Did you hear?

For Vice President, John McCain is going to pick the Baby New Year as a way of balancing the ticket.

Comment from the killer

The following comment, posted back in February on the Fox News website by "j adkisson" may well be the product of the warped mind of Jim Adkisson, who shot up the Unitarian Church. The comment relates to an article showing that picture of Obama in native garb:

Comment by j adkisson
February 25th, 2008 at 9:54 am

yes i belive he is muslium and if we put him in office ,all the muslium will take over,the blacks always cry they are not treated fair will its the other way around now we have let them take over and we are being treated bad now and also the turbam people run or own about everthing now and we let them ,excuse me except the hot temper little one that is there now and he owns oil wells and company doi you exp[ect the price of gas or oil to come down while he is in off\ice

This sick mindset is exactly what I believe has been intentionally cultivated by right-wing pundits for 15 years now.

The foul nutjob who shot up the Unitarian Universalist Church (apparently hating them intensely because they have the nerve to not hate anybody) is obviously sick in the head.

But it is also true that eliminationist rhetoric has become standard fare among the American Right. As long as corporate America keeps giving a forum and wealth to nutjobs who express their violent wishes verbally (like Ann Coulter, Michael Savage and Michael Reagan), a few other nutjobs will take the rhetoric seriously, and place those words into action.

UPDATE: I wrote the above before seeing this:

Bill O'Reilly, Michael Savage, Sean Hannity on accused shooter's reading list

Poor McCain

McCain is complaining that Obama gets too much media coverage.

But every time he opens his mouth, he says "Obama."

Right-Wingers Heads Explode

Media Biased Against Obama

The Center for Media and Public Affairs at George Mason University, where researchers have tracked network news content for two decades, found that ABC, NBC and CBS were tougher on Obama than on Republican John McCain during the first six weeks of the general-election campaign.

During the evening news, the majority of statements from reporters and anchors on all three networks are neutral, the center found. And when network news people ventured opinions in recent weeks, 28% of the statements were positive for Obama and 72% negative.

Network reporting also tilted against McCain, but far less dramatically, with 43% of the statements positive and 57% negative, according to the Washington-based media center.

I hate these incompetent assholes

I don't want to sound like a conspiracy minded nut, but it's becoming more and more obvious that the Bush administration didn't WANT to capture Bin Laden. The question is - why?

U.S. let bin Laden's top bodyguard go

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba — Soon after Osama bin Laden's driver got here in 2002, he told interrogators the identity of the al Qaeda chief's most senior bodyguard — then a fellow prison camp detainee.

But, inexplicably, the U.S. let the bodyguard go.

This startling information was revealed in the fourth day of the war crimes trial of Salim Hamdan, 37, facing conspiracy and material support for terror charges as an alleged member of bin Laden's inner circle.

Michael St. Ours, an agent with the Naval Criminal Intelligence Service, NCIS, provided the first tidbit.

Legacy

The White House has “increased its estimate for next year’s deficit to nearly $490 billion, a record figure that will saddle the next president with deepening budget problems in his first year in office.” The rising deficit “marks a sharp turnaround for Bush’s fiscal legacy. He inherited a $128 billion surplus when he came into office.” - Think progress

Bush has been in office almost eight years

So how come the Jerusalem Post seems to think that Barack Obama has a better grasp of foreign policy than Bush does?

Via Crooks and Liars:

Two months ago in the Oval Office, President George W. Bush, coming to the end of a two-term presidency and presumably as expert on Israeli-Palestinian policy as he is ever going to be, was accompanied by a team of no fewer than five advisers and spokespeople during a 40-minute interview with this writer and three other Israeli journalists.

In March, on his whirlwind visit to Israel, Republican presidential nominee John McCain, one of whose primary strengths is said to be his intimate grasp of foreign affairs, chose to bring along Sen. Joe Lieberman to the interview our diplomatic correspondent Herb Keinon and I conducted with him, looked to Lieberman several times for reassurance on his answers and seemed a little flummoxed by a question relating to the nuances of settlement construction.

On Wednesday evening, toward the end of his packed one-day visit here, Barack Obama, the Democratic senator who is leading the race for the White House and who lacks long years of foreign policy involvement, spoke to The Jerusalem Post with only a single aide in his King David Hotel room, and that aide’s sole contribution to the conversation was to suggest that the candidate and I switch seats so that our photographer would get better lighting for his pictures.

Indeed, the Jerusalem Post added that this may have been Obama’s second trip to Israel, but he “knew precisely what he wanted to say about the most intricate issues confronting and concerning Israel, and expressed himself clearly, even stridently on key subjects.”

And just to make it worse...

McCain isn't doing well among Hispanics, either.

While McCain’s support of the immigration bill — which was eventually voted down — appealed to many Hispanics, it infuriated some conservatives. McCain, his campaign then floundering, promised primary voters that he had “got the message,” vowed to prioritize enforcement and even claimed he wouldn’t have voted for his own bill it if was to have come up again.

The shift in tone placated conservatives while infuriating many Hispanics.

According to Gallup

Obama just opened his largest lead so far.

Sen. Barack Obama now leads Sen. John McCain among national registered voters by a 49% to 40%, according to the latest Gallup Tracking Poll.

"The margin, coincident with the extensive U.S. news coverage of Obama's foreign tour, is the largest for Obama over McCain measured since Gallup began tracking the general election horserace in March."

He's flipping like a hooked fish

I mean, we all know that candidates adjust positions while running, but John McFlipFlop is starting to change them every 30 seconds.

CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) — Sen. John McCain said Sunday he supports an Arizona ballot initiative aimed at ending race- and gender-based preference programs...

But McCain's own campaign refused to say whether it stands by the candidate's announcement that he supports the ballot initiative.

In an interview broadcast on ABC's "This Week," host George Stephanopoulos asked McCain if he supports a referendum on the ballot in his home state "that would do away with affirmative action."

"Yes, I do," he responded. "I do not believe in quotas. But I have not seen the details of some of these proposals. But I've always opposed quotas."

Stephanopoulos asked, "But the one here in Arizona you support?"

"I support it, yes," replied McCain.

McCain did not indicate that he had a standing opposition to such initiatives, or that he was changing his stance by supporting the initiative in Arizona.

His OWN CAMPAIGN refuses to stand by what he said?

How pathetic is that?

"When I use a word," said Humpty Dumpty, "I use it to mean what I want it to mean - no more , no less."

McCain gets desperate early.

The man doesn't even seem to know how to make an attack ad without tripping over his own feet.

This one is so slimy that it's even being disowned by Republicans.

The Republican senator from Nebraska agreed, saying on Face The Nation that the GOP's presumptive nominee is "treading on some very thin ground here when he impugns motives, and when we start to get into 'You're less patriotic than me, I'm more patriotic.'

"They're better off to focus on policy differences," he said.

"It's just not responsible to be saying things like that, again, if for no other reason than for the good of this country and the world.

"One of these two men, on January 20th of next year, is going to have to bring this country together, and the world, to deal with huge problems. I think the next president is going to inherit an inventory of challenges as big as Franklin Roosevelt inherited on March 4, 1933."

Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., who also accompanied Obama to Afghanistan and Iraq this week, called the ad "completely distorted."

"Senator Hagel, Senator Obama and I visited the combat support hospital in Baghdad to thank those nurses, those doctors, to see patients that were there, to bring a bit of greetings from home and profound thanks," he said. "That should be in the ad that Senator McCain is running.

"I think Senator Obama made a very wise choice [about Germany]. Any suggestion that a visit to a military hospital would be political, he made the wise choice not to go.

"But when we were in Baghdad, we made a point, at the end of a very exhausting day, to go in and see these magnificent young Americans and those doctors and nurses that give such tremendous care - without a lot of fanfare, just to say 'Thanks.'

"We went to Jalalabad to see the soldiers of the 173rd. We stopped in Basra to see our soldiers down there. We went into Anbar province to see soldiers there.

"That is a completely distorted and, I think, inappropriate advertisement."

Heh

He is good at sticking it to them, isn't he?

Obama said he was puzzled that the trip would be considered an "audacious" move for a politician less than four years removed from the Illinois state Legislature.

"I basically met with the same folks that John McCain met with after he won the nomination," Obama said. "Nobody suggested that that was audacious. I think people assumed that what he was doing was [talking] to world leaders who we may have deal with should we become president. That's part of the job that I'm applying for."

"I was puzzled by this notion that somehow what we were doing was in any way different from what Senator McCain or a lot of presidential candidates have done in the past," Obama told the journalists. "Now, I admit we did it really well, but that shouldn't be a strike against me."

Friday Night Videos

Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins. Mean Woman Blues and Blue Suede Shoes.

Full text of Obama's Berlin speech

Courtesy of TPM

This is pathetic.

As I said, I'm almost starting to feel sorry for the guy. While Obama is over in the Middle East, riding helicopters and hobnobbing with world leaders, McCain is reduced to riding a golf cart with old man Bush:



Which really makes him look totally clueless as to what things look like.

And as if THAT wasn't bad eneoug, he winds up trying to defend himself by babbling some nonsense in front of the cheese aisle in a supermarket.




Maybe this should be his next campaign commercial:

Meanwhile, back in America...

working people tell John McCain to keep his filthy hands off of Social Security.

Yesterday in Wilkes-Barre upwards of 70 active and retired union members rallied outside a town hall meeting attended by Senator John McCain to spotlight and protest his recent statement that Social Security is “a disgrace.”

Love this part:

Last week media accounts revealed that despite Senator McCain’s views toward Social Security, he received $23,157 in Social Security benefits in 2007, an average of $1,929.75 each month.

Will ANYBODY be watching McCain?

As if there wasn't enough bad news for McCain, the NFL has scheduled its opening game on the same night as his acceptance speech.

I mean, it isn't as if McCain's acceptance speech was expected to make America flock to the TV set without that, anyway.

I'm almost starting to feel sorry for the poor bastard.

Could that be his strategy? To lock up the pity vote?

Nice hat

Does John McCain know ANYTHING?

I mean really - this is the stuff he pretends he's an EXPERT on. Remember - he said himself he didn't know much about the economy.

Anbar Sheik Cited By McCain Was Assassinated Last Year

The major Sunni sheik who John McCain said was protected by the surge and subsequently helped lead the Anbar Awakening, was actually assassinated by an al-Qaeda led group in midst of the surge.

On Tuesday evening, McCain falsely claimed that the downturn in violence in Iraq's Anbar province was a result of the surge, when in fact the surge began months afterward. Moreover, he said, if it weren't for the work of U.S. forces, the major Sunni figure leading that awakening wouldn't have had the protection he needed.

And how'd that work out for you?

From Wonkette

Here's Obama with German Chancellor Angela Merkel:



She's smiling and relaxed because she knows he won't suddenly turn around and start giving her a neck rub:



“Asked at a news conference on Wednesday what she thought of Obama, Merkel responded: ‘I would say that he is well-equipped — physically, mentally and politically.’” [Reuters]

Heh.

Maybe she'd LIKE him to rub her neck.

Obama bin ein berliner.

And that ain't no jelly doughnut.

Propaganda R Us

CBS falsified part of an interview with McCain to cover up the fact that he made a major factual error.



You can email Katie Couric right here.

Liar

As for McCain's claim that Obama's stance on oil drilling is the reason prices are high.

The Doubletalk Express rolls on.

I almost feel sorry for the poor bastard

But only almost

Senator John McCain blasted Barack Obama yesterday on both foreign and domestic policy, charging that his Democratic presidential rival was "completely wrong" on the Iraq war and is stubbornly opposing an expansion of offshore oil drilling. Trying to compete for voters' attention with Obama's high-profile foreign tour, McCain embarked on a tour of his own designed to shore up his standing on the domestic side.

Is it my imagination or does he just seem to flailing and saying that same old shit that nobody wants to hear?

Brain fart.

Do you think that maybe Al Malaki is just having a ball embarrassing Bush in public and making him squirm?

Do you think maybe he's taking a bit of revenge for having to put up with years of condescension from a total asshole?

Do you think that maybe he thinks that forcing Bush to adopt Obama's position is more fun than sex?

Flip. Flop. Flip.

In case you missed it, Al-Maliki said that he supported Obama's timetable.

Then the Bush administration had a "talk" with him, so he said that was misunderstood.

So today, Al-Mailiki's spokesmen said the same thing - they support Obama's timetable.

He may need another little visit from some Bush Family goons, ya think?

McCain thinks there's an Iraq-Pakistani border

Maybe it's me, but I think a guy who wants to be the Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces should look at a map every once in a while.

I...still...LIVE!

Been in Upstate New York, where hippies and alpacas still roam free. I think Bush has a bounty out on both of them, though.

Holy Crap

How out of touch IS John McCain?

Q: But do you go on line for yourself?

Mr. McCain: They go on for me. I am learning to get online myself, and I will have that down fairly soon, getting on myself. I don’t expect to be a great communicator, I don’t expect to set up my own blog, but I am becoming computer literate to the point where I can get the information that I need – including going to my daughter’s blog first, before anything else.

And how long, exactly, do you think it will take you, John, to "get down" the complex task of clicking a mouse?

Judge tells Bush to cut the crap

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A federal judge overseeing Guantanamo Bay lawsuits ordered the Justice Department to put other cases aside and make it clear throughout the Bush administration that, after nearly seven years of detention, the detainees must have their day in court.

Get this: the administration says that they want more time to add to the evidence they are using to hold the detainees.

I love the Judge's reply to that:

"If it wasn't sufficient, then they shouldn't have been picked up."

Apparently, this thing called "America" is a very alien concept to George W. Bush.

But, by making this request, the administration is admitting that they didn't have enough evidence to hold them in the first place.

Click the picture.

War is Peace; Freedom is Slavery; Ignorance is Strength

And Dick Cheney wanted inconvenient facts thrown into the Memory Hole.

WASHINGTON — Vice President Dick Cheney's office pushed for major deletions in congressional testimony on the public health consequences of climate change, fearing the presentation by a leading health official might make it harder to avoid regulating greenhouse gases, a former EPA officials maintains.

Halve Emissions by 2050

So saith the mighty G8.

And color me unimpressed. There is no decision about when they will BEGIN this "halving," only a resolution to cut it after most of them are dead. How about resolving to do something NOW instead of 40 years from now?

Braincell fart

If Bush says that the phone companies need immunity for doing what he asked them to do - isn't he admitting that he told them to break the law?

Just because he's the nominee doesn't mean he should have any say.

The right-wingers are now terrified that McCain may have a hand in crafting the Republican platform.

Conservative activists are preparing to do battle with allies of Sen. John McCain in advance of September's Republican National Convention, hoping to prevent his views on global warming, immigration, stem cell research and campaign finance from becoming enshrined in the party's official declaration of principles.

McCain is "really out of step with the strong majority of his party," said Myron Ebell, director of energy and global warming policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, which opposes McCain's positions on climate change. "He might get what he wants. And he might get a change. But I don't think it's going to sit well with a lot of Republicans."

Don't expect the "liberal media" to spend much time talking about the fractured Republicans, though. The Beltway Elite LOVE John McCain - he invites them to barbecues and feeds them fried chicken, after all. Washington "reporters" have a VERY low price tag on their souls and their principles, and fried chicken will do it.

Guess who wants a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq?

IRAQ does.

Don't think that a little detail like that makes any difference to the Most Clueless President Ever, though.

Good news, bad news

The good news is that Al-Sadr seems to be rapidly losing influence in Iraq.

The bad news is that the other guys are just as nuts.

The Supreme Council and its allies are in the forefront now while the Sadrists are absent, but we can see signs already that the struggle among the Shiite religious parties will turn into a violent and armed one again, especially in the south," says Azer Naji, director of strategic and political studies at a research center at Basra University in southern Iraq.

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

But I thought we won that one

41 killed by a car bomb in Afghanistan.

Gee - he's a smart guy

Son of a bitch - according to Fearless Leader, the head of a major nation is actually "a smart guy."

Bush seems sort of surprised by that.

At least this time, he didn't claim to have looked into his eyes and seen his soul.

WTF?

But they distort photographs in such a fair and balanced way.

For the Bush was a Boojum, you see.

I guess the Looking Glass wasn't enough.

Evidence Faulted in Detainee Case

By WILLIAM GLABERSON
Published: July 1, 2008

In the first case to review the government’s secret evidence for holding a detainee at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, a federal appeals court found that accusations against a Muslim from western China held for more than six years were based on bare and unverifiable claims. The unclassified parts of the decision were released on Monday.

With some derision for the Bush administration’s arguments, a three-judge panel said the government contended that its accusations against the detainee should be accepted as true because they had been repeated in at least three secret documents.

The court compared that to the absurd declaration of a character in the Lewis Carroll poem “The Hunting of the Snark”: “I have said it thrice: What I tell you three times is true.”

“This comes perilously close to suggesting that whatever the government says must be treated as true,” said the panel of the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Moron-boy said that there were WMDs WAY more than three times.

They don't seem to have shown up, despite having sought them with thimbles and sought them with care; and pursued them with forks and hope.

The Snark turned out to be Boojum.

Now maybe Bush will softly and suddenly vanish away, and never be met with again.