Earlier this month, Joe “the Plumber” Wurzelbacher told Christianity Today that calling gay people “queer” “is not like a slur” because homosexuality is “strange and unusual.” Speaking of his gay “friends,” he also said, “I wouldn’t have them anywhere near my children.” Yesterday, a local ABC affiliate in Toledo, OH asked Wurzelbacher about his comment. “Men kissing each other…it throws me off,” he explained. “It’s not something I want around my family.” Later, while literally sitting in front of boxes containing numerous copies of his recently released book, Wurzelbacher said:
"You gotta at least respect that I’m not sitting there trying to make a buck off my 15 minutes. Do I want to make some money? Absolutely but I’m going to do it the right way. "
Friday, May 15, 2009
Your First Time Is Always A Bit Of A Shock
New Toys For Mr GB
CHICAGO — The presidential popularity of the Obamas' new puppy Bo is complete. The company that makes Beanie Babies has released a shaggy black and white version of the dog named "Bo" _ and he's selling fast.
The "Bo" doll's suggested price is $4.99. It auctioned Wednesday on eBay for between $5 and $139.95. Ty said the company will donate a portion of its profits from the "Bo" doll to local animal shelters.
Here's The Problem
Sullivan posted a reader response that did a nice job summarizing what the White House is likely thinking.
Imagine what such prosecutions would entail: years of courtroom drama, depositions, lawsuits and counter-suits; the long parade of powerful and high ranking ex- and current members of government, including a goodly number of Democrats, being called on the carpet and having to testify against one another; the enormous rancor and bitterness. This would be Watergate on steroids. And imagine the shot in the arm this would give the zombified Limbaugh Right.
The prosecutions you are asking for would simply swallow the Obama presidency whole. It is the kind of energy draining, oxygen consuming drama that is the nightmare of every president. It would come to define his presidency in the same way the Hostage Crisis defined Carter's and there is zero chance he will opt for this.
President Obama is making a realistic, cold, clear-eyed cost-benefit analysis. This is the choice: Does he fix the economy, fix healthcare, get a handle on the two wars he's dealing with, or does he prosecute Bush era war crimes? He has chosen his agenda and is asking us to choose that to.
Right. Obama, I suspect, just doesn't want to deal with any of this anymore; he has too much else to do. Investigating alleged Bush/Cheney crimes, prosecuting alleged Bush/Cheney crimes, releasing photographs documenting alleged Bush/Cheney crimes ... the president apparently doesn't see the utility in any of this.
Indeed, I've been trying to think about this from Obama's perspective. Bush left him with a generational economic crisis, an abysmal job market, a budget mess, a war in Iraq, a deteriorating war in Afghanistan, an nuclear-armed and unstable Pakistan, a nuclear-armed and nutty North Korea, a warming planet, a collapsing U.S. auto industry, an ineffective health care system, a massive debt, an absurd national energy framework, and a nation that has lost much of its global prestige.
Ready to dive in and start getting the nation back on track, the president is then told, "Wait, we have to deal with the consequences of the previous administration's alleged war crimes, too."
I can only assume the president wakes up every morning thinking, "God, I just hate that guy."
I honestly don't know what to think about this. But I am developing an awful sense that handling War Crimes issues while we're still at 'war' and while so much else is in crisis will create a 'The operation was successful but the Patient died though' scenario. I don't know....
US journalist freed from Iran arrives in Austria
VIENNA - American journalist Roxana Saberi arrived in Austria on Friday to recuperate after four months in an Iranian prison, and paid tribute to those who had supported her.
Saberi, smiling and looking well, was accompanied by her parents. She said she planned to spend several days in the Austrian capital so she could begin to come to terms with her ordeal.
By VERONIKA OLEKSYN Associated Press Writer
AP source: Rove to be interviewed on US attorneys
WASHINGTON - Former White House aide Karl Rove faces questions Friday from a special prosecutor weighing whether to bring criminal charges against Bush administration officials for the politically charged firing of U.S. attorneys, a lawyer familiar with the probe says.
Rove, the former adviser who engineered George W. Bush's successful campaigns in 2000 and 2004, has said he will cooperate with the prosecutor's investigation. The inquiry is being conducted to determine whether Bush administration officials or congressional Republicans should face criminal charges in the dismissal of nine U.S. attorneys in 2006.
By NEDRA PICKLER Associated Press Writer
Tribunals to return, detainees to have more rights
WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama will restart military tribunals for a small number of Guantanamo detainees, reviving a Bush-era trial system he once assailed as flawed but with new legal protections for terror suspects, U.S. officials said.
The changes to the system, which will affect a small number of detainees, will be announced Friday.
By LARA JAKES Associated Press Writer
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Keith Responds
“That was my first opportunity to take even a long weekend to mourn my mother’s death and deal with the many sad logistics subsequent to her sudden passing. The source of this story is a liar and those who spread it without seeking confirmation or refutation are beneath contempt.”
so there.
I'm Thinking That This Is How He Gets Fired
If you regularly tune in to Countdown with Keith Olbermann on MSNBC, you may remember that Olbermann was mysteriously absent from the show for three days at the end of April. But Olbermann didn't just "have the night off," as David Shuster, his fill-in, said on the air three evenings in a row. According to a source inside MSNBC, it was a bizarre temper tantrum on Olbermann's part that led him to storm off the set in protest. Even stranger: The drama was all Ben Affleck's fault.
Olbermann was not scheduled to take a vacation at the end of April. But he ended up missing three shows: Friday, April 17; Monday; April 20, and Tuesday, April 21. It's what happened on April 16, though, that prompted Olbermann to exit MSNBC's studios in such a rage.
According to a source at the network, Olbermann was livid when he learned that Rachel Maddow had booked Ben Affleck as a guest on her show. Olbermann, it turns out, had been interested in having Affleck on his show, too, and when he heard that Maddow's producers had secured the actor instead, he demanded that the interview be switched from Maddow's nine o'clock broadcast to his own an hour earlier. Maddow and her staff have been known to politely give in to Olbermann's whims in the past—it was Olbermann, after all, who helped bring Maddow to the network. This time, however, they didn't budge. ... Olbermann took the matter to senior management at MSNBC and NBC Universal and asked that they step in and "correct" the situation. That didn't happen, though, and Affleck went on Maddow's show as scheduled on Thursday, April 16. And Olbermann's three-day protest commenced the next day.
Olbermann's temper—and tendency to hold grudges—is nothing new. When Dan Abrams was the host of the 9pm broadcast, Olbermann famously refused to "toss," or introduce, Abrams on the air, as he now does with Maddow. At Olbermann's insistence, five seconds of footage of the exterior of 30 Rock appeared between the two programs instead. What did Abrams do to earn Olbermann's enmity? Nothing, really, although one popular rumor floating around MSNBC at the time was that they'd both asked out the same woman a number of years ago and she'd accepted Abrams's invite instead of Olbermann's.
That's So Barry
I think you hit the nail on the head. Obama does not make willy-nilly decisions. While the Administration’s decision to release the photos is certainly a great disappointment, I still think it may be a long play. That is, it’s a no-lose situation for him right now. He strengthens his position with the CIA and military at a time when he needs their full backing; he quells the media narrative that he won’t take on the Left of the Democratic Party; and if the ACLU or other groups win their battle to have the images released (which maybe he fills they will), he has reasonable distance from the decision. He is not going to lose the support of Democrats over this and he may gain some additional support from Independents and Republicans. This is a sound strategic decision for him.
Know Hope?
The Obama administration's new drug czar says he wants to banish the idea that the U.S. is fighting "a war on drugs," a move that would underscore a shift favoring treatment over incarceration in trying to reduce illicit drug use.
In his first interview since being confirmed to head the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, Gil Kerlikowske said Wednesday the bellicose analogy was a barrier to dealing with the nation's drug issues.
"Regardless of how you try to explain to people it's a 'war on drugs' or a 'war on a product,' people see a war as a war on them," he said. "We're not at war with people in this country."
Find The Americans
Why, American Men, Why?Please explain the appeal in choosing swimwear that makes you look like you are wearing Grandma's drapes while simultaneously making you feel like a bed that has been pissed in ... two hours ago.
NC, Wisconsin lawmakers pass smoking bans
Sent from Express News
RALEIGH, N.C. - Beer and cigarettes go together like cows and hay in hard-partying Wisconsin. North Carolina is the country's top tobacco-growing state.
Yet bars and restaurants in both states are poised to go smoke-free after their state Legislatures passed bans Wednesday. Both North Carolina Gov. Beverly Perdue and Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle have said they support the measures.
By EMERY P. DALESIO Associated Press Writer
Sony reports $1B annual loss, first in 14 years
TOKYO - Sony Corp. reported its first annual net loss in 14 years and forecast a bigger loss this year, saying the pressure from sliding sales, competition in gadget prices and a strong yen was expected to continue.
The Japanese electronics and entertainment company said Thursday it lost 165 billion yen ($1.72 billion) in the January-March quarter, compared to a 29 billion yen profit for the same period the previous year. That brought its full fiscal year loss to a 98.9 billion yen ($1 billion).
By YURI KAGEYAMA AP Business Writer
Senate weighs plan for government health insurance
WASHINGTON - Look out Aetna, Humana and UnitedHealthcare. Senators are meeting behind closed doors to consider whether the federal government should jump into the health insurance business.
The government already covers medical care for seniors, disabled people, poor families and many children. But coverage in those programs is restricted to people who meet certain qualifications, including age and income.
The issue now is whether middle-class workers and their families should be offered the choice of joining a government-sponsored plan similar to what they get through their employers.
If Congress agrees, a public plan would be part of the health overhaul legislation that lawmakers want to put on President Barack Obama's desk later this year.
Senators on the Finance Committee on Thursday are weighing several designs for a public plan. They also will be given the option of having no public plan at all.
That last option is the outcome the insurance industry is hoping for.
The companies say a government plan could put them out of business, and they've offered to submit to new consumer protections and help find $2 trillion in health care savings over 10 years in the hopes of warding off any government-sponsored plan. Business groups also are leery of the idea. Republicans already are saying a public plan would put bureaucrats, not doctors and patients, in control of life-and-death decisions.
But Democrats think the idea would be a political winner. Since Medicare - a government-run plan - is popular with seniors, they figure a public plan for the middle class would also find acceptance.
Two of the designs that senators will consider call for a plan that's like Medicare, except it would pay doctors and hospitals a little more generously. In one version, the public plan would be run directly by the government. The alternative would be to have it administered by regional middlemen under contract to the government.
A third idea would leave it up to each state to set up and run their own public insurance plans.
A fourth option, promoted by Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., would try to address concerns about unfair competition from a public plan.
Schumer's proposal would require the public plan to be financed by premiums, not tax dollars. It would have to follow the same solvency rules as private insurers, maintaining a reserve fund to cover liabilities. Doctors and hospitals would be free to participate in the plan, or opt out. And the public plan would have to operate under the same consumer protection rules as private insurers.
Schumer says he believes the public plan would set a high standard for quality. Since it wouldn't have to turn a profit, it could invest in prevention and wellness.
His idea is getting a close look also from a group of fiscally conservative Democrats in the House, known as the Blue Dogs.
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By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR Associated Press Writer
Treasury asks for control of derivatives market
WASHINGTON - The Obama administration is asking Congress to extend its oversight of the financial system to include the shadowy market of derivatives, the kind of complex financial instruments that helped bring down the giant insurer AIG.
In a two-page letter sent Wednesday to congressional leaders, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said he wants to create a central electronic-based system that would track the buying and selling of derivatives. He also wants to ensure that financial firms selling the instruments have enough capital on hand in case they default and subject them to stringent standards of conduct and new reporting requirements.
By ANNE FLAHERTY Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
No, Really, I'm Serious. And I'm Not Alone
obviously patience is necessary; and legislative work takes time; and there are real challenges on so many fronts, especially the economy and the legacy of war crimes and the permanently restive Iraqi and Afghan regions we are constantly in the process of liberating from themselves. No one expects a president to be grappling with all this early on, or, God help us, actually leading on civil rights. That's our job, not his.
But I have a sickeningly familiar feeling in my stomach, and the feeling deepens with every interaction with the Obama team on these issues. They want them to go away.
They want us to go away.
Here we are, in the summer of 2009, with gay servicemembers still being fired for the fact of their orientation. Here we are, with marriage rights spreading through the country and world and a president who cannot bring himself even to acknowledge these breakthroughs in civil rights, and having no plan in any distant future to do anything about it at a federal level. Here I am, facing a looming deadline to be forced to leave my American husband for good, and relocate abroad because the HIV travel and immigration ban remains in force and I have slowly run out of options (unlike most non-Americans with HIV who have no options at all).
And what is Obama doing about any of these things? What is he even intending at some point to do about these things? So far as I can read the administration, the answer is: nada. We're firing Arab linguists? ... We won't recognize in any way a tiny minority of legally married couples in several states because they're, ugh, gay? ...There's a ban on HIV-positive tourists and immigrants? ...
Please Please help keep pressure on the Administration.
This is DOUBLY True for our straight friends and allies. Make sure that this government knows that you're behind us.
Find Your Congressman Here.
Find Your Senator Here.
Write the White House Here. Twitterers can also use @whitehouse.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Not Even Joe?
Lieberman breaks with Cheney: 'We're not less safe'
Former Vice President Dick Cheney is wrong to suggest the U.S. is any less safe under the Obama administration, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) said Monday."No, we're not less safe," Lieberman said during an appearance on MSNBC, breaking with the previous administration whose foreign policy goals the centrist Democrat often supported.
"I think this administration has done everything it could," the Connecticut lawmaker continued. "On balance, we are as safe as we can possibly be."
Counting On You All
The problem with the arguments for inaction isn’t that they’re wrong, it’s that they prove too much. The military is always doing important work under difficult conditions. And the president is always dealing with a variety of hugely important issues. No day is ever going to be a convenient day for the brass to stop doing what they’re doing, and start dealing with the difficulties involved in getting soldiers accustomed to serving alongside openly gay and lesbian crew members. And no day is ever going to be a convenient day for the White House political team to pick a fight with the military. But that’s a reason to avoid delay, not to embrace it. The current policy is as wrong as it was during the campaign, and firing skilled and patriotic linguists is as insane today as it was during the campaign. [...]Instead of writing more letters to patriotic men and women in uniform who are tired of living a lie, it’s time for Obama to start writing letters to members of Congress urging them to change the rules.
Read the whole thing here.
