Year: 2008
Time Magazine States the Obvious
You were expecting John McCain maybe?
The runners up were Henry Paulson, Nicolas Sarkozy, that Chinese guy who produced the Olympics opening ceremony, and yes…Sarah Palin.
Idiocracy Watch: No Cake for Little Adolf
“Idiocracy Watch,†chronicles stories that expose the fact that the U.S. of A. is a nation of stupid people who blend anti-intellectualism with racism to create ignorance and intolerance.
Tolerance-challenged Heath Campbell and little Adolf Hitler Campbell.
Maybe it’s a free-speech issue, as some commenters on the story maintain, but somehow you can’t blame the local ShopRite with declining to decorate a birthday cake for 3-year-old Adolf Hitler Campbell. As if that’s the worst thing that’s going to happen to that kid as he makes his way through life, saddled as he is with dumb white-supremacist parents. By the way, his sisters are named JoyceLynn Aryan Nation Campbell and Honszlynn Hinler Jeannie Campbell (we assume they meant “Himmler,” not “Hinler,” but who knows).
The family lives in Holland Township, New Jersey, and the Lehigh Valley Express-Times reporter/photographer gives us a peek inside the Campbell home through a photo album.
In its defense, the ShopRite offered to provide a cake with a space left for the Campbells to fill in little Adolf’s name, but they declined. Not to worry, though, the local Wal-Mart had no qualms about decorating the cake, so the little dictator’s birthday party was saved.
“Might as well put a sign around their (the children’s) neck that says bigot, racist, hatemonger,” said Anti-Defamation League Director Barry Morrison. “What’s the difference?”
Report: Shoe-Tossing Anti-Bush Protester Beaten in Custody
The military moniker for George Bush’s misbegotten decision to invade Iraq was “Operation Iraqi Freedom.” Now, five years later, with reports that a journalist who voiced his opposition to the invasion and occupation by lobbing his shoes at Bush at a news conference in Baghdad over the weekend has been tortured, we learn what a meager amount of “freedom” U.S. blood and treasure has bought the Iraqis:
The brother of the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at US President George W Bush has said that the reporter has been beaten in custody.
Muntadar al-Zaidi has suffered a broken hand, broken ribs and internal bleeding, as well as an eye injury, his older brother, Dargham, told the BBC.
Mr Zaidi threw his shoes at Mr Bush at a news conference, calling him “a dog”.
The head of Iraq’s journalists’ union told the BBC that officials told him Mr Zaidi was being treated well.
The union head, Mouyyad al-Lami, said he hoped to visit his colleague later.
An Iraqi official said Mr Zaidi had been handed over to the judicial authorities, according to the AFP news agency.
Earlier, Dargham al-Zaidi told the BBC’s Caroline Wyatt in Baghdad he believed his brother had been taken to a US military hospital in the Iraqi capital.
Granted, if a protester had thrown a shoe at Saddam, no one outside the room would have ever known about it — but, while we’re footing the bills, it is an outrage that a protester against George Bush and his occupation of Iraq has been beaten.
Bush Officially Blamed for Abu Grahib; Cheney Admits Approving Torture – ‘Liberal’ Media Yawns
The myth of the “liberal media” has become such an article of faith these days that attempting to refute is futile. But if evidence against liberal bias was being collected, the scant coverage being given two stories about the approval of torture and prisoner abuse by the Republicans currently holding the titles of president and vice president of the United State would surely go on the pile.
“I was aware of the program, certainly, and involved in helping get the process cleared.”
— Dick Cheney
Earlier this month, a bipartisan U.S. Senate committee put the blame for the abuse of prisoners at Abu Grahib prison squarely at the top of the chain of command. Here’s Andrew Sullivan:
Last week, we reached some closure on a burning and controversial question that has occupied many for many years now. That is the simple question of who was responsible for the abuse, torture, rape and murder of prisoners in American custody in the war on terror, most indelibly captured by the photographic images of Abu Ghraib. The Senate’s bipartisan report, issued with no dissents, reiterates and adds factual context to what we already know. And there is no equivocation in the report.
The person who authorized all the abuse and torture at Abu Ghraib, the man who gave the green light to the abuses in that prison, is the president of the United States, George W. Bush.
Again: there is no longer any reasonable factual debate about this (hence to near total silence of the Republican right), and the Senate report finally holds the president responsible in bipartisan fashion.
On Monday, Dick Cheney admitted to ABC News that he approved torturing suspects in custody — albeit with a quibble over the semantics of the word “torture” — but his confession has received little notice on other channels. The story ran on page A14 in the Los Angeles Times today, with the White House-approved euphemism in the headline, “Cheney Was Key in Clearing CIA Interrogation Tactics.”
Bush Ducked, Perino Didn’t
Perino’s shiner
Only the threat of a visit from the Secret Service kept us from wishing aloud that that Iraqi journalist guy had been a better aim with his shoes (which we didn’t, and this doesn’t count). Now we have to act as if we have sympathy for Press Secretary Dana Perino. Satan’s bride took it in the eye with a microphone after Bush ducked, accomplishing what many of us have dreamed about ever since she replaced Tony Snow.
Quote du Jour
So what?
— President George W. Bush, when told by Martha Raddatz that al Qaeda is only in Iraq as a result of the American invasion. Bush was trying to use al Qaeda’s presence in the country as justification for the invasion and continuing occupation.
If Obama Screws Up, Blame It on the Yankees
As Politico astutely points out, Barack Obama has not named a single Southerner to his cabinet, and half the slots are already gone. Some politicians below the Mason-Dixon line have noticed the snub and are not happy about it:
“Not a one,” grumbles a one senior Democratic aide who hails from the South. “Not even half of one, unless you count Hillary Clinton, and she doesn’t count because she’s not even an Arkansan anymore. She’s a Yankee.”
Noting that Obama picked up 55 Electoral College votes in North Carolina, Virginia and Florida, the conservative-leaning Web site speculates why he has not chosen a denizen of the South:
Some Democrats chock (sic) it up to happenstance and say Obama is simply picking the most qualified people, no matter the region. Others acknowledge, however, that the paucity of Democrats in Obama’s cabinet reflects the declining political power of the red-leaning Southern states and the weakening bench of the blue team there.
“Who comes to mind immediately?” asked Charles Bullock, a political science professor at the University of Georgia. “No one, really.”
“The leading politicians in the South at least for the last generation have been active as Republicans,” Bullock added. “You just don’t have Democrats that come to mind as the go-to person or the expert. It highlights the thinness of the Democratic bench in the South… The skill set is so depleted.”
If Obama doesn’t appoint a Southerner to top level policy positions, it looks like he is buying into the stereotype that there isn’t anyone from the South smart enough to work for him
Ouch! Bullock does have a point. And he is a professor, so he must be right.
Alas, the Democratic Party in the South is much like a Southern family saga to be found in the works of William Faulkner — the strong, populist patriarchs of yore have degenerated into the ineffectual bumpkins running the party today.
Just look at the southerners rumored as prospective cabinet members:
Had he not self-destructed in a sex scandal, former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards might have landed a Cabinet post. The names of former Georgia Sens. Sam Nunn and Max Cleland briefly bounced around the Obama orbit.
Inez Tenenbaum of South Carolina is in the running for secretary of education. Former Texas Rep. Charlie Stenholm has been mentioned as possible pick for Agriculture secretary.
But Obama hasn’t pulled the trigger yet, prompting one former senior Democratic Hill aide to complain of a “geographic snubbing.â€
“Southerners are pretty sensitive to the stereotype that they are slow in mind as well as voice,” the former aide said. “The risk to the president-elect is that if he doesn’t appoint anyone from the South to top level policy positions, he is going to look like he is buying into the stereotype that there isn’t anyone from the South smart enough to work for him.
But no matter who he chooses, Obama is screwed. Hispanics were pissed when he passed over Bill Richardson for secretary of state: “We’re definitely a little sore about it,†one Hispanic Democrat said. “I’ve heard lots of grumbling in the Hispanic community.â€
And gays and lesbians expect a non-closeted cabinet member: “We’ve paid our dues in terms of money and effort. It is time for the people of our community to serve at the highest levels of government. This is something our community expects,†said Denis Dison, vice president of the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund and Leadership Institute.
At the rate Obama is going, however, one thing is certain — if he screws up, we can always blame the Yankees.
Powell Says Military’s Policy on Gays Should Be Reviewed
In 1993, when he served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Pres. Clinton, Colin Powell was a leading advocate of the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) policy that essentially allowed gay people to serve only if they agreed to stay in the closet. Now, in an interview with Fareed Zakaria on CNN, he says (at 03:10 on the video) it’s time for the policy to be reviewed:
Who’s Footing the Inauguration Bill?
According to Barack Obama’s official inauguration site (who knew?), a whole bunch of regular folks have given a whole lotta moolah to help him usher in his administration. Obama doesn’t have a PAC, he has a PIC, which is described on the page:
In keeping with President-elect Obama’s commitment to changing the way business is done in Washington, the Presidential Inaugural Committee (PIC) is taking unprecedented steps to insure transparency in the public reporting of donors to a Presidential Inaugural Committee. This chart will allow you to view, sort, and search virtually real-time information on all donors contributing over $200 to the 2009 Presidential Inaugural Committee.
Unlike previous inaugural committees, the 2009 PIC does not accept contributions from corporations, political action committees, labor unions, current federally-registered lobbyists, non-U.S. citizens and registered foreign agents and does not accept individual contributions in excess of $50,000.
The list has some well-known names or names that seem like they belong to well-known people: Halle Berry from Bumper Inc. gave $50k, the max. Several people from the Powers, Rogers and Smith firm in Chicago gave $25k, for a total of $100. Glass sculptor Dale Chihuly gave $50k. Jamie Curtis of Santa Monica gave $25k. Berry Gordy of L.A. gave 50. Christopher Guest gave 25. Samuel Jackson of SZT Promotions in L.A. gave 50. Wendy Rockefeller of the Rockefeller Family Foundation gave $12k, while Laurance Rockefeller of the League of Conservation Voters gave $38k, for a total of 50. Five members of the Soros family each donated $50k. Sharon Stone of L.A., who lists herself as self-employed, gave $50k. Robert Zemekis of Burbank, also self-employed, gave 50.
Gee, I guess all that stuff they said about Obama and celebrities was true after all.
The site has a schedule of events, a blog and my favorite part — Inaugural Store: Coming Soon!
