Wow! Hide the dogs kiddies, cause all the dog-whistles out there will drive them nuts! Huckleberry makes his most overt racist appeal yet...
The populist campaign of Mike Huckabee, seeking to mobilize an insurgency of white evangelicals against the Republican establishment, took an abrupt turn today after the former Arkansas governor directly appealed to voters on the issue of race, summoning his fellow candidates to stop calling for the removal of the Confederate flag from government offices.
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The emergence of the confederate flag as an issue -- if past elections are a guide - holds the possibility of inflicting damage on McCain.
When McCain ran in South Carolina in 2000 against George W. Bush, he, like Huckabee now, said the confederate flag issue is a matter of states' rights -- a laden term in these parts -- and should not fall under federal jurisdiction. Later in 2000, after losing the nomination, McCain renounced his states' rights position, acknowledging, "I chose to compromise my principles. I broke my promise to always tell the truth.... The Confederacy was "on the wrong side of American history. That, my friends, is how I personally feel about the Confederate battle flag. That is the honest answer I never gave to a fair question."
It's always amazed me a bit that after the Civil War the Union forces allowed the Confederate Flag to be flown or displayed with any "official" imprimatur like inclusion on state flags or documents. I guess there is some thought that it's a 1st Amendment thing, and certainly with individual displays it is I think, but as an "official" device, I wonder if it was banned outright for state/official use if we might have moved on from the divisions wrought by that war.
As an alternative stragery, maybe Mikey could just promise retroactive Presidential pardons to the likes of Byron De La Beckwith and his ilk. That ought to make him pretty damn popular with folks he's courting and he has extensive practice signing pardons for some rather unsavory people.
Loved the little bit of political theater in South Carolina yesterday... Mitt getting bitchslapped on his claim not to have any lobbyists running or "tied to" his campaign. Note in the beginning of the clip, he makes the claim that he is the penultimate Washington "outsider" because he has not got lobbyists "running" or "tied to" his campaign. This gets morphed into "running" his campaign as he tries to dig his way of his own self-inflicted Bullshit...
In the first 10 seconds of the video, he makes the claim that he does not have lobbyists running or tied to his campaign. Then he goes on to get visibly agitated when the AP reported continues to make the (correct, it seems) assertion that there are "Washington lobbyists" in the Romney campaign. Ah... the power of a working press actually... working.
Got to love the part where the Romnoid Press Secretary yells at the AP reporter for being "argumentative with the candidate" and that his questions are "out of line". When did Mitt all of a sudden become the infalliable and unquestionable LDS super-being? The tactic of shaming the press into submission has been on that the GoOPers have used very successfully over the years and the Romnoids are trying it here.
Glenn Johnson, AP reporter: 1
Mitt the well-coifed and lying: 0
You know, we just don't need another rich, lying, facist empty-suit running the government. Seven years has been enough, don't ya think?
Or if you want to laugh at Mitt and his Parsing... go here.
The man who has built not just a candidacy, but a series of businesses on the use of a noun, a verb and 9/11 has a rather interesting profile for his business associates and associations. Scroll down to the comment by "anonymous", I could not link directly to that comment, and it's some rather interesting reading.
And how the fuck does "history hesitate"? If St. Rudy survives the republican bloodbath of "Super Tuesday" just color me shocked.
Obama may be among the most skilled political speakers in years, his effectiveness at communicating and emoting is beyond question. His judgement is a bit suspect in my humble opinion.
I don't know about you, but calling the party of bigotry, fear and hate the "party of ideas" just doesn't endear this guy to me. I know that not all republicans are hateful, intolerant fear-mongering bigots, but it is sort of the official position of the GOP since oh, around inauguration day 1981.
Yeah, it's only a matter of time. It's starting to look like the republican era of political dominance is coming to an end, so is Glorious Leader and his Most Evil Minion, Darth Cheney drumming up another conflict? One that will satisfy their bloodthirsty supporters, and in their minds at least, stave off a possible string of political set-backs up to and including handing the keys to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue over to anyone with a "D" after their name?
On the eve of President Bush's Middle East trip, five Iranian patrol boats charged at three U.S. Navy ships entering the Persian Gulf Sunday in what the Pentagon described as a "serious" provocation.
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Iran played down the incident as a "regular and natural issue. . . . That's something normal taking place every now and then for each party and it [the problem] is settled after identification of the two parties," Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammed Ali Hosseini told the Iranian News Agency IRNA. Similar incidents in the past were resolved when the two sides identified each other, he said.
But U.S. officials rejected that claim. "This is not something that our vessels encounter on a daily basis," McCormack said. U.S. military officials said Iran would have no question about the identity of U.S. ships.
Clearly the Irani official is talking out his ass, something that they are wont to do with reckless disregard for the truth, but the 1600 Crew is also not unwilling to ratchet up what would have once been referred to as an "incident at sea" back during the Cold War. The old Soviet Navy used to love to play this shit all time when they could, and it was never much of a cause for anything other than message traffic and some bellicose talk at Embassy receptions, I think. Beloved Leader would love to start yet another war before he heads back to Texas... I'm sure he thinks it will be the deal closer to retaining political power for his republican brethern, and money for his cronys.
What it ought to be is a one-way ticket to Impeachment. There is nothing that is not premeditated about any of this. I have to wonder what ADM Fallon at CENTCOM had to say about the incident, with any statements from him conspicuously absent, I'd say he's not playing the "go to war" fearmongering bloodlust card that the NeoCons are so fond of. IMHO, anyhow. And thats gotta piss off the Bushies, in a big way.
The Barack wave is getting interesting. The "fear and loathing" it's generating on both sides of the aisle is getting palpable, isn't it? Seems that HRC is beginning her "lash-out" campaign immediately if not sooner, and the republicans who speak in dog-whistles? Well they never met an African-American yet that they wouldn't defame as soon as look at. So it's no surprise to see this lede in the ComPost...
Exploiting a deep well of voter revulsion over partisan gridlock in Washington, Sen. Barack Obama is promising to do something that has not been done in modern U.S. politics: unite a coalition of Democrats, Republicans and independents behind an agenda of sweeping change.
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"Words are not actions," Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said Saturday night during a Democratic debate in New Hampshire, as she called for a "reality brake" on her rivals' rhetoric. "As beautifully presented and passionately felt as they are, they are not action."
"He believes he's a game-changer, but I don't believe the game has changed," said Rep. Tom Cole (Okla.), chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, dismissing Obama's transformational pledges as naive. "It's captivating. It's intoxicating, but it's not going to last."
So there's the bi-partisan trashing of the message (nice, Hillary... you're such a tool), I guess that makes Obama the embodiment of The Empty Suit's promise of "Uniter, not Divider"... but I have a slightly different take, and I hope I'm wrong.
Obama is the new version of the DLC for the New Millenium... call him the Millenial DLC Candidate; and that worries me. It looks like he's riffed on Edwards populism and message, while burnishing his rhetoric with his incredible speaking ability.
So is it Obama, Oh-Eight or Obama Oh, Wait? Time to watch and see.
