Palin's speech full of lies and empty rhetoric

But don't take my word for it - watch it for yourself and make your own judgments. God only knows plenty in the news are doing just that, and the right is already crying foul. We all know that drill, too; it's the liberal media trying to derail a Republican presidential run. What a tired (and wholly inaccurate) argument. It's as if the GOP has dug up Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew to make the same old trite complaints about anyone in the media who dares oppose them. It's as hackneyed as it is pathetic.

Anyway, on to Palin's speech. My first thought was that she gave a pretty good performance. She's obviously a very polished public speaker, and it shows. However, many news organizations have begun to do some fact checking about some of her statements in the speech, and (surprise), her partisan witticisms aren't holding up. (And should it be any wonder, since her speech was written by the McCain camp? Some reports have most of it being written before she was even nominated.)

As C&L notes, it's also interesting that she kept the broken record of GOP lies spinning last night with some previously debunked and long-ago refuted falsehoods:

"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.

Thankfully, the Obama camp didn't wait long for the stench of rank partisan bullshit to die down before responding. Here's Obama Campaign Spokesman Bill Burton:

"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."

Crooks and Liars has the rest Here.

To be fair, I think much of the coverage of Palin has been overdone, overblown and undeserved, but the more her record is examined (as all four candidates' records should be by the press), the more disturbing things seem to stand out - her husband's membership in a very powerful, belligerent movement for Alaska to succeed from the United States; and even more ominous, her abuse of power as governor of Alaska. Much, much more a bit later today.

About that liberal media...

[Click for larger image]

I wonder how Republicans will spin this one? Every Republican, and I do mean every one, was anti-CBS back in 2004 when Dan Rather, ahem, rather foolishly went public with a story impugning Bush's National Guard "service."

Anyway, The Drudge Report has been pimping the Hillary story all day; it's nearly 3 p.m., and it's been up since 8 this morning. (Don't click unless you want to give him the hits.) Funny how I didn't notice McCain's numerous gaffes last week featured nearly as prominently, but that figures. If you click on the image above for a larger view, you'll notice that the insipid Drudge boasts one of the most visited sites on the Web. I hate to acknowledge it, but facts are facts - it's tough to overstate his influence on the mass media, going all the way back to the Monica Lewinsky scandal. And the mainstream media simply laps it up; multiple times I've heard talking heads on cable news networks, including CNN, say "The Drudge Report is reporting..." as if that alone constitutes news. Never mind the fact that his track record is no better than The New York Times or any of the so-called media outlets. It's also a very poorly kept secret that the Republican National Committee talks with Drudge on a regular basis and gives him talking points.

Republican reaction to Hillary's latest puffery about a trip to Bosnia is pretty predictable, actually. It's the tried-and-true GOP play book - when the media reports something unfriendly regarding a Democrat, the media's simply doing it's job, but when the media pops a blister of Republican malfeasance, Repubes whine about "the liberal media." It's another reason we have to be so thankful for Richard Nixon's legacy. Thanks, Dick.

I tire of hearing tales about "the liberal media," but I won't stop writing about it, because it can and must be debunked.

Tom Hartmann Show the place for informed, reasonable debate on war

Today, I listened to a podcast of Thom Hartmann's show from yesterday, and during it, a Vietnam Veteran called in, and what he said struck me in a very profound way. He said that many Vietnam Veterans are alive today because Congress pulled the plug on that war. He also mentioned another thing I hadn't thought about - that generals are in the business of getting promoted (Read: Getting another star). When that happens, they are replaced with another general, who comes in and has to clean up the mess (or continue on with a war strategy that isn't working).

Pretty well stated, from a man who lived through the disaster of Vietnam.

When I heard the vet call in, it also reminded me of the new Nixon book that I blogged about last night: Nixon and Kissinger: Partners in Power, by Robert Dallek. The book was recently profiled and excerpted in Vanity Fair, and in that excerpt is the following passage from the book:

Using language that has a painfully contemporary echo, Kissinger and Nixon very quickly came to private conclusions about Vietnam that they never revealed publicly and denied entertaining. "In Saigon the tendency is to fight the war to victory," Nixon told Kissinger, according to the transcript of a 1969 phone conversation. "But you and I know it won't happen - it is impossible." Even so, according to [White House Chief of Staff Bob] Haldeman's unpublished diaries, Nixon later urged that Democratic critics making this same point should be labeled "the party of surrender." When someone told Kissinger that Nixon could not be re-elected, because of Vietnam, he disputed it and added, according to a memo of a conversation, that "anytime we want to get out of Vietnam we can," and that "we will get out of Vietnam before the [1972] election." Nixon wanted to plan the removal of all U.S. troops by the end of 1971, but Kissinger cautioned that, if North Vietnam then de-stabilized Saigon during the following year, events could have an adverse effect on the president's campaign. According to Haldeman's diaries, Kissinger advocated a pullout in the fall of 1972, "so that if any bad results follow they will be too late to affect the election." He apparently had nothing to say about the American lives that would be lost by deliberately prolonging the war. Just before a peace treaty was signed, Kissinger in a phone conversation advised Nixon against stating that this was a "lasting peace or guaranteed peace because this thing is almost certain to blow up sooner or later."

[Emphasis Mine]

When I heard the Vietnam Vet on Hartmann's show today, all I could think about are that the parallels between Vietnam and the War in Iraq grow more and more apropos by the day.

So, to quickly put the Vietnam War in perspective - 20,604 Americans gave their lives AFTER Nixon took office in January 1969 in a war that, according to Dallek, Kissinger said, "anytime we want to get out of Vietnam we can"? Just another revelation from a war that continues to be a national disgrace. When I read items like that, it's absolutely no stretch to say that President Nixon and Henry Kissinger are war criminals.

Put another way, it is not out of the question for Bush to pursue a similar strategy? Who among us, other than the blowhards at Fox News and the radical religious right, would be surprised if our troops were withdrawn from Iraq in July or August of next year, amidst a backdrop of Repubes claiming victory?

Whenever we bring all of our troops home out of Iraq, one thing is for certain - Democrats won't get an ounce of credit, at least among Republicans and most of the mainstream media.

Another caller on Hartmann's show, an MP from Arizona who served in Iraq, called in, and was livid at what this administration is doing to our military, and our soldiers. He briefly discussed the very active campaign to recall John McCain in Arizona. Whether the drive will ultimately be successful is anyone's guess, but it is a signal that his support is collapsing in his home state. This caller also discussed President Nixon's idea to use tactical nuclear weapons in Vietnam to achieve victory. I've read about this before, and I don't know the veracity of those stories, but considering everything else Nixon did, it wouldn't really come as a shock. According to this caller, Nixon looked out onto the National Mall in Washington, D.C., and saw one million protesters sharply opposed to his war policies, and he changed his mind. His point in bringing up that story (true or not) is the power of the protest, and he makes an excellent point - our voices can and must make the difference in this war.

It's become a running theme with just about every election - that it's the "most important election in our lifetime." It does become trite, but I shudder to think what would have happened had the Democrats not regained control of Congress some 20 weeks ago.

One thing's for certain - there would be very few, if any, substantive discussions about bringing our troops home, and the Democrats would have been a marginalized minority, just like they were during the first six years of this administration.

Time for some Sunday funnies

Since the Bush Administration's Justice Department had a big "data dump" on Friday, I figured I'd have a cartoon dump this afternoon. Speaking of that data dump, notice the administration followed the age-old, tried-and-true, cardinal rule of political PR - always release bad political news/notes after deadline on Friday night.

This cartoon got me thinking about global warming. I've heard skeptics and global warming deniers (and thank God there are fewer and fewer of these people) reason that the US should not do anything to combat global warming because "China or India both aren't doing anything."

My response to that is two-fold (I'll stick with China, since it's much more populous than India): First, China IS doing something about global warming, or at least trying to. Recently it announced that it's spending $200 billion to try and convert a whole city in Western China to solar power. Hmm - can anyone name a U.S. city that's trying to do that?

Also, the United States is still by far the largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world at around 33 percent. Right now, China's greenhouse gases are around 13 percent. So we are belching almost three times as much greenhouse gases as China, yet we have 1/5 of China's population. If you were China, wouldn't you resent this just a little bit? And what kind of message are we sending the rest of the world, specifically the developing countries? "We had our industrial revolution, but you can't have yours - sorry." China, which boasts the world's largest coal reserves, needs cheap energy NOW. Along comes the US saying, "You can't burn coal" after we've been doing it for over 100 years. Yea, a lot of good that's going to do us.

I say this because I question what's happening to leadership in our country? We're the United States - we used to lead, not follow. Evidently, we've turned into a bunch of followers, most notably on the important issues like nuclear proliferation and global warming - issues that affect every member of the human race. Can you imagine the response by the rest of the world if we announced we are taking drastic measures to curb greenhouse gases? It would be HUGE news. What's more, then and only then, if the rest of the world didn't take appropriate action, we'd have a leg to stand on. We don't have one now.

I winced at this one, but there's some truth to it, too. I'll have more on carbon trading later today.

There's a lot of truth in this cartoon, too.

Yes, I'm capable of joking about it, but the "Gore invented the Internet" lie still bugs the living daylights out of me.

This one's gold, plain and simple. There are more similarities between the Bush and Nixon administrations than people are realize, but it looks as if some very intelligent journalists are finally waking up to this fact.

This one nails it. The one on the left, in a metaphorical, political sense, is what's best for the country. I'm very happy the Senate Judiciary Committee issued subpoena power in the investigaton of the Justice Department's dismissal of eight federal prosecutors. This should get very, very interesting. Again, I'll have more on this later today.

Nice. And accurate, too. Rudy's wife should be embarrassed that she's made such a fool of herself. Being married three times (or if your wife happens to have been married three times) shouldn't disqualify a candidate. But, how do you forget a marriage? Sounds intentional to me, but whatever - there are much more important things to be discussing, even at this early stage of the campaign.

Blowhard DeLay hasn't lost his ability to say totally stupid, asanine things.



Speaking of DeLay, I forgot to bring this one to you - it's DeLay getting bitch slapped by Meredith Vieira on The Today Show last week. At one point, he even gets a bit testy, telling Vieira "I didn't know you spoke for the American people," when she brought up a poll that said 59 percent of the American people want the troops out of Iraq.

I got a pretty big kick out of DeLay's comment that the federal prosecutor firings is "a made-up scandal" and "that there's no evidence of any wrongdoing." He also says "this is just a taste of what it's going to be like for the next two years" and that the Democrats are "on a fishing expedition."

You're absolutely right, this is what the next two years are going to be like, scumbag. This administration needs looking into, because before January, Repubes had no oversight whatsoever during Bush's entire presidency. It's breathtaking that DeLay says this stuff with a straight face, considering he's one of the principle architects of the character-assassination, partisan-warfare politics that have dominated Washington since the early 1990s and continues today.

It's pretty entertaining that DeLay's got the balls to say he "never did anything wrong," and how the Democrats set up a specific strategy to "get Tom DeLay 12 years ago. It was on their Website." Ooooohhhhh! Their Website! The Republicans, when Clinton took office, set out to destroy him before he ever raised his right hand on January 20, 1993. That is a well-documented fact - dozens and dozens of books have been written, based on internal memos from Newt Gingrich and Tom DeLay, about their plan to destroy Clinton at all costs.

DeLay would still be in office if he did nothing wrong. Does anyone think that a man as ruthless and power hungry as DeLay wouldn't have given up his Congressional seat unless it was absolutely necessary? Two of his aides pleaded guilty in the Jack Abramoff Scandal, and DeLay knew he was next. Oh, and he's still under federal indictment, by the way. He sounds exactly like Nixon in the clip above - playing the victim, and even referring to himself in the third person. One more thing - learn how to say "terror" - it's "error" with a "t," not "terruh." Wait, keep saying it that way - it makes you appear like the rube you really are.

I have no intention of ever reading his book, or putting money in his pocket for it. But, I did read this on the Huffington Post last night - an excerpt from DeLay's book. The excerpt:

"I believe it was Adolf Hitler who first acknowledged that the big lie is more effective than the little lie, because the big lie is so audacious, such an astonishing immorality, that people have a hard time believing anyone would say it if it wasn't true. You know, the big lie — like the Holocaust never happened or dark-skinned people are less intelligent than light-skinned people. Well, by charging this big lie" — that DeLay violated campaign-finance laws in Texas — "liberals have finally joined the ranks of scoundrels like Hitler."

Check out HuffPo's analysis, by Rachel Sklar:

Never mind the invocation of Godwin's Law, never mind the fact that, where big lies are concerned, the Republicans seem to have that covered — DeLay can't even be bothered to fact-check his own book! "I believe it was Adolf Hitler, but I can't be sure, because I haven't bothered typing the phrase "Hitler" and "big lie" into Google. Buy my book!" Seriously. What a bozo.

###

Is DeLay even relevant anymore? Now Democrats are Nazis? I'd really like to know when references to the Nazi Party, Munich, or Hitler became the Titanic of cliches for the Republican Party. Having a Nazi reference in your hip pocket is now like the American Express Card for the GOP - Don't Leave Home Without It.

More on DeLay later, including what I think of his appearance on Meet the Press last week.

Comics from Slate Magazine.

Partisanship set aside for Ford funeral, mostly

Washington, D.C. appropriately mourned President Ford, as we all did this week. It was a fitting send off for a man who helped heal a nation following the Nixon administration, an era marked by corruption, abuse of power, and much worse. Nixon's pardon aside (and I feel that received entirely too much play in the press this week), President Ford really accomplished what many believed unthinkable on August 9, 1974, when Ford took the oath of office at noon -- to restore Americans' collective belief in our Democracy, political system, and most importantly, the presidency. Well done, Mr. President. Rest in peace.

President Ford makes his final journey through Washington.

I thought President Ford's memorial service and funeral were both touching, appropriate and accurate tributes of the man that was Gerald R. Ford. With each of our presidents, there is always plenty of evidence of how they view themselves and how they want to be remembered, from their presidential libraries to their memoirs. But, there's no greater indication than their funerals and memorial services. As such, President Ford didn't disappoint this week; his planned memorials were great reflections of his character and personality -- unassuming and dignified, without a whiff of pomposity or self-importance; two unfortunate traits that tend to mark such events. No horse with the empty boots, no Air Force flyover (that was saved for the Michigan service). And the American public streamed in throughout the night to view his casket, alongside the many dignitaries, world leaders and former presidents.

Just when I thought this was about as nonpartisan political event as one can see, I read after the funeral service that President Bush was the only person who required that the Rotunda in the Capitol be cleared so he could go in and view the casket, where videotape shows he stood for about seven seconds. All presidents have egos, but really? What an uncouth rube.

This is one of my favorite pics from this week -- visitors passing by the presidents casket as he lies in state in the Capitol Rotunda on the Lincoln catafalque, which has held every president who has lied in state in the capitol since President Lincoln. I love the use of a drag shutter here (when a photographer uses a slow shutter speed). It's a cool technique that can add a lot to a situation, as long as it's not overdone.

The Washington National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. is an impressive site to behold; it's too bad that most of the time that Americans see it is during occasions like these.

My favorite part is how they robbed Bush of his 1,000,000,000th photo opportunity - when it was time for pictures, the Ford children were nowhere to be found. Good for them.
President Bush's remarks (above) were pretty measured. I wonder if this was because it was revealed seemingly hours after Ford's death that the former president was vehemently opposed to Bush's disastrous foray into Iraq. We'll probably never know.

My favorite moment from the memorial service was former President George H.W. Bush's remarks, when he talked about Ford's ability to laugh at himself. Bush talked about the Saturday Night Live skits that made fun of his falling down, and Ford's ability to laugh at himself and the importance of having that trait in public life. And Bush Sr. also showed the ability to laugh at himself, doing an imitation of Dana Carvey doing an imitation of him (above). As his Bush Sr. said that, he got a big laugh, and the cameras went to the sitting president, and he had that smirk on his face that I've come to despise these past 7-8 years.

Anyway, it was a moving, memorable service, if for no other reason that even Americans who live 80-90 years only get to see these funerals seven or eight times in their lives.

Ford's legacy will endure

Tuesday marked the passing of one of our most underrated presidents, Gerald R. Ford. Of all of the mid-to-late 20th century presidents, he gets talked about the least, but he deserves a great deal of credit for his stewardship following President Richard Nixon's downfall and resignation.

I post the photo above because when people pass away, I prefer to remember and commemorate them as they looked during their younger days, not how they looked just prior to death.

Many call Ford our "accidental president," not out of malice, but because he really did not want, nor did he seek the presidency.

His ascension to the Oval Office is without parallel. On October 10, 1973, President Nixon's first vice president, Spiro Agnew, resigned in disgrace amid charges of income tax evasion. Ford was nominated to take Agnew's place on October 12, and he took the oath of office for vice president on December 12, 1973 upon his confirmation by the House. It received scant attention by the media, as the political firestorm continued to envelop Nixon's presidency.

Ford barely had time to make the seat warm in the vice president's chair before he was summoned again, this time by White House Chief of Staff Alexander M. Haig on August 1, 1974, to let him know that a "smoking gun" had been found on the Nixon tapes, implicating the president in criminal wrongdoing. Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974, and at noon, Ford took the oath of office. ...

However, upon taking the oath of office, President Ford made the biggest of all political blunders - pardoning President Nixon. It's a debate that will probably rage for decades, if not centuries in American political discourse. Should Ford have pardoned Nixon, or should have Nixon suffered the consequences for his administration's criminal behavior?

Ultimately, I understand why Ford pardoned Nixon. America needed to get moving again. Watergate had enveloped the nation for over two years and paralyzed its foreign policy. I've changed my stance over the years on Ford's decision to pardon Nixon. Up until a few years ago, I thought it was criminal of Ford to let Nixon skate; the American people deserved answers, I used to haughtily intone.

Well, I still feel that way - a trial would have paralyzed the nation, and probably almost certainly would have killed Nixon, and by that I mean physically. Some close to the former president at the time following his resignation even felt that Nixon might have committed suicide.

But, I strongly feel that Ford pardoned Nixon too soon. Without even being formally charged, Nixon was exonerated of all charges. The American people deserved better. Yes, I realize I didn't "live" in those times, so I'm only going on what I've read. I was born in 1971, so I was alive, but at three years old, I remember nothing of those events.

In my view, Ford should have at least let the charges come out against Nixon. Americans at least deserved to learn of Nixon and his administration's criminal misconduct before the entire mess was swept under the rug with a pardon. (Above, Ford signs the pardon on the Oval Office on September 8, 1974)

The pardon set off another political firestorm in America, and this even touched his own administration. Ford's first press secretary, Jerry terHorst, resigned in protest the next day. More importantly, it severely hurt Ford's credibility as the new president. Many still believe that a deal had been struck between Ford and Nixon; in return for Nixon's resignation, Ford would grant him a pardon.

Prior to Nixon's resignation, Haig had indeed offered Ford a deal, but most historians agree that Ford pardoned Nixon on his own.

In the end, though, I think the pardon, irrespective of its timing, was the right thing to do, even though it certainly cost him the election in 1976. Had he not pardoned Nixon, Ford would have beaten Jimmy Carter and remained president. (The election was very close, so no pardon could have made a world of difference.)

Several former leaders also gained experience in the Ford Administration. Future President George H.W. Bush (above, left) meets with President Ford after being appointed Director of the CIA.

A Ford between two Edsels. President Ford (center) talks with Donald Rumsfeld (left) and Dick Cheney (right) in the Oval Office in 1975.

Here's one that a president got right - Gerald Ford tears up in the East Room of the White House while listening to President Clinton's remarks while receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1999. It was certainly a better decision than Bush's awarding the Medal of Freedom to the likes of George Tenet, who oversaw one of the biggest intelligence failures in U.S. history. Bush threw him under the bus in the wake of the WMD intel failure, Tenet resigned, and Bush gave him the MOF. I wonder how long it will be until Rumsfeld gets his? But, I digress.

Ford also had his dangerous detractors. On September 5, 1975, Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme tried to shoot Ford, and she may have succeeded, but she forgot to chamber a round into the firing chamber of her .45 before pulling the trigger.

Fromme (above) is currently serving a life sentence.

Just 17 days later, Sara Jane Moore (Below) managed to get off a shot toward Ford in San Francisco, but the shot was deflected. (Above, Ford approaches his limo as Moore fires)

After losing the '76 election, Ford kept probably the lowest profile of any recent former president. He occasionally made an appearance or went out for a round of golf, but he didn't make headlines in the vein of Clinton or his successor, Jimmy Carter.

He did do one thing that all other ex-presidents to date haven't managed to do, and that's live 93 years plus. He became the longest living president last month, besting Ronald Reagan by a little over a month.

Ford was a good and decent man who healed our nation in the aftermath of a real constitutional crisis, and that will be his greatest legacy.

God bless, and rest in peace, Mr. President.