Month: August 2008
World-Class Hypocrisy: U.S. Media Ignores Bush’s Actions in Iraq As He Criticizes Russia’s Invasion of Georgia
One of the most dire repercussions of George Bush’s misbegotten invasion of Iraq in 2003 is that it has undermined U.S. credibility in speaking out against Russia’s invasion of Georgia today. Of course, having no credibility has never stopped Bush and his aides from speaking out, and it is not stopping them now.
The only criticism from the American media leveled at Bush for his hypocrisy in criticizing Russia’s invasion of a sovereign nation has come from Jon Stewart’s comedy news show.
At a meeting of the United Nations Security Council this week, the brazen hypocrisy of the Bush administration’s mindset was put on full display. First, U.N. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad accused Russia of trying to topple the leader of Georgia, Mikhail Saakashvili — to which Russia’s U.N. ambassador, Vitaly Chuckin, responded in a news conference after the meeting, “‘Regime change’ is purely an American invention.”
At the news conference, Khalilzad dug the hole of U.S. hypocrisy even deeper: “We want to make sure our Russian colleagues understand, ” he told reporters later, “that the days of overthrowing leaders by military means in Europe — those days are gone.” (The emphasis was Khalilzad’s.)
As comedian Jon Stewart pointed out, “It’s amazing how adding the phrase ‘in Europe’ makes our actions [in Iraq] more palatable.”
Of course, Bush and his associates have been accused of far worse things than hypocrisy — including war crimes, lying to Congress and criminal neglect while an American city drowned, just for starters — and they have yet to be held accountable or suffer any repercussions.
Luckily for them, however — except for Stewart on his comedy news show — there hasn’t been any criticism in the American corporate media of these and other outrageous pronouncements by Bush and his senior foreign policy officials.
Yee-Haw! It’s Gator-Killin’ Season!
Lest anyone think the state of my birth has slouched toward sophistication, note that tonight marks the opening of Florida’s annual alligator hunting season. The state has issued more than 5,000 gator-hunting permits this year — an all-time record.
Apparently, some folks are real excited about it:
“Everybody’s super-stoked,” said Grayson Padrick, who owns a hunting and guide business.
This year, that crowd of hunters has more to be excited about: They can use artificial lures, and they can hunt an hour longer than in the past.
That’s a real help for hunters because using real gator bait can quickly get expensive:
And what, pray tell, is the attraction of taking to the swamps at night to stalk the wily allapattah (Seminole name for alligator) with a flashlight, a harpoon and a bang stick (a device with a shotgun shell on the end that discharges when pushed with force against the skull of a gator to obliterate it’s walnut-sized brain)?
The hunt’s increasing popularity — as indicated by the crowds scrambling for permits in the past couple of years — is partially because veterans of the hunt have recruited people who haven’t experienced the primal rawness of tracking down and killing the potentially ferocious reptile.
Note to self: Stay out of the swamp for the next month or so.
Poll: Obama Wins Bobblehead Election By 10 Points
National polls are mostly meaningless for the next few weeks, but this one may be surprisingly noteworthy:
Barack Obama has been declared winner of the 2008 bobble head election, held by sports consulting firm The Goldklang Group in six minor league baseball stadiums this month.
Obama defeated John McCain 55 percent to 45 percent, as minor league fans cast ballots at voting booths inside the six stadiums. Each fan received a bobblehead doll of his/her candidate. Voting stopped and a winner was proclaimed when one candidate’s bobblehead supply ran out.
It sounds silly, as anything involving bobble heads does, but there are a couple of factors here to consider. First, the demographics of fans of minor league baseball are much closer to NASCAR dads and Sam’s Club shoppers than, say, aficionados of chardonnay and arugula, which bodes well for Barack Obama, whom Republicans are trying to brand as uppity, oops, sorry, elitist, because his base includes educated, upper-income wine drinkers who prefer salad made with greens that are more flavorful than iceberg.
In addition, Obama swept McCain at ball games even in generally Republican areas like South Carolina, Florida and South Dakota, as well as in the Democratic strongholds of Massachusetts and New York. In St. Paul, Minn., site of the Republican National Convention next month, Obama trounced McCain by 58 percent to 42 percent.
Another factor to consider is that, in August 2004, the same bobblehead poll accurately predicted the George Bush would narrowly defeat John Kerry.
Of course, there’s one factor that may undermine the accuracy of the poll: It’s unclear how many of the bobblehead voters are under the age of 18 and thus ineligible to vote in the real election in November.
Quote du Jour
If I ever needed a brain transplant, I’d choose a sportswriter because I’d want a brain that had never been used.
— Norm van Brocklin (1916-1983), football player
Dumb Move: Clinton to be Up for Nomination at the Convention
Diehard supporters of Hillary Clinton are getting their way. The senator’s name will be placed in nomination at the Democratic National Convention.
“Both sides agree that it is in the best interest of party unity and making sure that everyone’s voice and vote is honored to make sure her name is put into nomination,” a person close the negotiations said. “It’s to honor everyone who worked so hard on both sides.”
Oh please. Whoever loses the nomination always has supporters who worked hard. That doesn’t mean they get to ignore the fact that they lost.
After both Clinton’s and Obama’s names are placed into nomination there will be a roll call vote
Some details are still being worked out, but Clinton’s name will be put into nomination at the Denver convention on Wednesday. That will be one day after Clinton addresses the convention.
“This truly was a joint decision,” according to the Clinton source. “This wasn’t something she was itching for, looking for. But so many of her supporters said it was important to them. And the Obama people got how important it was to smooth over any tensions and that it was the right thing to do.”
What also hasn’t been settled yet is who will nominate Clinton and whether she will stand up with the New York delegation when they are called on.
What has been settled, however, is that after both Clinton (sic) and Obama (sic) names are placed into nomination there will be a roll call vote.
So then can we get behind Obama? Or will Clintonites come up with another demand?
I hope the party executives know what they’re doing. As anyone who’s read my previous posts knows, I have zero confidence in Howard Dean. Moves like this aren’t helping give me any.
Women’s Group Calls for Hairball Host’s Head
Contributor to domestic violence?It might be a bit of a delayed reaction, but a group called the New Agenda has had it with Chris Matthews, host of the show, “Hairball with Chris Matthews.” Their statement of Matthews’ sins is a little vague, which makes me wonder if it isn’t really all about Hillary.
Amy Siskind of Westchester, N.Y., a founder and Clinton supporter, said the group was urging that Matthews’ contract not be renewed because “the kind of language he uses and the kind of behavior he exhibits in the public domain toward women objectifies them and leads to bad things for our society and to domestic violence.”
I’m not sure being a boorish clod leads directly to domestic violence among the masses, but I think Matthews could stand to tone it down a little. Of course, I guess it wouldn’t be “hardball” if he did.
In 2007, Matthews was talking on the air with Erin Burnett, a CNBC business news anchor, when he asked her to lean into the camera. “Come in closer — really close,” he told a flustered Burnett. He then laughed and said: “Just kidding. You look great…You’re a knockout.”
In January, Matthews apologized on the air for a comment he had made about Clinton’s political achievements. He said she owed her Senate seat and presidential bid to the fact that her husband had “messed around.”
Dufus.
McCain Plays the POW Card Like a Pro
John McCain has played the prisoner of war card so many times that others are doing it for him, as Sean Hannity recently demonstrated. Alan Colmes suggested that if having an affair makes John Edwards unfit for the White House, then John McCain must be unfit as well. Hannity’s response? McCain’s affairs didn’t count because they took place after he was a prisoner of war.
John McCain has traded being a prisoner of war for a lifetime Disney E-ticket since he returned to the United States. He used it to win his first race, blatantly exploiting it in his 1982 bid for a Congressional seat.
It’s not my intention to demean McCain’s imprisonment. I am just sick of hearing him use it, hide behind it, and pimp it out to explain racism, infidelity, hot-headedness, or any of his other failings.
McCain saturated local TV with an ad focused on his military record that showed him getting off a plane on crutches shortly after his release as a POW.
“It showed he was a hero. It would bring tears to your eyes,” said rival candidate Ray Russell, a veterinarian who finished second in the Republican primary that year.
In his 2002 book “Worth the Fighting For,” McCain himself acknowledged his strategy: “Thanks to my prisoner of war experience, I had, as they say in politics, a good first story to sell.”
When he won his first primaries earlier this year, what did he talk about? Being a prisoner of war.
Republican John McCain recalled his struggle as a Vietnam prisoner of war as he celebrated victories in presidential primaries in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia on Tuesday…
“I seek the presidency with the humility of a man who cannot forget that my country saved me,” said McCain, a former Navy aviator who spent more than five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam after his plane was shot down.
When after a full week, he finally called the lone black reporter to “apologize” (if you can call saying it wasn’t his fault, it was the Secret Service’s an apology) for being thrown out of the media pool at his event in Florida, McCain made the stunning leap that being a prisoner of war exempted him from charges of racism.
Quote du Jour
Good! Now we’ll have news from hell before breakfast.
— Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman (1826-1891), upon being told that three members of the press had been killed by artillery fire during the siege of Vicksburg, 1863.
Father of Edwards Mistress Electrocuted Horses for the Insurance Money
This is one of those stories that is so awful it makes you gasp, then bounce up and down, then hit the “send” button trying to tell everybody. So I’m telling you.
The woman John Edwards had his affair with has a bizarre past, including a father who electrocuted horses for the insurance money. I am not making this up.
First, a little background. Before she took the more exotic sounding name Rielle Hunter, Edwards’ mistress was good ol’ Lisa Jo Druck from Ocala, Fla. known in this state as horse country. There are ranches outside Ocala worth more than the average Rolls Royce dealership. Lisa apparently grew up riding horses.
But wait, here’s a warning. This is really bad. If you are an animal lover like me, don’t read the last three paragraphs of the quoted material.
Warning. This is really bad. If you are an animal lover like me, you might want to skip the last part.
Hunter’s father, James D. Druck, a successful Ocala lawyer representing insurance companies during the 1980s, was implicated in a scam that involved a local man, Tommy “The Sandman” Burns, who electrocuted horses for their owners to collect the insurance money. One of Burns’ first victims was the show horse Lisa Druck rode, Henry the Hawk.
Burns said in a 1992 Sports Illustrated interview that James Druck showed him how to electrocute Lisa’s horse using a stripped extension cord and a wall socket. Burns said Druck showed him the scam so Druck could collect $150,000 in insurance. Burns’ arrest in 1991 drew national attention. Druck died of cancer in the Tampa area in 1992…
About the time Lisa Druck’s horse died, Burns had already earned the nickname “Sandman,” a term horse owners gave him because when he showed up at horse shows, invariably a horse would mysteriously die.
Burns and accomplice Harlow Arlie, both of the Chicago area, were held at the Alachua County jail after their arrest in Newberry, according to stories published by The Gainesville Sun.
Burns’ choice of execution was electrocution because many veterinarians would wrongly determine the cause of death to be colic. That became a problem for Burns in 1991 when one horse owner couldn’t get an animal insured for colic, so the owner asked Burns to break the horse’s leg instead.
So, on the night of Feb. 2, 1991, Burns held the horse while his accomplice Arlie swung a crowbar into one of the animal’s rear legs. The animal ran into the night screaming, falling onto its broken, dangling leg. The animal was euthanized when a veterinarian was called by the horse’s owner.
The two men were sentenced in Alachua County Circuit Court. Both pleaded guilty or no contest to animal cruelty and insurance fraud and received jail sentences, according to Sun file stories.
Take a deep, cleansing breath.
Lisa went on to drop out of college and end up in New York where her exploits earned her a place in modern fiction, thanks to author Jay McInerney. And then she was introduced to John Edwards…
