Tag: conservative

Keith Olbermann’s Special Comment on FISA and Senator Obama

Transcript: (via The News Hole)

Finally, as promised, a Special Comment on FISA and the Junior Senator from Illinois.

The Democratic leadership in the Senate, Republican knuckle-dragging in the same chamber, and the mediocre skills of whoever wrote the final version of the FISA bill, have combined to give Senator Barack Obama… a second chance to make a first impression.

And he damned well better take it.

The Senate vote on this tortured and reckless piece of legislation has now been postponed until after the 4th of July break.

The Democrats, completing their FISA experience (a collective impression of Homer Simpson falling off a cliff and hitting every bramble on the way down), didn’t exactly plan this fortuitous delay.

Last week, the vote on their cave-in was imminent.

But, while arguing over a piece of housing legislation, about how many mortgage lenders can dance on the head of a pin, Republicans dithered so long about protecting their constituents — the banks — that the Senate calendar got backed up.

This, in turn, gave Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid some time to think.

There was one among his group, chosen to run for President, who had loudly assailed the idea of handing a get-out-of-jail-free card to corporations who had approached definitional fascism by breaking the law in concert with the Bush Administration.

But this Senator had suddenly realized, that to the large group of voters who operate with an information base that would make Cliffs Notes look like the Encyclopedia, if, in the final vote, he stood against FISA, he would hand them a rock with which they could hit him over the head, a rock wrapped up in a piece of paper reading:

"Obama voted uh-uh… thing terror stop."

Thus, Senator Obama, was born your first second chance.

Senator Reid was kind enough to help you out by composing an amendment that would keep FISA, which you rightly endorse, but strips out the telecom immunity, which you rightly oppose.

It’s a protest, a decidedly lame one, but in our daily world of political transactions, voting for the amendment when it has no chance of passing and has been in essence constructed as pure Obama C-Y-A, that is a petty crime.

Whether it will do more to harm your premise of "new politics" than to your credibility as an immunity-opponent, is for you, Senator, to assess.

And live with.

It would be sweet to have a pure, politics-free president, but the last of those retired from office in 1797.

And while we’ve all quoted the farewell address of "The Father Of Our Nation" for 211 years now, nobody seems to want to remember that its point was to urge his children that: whatever you do, for God’s sake, don’t form political parties, some day they will kill you.

Anyway, Senator, your problem here isn’t the backlash about telecom immunity, and it isn’t really about your political fluidity on the FISA bill.

Your problem is what happens even if this plays out according to plan next week:

1) You vote for the anti-immunity amendment.

2) The anti-immunity amendment fails.

3) You vote for the FISA legislation.

And 4) The FISA legislation passes.

Oh, and, 5) Senator:

The Republicans still run against you with the ‘elections-for-dummies ‘message: "Obama voted uh-uh… thing terror-stop."

Because, inside the obscenity that was Charlie Black’s comment about how a terrorist attack in this country would be good — good for his boy McCain’s chances for election…

Inside the inhuman calculation that Benazhir Bhutto did not die in vain, she helped McCain in the New Hampshire primary.

There is a sad and cynical reality.

The Republicans can scare some of the people all of the time, and they can scare all of the people some of the time.

This is all they are right now.

Nobody ever said it better than did Aaron Sorkin in his script for the movie "The American President":

"Whatever your particular problem is, friend, I promise you, Bob Rumson (and for Bob Rumson, reed "John McCain") is not the least bit interested in solving it. He is interested in two things and two things only: Making you afraid of it, and telling you who’s to blame for it."

Republicans, with almost no exceptions, have no true credibility on counter-terrorism, no track record of prevention or amelioration, and their president can’t even remember the name of the skyscraper he claims to have saved in Los Angeles.

And yet, somehow, the Republicans have managed to convince the public that it doesn’t matter that Mr. Bush had already completed 22 percent of his first term, when he, his administration, and his party, failed so catastrophically on 9/11.

The President and party who were at fault, were magically transformed into the president and party who would never let it happen again.

An unjust… repellant… nefarious, trick.

But, politically, rather a neat trick.

Senator, the Republicans are going to paint you as soft on terror no matter how you vote on FISA.

Or how you vote on the Telecom Immunity Amendment.

Or on the next farm bill.

Last week it was Grover Norquist calling you "John Kerry with a tan."

By November 1st, it’ll be Dick Cheney calling you "Osama Bin Laden with a tan."

When you announced your support of this latest FISA bill (with or without the telecom immunity), the Republicans raced to get out a press release accusing you of flip-flopping.

You shared the exact same position, on which they are running their entire campaign and they criticized you anyway!

So, Senator, from their point of view, they think they’ve got you boxed in.

Vote for FISA and you’ve contradicted yourself.

Vote against FISA and it’s "Obama voted uh-uh… thing terror-stop."

Vote for FISA and against immunity, and it’s: political expediency, and Democrats soft on terror, and "Obama voted uh-uh… thing terror-stop."

This is a problem, Senator.

Because, flatly, of all the measures that can be taken to aid our damaged nation, and our de-valued constitution, the first, if not the foremost, is not blocking telecom immunity, but making sure no Republican is in the White House past noon next January 20th.

Of all the remedial efforts against the Bush Administration’s high crimes and misdemeanors, and of all the prophylactic steps against further inroads against the freedoms of the citizens of this nation and the rights of everyone else, the primary step must still come to us through the prism of politics.

Would that it were otherwise. But it ain’t.

Frankly, Senator, this political tight-rope act you’ve tried on FISA the last two weeks, which from the outside seems to have been intended to increase the chances of your election, probably hasn’t helped in the slightest.

There is, fortunately, a possible, a most unexpected, solution.

Your second second chance.

Since the final version of the FISA bill was passed down from on high, John Dean has been reading it, and re-reading it, and cross-referencing it with other relevant law, and thinking.

Something bothered him about it.

Or, more correctly, something didn’t bother him about it.

Turns out lawyers at the ACLU have been doing the same thing for the last ten days.

John compared notes with them, and will be devoting his column at "Find Law" this week, to this unlikely conclusion:

< p>The Republicans who wrote most of this bill at Mr. Bush’s urging, managed to immunize the telecoms from civil suits.

But not from criminal prosecution.

Senator, here is John Dean’s summary of his findings, which he sent me this morning.

"It is clear not only from the language of the bill (which must be read in the context of other, related statutes to be clearly understood),

but also from the legislative history, that there is absolutely no criminal immunity for anyone in these FISA amendments."

More over, Senator, it seems as if a lot of people have known this, for a long time.

"During the January 24th, 2008 debate in the Senate, Senator Brownback noted, "The immunity provisions would not apply to the Government or Government officials. Cases against the Government regarding the alleged programs would continue.  And the provisions would apply only to civil and not criminal cases."

In fact, Senator, just last week, Attorney General Mukasey and Director of National Intelligence McConnell sent a letter, for the record, to House Speaker Pelosi emphasizing that the liability protection, quote, "does not immunize any criminal conduct."

And if you ask, Senator, about the President responding to all this by belching out a series of pardons or a blanket pardon to those who broke the law on his behalf, Dean has you covered here, too…

It… "would require acceptance by them of the fact that they had broken the law, and thus be an admission of guilt.

"And a blanket pardon would be an admission by Bush that his war on terror has been a lawless undertaking, operating beyond the bounds of the Constitution and statutes that check the powers of the president and the executive branch.

"It would be an admission by Bush, too, of his own criminal culpability (which is why Nixon refused to grant his aides a pardon.)

Senator — sometimes it is better to be lucky, than good.

Keep your eye on the wording of the legislation to make sure the Republicans don’t realize its flaws.

Then vote for the amendment to strip telecom immunity out of the FISA bill.

Then after that fails, vote for the FISA bill, if that’s your final answer.

Then the minute the president has signed the FISA bill, you announce that you voted for it because it renews FISA — and because it permits a bigger prize than just civil suits, that it allows for criminal prosecution of past illegal eavesdropping.

Say, loudly, that your understanding of this bill is such, that if you are elected, your Attorney General will begin a full-scale criminal investigation of the Telecom Companies who collaborated with President Bush in eavesdropping on Americans.

And mention — oh by the way — that your Attorney General will subpoena such records, notes, e-mail, data, and testimony, from any and all Bush Administration officials, FBI or CIA personnel, or any members of the Executive Branch, who may have as much as breathed in the general direction of these nefarious acts of domestic spying at Mr. Bush’s behest.

Wait — you say there’s a political hit waiting for you there too?

Another "Obama voted uh-uh… thing terror-stop."

Actually, Senator, you’ve already gone down this road, when you spoke to my colleague, Will Bunch, of the Philadelphia Daily News, on April 14th of this year.

He asked about the possibility of criminal investigations of the 43rd President and his henchmen.

"What I would want to do," you told him, "is have my Justice Department and my Attorney General immediately review the information that’s already there and to find out, are there inquiries that need to be pursued.

I can’t prejudge that, because we don’t have access to all the material right now."

"You’re also right that I would not want my first term consumed by what was perceived on the part of Republicans as a partisan witch hunt,

because I think we’ve got too many problems we’ve got to solve."

"Now, if I found out that there were high officials who knowingly, consciously broke existing laws, engaged in cover-ups of those crimes with knowledge forefront,  then I think a basic principle of our Constitution is: nobody above the law. And I think that’s roughly how I would look at it."

Make this clear, Senator.

You’ve already taken the political hit from the Right, for saying you’d seek to strip out, or rescind immunity.

You’ve already taken the political hit from the Left, for saying you’d vote for the FISA bill even with the immunity.

You’ve paid the political price in advance.

Now buy yourself — and those who have most ardently supported you — something worth more than just class action suits against Verizon.

Explain that you are standing aside on civil immunity, not just for political expediency, but for a greater and more tangible good — the holding to account, of the most-corrupt, the most dangerous, and the most anti-democracy presidential administration in our long history.

Of course, if you disagree with this interpretation — if you think the FISA bill doesn’t have the giant loophole, or if you don’t think you, as president, would be ready to support criminal prosecution of… well, criminals — then your duty is clear.

Vote against the FISA bill, if it still carries that immunity.

The Republicans are going to call you the names any which way, Senator.

They’re going to cry regardless, Senator.

And as the old line goes: give them something to cry about.

Good night, and good luck.

WALL-E runs afoul of the…….Republicans?

HUH?

I know, that’s what I thought too.

However, it does seem that some Conservatives are not too pleased with the Movie.

The American Conservative Reports:

Over the past weekend I had the pleasure of seeing Disney-Pixar’s new animated movie “WALL-E.” Set in the apocalyptic-lite 28th century, WALL-E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class) is a small robot left behind on an abandoned planet Earth, which you discover through a set of video clips has been evacuated due to heavy pollution, brought on by mass consumerism and exploitative big business. His chance encounter with EVE (Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator) is the catalyst for a surprisingly poignant love story that becomes the center of the movie’s plot. Without delving too much into my own personal opinions on the film–this post is not meant to be a review–I thought it was visually stunning, powerful, and deeply touching, and by my estimation the first Disney movie that is more meaningful and enjoyable for adults than for children.

The film has been received warmly by an overwhelming majority of critics, but some on the right are upset about some of the movie’s themes.

Okay, call me a Pseudo Liberal, call me a someone who does not take Politics seriously enough, call whatever you want to call me. But something about this just does not make sense. WALL-E is a cartoon for kids. I thought it was cool how WALL-E would say, “Whoa!” when something would happen to him. I have a buddy, named Matt Gacht, who always says, “Whoa!”, in fact, he used to say it quite a bit.

Anyhow, When I go into a Movie theater to watch a cartoon movie like this, I do not go into this theater, looking for political messages, and those who, do, I’m sorry to say it, and I don’t mean this disrespectfully, but they’re taking their jobs too darn seriously and they are taking their political jobs home with them. Sorry, but I am just not one of those people that believes that every television show or Movie is loaded down with Liberal Propaganda. I leave that sort of Idiotic mentality for the people who follow Alex Jones around frothing at the mouth, looking for the monsters behind the next door.

Anyhow, let’s cut WALL-E a break, eh?

Others, who seems to take life a wee bit to seriously: The Opinionator and The Corner

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A heart warming story and thoughts…

Check this one out, at Fox News:

Quote:

When Capt. Ivan Castro joined the Army, he set goals: to jump out of planes, kick in doors and lead soldiers into combat. He achieved them all. Then the mortar round landed five feet away, blasting away his sight.

“Once you’re blind, you have to set new goals,” Castro said.

He set them higher.

Not content with just staying in the Army, he is the only blind officer serving in the Special Forces — the small, elite units famed for dropping behind enemy lines on combat missions.

As executive officer of the 7th Special Forces Group’s headquarters company in Fort Bragg, Castro’s duties don’t directly involve combat, though they do have him taking part in just about everything that leads up to it.

“I am going to push the limits,” the 40-year-old said. “I don’t want to go to Fort Bragg and show up and sit in an office. I want to work every day and have a mission.”

You know, I hate to make this into a political cheap shot post. However, because I am a Political Blogger, and because it just pisses me off to no end that the idiot commie liberals, like John Aravosis who take it upon themselves to insult and degrade our United States Military officers on a regular basis. People like Keith Olbermann, who while some of his commentaries make good sense, especially those that pertain to George W. Bush, like to lash out in anger and tell those, who work in the pentagon, to ‘Go to Hell” for following orders by the President of the United States. Who is, in case people like Keith have forgotten, IS the commander and chief of our Military, right or wrong, he is still the boss, until his term is up.

I have to wonder aloud, which, if any of these outspoken critics of the war and of Bush, would be willing to strap on a Uniform and serve in our United States Military. I would be willing to be the fortunes of the galaxies abroad, that not one of these people would give their lives for this country. However, they can sit behind a desk, read a teleprompter, and criticize those who CHOOSE to serve their country.

I realize that I have quite a few new visitors to this Blog, and being that is the case, I will repeat something here, that I have been saying, since this Blog first came online. While I am a critic of the President of a myriad of issues, the idea that some blowhard Liberal Blogger or Liberal TV Host can use a medium, such as Television, to smear and slander someone like John McCain, is just very inexcusable. Yes Keith, I am talking about you. You will make sport of John McCain, a man, who has done more to serve his country than you will ever hope to do in a lifetime. John McCain, who spent six long years being tortured by the country of Vietnam, all because he disagrees with your very warped idea, that we can somehow just pacify these terrorists and that somehow or another, we can just wish our threats to national security away. Yet, on an issue like FISA, you will give Barack Obama a free pass and not chastise him with same fire and indignation that you did Hillary for making a stupid reference to Bobby Kennedy.

That is correct my friends, while I might agree with Keith, that the President of the United States has made some serious blunders as President, some that might continue to hurt this country for many years to come. I will never agree with Keith Olbermann’s idea that McCain is open season. John McCain is a Republican, a war hero and at best, he should respectfully disagree with him, but the only thing Keith Olbermann can do is make McCain look like some sort of a stooge. For that, his employment should be terminated.

It is because of this blatant callous disrespect for our Nation’s Military, both present and former, that I left the Liberal side of the Political fence. For the record and in the interest of full disclosure, I was what one would call, a “Conservative Democrat” or “Left of center.” However, after the actions of those who claim to be for Equality and Liberty, I decided I could never align myself with a party who chooses to disrespect, insult, and generally make sport of, our nations military servicemen for the sake of nelson rating.

This sort of Communist treachery is nothing short of the Anti-America treachery exercised against the United States of America by the Empire of Japan on December 7, 1941 at Pearl Harbor. This sort of thing I will not support, nor will I allow my Blog to associated with it. This is why I now call myself, what I tend to believe that I am, a Paleo-Conservative and Constitutionalist.

From the "You hit the wrong button Harvey!" file….

Ya know, I’m “Center Right” as they come and I’m a Christian. But this is flippin’ hilarious.

Anybody that does not laugh at this, either lacks a sense of humor or needs to have a good bowel movement.

Steve Benen over at the Carpetbagger Report tells about American Family Association’s use of Auto Correction Software.

Quote:

The problem, of course, is that “gay” does not always mean what the AFA wants it to mean. My friend Kyle reported this morning that sprinter Tyson Gay won the 100 meters at the U.S. Olympic track and field trials over the weekend. The AFA ran the story, but only after the auto-correct had “fixed” the article.

That means — you guessed it — the track star was renamed “Tyson Homosexual.” The headline on the piece read, “Homosexual eases into 100 final at Olympic trials.” Readers learned:

Tyson Homosexual easily won his semifinal for the 100 meters at the U.S. Olympic track and field trials and seemed to save something for the final later Sunday.

His wind-aided 9.85 seconds was a fairly cut-and-dry performance compared to what happened a day earlier. On Saturday, Homosexual misjudged the finish in his opening heat and had to scramble to finish fourth, then in his quarterfinal a couple of hours later, ran 9.77 to break the American record that had stood since 1999. […]

Homosexual didn’t get off to a particularly strong start in the first semifinal, but by the halfway mark he had established a comfortable lead. He slowed somewhat over the final 10 meters-nothing like the way-too-soon complete shutdown that almost cost him Saturday. Asked how he felt, Homosexual said: “A little fatigued.”

*snort*

Yeah, I know, they’re mocking them because they’re Conservative, I’m not that dense. I’m just laughing about it, because the very thing, that is supposed to make lives easier, as in Technology, ends up making someone look like an idiot. (at least I like to think that it is the technology anyhow!)

The old adage is true, computers only do what they’re told. Although, I will be the first to admit that there has been times in the past, when I was wrestling with a Computer that was not doing what I wanted it to do, that, in fact, the computer had a mind of it’s own.

Others:
PageOneQ.com Latest, The Moderate Voice, Publius Endures and The Impolitic and more via Memeornadum

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Help me get this Blog off of Blogspot/Blogger!

Why?

Because of this.

Quote:

When Carissa Snedeker went to log into her Blogspot account Wednesday evening at about 7:30, she had no idea what would be waiting for her. She had created her blog, Blue Lyon, three years ago and up until this point had very few problems posting new content. But this time a message from Google came up when she visited her dashboard.

“This blog has been locked due to possible Blogger Terms of Service violations,” the message stated. “You may not publish new posts until your blog is reviewed and unlocked.”

When Snedeker clicked on the link at the bottom of the message she came to another one that told her that her blog “has characteristics of a spam blog” and, because of this, it had been locked. It allowed her the chance to send an “unlock request” but told her she’d have to wait up to four business days before someone at Google could review her blog and confirm it wasn’t publishing spam.

“At first I thought it was just this random thing with Blogger’s spam bots,” she told me in a phone interview. “I thought that perhaps in their looking across the blogger universe, that I got accidentally flagged somehow. Stuff like that happens.”

But a short time later Snedeker received an email from another blogger claiming that a number of anti-Obama blogs had been “hacked” that same night. After some digging it became apparent that several Blogspot accounts had been shut down because of similar spam issues, and nearly all of them had three things in common: Most were pro-Hillary Clinton blogs, all were anti-Barack Obama, and several were listed on justsaynodeal.com, an anti-Obama website.

To be fair to myself, I have criticized Obama, Hillary AND John McCain on here. But this is nothing more than blatant censorship. It is also an attempt to stifle dissent. Which is a common trait of Fascism.

So, I’m asking my readers, whomever you are, to pony up and help me get this Blog of mine off of Blogspot/Blogger.

I have a place in mind for hosting, It is called Glohost. They have a nice 5 star Professional hosting package for 24 months or 2 years. You can check it out, by going here. It would be $479.76 for 2 years. I hate to beg, But I am full time at this, and I just don’t have the cash on hand to pay for it myself.

So, if you can help, Hit the tip jar up there on the left and get me off of this Marxist Blog hosting service.

Update: I have received one $20.00 donation, so far. I have also received some awesome offers for hosting. I would like to get the Glohosting, But I will take up one of the offers, provided they don’t fall through on me. Depending on what happens here. If I get enough donations, I will get the glohosting, because it has all the bells and whistles that I’m looking for.

To those that came over from HotAir, and offered your support, thank you.

To those that made the offers, I thank you. I will be contacting you here shortly to get the ball rolling to get me off of Blogger.

Update 2: Welcome to all the Day By Day Readers. Again, Thanks Chris. Depending on the amount of donations received, I will decide on which route to take. Thanks again for coming over to read my story.

Update 3: Fixed a MAJOR grammar error… I should not type so fast! Oops!

Others: NewsBusters.org, Outside The Beltway, The Campaign Spot, Sister Toldjah, Stop The ACLU and The Confluence

John Aravosis disrespects our Military……again….

Once again…. John Aravosis, the lefty commie idiot, disrespects our United States Military.

This time, he takes a swipe at John McCain.

Folks, I’m just going to tell it like it is. This is not a attack on John McCain, this is not even about him. This about our Military. The far left, Commie loving, Anti-American, Liberals utterly detest, HATE, and want to destroy our United States Military, all so they can pursue an agenda of Liberal Nationalism, or as it commonly known, Communism.

John, like I said in the comments section of your lame ass fucking Blog, you got one coming from me, you fucking asshole, one fine day, I will be invited to a Blog conference or something, and You’re going to be there. When I see you, there won’t be a thing said, I’m just gonna walk up and dot you in the fucking eye. Just the simple. You have insulted the Military and in doing so, you have insulted ME. Before anyone asks, no, I did not serve, But my family has, and when you insult my family, I tend to get a little pissed off.

My family has served in World War 2 and Vietnam, they served proudly, when their Government asked them to, they did not complain, they went and did what they were told. But yet, you and your commie, liberal, sissy ass, sits back and slams a Vietnam Vet, and tries to belittle his service, that my friend is just fucking inexcusable.

I say, everyone who reads this, head on over to John’s Blog and leave a message, letting him know, what you think about his disrespect of our fine Military. and, flag has blog as objectionable. Maybe, just maybe, he’ll get the message.

Update: and of course, ol’ Pussy boy John Deleted my comments. That’s fine, I don’t care. He’s still got one coming from me, he can bank on that.

Update #2: Ed Morrissey refers to Wesley Clark as “Commander Clueless” *snort* Too Funny.

Others:
Right Wing Nut House, TownHall Blog, BLACKFIVE, Ben Smith’s Blogs, The Sundries Shack, michellemalkin.com, Right Wing News, JammieWearingFool, Comments from Left Field and Sister Toldjah

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Hey Patrick Frey, get your nose outta McCain's ass

You’re nose might get Dirty nose dude…

Patrick Frey‘s head explodes, because he think’s think progress lied about what McCain said about gas prices.

Of course, Frey misses the whole damned point, as most asshat Neo-Conservative Republicans do.

It isn’t that point that he said that he didn’t know the price, even if he did. He said it didn’t matter. That is the issue, his rich man, elitist prick response, is the issue.

Dumb ass Neo-Cons….

Others: American Power, Comments from Left Field, Outside The Beltway, Lonewacko and The Daily Dish and more via Memeorandum

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John McCain, Tax Cheat?

You know, I can see a couple of months, but FOUR YEARS?!??!?! Please. Something stinks to high heaven about this story.

When you’re poor, it can be hard to pay the bills. When you’re rich, it’s hard to keep track of all the bills that need paying. It’s a lesson Cindy McCain learned the hard way when NEWSWEEK raised questions about an overdue property-tax bill on a La Jolla, Calif., property owned by a trust that she oversees. Mrs. McCain is a beer heiress with an estimated $100 million fortune and, along with her husband, she owns at least seven properties, including condos in California and Arizona.

San Diego County officials, it turns out, have been sending out tax notices on the La Jolla property, an oceanfront condo, for four years without receiving a response. County records show the bills, which were mailed to a Phoenix address associated with Mrs. McCain’s trust, were returned by the post office. According to a McCain campaign aide, who requested anonymity when discussing a private matter, an elderly aunt of Mrs. McCain’s lives in the condo, and the bank that manages the trust has not been receiving tax bills on the property. Shortly after NEWSWEEK inquired about the matter, the McCain aide e-mailed a receipt dated Friday, June 27, confirming payment by the trust to San Diego County in the amount of $6,744.42. County officials say the trust still owes an additional $1,742 for this year, an amount that is overdue and will go into default July 1. Told of the outstanding $1,742, the aide said: “The trust has paid all bills shown owing as of today and will pay all other bills due.” — Cindy McCain Pays Back Taxes on San Diego Condo | Newsweek Periscope | Newsweek.com

Now, if Barack Obama had let his taxes go that long, you just know that every Republican and other Conservative Blogger would have their tongues wagging and keyboards everywhere would be smoking from all the writing that would be going on about how he was a tax cheat and how would not be qualified to be President. AmericaBlog puts it quite correctly:

McCain’s friends in the traditional media will surely give him yet another pass on this. And, why not? McCain obviously has some great houses to which he can invite his media pals. But, just for a second, imagine the furor if Barack Obama didn’t pay his property taxes.

Amen. I could not have written it better myself. Of course, when you own 7 different Houses, it is a little hard to keep up.

Others:
The Jed Report, The Other McCain, L.A. Now, TPM Election Central and Brilliant at Breakfast and Others via Mememorandum

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Some Republican Senators in Congress want Africans to catch AIDS and die.

This comes via Cernig over at NewsHoggers, It seems that we have some Republicans who are so damn self righteous that they would rather people in Africa to die of AIDS, so, they can say, “I prevented run-away spending”, than they would like to see their party improve their image.

From McClatchy Washington Bureau, we have the substance of why these senators are against this Bill:

In a letter to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the seven senators — Coburn, Jim DeMint of South Carolina, Richard Burr of North Carolina, Jim Bunning of Kentucky, Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, Jeff Sessions of Alabama and David Vitter of Louisiana — criticized the bills’ increased spending over the next five years from $15 billion to $50 billion, the expansion of AIDS funding to countries such as China and India and the inclusion of funding for agricultural-assistance and poverty-alleviation programs.

"The bills’ support would allow morally questionable activities, including advocating with host governments to change gender norms and policies and promoting activities that could include needle distribution to drug users," the senators wrote.

McConnell and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., support the legislation and said they were pushing for a compromise. Reid has been reluctant to move the legislation forward until an agreement is struck, and this week Democratic leaders focused blame for the delay on the seven senators.

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Arizona Sen. John McCain, supports expanding the program, and the White House has pressed lawmakers for the legislation’s passage.

"President Bush himself talks to members of Congress about it to make sure that they know how important he thinks it is that they pass this bill because of all the good work that it’s doing," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said Wednesday. "And I think that members of Congress recognize that, as well. I think we’re just working on these details. There have been some concerns, but I think that we’re able to address them."

The bills are backed by a wide range of humanitarian groups. Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu recently pressed McConnell to convince the Republican senators who’ve balked to pass the legislation.

"With the quick passage of this legislation, the United States could send a strong signal of its continuing global health leadership that will leverage support from other G-8 nations," Tutu wrote in a letter to McConnell. "That is why I am so deeply troubled by the impasse in the U.S. Senate regarding this legislation. I see signs that global determination to keep the promises made on AIDS, TB and malaria is waning, and I know that passage of this legislation, prior to the G-8, is crucial to regaining momentum."

Ya know, I’m just going to call this, for what it is, and that is blatant stupidity. For all the things that I have criticized President Bush for, this was not one of them. This is where I and the people who call themselves Nationalists, disagree. I believe in reigning in on spending and in spending money to foreign countries. But on humanitarian issues, I make an exception. AIDS is a terrible disease, and anything our Government can do to prevent it’s spread, should be pursued to the best of our abilities.   

Not only this, the Republican Party has a serious image problem, that is really in need of fixing, at let me just say, this is doing absolutely nothing to fix it. I mean, if the Republicans want to repair their highly tarnished image, which was all but destroyed by the actions of a Neo-Conservative Administration. This is really going to set the party back, very far back.

More Neo-Conservative Imperialism

My friends, this is what happens, when you elect a President for all the wrong reasons.

The White House in December refused to accept the Environmental Protection Agency’s conclusion that greenhouse gases are pollutants that must be controlled, telling agency officials that an e-mail message containing the document would not be opened, senior E.P.A. officials said last week.

The document, which ended up in e-mail limbo, without official status, was the E.P.A.’s answer to a 2007 Supreme Court ruling that required it to determine whether greenhouse gases represent a danger to health or the environment, the officials said. – White House Refused to Open Pollutants E-Mail – NYTimes.com

This my friends is a classic example of being so blinded by your personal ideology, that you refuse to listen to those, who might just know a little more about the said subject that yourself.

An Example:

Both documents, as prepared by the E.P.A., “showed that the Clean Air Act can work for certain sectors of the economy, to reduce greenhouse gases,” one of the senior E.P.A. officials said. “That’s not what the administration wants to show. They want to show that the Clean Air Act can’t work.”

The Bush administration’s climate-change policies have been evolving over the past two years. It now accepts the work of government scientists studying global warming, such as last week’s review forecasting more drenching rains, parching droughts and intense hurricanes as global temperatures warm (www.climatescience.gov).

But no administration decisions have supported the regulation of greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act or other environmental laws.

This is where I will give John McCain, his first and possibly only pass on this Blog. At least John McCain realizes that there is a problem with Global Warming, although his solutions to the problem, fall far short of the solutions purposed by the Democrats in congress and by the EPA.

This sort of willful blindness to the problems that we are facing as a Nation, and by the World as a whole, is what will put the Republican Party in the minority for a long time to come.

Others: Think Progress, The Carpetbagger Report, TPMMuckraker, The Volokh Conspiracy, Balloon Juice and The Impolitic

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