Questioning the Unquestionable
That’s the apparent shitstorm we have slated for the day; is it kosher to question John McCain’s military experience in the context of this election season? That’s exactly what General Wesley Clark did yesterday on Face the Nation, and John Aravosis took it about three hundred steps further when he brought up the propaganda film that McCain participated in.
Now, I think John may have taken things a touch far, but in general, and this goes against much of what I’ve been saying in recent months, I think you have to question McCain’s service.
You Know What They Say About Assumptions, Right?
Glenn Greenwald urges us to examine the “moving to the center” assumption:
What John McCain Meant, and Why It Doesn’t Matter
The story about John McCain telling a reporter for the Orange Country Register that he doesn’t remember the last time he pumped gas or what it cost is picking up velocity. Only now it turns out he does know. Via Patterico’s Pontifications by way of John Cole, McCain was quoted by Environment News Service, on June 18, as follows:
Full of gas
GOP presidential candidate and economic genius John McCain admits to not knowing what gas prices are right now, but to defend himself, he quips that he doesn’t “see how it matters” anyways. I guess consumer confidence dipping to all time lows partly because of gas prices doesn’t matter, either.
Just think: if any Democrat said this, the calls that he or she is “elitist” and “out of touch” would be screamed 24/7. But when McCain says it? Feh, the dude’s a maverick! He could boink Monica Lewinsky on live television and the media would still kiss his feet.
Uncle Steve Awarded Human Rights Medal (Say What?!)
“I wonder how long it will take them to figure out that my name isn’t ‘Stephen Lewis’?”
Supreme Court of Canada Unanimously Defrosts Libel Chill
The media should not live in constant fear of facing a libel suit every time a provocative commentary is published or broadcast, the Supreme Court of Canada said yesterday in a major ruling won by controversial Vancouver radio broadcaster Rafe Mair.
In a 9-0 decision that modernizes the defence of fair comment, the court found that Mr. Mair did not defame Christian-values advocate Kari Simpson when he denounced her stand on a book-banning controversy.
“An individual’s reputation is not to be treated as regrettable but unavoidable roadkill on the highway of public controversy, but nor should an overly solicitous regard for personal reputation be permitted to ‘chill’ freewheeling debate on matters of public interest,” Mr. Justice Ian Binnie said.
Judge Binnie said that the key to a defence of honest belief - particularly in an era when extravagant overstatement is common - should lie in whether an honest person could have held the same opinion.
“We live in a free country, where people have as much right to express outrageous and ridiculous opinions as moderate ones,” Judge Binnie said. “In much modern media, personalities such as Rafe Mair are as much entertainers as journalists.”
Score one for the chronically hyperbolic Canadian media personalities who live and die on the alter of outrageous and ridiculous opinions (ahem).
John McCain: Domestic Violence is Hi-fncking-larious
Now here’s a surefire strategy to win over those mythical feminist Clinton supporters who refuse to support Obama no matter what–channel the spirit of Henny Youngman:
As the Huffington Post reported, McCain in an interview with the Las Vegas Sun headed for the gutter while trying to explain why he did not choose Republican Governor Jim Gibbons (now in the midst of a messy divorce and previously the subject of sexual assault allegations) as his Nevada campaign chair:
McCain: I appreciate his support. As you know, the lieutenant governor is our chairman.
Q: Why snub the governor?
McCain: I didn’t mean to snub him. I’ve known the lieutenant governor for 15 years and we’ve been good friends….I didn’t intend to snub him. There are other states where the governor is not the chairman.
Q: Maybe it’s the governor’s approval rating and you are running from him like you are from the president?
McCain: (Chuckling) And I stopped beating my wife just a couple of weeks ago…
I’m sure clever one-liners like that totally crack up his man-crushing Beltway fanclub during bourbon-fueled late night josh sessions on the Straight Talk Express, but it’s a safe bet they aren’t the sort of entreaties that feminists (or, I’d wager, most women in general) find particularly persuasive.
Yr doin’ it wrong, McSogynist.
Let me make sure I have this straight
Kathy has already touched upon the wingnut bukkake fest on Rep. Delahunt and I don’t want to be redundant, but one comment that RedState.com made about this affair really irks me:
This discourse — a member of Congress glad Al Qaeda has a face it can pursue — is beneath the dignity of the Congress and beneath the dignity of civil discourse in this country.
So we must be civil when talking about torture. Screw even highlighting just how uncivil torturing somebody is, we must make sure we’re prim and proper when discussing it.
Wingnuts Want Addington in the Witness Protection Program After Delahunt Joke
The right’s hypocrisy is on display again in its unhinged reaction to Rep. Delahunt’s attempt at humor on the House floor today:
Plenty of Insanity, Very Little Common Sense
The New York Times reports a surge of violence in Anbar province:
Obama: National Security Trumps Accountability for Telecoms
Turns out “Change You Can Believe In” is “Business As Usual You Can Bet On“:
At a presser today, Obama weighed in again on the FISA cave, and suffice it to say that what he said won’t make opponents any less unhappy about Obama’s position than they were already.
Asked specifically why he’s supporting the current FISA bill when he’d promised months ago to support a filibuster of an earlier version of the bill, Obama suggested flat out that “national security” overrides the question of telecom immunity…
Ralph Nader Deals Race Card Against Obama, Reminds Apathetic Media and Public That He’s Still the #1 3rd Party Spoiler (Fnck Bob Barr!)
Honourary soul brotha Ralph Nader was utterly shocked when Illinois State University president (and alleged POC) Al Bowman declined to sip from the third party pimp cup - photo by Andrew Benning
Re: “talking white” - what Shark-Fu said:
Black is not a monolith and we do not all think, act, talk, eat, pray, fuck, sing, dance, vote or manifest anger the exact same motherfucking way.
You goddamn fucking right.
Also see Liss, Steve M, and Ta-Nehisi Coates for more on Nader’s racist dumbfuckery.
A Novel Concept: Make Them Work For Our Votes
Must-read post from KathyG on how to make Barack Obama–and politicians in general–better:
Over this past election season, on websites and listservs and in conversations, I’ve seen an awful lot of cheap, hacktacular electioneering in favor of one candidate or another. But at the end of the day, I don’t think there was ever all that much of a difference between Hillary and Barack. Or between those two and Edwards, for that manner. Hillary and Barack had voting records and positions on the issues that were closet to identical. They’ve both taken shitloads of money from Wall Street, and it’s pretty clear to me that each of them is captive to corporate special interests. Indeed, I interpret Obama’s recent rightward shift — Furman, Messina, the remarks about NAFTA, the FISA compromise — as saying to the corporate interests, “Never fear — we’ll be playing ball as usual with you folks.”
As president, either Barack or Hillary, or Edwards, would be infinitely better than any Republican, but from a progressive point of view, each of them would also far short in some pretty profound and powerful ways.
But you know what? Ultimately, I don’t think that they as individuals are to blame for that. I don’t think Barack, or Hillary, or Edwards, are bad people. I don’t think that Barack Obama, for example, went into politics so he could sell civil liberties down the river in favor of giveaways for the telecom industry. But the incentive structure in politics these days is such that he decided he had more to gain by supporting the FISA “compromise” than by opposing it.
This is where we, as liberals, progressives, lefties, activists, whatever-you-want-to-call-us, come in. I do not believe that our interests are best served by the kind of cheap electioneering we saw over the primary campaign. What would be far more effective would be an independent movement that makes strategic alliances with various political candidates but is also distinctly separate from them.
Instead of shilling for Barack, or Hillary, or whoever, we should have been pressuring the candidates to work for our votes. We should have been pressing them to take firm, non-negotiable positions in favor of things like no immunity for the telecoms, or immediate withdrawal from Iraq with no residual troops. Instead, we were really cheap dates. And when you act like suckers, don’t be surprised when something like Obama’s support for the FISA compromise comes back and bites you in the ass.
If we want real change in this country, the place to look for it is not in our so-called leaders, but in ourselves. What we need, in short, is a movement. Without such a movement, President Obama is not going to be able to achieve a whole lot more than President Clinton or President Carter did. But with such a movement, we may actually get somewhere. FDR was able to achieve great things because he had the strong support of a powerful labor movement. Similarly, the civil rights movement was the wind at LBJ’s back. But I ask you, what will President Obama have?
Huh. An independent movement pressuring candidates to “work for our votes”. Kinda sounds like the pre-Netroots blogosphere, until Chairman Kos decreed that it was now the sworn duty of DFHs to make sure Democrats (even the dreaded DINOs) get elected, regardless of how progressive they may (or may not) actually be.
“You sucker MC, you just ain’t right.”
h/t Hysperia
Don’t Bother Us With the Facts
The Environmental Protection Agency was directed by a 2007 Supreme Court ruling to find out whether greenhouse gases endangered public health and the environment. The EPA did that and issued its findings in an email to the White House. The White House refused to open the email:
A Slight Break From the Script
Joe Klein is having a quarrel with the folks over at Commentary: Klein is miffed by Max Boot’s reiteration of his boss John McCain’s 100-years-in-Iraq proposition, and Jennifer Rubin takes exception to Klein’s notion that right-wing Jewish supporters of Israeli military policy — like Joe Lieberman — pushed the invasion of Iraq because they believed destroying Iraq would be good for Israel, and that they favor war with Iran for the same reason.
Ralph Nader Tells Obama He’s Doing Black Wrong
Fool:
Nader was asked if Obama is any different than Democrats he has criticized in the past, considering Obama’s pledge to reject campaign contributions from registered lobbyists.
“There’s only one thing different about Barack Obama when it comes to being a Democratic presidential candidate. He’s half African-American,” Nader said. “Whether that will make any difference, I don’t know. I haven’t heard him have a strong crackdown on economic exploitation in the ghettos. Payday loans, predatory lending, asbestos, lead. What’s keeping him from doing that? Is it because he wants to talk white? He doesn’t want to appear like Jesse Jackson? We’ll see all that play out in the next few months and if he gets elected afterwards.”
The Obama campaign had only a brief response, calling the remarks disappointing.
Asked to clarify whether he thought Obama does try to “talk white,” Nader said: “Of course.
“I mean, first of all, the number one thing that a black American politician aspiring to the presidency should be is to candidly describe the plight of the poor, especially in the inner cities and the rural areas, and have a very detailed platform about how the poor is going to be defended by the law, is going to be protected by the law, and is going to be liberated by the law,” Nader said. “Haven’t heard a thing.”
I must say, I find Nader’s eccentric use of grammar quite charming. And he’s got some interesting ideas for what a successful black presidential candidate should be doing. Perhaps, though, he would be better off trying to become a successful white presidential candidate. That’s challenge enough — for him.
Chris Dodd Gives Hope To Constitution Advocates
I’m listening to the audio of Chris Dodd’s speech on the Senate floor last night about why immunity for telecoms is such a terrible idea. This is a take-no-prisoners speech. One of the best things Dodd does is tie together all the other constitutional crimes committed by the Bush administration, and he makes it clear they are not separate issues and should not be treated as if they were: