The Onion
parodies John McCain's take on
cutting government spending. For a real life example check
our
story on his health care plan from May 1:
McCain
Vows To Replace Secret Service With His Own Bare Fists
WAR, INC.––COMING TO NEW YORK/ LOS ANGELES
THEATERS MAY 23
May 6, 2008
Teaser
Trailer:
HILLARY: GOD BLESS THE RICH
May 6, 2008
A
sound byte from her interview with Bill O'Reilly:
IS CLINTON IN CAHOOTS WITH DARTH VADER?
May 5, 2008
Star Wars parody
featuring Barack Obama and
Hillary Clinton:
MAY DAY ANTI-WAR PROTEST A SUCCESS
May 5, 2008
From
Counterpunch:
On
Thursday, May 1, the ILWU (International Longshore and Warehouse Union)
staged a one-day (one shift, actually) walkout as a protest against the
U.S. military occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. The
shutdown
affected ports up and down the West Coast, from San Pedro, California,
to Seattle, Washington.To Read Whole Story
SCALIA DOES NOT THINK TORTURE IS CRUEL AND
UNUSUAL PUNISHMENT
May 1, 2008
From Think
Progress:
Last
night, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia granted his first
broad-based television interview, to Lesley Stahl on CBS’s 60 Minutes.
There he explained that the torture of detainees does not violate the
8th Amendment’s ban on “cruel and unusual punishment” because,
according to Scalia, torture is not used as punishment:Finish Reading
What
is this Asshole talking about:
MCCAIN HEALTH CARE PLAN: DON'T GET SICK
May 1, 2008
From
CNN:
Perhaps taking a cue from his former Republican
rival Mike Huckabee — a re-born health nut who spent much of his
presidential campaign promoting healthy lifestyles — John McCain on
Monday emphasized the role personal responsibility will play in
reforming America's health care system.
IS WAL-MART AN AGENT OF SATAN?
May 1, 2008
Keith
Olbermann on the Deborah Shank scandal:
A REAL MAY DAY
April 29, 2008
From Bay Area
Indymedia/ The Internationalist:
On May 1, all 29 ports on the U.S. West Coast are
to be shut down by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union
(ILWU) in protest against the U.S. war on Afghanistan and Iraq. This is
a historic event of international significance: labor action against
imperialist war by a major American union. The strategically placed
port workers in the ILWU can bring commerce with Asia to a grinding
halt, and they’re about to demonstrate it. The maritime employers are
already screaming, and you can bet it’s got the attention of the
warmongers in Washington. All labor should take up the challenge this
poses: For workers strikes against the war! Meanwhile, immigrants’
rights groups are once again mobilizing on May Day. And on April 30 and
May 1, the independent truckers who move cargo to and from the docks
may play an important role in a shutdown. The imperialist war on
Afghanistan and Iraq is also a war on immigrants, minorities, working
people and democratic rights “at home.” We need to defeat this attack
here and abroad, in opposition to both the capitalist war parties. The
“antiwar movement,” whose aim has always been to pressure the
Democrats, is at a dead end. What’s needed is working-class action
independent of the bosses. What that takes is a fundamental break from
the Democratic Party and the pro-capitalist politics that infuse the
labor bureaucracy. For More
DO THE CHINESE MAKE EVERYTHING?
April 29, 2008
BBC News:
Police in southern China have discovered a factory
manufacturing Free Tibet flags, media reports say.Finish Reading
OBAMA SHOWS SOME LOVE TO FOX NEWS
April 28, 2008
A
video summary of Obama on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace.
To watch all 5 videos go here:
MSNBC "GIVES" OBAMA THE NOMINATION?
April 25, 2008
NBC political
director Chuck Todd on MSNBC. Does this mean that super delegates will
have to call a winner if Hillary does not quit: FOOD RATIONING IN THE WORLD'S BREADBASKET?
April 24, 2008
Food
supplies down worldwide have lead to major
bulk stores like COSTCO to ration rice; and has hit the developing
world hard. From WTNH Connecticut:
RON PAUL STILL SEES SOMETHING WORTH FIGHTING FOR
April 23, 2008
From Alternet, a
Ron Paul ad and Joshua Holland's commentary:
Regular
readers know that I disagree with a lot more of Ron Paul's views than I
support. Actually, I find some of those views downright scary.
OBAMA AND HILLARY ON THE PENNSYLVANIA WIN AND
LOSS
April 23, 2008
Obama
from Evansville, IN last night:
Hillary
in Philly:
HILLARY'S TACTICS
April 23 , 2008
Hillary
won the Pennsylvania Primary, Truthdig/ HUSTLER writer Robert Scheer
gives us his view on what it took and what it means:
How proud the Clintonistas must be. They have
learned how to rival what Hillary once termed the “vast right-wing
conspiracy” in the effort to destroy a viable Democratic leader who
dares to stand in the way of their ambitions. The tactics used to
kneecap Barack Obama are the same as had been turned on Bill Clinton in
earlier times, from radical-baiting associates to challenging his
resolve in protecting the nation from foreign enemies. Sen. Clinton’s
eminently sensible and centrist—to a fault—opponent is now viewed as
weak and even vaguely unpatriotic because he is thoughtful. Neither
Karl Rove nor Dick Morris could have done a better job.
Read Whole Article Also be sure to check him out
every month in HUSTLER magazine
PENTAGON APPROVED MESSAGES ONLY
April 22, 2008
How the Pentagon
used the media to shape its own reality:
Another video on Pentagon control of the media.
Might be some crossover:
WWE SETTLES ELECTION
April 22, 2008
World
Wrestling Entertainment gives us their take on the 2008 election:
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
April 21, 2008
What
won't Hillary do to get elected? From the LA Times:
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, owned by longtime
conservative
Republican Richard Mellon Scaife, endorsed Sen. Hillary Clinton for the
Democratic presidential nomination in Pennsylvania's balloting on
Tuesday.Sellout
ARE ABC EMPLOYEES WEARING FLAG PINS?
April 21, 2008
From
Bradblog, protest of ABC's debate coverage:
MICHAEL MOORE THROWS HIS WEIGHT BEHIND OBAMA
April 21, 2008
Filmmaker
Michael Moore endorses Barack Obama this morning. From his website:
I don't get to vote for President this primary
season. I live in Michigan. The party leaders (both here and in D.C.)
couldn't get their act together, and thus our votes will not be counted.
Finish Reading
ABC'S REPUTATION TAKES A HIT
April 18, 2008
From the
Washington Post TV critic Tom Shales:
When Barack Obama met Hillary Clinton for another televised Democratic
candidates' debate last night, it was more than a step forward in the
2008 presidential election. It was another step downward for network
news -- in particular ABC News, which hosted the debate from
Philadelphia and whose usually dependable anchors, Charlie Gibson and
George Stephanopoulos, turned in shoddy, despicable performances.Finish Reading Media
Matters.org on the debate: More
lowlights from the ABC debate; thanks to Media Matters:
CLINTON LOSES FORMER LOVER TO OBAMA
April 18, 2008
From the New
York Times:
The endorsements keep rolling in for Barack Obama,
who now can count
on the support of former Labor Secretary Robert Reich (from the Bill
Clinton White House) and two popular former senators — David Boren of
Oklahoma and Sam Nunn of Georgia.
None of the three are superdelegates, but each
holds his own cachet.
Mr. Reich held his cabinet position during the
Bill Clinton administration and even dated the then-Ms. Rodham back in
college.
Mr. Nunn’s name has been tossed around as a
potential Obama vice
presidential pick, and both he and Mr. Boren have longstanding
influence among moderate Democratic voters in the South and the Midwest.
In his official endorsement, posted on his blog ,
Mr. Reich says he was unsure about whether to come out in support of
Mr. Obama since he has such personal ties to his rival. (He once
reminisced in a Web video last year about a date they had in college,
going on about how she liked a lot, a lot, of butter on her popcorn.)
His endorsement didn’t surprise many because Mr. Reich, now a professor
at the University of California at Berkeley, has been critical of both
Clintons throughout this campaign.
“My avoidance of offering a formal endorsement
until now has also
been affected by the pull of old friendships and my reluctance as a
teacher and commentator to be openly partisan,” Mr. Reich said. “But my
conscience won’t let me be silent any longer.”
Finish Reading
Former Senator
Nunn explained his reasoning on NBC today:
WHAT WOULD YOU DO WITH 3 TRILLION DOLLARS?
April 17, 2008
Brave
New Films has a new game pitting your spending habits vs President
Bush's spending on the Iraq war: Click here to play
Video
for the game:
HILLARY ON THE MIDDLE CLASS: "SCREW 'EM"
April 17, 2008
Sam Stein
of HuffPo:
During the past week, Sen. Hillary Clinton has
presented herself as a working class populist, the politician in touch
with small town sentiments, compared to the elitism of her opponent,
Sen. Barack Obama.Read On
SENATOR CHRIS MATTHEWS?
April 16, 2008
The
"Hardball" host on a possible 2010 run at senate to fulfill his
childhood dream:
PRESIDENT OBAMA TO INVESTIGATE BUSH'S CRIMES
April 15, 2008
From Will
Bunch's Attytood blog at Philly.com:
Tonight I had an opportunity to
ask Barack Obama a
question that is on the minds of many Americans, yet rarely rises to
the surface in the great ruckus of the 2008 presidential race -- and
that is whether an Obama administration would seek to prosecute
officials of a former Bush administration on the revelations that they
greenlighted torture, or for other potential crimes that took place in
the White House.
Obama said that as
president he would indeed ask his new
Attorney General and his deputies to "immediately review the
information that's already there" and determine if an inquiry is
warranted -- but he also tread carefully on the issue, in line with his
reputation for seeking to bridge the partisan divide. He worried that
such a probe could be spun as "a partisan witch hunt." However, he said
that equation changes if there was willful criminality, because "nobody
is above the law."
The question was inspired by a
recent report by ABC News,
confirmed by the Associated Press, that high-level officials including
Vice President Dick Cheney and former Cabinet secretaries Colin Powell,
John Ashcroft and Donald Rumsfeld, among others, met in the White House
and discussed the use of waterboarding and other torture techniques on
terrorism suspects.
I mentioned the report in my
question, and said "I know
you've talked about reconciliation and moving on, but there's also the
issue of justice, and a lot of people -- certainly around the world and
certainly within this country -- feel that crimes were possibly
committed" regarding torture, rendition, and illegal wiretapping. I
wanted to know how whether his Justice Department "would aggressively
go after and investigate whether crimes have been committed."
Here's his answer, in its
entirety:
What I would want to do is to have my Justice
Department and my
Attorney General immediately review the information that's already
there and to find out are there inquiries that need to be pursued. I
can't prejudge that because we don't have access to all the material
right now. I think that you are right, if crimes have been committed,
they should be investigated. You're also right that I would not want my
first term consumed by what was perceived on the part of Republicans as
a partisan witch hunt because I think we've got too many problems we've
got to solve.
So this is an area where I would want
to exercise judgment -- I
would want to find out directly from my Attorney General -- having
pursued, having looked at what's out there right now -- are there
possibilities of genuine crimes as opposed to really bad policies. And
I think it's important-- one of the things we've got to figure out in
our political culture generally is distinguishing betyween really dumb
policies and policies that rise to the level of criminal activity. You
know, I often get questions about impeachment at town hall meetings and
I've said that is not something I think would be fruitful to pursue
because I think that impeachment is something that should be reserved
for exceptional circumstances. Now, if I found out that there were high
officials who knowingly, consciously broke existing laws, engaged in
coverups of those crimes with knowledge forefront, then I think a basic
principle of our Constitution is nobody above the law -- and I think
that's roughly how I would look at it. Read More
FAUX NEWS
April 14, 2008
The Daily Show
sends up the Fox News Network in
two parts:
Part
One:
Part Two:
"ENDLESS WAR ON AN INSTALLMENT PLAN"
April 11, 2008
MoveOn.org's new
ad about McCain and his Iraq strategy:
HOW WORTHLESS IS A PENNY?
April 11, 2008
Stephen Colbert
speaking with anti-penny crusader Jeff Gore:
For
more information about the penny debate; check out this 60
minutes clip:
"WHAT ARE WE WAITING FOR"
April 10, 2008
Representative
Dennis Kucinich on the floor this morning taking on the president's
Iraq sell job. H/T M.J.:
WHO'S HILLARY REALLY FIGHTING FOR?
April 10, 2008
The
Center
for Public Integrity has uncovered new videos of Hillary Clinton's 6
year work at Wal-Mart; a life experience that she does not list on her
official biography. You can read
the whole story and see the videos here. Also an ABC
investigative report from earlier this year exposing her ties to the
anti-union company.
From
the CPI:
ABC
News investigative video:
"FRIGHTENINGLY DISAPPOINTING"
April 9, 2008
CNN's "Situation
Room" Iraq reporter Micheal Ware is very unhappy with the senate
committee hearings of Gen. David Petraeus, including saying
that there is "lot's of oxygen being wasted":
TROUBLE WITH DIEBOLD MACHINES IN OHIO, COULD IT
FORESHADOW GENERAL ELECTION?
April 9, 2008
From Bradblog:
A failure in
Diebold
touch-screen voting systems in Butler County, OH resulted in votes not
being included properly in Election Night results, even though the
system had reported that all votes were uploaded and recorded
correctly. Once the error was discovered, a subsequent upload of all of
the county's 1599 touch-screen memory cards to the Diebold central
election tabulator after the election, also resulted in the failure to
record the results of one of the memory cards, despite the system
having reported that all results were "uploaded properly.
The failure of Diebold's widely-used AccuVote TSx machines during the
state's March 4th primary election resulted in the initial loss of at
least 150 votes, and has prompted a letter of concern to the company
(posted in full at the end of this article) from Butler County's
Election Director, Betty L. McGary and Deputy Director, Lynn Edward
Kinkaid.
In the letter to David Byrd, President of Diebold's recently-renamed
election division, "Premier Election Solutions," the officials point
out that two different memory cards failed to upload vote tallies to
the central tabulator.
"It may appear that every vote has been
counted when cards indicate they are being properly uploaded, when in
fact votes cast on a memory card(s) are not tabulated in the results,"
the officials wrote after having discovered the matter. "It is
unimaginable how serious this situation could have been should the
problem be undetected, or ignored," they concluded.
The letter
also details yet another previously-unknown problem with Diebold's
central tabulator --- one that could well-effect this November's
general election --- as revealed to the officials by a company employee
during the initial trouble-shooting of the problem.
Read
On
LEWIS BLACK TAKES ON CELEBRITY POLITICAL
ENDORSEMENTS
April 9, 2008
From
The Largest Minority:
Lewis Black rails against the current slew of
beautiful idiots who are
busy making political endorsements between their trips to Darfur and
rehab.
Watch Video Here
ROVE'S DIRTY TRICKS
April 8, 2008
The
former governor of Alabama Don Siegelman on the MSNBC show Verdict with Dan Abrams
about Karl Rove's culpability regarding his troubles in the state.
For more on the case you can read the article by Larisa
Alexandrovna; Alabama
Fascists in the current HUSTLER magazine. H/T BradBlog, in
two parts:
Part
One:
Part
Two:
BAD SUPERDELEGATE MATH FOR CLINTON
April 7, 2008
From
New York Times:
The hill that Hillary Rodham Clinton must climb to
beat Barack Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination will grow
a little steeper on Monday, as it has most days lately.
Read Whole Story
THE "BRAINS" BEHIND THE IRAQ WAR?
April 7, 2008
From
last night's 60 mintues an unapologetic Doug Feith defends his
role in the Iraq war, and gives us some insights of why we went to Iraq:
DOES AIR AMERICA NOT BELIEVE IN FREEDOM OF
SPEECH?
April 4, 2008
Here is 5
minutes of the Randi Rhodes stand-up routine that got her suspended
from Air America for two weeks:
Jeff Norman of
the HuffPo:
At an appearance in San Francisco sponsored by Air
America's local affiliate, Rhodes referred to Hillary Clinton and
Geraldine Ferraro as "fucking whores."
It's widely understood that this epithet, delivered in the context of a
well-received comedic rant, is what prompted the suspension. But Air
America's terse statement on the matter offers no explanation beyond
declaring it "does not condone such abusive, ad hominem language by our
Hosts."
It's not detectable at this point if Air America
honchos believe
Rhodes was somehow supposed to have known what she said is punishable.
Also unknown is the duration of her suspension. According to New
York Daily News reporter David Hinckley, the network is
remaining silent for now "to gauge public reaction." How principled.
Ferraro has wasted no time calling for Rhodes to
be fired.
The former VP candidate told Fox News earlier today, "What did they do
with Don Imus when he went after the young black team who was playing
basketball with kind of the same language? Treat them both the
same...She's coming at me and Hillary in a ... sexist way... To incite
people with language like this young woman just did on radio is very,
very dangerous because ... some people take this stuff so seriously
that it can affect your security."
Understandably, Rhodes is stunned and angry. About
her employers she
told me: "They are in breach of my contract and have damaged my hard
won excellent reputation in the broadcast industry..." Rhodes added she
received thank you letters from representatives of Air America, the San
Francisco affiliate and sponsors praising her for the performance that
now has her in hot water. Read
On
Blog Critics
Magazine's Robert K. Blechman takes on the first amendment question:
In
the 1919 case Schenk v. The United States, the United States Supreme
Court ruled that the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of speech
doesn't permit someone to falsely yell "fire" in a crowded theater.
That interpretation of our Constitutional rights was brought up to date
today when the management of Air America Radio suspended talk show host
Randi Rhodes for calling Geraldine Ferraro and Hillary Clinton
"whores."…
Surely the owners of liberal talk radio network Air America were
thinking of this Constitutional omission when they suspended Ms.
Rhodes. But let's be clear about the intent here. No one would argue
that these prominent politicos, Ferraro and Clinton, are literally
whores in the Eliot Spitzer sense of the term. If you go to YouTube and
watch the video (14,907 views as of 2:40 on Thursday) it is clear that
Ms. Rhodes was using the term to mean that these women will "sell"
themselves to the highest bidder for political advantages. How else to
explain Ms. Clinton's recent decision to appear before Richard Scaife's
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review editorial board? I would argue that that
appearance makes Ms. Clinton less of a whore and more of a hooker, but
let's not quibble over technicalities….
It is okay to call Ms. Clinton a murderer, a fraud, and other foul
names if you are writing for the Tribune-Review (see their coverage of
the Vince Foster suicide). It is unacceptable for a radio talk show
host to use pejorative language against Ms. Clinton before a small
group of appreciative listeners if it is captured on tape and ends up
on YouTube. So we have to assume that in this case the medium is truly
the message.
Every society has its taboos. Our culture distinguishes "polite"
language from "foul" language. The management of Air America Radio
would have us believe that this modern taboo trumps any Constitutional
rights or privileges we may think we have.
Read
Whole Article
TED TURNER AND AL GORE: WE NEED ACTION NOW TO
PREVENT GLOBAL CATASTROPHE
April 3, 2008
Ted Turner on
Charlie Rose about what the future looks like if
nothing is done
about global climate change, including the possibility of humans
needing to eat humans for sustenance:
Al
Gore and his group Alliance for Climate Protection have just
launched a new 300 million dollar ad campaign to get people to start
doing something about global warming. Here is the first ad: FOX NEWS ATTACKS OBAMA AGAIN
April 2, 2008
Brave New Films
"FOX Attacks! Obama- Part 2:"
Brave
New Films part one from last yea r:
IS JOHN MCCAIN A LIAR OR FOOL ON SOCIAL SECURITY
POLICY?
April 2, 2008
John McCain has
some discrepancies on what to do about social security:
From the Wall
Street Journal:
The
all-but-certain Republican presidential nominee cast himself as a
defender of the Bush tax cuts he voted against, but added caveats to a
"no new taxes" vow he made on a Sunday television talk show two weeks
ago.More
The
Conscientious Objector blog highlighted the difference between his
website and the Journal comment:
Sen.
John McCain (R-Ariz.) created a stir today when he said in a published
interview with the Wall Street Journal that he favored personal savings
accounts in the Social Security System like those supported by
President Bush.read on
And
then Joe Lieberman on this Sunday’s “This Week with George
Stephanopoulos,” explained that McCain would not privatize
social
security:
JEB BUSH BACK-DOORS FUNDING FOR RELIGIOUS
SCHOOLS?
April 1, 2008
From South
Florida Sun-Senteinal, News Columnist Micheal Mayo:
Call it the Revenge of Jeb. Or a solution in
search of a problem. Or just a bad idea. Read on Revenge of Jeb
From
News-Press Florida:
TALLAHASSEE
-- Voters in
November will have a chance to erase a ban on government aide to
religious institutions that has been embedded in the Florida
Constitution for 140 years. The
Taxation and Budget Reform Commission voted 17-7 today to approve the
measure, which needed 17 votes to pass. It still faces one more,
largely procedural vote. Critics say the measure, sponsored by a
former education policy adviser to Gov. Jeb Bush, is a back-door
attempt to overturn a 2004 Supreme Court decision that struck down
Bush’s “Opportunity Scholarship” school voucher program. “I
think it clearly tries to reverse Bush v. Holmes,” said Commissioner
Martha Barnett, who voted against it. “I think that we would be
jeopardizing issues of great importance to many people far beyond the
vouchers.” More
DOES JOHN MCCAIN FLUBS SPEECHS BECAUSE
OF TELEPROMPTER, OR IS IT SOMETHING ELSE?
April 1, 2008
From PoliticsTV:
80 YEAR OLD DEACON ARRESTED AT MALL BECASUE OF A
T-SHIRT
April 1, 2008
The man and his
shirt from Newsday:
Photo by James A. Escher /
March 31, 2008)
From Newsday:
An 80-year-old church deacon was removed from the
Smith Haven Mall yesterday in a wheelchair and arrested by police for
refusing to remove a T-shirt protesting the Iraq War. More
Another
Newsday stroy about the deacon:
Read On
IS CLINTON A DEADBEAT?
March 31, 2008
From
Politico:
Hillary Rodham
Clinton’s cash-strapped presidential
campaign has been putting off paying hundreds of bills for
months freeing up cash for critical media buys but also
earning
the campaign a reputation as something of a deadbeat in some
small-business circles.
Read Whole Article
BUSH DOES NOT GET A HOME-FIELD ADVANTAGE
March 31, 2008
The president
was booed last night as he threw out the first pitch on opening day for
the Washington Nationals.
CAN BIG PENNSYLVANIA ENDORSEMENT TURN THE TIDE
FOR OBAMA IN STATE?
March 28, 2008Senator Bob
Casey Jr to endorse Barack Obama today six-day
bus trip across Pennsylvania, reports the Philadelphia
Inquirer. Senator Casey’s support for Mr. Obama goes against the wave
of support for Hillary Rodham Clinton among many of the state’s top
Democrats, like Governor Ed Rendell, Rep. John P. Murtha and Mayor
Michael Nutter of Philadelphia.not
conceding the state. Read On
One
of Obama's keystone state ads:
SUPERDELEGATES TURNED OFF BY CLINTON?
March 27, 2008
NBC
NEWS:
At a time when Sen. Hillary Clinton is
increasingly relying on superdelegates to vault her to the Democratic
Party's nomination, a handful of undecided and pledged superdelegates
are coming forward to say her campaign's tactics in recent weeks are
doing more harm than good.Obama
in recent days are hurting the party and its chances in November, and
also say it is showing a calculated, desperate-to-win side of Clinton
that they dislike.Read whole story
BARACK SHOWS HIS ECONOMIC SIDE
March 27, 2008
Obama's speech
today on the history and the state of our economy:
VOTER DISSATISFACTION LEADS TO MCCAIN VICTORY?
March 26, 2008From CNN: WASHINGTON (CNN) -- New polls show many Democratic
voters could swing their support to Sen. John McCain in the general
election if their candidate isn't nominated.Read On
WHAT CRIME IS RUSH UP TO NOW?
March 26, 2008
Dan Abrams of
the MSNBC show Verdict ,
claims the slimly tricks used by Rush Limbaugh in the Ohio and Texas
primaries might be crimes. Watch:
The Nation
Magazine revels the effectiveness of Rush's election manipulations:
"Operation Chaos," Rush Limbaugh's campaign urging
Republicans to vote for Hillary Clinton in Democratic primaries, has
been very effective. It doubled Republican turnout in Ohio and Texas,
boosting Clinton and prolonging the Democratic race. But in Ohio, it
was also almost certainly illegal.
Ohio law requires that citizens genuinely support a political
party in order to vote in its primary. To change parties for a primary,
a citizen must pledge, under the penalty of election falsification,
that she is affiliated with the party and "supports" its principles.
Lying on the pledge is a felony, punishable by up to a year in jail and
a $2,500 fine. The law also stipulates that poll workers have a "duty"
to challenge voters who are "not a member of the political party whose
ballot the person desires to vote."16,000
Republicans switched parties for the primary last month.
Several did so in bad faith, without truly changing parties, according
to newspaper
interviews and Internet postings .
The Cuyahoga Board of Elections recently voted to investigate
the matter; a report is expected on March 31. Despite the massive
crossover voting, however, prosecutions are considered unlikely. A
spokesperson for Ohio's Attorney General told Alternet
that it is "very hard to prosecute" crossover voting cases, since the
crime depends on proving a voter's motive on Election Day.
Read whole article
BUSH/CHENEY WAR WITH IRAN
March 25, 2008
Are we headed to war
with Iran, and what about the war in Iraq? The Arab press has recently
warned of an Iran/US conflict. The reason: the upcoming presidential
election.
From PRESS TV :
The Arab
media has raised US-Iran confrontation alarms, saying the US has a
proxy war with Iran going at the tail end of the Bush administration... The source
asserted that the recurring visits by the US Vice President Dick Cheney
and John McCain to Iraq and occupied Palestine are surely not
'coincidences' but a means to ensure Israel remains fully in the
picture for any "plans the US could have against Iran".... The weekly
also added the disaster the Bush administration has created in Iraq is
clearly not going well. As a result, the administration may feel that
engaging the US militarily in Iran is their only option to for seeing a
Republican president elected and a staunch military advocate like John
McCain fits that bill... On Wednesday,
an aide to Cheney said that, the United States will need the
cooperation of Oman, Saudi Arabia, Israel and Turkey to mount a
military attack on Iran. PRESS TV
The Arab press
is not alone in its concerns regarding an upcoming war with Iran.
Marjorie Cohn writes that all the signs of a war with Iran are
present.
From Monthly
Review Magazine:
Is the Bush administration ramping up for an
attack on Iran? The signs seem to point in that direction. On March 11,
Navy Adm. William Fallon, commander of the U.S. forces in the Middle
East, retired early because of differences with Washington on Iran
policy. And now, Dick Cheney's current Middle East tour may be designed
to prepare our Arab allies for an imminent "preemptive" war against
Iran. Bush and Cheney have long been rattling the sabers in Iran's
direction. The disaster they created in Iraq isn't going well, no
matter how they spin it. They may feel that engaging the United States
militarily in Iran would make it harder to elect anyone other than the
seasoned military man, John McCain. The Republican presidential
candidate just happens to be touring Iraq with Sen. Joe Lieberman, one
of the strongest advocates of a U.S. military strike on Iran. Lieberman
is likely on McCain's short list for a vice-presidential running mate.
Read: Iran
Jonathan Steele
looks at the power of the word "defeat" in terms of the Iraq war. He
says the democrats need to have hearings on why we have been defeated
in Iraq. The intent is to put the republicans on the defensive.
From
HuffPo:
Imagine the scenario 18 months from now. A
newly-elected Democratic president has announced a short timetable for
U.S. combat troops to leave Iraq and the first brigades have already
made the journey home. Iraq remains unstable, bomb attacks continue to
kill civilians and, backed by a chorus of right-wing talk shows, the
Republicans mount a furious campaign accusing the Democrats of cutting
and running.Read whole story
The
Lou Reed song "there is no time:"
FOX AND FRIENDS NOT SO FRIENDLY?
March 24, 2008
Chirs Wallace of Fox News Sunday "taking to task"
the hosts Steve Doocy, Gretchen Carlson and Brian Kilmeade of Fox's
morning show over excssive bashing of Barack Obama's "typical white
person" remark.
Host Brian Kilmeade of Fox and Friends storming
off in frustration of the ongoing Obama bashing. According to
them, the blogs got it wrong and it was really a joke: "The
argument was real. The walk-off was fun. We are a fun show." watch it
and you decide:
DETROIT SEX SCANDAL
March 24, 2008
REUTERS: Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was
charged with perjury, obstruction of justice and official misconduct on
Monday stemming from a sex scandal and the prominent Democrat's
handling of an $8.4 million settlement of a whistle-blower lawsuit
against the city. The controversy surrounding the black politician once
seen as a rising star in his party has deadlocked city government and
could spill over to presidential politics and the issue of how the
Democratic Party handles Michigan delegates still being contested by
Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. The eight-count criminal indictment
announced by Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy included two counts of
obstruction of justice and four counts of perjury. The perjury charges
each carry a prison term of more than 15 years. Read on
This all started because of inappropriate texting;
when the story broke this January a parody video was made to explain
the behavior and that we all need "textual healing:"
This clip is of the content of the texts.
From January's New York Times about the scandal:
..."The messages, transmitted to and from Ms. Beatty’s city-owned pager
in 2002 and 2003, appear to show that the two had an intimate
relationship and suggest that they committed perjury by denying the
affair during testimony in one of two whistleblower lawsuits that have
cost taxpayers in the beleaguered city more than $9 million." More
SAD EASTER: 4,000 US TROOP KILLED IN
THE IRAQ WAR
March 24, 2008
Joshua Holland from Alternet:
Read more: 4,000
A BBC TV recap of the dead and the war:
SEAN PENN TAKES ON FOX NEWS WHILE FILMING NEW
MOVIE
March 21, 2008
Sean Penn from the film set of his latest movie:
"I almost wish Jerry Falwell were alive to see
this. Almost," Penn shouted to the crowd. After dropping some names of
conservatives who are still with us - "Bill O'Reilly, who is too stupid
to talk about," and "Sean Hannity, the butt boy of Rupert Murdoch,"
Penn said, "We know something more. We know their end is
near."
To read more go to the San Francisco Gate website.
A behind the scenes clip shot on location
HILLARY'S NASTY PASTORATE?
March 21, 2008
There’s a reason why Hillary Clinton has remained
relatively silent during the flap over intemperate remarks by Barack
Obama’s former pastor, Jeremiah Wright. When it comes to unsavory
religious affiliations, she’s a lot more vulnerable than Obama.
You can find all about it in a widely under-read
article in the September 2007 issue of Mother Jones, in which Kathryn
Joyce and Jeff Sharlet reported that "through all of her years in
Washington, Clinton has been an active participant in conservative
Bible study and prayer circles that are part of a secretive Capitol
Hill group known as the "Fellowship," aka The Family. But it won’t be a
secret much longer. Jeff Sharlet’s shocking exposé, The
Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power
will be published in May.
Continue reading at ehrenreich.blogs.com...
IS McCAIN AS DUMB AS BUSH?
March 21, 2008
From Truthdig.com :
"Presidential contender John McCain took a trip to
the Middle East to showcase his foreign policy chops, so the opposition
was particularly delighted that it was during such a demonstration that
he committed this gaffe."
"While attempting to explain Iran's influence in
neighboring Iraq, the would-be commander in chief repeatedly refers to
Tehran's support for al-Qaida. Iran is a Shiite country that has been
accused of arming Shiite militants, and not the militantly Sunni
al-Qaida."
Watch McCain's speach here at Yahoo Video.
Join in the conversation about this here at Truthdig.com.
OBAMA'S MINISTER COMMITED "TREASON" but When My
Father Said the Same Thing He Was a Republican Hero
March 18, 2008
By Frank Schaeffer for the Huffington Post
When Senator Obama's preacher thundered about
racism and injustice Obama suffered smear-by-association. But when my
late father -- Religious Right leader Francis Schaeffer -- denounced
America and even called for the violent overthrow of the US government,
he was invited to lunch with presidents Ford, Reagan and Bush, Sr.
Every Sunday thousands of right wing white
preachers (following in my father's footsteps) rail against America's
sins from tens of thousands of pulpits. They tell us that America is
complicit in the "murder of the unborn," has become "Sodom" by coddling
gays, and that our public schools are sinful places full of
evolutionists and sex educators hell-bent on corrupting children. They
say, as my dad often did, that we are, "under the judgment of God."
They call America evil and warn of immanent destruction. By comparison
Obama's minister's shouted "controversial" comments were mild. All he
said was that God should damn America for our racism and violence and
that no one had ever used the N-word about Hillary Clinton.
Dad and I were amongst the founders of the
Religious right. In the 1970s and 1980s, while Dad and I crisscrossed
America denouncing our nation's sins instead of getting in trouble we
became darlings of the Republican Party. (This was while I was my
father's sidekick before I dropped out of the evangelical movement
altogether.) We were rewarded for our "stand" by people such as
Congressman Jack Kemp, the Fords, Reagan and the Bush family. The top
Republican leadership depended on preachers and agitators like us to
energize their rank and file. No one called us un-American.
MORE: HuffingtonPost.com
THE RUSH LIMBAUGH SONG
March 18, 2008
THE INTELLIGENCE COVER-UP - Editorial From the
New York Times
March 18, 2008
For more than two years now, Congress, the news
media, current and former national security officials, think tanks and
academic institutions have been engaged in a profound debate over how
to modernize the law governing electronic spying to keep pace with
technology. We keep hoping President Bush will join in.
Instead, the president offers propaganda intended
to scare Americans, expand his powers, and erode civil liberties — and
to ensure that no one is held to account for the illegal wiretapping he
ordered after 9/11.
Continue reading at The New York Times
WINTER SOLDIERS: Iraq & AfganistanEyewitness Accounts of the Occupations
March 18, 2008
For both conservatives and liberals the gathering
of US veterans in Maryland this past weekend to testify at Winter
Soldier was fully heart wrenching. Soldiers spoke of free-fire zones,
the shootings and beatings of innocent civilians, racism at the highest
levels of the military, sexual harassment and assault within the
military, and the torturing of prisoners.
Why did corporate media ignore this story? It was
just a few months ago that the war was the #1 issue of concern of the
American people according to surveys. Maybe they don't want to stir
things up knowing a Republican presidential candidate has definitively
stated that they war will go on under his command?
If you support the troops and want to hear their
stories visit WarComesHome.org where Los Angeles
radio station KPFA offers podcasts and archives of the event.
DemocracyNow.org also offers
coverage which includes Video Stream, Audio Stream, MP3 Downloads, and
full transcript.
- C. McCarthy
LARRY FLYNT TO OFFER $1,000,000 TO ASHLEY
ALEXANDER DUPRE
March 13, 2008
In his recent interview with CNN Larry Flynt
expressed interest in hiring Ashley Alexander Dupre for a photoshoot.
"We've been looking at that very closely. She's young. She's pretty.
She's a model," said Larry Flynt. "We would love to do business with
her, and we will approach her."
It is now official: Larry Flynt is offering Ashley
Alexander Dupre $1 million to pose nude for Hustler Magazine. "We think
this is an item that is going to stay in the news for some time," Flynt
said. "We think it's not bad for a 22-year-old to make $1 million for a
few hours work. It beats what she was making at the escort service."
TOP U.S. COMMANDER IN MIDDLE EAST RESIGNS
March 13, 2008
Adm. William J. Fallon has left his position at
CENTCOM. Fallon was recently interviewed by Esquire Magazine where he
expressed dissent towards the Bush White House military policy and a
belief that we should not attack Iran. This is not the first (nor
probably the last) time that a commander has left or been forced out by
his masters on Pennsylvania Ave, even though Bush has claimed many
times to listen to his commanders.
The admiral's decision to leave has sparked a
debate. Does the Bush White House's overbearing tactics make the
military stronger or weaker. Is our next stop as a nation a cruise
missile into Tehran?
Read the Esquire interview that started the
ball rolling: The Man Between War and Peace
Read about the first reaction to his
resignation at abcnews.go.com: Top U.S. Commander in Middle
East Resigns
Are we headed to Iran?? Read at
WashingtonPost.com: Are We Closer to War?
White House denies quashing his voice from
the AP: White House Denies Friction With Fallon
Real issue is not policy, but a
micromanagement of the milatry by the White House. Read at
blog.WashingtonPost.com: Early Warning
- A. Green
I'M NOT A HILLARY SUPPORTER, I JUST PLAY ONE ON TV
March 12, 2008
Yet another reason why you shouldn't encourage
your kids to go into show business: they may end up in an Ad for a
presidential candidate whom they don't support.
"I'M NOT ANTI, I'M NOT GAY BASHING"
March 11, 2008
Oklahoma: insane anti-gay tirade by
state representative
Comment from MikeEss on Pandagon.Blogsome.com:
March 8, 2008 at 6:00 pm
"Research suggests that early childhood contact
with christianity often correlates with a tendency toward bigotry in
later life, which suggests that there is no genetic component to
bigotry, but rather environmental, and especially religious, components
shared in families.
Fortunately, research has shown that these
tendencies toward intolerance can be overcome with sufficient exposure
to logic, reason, and facts, provided the subject is willing to let go
of preconceived, and unsupported, notions of absolute certainty in
understanding 'god's truth'..."
IMPEACHMENT UPDATE: VIDEO OF WEXLER'S RESPONSE TO
BUSH ATTORNEY GENERAL
March 11, 2008
SNL PARODY AD
March 11, 2008
DOES McCAIN = BUSH??
March 10, 2008
The Money Behind the Anti-McCain Ad - from
TruthDig.com
This story was reported by Will Evans of the
Center for Investigative Reporting and Peter Overby of National Public
Radio.
With Sen. John McCain having clinched the
Republican presidential nomination, a new Democrat-funded group has
already begun an ad campaign labeling him the "McSame" as President
Bush.
Continue
Reading at TruthDig.com
FROM CNN: JOB LOSSES- WORST IN 5 YEARS
March 10, 2008
Payrolls sink in February, fueling
recession anxiety. Unemployment rate declines, but that's
By Chris Isidore, CNNMoney.com senior writer
There was a net loss of 63,000 jobs, which is the
biggest decline since March 2003 and weaker than the revised 22,000
jobs lost in January. Economists had forecast a gain of 25,000 jobs.
The weak report fueled already mounting recession
fears and is likely to keep the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates
further when it meets later this month.
"Based on today's Employment Report, if we are not
in a recession, it is a darned good imitation of one," said Kevin
Giddis, managing director of fixed income at Morgan Keegan. "We are in
an unprecedented real estate and credit crisis that is whipping its way
through the U.S. economy like a Midwestern tornado."
Job losses were widespread, reaching beyond the
battered construction sector, which lost 39,000, and manufacturing,
where job losses hit 52,000.
Continue Reading at Money.CNN.com
DENVER AIRPORT WI-FI BLOCKS WEBSITES
March 7, 2008
"God bless America! Land of the free home of the
b.... wait a minute, why can't I get to this website?"
If you're sitting in Denver's airport and
wondering why you can't get onto VanityFair.com or boingboing.com or
SportIllustrated.com swimsuit pictures, well it's because the Denver
Airport has decided what is appropriate for you to view. It thinks
those sites are naughty-naughty and it was much cheaper to block them
rather than hiring nuns to come around and slap you on the hand with a
ruler if caught on a bad site. Are they afraid you're going to hook-up
your laptop to a projector so that unassuming kids might see the
beautiful Daniella Sarahyba in...gasp...her BIKINI??? Um, excuse me,
but every kid has been to the beach. Nothing new to see there. Maybe
they are getting their ideas from the repressive regimes of the Sudan
and Kuwait? Next thing you know some airline won't let a woman fly
because she is dressed too sexy...wait a minute....that sounds familiar.
On a positive and somewhat confusing note, you can
still buy HUSTLER MAGAZINE at the newsstands
in the Denver airport.
And by the way, if you ARE sitting in the Denver
airport right now you probably can't read this story.
Read a full story and insight about this at the SeattleTimes.com .
- C. McCarthy
