Bush opened his mouth today before the Israeli Knesset, and said this little gem:

Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along. We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: “Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided.” We have an obligation to call this what it is – the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history.  Read more 

Highly credible Cheetopia Obama uber-fan Kid Oakland’s gone off the deep end (again). Sad, really:

against Hillary: this is personal

Oh, this is new? Film at 11…

Why has the gas tax pander set me off so much?

Let me give you five reasons: Dominic, Louise, Catherine, Will and Oliver. They are ages 6, 4, 4, 2 and 9 months respectively. I happen to care about them a great deal.

Let me guess. Hillary’s going to kill them and eat them? Nice work on the subliminal trope, there, kid.

My nieces and nephews are truly children of the 21st Century. They will see the legacy of the environmental policies we enact…right now. They will also live to see the legacy of all that we don’t do, as well.

We don’t have time for a “gas tax holiday.” We all know that’s true.

What you mean “we,” Obama Fan? Here’s what the dull normals “know” is true:  Read more 

Let’s peer into the future and say “What if?”

What if we Democrats work out our differences, unite behind two candidates for President and Vice President, and head for victory in November? Let’s assume we increase our majority in the House of Representatives, and gain an unlikely six net seats in the Senate, giving us an effective 55-45 majority. “Your” candidate is now President. Will we all live happily ever after?

Not hardly.  Read more 

If I read one more otherwise smart person* confuse “elite” with “elitism,” I’m going to scream. I don’t care which side of cling-gate** you come down on, there’s no need to mangle the English language.

From the online Oxford Dictionary (because I don’t have my awesome hardback available):

elite:

• noun 1 a group of people regarded as the best in a particular society or organization. 2 a size of letter in typewriting, with 12 characters to the inch (about 4.7 to the centimetre).

elitism  Read more 

Or not.

Kid Oakland, he of the “casual poetry” of Obama-fame (see example) is shocked, shocked that purging all the [not Obama] supporters from The Obama 527 Formerly Known As Daily Kos could have real life consequences:

There was a moment that gave me pause. I was having a friendly conversation with three SoCal kossacks in the hallway on Saturday when two Los Angeles-based delegates approached. These women, both experienced delegates and friendly Clinton supporters, were happy to chat about what we had in common: blog reading, support for Debra Bowen, curiosity about the Migden/Leno battle and the 2010 governor’s race. One of the women, wearing a Hillary button, went out of her way to compliment our group of younger delegates (wearing Obama buttons aside from me…a press pass guy) for attending the convention. I asked her if she read DailyKos and she replied curtly:

“I’m on strike from that blog.”

That surprised me.

That would be because you’re not talking to half the party—and you’re only reading the rec list at Kos. (It’s also likely that she only spoke to you because you weren’t wearing an Obama badge. Because otherwise why invite the abuse. Eh?)

I’ve met thousands of kossacks whether at Las Vegas or Chicago or events here in California, and I’ve never once had a negative experience asking if someone reads DailyKos. … Obama’s line about “Friends before and friends afterwards” is true.

That’s what struck me with that comment. I think we’ve all got to take a step back and think about that for a second. This was a woman who was cordial and welcoming and yet she felt estranged from DailyKos. The strike shut down the conversation.

Oh, it was the strike that shut down the “conversation”? What is this, the management perspective? I don’t think so. Maybe I got the title of the post wrong, ’cause I left out the “not” before “getting it.” I guess traffic must be down, after all, though, for this post even to have been written.  Read more 

I guess someone has to say it. Holden, my secret love, has this great series about what Chimpy says and how he talks. Not that actual humans can understand the Decider’s vernacular, but you know, some blogs shame “quality” SCLM analysis of our Chimperor and Holden’s “Your Preznit Speaks” series is one. So I feel compelled to point out something I really hate, something that I’m told slipped into a certain speech today. Here’s the Hard Truth: Black people don’t have and haven’t had real power in this county. It’s pointless and stupid and racist to blame us for being poor, lacking in political authority and agency, or not being rich and connected. I decided this morning my word of the day would be ’canard.’ I didn’t know how approrpriate that would prove to be.

Today, right now, in this political moment, there is plenty of guilt, plenty of blame. Lots of people can have a slice of that cake. But on the grand scale of things, the amount of guilt and blame Black people “own” is pretty minor. Boilerplate: some poor white (and Asian, and Latina, and 1stNat, and…) folks who are straight men and women are also in this sorry club. But specifically, speaking of “what Black people gotta do” to make the world right is…well, Bushian. Bushist? Bushesque? I know it’s racist.

Bush will be gone soon, we need to coin a phrase. Anyway, let’s all stop blaming Black America for problems other people caused. Other rich, not Black, Bush-supporting, actually politically enabled people caused. Yo? People who emulate and mirror Bush-speak and think must be…mocked, at least.

to visit the link below. If you saw something, heard something, the one thing you know might make all the difference between a missing woman — and a woman found safe.

Dammit, breaking the law here. I can’t help it. What do you make of this sentence?

I want them to suspend their campaign and acknowledge that [they] cannot win the nomination without going nuclear…

Simple response: what do you do when your enemies/opponents/people on the other team tell you “just quit?” The score is 43-49. It’s the 3rd period/quarter. What would you do? OK, I’m done and promise not to post on this again. But I’m annoyed. Why are (on “both sides”) any progressives spouting this sort of logic?

Bottom line: in a very short time, no one will care about the quality of your effort and contribution as a warrior in the Barilly wars. Lose friends now, and get…what in return? They aren’t worth it to you, Little Person. Showing slavish devotion to one or another of them right now will profit you…nothing, in the long term and meaningful-to-you sense.

Remember when there was a burst of hope when a woman ascended to the Speakership of the House, and Hillary was the front runner? Remember when Barbara Boxer was beloved of progressives, before endorsing the Connecticut for McCain party candidate? Remember when Jackie Speier was the valiant survivor of a shooting incident that took the life of her employer and mentor Congressman Ryan?

You know why the public sours on Democratic Women politicians? Because the have a sense of entitlement, and they turn on the people who support them. Hillary is suffering not just because of her own sins, or the sexism of present contemporary society, a fact I get presented with every single day, but because of the arrogance of her cohort, the pure sense that the argument is over because of a kind of ownership built up by relationships. They can’t open their mouths without telling everyone that they do not care what other people think, that the girl’s tree house is closed and that anyone else will be clawed instantly for even looking at the rope.

That’s why the “B” word and even the “C” word so easily cross people’s lips, because everyone recalls back to the cheerleaders and class presidents of high school days.  Read more 

My Set will never, ever let me live this one down. Ohmygawd, I’m covering my face with both hands because I can’t bear to witness all my accumulated Kewl running, screaming, away from me. deep moment of self-reflection OK, clearly I’ve misjudged my duties here. Guys, gals even, the bottom line in the Game of Love: everyone wants to be with a winner.

Does that sound cruel, harsh, wrong, and/or shallow? I suppose it is. But it’s still true. Put another way: how many people imagine their ideal love as someone who is in every way, lesser than themselves? My money is on “not many.” You want it? Then you’ve got to be it.  Read more 

What a coincidence… our previously discussed favorite zap-em researcher shows up in more news articles.

We just can’t know about the risks. How could we? It’s not like this guy has done some major research into this topic. Let’s all just say stun guns and tasers are perfectly harmless _{(unless you happen to die from one)}.

Stun Gun Used on Pregnant Woman in Ohio [AP]

Dr. William Bozeman, associate director of research at Wake Forest University’s Department of Emergency Medicine, said it isn’t known whether electricity from a stun gun might pose a risk to a fetus.  Read more 

The mancrush continues:

Bush the Embracer
But the visual evidence also compels us to remark that Bush 43’s hugs are among the least stage-y of his mannerisms. There’s an athletic, energetic, almost muscular quality to them. They seem, in a word, genuine.

Will Doctor Freud please pick up the white courtesy phone?

Howie the whore asked the right question earlier today:  Read more 

In apparrent response to the Senate’s passing of Senate Amendment 3017, for which 22 Democrats should be ashamed, Iran has responded:

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran’s parliament voted Saturday to designate the CIA and the U.S. Army as “terrorist organizations,” a largely symbolic response to a U.S. Senate resolution seeking a similar designation for Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

It would be funny if it were not so scary.  Read more 

From Senator McCain today (speaking to the NRA), referring to the 70% of OUR Country that is against the war in Iraq:

“My friends:
We beat you yesterday, we beat you the day before, we’ll beat you today [inaduible inexplicable] we’ll beat you tomorrow. We won’t choose to lose. We won’t choose to lose this conflict.”

Which “conflict” is that, dear Senator?  Read more 

Oh, my goodness! Who knew?! Via AP, “Bush advisers favor current war strategy”:

President Bush’s top two military and political advisers on Iraq [General Betray-Us and Ambassador Ryan Crocker] will warn Congress on Monday that making any significant changes to the current war strategy will jeopardize the limited security and political progress made so far, The Associated Press has learned.

Well, slap my ass and call me Spanky! I would never, never have guessed.

Not in a million years.

Or a million lives.

Or a trillion dollars.

Whichever comes first.  Read more 

When Senator Larry Craig announced his innocence (“I do believe in ghosts, I do believe in ghosts…not gay, not gay…”) after having pled guilty while under oath, did he understand that he was admitting he had committed perjury? Did he understand that is what he was saying? Back in those heady June days in Minnesota, he pled guilty while under oath in front of a judge—the oath being that he was to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth—that old, hoary oath thing. Poor guy, probably doesn’t understand english or had eaten some twinkies or a large black man frightened him or…

Will Senator Larry Craig, a Republican from Idaho, issue a clarifying statement that will refute his denial of his admission? Lay down the ass gaskets: its going to be a bumpy crapfest.

Link from Crooks & Liars.

++++

I didn’t know that the Onion had a talking heads parody channel. WARNING: Advertising begins and ends the segment  Read more 

Much as I prefer the new, class of 2004 Andrew Sullivan to the old, ungraduated one, he still exhibits the classic winger tendency to turn on a logical dime in the space of one or two paragraphs. Proposition #1:

Crisis = Opportunity
What we desperately need right now is less recrimination - can we all agree that the current crew is simply unhinged? - and more imagination with respect to exploiting the opportunities opened up by the moral and strategic catastrophe of the Iraq occupation.

Proposition #2:

This is Condi’s chance. Take it, madam secretary.

Can anybody spot the small problem?  Read more 

I sure God am. Or am I being overly sensitive to these two headlines in Pravda on the Potomac and Izvestia on the Hudson (respectively)? Regarding Bush’s worthless presser:

And if Bush isn’t “firm,” He’s “potent,” “strong,” and “stands up” for America. Subtext, anyone? Overcompensate much?

I mean, come on. Check out this picture from in Cleveland the other day:  Read more 

Ok, kids. I’m annoyed and I have to share. I’m not going to pick on anyone person/poster, but today is a “this is my blog, so respect my house rules” post. I’ll keep it simple. Try to keep comments on topic. That’s easy to understand, right? We *never* expect, or even want, everyone who comments to agree with what we’re saying. That would be intolerably dull. We also *love* extra information that enriches our understanding of the issues: links, new blogs to check out, videos, pics…it’s all good. But spamming this blog with “theory of everything” cut-and-pastes from incoherent authors is Right Out. I don’t have the time I used to have to blog anymore, so when I come here, I want that to be time well spent. Be funny, be angry, be contrary, be yourself. But please try to keep the discussion, well, a discussion. Pedantry is really quite a bore, and you won’t win any friends or convince any enemies with it.

[Welcome, NRO readers. Check out the wet bar. Tell ’em the guy under the stairs sent you. The password is “specimen jar.”]

Plus, there’s documents, and witnesses, ’n’ stuff.

There’s something so wholesome and satisfying about a splatterfest of exploding winger heads. LA Times:

Former Tennessee Sen. Fred D. Thompson, who is campaigning for president as a “pro-life” Republican, accepted a lobbying assignment from a family-planning group to persuade the first Bush White House to ease a controversial abortion restriction, according to a 1991 document and five people familiar with the matter.

A spokesman for the former senator denied that Thompson did the lobbying work. But minutes of a 1991 board meeting of the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Assn. show that the group hired Thompson that year.

Snicker. Either the spokesperson is reflexively lying (he is, after all, a Republican), and/or the Thompson campaign really isn’t ready for prime time.

I mean, shouldn’t they have gotten their stories straight first?

And the Bushes would have sent an enforcer and dealt with the matter in the usual ways: buying silence, destroying the records, discrediting the source, releasing near-real records salted with disinformation… All the usual plays. So what’s the deal with Thompson? What is this, amateur hour?  Read more 

Because maybe if Holy Joe can see what a hard-on really looks like, or possibly even experience one for himself, he won’t have to overcompensate by helping his good friend and fellow Chickenhawk George Bush start a war with Iran.  Read more 

Yeah, it’s getting to be like torture. Thanks, Kathleen Hennessy of the AP, for this stellar, stenographic work:

Clinton initially opposed cutting off funds for the troops [unlike the evildoers who would vote for such a thing], but said Wednesday that she believed last week’s vote was cast in support of soldiers abroad.

Hennessy actually drops a Republican Big Lie right into her “story.” Unbelievable?  Read more 

The Right-wing pundits sure know how to pour gas onto their own funeral pyre:

Of course, the big difference is that the Democrats don’t have a Ronald Reagan to take advantage of the situation. Nobody will ever confuse Hilliary’s (sic) shrill denunciations with the twinkle in the Gipper’s eye when he zinged an opponent. Nor will anyone fail to see the difference between the inspirational yet empty platitudes of Obama with Reagan’s soaring rhetoric that touched something so American in people’s souls.  Read more