Clueless Duhbya

Fri 02/29/08 at 3:27 pm

Two Three more examples of Duhbya’s fecklessness. He doesn’t know irony when it spews from his own mouth. peace, mjh

Bush Condemns Leaders Who ‘Sit Down At The Table’ And ‘Have Pictures Taken’ With ‘Tyrants’

In yesterday’s news conference, President Bush sharply attacked Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-IL) argument that the president “should never fear to negotiate” with America’s enemies. Bush told reporters:

It will send a discouraging message to those who wonder whether America will continue to work for the freedom of prisoners. It will give great status to those who have suppressed human rights and human dignity. […]

Sitting down at the table, having your picture taken with a tyrant such as Raul Castro, for example, lends the status of the office and the status of our country to him. He gains a lot from it by saying, look at me, I’m now recognized by the President of the United States.

Perhaps Bush forgot all the times that he sat down and had his picture taken with leaders of questionable human rights credentials:

bushpicwole.gif

Think Progress » Bush Condemns Leaders Who ‘Sit Down At The Table’ And ‘Have Pictures Taken’ With ‘Tyrants’

 

Bush urges Turks to end offensive in Iraq quickly - Yahoo! News

“The Turks need to move, move quickly, achieve their objective and get out,” Bush told a White House news conference. …

Turkey’s military General Staff General Yasar Buyukanit was quoted by Turkish television as saying: “A short time is a relative concept, it could be one day or one year.”

Bush urges Turks to end offensive in Iraq quickly - Yahoo! News

‘U.S. solutions should not be imposed on African leaders,’

Bush told Bob Geldof in a new Time interview. Geldof noted that if the President happened to apply this thought to Iraq, it “would have profound implications on the man’s understanding of how the world functions.” During the interview, Bush also insisted, “I think history will prove me right,” regarding his efforts to rid the world of “tyranny.”

Think Progress » ‘U.S. solutions should not be imposed on African leaders,’


Repugnant Republicans

Fri 02/29/08 at 3:08 pm

Read Dennis Domrzalski’s piece on strong arm tactics Republicans use on their own. peace, mjh

Joe Carraro and others say they were threatened with smear jobs if they challenged Darren White for CD 1
Janice Arnold-Jones and Mark Boitano were told to forget running for Heather Wilson’s seat
Arnold-Jones is stunned by Republican smear tactics

The New Mexico Attorney General’s Office is checking out allegations that state Sen. Joe Carraro, an Albuquerque Republican, was threatened with a vicious smear campaign—including threats bring up and 20-year-divorce case and attempts to embarrass his children—if he went through with his decision to seek his party’s nomination for the First Congressional District seat.

The AG’s office is analyzing information to see if it warrants a full-blown investigation, said office spokesman Phil Sisneros. …

Carraro, who says the threats amount to extortion, has also taken the allegations to the FBI. He says the feds should be involved because some of the threats involved a former state Republican Party official who now works in Texas.

“These people should be in jail the way they’re threatening people,” Carraro said.

Carraro, who is running for the congressional seat being vacated by Heather Wilson, isn’t the only one who said they were threatened by Republican Party insiders. …

“They threaten to spread rumors and all kinds of things. It’s smear tactics,” Carraro said.

Arnold-Jones said that she went to state Republican Party Chairman Alan Weh last October when she was considering a run for Wilson’s seat. She said Weh told her she should forget the run because she’d never be able to raise the necessary money. She also said she was told that the party had already decided that White was the party’s candidate.

“The Republican Party first started telling me that I couldn’t raise any money,” Arnold-Jones said. “Then there were veiled threats and phone calls to my daughter. I was told that if I pursued this they would go after my daughter. [mjh: WTF?]

“My daughter is at the university. She is young, 20-years-old, and pretty conservative, but not nearly conservative enough. I did get an e-mail that was apparently cut and pasted from somebody else’s e-mail, and it said that they wanted the chairman to explain why I was tearing the Republican Party apart and that if he didn’t control me I would have primary opposition. I was stunned.”

Arnold-Jones said she got five phone calls during the period urging her not to run. She met once with White, who also urged her not to get into the race.

“One phone call said that Darren was a formidable opponent and that it would go badly for me if I pursued this,” Arnold-Jones said. “There was a face-to-face conversation with someone who said that they would go after my daughter.”

Arnold-Jones did not name the people who allegedly threatened her.

f-brilliant: Republican Party Smear Jobs

[hat tip to Democracy for New Mexico]


Lenient Conservatives? That puts the oxy in moron.

Thu 02/28/08 at 11:58 am

Remember when conservatives lambasted lenient liberal judges? Remember when conservative rage over judicial judgment  lead to mandatory sentencing? Get tough on crime! Do the crime, do the time! Three strikes and you’re out!

Let us also remember when conservatives preached about personal responsibility. And their endless fear over society devolving into chaos.

We need to remind ourselves of these conservative values because conservatives themselves can’t recall them. (Studies do indicate that living in constant fear does affect memory.) Case in point: Conservative objections to a murderer being sentenced to two whole years in prison. Gasp, the horror, the injustice!

It seems that it is better than OK — it’s laudable — to chase someone down the street and kill them on the *suspicion* that they broke into your car. Hell, it’s in the bible, right? That’s why we have guns, right? Well, as long as you’re white and a family-values poster child.

peace,
mjh


The Name Game

Thu 02/28/08 at 11:46 am

My name is Mark Justice Hinton and I support Barack Hussein Obama for president. There are things I admire about Hillary Rodham Clinton, wife of William Jefferson Clinton, and a couple of things I don’t like about her. Still, we can all — including countless Independents and Republicans — celebrate the inevitable end to the reign of terror of George Duhbya Bush. (The duhbya stands for dumbass.)

What’s in a name? Are you embarrassed by your name? Has anyone abused you about your name since the third grade? If so, odds are that person was quite an idiot, possibly a bully. (Let me take this opportunity to apologize to John Dimdahl and Lush Limbaugh for anything I may have said to hurt them. I may be a hypocrite, but I’m no idiot nor bully.)

Everybody better get used to Obama’s full name. It’s going in the history books and it will be in the media every day for at least another four years, maybe eight. Like it or not.

I appreciate the sentiment John McCain expressed regarding treating one’s adversaries with respect. However, I don’t believe the childish prattle of his former supporter warrants censorship. Go ahead: Make an ass of yourself mocking Obama. It’s the essence of impotence.

While Big Mac was being so noble, someone should have asked why he didn’t rebuke the woman at one of his townhall meetings who asked “what are we going to do about the bitch?” Instead of rebuking her, he joined the laughter. That’s respect?

 

A supporter of Ariz. Sen. John McCain repeatedly used Barack Obama’s middle name, Hussein, while ridiculing him as a terrorist sympathizer in an introductory speech for McCain at a rally here this morning.

Immediately afterward, former Ohio congressman and former Bush administration official Rob Portman praised the supporter, talk show host Bill Cunningham, as an “extremely important” part of the McCain campaign.
Cunningham, who is known locally for his right-wing, fiery rhetoric on the radio, challenged the media to “stop taking sides and begin covering Barack Hussein Obama” as they do Republicans.
He used Obama’s middle name two more times and referred to him as “a hack, Chicago-style Daley politician who’s picturing himself as change. When he gets done with you, all you’re going to have in your pocket is change.”
He then mocked foreign policy statements of “Barack Hussein Obama,” calling him the “fraud from Chicago” and saying that if Obama were to be elected president he would meet with the leaders of enemy nations. He said the “world leaders who want to kill us” will be “singing Kumbaya together around the table with Barack Obama.”
Later in his comments, he said there is a big difference between Secretaries of State “Condoleezza Rice and Madeleine Albright, who looks like death warmed over. I think there’s a difference between Condi and Madeleine. “
He also referred to former Gen. Wesley Clark as a “Clinonista.”
McCain did not mention Cunningham’s comments in his speech to the enthusiastic crowd. But afterward, in comments to reporters, McCain apologized profusely for “any disparaging remarks” made about his Democratic rivals.
“Whatever suggestion was made that was in any way disparaging to the integrity, character, honesty of either Sen. Obama or Sen. Clinton was wrong and I condemn it,” McCain said. “I will take responsibility and I apologize for it.”

Pressed by reporters, McCain said he will “make sure nothing like that ever happens again” and said “I absolutely repudiate such comments.”

A spokesman for Obama said that “We appreciate Senator McCain’s remarks. It is a sign that if there is a McCain-Obama general election, it can be intensely competitive but the candidates will attempt to keep it respectful and focused on issues,” said Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton.
Portman said after McCain’s speech that Cunninghams is “often controversial” and that it did not surprise him that Cunningham would have made news with his comments at the rally.
But on stage earlier, Portman was effusive about Cunningham’s speech. “Willie, you’re out of control again. So, what else is new? But we love him,” Portman told the crowd. “But I’ve got to tell you, Bill Cunningham lending his voice to this campaign is extremely important.”
The sarcastic speech by Cunningham followed comments by another supporter, a local prosecutor from the Cincinnati area, who mocked Obama’s lack of military service and his message of optimism.
Joe Deters called Obama the “presumptive Democratic candidate” and predicted that Obama’s success will quickly fade as people see through his rhetoric.
He said that will happen “after the vortex of love for this candidate stops — and I feel so badly for the Clintons about this, don’t you? — and everybody sobers up and says what does this guy really stand for?”
Deters whipped up the audience of about 400 by accusing Obama of supporting policies that Republicans hate.
“How about raising your taxes? How about that?” Deters said, prompting loud “boos” from the crowd.
“How about universal health care?”
More boos.
“How about the Democrats fighting with each other on how quickly they will surrender to the terrorists in Iraq?”
More boos.
Deters then questioned Obama’s lack of military experience. He cited McCain’s well-known history of having spent five years in a Vietnamese prison cell and having two sons serving “in uniform,” and then accused Obama of having never risked anything.
“The only thing he has ever risked was a filing fee for reelection,” Deters said. “That’s the only thing he ever risked.”

McCain Supporter Disparages Obama; McCain Apologizes | The Trail | washingtonpost.com


Obama on Israel

Wed 02/27/08 at 11:20 pm

Barack Obama: Good for the Jews. Tim Russert: Bad for the Jews. And for America. « The Edge of the American West

In fact, on Sunday Obama talked about some of those issues with machers in the Cleveland Jewish community. Which, if you don’t know, is a surprisingly large and very active community (check the previous link for some details), notable for giving enormous amounts of money to various causes, both Jewish and not. It’s also an important part of the Democratic machine in Northeast Ohio. Which is the bedrock of the Democratic machine in Ohio more broadly. Which, if you look at recent elections — up to the 2006 midterms and governor’s race — is a machine that’s been in very bad repair. Regardless, Jews matter in Ohio Democratic politics. So Obama went to talk to them last Sunday. And he had some interesting things to say. [mjh: Read the rest…]

Barack Obama: Good for the Jews. Tim Russert: Bad for the Jews. And for America. « The Edge of the American West


Think Progress » McCain Rated As America’s Worst Senator For Children

Wed 02/27/08 at 5:47 pm

 

McCain Rated As America’s Worst Senator For Children

mccain3332.JPGToday, the Children’s Defense Fund Action Council released its 2007 Nonpartisan Congressional Scorecard. CDF reports some positive news, particularly that average scores for members of Congress “improved from the previous three years with more Members scoring 100 percent than in 2004, 2005 or 2006.”

Many, however, did not fare so well. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) received a 10 percent rating — the worst in the U.S. Senate. …

McCain has missed 57 percent of Senate votes this session, being absent or voting “present” for 8 out of 10 children-related votes. …

McCain’s CDF score has steadily declined over the years. In 2004, he received a 38 percent; in 2005, 22 percent; in 2006, 10 percent.

Think Progress » McCain Rated As America’s Worst Senator For Children


Holy Cal!

Wed 02/27/08 at 10:13 am

Cal Thomas’ website has been revamped and I don’t know what to think about the graphic below (compare it with the graphic at the top of this page).

More importantly, I visited Calcified Cal’s site looking for his latest column in which he excoriates senseless captialism, even as he continues to love Republicanism and loathe Democrats. Talk about disconnects. That’s almost as looney as Duhbya’s belief that Republicans will sweep the House, Senate and Whitehouse in the fall. Guffaw, snort, haw-haw, ROFLOL! Wait, a minute — maybe Diebold will make that happen. peace, mjh

image 

Cal Thomas Official Web Site - ECONOMIC WOES

Some of the lust for bigger and better is human nature, but a lot is the result of consumerism. The Timex watch is no longer enough. We now must have a Rolex, though both accurately tell time. The adequate low-end automobile is insufficient. We must trade up to a luxury car with numbers and letters on the rear that mean nothing, but convey “status.” And the house we are living in, which would have been more than adequate for our parents and certainly our grandparents, must be upgraded to larger digs in order to impress, if not growing families, than enlarged egos. [mjh: I think that should be ‘then’.]

When none of this brings the promised happiness and fulfillment, we turn to drink, or pills, or counselors, or divorce court and seek significance in new things and relationships on what quickly becomes a personal boulevard of broken dreams. …

When wants and needs are confused, desires become entitlements and politicians are afraid to tell people what they need to hear. Instead they tell them what they want to hear. Anger and envy result, as well as frustration with a political system that was not designed to indulge its citizens in their lusts or subsidize their greed.

Who will tell us that unending and expanding prosperity with home values constantly rising and a citizenry always able to afford them is a fantasy that is bound to end in heartache for those who buy into it?

The economy isn’t bad. We are bad for believing that more is better and the most is best. We have an abundance of things, but a deficit of character. The economy is a false god, a golden calf. When this false god doesn’t deliver, we complain to politicians who are happy to accept our faith in them to give us what we want — if we will only pledge to them our allegiance at election time.


Just Eleven More Months

Tue 02/26/08 at 5:44 pm

Speaking before the Republican Governors Association yesterday, President Bush took a moment to predict the future, claiming Americans will ultimately be thankful for his foreign policy decisions:

I believe 50 years from now, people will look back at this period of time, and say, thank God the United States of America did not lose its faith in the transformative power of liberty to bring the peace we want for our children and our grandchildren.

The notion of the public thanking the almighty for Iraq is becoming increasingly popular with Bush cronies. Karl Rove said last week, “I think that people will look back at the Iraq war and say ‘Thank God, he [Bush] had the courage to do what he did.’”

Think Progress » Bush: America will ‘thank God’ for Iraq in 50 years.


Fear Mongers

Tue 02/26/08 at 2:05 pm

Who profits from your fear? peace, mjh

Wash. Times baselessly claims ‘military’ fears Obama.

The Washington Times ran a front page article today headlined “Military fears ‘unknown quantity,’” attacking Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-IL) “commander-in-chief qualifications.” The Times’s only sources for those in the “military” who fear Obama, however, include a “retired Air Force Lieutenant General who doubles as a Fox News analyst,” a unnamed “senior Pentagon official,” and a defense “industry executive“:

“We’re very concerned about his apparent lack of understanding on the threat of radical Islam to the United States,” said retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Thomas McInerney, who is pro-Iraq war and a Fox News analyst. “A lot of retired senior officers feel the same way.”[…]

A senior Pentagon official said an Obama swearing-in “will give the Arab street the final victory, the best optics, and the ultimate in bragging rights. They win. We lose.” […]

“We’ve got some trepidation. There is no track record,” said an industry executive of the first-term senator. “He’s an unknown quantity and that scares us a little bit.”

TPM’s Greg Sargent asks: “Is it really possible that such gutter journalism tactics would be signed off on by such a great journalist, as Beltway types keep calling [John] Solomon?

Think Progress » Wash. Times baselessly claims ‘military’ fears Obama.


THAT’S What I’ve Been Waiting For

Mon 02/25/08 at 12:54 pm

Finally, some real blood on the floor between Wilson and Pearce. Bring it on! (peace,) mjh 

[From Heath Haussamen’s excellent blog:]

Heather Wilson is attacking Steve Pearce for claiming on Saturday that England is a bigger exporter of Islamic terrorists than any country in the Middle East.

It’s the latest spat in what has become a contentious GOP U.S. Senate primary.

“We must have a moral standard in this country. We cannot be a moral vacuum,” Pearce said at the Valencia County GOP convention on Saturday. “If we try to do that I will guarantee that the same thing will happen to us that happened in England. They export more radical Islamic terrorists today than any country in the Middle East. It’s because they said, ‘We can live in a moral vacuum.’” [mjh: Great Britain could not be reached to confirm this quote.]

You can listen to Pearce’s full speech by clicking here.

Wilson called on Pearce to justify his remarks or apologize to America’s closest ally in the war on terror.

“A U.S. senator can’t afford to offend our closest ally, particularly when he is wrong on the facts. Senators – and people who want to be senators – should not say irresponsible things like this,” Wilson said. “…Great Britain and the United States have had an unwavering, special relationship since World War II. We have a closer relationship with Britain than with any other ally in the War on Terror. To claim that Britain ‘exports’ more terrorists than the long list of countries that actively support and fund terrorism is incorrect and offensive.”

Heath Haussamen on New Mexico Politics: Wilson attacks Pearce for comments about England


Rasmussen Poll Shows Obama, McCain Tied; McCain 12 Points Up on Clinton

Mon 02/25/08 at 10:42 am

New Mexico FBIHOP:

The latest New Mexico general election Rasmussen Poll shows Barack Obama and John McCain tied.  Hillary Clinton trails McCain by double digits.

Barack Obama: 44%
John McCain: 44%
Undecided: 12%

Hillary Clinton: 38%
John McCain: 50%
Undecided: 12%

This poll is in stark contrast to the recent SurveyUSA polling which showed Obama and Hillary Clinton both leading John McCain.  This one paints a picture more like the past two Presidential elections (if Obama is the nominee) with an extremely tight race.

There are, however, a much higher percentage of undecided voters in the Rasmussen poll than the SurveyUSA polls.

New Mexico FBIHOP:: Rasmussen Poll Shows Obama, McCain Tied; McCain 12 Points Up on Clinton


Things McCain can do when running against Obama that Clinton has been unable to do well or at all

Mon 02/25/08 at 10:39 am

The McCain campaign is staffed with savvy, experienced operatives who have closely watched the rise of Obama, and they have learned from Clinton’s failure to take down her Democratic rival.

Things McCain can do when running against Obama that Clinton has been unable to do well or at all …[follow the link] The Page - by Mark Halperin - TIME


Obama Wins Global Primary - TIME

Sun 02/24/08 at 5:30 am

Obama Wins Global Primary - TIME 

More than 20,000 U.S. citizens living abroad voted in the primary, which ran from Feb. 5 to Feb. 12. Obama won about 65 percent of the vote, according to results released by the Democrats Abroad, an organization sanctioned by the national party.

Voters living in 164 countries cast votes online, while expatriates voted in person in more than 30 countries, at hotels in Australia and Costa Rica, at a pub in Ireland and at a Starbucks in Thailand. The results took about a week to tabulate as local committees around the globe gathered ballots.

Obama Wins Global Primary - TIME


Obama’s Substance

Sun 02/24/08 at 5:20 am

Much more at this link on Obama’s substance.

Obsidian Wings: Obama: Actually, I Think We Can

I’ll say something about the peculiar idea that Barack Obama is all style and no substance.

I came to Obama by an unusual route: as I explained here,
I follow some issues pretty closely, and over and over again, Barack
Obama kept popping up, doing really good substantive things. There he
was, working for nuclear non-proliferation and securing loose stockpiles of conventional weapons, like shoulder-fired missiles. There he was again, passing what the Washington Post called
“the strongest ethics legislation to emerge from Congress yet” –
though not as strong as Obama would have liked. Look — he’s over
there, passing a bill that created a searchable database of recipients of federal contracts and grants, proposing legislation on avian flu back when most people hadn’t even heard of it, working
to make sure that soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan were
screened for traumatic brain injury and to prevent homelessness among
veterans, successfully fighting a proposal by the VA to reexamine all PTSD cases in which full benefits had been awarded, working to ban no-bid contracts in Katrina reconstruction, and introducing legislation to criminalize deceptive political tactics and voter intimidation. And there he was again, introducing a tech plan of which Lawrence Lessig wrote:

“Obama has committed himself to a technology policy for
government that could radically change how government works. The small
part of that is simple efficiency — the appointment with broad power
of a CTO for the government, making the insanely backwards technology
systems of government actually work. …”


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