Month: February 2008

From the Creative Time-Wasting Dept. We offer Hubdub.com

Buck Banks

hubdub-logo.jpgThink you’re a pretty savvy predictor of what’s going to happen next in the big news stories in business, politics, entertainment or science? Want to bet on it?

Check out hubdub (not hubbub!). Once you register, you get a thousand hubdub dollars to bet on any of a wide range of topics tagged to a news item and set in the form of a question. Pick an answer, place your bet and sit back watch the money just roll in. Or not.

Some people in hubdub land have A) some real predictive skill and B) a lot of time on their hands. Enough at least to have accrued more than H$60,000.

Hubdub was created by four guys in a garage in Edinburgh, Scotland, and staffed by a bunch of newshounds around the globe.

So check it out. I bet you’ll find it addictive.

The TSA Is Blogging — Ineptly, Of Course

Buck Banks

tsa1.jpgThe Transportation Security Administration has come under a lot of criticism since it was formed following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. And now it’s in for some more. The TSA has started a weblog, and in today’s post, promptly misspelled “blogoshpere” in the headline. Much as I detest that term, seeing it misspelled in a head on a blog does not bode well for the site’s content or the competence of its posters.

The blog is called “Evolution of Security,” and has a catchy tagline: “Terrorists Evolve. Threats Evolve. Security Must Stay Ahead. You Play A Part.” Short. Choppy. Sentences. Sounds like “Dragnet” dialog.

The hot topics are entertaining, too:

  • Shoes: Comments about the possibility of picking up a foot fungus at the checkpoint.
  • Liquids: “TSA took my hair product away!”
  • Inconsistencies: In Columbus the clear makeup bag was acceptable, but in Portsmouth it was confiscated because it wasn’t a “baggie.”
  • Lighters, Nail Clippers and Lithium Batteries: “What is a tool using human supposed to do?”
  • Gripes & Grins: “I’m a 63 yr old woman, and I do NOT appreciate the TSA woman in West Palm Beach who felt it necessary to reach down inside the front of my slacks. How embarrassing!”

It’s easy — maybe too easy — to make fun of the TSA for its bumbling attempt to create a blog. But the impetus behind it — giving airline passengers a chance to sound off and make suggestions — should be lauded, I suppose. Of course, the comments are moderated, but it appears the TSA is being pretty fair in allowing constructive negative criticisms.

It is interesting to note that a majority of commenters, knowing that they are posting to a gubmint site, choose to post as “anonymous,” thinking their identity is protected. Nice try. And good luck at the airport!

Two Videos: Obama Pledges Allegiance, Hand over Heart – Which Rightwing Says He Refuses To Do

Jon Ponder

The latest GOP disinformation campaign against Sen. Barack Obama is that he refuses to put his hand over his heart as he says the Pledge of Allegiance.

Above are two videos, one from June 21, 2007, and another from Feb. 1, 2007, in which he says the pledge with hand over heart.

Below is the rightwing disinformation video. It shows Obama in Iowa in September 2007, standing at attention while the National Anthem is being sung. He stands at attention (which was what I was taught to do growing up in the South) but does not place his hand over his heart, even though the other candidates on the stage do:

[…]

Clinton Campaign Staff Not Getting Paid

Trish

It’s hard to put a good face on news like this.

Members of Senator Hillary Clinton’s senior campaign staff have agreed to work without pay for the month of February…

We, like so many Republicans before us, might have to blame Bill. The thought of the former president back in the White House just seems wrong.

The staff move to help the campaign save precious resources comes after a big media blitz preceding Super Tuesday — including a one hour televised interactive town hall meeting on the Hallmark Channel, which set the campaign back millions of dollars, and regular TV ads that totaled more than $8 million over a period of less than two weeks…

Senator Clinton reached into her own pockets to give the campaign a $5 million loan late last month…

The Clinton campaign raised about $13 million in January, plus the $5 million loan from Senator Clinton. The Obama campaign announced recently that it had raised $32 million last month.

Did you feel that? It’s the force of Barack Obama’s momentum driving Hillary off the road and into the ditch. And we, like so many Republicans before us, might have to blame Bill. The thought of the former president back in the White House just seems wrong. Two terms is enough in this country, and if he were still attending to earthquake victims with Jr’s dad or something, we’d probably be O.K. with it.

Instead, ever since the actual voting began – rather than just debates or campaign stops – Bill got busy on the stump. He got a little too busy, because it was finally evident that Obama has a real chance, and now we’re all kind of embarrassed for him.

We’re embarrassed for her, too, because Hillary has shown just how far she’s willing to go to achieve the goal of the Oval Office: about 10 percent farther than any of us would prefer.

Bush Getting All Sneaky About FOIA Law

Buck Banks

foia.jpgRemember George Bush’s penchant for signing statements — you know, those little “I signed the bill but now I’m saying it don’t apply to me” post facto add-ons to pieces of legislation. Well, he’s up to his old tricks again, this time seeking to eliminate part of the Freedom of Information Act legislation through an act of legerdemain.

But Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-VT., caught him:

In a paragraph improbably located in a portion of President Bush’s fiscal 2009 budget dealing with the Commerce Department, the White House calls for shifting from the National Archives to the Justice Department funds for an FOIA oversight office created under the recently enacted law.

The Office of Government Information Services would house an ombudsman charged with reviewing agency policies, speeding up responses and mediating disputes involving FOIA.

Creation of the ombudsman is one of a series of steps required under the FOIA bill, signed Dec. 31 by President Bush.

But the plan to move the office has caused Leahy and groups advocating government transparency to charge the White House publicly agreed to the measure, but then privately moved to scuttle it in a step comparable to the president’s use of signing statements suggesting he may not be bound by portions of laws he approves.

The Justice Department has long been criticized for its handling of FOIA requests. Basically, the DoJ is quick to deny and slow to fulfill such requests. Add to that the atmosphere of secrecy the administration has created, going so far as to not share the list of visitors Bush has entertained in the Oval Office. And don’t get me started about the millions of “missing” e-mails.

You do have to give the Bushies credit for coming up with a pretty clever, if sinister, tactic to get the Congress to repeal its own law by inserting a little phrase into the omnibus spending bill. And we know how closely those elected officials read important documents, right?

The language in Bush’s budget says the Justice Department will carry out “the responsibilities of the office” created in the bill. The language also says a portion of the FOIA bill dealing with the new office “is hereby repealed.”

Leahy called issuance of the language itself an effort to repeal part of FOIA law. But a Judiciary Committee aide said the provision would only take effect if Congress passed the budget with the section included.

Thank goodness Pat Leahy actually reads that stuff. Even so, the government’s transparency under George Bush is still, as we say in the South, clear as mud.

For a funny suggestion to the commander in thief, check this out.

Great News! Evangelicals Promising Not to Vote

Trish
Stay home, Jim!

In what might be the best news I’ve heard since my first choice of presidential candidates dropped out, Jim Dobson is threatening to boycott the November election. And he wants to take his fanatic followers with him.

James Dobson, the influential founder of the conservative, evangelical advocacy group Focus on the Family, has delivered a blow to John McCain — by saying he won’t vote for him if he’s the Republican presidential nominee.

“I am convinced Sen. McCain is not a conservative, and in fact, has gone out of his way to stick his thumb in the eyes of those who are … I cannot, and will not, vote for Sen. John McCain, as a matter of conscience,” he said in a statement on Tuesday.

“I believe this general election will offer the worst choices for president in my lifetime. I certainly can’t vote for Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama based on their virulently anti-family policy positions. If these are the nominees in November, I simply will not cast a ballot for president for the first time in my life,” he said.

Dobson said he was just expressing his views as a private citizen — but many of his millions of followers in the evangelical community, who listen to his radio show and read his books, will take it as a signal to do the same.

What’s got Jimmy so fired up? Do you think it’s because McCain is pro-choice? Of course he’s not. Do you think it’s because McCain wants to get us out of Iraq too soon? Hell, he wants us there forever. Maybe Dobson is worried McCain’s fiscal policy or plan for health insurance will hurt families. Doubt it, since McCain hasn’t talked much about either.

No, Dobson’s issues are much more vital to America.

Dobson said McCain’s failure to support a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage and his support for embryonic stem-cell research among other things were beyond the Christian conservative pale.

Stay home, James. It will be the best thing you’ve ever done for your country.

Super Tuesday’s Biggest Loser: Rush Limbaugh

Jon Ponder

The truly most divisive figure in the 2008 race is not Hillary Clinton, it’s John McCain. His ascendancy has ripped the Republican Party asunder — and his most vicious and vocal conservative opponents include the loudest mouths in America: Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity and, especially, Rush Limbaugh.

They don’t like McCain because he is a leftwing Republican who advocates policies on campaign reform, illegal immigration, taxes and other policies they find to be insufficiently doctrinaire. The fact that he has promised to continue George Bush’s occupation of Iraq for another century is not good enough for them.

On Monday, Limbaugh told his followers that McCain’s true mission was to destroy the Republican Party:

“He’s going to reach out to Democrats in Congress,” Limbaugh said, citing “McCain-Kennedy” and “McCain-Feingold” as examples of McCain-sponsored bipartisan legislation. “This is how he’s going to get even with Republicans for defeating him in South Carolina in 2000,” Limbaugh said. “The Republican Congress will effectively be neutered.”

And:

“It was just six months ago that if a candidate was endorsed by the liberal media we were instantly suspicious of them,” Limbaugh said. Now he said, “we’ve got drive-by media organizations having orgasms about McCain.”

And — despite the fact McCain has a solid record of voting to cede women’s control of their reproductive organs to government bureaucrats:

“It’s pro-choicers who are voting for McCain. That’s who liberals are!” Limbaugh said.

And then there was the amazing spectacle of Ann Coulter saying she would vote for Hillary Clinton if McCain were to become the GOP nominee. (Someone should get her a Clinton 2008 yard sign and bumpersticker, post haste.)

After McCain won the Florida GOP primary last week, Limbaugh and the others went into overdrive to get word down to their followers to vote for Mitt Romney, who, they say, is the “true” conservative. (Who cares if he held positions far to the left of Mccain just three years ago.) Secondly, the Limbaugh cabal also warned their listeners that a “vote for Mike Huckabee was a vote for McCain” — their logic being that since Huckabee doesn’t have a chance, votes for him will eventually accrue to McCain.

Well, the votes are in, and, there’s no way other way to say: Limbaugh lost big time:

Sen. John McCain cemented his Republican front-runner status Tuesday, piling up big wins coast-to- coast, according to CNN projections…

McCain capped the night by taking California and all its 170 delegates …

McCain also won Connecticut, Illinois, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Delaware and Arizona, his home state, according to CNN projections.

McCain has gathered 514 delegates so far in his presidential campaign, including Tuesday night’s projections. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has 177 delegates, and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has 122.

Early in the evening, the pundits were laying odds that if Romney lost California, he would quit the race. After word came around 9:15 p.m. that McCain had trounced him here (McCain 42.2 percent, Romney 33.3 percent, Huckabee 11.5 percent), Chris Matthews and Tom Brokaw were on the set talking about Mitt in somber tones like the guy had just died. No word yet today when Mitt will pull the plug, but it appears to be a matter of time.

As has been stated here before, it is too early to write the obituaries for the conservative movement, but the results from the Feb. 5, 2008, primary do provide evidence that these Reagan era dinosaurs are losing their sway among their own kind.