The Republican Babbleothon

They are both going dressed as Penguins.
The Governor and her husband.
BOO!

I forced myself to watch the Republican "debate." It was the most incredible and terrifying melange of half-truths, lies, ignorance, denial, obfuscation, warmongering, misrepresenting, and downright stupidity I have ever had the misfortune to watch. The Republican audience was so filled with blood-lust and apparent hatred one might have thought you were watching a performance of gladiators in ancient Rome, voting for some to die.

The first few minutes were taken up with some of the candidates arguing about who was the most conservative and boasting about all the conservative things they have done. You know, cutting taxes, cutting crime, cutting taxes, fighting gay marriage, cutting taxes, abortion, cutting taxes, cutting taxes, cutting taxes, and so on. Aside from being boring and failing to establish who was the most conservative, this part didn't amount to much and was a complete waste of time.

With respect to other issues they seemed to be so obsessed with Hillary they kept coming back to her no matter what was asked. They repeatedly referred to her desire to have "socialized medicine." While I am not conversant with the details of her program for universal health care I am quite certain that it cannot be described as socialized medicine as it certainly involves the insurance companies (which is no doubt one reason why the corporations are now giving her so much money). And of course they keep claiming that she will raise taxes and spend recklessly (this comes from the party that took a multibillion dollar surplus and turned it into the largest deficit in human history in the space of a couple of years). Although I don't recall them coming right out and saying it, I believe they think she will deal with social security and medicare/medicaid by raising taxes. Their solution seems to be, of course, privatization. Privatization is their answer to everything (remember, they have no interest in the public good, only individual and corporate greed). They kept saying we have the greatest medical system in the world (how they can say this with a straight face eludes me). Strange that in this context they always talk about comparing us with Candada and England, never with France, Norway, or Sweden.

Abortion, being the one issue of most importance to the Republican "base," has now become one of their primary issues (if they used to be for it they are now against it), and if they are now for it they promise to appoint judges that will oppose it (Giuliani). They seem to believe that people should be forced to have children they don't want, but those children should not have health care unless they are wealthy enough to afford it (they can always go to the emergency room).

On Iraq they seem to insist that Hillary wants to withdraw our troops (in spite of the fact that she seems to be just as hawkish as Bush/Cheney) whereas they want to keep them there (I guess) forever. They all (with the exception of Ron Paul who was summarily booed) want to attack Iran if they persist in wanting to create a nuclear bomb. It is at least doubtful the Iranians want to do this but even if they did it would not, contrary to their fears, be the end of the world or the beginning of WW III. When it comes to Iran they are so completely hysterical it makes you wonder if they are even sane. Now they are concerned that Russia and China seem to want to defend Iran (and why should they not, they have more interests there than we do). McCain, if not the others, insists we should show Russia what's what by installing a missile defense system close to the Russian border (another example of utter insanity as such a system is totally unnecessary and probably won't even work). Again, this strategy seems to hinge on their belief that Iran is going to develop nuclear bombs and immediately launch them against Europe, if not the U.S., an idea so crazy as to be taken seriously only by Republicans. In order to guard against this potential threat, and to coerce Russia and China into seeing things our way, we must increase our military (which already is financed with more money than all the rest of the world combined spends on defense).

In short, as near as I can tell, Republicans are so ignorant and misinformed, so willing to believe anything about Iran, Hillary, Russia, China, and whomever, they cling to their nonsensical positions as religiously as they cling to the status quo of endless war, empire, war profiteering, torture, lawlessness, and the "white man's burden." Seeking bipartisanship with these Bush/Cheney warmongering apologists is a lost cause. They hide behind their immoral profits and "can't stand the truth."

LKBIQ:
"America is the only nation in history which miraculously has gone directly from barbarism to degeneration without the usual interval of civilization."
Georges Clemenceau