The City Council has approved the purchase of a new safe house for the Pretty Bird Woman House. If you remember we wrote several times on their situation and helped with fund raising. You can read more here, here, here, and here is the post on their blog about it too. I have written about this a lot but I am really proud to be a small part of such a powerful movement that is helping so many.

Obama is gaining important supporters left and right. Caroline Kennedy, Ted Kennedy, and Kathleen Sebilius from Kansas (yay!) have all recently thrown their support behind Obama. To tell the truth despite my earlier doubts about his experience I am actually getting excited about him too. I still think he would make a better vice-president to get some experience but for the first time in ages I could fully support any of our top candidates.

Speaking of famous endorsements for Obama we can also add in Hulk Hogan. The Hulksters endorsement is exciting for one reason, we get to ponder who’s endorser can beat up the others. Huckabee has Chuck Norris and McCain has Sylvester Stallone. I say instead of an election we have a no holds barred cage match and whoever wins gets the presidency. With all the voter suppression and fraud this may actually be more fair. For the record my money is on Chuck Norris because I heard that there is no chin behind Chuck Norris’ beard. There is only another fist. How do you fight against that?

John McCain apparently has a secret method of capturing Osama bin Laden (remember him, Bush doesn’t?). He wont give anything away but I think if you read the last paragraph, then factor in the new Rambo movie, it’ll be something like that. Why do Republicans get all their ideas from bad action films? That must explain their fascination with old actors.

Lets see in Republican news Rudy’s campaign has officially ended. later today. I’m still undecided if this is way overdue or way too soon. On the one hand he is one of the worst possible candidates. He is is a horrible person with a horrible record and he has horrible ideas. I’m glad to see him go. On the other even Republicans can’t stand him once they get past the image of him as the hero of 9/11. That fantasy would have been easy to burst later when it mattered. Oh well, good riddance.

It shows a certain disdain for the truth to lie about known events to make political points. It takes an absolute disregard for the truth to continue telling those lies after being called out for them. Yet that is exactly what Rudy Giuliani’s campaign has been doing while attacking the Democrats’ health care policies. Rudy has a radio ad out in New Hampshire where he makes the false claim that survival rates for prostate cancer are 82% here and only 44% under socialized medicine in England.

This statement has come under intense scrutiny because it is completely false. It is a bold faced lie meant to slander the Democrats and pander to the anti-children’s health care crowd. This by itself would not be a story, in fact I was so uninterested in writing about yet another Republican lie I have waited about 3 days to write this. Here is the thing, whether or not they new before that the numbers were wrong and misleading they absolutely know now. The Washington Post, MSNBC, The New York Times, FactCheck.org, and on and on have all voiced the truth. A New Hampshire Health care group, New Hampshire for Health Care, which represents more than 60,000 residents is even demanding the lying ad be taken down.

So here is the story in this that finally got me to write about it. Rudy Giuliani is refusing to take down the ad and continues to repeat the false numbers, even after being caught in the lie. The only possible reason for this is because they still think they can win political points using it. This baffled me at first because I didn’t see how telling a known lie, and being branded a liar, could possibly help in the polls. Then it occurred to me, it will help because the people he is pandering to do not care that he is lying to them.

For all their talk about “family values” and Christian morals the fundamentalist conservatives of this nation could care less that one of their top presidential candidates is lying to them. The only thing they care about is that they say the right things when they lie. You know that they hate the gays, that they don’t trust womenfolk to make their own medical decisions, and that socialized medicine is the devil. Crazy shit like that. Reality and facts are just momentary inconveniences that can be ignored whenever they become inconvenient.

It really bothers me that the Republican constituency is so unconcerned with honesty that this kind of behavior is acceptable from their candidates. This is the kind of issue that should become a campaign issue, you know like Barack Obama’s name, or Hillary’s cleavage, or Edwards’ haircut. Except unlike those three silly issues that got way too much media attention, the honesty and character of a candidate actually matters. Well, at least it does to the liberals. Honesty may not be a family value, but it is a liberal value, and we need to demand that our next president is someone we can trust.

The Big Winner!
Chris Dodd!
For his unrelenting stand against retroactive immunity for big telecommunications companies Dodd has exhibited the leadership and moral judgment necessary for a presidential candidate. After 8 years of the Bush regime the country needs a president who can get the country back on its feet and this month Chris Dodd has repeatedly shown that he is up to the job.

Honorable Mention
Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Barack Obama, and Dennis Kucinich. In that order. Really they are all excellent candidates with strong policies and outstanding track records of promoting progressive causes. I had a hard time not pushing Hillary to the top but her habit of testing the waters before jumping on an issue cost her this month. I do like her policies though and will continue to push for her to become our nation’s first woman president.

The Big Loser!
Rudy Giuliani!
In a surprisingly strong race for worst candidate on the Republican side Rudy Giuliani has pulled ahead. This month Rudy set out to prove that there isn’t a close minded group too bigoted to avoid his pandering. First going after the anti-gay crowd (despite Rudy’s long history of supporting gay rights) then setting his sight on the anti-immigrant racists (despite his history as mayor of a “sanctuary city”). Rudy has raised pandering and bullshit to a level that makes even Mitt Romney wonder about his character.

Add to all that flip flopping and pandering to hate groups Rudy’s association with Bernie Kerik and a defrocked priest accused of molesting children, plus his theory that water boarding (which was used by the Spanish inquisition and was a crime in WWII) may or may not be torture depending on how it’s done and you get a picture of a real slime ball. What is really sad is that his campaign’s complete disregard for telling the truth, even after being corrected, doesn’t even make him stand out from the Republican candidates.

Runner Up:
Mike Huckabee for equating abortion with the holocaust and all around craziness. While he may be gaining among ultra conservatives his gung ho approach to creating a true theocracy in America creeps out the non-fundamentalists.

Any sane person would realize that completely ending illegal immigration is impossible. The US Mexican border is just shy of 2,000 miles long. Our northern Canada border is just shy of 4,000 miles long. Don’t forget the border between Canada and Alaska which is over 1,500 miles long. So without including any of our coastlines we would have to fence and/or patrol 7,500 miles of border without allowing even one person to slip through for Giuliani to back up this claim. So absolutely 100% impossible no matter what grand plan Giuliani has.

But that is thinking like a liberal, see when a conservative says illegal immigrant they mean only one thing, Mexicans. No other types of illegal immigrants carry the weight of conservatives’ bigotry as much as Mexicans do. Now any self respecting conservative will say that they hate all criminals equally, and there just happens to be more illegal Mexicans than anyone else. This sounds nice and all and I’m sure they can find someplace in their bible to justify this position. I can’t but I lack the creative Bible reading skills that Christians have developed.

There are many recent examples of cases where the conservative community has protested the punishment of real criminals. Scooter Libby is one recent and well published example. He was convicted of multiple felonies and the conservatives supported his commutation. Never mind that his felonies prevented an investigation into the leaking of a secret agent in charge of preventing Iran from getting nukes. That’s a big fucking deal and a major national security breach and the conservatives could care less.

Another example currently in the news is the ongoing debate over retroactive telecom immunity in the FISA bill which I have recently praised Chris Dodd for opposing. Again, we have a case where conservatives are protecting criminals from being prosecuted. In this instance big companies not only broke the law but they violated the constitutional rights of American citizens when doing so. So where is the outrage from these supposedly criminal hating conservatives? No where to be seen because they are supporting the immunity. It seems obvious in the match up between big business and the Constitution which is more important to conservatives.

I could go on but these examples clearly show that even in cases of treason or the violation of constitutional rights the conservatives have no problem with criminals. So we are just supposed to believe them when they say that the reason they hate illegal aliens Mexicans is because they committed a misdemeanor crime by being in the country illegally. Excuse me while I call BULLSHIT.

The reason these conservatives hate illegal alien Mexicans so much is because they look, speak, dress, and act differently than they do. Since they can’t hate the African-Americans openly anymore, fewer and fewer women are willing to put up with their abuse, and even homosexuals are getting the rights and protections they deserve the conservatives are simply moving on to whatever group they can get away with hating openly.

Aside from being bullies who like to pick on those weaker than them, conservatives have another reason to want to keep illegal immigrants ostracized from society and in near slavery conditions. Money. You won’t see this make the news very often but there is a lot of money being made by large businesses by maintaining the status quo. There are many large companies making huge profits by paying sub-standard wages to illegal immigrants. They know that Americans simply refuse to work in those conditions for the pay that illegal immigrants will accept. They also know that illegal immigrants wont complain about unpaid overtime, unsafe work conditions, or abuse because they will be deported.

This is one of the main reasons that the Presidents immigration reform push was defeated. The big businesses knew that if it went through they would loose millions a year in profits. As we all know anything that lowers the profits of big businesses and rich people is going to be strongly opposed by conservatives. If you add to that the opportunity to openly show their hatred for a minority group you will have a winning combination for conservatives every time.

This is the reason that I get riled up whenever I hear some right wing fanatic like Tancredo or Thompson and now Giuliani start talking about ending illegal immigration. They have no intention of ending it even if they could. Their big business buddies would lose too much money, which in turn means less donations to their pet politicians. They just like to sound tough on any Mexicans who would dare come to America to make a better life for their families because that is what their conservative constituents get off on.

~ William ~

I remember a time, back when Rudy was running in NYC, that Rudy was a strong advocate for gay rights. Of course at the time this may have been a lie to get votes, but I don’t think so. He has a long history of fighting for gay rights, created domestic partnerships in New York while Mayor, marched in Gay Pride Parades, and has even lived with gay friends during his second divorce.

So what could have made Rudy change his long standing beliefs? My guess is it was the empty threat of the religious right abandoning the GOP as we wrote about on the 12th. Of course this would never happen as it would be political suicide for both the radical right and the GOP due to their mutual parasitic relationship. However, the threat of the defection has started a mass rush to be named the “most conservative” candidate in order to gain their support. In order to win this dishonor Mr. 9/11 has been shifting his stands on moral issues so fast I’m surprised he can stay standing.

I have never made any secret to my opinion that Rudy would be about the worst president we could possibly get. His supporting cast of neo-cons and his history in New York clearly show that a Guiliani presidency would be more of the same crap we have now. I have at least admired how his stands on social issues were only slightly wobbly. Well, so much for that. I guess there aren’t any Republicans that can resist the urge to pander to intolerance and bigotry no matter how big of a flip flop it takes.

It is this total lack of moral integrity by anyone in the GOP that has rightfully earned the voters’ distrust. I have yet to see a single one of them who is willing to make a real stand for their beliefs. I am thoroughly disgusted by the entire Republican party and their cronies right now. I would like to be able to say that there was one that I disagreed with but respected as I could in the past, right now I can’t and I don’t see that changing.

~ William ~

What will this mean for the GOP? Considering that exit polls on election day in 2004 showed that 22% of voters labeled themselves Evangelical Christian, it would probably secure a Democratic win. That is, if Dobson could muster enough of them to defy their ingrained Republican voting tradition.

I was watching Face the Nation on Sunday and the guest was Tony Perkins, President of the Family Research Council. He appeared to back peddle a bit on Dobson’s statement by stating, “What we said last week was more of a proclamation of principle rather than a declaration of intent.” He then stated that “If the party chooses to break its commitment to creating a culture of life, we’re not going to go in that direction with the party.” during a conference call on Thursday with reporters. To me this sounds pretty much like an intention.

On Face the Nation, Perkins went on to say that the Conservative movement is comparable to a three legged stool the Fiscal Conservatives, the Foreign Policy Conservatives, and the Social Conservatives. He implored the other 2/3 of the party to throw their support to the Social Conservatives and their anti-choice agenda. Without all three legs they will “impale” themselves. Thursday, Perkins stated that he believed roughly half of the Religious Right would vote for Giuliani anyway but that’s still a lot of votes to lose.

So what will this mean for the Democrats? Probably a bigger win over the Republican nominee. Unless, that is, Mitt Romney starts climbing faster. He appears to be the Evangelicals’ favorite at this time with Perkins stating Thursday, “he’s one of the strongest on our issues. It’s true he has had a change of position on these issues. I do believe they’re genuine. I do not see him going back.”