How many coincidences are one too many?

At this point does anyone really believe the claims of coincidence coming from the various and sundry Republicans who are accused of ethical violations?

Today, the Columbus Dispatch is reporting that Ken Blackwell owned stock in Diebold while at the same time he was negotiating a "best-in-the-nation price" for Diebold's touch screen voting machines. Blackwell's answer to the obvious claims of impropriety? Say it with me kids, my "investments [are] handled by a financial manager without [my] advice or review."

Where have I heard that before? The question should be where haven't I heard that before. Bill Frist loves to tell anyone who'll listen that his stock options in HCA, his family's hospital conglomerate, are held in a "blind trust" by his brother and I'm sure they never, ever discuss it.

Tom DeLay, who, in more good news from the GOP, formally announced his retirement from the House of Representatives today, still claims with a straight face that he has not committed any crimes or is even under investigation. This despite the fact that nearly every one of his underlings has either already plead guilty or is under indictment or investigation.

And what of our fearless leader, George Dumbya Bush? How can anybody really believe the stream of BS flowing like a river from the mouth of Scott McClellan, the presidential spokesliar? (Thank you Stephanie Miller!) Scooter LIbbey revealed Valerie Plames status as a covert agent on his own. No one could possibly have known that the pre-war intelligence was wrong. Who could have foreseen that the levees would be breached and New Orleans would be inundated by Lake Ponchartrain.

Shut up! For God's sake please just shut the $#%^ up!

We are left with two choices neither of which is very palatable and which sends the minds of the simpletons into default head nodding mode. First, every Republican politician, from the lowliest of locally elected party hacks to the President himself, is a deluded moron with absolutely no leadership skills, willing to be led around by the nose until the misdeeds of their own lackeys come home to roost, or second, that the GOP is rotten from the bottom up and every single person who claim to espouse conservative and/or family values is simply setting up a false front to hide behind while they rob us blind.

The new term being bandied about by the Democrats is "Culture of Corruption" but let's be honest, today's GOP are the new robber barons and they have decided to throw off the sheeps clothing and reveal themselves for the wolves that they are. What remains is for those of us to see what's going on to pull the blinders off the rest of the herd before it's too late. It is time for everyone to come to the realization that there is no compassionate conservatism. It's a hoax, like BigFoot, the Yeti and the Loch Ness monster. It's not that the GOP has lost its way, this was the way. This is what Reagan and Bush the Elder and Newt and all the rest had in mind all along. They were only waiting for the rest of us to become complacent and trusting and only now are we reaping what we have sown.

The time has come to throw off the chains of ignorance and use our heads for more than a place to put a hat and our computers for more than voting on American Idol. The truth is out there we just have to get everyone out there looking for it. Fight back while there is still time!

DeWine's Record Shows TV Spot To Be Misleading At Best

If you haven't seen the ad check it out here before reading this post.

Senator Mike DeWine's current TV ad touts the GOP hack as two things; an advocate for children and an independent legislator. Is either one of those claims true? Of course not.

Both of these claims can be debunked with one quick check of DeWine's voting record. According to the Ohio Republican Party's blog "The State of the Union," DeWine "has a 96 percent voting record in support of Bush's agenda." If there is one thing the Bush agenda is not, is pro-children.

Bush has repeatedly cut programs aimed at bettering the life, health and education of the nation's children. For example, The Children's Defense Fund had this to say about the Bush administration's 2004 budget:

The Bush Administration's 2004 Budget includes a radical proposal that gives states unprecedented latitude to scale back coverage of necessary health care for children and to impose substantial costsharing requirements that could restrict children's access to needed health care. This proposal would put at risk one in three of the nearly 30 million children getting health care in Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP). The Bush budget fails to adequately address the health care needs of the 9.2 million children who still have no health insurance and the proposals could actually add to the number of uninsured children if states ultimately decide to shift funds away from children or impose unaffordable cost-sharing on families. Finally, the Bush Administration fails to restore $1.2 billion in CHIP funds that expired from the program at the end of the 2002 fiscal year; a decision that may force some states to drop coverage for some children because of inadequate CHIP resources in future years.

(CDF Fact Sheet - "Radical Administration Medicaid Proposal Threatens Nearly 40 Years of Health Care Progress For Low-Income Children")

While it's all well and good for Mr. DeWine to claim he is a children's advocate because of this one bill, what good does specific pharmaceutical testing for kids do a kid whose family can't afford the medication in the first place?

Let's take a quick look at some of the other votes DeWine has cast in favor of Bush administration policies: (courtesy of On The Issues )

• Voted NO on $100M to reduce teen pregnancy by education & contraceptives. (March 2005)
  
• Voted NO on $5B for grants to local educational agencies. (Oct 2005)
  
• Voted NO on funding smaller classes instead of private tutors. (May 2001)
  
• Voted NO on spending $448B of tax cut on education & debt reduction. (Apr 2001)
  
• Voted NO on restricting violent videos to minors. (May 1999)
  
• Voted NO on increasing tax deductions for college tuition. (May 2001)
  

Don't believe the hype, DeWine is neither an advocate for Ohio's children nor independent from the actions and philosophies of the Bush Administration. If anything, he's complicit up to eyeballs. There will be a lot of this nonsense from now until November. Remember the facts.