Peter Galbraith on the Fraudulent Afghan Elections
Galbraith’s op-ed in today’s Washington Post is an important read for anyone wanting to understand why sending more troops to Afghanistan is doomed to failure. Here is a key paragraph:
Sphere: Related ContentRahm Is in the Clear, and the Wingnuts Cannot Stand It
Matttbastard wrote about the results of “Blagobamarahmbogate” (love that word!) earlier today.
Joe Gandelman has an excellent post up about the “professional Obama haters” who are falling over each other to find issues on which they can demonize him before he even gets to take the “-elect” off his title:
Sphere: Related ContentBurrowing
Yes, it’s true that other presidents have moved their political appointees into career civil service jobs, but none of those other presidents had spent their entire term(s) in office stuffing every nook and cranny of their administration with ideological hacks who only needed one qualification to get the job: a willingness to put Bushian ideology ahead of every other consideration. And then there is this:
Sphere: Related ContentMcCain’s November Surprise Is a Dud
I was planning to write something about the Rashid Khalidi smear today, but it seems I was too slow: That smear has already been overtaken by another one: Obama’s Kenyan aunt, who lives in public housing in Boston, has made a number of small donations to her nephew’s campaign, but the contributions are illegal because she was told to leave the United States after her request for asylum was denied in 2004:
Sphere: Related ContentSarah Palin: Geography- and Truth-Challenged
It’s amazing how much of the United States Sarah Palin can see from Alaska:
Sphere: Related ContentHow Republican Ideology is Killing America: Example 1 Heparin
Nearly three years ago my grandfather, a veteran of World War II, a man in his early 80’s, and a man whom at the time was apparently as healthy as an ox, suddenly found himself in suburban Detroit’s Beaumont hospital on the verge of death. What happened to him is not unlike what happens to many American’s of his age. One day he found out that he was not nearly as healthy as he and his doctors thought he was. An emergency quadruple bi-pass later and he has never quite recovered and now looks and acts as old his 86 years would seem.
Sphere: Related ContentRove’s Subpoena Two-Step
Remember kids, to us mortals a Congressional subpoena, or any subpoena for that matter, isn’t something we can ignore. The choices are simple and there are really only three of them:
- Show up and behave, no trouble no foul.
- Submit a motion to quash, forcing the issuing party to show just cause why you should have to appear.
- Simply not show up. This’ll land you a nice hefty fine and likely a visit with Bubba.
Of course, if you’re Karl Rove, there’s always option #4: Refuse to show up and dare anyone to do anything about it.
Sphere: Related ContentGood Answer
Justice; it’s something that’s been lacking when it comes to holding this administration responsible for its actions. What’s worse, it seems as though the game is rigged in such a way that justice may never be served.
Sphere: Related ContentBush’s Bad Neighbor
Among the many things about which Americans might be bitter today (and let’s do remember that 81% of American’s say we’re on the wrong track), one of those things is of course the mortgage crisis. Even I’m getting a little bitter about it at this point, and I rent.
Sphere: Related ContentIf It Looks Like Corruption It Probably Is
“Street Money”. Maybe it’s because I’m just a small-town Midwesterner but the only place I’ve seen this term is in relation to concert promotion. For those readers not familiar with the term, street money refers to payments made to event “volunteers” for their services.
This is all well and good for social events like concerts, underground performances, and parties. It is in fact probably one of their most effective forms of advertising. Here’s where we hit a snag. We need to ask ourselves if this is something that political campaigns should employ?
The political machine in Philadelphia, like many urban cities, has decided that the answer is an unequivocal “yes”. One problem, as the LA Times is reporting, the Barack Obama campaign won’t pay up.
Fourteen months into a campaign that has the feel of a movement, Sen. Barack Obama has collided with the gritty political traditions of Philadelphia, where ward bosses love their candidates, but also expect them to pay up.
The dispute centers on the dispensing of “street money,” a long-standing Philadelphia ritual in which candidates deliver cash to the city’s Democratic operatives in return for getting out the vote.
[...]
“We’ve heard directly from the Obama organizer who organizes our ward, and he told us it’s an entirely volunteer organization and that I should not expect to see anything from the Obama campaign other than ads on TV and the support that volunteers are giving us,” said Greg Paulmier, a ward leader in the northwest part of the city.
*Emphasis Mine
My response to this story is directed to the Democratic campaign workers of Philadelphia:
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