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32,000,000The number of people who will now be covered by healthcare by PRIVATE insurance companies if the new healthcare bill passes the House.
Wow - that's some socialist takeover of our healthcare system!
QUOTES OF THE WEEK
"If ObamaCare passes, that free insurance card that's in people's pockets is gonna be as worthless as a Confederate dollar after the War Between The States — the Great War of Yankee Aggression."--Congressman Paul Broun (R-GA) on March 19.
Another moron Republican from the south, demonstration once again the coherence and intelligent alternatives to President Obama's healthcare proposals.
*****
Facts & Quotes are updated weekly, or as close as I can get.
LAWYERLY LINGO
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Geeze, I'm going to miss Keith Olbermann's Special Comments on the election - above is video of his last one. Of course, not to worry, though, because there's plenty of other things to get his dander up, including 77 more days of Bush rule before he rides off into the sunset and back to Texas to his faux ranch.
Anyway, earlier today, Olbermann pondered an interesting question - if Obama had made the same gaffes that McCain has made during the last three months, what would have happened?
Take it away, Keith:
We all know exactly what would be happening tonight if Senator Obama had made all those mistakes, contradictions, gaffes, Freudian slips, and hypocritical pronouncements. He would have long since ceased to be taken seriously by any measurable part of the voting public, as a viable, responsible, self-aware, mentally vigorous, non-dangerous, non-risk. We'd all be going home to our beds well before midnight tomorrow night.
But while all that is hypothetical, this is not: This cascade of incompetence and irresponsibility I have enumerated tonight -- all the sound bites, all the foot-in-mouth moments, all the no-brainers-gone-wrong - all these, John McCain has said. No hyperbole and no hypotheses are required.
This is who John McCain has showed us he is.
I can't say it much better than that. Obama would have been toast had he even come close to McCain's ineptness on the campaign trail, which illustrates the white privilege that's been so evident in this election.
How so?
Just imagine if Barack Obama (or even Joe Biden) had a family in the same situation as Sarah Palin - an unwed teenaged, pregnant daughter? If you're really being honest with yourself, it's not hard to envision that the media would have roasted the Obamas and raked them over the coals.
The reactions by many on the right to Colin Powell's endorsement of Barack Obama this past Sunday on Meet the Press have been both shocking and appalling this week, and considering the level of discourse in our country, I'm not a person easily shocked.
A few nights ago, Olbermann did a pretty nice round-up of the ridiculous statements that have been babbled by the likes of Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) and Sarah Palin, and I can't even begin to get my hands around how breathtakingly mindless both of these women are (and I'm being quite kind).
I'm just wondering exactly where these "pockets of pro-America areas" are? We'll have our answer in 10 days - whichever states vote go for the McCain/Palin ticket I guess are the pro-America. Pretty pathetic.
Even more pathetic is Bachmann's assessment that we should have what would equate to loyalty oaths in Congress, which I'm guessing even her own Republican Party disagrees with. As frightening and reactionary as the current edition of the GOP can be, I'd like to think that we'll never return to the age of McCarthyism. Fortunately, Bachmann's idiotic statements have been a financial boon to her opponent, El Tinkenberg, who has raised over $1 million since her stupid comments last weekend. The best part about Bachmann's fiasco is that she almost certainly would have won reelection had she kept her mouth shut, but she couldn't help herself. Hopefully her stupidity will be Tinkenberg's gain. Right now, El Tink's got a slim two-point lead on Bachmann. Please, if you have the means, go to Tinkenberg's Website and contribute $5 or $10 to help out his campaign; every little bit will help him kick an intolerant, asinine Republican out of Congress.
Just in case you missed it, below is the video of Powell's endorsement. I found his words to be powerful, heartfelt and spot on. This past week, I was asked by many people how I felt Powell's endorsement would affect the election, and my initial reaction was, "Not much." However, upon further reflection, I'm not so sure. His support for Obama certainly does shatter some misconceptions about how Obama would lead and use the military. Naturally, right-wing hate radio had a field day with the endorsement (see Olbermann clip above).
I was very happy to hear Olbermann slam the likes of the hate mongers mentioned above, and specifically Rush Limbaugh for his mindless hate speech. I don't always agree with Keith, but this is one of his best Special Comments I've heard in quite some time. For all of the people who rip Olbermann for being so partisan, my question would be, were it not for Olbermann and a select few others, who else in our corporate media would be echoing these thoughts? Damn few, and I'm happy Olbermann is doing what he does on a nightly basis.
This past week, both campaigns swapped gaffes - Biden on how Obama, if elected will be tested (but, to be fair, his quote did get cut off by the corporate media); McCain had too many to mention here (but I'll talk about a few individually); and most notably, Sarah Palin showed her rank ignorance about the job that she's campaigning for.
A few nights ago, Keith Olbermann did a pretty nice round-up of Palin's outrageously (and tragically) funny misstatements about the vice presidency. Whether you like Olbermann or not, Palin's remarks are there for all to see and hear, and they are not comforting. We all know that McCain will be the oldest president in history on inauguration day if he's elected, and he's been less than forthright about his medical history (more on that in a separate post as well). To have this woman sitting in the chair of power in the Oval Office is truly a terrifying thought.
It is pretty remarkable that she's so clueless about what the vice president's responsibilities are. I'm probably insulting a few people as I write this, and I don't care - it's pretty clear to me by now that most of the people who support her fall into two categories:
1. Rabidly pro-life, who will vote for anyone who wants to overturn Roe v. Wade, and
2. People who support her based on her appearance and her breathtakingly dumb soundbites and attack lines on Obama
Either way, superficiality seems to be the name of the game, in most instances. I don't think either group is going to carry the day for McCain and Palin.
Even her "hockey mom" persona isn't genuine - not after it was revealed that $150,000 in campaign cash was spent on clothes for her during the campaign. Zoinks! Another Repube politician who doesn't mind spending other people's money - clearly the McCain campaign is embarrassed by this revelation. Of course, almost immediately after this story hit the wires, the McCain campaign released a statement saying that "the clothes will be donated to charity," with the implication that that was the plan all along. If you believe that one, I've got some preferred stock in Enron you might be interested in purchasing.
The other night, on the eve of the 9-11 anniversary, Keith Olbermann savaged the Republicans for its treatment of and exploitation of the worst attack on our soil in modern American history. If watched it two or three times, feeling equal parts amazement that someone had the temerity to criticize the 9-11 party (a slogan so deserving of the GOP for many reasons), and also disbelief that our corporate media allows Olbermann's voice to remain on the air when he's so critical of the party of the corporate media, the GOP. When I hear Olbermann wield his rhetorical cudgel in his uniquely sardonic way, the only conclusion I can come to as to why he's allowed to say such things is that the corporate media wants to at least have the appearance of being "bipartisan"; whenever someone (and so few do) say that the media is dominated by right wing voices (which is almost completely is), Repubes can scream "Keith Olbermann!" and "Jon Stewart!" Hey, whatever - at least Olbermann is out there, and he is more pissed than ever. Thank God for him.
He was particularly sage when he took the GOP to task for trying to "own" 9-11, which is has virtually franchised to any Republican seeking higher office. I wonder if the Republican National Committee will soon begin collecting royalties whenever a GOP nominee for a federal, state, or local office invokes "9-11" against his or her Democratic opponent. It seems we aren't too far away. Anyway, here's Olbermann on the trademarking of 9-11 by the GOP:
9-11 has become a brand name, a Republican campaign slogan, propaganda of the lowest form. 9-11 has become 9-11 with a trademark logo; 9-11™ has sustained a president who long ago should have been dismissed or impeached. It has kept him and his gang of financial or constitutional crooks in office without literally any means of visible support.
[...]
...the political party in office at the time of attacks at the local, state and national levels, the party which uniformly ignored the warnings, and the presidential administration already through 20 percent of its first term, and no longer wet behind the ears, have not only thus escaped any blame for the criminal malfeasance and neglect that allowed the attacks to occur, but that presidency and political party have managed to make it seem as if the other political party would be solely and irredeemably responsible for any similar catastrophe in the future...
He also takes some significant swipes at Rudy Giuliani, America's Profiteer, who really can't be repudiated harshly enough for his idiotic and moronic criticisms of the Democratic Party since 9-11, as well as his endlessly pimping himself as being a "brave leader" in the hours and days after 9-11. Kudos to Olbermann for mentioning that Giuliani didn't do DICK (my word) between the two World Trade Center attacks in the 1990s, during which most of the time he was mayor of New York City, and was in a position to do much. (That would include having the city's emergency response center located at the World Trade Center, which the FDNY and NYPD were vehemently opposed to, which Olbermann mentions, and also getting a working radio system that would have allowed the NYPD and FDNY to communicate to one another on the morning of 9-11; it's not a stretch to say that the appallingly bad radios that the city did have on 9-11 cost more than a few first responders their lives.)
Olbermann really slammed the GOP for it's supposed 9-11 tribute film broadcast during the GOP Convention last week, chiding the powers that be in our fear mongering party for the images and footage displayed, saying:
The Republicans gave us sociological pornography; a virtual snuff film. Years ago, the television networks, to the applause of this nation, and to the relief of its mental health authorities, voluntarily stopped showing the most graphic of the images of the World Trade Center, except with the strongest of warnings. And yet the Republicans at their convention, having virtually seized control of the cable news operations, showed the worst of it...
I can't think of much more to add to that, other than to say I'm glad that Olbermann brought up how our corporate media is run by companies who have a vested interest in seeing that John McCain gets elected. This is especially true considering that Obama has publicly stated that if elected, he wants to enforce the Sherman Antitrust Act, which would effectively break up the enormous media conglomerates. This rates as a pretty big mistake; they were going to fight Obama's election anyway, but he should have waited to reveal these plans until after he's elected, if he indeed wins.
One final thought - I LOVE it that Olbermann raked McCain over the coals for Mac's patently asinine pronouncement that "he knows how to catch bin Laden." Anyone who believes that comment at face value ought to be deported, at best. Olbermann hammers the point home about McCain's pledge to run a "clean campaign"; anyone but the most rabid Republican knew that was a lie when he said it - all that was needed was time to prove how dishonest it was. Well, we now have that proof.
By the way, more specifics on Olbermann's reaction to the GOP's 9-11 "tribute film" in a bit.
I don't know how the Bush administration continues to get away with it - I really don't. Wait, check that - I do know how Bush and his con artists are getting away with it, and the answer is spineless Democrats.
From Karl Rove refusing a Congressional subpoena last week to President Bush's outright refusal to release documents that Congress demands, the administration continuously thumbs its collective nose at both Congress and the Constitution. The only thing more troubling is that Congress seems unwilling to do anything meaningful about it.
Last night on Countdown, Keith Olbermann had on Jonathan Turley to discuss the latest Bush obfuscation - claiming Executive Privilege in the CIA/Valerie Plame investigation. Turley wasted no time going after Bush, and he pointed out that those who voted to confirm AG Mukasky are now suffering the consequences:
“…This is why, when Senators Shumer and Feinstein saved Mukasey’s confirmation, this is what they purchased. And, what Congress needs to do, the only thing they can do, is bring back Inherent Contempt and to say they’re going to start to exercise contempt on their own, that the deal is off. Attorney General Mukasey has broken a very long standing promise to be a faithful broker, to bring these cases to the grand jury - he won’t. And Congress has a right to now say we’re going back to doing this stuff ourselves.”
I'm waay behind on my letter writing (I'm catching up later today), but we need to be writing our so-called leaders in Washington (as well as our elected representatives and senators) to let them know that they must hold those who are obstructing justice accountable. Find out who your elected legislators are by clicking Here, or better yet, call the Congressional Switchboard at (202) 225-3121, and you'll be connected to your rep. or senator (and they'll find yours if you don't know. Please, take a few minutes to leave a message - phone calls really do have more of an impact than e-mail or snail mail.
When I read that Nancy Pelosi is now publicly saying that an impeachment VOTE is off the table, despite several articles of impeachment being sent to the Judiciary Committee, I wonder how she was ever elected House Speaker in the first place. Pelosi and Harry Reid's conduct during this Congress have left me decidedly underwhelmed to be kind - they have held Bush and his cabal accountable for... oh, let me think... nothing.
However, it's not too late for all of us to demand that they do something about the many criminal offenses this administration has committed. And the biggest ones of all may be yet to come - an attack on Iran, and full-scale pardons for those who have flouted the law during the last 7+ years; Scooter Libby was just the tip of the iceberg.
I don't completely agree with what Keith Olbermann and Chris Hayes from The Nation Magazine about John McCain's battery proposal. It seems to me that Olbermann is sniping here a little, but I do agree that McCain seems to be offering this as some sort of magical solution to our energy problems. It's not - it's one of dozens and dozens hundreds of possible technologies that are going to be needed to kick our addiction to foreign oil.
However, they both Olbermann and Hayes do make a very good point about McCain's parade of proposals regarding oil: first, it was the gas tax holiday, and that one faded. Then, it was offshore drilling, and now that one is falling by the wayside, especially given the political calculations and riskiness of such a move in Florida (and, to a lesser extent, California).
My favorite bonhomie from the above clip is when Hayes says that "drilling off our coasts for oil is like digging for change in your couch to pay for your mortgage." That's absolutely right - the amount of ignorance on drilling for domestic oil is more staggering than gas prices themselves these days. Drilling off our coasts is going to expose tens of thousands of miles of coastlines to potential spills and accidents, with little benefit for a decade, or more. What's more, I don't think for a nanosecond that oil prices will go down if the oil companies are permitted to drill. The rich will simply get richer. If we were to drill and hit major oil, we would just be getting our oil from a different source, but the price isn't going to change. In addition, it will simply prolong our destructive and mindless addiction to oil.
Electric cars and hybrids are an important part of a multi-spoked solution, though. I really would like to hear more ideas coming from Barack Obama about oil. So far, I'm not hearing much - he needs to step to the forefront on this issue, now.
Oh, and that $280 million bridge? One would assume that McCain is talking about the notorious proposed Gravina Island Bridge, endlessly pimped by Alaska Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK), the longest tenured Republican Senator in Congress. (The actual proposed cost, before the project was mercifully canceled by Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, was $398 million.) Stevens (of "Internet Tubes" fame) threatened to quit Congress if the funds were withdrawn a few years back. Promises, promises, senator.
I defy you to watch this and not get angry. A report aired last night on Countdown with Keith Olbermann about the Enronification (Manipulation) of the price of oil. This is a good old-fashioned piece of journalism, which we get appallingly too little of these days.
What's more, the connection to McCain is pretty damning. I watched this with a critical eye, and of course I'm not suggesting that it's all McCain's fault, or anything even close to that. However, it appears that there are some pretty clear-cut connections between former Sen. Phil Gramm, a McCain campaign adviser, and the mess that our commodities markets are in.
I've been writing it for days, and it's worth mentioning again - drilling is absolutely, positively NOT the answer to our energy problems. What's more, I think politicians like McCain and especially President Bush are using the current crisis as a very convenient excuse to try and open up our coasts and ANWR to oil and gas drilling. Even if this passes, and it had better not, it will take years for this oil to reach the market, and what's more, it will only prolong our addiction to oil.
It's pretty interesting to hear Bush and McCain complain that a new refinery hasn't been built in over 30 years. Mr. President, then why don't you tell your oil buddies to build one? Better yet, why doesn't Congress force Big Oil's hand? God only knows, the industry is getting enough taxpayer money, so demand action!
Despite generous contributions, it looks as if even McCain has to go with public sentiment and go against Big Oil, finally.
Better yet, contact your Congressional leaders and let them know that you won't stand for more drilling on our coasts, or in Alaska. Click Here to get your Congressional legislators' contact information. E-mail is good, but a quick phone call is better, and believe me, they pay attention. The Congressional Switchboard number is (202) 225-3121 - the operators are very helpful - give 'em your zip, and they'll connect you right away.
This is an excellent, spot on Special Comment by Keith Olbermann last week that I forgot to post, but it's still as apropos as ever. (Heck, it could have been last night and it would still be appropriate - better yet, maybe he should just keep replaying it.) In it, Olbermann takes on McCain's absurd comment that it "doesn't really matter" when the troops come home.
To his credit, Olbermann provides plenty of context for McCain's comments, too, including many of his asinine statements in the past about how quickly we were going to achieve victory in Iraq, and a myriad of other statements regarding the war, very few of which have proven to be true.
Recently, Olbermann has stumbled a bit at times, and I've been critical of him. After all, I'm not slavishly devoted to any commentator, liberal or (gasp!) conservative, but it's comments like these where Olbermann is at his very best, and, dare I risk hyperbole, he's doing an important service for his country. His show is still "can't miss TV" every single night. I hope he keeps the heat on McCain and Bush, as he's been doing for the last five years.
It's my hope that people who believe McCain is the strongest candidate when it comes to foreign policy are paying attention to all of his misstatements and inaccurate predictions about Iraq. There's a lot to choose from.
What's more, it's important to remember all of his war mongering about Iran, too. I almost spit up when I saw McCain's ad (below), which paints him as a man of peace, or something. Take a look...
The first seven seconds are all you need to realize how utterly inconceivable this ad is. "Only a fool or fraud talks tough or romantically about war..." Is he joking? He's been talking tough about Iraq for years, and recently, Iran.
McCain must think most Americans are pretty stupid, or indifferent. Does he think that we haven't been paying attention for the past eight years? What other conclusion could you draw? I guess he thinks a packaged, slick advertisement will be a good deodorant for the stench of dead Americans and Iraqis in the Middle East that he has whole-heartedly supported and endorsed for over five years.
Again, I sure hope that Americans remember this stuff in the voting booth.
SIC concludes Bush administration lied about pre-war intelligence
Almost four years after Senator Pat Roberts (R-KS) smugly and arrogantly cleared the Bush White House of any wrongdoing on intelligence matters during the run-up to the War in Iraq, yesterday, Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), Roberts' successor on the Senate Intelligence Committee, reached a harshly different conclusion:
"The president and his advisers undertook a relentless public campaign in the aftermath of the attacks to use the war against Al Qaeda as a justification for overthrowing Saddam Hussein."
Do I think it will make a difference? I'm guessing probably not. But, it won't help any prominent Republican who has been with Bush every step of the way, including Roberts, one of the most blatantly partisan Republican Senators who is running for re-election against Jim Slattery, and McSame, who might just as well sit on President Bush's shoulder (with Lieberman on the other), he's such a parrot for Bush regarding Iraq.
Last night's version of Bushed! on Countdown tackled three pretty big lies -
1. Valerie Plame Affair - Scott McClellan's book has thrown a few more logs on the fire, and here's hoping that the Mustache of Justice, Henry Waxman, does the right thing by exploring McClellan's accusations.
2. The judge at Gitmo who was mysteriously replaced, a month before he was due to retire, because he didn't rule the way the military (Read: the Pentagon and the administration) wanted him to.
3. President Bush's appeasement speech - the disgrace continues. Not only is Israel talking to Syria, but the Iraqi government is talking to Iran. Strangely, President Bush has had nothing to say about it. Far-right ideologues aside, everyone knows the speech was an unqualified disgrace, and a complete farce. Here's hoping that voters don't forget this fall, and by that I mean McCain's comments in light of Bush's speech as well, well McSame parrotted what the president said in front of the Knesset.
Crooks & Liars has been all over John McCain's ties to lobbyists, despite his spoon-fed persona (that the media happily gobbles up) that he's a lobbyist-hating, Straight-Talking Maverick who is a champion of campaign finance reform. From C&L:
Last week we brought you this story about McCain campaign Co-Chair Phil Gramm and his lobbying efforts that put him on the wrong side of the ongoing mortgage foreclosure crisis. Now, it appears Gramm's association with the aging Republican senator's campaign is doing far more harm that previously known. UBS, a bank for which Gramm lobbied, is now under investigation for alleged use of overseas tax havens to hide assets of its wealthy clients from U.S. authorities — while in office, Gramm also supported these tax havens after 9/11, which hampered the government's ability to track Osama bin Laden's financial network before 9/11.
It gets better. Last night on Countdown, Keith Olbermann, along with The Nation's Chris Hayes, had a pretty lively discussion about what Gramm's role on McCain's campaign means for McCain's reputation as a:
Straight Talker Maverick Champion of Campaign Finance Reform Vehement Anti-Lobbyist
Sheesh - could it be reasoned that pretty soon, McCain's darling media could run out of attractive labels for him? I doubt it, but it doesn't hurt to fantasize.
Here's a brief excerpt by Hayes during last night's Countdown:
"...What this reveals is actually a really profound contradiction at the heart of the Republican coalition, the conservative coalition and McCain's campaign, which is on the one hand, it's home to the most sort of, chest-beating, self righteous moralists about foreign policy - we can't talk to Ahmedenajad because he's an anti-Semite, at the same time it's a party who's agenda is run by global conglomerates that pursue dollar and profit with no regard for any kind of sense of morality..."
It doesn't get more sage than that. Well said, Mr. Hayes. Again, I wonder, will the media follow this up, or gloss over it and get on to more important stuff, like what so-and-so's pastor said in church last Sunday?
Hayes again makes the astute point (one that I made a few days ago, too) that while Bush was in front of the Knesset a few weeks ago, effectively calling Obama an appeaser for wanting to talk to Hamas and Iran, Israel was simultaneously opening up talks with Syria, a country that it's not an overreach to say it's mortal enemies with. Ooopsie, Bushie! There was very little media coverage of that, too.
I have no hope for our corporate media, save for a Democratic victory this fall. Either way, once the new Congress and administration take power, we can and we MUST demand an end to corporations' hegemony over the mass media in this country.
Every once in a while, I see a story in the media that just blows me away, and I get convinced that we're only days away from book burnings. This is one of those. Dunkin Donuts has pulled an ad featuring Rachel Ray, because she was wearing a scarf [or a keffiyeh] that looked like one that a terrorist would wear, at least according to psychopath Michelle Malkin. I always knew that Malkin had serious emotional problems, including her scorching case of xenophobia, but this one's notable even for her. Breathless debate in the right-wing blogosphere ensued, and Malkin (and no doubt Bill O'Lielly) threatened a boycott. Considering the laughable track record of O'Lielly's phony boycotts, I doubt one by Malkin would have gained much traction, either.
What's worse, Dunkin Donuts folded up like a cheap rug and pulled the ad. Ridiculous. To be fair to the company, DD (for a nanosecond) is in virtually a no-win situation - it either offends some on the far right and keeps running the ad, or it pulls the ad under pressure, but by doing so risks a backlash for folding to intolerant rubes like Malkin. And the latter is precisely what the company did by pulling the ad. Well, Dunkin can kiss my business goodbye. No way will I patronize a company that allows itself to be bullied by the likes of Malkin and her stable of drooling drones who hate anything that doesn't look, sound, or appear "American."
Olbermann gets it right in the clip above: Time to STOP buying the donuts.
Here is another great version of Countdown's ongoing series, Bushed - this one hosted by Air America host Rachel Maddow. I love her show on Air America, and she has a great presence on television as well (are you listening, MSNBC execs?).
The IED story is easily the most outrageous, but it should surprise no one that corporate America is making quite an outrageous money grab in the midst of the mortgage crisis. The Housing Bill being debated right now in the U.S. Senate is proposing $3.3 billion go to tax relief of homeowners, but about $12 billion is going to help out the companies involved. This should outrage every taxpayer in this country. Why in the world is the government bailing out companies who have made predatory loans in the first place. So let me get this straight - if homeowners make bad decisions by signing a high-risk mortgages because, heaven forbid, they want to achieve the American dream of buying a home, and they can't pay, they lose their money, and their homes. In other words, they pay for the mistake for a looong time in the form of destroyed credit, not to mention the loss of their homes.
If corporations and banks making these idiotic loans make bad decisions and have to foreclose on these homes, the government bails them out. I guess there really is no downside in the mortgage business. I really need to open my own bank. And we all need to contact our reps and senators in Congress to let them know how outraged we are. Click Here to find out who your reps and senators are, or you can call the Congressional Switchboard directly at (202) 225-3121 and an operator will connect you to your representative or senator(s).
Of course, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) had this to say about the bill:
"We helped Wall Street. We're all glad that Bear Stearns was taken care of," said Reid on Wednesday. "But now it's our opportunity to take care of people on Main Street."
No Senator, we are not all glad that Bear Sterns is raping the taxpayer. Maybe you are, but I know I'm not. Reid has been little short of a total disaster as Democratic Majority Leader in the Senate. If the Democrats retain control of the Senate, they had better consider another leader, because Reid is a joke.
The last piece is quite a story about Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) being outraged that he couldn't use a gym for a workout while on a trip to Baghdad because he didn't have the proper credentials. McHenry called the guard a "two-bit security guard" in anger. Yet another elected politician who thinks he's God's gift, and who doesn't like being told the word "no." Maddow picks it up from here:
Just so you know, the gym McHenry wanted to use? It was in the Green Zone, in Baghdad. [Emphasis hers] The "two-bit security guard" McHenry derided was an American soldier in harm's way, protecting visiting Americans, like Congressman McHenry. And because this soldier followed proper procedure and refused special treatment to a big shot like Congressman McHenry, his reward? Did he get to go home, like McHenry did? No, this "two-bit security guard" stayed behind in Baghdad to fight McHenry's war for him. Congressman, you feel a little apology coming on?
Yesterday, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson endorsed Barack Obama for president, citing Obama's speech earlier this week during which he went over and above explaining his relationship with Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
Well I waited because I was just legitimately very torn. You mentioned my ties to the Clintons, my loyalties to President Clinton, my support and respect for Senator Clinton.
But, I just realized that if I was going to make a difference, at a time we need party unity, at a time when the campaign was really getting nasty and personal, at a time when Senator Obama responded, I believe, in such a courageous way to a problem in his campaign — those remarks by his own pastor — I felt that I needed to step in and say that I am backing Senator Obama because I think this man has got something very good about him, something very special.
If I had to pick a favorite running mate for either Obama or Clinton, right now, Richardson. He has an impeccable résumé and he brings a great deal to the ticket. However, I won't be a bit surprised if Richardson takes a senior cabinet position in an Obama or Clinton administration, and perhaps that is why he would refuse the VP slot if it's offered.
Here is Keith Olbermann's take on McSame's Al-Qaeda/Iran hat trick from last night. I don't have too much more to add to this, but I don't agree with Newsweek's Jonathan Alter - that this is more about McCain being simply tired from traveling, or that the media has grown tired of the "gotchya games" that it plays with all of the candidates. Well, that's not an excuse to make a stupid, factually wrong assertion three times in a row on the world stage while making a visit to Iraq not for campaign purposes. Where I do agree with Alter is where he mentions McCain's attempt to "conflate again, all of the bad guys over there in a way to confuse Americans who are not playing close attention." Damn right.
I like Olbermann's take just a little bit better - he offers two alternatives to McSame's mistakes: it's either "a two-day long senior moment interrupted by a moment or two of clarity," or "a George Bush-like conflagration." Either way, it's not good news for Repubes, other than to jump up and down while screaming, "Obama! Racist! Jeremiah Wright!" hoping that everyone forgets that McSame doesn't know what he's talking about.
For once, when Bill O'Reilly will undoubtedly call a story about him a "hit job," I completely agree. And he deserves it.
You'd think that Bill O'Lielly would stay a million miles away from the Eliot Spitzer scandal, but of course he can't help himself. I guess BOR is drawn to a sex story like a moth to a campfire, but it's too bad guys like Keith Olbermann are around to make sure he gets burned.
Take a listen and laugh as Olbermann plays interpreter to BOR's analysis of Spitzer's fall - it really is a hoot. It seems that O'Reilly simply can't save himself from his own stupidity, and since that's so often the case, his loss is our gain.
I never thought I'd find myself writing this, but thank you, Billy! Thanks for providing all of your fodder for the nut job cannon. Keep up the good work, BOR.
(Keith's thanks goes without saying - he really is the Fox "News" Network's kryptonite)
I haven't posted a Keith Olbermann in a while, but this one is certainly worth sharing - a Special Comment on the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) that states that Iran gave up its nuclear program some time ago.
Of course, the war-mongering administration wasn't going to take this news sitting down.
There's not much I can add to this one, other than to say I whole-heartedly agree. Anyone who has been even remotely paying attention ought to be frightened at the roads Bush would love to take us down. The only thing stopping the president and his war cabinet are (God help us) mostly spineless Democrats, and Americans who speak out against another war. I'll go to my grave believing that Bush would have already drummed up a war against Iran had the Democrats not retaken Congress last year. Bush may get his war yet, and I still say that most American's won't care, as long as someone else is doing the fighting.
Probably the only way there will be any sort of significant uprising/backlash against the Bush administration, no matter where we fight and no matter how flimsy the justification, is if there is a draft. Bush knows this, and that's why the military has a massive army of private contractors, who are answerable to no one but the Pentagon, and ultimately, Bush.
My favorite passage from the clip above:
A pathological presidential liar, or an idiot-in-chief. It is the nightmare scenario of political science fiction: A critical juncture in our history and, contained in either answer, a president manifestly unfit to serve, and behind him in the vice presidency: an unapologetic war-monger who has long been seeing a world visible only to himself.
Since in a while I haven't posted any Keith Olbermann clips in quite a while, this seems like a good place to begin - the other night's Worst Person in the World - none other than college drop-out Sean Hannity, the biggest Giuliani suck-up of them all. Not like we needed any more proof, but Insanity is as partisan as it gets. Even for a talking-head political pundit, it's more than over-the-top to be introducing America's Profiteer at one of his fund raisers.
Olbermann feels that this administration might be manipulating the mass media to deflect attention away from bad news. Nah! That's never happened before, has it? Only in the spring in fall of 2004 prior to the '04 election, when there were more color alerts than a Crayola factory; in the days and weeks prior to the '06 election (remember the announcement of the Saddam Hussein verdict?); and too many times to count since the start of the investigation into the Valerie Plame Affair, the firing of U.S. attorneys, etc.
What I find most amazing of all about these manipulations, when they happen, is the White House Press Secretary, whomever the sad sack happens to be at the time, going on TV and feigning surprise that someone would even have the thought that this administration could possibly ever even consider manipulating the news.
You decide, but there have been at least a dozen high-profile cases in Bush's second term where announcements were times to trump revelations of bad news. And in many cases, what's packaged as news to distract from the unpleasantness is often old news.
It's so wonderful to see that our mass media is still willfully playing the roll of cheerleader for our morally rudder-less president and vice president.
Al Gore appeared on Countdown a few nights ago to promote his new book, The Assault on Reason, in an uncharacteristically long interview by Keith Olbermann. He makes a number of good points, but notice his careful comments about Cindy Sheehan - the nature of his remarks about the polarizing anti-war figure have the fingerprints of a presidential candidate all over them. Perhaps I'm over analyzing, but his comments on Sheehan, especially when considering his historically vehement opposition to the War in Iraq, are evidence that he's being pretty careful. Gore's been through the presidential ringer before, and he knows full well that anything he says now can and will be held against him as a candidate.
Gore's non-denial denials about his presidential candidacy are becoming more and more comical. I don't mean that in a demeaning way, but the fact that he won't say, unequivocally, that he's not running is very telling. In the current edition of Newsweek,Howard Fineman reveals that Gore is 50/50 on running for president:
He is "50-50," according to one of his closest friends and financial backers. On the one hand, Gore inquires about Manhattan office space for his business and charity ("It has to be a 'green' building," said this source, who didn't want to be named discussing Gore's affairs). On the other hand, he keeps his face in front of big donors, as he did at a recent dinner in Miami. Gore is all the rage among corporate executives, who see wisdom—and profits—in going green, and who appreciate Gore's prescience. "Al has set this up so he can jump either way in the fall," said the close friend. "If there is an opening, I say he goes."
In a way, if he has every intention of running, he's being smart by staying out for now. While staying on the sidelines legally bars him from fund raising, it also gives him a distinct advantage - he's sort of exempt from press scrutiny and attacks from both the left and the right if he's not yet a candidate. If he were to enter the race in September, he would still have plenty of time to raise money; he still has a vast fund raising network in place from his 2000 campaign and a large cadre of Hollywood friends.
I've written it before and I'll write it again many, many times - run Al, run. My absolute dream ticket for 2008 would be Gore/Obama. I think the ticket would be unbeatable, Rudy Giuliani, John McCain and Mitt Romney be damned.
Urge Gore to run by e-mailing him at: AlGore@algore.com.
