The (Ex) Cowboy finds solace in the wind swept prairies of America's less travelled ideological wilderness. There are lonesome nights and cold hard blizzards, but on occasion the (ex) Cowboy remembers why he came out here.
Yesterday, September 29th 2008 was a barrel of bad whiskey for the soul. But it reminded your humble commentator that he chose his political affiliation for a reason. Neither side has lock on being right, or righteous and, neither side is less dangerous when cornered by the ephemeral and ever present greed for election-year success. One side has broken more things lately, yes that us undeniable. But arguing with a sinner, does not make you a saint. Each side is enslaved by the same elective temptations.
Your party is not my church.
Your church is not my religion.
Your religion is not my country.
My country is my Mistress.
My Mistress is not your whore.
My Party is Not Declared.
Thanks for letting me share..
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
What Would Goldwater Do?
Charles V ascended his throne after a monumental religious comprimise. He famously intoned:
"Paris is worth a Mass"
The price for Republicans to continue pilfering marginal electoral victories, under Karl Rove's "Thousand Year Campaign", looks like the exact same sell-out. McCain ignored twenty or thirty million Republican primary voters and succumbed to a blackmail deal. Sarah Palin would join his ticket in exchange for getting Megachurch evangelicals to support his candidacy. McCain has been driven to be the President his entire life. He determined that the only way he could win his election was to sell theirPresidency.
(As if the hard-right christians would have voted for Obama..)
The modern conservative movement began with Barry Goldwater fifty years ago. The guy who took over Goldwater's Senate chair just ended it. The White House Republicans will still use the Goldwater brand, but their claim to Goldater's ideological conservatism went out the window with baby Palin's bath-water.
What would Barry say about Palin's religious end-run around 20 million Republican primary voters?
Barry Goldwater went out of his way to have this entered into the public record:
"However, on religious issues there can be little or no compromise. There is no position on which people are so immovable as their religious beliefs. There is no more powerful ally one can claim in a debate than Jesus Christ, or God, or Allah, or whatever one calls this supreme being. But like any powerful weapon, the use of God's name on one's behalf should be used sparingly.
The religious factions that are growing throughout our land are not using their religious clout with wisdom. They are trying to force government leaders into following their position 100 percent. If you disagree with these religious groups on a particular moral issue, they complain, they threaten you with a loss of money or votes or both.
I'm frankly sick and tired of the political preachers across this country telling me as a citizen that if I want to be a moral person, I must believe in 'A,' 'B,' 'C,' and 'D.' Just who do they think they are? And from where do they presume to claim the right to dictate their moral beliefs to me? And I am even more angry as a legislator who must endure the threats of every religious group who thinks it has some God-granted right to control my vote on every roll call in the Senate.
I am warning them today:
I will fight them every step of the way if they try to dictate their moral convictions to all Americans in the name of 'conservatism.' "
Senator Barry Goldwater
Congressional Record, September 16, 1981
The (ex) Cowboy knew Barry Golodwater and Sarah Palin is no Barry Goldwater!
Ride for the High Country
"Paris is worth a Mass"
The price for Republicans to continue pilfering marginal electoral victories, under Karl Rove's "Thousand Year Campaign", looks like the exact same sell-out. McCain ignored twenty or thirty million Republican primary voters and succumbed to a blackmail deal. Sarah Palin would join his ticket in exchange for getting Megachurch evangelicals to support his candidacy. McCain has been driven to be the President his entire life. He determined that the only way he could win his election was to sell theirPresidency.
(As if the hard-right christians would have voted for Obama..)
The modern conservative movement began with Barry Goldwater fifty years ago. The guy who took over Goldwater's Senate chair just ended it. The White House Republicans will still use the Goldwater brand, but their claim to Goldater's ideological conservatism went out the window with baby Palin's bath-water.
What would Barry say about Palin's religious end-run around 20 million Republican primary voters?
Barry Goldwater went out of his way to have this entered into the public record:
"However, on religious issues there can be little or no compromise. There is no position on which people are so immovable as their religious beliefs. There is no more powerful ally one can claim in a debate than Jesus Christ, or God, or Allah, or whatever one calls this supreme being. But like any powerful weapon, the use of God's name on one's behalf should be used sparingly.
The religious factions that are growing throughout our land are not using their religious clout with wisdom. They are trying to force government leaders into following their position 100 percent. If you disagree with these religious groups on a particular moral issue, they complain, they threaten you with a loss of money or votes or both.
I'm frankly sick and tired of the political preachers across this country telling me as a citizen that if I want to be a moral person, I must believe in 'A,' 'B,' 'C,' and 'D.' Just who do they think they are? And from where do they presume to claim the right to dictate their moral beliefs to me? And I am even more angry as a legislator who must endure the threats of every religious group who thinks it has some God-granted right to control my vote on every roll call in the Senate.
I am warning them today:
I will fight them every step of the way if they try to dictate their moral convictions to all Americans in the name of 'conservatism.' "
Senator Barry Goldwater
Congressional Record, September 16, 1981
The (ex) Cowboy knew Barry Golodwater and Sarah Palin is no Barry Goldwater!
Ride for the High Country
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Why Sarah Palin #27 ?
Among the 250 million or so citizens that the secretive power-elite of the Republican machine seeks to manipulate?
Sarah Palin is the easiest for them to control.
Ride For The High Country
Sarah Palin is the easiest for them to control.
Ride For The High Country
Questioning The Media
Karl Rove's "J'accusism" belligerence is cheap bully-tactic intended to oppress free discussion.
There's only seven words that are out of bounds for political media:
If George Carlin could say it, or ask it, so can journalists.
There's only seven words that are out of bounds for political media:
If George Carlin could say it, or ask it, so can journalists.
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
Sin To Win
Well I went to church on Sunday, I was feelin’ blue.
Saturday night sat down beside me, in the very last pew.
- The Ambulance Brothers, 2003
(Cowboy's note: This one was written and published during the 2004 election cycle. Apparently American Christian voters have suddenly had their "philosophical" - hunger and lust satiated. A fulfillment was delivered unto them in the form of a speaking-in-tongues, college drop-out with pretend eye glasses named Sarah "barracuda" Palin. You know, "barracuda", like the little fish embalm on the cars?)
Bush and the Republicans rose to power on a platform of religious fervor. The "values" message has been extremist in it’s zeal, but there is a confusing contradiction between their words and their actions. Almost any unchristian act is acceptable, provided it furthers their power and is backed up by properly coded words extolling "family values". The Reagan Revolution has devolved into a surreal pendulum between Sunday Morning Christianity and Saturday Night Sinfulness.
The Sunday Morning Christians of the GOP go to church once a week and say they believe in Christ’s Path. They refresh their dented faith for an hour, set an example for the kids and show the voters they are “clean”. Once they leave the church, however, they carry their political flag forward using acts and deeds that are the very definition of what Christ died to protest.
Rove’s Republicans take the Jesuit doctrine that “The Ends Justify the Means” one step further into the American Democratic experience: They made it heroic to push the limits of Christian behavior in pursuit of more power, more money and more glory. If the ethos of the Republican Party can be boiled down into one of their own simpleton-minded talking points it would be this:
SIN TO WIN.
It worked well for a time, mostly because nothing unifies like prejudice. Being judgemental against other population groups is as easy as it is unsophisticated. It drives the fearful masses like a blizzard drives cattle across the prairie. Now, however, the Republicans face serious election year blowback from the faithful. They built a national chorus of judgmental speaking but it was to polished. The reality of their actions could never match their promise of perfection. Christians are more than mildly concerned. It is suddenly late in the evening of W.'s Presidency and the date that brought him would like to dance.
… Lest ye be Judged
Under the current leadership Republicans openly proclaimed themselves to be the Party of Christ. But lately they are acting like the Party of Caesar. On Sundays they gleefully rouse the pitchfork and torch crowd, under the guise of Christ’s Path. But on Saturday night they trade, sell, conspire, deal, abuse power and ignore truths in a way that would make even the Romans bow in awe. (See "The Party of Dog" entry below.) They define themselves at every issue and every contrived moral crisis by what they are against. They proudly destroy any people (christian or otherwise) who disagree with them or any idea that threatens their power.
I have enormous faith in my heart. I believe Christ walked the earth. I have only ever wanted to ask him one thing: How can so many intelligent people be so loyal to you with their words and yet so sadly faithless to the key details of behavior that you died to espouse? I see the fish icons and the W. bumper stickers on rows of SUVs at the churches in our neighborhood each Sunday. I see them on the road on Monday and I wonder:
Why don’t you drive like a Christian?
I was raised to believe that Christian ethics are very, very simple: You determine what is right and what is easy. You do what is right and not what is easy. You suffer the discomfort, or rewards, of your choice as God has chosen for you. You move on down the path.
I was a Reagan independent. (I also recall that Reagan defeated a devote Christian.) I am sad that the GOP has grown away from Reagan's gentle but resolute faith in all Americans. They turned the party into a vitriolic marketing machine that brands faith in Christ like pro sports brand cheap beer. The Republicans of this era carry the same great cross of the ages before them in their march. They wave the same large, crisp flag of patriotism. But the only devotion they show in their deeds and works is to make sure that someone else is riding the cross this time up the hill.
Thanks for playing.
Ride for the High Country
Saturday night sat down beside me, in the very last pew.
- The Ambulance Brothers, 2003
(Cowboy's note: This one was written and published during the 2004 election cycle. Apparently American Christian voters have suddenly had their "philosophical" - hunger and lust satiated. A fulfillment was delivered unto them in the form of a speaking-in-tongues, college drop-out with pretend eye glasses named Sarah "barracuda" Palin. You know, "barracuda", like the little fish embalm on the cars?)
Bush and the Republicans rose to power on a platform of religious fervor. The "values" message has been extremist in it’s zeal, but there is a confusing contradiction between their words and their actions. Almost any unchristian act is acceptable, provided it furthers their power and is backed up by properly coded words extolling "family values". The Reagan Revolution has devolved into a surreal pendulum between Sunday Morning Christianity and Saturday Night Sinfulness.
The Sunday Morning Christians of the GOP go to church once a week and say they believe in Christ’s Path. They refresh their dented faith for an hour, set an example for the kids and show the voters they are “clean”. Once they leave the church, however, they carry their political flag forward using acts and deeds that are the very definition of what Christ died to protest.
Rove’s Republicans take the Jesuit doctrine that “The Ends Justify the Means” one step further into the American Democratic experience: They made it heroic to push the limits of Christian behavior in pursuit of more power, more money and more glory. If the ethos of the Republican Party can be boiled down into one of their own simpleton-minded talking points it would be this:
SIN TO WIN.
It worked well for a time, mostly because nothing unifies like prejudice. Being judgemental against other population groups is as easy as it is unsophisticated. It drives the fearful masses like a blizzard drives cattle across the prairie. Now, however, the Republicans face serious election year blowback from the faithful. They built a national chorus of judgmental speaking but it was to polished. The reality of their actions could never match their promise of perfection. Christians are more than mildly concerned. It is suddenly late in the evening of W.'s Presidency and the date that brought him would like to dance.
… Lest ye be Judged
Under the current leadership Republicans openly proclaimed themselves to be the Party of Christ. But lately they are acting like the Party of Caesar. On Sundays they gleefully rouse the pitchfork and torch crowd, under the guise of Christ’s Path. But on Saturday night they trade, sell, conspire, deal, abuse power and ignore truths in a way that would make even the Romans bow in awe. (See "The Party of Dog" entry below.) They define themselves at every issue and every contrived moral crisis by what they are against. They proudly destroy any people (christian or otherwise) who disagree with them or any idea that threatens their power.
I have enormous faith in my heart. I believe Christ walked the earth. I have only ever wanted to ask him one thing: How can so many intelligent people be so loyal to you with their words and yet so sadly faithless to the key details of behavior that you died to espouse? I see the fish icons and the W. bumper stickers on rows of SUVs at the churches in our neighborhood each Sunday. I see them on the road on Monday and I wonder:
Why don’t you drive like a Christian?
I was raised to believe that Christian ethics are very, very simple: You determine what is right and what is easy. You do what is right and not what is easy. You suffer the discomfort, or rewards, of your choice as God has chosen for you. You move on down the path.
I was a Reagan independent. (I also recall that Reagan defeated a devote Christian.) I am sad that the GOP has grown away from Reagan's gentle but resolute faith in all Americans. They turned the party into a vitriolic marketing machine that brands faith in Christ like pro sports brand cheap beer. The Republicans of this era carry the same great cross of the ages before them in their march. They wave the same large, crisp flag of patriotism. But the only devotion they show in their deeds and works is to make sure that someone else is riding the cross this time up the hill.
Thanks for playing.
Ride for the High Country
America's Palin Problem
Senator McCain suddenly looks like he has ten weeks to live eight weeks before the election. That gives American Democracy a bigger Palin problem than anyone has yet figured out how to address without a Karl Rove "J'accusism" attack.
The problem Palin gives America is that she has not ever received a single national vote for any federal office and she has never served in any sworn (military) or Senate confirmed command chain position. If McCain is elected, Palin will have no legitimate claim to having earned any of their ticket's votes specific for her candidacy for the Presidency.
Of all the VPOTUS names in contention now, or nearly every other historical contest since Washington was elected it is un-paralleled for such an inexperienced person to be considered without having a single federal vote or previous peer-reviewed, confirmed or promoted-under-oath command service. The "experience question" people are dealing with in comparing her to Obama is pretty simple, even for an ex Republican to do the math. He has 25 or 35 million votes in his column and she has zero.
That's right I am saying it out loud and Karl Rove be damned. McCain looks like he won't live through his first year, let alone the next eight.
The GOP/ Rove machine has all but admitted that she's dumber than a fish. They announced today that she will not do ANY unscripted media interviews before the election. She's going to be an unelected, unselected, un-vetted, untrained, un-stable, barely educated President from dim-wit Idaho. Her ascendancy would probably be the 4th or 5th most delicate and critical moment in American Presidential history. She would be an unelected President without a single pre-September loyalist in Washington. Not a single Vote. Never been background checked for a basic federal security clearance.
There's outside the beltway, there's outside Democracy itself and there's outside rational balance. McCain's impulsive, age-addled Palin nomination choice is beyond the perimeter fences on all counts.
Thanks for letting me try and share my thoughts...
RIde for the High Country
The problem Palin gives America is that she has not ever received a single national vote for any federal office and she has never served in any sworn (military) or Senate confirmed command chain position. If McCain is elected, Palin will have no legitimate claim to having earned any of their ticket's votes specific for her candidacy for the Presidency.
Of all the VPOTUS names in contention now, or nearly every other historical contest since Washington was elected it is un-paralleled for such an inexperienced person to be considered without having a single federal vote or previous peer-reviewed, confirmed or promoted-under-oath command service. The "experience question" people are dealing with in comparing her to Obama is pretty simple, even for an ex Republican to do the math. He has 25 or 35 million votes in his column and she has zero.
That's right I am saying it out loud and Karl Rove be damned. McCain looks like he won't live through his first year, let alone the next eight.
The GOP/ Rove machine has all but admitted that she's dumber than a fish. They announced today that she will not do ANY unscripted media interviews before the election. She's going to be an unelected, unselected, un-vetted, untrained, un-stable, barely educated President from dim-wit Idaho. Her ascendancy would probably be the 4th or 5th most delicate and critical moment in American Presidential history. She would be an unelected President without a single pre-September loyalist in Washington. Not a single Vote. Never been background checked for a basic federal security clearance.
There's outside the beltway, there's outside Democracy itself and there's outside rational balance. McCain's impulsive, age-addled Palin nomination choice is beyond the perimeter fences on all counts.
Thanks for letting me try and share my thoughts...
RIde for the High Country
Monday, September 01, 2008
Hurricane G. and the Pregnant Pause
suspiscious minds are talking
they're tryin' to tear us apart
they don't believe in this love of mine
they don't know what love is
I know what love is, and baby?
you can leave your hat on.
--Randy Newman (Sung by Joe Cocker)
(On iTunes)
Regarding the Hurricane, McCain was quoted in Phoenix as saying:
"We need to take off our Republican hats and put on our American hats"
The Cowboy invites them to stay under their American hats for a while.
Indeed, perhaps if Republicans could put their "American hats" on, for something, anything less political than an election-year, convention-week, post Katrina hurricane hitting Texas and Louisiana, they would not be the most distrusted, unsupported and despised political machine in United States History.
Well, and they might get some down-time to consider this advice, for the next four years or so. Now that their surprising VPOTUS choice has a surprising choice of her own to make by Wednesday:
Does she stay home to help her 17 year old daughter raise the child she is pregnant with. (Said pregnancy Mrs. Palin hid from the GOP investigators.) Or, does Mrs. Palin continue campaigning for VPOTUS and thus demonstrate that her moral high ground is an island. One which doesn't have room for her kids when the dirt hits. It is a tough choice that affects many, many families.
The good christian ones don't hide an underage pregnancy from a front-running POTUS candidate and then pretend it's just another day for a zealous pro-famiy campaigner.
Ride for the High Country
they're tryin' to tear us apart
they don't believe in this love of mine
they don't know what love is
I know what love is, and baby?
you can leave your hat on.
--Randy Newman (Sung by Joe Cocker)
(On iTunes)
Regarding the Hurricane, McCain was quoted in Phoenix as saying:
"We need to take off our Republican hats and put on our American hats"
The Cowboy invites them to stay under their American hats for a while.
Indeed, perhaps if Republicans could put their "American hats" on, for something, anything less political than an election-year, convention-week, post Katrina hurricane hitting Texas and Louisiana, they would not be the most distrusted, unsupported and despised political machine in United States History.
Well, and they might get some down-time to consider this advice, for the next four years or so. Now that their surprising VPOTUS choice has a surprising choice of her own to make by Wednesday:
Does she stay home to help her 17 year old daughter raise the child she is pregnant with. (Said pregnancy Mrs. Palin hid from the GOP investigators.) Or, does Mrs. Palin continue campaigning for VPOTUS and thus demonstrate that her moral high ground is an island. One which doesn't have room for her kids when the dirt hits. It is a tough choice that affects many, many families.
The good christian ones don't hide an underage pregnancy from a front-running POTUS candidate and then pretend it's just another day for a zealous pro-famiy campaigner.
Ride for the High Country
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