Five Before Chaos

Got a few hours to kill before going down to Hartford to go see Steely Dan. Yeah, I’m only 35 but as far as music goes, I’m pretty much an old fart. I’d have to say less than 25% of my music collection was recorded after 1980, hell, make that 1975.

Anyways, it’s time to take a look at the GOP stooge that is vying for Bernie’s old seat, Adj. General Martha Rainville. Now, the purpose of this is mostly to let you know that as much as the VT GOP would like you to believe Martha’s not some backwater Neanderthal Repub (like most of the ones now), a closer look at her shows she is really just another Bush Republican. See, it seems that the strategy the GOP tries time and time again is to avoid talking about issues unless absolutely necessary, because they know that they are nowhere near what traditional VT Repubs, such as the venerable George Aiken, were.

So, lets have a look, shall we? You can look at the bio stuff on her site, I’m going to look at where she stands on the issues, both from the material on her website, and through a Democratic press release graciously forwarded to me from Odum, over at Green Mountain Daily.

A cursory glance on her issues page shows 16 issues, from the Iraq war to No Child Left Behind. Conspicuously absent are two that seem to be quite important to Vermonters, the environment, and gender equality issues. Her energy policy has me quite confused. She mentions often about conservation and weaning us off of fossil fuels numerous times, but still is pushing the ‘increasing domestic production’ option, which to me, is no longer a viable option. There are many people in this country that simply think the answer to our energy problems is drilling our way out of it. Rainville is enabling this short-sighted thinking, and that mentality is also what is pushing for drilling in ANWR and other pristine, formerly-off-limits places. Granted, there are some good points to her energy plan, such as increased conservation, and the use of flex-fuel or hybrid government vehicles. There’s nothing about ending oil subsidies, nothing about increasing fuel mileage standards, nothing about increasing subsidies for solar, biomass and wind technologies.

On other things such as abortion, she supports parental-notification, and is opposed to the Republican buzzword ‘partial-birth abortion’. She supports line-item veto, which, considering we have a president that just ignores parts of the law he doesn’t agree with, seems kind of unnecesary(anything that gives an already power-obsessed executive branch more power is not a good thing).

On tax cuts, she’s taken the words right form the Bush book:
“As a fiscal conservative, I believe that taxpayers spend their hard earned money better than the government. Tax cuts stimulate the economy, promote strong economic growth and create new jobs.”
No surprises there, still playing the thoroughly discredited trickle-down theory.

Same on jobs, more form the tired old Repub playbook that’s running this country into the ground: “cut taxes, reduce regulatory burdens and reform our legal system”. Yep, damn trial lawyers and regulations… She offers nothing new on healthcare reform either, and I suspect that she believes the ‘market’, you know the one that has done such a great job so far with it, just needs a few reforms here and there and it will be ok. Screw universal healthcare.

Now to be fair, she supports a raise in the federal minimum wage, has called for diplomacy when dealing with Iran, is against the Federal Livestock ID system (a big issue in VT), and is in support of some sort of ethics reform. So basically, she’s not a far right lunatic. But, ultimately, what I find so discomforting about her is her position on Iraq. Like all of the assholes pushing the ’stay the course’ vibe, she ties Iraq into the GOP ‘war on terror’ talking point, and what’s worse, she sees the failure in Iraq as primarily a failure of our government to communicate:
“A very important element has been missing, and that is good communication on what’s going on there… It’s very difficult for citizens to have an accurate perspective of the war of our successes… Part of that is, I believe, the fault of all of those involved for not communicating more openly with Americans, or not telling the story of what’s going on in Iraq.”
So basically, we’re losing the war because we’re not getting the right spin on those 30 or 40 Iraqis killed every day due to sectarian violence and the 2600+ Americans who have died for the lie. Ok. Feel better?

Apparently, Rainville uses this same illogic to explain away the miserable failure known as the Bush Administration:
“I think his weakness all along has been communicating with people. I wish so much that he would tell more of the good news that’s there. There are some positive things happening… We tend to hear the bad news which is a function of how we cover news. I think the help to the Iraqi people that the war has given - I think that needs to be better understood. Those stories get lost, and I think it’s important for our nation as a whole to understand all that’s going in so that we can judge the strengths and weaknesses better of our president or our congress or our foreign policy.”

So what does that mean, Bush needs to lie better? Needs to hide his imbicilic IQ better? Sorry, Martha, that dog won’t hunt. Blame the liberal media? That is soooooo 2002.

So where am I getting at with all this? Well, in case you haven’t noticed, one-party GOP rule has been an unmitigated disaster for this country. It’s been polarizing, and morally bankrupt. It needs to end, now. Bush needs his power checked, in a serious way. And the thing you need to remember, no matter how much Martha Rainville (or Rich Tarrant, whom I’ll get to shortly) wants you to think they are ‘independent’ and ‘moderate’, they are still members of, and will be contributing to the numbers and power of the party responsible for screwing this country up so royally. A vote for a Repub on the national ticket means a continuace of bad foreign policy. Of no accountability. Of divisive domestic agendas that do nothing to make the average person’s life better, nor us better as a society as a whole. Party really does matter in this election, folks. Now I know there is a lot of talk about the lackluster candidacy of Peter Welch, and it is increasingly getting harder to hold our noses and vote for the lesser of two evils, as we had to for Kerry. But you know damn well Welch is not going to be another rubber stamp for Bushco. Rainville and Tarrant will, no matter how hard they try to convince you otherwise. Rainville: wrong for Vermont. So there.

Also, be sure to check out Philip Baruth’s excellent piece on Martha over at VT Daily Briefing, called ‘What is Rainville Republicanism, Daddy?’

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