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Politics

Love, Hannity Style

[Ed. Note: To clear up any confusion, this is not a parody. These are actual profiles clipped from Hannity's website.]

Sean Hannity: Author. Television Talking Head. Radio Host. Pimp Daddy?

It’s true. Sean Hannity is trying his hand as matchmaker with Hannidate 2005, a dating service hosted on his Web site. If you’ve always been curious about romance, right-wing style, here’s what you’ve been missing:

NO CAVITY CREEPS!

Name: Gary
Location: OH
Age: 32

I live close to Dayton, Ohio. I am a 32 single white male. I am a smoker. I weigh in at 170 and stand at 5′-11″ Dayton has a lot of liberal women which I am tired of dating. Help me find a republican woman. Below is what kind of describes myself in a nutshell …. Some find me hot, some not. You decide. I have good morals and values and I am of a conservative nature. …I have all my teeth and brush them… Someone who isn’t a control freak. Good personal hygiene and has all their teeth and no rotten black teeth. I see this way too much and I find it a turn off…

WHOO HOO! WHERE ARE ALL THE WILD RIGHT-WING BOOOOOOYS?!

Name: Anna
Location: TX
Age: 42

About who I’m looking for–Fun, outdoorsy, moral, early riser, clean. Boy scout with a wild side. (*_~) Please don’t over-analyze me–half the time ‘I’ don’t know what I’m thinking. Or WHY. Great kisser–yes, you must be that. Christian, obviously. Brilliant, witty, patience of a saint, and so on and so forth. If this is multiple choice, I’m choosing ALL OF THE ABOVE this time.

STAY AWAY YOU LIBERAL HUSSIES

Name: Mark
Location: ?
Age: 49

I am a 49 year old truck driver. Divorced, one daughter, 18, looking for a LADY, 45 to 55 years old, no tatoos, no body piercings except ears, but most importantly NOT LIBERAL (lady and not liberal kind of go hand in hand, don’t they?).

Read more

Politics

Secrets and Lies

“I live in a transparent country. I live in a country where decisions made by government are wide open and people are able to call people to me to account, which many out here do on a regular basis.”
- President George W. Bush, 2/24/05

“Secrecy in [the United States] government appears to be on the increase.”
- Judge Robert W. Sweet of the Southern District of New York, 2/24/05

Security

Bush meets Putin meets Bush

Today President Bush met with President Vladimir Putin in a visit just as important as their first encounter, four years ago in Texas, where Bush “got a sense of his soul” when he looked into his eyes. The Russian Press Corps got the chance to take a look into President Bush’s eyes — and exhibit Russian-style democracy at work.

Highlights from the press conference include:

Bush on American and Russian differences — “if you really think about what we have done in the last four years and what we want to do during the next four years, the common ground is a lot more than those areas where we disagree.” Considering that Freedom House just downgraded Russia this year to “Not Free” for the first time in a decade — is that such a ringing endorsement for how the Bush Administration has behaved?

Bush on Putin — “This is the kind of fellow who when he says yes, he means yes, and when he says no, he means no. And we had a discussion about some decisions he’s made. He’s had some interest in decisions I’ve made. That’s a very important dialogue.” So, when Putin says “we’re going to remain committed to the fundamental principles of democracy,” that is the same thing as making “sweeping constitutional changes” to benefit one party?

Bush on the American Press — “And he wanted to know about our press. It’s a nice bunch of folks.” Apparently he’s changed his mind from the days of expressing his personal feelings about some reporters.

Russian scholars and politicians across America and in Western Europe all want Bush to be tough on Putin — but it is hard to tell what actually transpired in their private meeting. Was the President who met with Putin the Bush who said that America will “seek and support the growth of democratic movements… in every nation” or the Bush who asked “politely about Russia’s retreat from democracy?” We’ll have to wait and see.

Politics

Kerrying On About the Wrong Guy

During last year’s presidential campaign, the right-wing offered any number of reasons to fear a Kerry presidency. John Kerry, the typical tax-and-spender, would negotiate with the terrorists, undermine efforts to ban gay marriage, bring salacious scandals back into the White House, increase government spending while cutting vital missile defense, and get buddy-buddy with his surrender-monkey European allies, like close associate Jacques Chirac.

Or, in other words, Kerry might have…

Scary stuff.

Politics

Bush’s Transparent Government: An Oxymoron

In his press conference with Vladmir Putin today, President Bush said, “I live in a transparent country. I live in a country where decisions made by government are wide open and people are able to call people to me to account, which many out here do on a regular basis.”

Here are a couple of examples that shed a little light on Mr. Bush’s characterization of how he runs his government.

RICHARD FOSTER: Foster was the government’s top expert on Medicare costs. Five months before Congress was to vote on the White House’s prescription drug bill, Foster discovered the controversial legislation would cost much more than the White House was promising. The administration, desperate to pass the bill, threatened to fire him if he exposed the truth to lawmakers on the Hill and forced him to bury the true estimate.

CHENEY’S ENERGY TASK FORCE: Vice President Dick Cheney held back-room, clandestine meetings with energy corporate executives (like Enron’s Ken Lay) to develop his energy policy recommendations. The result was, no surprise, a policy filled with handouts to powerful energy corporations. After blocking multiple requests for details about these meetings, two separate federal court rulings calling on Cheney to disclose the records. He refused, stalled and dodged, taking the matter all the way to the administration-friendly Supreme Court. The American public remains in the dark about what really happened at those secret meetings.

This is just the tip of the Bush White House iceberg. Now’s your chance – leave your examples of President Bush’s “open government” in the comment section. (Need help? Check out the study Rep. Henry Waxman put out about the current White House’s obsession with secrecy.)

Politics

Subtracting Out the Rhetoric

Statistics and fractions are funny things and easily manipulated. For example, when talking about issues such as the unemployment rate, small percentages score political points. So the Bush administration continues to harp on just how low the unemployment rate has fallen, taking advantage of the Bureau of Labor Statistics various measures of underutilization that allows the “hiding” of millions of unemployed.

While President Bush continues to praise the “low” unemployment rate, he neglects the soaring number of “discouraged workers” leaving the labor force. In fact, a recent report by the Labor Department found that “the share of the working-age population working or actively seeking a job…fell to 65.8 percent in January, the lowest reading in 17 years.”

Another example of President Bush’s rhetoric just not adding up.

Politics

Luntz Watch: How to Be Frank Luntz’s Worst Nightmare

[Influential conservative strategist Frank Luntz has produced a 160-page playbook to advance the right-wing agenda. Think Progress cuts through the spin and gives you the tools you need to fight back. Check here for updates throughout the week.]

Luntz’s playbook is full of things people should never say if they don’t want to undermine the right-wing agenda. Here’s how you can be Frank Luntz’s worst nightmare:

Economy

• Talk about the economy using “facts and figures.”

• Talk about the overall size of Bush’s proposed tax cut.

• Describe how repealing the estate tax protects America’s wealthiest families.

• Talk about the economy without bringing up 9/11.

• Recall how Bill Clinton produced balanced budgets in the late 1990s.

Budget

• Remind people that conservatives want to make painful cuts in vital government services.

• Talk about the deficit without bringing up 9/11.

Social Security

• Remind people that the financial services industry has been embroiled in scandal and corruption. Read more

Politics

5 Questions the White House Must Answer About Jeff Gannon

“Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) is circulating a letter among his colleagues that asks President Bush to launch an investigation” into how Gannon gained access to White House press briefings without any journalistic qualifications. Here are some basic, substantive questions that must be answered by the White House:

HOW LONG CAN JOURNALISTS GAIN ACCESS TO THE WHITE HOUSE WITHOUT AN FBI BACKGROUND CHECK? Most White House journalists have what is called a “hard pass,” a permanent pass obtained after undergoing a rigorous FBI background check. Gannon skipped over that step. Instead, as Salon’s Eric Boehlert explains, “the White House waved him into press briefings for nearly two years using what’s called a day pass.” Now, day passes are special exceptions that are “designed for temporary use by out-of-town reporters who need access to the White House, not for indefinite use by reporters.” If the background check is necessary for reporters with extended access to the White House, why were the rules circumvented for Gannon? Is there a limit to how long a reporter can slide on “day” passes, as Gannon did for years?

HOW DID GANNON GET A WHITE HOUSE PRESS PASS TWO MONTHS BEFORE HIS SUPPOSED PUBLICATION EVEN EXISTED? Bush Press Secretary Scott McClellan admitted the White House gave Gannon his first day press pass in February 2003. The problem: His “publication,” Talon News, didn’t exist until April 2003.

BY WHAT CRITERIA DID THE WHITE HOUSE EVALUATE TALON NEWS? Talon News is the brainchild of a Republican activist from Texas, Bobby Eberle. Eberle, who runs the aptly named “GOPUSA,” told the New York Times he created Talon News because he wanted to quietly construct a news service with a conservative slant: “if someone were to see ‘GOPUSA,’ there’s an instant built-in bias there.” In denying Gannon a pass, the congressional press office pointed out Gannon was unable to show that “Talon News has any paid subscribers.” They also found that while actual working reporters can show their principal income comes from reporting stories for publication in actual news services, Talon’s “paying a single reporter a ‘stipend’ does not meet the intent of the rule.” As the Washington Post’s Dana Milbank put it, Gannon was “representing a phony media company that doesn’t really have any such thing as circulation or readership.” Read more

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