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"Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly?It sure is amusing reading the younger McCain's critique of David Letterman's Bristol Palin joke.
Because her father is Janet Reno."
In response to a recent New York Times column by Maureen Dowd that called Edwards's new book, Resilience, "just a gratuitous peek into their lives, and one that exposes her kids, by peddling more dregs about their personal family life," Edwards says Dowd is way off base and adds that she'd have been "foolhardy" to think she'd be protecting her kids by not writing about her life.
"My children aren't protected from the death of their brother, my breast cancer, or any of the things that have happened in our family," says Edwards. "They're smart kids, they have Google alerts. They already know." Dowd, she adds, "has written an editorial where she clearly does not understand this."
Q. So he's now a practicing Jew?
A. He's now a Jew. He's practicing Judaism.
Q. Tells us about that? What led him to that?
A. Because of the difficulties, he always wanted to know God in a very diffent and special way. From a very small boy -- because we talk about his childhood a whole lot -- he asked himself questions about Christianity. Too many questions about why certain things happened. And why, this one and that one. Just too many question in Christianity and the whole thing about Christ because he does believe in Christ. When he got to the Hague, he got to know that he really, really wanted to be a Jew. Wanted to convert to Judaism. And that...
Q. Does that mean he has rejected Christianity then? Because that's quite a radical departure.
A. No, no, no he hasn't rejected Christianity. He has always been a Christian. He just decided to become a Jew. He wants to follow the two religions.
King: It's my school of journalism, it may not be everyone else's school of journalism, but it's my school of journalism is that I interview all these guys with respect. I respect the office, I respect the people, I respect anybody that puts themselves out there like that. But, I, you know, I need to protect myself and my integrity and my credibility, and the President of the United States, you know, God bless him, God bless the one before him, and God bless the next 200 to come. I'm not going to ask them for an endorsement or a product endorsement. I think that's way over the line.I agree with King. It was tacky. Cute, but tacky. The Daily Show mocked NBC's "Real World" coverage of Obama:
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | M - Th 11p / 10c | |||
| The Real World D.C. | ||||
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"Unfortunately, there’s not a good shorthand term for the psychology behind this kind of behavior. “Racism” doesn’t, I think, capture it. But there’s this deranged fascination with walking up to the line and dancing around there in hopes of getting called on it. Then you get to become indignant. Because, again, the contemporary right’s main view on race is that actual racism against non-white people is only a tiny problem compared with the vast social crisis that allegedly exists around people being vigilant against racism." - Matt YglesiasSalon has more on this classy cover.
“The California Constitution has been amended or revised more than 500 times. It is now 157 pages. “You've got to respect someone who acknowledges when they're wrong and isn't afraid to do some research.
That just strikes me as a recipe for fail. Additionally, I learned that you all have term limits, so not only does it only take a 50+1 vote to increase spending and a 2/3 vote to raise money to pay for things, you also have special interests doing bond initiatives for anything that blows their trumpet, property tax laws that make no sense, and then to compound everything, people have no problem raising spending because when the shit hits the fan, they will have been term limited out and it is someone else’s problem. Then, the new people coming in to replace them have no experience and no authority and no way to fix it and the voters all hate them.
Pretty awesome.
As the notion of California as ungovernable grows stronger than ever, Mr. Schwarzenegger, a Republican, has expressed support for a convention to address such things as the state’s arcane budget requirements and its process for proliferate ballot initiatives, both of which necessitated Tuesday’s statewide vote on budget matters approved months ago by state lawmakers.The constitutional convention would be must see TV. It looks to be the best solution to this mess.
“There could not be more of a tipping point,” said Jim Wunderman, chief executive of the Bay Area Council, a business group that moved forward on Wednesday with plans to push for a constitutional convention. “We think the interest is going to grow by orders of magnitude now.”
First L'Osservatore Romano, the official Vatican newspaper, ran an article giving Obama's first 100 days a tentative thumbs-up. Then, as conservative Catholics in the U.S. were wringing their hands about the horror of Barack Obama's scheduled appearance at Notre Dame, the newspaper--and the Vatican in general--was conspicuously silent. Then, when the paper did report on Obama's speech, its calm, fairly positive take was in stark contrast to the furious reaction of many conservative Catholics here.
But this takes the cake. In an interview with an Italian newspaper the day after Obama's speech, Giavonni Maria Vian, editor-in-chief of L'Osservatore Romano, seemed to forcefully push back against the view that Obama is a threat to Catholic values and religious freedom. “Obama has not upset the world,” said Vian. “His speech at Notre Dame has been respectful toward every position. He tried to engage the debate stepping out from every ideological position and outside every ‘confrontational mentality.' To this extent his speech is to be appreciated.”
After reaffirming that the Vatican newspaper shares the American bishops' staunch opposition to abortion, Vian went further. "What I want to stress is that yesterday, on this precise and very delicate issue, the President said that the approval of the new law on abortion is not a priority of his administration. The fact that he said that is very reassuring to me. It also underlines my own clear belief: Obama is not a pro-abortion president."
Uh, oh. It sounds like the Vatican newspaper "doesn't understand what it means to be Catholic."
Why not? We keep the Manson Family, the Night Stalker and many other various dangerous people. We sure could use the money, after last night's ballot initiatives were trounced. All this talk of dualing almost makes me forget we had a 2+ year long presidential campaign. It's a shame Dick Cheney didn't run. Maybe then the media would ignore the guy.
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"You can see the outline of the strategy in the administration's decision to let stand an appeals court ruling requiring the military to explain why being gay is, in itself, a reason to have fired a highly regarded lesbian Air Force major. The effect of not appealing the ruling will put the burden on the government to explain to skeptical judges why being gay is inherently incompatible with military service, something the administration (and many in the military) believe is very hard to prove, let alone justify. The hope here is that by allowing the military to make its best case -- and then seeing that case be torn apart by the courts, a critical mass of opposition to Don't Ask, Don't Tell, will build."There's more. It's worth a read. One of Ambinder's commenters, perfectly capture my feelings on the subject.
"[I]t's a little too soon to be worried, and I'm actually a little angry at activists on this issue. We're four months in his first term and it's not ALL activists, not just gay rights ones, seem to feel that everything should be done immediately. There's still plenty of time, however, if we're coming to the fourth year of his last term and it's still not done? Then that would be pretty problematic. But right now, I don't like saying this, but chill."h/t Huffington Post
"[R]emember, it was the base that rejected Mitt because of his switch on pro-life, from pro-choice to pro-life. It was the base that rejected Mitt because it had issues with Mormonism. It was the base that rejected Mitch, Mitt, because they thought he was back and forth and waffling on those very economic issues you’re talking about. So, I mean, I hear what you’re saying, but before we even got to a primary vote, the base had made very clear they had issues with Mitt because if they didn’t, he would have defeated John McCain in those primaries in which he lost."I'm not a Republican, nor am I part of either party's base, but I've been fascinated by the Evangelical movement for sometime, and Steele's comments are backed up with many conversations I had during the primaries.
"The coalition that would nominate such a man (or woman!) exists, sure. In the Democratic party. Not the GOP."That was until Oliver Willis brought this John Aravosis post to my attention:
"It doesn't matter what Huntsman now tells us. The Mormons have a tenet in their faith called "lying for the lord." It means they outright lie when asked about their church, in order to protect and promote their church. And as we've seen with their treatment of the Holocaust victims, and their absurd excuse for why they secretly baptized President Obama's mother only last year, in matters concerning their faith, they have shown that you cannot trust them at their word. Their promises come second to their faith.
If Jon Hunstman is required by God to secretly help the Mormons infiltrate China - and he is - then that is what Jon Huntsman will do as our next Ambassador to China. You can bet on it. Pity the poor Chinese. They have no idea what's about to happen to them."These conspiratorial ideas are common place on the extremes of both parties. Aravosis is fairly mainstream in the liberal blogosphere. It's disappointing to see this from what I'd hoped would be the more tolerant edge of political discourse. Hunstman's dedication to service is tried and true. More should expected out of liberal bloggers. These are the things we'd come to expect from birthers.
"To call [Christopher Hitchens] statements racist, or homophobic, demeans racist and homophobes. Indeed Hitchens displays something more than that--weakness. Weakness is the root of these sorts of slurs--an unwillingness to do the hard work of taking your opponents at their merits. So you name call and strawman. You mock what you don't understand, what you fear." - Ta-Nehisi Coates, Atlantic Monthly----------------
"Because an Obama-friendly moderate stands absolutely no chance of winning a Republican presidential nomination anytime soon. The coalition that would nominate such a man (or woman!) exists, sure. In the Democratic party. Not the GOP."The Republican Party has no interest in ever moderating itself - 2016 or any time in the future. It will take several presidential elections before it even considers something o drastic. We're talking 16-years minimum.
A draft is being prepared as we speak in preparation for June. First one since 2000!h/t Carla Marinucci
Interesting that Bill Clinton issued a presidential proclamation honoring LGBT pride month in June 2000, his last year in the Oval Office, and Obama is getting ready to put forward a similar proclamation in his first year as president.
Nice bit of progress!
I can't wait to read the Stonewall 40 proclamation from Obama in a few short weeks. And to also say, "Thanks, Mr. President."
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Despite Perry’s fighting words, there is no reason for the separation to be an occasion for violence. The globe is replete with two-state solutions: India and Pakistan, Ethiopia and Eritrea, Israel and Palestine. Admittedly, these may not be the best examples. A closer parallel would be Czechoslovakia, which, in 1993, split peacefully into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Like Czechs and Slovaks, Americans and Texans speak closely related languages, share a common, if not equally intense, interest in football games (though the Dallas Cowboys could no longer style themselves “America’s Team”), and enjoy each other’s cuisines. (Houston has a number of acceptable organic fusion restaurants, and there is a pretty fair barbecue place just a block from The New Yorker’s offices.) The border between the United States and the Federated States (“Confederate” being a word that remains a little too provocative) might not be as trouble-free as that between the United States and Canada, but, compared to the border with Mexico, it would probably require somewhat fewer armed citizen militias and fences topped with concertina wire to thwart illegal aliens desperate for a better life. On balance, trade relations between the U.S. and the F.S. would be advantageous to both. Cultural exchanges, tourism, and even a degree of military coöperation would be far from unthinkable.The rest is worth reading, for many laughs. Keep in mind, many Texans do support secession. Just this weekend Gov. Perry has requested help with the swine flu.
For the old country, the benefits would be obvious. A more intimately sized Congress would briskly enact sensible gun control, universal health insurance, and ample support for the arts, the humanities, and the sciences. Although Texas itself has been a net contributor to the Treasury—it gets back ninety-four cents for each dollar it sends to Washington—nearly all the other potential F.S. states, especially the ones whose politicians complain most loudly about the federal jackboot, are on the dole. (South Carolina, for example, receives $1.35 on the dollar, as compared with Illinois’s seventy-five cents.) Republicans would have a hard time winning elections for a generation or two, but eventually a responsible opposition party would emerge, along the lines of Britain’s Conservatives, and a normal alternation in power could return.
Jeremy Tyler, a 6-foot-11 junior, dropped out of his San Diego High School and said he would skip his senior year to play professionally in Europe, The New York Times and Yahoo! Sports reported on Wednesday.I hope he has a solid support group. There are college graduates who never make the adjustment from college to the pros. I can only imagine what this kid's first year in Europe will be like. Kids are growing up so fast they can't be prepared for what's to come.
Tyler, 17, will become the first player born in the United States to leave high school early to play professional basketball overseas. He is expected to come back in two years, when he is eligible for the NBA draft.
Ward, however, won't compromise. He politely declines to talk trash even when provoked. And that's what Miranda is trying to do. He did it during a recent news conference and can't resist doing it whenever he finds an outlet.I doubt I'll be able to make it to Ward's hometown debut May 16, but any locals should consider supporting this great boxer and great person.
A sample: "Andre Ward has never been in the ring with a fighter like me; he hasn't fought anyone talented. If there is one thing you notice about Andre's fights, he's always running."
Another sample: "Andre doesn't have the heart of a champion. He is holding onto his one achievement: the Olympic gold medal. But that is all he will ever achieve."
A third: "I feel sorry for Dan Goossen to have invested so much money in such an untalented fighter."
This is not atypical of boxers seeking attention. Whether showmanship or cheap chatter, it's designed to attract publicity and stir pre-fight promotion.
Ward responds with a shrug. If the immensely popular Manny Pacquiao doesn't need to swagger and boast, why should he?
"My kids are in this audience. My wife is here," Ward said after Miranda's verbal performance at the news conference. "So I'm going to continue to stand with integrity. And that's part of the reason I want to be an ambassador to the sport, because people expect fighters to do this.
You have Obama nominating Judge Hamilton, who said in her ruling that saying the words Jesus Christ in a prayer is a sign of inappropriate behavior, but saying Allah would be OK. You'll find most Republican senators voting against a judge who is confused about whether you can say Jesus Christ in a prayer, particularly one who is pro-Muslim being able to say Allah.Michael Tomasky, over at the Guardian, does an excellent take down on this lunacy:
So here's where the lie comes in. Hamilton did indeed rule that Jesus Christ must not be mentioned in legislative prayers. But what did he say about Allah? It practically goes without saying that the decision doesn't so much as mention Allah. So this is what his wing-nut critics are doing: They're using the fact that he proscribes mentions of Jesus but does not specifically proscribe mentions of Allah to assert that he thinks mentions of Allah would be perfectly, as it were, kosher.Please read the rest, if you're interested in why the current GOP is a geographically isolated party.
Appearing on CNN, Klobuchar sparred with Sen. John Ensign, R-Nevada, who repeated GOP talking points that "votes [of all Minnesotans] should be treated the same. And I at least think that his appeal to the Minnesota Supreme Court should be heard."Did you catch that?
Republican Norm Colman is expected to file an appeal with the Supreme Court this week, asking that his setback last week at the hands of a special three-judge panel be overturned.
"Sen. John Ensign, R-Nevada, who repeated GOP talking points..."It's small, but this is just another sign of the MN media turning on Coleman. Minnesotans are fed up and want their second senator. Three newspapers that endorsed Coleman have asked him to concede the defeat: the Bemidji Pioneer, The Albert Lea Tribune and the Worthington Daily Globe.
Although both presidents demonstrated an ability to compromise in the interests of bipartisan consensus — Mr. Clinton toughened welfare rules while Mr. Bush expanded public health care and funding for education — their opponents saw them only as the personifications of the evil of the other side.It's true that a lot of effort was put into impeaching Clinton. Far more than was probably necessary. But to make the say that war crimes and crimes against humanity is tantamount
So Mr. Clinton was impeached for abasing his office after lying about an affair with an intern.
And the wild-eyed are still trying to get Mr. Bush and his vice-president, Dick Cheney, tried for war crimes and crimes against humanity for their handling of the war on terror.
The meter doesn't exist to measure the time and energy that has been wasted on all of this.
In the days before the French Revolution, the people of France were living in dire conditions while their leaders lived comfortably, oblivious to the effect their actions had on the people they governed. When informed that her people were starving because they had no bread, Marie Antoinette famously said, “Let them eat cake.”----------------
Gov. Mark Sanford is sending the people of our state the same kind of out-of-touch message
Faced with the reality that South Carolinians will have to repay federal funds whether they benefit from them or not, Gov. Sanford wants to reject the budget stabilization portion of this money. Most South Carolinians — even those of us who adamantly opposed the federal stimulus bill and thought this level of borrowing to be a terribly misguided mistake — recognize it is now the law, and our children will have to pay back this money regardless. - Bobby Harrell, Republican, is the speaker of the S.C. House
"Over four decades, appearing in roughly three movies a year, he has played a king, a governor, Babe Ruth and a Stone Age caveman, Fred Flintstone. On “The West Wing” he has been a Republican speaker of the House who temporarily takes over for the president. But as is so often the case with actors his size, he is more often the second banana, the comic foil. His most famous role is Dan Conner, the henpecked husband on “Roseanne.”
In person Mr. Goodman is not the stereotypical jolly fat man. For all his success, he remains full of self-doubt. Compliments make him wince, and his conversational default mode is self-deprecation. He sometimes seems to be eyeing himself with suspicion."
If they want to leave the Union I wish them God’s speed and good luck with their bordering nations once liberated from the oppressive protection of the U.S. military and the freedom-sucking agricultural subsidies of the U.S. government.
I just have one request. Fly your own flag at your rallies. The U.S. flag belongs to me and to my country. The blood of my ancestors in on that flag. My fathers and brothers fought and died under that flag for a nation where they were not equal. My mothers and sisters paid generations of taxes to states that would not educate their children and to a federal government that would not protect their sons from lynch mobs. Those acts of unrewarded patriotism by my foremothers and forefathers were a down payment on my citizenship. They have purchased my right to claim this country and her flag as my own. This year my President stood beneath that flag and reclaimed this nation for all of her people. How dare you wave my flag in hatred?
I grew up in the South. I know all about your deep pride and cultural attachment to the Stars and Bars. So if you want a flag to wave at your little tea parties, go ahead and dust off the flag of secession, treason, and slavery. Leave my flag when you go. - Dr. Melissa Harris-Lacewell
1. On major decisions, almost without exception, he does what he thinks is right, rather then what might appear to be the politically expedient thing to do; in the end, doing what he thinks is right actually turns out to be better politics.The rest are worth reading, if you want inside the workings of D.C establishment media, but what's even funnier is how this new luuuurve for Obama skews the articles in a more positive light.
2. He-- and his vice president, chief of staff, deputy chiefs of staff, congressional relations office-- are experts on Congress and know how to approach, manage, manipulate, finesse, and meld with the institution in virtually every respect. (Up to and as far as the considerable limits of three-branch government and multiple egos).
The third type are the calculating political opportunists. These folks generally have few core values and try to anticipate a tipping point on a major issue and then quickly shift allegiances so that they can be on the "right side" as things settle. These people don't simply flip on issues due to the prevailing political winds. Instead, they are very thoughtful and calculating, always looking to get a strong head start on upcoming political change and positioning themselves to profit on their timing. You might call them political ambulance chasers.It's obvious Nickolas doesn't know jack about Schmidt. Instead Nickolas righteous liberalism feeds a sense of authority and the ability to look down the appearance Schmidt's "Johnny Come Lately" to gay rights.
Their origins -- organic, programmatic, accidental or otherwise -- don't matter much anymore. If -- and we'll have to see the numbers at the end of the day -- 100,000 Americans show up to protest their taxes, the onus to dismiss them as a nascent political force shifts to the Democrats...Let's take this apart point by point. Since when did the origins of a movement not matter? We're still talking about those snowy Iowa days where Obama built his campaign. Why wouldn't the root and financing behind the teabaggers matter? Oddly, Rachel Maddow put the most effort into the conflicting motivations amongst the teabggers.
There's plenty of evidence that a bunch of hanger-on Republican interest groups, always looking to prove their relevance and hip factor to donors and activists, decided to lend their names and resources to the parties, multiplying their "organic" effect. FreedomWorks is a classic astroturfing shop. But I also think that we're too obsessed with the distinction between the top and the bottom of a blade of grass. At some point, critical mass is reached and astroturf campaigns can work -- they can catalyze genuine anger and channel it into meaningful political participation. In the age of hyperconnectivity, just what would an organic grassroots movement look like, anyway? Are people who've organized on behalf of causes before forbidden from joining? Can the movement not accept help and money from outside players?
But as harsh as I’ve been about some elements of the GOP, I find aspects of the Democratic Party infinitely worse. Just as I fear the far right would undermine a conservative resurgence, the far left of Obama’s party threatens to do the exact same thing to him and his administration.Ah, I see. In case Ms. McCain hadn't realized this, Democrats are in power, with their majorities growing in 2008, because the party celebrates diversity. Even to the frustration of Liberal members. The Democratic Party has members from conservative, moderate, and liberal districts. Republicans simply put - do not. She's afraid of the fringes of both parties, but what she doesn't realize is that's all that is left in the House of Representatives and increasingly heading that direction in the Senate. Her own Dad is lucky Janet Napolitano chose to join the Obama administration. He was looking at a likely to defeat at her hands in 2010.
It is no secret that the Republican Party, for all its faults, consistently displays party unity. For all the criticism that the Bush administration came in for, risks were taken (like supporting the Iraq troop surge) that wound up benefiting the GOP in the long run.Just how much did supporting the surge help Republicans? Did they win the presidency in 2008 or pick up any seats in congress (other than the New Orleans House seat from corrupt Rep. William Jefferson)? His replace, Joesph Cao who has remained true to Eric Cantor and voted against the stimulus bill and the budget against the wishes of his constituents, has been threatened with recall. Just how successful have Republicans been?
As a consequence, some have requested I leave the party altogether, and say that I am now an unwelcome member...Ms. McCain goes on to cite two erroneous examples Democratic disunity:
Any criticism I give of the Republican Party is out of love, and as someone who feels knowledgeable and experienced enough to give constructive criticism.
Look at Obama’s stimulus bill—as soon as he handed it over to the House, Democrats loaded it with so many appropriations they made it impossible to pass.But the bill did pass or is she not aware?
(He goes on to cite Sen. Kent Conrad’s endorsement of farm payments and Democrats' opposition to Obama’s plan to limit tax deductions for the rich.) Now, I may not agree with Obama either, but if such a left-leaning magazine so blatantly recognizes the writing on the wall when it comes to extreme members of the Democratic Party hijacking message and power, then it is obviously a major concern.Conrad is far from a liberal Democrat, so how exactly is he an extreme (and by extreme, I assume she means liberal) hijacking Obama's message? It appears that if anything, the problem Obama is having is with Business-centric Democrats who would rather subsidize companies than save money, without working towards Obama's health care reforms, all in the name of claiming to be a deficit hawk.
