Sooner Be Blue

Mostly politics, a few current events, a squirt of seltzer down yer pants .. a little blog for my rambles and rants.

2008/8/29

"Eight is enough!"...genius.

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@ 09:23 AM (14 months, 15 days ago)

The Democratic convention has had an embarrassment of riches in terms of the speeches.
 
Sen. Obama's acceptance speech last night was brilliant, inspiring, forceful and confident.
 
In a word, PRESIDENTIAL.
 
It's so refreshing to hear a politician talk like a grown up...responsible, caring, intelligent and grammatically correct. Wow.
 
Get this -- rightie Pat Buchanan said it was the best convention speech he has ever heard!
 
Indeed it was, what else could we have asked for?
 
What gets me is how the guy is simply unflappable. Look at all the pressure that was on him last night; not only did he HAVE to give the best speech of the Convention -- against the competition of Teddy, Hillary, Bill, Biden, and even Michelle -- but he knew it was the anniversary of "I Had A Dream" and it had to be 'worthy' of that.
 
It was.
 
Imagine the pressure he was under to perform, to have the ability to inspire, yet to deliver the details. He HAD to put some red meat on his political bones...knowing the success and direction of his campaign for the next two months hinged on his performance.
 
Yet, he walked out on that stage as cool as a cucumber.
 
Obama made very clear his vision for this country. An intelligent man who spoke with passion about things he believes in. His Race in America speech moved me more, this one was more State of the Union  than "on the mountaintop"...but I think that was a good choice. He needed to keep doing what got him here, yet show he's Presidential and talk specifically about his plans...which this speech did.
 
I loved how he pushed back against John McCain's disgusting attack on his patriotism. His message clearly was -- I am a fighter and I am not backing down, nor will I let you cheapen me.
 
It was great to see a Democrat show some genuine anger and confrontation...instead of the sticks-and-stones let-them-swiftboat-us approach.
 
The comment "let's not make a big election about small things" was not just a shot at McCain, but also at the press. Skillful, subtle.
 
I doubt the press heard it that way.
 
What a spectacle last evening was. I might have nixed the fireworks, but hey, they couldn't drop balloons. Whoever planned and staged this event is going to make the Republicans look like corn-fed teens with zits putting on a high school play. And I'll bet they're going crazy trying to round up more black people...JC Watts is the only one they have I can think of.
 
The wingnut hissy fit about Obama's staging sure tickled me! How dare he use a backdrop looking like the Lincoln Memorial on the 45th anniversary of MLK's I Have A Dream speech! How dare he use Greek columns the way Bush did in 2004!
 
Let the Republicans rant about Paris Hilton, Greek Columns, and I don't know what all...all they have to offer is sneers and jeers and childish behavior. And let's see John McCain and the R's fill that stadium. Maybe they could if they danced naked at a Bronco's half-time.
 
Barack succeeded in making McCain and Bush look small, petty, and churlish, while being careful not to mention anyone's character. I like Obama's strong dare for McCain to make national security an issue.
 
Barack Obama made ME feel proud to be a Democrat and an American.
 
"I get it. I realize that I am not the likeliest candidate for this office. I don’t fit the typical pedigree, and I haven’t spent my career in the halls of Washington.
 
But I stand before you tonight because all across America something is stirring. What the naysayers don’t understand is that this election has never been about me; it’s about you."
 
The full text of the speech is here:
 
http://tinyurl.com/5jq9xj
 
Oh, and it turned out to be a perfect summer evening, so we know who the Lord is backing this time around.
 

2008/8/28

The mountaintop

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@ 10:29 AM (14 months, 16 days ago)

Let's stop and reflect on this for a second. An African-American nominee. Of our party. The party of inclusion. The party who welcomes all Americans. It was a great night to be a Democrat.
 
I've seen many of these conventions in my lifetime, and have gotten used to their hokeyness -- the silly hats, three-sided state signs, the bad pop music, the buttons and stickers and people decked out in all manner of get-up.
 
Democratic conventions are true snapshots of the melting pot in action, with many minorities scattered around the arena. But this year is different, because this year the people of color aren't just out in the audience.
 
I don't want to rush past this moment too quickly. Yesterday Barack Obama became the first African-American nominee of a major party in history. That is a tremendous accomplishment that I honestly wasn't sure I'd see in my lifetime.
 
When the images of your youth are of black people being sprayed with hoses and bitten by police dogs and beaten bloody with police batons for just trying to peacefully march...
 
Democrats have provided nearly all the drama of this campaign season, a long 18-month run, the story of a race between two people to open the door of history. Sadly, a door that could only admit one leader at a time...
 
Call me a sap, but I was moved to tears as Hillary Clinton stood with her New York delegation yesterday and officially put a stop to the roll-call vote, and moved to nominate Barack Obama as the Democratic nominee.
 
Many were in tears. The first female candidate for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States officially nominating the first African-American for President of the United States.
 
"With eyes firmly fixed on the future," she said, "in the spirit of unity, with the goal of victory, with faith in our party and our country, let's declare together in one voice right here, right now, that Barack Obama is our candidate and he will be our president!"
 
As she uttered those words, the convention hall went into a delirious uproar. The applause for Obama's nomination was deafening. No one could hear Pelosi's gavel as it opened a new chapter in American history.
 
Regardless of what happens from here on out, the world is a different place because this country is a different place today.
 
I also think it is a better place. The time is right, and we are ready.
 
As I watched many African-American delegates break down on camera, trying through tears to express their joy and hope for a better America, I realized just how great the Democrats can be.
 
My heart swelled for the minorities among us. It's so true what Obama said in the early months of his campaign --“Somebody’s gonna turn on that television and say: ‘Man - if he can be president of the United States, then what can I do?’"
 
So dream big little brown children, dream big.
 
For all the jokes about Democrats, like the Will Rogers quote -- "I'm not a member of any organized political party, I'm a Democrat!" -- we can get it right, we CAN be fearless enough to carve new paths.
 
I truly feel proud to be a Democrat.
 

The Big Dawg came through

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@ 07:01 AM (14 months, 16 days ago)

Last night at the Democratic Convention Bill Clinton came out swinging and gave one of his best speeches ever, boldly stating right up front -- "Barack Obama is ready to lead America and restore American leadership in the world. Ready to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. Barack Obama is ready to be president of the United States."
 
Now was that so hard, Bill?
 
Those who thought he would never match his wife's enthusiastic backing of her former rival needn't have worried.
 
You know, Bill's political life seems to follow a certain pattern -- he rides high and he falls low...but he always finds a way to redeem himself when he is down. He did it again with this speech.
 
If there were any Democrats in that audience who were still pissed at Bill Clinton for his behavior during the primaries, they were drowned out by all the wild cheering that erupted when he took the podium.
 
Everyone seemed to leap to their feet in a frenzy of screaming and flag waving...I thought they never would shut up.
 
It crossed my mind that he would get carried away and suddenly accept the Democratic nomination.
 
Hillary really laughed when he was trying to shush the cheering and said, "As much as I love this..." Because she knows how much he revels in the limelight and the applause. You know he misses it.
 
Yet, he put most of his ego on the back burner, and restored his position as the patriarch and elder statesman of the Democratic Party. He spoke about our lives, our hopes, our possibilities...the world we live in and the world we want to create.
 
He was a statesman in his assessment of where this country is and how desperately we need reform and change...and how we need to restore diplomacy, wisdom and prudence overseas. He really nailed it with this line:
 
"People around the world have always been more impressed by the power of our example than by the example of our power."
 
Gosh, remember when Preznits were lucid and could speak complete sentences and stuff?
 
He also nailed it when he brought up the obvious similarity of Barack in ‘08 and Bill in ‘92 -- “The Republicans said I was too young and too inexperienced to be commander in chief. Sound familiar?” Zing!
 
This speech definitely helped heal the Democratic Party, and will help Obama in the general election. Obama would be wise to draw on Bill extensively in the days ahead.
 
Of course, Bill had to get a couple of chops in about his own administration, contrasting how much better Americans lived -- peace, prosperity, etc. -- under his administration versus under George W. Bush’s. But we can allow him that, because he tied it in nicely with Obama's presidency.
 
Yes, Bill was a mixed blessing on the primary campaign trail...he worked tirelessly for his wife, but often strayed off message and delivered angry, finger-wagging tirades.
 
That was the worst of Bill Clinton...last night we saw the best.
 
BTW -- Someone needs to find the wiseguy who is choosing music for the convention and smack him. "Chain of Fools" was on the music track after Obama formally clinched the nomination...and "Addicted to Love" was played when Clinton was leaving the stage.
 

2008/8/27

Late-night jokes recap 8/27

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@ 07:22 PM (14 months, 16 days ago)
 
"The theme of the Democratic Convention is unity. Unfortunately they can't agree on how that works." --David Letterman
 
"Yeah, the Democratic Convention is in Denver, and security is tight out there, it is very tight, it's tighter than Nancy Pelosi's face." --David Letterman
 
"But here's what they got lined up for the Democratic Convention there in Denver. Nancy Pelosi will give a speech tonight, then there's a film about Joe Biden, then there's a introduction to Denver by Mayor Hickenlooper, and I'm telling you break out the dip, c'mon! Speakers include Senator Claire McCaskill, Senator Amy Klobuchar, and former Representative Lee Hamilton, cut me a slice of that!" --David Letterman
 
"Joe Biden is Barack Obama's running mate. Yeah nothing says change like a guy who's been in the Senate for 35 years" --David Letterman
 
"This Thursday, Barack Obama is gonna give his acceptance speech, and reportedly it's going to include performances by Bon Jovi and Bruce Springsteen. Yeah. And they say Obama's not black enough!" --Conan O'Brien
 
"Tomorrow night at the Democratic Convention to show her support for Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton is going to give a speech. Everyone's waiting to hear what she says, yeah. Hillary's speech is entitled, 'Forget All Those Things I Said During The Primaries.'" --Conan O'Brien
 
"The current issue of Newsweek magazine has a picture of President Bush on the cover with the headline, 'What Bush Got Right.' Yeah, it's true. Newsweek says 'What Bush Got Right' is their shortest cover story since January's issue on famous Korean rabbis." --Conan O'Brien
 
"As you all know by now, Barack Obama sent out a cell phone text message at 3 a.m. on Saturday morning to tell everyone he picked Joe Biden as his vice president. How do you think this makes Hillary Clinton feel, huh? Finally, she gets a telephone call at 3 a.m., it's to tell her they picked Joe Biden." --Jay Leno
 
"Although Joe Biden is in great physical condition, Republicans are raising questions about his health now. I guess he had a brain aneurysm a couple of years ago. Hey, you can't expect every vice president to be the picture of health like Dick Cheney." --Jay Leno
 
"As you know, John McCain is an older, white-haired man who has been in the Senate for over twenty years, voted for the Iraq War, and said Barack Obama did not have the experience to be president. I'm sorry, that's our intro for next week when Joe Biden is on, I got confused." --Jay Leno
 
"Tropical Storm Fay has soaked Florida, ruining thousands of homes, most of them belonging to John McCain." --Jay Leno
 
"In fact, to make Senator McCain feel at home tonight, we gave him seven dressing rooms." --Jay Leno
 
"Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick will not be going to the Dem convention, yeah, having some problems. As you know he originally got in trouble for allegedly having an affair and lying about it, to which John Edwards said, 'That's illegal?'" --Jay Leno
 
"How about this John Edwards thing? Imagine that, a personal injury attorney who turns out to be a sleaze ball. Who could have seen that coming?" --Jay Leno
 
"John Edwards has admitted to having an affair, but he's denying that he is the father of the woman's baby. In fact, he says a member of his campaign staff is the baby's father. Campaign staff, how does that work? What, was Edwards running late that day? Huh? Had to send an advance man in? 'Look, I can’t have sex with you. I'm sending Bob down." --Jay Leno

To the sisterhood of the traveling pantsuits...

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@ 08:07 AM (14 months, 17 days ago)

Hillary Clinton delivered the political speech of her career last night, paving the way for the rest of this convention to be about winning in November...not about some pissed off group of sore losers.
 
She definitely had a message for the PUMA's (which stands for "Party unity my ass"). To paraphrase -- 'I did not work this hard or come this far to have a bunch of soreheads cut off their noses to spite their faces and elect John McCain...one of the worst misogynists ever to run for president."
 
At the beginning of the speech the camera focused on Bill Clinton in the audience and he kept saying (really mouthing), "I love you, I love you, I love you." That was a great personal moment...he could not have looked prouder of her at the beginning nor at the end of the speech.
 
Maybe the key to what keeps them together through thick and thin is the turn-on of politics. Kinky.
 
She was gracious and enthusiastic in her words of support for the Obama-Biden ticket. Her speech will go a long way toward securing the party unity.
 
I wonder if Obama is sitting somewhere thinking about whether he made a mistake in not picking her as VP?
 
She delivered a powerful speech to an audience that returned her emotion, enthusiasm and passion. You could see the admiration in those faces for this woman who has changed the course of presidential politics forever. She put every one of those 18 million cracks in the commander in chief ceiling.
 
She thanked her supporters, calling them her champions -- "my sisterhood of the traveling pantsuits. You never gave in. You never gave up. And together we made history."
 
Here is the part that really touched me:
 
[...] "You know, America is still around after 232 years because we have risen to every challenge in every new time, changing to be faithful to our values of equal opportunity for all and the common good. And I know what that can mean for every man, woman, and child in America.
 
I'm a United States senator because, in 1848, a group of courageous women, and a few brave men, gathered in Seneca Falls, New York, many traveling for days and nights to participate in the first convention on women's rights in our history.
 
And so dawned a struggle for the right to vote that would last 72 years, handed down by mother to daughter to granddaughter, and a few sons and grandsons along the way.
 
These women and men looked into their daughters' eyes and imagined a fairer and freer world and found the strength to fight, to rally, to picket, to endure ridicule and harassment, and brave violence and jail.
 
And after so many decades, 88 years ago on this very day, the 19th Amendment, giving women the right to vote, became enshrined in our Constitution.
 
My mother was born before women could vote. My daughter got to vote for her mother for president. This is the story of America, of women and men who defy the odds and never give up.
 
So how do we give this country back to them? By following the example of a brave New Yorker, a woman who risked her life to bring slaves to freedom along the Underground Railroad.
 
On that path to freedom, Harriet Tubman had one piece of advice: "If you hear the dogs, keep going. If you see the torches in the woods, keep going. If there's shouting after you, keep going. Don't ever stop. Keep going. If you want a taste of freedom, keep going."
 
And even in the darkest moments, that is what Americans have done. We have found the faith to keep going.
 
I have seen it. I have seen it in our teachers and our firefighters, our police officers, our nurses, our small-business owners, and our union workers. I've seen it in the men and women of our military.
 
In America, you always keep going. We're Americans. We're not big on quitting.[..]"
 
http://tinyurl.com/5wapdp
 
Loved --"No way. No how. No McCain."
 
Also --"It's fitting that John McCain and George Bush will be meeting in the Twin Cities next week, because it's getting pretty hard to tell them apart."
 
Attack attack attack, she didn’t give McCain an inch, and yet there was strong, very strong advocacy for Obama.
 
I'm expecting more McCain/Bush attacks from the Big Dawg, that is if he can keep his ego zipped. It would be a very good way for him to earn some respect back from those he pissed off during the primaries.
 
Biden will be another good attack dog...leaving Obama above the fray. A gripe I have with Obama is that he wants to be Mister Rogers of the lovely day in the neighborhood instead of a down and dirty fighter. But then again, Obama routinely speaks against what he calls the ‘‘divisive politics that is all about tearing people down instead of lifting this country up.’’
 
Anyway, the RNC better be wearing a cup because this is not the Democratic Party of 2004.
 

2008/8/26

Long live the jesters!

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@ 10:10 AM (14 months, 18 days ago)

I was disappointed that The Daily Show was not back last night, tonight’s the night. Jon Stewart is in Denver covering the convention.
 
Yesterday Jon held a laid-back breakfast get-together with twenty or so of the most accomplished and respected political journalists in print journalism and asked -- "Why do I take this more seriously than you?"
 
These journalists work for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine, The Associated Press and other heavy-hitter news organizations.
 
Jon told the reporters that Fox's fair-and-balanced slogan is an insult "to people with brains"...and that if Obama cured cancer Fox News would find a way to mock it.
 
"DENVER, Aug. 25 -- Jon Stewart ripped the cable news networks Monday as a "brutish, slow-witted beast" and castigated Fox News in particular as "an appendage of the Republican Party."
 
Wearing a gray T-shirt, khaki pants and a healthy stubble, the "Daily Show" host told reporters at a University of Denver breakfast that Fox's "fair and balanced" slogan is an insult "to people with brains" and that only "Fox News Sunday" host Chris Wallace "saves that network from slapping on a bumper sticker. . . . Barack Obama could cure cancer and they'd figure out a way to frame it as an economic disaster."
 
"I'm stunned to see Karl Rove on a news network as an analyst," he said of the Bush White House aide turned Fox commentator. Stewart, who voted for John Kerry in 2004, said he didn't see CNN's James Carville, the former Bill Clinton aide, in the same category because "I don't think he's being passed off as a sage."
 
....Stewart included CNN and MSNBC in a far-ranging indictment of what he called "that false sense of urgency they create, the sense that everything is breaking news. . . . The 24-hour networks are now driving the narratives and everyone else is playing catch-up." [..]
 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/08/25/ST2008082503384.html
 
Is it any wonder that thinking people get their news from Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert...two comedians who have more journalistic insights than a whole roomful of  "real news" reporters.
 
If only the journalists on the cable networks would heed his advice. I like remembering when he tore new ones for Paul Begala and Tucker Carlson on Crossfire four years ago for what a worthless circus it had become.
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmj6JADOZ-8
 
He must have hit a nerve because shortly after that a CNN executive canceled the show.
 
I loved it when he called Tucker a dick to his face. My sentiments exactly.
 
Many people think the Fourth Estate is largely responsible for allowing the White House to operate without oversight for eight years...while the media did 24/7 coverage of the search for missing young blond girls, and followed Anna Nicole, Paris and Britney around like the second coming.
 
They pursue the trivial and ignore the complex. But it's not all their fault, the ratings for lurid sensationalism far outshine serious reporting.
 
With the exception of C-SPAN, The Newshour with Jim Lehrer, Washington Week with Gwen Ifil, Frontline, Now, and maybe a few others on PBS, the last time the "news" networks simply delivered facts without personal commentary was back in the 1980's.
 
The only way to solve the lazy news problem, at least during the convention, is to watch CSPAN. From the opening to the closing -- 6 hours -- there was not one bloviating talking head. And no commercials...just the convention, nothing else. How refreshing.
 
Theoretically we have a free and open press...but we have sold our airwaves to corporations that are distorting the news, mixing it in with entertainment, instead of giving us "fair and balanced" reporting.
 
The results of a recent Pew Survey on News Consumption says "that viewers of the “fake news” programs "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report" are more knowledgeable about current events than watchers of “real” cable news shows hosted by Lou Dobbs, Bill O’Reilly and Larry King, among others -- as well as average consumers of NBC, ABC, Fox News, CNN, C-SPAN and daily newspapers."
 
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003839873
 
Who woulda thunk that comedians Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert would become better at reporting the news than the actual news people?
 
Folks, we are now in Bizarro World....
 

2008/8/25

The latest twist in Bill Clinton's knickers...

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@ 07:10 AM (14 months, 19 days ago)

... is about his speech assignment Wed. night. The assigned topic is “Securing America’s Future”...about national security and Barack Obama’s role as Commander-in-Chief. The speakers are supposed to outline all the reasons that he will be a better president than his rival, John McCain.
 
But Bill, bless his heart, is still sort of miffed about the way Obama bad-mouthed some of Bill's policies in the heat of the primary fight with Hillary...and sees his speech as an excellent opportunity to set the record straight.
 
He wants to talk about himself and pretty-up his economic legacy. And no wonder. It was Bill Clinton, Newt Gingrich and the Republican controlled congress of 1994 who are largely to blame for NAFTA and WTO trade deals.
 
The monsters they created are eating away our jobs, wages, industry, wealth, and killing our economy...and putting us in hock up to our ears to foreign interests, mainly China.
 
I know I'm still pissed about it.
 
So, when people tune in Wed. night, they'll probably see Bill start out with a forward-looking speech that will benefit the nominee...but end up with a more backward-looking speech, talking about his OWN legacy. A kind of delayed rebuttal to things said during the primary campaign.
 
This piece in politico.com covers it pretty well:
 
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0808/12782.html
 
If this report is correct, once again Bill Clinton is proving to be a divisive intra-party figure who might help his party, once again, "snatch defeat from the jaws of victory."
 
Right when we should be focusing full force on the goal of party unity...
 
That's all we need...the Dems clashing and snarling just before the R's do their Lock Step Unity March around John McCain.
 
All this snarky energy needs to be refocused toward defeating McCain and the Republicans.
 
Hillary supposedly comes off as more a team player in all of this. It's Bill who is acting like those “Japanese soldiers in the South Pacific still fighting after the war is over.”
 
Such a pity that nothing ever appears to be learned from the past...
 

2008/8/24

More on Biden

@ 04:29 PM (14 months, 19 days ago)

A friend told me I would regret writing against Biden yesterday, that in a few months I would smack my forehead and say, "Dang, how could I have gotten that so wrong! The guy is a stone cold trained political fighter, and Republicans are falling right and left."
 
I hope he's right and I'm wrong.
 
It's just that Obama set us up for fun and games with all the secrets and the hints and the text messaging the announcement in the middle of the night and such...then, instead of a shiny new bicycle, he gives us a heavy winter coat.
 
All summer McCain and Obama have been playing chicken over their choices for VP, each waiting for the other to go first. Well, the game of chicken lasted long enough that Obama HAD to go first.
 
Then Obama found a way to win by going first. He kept the media attention on his choice all week and McCain couldn't upstage him...except for when he forgot how many houses he had.
 
McCain can't make his VP announcement now because of all the Democratic Convention hoopla...no way could he grab the attention away. Unless HE picks Hillary. So now he has to wait for the Republican Convention.
 
Maybe what really mattered this week wasn't who Obama's choice would or wouldn't be -- it may have been Biden all along -- what mattered was that the choosing was what everybody was talking about.
 
Smart cookie, that Obama.
 
I still don't like Biden's hair plugs.
 

2008/8/23

So it's Biden.

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@ 12:23 PM (14 months, 21 days ago)
 
I won't try to hide my disappointment. I was hoping for Hillary, but maybe Obama felt she was too controversial, or would outshine him...or that both the Clintons just overwhelmed him. Because you can't have one without the other. Maybe there was too much bad blood from the primaries...
 
Whatever.
 
I understand the approval many have for Biden as a good senator and a good man, but I’m just saying please consider how Obama is pretty much writing all of McCain’s fall political ads for him.
 
Because choosing Biden has sure made the Republicans happy, they already had a slew of political ads ready to run just moments after the long awaited text message arrived. They now have so much grist for their mill...for there are so many problems with this pick.
 
First of all, he’s a man who only a short time ago went on camera saying that Obama wasn’t ready to be president and that the Oval Office was not a good place for “on the job training.” If you don’t think the R's aren't dancing with glee as they plan to use this in McCain political ads this fall, I have a sweet real estate deal for you.
 
The selection of Biden even fails the tried-and-true tests of a good VP pick. He doesn't bring Obama better geography or demographics, he's from Delaware, it always votes Democratic for president. Obama doesn't need Delaware.
 
Biden certainly won't bring to the table the angry army of women and Hillary supporters. Just another “old white guy” on the ticket only pisses off those 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling. Hillary could have brought them to the table.
 
Obama will have to stop criticizing McCain for his support of the war, and for ”getting it wrong”...and he'll have to shut up about the surge. Because he has now selected a running mate who not only voted in favor of the war, but came out on McCain’s side in saying what a great idea the surge was. Yep, Obama picked somebody who showed the exact same lack of judgment he was critizing Clinton and McCain for.
 
I'm sure the R's are already running video clips and articles on that little gem.
 
What about Biden's age? He's only six years younger than McCain. So there goes all our fun making jokes about McCain’s age. Because if Obama feels that Biden is ready to step into the Top Job on Day One...age no longer can be an issue.
 
No more “Things John McCain is Older Than” jokes...
 
So much for Change and Hope, because Biden has been in the Senate since the Nixon administration. No political outsider or agent of change is he...and don't forget his long voting records on every issue under the sun. The R's are digging through them as we speak. They'll find something, several somethings, which they can use for their political advantage.
 
Another thing, Obama will have to stop complaining about the “evil lobbyists” who are ruining our political system. Did he bother to look into all of Biden’s lobbyist connections? Talk about lobbing softballs for the  McCain campaign to knock out of the park...
 
Then there's Biden reputation for being a bit of a hot head and losing his temper. You can kiss all those delicious stories about McCain’s legendary temper-tantrums goodbye.
 
Biden is also prone to bad gaffes on the campaign trail...like the time he told an American-Indian supporter, “You can’t go into a Dunkin' Donuts or a 7-11 without a slight Indian accent these days.”
 
Also sometimes when he gets to talking, and lord how he loves to talk, he tends to, uh, exaggerate...to put it kindly. He once told the press “I exaggerate when I’m angry.” Oh dear...
 
I really thought all of the chatter about Biden was a bait-and-switch ploy...designed to throw the press off the scent of the real pick. I saw all the revved up activity at Biden's house last night on the news and thought look at those wily Obama people.
 
But, alas. Now all McCain has to do is avoid picking Mitt Romney as his running mate and he wins the Veep Pick segment of the competition.
 
Sorry, folks. Joe Biden may be a wonderful man with a compelling life story, but how this translates into a strong VP pick for Obama is a total mystery to me.
 

"How do you like me now?"

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@ 10:42 AM (14 months, 21 days ago)

Well I'll be danged...have pigs flown? Hath hell frozen over?
 
"Toby Keith Throws Support Behind Obama"
 
This oughta put a twist in the knickers of the mullett-headed Nascar set.
 
"LOS ANGELES -- Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama is getting a little bit of support from one of the big names in country music.
 
....Keith is best known among non-country music folks for his post-Sept. 11 song, "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue."
 
The song features lines aimed at the Taliban in Afghanistan like, "We lit up your world like the Fourth of July."
 
But Keith has said the song was more of a patriotic tune than a pro-war song.
 
The county music star said that he was impressed that Obama visited Afghanistan to learn about the region. [..]" Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press.
 
http://www.wesh.com/entertainment/17241264/detail.html
 
This is BIG. This is an important thing to Obama's campaign.
 
Country music has pretty much supported Republicans since the Vietnam war, and Toby Keith is seen by the beer-swilling rednecks as one of them, and he is. He's also one of country music's most popular acts, and has a lot of clout in the music community.
 
And there are waaay more of those Joe-six-pack guys than there are latte-swilling intellectuals. This vote segment will be important to the election.
 
Unless the rednecks pull a Dixie-Chicks backlash on Toby.
 
It wouldn't surprise me if the righties throw him under the bus. After all he's done too...countless USO trips, fundraisers for wounded vets, etc.
 
It's time more C&W artists spoke up. Toby can stand up there with Willie Nelson, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill. Country music has some reasonable minds, but there are plenty who've been afraid to speak up...remembering the crap the Dixie Chicks went through.
 
His Obama endorsement just may redeem Toby in my eyes for his part in trashing the Dixie Chicks.
 
He's said to be a lifelong Democrat, but he sure didn't act it, donating money to both Bush and the RNC:
 
http://www.newsmeat.com/celebrity_political_donations/Toby_Keith.php
 
So, you can imagine how much the Republicans have screwed up to have him do a complete turnabout.
 
BUT--there's another way to look at this. See, Toby has a movie coming out - "Beer For My Horses" - and he's a savvy Okie businessman. His country market has probably been tapped out and he sniffs change blowing in the wind. Might as well get in good with the arugula-eating crowd early.
 
That ol' Toby is one crafty cowboy. He could be playing the blue against the red, or maybe he's just out for the green.
 

Bill Maher on religion, part 2

Tags:
@ 07:19 AM (14 months, 21 days ago)
 
(From the Larry King Show 8/19) KING: I asked Rick Warren if he could vote for -- would America vote for an atheist? And he said never, because in his opinion, he could never vote for someone who did not believe in a higher authority than himself or herself.
 
MAHER: Well, but see, I used to read parts of Rick Warren's book onstage in my standup act. It produced, I promise you, gales of laughter, because the idea that any person on earth can tell you with such specifics what happens when you die just blows my mind.
 
That somebody on earth, another person, can just say to you, "Oh, yes. And what happens when you get to heaven? Yes. You'll meet Jesus. He's wearing a white robe. There's a little gold piping on the sleeve. And then you go in this room and eat eggs and you watch 'F Troop'."
 
Are you kidding? What are you talking about? You're just a person like I am. You are clueless. You have no idea what happens.
 
KING: Don't you think Rick believes it?
 
MAHER: Of course he believes it, but how -- how ridiculous is that? Like, if I went to the Himalayas to find the holiest of holy men in the world who had all the answers, the guru. And I got to the top of the mountain. I said, "Please, master, can you help me with the ultimate meaning of life?"
 
He'd say, "Yes. There's a guy Rick in Long Beach, Rick Warren. Go ask him. He knows exactly what happens when you die." And, you know, that is my ultimate message. Unless a god told you personally what happens when you die, it all came from another person with no more mental powers than you have, and you don't know. So just man up and say, "I don't know." But they believe.
 
KING: And belief -- belief is a tough thing to counter.
 
MAHER: Yes. And I understand why it's a luxury for some people who don't need it and why a lot of people are less fortunate, and they do need it.
 
So we're not trying to point fingers in this movie. I think we do it -- we're laughing all the way through it. I think we're winking and having a good time, and we're not trying to be judgmental. But at some point, you know, mankind is going to have to shed this skin if he's going to move forward. I do have a serious intellectual problem with it.
 
And on another level it just ticks me off. It's just the ultimate hustle. It's just "pay no attention to the man behind the curtain." You know, why can't they, I always ask -- I asked (the actor) Jesus at Holy Land, "Why can't God just defeat the devil and get rid of evil?"
 
You know, and it's the same reason the comic-book character can't get rid of his nemesis. Then there's no story. If God gets rid of the devil -- and he could, he's all powerful -- well, then there's no fear. There's no reason to come to church. There's no reason to pass the plate. We're all out of a job. You know, it's got to go on.
 
CALLER: Bill, for years, Evangelicals never cared about pollution and the destruction of our environment. They only cared about making converts. Do you think the Evangelicals' new found mission to now save the environment is because they realize it's smart business to appear politically correct?
 
MAHER: Wow, what a well thought question. ...Very good. Thank you. That's one reason why I'm saying Rick Warren is a big improvement, is that he cares about the environment, poor people. He's actually -- has read the New Testament, I think. So there's a Christ-like, not just a Christian element to him. So, great. If they throw their lot in with saving the Earth, that's fantastic.
 
One reason I have always been anti-Evangelical and people who take the Bible literally is because ... Slavery is OK with the Bible, keeping women down, and honor killings and let's not even go into how bad they are to people. But animals, you know, the Bible says man can have dominion over animals. And also they believe people have a soul, whatever that is, but animals don't. So do whatever you want with them.
 
So if they're getting more on the page of being kind to animals and helping the environment, then sign me up.
 
KING: Do you believe it?
 
MAHER: Yes, I do. I don't doubt their sincerity. I doubt their -- you know, I always say it's a neurological disorder. I doubt that part of their mind that's walled off. I want to knock down that door. And, you know, I think this movie ("Religulous") is going to be that for a lot of people. It's going to be the anti-"Passion of the Christ." For all the people who liked that movie, there's another crowd.
 
[Caller asks question about weak minded people]
MAHER: ...Jesse Ventura had that great quote, religion is a crutch for weak minded people who need strength in numbers. Pretty harsh words from somebody who I think was governor at the time.
 
KING: He was.
 
MAHER: I don't know how it's more weak minded to be the one who is saying, look, I don't know what happens when you die. So I'm just going to say I don't know. That, to me, seems a more honest approach than believing in --
 
KING: Well, in truth, don't most people think that? Wouldn't you gather that they don't know? Because if they knew, why would they fear it so much?
 
MAHER: Right.
 
KING: Why would they not -- why would you not -- why fear death?
 
MAHER: You know, I agree. I've never been the person who's been troubled by those big questions. I've never been able to answer them and I know I never will. And you just give yourself a headache thinking about them. I mean, if you start thinking about these things, you kind of get down to why is there anything? Try to ponder that one afternoon...
 
KING: Why is there anything?
 
MAHER: Well, like if the universe begins at a certain point, what was before the universe? Nothing. But how can nothing -- we can't contemplate that, because nothing is something. See, there may be answers. I'm not saying that there isn't something out there. I'm not strictly an atheist. An atheist is certain there's no god.
 
KING: That's a religion.
 
MAHER: Sort of. You know, people say could it be Jesus? Yes, it could be Jesus. It also could be Furbee or the lint in my navel. I have a feeling it's probably not something that smacks of the story that bronze-age men would write down, people who didn't know what an atom or a germ was, or where the sun went at night, or why their women got pregnant.
 
You know, if the Bible was written by a god who's beyond time, it wouldn't be so limited to the morays of that era.
 

2008/8/22

Old McCain he had a house ee-i-ee-i-oh

Tags:
@ 07:22 AM (14 months, 22 days ago)

And a house house here
And a house house there
Here a house
There a house
Everywhere a house house...
 
John McCain doesn't know offhand how many homes he and Cindy own. Could be anywhere from four to ten.
 
Not really a surprise...coming from someone who thinks that $5 million in annual income is the cut-off for "being rich."
 
From the Washington Post: "WASHINGTON - Sen. John McCain's inability in an interview to recall the number of homes he owns jeopardized his campaign's carefully constructed strategy to frame Democratic rival Barack Obama as an out-of-touch elitist and inspired a round of attacks yesterday that once again ratcheted up the negative tone of the race for the White House.
 
....In an interview with Politico.com, the presumptive Republican nominee was asked how many houses he and his wife, Cindy, heir to a beer distributorship, owned.
 
"I think - I'll have my staff get to you," he replied. "It's condominiums where - I'll have them get to you." [..]"
 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/21/AR2008082103532.html
 
So many real estate holdings that he can't keep up with them all. Yep, he just lost the "elitist" argument.
 
Just that one brief gaffe...and there goes millions of dollars worth of Paris Hilton celebrity ads down the tubes.
 
Sure, the Obama campaign caught the scent of blood and pounced on this...wanting to show that McCain is incredibly wealthy and out of touch, and has no understanding of what so many Americans are going through in this economy...and little interest in helping them.
 
The McCain campaign shot back, throwing Resko at Obama. They also played the POW card, saying this is a guy who lived in one house for five and a half years -- in prison.
 
Maybe everybody is missing the point. Can we really trust the mental facilities of a man so unaware of his own family finances to run OUR finances? It's either deceit, senility or ignorance...however you cut it, not "presidential."
 
Or maybe he is just uninterested. Not a good sign either.
 
Some think we should cut the poor old doddering dude some slack. McCain's homes are probably all in Cindy's name anyway, so technically he doesn't own any homes. How sad is that?
 
BTW--that "he lived in one house in prison" remark is the best POW reference they've used all week (though it's hard to tell because they use so many).
 
A POW you say? Was he tortured, too?
 
Nay, because under the new Republican rules, approved by John McCain, what happened to him as a POW doesn't fit their definition of torture at all, he was merely subjected to enhanced interrogation techniques.
 

Bill Maher on religion

Tags:
@ 04:02 AM (14 months, 22 days ago)

More of the Larry King Show interview 8/19
 
KING: OK. It's no secret that you deal with religion a lot. And you have a new movie coming called "Religulous." I saw that movie. It's is really well done. Now, it will offend the deeply religious people. Those on the border -- certainly, agnostics are going to love it. Atheists are going to love it. But there's a lot of open religious people who would just appreciate it as a very funny movie.
 
MAHER: Right. You don't have to agree with it, I think, to laugh.
 
KING: You mentioned Rick Warren. What part should religion play in our political life?
 
MAHER: Well, if you ask me, none, or in any part of life, but you know, look who you're talking to, the guy who made "Religulous." But certainly in political life it's had a terribly detrimental effect. I mean, did you see the Rick Warren thing?
 
KING: Sure. And we had him on last night.
 
MAHER: Yes, right. And by the way, let me just preface this by saying I'm asking people for perspective. I have it also.
 
Rick Warren is a big improvement over Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell. If we have to have a pope of the super Christ-ies, I'd rather it be him. He's got good ideas about actually, you know -- helping people.
 
Because one thing I don't like about religion is, ask any of the truly devout, it's not mainly about doing the right thing or being ethical. It's mainly about salvation. It's mainly about getting your butt saved when you die. And that's why I think they're less moral than ethicists.
 
KING: But Rick is different?
 
MAHER: He's better. He's an improvement. But when he says, as I heard him say before the event, "I'm going to ask the tough questions." What would those questions be? How tightly do you close your eyes when you insist on believing something that your mind must be telling you can't be true? OK.
 
But here's a good example of why it shouldn't infect our public policy. The big question that got all the play in the news snippets was asking what should we do about evil? Evil...
 
So Obama gives a very nuanced answer, and again this is why I do like this guy. He sort of can't win for -- I mean, he's damned if he does and he's damned if he doesn't. He gives a nuanced answer, which I like, and he loses the crowd.
 
He said, "Yes, we should be aware of evil, but we should be humble about evil." And what he was trying to say, I think, was -- you know what? It's easy to sit back in America and say, "Well, we're the good people. That's common knowledge. Evil is always over there and never here."
 
He was saying -- you know what? We have a lot of evil right here. Look at the prison system. Look at the justice system. Look how we treat immigrants. We torture people now in America. There's, you know, rampant sexual harassment of women in the military. There's a lot of evil that we're doing. OK. This didn't go over very well.
 
Then McCain is asked. What do we do about evil? Two words. Defeat it. Now, of course, to the people in that audience, this goes over great because when they hear evil, they think of something very tangible: the devil. They're not kidding. They believe in this comic-book figure called the devil who's going to poke your ass in hell if you're bad. Heaven, you get air conditioning. OK.
 
So, you know, you have to take this into account. These are voters. These are people who think evil is the devil. We can defeat it by the end of my first term. We will defeat evil.
 
How are you going to have a country, supposed to be a super power, in this world making the right decisions if this is the kind of thinking that goes into it? It's like trying to write a song when half the keys on the piano are out of tune.
 
[film clip of "Religulous"...Maher asks Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor (D) about evolution]
 
MAHER: Do you believe in evolution?
 
PRYOR: You know, my -- first, I don't know. Clearly, the scientific community is a little divided on some the specifics of that, and I understand that...
 
MAHER: I don't think they are.
 
PRYOR: No, well, I...
 
MAHER: I think they pretty much agree.
 
PRYOR: I don't know how it all happened. I mean, I'm certainly willing to...
 
MAHER: Could it possibly have been Adam and Eve 5,000 years ago with a talking snake in the garden? Could it?
 
PRYOR: Well, it could have possibly been that.
 
MAHER: Come on. This is my problem, because I'm trying -- I mean, you're a senator. You are one of the very few people who are really running this country. It worries me that people are running my country who believe in a talking snake.
 
PRYOR: You don't have to pass an IQ test to be in the Senate, though.
~~~~
[On locations where he filmed "Religulous"]
 
MAHER: [...] in Holy Land, an amusement park in Florida, in Orlando.
 
KING: Like Disneyland?... What do they do in Holy Land?
 
MAHER: Well, they -- well, they have Jesus. They re-enact -- we show it in the movie -- they re-enact where he was carrying the cross and he was beaten by the centurions and then they, you know, crucify him.
 
KING: They show you all that?
 
MAHER: Yes, I mean, this is what they believe, and having been to the real Via De La Rosa in Jerusalem and then this re-enactment in America, I was confounded as to which I thought was more commercially crass. It was really a tossup.
 
KING: Really?
 
MAHER: Ever been to Via De La Rosa in Jerusalem? It's really the Via De La Rosa mall. You know, it's very commercialized, not that that's the worst part of the whole religious problem.
 
KING: In this film you take a tour. You go to the Mormon Church. You go to the Vatican. Did anything alter your thinking? Did anything impress you?
 
MAHER: I was impressed with how hard it is to make a movie, and it altered my thinking about ever wanting to make another one. You know, you just have to get up early in the morning and put on makeup. You know, it's endless, all day.
 
KING: A great director.
 
MAHER: Larry Charles was the right man.
 
KING: Who directed the...
 
MAHER: Yes, "Borat." And I needed someone who understood comedy, because we're making a comedy. We're trying to -- well, we're mostly trying to make people laugh, but I also would like to arouse the somewhat, like, 16 percent of people who I call rationalists. They would call them atheists or agnostics in America. It sounds like it's a small minority, but 16 percent is actually bigger than blacks or Jews or homosexuals or NRA members, or teachers union, or Hispanics. If those people stood up and made themselves heard...but they never do.
 
KING: Do you think it might be more? Do you think there are people who just don't admit it?
 
MAHER: Absolutely. You know what they are? They're a lot of people like me, like I was. We make a point in the movie to show that my evolution from where I was, toward where I am now, was gradual. ... I definitely didn't believe in the Jesus story after we quit the Catholic church.
 
But I did have an idea of some imaginary man who lived in my head who got mad at me if I was bad and who I had to bargain with if I was bad. And I was always being like, "Oh, please, God, get me out of this. Just get me out of this. I promise I will never do this again."
 
So, you know, it doesn't happen overnight. You come to it slowly.
(to be continued)

Bill Maher on politics...part 2

Tags:
@ 02:57 AM (14 months, 22 days ago)

KING: Are the conventions relevant? Do they mean anything? It's like going to the Super Bowl and you know the winner. Isn't it the same thing?
 
MAHER: Yes, but -- it has morphed into something else which is American people generally don't pay attention to politics very much, certainly not before this time of the year. I do think they're often too dumb to be governed.
 
At least this is a time when the parties can sort of step out and say, "Here's who we are. Here are our people. Here's what we're selling. We packaged it up for you. We're only going to take an hour of your evening, and you can go right back to Howie Mandel or whatever you're watching. And it is your country. We are in bad shape. Just take a look at our wares this year. This is our fall line. We've got health care. We've got this. We've got that. These are the people we're putting up there who we think represent us best."
 
You know, there is something to that. To just -- you know, people in this country need you to package it and put a bow on it and make a pageant out of it. And I'm sure if they could get them in swimsuits they would, but yes, I do think there is a value to that.
 
KING: Email question from Mike in San Francisco: "I'm always puzzled by undecided voters. I think it's more appropriate to call a lot of them unhappy with the choices. Do you believe the time is right to move beyond Republicans and Democrats and have a truly multiparty system?"
 
MAHER: Sure. But it's probably not going to lap in our lifetime. A multi -- you know, every time a third party has tried in this country, it's absorbed by one of the other two parties. Because we don't have a parliamentary system. If we had a parliamentary system, that affords many parties. You know, it's probably a better system, but can you imagine taking on the U.S. Constitution and trying to get away with that?
 
KING: Email question from Linda in Nebraska: "what's your opinion of the so-called stimulus package that Congress passed? Any clue about what or whom it actually stimulated?"
 
MAHER: I read that the only industry that got a spike was online porn. Seriously, people got their stimulus checks and got to stimulating themselves rather quickly. But I find it sleazy, you know, that the government bribes people. Every time there's a problem, what did Bush say after 9/11? Go shopping...Now we find ourselves in a recession and the answer is here's 600 dollars. It's sleazy. Here's some cash. Do whatever you want with it.
 
KING: Both parties favored it.
 
MAHER: Both parties favor almost everything. This is my problem. Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama have come down now at least wishy washy on oil drilling...they're not opposing it. Again, where is my champion? Where is the Democrat who would have stood up and said, you know what? Even oil people get it, that offshore drilling is not the answer. It's not even a short-term answer and it's not a long-term answer. It's a lose-lose. And yet two thirds of the people in this country were convinced somehow that this is going to lower our gas prices in the short term and they're for it.
 
This is what I mean about being too dumb to be governed. A politician can't be that much better than the people. The people have to look in the mirror. Yes, the leaders are bad, because the people almost demand it of them.
 
KING: How do you compare McCain to Bush?
 
MAHER: ...It's hard to say. It's hard to imagine a president being worse than Bush. But I could see McCain pulling it off. I don't know. McCain is a real hard one to figure, because he could get into office and revert to the maverick McCain that we used to like. He could. He could say, you know what? I had to do a lot of stuff I didn't like to get to this spot, which every politician has to do. But now I'm here. You can't touch me. I'm not going to run again, perhaps. I'm just going to do it my way. And, you know, he can be better on a lot of issues than Bush.
 
But on issues like Iraq he's not. He doesn't get the most fundamental thing about this war, that it is our presence in that country that is the problem. He's OK with leaving troops in Iraq for a hundred years. He said this. He said, look, we have troops in Germany and Japan and South Korea. Yes, but they're not Muslim countries. What irks Muslims is just our presence there. As long as we have troops in the heart of the Middle East, there will always be terrorist planners trying to kill us, young, Muslim men who want to kill us for being there.
 
So on that level, alone, I can't say he's better than Bush.
 
[animal protection movement in the U.S.]
MAHER: ... this is an issue that's hardly on the radar of presidential candidates.
 
KING: Has not come up in a debate.
 
MAHER: Please, I mean, animals don't vote. They forgot about poor people, let alone animals. Anyone who doesn't have a vote, forget about it. Children. Why are old people taken care of so well economically in America and children not? Because old people vote.
 
[T. Boone Pickens... against oil addiction, in favor of wind power]
 
MAHER: Right, we're trying to get him on our show. I would love to talk to him. And that shows you where we are. When an 80-year- old oil man has to show the government the way. You know, this guy gets it. You know, I hate to be despairing. But, again, when I hear two thirds of Americans are for oil drilling, oil drilling which is not going to improve anything at all...
 
KING: A great writer, Philip Reilly, told me once in an interview that when you talk to man about generations not yet born, it goes in one ear and out the other. He ain't thinking about generations not yet born. It's take care of me now.
 
MAHER: Yes. But people don't seem to be able to make rational decisions. Like I'm  not always on the side that liberals are on. I'm for nuclear power. I think McCain is also. And I know a lot of people hate this. Bill, what about the waste. Yes, not everything can be a win-win situation. There are problems. But we are definitely killing ourselves with fossil fuels.
 
France has had nuclear power for decades without an accident. And in this country they want to bury it at the bottom of a mountain.
 

2008/8/21

You want judgement...I got yer judgement...

Tags:
@ 05:09 AM (14 months, 23 days ago)

John McCain set the record straight yesterday. He's not questioning Obama's patriotism, he's questioning Obama's judgment.
 
LAS CRUCES, NM - Sen. McCain returned fire on his Democratic rival Wednesday after Barack Obama accused him of questioning his patriotism.
 
Speaking to the Veterans of Foreign Wars conference in Orlando Tuesday, Obama accused McCain of using a “laundry list of political attacks,” including his devotion to the country.
 
“I believe the American people are better than that. I believe that this defining moment demands something more of us,” Obama said. “I will let no one question my love for this country.”
 
McCain, who has made the motto “country first” a central theme of his campaign and has previously accused Obama of putting politics above the national interest, responded today that it is not Obama’s patriotism but his judgment that he is criticizing.[..]
 
http://embeds.blogs.foxnews.com/2008/08/20/mccain-obama-is-patriotic-but-lacks-judgment/
 
Let's see now...would that be the judgment that was against invading Iraq in the first place?
 
Or Obama's judgement that we need a reasonable time table to leave Iraq? Which after being denounced by Bush, McCain and all the other victory-at-all-costs wingnuts, it now appears that we are on a path to a time table for withdrawal. A time table which is remarkably close to that proposed by Obama...and which McCain now supports.
 
Perhaps McCain is referring to Obama's judgement that Pakistan's Musharraf was not a reliable ally in our war on terror? And now Musharraf is gone...
 
Surely McCain also refers to Obama's judgement about negotiating from a position of strength with states such as Iran? Next thing we know, the Bush administration has entered into direct negotiations with the government of Iran over the issue of nuclear weapons.
 
Or maybe McCain is referring to Obama's judgement that, after years of neglect in favor of an unnecessary war in Iraq, we need more commitment to Afghanistan? Now that Afghanistan is reaching a stage of crisis...100 insurgents attacked the French?...a separate attack tried to overrun an entire base in Khost?
 
From the LATimes: "Militants' new reach and power are demonstrated in attacks on U.S. and French troops...August 20, 2008
 
KABUL, AFGHANISTAN -- In the worst loss of life for Western troops in ground combat with Taliban forces in Afghanistan, insurgents ambushed and killed 10 French soldiers and wounded 21 in a sustained assault outside the capital, military officials said Tuesday.[..]"
 
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-fg-afghan20-2008aug20,0,5985735.story
 
Even the Pentagon is getting on board with Obama's judgement:
 
"Pentagon Plans to Send More Than 12,000 Additional Troops to Afghanistan
The U.S. commander there, in an exclusive interview, calls for a further buildup to counter the Taliban
 
The Pentagon will be sending 12,000 to 15,000 additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan, possibly as soon as the end of this year, with planning underway for a further force buildup in 2009.
 
A request by Gen. David McKiernan, the commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, for three U.S. brigades with support staff has been approved. "Now that means we just need to figure out a way to get them there," adds a senior defense official [...]
 
http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/iraq/2008/08/19/pentagon-plans-to-send-more-than-12000-additional-troops-to-afghanistan.html
 
Now, isn't it interesting how Obama is driving the actual foreign policy train, with McCain and Bush limping behind? More troops for Afghanistan...a time horizon for Iraq...moving beyond Musharraf in Pakistan, etc., etc.?
 
Obama's judgement has been spot on...he's much smarter and gets there much faster than his opponents.
 
But McCain is right -- good judgement is at a premium. He should just tune in to the Denver convention next week if he wants to see it in action.
 

2008/8/20

Bill Maher on politics, John Edwards

@ 04:45 AM (14 months, 24 days ago)

From the Larry King Show, 8/19. I don't always agree with comedian and HBO talkshow host, Bill Maher, but he always makes me think.
 
[VP selection]
MAHER: You know, I'm reading, I guess, the same thing you're reading, that it's between three boring white guys again.
 
KING: He doesn't need a black guy.
 
MAHER: Actually if he doubled down on Colin Powell, how wild would that be? I mean, this is the Democrats' problem. Is that they never do anything bold once they get the nomination. You know, I'm still for Obama, but I have to tell you, he's trying my patience.
 
...moving to the center on so many issues and just doing what I saw Kerry do, what I saw Al Gore do. I thought he was going to be different. He didn't have that "I'm going to blow it" look on his face like those two did. But he's doing sort of the same thing: moving to the center, moving to be a kind of a lighter version of the Republican candidate.
 
MAHER:...At this point I think they need Hillary Clinton.
 
KING: Really?
 
MAHER: Yes. Look, I may change my mind tomorrow. I've been thinking this way a long time, not just because it's bold and they need to show bold, but you know what? I think they need the Clinton ruthlessness onboard. I really do.
 
I'm beginning to think Bill Clinton is still the only guy in that party who really knows how to do this, as far as talking to the American people, making the counter argument to the Republican arguments that, again, Obama just seems to be cozying up to their way of thinking. "Oil drilling? Yes sure. I'm for that. Wiretapping? Like that, too. Religious nut? I can get onboard there." I'm telling you, I like this guy but...
 
[Joe Biden]
MAHER: He's not a bad choice, but is he going to excite anybody? Hillary Clinton would excite the base. I keep saying the Democrats have to move toward their base. They have to make the case that there is this other America out there.
 
KING: ...unpopular president, the most unpopular president ever...an unpopular war...Economic worries. Why isn't this a done deal?
 
MAHER: You'd think it would be a no-brainer in a country where torture is legal and marijuana isn't.
 
KING: How much of it is race?
 
MAHER: That's a big factor, much bigger than people think, I believe.
 
KING: Sad.
 
MAHER: I think the poll I read recently was 30 percent of white Americans have a positive view of Barack Obama. You know, even if he gets every black person in America to vote for him -- and he will, by the way -- I don't know if that's just going to cancel out the people who wouldn't vote for him just because of that one reason.
 
And of course, the Republican campaign is all about making him different. He's not like us. He's from some weird place like, I don't know, Morocco or something. He doesn't always wear a flag pin, and he's got a lippy wife, and his pastor wears an African shirt. You know, this stuff is scary, Larry.
 
KING: You think McCain is playing to that?
 
MAHER: Absolutely.
 
KING: Does McCain disappoint you in doing that?
 
MAHER: They both have disappointed me, but yes, McCain has been disappointing me steadily since 2000 when I was supporting him.
 
KING: I remember when you supported him.
 
MAHER: Yes. But you know, that Straight Talk Express has taken a lot of detours, Larry. And the closer he gets to it the more -- the more they both do ridiculous things. Once Paris and Britney got in the race, that's when I said, you know, this is another year where I have to march forward, again, without an ideological champion.
 
I mean, Obama -- I like him better because he's younger, he's cooler, he's smarter. I do think he'd be a better president. You know, he does nuance, and you saw how well that goes over with the Rick Warren people.
 
But as far as an ideological champion, do I have one anymore? Do I have one -- do I have a candidate who's taking the side on the issues that I would want the candidate to take on most issues? No.
 
KING: Will -- might McCain go bold and pick, say, a Democratic running mate or a pro-choice running mate: Tom Ridge, Joe Lieberman?
 
MAHER: Well, Joe Lieberman is already a Republican. He's just a Democrat in name. I don't think that makes a big difference.
 
You know, that's an important pick, because McCain is, you know, another Bush in the sense we're getting another very detached, anti-intellectual president. There's a big vacuum when you have a president like that. And so the vice president very often steps into that vacuum, as we saw with Dick Cheney. That could happen with McCain.
 
I think when you get McCain you get the worst of Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. Old, forgetful, doddering, anti-intellectual. And into that breach who knows who might step?
 
And I'm amused that the press thinks -- the pundits, you know, he's going to pick somebody younger. Gee, you think? Who's available that's older? Bob Dole, Lauren Bacall and Abel, I think, is the short list.
 
KING: Boy, you're really down on this campaign. It's got you down. Both of them.
 
MAHER: Well, I'm reading the paper, and how could it not? Is it me? Am I making this stuff up?
 
KING: OK. John Edwards. What does one say? I know you liked him very much. Or like him very much.
 
MAHER: Yes. I still do. He didn't cheat on me. Although I understand when people say they're disappointed in the sense that, well, I guess it's like if you invested in a company and somebody did something to damage the stock. You know, I did send him money. People did send him money.
 
And what if he was the candidate now? What if he had gotten the nomination and this broke? I mean, it would have been a disaster for the Democrats. They'd have to do an Eagleton and get somebody else at the last minute. You know how hard that is to get help at the last minute, Larry.
 
I -- always when somebody is caught cheating, of course it's never an admirable thing to do, but I still think there's a giant lack of national perspective on this crime.
 
KING: Meaning?
 
MAHER: Meaning, a man is married 31 years, you know, people, not just men, women. I mean, you're married a long time. You know, you're desperate for something new. I mean, men like new sex. Women like new shoes. You know, people like new. You can't stop human nature.
 
So OK. It's not an admirable thing to do. The noble thing to do when you're married is to suck it up and suffer. We all get that. Fine. But it's a shame that we have to lose a good message from an otherwise good man. He was the guy who had the health care plan that they both copied.
 
His idea that we have two Americas (and in one of them he's single), but certainly, that's an important message. And it's a shame that his name and all of his work-- he's just a national punchline now.
 

2008/8/18

Saddlegate?

@ 06:19 AM (14 months, 26 days ago)

Some people are wondering about one of the most touching moments of the Saddleback Church presidential forum--when John McCain told of shared Christian fellowship with his North Vietnamese prison guard.
 
People are wondering if John McCain cribbed the poignant “cross in the dirt” story from Alexander Solzhenitsyn. Solzhenitsyn gave a similar account of his own imprisonment in the Soviet gulags.
 
It’s worth noting that McCain never mentioned this “cross in the dirt” story until 1999 as he prepared his 2000 Presidential campaign. He never mentioned it in his first thorough account of his time in captivity, offered in 1973, even though he did discuss religion a bit. See here:
 
http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/2008/01/28/john-mccain-prisoner-of-war-a-first-person-account.html?PageNr=1
 
It’s also worth noting that John McCain is a huge admirer of Alexander Solzhenitsyn, so is his longtime friend and ghost writer Mark Salter. See here:
 
"Solzhenitsyn at Work" By JOHN McCAIN | August 4, 2008
 
http://www.nysun.com/opinion/solzhenitsyn-at-work/83117/
 
Could John McCain have essentially pulled a Hillary-at-Tuzla-ducking-gunfire stunt and fabricated a heartwarming story to appeal to evangelicals at Saddleback?
 
It would be downright reckless of McCain to completely crib this story from Solzhenitsyn. The risks are too high.
 
We’ll have to see how it pans out.
 
People are also wondering about McCain's whereabouts while Obama was answering the first questions. McCain was supposed to be in a room with no TV -- which someone dubbed the "Cone of Silence."
 
But now we find out that McCain was not even in the Saddleback church building as Obama was answering the pastor's first questions. Certainly not in that "cone  of silence."
 
Instead, McCain was in his limo in traffic...a limousine that had satellite TV, radio, blackberry, you name it. He could so easily have heard the questions ahead of time and prepared accordingly.
 
I remember how quickly he answered the first question about the three wisest people he'd turn to for advice. So quick that it seemed like he knew that question in advance.
 
From The NYTimes: Despite Assurances, McCain Wasn’t in a ‘Cone of Silence’
 
By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE, August 17, 2008
ORLANDO, Fla. — Senator John McCain was not in a “cone of silence” on Saturday night while his rival, Senator Barack Obama, was being interviewed at the Saddleback Church in California.
 
....Members of the McCain campaign staff ... said Mr. McCain was in his motorcade on the way to the church as Mr. Obama was being interviewed.
 
....Nicolle Wallace, a spokeswoman for Mr. McCain, said on Sunday night that Mr. McCain had not heard the broadcast of the event while in his motorcade and heard none of the questions.
 
...Interviewed Sunday on CNN, Mr. Warren seemed surprised to learn that Mr. McCain was not in the building during the Obama interview."
 
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/18/us/politics/18mccain.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
 
Sooo, McCain's campaign is run by the Karl Rove crew, people who've been known to play the dirtiest of politics...and McCain did not watch or listen to, or have any kind of access through his crew to the questions ahead of time.
 
If you believe that, well, then I’m the Queen of Sheba...AND I have a sweet real estate deal for you.
 

2008/8/17

Saddleback?

@ 08:19 AM (14 months, 27 days ago)

You mean it's not the Equestrian competition in the Olympics?
 
CNN covered Pastor Rick Warren's Saddleback Civil Forum on the Presidency, where he discussed faith issues with Barack Obama and John McCain. It opened to thunderous applause from a crowd that seemed to be mostly members of Warren's church.
 
How religious do you have to be to care for this Saddleback Church event? And if you are a religious nut, aren't you already going to vote for McCain anyway?
 
I watched some of it...enough to know that the anti-intellectual strain in this country never ceases to amaze me. "Give it to me straight, just don't require me to think" really plays into the hands of McCain.
 
If anybody out there thinks that Pastor Warren wants anything other than a right-wing Republican president, I've got some sweet real estate deals for you.
 
Neither candidate made any major mistakes. McCain gave a performance. Obama listened to and answered Warren's questions.
 
Notice how Warren kept advising Barack to not give a "stump speech"...and then continued to let McCain do just that. He had his stump speech talking points ready, and was eager to cram as many of them into his 50 minutes as possible.
 
Obama had a game plan -- speak to the audience of Rick Warren evangelicals in a calm and reasoned way that challenges the Muslim Mandingo crap that lands in their email inboxes. To reassure people who probably won't vote for him anyway that it won't be the end of the world if he wins.
 
Otherwise, it's the blahs before the conventions...and by the end of the month this forum is going to be as relevant as last week's TV Guide.
 
A very intense moment came when Warren asked McCain what his greatest moral failing was, and after a moment's hesitation McCain replied that it was the failure of his first marriage.
 
I'm glad that McCain finally copped to dumping his children and crippled wife to marry a beer heiress 20 years his junior to finance his political career.
 
That much was worth watching.
 

2008/8/16

More wingnuttery and scumbaggery

Tags:
@ 07:56 AM (14 months, 28 days ago)

Bring it ON wingnut hate machine!
 
Continuing in the grand tradition of right-wing Clinton-haters and Kerry swiftboaters, a new wingnut book is doing a smear job on Obama.
 
See just how desperate the righties have become...seems that the Politics of Division and Hate is all they have left.
 
"Obama Strikes Back at Attack Book"
 
Barack Obama hit back with a 40-page rebuttal to Jerome Corsi's book "The Obama Nation," arguing the author is a fringe bigot peddling rehashed lies. "Jerome Corsi is a discredited liar who is peddling another piece of garbage to continue the Bush-Cheney politics he helped perpetuate four years ago," said Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor.
 
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080814/ap_on_el_pr/anti_obama_book
 
When they say the book is already at #1 on NYTimes bestseller list...it just means that large quantities of the book have been ordered in bulk by rich righties. Conservative groups have been known to do this in order to boost the book on the best seller list.
 
Something else that's fake -- Corsi's long list of footnotes and references. You know, when you're reading a book, and you take a look at the many footnotes and references and think, "Wow, this guy must have really done some research on this."
 
Give me a break...of the first 11 footnotes in Corsi's book, 9 of them refer to stuff he wrote himself. Yes, you read right, citing himself in his research footnotes! A lot of the rest are from rightie blogs.
 
"Barack Obama hit back Thursday with a 40-page rebuttal..."
 
I'm sure it's well written and very accurate...BUT, Obama needs to fight back in public on the cable news airwaves. Remember what happened to Sticks-and-Stones Kerry....
 
Meanwhile, the 40 pages on why he is not a coke-snorting-Muslim-crook will be there to counter Corsi's allegations before they fester and grow. Read rebuttals here:
 
http://my.barackobama.com/page/invite/corsi
 
Corsi even got the year of Barack and Michelle's wedding wrong...there are 80 documented inaccuracies in the first 32 pages.
 
Larry King had Corsi on and confronted him about several false statements...like the one about the Pope, and calling Kerry a Jew, etc. It was quite a LONG list. Corsi stated that he was wrong and that he had apologized for those statements.
 
The thing that I kept waiting for was King to say: "The New York Times has compiled quite a list of inaccuracies and editorial gaffes in this current book. If you've had so much to apologize for in your past books, then how much of this book do you expect you may have to apologize for in the future?"
 
Ah well, hopefully Truth will eventually trump Sleaze...the good news is that the only ones reading Corsi's book are those who already don't like Obama and wouldn't vote for him anyway.
 
If you want to hear Crazy for yourself--tomorrow (Sunday, August 17), Corsi is scheduled to appear on the aptly named "The Political Cesspool" -- which, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, is "an overtly racist, anti-Semitic radio show hosted by self-avowed white nationalist James Edwards."
 
http://www.splcenter.org/blog/2008/08/13/bestselling-anti-obama-fabulist-appears-on-white-supremacist-radio-show/
 
Read about some of the show's more shining moments here:
 
http://mediamatters.org/items/200808140003
 
BTW--Corsi's book about Obama appears to have distracted him from another project he was planning in January--exposing the government's lies about the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center.
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yCfI3VmL88
 
How's that for crazy?
 

2008/8/15

Deployed troops SUPPORT Obama

@ 07:49 AM (14 months, 29 days ago)

Thanks, Bush administration...we owe you one. Because this is just symptomatic of the callous disregard that the Bushies have towards our troops and veterans.
 
Yep, looks like US soldiers deployed overseas gave more campaign contributions to Barack Obama than John McCain. In fact, McCain came in third, behind the fiercely anti-war Ron Paul.
 
See? Warmongers are on their way out. Keep up the tough talk, John...it fills Barack's coffers.
 
Hey, is this why Bush and the Neo-cons don’t want voter registration in VA hospitals?
 
The following article is from Center for Responsive Politics (CRP), a non-profit, non-partisan research group based in Washington, DC that tracks the money in politics.
 
Even though McCain is a decorated veteran and all, the troops are backing Barack. The latest campaign finance filings, detailing June fundraising, shows six-to-one in Democrats' favor.
 
Obama, Barack $60,642
McCain, John $10,665
 
(Published by Luke Rosiak on August 14, 2008)
"During World War II, soldiers crouching in foxholes penned letters assuring their sweethearts that they'd be home soon. Now, between firefights in the Iraqi desert, some infantrymen have been sending a different kind of mail stateside: two or three hundred dollars -- or whatever they can spare -- towards a presidential election that could very well determine just how soon they come home.
 
According to an analysis of campaign contributions by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, Democrat Barack Obama has received nearly six times as much money from troops deployed overseas at the time of their contributions than has Republican John McCain, and the fiercely anti-war Ron Paul, though he suspended his campaign for the Republican nomination months ago, has received more than four times McCain's haul.
 
...Contributions from All Military Personnel:
Obama, Barack $335,536
McCain, John $280,513  [..]"
 
http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2008/08/troops-deployed-abroad-give-61.html
 
Hey righties, what do you say? Are the troops anti-troop? Are the troops anti-American? Are they advocating surrender?
 
What was that you were saying about Obama snubbing the troops, John? They don't seem to think so.
 
These numbers are certainly quite a reversal from the last two presidential election cycles.
 
It's not all that surprising, when you look at both candidates' record on veteran's funding issues, the troops are supporting a guy who genuinely seems to hold their best interests front and center.
 

2008/8/14

Hardcore wingnuttery

@ 04:42 AM (15 months, 7 hours ago)

Jesus is dragged into drilling controversy.
 
It's hard to beat the, uh, unique sayings of Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, the Christian rightie from Minnesota...but this latest one is over the moon. Bachmann says we don’t need annoying environmentalists like Nancy Pelosi mucking about, because Jesus already saved the planet 2000 years ago.
 
This woman is in the United States Congress.
 
“[Pelosi] is committed to her global warming fanaticism to the point where she has said that she’s just trying to save the planet,” Bachmann told the right-wing news site OneNewsNow. “We all know that someone did that over 2,000 years ago, they saved the planet — we didn’t need Nancy Pelosi to do that.”
 
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=210502
 
Wow, talk about yer hardcore wingnuttery. This is right up there with the time she spied on a gay and lesbian rally at the state capitol and got “attacked” by evil lesbian secret agents in a restroom...or told us that Jesus had hand-picked her to run for public office.
 
What makes her scary is that she actually believes the Crazy, rather than most Republicans who only use it as a simple means to get the rubes to vote for them.
 
And if you *are* one of the people who wants the government to behave as if the Rapture is coming next Tuesday--what Bachmann said doesn’t even make any theological sense.
 
In Christianity, Jesus didn't come to save planet Earth, he came to save the souls of humanity. If Jesus had come to make Earth a pristine place, all he would have had to do was get rid of the humans. I don’t think that’s what he had in mind.
 
And, speaking of fundies making complete fools of themselves, look at what they're doing when they're not praying at the gas pump.
 
Some true believers want God to smite Sen. Barack Obama with "rain of biblical proportions" because they disagree with Obama on social issues.
 
I kid you not. There's a group of politically-conservative Christians -- Focus on the Family -- who put out a video asking people to pray for a heavenly deluge to rain out Obama's acceptance speech at Invesco Field in Denver on Aug. 28.
 
A spokeman, Stuart Shepard, called for “abundant rain, torrential rain…flood-advisory rain...I’m talking about umbrella-ain’t-gonna-help-you rain…swamp-the-intersections rain.”
 
Luckily, some real Christians pointed out that prayer wasn't meant to be used to bring harm to someone else, and complained loudly enough that Shepard took the video down.
 
But you can see it here:
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztO8wZz029Y
 

"Warning: Consult a physician before using Republican..."

Tags:
@ 03:52 AM (15 months, 8 hours ago)
  "In a 100% true story this past week, the Republican party announced its new slogan for the 2008 presidential campaign "The Change You Deserve". As it turns out, that slogan is a registered trademarked ad slogan for the anti-depressant Effexor."

From the same people who brought you the Paris Hilton "old wrinkly guy" video:

Read the rest of this entry ... (1 words left)

2008/8/13

Late-night jokes recap 8/13

Tags:
@ 04:31 AM (15 months, 1 day ago)
 
"According to rumors, John McCain and Barack Obama are trying to get Angelina Jolie’s endorsement for the campaign, and John Edwards is just trying to get her number." --Craig Ferguson
 
"I thought this was nice, at one point during the (Olympic) ceremony they had 56 children march in, all belonging to John Edwards." --Jay Leno
 
"While after vigorously denying reports of his extramarital affair, and calling the story ridiculous, untrue and tabloid trash, John Edwards admitted he had an affair. And the National Enquirer was the only publication writing about it, the National Enquirer was the first to break it, turns out it was true. You know what this means? Elvis is alive! Bigfoot is real! Aliens are here! It's all true!" --Jay Leno
 
"I guess Edwards apparently met this woman at a New York City bar in 2006, and he is a pretty smooth operator. ... You hear his opening line to the woman? 'So, uh, which America are you from?'" --Jay Leno
 
"No, he actually said about the other woman, he doesn't love her. Oh that's smart, now you've got two women mad at you. Great, way to go." --Jay Leno
 
"Well, Democrats are furious, they're going on record now saying John Edwards will not be allowed to speak at the convention because of this affair. Yeah, instead speaking in his place: Bill Clinton. You have to put your foot down." --Jay Leno
 
"In fact, when John McCain heard about the John Edwards affair, he said 'Well, thank God I can't get an erection anymore, whew.' Some problems just take care of themselves." --Jay Leno
 
"Well, according to a new study, coffee can improve your memory, that's what they say, drinking coffee improves your memory. Which is good news for both Barack Obama and John McCain. If we can get them to have some coffee before their first debate, maybe they can remember what their original positions were." --Jay Leno
 
"And that Paris Hilton ad about John McCain has gotten over five million hits on the web. Five million, isn't that amazing? More people have seen the ad than have seen John McCain " --Jay Leno
 
"And porn star Jenna Jameson is pregnant. Boy, that John Edwards gets around." --Jay Leno
 
"As you know, President Bush is on a week-long tour to Asia, where he’ll visit South Korea, Thailand and China — or as the White House calls it, 'The Everything-Sold-at-Wal-Mart Tour.'" --Jay Leno
 
"More than 60 heads of state will be at the opening ceremonies, so security is extremely tight in China, which has been very hard on the locals there. Many stores and factories in Beijing have been required to close, and people have been forced out of their houses. It's sort of like here in the United States, only for them, it'll end in a couple of weeks." --Jimmy Kimmel
 
"The government claims that it has the smog that Beijing is notorious for under control, but here's how bad it really is. They say if Snoop Dogg rolled down the window of his limo, smoke would pour in." --Jimmy Kimmel
 

2008/8/12

And they call Obama "presumptuous"?

@ 07:40 AM (15 months, 2 days ago)

Notice how certain pundits don't call it presumptuous when it's a 72-year-old white guy who decides that he's already the president.
 
Maybe they don't have a synonym for "uppity white guy."
 
From Financial Times: "McCain condemnation upstages Bush"
 
By Edward Luce and Andrew Ward in Washington, August 11 2008
"It took four days and a growing chorus of criticism from conservatives before George W. Bush on Monday matched John McCain’s tough stance on Russia. Having on Monday morning again been upstaged by the Republican presidential candidate, who had called for the US administration to come together with its allies in “universal condemnation of Russian aggression” in Georgia, Mr Bush finally followed suit. [..]"
 
http://tinyurl.com/6rofak
 
Which spurred George "Macaca" Allen to go on Fox and explain why McCain's gonzo tactics of trying to get us into a nuclear confrontation with Russia shows why we have to elect him president right now.
 
John McCain comes across as even more hard-line than Bush.
 
What is wrong with this picture? A lame-duck president who first sides with the opponent to his party’s nominee ... and then comes around to seeing the spot-on logic in his would-be-successor’s stance?
 
It looks like just about everybody thought the Georgians needed to show some restraint...except John McCain. That shows the kind of president he'd make.
 
About the only time McCain is ever honest, is when he’s ranting about war and bombing.
 
I'm telling you--just as Bush made us look back fondly on Reagan, so too would a President McCain make us yearn for the good ol' days of George W...
 
But hey, if he wants to make the case that he would be more war-crazy than Bush, be my guest. This country is sick to death of war and he'll get his ass kicked. See if I care.
 

2008/8/10

Late-night jokes recap 8/10

Tags:
@ 06:41 AM (15 months, 4 days ago)
 
"Well, Barack Obama and John McCain have both switched their positions on offshore oil drilling. They both used to be against it, but now they say they are for it under the right circumstances, like if it helps them get elected." --Jay Leno
 
"The big presidential debates coming up. Are we still excited about that? Barack Obama wants to debate about foreign policy, and John McCain wants to debate about the big band era." --David Letterman
 
"Since Congress went on recess, oil prices have dropped to $118 a barrel. That's, like, a $30 drop from the record high. You know, maybe Congress should take more vacations, huh? You ever notice, whenever these people leave town, things just seem to get better." --Jay Leno
 
"Actually, analysts say a weak economy is causing less energy use, resulting in falling oil prices. Yeah. Basically, the worse the economy, the lower the oil prices. Which means if Bush could serve one more term, oil would be free." --Jay Leno
 
"Hey, you see John McCain was at the country's biggest motorcycle rally. He was in Sturgis, South Dakota. You know, where all the Harley guys go? McCain showed up in a customized Rascal scooter." --Jay Leno
 
"Today, the moderators were announced for the upcoming presidential debates. Good, yeah. Apparently, Barack Obama insisted on someone who asks even-handed, probing questions, while John McCain insisted on someone who will talk into his good ear." --Conan O'Brien
 
"John McCain does not want Dick Cheney to attend the Republican Convention, because he says he's too unpopular. Yeah, and when asked to comment, Cheney said, 'I hope the senator reconsiders.' Then he turned into a bat and flew away." --Conan O'Brien
 
"They say John McCain is 71, but people are saying he may be older. No one knows for sure because his birth certificate was destroyed when the Wagon Train was attacked." --David Letterman
 
"China has announced that during the Olympics, protesters will be allowed to assemble in designated protest areas. Yeah. Or, as they're commonly called in China, jails." --Conan O'Brien
 
"Barack Obama has agreed to debate John McCain three times this fall. Both candidates have conditions. Obama wants the debates to be held on college campuses. McCain wants them to be held before 7:00 p.m." --Conan O'Brien
 
"Congress went on a five-week vacation starting today. And boy, they deserve it. Don't they? They got so much done this year: solved the energy crisis, health care, Social Security, immigration. Whew! Take a break, fellows." --Jay Leno
 
"You ever notice that Congress doesn't even call it a vacation? You know what they call it? A recess. You ever notice the only people that get recess are Congress, kindergarten and juries? Those are the only three." --Jay Leno
 
"I don't know if you noticed this. Last week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi turned the lights out on Congress while the Republicans were talking. She killed the microphones and turned the lights off. Yeah, yeah. The Republicans called this outrageous, except, of course, for Senator Larry Craig, who called it romantic." --Jay Leno
 
"Oh, you hear about this? Here you go. Paris Hilton's mother is very upset because John McCain has put Paris in his campaign video. She's furious. Isn't that amazing? Of all the videos Paris Hilton has been in, this is the one mom's upset about?" --Jay Leno
 
"Oh, and the McCain campaign has accused Barack Obama of being elitist and using the race card. Yeah, yeah. The Obama campaign accused McCain of being old and using the Discover card." --Jay Leno
 
"Yesterday, President Bush announced there are going to be some big changes in intelligence in the White House. Yeah, he's leaving." --Jay Leno
 
"They say Barack Obama could decide to go with another woman. See that's what killed John Edwards' chances of being VP, he decided to go with another woman." --Jay Leno
 
"As you know, the McCain campaign ran that commercial where they're comparing Barack Obama to various Hollywood celebrities. And as you know, if there's one thing the Republicans will not stand for, it's electing some Hollywood celebrity to public office. Except for Ronald Reagan, Fred Thompson, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Clint Eastwood -- you know, except for those." --Jay Leno
 
"In a new report by the Center for Immigration Studies, researchers report that the number of illegal immigrants in the U.S. is down by 11 percent, and a lot of them are returning home. See, that's when you know the economy is bad, when illegal immigrants are fleeing to Mexico for a better way of life!" --Jay Leno
 
"Some good unemployment news, President Bush will be out of work soon." --Jimmy Kimmel
 

2008/8/9

"Ma Ma, Where's my pa? Gone to the White House ha ha ha!"

Tags:
@ 09:37 AM (15 months, 5 days ago)

Okay okay, it's true. John Edwards screwed up bad.
 
I personally don’t believe marital infidelity disqualifies a person from being able to be a good president or effective leader. I don’t know any perfect saints. But the reality is that this kind of mistress/love-child/scandal is clearly enough to take down a candidate and lose an election.
 
So, I am disgusted and bitterly disappointed. Edwards was my presidential choice. I liked his progressive message, his vision of helping the helpless poor and keeping the hard working middle class from sliding deeper into poverty...his ideas about health care.
 
I am just so thankful he didn’t get the nomination...just think of this blowing up in the middle of his presidential campaign. I will never forgive him for taking that chance. I still don't understand why his wife Elizabeth apparently thought it was okay to proceed with a bid for the White House with this scandal hanging overhead, because she knew since 2006.
 
In a perfect world running for President of the United States would be a noble ambition, good men and good women would want the job for the best of reasons.
 
But in the real world they're only human and, while they may start out with the best of intentions, soon power corrupts and they can easily become motivated by vanity and ego...they start to feel invincible enough to choose a momentary thrill above their family and career.
 
Let's face it, no shrinking violet ever thinks they can be the most powerful leader of the free world.
 
Even the noblest among us can repress ugly traits of vanity and ego...the wisest of us can be self-destructive enough to chase a dangerous folly...the most strong-minded of us can give in to temptations we didn't even know were out there...and do the very things we've devoted our lives condemning.
 
No, I'm not making excuses for John Edwards, I'm just trying to understand.
 
So, have your fun righties, it's your turn...lord knows I needled toe-tapping Sen. Larry Craig enough .. and Diaper Guy Vitter .. and Newt Gingrich, etc., etc., etc.
 
Any rightie who wants to feel righteous ought to just google “Republican Sex Scandals” and see how many hits you get.
 

2008/8/8

Clock is ticking for John Edwards

Tags:
@ 04:43 AM (15 months, 6 days ago)

Something nasty this way comes to loom over the Democratic national convention, threatening to distract attention from Barack Obama's glorious nomination moment.
 
It's John Edwards and the potential mistress-love-child scandal following him around like a little black cloud...National Enquirer stories have alleged he had an affair with a campaign worker and fathered her baby.
 
The latest National Enquirer story has a fuzzy picture of a guy who could be Edwards holding a baby. What politician hasn't been asked to hold a baby?
 
Why are there are no photographs of the person that the presidential candidate was supposedly there to see?
 
It very well could be that the story is true, but the Enquirer's photo doesn't convince me.
 
Looks like as rapacious as our media is these days, looking for breaking news and ratings, if there was anything concrete here it would have exploded all over the place by now. Righties can accuse the media of bias all they want, but if they actually had a verifiable story they'd run it even if it trashed Mother Teresa.
 
On the other hand, we Democrats have buried our heads in the sand about this story...not wanting to believe it, not making noise about "fair play" to get to the bottom of it, to get to the facts.
 
We sit back and say it's only a tabloid story told by anonymous sources. It is one thing to scrutinize its sources...quite another to ignore it totally when there is apparently plenty of "smoke."
 
If it's true some will say he was only trying to fulfill lonely human needs. But I say it makes him look like such a heel, his wife Elizabeth dying from cancer and all. Remember how we Dems tarred and feathered philanderer Newt Gingrich for his tawdry affair...except John hasn't delivered divorce papers to his sick wife in the hospital. As far as we know...
 
Edwards was slated to have a prominent role as a speaker at the convention but now Democrats worry about letting him appear on stage. If they deny him a role at the convention, how will the mainstream media handle it?
 
If he appears at the convention without resolving this story it will be the elephant in the room ...it will drive news media coverage of the alleged affair to explode.
 
Edwards needs to clear up this story in short order; if it's not true, he has to issue a stronger denial, threaten to sue, offer to take a paternity test, etc., etc. Why hasn't he? When stories like this are lies, the quicker you jump on them, the faster they die.
 
We really shouldn't give a hoot about people's private lives...unless they are powerful politicians who can be taken down by scandal and ruin a lot of hard work.
 
What I do care for very much is John Edwards' vision...his ideas to help the poor and keep the middle class from slipping any lower into poverty. A vision which is lost now no matter what happens. He's tainted if he keeps ignoring these charges.
 
I voted in the primary for this guy, he was my presidential choice. He has been our strongest voice for the middle class and combating poverty. He was a viable choice for Obama's VP, as well as a cabinet post and maybe even Attorney General.
 
IF the story is true -- and I'm not fully convinced yet -- I would be appalled that Edwards ran for, or continued running for, president knowing this might come out. IMAGINE if he had won the nomination and this had blown up while he was the nominee. He would've placed the country at great risk for a Republican win!
 
Ah well...it will not be the first time a politician broke my heart...
 
Between Hillary on the war path and Edwards' alleged love child lurking in the shadows...it's gonna be one helluva hot time in Denver.
 

2008/8/7

See ya at the debates, bitches.

@ 06:55 AM (15 months, 7 days ago)
 
As much as I've enjoyed comedians poking fun at John McCain's ad that uses Paris Hilton to mock Barack Obama, even better is a new video ad where Paris herself takes on McCain.
 
Yep, Paris calls out "that wrinkly white-haired guy" for using her in his campaign video without her permission in a surprisingly humorous video.
 
"He's the oldest celebrity in the world," the video opens. "Like, super old. Old enough to remember when dancing was a sin, and beer was served in a bucket."
 
Paris thanked the "wrinkly white-haired guy" for his endorsement and offered her own energy policy...which actually made sense. McCain is desperately trying to find out who wrote her script....
 
In fact, Paris read that TelePrompter a lot better than McCain does.
 
The girl has actually gained some respect from me. I mean, I realize that it was all totally scripted, but at least she was smart enough to say yes to doing this.
 
http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/64ad536a6d
 
McCain is older then Yoda?
 
Damn.
 
I don't think being made to look silly by Paris Hilton has helped McCain...maybe Cindi ought to really consider flashing her goods at the drunk bikers....
 

2008/8/6

Republican stunts...Beijing George goes under the bus

@ 07:11 AM (15 months, 8 days ago)
 
While most congressmen are home enjoying summer vacation with their families, a handful of Republicans have camped out on the floor of the House and are refusing to leave.
 
They sit on their hands for seven and a half years and now that Congress is out of session, NOW they want to do something?
 
They are so desperate that they will do or say anything to distract us. What they need to do is come up with a clever response to the question their constituents are sure to ask -- “Why should Republicans be trusted to fix the mess Republicans made?”
 
"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A group of House Republicans stayed in session and continued energy speeches Monday despite the summer adjournment in hopes of pressuring Democrats for a vote on oil drilling.
 
....Republicans refused to leave the House floor on Friday and began five hours of speeches protesting against Democratic energy policies immediately after the House of Representatives adjourned for its annual five-week break.
 
The speeches picked up again Monday morning, and Republicans have pledged to keep up the effort.[..]"
 
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/08/04/gop.takeover/
 
Since the TV cameras are turned off they spend the day making grand speeches to a few tourists who have wandered into the gallery by mistake looking for a bathroom.
 
Then we have this little goody: "House Republican leader rips Bush"
 
From thehill.com: 08/05/08
"A House Republican leader is lambasting President Bush on his decision not to call Congress back into session to deal with the energy crisis.
 
In a legislative update sent to GOP members and staff on Tuesday, Republican House Policy Committee Chairman Thaddeus McCotter (Mich.) accused "Beijing George" Bush of throwing House Republicans "under the bone-dry bus" on his way to the Olympics in China.
 
....His memo stated, "Today, in his final term, the wildly unpopular President George W. Bush boarded Air Force One bound for the Beijing Olympics and a meeting with his chum Hu Jintao, the dapper ruler of a nuclear armed, communist dictatorship. ... Perhaps our Compassionate Conservative-in-Chief will bring our absent Democrat Congress some 'Made in (communist) China' souvenir t-shirts: 'Bush went to Beijing and all I got was this lousy five week, paid vacation.' [..]"
 
http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/house-republican-leader-rips-bush-2008-08-05.html
 
See? That wicked little Republican name-calling machine isn't just for Democrats.
 
Later this week the last remaining House Republicans will split into two tribes, fist fights will break out, war will be declared and eventually someone will chant "Kill the Pig" and attack someone wearing glasses so they can use the lens to start a fire to make S'Mores.
 
Look for a sign that says "Dark Peplz n' Girlz Not Aloud"....
 

2008/8/5

Anyone surprised?

@ 10:47 AM (15 months, 9 days ago)

A new book by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ron Suskind -- “The Way of the World” -- claims that the White House ordered the CIA to forge a back-dated, handwritten letter from the head of Iraqi intelligence to Saddam Hussein in an attempt to tie Hussein to the 9/11 attacks.
 
Suskind reports that Saddam Hussein’s intelligence chief, Tahir Jalil Habbush al-Tikriti, told US and British officials there were no WMD in Iraq, “intelligence they received in plenty of time to stop an invasion.”
 
Suskind writes that in the fall of 2003, the White House ordered CIA Director George Tenet to forge a “fake letter from Habbush to Saddam, backdated to July 1, 2001.” “It said that 9/11 ringleader Mohammad Atta had actually trained for his mission in Iraq” and that Iraq bought yellowcake uranium from Niger with the help of al Qaeda.
 
The letter was commissioned “from the highest reaches of the White House.” “It would have to come from the very top,” Suskind told NPR today.
 
Suskind also said he spoke with U.S. intelligence officials who stated that Bush was informed unequivocally in January 2003 that Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction.
 
Read more here: United Press International, "Book: CIA forged key Iraq war document"
 
http://tinyurl.com/659p76
 
4000-plus dead soldiers later...thousands wounded physically and mentally...countless innocent Iraqi civilians killed and maimed.
 
All which could have been prevented.
 
Wow....I bet cable news is all over this…
 
<crickets chirping>
 
Why does this administration always get a pass? Why is there no opposition, oversight or accountability?
 
Maybe it's why we have $4 a gallon gas, Recession, job losses, inflation, housing crisis, and record Corporate profits and salaries -- to keep us all impoverished, afraid of losing what little we do have...and silent.
 
And the best rebuttal they can come up with is the silly claim that Suskind, a Pulitzer winner and former reporter for some of the nation’s highly regarded and very conservative publications, makes his living from “gutter journalism.”
 
See, they know they have gotten away with it. The idea of impeachment is crazy and much much too late now. Bush fatigue and the need to fix the mess they're leaving behind will prevent serious investigation of their crimes.
 
Be thankful for investigative journalists like Suskind. They are the only thing out there (okay, a couple of Democrats in Congress) trying to tell the truth.
 

2008/8/4

At least he's not quite as senile as Reagan...yet

@ 07:57 AM (15 months, 10 days ago)

Even Republicans wonder..."Is John McCain losing it?"
 
Looky here what the WSJ opinion page, which is usually to the right of Rush Limbaugh, said about John McCain.
 
From The Wall Street Journal, By DANIEL HENNINGER:
"On Sunday, he said on national television that to solve Social Security "everything's on the table," which of course means raising payroll taxes. On July 7 in Denver he said: "Senator Obama will raise your taxes. I won't."
 
This isn't a flip-flop. It's a sex-change operation.
 
....Why make it harder than it has to be? Given such statements on Social Security taxes, Al Gore and the "inspirational" Speaker Pelosi, is there a reason why Rush Limbaugh should not spend August teeing off on Mr. McCain?
 
....You're supposed to sow doubt about the other guy, not do it to yourself.
 
....Yes, Sen. McCain has honor and country. Another month of illogical, impolitic remarks and Sen. McCain will erase even that. Absent a coherent message for voters, he will be one-on-one with Barack Obama in the fall. He will lose."
 
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121745962594698731.html?mod=todays_columnists
 
McCain IS losing it -- the election.
 
Not only by silly remarks, but also by resorting to 'silly' ads. He diminishes his whole persona...and also helps Obama raise millions of dollars every time he does.
 
McCain will live to regret those tactics. He did say he wanted a 'civil campaign based on the issues.' America wants to hear solutions about the issues, not more of the same GOP smear tactics that got us a moron for a president the last 8 years. That won't solve anything.
 
McCain hasn't made his plans clear about how to solve our pressing problems. Maybe this IS all he has -- stupid and silly slime commercials.
 
McCain's campaign seems to be trying to reel in McCain. Press control. No more "free speaking" at town halls. Now he has a script. Because he's gone so far off message -- everything is on the table, tax wise, etc.
 
It was so funny when McCain's chief spokesperson came out and said McCain doesn't speak for the McCain campaign.
 
I shook hands with a Vietnam War Vet recently. He had an Obama bumper sticker on his car...along side his POW License Plate. I pointed to it and thanked him for his service, told him I'm sorry for what he went through. He said, "Thank you, but that doesn't make me a candidate for president of the United States of America."
 
McCain's service to America is honorable, but his conduct as a man is questionable. Being a war veteran is as noble an endeavor as I can think of. Being a prisoner of war in that same conflict takes him to a whole new level... but it doesn't make him the best man for the job.
 

2008/8/3

Are you in the mood...

Tags:
@ 06:19 AM (15 months, 11 days ago)

 

...for a little John Lee Hooker and Bonnie Raitt funky blues?

This duet is on Hooker's album "The Healer"... it won a Grammy for Best Traditional Blues Recording...his first Grammy.

I found it on 2 videos, one features John Lee more...the other, Bonnie. I looove her sliiide.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGCgRpV4H3k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rT-FoZt95D4

 

2008/8/2

Late-night jokes recap 8/2

Tags:
@ 06:42 AM (15 months, 12 days ago)
 
"Have you seen the new commercial? The McCain campaign compares Barack Obama to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton. And today the Obama campaign released an ad comparing John McCain to Zsa Zsa Gabor and Bea Arthur." --Jay Leno
 
"McCain is not backing down. He's defending the commercial, where he compared Barack Obama to Paris Hilton, as being 'all talk and little action.' That's what he said. Like Paris, Barack Obama is all talk and little action. Really? Has he seen her sex video? There is no talk. It is all action." --Jay Leno
 
"A new campaign ad from John McCain unfavorably compares Barack Obama and Britney Spears. Reporters tried to contact McCain to get a response to this criticism, but they couldn’t get a hold of him. He was busy having his dinner on a TV tray watching 'Jeopardy.'" --David Letterman
 
"Barack Obama told Tom Brokaw, the other day, what he's looking for in a vice president is someone who would tell him when he’s wrong. Wouldn't Hillary be the best candidate? She's been telling him he's been dead wrong since the beginning on this." –Jay Leno
 
"There's excitement in the air over the Olympics...also lead, arsenic, benzene." --David Letterman
 
"The Olympics start next week. For some reason, they're having them in Beijing, and the government right now is very hard at work trying to cover up all the horrible things they do in that country every day. It's like when your mom comes to visit your dorm." --Jimmy Kimmel
 
"It looks like Hillary Clinton still has a shot at being vice president. Yeah, if John McCain picks her." --Jay Leno
 
"The latest politic gossip is that Hillary Clinton is not particularly high on Barack Obama's vice presidential list. In fact, turns out she's somewhere between the Reverend Wright and Jesse Jackson." --Jay Leno
 
"And according to the TV show 'Extra,' former vice president Dan Quayle, remember him? He's in the running to join the cast of 'Dancing with the Stars.' That's true, Dan Quayle, you remember, he was vice president under the first George Bush. See, that was back in the day when the president was smart and the vice president was an idiot. Now, of course, everything's turned around" --Jay Leno
 
"Time magazine says that many top Republicans are worried that lately, John McCain has been taking too negative a tone. When he heard this, McCain said, 'Shut your piehole.' Good for him." --Conan O'Brien
 
"I don't like this silent picking thing. I think Obama should pick his vice president the old-fashioned way -- put 16 candidates in a mansion, make out with them in a hot tub and eliminate them one-by-one." --Jimmy Kimmel
 
"Heard about this group called 'Prayer at the Pump'? There are prayer groups that are springing up, and they go to gas stations and they hold hands and they pray for lower gas prices. Otherwise known as the Bush energy plan." --Jay Leno
 
"Now you think I'm exaggerating, but they had a practice today in Beijing for the Olympics and a javelin thrower threw the javelin up into the air and it stuck." --David Letterman
 
"While Barack Obama was campaigning in Germany, he spoke to a half million people in Germany, a half million people. And while he was doing that, John McCain, he wasn't laying around, no, no, John McCain was out driving in his driveway and he backed over the mailbox." --David Letterman
 
"The mayor of Denver announced if people at the Democratic Convention sleep in his park, he will turn the sprinklers on them. And he said if John Edwards and his girlfriend show up, he will turn the hose on them. So, there you go." --Jay Leno
 
"There's a million of these jokes. Poor John McCain. The media is so in love. They're all over Barack Obama. And McCain can't get any media attention. Did you see what McCain did today? He kept getting in and out of his limo today with no underwear on, just to get the photographers." --Jay Leno
 
"Yesterday, federal immigration officials arrested 43 illegal immigrants from Mexico in Hawaii! In Hawaii! How lost were they? Boy! And today, President Bush called for building a fence around Hawaii." --Jay Leno
 

2008/8/1

McCain morphs into Grandpa Simpson

Tags:
@ 08:06 AM (15 months, 13 days ago)

When John McCain's ad "Celeb" hit the airwaves many people said it was just plain silly...that the smear campaign has come up with a new spin on the superficial. They're attacking Obama because he's a celebrity! Only someone from McCain's campaign would find something wrong with being popular. Having never experienced much of it, you see...
 
But the ad stirred up a lot of attention and I can just imagine the high-fiving in the McCain camp--“Yessss! We’ve applied the Rove handbook perfectly! We are suuuuper geniuses!”
 
Uh, except for a little problem. Just because your attack is aimed at your opponent’s strength doesn’t mean it makes sense...and even McCain’s own allies and former close advisers are agreeing that the “celebrity” angle is simply ridiculous.
 
Here's a spoof of McCain's "celebrity" attack ad.
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fvvNU7fBxk
 
Meanwhile, speaking at an economic town hall in Iowa, Barack Obama pushes back on McCain's Britney/Paris "celebrity" charge:
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puLUpJpOOGo
 
This alone would be an awesome ad. No fancy PR firm voice over, no fancy graphics. no cutting to cheesy stock footage...just Obama in his own words is powerful enough. One candidate, at a podium, eloquently tearing his opponent to verbal shreds. He is confident, aggressive, convincing, and dismissive of McCain's smear all at once.
 
Obama is his own best messenger.
 
If McCain's people are this desperate this early in the race, brace yourself for them to play more hardball and throw more slime. Remember, McCain ceded control of his campaign to Rove/Schmidt/Davis. They've done this before...a lot. The run of attacks against Obama over the last couple of weeks have been veeeery reminiscent of the McCain-fathered-a-bastard-black-baby bunch.
 
See, that's the only way McCain can win, by playing dirty and tearing Obama down. All he has to do is show an outrageous ad a couple of times and the media will cover it and keep it going for days.
 
So while Obama's campaign introduced the "low road express" site....
 
http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/mccainslowroadexpress/
 
....McCain's campaign accused them of playing the race card...which is laughable...but it was all over cable news.
 
BTW--what's funny about McCain's celebrity attack ad is that Paris Hilton's wealthy daddy Hilton has showered McCain with mucho cash...I wonder if Camp McCain’s phones were ringing off the hook with complaints.