Fox is really good at propoganda

Main Entry: pro·pa·gan·da
Pronunciation: \ˌprä-pə-ˈgan-də, ˌprō-\
Function: noun
Etymology: New Latin, from Congregatio de propaganda fide Congregation for propagating the faith, organization established by Pope Gregory XV †1623
Date: 1718
1 capitalized : a congregation of the Roman curia having jurisdiction over missionary territories and related institutions
2 : the spreading of ideas, information, or rumor for the purpose of helping or injuring an institution, a cause, or a person
3 : ideas, facts, or allegations spread deliberately to further one's cause or to damage an opposing cause;"

I guess I always knew that Fox was very effective at getting out their message, but just recently it hit me when I heard the same exact talking points made by two ardent Bushies who've never met and live on other sides of the country and who use Fox as their only information source. The level of hypocrisy was astounding as they complained about Obama doing things that George W. Bush did 3x worse. Complained about "transparency" in the Obama administration...really they did. Yet, 2 years ago they defended Cheney's secrecy about everything AND the wiretapping of every Americans' phone. THEY DEFENDED THAT. They were complaining about Obama NOT undoing the very same things that Bush did that won their praise.

These people are educated, with advanced degrees in fact, but the amount of critical thinking they leave to Hannity and Beck to do for them is amazing. We often ask how could a populace follow lockstep with some of the great atrocities in human history perpetrated by dictators, but what Fox does is little different in terms of how they achieve this suspension of critical thinking. Only the scale is different, but I have no doubt with very little effort they could incite their minions to violence.

They will regurgitate items that Beck/Hannity have made up, that have no basis in fact and when presented with evidence and data it makes no difference...they've accepted the words of their leaders unconditionally. Truth and reality have no place in their minds. They can hold opposite opinions about the same exact behavior depending on who engaged in that behavior. The Fox news treatment of the Christmas underwear bomber was the perfect example...it was the same exact thing as the Shoe Bomber. Yet Fox uses that to prove that Obama is soft on Terror, but the Shoe Bomber was proof that Bush was awesome on terror AND NO ONE who prays at the Alter of Ailes bats an eye. AMAZING. How do you reason with someone like that?

Hero of the far right fringe turns out to be a terrorist

I know the Foxies are unaware of this story b/c Fox is ignoring it, but one of their heroes turns out to be a terrorist.

For years we've been hearing about how terrorists will work to destroy the communications infastructure in AMerica. I just didn't expect this attempt to interrupt the communications of American Government would be at the hands of one of the Right wings most beloved soldiers.

You can be damn sure that if Michael Moore was caught trying to mess around with the telecommunications equipment at the Capital the connection to terrorism and interrupting communication would have been thrown around freely.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35083861/ns/politics-more_politics/

Shameful...

So, much for that radical socialist agenda. His actions in this area seem to indicate he's more like BUSH III than some crazy liberal.

Shameful silence from the media...again

more proof that the media is not only NOT liberal but shameful in it acquiescence to the right wing in its ongoing turning a blind eye to the horrible things that happened under the Bush administration.

http://www.slate.com/id/2241948/

But hey, if 38 people show up at a Glenn Beck incited tea party, you can bet that every network will be there.

Republicans depart further from reality

Both parties have their share of crazies, but as the GOP dwindles in numbers it also seems to dwindle in sanity and rationality. I keep hearing how Palin is some sort of Republican paragon of virtue. Honestly? That’s the best the GOP has to offer? I wonder b/c besides Palin, the only other people I hear from on the right are Hannity, Beck and Limbaugh. Convinced that ACORN stole an election in upstate rural NY where the GOP acted like the Democrats with it’s ridiculous infighting that cost it a seat it’s held for 130 years? Where does that “belief” come from, it’s not from any sort of factual analysis.

All sanity seems to have evaporated. I can see lots of reasons to be against whatever the latest version of the health care bill is, but comparing it to the holocaust? Death Panels? A sane party would discuss reality, not just shout “Socialism” and “Nazism” (at the same time…say wha?).

The part that makes me worry most for your party is that there doesn’t seem anyone from the grown-up rational thinking part of the party is willing to speak up for sanity, reason and real principles. (It’s really hard to take people seriously who claim that providing health care to the uninsured is the end of America and the most egregious affront to civil liberties in the history of America, when those same people shouting this drivel were completely silent, nay full supportive, of a GOP’s adminstration’s policy of tapping the phones of every American and holding Americans without consul indefinitely).

The NY23 debacle shows that the radical fringe of the GOP has no tolerance for any sort of moderation. It just seems that unless some principled and rational members of the Republican party steps up that the GOP will continue it’s march toward ridiculous fringe party. For all the silliness of the Democrats, they have never let the far left vegan/PETA/ecoterrorist/ fringe element run the show. It seems to me that the far right Eric Rudolph wing is in full control of the GOP and I just can’t take you guys seriously any more.

Appears the terrorists have defeated the right anyway

Ridiculous

I really believe that if Barack Obama ran into a burning building and saved the lives of a dozen children there would be an uproar from millions of Americans decrying the horrific Federal intervention into the lives of everyday Americans.

NY 23

It seems to me that the far right overplayed its hand in District 23. Honestly, it’s something you’d expect from the Dems. Obviously the GOP has some internal issues right now. For all the apologists claiming that this didn’t show a civil war in the party, there were twice as many rightwingers talking about how Sozzafava was a “Faux_republican” or Republican in name only. Which seems to make the clear case that the far rightwingers “running” the party these days feel there is no room for a moderate voice…I’m sure that surprises no one. But for all the talk of the big tent of diverse ideas, the very notion of disagreeing to the slightest degree with the far right will result in your ouster.

It’s fine with me, b/c this further proves how far out on the fringe the GOP is these days. And they are leaving millions of “centrist” Republicans with nowhere to go. They’ll either stay home on election day or vote for Democrats or third party candidates (that’s a good thing). In the meantime, the Far Right fringe cost the GOP a seat in the House it hasn’t lost in over 125 years. That takes SOME doin’.

Well played.

rebranding, opening up new markets

I was going to crack wise about how they need the money so they’re stepping up the marketing and branding. The bankruptcies and events that led up to them haven’t really been great for recruitment.

But I read an article and it’s clearly about money because they are going let them keep their own customs/rules. They’ll be Catholic “in donations only”

Pope Benedict XVI approved a church provision that will allow members of the Anglican church -- known as the Episcopal Church in the United States -- to become Catholics while maintaining many of their distinctive spiritual and liturgical traditions, including having married priests.

The Married Priest thing seems like a pretty big deal in terms of changing doctrine.

LeGarrent Blount might be reinstated

First, I have moved into the space where I believe WAYYYY too much was made of this. It is still the talk of college football a month later, while the Michigan guy who punched a guy on the field during the game got no mention. The ranting has diminished, but that first ten days it was talked about non-stop. A guy smacked talked and got punched…OMG the end of sports in America. He acted like a tool afterward indeed; do you know how many baseball fights there have been since this? Did the world end? Did a baseball player even get suspended for acting crazy and having to be restrained? NOPE.

Right now Blount’s punishment is the same one Dante Stallworth got from his league. That seems a bit out of whack to me.

Frankly I don’t care if he comes back or not although I’m partial to the notion that UO should stick to their punishment. He’s still got a future in the NFL if he keeps his act together. If he sits out this year and does well in the NFL, the university did the right thing. If they re-instate him and he does something dumb in the next couple of years and/or flames out in the NFL the University looks bad. I think letting him practice and go to school for free is a good compromise.

That's impossible, this doesn't happen in America...

Yes, I’m an old man and I have a rheumatologist, but I was on their website today and this is what it says:

Team Structure of Care at AARAA chronic shortage of rheumatologists exists
throughout the US. In most practices, waiting times for a new patient to
see a rheumatologist is 2 to 6 months, and many rheumatologists struggle to meet
the needs for follow-up care of existing patients. The shortage is projected to
worsen over the next 20 years.

How can this be? Americans don’t wait for Medical Care, that only happens in Communist dictatorships like Canada and France. That's what Republicans keep telling me.

BloodPhones?

Sound and Fury and Complete Bullshit

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090720/ap_on_go_ot/us_health_care_overhaul

I absolutely love the RNC and GOP tactic of just screaming “Socialism” at every thing they don’t like, even though they seem to love Stalinist moves like wiretapping every American without a warrant and arresting people and locking them up with judicial review. But again that was then this is now (Like how somehow it’s awesome when Sam Alito talks about how his judicial decisions are formulated against growing up poor and Italian, but 2 years later if you’re Hispanic it’s somehow a crime…Why has no one mentioned Alito’s bias towards Italian-Americans in Ricci? Why? Double standard? Racism? Or just plain politics?...speaking of Ricci I am fascinated how this has become “her” decision in the ignorant Right-leaning media that America lives under. A decision that was decided in trial and her court unanimously upheld (meaning they found no errors in their reaching their decision), then 4 Supreme Court Justices agreed with her court’s decision. Somehow b/c of the way one SC Justice voted she’s now some idiot or has a bias. Shameful)

But that is not my major problem with this “discussion” on health care as overly simplistic as they make it out to be. It’s this fallacy that today in America “you and your doctor” are the only people who decide your care. What a bunch of crap. There is already someone in between you and your doctor and that is a profit motivated bureaucrat in some office in Hartford. I’m not saying that I want a government bureaucrat making medical decisions, but if I’m going to have someone in the middle (and we ALL do today) I guess I would rather have the person who doesn’t have a financial incentive to deny me care.

I have a pretty good plan here, but numerous times I’ve had to jump through ridiculous bureaucratic hoops to get care. I’ve had prescriptions written by MY DOCTOR refused by my health plan and told to try something else, not a generic version for which I have no problem, with but a different drug altogether. So, let’s stop this false dichotomy of today it’s “Me and my doctor” vs tomorrow it’s “Me and the government”. Because unless you’re paying for your healthcare out of your own pocket you’ve already got someone with a financial incentive to minimize your care in between you and your doctor.

All socialism is created equal, just some is more equal than others.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/07/21/house.dealerships.closures/index.html

Panel member Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, said his concern goes further than
that.

"Every day I guess I get a little more concerned about what the
administration is doing in regard to the GM and Chrysler bankruptcies. It seems
to me that literally the administration is declaring war on capitalism," Smith
said.

So, this stalwart of Capitalism is going to use CONGRESS to re-open unneeded dealerships that the auto companies decided should be closed. I guess they’re all for capitalism and the free market when it happens to someone else (say Michigan), but not in my backyard. Like many senators tried to do with the funding of 7 more F22s that the military doesn’t want or need, fortunately, most took their head out on that one and common sense prevailed. But hey if a plane is made in 44 different states it’s almost impossible to stop making more even if the Military doesn’t want or need them. Everyone is for capitalism and common sense unless it hurts their chances for re-election….IDIOTS ALL. To paraphrase Orwell. All socialism is created equal, just some is more equal than others.

So obvious

Robinson's comment here is so engrained that I never even really thought about it, but it is totally how politicians (especially white male Republicans) view the world:

Reaction to the Reaction

I'm not shedding a tear today for Michael Jackson. Firstly, I was never a fan of his. I certainly grew up during his heyday, but when I was younger I was listening to Led Zeppelin, the Beatles, the Stones and the like. Although, there was a period of time when it seemed like you had to pick Michael or Prince, I went with Prince. Not so much b/c I thought he was a musical genius when I was 16 years (although clearly he is), but b/c he was not Michael Jackson. I watched "Thriller" on MTV, what choice did I have, it was on a loop, but I attended Prince's Purple Rain concert, and never bought a MJ album or CD. Prince was the "freak" back then, but in later years that turned around didn't it?

The tragedy for me, is that a 50 year old man died why before he should have. I feel for his friends and family as I would with any stranger who dies at such a young age.

Much like when Princess Diana died, or Kurt Cobain I really don't get how people lose their minds over someone they've never met. I often look at these people and wonder if they carry on in such a way when their grandmother died, I wonder how much of the outward grief is for public consumption and a sense of commandeer with other mourners (Look at me, I'm like you, we are emotionally ravaged by the death of a guy I didn't know and never met). It all seems like so much theater to me, and it's not just Jackson fans, it's whenever something like this happens. I wonder how much of this is mourning the loss of their youth instead of a guy they didn't know. What is missing in their lives that causes them to so closely "identify" with a stranger?

I know that some of his work was good, maybe great. "Off the wall", "Thriller" and some of "Bad" are great. Some great songs, but he wasn't a revolutionary, maybe not even an evolutionary artist. Sorry. He was a great entertainer and dancer. I still remember the day after he Moonwalked on National TV, it was the talk of my suburban/rural central New York school the next day. It was an event, but it wasn't a musical revelation...it was a dance move. I don't even know the song he was singing when he did it.

His contributions to Music Video are undeniable. He made MTV in the 80's, but you have to wonder how lasting that contribution to the arts is when you consider that MTV and VH1 don't even play music videos any longer. The form is all but dead. Is "Thriller" a great song without the video? Is "bad"? No doubt he had other great songs ("PYT", "Wanna be startin' somethin'"), but he should be remembered for his contributions to Videos which is huge, where his contributions to music are less.

I read poll yesterday where the question asked was Jackson the "greatest pop star of all time". Besides being a flawed survey geared toward people with no sense of history, the other choices were The Beatles or Madonna. I would have voted for the Beatles, but what about Sinatra or Louie Armstrong or a host of others with longer and more influential careers? Even if you go for straight Pop Star cred, Madonna's career as a relevant artist is longer than Jackson's as he has turned into a Late Night TV joke and resided there for the past 15 or 20 years. He's tabloid fodder, not even an entertainer any more.

He sold more albums than anyone else, no doubt. He was a music sales machine, but sales/revenue has never been the standard for artistry. Otherwise Brittney Spears would be one of the greatest "musicians/artists" ever. Michael didn't invent Pop or even expand the genre very much. His whole deal is just a continuation of the work of James Brown and others who came before. James Brown invented genres of music, while being the consummate entertainer. Michael entertained, but simply followed the path Brown set for him and others.

Jackson was a man so seemingly ashamed of his blackness that he did everything he could to radically alter his appearance turning himself in a grotesque caricature. While Brown was singing "I"m black and I'm proud" Jackson spent untold monies on erasing the image of that kid who sang in the Jackson Five.

Sitting her today with ESPN on, I keep hearing about how magnificent he was. First, the strained effort to make this into a sports story is just annoying and second...it appears everyone has forgotten about the past 15 years of his life. Like it didn't happen.

This is my memory of Michael. Outside the Moonwalk and the videos, my thoughts are most about weirdness. Bubbles, John Merrick's bones, charges of molestation, Emmanuel Lewis, Neverland Ranch, buying the Beatles catalog and selling the songs for commercials, huge amounts of debt, dancing on Limo roofs in his pajamas and of course the mutilation of his face. This is the legacy he left. You can't ignore the charges against him and even his own creepy answers about sleeping with little boys. Dancing to a funky beat doesn't absolve him of that, despite everyone seemingly forgetting that in the past 24 hours.

Look, I'm sorry he's died. I don't hate the guy, but I always thought he was overrated and the Canonization of the man I've seen for the past 24 hours is disturbing. The post is about the reaction to his death. He was a great entertainer, he didn't change music but you can't ignore all the other things just b/c he's gone now.

All that said...RIP Mr. Jackson

Democracy come from the people...

Things are going well in Iran for Democracy. People are rising up, that is how DEMOCRACY comes to power. If Iraq proved nothing else, it proved that you can't force democracy upon a nation with the guns of another country. Freedom and democracy come form the people and the PEOPLE are doing the rising up in Iran. Let the Iranians focus on changing there government, that is what they are doing. The current Iranina government would LOVE nothing more than for America to get involved so that they can turn the populace against an outside enemy (fortunately, the "Bomb Iran" faction of the GOP didn't get their way, b/c if they had this would not be happening). Don't believe me? Ask yourself, after America was attacked on 9/11 did you worry about petty partisan bickering ? No, you didn't. You focused on the common enemy.

If America tries to interfere here, they create the common enemy that all dictators need to keep power. America should keep it's collective mouth shut and the the PEOPLE of Iran determine their future. Iran has a growing young secular and westernized population, theocracy was not going to last forever and let's hope the time has come for moderate voices in Iran to carry the day

Let's hope he overplayed his hand with stealing the election

It seems that Iran has a large part of the population willing to take to the streets and challenge the Islamist fanaticism the controls many countries in the region. As I've told my wacked out Bushie "friends" that attacking iran is exactly what the government wants b/c it would turn sympathy toward the government against a common Western enemy. I strongly believe that iranians are capable of taking their country back from the zealots. They are a secular population who doesn't want to live under the yoke of religous tyranny...in time Iran's young people will take the steps themselves to rid the country of the zealots.

My hope is that the government has gone too far this time for the citizens of Iran.

methinks Obama's less bellicose tone is winning the hearts and minds against extremism

In Pakistan
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31267869/

And Lebanon:
http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-06-11-voa53.cfm

NCAA stupid...again

http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/31245888/


Don’t get me wrong, my disdain for Alabama is right up there, just below Notre Dame. But this penalty seems a little harsh, it’s not like they shaved points or used ineliglbe players. As usual, the arbitrariness of NCAA penalties is on display. It doesn’t even rise to the level of bad oversight of the program, short of having a member of the Athletic Department walking around 24/7 with every scholarship athlete, who do you monitor this behavior?

NCAA atheletes can get DUI’s and beat up their girlfriends and the NCAA is silent, but get an extra textbook and they bring the hammer.

And don’t forget this is the group that brings you the BCS every fall.

More Right Wing Extremists and their defenders

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/feature/2009/06/10/dhs_report/index.html

It's funny to me that Republicans are so terrified of putting untried "enemy combatants" in Super Max prisons in the US next to other terrorists, rapists, murderers, cannibals, pedophiles, etc. BUT if you call out domestic terrorists, who are killing today in our streets, they defend those groups...Interesting, no? Playing to the base, maybe?

Is the Supreme Court going to say the creepy science teacher can force your teenage daughter to take of her clothes?

This is most disturbing. Who exactly could support this? Obviously the Left would not support such behavior, Libertarians wouldn't want it.

ON the Right? Well, the right wing is constantly going on and on about how incompetent the public education system is, how lazy teachers are, what a bunch of losers they are. They just had all these tea parties. YET, are they going to claim that these same people who are incapable of teaching Johnny to read are capable of stripping their daughters down and inspecting them for Advil? What exactly is so time urgent that law enforcement couldn't be called in. Honestly, if you think some kid has a weapon or weed in his ass or in her cooch, a call to the local PD while the alleged culprit sits there in full view of the staff is unreasonable? They can't wait 10 minutes? A call home to Mom and Dad?

What happens when the new 24 year old assistant principle decides that Suzy looks like she's hiding something, so he takes her into his office and makes her disrobe? Really? Is this Saudi Arabia? Can he do a cavity search too?

I see no defensible position to school adminstrators ever forcing children to take their clothes off. No reason that is so urgent, parents and law enforcement can't be called.

I can't wait for the next 8th grade teacher caught with her student to claim that she is just conducting a strip search for Tylenol. Fuckin A.

If Texas secedes can they take some other states with them?

here's a classic:

To sum up briefly:

You get Texas, Oklahoma and all the slave states.
We get stem cell research and the best beaches.
We get Bill Gates. You get Ken Lay.
We get the Statue of Liberty. You get OpryLand.
We get Intel and Microsoft. You get WorldCom.
We get Harvard. You get Ole' Miss.
We get 85 percent of America's venture capital and entrepreneurs.You get Alabama.
We get two-thirds of the tax revenue. You get to make the red statespay their fair share.
Since our aggregate divorce rate is 22 percent lower than the Christian Coalition's we get a bunch of happy families. You get a bunch of single moms.
Please be aware that Nuevo California will be pro choice and anti war and we're going to want all our citizens back from Iraq at once. If you need people to fight ask your evangelicals. They have kids they're apparently willing to send to their deaths for no purpose and they don't care if you don't show pictures of their children's caskets coming home.
We wish you success in Iraq and hope that the WMDs turn up but we're not willing to spend our resources in Bush's Quagmire.With the Blue States in hand we will have firm control of 80% of the country's fresh water, more than 90% of the pineapple and lettuce, 92% of the nation's fresh fruit, 95% of America's quality wines (you can serve French wines at state dinners) 90% of all cheese, 90 percent of the high tech industry, most of the US low sulfur coal, all living redwoods, sequoias and condors, all the Ivy and SevenSister schools plus Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Cal Tech and MIT.
With the Red States you will have to cope with 88% of all obese Americans and their projected health care costs, 92% of all US mosquitoes, nearly 100% of the tornadoes, 90% of the hurricanes, 99% of all Southern Baptists, virtually 100% of all televangelists, RushLimbaugh, Bob Jones University, Clemson and the University of Georgia.
We get Hollywood and Yosemite, thank you.
38% of those in the Red states believe Jonah was actually swallowed by a whale, 62% believe life is sacred unless we're discussing the death penalty or gun laws, 44% say that evolution is only a theory, 53% that Saddam was involved in 9/11 and 61% of you crazy bastards believe you are people with higher morals then we lefties.
We're taking the good pot too. You can have that dirt weed they grow in Mexico.

How is hating America so much being a Patriot?

Can you imagine the outrage if Michael Moore or anyone for that matter suggested seceeding from the Union? Seriously Chuck (and the Governor of Texas), you lost the election, a democratic election. obama didn't invade America and impose tyranny...in fact he has returned America to a place where the President believes laws and the Constitution apply to him, not like his predecessor. The Constitution is safe, safer than it has been in 8 years since Bush determined he was not bound by it's "quaint" provisions.

What a bunch of whiny hypocrites. Their silence while Bush arrested people and held them without access to the judicial system (IN THIS COUNTRY), tortured people overseas and held secret meetings that would have made any despot proud. Now all the sudden they've got religion again and remembered what "Conservativism" used to stand for, but as usual they make up shit and get all hysterical in their overreaction to actions that they accepted up until Jan 21st.

Shameless, igornant and hypocritical. Pathetic.

GOP grandstanding

I absolutely love how the GOP is turning a report on Domestic Terrorism into political hay. After years of anyone left of Sean Hannity being called a terrorist and someone who "Hates" America all while they did everything they could to fire up the right wing masses with their anti gay, anti-immigrant, shit, anti-everything not "American Enough" and xenophobia. Creating the very groups this report talks about. While doing NOTHING to support America's veterans, not providing adequate health care for Injured vets and extending tours 2 and 3 times while guys lost their minds..NOW these hypocritical assholes are going to wrap themselves up in "the Military" b/c some of them might come home and join the right wing groups. HOLY SHIT what an absolute bunch of hypocrites. Since when is calling out possibilities of threats to America UnAmerican? Since when are neo-nazi's and their ilk people we defend? Even on the "Right".

Especially ironic is a quote from an AZ state Rep who said the memo was like the worst propaganda put forth by Germany in the 1930s. Besides the blatant stupidity of such a hysterical statement, but I bet the irony is lost on our good man in his quest to further fire up the very groups mentioned. To criticize a document that says Neo Nazi's are a possible threat by comparing that very document to that created by the Nazi's is not only ironic and absurd, but proves how much ignorance pervades today's GOP.

They have called it a "threat to the Constitution" and "free speech"... Are you shitting me? The same group that wouldn't allow a dissenting opinion anywhere for 8 years, who shouted down anyone who dared say that wiretapping without a warrant is Unconstitutional are now wrapping themselves in the very document they despise to this day and pissed on for 8 years under Bush? really? Hypocrites, which they have often been, but now they are making up shit to fire up the masses. (Like the Fox Sponsored "Tea Parties")

Shameful, misleading and making political points with a serious memo on domestic threats. I didn't think it were possible to have any less respect for the GOP, today i have less.

My absence

it's been too long since I last posted. Too much goings on with work and too much spending my blogging capital on Facebook. I hope to get back to it and after watching Fox News for about 45 min this AM at the gym, I must put fingers to keyboard.

Republican's still fear-mongering

And a very interesting point that I'm sure these "highly principled" Republicans would never admit:

UPDATE: The crime for which Omar Abdel Rahman was convicted and
for which he's currently serving a life sentence in Colorado is the February 26, 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, of which
Rahman was the alleged "mastermind." That terrorist attack took place just
seven weeks after Bill Clinton was inaugurated, but after that attack -- to use
the Beltway parlance -- Clinton kept us safe, for the rest of his
presidency. No more foreign Terrorist attacks on the Homeland.
It wasn't until Clinton left the Oval Office and George Bush became
President were Islamic Terrorists able to strike the Homeland
again.

Therefore, using the reasoning of Bush followers everywhere, this means that
Clinton's counter-terrorism policies -- i.e.: trying accused Terrorists in
civilian courts and incarcerating them in U.S. prisons -- have been proven to be
extremely effective in keeping us safe (since, as any beginning student of Logic
will tell you: if A precedes B, then it means that A caused B -- as in: A = "waterboarding, torture and GITMO," and B =
"no Terrorist attack on U.S. soil from 2002-2008"). Using that same
"logic": A = "trying Terrorists in civilian courts and imprisoning
them in the U.S.," and B = "no foreign Terrorist attacks in the U.S.
from February, 1993 through the end of the Clinton presidency."

late-comer to facebook; impacting my blogging

I don't seem to blog anymore. I tend to spend some time on FB instead. not obsessively, but the spare time I do have seems to end up being spent there instead of here. Damn Facebook.

Kennedy withdraws

At first her throwing her hat in the ring didn't bother me beyond the usual dynastic sense of entitlement, but it's not something the Kennedy's invented. Think of names like Adams, Taft, Udall, Bush and Clinton all have used their name to political advantage, some deservedly and some undeservedly (George W. Bush being the 3rd most qualified son of G. H.W. Bush comes to mind). But as I thought about it more, it did piss me off a bit. Clearly, she wasn't the most qualified New Yorker to be a Senator, there are others. And a last name isn't a qualification by itself...so i was glad when she withdrew.

But the cynic in me thought that maybe she was thinking that Uncle Teddy was not long for this world and that the political failout from trying to become the Senator from Mass would be less trying. This article appears to contradict that, but nonetheless I'm glad she's come to her senses.

Articles I had to send to a guy who I considered well-versed in politics.

This Reagan one is a bonus...
Myth of Reaganomics
http://mises.org/story/1544

Torture isn’t cool just b/c WE do it:
All nationalists have the power of not seeing resemblances between similar sets of facts. A British Tory will defend self-determination in Europe and oppose it in India with no feeling of inconsistency. Actions are held to be good or bad, not on their own merits, but according to who does them, and there is almost no kind of outrage — torture, the use of hostages, forced labour, mass deportations, imprisonment without trial, forgery, assassination, the bombing of civilians — which does not change its moral colour when it is committed by ‘our’ side ... The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them
George Orwell

It’s probably better surmised here:
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/01/08/nuremberg/index.html

and here:
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/12/24/torture/



These are about torture and abuse. And “we’re America so we can do it” isn’t a defense. No one every commits war crimes without saying they were just defending the homeland.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/03/16/terror/main680658.shtml

http://www.newser.com/story/45080/senate-report-pins-torture-on-rumsfeld.html

Waterboarding:, a war crime we executed Japanese for:
http://www.newser.com/story/39975/secret-white-house-memos-okd-waterboarding.html

http://www.newser.com/story/28074/ex-detainee-describes-gitmo-tortures.html

Extraordinary rendition:
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/02/14/050214fa_fact6

Panetta is bad choice for CIA

I understand Obama's point, the need to clean out the partisans in the agency, but those appointees should be gone anyway. The professionals should remain and even a professional Intellegence person can make that happen and is probably better suited to do so. Just my thoughts.

GOP has lots of work to do.

Looks like Republicans have a lot of work to do and wresting control away from the Bushie/NeoCon/RightWing Theocrats can’t happen soon enough:

WASHINGTON (CNN) – The Republican Party has hit a new low.
Just 34 percent of Americans in a Gallup Poll released Thursday say they have a favorable view of the party, down 40 percent from a month ago, before the election.
What’s worse: 61 percent of Americans have an unfavorable view of the Republican Party.
According to Gallup , that unfavorable rating is the highest the polling organization has recorded for the GOP since the measure was established in 1992.
The poll of national adults was conducted on November 13-16 with a three percent margin of error.
The numbers are slightly up from a CNN poll released last week that indicated a 54 percent unfavorable rating for Republicans. Only 38 percent of those polled had a favorable rating for the party.
Meanwhile, Democrats continue to bask in the glow of President-elect Barack Obama’s historic victory on November 4. The Gallup poll suggests that 55 percent of Americans hold a favorable opinion of the Democratic Party, with 39 percent saying they have an unfavorable view. Those numbers are mostly unchanged from a mid-October survey

What Barack will do...

My Bushie friend asked me what Obama will do as President. I responded:

Well, he’ll stop torturing people. He’ll stop arresting people without warrants and locking them away in secret. He’ll stop wire-tapping every phone in America without a warrant. He’ll stop using the justice department as his own political tool. He’ll stop the assault on science and not use his twisted notion of religion to explain the world and how it works. (Hint: Dinosaurs and humans did not co-exist 3000 years ago). He’ll replace name-calling with maturity.

You know this. I know education and intelligence are frowned upon within the GOP these days, but you don’t have to act stupid for us. We know you’re smarter than that, you can stop the act now. You can be smart and educated and STILL be a “REAL” American, despite what the former mayor of the meth capital of Alaska tells you.

Speaking of little Miss Unethical behavior, she went on and on about socialism while she’s the governor of a state that takes money from the oil companies and gives it directly to the citizens of her state…talk about redistribution of wealth (SOCIALIST IDEAS). Thanks to Jon Stewart for making me realize the irony of the governor of a state funded by socialism calling Obama a Socialist…pure comedy. Too bad the Honorable Governor isn’t bright enough to see the irony…after all she doesn’t even know what the Vice President does or the rights afforded by the First Amendment.

Hopeful

Like most Americans, apparently, I'm pretty happy with the election results. The long national nightmare is over. Kudos to Obama on a fantastic campaign.

The only sad part is what McCain did to himself in his seemingly endless desire to be President. We all remember the John McCain that we liked back in 2000, then he ate the shit that Karl Rove made for him in South Carolina b/c he wanted it so bad. Then during this campaign the independent minded guy we liked turned into the right wing attack dog that the Bushies won with, but America was tired of that shit.

The McCain that we loved was back in last night's concession speech, but it was too late. He changed, he got bad advice and of course his disasterous selection of the unqualified former mayor were his doom. I seriously doubt that he would have lost EVEN with the shackles of the Bush Presidency if he had ran as the guy he once was.

I hope he goes back to being true to himself.

Are McCain supporters really this stupid or are they just ignorant of what is going on in the world?

it's Clear Palin is not qualified, she doesn't even know what the Vice President's job is, nor does she understand the first amendment. But McCain supporters new cry of "Socialism" is laughable considering McCain's support of the recent bailouts pushed by our Republican president. The fact that in the past few months the Party of McCain and Bush has federalized banks and insurance companies. Talk about socialism, it's already here.

It's hard to have respect for people so woefully ill-informed, people who just through out buzz words and buy into the GOP fear machine. The fact that they blindly accept this bullshit is exactly how you end up in a fascist state. The dictators always talk about how the state will protect you from enemies seen and unseen, and the first thing they dictators do is attack the intellectuals and the liberals...just like the GOP has done for the past 8 years. They've attempted to make knowledge and learning BAD THINGS. (Ignorance is Knowledge).

I'm sick of being told I'm not a real American because I put myself throught grad school and happen to think for myself instead of listening the non-sensical rantings of the lunatic minds of the GOP.

WAKE UP AMERICA (I'm talking to you McCain supporters).

btw- I won't be surprised if the GOP steals the election with their classic voter suppression efforts in cities and outright fraud by the Diebold Republican Vote Generating machines. After the GOP stole one election, they can do it again.

Palin is the perfect Bushie

The Palin's, like the Bushies, feel they are above the law and don't feel they are accountable for their actions. No wonder the Bushies love her, I'm just surprised the Bush WH didn't find her before and make her secratary of the Navy or something (she's been on a boat). Being unqualifed, having contempt for the law and loving guns and hating abortion are all you need for a Bush appointment and sadly McCain continues that practice with this HORRIBLE choice

Fiscal Reformer???

Read it quick before the Conservatives who control the media kill the story.



Maybe she should have kept the plane…


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26616212/

ANCHORAGE - Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has billed taxpayers for 312 nights spent in her own home during her first 19 months in office, charging a "per diem" allowance intended to cover meals and incidental expenses while traveling on state business.

Palin charged the state a per diem for working on Nov. 22, 2007 -- Thanksgiving Day. The reason given, according to the expense report, was the Great Alaska Shootout, an annual NCAA college basketball tournament held in Anchorage (WISH I COULD GET PAID TO GO TO SPORTING Events)

One event was in New York City in October 2007, when Bristol accompanied the governor to Newsweek's third annual Women and Leadership Conference, toured the New York Stock Exchange, and met local officials and business executives. The state paid for three nights in a $707-a-day hotel room.


Meanwhile, Todd Palin spent $725 to fly to Edmonton , Alberta , for "information gathering and planning meeting with Northern Alberta Institute of Technology," according to an expense report. During the three-day trip, he charged the state $291 for his per diem. A notation said "costs paid by Dept. of Labor." He also billed the state $1,371 for flight to Washington to attend a National Governors Association meeting with his wife. (I wish my company paid to fly my partner to for my business trips)

The family also charged for flights around the state, including trips to Alaska events such as the start of the Iditarod dog-sled race and the Iron Dog snowmobile race, a contest that Todd Palin won. (Did the state pay his entry fees too?)

In the past, per diem claims by Alaska state officials have carried political risks. In 1988, the head of the state Commerce Department was pilloried for collecting a per diem charge of $50 while staying in his Anchorage home, according to local news accounts. The commissioner, the late Tony Smith, resigned amid a series of controversies.

"It was quite the little scandal," said Tony Knowles, the Democratic governor from 1994 to 2000. "I gave a direction to all my commissioners if they were ever in their house, whether it was Juneau or elsewhere, they were not to get a per diem because, clearly, it is and it looks like a scam -- you pay yourself to live at home," he said.

I asked for 20 qualifications that Palin has to be VP or Prez...I got one

The one thing I got was she was Governor of a state with 600,000 people for 20 months. And a bunch of crap that Obama has no executive experience (neither does McCain and Newt Gingrich is the only Republican I've heard admit that fact)

So, I thought clarify Obama's experience:

While I wait for the 19 other qualifications she brings to the table.

I just wanted to clear up some fallacies you appear to be operating
under.

Obama has EXECUTIVE Experience.

• He was the PRESIDENT of the Harvard Law Review ( I can’t wait to hear how that’s not executive experience)
  
• He was also the DIRECTOR of Chicago ’s
  Developing Communities Project and I know you hate poor people and like to mock
  those who actually help out in their communities unless it’s bombing abortion
  clinics, but this too is EXECUTIVE Experience.
  
• He was CHAIRMAN of the Health and Human Services Committee in the Illinois Senate (damn, more leadership experience)
  
• He is CHAIRMAN of the Foreign Relations subcommittee on European Affairs (Even more leadership and with International Experience).
  

Now, again I know it’s not raising taxes to build a new hockey rink, but it IS Executive Experience.


I’m glad we can put that to rest now.


But again, we should be comparing McCain’s resume with Obama’s and Biden’s with Palin’s. I know you don’t want to do that b/c Obama’s and McCain’s experience is in the same damn job and Biden’s knowledge of Economics and International Relations is some of the best in America . I can understand why you’d resort to name calling (like when you pretend to care
about experience and your only response to Bill Richardson’s resume is to call
him a buffoon. Funny how you changed the subject from Experience to name-calling
when presented with the most qualified candidate in America…you must be a
racist)

A "maverick" selection...not so much

While the GOP has been breaking their arms patting themselves on the back for putting a woman on the ticket and calling it some radical new idea, I got to thinking that it’s really not all that radical. (Especially when you consider the vitriol they have spewed toward Hilary Clinton for the past two decades)

The Democrats did it 24 years ago. 24 years!

The Libertarians did it in 1972 and Toni Nathan was the first women to ever receive an electoral vote.

Then I did some research

The 2008 Green Party has an ALL FEMALE ticket and have had at least one woman on the ticket since 96. The Libertarians did it again in 1992 and 96. Lyndon LaRouche did it, as did Pat Buchanan. All before the Republicans…seems like they are pretty late to the party. Here is a list:


Wikipedia has a list of over 100 women who have been a various parties Tickets going back to 1870

Soliciting sex acts in bathrooms is "free speech"?

I hear Larry Craig, the disgraced Senator from Idaho who hates gay people, except when he's having sex with them, is going to claim that tapping his foot to initiate sex in a public rest room is protected by FREE SPEECH.

How awesome is that? Again the hypocrisy. The Republicans who HATE free speech now are using it to defend the solicitation of bathroom sex...WOW. The next time you get busted for solicitation of prostitution, you should claim it's Free Speech.

You've got to admit that the Republicans do have balls. They can stand in Congress and rail against gays while they still smell of manlove. they try to force their version of "family values" while they hire prostitutes and have affairs.

But the free speech thing is AWESOME. Balls the size of Idaho

Why does the media not report on Sarah Palin's anti-semetic pastor?

Yes, Sarah Palin sat in a church where this message was given. Two weeks ago. The karma in all this is just amazing:

Brickner also described terrorist attacks on Israelis as God's "judgment of
unbelief" of Jews who haven't embraced Christianity. "Judgment is very real and
we see it played out on the pages of the newspapers and on the television. It's
very real. When [Brickner's son] was in Jerusalem he was there to witness some
of that judgment, some of that conflict, when a Palestinian from East Jerusalem
took a bulldozer and went plowing through a score of cars, killing numbers of
people. Judgment — you can't miss it."

Palin was in church that day, Kroon said, though he cautioned against
attributing Brickner’s views to her.

How does Hannity deal with this? After what he said about Jeremiah
Wright

?

Let's get a couple of things straight about John McCain's newest ad and, for that matter, about his running mate. Yes, Sarah Palin was, technically, the person to put the final nail in the coffin of the "Bridge to Nowhere" last fall. Apparently that was a prime reason she got picked for the Republican ticket -- McCain liked that the same Alaska Republicans who are angry at him were also angry at her.

But the implication coming from Palin and McCain is that in doing so, she saved U.S. taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. "I told the Congress 'thanks, but no thanks,' for that Bridge to Nowhere," Palin said at the Republican convention last week. "If our state wanted a bridge, we'd build it ourselves." McCain's ad says, "She stopped the Bridge to Nowhere" (with some dramatic music behind the narration that makes it sound like McCain and Palin are running for the newest slots in the Legion of Super Heroes, not the White House).

That's not actually how it happened, though. Nearly two years before Palin acted, Congress had already decided the federal government wouldn't pay for the bridge. But Alaska would still get the $229 million that had been earmarked for the project. By the time Palin took office and "killed" the bridge in September 2007, she knew that if she didn't, the state would be on the hook for the whole bill, and Alaska wouldn't get the massive windfall to spend on... well, whatever other transportation boondoggles it wanted to fund. She did officially spike the project, but it was basically already finished. Since the federal government was going to pay for almost the entire cost of the project, once Congress removed the earmark, Palin didn't have much choice. "It wasn't really a bold move when she did it," bridge opponent Lois Epstein, with the Alaska Transportation Priorities Project, told PolitiFact. Not to mention, of course, that Palin supported the bridge during her 2006 campaign for governor, and only came around to opposing it and scaling back the state's earmark requests when it became clear the bridge was hurting Alaska 's image in Washington and around the country.

McCain's campaign doesn't even seem to be paying attention to these details. Defending the ad Monday morning, spokesman Brian Rogers sent reporters a memo about the bridge project. "After taking office and examining the project closely, Governor Palin consistently opposed funding the 'Bridge to Nowhere' and ultimately canceled the wasteful project," Rogers wrote, glossing over exactly how long it took for her to examine the project closely. "She stopped it." But the memo cites the PolitiFact articles that make it clear that Palin was just bowing to the reality that the bridge was already dead. Never mind that, though. In John McCain's world, Sarah Palin is a maverick reformer who fought wasteful spending. In the world the rest of us live in, that's not so clear. (Note: Carly Fiorina would probably say this post is sexist, because it criticizes Palin's record, but Salon is willing to live with that risk.)

In the long Bushie Republican tradition of lying about everything

She DIDN'T sell the Jet on eBay, she DIDN'T make a profit.

and if she craftily didn't say she did sell it on eBay which is what everyone remembers, she manipulated America in her speech to lead us to believe that she did sell it on eBay.

That's the same old Bushie lying.

John McCain ...i really hope selling your soul to the Bushie Republicans pays off for you b/c I used to respect you. I really did, but now you're just as bad as the Bushies, but it's worse b/c you were once a stand up guy but over the past 12 months you changed. George W. Bush never knew better, he had everything handed to him and he got by b/c of who his father was. You used to be your own man...it's really sad to see what you've let them do to you.

Republican distaste for copyright

The GOP really seems to have a problem with this whole playing music inappropriately whether it's in violation of copyright law or when Reagan used "Born in the USA" as a campaign song, ignorant of the song's meaning.

Clowns

Palin is "qualified"? Then so are about 80,000 other people

Pathetic. This might be the most obvious showing of GOPs complete lack of anything resembling principles in the years.

I knew that the would completely change course on tokenism after this. Shameful pandering that is an insult to women b/c this horrible choice is based solely on the idea that Hilary supporters are going to vote for McCain now b/c his VP has a vagina and ignore that she's a right wing hack. But apparently, it's only black women that are tokens, right?

Here is a woman who has been governor of a state with more reindeer than people for all of 20 months. Before that the mayor of a town of 5000...What a joke. If leading a governmental agency of a population of 600,000 for a little over a year and a half makes you qualified to be President that would open it up to about 20,000 mayors, County Executives, governors.

You are honestly telling me that she is the BEST and most qualified member of the GOP to be VP? Really? She's not even the best female candidate, Kay Bailey Hutchinson is infinitely more qualified than her if you must have a woman candidate. Elizabeth Dole?

Please, Executive experience. Her big ethics controversy is so freakin' quaint as to be right out of an Andy Griffith episode. Using her influence to get her sister's ex-husband fired. That is so precious and it shows how small time she is. She's so ill-equipped to be VP that only a few weeks ago she didn't have enough information to form an opinion on The Surge in Iraq.

George Bush had been an executive for years and he let 9/11 happen. So, I'm not sure the Governor card is a strong one.

Finally, can you imagine the the shit spouted by Malkin, Coulter and or any of the other Republican Hypocrites if Obama's 17 year old daughter were pregnant…OMG the double standard. And of course the absolute SILENCE about Cindy McCain. If Michele Obama were a drug addict, that would be all you'd hear about. But nothing about the pretty white girl. I'm not saying that Cindy's past (I love Cindy McCain, I think she's a class act) has any relevance but you can sure as shit bet that if Michelle Obama had the same past that's all that Righty Wing Media fascists would be going on about.

Media Bias toward the GOP in this country is sickening.

Not such a Great Reformer this Savior from the Great White North

Not much of a reformer, this “maverick” from the great white north…





"So while Sen. McCain was going after cutting earmarks in Washington ," said Steve Ellis of Taxpayers for Common Sense, "Gov. Palin was going after getting earmarks."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/la-na-earmarks3-2008sep03,0,5932587.story



Wasilla had received few if any earmarks before Palin became mayor. She actively sought federal funds -- a campaign that began to pay off only after she hired a lobbyist with close ties to Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), who long controlled federal spending as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. He made funneling money to Alaska his hallmark.

Steven Silver was a former chief of staff for Stevens. After he was hired, Wasilla obtained funding for several projects in 2002, including an additional $600,000 in transportation funding.

That year, a local water and sewer project received $1.5 million, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense, which combs federal spending measures to identify projects inserted by congressional members.

McCain's bad decision

From the NYT:

Candidate McCain’s Big Decision

More often than not, the role of a vice president is a minor one, unless some tragedy occurs. But a presidential nominee’s choice of a running mate is vitally important. It is his first executive decision and offers an important insight into how that nominee would lead the nation.

If John McCain wants voters to conclude, as he argues, that he has more independence and experience and better judgment than Barack Obama, he made a bad start by choosing Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska .

Mr. McCain’s supporters are valiantly trying to argue that the selection was a bold stroke that shows their candidate is a risk-taking maverick who — we can believe — will change Washington . (Mr. Obama’s call for change — now “the change we need” — has become all the rage in St. Paul .)

To us, it says the opposite. Mr. McCain’s snap choice of Ms. Palin reflects his impulsive streak: a wild play that he made after conservative activists warned him that he would face an all-out revolt in the party if he chose who he really wanted — Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut.

Why Mr. McCain would want to pander to right-wing activists — who helped George W. Bush kill off his candidacy in the 2000 primaries in a particularly ugly way — is baffling. Frankly, they have no place to go. Mr. McCain would have a lot more success demonstrating his independence, and his courage, if he stood up to them the way he did in 2000.

As far as we can tell, Mr. McCain and his aides did almost no due diligence before choosing Ms. Palin, raising serious questions about his management skills. The fact that Ms. Palin’s 17-year-old daughter is pregnant is irrelevant to her candidacy. There are, however, very serious questions about her political past and her ideology.

If Mr. McCain wanted to break with his party’s past and choose the Republicans’ first female vice presidential candidate, there are a number of politicians out there with far greater experience and stature than Ms. Palin, who has been in Alaska ’s Statehouse for less than two years.

Before she was elected governor, she was mayor of a tiny Anchorage suburb, where her greatest accomplishment was raising the sales tax to build a hockey rink. According to Time magazine, she also sought to have books banned from the local library and threatened to fire the librarian.

MY COMMENT She’s a book burner…no wonder the GOP claims to love her.
For Mr. McCain to go on claiming that Mr. Obama has too little experience to be president after almost four years in the United States Senate is laughable now that he has announced that someone with no national or foreign policy experience is qualified to replace him, if necessary.

Senator Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina Republican who has been one of Mr. McCain’s most loyal friends, said Tuesday that he was certain that Ms. Palin would take the right positions on issues like Iraq , Russia ’s invasion of Georgia and Iran ’s nuclear weapons ambitions. That seemed based largely on his repeated assertion that Ms. Palin would be tended by Mr. McCain’s foreign policy advisers. That was not much of an endorsement.

Some of the things Ms. Palin has had to say in the recent past about foreign policy are especially worrisome. In a speech last June to her former church in Wasilla, Ms. Palin said the war in Iraq was “a task that is from God.” Mr. Bush made similar claims as he rejected all sound mortal advice on how to conduct the war.

Mr. McCain, Mr. Graham and others also claim that Ms. Palin is a fearless reformer who is committed to fighting waste, fraud and earmarks. Ms. Palin did show courage taking on some of the Alaska Republican Party’s most sleazy politicians. But she also was an eager recipient of earmarked money as a mayor and governor.

Mayor Palin gathered up $27 million in subsidies from Washington , $15 million of it for a railroad from her town to the ski resort hometown of Senator Ted Stevens, now under indictment for failing to report gifts.

The Republicans are presenting Ms. Palin as a crusader against Mr. Stevens’s infamous “Bridge to Nowhere.” The record says otherwise; she initially supported Mr. Stevens’s boondoggle, diverting the money to other projects when the bridge became a political disaster. In her speech to the Wasilla Assembly of God in June, Ms. Palin said it was “God’s will” that the federal government contribute to a $30 billion gas pipeline she wants built in Alaska .
Mr. McCain will make his acceptance speech on Thursday, and Ms. Palin will speak on Wednesday. Those two appearances will go a long way to forming voters’ views of this Republican ticket.

As Senator Graham noted, Mr. McCain has to reach out beyond the party’s loyal base. “We’re going to have to win this thing,” he said. “This is not our race to lose.”

Mr. McCain’s hurdles are substantial. To start, he has to overcome Mr. Bush’s record of failures. (The president addressed the convention Tuesday night and now, McCain strategists fervently hope, will retire quietly to the Rose Garden.) That record includes the disastrous war in Iraq , a ballooning deficit, the mortgage crisis — and the list goes on.

To address those many problems, this country needs a leader with sound judgment and strong leadership skills. Choosing Ms. Palin raises serious questions about Mr. McCain’s qualifications.

sounds like a real Republican...trying to game the system and use power to her personal advantage

The woman was obsessed with getting her ex-brother in law fired. Hardly the behavior becoming a governor, a mayor of a town of 5000 maybe, but surely not a governor.


Palin had promised to cooperate with the legislative inquiry, but last month she hired a lawyer to fight to move the case to the jurisdiction of the state personnel board, which Palin appoints.

Cynical Pandering

Pathetic. This might be the most obvious showing of the GOP's complete lack of anything resembling principles in the years.

After months of accusing Michelle Obama and Hilary of tokenism now they embrace this unqualified token female. Shameful pandering that is an insult to women b/c this horrible choice is based solely on the idea that Hilary supporters are going to vote for McCain now b/c his VP has a vagina and ignore that she's a right wing hack. But apparently, it's only black women that are "tokens"?

Here is a woman who has been governor of a state with more reindeer than people for all of 20 months. Before that the mayor of a town of 9000...What a joke. If leading a governmental agency of a population of 600,000 for a little over a year and a half makes you qualified to be President that would open it up to about 20,000 mayors, County Executives, governors.

You are honestly telling me that she is the BEST and most qualified member of the GOP to be VP? Really? She's not even the best female candidate, Kay Bailey Hutchinson is infinitely more qualified than her if you must have a woman candidate. Elizabeth Dole?

Please, Executive experience. Her big ethics controversy is so freakin' quaint as to be right out of an Andy Griffith episode. Using her influence to get her sister's ex-husband fired. That is so precious and it shows how small time she is. She's so ill-equipped to be VP that only a few weeks ago she didn't have enough information to form an opinion on The Surge in Iraq.

George Bush had been an executive for years and he let 9/11 happen. So, I'm not sure the Governor card is a strong one.

Finally, can you imagine the firestorm created by Malkin, Coulter and the comments by the Right if Obama's 17 year old daughter were pregnant…OMG the double standard. And of course the absolute SILENCE about Cindy McCain. If Michele Obama were a drug addict, that would be all you'd hear about. (let me be perfectly clear, I don't think someone's family issues disqualify them and I really like Cindy McCain she is a class act and seems to have a very good heart. But the GOP has been making fun of Obama's family for 2 years, so I'm only pointing out the hypocrisy, not condemning Cindy)

Media Bias toward the GOP in this country is sickening.

Bolt is amazing

I know Phelps is getting all the love, but this guy dominated in a way that Phelps didn’t. Yes, Phelps broke lots of world records (and having 97 swimming events and relays helps) but not by this margin and he didn’t dominate like Bolt did (someone can do the math on the percentage improvement in the records and the percentage of his margin of victory). Phelps may have broken a record by a crazy 4 seconds but that’s in a 2 minute race. Oh yeah, and 2 or 3 other guys also broke the record). Bolt is sick.

Guitar Hero ...saving Rock n Roll?

I was talking with another dad at football practice last night about this very subject. The other day in the car, Iron Maiden came on the Sirius and my 10 year old pointed out that it was indeed Iron Maiden. I asked how he knew that and he said “Guitar Hero” and he recognized his voice. It was a proud moment for me. Mostly b/c, despite my efforts, most of the time he seems to believe that Lil Wayne (and his contemporaries) invented Rap and most music for that matter.



And speaking of ROCK. I bought a 3 disc set of Journey at Costco on Sunday. I’ve been rockin’ it ever since…and if “Feelin that way/Anytime” and “Wheel in the sky” don’t get your heart apumpin…you have no soul.

anyone else tired of the phelympics?

I'll give you that Michael Phelps is the greatest swimmer ever. Sure. But this bullshit that he is the greatest athlete of all time must come to an end. Phelps does one thing better than anyone, but he swims. Just swims. Bo Jackson played 2 sports at a professional level and was a great track athlete. Dieon Sanders was one of the best football players of his era and a damn fine baseball player. He also ran track in college. Again, Phelps does one thing, yes he does different strokes, but that allows him opportunities to pile up medals. If track had four different racing styles, I'm sure Michael Johnson or Carl Lewis could have had another 10 or so. Imagine if there was a backwards 200M, or a sideways event. Additionally, many of Phelps medals were in relays. Again, track doesn't have so many events at such close distances.
This doesn't even bring up athletes with crazy diverse skills like Jim Thorpe or even Babe Didrickson. Jim Brown who was the greatest running back in NFL history and was supposed to be the greatest Lacrosse player of his era. So, as NBC is forced to talk about someone besides Phelps, lets restore some integrity to this discussion of ATHLETES. Phelps is the greatest swimmer, maybe the greatest Olympian, but once the hysteria subsides we'll all realize he is NOT the greatest athlete of all time.

and from Darkness...light shown again

Maybe, JUST MAYBE, rule of law is shining it’s head again after years of darkness…(I think it might have been under the drapery that Ashcroft put over the statue of Justice).



No man, no matter how much Divine Authority he believes he has, is above the law in America .

Federal judge rules Bush's aides can be subpoenaed

A federal judge on Thursday rejected President Bush's contention that senior White House advisers are immune from subpoenas, siding with Congress' power to investigate the executive branch and handing a victory to Democrats probing the dismissal of nine federal prosecutors.

WASHINGTON —

A federal judge on Thursday rejected President Bush's contention that senior White House advisers are immune from subpoenas, siding with Congress' power to investigate the executive branch and handing a victory to Democrats probing the dismissal of nine federal prosecutors.

More American media hypocrisy

i read this and it seems like another case of media hypocrisy. America choses beauty over talent every day, but we're supposed to be outraged when China does it? Paris Hilton anyone?

Why do we condemn the Chinese and spin it that they replaced the "ugly girl", when isn't it just as much the case that the girl that was to perform couldn't sing well enough and someone else with talent was used instead.

Does that make it better or worse? Not sure.

As for the "controversy" over the digital fireworks...are you freaking kidding me? it was a performance, did you realize that the ships on that screen and all the other images were not real...GASP. They were actually digital images, OMG the horror.

American media is a bunch of tools.

Where is the Bush name calling now? or Is this Bush's "Chamberlin Moment"?

Is this Bush’s “peace in our time” moment? Is bush going to defend our friends in Georgia or is he just going to say “ Russia is a bully”?

Sanctions? US Troops in Georgia ? Why doesn’t Georgia deserve half as much as Iraq , after all they are being invaded by another nation? Or does Bush still believe that Putin still has a pure soul?

I’m ask for the neo-con take on this, I don’t know that I have the answers, but consdiering all the chest thumping about freedom by the Bushies I would figure you’d have some pretty strong positions on defending our allies from Russian agression.

After all, Bush called Obama an appeaser while he stood in the Knessett, but isn't he doing just as Chamberlin did with Hitler? Again, the Neocons are the experts on that b/c they love to trot out Chamberlin about once a week to prove how tough they are about freedom (even if NONE of them ever saw a minute of combat)

what a joke

I've read this twice now:

As probable bioterrorists go, Bruce Ivins was a near perfect suspect. Among the hundreds of pages of evidence that the FBI had mounted against him (which were released last week), there were electronic records documenting Ivins' late-night sojourns in the lab, e-mails revealing a mind wracked by paranoia and an inventory of a November 2007 FBI search of his home, which turned up a paperback copy of Albert Camus's novel The Plague.

Seriously? That book's presence is some sort of proof of guilt? Any well read person might have that book, does that make everyone a terrorist? I have a book infectious diseases too, LEVEL 4 is the title, should I toss that? I also own 5 bibles, the Communist Manifesto, Milton Friedman, and dozens more. I wonder what case could be made of me (OR ANYONE) if the FBI pulled one book from me bookshelf.

Idiots

American Media's hypocrisy re: Olympic athletes

The other day MSNBC.com had a story about Chinese gymnasts and the implication was the state forced kids and families to make all kinds of sacrafices and that that it was just horrible. Forgetting of course that American kids do the exact same thing. But as I'm watching this evenings Synchronized Diving, NBC plays one of those vingettes they love to produce. In it, this America girl explains how she left home at the age of 16 to train full time in Indianapolis, how she has NO friends, how she didn't go to high school, about how her whole life is diving. NBC presented this as some noble cause for her to give up her childhood.

Yet last week, when the Chinese kids did it it was sad. Hypocrites.

More of the GOP lawlessness

I can't wait to hear the "law and order" Republicans (who believe the most pressing problems in the world are that two men might obtain a marriage license or that the guy washing dishes or mowing a lawn doesn't have a visa) tell us how it's really ok to LIE about the BRIBES you've been taking.

How more indictments you think will happen after the Bush administration leaves office, unless of course he just pardons the entire cabal for all their crimes as he leaves office. Can he do that? Well, he has proven his disregard for the Constitution, US law and international treaties (not to mention any sense of morality) so why wouldn't he just do it anyway...

Shameful.

Only a Bushie agency could believe a monopoly is in the public interest

Forgetting for a moment that when the Satellite services were established they were forbidden explicitly by law from merging, but how in God's name can the Federal Government claim that when the only two companies in a market merge into one that is GOOD for the public. They even claimed it will lead to more choices and lower prices, when has that ever happened?

What a horrible decision?

Someone on the government even claimed that Sirius and XM don't even compete against each other b/c their customers are loyal...WOW.

yet this is the same government who is going after Intel depsite numerous competitors in every market...

ONLY THE BUSHIES

Bush is now an appeaser like Chamberlin?

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/07/16/us.iran/index.html

Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the 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 I could only have talked to Hitler, all 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.
George W. Bush May 15, 2008

I find it interesting that 2 months ago, when Obama suggested the US talk to Iran it was like letting Hitler loose on the Jews, now it's a good idea. Shameful pandering, especially that Bush made this attack while standing in the Knesset.

I'm glad he's decided to at least talk to Iran, after all diplomacy worked with N. Korea and Iraq hasn't turned out so well now has it? So, maybe the grown ups have told the little boys to put their little willies away and act like adults and talk to them. It don't cost nothing to talk and it often provides better results for a hell of a lot cheaper (see N Korea).

I wonder if Bush will be apologizing to Obama for his ridiculous slam or if he will be apologizing to the Bushie faithful for his "appeasement"?

Hilary Clinton proves the worst about herself

For years before Hilary officially ran for the Dem nomination, I contended that her negatives were too high with the radical right for her to win a general election. (that is of course before the "other choice" became a black man and the far right GOP and Bushies embraced Clinton b/c apparently she's better than a black man in office). When they hated Hilary they claimed she was power hungry and didn't care about making America better as much as she wanted the power and in her efforts to win the Delegates of Florida and Michigan, this side of her has come out.

She and the other candidates agreed not to campaign in Mich/Fla b/c they knowingly broke the rules of the DNC and were warned of the consequences. By not running there, she agreed that they broke the rules, so she can't claim ignorance. The fact that she didn't remove her name from the ballot while others did, is now used by her to claim she has some right to all the delegates and that is extremely distasteful and shows a lack of principle on her part.

She is shouting about disenfranchisement, when she knew in January that this was going to happen when the states violated party rules. Now, that she is losing she has decided that the rules should be changed now to benefit her, even though she agreed to them when she looked like the winner and that is very sad and shows a thirst for power over principle.

I've always liked Hilary, but in this campaign she has reinforced to me what the Clinton-haters used to say...she is power hungry. It appears that she will pander(shots anyone?) and change her principles when it's politically expedient. We've had 8 years of abandoning principle for the sake of securing power, we don't need that any longer.

Michigan and Florida Dem Parties "disenfranchised" their states, not the DNC, not Obama. And lets not forget this isn't "an election", the selection of a nominee is a party matter. The use of Super Delegates, Caucuses and various backroom deals through the years in all parties should make it clear that this is not "an election", it's a party matter. Directly electing the nominee is probably a good thing for the party, but they don't even do that today. The winner of the popular vote is not guaranteed the nomination, which is why there are delegates and super delegates. No one is "disenfranchised" in Florida or Michigan and if Hilary had class and principle she would stop claiming that is happening.

Frankly the DNC should stick to their guns and not seat a single delegate from either state. That is what was threatened, that is what was agreed to and the rules of the game shouldn't change because your team is losing.

America is great IN SPITE of fundementalism and fear of change

This was sent in response to an email about some guy who wishes he lived in the 1950's. Specifically about the California same sex marriage decision.

Everything great that America ever achieved happened by the force of will of free-thinkers challenging the status quo. The Bushies would have you believe in these supposed "American values" of hating change and social evolution (as well as being educated). Fortunately this desire to preserve the status quo has been overridden by those willing to make change happen.
It's those Intelligent open-minded challengers of the status quo that have made America great, while the GOP wants to claim that "real Americans" are those that embrace stasis and hate education. Again, fortunately it's the stupid, lazy and closed-minded that are cast to the dustbin of history.

In a word, "Progress".

Myth of Voter Fraud

The whole political philosophy of the Bushies is based on these myths. The myth of illegal immigrants voting en masse, the welfare mother who has 8 kids so she can get more money, Mexicans stealing jobs from hard working Americans (doing the jobs you wouldn’t do when you lose your job), gay people “recruiting”, suppression of a vast Christian majority in America…on and on it goes.

Just because you continually claim “everybody knows” to make yourself feel less detached from reality, doesn’t make it real. Saying that “people are smarter than this” is another of your rhetorical ticks. “Most people” don’t read newspapers, most people don’t know where Canada is on a map. Most people don’t know shit about voter fraud. But they believe the lies spread by politicians.

They are the imagined bogeymen of the fear mongers and you eat it up. I guess it makes sense b/c the Bushies have spent nearly 8 years trying to scare you into every single thing they want to have happen. Living is fear is a hell of way to live, especially when the fears are not based on the real world.

Chad Johnson is a tool

http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/23782681/

I hate these prima donna’s who bitch and moan for a long term deal then they complain a year later they want to renegotiate or want to be traded. Let them all rot on the bench. Or better yet, tear up the contract AFTER the player returns all the money under the contract and then the team can pay them at the league minimum for those seasons. Then let them go wherever they want.

America...devolution

Last week some folks ("Christians") were bitching about the attention that the Dalai Lama received in Seattle, they made the claim that Christianity was responsible for ALL of the good of Western Civilization and that NO OTHER religion advanced civilization. I think I blogged about that bullshit at the time, but here's the latest.

http://www.voanews.com/english/AmericanLife/2008-04-22-voa57.cfm

I’ve been informed by "Christians" that AMERICA RULES in healthcare and yet large parts of America ’s population is getting WORSE in life expectancy? Especially ironic that the geographic areas mention are those in the most “Christian” parts of the country. I believe last week we were informed how Christianity made people live longer and have better everything. So, this can’t be true. Stupid Facts.

Over the last 20 years, life expectancy has either declined or stagnated for one
of out every five women compared with four percent of men. Ezzati finds this a
grim statistic for an industrialized nation. "We don't associate worsening of
health, worsening of life expectancy with something that happens in a developed
high-income country."

Christianity RULES Part III

Did anyone note the irony of these comments with the Pope’s comments at the same time? Is this the “level of civilization” he spoke of?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080417/ts_nm/pope_usa_dc_27

For the third consecutive day of his trip to the United States , Benedict
mentioned the scandal that rocked the Church in 2002 and cost U.S. dioceses $2
billion in damages, demonstrating his resolve to deal with the issue and make
sure it does not happen again.

"No words of mine can describe the pain and harm inflicted by such
abuse," he said in the sermon of a Mass at Nationals Park , a new stadium
hosting its first non-baseball event.

Christianity RULES Part II

Western society advanced DESPITE Christianity. Christian superstition led to Galileo being imprisoned for defying the “God-given truth” that the earth was the center of the Universe. Yet, science advanced despite those impediments imposed by Christianity (both cultural and legal). Even today, as “Christians” try to stop medical research on religious grounds, science marches on.

Western Civilization didn’t thrive b/c of Christianity, it prospered in spite of it.

I did get a chuckle after work when I thought about how much your disdain for the rest of Western Civilization faded away during this here attack on non-Christian societies. You’re always going on and on about how much Canada , France , Germany , etc. all suck.


And South America ? That’s just about as poverty-stricken as N. Africa and the Middle East . What’s up with that?

I guess that goes to show (considering oil-rich Arab countries incredible wealth and “progress”) that economics drive societal prosperity, not religious doctrine. And a few hundred years of colonialism doesn’t do a society any favors either.

Christianity RULES

My Bushie friend hit me with this:

North Africa and the Middle East were part of the Greco-Roman world
and yet did not develop with the rest of Western Civilization.
Explain.

My response:

Saying Western Civilization is Western Civilization b/c it is Christian isn’t an argument.

As for North Africa and Middle East . Have you ever been to Egypt ? Abu Daubi?

How about Gary , Indiana or Detroit , Michigan ? Seems like Christ must hate the Midwest and love UAE.




More eye-rolling at the Dalai Lama from newly merged social-conservative groups...

Given who's on the board, expect to hear more from the newly merged Family Policy Institute of Washington and the Spokane-based Washington Family Foundation.
The two groups will now be known as the Family Policy Institute of Washington, which describes its work as "to introduce and influence Washington state laws and public policy in support of human life and the institutions of marriage and the family." The group will keep its Spokane office and staff, as well as an Eastern Washington Advisory Board.
The group, which is unhappy with the attention the Dalai Lama is getting in Seattle this week, is no stranger to politics. Its board members include:
The group yesterday criticized as "the very height of absurdity" the notion that the visiting Tibetan Dalai Lama should be seen by "liberal Seattle elites, media, politicians and educrats" as a source of spiritual guidance and real-world solutions:
"Never in history has this part of the world achieved a fraction of the sustained level of civilization and prosperity as is commonly found in the Christianized West,"
said the group's executive director, Larry Stickney. He maintains that: "Wherever eastern religions have taken hold, superstition, backwardness, abject poverty and misery has been a common denominator of its practitioners and peoples."

McCain and Clinton call Obama "elitist"

I especially love it when multi-millionaires are calling Obama an “elitist”. McCain sits in his $4 million dollar house (one of 4 they own) and calls Obama elitist. His wife is one of the richest women in Arizona …you can’t buy those kinda balls.

That Bush Magic

My Bushie friend likes to say that “Everyone knows” that things are better now, and we all know that for them “everybody” means those who lives in his house, but apparently America (and the individuals who comprise America that he has little use for) disagree:

Stories below are hyperlinked for your viewing convenience:

We’re worse off than 4 years ago, voters say

WASHINGTON - Are you better off now than you were four years ago?
This has become a fundamental question in presidential elections. And for the first time since 1992, a plurality of voters heading into November’s election answer that question with a resounding no, according to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.
Forty-three percent say that they and their families are worse off, compared with 34 percent who say they’re better off; 21 percent respond that their status is the same. By contrast, strong pluralities or majorities answered that they were better off before entering the general elections in 1996, 2000 and 2004 — when, with the exception of the extremely close 2000 race, the incumbent party held onto the presidency
.
February retail sales worse than expected

Feb. foreclosures up 60 percent over year before
Oil prices touch a new high of $111 a barrel
Stocks tumble as commodity prices soar

Vile

The Bush extortion of American continues.

Bush appears to be saying that the Army’s behavior “could cost American lives”. How’s that for supporting the troops? It should be horrifying that while the Military of America refuses to engage in torture, the civilian executive believes that he should be able to torture. WOW.

Bush: Limiting CIA Interrogations "Could Cost American Lives"

By Paul Kiel - March 8, 2008, 10:33AM

From President Bush's radio address today, where he announced that he'd
vetoed the Senate authorization bill, which would have effectively outlawed
waterboarding and other "enhanced interrogation" techniques for the CIA by
limiting the CIA to the Army's guide for interrogations, the Army Field
Manual:

Interesting discussion of "experience"

http://www.sptimes.com/2007/01/17/Worldandnation/Presidential_experien.shtml



http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1717926,00.html?xid=rss-topstories


"there's no such thing as presidential experience outside of the office itself."
James A. Baker III


Wouldn't it be nice if time on the job and tickets punched translated neatly into superior performance? Then finding great Presidents would be a simple matter of weighing résumés. Take a Democrat like Bill Richardson — experienced in Congress, in the Cabinet, as a diplomat and governor — and have him run against Republican Tom Ridge, a former soldier, governor and Director of Homeland Security, with the winner chosen by a blue-ribbon commission of all-purpose elders. The Danforth-Mitchell commission, perhaps, or O'Connor-Albright. But it has never worked that way, which is why Lincoln 's statue occupies a marble temple on the Mall in Washington , while his far more experienced rival William Seward has a little seat on a pedestal in New York City .

…

Richard Nixon served as a Congressman, Senator and Vice President; he watched from the front row as Eisenhower assembled one of the best-organized administrations in history. When Nixon's turn came, though, his core character — insecure, insincere, conspiratorial — led him to create a White House doomed by its own dysfunction.

Lawless

Yeah, but our secret police, spying on our own citizens and general disregard for the law is better than when China, Cuba, and Russia, etc use their secret police, spy on their citizens and have a general disregard for the law. We’re George W. Bush’s America . When our leader says he must violate these laws to protect our country, who are we to argue? After all, when has a leader claiming the violation of laws and the abuse of civil rights is justified by “protecting the state” ever gone wrong? If laws are in place to specifically guard against these types of abuses, what is a leader to do, but ignore them? That behavior has never had bad consequences in the history of the world.

George Bush was elected our leader by nearly a majority of Americans, how can he be expected to be bound by laws established by Congress or a Constitution created by the mental midgets of the 18th Century? It’s not like they knew anything about threats to our nation. They only fought a war for independence and then watched a foreign country burn down the Nation’s capital, what would they knew about threats to the homeland?



More FBI Privacy Violations Confirmed

By LARA JAKES JORDAN Associated Press Writer

The FBI acknowledged Wednesday it improperly accessed Americans' telephone
records, credit reports and Internet traffic in 2006, the fourth straight year
of privacy abuses resulting from investigations aimed at tracking terrorists and
spies.

The breach occurred before the FBI enacted broad new reforms in March
2007 to prevent future lapses, FBI Director Robert Mueller said. And it was
caused, in part, by banks, telecommunication companies and other private
businesses giving the FBI more personal client data than was requested.

Testifying at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Mueller raised the
issue of the FBI's controversial use of so-called national security letters in
reference to an upcoming report on the topic by the Justice Department's
inspector general.

An audit by the inspector general last year found the FBI demanded
personal records without official authorization or otherwise collected more data
than allowed in dozens of cases between 2003 and 2005. Additionally, last year's
audit found that the FBI had underreported to Congress how many national
security letters were requested by more than 4,600.
The new audit, which
examines use of national security letters issued in 2006, "will identify issues
similar to those in the report issued last March," Mueller told senators. The
privacy abuse "predates the reforms we now have in place," he said.

"We are committed to ensuring that we not only get this right, but
maintain the vital trust of the American people," Mueller said. He offered no
additional details about the upcoming audit.

Senators Clinton and Obama

Senators C and O:

GROW UP!. You’re running for the highest office in the land, show some dignity. We’ve had 7 years of partisan bickering and name-calling and the Democrats have the best opportunity to win the WH in decades and you two are going to ruin it with your petty sniping and bickering over little irrelevant junk. Senator Clinton, tell me why I should vote for you instead of Senator Obama because you call him a plagiarist. Honestly, do you think that is the kind of stuff that is going to win you the election? If so, it tells me you don’t deserve it.

Stop the negative name-calling and focus on WHY WE SHOULD VOTE FOR YOU. I ask Senator McCain to do the same.

And as for you, the “media” you too could serve America well but not taking these comments and blowing them out of proportion. Look at the headlines you write, why do you sensationalize these comments. Those of you running and those of you reporting owe it to America to grow up. Try to return civility and dignity to American politics. You’re the only ones that can do it, so why don’t you step up and serve America and it’s citizens.