Every time I turn on the TV, the Republicans are offering advice to Democrats about how make all our lives better. There isn’t a move that Democrats have made this week that we didn’t have some dweeb on Larry King Live or some other show telling us how to make it better.

Democrats have been entirely too polite in their response. Maybe they don’t know what to say. No problem. Just return the favor by providing them some kindly advice about how Republicans can win the presidency. Ask them, "Is John McCain ready to turn his back on Republican ideology?"

There's one argument for Barack Obama's readiness to be commander-in-chief that Keith Obermann raised once or twice, but otherwise, I haven't heard a lot of, that I'd like to hear repeated, and OFTEN:

Has anyone else noticed, that the Bush administration is co-opting Barack Obama's foreign policy positions, and that this undercuts the Republicans' argument?

At the request of some Daily KOs bloggers, I'm reposting this entry for other bloggers to see. The reason is due to the fact that yesterday was 'announce V.P.' day for Obama, to which some believed the value of this diary was neglected.

In summary, the Bush Administration plans to pass a regulation allowing HCPs not only the right to refuse service over a medical procedure they find morally objectionable, but to also withhold information from the patient of other locations that would provide the service. This would include things such as abortion, Plan B contraception, etc.

The wording within the regulation is incredibly loose and requires a substantial amount of money to be passed. It could also lead to other potential patient rights violations.

As is obvious, Republicans have no shame, a point once more driven home by the appointment of that good ol' boy Hans von Spakovsky as an consultant and temporary full time employee at the US Commission on Civil Rights.  Spakovsky's contributions to voter (especially known or demographically suspected Democrats) suppression is no secret.  

What can we do

IMPEACH THE BASTARD!!

We all have our personal and religious beliefs, but could someones' opinion over abortion and the sanctity of human life contain anymore potential to violate another individual's rights? Thankfully, we can all rest assured that the Bush Administration plans to provide us with an answer to this mind-boggling question. A recent article in the Los Angeles Times taken from Washington Post writer Rob Stein states...

The Bush administration Thursday annnounced plans to implement a controversial regulation designed to protect antiabortion healthcare workers from being required to deliver services against their personal beliefs.

The rule empowers federal health officials to pull funding from more than 584,000 hospitals, clinics, health plans, doctors' offices and other entities that do not accommodate employees who refuse to participate in care they find objectionable on personal, moral or religious grounds.

The question is: why would Georgia's president Saakashvili invade a sworn enemy, which has a Russian peace keeping force stationed there to defend Ossetia's autonomy? It would appear to be a suicide mission.

Likely reasons: Either Saakashvili was totally deluded, and/or he gambled that Russia would not stand behind their word to the Ossetians, and/or he believed that the U.S. would support him and Georgia in a war against S. Ossetia and possibly Russia.

Remember this?  Presnit-wit Bush and all his neo-con buddies saying over, and over, and over and over, and, you get the picture...  
"When the Iraqi's can stand up, we will stand down.  There will be no timetables!"

If I heard that once from someone in the Bush Administration or their "media" contingent, I heard it five thousand times.  So, what happens when the Iraqi's stand UP faster than Bushie and the boyz want them to?  Bushie continues to try to stand ON them to keep them down.

WASHINGTON — A Justice Department plan would loosen restrictions on the Federal Bureau of Investigation to allow agents to open a national security or criminal investigation against someone without any clear basis for suspicion, Democratic lawmakers briefed on the details said Wednesday.

. . . .

I realize everyone is desperately seeking revenge for the last eight years, but eventually we will have to come to terms with the fact that we are not going to see the current administration investigated or punished to any great extent.

What will happen is what ALWAYS happens. A few low level flunkies will take some heat and maybe even do some short stint in a country club prison. The real movers and shakers responsible for the reprehensible nature of the Bush Administration will be beyond the reach of justice.

The fact that they have broken the law is immaterial, and no amount of wishing and hoping, wailing and gnashing is going to change that fact. I realize this is a viciously unpopular stand at the moment, but I believe in beating the rush: Get. Over. It.

And you what the real kicker is? That's what is best for the United States.

And so it begins. Via Ben Smith:

Scott McClellan advises Obama, in an interview with my colleague Daniel Libit, not to investigate the Bush administration — because it would, McClellan says, damage Obama's image. (Not that former Bushies have anything at stake in that choice.) [...]

[W]hen asked what advice he would give to a President Barack Obama or Democratic Congress on the matter of handling former Bush officials, McClellan speaks now of the perils of probing the past.

“If Obama were to win,” he said last week, “that would be an issue his administration would have to face early ... because he’s pledging to be a uniter, not a divider — without saying those exact words we campaigned on in 2000. He’s pledging to change the way Washington works, and if Congress were to pursue that, it would be very divisive.”

He continued: “That could be very problematic for his presidency right off the start.”

Investigations would be "divisive." Good Lord. I'd praise myself for predicting that exact sentiment weeks ago, but it's just too damn obvious.

I have no doubt that every pundit in America will be echoing that line come January. No doubt whatsoever. The Bush administration is over, let's just forget all about that stuff and get on with our lives.... screw torture and DOJ scandal, the Democrats have to rise above such divisiveness and petty thoughts of, you know, accountability for illegal acts. Blah blah fucking blah.

Accountability is for little people. That's the be-all, end-all message of the Bush administration. From Enron to Plame to FISA to the DOJ to torture, there is no larger philosophy at work. I'm in charge, so fuck you. And the odds are that the Dems will go along, Obama included, because that's the easier path.

Am I the only one here who's been slowly devolving into the feeling that this whole "trying to make government better" thing has been a useless exercise, at this point? Nothing like repeatedly being told by the press, the pundits, the government, the political opposition and your supposed political allies that any talk of good government, or rational decision making, or even, fuck it, consequences for illegal acts is just cruel partisanship and/or pie-in-the-sky dreaming.

I expect members of the Bush administration, McClellan included, to make frequent and urgent-sounding arguments that members of the Bush administration shouldn't be investigated after they've left office. But I almost can't wait to see how many of the usual "serious" hacks and lifelong politicos go along with it. You know, just to make sure it's not "divisive."

  (you place the CD into the player)

  (sounds of ocean waves rumbling)

  (soft, piano music begins playing)

OBAMA: Welcome to the Self-Help Hypnosis Series.  I'm Barack Obama, and I want to help you overcome your problem of voting for idiots.

By Candace Talmadge / North Star Writers Group

The Washington Post reports today:

The Justice Department has proposed a new domestic spying measure that would make it easier for state and local police to collect intelligence about Americans, share the sensitive data with federal agencies and retain it for at least 10 years.

The proposed changes would revise the federal government's rules for police intelligence-gathering for the first time since 1993 and would apply to any of the nation's 18,000 state and local police agencies that receive roughly $1.6 billion each year in federal grants.

"So what else is new?" you may ask.  After all, the Bush Administration's attack on civil liberties and privacy has been unrelenting since they day took office.

But the next part of the report is what caught my attention:

So I hear on Free Speech Radio News today that US special forces trained the same exact Georgian troops that invaded South Ossetia just days or weeks before the invasion.  And so then I looked and found an article from 1 month ago which discusses these US servicemen obeying their orders to train Georgian troops, the same Georgian troops that turned around and invaded South Ossetia.

This is an outrage and of course begs the question:  what exactly was the Bush administration's involvement in the instigation and lead-up to this invasion during the Olympics and right before an election.

This is of course classic "wagging the dog" before an election.  And who has more motive than the criminal Bush administration to wag the dog?

There's a news article today floating out there that says the Russians are telling their people that the war was started by Dick Cheney to prevent Obama from becoming president.  Is this what really happened?  Let's take a look at some events and facts to see if this might be possible. See you below the fold.

There will be wars... and rumors of wars.

It’s not enough for the Pentagon to have the best; the newest, and the most destructive weapons (and the most of them) on the planet. No, the Pentagon has to have the most lethal weapons that can strike anywhere, anytime against anyone -- then not have to lay claim to any such strike(s) -- for the sake of political expediency. It’s just what the doctor neocons ordered for trying and unstable times like these; a highly effective weapon that delivers its payload anonymously -- the perfect compliment to McCain’s war du jour mentality.

It’s affectionately referred to at the Pentagon as the "long-range blowtorch." But the Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL) is designed like no other weapon in the world. It has the ability to remain anonymous as to its source. This is the perfect tool of war-whacked imperialism.

August 13, An Undisclosed Location. Do you agree with Florida Democrat Robert Wexler and Ohio Democrat Dennis Kuchinich that Bush and Cheney should be impeached? Do you feel that the war in Iraq was conducted with the incompetence that rivals FEMA in New Orleans? Or that it was a mistake? Do you feel that rather than enhance our national security, the war - 4,000 dead, 19,000 wounded, and $1 Trillion spent, has strengthened Iran and weakened the United States? Do you feel that the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, should be an effective emergency response force, or an agency of incompetence and a gold mine of patronage? Do you believe that the Department of Justice should focus on race, religion, party and politics when hiring and firing staff and investigating and prosecuting corruption? Do you work? Do you need health care? Do you want your children to be able to get an education, then find rewarding work? Do you believe in "government of the people, by the people, and for the people?"  The "DemoPunks" don't.

Here is another immigration nightmare. This is not the America I know.
My friend's husband will be deported in 90 days.  Her husband was born in Thailand and adopted as a child.  Somehow the adoption paperwork was never finalized, his parents died, and he did not even know he was not a citizen.  He had a felony conviction as a teenager, served time, then turned his life around; married, had kids, worked for Texas Instruments for 16 years.  When he applied for a college loan, he was found to not be a citizen, was arrested by ICE and put in jail (February 2007).