Cartoon of the Day
*Gary Markstein 
Sunday, February 19, 2006
Saturday, February 18, 2006
Ricky's Gotta Go
The Bob Casey-Rick Santorum Senate race in Pennsylvania is one of the major races being watched by both parties across the country. Noting its importance, the Nation has an article on Casey by John Nichols, Democratic Alarms in PA, focusing on his expressed "support" for the confirmation of now-Justice Alito to the Supreme Court.
Casey, like his father, is generally socially progressive, but is conservative on a number of issues important to liberal Democrats, such as choice and stem cell research. He's been called "Santorum-Lite" because of those positions (probably by Republicans promoting the similarity behind the scenes).
However, Rick Santorum is a right wing extremist that needs to be retired. The man has real problems. He & his wife brought home their child who died shortly after birth so the family could have time to "say good-bye." That's not to dismiss or belittle the grief in the loss of a child, but that is disturbed. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if that would have been prohibited except for the fact that Santorum was a "Senator" who received special treatment. Despite his cleverly worded denials, I also wouldn't be surprised if he was not a member, at some level, of Opus Dei. And I'm not talking about the Opus Dei characterized by the novel, the DaVinci Code. I'm talking about the real thing, the ultra-conservative, Catholic cult. Those are just a few of my objections to him on a personal level. Politically, the man is a cretin. I may even have more disdain for him than Bush. Now that I think about it, it's hard to say. Maybe not.
Being from Scranton originally, I know the Casey family. I went to school with one of the Caseys (who didn't, with so many kids in the family). In fact, I almost worked for his father after law school, before he ran for governor, except I couldn't bring myself to return home. They were (are) a respected, well-regarded family with strong social leanings. Clearly, however, they fall in the moderate spectrum of the Democratic party.
I agree that he is not as liberal as I'd prefer, but I want someone who will beat Ricky. I know that many Democrats favor Chuck Pennacchio, who is certainly more liberal-minded. Ordinarily, I would too, but I believe that Casey has a better chance to defeat Santorum than most. So, I'm willing to put up with his shortcomings. I trust in his views overall, even if he doesn't match up on all of the important issues.
Moreover, one of my major criticisms of Republicans is the fact that they are often single issue focused (e.g. abortion), I don't want to fall prey to the same thing, so I'm willing to be open-minded. On the other hand, I just want that nutcase Rick Santorum gone. And that's my single issue in this race.
Guess Who
NO QUARTER has reprinted a speech, National Security: The Attack on the Constitution, given by former CIA officer Jim Marcinkowski, who is running for Congress in Michigan. In his speech, Marcinkowski describes his career serving the country as a Navy Veteran, the FBI, CIA and as a prosecutor. His speech focuses on his concern "an American who is deeply troubled by the direction we are headed as a nation." He describes a fatally flawed, intolerable form of government, where:
The government was always right and never apologized;
Any dissent was suppressed, ridiculed, banned or worse;
Secret prisons were denied and never acknowledged or spoken about;
The torture of captives (in Lubyanka) was condoned;
State incarceration was not subject to the checks and balances of a legal system;
Economic plans, like for oil, were established/determined in closed sessions between politicos, commissars and production managers, far outside public view, and where government claimed privilege in so doing;
Wages were set at the lowest common denominator, no matter what Bloc country you were in;
Government agents had access to your medical records, your library records, your telephone, and your e-mail.
A place where judicial power and judicial review were proclaimed concepts, but simply ignored in application;
Where criminal records of young adults were closed to all but the military;
Where a Constitution was a mere facade and ignored by state actors.
Any dissent, debate and protest were deemed unpatriotic;
The public media was bought, paid for, and provided by the state;
The military clandestinely and shamelessly influenced the national media and public opinion;
A place where wrong was declared right;
Where tapping a phone was like tapping a pencil;
Where lying was considered a patriotic skill;
The extraction of natural resources was paramount to any concern for the environment and the impact on the health of its people;
Where the use of “state secrets,” (those things embarrassing to the government) were confused with legitimate issues of “national security”;
A place where "secrecy" and "national security" were used to control debate;
Where legitimate secrecy, was subject to political use and abuse;
Where "legislators" were mere mouthpieces for and rubberstamps of whoever was in power;
Where you lived and died with the permission of the government;
A place where foreign policy was more important than domestic concerns;
Where fear was used as a political weapon and an acceptable means of control;
Where the best medical care was reserved for the influential;
Where wealth was concentrated in the top 5%;
A place where there was no middle class - just a small economic and political elite, and the working poor.
And now comes the quiz. Which country is he describing:
USA or USSR?
(Via The Washington Note)
Friday, February 17, 2006
The Rules of the Game
A Call to Action blog reprints Sidney Blumenthal's Salon article, Shoot first, avoid questions later, aptly subtitled "The White House's secretive reponse to Cheney's misfire cannot be understood apart from the society of Texas royalty." The end of this excellent article says it all:
The curiosities surrounding the vice president's accident have created a contemporary version of "The Rules of the Game" with a Texas twist. In Jean Renoir's 1939 film, politicians and aristocrats mingle at a country house in France over a long weekend, during which a merciless hunt ends with a tragic shooting. Appearing on the eve of World War II, "The Rules of the Game" depicted a hypocritical, ruthless and decadent ruling class that made its own rules and led a society to the edge of catastrophe.Blumenthal always renders the perfect portrayal of the Bush clan (Cheney, Rove, et. al). Regarding the Cheney shooting spree, the entire article is a must read to capture all of the nuances involved in this episode. As Blumenthal concludes:
Whether or not the exact facts of the case are ever conclusively established, what happened at twilight in the south Texas brush has revealed the hierarchy of power within the Bush White House and the interests of those who wield that power. The surreptitious handling inside the White House of the shooting, moreover, cannot be understood apart from the society of Texas royalty and the ambitions of those, like Cheney and Karl Rove, who aspire to it. None of it is metaphoric.
Quote of the Day
"We have two evils to fight, capitalism and racism. We must destroy both racism and capitalism."
--Huey Newton, born today in 1942
(Via Raybin at My Left Wing)
Give 'em Hell, Helen
Daily Kos provides a report (including the audio version) of an interview of Helen Thomas by Hugh Hewitt, Helen Thomas shreds Hugh Hewitt "God knows what you are". Let's just say that she does not suffer fools gladly.
As I mentioned many times in the past, see The Silence Was Deafening, Helen Thomas rocks.
Cheney's Got A Gun, Part 2
You knew it had to be done (both the picture and the song). Here's the audio parody of Aerosmith's "Janie’s Got a Gun," on The Bob Rivers Show.
Thursday, February 16, 2006
A Shot and a Beer
Or, the other way around, as was the case with Cheney and his quail hunting buddies. As described by John Nichols in the Nation, Cheney, "A Beer or Two" and a Gun, things are getting a little more interesting about the shotgun hunting event:
Vice President Dick Cheney, who was forced to leave Yale University because his penchant for late-night beer drinking exceeded his devotion to his studies, and who is one of the small number of Americans who can count two drunk driving busts on his record, was doing more than hunting quail on the day that he shot a Texas lawyer in the face.
The vice president has admitted that he was drinking on the afternoon of the incident. He claims it was only a beer, according to the transcript of an interview with Fox New Wednesday. But the whole discussion about how much drinking took place on the day of the fateful hunt has been evolving rapidly since Katherine Armstrong, the wealthy Republican lobbyist who is a member of the politically connected family that owns the ranch where Cheney blasted his hunting partner, initially claimed that no one was imbibing before the incident.
Armstrong later acknowledged to a reporter from the NBC investigative unit that alcohol may have been served at a picnic Saturday afternoon on the dude ranch where Cheney shot Harry Whittington.
* * * *
Cheney's admission that he was drinking, along with Armstrong's clumsy attempts to downplay the alcohol issue raises more questions than it answers about an incident involving a Vice President who, like George W. Bush, was a heavy drinker in his youth, but who, unlike Bush, never swore off the bottle.
As with her over-the-top efforts to blame Whittington, the victim, for getting in the way of Cheney's birdshot blast, Armstrong's line on liquor smells a little more like an attempt to cover for the Vice President than full disclosure.
This is where the hunting accident "incident" becomes a serious matter. The role played by the Secret Service in preventing questioning of Cheney on the evening of the shooting takes on new significance when drinking is at issue. If Cheney was in any way impaired at the time of the shooting, it was certainly to the Vice President's advantage to put off the official investigation until the next morning.
Cheney claims that he downed beer hours before he shot Whittington. But he now has a lot more explaining to do than what was seen during the "softball" interview on Fox News, the Administration's house network, which the White House crisis management team arranged for him to do Wednesday.
When legitimate questions arise regarding the role that the Secret Service might have played in undermining the investigation of a shooting in order to protect the vice president from embarrassment, and possible legal charges, those issues have to be addressed fully and completely. And they must be addressed in a setting where reporters are able to press the notoriously cagey Cheney to actually answer all of the questions that are asked.
Up to now, the whole "hunting-accident" controversy has been little more than a diversion from more serious matters involving Cheney--not least among these, the investigation into whether the Vice President authorized the release of classified information as part of a scheme to discredit critics of the Administration's rush to war. But if Cheney used his Secret Service unit to prevent a necessary and proper official inquiry at a time when it might have uncovered relevant information regarding his condition when he shot a man, then the Vice President has abused his office in a most serious manner.
The prospect that such an abuse occurred requires Cheney and any White House aides who were involved in "managing" the story--put Karl Rove at the top of this list--to stop stonewalling and provide a detailed explanation of their actions in the hours that followed the shooting incident. This is certainly not the only issue on which the Vice President needs to come clean, but it is no longer a joking matter--or, more precisely, it is no longer merely a joking matter.
I'm all for finding out what really happened, so long as it can still be a joking matter too.
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Flower Power
A nifty blog, called VirtualMatter, provides a tip for those who received flowers for Valentine's Day: Keep Cut Flowers Fresh. It compares (via AOL no less) which remedies (e.g. bleach, aspirin, etc.) works best to keep cut flowers fresh.
Since I didn't get any flowers (boo-hoo), you'll have to let me know what works.
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
Cheney's Got a Gun
As Jon Stewart said last night, "Thank you, Jes-us." The second shooting by a VP since Burr shot Hamilton allows the humorous peppering of Cheney by the Daily Show in "Dead-eye Dick", courtesy of Crooks and Liars. You should watch the video, it's hysterical, but here are some highlights:
"Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot a man during a quail hunt ... making 78-year-old Harry Whittington the first person shot by a sitting veep since Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton, of course, (was) shot in a duel with Aaron Burr over issues of honor, integrity and political maneuvering. Whittington? Mistaken for a bird."
"Now, this story certainly has its humorous aspects. ... But it also raises a serious issue, one which I feel very strongly about. ... moms, dads, if you're watching right now, I can't emphasize this enough: Do not let your kids go on hunting trips with the vice president. I don't care what kind of lucrative contracts they're trying to land, or energy regulations they're trying to get lifted -- it's just not worth it."
"The Vice President is standing by his decision to shoot Harry Whittington. Now, according to the best intelligence available, there were quail hidden in the brush. Everyone believed at the time there were quail in the brush. And while the quail turned out to be a 78- year-old man, even knowing that today, Mr. Cheney insists he still would have shot Mr. Whittington in the face. He believes the world is a better place for his spreading buckshot throughout the entire region of Mr. Wittington's face." --Daily Show correspondent Rob Corddry
Since we're on the subject, I thought I'd also include the Top Ten Dick Cheney Excuses from the Late Show with David Letterman:
10. "Heart palpitation caused trigger finger to spasm"
9. "Wanted to get the Iraq mess off the front page"
8. "Not enough Jim Beam"
7. "Trying to stop the spread of bird flu"
6. "I love to shoot people"
5. "Guy was making cracks about my lesbian daughter"
4. "I thought the guy was trying to go 'gay cowboy' on me"
3. "Excuse? I hit him, didn't I?"
2. "Until Democrats approve medicare reform, we have to make some tough choices for the elderly"
1. "Made a bet with Gretzky's wife"
See also:
Bill Maher: Cheney's Shooting Spree (via The Huffington Post)
Al Franken: Cheney Shoots Guy (via The Huffington Post)
Dick Cheney Finally Takes a Stand Against Trial Lawyers (Wonkette)
Correction: I errored by saying that Hamilton shot Burr, when it was the other way around. Burr, the VP, shot and killed Hamilton in a duel.
Tags:
Happy Valentine's Day
(Via Flickr: Brief de-motivational message by areiyu)
In honor of Valentine's Day, an MP3 mix awaits you at Some Velvet Blog by Bruce Warren: Love The One You're With:
The Look Of Love - Dusty Springfield
Marie - Randy Newman
Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby - Dinah Washington
I've Got You Under My Skin - Frank Sinatra
I Believe In This Thing Called Love - The Darkness
La La Means I Love You - The Delfonics
When Love Breaks Down - Prefab Sprout
Something About What Happens When We Talk - Lucinda Williams
You Do Something To Me - Sinead O'Connor
Night And Day - U2
Thin Line Between Love and Hate - The Persuaders
Only Love Can Break Your Heart - Saint Etienne
Hope That I Don't Fall In Love With You - Tom Waits
My One And Only Love - John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman
Enjoy the ear Candy!
Monday, February 13, 2006
Miss Bill?
If you want a sneak peek of "Real Time with Bill Maher" before he returns from his three month hiatus, check out the video at Salon (free pass with commercial).
Of course, I always miss Bill, since we don't have HBO. Thank God for on-line video clips.
Homework
Philly's still buried under, after yesterday's snowfall. Our neighborhood got 16" -- here's the view from our backyard.
Good day to work from home, which I'll be doing.
Sunday, February 12, 2006
I Never said Bush was a Nazi
The BRAD BLOG provides the answer to the Daily Show Quiz: 'Who's NOT Comparing Bush to the Nazis?'.
The answer may surprise you.
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