Year: 2009

G.O.P. to Michael Steele: Shut up boy and do your job or we will find someone that will!

Looks like the Republican Party just handed the Democratic Party a huge gift:

Apology to Rush Limbaugh aside, new Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele is coming under fire from his own GOP troops to shut up and focus on his job of organizing the party and raising money, not fighting with his own political kind. Several Republican advisers to Congress and the previous Bush administration told Whispers that they are worried that the war of words is fracturing the party when it should be healing the division between conservatives and moderates in the wake of the 2008 election.

[….]

Others want Steele to re-evaluate his role in the party. Of concern: For no reason, he is dividing the GOP between conservatives who like Limbaugh and moderates who don’t and jeopardizing future fundraising efforts, his key responsibility. “The general sentiment of the conference is that Steele needs to step back and get a handle on his role in the party,” says an influential congressional aide. Namely, advisers want him to stay out of the media and focus instead on hiring his staff and revamping the RNC. “He needs to hire staff for the RNC, get the operations up and running, start raising money, and understand that his role is to win elections,” says a senior party adviser. Officials are concerned that Steele either doesn’t understand his responsibilities or has an inflated vision of his role. “At this point, it is as if he has a fundamental misunderstanding of the job description. An RNC chairman who attacks Republicans and insults conservative icons is about as counterproductive as any Democrat could hope for,” says the adviser.

via GOP to Michael Steele: Quiet About Rush Limbaugh or You’re Fired – Washington Whispers (usnews.com).

I hate to be the one to say it. But the Republican Party is well-within its right to do this. Michael Steele was elected by the Republican Party to run the party, not be some talking head for that Party.  Big Difference.

Not to mention the fact that going on a liberal news network and bashing Rush Limbaugh is not a good way to endear one’s self to the Republican Base.

I personally think that the blood is in the proverbial water and steel will resign within the week. I hope that I am wrong about that, but honestly? It just does not look good for the guy.

If you came looking for Michelle Malkin criticism posting

I yanked it and I will explain why.

  • First off, I was under the impression that Obama was supposed to fly and meet Gordon Brown.
  • Second of all, once I saw that that Gordon Brown was here. I assumed he had came here last night. I was wrong.

So, I killed my posting.

What Malkin’s posting was, is a Neo-Conservative spinning of a sitution that basically boiled down to this… Obama wanted to have a meeting with Gordon Brown and not the Photo-op, that the British and American media wanted.

So, while my suspicions of the Neo-Cons, like Malkin, might be justified; I was simply unaware of all the facts surrounding the the whole thing. I did some research and figured out that I was off on my facts a bit. My Apologies.

Hey, at least I am man enough to admit it, that I made a mistake. More than I can say for the Neo-Conservatives and the Republican Party for the last 8 years. 😛 🙄 😉

David Brooks says "Ooopsie! I was wrong about Bambi!"

I must confess, I find this to quite laughter provoking….:

Those of us who consider ourselves moderates — moderate-conservative, in my case — are forced to confront the reality that Barack Obama is not who we thought he was. His words are responsible; his character is inspiring. But his actions betray a transformational liberalism that should put every centrist on notice. As Clive Crook, an Obama admirer, wrote in The Financial Times, the Obama budget “contains no trace of compromise. It makes no gesture, however small, however costless to its larger agenda, of a bipartisan approach to the great questions it addresses. It is a liberal’s dream of a new New Deal.”

Moderates now find themselves betwixt and between. On the left, there is a president who appears to be, as Crook says, “a conviction politician, a bold progressive liberal.” On the right, there are the Rush Limbaugh brigades. The only thing more scary than Obama’s experiment is the thought that it might fail and the political power will swing over to a Republican Party that is currently unfit to wield it.

via Op-Ed Columnist, David Brooks – A Moderate Manifesto – NYTimes.com.

The smart mouthed punk part of me says, “Well then David… Why the fuck did you meet with that Communist shill for dinner then?!?!?”

However, I do try and conduct myself with a bit more decorum. (Well, I think so anyhow! 😉 :P)

The painful fact is that the Moderate Conservatives like Brooks and some Libertarians voted for the guy, because they were drawn into his slick style and smooth delivery of a speech.  I can cheerfully say, that I was not one of those people. I knew what Obama was about from day one. He was a Liberal. Any journalist or blogger who was not trying to swoon or slobber all over themselves about Obama could see this.

The facts are this; Obama tried to work with Conservatives, and tried the bipartisanship approach and it did not work. So, President Obama is going to further his agenda and quite frankly does not care what the Republican Party nor the Republicans and Conservatives who are in or out of power in D.C. think about it.

Is this wrong, evil, immoral, or fattening? Not necessarily.  Obama won the election. The Republican Party lost. Happens like that, when your past leader of eight years abandons his campaign promises and so forth.

The facts are that the Moderates got played, and played hard. Now they’re crying, “We were deceived!” Way I see it, that deception is a two way process. Takes actions on your part. Obama did not come by with a wand and go “Pwaaaang!” and put the Moderates under a spell and force them to vote for him. It took them to look at him and his record, and then they listened to his speeches, and decided to ignore his political record and voted for him.  I have zero pity for them, at all.

There’s ton of reaction to this on both sides of the political asle, and here it is: The Hill’s Blog Briefing Room, Donklephant, The Strata-Sphere, NO QUARTER, Right Wing News, The Other McCain, Grasping Reality …, Cold Fury, Crooked Timber, Commentary, NewsBusters.org, The Moderate Voice,  Matthew Yglesias, HotAir, Balloon Juice

The Southern Avenger on "Rush's Style Over Substance"

Jack Hunter, also known as The Southern Avenger addresses Rush Limbaugh‘s style over his and the G.O.P’s ever increasing lack of substance.

I will simply add this, there is no denying that the G.O.P. is desperate need of a image and leadership making over. I am afraid, however, that the people that are attempting to make that image over are continuing on with more of the same. Just a different color of paint. (If you catch my drift…)

Obama’s Justice Dept. Releases Bush’s Justice Dept Secret Memos

One must remember that these memo’s were drawn right after the attacks of September 11’th 2001. They were, for all intents and purposes rejected by the Bush Administration. However it does give a glimpse into the minds of those in charge of the country, in the days after September 11.

Via the AP:

The Obama administration threw open the curtain on years of Bush-era secrets Monday, revealing anti-terror memos that claimed exceptional search-and-seizure powers and divulging that the CIA destroyed nearly 100 videotapes of interrogations and other treatment of terror suspects.

The Justice Department released nine legal opinions showing that, following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the Bush administration determined that certain constitutional rights would not apply during the coming fight. Within two weeks, government lawyers were already discussing ways to wiretap U.S. conversations without warrants.

The Bush administration eventually abandoned many of the legal conclusions, but the documents themselves had been closely held. By releasing them, President Barack Obama continued a house-cleaning of the previous administration’s most contentious policies.

"Too often over the past decade, the fight against terrorism has been viewed as a zero-sum battle with our civil liberties," Attorney General Eric Holder said in a speech a few hours before the documents were released. "Not only is that school of thought misguided, I fear that in actuality it does more harm than good."

The Obama administration also acknowledged in court documents Monday that the CIA destroyed 92 videos involving terror suspects, including interrogations — far more than had been known. Congressional Democrats and other critics have charged that some of the harsh interrogation techniques amounted to torture, a contention President George W. Bush and other Bush officials rejected.

Related segment on MSNBC, on Keith Olbermann’s Countdown:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Here are all of the said documents from the Justice Dept:
 

It must be emphasized that these opinions were rejected by the Bush Administration and never used, however, it does gives insight into the mindset of the previous Presidential Administration and Justice Department under the Bush Administration after the 9/11 attacks.

It has been already speculated that there could be prosecutions brought on, because of this document dump, and there are lawsuits pertaining to the destruction of tapes by the CIA, in regards to torture. 

I personally believe that this is just the tip of the iceberg of stunning revelations to come, about the conduction and secrets hidden by the former administration.

It will be an interesting story to follow indeed.

Others: Alan Colmes’ Liberaland, Reuters,  D-Day, Crooks and Liars, Washington Monthly, CBS News, ACLU, Prairie Weather and Think Progress