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MAY 18, 2010: HUGE WINS FOR REAL DEMOCRATS!!!
A big day for Democrats in primaries and
special elections!
Joe Sestak spoiled Republican DINOsaur
(Democrat In Name Only) Arlen Specter's plans to hold onto his job by
switching parties to get an easier primary fight. The problem was that
Joe Sestak didn't get the memo that the loyal Bush Republican Arlen
Specter had secretly held Democratic values all along. He sure can keep
a secret! And voters saw through Specter's sleazy swift-boat attacks
for what they really were- character assassination by innuendo, having
nothing to do with the real issues facing Pennsylvanians.
Meanwhile Mark Critz shattered Hannity/Limbaugh
fantasies of sending the Democrats a message by taking the late Rep.
Jack Murtha's seat. Surprise- the loyal Murtha Democrat won in this
swing district. Hey Republicans: Did YOU get the message? The Democrats
are stronger than ever!!
OK, in Kentucky, Rand Paul and the Tea
Party bagged the Republican party nomination. The Republican leadership
certainly received the message- that their party has been effectively
hijacked by a coalition of libertarians, religious extremists, and black-UN-helicopter-hallucinating
nut jobs. So this is news? Meanwhile, the Democratic primary in that
Kentucky district showed that both the winning and losing Democratic
candidates earned more votes in the primary than Rand Paul. And Democrats
outnumber Republicans in Kentucky by 600,000. So it's pretty likely
that the Democrat will be able to assemble a pretty strong coalition
of Democrats and sane Republicans in November.
All in all, a great day for Democrats!
And a great way to end Gordo-Blog! This
will be the last entry and the web site will be shutting down shortly.
Thanks for reading!
DECEMBER 16, 2009: DEAR HARRY REID AND
THE HAPLESS DEMOCRATS: THREATEN THE NUCLEAR OPTION!!! NOW!!!
One thing I learned from the Republicans,
if you want to win, you must play to win. If you don't play to win,
then the truth is you really don't want to win. When Trent Lott ran
things, he kept his troops in line by threatening them with isolation
if they didn't. What do you do, Harry Reid? You kiss Joe Lieberman's
lying, self-serving whiney, wimpy, lumpy butt! (Lieberman says he won't
support the Medicare option like he used to anymore because of its unproven
impact on the our deficits - deficits that he helped create with his
support of the $2 trillion needless and senseless Iraq war! Stinking
lying hypocrite.) Reid, you even welcome and support Arlen Specter!
When Trent Lott ran things, as soon as
the Democrats got enough numbers that they could threaten to get in
the way with a filibuster, Lott threatened to eliminate the filibuster
through the"reconciliation" process, so they could pass anything
with just a simple majority instead of needing 60%. Just the threat
of it put the Democrats in fear and they cowed to all Lott's demands
on judicial appointments. "Please don't take away our filibuster,
Mr. Lott!!! We promise, we won't ever use it!" No wonder the Democrats
adopted the jackass as their symbol. So try and learn from your mistakes,
and learn from the successes of the Republican opposition, and learn
it right now:
If you would at least THREATEN the Republicans
with the "nuclear option" - eliminating the filibuster in
order to get something done- you will find that you will not only scare
them into dropping the filibuster threats over health care (like they
did to you over judicial nominations when they were in power)- but it
will also give them an easy political out- they can say they only dropped
their filibuster over this bill to keep the filibuster alive for future
battles. To keep their powder dry, as their NRA buddies might say. So
everyone stays safe- even the Republicans afraid of their Limbaugh-fed
constituents. It's a win-win!
So, threaten the filibuster "nuclear
option". You might win without even carrying out the threat. If
you still don't win, make good on your threat. Then you definitely will
win. And you won't risk anything, because you were too chicken to use
it when it really mattered, anyway.
If you "take it off the table",
negotiating against yourself, and don't even threaten changing the rules,
you are destined to lose every meaningful battle to the Republican't
minority, and you will thereby ensure that you will again be the minority
party, sooner than later. Who told you take it off the table anyway?
What did they give you in return? Nothing! They didn't have to!
JULY 12, 2009: BUSH-CHENEY MUST BE INVESTIGATED
FOR CRIMINAL SUBVERSION AND ABUSE OF POWER
One thing I learned over the Bush-Cheney
years is that when it comes to foreign policy, the Bushists do not care
one bit about the Constitution, or morality, or the law. It's not that
they are inherently evil-doers. They DO care about the supremacy of
the United States; I suppose that makes them patriots. This patriotism
of theirs causes them to accept all kinds of illegal and un-Constitutional
actions. The Bush-Cheney deliberate promotion of Saddam's "weapons
of mass destruction" lies don't bother them at all; it doesn't
really matter to them if Bush lied to the world or his own people to
justify and incite a war against Saddam, because Saddam was a bad man.
Therefore it doesn't matter to them HOW we overthrow and/or kill him,
as long as we do overthrow and/or kill him. In fact, it doesn't even
matter that he was a bad man. If he condoned torture or murder, that
doesn't really matter either; they are ok with torture and murder, as
long as it is done by us, to our own enemies. The main crime of Saddam's
to the Bushists was his arrogance towards the good ol' USA. The other
crime of Saddam's was that he sat on a lot of oil reserves that we wanted
full unthreatened access to. If it takes the destruction of a country
and the killing of 100,000 civilians and 3,000 of our own soldiers to
get that oil, they are OK with that. We want that oil, and dammit, we'll
take it! That is much more macho American than driving an electric car
or building windmills. (Never mind that it is not really the oil we
are getting; it's not really about oil, or even about us; it's about
oil companies, and their money.)
Similarly, the Bushists never care about
abuse of power by one of their own. I will grant that it is quite possible
that all the illegal actions of the Bush administration were performed
in a sincere desire to help protect our country against a second major
terrorist act (after they totally dropped the ball in their 9 months
leading up to 9/11, willfully ignoring the frantic protestations of
their own anti-terrorist chief, Richard Clarke from Day One, January
2001). Again, the Bushist point of view is that it is ok for Bush to
suspend the Constitution and claim supreme dictatorial powers- he can
be a dictator, as long as he's OUR dictator- because he was going after
those terrorists.
So does that mean it's ok to the Bush
supporters for a future President or a Vice President to ignore all
laws defining the separation of powers in the Constitution? What is
to prevent abuse of such power to suppress dissent, or to suppress whistle-blowing
truth-tellers, or to suppress any political opponents? Is it ok that
any President have such power at his disposal? Would they feel that
way if a President Obama did it? Or a President Hillary Clinton? Are
they just OK scrapping the Constitution and trusting in a new dictatorial
President?
IT IS NOT OK FOR A PRESIDENT TO SUBVERT
THE CONSTITUTION AND BREAK THE LAW. IF THE LAW IS WRONG, IT SHOULD BE
CHANGED BY LEGAL MEANS, WITH FULL HONEST DEBATE, BEFORE THE PRESIDENT
BREAKS IT.
IF BUSH-CHENEY GET AWAY WITH THEIR CRIMES,
THE MESSAGE SENT FOR FUTURE PRESIDENTS IS THAT IT IS OK TO VIOLATE THE
CONSTITUTION WHENEVER THEY FEEL LIKE IT, AND THEY WILL NEVER BE HELD
ACCOUNTABLE.
I am sick to my stomach about Democrats
continuing to kowtow in fear about holding the Bush administration accountable.
Obama says he wants to look forward, not backward. But if you don't
hold them accountable, there is absolutely nothing preventing a repeat
performance of this abuse of power by the next Bushist or Hitler that
comes to power. There is ample evidence of abuse of power- and there
has been for a long time. The Democrats failed to take action and investigate,
impeach and convict them of their crimes while in office, but it is
not too late to clearly establish the limits of power. Don't even stoop
to respond to politics like John Cornyn saying "this looks to me
suspiciously like an attempt to provide political cover [to House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats]". The response to that should
be a laugh and then ignore him. Cornyn is welcome to investigate Pelosi
(for what, exactly? Condoning torture? If so, i would be happy to see
him throw Pelosi in jail, but he can't then stop at Pelosi- he'll have
to throw Gonzales and Cheney and Yoo and Addington and Bush and Rumsfeld
and Ashcroft and Rice in there too!). Hey Democrats: Cornyn can't do
anything anyway- use your majority! Don't you remember how Trent Lott
ran things? You have the steamroller now- use it!
If what Bush and Cheney did is legal-
or if it was even necessary- that will come out from an investigation.
Cornyn should welcome an investigation so that Bush's actions can be
proven to be legal and appropriate. What is he and Cheney afraid of?
The Bushists' actions were too controversial to ignore without a thorough
investigation into the truth. These are extremely important issues that
should be hashed out for the benefit of this country, one way or the
other.
Dear Democrats: Let the Republicans like
Cornyn lob their political grenades, and wage their little terrorist
campaign against "liberals", but this time stand up to them
and JUST DO THE RIGHT THING. Hold the Bushists responsible. Make it
clear that the battle between Bush and the Constitution will be won
by the Constitution. Be the Real Patriots and protect the Constitution
for future generations. Make it clear that dictators will not be tolerated
and will be held fully accountable for all crimes against the Constitution.
MAY 17, 2009: WHY DOES THE MEDIA GRILL
PELOSI HARDER THAN THEY GRILL CHENEY?
It seems strange that there has been such
a flurry of media activity about exactly what Nancy Pelosi knew, and
when she knew it, about the Bush-Cheney torture practices. The media
has focused in like a laser about supposed hypocrisy, inconsistencies,
and dissembling in Nancy Pelosi's claims. Newt Gingrich has expressed
outrage about the supposed "political attacks" and "lies"
of Pelosi. Huh? There's a bit of pot kettle black on your face there
Newt. Did Nancy Pelosi order the torture? Did she conduct the torture?
Did she develop the policy about torture? Did she lie about the fact
that torture was being conducted? Did she violate the law passed by
Congress banning torture with a "signing statement"? NO. Yet,
nobody ever probed Bush or Cheney or Yoo about it to the degree that
they are pouncing on this "gotcha!" story about Pelosi.
If I were Pelosi I would say, "ok,
let's investigate me, and if I am guilty of any conspiracy to torture,
or to develop a pseudo-"legal" framework free of any judicial
or legislative oversight, then I should be held accountable. Let's get
started!! But let's include Bush, and Cheney, and Yoo, and Bybee, and
Gonzales and everyone else." Why are they so eager to relentlessly
probe Pelosi, but they throw softballs to Bush and Cheney without any
follow-ups?
Meanwhile, President Obama has said that
he wants to look forward and not backward- noone will be prosecuted,
and the torture photos won't be revealed, etc. He just "wants to
make sure it won't happen again". But how can you prevent it from
happening again if you set a precedent that no-one will be held accountable
for torture?
The dittoheads are prevailing with the
propagation of the iodea that the only "torture" consisted
of "panties on people's heads"; and that only truly-threatening
terrorists were tortured. The fact is that people- including innocent
people- were tortured, injured and even killed. Imagine being trapped
in a coffin whil;e you believed you were being buried alive. Imagine
being repeatedly slammed into walls. Imagine being repeatedly drowned.
Torture is disgraceful. Tyrants- even tyrants that are supposedly on
"our" side- must be held accountable, and punished for their
crimes.
Tyranny must not be allowed to go unpunished. Bring Gonzales, Yoo, Bybee,
Bush, Cheney and whoever else was involved- even Nancy Pelosi if that's
where the path leads- to trial!
OCTOBER 20, 2008 : WHY DOES EVERYBODY
LIE?
I am fully aware that negative campaigning
works. I did it myself, and it helped a lot. In my case, how else could
I have convinced people to vote for an unknown challenger against a
familiar incumbent? Why else would I have even been challenging an incumbent,
unless I thought he was doing a bad job? So, I'm not against negative
campaigning, whether to expose the bad job someone's doing, or to draw
contrasts between yourself and your opponent.
But it is entirely wrong to LIE, or even
to deliberately mislead. This year it seems that everyone is doing it.
Last weekend I got a silly email from NARAL that claimed that McCain
was ridiculing the "health" of women, showing him using air
quotes around the word "health". Of course McCain was talking
about his opposition to Obama's demand for exceptions allowing mid-term
abortion procedures in pregnancies endangering the health of women,
because McCain believes that sometimes the "health" exception
would be abused. I disagree with McCain's position, as I believe the
woman and the doctor should determine the best course, the best procedure,
and the best medical technique, rather than a bunch of politicians,
but his point was deliberately misrepresented by NARAL. NARAL grossly
distorted his point by taking it out of context and looping it to make
him look ridiculous. NARAL of course put their ads out independently
from Obama, so Obama can not be held responsible. And of course, McCain
has been repeatedly distorting Obama's votes on taxes, and his ties
with Ayres. But I don't think it's fair to so grossly misrepresent someone
- even an opponent.
Locally, in my old favorite race, the
70th State House district, there's been some ridiculous mud-slinging
back and forth. I guess it's not exactly lying, but it comes close.
The Republican, Jay Moyer, has been a vast improvement over the previous
incumbent, John Fichter. Of course, just about anyone who shows up to
work would have been an improvement over Fichter. But I still give Representative
Moyer credit for showing some energy in the office, and generally keeping
his promises. I was especially grateful as a Board Member of Habitat
for Humanity that Representative Moyer helped us get a significant grant
from the state to help fund some projects we were working on. But lately
the Moyer campaign has been putting out mailing after mailing claiming
that his challenger, Matt Bradford, caused the murder rate to double
because he fired 8 policemen in Norristown while acting as borough manager.
It should be noted that police represent almost two-thirds of the Norristown
budget, with a total of about 75 officers, give or take. How would a
responsible manager have balanced the budget to get the borough out
of arrears, without cutting the force? And didn't the bipartisan borough
council have some say in approving the budget? And, while policemen
may be helpful in solving murders, I am not sure how they would have
prevented the murders from happening in the first place.
Also, what exactly does it mean for the
murder rate to have "almost doubled"? Luckily, the campaign
literature does reference a web site: www.city-data.com. Here is the
data presented on that web site:
Year |
Number of Murders in Norristown |
1999 |
2 |
2000 |
2 |
2001 |
5 |
2002 |
5 |
2003 |
4 |
2004 |
3 |
2005 |
No Data |
2006 |
5 |
So let's see; I believe that the date
of Matt Bradford's service to Norristown was around 2004-2005. So, that
means the murder rate went from 3 per year in 2004 to 5 per year in
2006; which is actually the same rate it had been in 2001 and 2002.
Interestingly, arson and car theft went down over the same period. Should
Matt take credit for that?
Meanwhile, Matt Bradford's literature
attacks Jay Moyer for Jay's taxpayer-funded car; while Jay Moyer's literature
fires right back at Matt Bradford's taxpayer-funded car. The lit of
both campaigns is designed to make the opponent look like some kind
of corrupt, greedy, dishonest politician on the take. All of these charges
and counter-charges are bogus- both men are decent politicians trying
to do some good for their community, according to their own political
philosophy, while making a decent day's pay for a decent day's work.
Eventually it comes down to whether you
want a strong Democratic majority in the State House to push Governor
Rendell's agenda through for the next 2 years, or if you want a stronger
Republican opposition to keep a check on Rendell's initiatives. As a
pro-Rendell Democrat, I'd like to see a stronger majority to end the
gridlock and let our re-elected Governor get some things done. But,
can't we please stick to the issues? Even a little bit?
AUGUST 26 , 2008: McCAIN- HAVE YOU EVER
BEEN EXPERIENCED?
I do get a kick out of McCain's minions
attacking Barack Obama by holding up their boy's "Experience"
as so important to our national security. McCain has indicated that
he is ready to bomb entire countries into submission, as well as to
torture all suspects, as part of the Global War on Terror. (Note:
while McCain claims to have broken with the Bush administration on torture-
that break was very temporary. Although he made a very public display
of that break, he eventually vote for the bill which allowed us to continue
to torture suspects, including the waterboarding that McCain originally
said he wanted stopped.) The fact that tens of thousands of innocent
people have been killed, harmed, and tortured is just the price we pay
for our security (or rather, the price They pay). After all "Freedom
isn't Free"! McCain's "experience" these past 7 years
has been to cheer Bush on in all of his immoral and unconstitutional
adventures. Not only does that kind of "experience" result
in a loss of any kind of moral USA high ground, not to mention making
more enemies. But now, that kind of "experience" makes it
just a little difficult to respond credibly and coherently to a country
like, say Russia, invading a neighbor, like, say Georgia. Maybe we need
someone with less such "Experience", and better "Judgment".
We can't afford another 4 years of reckless behavior.
MAY 3 , 2008: "YEARS OF SHAME"
FINALLY CRAWL TOWARDS THE FINISH LINE
Finally we are in the waning days of the
Worst President Ever. While they can't end soon enough, and should have
ended long ago, at least America seems to be waking up to the fact that
we've been had. A government that campaigned with false slogans like
"Trust the People" and "Restore Honor and Dignity"
has been recklessly abusing that trust from Day Zero with its stolen
election. George W Bush abused his power, has operated above, beyond,
and with contempt for the rule of law, the Constitution, International
Law, and common decency and morality. Even when given unprecedented
unified support brought on by the single most horrific attack on our
shores (an attack he willfully ignored as it developed), he squandered
this advantage and has gone from having the highest favorable ratings
ever to the lowest ever. He lied us into a reckless war, needlessly
and senselessly killing hundreds of thousands of innocent men, women
and children, dipped into our treasury for generations to come to line
the pockets of his greedy buddies. Unlike his more humble father, Bush
didn't lack the "vision thing"- his vision is one of arrogance,
torture, and disgrace to our great country. He played the dirtiest of
gutter politics, employing henchmen and professional liars to slander
legitimate patriots and heroes to maintain his grip on power. All along
he was assisted by a cowardly media and weak opposition party, and buttressed
by loudmouth zeaolots who would stop at nothing to impose their arrogant
world view. Only now that his policies have been shown to be failures
is the worm starting to turn. That "Jobs Creation Act" tax
cut for the billionaires has been a woeful failure, with the worst jobs
creation record since Hoover. I never supported Bush, and in fact have
vigorously opposed him throughout his term, but even his most inveterate
supporters are now looking at him with disgust. Good riddance, you arrogant,
hateful, lying thief, and don't let the door hit you on your way out.
May you spend the rest of your days tortured by the torture you have
inflicted on families throughout this country and the world.
FEBRUARY 29, 2008: TELECOM IMMUNITY-
WHAT'S IT REALLY ALL ABOUT?
The hot political topic of the past few
days was Bush's continued browbeating of Democrats to pass the law extending
Bush's ultra-dictatorial-surveillance law, giving himself supreme powers
to wiretap anyone without any meaningful judicial oversight nor recourse.
Bush demands that the bill include retroactive immunity for telecoms
that broke the law at his request before the surveillance was made legal.
He says that if they are not granted immunity, then they won't help
in the future.
I'm trying to understand what is really
the issue here. Why are we debating whether the telecoms should be granted
immunity for breaking the law, while ignoring whether Bush should be
granted immunity for asking them to break the law? He clearly knew what
he was doing was against the law, based on speeches he made before the
illegal activity was uncovered, assuring Americans that he was complying
with the law. Is the reason Bush is so insistent that, if telecoms are
brought to court, he will be brought to court along with them? And it
may come out that he wiretapped not only terrorists, but political enemies,
environmental groups etc. Why don't the Democrats make it clear that
they want to hold Bush accountable for breaking the law?
And Bush's argument that "we must
grant telecoms immunity or else they won't help in the future"
is absurd on its face. "Won't help with" what? The only thing
they would not help with would be activities that are illegal! For everything
else, they would be required to comply based on the law. So why don't
the Democrats respond to the specious argument? It's infuriating, but
once again the Democrats fail to respond soberly to Bush's saber-rattling,
and fail to make the case to the American people that we need to rein
in unchecked executive superpowers that are a violation of the Constitution.
All Bush is doing is trying to keep himself
immune from prosecution and to keep the wraps on his illegal activity,
which may very well include political spying and harassment and blackmail.
If he gets away with this, we would never know! We know that Bush knowingly
broke the law on wiretapping. We also know that it was unnecessary for
him to break the law to meet his objectives of swiftly tracing terrorists.
The only thing that the law would have prevented was the slightest,
non-political judicial oversight. Why is he afraid of oversight? Even
retroactive oversight? What is he hiding?
Retroactive telecom immunity will only
set a precedent assuring telecoms that they must act illegally if requested
by the President.
Preventing retroactive immunity will not
- CAN NOT- prevent a telecom from acting on legal demands in the future.
It will only discourage them from performing illegal actions in the
future. As it should!
If Bush broke the law, he should be prosecuted
to the fullest extent of the law, and he deserves to be impeached, and
his crimes should be fully invetsigated.
The American people deserve to know whether
Bush has abused his illegal wiretapping powers for political purposes.
If preventing telecom immunity will allow the truth to come out, then
keep retroactive immunity out of the bill! But if Democrats can't make
the case, we will be sure to see them fold, cowering in fear, afraid
of looking "weak on terrorists", which is irrelevant to the
whole controversy.
FEBRUARY 22, 2008: MEDIA FIX IS IN
Watching the Democratic debate on CNN
last night was infuriating- both because of the lopsided, absurd, and
biased questioning of Hillary Clinton, and her inability to respond
effectively. Almost every question to her was a variation of the same
unfair question, over and over again: "You say that you're the
one candidate with the experience to be Commander-in-Chief- are you
saying Obama does not have the experience to be Commander-in-Chief?"
"You say that you are the candidate who will be ready to take action
on the economy on Day One- are you saying Obama will not be ready?"
The Republicans would like nothing better than to have
a soundbite from Hillary Clinton saying "Obama is not ready to
be Commander-in-Chief", etc. The media seemed intent on drawing
such a soundbite out of her to disparage the current Democratic frontrunner.
Meanwhile, they never asked Obama to explain, "You
say you will reach out to all Americans- are you saying Hillary won't
reach out?" The questioning was rather one-sided to draw Hillary
into a direct attack on Obama's credentials.
Each time, Hillary struggled through a muddled answer,
trying to explain without falling into the trap they were laying for
both her AND Obama, with this line of attack. She did avoid falling
into the trap, but came out sounding vague and evasive, She said "It's
the voters that will decide; Distinctions have to be made; I am ready
to be President."
I wish she had said the following:
"From these questions you seem intent on forcing
me to attack Barack rather than explain why I believe I am the best
candidate. Let's face it: One of the two of us up here is going to be
the Democratic nominee, and either one of us will be better for Americans
than Bush has been or John McCain would be. It would not serve either
of us to attack the other so that Republicans can use the attack in
their ads. So if you are intent on fostering petty squabbles, backstabbing,
and trivial attacks, to support the Republican campaign goals and divide
the Democratic party, you are wasting your time with me. Democratic
voters have a choice between an excellent candidate in Barack, and an
even better candidate in me. In the speeches you quoted, I am trying
to answer the question, why do I believe that I am the best candidate?
Are you interested in my answer to that question?"
______________________________________________________
ARCHIVE ARTICLES:
CLICK ON THE HEADLINES BELOW TO READ PAST ENTRIES
______________________________________________________
-The Daily Local News, November
19, 2004
"Power is in the hands of an unelected
few who have retained power through an electoral process that ignores
the basic requirements of democracy."
-George W. Bush, June 16, 2005
Free "Proud to Live in
a Blue State" bumper sticker! Download it here,
print it on bumper sticker label stock available at most office supply
stores, sport it on your car, and remind the Bushists that they are
in Blue territory!
-
ELECTION
RESULTS ARE IN! (FINALIZED 12/10/04)
GORDON, MATTHEW: 13,025 votes (45%) (First-time Democratic Challenger)
FICHTER, JOHN W.: 15,929 votes (55%) (Six-term Republican incumbent)
NOTE: THIS WAS THE FIFTH-CLOSEST ELECTION FOR AN INCUMBENT STATE
REPRESENTATIVE IN THE ENTIRE STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA!
To visit Matthew's original Campaign
home page, go here.
To read patriotic
cartoonist Ted Rall, click here.
Matt Gordon
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