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July 05, 2008
Senator McBush Can't Read...
...a Teleprompter. We knew this, but when it's spelled out in the NY Times, it kinda makes Senator McBush look like a much bigger fool than we had expected.
“I have set before the American people an energy plan, the Lex-eegton Project,” Mr. McCain said, drawing a quick breath and correcting himself. “The Lex-ing-ton Proj-ect,” he said slowly. “The Lexington Project,” he repeated. “Remember that name.”
Remember it... or he'll veto your beer.
05:40 PM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
John Dean on Obama's FISA Position
This is worth a read. Some history about presidents prosecuting law-breakers from previous administrations:
It certainly would not be unprecedented if an Obama Administration were to hold high officials of a prior administration responsible for their criminal activity undertaken in the name of national security. For example, former Nixon assistant to the president John Ehrlichman said that he acted for national security reasons when he approved a warrantless break-in at Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist’s office; yet he was prosecuted, convicted, and sent to jail for his actions during the Ford Administration. During the Carter Administration, too, former CIA Director Richard Helms was convicted for lying to Congress, which he did for national security reasons; he was given a two-year suspended prison sentence and fined. Former Assistant Director of the FBI Mark Felt (later revealed to be Bob Woodward’s “Deep Throat” source during Watergate) was convicted for authorizing some nine warrantless break-ins of the radical Weatherman groups for national security reasons; while he faced ten years in jail, he was not sentenced to serve any time, but rather fined $5,000, and he was later pardoned by President Reagan.
01:20 PM | Comments (2) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Open Thread Go
Don't explode this thread in your hand or else it'll be all numb and stingy.
11:18 AM | Comments (2) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Jesse Helms
Yesterday, I saw the initial announcement of Helms' death on CNN, which was ironic since Helms' most disgusting public display of racism, the "White Hands" ad, was masterminded by Alex Castellanos... who is now a CNN election panelist and advisor to Senator McCain.
Barbeque tastes goooood.
07:48 AM | Comments (2) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Morning Awesome
MST3K Saturday. "Spring Fever."
06:35 AM | Comments (1) | Posted By Bob Cesca
July 04, 2008
Mr. And Mrs. Ben Franklin
Oh great. Now there will be more Americans who believe that the real Ben Franklin and the real Betsy Ross were married, too. Others will wonder when Franklin divorced his first wife, Susan B. Anthony.
(h/t Paddy)
11:49 AM | Comments (2) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Observations
Based on the Huffington Post comments under my new post...
1) There are still plenty of Senator Clinton people who are hoping for an Obama FAIL.
2) Someone employed the tired old "lesser of two evils" line. So very Election 2000 of them.
3) There are too many people who think Senator Obama isn't a smart man.
4) This current Summer is awesome!
5) Too many Democrats are accepting far-right or corporate media frames as reality.
09:18 AM | Comments (7) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Morning Awesome
06:26 AM | Comments (3) | Posted By Bob Cesca
July 03, 2008
New Huffington Post Essay
My extended take on Senator Obama's so-called "move to the center". Enjoy.
02:15 PM | Comments (7) | Posted By Bob Cesca
CNN Smells Like Barbeque
CNN:
With the dust having finally settled after the prolonged Democratic presidential primary, a new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll shows Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama locked in a statistical dead heat in the race for the White House.
Oh look! Senators Obama and McBush are in a dead heat. In other words, tied. Wow. Senator McBush must be surging or something. Or maybe Senator Obama is slipping. So, just for shits and giggles, how close is it?
...the new survey out Tuesday indicates Obama holds a narrow 5-point advantage among registered voters nationwide over the Arizona senator, 50 percent to 45 percent.
50 to 45?! That's a statistical dead heat? What the hell is wrong with you, CNN? Wipe the barbeque off your mouths and tell us how 50-45 is a dead heat.
(h/t Kos)
11:57 AM | Comments (3) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Montana
Obama (D) 48% McCain (R) 43%
Pat Buchanan's head just exploded.
10:51 AM | Comments (3) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Morning Joe
Picking up on Paddy's post about Morning Joe, here are a couple of observations:
1) Mika seriously asked Morgan Spurlock, "Where did you get your name?!" If I were Morgan, I would've answered, "Oh it's not my real name. My real name is Gonads Van Rapist."
2) Pat Buchanan, who is a known race-baiter but yet is still taken seriously by MSNBC, said something to the effect of (paraphrasing), "Last week Obama was leading by 15 in the Newsweek poll and today he leads by 2 in the Gallup daily tracking poll. He always starts out strong and then he can't close the deal." The Gallup poll has always been close, Pat. What the hell is wrong with you?
09:04 AM | Comments (10) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Where's the Outrage?
By midday in Europe, light, sweet crude for August delivery rose $2.28 to a record $145.85 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. [...] The latest spike means a barrel of crude has gone up by more than 50 percent since the end of last year, when oil was going for $96 a barrel.
This is making everything more expensive and therefore negatively impacting all of us -- everyone. Terrorists aren't negatively effecting all of us. Neither are tainted tomatoes or Colombian hostage-takers. But I don't hear any outrage from the corporate media over the Wall Street oil speculators who are forcing you and I to pay exponentially more for everything.
08:48 AM | Comments (2) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Morning Awesome
From Wet Hot American Summer.
08:34 AM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
July 02, 2008
Fox News Is A Douchebag
Not only did they Photoshop the pictures of two NY Times reporters to make the reporters look really deformed and freakish, but also... Fox News sucks at Photoshop.
06:01 PM | Comments (1) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Enjoy Your Holiday Vacation!
05:57 PM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Open Thread! Go!
How much more thread could this be, and the answer is none. None more thread.
05:53 PM | Comments (2) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Oy
Let me off this thing.
(h/t Betsy)
12:14 PM | Comments (16) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Gettysburg, Day Two
145 years ago today, my great-great grandfather, Corporal Richard B. "R.B." Davis of the 155th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry helped to defend the extreme left flank of the Union line at Little Round Top. It never ceases to amaze me that, to this day, I can walk down to the spot where the 155th was positioned on Little Round Top and put my hands on the rock wall they constructed during the evening of July 2, 1863.
Here's how the defense of Little Round Top was dramatized in the movie Gettysburg -- in this case, the story of the 20th Maine and Colonel Chamberlain (Jeff Daniels). Meanwhile, the 155th and my great-great grandfather were on the other side of the hill -- the exposed, bare, boulder-strewn section (see photo below).
The 155th PA monument. Little Round Top, Gettysburg.
10:16 AM | Comments (1) | Posted By Bob Cesca
This Is Priceless
Steve Benen:
The American Family Association’s OneNewsNow website, for example, takes its AP articles and replaces the word “gay” with the word “homosexual.” I’m not entirely sure why, but it seems to make the AFA happy. The group is, after all, pretty far out there.
And guess what happened...?
10:13 AM | Comments (1) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Oh Crap
Disgusting... American interrogators were instructed in the ways of Chinese torture techniques.
Mr. Biderman’s 1957 article described “one form of torture” used by the Chinese as forcing American prisoners to stand “for exceedingly long periods,” sometimes in conditions of “extreme cold.” Such passive methods, he wrote, were more common than outright physical violence. Prolonged standing and exposure to cold have both been used by American military and C.I.A. interrogators against terrorist suspects.The chart also listed other techniques used by the Chinese, including “Semi-Starvation,” “Exploitation of Wounds,” and “Filthy, Infested Surroundings,” and with their effects: “Makes Victim Dependent on Interrogator,” “Weakens Mental and Physical Ability to Resist,” and “Reduces Prisoner to ‘Animal Level’ Concerns.”
"Exploitation of wounds." Even at the end, the Bush dark ride only seems to get darker.
UPDATE: For the record, Senator McCain supports allowing the CIA to use torture.
08:27 AM | Comments (1) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Nobody's Perfect, But Obama Is 'More' Perfect
In my December endorsement of Senator Obama on the Huffington Post, I made it clear that I didn't agree with him on every issue. This was another way of saying, "he's not as liberal as I am." What attracted me to supporting Senator Obama, however, wasn't that he was going to be this watershed liberal/progressive savior. Instead, supporting Senator Obama was always about, in the simplest terms possible, 1) having a president we could be proud of, 2) having a president who could inspire the necessary change we need to roll back the Bush darkness.
Don't be afraid of Senator Obama's political maneuvers here. He's in the midst of a campaign that hinges on a wide variety of familiar, but also brand new variables. And if we can keep our liberal eyeballs focussed on the big picture and hold on to the ideas that attracted us to the senator in the first place, he will make us proud next year.
Oliver Willis wrote a similar message here. And PsiFighter37 from Daily Kos reminds us:
Russ Feingold may have been the lone voice standing up to the first Patriot Act, but he voted for the confirmations of John Ashcroft and John Roberts.Paul Wellstone was a strong liberal voice in the Senate, yet he voted for DOMA and the Patriot Act.
Dennis Kucinich, aside from being on the political fringe, was a lifelong pro-lifer until he decided he wanted to run for president.
Chris Dodd may do quite well on constitutional matters, but he voted for the Iraqi war, the Patriot Act, and is too beholden to the big banks and the hedge funds which he oversees from the Senate Banking Committee.
Howard Dean may have generated the first Internet-powered campaign and spoke out forcefully against invading Iraq, but he was a centrist governor who reluctantly allowed for civil unions in Vermont (and only because by a court decision, he was forced to).
Sherrod Brown is widely liked for his populist pitch, but he voted for torture in 2006. [Bob adds: In my forthcoming book, I also note that Brown takes money from one of the nation's biggest polluters.]
I won't even bother to recount how many times Jim Webb or Jon Tester have disappointed us, despite getting substantial support from the local netroots scene to help them score upset victories in their respective primaries.
07:56 AM | Comments (3) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Morning Awesome
The Battle of the Batmans. Batmans? Or Batmen? Either way, this is awesome.
06:05 AM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
July 01, 2008
Hey Look! Polls!
Florida - PPP
Obama (D) 46%
McCain (R) 44%
Nice bounce for Senator Obama in this state.
Gallup - Daily tracking
Obama (D) 47%
McCain (R) 42%
Outside the margin.
Rasmussen - Daily tracking
Obama (D) 49%
McCain (R) 44%
Also outside the margin.
03:08 PM | Comments (4) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Open Thread! Go!
I have to draw some funny pictures in order to pay my mortgage, so take it away threadnauts!
01:46 PM | Comments (10) | Posted By Bob Cesca
More Good News
Senator Obama snubs the DLC.
This made me happy. I did one of these:
01:33 PM | Comments (4) | Posted By Bob Cesca
This Helps... A Lot
"Now, make no mistake, as someone who used to teach constitutional law, I believe deeply in the separation of church and state, but I don't believe this partnership will endanger that idea - so long as we follow a few basic principles.First, if you get a federal grant, you can't use that grant money to proselytize to the people you help and you can't discriminate against them - or against the people you hire - on the basis of their religion.
Second, federal dollars that go directly to churches, temples, and mosques can only be used on secular programs. And we'll also ensure that taxpayer dollars only go to those programs that actually work."
I feel better. Anytime a leading politician says the word "secular" in a positive way makes me smile. It's definitely not the Bush faith-based crap.
UPDATE: The Politico via Huffington:
Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) slammed President Bush's faith-based program as "a photo-op" and a failure on Tuesday, and said he will scrap the office and create a new Council for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships that would be a "critical" part of his administration.
Blood pressure... slowly returning... to normal.
01:16 PM | Comments (9) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Gettysburg, Day One
Today is the 145th anniversary of the first day of the battle of Gettysburg. It was this day that, in my opinion, truly decided the course of the battle and the tide of the war. With the the entire Confederate army moving towards Gettysburg from Chambersburg and Carlisle, Union cavalry commander General John Buford orchestrated what's called a "defense in depth" in order to prevent Lee's army from seizing the all-important high ground positions around the town -- Confederates had exploited similar positions for bloody victories at Fredericksburg and Second Manassas.
So the defense in depth... Buford created defensive positions west and north of town knowing that his small division of dismounted and outnumbered horsemen would not be able to hold against two or more Confederate corps (a single corp is composed of at least three divisions -- much larger than Buford's forces). But the lines would hold long enough for more federal infantry to come up from Emmitsburg. And by the time reinforcements would arrive, the Union lines would have been pushed back to the very desirable high ground south and west of Gettysburg -- but with the entire Union army finally having arrived to defend the new positions.
And that's what happened. The Confederates overwhelmed Buford's troops along with the Union First Corp and they fell back at nightfall to the advantageous high ground. Meanwhile, the Second Corp and 12th Corp had arrived on the field to fortify the hills, with more federal troops flooding into position every hour and into Day Two (a day in which my great-great grandfather helped to defend Little Round Top).
These Union high ground positions on Culp's Hill, Cemetary Hilll and the high ridges to the south would be nearly impossible to break for the rest of the battle. For the first time in the eastern theater of the war, the Union had attained a key battlefield advantage against General Lee -- and this advantage was the factor that, to me, ultimately decided the battle. So it can be said that General John Buford from Kentucky, a soldier whose name is often forgotten, saved the Union and helped to free an entire race of Americans that day.
Sam Elliot as General Buford in the movie Gettysburg waits for the First Corp to arrive.
10:16 AM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
GRRRR!
Reaching out to evangelical voters, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is announcing plans that would expand President Bush’s program steering federal social service dollars to religious groups and — in a move sure to cause controversy — support their ability to hire and fire based on faith.
Or how about this... "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion..."
But here we see the senator's pragmatism at work. Support for same-sex liberty (see below), balanced with a nod to the evangelicals. I don't like the faith-based crap, but if it helps to establish or restore civil liberties here, then okay. However, the gambit is, as Olbermann put it last night, that the senator risks being squeezed from both sides. Or as John Adams said, "The middle way is no way at all."
08:31 AM | Comments (11) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Keeping You Safe...Or Not
“The White House said Monday it agreed with an assessment by U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman, who warns terrorists could test the next president with an attack.”
These fear mongers are the worst of the worst. Either all of their anti-terror blustery hooplah has been effective against preventing another attack... or it hasn't.
08:03 AM | Comments (5) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Obama Supports Gay Marriage In California
California Republicans are trying to amend the state's constitution in order to, once again, ban gay marriage there. Senator Obama unequivocally opposes this effort of course. This is what the senator wrote to Alice B. Toklas of the LGBT Democratic Club:
As the Democratic nominee for President, I am proud to join with and support the LGBT community in an effort to set our nation on a course that recognizes LGBT Americans with full equality under the law. That is why I support extending fully equal rights and benefits to same sex couples under both state and federal law. That is why I support repealing the Defense of Marriage Act and the "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy, and the passage of laws to protect LGBT Americans from hate crimes and employment discrimination. And that is why I oppose the divisive and discriminatory efforts to amend the California Constitution, and similar efforts to amend the U.S. Constitution or those of other states.
That's pretty great. I repeat... We shouldn't worry about the extent of his liberalism.
06:21 AM | Comments (2) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Morning Awesome
The Lefortovo Tunnel in Russia -- it apparently runs under a river and when the temperature drops below zero, the road freezes.
06:02 AM | Comments (3) | Posted By Bob Cesca
June 30, 2008
War For Oil
A group of American advisers led by a small State Department team played an integral part in drawing up contracts between the Iraqi government and five major Western oil companies to develop some of the largest fields in Iraq, American officials say.
There you have it. After a long exile, Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total and BP are back in Iraq. And on the wings of no-bid contracts – that's right, sweetheart deals like those given Halliburton, KBR, Blackwater. The kind of deals you get only if you have friends in high places. And these war profiteers have friends in very high places.
And naturally everyone on the very serious cable news networks ignored this story and instead feigned outrage about General Clark's (truthful) remarks.
11:09 PM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Go, General Clark!
General Clark is on MSNBC standing his ground.
"This is about requirements to be president."
Right on.
Goddamn, the Republicans and the McBushies are being cry-babies about this thing. General Clark didn't question Senator McCain's service, heroism or the veracity of the senator's record (like the Swift Boaters did to Senator Kerry -- one of those Swift Boaters is now part of the McCain campaign). He honored Senator McCain's service.
But you know, there are hundreds of thousands of military veterans and quite a few POWs -- not all of them are automatically presidential material. It has nothing to do with their service or their sacrifice -- it's just that the presidency requires certain other qualities beyond military experience. I thought that was obvious, but I suppose the former NATO Supreme Allied Commander is totally off base about the military.
UPDATE: General Clark... "I'm not backing away from anything I said." Good. This is a silly, made-up corporate media controversy.
08:41 PM | Comments (7) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Fail!
I know there are probably about 2 people on this blog (including me) who dig pro cycling, but -- breaking news -- Floyd Landis is done.
“Consequently, Floyd Landis is disqualified from the Tour de France 2006 and is suspended for a period of two years starting from 30 January 2007. Floyd Landis has been ordered to pay the sum of $100,000 to the United States Anti-doping Agency (USADA) as a contribution towards its costs in the CAS arbitration.”
He's from Ephrata, which is about 10 miles from here, so I really, really have been trying to root for the local guy -- but jeebus. According to anti-doping people, his testosterone/epitestosterone level was 11 to 1 -- triple the normal level after Stage 17 in 2006. That doesn't happen naturally.
UPDATE: Landis escapes from the authorities:
06:46 PM | Comments (3) | Posted By Bob Cesca
The Last George Carlin Interview
Dated June 23, 2008 and it's one of the best interviews with Carlin I've ever read.
Anyone who labeled him as "the comedian who said dirty words" really missed out on one of America's great treasures.
06:06 PM | Comments (1) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Run Away! Run Away!
Senator Lieberman is making as ass of himself. Again.
"Our enemies will test the new president early."
Seriously. How do you sleep at night, Joe-Joe?
01:08 PM | Comments (4) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Cool!
Overheard on MSNBC just now:
"Republicans that I know of are surprisingly cool."
Right on. Cool.
08:38 AM | Comments (3) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Note To Republicans
This is Swift Boating:
As we're entering a week of attacks on General Clark and the Obama campaign, I thought I'd set the baseline for Swift Boating here. Those purple heart bandages were about the worst thing ever.
08:33 AM | Comments (5) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Two Questions About General Clark
Does he suddenly work for the Obama campaign?
And regardless, is anything he said not true?
Just asking.
08:20 AM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Morning Awesome
Born on this day... My brother Brian. Happy birthday, Kid.
08:17 AM | Comments (1) | Posted By Bob Cesca
June 29, 2008
Step Forward, You Coward
A freeper named "Andy Martin" is the culprit behind the "Who Is Barack Obama?" rumor e-mails according to investigator Dr. Danielle Allen.
So now we know.
I wonder when a very serious investigator will acknowledge that "Andy Martin" has been assisted by people like Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Mitt Romney and even TIME magazine's very serious Mark Halperin who once suggested that Senator McCain, "Emphasize Barack Hussein Obama’s unusual name and exotic background through a Manchurian Candidate prism."
10:51 AM | Comments (2) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Isn't He Cute
One thing I've noticed during the eulogizing of George Carlin on TV... Several times this week, I've seen a television pundit air a particularly biting clip containing some important social or political satire. Not one of Carlin's jokey jokes, but a really serious remark about religion or yuppies or voting. And then, when the clip ends, the pundit laughs out loud and reacts as if the clip contained a wacky, innocuous, jokey joke punchline.
It's a similar kind of condescension the very serious types show to bloggers. Aren't they cute with their outrage? Hoo-hoo! Then they throw to a story about a shark attack.
10:06 AM | Comments (1) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Morning Awesome
09:45 AM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
