MORE ON JOE KLEIN'S REMARK ABOUT OBAMA

I can't recall exactly where but over the past few weeks I've come across the idea that Obama can't be elected because his base is to narrow, just like Adlai Stevenson. This was brought home to me by Paul Begala's snotty remark about Obama's base (via HuffPo):

"We can't win with eggheads and African-Americans."

If I remember correctly, it was the "eggheads" who really liked Stevenson and this plays into the "elitist" meme that the wingnuts love to push about any Democratic presidential candidates, Gore and Kerry being the most recent examples.

Klein's comment was preceded by Adam Nagourney's remark from April 8, 2007 in the New York Times:

But there is also, in a historical comparison that his supporters have tended to resist, the cool intellectualism of Adlai Stevenson who, for all the loyalty he inspired among many Democrats in the 1950s — some of whom still remember him fondly — lost two presidential elections. If Mr. Obama enters the room to the sounds of “Think” by Aretha Franklin and the roar of people coming to their feet, clapping and jostling for photographs, it is only moments before the atmosphere turns from campaign rally to college seminar, when he talks, for example, about the need for a “common sense, nonideological, practical-minded, generous agenda for change in this country.”

I hope the MSM doesn't adopt this as one of its favorite narratives but it may be too late:

Democrats in Conflict, the GOP in Space

By Harold Meyerson
Thursday, April 19, 2007; Page A27
Washington Post
(excerpt)

Declaring his candidacy in Springfield, Ill., Obama summoned memories of Lincoln as well as of the last Illinois governor to run for president, Adlai Stevenson, the first modern, upscale Democratic reformer, who lost twice to Dwight Eisenhower. In what I believe to be the first article to discuss the coming class typologies of Democratic candidates -- "Stevenson and the Intellectuals," a prophetic 1954 essay -- literary and political critic Irving Howe noted that Stevenson wasn't really as liberal as Harry Truman had been on economic questions but that he was "admired and identified with" by the new middle-class Democratic reformers "because he didn't really seem to like politics." He was the candidate, wrote Howe, "who would rise above mere group interests."

Sounds a lot like Obama to me.

A PROMINENT NEO-CON COMES CLEAN ABOUT IRAQ

(h/t Memeo)

It's hard to overestimate how devastating this interview of Lawrence Kaplan in Speigel Online¹ is to all the remaining BushBots and other war whores. Kaplan co-wrote "The War over Iraq: Saddam's Tyranny and America's Mission" with William "The Bloody" Kristol.

Here are some excerpts:

- The political situation, admittedly, remains a disaster.

- I think it is impossible to disentangle the progress that comes from the tribes switching sides, from the new American strategy, from the fact that Shiite radical Muqtada al-Sadr has stood down and the surge. My sense is that the influx of 30,000 new American troops holds the least explanatory power. Most important were the tribes. And their switching sides predates the surge.

- Before the war, Iraq was an abstraction, an idea. Once you have seen the place you can't help but be much more cautious with the ideas that you put on the table.

- So on the whole the effects have been huge and overwhelmingly negative. I don't see anything good that's come from this war, I'm afraid.

- But the democratization of Iraq was never the main reason for the invasion, even though that may have been the rhetoric.

- SPIEGEL ONLINE: So for the record: Was the Iraq war a mistake?

Kaplan: Yes. Knowing what we know today, definitely. I know this is political poison in some quarters, but respect to reality demands this answer. However, this is a completely different question from whether or not having invaded Iraq we should stay or leave. On this I am equally clear: We turned this country upside down and we have an obligation to put it back together again.

- SPIEGEL ONLINE: The Iraq war was percieved as the one chance the neocons had in our time to prove that their theories were right. Is neoconservatism already a historical footnote?

Kaplan: The near-term argument here is that if John McCain wins the presidential election, neoconservatism will have been vindicated. Because by voting him into office, people will have tacitly given their endorsement to that sort of foreign policy. His advisers are the very people we are arguing about.

¹May 06, 2008
NEOCONSERVATIVE LAWRENCE KAPLAN ON IRAQ
'I Don't See Anything Good That Has Come from this War'

OBAMA AS "ELITIST"

I decided to use Lexis-Nexis to find out when was the first time Obama was called an elitist. I searched All U.S. Newspapers & Wires for "Barack Obama" and "elitist," all available records. The first one to pop-up was an editorial from the Chicago Sun-Times by Laura Washington on 1/20/2003¹ and here are relevant excerpts:

Aunt Muriel may be captivated. But in political talk over Christmas dinner, my Uncle Leland, an African American and retired railroad worker in South Shore, recalled seeing Obama wearing "a thousand-dollar coat" on a visit to a public housing project. He dismissed him as an "elitist."

Whether that's true, perception can be reality. The charge is a challenge that Obama will have to overcome if he is to snare the Senate nomination. His weakest appeal is to the working class. He has to balance his time between the shops and community centers of Bronzeville, the churches in Chatham and the diners in Cairo, and the money pitches in the boardrooms of the Loop.

Getting Aunt Muriel's vote is a damn good start. Uncle Leland is going to need some work.

The above remarks were made in the context of Obama running for the U.S. Senate and the elitist part refers to working class blacks, not the working class in general, as Washington explains 9 months later with this editorial²:

If Obama can turn out his black base and build a coalition of white progressives and other people of color, he's got the nomination.

That's where the curtain comes up on the Obama Drama:

The Tragic Flaw. As a politician, the Obama character has a tragic flaw. He may be too smart, too reserved, and perceived as too elitist for regular black folk. It's the Uncle Leland problem. My uncle says that low-income and working-class blacks don't think Obama is "down" enough. It's a cultural phenomenon, and it's rooted in an unfortunate strain of anti-intellectualism and distrust of those with close associations with the white power structure.

Obama calls the elitist charge a "red herring." But it's real.

The first CONSERVATIVE in the database to accuse Barack of being an elitist is Cal Thomas in his column of 1/18/2007³:

It could be argued that much of the bitterness in politics has been caused by liberal elitists who have used the courts to ram social change down our throats without regard to the democratic process. I see Obama as being a part of this ideological strain.

AND THEN THERE'S JOE KLEIN...

Hit Her Again!
Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2007 By JOE KLEIN
TIME Magazine

I don't know if this sort of quiet, unsolicited honesty can work in our rude, noisy politics, but it certainly is far more presidential than the dodging and fudging that you get from most candidates. It has been argued that Obama's style is too cerebral, too élitist. That may be true. He assumes a maturity in his audiences, and in the press, that simply may not exist. But given the stakes in 2008, perhaps it's time for all of us to grow up and meet the challenge of a difficult moment for our country.

¹Chicago Sun-Times
January 20, 2003 Monday
BYLINE: Laura Washington
SECTION: EDITORIAL; Pg. 31
LENGTH: 618 words
HIGHLIGHT: He can prove that a black candidate can win high office by appealing beyond "the black base."

²Chicago Sun-Times
September 8, 2003 Monday
BYLINE: Laura Washington
SECTION: EDITORIAL; Pg. 39
LENGTH: 815 words
HIGHLIGHT: If he can turn out his black base and build a coalition of white progressives and other people of color, he's got it.

³The Salt Lake Tribune
January 18, 2007 Thursday
Thomas: It's time for Obama to start writing on that blank slate
BYLINE: Cal Thomas
SECTION: COLUMNISTS; Opinion
LENGTH: 786 words

WHO WILL WATCH THE WATCHERS?

The criminal Bush regime chalks up another milestone: an overseer gets investigated for obstruction of justice. From NPR:

FBI agents on Tuesday raided the offices of Special Counsel Scott J. Bloch, who oversees protection for federal whistle-blowers. The agents seized computers and shut down e-mail service as part of an obstruction of justice probe, as first reported by NPR News.

A grand jury in Washington issued subpoenas for several OSC employees, including Bloch, according to NPR sources who spoke on condition their names not be used. Bloch's home was also searched.

Amanda at ThinkProgress has a run-down of some of the earlier charges against Bloch and provides this great quote from Steve Benen:

"Only with the Bush gang is this set of circumstances even possible — Bloch is ostensibly investigating the Justice Department for its political activities, and simultaneously the Justice Department sends the FBI to raid Bloch’s office and home. What’s more, everybody is probably guilty."

Bloch was supposed to be looking into politicization of the firing of the US attorneys and one of the main responsibilities of his office is to enforce the Hatch Act. Guess what?

In addition to concerns about obstruction of justice, investigators are also looking into whether Bloch violated the Hatch Act, a congressional mandate that prohibits employees from using their offices for partisan political purposes.

FATS LIMBAUGH HURTS McWAR

It looks like Fats hasn't done McWAR any good with his "shoe shine guy" comment. (Via Faiz of ThinkProgress)


Jeff Bercovici of MIXED MEDIA reports that:

Alex Nogales, president of the National Hispanic Media Coalition, says this: "What can I tell you? It's the same kind of nasty, bigoted, racist type of comment that has become so prevalent in today's society, as practiced by Lou Dobbs, as practiced by [Sean] Hannity, [Bill] O'Reilly, [Michael] Savage -- all these guys who are appealing to a particular bigoted audience, and fanning the fires of bigotry and racism by doing these kinds of things without real concern about the consequences of their words. And the consequences are that these kinds of comments have helped in raising the rate of crimes against Latinos 35 percent in last three years." (He attributes that figure to the FBI.) "These guys have no civility in their makeup, no compassion, and very little intelligence when it comes to opening their mouths."

A CHANGE IN FUNDING PRIORITIES & HEALTH CARE

As we inch closer to a more rational health care system, we will also need to try to improve people's diets. One way to do this is to allocate agricultural subsidies closer to what's needed for a healthy diet. (Via The Poorman --> The Agonist)



Graphic from Good Medicine

Note that part of the meat subsidy goes for feed grain.

OLLIE NORTH IS INSANE

Do you remember when the Larry Craig scandal broke out? Well, two of the war whores decided Craig must go because we're "in a time of war." In Wingnut World, almost everything can be related to the war on terror. Ollie North does that with the Pastor Wright "controversy" (h/t Newshounds). Here's the relevant part of the transcript¹ and the Newshounds have the video clip.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WRIGHT: Our congregation stood in solidarity with the peasants in El Salvador and Nicaragua while our government, through Ollie North and the Iran-Contra scandal, was supporting Contras who were killing the peasants and the Miskito Indians in those two countries.
(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: All right. There he is, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, taking a shot at our own friend, Colonel Oliver North during yesterday's National Press Club address.

Here to respond is the author of a brand-new book -- by the way, this is -- and I've loved all your books -- I think one of the best. "American Heroes in the Fight against Radical Islam." The host of "War Stories" right here on the FOX News Channel, Colonel Oliver North.

Good to see you, my friend.

OLIVER NORTH, HOST, "WAR STORIES": It's great to be with you. It's wonderful. You and I are both attacked by Jeremiah Wright.

HANNITY: He attacked me in a eulogy at a funeral, for crying out loud.
NORTH: Listen, this guy has gone after everything that is good and decent in America. It's a privilege to include us.

[snip]

HANNITY: I want you to respond to this here, because he's basically accusing you of murder and atrocities, and there's a serious side to this.

NORTH: And what this man has become is a recruiting campaign for al Qaeda and all of the enemies of America. This is -- this person, by virtue of his own ego, and I think that's what's really driving this...

HANNITY: I agree with you.

¹Fox News Network
April 29, 2008 Tuesday
SHOW: FOX HANNITY & CO 9:50 PM EST
Oliver North Responds to Pastor's Comments
BYLINE: Sean Hannity, Alan Colmes, Oliver North
SECTION: NEWS; Domestic
LENGTH: 1393 words

HOW'S FREDO'S WAR ON TERROR GOING?

Not too well in Afghanistan. The situation is so bad there that we can't afford to alienate some of the people who are growing poppies for the heroin trade. This does of course make perfect sense given the instability in Afghanistan but it's certainly not a good sign.

Marines ignore Taliban cash crop to not upset Afghan locals
By JASON STRAZIUSO – 14 hours ago

GARMSER, Afghanistan (AP) — The Marines of Bravo Company's 1st Platoon sleep beside a grove of poppies. Troops in the 2nd Platoon playfully swat at the heavy opium bulbs while walking through the fields. Afghan laborers scraping the plant's gooey resin smile and wave.

Last week, the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit moved into southern Helmand province, the world's largest opium poppy-growing region, and now find themselves surrounded by green fields of the illegal plants that produce the main ingredient of heroin.

The Taliban, whose fighters are exchanging daily fire with the Marines in Garmser, derives up to $100 million a year from the poppy harvest by taxing farmers and charging safe passage fees — money that will buy weapons for use against U.S., NATO and Afghan troops.

Yet the Marines are not destroying the plants. In fact, they are reassuring villagers the poppies won't be touched. American commanders say the Marines would only alienate people and drive them to take up arms if they eliminated the impoverished Afghans' only source of income.

YES, THEY REALLY DO NEED ENEMIES

Toward the end of his history of conservative intellectuals, Gordon Nash wondered whether or not the movement could survive the collapse of the Soviet Union. To him, the components of the movement could not cohere unless an external threat was present to unite them. Via Sadly, No! I learn that Francis Fukuyama made a similar observation. Here's the video clip and here's a partial transcript:

I think that for some neoconservatives… In a sense, they wanted to have an enemy. The end of the Cold War was a tough time because they didn’t know who the enemy ought to be. I think in the case of Bill Kristol and The Weekly Standard there was actually a deliberate search for an enemy because I think that they felt that the Republican Party didn’t do as well if foreign policy wasn’t a big issue.

The late 1990s was the, you know, the period of the stock market bubble and Monica Lewinsky and they didn’t really have an issue in all of that, I thought, that they thought was particularly important or had much traction with the voters and with the public. I think they initially picked on China as their target — and I always thought right from the beginning that was a big mistake because, first of all, foreign policy shouldn’t be driven by the needs of the Republican Party and domestic politics and secondly, I just don’t think that China is particularly useful to think of as an enemy comparable to the former Soviet Union. So in that sense, September the 11th was a big godsend because we were attacked and didn’t have to invent an enemy at that point. But I think that, just that general tendency to think of the world as extremely dangerous and full of big threats is something they try to carry forward.

How far will they go? As far as they think they need to, as Sadly, No! reports:

Defense Officials Tried to Reverse China Policy, Says Powell Aide
By Jeff Stein, CQ National Security Editor
First posted June 1, 2007 5:48 p.m.


The same top Bush administration neoconservatives who leap-frogged Washington’s foreign policy establishment to topple Saddam Hussein nearly pulled off a similar coup in U.S.-China relations—creating the potential of a nuclear war over Taiwan, a top aide to former Secretary of State Colin Powell says.

Lawrence B. Wilkerson, the U.S. Army colonel who was Powell’s chief of staff through two administrations, said in little-noted remarks early last month that “neocons” in the top rungs of the administration quietly encouraged Taiwanese politicians to move toward a declaration of independence from mainland China — an act that the communist regime has repeatedly warned would provoke a military strike.

The top U.S. diplomat in Taiwan at the time, Douglas Paal, backs up Wilkerson’s account, which is being hotly disputed by key former defense officials.

I suppose this explains the bleating that Babbin, Levin and Bennett have done about China.

I NEEDED THIS!

I was at Sadly, No! reading a post about the internecine warfare, AKA Hillary vs. Obama, among the liberals in Blog World and I became depressed again at the level of discourse by some of the people who support Hillary over Obama. On one thread I participated in, several of the commenters seemed to argue just like wingnuts and we've seen that the bloggers themselves can also do so. Some of the commenters may be part of Fats Limbaugh "Operation Chaos" but it's clear that neither Jeralyn nor Larry Johnson have gone to the Darkside. That does leave the puzzle of how to account for their apparent monomania and I guess the answer is that any one of us can fall into it, given the right circumstances.

Humor is a nice antidote to my dismay at the way some Hillary supporters have been acting and Sadly, No! came though again by finding this gem from Accuracy in Media:

Obama and the Drive for Slavery Reparations
AIM Report
April 21, 2008

Barack Obama is the most radical candidate ever to stand at the precipice of acquiring his party’s presidential nomination and the American presidency. It is apparent that he is a member of an international socialist movement which hopes to use the United Nations as a vehicle to shake down U.S. taxpayers for trillions of dollars in slavery reparations.

This magnificent piece of insanity helps me realize that Larry and Jeralyn aren't really so bad after all.

SERIAL ADULTERER (SA) OFFERS POLITICAL ADVICE

This time the SA is Newt Gingrich and in an article in Human Events, My Plea to Republicans: It's Time for Real Change to Avoid Real Disaster, he shows why the GOP is circling the drain. He offers a 9-step plan for recovery and they are so weak that we can rest assured that the GOP has run out of even faintly plausible ideas.

For example, he wants a gas tax cut even though it will be ineffective and his economic stupidity doesn't stop there: he also wants to release some oil from our Strategic Petroleum Reserve, another move that will also be ineffective.

CLASS WARFARE AT FAUX NEWS

A lot of people hopped all over this, including Faiz at ThinkProgress, David Kurtz at TPM and dNA at Too Sense. All 3 have the video and here I provide a part of the transcript¹ of Fred Barnes disparaging working class voters:

HUME: And keep on going they have. Some thoughts on this marathon race now from Fred Barnes, Executive Editor of "The Weekly Standard;" Nina Easton, Washington Bureau Chief of "Fortune" magazine, Bill Kristol, Editor of "The Weekly Standard," and Mort Kondracke, Executive Editor of "Roll Call," FOX News contributors all.

Well, we know something about what the polling was showing going into today, and we know something about what the exit polling has shown about who voted for whom and why. What does it seem to be telling us, Fred?

FRED BARNES, EXECUTIVE EDITOR, "THE WEEKLY STANDARD": That the rift in the Democratic Party is widening, or at least hardening between Obama
getting the upscale type and, obviously, the African-American vote, and Hillary getting the downscale vote, including Catholics and whites, and so on.

And it is a split that we have seen earlier, particularly in Pennsylvania, and again in Indiana and North Carolina. The big difference in these races is that there is in Indiana, I think, African-Americans are 1/7 of the Democratic electorate, and in North Carolina they're a third.

And since Obama gets more than 90 percent of the African-American vote, he does better in North Carolina than Indiana. But you still see that rift where this downscale, traditional base of the Democratic Party seems to be not going for Obama, even though, as he said, he has campaigned for these people at the Ford plant.

HUME: When we mean downscale, we mean down in the economic scale?

BARNES: Downscale not just economically, but culturally and education-wise.

HUME: Why are Catholics downscale?

BARNES: Picky, picky, picky!

HUME: Well, I will not associate myself with those remarks.

MORT KONDRACKE, EXECUTIVE EDITOR, ROLL CALL: That strikes me as elitism on Fred's part.

HUME: Fred's a college educated guy who lives in an upscale area.

BARNES: I never drink anything that the word latte is associated with; only black coffee.

¹ Fox News Network
May 6, 2008 Tuesday
SHOW: FOX SPECIAL REPORT WITH BRIT HUME 6:40 PM EST
Fox News All-Stars
BYLINE: Brit Hume, Mort Kondracke, Bill Kristol, Nina Easton
SECTION: NEWS; Domestic
LENGTH: 2381 words

WHO WILL BE OUR DANIEL ELLSBERG?

(For those of you who don't recall, Sec. Robert S. McNamara ordered a study of the history of our involvement in Vietnam. It was withheld from the American public until Daniel Ellsberg gave a copy to the NY Times. Now known as "The Pentagon Papers," The Times began publishing excerpts and OUR government sought a restraining order. The case worked its way to the Supreme Court and the Court ruled in favor of the Times.)

Paul Kiel of TPM finds that Gen. Sanchez writes that Sec. Rumsfeld ordered a similar historical study of the Iraq Fiasco but it has been classified.

THE FATS LIMBAUGH EFFECT IS A DUD

The exit poll for the Democratic primary in Indiana shows that Fats had little, if any, effect on the results. According to CNN, 11% of voters said they were registered Republicans and they divided their votes almost evenly between Hillary (53%) and Barack (45%), so if there really is a Fats Effect, it is pretty small.

Other reactions: Ben Smith at Politico, Jonanthan Chait at The New Republic, Sam Stein at HuffPo.

A MINOR POINT

(h/t Atrios --> Digby)

Lance Mannion writes:

We want our politicians to represent us but that's far from saying we want them to stand in for us as surrogate selves.

I think this is mistaken. It seems to me that many people, notably BushBots, do see politicians as surrogates for their selves. Perhaps this is limited to those who have an authoritarian personality but there are still a lot of people who feel this way and that's one reason why they are so recalcitrant when it comes to acknowledging the shortcomings of "their" politician: to do so they would also have to acknowledge that they also have a shortcoming.

HANNITY & HERITAGE

Today on his radio show, Hannity mentioned that he was at a Heritage Foundation event last night. I didn't listen to the entire show, so I don't know if said what the event was but it's good to keep track of the wingnuts' connections.

AN EXAMPLE OF OUR "LIBERAL" MEDIA

Or, another example of what "in the tank for McCain" means. From MediaMatters:

CHRIS MATTHEWS: So what do you have with McCain? Integrity.

More atrocious comments from Matthews here, including my favorite:

On the September 10, 2006, edition of The Chris Matthews Show, Matthews asserted: "The press loves McCain. We're his base."

TOTALITARIAN LOGIC

The Irrational has established a secure home among conservatives in America. Ali at ThinkProgress notes that the same people who once claimed that the decline in U.S. deaths in Iraq is a sign that we are succeeding can reverse themselves and then claim that an increase in deaths is also a sign of success.

So, increase or decrease (and I bet, stay the same), in Wingnut War Whore World, we're always winning in Iraq.

OUCH! == OIL AT $200/BBL

This is going to hurt a lot of people in the U.S. and may begin a reversal of urban sprawl and an increase in the number of high gas mileage cars.

Goldman's Murti Says Oil `Likely' to Reach $150-$200 (Update4)
By Nesa Subrahmaniyan

May 6 (Bloomberg) -- Crude oil may rise to between $150 and $200 a barrel within two years as growth in supply fails to keep pace with increased demand from developing nations, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. analysts led by Arjun N. Murti said in a report.

``The possibility of $150-$200 per barrel seems increasingly likely over the next six-24 months, though predicting the ultimate peak in oil prices as well as the remaining duration of the upcycle remains a major uncertainty,'' the Goldman analysts wrote in the report dated May 5.

GAAP == A BIG PART OF THE PROBLEM

(NOTE: GAAP == Generally Accepted Accounting Principles)

I don't know if Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are in deep trouble or not but part of the problem is the accounting chicanery they can legally get away with.

Doubts Raised on Big Backers of Mortgages
By CHARLES DUHIGG
Published: May 6, 2008
NY Times


A report released earlier this month by Mr. Lockhart, the regulator, noted that although Freddie and Fannie had a combined $19.9 billion of “unrealized losses” on mortgage-related investments, neither company had reduced its earnings to reflect those declines. That is because they judged the losses to be temporary — in essence wagering that the mortgage market would recover before those assets were sold. Such a wager is permitted by the rules but difficult for outsiders to analyze.

The regulator’s report also noted that Freddie used accounting choices that gave it an immediate $1 billion capital increase. While those and other tactics are technically permitted, the regulator said, they deserve scrutiny.

“Companies can make assumptions that cause very large differences in what they report,” Mr. Lockhart said in an interview.

WHERE THEY STAND ON CAPITAL GAINS TAXES

The wingnuts are trying to convince people that the Democrats will raise taxes on everyone, including the middle class. This isn't true but that's all you'll get from FAUX News or Fats Limbaugh. (BTW, Fats has a vested interest in keeping the capital gains tax low and so do many other radio gasbags.)

Here's a synopis of each candidates position, from the NY Times:

BARACK OBAMA

REPEAL THE BUSH TAX CUTS FOR HOUSEHOLDS EARNING MORE THAN $250,000

Cut taxes by $80 billion a year for workers, homeowners and retirees. Give credits to working families; eliminate income taxes for elderly workers making $50,000 or less. Keep estate tax. Raise capital gains taxes to as much as 28 percent.
MORE INFORMATION
Plan to Strengthen the Economy (barackobama.com)

HILLARY CLINTON

REPEAL THE BUSH TAX CUTS FOR HOUSEHOLDS EARNING MORE THAN $250,000

Extend middle-class cuts ($1,000 child tax credit, marriage penalty relief). Offer new cuts for health and child care, college and retirement. Freeze estate taxes at 2009 levels. Favors alternative minimum tax change but not repeal. Voted to keep capital gains tax cuts.
MORE INFORMATION
Strengthening the Middle Class (hillaryclinton.com)

I LIKE THIS RESPONSE

And I think a temperament like this is really what we need our next President to have.

Obama Heats Up Indiana, North Carolina Primaries
Sen. Barack Obama Addresses Wright Controversy, Clinton's Claims

By TERRY MORAN and MELINDA ARONS
May 5, 2008
ABC News


The shots in the Democratic primary campaign are getting nasty, and this weekend it got downright crude as Clinton confidante James Carville told Newsweek, "If she gave him one of her cojones, they'd both have two."

Obama responded to Carville's comments for the first time today.

"Well, you know, James Carville is well-known for spouting off his mouth without always knowing what he's talking about," Obama told "Nightline." "And I intend to stay focused on fighting for the American people because what they don't need is 20 more years of performance art on television. And that's what James Carville and a lot of those folks are expert at ... a lot of talk and not getting things done for the American people."

Obama also made a valid point about the main stream media:

Obama also believes the media has been inconsistent in portraying his candidacy along racial lines.

"This is something that the media, I'm sorry to say, has been promoting for a long time," he said. "I don't know if anyone can remember this, but about this time last year, when every story was, 'Is he black enough, he's not getting black votes,' I kept saying at the time, 'Listen, relax. People are getting to know me, and when they have a sense to see me, and hear my life story, then we're gonna get those votes.' Now we've gotten those votes and everyone's saying, 'Oh, he's too black now!'"

WHO CARES FOR THE TROOPS?

I no longer know how many times I've made posts about the conservatives' neglect of our troops. When will someone point out that people like Hannity, Ingraham and Levin don't give a damn? (Yes, I know Hannity does "Freedom Concerts" but aside from the Walter Reed scandal, has he ever covered the care of soldiers and vets?)

Post-War Suicides May Exceed Combat Deaths, U.S. Says (Update1)

By Avram Goldstein

May 5 (Bloomberg) -- The number of suicides among veterans of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan may exceed the combat death toll because of inadequate mental health care, the U.S. government's top psychiatric researcher said.

Community mental health centers, hobbled by financial limits, haven't provided enough scientifically sound care, especially in rural areas, said Thomas Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Maryland. He briefed reporters today at the American Psychiatric Association's annual meeting in Washington.

Insel echoed a Rand Corporation study published last month that found about 20 percent of returning U.S. soldiers have post- traumatic stress disorder or depression, and only half of them receive treatment. About 1.6 million U.S. troops have fought in the two wars since October 2001, the report said. About 4,560 soldiers had died in the conflicts as of today, the Defense Department reported on its Web site.

Based on those figures and established suicide rates for similar patients who commonly develop substance abuse and other complications of post-traumatic stress disorder, ``it's quite possible that the suicides and psychiatric mortality of this war could trump the combat deaths,'' Insel said.

Soldiers who'd been exposed to combat trauma were the most likely to suffer from depression or PTSD, the Rand report said. About 53 percent of soldiers with those conditions sought treatment during the past year. Half of those who got care were judged by Rand researchers to have received inadequate treatment.

MEANWHILE, BACK IN IRAQ

5 more U. S. soldiers died.
The wife of Prime Minister Maliki was almost assassinated.
10 Iraqi soldiers were killed at a checkpoint.
The Sunnis nominated for ministerial positions are rejected by the Shiite government.

THIS IS GOOD NEWS FOR THE DEMS

but there's an odd interpretation thrown in. First, the good news:

AP IMPACT: More than 3.5 million new voters, AP survey finds
By MIKE BAKER – 3 hours ago

DURHAM, N.C. (AP) — Voter excitement, always up before a presidential election, is pushing registration through the roof so far this year — with more than 3.5 million people rushing to join in the historic balloting, according to an Associated Press survey that offers the first national snapshot.

Figures are up for blacks, women and young people. Rural and city. South and North.

The news even gets a little better:

Cherie Poucher, director of elections in Wake County, home of the state capital of Raleigh, said registrations among the parties have historically kept pace with each other — until this year. In the two weeks before the April 11 registration deadline, she said, the Democrats gained about 8,000 voters in Wake County while the GOP lost several hundred.

"We have never seen something like that before," Poucher said.

This is the odd part:

Voters are flocking to the most open election in half a century, inspired to support the first female president, the first black or the oldest ever elected.

I don't think many people are geeked about voting for Granpa McWAR.

WILL THE MSM DARE TO PRINT THIS ABOUT McWAR?

Arianna Huffington has a great post that demonstrates what a spineless, amoral bastard McWAR really is. It's well past time to look at the man behind the media curtain.

What John McCain Told Me, and What it Says About How Far He's Fallen
Posted May 5, 2008 04:43 PM (EST)

Update: Through a spokesperson with the colorful name Tucker Bounds, McCain has denied telling me he didn't vote for Bush in 2000. "It's not true," Bounds told the Washington Post, "and I ask you to consider the source."

My sentiments exactly -- because John McCain has a long history of issuing heartfelt denials of things that were actually true.

- He denied ever talking with John Kerry about his leaving the GOP to be Kerry's '04 running mate -- then later admitted he had, insisting: "Everybody knows that I had a conversation."

- He denied admitting that he didn't know much about economics, even though he'd said exactly that to the Wall Street Journal. And the Boston Globe. And the Baltimore Sun.

- He denied ever having asked for a budget earmark for Arizona, even though he had. On the record.

- He denied that he'd ever had a meeting with comely lobbyist Vicki Iseman and her client Lowell Paxon, even though he had. And had admitted it in a legal deposition.

And those are just the outright denials. He's also repeatedly tried to spin away statements he regretted making (see: 100-year war, Iraq was a war for oil, etc.).
So, yes, by all means, "consider the source."

SPOT THE CONTRADICTION

Memeo listed these two entries one after the other and I think the pairing says a lot about the weaknesses of the GOP, McWAR and conservatives in general.

Limbaugh on Hispanic mayor of LA: I thought he was either a ’shoe shine guy or a Secret Service agent.’


McCain Reaches Out to Hispanics on Cinco de Mayo

WINGNUT NARRATIVES ARE CONTRADICTORY

Almost every agit-prop argument made by wingnuts can be turned against them. For example, in arguing against needed financial regulation and against fairly taxing the Master of the Universe, Mark "Foamer" Levin invoked the "limits of the Constitution." Of course, the wingnuts ignore those "sacred" limits when it comes to wiretapping and torture.

Another example is the "morality" issues they often bring up. They always claim that the Democrats are immoral but give adulterers like Newt Gingrich, Rudy Giuliani and John McCain a free ride. (h/t Ken Hoop)

CONRAD AND OBAMA

Over at Talk Left, Jeralyn is upset that Obama concluded a paragraph about the harmful results of economic adversity with the claim that when you lose your job, you lose your dignity. I think this is a truism and can't imagine how she or Lambert can interpret it as a demeaning or elitist remark. I think Kyle Moore has an effective response to this nonsense and I was reminded of a line by Joseph Conrad from The Heart of Darkness:

“I don’t like work, no one does, but I like what is in the work, the chance to find yourself.”

You get a sense of who you are by pitting yourself against the external world and finding a place in it. One gets somewhat attached even to lousy jobs for this reason. Losing a job means loss of freedom and dignity does depend on freedom.

H/T TO MARK "FOAMER" LEVIN

I call him "Foamer" because I once heard him on Janet Parshall's radio show discussing the Federal Judiciary and it sounded like he was foaming at the mouth. Today, I caught a few minutes of his radio show and he mentioned this remark by DNC chair Howard Dean:

DEAN: Chris, the Republicans — for the last 30 years, the Republican book is to race bait and to use hate and divisiveness. In 2006, the American people said no to that, and I think they're going to say no to that in 2008.

It is true that the economy, the war and health care are more important to the American people. They are tired of the divisiveness of what the Republicans have done to them, and that's why the Republicans are in trouble, deep trouble.

Dean is absolutely correct about the GOP's Southern Strategy, which started with Nixon and continues to this day.

WINGNUTS JUST DON'T GET IT

On almost any issue, they pull out conservative myths and misdirection that only serves to avoid reality and reinforce their straight-jacket ideology.

A great example is health care and wingnut Senator Jim DeMint, arguing for the Free Market Fairy, writes this in Real Clear Politics last Friday:

Do we want a solution that offers American more freedom, more choice and more competition?

DeMint doesn't realize that the market has failed us miserably and there is no sign at all that relying on it will improve our health care system. Here's one counter-example to DeMint's wingnuttery:

Even the Insured Feel Strain of Health Costs
By REED ABELSON and MILT FREUDENHEIM
Published: May 4, 2008
NY Times

Many of the 158 million people covered by employer health insurance are struggling to meet medical expenses that are much higher than they used to be — often because of some combination of higher premiums, less extensive coverage, and bigger out-of-pocket deductibles and co-payments.

“It just keeps eating into people’s income,” said James Corbin, a former union official who works for the local utility in Tucson.

Mr. Corbin said that under their employer’s health plan, he and his co-workers are now obliged to pay up to $4,000 of their families’ annual medical bills, on top of about $1,600 a year in premiums. Five years ago, they paid no premiums and were responsible for only about $2,000 of their families’ medical bills.

“That’s a big jump,” Mr. Corbin said. “You’ve just lost a month’s pay.”

The problem of affording health care is most acute for people with no insurance, a group expected to soon exceed 48 million, but those with insurance say they too are feeling the pain.

Since the recession of 2001, the employee’s average cost of an annual health care premium for family coverage has nearly doubled — to $3,300, up from $1,800 — while incomes have come nowhere close to keeping up. Factor in other out-of-pocket medical costs, and the portion of the average American household’s income that goes toward health care has risen about 12 percent, according to the consulting and accounting firm Deloitte, and is now approaching one-fifth of the average household’s spending.

WHAT THESE WORDS MEAN

Clinton told ABC's "Good Morning America" that "I want the Iranians to know that if I'm the president, we will attack Iran (if it attacked Israel)."

"In the next 10 years, during which they might foolishly consider launching an attack on Israel, we would be able to totally obliterate them," Clinton said. CNN

(h/t HuffPo)

STUCK ON STUPID

Pastor Henry G. Brinton writes in USA Today of "The resilient Religious Right." There are plenty of absurdities in his op-ed but this one at the end seems to be the greatest:

the Christian Right hadn't failed

Of course it has failed! Abortion is still legal and there's no gay marriage amendment.

A GREAT (INDIRECT) EXAMPLE OF MEDIA BIAS

Jonathan Martin is still in the tank for McWAR and unintentionally points out how the rest of the news media is also. Here's part of his offensive column in the Politico:

McCain, by contrast, is something approaching a household name. Voters may not know much beyond the basic sketches of his biography, but that is the point — his personal identity is established.

The real point is that the media have created a false image of McWAR and work hard to perpetuate the McWAR myth. There are tons of examples you could find on MediaMatters (just search for "McCain") but this recent column by Jamison Foser gives one a feel for how bad the media is when it comes to McWAR.

Martin continues:

And McCain wants to run on character. Given his life story and brand, it makes perfect politcal sense.

We've seen this "character" crap before. Remember when Pres. Fredo was lauded as the guy you'd like to have a beer with? That didn't work out to well for us, did it? The mainstream media has also played along with this, perhaps most notably in attacking Al Gore. Bob Somerby has a superb series of columns that document the outrages. (All you have to do is search for "Gore")

Martin writes as if McWAR hasn't flip-flopped on a number of issues, such as taxation, immigration, the Religious Right and torture, to name just a few.

GIVE STEVE CHAPMAN SOME PRAISE!

(h/t Memeo)

Usually, wingnut politicians get a pass on their association with right-wing radicals. Steve Chapman of the Chicago Tribune does a little to help redress this imbalance by showing the McWAR and ex-felon G. Gordon Liddy are buddies. There's a lot more we can do in this area. For example, The Newshounds have been doing great work revealing the strong ties Sean Hannity has to extremists like Hal Turner and Bob Grant, but so far this story hasn't broken out into the mainstream media.

McCain finds his own radical friend
Steve Chapman
May 4, 2008

(excerpts)

What McCain didn't mention is that he has his own Bill Ayers—in the form of G. Gordon Liddy. Now a conservative radio talk-show host, Liddy spent more than 4 years in prison for his role in the 1972 Watergate burglary. That was just one element of what Liddy did, and proposed to do, in a secret White House effort to subvert the Constitution.

Far from repudiating him, McCain has embraced him. How close are McCain and Liddy? At least as close as Obama and Ayers appear to be. In 1998, Liddy's home was the site of a McCain fundraiser. Over the years, he has made at least four contributions totaling $5,000 to the senator's campaigns—including $1,000 this year.

Last November, McCain went on his radio show. Liddy greeted him as "an old friend," and McCain sounded like one. "I'm proud of you, I'm proud of your family," he gushed. "It's always a pleasure for me to come on your program, Gordon, and congratulations on your continued success and adherence to the principles and philosophies that keep our nation great."

UH, WHO'S "ANTI-AMERICAN"???

In the Pastor Wright uproar, did we forget that leading members (Falwell & Robertson) of the GOP's base blamed America for 9-11? I know they were criticized for those remarks but that did not diminish one iota their political role. Further, what about Paul Weyrich and others like him? They are always criticizing America yet they are almost never called "anti-American." Thanks to Roy, I have excerpts of a letter Weyrich wrote in 1999:

In looking at the long history of conservative politics, from the defeat of Robert Taft in 1952, to the nomination of Barry Goldwater, to the takeover of the Republican Party in 1994, I think it is fair to say that conservatives have learned to succeed in politics. That is, we got our people elected.

But that did not result in the adoption of our agenda. The reason, I think, is that politics itself has failed. And politics has failed because of the collapse of the culture. The culture we are living in becomes an ever-wider sewer. In truth, I think we are caught up in a cultural collapse of historic proportions, a collapse so great that it simply overwhelms politics.

Suffice it to say that the United States is very close to becoming a state totally dominated by an alien ideology, an ideology bitterly hostile to Western culture.

Americans have adopted, in large measure, the MTV culture that we so valiantly opposed just a few years ago, and it has permeated the thinking of all but those who have separated themselves from the contemporary culture.

Therefore, what seems to me a legitimate strategy for us to follow is to look at ways to separate ourselves from the institutions that have been captured by the ideology of Political Correctness, or by other enemies of our traditional culture. I would point out to you that the word "holy" means "set apart", and that it is not against our tradition to be, in fact, "set apart". You can look in the Old Testament, you can look at Christian history. You will see that there were times when those who had our beliefs were definitely in the minority and it was a band of hardy monks who preserved the culture while the surrounding society disintegrated.

What I mean by separation is, for example, what the homeschoolers have done. Faced with public school systems that no longer educate but instead "condition" students with the attitudes demanded by Political Correctness, they have seceded. They have separated themselves from public schools and have created new institutions, new schools, in their homes.

... I do think that we have to look at what we can do to separate ourselves from this hostile culture. What steps can we take to make sure that we and our children are not infected? We need some sort of quarantine.

We are not in the dawn of a new civilization, but the twilight of an old one. We will be lucky if we escape with any remnants of the great Judeo-Christian civilization that we have known down through the ages.

I was very struck by the fact that when I traveled in the former Soviet Union, I couldn't go to a restaurant or any place else without hearing this incessant Western rock music pounding away. There was no escape from it. No wonder some Russians are anti-American. When they think of the United States, they think of the culture that we exported to them.

...our culture has decayed into something approaching barbarism.

"NO CONCLUSIVE EVIDENCE"

The neo-cons take another hit to their campaign to start a war with Iran. First it was the NIE finding that Iran had stopped developing nuclear weapons and now we have an Iraqi official denying that there's any evidence that Iran is supplying arms to Shiite militias.

Iraqi official says Iran arms evidence not conclusive
By SAMEER N. YACOUB – 9 hours ago

BAGHDAD (AP) — A top Iraqi official said Sunday there was no conclusive evidence that Shiite extremists have been directly supplied with some Iranian arms as alleged by the United States.

Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said Iraq does not want trouble with any country, "especially Iran."


Asked about reports that some rockets made in 2007 or 2008 and seized in raids against militias were directly supplied by Iran, al-Dabbagh replied: "There is no conclusive evidence."

Al-Dabbagh said Iraq wants friendly ties with Iran and stressed both countries share common interests.

"We can't ignore or deny we are neighbors. We do not want to be pushed in a struggle with any country, especially Iran," he told a news conference.

"We are fed up with past tensions that we have paid a costly price for because some parties have pushed Iraq (in the past) to take an aggressive attitude to Iran."

THEY TRIED HARD AND FAILED AGAIN...

The wingnuts and their allies in the media have done their best to take down Obama over Pastor Wright's remarks AND THEY HAVE FAILED MISERABLY according to a recent CBS/NY Times poll. I think this is another sign that wingnut talk radio is losing it's ability to affect the elections and that is a very good development. Let's hope they can take this good advice from Homer Simpson, "You tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is 'never try'. "

CBS Poll: Support For Obama Rebounds
In Wake Of Controversy Over Former Pastor, Illinois Senator Builds Lead Over McCain, Clinton
May 4, 2008

(CBS) Democrat Barack Obama appears to have rebounded from some of the damage caused by the controversy surrounding his former pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright, according to the latest CBS News/New York Times poll. On one key measure, Obama has seen a big reversal since his denunciation of Wright’s remarks on Tuesday. He now leads presumptive Republican nominee John McCain in the hypothetical fall contest by eleven points, 51 percent to 40 percent. That compares to a tied match-up in a CBS News/New York Times poll that was released last

Wednesday. Positive assessments of how Obama has handled the situation with Wright are also reflected by a continued lead over fellow Democrat Hillary Clinton in his battle for their party’s nomination. Among Democratic primary voters (those who have voted or plan to vote in a Democratic primary) Obama’s lead over Clinton has increased -- he now leads Clinton by twelve points, 50 percent to 38 percent. That’s up from his eight point lead in the poll released just a few days ago.

THIS IS AN OUTRAGE

UPDATE: Tristero and Ackerman have similar reactions.

This is my e-mail to the Public Editor of the NY Times for this disgusting selection of writers.


Dear Mr. Hoyt,

For the 5th anniversary of "mission accomplished" your paper claimed to have
" asked nine experts on military affairs " for their opinions. There is a major problem
with your selection: most are war whores or incompetent or both. These are the
failures as I see them:

Frederick Kagan
L. Paul Bremer III
Danielle Pletka
Richard Perle
Kenneth M. Pollack

I could go through and demonstrate that none of the above can be considered
much of an expert in military affairs but I'm sure you are aware of their manifold
weaknesses.

Choosing these people to write about Iraq - people who have been consistently
WRONG - is a stain on the NY Times and a great disservice to your readers.


Very sincerely,

WINGNUTTERY FROM BRITAIN

You are probably familiar with the right-wingnut smear about people who vote for Democrats: they're all on welfare. You probably didn't hear what Jed Babbin said when he was a guest host for Mark "Foamer" Levin: the Democrats "can't win with the regular American public" so they have to rely on ex-felons and illegal immigrants. The point is that Democrats mostly appeal to people who are at the margins of American society and thus aren't quite "American."

Today I find that this disease has spread to Britain, specifically Tim Shipman in The Telegraph. Shipman deliberately misuses the word "typical" in this passage:

James Pickens is typical of those who have been inspired by the black senator from Illinois. A reformed crack cocaine dealer, he is now peddling Obama T-shirts.

Mr Pickens, 50, has served three prison terms totalling 13 years, but vowed to change his ways after hearing Mr Obama speak.

KUDLOW LIES JUST LIKE GEORGE F. WILL

(h/t Atrios)

Just like wingnut whore George F. Will, Larry Kudlow falsely claims that Social Security is assessed on couples:

Uncapping the payroll tax reveals still another cultural misstep by Sen. Obama. He apparently has a difficult time understanding that nowadays, a veteran fireman or a veteran cop, married to a veteran schoolteacher, will make well over $100,000. In fact, they can make close to $200,000. Yet Obama still wants to go ahead and tax both the first and last payroll dollar of this group at a very high marginal tax rate by uncapping the Social Security (FICA) tax.

GENERALLY POSITIVE COVERAGE FOR THE DEMS

Here are a couple of more media outlets on the Dems big win in Lousiana.

USA Today:

Dems' House wins show hard road ahead for GOP

By Richard Wolf, USA TODAY
For the second time in three months, a Democrat's victory in a House district previously held by Republicans is pointing to a difficult landscape for the GOP this fall.

The party lost Louisiana's 6th Congressional District, based in Baton Rouge, 49% to 46%, despite the national Republican Party's effort to tie Cazayoux to Obama, Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and their "radical liberal agenda." Republicans said the tactic helped to close an earlier gap.

"The NRCC approach is probably the best available tactic for the GOP in this Democratic year," wrote Hastings Wyman in his Southern Political Report newsletter. "Nevertheless, if it didn't work in this conservative Deep South district, it is unlikely to bear fruit in very many other areas of the country."

CNN:

A seat held decades by Republicans goes to a Dem
From Alex Mooney
(CNN) -- Democrats on Sunday cheered a weekend special election in Louisiana, where a Democratic congressional candidate won a seat that has been held by Republicans for decades.

RHYMES WITH "RICH"

Clinton is sounding more and more like a wingnut. First, she refuses to consider the opinions of economists on her stupid proposal to cut the gas tax and then she drops a wingnut meme on them: they're elitists. I'm going to troll on over to some Hillary sites and see what they think about this nonsense.

Clinton dismisses "elite" economists on gas tax plan
Sun May 4, 2008 6:42pm EDT
By Andy Sullivan


Clinton raised questions about Obama's ability to connect with working-class Americans while dismissing economists who have said her plan to suspend gas taxes over the summer would do little good.

"I'm not going to put my lot in with economists," Clinton said when asked to name an economist who backed her proposal.

"We've got to get out of this mind-set where somehow elite opinion is always on the side of doing things that really disadvantage the vast majority of Americans," said Clinton, a former first lady who would be the first woman president.

HOW THE MEDIA COVERED THE DEM WIN IN LOUISIANA

AP:

Democrat captures La. congressional seat long held by GOP

By DOUG SIMPSON – 12 minutes ago

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A Democrat won a special congressional election here Saturday, bolstering his party's majority status on Capitol Hill by taking a seat Republicans have held since 1974.

Coming in the middle of a presidential cycle, the Cazayoux-Jenkins race attracted attention and money from Washington interest groups and the national parties.

"It's of enormous national significance," said Dane Strother, a Washington-based Democratic consultant. President Bush won 59 percent of the district's vote in 2004, he noted.

"If we take yet another Republican seat, a seat that has been considered safe for years, then every 59-percent district is at play," he said. .

UPI:

La. sends Scalise, Cazayoux to Congress

Published: May 3, 2008 at 11:55 PM
U.S. Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md. -- the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee -- issued a statement saying Cazayoux won despite efforts by House Republicans to use "false and deceptive smears" in a $1 million campaign in a district that had been held by the GOP for more than 30 years.

WAPO:

Democrat Wins La. Special Election

State Rep. Don Cazayoux won the special election in Louisiana's 6th district yesterday, a victory that marks the second time this year that Democrats have won a seat previously held by a Republican.

Like Hastert's seat, the 6th district, which is centered in Baton Rouge, has favored Republicans at the federal level for years. President Bush won the seat with 59 percent in 2004 and 55 percent four years before that.

There were, without question, national overtones to the race. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee dropped more than $1.1 million on behalf of Cazayoux while the National Republican Congressional spent just short of $500,000 on the race.

A variety of other conservative-aligned groups including Freedom's Watch and the Club For Growth ran ads attacking Cazayoux as liberal on taxes and seeking to link him to Sens. Barack Obama (Ill.) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.).

AN UNPRECEDENTED HOUSING BUBBLE

(h/t baba durag at Atrios)

From the NY Times -

WOO HOO!!!!

Remember that House seat in Louisiana that had been in GOP hands for the last 32 years? Well, it's no longer a GOP seat. (h/t Atrios)

Louisiana Secretary of State
Unofficial Election Results Inquiry
Results for Election Date: 5/03/08

05/03/2008 22.18.53

U. S. Representative, 1st Congressional District 505 of 505 precincts reporting Click here for Results by Parish
10,142	22.50%	Gilda Reed	-
33,867	75.13%	"Steve" Scalise	-
786	1.74%	R. A. "Skip" Galan	-
280	.62%	Anthony "Tony G" Gentile	-
U. S. Representative, 6th Congressional District 512 of 512 precincts reporting Click here for Results by Parish
49,702	49.20%	"Don" Cazayoux	-
46,741	46.27%	Louis "Woody" Jenkins	-
448	.44%	Peter J. Aranyosi	-
3,718	3.68%	Ashley Casey	-
402	.40%	Randall T. Hayes

CERNIG REBUTS MARK "FOAMER" LEVIN

I was listening to Levin's show a couple of days ago and I heard him go off on a supposedly recently discovered massive Chinese naval base under construction. Cernig points out that 1) it wasn't recently discovered and 2) what's wrong with a nation that depends on many imported goods from wanting to protect the sea lanes?

Levin went on to call, as he has done before, for a 50% increase in our defense spending. In his words, he wants to increase defense spending from 4% of GDP to 6%, the same that it was under St. Raygun. He also said that this is another reason we can't elect a liberal President.

Wingnuts like Jed Babbin and Bill "Slots" Bennett have been banging the drum about China for several years, apparently in the hope that a serious external threat will help improve the conservatives electoral chances. They really are the Party of WAR.

THE MYTH OF OBAMA & THE WHITE VOTERS

The "liberal" media, FAUX News and the radio gasbags have been trying to push the narrative that Whites won't vote for Obama, usually because of the remarks by Pastor Wright. Thanx to Memeo, I found an article in the NYT that shows this narrative is mostly hot air:

The question is this: Have white Democrats soured on Obama? Apparently not. Although his unfavorable rating from the group is up five percentage points since last summer in polls conducted by The New York Times and CBS News, his favorable rating is up just as much.

Here's the graph provided with the article (click on for larger version):


We still don't know about how the Wright "scandal" has affected independent voters but from what I've read, there isn't much of an effect.

LIBERAL CRACKUP

It's a bad sign when people like Larry C. Johnson and Jeralyn Merritt start sounding just like Allahpundit. I just don't understand why liberals start acting like wingnuts when it comes to Obama.

ANOTHER GOOD BOOK TO READ

Arianna Huffington has written an analysis of how the wingnuts have come to dominate our politics despite having views that most Americans disagree with. In "Right Is Wrong: How the Lunatic Fringe Hijacked America, Shredded the Constitution, and Made Us All Less Safe" she names two crucial co-conspirators: the "liberal" media and the Beltway Democrats. Glenn Greenwald has a good review of the book on FireDogLake and here are some of the highlights:

But the real value of this book is its examination of the two key culprits in the ascension of this right-wing fringe: the establishment media and the Beltway leaders of the Democratic Party. ... And she pinpoints the dual afflictions which have rendered the media totally supine, when they aren't actively complicit, in the face of this falsehood-spewing, extremist movement -- the twisted notion of journalistic "balance" which means that they present every claim no matter how objectively false

In sum, we are a nation that has been taken over by a political movement that holds fringe views largely because the two institutions which had the responsibility to expose the truth of what they are -- the media and the "opposition party" -- miserably failed to fulfill those functions.

It's well past time that freakshows like Ann Coulter are banned from CNN.

McWAR CORNERED, BEGINS TALKING LIKE PRES. FREDO

(h/t Atrios)

McWAR couldn't manage the struggle with the English language when he tried to back away from his overt claim that Iraq is about oil. Matt at ThinkProgress has a post about this descent into gibberish and this stumbling even made news at MSNBC:

But then when specifically asked by an Associated Press reporter if, when he made the statement, he was “thinking about the first Gulf War,” he said no.

“No, I was thinking about- it’s not hard to- we will not,” McCain stumbled. “By eliminating our dependency on foreign oil, we will not have to have our national security threatened by a cut off of that oil. Because we will be dependent, because we won’t be dependent, we will no longer be dependent on foreign oil. That’s what my remarks were.”

WE KEEP ON LOSING "HEARTS AND MINDS"

I've noted many times that our strictly military efforts in both Iraq and Afghanistan all too often kill or injure innocent civilians. In the latest push into Sadr City, we are unfortunately sticking with our bad practices.

US strike takes out militant holdout in Baghdad
May 3, 8:14 PM (ET)

By BRADLEY BROOKS

BAGHDAD (AP) - The U.S. military fired guided missiles into the heart of Baghdad's teeming Sadr City slum on Saturday, leveling a building 55 yards away from a hospital and wounding nearly two dozen people.

AP Television News footage from Sadr City showed several ambulances destroyed and on fire, thick black smoke rising from them as firefighters worked to put out the flames.

Iraqi officials said at least 23 people were wounded, though none of them were patients in the hospital.

Dr. Ali Bustan al-Fartusee, director general of Baghdad's health directorate, told the AP that 23 civilians were wounded in the strike.

He said no patients in the hospital were hurt, but that some of the wounded included civilians outside on their way to visit patients in the hospital. He also said 17 ambulances were damaged or destroyed.

GEN. VALLELY == LYING WHORE

Vallely is a wingnut who was one of the military analysts who lied about how well the Iraq War was going. He worked for FAUX News.

Via Matt at ThinkProgress:

“I saw immediately in 2003 that things were going south,” General Vallely, one of the Fox analysts on the trip, recalled in an interview with The Times.

The Pentagon, though, need not have worried.

“You can’t believe the progress,” General Vallely told Alan Colmes of Fox News upon his return [from a Pentagon-provided trip to Iraq in Sept. 2003]. He predicted the insurgency would be “down to a few numbers” within months.

PEGGY NOONAN DEFENDS BARACK OBAMA

Although Noonan touches on other points in her op-ed, "Loyal to the Bitterness," I want to emphasize this remarkable judgment:

Mr. Obama reveals many things in his books, speeches and interviews but polarity and a tropism toward the extreme are not among them. What happened with Mr. Wright should not determine the race.

IT'S A CIVIL WAR NOW

The war whore wingnuts used to argue that Iraq wasn't in a civil war in an attempt to defuse one of the reasons given for withdrawal. Now that Shiites are fighting Shiites, that defense of the war is "no longer operative."

Iraq's Shiite clerics deeply divided on militia crackdown
By SELCAN HACAOGLU – 6 hours ago

BAGHDAD (AP) — Shiite clerics offered sharply different visions Friday in the showdown between government forces and Shiite militias — one predicting that armed groups will be crushed in Baghdad and another calling for the prime minister to be prosecuted for crimes against his people.

The contrasting views — given during weekly sermons — showed the complexities and risks in the five-week-old crackdown on Shiite militia factions. The clashes have brought deep rifts among Iraq's Shiite majority and have pulled U.S. troops into difficult urban combat in the main militia stronghold in Baghdad.

A key aide to al-Sadr told worshippers that al-Maliki is following the same path as Saddam Hussein, who persecuted Shiites and others seen as threats.

"Al-Maliki should be tried for the crimes he committed against his people," Shiite Sheik Asaad al-Nassiri said in a sermon in the city of Kufa, near the Shiite holy city of Najaf. Al-Sadr is currently in the Iranian seminary city of Qom.

Al-Nassiri accused the government of "slipping into the same trench the tyrant (Saddam) had slipped into by shedding innocent blood."

McWAR'S MISSION IMPOSSIBLE

According to Reuters, "McCain slowly but surely distancing self from Bush," and other outlets, McWar is trying to distance himself from Pres. Fredo. This shouldn't work if the news media are doing their jobs. For example, we know that McWAR as all for the "Mission Accomplished" banner before he was against it. Unfortunately, the media will probably give McWAR a pass. Reuters claims that McWAR opposed Bush on torture:

On the Bush administration's treatment of terrorism suspects, McCain adamantly opposes any interrogation techniques that might be construed as torture.

yet he voted against prohibiting waterboarding and praised Fredo for vetoing that bill.

A NEW EVANGELICAL POLITICS

We've seen that some evangelicals do take their role as stewards of the Earth seriously even though some of the Fundie mullahs reject any concerns other than abortion and gay marriage. Now there is a move to condemn the GOP's fundies:

Evangelicals say faith is now too political
May 3, 2:34 AM (ET)
By RACHEL ZOLL AND ERIC GORSKI


Conservative Christian leaders who believe the word "evangelical" has lost its religious meaning plan to release a starkly self-critical document saying the movement has become too political and has diminished the Gospel through its approach to the culture wars.

The statement, called "An Evangelical Manifesto," condemns Christians on the right and left for "using faith" to express political views without regard to the truth of the Bible, according to a draft of the document obtained Friday by The Associated Press.

"That way faith loses its independence, Christians become 'useful idiots' for one political party or another, and the Christian faith becomes an ideology," according to the draft.

The declaration, scheduled to be released Wednesday in Washington, encourages Christians to be politically engaged and uphold teachings such as traditional marriage. But the drafters say evangelicals have often expressed "truth without love," helping create a backlash against religion during a "generation of culture warring."

"All too often we have attacked the evils and injustices of others," they wrote, "while we have condoned our own sins." They argue, "we must reform our own behavior."

Among the signers of the manifesto are Os Guiness, a well-known evangelical author and speaker, and Richard Mouw, president of Fuller Theological Seminary, a leading evangelical school in Pasadena, Calif.

McWAR AGREES WITH ALAN GREENSPAN & FRED BARNES

You may recall that in his memoirs, Alan Greenspan said that the Iraq War was about oil and Fred Barnes agreed. Now, St. Maverick Straight-talk McWAR tells us the same thing (via Atrios, who also has the video clip):

My friends, I will have an energy policy that we will be talking about, which will eliminate our dependence on oil from the Middle East that will - that will then prevent us - that will prevent us from having ever to send our young men and women into conflict again in the Middle East.

McWAR WHORE lamely tries to back away from this by claiming that he was talking about the 1st Gulf War:

McCain clarifies remark about oil, Iraq war
By LIBBY QUAID – 6 hours ago

PHOENIX (AP) — Republican John McCain was forced to clarify his comments Friday suggesting the Iraq war involved U.S. reliance on foreign oil. He said he was talking about the first Gulf War and not the current conflict.

The expected GOP nominee sought to clarify his comments later, after his campaign plane landed in Phoenix. He said he didn't mean the U.S. went to war in Iraq five years ago over oil.

"No, no, I was talking about that we had fought the Gulf War for several reasons," McCain told reporters.

McWAR can't get away that easily, though, because in the same AP report, he says this:

"The Congressional Record is very clear: I said we went to war in Iraq because of weapons of mass destruction," he said

Then where are they, Sen. McWAR???

FLIP-FLOP McWAR STRIKES AGAIN

McWAR forgets that he was for the "Mission Accomplished" banner before he was against it. Will the "liberal" media call him on this? (h/t Atrios)

JUNE 2003:

CAVUTO: ... Senator -- after a conflict means after the conflict, and many argue the conflict isn't over.

MCCAIN: Well, then why was there a banner that said mission accomplished on the aircraft carrier?

Look, the -- I have said a long time that reconstruction of Iraq would be a long, long, difficult process, but the conflict -- the major conflict is over, the regime change has been accomplished, and it's very appropriate...

MAY 2008:

This week it was the ill-timed "Mission Accomplished" banner that the White House hung behind Bush five years ago when Bush declared major combat operations over in Iraq.

"I thought it was wrong at the time," McCain said in Cleveland Thursday, ...

ANOTHER REASON NOT TO VOTE FOR HILLARY CLINTON

(h/t Atrios)

Hillary's support for the suspension of the Federal gas tax is just as cynical as your typical GOP economic argument. We KNOW it won't do much for the people who need help, all it will do is help her with what Jonathan Chait or John Dean would call "low-information voters" or "casual voters," as The Carpetbagger points out:

As for the political implications, Jonathan Chait, after conceding that “betting on the intelligence of the American public is a bad move,” argues that Obama’s principled, reality-based position is a political winner. I’m not so sure. What we’re likely to see is a split — high-information, well-informed voters who see the Clinton-McCain proposal as crass pandering, and low-information voters who never hear about the evidence and falsely believe a gas-tax holiday might put a few extra bucks in their pocket.

Clinton seems to hope there are just enough people in the latter group who’ll buy into the nonsense and give her a political boost.

It’s cynical politics at its most disappointing. Worse, since low-information voters vastly outnumber high-information voters, this demagoguery might even work.

The HOPE that Obama represents is that we can get away from this kind of disinformation.