Sounds like something you would expect from Chicago back in the 60’s. But no, this is Denver in 2008.
Police in Denver arrested an ABC News producer today as he and a camera crew were attempting to take pictures on a public sidewalk of Democratic senators and VIP donors leaving a private meeting at the Brown Palace Hotel.
Oh. Where’s the ACLU when you need them?
link: ABC Reporter Arrested in Denver Taking Pictures of Senators, Big Donors
Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) chooses Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) to be his Vice Presidential running mate, adding gravitas to the ticket that needs it. Of course, the absence of the use of the word gravitas in the context of the Obama campaign is perhaps the most ignored story of the year.
Not sure how a 36 year veteran of the Senate represents ‘change we can believe in.’
The choice of Biden, who has served in the Senate since 1972, indicates Obama was more interested in filling gaps in his foreign policy experience than in finding someone who could reinforce his message of bringing change to Washington.
What it is, is a continuation of an empty suit running to be President and Commander In Chief.
related link: Barack Obama Picks His Cabinet | Obama picks Senate veteran Biden as running mate
The Russian invasion of the sovereign State of Georgia exposed just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the capacity and capability of the rookie, Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), to protect and defend the interests of the United States.
So when Obama’s first reaction to Russia’s military invasion of Georgia was wishy washy, and over the course of three days evolved into something more like John McCain’s (and my) reaction on day one, you have to grade Obama’s ‘3a.m. phone call’ with an F.
Does Obama’s grasp, or lack thereof, of Russian and European conditions make you feel secure? Electing Obama is really electing his hundreds of advisers that tell him what to do and how to react, because he has no clue.
Monica Crowley writes about Obama’s foreign relations experience. How’s this for the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s Subcommittee on European Affairs? Have you seen this reported anywhere?
Obama’s utter lack of experience and even interest in Russia and its “near abroad” has surfaced in two ways.
First, he took a trip to Russia in 2005 in order to talk to Vladimir Putin about decommissioning Russian nuclear weapons. The Kremlin is still laughing at that one. Of course, that doesn’t stop Obama from wanting to decommission AMERICA’S nuclear arsenal. To set an example, of course. More laughter from Moscow.
Second, for the past year and a half, Obama has been the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s Subcommittee on European Affairs. And guess what? He’s never held a policy hearing. No meetings, no witnesses, no testimony, no nothing. This is why Obama himself is a “know-nothing” on what is turning out to be a central issue for the United States, our allies, and for the campaign. But Senator Clueless never bothered to take an interest in Europe or Russia. He just wants your kids to speak Spanish and for you to refrain from visiting Europe to keep our “ugly American” quotient down.
Then there is this short list in experience compared to McCain, for the one campaigning to become Commander In Chief. Military: McCain 26 years, Obama 0. Congress: McCain 22 years, Obama 143 days.
related links: Monica Crowley, Senator Clueless | Russia Chooses War Over Diplomacy
You gotta love this. If they would ever see it, it would just drive the environmental wackos (you know who you are) nuts. Did you know that it is greener to burn our fossil fuels than to produce and burn biofuels? I think this would be a hard sell to Robert Kennedy Jr. but if it’s the environment that we’re trying to impact less, then we need to get serious about actually getting more of our own oil and gas so we can be less dependent on foreign suppliers. All in one fell swoop we could increase our national security, lower the price of gasoline at the pump, and help the environment. It’s a win win win.
Increasing production of biofuels to combat climate change will release between two and nine times more carbon gases over the next 30 years than fossil fuels, according to the first comprehensive analysis of emissions from biofuels.
Biofuels look good in climate change terms from a Western perspective, said Dr Spracklen, but globally they actually lead to higher carbon emissions.
The reason is that producing biofuel is not a “green process”. It requires tractors and fertilizers and land, all of which means burning fossil fuels to make “green” fuel. In the case of bioethanol produced from corn – an alternative to oil – “it’s essentially a zero-sums game.”
NewsBusters: New Study Recommends Against Burning Biofuels to Solve Global Warming
Will be interesting to see what play, if any, this gets in your mainstream media. And I wouldn’t hold my breath for Kennedy to get on board either. Not with BIG OIL.
h/t Amy Ridenour’s National Center Blog
editor’s note: Some things are worth repeating, especially when the MSM doesn’t adequately cover them. This post was originally posted 8/23/07.
Friday afternoon, if you haven’t noticed, is when bad news tends to be released. Most people, the guilty hopes, will be concentrating on other things. And, if it is political in nature and about a democrat, the media may just overlook it as well. That is why Friday is a good time to pay close attention to the news.
Today’s news is from former Sen. John Edwards (D-NC), former presidential candidate and potential VP choice for Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), finally coming out and admitting that the long ignored and discredited story by the National Enquirer was true. Well, except that he is denying that he is the baby daddy of the child born Feb 27, 2008.
No longer can the affair be blamed on right-wing kooks spreading lies printed by the National Enquirer. Although that generally goes hand in hand with the media blackout on this subject. John Edwards will be on Nightline tonight to talk on the subject. Edwards is counting on you watching the Olympics.
UPDATE 8/8/08: Saw the interview. Edwards said that Ms. Hunter’s 6 month old baby was not his. Although Edwards said he would submit to a paternity test, it became apparent that Hunter probably would not. Curiously enough, Terry Moran failed to ask him whether he ever asked Ms. Hunter who the baby daddy was.
UPDATE 8/10/08: Edwards’ ex-mistress nixes paternity test
links: John Edwards Out Of VP Consideration | Sen. John Edwards Caught With Mistress And Love Child! | Edwards admits to affair, denies fathering child
Unless you’ve been incommunicado over the last two days, you know all the press being generated because the man who is running to be Commander in Chief chose not to visit injured soldiers in the largest military hospital outside of the United States. That would be the military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany. He also cancelled a trip to the Ramstein Air Base in Germany. The latter of which didn’t get as much coverage.
Obama’s behavior, and excuse for not visiting our (and his) troops there is quite upsetting to us here in the United States. Is there any curiosity to find out whether the troops in Germany care? My guess is that, on the whole, they are glad that he didn’t go.
Under most circumstances, if you’re a married man having a ‘meeting’ with a single woman at the Beverly Hilton hotel in Los Angeles, you would have no chance for consideration to be Barack Obama’s running mate. Emphasis on ‘under most circumstances.’ For Bill Clinton, a little extramarital affair was a resume enhancement. But I don’t think that Clinton’s ‘pass’ will pass on to former senator John Edwards.
As always, you have to consider the source. OK, it is the National Enquirer. After that, you have to consider that they caught Edwards cold, down to the room numbers rented, who was in them, how both Edwards and Hunter got there, and how they left the hotel, and who drove them.
There is no evidence of what went on in the room between John Edwards and Rielle Hunter. After all, they could have been watching Keith Olbermann on TV. He could say ‘I did not have sex with that woman, Ms. Hunter,’ and everything would be OK. But he is not saying a word about it to reporters. Edwards was in the room from 9:45 p.m. Pacific time last Monday until 2:40 a.m. Tuesday.
His leaving was more like an escape than anything else. And there were plenty of witnesses that were not employees of the tabloid.
Knowing he had been caught, Edwards did not leave through the lobby. He went down a stairwell and into a bathroom, possibly to comb his hair. Or maybe to call hotel security to escort him out of there without the reporters all over him. Security did go down there and he was escorted out. Coincidence?
You haven’t seen a word about this little adventure in the mainstream media have you? It is in the undernews media and the blogosphere. And the Obama campaign is aware of it. One thing is for sure, he isn’t on Obama’s short list for Vice-President any more.
related link: John Edwards Love Child | Sen. John Edwards Caught With Mistress And Love Child!
Like what happened in Oregon a few months ago, which was also ignored by the media, the crowd of over 100,000 young people in Berlin today were there because of a day and night of rock concerts more than they were there to see Barack Obama. al-AP describes it this way . . .
Police estimated that more than 200,000 people came to watch the speech, according to The Associated Press.
Oddly enough, the estimates of the size of the crowd varies from between 100,000 and 200,000. I guess it depends on who you want to credit with the turnout, the concert performers or the American political performer, Barack Obama.
Wolf Blitzer’s report on the ‘Situation Room’ said that the crowd was there to see Barack. The truth is that they had no choice but to sit through Barack’s performance. Got to give his campaign credit for the image that the pictures of the crowd create, disingenuous as it is. Trouble with all that is, Barack isn’t running for German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s job.
related link: CNN
But that’s never stopped him before. On MSNBC’s Morning Joe show this morning, former Ambassador to the U.N. Richard Holbrooke perpetuates the media spin about Iraqi PM alMaliki and the timetable and McCain. In speaking about Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), Holebrooke portrays McCain as being at odds with both Bush and alMaliki regarding a timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq when they are all, in fact, on the same page.
The reality is that the timetable the three are in agreement with is more Table than Time, based on progress on the ground and political progress in Baghdad, not on the calendar. They next interviewed Andy Card, former Chief of Staff for Bush, who corrected Holebrooke’s spin. And much to their amusement, Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski laughed at him.
What is most amusing, or disturbing, about the hosts on the show, Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, is that they could not discern the difference between the two.
related link: Iraq’s Timetable Is More Table Than Time
Stocks tumble in the race industry. Jesse Jackson’s stock that is. Affectionately called America’s beloved race
pimp, the good Rev. Jackson took issue with first-term Sen. Barack Obama’s speech to a Black audience. It was a speech that was much the same as what Bill Cosby had said years ago. Fox has not released the transcript, but did say Jackson’s comment had to do with Obama telling them ‘how to behave.’
According to Fox, Jackson was referring to the audience in using the N-word. Jackson, like any entrepreneur, is seeing a rookie threaten his market share in the race business by making him irrelevant. And when you consider that Jackson is out for Jackson, and not Blacks, something like ‘Listen to him, he’s telling those n_____s how to behave’ would be a believable statement coming from Rev. Jackson.
One can’t rule out some personal animosity where Obama is concerned either. Obama, as far as we know, has not had a love child outside of his marriage like Rev. Jackson. In that respect, Obama is head and shoulders above Jackson.
About a year ago, Jesse Jackson and the NAACP buried the N-word in a mock funeral in Detroit. Now Rev. Jackson has resurrected it. But will he get the same treatment as Don Imus, Michael Richards, or George Allen?
Fox news showed great editorial restraint in not publishing the transcript. Their rationale is they can get the news out of the recording, which is Jackson’s hypocrisy and contempt for Blacks, without having to release the recording or the transcript.
Who thinks that the New York Times would have chosen that route if the offender was a republican, white or black? My guess is that there wouldn’t be anything else on the news until the guy was driven out of his job, if not charged with a hate crime. Or both.
related links:His Obama trauma speaks volumes about Jackson | Fox: Jackson used N-word in crude off-air remarks | NAACP delegates ‘bury’ N-word in ceremony | Jesse Jackson admits love child