The GOP has become the party of Lies, Gossip and Coercion

Beginning with the election of a Republican Congress, the secret drive to get and keep power in order to push forward a purely Republican agenda in the Good Ol' U.S. of A. was started. I suppose the same could have happened if the Democrats were in majority, but their track record pretty much says that isn't likely. See, Democrats are the Party of Diversity. There's no "toe the line or we'll ruin you" with the Dems. That means everyone is free to vote their conscience -- not a party line decided on by the most powerful in the party. Dems don't line up like the GOP. They didn't call Tom Delay "the Hammer" for nothing. He earned that name by keeping party members in line and maintaining support for the GOP agenda.

There are things that I have been noticing that I'm not happy about. G. W. Bush is stumping for GOP candidates. His big line is that only the GOP will maintain low taxes, and only the GOP will be strong against terrorists. Unfortunately, the President does not have to tell the truth. He's as free as other GOP politicians to lie, spin and gossip about their foes. Cases in point; the GOP has put the country in the worst deficit and danger than it has been in decades. We won't become solvent again by staying the GOP course of Pork Barrel spending. The GOP "Stay the Course" in Iraq has not worked, and in fact has been reported to actually have increased the number of terrorist recruits, and drastically increased the violence in Iraq, totally destabilizing Iraq to the point of civil war. The GOP does just the opposite of what Bush is advertising, and when you knowingly claim something false, that's lying.

Bush lied about Iraq in order to get the U.S., her allies, and the U.N. to validate an illegal war. Cherry picking intelligence is the same as lying. The GOP has become the party of lies, gossip and coercion.

Here's what I've been noticing:

1. In several states the Republicans forced redistricting giving great advantage for their taking state and national offices and keeping them.
2. In both Houses of Congress the power brokers are the ones to make the agenda and decide what issues will make it to the floor for debate and vote. Take a look at the items debated and the bills passed.
3. The House Ethics Committees have become a black hole. The first inkling that there was an Ethics Committee occurred when Tom Delay got in trouble. In a surprising move, the Republican Chairman brought Delay to the attention of the Senate on three occasions. The heat got so bad that Delay finally resigned from Congress rather than face the ire of his colleagues. For his part in Delays demise, the Chairman was fired by Dennis Hastert, and then politically destroyed by his fellow Republicans when re-election time cam about.
4. The Ethics Committee wasn't heard from again until Mark Foley was exposed for sexually harassing under-aged male Senate Pages. When this was first reported to the head of the Page program five years ago, Foley was simply told to stop, which he did not. The Republicans allowed the molesting of Pages to continue for another 5 years. Shameful.
5. In a Congress held by the Republicans, who say at every chance that they are for lower taxes, more has been spent on special projects attached to legitimate bills, than in any other period.

   • The country went from having a surplus $400 billion in the bank (thanks to Clintons balanced budget program) to having a $400 billion dollar deficit. How do the Republicans expect to pay back the deficit without raising taxes and returning to a balanced budget program? An obvious plan for failure. It costs money to run a country. That money comes from taxes.
   • Taxes should be levied fairly. The way to make taxes fair is to charge a sliding percentage to all. This means that the poor will pay less (or nothing in some cases), the middle class would pay a higher percentage as they are able, and the rich would pay a higher percentage as they are able.
   • But not to worry, there are plenty of loopholes for the rich to hide their cash from the taxman.
6. At the request of the President, the Congress reduced taxes for the very rich, reducing monies that are needed to fund the very Pork Barrel projects the greedy Republicans used to buy off special interests. They've reduced taxes so that projects passed by Congress such no child left behind, and the 700 mile border fence for security are under funded or not funded at all. What is the purpose of passing a law, program or project with out funding it? That's just smoke and mirrors designed to make the public think that something is actually getting done.
7. Reduced taxes for the rich mean higher taxes for the poor.
8. September 11th happened and there was a great show of bipartisanship. Bush was given a huge blank check for bipartisan work. So what happened. How did we get from the beautiful purple Congress to the rigidly Red agendas.
9. We rightly followed the trail of 9/11 terror to Usama Bin Laden and Afghanistan. We waged to war on terror against Al Queda and the Taliban supporters. We has Bin Laden cornered, ready to take him out and then left him there to invade Iraq.
   
   

   • There were no nuclear weapons of mass destruction. LIE.
   • There were no biological weapons of mass destruction. LIE.
   • There were no chemical weapons of mass destruction. LIE.
   • There were no weapons systems capable of delivering WMD. LIE.
   • There were no ties between Al Qaeda and Iraq. LIE.
   • There was no yellow cake uranium from North Africa. LIE.
10. Bush used the War on Terror as an excuse his blatant violation of U.S. and International Law.
    
    

    • Illegal phone tapping.
    • Illegal prisoners taken.
    • Illegal torture techniques by the U.S. and our representatives.
    • Illegal laws passed doing away with habeas corpus and allowing Bush to decide on his own who is an enemy combatant.
    
    
    

    1. Bush can point his finger at anyone and make him/her and enemy combatant.
    2. Bush can define what torture is and what is not.
    3. Bush alone decides what techniques can be used in questioning prisoners.
    4. EVERYONE IS LEFT VULNERABLE TO BEING TAKEN IN THE NIGHT WITHOUT TRIAL OR EVIDENCE, CALLED AN ENEMY COMBATANT, AND TORTURED WITHOUT ANY POSSIBLE RECOURSE.

11. The GOP has made it a point to use Fear and Smear to coerce the American people to support their agenda. They've used this Fear and Smear technique so much that it's become like "crying wolf". The American public has begun to see through the rhetoric to what really is.




1. We went to war on a lie.
2. The war isn't going well for us or the Iraqis.
3. Almost 3000 American military men and women killed.
4. More than 150,000 Americans wounded and disabled in the War on Terror. That's 1 in 4 military members at least partially disable. DemocracyNow.org




• The GOP continues to under fund and undermine the Veteran's Administration. While George Bush called support of the disabled veterans a "DEBT OF HONOR", VA hospitals are vastly under funded. Vet patients are forced to take care of other Vet patients. There are not enough aids, nurses or doctors to do the job -- especially in light of the huge numbers of disabled vets coming from the war in Iraq.
• When I requested the number of Military disabled in Iraq on the Official DoD website I got this response:

Error 403--Forbidden
From RFC 2068 Hypertext Transfer Protocol -- HTTP/1.1:
10.4.4 403 Forbidden
The server understood the request, but is refusing to fulfill it. Authorization will not help and the request SHOULD NOT be repeated. If the request method was not HEAD and the server wishes to make public why the request has not been fulfilled, it SHOULD describe the reason for the refusal in the entity. This status code is commonly used when the server does not wish to reveal exactly why the request has been refused, or when no other response is applicable.

• The VA tried to hide the numbers disabled, and it resulted in a shortfall of $3.5 billion in funding for the Veterans Administration. I wonder why the people hired to help our vets, to make sure our Nation Debt of Honor would actually work toward the detriment of our disabled veterans. It appears that the Administration is all for supporting the military men and women as long as it doesn't cost too much, while asking our troops to give their life in a war of Bush's desires and choice.
5. Almost 50,000 Iraqi CIVILIANS killed. Iraq Body Count
6. The infrastructure in Iraq is worse than before the war.
7. Civil war is almost a certainty.
8. The "democratically" elected government was elected along Sunni, Shiite and Kurd communities. The government is divided along religious biases.
9. 70% of the Iraqis want us to leave.
10. The Iraqi government, while needing the US to maintain what little stability there is (and that is diminishing), has welcomed Iran and Syria, and is beginning to demonstrate that this government will become just another theocracy, further destabilizing the area. MSNBC.com
11. THE GOP DOES NOT HAVE THE ANSWER TO MAKING AND KEEPING US SAFE.
12. WE ARE ECONOMICALLY WORSE OFF AND IN MORE DANGER THAN WE WERE BEFORE THE GOP REGIME!
13. 2006 is showing just how desperate the GOP is to maintain power. Candidates do not use negative ads containing lies, and gossip to energize their voters and try to change voters minds unless THEY ARE VERY AFRAID OF LOSING POWER.
14. In the end the GOP will reap what they have sowed. If you plant weeds, you're going to harvest weeds.
15. The GOP Culture of Dishonesty and Corruption is farther reaching than anyone thought.

These are just the things off the top of my mind. If I sat down and really thought about all the things that bother me, this blog would be too large publish in one effort.

And lastly, President Bush is stumping for GOP candidates today. He says that the Democrats don't have a plan for the War in Iraq. This is interesting to me because he just STOLE the Democrats plan for Iraq - to establish benchmarks and timelines for their achievement. Bush previously said that the Iraqis need to understand that the U.S. has limited patience. In other words, somewhere down the line the U.S. will leave Iraq, maybe before there is "victory in Iraq". At least the kind of victory Bush wants.