As an individual who considers himself to be independent, this article from the ContraCosta Times just confirms my opinion that the loud and intolerant wingnuts have taken over the Democrat party. I have had personal experience in dealing with these people and know how annoying these whackos are.

First I found it curious watching Barack Obama being endorsed by a fat-cat bagillionaire womanizing confirmed alcoholic, Sen. Ted Kennedy...and now this.

I will now support (with the exception of Mike Huckabee) any Republican running for President.

The Democratic party needs to attract independent voters like myself. Groups like Code Pink and MoveOn.org associated with the Democratic Party just push me into a space across the aisle.

Berkeley council tells Marines to leave
By Doug Oakley

STAFF WRITER

Hey-hey, ho-ho, the Marines in Berkeley have got to go.

That's the message from the Berkeley City Council, which voted 6-3 Tuesday night to tell the U.S. Marines that its Shattuck Avenue recruiting station "is not welcome in the city, and if recruiters choose to stay, they do so as uninvited and unwelcome intruders." In addition, the council voted to explore enforcing its law prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation against the Marines because of the military's don't ask, don't tell policy. And it officially encouraged the women's peace group Code Pink to impede the work of the Marines in the city by protesting in front of the station.

In a separate item, the council voted 8-1 to give Code Pink a designated parking space in front of the recruiting station once a week for six months and a free sound permit for protesting once a week from noon to 4 p.m. Councilman Gordon Wozniak opposed both items. The Marines have been in Berkeley for a little more than a year, having moved from Alameda in December of 2006. For about the past four months, Code Pink has been protesting in front of the station.

"I believe in the Code Pink cause. The Marines don't belong here, they shouldn't have come here, and they should leave," said Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates after votes were cast. A Marines representative did not respond to requests for comment. The resolution telling the Marines they are unwelcome and directing the city attorney to explore issues of sexual orientation discrimination was brought to the council by the city's Peace and Justice commission. The recommendation to give Code Pink a parking space for protesting and a free sound permit was brought by council members Linda Maio and Max Anderson.

Code Pink on Wednesday started circulating petitions to put a measure on the November ballot in Berkeley that would make it more difficult to open military recruiting offices near homes, parks, schools, churches libraries or health clinics. The group needs 5,000 signatures to make the ballot. Even though the council items passed, not everyone is happy with the work of Code Pink. Some employees and owners of businesses near the Marines office have had enough of the group and its protests. "My husband's business is right upstairs, and this (protesting) is bordering on harassment," Dori Schmidt told the council. "I hope this stops." An employee of a nearby business who asked not to be identified said Wednesday the elderly Code Pink protesters are aggressive, take up parking spaces, block the sidewalk with their yoga moves, smoke in the doorways, and are noisy. "Most of the people around here think they're a joke," the woman said.

Wozniak said he was opposed to giving Code Pink a parking space because it favors free speech rights of one group over another. "There's a line between protesting and harassing, and that concerns me," Wozniak said. "It looks like we are showing favoritism. We have to respect the other side, and not abuse their rights. This is not good policy." Ninety-year-old Fran Rachel, a Code Pink protester who spoke at the council meeting, said the group's request for a parking space and noise permit was especially important because the Marines are recruiting soldiers who may die in an unjust war. "This is very serious," Rachel said. "This isn't a game; it's mass murder. There's a sickness of silence of people not speaking out against the war. We have to do this."

Anderson, a former Marine who said he was "drummed out" of the corps when he took a stand against the Vietnam War, said he'd love to see the Marines high tale it out of town. "We are confronted with an organization that can spend billions of dollars on propaganda," Anderson said. "This is not Okinawa here; we're involved in a naked act of aggression. If we can provide a space for ordinary people to express themselves against this kind of barbarity, then we should be doing it."

Life may not be the party we hoped for,
but while we're here we should dance.

I'd like to see Ted Kennedy do this with Al Gore!

There is activism and there is activism, but once again here is an example of when activism goes to the level of utter absurdity and pettiness. "Liberals" so often like to "make statements" to show that "they care," yet they are always running short on maturity and pragmatism. And to compare President Bush to Hitler -- is unspeakable.

Saddam would make quick work of these idiots.

Brattleboro to vote on arresting Bush, Cheney

January 26, 2008

By Susan Smallheer Herald Staff

BRATTLEBORO — Brattleboro residents will vote at town meeting on whether President George Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney should be indicted and arrested for war crimes, perjury or obstruction of justice if they ever step foot in Vermont. The Brattleboro Select Board voted 3-2 Friday to put the controversial item on the Town Meeting Day warning. According to Town Clerk Annette Cappy, organizers of the Bush-Cheney issue gathered enough signatures, and it was up to the Select Board whether Brattleboro voters would consider the issue in March. Cappy said residents will get to vote on the matter by paper balloting March 4. Kurt Daims, 54, of Brattleboro, the organizer of the petition drive, said Friday the debate to get the issue on the ballot was a good one. Opposition to the vote focused on whether the town had any power to endorse the matter.

"It is an advisory thing," said Daims, a retired prototype machinist and stay-at-home dad of three daughters. So far, Vermont is the only state Bush hasn't visited since he became president in 2001. Daims said the most grievous crime committed by Bush and Cheney was perjury — lying to Congress and U.S. citizens about the basis of a war in Iraq. He said the latest count showed a total of 600,000 people have died in the war.

Daims also said he believed Bush and Cheney were also guilty of espionage for spying on American people and obstruction of justice, for the politically generated firings of U.S. attorneys. Voting to put the matter on the town ballot were Chairwoman Audrey Garfield and board members Richard Garrant and Dora Boubalis. Voting against the idea were board members Richard DeGray and Stephen Steidle. Daims said the names submitted to the town clerk's office were the second wave of signatures the petition drive had to collect, because he had to rewrite the wording of the petition. He said he gathered nearly 500 signatures in about three weeks, and he said most people he encountered were eager to sign it. He started the petition drive about three months ago. "Everybody I talked to wanted Bush to go," he said, noting that even members of the local police department supported the drive. "This is exactly what the charter envisioned as a citizen initiative," Daims said. "People want to express themselves and they want to say how they feel." He said the idea is spreading: Activists in Louisville, Ky., are spearheading a similar drive, and he said activists were also working in Montague, Mass., a Berkshires town.

The article asked the town attorney to "draft indictments against President Bush and Vice President Cheney for crimes against our Constitution and publish said indictments for consideration by other authorities." The article goes on to say the indictments would be the "law of the town of Brattleboro that the Brattleboro police ... arrest and detain George Bush and Richard Cheney in Brattleboro, if they are not duly impeached ..."

Daims said people in Brattleboro were willing to "think outside the box" and consider the issue. Daims had no compunction in comparing Bush and Cheney with one of the most notorious people in history. "If Hitler were still alive and walked through Brattleboro, I think the local police would arrest him for war crimes," Daims said.

Well, it looks like Al "Chicken Little" Gore is back trying to grab headlines, saying in part, "Climate change is occurring far more rapidly than even the worst predictions of the UN's Nobel Prize-winning scientific panel on climate change." He said that recent evidence shows "the climate crisis is significantly worse and unfolding more rapidly than those on the pessimistic side of the IPCC projections had warned us."

I love when politicians become experts on everything. Is there climate change going on? Any blind person would say an emphatic "yes." Is it all being caused by humans? I don't think so.

What I do know is that Al Gore in actuality doesn't give a rat's ass over global warming, but he has found himself a good schtick doing what he is doing in order to TRY to find a topic/issue that the Democrats might be able to hang their proverbial coat. Democrats are soft on illegal immigration and they are soft on global terrorism. (Of course these days serendipitously they were handed a sudden issue with the concerns over the economy.) To make things worse for the Democrats, they have two (three, if you count former President Clinton) frontrunners who are constantly getting into catfights over personal issues rather than dealing with concrete solutions.

"You can't walk in a sewer without getting something on you."

With the first round of the presidential primary now just something just so much gristle for the political commentators to continuously chew on until the next round, here are my impressions of the candidates.

BARACK OBAMA
He loves to speak in platitudes with words that really sound good. But the thing is that he has said nothing that hasn't been said before in a political campaign. He is trying to have himself framed as kind of a John F. Kennedy for the 21st century, but should he be elected, will be as disastrous as Jimmy Carter -- who has shown his true colors as a senile and anti-semitic individual. Obama talking about "change" is cute and stirs up the crowds, but what has he done so phenomenal? What legislation has he put forth to the betterment of our country?

HILLARY CLINTON
She is the best candidate, but like many Americans, I'm concerned about the Clinton dynasty being maintained just as some are concerned about the Bush dynasties.

MIKE HUCKABEE
Do we really want a politician whose name evokes images of some Civil War military general? He has some good ideas, but the trick is to be bring them into fruition.

MIT ROMNEY
I don't trust him. He comes off as a used car sales. I don't give a damn if he is a Mormon or not. Mormons are good people who have learned how to be self-sufficient.

JOHN McCAIN
He has served his country honorably and is liberal enough, yet conservative enough.

RUDY GUILIANI
(see John McCain)

RON PAUL
Weirdo who is very dangerous with his isolationist political views.