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May 24, 2008
Senator Obama's Grandfather
I included the photo above because I saw it for the first time this morning and the resemblance between Senator Obama today and his grandfather, Stanley Dunham, is striking.
Anyway, the Senator is planning to visit his grandfather's grave in Hawaii. This is the grandfather, by the way, who fought in Patton's Third Army in World War II. In the Senator's words:
My grandfather - Stanley Dunham - enlisted after Pearl Harbor and went on to march in (Gen. George S.) Patton's (3rd) Army (that help liberate Europe in World War II). My mother (Ann Dunham), was born at Fort Leavenworth and my grandmother worked on a bomber assembly line. After my grandfather stood up for his country, America stood by him. He went to college on the GI Bill, bought his first home with help from the Federal Housing Authority. Then he moved his family west to Hawaii, where I was born, and where he and my grandmother helped raise me. He is buried in the Punchbowl, the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, where 776 victims of Pearl Harbor are laid to rest.”
--Excerpts from Remarks of Senator Obama: A Sacred Trust | Kansas City, MO | August 21, 2007, www.barackobama.com
09:37 AM | Comments (4) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Newsweek Poll: Stupid White People
Regardless of the fact that America is literally on life support due to Bush Republican policies and Reaganomics, Senator McBush is somehow tied with Senator Obama in the latest Newsweek poll. 46-46.
Senator McBush leads among white people. 52-40.
And to round out the "stupids" theme of this post... 11 percent believe that Senator Obama is a Muslim (HE'S NOT!).
Yep. I'm getting the monorail brochures ready. West Virginia and Kentucky -- here I come!
09:17 AM | Comments (1) | Posted By Bob Cesca
C&L Donation Drive
John Amato at Crooks & Liars is having a donation drive. Throw him some samolians here.
And if you have any extree, we have a donation button at the top right corner of this page.
09:09 AM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Morning Awesome
08:43 AM | Comments (1) | Posted By Bob Cesca
May 23, 2008
Holy Freakin' Hell!
"My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right? We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. I don't understand it," she said, dismissing calls to drop out.
I... I don't even know what to say about this... I'm speechless. This is wrong on so many levels.
(h/t Paddy)
UPDATE: Video from TPM:
Here's what she's saying: Senator Obama could be assassinated at any moment, and such a terrible event would represent another -- goddamn, this is awful -- another path to the nomination for her. It's all about her path to the nomination. A possible assassination of Senator Obama. Staggeringly ghoulish.
UPDATE THE SECOND: I just wrote a quickie item for the Huffington Post here.
04:22 PM | Comments (14) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Condoms To Myanmar
The UN is including condoms in their humanitarian support to cyclone-ravaged Myanmar. And of course wingnuts like Malkin think this is just awful.
It’s at once so clueless and out-of-touch to be darkly comical (Hey, you know these people rebuilding their lives amid the bloated corpses and amoebic dysentery and famine really need? Some condoms!) while at the same time being sinister and malevolent, and redolent of Margaret Sanger’s eugenics movement.
Everything comes down to "eugenics" for the far-right. They're using this eugenics (and hence "Nazi") frame against evolution as well.
What she doesn't understand is that overpopulation is probably at the root of all of the world's problems. Too. Many. People. Especially in the third world. Condom distribution helps to keep overpopulation in check -- say nothing of HIV/AIDS.
02:35 PM | Comments (1) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Despicable Lies
I'm a little bit shocked to see op-ed pieces appear in quick succession in two of the nation's most prestigious newspapers calling Barack Obama a "Muslim Apostate." They don't make the assertion that Obama is a Muslim, which he certainly isn't, only that Osama bin Laden and other Islamic fundamentalists consider him one since his father was "born a Muslim."
I dedicate an entire chapter to this in ONE NATION UNDER FEAR. My thesis: this could be the most dangerous smear campaign in the history of presidential politics. It only takes one overzealous far-right wingnut who believes our government is being supplanted by terrorists... Only one.
02:00 PM | Comments (1) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Fun Fact!
Did you know... Josh Marshall from TPM is a raving woman-hater?
I didn't know that. And I challenge you to find a single TPM/Marshall post that contains any misogyny whatsoever.
01:42 PM | Comments (2) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Dirty Jokes
Here's why I'll never be able to successfully run for office.
12:42 PM | Comments (4) | Posted By Bob Cesca
New Ohio Poll
May 23 SurveyUSA
Obama (D) 48%,
McCain (R) 39%
SUSA has been the most reliable and accurate pollster during this cycle.
12:34 PM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
The Rules
A considerable percentage of my anger towards the Clintons has to do with the terrible fact that they have destroyed the respect I held for them -- respect and support that endured for 15 years and through many ups and downs. The same can be said about the Clinton supporters who have simply refused to see the truth behind what they're doing to the party and to the liberal cause.
At this point, there isn't much left to say to the Clintons and their advocates other than to reiterate that they are being dishonest. And at some point one tires of making the same arguments over and over again to a group of people that simply refuse to play the game according to rules as the Blogosphere has always understood the rules.
The rules as I understand them:
-Fear mongering is wrong.
-War mongering is wrong.
-Using Karl Rove tactics is wrong.
-Helping the Republican candidate is wrong.
-Race-baiting is wrong.
-Threatening to obliterate an entire nation is wrong.
-Renegging on previous statements is wrong (see Florida & Michigan pledges).
-Clandestinely painting your opponent as a terrorist is wrong.
-Intellectual dishonesty is wrong.
That's just off the top of my head. Feel free to add more in the comments. But the overall point is clear: the Clintons have violated all of these rules, yet too many liberal bloggers either turned a blind eye ("both candidates are awesome") or literally supported such rule-breaking.
This process has been enlightening, historical and educational. As BooMan writes, it's also been disillusioning and sad. Here's to hoping that Senator Obama and Chairman Dean will rewrite the liberal story -- starting right now.
UPDATE: TBogg weighs in:
Quite frankly I have never seen such a gross example of intellectual dishonesty, disregard for reality on the ground, and shamelessness since, well, actually the last time Bill Kristol was on TV, but never mind that. [...] but when it comes to Hillary Clinton, fuck that noise. My contempt for her has reached the Lieberman line.
Ah yes. The Lieberman Factor (here, here and here).
11:14 AM | Comments (3) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Campaign Priorities
Imagine if President Gore had spent all that money we spent to cause the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis on mass transit instead.
Picking up on that... Imagine if the corporate media in 2000 hadn't spent so much time painting Al Gore as a sighing, snarky elitist. Sort of like what they're doing with Senator Obama right now.
That's the true danger of treating presidential elections like pre-scripted game shows. We end up with ignorant doofs like George Bush -- a president who was completely incompatible for these times and events. But at least he didn't come off as an elitist.
09:14 AM | Comments (1) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Morning Awesome
05:46 AM | Comments (3) | Posted By Bob Cesca
May 22, 2008
Endorse Or Get Off The Pot
If you've been hanging out here for a while, you'll know that I caught some shit with some fellow liberal bloggers when I respectfully encouraged them to get on board with Senator Obama's campaign shortly after John Edwards dropped out.
The trend towards ambivalence among certain blogotubers earlier this year has evidently leaked over and affected the remaining superdelegates. And Arianna has forcefully called out superdelegates in an attempt to shake them out of their infuriating catatonia.
So it's time for the uncommitted superdelegates to stop their dithering, come out of hiding, hop off the fence, endorse Obama and officially bring this nominating process to an end.
Throughout this campaign between Senators Obama and Clinton, there has been a noticeable reluctance to choose up sides -- many, many of those who are "guilty" of not making a decision are bloggers, talkers and activists who are otherwise quick to take a stand regardless of the party dynamic of the fight. Smart, forceful liberals. Even during the worst Clinton campaign missteps, however -- the Rove style fear mongering, the race-baiting, the 3AM ads, and all the rest -- too many respectable liberals sat it out.
And now, as Arianna points out, the superdelegates ought to endorse once and for all. Let's hope her words carry some weight with those who are inexplicably seized in the grips of a collectively muted stupor.
It's times like these when the Democratic Party loses me. Enough with the soft-pedaling and kid-gloves -- the choice is obvious and the choice is clear (it has been for many months, by the way). What the hell is everyone waiting for?
Meanwhile, Senator McCain is already sizing up the White House to see if it'll fit his Craftmatic adjustable bed.
Let's go!
08:35 PM | Comments (4) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Dishonest Clintons
I don't think it is possible to express adequately how much disdain I have for the Clintons' dishonesty. We, as a party, suffered mightily for their dishonesty during their time in power. And we defended them because their attackers were ever more dishonest. That is no longer the case. Barack Obama is being as gracious in victory as it is possible to be and his reward is for the Clintons to make intellectually bankrupt arguments that delegitimize the process and harden her supporters against our nominee.
She's in it to win it in 2012. She has no interest in helping Senator Obama (and, by proxy, another tidal wave of Congressional Democrats) to win in November. The Obama campaign has a shot at a landslide victory if they win the usual swingers (Ohio, Florida) and the new swingers (Virginia, North Carolina, Colorado, etc). Senator Clinton, with her awesome magnanimity, is screwing Democratic chances in all of the above states, and many many others.
Sheesh. Stop it, Clintons.
03:32 PM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Where Was Senator Clinton?
Where was Senator Clinton when the Congressional Black Caucus tried to stop the electoral vote certification in 2001?
Go to timecode 3:15.
Senator Clinton was sworn in on Janurary 3, 2001. The floor protest shown above in Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 911 happened on January 6, 2001. Where was Senator Clinton when tens of thousands of Floridians were being disenfranchised? Where was she then?
Just. One. Senator.
10:58 AM | Comments (7) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Zbigniew Brzezinski: 20 Year War
Brzezinski just said on MSNBC that if McBush attacks Iran, we'll be at war with Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan for at least 20 years.
08:38 AM | Comments (1) | Posted By Bob Cesca
The Clintons Helped To Punish Florida, Michigan
On Aug. 25, when the DNC's rules panel declared Florida's primary date out of order, it agreed by a near-unanimous majority to exceed the 50 percent penalty called for under party rules. Instead, the group stripped Florida of all 210 delegates to underscore its displeasure with Florida's defiance and to discourage other states from following suit. In doing so, the DNC essentially committed itself, for fairness' sake, to strip the similarly defiant Michigan of all 156 of its delegates three months later.Clinton held tremendous potential leverage over this decision, and not only because she was then widely judged the likely nominee. Of the committee's 30 members, a near-majority of 12 were Clinton supporters. All of them—most notably strategist Harold Ickes—voted for Florida's full disenfranchisement. (The only dissenting vote was cast by a Tallahassee, Fla., city commissioner who supported Obama.)
Later, a statement by Patti Solis Doyle:
"We believe Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina play a unique and special role in the nominating process.And we believe the DNC’s rules and its calendar provide the necessary structure to respect and honor that role.
Thus, we will be signing the pledge to adhere to the DNC approved nominating calendar.
And then they started to lose. And all of this blustery hooplah went out the door.
08:30 AM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Morning Awesome
05:56 AM | Comments (1) | Posted By Bob Cesca
May 21, 2008
STOP IT. JUST STOP IT.
Mrs. Clinton...you must stop. You have become like Friday the 13th Part 7, a movie so predictable, so unwatchable, so horrible, and so in need of going away forever. You are embarrassing yourself, your husband and his legacy, your party, your supporters, and every historical event you dishonestly invoke to plead your pathetic cause.
I have come to believe that if the DNC told you that all you needed to do to secure the nomination was take your daughter to a mountain top and gut her like Abraham was going to do to Issac, then you couldn't reach for your knife fast enough. That voice you hear in your head is the God known as Ego, which in your case is grown so huge that it needs its own hotel room, fully stocked mini-bar and of course masseuse, for where would your gargantuan ego be without constant massaging from the spittle licking sycophants who surround you and continue to grunt and sweat as they once again move goalposts and rejigger math to prove to you that you and only you are the one worthy of the nomination, for only you can beat your dear friend John McCain and ascend to the throne you should've had 16 years ago, because we all know you would've used that throne with far more grace and far less Oval Office fellatio. And because that's really, really at the heart of all this, the point, isn't it? That Bill got to go first by virtue of his famously curved member, and now it's your turn. Except you blew it. Not Bill's famously curved member, but your chances at honestly earning your party's nomination.
You hired boot licking sycophants, clowns and has-beens, people who stopped thinking about how to help the country - let alone win an election - sometime in the mid-90s. Your vision is not only myopic, it is jaundiced and cloudy. Your voice - not the one that's been reduced to a cackling rasp by the rigors of campaigning, but the one inside of you that makes you press on and endure the rigors of campaigning - your voice has run out of things to say, or ways to say things. You are a scratched, dirty record stuck on a turntable of yesteryear. And you just won't stop spinning. Please, find your off switch.
10:13 PM | Comments (7) | Posted By JumpyPants
Alex Castellanos: Bigtime Jagoff
During my liveblogging, I've been blasting CNN for inviting Republican race-baiter Alex Castellanos (the creator of race-baiting ads like this one) onto their election night coverage. Well, it turns out that he's not only a race-baiter, but he's also an unapologetic jagoff.
"Some women, by the way, are named that, and it's accurate," Castellanos said. He went on to buttress his case by pointing out that Hillary is "abrasive, aggressive, irritating."
Yep. This is the very serious corporate media discourse.
02:21 PM | Comments (6) | Posted By Bob Cesca
The Clintons And Race
This conversation on CNN struck me as pretty dead-on...
GERGEN: And from her point of view, over a quarter of the people who voted for her today in Kentucky were people who said race was a factor in their decision. And it really means -- I mean, she's been talking about sexism in this race and she has complained about some in the last 24 hours.You know race is really playing an increasing issue. And it also raises the question in my judgment of whether she shouldn't say, you know, if you want to vote against him because he's black, I don't want your vote.I don't want to win that way. This has no place in this primary.
COOPER: Do you see her saying that?
GERGEN: Well, she has been a champion -- she's been a champion of civil rights for a long, long time. She and her husband both have I think well-earned reputations in the civil rights front. She's never had redneck votes before in her life.
I see no reason why she couldn't take the high road here in the closing days of his campaign and try to take this on and take on the Reverend Wright issue to say, "Look, I campaigned with this fellow for 15 months. I know a lot of you people don't think he shares your values that somehow Barack thinks like Reverend Wright. Not true. I know him. I have been with him. And race should come out of this."
I think she could do a lot by taking a high road.
11:52 AM | Comments (5) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Yes We Can
10:52 AM | Comments (3) | Posted By Bob Cesca
James A. Baker: Appeaser
Former Bush Secretary of State, former Reagan Chief of Staff James Baker:
BAKER: You don’t just talk to your friends, you talk to your enemies as well. Diplomacy involves talking to your enemies. You don’t reward your enemies necessarily by talking to them if you are tough and you know what you are doing. You don’t appease them. Talking to an enemy is not in my view appeasement.
Why is James Baker talking like a Nazi appeaser? What's his problem?
08:41 AM | Comments (2) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Morning Awesome
Change is coming to America.
08:24 AM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
May 20, 2008
Liveblogging Tonight
I'm going to be liveblogging the coverage tonight over at the Huffington Post starting at around 7:30PM EDT.
Fun!
05:06 PM | Comments (2) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Senator Kennedy
Terrible news:
BOSTON - A cancerous brain tumor caused the seizure Sen. Edward M. Kennedy suffered over the weekend, doctors said Tuesday in a grim diagnosis for one of American politics' most enduring figures. "He remains in good spirits and full of energy," the doctors for the 76-year-old Massachusetts Democrat said in a statement.
04:36 PM | Comments (3) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Talking To Iran
It occurs to me that the McBush Republican attack on Senator Obama's call for diplomacy has nothing to do with the nuance of foreign policy and everything to do with the on-going bottom-of-the-barrel strategy of painting the Senator as "with the terrorists."
So I laugh whenever I hear pundits asking Republicans to explain their position on Iran/Hamas/etc. The Republicans could answer to charges of hypocrisy and flipflopping by making balloon animals and it wouldn't matter. The substance of the attack is the attack itself. Nothing more.
08:39 AM | Comments (1) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Morning Awesome
08:35 AM | Comments (1) | Posted By Bob Cesca
May 19, 2008
The Turning Point For Senator Obama
There's a lot of primary post mortem discussion happening these days, and I was thinking about what the turning point was for Senator Obama -- the one moment when the Senator broke through the noise; the one moment when the dynamic of the campaign changed.
For me, it was Iowa's Jefferson-Jackson Dinner speech back in November.
When I first heard this speech, my reaction was: he has to win this thing. It was this speech that made me want to endorse Senator Obama for president.
Prior to this speech, I felt that Senator Obama had lost a certain level of energy and I was one of those people who felt that Senator Clinton would likely win the nomination rather quickly. But this speech changed all of that. This was the Obama we were expecting.
05:15 PM | Comments (1) | Posted By Bob Cesca
The Very Serious Washington Post...
...published an op/ed in which columnist Kathleen Parker insinuates that Senator Obama and John Edwards are gay.
Well, at least they didn’t kiss. I was bracing myself for the lip lock Wednesday when John Edwards endorsed Barack Obama.
Obama and Edwards make an attractive picture -- Ultra Brite cover boys of youth and glamour
Obama and Edwards look and talk pretty, but Clinton, unflinching and steely, exudes pure brawn. When the time comes to sit across from the likes of Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a chill in the heart may beat a thrill up the leg.
And this is a follow-up to another Parker column in which makes a huge case in favor of white supremacy.
We love to boast that we are a nation of immigrants — and we are. But there's a different sense of America among those who trace their bloodlines back through generations of sacrifice.
Again, the problem isn't with the racist yokels who won't vote for Senator Obama just because he's black or because they believe an obvious e-mail scam about his religion. The problem is with Senator Obama himself, of course. He's to blame for all this. Not the racists, and definitely not the stupids.
And this will be the Republican argument against Senator Obama in the general election. The Nixonian Southern Strategy. That's all they've got. And they're going to hit it over and over and over.
11:54 AM | Comments (6) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Morning Awesome
Happy birthday to Pete Townshend. 63 years old today.
08:18 AM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
May 18, 2008
75,000 In Portland
Photo: Chris Carlson/Associated Press
The sea of heads stretches for half a mile along the grassy embankment, while others watch from kayaks and power boats bobbing on the Willamette River. More hug the rails of the steel bridge that stretches across the water and crowds are even watching from jetties on the opposite shore.
Just amazing. Historical and amazing. By comparison, the the capital of Pennsylvania -- Harrisburg -- boasts a population of 47,164.
08:39 PM | Comments (7) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Fox News Failures
So FOX News Sunday is funny this morning.
Karl Rove talking about presidential politics, even though his career has been an unmitigated failure; his former boss is the most unpopular president in modern history; and he's been responsible for destroying everything from the Republican Party to vast sections of the world including Iraq and New Orleans.
And Bill Kristol talking about the Middle East even though his recommendations contributed to the failures of the Iraq invasion and occupation -- not to mention the hundreds of years of blowback against American interests here and abroad.
09:37 AM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Life Finds A Way
SYDNEY (Reuters) - An Australian man was gored in the thigh on Friday by an amorous stag after entering a deer paddock in the middle of the breeding season.
The article doesn't give additional details on the goring. I just hope he was gored by the deer's antlers. The article doesn't get that specific.
09:05 AM | Comments (1) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Morning Awesome
NSFW
08:36 AM | Comments (1) | Posted By Bob Cesca
