Year: 2008

Campaigns Explained

Trish

For those of you non-wonks (of course if you weren’t a wonk, you probably wouldn’t be reading this, but let’s just pretend), there’s a great glossary at The Onion. Astound your friends with your high-level political acumen after brushing up. Here’s a sample.

absentee ballot
A form of voting that does not involve the inconvenience of having to get up off the couch and walk to a high school gymnasium.

caucus
The process by which Americans are quadrennially reminded of Iowa’s existence.

convention
The best four-day-long chance a politically active, overweight Kia salesman from Tulsa has to nail one of them blond Fox anchors.

election worker
A male or female at least 70 years of age.

electoral college
A process by which the number of states in the Union is narrowed down to the most important seven or eight.

hope
An intangible object within every American that is destroyed every four years in November.

lobbyist
A better-paid legislator.

MoveOn.org
A company offering routine tests of your e-mail’s spam filter.

political consultants
Individuals who are very savvy politically, but don’t have enough hair to run for office themselves.

voter apathy
The reason most American politicians are able to achieve and maintain office.

Poll: Obama Moves Ahead of Clinton Among Dems Natiowide

Jon Ponder

Gallup:

For several days, nationwide Democratic voters’ preferences have been shifting toward Barack Obama in Gallup Poll Daily election tracking. Now, the Illinois senator enjoys his first statistically significant lead, 49 percent to 42 percent, over Hillary Clinton, according to the Feb. 13-15 results. Additionally, the 49 percent support for Obama represents the high point for him in the daily tracking program.

Was Larry Johnson Censured at DailyKos for Criticizing Obama?

Jon Ponder

Larry Johnson is a former CIA agent (and ex-Republican voter), whose outrage over the outing of Valerie Wilson by Dick Cheney and his henchmen was what initially riveted my attention to the scandal.
“You guys are John Bolton and Dick Cheney in drag. You are welcome to kiss my ass.”
– Larry Johnson
Now, via our friend Brad Friedman at The BRADBLOG, we learn that he’s been warned about the content of his posts at DailyKos, apparently because he’d had the temerity to criticize Barack Obama.

The autobot warning Johnson received from the DailyKos moderator did not mention Obama:

Your latest diary was filled with inaccurate and/or unsupported claims, Muslim-bashing, xenophobia and inflammatory and insulting language. This is unacceptable and you need to tone it down and better support your claims.

But in his response, posted at his site, No Quarter, Johnson says it was support for Hillary Clinton that triggered the displeasure of site owner Markos Moulitsas:

Okay Mr. Kos. Here’s a word for you: GO FUCK YOURSELF. (Actually, that’s three words. My bad.)

[…]

McCain Flipflops in Favor of Waterboarding But Still Calls It ‘Illegal’

Jon Ponder

“I believe that it is torture, very exquisite torture.”
– John McCainAfter John McCain became the undisputed frontrunner for the GOP nomination when he swept the board in the Potomac primaries on Tuesday, it took just two days for him to sell out his principles on torture in order to get the endorsements of blood-thirsty rightwingers among the House Republicans, as well as the previous all-time champion flipflopper, Mitt Romney.

First, here’s a trip down memory lane recalling the so-called straight-talking Maverick’s previous position against the use of torture techniques like waterboarding.

[…]

Quote du Jour

Buck Banks

In place of certainty there is only a vast, tangled ball of rumor. In place of sensible, humane procedure, now destroyed by wars, revenge, suspicion and power politics, petty official strictures have been built up against which the individual is as helpless as a caged animal.

— Janet Flanner (1892-1978) American writer and journalist who served as Paris correspondent of “The New Yorker”

Police Label Shooting at California Junior High School a Gay Hate Crime

Jon Ponder

Oxnard, Calif., is a mostly working class town near Ventura, about an hour north of Los Angeles. In a junior high classroom there Tuesday morning, Brandon McInerney, 14, shot a classmate, Lawrence King, also 14, in the head. Police now say the killing was premeditated and that Mcinerney shot Larry because he’d recently come out as gay:

classmates of the slain boy, Lawrence King, said he recently had started to wear makeup and jewelry and had proclaimed himself gay. Several students said King and a group of boys, including the defendant, had a verbal confrontation concerning King’s sexual orientation a day before the killing.

King, 15, was declared brain-dead and was expected to be taken off a ventilator late Thursday so organs could be removed for donation, said Craig Stevens, senior county deputy medical examiner.

King was shot in the head early Tuesday in a classroom full of students at E.O. Green Junior High School. Police said the suspect fled and was apprehended a few blocks away.

Larry King was a foster child living in Casa Pacifica, a shelter for abused and troubled children in nearby Camarillo.

“He never felt like he had a family, but he told me when he got to Casa Pacifica that he had one there,” a classmate and friend told the Los Angeles Times.

Brandon McInerney’s father has a police record that includes several run-ins with the law, including disturbing the peace, drunk driving and one count of domestic abuse.

Jay Smith, executive director of Ventura County Rainbow Alliance, a gay rights organization, told reporters that “[in] the 15-year history of this organization, this is the first time we’ve seen the district attorney act this swiftly and clearly to say ‘This will not be tolerated’ … We are very eager to see the district attorney follow through”

On Wednesday, the day after the shooting, about three-quarters of the students were back in school:

“We had extra counselors in,” said Superintendent Jerry Dannenberg. “They’ve been meeting with students all day long. They’re reporting a very healthy response.”

After the last bell rang, students stopped at the memorial on their way out, reading the messages. One boy knelt and prayed.

“We love you Larry,” a student had written on a paper note, “1993-2008.”

Brandon McInerney is being held in Juvenile Hall, where he is being held in lieu of $770,000 bail. He could face 50 years to life, if convicted.

California voters gave prosecutors the option of charging children 14 and older as adults with the passage of Proposition 21 in 2002.

House Approves Contempt Charges against Loyal Bushies, Bolten and Miers

Jon Ponder

Politico:

The House has approved criminal and civil contempt resolutions against White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and former White House counsel Harriet Miers for failing to respond to subpoenas from the House Judiciary Committee. The vote was 223-32, as Republicans walked out of the chamber to protest the vote and the Democrats’ failure to take up the Senate-passed revision to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

House GOPs Walk Out to Protest Telecoms’ Lack of Immunity in FISA Bill After Bush Threatened to Postpone Trip in Support of His Accomplices

Jon Ponder

If “fascism” is defined as corporate control of government, then there has never been a more brazen display of American fascism than the one put on by Republicans in Washington today.

First, George Bush threatened to postpone his trip to Africa tomorrow because the House version of the new FISA bill does not give immunity to giant telecom corporations who conspired with him hundreds of times to violate federal wiretap laws and eavesdrop on Americans without warrants:

“If we have to delay (the trip), we’ll delay,” Bush said.

Bush is backing the Senate-passed bill, which includes retroactive protection from lawsuits that telecommunications companies are facing because they cooperated with government eavesdropping following the Sept. 11 terror attacks. The House has not passed that measure, and the law expires at midnight Saturday. The House bill also does not provide immunity from lawsuits for the telecommunications companies.

Then congressional Republicans staged a walk-out to protest the fact that their corporate masters could be held accountable for crimes they knowingly committed:

It’s political gamesmanship of the highest order.

House Republicans have just staged a walkout from the chamber to protest the decision of Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic leadership to let an act that expands the government’s surveillance powers expire.

Republican leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) is giving a press conference on the Capitol steps right now, saying that the decision of the House to debate a contempt resolution involving former White House officials instead of taking up the Protect America Act jeopardizes national security. He said the House Republicans would stay in Washington as long as necessary to finish the bill.

Pelosi and the Democratic leadership believe there isn’t enough time to reconcile the differences between the Senate and House versions of the act, which would make adjustments to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act permanent, giving the government more power to monitor phone calls and emails without a court order in certain circumstances. The Democrats want a second extension of the current out to work out the differences.

So far, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is standing firm.