LOOK! A Zionist!

Yesterday, big news happened in Iran. Yahoo.com’s homepage clearly chose the correct story from Iran: that Iran threatened to boycott the 2012 London Olympics because, as Head of Iran’s Olympic Committee Bahram Afsharzadeh so clearly explained, “Zionists have exercised influence in Britain, and according to our information, the summer games logo has been designed by a Zionist organization linked to freemasons.”

However, more important and relevant news was blatantly overlooked by most major news outlets. On February 28, 2011, the official websites of Green Movement and opposition leaders Mir Hussein Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi stated that they and their wives were taken from house arrest to the maximum security Heshmatiyeh prison in Tehran. Semi-official Iranian news network Fars denied these claims. Green Movement supporters have called for protests every Tuesday until the leaders and their wives are released.

The placing of the Mousavis and Karoubis in prison is one of the most aggressive, targeted moves that the Iranian regime has made, especially considering that Mousavi was prime minister of Iran under Ayatollah Khomeini as Supreme Leader and Ali Khamenei as President. This comes in the wake of brutal crackdowns, the execution of one prisoner every eight hours since January 2011, secret executions of Iranians and foreign nationals, and the arbitrary arrest and detention of over 1,500 demonstrators from the February 14^th and 20^th demonstrations alone.

However, why is it that this story was completely overlooked, and instead Iran made headlines today because of outrageous statements of cooperation between Zionists and Freemasons over an ugly Olympic logo? As brutal and psychopathic as the Iranian regime is, it does understand how to use international media to deflect attention from their serious human rights abuses and systematic repression of the Iranian people. While the rest of the world was preoccupied with ludicrous statements from Afsharzadeh, the regime’s security forces placed the two strongest opposition leaders in prison only weeks after members of the Majles called for their trial and execution.

Hopefully, the rest of the world can focus on the important actions taken by the regime and respond appropriately by demanding that the United Nations establish an independent human rights monitor on Iran in its session this March. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton addressed the House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs on February 28^th, stating:

Here at the Human Rights Council, we are proud to be working with Sweden and other partners to establish a special rapporteur on Iran. Its mandate would be to investigate and report on abuses in Iran, and to speak out when the government there does not meet its human rights obligations. Iranian human rights advocates have demanded this step to raise international pressure on their government.

This will be a seminal moment for this Council, and a test of our ability to work together to advance the goals that it represents. Indeed, every member of this Council should ask him or herself a simple question: Why do people have the right to live free from fear in Tripoli but not Tehran? The denial of human dignity in Iran is an outrage that deserves the condemnation of all who speak out for freedom and justice.

Jon Stewart on the O'Reilly Factor

Jon Stewart ventures into enemy territory to take Bill O'Reilly to school in a surprisingly civil interview. Take a look.

Important Headlines for 2-11-2009

While there are a lot of important things happening, these are some recent developments that are pretty important to be aware of and a few interesting things.

First of all, the current Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, stated that Iran is ready for dialogue with the USA as long as it is based on mutual respect. Here are some excerpts of the speech:

"If you really want to fight terrorism, come and cooperate with the Iranian nation, which is the biggest victim of terrorism so that terrorism is eliminated. ... If you want to confront nuclear weapons ... you need to stand beside Iran so it can introduce a correct path to you," he said.

Ahmadinejad said the world was at a "crossroads" because it had been proven that military power has not been successful — a reference to the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But now, he said, "the world is entering an era of dialogue and intellect."

"The new U.S. government has announced that it wants to bring changes and follow the path of dialogue. It is very clear that changes have to be fundamental and not tactical. It is clear that the Iranian nation welcomes true changes," Ahmadinejad told the crowds at the rally in Freedom Square.

This is crucial as Iran could support the United States in being a stabilizing factor for the crises in Afghanistan and Iraq. Additionally, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced that the USA is very determined to pursue a dialogue with Iran. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is up for election this year and former President Khatami is one of the challengers. For more information, please click here.

A second extremely important development is in the area of health care, specifically in regard to the prevention of HIV being transmitted. Some preliminary trials have found that a microbicide produced by a Massachusetts pharmaceutical company Indevus Pharmaceuticals Inc. slightly reduced HIV infection rates among its trial subjects, where approximately 3,100 women from four different countries participated. Scientists discovered a 30% lower rate of infection among women who used the Indevus-produced gel, however it is important to note that this difference is not statistically significant and that the results could have occurred by change or been the result of other contributing factors. The study has been expanded to include more women from more countries. For more information on this key development in combating HIV/AIDS, please click here.

In important domestic news, a panel of federal judges found that the overcrowding of state prisons violates the inmates' right to adequate health care. State prisons are currently operating at twice their intended capacity and measures to reduce the amount of new prisoners being compelled are being explored so that state prisons would not have to release large numbers of prisoners at once. This decision by the judges is significant as the United States currently imprisons the largest percent of its population than any other country in the world (click here). Land of the free, right? For more information about the judges' decision, please click here.

And yet another instance after the BART subway shooting where California police have shot an innocent person. Daniel Balandran was shot and killed by police gunfire in a shootout at a Papa John's Pizza in Chino, California. Police say Balandran was caught in the crossfire; his lawyer states that he was targeted. For more information, please click here.

Finally, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates annouced a review of the ban on photographing fallen soldiers' coffins, a ban that he himself asked for a few years ago. For more information, please click here.

Palin on SNL

So perhaps there is a movement by the presidential campaigns to make their respective candidates appear more human by being funny and able to laugh at themselves. Or, maybe people have finally realized the ridiculousness of the current American political campaign system and are choosing to laugh to keep from crying. I don't know.

Last week, we had the Presidential candidates roasting each other (click here), and last night, GOP VP pick Sarah Palin was on SNL. It was actually funny and probably the only good thing she has done since joining the campaign. However, her SNL involvement was far less than when other candidates, like Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, were on the show. Personally, I think Tina Fey makes a better "Sarah Palin" than Sarah Palin (at least we know that Tina Fey knows the truth about dinosaurs).Take a look at the videos below and see for yourself.

Some people may think that Palin being able to laugh at herself or John McCain taking a joke during the presidential roast might have a positive effect for their campaign. Well, Obama is still raking it in ("Obama Raises Stunning $150 million in September").

This first one is the opening sketch.


The second sketch is the one of Sarah Palin on Weekend Update with Seth and Amy.

Lies and Blinking

"This is the narcissism of partisan. You get furiously outraged at the other campaign's lies, and you love your own. Nonetheless, I do think it is fair to say that the McCain campaign has been more egregious than the Obama campaign." --David Brooks

John McCain is drawing criticism for claims he's making about Barack Obama, even from the normally welcoming ladies on The View:

In one of the two ads to which Joy Behar is referring, McCain accuses Obama of sexism for saying, "You can put lipstick on a pig; it's still a pig." But Obama wasn't insulting Sarah Palin; he was referring to the McCain-Palin ticket's attempt to portray themselves as agents of change. And compare Obama's comment to Palin's "What's the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull? Lipstick," and McCain's saying the same thing about Hillary Clinton's health care plan during the primaries.

The other ad accuses Obama of perversely wanting to teach comprehensive sex ed to kindergartners, when he really supports teaching what constitutes inappropriate behavior from adults.

And while speaking in Missouri last week, McCain said that Obama's health care plan would "force small businesses to cut jobs and reduce wages and force families into a government-run health care system where a bureaucrat stands between you and your doctor." Even though Obama's plan drew criticisms in the Democratic primaries for not forcing all Americans into a government-run system. Said Jonathan Oberlander, a professor of health policy at UNC-Chapel Hill, "I would say this is an inaccurate and false characterization of the Obama plan. I don’t use those words lightly.”

"We must do whatever it takes, and we must not blink, Charlie, in making those tough decisions of where we go and even who we target." --Sarah Palin

On the New York Times' most-emailed list lie at least three editorials criticizing Sarah Palin's naïveté. And why not? Her ignorance is shocking even if you're not an Eastern media elite. (Side note:

Perhaps Mitt Romney thinks he's a reporter for the Daily Show?)

Palin argued that Alaska's proximity to Russia gives her better insight into Russian affairs. Can you "[i]magine the derisive laughter in conservative circles if the Democrats had tried such nonsense"?

She was completely ignorant of the Bush Doctrine. Talking heads later argued that most Americans couldn't explain the Bush Doctrine, but how many of them are running for vice president? Others have argued that several policies could be labeled that way, but Palin seems completely unaware that the label exists at all.

She claimed that our soldiers in Iraq are fighting "the enemies who planned and carried out and rejoiced in the death of thousands of Americans." In short, Sarah Palin's ignorance is frightening, reflects poorly on McCain, and is oddly reminiscent of Bush circa 2000.

It is also nicely satirized by Tina Fey:

DNC Wednesday Report

Here's the recap of the Democratic National Convention from Wednesday, August 27th.

First, former President Bill Clinton's speech. And although the DNC has had some interesting choices of music for the speakers (such as "Girl You Really Got Me" for Hillary Clinton), Fleetwood Mac's "Don't Stop (Thinking About Tomorrow)" works.


Next up, passing some of the more boring speeches, is John Kerry, which one would think to be boring but actually turned out quite nicely.


Afterwards, again with a few lapses, we have Beau Biden, Joe Biden's son, to introduce his father.


After this touching introduction, Joe Biden, Democratic Vice President Nominee, gives his acceptance speech, with Billy Joel's steel worker's anthem, "Allentown," playing him in. Make sure to catch the end with the surprise guest.

The Veep Search, Pt. 2: Obama

And now for Obama. His Top Ten:

Hillary Clinton

Senator Hillary Clinton is the veep nominee with the most vocal supporters...and the most vocal detractors. Choosing Clinton would unite the party, help heal the wounds of a long primary season, and could stave off a flow of Clinton supporters to McCain. But perhaps choosing a former Clinton supporter would do the same thing, and the defectors will likely cool off and return to Obama regardless. Hillary's experience might not mesh well with Obama's change message, but this is a spin problem that can be easily circumvented. Hillary comes with Bill, a brilliant strategist (that Obama's campaign was nonetheless able to outwit), and choosing Hillary will associate Obama with Bill's presidency, for better (relative peace and economic prosperity) or worse (Scandal!). In my opinion, Sen. Clinton has definitely earned a consideration after her primary performance, and she would make a great VP and a good nominee as long as she and Bill can diminish their own egos and content themselves with playing second fiddle. (Chances: 2%) [Add'l. Reading: Salon's flip sides of the same coin--Heads & Tails.] UPDATE: Obama named Patti Solis Doyle to be chief of staff for his running mate. This is significant because she was unceremoniously let go from the Clinton campaign in February. Not a good sign for Hillary's chances.

Bill Richardson

New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson would be a nice choice for VP. He has executive and foreign policy experience; he has been governor for five years and was Ambassador to the UN before that. He could draw many Latinos--who overwhelmingly supported Hillary--to Obama and could turn New Mexico blue. Although hardly an exciting candidate during the primaries, Richardson could do much to beef up the ticket. (Chances: 20%) [Add'l Reading: Wikipedia]

Kathleen Sebelius

Governor Kathleen Sebelius (D-KS) would be a fairly good fit as Obama's running mate. She has clear administrative capability; as Kansas's insurance commissioner, she made a slightly controversial decision by nixing a proposal by an Indiana-based insurance provider to buy Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas, while she was also running for governor. She has a history of reaching across party lines. She could turn Kansas blue and help draw female supporters to Obama, if they don't perceive it as a slap in the face to Hillary. She is little known outside of Kansas; indeed, what I knew about her prior to researching this was Jon Stewart's lampooning her State of the Union response as "flat and boring." Sebelius also has little foreign policy experience, although she has travelled to the Middle and Far East as governor. However, her weakness are slight relative to her strengths. (Chances: 16%) [Add'l Reading: The Fix likes coins too! Heads or Tails?]

Wesley Clark

Retired General Wesley Clark has a long list of military credentials--first in his class at West Point (where he later taught), Rhodes scholar, various command posts, culminating in the Supreme Allied Commander of NATO during the operations in Kosovo--that would serve Obama well. Only two minor drawbacks: (1) WaPo reminds us that he has never held an elected office, and is this not particularly adept at political maneuvering. (2) As an early Hillary supporter, he criticized Obama's lack of experience. But Clark is the safest foreign-policy choice and would attract plenty of blue-collar voters. (Chances: 15%)

Jim Webb

Many are excited about the possibility of Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) as VP. Like Obama, he's been against the Iraq War from the beginning, and he predicted a difficult insurgency when the war had just started. He wrote another Op-Ed in the Wall Street Journal reminiscent of John Edwards' Two Americas. He recently proposed a new GI Bill of Rights that would have increased college benefits for returning veterans. He is a pro-gun Democrat, a plain-spoken, decorated veteran from Virginia, a red state growing increasingly bluer. But his plain speaking has a tendency of getting him in trouble. While teaching at Annapolis in 1979, he wrote an article entitled "Women Can't Fight," although he was endorsed by nine female soldiers in the 2006 Senate race. Some have inferred a glorification of violence and the Confederacy from his books. But perhaps the biggest problem is that he seems uninterested in the job and content with his Senate seat. (Chances: 12%) [Add'l Reading: Wikipedia]

Joe Biden

Senator Joe Biden (D-DE), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, would bring some serious foreign policy cred to the table. In 2002, he tried to pass a resolution that would have ensured that President Bush exhausted all the diplomatic means of dealing with Iraq before going to war. Born in Scranton, Biden could help Obama take Pennsylvania. However, his son is a lobbyist, and he got into trouble on the campaign trail for calling Obama "articulate." However, I think these flaws are forgivable/negligible in light of his strengths. (Chances: 9%) [Add'l Reading: Wikipedia, The Washington Post]

Tim Kaine

Current Virginia Governor Tim Kaine could help Obama with two constituencies. As a popular, moderate governor, Kaine could deliver the now purplish Virginia to the Democrats in November. He is a Catholic--he even took a year off from Harvard Law to go on a mission trip to Honduras and can speak fluent Spanish--and he could help draw Catholic voters, who largely supported Clinton in the primaries, to Obama. His centrism and eloquence would work well with Obama, their mothers were both born in the same Kansas town and Kaine was the first governor outside of Illinois to endorse Obama. The only drawback is that he too lacks foreign policy experience. (Chances: 6%) [Add'l Reading: The Boston Globe]

John Edwards

A lot of people, including Mrs. Wolverine, would like Obama to pick former North Carolina Senator John Edwards. During the primaries, Edwards seemed closer to Obama than to Hillary, and most Obama supporters liked Edwards. Many in the media have discounted him because he seemed to be of little electoral help as Kerry's running mate in 2004. But Obama is not Kerry. The biggest sticking point is that it is difficult to tell whether Edwards wants to be VP or wants a nice Cabinet post or maybe just wants a jet ski. (Chances: 5%)

Ed Rendell

Pennsylvania Governor and former Clinton supporter Ed Rendell accused the press of drinking the Obama Kool-Aid before the Pennsylvania primary. Now he says he's drunk some himself. As a former Hillary supporter, Rendell would make a nice unity ticket, and his support will help Obama win Pennsylvania. However, he does nothing to shore up Obama's foreign policy credentials. (Chances: 3%)

Evan Bayh

As one of the most popular Democrats in Indiana's history, Senator Birch Evans Bayh (D-IN) could deliver the right-leaning state's 11 electoral votes to Obama as his vice presidential nominee. Bayh was a two-term governor and served on the Senate Committees on the Armed Forces and Intelligence; he has executive and foreign-policy experience. As a Clinton supporter, Bayh could possibly unite the Democrats if chosen. He is a fiscally responsible, moderate New Democrat in the style of Bill Clinton, but without the scandals. He has been characterized as "bland," but this could simply complement Obama's soaring rhetoric. (Chances: 1%) [Add'l Reading: Wikipedia, The Indianapolis Star]

Honorable Mention:

Former Senator Sam Nunn of Georgia has worked tirelessly to limit the proliferation of WMDs, would give Obama much foreign policy cred, and could put Georgia into play. However, he has been out of the political arena for 12 years and was a fairly conservative Democrat when he was in it.

Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano has been mentioned, but Sebelius seems the stronger female candidate. More importantly, selecting her for VP is unlikely to take away Arizona from McCain--it's his home state too--and, most importantly, would force her to resign her governorship under Arizona law, which would mean that the Secretary of State, Republican Jan Brewer, would take her office.

Mark Warner, the third Virginian, is the state's former governor and is running for the Senate. Which is why he won't be Obama's VP. He's ahead of Republican Jim Gilmore, another former governor, in the polls and Democrats would like to take that Senate seat in the fall.

Former Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) has been suggested, but seriously? Sure he's been a co-chair of Obama's campaign, but he lost his Senate seat in 2004, the first party leader to lose their seat since the 50's, and since then has been working for a law/lobbying firm in D.C. He's too much of an insider for Obama's change campaign.

And you thought Hillary was the only unity ticket. Outspoken Iraq critic Chuck Hagel (R, yes R-NE) has been mentioned, and if Obama were to select a Republican, it would be him. And Hagel would consider if selected. But in the end, he is a Republican with conservative stances on most issues and would be out of place. Don't rule out a Cabinet post though.

Additional Reading

CNN & Deborah White

Bajoobahead #1: Chester Bartels

Chester Bartels writes to the Grand Rapids Press:

Why has the press crowned Obama? [I mean so what if he has more delegates/votes than Hillary and has generally acted more ethically than she has?]

He is the most liberal senator, by record, and he has avoided voting on any issue of substance by voting here or not being present at all. What has he done? What has he proposed other than raising taxes and redistributing wealth (pure socialism)?

He is a hollow shell with no substance. Yet the media are largely behind him. Why? Do the media, too, find nothing to be proud of in the United States? [I am nothing but a patriot. I always wear a flag pin, even when I'm not wearing a lapel.] Do they want to ruin "the rich" so government can be the chief if not the only employer?

Do they want to stop an unfavorable war only to let the fundamentalist Islamic cults rule the Middle East? It would seem that a man with the given name of Barack Hussein Obama would have to be scrutinized a bit before we would want him to be a senator, let alone a president! [You can tell a lot about people by their middle name. For instance, my middle name is Hitler, and I'm a secret Nazi. That's why I didn't include my name because I'm hiding something.] Never forget that it was capitalism that won World Wars I and II, not socialism. [But do forget that capitalism also lost World Wars I and II and that the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was on the winning side of WWII. And don't consider Marx's complaint that capitalism leads to the objectification of the working class because that will only lead you to conclude that Hitler's Germany was the apotheosis of capitalism.] The opportunity for profit is what drives men to succeed, not the opportunity to be given someone's else's hard-earned dollars.

If the Democrats win the Congress and the presidency, increase taxes as they have promised, institute national insurance as they plan to do, and increase government size and influence, then we can forget freedom as we know it. [I'm talking real freedom here, not the due process and the Geneva Conventions that only the socialist Democrats care about.] Thinking citizens must keep these socialists out of office. Let's find out a lot more about Obama before we even consider him as fit to rule this country[, but not before we write a letter to the editor filled with no new information and conclusions that aren't supported by non-trivial facts].

This post was written in Sarcastic Trebuchet font. This post was intended to mock Chester Bartels' letter to the editor and to expose certain beliefs/conclusions as baseless or illogical. Any feelings of pique caused by this post are purely coincidental.

The Winner?

Political pundit Tim Russert declared last night that Illinois Senator Barack is the uncontested Democratic presidential nominee.

After winning the primary in North Carolina, Obama appears to be November's candidate, while New York Senator Hillary Clinton is using her narrow margin of victory in Indiana to justify continuing her fight. This comes as Mrs. Clinton has cancelled all public appearances for today to consider her options. Add to that the fact that a congressional source has told the Drudge Report that Hillary's also having trouble convincing uncommitted superdelegates even to meet with her.

While Democrats have this to mull over this Wednesday, there are murmurs on the Republican side about the lack of faith in their presumptive candidate, Arizona Senator John McCain. ABC News shows on their website that a quarter of all Republicans voting in the primaries (Indiana and North Carolina) yesterday voted against McCain. While Mike Huckabee was still a popular choice, it is important to note that his campaign is over for 08. However, Representative Ron Paul's campaign is still ongoing, despite media reports. Even though his chances are slim at best, his continued presence on the Republican battlefield is sending the message that Republicans aren't all satisfied with McCain, and if the Republicans want to see more red states in November, McCain is going to have to pay attention to the conservative voters. Even Paul's book sales are a testament to this.

For conservatives like me, the fact that Ron Paul still represents a substantial movement toward conservatism is invigorating. It's a shame we won't be able to vote for him as a Republican come the fall.

Bomb, Bomb, Bomb...Bomb, Bomb Iran.

Political figures love to threaten to go to war with Iran. Most recently, former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton was on Fox News arguing that attacking Iran would be "the most prudent thing to do."

In the run-up to the Pennsylvania primary, Hillary Clinton said that following an Iranian nuclear attack on Israel, her administration would "obliterate" Iran in a "massive retaliation":

(Barack Obama is hammering Clinton about her statements not only on Iran, but on her gas-tax holiday political pandering. The Iranian president lodged a formal complaint with the U.N. because of Clinton's comments.)

But nobody can mess with the original:

Obama is right. Saber-rattling only emboldens hardliners by lending credence to their claims that we are seeking to destroy Islam. The way we ensure that extremists stay out of power is by communicating and working with moderates.

Headlines: Flowers & Showers

30 April 2008:

• Cage Match
  

  McCain is worried about what Jim Webb's (D-VA) "21^st Century G.I. Bill of Rights" will do to the Armed Forces' retention rates.
  

• Federal Money in Health Care Plan from McCain
  

  "Let's take away the tax credit we give to companies to provide insurance and give $5000 to every family in America to pay for an insurance policy that costs, on average, $12,106. Don't worry; the forces of the free market will drive the price down 59%!"
  

• Obama Repudiates Wright:
  

  I'm the one in the back applauding arrhythmically.
  

1 May 2008:

• Belarus Expels 10 U.S. Diplomats
  

  Apparently, somebody is a little authoritarian.
  

• Another Move to Obama
  

  Former DNC chair Joe Andrew switches from Hillary to Obama. Funny thing: he was appointed to head the DNC by Bill Clinton.

Headlines: 29 April 2008

• Democrats Divided Over Gas Tax Break
  

  Clinton wants to suspend the gas tax for the summer driving season. Obama argues that lifting the tax would remove the disincentive to pollute, take away money from maintaining highways, and save consumers little—about $30 over three months. Gonna side with Obama on this one.
  

• Cheney Lawyer Claims "Congress Lacks Constitutional Power" to Investigate VP's Role in Torture Approval
  

  Luckily, Cheney lacks the constitutional power to stay in office past January.
  

• Iranian President's Visit Tests India
  

  Singh welcomes Ahmadinejad to get oil and to prove his independence from the U.S. Not sure how I feel about this.
  

• Georgia "plans war in Abkhazia"
  

  Georgia and Russia point fingers at each other over a tiny breakaway republic no one has ever heard of.
  

• Obama's Wright Response
  

  Obama should clearly repudiate Rev. Wright after his crazy media tour:
  

Headlines: 27 April 2008

• Oil refinery strikers hold rally
  

  A strike forces BP to close a pipeline that supplies Britain with 30% of its oil. Gas shortages have started to affect Scotland, ironically not because there isn't enough oil, but because people fearing a gas shortage are stocking up.
  

• Clinton Challenges Obama to Debate
  

  Clinton wants a moderator-less, Lincoln-Douglas-style debate. Nobody's told her that Douglas was the experience candidate.
  

• Bush pokes fun at his successors
  

  I'd tell him not to quit his day job, but he hasn't done so well at that either.
  

• Karzai unhurt after parade attack
  

  At least four dead and nine injured after Taliban militants fire into the grandstand.

Post-Pennsylvania Primary Political Parsing!

You know you love alliteration.

Yes, Hillary Clinton won the Pennsylvania primary by a margin of 10%, gained 12 delegates on Barack Obama, and is now only behind by 133, according to CNN's estimates. But keep these three things in mind:

1. Districts are weighted according to previous Democratic performance. This largely helps Obama. For instance, Obama won Philadelphia County by 30%; in 2004, Kerry won there by 62%. Clinton took Fulton County by 34%; Bush won that county by 52%.
2. There is speculation that, even though Clinton won Pennsylvania, her victory may be a Pyrrhic one, and that Obama's real strategy was to limit his margin of loss, while forcing Clinton to spend money she could not afford to waste.
3. Calls are getting louder and louder for both campaigns to drop both their increasingly negative tones and obsessions with trivial non-issues and for Clinton to drop out of the race.

Headlines: 18 April 2008

• An Earthquake Rattles the Midwest.
  

  The New Madrid Fault reminds us that it's there.
  

• It's Getting Close to Over.
  

  Let's hope so.
  

• Clinton fixes the video board, Edwards wants a jet ski, and Obama puts distractions on notice.
  

  Boy, did I miss a good one. ($%#&!ing 8 a.m. exams!)
  

• I own the front page.
  

  Ha!

Bitter Pennsylvanians

You know how Barack Obama said that working-class voters cling to guns, religion, and anti-immigrant sentiment when they lose their jobs? Pennsylvanians react:

Shawn Erfman: "It's fucking true. Everybody's bitter for one reason or another. So they're crucifying him because he spoke the truth? Cause he's not saying something that's going to suck up to people and kiss ass? Because, what, he slipped and accidentally spoke the truth, instead of kissing butt?"

Iona White: "It's a bad time in the world. People are bitter."

The ultimate irony: People who do "'cling' to wedge issues involving God and guns because they've lost faith in our political culture's ability to solve problems" have to watch a debate that focuses more on trivialities (like not wearing a flag lapel-pin, associating with people who have said bad things, saying something that's true but somewhat inarticulate, and embellishing a trip to war-torn Bosnia) than the real issues.

P.S. Hillary is going negative in PA. Perhaps she's bitter that she's losing to Obama.

Update: MoveOn.org has a petition admonisihing ABC News for the debate's obsession with "trivial questions about gaffes and 'gotchas' that only political insiders care about." You can sign it here.

Conservatism vs. Liberalism

Sorry there hasn't been much blogging lately. My dog ate my posts.

There has been something of an ongoing feud between Joe Klein, of Time magazine, and conservative pundits that started with this article, where Klein said:

This is a chronic disease among Democrats, who tend to talk more about what's wrong with America than what's right. When Ronald Reagan touted "Morning in America" in the 1980s, Dick Gephardt famously countered that it was near midnight "and getting darker all the time." This is ironic and weirdly self-defeating, since the liberal message of national improvement is profoundly more optimistic, and patriotic, than the innate conservative pessimism about the perfectibility of human nature. Obama's hopemongering is about as American as a message can get — although, in the end, it is mostly about our ability to transcend our imperfections rather than the effortless brilliance of our diversity, informality and freedom-propelled creativity.

Gasp! Part two:

Conservative skepticism has its place; it can be a valuable corrective when government goes flabby and corrupt or engages in wild neo-colonialist fantasies abroad[...]But, historically, those who believed in the perfectability of our nation[...]have been right far more often than they've been wrong. Those who have stood in the path of progress have been wrong far more often than they've been right. And those who spent the past seven years as propagandists for the one of the worst, and needlessly blood-soaked, presidencies in American history, have such a fabulous record of self-righteous wrong-headedness that they needn't be taken seriously at all.

You have to admire the phrase 'self-righteous wrong-headedness,' even if you disagree with its implication here. Part Three:

In our lives, we have seen conservatives use racism as a political tool, war as a witless quest for domination, patriotism as a scourge, government as an instrument of greed, religion and "morality" as camouflage for spreading fear, ignorance and bigotry.

The latest installment:

It is, as I said, very sad that the Clinton campaign would have anything to do with spreading this sort of innuendo [Yes, some Clinton supporters are still trying to make an issue out of Reverend Jeremiah Wright, even though Barack Obama addressed it in the best speech a politician has given in my lifetime.]...and entirely predictable that the Republican Party would. When I talked about "spreading the poison" that's what I meant: a purposeful distraction from what should be real issues in this campaign--two wars, serious economic problems, the need to shift to alternative energy sources for national security and environmental reasons. On his radio show last week, Hugh Hewitt disagreed with me that those were the real issues. He made his agenda clear: Obama's positions on Jeremiah Wright, gun control and homosexuality were what mattered to "real" Americans. Now that's cynicism, of the rankest sort. Let's hope it's not the election we get.

So the problem is two-fold:

1. Republicans have abandoned the decent purpose of conservatism--to counter the liberal tendency to fix everything through government intervention--as George W. Bush has presided over the largest expansion of government, especially executive, power since the Nixon administration.
2. Conservative pundits are hopelessly out of touch with mainstream America. I may be ensconced in the liberal, ivory tower of academia, but homosexuality and a few comments a candidate's pastor made this one time are more important than war, national security, and energy independence? Give me a break.

Bill Clinton Should Shut Up

I think it would be a great thing if we had an election year where you had two people who loved this country and were devoted to the interest of this country. And people could actually ask themselves who is right on these issues, instead of all this other stuff that always seems to intrude itself on our politics.

[Heavy sarcasm] Yes, because Barack Obama does not love this country, nor is he devoted to it. He has a secret Muslim agenda! He has a funny name! [End sarcastic portion of rant.]

Instead of arguing that Barack Obama shouldn't be the Democratic candidate because various commentators can point out, "Look, he wore a turban!" or, "His middle name is Hussein!" maybe you should attack the talking heads who say so...if focusing on the issues is really what's important to you, jerk-face.

(Merrill McPeak, a retired general and Obama advisor, compared Clinton's comments to the deeds of Joseph McCarthy, which is a little over-the-top, but certainly more defensible than what Clinton said.)

For more information.

A Visa from Mogadishu? How Interesting!

Employees of State Department contractors have accessed the passport files of all three presidential candidates without authorization, with Barack Obama's file accessed on three separate occasions by three different people. It is not fully clear whether the employees were merely "imprudent" and "curious," or if something more sinister is going on.

But if something more sinister is going on, it looks like it could hurt...Barack Obama. The lone employee who was not fired for accessing Obama's file worked for Analysis Corporation, whose CEO is John O. Brennan, Obama's foreign policy advisor. (The other two worked for Stanley, Inc. and were both fired.) The Analysis Corp. employee also accessed John McCain's file. Conspiracy theorizing time!

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Another Obama Speech

I'm so glad J-Mad covered Barack Obama's speech on race in America because the one he delivered today about Iraq in Fayetteville, North Carolina, caught my eye. Some excerpts:

If you believe we are fighting the right war, then the problems we face are purely tactical in nature. That is what Senator McCain wants to discuss – tactics. What he and the Administration have failed to present is an overarching strategy: how the war in Iraq enhances our long-term security, or will in the future. That's why this Administration cannot answer the simple question posed by Senator John Warner in hearings last year: Are we safer because of this war? And that is why Senator McCain can argue – as he did last year – that we couldn't leave Iraq because violence was up, and then argue this year that we can't leave Iraq because violence is down.

When you have no overarching strategy, there is no clear definition of success. Success comes to be defined as the ability to maintain a flawed policy indefinitely. Here is the truth: fighting a war without end will not force the Iraqis to take responsibility for their own future. And fighting in a war without end will not make the American people safer...

The central front in the war against terror is not Iraq, and it never was. What more could America's enemies ask for than an endless war where they recruit new followers and try out new tactics on a battlefield so far from their base of operations? That is why my presidency will shift our focus. Rather than fight a war that does not need to be fought, we need to start fighting the battles that need to be won on the central front of the war against al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

If we have actionable intelligence about high-level al-Qaeda targets in Pakistan's border region, we must act if Pakistan will not or cannot. Senator Clinton, Senator McCain, and President Bush have all distorted and derided this position, suggesting that I would invade or bomb Pakistan...It is precisely this kind of political point-scoring that has opened up the security gap in this country. We have a security gap when candidates say they will follow Osama bin Laden to the gates of hell, but refuse to follow him where he actually goes. What we need in our next Commander in Chief is not a stubborn refusal to acknowledge reality or empty rhetoric about 3AM phone calls. What we need is a pragmatic strategy that focuses on fighting our real enemies, rebuilding alliances, and renewing our engagement with the world's people.

Amen.

TIME's Joe Klein reminds us, among other things, that, while presiding over the division and reconstruction of the post-World War I Ottoman Empire, Winston Churchill wrote to Prime Minister David Lloyd George, "We are paying 8 millions a year for the privilege of living on an ungrateful volcano."

The transcript of Obama's speech can be found here.