The Obama budget is a radical departure from the budgets that we have been getting since Ronald Reagan. The Obama budget focuses on the inequity of wealth distribution that has grown over the last 30 years. In other words, it benefits us peasants, peasants being the folks who bust their butts at a 40 hour a week job for a paycheck that buys less and less as time goes by. At least the ones still lucky enough to have a job. So we should all be getting giddy and start dancing in the street, right?
Oddly enough there are those out there who are already getting apoplectic over the thought of the working class getting some slack. It's not so odd really considering that the most vehement objections are coming from long time government parasites.
Lobbyists Line Up to Torpedo Speech Proposals
Health Care, Agribusiness, Mining and Defense Groups Raise War Chests to Sway Legislators and the Public
I'm sure the legislators will be more easily swayed than the rest of us, so keep an eye on them.
The folks on the Right have been putting the blame for the financial meltdown on Barney Frank, Bill Clinton and even Jimmy Carter. The Right of course, has very little grounding in reality or factual information. However, they are experts at convincing their followers in the truth of fairy tales.
Both retired FBI officials asserted that the Bush administration was thoroughly briefed on the mortgage fraud crisis and its potential to cascade out of control with devastating financial consequences, but made the decision not to give back to the FBI the agents it needed to address the problem. After the terrorist attacks of 2001, about 2,400 agents were reassigned to counterterrorism duties.
I've never proponent of the death penalty. For one thing we know that too many mistakes have been made. For another, I don't really like the idea of a government being able to legally kill it's own citizens.
Some states may be doing away with capital punisment, not on any moral grounds but on financial ones.
ANNAPOLIS, Md. — When Gov. Martin O'Malley appeared before the Maryland Senate last week, he made an unconventional argument that is becoming increasingly popular in cash-strapped states: abolish the death penalty to cut costs.
The dollar will trump morals any time. Just ask any lobbyist.
The gun laws in the United States allow the sale of multiple military-style rifles to American citizens without reporting the sales to the government, and the Mexicans search relatively few cars and trucks going south across their border. What is more, the sheer volume of licensed dealers — more than 6,600 along the border alone, many of them operating out of their houses — makes policing them a tall order. Currently the A.T.F. has about 200 agents assigned to the task.
Now if you would like to do something helpful before you start surfing the porn sites.
Annie Leonard made this simple enough that even I could understand it.
It's the story of all the crap that we buy from cradle to grave. 20 minutes long, loaded with things that we need to know and entertaining all the way.
I just watched the scene at Grant Park on television. Incredible.
I just want to thank Barack Obama and the rest of the country for wanting to make the effort to turn this country around.
I can't even describe the pride I feel right now.
And I have to say that John McCain's concession speech showed that he is probably a much better man than the one he portrayed during the campaign. Despite the boos from the crowd,
McCain looked better in defeat than he has at any time during the campaign.
It's the start of a new era. Let's try to make it a good one.
The McPalin campaign knows. No need for rumors and innuendoes. It flat-out lies. Repeats the lies. Then lies again when the lies are exposed. There's Palin's lie about the infamous Bridge to Nowhere: She campaigned for it, then kept the $223 million in federal tax dollars when Washington killed its support. Still, she keeps repeating her "thanks but no thanks" line rally after rally. There's Palin's lie about how "we began a nearly $40 billion natural gas pipeline to help lead America to energy independence," as she told the Republican convention, even though not an inch of that pipeline has been built, not an inch will be built for years, and it may never be built at all. There's Palin's lie about being an ethical reformist even though she thought nothing of billing taxpayers for 312 nights spent at home, at $60 a night, on days she commuted 45 minutes to her governor's office in Anchorage. Then there's McCain's fantasies about balancing the budget while cutting taxes, fighting wars and "changing the tone of Washington" while slandering Barack Obama's darkish background. It's what Justice William Brennan once defined, in a different context, the reckless disregard for the truth. But to succeed, deception needs a receptive audience. It needs the incurious, the unquestioning, the toadying. The effectiveness of the lies, in a year when comatose fleas should capably beat the shrewdest Republican, is telling -- not about the candidates' venality, but about the electorate's want: This isn't an election about change. It's an election about extending the denial that made the last eight years possible. Many Americans, maybe most, want to convince themselves that America's moral authority and example is undiminished despite the last eight years. (And who can blame them? Who doesn't wish it weren't so?) The last thing those brave Americans want is change. They want leadership that validates their delusion. Palin-McCain is their narcotic bridge to nowhere.
I've been "debating" right wingers lately and that last paragraph is so true. These people are convinced that Democrats are anti-American and in league with Osama bin Laden, really.
It's time to get serious about your politics, our country is at stake.
I finally got around to getting the garden done today, so I'm tired and looking for something east.
Thanks John McCain.
It's kind of incredible that John McCain is taken seriously as a presidential candidate.
But then, we still have the same Mainstream Media and the same fools who voted for George W. Bush in 2004 out there acting like "staying the course" is a viable solution.
Not much you can do with someone who experienced Bush's first four years and wanted four more of the same. But surely we can do something about the pitiful excuse for who passes themselves off as news organizations nowadays.
There are still a lot of folks out there who honestly believe that the media has a liberal bias. There are a lot of folks out there who still think that Obama is a Muslim. Hell, there's still people out there who think that we just haven't found Saddam's WMDs yet.
If you're one of them, you'd just as well stop reading now.
ABC News' Sunlen Miller reports: Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., offered up a criticism of the press' coverage of Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign, during a town hall with seniors in Gresham, Ore., today.
Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting has an article titled, The Press Corps’ Unshakeable Crush on McCain Some straight talk about the media’s favorite ‘maverick’.
A candidate could only get away with such an elaborate and long-running con with the media as willing accomplices. “The press loves McCain,” explained NBC host Chris Matthews (9/10/06). “We’re his base.”
Talk about straight from the horse's ______. Add your own noun.
* McCain pledged in February 2008 that he would not, under any circumstances, raise taxes. Specifically, McCain if he were a “‘read my lips’ candidate, no new taxes, no matter what?” referring to George H.W. Bush’s 1988 pledge. “No new taxes,” McCain responded. Two weeks later, McCain said, “I’m not making a ‘read my lips’ statement, in that I will not raise taxes.”
* McCain’s campaign unveiled a Social Security policy that the senator would implement if elected, which did not include a Bush-like privatization scheme. In March 2008, McCain denounced his own campaign’s policy.
Just a couple of days ago John McCain showed just how tenuous his grasp of how the world works really is. I mean, he says if that's what the average American thinks, then he does too. Brilliant.
But as the National Security Network’s Ilan Goldenberg notes, “if the ‘average American’ thinks that Ahmadinejad is the ultimate leader of Iran” it would be McCain’s job as president “to dissuade them of this notion - not reinforce it.”
Remember Obama's preacher? Of course you do. It's all the Mainstream Media could talk about for quite some time. McCain solicits a couple of way out there, religious nuts and that's hardly worth mentioning.
May 20, 2008 John McCain has some seriously screwed-up holy men surrounding him. First, there's the Rev. John Hagee, a hate-monger and certifiable loon who believes that Hurricane Katrina was God's judgment on New Orleans for planning a gay parade, calls Catholicism a "false cult system" that conspired with Hitler to exterminate the Jews, and believes that America's divine duty is to destroy Iran. Then there's the Rev. Rod Parsley, who garnishes his bigoted theology by calling Islam "the greatest religious enemy of our civilization and the world" and saying that Muhammad was "a mouthpiece of a conspiracy of spiritual evil."
If you've been paying attention, then you know all about McCain's lobbyists running his campaign problem. John McCain now wants to seen as the anti-lobby candidate. Here's what some of his own people think about that little brainstorm.
Some of McCain's advisers said Monday they are mystified by the new policy, which they said gives Obama an opening to attack their candidate.
"The most interesting thing in every campaign is the self-inflicted wound. This is a great case," said one GOP fundraiser, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss McCain's campaign decisions candidly. "When asked to name the 10,000 things people think are the most important issue, this doesn't make the list."
Another adviser said: "There's scratching of heads. What is going on? Why are we doing this?"
If this is an example of McCain's decision making, watch out if he gets elected.
But the McCain campaign does understand its strongpoints, get its non-thinking supporters to flood the internet with prepackaged McCain propaganda. Thanks Huffington Post.
Wishing you could be a campaign surrogate, but don't have a national platform? Do you find blogging your own opinions tedious? Wish you could have someone tell you what to think during this political season? Well look no further than John McCain's new blog outreach!
You can even get McCain brownie points. Makes you wonder how these people could even come close in an election.
Select from the numerous web, blog and news sites listed here, go there, and make your opinions supporting John McCain known. Once you’ve commented on a post, video or news story, report the details of your comment by clicking the button below. After your comments are verified, you will be awarded points through the McCain Online Action Center.
Enough of John McCain. There's 167 days left until the election and I'm sure John will have plenty of stuff to keep us shaking our heads an saying, "Huh?".
According to the Global Peace Index, the U.S. ranks 97 out of a possible 140 countries. Not bad after seven years of George W. Bush. It's worth clicking on, just to see all the flags.
The table below provides the GPI rankings for the 140 countries analysed in 2008 and the 121 countries analysed in 2007, as well as year-on-year comparison. Countries most at peace are ranked first. A lower score indicates a more peaceful country. You can click on a country to see the detail of its peace indicators and drivers.
I just found out that the Israeli government is comprised of a bunch of appeasers. It looks like President Bush had better give them a history lesson.
Israel’s Vice-Prime Minister, Haim Ramon, admitted Monday that the government of Israel has, for the last several weeks, been holding talks with the Hamas party, in contradiction with Israel’s stated policy of 'isolating and attacking’ the elected Hamas-led government of the Palestinian people.
I want to wish Teddy Kennedy the best in his latest fight, not against the Right, but brain cancer. He has been a part of history for most of my life and we need more like him.
And my buddy Rocky over at Alien Trucker been going through some bad luck. Rocky and I have a lot in common, we're both in our 50's (me more than him), we both have blogs, we both understand the need for medical marijauna and we've both had our legs stop working for a while.
But he's still putting that blog out tho', go over and and check out the music video 99 Red Balloons, I'm listening to it now. It's an anti-war piece that takes me back to the days when I started to have to think seriously about the draft.
This image is from a fascinating photo essay by Anthony Karen for Mother Jones. It's about Ms. Ruth, the Aryan outfitter.
It's not a slam piece on the KKK and if you check out the essay and the audio with each picture, don't be surprised if you come away from it with a certain amount of admiration for Ms Ruth.
In the audio on the last picture, Ms Ruth talks about how the KKK would go after white men who didn't treat their families as well as they should have. Personally, I know of an instance involving my mother's sister in North Carolina, when the KKK gave her husband a good beating for not taking care of his wife and kids. That happened more than 50 years ago.
It's really worth checking out.
But it's not the KKK that I want to talk about. It's the kind of sneaky racism that's poping up in the Mainstream Media.
Who would have thought that the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal would allow thinly veiled racist remarks to disgrace their pages. They did and Peggy Noonan and Kathleen Parker are making big money for their garbage.
Main thought. Hillary Clinton is not Barack Obama’s problem. America is Mr. Obama’s problem. He has been tagged as a snooty lefty, as the glamorous, ambivalent candidate from Men’s Vogue, the candidate who loves America because of the great progress it has made in terms of racial fairness. Fine, good. But has he ever gotten misty-eyed over . . . the Wright Brothers and what kind of country allowed them to go off on their own and change everything? How about D-Day, or George Washington, or Henry Ford, or the losers and brigands who flocked to Sutter’s Mill, who pushed their way west because there was gold in them thar hills? There’s gold in that history.
John McCain carries it in his bones. Mr. McCain learned it in school, in the Naval Academy, and, literally, at grandpa’s knee. Mrs. Clinton learned at least its importance in her long slog through Arkansas, circa 1977-92.
I've never gotten misty-eyed over any of those things. Does Peggy want to question my love of country? I don't know what credentials Ms. Noonan has to make her the final arbiter of someones love of country or their patriotism.
Maybe she could get me on the fact that my relatives were just enlisted men instead of Admirals. My Dad was a PFC, 100% disabled from wounds he recieved from a German 88 round at St. Lo in France. His brother was a Staff Sargent, he was put out of the war by calling artillery in on his own position after being surrounded while trying to close the Falaise Pocket. He came home with a steel plate in his head and a glass eye. He also got a battlefield commisssion to First Lieutenant and a Silver Star. My Mother's first husband was KIA in the Battle of the Bulge. I was in the Army from 72 to 75.
I'm proudly voting for Barack Obama. Want to question this "snooty lefty's" love of country, Peggy?
It's about blood equity, heritage and commitment to hard-won American values. And roots.
Yet, white Americans primarily—and Southerners, rural and small-town folks especially—have been put on the defensive for their concerns with "guns, God and gays," as Howard Dean put it in 2003. And more recently, for clinging to "guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them," as Obama described white, working-class Pennsylvanians who preferred his opponent.
What they know is that their forefathers fought and died for an America that has worked pretty well for more than 200 years. What they sense is that their heritage is being swept under the carpet while multiculturalism becomes the new national narrative. And they fear what else might get lost in the remodeling of America.
In the first place, I don't appreciate being referred to as "Bubba". I do know plenty of people who will cast their vote based solely on one or all the God, guns or gay issues, even though it's not in their own best self-interests. They are good people, but they see crap like this and it only reinforces their prejudices.
I don't know what the hell "blood equity" is supposed to mean. The only hard-won American value that I can think of is freedom and that's the thing that the Republicans have been trying to take away from us.
I can at least respect Ms. Ruth because she comes by it honestly. Noonan and Parker are just rabble-rousing for a paycheck. They should hit the streets and try to make a honest living.
(May 18, 2008) -- Liberal bloggers and commenters at The Washington Post op-ed section are rightly criticizing a column this week by syndicated scribe Kathleen Parker that questions Barack Obama’s “deep-seated” Americanism. But she is only following the footsteps of Peggy Noonan of the Wall Street Journal who raised similar issues three weeks ago – and was praised by NBC’s Brian Williams for a “Pulitzer” worthy effort.
In one of the most repellent columns one will ever read, syndicated columnist Kathleen Parker defended Fry's claim that Obama is something other than "a full-blooded American." Advancing an argument that Atrios guest blogger aimai aptly described as "Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer!," Parker said "we now have a patriot divide" in America that "has nothing to do with a flag lapel pin . . . or even military service." Instead:
First Obama had to distance himself from some bizarre comments made by his former pastor. Then he had to explain why he doesn't wear a flag lapel pin often enough to suit Charlie Gibson of ABC News. Then he had to distance himself from a former member of the Weather Underground to whom he was introduced when he decided to run for the Illinois Senate but with whom he has since had scant contact. Then he had to distance himself from Hamas, a terrorist organization he has repeatedly condemned, simply because its chief political adviser, Ahmed Yousefat, expressed admiration for him. Now Peggy Noonan of the Wall Street Journal demands that Obama demonstrate he carries sufficient love within his breast for … Sutter's Mill.
While Media Matters for America did not identify specific instances of Obama's getting "misty-eyed" over the Wright brothers, the 1944 Allied invasion of Europe, George Washington, the 1849 California Gold Rush -- or Henry Ford, for that matter -- the title of his latest book, The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream, suggests that Noonan should have looked there before suggesting that Obama has yet to address "[w]hat ... he think[s] of America." She needn't have read past the prologue to find this:
I think America has more often been a force for good than for ill in the world; I carry few illusions about our enemies, and revere the courage and competence of our military. I reject a politics that is based solely on racial identity, gender identity, sexual orientation, or victimhood generally. I think much of what ails the inner city involves a breakdown in culture that will not be cured by money alone, and that our values and spiritual life matter at least as much as our GDP.
If you believe that John McCain is a maverick, chances are that you're right of center or else you get most of your information from the Mainstream Media. Aren't you happy that you've got the internet.
While McCain may only be a maverick in his own mind, the Mainstream Media are happy to perpetuate John's fantasy.
Don't take my word for it. Eric Boehlert at Media Mattersproves it.
"The campaign's general-election strategy is to sell the McCain brand to show voters that he is distinct from President Bush and other Republicans," the Post reported.
So guess what members of the press, including those at MSNBC, CNN, NBC, The Washington Post, Newsweek, the Politico, and The Boston Globe, have been doing incessantly in recent weeks. They've been making glowing references to the durability and appeal of the "McCain brand." I mean, how lucky can the Republicans get? The press is echoing precisely the message that the candidate's advisers want repeated again and again. What are the odds?
Still think that there's a liberal media out there doing its best to undermine everything that's great or good about this country?
Check this out. CNN does its part to keep President Bush from looking like the hypocritical, idiot that he is.
In reports during the 10 and 11 a.m. ET hours of the May 15 edition of CNN Newsroom, CNN aired comments by Robert Gibbs, Sen. Barack Obama's communications director, responding to President Bush's remarks that "[s]ome seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals," reportedly in reference to Obama, but CNN spliced the audio clip to omit part of the statement in which Gibbs noted that Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, like Obama, has reportedly said that the United States needs to be willing to meet with Iran. CNN had left intact Gibbs' reference to Gates in the audio clip of Gibbs' comments it aired during the 9 a.m. hour of the program.
Pretty sneaky, huh?
But this isn't about the liberal media myth, it's about the John McCain/maverick myth.
To be honest, if you define maverick as willing to change your position in a heartbeat, then John McCain is truly a maverick.
After Bush's little Obama "appeasment" speech to the Israeli Knesset, John McCain jumped right on board with the President.
Yes, there have been appeasers in the past, and the president is exactly right, and one of them is Neville Chamberlain. I believe that it’s not an accident that our hostages came home from Iran when President Reagan was president of the United States. He didn’t sit down in a negotiation with the religious extremists in Iran, he made it very clear that those hostages were coming home.
I guess that thinking that you're a maverick effects the memory. Because he seemed not to remember Reagan's arms-for-hostages negotiations.
Now his campaign is saying that they never used the word "appeasement". Appeasement, appeasers, big difference.
PFOTENHAUER: Senator McCain responded directly himself and said he took the president at his word, that those comments were not directed toward Senator Obama. […]
SHUSTER: Nancy, does the McCain campaign believe that talking to our enemies is the same as appeasing them?
PFOTENHAUER: We have never used the term appeasement and you know that.
"They're the government; sooner or later we are going to have to deal with them, one way or another, and I understand why this administration and previous administrations had such antipathy toward Hamas because of their dedication to violence and the things that they not only espouse but practice, so ... But it's a new reality in the Middle East. I think the lesson is people want security and a decent life and decent future, that they want democracy. Fatah was not giving them that."
The NRA is entitled to their advocacy. I don’t think they help the Republican Party at all, but I don’t think they should in any way play a major role in the Republican Party’s policy making. [CNN, 5/12/00]
“The political tactics of division and slander are not our values. They are corrupting influences on religion and politics, and those who practice them in the name of religion or in the name of the Republican Party or in the name of America shame our faith, our party and our country… Neither party should be defined by pandering to the outer reaches of American politics and the agents of intolerance.”
“Behold I will send for many fishers and after will I send for many hunters. And they the hunters shall hunt them” - that will be the Jews - “from every mountain and from every hill and from out of the holes of the rocks.” If that doesn't describe what Hitler did in the Holocaust... you can't see that. So think about this - I will send fishers and I will send hunters. A fisher is someone who entices you with a bait. How many of you know who Theodore Hertzel was? How many of you don't have a clue who he was? WOO... Sweet God! Theodore Hertzel is the father of Zionism. He was a Jew that at the turn of the 19th century said - “this land is our land, God wants us to live there”. So he went to the Jews of Europe and said, “I want you to come and join me in the land of Israel”. So few went, Hertzel went into depression. Those who came founded Israel; those who did not went through the hell of the Holocaust. Then god sent a hunter. A hunter is someone who comes with a gun and he forces you. Hitler was a hunter. And the Bible says - Jeremiah righty? - “they shall hunt them from every mountain and from every hill and out of the holes of the rocks”, meaning: there's no place to hide. And that will be offensive to some people. Well, dear heart, be offended: I didn't write it. Jeremiah wrote it. It was the truth and it is the truth. How did it happen? Because God allowed it to happen. Why did it happen? Because God said, “my top priority for the Jewish people is to get them to come BACK to the land of Israel”. Today Israel is back in the land and they are at Ezekiel 37 and 8. They are physically alive but they're not spiritually alive. Now how is God going to cause the Jewish people to come SPIRITUALLY alive and say, “the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, He is God”?"
Wow, I never realized that the Jews brought the Holocaust upon themselves. I bet they were "appeasers" too. It's just amazing that there are people out there who actually believe this garbage. Bruce Wilson of Talk to Action really put a lot of research in on John Hagee. If you missed the link above, here it is again.
John McCain will fire you for lobbying for Burma, but he'll still take your money.
Speaking of money, John McCain shows what a maverick he can be when it comes to his budget as president. He's a maverick because he's the only person that thinks building up Bush's deficit is the right thing for the country.
I'm really starting to get tired of trying to find euphemisms to describe Republicans.
Right wingers have their own places to go in order to validate their faith in the fantasy land that they inhabit.
Fox News, WorldNetDaily, NewsMax, just to name a few. Plus they have the whole right wing blogosphere, that does nothing but parrot the official line. Dumbasses.
The Dumbass-in-Chief, while addressing the Knesset in Israel, showed us all just how important a knowledge and understanding of history is. He showed us by his absolute lack of it.
Bush said, in an obvious attempt to discredit Barack Obama,
Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along.
We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: “Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided.” We have an obligation to call this what it is – the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history.
Unfortunately, for Bush, McCain and the rest of the Right, history does not agree with their versions of appeasement, at least, according to the U.S. Army's Stratigic Studies Institute.
APPEASEMENT RECONSIDERED:
INVESTIGATING THE MYTHOLOGY OF THE 1930s
Dr. Jeffrey Record takes a fresh look at appeasement within the context of the political and military environments in which British and French leaders operated during the 1930s. He examines the nature of appeasement, the factors underlying Anglo-French policies toward Hitler from 1933 to 1939, and the reasons for the failure of those policies. He finds that Anglo-French security choices were neither simple nor obvious, that hindsight has distorted judgments on those choices, that Hitler remains without equal as a state threat, and that invocations of the Munich analogy should always be closely examined.
If you don't trust the Army, which is usually the wise thing to do, here's a couple of others.
Fog Fact No. 3: Sometimes “appeasement” works well; it was American policy for 50 years.
After the Second World War the Soviet Union annexed the Baltic states, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, part of East Prussia and part of Slovakia. Then, mostly through rigged elections, it turned Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria into puppet states and used military force, when necessary, to maintain that status.
Neither the United States — nor anyone else — seriously challenged any of that.
Britain was not in a position to project military power east of the Rhine; the Royal Navy was preoccupied with the Italian and Japanese threats; and the Royal Air Force was in the middle of rearming. Moreover, as Richard Overy points out, Chamberlain had been prime minister for only a year, and he was “understandably not prepared to crown that period by deliberately courting a war that all his military advisers warned him would destroy the Empire.”
Britain was not even in a position to contribute to the ground defense of France and the Low Countries. The British army had no defined strategic role in the 1930s outside of home and imperial defense, and it was not until after Munich that the Chamberlain government reintroduced conscription and concluded that a continental commitment for the British army was unavoidable.
France wasn't much better off.
Yet as General Maurice Gamelin, the Chief of the French General Staff, confessed after Germany’s military reoccupation of the Rhineland in 1936, “The idea of sending a French expeditionary corps into the Rhineland, even in a more or less symbolic form, is unrealistic. . . . our military system does not give us this possibility.Our active army is only the nucleus of the mobilized national army. . . . None of our units are capable of being placed instantly on a complete war footing.”
If you would like to really get into the appeasement debate, I would suggest, Appeasement and Rearmament: Britain, 1936-1939 by James Levy.
Oh yeah, and that Senator whose quote Bush used was a Republican.
And here's another right wing dumbass, radio talk-show host Kevin James showing that a knowledge of history is not required by the Right Wing Propaganda Machine.
I saw Olbermann's commentary tonight. Ithink it's well worth seeing or reading. The transcript is here. It's about time someone in the MSM really tells it like it is.
But this morning I was just trying to comprehend, what on earth would make any rational human being want to vote Republican.
While I'm no fan of Bob Novack, I did read his piece about Huckabee wanting to deep six McCain's presidential run.
You remember Mike Huckabee? He ran for the Republican nomination and he is the poster boy for the Religious Right. He's also the guy who wants to do away with the Constitution and replace it with his own interpretation of the Bible.
"[Some of my opponents] do not want to change the Constitution, but I believe it's a lot easier to change the constitution than it would be to change the word of the living God, and that's what we need to do is to amend the Constitution so it's in God's standards rather than try to change God's standards," Huckabee said, referring to the need for a constitutional human life amendment and an amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman.
Well, Huckabee's been making kissyfaces at McCain for quite a while now and Novak comes along and says that's all a front for an evil plan to help Obama win in November. Somehow the country deserves the plague of an Obama presidency to get it back on the right track and open the door for the Right Reverend Mike Huckabee to take over the country in 2012.
Nevertheless, reports out of the evangelical community dispute Huckabee's support. One experienced, credible activist in Christian politics who would not let his name be used told me Huckabee in personal conversation with him embraced the concept that an Obama presidency might be what the American people deserve. That fits what has largely been a fringe position among evangelicals, that the pain of an Obama presidency is in keeping with the Bible's prophecy.
I e-mailed Gov. Huckabee for a response, and he quickly shot back: "it’s total and absolute nonsense! I told Bob this last week in a phone call. He went with the story with his 'unnamed source.' Should have been listed as an 'unbrained source.' He must have liked the story no matter how ludicrous it is. There was NO conversation between Mike Farris and me to that effect. None. I don’t know of anyone who feels that 'America deserves Obama.'
I, for one, do believe we deserve Obama.
Over on Huckabee's own blog, his denials are most vociferous and he even manages to put the usual right wing innuendo on Obama's character. Pretty slick for a country preacher.
Where do people dream up this stuff? Forget the “anonymous” sources—there’s nothing anonymous about my stand and here it is. We don’t “deserve” Obama—we DESERVE a President with the character, convictions, experience, and wisdom to see the problems we face and try to lead us to solve them. We deserve a President who truly loves this country and from whom there is no doubt as to his respect for Faith, Family, and the kind of Freedom that those before us have given their lives to pass on to us. John McCain meets that criteria and that’s why I am campaigning for him and not hoping for Obama. The nonsense that I want Obama to win this year so I can run in 2012 is absurd. I love my country more than my own ambition. So let the record and truth be clear. And let the “anonymous” sources either show the courage to stand up and be accountable for their comments or shut up and leave commentary to people who aren’t afraid of their own shadow.
Somehow, I just can't make myself believe that Mike Huckabee puts very much before his ambition.
If you go to Mike's blog, be sure to read the comments. Are these really the kind of people that we want making the decisions for our country? You can just feel the zeal dripping from their commentary.
Getting away from Huckabee, here's a quote from John McCain.
The people that surround me are honorable people.” - John McCain [Town Hall Meeting, Exeter, NH 03/12/08]
And here's some of those "honorable" people that he surrounds himself with. They are all good Republicans, they'll do anything for enough money. The list is long, but here's one example.
Frank Donatelli
McCain Tapped Lobbyist Frank Donatelli To Run His Efforts At RNC. McCain tapped lobbyist Frank Donatelli to become deputy chairman of the Republican National Committee. The New York Times reported Donatelli will “act as the main liaison between the committee and the McCain campaign.” Donatelli is a lobbyist at McGuire Woods and previously served as a lobbyist at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld. His clients have included AT&T, Exxon Mobil, PhRMA, Blue Cross Blue Shield and Verizon. [New York Times, 3/7/08; McGuire Woods, accessed 5/12/08; Senate Lobbying Disclosure Records, accessed 5/12/08]
Donatelli Enlisted to Improve Ethiopia’s Relationship with U.S. In a September 2005 letter sent to Ambassador Kassahun Ayele of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, Donatelli set forth his obligations under their contract, namely to provide “government relations and related public communications services to assist and work with Ethiopia in Washington, D.C., in promoting and strengthening Ethiopia’s relations with the United States and, in general, providing such other appropriate advice and assistance as will serve to achieve these purposes.” [FARA Database, accessed 3/18/08, Letter signed by Frank Donatelli on 9/6/05] •
Human Rights Watch: “The Ethiopian Government’s Human Rights Record Remains Poor.” According to Human Rights Watch’s World Report 2008, “The Ethiopian government’s human rights record remains poor, both within the country and in neighboring Somalia, where since early 2007 thousands of Ethiopian troops have been fighting an insurgency alongside the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia. Government forces committed serious human rights violations, including rape, torture, and village burnings, during a campaign against Ethiopian rebels in eastern Somalia Region (Region 5). Abuses took place in other parts of the country, notably in Oromia State where local officials carried out mass arrests, extra-judicial killings and economic sanctions.” [Human Rights Watch, accessed 5/12/08, emphasis added]
It's not just the Republican presidential candidates that are so out of touch that they don't seem to realize what they're saying. House Minority Whip Roy Blunt went on CNN and admitted that McCain would be just like a third term for Bush. He thinks that's a good thing.
Why would anyone, with even a semi-functioning brain, vote Republican?
Here in Oklahoma we just have to connect the arrow right next to who we want to vote for.
And then we feed it to the scanner. It seems to work. It's fast and simple. And it makes for an easy, accurate recount.
It also prevents mistakes.
Like this.
Fortunately, for the country, the Republicans tend to prove the old adage, "Give 'em enough rope and they'll hang themselves.", true.
The head hangman is still tightening the noose. How out of it do you have to be, to be a proponent of mad cow disease?
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Bush administration on Friday urged a federal appeals court to stop meatpackers from testing all their animals for mad cow disease, but a skeptical judge questioned whether the government has that authority.
Probably, out of it enough to combine Econ 101 with a complete lack of knowledge of anything else and ticking off a nuclear power with a feeble attempt to pretend that he has some idea of what's actually going on.
NEW DELHI, May 7 -- A brief comment by President Bush about the role of India in the world food crisis has set off a firestorm of criticism in this country.
Little has changed in the 11-square-mile corner of northeast Baghdad, but the stakes are higher now. An Iraqi military offensive launched against Shiite militias in late March has drawn in U.S. troops and has led to near-constant fighting in Sadr City. Sadr has threatened "open war" if the offensive does not end. U.S. troop deaths have climbed to their highest level in seven months, mainly because of the clashes in and around Sadr City, and the additional American troops will be gone by July. On Saturday, the Iraqi government said it had struck a deal with Sadr's aides to halt the fighting, but the two sides disagreed on its terms and it was unclear what it would yield.
Alliance Defense Fund, a Scottsdale, Ariz., nonprofit, is hoping at least one sermon will prompt the Internal Revenue Service to investigate, sparking a court battle that could get the tax provision declared unconstitutional. Alliance lawyers represent churches in disputes with the IRS over alleged partisan activity.
The action marks the latest attempt by a conservative organization to help clergy harness their congregations to sway elections. The protest is scheduled for Sunday, Sept. 28, a little more than a month before the general election, in a year when religious concerns and preachers have been a regular part of the political debate.
The Republicans have done such a horrible job of running things that, even in the South, the race card is taking a backseat to issues. It's way past time for the southern white working class to realize that they have a lot more in common with the black working class, than they do with the Republicans, who don't give a crap about them in the first place.
In response to Mr. Obama’s energizing of black Southern voters, enlightened self-interest may well convince many of the region’s undecided superdelegates to endorse him. Over the last two years, there have been little-noticed Democratic gains in Congressional and state legislative elections across the South, as the solid black Democratic base has been joined by whites disenchanted with the Bush administration. New concern about the economy may be adding momentum.
It's Monday, so I'll leave you with a little right wing "humor".
Free Tickets
I have 4 extra tickets for the Robbie Knievel event at the State Fair Grounds next weekend if anybody wants them. He's going to attempt to jump 500 Democrats with a bull dozer.
If this is a Bush speech, you really can't blame him.
But, as far as politics goes, what is John McCain really like? From what I can find out, he's your typical narrow-minded, tight-assed Republican. The whole "maverick" thing must be some kind of inside joke. There's hardly any evidence to back it up.
Crooks and Liars. com has John McCain’s Top 10 Out-of-Touch Moments. It's just the latest ten really stupid things that John McCain has said. You'd better read it, because I doubt if you'll be hearing or seeing these kind of things on the mainstream media. Excepting, of course, Countdown with Keith Olbermann.
During Tuesday’s Democratic Presidential Primary coverage on MSNBC, Chris Matthews and Tim Russert both admit to ignoring the countless gaffes and blunders committed by John McCain.
PRESCOTT, Ariz. -- Sen. John McCain championed legislation that will let an Arizona rancher trade remote grassland and ponderosa pine forest here for acres of valuable federally owned property that is ready for development, a land swap that now stands to directly benefit one of his top presidential campaign fundraisers].
Betts is among a string of donors who have benefited from McCain-engineered land swaps. In 1994, the senator helped a lobbyist for land developer Del Webb Corp. pursue an exchange in the Las Vegas area, according to the Center for Public Integrity. McCain sponsored two bills, in 1991 and 1994, sought by donor Donald R. Diamond that yielded the developer thousands of acres in trade for national parkland.
In the late 1990s, McCain promoted a deal in Arizona's Tonto National Forest involving property part-owned by Great American Life Insurance, a company run by billionaire Carl H. Lindner Jr., a prolific contributor to national political parties and presidential candidates.
And his foreign policy, well it looks and sounds a lot like Bush's. He's even starting to use the word "evil". He evens plans to have a war with "evil".
Sen. John McCain has evil on his mind.
On Wednesday, he vowed to take the fight to religious persecution, human trafficking, child pornography and other "evil" if elected. Speaking at Oakland University in Rochester, Minnesota, CNN said the event was part of the Arizona' senators efforts to reach out to conservative voters.
I have to give McCain credit for one thing, there isdefinitely "evil' in Burma. Big time. From Attytood.
Until now, the thing that Than Shwe had going in his favor that few people outside Burma were paying attention. Unfortunately it's taken the tragic death of tens of thousands of his subjects, but that's not true anymore. In the wake of Saturday's deadly cyclone, Than Shwe and his thug regime are not only blocking more foreign aid workers -- including America, which already had relief ships in the region on a training exercise -- but even went so far as to hijack the first shipment that reached the country.
There seems to be a bit of "evil" going on in this country, too.
Take Family Security Matters, it appears to be a place that folks on the right can go to, in order to get their fears validated. This is there latest slime job on Barack. People actually take this crap serouisly.
Inside Obama’s Psyche
A caller to a radio show recently theorized that mixed-race individuals like Obama are resentful that while they're half-white, they always come out black. They can never take advantage of their white half because while the black community accepts them, the white community doesn’t.
If this is true, it could be a legitimate reason for anger – possibly the same rage that fuels Rev. Wright, given that he is looks to be of “mixed” parentage.
Wow, with sources as good as a caller to a radio show, they must be right.
Don'cha just love the Right. For all their supposed morality, they sure play fast and loose with the truth. Like global warming, for instance.
New Zealand climate scientists are upset their names have been used by an American organisation wanting to challenge the increasingly accepted view that climate change is human induced.
"I object to the implication that my research supports their position ... they didn't check with me."
He said that he and the other New Zealand scientists all felt their work had been misinterpreted. "We say global warming is real."
With drug trafficking and violence from international cartels on the rise, "do you think the DEA's limited resources are best utilized conducting enforcement raids on individuals and their caregivers who are conducting themselves legally under California law?" House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., said in a letter to the agency.
Right on, Congressman Conyers.
Now for something really important. The sub-prime lending mess hit home while I was cruising the blogs of people I don't know personally, but think of them as friends anyway. Stephen Herron, whose blog is Drinking Liberally in New Milford, has just lost his home.
He don't have his hand out, he's found a place to live and he's making the most of a really bad situation. Go wish him well, he's one of us.
Hopefully, the Democrats will figure out how to have a primary election over the next four years. I mean, this one has been a mess, even though it worked out well. Maybe they'll grow a set of balls while they're at it, too.
I think that we can thank Bush, the Republicans, the Democrats who voted with them and the whole conservative policy/ideology for the resurgent enthusiasm we've seen during the primaries. But then, everything that Bush has done, turned to crap.
Cut taxes on the rich, it will bring in more revenue and create more jobs. I don't know how stupid you had to be to believe that, but not as stupid as you are if you still believe it. Iraq is an imminent threat. Yeah, but only if you go there. And these are just the biggies. Someone has a big job to do to get the country back on track.
The effects of the Right's domination of national policy are going to be felt for a long time to come.
Just look at Bush's Supreme Court Justices. Fussy old school marms with a Bible in one hand and a strap in the other. How many years will it take to have a Supreme Court that's not a right wing rubberstamp?
Poor old John McCain's just jumped Barack for not voting to appoint Roberts and Alito to the Supreme Court.
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) — Republican John McCain criticized Democratic rival Barack Obama for voting against John Roberts as U.S. chief justice, reaching out to the Christian right on one of their chief concerns: the proper role of judges in government.
That's right, John. And that's just one reason we'll be voting for him instead of you.
Hillary voted against Alito and Roberts, also. So if John McCain is cognizant of who he's going to be running against, then you know that the Right Wing Propaganda Machine is cranking up for a major smear job on Barack Obama. We'd best prepare.
A good place to start would be Simon Owens' Bloggasm. Simon is keeping a close eye on the online media. He's just written an article on how the right wing blogosphere is handling Barack Obama.
He's a better man than I am, 'cause right wing blogs tend to make me ill. But I think that I'll be using a lot of his stuff in the future. Bloggasm will be in my links right after I post this. Thanks for contacting me, Simon.
Just a couple of examples of what to expect from the Right. First, from Media Transparency:
Floyd Brown and David Bossie: Back in the Swift Boat captain's chairs
Two longtime practitioners of negative campaigning are mainstreaming attacks on Clinton and Obama
Republicans are up to their usual tricks -- questioning the patriotism of their opponents. The media, as usual, is playing along because it lauds political success, not virtue.
They're going to have to be especially nasty and dirty this election year, because apparently, that's all that they have.
Shellshocked House Republicans got warnings from leaders past and present Tuesday: Your party’s message isn’t good enough to prevent disaster in November, and neither is the NRCC’s money.
The double shot of bad news had one veteran Republican House member worrying aloud that the party’s electoral woes — brought into sharp focus by Woody Jenkins’ loss to Don Cazayoux in Louisiana on Saturday — have the House Republican Conference splitting apart in “everybody for himself” mode.
I don't really know what else that they can expect, considering how they've screwed up the country. Their current president has shown and is still showing absolutely no concern for the working class folks in this country.
President Bush has threatened to veto the massive housing bill that should pass the House on Wednesday, casting doubt on wide ranging legislation that had been crafted with the help of a number of Republicans in Congress and in the administration.
What the hell, hundreds of billions for a war for no reason, but zilch for working Americans? As much debt that he's gotten this country into, two or three billion to help out regular Americans is a no-brainer, just like Bush.
The Republican's wannabe president, John McCain, figures that pissing off Russia and China would be a really good idea.
In his speech McCain proposed that the United States expel Russia from the G8, the group of advanced industrial countries. Moscow was included in this body in the 1990s to recognize and reward it for peacefully ending the cold war on Western terms, dismantling the Soviet empire and withdrawing from large chunks of the old Russian Empire as well. McCain also proposed that the United States should expand the G8 by taking in India and Brazil-but pointedly excluded China from the councils of power.
I'm telling ya'll, the Republicans couldn't run a snow cone stand. Even their great draft dodging, drug addicted philosopher is starting to crack under the strain.
Conservative radio host leads Tuesday broadcast with news reports, testimonials he says he’s getting from the field of Republicans participating in crossover voting to keep the Democratic race going.
The numbers are in and they confirm what has been obvious for, oh, 30 years now: Rush Limbaugh is an egotistical buffoon who, in fact, has no influence on anything but the opinions of his few gullible dittohead listeners.
And just so we won't be like the mainstream media, don't forget that we are still losing people in
Remember that? That was five years ago. We had just won the war in Iraq.
You remember. The troops would be home soon. We were rebuilding Iraq's infraructure. We were on the verge of uncovering those dreaded WMDs.
George Bush and the neocons were military geniuses. A good time was had by all.
Now five years later most people are starting to figure out that the whole Bush Presidency has been seven years of unadulterated BS. It's been a sham, propped up by right wing propaganda.
By Elisabeth Bumiller
WASHINGTON, May 1—President Bush’s made-for-television address tonight on the carrier Abraham Lincoln was a powerful, Reaganesque finale to a six-week war. But beneath the golden images of a president steaming home with his troops toward the California coast lay the cold political and military realities that drove Mr. Bush’s advisors to create the moment.
By Michael R. Gordon and Eric Schmitt
BAGHDAD, May 2—The Bush administration is planning to withdraw most United States combat forces from Iraq over the next several months and wants to shrink the American military presence to less than two divisions by the fall, senior allied officials said today.
By David E. Sanger
WASHINGTON, May 2—In his speech, Mr. Bush argued that the invasion and liberation of Iraq were part of the American response to the attacks of Sept. 11. He called the tumultuous period since those attacks ‘‘19 months that changed the world,’’ and said Mr. Hussein’s defeat was a defeat for al-Qaeda and other terrorists as well.
I just didn't want to let the fifth year anniversary of the end of the Iraq War go by unmentioned.
Apparently, someone mentioned to Bush that the price of gas is getting a mite high and that maybe he ought to say something to ease their fears. He did.
Bush, reaching back to the earliest days of his administration, resurrected GOP demands for new drilling in the Alaska wilderness, fewer restrictions on oil refineries and other measures aimed at lowering fuel prices through higher production.
"If there was a magic wand to wave," Bush said, "I'd be waving it, of course. . . . But there is no magic wand to wave right now. It took us a while to get to this fix."
He's right about one thing, it took us a while to get in this mess. I estimate about seven and a half years.
Do you know who's fault it is? Congress. If the Congress would just do it's job, things would be great. And that's got to be the truth, because we all know that Bush wouldn't tell a fib.
But the president had something else up his sleeve. He used his appearance before the White House press corps to perform one of the oldest tricks in the book: blaming Congress. He faulted lawmakers 16 times in his opening statement alone.
And he got petulent with Martha Raddatz at the press conference.
THE PRESIDENT: No, you can’t. This is the second follow-up. You usually get one follow-up, and I was nice enough to give you one. I didn’t give anybody on this side a follow-up, and now you are trying to take a second follow-up.
Q Can I just say —
THE PRESIDENT: They just cut off your mic. You can’t, no.
It looks like the most vacationed president in history needs a rest. I know his doing a little down time in a federal pen would do wonders for me.
How would his hoped for successor, John McCain, handle things? Well, he would pretty much follow the party line and crap on the American people to help out Big Business.
Today Arizona Sen. John McCain will deliver what his handlers are hyping as a major address on health care. McCain’s plan is a dangerous fraud.
He wants voters to think he is going after health care cost inflation. In reality, he wants to dismantle the employer-provided system that now covers over 60 percent (or about 158 million) of non-elderly Americans, forcing millions of us who now get fairly decent health insurance on the job to instead buy whatever they can find on the individual market controlled by unregulated and predatory insurance companies. And he would drive health care costs upward, not downward.
And McCain is starting to have other problems. Instead of a maverick, he's starting to look like a dyed in the wool Republican.
Yet, racism for electoral gain obviously did not go away with Helms' retirement from politics. And neither has Republican timidity in doing anything to control the extreme elements in the party--or their base if you will. So once again, just as other conservatives sat idly by and claimed Jesse was just being Jesse, now John McCain throws his hands up in the air as if there is nothing he can do when a racist ad is run by the North Carolina GOP against Barack Obama:
Oh yeah, McCain's got a preacher too. You just don't hear much about him. But he sounds like a really nice guy. Crazy as hell, but a really nice guy.
America is also collectively cursed for specific reasons, such as legalized abortion and a Supreme Court decision against sectarian Bible classes in public schools but also, more generally, for rebelling against God. As a consequence of America's disobedience and rebellion, according to McCain-endorser John Hagee, God's has cursed America and that curse has caused American military defeats, in Korea and Vietnam, plagues such as AIDS and social blights like violent crime. God's curse on America has also led "hundreds of thousands" to secretly sacrifice children to the devil.
Hundreds of thousands of children sacrificed to the devil? I didn't know you could do that. By the time you find out these things, you're already stuck with two teenagers. Damn.
Speaking of damn. The Religious Right is going all out to turn church services into Republican rallies. But I guess something has to be done to stop us evil liberals and our sick philosophy of peace and prosperity for everyone.
"I think that's the case," Cureton replied. "The pastors need to speak clearly about it. I'll tell you we are working with the Alliance Defense Fund on a series of sermons this fall for pastors to preach, so that they educate their people on the issues.
"We're gonna be talking about the value of life, the value of family and the value of freedom, basically talking about abortion and stem-cell research," he continued, "and then also about the gay agenda and then finally about our Christian heritage and how it's being stripped from every corner of society. And then finally we're gonna be doing a candidate comparison message that is going to ask pastors to cross the line."
Just like Jesus said.
Quick primary update thing. It's just more of Rush urging Republicans to get out and vote for Hillary.
More from the Howey-Gauge poll in Indiana: "The Democratic primary is going to be decided by non-Democrats. To be determined is which group -- Republicans or independents -- are going to decide this race.
"The poll shows that self-identified Republicans favor Sen. Hillary Clinton, 50% to 44%, while independents favor Sen. Barack Obama, 54% to 38%.
Among Republicans, there "appears to be two kinds of Republicans: the 'Obamacans' as the Illinois senator likes to call them -- earnest Republicans deeply disappointed in their own party's performance on the budget, economy, social issues and the Iraq War -- and the Rush Limbaugh Republicans who are planning to crossover to vote for Sen. Clinton because they perceive her to be the weakest rival to U.S. Sen. John McCain in the November election."
And finally the military. It's not enough that troops are told to pull four or five tours in Iraq or Afghanistan, but then they are treated like second class citizens. By the Military!
With all the money from this country's wealth that goes to the military budget, you'd think that they would at least have decent quarters when theydid get to come home for a few minutes.
Brig. Gen. Dennis Rogers, who is responsible for maintaining barracks throughout the Army, told reporters at the Pentagon that most inspections were done last weekend but he had not seen final results.
Part of the reason may be because the military has to subsidize defense contractors screw-ups.
Now get this, the Marines need amphibious tanks, obvously. So General Dynamics builds the tank. But the tank kinda don't work, at all. I mean it sucks at everything that it's supposed to be able to do.
So what does the military do?
- Due to the problems raised in the tests, the Pentagon gave contractor General Dynamics another $143 million for a redesign and estimated that another $700 million to $800 million was needed to do another “system development and demonstration” test.
- Due to the budget increase, the Pentagon now says it will buy only 593 vehicles for $13.2 billion compared to the original estimate that it would buy 1,025 EFVs for $8.4 billion.
The tanks don't work, so we give them even more money and then we buy a lot less tanks for a lot more money.
We're being taken by the defense contractors and the officers who want to go to work for them.
