Never Enough Good Grief Department

So now teachers can't even write off purchases of school materials out of their own pockets. Teachers are already poorly paid and overworked, and are often forced to purchase school supplies for their students. The least we could do is let them save a little on taxes to make up for it. But no--it's too important to Leave No Billionaire Behind, I guess.

FEH, I'm in an ugly mood. Fits the state of this nation, though.

Never Enough Happy Endings Department

Remember that bit from yesterday, about an Alabama woman who was fired for having a John Kerry bumper sticker on her car?

John Kerry hired her.

Now, with November 2 just around the corner, I wouldn't expect the woman to get too excited. Still, you know this will get some good buzz, and she will definitely dig it.

You go, girl.

Never Enough Bogus Firings Department

A woman in Moulton, Alabama was fired for, of all things, displaying a Kerry/Edwards sticker on her car. Her boss had been placing a letter in with each employees' paycheck that claimed the Bush tax cut allowed him to afford equipment and--pointedly--employees. But apparently he doesn't like it much when others disagree.

What's so incredibly stupid about this? Only that the boss in question, Phil Gaddis, is also a bankruptcy attorney. How could an attorney set himself up for such a bone-headed wrongful dismissal suit? All I can figure is that Gaddis was making so much money off of the increasing rate of bankruptcies--which hasn't gotten any better under Dubya--that he couldn't tell he was about to screw himself.

Never Enough Quick Money Department

Hey, want over $2000 in a hurry? It's easy! Just be the first person who can prove you asked Dubya, in a public forum, one simple question:

How many times have you been arrested, Mr. President?

C'mon, what could be easier?

(Pardon my sarcasm--Bush is still screening people at his public appearances to rule out any partisan questioning. But if people could sneak into the GOP Convention to protest, then one person surely could find an opportunity to ask this question. For two thousand bucks? It'd be worth it, you know.)

Never Enough Damning Facts Department

First off, sorry for the delay in publishing three of the most recent blog entries. As it turned out, my web server had become full, and so I had to blow out some galleries of pictures to get the blog working. As I plan to upgrade to a larger server before long, this shouldn't be a serious issue in the near future--I hope!

Second, you will want to read this article by Evan Derkacz on Bush's life during his National Guard "service". To me, none of this is new information, but it's nicely bundled together in a tight, hard-to-ignore package. If just a few key newspapers started reporting on some of this with any seriousness, Bush would look even weaker than he currently does.

But that's not all! So Bush lived a wild, reckless, irresponsible life. (You might've noticed that the Bush twins casually alluded to this part of Bush's life when talking about their own foibles, none of which have yet to top Bush's own youthful indiscretions.) So he didn't serve as honorably in the National Guard as he claims. So he drank a lot and bragged about it, flaunted law-breaking, and might've snorted cocaine. Lots of youngsters, especially the rich ones, act irresponsibly and selfishly, pretending that they'll live forever and have no consequences to face.

Well, there's also the fact that Bushie was busy learning his political dirty tricks while helping out the Senatorial campain of "Red" Blount, who accused conservative Democrat rival John Sparkman of supporting forced busing--that is, the sending of black children to schools with high populations of white students, and vice versa. That may seem like a non-issue nowadays, but back then, especially in Alabama, "forced busing" was a conservative code-word for "making our pure White children rub skin against those filthy, lazy, theiving, no-good niggers". In addition, Sparkman was accused of being anti-war and anti-military at a time when Southern sentiment towards Vietnam was stridently pro-war and pro-military. In short, Bush was being taught how to fight dirty in politics.

So, we're dealing with an irresponsible, reckless, careless, self-absorbed, respectless young man who was taught how to sling mud without getting it all over his red power tie. Then he found God and became President, and we were supposed to forget all about his past, and by all means never make judgements about his character and his ability to lead from the way he behaved 30 years ago.

Except, people are starting to remember, and the judgements are inevitable.

Oops.

Never Enough Bu**Sh** Department

So, if you believe some of the punditry out there, Bush is ahead by seven points. This is in one poll, I hasten to add--Gallup has Bush ahead by two. Two points? Statistically speaking, that's still a dead heat.

You can tell the GOP is deeply concerned. Why else would Cheney state that making the "wrong choice" on Election Day would doom the country to another terrorist attack? It's such an irresponsible, near-traitorous thing to say, and only makes sense if you accept the notion that Cheney, his boss, and their coterie--heh, almost typed "cotillion" there!--of political advisors and hatchet-men are deeply worried that they aren't getting enough of a political gain over Kerry.

Ruy Teixeira agrees. Oh yes, the media isn't letting on just yet that the Republicans are in hot water, but the evidence is out there. Why, that two percent bounce is, in Teixeira's words, "the worst ever received by an incumbent president, regardless of party, and the worst ever received by a Republican candidate, whether incumbent or not." [His emphasis.]

Which means, Kerry needs to nail Bush down hard for the next two months. He can. Although Kerry complimented Bush's debating skills during his Daily Show interview, Kerry is much better at extemporization--which means that Kerry will appear much calmer and stronger during the debates, while Bush will flinch at each and every unscripted turn. Meanwhile, even as Bush continues the "flip-flop" tirade, Kerry will keep reminding Americans that Bush has screwed up his first shot at being President and doesn't deserve a second chance.

"'W' for 'Wrong'"--not a bad slogan, really.

I still prefer twisting around the Republican slogan:

"10 Out Of 10 Terrorists Agree--Bush Is Good For Business"

But that's just me.

Never Enough Straight Facts Department

FactCheck.org simply rocks. Are you confused about some point of order in the political campaign, or in the news? Come to FactCheck.org and see what the Annenberg Public Policy Center's fact-checking team has to say. Don't worry, these folks are non-partisan--they'll zing Kerry and moveon.org just as they'll zing Bush and Swift Vote Veterans.

Except, reading the site, you get a quick feeling that Bush & Co. must've gone into Permanent Compulsive Lying mode, because FactCheck.org finds themselves in the somewhat awkward position of correcting Bush's team and allies far more than Kerry's.

Imagine that.

Never Enough Reassurances Department

Ghods, I love Molly Ivans. Her latest column is a hoot and a half--mainly because she can be both pointed and hilarious, all at once. Read this column, especially if you feel disheartened after the RNC. This will cheer you up, no problems.

And if that doesn't cheer you up, maybe a little Michael Moore, also commenting on the RNC, will help.

Chin up! All that is left to do at this point is to make sure as many people vote as possible, and to stand up to Bush lies. The rest will sort itself out. Trust me on this.

Never Enough Dissolving Parties Department

Watching the Republican National Convention, with its well-funded glitziness and fawning support for their Boy King, you'd never guess that the Republicans are in deep, deep trouble.

First, there's the matter of Alan Keyes, who in a matter of days has (a) accused Fox News journalist Walter Jacobsen of, of all things, being in the pay of the Democrats, largely due to the fact that Jacobsen caught Keyes claiming that automatic weapons were legal in Illinois and questioned him on that statement; and (b) called Dick Cheney's lesbian daughter Mary a selfish hedonist and a sinner. Note well that, for a high-profile Senate seat, Keyes is the best the GOP could do to counter the articulate but unexperienced Obama.

But Keyes is just the hottest potato in the basket, so to speak. There's the little matter of the GOP using moderate speakers to put a "compassionate" face on the most radical Republican platform ever, glossing over the problem of having too many conflicting interests under the GOP "big tent". Indeed, Republican moderates largely feel slighted by the Party's shift to the right. Stem cell research, environmentalism, fiscal responsibility, abortion, and gay rights are but a few areas where moderates feel the Republican leadership has abandoned them. Their reactions are varied--some stay the course, hoping to convince the leadership of the urgency of a more moderate point of view. Then there's the Log Cabin Republicans, who are running TV ads to force the Party to step back from its platform, which not only calls for a Constitutional amendment against gay marriage but also action against any attempt to grant gay couples rights akin to marriage, such as civil unions.

Right now, it seems that the only thing holding the Republicans together is loyalty to the party, not ideology or common causes. And, as David Brooks of the conservative Weekly Standard has pointed out, if Bush loses, not even party loyalty will prevent sectarianism that will make the Democrats look unified, coherent, and strife-free. Of course, Brooks sees a potential path to salvation in what he calls "progressive conservatism"--and what that means is anyone's guess. Perhaps it's just a matter of co-opting progressive language and welding it to conservative thought--or vice versa, a sell-job to conservatives of the need for progressive policy. But I have doubts it will work.

The biggest problem the Republicans have is that, for decades, they have relied on the Cold War as a launching point for paranoia and psychopathy wrapped in patriot's clothes. As long as the Republicans could be seen as hard on Communism, they could contrast themselves with the more reasoned, measured, but usually unwavering realpolitik of the Democrats. They could then cast attempts at progressive policy as tax-and-spend fluff which didn't solve any real problems and sapped precious dollars from hard-working taxpayers, with the occasional "Commie" accusation coughed under breath.

The problem then is clear--Republicans have built themselves up as the anti-tax, anti-progressive party. To twist around and become progressive without a better means to raise government income is to alienate their base. As Michael Moore pointed out in his recent op-ed piece in USA Today, many Republicans are "RINOs"--Republicans In Name Only. In other words, they largely support progressive policies, except for their resistance to taxation. If the Republicans wish to become "progressive conservatives", they will need to find a better means to raise revenues for funding progressive causes, or else deal with another few decades of alienation. And that will be tough.

It won't be impossible, however. It's quite possible to argue successfully, for example, that raising fuel efficiency standards for cars and trucks will result in savings later on in terms of less energy consumption and smaller environmental clean-up costs. Again, the problem is how to explain this gigantic flip-flop to millions of Republicans who were convinced by conservative pundits that progressive and expensive are synonymous. It won't go down well with evangelicals who think Armageddon is right around the corner, and certain fossilized business sectors will recoil in horror at the notion that their selfishness won't result in any invisible hands saving the day. All in all, it looks grim for the Republicans in the long haul.

And I'm sure that Republican-bashers will be wiping their hands in malicious glee at the thought of the GOP being in deep waters. But I'm not a Republican-basher--or, at least, I don't think of myself as such. Hey, I like John McCain and Bob Dole, amongst others. I may disagree with some of their positions but I like them as people, and think they tend to have higher standards than, say, Newt Gingrich or John Ashcroft. To be blunt, if the Republicans did become more progressively-inclined, I for one would feel a lot better about the political process, and the future of this country.

Never Enough Shrooms Department

Mushrooms--toppings for salads, steaks, and pizzas? Or a potential bonanza of helpful benefits for humanity?

You decide.

Me, I'm up for eating radioactive Psyllocybin on a supreme deep-dish. If I'm going to trip I may as well go the Spider-Man route at the same time. And then we can spread mushrooms to clean up the mess I make while trying to figure out my super-powers!

Or maybe they'll cure me of the inevitable cancer that comes from chewing on Cesium 137-laden fungus. You never know!

(Never put your tongue firmly in cheek while chewing gum. BAD idea. BAD, BAD idea.)