Month: November 2007

I keep reading that Ron Paul is raising so much money that he doesn’t know what to do with it.

What makes the Paul phenomenon unique this cycle is that there is no clear front-runner who can simply ride out the rowdy rabble until the party’s top-down instincts silence them.

That is creating an intriguing choice for the 72-year-old doctor: Plow ahead on what still seems a quixotic quest for the White House or play spoiler by using his millions to help take out one of the front-runners.

Here is my advice. Ron Paul should have two main goals and then…a pipe dream.

His first goal should be to do surprisingly well in the early primaries. A second or third place finish will accomplish this and help his second goal: getting out his message. And then there is the pipe dream: actually winning the nomination.

Giuliani’s campaign is imploding at just the wrong time. Paul shouldn’t worry about the mayor. He wants the mayor to remain viable for as long as possible. Paul needs to work on Romney and McCain. Using his substantial advertising dollars to accuse McCain of being soft on immigration and Romney of being a closet liberal who switched positions out of convenience, can help put Mike Huckabee over the top in Iowa. A Romney loss in Iowa can lead to a Romney loss in New Hampshire. Ideally, Giuliani would win in the Granite State…temporarily bucking up a fatally flawed campaign. Keeping McCain down in Iowa is crucial to preventing him from getting a resurrecting victory in New Hampshire.

If Paul plays his cards right, he could see Thompson, McCain, and Romney all near mortally wounded after the first two contents. But without the big three, what’s left? Huckabee terrifies the country club Republicans and no one takes Duncan Hunter or Tom Tancredo seriously (and they don’t have any money).

If Huckabee comes out of the first two contests as the victor and clear frontrunner, who is going to stop him? Romney will have fallen on his face…McCain will be broke and rejected, and Giuliani will be wrapped in failure as well as scandal. But Ron Paul will still be standing with his wads of cash and his loyal supporters.

If this scenario were to actually unfold, I’d expect the Establishment to the only thing left to them…pour all their resources into John McCain and see if he can stop the other two.

Regardless, Ron Paul would emerge as a race-changing lion killer, with all the money and press coverage he needs to teach the nation about his ideas…both good and really bad.

If nothing else, it would be many generations before people forgot the name of Ron Paul. And just imagine how many delegates he could pile up to bring with him to Minneapolis for the Republican National Convention? Yee-haw.

It’s not even December and I’m already tired of being cold.

I know this is a pretty strong statement, and many people’s hearts are in the right direction, at least in starting to wake up from the slumber that overtook tens of millions of people over the past few years. However, there are still so many people who don’t even realize, let alone have even remotely prepared for, the effects from the hangover caused by the past seven years.

Ironically, this all started back in the 2000 campaign with promises to “restore honor and dignity to the White House”, and was followed up in 2004 with the so-called “moral values” dominating the debate and election. I’d normally laugh at this farce if the foul stench of hypocrisy and lies didn’t have such a grave impact on what so many in this country find “of utmost importance” and really how the view of moral decline and decadence really was portrayed by those who were not only in power, but by those who blindly supported the most radical and extremists views and actions – and had the unmitigated gall to call themselves “morally superior”.

A perfect example is the office of the US Attorney General. Back when Bill Clinton was president, first Zoe Baird and then Kimba Wood – two women with pretty impressive credentials and resumes were summarily dismissed as being unfit for office and had to have their names withdrawn from consideration due to the horrific crime of not paying employment taxes on the wages paid to nannies. The cries from the “right” and the so-called moralists mandated that a perfect record was the only thing that would allow someone to have the ability to hold this esteemed office.

While this may or may not be an appropriate place to draw the line when it comes to disqualifying someone from holding such an office, we now have all three Bush-appointed Attorneys General supporting torture, with nothing more than resigned acceptance as the strongest opposition from the “moralists”, the talking meatsticks in the corporate media and much of Congress. We know how much Gonzalez skirted the law before and during his term as Attorney General – his lies to Congress, his approval of torture and his other shady dealings with Mister Bush in Texas or with respect to the Plame leak.

We know that Mukasey’s otherwise solid resume (including presiding over trials of terrorists) should be thrown out the window if he has to hem and haw about whether acts of torture are indeed acts of torture. Not to be overlooked in this is the colossal betrayal of American values by Democratic Senators Schumer and Feinstein with their tacit approval of torture. And now, the first Bush Attorney General, John Ashcroft is doing the same two step on torture, and even said that he would be willing to be waterboarded.

Now, aside from the fact that someone should call his bluff here, the fact that torture is even being discussed in the mainstream American debate and in the halls of Congress in 2007 is a disgrace. The fact that so many people excuse the use of torture, including more than a few members of Congress is an embarrassment.

But it isn’t just that. Not by a long shot. Here is a very quick, off the top of my head list of the dire moral situation this country is in.

Excusing the lies about going into Iraq, or the tactics that are used there. Solving problems around the world by threatening to invade or bomb, instead of any level of diplomacy. Allowing government officials to ignore Congressional subpoenas. Dismissing the healthcare crisis with statements like “the Constitution doesn’t guarantee health care coverage”. Forgetting about the neglect, negligence and destruction of an entire US city and region. Not caring about most of the Bill of Rights being trampled on, or being spied on illegally.

Making the argument about “every life being sacred” yet cheering for and sending other people’s children off to kill and die for lies. Making that same argument about life beginning at conception, yet not doing anything to help people after they are born or before they are about to die. Or, decrying gay marriage (which, as my wife says is “patently discriminatory” to decry) and living a double life in the closet – no doubt being untrue to your marital vows.

Excusing the willful leaking of sensitive national security information and then wanting to punish and demonize the victims of the leak as well as the country(ies) that such people were tracking nuclear proliferation of. Polluting the environment, purposely dumbing down the education system and demonizing those who don’t agree with everything you say or feel. How does this create an environment that the next generation can thrive, let alone survive in?

Allowing companies to dump toxic waste, loosen standards for toy safety for our children, lax food and water quality standards and chemicals in our fish. And of course, demonizing or censoring anyone who dares speak truth to power about, well, just about anything. Preaching the Bible to “sinners” while only selectively following it yourself. Or, doing exactly the opposite of what Jesus would do to and for fellow man (and women).

This is a short list. Yet it is very telling when it comes to how misplaced so many people’s priorities are. When the big news of the day is the latest missing white woman (now it is the “other Peterson”), who won American Idol, Dancing with the Stars or whatever other piece of crap is getting more votes than the Presidential election. When the breaking economy, housing market and healthcare system threatens tens of millions of people and can put them out on the streets in a matter of weeks is largely ignored, yet mudfights between the major Presidential contenders gets all of the press.

When human life is given such little thought, and the future is given even less thought. When it has become “I’ve got mine, good luck getting yours” has become the modus operandi for too many people. When jobs are being lost and a raise in minimum wage (to something way lower than even a basic living wage) is being looked at as a “burden” for businesses, yet executive pay is at all time highs.

The country is broken. And it is those who are the ones pointing fingers are usually the ones whose heads are also buried in the sand. Americans aren’t stupid, but they have very fragile egos (must have something to do with the “everyone gets a trophy and nobody loses” culture) and probably can’t even admit that the problems are as big as they are. For those who can and do admit this (or see the obvious), it is too daunting to even think about without being overwhelmed.

But that doesn’t mean it isn’t there, or that it doesn’t need to be dealt with and dealt with now.

The question is whether we as a country are too far gone to do the heavy lifting. That is, if people can realize it, care about what is right and can get off the couch long enough to turn off the TV and come back to the reality based community.

Someone walked into the Rochester, NH Clinton campaign headquarters and took some hostages. He reportedly had a bomb strapped to his body. He immediately released one hostage and her infant baby. He was now reportedly released two more hostages. It’s not clear whether any hostages remain.

The man has asked to talk with Hillary Clinton. When this ordeal began, around 1pm, Clinton canceled a scheduled speech in Virginia. I don’t know where she is now.

You can watch local coverage here.

Hostage taker is currently believed to be holding campaign volunteers in Clinton’s Rochester New Hampshire office:

(CNN) — Two people are being held hostage by an armed man at Sen. Hillary Clinton’s campaign office in Rochester, New Hampshire, police said Friday.

The man walked into the office at about 1 p.m., Maj. Michael Hambrook of the New Hampshire State Police told CNN affiliate WMUR-TV. […]

A woman and her baby were released by the hostage-taker, the woman told workers at a nearby business, according to the WMUR Web site.

A witness, Lettie Tzizik, told WMUR she spoke to a woman shortly after she was released from the office by the hostage-taker.

“A young woman with a 6-month or 8-month-old infant came rushing into the store just in tears, and she said, ‘You need to call 911. A man has just walked into the Clinton office, opened his coat and showed us a bomb strapped to his chest with duct tape,'” the Web site reported. […]

Buildings close to the storefront campaign office on Main Street were evacuated, including local campaign centers for Clinton’s Democratic presidential rivals, Sen. Barack Obama and former senator John Edwards.

MsNBC is reporting that the man is demanding to talk to Senator Clinton, although police have not confirmed that claim. Senator Clinton has canceled a scheduled speech at the DNC meeting this afternoon. It’s unclear whether she is en route to New Hampshire. Hopefully this can be resolved peacefully without any loss of life.

More links at ejmw’s diary here.

Update [2007-11-30 15:30:25 by Steven D]: Two more hostages released according to WMUR in New Hampshire. Report says police are not sure if any other hostages still remain inside.

From MSNBC:

A man took an unknown number of people hostage at a New Hampshire campaign office for Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Clinton, police said Friday.

The man claimed to have a bomb strapped to him when he walked into the office in Rochester, WHDH-TV reported.

Police said they believe two hostages were being held and that the man had released an adult and a child.

I will try to update as more details come available.  Note that right now there is no information on motivation; it could be political, or it could just as likely be a personal dispute gone horribly over the edge.
More on this:

The Boston Channel


WMUR New Hampshire


CNN


dKos Front page story by DHinMI and diary by roseeriter where they are giving updates and getting comments faster than I’ll be able to update (and likely faster than MSM websites too).


Update [2007-11-30 14:33:26 by ejmw]:
The CNN link appears to confirm that there are 2 hostages:

(CNN) — Two people are being held hostage by an armed man at Sen. Hillary Clinton’s campaign office in Rochester, New Hampshire, police said Friday.

Update [2007-11-30 14:36:52 by ejmw]:
dKos commenters are saying that the TV news coverage is reporting that the hostage taker is demanding to talk to Hillary. Shit.


Update [2007-11-30 14:45:46 by ejmw]:

John Edwards and Barack Obama have evacuated their campaign offices in Rochester as a precaution and all of their staffers are present and accounted for.


Update [2007-11-30 15:16:39 by ejmw]:

The msnbc link has some details on the Clinton campaign response, which is really the only responsible one to make:

[Clinton] did not respond publicly to the reported demands, but her campaign issued this statement: “We are in close contact with state and local authorities and are acting at their direction. We will release additional details as appropriate.”

Update [2007-11-30 15:19:26 by ejmw]:
DHinMI says:

NH TV station WMUR has just reported that two hostages have been released. If in fact there were only two hostages remaining in the office, that would mean all the hostages are now safe, and only the man remains in the office.

Mike Huckabee seems like a nice guy. Maybe he is. But he’s also a real jerk.

One of [Huckabee’s] first acts as governor was to block Medicaid from funding an abortion for a mentally retarded teenager who had been raped by her stepfather — an act in direct violation of federal law, which requires states to pay for abortions in cases of rape. “The state didn’t fund a single such abortion while Huckabee was governor,” says Dr. William Harrison of the Fayetteville Women’s Clinic. “Zero.”

I don’t think I need to editorialize on this one. But, I’d like to know what percentage of the electorate would think the Huckster did the right thing. What do you think?

In 2007, Project Vote tracked 485 election bills in 24 states, some of them appearing to promise a consequential impact on voting rights. Bills ranged from good–Election Day Registration and felon voting rights restoration, to bad–voter ID, and everything in between. Few of the bills, however, made it beyond one chamber, making the 2007 legislative year an uneventful one. But it was a preview of what we can expect from the 2008 legislative sessions: an abundance of election bills expanding (or restricting) voter access in a presidential election year.
Photo identification and proof of citizenship requirements to register or vote were among the election bills introduced this year that threatened to limit access to the ballot box. Voter ID law will be the subject of Supreme Court hearing in January 2008 as the high court assesses the constitutionality of Indiana’s current photo ID requirement. The verdict could have an impact on the outcome in the 2008 presidential election and a ruling upholding the law will almost certainly lead to a flood of copycat legislation in other states. Although 15 states monitored by Project Vote in 2007 introduced voter ID legislation, most failed to pass even one chamber. The closest call was Texas’s HB 218, which passed the House and later became the centerpiece of a media sensation when an ailing Senator Mario Gallegos cast the deciding vote against the restrictive voter ID bill from a temporary hospital bed set up for him at the state capitol.

Gallegos joins many other voting rights advocates and organizations who argue that voter ID laws- are a solution in search of a problem. Rather than deterring polling place fraud, which rarely occurs, such laws instead disenfranchise low income, minority, and elderly voters. Studies show these populations have lower probability of having valid ID and are disproportionately affected by voter ID laws. “Proof-of-citizenship” requirements, another emerging legislative trend tackling so-called fraudulent voting, found its way into 14 legislatures across the country, 11 of which were monitored by Project Vote. None of these bills passed more than one chamber.

Conversely, a variety of bills designed to expand ballot access to otherwise underrepresented or disenfranchised voters were introduced this year, including bills to permit Election Day Registration. Of the 20 EDR bills tracked by Project Vote, just one became state law. North Carolina’s HB 91 creates Same Day Registration, which permits people to register and vote on the same day in the period between the close of traditional voter registration and a few days before election day. Seven states permit registration the day of election.

A number of bills restoring voter rights to former felons were introduced, only two of which made any headway. Maryland’s SB 488 passed and now allows former felons the opportunity to regain voting rights. Texas’ HB 770, a bill requiring the state Criminal Justice Department to provide notice and voter registration forms to newly eligible former felons, passed but was vetoed by the governor.

Mobilizing young voters was a popular issue with state legislatures. Bills to lower the voting age, allow pre-registration, and provide voter education were introduced in 6 the 24 states we tracked. Even a “Student Voting Rights Act” was introduced in Maryland. Of all these bills, just one went the desk of the governor. California’s AB 183 was introduced as a bill making voter registration a high school graduation pre-requisite and amended to simply provide “high school voter weeks,” or the opportunity for students to register on campus. The bill was vetoed by the governor.

Although hundreds of election bills, good and bad, were introduced in 2007 very few made it through the legislative process. But 2007 is perhaps best understood as a prelude to what will be happening in 2008. What did not pass this year stands a good chance of being re-introduced or re-invented in 2008, including bills expanding voter participation through Election Day Registration initiatives or limiting access through the voter ID proposals.

In order to keep up with the flurry of activity from the 2008 elections, please visit Project Vote’s election bill tracking website, www.ElectionLegislation.org, a free service for advocates, reporters and policymakers that includes weekly status updates, bill summaries, links to bill text and daily postings of related news. Click here to view our 2008 Election Legislation calendar, listing the session and bill tracking schedules of the 21 states we will monitor in the new year.

If you’ve ever built sandcastles at the beach, you know that when the tide comes in, sometimes there is an initial wave that takes out a part of your complex before the tsunami that destroys it. In political terms, the Republican Party is on the cusp of total destruction, but you can already see areas where the damage is severe. The most obvious area is New England, where Chris Shays is the sole remaining Republican in the House, and he is quite likely to lose his seat next year.

Ohio is another area. Between a tragic death, several retirements, and vulnerable incumbents, the GOP’s House delegation is losing a tremendous amount of seniority and clout. The Republicans lost the Governor’s mansion, one Senate and one House seat last year. They may lose three or more seats next year.

Illinois is looking just as bad. The death of Henry Hyde is merely symbolic, as he had already retired. Dennis Hastert’s abrupt retirement is another matter. Add in Ray LaHood and Jerry Weller whose retirements will cost the Land of Lincoln an Appropriations and a Ways & Means committee seat.

The Republicans are in danger of losing more seats in the New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Minnesota suburbs. But there is pier damage is places as unlikely as Alaska, where incumbent Don Young is trailing his 2006 opponent in a recent poll 45%-37%. He beat her 57%-40% just last year.

These are the areas where the Republicans have developed severe weaknesses. And when that next wave rolls in, it may wipe out the Republican Party in New England, the Mid-Atlantic, the Upper Midwest, and even Alaska.

And then the Republicans will have to figure out if they want to keep their image as the party of the “vaguely threatening parade of gun fetishists, flat worlders, Mars Explorers, Confederate flag lovers and zombie-eyed-Bible-wavers” we saw in the YouTube debate.

    With the ongoing debate about our immigration policy and lack of enforcement of current immigration laws, one thing has been made painfully clear in all the rhetoric and hub-bub. It is all the Mexicans fault and if they would just go back to Mexico and quit jumping the border America would be alright. This is the current solution to the immigration problem being bandied about by the Republicans. Basically we need to build a giant wall like in Israel and shoot anybody that tries to cross it. It’s amazing but since 9/11 illegal immigrants have now all been branded with the terrorists iron, so now not only are they taking the jobs of hard working Americans they are also planning some subversive activities.
    Before we begin to start lynching illegal migrant workers I think it would be a good idea to make sure they are guilty first. My concern is that immigration is a smoke screen being used by the Republicans to divert attention away from the real issues that are confronting our country. It is also a cloak for the more racist elements of our society that see the “darkening” of America and want to stop it. The Republicans ever ready to exploit a racially charged issue have jumped on the anti-immigrant bandwagon as they did with the civil rights movement. Today instead of supporting “states rights”, they are supporting “native-born” rights. As if any of them were truly native born, they only seem to support native born up until about the 1600’s.

     We have been wrestling with immigration for years and yet now it has been elevated to a hot button topic. Do we need to fix and amend our immigration policies? Of course we do, but I don’t think it is wise to do so in such a charged atmosphere. It is precisely this type of charged atmosphere that led to the invasion of Iraq and we all know how well that strategy is working out. Immigration in America is a complex issue and despite the sound bite rhetoric being tossed around, it is a topic that will require input and analysis from a lot of different areas of expertise. There is no easy answer and locking down the borders is definitely not it, this will only cause hardship for all concerned. Instead of having a debate of how things “should be”, we need to understand the situation as “it is” and begin to initiate changes that our both just and humane.

      What we are hearing from the Republican candidates is more pandering to the base about immigration. They have devised biometric ID cards for all immigrants and aliens, build a giant wall, and add 23,000 more border patrol agents. While these suggestions will fire up the Party base it adds nothing to the real conversation and solutions to our immigration policies. What we need is an honest national debate on what is possible and prudent versus what will stoke the fires of prejudice.
The Democrats have been silent on the issue for fear of alienating any crossover or independent minded voters. They have offered plenty of generalities but very little in the way of definitive answers. One thing they all seem to agree on is an improved process for legal immigration. What that process will look like no one is saying.

     Immigration and border security are important issues in the minds of many Americans, but we must not allow it to be used to avert our attention from the bleeding of our national treasure for an endless war, the lack of health insurance for too many Americans, the loss of democracy and personal freedoms and the siphoning off of wealth for the wealthy at the expense of the rest of us. If we don’t deal with these issues it won’t matter how many immigrants come into the country, because there won’t be a country to defend. The defenders of the status quo will always create these “hot button” issues to distract the American public from the issues that will make a real difference in our lives. Instead of focusing on these other issues we get abortion, gay marriage, and immigration, so while our money and country is being stolen from the inside we are worried about these phantom menaces from the outside. In the centuries since our country has been founded we have had few direct assaults from the outside and each time they have been responded to, so for us to conclude that foreigners are going to bring down America is paranoia and not supported by the facts.

     I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings but the Mexicans are not responsible for all the things that are wrong in America, for many years they have provided a positive contribution to our nation. For us to deny that contribution or to minimize it would be wrong and unfair to all those immigrants who have come here and worked hard to help build and maintain America. It is always easy to blame some group or another for the problems besetting our country, from the beginning there have always been some group to blame. Whether that group is the Irish, the Germans, the Polish, the Chinese, the Italians, or the Blacks the wealthy class has always relied on the natural prejudice and fears of some to sidetrack scrutiny rightly intended for them and their shell game policies.

The immigration controversy revolves around questions of national identity, security in a post-Sept.-11 world and the workings of a $12 trillion economy. Illegal immigrants are essential workers on American farms, in hotels and restaurants and on construction sites. An estimated 7.2 million illegals provide much of the unskilled muscle that the USA’s Information Age economy requires: 36% of insulation workers, 29% of farm hands and 27% of butchers.

That’s nothing new. Historically, the contributions of the Irish, Germans, Italians, Mexicans and other groups to the American edifice are essential elements of the national belief system. Immigrants labored, often under harsh conditions, in New England paper mills, Midwestern steel plants and along the transcontinental railroads. USA Today

    Yeah, what the hell who needs them, we’ll let Lou Dobbs and all those other Republicans pick next year’s fruit harvest.

The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie — deliberate, contrived and dishonest — but the myth — persistent, persuasive and unrealistic – John F. Kennedy

The Disputed Truth