State of Disgust

I'm disgusted by the party I used to belong to. Well, okay, it was a long time ago, but still... at one time I was in fact a member of the Republican Party.

I don't know exactly when it happened, or (more realistically) when I realized it, but the GOP has truly become the acronym for Generators Only of Propaganda. In other words, they really do nothing but lie, lie, lie. And they have absolutely no ethical boundaries, guilt, conscience or remorse for lying, or for doing everything they can to succeed at the one and only thing they truly care about: getting elected.

Yes politics can be dirty - but there is usually some minimal level of truth in the accusations and statements that are flung around during campaign season. An unspoken line of demarcation that even the most deviant candidate wouldn't cross. And there also used to be consequences when you were caught stating a flat out lie about your opponent. Being reprimanded by the Board of Ethics had some teeth to it.

Not today.

And who is guilty of not just slinging mud, but slinging baseless, factless truckloads of outright crap? By vast majority, it is the GOP, and the many *swift-boat* groups that have no level of accountability at all. Let's look at three breaking examples by the mainstream GOP just today:

1. In a desperate attempt to regain his sinking poll numbers, Ohio GOP gubernatorial candidate Ken Blackwell yesterday accused his opponent Democratic candidate Congressman Ted Strickland of being gay. An accusation that the Ohio Republican party already publicly apologized for making months ago. Read more...

2. Republican Senator Mike DeWine, and the Republican National Committee are erroneously running ads about Democratic opponent Sherrod Brown saying he hasn't paid a $1700 tax lien for the last 14 years. When presented with tax receipts from 12 years ago showing the debt had in fact been paid, the RNC stated that it "has no such plan" to change or stop running its ads. Read more...

3. In California, the state Attorney General's Office has linked threatening letters sent to thousands of Orange County Hispanics warning them (falsely) they could go to jail or be deported if they vote next month to a Republican campaign. Read more...

These are just samplings of the unethical and illegal actions happening all around us each and every day as we count down to this 2006 election. Disgusting.

With only three weeks remaining before the election there is one thing we should all take with us to the polls: our sense of ethics.

Know who the liars are. And vote for their opponents.