Wow: this coming from a woman previously married to Kid Rock, Rick Soloman, and Tommy Lee. Pamela Anderson calling another chick a whore is kind of like George W. Bush calling another guy a dummy.
2012 Presidential Election
Monday, June 30, 2008
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Rich: If Terrorists Rock The Vote in 2008
Frank Rich is far and away the best columnist in America today:
By FRANK RICH
Published: June 29, 2008
DON’T fault Charles Black, the John McCain adviser, for publicly stating his honest belief that a domestic terrorist attack would be “a big advantage” for their campaign and that Benazir Bhutto’s assassination had “helped” Mr. McCain win the New Hampshire primary. His real sin is that he didn’t come completely clean on his strategic thinking.
In private, he is surely gaming this out further, George Carlin-style. What would be the optimum timing, from the campaign’s perspective, for this terrorist attack — before or after the convention? Would the attack be most useful if it took place in a red state, blue state or swing state? How much would it “help” if the next assassinated foreign leader had a higher name recognition in American households than Benazir Bhutto?
Unlike Hillary Clinton’s rumination about the Bobby Kennedy assassination or Barack Obama’s soliloquy about voters clinging to guns and faith, Mr. Black’s remarks were not an improvisational mishap. He gave his quotes on the record to Fortune magazine. He did so without thinking twice because he was merely saying what much of Washington believes. Terrorism is the one major issue where Mr. McCain soundly vanquishes his Democratic opponent in the polls. Since 2002, it’s been a Beltway axiom akin to E=mc2 that Bomb in American City=G.O.P. Landslide.
That equation was the creation of Karl Rove. Among the only durable legacies of the Bush presidency are the twin fears that Mr. Rove relentlessly pushed on his client’s behalf: fear of terrorism and fear of gays. But these pillars are disintegrating too. They’re propped up mainly by political operatives like Mr. Black and their journalistic camp followers — the last Washington insiders who are still in Mr. Rove’s sway and are still refighting the last political war.
That the old Rove mojo still commands any respect is rather amazing given how blindsided he was by 2006. Two weeks before that year’s midterms, he condescendingly lectured an NPR interviewer about how he devoured “68 polls a week” — not a mere 67, mind you — and predicted unequivocally that Election Day would yield “a Republican Senate and a Republican House.” These nights you can still find Mr. Rove hawking his numbers as he peddles similar G.O.P. happy talk to credulous bloviators at Fox News.
But let’s put ourselves in Mr. Black’s shoes and try out the Rove playbook at home — though not in front of the children — by thinking the unthinkable. If a terrorist bomb did detonate in an American city before Election Day, would that automatically be to the Republican ticket’s benefit?
Not necessarily. Some might instead ask why the Bush White House didn’t replace Michael Chertoff as secretary of homeland security after a House report condemned his bungling of Katrina. The man didn’t know what was happening in the New Orleans Convention Center even when it was broadcast on national television.
Next, voters might take a hard look at the antiterrorism warriors of the McCain campaign (and of a potential McCain administration). This is the band of advisers and surrogates that surfaced to attack Mr. Obama two weeks ago for being “naïve” and “delusional” and guilty of a “Sept. 10th mind-set” after he had the gall to agree with the Supreme Court decision on Gitmo detainees. The McCain team’s track record is hardly sterling. It might make America more vulnerable to terrorist attack, not less, were it in power.
Take — please! — the McCain foreign policy adviser, Randy Scheunemann. He was the executive director of the so-called Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, formed in 2002 (with Mr. McCain on board) to gin up the war that diverted American resources from fighting those who attacked us on 9/11 to invading a nation that did not. Thanks to that strategic blunder, a 2008 Qaeda attack could well originate from Pakistan or Afghanistan, where Osama bin Laden’s progeny, liberated by our liberation of Iraq, have been regrouping ever since. On Friday the Pentagon declared that the Taliban has once more “coalesced into a resilient insurgency.” Attacks in eastern Afghanistan are up 40 percent from this time last year, according to the American commander of NATO forces in the region.
Another dubious McCain terror expert is the former C.I.A. director James Woolsey. He (like Charles Black) was a cheerleader for Ahmad Chalabi, the exiled Iraqi leader who helped promote phony Iraqi W.M.D. intelligence in 2002 and who is persona non grata to American officials in Iraq today because of his ties to Iran. Mr. Woolsey, who accuses Mr. Obama of harboring “extremely dangerous” views on terrorism, has demonstrated his own expertise by supporting crackpot theories linking Iraq to the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing and 1993 World Trade Center bombing. On 9/11 and 9/12 he circulated on the three major networks to float the idea that Saddam rather than bin Laden might have ordered the attacks.
Then there is the McCain camp’s star fearmonger, Rudy Giuliani, who has lately taken to railing about Mr. Obama’s supposed failure to learn the lessons of the first twin towers bombing. The lesson America’s Mayor took away from that 1993 attack was to insist that New York City’s emergency command center be located in the World Trade Center. No less an authority than John Lehman, a 9/11 commission member who also serves on the McCain team, has mocked New York’s pre-9/11 emergency plans as “not worthy of the Boy Scouts.”
If there’s another 9/11, it’s hard to argue that this gang could have prevented it. At least Mr. Obama, however limited his experience, has called for America to act on actionable terrorist intelligence in Pakistan if Pervez Musharraf won’t. Mr. McCain angrily disagreed with that idea. The relatively passive Pakistan policy he offers instead could well come back to haunt him if a new 9/11 is launched from the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
Should there be no new terrorist attack, the McCain camp’s efforts to play the old Rove 9/11 fear card may quickly become as laughable as the Giuliani presidential campaign. These days Americans are more frightened of losing their jobs, homes and savings.
But you can’t blame the McCain campaign for clinging to terrorism as a political crutch. The other Rove fear card is even more tattered. In the wake of Larry Craig and Mark Foley, it’s a double-edged sword for the G.O.P. to trot out gay blades cavorting in pride parades in homosexual-panic ads.
Some on the right still hold out hope otherwise. After the California Supreme Court’s decision on same-sex marriage, The Weekly Standard suggested that a brewing backlash could put that state’s “electoral votes in play.” But few others believe so, including the state’s Republican governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has vowed to enforce the law and opposes a ballot initiative to overturn it. Even Bill O’Reilly recently chastised a family-values advocate for mounting politically ineffectual arguments against same-sex marriage.
Mr. McCain is trying to swing both ways. While he no longer refers to the aging old-guard cranks of the religious right as “agents of intolerance,” his actions, starting with his tardy disowning of the endorsement he sought from the intolerant Rev. John Hagee, sometimes speak as loudly as his past words.
The Ohio operative behind that state’s 2004 anti-same-sex marriage campaign was so alienated by Mr. McCain’s emissaries this year that he told The Los Angeles Times, “He doesn’t want to associate with us, and we don’t want to associate with him.” Mr. McCain instead associated himself with Ellen DeGeneres. He visited her talk show to extend his good wishes for her forthcoming California nuptials while seeming almost chagrined to admit his opposition to same-sex marriage, a stand he shares with Mr. Obama. Since then, Mr. McCain has met with the gay Log Cabin Republicans.
He and Mr. Obama also share the antipathy of James Dobson, the Focus on the Family fulminator so avidly courted by the Bush White House. Perhaps best remembered for linking the cartoon character SquareBob SpongePants to a “pro-homosexual video,” Mr. Dobson last week used the word “fruitcake” in a rant against Mr. Obama. He has been nearly as dyspeptic, if not quite as “fruit”-fixated, about Mr. McCain.
Mr. Dobson’s embarrassing lashing out is the last gasp of an era. His dying breed of family-values scold is giving way to a new and independent generation of evangelical leaders (and voters) who don’t march to the partisan beat of Mr. Rove or his one-time ally, the disgraced Ralph Reed. Perhaps in belated recognition of this reality, Mr. Rove has been busy lately developing a new fear card for 2008 — fear of the Obamas.
Its racial undertones are naked enough. Earlier this year, Mr. Rove wrote that Mr. Obama was “often lazy,” and that his “trash talking” during a debate was “an unattractive carry-over from his days playing pickup basketball at Harvard.” Last week Mr. Rove caricatured him as the elitist “guy at the country club with the beautiful date.” Provocative as it is to inject Mr. Obama into a setting historically associated with white Republicans, the invocation of that “beautiful date” is even more so. Where’s his beautiful wife? Mr. Rove’s suggestion that Mr. Obama might be a sexual freelancer, as an astute post at the Web site Talking Points Memo noted, could conjure up for a certain audience the image of “a white woman on his arm.”
But here, too, Mr. Rove reeks of the past. Should Mr. Black and Mr. McCain follow this ugly lead, I bet it will help them even less than the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.
By FRANK RICH
Published: June 29, 2008
DON’T fault Charles Black, the John McCain adviser, for publicly stating his honest belief that a domestic terrorist attack would be “a big advantage” for their campaign and that Benazir Bhutto’s assassination had “helped” Mr. McCain win the New Hampshire primary. His real sin is that he didn’t come completely clean on his strategic thinking.
In private, he is surely gaming this out further, George Carlin-style. What would be the optimum timing, from the campaign’s perspective, for this terrorist attack — before or after the convention? Would the attack be most useful if it took place in a red state, blue state or swing state? How much would it “help” if the next assassinated foreign leader had a higher name recognition in American households than Benazir Bhutto?
Unlike Hillary Clinton’s rumination about the Bobby Kennedy assassination or Barack Obama’s soliloquy about voters clinging to guns and faith, Mr. Black’s remarks were not an improvisational mishap. He gave his quotes on the record to Fortune magazine. He did so without thinking twice because he was merely saying what much of Washington believes. Terrorism is the one major issue where Mr. McCain soundly vanquishes his Democratic opponent in the polls. Since 2002, it’s been a Beltway axiom akin to E=mc2 that Bomb in American City=G.O.P. Landslide.
That equation was the creation of Karl Rove. Among the only durable legacies of the Bush presidency are the twin fears that Mr. Rove relentlessly pushed on his client’s behalf: fear of terrorism and fear of gays. But these pillars are disintegrating too. They’re propped up mainly by political operatives like Mr. Black and their journalistic camp followers — the last Washington insiders who are still in Mr. Rove’s sway and are still refighting the last political war.
That the old Rove mojo still commands any respect is rather amazing given how blindsided he was by 2006. Two weeks before that year’s midterms, he condescendingly lectured an NPR interviewer about how he devoured “68 polls a week” — not a mere 67, mind you — and predicted unequivocally that Election Day would yield “a Republican Senate and a Republican House.” These nights you can still find Mr. Rove hawking his numbers as he peddles similar G.O.P. happy talk to credulous bloviators at Fox News.
But let’s put ourselves in Mr. Black’s shoes and try out the Rove playbook at home — though not in front of the children — by thinking the unthinkable. If a terrorist bomb did detonate in an American city before Election Day, would that automatically be to the Republican ticket’s benefit?
Not necessarily. Some might instead ask why the Bush White House didn’t replace Michael Chertoff as secretary of homeland security after a House report condemned his bungling of Katrina. The man didn’t know what was happening in the New Orleans Convention Center even when it was broadcast on national television.
Next, voters might take a hard look at the antiterrorism warriors of the McCain campaign (and of a potential McCain administration). This is the band of advisers and surrogates that surfaced to attack Mr. Obama two weeks ago for being “naïve” and “delusional” and guilty of a “Sept. 10th mind-set” after he had the gall to agree with the Supreme Court decision on Gitmo detainees. The McCain team’s track record is hardly sterling. It might make America more vulnerable to terrorist attack, not less, were it in power.
Take — please! — the McCain foreign policy adviser, Randy Scheunemann. He was the executive director of the so-called Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, formed in 2002 (with Mr. McCain on board) to gin up the war that diverted American resources from fighting those who attacked us on 9/11 to invading a nation that did not. Thanks to that strategic blunder, a 2008 Qaeda attack could well originate from Pakistan or Afghanistan, where Osama bin Laden’s progeny, liberated by our liberation of Iraq, have been regrouping ever since. On Friday the Pentagon declared that the Taliban has once more “coalesced into a resilient insurgency.” Attacks in eastern Afghanistan are up 40 percent from this time last year, according to the American commander of NATO forces in the region.
Another dubious McCain terror expert is the former C.I.A. director James Woolsey. He (like Charles Black) was a cheerleader for Ahmad Chalabi, the exiled Iraqi leader who helped promote phony Iraqi W.M.D. intelligence in 2002 and who is persona non grata to American officials in Iraq today because of his ties to Iran. Mr. Woolsey, who accuses Mr. Obama of harboring “extremely dangerous” views on terrorism, has demonstrated his own expertise by supporting crackpot theories linking Iraq to the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing and 1993 World Trade Center bombing. On 9/11 and 9/12 he circulated on the three major networks to float the idea that Saddam rather than bin Laden might have ordered the attacks.
Then there is the McCain camp’s star fearmonger, Rudy Giuliani, who has lately taken to railing about Mr. Obama’s supposed failure to learn the lessons of the first twin towers bombing. The lesson America’s Mayor took away from that 1993 attack was to insist that New York City’s emergency command center be located in the World Trade Center. No less an authority than John Lehman, a 9/11 commission member who also serves on the McCain team, has mocked New York’s pre-9/11 emergency plans as “not worthy of the Boy Scouts.”
If there’s another 9/11, it’s hard to argue that this gang could have prevented it. At least Mr. Obama, however limited his experience, has called for America to act on actionable terrorist intelligence in Pakistan if Pervez Musharraf won’t. Mr. McCain angrily disagreed with that idea. The relatively passive Pakistan policy he offers instead could well come back to haunt him if a new 9/11 is launched from the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
Should there be no new terrorist attack, the McCain camp’s efforts to play the old Rove 9/11 fear card may quickly become as laughable as the Giuliani presidential campaign. These days Americans are more frightened of losing their jobs, homes and savings.
But you can’t blame the McCain campaign for clinging to terrorism as a political crutch. The other Rove fear card is even more tattered. In the wake of Larry Craig and Mark Foley, it’s a double-edged sword for the G.O.P. to trot out gay blades cavorting in pride parades in homosexual-panic ads.
Some on the right still hold out hope otherwise. After the California Supreme Court’s decision on same-sex marriage, The Weekly Standard suggested that a brewing backlash could put that state’s “electoral votes in play.” But few others believe so, including the state’s Republican governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has vowed to enforce the law and opposes a ballot initiative to overturn it. Even Bill O’Reilly recently chastised a family-values advocate for mounting politically ineffectual arguments against same-sex marriage.
Mr. McCain is trying to swing both ways. While he no longer refers to the aging old-guard cranks of the religious right as “agents of intolerance,” his actions, starting with his tardy disowning of the endorsement he sought from the intolerant Rev. John Hagee, sometimes speak as loudly as his past words.
The Ohio operative behind that state’s 2004 anti-same-sex marriage campaign was so alienated by Mr. McCain’s emissaries this year that he told The Los Angeles Times, “He doesn’t want to associate with us, and we don’t want to associate with him.” Mr. McCain instead associated himself with Ellen DeGeneres. He visited her talk show to extend his good wishes for her forthcoming California nuptials while seeming almost chagrined to admit his opposition to same-sex marriage, a stand he shares with Mr. Obama. Since then, Mr. McCain has met with the gay Log Cabin Republicans.
He and Mr. Obama also share the antipathy of James Dobson, the Focus on the Family fulminator so avidly courted by the Bush White House. Perhaps best remembered for linking the cartoon character SquareBob SpongePants to a “pro-homosexual video,” Mr. Dobson last week used the word “fruitcake” in a rant against Mr. Obama. He has been nearly as dyspeptic, if not quite as “fruit”-fixated, about Mr. McCain.
Mr. Dobson’s embarrassing lashing out is the last gasp of an era. His dying breed of family-values scold is giving way to a new and independent generation of evangelical leaders (and voters) who don’t march to the partisan beat of Mr. Rove or his one-time ally, the disgraced Ralph Reed. Perhaps in belated recognition of this reality, Mr. Rove has been busy lately developing a new fear card for 2008 — fear of the Obamas.
Its racial undertones are naked enough. Earlier this year, Mr. Rove wrote that Mr. Obama was “often lazy,” and that his “trash talking” during a debate was “an unattractive carry-over from his days playing pickup basketball at Harvard.” Last week Mr. Rove caricatured him as the elitist “guy at the country club with the beautiful date.” Provocative as it is to inject Mr. Obama into a setting historically associated with white Republicans, the invocation of that “beautiful date” is even more so. Where’s his beautiful wife? Mr. Rove’s suggestion that Mr. Obama might be a sexual freelancer, as an astute post at the Web site Talking Points Memo noted, could conjure up for a certain audience the image of “a white woman on his arm.”
But here, too, Mr. Rove reeks of the past. Should Mr. Black and Mr. McCain follow this ugly lead, I bet it will help them even less than the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
CBS News War Zone Hottie Involved in Steamy Sex Scandal
From the second I laid eyes on this 'war correspondent' I knew something had to be up: Someone this hot first of all can't really be taken seriously, plus how about the fact that she's been working for years in a war zone with about a 1,000,000 to one guy to girl ratio?? And this chick was expected to interview Marines??
McCain Tries to Comfort Worried Supporters
As it stands right now, the presidential election in November stands to be an Obama rout of historic proportions. This isn't the same McCain who ran in 2000: he's 8 long years older, and moreover he's flip-flopping all around the political landscape on issues like global warming, taxes, drilling, etc. Finally, the Republican brand in America today is the equivalent of the Yugo for cars back in the mid 80's: terrible.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Scare As Policeman Commits Suicide While Sarkozy Departs Israel
Notice how Carla Bruni rushed ahead. Something like this doesn't happen every day, very wild stuff...
Shaq to Kobe: Tell Me How My Ass Tastes
Needless to say, this probably isn't the image that NBA commissioner David Stern is looking to promote. On the lyrics and music side of things, John Lennon has nothing to worry about.
Monday, June 23, 2008
Imus Makes Another Racist Comment
Its hard to believe millions and millions of Americans listen to talk radio blowhards like this guy and Rush Limbaugh daily...The level of intelligent discourse in this country is preciously thin.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Brokaw to Take Over Meet The Press Through Election
Russert's are impossible shoes to fill, but NBC made a wise choice here. You want an old, experienced hand to guide the show through very choppy, stormy waters--especially with the presidential election now in full swing.
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Friday, June 20, 2008
Murdoch Owned New York Post Goes After NBC After Russert's Death
The moral of this story is that if you fuck with Rupert Murdoch, prepare to be fucked with yourself. For years MSNBC's Keith Olbermann has been slamming FOX News' Bill O'Reilly unmercifully, and now NBC is getting hit back with stories like these coming from Murdoch's various news outlets.
Christie Brinkley Wants Details of Divorce Case Made Public
Among the things that may be revealed if the case, which begins July 2 is made public, are allegations that Cook trolls Internet porn sites. He also regularly logged on to swingers sites in search of women, the source claimed.Man, from the outside you gotta wonder what this guy was thinking, with a wife as hot as Christie Brinkley I mean...On the other hand, this is her fourth divorce, which makes me think she just might be a pain in the ass...
Bear Stearns Hedge Fund Honchos Arrested, Taken to Big House
These two guys came to a fork in the road one day. One path said 'greed', the other path said 'integrity'. They chose greed. They lost.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Rumsfeld Refuses to Endorse McCain
This is yet another example of the big problems John McCain still has with the extreme right wing of his party. Don Rumsfeld, along with guys like Dick Cheney, Tom Delay, and Rush Limbaugh are heroes to the fringe right wing 'base' of the Republican party.
What It Was All About? Oil Giants Win Contracts in Iraq
The only reason that makes an inkling of sense for America's disastrous invasion of Iraq was to seize the lake of oil the country sits on, and now nearly 5 years later, that's exactly what seems to be going on, as The New York Times reports in today's edition.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Flickr Dork Latest to Resign from Yahoo!
I guess his resignation letter was an attempt at satire. Someone should tell this geek to stick to programming.
New Pro-Obama viral rumor appears on 'Net
Slate's Chris Beam starts a pro-Obama viral rumor:
From: [Redacted]
To: [Redacted]
Subject: WHO IS BARACK OBAMA?
There are many things people do not know about BARACK OBAMA. It is every American's duty to read this message and pass it along to all of their friends and loved ones.
Barack Obama wears a FLAG PIN at all times. Even in the shower.
Click here to find out more!
Barack Obama says the PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE every time he sees an American flag. He also ends every sentence by saying, "WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL." Click here for video of Obama quietly mouthing the PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE in his sleep.
A tape exists of Michelle Obama saying the PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE at a conference on PATRIOTISM.
Every weekend, Barack and Michelle take their daughters HUNTING.
Barack Obama is a PATRIOTIC AMERICAN. He has one HAND over his HEART at all times. He occasionally switches when one arm gets tired, which is almost never because he is STRONG.
Barack Obama has the DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE tattooed on his stomach. It's upside-down, so he can read it while doing sit-ups.
There's only one artist on Barack Obama's iPod: FRANCIS SCOTT KEY.
Barack Obama is a DEVOUT CHRISTIAN. His favorite book is the BIBLE, which he has memorized. His name means HE WHO LOVES JESUS in the ancient language of Aramaic. He is PROUD that Jesus was an American.
Barack Obama goes to church every morning. He goes to church every afternoon. He goes to church every evening. He is IN CHURCH RIGHT NOW.
Barack Obama's new airplane includes a conference room, a kitchen, and a MEGACHURCH.
Barack Obama's skin is the color of AMERICAN SOIL.
Barack Obama buys AMERICAN STUFF. He owns a FORD, a BASEBALL TEAM, and a COMPUTER HE BUILT HIMSELF FROM AMERICAN PARTS. He travels mostly by FORKLIFT.
Barack Obama says that Americans cling to GUNS and RELIGION because they are AWESOME.
Mud Fight: Obama Criticizes McCain for Republican Attacks on his Wife
No surprise here at the level of ugliness rearing its head in the election, it was bound to happen with America of all places on the verge of electing a black man president. Already photos and stories are popping up around conservative websites comparing Michelle Obama to a monkey, etc.
LinkedIn Announces New Funding
The New York Times has a good article on the increasing success of the professional social networking website LinkedIn. I'm a big fan of Linkedin, and not so much of either Facebook, Myspace, or any of the other myriad of 'social networking' sites. The reason is that it's almost totally a professional networking tool--you won't find a video of someone playing the harmonica while funneling a beer, for example. It's all about finding a better job or making another sale.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Matthews to Replace Russert on Meet the Press?
That's what some of the scuttlebutt is, anyway. There is no 'good' choice for this, but others being discussed are Tom Brokaw, Keith Olbermann, Katie Couric, and David Gregory....Monday, June 16, 2008
Heaven Help Us: W Floats The Idea of Jeb Bush Eventually Becoming President
Although there's little chance that he could be half as bad of a president as his elder brother George W. Bush has been, I do think that Jeb Bush will have a tough sell to make to the American people when he does eventually run.
Whispers That Bush Considering Converting to Catholicism
Well the Vatican and both popes have come out stridently against the invasion of Iraq, however W's younger brother Jeb converted to Catholicism several years ago. This is only a rumor, however it's an interesting thought nonetheless...
Elian Gonzalez Joins Cuba's Young Communists
Man, remember how big a deal this was eight years ago? That was before the disastrous Bush presidency, September 11, etc. and it seems so very trivial now...
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Powell: I Might Vote for Obama
Colin Powell clearly carries a heavy burden these days--he is a proud soldier who has been disgraced. His career until the day he dies will be defined and written about in textbooks by his testimony at the United Nations using phony evidence to support America's invasion of Iraq. He says he had deep misgivings about the evidence and the rationale for the war, yet he didn't resign or even express them publicly. In short, he was a good soldier serving a very bad president. Not unlike good German soldiers during WWII who too kept their mouths shut. Going public today saying he might support Obama over McCain probably makes Powell feel good and eases his guilt a bit, but it can't change history and it won't redeem his legacy. When the chips were down and everything was at stake, Powell choked.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Our Sunday's Won't be The Same
Not to put too much butter into the batter, as millions of wonderful people die daily but I think I speak for many other American political enthusiasts when I say our Sunday mornings won't be the same without Tim Russert. He was a good journalist who seemed genuine and was a titan on the political landscape. He will be missed, and the political dialogue in our country just slipped down a big notch without him.
Friday, June 13, 2008
Obama Campaign Launches Anti-Smear Website
More evidence that Barack Obama has learned from previous Democratic presidential campaign failures is the launch of this website, aimed to take on scurrilous lies, smears, and distortions of him and his record head on. Unlike the Kerry campaign, which seemed to stay silent for eons before responding to the Swift-boat allegations that many say sunk his campaign, team Obama seems locked and loaded to shoot down any attempted sliming.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Irony of Ironies: LA Obsenity Trial Halted--Turns Out Presiding Judge is Too a Pervert
This serves the government right. After wasting tax payer money for years on a crusade type attack on free speech it turns out the presiding judge is an Internet perv himself!!
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Kerry Calls McCain 'Confused'
Expect this subtle age discrimination against McCain to seep more and more into the general election vernacular as we move closer to November. Kerry and Obama's other surrogates are basically calling McCain a Grandpa Simpson type of person: old, senile, easily angered and confused, etc. In nearly every speech Obama calls McCain a hero and thanks him for his 'decades of service to his country'... Hint hint, in other words, this guy's as old as the hills...
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Pornography In The News Today
Two stories regarding free speech and pornography, both with potentially huge implications. The first discusses the state of New York winning a landmark settlement with three major Internet Service Providers to halt access to known illicit child pornographic sites. This might seem like a no-brainer, however it's the first time that ISP's are acknowledging they have the power to curtail what gets shown via their technology--akin to telephone companies being held responsible for what's said on the phone. The beginning of the end of free speech on the Internet, or a sensible protection of society's vulnerable?The second story deals with a case finally coming to trial in California pitting the federal government of the Bush Administration going against a shock porn producer for vulgarity.
When the proceedings begin this week, they will be forced to sit through several hours of footage from Mr Isaacs' DVDs, which feature such alluring titles as Hollywood Scat Amateurs No 7 and Gang Bang Horse (Pony Sex Game).This case is notable because the federal government is getting involved and it could set an important precedent for the feds to determine what is and isn't protected by the First Ammendment's right to free speech.
Kucinich Introduces Articles of Impeachment Against Bush
Well, Bill Clinton was impeached 10 years ago for lying about cheating on his wife. One would think the case against George W. Bush might be a bit stronger: he and his administration lied almost continuously to the American people during the run up to the war in Iraq. Personally, I don't support the effort. It's the American people's fault for re-electing Bush in 2004.
Monday, June 09, 2008
Family Values? Article Explores McCain Divorce
Upon returning from service in Vietnam in the early 70's, John McCain coldly dumped his wife who had become crippled due to a car accident, and quickly married a millionaire beauty queen 18 years his junior. Did you know that? If you didn't, don't feel bad, not many Americans do, for some reason. The pillar of McCain's presidential run will be the strength of his character compared to Obama's. Draw your own conclusions.MORE CINDY MCCAIN COVERAGE HERE
Sunday, June 08, 2008
Sports: The Opium of The Masses
This article is as disturbing as it is humorous. People not only in this country but worldwide take sports way too seriously. I was tempted to put the word 'dumb' in front of the word people in the previous sentence but didn't. In America 99% of men aged 18-45 care much more about their fantasy football team than they do about the simultaneous wars the country is fighting (and arguably losing) in Iraq and Afghanistan. That, in my mind, is evidence of something being very wrong. Governments love sports. It fills the minds of millions of citizens who might otherwise take to the streets with stupid juice, keeping them on their asses for 3 hours getting drunk for something meaningless. What changes when either the Lakers or the Celtics win the NBA championship? How will that affect the world? Why do people take sports so seriously?
Saturday, June 07, 2008
McCain Aide: Bush Knows Little About the Economy
Gee, you don't say! In truth George W. Bush knows very little about any complex thing, but still for the Republican nominee to so aggressively distance them self from a sitting president of the same party is startling and probably unprecedented. John McCain is attempting to walk a tightrope: he is trying to distance himself from the least popular president in American history, while still garnering the support of Republican 'dead enders' who still amazingly support Bush. McCain will fall off the tightrope and into a landslide loss.
French Daredevil Climbs New York Times Building
THE SIGN HE UNVEILED READ "MORE PEOPLE DIE EVERY DAY FROM GLOBAL WARMING THAN WERE KILLED ON 9/11"
Friday, June 06, 2008
Ed McMahon Classic Budweiser Commerical from the 70's
Ed's been in the news lately because he, like Evander Holyfield, is getting his house foreclosed on. McMahon is one of TV's most notorious drunks, famous for being publicly sloshed on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. This commercial is bad-ass, you'd never see something this great these days.
Evander Holyfield's 109-Room House in Foreclosure
"I'm not broke. I'm just not liquid"Even with 11 kids, 109 rooms is probably a bit much. This guy seems really, really stubborn, and probably isn't the sharpest knife in the shed either. Blowing $248 million seems like a nearly impossible feat...
Should Fat People Pay More to Fly?
In the face of skyrocketing fuel costs which means dramatically higher ticket prices for consumers, this idea isn't as draconian as it might seem. Actually, it is perfectly rational. Moving more weight means utilizing more energy, or gas, and therefore fat people should logically pay more for their airline seat than non-fat people. In all probability this idea won't fly (pardon the pun) with the public, but it makes total sense and should be considered.
Thursday, June 05, 2008
78-yr Old Connecticut Man Paralyzed in Vicious Hit and Run
STORY HERE....Incredible how about 10 cars and passers by just blithely pass the dude and leave him lying in the middle of the road...
Lieberman and Obama Have Heated Exchange on Senate Floor
It's becoming increasingly clear that Barack Obama is no John Kerry. He isn't Mike Dukakis either. In other words, instead of sitting idly by while being attacked and having his positions completely distorted (Swift Boats, Willie Horton) by his political enemies, he chooses to fight back quickly and vociferously. Joe Lieberman has become politically deranged since losing the Connecticut Democratic Senatorial primary to Ned Lamont in August of 2006: he obviously took that defeat deeply personally and simply cannot let go. He's now trying to scare Jews from supporting Obama by making it seem like he's ready to hop in bed with Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad--a pathetic, baseless claim that nonetheless needs to be forcefully refuted. That's something Barack Obama realizes. Something that losing Democratic nominees for president didn't.
Right Wing War: Limbaugh and Frum Exchange Fire
The national Republican party is currently splintering before the American voter's eyes. The extreme, fringe right, to whom Rush Limbaugh is the equivalent of Jesus Christ, largely abhor John McCain and won't vote for him in November. The more sensible, moderate right of whom National Review writer David Frum is a member, are desperately looking for some sort of a winning formula to prevent what's looking more and more like an epic, cataclysmic electoral defeat for the Republican party this November.
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
Monday, June 02, 2008
Cheney's West Virginia Joke Goes Over Like A Fart in Church
At this point in his life, Dick Cheney could manage to fuck up an orgasm: from shooting up a friend in the face while hunting a while back to this recent lame attempt at humor, it's become increasingly clear that the VP's best days are clearly behind him....
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