Morgan Mghee

Whatever half-hearing convention the Republicans cobble together in Minnesota this week, you’re going to hear the same lies they’ve been peddling for years. Under the weight of the Bush administration’s failures, though, even pretense is collapsing. Let’s finish off the job.

Here are their top five lies:

1. Republicans are Fiscal Conservatives

Bush is leaving office with the deficit through the floor.

2. Republicans are Strong on National Security

Republicans have been running against Jimmy Carter since 1980, despite the fact that Democrats have strong traditions of military service and tactical skill in wartime. So where is the proof that the GOP can win wars or keep our country safe?

3. Republicans Defend Individual Rights

Another good joke. You want to tell me how Democrats might take your gun away? Let me ask you this: what good will the Second Amendment do you without the First, Fourth, Fifth, and Fourteenth?

4. Republicans Represent Family Values

By their own standards, Republicans have failed to live out the values they affirm. A corrupt party full of self-loathing homosexuals (for whom I have pity) and child molesters (for whom I have only anger) can no longer claim to represent anyone’s values - whether it be conservatives or liberals.

5. Republicans Just Want Everyone to Have the Same Opportunities

When Republicans rail against affirmative action, universal health care, or social programs, they claim to want a society where everyone “starts in the same place.” But as we’ve seen above, Republicans always create at least two sets of rules. One for the politicians, another for the voters.                      

Click below to see the complete information on the five biggest Republican lies.

The Five Biggest Republican Lies - The Seminal :: Independent Media and Politics

 

$50 Million Tax Dollars for Denver to Protect our Government from it's People

 

  

 WHILE ACKNOWLEDGING that the Jewish conquest of Palestine was driven by great need, Zander argues that "we never admitted that our return requires from the Arab a sacrifice of the first order."

  Deploring the fact that the Jews have refused to accept any guilt, he writes:  "We have blamed everybody but ourselves; and very few of us have indeed accepted the full share of responsibility for what has been done."

He continues in a passage that could have been written yesterday: "The main task, as in all periods of the whole movement, remains the solution of the Jewish-Arab problem. It is obvious that ultimately peace with our neighbors is required if the Jewish state is to survive. At present we are trying to achieve this peace by force and to build up in feverish haste the military strength which is to guarantee our security. But under no conditions can force be enough."

Reading and listening to the daily comments by Israeli political leaders and commentators, one cannot help but admit that reliance on force remains a central pillar of our policy and general approach. Against this prevailing attitude, let us consider the wise and courageous words written 60 years ago by Walter Zander, a thoughtful attorney, living in Gerards Cross near London: "It is obvious that this situation creates a particular responsibility and obligation on our side. The spirit of mutual retaliation and vengeance - aiming at subduing the opponent by fear - is not only utterly senseless, but, as far as we Jews are concerned, fundamentally wrong. We Jews should have a deeper insight and should be able to see both sides of the problem. It is we who aim at a change of the existing conditions, and it is therefore our duty to find a solution. The initiative for this task must remain with us."

To read the complete article click: Is this the way? | Op-Ed Contributors | Jerusalem Post

Political Issues that Matter for 2008

Oil Company Spent Nearly $16 Million to Fund Skeptic Groups, Create Confusion

ExxonMobil Report
Full Report (PDF)
Appendix C (hi-resolution PDFs)
Part 1 (hi-resolution PDF)
Part 2 (hi-resolution PDF)
Part 3 (hi-resolution PDF)

WASHINGTON, DC, Jan. 3–A new report from the Union of Concerned Scientists offers the most comprehensive documentation to date of how ExxonMobil has adopted the tobacco industry's disinformation tactics, as well as some of the same organizations and personnel, to cloud the scientific understanding of climate change and delay action on the issue. According to the report, ExxonMobil has funneled nearly $16 million between 1998 and 2005 to a network of 43 advocacy organizations that seek to confuse the public on global warming science.
"ExxonMobil has manufactured uncertainty about the human causes of global warming just as tobacco companies denied their product caused lung cancer," said Alden Meyer, the Union of Concerned Scientists' Director of Strategy & Policy. "A modest but effective investment has allowed the oil giant to fuel doubt about global warming to delay government action just as Big Tobacco did for over 40 years."
Smoke, Mirrors & Hot Air: How ExxonMobil Uses Big Tobacco's Tactics to "Manufacture Uncertainty" on Climate Change details how the oil company, like the tobacco industry in previous decades, has :

• raised doubts about even the most indisputable scientific evidence
• funded an array of front organizations to create the appearance of a broad platform for a tight-knit group of vocal climate change contrarians who misrepresent peer-reviewed scientific findings
• attempted to portray its opposition to action as a positive quest for "sound science" rather than business self-interest
• used its access to the Bush administration to block federal policies and shape government communications on global warming

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