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April 12, 2008
The Clintons And The Big Lie
I can't remember the last time I was more disgusted with the Clinton campaign. My day was only made worse by the negative e-mails I'm receiving from supporters of Senator Obama who, because of my association with the Huffington Post, believe that I'm guilty by association and a turncoat. The fact remains that the Huffington Post only posted the audio. It was the Clinton campaign that sunk to a new low by once again employing Rove-style "liberals are all elitist pussies" language.
Meanwhile, the Clintons' new chief captain of their electoral Titantic, Geoffrey Garin believes that this will hurt Senator Obama in the general election. Naturally, the Clintons are using this to sway superdelegates. While the Clintons play this Rove game, they again fail to understand that if she were to somehow steal the nomination the Republicans will be using all of the same "elitist snob" attacks on her and her northeastern, liberal multi-gazillionaire status.
We should expect this behavior from Republican strategists like Rove and Rollins and Castellanos and all the rest. We expect them to continue to trick rural Americans into voting against their economic interests in order to side with the tough-guy team.
This time, and in the most pathetic and desperate way, the Clintons are helping to sell that Big Lie. Why? Because Senator Obama is smart, thin and sucks at bowling. For God fucking sake...really? Sucks At Bowling vs. Sucks At Everything -- and "Sucks At Everything" still gets votes? Seriously?!
But you know...I've concluded that Senator Clinton ought to continue down this road. The fact remains that the more she squawks about this, more and more party elders will increasingly step up efforts to force her out because of it. You and I can't be the only ones who think she's gone too far this time.
10:47 PM | Comments (4) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Roger Waters Endorses Obama
Former Pink Floyd bassist Roger Waters is hoping US presidential candidate Hilary Clinton won't win because he thinks she will start a war with Iran. [...] Waters said: "I'm a huge fan of Barack Obama. I was so disappointed the other night when the ghastly Hillary got Texas and kept the whole thing going. Please God, let's not have this woman. Hillary will want to make her mark and show that she can be just as good as a male president, and she will... invade Iran. Trust me. She voted to declare the Iranian Republican Guard a terrorist organisation. I would buy a whole page in The New York Times and fly Obama's flag."
12:59 PM | Comments (5) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Staying Ahead of the Curve
On Monday, the talk radio wingnuts will be all over Senator Obama -- calling him an elitist snob. So let's prepare a counterattack. We need to call their shows and politely blitz them with the following simple question.
"When was the last time you mowed your own lawn, [fill in name of host]?"
Sean Hannity Show:
1-800-941-SEAN(7326)
Rush Limbaugh Show:
1-800-282-2882
E-mail: ElRushbo@eibnet.com
FAX: 212-445-3963
Radio Factor (O'Reilly)
1-877-9-NO-SPIN
Mike Hussein Gallagher
Call: 800-655-MIKE
Fax: 800-821-MIKE
Michael Medved
1-800-955-1776
Laura Ingraham
1-800-876-4123
Don't try to contact the show until it actually goes on the air. And be polite -- until the question, that is.
12:02 PM | Comments (1) | Posted By Bob Cesca
We're Spying On You
The Bush administration said yesterday that it plans to start using the nation's most advanced spy technology for domestic purposes soon, rebuffing challenges by House Democrats over the idea's legal authority.Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said his department will activate his department's new domestic satellite surveillance office in stages, starting as soon as possible with traditional scientific and homeland security activities -- such as tracking hurricane damage, monitoring climate change and creating terrain maps.
Note to Republicans... There are other amendments to the Constitution besides the second one. But I suppose voting based on which candidate the least "faggy" is probably a better route, eh?
11:53 AM | Comments (1) | Posted By Bob Cesca
High Pitch Pat Buchanan
High Pitch Pat is on MSNBC right now painting Senator Obama as a San Francisco Hollywood Harvard elitist who stereotypes middle Americans. He just said, "This is what he thinks of us." Us, Pat? Pat is a wealthy Washington insider.
Buchanan is still welcomed on MSNBC, even though he wrote that America has been the greatest nation for African-Americans...because of food stamps.
I have to turn off the TV.
10:13 AM | Comments (5) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Bitter
If this word doesn't describe 70 percent of Americans at this very moment, I don't know what does. Hell, even #1 kind of fits. Senator Obama was right!
1 a: being or inducing the one of the four basic taste sensations that is peculiarly acrid, astringent, or disagreeable and suggestive of an infusion of hops — compare salt, sour, sweet b: distasteful or distressing to the mind : galling2: marked by intensity or severity: a: accompanied by severe pain or suffering b: being relentlessly determined : vehement c: exhibiting intense animosity
d (1): harshly reproachful (2): marked by cynicism and rancor e: intensely unpleasant especially in coldness or rawness 3: expressive of severe pain, grief, or regret
Shit. Senator Clinton just reported that she's earned more than 100 million dollars during the Bush years. She could give a million dollars to you, and she'd still have 99 million dollars.
09:44 AM | Comments (1) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Jeffrey Toobin Rips Clinton on CNN
This is an interesting CNN clip from yesterday. Blitzer opens by mischaracterizing what Senator Obama said. Then you'll notice the uber-emergency "three-window" array on the screen. More bobbles, bigger emergency.
And the clip of Senator Clinton? It represents everything that's wrong with her campaign. The snark, condescension. If she thinks people aren't angry right now about the state of affairs in America, she's more out of touch than her husband. I live on the outskirts of the "Alabama" section of Pennsylvania, northwest of Philly, and people are pissed right the fuck off.
And watch as Jeffrey Toobin totally rips Senator Clinton's response.
09:33 AM | Comments (2) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Rural Pennsylvanians Are Racists
Remember this?
09:16 AM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Morning Awesome
09:05 AM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
April 11, 2008
Senator Obama Responds To Attacks
Everything Senator Obama said was 100 percent true.
I swear -- if we don't start going after the Republicans RIGHT NOW, we'll be way behind the curve while they try to paint Senator Obama with the same lies. The "elitist, faggy, liberal snob" lies. And in November, we'll end up with another plain-spoken cowboy war monger in the White House. After all, mavericks are cowboys.
To that point, GottaLaff at Cliff Schecter's place sets the record straight on Senator McCain's wealth (and his Paris Hilton clone of a wife).
UPDATE: Sirota discovers a far worse McCain quote. And might I remind everyone in the cable news pundit set and everyone in the Clinton camp that Governor Rendell said -- point blank -- that conservative rural Democrats in Pennsylvania are RACISTS. That is, they won't vote for someone who is black.
All Senator Obama said was that Republicans have coerced votes from small town Pennsylvanians based on wedge issues like religion and guns. And there's this level of outcry? Oh please. Grow the fuck up, why don't you, you cable news hackocrats. Goddamn this pisses me off.
The obvious attempt to by FOX News and even Chuck Todd at MSNBC (on Countdown tonight) to seize upon this nuanced quote as a means by which to paint Senator Obama into their tired, hack "liberal elitist" script from elections past -- it's just the worst the "very serious" traditional media has to offer.
Everyone go dontate $20 to Senator Obama.
UPDATE THE SECOND: Oliver Willis makes a great point:
One wonders where all this media concern about elitism was when John McCain was raising millions of dollars in the home of a British Lord. [...] It’s intriguing that Dems are never supposed to voice any criticism of rural America (which isn’t what Sen. Obama did) but Republicans are allowed to insult San Francisco, Massachusetts, the coasts, etc. It’s like there’s a double standard or something.
And while Senator Obama wasn't criticising rural America (he was ripping on Republican "smear, fear and queer" tactics) this is absolutely a double-standard.
09:53 PM | Comments (2) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Whoops!
Long sigh... Here's another sad quote from President Clinton:
"You know, I got tickled the other day. A lot of the way this whole campaign has been covered has amused me. But there was a lot of fulminating because Hillary, one time late at night when she was exhausted, misstated — and immediately apologized for it — what happened to her in Bosnia in 1995 [sic]. Did y'all see all that? Oh, they blew it up. [...] Now I say that because, what really has mattered is that even then she was interested in our troops. And I think she was the first first lady since Eleanor Roosevelt to go into a combat zone. And you woulda thought, you know, that she'd robbed a bank the way they carried on about this. And some of them, when they're 60, they'll forget something when they're tired at 11 at night, too.”
So is President Clinton suggesting that Senator Clinton says crazy and false shit at 11PM because she's old?
It's 3AM, and there's some batshit stuff happening with the evildoers... And Senator Clinton is too old and loopy to take care of it. Because it's late and she's sleepy.
09:01 AM | Comments (3) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Desperation and Obsfucation
President Clinton continues to make me sad:
And you just can't be carried away by some of these things. I saw – y'all seen this television ad on, where Hillary's opponent says I don't take money from oil companies? You seen that? Well, that's a good thing, but guess what? No living person who's ever run for office has done that. It's been illegal to take political contributions from oil companies for 100 years. It's almost like saying, you know, 'Vote for me, I brush my teeth every morning.' Or, 'Vote for me, I never robbed a bank.'
When Senator Obama says that he doesn't take money from oil companies, he clearly means oil company PACs and lobbyists. It's legal to do that, Mr. President. And Senator Obama doesn't. But fairness and reality from an ex-president against a candidate of his own party appears to be irrelevant when desperation kicks in.
For what it's worth, here's Senator Clinton's business contribution breakdown:
$1,157,939 total PAC contributions
$435,158 from business PACs
$865,290 from lobbyists (more than any other candidate of either party -- more than Romney and Giuliani combined)
$309,363 from Oil & Gas (individuals and PACs -- Senator Obama refuses money from Oil & Gas PACs)
Senator Clinton's Top Contributors:
DLA Piper $495,550
Goldman Sachs $440,300
Citigroup Inc $388,052
Morgan Stanley $385,420
EMILY's List $323,242
Lehman Brothers $264,610
JPMorgan Chase & Co $258,120
National Amusements Inc $227,800
University of California $223,667
Skadden, Arps et al $218,485
Greenberg Traurig LLP $191,100
Kirkland & Ellis $186,551
PricewaterhouseCoopers $185,000
Time Warner $182,150
Microsoft Corp $175,419
Merrill Lynch $172,900
Ernst & Young $157,575
Latham & Watkins $155,088
Bear Stearns $152,090
Cablevision Systems $148,263
Just so you know.
08:27 AM | Comments (1) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Four More Years!
Everyone in the Bush administration -- except President Bush -- discussed andauthorized torture against detainees. Senator McCain, meanwhile, voted against a law banning the CIA from using torture. And Senator McCain is neck-and-neck in the polls. America loves torture.
08:13 AM | Comments (2) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Morning Awesome
#7 from the 50 Greatest Sketches of All Time. The great Ernie Kovacs.
07:58 AM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
April 10, 2008
New Huffington Post Item
This week, a Q&A with Cliff Schecter.
12:41 PM | Comments (3) | Posted By Bob Cesca
More Apologies
Another sincere apology for light blogging this week. I deliver the book on Tuesday (it's good -- you'll like it) and so I'm busy making sure I've re-written every line three or four times.
I've also hidden the secret for protecting yourself against the evildoers somewhere in the book. So you need to buy the book...if you want to live.
See what I did there?
09:13 AM | Comments (1) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Morning Awesome
Sleestak in a library.
08:33 AM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
April 09, 2008
Your Fictional Press
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The hearing on Iraq depicted just how deeply divided Americans remain on the war.
As Atrios pointed out, Americans overwhelmingly support ending this war. By describing the nation as "divided" feeds this ridiculous balance notion which, in turn, feeds the Bush Republicans.
Besides, who the fuck asked the AP about the state of the nation? They're supposed to be telling us what happened in the hearings -- not taking our goddamn temperature.
09:18 AM | Comments (2) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Seriously?
General Petraeus mentioned this yesterday:
"Every Iraqi is allowed an AK-47 in his house, by law."
It's Neocon Disney over there.
09:15 AM | Comments (2) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Morning Awesome
On April 9, 1865, Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses Grant at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia. In honor of that: the best of Shelby Foote.
09:11 AM | Comments (1) | Posted By Bob Cesca
April 08, 2008
New Al Gore Presentation
This is required viewing. So if you have some time, please watch and spread the word.
08:24 AM | Comments (2) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Morning Awesome
08:14 AM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
April 07, 2008
Buy Cliff Schecter's Book
Cliff wrote a book and you should buy it because Cliff is awesome. I haven't read it yet, but check this blurb:
Three reporters from Arizona, on the condition of anonymity, also let me in on another incident involving McCain’s intemperateness. In his 1992 Senate bid, McCain was joined on the campaign trail by his wife, Cindy, as well as campaign aide Doug Cole and consultant Wes Gullett. At one point, Cindy playfully twirled McCain’s hair and said, “you’re getting a little bit thin up there.” McCain’s face reddened, and he responded, “at least I don’t plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you cunt.” McCain’s excuse was that it has been a long day. If elected president of the United States, McCain would have many long days.
Oh! Snap!
12:55 PM | Comments (5) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Condoleezza?
The only thing more awesome than McCain-Romney would be McCain-Rice. Because there's this:
And this:
08:37 AM | Comments (2) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Mark Penn Quits Clinton Campaign
Penn resigns to spend more time with his Karl Rove playbook.
And the process of the Clinton campaign rebuilding its dignity and veracity can begin.
07:56 AM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Morning Awesome
07:24 AM | Comments (1) | Posted By Bob Cesca
April 06, 2008
What They're Talking About
Greenwald looks at the topics the very serious traditional media are ignoring. This is fascinating.
Here are the number of times, according to NEXIS, that various topics have been mentioned in the media over the past thirty days:"Yoo and torture" - 102
"Mukasey and 9/11" -- 73
"Yoo and Fourth Amendment" -- 16
"Obama and bowling" -- 1,043
"Obama and Wright" -- More than 3,000 (too many to be counted)
"Obama and patriotism" - 1,607
"Clinton and Lewinsky" -- 1,079And as Eric Boehlert documents, even Iraq -- that little five-year U.S. occupation with no end in sight -- has been virtually written out of the media narrative in favor of mindless, stupid, vapid chatter of the type referenced above.
Staggering and, sadly, not surprising.
At the same time, the least viewed blog entries I've written lately for the Huffington Post tend to be anything about Iraq and anything about torture. My most viewed blog entries recently tend to be the ones about the election and especially anything that rips Senator Clinton. This could just be that Huffington readers don't expect me to write about torture or Iraq. I don't know nor do I care, really. Just something I've observed and I'm just an angry liberal blogger without demographic research or focus groups (MRRR! Bad!).
09:28 AM | Comments (3) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Morning Awesome
09:20 AM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
