Awww Mom!

"El presidente de que?"

-- New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson's mother, quoted by the Chicago Tribune, when told by her son he was running for president. (Translation: President of what?)

Looking For America's Next Black President

Because Bill was the first ...

From WaPo

Blacks Shift To Obama, Poll Finds

The opening stages of the campaign for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination have produced a noticeable shift in sentiment among African American voters, who little more than a month ago heavily supported Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton but now favor the candidacy of Sen. Barack Obama.

Clinton, of New York, continues to lead Obama and other rivals in the Democratic contest, according to the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll. But her once-sizable margin over the freshman senator from Illinois was sliced in half during the past month largely because of Obama's growing support among black voters.

[...]

Clinton's and Obama's support among white voters changed little since December, but the shifts among black Democrats were dramatic. In December and January Post-ABC News polls, Clinton led Obama among African Americans by 60 percent to 20 percent. In the new poll, Obama held a narrow advantage among blacks, 44 percent to 33 percent. The shift came despite four in five blacks having a favorable impression of the New York senator.

African Americans view Clinton even more positively than they see Obama, but in the time since he began his campaign, his favorability rating rose significantly among blacks. In the latest poll, 70 percent of African Americans said they had a favorable impression of Obama, compared with 54 percent in December and January.

Overall, Clinton's favorability ratings dipped slightly from January, with 49 percent of Americans having a favorable impression and 48 percent an unfavorable impression. Obama's ratings among all Americans improved over the past month, with 53 percent saying they have a favorable impression and 30 percent saying they have an unfavorable impression

You Don't Think That They Love Bullying More Than God (to say nothing about aborted fetuses)?

From Washington Post:

In the Republican race, former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, who recently made clear his intentions to seek the presidency, has expanded his lead over Sen. John McCain of Arizona. Giuliani holds a 2 to 1 advantage over McCain among Republicans, according to the poll, more than tripling his margin of a month ago.

The principal reason was a shift among white evangelical Protestants, who now clearly favor Giuliani over McCain. Giuliani is doing well among this group of Americans despite his support of abortion rights and gay rights, two issues of great importance to religious conservatives. McCain opposes abortion rights.

Chi-Town Shocker

Mayor-for-life Daley only gets 70% of the vote. soviet Style Democracy is alive and well. (full disclosure: Of course I voted for him.)

From Abe Lincoln's favorite paper, the Chicago Trib:

With more than 95 percent of precincts reporting, Daley had received about 71 percent of the vote to defeat challengers Dorothy Brown and William "Dock" Walls. But Chicagoans apparently considered it a ho-hum election, with only about a third of the city's 1.4 million registered voters turning out to cast their ballots.

A jubilant Daley walked into a ballroom of the Chicago Hilton & Towers to the strains of "Takin' Care of Business" and, in a speech that lasted just a few minutes, claimed victory before excited supporters."

An election is not an end," Daley declared. "Instead it offers a new beginning. ... I want to thank the people of Chicago for their continued support."

It means the world to me. I will keep working just as hard as I can for the next four years to justify your faith and confidence in me."

Miguel del Valle, Daley's running mate for clerk, was victorious as well.Daley's other running mate, Stephanie Neely, won her race for city treasurer without opposition.

Just In Case You Wondered

From Political Wire:

A new survey of 1,112 international relations scholars by Foreign Policy magazine finds remarkable consistency of views on the Iraq war and its impact on the United States.

"Eighty-nine percent of scholars believe that the war will ultimately decrease U.S. security. Eighty-seven percent consider the conflict unjust, and 85 percent are pessimistic about the chances of achieving a stable democracy in Iraq in the next 10-15 years. Nearly all those who responded -- 96 percent -- view the United States as less respected today than in the past, a sentiment no doubt heavily influenced by the current war."

The scholars also rank the top foreign policy presidents in this order: Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Richard Nixon, Bill Clinton, and Ronald Reagan. Just eight of those surveyed put President Bush in the top group -- he ranks seventh from the bottom.

Can't We All Just Get Along?

February 27, 2007 -- THE fabled Van Halen reunion tour set for this summer has been derailed, thanks to a new set of ego clashes within the always-troubled band. David Lee Roth was to have hit the road with Eddie Van Halen for the first time since 1984, but concert promoter Live Nation has "shut down" the tour, says the L.A. Times. Roth told the paper: "We have fragile politics in Van Halen, please accept that as a partial answer." Roth's publicist told us she couldn't comment

Ahistorical Agent

This Sunday Condi talked with Chris Wallace on Faux News and dismissed the idea of a re-authorization for the war:

"If Congress were now to revise the Iraq authorization, she said, out loud, with an adult present: "… it would be like saying that after Adolf Hitler was overthrown, we needed to change, then, the resolution that allowed the United States to do that, so that we could deal with creating a stable environment in Europe after he was overthrown."

Of course, that's exactly what we did. It was called the Marshall Plan. Of course, Republicans weren't for it.

The Marshall Plan (from its enactment, officially the European Recovery Program [ERP]) was the primary plan of the United States for rebuilding the allied countries of Europe and repelling communism after World War II. The initiative was named for United States Secretary of State George Marshall and was largely the creation of State Department officials, especially William L. Clayton and George F. Kennan.

The reconstruction plan was developed at a meeting of the participating European states on July 12 1947. The Marshall Plan offered the same aid to the Soviet Union and its allies, if they would make political reforms and accept certain outside controls. The plan was in operation for four years beginning in July 1947. During that period some $13 billion of economic and technical assistance was given to help the recovery of the European countries that had joined in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.[1]

The New Bush Doctrine

Sseymour Hersh Outlines It Here

Democratic Values

It appears that if (a big if) Conservapeadia began as serious, it is going to end as the web site of choice for parodists.

On Gravity:

"The considerable disagreement between scientists about the theory of gravity suggests that, like evolution, the theory will eventually be replaced with a model which acknowledges God as the source of all things, the Prime Mover, and the only real fundamental force in the universe."

Oscars Reveal Widening Gap Between Best, Worst Dressed

LOS ANGELES—"For every Sarah Jessica Parker, there's an overdressed underclass of Olsens and Abduls," style expert Melissa Rivers said of the country's widening taste gap.

Just Like Ozzie And Harriet

Mr G. Baker sends us this report on love amongst the senior set:

February 24, 2007 -- KEITH Richards could teach Mick Jagger a thing or two about relationships. An observer over a recent weekend at Parrot Cay, where Richards and wife of 23 years Patti Hansen have a home, watched the couple as they sat for hours talking and laughing. Our witness said that, at first, she mistook the '80s supermodel for one of their daughters, "she's still so beautiful."

No Truth Is Inconvenient, Just Propaganda

Wikipedia, for all it's egalitarian democracy, is too liberal for the Capital 'C' Christians. The have come up with the Conservapeadia.

Why?

Conservapedia is a much-needed alternative to Wikipedia, which is increasingly anti-Christian and anti-American. On Wikipedia, many of the dates are provided in the anti-Christian "C.E." instead of "A.D.", which Conservapedia uses. Christianity receives no credit for the great advances and discoveries it inspired, such as those of the Renaissance. Read a list of many Examples of Bias in Wikipedia.

Or Have They?

Christianity is defended!

Did you know that faith is a uniquely Christian concept? Add to the explanation of what it means, and how it does not exist on other religions.

Judicial activism is defined!

"There are two major types of judicial activism practiced in the United States' court system:

1. Liberal judges striking down laws that uphold core conservative American values

2. Liberal judges refusing to strike down laws that subvert core conservative American values

The most famous example of this is Roe v. Wade. Other examples include Brown v Board of Education[1] and Loving v Virginia[2] which stripped state control over education and marriage, respectively, putting it in the hands of the federal government; McCreary County v. ACLU in which judges stripped free speech and religious freedom from McCreary County [3]; Hamdan v. Rumsfeld in which the Supreme Court sided with terrorists over the protection of the United States of America. [4] and Schiavo v. Schiavo, in which judges ordered the death of an innocent handicapped woman against the wishes of her parents and many pro-life supporters.[5]."

Cacti exposed as tools of the left wing conspiracy!

Cacti are those succelent plants which belong to the family Cactaceae. Every cactus is a succulent, but not every succulent is a cactus. The secularist view of the Cactaceae is that they are roughly two million years old, and that they have evolved exclusively in the new world. This view fails to explain, however, how it is that the Opuntia genus is native to the island of Opus, near Greece. Cacti are known for their high content of alkaloids, and have often been used in the sacramental rights of the Native Americans. Because of this, the early Catholic missionaries in the west thought the plants to be the work of Satan, and this is perhaps a preferable view to that of materialistic evolution since it is difficult to imagine how something like mescaline could have evolved by natural selection. Besides that, the psychoactive content of many cacti have inspired the writings of such ungodly men as Aldous Huxley and Albert Hoffman.

Several species of cactus are now endangered in the west due to "poaching" by collectors and invasive species. But, since Genesis suggests that man has been given dominion over all of the earth, the environmentalist concerns on this note are entirely inappropriate. It may also be that environmentalists, in addition to flauting the Word of God, are merely concerned about the effects that declining cactus populations will have on their supply of mescaline.

Is this for real? We look forward to your analysis.

Oscar Stuff

Ellen was O.K.

Pilobulous showed how whimsy can easily turn to Cheesey in the right hands;

When did Jodie Foster begin to look just like Jane Fonda?

In a proof that egalitarian democracy is not right for every situation, we had to sit through just tons of 'small awards' before being able to celibrate Alan Arkin's overdue award.

We don't watch a lot of movies here at GT12, but "fuck lots of women Dwayne; not just one woman, ALOT of women" may be our favorite line of the year.

Here we remember Arkin at his best in the original (and unnecessarily re-done) "The In-laws"

Yo, Dog

A good night for GT12 long-time loves.

We remember Forest Whitaker when he was a more thoughtful murderer.

From Ghost Dog: The Way Of The Samurai

"Try The Cock, You Know Where It's Been"

GT 12 smiles upon Dame Helen Mirren's Oscar nod. She is just the best. Let us remember her from a less regal movie, Greenaway's "The Cook, The Thief, His Wife And Her Lover".

From Wyoming A Vision Of The Future

... And a real Profile in Current Courage (and by the way, where was JFK during the McCarthy era? We know where Brother Bobby was... working with Tailgunner Joe):

I echo Representative Childers concerns, that testifying against this bill may cost me my seat. I have two of my precinct committee persons behind me today who are in favor of this bill, as I stand here opposed, and I understand that I may very well lose my election. It cost 4 moderate Republican Senators in Kansas their election last year for standing up on this same issue. But I tell myself that there are some issues that are greater than me, and I believe this is one of them. And if standing up for equal rights costs me my seat so be it. I will let history be my judge, and I can go back to my constituents and say I stood up for basic rights. I will tell my children that when this debate went on, I stood up for basic rights for people.

- Dan Zwonitzer, GOP legislator in Wyoming arguing in favor of Gay Marriage Equality and equal rights for everyone.

This is better than 98% of Democrats.

Read the whole speech here.

Mr. T.W. Says That You Need To Watch This

And he's right.

The Best National Anthem Ever? You Decide.

Marvin Gaye, 1983

It's Official!

Giuliani To Run For President Of 9/11

NEW YORK—Supporters of the former mayor praised Giuliani for his "early and unwavering commitment" to 9/11

Which Reminds Me ...

During those shell-shocked days of late Semptember, 2001 many many words were written about the attacks in NY and DC.

I say this with all seriousness and honesty: The Onion said it better than anybody. Click on the Headline to read the whole thing.

God Angrily Clarifies 'Don't Kill' Rule

NEW YORK-Responding to recent events on Earth, God, the omniscient creator-deity worshipped by billions of followers of various faiths for more than 6,000 years, angrily clarified His longtime stance against humans killing each other Monday.

What We Can Work On After We Get Done With Keeping Science Out Of The Classroom

Child-Safety Experts Call For Restrictions On Childhood Imagination

WASHINGTON, DC—"By constantly reminding kids that they're human children with no magical skills, you ensure that they will live a prolonged life," child-safety expert Kenneth McMillan said.

And What Exactly Are The Bush Twins Doing?

LONDON, England (CNN) -- The British police protection officer responsible for Prince Harry has flown to Iraq to begin making security arrangements for the royal soldier's deployment to Iraq amid fears for his safety, according to British press reports.

The Daily Mail newspaper claimed the prince is already referred to as a "bullet magnet" by fellow soldiers as his Blues and Royals regiment prepares for an anticipated six-month tour of Iraq.

Harry, third in line to the throne behind father Prince Charles and older brother Prince William, graduated from the prestigious Sandhurst military academy last year and is expected to accompany his troops to Iraq in April or May, an unidentified military source told CNN.

Prince Harry, known as Troop Leader Wales, has trained to command 11 soldiers and four Scimitar tanks. The Daily Mail claimed Harry threatened to quit the army if he was prevented from joining his men on operations.

One royal source told the newspaper it was a "distinct possibility" that Metropolitan Police representatives would continue to oversee Harry's security amid military concerns he could become a target for insurgents.

Rape: What Ya Gotta Do.

Speaking of George Bush, with whom Sharon developed a very close relationship, Uri Dan recalls that Sharon's delicacy made him reluctant to repeat what the president had told him when they discussed Osama bin Laden. Finally he relented. And here is what the leader of the Western world, valiant warrior in the battle of cultures, promised to do to bin Laden if he caught him: "I will screw him in the ass!"

From a review of a bio of Ariel Sharon

Once in graduate school, after I accused a professor of Homophobia, he offered a similar response regarding students who failed to recognize his compassion and liberalism.

I shit you not.

Can I See Some Numbers On This?

From a Time.come essay by Jim Wallis, leader of the religious left:

Evangelicals — especially the new generation of pastors and young people — are deserting the Religious Right in droves. The evangelical social agenda is now much broader and deeper, engaging issues like poverty and economic justice, global warming, HIV/AIDS, sex trafficking, genocide in Darfur and the ethics of the war in Iraq. Catholics are returning to their social teaching; mainline Protestants are asserting their faith more aggressively; a new generation of young black and Latino pastors are putting the focus on social justice; a Jewish renewal movement and more moderate Islam are also growing; and a whole new denomination has emerged, which might be called the "spiritual but not religious."

... People know now that God is neither a Republican nor a Democrat, and we are all learning that religion should not be in the pocket of any political party; it calls all of us to moral accountability.

01/20/09 Is A Long Time From Now

From Newsweek:

"At this point in time, do you personally wish that George W. Bush's presidency was over, or don't you feel this way?"


Wish It Was Over 58%

Don't FeelThis Way 37%

Unsure 5%

Oh Thanks, Just Thanks So Much

“Clinton wasn’t such a bad president,” Mr. Ruddy said. “In fact, he was a pretty good president in a lot of ways, and Dick feels that way today.”

Mr Ruddy is Christopher Ruddy and he once worked full-time for 'Dick' (Richard Mellon Scaife) investigating the Clintons and now runs a conservative online publication he co-owns with Mr. Scaife. Some of Chris and Dick's greatest hits: Whitewater, Paula Jones (from whence cam Monica), accusations of Clinton Drug Running and accusations of Clinton complicity (at the least) in the suicide of Vince Foster

As Hardaway As He (Or You) Wants To Be

So, another stupid athelete.

I'm with Dan Savage:

[The Hardaway Affair is] a perfect opportunity for gay groups and gay people to patiently make a this very important point: No one has to like homos. You can sign off on full civil rights for gays and lesbians without having to think we’re nifty or be all that comfortable with the idea of sharing a locker room with us. (Hell, I’m sometimes not comfortable sharing a locker room with other gay men.) The gay and lesbian civil rights movement would make more strides if we could separate the issue of liking us from the issue of not discriminating against us.

Personally, I’m not interested in being liked by the likes of Hardaway. And I sincerely believe that the gay rights movement’s Sally Field complex—“You like me, you really like me!”—is holding us back. We should be out there make this case to bigots like Hardaway and Washington and Dobson and Falwell and Musgrave: No one wants to change your mind about homosexuality. You can think we’re naughty, you can think we’re sinful. And you know what? You can sign off on granting us our full civil rights, tolerate our living openly, marrying, having families—and go right on hating us! Heck, you can go right on trying to talk us out of being gay.

And good luck with that.

But so long as we conflate liking us—or believing that Jeebus loves us too—with granting us our fundamental civil rights, we make winning those civil rights that much more difficult.

Of course as more and more of us live openly—with or without our full civil rights—the hatred and fear that people like Hardaway espouse becomes less prevalent and less socially acceptable. But not everyone is going to like us or approve of us, whatever the law says, however socially tolerant our society becomes. And it is precisely these people—the haters, the Hardaways—that have to be made to understand that no one is going to force them to change their minds.

Now We'll Get Ours

Saint Bill Maher Returns this week. Now The Dems are in power, now the Dems are targets.

Let us reflect on Bill, and ourselves (See Andrew Sullivan, Christine Whitman and Harry Belafonte all laugh together too!):



In Salon bill Discusses John McCain, a man he once said he would consider voting for. Bill of course has come around.

[Salon] So his soul has been sold?

It's been sold. I gave him a lot of latitude, because I do think he's a bright guy, and I think he's got anger, which I think is a good thing. I know that's something you could throw in his face -- "How can you be president? You're angry." -- it's about time we had someone with anger. How can you not be angry, is my question.

Yeah, he's basically selling himself off in little pieces. That's exactly what George Bush's father did -- you sell a little piece here, a little piece there and a little piece there, and after a while, there's no pieces left.

I gave McCain a wide berth, because I give anyone who's sacrificed for our country the way he did a lot of latitude, because I think all things being equal, somebody who has made that kind of sacrifice deserves a lot of free passes. But there are limits, and he's passed them.

He's out of free passes. It also makes me think that he knows better than I do how ridiculous the surge is, how badly the war has been run and how unwinnable it is. What mystifies me is that he and his neocon friends at AEI were saying we need at least 40,000 troops to secure Baghdad, and then they settled for 20,000.

Even that wouldn't work. It's so over. The country is ethnically cleansing itself. It's already a partitioned country. What are we fighting for over there? Why are we fighting to keep Iraq together? Iraq has only been a country since what, 1932? That's seven years younger than Paul Newman. Why are these drawn-on-a-map borders worth one more American life? I have no clue. And I don't think he does, either.

It doesn't seem like it.

No, it's all about honor. It's that nonsense we heard in Vietnam. We've already lost our honor over there. We lost it at Abu Ghraib, and a lot of other places. The honorable thing to do would be to acknowledge our mistake and get out.

A TurboDog For Me, Please

Let's Celebrate An American Genius

Lucinda Williams - Drunken Angel

I remember meeting Paul Westerberg; he had duct-taped shoes and he sure was drunk - GT12

Stupid Is Always More Dangerous Than Deceit

Start at GT12, but read it all here.

Washington D.C., February 14, 2007

- The U.S. Central Command's war plan for invading Iraq postulated in August 2002 that the U.S. would have only 5,000 troops left in Iraq as of December 2006, according to the Command's PowerPoint briefing slides, which were obtained through the Freedom of Information Act and are posted on the Web today by the National Security Archive (www.nsarchive.org).

The PowerPoint slides, prepared by CentCom planners for Gen. Tommy Franks under code name POLO STEP, for briefings during 2002 for President Bush, the NSC, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, the JCS, and Franks' commanders, refer to the "Phase IV" post-hostilities period as "UNKNOWN" and "months" in duration, but assume that U.S. forces would be almost completely "re-deployed" out of Iraq within 45 months of the invasion (i.e. December 2006).

"Completely unrealistic assumptions about a post-Saddam Iraq permeate these war plans," said National Security Archive Executive Director Thomas Blanton. "First, they assumed that a provisional government would be in place by 'D-Day', then that the Iraqis would stay in their garrisons and be reliable partners, and finally that the post-hostilities phase would be a matter of mere 'months'. All of these were delusions."

Orwell Had No Imagination

From Editor and publisher:

Tony Snow: 'I'm Not Sure Anything Went Wrong' In Iraq

By E&P Staff Published: February 15, 2007 3:55 PM ET

NEW YORK Surely, at this stage, the White House would be willing to admit that conditions in Iraq following the 2003 invasion haven't gone exactly according to plan? White House Press Secretary Tony Snow was asked about this today at the daily briefing, following the release of military documents from 2002 that revealed that the U.S. expected that by now a token American force of 5,000 would be able to keep things under control in Iraq -- and the occupation would require only a two or three month "stabilization" period.

"What went wrong?" the reporter reasonably asked.

Snow replied: "I'm not sure anything went wrong."

He elaborated: "At the beginning of the Civil War, people thought it would all be over at Manassas. It is very difficult -- no, Jessica, the fact is, a war is a big, complex thing. And what you're talking about is a 2002 assessment. We're now in the year 2007, and it is well-known by anybody who has studied any war that war plans immediately become moot upon the first contact with the enemy.

You must read the rest.

200 More 'Special Comments' In Our Future

Courtesy HufPo:

It's official: Keith Olbermann has re-upped with MSNBC for another four years at a rumored $4 million+ salary, according to Broadcasting & Cable. His current contract is generally believed to be in the neighborhood of $1 million.

The MSNBC-Olbermann contract negotiations came to attention in December 2006 in an LAT profile of Olbermann by Matea Gold, where Olbermann characterized his relationship with MSNBC as "they leave me alone, I leave them alone" (and echoed a few weeks later in an interview with Radar's Tyler Gray in which he implied that MSNBC GM Dan Abrams had little authority over him or his show). Olbermann was also rumored to have received "offers" from CNN.

Whatever rockiness may have been occurring on the inside, Olbermann and MSNBC were all smiles today during a conference call press conference between Olbermann and NBC News chief Steve Capus. Capus called "Countown" "the centerpiece for the resurgence and the real growth at MSNBC" and called it "a good day for MSNBC and a good day for NBC News." Olbermann agreed, saying that he had never seriously entertained going elsewhere and noting that, for its part, the network had made it clear that they wanted him to stay, with dialogue opened up the chain of command "right up to Jeff Zucker."

In January, "Countdown" had 715,500 total viewers and 283,000 viewers in the key 25-54 demo, up 85% and 89% respectively from the previous year. The spike in "Countdown" viewers is widely held to have been a contributing factor to MSNBC's growth this year, with spillover effects buoying other shows on the network.

Tell It To Goebbels

Just following orders....

"I kind of feel like I have been hung out to dry. People say that I am responsible for everything, as if I had the full point plan for what we are going to do. In fact, I was fairly low down on the organizational chart. [Those above me] have basically decided they are not going to talk about this anymore. It is as if, if all the flak falls on this guy, well, fine. I don't like it, but unlike them I think it is my responsibility to explain what we did and why,"

- John Yoo, architect and implementer of the Bush administration's torture policy.

Warning Signs

This world is so fucked up that I find myself repeatedly valuing Chris Matthews:

From today's Hardball:

... to Democratic strategist Steve McMahon, "Everybody in America knew we were going to war with Bush. He made it pretty clear from day one we were going to war. How come she still pretends that she didn't know he was going to war? It's like she didn't know anything about Bill and his behavior. How many times is she going to be confused by men?"

Slam Dunk!

The drumbeat grows...................:

Bush Says Iran is Source of Deadly Bombs

By DAVID STOUT
Published: February 14, 2007

WASHINGTON, Feb. 14 -- President Bush said today he is certain that elements of the Iranian government are supplying deadly roadside bombs that kill American troops in Iraq, even if the innermost circle of the government is not involved.

Mr. Bush said it had been established beyond a doubt that a branch of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps known as the Quds Force is supplying Shiite groups inside Iraq with particularly deadly, Iranian-designed weapons known as explosively formed penetrators, or E.F.P.s.

“We know that,” Mr. Bush said at a White House news conference

read the rest at NYTimes.

Jesus' Love

Perhaps you've heard about the Edward's Blogger Controversy. Johnny hired a couple of bloggers who have said some not nice things about religion, particularly upsetting self appointed (and yet always on TV) Catholic spokesman Bill Donohue.

The Bloggers have resigned, I think because they saw the error of their sinful ways after receiving highly spiritual messages like these:

Andy Driggers from Dallas, TX was also so moved by my criticisms of religious anti-choicers, that he wrote:
Problem with women like you, you just need a good fucking from a real man! Living in Texas myself, I know you haven't found that real Texan yet. But once your liberal pro feminist ass gets a real good fucking, you might see the light. Until then, enjoy your battery operated toys b/c most real men wouldn't want to give you the fucking you deserve b/c the shit that would come out of you ears.

[...]

An example, from Paul Bernard of Scottsdale, AZ:
i like the way you trash talk i don't particularly want to have sex with you but i would like a blow job.

[...]

Bud Phelps, another person who opposes "bigotry", as defined by right wing shill Bill Donohue.
It's just too bad your mother didn't abort you. You are nothing more than a filthy mouth slut. I bet a couple of years in Iraq being raped and beaten daily would help you appreciate America a little. Need a plane ticket ?

[...]

Romanco De Leone was also moved by Donohue's poignant claims about insulating the Catholic church from legitimate criticisms.
YOU RACIST WHORE. FAT UGLY BITCH. SUCK MY LONG COCK ASSHOLE I HOPE YOU KIDS NEVER LIVE AND YOUR PARENTS DIE A TRAGIC DEATH YOU ASSHOLE BITCH!I HOPE YOUR WOMB IS BARREN AND YOUR CAREER PLUMMETS TO HELL YOU BITCH

Von Der Grossen Apfel

Andrew Sullivan has been showing a real weakness for Rudy's candidacy. One his readers tries to set him, uh, straight:

It's very far out and lots of things can happen, but here are some initial thoughts about Rudy from a longtime New Yorker who witnessed firsthand what he did (and didn't do) for New York.

1. If you thought Bush was bad with cronyism, wait till this one gets in power. Remember the one protege of his he got into a high government office? Bernie Kerick? That's just the tip of the iceberg. Rudy runs a multimillion-dollar consulting firm whose essential mission is to profit off of 9/11. He's got his finger in a lot of military-industrial pies. If he gets in, watch for a DoD and a DoJ stuffed full of lackeys and yes-men.

2. If you think Bush is insular, wait till this one gets in power. When Rudy was mayor of New York, he absolutely refused to allow anyone around him who disagreed with him in the slightest. He publicly humiliated every Board of Ed president who uttered a peep against him. He rammed through three police commissioners before he found one who knew how to say "Yes, Rudy."

3. If you think Bush is a ham-handed diplomat, wait till this one gets in power. This is, after all, a man who led a personal crusade against hot-dog vendors. This is a man who criticized the parents of kids who got killed by cops for letting them out on the street past 10. This is a man who publicly lectured Arafat (which was sort of fun, but he *was* just a Mayor, not Pope Rudolfus IV). So if you've been entertained by Bush's excruciating gaffes internationally, you'll have 4 more years of fun.

and finally...

Do you honestly think that people will elect a man who wants to keep us in Iraq for four more years? Americans might vote for victory but they won't vote to throw money and lives away just so we can save face. Americans know (and you know, and I know) that "victory" just isn't possible in Iraq, just as it wasn't possible in Vietnam.
Oh, and then there's the fact that he's cavalier about torture, married his cousin, announced his divorce at a press conference, looks creepy and has all the personal warmth of Torquemada.

I know that I personally try to add to Sully's in-box every couple of days with similar, if not so well put, reminders.

And don't even get me started about how much leadership it showed to place your city's emergency management office in the building most likely to be a terrorist target.

A Sort Of Appreciation

Today Al Franken leaves the world of Progressive radio and enters the world of electoral politics.

Al will be remembered fondly here at GT12 for providing a face, buzz and a flagship program for Air America which then gave progressive radio a center of gravity around which great non-AA shows like Ed Schultz, Stephanie Miller and Bill Press could coalesce (and show AA what real radio sounded like).

Al’s show was all about the guests and they were great. We will miss Jonathon Alter, Lawrence O’Donnell, Norm Ornstein and very very super much, Tom Oliphant.

We long ago of course began missing Al’s humor, which seemed to disappear about two days into Air America’s life. As a radio guy Al was just awful and got progressively (of course) worse. Only Janeane Garafolo could out-whine and out-condescend him. I began to remember Mara Tapp, a horrible Host of a local NPR show here back in the 80’s.. Mara’s dripping upper middle class faux-intellectual condescension made me embarrassed to listen, let alone call myself a liberal.

Al’s growing pedanticism will probably serve him well in the Senate. Of course, he’s going to have to get people to like him again.

By Al, and thanks for all the other good shows.

Meanwhile, Back At CNN

Sweet Fucking Jesus M Buddha....

This, via Raw Story

A former top Bush administration official for Persian Gulf affairs has said in an interview this morning on CNN that the US may be trying to spark a conflict with Iran.

Hillary Mann is the former National Security Council Director for Iranian and Persian Gulf Affairs. She warned in the interview that the recent flare up between Iran and the US over the former's alleged assistance to Shi'a militias results from a US desire to provoke conflict with the Iranians.

"They're trying to push a provocative, accidental conflict," Mann said.

She added that the administration hopes to goad Iran into an overreaction so that it can have justification to carry out "limited strikes" against nuclear infrastructure and Revolutionary Guards headquarters buildings in Iran.

Last December, Mann was the co-author with Flynt Leverett, formerly the senior director for Middle East affairs on the National Security Council, of an op-ed that identified failings in the Bush administration's Iran policy. The Bush administration redacted large portions of the editorial, which the New York Times then published in partially blacked out form. RAW STORY published an attempt at a decoding of the contents of Mann and Leverett's op-ed.

Insane MF

From ThinkProgress

Top Cheney Aide: 2007 Is ‘The Year Of Iran,’ U.S. Attack ‘A Real Possibility’

As the Bush administration ratchets up pressure on Iran, Vice President Cheney’s top national security aide has been quoted by the Washington Post — in the 10th paragraph on page A18 — that war with Iran is “a real possibility” this year:

Some senior administration officials still relish the notion of a direct confrontation. One ambassador in Washington said he was taken aback when John Hannah, Vice President Cheney’s national security adviser, said during a recent meeting that the administration considers 2007 “the year of Iran” and indicated that a U.S. attack was a real possibility. Hannah declined to be interviewed for this article.

Those with knowledge of the build-up to war in Iraq will recognize John Hannah’s name. In Bush’s second term, he replaced Scooter Libby as the head of Cheney’s national security staff. During Bush’s first term, he personally wrote the first draft of the infamous speech that Secretary of State Colin Powell delivered to the United Nations, according to Powell’s former aide Lawrence Wilkerson.

Moreover, Hannah was a top source for false pre-war intelligence from Iraqi exiles that was “stovepiped” past the intelligence agencies and sent directly to the White House:

Never Forget

"The idea that we're now supposed to spend the time between today and Iowa having a debate about whether or not Clinton backed a pre-emptive military attack on Iraq is a little bit insane.

The war occurred, it occurred with her support, and it was a pre-emptive war. I don't think this is a difficult question,"

- Matt Yglesias.

A Thought From Springfield IL

"Allow the President to invade a neighboring nation whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such purpose, and you allow him to make war at pleasure. Study to see if you can fix any limit to his power in this respect, after having given him so much as you propose. If to-day he should choose to say he thinks it necessary to invade Canada to prevent the British from invading us, how could you stop him? You may say to him, — 'I see no probability of the British invading us;' but he will say to you, 'Be silent: I see it, if you don't.'

"The provision of the Constitution giving the war making power to Congress was dictated, as I understand it, by the following reasons: Kings had always been involving and impoverishing their people in wars, pretending generally, if not always, that the good of the people was the object. This our convention understood to be the most oppressive of all kingly oppressions, and they resolved to so frame the Constitution that no one man should hold the power of bringing this oppression upon us. But your view destroys the whole matter, and places our President where kings have always stood,"

- Abraham Lincoln, in a letter to William H. Herndon, Feb. 15, 1848.

So, It's Not About You?

Quoting Hillary Clinton, Obama said “I’m in it –“ he began, then echoed members of the audience in a Waterloo gymnasium: “To win it.”

Then he quieted the crowd.“Hold on,” he said. “Yes I want to win. But I’m in it to transform the country.”

On Message

You know, Hillary could never generate this smart a comment in 92, or probably now.

Michelle Obama, [yesterday] who mounts a defense of people who question Obama's experience.

It is "his time," she said.

"And don't be fooled by people who claim that it is not his time. We are all too familiar with those baseless claims. We've heard this spewed from the lips of rivals.....every phase of our journey, he is not experienced enough, he should wait his turn. He is too young, he is not black enough, he is not whiteenough...he is too articulate. He can't raise the money. Don't be fooled by these claims because they are mere distractions. Distractions to keep us focused once again on what is not possible. Distractions that keep us mired in fear so that we are unable to focus on the real issues that are dragging us down as a nation. What we need right now is a leader. And a leader is more than a set of finite experiences."

Only in the world of politics, Michelle Obama said, after she highlighted Obama's resume "would insiders dare to look at those accomplishments and dare to have the audacity to say he is not ready."

Out Of The Pocket

It appears that someone's excursions into faux-medieval (and faux-intellectual) music has left him unable to find a groove and actually play in the pocket.

What shit they were last night.

Clintonesque?

Within 24 hours of receiving the first attack of his Presidential Campaign (albeit from an Aussie), Obama responds with, well, strength and timing reminiscent of the Clinton '92 War Room.

"I think it's flattering that one of George Bush's allies on the other side of the world started attacking me the day after I announced," Mr Obama told reporters in the mid-western US state of Iowa.

"I would also note that we have close to 140,000 troops in Iraq, and my understanding is Mr Howard has deployed 1,400, so if he is ... to fight the good fight in Iraq, I would suggest that he calls up another 20,000 Australians and sends them to Iraq.

O, Carol

Carol Marin, investigative reporting icon here, weighs in (in our other right-wing leaning daily):

... Critics will argue that Obama's declaration of presidential intent was long on inspiration but short on specifics.

And maybe that's right.

But in this country, where inspiration, like affordable health care, has been steadily slipping away, a dose of hope sure doesn't hurt.

A colleague of mine who listened to Obama's speech said he was feeling a little guilty.
Why, he wondered, did Obama's lack of government experience (eight years in the state Senate, just two in the U.S. Senate) not bother him the way George W. Bush's inexperience (eight years as governor) had?

Maybe because Obama sounds smart the way Bush never did. Maybe because down-home folksiness with a John Wayne swagger no longer flies with us, not in the wake of a war that won't end.

Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton managed the merger of style with substance. And though Reagan haters and Clinton bashers won't buy what I'm about to say, each man could lift the level of our national conversation.

That, too, is Obama's gift.

And Hillary Clinton's challenge.

From Lincoln's Paper

John Kass, of the Chicago Tribune (which has never endorsed a Democratic candidate in it's 150+ year history), points out the flaws ... and probably does as much as anybody to show how few and how weak the blemishes currently are.

All of this is compelling. Americans desire a fresh candidate, someone to believe in, someone if not exactly sinless, then almost. Campaign media advisers deftly (or is that cynically?) manipulate this need, their clients marching toward Iowa.Obama is not at fault. He seeks the White House and could become a fine president. Right now, he must sell himself as the Democratic antidote to Sen. Hillary Clinton. That's his job, and he's doing it well. But what isn't mentioned this weekend is part of the story too.

He transcends race? How many times have you heard or read that slogan--hundreds, thousands of times? What does it mean, exactly? It is politely vague, yet if Obama were not of African descent, would foreign journalists flock to Springfield?

What if his name were, say, Michael Brannigan or Chris Rypczinski? And he spent years in the Illinois legislature taking orders from the wily state Senate Democratic boss Emil Jones. (Jones once double-dipped adroitly as a city sewer inspector, making him the only sewer inspector in alligator shoes and camel-hair coat.)

And later, say, Brannigan/Rypczinski ran for the U.S. Senate, as other candidates imploded from sex scandals and allegations of spousal abuse, and Brannigan /Rypczinski were elected accidental senator from Illinois? Could either one convince you they were transcending the old politics?

Another aspect often ignored in the approved national narrative is Obama's perplexing endorsement of Chicago Mayor Richard Daley. As the national Democratic Party's anti-corruption poster child, Obama correctly lectured Republicans on corruption scandals that would help cost them control of Congress.

Daley's people were all around him by then, the mayor's brother Bill, and their media consultant, David Axelrod, who also is Obama's media guy. The Daley administration in Chicago is one of the most corrupt in history, roiling with federal investigations, convictions of top aides, convictions of Outfit-connected mayoral cronies, scandals costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. And amazingly, the uncynical Obama endorsed Daley's re-election bid.

Yet this will most likely be ignored in national accounts, politely avoided by design. The heroically dead Lincoln will crowd out Chicago's living and powerful Democratic machine mayor in the weekend's symbolism. The mention of indicted influence peddler Tony Rezko will most likely be avoided too.

"Rezko? Who is Tony Rezko?" asked Guillaume Serina.For a second I thought Serina worked for The New York Times. But I wrote Rezko's name out for him, anyway.

What Will Murdoch Do?

This from Michael Goodwin, of Rupert Murdoch's New York Daily News (which, admittedly has not been a Hillary support):

Fresh face in D.C. has made a believer out of me

Color me convinced. I believe Barack Obama can be more than just fodder to be chewed up and spit out by Hillary Clinton's political machine. The senator from Illinois is the one rival who could actually take the Democratic nomination from her.

He's everything she's not. He's warm, she's cold. He's a great speaker, even off-the-cuff. She's usually wooden and sticks to the calculated message. He's the fresh-faced outsider. She's the ultimate insider. He talks about uniting America across racial and political lines. She's a born-to-divide partisan. Her sense of inevitability makes you tired, Obama's charisma makes you pay attention.

To Do List

Fineman on Obama

... it was more than worth the brief discomfort to witness the scene: the lean figure of Obama, framed by the Greek revival capitol, its worn limestone golden in the morning sun; the young, multi-cultural crowd cheering for him; the echoes of Lincoln and the Heartland; the whistles of the freight trains.

America at its best.

It was inspiring and humbling. This, after all, was the very place in which Lincoln had warned that a nation divided against itself could not stand. It was here that the age-old argument over race reached toward its crescendo. And it is here that Obama began a campaign that might end that argument altogether-or so we can hope.

And yet if Obama’s candidacy winds up being about race and history, he won’t be the Democratic presidential nominee, let alone the 44th president of the United States, for he will have failed in his stated mission to unite the country.

He has to be about the future, and he knows it. He made several bold assertions about himself and his campaign as harbingers of change. His challenge now is to prove that the assertions are true, that they make sense and that they can help him win.

Let’s look at some of them:

...younger voters are notorious for not turning out to vote. If this strategic appeal is going to work, Obama is going to have to translate buzz into buzz saw, cutting through the apathy and inertia of younger voters on election day.The early Internet traffic is encouraging.

The new Web site his campaign went up with on the day of his announcement is state-of-the-art. More interesting, and perhaps important, has been the Obama traffic on Facebook. The campaign’s communications chief, Robert Gibbs, told me that the leading group on that site now has an astonishing 250,000 members. The second-largest has more than 50,000. Those people need to be converted into real-world activists.

...

Obama wants to run as a reformer, someone wary of the old ways and the old cash transactions. But however much he relies on the internet for small donations, he is going to need as much help from the “bundlers” as he can get his hands on-if for no other reason than Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is out to lock up the nomination early by building an overwhelming cash advantage.

Everybody knows what Hillary is up to—and no one will be surprised that the people who give money to her campaign have agendas of their own. That’s business as usual. Obama is promising something different, but can he really be different?

...

My sense from having spent some time with him is that he is a pretty strong guy—brilliant, something of a dreamer, but also someone who was taught early on (by his Indonesian step-father) to defend himself physically and who did not mind a school brawl when one came his way in a teenager in Hawaii.

He also likes to be liked. He likes to be seen as the inclusive one, the imperturbable one - the one with the best grades and the best manners. The good grandson.

If he wants to lead, he is going to have to get down and get nasty with Hillary, Edwards and the rest. He is going to have to say not only why he is qualified by his life and resume, but why they don’t measure up to the country’s needs.

He can’t just rely on the “better angels of our nature,” as Lincoln said in his first inaugural address. Obama is going to have to do something else Lincoln did: declare war. In Obama’s generation that means a three-front battle against American policy in Iraq, the Democratic establishment (Hillary) and against the status quo in Washington.

Less Is More

Frank Rich, who's right so often it's scarey, sizes up Obama:

Stop Him Before He Gets More Experience

... at least one rap against him can promptly be laid to rest: his lack of experience. If time in the United States Senate is what counts for presidential seasoning, maybe his two years’ worth is already too much. Better he get out now, before there’s another embarrassing nonvote on a nonbinding measure about what will soon be a four-year-old war.

... The day after the resolution debacle, I spoke with Senator Obama about the war and about his candidacy. Since we talked by phone, I can’t swear he was clean, but he was definitely articulate. He doesn’t yet sound as completely scripted as his opponents — though some talking-point-itis is creeping in — and he isn’t remotely defensive as he shrugs off the race contretemps du jour prompted by his White House run. Not that he’s all sweetness and light. “If the criterion is how long you’ve been in Washington, then we should just go ahead and assign Joe Biden or Chris Dodd the nomination,” he said. “What people are looking for is judgment.”

What Mr. Obama did not have to say is that he had the judgment about Iraq that his rivals lacked. As an Illinois state senator with no access to intelligence reports, he recognized in October 2002 that administration claims of Saddam’s “imminent and direct threat to the United States” were hype and foresaw that an American occupation of Iraq would be of “undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences.” Nor can he be pilloried as soft on terrorism by the Cheney-Lieberman axis of neo-McCarthyism. “I don’t oppose all wars,” he said in the same Chicago speech. “What I am opposed to is a dumb war.”

... Washington’s conventional wisdom has it that the worse things go in the war, the more voters will want to stick with the tried and true: Clinton, McCain, Giuliani. But as Mr. Obama reminds us, “Nobody had better Washington résumés than Dick Cheney or Donald Rumsfeld.” In the wake of the catastrophe they and their enablers in both parties have made, the inexperienced should have a crack at inheriting the earth, especially if they’re clean.

Pass The Torch

Hope and A New Way ...

Why not?

Say what you will about Ronald Reagan, he brought hope to lots of people (none that I knew, but we're fools to deny it) when the country was feeling defeated ...

Who else offers this, on either side?

Chris Matthews, Lynn Sweet and Howard Fineman covered Obama's speech and you could feel their desire for what Barack's offering. Matthews struggled mightily to provide some objective analysis of the junior senator's chances but Sweet and Howie were having none of Matthews' attempts to defocus their elation and Chris quickly (and, I think, happily) jettisoned his Hardball posture for one of Civics Geek Witnessing the Rebirth of the American Dream.

Can Obama do that for the voters?

Can anybody else?

I don't know about my head, but my heart says this is the first guy in my life who I can unambivalently support. I want my Reagan.

The Highlights:

Each and every time, a new generation has risen up and done what's needed to be done. Today we are called once more - and it is time for our generation to answer that call.

For that is our unyielding faith - that in the face of impossible odds, people who love their country can change it.

That's what Abraham Lincoln understood. He had his doubts. He had his defeats. He had his setbacks. But through his will and his words, he moved a nation and helped free a people. It is because of the millions who rallied to his cause that we are no longer divided, North and South, slave and free. It is because men and women of every race, from every walk of life, continued to march for freedom long after Lincoln was laid to rest, that today we have the chance to face the challenges of this millennium together, as one people - as Americans.

All of us know what those challenges are today - a war with no end, a dependence on oil that threatens our future, schools where too many children aren't learning, and families struggling paycheck to paycheck despite working as hard as they can. We know the challenges. We've heard them. We've talked about them for years.
What's stopped us from meeting these challenges is not the absence of sound policies and sensible plans. What's stopped us is the failure of leadership, the smallness of our politics - the ease with which we're distracted by the petty and trivial, our chronic avoidance of tough decisions, our preference for scoring cheap political points instead of rolling up our sleeves and building a working consensus to tackle big problems.

...

Let us be the generation that reshapes our economy to compete in the digital age.

Let's set high standards for our schools and give them the resources they need to succeed.

Let's recruit a new army of teachers, and give them better pay and more support in exchange for more accountability.

Let's make college more affordable, and let's invest in scientific research, and let's lay down broadband lines through the heart of inner cities and rural towns all across America.

And as our economy changes, let's be the generation that ensures our nation's workers are sharing in our prosperity. Let's protect the hard-earned benefits their companies have promised. Let's make it possible for hardworking Americans to save for retirement. And let's allow our unions and their organizers to lift up this country's middle-class again.

Let's be the generation that ends poverty in America. Every single person willing to work should be able to get job training that leads to a job, and earn a living wage that can pay the bills, and afford child care so their kids have a safe place to go when they work. Let's do this.

Let's be the generation that finally tackles our health care crisis. We can control costs by focusing on prevention, by providing better treatment to the chronically ill, and using technology to cut the bureaucracy. Let's be the generation that says right here, right now, that we will have universal health care in America by the end of the next president's first term.

Let's be the generation that finally frees America from the tyranny of oil. We can harness homegrown, alternative fuels like ethanol and spur the production of more fuel-efficient cars. We can set up a system for capping greenhouse gases. We can turn this crisis of global warming into a moment of opportunity for innovation, and job creation, and an incentive for businesses that will serve as a model for the world.

Let's be the generation that makes future generations proud of what we did here.

Most of all, let's be the generation that never forgets what happened on that September day and confront the terrorists with everything we've got. Politics doesn't have to divide us on this anymore - we can work together to keep our country safe. I've worked with Republican Senator Dick Lugar to pass a law that will secure and destroy some of the world's deadliest, unguarded weapons. We can work together to track terrorists down with a stronger military, we can tighten the net around their finances, and we can improve our intelligence capabilities. But let us also understand that ultimate victory against our enemies will come only by rebuilding our alliances and exporting those ideals that bring hope and opportunity to millions around the globe.

...

And if you will join me in this improbable quest, if you feel destiny calling, and see as I see, a future of endless possibility stretching before us; if you sense, as I sense, that the time is now to shake off our slumber, and slough off our fear, and make good on the debt we owe past and future generations, then I'm ready to take up the cause, and march with you, and work with you. Together, starting today, let us finish the work that needs to be done, and usher in a new birth of freedom on this Earth.

Who's Elite?

"Like the Whig gentry who were the Founders, I loathe populism. Most especially in the form of populist religion, i.e., the current pestiferous bible-banging evangelicals, whom I regard as organized ignorance, a menace to public health, to science, to medicine, to serious Western religion, to intellect and indeed to sanity. Evangelicalism, driven by emotion, and not creedal, is thoroughly erratic and by its nature cannot be conservative.

My conservatism is aristocratic in spirit, anti-populist and rooted in the Northeast. It is Burke brought up to date. A ‘social conservative’ in my view is not a moral authoritarian Evangelical who wants to push people around, but an American gentleman, conservative in a social sense. He has gone to a good school, maybe shops at J. Press, maybe plays tennis or golf, and drinks either Bombay or Beefeater martinis, or maybe Dewar's on the rocks, or both,"

- Jeffrey Hart, one of the eminences grises of the American conservative movement (and teacher of Dinesh D'Souza).