Thursday, August 7, 2008

Forehead Based L Of Shame

(h/t Booman)

The guys running MoveOn.Org? Not too bright at times.


A Democratic congressional candidate in Texas is telling MoveOn.org thanks but no thanks after the group bought radio ads to aid his candidacy.

Businessman Michael Skelly (D) is a well-funded long shot against Rep. John Culberson (R-Texas) in the incumbent’s Houston-area district. The district voted 64 percent for President Bush in 2004, and the ads could do more harm than good by linking the challenger to the liberal group.

MoveOn bought ads in Culberson’s and five other districts. The spots focus on opposition to offshore drilling for oil.

Skelly, who has called for lifting the ban on offshore drilling, says in the release that it is “time for MoveOn to move out of Texas.”

“MoveOn’s opposition to drilling is 100 percent wrong, and so is John Culberson’s opposition to investment in renewable energy,” Skelly said. “We need a balanced solution to our energy challenges that includes both drilling for domestic oil and investment in renewables. We have to do it all.”

Here's a thought, guys. A "Chamber of Commerce" Democrat running in a red coastal district in Texas is probably not going to be running on a platform of opposition to offshore drilling, m'kay?

You coulda talked to him, maybe? Like, getting to know the candidate instead of mindless party obedience like the other side has been doing for the last generation? Not all Republicans are 100% evil, and not all Democrats are heroes. Both sides have serious problems, and MoveOn.Org style political hackery is one of them.

Whether or not you agree with offshore drilling, MoveOn.Org running the Skelly ad behind the guy's back like that just makes them look like a bunch of amatuers.

EPIC FAIL.

Checkbook Politics

Digby has a pretty good theory on why people who believe the economy is the issue this election would vote McSame.

I belong to a non-political website that includes women across the country from all economic strata, educational backgrounds and ages. Those who are working class and young as well as retirees are starting to talk, non-stop, about the economy, specifically prices. These aren't political people, as I said. Indeed, they don't even frame these discussions in political terms. They just comment on how hard it's getting for them to adequately feed their families, budgets are tight, they are cutting back. They ask for advice on how to make their dollars stretch and complain that they can't give their kids what they want. The pinch is very real.

McCain is smart to focus on that particular group, if that's what he's doing, because they are really looking for help. The fact that he's the last man on the planet to give it to them isn't relevant. If he's speaking to them and they feel they can trust him they may just vote for him. All they know is that they are having a hard time making ends meet and the details are probably less important than the idea that he knows they are hurting and promises to help.


As I said yesterday, Obama needs to focus on those people who think the economy is THE issue -- nearly half of us at last count -- and especially the ones in this group that despite 8 years of Bushenomics would still trust McSame on grocery store issues. These are folks who are having real problems, and they need that Obama hope.

This ties directly into the GOP effort to paint Obama as That Odd Mulatto Arugula-Eating Gentleman, and McSame as Grandpa Helpful. It's a good strategy on McSame's part. It's not really working because McSame is terribad at faking being a normie family dude being a septuagenarian crackpot with a volcanic temper and millionaire heiress wifebot, but that's not the point.

The point is Obama should be out there doing this right. For the most part he is. But he needs to be tossing on the Grill Sergeant apron and tossing out cheddar brats with Larry from Sales, ya dig? Obama's got the big picture stuff down, now it's details.

Safety Dance

Over at CounterPunch (and if you don't read it regularly, you should) Paul Craig Roberts explains what the Hamdan verdict means to you and me.

Hamdan was not defended by the slick lawyers that got O.J. Simpson off, and he most certainly did not have a jury of his peers. Hamdan was defended by a Pentagon appointed US Navy officer, and his jurors were all Pentagon appointed US military officers with an eye on their careers. Even in this Kangaroo Court, Hamdan was cleared of the main charge.

The US Navy officer who was Hamdan’s appointed attorney is certainly no terrorist sympathizer. Yet even this United States officer said that the rules Bush designed for the military tribunals were designed to achieve convictions. He also said that the judge allowed evidence that would not have been admitted by any civilian or military US court. He said that the interrogations of Hamdan, which comprised the basis of the Bush Regime’s case, were tainted by coercive tactics, including sleep deprivation and solitary confinement.

Does this make you a proud American?

No. It doesn't. Not in the least. Hamdan got less time (4 1/2 years) than he's already served (61 months), with a stacked deck and the full power of the US Gubment behind the trial. And they still couldn't put him away forever by their own rules.

Epic Fail.


And We Have A Winner!

For those of you who had 8/7/08 in your office "When will some crazy asshole get busted for threatening to kill Obama now that he's the nominee" pool, collect your winnings.

Raymond Hunter Geisel, 22, was arrested by the Secret Service on Saturday in Miami and was ordered held at Miami's downtown detention center without bail Thursday by a federal magistrate.

A Secret Service affidavit charges that Geisel made the threat during a training class for bail bondsmen in Miami in late July. According to someone else in the 48-member class, Geisel allegedly referred to Obama with a racial epithet and continued, "If he gets elected, I'll assassinate him myself."

Five'll get you six that this guy becomes a hero of the Right Wing because his freedom of speech was curtailed by the Secret Service (even though wiretapping all of America is perfectly acceptable) and how it's just unfortunate that Libruls are overreacting to this non-event, and that we should really just leave him alone.

I mean it's not like this'll happen again, right?

You've Got Questions, Zandar's Got Snark.

Jennifer Rubin asks Does McCain Have a Chance in an Election About the Economy?

He stands about as much chance as a sausage link at a dog show. But that doesn't stop her from wasting many, many words when"Well, maybe if political reality suspends itself" would suffice.

Zandar Eats Something

Heya. Every now and again I like to post something about where I live here in the Cincy area, and today it's where to eat if you happen to be here.

My first suggestion? Buffalo Bob's Family Restaurant.

Yeah, I know it sounds tacky. Go there anyway, because they have kickass burgers, waffle fries with cheese and bacon, and 35 cent wings on Tuesdays.

They just opened up a new location in Hebron one exit down from the Airport (Exit 5) on 275.

Dude. Waffle Fries with cheese and bacon. Hell yeah.

Dow Tanks...

223 point drop. Wasn't the bear market over 2 weeks ago with oil dropping, or was it...(lightning, scary fuggin organ music) DEAD CAT BOUNCE!

McSame Iraqs His Brain

EPIC FAIL.

Bush just cost McSame the election. Again. Well, if McSame had a chance, which he does, but that chance just fell down an elevator shaft and onto a crate of nitroglycerin and ebola.

An Iraqi politician said Thursday that the Iraqi and U.S. governments are close to reaching a deal under which combat troops would leave Iraq by December 2010 and other troops would leave by the end of the next year.

Haider Al-Ababdi, a Shiite parliament member from Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's Dawa Party, also told CNN that U.S. troops would leave Iraq's cities to remain inside their bases by June 30, 2009, under the deal.

He said the two governments had been close to reaching deal for about a week.

Obama's plan does the same in five months less.

McSame just got hung out to dry by Bush trying to salvage a legacy beyond any hope of rehabilitation. I love it. How's McSame going to explain this one away when he keeps saying stupid stuff like this on Iraq just today?

Republican presidential candidate John McCain is accusing his Democratic rival, Barack Obama, of wanting to forfeit the war in Iraq in spite of gains there.

PSST. Hey John! The Iraqis are forfeiting too!

And the loser is you.

Paki-Stunned

Looks like Pervez Musharraf is facing impeachment.

Pakistan’s usually fractious coalition government moved decisively for the first time on Thursday to impeach President Pervez Musharraf, who has been an important American ally in the campaign against terror but who has largely been pushed to the sidelines since his party lost elections in February.

“It has become imperative to move for impeachment against General Musharraf,” said Asif Ali Zardari, the head of the Pakistan Peoples Party, sitting beside Nawaz Sharif, the leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-N, at a noisy news conference.

The two, leaders of the main parties in the governing coalition, have barely been on speaking terms in recent weeks, but they joined together in saying that Mr. Musharraf would be required to face a vote of confidence in the National Assembly.

By calling for the vote, they were essentially giving the president an opportunity to step down gracefully before having to confront impeachment proceedings.

As president, Mr. Musharraf — who seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999 — still has the constitutional power to fight back against the impeachment by dismissing Parliament.

But to do so he needs the agreement of the army, said Tariq Azim Khan, a former minister of information in Mr. Musharraf’s government and an ally of the president.

In an indication of the gravity of threat against him, Mr. Musharraf canceled Thursday his planned trip to Beijing to attend the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.

The sudden cohesion of the coalition and the decision to try to remove Mr. Musharraf comes against the backdrop of a serious economic crisis in the country, a surging Taliban insurgency and popular sentiment that the four-month-old government has failed to deal with the urgent problems facing the country.

It appeared that the two leaders found that the only way they could keep the coalition intact was to attack Mr. Musharraf, something Mr. Zardari had been reluctant to do.


Get that? The only way to keep the ruling coalition of a nuclear Muslim country from plunging into chaos is to plunge the country into chaos by impeaching the President.

Yet another benefit of Bush foreign policy.

PS, at least Pakistanis have the balls to impeach their criminal Presidents. We lag behind the rest of the world once again.

More White Powder Snow Job

John Amato over at Crooks And Liars is also calling bullshit on the Bruce Ivins case.


Did you watch the press conference yesterday? It absolutely made no sense. The feebs made it sound like there were millions of people that could have had access to anthrax. When they were asked why it took so many years to come up with Army scientist Bruce Ivins—they looked to the universe.

Q:When did you get around to him as a suspect from March 31st in 2005?

A: It’s important to remember how complex and complicated this investigation was. At the outset we had to identify the universe of persons and labs that might have access to this type of anthrax. Once we identified what type of anthrax it was, then over the years there were efforts to shrink the size of the pool…

What the hell is he talking about? I’d say the FBI was drowning in a pool of lies. Are there 8 million people and labs to check out to see who actually had anthrax? I want to see the FBI logs on this case. The day to day activity. Really, there needs to be a full investigation of this. How many hours did they spend on this case? What did they know and when did they know it? Ivins was actually helping the FBI with their own case! It’s right out a serial killer novel. I’ll have more later. There are so many layers to this story.

I'm hoping that the liberal blogosphere can be instrumental in keeping this story alive, because what really happened with Bruce Ivins may at heart be the most important threat to our democracy since Watergate.

We went to war with Iraq based on the Anthrax case. For seven years, we were lied to. Now we have been lied to again. Nothing about this case passes the smell test. Arguably the most important domestic terror attack in this country, one used to justify a war with Iraq because it was viewed as an external attack and not an internal one, and it took seven years to track down this guy?

It stinks. The FBI is lying. That press conference was insulting. We know why too, to protect Bush. This one goes to the top.

Let's follow it.

Just Give Me A Second To Lock It Down, We're Fine


So, the US Navy admitted today that the Los Angeles class nookular sub, the USS Houston, has been leaking radioactive water for the LAST TWO YEARS.



You and the Navy. Full speed ahead!

McSame Cuts The Astroturf

Every now and then, McSame's boys just dispose of the bullshit...to create new and excitingly different bullshit. Ezra Klein checks out the goods.


The Washington Post reports that the McCain campaign is offering its supporters "points" -- redeemable for awesome McCain-themed prizes! -- if they go and spread the campaign's message on message boards, blog comment sections, web sites, and anywhere else that free expression is tolerated. Of course, this isn't a new tactic. As the Post notes, "the Chinese government has paid Chinese citizens token sums for each favorable comment about government policies they post in chat rooms and on blogs." Country first, indeed.

Meanwhile, if you'd like to become part of the McCain action team, go here for some suggested blogs to spam and today's talking points. Did you know, for instance, that "John McCain has a comprehensive economic plan that will create millions of good American jobs, ensure our nation's energy security, get the government's budget and spending practices in order, and bring relief to American consumers?" And be careful! "The web, blog and news sites listed here are a sample of political sites that you may post comments on. The content of these sites is not controlled by the McCain campaign and may contain offensive material. Please use your discretion in visiting these sites."

The question is should taking a few cans of Krylon to the comment section of these places help or hurt McSame? They're just daring us to do it after all.

Oooh oooh maybe I can get ZVTS on the McSame Action Team Blog List!

Naah, that reeks of effort.

Mayor? May Not.

Embattled Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick violated his bond to go over next door to Ontario to talk to some Canadians about a business deal. Judge said "Hey, that's a violation of your bond, you skipped the country. Go directly to jail."

It's bad enough the guy almost cost his mom her seat in Congress. Granted, Detroit politics are pretty swampy at times, but this is really just moronic. You're in enough trouble already. First rule of hole management is to stop digging. The second rule is not to leave hole one and dig a second hole.

Please don the Forehead-Based L Of Shame, Kwame.

Do It Faster, Makes Us Stronger

Weekly jobless claims at a six year high of 455,000.

It's only going to get worse, folks. Too many dominoes have fallen for the US to just pick up and go on like normal. Next year will be horrendous.

Disconnect

"America stands in firm opposition to China's detention of political dissidents, human rights advocates and religious activists. We speak out for a free press, freedom of assembly and labor rights -- not to antagonize China's leaders, but because trusting its people with greater freedom is the only way for China to develop its full potential."
--George Bush, 8/6/08, on China

"Even if he were acquitted of the charges that are before him, he would still be considered an enemy combatant and therefore would continue to be subject to continued detention."
--Pentagon Spokesman Jeff Morell, 8/5/08 on the Hamdan Tribunal

America. Land of the Free, Home of the Brave.


StupidiNews!

Here's the StupidiNews for Thursday.
  • Brett Farve is a Jet. Already, the Joe "Willie" Namath stuff begins. PS...still the Jets. I think the NY QB he should be compared to is Vinnie.
  • Huge drug ring bust for Oxycontin in Miami. Bus drivers, County workers, trash dudes, it was a massive ring, 62 people nabbed. No mention if El Rushbo was a client.
  • Our strategerificationary position on Iran's nookular program is Operation Good Cop, Bad Cop.
  • Remember that cease fire deal the Pakistani government had with those tribal rebels that may or may not be hiding Bin Laden? Yeah, that's going real well.
  • Those last two items and a a Turkish pipeline problem mean oil is back over $120 a barrel.

Hillary R. Clinton, Will You Please Go Now?!?

Not likely. The Village says she's playing hardball with her convention role.

Sources close to both Obama and Clinton told ABC News that the New York senator is highly unlikely to allow her name to be formally submitted for a roll-call vote on the convention floor. The Obama campaign wants to avoid such a vote, since it would underscore the party's splits and remind voters of the divisive primary campaign between the two Democrats.

The refusal to publicly announce her intentions is widely seen as a bargaining chip Clinton is holding on to as party officials negotiate logistics regarding her convention speech and other activities, according to several Democrats who are closely involved in the matter.

Clinton plans to hold a Web chat with supporters Thursday afternoon where she might clarify her convention role. In announcing the Web chat, she urged her supporters to continue to stay tuned to her Web site for updates about her convention activities.

But the very fact that details of her convention role remain unresolved less than three weeks before the Democrats descend upon Denver is a fresh sign of the difficulties the party will face at a convention when nearly half the delegates were chosen because of their support for a candidate who will not be the nominee.

History provides little guidance: In the modern convention era, the delegate count for the two leading candidates has never been this close.

Lanny Davis, a longtime friend and supporter of the Clintons, called the idea of putting Clinton's name into nomination a "completely idiotic idea that leads to nothing but party disharmony."

Still, the fact that some Clinton supporters are clamoring for a chance to vote for her at the convention is partly Obama's fault, he said. Davis, who described himself as "100 percent behind Obama" in the general election, said Obama should be doing more -- in symbolic and substantive gestures -- to make clear he values and needs the support of former Clinton supporters.

"It's a reflection of genuine frustration by Hillary Clinton supporters that Sen. Obama seems to have forgotten about 18 million voters," Davis said. "My concern about Sen. Obama is he doesn't recognize that the outreach to the Clinton grass roots has to be more visible, more overt, as well as more symbolic."

The two camps have worked cooperatively on a draft of the party platform, and Clinton is set to hit the campaign trail for Obama on Friday, appearing by herself at an Obama event in Nevada.

The campaigns also issued a joint statement late today, reiterating that there is no division.

"We are working together to make sure the fall campaign and the convention are a success," the joint statement said. "At the Democratic Convention, we will ensure that the voices of everyone who participated in this historic process are respected and our party will be fully unified heading into the November election."

If this is an effort to satisfy Clintonistas and get them behind Obama, that's one thing. But the Clintonistas aren't behind Obama. They're behind Hillary. And crap like this doesn't help at all. Remember the goal and the implied threat here: Only Hillary Clinton can be Obama's Veep, or 18 million voters will walk...honestly, how many Obama supporters would abandon him for McCain because of Hillary? As long as that number is less than 18 million, Hillary must be his VP.

Hillary could have stopped this at any point by saying "I have decided that the best possible thing I could do for my party right now is not to pursue being Obama's running mate." That's it. What really sticks in my craw is the fact that the one person who could put an end to all this won't do anything about it. Instead she's telling Obama to kiss her ring, or she goes nuclear.

The message here is pretty clear. Hillary for VP or bust. And now that I think about it, Obama himself could end this by saying "No, Hillary is not on our list" and then Clinton would have to decide whether or not that party unity line she keeps spouting is the truth or not.

I reject Hillary as a Veep based on her record: For the Iraq War, for torture, against FISA, and very much for going after Iran. Obama has enough of a Bush Enabler Problem since this June, Hillary on the ticket would be a disaster. It's not like she would deliver red states, and she would just double down on the GOP talking point weaknesses. The wingnut conspiracy theories of them killing everybody and establishing a New World Order would be insane. "Vince Foster was killed because he secretly was in love with Reverend Wright!"

We need somebody as Veep that would reinforce Obama's message of change. Hillary Clinton has her strengths, certainly. 18 million primary voters is nothing to sneeze at. But honestly, what does she bring to the ticket other than turmoil?