Day: November 29, 2006

Iraq Study Group Recommends Cutting and Running

Trish

This should be interesting.

The independent, bipartisan panel studying U.S. policy in Iraq has unanimously agreed to a report that will call for a gradual pullback of American combat troops in Iraq but stops short of setting a firm timetable for withdrawal, The New York Times reported on Wednesday.

But Brave Bushie said we’d never, ever do that. Remember? His is not the party of “cut and run.” His is also not the party that matters anymore.

Still, it will be interesting to see how Rove et al frame this. After all, you’re either with them or against them.

Christian Right: GOP and Wal-Mart Have Forsaken God

Jon Ponder

This almost makes me want to shop at Wal-Mart:

Some Christian conservative groups say both Wal-Mart and the Republican Party have “forsaken God.” And just as the GOP took a hit in the elections earlier this month, the groups say the retail giant’s lower-than-expected November sales figures are the wages of that sin.

Why are sales below estimates? “It is for the same reason things went south for the Republican Party this past election cycle,” read a statement by the Rev. Flip Benham and Pat McEwan, with Operation Save America and Operation Save Wal-Mart. “Wal-Mart has forsaken God and it has forsaken the people who love Him.”

The groups led protesters on Nov. 24 to picket the “gates of hell” — that is, Wal-Mart stores around the country. They say Wal-Mart, like the GOP, has strayed from its founding principles, set by founder Sam Walton, citing Wal-Mart’s dispensing of “Plan B” contraception and the fact that the retailer is a corporate member of the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce.

Webb Gives Bush a Slap in the Face, Not a Pat on the Back

Trish

Many Congressional Democrats spent the days right after the election victory in Washington pulling their punches with the recently “thumped” president. Not Sen. James Webb (D-Va.), who stuck to the subject.

Webb has my admiration for his restraint. Most of us would have been unable to keep from saying, “He’s in Iraq, you moron. How the hell do you think he is?”

At a recent White House reception for freshman members of Congress, Virginia’s newest senator tried to avoid President Bush. Democrat James Webb declined to stand in a presidential receiving line or to have his picture taken with the man he had often criticized on the stump this fall. But it wasn’t long before Bush found him.

“How’s your boy?” Bush asked, referring to Webb’s son, a Marine serving in Iraq.

“I’d like to get them out of Iraq, Mr. President,” Webb responded, echoing a campaign theme.

“That’s not what I asked you,” Bush said. “How’s your boy?”

“That’s between me and my boy, Mr. President,” Webb said coldly, ending the conversation on the State Floor of the East Wing of the White House.

Webb has my admiration for his restraint. Most of us would have been unable to keep from saying, “He’s in Iraq, you moron. How the hell do you think he is?”

“I’m not particularly interested in having a picture of me and George W. Bush on my wall,” Webb said in an interview yesterday in which he confirmed the exchange between him and Bush. “No offense to the institution of the presidency, and I’m certainly looking forward to working with him and his administration. [But] leaders do some symbolic things to try to convey who they are and what the message is.”

…The White House declined to discuss the encounter. “As a general matter, we do not comment on private receptions hosted by the president at the White House,” said White House spokeswoman Dana M. Perino.

Yeah, sure they don’t. Not to mention it’s just one more example of how profoundly her boss doesn’t get it.

Did Bush really think Webb would gush over him for remembering that Webb’s son is doing what Bush himself was too weak and selfish to do when it was his turn? The man’s son is in Iraq. If Bush really expected his question to be met with, “He’s great, and thanks for asking. How are the twins?” then he’s even dumber than I thought. And that can’t be possible.

Miami is to Third World as Tancredo is to Ass

Buck Banks

Second World wannabes: Okay, so in a lot of ways Miami is like a Third World country. I mean, we have lots of undocumented workers, illegal immigrants from all over the world, high crime, high unemployment, we’re in a housing construction bust, cops are shooting civilians, there’s poops in the bay and on the beach, and traffic is horrendous. But I’m allowed to say that because I live here. I’m allowed to drive a car with a bumper sticker that refers to my city as a banana republic.

But Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo can’t, not on mine and Gov. Jeb Bush’s watch, no sirree Bob — or Tom.

Here’s what happened, according to the Miami Herald:

Tancredo, who has championed building a fence along the border with Mexico, pointed to Miami as an example of what could happen to the United States if immigration policies are not tightened. He said of Miami in an interview with a conservative on-line news site, “You would never know you’re in the United States of America. You would certainly say you’re in a Third World country.”

How do you reason with a guy whose supporters make Genghis Khan look like Gandhi?

Gov. Jeb was quick to come to our defense:

”The bottom line is Miami is a wonderful city filled with diversity and heritage that we choose to celebrate, not insult,” Bush said in the letter addressed to Tancredo’s Washington office. “Miami has been my home for years and I am looking forward to returning there in January.”

Of course, Jeb’s not. Returning to Miami in January, that is. No, he just bought a million-dollar condo in Coral Gables, which technically is near Miami, though legally a sovereign city unto itself, without virtually any Third Worldliness about it at all.

I, on the other hand, live in the City of Miami, and therefore I can call Miami Third World because I have seen the chickens running in the streets and I’ve also seen them lying in the road, hapless victims of a Santeria ritual intended to give Tio Santos good luck on his traffic court hearing.

But even I cannot top Ana Menendez, star columnist for the Herald whose column on Tancredo’s “naivete,” as Jeb so boldly characterized it, appeared today in the same edition as the article on Tancredo’s name-calling. She asks the age-old question that we here at Pensito Review pose at least several times an hour:

[…]

Coulter Closer to Achieving “Joe McCarthy of Her Day” Status

Trish

Great letter to the editor in my local paper today, which in the interest of “fairness” runs Ann Coulter’s column. They do it, they say, to balance out Molly Ivins. As if.

Anyway, first part of Ann’s original diatribe:

I think it’s more a case of Coulter trying to remain relevant in a country that no longer believes simple, ignorant “you’re either with us or with the terrorists” arguments.

Six imams removed from a US Airways flight from Minneapolis to Phoenix are calling on Muslims to boycott the airline. If only we could get Muslims to boycott all airlines, we could dispense with airport security altogether.

Witnesses said the imams stood to do their evening prayers in the terminal before boarding, chanting “Allah, Allah, Allah” — coincidentally, the last words heard by hundreds of airline passengers on 9/11 before they died…

And then the knock-out punch from one Brad Cooper:

Editor: Ann Coulter’s column…was especially ignorant, even for her. To praise US Airways for ejecting imams traveling to a conference because they were, well, imams and were not hiding their faith, is an expression of the worst irrational anti-Muslim xenophobia since rednecks cheered the bombing of mosques.

US Airways’ rationale for ejecting the imams from the flight was insulting and shows just how little we’ve learned about Islam since 9/11. For Coulter to praise them for this show of timidity and ignorance highlights her own timidity and ignorance. So what is the real reason behind the anxiety about some religious clerics that disagree with Coulter’s myopic neo-con views being refused passage? I think it’s more a case of Coulter trying to remain relevant in a country that no longer believes simple, ignorant “you’re either with us or with the terrorists” arguments.

St. Augustine Record, I urge you to stop carrying her race-baiting, insulting, mean-spirited diatribes. She’s not a thoughtful conservative, she’s nothing more than Ed Anger wearing Prada.

On This Date – November 29

Jon Ponder
  • 1963 – Warren Commission Established: One week after Pres. John F. Kennedy was fatally shot while riding in a motorcade in Dallas, Texas, Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson established a special commission, headed by Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren, to investigate the assassination. After ten months of gathering evidence and questioning witnesses in public hearings, the Warren Commission report was released, concluding that there was no conspiracy in the assassination, either domestic or international, and that Lee Harvey Oswald, the alleged assassin, acted alone … [The Warren Commission’s findings] continue to be widely disputed. [On This Date]

Activists Urge Boycott of the ‘N-word’

Jon Ponder
Even a complete ban wouldn’t stop a rage-aholic like Michael Richards from spewing hate speech.

African-American leaders, including Rep. Maxine Waters (D-California) and Rev. Jesse Jackson, gathered in Los Angeles yesterday to urge a nationwide boycott of the use of the “n-word.”

They were reacting to the infamous “stage rage” incident on November 17 in which former television star Michael Richards was videotaped at a local comedy club shouting racial epithets at two African-American men in the audience. The leaders said they were encouraging everyone, particularly Rap artists and African-American standup comics, to “just say no” to the n-word:

“We’re not trying to penalize anyone,” Waters said at a news conference at the Los Angeles Sentinel newspaper, “but don’t use the n-word, no matter who you are, whether you’re black, white, young or old.”

Jackson added: “This word is a symbol of degradation and the actions that flow from it.”

Would banning the n-word help? It is already stigmatized among the 99.99 percent of African-Americans who aren’t Rap artists or their hardcore fans. It has been verbotten in all but a small reprobate segment of what might be called the “white community” for a generation or three. This self-censorship is why it is referred to as the “n-word,” like the “f-word,” “s-word” and the other unspeakables.

The boycott may resonate among standup comics but to reach Rap artists and their fans, political and spiritual leaders need to find advocates closer to the locus than Rev. Jackson and Rep. Water — maybe producer/artists like P-Diddy or Dr. Dre.

But even with a complete ban in place, it wouldn’t stop a rage-aholic like Michael Richards from spewing hate speech when he imagined his buttons were being pushed.