The Democrats Hug It Out
By Kathleen Parker
Saturday, May 17, 2008; Page A17
Well, at least they didn't kiss.
For release embarrassing new and important information, that is. Yes, we are all going to agree that the quickest way to bury a news story appears to release it on a Friday afternoon. Perhaps we should paraphrase The Cure about Friday I'm in Love with the ignorant media.
I would call this a pretty damn important story in the continuing series of episodes that destroy what little credibility Mr. Straight-talk had left:
From Jonathan Stein at MotherJones...
Republican operatives Doug Davenport and Doug Goodyear were both quietly released from their duties with the McCain campaign this week when it was revealed that their Washington lobbying firm, DCI Group, had been paid $348,000 to represent Burma's repressive military junta in 2002. McCain's critics noted that top McCain aide Charlie Black has lobbied for authoritarian regimes as nasty or worse than Burma's, raising the question of whether McCain will cut ties with tainted figures only when it is politically expedient for him to do so.
It is so very interesting how the McCain camp managed this nothing-to-see-here wee news item about him taking money from military dictators by releasing it on Friday. Military dictators who are creating a human tragedy in their country right now, in case we're all not paying attention. And as usual the national media played right into the McCain camp's hands. Could they have helped him slip out of this anymore easily?
And forget the local media -- they have abrogated their responsibility to the public good a long time ago. How much decent (forget good) political coverage do you see from your local stations?
This is a much more important issue than the out of context rantings of a preacher with an ego. This story is so much more important because it reveals more about McCain than any of his "aw shucks" just-doing -my-duty illusion -- the 'ol war hero straight talk carefully crafted image is just that, a carefully orchestrated image. McCain consistently reveal his true image, a walking talking political cartoon.
I am curious, though. Can we think of anyone who did not have to jump through numerous hoops, tests, and interviews in order to secure their employment? So the idea that McCain didn't know who these guys were and what they did before they joined his campaign is a boldfaced lie. One more lie to the mountain of lies that McCain is willing to tell to secure what he thinks is some strange kind of birth right to become president.
Or worse... is it possible that McCain was stupid enough to think that their ties to the Burmese/Myanmar dictators would not be discovered? In any case, this whole episode gives us a clear glimpse into what a McCain administration will actually look like, what they will do. It will make George W. Bush's mis-administration look positively competent. Just imagine how bad your organizational skills have to be to accomplish that....
Isn't that a frightening thought? Was that a chill down your back, too?
Hey, think McCain will give the money back? Think that will happen on a Friday?
As scary as a Deval Patrick appointment as AG would be (I've long thought he would be Obama's likely choice), the suggestion that John Edwards would be even considered for Attorney General is horrifying. I really can't think of any mainstream political figure more inappropriate for that job than Edwards.
Once in a while a very far and distant occasion, there is something hopeful that happens. The overturning of a California court decision which banned gay marriage is a hopeful start for a more progressive cultural turn in this country.
Yes, I would like to think that we are going to see a turn away from the regressive extremist conservative and neoconservative cultural and political turn in this country.
So, go ahead... I know you all are going to call me an idiot. But I do not know about you but I need some hopeful, something meaningful, some kind of human openness if it is only for a few minutes. But until the inevitable cultural backlash and political attack squads go after this, I do not want to live in a tiered society where only the "right" people can marry. This is a step and a damn good one at that.
Ok, I have serious disagreements with many commentators... I await the day when Chris Matthews' pops or when Tucker Carlson starts laughing at himself over the insanity of his comments. And I am sure we all look forward to the day when the incredibly dark dye in Cal Thomas' hair explodes.
But today Bobo Brooks has a bizzare rant that just seems like a case of crying out for help. Please someone get him his meds. What is he trying to say here? Really? I do want to know. What?
(from StarTribune)
The Resistance says the new image "has a naked woman on it with her legs spread like a prostitute," Mark Dice, founder of the group, said in a news release. "Need I say more? It's extremely poor taste, and the company might as well call themselves Slutbucks."
The group, which claims more than 3,000 members nationwide and has found a place on the fringe advancing various conspiracy theories, is calling for a national boycott of the coffee-selling giant.
The new-old retro logo will continue to run on Starbucks cups for "several more weeks," and will live on as the logo for their Pike Place bags of coffee. So, it is not going away any time soon regardless of the complaints.
The explanation from the company for the logo is explained in the company bio book "Pour Your Heart into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time," written by Starbucks founder Howard Schultz:
"[Creative partner Terry Heckler] poured [sic] over old marine books until he came up with a logo based on an old 16 Century Norse woodcut: a two-tailed mermaid, or siren, encircled by the store's original name, Starbucks Coffee, Tea, and Spice. That early siren, bare-breasted and Rubenesque, was supposed to be as seductive as coffee itself."
Is anyone else wondering why these religious right groups seem to find pornography everywhere? Or should I be more concerned about a Starbucks bio called "Pour Your Heart into it?"
Readers of the Rising Hegemon will remember that in the past I have commented on the Texas case of the then 63 year old William Krar. Krar was sentenced in 2004 to eleven years in prison for his plans to use cyanide in a domestic terrorist plot. It is important to note that Krar has been connected to several violent domestic extremists in the racist Christian Identity movement.
While Krar was arrested with a relatively small inventory of cyanide it was never resolved whether he had a lot more or shared it with others so inclined to use it.
Now comes a somewhat similar case also in Texas except that the suspect was trying to selling cyanide to someone to get money for meth. The "buyer" was an undercover FBI agent. Whether the effort to get meth was for use or to be sold to make money to support extremist efforts, we still do not know.
This case has produced some candid remarks to the media about the likelihood of domestic terrorist attacks from experts. Many of these domestic terrorists would be more likely to use sarin rather than cyanide. And while it is not any secret that sarin gas is easy to produce, little attention is being paid to prevent the creation of the poison. Sarin was used in a terrorist attack in Tokyo in 1995 and is easily distributed in an urban area.
At the time of the 2004 Krar case it was widely discussed that turning the cyanide that Krar had into a weapon merely requires the presence of a strong acid which can be purchased at an industrial supply house.
It is a mistake to overlook the efforts of racist domestic extremists.
The best story I’ve heard this week by far was told today over lunch. Apparently, a co-worker of mine named George listens to the Rush Limbaugh show in his car, and yesterday heard him discussing Barak Obama’s comments about similarities between the recent housing crisis and the lead-up to the Great Depression. I imagine the comments were referring to the obvious similarities between those who obtained ridiculous sub-prime loans and those in the 1920s who bought stock they couldn’t afford on margin. However, Limbaugh decided that Obama’s comments were the result of a crazy “liberal education” - and even remarks how “lucky” he is that he didn’t graduate from college, thus allowing him to escape the perils of actual knowledge.
To prove his point, Rush says he did some Google searches for “Great Depression” and then proceeds to attack each of the results as liberal propaganda. Because we all know that college professors teach straight off of Google results pages. So my friend is listening and hears something rather striking… the name of one of our mutual colleagues - Paul Alexander Gusmorino (”The Third!” - I love the way Limbaugh says that).
Limbaugh found among the top results an essay written by Paul, entitled “The Main Causes of the Great Depression.” He quotes Paul’s essay and refutes each of its claims, dissecting them as if they were part of a Harvard professor’s lecture on the subject. He doesn’t pull any punches either. “Mr. Gusmorino, you better check Karl Marx and see if you plagiarized him in putting this piece together.”
Ouch. Those words would be harsh if they really were for a Harvard lecturer. But that’s not who wrote this essay. It was my friend who works as a Program Manager at Microsoft.
When he was in 10th grade.
White House says Saudi Arabia does not see a reason to increase oil production
- Breaking MSNBC
Gerson is a member of the Falls Church in Falls Church, Va. His congregation and the nearby Truro Church, played the key role in leading 11 Virginia parishes out of the Episcopal Church after the Church consecrated Gene Robinson, an openly gay man as bishop in 2003. Most of these parishes joined the Church of Nigeria, which Archbishop Peter Akinola leads...
In February 2006, 10 months before Gerson's church made the final decision to affiliate with Akinola, Bishop John Bryson Chane of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington (full disclosure, he is my boss) published an op-ed piece in The Washington Post calling attention to proposed Nigerian legislation (here, on page 12) supported by Akinola that –interpreted as narrowly as possible—would have significantly curtailed the rights of gays, lesbians and their supporters to speak about their lives in public, assemble or practice their religion. Interpreted more broadly, language that aimed at stopping any displays of same-sex affection, public or private, direct or indirect, was a prescription for home invasion.
One of the more objectionable clauses in this legislation reads:Any person who is involved in the registration of gay clubs, societies and organizations, sustenance, procession or meetings, publicity and public show of same sex amorous relationship directly or indirectly in public and in private is guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to a term of 5 years imprisonment.
In May, The Atlantic magazine raised new and more troubling concerns about Akinola. In “God’s Country,” the writer Eliza Griswold, daughter of the Rt. Rev. Frank Griswold, former Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, describes a retributive massacre in the Nigerian town of Yelwa carried out in 2004 by a well-organized band of men, wearing clothing and tags that identified them as members of the Christian Association of Nigeria. Akinola was president of CAN during the massacre, which Human Rights Watch reports claimed the lives of approximately 700 Muslims. Dozens of others were kidnapped, raped or maimed...
When asked if those wearing name tags that read “Christian Association of Nigeria” had been sent to the Muslim part of Yelwa, the archbishop grinned. “No comment,” he said. “No Christian would pray for violence, but it would be utterly naive to sweep this issue of Islam under the carpet.” He went on, “I’m not out to combat anybody. I’m only doing what the Holy Spirit tells me to do. I’m living my faith, practicing and preaching that Jesus Christ is the one and only way to God, and they respect me for it. They know where we stand. I’ve said before: let no Muslim think they have the monopoly on violence.”
From the Chronicle of Higher Education:
The chancellor of the University of Colorado at Boulder hopes to raise $9-million to endow a faculty chair for a professor of conservative thought and policy.
According to an article in today’s Wall Street Journal, the chancellor, G.P. (Bud) Peterson, believes the new chair would help create “intellectual diversity” on the campus.
Activists like David Horowitz have been pushing that concept for years, amid complaints that the professoriate is full of liberals. But, in the article, Mr. Horowitz is quoted as saying that creating such an endowed chair might simply establish a place on the campus for a token right-winger. And as Mr. Peterson notes, the professor might not even be a genuine conservative, just a scholar of the movement.
This all seems like an effort to appease the nut-wing religious and idocratic right. And, of course it sounds like that because it is a project of the political right since Goldwater (which certainly gathered greater steam under Reagan).
This is clearly a well organized effort by the administration of University of Colorado to pander directly to those faux “fair and balanced” neoconservatives. The neoconservative movement has made reshaping education a goal. And neocons do not really care for balance. They simply want their side presented as the unvarnished and absolute truth -- true dialogue is not required here. Remember this is the same university that fired Ward Churchill for being so-called too liberal.
The vast majority or academics -- at any institution -- are not extreme flaming liberals nor mean-spirited heartless conservatives. These teachers and researchers are professional people who work hard on their teaching, research and service in a difficult industry that is often misunderstood. Most of these professors are poorly paid and teach out of care for their students. Yes, they have ideas and opinions and yes again they are expressed in the classroom from time to time. In truth most teachers have the integrity to evaluate students fairly regardless of the students’ opinions, ideas, and political ideologies.
Furthermore, few if any of these teachers indoctrinate, and that at best is a small few. Most of these professionals are engaged in a learning experience not a cloning experiment. If people like David Horowitz really spent time with real, regular faculty members at universities and schools across the country, he would see that fact for himself.
But it always easier to accuse without knowing what you are really talking about.
Check out McCain's everything will be great again if you elect me speech. While you are there, take a peek at the video... voiced by someone who is clearly supposed to sound like Obama. Oh McCain's new slogan -- The world will be fine only if you elect Me. Haven't we heard that meaningless rhetoric before? Yup, Chimpy McEmperor GoNuts said the same worthless sloganeering when he first ran for Preznit.
The Douchiest of Douchebags, Robert Novak wants to let the public know that he will continue doing damage to democracy, reporting, and the public's trust in the media. And according to him, we just don't get what he does: He is exposing secrets that need to be exposed. Oh yeah, uh huh...
Way to go 'ol Douchie!
Rising Hegemon