Editorial: In defense of Senator Debbie Stabenow

I am not writing this to defend the actions of Senator Stabenow’s husband.  The actions of Thomas Athans were deplorable.  If I were the senator, I would be seeing a lawyer and relieving this man of his burden of marriage.

However because the story of Thomas Athans has become the catalyst of great political fodder and blogger ridicule, and outright mocking by those of opposite political ideology.  Because of this sort of nonsense, I am writing a simple defense of Senator Stabenow as a Senator of the State of Michigan.  

I am quite aware of Senator Stabenow’s political stance, However, I am also aware of her performance in the Senate.  I can personally testify to her consistency in addressing issues brought before her.  I have personally e-mailed TONS of issues, brought to my attention by the John Birch Society, to Senator Stabenow’s office.

Senator Stabenow’s office was always faithful to reply to my e-mails to her, sometimes, the replies were even personal, and not a computer generated response, even though I am sure that some of the issues brought to her attention were in direct opposition to her political stance.

Further, of all the political representatives in my local area, other than one other political official for my local area, Senator Stabenow was the ONLY political official who responded to my e-mails, sometimes Senator Stabenow would reply to me personally via United States Mail, Even though she did not have to.

Therefore, I feel that this smearing by the Republican and Conservative Bloggers is just unwarranted.  We are not dealing with a seedy politician here.  We are dealing with a very nice woman, who has a husband who is an idiot.

I think that the Blogosphere needs to take a step back and leave this woman to sort out her own affairs.  I hope that she will do the right thing in the situation regarding her husband.

More Opinions via Memeorandum

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Hillary Clinton fired from Lawyer Job

This juicy bit of info came out yesterday and I didn’t get chance to Blog about it.

This comes via the guys over at HotAir.com.

An Article by Dan Calabrese basically removes any varnish off of Hillary Clinton’s Lawyer days. Calabrese quotes Jerry Zeifman, a life long Democrat as saying the following:

Quote:

As Hillary Clinton came under increasing scrutiny for her story about facing sniper fire in Bosnia, one question that arose was whether she has engaged in a pattern of lying.

The now-retired general counsel and chief of staff of the House Judiciary Committee, who supervised Hillary when she worked on the Watergate investigation, says Hillary’s history of lies and unethical behavior goes back farther – and goes much deeper – than anyone realizes.

Jerry Zeifman, a lifelong Democrat, supervised the work of 27-year-old Hillary Rodham on the committee. Hillary got a job working on the investigation at the behest of her former law professor, Burke Marshall, who was also Sen. Ted Kennedy’s chief counsel in the Chappaquiddick affair. When the investigation was over, Zeifman fired Hillary from the committee staff and refused to give her a letter of recommendation – one of only three people who earned that dubious distinction in Zeifman’s 17-year career.

Why?

“Because she was a liar,” Zeifman said in an interview last week. “She was an unethical, dishonest lawyer. She conspired to violate the Constitution, the rules of the House, the rules of the committee and the rules of confidentiality.”

It is being reported that this isn’t really news, however, it is the first time that I have heard of it. So, far only Conservative Blogs are talking about it, I haven’t seen any movement by the bigger Blogs, but if this did catch fire, it could spell the end of Hillary Clinton. Because basically, she’s used her years as a lawyer to say she is ready for the White House.

Zeifman goes on to say at his website:

After hiring Hillary, Doar assigned her to confer with me regarding rules of procedure for the impeachment inquiry. At my first meeting with her I told her that Judiciary Committee Chairman Peter Rodino, House Speaker Carl Albert, Majority Leader “Tip” O’Neill, Parliamentarian Lou Deschler and I had previously all agreed that we should rely only on the then existing House Rules, and not advocate any changes. I also quoted Tip O’Neill’s statement that: “To try to change the rules now would be politically divisive. It would be like trying to change the traditional rules of baseball before a World Series.”

Hillary assured me that she had not drafted, and would not advocate, any such rules changes. However, as documented in my personal diary, I soon learned that she had lied. She had already drafted changes, and continued to advocate them. In one written legal memorandum, she advocated denying President Nixon representation by counsel. In so doing she simply ignored the fact that in the committee’s then most recent prior impeachment proceeding, the committee had afforded the right to counsel to Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas.

I had also informed Hillary that the Douglas impeachment files were available for public inspection in the committee offices. She later removed the Douglas files without my permission and carried them to the offices of the impeachment inquiry staff — where they were no longer accessible to the public.

Hillary had also made other ethical flawed procedural recommendations, arguing that the Judiciary Committee should: not hold any hearings with – or take depositions of — any live witnesses; not conduct any original investigation of Watergate, bribery, tax evasion, or any other possible impeachable offense of President Nixon; and should rely solely on documentary evidence compiled by other committees and by the Justice Departments special Watergate prosecutor.

If any of the above is true, Hillary Clinton could be in deep trouble should this story begin tread water among the main stream media.

Ed Morrissey on this:

The right to counsel is considered one of the inviolable tenets of our justice system. It doesn’t speak well of ambitious attorneys working on a highly-charged political investigation that she wanted to deny someone the right to an attorney. Small wonder Zeifman questioned her ethics.

If all she did was to propose that as a tactic, that would not make it terribly concerning — but she did much more than just spitball ideas. When informed that public evidence showed a precedent for the right to counsel, she absconded with the files to eliminate the evidence. Does that remind anyone of later incidents in the Clinton narrative, such as the billing records for the Rose Law offices and the 900+ raw FBI files on political opponents of the Clintons?

For the sake of the Democrats and for the sake of this election, I am hope that this story just dies off and goes away. I mean, the Democrats have enough trouble right now as it is.

Should be interesting indeed.

Others: protein wisdom, TBogg, Power Line, Doug Ross, Stop The ACLU, PoliGazette, Pat Dollard, North Star Writers Group, NewsBusters.org, QandO, Secular Blasphemy and Digg (via Memeorandum)

One of the half a million reasons I think Joe Scarborough is an Asshat….

Transcript: (via Media Matters for America)

From the March 31 edition of MSNBC’s Morning Joe:

SCARBOROUGH: You know, Willie, the thing is, Americans want their president, if it’s a man, to be a real man. They — 1984, I remember Ronald Reagan goes to South Boston. He holds up that beer mug —

BRZEZINSKI: Yeah.

SCARBOROUGH: — in that South Boston pub, and everybody’s like, "He’s a real man," and I guess Barack Obama’s trying to do the same thing, too.

BRZEZINSKI: Stop it. Oh, come on.

SCARBOROUGH: Awful. Good Lord.

GEIST: He’s going to have to try a little harder than he did in Altoona, Pennsylvania, on Saturday night —

SCARBOROUGH: Oh my God —

BRZEZINSKI: Really?

SCARBOROUGH: Oh, this is awful.

GEIST: — at the Pleasant Valley Rec Center. He went bowling, and let’s just take a quick look at it here. I guess I’ll just give you the final numbers. Started out nicely, got the Velcro shoes.

BRZEZINSKI: Looking good, looking good.

GEIST: But then he started bowling. The score you’re really after in bowling is 300; that’s a perfect score.

BRZEZINSKI: Oh, OK.

SCARBOROUGH: That’s perfect score.

BRZEZINSKI: Good, good, good.

SCARBOROUGH: But, you know, if you get 200, you’re a good bowler.

GEIST: Sure. You know what?

BRZEZINSKI: Yeah. Two-fifty —

SCARBOROUGH: You get 150, you’re a man —

BRZEZINSKI: OK.

SCARBOROUGH: — or a good woman.

BRZEZINSKI: Stop it.

GEIST: Out of my president, I want a 150, at least. Barack Obama bowled — well, you can see his form here —

SCARBOROUGH: Hee!

BRZEZINSKI: Yeah.

GEIST: A 37.

BRZEZINSKI: Oh.

GEIST: That’s a three, next to a seven.

SCARBOROUGH: Baby, if you go to Altoona, Pennsylvania, on a Saturday night and you’re going to try to bowl —

SCARBOROUGH: Oh, that’s so dainty. Ugh.

GEIST: Get there, get there.

SCARBOROUGH: What a dainty —

GEIST and SCARBOROUGH: Oh!

BRZEZINSKI: A gutter ball, that’s like me bowling.

SCARBOROUGH: That is such a dainty release.

GEIST: If you’re the president, you want — you don’t want them to have to put those bumpers in the gutters.

SCARBOROUGH: Look, here we go, look at this. OK.

BRZEZINSKI: All right now.

[Scarborough squeals]

GEIST: Oh, it’s like a children’s birthday party.

BRZEZINSKI: OK, guys.

SCARBOROUGH: I’ve got a feeling he —

BRZEZINSKI: That was useless and stupid and [unintelligible].

SCARBOROUGH: — he didn’t go bowling in Cambridge that much. That’s a guy that’s been studying a lot of — reading a lot of books.

[…]

FORD: One thing I thought he did a great job of this week — he’s done a lot of great things but —

SCARBOROUGH: Not bowling.

FORD: No.

SCARBOROUGH: Have you ever bowled before, Harold?

FORD: I do, I have.

SCARBOROUGH: You ever bowl?

FORD: I’m embarrassed to say, but I do.

BRZEZINSKI: Harold, make your point.

FORD: My other point is just —

SCARBOROUGH: No, no, I’m curious. If you were running for president in Altoona, Pennsylvania —

FORD: They can walk him through —

SCARBOROUGH: He got a 37 —

FORD: — feed milk to him —

SCARBOROUGH: Harold, he got a 37 bowling in Altoona, Pennsylviania.

BRZEZINSKI: Oh, Harold.

GEIST: So sorry.

BRZEZINSKI: Yeah.

FORD: He probably shouldn’t do that again, but I tell you, it showed a human side to him. I mean, it showed a very humble side to him.

SCARBOROUGH: Well, yeah, yeah, yeah.

BRZEZINSKI: He is a politician.

SCARBOROUGH: A very human side? A prissy side.

BRZEZINSKI: Oh, stop it. Now, that’s just not nice.

SCARBOROUGH: Anyway, make your point.

FORD: He’s a heck of an athlete, by the way.

SCARBOROUGH: Is he really?

FORD: Actually, heck of an athlete.

SCARBOROUGH: It sure didn’t look it, the way that he was just —

BRZEZINSKI: Oh my God.

SCARBOROUGH: He was pushing it this way, right there.

BRZEZINSKI: You have to take it and run with it, Harold.

FORD: But he looked like — I mean, he looked like folks, he looked like an American. A Pennsylvanian — he looked like someone, day in and day out —

[crosstalk]

BRZEZINSKI: No, no, no.

SCARBOROUGH: He was bowling in his tie —

FORD: — except the bowling. The bowling hurt it.

BRZEZINSKI: Harold, take my advice.

FORD: The bowling — I mean, I thought it was 137. You sure it was 37?

SCARBOROUGH: It was 37. That is awful.

BRZEZINSKI: You have to — there is no way. There is no way out of this one.

[…]

SCARBOROUGH: So Harold, so Harold, though —

FORD: He’s my buddy. I can’t believe you make me laugh at –.

SCARBOROUGH: But you say he’s a good athlete?

BRZEZINSKI: He’s a dancer.

[crosstalk]

FORD: He’s a heck of a basketball player.

SCARBOROUGH: Is he really?

FORD: Heck of a basketball player.

SCARBOROUGH: OK.

FORD: As a matter of fact, I spent a little time with his brother-in-law over the weekend who can also play.

BRZEZINSKI: I’d think you’d have a hard time against him —

SCARBOROUGH: How tall is he?

FORD: How tall is Barack?

SCARBOROUGH: Yeah.

FORD: Barack’s probably 6’2".

SCARBOROUGH: Really?

FORD: 6’2", 6’3", yeah. He’s a big guy.

BRZEZINSKI: Yeah.

SCARBOROUGH: Well then, I better be quiet because —

FORD: Yeah, probably.

BRZEZINSKI: Yeah, I think you should.

SCARBOROUGH: I mean, I’m bigger than he is.

BRZEZINSKI: I still think you should be quiet.

FORD: You should reach out to a bowl-off.

SCARBOROUGH: I’ll challenge him to a bowl-off. But basketball — he looks like he’s in pretty good shape. I would just have to post low.

GEIST: Right.

FORD: And I’d throw him a pass on you, too. I’ve seen you. I think he could probably take you down the sideline on a post route.

BRZEZINSKI: O

h no. Please don’t, don’t don’t don’t go there. You didn’t just do this.

[crosstalk]

SCARBOROUGH: Wait, wait. I’m sorry? You talking football now?

BRZEZINSKI: Guys —

FORD: I mean, that’s one sport y’all can still play at Florida —

[crosstalk]

SCARBOROUGH: I’ve got 5 yards.

BRZEZINSKI: Harold?

SCARBOROUGH: I’ve got 5 yards, bump and run. He’s not going down the field.

FORD: Oh, Joe.

SCARBOROUGH: You know what my nickname was in college?

BRZEZINSKI: Oh, Lord, help me.

SCARBOROUGH: The "Round Mound of Rebound." On the basketball court, you just go low and lean.

BRZEZINSKI: Yeah, well, 15 million Big Macs later, I don’t think that name applies, honey.

[…]

SCARBOROUGH: Let’s bring in right now David Axelrod, he’s chief strategist for the Obama campaign. David, we have to ask a question, what did you know, when did you know it —

BRZEZINSKI: And what were you thinking?

SCARBOROUGH: What were you thinking? Why did you allow your candidate to bowl a 37 in Altoona, Pennsylvania? America waits for your answer, sir.

AXELROD: Well, if you’re going to bowl a 37, Altoona’s a good a place as any, Joe. No, listen. I think it was tremendously insightful of the candidate not to try and show up any of the other bowlers there.

SCARBOROUGH: I’ll tell you what —

AXELROD: I mean, that’s the kind of political sophistication that you want —

GEIST: There you go.

AXELROD: What’s worse, I mean, listen, what made that worse was that right after that, Hillary Clinton revealed that she had bowled a 300 with the prime minister of Uzbekistan. So —

SCARBOROUGH: Oh, here we go.

[crosstalk]

BRZEZINSKI: Oh, that’s harsh [unintelligible]. David —

SCARBOROUGH: I’ll tell you what, that is some spin, my man.

BRZEZINSKI: No, you didn’t.

SCARBOROUGH: First of all, you say he got the 37. That’s why he gets the big bucks. He says —

AXELROD: So he didn’t bowl 10 frames, Joe. He didn’t bowl 10 frames, and as he’s proven, he’s a strong finisher.

SCARBOROUGH: Oh, OK.

AXELROD: So —

BRZEZINSKI: No. David?

AXELROD: Let’s put the whole thing in perspective.

From the 10 a.m. ET hour of the March 31 edition of MSNBC Live:

HALL: Well, Barack Obama — his friends say he’s a whiz on the basketball court and he can hold his own on the dance floor — and he’s got a gift, of course, for speaking. But one thing Barack Obama cannot do, and I think it’s official — he can’t bowl. Mr. Obama scored a 37 when he hit the lanes this weekend. And yes, he bowled all 10 frames. That’s impossible. Well, voters in Pennsylvania will give him some pointers for his effort.

I do sometimes catch his show in the mornings. But I think the guy is a fucking dick, quite frankly. Someone who picked on kids in school, a spoiled rich kid who thought he was something big. I would love to see nothing more than some beat the living fucking shit out of Joe right on the air, on his own show.

I honestly do not know how Mika Brzezinski puts up with it. I wouldn’t, I’d bitch and have his ass fired. He’s said so much offensive stuff to her, as a woman, it is unbelievable.

He’s the kind of Republican, that I cannot stand. The kind with the "I am better than you", Attitude.

Others: No More Mister Nice Blog, The Reaction, The New Republic, ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES and Gateway Pundit

US Military to recruit Bloggers to spread Pro-War Propaganda

That is the report from "Danger Room", A National Security Blog at Wired.com.

Quote:

A study, written for U.S. Special Operations Command, suggested "clandestinely recruiting or hiring prominent Bloggers." 

Since the start of the Iraq war, there’s been a raucous debate in military circles over how to handle blogs — and the servicemembers who want to keep them. One faction sees blogs as security risks, and a collective waste of troops’ time. The other (which includes top officers, like Gen. David Petraeus and Lt. Gen. William Caldwell) considers blogs to be a valuable source of information, and a way for ordinary troops to shape opinions, both at home and abroad.

This report does not surprise me, nor is a huge revelation. I believe that US Military in Iraq, at some point, when the Iraq War began to turn sour, began to instruct some of it’s Military personnel to sign up for Blogs, say on Blogspot and WordPress, under false Iraqi names, like Omar and Mohammad, and to begin to preach the good values of this War and the Bush Administration.

One of these blogs already exists. It is called "Iraq, The Model"; it has been in existence since November of 2003. It is "supposedly" run by someone in Iraq.

Sorry, I am not buying it. The English is too good. I accused the person that owns this Blog of being a covert American once and he flew into a rage and called me a liar, and then amazingly my comments on the Blog disappeared. As if he did not want to arouse anyone’s suspicions, I suppose.

My question is, does the Bush Administration really believe that the American people are that damned gullible? That we are just going to blindly buy the lie that this war is just going along smoothly and everything is perfect. I mean really!

Coupled with that and continued moving of the Goal posts as to why we should be there! First, it was to topple Saddam, and then it became to fight against Al-Qaeda, and so forth. I mean, somewhere along the line, the American people realized that the Bush Administration was full of crap.

It just cracks me up, that George W. Bush and his Administration actually sit up there, in the White House thinking of ways that they can deceive the American people into believing that this war was even remotely justified. Everyone knows, that actually reads the news, which is good percentage of America, that the whole invasion of Iraq was an abdication of U.S. Intelligence, from the ground up. Does anyone remember, "Slam Dunk"?

Mr. President, in case you have been away or a bit busy, this is not 1941! We do have the thing called the Internet and a thing called Blogs and various other kinds of Alternative news sources! You cannot control the type of news that comes out of Iraq. No matter how hard you try! You would think a man that ended up in the White House would be smart enough to know this sort of a thing. But then again, we are talking about George W. Bush, the former cokehead, the former womanizer, the former Drunk, the guy who walked away from the Military, the Former Black sheep of the Bush Family, are we not?

Of course, upon further reflection, this is the mindset of the Republican Party, the party of the wealthy in our society. The sick and twisted mentality of "They are just stupid common people, they’ll believe anything we tell them.” The sad part is, within the Republican Party, there does exist a certain amount of that sort of Mentality. It is generally made up of the viewers of the Fox News Channel. In fairness, there are liberals like that too. "Believe what you are told and shut up and accept it and get back to work!" is the mentality of the good part of America. Thank God for people like Edward C. Marrow, and Keith Olbermann and many others, including those in the Blogging community, that have stood up and said, "No More!" and have sought to expose this Administration for what it is. Corrupt.  

I am not sure how I feel about this story, angry or sad. Angry because of the Blatant stupidity that it exhibits, or sad for our nation, sad because the American government is having to stoop to the level of hiring professional Bloggers to print lies about this war.  

November 2008 cannot come quick enough for me.

Others: THE LIBERAL JOURNAL, Think Progress, Shakesville and Left in the West (via Memeoradum)

As if President Bush needed any more troubles, Now this….

 Like Wow! It must be open season on his Administration.

Article: Report Says HUD Secretary Will Resign (via New York Times)

Housing Secretary Alphonso R. Jackson is expected to resign Monday, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday night.

Mr. Jackson has scheduled a news conference for 9:45 a.m., 15 minutes before Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. is supposed to outline plans for dealing with the financial crisis set off by the risky mortgage lending.

If Mr. Jackson steps down, it would remove a key player from the administration team dealing with the problem.

It is an interesting read. Corruption at the highest level.

Other Bloggers via Memeorandum

The Dutch are cowards.

Go Read.

I think it’s the best movie ever made, about Islam.

I personally think we need to follow Ann Coulter’s Advice.

We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity. We weren’t punctilious about locating and punishing only Hitler and his top officers. We carpet-bombed German cities; we killed civilians. That’s war. And this is war. – Source

No wiser words have been said.

Keith Olbermann’s Worst Person’s in the World

Bronze: Walmart’s CEO for doing nothing about being nominated Yesterday.

Silver: Lindsey Graham for going Faux Noise and saying McCain never said the war would be easy. Even though, he did.

Hee hee

Gold: Michael Chertoff for sending his agents out to catch a radioactive cat! (*meow?*) I dont know

Proud to be White!

You know, with all this talk about Racism on Blogs. I think it’s just high time, that I spoke my Mind…..

Without further ado, I present:

Proud To Be White

Someone finally said it.
How many are actually paying attention to this?

There are African Americans, Mexican Americans,
Asian Americans, Arab Americans, etc.
And then there are just Americans.

You pass me on the street and sneer in my direction.
You Call me ‘White boy,’ ‘Cracker,’ ‘Honkey,’
‘Whitey,’ ‘Caveman’ … and that’s OK.

But when I call you, Nigger, Kike, Towel head,
Sand-nigger, Camel Jockey, Beaner, Gook, or Chink …
You call me a racist.

You say that whites commit a lot of violence against you,
so why are the ghettos the most dangerous places to live?

You have the United Negro College Fund.

You have Martin Luther King Day.

You have Black History Month.

You have Cesar Chavez Day.

You have Yom Hashoah.

You have Ma’uled Al-Nabi.

You have the NAACP.

You have BET.

If we had WET (White Entertainment Television) we’d be racists.

If we had a White Pride Day, you would call us racists.

If we had White History Month , we’d be racists.

If we had any organization for only whites to ‘advance’
OUR lives we’d be racists.

We have a Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, a Black Chamber
of Commerce, and then we just have the plain Chamber of Commerce.
Wonder who pays for that?

A white woman could not be in the Miss Black American
pageant, but any color can be in the Miss America pageant.

If we had a college fund that only gave white students
scholarships you know we’d be racists.
There are over 60 openly proclaimed Black Colleges
in the US. Yet if there were ‘White colleges’ THAT
would be a racist college.

In the Million Man March, you believed that you were
marching for your race and rights. If we marched for
our race and rights, you would call us racists.

You are proud to be black, brown, yellow and orange, and
you’re not afraid to announce it. But when we announce
our white pride, you call us racists.

You rob us, carjack us, and shoot at us. But, when a
white police officer shoots a black gang member or beats
up a black drug-dealer running from the law and posing a
threat to society, you call him a racist.

I am proud.
But you call me a racist.

Funding the very terrorists we’re supposed to be fighting against

That’s right folks.

Via WorldNetDaily:

Just days after it was announced the U.S. would transfer $150 million directly to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ government, members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terror group, the declared military wing of Abbas’ Fatah party, were told they would receive cash grants, WND has learned.

According to Palestinian militant sources familiar with the issue, earlier this month, 20 members of the Brigades leadership in the West Bank city of Ramallah complained to PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad they did not have enough money to pay their bills, including, for many of them, rent for their apartments.

Last week, according to the informed sources, Fayyad told the complaining Brigades leaders he would provide them with a one-time grant of $3,000 each, or $60,000 to the Ramallah-based Brigades leadership.

The sources said after Brigades leaders in other West Bank cities, including Hebron and Nablus, heard of the grants, they also demanded pay increases.

"Some of the other fighters accused Fayyad of favoring the Brigades leaders in Ramallah since that’s where Fayyad lives," said a militant source. "So he gave grants also to other cells."

Unreal. Can the lies and deceptions, from this feckless administration, be any clearer?

I guess Ron Paul was correct. Rolling Eyes

Political Cat Fight……On a Sunday?

Not to mention on Easter Sunday, at that!

Good Lord Almighty! Surprise

Is it just me or does the Blogosphere just need a big fat group hug or something????!?!

I guess, from what I can follow, Glenn Greenwald saw something that Glenn Reynolds linked to. I am assuming it was this.

Well, I guess Glenn was snooping around on that site and saw this here, and is now having a hairy fit about it.

Good Lordy people! Time outTime out! Let’s all not get so danged ugly on a Sunday here! It is after all, A Holiday. 

Of course, Everyone and their uncle is Blogging about it. Go here and read it all.

Goodness, I thought I was only uppity person around here… Rolling on the floor

Can we all just get along?

Oh, and BTW, I wouldn’t use the N-Word of those listed, Race-Baiters maybe. But….

Update: Oh good grief, this has turned into a huge thing now…. here’s the links: JustOneMinute, Open Left, The RBC, The Impolitic, Orcinus, Hullabaloo, Lawyers, Guns and Money, Liberal Fascism, The Smirking Chimp, American Power, Little Miss Attila, Unfogged, Liberty Street, The Anonymous Liberal, American Street, The Newshoggers, First Draft, INSTAPUTZ, Sadly, No!, Mercury Rising, RADAMISTO and all the rest via Memeorandum

It wasn’t just Obama’s Passport…..

So, it wasn’t a conspiracy after all… 

The Story: Obama urges inquiry into passport snooping (via CNN.com)

Sen. Barack Obama called for an investigation Friday into how the security of the passport files of the three remaining presidential candidates was breached.

The State Department admitted Friday that the passport files of Obama, Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. John McCain had been accessed without authorization.

"One of the things that the American people count on in their interactions with any level of government is that if they have to disclose personal information, that it stay personal and stay private," Obama said in Portland, Oregon.

"And when you have not just one but a series of attempts to tap into people’s personal records, that’s a problem not just for me but for how our government is functioning," he said.

Obama said he expected "a full and thorough investigation" by the administration in conjunction with congressional oversight committees.

Now if I were one of them overly paranoid Liberals, I would say this was released to stop the coverage of it, as a attempt to roust out Obama from the race or something silly like that. Truth is, is was most likely just some bonehead who thought that they’d be really cool and access the info.

However, it does speak the absolute incompetence of the State Department. This should have been released to the Candidates and the Media the very minute it happened. 

Many questions linger and will most likely be brought out eventually, Most likely when the offending parties are safely out of office.

Others: The Swamp, Think Progress, Ben Smith’s Blogs, the talking dog, Hot Air, MSNBC, Daily Kos, The Carpetbagger Report, Pajamas Media, Ars Technica, Attytood, Sister Toldjah, MyDD, Salon, Bang the Drum, The Gavel and Shakesville (via Memeornadum)

Humor Break: Um, Who’s Marci McCain?

Oh Yeah, you can tell I’m really with it today….

I saw this: Merci McCain (via OurFuture.org)

First thing I thought was "Who the heck is Marci McCain??!??!"

Then I ran the Video, that is when I got it, Oh Right, it’s French… duh!Loser

D’oh! Doh

Well? What the hell do you expect? I’m just now working on that second mug of coffee. I’m a night person, so sue me! Phbbbttt

Being with it….Oh yeah, I got to really work on that.

Others: Think Progress, Blog entry and Ben Smith’s Blogs

The Left is being played like a fiddle….

A sad, but true fact.

The story, Which comes via Newshoggers, who saw it at Rising Hegemon. A story that appeared in the Village Voice, the story of how the Republican Operatives are strongly trying to weaken the chances of a Democratic Nominee of winning in November.  Now in the interest for fairness, this is really nothing new, this sort of Political underhandedness has been going on for years. Nixon did it, as did others. But the reason why it is so bad in this race, for one, is because there is no fairness doctrine anymore, opening up the ability to editorialize the coverage of the election process, another factor is, that you have a Republican propaganda machine, known as Fox News, or as I like to call it, Faux Noise. But, because I am fair, Fox News is not the only ones that do this sort of thing. MSNBC does it, CNN does, even the so-called NPR, which is supposed to be a-political, has a noticed liberal slant to it. So, all in all, the Bias is on both sides of the camp.

Anyhow, on with the story….

Quote:

The prime movers of both political parties have long tried to game the presidential nominating process—not only to choose their eventual winner, but also to pick their November opponent. And in this landmark election without incumbents, the media wing of the Republican Party, in particular, has quite visibly been playing that game. Right-leaning pundits for months now have very openly not just called for Hillary Clinton’s head, but also coddled and promoted Barack Obama, salivating over the prospect of facing him in November.

Meanwhile, voters have been echoing that program: Barack Obama has been beating Hillary Clinton in part because Republicans are helping him.

Sixteen of the 45 Democratic primaries and caucuses held before this week were open affairs, allowing Republicans and independents to take part, and Barack Obama has won 11 of those contests. He almost invariably carried the Republican vote, which accounted for as much as 9 percent of the total in Wisconsin and Texas, and frequently ran even stronger among independents, who represented a fifth or more of Democratic primary voters in state after state. The 75 percent of the Republican vote that he won in Missouri, for example, may have pushed him over the top, and certainly, when combined with his 67 percent of the state’s much larger independent vote, it delivered many of the district-apportioned delegates to him. Republicans in Obama states like Washington, Wisconsin, and Virginia were even freer to cross the aisle, since by the time they voted, John McCain had already sewn up the GOP nomination. While Obama often won some of these states so handily that Republicans and independents could not have provided his margin of victory, there is no way to know how many delegates in close congressional-district contests will wind up in Denver because of the impact of Republican or independent voters. And there is no exit-poll data to measure their impact on the caucuses.

I highly recommend that you read the rest of this story, as it paints a tale of how the Republicans are attempting to destroy the Democrat nomination in November. The sick and sad part is, they are doing by using the old, outdated system of nomination and voting.

Cernig at Newshoggers weighs in:

In every case, these rightwing mouthpieces have ignored their own previous overt race-baiting to accuse the Clintons of being closet racists, have ignored their own open misogyny to accuse Obamites of sexism and generally muddied the waters every way they could.
Limbaugh, Novak, Kristol, Bennet, York, Hannity, George Will – all have their gamesmanship exposed by this must-read column. They’re all on the same page of the GOP playbook. It’s the page headed "Divide and Conquer".

Truly, this is a sad case, I just hope that Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton have the ability to overcome the negative press coverage and can be elected. Because we do not need four to six more years of the Neo-Conservative nightmare in this country. Now, if McCain nabs the Presidency, I won’t jump off a building or anything. But it will set this Country a great deal if he does. Not to mention, it will be the biggest embarrassment to the Democrat Party.

Here is hoping that things will work out, and the underhanded folk, on both sides, will be exposed, for what they are. 

The ever continuing Story of Obama Wright Gate

Now it has gone to a new level of silly

The Story: Jeremiah Wright was White House guest (Via Ben Smith’s Blog @ Politico.com)

The recent coverage of Rev. Jeremiah Wright has often cast him as a marginal, almost fringe figure, but Trinity Church is a major Chicago institution, and Wright has long been a prominent pastor on the American scene.

And an anonymous blog set up to defend his church offers some compelling photographic evidence of this: A photograph of Wright and President Clinton, which it says was taken on Sept. 11, 1998 — the date of a White House gathering for religious leaders.

[UPDATE: The blog seems to have taken that item down; here’s the full image that was posted.]

Hillary Clinton, according to her recently released schedule for the day, was present at the gathering. Al Gore also appears in the picture.

"In the course of his two terms in office, Bill Clinton met with, corresponded with and took pictures with literally tens of thousands of people," Clinton spokesman Jay Carson told Politico.

That’s where Clinton reportedly told the assembled clerics, at the depth of the Monica Lewinsky scandal, that he had "repented."

The only reason I can see that this was even picked up by the MSM and the Bigger Blogs, is because of an effort by the Conservative Bloggers to make ALL Democrats look like hatemongers.

Nice try guys, anyone with a half a brain is going to know that Presidents often meet and are photographed with many people. This picture, as it says above, was snapped during the Clinton Monica scandal.

Of course, we are dealing with Desperate Conservatives aren’t we? Could it be that they are totally scared out of their minds, that a LIBERAL might take the white house back and they will lose those tax breaks, that they received from the alcoholic,  coke headed, village idiot, in the White House? Who’s having extra-martial sex with Coni Rice!

Horrors! Rolling Eyes

Others on this: The Trail, Telegraph, Tennessee Guerilla Women, Wonkette, Liberal Values, Spin Cycle, The Monkey Tennis Centre, Shakesville, Hot Air, The Truth About Trinity …, Macsmind, Political Machine and The Page (via Memeorandum)

McCain Aide suspended for promoting Anti-Obama Video

This is interesting…..

The Story: McCain Aide Suspended for promoting Anti-Obama video on Twitter (via Politico.com)

An aide to John McCain was suspended from the campaign today for blasting out an inflammatory video that raises questions about Barack Obama’s patriotism.  

Soren Dayton, who works in McCain’s political department, sent out the YouTube link of "Is Obama Wright?" on twitter at 12:31 today with the tag, "Good video on Obama and Wright."  It has since been taken down.

Twitter is an online device that allows users to send out short messages and links en masse through computers or PDAs.

As this article goes on to say, The Video was produced by none other than Lee Habeeb, a former producer of, none other than one of the worst Conservative talk show hosts, and suspected closet lesbian and One boobed freak, Laura Ingraham.

I mean, I am no fan of Obama, really, but to try and paint him as a Marxist? That is a stretch. A big one, if I do say so myself.

I am glad that McCain is, at least, trying to keep his campaign above the noise and nonsense of the "Michael Savage" crowd in the Conservative Party.

Others on this and believe me, many disagree with me, not surprisingly: Swampland, Althouse, TownHall Blog, The Corner, Hot Air, All Spin Zone, The Caucus, Flopping Aces, Macsmind, The American Mind, Blog P.I., Wake up America, Political Machine, The RBC, Pensito Review, Hullabaloo, The Page, Oliver Willis, Shakesville and Real Clear Politics (via Memeornadum)

Obama Passport-Gate

This new Obama story that will bury the Rev. Wright Scandal.

 The Story: 2 fired over Obama passport breach (msnbc.com)

Quote:

Two contract employees of the State Department were fired and a third person was disciplined for inappropriately looking at Democratic Sen. Barack Obama’s passport file.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the department itself detected the instances of "imprudent curiosity," which occurred separately on Jan. 9, Feb. 21 and March 14. He would not release the names of those who were fired and disciplined.

"We believe this was out of imprudent curiosity, so we are taking steps to reassure ourselves that that is, in fact, the case," McCormack said.

This was Keith Olbermann’s Lead story tonight and I believe he dedicated the rest of his show to it. As did Dan Abrams.

I have been reading around and listening to the coverage. People are comparing this to the 1992 breeching of President Clinton’s passport records, of which, I must confess, I knew nothing of.

There has also been, already, comparisons to Watergate. Which I think is a bit of a stretch, if you ask me. Although, I believe before it is over, someone will be charged over this or at least will be publicly shamed.

This will be an interesting story to follow.

Others: Crooks and Liars, The Huffington Post, The Moderate Voice, Attytood, Boston Globe, Bang the Drum, Oliver Willis, Corrente, Sister Toldjah, Blue Girl, Red State, The Agonist, Political Machine, Cliff Schecter, Washington Times, Associated Press, Think Progress, Redstate, Fox News, Hot Air, Macsmind, Washington Post, Talking Points Memo, Brilliant at Breakfast and Obsidian Wings

Oy….. McCain Edition.

Man, I know McCain is not known for his overreaching brilliance, But…. This

The Story: McCain rep to Jewish crowd: the Christian right is ‘serious problem’ (Via Haaretz)

The location keeps changing, and the speakers might be different as well, but the goal remains the same: courting the Jewish vote. Today, it was in Washington, at the Washington 15 Conference, an event of the United Jewish Communities aimed at young Jewish leadership. And three campaigns sent their representatives to convince these young enthusiastic crowd that Obama/Clinton/McCain is the candidate they should be voting for.

For Obama, it was advisor (and former ambassador to Israel) Daniel Kurtzer. For Clinton, it was senior advisor Ann Lewis. McCain dispatched the most senior speaker of the three, former secretary of state Lawrence Eagleburger. I will write more about this event later, but this first installment will be dedicated solely to the person speaking on behalf of McCain. With his abrupt, grumpy style, he stole the show, and also made some rather interesting comments.

Here is one prediction: that mouth of his might get the candidate in some trouble.

Yes, it can.

Eagleburger was trying to have fun. He was mocking his fellow panelist Kurtzer, sitting to the left of the others ("where he belongs"), and making noises and funny, impatient faces, while Ann Lewis was speaking. But more importantly, he did not mince his words. In a response to a question about the religious right, an important component of the Republican coalition, he said that it was, indeed "a serious problem," and reminded his listeners that he now lives in Charlottesville, surrounded by such people that he needs to fight.

If McCain wants to woo the American people this is NOT the way to do it.

Like I said above…. Oy…

Others: Crooks and Liars, Haaretz and The Raw Story

It is official Dick Cheney is an Asshole

This comes via Think Progress:

Transcript:

CHENEY: On the security front, I think there’s a general consensus that we’ve made major progress, that the surge has worked. That’s been a major success.

RADDATZ: Two-third of Americans say it’s not worth fighting.

CHENEY: So?

RADDATZ So? You don’t care what the American people think?

CHENEY: No. I think you cannot be blown off course by the fluctuations in the public opinion polls.

Man, not only is he an asshole, he’s a delusional asshole as well.

Of course, when you’re the second lackey to a President who’s approval rating is 19% and has a bunker mentality of it’s us against the world, what do you expect?

Others: CNN, Reuters, Washington Times, Firedoglake, World-O-Crap, Hullabaloo and Dependable Renegade

Obama’s lead shrinks, McCain Does quite nicely….

 Believe it or not, this is not a big surprise

Story: Obama’s lead over Clinton narrows: Reuters poll (Via Reuters)

Quote:

Democrat Barack Obama’s big national lead over Hillary Clinton has all but evaporated in the U.S. presidential race, and both Democrats trail Republican John McCain, according a Reuters/Zogby poll released on Wednesday.

The poll showed Obama had only a statistically insignificant lead of 47 percent to 44 percent over Clinton, down sharply from a 14 point edge he held over her in February when he was riding the tide of 10 straight victories.

Illinois Sen. Obama, who would be America’s first black president, has been buffeted by attacks in recent weeks from New York Sen. Clinton over his fitness to serve as commander-in-chief and by a tempest over racially charged sermons given by his Chicago preacher.

The poll showed Arizona Sen. McCain, who has clinched the Republican presidential nomination, is benefiting from the lengthy campaign battle between Obama and Clinton, who are now battling to win Pennsylvania on April 22.

McCain leads 46 percent to 40 percent in a hypothetical matchup against Obama in the November presidential election, according to the poll.

One thing to note here, this is a short term loss, I highly doubt that this little flare up is going to cost Obama the Nomination, the next Primary vote is like 5 weeks away in PA. So, I highly doubt that Obama will sustain any lasting damage. Once this Rev. Wright story finally leaves the News cycle, his numbers will return to normal.

McCain on the other seems to be benefiting from this dust up, the cameras and the attention is off of him for the time being. I can imagine he is quite happy about this. Many people are predicting that many independents will flock to McCain because they see Obama is too extremist.

Well, Sorry, I disagree, Any person who has looked at how Bush has totally screwed this country up, over the last 6 years. How Bush turned the 9/11 attacks as a excuse to invade a country that had NOTHING to do with the attacks at all. How much Bush and his Administration totally mangled the handling of the war, I highly doubt that these people are going to flock to McCain. Because too many people see McCain as a continuation of Bush.

Quite frankly, and I address this to MSM, I do not think that the Independents, like me, are quite that stupid. I know that I, and many others that I know, are not.

Others: Talking Points Memo, Hot Air, The Washington Independent, Political Machine, Wake up America, Macsmind, QandO, Outside The Beltway and Roger L. Simon — More via memeorandum