We've Moved!!!
You will be redirected to our new site in 20 seconds. If not click here. Be sure to update your links!
6.04.2008
House Cleaning
I have some house cleaning issues to run through real quick. First, in the next couple days Political Notio will be dormant. We are in the process of moving everything over to The Fold. This is the site Ryan and I purchased a couple months ago and never could decide what to do with it. Finally over last weekend we decided to get something started. Eventually PN will redirect all hits to The Fold. We will leave PN open for reference but will no longer be posting on it.
This site has been up since Dec. of 2004 with some closures in-between. So I have a lot of writing on it. I want to keep it open for reference, for both myself and the readers. This is a way to keep myself honest and also a way to be able to look back.
Hopefully the transition will be smooth but I'm sure there will be kinks to work out. Keep checking back and please give me feedback on the new site.
6.02.2008
When It's Over It's Over
Before I go to bed tonight I just wanted to make a mention about the Democratic Primary. For all intents and purposes this thing is over tomorrow. After March, there was no way Hillary was going to catch Obama, so in a very real sense this thing has been over for a while now. But tomorrow Obama will clinch the magic number needed to claim the nomination and with Florida and Michigan settled, there is nothing left in this primary race. I'm not sure if Hillary will suspend her campaign tomorrow night or sometime next week but really it doesn't matter. The Clinton's, if nothing else, are not dumb people and they know when the end of the road has come. She will bow out on her own and by her own initiative.
As I've mentioned on this site before, I'm all for this going to the convention. That's how nominees have been selected for a majority of this country's history. Having another go to the convention does not signal the end of a political party despite what Fox News may say. What I've never been in favor of is the dream ticket. I'm certainly in no position to know what is going on behind the scenes tonight and maybe into the long night tomorrow but if it does happen to be an Obama-Hillary dream ticket I will support it. Grudgingly so, but I will support my Party.
Whatever Hillary's capacity will be for Barack Obama after tomorrow, her first job will be as uniter. She's created history with her campaign. No she's defied history with her campaign and in some instances slapped history right in the face. There isn't enough that can be said about what she's accomplished. If it is history that she has intricated then only very few humans have ever complexed it as much, or even had the ability to write such a narrative. We all should strive to matter just a tenth of what she has in her life.
Rush Hudson Limbaugh Courthouse
I live about 40 minutes away from Rush Limbaugh's hometown. Yes I'm sure one day the GOP will turn the entire town into a museum of Modern Conservatism, but until then President Bush has ordered the new federal courthouse to be named after the drug addict's grandfather, Rush Hudson Limbaugh, Sr. Grandpa Limbaugh was a practicing attorney in the SEMO region. I'm not sure but I don't think he was ever a prosecutor so why they would name a courthouse after him is beyond me. Had junior Limbaugh finished college instead of dropping out, he too might have been a practicing attorney as well. I just hope they go easy on the drug dealers that appear before the courts. It would be the fair Limbaugh thing to do.
Culture of Corruption Continues, again and again
In other news, another Republican has been charged in relation to the Jack Abramoff scandal.
Most Painful
Michael Pfleger says the days following his horrid comments at Barack Obama's church have been the "most painful" of his life. Good.
I don't know Pfleger and I know pretty much nothing about Catholicism, but how in the world can this guy not get into trouble by the clergy? Also, how can Trinity expect to keep its tax exempt status when they blatantly allow political sermons almost routinely?
It's hard to feel sorry for Pfleger; in fact I don't. How stupid must a person be to go to Trinity, the most controversial church in America currently, and say such things. Maybe he was caught up in the moment or maybe he was really speaking what he thinks to be true. Nevertheless he said it. He's stupid. And whatever backlash that comes from his comments, including anything directed at Sen. Obama, is probably fair game.
Catholic League Hits Back at Obama
The Catholic League (a joke in its own right) hits back at Obama for having a twenty year relationship with Catholic minister Michael Pfleger
Catholic League President Bill Donohue:
“Senator Obama says he wants to bring people together. Then why does he choose as his clerical friends people like Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Father Pfleger?" Donohue also said. "They are two peas in a pod, both equally divisive, separated only by the color of their skin.”Let me just forget for a second that Bill Donohue and his organization is a joke. Once I get past that, what he says is very true. How possibly can Obama say he wants to unite people when he associates with such divisive people as Wright and now Pfleger? Like I said a few months ago. The last thing a black man with the name Barack Hussein Obama needed was a crazy preacher. Now add a crazy priest to it.
6.01.2008
Obama Finally Quits Trinity
Citing headaches membership to the church has caused, Obama finally severs ties to Trinity. This comes about 5 years too late in my book.
I will say one thing the Trinity Christian Church has done is it's gotten the GOP to quit calling him a Muslim. So I suppose since he's no longer a member of Trinity the right wing will go back to their Muslim meme.
5.30.2008
Inexcusable
There are some things that are just inexcusable. This is one of them.
I've been to Trinity. I never felt out of place or unwelcome. Didn't hear a controversial sermon and never heard a cuss word. But I have heard for at least five years now how crazy that church is; how crazy the preachers are and how crazy the congregation can get. Growing up pentecostal, I suppose Trinity was tame to me.
Sure John McCain has his preacher troubles with Hagee and Parsley. But McCain has denounced both endorsements and as far as I know doesn't attend either church. This is a serious problem for Obama. One that could have been avoided years ago. All the silly gaffes of McCain misspeaking is nothing compared to this.
In all honesty, I don't know how a church can continue having political sermons and also continue to keep its tax exempt status. Though Hagee and Parsley both preach politics weekly as well, Obama's church is under a much greater microscope at the moment.
There's just no excuse Barack Obama. None whatsoever.
Newt the Stupid
Newt Gingrich, yes the same Newt Gingrich the right wing loves, says it would have been politically beneficial for the Bush administration to have allowed another terrorist attack on U.S. soil.
"This is ... one of the great tragedies of the Bush administration," Gingrich continued. "The more successful they've been at intercepting and stopping bad guys, the less proof there is that we're in danger. And therefore, the better they've done at making sure there isn't an attack, the easier it is to say, 'Well, there never was going to be an attack anyway.' And it's almost like they should every once in a while have allowed an attack to get through just to remind us."Yes that's right. Allowing another terrorist attack would have reminded us just how dangerous the islamofacsistliberal terrorists are.
Newt advocates more terrorist attacks because of how politically effective they can be and barely a mention in our media establishment. Should I remind everyone that Newt isn't just a former wacko congressman, he's a former Speaker of the House. He's also the same guy who was pushing for a Clinton impeachment while he was off having his own affair. And now here he is advocating more terrorist attacks just to prove a point. I can't believe any media would give this guy air time. Not only is he given air time to spout his hate, he's presented as a super serious America loving patriot. He's the guy that brought us "The Revolution." Yes, the same revolution that has us in the terrible mess we are in today. In the GOP Fantasy World, 1994 was a REVOLUTION and everything today is perfectly fine if the liberal press would just leave everything alone.
5.29.2008
The Hits Just Keep On Coming (Update)
"Disgruntled," "total crap," "upset," "traitor," "turncoat," "Hamas apologist" are just some of the words the right wing is flinging at Scott McClellan. Yesterday morning before the day even started, I thought about writing a quick post about some of the things the right wing would do to try and discredit McClellan. Unleashing Fox News and Rush Limbaugh is the most obvious. Calling him a traitor and terrorist sympathizer is like predicting the Pope to be a Catholic. The right wing bra
nd of attacking any one, even a Bush loyalist, because they don't walk the party line at all times is one of the easiest political scenarios to ever predict. I could have in a just a couple minutes time written out every tactic the right would use to attack Scottie. It would have been the easiest thing I've done in two years. But like Seth Leibsohn says, it would have been me stating the obvious. And when something's obvious why write it down?
This is how the right wing behaves. For 8 years this all we have ever seen from Bush and his cronies. Any deviation from the party line is seen as treason, as enemy action. Anyone who dares speak out against their government, or albeit, against our Grand Anointed Leader is a terrorist sympathizing traitor.
This is also how the right wing governs. There is no more cohesive a time for the GOP as when they are attacking someone for speaking out against their incompetency. It's all blatantly obvious that Bush is the least popular president in modern history. There is no denying that. The right wing is more interested in personal attacks than any sort of governing policy for this country. With 8 months left to a two term presidency, we have still yet to have an established foreign policy, any sort of energy policy whatsoever, and not one single domestic policy for this country. They are not interested in governing. What they do best, and really all they do, is run hate filled attack machines against anyone who may question why in the world we are still waiting on the president to do his job.
Throughout this entire election cycle we've seen the GOP fight amongst itself for a nominee. John McCain is hardly the person they settled on but more the person they were given. Limbaugh has called McCain the worst thing to happen to the GOP. Malkin is refusing to support him. Ron Paul still pulls 10% of the vote. And right wingers everywhere are dissatisfied with McCain. But when someone speaks out against Leader Bush and his incompetency the machine comes together quicker than Larry Craig running to the bathroom. This is when the right wing is at their best. It's like a fusion bond that pulls the right wing together. This is how it's been for 8 years. And there's no reason to believe that it will simply change by electing McCain.
*Update:
Here's what a 2004 Bush-Cheney campaign director has to say about Scottie:
"Feeling for Scott McLellan. Nice getting savaged for saying what everyone knows to be true anyway."
Seriously, that sums up entirely all the right wing has to say. It's not that what Scottie says in his book isn't true, it's just the fact that he said it. In the GOP you aren't allowed to speak your mind. You aren't allowed to dissent against our Grand Leader. Their imposition that everyone in the world just blindly follow everything they say is expected at all times. And for almost 8 years the entire world has been subject to the brown shirts in the GOP. Finally, finally, their right wing tactics aren't working anymore. What still amazes me, though, is the right wing's support of a president with the lowest approval ratings in modern history.
h/t Matt Stoller
5.28.2008
Watch Out for Scottie (update)
I'm not sure I've felt sorrier for anyone in the Bush administration more than what I did for Scott McClellan. During the McClellan days I was a frequenter in DC. So I found myself watching almost daily the president's press briefings. Those are some of my fondest memories of politics. It was a time when everyone knew there was total chaos in the Bush administration but you couldn't get anyone to admit it. It was excruciating to watch McClellan stumble through those gaggles. It was almost as if he didn't know anything about anything whatsoever. And this went on for almost three years.
I'm sure by now everyone has read or at least heard about McClellan's new book “What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception." If you haven't here's a link. All you have to do is read the title to know that it's not going to be very flattering to Bush & Co. McClellan covers everything from the invasion of Iraq to Hurricane Katrina to the Plame leak to being lied to by the administration to the use of propaganda to sell a war to the American public.
As expected the Bush administration isn't going to comment just yet. But Karl Rove already has and just as expected he wants to divide the political culture a little bit more by saying the book reads like a left wing blog instead of by a former colleague. As with everything Bush, if you aren't with us, you're against us. You're either staying the course or a left wing blogger. This sort of Karl Rove mentality to politics is so old. It's really proven nothing but disaster for the GOP and especially for Bush.
The right wing isn't going to like this book and they'll say McClellan is motivated by money and that he's now become part of the "liberal press." Or that he's just wanting some attention and has a vendetta since he was canned by Bush. Sorry excuses for a very sorry group of people.
*Update:
Like clockwork the right wing is predictably jumping all over Scott McClellan today. Fox News, with the help of it's Republican lineup, is leaving on its front web page Rove's response to McClellan's new book where he calls McClellan a liberal blogger. Also, I just heard über patriot Sean Hannity, who is also a Fox News host, on his radio show say that McClellan is no doubt taking the "liberal" line with his book. And the super serious The Corner is having a heyday with McClellan even questioning his "conservativeness" because he supposedly enjoyed a college course taught by Sara Weddington. Geez, my favorite college course was taught by a neocon. Does that make me any less of a Democrat?
The biggest thing I'm seeing from the right wing is their questioning of McClellan's duty to the country if what he says in the book is true. If McClellan had objections to Bush's policy why didn't he raise them when he was their spokesman, so the right's argument goes. Here's Seth Leibsohn, also from The Corner doing his best to discredit McClellan based on his "duty":
And I'll just leave you with this — having not read the book and having no plans to do so: don't you think that when someone has an objection to what is being done, they owe it to the public and as a mark of duty to do something about it or say something about it at the time, rather than wait two years and save it for a book? Does that in and of itself not cut down some of the credibility.Seth's whole post is rather odd indeed. In it he asks a very fundamental question that seems to be rather rhetorical and painfully obvious.
The first thing to ask about these kinds of books is "does it help history, does it shed light, does it add to the sum total of knowledge about a topic history or contemporary analysis can use to shed light on an administration?" OR, rather, "is this a self-aggrandizing after-the-fact justification to bolster one's own reputation and credibility?" especially after having done such a poor job in the first place.Interesting. So a book from Bush's former press secretary that states the Bush administration used propaganda to sell a needless war to the American people, was entirely involved in the Plame leak cover up, and poorly mismanaged if not entirely neglected its duty during the worst natural disaster to ever hit this country, doesn't shed any new light on the history of the Bush presidency? Seth mostly concludes it doesn't shed any new light because we all already knew it. In other words, we don't need a book telling us what we already know. But for writing the first behind the scenes book from the Bush inner-circle, Scottie is following a liberal line, disavowing his duty to his country and only doing it for vengeance and money. Don't state the obvious appears to be what the right is saying. This makes the phrase reality has a liberal bias all the more understandable.
I think we'll probably find this book is mostly of the latter category.
Editor's Note: in the original title Scottie was spelled as Scotty. I realized it was an error and corrected it.
**Update:
Just for the record, Scott McClellan is a tool. Always has been a tool and always will be. His book that he somehow wants us to believe is all in hindsight is just a part of his tooldom.
Some Clarification
After an email I received from a very concerned and very serious GOPer, I will concede and admit that I do not think the GOP is in self destruct mode. I do think, however, that the GOP is in a state of change with its members realizing the transition won't be easy. This does not mean I personally believe the GOP to be in disarray. I just find it extremely hysterical that every chance a Republican gets and the media as well they want to paint the Dems as being divided and in a constant state of crumble. I think the same attention/scrutiny should be applied to the GOP in that regard. I hope this clears up any confusion my last three weeks of GOP bashing may have caused.
5.27.2008
Begging and Pleading
Disgraced former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, pleads with Republicans to change in order to avoid a complete disaster in November.
We've been seeing this a lot lately: Republicans begging for Party change. We have The Next Right where Patrick Ruffini & Co. are promising to progress move the Republican Party into the 21st century. We also have Dr. Hanson's list posted on National Review describing what the GOP needs to do to progress change. And here we have the former Republican Speaker begging for his Party to do something.
I'm sure I'm not linking to every list or plea for help that's out there, but these are some very serious people, GOP operatives/talking heads, kicking and screaming for a change in the Party. And they are all sounding the same drum: November is looking very bleak; here's what we can do to minimize the damage as much as possible.
So what are Gingrich's ideas to make the GOP more voter friendly? Among others is to make a space based GPS air traffic control system! Yes, that's what we've all been demanding. And don't forget how important it is during a time of war to make English the official language of the country. Speaking of war, there's nothing in Gingrich's list about war, Iraq, Iran or 9/11. I just don't think it's possible for the GOP to sugar coat, or in Gingrich's case completely leave out, the most incompetent foreign policy excursion since Vietnam. If the GOP really wants to change, they would get rid of idiots like Gingrich.
Sharpest Driving Decline Ever
DOT says Americans drove 4.3 percent less in March 2008 than they did the previous March.
Ever heard of voting with your pocket book? Or wait, is this the same thing as voting with your feet?
5.26.2008
5.24.2008
The Burden of Bush
Wow! Poor ticket sales to a Bush-McCain fund raiser force the event to a smaller more private venue.
Compare this to our last two term president who is openly campaigning and raising record amounts of money for his wife. McCain has more than just a preacher problem. He has a Bush problem. How can John McCain not sale out an event in his own state with his own party's president? Yes, it's the Dems that are falling apart though.
5.23.2008
McCain's Preachers Problems
I grew up in a home that had John Hagee on television every day. The TV never really left TBN very much at all. That's just how it was. To this day I will find myself stopping on a Hagee sermon or a Benny Hinn heal-a-thon just because I grew up around that stuff. But even growing up I always questioned a lot of what the televangelists said and did. When I was old enough to make decisions on my own about church and religion, I never fully subscribe to everything I heard in church or on TBN. So it comes as no surprise to me when I see stuff like Hagee saying that Hitler was ordained with God's will for the Holocaust.
That's what Hagee and Rod Parsley do. They use whatever they can to build a following and to keep a following. Mostly with scare tactics and mostly with morals and values but always with what they interpret as The Bible. It was good to finally see a Republican presidential candidate reject Hagee and Parsley's hate speech. I've been waiting on the GOP to break with the wacko Christian Right for a long time now. I think McCain's sudden departure is a good thing for the future of the GOP. However, McCain's latest slap in the face to so-called conservatives does equate into lost votes. But for the future, which obviously I'm not intending to be this election, this is a bold move for McCain and the GOP.
I do think it's time for McCain to give a speech about his relationship with Hagee, or at least answer some questions as to why he sought his endorsement in the first place and how does he explain all the great things he has said about Hagee over the years.
5.21.2008
Traveling Again
Long time readers will know that I used to shut my blog down during the summer. Summer is my travel, leisure time and I tend not to care about politics. Usually just baseball and the upcoming college basketball season. Or in the past, I spent my summers working on political campaigns and had absolutely no time for anything other than work. I'm not going to be on a campaign this summer but I will be traveling to wherever my heart desires. But I will try my hardest to keep the site up and not close it like I did last summer and the summer before that.
With that said, I am on my way to Chicago (I hate Chicago) and from there I'm going to Iowa. I won't return to Southern Illinois until Monday, I think. I'm bringing my laptop so I will do everything I can to keep posting. And I'm sure I'll continue to read my favorite blogs along the way.
5.20.2008
Just Giving It To Us Straight
We all know that John McCain is a serious straight talking maverick. And when he says something he means it, right? So when he says sooner or later we are going to have to deal with Hamas, the government of Palestine, in order to create peace in the region, what he's saying is that he means everything but TALKING with Hamas.
"Dealing with" must mean waging war because it's totally unpatriotic and appeasement that he would have meant TALKING with the Palestinian government. After all, had he meant TALKING he would have said it. It's a good thing McCain isn't suggesting appeasing terrorists.
Likewise, McCain's support of going to Syria, a country that has been known to harbor terrorists and supply the Iraqi insurgency-- or in other words a country responsible for killing Americans,-- and looking them straight in the eye and telling them to clean up their act, seems just as clearcut to me as well. When McCain says that it's right to go to Syria for the stare down, he obviously is saying that we should wage glorious war on them. I just wish other people would understand the vast differences between what Barack Obama is saying and what John McCain has been straight talking to us.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
