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Rudy Giuliani

"A small man in search of a balcony"

by: Clem Guttata

Sun Dec 02, 2007 at 22:44:07 PM EST

Image credit: paperdovepress

A big reason I've been dismissive of Rudy Giuliani's chances of winning the Republican nomination is I haven't expected him to withstand scrutiny. There's too many skeletons in his closet. His record of accomplishment is a mirage. The folks that know him the best -- New York City residents -- think little of him. NYC columnist Jimmy Breslin once described him as "a small man in search of a balcony."

I wonder how Republican Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (WV-02) feels about Giuliani's "Worst. Week. Ever.". I always pegged her as a Rudy supporter. They share some of the purported moderate social stances -- vaguely taken and lightly acted upon lest they offend their Republican supporters. Rudy also has that authoritarian streak Capito has wholeheartedly embraced in President Bush.

Who knows, even if the "Sex on The City" scandal uncovers felonious behavior Capito may yet stand by Rudy. She's had plenty of corrupt politician friends -- Ney, Delay, and Foley are but a few. I've never heard of her taking a public stance on her dad's bid for a presidential pardon. The rumor has always been she's afraid to cross this President because she expects him to pardon her dad on his way out of office.

Amazingly, the revelations this week about Rudy Giuliani are even more damning than I imagined. They starkly show he does not handle power well. He cannot be trusted to manage public funds. He abuses public trust. He is temperamentally unfit to be President.

Discuss :: (0 Comments)

Right-Wing Hatred and Intimidation is at its highest level since the 1960s; except even worse

by: bluemcdowell

Tue Oct 23, 2007 at 22:07:05 PM EDT

Is it just me, or is the right-wing extremist hate machine back in business here in October 2007?

It seems that the Republican right-wing extremists have decided that the only way they can keep the White House is to pander to their base through intimidation, stalking, and even death threats.

In the 1960s at the height of the civil-rights-movement, the Vietnam War, Bobby Kennedy, school desegration, and the anti-war protests Republican right-wing-extremists were so desperate to keep the status-quo of hatred during that time that many of them decided that the only way they could keep much-needed change from happening was through intimattion.  Opponents of the right-wing-extremists decided to turn it up a notch and send hate-mail to those who dared to disagree with them and change America for the good.

Three agents of change:  the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and two of the Kennedy brothers: President John F. Kennedy in 1963 and his brother Bobby a few years later were all assassinated in cold blood by ultra-conservative hate artists who felt that the upper-class 6-digit white Christian family - husband, wife, and children - would be completely eliminated completely off the face of the earth if they didn't put a stop to brave and courageous people like the three great leaders mentioned above were not stopped dead in their tracks.

We all know now that was a bunch of lies spread by their ultra-conservative upper-class white leaders, most of them white "Christian" males, to keep the lower-class people of all races under their firm grip of power. 

And a young newcomer to the political scene for the very first time was the Rev. Jerry Falwell, who said that school integration was a sin that would send people to hell if it were ever allowed.  And he was just beginning to stir up hatred which lasted all the way up into this year when God finally called Rev. Falwell's number.

Whether Falwell was saved or not I'll let Jesus be the judge on that one.  And thank God Jesus is the judge but not me because I would tell Falwell "Depart from me."  Thank God Jesus does the judging and not me.

The number of anti-American protests during the 60s and early 70s had started for really the 1st time ever.  The war in Vietnam was fought to "fight off" communism.  And that predictably was a a failure, as over 50000 brave and courageous US soldiers gave up their lives for a seemlessly unwinnable war.

And there was also the "forgotten war" - the Korean War where tens of thouands of brave US soldiers lost their lives in a war arguably almost as bad as Vietnam.  Thank God for the show MASH or else we probably wouldn't know really anything about the most underrated war in American history IMHO.  I don't know exactly when it ended but I think it was the early '60s.

Our Vietnam veterans then came home to some of the most despicable taunts and hatred ever seen in US history.  Soldiers were spat upon and physically and mentally abused and sadly most Vietnam vets still see "flashbacks" of that awful inhumane war today.

And sadly much of the detractors and haters of the brave and courageous US soldier were by my fellow Democrats, progressives, and liberals.  And to me that is a major reason they have voted Republican in every presidential election.  However in 2008 for the very first time since Vietnam our troops actually disapprove of the Iraq War and the Republican Party believe it or not!

The hatred continued somewhat during the 1970s but not nearly as strong.  Current home run king Henry Aaron had to suffer through some of the most vile evil messages that I have seen myself in all my life during the 1973 offseason.  From October 1973 to April 1974 "Hammerin' Hank" had to put up with some of the worst racial prejudice known to modern mankind.

Then there was Watergate, at the time the worst political incident that ever happened.  Richard Nixon and his Republican friends broke into the Democratic National Committee building named Watergate, forcing Nixon and his partners in crime to resign or else face impeachment and removal from office.

I'm sorry for placing that in the middle of Henry Aaron's struggle.  Didn't notice it until it was too late.  Sorry about that.

But thank God Henry Aaron was more than up to the task as far as his right-wing racist haters were concerned.  He was exactly the soft-spoken mild-mannered classy guy the whole country needed at that point and time.  He always without even one exception handled himself with class and dignity with as little criticism of his enemies as possible.

And thanks to "Hammerin' Hank" a movement for social justice had started which continued until the 1980s.

After Henry Aaron's courageous struggle and his shattering of the home run record things an unexpected calm had finally set over America during the "disco" age of the late 70s.

Then Republican Ronald Reagan the 1st major supporter and endorser of "corporate welfare" was elected president in a landslide in 1980 and again in another landslide in 1984.  His charm and sense of humor unmatched by anyone except perhaps by Bill Clinton in '92 and '96 helped put this nation at ease even with soaring unemployment, constant union-busting by Reagan and his Republican buddies, and record deficits.

And it was 90 percent due to the evangelical shift from the Democratic Party to Reagan and the Republican Party thanks to Falwell and the Moral Majority, Pat Robertson and the 700 Club, and by hell-fire Pentecostal right-wing preachers and evangelists Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart.  Falwell had publicly renounced his segregationist views but his sincerity about that remains in question even after his passing earlier this year.

Still Ronald Reagan with all his obvious shortcomings still would probably not liked the way the right-wing hate machine now does its business here in 2007.  I just don't see President Reagan stalking ordinary Americans, doing virtually nothing about Hurricane Katrina and its victims, and most definitely harassing toddlers and school-aged children like the ultra-conservative hate machine does today.  I think President Reagan would be greatly embarrassed and hurt to see the direction his very own Republican Party has taken today.

When the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded while I was in high school in the mid and late 80s President Reagan was at his very best and genuinely cared about the 7 victims and their families and personally comforted each and each and every one of them, so much so that even he was moved to tears.

I just don't see our current Commander-in-Chief doing that do you?

But because of sexual improprieties and financial deception by the 4 above evangelical Republican leaders the Democratic Party and Bill Clinton benefited big time from their obvious hypocrisy and was elected in 1992 producing 8 of the very best years both domestically and internationally this great country of ours has ever seen.

In the 1980s the right-wing hatred had been put to rest for the most part really until 2000 when Mr. Bush was chosen president by the Supreme Court.

Still not enough though, the Republicans wanted back in power so much that they even impeached Clinton for lying under oath about a sexual affair.  IMHO they could care less whether Clinton was removed from office or not.  All they cared about was the 2000 election...

and sadly my fellow Americans agreed and took the bait.  While the vast majority of my fellow Democrats and independents thought that impeaching Clinton was phony the Republican evangelical base finally found itself and united for the very first time since Clinton's first election in 1992.

So much so that those many of those same evangelicals voted just enough to get Bush chosen president in 2000, and sadly as all know now we West Virginians my fellow evangelicals and Pentecostals especially were the ones who put him over the top in 2000.  If W. Virginia had stuck to its Democratic roots like it always did in prior elections voting against non-incumbent Republican presidential candidates Florida's "hanging chads" would have meant absolutely nothing.  In fact we probably wouldn't have even known that "hanging chads" had ever existed in the 1st place.

Then all hell broke loose in our great country starting with 9-11 September 11, 2001.  Bush had successfully convinced us - even though we now know he wasn't genuine or sincere - that preventing terrorism was the number one priority of the United States government. 

But instead of going after the mastermind of 9-11 Osama bin Laden Bush and his cronies decided to go after Saddam Hussein and Iraq's precious oilfields instead.  Bush also decided to make millionaires into billionaires by using more "corporate welfare" than ever before and thus enriching already billion-dollar drug companies, defense contractors, insurance companies, and most of all his pride and joy oil companies with more money in one day that I'll probably make in my entire lifetime.

We middle-income taxpayers are even subsidizing these multi-billion dollar comapanies.

And as we all know now Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden hated each other's guts and couldn't stand to be around each other much less unite against us Americans.

And Bush, Cheney, and the Republican leadership love power and even more so their millions and even billions of dollars so much that they are even willing to compromise our nation's safety and security to do so, leaking covert CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson's identity to the press and diehard Republican commentator Bob Novak just to get revenge on her husband US ambassador Joe Wilson because he told the wicked truth about the Bush administration, and have even declassified vital information about our nations safety and security just in order to keep the millionaires and billionaires of the Republican Party happy.

So much for the nation's "war on terror" huh, Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney?  Yeah, right!  As long as it makes you and your billionaire Halliburtion and Blackwater Republican buddies richer.

Again I just don't President Reagan ever doing that to our beloved country and a CIA covert agent.  As much as I disagreed strongly with him President Reagan at least he had the decency and integrity not to compromise our nation's safety and security and even threatening a covert CIA agent's life just for defense contractor profits and for political reasons as well.

In 2002 and 2004 we Americans had two excellent chances to take back our beloved country and failed miserably both times, with Republicans using constant unwarranted dreaded "fear of terrorism" to scare us into voting Republican both times.  In other words the right-wing-extremists sadly including many evangelical leaders started the attack machine big time using abortion and gay rights as "values" issues and threat the threat of "burning in hell forever and ever because you're baby-killers"  if you dared voted for any pro-abortion candidate to intimidate and 78 percent of my fellow evangelicals into voting for Bush a 2nd time.

And also Bush wasn't elected but was actually chosen President again yet a second time.

Finally my fellow Americans woke up in 2006 mostly because of the Iraq War disaster and elected us Democrats to end the darn Iraq War and stop the killings.  But my fellow Democratic congressmen have instead decided to cave in to the Bush and the Republicans' deceptive "fearful rhetoric" about "not supporting the troops" and instead chose to play even more politics instead.

Now for the very time since Bush was chosen president the Republican right-wing-extremists are desperate to stay in control, so much that they often have crossed the line more now since the Vietnam War era of the late 60s and early 70s.

Even in the 1960s Republicans had at least enough decency not to stalk innocent children in middle-class families and take their healthcare away.

But our chosen President has decided that defensive contractors' pocketbooks are more important than middle-income children's lives by vetoing a 35 billion dollars SCHIP bill intended to give middle-income children and their families the best quality of health care in our country today....

and instead has just asked Congress to approve 44 billion more dollars to kill more innocent soldiers in Iraq just in order to make Halliburton and Blackwater richer than what they already are.

Not in 2007 though....

But just in the past few months a Republican Radical Right blogger named Michelle Malkin used blatantly false Republican numbers to even stalk 12 year old Graeme Frost and his middle-income family and also attack a 2 year old toddler Bethany Wilkerson and her family.

And she has been aided and abetted by Rush Limbaugh, whom is a drug-abuser right-wing radio host whom all he does is talk junk about Democrats and middle-income people and still is wealthier financially than he ever has been.

And also Malkin, Bill O'Reilly, Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Shawn Hannity, and the Faux Noise Network continues to spill out right-wing garbage today believe it or not in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

Paul Crouch, his cable "Christian" network Trinity Broadcasing actually have these right-wing hate-mongers Coulter especially on their shows constantly.

And we Christians wonder why we are hated now more than ever in our nation's history.  We're more hypocritical than ever before.

At least in the 60s right wingers did have the decency not to personally attack families and their children.  Now they even cross the line in that regard now and even go so far as to visit their very own homes in their very own neighborhoods.

And Michelle Malkin even goes so far as making private personal information such as Social Security numbers, home phone numbers, the mailing addresses public on her website for everyone to see.

And they are reverting back to threatening other people emotionally and even physically they hate as well.  The African-Americans Jena 6 and a Columbia University law professor have had nooses placed near them and theif offices.  Thus turning back the clock to the civil rights struggles in the 60s.

The Republican hate-mail machine is worse than ever both in number and in intensity as well, almost back to the Aaron days....

And Rudy Giuliani is the worst of the worst.  He acted "sincere" on 9/11 but we now know that he had tons of opportunities to give the firefighters and policemen much needed updated equipment but because he was profiting financially by not doing so he chose not to at the time.

Republicans are desperate right now.  They know that if the presidential election were held today they would lose and lose in historic proportions.  Now they've decided to turn back the clock to the 1960s, and even then they didn't sink to the levels they do all the time today.

My friend in Monroe County has 4 children who have benefited big time from the SCHIP program.  And he was 100 percent opposed to Bush's veto.

But yet he, his wife, and his oldest daughter will all vote Republican again - except if Rudy G is the nominee -  in 2008, because they won't support any candidate who supports abortion.

They and even their very own children are willing to risk their financial and physical well-being to "obey God" and prove they're not "baby-killers"

Another smear job by the Radical Religious Right hate-mongers who threaten them with being "baby killers who will burn in hell forever and ever" for voting Democratic even when voting Dem would benefit both them and their children financially and physically.

The James Dobsons of he world have succeeded in threatening them and many other similar evangelical families with "hell" if they do vote for their pocketbooks.

sad but true

I had something else I wanted to say but forgot it.  As soon as I remember it I'll let you guys know what it is.

sad but true

Discuss :: (5 Comments)

Why Rudy Giuliani will never be President

by: Clem Guttata

Tue Oct 23, 2007 at 12:10:08 PM EDT

I can't wait to see who Republican Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (WV-02) will endorse for President. Once the Republican party picks their nominee, will she invite him (unlike the Democrats they are all male) to public events in the district? Or, will it be closed door fund-raising for just the party faithful?

Either way, here's one Republican candidate guaranteed not to be our next president: Rudy Giuliani. First off, with a past like this, he's unlikely to make it through the Republican primaries.

If he somehow does. Here's 3 more reasons why Giuliani will not be President:

* Rudy Giuliani was kicked off the Iraq Study Group because he never showed up for meetings.

* Rudy Giuliani was the only candidate not invited to speak to the Firefighters presidential Forum.

* Rudy Giuliani is worse than Bush.

The more you learn, the less you like. The real Rudy Giuliani will never be elected President.

Discuss :: (1 Comments)

Move-On Hits Back at Giuliani

by: wvblueguy

Mon Sep 17, 2007 at 20:42:23 PM EDT

MoveOn.org takes a swipe at Rudy Giuliani who is slowly but surely sinking in the west thus improving the chances of Law and Order's Fred Thompson of getting the nod from the right wing.  None of these guys realize that Generals put their pants on the same way as everyone else - one leg at a time, and certainly aren't immune from criticism.  The real betrayers are those that support the illegitimate and bloody occupation of Iraq.

 

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Hillary Would Win in West Virginia

by: West Virginia Lover

Mon Jul 09, 2007 at 10:16:43 AM EDT

(While I'm happy with all of our leading presidential candidates, this is an interesting poll result. I know several Berkeley County Democrats who are strong Hillary Clinton supporters. - promoted by Carnacki)

A poll has been released of West Virginia voters that suggests Hillary Clinton would carry the state were she the nominee and either McCain or Guiliani were the Republican standard bearer. The trial heats break down this way:

Clinton 41
McCain 34
Undecided 25

Clinton 42
Guiliani 26
Undecided 22
There's More... :: (12 Comments, 140 words in story)

The Sisters of Shelley ask for guidance on Rudy Giuliani

by: Clem Guttata

Mon Jun 11, 2007 at 10:50:43 AM EDT

Tiffany reappeared today at Shelley Moore Capito's Sorority with Presidential Politics: Shelley, do we support Rudy Giuliani?

Here's one of my favorite Rudy moments...

Discuss :: (2 Comments)
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