Year: 2008
Spoof of Clinton’s “It’s 3 a.m.” Ad Contrasted with Bill’s 2004 Comments on Fear-Mongering
Spliced with Keith Olberman’s thoughts on fanning the flames of fear…
…and footage from Bill introducing John Kerry four long years ago.
Campaigning on Fear in East Texas
The Houston Chronicle claims that the Democratic race could be decided by East Texas, where early voting makes traditional polling difficult. For the actual results we might have to wait until the votes are counted, something news outlets hate.
Republican candidate for Tom DeLay’s old seat: “What we wanted to do is project mayhem.”
65 percent of the early voting turnout in Houston through Thursday included people who had not cast a ballot in the past three Democratic primaries. At least a quarter of the turnout is black…
And 11,213 — 8.2 percent — were people who previously had voted in the Republican primary…
Clinton has held a lead among white voters of about 7 percentage points and a lead of at least 20 percentage points over Obama among Hispanics. But more than 75 percent of the blacks surveyed supported Obama.
Clinton had more than 60 percent support in traditionally Hispanic South Texas.
Leaving it up to East Texas is an especially disquieting thought, if one of the ten Republicans running against U.S. Rep. Nick Lampson (D-Houston) is any indication. Lampson, you might recall, lost his 9th Congressional District seat after Tom DeLay succeeded in redrawing his district to make it majority Republican. Then in a triumph of irony, DeLay’s ethical challenges forced him to withdraw from his re-election bid in 2006, and Lampson won DeLay’s own neighboring District 22 seat.
Which brings us to challenger Brian Klock. Klock must have decided that the 2004 failed strategy of scaring people into voting Republican didn’t work because it didn’t go far enough. On his web site, he puts the tactic on steroids.
“Showing Houston in flames is reminding them there is a threat,” he added. “What we wanted to do is project mayhem.”
Well good job, Brian. In addition to showing Houston engulfed in a hellish inferno, Klock, who is supported by Houston-based homebuilder and $3 million Swift Boat Veteran for Truth funder Bob Perry, enumerates all the reasons why the area is the country’s premier terrorist target.
• Economic Engine of the Gulf and the entire region
• Home of America’s energy industry and independence
• Headquarters of world-famous pioneering NASA
• City of world’s largest medical and research center
• Gateway to five-and-a-half million people & door to the USA
I’ll concede the NASA link, although that would mean my nearby Cape Canaveral would also be a main target, and I’m doubting that. But I can’t see why having the Texas Medical Center, which is only “largest” by affiliation with 23 government agencies and 23 public and private institutions located throughout Texas and the world, puts Houston at particular risk.
But my doubts are erased by Klock’s urgent reasoning.
The Department of Homeland Security says Houston is one of the highest risk cities in the country, in the same category as New York and Washington…
A strike to the Port of Houston would paralyze commerce and industry throughout the nation — and dramatically increase gas prices and send the national economy into a tailspin.
Similarly, a terrorist attack on Downtown, the Galleria, Sugar Land, or NASA would seriously damage our local economy, destroy jobs, and worsen the recession we are now facing. And, worse of all, we’d lose family and friends, our homes, and our way of life.
Can’t argue with that. Just ask folks from New Orleans, many of whom moved to Houston after losing their “way of life” in a hurricane, a much more likely threat. But it’s not fun to run a campaign against climate disasters, which would probably “paralyze commerce and industry” in the Port of Houston just as effectively as a dirty bomb or plane flown into a skyscraper. Which, by the way, Klock’s web site keeps a news reel of running at all times. You can watch that second plane fly into the World Trade Center as often as you like, and hear the eyewitnesses scream in horror and disbelief as many times as it takes for you to be scared enough to vote for Klock.
I’m betting that Democratic voters in East Texas, including the 8.2 percent who just deserted the Republican party, won’t be swayed by such tactics. On the other hand Hillary Clinton, whose newest ad tells you the phone could ring in the White House at 3 a.m. and it could be very bad news, seems to see it Klock’s way.
Was Rove Behind Trumped Up Charges That Sent a Dem Governor to Jail?
Part 1 of 2
Part 2 of 2
A lot of people missed the “60 Minutes” report last week on allegations by a Republican political operative in Alabama named Dana Jill Simpson that Karl Rove and the Bush Justice Dept. rigged the charges against Alabama’s popular former Democratic governor, Don Siegelman, for which he is currently serving time in prison.
This segment of “60 Minutes” was literally blacked out in Alabama, a state that is under the grip of the GOP the way Stalinists once controlled Russia. But no one has asked why CBS chose to run this story against the Oscars, the most watched telecast of the year.
After the “60 Minutes” ran the segment last week, the House Democrats released the transcript of Simpson’s sworn testimony before the House Judiciary Committee:
1. Ms. Simpson stated under oath that she adheres to and stands by the statements in her May 21, 2007, affidavit. (Pages 85-86) She testified: “What I understood, or what I believed Mr. Canary to be saying, was that he had had this ongoing conversation with Karl Rove about Don Siegelman, and that Don Siegelman was a thorn to them and basically he was going to – he had been talking with Rove. Rove had been talking with the Justice Department, and they were pursuing Don Siegelman as a result of Rove talking to the Justice Department at the request of Bill Canary.â€
2. Ms. Simpson described a 2005 conversation with Rob Riley in which Mr. Riley stated that, in late 2004, Karl Rove had contacted the Public Integrity Section of the Department of Justice to press for further prosecution of Don Siegelman, and had also stated that the case would be assigned to a federal judge who “hated†Mr. Siegelman and who would “hang Don Siegelman.â€
Update: Just to prove that that one’s point of view depends on where one sits, Trish has rightly pointed out that “60 Minutes” only ran against the Oscars here on the West Coast.
Rightwing Tool Rep. Jack Kingston Goes on TV to Criticize Obama for Not Wearing Flag Pins – Not Wearing His Flag Pin
Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) questions Barack Obama’s patriotism because Obama says wearing a flag lapel pin is a trivial way to show love for one’s country — but Kingston shows up for an interview on MSNBC not wearing his flag lapel pin.
Quote du Jour
President Roosevelt proved that a president could serve for life. Truman proved that anyone could be elected. Eisenhower proved that your country can be run without a president.
— Nikita Khrushchev (1894-1971), First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964
Out of Touch: Bush Unaware That Gas Is Set to Rise to $4 Per Gallon – ‘Liberal Media’ Yawns
In addition to being incoherent at a White House press briefing yesterday, George Bush also proved that he is out of touch:
The “liberal media” will let Bush off the hook on this one, just as they always do, because his being out of touch is simply par for the course.
Q What’s your advice to the average American who is hurting now, facing the prospect of $4 a gallon gasoline, a lot of people facing —
THE PRESIDENT: Wait, what did you just say? You’re predicting $4 a gallon gasoline?
Q A number of analysts are predicting —
THE PRESIDENT: Oh, yeah?
Q — $4 a gallon gasoline this spring when they reformulate.
THE PRESIDENT: That’s interesting. I hadn’t heard that.
A normal president would be severely criticized for exhibiting this level of cluelessness about what regular Americans are going through — just as Bush’s father was excoriated toward the end of his term for appearing to be unfamiliar with an optical scanner at a supermarket check-out.
And since this Bush is in the pocket of oil companies, he ought to be held to an even higher standard for awareness of what his corporate masters are up to, especially since their price gouging is a major factor in inflationary trends.
But the “liberal media” will let Bush off the hook on this one, just as they always do, because his being out of touch is simply par for the course.
On the bright side, maybe his approval rating will drop even lower than 19 percent. These record lows will become a part of his legacy that all the revising of history by Karl Rove, Tony Snow and the hair pieces at Fox over the next decades won’t be able to erase.
SFB*: Bush Incoherent at News Conference
“We’ll see the effects of this pro-growth package,” Bush told reporters at a White House news conference. “I know there’s a lot of, here in Washington people are trying to – stimulus package two – and all that stuff. Why don’t we let stimulus package one, which seemed like a good idea at the time, have a chance to kick in?”
* In the text-speak sense of the term.
Jilted McCain Supporter Cunningham Now Backing Hillary — or Nader
Bill “Willie” CunninghamMost of us liberal left-wing Air America listening progressives never heard of Bill “Willie” Cunningham until he spoke at a John McCain campaign rally. When Cunningham three times referred to Barack Obama as “Barack Hussein Obama,” it reminded anyone who lives under a rock that Obama has a more worldly background than the Republican candidates or White House incumbents.
McCain, of course, called out the talk radio personality, but said he took responsibility for the comments. Adoring editorials commending McCain for his chivalry are gushing forth.
But what about the guy who took the fall? On his blog, Cunningham lists YouTube clips of the whirlwind interview circuit he’s been riding, a cartoon of McCain feeding him to sharks, along with editorials condemning him for what was actually an unoriginal idea, since many other Republicans beat him to it. He also supplies clips of himself on his show, saying how he feels about John McCain now.
“I’m angry at John McCain. Why would John McCain repudiate me? I’ve been able to unite McCain and Obama — against me.
I might become a supporter of Ralph Nader.”
That would be fickle, Bill, since you were supposedly spoken for.
Appearing on CNN Tuesday, talk-show host Bill Cunningham said he has “had it up to here” with McCain after the Arizona senator criticized him…Cunningham said he is joining another conservative commentator, Ann Coulter, and support Obama’s Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton.
As part of the fallout, the Republican National Committee asked the Tennessee GOP to stop using Obama’s middle name. The Volunteer State’s Republicans complied, but the spirit of their assent was a little lacking.
The Tennessee GOP web site today contains a “clarification” beneath a press release from Monday entitled “Anti-Semites for Obama…”
“In order to diffuse attempts by Democrats and the Left to divert attention from the main point of this release — that Sen. Obama has surrounded himself with advisers and received endorsements from people who are anti-Semitic and anti-Israel — we have deleted the use of Barack Obama’s middle name,” the Tennessee GOP corrective reads.
Some success in this messaging has registered among the rock-dwellers.
An AP-Yahoo poll in January asked people to volunteer the first few words that came to mind about each of the candidates, and 4 percent of the respondents, unprompted, mentioned the word Muslim when describing Obama.
734th Democratic Debate Most-Watched Show in History of MSNBC
Now I’m almost sorry I missed it:
In addition to being the third-most-watched debate of this election cycle, last night’s Democratic showdown in Cleveland was MSNBC’s most-watched program in the 11-year history of the network. In a head-to-head 9 p.m. ET match-up, the debate was second only to FOX’s American Idol. It ranked as the fourth most-watched program in Total Viewers on all of TV last night.
The numbers for the debate, which was moderated by Brian Williams, joined by Tim Russert, more than doubled MSNBC’s previous total viewer high of 3.7 million who watched on March 19, 2003, the night the Iraq war began.
