Lou Dobbs is something of a boner. It’s true. But to be publicly pooh-poohing the idea of an American “problem” discussing race, then inadvertently almost throw out the “cotton-pickin’” phrase? Verifiably proving the colloquial traps that exist? That is just priceless!
But set the gaff aside for now. I’m sure those of you who like to think are probably more irritated by what it is he’s actually saying, which is actually much stoopider than his slip of the tongue. » Continue Reading…
With all this talk about Hillary Clinton bringing her fight to the Democratic Convention and to the Credentials Committee, it’s worth wondering who, exactly, will the Credentials Committee be made up of? Maryland Politics Watch did a bit of reporting on this a little over a month ago, and guess what? They’re the same freakin’ superdelegates that the Clinton camp has been fighting for all along. And but for the chairpersons, none of the members of the committee have yet been determined. They will be picked by Howard Dean.
The article points out that two out of three of the chair people for the Committee are former Clinton White House officials. But also keep in mind that one of the former Clinton CC chairs, Alexis Herman, is also a member of the Rules Committee, the group that is largely responsible for the fate of Florida and Michigan’s primary do-overs. Is she going to overturn herself?
And once again, Clinton’s relentlessly spiraling, confused attacks on the superdelegates, the DCCC and anyone standing in her way are not going to help once she gets to the convention. Congressmen who’ve had their campaign money dangled in front of their eyes may not react kindly to Mrs. Clinton’s appeals.
As the situation in Iraq degrades towards civil war, The Decider continues to declare progress being made. There is not a whit of recognition, nor will there be for months, that the situation is getting close to out of control. As TPM reports, Baghdad police are leaving in droves and Iraqi soldiers (who, according to the Bush Administration, are fighting in Basra) are back-filling those positions. Meanwhile, our troops are once again filling in the front lines of the Iraqi Civil War:
McClatchy Washington Bureau | 03/27/2008 | Bush: Iraq is returning to normal
President Bush, saying that “normalcy is returning back to Iraq,” argued Thursday that last year’s U.S. troop “surge” has improved Iraq’s security to the point where political and economic progress are blossoming as well.
When the buzzards start hovering, its little wonder that the man who made 911 his one and only campaign platform should be the buzzard in charge. In this case, however, Giuliani shows us that his careful, level-headed planning that served him so well in the Republican Primary could be at least as effective here in New York State:
GIULIANI WEIGHING ‘SPECIAL’ RUN FOR GOV – New York Post
In the latest twist in New York politics, Rudy Giuliani is eyeing a run for governor in a special election this fall should Gov. Paterson be forced to resign, sources say.
Of course, it goes without saying that all calls will be monitored. Still, unrestricted cell access opens up the Cuban market to much more revenue (which is what they’re after) and allows Cubans much less restricted access to information in the outside world. Will this new found freedom also extend to Wireless Internet?
Cuba allows unrestricted cellular phone service | Reuters
The Cuban telecommunications monopoly ETECSA said it would begin mobile phone service for the general public in the next few days.
“ETECSA is able to offer mobile phone service to the public,” it said in a statement published in the Communist Party newspaper Granma.
In the current environment in Washington, there is every reason to believe that any Republicans reading this post may be called upon to serve in a high-level post in the Bush Administration, if only because everybody else has already had a go. With this in mind, I thought I’d hip you to a few “Contract Negotiations for Dummies” rules of vetting multi-million dollar military contracts that might help you better steer the ship of state towards the victory I know you Republicans all ache for.
For example, if the vice president of “Contractor Company A” is a licensed masseur, that is a bad sign. It’s a good sign if you’re feeling a bit achy and in need of therapy, but it doesn’t really bespeak a lot of military experience. Not unless that experience is in the army of Louis the XVI.
Another red flag to keep an eye out for: if the company you plan to supply arms to your allies operates out of an unmarked office in Miami, you’re probably going to want to get a receipt at minimum. In a similar vein, if the president of the company is a 22 year old who has used his military contractor status to avoid prosecution in a domestic dispute, you’ll probably want to double-check that bill of sale.
Otherwise, you might end up with ammunition manufactured in China in 1966. Lots more revelations today in the New York Times.
When it comes to national security, no measures are too extreme for the Daddy Warbucks Administration. You never know who could pose a threat to the defense of the homeland: it could be a presidential candidate with the middle name Hussein or even a former Playboy Playmate with large potential smuggling compartments at her disposal:
BBC NEWS | Americas | More US passport ‘file breaches’
Other Americans whose files had been viewed since January 2007 included late Playboy model Anna Nicole Smith, AP reports, citing unnamed officials. AP says the review is not complete and the number of cases is not yet clear.
Silly bureaucrats! Tits are for snuggles, not smuggles!
I have a friend who just lost his job and is in need of medical insurance because of existing conditions. He was checking into Healthy New York and discovered something that should raise more than a few eyebrows out there: HealthyNY does not cover mental health. At all.
So, after all those television commercials featuring our former governor Pataki, where does one go to get mental health issues covered if they’re out of work? Even better, our supposed lifeline for health insurance in this country also goes on in its website to state the following:
Pre-Existing Condition Limitation
Coverage under the Healthy NY program is subject to a pre-existing condition waiting period. This means that if the applicant has a medical condition that they have been either diagnosed with or treated for in the last six months, services for the treatment of that condition may be excluded from coverage for up to a year.
Republicans and Conservatives can say what they want about the government not getting involved in people’s lives. But I think a big question we all have to ask ourselves is: if they’re going to get involved, what are we going to get for our tax dollars?
More coverage to come. . .
Jon Greenbaum, intrepid blogger for DFE and organizer for Metro Justice, checks in with a discussion of the reform prospects for Industrial Development Agencies this year. I certainly hope he’s right that reform might be possible this year. Trouble is: politicians have a very, very hard time letting go of their cash cows, and unregulated free tax write-offs for companies that build their businesses locally are a big, fat-old cash cow.
Golly, I sure wish this whole Democratic primary thing would go away. I really would like to think that we could just settle on a candidate and get it over with before someone goes and does something underhanded. . .
But Hillary Clinton just keeps doing stuff to push her party away from her, and her supporters keep defending it. I’d like this all to go away, really I would, so why does she have to go and do stuff that’s just so anti-Democratic Party?
The latest is that she’s digging into the Wright controversy (which is soooo five minutes ago) by discussing it with the editorial board of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, owned by none other than Richard Mellon Scaife, author of the “Hillary Clinton had Vince Foster whacked” controversy.
How’s that for scruples? Get your Democratic opponent whacked by the same guy who ruined your reputation with half the country. Anything, anything, anything to win, even if it means losing.
