Category Archives: politics 08 Election
Molly Ivins-I will not support Hillary Clinton for President
From the grave Molly Ivins serves up a bitchslap of ol HRC. And damn if it isn’t a good one. A huge H/T to Fran, my co-conspirator at Sirens Chronicles for posting this on her blog for me to steal. đ
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Published on Friday, January 20, 2006 by the Columbus Free Press (Ohio)
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I Will Not Support Hillary Clinton for President
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by Molly Ivins
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I’d like to make it clear to the people who run the Democratic Party that I will not support Hillary Clinton for president. Enough. Enough triangulation, calculation and equivocation. Enough clever straddling, enough not offending anyone This is not a Dick Morris election. Sen. Clinton is apparently incapable of taking a clear stand on the war in Iraq, and that alone is enough to disqualify her. Her failure to speak out on Terri Schiavo, not to mention that gross pandering on flag-burning, are just contemptible little dodges. The recent death of Gene McCarthy reminded me of a lesson I spent a long, long time unlearning, so now I have to re-learn it. It’s about political courage and heroes, and when a country is desperate for leadership. There are times when regular politics will not do, and this is one of those times. There are times a country is so tired of bull that only the truth can provide relief. If no one in conventional-wisdom politics has the courage to speak up and say what needs to be said, then you go out and find some obscure junior senator from Minnesota with the guts to do it. In 1968, Gene McCarthy was the little boy who said out loud, “Look, the emperor isn’t wearing any clothes.” Bobby Kennedy — rough, tough Bobby Kennedy — didn’t do it. Just this quiet man trained by Benedictines who liked to quote poetry. What kind of courage does it take, for mercy’s sake? The majority of the American people (55 percent) think the war in Iraq is a mistake and that we should get out. The majority (65 percent) of the American people want single-payer health care and are willing to pay more taxes to get it. The majority (86 percent) of the American people favor raising the minimum wage. The majority of the American people (60 percent) favor repealing Bush’s tax cuts, or at least those that go only to the rich. The majority (66 percent) wants to reduce the deficit not by cutting domestic spending, but by reducing Pentagon spending or raising taxes. The majority (77 percent) thinks we should do “whatever it takes” to protect the environment. The majority (87 percent) thinks big oil companies are gouging consumers and would support a windfall profits tax. That is the center, you fools. WHO ARE YOU AFRAID OF? I listen to people like Rahm Emanuel superciliously explaining elementary politics to us clueless naifs outside the Beltway (“First, you have to win elections”). Can’t you even read the damn polls? Here’s a prize example by someone named Barry Casselman, who writes, “There is an invisible civil war in the Democratic Party, and it is between those who are attempting to satisfy the defeatist and pacifist left base of the party and those who are attempting to prepare the party for successful elections in 2006 and 2008.” This supposedly pits Howard Dean, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, emboldened by “a string of bad news from the Middle East … into calling for premature retreat from Iraq,” versus those pragmatic folk like Steny Hoyer, Rahm Emmanuel, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden and Joe Lieberman. Oh come on, people — get a grip on the concept of leadership. Look at this war — from the lies that led us into it, to the lies they continue to dump on us daily. You sit there in Washington so frightened of the big, bad Republican machine you have no idea what people are thinking. I’m telling you right now, Tom DeLay is going to lose in his district. If Democrats in Washington haven’t got enough sense to OWN the issue of political reform, I give up on them entirely. Do it all, go long, go for public campaign financing for Congress. I’m serious as a stroke about this — that is the only reform that will work, and you know it, as well as everyone else who’s ever studied this. Do all the goo-goo stuff everybody has made fun of all these years: embrace redistricting reform, electoral reform, House rules changes, the whole package. Put up, or shut up. Own this issue, or let Jack Abramoff politics continue to run your town. Bush, Cheney and Co. will continue to play the patriotic bully card just as long as you let them. I’ve said it before: War brings out the patriotic bullies. In World War I, they went around kicking dachshunds on the grounds that dachshunds were “German dogs.” They did not, however, go around kicking German shepherds. The MINUTE someone impugns your patriotism for opposing this war, turn on them like a snarling dog and explain what loving your country really means. That, or you could just piss on them elegantly, as Rep. John Murtha did. Or eviscerate them with wit (look up Mark Twain on the war in the Philippines). Or point out the latest in the endless “string of bad news.” Do not sit there cowering and pretending the only way to win is as Republican-lite. If the Washington-based party can’t get up and fight, we’ll find someone who can. Molly Ivins is the former editor of the liberal monthly The Texas Observer. She is the bestselling author of several books including Who Let the Dogs In? © 2006 Columbus Free Press |
Repubs debate part deux- "We ought to double Gitmo"
Haven’t been feeling up to par lately so I wasn’t up to watching the Repubes bullshit each other Tuesday night. ThinkProgress has the best parts ( or worse depending on your pov) from the Repubes second debate Tuesday night:
As Crooks and Liars noted, former governor Mitt Romney (R-MA) said tonight that instead of shutting the prison at Guantanamo Bay, âwe ought to double Guantanamo,â in part so that detainees âdonât get access to lawyers they get when theyâre on our soil.â
ROMNEY: I am glad [detainees] are at Guantanamo. I donât want them on our soil. I want them on Guantanamo, where they donât get the access to lawyers they get when theyâre on our soil. I donât want them in our prisons, I want them there. Some people have said we ought to close Guantanamo. My view is we ought to double Guantanamo.
WTF? Seriously..wtf Romney? You never served in the military a day of your miserable, privileged life. None of your five, count em five sons have either. ThinkProgress has this lowlight on video as well..watch it here. You are fine with torture you bag of batshit? What would Jesus say about that Mitt?
And we thought Bush wanted Habeas Corpus and due process killed..Romney would wipe them from the face of the earth. Sick fuck.
Now, we come to the farkwits known as Giuliani and Tancredo..what tools they are! Also from ThinkProgress, here (video also included) is the snippet from their lowlights regarding waterboarding and torture:
During tonightâs presidential debates, candidates were asked whether they would support the use of waterboarding â a technique, defined as torture by the Justice Department, that simulates drowning and makes the subject âbelieve his death is imminent while ideally not causing permanent physical damage.â
Both former mayor Rudy Giuliani and Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) suggested they would support using the technique. Specifically asked about waterboarding, Giuliani said he would allow âevery method [interrogators] could think of and I would support them in doing it.â Tancredo later added, âIâm looking for Jack Bauer,â referencing the television character who has used torture techniques such as suffocation and electrocution on prisoners.
The audience applauded loudly after both statements…
Tags: Politics, Republican Debates, Gitmo,Romney
Invoking the ghost of Reagan and other highlights of the Republican Debate.
According to one article I read this morning..RR’s name was mentioned 19 times last night. Thats quite a bit for a president who’s reign ended roughly 20 years ago. I really expected a ghost of ol Ronnie to appear at some point in the festivities…
But the Repub’s also wanted their cake and to eat it as well. All of them calling for lower taxes yet a robust military. Somehow, I do not see how they plan to pull that off unless they gut many of the social programs for the sick,poor and elderly.
I think Mitt looked the most polished of the group. He did manage to get the point out there several times that he ran a liberal state and loves to gut budget expenditures.
They all stood against pro-choice but Rudy. They all stood against embryonic stem cell research with Nancy Reagan, a staunch supporter, sitting front and center in the audience.
For the God Squad, there were three that came out against Evolution: Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo raising their hands when asked who did not believe in evolution.
Weathervane McCain had this lovely exchange:
McCain: Now I think it’s on the right track. The war was terribly mismanaged. The war was terribly mismanaged and we now have to fix a lot of the mistakes that were made. Books have been written. But we have a new strategy and a new general. And these young men and women are committed to winning.
So, if we are still seeing the insurgents killing at the same rates they are now..will McCain take it in the shorts for this comment a year from now? We can only hope my dear reader.
If you missed the grand Debate..the MSNBC transcript of it is here.
Tags: Politics, Republican Debate
Its my Right to be Left of the Center 