Posts from ‘June, 2008’

Gen. Wesley Clark questioned Sen. John McCain’s qualification to become president based on the senator’s military service and POW ordeal during an appearance on CBS’ “Face the Nation” yesterday, triggering an eruption of right-wing noise and faulty media reporting. Republican demagoguery and media slant are par for the course, but Sen. Barack Obama added an element of surprise by promptly disavowing what Clark said, cutting his supporter off at the knees. . .

As with so many things conservative Republican leaders promise and pursue in their own special way, real-world results are drastically different from what they led people to believe. . . . “Nearly 61% of local and state homeless coalitions say they’ve seen a rise in homelessness since the foreclosure crisis began in 2007, according to a study released in April by the National Coalition for the Homeless.”

What we obviously need, following the Supreme Court’s ruling in District of Columbia v. Heller, is a constitutional amendment declaring the National Guard and Reserve forces are the nation’s well-regulated militia, period. The court’s decision struck down a District of Columbia ban on handgun ownership. . .

Try to imagine it’s a few years into the Obama administration’s term and the State Department’s inspector general reports dozens of job applicants have been rejected for being Republican or having conservative leanings. Imagine the furor, with Rush Limbaugh, Michelle Malkin and the whole Faux News BS brigade screaming for heads to roll and indictments to be handed out. Their ire would be justified, because that discrimination not only violates department policy, it’s illegal. . .

Late in the 2004 presidential campaign, Osama bin Laden released one of his threatening videotapes, benefiting President Bush’s re-election campaign. Bush’s re-election, after all, would ensure the U.S. would stay bogged down in Iraq, grinding down its military, wasting its money and over time demoralizing the American people — just what al Qaeda wanted then and wants now. Such calculations aren’t lost on Sen. John McCain’s campaign this year, as made clear by one of his senior advisors, Charlie Black . . .

When, shortly after becoming the apparent Democratic presidential nominee, Obama ordered the Democratic National Committee to not accept donations from corporations, lobbyists and PACs — a complete departure from established practice — the media’s near silence was deafening. But this week, when Obama decided to forgo public financing for his general-election campaign, the Republican-friendly mainstream media couldn’t hammer him hard enough, fast enough. You’d think he’d named Jeremiah Wright as his running mate, or something. . .

McCain notes that while other countries have built nuclear reactors aplenty, the U.S. hasn’t added any since the 1970’s. That’s true but raises a question: If nuclear reactors are so great, why has the U.S. energy industry forsaken building them?

We’re hearing a lot of bluff, bloviating and election-year backbiting about our overpriced-petroleum problem, all coming from Republicans trying to exploit the situation for political gain. Air America’s Rachel Maddow spent a few quality minutes today methodically dismantling the “let’s drill our way out of this mess” nonsense President Bush and his budding clone, Sen. John McCain, are pushing, along with Republicans in Congress.

In today’s installment, McCain is for more offshore oil drilling. But before he was for more offshore drilling, McCain was against more offshore drilling . . .

Attacks are no doubt less frequent. The problem is that terrorizing people doesn’t require daily attacks, just the certainty there will be more attacks.

What gets to people beset by the terrorism of guerrilla warfare is randomness and the ongoing, never-ending fear that they, their loved ones or friends might be the next to be horribly injured or killed.