Newt Gingrich said Tuesday the Obama administration is "intensely secular" and "anti-religious," the former House Speaker's second hard-hitting criticism of the new administration this week.
In an interview with FOX News, Gingrich said he strongly disagreed with Obama's choice of Harry Knox — an outspoken activist for gay rights — to the White House advisory council on faith-based initiatives.
"I think their goal is to have a very secular America in which government dominates everything," he said. "Why wouldn't you put an anti-religious, left-wing zealot on a faith-based group? It's a perfect pattern for this administration."
Since 2005, Knox has served as the director of the Human Rights Campaign, a national organization that advocates on behalf of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals. He is also a former Methodist pastor.
OK, enough history, just because the messenger is a lying hypocrite doesn't mean that I won't also discuss the factual inaccuracies in his statements.
IRT to newt's faux outrage, (2012 posturing anyone?), the former pastor that Newt is complaining about is only one of 25 people on the White House advisory council on faith-based initiatives. Golly, I guess no LBGT people are religious!
And the whole 'anti-religious' meme? Jesus, save me from your followers! Newt used to be a Baptist, which means he was washed in the blood of the lamb, this year he became a Catholic, which means he drinks the blood of Christ and eats Christ's body. (I'd call for an 'amen', but I'm still getting over going ewwww!)
The wrongwingers just can't decide on whether President Obama is a Muslim, a Jew (1st Seder in the WH, doncha know), a radical Christian, a communist, or just anti-religion .... 'cause none of the poo they fling is sticking.
Maybe Darwin was wrong, the Republicans these days seem to be descending to apes.
Welcome to the sideshow Newt, you're in good company with Palin, Sanford & Jingal.
Ohh, and someone please pass the popcorn, this circus is gonna be good. Especially when the elephant parade comes into the ring.
Somebody intends to get their share, and yours. too…
posted by Bill Arnett @ 12:08 PM Permalink
…with the TV screaming this morning the dire warnings that America is very likely to suffer a nuclear, biological or chemical attack within the next four to five years.
Hm. Let's see. Just what will be happening in four years that the effort to scare people spitless must start now? Oh, yeah! the 2012 elections when Mountain Mama Sarah Palin, much like the beloved bears she loves to kill for sport, will arise from hibernation and once again, wearing a moose-skin miniskirt, a beaver shirt complete with its own bib, and her coonskin cap, packing all the guns with which she shoots helpless animals from airplanes just to watch them writhe in agony and die, and with the help of the rnc attempt to war and fear-monger the masses into voting for a rethug since everybody ('cept 63 million Obama voters) knows only the righteous rnc and their right hand, the military-industrial-complex (which will probably still be being lead by General Petraeus) are the only people who may pray for the hand of god, filled with nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons to come down from the ether and smite all the bad guys dead.
Or people could instead remember that we are where we are in our current dire straits and facing many thousands of additional threats due to the actions of that same rnc, as lead by Mr. Incompetent himself, gw bush, who has done an amazing job of isolating us in the world, at least among civilized nations, and increasing the animosity others feel for America by a thousand-fold.
Is it time once again, as I remember from my youth, to start practicing "duck and cover", hiding under school desks for protection from the coming holocaust, and with the proviso that NO ONE, under any circumstances, eats the snow until it has been tested and found to have radiation levels within those guidelines established by the government? Ah, the good old days when a well-built school desk could protect you from being obliterated by nuclear weapons or the hand of god.
So it remains perfectly clear that the rnc wishes to continue its destructive ways to try and get ahead and win elections.
I marvel, and remain in awe, of the power of rethugs to utterly ignore reality and continue to exist in their own little fictional world where "yoyo" (your own your own) rules, the rich reign and prosper, and if you can't afford a home, medical care, or food it is obviously your fault for not being a putz loyal gop'er who will believe anything told them whether they are alone or with somebody.
So start getting scared folks. At this rate we'll be under attack (and therefore martial law) before Obama can even be inaugurated. And ain't it weird that the threat will grow ever more dire the closer the country comes to election time again?
But it must be true - the report comes from republican "think-tanks."
posted by The Sailor @ 6:55 PM Permalink
When I woke up this morning, I immediately turned on CNN, something I never do, to make sure: 1) It wasn’t dream. 2) He hadn’t been assassinated.
Of course the incredibly good news is that Obama won. The incredibly bad news is that Proposition Hate was passed in California. It enshrined in their state constitution that same sex couples can't marry. And in Florida and Arizona.
This is an injustice that violates our most basic tenets of equality. Plainly worded, it's just wrong!
I personally believe that the government has no business in the marriage business. Any couple that applies should be granted a civil union, and churches should be allowed to marry whoever they want. It's called separation of church and state.
That said, many folks are outraged that Americans can vote for Obama and still vote for these hate amendments to their state constitutions.
Here's why: Americans did not overwhelming vote for an African-American candidate, we voted for a candidate who has the skills to lead us out of the nightmare of the culture of ignorance and bellicosity that has ruined our country for 8 years.
I've openly supported Obama since March. But I didn't vote for him today.
I wanted to vote for Ronald Woods. He was my algebra teacher at Clark Junior High in East St. Louis, IL. He died 15 years ago when his truck skidded head-first into a utility pole. He spent many a day teaching us many things besides the Pythagorean Theorem. He taught us about Medgar Evers, Ralph Abernathy, John Lewis and many other civil rights figures who get lost in the shadow cast by Martin Luther King, Jr.
But I didn't vote for Mr. Woods.
I wanted to vote for Willie Mae Cross. She owned and operated Crossroads Preparatory Academy for almost 30 years, educating and empowering thousands of kids before her death in 2003. I was her first student. She gave me my first job, teaching chess and math concepts to kids in grades K-4 in her summer program. She was always there for advice, cheer and consolation. Ms. Cross, in her own way, taught me more about walking in faith than anyone else I ever knew.
But I didn't vote for Ms. Cross.
I wanted to vote for Arthur Mells Jackson, Sr. and Jr. Jackson Senior was a Latin professor. He has a gifted school named for him in my hometown. Jackson Junior was the pre-eminent physician in my hometown for over 30 years. He has a heliport named for him at a hospital in my hometown. They were my great-grandfather and great-uncle, respectively.
But I didn't vote for Prof. Jackson or Dr. Jackson.
I wanted to vote for A.B. Palmer. She was a leading civil rights figure in Shreveport, Louisiana, where my mother grew up and where I still have dozens of family members. She was a strong-willed woman who earned the grudging respect of the town's leaders because she never, ever backed down from anyone and always gave better than she got. She lived to the ripe old age of 99, and has a community center named for her in Shreveport.
But I didn't vote for Mrs. Palmer.
I wanted to vote for these people, who did not live to see a day where a Black man would appear on their ballots on a crisp November morning.
In the end, though, I realized that I could not vote for them any more than I could vote for Obama himself.
So who did I vote for?
No one.
I didn't vote. Not for President, anyway.
Oh, I went to the voting booth. I signed, was given my stub, and was walked over to a voting machine. I cast votes for statewide races and a state referendum on water and sewer improvements.
I stood there, and I thought about all of these people, who influenced my life so greatly. But I didn't vote for who would be the 44th President of the United States.
When my ballot was complete, except for the top line, I finally decided who I was going to vote for - and then decided to let him vote for me. I reached down, picked him up, and told him to find Obama's name on the screen and touch it.
And so it came to pass that Alexander Reed, age 5, read the voting screen, found the right candidate, touched his name, and actually cast a vote for Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
Oh, the vote will be recorded as mine. But I didn't cast it.
Then again, the person who actually pressed the Obama box and the red "vote" button was the person I was really voting for all along.
It made the months of donating, phonebanking, canvassing, door hanger distributing, sign posting, blogging, arguing and persuading so much sweeter.
So, no, I didn't vote for Barack Obama. I voted for a boy who now has every reason to believe he, too, can grow up to be anything he wants...even President.
I apologize to TPM and eastside93 for quoting the entire post without asking permission first. It just said everything that I could have said, but more ... and better.
The long lines of early voters at the Temple Terrace Library have caused concern for the Republican Headquarters a block away. It has also caused a major storm in local politics.
The head of the Hillsborough GOP, David Storck, distributed an email from a Republican Party volunteer saying the voters are a threat.
That's because, as the volunteer says in the email, he sees "car loads of black Obama supporters coming from the inner city to cast their votes for Obama."
It goes on to say, "This is their chance to get a black president and they seem to care little the he is at minimum a socialist and probably Marxist in his core beliefs." The Republican volunteer says that is because, "After all he is black- no experience or accomplishments but he is black."
Wow! Obama's black? Gosh, I never knew that!
Ummm, did anyone think to mention to this racist, (and I don't use that word lightly), that people have to vote in their district so "car loads of black Obama supporters coming from the inner city" is a load of crap.
BTW, I used to live in Tampa, there is no 'inner city.' The black neighborhoods are on the outskirts because the actual 'inner city' is prime waterfront real estate.
Of course maybe all those scary black folks were actually registered in this cracker's neighborhood and were exercising their right to vote.
Boehner criticized Illinois senator and Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama for his stance on domestic drilling, taxes and his number of "present" votes in the Illinois legislature-an attack originally leveled by Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) during the democratic primaries. [...] "In Congress, we have a red button, a green button and a yellow button, alright. Green means 'yes,' red means 'no,' and yellow means you're a chicken shit. And the last thing we need in the White House, in the oval office, behind that big desk, is some chicken who wants to push this yellow button."
'Where the white women at?' and 'chicken shit' is all these bastards have.
In a first, a military judge ruled yesterday that a Guantánamo detainee's confession was extracted through torture, and excluded it from the trial of a young Afghan detainee at the war court. [...] Henley found in the ruling that there was reason to believe Jawad was under the influence of drugs at the time of his capture and forced confession.
He also accepted the accused's account of how he was threatened, while armed senior Afghan officials allied with US forces watched his interrogation.
"You will be killed if you do not confess to the grenade attack," the detainee quoted an interrogator as saying. "We will arrest your family and kill them if you do not confess."
Jawad confessed, was turned over to US forces and was transferred to Guantánamo two months later.
The judge said he was accepting Jawad's account of what happened to him because the government had been unable to provide timely disclosure of evidence for the coming war crimes trial, scheduled for January 5. A Jawad case prosecutor recently quit the war court to protest over his inability to provide potentially exculpatory evidence. [...] Said major David JR Frakt, Jawad's defense attorney, who is seeking dismissal of the case and his client's return to his family: "He the judge is adopting a traditional legal definition of torture, rather than making one up."
As early voting in the US presidential elections gets underway, ES&S iVotronics touch-screen electronic voting machines have been observed in four separate states flipping the votes - mostly from Barack Obama to John McCain but sometimes to third party candidates too. This has already occurred during early voting in the states of West Virginia, Tennessee, Missouri and Texas.
A county clerk in West Virginia invited a video crew to watch his demonstration of the reliability of the disputed voting machines but instead he saw the machine flipping the votes, as critics claimed. He put this down to the faulty calibration of the voting machine. However, even after he recalibrated the machine it continued to flip votes. Watch the video here:
Some three dozen workers at a telemarketing call center in Indiana walked off the job rather than read an incendiary McCain campaign script attacking Barack Obama, according to two workers at the center and one of their parents.
Nina Williams, a stay-at-home mom in Lake County, Indiana, tells us that her daughter recently called her from her job at the center, upset that she had been asked to read a script attacking Obama for being "dangerously weak on crime," "coddling criminals," and for voting against "protecting children from danger."
"Godless Americans and Kay Hagan. She hid from cameras. Took godless money," the ad concludes. "What did Kay Hagan promise in return?"
At the very end of the ad, a voice sounding like Hagan's says: "There is no God."
Seriously, Dole used a Hagan impersonator to make voters think she's an atheist.
It's hard to know where to start with an ad this deplorable. First, Hagan is actually a Sunday school teacher and an elder in her church. Second, the fundraiser in question was co-hosted by 40 people, one of whom is on the board of an atheist political action committee. Third, there's nothing scandalous about non-believers.
“Every day I talk to someone else who’s never voted for a Democrat, but now.... “When I talk to folks about why I support Barack, I just tell it like I see it. There’s been a lot thrown at him this election, and he’s stayed calm, positive, and focused. I know a little something about how important it is to stay cool under pressure. “These days, I run a small country ham and pork skins business. Barack Obama will fight for a fair economy where small businesses like mine have the freedom to grow, and he’ll defend the Second Amendment to protect the hunter’s way of life.”
Dustin Long of Landmark Newspapers printed what appears to be a different portion of the same e-mail:
"My family and I have given this election a lot of thought. ...Every day I talk to someone else who's never voted for a Democrat, but now they're voting for Barack Obama. They realize that Barack understands what we're going through here in North Carolina. And they're ready for change. ...So I've made up my mind, and I'm ready to get involved. I know that I could never have won a race without my pit crew, and I know Barack can't win this one without us. ... When I talk to folks about why I support Barack, I just tell it like I see it."
Junior Johnson is a legend in racing, he's an icon in NASCAR, he's had books written about him and movies made about him. I feel bad about the tsunami of hate that's coming his way, but I think he'll handle it just fine. And from what I've read, seen and heard, you don't want to get on JJ's bad side. (And that side included being in front, behind or next to him during a race;-)
FWIW, I'm hearing the same thing from folks in my community that have peculiar thoughts about folks with more melanin than them.
Republican John McCain told voters in this key electoral state Tuesday he was personally tested by the same kind of crisis that Democratic vice presidential nominee Joseph Biden warned Barack Obama will almost certainly face if elected president.
McCain recalled being ready to launch a bombing run during the October 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, which Biden said over the weekend tested a new President John F. Kennedy and was the template for the kind of "generated crisis" the 47-year-old Obama would face within six months of taking office.
"I was on board the USS Enterprise," McCain, a former naval aviator, said in the capital city of Harrisburg. "I sat in the cockpit, on the flight deck of the USS Enterprise, off of Cuba.
Why didn't I see this sooner, (hand smack to forehead), a fighter pilot who'd graduated at the bottom of his class and had already crashed 3 multi-million dollar planes was ordered to sit in his cockpit and not do anything is exactly the same as President John F. Kennedy making the decision, his Commander In Chief, who could have ordered him to launch, but solved the crisis thru diplomacy.
Yep, JFK and McSame showed the exact same leadership skillz in the Cuban Missile Crisis. I'm sure sitting on your ass ready to launch is incredibly stressful, especially during potential nuclear war, but I can't understand why he would think it's the same stress as sitting in the Whitehouse, knowing you're also targeted, and having to make the decision to potentially start global thermonuclear war that would wipe out all of mankind.
It's a good thing we had someone calm and presidential instead of a hothead who jokes about bombing other countries.
[...] Campaign aides insisted the schedule changes were not driven by political concerns. However, they coincide with recent reports that Republicans are contemplating moving resources out of the two states, Wisconsin and Iowa, where recent polling shows Sen. Obama's lead widening. Indiana, a traditionally Republican state, is far more competitive.
I'm sure variations on this theme will be screeched on faux news outlets tomorrow but I gotta say, wtf do repubs moving resources & Indiana have to do with Senator Obama visiting his sick Grandmother?
I wish to add my voice to those condemning the specious campaign of McCain/Palin…
posted by Bill Arnett @ 11:37 AM Permalink
…I saw John McCain in an interview last night calling for one of the great men of my lifetime, John Lewis, to be repudiated by Barack Obama because Congressman Lewis has called for McInsane and Palin to stop fostering and inciting violence against Barack Obama. Congressman Lewis need not apologize for stating the obvious truth of the matter.
Beside being perfidy at its worst, it's true: McPain and Palin have taken their particularly brand of hatred and prejudice to virtually every state in the union, and have made naught but one feeble attempt by McCain to cease the "Barack is an Arab" and "My wife and I are scared of living in a country with Barack Obama as President," but Palin continues with the lies, innuendoes, and the hate speech to incite to violence the people attending her rallies.
The bigoted Republican Party, by far composed of old white men, gleefully run an empty skirt like Palin in a vain and inglorious attempt to draw Hillary voters but, unfortunately, it turns out that she is every bit as corrupt and holds true to the GOP fear-mongering, hate speech, dishonesty in citing Obama's record while her "folksy twang and droppin' of Gs" signals that she both knows and will adhere to the GOP platform no matter how much she pretends to be "a good ol' girl."
And she does fit right in with the GOP, having just very recently been cited as having broken Alaska's Code of Ethics and, now, is under investigation for her ties to a contractor who happened to build her house and then landed a lucrative contract to build a $12 million dollar sports arena in Wasilla, a town of 7,800 some odd people who undoubtedly needed a world class facility in which their high school athletes can compete.
And another thing that chaps my ass is that politicians like those in the GOP have undercut, short-sheeted, and hamstrung this country long enough with their bigoted hatred of persons of a different color, race, or sexual orientation, with the exception of the occasional token black or woman or gay candidate that they support for show. Quick! Name a black Republican senator!
To me this is a critical reason that we must elect Barack Obama. Remember when you were growing up and your parents would say, "If you work hard you can become anything you want, including President of the United States."? This statement, thanks to the bigotry and racial hatred of all the old white men who run this country, has never been true for blacks or Hispanics.
By doing this these old white men have cut off and ignored the accomplishments of blacks and Hispanics and gays, and have allowed a tremendous pool of talented persons to go to waste to the detriment of America.
Barack Obama, a man I consider to be more than eminently qualified and talented to be our president now has a very good shot at restoring the American Dream: that if you work hard enough and educate yourself, you CAN grow up to be president of these United States without regard to your race or sex or religion or sexual preference.
That's why the race-baiting and incitement to violence against Barack Obama is so disgusting, specious, and dangerous for our nation, and McLame and Palin are too stupidly bigoted and desperate to win that they will say or do anything to get elected.
That's just my opinion, but I say it's high time that true equality comes to life and fruition in America and we stop wasting the education of and talents that could be acquired and put to use by full utilization of ALL our citizens. If we do not do this America will not be a factor in innovation and the inventions of the future that will benefit all mankind.
Neither one of them, IMHO, are fit to tie Barack Obama's shoes or press his shirts.
In a report whose release was the subject of a high-stakes political showdown that went all the way to the Alaska Supreme Court, investigator Stephen Branchflower concluded that Palin communicated her displeasure with the trooper, Mike Wooten, and allowed her husband to apply pressure to have Wooten fired.
Original post: At first I thought this headline was from The Onion:
Trying to head off a potentially embarrassing state ethics report on GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, campaign officials released their own report Thursday that clears her of any wrongdoing.
Geebus! These people not only have Irony spinning in his grave, they've just killed Satire too!
And while we wait for the Alaskan lawmakers to release the findings of their probe that was stonewalled, let's review just a couple of the lowlights of the timeline:
The Alaska Legislative Council - a bipartisan panel composed of 10 Republicans and 4 Democrats – authorized, by unanimous vote, a probe into the “Troopergate” allegations. [...] July 31, 2008
In a CNBC interview [...] Sarah Paln responded to questions on Troopergate, saying that she looked foward to an investigation into the charges against her [...] August 13, 2008
An audio tape surfaces, proving Monegan’s claims that — while he was never directly told by Palin or anyone to fire Wooten — he was contacted many times by Palin, members of her administration and her husband, Todd Palin in calls and emails that raised issues about Wooten’s employment. [...] September 16, 2008
McCain campaign lawyers try to either end the investigation or delay it until after the election. Former Justice Department prosecutor Edward O’Callaghan, now working for the McCain campaign, told reporters that Palin was “unlikely to cooperate” with the Alaskan legislative inquiry into Monegan’s firing because it had been “tainted” by politics. O’Callaghan stated that the McCain campaign was directing an aggressive legal strategy to shut down a pre-election ethics investigation.
Yeah, the probe was tainted & partisan because eight10 republicans and 4 democrats voted unanimously to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate her unethical conduct.
Read the whole thing as we wait for the Alaskan lawmakers to release the (stonewalled by John McCain's team of lawyers that airdropped into Alaska) report.
My theory on why the Dow continues its seemingly non-stop crash…
posted by Bill Arnett @ 11:27 AM Permalink
…is that people, including corporations, are scared spitless at the very idea of a John McPain presidency,
He has flip-flopped 180 degrees from every principled stand he assumed in the 2000 elections - every single one - and now no one dares take him at his word. To vote for McLame would guarantee decades of eternal war, if not the deployment of nuclear weapons against a country such as Russia or China, who would then obliterate America and never give us a second thought.
And to continue this reckless and breathtakingly stupid path of eternal war would perforce require the usage of nuclear weapons as the bush doctrine has exhausted both the human and weapons elements of our military. Our personnel, after repeated tour after tour in Iraq and Afghanistan are leaving the armed forces in droves the very instant the stop-loss program no longer applies to them. This is especially true of mid-level officers, the captains, majors, and Lt. Colonels who are the ones directly responsible for leading troops in the field. And look at how many flag officers resigned rather follow bush's illegal orders for wars of aggression
Our equipment which was never built for long-term reliability, much less long-term service in a desert environment, is breaking down at a phenomenal rate with insufficient parts and mechanics to effect the repairs needed to keep that equipment running.
We are shooting off over 1,000 rounds of ammunition per person killed and cannot even meet our need for ammunition from an American supplier and now purchase the bulk of our ammunition from companies based in other countries, which is great for those companies but constitutes yet another steady drain and strain on our resources.
America doesn't have even ONE single combat ready brigade in America and the National Guard has had both their personnel and equipment deployed in such great numbers overseas that we have no true "national" reserve armed forces capable of carrying our their duties - no home defense, no aid in times of national crisis (thus Katrina), an insufficient number of the types of aircraft needed to carry out efficient fire-fighting and rescue work.
A vote for John McSame would not be just a vote to continue the insane policies of bush. No, McBlame would assume ofice knowing that he would need to "out-cowboy" the cowboy currently occupying the people's house at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
This would naturally result in even more hostile, undiplomatic, aggressive, and world-damaging policies than even bush/cheney could dream of, with the GOP in front of the White House cheerleading McTrain to ever more hostile endeavors, lead of course by the official national cheerleader, gw bush. Pom-poms, short skirts, fancy dance routines cheering McSlain to ever more brutal acts of aggression.
As much as McSame & Co try to hide Sarah Falin's corrupt past, the hits just keep on coming. Here's just a sample of her myth information that's been debunked:
Sarah Palin's credentials as a "reformer" are nothing but spin. She has sided with Big Oil, lobbied to increase pork spending and abused her public power to carry out personal vendettas. Here's a guide to separating myth from fact.
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who has made a crackdown on gift-giving to state officials a centerpiece of her ethics reform agenda, has accepted gifts valued at $25,367 from industry executives, municipalities and a cultural center whose board includes officials from some of the largest mining interests in the state, a review of state records shows. [...] About a quarter of the entities bestowing gifts on the governor are represented by one of Alaska's most influential mining lobbyists, who said in an interview that she was not involved in the tributes. The lobbyist, Wendy Chamberlain, has a relationship with the governor's family through the friendship of their teenage daughters.
On forms disclosing the gifts, Palin, who is the Republican vice presidential nominee, routinely checked "no" when asked whether she was in a position to "take official action that may affect the person who gave me the gift,"
Now we get to the best part:
a spokeswoman for Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign said the gifts had no undue influence on her.
Since when is John McCain's campaign in charge of Alaska? And if you call now you'll receive:
[...] In official submissions to the US government's consultation on the status of the polar bear, Palin and her team referred to at least six scientists who have questioned either the existence of warming as a largely man-made phenomenon or its severity. One paper was partly funded by the US oil company ExxonMobil.
The status of the polar bear has become a battleground in the debate on global warming. In May the US department of the interior rejected Palin's objections and listed the bear as a threatened species, saying that two-thirds of the world's polar bears were likely to be extinct by 2050 due to the rapid melting of the sea ice. Palin, governor of Alaska and the Republican nominee for US vice-president, responded last month by suing the federal government, to try to overturn the ruling. The case will be heard in January.
Though the state of Alaska has no polar bear specialists on its staff, the governor's stance has pitted it against the combined scientific fire-power of the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the US Geological Survey, and world experts on the mammal.
In its lawsuit, Alaska [AKA Palin] said it opposed the endangered label partly because the listing would "deter activities such as ... oil and gas exploration and development". Oil companies recently bid $2.7bn (£1.5bn) for rights to explore the Chuckchi sea, an established polar bear habitat.
The threatened species status might also impede the building of an Alaskan natural gas pipeline, which Palin has called the "will of God".
So Palin knows the "will of God"!? Now that's presumptuous!
Couric: “When it comes to establishing your worldview, I was curious, what newspapers and magazines did you regularly read before you were tapped for this to stay informed and to understand the world?”
Palin: “I’ve read most of them, again with a great appreciation for the press, for the media,”
Couric:“What specifically?”
Palin: “Um, all of them, any of them that have been in front of me all these years,”
Now I can understand, (after 7+ years of Bush), if a republican candidate for the 2nd highest office in the country can't answer simple questions about foreign policy or the economy or supreme court decisions, but I can't understand how a journalism major doesn't know what newspapers she reads. The question wasn't even a softball, it was an orb made of jello, covered in whipped chocolate and sprinkles.
Following are details of actions, proposals and amounts:
—Up to $700 billion to buy assets from struggling institutions. The plan is aimed at sopping up residential and commercial mortgages from financial institutions but gives Treasury broad latitude.
—Up to $50 billion from the Great Depression-era Exchange Stabilization Fund to guarantee principal in money market mutual funds to provide the same confidence that consumers have in federally insured bank deposits.
—The Fed committed to make unspecified discount window loans to financial institutions to finance the purchase of assets from money market funds to aid redemptions.
—At least $10 billion in Treasury direct purchases of mortgage-backed securities in September. In doubling the program on Friday, the Treasury said it may purchase even more in the months ahead.
—Up to $144 billion in additional MBS purchases by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.The Treasury announced they would increase purchases up to the newly expanded investment portfolio limits of $850 billion each. On July 30, the Fannie portfolio stood at $758.1 billion with Freddie's at $798.2 billion.
—$85 billion loan for AIG, which would give the Federal government a 79.9 percent stake and avoid a bankruptcy filing for the embattled insurer.
—At least $87 billion in repayments to JPMorgan Chase for providing financing to underpin trades with units of bankrupt investment bank Lehman Brothers. Paulson said over the weekend he was adamant that public funds not be used to rescue the firm.
—$200 billion for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The Treasury will inject up to $100 billion into each institution by purchasing preferred stock to shore up their capital as needed.
—$300 billion for the Federal Housing Administration to refinance failing mortgage into new, reduced-principal loans with a federal guarantee, passed as part of a broad housing rescue bill.
—$4 billion in grants to local communities to help them buy and repair homes abandoned due to mortgage foreclosures.
—$29 billion in financing for JPMorgan Chase's government-brokered buyout of Bear Stearns in March. The Fed agreed to take $30 billion in questionable Bear assets as collateral, making JPMorgan liable for the first $1 billion in losses, while agreeing to shoulder any further losses.
—At least $200 billion of currently outstanding loans to banks issued through the Fed's Term Auction Facility, which was recently expanded to allow for longer loans of 84 days alongside the previous 28-day credits.
1.8 TRILLION dollars! That's a one and an eight trailed by a parade of zeros, (loan) floats, (lax) standard bearers and hot air gas bags. But what do the numbers really mean? Here's an excellent synopsis via AMERICAblog:
A reader asked what any of the bailout numbers represent in the real world. We know $500 billion, $700 billion or now the new Paulson plan of $1.8 trillion is a lot, but put this in terms that everyone can understand. A few examples for 2007:
* Microsoft generated $51 billion in revenue. * Citi, who has been hit hard in the credit crisis, saw $159 billion. * Walmart's 2007 total revenue was $388 billion. * ExxonMobil generated $404 billion.
Those are the numbers for some of the largest businesses in the US. For the US budget, here are a few examples from Bush's budget in 2007:
* Veterans' benefits at $73 billion * Education was $90 billion * Interest on US debt was $244 billion * Medicare $395 billion * Defense was $548 billion * Social Security was $586
In total, the 2007 federal budget was a total of $2.8 trillion.
And John McCain is shocked, shocked I tell you, that John McCain's campaign advisers and transition team are filled with lobbyists for the banking industry ... oops sorry, John McCain is outraged that American taxpayers would bailout these failing companies ... until he was outraged that American taxpayers wouldn't bailout these failed companies, and then he's ... what!?
Well sure, if by 'suspend campaign' you mean going on talk shows, having your surrogates on every media outlet bragging about how you 'suspended' campaigning and continuing to raise funds and run campaign commercials:
John McCain will appear on all three network newscasts tonight, a top aide said.
McCain is at the White House meeting with President Bush, Barack Obama and congressional leaders now and will tape interviews with NBC, ABC and CBS after the West Wing session.
McCain also appeared in a taped interview last night with Katie Couric on CBS.
We can debate about whether the 700 BILLION Dollar bailout is a good idea, but what is not debatable is the fact that the house and senate, republicans and democrats and the actual congressional committees involved had worked out a plan they could agree on ... until McCain sang "Here I am to save the day!" and derailed the whole process, about which he knows nothing and isn't on any relevant committees:
Actually, the final date was really the end of 2010 and the period between the end of 2010 and the end of 2011 was for withdrawing the remaining troops from all of Iraq, but they asked for a change [in date] due to political circumstances related to the [U.S] domestic situation so it will not be said to the end of 2010 followed by one year for withdrawal but the end of 2011 as a final date.
We've learned over the last 7 years that there is no low that a rethuglican who wants to gain or keep office will stoop to.
Congrats to John McSame for lowering himself to a new low.
Oh, and that "long and thorough process"? Yeah, not so much:
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was not subjected to a lengthy in-person background interview with the head of Sen. John McCain's vice presidential vetting team until last Wednesday in Arizona, the day before McCain asked her to be his running mate, and she did not disclose the fact that her 17-year-old daughter was pregnant until that meeting, two knowledgeable McCain officials acknowledged Tuesday.
Well, no wonder the McSame camp is so defensive, they gambled on a wild card and have to scramble to explain why their completely unqualified pick is qualified to be a "a heartbeat away" from the presidency.
And the best they could come up with about her 'executive experience' is: 1) She's the Governor of the largest state in the union! OK, but there are 670,000 people in Alaska, the whole state doesn't even rank, population wise, in the top 15 cities of the US. Not to mention she's only had the job for less than 2 years.
Westmoreland was discussing vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin's speech with reporters outside the House chamber and was asked to compare her with Michelle Obama.
"Just from what little I’ve seen of her and Mr. Obama, Sen. Obama, they're a member of an elitist-class individual that thinks that they're uppity," Westmoreland said.
Asked to clarify that he used the word “uppity,” Westmoreland said, “Uppity, yeah.”
And while confirming his statement he said
I’ve never heard that term used in a racially derogatory sense. It is important to note that the dictionary definition of ‘uppity’ is ‘affecting an air of inflated self-esteem -- snobbish.’ That’s what we meant by uppity when we used it in the mill village where I grew up.
Yep, I'm sure that little GEORGIA town that he grew up in during the 1950's only used the Oxford dictionary definition. Yeah, I heard that same word phrase when I lived in the North and traveled thru the South in the 60's.
Well there you have it. I want to think McCain & Co have seriously miscalculated the pitch of this dog whistle, but maybe it's just as calculated as it is shameless. e.g. where are all the calls for McCain and the RNC to denounce Westmoreland!?
...crickets ... crickets ... crickets.
As much as the WATB scream sexism about Palin, they're the ones who want to make women, GLBT's and people of color second class citizens.
Bastards. Cracker bastards. (And by 'cracker' I mean "1. a thin, crispy whitebread biscuit."
Phil Gramm excluded John McCain supporters from his description of Americans as ``a nation of whiners,'' the characterization that forced his exit from the Republican presidential candidate's campaign in July.
``If you're sitting here today, you're not economically illiterate and you're not a whiner, so I'm not worried about who you're going to vote for,'' the former Texas senator told attendees at a Financial Services Roundtable event in Minneapolis on the sidelines of the Republican National Convention. [...] Many of those who attended the event came from the financial community, including representatives of Minneapolis-based U.S. Bancorp and the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America.
Two things immediately spring to mind: 1) So anyone who doesn't support McCain is a 'whiner.'
Yeah, all those bank failures, our jobs being sent overseas, our homes being foreclosed, $40k buys less than $30k did 7 years ago, the fact that when oilyman Bush came in office gas was $1.34 and now it's $3.97 is just because we're whiners. (OK, I'm done 'whining' now.)
posted by The Sailor @ 7:34 PM Permalink
... but somehow the Denver thugs cops don't seem to realize that they can't abusedo business as usual.
First up, a knockdown, drag out fight ... between an unarmed woman from the non-violent group Code Pink that think they have the right to peaceably assemble and a right to free speech and a Denver cop:
In the letter, obtained by RAW STORY, the ACLU revealed that the police refused those arrested access to attorneys. Police did not let detainees use phones unless they posted their own bonds, and even failed to provide shoes, in one case marching a protester into court in bare feet and leg shackles, according the ACLU.
What's more, police are said to have tricked protesters into pleading guilty, by giving them the impression they had to plead guilty in order to post bond. This meant that no one was allowed to make a phone call unless they plead guilty, thus making it impossible for arrestees to even call a lawyer until admitting guilt.
Most ominously, the ACLU letter claims that protesters were told they would be "facing 'years' in jail for a conviction of a single particular charge."
"In fact, all the charges were municipal court violations that do not carry such penalties," the ACLU added in a footnote.
And finally, there is this Cops Gone Wild video of them saying a public sidewalk is private property and literally shoving a producer from ABC out into traffic and then cursing him for obstructing traffic ... but it wasn't for 2 hours until they arrested him.
The capper is the headline from ABC that blames the Democrats for the cops actions:
1.(sometimes capital letters 'V' and 'S' with no space) a style of writing or saying something using emotion and/or logic and snark, esp. in order to elucidate the obvious while pretending to be objective.
2. anything written by The Vidiot, The Sailor, Mr. Vidiot and anyone else they allow to post on the blog “vidiotspeak”
[Origin: loosely based on new + speak, coined by George Orwell in his novel, 1984 (1949)]
And for godsakes, stay away from FOX, MSNBC, CNN, ABC, CBS, and NBC.
It's ALL CRAP!!!
Watch the BBC news or ITN news instead.
"POSSE COMITATUS ACT" (18 USC 1385)
A Reconstruction Era criminal law proscribing use of Army (later, Air Force) to "execute the laws" except where expressly authorized by Constitution or Congress. Limit on use of military for civilian law enforcement also applies to Navy by regulation. Dec '81 additional laws were enacted (codified 10 USC 371-78) clarifying permissible military assistance to civilian law enforcement agencies--including the Coast Guard--especially in combating drug smuggling into the United States. Posse Comitatus clarifications emphasize supportive and technical assistance (e.g., use of facilities, vessels, aircraft, intelligence, tech aid, surveillance, etc.) while generally prohibiting direct participation of DoD personnel in law enforcement (e.g., search, seizure, and arrests). For example, Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachments (LEDETS) serve aboard Navy vessels and perform the actual boardings of interdicted suspect drug smuggling vessels and, if needed, arrest their crews). Positive results have been realized especially from Navy ship/aircraft involvement.
