ThinkFast: May 19, 2008
The on-air feud between MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann and Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly “has triggered back-channel discussions” involving Rupert Murdoch, Roger Ailes, NBC chief executive Jeff Zucker, and GE’s CEO Jeffrey Immelt. Ailes warned that if Olbermann didn’t halt attacks against Fox, “he would unleash O’Reilly against NBC.” The appeals failed, and O’Reilly has escalated his criticism of GE in recent weeks.
A top U.S. commander in Baghdad apologized to “local leaders and tribal sheiks” this weekend after it was discovered that “a soldier had used a Koran” as a target at a shooting range. Though the soldier has been “disciplined and sent out of Iraq,” a major Sunni political party called for “tough government action” against the soldier.
President Bush arrived back in Washington yesterday “with little to show” for his trip to the Middle East. “Saudi Arabia rebuffed his plea for help with soaring oil prices, Egypt’s leader questioned his seriousness about peacemaking and there was not enough progress in the peace talks to warrant a three-way meeting of Bush with Israeli and Palestinian leaders.”
Before breaking for Memorial Day, senators will be taking up a series of Iraq-related measures, including a “complex series of votes on the war money, a new G.I. education benefit, aid for the unemployed, immigration and even health care.”
Yesterday, Tom Loeffler resigned from Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) campaign, after Newsweek reported he had been lobbying for foreign interests, including Saudi Arabia. At the outset of the campaign, Loeffler was prepared to give up his clients at the behest of campaign strategist John Weaver. “But McCain, trusting Loeffler to know where the boundary lines lay, overruled Mr. Weaver; Loeffler got to keep his clients.”
Career staff members at the Department of Housing and Urban Development “say problems in the agency’s contracting process run much deeper than” former HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson, who resigned recently amid a criminal probe. According to the staff, other officials “promoted certain companies while rebuffing concerns about their performance and qualifications.”
Google Earth launches a new project today, Climate Change in Our World, that will allow users “to see how climate change could affect the planet and its people over the next century, along with viewing the loss of Antarctic ice shelves over the last 50 years.”
“As the Democratic presidential race unfolds in coal country this week and with John McCain’s recent rollout of a global-warming initiative, coal industry officials and environmentalists are unsure which candidate to endorse.”
Federal courts have largely rejected the Bush administration’s attempts to “significantly rewrite America’s bedrock conservation laws, particularly the Clean Air Act.” Of the “78 federal court rulings and settlements in species cases resolved since January 2001, the Bush administration won just one.” Judges have also often scolded the administration for its “disregard for the law and science.”
And finally: This weekend, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) “chased after the youth vote” by participating in two cameo appearances on “Saturday Night Live.”I ask you, what should we be looking for in our next president?” joked McCain in a political parody ad. “Certainly, someone who is very, very, very old.” He also riffed on his supposed crusade against earmarks, stating, “When I entered the Senate in 1987, Arizona had 47,000 miles of paved roadway. Today it’s less than 900.”
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Conferees Seek Cluster Bomb Ban
Russia, China, US oppose treaty
Believe the advocates of a treaty banning cluster munitions, and the international community is about to take a decisive step toward curbing the use of a weapon that inflicts terrible suffering, particularly on civilians. Believe the US government, and the measure they propose threatens to undermine the NATO alliance that has underpinned Western security since World War II.
Delegates from more than 100 countries will open a conference in Dublin tomorrow that will try to hammer out a treaty banning the production, use, stockpiling, or transfer of cluster munitions - bombs or artillery shells packed with up to several hundred bomblets or submunitions that are sprayed over wide areas of territory. Major producers and stockpilers of cluster munitions, the United States, Russia, and China, will be absent and are opposed to a treaty.
Support for a ban on cluster weapons has risen sharply since the 2006 conflict between Israel and Lebanon, when, according to United Nations estimates, Israeli troops fired some 4 million Vietnam War-era submunitions, of which a quarter failed to explode. These have reportedly caused more than 200 casualties since the end of the war and required a costly and hazardous cleanup operation.
In Laos, where the United States dropped 2 million tons of ordnance in the 1970s, including an estimated 260 million submunitions, unexploded weapons still kill and maim people and hinder economic development.
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/05/18/9039/
It’s easy for the US to sit this out; we don’t have any cluster bombs on American soil. 98% of 13,306 recorded cluster munitions casualties that are registered with Handicap International are civilians. One third of the casualties are children. Because of the color of these cluster bombs (yellow and blue) children think they are toys and pick them up. We don’t have to look at the children that get their arms and legs blown off years later.
President Bush is too greedy and power hungry to give up that kind of weapon. Then there is Germany, who wants a ten year transition period, so they can find something to replace it. I’m not sure at this point who is worse; Germany may find a weapon even more diabolical.
Until it actually happens on our soil to our children, then we will see a major attitude change.
May 19th, 2008 at 9:01 amFear, secrecy kept 1950 Korea mass killings hidden
One journalist’s bid to report mass murder in South Korea in 1950 was blocked by his British publisher. Another correspondent was denounced as a possibly treasonous fabricator when he did report it. In South Korea, down the generations, fear silenced those who knew.
Fifty-eight years ago, at the outbreak of the Korean War, South Korean authorities secretively executed, usually without legal process, tens of thousands of southern leftists and others rightly or wrongly identified as sympathizers.
Associated Press correspondent O.H.P. King reported on the shooting of 60 political prisoners in Suwon, south of Seoul, and wrote in a later memoir he was “shocked that American officers were unconcerned” by questions he raised about due process for the detainees.
http://www.rawstory.com/ news/ mochila/ Fear_secrecy_kept_1950_Korea_mass_k_05182008.html
Government secrets, due process for detainees, and persecution of sympathizers are all part of a right-wing dictatorship in South Korea. It sounds dangerously close to what we have today in the USA.
HIV Awareness Program Targets D.C. Students
Washington, D.C. has the highest rate of the nation’s reported cases of HIV, with 1 in 20 people infected. City Year, an organization that is providing D.C. students with a Center for Disease Control and Prevention approved, comprehensive curriculum in their own classrooms, is trying to combat the epidemic.
http://www.npr.org/ templates/ story/ story.php?storyId=90570245&ft=1&f=1007
This is extremely tragic; you have kids that think oral sex isn’t having sex. Hence no protection, there are cluster cases around the US because of this type of thinking. That doesn’t include the rise in other STD’s.
May 19th, 2008 at 9:06 amObama Rally in Portland
Sen. Barack Obama has seen his share of large crowds over the last 15 months, but his campaign said they have not approached the numbers gathered along the waterfront here right now.
The campaign, citing figures from Duane Bray, battalion chief of Portland Fire & Rescue, estimated that 75,000 people are watching him speak.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ 2008/ 05/ 18/ obama-draws-record-crowd_n_102337.html
What a sight to see! I guess that should put a lie to the claim that Obama doesn’t appeal to the “hard working White Americans” because that pretty much describes Portland and Oregon in general. There are not a lot of AA’s in Oregon. So when Obama beats Hillary by 20% in Oregon, they won’t be able to say that he can only win where there are lots of AA’s.
May 19th, 2008 at 9:06 amSeptember the eleventh,
May 19th, 2008 at 9:07 am911 is the day the USA overthrew the democratically elected government of Chile and installed a dictatorship which took the lives of 30 000 people.
75,000 people showed up in Portland, Oregon yesterday to a rally for Barack Obama.
There is a slideshow here (down the page).
May 19th, 2008 at 9:08 amThe on-air feud between MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann and Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly “has triggered back-channel discussions” involving Rupert Murdoch, Roger Ailes, NBC chief executive Jeff Zucker, and GE’s CEO Jeffrey Immelt. Ailes warned that if Olbermann didn’t halt attacks against Fox, “he would unleash O’Reilly against NBC.” The appeals failed, and O’Reilly has escalated his criticism of GE in recent weeks.
Let us all remember that Roger Ailes was Richard Nixon’s “media coach” in 1968…
May 19th, 2008 at 9:09 amThe on-air feud between MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann and Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly “has triggered back-channel discussions” involving Rupert Murdoch, Roger Ailes, NBC chief executive Jeff Zucker, and GE’s CEO Jeffrey Immelt. Ailes warned that if Olbermann didn’t halt attacks against Fox, “he would unleash O’Reilly against NBC.”
Keith never give up and never surrender. You are the only one that tells it like it is. Keep Up The Great Work.. If you are making them this mad, you know you are on the right track. Honesty kills them everytime….
May 19th, 2008 at 9:10 amAiles warned that if Olbermann didn’t halt attacks against Fox, “he would unleash O’Reilly against NBC.” The appeals failed, and O’Reilly has escalated his criticism of GE in recent weeks.
OMG, what a wuss O’Reilly is. If he can’t stand the heat, maybe he should get out of the kitchen, or stop saying the outrageous things he says that lands him on Keith’s “Worst Persons in the World” segment. I bet NBC is really scared now that O’Reilly is unleashing his awesome power against them.
May 19th, 2008 at 9:12 amPresident Bush arrived back in Washington yesterday “with little to show” for his trip to the Middle East.
I’ll settle for “little to show” after 7 years of corruption and destruction.
May 19th, 2008 at 9:13 amHELP! WE ARE RUNNING OUT OF INTERNET
If you thought the World Wide Web was a limitless receptacle to the world’s news, blogs and occasionally pointless musings, think again. The Internet could run out of web addresses by 2011, undermining the potential of businesses to use new services and applications, Karine Perset, the author of an alarming report on the future of the World Wide Web, warned Friday.
Perset, from the Organization for Economic Co-operation (OECD), told Forbes.com that 85.0% of all remaining Internet addresses that could be used, were being used, and the rest could be taken within three years.
The rapid expansion of the Internet, which has allowed businesses to expand on their services and monitor activities from afar, took on more than a billion new users in 2007.
http://www.forbes.com/ 2008/ 05/ 18/ www-end-internet-face-cx_je_0516autofacescan02.html?feed=rss_popstories
500 youths detained in Iraq, U.S. says
10 more juveniles said held as ‘unlawful enemy combatants’ in Afghanistan
The U.S. military is holding about 500 juveniles suspected of being “unlawful enemy combatants” in detention centers in Iraq and has about 10 detained in Afghanistan, the United States has told the United Nations.
A total of 2,500 youths under the age of 18 have been detained, almost all in Iraq, for periods up to a year or more in President Bush’s anti-terrorism campaign since 2002, the United States reported last week to the U.N.’s Committee on the Rights of the Child.
Civil liberties groups call situation ‘outrageous’“It’s shocking to me that the U.S. government has not figured out a way to keep children out of adult prisons. It’s outrageous, and it is not making us any safer, I can say that about Afghanistan from personal experience,” Tina M. Foster, the executive director of the International Justice Network, said Sunday.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24703749/
The U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child is scheduled to question the U.S. delegation on its compliance with its obligations on May 22 in Geneva.
May 19th, 2008 at 9:13 amIsn’t Bill O. unleashed already or is he merely unhinged ? The worst hate monger in the history of the American media ,a propagandist for war criminals , an ignorant man .
May 19th, 2008 at 9:15 am“Come back here, you no-good hooligan” does not translate as “chased after the youth vote.”
May 19th, 2008 at 9:15 amNevar Says:
The appeals failed, and O’Reilly has escalated his criticism of GE in recent weeks.
May 19th, 2008 at 9:09 am
______
To PLAY us OUT? I DON’T KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS!!!!
May 19th, 2008 at 9:17 amI heard an interesting discussion the other day on Air America about what Bush has done to our government rank and file. He has gotten rid of career civil servants and replaced them with right wing sycophants in all levels of our government. Then the discussion went to whistle blowers and why there weren’t more of them coming out of the Bush federal government. They were saying that there probably is another Daniel Ellsberg out there in our government, but he is not coming forward. Their answer to this is that anyone who might want to blow the whistle on the crimes committed by the Bush Crime Family is probably too scared about losing their job and their health benefits and maybe is even afraid for their lives and the lives of their loved ones. The conclusion of the discussion was that when Obama takes office, there is probably going to be a flood of whistle blowers who will tell their tales once they are no longer scared of their government.
What a sad state of affairs. What have we done?
May 19th, 2008 at 9:19 amOlberman to Faux:
BRING IT ON!
May 19th, 2008 at 9:20 amI’d say Phil Gramm’s bill creating non-regulated mortgage brokers and lenders, as well as Georgie serving as shill for “the Ownership Society Scheme of Ponzi,” are starting points for that which runs deeper, tips of the iceberg which ripped a hole in the ship of state.
May 19th, 2008 at 9:21 amgummitch Says:
75,000 people showed up in Portland, Oregon yesterday to a rally for Barack Obama.
There is a slideshow here (down the page).
Beat you too it! Wasn’t it awesome? Were you there?
May 19th, 2008 at 9:22 amI find it fascinating that Fox has now moved from reporting news to engaging in character assassination for profit.
If GE’s Jeffrey Immelt was indeed responsible for the deaths of our soldiers in Iraq, this should be reported as news — regardless of how one feels about Olbermann, NBC, or General Electric. If Immelt isn’t responsible, this is just Foxian spin, and should be exposed as such.
There isn’t any way that Fox looks good with this one — by “unleashing” O’Reilly on Immelt and GE, they either look like they were withholding genuine news before, or they are manufacturing it strictly for their own petty battles now. Intelligent people won’t be fooled.
May 19th, 2008 at 9:23 amBilbo, it’s not just “what have we done”, it’s also what we haven’t done…..Blessings
May 19th, 2008 at 9:24 amFreedom Rebel Says:
President Bush is too greedy and power hungry to give up that kind of weapon. Then there is Germany, who wants a ten year transition period, so they can find something to replace it. I’m not sure at this point who is worse; Germany may find a weapon even more diabolical.
Until it actually happens on our soil to our children, then we will see a major attitude change.
May 19th, 2008 at 9:01 am
And don’t forget the British, who are getting around the terms of the cluster bomb ban they signed last February by reclassifying their cluster bomb delivery systems as “not cluster bombs.”
http://toasterheadsblogosphere.blogspot.com/ 2007/ 09/ cluster-bomb-by-any-other-name.html
May 19th, 2008 at 9:24 amSharon
May 19th, 2008 at 9:27 amNon cooperation with evil is as much a duty as doing good .
Gandhi
Freeman,#21..Bravo……Blessings
May 19th, 2008 at 9:29 amBilbo, no I missed it. Well, I didn’t exactly miss it, because I forgot about it and was left wondering what the hell all those people were doing down at Waterfront Park. I’ve seen big crowds there for events like the Blues Festival, but this was just a carpet of bodies and for the life of me I couldn’t figure out who they were. Oy!
This morning’s Oregonian has the entire front page above the fold as one big photo of the crowd: a sea of people. Headline: Portland Wows Obama
May 19th, 2008 at 9:29 amgummitch Says:
This morning’s Oregonian has the entire front page above the fold as one big photo of the crowd: a sea of people. Headline: Portland Wows Obama
May 19th, 2008 at 9:29 am
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Hooray for California’s Canada!
May 19th, 2008 at 9:30 amThe on-air feud between MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann and Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly “has triggered back-channel discussions” involving Rupert Murdoch, Roger Ailes, NBC chief executive Jeff Zucker, and GE’s CEO Jeffrey Immelt. Ailes warned that if Olbermann didn’t halt attacks against Fox, “he would unleash O’Reilly against NBC.”
Awwww, poor widdle Billy. Getting his feeling hurt and all by the big bad Olberman. sniff.
May 19th, 2008 at 9:31 amThe appeals failed, and O’Reilly has escalated his criticism of GE in recent weeks.
Let us all remember that Roger Ailes was Richard Nixon’s “media coach” in 1968…
I was just reminding folks of the sewer hole Roger Ailes climbed out of.
May 19th, 2008 at 9:31 amO’Reilly is being sucked back into that same sewer hole, and will grasp at every straw he can on his way down.
A top U.S. commander in Baghdad apologized to “local leaders and tribal sheiks” this weekend after it was discovered that “a soldier had used a Koran” as a target at a shooting range. Though the soldier has been “disciplined and sent out of Iraq,” a major Sunni political party called for “tough government action” against the soldier.
____________________________________________
So — how’s that “hearts and minds” thing going, Dubya?
We have many brave men and women over in Iraq and Afghanistan, following orders doing the best they can at what they are trained to do. A story like this tars them all in the minds of the locals, and I can’t say I blame them.
Are our soldiers given any sensitivity training regarding Islam? What are they being taught about Muslims and their way of life? If the only exposure to Islam they are getting is rhetoric about “Islamofascists”, “jihadists”, and similar conflation, it’s no wonder some of them are wired to hate the very people they are supposed to be helping.
May 19th, 2008 at 9:31 ammisshusseinmolly Says:
I find it fascinating that Fox has now moved from reporting news…
Not completely, they did cover Britney Spears’ auto accident last week.
May 19th, 2008 at 9:32 amWe that have love in our hearts and hold beauty above materialism are blessed sister . The recipients of Bushes tax cuts are the poor ones .
May 19th, 2008 at 9:33 amLay not up your treasures where moth and dust doth corrupt .
Jesus
What are you some kind of dang commie or sumpthin’?
May 19th, 2008 at 9:35 amA top U.S. commander in Baghdad apologized to “local leaders and tribal sheiks” this weekend after it was discovered that “a soldier had used a Koran” as a target at a shooting range. Though the soldier has been “disciplined and sent out of Iraq,”
______
I only hope this doesn’t start a trend of soldiers shooting up holy books in order to get sent home.
May 19th, 2008 at 9:36 amBilbo I hope you went after the rally and spent some money at the Portland Saturday Market !
May 19th, 2008 at 9:36 amSo Genghis Chimp returns to his Kingdom empty handed and empty headed. Not much has changed, eh?
He did manage to break the cardinal rule of leaving politics at home, however. The little wuss had to act big in front of The Knesset, digging up the bones of a long dead Republican Nazi appeaser. King Abdullah in Saudi Arabia basically told him to take a long walk off a short pier. Israel is ‘not ready’ to commence peace talks…when will they ‘be ready’?
Will McCain tell Bush to STFU? Most likely,not. They are too much alike, value wealth above freedom and both are warmongers.
Bush is still digging in the hole he’s created. Now McCain will grab the shovel and continue to support wealth over citizens. It’s time to fill that hole back in with both of them at the bottom.
May 19th, 2008 at 9:38 amBorn in Iraq into a long line of Shi’ite clerics, Qazwini and his family left for Iran to escape persecution under the regime of Saddam Hussein. He later moved to the U.S. and become head of the Dearborn mosque, one of the largest Shi’ite Muslim centers in the U.S.
downwamorica, why do you hate the Iraqi people?
May 19th, 2008 at 9:38 amPoor Billy O! Running off to daddy because the big bad bully Keith is picking on him. And Daddy says, “If you don’t stop we’re both going to hold our breath until we turn blue”.
Good, turn blue. That blowhard O’Reilly need a comedown. Blasting out all his stupid remarks all these years. He’s over the hill and not relavent any longer. He is so far out of touch he is now living in La-La land.
Bill, get a job you blowhard.
“He was like a cock who thought the sun had risen to hear him crow.” - George Eliot
May 19th, 2008 at 9:38 amdownwamorica Says:
warmer temperatures will actually reduce the number of hurricanes in the Atlantic and those making landfall, research meteorologist Tom Knutson reported in a study released Sunday.
______
This has been predicted already by a number of climate models, as a shift in the Gulf Stream may pull hurricanes away from the U.S. mainland. It doesn’t mean that the entire theory of global climate change is wrong, and it doesn’t mean that tropical cyclone activity won’t increase in other parts of the world, as the recent wave of Indian Ocean cyclones has demonstrated.
So you’re wrong. Al Gore isn’t.
May 19th, 2008 at 9:39 amOur local paper, as usual put the Obama rally on page 5…..Here in dumb down america the biggie that took up half the front page in living color and more on the back page was..15,000 Motorcycles in Snohomish….Glad I had to stay grounded on my little spot over the week end…While I would like to see Obama in person and also a few bike’s not into huge crowd’s……Blessings
May 19th, 2008 at 9:40 am>The appeals failed, and O’Reilly has escalated his criticism >of GE in recent weeks.
Yes…these two loathesome entities can feel free to fight amongst each other all they want…. I’m telling you, the way for underdogs to get things done is provoke giants into fighting each other…
May 19th, 2008 at 9:42 am#20 hussein toasterhead Says:
And don’t forget the British, who are getting around the terms of the cluster bomb ban they signed last February by reclassifying their cluster bomb delivery systems as “not cluster bombs.”
Thank you hussein toasterhead. Good Morning! I didn’t know that, I appreciate the heads up. You have a Great blog.
May 19th, 2008 at 9:43 am>I only hope this doesn’t start a trend of soldiers shooting >up holy books in order to get sent home
Why? If it keeps us, maybe soon they will tell us to leave, at which point Bush’s plan for occupation will fall apart completely….
May 19th, 2008 at 9:45 ammisshusseinmolly Says:
Are our soldiers given any sensitivity training regarding Islam? What are they being taught about Muslims and their way of life? If the only exposure to Islam they are getting is rhetoric about “Islamofascists”, “jihadists”, and similar conflation, it’s no wonder some of them are wired to hate the very people they are supposed to be helping.
May 19th, 2008 at 9:31 am
Dehumanizing the “enemy” is a big component of our military strategy, according to one of the Winter Soldiers who testified in March:
http://www.democracynow.org/ 2008/ 3/ 18/ winter_soldier_contd_us_vets_active
May 19th, 2008 at 9:46 ammisshusseinmolly;
in the news report about Britney’s auto accident, did they say if she had her panties on? …..or not.
snarky
May 19th, 2008 at 9:47 amShoeless,
Note how downwamorica conveniently neglected to mention that Bush has also met with this Muslim leader in Dearborn.
But, but what if Obama actually met with U.S. Representative Keith Ellison! Oh my God, Obama’s rubbing elbows with Muslims!! See? We told you he was Muslim!
Fear & Smear; it’s all they got…
May 19th, 2008 at 9:47 am>environmentalists are unsure which candidate to endorse.”
OMG does anyone beleive mcpander really give a flip about the environment?
hey obama, want to ruin mccain?.. start publicly saying “john mccain claims to care about the environment but refuses to use the word ‘global warming’”
any environmentalist who votes for mccain is a fool..
May 19th, 2008 at 9:50 amdownwamorica Says:
warmer temperatures will actually reduce the number of hurricanes in the Atlantic and those making landfall, research meteorologist Tom Knutson reported in a study released Sunday.
How are you expecting to cope with the severe droughts?
May 19th, 2008 at 9:50 amJust curious…
The Pacific Northwest will do for neo conservativism what starbucks did for maxwell house and the microbreweries did for coors . Bigger is not better only more unwieldy and clumsy.Small is beautiful and on display at waterfront park .The little guy is 99% of the population .
May 19th, 2008 at 9:50 amWE ARE EVRYWHERE !
dehmanizing the enemy is nothing new.
In Nam it was dinks, slopes, and gooks.
Now, it’s ragheads and sandn*ggers.
Nothing has changed.
May 19th, 2008 at 9:52 amPresident Bush arrived back in Washington yesterday “with little to show” for his trip to the Middle East. “Saudi Arabia rebuffed his plea for help with soaring oil prices, Egypt’s leader questioned his seriousness about peacemaking and there was not enough progress in the peace talks to warrant a three-way meeting of Bush with Israeli and Palestinian leaders.”
I’m shocked that this total failure of an MBA chimpident couldn’t at least get one leader of one nation he visited to at least eat some cake with him.
May 19th, 2008 at 9:52 amhave you noticed how right wing people are afraid of using the term “global warming”.. they always call it “climate change” so they dont get eaten alive by thier rabid flat earth reality denying brethern
May 19th, 2008 at 9:53 amI believe that the expert” who is claiming today that global warming has nothing to do with any of the weather extremes we are experiencing is a FEDERAL employee.
May 19th, 2008 at 9:53 amI have learned not to trust anyone who is in Bush employment with telling the truth.
Fish rots from the head down.
Loeffler was prepared to give up his clients at the behest of campaign strategist John Weaver. “But McCain, trusting Loeffler to know where the boundary lines lay, overruled Mr. Weaver; Loeffler got to keep his clients.”
Once again McIIIrd shows a complete lack of judgement. Or is it just that he says yes to anything and everything that anybody asks him about?
May 19th, 2008 at 9:54 amAll the repugs have is smear and fear.
May 19th, 2008 at 9:54 amIn fact, they were seeking a new slogan recently —
Fear and Smear is appropos.
The Doctor in whose office I work in, just told me that he saw me last Saturday at the peace rally in Port Huron. VVAW flag and all.
May 19th, 2008 at 9:56 am#45 Chocolate Jesus Says:
>environmentalists are unsure which candidate to endorse.”
OMG does anyone beleive mcpander really give a flip about the environment?
hey obama, want to ruin mccain?.. start publicly saying “john mccain claims to care about the environment but refuses to use the word ‘global warming’”
any environmentalist who votes for mccain is a fool..
I couldn’t agree with you more. When the polar ice caps are gone John McCain will says “Oops”. But,Glenn Beck told him that Polar Bears eat people, we need to get rid of them too!!!
May 19th, 2008 at 9:59 amMarie Says: Fish rots from the head down.
Agreed. The bloated Whale that is the Republican Party is beginning to smell to high heaven. The ‘hard right’ are extremely wrong. Losing Lott’s seat in Miss. last week was the frosting on the cake. That’s 3 seats in a row in this off election year they’ve watched go over to the Dem side.
Are they getting nervous? I think so. Tom Davis (R) VA, issued a 20 page memo to his party, claiming the Republican ‘brand’ is corrupt, rotten and lacking in any young voter appeal.
Thanks, Sen. Davis, I couldn’t have said it better myself!
The Party attack ads that tried to link Obama to the Miss. candidate failed miserably. When fear & smear don’t work, the Republicans don’t know what to do next. Expect to see more in-fighting, disagreements and negative discourse in the coming months.
Ahhhh, the smell of fear in the air on a Monday morning in May…you gotta love it!
May 19th, 2008 at 10:00 amIf I remember correctly, McCain was all but dead in the water last year. He had no funds but his wife’s beer money, and he stayed in New Hampshire trying to keep his bus out of the snowbank.
May 19th, 2008 at 10:00 amI’m sure he took every dollar waved under his nose, no questions asked. Every lobbyist and special interest group for miles around came a running.
McCain has been bought out early, and cheap.
The high light of my week end came walking softly with a comment and request…My heart sang that I was able to respond….A fisherman walked up to me and asked if I remembered him…..Indeed I did…Yep! your one of the guy’s that caught Old Mo and let it go…..He then asked if I still had the picture’s…Yep again..He has been in Iraq the past 2 year’s since I took his picture and was not able to come back and pick up his print’s…..There they were, piled on the counter ready for his return…He was delighted…Said he thought of it every day while he was away…He was one of the guy’s that caught a 12 pound bass…
I asked him how it was over there and he said simply…”dreadful”….Told him I was glad to see him and he said it was his second and last tour….I also told him I had the negative’s and would give them to him on his next viset so he could have made larger….He fished the rest of the day…Bet he will catch that old fish again this year…….Blessings
May 19th, 2008 at 10:01 amChocolate Jesus Says:
have you noticed how right wing people are afraid of using the term “global warming”.. they always call it “climate change” so they dont get eaten alive by thier rabid flat earth reality denying brethern
May 19th, 2008 at 9:53 am
_____
Well it’s also inaccurate, which is why I prefer to use “climate change.” “Global climate change” encompasses the entire range of atmospheric shifts caused by an excess of carbon dioxide, from localized cooling to desertification to shifts in weather patterns, whereas “global warming” is rebutted by a single cold day in June.
May 19th, 2008 at 10:02 amNevar Says:
——————————————————————————–
downwamorica Says:
warmer temperatures will actually reduce the number of hurricanes in the Atlantic and those making landfall, research meteorologist Tom Knutson reported in a study released Sunday.
How are you expecting to cope with the severe droughts?
Just curious…
He’ll piss on his own boots and tell himself it’s raining.
May 19th, 2008 at 10:02 am“Egypt’s leader questioned his (Bush’s) seriousness about peacemaking and there was not enough progress in the peace talks to warrant a three-way meeting of Bush with Israeli and Palestinian leaders.”
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I would think that EVERYBODY would be questioning Bush’s seriousness about peacemaking, when it’s apparent all he wants to do is invade and bomb as many middle eastern countries as he can.
And as far as peace between Israelis and Palestinians goes, the United States will never be a part of that as long as we refuse to talk to Palestinian leadership. Carter has talked to them, and Obama recognizes that he must talk to them if this deadly stalemate is to come to an end.
Surely it’s possible to support Israel’s right to exist with a foreign policy other than the one we have now.
May 19th, 2008 at 10:07 am>Well it’s also inaccurate,
dont know enough about the sciene to argue with you about that one, but come on, we all know that the term “climate change” is often used as a right wing dodge to avoid the negative connotations of the word “global warming”. I still say mccain would lose the election because of right wing hystrionics if someone forced him to utter the words “global warming”
May 19th, 2008 at 10:08 amps.. oh yeah.. and since when has mccain been concerned about accuracy, anyway? anyone seen any of them shia sect of al-queeda anywhere around iraq?
May 19th, 2008 at 10:09 am>But,Glenn Beck told him that Polar Bears eat people
I’d give my left nut to see baby polar bears eat Ted Stevens and his terrible ties..
May 19th, 2008 at 10:10 amChocolate Jesus Says:
ps.. oh yeah.. and since when has mccain been concerned about accuracy, anyway? anyone seen any of them shia sect of al-queeda anywhere around iraq?
I heard from a Freeper that Barak Obama met with one of them in Michigan the other day.
May 19th, 2008 at 10:12 amCould we get a polar bear to come live onto the Ben Gleck set and eat him on live TV? Can I sell tickets?
May 19th, 2008 at 10:13 amChocolate Jesus Says:
But,Glenn Beck told him that Polar Bears eat people
I’d give my left nut to see baby polar bears eat Ted Stevens and his terrible ties..
I’ll throw in my right one if you add Beck & Billdo to that pile.
May 19th, 2008 at 10:13 amGreat story #1. So glad you were able to provide him some joy.
May 19th, 2008 at 10:16 am“As the Democratic presidential race unfolds in coal country this week and with John McCain’s recent rollout of a global-warming initiative, coal industry officials and environmentalists are unsure which candidate to endorse.”
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Coal industry officials shouldn’t have too much trouble. All they have to do is look at McCain’s voting record on environmental issues to realize that his global-warming initiative is merely political pandering. The wink-wink nudge-nudge should be obvious.
May 19th, 2008 at 10:17 amPolar bears don’t eat crap.
May 19th, 2008 at 10:17 amLittle Beruit says hello !
May 19th, 2008 at 10:20 am>that Barak Obama met with one
>of them in Michigan the other day.
He had Hummus with Hamas, no doubt…
May 19th, 2008 at 10:23 amBack at ya Shayne, It was joy for us both….My joy came the moment I saw his face and remembered…Then there was the relief he made it home….Sadness to, he has the same quiet, broken look that many of the other’s that come out here do…In short order all of us out here will have him smiling again….All the old timer’s and I started working on that already….As if he had never left us the story tellers on the dock were telling his story for him to the few new comer’s….He regaind his standing and respect of the past moment and was showing his pictures to our small group…..Some time’s miracles are tiny little moment’s embracing old friend back into the fold….Off to plant flower’s….Happy posting all….Blessings
May 19th, 2008 at 10:26 amNice to see that Bill O says whatever his bosses tell him to say. No truth zone.
May 19th, 2008 at 10:28 amWhat one flippin’ minute here.
Pitbull, falafel boy can’t fight his own? He’s got to get his “daddy” to do his battles?
G.E. has no reason to worry. Well, how did that ban on France and Pepsi go, anywats?
Here’s an idea. Pay per View. Keith vs Bill. Neutral site. Point/counterpoint. Facts only. Actually, that would eliminate vibrator dude.
Witch1,
May 19th, 2008 at 10:29 amWonderful story. Keep up the good fight. You are truly a blessing!
Chocolate Jesus Says:
>that Barak Obama met with one
>of them in Michigan the other day.
He had Hummus with Hamas, no doubt…
…and he had a ball with Hezbollah.
May 19th, 2008 at 10:31 amIt will be interesting, this tiff between Olbermann and juvenile O’Reilly, not the least of which because of the dialectic possibilities.
What I mean is O’Rudelly is going to take shots at GE; this a big fat target of corruption and malfeasance.
Olbermann, on the other hand, is put into the position of defending an unconscionable corporation. While I’m a fan of Olbermann’s, I won’t watch MSNBC after they forced Kucinich off of the debates. With GE being the second or third largest defense contractor and repeatedly busted for defrauding government contracts and massive pollution violations, not to mention discrimination, exploiting third-world resources, etc., it will be interesting to see where Olbermann’s real allegiances lie.
(After Olbermann claiming that O’Reilly was somehow more responsible for troop deaths than “all the US companies combined,” I got a sinking feeling that Keith may be protecting his bread-&-butter at the expense of the truth. Say it ain’t so Keith…)
We’ll see, perhaps…
May 19th, 2008 at 10:32 amnews you wont see on american tv:
http://www.independent.co.uk/ news/ world/ middle-east/ ghost-city-mosul-braces-for-assault-on-last-bastion-of-alqaida-in-iraq-826264.html
“…This is probably over-simple. Attacks on US troops in Anbar province have restarted and in Sunni districts of west Baghdad al-Qa’ida appears to be lying low rather than being eliminated. In many cases in Baghdad al-Sahwa, the supposedly anti-al-Qa’ida awakening councils paid by the Americans, in practice have cosy arrangements with al-Qa’ida….”
biting the hand that feeds…how shocking..
May 19th, 2008 at 10:37 am#66 RUCerious Says:
Could we get a polar bear to come live onto the Ben Gleck set and eat him on live TV? Can I sell tickets?
I would be the first in line to buy tickets..LOL
May 19th, 2008 at 10:37 amThat picture of Ailes is a classic: just another 3-chinned, fat middle age white guy, the typical Repug. Looks like the rover and the rushers rich fat uncle.
May 19th, 2008 at 10:42 amHere is another link to GE’s insanity:
While Fox will never be expected to report anything approaching truth or ‘less than flattering’ about its’ advertisers or parent company, Olbermann’s commentaries imply a more forthcoming journalism standard. GE, however, is monstrous, participating in unauthorized experiments on citizens. I hope Keith’s mortgage isn’t the price he pays for his integrity in defending GE or MSNBC.
May 19th, 2008 at 10:47 amOlberman to Bill-O:
Fu(k it! We’ll do it LIVE!
May 19th, 2008 at 10:54 amShayne, I guess TRoS wouldn’t be buying a ticket then…?
May 19th, 2008 at 10:56 amAbout the clusterbomb’s ban, isn’t curious how the countries that are supposed to keep peace worldwide as permanent members of the Security Council of the United Nations, the countries that have the veto power are the greatest weapon manufacturers and sellers in the world?
Is it me or the world is just f(cked up?
May 19th, 2008 at 11:02 amFrom the NYT today
“Senator John McCain, whose fund-raising has badly trailed that of his Democratic counterparts, is leaning on the Republican National Committee. Mr. McCain’s efforts to raise money suffered a blow this weekend when a key fund-raiser, Tom Loeffler, resigned because of a new campaign policy on conflicts of interest.
Mr. McCain is likely to depend upon the party, which finished April with an impressive $40 million in the bank and has significantly higher contribution limits, to an unprecedented degree to power his campaign, Republican officials said.”
Wait a minute! He’s a MAVERICK!!
Isn’t he?
May 19th, 2008 at 11:16 amHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH Let me get this straight . . . he threatened to unleash O’Reilly and actually thought that was some kind of threat????? ROFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
May 19th, 2008 at 11:22 amJuan C. Says:
Is it me or the world is just f(cked up?
May 19th, 2008 at 11:02 am
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It ain’t you. This planet is nutty as a nut-cake.
May 19th, 2008 at 11:26 amDon’t laugh. Last time I unleashed my dog, he crapped in my neighbor’s yard.
May 19th, 2008 at 11:27 amThe U.S. Quietly Slashes the Reward Posted for the Leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq
Tue May 13, 1:24 PM ET
In an unannounced change, the bounty for a most wanted terrorist is reduced from $5 million to $100,000
http://news.yahoo.com/ s/ usnews/ 20080513/ ts_usnews/ theusquietlyslashestherewardpostedfortheleaderofalqaedainiraq;_ylt=Atlv6HoCb0LrIY7yQZPgWw.63q8F
May 19th, 2008 at 11:33 amAbout the soldier removed from Iraq for shooting Koran
http://news.yahoo.com/ s/ afp/ 20080518/ wl_mideast_afp/ iraqunrestuskoran_080518130129
Declarations of the guy:
“I sincerely hope that my actions have not diminished the partnership that our two nations have developed together,” Hammond said, quoting from a letter written by the soldier.
“My actions were shortsighted, very reckless and irresponsible, but in my heart (was not) malicious,” the soldier was quoted as saying.
His heart (was not) malicious? Please. You don’t shoot at a holy book for standard targeting practice.
And, I bet this guy isn’t the only that feels the same way there, and hasn’t been “officially” uncovered.
May 19th, 2008 at 11:38 am“As the Democratic presidential race unfolds in coal country this week and with John McCain’s recent rollout of a global-warming initiative, coal industry officials and environmentalists are unsure which candidate to endorse.”
Oh, please. McCain patches in the last minute a pseudo global warming initiative to pander to environmentalists and they are “unsure” to which candidate to endorse? Please. Haven’t they seen either the dismal career of “environmentalism” of all the Republicans without exception?
May 19th, 2008 at 11:42 amYesterday, Tom Loeffler resigned from Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) campaign, after Newsweek reported he had been lobbying for foreign interests, including Saudi Arabia. At the outset of the campaign, Loeffler was prepared to give up his clients at the behest of campaign strategist John Weaver. “But McCain, trusting Loeffler to know where the boundary lines lay, overruled Mr. Weaver; Loeffler got to keep his clients.”
The real problem isn’t if the funds are foreing or not. The real problem is allowing the cadidate’s campaings being privately payed. Too much room to bribe candidates.
May 19th, 2008 at 11:44 am“unleash O’Reilly against NBC.”
Bring it on. The more exposure O’Reilly gets to the non-Fox watching population, the more people will see what a clown this guy really is.
May 19th, 2008 at 11:51 amFreedom Rebel Says:
Fear, secrecy kept 1950 Korea mass killings hidden
Fifty-eight years ago, at the outbreak of the Korean War, South Korean authorities secretively executed, usually without legal process, tens of thousands of southern leftists and others rightly or wrongly identified as sympathizers.
Unfortunely, it’s the standard procedure with cozy rightist autocrats, since a century ago or more.
May 19th, 2008 at 12:02 pmObama: “Tiny” countries like Iran don’t pose serious threat
Obama told a cheering audience, explaining why he doesn’t think we need to worry about “tiny” countries like Venezuela, Cuba, North Korea, and Iran. Obama also displays a weird sense of history when he suggests that the Berlin Wall fell because we engaged Mikhail Gorbachev:
“We can’t drive our SUVs … eat as much as we want … keep our homes on 72 degrees”
Obama worries what other countries think as he goes super green in Oregon
Iraq party: Punish U.S. soldier who shot Quran
Ceremony held to apologize featured U.S. officer kissing new copy of Quran and presenting it as “a humble gift” to the tribal leaders
Global Warming: The Cold, Hard Facts?
Global Warming, as we think we know it, doesn’t exist.
May 19th, 2008 at 12:10 pmsays climatology professor at the University of Winnipeg
Anybody got a used Bible they can donate to me? I’m going target practice shooting later, figured I’d even the score up.
May 19th, 2008 at 12:14 pmDaryll?
#93 Evil Spaniard Says:
Freedom Rebel Says:
Fear, secrecy kept 1950 Korea mass killings hidden
Fifty-eight years ago, at the outbreak of the Korean War, South Korean authorities secretively executed, usually without legal process, tens of thousands of southern leftists and others rightly or wrongly identified as sympathizers.
Unfortunely, it’s the standard procedure with cozy rightist autocrats, since a century ago or more.
We are suppose to be progressing, instead our government has taken 3 steps back. I found the article so tragic on so many levels. All of the victims families that couldn’t talk about it or even acknowledge the loss. How our government is a mirror image in many ways as South Korea’s. I agree it has become standard policy.
Have a great day Evil Spaniard!
May 19th, 2008 at 12:20 pmGlobal Warming: The Cold, Hard Facts?
Global Warming, as we think we know it, doesn’t exist.
says climatology professor at the University of Winnipeg
May 19th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
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Oooo - Timothy Ball, the many-times-debunked shill for the anti-science industry. Great find, moron!
May 19th, 2008 at 12:27 pmTimothy Ball: Ball is a climatologist who is also the chairman of the Natural Resources Stewardship Project, a Canadian environmental think tank whose three-person board of directors includes an executive of the High Park Advocacy Group, a Toronto-based lobby firm that specializes in ‘energy, environment and ethics.” Timothy Egan, High Park Advocacy Group president, is “a registered lobbyist for the Canadian Gas Association and the Canadian Electricity Association,” in addition to serving on Natural Resources Stewardship Project’s board. Ball was previously an adviser to the industry-funded Friends of Science, which, as the Toronto Globe and Mail reported in August 2006, was supported by “a coalition of oil-patch geologists, Tory insiders, anonymous donors and oil-industry PR professionals.” Additionally, according to ExxonSecrets.org, Ball has contributed to Tech Central Station. As Media Matters for America has previously noted, Tech Central Station Daily is a website that from 2000 to October 2006 was operated by the Republican lobbying firm DCI Group, which, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), is also a “registered ExxonMobil lobbying firm.”
Ball has consistently repeated debunked claims aimed to cast doubt on global warming.
http://mediamatters.org/items/200705040001
May 19th, 2008 at 12:36 pmYes again the Pentagon report with something worse left out of the news about the Koran. Yes the soldier used it as a target but he also wrote some dirty words on it too. Now I wonder what Americans would say if the terrorist used the bible the way the US uses the Koran? If those dirty, hateful words were written on the bible just what would an apology mean to Religious Christan America? This is what happens with Satan is running the USA. Yes evil feeds on everyone and the weak join in the Bush/Cheney team. President Chavez told the truth at the UN but Americans couldn’t face the fact we have pure Evil running this country. Greed, sin, lies, killing, rape have taken over the United States of America. We often talk about evil leaders like Hitler but look carefully this Administration is doing the same thing even using God to cover up what is really going on. The worse is yet to come and like most who have put their heads in the sand for 7 years we will see like Hitler the USA has made History and not one to be proud of.
May 19th, 2008 at 1:31 pmPoor poor BILLO, Kieth the big bad bully is picking on him so he goes running to Papa,as a journalist BILLO you have absolutley no crediability or integrity you have sunk to the lowest depths of TABLOIDISM from which you will never climb out of I hope, you and Fix News can live forever in hell.
May 19th, 2008 at 2:30 pm94. downwamorica Says: Obama told a cheering audience, explaining why he doesn’t think we need to worry about “tiny” countries like Venezuela, Cuba, North Korea, and Iran.
NO! That is NOT what Obama said. Even including the youtube replay didn’t help that “Hot Air” idiot Ed Morrissey or downmoronica get it correct; just more stock-in-trade republican bullsh*t. Typical of reich-wing losers who misquote and fabricate to mislead.
Obama did say Iran, Cuba, Venezuela (Obama did NOT say anything about North Korea, so Ed Morrissey, who wrote the article, is just making sh*t up…) “are tiny IN COMPARISON TO THE SOVIET UNION. They don’t pose a serious threat to us the way the Soviet Union posed a threat to us, and yet, we were willing to talk to the Soviet Union.”
Ed Morrissey and downmoronica, I call you both goddamn liars!
May 19th, 2008 at 3:32 pmOh, and as a side note, not one of the inbred Cletuses in the comments caught the lie. They are the unquestioning spittoons into which the conservative chickenhawk pundits loft their propaganda loogies.
May 19th, 2008 at 3:50 pmRUCerious Says:
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Anybody got a used Bible they can donate to me? I’m going target practice shooting later, figured I’d even the score up.
Imagine the scenario in Irag. You take a Bible out and shoot it up. Then the nut bag Christinistas you serve with execute you with an immediate hail of gunfire!!
Would this be called Suicide By Bible?
May 19th, 2008 at 6:56 pmThis guy has a couple of brilliant videos I suggest each of you watch - and then send it around far and wide.
These have been my fears, and I am sure fears of many of you.
Two short videos very well worth watching.
http://markcrispinmiller.blogspot.com/ 2008/ 05/ endgame-bushcheneys-desperate-measures.html#comments
Originally seen at TheZoo.
May 19th, 2008 at 9:33 pmMs. Joanne,
Great link…everyone should watch and pay heed…
My friends have been calling me a kook for predicting an Iran invasion (for 2 years now) followed by martial law and suspension of the elections…but only if a Democrat might win…
Otherwise McLame will be the next President and the sheeple will think they still live in a democracy!!!!
May 21st, 2008 at 8:07 pm