Are Republicans civilized?

Are Republicans civilized? This is a question that may be answered next week. No civilized country would appoint an Attorney General who favored torture, would they? And presumably no civilized country would appoint an Attorney General who thought the president was really a king, and thus entirely above all laws, both national and international, would they? Next week the Senate will vote either to confirm Gonzales or not. If most or all Democrats vote against him, and the Republican majority closes ranks and votes for him, will that not indicate that Republicans are in favor of torture and Kingship? In my humble opinion, if Gonzales is confirmed by the Republicans, it will signal not only war against all other nations, but war against all non-Republicans in the United States itself. Of course not all Democrats might vote against Gonzales (there will always be Liebermans), but they should. This would make it entirely clear to everyone, everywhere, who are in favor of torture and who are not. One very good sign that something like this might happen is that Russ Feingold, the most non-partisan Senator of all, has indicated he will vote against Gonzales. Let’s hope that enough other Democrats will do the same to make clear what is happening to the United States. Will Republicans stick to their usual routine of putting loyalty to party above loyalty to country? Stay tuned.

Scott Ritter has a piece out today that says we are all guilty (of the war in Iraq). While I have great admiration for Ritter I absolutely refuse to accept any blame whatsoever for what is going on in Iraq. I was not in favor of the Bush people stealing the election (twice), I was not in favor of going to war, I did not believe Iraq was a threat to the United States (or anyone else, for that matter), and I have done whatever I could to oppose this neocon madness at every opportunity. I believe we should withdraw our troops from Iraq as immediately as practical, and I believe that Bush/Cheney and the neocons are all war criminals and should be treated as such. So, Scott Ritter, don’t blame me! Of course I know he doesn’t mean me personally but, rather, the American people in general who are just too uninformed, uninterested, or unintelligent to learn what is happening and get out and vote. He’s right.

Please tell me this was a nightmare and not something I just read today. Apparently there are hyperconservatives who want to erase Lincoln from Mount Rushmore so they can replace him with guess who – Ronald Reagan! They have long wanted Reagan on Mount Rushmore but were stymied because there just wasn’t enough room. But if they could deface Lincoln and remake his image into Reagan’s that would be paradise enow. And now that someone has written a book suggesting Lincoln might have been gay they see their opportunity. Unhappily I am not making this up. They actually want to replace one of our greatest Presidents with one of the worst, the Great Emancipator with the brainless communicator. But remember, “if you’ve seen one redwood tree you’ve seen em all.”