Courtesy CSPANJunkie, via YouTube (click the image). Hat-tip to MadTrucker.

Watch this:

Voting for McCain isn't a vote for a third Bush term; it's a vote for a continuance of the worst of Bush's two-term disaster.

Contrary to Joe neocon Lieberman's statements and John McBush McSame McCain's claims of the surge succeeding... Violence in Iraq may be getting ready to explode AGAIN, and this will likely happen regardless of whether or not we follow last week's John McCain idea of "100 years in Iraq" or this week's John McCain flip-flopping to follow Obama's 16 month schedule for withdrawal which was recently endorsed by Maliki. A position that Maliki has been pretty consistent on even before he met with Obama. This is not to say that there will not be violence in Iraq when we pull out. The violence will be horrific. But delaying the day of withdrawal only continues the slow bleed of ethnic cleansing and infighting among power hungry Iraqis until further on up the road and until the shit really hits the fan.

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"You want to have some idea what it is like to be a care-provider for someone with Alzheimer’s or other age-related dementia? Watch it."

            -- Jim Downey
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Before reading the rest of this essay, watch the following piece.

My Name Is Lisa

In direct opposition to this 1994 statement, Dick Cheney was a primary catalyst for the 2003 Iraq debacle. Pundits and people living in perpetual denial, far outside the realms of reality -- like Karl Rove -- will attempt to claim that what was true about invading Iraq before September 11, 2001 was no longer true after September 11.

Anyone watching the video of Dick Cheney's 1994 statements can see the truth of what he said then as it materializes in the quagmire we have now. The pundits and the enablers, the collaborators and complicit Congressional representatives, are instantly discredited.

Eight years of the Republican control of the three branches of government -- an out of control Executive protected by Republican Congressfolk and investigations derailed, denied and thwarted by a complicit Department of Justice -- have brought our nation to economic, social, moral and intellectual disaster.

That's not something that the GOP can lay at the feet of anyone else. The facts really are clear -- and they have a decidedly "liberal" bias.

This is an Open Thread.

Is the nation moving back from the brink of ultra-right politics, into a more reasonable and freedom-and-democracy loving environment?

Possibly.

That would put us, ideally, a little "left of center" and on track for some real progress -- quite a feat after eight years of out-of-control unmitigated disasters by the Overlords of "Family Values."

Reminds me of the following tune:

What are your thoughts on the shifting political climate?

This is an Open Thread.

Bumped -- GH. Originally posted 2008-06-12 21:07:33 -0500.

In Alchemy, there is a principle called "equivalent exchange" that comes into play in many areas of life, including politics.

If you replace an ethically challenged President with another ethically challenged President, and ensure that they are fairly equal (roughly equivalent) in terms of their foreign policy, defense posture, economic planning and technological (in)competence, you aren't really doing much of anything to change the system.

John McCain insists that a McCain Presidency won't be a third Bush term -- that putting him into the highest office on the land isn't going to be an equivalent exchange.

Hat-tip to USArmyParatrooper.

There's no magic here, folks.

John McCain == George W. Bush == McBush == McSame

This is why John McCain and his right-hand minion man Joe Lieberman have a serious YouTube problem. This is why neither likes reality very much.

This is why, if McCain gets the Presidency, nothing will change. The country will continue on its way to hell in an elephant-shaped handbasket, adorned with a pretty ribbon and note from George W. reading "Smell ya later!"

This is why the GOP must lose both the Presidency and as much of their standing in Congress and in governerships, circuit courts and DA Offices across the land this election season.

They've gotten away with gaming the system for over 8 years. They came dangerously close to a "permanent" Republican majority, which would have permitted their destruction of the nation to continue apace.

This is why we must change the course our nation is on -- because if we don't force change, and a BIG one, then the destruction they've wrought will fester and spread.

Oh, yeah -- this is an Open Thread.

Just my first attempt at a YouTube:

Hillary Clinton is hell bent on breaking the Democratic Party and all she will get out of it is second place in a two horse race.

Enjoy the tune below...

On Monday, January 28th 2008, the History Channel premiered a show called Life After People.

It was very interesting.

The first segment of the show, titled Trash, provided some excellent food for thought regarding what we'll leave behind. One of the items mentioned is an abomination called "the Pacific Gyre" or "Garbage Patch" -- an area of plastic and man-made trash floating in the north Pacific, currently twice the size of Texas.

Below are two videos: the first is a YouTube segment of the first part of the History Channel special that addresses "Trash" after all the humans have gone. The second video is specifically about the Garbage Patch.

Watch them both, then think about what alternatives we have to address the following issues:

1. Re-use, recycling and minimization of non-biodegradable resources, including possibilities of re-engineering some items and re-purposing others in ways that could mitigate the negative impact.
   
2. Cleaning up our current mess: how?
   
3. Living and working smarter: how can we better utilize our technology and our understanding of science and nature to live, grow and mature as a species?
   

There are options. Some involve rethinking, some involve changing habits and some involve altering expectations. One resource I've mentioned before is this one -- what have you got in mind?