TODAY'S TOPICS: McCain Speech, Krugman, Nichols, "Resentment Card", DoubleThink, Protesters = Terrorists?, Daily Show
“Guantanamo bay isn’t a prison, it’s a leadership academy.”
-- Jon Stewart is the first to use the analogy I’ve been using here for months…”If John McCain if a hero for being tortured then Guantanamo Bay is full of heroes.” The only difference being McCain bombed and murdered innocent people in THEIR country, while most in Guantanamo are innocent and have never been to America. Who’s the terrorist again????
'Change is coming.'
-- John “the disgrace” McCain…what the F***????
MCCAIN: WORST ACCEPTANCE SPEECH EVER???
Z's Special Comment:
Hey everybody, did you guys know that McCain is going to bring change to America? Did you know he was a POW that was tortured??? Isn’t that amazing? What a great President people who are tortured make! As for change, just ignore the fact that Republicans have been in charge for the last eight years and that he’s agreed with Bush 90% of the time. He’s still technically “a change”!! He certainly is disgusting to look at and listen to.
My hat goes off to anyone that could sit through the whole speech last night because it was abysmal. I just couldn’t do it. But I certainly got the gist…he’s a horrible, horrible man, and terribly unsuited to be the leader of anything more than a jamboree.
McCain's address was apparently seen by about 38.9 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research. Obama received 38.4 million. Maybe that’s a good thing though? I’ve been saying that one of the big problems is that people don’t know how terrible McCain really is, and largely have formed their opinion based on what the media and way TOO MANY Democrats say about him. Perhaps seeing him live like this, and comparing it to Obama, could work in our favor? I suspect it will….
One thing I did thoroughly enjoy was the war veteran protesting the speech with his big sign: “McCain votes against veterans”. That got all the Borg in the crowd to start chanting USA, USA, USA…but it clearly flustered old grumpy gramps. And just to remind everyone how PATHETIC McCain’s record is on veterans issues, despite his lies to the contrary, let me remind you of the facts:
Senator McCain missed 10 of the 14 Senate votes on Iraq up to the middle of last year. This year, he has missed them all - including one to honor the sacrifice of the fallen.
He has voted to table or oppose:
20 million dollars for veteran's health care facilities.
322 million dollars for safety equipment for our troops in Iraq.
430 million dollars for veterans outpatient care.
One billion dollars in new equipment for the National Guard.
And, in separate votes:
One billion, 500 million dollars in additional Veterans' medical care, to be created by closing tax loopholes.
And one billion, 800 million dollars in additional Veterans' medical care, to be created by closing tax loopholes.
And yet, he has the audacity to stand in front of the very Veterans he repeatedly and consistently sells out, and claim it is Obama that puts politics first, and country second.
And back to my borg analogy (one I’ve been using in describing Republicans for years now, and just saw Krugman use it today!). Do you ever sit back and just look at the Republican crowds? It’s a frightening expose of what appears like an army of almost plastic dolls, with soulless eyes, plastered plastic fake smiles, and a deep, deep unquestioning stupidity that’s hard to put a finger on.
These are people that DEFINE ORWELL’S term “Doublethink”:
"The act of simultaneously accepting as correct two mutually contradictory beliefs…To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then, when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just so long as it is needed, to deny the existence of objective reality and all the while to take account of the reality which one denies — all this is indispensably necessary."
How else could they roar with applause when Palin talked about special needs children yet simultaneously supporting cutting those same programs that help them? (as Palin did) How can they cheer things like having compassion and peace when they simultaneously support the bombing of nations that did nothing to them? How else could they simultaneously argue Palin is qualified, but Obama is not? Or that executive experience is critical (Palin), but it’s really not (McCain)? The list of this kind of Doublethink with these people is infinite.
As Orwell acutely points out, once a person can utilize Doublethink, that person becomes something akin to a thoughtless machine…a Borg…connected to the Matrix in such a way that NOTHING, no facts, no revelations, can change their absolute, and complete belief in, and dedication to, what they are being told by their leaders (the GOP).
Just as the GOP borg voters and delegates can Doublethink with apparent ease, so are their leaders, from Rove to Palin to O’Reilly (as the Daily Show pointed out in yesterday’s post), able to completely flip their entire rationale for one point of view to the exact opposite, without batting an eye. That kind of moral and intellectual dishonesty borders on the sociopathic. At some point, we may just have to have a revolution in this country, because these people are no fellow countryman of mine…they are a disease that’s killing our democracy.
If you aren’t yet convinced of the absolutely perfect fit between GOP faithful and the concept of Doublethink, try this passage from 1984 out for size:
"His mind slid away into the labyrinthine world of doublethink. To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully-constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them; to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it, to believe that democracy was impossible and that the Party was the guardian of democracy; to forget whatever it was necessary to forget, then to draw it back at the moment when it was needed, and then promptly to forget it again: and above all, to apply the same process to the process itself. That was the ultimate subtlety: consciously to induce unconsciousness, and then, once again, to become unconscious of the act of hypnosis you had just performed. Even to understand the word 'doublethink' involved using doublethink.[1]
It is indeed a frightening movement, and party….
VIDEO SECTION
Thank you! A reporter who is honest: McCain was horrible!! That’s just a fact, not opinion. Old grumpy gramps is barely qualified to operate an elevator, let alone the free world and 10,000 nuclear weapons!
Watch Jeffrey Toobin go off CNN talking points that demand “balance”, no matter how dishonest you have to be…
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/09/05/jeffrey-toobin-im-not-gonna-lie-mccain-was-shockingly-bad/
Daily Show making fun of gop convention...like shooting fish in a barrel:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BFz2jVRch8&feature=related
Watch the latest Greenwald short film on how Fox is using IDENTICAL attacks against Obama as they did Kerry. One I find most laughable, and that the other corporate media report like robots without question too, is the National Journal’s (a right wing rag) ranking of each candidate, right at election time, as being the most liberal Senator. Let me be clear, they both ARE NOT the most liberal, and anyone who knows anything about the issues understands this. The fact that reporters cite this magazine’s study is a travesty.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lM3oww9Vk-c
Slacker uprising trailer – new Michael moore film:
http://slackeruprising.com/?utm_source=rgemail
McCain camp makes it clear they are not letting the press question Sarah Palin. So there you have it, reporters are being arrested and abused by the HUNDREDS in St. Paul, and now we can’t even ask questions of the Vice Presidential candidate. Watch as the McCain rep actually mocks and belittles the concept that the media has a right, and the voters too, to question her:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/09/05/clock-is-ticking-as-mccain-campaign-hides-palin-from-the-press/
ARTICLE SECTION: Krugman, Nichols
John Nichols dissects the McCain speech…a surreal journey by the suddenly “anti republican- Republican maverick…who’s not anti-republican, and not a maverick…wow…
A few clips:
In the eighth year of Republican dominance of the executive branch of the federal government, after an extended period in which Republicans also controlled the legislative branch of the same federal government, the party's nominee for president told its convention, "We need to change the way government does almost everything…"
SNIP
The whole anti-Republican Republican ruse might have succeeded, were it not for the fact that McCain's rhetoric was at odds not merely with his own voting record - 90 percent with Bush - and his own Bush-on-steroids agenda. Even as he was pledging to "change the way government does almost everything," the senator from Arizona announced his commitment to much, much more of the same.
http://www.truthout.org/article/the-anti-republican-republican-who-is-really-a-republican
Paul Krugman NAILS the GOP strategy on display at their convention, the same as I alluded to in my last post. It’s this kind of faux resentment of people that are smart, and that supposedly look down on “regular people” like them. It’s what they pinned Gore and Kerry with, and what they are trying to pin Obama as too. It’s a craven and cynical way to campaign, and especially sad that it works with so many Americans who for some reason are deeply intimidated and resentful of people that are educated, seem smarter than them, and know a lot.
The GOP has expertly capitalized on this kind of insecurity by creating a phony narrative that says that people that are educated and knowledgeable, and live in big cities and went to good schools look down on “regular people” (when in fact, it’s the GOP that represents the elite, and is against all policies that help the poor and middle class) and are somehow conspiring against them (by working to increase the minimum wage???) and are somehow a source of their problems...and the nation's problems.
A few clips:
Can the super-rich former governor of Massachusetts - the son of a Fortune 500 C.E.O. who made a vast fortune in the leveraged-buyout business - really keep a straight face while denouncing "Eastern elites"?
SNIP
Can the vice-presidential candidate of a party that has controlled the White House, Congress or both for 26 of the past 28 years, a party that, Borg-like, assimilated much of the D.C. lobbying industry into itself - until Congress changed hands, high-paying lobbying jobs were reserved for loyal Republicans - really portray herself as running against the "Washington elite"? Yes, they can.
SNIP
By selecting Barack Obama as their nominee, the Democrats may have given Republicans an opening: the very qualities that inspire many fervent Obama supporters - the candidate's high-flown eloquence, his coolness factor - have also laid him open to a Nixonian backlash. Unlike many observers, I wasn't surprised at the effectiveness of the McCain "celebrity" ad. It didn't make much sense intellectually, but it skillfully exploited the resentment some voters feel toward Mr. Obama's star quality.
http://www.truthout.org/article/the-resentment-strategy
Cindy McCain(’s first night of Republican National Convention outfit)
From C&L:
Vanity Fair: (remember, the McCains are calling the Obama's elitist)
Oscar de la Renta dress: $3,000
Chanel J12 White Ceramic Watch: $4,500
Three-carat diamond earrings: $280,000
Four-strand pearl necklace: $11,000-$25,000
Shoes, designer unknown: $600
Total: Between $299,100 and $313,100
That’s about 60 times the health care credit McCain proposes to give families for a year. And according to Huffington Post, George W. Bush helped cover the expense:
According to an analysis by the Center for American Progress Action Fund, the McCains have received $313,413 thanks to George Bush’s tax cut.
If John McCain were President, she might have been able to add a bracelet to the ensemble. According to the same study under McCain proposed tax cuts they would have received tax breaks of $367,788.
NEWS CLIPS
GIULIANI: BY REFUSING TO USE THE TERM 'ISLAMIC TERRORISM,' LIBERALS ARE TRYING NOT TO INSULT TERRORISTS: Last night, in his address to the Republican National Convention, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani criticized Democrats for refusing to use the term "Islamic terrorism." "For four days in Denver, the Democrats were afraid to use the term 'Islamic terrorism.' ... I think they believe they will insult someone. Please tell me, who they are insulting if they say, 'Islamic terrorism,'" he said. He concluded, "They are insulting terrorists!" Experts, including those in the Bush administration, disagree; such religious rhetoric is actually counterproductive in combating terrorism. The Department of Homeland Security argues that U.S. officials who invoke references to Islam in describing terrorism may be "unintentionally portraying terrorists, who lack moral and religious legitimacy, as brave fighters, legitimate soldiers or spokesmen for ordinary Muslims." The National Counter Terrorism Center urges public officials to "avoid labeling everything 'Muslim'" because "it reinforces the 'U.S. vs. Islam' framework that Al-Qaeda promotes."
A 4,500-year-old ice shelf "nearly the size of Manhattan" that has "broken away from Ellesmere Island in Canada's northern Arctic" is the latest sign that "warmer temperatures are changing the polar frontier."
POLICE CHARGE RNC PROTESTERS WITH TERRORISM: Yesterday, county protesters charged eight Rrepublican National Convention protesters with "conspiring to cause a riot as part of a terrorist act." The County Attorney "said she could not recall no such case in her 24 years with the prosecutor's office." A lawyer representing several of the suspects "called the charges ridiculous," saying the accusations are "an effort to equate publicly stated plans to blockade traffic and disrupt the RNC as being the same as acts of terrorism." As of yesterday, nearly 300 protesters and journalists have been arrested in the Twin Cities. Salon's Glenn Greenwald called St. Paul "the most militarized I have ever seen an American city be...with troops of federal, state and local law enforcement agents marching around with riot gear, machine guns, and tear gas canisters, shouting military chants and marching in military formations." Some journalists, including Democracy Now's Amy Goodman and two producers for her show, as well as an AP photographer, have been swept up in police arrests; CNN commenter Donna Brazile "was hit by pepper spray as she walked into the Xcel Center" earlier this week. The media and the St. Paul mayor have been largely silent on the outrageous arrests, with Mayor Chris Coleman (D) defending the police's actions. Sign a letter condemning the arrests here.
Friday, September 05, 2008
Thursday, September 04, 2008
TODAY'S TOPICS: Palin Speech, "Liberal Media Myth", Daily Show, Palin Fact Check, Colbert, Greenwald
THE GOP CONVENTION, PALIN SPEECH, MEDIA
So I’m still unclear after watching another couple of hours of Republican propaganda (that I will never get back) what they will do to fix our ailing economy? For that matter, I’m unclear if they have any idea of what it’s like outside the gated communities where they live, because I haven’t heard them say anything substantive, about, well, anything. Its one of the most surreal things I’ve ever seen…kind of like watching people that live in an alternative universe.
McCain senior advisor Rick Davis said as much:
“This election is not about issues,” said Davis. “This election is about a composite view of what people take away from these candidates.”
It’s a party of no ideas because none of their ideas have ever worked. They do one thing well, attack others and provide overreaching character driven narratives that have no basis in reality but is effective as giving candy to a baby…the only difference is the baby is the minds of millions of American voters and the candy are these narratives that turn the complex into the simplistic...
I’m sure we’ll get a few specifics from McSame tonight…but mostly those will be just worn out slogans that have been long dis-proven, like tax cuts for the rich will make the economy grow! Or that he’ll make health care more affordable…when in fact he’ll actually destroy what little our system already provides through employment. And of course, you can bet that he’s going to do a lot of war blustering and posturing, because old bloody McCain wants someone to bomb, and he wants to them bomb NOW!
PALIN’S SPEECH DEBUNKED
But let’s get back to Palin.
Anyone who's life work is to get polar bears off the endangered species list, drill for oil in the refuge, deny global warming, oppose abortion even in cases of rape, opposes sex education and contraception, believes Iraq is “God’s War”, tried to ban certain books from the library as Mayor, and believes creationism should be taught in our schools along side science has SERIOUS PROBLEMS!
All I kept thinking as I listened to Palin speak was this is one petty, smarmy, and snide woman…that can read a speech written by people she doesn’t even know fairly well.
Unbelievably, Palin had the nerve to say OBAMA was the one who was both inexperienced and that provided no solutions, just talk!! This from a woman who has NO experience, and talked for 30 minutes about NOTHING! All she had was one liner’s written for her by the McCain campaign…no substance whatsoever, and she has the gall to say Obama doesn’t have any substance?
Obama, the man who went through 24 specific proposals in his speech last Thursday doesn’t have substance? Worse, I saw more than one reporter actually repeat Palin’s attack, and ask whether Obama needed to put more “meat” in his speeches! What a crock of shit…did they see the same speech I did?
The media of course LOVED the speech, just as I said in yesterday's post they would love no matter what she said because that's what THEIR NARRATIVE called for. The same media that the GOP Neanderthals are attacking 24/7 for being liberal and biased just praised one of the slimiest and substance free speeches of all time! What a joke.
Once again, it doesn’t matter that the speech had no substance, or that it was LADEN with lies and distortions. No, all the media cares is how it is perceived from an emotional and strategic standpoint, and how it fits into their artificial narratives, not whether it has merit or worth.
The obama Campaign Spokesman Bill Burton responds to Palin:
“The speech that Governor Palin was well delivered, but it was written by George Bush’s speechwriter and sounds exactly like the same divisive, partisan attacks we’ve heard from George Bush for the last eight years. If Governor Palin and John McCain want to define ‘change’ as voting with George Bush 90% of the time, that’s their choice, but we don’t think the American people are ready to take a 10% chance on change.”
Putting Words in Palin’s Mouth
There was a flutter of attention when McCain campaign manager Rick Davis told a group of Post reporters and editors yesterday that his team was having to rework the vice presidential acceptance speech because the original draft, prepared before Gov. Sarah Palin was chosen, was too “masculine.” While we all wondered to ourselves what might make a speech masculine or feminine, no one batted an eye at the underlying revelation: that the campaign was writing the nominee’s speech before knowing who the nominee would be.
Interesting choice on her part to repeat rank falsehoods that have already been debunked ten times over...a couple quickies before I get to the longer list:
I suspended the state fuel tax, and championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. Strike One.
I told the Congress “thanks, but no thanks,” for that Bridge to Nowhere. Strike Two.
If our state wanted a bridge, we’d build it ourselves. When oil and gas prices went up dramatically, and filled up the state treasury, I sent a large share of that revenue back where it belonged - directly to the people of Alaska. Strike Three.
FACT CHECKING PALIN (from factcheck.org)
PALIN: "I have protected the taxpayers by vetoing wasteful spending ... and championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. I told the Congress 'thanks but no thanks' for that Bridge to Nowhere."
THE FACTS: As mayor of Wasilla, Palin hired a lobbyist and traveled to Washington annually to support earmarks for the town totaling $27 million. In her two years as governor, Alaska has requested nearly $750 million in special federal spending, by far the largest per-capita request in the nation. While Palin notes she rejected plans to build a $398 million bridge from Ketchikan to an island with 50 residents and an airport, that opposition came only after the plan was ridiculed nationally as a "bridge to nowhere."
PALIN: "There is much to like and admire about our opponent. But listening to him speak, it's easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform — not even in the state senate."
THE FACTS: Compared to McCain and his two decades in the Senate, Obama does have a more meager record. But he has worked with Republicans to pass legislation that expanded efforts to intercept illegal shipments of weapons of mass destruction and to help destroy conventional weapons stockpiles. The legislation became law last year. To demean that accomplishment would be to also demean the work of Republican Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, a respected foreign policy voice in the Senate. In Illinois, he was the leader on two big, contentious measures in Illinois: studying racial profiling by police and requiring recordings of interrogations in potential death penalty cases. He also successfully co-sponsored major ethics reform legislation.
PALIN: "The Democratic nominee for president supports plans to raise income taxes, raise payroll taxes, raise investment income taxes, raise the death tax, raise business taxes, and increase the tax burden on the American people by hundreds of billions of dollars."
THE FACTS: Obama would provide $80 billion in tax breaks, mainly for poor workers and the elderly, including tripling the Earned Income Tax Credit for minimum-wage workers and higher credits for larger families. He also would raise income taxes, capital gains and dividend taxes on the wealthiest. He would raise payroll taxes on taxpayers with incomes above $250,000, and he would raise corporate taxes. Small businesses that make more than $250,000 a year would see taxes rise.
MCCAIN: "She's been governor of our largest state, in charge of 20 percent of America's energy supply ... She's responsible for 20 percent of the nation's energy supply. I'm entertained by the comparison and I hope we can keep making that comparison that running a political campaign is somehow comparable to being the executive of the largest state in America," he said in an interview with ABC News' Charles Gibson.
THE FACTS: McCain's phrasing exaggerates both claims. Palin is governor of a state that ranks second nationally in crude oil production, but she's no more "responsible" for that resource than President Bush was when he was governor of Texas, another oil-producing state. In fact, her primary power is the ability to tax oil, which she did in concert with the Alaska Legislature. And where Alaska is the largest state in America, McCain could as easily have called it the 47th largest state — by population.
MCCAIN: "She's the commander of the Alaska National Guard. ... She has been in charge, and she has had national security as one of her primary responsibilities," he said on ABC.
THE FACTS: While governors are in charge of their state guard units, that authority ends whenever those units are called to actual military service. When guard units are deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, for example, they assume those duties under "federal status," which means they report to the Defense Department, not their governors. Alaska's national guard units have a total of about 4,200 personnel, among the smallest of state guard organizations.
SOME IN MEDIA START STRIKING BACK AT MCCAIN/PALIN ATTACK
At least some reporters are offended by the GOP attacks on them for daring to ask tough questions:
The second thing is more insidious: Steve Schmidt has decided, for tactical reasons, to slime the press. He wants the public to believe that there is an unfair–sexist (you gotta love it)–personal assault going on against Palin and her family. This is a smokescreen, intended to divert attention from the very real and responsible vetting that is taking place in the media–about the substance of Palin’s record as mayor and governor.
There is a tendency in the media to kick ourselves, cringe and withdraw, when we are criticized. But I hope my colleagues stand strong in this case: it is important for the public to know that Palin raised taxes as governor, supported the Bridge to Nowhere before she opposed it, pursued pork-barrel projects as mayor, tried to ban books at the local library and thinks the war in Iraq is “a task from God.” The attempts by the McCain campaign to bully us into not reporting such things are not only stupidly aggressive, but unprofessional in the extreme.
-- Joe Klein, Time Magazine
On behalf of the elite media, I would like to say we are very sorry.
We have asked questions this week that we should never have asked.
We have asked pathetic questions like: Who is Sarah Palin? What is her record? Where does she stand on the issues? And is she is qualified to be a heartbeat away from the presidency?
We have asked mean questions like: How well did John McCain know her before he selected her? How well did his campaign vet her? And was she his first choice?
Bad questions. Bad media. Bad.
It is not our job to ask questions. Or it shouldn’t be. To hear from the pols at the Republican National Convention this week, our job is to endorse and support the decisions of the pols.
-- The Politico’s Roger Simon
VIDEO SECTION
Daily Show NAILS Rove, O’Reilly, Morris, and the McCain camp for their overt hypocrisy and double standards…this is fantastic…and man are they scumbags…yet in Rove’s case he gets to be a “journalist”??? He’s not a journalist - he’s a war criminal that should be in jail for life:
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/video/97592/jon_stewart_thrashes_rove%2C_o%27reilly_for_palin_hypocrisy/
Chris Mathews confronts the McCain campaign on their insane attacks on the media for being unfair to Palin…how they can say that with a straight face boggles the mind:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/09/03/matthews-vs-mccains-proxies-on-the-medias-vetting-of-palin/
Watch Real News expose Palin’s SUPPORT of the bridge to nowhere…despite her lies to the contrary. It’s worse than you even think…she’s a cunning liar without an ounce of shame…that much is certain:
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/video/97570/palin_was_for_highly_controversial_%22bridge_to_nowhere%22/
Delusional McCain continues his comedy tour with another doozie implying that Palin has foreign policy experience because…wait for it…Alaska is close to Russia!!! Is this what we’ve been reduced too…
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/09/04/delusional-john-mccain-peddles-alaska-is-close-to-russia-nonsense/
Classic Colbert taking it to that snake Joe Lieberman:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/09/04/colbert-slams-liebermans-bipartisan-duplicity/
Listen to how Republican leaders and MSNBC reporters really feel about the Palin choice…when they don’t know their mikes are on:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrG8w4bb3kg
ARTICLE SECTION: EXPOSING PALIN AND THE GOP PLAYBOOK
Will Bunch expertly breaks down the “Speech to Nowhere”.
A few clips:
It was a Speech to Nowhere because Palin had the nerve to talk at length about John McCain's "torturous interrogations" in the very same speech when she all but condoned the continuation of similar, abhorrent practices that have been directed for eight years by our own U.S. leaders, when she stated that Democrats are "worried that someone won't read them [terrorism suspects] their rights."
SNIP
But more than anything else, it was a Speech to Nowhere because for all the acclaim, the great bulk of it was devoted to one thing, and that is the one thing that millions of Americans are talking about in 2008 when we talk about "change" -- to the ugliest kind of "pit bull" politics, to use Palin's words, that tear down the other side with cheap ad hominem attacks, surrounded by a cloud of half-truths (uh, those "Greek columns"...did you actually even watch Obama's speech? Because there weren't any) and ridiculous innuendo about "parting the waters" which means nothing but fires up a big hockey rink full of Dittoheads. These kind of vicious attacks -- without having the grace to acknowledge that, despite some real differences on issues with Obama, that he has already accomplished something impressive that says something positive about America and the progress we've made -- were utterly lacking in class. And this is what Tom Brokaw considers "winning" -- have we really sunk that low as a nation?. The people of America want and deserve a real debate, now trash talk from the basketball point guard who was once called "Sarah Barracuda."
http://www.truthout.org/article/palins-speech-nowhere
The great Glenn Greenwald on the Palin/McCain whining about the media coverage of her, the GOP created myth of the “liberal media”, and right wing sexists charging the media and Democrats as being SEXIST!! Watching all this, and the media’s swooning over this sick woman really makes me start questioning the very cosmos itself.
A few clips:
The very notion of the "Liberal Media" is one of the most inane myths in American politics -- something spat out and repeated in the lowest right-wing sewers for so long that it has become conventional wisdom -- but Halperin's frequent vouching for that myth, in his role of "journalist," illustrates all one needs to know about him. The media's contempt for both John Kerry and Al Gore was matched only by their reverence for George Bush's swagger. The first several months of media coverage this year was dominated by Jerimiah Wright, lapel pins, bowling scores, Bittergate and elitism. And it is highly unlikely that there has even been a time in American history when the media was as subservient to Government as they were during the Bush era. It's literally hard to imagine a claim that ought to be more discredited in general than the notion of the "liberal media" and its "anti-Republican bias."
But specifically to attribute the media scrutiny of Sarah Palin to this mythical "anti-Republican bias" is absurd beyond description. Palin is undoubtedly the most mysterious and unknown individual to be inserted into our national political scene in decades, if not longer.
SNIP
Thereafter, Palin fired the City Attorney, who was replaced by Ken Jacobus, the counsel for the Alaskan state Republican Party. Between this behavior almost immediately upon becoming Mayor and her subsequent firing of the State Police Commissioner while Governor, Palin has a rather clear pattern of trying to use her power to advance personal grievances and fill government positions with political hacks, cronies, and those who are loyal to her politically -- exactly what has infected so much of the Federal Government over the last eight years. Far worse, shockingly little is known about what she actually thinks and believes, and what little is known suggests some rather extremist and even bizarre leanings, beginning with an attempt to ban books from her local library, even firing the head librarian for refusing to comply.
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/09/04-6
Robert Kuttner also takes apart the bizarro universe speech by Palin…totally devoid of substance, and completely separated from reality...but a great distraction from the real issues for the GOP.
A few clips:
So now we understand what John McCain's handlers were up to: Intensify the culture wars, and once again use cultural symbols as substitutes for policies. In particular, use Hockey Mom Sarah Palin to change the subject from why regular Americans are hurting in the pocketbook to why Palin is a more regular American than Barack Obama. Will the Democrats change it back? Whether they do will decide the election.
SNIP
The more important factor, of course, is economic. For nearly a week, the Palin drama has diverted attention from the real issue in the campaign-the weak economy and its effect on regular Americans. This was the Republican gamble. McCain's handlers were willing to take the messy Palin details in exchange for the distraction. Indeed, the rich details served to amplify the distraction.
It's understandable that McCain and Palin want to change the subject, for they have so little to offer voters. Bloggers and talking heads have taken the bait. And it's legitimate that they should expose the holes in Palin's story. But the responsibility for changing the subject back to pocketbook issues belongs to the Democrats.
http://www.alternet.org/election08/97593/palin%27s_speech_tactic%3A_substitute_cultural_symbols_for_actual_policies/
THE GOP CONVENTION, PALIN SPEECH, MEDIA
So I’m still unclear after watching another couple of hours of Republican propaganda (that I will never get back) what they will do to fix our ailing economy? For that matter, I’m unclear if they have any idea of what it’s like outside the gated communities where they live, because I haven’t heard them say anything substantive, about, well, anything. Its one of the most surreal things I’ve ever seen…kind of like watching people that live in an alternative universe.
McCain senior advisor Rick Davis said as much:
“This election is not about issues,” said Davis. “This election is about a composite view of what people take away from these candidates.”
It’s a party of no ideas because none of their ideas have ever worked. They do one thing well, attack others and provide overreaching character driven narratives that have no basis in reality but is effective as giving candy to a baby…the only difference is the baby is the minds of millions of American voters and the candy are these narratives that turn the complex into the simplistic...
I’m sure we’ll get a few specifics from McSame tonight…but mostly those will be just worn out slogans that have been long dis-proven, like tax cuts for the rich will make the economy grow! Or that he’ll make health care more affordable…when in fact he’ll actually destroy what little our system already provides through employment. And of course, you can bet that he’s going to do a lot of war blustering and posturing, because old bloody McCain wants someone to bomb, and he wants to them bomb NOW!
PALIN’S SPEECH DEBUNKED
But let’s get back to Palin.
Anyone who's life work is to get polar bears off the endangered species list, drill for oil in the refuge, deny global warming, oppose abortion even in cases of rape, opposes sex education and contraception, believes Iraq is “God’s War”, tried to ban certain books from the library as Mayor, and believes creationism should be taught in our schools along side science has SERIOUS PROBLEMS!
All I kept thinking as I listened to Palin speak was this is one petty, smarmy, and snide woman…that can read a speech written by people she doesn’t even know fairly well.
Unbelievably, Palin had the nerve to say OBAMA was the one who was both inexperienced and that provided no solutions, just talk!! This from a woman who has NO experience, and talked for 30 minutes about NOTHING! All she had was one liner’s written for her by the McCain campaign…no substance whatsoever, and she has the gall to say Obama doesn’t have any substance?
Obama, the man who went through 24 specific proposals in his speech last Thursday doesn’t have substance? Worse, I saw more than one reporter actually repeat Palin’s attack, and ask whether Obama needed to put more “meat” in his speeches! What a crock of shit…did they see the same speech I did?
The media of course LOVED the speech, just as I said in yesterday's post they would love no matter what she said because that's what THEIR NARRATIVE called for. The same media that the GOP Neanderthals are attacking 24/7 for being liberal and biased just praised one of the slimiest and substance free speeches of all time! What a joke.
Once again, it doesn’t matter that the speech had no substance, or that it was LADEN with lies and distortions. No, all the media cares is how it is perceived from an emotional and strategic standpoint, and how it fits into their artificial narratives, not whether it has merit or worth.
The obama Campaign Spokesman Bill Burton responds to Palin:
“The speech that Governor Palin was well delivered, but it was written by George Bush’s speechwriter and sounds exactly like the same divisive, partisan attacks we’ve heard from George Bush for the last eight years. If Governor Palin and John McCain want to define ‘change’ as voting with George Bush 90% of the time, that’s their choice, but we don’t think the American people are ready to take a 10% chance on change.”
Putting Words in Palin’s Mouth
There was a flutter of attention when McCain campaign manager Rick Davis told a group of Post reporters and editors yesterday that his team was having to rework the vice presidential acceptance speech because the original draft, prepared before Gov. Sarah Palin was chosen, was too “masculine.” While we all wondered to ourselves what might make a speech masculine or feminine, no one batted an eye at the underlying revelation: that the campaign was writing the nominee’s speech before knowing who the nominee would be.
Interesting choice on her part to repeat rank falsehoods that have already been debunked ten times over...a couple quickies before I get to the longer list:
I suspended the state fuel tax, and championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. Strike One.
I told the Congress “thanks, but no thanks,” for that Bridge to Nowhere. Strike Two.
If our state wanted a bridge, we’d build it ourselves. When oil and gas prices went up dramatically, and filled up the state treasury, I sent a large share of that revenue back where it belonged - directly to the people of Alaska. Strike Three.
FACT CHECKING PALIN (from factcheck.org)
PALIN: "I have protected the taxpayers by vetoing wasteful spending ... and championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. I told the Congress 'thanks but no thanks' for that Bridge to Nowhere."
THE FACTS: As mayor of Wasilla, Palin hired a lobbyist and traveled to Washington annually to support earmarks for the town totaling $27 million. In her two years as governor, Alaska has requested nearly $750 million in special federal spending, by far the largest per-capita request in the nation. While Palin notes she rejected plans to build a $398 million bridge from Ketchikan to an island with 50 residents and an airport, that opposition came only after the plan was ridiculed nationally as a "bridge to nowhere."
PALIN: "There is much to like and admire about our opponent. But listening to him speak, it's easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform — not even in the state senate."
THE FACTS: Compared to McCain and his two decades in the Senate, Obama does have a more meager record. But he has worked with Republicans to pass legislation that expanded efforts to intercept illegal shipments of weapons of mass destruction and to help destroy conventional weapons stockpiles. The legislation became law last year. To demean that accomplishment would be to also demean the work of Republican Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, a respected foreign policy voice in the Senate. In Illinois, he was the leader on two big, contentious measures in Illinois: studying racial profiling by police and requiring recordings of interrogations in potential death penalty cases. He also successfully co-sponsored major ethics reform legislation.
PALIN: "The Democratic nominee for president supports plans to raise income taxes, raise payroll taxes, raise investment income taxes, raise the death tax, raise business taxes, and increase the tax burden on the American people by hundreds of billions of dollars."
THE FACTS: Obama would provide $80 billion in tax breaks, mainly for poor workers and the elderly, including tripling the Earned Income Tax Credit for minimum-wage workers and higher credits for larger families. He also would raise income taxes, capital gains and dividend taxes on the wealthiest. He would raise payroll taxes on taxpayers with incomes above $250,000, and he would raise corporate taxes. Small businesses that make more than $250,000 a year would see taxes rise.
MCCAIN: "She's been governor of our largest state, in charge of 20 percent of America's energy supply ... She's responsible for 20 percent of the nation's energy supply. I'm entertained by the comparison and I hope we can keep making that comparison that running a political campaign is somehow comparable to being the executive of the largest state in America," he said in an interview with ABC News' Charles Gibson.
THE FACTS: McCain's phrasing exaggerates both claims. Palin is governor of a state that ranks second nationally in crude oil production, but she's no more "responsible" for that resource than President Bush was when he was governor of Texas, another oil-producing state. In fact, her primary power is the ability to tax oil, which she did in concert with the Alaska Legislature. And where Alaska is the largest state in America, McCain could as easily have called it the 47th largest state — by population.
MCCAIN: "She's the commander of the Alaska National Guard. ... She has been in charge, and she has had national security as one of her primary responsibilities," he said on ABC.
THE FACTS: While governors are in charge of their state guard units, that authority ends whenever those units are called to actual military service. When guard units are deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, for example, they assume those duties under "federal status," which means they report to the Defense Department, not their governors. Alaska's national guard units have a total of about 4,200 personnel, among the smallest of state guard organizations.
SOME IN MEDIA START STRIKING BACK AT MCCAIN/PALIN ATTACK
At least some reporters are offended by the GOP attacks on them for daring to ask tough questions:
The second thing is more insidious: Steve Schmidt has decided, for tactical reasons, to slime the press. He wants the public to believe that there is an unfair–sexist (you gotta love it)–personal assault going on against Palin and her family. This is a smokescreen, intended to divert attention from the very real and responsible vetting that is taking place in the media–about the substance of Palin’s record as mayor and governor.
There is a tendency in the media to kick ourselves, cringe and withdraw, when we are criticized. But I hope my colleagues stand strong in this case: it is important for the public to know that Palin raised taxes as governor, supported the Bridge to Nowhere before she opposed it, pursued pork-barrel projects as mayor, tried to ban books at the local library and thinks the war in Iraq is “a task from God.” The attempts by the McCain campaign to bully us into not reporting such things are not only stupidly aggressive, but unprofessional in the extreme.
-- Joe Klein, Time Magazine
On behalf of the elite media, I would like to say we are very sorry.
We have asked questions this week that we should never have asked.
We have asked pathetic questions like: Who is Sarah Palin? What is her record? Where does she stand on the issues? And is she is qualified to be a heartbeat away from the presidency?
We have asked mean questions like: How well did John McCain know her before he selected her? How well did his campaign vet her? And was she his first choice?
Bad questions. Bad media. Bad.
It is not our job to ask questions. Or it shouldn’t be. To hear from the pols at the Republican National Convention this week, our job is to endorse and support the decisions of the pols.
-- The Politico’s Roger Simon
VIDEO SECTION
Daily Show NAILS Rove, O’Reilly, Morris, and the McCain camp for their overt hypocrisy and double standards…this is fantastic…and man are they scumbags…yet in Rove’s case he gets to be a “journalist”??? He’s not a journalist - he’s a war criminal that should be in jail for life:
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/video/97592/jon_stewart_thrashes_rove%2C_o%27reilly_for_palin_hypocrisy/
Chris Mathews confronts the McCain campaign on their insane attacks on the media for being unfair to Palin…how they can say that with a straight face boggles the mind:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/09/03/matthews-vs-mccains-proxies-on-the-medias-vetting-of-palin/
Watch Real News expose Palin’s SUPPORT of the bridge to nowhere…despite her lies to the contrary. It’s worse than you even think…she’s a cunning liar without an ounce of shame…that much is certain:
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/video/97570/palin_was_for_highly_controversial_%22bridge_to_nowhere%22/
Delusional McCain continues his comedy tour with another doozie implying that Palin has foreign policy experience because…wait for it…Alaska is close to Russia!!! Is this what we’ve been reduced too…
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/09/04/delusional-john-mccain-peddles-alaska-is-close-to-russia-nonsense/
Classic Colbert taking it to that snake Joe Lieberman:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/09/04/colbert-slams-liebermans-bipartisan-duplicity/
Listen to how Republican leaders and MSNBC reporters really feel about the Palin choice…when they don’t know their mikes are on:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrG8w4bb3kg
ARTICLE SECTION: EXPOSING PALIN AND THE GOP PLAYBOOK
Will Bunch expertly breaks down the “Speech to Nowhere”.
A few clips:
It was a Speech to Nowhere because Palin had the nerve to talk at length about John McCain's "torturous interrogations" in the very same speech when she all but condoned the continuation of similar, abhorrent practices that have been directed for eight years by our own U.S. leaders, when she stated that Democrats are "worried that someone won't read them [terrorism suspects] their rights."
SNIP
But more than anything else, it was a Speech to Nowhere because for all the acclaim, the great bulk of it was devoted to one thing, and that is the one thing that millions of Americans are talking about in 2008 when we talk about "change" -- to the ugliest kind of "pit bull" politics, to use Palin's words, that tear down the other side with cheap ad hominem attacks, surrounded by a cloud of half-truths (uh, those "Greek columns"...did you actually even watch Obama's speech? Because there weren't any) and ridiculous innuendo about "parting the waters" which means nothing but fires up a big hockey rink full of Dittoheads. These kind of vicious attacks -- without having the grace to acknowledge that, despite some real differences on issues with Obama, that he has already accomplished something impressive that says something positive about America and the progress we've made -- were utterly lacking in class. And this is what Tom Brokaw considers "winning" -- have we really sunk that low as a nation?. The people of America want and deserve a real debate, now trash talk from the basketball point guard who was once called "Sarah Barracuda."
http://www.truthout.org/article/palins-speech-nowhere
The great Glenn Greenwald on the Palin/McCain whining about the media coverage of her, the GOP created myth of the “liberal media”, and right wing sexists charging the media and Democrats as being SEXIST!! Watching all this, and the media’s swooning over this sick woman really makes me start questioning the very cosmos itself.
A few clips:
The very notion of the "Liberal Media" is one of the most inane myths in American politics -- something spat out and repeated in the lowest right-wing sewers for so long that it has become conventional wisdom -- but Halperin's frequent vouching for that myth, in his role of "journalist," illustrates all one needs to know about him. The media's contempt for both John Kerry and Al Gore was matched only by their reverence for George Bush's swagger. The first several months of media coverage this year was dominated by Jerimiah Wright, lapel pins, bowling scores, Bittergate and elitism. And it is highly unlikely that there has even been a time in American history when the media was as subservient to Government as they were during the Bush era. It's literally hard to imagine a claim that ought to be more discredited in general than the notion of the "liberal media" and its "anti-Republican bias."
But specifically to attribute the media scrutiny of Sarah Palin to this mythical "anti-Republican bias" is absurd beyond description. Palin is undoubtedly the most mysterious and unknown individual to be inserted into our national political scene in decades, if not longer.
SNIP
Thereafter, Palin fired the City Attorney, who was replaced by Ken Jacobus, the counsel for the Alaskan state Republican Party. Between this behavior almost immediately upon becoming Mayor and her subsequent firing of the State Police Commissioner while Governor, Palin has a rather clear pattern of trying to use her power to advance personal grievances and fill government positions with political hacks, cronies, and those who are loyal to her politically -- exactly what has infected so much of the Federal Government over the last eight years. Far worse, shockingly little is known about what she actually thinks and believes, and what little is known suggests some rather extremist and even bizarre leanings, beginning with an attempt to ban books from her local library, even firing the head librarian for refusing to comply.
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/09/04-6
Robert Kuttner also takes apart the bizarro universe speech by Palin…totally devoid of substance, and completely separated from reality...but a great distraction from the real issues for the GOP.
A few clips:
So now we understand what John McCain's handlers were up to: Intensify the culture wars, and once again use cultural symbols as substitutes for policies. In particular, use Hockey Mom Sarah Palin to change the subject from why regular Americans are hurting in the pocketbook to why Palin is a more regular American than Barack Obama. Will the Democrats change it back? Whether they do will decide the election.
SNIP
The more important factor, of course, is economic. For nearly a week, the Palin drama has diverted attention from the real issue in the campaign-the weak economy and its effect on regular Americans. This was the Republican gamble. McCain's handlers were willing to take the messy Palin details in exchange for the distraction. Indeed, the rich details served to amplify the distraction.
It's understandable that McCain and Palin want to change the subject, for they have so little to offer voters. Bloggers and talking heads have taken the bait. And it's legitimate that they should expose the holes in Palin's story. But the responsibility for changing the subject back to pocketbook issues belongs to the Democrats.
http://www.alternet.org/election08/97593/palin%27s_speech_tactic%3A_substitute_cultural_symbols_for_actual_policies/
Wednesday, September 03, 2008
TODAY'S TOPICS: GOP Convention, Police State, Palin's Record, Pitt on McCain, Scheer on Palin, Michael Moore
MY TAKE ON LAST NIGHT’S GOP CONVENTION…AN ORWELLIAN NIGHTMARE
Yeah, I actually watched the Republican convention last night...for awhile it was literally hilarious. In the entire night they didn't give ONE fact that substantively backed up any serious policy proposals. IN fact, I'm not sure there were any real policy proposals at all (except war and tax cuts). It was just a bunch of very very weird, surreal, and meaningless slogans and metaphors...one liner after another, each with no basis in reality...almost like they live in an alternative reality. A reality in which John Wayne, Sylvester Stalone, and Arnold Schwarzenegger movies were ACTUAL LIFE.
It was just all about the cult of personality, and nothing about substance. It was totally bizarre. They are a dying and desperate party.
The question is whether enough Americans are getting smart enough to see through the propaganda, and start realizing the profound difference between what Obama offers versus McCain (and the GOP). A seemingly easy task until you watch the TV media's coverage...then my laughing turned into groans and cursing. Exhibit A. was the Lieberman (who I would literally beat up if I ever crossed him on the street) and Thompson speeches...completely mind boggling in their childishness.
Here's where it got really weird though. The media generally agreed that yes, the speeches were totally lacking in facts or substance, and were a total rewrite of everything the GOP represents, and represented a literal "scrubbing" of the last 8 years and failed to even mention what people are facing economically today. YET, these reporters ALSO said what GREAT speeches they were because they were so effective in their deception!!!
Think about that...we're really talking 1984 now, when our media actually says, to our face, yes, what they are saying is untrue, and that's why its so good. Unbelievable. Again though, will people start truly seeing through the attempts by the GOP to appeal to peoples desire to have everything broken down into a movie like script that is separate from the complexities of reality?
With the media coverage the way it is, sometimes I don't know about our LONG TERM prospects. Obama is going to win...but how many other candidates out there have his charisma? Or someone as weak as McCain as an opponent? And most of all, how many will have the advantage of running AGAINST 8 years of misery? My point is that Obama winning doesn't mean we're out of the woods...not by a long shot. The fact that the media is this bad, and this race is even close AT ALL, should send a clear message that "the Matrix" is still VERY strong, and people are still incredibly unaware.
It was all broken down into this: a war hero protecting us in a time of danger, one that loves his country and Jesus, versus someone that doesn't love his country and is just some intellectual elitist that thinks he's smarter than you, and just spouts off about "facts" and "details" when what we need is someone that is simple like you...and of course was tortured...
The GOP talking points are actually saying, with a straight face, one after another, that Palin is more fit for the Presidency than Obama. This should make it clear to everyone that these people will say ANYTHING to keep power and win elections. They have that little of respect for the American people...they aren't concerned whether what they are saying are complete lies, because as long as the media focuses on the "game" of politics, and not the substance of issues, they are safe. Just appeal to peoples fears and patriotism...
I'm saying all this not because I'm a Democrat...as I don't give a shit about a party, and I'm not paid by a party or a politician...I work on solving problems and fighting injustice. When that's what you're really trying to do, you realize how totally and completely the Republican party has been hijacked by fundamentalist corporate and christian factions. Problems, and solving them, is not even a part of their mission anymore...it's just ideological...understanding the issues are meaningless.
As for the Democrats, the worst thing about them is the same corporate powers that own the Republicans have taken over about half the Dem party too. We are in a hell of a pickle...but the first thing that must happen is the GOP needs to be exposed for the criminal syndicate they are, then we must take back the democratic party...one way to do that is get more grassroots candidates elected...and get public financing of elections too...nothing would do more to begin our nation's renewal.
Oh, and get ready for a mind bending, bizarro universe speech from Palin tonight. Black will be white, white will be black, cat and dogs living in harmony...you get the gist......may even get a couple laughs from it...but if I know my soap opera and sports metaphors, the media will hail it as a success, because that's what the script demands: the hero standing up to all the attacks and giving a heartwarming performance that connects with the audience...blah, blah, blah...
And how much do you want to bet that she's going to get the biggest ovation ever...even though know one there knew who she was a few days ago and she has no business being the VP nominee...one thing has always been true about Republicans...they will obey orders and do what the talking points tell them...and that's going to be CLAP, AND KEEP CLAPPING!
VIDEO SECTION
Oh snap!!! McCain camp gets owned by Campbell Brown regarding the Palin choice...just as I was saying, by picking Palin they were eventually going to be forced to explain how all their talk about experience jibed with choosing her. From this interview, and their subsequent reaction to it (insane attacks on that old base rallying boogieman: the liberal press!), they clearly thought they could just bully the press by first just repeating nonsensical talking points that didn't answer the question or cry media bias (as they are now doing). Watch:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/212194.php
More Gestapo like attacks from by the police (state) in Minneapolis…welcome to the wonderful world of fascist authoritarianism!
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/09/03/st-paul-cop-dragging-protester-jumped-sprays-crowd/
Its official, the McCain camp vetted Palin for one day…glad to know all that talk about the importance of experience and readiness to lead was a total and complete fraud. If he thought any of that mattered he might have done a little more homework on this crazy b****:
Watch Rachel Maddow dismantle Buchanan for praising Palin…
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/09/03/bombshell-serious-palin-vetting-took-place-one-day-before-official-selection/
If you can stomach it, watch the ridiculous Thompson speech…praised by the media for being effective in talking about nothing….except McCain being a POW!
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/09/03/fred-dalton-thompson-at-the-rnc-palins-great-bidens-a-partierand-did-you-know-mccains-a-pow/
Digby sums Lieberman and his speech up perfectly:
God how I loathe and despise this sanctimonious jackass. How dare he call himself a Democrat and presume to LECTURE and harangue us to vote for a rightwing nutcase for president.
And what’s the first thing out of Wolf Blitzer’s mouth? “Anyone who knows Joe Lieberman, knows that he speaks from the heart.” Sure he does — he’s always been a pr*&k, even when he was a Democrat and he is even more of one today. He is a perfect Republican — hypocritical, bloodthirsty and completely full of shit. Enjoy GOPers, he’s all yours.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/09/02/turncoat-lieberman-addresses-fellow-republicans/
The latest Greenwald short video: John McCain has been exploiting his prisoner of war experience every chance he gets. He has used this story to justify everything from not knowing how many homes he has to his healthcare plan to his marital infidelities to his taste in music. The McCain campaign is even using his POW story in paid ads. But now a veteran who was a prisoner with McCain in Vietnam is explaining loud and clear that being a POW does not qualify McCain to lead our country.
Dr. Phillip Butler knew McCain as a fellow POW. Watch and listen!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KjsEs46C70
ARTICLE SECTION
Will Pitt does what I've been doing on this blog for a number of years now...EXPOSING THE MCCAIN MYTH!! He's not a hero, he's not a Maverick, he's not even a decent human being. IN fact, he's a disgrace that sold his soul a long time ago...
A few clips:
The facts reveal that Mr. McCain has thrown his support behind just about every asinine and idiotic decision made by the single most unpopular and unsuccessful American president there ever was and, God willing, ever will be. The facts reveal that he has boomeranged away from so many policy positions he once espoused, going so far as to denounce a whole sheaf of legislation he had personally authored, because the Republican base despised those issues; but since he needed their support if he ever wanted to have a chance of winning, it was whiplash be damned and the Devil take the hindmost.
The facts, along with plenty of photographic evidence, reveal that while the city of New Orleans drowned beneath the floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina, McCain was snuggling with George W. Bush beneath the very same blanket of willful ignorance and sadistic indifference that has defined this administration.
SNIP
This ugly reality is McCain's well-earned, supremely deserved reward for deciding to abandon any pretense of character or integrity, with deliberation and intent, while crowing to all within hearing about the importance of character and integrity. Everything he abandoned had nothing at all to do with what he believes or doesn't believe as an American or as an elected representative. He abandoned these things because he wants to live in the White House, period. He wants this with every dirty, immoral, shiftless, unprincipled fiber of his being; and through this has become a living, pathetic, abhorrent example of the damage to heart and soul such lust for personal gain can cause.
For men who have neither character, nor integrity, nor honor, nor shame, for men like John McCain, that kind of wanting is all that remains in their heart, and is all that really matters to them anymore. Men like this, men like John McCain, are entirely hollow inside, empty, and truly dead in every way that once counted them human. They are skin, bones, emptiness, and nothing else besides.
http://www.truthout.org/article/the-hollow-man
Robert Scheer exposes the Palin record...just like McCain, she's corrupt and unprincipled, but pretends to be a Maverick. She's also a little sick in the head...also like McCain.
A few clips:
In a display of plucky arrogance at her coming-out press conference, Palin boasted deceptively that if Alaskans wanted that infamous bridge to nowhere, "we'd build it ourselves." She originally had supported having U.S. taxpayers finance that boondoggle, before McCain and others in Congress blasted it.
SNIP
Just witness the success of Palin, who, as mayor of the hamlet of Wasilla, hired a big-time lobbying firm intimately connected with the state's now-indicted Republican Sen. Ted Stevens and thus obtained $27 million in federal earmarks during her tenure. As The Washington Post calculated in a devastating report on Mayor Palin's assault on the federal treasury, her home town of Wasilla (with about 6,000 inhabitants in 2002 when she was mayor) received $6.1 million, or $1,000 per resident in earmarks, almost as much as Boise, Idaho, got this year with a population that is 30 times larger.
It obviously helped to have Alaska's now-indicted senator as chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee. And despite McCain's claims that Palin distinguished herself by breaking with Alaska's discredited Republican establishment in February, the governor sent Stevens a request for $200 million to support various state projects. With representatives like that, it's no wonder that Alaska, despite its oil boom, is still at the top of states subsidized by federal dollars, receiving $1.84 back from Washington for every $1 that Alaskans pay in federal taxes. (California receives 78 cents for every $1.)
http://www.truthout.org/article/palins-alaska-reaps-windfall-profits-mccain-decries
And Michael Moore responds to Leiberman bringing him up in last night's speech...real original Joe, make jokes about Michael Moore!! Funny guy...
A few clips:
What is it with you and your Republican friends always bringing me up? Can't you stop thinking about me? It's starting to sound like a fetish! Stop it! Four years ago at the last Republican Convention, John McCain, in his convention speech, also trashed me, calling me a "disingenuous filmmaker" because I called all of you out in "Fahrenheit 9/11." The crowd at Madison Square Garden went berserk. McCain didn't know I was sitting above him in the press box, and the crowd wouldn't stop screaming at me, so I flashed them the "Big L" loser sign and, well, nine of New York's finest had to help me get out of there alive.
With all the problems facing the world, why is valuable time being wasted reviewing a movie and attacking a filmmaker? And now you, Joe, tonight. Do you think you're energizing the "base" by attacking me? Better take a look at the scoreboard.
SNIP
Two-thirds of the country agree with my position on the war, two-thirds of the country agree with my position on a single-payer universal health care system, two-thirds believe in some form of gun control -- name the documentary, pick the issue, and the American public agrees with Michael Moore. So get over me, will ya? You're only hurting yourself. And I've got to finish taking out the garbage. "...if John McCain is just another partisan Republican, then I'm Michael Moore's favorite Democrat. And I'm not. And I think you know that I'm not." Now click your heels together and say, "There's no place like home on the Republican minority side of the aisle."
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/09/03-2
INFURIATED ABOUT TOUGH CNN INTERVIEW, MCCAIN CANCELS LARRY KING APPEARANCE: On Monday, Tucker Bounds, a campaign spokesman for Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), appeared on CNN for a tough interview with Campbell Brown. Brown repeatedly asked Bounds to name a foreign policy decision made by McCain's running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK). Citing the Bounds interview as "over the line," McCain canceled an appearance on CNN's Larry King Live yesterday. According to the Washington Post, the McCain campaign believes that the media is "on a mission to destroy" Palin and feels "under siege." The Post writes, "The McCain camp has been unusually aggressive in pushing back against the media, and it seems to hope to persuade journalists to back off in their scrutiny of Palin." McCain even considered pulling out of a presidential debate set to be moderated by NBC anchor Tom Brokaw because of what campaign manager Steve Schmidt called NBC's "irresponsible journalism." CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer reported that CNN is standing by Brown. "CNN does not believe that Campbell's interview was over the line," he said. "We are committed to fair coverage of both sides of this historic election."
ELECTION '08 - Palin, the Extreme Choice
Last Friday, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) announced Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) as his vice presidential running mate, "catching almost everyone but his inner circle by surprise." Of the very little that is known about Palin is her extreme right-wing policies on a wide range of issues. For example, she supports teaching creationism in school, favors privatization of health insurance, boasts of being a "lifetime member of the NRA," opposes stem-cell research, and declared that "she would support a ballot question that would deny benefits to homosexual couples." On some of the most important issues of this election -- Iraq, energy, abortion -- Palin represents the extreme right wing.
EXTREME ON ABORTION: One of the only policy stances widely known about Palin when her name was first announced is her extreme opposition to abortion. She once said that she would not support an abortion for her then-14 year old daughter, even if she had been raped. Palin has also declared that "explicit sex-ed programs will not find my support," favoring abstinence-only programs instead. The right wing has lauded both Palin for choosing to carry her most recent child, who has Down Syndrome, to term, and her 17-year-old daughter for deciding to complete her pregnancy. Yet as the American Prospect's Ann Friedman points out, "John McCain and Sarah Palin don't believe women have a right to choose. It's absolutely absurd for the campaign to emphasize the fact that [Palin's daughter] Bristol 'made this decision,' and then push for policies that take away that choice."
EXTREME CLUELESSNESS ON IRAQ: Like George Bush before he became president, Palin has barely traveled outside the United States. She has never been to Iraq or Afghanistan and admitted last year, "I haven't really focused much on the Iraq war." In an interview with Time magazine last month, she seemed completely unaware of McCain's Iraq plan. She said she did not know "what the plan is to ever end the war." She later said it's "tough" to "talk about the plan for the war" because her son will be deployed to Iraq. "Let's make sure we have a plan here," she said. Palin then added, "respecting McCain's position on that too though." Eschewing any substantitve analysis of the war, she asserted simply that U.S. soldiers are "out on a task that is from God." She also seems to believe the Iraq war was about oil, saying that "in many [ways] the reasons for war are fights over energy sources." In another interview, she argued, "we better have a real clear plan for the war," adding, "And it better not have to do with oil."
EXTREME DENIAL OF GLOBAL WARMING: Though McCain points to his position on global warming as a chief difference between himself and President Bush, Palin shares more of the current president's perspective than McCain's. Though she admits that climate change "will affect Alaska more than any other state," she said, "I'm not one though who would attribute it to being man-made." "During last fall's political campaign, Gov. Sarah Palin said she remained unconvinced about how much human emissions contribute to current global warming trends." She has also opposed listing polar bears as endangered due to climate change. In the New York Times today, Tom Friedman writes, "With his choice of Sarah Palin -- the Alaska governor who has advocated drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and does not believe mankind is playing any role in climate change -- for vice president, John McCain has completed his makeover from the greenest Republican to run for president to just another representative of big oil."EXTREME PAWN OF BIG OIL: "No one is closer to the the oil industry than Governor Palin," the Sierra Club's Carl Pope said. Palin told Roll Call last week, "When I look every day, the big oil company's building is right out there next to me, and it's quite a reminder that we should have mutually beneficial relationships with the oil industry." As a champion for Big Oil, Palin is a vociferous proponent of domestic drilling. "I beg to disagree with any candidate who would say we can't drill our way out of our problem," she said. She also dismisses alternative energy solutions as "are far from imminent" focusing instead on opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling. During her race for lieutenant governor, she received a full 10 percent of her campaign donations from executives and their families at the disgraced oil services company Veco. In her 2006 race for governor, another 10 percent of her donations came from the oil and natural gas industry. Though she supported a windfall tax on oil profits -- an idea McCain has blasted -- she also signed a bill just last week "suspending Alaska's gasoline, marine fuel and aviation fuel taxes until Aug. 31, 2009," which will only add to Big Oil's coffers.
MY TAKE ON LAST NIGHT’S GOP CONVENTION…AN ORWELLIAN NIGHTMARE
Yeah, I actually watched the Republican convention last night...for awhile it was literally hilarious. In the entire night they didn't give ONE fact that substantively backed up any serious policy proposals. IN fact, I'm not sure there were any real policy proposals at all (except war and tax cuts). It was just a bunch of very very weird, surreal, and meaningless slogans and metaphors...one liner after another, each with no basis in reality...almost like they live in an alternative reality. A reality in which John Wayne, Sylvester Stalone, and Arnold Schwarzenegger movies were ACTUAL LIFE.
It was just all about the cult of personality, and nothing about substance. It was totally bizarre. They are a dying and desperate party.
The question is whether enough Americans are getting smart enough to see through the propaganda, and start realizing the profound difference between what Obama offers versus McCain (and the GOP). A seemingly easy task until you watch the TV media's coverage...then my laughing turned into groans and cursing. Exhibit A. was the Lieberman (who I would literally beat up if I ever crossed him on the street) and Thompson speeches...completely mind boggling in their childishness.
Here's where it got really weird though. The media generally agreed that yes, the speeches were totally lacking in facts or substance, and were a total rewrite of everything the GOP represents, and represented a literal "scrubbing" of the last 8 years and failed to even mention what people are facing economically today. YET, these reporters ALSO said what GREAT speeches they were because they were so effective in their deception!!!
Think about that...we're really talking 1984 now, when our media actually says, to our face, yes, what they are saying is untrue, and that's why its so good. Unbelievable. Again though, will people start truly seeing through the attempts by the GOP to appeal to peoples desire to have everything broken down into a movie like script that is separate from the complexities of reality?
With the media coverage the way it is, sometimes I don't know about our LONG TERM prospects. Obama is going to win...but how many other candidates out there have his charisma? Or someone as weak as McCain as an opponent? And most of all, how many will have the advantage of running AGAINST 8 years of misery? My point is that Obama winning doesn't mean we're out of the woods...not by a long shot. The fact that the media is this bad, and this race is even close AT ALL, should send a clear message that "the Matrix" is still VERY strong, and people are still incredibly unaware.
It was all broken down into this: a war hero protecting us in a time of danger, one that loves his country and Jesus, versus someone that doesn't love his country and is just some intellectual elitist that thinks he's smarter than you, and just spouts off about "facts" and "details" when what we need is someone that is simple like you...and of course was tortured...
The GOP talking points are actually saying, with a straight face, one after another, that Palin is more fit for the Presidency than Obama. This should make it clear to everyone that these people will say ANYTHING to keep power and win elections. They have that little of respect for the American people...they aren't concerned whether what they are saying are complete lies, because as long as the media focuses on the "game" of politics, and not the substance of issues, they are safe. Just appeal to peoples fears and patriotism...
I'm saying all this not because I'm a Democrat...as I don't give a shit about a party, and I'm not paid by a party or a politician...I work on solving problems and fighting injustice. When that's what you're really trying to do, you realize how totally and completely the Republican party has been hijacked by fundamentalist corporate and christian factions. Problems, and solving them, is not even a part of their mission anymore...it's just ideological...understanding the issues are meaningless.
As for the Democrats, the worst thing about them is the same corporate powers that own the Republicans have taken over about half the Dem party too. We are in a hell of a pickle...but the first thing that must happen is the GOP needs to be exposed for the criminal syndicate they are, then we must take back the democratic party...one way to do that is get more grassroots candidates elected...and get public financing of elections too...nothing would do more to begin our nation's renewal.
Oh, and get ready for a mind bending, bizarro universe speech from Palin tonight. Black will be white, white will be black, cat and dogs living in harmony...you get the gist......may even get a couple laughs from it...but if I know my soap opera and sports metaphors, the media will hail it as a success, because that's what the script demands: the hero standing up to all the attacks and giving a heartwarming performance that connects with the audience...blah, blah, blah...
And how much do you want to bet that she's going to get the biggest ovation ever...even though know one there knew who she was a few days ago and she has no business being the VP nominee...one thing has always been true about Republicans...they will obey orders and do what the talking points tell them...and that's going to be CLAP, AND KEEP CLAPPING!
VIDEO SECTION
Oh snap!!! McCain camp gets owned by Campbell Brown regarding the Palin choice...just as I was saying, by picking Palin they were eventually going to be forced to explain how all their talk about experience jibed with choosing her. From this interview, and their subsequent reaction to it (insane attacks on that old base rallying boogieman: the liberal press!), they clearly thought they could just bully the press by first just repeating nonsensical talking points that didn't answer the question or cry media bias (as they are now doing). Watch:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/212194.php
More Gestapo like attacks from by the police (state) in Minneapolis…welcome to the wonderful world of fascist authoritarianism!
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/09/03/st-paul-cop-dragging-protester-jumped-sprays-crowd/
Its official, the McCain camp vetted Palin for one day…glad to know all that talk about the importance of experience and readiness to lead was a total and complete fraud. If he thought any of that mattered he might have done a little more homework on this crazy b****:
Watch Rachel Maddow dismantle Buchanan for praising Palin…
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/09/03/bombshell-serious-palin-vetting-took-place-one-day-before-official-selection/
If you can stomach it, watch the ridiculous Thompson speech…praised by the media for being effective in talking about nothing….except McCain being a POW!
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/09/03/fred-dalton-thompson-at-the-rnc-palins-great-bidens-a-partierand-did-you-know-mccains-a-pow/
Digby sums Lieberman and his speech up perfectly:
God how I loathe and despise this sanctimonious jackass. How dare he call himself a Democrat and presume to LECTURE and harangue us to vote for a rightwing nutcase for president.
And what’s the first thing out of Wolf Blitzer’s mouth? “Anyone who knows Joe Lieberman, knows that he speaks from the heart.” Sure he does — he’s always been a pr*&k, even when he was a Democrat and he is even more of one today. He is a perfect Republican — hypocritical, bloodthirsty and completely full of shit. Enjoy GOPers, he’s all yours.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/09/02/turncoat-lieberman-addresses-fellow-republicans/
The latest Greenwald short video: John McCain has been exploiting his prisoner of war experience every chance he gets. He has used this story to justify everything from not knowing how many homes he has to his healthcare plan to his marital infidelities to his taste in music. The McCain campaign is even using his POW story in paid ads. But now a veteran who was a prisoner with McCain in Vietnam is explaining loud and clear that being a POW does not qualify McCain to lead our country.
Dr. Phillip Butler knew McCain as a fellow POW. Watch and listen!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KjsEs46C70
ARTICLE SECTION
Will Pitt does what I've been doing on this blog for a number of years now...EXPOSING THE MCCAIN MYTH!! He's not a hero, he's not a Maverick, he's not even a decent human being. IN fact, he's a disgrace that sold his soul a long time ago...
A few clips:
The facts reveal that Mr. McCain has thrown his support behind just about every asinine and idiotic decision made by the single most unpopular and unsuccessful American president there ever was and, God willing, ever will be. The facts reveal that he has boomeranged away from so many policy positions he once espoused, going so far as to denounce a whole sheaf of legislation he had personally authored, because the Republican base despised those issues; but since he needed their support if he ever wanted to have a chance of winning, it was whiplash be damned and the Devil take the hindmost.
The facts, along with plenty of photographic evidence, reveal that while the city of New Orleans drowned beneath the floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina, McCain was snuggling with George W. Bush beneath the very same blanket of willful ignorance and sadistic indifference that has defined this administration.
SNIP
This ugly reality is McCain's well-earned, supremely deserved reward for deciding to abandon any pretense of character or integrity, with deliberation and intent, while crowing to all within hearing about the importance of character and integrity. Everything he abandoned had nothing at all to do with what he believes or doesn't believe as an American or as an elected representative. He abandoned these things because he wants to live in the White House, period. He wants this with every dirty, immoral, shiftless, unprincipled fiber of his being; and through this has become a living, pathetic, abhorrent example of the damage to heart and soul such lust for personal gain can cause.
For men who have neither character, nor integrity, nor honor, nor shame, for men like John McCain, that kind of wanting is all that remains in their heart, and is all that really matters to them anymore. Men like this, men like John McCain, are entirely hollow inside, empty, and truly dead in every way that once counted them human. They are skin, bones, emptiness, and nothing else besides.
http://www.truthout.org/article/the-hollow-man
Robert Scheer exposes the Palin record...just like McCain, she's corrupt and unprincipled, but pretends to be a Maverick. She's also a little sick in the head...also like McCain.
A few clips:
In a display of plucky arrogance at her coming-out press conference, Palin boasted deceptively that if Alaskans wanted that infamous bridge to nowhere, "we'd build it ourselves." She originally had supported having U.S. taxpayers finance that boondoggle, before McCain and others in Congress blasted it.
SNIP
Just witness the success of Palin, who, as mayor of the hamlet of Wasilla, hired a big-time lobbying firm intimately connected with the state's now-indicted Republican Sen. Ted Stevens and thus obtained $27 million in federal earmarks during her tenure. As The Washington Post calculated in a devastating report on Mayor Palin's assault on the federal treasury, her home town of Wasilla (with about 6,000 inhabitants in 2002 when she was mayor) received $6.1 million, or $1,000 per resident in earmarks, almost as much as Boise, Idaho, got this year with a population that is 30 times larger.
It obviously helped to have Alaska's now-indicted senator as chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee. And despite McCain's claims that Palin distinguished herself by breaking with Alaska's discredited Republican establishment in February, the governor sent Stevens a request for $200 million to support various state projects. With representatives like that, it's no wonder that Alaska, despite its oil boom, is still at the top of states subsidized by federal dollars, receiving $1.84 back from Washington for every $1 that Alaskans pay in federal taxes. (California receives 78 cents for every $1.)
http://www.truthout.org/article/palins-alaska-reaps-windfall-profits-mccain-decries
And Michael Moore responds to Leiberman bringing him up in last night's speech...real original Joe, make jokes about Michael Moore!! Funny guy...
A few clips:
What is it with you and your Republican friends always bringing me up? Can't you stop thinking about me? It's starting to sound like a fetish! Stop it! Four years ago at the last Republican Convention, John McCain, in his convention speech, also trashed me, calling me a "disingenuous filmmaker" because I called all of you out in "Fahrenheit 9/11." The crowd at Madison Square Garden went berserk. McCain didn't know I was sitting above him in the press box, and the crowd wouldn't stop screaming at me, so I flashed them the "Big L" loser sign and, well, nine of New York's finest had to help me get out of there alive.
With all the problems facing the world, why is valuable time being wasted reviewing a movie and attacking a filmmaker? And now you, Joe, tonight. Do you think you're energizing the "base" by attacking me? Better take a look at the scoreboard.
SNIP
Two-thirds of the country agree with my position on the war, two-thirds of the country agree with my position on a single-payer universal health care system, two-thirds believe in some form of gun control -- name the documentary, pick the issue, and the American public agrees with Michael Moore. So get over me, will ya? You're only hurting yourself. And I've got to finish taking out the garbage. "...if John McCain is just another partisan Republican, then I'm Michael Moore's favorite Democrat. And I'm not. And I think you know that I'm not." Now click your heels together and say, "There's no place like home on the Republican minority side of the aisle."
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/09/03-2
INFURIATED ABOUT TOUGH CNN INTERVIEW, MCCAIN CANCELS LARRY KING APPEARANCE: On Monday, Tucker Bounds, a campaign spokesman for Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), appeared on CNN for a tough interview with Campbell Brown. Brown repeatedly asked Bounds to name a foreign policy decision made by McCain's running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK). Citing the Bounds interview as "over the line," McCain canceled an appearance on CNN's Larry King Live yesterday. According to the Washington Post, the McCain campaign believes that the media is "on a mission to destroy" Palin and feels "under siege." The Post writes, "The McCain camp has been unusually aggressive in pushing back against the media, and it seems to hope to persuade journalists to back off in their scrutiny of Palin." McCain even considered pulling out of a presidential debate set to be moderated by NBC anchor Tom Brokaw because of what campaign manager Steve Schmidt called NBC's "irresponsible journalism." CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer reported that CNN is standing by Brown. "CNN does not believe that Campbell's interview was over the line," he said. "We are committed to fair coverage of both sides of this historic election."
ELECTION '08 - Palin, the Extreme Choice
Last Friday, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) announced Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) as his vice presidential running mate, "catching almost everyone but his inner circle by surprise." Of the very little that is known about Palin is her extreme right-wing policies on a wide range of issues. For example, she supports teaching creationism in school, favors privatization of health insurance, boasts of being a "lifetime member of the NRA," opposes stem-cell research, and declared that "she would support a ballot question that would deny benefits to homosexual couples." On some of the most important issues of this election -- Iraq, energy, abortion -- Palin represents the extreme right wing.
EXTREME ON ABORTION: One of the only policy stances widely known about Palin when her name was first announced is her extreme opposition to abortion. She once said that she would not support an abortion for her then-14 year old daughter, even if she had been raped. Palin has also declared that "explicit sex-ed programs will not find my support," favoring abstinence-only programs instead. The right wing has lauded both Palin for choosing to carry her most recent child, who has Down Syndrome, to term, and her 17-year-old daughter for deciding to complete her pregnancy. Yet as the American Prospect's Ann Friedman points out, "John McCain and Sarah Palin don't believe women have a right to choose. It's absolutely absurd for the campaign to emphasize the fact that [Palin's daughter] Bristol 'made this decision,' and then push for policies that take away that choice."
EXTREME CLUELESSNESS ON IRAQ: Like George Bush before he became president, Palin has barely traveled outside the United States. She has never been to Iraq or Afghanistan and admitted last year, "I haven't really focused much on the Iraq war." In an interview with Time magazine last month, she seemed completely unaware of McCain's Iraq plan. She said she did not know "what the plan is to ever end the war." She later said it's "tough" to "talk about the plan for the war" because her son will be deployed to Iraq. "Let's make sure we have a plan here," she said. Palin then added, "respecting McCain's position on that too though." Eschewing any substantitve analysis of the war, she asserted simply that U.S. soldiers are "out on a task that is from God." She also seems to believe the Iraq war was about oil, saying that "in many [ways] the reasons for war are fights over energy sources." In another interview, she argued, "we better have a real clear plan for the war," adding, "And it better not have to do with oil."
EXTREME DENIAL OF GLOBAL WARMING: Though McCain points to his position on global warming as a chief difference between himself and President Bush, Palin shares more of the current president's perspective than McCain's. Though she admits that climate change "will affect Alaska more than any other state," she said, "I'm not one though who would attribute it to being man-made." "During last fall's political campaign, Gov. Sarah Palin said she remained unconvinced about how much human emissions contribute to current global warming trends." She has also opposed listing polar bears as endangered due to climate change. In the New York Times today, Tom Friedman writes, "With his choice of Sarah Palin -- the Alaska governor who has advocated drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and does not believe mankind is playing any role in climate change -- for vice president, John McCain has completed his makeover from the greenest Republican to run for president to just another representative of big oil."EXTREME PAWN OF BIG OIL: "No one is closer to the the oil industry than Governor Palin," the Sierra Club's Carl Pope said. Palin told Roll Call last week, "When I look every day, the big oil company's building is right out there next to me, and it's quite a reminder that we should have mutually beneficial relationships with the oil industry." As a champion for Big Oil, Palin is a vociferous proponent of domestic drilling. "I beg to disagree with any candidate who would say we can't drill our way out of our problem," she said. She also dismisses alternative energy solutions as "are far from imminent" focusing instead on opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling. During her race for lieutenant governor, she received a full 10 percent of her campaign donations from executives and their families at the disgraced oil services company Veco. In her 2006 race for governor, another 10 percent of her donations came from the oil and natural gas industry. Though she supported a windfall tax on oil profits -- an idea McCain has blasted -- she also signed a bill just last week "suspending Alaska's gasoline, marine fuel and aviation fuel taxes until Aug. 31, 2009," which will only add to Big Oil's coffers.
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
TODAY'S TOPICS: Our Police State, Goodman Arrested, Palin Imploding, Hightower, Katrina, Election Fraud
No time today at all...but certainly the big story is the authoritarian police state tactics being used by police (and National Guard!) in Minneapolis against would be protesters and JOURNALISTS!
First, here's my new No on 10 website I've put together for CFC...I'll be working extensively on the campaign this fall.
THE POLICE STATE AND THE GOP CONVENTION
Glenn Greenwald reports:
Beginning last night, St. Paul was the most militarized I have ever seen an American city be, even more so than Manhattan in the week of 9/11 — with troops of federal, state and local law enforcement agents marching around with riot gear, machine guns, and tear gas canisters, shouting military chants and marching in military formations. Humvees and law enforcement officers with rifles were posted on various buildings and balconies. Numerous protesters and observers were tear gassed and injured.
… Perhaps most extraordinarily, Amy Goodman of Democracy Now — the radio and TV broadcaster who has been a working journalist for close to 20 years — was arrested on the street and charged with "conspiracy to riot." Audio of her arrest, which truly shocked and angered the crowd of observers, is here. I just attended a Press Conference with St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman and Police Chief John M. Harrington and — after they boasted of how "restrained" their police actions were — asked about the journalists and lawyers who had been detained and/or arrested both today and over the weekend. They said they wouldn't give any information about journalists who had been arrested today, though they said they believed that "one journalist" had been, and that she "was a participant in the riots, not simply a non-participant."
WATCH GOODMAN'S ARREST HERE:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/09/01/democracy-nows-amy-goodman-arrested/
More Greenwald reporting on the absolutely astonishing raids going on against “future protesters”…kind of like thought crimes in 1984…
A few clips:
Protesters here in Minneapolis have been targeted by a series of highly intimidating, sweeping police raids across the city, involving teams of 25-30 officers in riot gear, with semi-automatic weapons drawn, entering homes of those suspected of planning protests, handcuffing and forcing them to lay on the floor, while law enforcement officers searched the homes, seizing computers, journals, and political pamphlets. Last night, members of the St. Paul police department and the Ramsey County sheriff's department handcuffed, photographed and detained dozens of people meeting at a public venue to plan a demonstration, charging them with no crime other than "fire code violations," and early this morning, the Sheriff's department sent teams of officers into at least four Minneapolis area homes where suspected protesters were staying.
Jane Hamsher and I were at two of those homes this morning -- one which had just been raided and one which was in the process of being raided. Each of the raided houses is known by neighbors as a "hippie house," where 5-10 college-aged individuals live in a communal setting, and everyone we spoke with said that there had never been any problems of any kind in those houses, that they were filled with "peaceful kids" who are politically active but entirely unthreatening and friendly. Posted below is the video of the scene, including various interviews, which convey a very clear sense of what is actually going on here.
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/08/30/police_raids/
NOW TAKE ACTION!
From Credo:
This is America. We don't jail journalists here. A free press is supposed to be a cornerstone of our democracy. But journalists are being arrested at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn.
Award winning journalist and host of "Democracy Now" Amy Goodman was arrested by St. Paul police while covering a protest outside the Republican National Convention. Though clearly identified as press, Goodman was charged with "obstruction of a legal process and interference with a 'peace officer.'" Two of her producers were arrested for "suspicion of felony riot."
You won't believe how upsetting this arrest was until you see it. Goodman and her producers were released last night. (An AP photographer was also arrested and released). But the charges are still pending.
Amazingly, this story has been virtually ignored by the mainstream press. The cable channels are providing extensive coverage of events related to the Republican National Convention, but there has been a virtual news blackout on the arrest of Amy Goodman and the "Democracy Now" team.
Americans deserve to know that journalists are being jailed for trying to do their jobs. We must demand that CNN and MSNBC include this story in their coverage of the RNC.
Click here to e-mail CNN President Jonathan Klein and NBC News President Steve Capus to demand coverage of this brutally important story.
PALIN CHOICE BLOWING UP IN MCCAIN’S FACE
The choice is problematic for McCain on a number of fronts…THIS FROM MOVEON:
Palin is the least qualified and experienced running mate in the history of the office, having served a total of 20 months in office, and none on the national level.
Does anyone really want Sarah Palin a heartbeat away from the Presidency should McCain become unable to serve?
Although known as a reformer, Palin is a product of the corrupt Alaskan political machine, and is even under criminal investigation herself for abusing the power of her office.
Can she possibly face off against Joe Biden on any issue?
She pronounces “nuclear” like George Bush. I knew that the GOP ticket wanted to continue Bush’s policies….but four more years of Bushisms too!?
This from C&L on Palin:
Yesterday was John McCain's 72nd birthday. If elected, he'd be the oldest president ever inaugurated. And after months of slamming Barack Obama for "inexperience," here's who John McCain has chosen to be one heartbeat away from the presidency: a right-wing religious conservative with no foreign policy experience, who until recently was mayor of a town of 9,000 people.
Huh?
Who is Sarah Palin? Here's some basic background:
She was elected Alaska's governor a little over a year and a half ago. Her previous office was mayor of Wasilla, a small town outside Anchorage. She has no foreign policy experience.1
Palin is strongly anti-choice, opposing abortion even in the case of rape or incest.2
She supported right-wing extremist Pat Buchanan for president in 2000. 3
Palin thinks creationism should be taught in public schools.4
She's doesn't think humans are the cause of climate change.5
She's solidly in line with John McCain's "Big Oil first" energy policy. She's pushed hard for more oil drilling and says renewables won't be ready for years. She also sued the Bush administration for listing polar bears as an endangered species—she was worried it would interfere with more oil drilling in Alaska.6
How closely did John McCain vet this choice? He met Sarah Palin once at a meeting. They spoke a second time, last Sunday, when he called her about being vice-president. Then he offered her the position.7
Then this little diddy…
Palin's Small Alaska Town Secured Big Federal Funds -- Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin employed a lobbying firm to secure almost $27 million in federal earmarks for a town of 6,700 residents while she was its mayor, according to an analysis by an independent government watchdog group. Paul Kane in the Washington Post -- 9/2/08
And then this little photo of her teenage daughter getting wasted:
http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-72627
And more bad press for Palin
Disclosures on Palin Raise Questions on Vetting Process -- A series of disclosures about Gov. Sarah Palin, Senator John McCain’s choice as running mate, called into question on Monday how thoroughly Mr. McCain had examined her background before putting her on the Republican presidential ticket. ELISABETH BUMILLER in the New York Times -- 9/2/08
And more from C&L:
Rep. Rahm Emmanuel pretty much sums it up:
“After trying to make experience the issue of this campaign, John McCain celebrated his 72nd birthday by appointing a former small town mayor and brand new Governor as his Vice Presidential nominee. Is this really who the Republican Party wants to be one heartbeat away from the Presidency? Given Sarah Palin’s lack of experience on every front and on nearly every issue, this Vice Presidential pick doesn’t show judgement: it shows political panic.”
Andrew Sullivan says:
(C)ompare McCain’s pick with Obama’s: a man with solid foreign policy experience, six terms in Washington and real relationships with leaders across the globe.
One pick is by a man of judgment; the other is by a man of vanity.
She may be a fine person, but she’s my age, she has zero Washington experience, and no foreign policy expertise whatsoever.
McCain has just told us how seriously he takes the war we are in. Not seriously at all.
VIDEO SECTION
Recent and extraordinary clips Dennis Kucinich…the face of courage…
http://bloggingforkucinich.blogspot.com/2008/08/dennis-kucinich-wake-up-america-sign-up.html
Bush League justice covers the signing statements issue...shocking stuff:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/09/01/bush-league-justice-signing-statements-and-signing-off/
Watch and cringe as Mccain completely embarrasses himself on live tv by sounding almost delirious and nonsensical. Good ole' grumpy gramps McSame doing his thing...watching him versus Obama really makes me ashamed of the voters of this country (a lot of them anyway):
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/09/01/bush-league-justice-signing-statements-and-signing-off/
John Kerry continues to be one of THE MOST on point and tough attack dogs for the Obama camp. Here he totally dismantles both McCain and Palin:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/09/01/john-kerry-palin-choice-proves-mccains-a-prisoner-of-the-right-wing/
Daily Show mocks Palin pick...as does Colbert...both videos available here:
And colbert too: "We're still waiting with bated breath for the big news: who will John McCain pick as his running mate. The Republican convention starts Monday and here he is at a rally just hanging out with some female supporter who I assume won some radio call-in contest. Is it Romney? Is it Pawlenty? Wait…she is?! Are you serious?! Who the f*ck is Sarah Palin? What? The sexy librarian?!"
WATCH BOTH:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/08/30/stewart-colbert-mock-sarah-palin-vp-choice/
Bill Maher's New Rules...god he's good:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/08/30/bill-maher-and-new-rules-are-back/
Cafferty also points out the Palin choice undermines mccain's message:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/08/30/cafferty-file-mccains-vp-undermines-his-message/
Now watch and cringe at Cindy Mccain reciting the growingly ludicrous GOP palin "talking points":
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/08/31/cindy-mccain-touts-palins-experience-the-pta-and-proximity-to-russia/
ARTICLE SECTION
An excellent in depth, substantive analysis by Jim Hightower of the people surrounding Obama...and who no doubt will have influence in an Obama Presidency. A must read:
A few clips:
If progressives look at Obama's team through the conventional political lens, they'll get worried. With some exceptions, these are not the policy people you'd expect to see -- they're not a phalanx of solid, progressive activists, thinkers and leaders with recognizable names. Some O-teamers are even graduates of the University of Chicago's economics department, home of laissez-faire guru Milton Friedman; some are tied to Rubin (Rubin himself is a sometime adviser); a few hail directly from the ranks of corporate America.
Before panicking, however, let's note that little about the Obama campaign is conventional. My personal impression is that he intends to be a serious president who's willing to experiment in order to come up with policies and programs that actually achieve progressive goals rather than merely rubber-stamp the long-preserved agendas of Washington-based Democratic Party insiders.
SNIP
Dan Carol. A recent addition and a big plus, this 50-year-old Oregonian is a longtime progressive strategist, a pioneer in Internet organizing, a proponent of grassroots-based policy development, a believer in the politics of big ideas, and an unabashed advocate of making political action fun. (Disclosure: Carol is a friend of mine and was a key organizer of our Rolling Thunder Downhome Democracy Tour a few years ago). He has been a strategist for MoveOn, True Majority and the Oregon Bus Project, among other innovative grassroots efforts, and he has now been brought onto the O-team as "director of content and issues."
SNIP
When Obama shocked Washington's conventional wisdom this spring by saying that he would be willing as president to talk with such declared U.S. enemies as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, this "radical" idea was right in line with Hamilton's own pragmatic view. Other key advisers on foreign issues include Susan Rice, Richard Danzig and Tony Lake, all alumnae of the Clinton presidency. They, too, are pragmatists -- for example, they considered Bush's rationalization for invading and occupying Iraq to be nonsense, leading them to oppose it from the start. This pitted them directly against senior Clintonites who were cowed by Bush's warmongering, fearing that Democratic opposition to the war was bad politics. Also on Obama's team are two foreign policy mavericks: Lawrence Korb, an assistant secretary of defense under Ronald Reagan who has since become a vocal proponent of slashing the waste and fraud in the Pentagon budget, and Richard Clarke, the counterterrorism insider who blew the whistle on the Bushites' disastrous war fantasies and failures.
http://www.alternet.org/election08/96142/if_obama_wins%2C_who_will_be_in_his_cabinet_--_and_who_should_be/?page=1
KATRINA - Three Years Later
A new report "presents the clearest picture yet of deaths from Katrina in Louisiana." "Of the nearly 1,000 who died, almost half were 75 or older" and 51 percent were black, according to the study in the journal Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness. The researchers hope the findings "will aid public health and emergency preparedness efforts" in the future.
On August 29, 2005, Katrina cut "a 125-mile swath of destruction stretching from coastal Alabama across Mississippi to the French Quarter and the Superdome." Katrina was the costliest hurricane in American history and the third deadliest, killing 1,800 people. New Orleans was particularly hard-hit, which submerged 80 percent of the city. Sadly, as the anniversary of Katrina nears, New Orleans is bracing for another storm, Gustav, which is projected to hit the GulfCoast early next week as a Category 3 hurricane. The development of Gustav prompted Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) to proclaim a state of emergency and prepare "hundreds of buses and emergency shelters to help residents flee should Gustav strike as expected." Gustav's approach also caused the cancellation of events commemorating the Katrina anniversary. The threat of another hurricane serves to highlight the progress that New Orleans has made in the last three years, and the work that still remains cleaning up and repairing the city.
BUSH VISIT A 'REMINDER OF BROKEN PROMISES': Last week, President Bush appeared in New Orleans to say that "hope is coming back" to the city, due to $126 billion in disaster aid sent to the region in the last three years. "The good future is here," Bush said. "I predicted New Orleans would come back as a stronger and better city. We helped deliver $126 billion in taxpayer money." Three years ago, however, Bush was preoccupied as Katrina hit. While 75 percent of New Orleans residents do "feel hopeful about the future of the greater New Orleans area," Bush's visit was more a "reminder of broken promises" than the sign of hopeful future. In 2005, Bush did not organize a federal response to Katrina for two days after the storm hit, despite repeated requests for assistance from former Louisiana governor Kathleen Blanco (D) and reports that levees in New Orleans had been breached. He then spent the following days claiming -- falsely -- that no one anticipated the breach of the levees and that he was "satisfied with the [federal] response" to the storm. In 2006, the New York Times reported that to federal aid to the region hit by Katrina was plagued by "breathtaking waste and fraud." The New York Times called the waste of federal dollars "one of the the most extraordinary displays of scams, schemes and stupefying bureaucratic bungles in modern history, costing taxpayers up to $2 billion." Last week, the Bush administration announced that the funds sent to the GulfCoast region for hurricane recovery were "sufficient" and that there are "enough funds in the pipeline, to get the mission done."
PERSISTENT PROBLEMS: Even if "hope is back" in New Orleans, massive problems resulting from the hurricane remain, including "significant debris management issues," and "a cleanup fraught with environmental issues." While "97% of the population has returned to Hancock, Harrison, and Jackson counties, the three areas hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina," New Orleans still has a far greater proportion of vacant homes than any other city in the country," with "more than one in three residential addresses vacant or unoccupied." According to the research and advocacy institute PolicyLink, "thousands of residents who want to return home are facing a critical rental housing shortage, inadequate rebuilding grants and a recovery plagued by red tape and ever-changing rules." Part of the problem is the federal Road Home program, which is "the main conduit by which federal funds were to compensate homeowners for the damage wrought" by Katrina. "In New Orleans, 4 of every 5 Road Home recipients rebuilding their homes did not get enough money to cover their repairs," with an average shortfall of $54,586. As of March, "only 13% of the $1.6 billion in the state's emergency community development block grant funds had benefited lower-income victims." Further compounding New Orleans' troubles with Gustav approaching, the Associated Press conducted a yearlong review of levee work which revealed "a pattern of public misperception, political jockeying and legal fighting, along with economic and engineering miscalculations, that threaten to make New Orleans the scene of another devastating flood."
HAVE THE MEDIA FORGOTTEN NEW ORLEANS?: Earlier this week, the Independent's Richard Holledge published an article proclaiming that in the last three years the media "forgot the city of jazz and jambalaya." "Three years after Hurricane Katrina, the world's media has lost sight of the ongoing misery in New Orleans," he wrote. "Coverage by the international and national news media in the run-up to the anniversary is negligible...One of the world's most cataclysmic natural disasters, one made worse by official incompetence and corruption, is almost forgotten." Conservative talker Glenn Beck, however, has made sure to deride the rebuilding of New Orleans as the anniversary nears, saying, "We shouldn't spend a single dime of taxpayers' money in a place where - I don't care where it is - where it is in a flood zone." Jon Amoss, editor of New Orleans' Times-Picayune, echoed Holledge's sentiment, saying, "I don't think we are on people's minds. We have to contend with those voices, particularly on pop radio, which say 'New Orleanians with their eternal whining – why don't they pull themselves up by their boot straps?'" But highlighting the continuing role Katrina plays in the life of New Orleanians, Amoss added "I wondered a year-and-a-half ago whether there would ever come a time when the word hurricane or Katrina would not appear on, or near, page one [of the Times-Picayune]. There have been some days when there hasn't been a single story on page one, but that is still a rarity because it is the fabric of our life."
ELECTION FRAUD SECTION
16,632 Votes 'Unaccounted For' in Palm Beach County Primary Election 'Recount'
Just 18 Votes Separate Candidates in Circuit Judge Race Where Votes Are Lost in Re-tally on Sequoia Optical-Scan Voting Systems
'Severe Repercussions, Dire Consequences for November Election and All Elections,' Says Broward County Election Supervisor Candidate...
16,632 votes are unaccounted for in a Palm Beach County election recount following last Tuesday's state primary, according to Ellen H. Brodsky, non-partisan candidate for Supervisor of Elections in Broward County and a long-time Election Integrity advocate.
The machine recount was completed early Saturday morning in the Circuit Court race between Judge Richard Wennet and challenger William Abramson, Brodsky reported via email. The machine recount completed at 4:30am in the race in which Wennet and Abramson were separated by just 18 votes in the initial machine tally.
The still-unexplained "disappearance" of votes in the machine recount "has severe repercussions," Brodsky wrote in an email alert this afternoon describing the re-scan of some 90,000 ballots.
"With 16,632 less votes on summary report," she writes, it "portends dire consequences for the November election and all elections"...
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6341
Exclusive Video Interview: Gov. Don Siegelman on 'Stolen Elections,' Rove's Contempt and the 'Magnanimous' Democrats
The BRAD BLOG chats with the Free-on-Bail Former Alabama Governor at the Democratic Convention in Denver...
Some pull-quotes from the exclusive interview...
On Rove: "If we do not vote the contempt citation, Karl Rove is simply going to get in his getaway car and thumb his nose at the Constitution, Congress, and the American people. It creates almost two systems of justice: one for the powerful, those connected to the White House, and then another system for you and me and the rest of the people."
On Democrats: "Democrats are so magnanimous in victory, as they were after Watergate, they did nothing. After the Iran-Contra scandal, they did nothing. But what Democrats are going to want to do is get on with positive programs, to fix the damage that has been done by the Bush administration...But I view this as part of that positive change. Finding out who hijacked the Department of Justice and who used it as a political weapon."
On his 'stolen' 2002 election: "I went to bed the winner. The media had been sent home. The pollworkers had been sent home. The party chairmen had been given their copies of the election results. And then after midnight a light went on in the basement of the capitol, the basement of the courthouse, in the sheriff's office, and 5,200 votes that were mine were shifted to my opponent."
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6335
No time today at all...but certainly the big story is the authoritarian police state tactics being used by police (and National Guard!) in Minneapolis against would be protesters and JOURNALISTS!
First, here's my new No on 10 website I've put together for CFC...I'll be working extensively on the campaign this fall.
THE POLICE STATE AND THE GOP CONVENTION
Glenn Greenwald reports:
Beginning last night, St. Paul was the most militarized I have ever seen an American city be, even more so than Manhattan in the week of 9/11 — with troops of federal, state and local law enforcement agents marching around with riot gear, machine guns, and tear gas canisters, shouting military chants and marching in military formations. Humvees and law enforcement officers with rifles were posted on various buildings and balconies. Numerous protesters and observers were tear gassed and injured.
… Perhaps most extraordinarily, Amy Goodman of Democracy Now — the radio and TV broadcaster who has been a working journalist for close to 20 years — was arrested on the street and charged with "conspiracy to riot." Audio of her arrest, which truly shocked and angered the crowd of observers, is here. I just attended a Press Conference with St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman and Police Chief John M. Harrington and — after they boasted of how "restrained" their police actions were — asked about the journalists and lawyers who had been detained and/or arrested both today and over the weekend. They said they wouldn't give any information about journalists who had been arrested today, though they said they believed that "one journalist" had been, and that she "was a participant in the riots, not simply a non-participant."
WATCH GOODMAN'S ARREST HERE:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/09/01/democracy-nows-amy-goodman-arrested/
More Greenwald reporting on the absolutely astonishing raids going on against “future protesters”…kind of like thought crimes in 1984…
A few clips:
Protesters here in Minneapolis have been targeted by a series of highly intimidating, sweeping police raids across the city, involving teams of 25-30 officers in riot gear, with semi-automatic weapons drawn, entering homes of those suspected of planning protests, handcuffing and forcing them to lay on the floor, while law enforcement officers searched the homes, seizing computers, journals, and political pamphlets. Last night, members of the St. Paul police department and the Ramsey County sheriff's department handcuffed, photographed and detained dozens of people meeting at a public venue to plan a demonstration, charging them with no crime other than "fire code violations," and early this morning, the Sheriff's department sent teams of officers into at least four Minneapolis area homes where suspected protesters were staying.
Jane Hamsher and I were at two of those homes this morning -- one which had just been raided and one which was in the process of being raided. Each of the raided houses is known by neighbors as a "hippie house," where 5-10 college-aged individuals live in a communal setting, and everyone we spoke with said that there had never been any problems of any kind in those houses, that they were filled with "peaceful kids" who are politically active but entirely unthreatening and friendly. Posted below is the video of the scene, including various interviews, which convey a very clear sense of what is actually going on here.
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/08/30/police_raids/
NOW TAKE ACTION!
From Credo:
This is America. We don't jail journalists here. A free press is supposed to be a cornerstone of our democracy. But journalists are being arrested at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn.
Award winning journalist and host of "Democracy Now" Amy Goodman was arrested by St. Paul police while covering a protest outside the Republican National Convention. Though clearly identified as press, Goodman was charged with "obstruction of a legal process and interference with a 'peace officer.'" Two of her producers were arrested for "suspicion of felony riot."
You won't believe how upsetting this arrest was until you see it. Goodman and her producers were released last night. (An AP photographer was also arrested and released). But the charges are still pending.
Amazingly, this story has been virtually ignored by the mainstream press. The cable channels are providing extensive coverage of events related to the Republican National Convention, but there has been a virtual news blackout on the arrest of Amy Goodman and the "Democracy Now" team.
Americans deserve to know that journalists are being jailed for trying to do their jobs. We must demand that CNN and MSNBC include this story in their coverage of the RNC.
Click here to e-mail CNN President Jonathan Klein and NBC News President Steve Capus to demand coverage of this brutally important story.
PALIN CHOICE BLOWING UP IN MCCAIN’S FACE
The choice is problematic for McCain on a number of fronts…THIS FROM MOVEON:
Palin is the least qualified and experienced running mate in the history of the office, having served a total of 20 months in office, and none on the national level.
Does anyone really want Sarah Palin a heartbeat away from the Presidency should McCain become unable to serve?
Although known as a reformer, Palin is a product of the corrupt Alaskan political machine, and is even under criminal investigation herself for abusing the power of her office.
Can she possibly face off against Joe Biden on any issue?
She pronounces “nuclear” like George Bush. I knew that the GOP ticket wanted to continue Bush’s policies….but four more years of Bushisms too!?
This from C&L on Palin:
Yesterday was John McCain's 72nd birthday. If elected, he'd be the oldest president ever inaugurated. And after months of slamming Barack Obama for "inexperience," here's who John McCain has chosen to be one heartbeat away from the presidency: a right-wing religious conservative with no foreign policy experience, who until recently was mayor of a town of 9,000 people.
Huh?
Who is Sarah Palin? Here's some basic background:
She was elected Alaska's governor a little over a year and a half ago. Her previous office was mayor of Wasilla, a small town outside Anchorage. She has no foreign policy experience.1
Palin is strongly anti-choice, opposing abortion even in the case of rape or incest.2
She supported right-wing extremist Pat Buchanan for president in 2000. 3
Palin thinks creationism should be taught in public schools.4
She's doesn't think humans are the cause of climate change.5
She's solidly in line with John McCain's "Big Oil first" energy policy. She's pushed hard for more oil drilling and says renewables won't be ready for years. She also sued the Bush administration for listing polar bears as an endangered species—she was worried it would interfere with more oil drilling in Alaska.6
How closely did John McCain vet this choice? He met Sarah Palin once at a meeting. They spoke a second time, last Sunday, when he called her about being vice-president. Then he offered her the position.7
Then this little diddy…
Palin's Small Alaska Town Secured Big Federal Funds -- Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin employed a lobbying firm to secure almost $27 million in federal earmarks for a town of 6,700 residents while she was its mayor, according to an analysis by an independent government watchdog group. Paul Kane in the Washington Post -- 9/2/08
And then this little photo of her teenage daughter getting wasted:
http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-72627
And more bad press for Palin
Disclosures on Palin Raise Questions on Vetting Process -- A series of disclosures about Gov. Sarah Palin, Senator John McCain’s choice as running mate, called into question on Monday how thoroughly Mr. McCain had examined her background before putting her on the Republican presidential ticket. ELISABETH BUMILLER in the New York Times -- 9/2/08
And more from C&L:
Rep. Rahm Emmanuel pretty much sums it up:
“After trying to make experience the issue of this campaign, John McCain celebrated his 72nd birthday by appointing a former small town mayor and brand new Governor as his Vice Presidential nominee. Is this really who the Republican Party wants to be one heartbeat away from the Presidency? Given Sarah Palin’s lack of experience on every front and on nearly every issue, this Vice Presidential pick doesn’t show judgement: it shows political panic.”
Andrew Sullivan says:
(C)ompare McCain’s pick with Obama’s: a man with solid foreign policy experience, six terms in Washington and real relationships with leaders across the globe.
One pick is by a man of judgment; the other is by a man of vanity.
She may be a fine person, but she’s my age, she has zero Washington experience, and no foreign policy expertise whatsoever.
McCain has just told us how seriously he takes the war we are in. Not seriously at all.
VIDEO SECTION
Recent and extraordinary clips Dennis Kucinich…the face of courage…
http://bloggingforkucinich.blogspot.com/2008/08/dennis-kucinich-wake-up-america-sign-up.html
Bush League justice covers the signing statements issue...shocking stuff:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/09/01/bush-league-justice-signing-statements-and-signing-off/
Watch and cringe as Mccain completely embarrasses himself on live tv by sounding almost delirious and nonsensical. Good ole' grumpy gramps McSame doing his thing...watching him versus Obama really makes me ashamed of the voters of this country (a lot of them anyway):
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/09/01/bush-league-justice-signing-statements-and-signing-off/
John Kerry continues to be one of THE MOST on point and tough attack dogs for the Obama camp. Here he totally dismantles both McCain and Palin:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/09/01/john-kerry-palin-choice-proves-mccains-a-prisoner-of-the-right-wing/
Daily Show mocks Palin pick...as does Colbert...both videos available here:
And colbert too: "We're still waiting with bated breath for the big news: who will John McCain pick as his running mate. The Republican convention starts Monday and here he is at a rally just hanging out with some female supporter who I assume won some radio call-in contest. Is it Romney? Is it Pawlenty? Wait…she is?! Are you serious?! Who the f*ck is Sarah Palin? What? The sexy librarian?!"
WATCH BOTH:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/08/30/stewart-colbert-mock-sarah-palin-vp-choice/
Bill Maher's New Rules...god he's good:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/08/30/bill-maher-and-new-rules-are-back/
Cafferty also points out the Palin choice undermines mccain's message:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/08/30/cafferty-file-mccains-vp-undermines-his-message/
Now watch and cringe at Cindy Mccain reciting the growingly ludicrous GOP palin "talking points":
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/08/31/cindy-mccain-touts-palins-experience-the-pta-and-proximity-to-russia/
ARTICLE SECTION
An excellent in depth, substantive analysis by Jim Hightower of the people surrounding Obama...and who no doubt will have influence in an Obama Presidency. A must read:
A few clips:
If progressives look at Obama's team through the conventional political lens, they'll get worried. With some exceptions, these are not the policy people you'd expect to see -- they're not a phalanx of solid, progressive activists, thinkers and leaders with recognizable names. Some O-teamers are even graduates of the University of Chicago's economics department, home of laissez-faire guru Milton Friedman; some are tied to Rubin (Rubin himself is a sometime adviser); a few hail directly from the ranks of corporate America.
Before panicking, however, let's note that little about the Obama campaign is conventional. My personal impression is that he intends to be a serious president who's willing to experiment in order to come up with policies and programs that actually achieve progressive goals rather than merely rubber-stamp the long-preserved agendas of Washington-based Democratic Party insiders.
SNIP
Dan Carol. A recent addition and a big plus, this 50-year-old Oregonian is a longtime progressive strategist, a pioneer in Internet organizing, a proponent of grassroots-based policy development, a believer in the politics of big ideas, and an unabashed advocate of making political action fun. (Disclosure: Carol is a friend of mine and was a key organizer of our Rolling Thunder Downhome Democracy Tour a few years ago). He has been a strategist for MoveOn, True Majority and the Oregon Bus Project, among other innovative grassroots efforts, and he has now been brought onto the O-team as "director of content and issues."
SNIP
When Obama shocked Washington's conventional wisdom this spring by saying that he would be willing as president to talk with such declared U.S. enemies as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, this "radical" idea was right in line with Hamilton's own pragmatic view. Other key advisers on foreign issues include Susan Rice, Richard Danzig and Tony Lake, all alumnae of the Clinton presidency. They, too, are pragmatists -- for example, they considered Bush's rationalization for invading and occupying Iraq to be nonsense, leading them to oppose it from the start. This pitted them directly against senior Clintonites who were cowed by Bush's warmongering, fearing that Democratic opposition to the war was bad politics. Also on Obama's team are two foreign policy mavericks: Lawrence Korb, an assistant secretary of defense under Ronald Reagan who has since become a vocal proponent of slashing the waste and fraud in the Pentagon budget, and Richard Clarke, the counterterrorism insider who blew the whistle on the Bushites' disastrous war fantasies and failures.
http://www.alternet.org/election08/96142/if_obama_wins%2C_who_will_be_in_his_cabinet_--_and_who_should_be/?page=1
KATRINA - Three Years Later
A new report "presents the clearest picture yet of deaths from Katrina in Louisiana." "Of the nearly 1,000 who died, almost half were 75 or older" and 51 percent were black, according to the study in the journal Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness. The researchers hope the findings "will aid public health and emergency preparedness efforts" in the future.
On August 29, 2005, Katrina cut "a 125-mile swath of destruction stretching from coastal Alabama across Mississippi to the French Quarter and the Superdome." Katrina was the costliest hurricane in American history and the third deadliest, killing 1,800 people. New Orleans was particularly hard-hit, which submerged 80 percent of the city. Sadly, as the anniversary of Katrina nears, New Orleans is bracing for another storm, Gustav, which is projected to hit the GulfCoast early next week as a Category 3 hurricane. The development of Gustav prompted Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) to proclaim a state of emergency and prepare "hundreds of buses and emergency shelters to help residents flee should Gustav strike as expected." Gustav's approach also caused the cancellation of events commemorating the Katrina anniversary. The threat of another hurricane serves to highlight the progress that New Orleans has made in the last three years, and the work that still remains cleaning up and repairing the city.
BUSH VISIT A 'REMINDER OF BROKEN PROMISES': Last week, President Bush appeared in New Orleans to say that "hope is coming back" to the city, due to $126 billion in disaster aid sent to the region in the last three years. "The good future is here," Bush said. "I predicted New Orleans would come back as a stronger and better city. We helped deliver $126 billion in taxpayer money." Three years ago, however, Bush was preoccupied as Katrina hit. While 75 percent of New Orleans residents do "feel hopeful about the future of the greater New Orleans area," Bush's visit was more a "reminder of broken promises" than the sign of hopeful future. In 2005, Bush did not organize a federal response to Katrina for two days after the storm hit, despite repeated requests for assistance from former Louisiana governor Kathleen Blanco (D) and reports that levees in New Orleans had been breached. He then spent the following days claiming -- falsely -- that no one anticipated the breach of the levees and that he was "satisfied with the [federal] response" to the storm. In 2006, the New York Times reported that to federal aid to the region hit by Katrina was plagued by "breathtaking waste and fraud." The New York Times called the waste of federal dollars "one of the the most extraordinary displays of scams, schemes and stupefying bureaucratic bungles in modern history, costing taxpayers up to $2 billion." Last week, the Bush administration announced that the funds sent to the GulfCoast region for hurricane recovery were "sufficient" and that there are "enough funds in the pipeline, to get the mission done."
PERSISTENT PROBLEMS: Even if "hope is back" in New Orleans, massive problems resulting from the hurricane remain, including "significant debris management issues," and "a cleanup fraught with environmental issues." While "97% of the population has returned to Hancock, Harrison, and Jackson counties, the three areas hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina," New Orleans still has a far greater proportion of vacant homes than any other city in the country," with "more than one in three residential addresses vacant or unoccupied." According to the research and advocacy institute PolicyLink, "thousands of residents who want to return home are facing a critical rental housing shortage, inadequate rebuilding grants and a recovery plagued by red tape and ever-changing rules." Part of the problem is the federal Road Home program, which is "the main conduit by which federal funds were to compensate homeowners for the damage wrought" by Katrina. "In New Orleans, 4 of every 5 Road Home recipients rebuilding their homes did not get enough money to cover their repairs," with an average shortfall of $54,586. As of March, "only 13% of the $1.6 billion in the state's emergency community development block grant funds had benefited lower-income victims." Further compounding New Orleans' troubles with Gustav approaching, the Associated Press conducted a yearlong review of levee work which revealed "a pattern of public misperception, political jockeying and legal fighting, along with economic and engineering miscalculations, that threaten to make New Orleans the scene of another devastating flood."
HAVE THE MEDIA FORGOTTEN NEW ORLEANS?: Earlier this week, the Independent's Richard Holledge published an article proclaiming that in the last three years the media "forgot the city of jazz and jambalaya." "Three years after Hurricane Katrina, the world's media has lost sight of the ongoing misery in New Orleans," he wrote. "Coverage by the international and national news media in the run-up to the anniversary is negligible...One of the world's most cataclysmic natural disasters, one made worse by official incompetence and corruption, is almost forgotten." Conservative talker Glenn Beck, however, has made sure to deride the rebuilding of New Orleans as the anniversary nears, saying, "We shouldn't spend a single dime of taxpayers' money in a place where - I don't care where it is - where it is in a flood zone." Jon Amoss, editor of New Orleans' Times-Picayune, echoed Holledge's sentiment, saying, "I don't think we are on people's minds. We have to contend with those voices, particularly on pop radio, which say 'New Orleanians with their eternal whining – why don't they pull themselves up by their boot straps?'" But highlighting the continuing role Katrina plays in the life of New Orleanians, Amoss added "I wondered a year-and-a-half ago whether there would ever come a time when the word hurricane or Katrina would not appear on, or near, page one [of the Times-Picayune]. There have been some days when there hasn't been a single story on page one, but that is still a rarity because it is the fabric of our life."
ELECTION FRAUD SECTION
16,632 Votes 'Unaccounted For' in Palm Beach County Primary Election 'Recount'
Just 18 Votes Separate Candidates in Circuit Judge Race Where Votes Are Lost in Re-tally on Sequoia Optical-Scan Voting Systems
'Severe Repercussions, Dire Consequences for November Election and All Elections,' Says Broward County Election Supervisor Candidate...
16,632 votes are unaccounted for in a Palm Beach County election recount following last Tuesday's state primary, according to Ellen H. Brodsky, non-partisan candidate for Supervisor of Elections in Broward County and a long-time Election Integrity advocate.
The machine recount was completed early Saturday morning in the Circuit Court race between Judge Richard Wennet and challenger William Abramson, Brodsky reported via email. The machine recount completed at 4:30am in the race in which Wennet and Abramson were separated by just 18 votes in the initial machine tally.
The still-unexplained "disappearance" of votes in the machine recount "has severe repercussions," Brodsky wrote in an email alert this afternoon describing the re-scan of some 90,000 ballots.
"With 16,632 less votes on summary report," she writes, it "portends dire consequences for the November election and all elections"...
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6341
Exclusive Video Interview: Gov. Don Siegelman on 'Stolen Elections,' Rove's Contempt and the 'Magnanimous' Democrats
The BRAD BLOG chats with the Free-on-Bail Former Alabama Governor at the Democratic Convention in Denver...
Some pull-quotes from the exclusive interview...
On Rove: "If we do not vote the contempt citation, Karl Rove is simply going to get in his getaway car and thumb his nose at the Constitution, Congress, and the American people. It creates almost two systems of justice: one for the powerful, those connected to the White House, and then another system for you and me and the rest of the people."
On Democrats: "Democrats are so magnanimous in victory, as they were after Watergate, they did nothing. After the Iran-Contra scandal, they did nothing. But what Democrats are going to want to do is get on with positive programs, to fix the damage that has been done by the Bush administration...But I view this as part of that positive change. Finding out who hijacked the Department of Justice and who used it as a political weapon."
On his 'stolen' 2002 election: "I went to bed the winner. The media had been sent home. The pollworkers had been sent home. The party chairmen had been given their copies of the election results. And then after midnight a light went on in the basement of the capitol, the basement of the courthouse, in the sheriff's office, and 5,200 votes that were mine were shifted to my opponent."
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6335
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