John McCain and the Republicans want to expand drilling in the US, while at the same time the oil companies are exporting more gasoline and diesel fuel overseas.  

Per Reuters:

A record 1.6 million barrels a day in U.S. refined petroleum products were exported during the first four months of this year, up 33 percent from 1.2 million barrels a day over the same period in 2007. Shipments this February topped 1.8 million barrels a day for the first time during any month, according to final numbers from the Energy Department.

The oil companies don't care that we're suffering with high gas prices, they're making more money shipping fuel overseas.  So why give them tax incentives and leasing rights just so they can reap more profits?  

Before I start, I feel it necessary to say I am a woman in my 50's, a feminist, and an Obama supporter for a long while.

Now that that's out of the way, I'd also like to say that there has been sexism shown during this campaign. In fact, I was one of the many thousands of people who wrote to MSNBC and Chris Matthews for this comment made by Matthews.

"The reason she’s a U.S. Senator, the reason she’s a candidate for president, the reason she may be a front-runner is her husband messed around."

I'm happy to say that as a result of that outpouring, Chris Matthews abjectly apologized on January 17th.  

Was that the only occasion of sexism?  No, but probably the most blatant.     I think the larger point made by some of Hillary's supporters is sexism is pervasive and that is the point I'd like to heartily refute.  If it was pervasive, we'd have been shown more than an occasional example.  

I think everyone knows that Hillary Clinton's campaign is in its last stages.  

Whatever we may think personally of Hillary, she and her supporters are Democrats, and they're good Democrats who have fought long and hard for the nomination. I think we would have done the same for Barack Obama.

There have been strong and sometimes virulent hostilities on both sides.  I've seen as many comments from Obama supporters as Clinton supporters that have literally made me cringe.

Please, it's time to remember that we are, first and foremost, Democrats, with the goal of electing a Democrat to the White House, and to do that we need unity in the party.

It's very hard to assimilate that your candidate has lost, and all too easy to gloat because yours has won.  

I really ask that all of us be as kind and generous to our fellow Democrats as we can.  They've fought for their candidate, and Hillary was and is very lucky to have them.

We will be just as lucky to have them join us in the fight for the White House.

It pains me to write this diary.  It pains me that I feel this diary is necessary.  But with the way this primary election is going, with charges of racism and race baiting, I feel we all need to understand what's got people riled up, and why.

We need especially to talk about it before it tears the party apart even before we go to the general election.

The latest furor is over Geraldine Ferraro's comments on Barack Obama being lucky, and priveleged in this race. The divide between the Clintons and the African-American community started before this comment, and this is only exacerbating that divide.

I just cannot stop giggling.  The GOP, terrified at another scandal involving sex, gay sex, unceremoniously cut Larry Craig off at the knees when he announced he'd plead guilty to a misdemeanor involving an airport bathroom, a wide stance, toe tapping and finger wiggling.

Till now, I'd thought the most disgusting part of the entire story, and what proved his guilt to me, was knowing he'd supposedly been taking a crap, and didn't flush the toilet!  

The GOP cut him off because as things stand now, the wingnut base of the party is already unhappy with them, what with a president with abysmal numbers, a failing war effort, no good wingnut candidates, and scandal after scandal involving Congressmen. So there they were, patting themselves on the back for getting Craig to resign (they must have missed the word intent), but Craig just upped the ante.

He lawyered up to fight his guilty plea and the ethics investigation, he got Arlen Specter to speak up for him, and now all hell is breaking loose in the GOP.

First off, I'd like to say that I think the Democrats have a fine, depth-filled list of candidates, any of whom I'd be glad to support in the general election.

I'm not one to quickly jump on any bandwagon, and so far I've managed to steer clear of any and all diaries that were to 'sell' a candiate.  Or, alternatively, to knock a candidate.

In the end, what we want is the candidate who is not only the best candidate to win the general election, but also the  candidate who best carries the ideals of our community.

My vote goes to Barack Obama, and I'll tell you why.  

I love our community.  We're so diverse.  We have our fearless leader, that is Markos.  We have our intelligentsia, and that is our front pagers and those who write diaries.  There's our orators, that would be Hunter and kid oakland.

There are the blue collar workers, those of us who comment frequently.  Who toil in the fields, getting progressives/Democrats elected.  We have our great silent majority, those who lurk and quietly cheer us on with mojo and money.

We have our police force, who troll rate and imprison violators.  

Well, we have a sewage treatment workers, too.  

Imagine my surprise to find out that the Democratic party may well move too far to the Left, just to accommodate me.

I am so far to the Left, I believe our invasion of Iraq has been a strategic disaster, has thwarted progress on fighting terrorism, and has left us less safe.

I am so far to the Left, I believe we should have a plan to exit Iraq and not nation build on a 20 year plan.

I am so far to the Left, I believe our foreign policy should include diplomacy, talking even to our enemies and those with whom we disagree, in order to move forward on issues of importance.

I am so far to the Left, I think all of our citizens should have healthcare, with some kind of national plan that can also take the pressure off companies, allowing them to better compete globally.

I am so far to Left, I believe our government should follow the rule of law.  Even the president.

I am so far to the Left, I believe we should have three co-equal branches of government, to provide checks and balances.

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Am I mad as hell that the Democrats are conceding on the war funding?  Damn right.

But does this mean that all those Democrats we elected are failures? NO!

Yes, it does look ugly right now, but the fact of the matter is, we cannot just stop funding the war.  To do that would absolutely spell defeat for the Democrats in the next election.  Guaranteed.

Everybody seems to be forgetting that we have the barest of majorities in the Senate.  We all knew, in our heart of hearts, that it would be darn hard to put that leash on Bush, where it belongs.  But until Republicans start worrying about  re-election, they're not going to move on punishing him.

So, calm down, get a grip, and move on.

Here's what I think is going to happen in the next four months.

General Peter Pace has said

"I believe homosexual acts between two individuals are immoral and that we should not condone immoral acts,"

No one is asking you to condone it, General, they're telling you one's sexual orientation is immaterial to one's ability to serve one's country.

Here's what the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network had to say in response

"General Pace's comments are outrageous, insensitive and disrespectful to the 65,000 lesbian and gay troops now serving in our armed forces"

So, what to do?

 

I expect that in the very near future, we will find out that Bush is going to bomb Iran.  He'll go on tv and tell us that the Iranians refuse to negotiate, there is intelligence that Iran is far along in a nuclear weapons program, and that it is imperative for our national security interests that we stop Iran now.  Douglas Feith (you remember him, right?) has provided an Iranian Chalabi, Iranian arms dealer Manucher Ghorbanifar (infamous in the Iran contra affair) who's been pointing out where in Iran there are nuclear sites, and there's also a mysterious laptop with supposed nuclear plans.  (U.S. intelligence considers the documents, which were smuggled out of Iran on a laptop computer by a defector, authentic but cannot prove it.)  

We all know the drill.  There's evidence.  Bush knows.  Our own intelligence services say Iran is at least a decade away from nuclear arms, but no doubt they're just naysayers.

So why will we attack Iran?  

I see the flame wars are going on again.  To leave the party, or not.  They've failed us by not blocking Alito.  

Let me say, I think the Democrats on the Judiciary committee failed to articulate what's wrong with Alito, but I don't think there was ever a serious chance of denying him a seat on the bench.

But one thing they'd better get straight is that we don't want to hear their self aggrandizing.  We want to hear them grill candidates.  

Face it folks, you go to another party, all you do is ensure another Bush, another Republican Senate, and another Republican House.  Have you forgotten Nader already?

I just called my senator, Arlen Specter, about his vote and comments on Samuel Alito.

Senator Specter said that Samuel Alito has convinced him that he believes that Roe is settled law.  That seems to be a total fabrication, since Alito specifically said he would consider revisiting the Roe decision.  I am unable to fathom where Specter gets that impression.  

I called Senator Spector to voice my opinion.  

Our country tortures.  Say it again, our country tortures.  And as long as our country continues to do so, we are all shamed, and bear some guilt.

President Bush says we don't torture.  
 

Notice his verbiage.  He first mentions those who lurk and plot to hurt America (meaning: have I scared you yet?), before claiming we don't torture.  Leading one to believe that those who are against torture don't care if the US is attacked.  

While at the same time, Dick Cheney is at the top of the list for advocating torture.

Mixed messages?  Of course not.  

There's one peculiarity at dKos that I haven't seen on other blogs.  There are polls here, and they seem to be a big hit.  The people here just love polls, and if you want your diary to be really successful, you damn well better have one.  I notice that there's many of us who proclaim, in their title, 'With Poll!!', just to draw you in.  Why not just tell us you wrote a crappy diary, but you got poll!

There's a lot of poll jumpers here.  I can't tell you how many diaries I've read that have 23 comments, but 176 people took the poll.  Can't stop to comment, gotta hunt those polls down!  

I thought this fight was long over, the fight for equality.

I'm old enough to have been in the trenches.  I remember when abortion was illegal, and pregnant women had to go through terrifiying processes in order to terminate that pregnancy.  I know, as I was one of those women.  I can tell you honestly, a dog shouldn't have to go through that.

I remember when I went to the doctor for birth control, as an unmarried young lady, and he refused, pursing his lips and giving me a lecture on being 'that type' of woman.  

I remember going for a job at a phone company, and asking to take the test for an outside (typically male) job.  The interviewer literally smirked at me and proceeded to lie about what the job would entail, and in the end still refusing to let me take the test.

I had a job at a big insurance company, and had to deal with men mauling me, and when I complained, I was considered at fault.

Both Booman23 and DarkSyde have done stories now on how the Republicans/fundies would rather see women get HPV, and possibly cervical cancer, rather than let us get a vaccination that would prevent it.

 

Colonel Ted Westhusing died in a military installation trailer near Baghdad airport in June of a single gunshot wound to his head.  

His death, whether a suicide, (as ruled by by the Army), or by other means, is a tale of the questions raised by Iraq in general.  Why are we there, what is our mission, and how should we conduct ourselves there.  

This was a man who had a 'safe' job, teaching at West Point, but he chose to go to Iraq. There, his job was training Iraqi security forces to take over from the Americans, overseeing USIS, an American contracting firm. By all accounts, he was doing an excellent job, garnering high praise from General Patraeus, who was in charge of training.

But Colonel Westhusing was not happy.

There's an editorial in today's Washington Post on the brouhaha surrounding Bob Woodward.

And as with the NYT did with Judy Miller, they just don't get it.  

Excuse me, but nobody is vilifying Bob Woodward for protecting the identity of his source.  They are vilifying him for being a part of the story, and using his 'vaulted' experience to undermine the investigation.

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