Month: May 2008

Wrong Guy Resigned Over McCain Lobbyist Policy

Trish

What you get when you try to access Thomas Loeffler’s page on his firm’s web site

When John McCain’s national finance co-chair resigned over the senator’s newly-minted no-lobbyists policy, the wrong guy quit. It should have been McCain stepping down for making deals.

Who is Thomas G. Loeffler? His history of Texas and Bush connections puts him in the center of the Bush inner circle.

Among Loeffler’s clients is the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co., the parent company of plane manufacturer Airbus. Northrop Grumman Corp. and EADS won a lucrative contract to provide air refueling tankers for the Air Force. McCain helped scuttle an earlier contract in 2004 that would have gone to a competitor, Boeing Co.

Loeffler’s firm also has lobbied for other foreign interests and foreign governments. Newsweek reported over the weekend that Loeffler’s firm was paid $15 million by Saudi Arabia. The news magazine also said Loeffler listed meeting McCain along with the Saudi ambassador to “discuss US-Kingdom of Saudi Arabia relations,” even though Loeffler told a reporter last month that he had not discussed his clients with McCain.

With this resignation, is McCain seriously trying to convince us that he was not influenced by lobbyists, and in any case, is now lobby-free?

McCain’s new policy prohibits any staffer on the campaign from being a registered lobbyist or foreign agent. Part-time volunteers for the campaigns, such as Loeffler, have to disclose whether they are registered lobbyists or lobbying on behalf of foreign entities.

Under the policy, dated May 15, such volunteer advisers cannot lobby McCain or his legislative staffs during the period they serve on the campaign.

Except for one little clause: lobbyists need only take a leave of absence from their day jobs in order to work on the McCain campaign. Once the campaign is over or they step down, it’s back to business as usual, if it ever really ceased.

So who is Thomas G. Loeffler? The short answer is, a piece of work. The longer answer shows a history of Texas and Bush connections that puts him in the center of the Bush inner circle.

[…]

Quote du Jour

Buck Banks

In the United States the majority undertakes to supply the multitude of ready-made opinions for the use of individuals, who are thus relieved of the necessity of forming opinions of their own.

— Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859), French statesman

Majority of California Supreme Court ‘Activist Judges’ Who Legalized Gay Marriage Were Republicans

Jon Ponder

When judges make decisions that favor gay civil rights, rightwingers label them “activist judges,” and howl, “Let the people decide.”
Yet more evidence — as if any were needed — that the rightwing position on gay marriage is based on bigotry, politics and fundraising, not principals or “moral” values.
But last year, when the California legislature — a.k.a. “the people” — passed bills that would have legalized gay marriage — twice — the right wing cheered when GOP Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed the laws both times.

Now, in the wake of the California Supreme Court’s ruling earlier this month legalizing gay marriage, the right will have trouble making their name-calling stick, because three of the four “activist judges” who voted in favor of extending civil rights to gays were Republicans:

Voting for:

Chief Justice Ronald George, 68, a moderate Republican appointed by Gov. Pete Wilson in 1991. He wrote the 4-3 opinion striking down the state ban on same-sex marriage, which he said violates the “fundamental constitutional right to form a family relationship.”

Justice Joyce Kennard, 67, a Republican appointed by Gov. George Deukmejian in 1989. She is considered a moderate and joined the majority opinion.

Justice Kathryn Mickle Werdegar, 72, a Republican appointed by Wilson in 1994. She is considered a moderate and was part of the majority in the ruling.

Justice Carlos Moreno, 59, the court’s only Democratic appointee, named to the bench by Gov. Gray Davis in 2001. He is considered a moderate and voted with the majority.

Dissenting:

Justice Marvin Baxter, 68, a Republican appointed by Deukmejian in 1990. He is considered a conservative and wrote a dissenting opinion that accused the court of substituting “its own social policy views for those expressed by the people.”

Justice Ming Chin, 65, a Republican appointed by Wilson in 1996. He is considered a conservative and joined Baxter’s dissenting opinion.

Dissented with caveat:

Justice Carol Corrigan, 59, a moderate Republican appointed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2005. Her separate dissent said that the court should not invalidate the ban but that “Californians should allow our gay and lesbian neighbors to call their unions marriages.”

This is yet more evidence — as if any were needed — that the rightwing position on gay marriage is based on bigotry, politics and fundraising, not principals or “moral” values.

[…]

Sen. Ted Kennedy Hospitalized

Jon Ponder

Breaking:

Senator Edward Kennedy was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston for tests after suffering a seizure, Kennedy spokeswoman Melissa Wagoner said.

Kennedy, 76, the senior senator from Massachusetts, was taken to the Cape Cod hospital at around 9 a.m. today and transported by helicopter to Boston after about an hour, David Reilly, a Cape Cod Hospital spokesman, said.

“It appears that Senator Kennedy experienced a seizure this morning,” [Reilly] said in an e-mailed statement. “He is undergoing a battery of tests at Massachusetts General Hospital to determine the cause of the seizure. Senator Kennedy is resting comfortably, and it is unlikely we will know anything more for the next 48 hours.”

Quote du Jour

Buck Banks

I intend to leave after my death a large fund for the promotion of the peace idea, but I am skeptical as its results. The savants will write excellent volumes. There will be laureates. But wars will continue just the same until the force of circumstances renders them impossible.

— Alfred Nobel (1833-1896), Swedish munitions manufacturer, philanthropist

Did Huckabee Have Someone Set Up Obama Remark?

Trish

WTF??

Huckabee’s bizarre comments to NRA members defy understanding. The 10-minute front-runner in this year’s Republican presidential contest went a long way with these words toward reassuring evangelicals reluctant to support John McCain that the old guy is probably their best Republican option after all.

“That was Barack Obama, he just tripped off a chair, he’s getting ready to speak. Somebody aimed a gun at him and he dove for the floor.”

Several things jump out at you as you watch the video. First, how did he pop that out so fast? It was like he was waiting to say it. No pause, no hesitation. Did he put someone up to making the noise just so he could say this?

Second, how is this funny? What’s the joke here? “Somebody aimed a gun at him?” Does Huckabee realize how much danger Obama is in every second of every day in a country with gun nuts (a huge crowd of whom he was addressing) and religious wackos and racists? The Obama campaign met with the ugliest racism yet in the recent contests in Indiana and Pennsylvania, according to campaign workers.

How did he pop that out so fast? It was like he was waiting to say it. Did he put someone up to making the noise just so he could say this?

Here’s the worst: In Muncie, a factory town in the east-central part of Indiana, Ross and her cohorts were soliciting support for Obama at malls, on street corners and in a Wal-Mart parking lot, and they ran into “a horrible response,” as Ross put it, a level of anti-black sentiment that none of them had anticipated.

“The first person I encountered was like, ‘I’ll never vote for a black person,’ ” recalled Ross, who is white and just turned 20. “People just weren’t receptive.”

For all the hope and excitement Obama’s candidacy is generating, some of his field workers, phone-bank volunteers and campaign surrogates are encountering a raw racism and hostility that have gone largely unnoticed — and unreported — this election season. Doors have been slammed in their faces. They’ve been called racially derogatory names (including the white volunteers). And they’ve endured malicious rants and ugly stereotyping from people who can’t fathom that the senator from Illinois could become the first African American president…

Victoria Switzer, a retired social studies teacher, was on phone-bank duty one night during the Pennsylvania primary campaign. One night was all she could take: “It wasn’t pretty.” She made 60 calls to prospective voters in Susquehanna County, her home county, which is 98 percent white. The responses were dispiriting. One caller, Switzer remembers, said he couldn’t possibly vote for Obama and concluded: “Hang that darky from a tree!”

And Huckabee thinks “Somebody aimed a gun at him” is funny?

Third, it’s almost surrealistic how Huckabee goes from this loutish remark to instantly falling back into the preacher holier-than-thou cadence as he declares “a democracy cannot operate in a moral vacuum” and calls “for us to live more honestly and more ethically.” Like starting with you, Mikey?

Huckabee’s “apology” was even lamer than his joke.

During my speech at the N.R.A., a loud noise backstage, that sounded like a chair falling, distracted the crowd and interrupted my speech. I made an off hand [sic] remark that was in no way intended to offend or disparage Sen. Obama. I apologize that my comments were offensive. That was never my intention.

So what was your intention, Governor?

Chris Matthews Takes Down Rightwing Radio Host Who Argued Obama Is Like Neville Chamberlain, But Did Not Know Who Chamberlain Was

Jon Ponder

Kevin James went on “Hardball” yesterday to expound on George Bush’s assertion that Barack Obama is the new Neville Chamberlain. One tiny problem: Kevin James had no idea who Neville Chamberlain was or what he did that was so worthy of contempt:

Who is Kevin James?

Kevin James began his professional career in 1988 as a lawyer with one of Los Angeles’s largest law firms. Soon thereafter, Kevin spent more than 3 years as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in LA, and then more than 10 years as a litigator in high profile entertainment matters.

Kevin’s legal experience is what initially brought him into the talk radio industry, regularly providing his legal expertise to talk radio stations in major markets around the country. In early 2004, Kevin decided to leave the legal profession to begin his full-time career as a radio talk show host at KTOK in Oklahoma City, where Kevin’s legal experience and his interest in news and the topics of the day resulted in tremendous success in the morning drive slot at KTOK.

Kevin’s rating success in Oklahoma City enabled his return to Los Angeles in early 2005 to host KABC’s “Red Eye Radio” — once again achieving great ratings success. Kevin hosted “Red Eye Radio” until April 2007.

Kevin has also served as a regular panelist for Court TV’s “Catherine Crier Live” and appeared on CNN as a commentator and legal analyst.

Kevin received his undergraduate degree from the University of Oklahoma and attended law school at the University of Houston.

Kevin brings a passionate and practical voice to the countless issues that affect the Southern California community, and also has the experience to provide an insider’s perspective into Hollywood’s never-ending wave of high profile conflicts and disputes that frequently relate to larger issues affecting the nation.

2. Who is Neville Chamberlain?

Arthur Neville Chamberlain (18 March 1869 – 9 November 1940) was a British Conservative politician and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1937 to 1940.

Chamberlain’s legacy is marked by his policy regarding the appeasement of Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany with his signing of the Munich Agreement in 1938, conceding part of Czechoslovakia to Hitler. In the same year he also gave up the Irish Free State Royal Navy ports.

The right is attempting to equate holding talks with our adversaries with appeasement. In fact, talking with Hitler was not necessarily a bad thing, and it certainly was not appeasement. Chamberlain appeased Hitler by giving up half of Czechoslovakia.

Quote du Jour

Buck Banks

If the world were a paradise of luxury and ease, a land flowing with milk and honey, where every Jack obtained his Jill at once and without any difficulty, men would either die of boredom or hang themselves; or there would be war, massacre and murders; so that in the end mankind would inflict more suffering on itself than it has now to accept at the hands of Nature.

— Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860), German philosopher