Year: 2007

Rightwing to Give Rudy ‘Harriet Miers Treatment’

Jon Ponder

The trogs at the GOP are not happy that a liberal Republican is their party’s likely nominee. Now the long knives are out for Rudy Giuliani as rightwing groups plot to bring his presidential nomination down the way they did the nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court:

[The] Right is facing what some of them see as an even more ominous threat: the prospect that Rudy Giuliani could win the GOP presidential nomination. And just as they did with Miers, right-wing activists – especially anti-choice Catholic ones – are gearing up to launch an all-out attack in an effort to deny Giuliani the nomination:

And Free Republic, the Internet locus for advocates of American authoritarianism and theocracy, has purged Rudy’s supporters from its ranks:

Over the past few weeks, chaos has reigned in the “Freeper” community as members sympathetic to the former mayor’s candidacy claim to have suffered banishment from the site. They were victimized, they say, by a wave of purges designed to weed out any remaining support for the Giuliani campaign on the popular conservative web forum. Another significant chunk of commenters have migrated away from the controversial site over the action, according to a number of former site members and conservative bloggers who have been tracking the situation.

In a plaintive post on the blog “Sweetness & Light,” exiled commenter Steve Gilbert, who says he does not support the former mayor’s campaign, blasted the site’s new “anti-Giuliani, anti-abortion jihad.” Since George W. Bush was elected president, he wrote, “there haven’t been any large scale [Free Republic] purges to speak of — until now.”

This is ironic, of course, because no candidate is more authoritarian than Giuliani, who once tried to forbid public criticism of him when he was mayor.

These same virtual goons purged supporters of George W. Bush from the site in 1999 but had to recant after it became clear Bush had been ordained as the party’s next Dear Leader.

Andy Card ‘Loudly Booed By Hundreds’ at UMass Commencement

Jon Ponder

Maybe there is hope for America yet:

President Bush’s former chief of staff Andrew Card was loudly booed by hundreds of students and faculty members as he rose to accept an honorary degree at the University of Massachusetts on Friday.

The boos and catcalls – including those from faculty members who stood onstage with Card – drowned out Provost Charlena Seymour’s remarks as she awarded the honorary doctorate in public service.

The AP report says one faculty member on the stage with Card held up a sign: “Card – no honor – no degree.” Grads held up yellow signs that read, “Honor Grads, Dis-Card.”

GOP Leader Boehner Sobs on House Floor – If Pelosi Cried, Her Career Would Be Over

Jon Ponder

“After 3,000 of our fellow citizens died at the hands of these terrorists, when are we going to stand up and take ’em on!? When are we going to defeat ’em?!”
— Boehner

Boehner’s Boo-Hoo: Is the standard of comportment for political leaders different for men and women? You bet. There was a prime example of the difference last week when Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) took to the floor during the debate on the war-funding bill to deliver a tearful (drunken?) non sequitor on 9/11, terrorism and the war in Iraq.

Watch the clip and ask yourself what would happen if House Speaker Nancy Pelosi appeared to lose control of her emotions while addressing the House (or anywhere). Corporate media would be in full meltdown. Pols and pundits would be raising “serious” questions about her ability to lead. Rightwing radio would be telegraphing an unspoken message loud and clear: Told ya. Women are too unstable to lead. It’s doubtful she would survive the scandal.

What’s caught on tape here is not Boehner’s macaca moment, but you could make a case that is equivalently as cringe-making as Howard Dean’s scream. Lucky for Boehner, Big Media is ignoring his performance. Lucky for him, he’s a guy.

Transcript follows:

[…]

Deciphering Romney-Speak

Trish

Translating what Mitt Romney means — and when — is almost as challenging as parsing out a George W. Bush screed.

Listen to what America’s best-known Mormon said in a recent “Ask Mitt Anything” convocation in Florida.

Romney would not say whether he thought homosexuality was immoral.

Suffice it to say that Romney’s answer to the question of whether homosexuality is immoral was not a simple, “No.”

“I don’t think that a person who’s running for a secular position as I am should talk about or engage in discussions of what they in their personal faith or their personal beliefs is immoral or not immoral.”

But suffice it to say the answer to the question was not a simple, “No.”

And here’s a clue why:

“What you look for in a leader is someone who will welcome and treat with respect people who made different choices and have different beliefs in their lives and have differences. I have nothing but respect and feelings of tolerance for people with differences from myself and feel that way with regards to those who are gay.”

Got it. Romney believes that being gay is a “choice” and a “belief,” not a physiological state.

His views on immigration are equally enlightening. Apparently, he thinks the only immigrants are Mexicans. And welfare-seeking, criminal Mexicans at that.

“I don’t think that we’re going to round up 11 or 12 or however many million people and bus them out of the country. That’s not what I’m talking about,” Romney said. “Those who committed felonies, of course, would be deported. Those who require government assistance to stay here would surely need to get off government assistance and ultimately could not remain here on government assistance.”

Put them on a bus, eh? I hope he wasn’t talking about the immigrants I see a lot of down this way: Haitians.

Romney’s little Mormon mind isn’t nearly as inscrutable as he would have us believe. Maybe the average Republican would miss these clues to his true world-view but those of us on this team just aren’t feeling him.

Gotta See This Video. Then Show It To Somebody Else

Trish

Outrage fatigue and Bush fatigue make us forget there are others like us out there. Watch this video and remember there is cause for hope as well as outrage. Then visit the web site to learn more.

Avaaz.org (Our name means “Voice” or “Song” in several languages including Hindi, Urdu, Farsi, Nepalese, Dari, Turkish, and Bosnian) is a community of global citizens who take action on the major issues facing the world today. Our aim is to ensure that the views and values of the world’s people — and not just political elites and unaccountable corporations — shape global decisions.

President Referred to al Qaeda 39 Times in Coast Guard Address

Jon Ponder

Political terror: Five years ago, in the wake of the 2001 terror attacks, Pres. George W. Bush had considerable success terrifying the public into supporting him. Today, however, the vast majority of Americans have come to regard George Bush as — at best — a serial prevaricator.

With his credibility is in tatters, and his approval rating mired in the low 30s, all he has left is his base — conservative Americans who are apparently addicted to, and easily manipulated by, fear.

Desperate to keep them in goose-bumps, he has dredged up the scarifying rhetoric from the bad old days. There is no better example of this than the president’s commencement address to the U.S. Coast Guard Academy on Wednesday, when he used deployed the bogeyman of al Qaeda no fewer than 39 times.

The transcript follows, picking up the narrative 15 paragraphs in:

[…]

Quote du Jour

Buck Banks

We are always making God our accomplice, that so we may legalize our own iniquities. Every successful massacre is consecrated by a Te Deum, and the clergy have never been wanting in benedictions for any victorious enormity.

— Henri Frederic Amiel, Swiss philosopher

New Cheney Grandchild: GOP Cognitive Dissonance Runs Amok

Trish

Above, Lynne and Dick Cheney hold their sixth grandchild, Samuel David Cheney, the son of Mary Cheney and her wife, Heather Poe.

Bush press release titled, “President Calls for Constitutional Amendment Protecting Marriage,” issued Feb. 24, 2004:

After more than two centuries of American jurisprudence, and millennia of human experience, a few judges and local authorities are presuming to change the most fundamental institution of civilization. Their actions have created confusion on an issue that requires clarity.

Bush: “Ages of experience have taught that the commitment of a husband and wife to love and to serve one another promotes the welfare of children and the stability of society”

On a matter of such importance, the voice of the people must be heard. Activist courts have left the people with one recourse. If we are to prevent the meaning of marriage from being changed forever, our nation must enact a constitutional amendment to protect marriage in America.

…An amendment to the Constitution is never to be undertaken lightly. The amendment process has addressed many serious matters of national concern. And the preservation of marriage rises to this level of national importance. The union of a man and woman is the most enduring human institution, honoring — honored and encouraged in all cultures and by every religious faith. Ages of experience have taught humanity that the commitment of a husband and wife to love and to serve one another promotes the welfare of children and the stability of society.

Marriage cannot be severed from its cultural, religious and natural roots without weakening the good influence of society. Government, by recognizing and protecting marriage, serves the interests of all. Today I call upon the Congress to promptly pass, and to send to the states for ratification, an amendment to our Constitution defining and protecting marriage as a union of man and woman as husband and wife. The amendment should fully protect marriage, while leaving the state legislatures free to make their own choices in defining legal arrangements other than marriage.