MAY 3 , 2008: "YEARS OF SHAME" FINALLY CRAWL TOWARDS THE FINISH LINE

Finally we are in the waning days of the Worst President Ever. While they can't end soon enough, and should have ended long ago, at least America seems to be waking up to the fact that we've been had. A government that campaigned with false slogans like "Trust the People" and "Restore Honor and Dignity" has been recklessly abusing that trust from Day Zero with its stolen election. George W Bush abused his power, has operated above, beyond, and with contempt for the rule of law, the Constitution, International Law, and common decency and morality. Even when given unprecedented unified support brought on by the single most horrific attack on our shores (an attack he willfully ignored as it developed), he squandered this advantage and has gone from having the highest favorable ratings ever to the lowest ever. He lied us into a reckless war, needlessly and senselessly killing hundreds of thousands of innocent men, women and children, dipped into our treasury for generations to come to line the pockets of his greedy buddies. Unlike his more humble father, Bush didn't lack the "vision thing"- his vision is one of arrogance, torture, and disgrace to our great country. He played the dirtiest of gutter politics, employing henchmen and professional liars to slander legitimate patriots and heroes to maintain his grip on power. All along he was assisted by a cowardly media and weak opposition party, and buttressed by loudmouth zeaolots who would stop at nothing to impose their arrogant world view. Only now that his policies have been shown to be failures is the worm starting to turn. That "Jobs Creation Act" tax cut for the billionaires has been a woeful failure, with the worst jobs creation record since Hoover. I never supported Bush, and in fact have vigorously opposed him throughout his term, but even his most inveterate supporters are now looking at him with disgust. Good riddance, you arrogant, hateful, lying thief, and don't let the door hit you on your way out. May you spend the rest of your days tortured by the torture you have inflicted on families throughout this country and the world.

FEBRUARY 29, 2008: TELECOM IMMUNITY- WHAT'S IT REALLY ALL ABOUT?

The hot political topic of the past few days was Bush's continued browbeating of Democrats to pass the law extending Bush's ultra-dictatorial-surveillance law, giving himself supreme powers to wiretap anyone without any meaningful judicial oversight nor recourse. Bush demands that the bill include retroactive immunity for telecoms that broke the law at his request before the surveillance was made legal. He says that if they are not granted immunity, then they won't help in the future.

I'm trying to understand what is really the issue here. Why are we debating whether the telecoms should be granted immunity for breaking the law, while ignoring whether Bush should be granted immunity for asking them to break the law? He clearly knew what he was doing was against the law, based on speeches he made before the illegal activity was uncovered, assuring Americans that he was complying with the law. Is the reason Bush is so insistent that, if telecoms are brought to court, he will be brought to court along with them? And it may come out that he wiretapped not only terrorists, but political enemies, environmental groups etc. Why don't the Democrats make it clear that they want to hold Bush accountable for breaking the law?

And Bush's argument that "we must grant telecoms immunity or else they won't help in the future" is absurd on its face. "Won't help with" what? The only thing they would not help with would be activities that are illegal! For everything else, they would be required to comply based on the law. So why don't the Democrats respond to the specious argument? It's infuriating, but once again the Democrats fail to respond soberly to Bush's saber-rattling, and fail to make the case to the American people that we need to rein in unchecked executive superpowers that are a violation of the Constitution.

All Bush is doing is trying to keep himself immune from prosecution and to keep the wraps on his illegal activity, which may very well include political spying and harassment and blackmail. If he gets away with this, we would never know! We know that Bush knowingly broke the law on wiretapping. We also know that it was unnecessary for him to break the law to meet his objectives of swiftly tracing terrorists. The only thing that the law would have prevented was the slightest, non-political judicial oversight. Why is he afraid of oversight? Even retroactive oversight? What is he hiding?

Retroactive telecom immunity will only set a precedent assuring telecoms that they must act illegally if requested by the President.

Preventing retroactive immunity will not - CAN NOT- prevent a telecom from acting on legal demands in the future. It will only discourage them from performing illegal actions in the future. As it should!

If Bush broke the law, he should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, and he deserves to be impeached, and his crimes should be fully invetsigated.

The American people deserve to know whether Bush has abused his illegal wiretapping powers for political purposes. If preventing telecom immunity will allow the truth to come out, then keep retroactive immunity out of the bill! But if Democrats can't make the case, we will be sure to see them fold, cowering in fear, afraid of looking "weak on terrorists", which is irrelevant to the whole controversy.

FEBRUARY 22, 2008: MEDIA FIX IS IN

Watching the Democratic debate on CNN last night was infuriating- both because of the lopsided, absurd, and biased questioning of Hillary Clinton, and her inability to respond effectively. Almost every question to her was a variation of the same unfair question, over and over again: "You say that you're the one candidate with the experience to be Commander-in-Chief- are you saying Obama does not have the experience to be Commander-in-Chief?" "You say that you are the candidate who will be ready to take action on the economy on Day One- are you saying Obama will not be ready?"

The Republicans would like nothing better than to have a soundbite from Hillary Clinton saying "Obama is not ready to be Commander-in-Chief", etc. The media seemed intent on drawing such a soundbite out of her to disparage the current Democratic frontrunner.

Meanwhile, they never asked Obama to explain, "You say you will reach out to all Americans- are you saying Hillary won't reach out?" The questioning was rather one-sided to draw Hillary into a direct attack on Obama's credentials.

Each time, Hillary struggled through a muddled answer, trying to explain without falling into the trap they were laying for both her AND Obama, with this line of attack. She did avoid falling into the trap, but came out sounding vague and evasive, She said "It's the voters that will decide; Distinctions have to be made; I am ready to be President."

I wish she had said the following:

"From these questions you seem intent on forcing me to attack Barack rather than explain why I believe I am the best candidate. Let's face it: One of the two of us up here is going to be the Democratic nominee, and either one of us will be better for Americans than Bush has been or John McCain would be. It would not serve either of us to attack the other so that Republicans can use the attack in their ads. So if you are intent on fostering petty squabbles, backstabbing, and trivial attacks, to support the Republican campaign goals and divide the Democratic party, you are wasting your time with me. Democratic voters have a choice between an excellent candidate in Barack, and an even better candidate in me. In the speeches you quoted, I am trying to answer the question, why do I believe that I am the best candidate? Are you interested in my answer to that question?"

NOVEMBER 25, 2007: DEMOCRATS EXCITED-
FINALLY READY TO RUN AGAINST BUSH-
IN 2008!

APRIL 23, 2007: GERLACH VOTES TO DENY HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF AMERICANS ANY REPRESENTATION IN CONGRESS

APRIL 22, 2007: SUPREME COURT IS THE PARTIAL-BUSH ELECTION BAND

APRIL 12, 2007: DEMOCRATS AGAIN PLACE PRIORITY ON LOSING-
COMPLAIN TO THE LANDLORD ABOUT LEAKY FAUCETS
WHILE HE IS BURNING DOWN THE HOUSE

APRIL 8, 2007: BUSH BILKS BILLIONS FOR BLOOD, BRUTALITY, BARBARISM AND 'BURTON

JANUARY 26, 2007: SOME GOOD NEWS

JANUARY 17, 2007: DEMOCRATS STILL FROZEN IN FEAR

JANUARY 13, 2007: THE SENATE IS STILL INSANE

JANUARY 6, 2007: JERRY FORD WAS NO HERO

 

DECEMBER 30, 2006:
BUSH'S IRAQ...
"WHERE THE EXECUTIONER'S FACE IS ALWAYS WELL-HIDDEN"

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NOVEMBER 11, 2005: CORRUPT STATE HOUSE REPRESENTATIVES REFUSE TO LET GO OF PAY GRAB; TRICK MEDIA!

OCTOBER 31, 2005: JOHN FICHTER RATED AMONG THE WORST REPRESENTATIVES ON PENNSYLVANIA ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES

OCTOBER 3, 2005: GIVE IT BACK, JOHN!
JOHN FICHTER OWES HIS CONSTITUENTS $1,300 FOR HIS FRAUDULENT EXPENSE CLAIM

OCTOBER 2, 2005:
DEAR JOHN: GORDON OFFERS JOHN FICHTER A FREE IDEA TO FIGHT IDENTITY THEFT

SEPTEMBER 2, 2005:
FICHTER BOWS TO PRESSURE FROM CONSTITUENTS; PLEDGES TO DISCONTINUE HIS UNVOUCHERED EXPENSE FRAUD

AUGUST 13, 2005:
"DO-NOTHING" FICHTER INSPIRES NEW SCALE FOR MEASUREMENT OF INACTIVITY:
THE "FICHTER SCALE"!

AUGUST 11, 2005:
IRAQ WAR BRINGS TRAGEDY HOME TO THE 70TH DISTRICT

AUGUST 8, 2005:
DO-NOTHING FICHTER PARTICIPATES IN MASSIVE FRAUD AGAINST TAXPAYERS
BY COLLECTING "UNVOUCHERED EXPENSES"

JULY 8, 2005:
DO-NOTHING FICHTER VOTES HIMSELF
ANOTHER UNDESERVED PAY RAISE IN MIDNIGHT VOTE

JULY 5, 2005:
MORE OF THE SAME: JOHN FICHTER, CORPORATE PAC PUPPET

QUOTE OF THE MONTH, JUNE, 2005:

"Power is in the hands of an unelected few who have retained power through an electoral process that ignores the basic requirements of democracy."

-George W. Bush, June 16, 2005

JUNE 9, 2005:
JOHN FICHTER, PAWN OF THE BIG TELECOMMS, HMOs, AND ENERGY INDUSTRY

JUNE 8, 2005:
DC DEMOCRATIC SENATE INVERTEBRATES SURRENDER, DECLARE VICTORY

APRIL 15, 2005:
JOHN FICHTER PROPOSES TO MAKE PA TAXPAYERS PAY FOR POLLUTERS' MESS;
TAKES NO ACTION AGAINST POLLUTERS

APRIL 13, 2005:
COWARDLY COMPROMISE GROWING GREENER II BILL;
BETTER THAN NOTHING, BUT LEAVES THE TOUGH DECISIONS FOR LATER

APRIL 5, 2005:
REPRESENTATIVE JOHN FICHTER STILL HIDING FROM CONSTITUENTS

MARCH 21, 2005:
REPRESENTATIVE JOHN FICHTER MISSING IN ACTION

MARCH 14, 2005:
FREE "PROUD TO LIVE IN A BLUE STATE" BUMPER STICKER!

Free "Proud to Live in a Blue State" bumper sticker! Download it here, print it on bumper sticker label stock available at most office supply stores, sport it on your car, and remind the Bushists that they are in Blue territory!

MARCH 11, 2005:
SOCIAL SECURITY "REFORM" SCREWS THE BABY BOOMERS

FEBRUARY 10, 2005:
JOHN FICHTER: INCOHERENT ON THE ENVIRONMENT

FEBRUARY 10, 2005:
CONDI RICE: A MONUMENTAL NATIONAL SECURITY FAILURE GETS PROMOTED BY BUSH

DECEMBER 11, 2004:
JOHN FICHTER, IN BED WITH THE DEVELOPERS

NOVEMBER 3, 2004:
WEAK, VULNERABLE, INEFFECTIVE, AND UNPOPULAR JOHN FICHTER:
#3 ON "PENNSYLVANIA'S LEAST-WANTED REPRESENTATIVES" LIST

• ELECTION RESULTS ARE IN! (FINALIZED 12/10/04)
  GORDON, MATTHEW: 13,025 votes (45%) (First-time Democratic Challenger)
  FICHTER, JOHN W.: 15,929 votes (55%) (Six-term Republican incumbent)
  
  NOTE: THIS WAS THE FIFTH-CLOSEST ELECTION FOR AN INCUMBENT STATE REPRESENTATIVE IN THE ENTIRE STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA!

NOVEMBER 3, 2004:
MATTHEW GORDON'S STATEMENT ON THE ELECTION

SEPTEMBER 24th, 2003:
BUSH IS BEHAVING IRRESPONSIBLY

 

To visit Matthew's original Campaign home page, go here.

To read patriotic cartoonist Ted Rall, click here.

 

 

Matt Gordon

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