Month: October 2007

What Is Howard Dean Smoking?

Buck Banks

The architect of Florida’s current presidential primary mess, Democratic National Committee Chair Howard Dean, had the audacity to come to Florida yesterday and dismiss the primary debacle (caused when the state legislature moved Florida’s primary to Jan. 29, ahead of the Feb. 5 date set by the DNC) as a “spat between politicians”:

‘Floridians … are Americans, too, and they want a Democratic president.’
— DNC Chair Howard Dean

“Do I wish this fight weren’t happening? Yes,” said Dean, who had driven from Jacksonville to Tallahassee for a $100-per-person fundraiser. “At the end of the day, I think Iraq, health care, education and ethics matter far more than a fight between politicians.”

Wait a minute. The spat wouldn’t exist if Dean hadn’t enforced the DNC’s rules. Notice that Mel Martinez, Dean’s counterpart on the Republican National Committee, chose not to lower the entire boom on Florida’s Republican primary, stripping the state of only half its convention delegates and allowing candidates to campaign in the state. By contrast, Dean and his cohorts stripped Florida of all its delegates and vowed to punish any Democratic candidates who campaign in Florida.

Seems Dean-o forgot that part, too:

The full effect of what Dean passed off as a “blip” may come to pass later this month. Local Democrats will convene a state convention that lacks a single big-name presidential contender mere days after all the major Republican presidential candidates have descended upon Orlando for a state convention and nationally televised debate.

However, Dean disassociated the DNC from the candidates’ pledge to avoid Florida, saying “what the candidates do is their business.”

Huh?? If the candidates campaign in Florida, they will be punished by the DNC, Howard, so rather than risk that, they’ve pledged not to campaign here. But they can raise money. Is any of this coming back you Howard? Apparently not, when he blurts out inane comments like:

“Floridians, despite the fact that they have strong feelings about this issue … are Americans, too, and they want a Democratic president,” said Dean.

Thanks for including us in, Howard. Now please leave.

Quote du Jour

Buck Banks

If these writings of the Greeks agree with the word of Allah, they are useless and need not be preserved; if they disagree, they are pernicious and ought to be destroyed.

— Omar I (581-644) 2nd Caliph, captor of Jerusalem, on the destruction of the library at Alexandria, Egypt

Macaca’s Back – And Fred Thompson’s Got Him

Jon Ponder

Fred Thompson has moved aggressively to sew up the racist vote for 2008. (Smart move. It may be the biggest voting block in the country.) He has appointed former Sen. George Allen of Virginia as a national co-chair of his presidential campaign:

Former Sen. George Allen (R-Va.), whose White House hopes vanished in a “macaca” moment, was named a top adviser yesterday to Fred Thompson’s White House campaign.

Thompson operatives brushed off the potential baggage Allen might bring to the campaign

During his campaign for reelection to the Senate in 2006, Allen was caught on tape referring to a dark skinned person as a “macaca,” which is a racial epithet in much of the world. Allen was also criticized for his lifelong obsession with the Confederacy and for decorating his government office with a noose, which many see as a symbol of lynching from the Jim Crow era and slavery days.

Allen will also co-chair Thompson’s “National Campaign Leadership Team” with Liz Cheney, the vice president’s heterosexual daughter.

Leonard Nimoy Is Just Another Hollywood Liberal

Buck Banks

I guess I should have known that Leonard Nimoy was a flaming liberal. It’s pretty clear, based on whose campaigns he has contributed to over the years. A new Web site, PoliticalBase.com, has a tool that enables you to search public records and find out who received dough (and we can assume support) from whom.

For instance, in January Nimoy gave $2,300 to Barak Obama’s campaign. In March he gave $1,700, then $2,300 to Al Franken’s campaign for Senate. He supported Barbara Boxer in 1992 and again in 2004. But Nimoy seems to hedge a little when he’s not sure about the horse he’s backing — he gave $2,000 each to Howard Dean and John Kerry in 2004. And we won’t mention the $1,000 he gave to Bill Bradley’s presidential campaign in 2000.

But Nimoy seems to hedge a little when he’s not sure about the horse he’s backing — he gave $2,000 each to Howard Dean and John Kerry in 2004.

Curious, I wondered how my co-editors voted with their money. Editor-In-Chief Jon Ponder in 1998 and 2000 gave a total of $1,500 to the campaign of Tom “Eliminate the Immigrants” Tancredo. Just kidding. That was Jon Ponder from Littleton, Colo. Co-editor Trish did not show up on the radar, but we suspect she could actually be in the witness-protection program. Some whack job with my given name gave $3,000 to help elect George W. Bush, and if I ever get to Portland, Ore., I’m going to look up the fellow and give him a piece of my mind.

PoliticalBase.com is a great place to waste time productively, if you have a drop of wonk in your veins. You can vote on who you think are the most important people. Overall most powerful is dead Republican Ronald Reagan and most powerful media person is Jon Stewart. Most trustworthy overall and among media people is Jon Stewart again. Most partisan are Ted Kennedy and Markos Zuniga of the Daily Kos blog.

Most attractive? Overall, it was Jon Stewart, Mitt Romney and Barak Obama. Among media it was Jon Stewart, Arianna Huffington and Keith Olbermann.

Stewart’s mom must be stuffing the ballot box. Which is one of the dangers inherent in a Wikipedia-style site that encourages visitors to become contributors, albeit with moderation.

The site was built by a handful of Web designers:

Early this summer, the five folks on your right started building Politicalbase.com as a resource for people wanting to make informed decisions when casting their vote. This team has worked on previous web sites like CNET, Comicvine, CHOW, TV.com, Rhapsody, MP3.com and a few more.

Check it out when you have a few minutes to waste productively. It’s fun.

Why Is the GOP Hellbent On Giving Pres. Hillary Clinton Authority to Wiretap Without Oversight?

Jon Ponder

With word this morning that Democrats have caved again on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) wiretap laws, it appears that Pres. Bush will get what he wants: the unfettered ability to spy on anyone anytime.

Republicans are so intent on winning the battle that they have lost sight of the fact that a new president will be sworn in 15 months, and that the new president may well be their femi-nazi arch-enemy, Hillary Clinton.

The glee among Republicans over the Democrats’ spinelessness is understandable. They have them right where they want them. All they have to do is suggest liberals are coddling terrorists and Speaker Pelosi et al fold in the wind.

What is even more striking, however, is the Republicans’ short-sightedness. Are they are so intent on winning the battle that they have lost sight of the fact that a new president will be sworn in 15 months — and that the new president may well be their femi-nazi archenemy, Hillary Clinton?

Not just Clinton. Why would Republicans want Pres. Obama or Pres. Edwards, or any Democrat, to have this power? It makes no sense.

Rank and file liberals object to giving Bush unfettered wiretap authority because there is an extremely high likelihood that if he hasn’t already abused this power and spied on his political enemies (in both parties), he will before he’s through.

Either the Republicans’ rhetoric about Hillary Clinton as an evil communist bogeywoman is all a sham, or they are being overly confident about the outcome of next year’s elections.

As it stands today, all trends point to the Dems gaining in the House and the Senate and taking the White House. If trends prevail and Democrats sweep into power in January 2009, the GOP in the next Congress will be powerless to rescind the powers they are eagerly ceding to Bush today.

Congressional oversight of the Executive is not a recommendation in the Constitution, it is a requirement. No president should have unfettered power, especially when it comes to spying on Americans. But if the Republicans are determined to give this sort of authority to the current president in order to score political points, so be it. The Dems are kowtowing to their bullying and fear-mongering, which means Republicans have the votes.

We can only hope the next Democratic Congress will be more willing to watchdog a president of their own party than the GOP was during its six year reign of power.

Closeted Gay Republican Watch: Armstrong Williams Hosts an A-List Book Party for Justice Thomas

Jon Ponder

It’s no surprise that there was an A-list book party in Washington for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas last week.

In order to fool “values voters” — who would recoil at the thought of going to a party at a gay man’s home — Republicans like Clarence Thomas keep their acceptance of gays on the down low.

It is also unsurprising that the guest list included Dick and Lynne Cheney, the entire U.S. Supreme Court and a handful of senators, along with Will Smith, Barbara Walters, Charles Barkley, Bob Jones of uber-fundamentalist Bob Jones University, Al Sharpton and Julian Bond. (Okay, Sharpton and Bond are a bit of a surprise since Thomas says in the book that liberals are scarier than the KKK.)

But what might surprise the GOP rank and file about the party is that its host, Armstrong Williams, the former conservative TV pundit, is allegedly gay.

Williams is a familiar face because he was a frequent rightwing pundit on cable news, a stint that ended abruptly in January 2005 when it was revealed he had been paid $241,000 to speak favorability about Bush education policies in his capacity as a TV pundit and elsewhere. (More Bush incompetence and profligacy: Williams would have happily shilled for free.)

The prime indicator that Williams might be gay is the fact he settled a sexual harassment suit with a male employee in 1998:

Williams was trotted out on CNN and other cable nets repeatedly [in 2004] during the gay marriage controversy to trash those who argued that marriage equality for same-sex lovers was a “civil right,” an argument which Williams’ pigmentation–in the eyes of TV news producers–gave him standing to make. As originally reported by New York magazine back in 1998:

Armstrong Williams, the conservative talk-show host who instigated a firestorm last week by asking the senator from Mississippi [Trent Lott] whether homosexuality is a sin, is being sued for sexual harassment by a former employee who happens to be male. Last year, Stephen Gregory — the former YMCA personal trainer whom Williams promoted to executive producer of his show — alleged in his suit that the boss grabbed his buttocks and penis, tried to kiss him, and climbed into his hotel-room bed asking for “affection” while they were traveling together. Williams immediately held a press conference to denounce Gregory’s allegations as “false, baseless, and completely completely without merit.”

After the man who was suing him produced affidavits from other men on whom Williams had pressed his unwanted attentions, Williams was forced to admit his denial was a lie, and settled the lawsuit — which alleged 50 separate incidents of rejected physical advances–for $200,000.

With so many sex scandals bubbling up in the GOP of late, surely even the most feeble-minded “values voters” must realize that the gay community is over-represented within the Republican elite. The scales dropping from the eyes among the party’s base can’t be good news for the GOP who have relied on homophobia to get out the vote recently — especially including 2004, when an anti-gay ballot initiative may have delivered Ohio, and thus reelection, to Bush and Cheney.