Month: May 2014

It is interesting to watch how carefully orchestrated Hillary Clinton’s book rollout is, with the effort as much about bolstering her image as it is about selling books. She has released the chapter dedicated to the attacks in Benghazi, and Politico has a write-up. It’s pretty much what you would expect. Part defensiveness, part sheer exasperation. Her biggest beef is with how the tragedy has been politicized, and she’s to the point about some of the conspiracy theories.

Clinton addresses lingering questions about how military assets were deployed to try to rescue personnel at the besieged compound, writing that Obama “gave the order to do whatever was necessary to support our people in Libya. It was imperative that all possible resources be mobilized immediately. … When Americans are under fire, that is not an order the Commander in Chief has to give twice. Our military does everything humanly possible to save American lives — and would do more if they could. That anyone has ever suggested otherwise is something I will never understand.”

Of course, I am sure that she fully understands why people have suggested something else. It’s because they want to gain some political advantage from the death of our ambassador.

“Those who exploit this tragedy over and over as a political tool minimize the sacrifice of those who served our country,” Clinton writes in the gripping chapter, “Benghazi: Under Attack.”

Casting doubt on the motivations of congressional Republicans who have continued to investigate the attacks, including with an upcoming House select committee, Clinton continues: “I will not be a part of a political slugfest on the backs of dead Americans. It’s just plain wrong, and it’s unworthy of our great country. Those who insist on politicizing the tragedy will have to do so without me.”

I fully agree with the former First Lady, senator from New York, and Secretary of State. It is “just plain wrong” and “unworthy of our great country.” I am confident that the vast majority of Americans agree, or will agree, with that sentiment. We will all have another debate about this matter, and by the time the campaign begins in earnest, we will all be sick to death of the whole discussion.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/29/harvey-milk-stamp-anti-gay-group_n_5412295.html

Get the stamp and mail your love to:

American Family Association
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Poor, poor Donald Sterling. He’s having his beloved basketball team pried out of his hands and all he’ll get for it is about four times more than anyone has ever gotten before for selling a NBA franchise. At two billion dollars, it’s second only to the sale of the Los Angeles Dodgers in the history of American sports. Thanks, Steve Ballmer, for really showing that Donald Sterling. I’m sure he’s learned his lesson.

Of course, the sale isn’t finalized and Sterling’s a little crazy so who knows if he’ll sign on the dotted line. I suspect he will, though, since he only paid 12.5 million dollars for the team back in 1981. The capital gains taxes will be so huge that they’ll probably balance the nation’s budget.

Sad to think that Donald Sterling probably stands to make more money for being a racist than anyone since the abolition of slavery.

Oh, for Christ’s sake:

The conservative cable-news family is about to get a new member. On Thursday, Newsmax Media Inc. announced that it will kick off its new network next month, Newsmax TV, following a recent distribution deal with DirecTV.

The mid-June soft launch, as described by CEO Christopher Ruddy, is expected to reach more than 20 million DirecTV subscribers, and hopes to build off of that launch to reach 40 percent of homes with cable or satellite by the end of the year. The channel will aim to attract the “Baby Boomers” generation.

“Newsmax was born online and as the lines between TV and the web blur, we will attract a growing audience that doesn’t differentiate between the two,” Ruddy said in a statement. “As a result, we are also well positioned to maximize the opportunities provided by ‘TV Everywhere’ platforms to reach tens of millions of Americans.”

The new network will initially feature nine hours of original programming, and move to 18 hours by the end of the year.

In case you are not aware, Newsmax is a wholly fraudulent enterprise that routinely fleeces its own readership through quackery, gold-buggery, and any other scheme they can think of to separate old folks from their money.

I can guarantee you that DirecTV will have quick reason to regret doing business with this outfit. Never mind that Newsmax’s “original programming” will be about as edifying as discussing the French Revolution with Ted Nugent and Donald Trump, the real concern is that swindling is Newmax’s business model. And if they’ve grown rich enough to launch a cable channel, I’d say they’ve gotten pretty good at their swindling.

I am willing to grant Rich Lowry that the primary cause of the Santa Barbara massacre was the mental illness of the perpetrator. But I think it’s unsupportable to argue that his mental illness explains everything and that cultural messages had no influence whatsoever.

In this case, the murderer helpfully explained the source of his anger, which was envy and jealously fueled by feelings of inadequacy. He hated people who had and enjoyed the things he wanted and could not have. His mental illness explains his irrational hatred, but it doesn’t fully explain his feelings of inadequacy which were developed in a cultural context.

It doesn’t take a mental illness to seek out advice on how to better attract women, and the advice he received in the Pick-Up Artist community encouraged this young man to see women as objects to be conquered rather than as individuals to be courted. In this sense, the Pick-Up Artist community bears more responsibility for the massacre than the Beatles did for the Manson Gang’s atrocities.

So, while I think that it’s true that some people are spreading the blame around too cavalierly, the attitudes the killer had didn’t develop in a vacuum. There were people who were not suffering from any mental illness who encouraged this man to view women the way he did. I don’t see the harm in pointing that out.

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The whole circus of right-wing Republicans, defending fascist tendencies of Israel über alles, whipping up hatred for minorities here in America, is looking more and more like an asylum for stupid and idiots. These people are vulgar and have no morality or humanity in their dna. I nauseate when confronted with their writings and messages on social media. Thank G*d the social media with followers regurgle their own nonsense and usually stays within its own social circles and community. Sometimes these bombs of hate are thrown over the wall with the intent to  inflict damage to liberals and progressives. A sick mind cannot discern hero from traitor to America.

This afternoon, the President released a statement on the passing of Dr. Maya Angelou – one of the most prolific writers and activists of our time:

When her friend Nelson Mandela passed away last year, Maya Angelou wrote that “No sun outlasts its sunset, but will rise again, and bring the dawn.”

Today, Michelle and I join millions around the world in remembering one of the brightest lights of our time – a brilliant writer, a fierce friend, and a truly phenomenal woman. Over the course of her remarkable life, Maya was many things – an author, poet, civil rights activist, playwright, actress, director, composer, singer and dancer. But above all, she was a storyteller – and her greatest stories were true. A childhood of suffering and abuse actually drove her to stop speaking – but the voice she found helped generations of Americans find their rainbow amidst the clouds, and inspired the rest of us to be our best selves. In fact, she inspired my own mother to name my sister Maya.

Like so many others, Michelle and I will always cherish the time we were privileged to spend with Maya. With a kind word and a strong embrace, she had the ability to remind us that we are all God’s children; that we all have something to offer. And while Maya’s day may be done, we take comfort in knowing that her song will continue, “flung up to heaven” – and we celebrate the dawn that Maya Angelou helped bring.

 « click for more info
President Obama awards Angelou the 2010 Medal of Freedom

Maya Angelou Gushes Over US-Flag-Burning Palestinian Terrorist Rachel Corrie – BARF!  by Debbie Schlussel

Only a narcissist like anti-American, anti-Israel bigot Maya Angelou would think anyone wants to hear her read from an e-mail from anti-American, anti-Israel bigot Rachel Corrie, who was part of the Palestinian terrorist group International Solidarity Movement (which aided Al-Qaeda terrorists and gave HAMAS terrorists a place to sleep the night before they blew up Mike’s Bar in Tel Aviv, Israel. But here it is, below. Looks like Angelou is having an orgasm saying the words, “Gaza” and “Palestine.”

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In case you aren’t familiar with Rachel Corrie, she was an America-hating flag burner who was in love with Islam and her Palestinian Islamic terrorist friends for whom she was working. She died when she was accidentally run over by a bulldozer while she was attempting to stop Israelis from knocking down homes shielding tunnels through which her terrorist friends transported weapons and bombs to kill innocent civilians.

When people ask me what I think of Rachel Corrie, I tell them I think she’s flat as a pancake.

And, now, her fan, Maya Angelou is joining her. Buh-bye.

New London Play Fetes U.S. Activist Rachel Corrie Killed in Gaza – 2005

Southern Poverty Law Center ‘Follows the Networks’ of Anti-Muslim Hate

Continued below the fold …

Southern Poverty Law Center ‘Follows the Networks’ of Anti-Muslim Hate

(Tikun Olam) – I posted some time ago when the Southern Poverty Law Center designated Pam Geller’s Atlas Shrugs as an Islamophobic hate blog along with her Stop the Islamization of America group, which invented the “Ground Zero Mosque” and ensuring Muslim-bashing controversy.  Recently, I discovered that SPLC has expanded its listings of Arab-hating blogs and groups to include some of the more notorious pro-Israel blogs out there which combine hasbara with Muslim-bashing.  Among them are Sultan of Knish, Radio Jihad, and Bare Naked Islam.

SPLC’s Intelligence Report, which follows wanna be haters and terrorists provides excellent coverage of some Muslim-haters who haven’t yet made it to the pantheon of the group’s Hate Hall of Fame.  Among them are Debbie Schlussel, David Horowitz, Dave Gaubatz, David Yerushalmi, Brigitte Gabriel and Robert Spencer.

Debbie Schlussel on Lara Logan, victim of a gang rape during her coverage of the Tahrir Square revolt:

How fitting that Lara Logan was ‘liberated’ by Muslims in Liberation Square while she was gushing over the other part of the ‘liberation.’ Hope you’re enjoying the revolution, Lara! Alhamdillullah (praise allah) [sic].”

Lara Logan, Nir Rosen, Debbie Schlussel and the age of exposure

(Guardian) – I expected you’ve heard the hideous news that Lara Logan of CBS News (photo) was sexually assaulted in Cairo. And I expect you’ve heard that Nir Rosen, the left-leaning journalist who is like Logan a war correspondent, distastefully joked about it on Twitter. You’re probably less likely to have heard about Debbie Schlussel’s comments, more on which later …

We live in an age in which every instant thought can be sent out into the world. Some people try to learn from it. Others take advantage of it for the purpose of spreading their name. What odds should I lay down that Murdoch properties Fox News or the New York Post, where Schlussel appears, will make her submit to any penalty?

Nir Rosen on the media’s double standard for Palestine

On Scarborough Country, Schlussel misrepresented Hillary Clinton, defended Coulter

(MediaMatters) – During a discussion with host Joe Scarborough about Clinton’s condemnation of Coulter’s attacks on 9-11 widows, Schlussel misrepresented Clinton’s record when she proclaimed she was “really amazed” Clinton criticized Coulter for her comments because “there wasn’t a peep” from Clinton “when Suha Arafat told [Clinton] that Jews like me poison Palestinian water and air and cause cancer for them.” Contrary to Schlussel’s claim that Clinton did not make “a peep” about Suha Arafat’s controversial remarks made during a trip Clinton took to the West Bank in 1999, an October 6, 2000, The New York Times article reported that Clinton disavowed Arafat’s remarks after receiving an official translation “hours later.”

Regarding Coulter’s attack on 9-11 widows, Schlussel declared that Coulter is “100 percent correct” and said while Coulter’s “language was incorrect,” and “provocative,” Coulter “made a great point” saying “liberals” give “Cindy Sheehan and these four women liberal infallibility because they lost somebody.” In characterizing Coulter’s personal attacks on the 9-11 widows as “provocative” and agreeing that Coulter’s “point is 100 percent correct,” Schlussel echoed other conservative media figures — as well as reporters such as Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz and ABC News senior national correspondent Jake Tapper — who have suggested that the underlying argument Coulter was making in going after the widows — that Democrats and liberals use victims as advocates for particular causes because they are insulated from criticism — was “correct.”

○ Michigan primary 2008 – Why Debbie Schlussel is voting for Hillary Clinton

My recent diary – Hillary Clinton Highlights Her [Lack] of Credentials.

WARNING: Do not tell your fundamentalist/creationist friends this news unless you want to watch their heads explode from all the cognitive dissonance.

It seems that crickets, the noisy little buggers you hear at night throughout this great land of ours, have either been blessed with a genuine act of GOD, or once again have provided more evidence that Darwin’s “theory” of evolution (as amended over time by biologists) just might accurately describe how species change over time. Specifically, crickets in two separate places have either been told to “shut it” by God (hey miracles could happen I suppose, but crickets?), or they evolved to no longer make a joyful noise unto the Lord to protect themselves from predators. From the BBC News online:

To hide themselves from deadly flies, crickets on two Hawaiian islands have evolved an inability to sing.

Ten years ago, two years apart, males appeared on Kauai and Oahu with altered wings, which they would normally rub together to chirp and attract females.

You see, the recent arrival of a particular fly species from North America proved deadly to the crickets on these Hawaiian islands. The flies were exceptionally good listeners. Able to pinpoint the location of the crickets by sound alone, the flies would drop in and lay baby maggots atop the male cricket’s body. Once those little maggots got to work, well, that was all she wrote for the poor male crickets. In about than a week, give or take a few days, the crickets were eaten out husks of their former selves. This obviously forced the crickets to adapt or die out. And “adapt” they did, in fairly quick fashion.

In less than 20 generations, a mutation that leaves males unable to sing spread to over 90% of the crickets on the island of Kauai. […]

Two years after the Kauai discovery in 2003, flatwing crickets were also found over 100km away on Oahu.

What’s even stranger (or not) is that these Hawaiian male crickets on these two islands were “silenced” as it were by two separate mutations according to a study published in the journal “Biology” (citation: S. Pascoal et al., “Rapid convergent evolution in wild crickets,” Current Biology, doi:10.1016/j.cub.2014.04.053, 2014). And apparently these mutations happened completely independently of one another:

The idea that the trait had evolved twice, at almost the same time, seemed far-fetched. “It still seems amazing to me,” Dr Bailey told BBC News.

The first clue was an observation that the mutant, silenced wings on the two islands had two different shapes. […]

[C]omparing a raft of other genetic markers between the two groups yielded convincing evidence that the two mutations had occurred independently.

Can’t wait to hear what explanation the Creationists have for God deciding to cause separate mutations to these Hawaiian crickets to achieve the same result: keeping them quiet. I suspect in this case, we won’t even hear the crickets in their response.

For more details about the Silence of the Hawaiian Crickets go here: Link.

This is Exhibit A on why this country is quickly being turned into an Idiocracy by the GOP:

House Speaker John Boehner said Thursday that he’s “not qualified to debate the science over climate change” while slamming the Obama Administration proposed plans to deal with rising global temperatures.

“Listen, I’m not qualified to debate the science over climate change,” Boehner said. “I am astute to understand that every proposal that has come out of this administration to deal with climate change involves hurting our economy and killing American jobs. That can’t be the prescription for dealing with changes to our climate.”

According to NASA, 97% of scientists agree on climate change being due to human activity.

There is no other way to put it; this is simply inexcusable behavior on Speaker Boehner’s part. He is demonstrating a total lack of moral character, and he should be called on it by all decent people, starting with the political press.

It’s an enduring stain on the reputation and standing of our country that nothing that Dick Cheney did as vice-president has been deemed a crime worthy of prosecution. As Charles Pierce pointed out yesterday, the war in Afghanistan alone has cost “2232 Americans killed, 20,000 local civilians killed, $10.1 million dollars an hour.” To have Dick Cheney free to lecture the country about the current president’s weakness is an abomination. The man has made the words “torture” and “America” synonymous, which is an enduring shame that cannot be blotted out. Dick Cheney is responsible for creating an explicit, operational guide to torture that manifested itself at Gitmo, Abu Ghraib, and the Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, as well as in our secret black site prisons in places like Thailand and Poland.

No one in the Bush administration was a more brazen liar about Saddam Hussein’s alleged role in the 9/11 attacks than Dick Cheney. And no one in their right mind thinks that the decision to invade Iraq made America a stronger or more respected nation.

Even though Cheney no longer serves in our government, he should be impeached to make sure he cannot “hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States.”

It’s the least we should do to repair our pride.

Alec MacGillis helpfully explains that:

…New York is one of only a handful [of states] in the country with “fusion” laws that allow a candidate to appear on the ballot on the line of more than one political party. This means that a third party can seek to influence one of the two major parties by putting a major-party candidate on its own line, in exchange for some leverage over his or her platform, instead of always just running its own long-shot candidate and potentially playing a spoiler role.

New York’s “fusion ballot” is creating a very interesting situation. Governor Andrew Cuomo is seeking the endorsement of the Working Families Party, but the WFP is demanding that Cuomo throw his weight behind a bill to create public financing of campaigns. In response, Cuomo is using a small group of Quisling Democratic state senators who caucus with the Republicans (thereby giving them control of the upper chamber) to extort support of the campaign financing law from the state’s GOP.

Markos Moulitsas asks:

Why hasn’t Cuomo already been actively campaigning for Senate Democrats and working to reunite the fractured Senate Democratic caucus? Why? Because that Republican-controlled Senate has suited his purposes nicely. He never has to worry about signing or vetoing genuinely progressive legislation. And because Senate Republicans know they exist at the whim of the governor, he has a lever to use against them whenever he actually wants something to pass.

Moulitsas’s observation is the common wisdom. It is generally thought that Governor Cuomo prefers to have the Republicans in control of the Senate because it allows him to protect his record as a “moderate” Democrat and helps him position himself for a presidential run. Of course, his presidential ambitions are currently blocked by another New Yorker named Hillary Clinton. Clinton may also feel that moderation from New York’s legislature benefits her presidential ambitions. Whether that is true or not, it certainly helps in attracting support from Wall Street.

It’s hardly surprising that Cuomo is being rewarded with big checks from Wall Street and the rest of New York’s business establishment—60 percent of his campaign contributions have come in checks $10,000 or larger, while less than one percent has come in donations $250 or below—rates that make even George Pataki, the business-friendly former Republican governor, look like a populist by comparison. Cuomo’s even getting backing from major Republican donors like Ken Langone, the former Home Depot who recently compared liberal worries about income inequality to rhetoric in Nazi Germany.

All of this has been hard to stomach for the WFP, which has been  hinting that it might nominate its own candidate for governor at its convention this weekend.

Cuomo can probably win reelection without the endorsement of the Working Families Party, but losing their endorsement would cut into his margin of victory and make him look less appealing as candidate for president.

This might seem like a mere factional kerfuffle, except that the WFP is showing considerable sway in polling on the governor’s race. Two surveys from respected pollsters have shown a Candidate X from the WFP polling above 20 percent. In the most recent one, by Quinnipiac, Cuomo’s vote share plummets from 57 percent to 37 percent if there is a separate WFP challenger in the mix. He still leads Republican candidate Rob Astorino, who is stuck in the 20s in both scenarios, but not by nearly the overwhelming margin he would want to have if he was going to run for president should Hillary Clinton decide not to.

So, to avoid this scenario, Governor Cuomo is doing the bidding of the WFP and getting behind the effort to pass a public financing of campaigns bill.

Gov. Cuomo will work to toss the Senate Republicans from power by reuniting the chamber’s fractured Democrats if the GOP does not agree to create a statewide public financing system for campaigns, according to sources with direct knowledge of the situation.

But this isn’t the end of the intrigue. Liberal Activist Bill Samuel is threatening to run for Lieutenant Governor against Cuomo’s hand-picked choice of ex-Rep. Kathy Hochul. David Nir explains the potential complications:

In New York, the lieutenant governor is nominated separately from the governor, but the two run together on a single ticket in the fall in a so-called “shotgun marriage” arrangement. And Samuels, who earlier this year said Cuomo should seek re-election as a Republican, would make a very awkward spouse for the incumbent.

While Cuomo would obviously go all-out for Hochul, Samuels would have much greater appeal to voters in a Democratic primary than the conservative Hochul, who’s already been trying to walk back her anti-immigration views and still has giant flashing neon “A” rating from the NRA to deal with. What’s more, Hochul’s from Buffalo whereas Samuels is from New York City, where most primary votes are cast, so a Samuels victory would not be out of the question.

And if he were to win, it would create a terrible complication for Cuomo. He and Hochul have already been nominated by the Independence Party, a mostly fake organization that typically sells its appealingly named ballot line to the highest bidder.

But under New York’s fusion voting system, ballots cast for a Cuomo/Samuels ticket on the Democratic line could not be consolidated with those cast for Cuomo/Hochul on the Independence line, meaning Cuomo would have to spurn the IP (and Hochul) and encourage people to vote for him as a Democrat. That in turn could lead to the IP failing to get the 50,000 votes it would need to stay on the ballot for the next four years, a nifty bit of collateral damage.

This last bit appears to matter little outside of New York State, but it creates a giant headache for the governor. It’s also complicated by the fact that the progressive mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio, has thrown his weight behind Kathy Hochul’s candidacy.

These are interesting times.