Archive for March, 2010
Sarah Palin’s Speech to Teabaggers in Nevada is Utterly Dead Right on Message
Posted by Lance Haley in Anti-government sentiment, Campaigns, Conservatives, Cultural Issues, Culture Wars, Politics, Sarah Palin, Tea Party on March 28th, 2010
Sarah Palin addressed thousands of Tea Party activists on Saturday in the desert outside of Searchlight, Nevada – home of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. You do not have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that the location of this rally was not coincidental.
True to form, Sarah was right on message for a Tea Party leader when giving her speech:
“What we are doing, folks, we are rolling up our sleeves and we are getting down to business and getting back to the common sense conservative principles that made this country the greatest country on earth, and we are not going to sit down and shut up.”
In other words folks, we are going to continue to harass, intimidate, threaten, terrorize, and otherwise utilize whatever scare tactics are necessary in order to utterly vanquish the opposition so that we can rule the United States with our fire-brand, scorched-earth, “take-no-prisoners” politics.
Couldn’t have said better myself, Sarah.
Hang All the Democrats? It May Be Too Late to Stop That, Eric Cantor . . .
Posted by Lance Haley in Anti-government sentiment, Conservatives, Cultural Issues, Government, Healthcare Reform, House of Representatives, Politics, Tea Party, crime on March 26th, 2010
OK. So many Americans are disenchanted with the direction of the country, specifically the health care legislation that was passed this week. One can disagree with policies – that is reasonable and to be expected.
So now it’s alright to threaten, intimidate and otherwise cast scurrilous invectives at our Congressional representatives – particularly by other members of Congress?
If the more civil party members of the Republicans and Tea Party (as for the latter, one has to wonder if “civil party members” isn’t an oxymoron) are sincerely interested in preserving the State of the Union, they would be well advised to tone down the rhetoric before something tragic happens that will ignite unforeseen consequences.
House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R.- Virgina) is a case in point. Cantor has suddenly decided that he wants to weigh in on this issue ONLY after his own Congressional office back home was fired upon by an unknown gunman. Cantor is now accusing Democrats of “fanning the flames” by reporting these acts, but said NOTHING prior to this when a member of his own Republican Party used language that was beyond incendiary, to wit:
1) House Minority Leader John Boehner (not ironically, Cantor’s “boss”) said this week of fellow Ohio Congressman Steve Driehaus (D – Ohio), after Driehaus voted for the Health Care Reform Bill, “He may be a dead man. He can’t go home to the west side of Cincinnati.”
Moreover, Tea Party activists protesting on the Capitol steps spewed racist remark towards several members of the Congressional Black Caucus, and even spit on black Congressman Emmanuel Cleaver (D – MO).
Cantor, who is of Jewish decent, claims that he has been the target of racist threats and invectives since he took office. Given that fact, coupled with the history of his own people, you think he would have spoken up earlier in the week. The silence of the German people regarding the slowly fermenting racist hatred towards the Jews by members of the Nazi party in the 1930’s was an act of omission – a moral crime, in and of itself. We all know what happened next. Cantor, of all people, should understand the unintended consequences of not speaking up sooner.
Yet, only now after he became a target of this decidedly un-American behavior, was Cantor quoted as saying, “Enough is enough, it has to stop.”
Yes Mr. Cantor, you are right.
You just should have spoken up a long, long time ago.
Obama and Democrats Played Republicans on Healthcare?
Posted by Lance Haley in 2010 Election, 2012 Election, Bill O'Reilly, Campaigns, Congress, Conservatives, Dick Cheney, Economics, Glenn Beck, Government, Health Insurance Industry, Healthcare Reform, House of Representatives, Medicaid, Medicare, Politics, Populists, Sarah Palin, Senate, Tea Party, White House, economy on March 24th, 2010
Now the blame game begins about how Health Care Reform got passed.
You are just going to love this one . . .
William Saletan reports today in Slate.com that the Bipartisan Health Care Summit organized by the Whitehouse and attended by the President and party leaders on February 25, 2010 , was in fact a total ruse orchestrated by President Obama to set-up the Republicans; Saletan cites accounts from four different media outlets who quote anonymous Democratic aides that “paint a picture of deception” as follows:
“Obama never believed he could persuade Republicans. He had already decided the shape of the bill. He called the meeting to create an illusion of outreach, put Republicans on the spot, discredit their ideas, and embolden Democrats.”
Oh, Horror of Horrors! How sinister of President Obama. You know they say he is one Hell of a poker player. Republicans should have known just how shrewd and conniving this beast was when they sat down at the table with him. Obama went “all in”, and the Repubs folded. How could he do this to them?
The Republicans spent over a year trying to play Obama and the Democrats like a fiddle, and in the end, it was the Republicans who got played? Hee Hee Hee.
KARMA BABY. KARMA.
Hey Repubs: I think God does have a sense of humor.
What’s the Big F@%King Deal Fox News? V.P. Biden Did Not Tell Anyone “Go F@%K Yourself”
Posted by Lance Haley in Bill O'Reilly, Conservatives, Cultural Issues, Culture Wars, Dick Cheney, Fox News, Government, Healthcare Reform, Media & Communication, Politics, Senate, White House on March 23rd, 2010
So Joe Biden speaks honestly with President Obama today when congratulating him over the passage of the Health Care Reform bill after the President signed-off on it today at the Whitehouse.
BFD!
Well, keeping in line with their usual hypocrisy, Fox News is all a “twitter” - YES, the pun is intended – over the “party-like” atmosphere surrounding the celebration of the President and the Democrats in achieving a step towards reforming the U.S. health care system. According to Fox and friends, you would think this was a drunken frat party. And from reading their viewers’ responses, you would think Biden’s comment was a blasphemy to the image of the Office of the President.
So how did Fox News treat Dick Cheney’s admonition to Senator Patrick Leahy to “Go F@%K Yourself”, while standing on the floor of the Senate Chamber in 2004?
Like no BFD . . .
In fact, on The O’Reilly Factor, Karl Rove and Bill O’Reilly rationalized away Cheney dropping the “F’ Bomb on Leahy because the Senator had previously called for an investigation of Bush Administration ties to Halliburton after the company was granted a “no-bid” contract for the re-construction of Iraq after the U.S. invasion in 2003. Cheney was the former CEO of Halliburton from 1996-2000.
Yeah, Cheney, there was certainly no appearance of impropriety there. WTF???
However, Rove and O”Reilly NEVER referenced the rest of the story regarding Leahy’s attempt to address prior accusations – a veiled smear tactic – by Cheney and company that he (Leahy) was a bad Catholic. When Leahy approached Cheney in very a gentlemanly manner to inquire about that, Cheney gave his infamous response.
So where was Fox News’ indignation? Or their readers outrage?
Fox News is a F@%King Joke!
Having the final word over today’s meaningless flap, Whitehouse Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said it best when questioned about Biden’s comment:
“And yes Mr. Vice President, you’re right.”
Cindy Sheehan is “Dishonorably Discharged”
Posted by Lance Haley in 9/11, Government, National Security, War in Afghanistan, War on Terror, White House, al Qaida, foreign policy on March 22nd, 2010
Sheehan is the poster-girl for the U.S. anti-war movement that sprouted after the Bush Administration’s invasion of Iraq in March of 2003. Her son Casey was killed-in-action in Iraq in 2004, and within a year she became the leading figure in the Iraq War protests when she appeared on national television in the summer of 2005 near Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Texas when he was there on summer vacation.
While leading a protest in Washington, D.C. last weekend, Sheehan pointed a bullhorn at the Whitehouse and yelled, “Arrest that war criminal“, obviously calling for President Obama’s prosecution for war crimes because he has not yet ordered the removal of U.S. troops from Iraq. At that moment, Sheehan lost any credibility she may have garnered these past six years.
I opposed the war in Iraq from the day the Bush Administration launched it’s public relations offensive in support of that strategic disaster. Afghanistan was and always will be the right war. That is where the principle threat from terrorism exists, and no amount of debate will ever change that one simple fact.
Nor will the argument that Saddam Hussein was ever any strategic or regional threat to our national security. There were never any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. There was never any significant military capability in Iraq. Even our intelligence agencies knew that. After Desert Storm I in 1990, Saddam was reduced to the status of just another tin-horn dictator. Kim Jung Il of North Korea has always been a far greater threat to our nation with his long-range missiles and nuclear weapons. So why didn’t we attack him first?
Because Saddam did possess the one ”threat” to our national security that was of any real value - a big damn oil spigot. Dick Cheney wanted his hand on that faucet, so he set out to convince everyone around him that Hussein was the most dangerous man in the world – when the real danger to global security was right there in Cheney’s mirror. I believe Cheney and his minions are war criminals. There is no hiding my disdain for this man, and I believe he is one of the most evil persons of the 21st Century – Osama bin Laden, notwithstanding.
However, no amount of projection of Sheehan’s anger towards President Obama, simply because she disagrees with his decision to alter the time-table for withdrawal of troops from Iraq, will somehow magically transform him into a war criminal anymore than painting a thin mustache on his likeness will make him Hitler – as his Teabagger foes are prone to doing.
President Obama – like myself – believes we need to leave Iraq. President Obama – like myself – never supported the War in Iraq. President Obama – like myself – understands that undoing the failed war strategies of the previous Administration cannot be accomplished overnight.
Cindy Sheehan – when you metaphorically painted that little black mustache on President Obama’s upper lip last Saturday, you shot yourself in the foot. You are a disgrace to America.
Surrender your bullhorn, and go home.
Going to War With Iraq Was “A Done Deal”
Posted by Lance Haley in 9/11, Congress, Conservatives, Dick Cheney, Government, How and Why We Get Screwed, National Security, Politics, War on Terror, al Qaida, foreign policy on March 17th, 2010
Former CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) agent John Kiriakou has just released his new book, “The Reluctant Spy“.
According to reviews, the book reveals the inner-workings of the U.S. intelligence agency, and regales it’s readers with stories from the front lines in the War on Terror. Kiriakou’s participation in the capture of Abu Zubaydah, one of Al Qaeda’s senior commanders, as well as his prior support of the use of water-boarding as a legitimate means for acquiring intelligence, are just two of the many highlights in the book.
However, the most poignant experience of his career may well be the day he was called into a top-secret meeting while working at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia in the summer of 2002. During that briefing, he was told that the Bush Administration had already made the decision to go to war with Iraq the following Spring (2003). His job was to support the decision.
In other words, it was “A Done Deal”.
Kiriakou was stunned that the question of going to war with Iraq was already pre-determined by the Bush Administration in spite of the fact that Congress and the public were still undecided over the basis for invading another country that posed no serious imminent threat to our national security:
“Here was someone at the CIA, obviously plugged into the plans of the executive branch, telling us that the public debate in Congress, reflected almost daily in the press, meant nothing.”
Approximately seven years later, George Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” is anything but. Those elusive WMD’s are yet to be found. And brave young American men and women are still fighting and dying over there.
As Paul Harvey would say, “and now you know the rest of the story”.
Dick Vitale Bribes 2010 NCAA Committee for Duke’s Bracket Bailout
Posted by Lance Haley in Capitalism, Show Them the $$$, Sports on March 16th, 2010
ALLEN FIELD HOUSE - HOME OF MODERN DAY COLLEGE BASKETBALL
How else could you explain the NCAA selection committee’s decision to give Duke a Wall Street-sized Bracket Bailout when establishing the other #1 seeds’ Road to the Final Four?
After all, Dick “Dookey V” Vitale, as he is known in many circles, is a shamelessly biased shill for Duke, and CBS’s favorite “color man” for college basketball. I can just hear Vitale’s phone conversation with the NCAA Selection Committee setting Duke’s easy wade through the South bracket to the Final Four. It was fait accompli. Besides, according to him and much of the East Coast media and sports writers, that sixty miles between Durham (Duke’s home town) and Chapel Hill, North Carolina (North Carolina’s home town) is the center of the college basketball universe.
OK, seriously now.
Kansas is the #1 team in the country, and the top #1 seed in the tournament; that entitles them to play in the “softest” bracket – starting with the weakest seed (#64). They earned that right. That is the standard operating procedure for any sports tournament – unless, of course, you have an agenda. Dan Guerrero, Chairman of the NCAA Selection Committee, gave the lamest excuse when it came to the rationalizing placement of the Top #2 seed, Ohio State, as well as an over-laden bevy of talented teams in Kansas’ bracket: he said it was a “procedure” decision. Guerrero and his shameless NCAA peers’ transparent bias for Duke is made even more apparent by the fact that the 64th position (the weakest seed) is being decided in a game tonite. Guess who the winner of that game plays? That’s right! Duke. WTF?
Maybe it’s jealousy and irreverant contempt for college basketball’s Midwest roots. Never mind that Kansas University and Allen Field House is the center of the college basketball universe. Duke and North Carolina basketball are not even in existence but for the legacy of Kansas University, where the Father of Basketball, James Naismith first brought his newly-developed game into the limelight near the turn of the 20th Century.
Moreover, you have the revered and deeply feared Allen Fieldhouse - opposing players and coaches hate playing there because of it’s unprecedented college basketball history and the deafening crowd noise – the place which gave birth to modern college basketball; as in the likes of Adolph Rupp (Kentucky), Dean Smith (North Carolina), and “Phog” Allen - the namesake of the field house – who coached both of them. Legend even has it that Allen and many other old ghosts like Wilt Chamberlain haunt opposing teams who step into “The Phog” – where the longest current home-game winning streak is held.
As for the opinon of the national sportswriters and baskeball analysts who seem to think this whole deal was rigged – here is just a few snippets of their condemnation of this apparent bias:
Stewart Mandel of Sports Illustrated (SI.com) said “For reasons known only to the 10 people in that room, the selection committee tapped Kansas its No. 1 overall seed, placed it in the Midwest, then inexplicably stuck it with the most loaded field of any region, hands down.”
Mike DeCourcy’s piece for Sporting New’s College Basketball segment’s headline reads “NCAA gives Duke cupcake draw in South Region“, and he was also quoted in NBC’ Sports’ “Beyond the Arc”, stating that ”The Devils couldn’t have gotten a greater gift from the committee if the entire tournament were moved to Cameron Indoor Stadium.” He was referring to the Duke Blue Devils and their home-court.
But nationally syndicated sports writer Jason Whitlock just cut right to the heart of the matter: Duke is television ratings gold, and the NCAA is in the process of negotiating a new TV contract for its prized tournament . . . [t]he NCAA needs another bump.” That would be spelled M$O$N$E$Y.
Moreover, the inevitable expansion to a 96 team field for the National Championship tournament has to be a dream come true for the NCAA and Duke. Duke head coach Mike Krzysewski said in a recent interview, he supports the expansion. Of course he does. And so does CBS – or whatever network buys the future television rights. Every year, the NCAA Committee can put even more cupcake teams in Duke’s bracket, and load the higher seeded teams with a truckload of the more difficult teams. Thereby significantly increasing the probability that Duke makes it the finals.
The bottom line for the NCAA’s March Madness is “the bottom line”.
As for the NCAA Committee, here is hoping the most famous ghost of college baskeball comes back to haunt all of you . . .
Pay Heed . . . Beware of “The Phog”.
Thunderous Applause by Utah Republicans for House Majority Leader’s “Honesty”?
Posted by Lance Haley in Campaign Finance Reform, Campaigns, Cultural Issues, Ethics, Government, Morality, Politics, Sex & Sexuality on March 12th, 2010
Let me get this straight?
Kevin Garn, Utah’s 55 year old Republican Majority House Leader, sat naked in a hot tub when he was 28 years old, with a 15 year old female employee. It was all just a “spur of the moment” skinny dip, and nothing sexual happened, according to Garn. Garn then paid the woman $150,000 eight years ago, during his 2002 U.S. Congressional campaign, to keep quiet about the incident (yes, she extorted money from him).
This week it all become very public when the woman went public with the story anyway. And only now is Garn apologizing. For the both the prior unlawful adult-child “indiscretion”, as well as for the subsequent payment of “hush money” in 2002. So how do fellow Republicans respond to his involuntary act of contrition in the Legislative chambers of the Utah House of Representatives?
With “thunderous applause for his honesty and embraced him.” Even Utah’s Speaker of the House, Dave Clark, was moved to tears. And the Utah Governor’s spokesperson said they would not be asking for his resignation.
Wait! It gets even better. Garn said “now that this issue is coming up again, it is apparent to me that this payment was also a mistake.” Because it was wrong? Or because it did not work? Irony of ironies . . . Garn was the House’s designated leader this year for several ethics proposals designed to restore their constiuent’s faith in Utah’s Legislature after a recent spate of alleged claims of political bribery. Garn is still hopeful he can get re-elected. And obviously, so are his political peers.
They just do not get it, people . . .
and apparently neither do we, the electorate.
SHAME ON US!
How Ostensibly Patriotic Americans Help Al Qaeda Win the War on Terror
Posted by Lance Haley in 9/11, Conservatives, Politics, Sarah Palin, War in Afghanistan, War on Terror, al Qaida, foreign policy on March 11th, 2010
The very nature of terror is best explained by the various elements of it’s definition: a state of intense fear, often intentionally induced in a population by the actions of others for political purposes.
The present War on Terror, as it has come to be labeled, was initiated by Al Qaeda with the first bombings of the World Trade Center in 1993, and culminated in the final attacks and destruction of those buildings on 9/11. The ends of those attacks were achieved in that Americans have now lived in a state of persistent and intense fear going on for nine consecutive years.
The subsequent failures to complete additional terrorists attacks on the United States since 9/11 are not near as important as the mere affect that those attempts have on the psyche of the American public. After all, the achievement of the singular objective of creating terror does not require that anyone be killed or maimed. To the contrary. In fact, it is simply the capacity to maintain a steady level of an intense feeling that the potential for harm is always present in our minds that determines the success of Al Qaeda. In that sense, they have certainly surpassed their expectations.
Even more important to the goals of Al Qaeda is the general breakdown of the civil, political and economic fabric of America. To the extent that those elements of our social structure begin to crumble and dissolve into complete turmoil as a result of the fear that has been instilled in us, the greater the degree of success the terrorists will have achieved in reaching those goals. Once again, on that basis, the terrorists are achieving their objectives.
As we bear witness to the daily political and psychological assaults on our fellow Americans by others who pretend that they are somehow more patriotic and superior because of their personal philosophies, we should stop and ask ourselves these questions:
First - to what extent do these unwarranted criticisms of the patriotism of other Americans merely increase our fear of terrorism?
Second – to what degree do these personal attacks on other Americans tear at the fabric of our social and political structure, thereby inadvertently facilitating the goals of the terrorists?
Finally – does wrapping oneself in the American Flag make you anymore American than others?
I think most of us know the answer.
Can Liz Cheney Really Keep America Safe?
Posted by Lance Haley in 9/11, Conservatives, Crime & Punishment, Dick Cheney, Fox News, Legal & Justice, Media & Communication, National Security, Politics, War in Afghanistan, War on Terror, al Qaida, foreign policy on March 11th, 2010
ATTICUS FINCH (Gregory Peck) in “TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD”
Hardly!
Why? Because she advocates the use of fear that rises to the level of McCarthyism, as demonstrated in the recent video released by her political organization, Keep America Safe.
A significant number of well-respected Conservatives have deeply criticized the video’s characterization of current Justice Department lawyers as Un-American because of their previous legal representation of suspected terrorist detainees. One of the greatest callings in the American legal system is defending both the unpopular and the guilty. This role is epitomized by the lawyer Atticus Finch in the movie “To Kill a Mockingbird“, rated as the best courtroom movie of all time by the American Film Institute.
Liz Cheney is a lawyer. If she attended her classes in law school, she should have a basic understanding of the Constitution and U.S. Supreme Court precedent, as well as the principles of American Jurisprudence, all of which ensure due process for everyone who is charged with a violation of the laws of the United States, regardless of citizenship. Her failure to grasp those most fundamental principles of the American justice system only further undermines any semblance of credibility regarding her legal or political opinion.
One of her former law professors, the esteemed Richard A. Epstein, of the University of Chicago School of Law. said it best: “There’s something truly bizarre about this.” Which only begs the question: Is she a moron, or just pathologically shameless and void of any conscience? Maybe it runs in the family?
Most importantly, however, is the real reason why Liz Cheney cannot “Keep America Safe”.
If she relies on the argument that America was much safer from an attack by terrorists during her father’s tenure with the Bush Administration, one need look no further than the Presidential Daily Brief of August 6, 2001, titled “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.”, in order to completely discredit this notion. Her father publicly admitted in May of 2002 on Fox News that he read the brief, and then attempted in vain to dismiss it’s warnings as inconclusive, while simultanously advocating that the brief not be released for public disclosure. Interesting . . .
As this author has pointed out in the post titled “Failing to Connect the Dots: The Lights Were Blinking Red“, that evidence is the most damning indictment of Dick Cheney’s part in the collective negligence of the Bush Administration’s failure to prevent the attacks on 9/11. No wonder he did not want you to read it’s contents. To compound matters even further was their colossal failure to capture or kill Osama bin Laden at the battle of Tora Bora, Afghanistan in December of 2001. Simply put, Dick Cheney obviously has no valid standing to criticize the Obama Administration’s policies regarding terrorism and the prosecution of terrorists.
By extension, as well as by her own volition, neither does Liz Cheney.
Case closed.