“My name is Paul Wellstone and I represent the Democratic wing of the Democratic party!” – Paul Wellston, #RIP

The Honorable Paul D. Wellstone, PD-MN. (July 21, 1944 – October 25, 2002)

Years ago PD – Progressive Democrat Paul David Wellstone very famously quipped: My name is Paul Wellstone and I represent the Democratic wing of the Democratic party! And ever since the Democratic party has been trying to figure out what such a human qualifier like that even means?

But with the advent of Progressive firebrands like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren that human qualifier is being answered.

This weekend the Libertarian party or Libertarian National Committee held its national convention in Orlando, FL. C-Span covered the live event. I pretty much watched it all the way through, making a few exceptions for normally scheduled television and “honey-dos” for my lovely wife along the way. LOL.

I live in Kentucky and a few weeks prior to this event I sat down and made this video on Kentucky primary day for 2016. Take a look:

As most of you know I am throughly disgusted  with the 2016 Democratic primary process. In particular how it is that Hillary Clinton has come so far without real question or scrutiny? Essentially, being handed my Democratic party’s nomination for the presidency of the United States of America in two thousand and sixteen.

Over this Memorial day weekend I have been thinking a lot about Mr. Wellstone and his epic qualifier and in the video above I lamented that after this Democratic primary and in particular the general election cycle for 2016 I am through with the Democratic party. Resolving to go the way of Independent or Decline to Say in terms of my voter registration thereafter.

Seemingly I’m not alone in this as many in the Republican party have followed suit. Burning their voter registration cards in effigy, like the peace nicks of the 1960’s that burned their draft cards as opposed to being drafted for service in the Vietnam War or the Women of the Women’s Liberation Movement who burned their bras and kitchen aprons as well.

But after this weekend and the last Libertarian presidential debate on C-span for 2016, and the epic opening and closing statements of Dr. Marc Allan Feldman and Mr. Darryl W. Perry my faith in humanity and the Democratic party has been renewed! Because it was both these men that managed to stir the echoes and fan the flames of democratic progressivism anew for me personally. Watch.

Hearing these men’s words and the stir of echoes from the late great Paul Wellstone in 1990 when it was first running for the United States Senate from Minnesota has renewed and restored my faith in the Democratic part of the Democratic wing of the Democratic party. Renewed that there is hope. Promise. And people out there filled to overflowing with a heart for the People of America and the World.

We cannot now nor anytime in the future let up folks. Our foot must stay on the gas pedal of progress, BUT not the kind of progress we’re seeing today. Instead it should be the progress that people like Senator Wellstone and so many others have advocated for, some for years some for decades, from the very beginning.

That healthcare for all is a fundamental right and not a privilege. That people deserve and have earned the right to a livable wage and a standard of living with access to housing and public transportation that is commiserate with the times. The right to organize and unionize for representation at the table of free markets. That as Americans we have a right to expect that our government will keep its nose out of our bedrooms and off our bodies. The right to come and go as we please and do business or not do business; politically, socially or ecumenically with nation’s, Peoples and places of our choosing. And the right that when we retire medicare, Medicaid and social security will be their for us in the twilight of our ‘golden years’.

To many these ideals seem ‘high-minded’, ‘professorial’ and downright nice, BUT they are ideals ‘devoid of reality’, for now. But that through the advent of time, hard work, dedication and small ball politics we’ll get there, eventually. Afterall this is not Scandinavia or the Republic of Myanmar, we are told. “Hello. I’m earth. Have we met?” And so it goes, right?

I am all for third political parties because they keep the Republican and Democratic parties honest and accountable. They hold the two-party system in this country to a full accounting of the American people. Moving forward in 2016 third political parties can and should expect more mainstream viewership.

Not all that long ago I was reading a posting from former Independent Governor of Minnesota Jesse Ventura that said that there is the very real possibility that we could see the emergence of three or four [mainstream] political parties from this 2016 election cycle. Giving us, the Voters, all the more to choose from. And as a Progressive, never mind a Democrat, I’m all for that. More Voices. More Choices, and when I get elected to high office I will work to preserve, protect and defend voting and the free exercise thereof for any candidate or political party of your choice, regardless of names behind it or the money that it has in its coffers.

And speaking of, “money in politics” or the epic Citizens United Supreme Court case I have to, as a Progressive Democrat, draw a line in the sand. And push back against the idea that somehow people like Charles and David Koch, Foster Friess and Sheldon Adelson, just to name a few BIG MONEY donors, will get to dictate to Us, We the American Voters that is, how our political process or Our Future should be.

BIG MONEY politics is not a march towards progress at all, instead its a means to an end.

And if true BIG MONEY donors, like the ones I just mentioned, will, through these Never Trump and Never Hillary movements, co-opt folks, good folks at that, like former Governor of New Mexico and 2016 Libertarian presidential nominee Gary E. Johnson and former Commonwealth of Massachusetts Governor  and 2016 Libertarian vice presidential nominee William F. Weld or the Johnson-Weld Campaign for 2016, all for the sake of ballot access in all fifty states and an inside tract towards the interworkings of American democracy.

That is WHY I am renewed, restored and resolved to making the Democratic party Democratic again. Progressive again. Giving people a viable alternative(s) that will speak to and do far more than  just be this candidate or a part of that political movement because its popular or politically expedient.

Because it’s not about a person or a slogan, a campaign or a dream, instead its about us, all of us together. We are, after all, all in this thing called life together and we are only as good as the person next to us. No better and no worse.

My name is Rhett E. Column (aka David Davidson) and I represent the Democratic wing of the Democratic party! Care to join me in the march towards progressive ideals?

–Rhett.

‘We Split That’ – The politics of splitting hairs

As this post is being written the 2016 primary process has been decided in Wisconsin (The Badger State).

A “Vote Here,” sign hangs just outside a Wisconsin polling place, as the 2016 primary process is settled their today (photo courtesy of WKOW)…

And as the process kicks further into the middle of New England and the Central United States as well as the remainder of the Mid-West and West I can’t help, again, but to be reminded of the movie, “Fargo” and the epic lines between the two kidnappers in that movie. Particularly this one. Watch.

And how this entire primary process has been nothing more than the politics of ‘We Split that’. What does the politics of ‘We Split that’ mean?

“Arguing about an inconsequential or trivial aspect of a task or issue…”

All throughout this process we have been regaled with the rules and regulations concerning the two-party system here in the United States of America by pollsters and pundits alike.

 

 

 

And it all adds up to just one thing, splitting hairs. When Hillary Clinton looses (or wins) a caucus or even a primary process like she did not all that long ago in Michigan (The Trojan State) its ‘We Split that’- meaning the delegates, BUT because I’m Hillary Clinton, former Secretary of State and Senator for New York and oh well hell former First Lady of the United States and before that First Lady of Arkansas, working mom, Grandma extraordinaire, etc. etc. I get more, am supposed to get way more, delegates than you Bernie Sanders; you goddamned pinko-commie-socialist-turned-temporary-in-name-only-Democrat. Now dry up, fuck off, bugger off and go away! Bastard.

And so it goes…

The Honorable John Kasich, Republican Governor of Ohio, 2016 Campaign for President photo…

 

And the same can be said on the Republican side of the ledger. Trump, Cruz or Kasich win one or more than the other it is soon-enough arguing ‘We split that’ in terms of their delegates.

Remember though what happened in 2012, during the Republican primary process, it was down to Republican Congressman and OBGYN Dr. Ron Paul, M.D. of Lake Jackson, TX. USA by way of Pittsburgh, PA. USA and Mitt Romney, former Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts? And the infamous ‘Republican National Convention screw-job’ in Florida? Remember that? Watch.

 

Anyway, it came down to just two people then in the 2012 Republican party primary process. Dr. Paul and good old Willard Mittens Romney, the former Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Romney was what the political establishment is today. He embodied it. Watch.

And we all remember how this happened in the State of Louisiana when a Ron Paul supporter and a delegate for the state’s Republican party had his hip broken and he was arrested by police for attempting to lodge a complaint at a local party meeting. Watch.

 

Splitting hairs is violent, no? History repeats itself, no?

Especially when the so-called political establishment doesn’t get its way.

Threat. Innuendo. Summation. Lies. Aspersions on one’s asparagus.  And splitting hairs politically, just so ‘the other guy’ can get his or her (as the case may very well be) way.

Split hairs much?

–Rhett.

#Blog: “The ‘ACCIDENTAL’ Statesman..” By Rhett E. Column, #CIAtorturereport, #AXJ, #SWN

Former President of the United States of America, Harry S. Truman…

“..which the White House accidentally emailed to an Associated Press reporter…” — The White House Report on Torture, “Bush-era tactics…”… has been leaked?!?!

 

WASHINGTON, D.C. — I just finished reading an article from MSN News Services, via Reuters and the AP on the so-called Bush-era torture programs/enhanced interrogation techniques during the early days of the War on Terror and I must say I am experiencing and have been experiencing a myriad of emotions, a veritable roller coaster ride of feelings on this pending report for the last two weeks.

I cannot, for the life of me, figure out what, respectfully, Mr. Obama & Co. are hiding? Why the need to delay, and deny the American people, their right to know? Additionally why the need to provide cover for the Intelligence Community? Finally why, in this article I read, was a pending report from out of the White House, “accidentally emailed” to an Associated Press reporter?

These are but some of the many questions some of the many points of emotion I have been wrestling with, and again, for the last two weeks.

And so it goes…

I learned something this week and I also want to correct, publicly now, a record of standing I have long-held against a former President of these United States, Dwight Eisenhower. I contended that it was former President Eisenhower who started the C.I.A., it was not. It was in fact Harry Truman who started the C.I.A., BUT and his later years he, like so many of us do, had a change of heart on all things Central Intelligence Agency. Here, is where the change of heart began.

And so it goes…

I said all that to say this. The White House, more importantly this President, Barack H. Obama, II., and the honorable, had better come clean. He has but two whole handfuls of months left in his presidency to serve. He has a real opportunity. A real chance to level the playing field to correct the record as it were for the good of all mankind. To become something far more than what I have titled him under this #blogpost as, an ‘ACCIDENTAL’ Statesman.

President Barack H. Obama, II, 2012 Democratic National Convention…

“I’ve studied the Constitution as a student, I’ve taught it as a teacher, I’ve been bound by it as a lawyer and a legislator. I took an oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution as Commander-in-Chief, and as a citizen, I know that we must never, ever, turn our back on its enduring principles for expedience sake.” — President Obama, 2009 Speech on National Security

 

THIS PRESIDENT, needs to hear from the American people TODAY on this vitally important issue.  He needs to be reminded of the words, the oath he took on behalf of the American people! To stand up for the Rule of Law and to adhere, strictly and always, to its concepts, precepts and edicts. Without fail or exception. Because and forthwith ,”the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or the one in this case.” Bottom line.

Because, and I will close with this. Comments such as these from online news articles, though good and very informative, WILL NOT suffice,

“The report does not draw the legal conclusion that the CIA’s actions constituted torture, though it makes clear that in some cases they amounted to torture by a common definition, two people who have read the report said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the still-classified document publicly by name.

The Senate report, the State Department proposes to say, “leaves no doubt that the methods used to extract information from some terrorist suspects caused profound pain, suffering and humiliation. It also leaves no doubt that the harm caused by the use of these techniques outweighed any potential benefit.”

Those methods included slapping, humiliation, exposure to cold, sleep deprivation and the near-drowning technique known as waterboarding.

The White House document is significant because it also reveals some of the State Department’s concerns about how the CIA’s tactics will be portrayed around the world.”

 

COMMENTS like these, for me at least, add up to duck and cover, run and hide, that age-old game of cat and mouse, that has been played throughout history both time and memorial by our fathers, grandfathers and forebears. The Cold War is over folks!

Yet Barack Obama, it appears wants to do nothing more than allow the Intelligence Community to play with the lives, fortunes and sacred honors of We The American People. It would appear to me, in the very least, that ,his attitude and actions of late, the Constitutional Law Professor has an obligatory disdain for the Rule of Law. It says, by his actions, that the Intelligence Community could give a fat rat’s rectum less about the Rule of Law OR that they only care about the Rule of Law when it is more than conveniently necessary for them to do so.

Such an attitude, such an approach toward governance and toward the everyday people who elected him to high office amounts to what Hollywood calls, “creative license”. And creative license will not cut it Mr. President! Respectfully.

Peace.

–Rhett.

 

“(Bruce) Lunsford 2.0: The 2014 #KySen Race…” By Rhett E. Column, #SWN (Emphasis Mine)

  On the eve of #primaryday2014 across the Bluegrass State the Democratic and Republican voter ready’s themselves to do there ‘civic duty’ for a better and brighter tomorrow. The camps of McConnell and Bevin are dug in on the Republican side of the ledger while on the other side the ‘odds on favorite’ Ky. Secretary of State Alison Lundergan-Grimes and her Democratic challengers ready their respective camps for the sound of the political guns for November 2014.

For the sake of argument though I want to focus in and focus on the Republican side of things with a fierce ending for the Democrats soon enough. Concerning McConnell v. Bevin I couldn’t help but harken aback to the not to distant good ole political days of the 2008 race for the United States Senate here in Kentucky when it was good ole Addison Mitchell McConnell, Jr. v. William Bruce Lunsford.

Lunsford was a long time Ky. Democrat politico and Louisville based business man. Wealthy. Affluent. A man about town round about the ‘Golden Triangle’. He worked hard. Played by the rules. And did the bidding well of the Frankfort/Louisville/Lexington power brokers. And when the time came. When the brokers said, “okay kid, its your turn now” Lunsford ran head long to the nearest podium and klieg light and said, “I’m the one that can beat Mitch McConnell…” Manys’ the politico, worth their salt in Kentucky politics, that’s lamented that line only to find out McConnell is just to big to retire. Addison Mitchell McConnell, Jr., the Honorable, is a breed of political cat that just won’t cash in his lives. He won’t go quietly into the bluegrass hue. He won’t even go quietly much less willingly.

Lunsford found out the hard way, no matter how much of his own private fortune he threw at McConnell in the 2008 general election that McConnell is a survivor.

  <—No matter how well placed and true the political sentiment.

Like Lunsford Matt Bevin has thrown nearly everything at Mitch McConnell save the kitchen sink!

   BUT, McConnell survives, and once more seems to gain political steam from what he and Matt Kibbe’s Freedom Works & Co. have thrown at him.

From out of this effort McConnell has vowed to ‘crush the T.E.A. Party’ reducing their Gadsden flag to ashes.

  ‘Bailout Bevin’s’ days are numbered to hear it told and to hear it said from McConnell operative Jesse Benton.

  Benton has been minding the store as it were while McConnell continues to bring home the bacon and the cigar smoked filled Brooks Brothers Business suits from Washington. Benton has made it his political life’s mission to crush something that he helped start. A political R3V0_lUTION. Something that was and is beyond him. Something that his father-in-law and former Texas Congressman Dr. Ron Paul, M.D. speaks about on an almost daily basis.

NOW, why would Benton want to crush something that he helped start? Something that he helped oversee? WHY? Benton of late though has been strangely silent. Electing instead not to do any more interviews with media outlets across the Commonwealth or national media from across the country until after the primary process be concluded. Where upon the powers that be in New York and Washington media markets can’t or won’t be able to clear a leather stool or chair on a newsroom set fast enough. Instead Benton sends surrogates, spokesman and the like. All have stayed the course vowing to end the long political nightmare that is cock fight condoning, bailout grabbing Matt Bevin.

   Freedom Works & Jim DeMint be damned! Who does Matt Bevin think he is to come in here from my ‘Golden Triangle’ and lament what I’ve done as wrong? Why he’s just another Bruce Lunsford is all he is. I’ll take care of him. I’ll fix him. This is just some of the deepest, darkest thoughts and near sleepless night laments of one Addison Mitchell McConnell, Jr., from Washington to Louisville and back again. Pepto Bismol Mitch?

But, and no matter what the main and alternative news media streams tell you good people of the blogosphere and still free world go out there tomorrow on #primaryday2014 and VOTE. VOTE!

 No matter what the so called Establishment or the so called Political Elites tell you tomorrow go out there and VOTE. V-O-T-E. Because and contrarian to popular opinion we do have a political primary on both sides of the isle. Especially here in Kentucky.

Alison Lundergan-Grimes has had opponents since this process began.

Three in fact. Link #1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate_election_in_Kentucky,_2014  Political spin doctors be damned! Its a FACT folks. Lundergan-Grimes is not alone in this process.

BUT, and so far she can’t seem to bring herself to debate them. For that matter neither can McConnell. WHY?

And of late Lundergan-Grimes has been talking a whole lot like McConnell when it comes to winning a primary. Sounding moderate middle while political party savvy. WHY?

What has she or McConnell to fear? Could it be a third party(ies) challenge?

MEET: Ed Marksberry: http://marksberry2014.com/

David Patterson: https://www.facebook.com/DavidPatterson4Senate2014

Both Patterson and Marksberry have promised the fight of a lifetime against McConnell & Grimes between now and Election Day 2014.

Could it be that both McConnell and Grimes wish to do all they can while they can to distract that so called ‘political middle’ where elections of any size, rate or stripe are won or lost? That ‘political middle’ where all the Golden Triangle money matters not? That ‘political middle’ where Bluegrass politicos biddings, musings, laments, and poetic, “your up next” matters not?

Let us hope and frankly pray that McConnell and Grimes don’t piss off Michael PW Lewis and the Independent Kentucky faithful, Link #2 http://independentkentucky.org/   before this Bluegrass process is all said and done.

See you at the polls tomorrow fellow voter!

–Rhett