Friday, November 30, 2012
Thursday, November 29, 2012
The Man The GOP Should Have Nominated...
but who wasn't radical enough for the extremists in his party: Jon Huntsman.
WASHINGTON -- "Jon Huntsman's run for president was widely anticipated but ultimately brief. The former Utah governor and U.S. ambassador to China urged the Republican Party to be more open-minded on social issues, less ambitious in military policy and marginally willing to negotiate. The crowds weren't too receptive. Viewed as the toughest general-election threat by the president's political advisers, Huntsman nevertheless finished third in the New Hampshire primary. He bowed out of the race shortly thereafter.
But with the GOP now licking its wounds from the 2012 election loss, he has maintained a steady presence in the political conversation. In an interview with The Huffington Post, Huntsman laid out his vision for the Republican Party going forward. He called for neo-conservatism to be sidelined, for states' rights on issues like gay marriage to be respected, for comprehensive immigration reform to be pursued. He also said the party had to be open to compromise, including on the idea of raising marginal tax rates (as a last resort)."
Speaking further on why the GOP nominees were so out of touch with the electorate:
"Some do it professionally. Some were entertainers," he said of the Republican presidential field. "I looked down the debate stage, and half of them were probably on Fox contracts at one point in their career. You do that. You write some books. You go out and you sell some more. You get a radio gig or a TV gig out of it or something. And it's like, you say to yourself, the barriers of entry to this game are pretty damn low."
He chuckled a bit when reminded that a pizza conglomerate, in the person of Herman Cain, had led the Iowa caucus polls at one point. "It wasn't a period where rational thinking or any kind of commitment to reality or truth or optimism necessarily prevailed," Huntsman said. "It was how can you eviscerate the opposition."
On marriage equality:
"States ought to be entitled to do whatever they want," he said.
On the tax cuts and spend presidency of George W. Bush, conservative president:
"We weren't coming from a position of strength [in 2012]," he said. "We sounded like hypocrites talking about spending when that was all we did under George W. Bush."
Huntsman gets it:
Huntsman insisted his party has to evolve. The cultivation of knee-jerk conflict, he argued, has produced remarkably little fruit. For four years, the goal was to "thwart the opposition, stymie the opposition, obfuscate, be a flamethrower, go out there and destroy the system, and here we are," he said. "We have seen the results of that mentality."
Fortunately for the Democrats and President Obama, the GOP embraced teh crazy and Mitt Romney, a man who had no core values. The party has only itself to blame for the utter foolishness of putting forward the group of extremist candidates, and for ultimately nominating a well-oiled weather vane.
Bruce Bartlett on Reality vs. The Conservative Movement November 26, 2012 —
Ron Chusid
"The conservative movement suffers from being dominated by extremists who drive out anyone who does not agree with all the counter-to-fact and irrational views which they now hold (which are very similar to the extremist views which William F. Buckley, Jr. purged from the conservative movement in the 1960′s.)
Bruce Bartlett, who worked in the Reagan Administration, has found that it is not possible to simultaneously look at reality and be welcomed by other conservatives: I’m not going to beat around the bush and pretend I don’t have a vested interest here. Frankly, I think I’m at ground zero in the saga of Republicans closing their eyes to any facts or evidence that conflict with their dogma. Rather than listen to me, they threw me under a bus. To this day, I don’t think they understand that my motives were to help them avoid the permanent decline that now seems inevitable."
WASHINGTON -- "Jon Huntsman's run for president was widely anticipated but ultimately brief. The former Utah governor and U.S. ambassador to China urged the Republican Party to be more open-minded on social issues, less ambitious in military policy and marginally willing to negotiate. The crowds weren't too receptive. Viewed as the toughest general-election threat by the president's political advisers, Huntsman nevertheless finished third in the New Hampshire primary. He bowed out of the race shortly thereafter.
But with the GOP now licking its wounds from the 2012 election loss, he has maintained a steady presence in the political conversation. In an interview with The Huffington Post, Huntsman laid out his vision for the Republican Party going forward. He called for neo-conservatism to be sidelined, for states' rights on issues like gay marriage to be respected, for comprehensive immigration reform to be pursued. He also said the party had to be open to compromise, including on the idea of raising marginal tax rates (as a last resort)."
Speaking further on why the GOP nominees were so out of touch with the electorate:
"Some do it professionally. Some were entertainers," he said of the Republican presidential field. "I looked down the debate stage, and half of them were probably on Fox contracts at one point in their career. You do that. You write some books. You go out and you sell some more. You get a radio gig or a TV gig out of it or something. And it's like, you say to yourself, the barriers of entry to this game are pretty damn low."
He chuckled a bit when reminded that a pizza conglomerate, in the person of Herman Cain, had led the Iowa caucus polls at one point. "It wasn't a period where rational thinking or any kind of commitment to reality or truth or optimism necessarily prevailed," Huntsman said. "It was how can you eviscerate the opposition."
On marriage equality:
"States ought to be entitled to do whatever they want," he said.
On the tax cuts and spend presidency of George W. Bush, conservative president:
"We weren't coming from a position of strength [in 2012]," he said. "We sounded like hypocrites talking about spending when that was all we did under George W. Bush."
Huntsman gets it:
Huntsman insisted his party has to evolve. The cultivation of knee-jerk conflict, he argued, has produced remarkably little fruit. For four years, the goal was to "thwart the opposition, stymie the opposition, obfuscate, be a flamethrower, go out there and destroy the system, and here we are," he said. "We have seen the results of that mentality."
Fortunately for the Democrats and President Obama, the GOP embraced teh crazy and Mitt Romney, a man who had no core values. The party has only itself to blame for the utter foolishness of putting forward the group of extremist candidates, and for ultimately nominating a well-oiled weather vane.
Bruce Bartlett on Reality vs. The Conservative Movement November 26, 2012 —
Ron Chusid
"The conservative movement suffers from being dominated by extremists who drive out anyone who does not agree with all the counter-to-fact and irrational views which they now hold (which are very similar to the extremist views which William F. Buckley, Jr. purged from the conservative movement in the 1960′s.)
Bruce Bartlett, who worked in the Reagan Administration, has found that it is not possible to simultaneously look at reality and be welcomed by other conservatives: I’m not going to beat around the bush and pretend I don’t have a vested interest here. Frankly, I think I’m at ground zero in the saga of Republicans closing their eyes to any facts or evidence that conflict with their dogma. Rather than listen to me, they threw me under a bus. To this day, I don’t think they understand that my motives were to help them avoid the permanent decline that now seems inevitable."
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
What Do You See?
(Photo courtesy of Michael D’Antuono)
By Katherine Landergan,
Boston Globe Correspondent
"A painting that was removed from an art installation in New York City because of public backlash is now on display at the Bunker Hill Community College Art Gallery, sparking outrage as well as an outpouring of support for the artist.
The portrait depicts President Obama as Jesus, wearing a Crown of Thorns with his arms outstretched. Michael D’Antuono’s painting, which is called 'The Truth,' is part of a larger exhibit 'Artists on the Stump: The Road to the White House 2012.'
According to the gallery’s website, the exhibition is an opportunity for artists to 'weigh in on the issues, candidates and country.' ”
[skip]
"D’Antuono, who has been an illustrator for nearly 25 years, began crafting political works of art in 2009. 'The Truth' was his first piece, which he had planned to display as an art installation in New York’s Union Square Park on Obama’s 100th day in office. He said the painting was to be in a mock voting booth; the idea was members of the public would view the painting privately, and they would then be interviewed about what they thought of the piece.
But D’Antuono decided to pull the installation after receiving approximately 4,000 angry emails about the painting. His family also voiced concerns for their safety, because of the amount of publicity the painting was generating. 'I was threatened for eternal damnation,' D’Antuono said. 'One lady said, ‘I hope you get arthritis in both your hands and can never paint again.’” In a phone interview Tuesday, D’Antuono said he feels that many of the people who were sickened by the painting may have missed its real meaning. 'They weren’t interesting in the point of the painting,' he said. 'They didn’t get that far.'
I see the painting as a symbol of what Mr. Obama has had to endure since his election in 2008. IMO, there can be no "blasphemy" in using crucifixion as a symbol of extreme hatred and a wish to do extreme violence to someone whose words and actions are not acceptable to certain segments of a population, since Jesus Christ wasn't the only historical figure who was crucified. To me, this painting symbolizes the extreme hatred and wish to do harm to our 44th president by certain extremists in this country.
All my life I've heard the expression "I was crucified" in reference to receiving extreme criticism and or rebuke from someone. How many times have we heard the threat "I'll crucify you!" as a warning to someone whose ideas or actions we disagree with?
This painting is an allegorical reference to how one half of this country has treated President Obama.
Apparently, the truth stings.
And so people who disagree with Mr. D'Antuono's work wish to see him crucified for his interpretation.
More HERE.
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Florida GOPer Admits to Voter Suppression
Florida GOPer Admits to Voter Suppression
From the Palm Beach Post:
Former Florida GOP leaders say voter suppression was reason they pushed new election law
Former GOP chair, governor - both on outs with party - say voter fraud wasn’t a concern, but reducing Democratic votes was.
By Dara Kam, John Lantigua
Palm Beach Post Capital Bureau
A new Florida law that contributed to long voter lines and caused some to abandon voting altogether was intentionally designed by Florida GOP staff and consultants to inhibit Democratic voters, former GOP officials and current GOP consultants have told The Palm Beach Post.
Republican leaders said in proposing the law that it was meant to save money and fight voter fraud. But a former GOP chairman and former Gov. Charlie Crist, both of whom have been ousted from the party, now say that fraud concerns were advanced only as subterfuge for the law’s main purpose: GOP victory.
Former Republican Party of Florida Chairman Jim Greer says he attended various meetings, beginning in 2009, at which party staffers and consultants pushed for reductions in early voting days and hours.
“The Republican Party, the strategists, the consultants, they firmly believe that early voting is bad for Republican Party candidates,” Greer told The Post. “It’s done for one reason and one reason only. … ‘We’ve got to cut down on early voting because early voting is not good for us,’ ” Greer said he was told by those staffers and consultants.
“They never came in to see me and tell me we had a (voter) fraud issue,” Greer said. “It’s all a marketing ploy.”
***********************
For days after the election, I read on several rightwing blogs how the only way that President Obama could have won was through voter fraud. This type of thinking, of course, disabuses the thinkers of the idea that perhaps women, young people, African-Americans, Latinos, and Asian Americans all voted for President Obama because he more fully represented their values and hopes than did Mitt Romney, who overwhelmingly appealed to older, whiter, male American voters.
Instead, these rightwingers continue to delude themselves with the idea that only people who wanted "free stuff" voted for Mr. Obama, and that even then, there was rampant and widespread voting fraud, and that was the explanation for Mr. Obama's victory over the GOP candidate, a victory that gave Mr. Obama over 64 million popular votes to Mr. Romney's 60 million.
That sort of thinking is what caused their confusion and disbelief on election night, when President Obama walked away with another victory under his belt--only the fourth president, since FDR, to win a majority of the popular vote, the others: Eisenhower, and Ronald Reagan.
But back to the cries of voter fraud as the only explanation for Mr. Obama's win. I haven't seen any blog posts on what the former Florida GOP chair and governor has attested to: that Florida GOPers deliberately and with malice designed laws to slow down and discourage voting by certain segments of the voting public--segments that traditionally vote Democratic.
***************
[cont.]
"Greer is now under indictment, accused of stealing $200,000 from the party through a phony campaign fundraising operation. He, in turn, has sued the party, saying GOP leaders knew what he was doing and voiced no objection.
“Jim Greer has been accused of criminal acts against this organization and anything he says has to be considered in that light,” says Brian Burgess, Florida GOP spokesman since September.
But Greer’s statements about the motivations for the party’s legislative efforts, implemented by a GOP-majority House and Senate in Tallahassee in 2011, are backed by Crist — also now on the outs with the party — and two veteran GOP campaign consultants.
Wayne Bertsch, who handles local and legislative races for Republicans, said he knew targeting Democrats was the goal.
'In the races I was involved in in 2008, when we started seeing the increase of turnout and the turnout operations that the Democrats were doing in early voting, it certainly sent a chill down our spines. And in 2008, it didn’t have the impact that we were afraid of. It got close, but it wasn’t the impact that they had this election cycle,' Bertsch said, referring to the fact that Democrats picked up seven legislative seats in Florida in 2012 despite the early voting limitations.
Another GOP consultant, who did not want to be named, also confirmed that influential consultants to the Republican Party of Florida were intent on beating back Democratic turnout in early voting after 2008."
But, say the rightwingers, Mr. Obama won because FRAUD!
Crist said he was asked to curb early voting
"Crist said party leaders approached him during his 2007-2011 gubernatorial term about changing early voting, in an effort to suppress Democrat turnout. Crist is now at odds with the GOP, since abandoning the party to run for U.S. Senate as an independent in 2010. He is rumored to be planning another run for governor, as a Democrat.
Crist said in a telephone interview this month that he did not recall conversations about early voting specifically targeting black voters 'but it looked to me like that was what was being suggested. And I didn’t want them to go there at all.'
About inhibiting minority voters, Greer said:
'The sad thing about that is yes, there is prejudice and racism in the party but the real prevailing thought is that they don’t think minorities will ever vote Republican,' he said. 'It’s not really a broad-based racist issue. It’s simply that the Republican Party gave up a long time ago ever believing that anything they did would get minorities to vote for them.'
But a GOP consultant who asked to remain anonymous out of fear of retribution said black voters were a concern.
'I know that the cutting out of the Sunday before Election Day was one of their targets only because that’s a big day when the black churches organize themselves,' he said."
**************
When a Democrat wins an election, the GOPers scream FRAUD! while they manipulate and scheme to make voting for Democratic candidates more and more difficult for minorities. This is never seen as a fraudulent way of winning elections, since most of the GOP pols who engage in this criminal activity believe only the Republican Party has the right to govern this country. Any other party--see Democratic--they see as interlopers who win only through millions and millions of people cheating at the polls.
However, we actually know where the real fraud is occuring and which party schemes to subvert democracy and suppress the vote.
More here:
Oops! Republicans Arrested for Voter Fraud!
Breaking: GOP Caught Red Handed, Election Fraud in Indiana
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Franklin Graham's Ignorance
I don't know how many people listen to or follow his preaching, but the fact that Franklin Graham has a platform to declaim this nonsense is shocking:
"In the last four years, we have begun to turn our backs on God," he said. "We have taken God out of our education system. We have taken him out of government. You have lawyers that sue you every time you mention the name of Jesus Christ in any kind of a public forum."
"In the last four years..." Is it just a coincidence that in the last four years we've had a bi-racial president in the White House and that Graham identifies just those four years as the only years when "we have begun to turn our backs on God?"
"We have taken God out of our education system." No. Graham is wrong here. God and gods were never intended to be in our public education system. Private Christian and any other religious educational systems are replete with gods, Christian and otherwise. What Graham seems to be whining about here is that our PUBLICLY TAX FUNDED educational systems do not favor ANY god, as our Founding Fathers intended, but about which Graham is still shamefully ignorant. Also, Graham does not understand that any school child is completely free to pray to his or her god privately to him or herself at any time he or she wishes to. What Graham is complaining about here is that his Christian god is not worshipped publicly and led by public school administrators supported by tax payers of all denominations and even by nonreligious tax payers. Again, Graham is complaining about a very unAmerican version of religious freedom. It appears he's unhappy about the fact that our Constitution does not allow him and his kind to impose his idea of religion on his fellow Americans.
Graham continues:
"Maybe God will have to bring our nation down to our knees—to where you just have a complete economic collapse. And maybe at that point, maybe people will again begin to call upon the name of almighty God."
I don't know where Graham received his religious instruction, but it appears to me that it was at the same school where all religious fanatics study. Because his brand of religion is not universally practiced in the US, he believes his god will punish America by plunging it into an economic disaster, thereby causing all manner of suffering and deprivation to come to every woman, man, and child. This is the sort of god Graham would have every woman, man, and child worship through fear of retribution and unending suffering. I've read about these sorts of vengeful religious ideas in certain parts of the Middle East and anywhere that religious leaders hope to control their followers through portentous prophecies.
Why this very unholy man, Franklin Graham, has any following is a mystery to me, since he demonstrates his ignorance of our American heritage and is no more tolerant of religious freedom enshrined in our Constitution than is the worst of Middle Eastern mullahs, or other religious fanatics.
,
"In the last four years, we have begun to turn our backs on God," he said. "We have taken God out of our education system. We have taken him out of government. You have lawyers that sue you every time you mention the name of Jesus Christ in any kind of a public forum."
"In the last four years..." Is it just a coincidence that in the last four years we've had a bi-racial president in the White House and that Graham identifies just those four years as the only years when "we have begun to turn our backs on God?"
"We have taken God out of our education system." No. Graham is wrong here. God and gods were never intended to be in our public education system. Private Christian and any other religious educational systems are replete with gods, Christian and otherwise. What Graham seems to be whining about here is that our PUBLICLY TAX FUNDED educational systems do not favor ANY god, as our Founding Fathers intended, but about which Graham is still shamefully ignorant. Also, Graham does not understand that any school child is completely free to pray to his or her god privately to him or herself at any time he or she wishes to. What Graham is complaining about here is that his Christian god is not worshipped publicly and led by public school administrators supported by tax payers of all denominations and even by nonreligious tax payers. Again, Graham is complaining about a very unAmerican version of religious freedom. It appears he's unhappy about the fact that our Constitution does not allow him and his kind to impose his idea of religion on his fellow Americans.
Graham continues:
"Maybe God will have to bring our nation down to our knees—to where you just have a complete economic collapse. And maybe at that point, maybe people will again begin to call upon the name of almighty God."
I don't know where Graham received his religious instruction, but it appears to me that it was at the same school where all religious fanatics study. Because his brand of religion is not universally practiced in the US, he believes his god will punish America by plunging it into an economic disaster, thereby causing all manner of suffering and deprivation to come to every woman, man, and child. This is the sort of god Graham would have every woman, man, and child worship through fear of retribution and unending suffering. I've read about these sorts of vengeful religious ideas in certain parts of the Middle East and anywhere that religious leaders hope to control their followers through portentous prophecies.
Why this very unholy man, Franklin Graham, has any following is a mystery to me, since he demonstrates his ignorance of our American heritage and is no more tolerant of religious freedom enshrined in our Constitution than is the worst of Middle Eastern mullahs, or other religious fanatics.
,
Friday, November 23, 2012
Thursday, November 22, 2012
Monday, November 19, 2012
Butternut Squash Soup
A break from politics.
This is my butternut squash soup that is always a big hit as a first course.
It's easy, it's healthy and it's quick!
Butternut Squash Soup, 4 servings
4 Tablespoons unsalted butter
1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 large or one medium butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cubed
2 medium carrots, scraped and chopped
2 small to medium tart apples, peeled, seeded and cubed
16 oz. good quality vegetable or chicken stock
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
salt and pepper to taste
slivered scallion for garni
In a 2 quart sauce pan, saute the onions in the butter until soft and golden. Add the squash, carrots and apples. Let them cook in the onion butter mixture for 2 to 3 minutes over medium low heat. Add the stock and gently simmer until all the veggies and the apples are soft.
I have a wonderful appliance--I use a Braun hand-held emulsifier. to puree the veggies and fruit right in the sauce pan. If you don't own one of these devices, transfer the contents of the pan to a food processor or blender and puree until all lumps are gone.
Return the puree to the sauce pan, add the cream and the spices. Heat through. Serve with scallion garni.
This makes a great first course or a nutritious lunch, served with a hunk of crusty ciabatta bread.
Enjoy!
Sunday, November 18, 2012
Sunday Night Poetry
TATTOO
This is the tomorrow, dreamed
as you drove through
each town to buy bottles of wine,
loaves of bread.
A trash schedule, laundry stub,
forgotten details, fill the private
wrack you occupy in your home
among the pines.
Through the windows,
evening’s breath swirls
your hair in circles,
dark leaves beneath
the forehead of night.
The stars’ disorderly designs
attract you. You slide
out of your skin, trace muscle
and bone, make your own
design—tattoo of your most
famous heart, with the little
arrow pointing down.
--SK
Friday, November 16, 2012
Shame on McCain and the GOP
I'm posting this in answer to the ongoing discussion in the blogpost below. A few commenters brought up the Benghazi tragedy, and I thought this piece by Steve Benen makes it perfectly clear that UN Ambassador Susan Rice was NOT lying, was NOT covering anything up, and she was certainly NOT, as Senator McCain tried to smear her, incompetent.
Ambassador Rice did her job and she did it well.
Five days after the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Susan Rice appeared on "Face the Nation" to give the public an update on the available information. She explained that it was too early to draw "definitive conclusions," but the "best information we have to date" suggested the violence "began spontaneously ... as a reaction to what had transpired some hours earlier in Cairo" in response to the anti-Islam internet video.
The ambassador then added, "But soon after that spontaneous protest began outside of our consulate in Benghazi, we believe that it looks like extremist elements, individuals, joined in that effort with heavy weapons." Asked about a possible al Qaeda role, Rice said this was unclear, explaining, "I think this is one of the things we'll have to determine."
For John McCain and other increasingly-hysterical Obama administration critics, Rice was lying and her use of the word "spontaneous" is itself an outrageous scandal. It's not altogether clear why this is causing far-right apoplexy, but this is where we find ourselves at this point.
In an interesting twist, CBS News obtained the CIA talking points given to Rice in preparation of her interview.
Yes, the CIA assessment later changed as more information became available, but that only bolsters what Rice said at the time -- that the search for answers was ongoing.
McCain's smear campaign simply isn't based on facts. The senator owes Rice an apology.
Kevin Drum:
Yep. They're just convinced that Obama runs a gang of Chicago thugs who are lying and cheating behind the scenes at every opportunity. It's a foundational story on the tea-party right. Unfortunately, the reality is that whatever else you think of Obama, he's one of the straightest arrows we've had in the White House since ... forever. He runs a tight ship organizationally, and on a personal level he's so intolerant of personal peccadilloes that he sometimes seems almost inhuman. It would be astonishing if he could actually avoid a serious scandal for an entire eight-year term, but if anyone can do it, it's probably Obama.
And yes, it's driving Republicans crazy.
MORE:
"Rep. Peter King (R-NY) has admitted that the CIA and intelligence community approved U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice’s talking points before she made her much-derided Sept. 16 appearance on several Sunday news shows to discuss the attacks in Benghazi. King, one of the most outspoken critics of the Obama administration’s response to the attack, came to his conclusion following testimony from former CIA Director David Petraeus.
After leaving the closed-door hearing, King spoke with reporters for several minutes about Petraeus’ statements. Rice’s television appearances were among the topics discussed, leading King to indicate that while Petraeus did not personally write Rice’s talking points, the CIA did approve them."
All of the posturing by the GOP on this tragedy is nothing more than political gamesmanship. And John McCain proved it by grandstanding in front of the cameras, losing his temper, when asked why he chose to come out with attitude to smear Ambassador Rice's reputation instead of actually attending a meeting that dealt with the Benghazi attack. Asked why he didn't attend the meeting on the Benghazi attack, McCain bellowed at the reporter who dared to ask him, and then had a meltdown because he was caught with his ugly-colored partisanship pants down around his ankles.
More here:
Benghazi is not a scandal
Ambassador Rice did her job and she did it well.
Five days after the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Susan Rice appeared on "Face the Nation" to give the public an update on the available information. She explained that it was too early to draw "definitive conclusions," but the "best information we have to date" suggested the violence "began spontaneously ... as a reaction to what had transpired some hours earlier in Cairo" in response to the anti-Islam internet video.
The ambassador then added, "But soon after that spontaneous protest began outside of our consulate in Benghazi, we believe that it looks like extremist elements, individuals, joined in that effort with heavy weapons." Asked about a possible al Qaeda role, Rice said this was unclear, explaining, "I think this is one of the things we'll have to determine."
For John McCain and other increasingly-hysterical Obama administration critics, Rice was lying and her use of the word "spontaneous" is itself an outrageous scandal. It's not altogether clear why this is causing far-right apoplexy, but this is where we find ourselves at this point.
In an interesting twist, CBS News obtained the CIA talking points given to Rice in preparation of her interview.
CBS News correspondent Margaret Brennan says the talking points, which were also given to members of the House intelligence committee, make no reference to terrorism being a likely factor in the assault, which left U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans dead. [...]In other words, what Rice said is, almost to the syllable, exactly what the combined judgment of the intelligence community believed as of the time of her interview. She wasn't lying; she wasn't incompetent; and she wasn't covering anything up.
The CIA's talking points read as follows: "The currently available information suggests that the demonstrations in Benghazi were spontaneously inspired by the protests at the US Embassy in Cairo and evolved into a direct assault against the US diplomatic post in Benghazi and subsequently its annex. There are indications that extremists participated in the violent demonstrations."
Yes, the CIA assessment later changed as more information became available, but that only bolsters what Rice said at the time -- that the search for answers was ongoing.
McCain's smear campaign simply isn't based on facts. The senator owes Rice an apology.
Kevin Drum:
Yep. They're just convinced that Obama runs a gang of Chicago thugs who are lying and cheating behind the scenes at every opportunity. It's a foundational story on the tea-party right. Unfortunately, the reality is that whatever else you think of Obama, he's one of the straightest arrows we've had in the White House since ... forever. He runs a tight ship organizationally, and on a personal level he's so intolerant of personal peccadilloes that he sometimes seems almost inhuman. It would be astonishing if he could actually avoid a serious scandal for an entire eight-year term, but if anyone can do it, it's probably Obama.
And yes, it's driving Republicans crazy.
MORE:
"Rep. Peter King (R-NY) has admitted that the CIA and intelligence community approved U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice’s talking points before she made her much-derided Sept. 16 appearance on several Sunday news shows to discuss the attacks in Benghazi. King, one of the most outspoken critics of the Obama administration’s response to the attack, came to his conclusion following testimony from former CIA Director David Petraeus.
After leaving the closed-door hearing, King spoke with reporters for several minutes about Petraeus’ statements. Rice’s television appearances were among the topics discussed, leading King to indicate that while Petraeus did not personally write Rice’s talking points, the CIA did approve them."
All of the posturing by the GOP on this tragedy is nothing more than political gamesmanship. And John McCain proved it by grandstanding in front of the cameras, losing his temper, when asked why he chose to come out with attitude to smear Ambassador Rice's reputation instead of actually attending a meeting that dealt with the Benghazi attack. Asked why he didn't attend the meeting on the Benghazi attack, McCain bellowed at the reporter who dared to ask him, and then had a meltdown because he was caught with his ugly-colored partisanship pants down around his ankles.
More here:
Benghazi is not a scandal
Thursday, November 15, 2012
Loser GOP Presidential Candidate Blames "Moochers" For His Defeat
It was all those "free gifts" that Santa Claus President Obama stuffed in all the Democrats' greedy stockings over the last four years that won him re-election, and not the fact that Romney ran a losing campaign or chose a Randian extremist as his running mate. Nor was it the fact that every single state where Mittens has a palace home soundly defeated him. And his wonderboy muscley muscled zombie-eyed, granny-starving running mate? His home state AND home town rejected him as well.
Oh where is the love?
But it's all President Obama's fault, says Mittens, for giving women free birth control and government funded abortions on demand 24/7 in special secret rooms in the White House; for giving away free health care to illegal immigrants and space aliens; for giving students free money for college--but only if they attend Liberal, Commie, Marxist, Godless schools where everyone is forced to wear Che Guevara t-shirts while smoking free weed [courtesy of Santa Obama] and, lastly, because President Claus gave away free cell phones for every you-know-what on welfare.
ANALYSIS By MICHAEL FALCONE (@michaelpfalcone) and AMY WALTER (@amyewalter)
It's been just over a week since his defeat at the hands of President Obama and already a chasm between Mitt Romney and some prominent members of the Republican Party seems to have opened up.
The failed GOP presidential hopeful's candid assessment of why he lost the race, which he offered on conference calls with donors yesterday, instantly drew a sharp rebuke from Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal who called Romney's take "absolutely wrong."
Romney told top donors he came up short on Nov. 6 because "what the president's campaign did was focus on certain members of his base coalition, give them extraordinary financial gifts from the government, and then work very aggressively to turn them out to vote, and that strategy worked."
According to Romney some of the best "gifts," went to Hispanic voters, a group that voted overwhelmingly for President Obama.
More reading:
Romney Blames Loss On Obama’s ‘Big Gifts’ To Minorities, Women
Republican Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal slammed former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney last night in a strong rebuke of Romney's comments claiming that President Barack Obama won the election because he provided “gifts” to minorities and young voters.
Jindal told reporters at a Republican Governors Association
meeting in Las Vegas that Romney's comments, which came in a conference call to donors earlier on Wednesday, were "absolutely wrong."
Here's what Jindal had to say, via The Washington Examiner:
Republican strategist Ana Navarro hit Romney on Twitter, saying that "Romney was the biggest gift Obama got."
Oh where is the love?
But it's all President Obama's fault, says Mittens, for giving women free birth control and government funded abortions on demand 24/7 in special secret rooms in the White House; for giving away free health care to illegal immigrants and space aliens; for giving students free money for college--but only if they attend Liberal, Commie, Marxist, Godless schools where everyone is forced to wear Che Guevara t-shirts while smoking free weed [courtesy of Santa Obama] and, lastly, because President Claus gave away free cell phones for every you-know-what on welfare.
ANALYSIS By MICHAEL FALCONE (@michaelpfalcone) and AMY WALTER (@amyewalter)
Nov. 15, 2012
It's been just over a week since his defeat at the hands of President Obama and already a chasm between Mitt Romney and some prominent members of the Republican Party seems to have opened up.
The failed GOP presidential hopeful's candid assessment of why he lost the race, which he offered on conference calls with donors yesterday, instantly drew a sharp rebuke from Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal who called Romney's take "absolutely wrong."
Romney told top donors he came up short on Nov. 6 because "what the president's campaign did was focus on certain members of his base coalition, give them extraordinary financial gifts from the government, and then work very aggressively to turn them out to vote, and that strategy worked."
According to Romney some of the best "gifts," went to Hispanic voters, a group that voted overwhelmingly for President Obama.
More reading:
Romney Blames Loss On Obama’s ‘Big Gifts’ To Minorities, Women
Republican Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal slammed former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney last night in a strong rebuke of Romney's comments claiming that President Barack Obama won the election because he provided “gifts” to minorities and young voters.
Jindal told reporters at a Republican Governors Association
meeting in Las Vegas that Romney's comments, which came in a conference call to donors earlier on Wednesday, were "absolutely wrong."Here's what Jindal had to say, via The Washington Examiner:
“That is absolutely wrong. Two points on that. One, we have got to stop dividing American voters. We need to go after 100 percent of the votes, not 53 percent — we need to go after every single vote. And second, we need to continue to show that our policies help every voter out there achieve the American dream, which is to be in the middle class, which is to be able to give their children the opportunity to get a great education, which is for their children to have even better-paying jobs than their parents.”
“If we’re going to continue to be a competitive party and win elections on the national stage and continue to fight for our conservative principles, we need two messages to get out loudly and clearly: One, we are fighting for 100 percent of the votes, and secondly, our policies benefit every American who wants to pursue the American dream, period. No exceptions.”
Republican strategist Ana Navarro hit Romney on Twitter, saying that "Romney was the biggest gift Obama got."
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
The Generals and the Other Women
Normally it's a waste of time wading into the swamp of sexual scandals. I don't think it's anyone's business on what goes on in people's private lives. But the military has other rules and regs on this, specifically the Military Code of Conduct. From what has been reported in the media, General Petraeus had retired from active duty when he began his affair with Mrs. Broadwell. Who knows.
What has been astonishing about the daily revelations about this scandal is that two highly decorated and powerful military men involved themselves with what looks to be, by all accounts, unstable, obsessive women who were drawn to power and glory like squirrels to a pile of nuts.
What on god's blue-green earth were Generals Petraeus and Allen thinking when they wrote those letters to Jill Kelley's sister's lawyer in support of her request for child custody? If one believes what has been written about Natalie Khawam, Kelley's sister, she's a dishonorable and out-of-control typhoon of a wreck of a disaster. Why would such eminent men as the generals want to be involved in a domestic entanglement that has nothing to do with them? Perhaps the thousands and thousands of "flirtatious" emails General Allen shared with Jill Kelley will tell us?
And the FBI guy who facilitated all of this--you know, the knucklehead who sent Jill Kelley a photo of himself shirtless--he seems to have had a political axe to grind and hoped to ensnare President Obama in the scandal. Instead he irreparably damaged two generals whom the American people thought of as heroic and unimpeachable
It's all so tragic and comedic at the same time.
What has been astonishing about the daily revelations about this scandal is that two highly decorated and powerful military men involved themselves with what looks to be, by all accounts, unstable, obsessive women who were drawn to power and glory like squirrels to a pile of nuts.
What on god's blue-green earth were Generals Petraeus and Allen thinking when they wrote those letters to Jill Kelley's sister's lawyer in support of her request for child custody? If one believes what has been written about Natalie Khawam, Kelley's sister, she's a dishonorable and out-of-control typhoon of a wreck of a disaster. Why would such eminent men as the generals want to be involved in a domestic entanglement that has nothing to do with them? Perhaps the thousands and thousands of "flirtatious" emails General Allen shared with Jill Kelley will tell us?
And the FBI guy who facilitated all of this--you know, the knucklehead who sent Jill Kelley a photo of himself shirtless--he seems to have had a political axe to grind and hoped to ensnare President Obama in the scandal. Instead he irreparably damaged two generals whom the American people thought of as heroic and unimpeachable
It's all so tragic and comedic at the same time.
Monday, November 12, 2012
Who really gets the "free stuff?"
Countless rightwing bloggers have been hawking the excuse that President Obama won re-election because he promised moochers "free stuff." This salves the trauma most true believers experienced on November 6 and allows them to ignore the real reasons President Obama and the Democrats won. Facing that reality is too harsh, so the fallback is to blame the forty-seven percenters for wanting the government to give them goodies.
But reality is quite the opposite. This map published online in the NYTimes shows us exactly what part of the US receives the most government "goodies," and it's not, for the most part, the liberal northeast or other so-called liberal enclaves of moochers and ne'er-do-wells that extremist GOPers love to blame for their defeat.
Here's the map.
I don't expect the truth illustrated by this map to sink into the cemented ideology that they have used as the basis of their complaints--people who wanted "free stuff" elected President Obama. The "moochers," for the most part, are living in the states that bought into that false idea and rejected Mr. Obama.
And here.
And the 47 percenters Romeny wrote off? Where do they live?
But reality is quite the opposite. This map published online in the NYTimes shows us exactly what part of the US receives the most government "goodies," and it's not, for the most part, the liberal northeast or other so-called liberal enclaves of moochers and ne'er-do-wells that extremist GOPers love to blame for their defeat.
Here's the map.
I don't expect the truth illustrated by this map to sink into the cemented ideology that they have used as the basis of their complaints--people who wanted "free stuff" elected President Obama. The "moochers," for the most part, are living in the states that bought into that false idea and rejected Mr. Obama.
And here.
And the 47 percenters Romeny wrote off? Where do they live?
Sunday, November 11, 2012
Sunday Night Poetry
This Veterans' Day I remember and thank all who serve and served our country.
I especially remember my cousin, a US Marine, who served in Viet Nam, and died from the affects of Agent Orange.
The Howl of Orphans
--for G.M.
We listened for the car engine
to turn off
in someone’s driveway
there is always an absent car.
Your letters spoke of nausea
burning, bloody
you swore you weren’t
one of us there.
We looked for you
at the kitchen table--
Salami, cheese--your favorites
with a side of politics:
“And I won’t even mention the howl of orphans
that reaches up to the throne of God.” [1.]
All night we sat by your bed,
heard the story of Monkey Mountain,
saw your red-peppered arms,
imagined
heart, lungs, liver--
a cauliflower of organs.
You violently bloomed then
left us with your great
body, under the flag.
[1.] From "The Diameter of the Bomb," Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai
I especially remember my cousin, a US Marine, who served in Viet Nam, and died from the affects of Agent Orange.
The Howl of Orphans
--for G.M.
We listened for the car engine
to turn off
in someone’s driveway
there is always an absent car.
Your letters spoke of nausea
burning, bloody
you swore you weren’t
one of us there.
We looked for you
at the kitchen table--
Salami, cheese--your favorites
with a side of politics:
“And I won’t even mention the howl of orphans
that reaches up to the throne of God.” [1.]
All night we sat by your bed,
heard the story of Monkey Mountain,
saw your red-peppered arms,
imagined
heart, lungs, liver--
a cauliflower of organs.
You violently bloomed then
left us with your great
body, under the flag.
[1.] From "The Diameter of the Bomb," Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai
Saturday, November 10, 2012
"REPUBLICANS HAVE BEEN FLEECED AND EXPLOITED:" --Conservative David Frum
It's not news to those of us who've been telling conservatives this for years.
It's not news to those of us who've warned conservatives that people who watch no teevee news are better informed than people who watch FAUX NOOZ.
Conservative hate-radio jocks like Limbaugh, Beck, and Savage have poisoned the airwaves with their bigotry and lies, and conservatives never call them on it.
Conservative writers like Mark Levin resort to apocalyptic prose and fearmongering in order to keep their readers cowering and at the same time craving more lies and misinformation to justify their anxieties.
We knew this. And conservative writer and pundit, David Frum, confirms it:
“Republicans have been fleeced and exploited, and lied to by a conservative entertainment complex,” Daily Beast and Newsweek contributing editor David Frum told Friday’s Morning Joe panel in a discussion on the outcome of the 2012 election
.
Frum, who is a Republican and once served as a speechwriter for President George W. Bush, has criticized conservative media outlets in the past for “immers[ing] their audience in a total environment of pseudo-facts and pretend information.” Frum joined Morning Joe on Friday, in part, to discuss his new e-book “Why Romney Lost: And What the GOP Can Do About It.”
Asked to name those media outlets he meant, Frum deferred, saying, “I name names in the book.”
Later, though Frum tweeted that he would happily repeat his message direct to Fox News.
Frum argued that Republican leaders, who he says are “cowards” rather than “fundamentally mistaken,” have a difficult relationship with the GOP activist base and donor base.
“The problem with GOP leaders is they’re cowards, not that they’re fundamentally mistaken,” Frum said. “The real locus of the problem is the GOP activist base and the GOP donor base. They went apocalyptic over the past four years and that was exploited by a lot of people in the conservative world.”
While Frum said he believedMitt Romney would have been “a really good president,” he also noted that Romney was “twisted into pretzels [and] the people who put cement shoes on his feet are now blaming him for sinking.”
Host Joe Scarborough added to Frum’s statement, saying “conservatives have been lied to.”
“They’ve been lied to by people who engage in niche marketing and make tens of millions of dollars engaging in niche marketing,” Scarborough said. “I’m a capitalist, God bless ‘em…but that’s not an electoral strategy, that’s a business strategy for them.”
The reason so many conservative blogger are disheartened by the results of Tuesday's election is that they've been consistently lied to by their heroes, while their heroes are laughing all the way to the bank.
"of David Frum's E-Book ("Why Romney Lost").
Chapter 1:
Matt Taibi of Rolling Stone:
But there is some hope:
It's Official: Allen West Loses
It's not news to those of us who've warned conservatives that people who watch no teevee news are better informed than people who watch FAUX NOOZ.
Conservative hate-radio jocks like Limbaugh, Beck, and Savage have poisoned the airwaves with their bigotry and lies, and conservatives never call them on it.
Conservative writers like Mark Levin resort to apocalyptic prose and fearmongering in order to keep their readers cowering and at the same time craving more lies and misinformation to justify their anxieties.
We knew this. And conservative writer and pundit, David Frum, confirms it:
“Republicans have been fleeced and exploited, and lied to by a conservative entertainment complex,” Daily Beast and Newsweek contributing editor David Frum told Friday’s Morning Joe panel in a discussion on the outcome of the 2012 election
.
Frum, who is a Republican and once served as a speechwriter for President George W. Bush, has criticized conservative media outlets in the past for “immers[ing] their audience in a total environment of pseudo-facts and pretend information.” Frum joined Morning Joe on Friday, in part, to discuss his new e-book “Why Romney Lost: And What the GOP Can Do About It.”
Asked to name those media outlets he meant, Frum deferred, saying, “I name names in the book.”
Later, though Frum tweeted that he would happily repeat his message direct to Fox News.
By the way, if anybody at Fox would like me to repeat to their faces what I said on Morning Joe this AM, I accept. Unlikely, I know, but …
“The problem with GOP leaders is they’re cowards, not that they’re fundamentally mistaken,” Frum said. “The real locus of the problem is the GOP activist base and the GOP donor base. They went apocalyptic over the past four years and that was exploited by a lot of people in the conservative world.”
While Frum said he believedMitt Romney would have been “a really good president,” he also noted that Romney was “twisted into pretzels [and] the people who put cement shoes on his feet are now blaming him for sinking.”
Host Joe Scarborough added to Frum’s statement, saying “conservatives have been lied to.”
“They’ve been lied to by people who engage in niche marketing and make tens of millions of dollars engaging in niche marketing,” Scarborough said. “I’m a capitalist, God bless ‘em…but that’s not an electoral strategy, that’s a business strategy for them.”
The reason so many conservative blogger are disheartened by the results of Tuesday's election is that they've been consistently lied to by their heroes, while their heroes are laughing all the way to the bank.
"of David Frum's E-Book ("Why Romney Lost").
Chapter 1:
Liberals were right all along.Chapter 2:
About everything.The End." h/t d r i f t g l a s s
Matt Taibi of Rolling Stone:
"...the fact that so many Republicans this week think that all
Hispanics care about is amnesty, all women want is abortions (and lots of them)
and all teenagers want is to sit on their couches and smoke tons of weed
legally, that tells you everything you need to know about the hopeless,
anachronistic cluelessness of the modern Republican Party. A lot of these
people, believe it or not, would respond positively, or at least with genuine
curiosity, to the traditional conservative message of self-reliance and fiscal
responsibility.
But modern Republicans will never be able to spread that message
effectively, because they have so much of their own collective identity wrapped
up in the belief that they're surrounded by free-loading, job-averse parasites
who not only want to smoke weed and have recreational abortions all day long,
but want hardworking white Christians like them to pay the tab. Their whole
belief system, which is really an endless effort at congratulating themselves
for how hard they work compared to everyone else (by the way, the average
"illegal," as Rush calls them, does more real work in 24 hours than people like
Rush and me do in a year), is inherently insulting to everyone outside the tent
– and you can't win votes when you're calling people lazy, stoned moochers.
It's hard to say whether it's good or bad that the Rushes of the
world are too clueless to realize that it's their attitude, not their policies,
that is screwing them most with minority voters. If they were self-aware at all,
Mitt Romney would probably be president right now. So I guess we should be
grateful that the light doesn't look like it will ever go on. But wow, is their
angst tough to listen to."
But there is some hope:
It's Official: Allen West Loses
Thursday, November 8, 2012
WHY THE GOP WILL CONTINUE TO OBSTRUCT AND BE IRRELEVANT
UPDATE BELOW
Because they listen to nuts like this. And believe his fantastical, delusional and maniacal crap. --h/t Andrew Sullivan's blog
"We conservatives, we do not accept bipartisanship in the pursuit of tyranny. Period. We will not negotiate the terms of our economic and political servitude. Period. We will not abandon our child to a dark and bleak future. We will not accept a fate that is alien to the legacy we inherited from every single future generation in this country. We will not accept social engineering by politicians and bureaucrats who treat us like lab rats, rather than self-sufficient human beings. There are those in this country who choose tyranny over liberty. They do not speak for us, 57 million of us who voted against this yesterday, and they do not get to dictate to us under our Constitution.The squirrely thinking behind this is that only conservatives believe in freedom and that everyone else who isn't on the conservative side are tyrants and social engineering Maoists.
We are the alternative. We will resist. We're not going to surrender to this. We will not be passive, we will not be compliant in our demise. We're not good losers, you better believe we're sore losers! A good loser is a loser forever. Now I hear we're called 'purists.' Conservatives are called purists. The very people who keep nominating moderates, now call us purists the way the left calls us purists. Yeah, things like liberty, and property rights, individual sovereignty, and the Constitution, and capitalism. We're purists now. And we have to hear this crap from conservatives, or pseudo-conservatives, Republicans."
Of course he's delirious and mad as a hatter. Mark Levin, who wrote the above, identifies with a party that proposed forced vaginal probes on women, a party that actually supported male politicians who thought pregnancies from "legitimate" rape would not occur, or that pregnancies from rape were gifts from on high, a party that supported a woman who believes a child can become mentally retarded by being vaccinated against an STD.
He believes there's no tyranny in supporting a man for president who stated he would be happy to overturn Roe v. Wade, thereby enacting government-forced pregnancies on girls and women. He believes he belongs to a "moderate" party that suggested "self-deportation" as a solution to immigration and that said NO! to allowing young people, who were born here through no choice of their own, to be able to find a path to citizenship. Levin tries to sell his moderate conservatism as a party that did not support overturning DADT and that does not want the DOMA rescinded. Where's the defense of freedom and liberty when a party has to be taken kicking and screaming out of the dank and dark hole of homophobia and into an enlightened world where marriage for everyone is equally protected by the Constitution.
He believes in a moderate party of freedom and liberty that tried with all the might its GOP governors could muster to disrupt and disenfranchise certain segments of the voting population.
He says, in the above quote, that conservatives should double down and absolutely stay sore losers and uncompromising purists, which guarantees that Americans will be clawing at each others' throats as a way of governing unless and until we all accept the conservative ideology as the ONLY pure ideology that delivers liberty, property rights, individual sovereignty, the Constitution and capitalism. By which he means, again, that only his brand of conservatism can save his America from the people who voted on Tuesday.
Fortunately, he's wrong and Tuesday's election proved it. And future elections will continue to bring reality to people like Mark Levin until they fold up their circus tents where they hawk a brand of politics that is exclusive rather than inclusive. They know this. Somewhere deep down in their frightened little hearts, they saw the future last Tuesday. And it isn't theirs.
UPDATE:
Michael Gerson at The Washington Post:
The 2012 election was a substantial victory not only for President Obama but also for liberalism. Obama built his campaign on abortion rights and higher taxes for the wealthy. He was rewarded by an electorate that was younger, more pro-choice and more racially diverse than in 2008. The Obama coalition is not a fluke; it is a force.
Some conservatives have reacted in the tradition of Cicero: “Oh, the times! Oh, the customs!”Rush Limbaugh concluded, “We’ve lost the country,” which he described as a “country of children.” “There is no hope,” Ann Coulter said. And Bill O’Reilly: “It’s not a traditional America anymore.”
As a matter of strategy, it is generally not a good idea to express disdain for an electorate one hopes to eventually influence.
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
SENATOR MITCH McCONNELL: MAJOR FAIL!
NBC: OBAMA REELECTED
ELIZABETH WARREN WINS IN MASSACHUSETTS!
SENATOR WARREN
Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan lost their home states.
VOTING IS THE BEST REVENGE
Yes.
It.
Is.
It's the best revenge against the lie that President Obama is not an American.
Against the lie that President Obama is a Socialist.
Against the lie that President Obama is a Communist.
Against the lie that President Obama is a Marxist.
Against the lie that President Obama is not a Christian.
Against the lie that President Obama is anti-business.
Against the lie that President Obama hates America.
Against the lie that President Obama hates the Constitution.
Against the lie that President Obama hasn't accomplished anything in his presidency.
Against the lie that President Obama wants to take away your guns.
Against the lie that President Obama is a threat to religion.
Against the lie that President Obama is weak.
Against the lie that President Obama is a failure.
Against all the lies and slanders thrown at this president that have nothing to do with his policies, and everything to do with his race.
Vote to send those who promote these lies and slanders back to the dark swamp of ignorace and hate, where they were spawned.
Vote as though your life depends on it.
Because it does.
It.
Is.
It's the best revenge against the lie that President Obama is not an American.
Against the lie that President Obama is a Socialist.
Against the lie that President Obama is a Communist.
Against the lie that President Obama is a Marxist.
Against the lie that President Obama is not a Christian.
Against the lie that President Obama is anti-business.
Against the lie that President Obama hates America.
Against the lie that President Obama hates the Constitution.
Against the lie that President Obama hasn't accomplished anything in his presidency.
Against the lie that President Obama wants to take away your guns.
Against the lie that President Obama is a threat to religion.
Against the lie that President Obama is weak.
Against the lie that President Obama is a failure.
Against all the lies and slanders thrown at this president that have nothing to do with his policies, and everything to do with his race.
Vote to send those who promote these lies and slanders back to the dark swamp of ignorace and hate, where they were spawned.
Vote as though your life depends on it.
Because it does.
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