This blog is no longer active as of October 31, 2011
I happened to notice The Chicago Sun Times’s Ballyhooing of Obama’s Supposed smear of Rush Limbaugh.
Let me just say publicly, that seeing Rush is someone who built a career on bashing and smearing of Liberals, I think any and all smearing of Rush Limbaugh is totally appropriate and acceptable.
For the record, Obama did not smear Rush, at all.
I am awake early today. I went with my Father to Michigan International Speedway, in Brooklyn, Michigan yesterday for Father’s Day. It was an enjoyable experience. Except perhaps for the sore foot I earned, because I wore the wrong kind of shoes and I take medication for Attention Deficit Disorder, because of this, if I sit out in direct sunlight for long periods of time, I begin feeling sick to my stomach. Other than that, I had a great time. Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the race, I saw him on the big screen, which is possibly as close as I will ever come to meeting someone famous. I was rooting for Tony Stewart myself, he finished in the top 5, I believe. My Mother thinks Tony Stewart is cute; my Father was unavailable for comment.
Anyhow, I happen to come across this article about Keith Olbermann in the New Yorker. As many of my readers know, I do post videos of Keith’s here on my Blog. I have had people ask me, in various stages of vulgarity at times, as to why do I post his videos on my Blog. The answer is simply this, Keith Olbermann and his special comments and with his Worst Person in the World segments, presents a sobering and realistic response to the propaganda being generated by the Neo-Conservative media machine at Fox News.
I will not deny it, as a Conservative Constitutionalist and a Paleo-Conservative, I am most disgusted this Presidential Administration, There are numerous reasons for this, if I wrote about them all, this Blog entry would resemble a small novel. I do not have time to write a novel, so I will simply say, pick an issue and it is one that I have with the President.
On another level, Keith is just simply a brilliant writer, some do say that his writings are projective, bombastic, and generally over the top. This is his brilliant quality; he has the ability to write, in his own polished and magnificent style, what everyone else is thinking. I think the reason why his detractors hate him so, is because he articulates so damn awesomely, and frankly, we as Americans are better for it.
Another reason that I heartily enjoy Keith’s show is because he is fair, there have been numerous times when Keith could have pounced, but, because Keith is a man of standards, whether forced by the network, or not, is telling about him. A few examples, one is recently, when Ann Coulter’s charge card was denied, and many liberals were guffawing about it. Keith simply said, “You know, it happens.” Keith also then, quite humorously, proceeded to rib her, because the New York Post called Ann something rather humorous in the New York Post.
Another more telling example is the time when fiery Conservative Michelle Malkin was guest hosting Fox News show “The Factor” and some black guest essentially called Malkin a Conservative media whore. Keith rushed the Malkin’s defense and essentially went “Whoa, Hold it! Let’s all step back from the usage of the whore categorization, when it comes to women!”
I am sure that if Keith would have read some of the things that I have written in the past, he would handed me a good scolding. When I have, admittedly went over the top, with women.
In closing, let me just say this, Keith is our Ed Murrow, whether you loathe him and enjoy him, he is a force to be reckoned with and will continue to be, for many years to come.
Memeorandum has more reactions to this story.
Me and my Dad are going to Car Race today. So, here are the Sunday stories that are gathering attention and should be big stories today.
—-
Obama mentions the word “Gun” at a private fundraiser and the media and blogging world, especially on the right, flips their proverbial cork.
Iowa is flooded and people are starting to call it another Katrina. I just know the left is going to have a field day with this one.
Moqtada al-Sadr is recalibrating to stage more attacks, so says the Liberal Media. This I got to see. Of course, the Left will use this to say we need to leave Iraq now.
John McCain writers a thesis in 1974, about war and the New York Times discovers it and flips their cork and is now trying to paint John McCain as a warmonger. Grasp at straw much guys?
Black Conservatives are conflicted about Obama. Go Figure.
The Saudi’s are planning to increase oil production. Well, it’s about freakin’ time!
Does Google hate America?
Taken from Here:
The death of Tim Russert and how the media repeatedly lies to you (about me)
By David Duke
I am reluctant to comment on the latest media attack on me because I have no joy in learning about Tim Russert’s death. I am not anxious in any way to put him down. We had a rivalry, yes, but I always considered him gentlemanly and I am sad to hear of his death. However, it does get very tiresome for the national media to relentlessly lie about me in both big and little things. At some point I must respond. The latest little lie is the suggestion by a Washington Post writer that Tim Russert crushed me in interviews. Howard Kurtz, one of the many Jewish extremists in media, in TV Commentator had gift for asking tough questions, June 14, 2008 wrote that,
“Meet the Press” was languishing in the ratings when Russert took it over in 1991, and he first gained national attention by stumping David Duke, a Louisiana gubernatorial candidate…
In truth, many in media felt that I did quite well in that interview. Even more interesting, many in the media acknowledged that in my last appearance on Meet the Press I gave Russert the most devastating defeat of his broadcast career. It was such a powerful win for me that it became a model for public figures to learn from on how to handle a Russert interview.
Slate magazine ran a detailed article titled How to Beat Tim Russert. The piece appeared in the a June, 2003 Press Box column by Jack Shafer, a well-known media critic. http://slate.msn.com/id/2085153/ In the column he was, of course, very critical of me (who isn’t in the national press?) but he uses me as the best example of “How to beat Tim Russert.” Here are some excerpts:
…David Duke beat Russert badly in March 1999, when he appeared on Meet the Press during his Louisiana campaign for a seat in the House of Representatives. Unable to stick it to Duke with his time-proven techniques, Russert sputtered, steamed, and almost boiled over…
Here are more examples Shafer uses of my match with Russert:
1) Prepare for a Hostile Interrogation
Tim Russert is heavily invested in the friendly Irishman persona, all smiles and sincere, direct questions. But he is not your friend: He wishes your destruction on his show. But don’t play defense on Meet the Press—it will only make you look defensive. Stay cool and poised, as David Duke did, and play offense by pushing Russert’s toughest questions back at him.
Russert quoted heavily from Duke’s scurrilous writings on Jews, blacks, and Martin Luther King Jr., but because Duke knows his own work by heart and has been attacked repeatedly on this score, he found it easy to dismiss King as a Marxist and Kwanzaa as a “pagan religious ceremony” without losing a point to his questioner. By neglecting the element of surprise, Russert lost the match…
4) If That Doesn’t Work, Concede the Point. Then Make Yours.
When Russert tried to corral David Duke into the position of a Holocaust denier by reading aloud from Duke’s writings, Duke admitted that some Jews were killed—”I don’t know what the numbers are.” He then switched the subject, complaining about the 60 million Christians the Soviets killed and the lack of media showcases on those atrocities. Apparently because this dodge wasn’t in Russert’s script, he abandoned the line of questioning…
One more time I must say, “Thank God for the Internet.” Why? It is because before the rise of the Internet the mainstream (controlled) media could make up any lie about me (or anybody else) without the possibility of rebuttal. Now when someone reads or hears some attack against me those with a little curiosity can get an different and documented viewpoint. Before the Internet, people had no ability to easily get the “rest of the story.” Now they do. I hope that you might realize that just as the media often make up disparaging lies about me, about my past, about my successes and about my failures, but they also lie about what I actually say and what I actually advocate. When someone reads what the media says I say, and then he goes to my website and reads what I actually say, the tissue of media lies begins to tear apart.
You now have a chance to read for yourself about my thoughts and ideas in my own words. and I sincerely believe you find them honest, reasonable and intelligent.
Now let me be clear, I do not agree, at all, with this positions and opinions at the said forum linked, however, I did feel that it was important to get Senator Duke’s side of the story, as MSNBC is using Tim Russert’s death as an excuse to slam David Duke.
Jobs Americans Won’t Do? Are American kids being screwed out of summer jobs by greedy and unethical employers? We investigate.
100% Preventable! Americans continue to pay the bloody price for open borders. When will the madness end?
Why We Do What We Do.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0XO81iccKw&hl=en]
Download for your iPod here.
This weeks show proudly brought to you NO ILLEGAL ALIENS…
Bringing you the reality of the illegal immigration invasion from the frontlines of Southeastern Florida. Make sure to check them out, they are doing great work!
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This has been the Blogs For Borders Video Blogburst. The Blogs For Borders Blogroll is dedicated to American sovereignty, border security and a sane immigration policy. If you’d like to join find out how right here.
Tags: illegal immigration, deportation, open borders, blogs 4 borders, activism, vlog, podcast, summer jobs, mexico, murder, rape, jobs Americanms won’t do, insourcing, h2b visa, j1 visa
I apologize for the stoppage of Blogging. But the Tim Russert story kind of jarred me quite a bit. in fact, I had to turn the TV to CNN, I just couldn’t not bear watching the stuff at MSNBC anymore. (Yeah, I know, I fired up John Cole for what he said, there’s a difference between me saying I had to change the channel, and taking a nasty swipe at a dead man.)
However, the world, the news, and life does go on, while I will miss Tim Russert’s show and his style of punditry, I must move on….
It seems that things are changing in Iraq.
The Report from the Washington Post:
The Bush administration’s Iraq policy suffered two major setbacks Friday when Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki publicly rejected key U.S. terms for an ongoing military presence and anti-American Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr called for a new militia offensive against U.S. forces.
During a visit to Jordan, Maliki said negotiations over initial U.S. proposals for bilateral political and military agreements had "reached a dead end." While he said talks would continue, his comments fueled doubts that the pacts could be reached this year, before the Dec. 31 expiration of a United Nations mandate sanctioning the U.S. role in Iraq.
The moves by two of Iraq’s most powerful Shiite leaders underscore how the presence of U.S. troops has become a central issue for Iraqi politicians as they position themselves for provincial elections later this year. Iraqis across the political spectrum have grown intolerant of the U.S. presence, but the dominant Shiite parties — including Maliki’s Dawa party — are especially fearful of an electoral challenge from new, grass-roots groups.
CNN’s Michael Ware, who is in Iraq offers this interesting perspective:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jo54NhiyQig&hl=en]
If Ware is even correct and these talks continue to stall, I look for Bush to just pull our troops out and let Iraq go at it alone. I just do not think that Bush is going to dump the Iraq War into the laps of the Democrats. I just do not think that he wants that on his legacy. I could be wrong, but if this is case, I got a sneaking suspicion you will see a unilateral withdrawal of our troops out of Iraq, before Bush leaves office.
More via Memeorandum
I apologize to my regular readers of the Blog for the obscene title. But it is how I feel at the moment.
I knew it would not be too long before some idiot son of a bitch said something like this. But they have.
Seems ol’ John Cole over at Balloon Juice, is already tired of seeing the coverage of the death of Political Icon Tim Russert. John’s a former Republican, who got angry and left the Republican Party because of George W. Bush. I used to like ‘ol John, when I first start Blogging, balloon juice was one of my favorite places to hang out. It seems now that John has blended in nicely with the communist socialists well. Even to the point of mocking a dead man.
Seems some of his Liberal bastard buddies feel the same way. You see now why I left that bunch of Godless idiots?
They’re now saying that Tim was harder on the democrats that the Republicans. I say B.S. He gave both sides hell, and that is why they did not like him.
Anyone that says anything other than this, is just being fucking intellectually dishonest. Period.
Once again, I find myself in agreement with Jack Moss, But it’s not a fuse, John Cole has contracted a mental disorder, called Liberalism.
This is such sad news, I’m still in Shock…..
The great political pundit…..has died.
Tim Russert - May 7, 1950 – June 13, 2008
Via MSNBC:
Tim Russert, NBC News’ Washington bureau chief and the moderator of “Meet the Press,” died Friday after a sudden heart attack at the bureau, NBC News said Friday. He was 58.
Russert was recording voiceovers for Sunday’s “Meet the Press” program when he collapsed, the network said. No details were immediately available.
Russert, the recipient of 48 honorary doctorates, took over the helm of “Meet the Press” in December 1991. Now in its 60th year, “Meet the Press” is the longest-running program in the history of television.
In 2008, Time Magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
Timothy John Russert Jr. was born in Buffalo, N.Y., on May 7, 1950. He was a graduate of Canisius High School, John Carroll University and the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. He was a member of the bar in New York and the District of Columbia.
[…]
Russert is survived by his wife, Maureen Orth, a writer for Vanity Fair magazine, and a son, Luke.
There are no words. I am absolutely stunned.
I loved his punditry.
Prayers for his Son and Wife, this evening…
May he rest in peace.
Update: Here is Tom Brokaw breaking the News: (H/T HotAir)
Live Coverage is being streamed:
Statement from Barack Obama: (H/T to Fox Embeds)
In case you can’t make out what he is saying:
“We all I think have heard the news about Tim Russert. I’ve known Tim Russert since I first spoke at the convention in 2004. He’s somebody who overtime I came to consider not only a journalist but a friend.
There wasn’t a better interviewer in TV, not a more thoughtful analyst of our politics and he was also one of the finest men I knew. Somebody who cared about America, cared about the issues, cared about family. I am grief-stricken with the loss and my thoughts and prayers go out to his family. And I hope that even though Tim is irreplaceable that the standard that he set in his professional life and his family life are standards that we all carry with us in our own lives.”
McCain’s Statement:
“I would like to just make a brief statement concerning the shocking news about the untimely death of a great journalist and a great American, Tim Russert.
Tim Russert was at the top of his profession. He was a man of honesty and integrity. He was hard but he was always fair. We miss him. My thoughts and prayers go out to his family and we know that Tim Russert leaves a legacy of integrity of the highest level of journalism and we will miss him and we will miss him a lot.
Again, he was hard, he was fair, he was at the top of his profession. He loved his country, he loved the Buffalo Bills and most of all he loved his family.”
Former President Bill Clinton and Senator Hillary Clinton’s Statement:
"We were stunned and deeply saddened to hear of the passing today of Tim Russert. Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife Maureen, his son Luke, his father who we all have come to know as Big Russ, his extended family and all of his many friends and colleagues at NBC who have suffered a tremendous loss. Always true to his proud Buffalo roots, Tim had a love of public service and a dedication to journalism that rightfully earned him the respect and admiration of not only his colleagues but also those of us who had the privilege to go toe to toe with him. In seeking answers to tough questions, he helped inform the American people and make our democracy stronger. We join his friends, fans and loved ones in mourning his loss and celebrating his remarkable contribution to our nation. "
I think it’s great to see how that the Political world is coming together, even for a brief moment to remember someone who was one of the best.
The Political Blogging world is stunned. It just tears my heart out to watch Keith Olbermann trying to hold his emotions in and stay objective.
Update #2:
Chis Cillizza @ The Washington Post:
Russert was, without question, the single most influential political journalist working in Washington. His show — known to insiders as simply "MTP" — was not only the most watched of the Sunday news programs but also the one that every politician and journalist aspired to appear on.
An example of Russert’s influence: When he proclaimed that Barack Obama had effectively clinched the Democratic presidential nomination on the night of the May 6 primaries in Indiana and North Carolina, it was seen as a significant sign that Hillary Rodham Clinton’s time in the race was running short. As my colleagues Anne Kornblut and Dan Balz wrote: "When NBC’s Tim Russert flatly declared the Democratic race over around midnight, one adviser recalled, "the air came out of the room."
More Blog Reactions via Memeorandum and Blogrunner
I never thought that I would ever in a million years, find myself in agreement with this woman. However, because I am a Paleo-Conservative, A lover of American history and a respecter of old fashioned American values, this one stuck a cord with me.
Quote:
I weigh this in favor of the Old America. Hard not to, for I remember it, and its sterling virtues. Maybe if you are 25 years old, your sense of the Old and New is different. In the Old America they were not enlightened about race and sex; they accepted grim factory lines and couldn’t even begin to imagine the Internet. Fair enough. But I suspect the political playing out of a long-ongoing cultural and societal shift is part of the dynamic this year.
As to its implications for the race, we’ll see. America is always looking forward, not back, it is always in search of the fresh and leaving the tried. That’s how we started: We left tired old Europe and came to the new place, we settled the east and pushed West to the new place. We like new. It’s in our genes. Hope we know where we’re going, though. Brave New World? By Peggy Noonan (Via WSJ.com)
Peggy has this amazing ability to conjure up some amazing images in one’s mind. I also remember the old school values, that people like my Grandfather and his Brother, on my mother’s side, stood for.
However, it amazes me, how feckless liberals will take something, as well written as this and turn it into something that it was never intended to be. Do you see know why I left those circles for good?
She also said much of what I blogged about earlier. Except she said it much nicer than I. Peggy is the demure sweet person, who’s writings never lowers itself to the level of brutality. However, I am the one in the back alley with the chain and the rock. Swinging wildly at whomever crosses my path. I admire her style and only wish I could obtain her level of writing.
I mean, the woman wrote for Reagan, what else can I say?
Good one Peggy and don’t allow the idiot liberals get you down.
Yikes! This isn’t good, at all…
Quote:
So much for party unity: As Florida Dems prepare for Saturday’s Jefferson-Jackson dinner aimed at bringing the party "together once and for all," a spat over the Obama campaign’s decision to replace some already-designated Florida delegates with Obama backers has intensified.
And how. DNC member Jon Ausman late Thursday e-mailed Dems (and reporters) choice sections of what he says were e-mails from Obama’s Florida finance chair Kirk Wagar — in which Wagar curses Ausman out and criticizes Sen. Bill Nelson and party director Leonard Joseph.
The highlights: "You (Jon Ausman) f&^%ed us. We are dealing with it. You need to accept the fact that you f*&^ed us."
And of Nelson: "I am getting very sick of (Senator) Nelson making a bad situation worse."
Said Ausman to Wagar: "We are at a point in time when we need to heal and come together. Help me understand how these messages, which you have sent to me in writing, help Senator Obama’s campaign."
Wagar sent out an e-mail shortly after, apologizing for the profanity, but suggesting Ausman had used "out of context snippets from some ongoing and sometimes heated arguments we have had over the course of this campaign.
"I apologize for the profanity that you were subjected to," he said in the e-mail. "It is a vice of mine that I try to minimize but seems to rear it’s head with more frequency when I deal with Jon."
Of Nelson and Joseph, Wagar said he disagreed with them on seating the delegates, but "did not malign them in private nor in the excerpts Jon blasted out. I have worked with Leonard for years, long before he came to Florida, and I have worked very hard for and with Senator Nelson. On this issue we disagreed and despite Jon’s effort to twist it into something more, it isn’t." – Dems delegate turns ugly (Via Naked Politics)
Hope! Change! Or I’ll kick your ass! *hehe*
Others: Wake up America, Hot Air and EconoPundit
You know, although I think what Fox News did to Michelle Obama was distasteful, wrong and just downright mean. When I read stuff like this, I just want to vomit.
How much more hate mongering can you get? I will not bother quoting none of that idiotic bile over here.
I mean, why cannot people just accept a damn apology and get the hell over it already? I mean, some of these people act like we have revoked the amendment to the constitution outlawing slavery or something.
…In addition, Please, do not hand none of that idiot baloney about their people still being in bondage, because you know what? I am not buying it. It just so happens that the black people in this country have been free for over 300 years. Yet they act like they are in some sort of bondage, the truth is the only damn bondage that the black community is in, is of their own damn making.
It is, in fact our own fault. Our Congress, at the behest of the Democratic President, Lyndon Baines Johnson, signed into law, one of the worst bills that ever passed across the senate floor, and that was the civil rights act of 1964. One of my favorite and most respected senators, Senator Barry Goldwater voted against it, saying that one could not legislate morality.
Did he do this because was a racist bigot and hated blacks? No. He did it because he knew that there would be people within the black community that would exploit the civil rights movement that would try to turn the peaceful civil rights movement, started by Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. into a Black Nationalist Movement, which would seek to destroy the very equality that Martin Luther King Jr. stood for.
Yet, the Democrats and their foolish agenda of identity politics and entitlement passed this bill and opened the future floodgates of Anti-White Race Hatred in this country. The blog posting that I linked to is a perfect example of that.
Now before anyone castigates me, as some sort of a racist bigot, let me say that I do not think that what happened in Alabama was acceptable. What happened in Selma, Alabama was a scar on the history of America. However, the way that it was corrected, was flawed, and has now set the stage for some of grossest violations of the constitution ever.
However, when I sit and read a posting by someone, who is apparently black and I read the hate and vitriol being spewed like this, I often wonder aloud, did we royally screw it up in 1964?
It really makes me wonder.
Via Portfolio:
Two U.S. senators, two former Cabinet members, and a former ambassador to the United Nations received loans from Countrywide Financial through a little-known program that waived points, lender fees, and company borrowing rules for prominent people.
Senators Christopher Dodd, Democrat from Connecticut and chairman of the Banking Committee, and Kent Conrad, Democrat from North Dakota, chairman of the Budget Committee and a member of the Finance Committee, refinanced properties through Countrywide’s “V.I.P.” program in 2003 and 2004, according to company documents and emails and a former employee familiar with the loans.
Other participants in the V.I.P. program included former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Alphonso Jackson, former Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala, and former U.N. ambassador and assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke. Jackson was deputy H.U.D. secretary in the Bush administration when he received the loans in 2003. Shalala, who received two loans in 2002, had by then left the Clinton administration for her current position as president of the University of Miami. She is scheduled to receive a Presidential Medal of Freedom on June 19.
As Michelle Makin puts it:
Who in the most ethical Congress will push for an investigation? Show of hands?
Good question. Don’t hold your breath Michelle, you’ll just turn blue.
So much for the new kind of Politics within the Democratic and Republican Parties! Looks like the same old Washington D.C. bad ethics and outright corruption to me.
More commentary via Memeorandum
Transcript: (H/T K.O’s NewsHole)
Finally tonight, as promised, a Special Comment on Senator John McCain’s conclusion that it’s "not too important" when American forces come home from Iraq.
Thoughts, offered more in sorrow, than in anger.
For two full days now, the Senator and his supporters have been outraged at what they see as the subtraction of context from this extraordinary remark.
This is, sadly, the excuse of our time, for everything.
Still. If the Senator claims truncation, we will correct that, first.
"A lot of people," Matt Lauer began, "now say the surge is working."
"Anybody who knows the facts on the ground say that," the Senator interjected.
"If it’s now working, Senator," Matt continued, "do you now have a better estimate of when American forces can come home from Iraq?"
"No," answered McCain. "But that’s not too important. What’s important is the casualties in Iraq. Americans are in South Korea. Americans are in Japan. American troops are in Germany.
"That’s all fine. American casualties and the ability to withdraw. We will be able to withdraw.
"General Petraeus is going to tell us in July when he thinks we are. But the key to it is we don’t want any more Americans in harm’s way. And that way they will be safe, and serve our country, and come home with honor and victory – not in defeat, which is what Senator Obama’s proposal would have done. And I’m proud of them, and they’re doing a great job. And we are succeeding. And it’s fascinating that Senator Obama still doesn’t realize it."
And there is the context of what Senator McCain said.
Well… not quite, Senator.
The full context, is that the Iraq you see, is a figment of your imagination.
This is not a war about "honor and victory," Sir.
This is a war you, and the President you support and seek to succeed, conned this nation into.
Yes, sir.
You.
Of the prospect of war in Iraq, you said, quote, "I believe that success will be fairly easy."
John McCain… September 24th… 2002.
"I believe that we can win an overwhelming victory in a very short period of time."
John McCain… September 29th… 2002.
Of the ouster of Saddam and the Baathists:
"There’s no doubt in my mind that once these people are gone, that we will be welcomed as liberators."
John McCain… March 24th… 2003.
Asked, about a long-term commitment in Iraq, quote, "are you talking about something in terms of South Korea, for instance, where you would expect U.S. troops to be in Iraq for decades?"
"No," you answered. "I don’t think decades, but I think years. A little straight talk, I think years. And I hope that we can gradually reduce that presence."
John McCain… March 18th… 2004.
You were asked about the troops, and the future.
"I would hope that we could bring them all home. I would hope that we would probably leave some military advisers, as we have in other countries, to help them with
their training and equipment and that kind of stuff."…I think one of our big problems has been the fact that many Iraqis resent American military presence.
And I don’t pretend to know exactly Iraqi public opinion. But as soon as we can reduce our visibility as much as possible, the better I think it is going to be."
John McCain… January 31st… 2005
When a speaker at your town hall, five months ago, referenced the President’s forecast that we might stay in Iraq for 50 years, you cut him off.
"Make it a hundred! We’ve been in Japan for 60 years. We’ve been in South Korea 50 years or so. That would be fine with me. As long as Americans are not being injured or harmed or wounded or killed. That’s fine by me…"
John McCain… January 3rd… 2008.
And your forecast of your hypothetical first term.
"By January, 2013, America has welcomed home most of the servicemen and women who have sacrificed terribly so that America might be secure in her freedom. The Iraq war has been won."
John McCain… May 15th… 2008.
That, Senator McCain, is context.
You have attested to: a fairly easy success; an overwhelming victory in a very short period of time; in which we would be welcomed as liberators; which you assured us would not require our troops stay for decades but merely for years; from which we could bring them all home, since you noted many Iraqis resent American military presence; in which all those troops coming home will also stay there, not being injured, for a hundred years; but most will be back by 2013; and the timing of their return, is… not… that… important.
That, Senator McCain, is context.
And that, Senator McCain, is madness.
The Government Accountability Office just released a study Tuesday that concludes that one out of every ten soldiers sent to Iraq, takes with them medical problems "severe enough to significantly limit their ability to fight."
In five years, we have now sent 43-thousand of them to war even though… they were already wounded.
And when they come home, is… not… that… important.
—
Jalal al Din al Sagir, a member of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, and Ali al Adeeb, of the rival Dawa Political Party, gave a series of interviews last week about the particulars of this country’s demand for a "Status of Forces" agreement with Iraq — a treaty …which Mr. Bush does not intend to show Congress before he signs it.
The Iraqi politicians say the treaty demands Iraq’s consent to the establishment of nearly double the number of U-S military bases in Iraq — from about 30, to 58, and from temporary, to permanent.
Those will be American men and women who must, of necessity, staff these bases – staff them, in Mr. McCain’s M-C Escher dream world in which our people can all come home while they stay there for a hundred years but they’ll be back by 2013.
And when they come home, is not… that… important.
—
Last year, a 20-year old soldier from the Bronx, on the day of his re-deployment to a second tour in Iraq, said he just couldn’t face the smell of burning flesh again. So, Jonathan Aponte paid a hit man 500 dollars… to shoot him in the knee.
Mount Sinai Hospital in New York reported treating a patient identifying himself as another Iraq-bound soldier, who claimed he had accidentally swallowed a pen at the bus station. No one doubted his story until examinations proved there was a second pen in his stomach bearing the logo of Greyhound Bus Lines.
In 2006, says his sister, a 24-year old Army Specialist from Washington State, on the eve of his second deployment, strapped a pack full of tools to his back, and then jumped off the roof of his house, injuring his spine.
And when they come home — or more correctly all those like them who did not risk death or disability to avoid going back — when they come home, is not… that… important.
You’ve sold them all out, Senator.
You.
You, whose sacrifice for this country was as all-encompassing and as horrible as the rest of us can only imagine in our darkest moments.
You, who survived, so that you could make America a better place where young men did not have to go and die in pointless wars… or be maimed… or be held prisoner… or have to hire hit-men to shoot them in the knee because that couldn’t be worse.
You… who should know better.
—
Where, Senator, is the man who once said "veterans hate war more than anyone else, because veterans know, because veterans know these brave Americans, and others, know, that there is nothing more painful than the loss of a comrade."
Where is he, Sir?
Where is the man who described that ineffable truth?
Oh, so long ago you touched the essence of the reality of Iraq. Your comments about your lost comrades — yesterday.
The men and women in Iraq, today, Senator — they are your comrades, too.
And you are condemning them to die.
To die, for your misdirection, for Mr. Bush’s lies — for whoever makes the money off building 58 permanent American bases and all the weapons and all the bullets and all the wiring so costly and so slip-shod that it electrocutes our comrades as they step, not to fight freedom’s enemies, but into the shower at the base.
That, Senator, that is context.
It is an easy thing to dismiss Senator McCain as a sad and befuddled figure, already challenging for some kind of campaign record for malaprops.
Just yesterday in Philadelphia he answered Senator Obama, not by defending or explaining his own "not that important" remark, but by seizing upon Obama’s "bitter" remark – or trying to.
Obama had foolishly said that some, in despair, in small towns, cling to their religion and their guns.
Senator McCain vowed he’d go to those towns and tell them, "I don’t agree with Senator Obama that they cling to their religion and the Constitution because they’re bitter."
It was hard not to dismiss with a laugh, Senator McCain, or any Republican, for even accidentally implying that he’s clung to the Constitution — not after the last seven years.
It was hard, the day before, not to become almost bemused when the Senator tried to say he would veto every single bill with ear-marks, but wound up, instead, vowing "I will veto every single beer."
It was hard, this week, not to laugh at how Senator McCain could offer any serious defense against the accusation that he is running for President Bush’s third term, when a 2006 interview suddenly surfaced in which McCain said he would consider Dick Cheney for a position in a McCain administration.
"I don’t know if I would want him as Vice President. He and I have the same strengths. But to serve in other capacities? Hell, yeah."
These are all very funny, in a macabre yet unthreatening way.
And then one remembers Senator McCain’s inability to separate Sunni and Shia, or his insistence that Iran is training Al-Qaeda for service in Iraq, and then being corrected about it, and then saying the same thing again anyway.
And then one is, inevitably, drawn back again to the overlooked substance of yesterday’s remark…
"If (the surge) is now working, Senator, do you now have a better estimate of when American forces can come home from Iraq?"
"No."
No?
The surge is working and even that still tells Senator McCain nothing about when we can ransom our soldiers?
Wasn’t that the ultimate purpose of the surge? To get them out?
If we cannot tell — if McCain cannot even guess — doesn’t that, by definition, mean… the surge isn’t working?
—
And ultimately we are drawn back to the "not… too… important" remark, in its full context:
The context of the kaleidoscope of confused rhetoric, and endless non sequitur, and mutually exclusive conclusions — and what they add up to: a veritable tragedy, a microcosm of the American tragedy that is Iraq, a tragedy of a man who himself will never understand… "the context."
Your tragedy, Senator McCain?
No. I’m sorry.
This tragedy… is of Justin Mixon of Bogalusa, Louisiana.
And it’s of Christopher McCarthy of Virginia Beach.
It’s of Quincy Green of El Paso, and Joshua Waltenbaugh of Ford City, P.A.
The tragedy is of Shane Duffy of Taunton Mass, and Jonathan Emard of Mesquite, Texas.
It’s of Cody Legg of Escondido in California, and David Hurst of Fort Sill in Oklahoma.
The tragedy is of Thomas Duncan the 3rd of Rowlett, Texas, and Tyler Pickett of Saratoga, Wyoming.
And who are they, Senator?
They are ten Americans…. who have died in Iraq… since the first of this month. There are four more. The Defense Department has not yet identified the others.
And while you, Senator, may ask for all the context you can get, those ten men… will never know any of it.
Because the true context here, is that if you could ask those American war heroes, or the family and the friends that loved them, if they have a better estimate of when American forces can come home from Iraq…
They could rightly say, "No. But that’s… not… too… important."
Good night, and good luck.
Yes I do know about the big story.
The right is howling about the this ruling being the end of America as we know it. The left is hailing it as a major victory. Bush said he disagreed on the ruling.
I have mixed feelings on it, I seriously doubt that this rule will affect much with the terrorists, which the United States has a watertight case against.
It will affect one’s that the United States does not have a watertight case against. The United States will not be able to hold anyone, who is merely suspected of terrorism any longer.
Either way, I believe this debate will be raging long after the little man, who started this whole mess, is out of office.
Hey John…. You might want to try one of these…:
Or one of these….:
If you really want to do some damage, try one of these:
Way I see it, if you gonna get a gun, get a good one.
Man, I’ll tell you, it goes for one silly headline to another. I awake this morning to the headline of Michelle Obama being referred to as a “Baby Momma”.
……and of course, Michelle Malkin is supposedly involved. Now let me say this, yes, the graphic was offensive, anyone who uses that sort of a term about a married woman, much less, a married black woman, is just being downright offensive.
Malkin for her part says:
I did not write the caption and I was not aware of it when it ran (the Baltimore studio doesn’t have a monitor). I don’t know if the caption writer was making a lame attempt to be hip, clueless about the original etymology of the phrase, or both.
She goes on to try to attempt to justify the caption, of which I do not agree, however, let me just say this, if you’re going to be angry with anyone, make it Fox News, not Michelle Malkin, she could not even see the damn graphic. Of course, Malkin has gotten hate mail for it. I just wonder how long it will be before some idiot liberal posts her home address and telephone numbers for the world to see, like they did last time.
I predict that Fox News will issue some lame apology and this will become yesterdays news. But still, Baby Momma? Talk about low!
Ol’ Bill Orally, he just cannot resist the racist or social class homophobia.
The Video:
The transcript: (via Media Matters)
From the June 10 edition of Fox News’ The O’Reilly Factor:
O’REILLY: "Unresolved Problem" segment tonight, more evidence of values problem among American young people. At the Pascack Valley High School in northern New Jersey, seven ninth-graders, 14- and 15-year-olds, have been suspended for distributing topless photos of their classmates. As many as 20 young girls appeared that way. No charges have been filed, but the community is shocked.
And with us now is Inger Kruegle, the mother of two girls attending the school — they were not involved — and Leslie Brody, a reporter for the Bergen Record who broke the story yesterday. Leslie, we’ll begin with you.
See, what I don’t understand is how girls this young could be persuaded to put themselves at risk by posing in this way for a cell phone camera. What was the persuadability factor there?
BRODY: Well, there are different ways that children got onto these photos. In one case, a boy asked several girls to be part of his photo gallery, kind of a collage he was putting together. Another instance a girl sent it to her boyfriend thinking it was just for him, perhaps, and then they broke up and then he sent it around to his friends.
But this is a common occurrence these days. Boys send photos of themselves to girls as well. Sometimes the photos are meant to stop at the recipient. Sometimes they are intended for distribution.
O’REILLY: Do you think 13- and 14-year-olds or 15-year-olds are smart enough to understand they put themselves at risk when they do this kind of behavior? The girls that you talked to, do they have any idea or are they just stone cold dumb?
BRODY: Well, bear in mind some of these pictures were taken two or three years ago and they surfaced now. But some of these girls were 11, so they could be, perhaps, understood as being a little more innocent or thoughtless. Some kids, perhaps, are looking for attention. Some see Lindsay Lohan doing this kind of thing and want to do it themselves. Some are impulsive.
O’REILLY: But it’s an amazing amount of kids involved with this — 20 — in an affluent school district. This isn’t, you know, the inner city; you would think that these kids would have some kind of a values system. It’s not that it’s so horrendous. You know, it’s not murder or rape. But it’s so stupid.
BRODY: True. But it’s very common as well and the adults —
O’REILLY: Do you think it’s very common across the country?
BRODY: I talked to police today who say it’s quite common. It’s been a big issue at their juvenile officer conferences. It’s been reported in Utah, Connecticut, Texas, New York, previously in New Jersey. I believe —
O’REILLY: So it’s all — and kids as young as 11 are doing it?
BRODY: Yeah, because cell phones are so everywhere —
O’REILLY: Oh, I know that. The technology makes it very easy to do it. Now Inga, what I think this is is lack of a values education. In public school they don’t have — teach values anymore, civics or any of that. You can’t tell the kids what’s right and wrong. You get in trouble. And if kids at home don’t have parents who set boundaries, and many of them don’t, then it’s inevitable that some of them will do this. I still think that they’re incredibly dumb.
Okay, I will admit, I do think that 11 year old girls getting their tits out for a Camera, is very wrong. But do you think Bill let his disdain for the poor class and yes, even the Black race be any more obvious? But then again, we are talking about Faux Noise.
Of course anymore, every time I think of Bill Orally, I Think of this rather humorous video: (content warning!)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5j2YDq6FkVE&hl=en]
…..and they say white people can’t be funky….
Bronze: Faux Noise’s Steve Doocy for putting untrue information out about Hybrids.
Silver: Bill O’ – about the name of his new Book. (Kinda lame, but very funny)
Gold: Katie Couric for being a grossly uninformed douchebag
So much for that idea! Check it out…:
Quote:
Since Hillary Clinton decided to concede the Democratic nomination to Barack Obama last week, Obama has established a lead over Republican John McCain in general-election polling. Obama’s gains have come more from women than men, though he has picked up among both groups in recent days.
Obama’s lead among women has now expanded from five percentage points to 13, while his deficit among men has shrunk from six points to two.
These figures are based on aggregated Gallup Poll Daily tracking interviews with national registered voters conducted May 27-June 2 (the week immediately before Obama clinched the nomination on June 3), which showed Obama and McCain tied at 46%, and June 5-9 (the five days since it was reported that Clinton would suspend her campaign), which show Obama ahead, 48% to 42%. Obama clinched the nomination on the evening of June 3, and the news media reported Clinton would suspend her campaign on the evening of June 4. Thus, the data give a clear picture of voter support before and after Clinton’s exit.
While campaigning for president, Clinton demonstrated an especially strong appeal to women. She led McCain by 52% to 40% in her final full week as a candidate, exactly equal to the average since mid-March. By comparison, Obama held only an average 47% to 42% lead over McCain among women during the same time span. At least for now, he seems to be matching Clinton’s performance among women versus McCain, given his current 13-point lead among female voters.
One of Clinton’s core groups of supporters during the nomination phase of the campaign was older women. During the last few days of her active candidacy, Clinton led McCain by 51% to 41% among women aged 50 and older, while Obama trailed McCain among this group, 46% to 43%.
Since Clinton suspended her campaign, older women’s vote preferences have shifted toward Obama, so that he now enjoys a six-point advantage over McCain. Obama Gains Among Women After Clinton Exit (via Gallup)
I think at this point, the best John McCain can do go after the older White Conservatives who distrust Obama and the Military crowd. The startling thing about this poll, is it was taken not long after Hillary said she was dropping out.
Call it a hunch, but I tend to believe, that Juan McSame is going to get his ass handed to him on a platter in November.
Once again, the Liberals are taking McCain out of context.
For once, I agree with Jack Moss, when he says:
On the other hand Obama isn’t going to pull the troops out – no matter what he says – simply for political reasons. He hasn’t got a clue of the Geo/Political ramifications. But he simple won’t pull the troops out simple because “old dog” democrats won’t let him. While Iraq is quickly stabilizing, a withdraw would create expected chaos and there is no way Dems are going to let that happen on their watch.
The rest of what Moss says is pure Republican propaganda. However, his statement on Obama and Iraq is right on.
Wow, that didn’t take long…..
Obama and his campaign staunchly defended Jim Johnson against the charge that his ties to troubled mortgage lender Countrywide disqualified him from sitting on Obama’s vice presidential search committee, but Johnson just pulled the plug: He resigned as chairman of the steering committee just now.
“Jim did not want to distract in any way from the very important task of gathering information about my vice presidential nominee, so he has made a decision to step aside that I accept. We have a very good selection process underway, and I am confident that it will produce a number of highly qualified candidates for me to choose from in the weeks ahead. I remain grateful to Jim for his service and his efforts in this process,” Obama said in a statement.
Johnson also put out a statement.
"I believe Barack Obama’s candidacy for president of the United States is the most exciting and important of my lifetime," he said, according to a Bloomberg report. "I would not dream of being a party to distracting attention from that historic effort." – Johnson resigns (via Politico.com)
And of course, Juan McSame’s campaign issued this rather lame statement:
UPDATE: McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds emails:
Jim Johnson’s resignation raises serious questions about Barack Obama’s judgment. Selecting the vice presidential nominee is the most important decision a presidential candidate can make and one even Barack Obama has said will ‘signal how I want to operate my presidency.’ By entrusting this process to a man who has now been forced to step down because of questionable loans, the American people have reason to question the judgment of a candidate who has shown he will only make the right call when under pressure from the news media. America can’t afford a president who flip-flops on key questions in the course of 24 hours. That’s not change we can believe in.
Neither is having affairs with lobbyists to the point where your staff has to keep a woman away from you either. Also, anyone ever take a good hard look at McCain’s Staff? It’s filled with lobbyists.
Others: protein wisdom, New York Sun, Balloon Juice, Fox News, The Washington Independent, Rezko Watch and BuzzFlash.org and more via Memeorandum
An interesting piece, albeit a bit dramatic and overly projective.
Quote:
"Dave, stop. Stop, will you? Stop, Dave. Will you stop, Dave?” So the supercomputer HAL pleads with the implacable astronaut Dave Bowman in a famous and weirdly poignant scene toward the end of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. Bowman, having nearly been sent to a deep-space death by the malfunctioning machine, is calmly, coldly disconnecting the memory circuits that control its artificial »
brain. “Dave, my mind is going,” HAL says, forlornly. “I can feel it. I can feel it.”
I can feel it, too. Over the past few years I’ve had an uncomfortable sense that someone, or something, has been tinkering with my brain, remapping the neural circuitry, reprogramming the memory. My mind isn’t going—so far as I can tell—but it’s changing. I’m not thinking the way I used to think. I can feel it most strongly when I’m reading. Immersing myself in a book or a lengthy article used to be easy. My mind would get caught up in the narrative or the turns of the argument, and I’d spend hours strolling through long stretches of prose. That’s rarely the case anymore. Now my concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages. I get fidgety, lose the thread, begin looking for something else to do. I feel as if I’m always dragging my wayward brain back to the text. The deep reading that used to come naturally has become a struggle.
I think I know what’s going on. For more than a decade now, I’ve been spending a lot of time online, searching and surfing and sometimes adding to the great databases of the Internet. The Web has been a godsend to me as a writer. Research that once required days in the stacks or periodical rooms of libraries can now be done in minutes. A few Google searches, some quick clicks on hyperlinks, and I’ve got the telltale fact or pithy quote I was after. Even when I’m not working, I’m as likely as not to be foraging in the Web’s info-thickets—reading and writing e-mails, scanning headlines and blog posts, watching videos and listening to podcasts, or just tripping from link to link to link. (Unlike footnotes, to which they’re sometimes likened, hyperlinks don’t merely point to related works; they propel you toward them.)
For me, as for others, the Net is becoming a universal medium, the conduit for most of the information that flows through my eyes and ears and into my mind. The advantages of having immediate access to such an incredibly rich store of information are many, and they’ve been widely described and duly applauded. “The perfect recall of silicon memory,” Wired’s Clive Thompson has written, “can be an enormous boon to thinking.” But that boon comes at a price. As the media theorist Marshall McLuhan pointed out in the 1960s, media are not just passive channels of information. They supply the stuff of thought, but they also shape the process of thought. And what the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation. My mind now expects to take in information the way the Net distributes it: in a swiftly moving stream of particles. Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski.
I’m not the only one. When I mention my troubles with reading to friends and acquaintances—literary types, most of them—many say they’re having similar experiences. The more they use the Web, the more they have to fight to stay focused on long pieces of writing. Some of the bloggers I follow have also begun mentioning the phenomenon. Scott Karp, who writes a blog about online media, recently confessed that he has stopped reading books altogether. “I was a lit major in college, and used to be [a] voracious book reader,” he wrote. “What happened?” He speculates on the answer: “What if I do all my reading on the web not so much because the way I read has changed, i.e. I’m just seeking convenience, but because the way I THINK has changed?” – Is Google Making Us Stupid? By Nicholas Carr (Via The Atlantic Online)
I thought it was rather humorous. My first reaction was, “where has this guy been for the past 15 years?” However, I see his point, especially if he is an older chap. The world had changed, some say for the better, some say for the worst, I guess I solely depends on one’s outlook, Religious beliefs or what have you. However, I did find this rather asinine comment by some feckless lass to be rather offensive, and I let her know it too. It is commonly known that it is not polite to tease or mock someone in a wheelchair, so, why mock someone who’s disabilities are not seen? Again, as Nicholas aptly pointed out, or world and society is changing, and if this morally depraved woman’s actions are any indication, we are in terrible times ahead.
Others: City Room and Althouse (H/T Memeorandum)
It seems this stuff always comes in waves.
As much as I hate using Rachel Lucas’s situation as reference point, I must.
I just received some bad news tonight, my cousin, Pam, collapsed at work. She’s at the local hospital here in town, having emergency surgery of some sort.
The cause of the collapse and the type surgery are unknown at this time.
But please, keep my Cousin Pam and her husband Ben and her two children in your prayers tonight and the rest of the week.
I will update this spot, when more information is available.
Thanks…
Cross Posted @ Chuck’s Place
Update: The cause is now known, it is this. She is going for surgery, she is quite scared. Please continue to pray for her and the family.
Update #2: Woke up this morning and my dad was on the phone………with Pam. She had already went through Surgery and was on the phone with my Dad. Pam’s quite the tough Lady. Anyhow, I will be up at the hospital tomorrow. I will post the results of that.
Anymore, it is like shooting fish in a barrel with these guys…
You know that unidentified estranged wife of a Reno doctor that the governor of Nevada is not having an affair with?
Well, during one month last year he exchanged 850 text messages with her phone from his official state phone, at 15 cents per.
It’s all part of an increasingly messy divorce after 22 years between the 63-year-old Gov. Jim Gibbons, a former military and commercial pilot, and his wife, Dawn, 54, who formerly ran two Las Vegas wedding chapels. She’s also served in the state legislature. Hey, it’s Nevada remember. Nev gov Gibbons sends 100s txt msgs 2 other womans cell, not wifes (via Top of the Ticket at The Los Angeles Times)
Next time someone tries to tell you that the G.O.P is the party of morals, show ‘em this…
Andrew Malcom continues in this rather hilarious report:
On another day, or night, they exchanged 91 messages between midnight and 2 a.m., which is something like one text message every 79 seconds. Talk about teenagers. Bet the governor’s fingers were really sore.
And their arms too from holding the phones to their ears during 42 lengthy conversations, mostly at night and on weekends. The calls to Karrasch’s phone abruptly ended 14 days into April last year, the Gazette-Journal reported.
The newspaper said the messages’ contents were not available, which may be just as well. Although it would be kinda neat to…No, they’re private communbications and we have no business even imagining the abbrvtions used.
The paper noted the governor had reimbursed the state for the calls’ costs.
The governor does not face pretty tolerant Nevada voters again until 2010. In the meantime Jim and Dawn have agreed to stop fighting over custody of the governor’s mansion and negotiate.
Now, call me an idiot, but judging from this Picture:
I highly doubt that she married this old buzzard for the size of his……..Ahem, you know! or his dashing good looks.
Just a feeling a have….
I wonder if he took any lessons from Kwame Kilpatrick? Just sayin’!
Others: Washington Wire, Reno Gazette-Journal and AMERICAblog
