top because he is the only Republican who will 100% lose to Hillary, and we all know it's her "turn".

That being said, Obama and Hillary don't plan to end the war either...as a matter of fact, the Israel lobby has been pushing for Clinton, which means she is quite likely to escalate into a war in Iran.

The truth of the matter is that the forces that pushed us into the wars isn't Republicans or Democrats, it is people on both sides of party lines that have the same agenda, and you can mark my words, Hillary is part of that agenda.

Remember how Democrats were going to take back congress and the senate and end the wars? Well they didn't! Remember how they were going to impeach Bush/Cheney? Well they didn't! Remember how they were going to go after Gonzales? Well, they did a crappy job and then likely replaced him with somebody worse (Muckasey)!

This isn't a matter of Republicans or Democrats, this is a matter of ALL of our politicians failing us.

Oh, and just for the record...the only current antiwar candidate is a REPUBLICAN.

Brandon #4

You have learned the talking points well. All I can say is "Yeah, that's the ticket".

"Clear as mud" is the result of "you're doin' a heckuva job" republican propaganda.

Only those in a trance still believe that "true republicans" or "false republicans" is a real issue. That is a wee bit psychotic.

What utter rubbish! Take a look at the votes in Congress and tell me what party filibustered the stop the war bills more in the 110th congress than any other congress in history?

Clue: BIG BROTHER is a republican.

My comment that crooks and liars wouldn't allow on ...re. Mukasey's testimony before the house..this same congress (pretty much) gave us NAFTA, 3 strikes and you are out, media consolidation, welfare reform with no jobs for the poor and repeal of the banking act.... FDR put in place so that we would never have another depression.It kept the banks from investing in the stock market. Now we are going to have another depression. Why should we vote for Hillary now?

When my comment was first banned I mentioned that Hitler encouraged physical fitness and protecting the environment...History will show bush as worse than Hitler. The Katrina aftermath was genocide..not allowing black home owners to go back to New Orleans is ethnic cleansing. More have been killed for oil than Hitler's war on Jews.Amy Goodman asked the question,"If we had state media, how would it be different?" croksandliars is another gate keeping website.

The true less of all evils is Ron Paul and I hope he does go Independent. While I am truly sorry for McCain's POW, I don't care for the bushie clone. 100 years of war is not my idea of progress, nor do I want the Middle East to be in my grandchildren's future. There are so many pressing issues we should be concerned with - global warming, the environment, population, etc. - has anybody addressed them?? I truly hope the Repubs are gone in November. We have gone backwards for 8 years,it would be nice to go forward with the Dems.

Dredd, your missing my point. My point is that most current Republicans suck, but so do most Democrats. Vote by the person, not the party.

Personally, I admit I lean Republican, but I could vote Democrat if no good Republicans were running and there was a good Democrat. Unfortunately I feel like our party has been hijacked...we used to be about small government, fiscal responsibility, and have taken several elections in the past in order to get OUT of a war...which is obviously no longer the case, which deeply disturbs me.

There are SOME Democrats with good ideas, but IMO that is what Democrats are all about. Good ideas and good intentions that are poorly executed or abandoned. Democrats could have done a lot of good against the current administration if they'd stop being such pacifists and stick to their guns for once. Oh wait...Democrats are against guns...well, whatever it is that you guys stick to.

Big Brother is a neocon, which is basically just the people that hijacked the Republican party...the traditional Republican values only exist in name anymore, but that is what many of us are referring to when we say we lean Republican.

You never mentioned one of my main points though...you talk of getting out of the war, yet neither Democratic candidate plans on getting out of the war any time soon. Then on top of that, they both want to increase spending by over $250 billion a year...when we don't have what we already spend. How exactly do you think they are going to pay for that?

Brandon at #2
"Bush and the neocons have been bad, but they aren't really Repubicans...which Republicans should have admitted a long time ago to avoid the horrible position they are currently in."

You can't be serious. They really aren't Republicans?

Of course they are Republicans, right down to the souls of their feet.

Sorry, Brandon was at #3

That is absolutely incredible that these guys don't know who our DNI is. Absolutely incredible. And how long has he been our DNI?

No wonder these blowhards think we need to pass the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act (H.R. 1955/S. 1959) as a supplemental intelligence effort to go along with the other 16 spy agencies that we taxpayers are now paying for. Sixteen spy agencies don't provide them with enough intelligence to even know who our DNI is.

McConnell is Dianne Feinstein's new super-hero. She relies on his "expert assessments" before she does things like approve the continued illegal wiretapping and surveillancing of American citizens w/o going through a FISA court.

And speaking of DiFi, she was recently quoted in the San Fran Chronicle as saying, "We saw the very real dangers earlier this year on the Straits of Hormuz. Five armed Iranian boats sped directly toward three U.S. Navy warships. The captain of one of the warships turned his guns on the boats, and they quickly retreated." This is so amazing. No one has yet informed her that this incident was completely blown all out of proportion by the Bush/Cheney Fearmongering Machine. Even the Pentagon and the admiral in charge of this fleet have come out and stated for the record that there was never any threat from these boats, yet DiFi and her staff are not aware of this.

There is so much that our fearful leaders do not know. And so much that they do know that is actually untrue. I believe this is all related to our broken elections system.

Also, how can it be that "al Qaeda is better able to hit U.S." if the Bush/Cheney GWOT that includes the troop surge in Iraq is succeeding at keeping the fight over there so we don't have to fight them over here, and while Bush keeps telling us that his surveillancing of us within our borders w/o a FISA court is successfully thwarting attacks and saving American lives, despite his being unable to explain how this is happening because that would be aiding the enemy? Could it be that post-super Tuesday, the administration recognizes that it's gotta pull out the terrorist threat issue again in order to get enough legitimate votes for their guy McCain, "Mr. Hundred Years of War," to make it possible for the computers to rig another election?

I am a way on the left Democrat, but I'll give some support to Brandon. If you go here:

http://www.commondreams....archive/2008/01/25/6613/

On Clinton:

"Senator Clinton’s foreign policy advisors tend to be veterans of President Bill Clinton’s administration, most notably former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and former National Security Adviser Sandy Berger. Virtually all were strong supporters of the invasion of Iraq and some - such as Jack Keane, Kenneth Pollack and Michael O’Hanlon - also supported President Bush’s “surge.” Her team also includes some centrist opponents of the war, however, including retired General Wesley Clark and former Ambassador Joseph Wilson.

"Her most influential advisor - and her likely choice for Secretary of State - is Richard Holbrooke, who prior to the invasion of Iraq insisted that that country posed “a clear and present danger at all times,” insisted that Bush had “ample justification” to invade Iraq, and has written that those who protested against the war and foreign governments which opposed the invasion “undoubtedly encouraged” Saddam Hussein. Holbrooke has been severely criticized for his role as Carter’s assistant secretary of state for East Asia in propping up Marcos in the Philippines and supporting Suharto’s repression in East Timor, as well as his culpability in the Kwangju massacre in South Korea."

Obama's foreign policy team is a little better, but not by much.

A Democratic President with a veto-proof Democratic Congress would more likely get us out of the war than the opposite but anyone who thinks that Hillary or Barack becoming President automatically equals an immediate withdrawal from Iraq is dreaming.

.

#4 ... Brandon said on 2/9/2008 @ 6:13 am PT...

Gravel is a Republican?

Where did you get you facts checked?

.

Gravel is getting something like .01% of the vote and so seriously barely warrants mention as a candidate. But Ron Paul is Republican in name only... sort of like Kucinich is a Democrat in name only. Many Republicans do not consider Neocons to be real Republicans, and there is a sound basis for this. Neither party has the moral high ground. That is abundantly clear by now. So could we try to simmer down on the partisan resentments? Most Americans are seriously concerned with the messes we're in and it's up to each of us to fix them.

Obama's foreign policy team is a little better...

No, they're not. They're just a different bunch of moldy old figs.

Obama's FP crowd is as packed with paleo-cold warriors like Brzezinski, the man who boasted about how wonderfully the funding of the Afghan mujahedeen worked out for the US.

Anthony Lake also makes an appearance in Obama's FP wonk squad. This was the guy who downplayed the Rwanda massacre and took steps to prevent UN peacekeepers from becoming a significant force during that nightmare.

While Obama's team did indeed argue against the invasion of Iraq, they did so out of ideological differences on the use of hard and soft power, not from any moral perspective.

There IS actually ONE real candidate and she is both Black and a Woman and is 100% anti war, is for the bottom 98% and is for Impeachment of both Bush and Cheney and is a staunch supporter of 9/11 truth.
She is also neither a worthless corrupt democrat nor a totally insane corrupt rethuglican.

That would be Cynthia McKinney Green Party.

Anyone with any sense will be voting for her come November.

Chicken Doves

Thank you, Bob in Pacifica, for helping me prove my point.

That being said, Ron Paul in reality is the only real Republican, by the traditional values of the party. He might not seem like one in this day and age, but that is because the rest of them have turned into liberal warmongerers.

Perhaps what troubles me the most though is that no matter what party these people are from, they swear an OATH to uphold the constitution, yet for the most part none of them do, and there are no repercussions for it.

Nunya, I may look into that lady you mentioned. A lot of people hate Hillary, and even more hate McCain. This could be a good year for an independent or third party to make a good run. I will not vote for her however if she does not uphold the constitution.

LOL, Good old Rolling Stone, I have been saying exactly that for at least a year now.
These so called Democrats are worthless crap and deserve to be imprisoned right next to Bush and Cheney, every damn one of them.

Yes check her out Brandon.

I defy anyone to find a better candidate.

http://video.google.com/...ype=search&plindex=1

http://video.google.com/...ype=search&plindex=1

http://video.google.com/...cid=-6708378013583808332

http://video.google.com/...ocid=8829920043704844933

Can you imagine in your wildest dreams any other presidential candidate speaking the truth like this?
If so then I want some of what you are smoking.

Obama and Clinton are just the same old lying ass BS politicians that only cater to the top 2%.

Isn't it funny how their experts always turn out to be expert assholes. "Duh, what's the latest talking point."

I love this site. The election issue is non-partisan and when the occasional partisan discussion like this one pops up it becomes painfully apparent how terribly broken our entire system is.

I could easily argue partisan politics. I do on other blogs. But, when I see it here all I want to do is call for a truce among friends who all want a good political system restored. We might argue over which party is fouled up most, but when it comes down to it this year it's hard to say one is good and the other bad. Instead, as with the election system, we see something terribly terribly wrong in our political system with neither party free of tar.

I wish it were so simple as to argue partisan policy positions. I really do. This year we have to stand together on one really really important issue: the system must be fixed before any partisan fights can be fought. Right now, and I say this with no rancor, it seems both parties are a lot dirtier than we want to admit. I pray my party, the Democrats, elect someone who will prove they aren't so stupid or dirty and get us out of the war. I don't have complete faith that will happen regardless of the many times I've heard Clinton and Obama say they're going to end the war.

Isn't it sad when you hear something over and over and still don't believe them? Let's stand together on fixing the system and leave our partisanship for other blogs.

Aaaah, well said MarkH.

Our electoral process is a complete joke. The Democrats hold hearings but nothing happens. When is Waxman going to talk to Sibel Edmonds about the traitors working in the State Department.

All the people I used to think were nuts are now making sense. Still think that they're aren't conspiracy theories? . . .

Our world is run by rich old sociopaths who screw anything that moves including you and I.

Just FYI, I voted for Mike Gravel.

I'm in that .1 % that cares enough to research and vote against these corrupt AIPAC/PNAC/CFR puppets.

If you voted for one of them, that's on your conscious--not mine. After Kucinich dropped out, I was trying to find out WHO was actually still in. I even considered Ron Paul--except, my ballot was democrat (yeah I know I said it was gonna be green) and Ron Paul was not on my ballot. Anyway, what I found while searching for WHO was still in the election, was kind of a dark joke, since some candidates still didn't say they dropped out on their websites. (Assholes!)

Anyway, my "time-out from politics" is helping to calm me down since I learned about this whole frigging "delegates/superdelegates" end run on the vote. (that pushed me over the top--I was so naive--but not anymore)

Although from the rare time to time I do hear headlines (it's really unavoidable because of the fascist media), I find, it's pissing me off more sharply than before.

The new key to my health, is that I need to not be pissed off if I want to live a life without an expected heart attack, cancer or brain hemorrhage. I am already in pain 24/7 and barely getting any sleep.

call me when your finally serious about revolution against this oath breaking corruption--till then, bless those of you who do have good health to fight against these constitutional oath breakers.

(I ain't had health care since 1985)

You won't hear from me very often anymore, but I will check in from time to time. I just can't fight every issue anymore, I wish I could say I left ten people behind that will take up my slack, but I can't. This nonsense is not going to be reason for another dead activist. e.g. me from my soul being sucked away. It ain't that I don't care, I care, I just can't deal with this anymore without snapping. Plus it's probably better I shut the fuck up before getting labeled as some bullshit fucking homegrown terrorist. (I am going to laugh the day those fuckers that drafted that bill are thrown in prison)

To all the oath breakers - Fuck you, I hope bad shit happens to you really soon!

To all the constitution protectors - Good Luck! Bless you all!

rm -rf /home/~phil

Peace Phil. Please check every now and then, we need your true light. Happy Trails.

Phil # 26

Take care, and I for one will miss your daily passionate posts. You gave me hope for a better tomorrow, not just for the U.S. but for the world in general.

Your country needs millions more with your fervour to band together and let the 'powers that be' know that enough is enough already. It's way past the time to start putting the broken pieces of the U.S. back together again and I hope to God that this year will be the turning point for you all.

Peace brother ....... look after yourself.....

ITMFA

Brandon

"True republican" or "false republican" that is the question?

IMO that is a straw man or canard which sounds a lot like the evangelical "true christian" or "one true religion" rhetoric of self-righteousness.

I will most certainly vote anti-republican for the forseeable future to punish them for becoming the party of BIG BROTHER if nothing else.

Perhaps the argument can be made that there isn't enough to vote for, but that argument fails when it comes to the plenty to vote against.

There are plenty of neoCon fascist republicans to vote against.

The choice on the republican side is 100 or 1,000,000 years of more war and more wars, or the democrats who have, even in recent days, said they will begin withdrawal within 60 days of inauguration.

If that is not contrast, then these republican daze have even corrupted even your math.