After a great job on Manning, Kevin Gosztola has turned to bombing Syria.

[No Elephants]

He analyzes some of the things Susan Rice has said about it recently.

http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2013/09/09/susan-rice-delivers-myth-addled-speech-on-waging-war-on-syria/

I don't know of a journalist that I admire more than Kevin these days.

I expect Democracy Now or someone else to scoop him up soon, so I will enjoy his posting style while I can.

[Enthusiast]

1. I share Kevin's position.

This aggression will destroy the chances for Democrats in 2014. Was that the real objective all along?

[Leopolds Ghost]

2. Musical chairs, you mean? With no real choice for most offices, it sometimes seems like it.

I mean, statistically, what are the options in a two-party state?

1. Endless musical chairs whith the two parties passing the baton back and forth while the ruling class line their pockets

2. Extended one-party rule.

[Enthusiast]

3. The Democrats are bad, I'll give you that.

But as bad as the Democrats are, the Tea Party Republicans are a magnitude far far far fucking absolutely worse in every measurable. Their actions are nothing short of treasonous. I hate the assholes, each and every one. They celebrate ignorance, they are my enemies and the primary enemies of what remains of the United States of America after their policies fucking destroyed the nation.

[No Elephants]

4. But, they are edging closer and closer together.

Foreign policy, economic policy, not much difference, as Democrats move further and further right all the time.

Cultural issues? Log Cabin Republacans sued over DADT and Obama's D of J got the suit dismissed so Democrats could take the credit.

And a Republican Justice wrote the DOMA opinion. (Wise assignment on the part of the Chief Justice: four Republican Justices vote to uphold DOMA, but Roberts assigns writing of the opinion to the one Republican Justice who voted in favor of the gay widow. Meanwhile, Cheney's daughter has long been one of the most high profile out gays in the nation, with plenty of support from Fox News and other Republicans. As more and more kids of Republican politicians come out as gay, this cultural difference will disappear.

Meanwhile, at this point, thanks to language in the opinion of Justice Kennedy, I think equal marriage battles can be fought much more effectively in the courtroom than in the polling booth.


Choice? Heh.

National Democrats pretty much sit back and let state Republicans do whatever they want.

Do some Republicans say things about choice that are stupider than the things Democrats say about choice? Hell, yes.

Did the Congress of January 2009 to January 2011 even mention repealing the Hyde Amendment? Hell, no.

To the contrary, did Nancy Pelosi, while sitting beside Obama, remind everyone that the Hyde Amendment is the law of the land when it suited her and him so to do? Hell, yes.

Did Obama's Secretary of HHS restrict access to the morning after pill? Hell, yes.

Did Obama's D of J rush into transvaginal wand states, or any state, to enforce women's constitutional right to reproductive choice against a state's right to enact a forced penetration, aka sexual assault, law? Hell, no.

Never even came up that I know of, except maybe in my posts of 2011 and 2012.


So, the differences, whatever they may still be, will not be there for long, even on cultural issues, unless something or someone stops the relentlessly rightward march of the Democratic Party.

Moreover, I assert that the rightward march of the Democratic causes Republicans to move right themselves, in order to distinguish themselves from Democrats. Even if I am incorrect in that, I don't feel the theoretical choice between Republican and Democratic candidates gives me anywhere near the choice at the polls that it should.

If they are not 100% the uniparty yet, I believe they are very, very close. What will stop all the above?

Maybe nothing. We'll see. (If not, I shudder to think what will happen when those who still remember Democrats before the DLC are gone. They may be one of few remaining checks on the Democratic Party.)

Remember, the Koch brothers conceived the Tea Party in the 1980s, the same time they donated to then fledging DLC.

[No Elephants]

5. I feel your pain, Leo; and it is my pain. too. In fact, I think it is the pain of all America.

(I gave more detail in my reply to Enthusiast.)