From the daily archives:

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Giuliani

by Frank Paynter on January 1, 2008

Rope a dope strategy, waiting to take his licks in Iowa with Ron Paul, letting the Christian fundies eat the Iowa chicken and talk Iowa abortions, stem cells, corn ethanol, and abstract Pentecostal Kevorkianism… then swinging out into a slam-bam Florida and February 5th reminder that he is the 9/11 candidate, of, by and for the people of 9/11, all 9/11 all the time…

If elected, Giuliani would inherit the duties of current 9/11 President George W. Bush, including making grim facial expressions, seeing the world’s conflicts in terms of good and evil, and carrying a bullhorn at all state functions.

“Let us all remember how we felt on that day, with the world watching our every move, waiting on our every word,” said Giuliani, flanked by several firefighters, ex-New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik, and Judith Nathan, his third wife. “With a campaign built on traditional 9/11 values, and with the help of every citizen who believes in the 9/11 dream, I want to make 9/11 great again.”

Benito Giulani made the Manhattan trains run on time, cleaned the dopers out of Times Square (and were the people of Queens ever happy!), he assured everyone that respirators were for sissies and there was no asbestos at ground zero anyway, and he pulled the city together. Think of all the other mayors that have used their office as a springboard for national leadership.

Not everybody sees the hardline as a bad thing. A New Hampshire Giuliani campaign organizer, John Deady, floated a few New Millenial Crusade trial balloons…

He [Giuliani] has got, I believe, the knowledge and the judgment to attack one of the most difficult problems in current history, and that is the rise of the Muslims. Make no mistake about it; this hasn’t happened for a thousand years. These people are very, very dedicated. They’re also very smart in their own way, and we need to keep the feet to the fire and keep pressing these people until we defeat them or chase them back to their caves, or, in other words, get rid of them.

And, in a follow-up interview with Greg Sargent,

I don’t subscribe to the principle that there are good Muslims and bad Muslims. They’re all Muslims. When I say get rid of them, I wasn’t necessarily referring to genocide. What I was referring to is, stand up to them every time they stick up their heads and attack us. We can’t afford to say, “We’ll try diplomacy.” They don’t respond to it. If you look into Islamic tradition, a treaty is only good for five years. We’re not dealing with a rational mindset here. We’re dealing with madmen.

Not everybody sees the opportunity for genocidal sectarian violence on a global scale with such clarity of purpose of course. From the very beginning there have been nay-sayers with sly digs and subtle criticisms. One such nattering nabob of negativity, the Reverend Al Sharpton (and what do you think of HIS hair style!) commented in September, 2001:

“[Giuliani] didn’t bring us together, our pain brought us together and our decency brought us together. We would have come together if Bozo was the mayor.”

Granted that Rev. Sharpton is not likely to vote in a Republican primary.

In fairness to the thrice married, prostate challenged, zombie-looking and thoroughly unelectable Rudy, if you read his responses to the Washington Post questions on issues, he does NOT come up lame on all of them and he does NOT sound like the ravening beast his most loyal supporters make him out to be. He doesn’t seek the destruction of the Social Security benefit, for example, and he supports domestic partnerships. Other than that he is pretty lame. He is of course a war monger, as are they all, but he has other things in his background that I find commendable. He took down Ivan Boesky and Michael Milken. Milken has long since absorbed the slap on the wrist and re-emerged seeking the credibility that vast wealth and attention to pop tech can provide. Not Rudy’s fault.

Bottom line: A vote for Rudy is NOT a vote for Mike Huckabee, and that can’t be all bad.

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Huckabee

by Frank Paynter on January 1, 2008

“Faith, Family, Freedom” — that’s his slogan and I think that’s some spooky stuff. Hopefully Huckabee will get knocked out early and his voodoo economics will be submerged with him. When he is finally sunk we will have to worry about the Christian Crusaders and where their commitment to a victory for their god will take them. What does Huckabee stand for besides religious war terminating in the second coming of Jesus of Nazareth?

Consumer based health care insurance… take the burden off the backs of the employers and put it on the people who use insurance. Encourage employers to provide exercise breaks. Encourage employees to lose weight and quit smoking.

With a consumer-based system, you have skin in the game, some incentives to stay healthy and not take every MRI you can.
– Mike Huckabee, the common man’s man

Social Security benefits “inevitably must be reduced,” he says. This gives me an uncomfortable feeling about the fund that I’ve contributed to since my first job at Carvel in the 1950’s. It sounds like he doesn’t want to give me a fair return on the money I’ve put into the fund for over fifty years. Why would that be?

“While I want to reduce our dependence on oil, I especially want to reduce our dependence on imported oil as fully and quickly as possible. We need to get oil and gas from ANWR and our continental shelves.”

Who is this guy? As near as I can tell he represents a position best summed up as “more of the same.” With his bizarre slogan of Faith, Family, Freedom he’ll draw votes from the same base of fearful ignoramuses who put Bush in office. Twice. If you believe in god, start praying that this guy withdraws for the good of the country, for the good of the people.

Who is voting for him? As far as I can tell, anyone who believes that federal programs can be more effectively administered by christian ministers than by state and local governments will vote for him. Hedge fund managers will vote for him. The corporate elite, those people who prefer a close partnership between big business and government to a government informed by a populist agenda, will vote for him. Ignorant and ill informed dogmatic and bigoted poor people will vote for him if they also are devout church goers and have a sense that the war on terror can be won. Anyone who thinks increased military spending and a lowered federal budget provides a foundation for responsible government will vote for him.

Most of the people for whom the “right to life” begins at conception and ends at birth are strongly in his camp.

Who will vote for him? Greed-balls, jack-asses and ignoramuses will vote for him. This makes him a strong front runner on the right.

“Mike Huckabee is Chuck Norris approved.”

All that said, I admire a man who knows the limits and figures out clever ways to get around them. The Huckabee’s set up bridal gift registries in order to subvert Arkansas law regarding contributions. You have to admire that kind of creativity.

[tags]Huckabee, Mike Huckabee, no amnesty for illegal aliens, imprison them all, hell crucify them, no employer or government support for health insurance, roll back social security benefits, crucify the old and the diseased, Huckabee administration encourages cruciform carpentry industry, crusades, crucifixion, crucifers, mustard seeds, faith, religious war, family, big families, prison for mexicans caught here after dark and inner city indolent non-workers of all religious convictions, freedom for white ATV riding bass fishing tobacco chawing good old boys with pick-em-up trucks[/tags]

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