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Tuesday, October 30, 2007 - 11:35pm Is anyone else sick and tired of all these presidential debates? I've had enough. Tonight we're forced to listen to Brian Williams and Tim Russert, the Joe Buck and Tim McCarver of political talking-heads. If it wasn't for the always entertaining Dennis Kucinich, this debate would rank among the most boring ever.
Frontrunner Hillary is doing her best to say nothing while continuing to move her lips. I guess if you don't take a position on anything, nobody can get upset with you. Her negatives are already so high, why push them up any further.
We also just figured out why the Democrats will have trouble winning the general election. When asked by a show of hands if it was unacceptable to give illegal immigrants a drivers license, only Chris Dodd raised his hand. The Republicans will have a field day with that issue.
The moderators followed up with Hillary to determine her actual position on licenses for illegal immigrants, but she never quite answered the question. Hillary practiced her classic double-talk. Shame on the moderators for not nailing her down. Sunday, October 28, 2007 - 11:30pm McCain Refuses to Criticize Mukasey Senator John McCain (R-AZ) appeared on ABC's This Week today to answer questions about waterboarding and Mike Mukasey, the nominee for Attorney General. Last week, Mukasey declined to say whether he viewed waterboarding as torture. McCain was a former POW who was tortured in Vietnam. Mukasey was purposely coy by saying he wasn't sure.
McCain was asked pointblank by George Stephanopoulos if Mukasey needed to state that waterboading is torture in order to be confirmed. Upon hearing the question, McCain squirmed, hesitated, and finally said that he can't be that absolute.
Of all people, John McCain should come out strongly against Mike Mukasey's non-answer about torture. McCain was tortured for years and now he is playing a part in condoning it.
What is clear in this situation is that John McCain is torn between his blind loyalty to the Republican thugs in the White House and his own personal experience of being abused by his captors. He knows damn well that the Bush administration he supports tortures prisoners both in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and in other "detention" facilities around the world.
Unfortunately, Senator McCain will not disparage Mike Mukasey because he refuses to stand up to the Bushies. Why? Because he wants to be President and thinks he has to suck up to the administration to get there. Wednesday, October 24, 2007 - 9:30pm Say it ain't so Rudy? Former Mayor of New York Rudolph W. Giuliani is officially pulling for the Boston Red Sox to win the World Series! The die-hard Yankees fan, who is commonly referred to as Mr. Pinstripes in NYC, has apparently abandoned his allegiances in his quest for the American presidency.
I'm sure Giuliani's change of heart in rooting for the Sox has nothing to do with the fact that neighboring New Hampshire is holding the nation's first primary. Just because there are tons of Red Sox fans in the state is no reason to believe good ole Rudy is simply pandering to get votes. I would be shocked, shocked I tell you to see a pandering politician. Those types of things never happen.
Mr. Giuliani may win some votes in New Hampshire, but the City of New York is none too happy with their former mayor. He has been called a traitor, a red coat, a pandering panda, and much worse. Both the New York Post and the Daily News ripped Rudy for his betrayal of the Yankees.
Considering the candidate we're talking about, we shouldn't be surprised by this flip-flop. Rudy's already flipped on abortion, gun ownership, and gay rights.
Giuliani's as liberal as John Kerry, yet he is running as a conservative
to Sunday, October 21, 2007 - 7:30pm Vote For Stephen Colbert!!! Finally we have a viable candidate for President of the United States. Stephen Colbert of the hit Comedy Central show The Colbert Report has announced his plan to seek the highest office in the land. He appeared on Meet the Press this morning to discuss his candidacy with Tim Russert. He intends to run in South Carolina and only South Carolina as both a Democrat and a Republican.
Colbert's goal is to receive just one delegate in the South Carolina primary. That would force the state to call out his name during the Democratic and Republican National Conventions. Typically, candidates who receive delegates in a state defer to the nominee, but not Stephen Colbert. He wants his name called.
He did state that he would relinquish the delegate if he was allowed to speak. That is likely his real goal. How funny would it be to grant a comedian time at the party's national convention to nominate their candidate?
Of course, I don't think his strategy of running as both a Republican and a Democrat is legally possible, but I suppose he could be written in on either ballot.
So vote for Stephen Colbert, if for no other reason than to make those excruciatingly boring conventions interesting. Thursday, October 18, 2007 - 8:00pm Brownback Drops Out; Huckabee to Benefit Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) has withdrawn his name from consideration to be the next president of the United States. The conservative candidate was not able to raise enough money to compete and reported only $94,000 in cash on hand. Although he had raised $4 million over the course of his campaign, he was not able to hang with the big boys.
It remains to be seen who Brownback will endorse, but Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee is expected to benefit from his withdrawal. Huckabee is as conservative as Brownback and Huckabee has been rising quickly into the top tier of Republicans. Despite having a limited budget, Mike Huckabee is approaching the money machines of Romney, Giuliani, and Thompson. In the end, a Sam Brownback endorsement won't put Huckabee over the top, but it would give him a much needed boost heading into the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary. An endorsement of Huckabee would bolster his conservative credentials, which are sorely lacking from the frontrunners. Rudy Giuliani is a liberal and Mitt Romney is not far behind. Fred Thompson is conservative, but his campaign is wrought with fits and starts. It is extremely difficult for a second tier candidate like Mike Huckabee to move up to the top without substantial funds, so he will need all the help he can get. Monday, October 15, 2007 - 11:00pm Edwards and Obama Get More Aggressive Hillary Clinton and her machine is killing Barack Obama and John Edwards in the national polls. For months, both Edwards and Barack have taken it easy on the evil shrew. However, the tide is finally turning, as both men have started to sharply criticize the leading Democratic candidate for President of the United States.
John Edwards is criticizing Hillary's vote to declare the Iranian Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization. With that vote, Edwards argues, Hillary is giving George Bush a blank check to attack Iran. She already gave Bush a blank check to attack Iraq, so we shouldn't be surprised that she would do it again.
When asked about Hillary's lead in the polls, Barack Obama said "If I believed in polls, then five years ago I would have backed the war in Iraq like she did."
Comments like those need to come early and often from Obama about Hillary. There is a LOT to criticize about Hillary Clinton. It is up to these two men to bring her down and make this race a meaningful one. Thursday, October 11, 2007 - 11:55pm Make that 28 Foolish Americans From 1915-1917, hundreds of thousands to 1.5 million Armenian people were massacred by the government of what is now Turkey. The Ottoman Empire was still in place and the Young Turks, the ruling party, decided to systematically eliminate Armenian citizens from the land. It is one of the first documented cases of genocide and one of the worst in modern history.
All this brings us to today. The Foreign Affairs committee in the House of Representatives voted today by a 27-21 margin to classify the Armenian massacre as genocide. It should've been a simple gesture to recognize historical facts, but it was not taken well by the current government of Turkey.
The Turkish government essentially flipped out, claiming that the massacre wasn't a genocide because the number of people killed was inaccurate. They also claimed that the deaths were a result of a civil war. They failed to mention that Armenian citizens in the Ottoman Empire were not even allowed to possess weapons.
Rather than acknowledge the obvious, Turkey decided to call the 27 Congressmen that voted for the resolution as foolish. They have also used this event as an excuse to escalate tensions with the Kurds in Northern Iraq. If the Turks do attack, you can bet that they will blame the Americans. Tuesday, October 9, 2007 - 9:40pm New York Begins Fight Over Licenses for Illegals Remind me never to move to New York State. Attorney General Elliot Spitzer recently decided to allow illegal immigrants the ability to receive a New York drivers license. His argument for granting licenses makes no sense. Spitzer states that without licenses, illegals are forced to drive without insurance, which forces them to run when involved in an accident. This, Spitzer says, causes higher insurance rates for every New Yorker.
The rationale argued by Spitzer is hardly the real reason he wants illegals to get licenses. Like all politicians, Spitzer sees dollar signs. Allowing hundreds of thousands of people access to state-issued licenses will generate millions of dollars in revenue for the state. Money is the purpose of this policy and money is also the reason nobody will do anything about illegal immigration.
If you can believe it, the folks arguing against this backwards policy in the state sound even more ridiculous. They speak of increased terrorism and voter fraud as the backbone of their fight. Both are nice political talking points, but also irrelevant to the situation. The argument should be that undocumented immigrants are in this country illegally and are not entitled to privileges that law-abiding, tax-paying citizens have.
The bottom line is that illegal immigrants should not have drivers licenses. They should not even be driving, unless it is out of the country. Elliot Spitzer is wrong, plain and simple. He wants this fight, but truth, reality, and common sense are not on his side. Saturday, October 6, 2007 - 9:30pm Matthews Calls Out Bush Administration Chris Matthews has finally seen the light. After nearly seven years of corrupt and criminal activity on the part of the Bush administration, Hardball host Chris Matthews is stating they have been "caught in their criminality." The administration, especially Dick Cheney's office, has been pressuring MSNBC executives to change Hardball's content to be less critical.
The greater issue here is that the Bush regime has been pressuring network executives ever since they took office. We know that FoxNews is bought and paid for, but the other networks have not entirely bent over to grab their ankles.
It is one thing to simply complain, but it is quite another for the Bushies to use their powerful positions to pressure these execs. Matthews claimed their activity was criminal, but did not elaborate as to what law was broken. I'm not an attorney, but I would imagine that certain types of pressure tactics used by the White House against the media could be construed as illegal. If, for example, the White House threatened these folks, that would fall under the criminal activity Matthews was referring to.
Whatever happens, it's good that someone as influential as Chris Matthews has seen the Bush regime's tactics in action. Hopefully, he will convey to his audience how dangerous and out of control these people are. The more talking heads we have that speak the truth, the better. Wednesday, October 3, 2007 - 11:30pm The Ron Paul Revolution Gathers Steam Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul (TX) reported an astonishing $5.1 million in campaign contributions for the quarter. The fundraising number is impressive because it puts him up with the top tier candidates. Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani, and John McCain are considered the frontrunners, but Ron Paul is now knocking on the door of the Republican nomination.
Ron Paul is a physician by trade, having delivered over 4,000 babies in his lifetime. He was drafted into the military and served in the Air Force as a flight surgeon in the mid 1960's. He later completed his residency in Pittsburgh while enlisted in the National Guard. After many years as an obstetrician, Dr. Paul entered politics and was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1976. He is currently in his 10th term representing Texas's 14th district.
The mainstream media has largely ignored Ron Paul, choosing to concentrate their efforts on frauds like Rudolph Giuliani, Mitt Romney, and John McCain. However, now that Paul has raised enough money to compete, the media will have no choice but to pay attention.
Ron Paul is still an extreme long shot to win the Republican nomination, but he is definitely going to make it interesting. Monday, October 1, 2007 - 12:00am It appears inevitable that the maniacal Bush administration will attack the nation of Iran in the next few months. According to investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, the administration is preparing for "surgical" strikes against Iran's Revolutionary Guard soldiers. The blind, moronic, spineless Congress recently gave Bush the green light (again) to attack and kill these Iranian soldiers by passing a resolution that declared them terrorists.
The argument the Bushies will make is that they're only protecting the U.S. military in Iraq from the Iranian infiltration. Of course, you'll just have to take their word for it that Iran is doing much of anything in Iraq. The administration wouldn't lie to us, right? I mean, Iraq has tons of nuclear and chemical weapons, right? That's why we invaded their country...or so we're told.
If this were a different president, perhaps we could believe his rationale for attacking a sovereign nation. However, this is George Bush we're talking about here. He is called the Worst President Ever for a reason. He is not to be trusted on anything, especially matters of foreign policy. It is a virtual guarantee that he will only make the situation worse.
The Bush is creating the plan to attack Iran, but much like their Iraq strategy, they are not looking ahead to what happens next.
Let's take a look at what would happen should the United States bomb Iran. First and foremost, Iran will have an excuse to retaliate. They would likely attack American soldiers in Iraq, our ships in the Persian Gulf, and targets in Israel. A counter-attack from the U.S. will further the conflict. Syria and Lebanon would then join forces to help Iran. That would also force Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Turkey, and other nations to take sides.
In essence, bombing Iran will escalate the conflict in the Middle East beyond belief. Many more nations will be pulled into war and most of them would not be on the side of the United States. The international community, especially Middle Eastern countries, hate America. I don't see many of them lining up to help George Bush. With a depleted and weakened military, the U.S. does not want this fight.
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Clinton is ahead by 3% in Iowa, 20% in New Hampshire, 13% in South
Carolina, and over
Twenty-two countries have officially recognized the
killings of these
Armenian people as genocide. However, some of the most powerful
nations in the world, including the United States, Great Britain, and
Israel, have yet to categorize the events as genocide. Despite the
lack of recognition from the U.S. federal government, 40 out of 50 U.S.
states identify the murders as genocide. Recognizing the Armenian
massacre as genocide is a vitally important distinction because it draws
attention to the historical events and helps prevent it from happening
again.
Unfortunately, Elliot Spitzer is ignoring the primary problem, which is
illegal immigration in his state. He is attempting to fix a
secondary problem that is caused as a result of not addressing the first
one. If he doesn't want illegal immigrants to drive away from the
scene of an accident, he should concentrate on removing the illegals
from New York.
Matthews called out these thugs after years of trying to be neutral.
He compared the Bush/Cheney administration to Nixon and also stated "God
help us if we had Cheney during the Cuban missile crisis. We'd all
be under a parking lot." The remarks by Matthews were stunning to
say the least. Matthews has often given this regime a free pass to
not appear partisan, but he clearly saw the need to stand up for himself
and his network.
Ron Paul is an interesting candidate and far different from the other
phonies in the field. Paul actually has an opinion and is not
afraid to express it. He is the only anti-war GOP candidate in the
race. Ron Paul is pro-life (unlike Romney and Giuliani), against
illegal immigration (unlike McCain and Giuliani), and advocates for
sharply lower taxes. He wants to abolish the Internal Revenue
Service and many other federal agencies. He truly believes in less
government, one of the long-forgotten hallmarks of conservatism..