....my vote in the GE.

For the last 7 years, democrats, republicans, independents, and everyone else in between has been forced to respond to a politics of fear in America. The Bush Administration and many of its most ardent supporters have used fear (the fear of others, the fear of terrorism, the fear of the ill-understood) to threaten us. GW Bush has applied this politics to every debate on Capitol Hill. XXXXX will make us safer. XXXXX will make us weaker. XXXXXX and the terrorists win.

Now Hillary Clinton - who shocked democrats (and others) - with her 3 am call, has once again found it necessary to lower the dialogue of American politics. Hillary is playing with fire. She is engaging in 'guilt by association' tactics that should make all of us cringe at our core. She is using 9-11 and Osama bin Laden as a way of drumming up votes. Many have noted her reference to Hamas in the debate and her newly-found desire to exploit 9-11...not just for her own purpose, but to hurt a fellow democrat.

For those of you who have forgotten...this is exactly why we fought in 2006 to win back Congress.  

She has not only played on the politics of fear. She has played the 'terror card'.

Mark Halperin has the story:
http://thepage.time.com/2008/04/21/clint on-up-with-new-tv-ad/

After 2004, I thought we were tired of this kind of politics. We used to think this was how Republicans campaigned. Now this is how Hillary is campaigning. She has sunk to a new low that I think will play into the hands of Republicans in the Fall. Moreover, I think she insults America (and our superdelegates) with this ad.

This is not about solutions to gas prices or foreclosures. This is not about a change in Washington. This is about her. This is about 'doing antyhing, saying anything'.

She will win PA...but if she manages to secure the nomination, she is in for a long, tough road to win back over democrats (and others) who are tired of being told that they should be afraid.

And to pile on, exponentially, the disingenuous rhetoric that her campaign has promoted over the last month or so...I leave you with one of the more memorable political quotes of the late 20th century:

"Now, one of Clinton's laws of politics is this. If one candidate is trying to scare you and the other one is try get you to think, if one candidate is appealing to your fears and the other one is appealing to your hopes, you better vote for the person who wants you to think and hope."

There is a chance that Hillary Clinton could still win the nomination and there are definitely a few hard fights left to be fought within the Democratic party.  But, this has not stopped the White House from dropping the puck, as it were, to officially begin the 2008 General Election.

How?  How else?  By issuing a terror alert.

http://deepbackground.msnbc.msn.com/arch ive/2008/03/04/729103.aspx

Today on CNN.com there is an article about a Canadian training manual for Canadian Diplomats which lists the United States, along with countries such as Saudi Arabia, China, Israel, Iran, and Syria as places where inmates could face torture. The manual specifically mentions the Guantanamo Detention Center, where a Canadian citizen who fought with the Taliban has been held since he was 15 years old.

Here is the link:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/0 1/18/canada.torture.list.ap/index.html

I know that we are all caught up with the horse race right now,and with defending our chosen candidate (and often leveling vicious attacks at others, as well as their supporters,) but I think that it might be relevant that we remind ourselves what is really at stake here. The United States has lost much of its standing in the world as a result of its behavior over the last 7 years and it will be up to our next President to set the tone that turns that around.

I am not writing this diary in advocacy for anyone candidate. Rather I found a piece of news that I thought was both depressing and an important reminder of what we, as Democrats, are fighting for.  

As if the Clintons credibility could possibly get any lower, it was just reported by CNN today that the Hillary Clinton adminstration (if people are dumb enough to actually vote for her)   now plans to hire .. yep .. that 'old Iran-Contra criminal and Saudi Oil Cartel crony, with his idiot puppet sons, -- George H. W. Bush (War Profiteer) -- to advise & represent their administration on U.S. Foreign Policy.

This is Bill and Hillary Clinton's idea of a so-called "change" for our Country
in Foreign Policy:   Hire The Bush crime family!!

George H.W. Bush will help President Hillary

ORANGEBURG, South Carolina
CNN Peter Hamby   December 18, 2007

Former President Bill Clinton said Monday that the first thing his wife Hillary will do when she reaches the White House is dispatch his predecessor, President George H.W. Bush, on an around-the-world mission to tell them that America is open for business.

Clinton and the elder Bush, rivals in the 1992 presidential election, have grown chummy in recent years, often traveling and appearing at public events together.

A spokesman for the George H.W. Bush was not immediately available to comment.

There are good Democrats...

And there are clearly bad Democrats.

Elections are about figuring out which is which, and who will best represent the public interest.

Just what does Hillary Clinton stand for?

"Lobbists are real people."
     -Hillary Clinton

Hillary Clinton will fool people with a lot of blather about "fighting all my years in public life" .. blah, blah blah, and having all this so-called great "experience", expertise, and being "smart".   She even uses the 'ol Bob Dole line about being tested and tested and "ready"   (when Bob Dole is your campaign role model, you've got some issues folks).

But where is the actual evidence of any of that?

How can someone who has voted with Joe Lieberman most of the time ever be regarded as having any true expertise whatsoever (much less be seen as smart)? Just what test did she ever pass? How can a person who has never spoken truth to power, and has never done anything remotely politically courageous as a U.S. Senator for 8 long years, be possibly regarded as "the fighter"?  How can the candidate who has been bankrolled far, far more than any of the others by the corrupt War-Defense-Industry, Insurance Monopolies, Big-Pharma, Ruppert Murdoch, the Banking Monopolies, and the Corporate Establishment, possibly be regarded as "your girl"?   How can someone who, at a time when the Country and Congress had been (initially) united behind major Health Care reform (1993), squandered that opportuntity by having proposed an overly complex, buereacratic, HMO-Insurance-driven scheme, that prevented people from even seeing their own choice of doctor, and which was crafted in secret -- which could not be liked by either liberals or conservatives -- then be seen as "competent", much less the person to lead the Democratic Party forward?

Her bumbling, incoherent, and Neocon corrupted U.S. Senate record has left her standing as the most inauthentic option in the Democratic race. And that very bad record combined with apalling indecisiveness and double-speak about major issues (such as War, Torture), tells us what she will really do as President and just what type of advice (bad) she will listen to.

Hint:   Not yours or mine...

Okay, brace youself.

This latest bit of insanity from Hillary Clinton should leave everyone wondering whether she is even fit to be the town dogcatcher, much less a "President". The report from NY Post correspondent Geoff Earle is shown below:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070701/ap_o n_re_eu/britain_airport_crash

 A Jeep Cherokee trailing a cascade of flames rammed into Glasgow's airport terminal on Saturday, shattering glass doors just yards from passengers at the check-in counters. Police said they believed the attack was linked to two car bombs found in London the day before.

Britain raised its terror alert to "critical" -- the highest possible level -- and the Bush administration announced plans to increase security at airports and on mass transit.

Rae said a "suspect device" was found on the man at the hospital and it was taken to a safe location where it was being investigated. He would not say whether the device was a suicide belt, but British security officials said evidence pointed to the attack being a suicide mission.

Police later arrested two more suspects in the London and Glasgow plots in Cheshire county in northern England, Scotland Yard said early Sunday.

"I can confirm that we believe the incident at Glasgow airport is linked to the events in London yesterday," Rae said at a news conference. "There are clearly similarities and we can confirm that this is being treated as a terrorist incident."

Police foiled the earlier plot Friday after two cars were found in central London packed with explosives -- one outside a nightclub near Piccadilly Circus and another parked nearby.

...

"Time to wake the country up!"

Bush ally Rupert Murdock has decided that it is time to help Bush scare the country a little more using the popular show "24", according to the Drudge Report.