I Have Issues (A Political Blog)
Coverage and opinion of political and social issues, as well as commentary on local, state and world news and coverage of the ongoing 2008 political campaign.
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Mountaintop removal to increase?
Using another British paper today.
The Guardian reports that Virginia will host a new power plant by the number two utility in America.
The move almost certainly will increase Virginia's use of the mining practice known as mountaintop removal, in which peaks are sheared off to reach the coal inside.
Mountains near Kayford, W.Va., seen in this Jan. 2, 2000 file photo, show how mountaintop removal mining has flattened many mountain peaks. File photo/The Associated Press
From the Independent (You know, that UK paper we have to read to get the news because, these days, most U.S. newspapers aren't worth the paper they're printed on:
The disappearance of the Arctic sea ice, making it possible to reach the Pole sailing in a boat through open water, would be one of the most dramatic – and worrying – examples of the impact of global warming on the planet. Scientists say the ice at 90 degrees north may well have melted away by the summer.
"From the viewpoint of science, the North Pole is just another point on the globe, but symbolically it is hugely important. There is supposed to be ice at the North Pole, not open water," said Mark Serreze of the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre in Colorado.
LIMBAUGH: I want to know. I look at Iowa, I look at Illinois—I want to see the murders. I want to see the looting. I want to see all the stuff that happened in New Orleans. I see devastation in Iowa and Illinois that dwarfs what happened in New Orleans. I see people working together. I see people trying to save their property…I don’t see a bunch of people running around waving guns at helicopters, I don’t see a bunch of people running shooting cops. I don’t see a bunch of people raping people on the street. I don’t see a bunch of people doing everything they can…whining and moaning—where’s FEMA, where’s BUSH. I see the heartland of America. When I look at Iowa and when I look at Illinois, I see the backbone of America.
Hardly an accurate version of what happened there and, as Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks points out, Limbaugh forgets to mention that people could not get out of New Orleans after the flooding, as opposed to Iowa.
But Limbaugh doesn't stop there - referring to the Democratic Party this week: (From Media Matters)
LIMBAUGH: The -- there's a complicated answer to this and I'm going to have answer some of it in the monologue in the next hour, but one of the simple answers that will require some elaboration is that a lot of money is coming from these kooks -- and I'm not talking about just the blacks -- I'm talking about a whole kook-fringe base because George Soros is running it --
Rush has a history of bigoted remarks, but it seems that he's going out of his way to turn up the intensity and frequency of the racist talk lately.
Gee, I wonder why he would chose this year of all times?
What could possibly cause him to want to portray to blacks in an even more negative light — more negative than his usual manner — and do so on a regular basis?
Republican presidential hopeful John McCain hasn’t voted in the Senate since April 8.
That’s when McCain and presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama joined 90 other senators in voting to limit debate on a proposal aimed at stemming the tide of home foreclosures. Two and a half months later, the Senate voted again Tuesday to limit debate on housing legislation, a new version this time (HR 3221). Neither McCain, R-Ariz., nor Obama, D-Ill., showed up for the 83-9 vote.
Sen. John McCain on Monday called for a $300 million prize to whoever can develop a battery that will "leapfrog" the abilities of current hybrid and electric cars.
Sen. John McCain wants someone to develop a battery that can "leapfrog" those available in current electric cars.
Citing high oil prices, the Republican presidential candidate said he wants his offer to "deliver a power source at 30 percent of the current costs."
Why invest in a national effort following the model of the Apollo Program and focus government research and development on solutions when you can give a massive jackpot to some guy working in his shed?
"When John F. Kennedy decided that we were going to put a man on the moon, he didn't put a bounty out for some rocket scientist to win -- he put the full resources of the United States government behind the project and called on the ingenuity and innovation of the American people," the Illinois senator said in a speech in Las Vegas. "That's the kind of effort we need to achieve energy independence in this country, and nothing less will do."
Apaprently Obama didn't pick up on the gaming spirit while he was in Vegas.
Why should McCain stop with the energy crisis?
- Why not give away a Hawaiian vacation to the person that comes up with a way out the housing crisis?
- Find a way to achieve stability in Iraq and this washer/dryer combo can be yours!
- And finally, erase our staggering national debt by offering $500 million and a lifetime supply of Cool Whip to the first American to create a working time machine!*
*Don't worry about how such a prize would add to the debt. Once we go back in time and give officials the winning Powerball numbers, happy days will be here again! (or maybe they already are - because technically if you go into the past from the future, said changes would already be in effect in the present ... I think. Time travel confuses me)
Rockefeller's "Kill the Fourth Amendment" act coming to Senate vote
Jonathan Turley was just on the radio saying that Jay has been adamant that immunity for telecommunications companies that aided the White House in warrantless wiretaps be in the bill and that it be considered by the Senate —which may happen as early as tomorrow.
My favorite senator, Russ Feingold, D- Wisconsion is pledging, along with Sen. Chris Dodd, D - Connecticut, to filibuster this cave to the Bush administration.
We will oppose efforts to end debate on this bill as long as it provides retroactive immunity for the telecommunications companies that may have participated in the President's warrantless wiretapping program, and as long as it fails to protect the privacy of law-abiding Americans.
Senate Majority leader Harry Reid says he will back Dodd and Feingold.
---
As always, the guy who knows this issue inside and out is Salon's Glenn Greenwald. He offers the most comprehensive and updated coverage.
In his latest, he takes on Democratic House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer's claim that the House Dems' cave is a "significant victory":
In other words, Democrats achieved a "significant victory" because -- by giving Republicans everything they demanded -- Republicans are no longer able to criticize Democrats on this issue. What a shrewd strategy: "if we comply with all their demands, then they can't criticize us for anything." That's the Democratic Party's plan for winning, according to Hoyer.
"'Older' sounds a little better than 'old,' doesn't it?," he said. "Sounds like it might even last a little longer. ... I'm getting old. And it's OK. Because thanks to our fear of death in this country I won't have to die, I'll 'pass away.' Or I'll 'expire,' like a magazine subscription. If it happens in the hospital they'll call it a 'terminal episode.' The insurance company will refer to it as 'negative patient care outcome.' And if it's the result of malpractice they'll say it was a 'therapeutic misadventure.'"
- While the oil companies are pushing for more drilling, the Petroleum Marketers Association of America, which represents the distribution end of the business, has launched a site Stopoilspeculators.com, offering a different solution to the gas crisis.
“I do wonder with Senator Obama, if President Bush thinks Senator Obama’s going to win, does he somehow think — does he worry that Obama won’t follow through on that policy,” Kristol added. Host Chris Wallace then asked if Kristol was suggesting that Bush might “launch a military strike” before or after the election.
Wallace then asked The Amazing Kriswell if Bush would be more likely to launch a strike if he thought Obama was going to win.
KRISTOL: I don’t know. I mean, I think he would worry about it. On the other hand, you can’t — it’s hard to make foreign policy based on guesses of election results. I think Israel is worried though. I mean, what is, what signal goes to Ahmadinejad if Obama wins on a platform of unconditional negotiations and with an obvious reluctance to even talk about using military force.
Let's pray this one's as inaccurate as Bill's other visions of the future. But seeing as how he's one of the guys Bush listened to for foriegn policy advice, this is troubling.
Politico has picked 5 places Obama and Clinton should go when they campaign together next week.
#4 is Mingo County, W.Va.
(excerpt) Mingo, like many of its neighboring counties across the border in Kentucky and nearby in Virginia, didn’t simply reject Obama. It had a visceral loathing of his candidacy — delivering just 8 percent of its vote to him, compared to Clinton’s 88 percent. Race clearly played a role in that result, so bringing the Obama-Clinton roadshow to Appalachia would be an important step toward bridging that racial gap, not to mention a sign that he is not writing off Kentucky and West Virginia just yet. The media coverage of such a politically daring and conciliatory stunt would be almost unimaginably fawning, though the out-of-the-way location would likely diminish the size of the media pack.
A study by the MediaCrit.com blog examining criticism that the TV news media's coverage of the death of Meet the Press host Tim Russert was overblown, noted that the three major networks and CNN devoted a total of 1 hour an 17 minutes to his death on the first day of news coverage on June 13 while the same outlets devoted 1 hour and 1 minute to the death of ABC's Peter Jennings in August 2005.
Jamison Foster looks at the way the media covers campaign finance for Obama and McCain. Read it here.
I have seen no indication that a single reporter has asked McCain to reconcile his criticism of Obama with his own on-again, off-again relationship with the public financing system. And precious few news reports made any mention of the matter.
Obama says he supports the horrid FISA legislation. (Though he has given some signs that he'll work to remove the amnesty provision.)
This is his first real strike with the left.
Greg Sargent at TPM sums up exactly why it's so disillusioning to his supporters:
Here's what's so dispiriting about it. One of the riveting things about Barack Obama's candidacy is that since the outset of the campaign he's seemed absolutely dead serious about changing the way foreign policy is discussed and argued about in this country.
Amy Goodman has Ralph Nader on her show this week. If Obama gives us more decisions like this, people on the left might start being more receptive to a third party candidate who says something like this:
RALPH NADER: Barack Obama really now has to be examined very carefully. He has worn out the word “change.” We now want to know what change is involved. And it’s quite clear that he is a corporate candidate from A to Z.
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
---
Scratch that one off the Bill of Rights soon, based on what the House did today.
WASHINGTON — The House Friday easily approved a compromise bill setting new electronic surveillance rules that effectively shield telecommunications companies from lawsuits arising from the government's terrorism-era warrantless eavesdropping on phone and computer lines in this country.
The bill, which was passed on a 293-129 vote, does more than just protect the telecoms. The update to the 30-year-old Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is an attempt to balance privacy rights with the government's responsibility to protect the country against attack, taking into account changes in telecommunications technologies.
Most Republicans voted for it. Lots of Democratic opposition, but enough Blue Dog/DLC/corporatist "Dems" broke ranks to pass it.
I usually have a lot of respect for Rep. Nick Rahall (due to his consistent opposition to the Iraq war from Day 1), but he voted the wrong way this time.
This moves to the Senate next, where Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-AT&T has been championing immunity for telecomunications corporations and is one of the biggest backers of this bad legislation.
On a completely unrelated note, guess who made #3 and #4 on Jay's top 5 contributors for 2003-2008, according to opensecrets.com?
My favorite of the 2006 Congressional freshmen and champion of organized labor, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown from Ohio is endorsing Obama for president. Brown had remained neutral throughout the Clinton-Obama primary fight.
----
Newsweek finds Obama has a 15-point lead over McCain in their latest poll.
A new NEWSWEEK Poll shows that he has a substantial double-digit lead, 51 percent to 36 percent, over McCain among registered voters nationwide.
In the previous NEWSWEEK Poll, completed in late May when Clinton was still fighting him hard for the Democratic nomination, Obama managed no better than a 46 percent tie with McCain.
Most pollsters up to this point have had him in the 3-7 point range.
Maybe it's a fluke or it could be the start of a larger trend of Democrats uniting now that the divisive primary race is over.
But worth noting.
Photos: Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) speaks during an appearance with the United Steelworkers International and the Sierra Club to endorse Barack Obama for president Friday, June 20, 2008, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Mark Duncan
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill. listens during a meeting of Democratic Governors, Friday, June 20,2008, at the Chicago History Museum in Chicago.(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Carnacki at WVaBlue tells us how W.Va. Rep. Capito got in on the Cheney/Hannity bit about Cuba and China drilling for oil off Florida's coast:
CHARLESTON, W.VA. - In an effort to promote industrializing the pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV-02) claimed in a newspaper op-ed column published and distributed to newspapers in West Virginia by her congressional office this week that the Chinese are "drilling for oil 30 miles from our coastline..." in Florida.
The stuff I wrote on the original myth and it's debunking is here.
The Dirty Mac, featuring John Lennon on vocals and guitar, Eric Clapton on lead guitar, Keith Richards on bass, and Mitch Mitchell on drums playing The Beatles' "Yer Blues" from the long-lost 1968 Rolling Stones film "Rock and Roll Circus."
What a way to kick off the Olympics in our totalitarian trading partner's land!
Reuters:
HONG KONG - China's grip on dissent in Tibet remains tight after deadly riots there in March, with more than 1,000 people still detained without charge, human rights group Amnesty International said in a new report on Thursday.
"Many hundreds, possibly thousands of Tibetans languish in prisons or detention centers without the government publicly acknowledging their whereabouts or formally charging them with a criminal offence," the report read.
It's quite possible they could possibly be among the prison labor making junk to be sold here in the U.S.A.
“An Evening with Morgan Spurlock,” film begins at 7 p.m. Tuesday, June 24. The West Virginia International Film Festival welcomes Spurlock for a screening of his film “Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden.” The event is part of the third annual Festivall Charleston. The fundraiser will have a reception and Q&A at 5:30 p.m. and a brief audience Q&A after the film. Tickets available at Taylor Books in Charleston or at the door. Visit www.wviff.org. WVSU Capitol Center Theater, 123 Summers St. Charleston. $20.
In this image released by FX Channel, host Morgan Spurlock, left, experiences life as a coal miner in Pineville, W.Va., and lives with a coal-mining family on his six-episode series called, "30 Days," premiering Tuesday, June 3 at 10:00 p.m. EDT on FX. (AP Photo/FX Channel, Ray Mickshaw)
He makes the case in his latest column for an anti-Clinton for V-P:
These are icons from potential swing states and swing constituencies whose careers show they can shore up Obama's weakness among working-class white voters far more effectively than New York's junior senator. More importantly, they are people who can help Obama draw an outsider-versus-insider, populist-versus-corporatist contrast that reinforces the most powerful message of all: The era of Clintonism is over.
Since I recommend Sirota so often, I should also point out that he's on a tour for his excellent new book, "The Uprising" and will be making some stops kind of close to us.
Upper Arlington, OH - Sunday, June 22nd, 2:00pm: Upper Arlington Progressive Action Picnic Lyndhurst, OH - Monday, June 23rd, 7:00pm: Joseph-Beth Booksellers Columbus, OH - Tuesday, June 24th, 12:30pm: Progress Ohio Headquarters Cincinnati, OH - Tuesday, June 24th, 7:00pm: Joseph-Beth Booksellers Louisville, KY - Wednesday, June 25th, 7:00pm: Carmichael's Bookstore
On a campaign stop in Greensdale, Wisconsin, the Senator suggested that turning to the nation's coast for energy needs would be something of a waste in time and effort and do little to resolve America's broader energy needs.
McFlop!
(from yesterday)
"I believe it is time for the federal government to lift these restrictions and to put our own reserves to use," he said on Tuesday, "as a matter of fairness to the American people, and a matter of duty for our government, we must deal with the here and now, and assure affordable fuel for America by increasing domestic production."
Sounds like someone is pandering to the rightwing radio guys.
And they want to give this schmuck Russert's show...
Joe Scarborough, former GOP Congressman, and one of those smarmy pundits who probably practices his smug sneer in the mirror, is rumored to be one of the people NBC is considering to be the new host of Meet The Press.
Scarborough isn't a journalist by any stretch of the imagination. He's a Republican operative.
If you want an idea of his nonobjectivity, Media Matters has a new example of his work splicing Democratic speeches to try to score cheap points.
The flamboyant Mott gave heavily to organizations that promoted peace, population control, civil rights and government reform -- the issue perhaps closest to his heart and one that didn't sit well with some politicians.
A philanthropist for all seasons, Stewart R. Mott was about the most versatile, imaginative philanthropist of his time. He threw himself into projects and was a pioneer in many fields well before the large foundations. Citizen oversight of the vast wasteful military budget is a case in point.
Our country and world are lessened with his passing, but his planned legacies will live on. Sympathies are extended to his family.
This week's poll is a look at the people who didn't get to be president. For this list, I've assembled a mix - some I think would have been wonderful, some I believe would have been absolutely horrid and possibly brought about the end of the U.S.A.
I've included as many eras and political stripes as I could, though I admit it's skewed a bit toward modern times.
The only qualification was that the person actually had presidential aspirations - some lost narrowly in the general, others lost in the primary, some never had a prayer in any case and some died before they could be nominated.
The Times reports that with the GOP for once running seriously behind Democrats in campaign fundraising, Giuliani is offering to hold fundraisers for down-ticket Republicans. But with an important catch -- he gets to keep part of the haul for himself.
As McJoan at DailyKos reports, John McCain had to cancel a fundraiser with a contributor set for Monday in Texas. The contributor, a Mr. Clayton Williams, has already raised $300,000 for the Mavericky StraighttalkerTM.
McCain had to cancel when people began to focus on Williams' past.
Williams ran for governor of Texas in 1990 against the late, great Ann Richards (and lost). Williams, a bazillioniare businessman ran a joke of a campaign that focused on his fake cowboy image.
During the campaign Williams exhibited his lovely sense of humor:
Clayton Williams stirred controversy during his 1990 campaign for governor of Texas with a botched attempt at humor in which he compared rape to weather. Within earshot of a reporter, Williams said: “As long as it's inevitable, you might as well lie back and enjoy it.
Here's a Richards campaign commercial on the subject:
To me, the real issue is McCain's explanation:
McStraighttalk's campaign claims they were unaware of the comments:
"These were obviously incredibly offensive remarks that the campaign was unaware of at the time this event was scheduled," Rogers said. He added that Williams apologized for the comments back in 1990, but he said that does not excuse them.
I was only in 8th grade then and I remember Williams being fodder for many late nite comedians. Shows like 20/20 did segments highlighting the close race between Williams and Richards. His comments were well-known at the time. This isn't something new coming to light.
McCain wanted the money so bad, he hoped he could hold the event and keep his ties to Williams low-key. He got caught and now he's playing dumb.
Of course, McCain could claim he was too busy at the time with his involvement in the Keating 5 scandal to notice what was going on in Williams' race.
The DNC is calling on McCain to return Williams' money:
Statement from DNC communications director Karen Finney:
"Mr. Williams' comments are not only outrageous and disgusting, they degrade our values as Americans. John McCain should make it clear that he understands just how offensive these comments are by not only canceling a fund-raising event but also returning the money Wlliams raised for his campaign. Senator McCain should know that you cannot expect the American people to trust you if you say one thing when you stand on the stump and turn a blind eye to this kind of language when you think no one will notice."
Oh, and if you're not convinced that Williams is slime, here's a piece from Lubbockonline detailing his authorized biography:
The biography also recounts Williams' admission that he visited such brothels as "Boys Town" in Mexico as a young man to get "serviced."
Looks like McCain has some explaining to do - that is if the media doesn't give him another "Get out of scandal free" card for this one.
Photo: This October 1990 file photo, shows then Texas Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Ann Richards, offering her hand to Republican candidate Clayton Williams, in Dallas, He refused the offer, calling Richards a "liar." Questions from the media prompted Republican John McCain to cancel a fundraiser at the home of a Texas oilman who once joked that women should give in while being raped. The Texan Republican made the joke during his failed 1990 campaign for governor against Democrat Ann Richards. Williams compared rape to the weather, saying, "As long as it's inevitable, you might as well lie back and enjoy it."
WASHINGTON - Tim Russert, who pointedly but politely questioned hundreds of the powerful and influential as moderator of NBC's "Meet the Press," died suddenly Friday while preparing for his weekly broadcast. The network's Washington bureau chief was 58.
His last interview, urging the press to be more vigilant with campaign claims can be found here.
For two weeks or so, Sean Hannity has been trying his best convince his audience that oil companies and speculators have nothing to do with high gas prices.
And despite the fact that his party has held the White House for two terms and Congress for six of the last eight years, he wants you to believe that it's all the Democrats' fault that we're paying $4 a gallon for gas.
As part of his evidence, he keeps repeating this story that "China is drilling 60 miles off the coast of Florida" for oil in an area where he U.S. won't allow American companies to do the same.
Translation: Them foreigners are tryin' to git yer oil!
The only problem with this story is it's not true.
"GOP claim about Chines oil drilling off Cuba is untrue"
Yet no one can prove that the Chinese are drilling anywhere off Cuba's shoreline. The China-Cuba connection is "akin to urban legend," said Sen. Mel Martinez, a Republican from Florida who opposes drilling off the coast of his state but who backs exploration in ANWR.
"China is not drilling in Cuba's Gulf of Mexico waters, period," said Jorge Pinon, an energy fellow with the Center for Hemispheric Policy at the University of Miami and an expert in oil exploration in the Gulf of Mexico. Martinez cited Pinon's research when he took to the Senate floor Wednesday to set the record straight.
In a speech to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Cheney said on Wednesday that waters in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, long off limits to oil companies, should be opened to drilling because China is already there pumping oil.
[...]
Congressional Democrats pounced on the vice president's remarks and were backed up by independent energy experts, who called the assertion hyperbole at best and a falsehood at worst.
Cheney's office said in a statement to The Associated Press that the vice president had erred.
I know what you're thinking. Hannity didn't lie - He was just misinformed! (Isn't that always the case with them?)
Then Sean would, no doubt, correct his misstatement after the truth got out all over the media Thursday.
So, wanting to see how he would do a retraction after multiple self-righteous declarations on the subject, I decided to tune into Sean's program today.
But, 5 minutes in:
"China is drilling 60 miles off the coast of Florida!"
Sean then punctuated his rant against lib'ruls with his usual "It's unbelievable!"
He couldn't have said it better.
Why does anyone continue to believe a word this guy says?
But I thought he wuz a socialist, lib'rul muslim who hated the flag!
Rush and Sean can't be wrong, can they?
I got the link for this video from the Obama campaign's new Web site www.Fightthesmears.com, which has been put up to debunk all the insane rightwing rumors floating around the Internet.
During a segment discussing conservative attacks against Michelle Obama, the wife of presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama, the network described the former as "Obama's baby mama."
At least 14 Republican members of Congress have refused to endorse or publicly support Sen. John McCain for president, and more than a dozen others declined to answer whether they back the Arizona senator.
While discussing ninth-grade students at a school in New Jersey who were suspended for distributing topless photographs of their classmates, Bill O'Reilly stated, "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."
BillO will no doubt claim that 'smear merchants' are distorting him again.
Peter Maer of CBS News Radio asked: "What's your advice to the average American who is hurting now, facing the prospect of $4-a-gallon gasoline, a lot of people facing ... "
"Wait, what did you just say?" the president interrupted. "You're predicting $4-a-gallon gasoline?"
Maer responded: "A number of analysts are predicting $4-a-gallon gasoline."
Bush's rejoinder: "Oh, yeah? That's interesting. I hadn't heard that."
Two items: 1. BillO sent his crew to The National Conference on Media Reform. His guys tried to do the standard O'Reilly Ambush bit on real journalist Bill Moyers, but their target turned the tables on them pretty quickly. Video is here.
That's right. Fox News sent grown men with cameras to lurk behind doorways, hide in alcoves, and crouch in the bushes at night (literally) waiting to surprise two reporters in their seventies with angry questions and a boom mic.
2. In teasing a segement last week, FOX News host E.D. Hill called the fist bump between Barack and Michelle Obama a "terrorist fist jab." Hill lost her show this week, though FOX doesn't say why.
One of Barack Obama's first acts as the Democratic nominee is to keep Howard Dean as DNC chair.
Remember back when Dean was chosen to lead the party how Republicans across the board giggled and sneered that he would doom the Democrats and that the party was now beholden to the so-called "far left?"
This, of course, was back when Karl Rove was talking about a "permanant Republican majority."
How times have changed.
Dean's leadership has reinvigorated the party at the grassroots level. The 50 State Strategy has made the Democrats competitive in regions the old Clinton team of the DLC had written off.
House seats are being won in deeply conservative districts and a landslide for the Democrats is expected in fall's Congressional races.
Dean has been the most successful DNC chair in a generation and Obama is wise to keep him.
The campaign also announced that the DNC will no longer accept donations from lobbyists and political action committees, to comply with Obama's campaign policy. Party officials say they expect the DNC's staff to quickly expand to run an aggressive general election campaign.
In this March 27, 2008 file photo, Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean gestures during an interview with The Associated Press at DNC Headquarters in Washington.
Apparently, The National Conference on Media Reform frightens Bill O'Reilly to the point that he has to send a crew to this year's event (to, no doubt, put together one of his trademark misleading video segments).
"These people are crazy! Crazy!" Bill says of the event.
I went to last year's conference (and wrote about it here). I guess I missed out on the escaped lunatics in straightjackets. Maybe I was buying books then.
Anyway, Timothy Karr has a good write-up on O'Reilly here.
John McCain begins the general election season with an eight-point advantage over Barack Obama in West Virginia. The first Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of this general election match-up shows McCain attracting 45% of the vote while Obama earns 37%.
Though 8 points isn't as much as I would have thought. A good deal of the Clinton voters are sticking with the Democrats. Still, a strong early lead for McCain.
To put it in perspective, here are Bush's numbers from 2000 and 2004 (rounded off).
“It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope.”
---
“Progress is a nice word. But change is its motivator. And change has its enemies.”
-- Sen. Robert Francis Kennedy
Photo: AP - In this June 5, 1968 file photo, presidential hopeful Sen. Robert F. Kennedy holds two fingers up in a victory sign as he talks to campaign workers at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, prior to his assassination.
For a great resource on RFK's visit through our region as part of his poverty tour, I highly suggest checking out the Robert F. Kennedy Performance Project at www.rfkineky.org.
Great video of the '68 campaign trail, including what many consider to be his finest hour - the Indianapolis speech following Martin Luther King's assassination:
The Clinton campaign issued a statement at around 9pm saying they will be hosting an event to announce her support for Sen. Obama on Saturday, as opposed to Friday.
Given all the false reports in the press this week, I felt the headline needed a question mark.
Photo: AP- In this July 19, 2006, file photo Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., speaks with Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., right, during the annual convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in Washington, prior to their race for the Democratic presidential nomination.
A family group says recent court rulings pertaining to same-sex marriages are threatening West Virginia's Defense of Marriage Act.
To protect the eight-year-old law, the West Virginia Family Foundation wants Governor Joe Manchin to call a special session so lawmakers can approve a resolution to let voters decide if a ban on same-sex marriage should become part of West Virginia's Constitution.
West Virginia already has a law banning gay marriage, but that's not enough for them. Now they want to write discrimination into the state constitution, too.
Foundation president Kevin McCoy says rulings in California and New York threaten West Virginia's law. West Virginia's law bans same-sex marriage and says the state won't recognize such marriages performed in another state.
The story innocently identifies The West Virginia Family Foundation as a "Family group," but let's take a closer look.
And you can see how much AFA respects and loves West Virginians when they published this in the wake of the Sago disaster:
Conservative Christian leader Rob Schenck of the National Clergy Council said yesterday that, although millions of prayers were being offered across the nation, he was struck by the irony of the situation, which he feels demonstrates a sad truth about America. "We often turn to God only when we feel like nothing else can be done," Schenck notes. "And, in the Bible, God rebuked nations who only turned to Him in their most extreme moments of need."
Schenck is a regular AFA contributor. This isn't AFA's first attempt to get involved in West Virginia's laws.
In 2006, the W.Va. legislature rejected a proposed amendment to the state constitution to outlaw same-sex marriage. The measure was co-sponsored by Senator Bob Plymale D-Wayne and Delegate John Pino D-Fayette.
Leave it to certain W.Va. "Democrats" to do the GOP's work for them in putting wedge issues on the ballot.
It's disturbing just how much influence an out-of-state, hate-filled organization had on our legislature.
At the time, AFA bragged on their Web site about their 'key role in drafting the amendment" and stated that their surrogates in The West Virgina Family Foundation were "the primary organization behind the initiative.
And the bad reviews for McCain's abysmal performance last night keep pouring in - from his own side:
FOX News and National Review's Fred Barnes:
“It’s kind of painful, at least tonight, to listen to McCain.”
Michelle Malkin:
McCain still talking and plodding along. Fox is the only one of the networks still carrying the speech. It’s pedestrian–and even McCain seems to have lost interest in his text.
Television psychic Bill Kristol:
“I’ve got to say, however, watching that speech, I don’t think it was successful speech.”
FOX News' Mort Kondracke:
MORT KONDRACKE: Well, John McCain had better start working on his speechmaking and learn how to use a teleprompter. I mean, the gap, the rhetorical gap between this speech and...Oratorical gap between this speech and John McCain’s was vast. John McCain sounded old. This sounded fresh and new and exciting and visionary. And he was enlisting the country to join him in a great cause. This is our moment, all of that.
McCain's speech was creaky, ungracious, and unnecessary. I never understand why politicians don't take the opportunity, when so easily presented, to simply be gracious and hold their fire. Watching McCain, I couldn't help but think of the astonishing contrast Barack's triumphant speech to a massive and adoring crowd will be. It was not a comparison McCain should have invited.
John McCain's courtship of Sen. Hillary Clinton disaffected supporters accelerated on Tuesday night, as the Arizona Republican continued his charm offensive to the supporters of the likely vanquished Democratic nominee.
Speaking this evening in Louisiana, McCain praised Clinton for both the campaign she's run and her personal and political character.
I wonder what Hillary's supporters will think of this old chestnut:
"Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly? Because her father is Janet Reno." --- John McCain, 1998
Yeah, that's a guy feminists will take naturally to.
Based on the banked superdelegates and the fact that he only needs 30% of the vote to make it happen, AP has called the nomination for Obama.
Obama arranged a victory celebration in St. Paul, Minn., at the site of this summer's Republican National Convention — an in-your-face gesture to Sen. John McCain, who will be his opponent in the race to become the nation's 44th president.
Obama would beat McCain 47 to 44 percent in the November election, in a reversal from Gallup's findings a month ago, which saw McCain ahead of Obama 47 to 45 percent.
Carter told The Associated Press on Tuesday: "The fact is the Obama people already know they have my vote when the polls close tonight." Carter spoke to the AP after addressing the Georgia World Congress Center.
Clinton says she's open to the V-P slot, but has yet to concede the top spot on the ticket.
Drudge says McCain is going to make a speech tonight as well. The excerpt looks like he's going to try to run away from Bush policies on the war, but tout the "surge" as his own.
The Doubletalk Express rolls into the AIPAC conference
Speaking today before AIPAC, McCain again trotted out his tired "Obama wants to talk to the terrorists" bit, focusing on Obama's willingness to use diplomacy and negotiations in dealing with Iran.
McCain said Obama's approach has been tried before and it failed.
McCain called Obama's openness toward meeting with the Iranian leadership "as if it were some sudden inspiration, a bold new idea that somehow nobody has ever thought of before."
McCain then outlined his bold, new idea to put pressure on Iran by encouraging divestment by companies that deal with the nation.
"As a further measure to contain and deter Iran, the United States should impose financial sanctions on the Central Bank of Iran, which aids in Iran's terrorism and weapons proliferation," he said. "We must apply the full force of law to prevent business dealings with Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps."
They are vying for the presidency from opposite sides of the political spectrum, but Sens. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, and Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kansas, are teaming up to sponsor legislation that seeks to encourage divestment from companies that support Iran.
Why, it's like somehow nobody has ever thought of that before!
And the best part?
McCain opposed Obama and Brownback's effort at the time, according to Rachel Maddow.
Nutjob televangelist John Hagee, who John McCain courted for months for an endorsement, stood by for a few more months, then finally decided to reject, and then left for McSurrogate Joe Lieberman to court is in the news again.
In his sermon, "The Final Dictator," Hagee described the Antichrist as a seductive figure with "fierce features." He will be "a blasphemer and a homosexual," the pastor announced. Then, Hagee boomed, "There's a phrase in Scripture used solely to identify the Jewish people. It suggests that this man [the Antichrist] is at least going to be partially Jewish, as was Adolph Hitler, as was Karl Marx."
WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney threw a verbal insult at West Virginians on Monday.
Talking about his family roots and how he's distantly related to Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, the vice president noted that he had Cheneys on both sides of his family.
"And we don't even live in West Virginia," Cheney quipped.
"You can say those things when you're not running for re-election."
Oh, and remember how every time Bush or one of his cabinet members came to town we were told repeatedly by the local media about how much this administration loves W.Va.?
Sen. Byrd says it best:
"Now that he or the administration he represents no longer needs their vote, Mr. Cheney apparently feels that he is now free to mock and belittle the people of West Virginia," Byrd said.
Vice President Dick Cheney talks about Democratic Congressional leadership at an election rally Southaven, Miss., Monday, May 12, 2008, for Republican Greg Davis who faces Democrat Travis Childers in a special election runoff Tuesday for Mississippi's First Congressional District seat. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)
-- And, yes, I chose the most unflattering one I could find.
"After a brief recuperation, he will begin targeted radiation at Massachusetts General Hospital and chemotherapy treatment," [Dr. Allan] Friedman said. "I hope that everyone will join us in praying for Senator Kennedy to have an uneventful and robust recovery."
Family spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter said Kennedy spoke to his wife, Vicki, and told her: "I feel like a million bucks. I think I'll do that again tomorrow."
In a May 21, 2008, file photo Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., waves toward members of the media while arriving by car at the Kennedy family's compound, in Hyannisport, Mass.
In his latest N.Y Times piece, Kristol wanted us to believe that Obama was getting rich on his $12,000 a year salary as a community organizer in 1985.
Kristol:
Obama wants us to be impressed by the drama of his spurning the big bucks, by his bold acceptance of such a pittance of money in order that he could do good.
[...]
And leave aside whether $14,000 in 1985 was really such a shockingly low salary for someone recently out of college — in inflation-adjusted dollars, it’s about what we pay entry-level editorial assistants today at The Weekly Standard.
In today’s dollars, Obama’s $12,000/year in 1985 translates into an inflation-adjusted current salary of $23,958. It seems Kristol may be living in a time warp because what he pays his new employees is less than the average salary for the lowest-level congressional staffer.
I hope to live to see the first woman president. But I also hope she will be an idealist, not only a gender pioneer but a bold, brave, and innovative leader who is not part of a flawed Washington system. I want America to send a powerful signal to a watching world that we have now taken a giant step into the global culture by electing an African-American. But my hope and dream also is, and has been since the days of John and Robert Kennedy, that this president will call us to a nobler mission and a higher goal, that he will remind us always of our Constitutional principles and ideals, that he will place us back on our historic path to the establishment of a more perfect union and a principled republic.
With 85 percent of the precincts reporting, the Puerto Rico vote count showed Clinton with 219,536 votes, or 68 percent, to Obama's 102,304, or 32 percent.
Two more primaries left: South Dakota and Montana on Tuesday (Both considered likely Obama wins)
And contrary to the Clinton 2012 crew claims, she's not really winning the popular vote. As Kos puts it:
By the way, in the real popular vote, including Florida which the DNC now accepts, and excluding Michigan, which the DNC now rejects, and including the caucus states (which Clinton and her camp want to disenfranchise), the numbers currently are Obama +183,067.
That includes the 76 percent of Puerto Rico that has reported.
Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., shakes hands as she walks on stage during her primary day celebration in San Juan, Puerto Rico Sunday, June 1, 2008. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)
Just for fun, let's pretend the winners of last week's polls were picked for V-P.
And while we're at it, let's throw in some third party picks (with their actual V-P candidates):
Note: Due to some technical issues, I had to remove the first poll and repost. If you must know, The votes were Obama: 3, McCain: 1, Barr and Nader: 0 - so just add those to the totals you see above and you'll get the full, unscientific result.
Heath Harrison is a writer whose work has appeared in Bejeezus magazine, Freepress.net, The Herald-Dispatch and West Virginia Blue, among others. He is a former student activist, campaign worker and graduate of the master’s program at Marshall University. In addition to writing, he is a published cartoonist and photographer and Herald-Dispatch page designer.
