November 5, 2006

• Eyes on the Prize

  I was gonna write a letter to the editor of our local paper about why I'm voting Green again this year, but I was too tired.  So Molly Ivins will have to do.  Please go on Tuesday and vote at least a few Republicans out of office and into the "free-market" oblivion which they so richly deserve.  In my jurisdiction, we also have several "advisory" referenda on the ballot about pulling our troops out of Iraq, impeaching Bush and his crowd, etc.  This is one election where I can hardly wait to vote, which is extremely rare for me....
  

  Molly Ivins: Keeping Our Eyes on the Ball

  http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20061101_molly_ivins_keeping_our_eyes_on_the_ball/

  Posted on Nov 1, 2006

  By Molly Ivins

  AUSTIN, Texas—I’m still worried sick. The R’s have seized the news cycle!
  Which says more about how dim American politics are than anything else I can
  think of.

  Apparently, the Michael J. Fox affair didn’t have enough meat to it, and
  even Rep. Mark Foley is out of the game, so now we have the semi-hemi-demi-gaffe
  from John Kerry, who is not in fact running for anything.

   

  If Kerry had been given as many breaks for misspeaking as George W. Bush
  has, he’d be a professor of grammar by now. And this all shows what the Bush
  regime has: attacks on Kerry, Clinton, Kennedy, Pelosi, liberals! ... but not
  any actual policies to help it.

   

  The Great Wall of Republican ads is bearing down on us—race-baiting, scare
  tactics and sleaze-mongering. (Who knew so many people had signed up to “promote
  the homosexual agenda”? I don’t even know what it is. But apparently, you don’t
  have to sign up to support—you could be part of it and not even know!) The R’s
  are throwing distorting ads, funded by endless money, all over the place. Can
  the people see that, and ignore and punish them for it?

   

  Aside from the Wall of Ads, we are also faced with Disenfranchisement of
  Democrats again. For some reason, this has come to be regarded as “one of Karl’s
  dirty tricks”—a clever ploy, a little hardball, rather to be admired.

   

  I’ve covered East Texas politics for a long time. All over East Texas—and
  elsewhere around the country—there are elderly black Americans who don’t have
  driver’s licenses because they’ve never had a car, who can’t read because they
  never got to third grade, and who are scared of The Law because for 70 years or
  better they’ve been oppressed by it. So if they see a sheriff’s car blocking the
  road to the polling place and officials checking people’s papers, they head the
  other direction.

   

  Voting isn’t hard, and believe it or not, these elderly blacks have worked
  all their lives and paid into Social Security and paid taxes, and they know a
  lot about how government affects people.

   

  With pundits in Washington, who just a few weeks ago were claiming the
  Democrats would likely take the House by a razor-thin margin, now victoriously
  claiming they all along knew it would be a wipeout, I just feel that
  overconfidence juice starting to kick in. “Maybe 20 seats, maybe 40 seats” ...
  yeah. People could think: “So that’s settled. I don’t even really have to vote.”

   

  Folks, step up and make sure there’s some control on this regime.

  May I remind you what this election is about? Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo,
  unprecedented presidential powers, unmatched incompetence, unparalleled
  corruption, unwarranted eavesdropping, Katrina, Enron, Halliburton, global
  warming, Cheney’s secret energy task force, record oil company profits, $3
  gasoline, FEMA, the Supreme Court, Diebold, Florida in 2000, Ohio in 2004, Terri
  Schiavo, stem cell research, golden parachutes, shrunken pensions, unavailable
  and expensive healthcare, habeas corpus, no weapons of mass destruction,
  sacrificed soldiers and Iraqi civilians, wasted billions, Taliban resurgence,
  expiration of the assault weapons ban, North Korea, Iran, intelligent design,
  Swift boat hit squads, and on and on.

   

  This election is about that, but much more—it’s about honor, dignity and
  comity in this country. It’s about the Constitution, which gives us this great
  nation. Bush ran on a pledge of “restoring honor and integrity” to the White
  House. Instead, he brought us Tom DeLay, Roy Blunt, Katherine Harris, John
  Doolittle, Jerry Lewis, Richard Pombo, Mark Foley, Dennis Hastert, David
  Safavian, Jack Abramoff, Ralph Reed, Karl Rove and an illegal and immoral war in
  Iraq. People, it’s up to you.

   

  To find out more about Molly Ivins and see works by other Creators
  Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

   

  Copyright 2006 Creators Syndicate Inc.
  

  
  

  • 3:40 am
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