Day: April 16, 2008

And the Zell Miller Award Goes to…Joe Lieberman!

Trish

What’s the deal with Republicans needing to trot out a Democrat at their convention every four years? And what’s up with so-called Democrats who are eager to play the role of the straight-talking, fair-minded bipartisan who totally gets them?

This year’s Zell Miller award goes to Sen. Joseph Lieberman, party uncertain, of Connecticut, who will probably address the Republican presidential convention when it’s held in Minnesota’s Twin Cities in September.

Let’s just hope Lieberman doesn’t end his address by challenging Chris Matthews to a duel

Sen. Joe Lieberman — the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 2000 — is willing to address the Republican National Convention if it will help Sen. John McCain win in November, his office confirms to CNN.

In an interview published Tuesday night, the independent Connecticut senator told The Hill newspaper that “If Sen. McCain, who I support so strongly, asked me to do it, if he thinks it will help him, I will.”

Let’s just hope Lieberman doesn’t end his address by challenging Chris Matthews to a duel. For those of you too young or too old to remember, Zell Miller did precisely that in 2004 when the Hairball host pissed him off totally by asking him, after his shining moment of glory speaking before the adoring Republican assembly, if he was serious about any of that trash he had just talked about John Kerry. Cast your mind back to one of the classic moments in convention history…

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Will Pope Deny Communion to Kerry and Pelosi?

Buck Banks

pope-benedict.jpgAlthough I know it will just confound Trish, I have recently subscribed to OneNewsNow, an online newsletter backed by the homophobic Jesus boosters over at American Family Association. Why? To keep an eye on the other side of the conversation, monitor the news from Jesusland. Well, there was a mildly interesting story today.

It seems a Catholic pro-life group — American Life League — has taken out ads in the Washington Times and Politico this week to warn Pope Benedict XVI that Catholic lawmakers who support abortion rights are seeking to take advantage of his U.S. trip by receiving communion from him. The ads urge the Pope to “protect the body of Christ from the bloodstained hands of pro-abortion ‘Catholics'” by denying them communion and includes the photographs of 21 prominent Catholics who believe in a woman’s right to choose.

Who knew the Pope reads a newspaper owned by the Moonies?!

As Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the Pope wrote that if a pro-abortion politician attempts to receive communion, ‘the minister of Holy Communion must refuse to distribute it.’

All Catholic lawmakers have been invited by the Vatican to join the pontiff Thursday for a mass at the Washington Nationals’ new ballpark. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) are among the baby-killing Catholic lawmakers planning to attend.

It looks like the Pope might have painted himself into a corner on this one:

Judie Brown, president of American Life League (ALL), argues that pro-abortion Catholic lawmakers like Kerry and Pelosi are in violation of church law — something the Pope himself has determined. In 2004, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger wrote that if a pro-abortion politician attempts to receive communion, “the minister of Holy Communion must refuse to distribute it.”

According to Brown, the objective of the ad campaign is twofold: to remind those politicians that Catholics who favor abortion may not receive the Eucharist, and to honor the Pope’s visit to the United States. But pro-abortion Catholics like Kerry and Pelosi, she says, are trying to exploit the papal visit. “There’s no other word for it than defiance of church law,” says the ALL president.

Brown says that because Kerry and Pelosi have not been rebuked by their respective church leaders, they think they are above church law. “Of course that’s been the problem with these politicians all along,” she adds. “[Pelosi and Kerry] feel they have a free ticket, a free ride.” But the Pope, says Brown, is not of the “same fabric” as those politicians’ bishops or cardinals.

I wonder how Benedict will handle the situation at the ballpark. Guess we’ll find out Thursday — see you at the seventh-inning stretch.

Rice Said Torture Was Illegal Yet Drafted Torture Guidelines – Sign the Petition at Condi Must Go

Jon Ponder

As you can see in the video above, Condoleezza Rice has gone before the Congress and the American people on several occassions to confirm that torture remains illegal under the Bush regime and the U.S. government was not committing or conspiring to torture people — but now the record is clear that, as national security adviser in Bush’s first term, she led meetings with other top Bush officials to draft guidelines for torture techniques to be used by the CIA. Last Friday, George Bush admitted the group had his blessing and that he ultimately authorized the torture techniques.

The Eighth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States forbids “cruel and unusual punishments.” The president, vice president, Rice and other officials who crafted the torture guidelines — including Sec. of State Colin Powell, Att. Gen. John Ashcroft, Defense Sec. Donald Rumsfeld, CIA Director George Tenet and their aides — all swore oaths to uphold the Constitution.

Besides being illegal according to the U.S. Constitution as well as international law, torture is immoral and unethical. On practical level, it is counter-productive. But is, without question, illegal. Jonathan Turley, a constitutional expert who was a strong advocate for impeaching Pres. Clinton, has said the officials who drafted the torture guidelines committed war crimes.

The media are ignoring this story. This was done in your name — and in the name of every American citizen. It simply cannot stand.

Go here and sign the petition demanding the resignation of Sec. of State Condoleezza Rice because she led the team that drafted the torture guidelines.

As the video says: Psssssssssst. Do something.

McCain’s Economic Cure is the Worst Idea We’ve Heard So Far

Trish

Just when you thought Republicans couldn’t come up with anything worse to do to this country, along comes proof they always, always can. Did you think George Bush’s tax rebate, which will plunge our government even deeper into debt, was awful? Well John McCain has a plan to postpone impending economic disaster that will not only do nothing to help in the long run, but which will hasten global warming to boot.

John McCain wants us to burn more gasoline. Yes, he wants us to take to the roads this summer and burn, baby, burn. Our incentive? Artificially cheaper gas prices that come, not at the expense of oil company profits, but at the price of our crumbling infrastructure and ballooning deficit.

Yes, you guessed it. He wants to cut taxes on gasoline.

McCain wants to have artificially cheaper gas prices that come, not at the expense of oil company profits, but at the price of our crumbling infrastructure and ballooning deficit.

It also was unclear how McCain would pay for his proposed gas-tax holiday, which would run from Memorial Day to Labor Day. The federal gas tax is 18.4 cents per gallon; 24.4 cents for diesel. The idea would cost the federal Highway Trust Fund, already at risk of going broke next year, billions of dollars…

“That takes $11 billion away from infrastructure spending on roads and bridges, which are badly in need of help as we saw with last summer’s bridge collapse,” said James Kvaal, domestic policy adviser for the liberal Center for American Progress Action Fund, a Washington research group.

So how do we deal with the problems caused by our national carefree summer road trip? Dunno.

“The senator is not planning to raise taxes,” [McCain’s chief economic policy adviser, Douglas Holtz-Eakin] said repeatedly…

Of course not. Republicans don’t tax and spend, they borrow and spend.

Holtz-Eakin said money would be taken from general funds to ensure that the Highway Trust Fund didn’t run short. But the budget deficit already is projected at $500 billion.

And according to some economists, we are too far gone now to ever get back to the balanced budget Bill Clinton achieved and left in the care of George W. Bush.

[Rudy Penner, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute], a former director of the Congressional Budget Office, said…”Those deficits are going to look awfully big as the new president takes office, and it will be very hard to do what President Bush did — claim the budget balances in 2012, or maybe ever again if you do honest projections.”

Emphasis added.

There’s one other teeny, tiny flaw with McCain’s logic. Who are these people that are going to pack up the family and drive? Surely it’s not all those folks facing foreclosure, or the ones being laid off, or trying to figure out how to pay three times more for bread and milk at the grocery store. I guess they should just listen to McCain and forget all that impending doom. Heck, let’s go to DisneyWorld! Let’s pack up for Branson! Maybe we’ll swing by Vegas while we’re on the road. I’ll go warm up the Navigator and you kids grab your iPods. It’s going to be a long drive.