Category Archives: Politics

2008 Election, Media, MRIOTD, Politics

Sen. Barack Obama Making Picks

Keeping to his apparent knack1 to be first to speak on a subject like working with ‘the other side of the aisle,’ Obama names some republicans he says he can work with. It also, with the media’s help, allows him to be the one driving the campaign. Making the rest respond to him.

Among the Republicans he would seek help from are Sens.Richard Lugar of Indiana, John Warner of Virginia and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, Obama said.

His choices of republicans would not be mine, and take Arlen Specter (R-PA), please! But can you even begin to imagine what an Obama Cabinet would look like? Now there’s a scary thought.

Also at the same stump stop in affluent Key Biscayne, Florida, and qualifying for the most ridiculous item of the day, Obama said this . . .

Part of Washington’s problem is that President Bush has created a partisan atmosphere, he said.

Secretaries of Defense, Interior, State, Energy, Education. If he holds true to form, he should be naming these picks sometime next week. As much as I’d like to see him do that, it isn’t going to happen. If it does, he will be the one on defense, and it will be the beginning of the ending of his presidential aspirations for ’08 at the very least.

1 Attack our ally, nukes are off the table.

2008 Election, Politics, Uncategorized

DNC May Blank Florida For ‘08 Convention

Howard Dean and the DNC would consider denying Florida slots at their ’08 presidential national convention. Its tantamount to not having a vote because that would be the result. Funny what happens to the democratic process when political pressure comes from the bottom up. Howard Dean likes it the other way around. Our Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) is all but threatening to sue.

This is all interesting to witness. I don’t recall ever seeing something like this happen before and am not sure exactly what the problem is, from a Joe citizen’s point of view. And of course, Republicans will be accused of creating the whole debacle “To sow discord and frustration among Florida Democrats and dampen Democratic turnout for a property tax ballot initiative that could drastically affect funding for education and public safety.” That according to The Campaign Manager blog. But if it isn’t the way Dean wants it then it probably isn’t the way that his donors and other special interest groups (the net-roots, or nut-roots) want. Of that you can be sure.

update: The DNC tonight did it. Florida will lose all its delegates unless they push back their primary date by at least one week.

Media, Politics

Fossil Fuels Out-Green Biofuels

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

Politics, War On Terror

And Then There’s Pakistan

In a geopolitical sense, I don’t think there has been a more sensitive time with so much at stake. Like in Pakistan for example. A nuclear (bomb) power. President Gen. Pervez Musharraf is not popular and both the good guys and the bad guys want him gone, one way or the other, depending on the critic.

2008 Election, MRIOTD, Politics

Stupidest Question Ever

Especially for a man who wants to be President and change the health care system in the country. At a Democrat debate over the weekend, John Edwards took a question whether he liked the Cuban model of health care. His response . . .

ABC News’ Rick Klein reports, “When an Iowa resident asked former Senator John Edwards whether the US should follow the Cuban health care model, Edwards deflected the question, saying he didn’t know enough to answer it.” The Breck Girl said, “Well, I’m going to be honest with you, I don’t know a lot about Cuba’s health care system. Is it a government-run system?”

Is the Cuban governments health care system run by the government? Fidel Castro’s Cuba? Forget about how to spell potato(e). Wonder what his wife will say in defense of such a stupid statement?

Media, Politics, Russia, Uncategorized

Desperate Socialists

And socialism marches on, speaking about the dictator in Venezuela, President Hugo Chavez. Affectionately called here the hemisphere’s idiot. Now he is clearing way to be president for life, ending term limits for himself by changing the constitution he made in 1999. The changes . . .

would strip the Central Bank of all autonomy, allowing the government to spend the country’s foreign reserves. The government would be given power to expropriate private property by decree, and to promote co-operatives and state enterprise.

State governors and mayors will still be subject to term limits—otherwise they might become caudillos, Mr Chávez said recently, without irony. They will be sidelined by new communal councils, dependent on the presidency. Another proposal is to reduce the maximum working day to six hours. “Now we are headed straight towards socialism,” Mr Chávez said. But first the plans must be approved by referendum.

Chavez has come a long way since the corrupted election that put him in office. Jimmy Carter will tell you how corrupt it was, even though he didn’t have the courage to tell the Venezuelan people and the U.N. the truth about it at the time he was ‘overseeing’ it. He took it upon himself to deceive the entire country. But that’s another story. So, one would expect this referendum to pass with a 99 % majority.

Here’s Chavez record on freedom. In his own words. . .

“We have broken the chains of the old, exploitative capitalist system,” said Mr Chavez. “The state now has the obligation to build the model of a socialist economy.”

He has nationalized the oil and energy industries, same with the communications industry including the press and on-air broadcast, put price controls in place on everything from food to fuel. No such thing as private property any more. The result is predictable, no food on the shelves, high (for them) fuel prices. A suppressed media that supports only the Chavez administration keeps the people ignorant and riled up.

Of course there’s no domestic media that considers this newsworthy. It’s the Desperate Socialists club of Chavez, Castro and Putin.

Media, Politics, War On Terror

War Coverage Down

Coverage by U.S. media of the Iraq war, war on terror, or whatever you want to call it, is down 7% to 15%, down from 22%. Could it be that good news isn’t news to the MSM? Its just another conflict with the their mission, which is to discredit the administration and the war. Reporting of any good news would not advance their position. Its just that simple.

Taken together, the war’s three major story lines — the U.S. policy debate, events in Iraq and their impact on the U.S. homefront — slipped roughly a third, to 15 percent of an index of total news coverage, down from 22 percent in the first three months of the year.

This doesn’t jibe with assertions by progressives that the Right controls the media. The truth seems otherwise.

2008 Election, Judiciary, Politics, Supreme Court

Way More Than The Lincoln Bedroom

Who believes that the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform Bill worked, that is, did it accomplish what it was intended to accomplish? Of course not, and right from the start. Now, how effective do you think the ethics legislation just passed is? More importantly, how can Nancy Pelosi claim this as historic legislation? Because she’s Nancy Pelosi of course. Take pay for access
for example.

In a day and at a time when political ethics issues cast a pall on Washington D.C. caused by ‘special interests’ that influence politicians with money (all out of the kindness of their shareholders’ heart), with NO expectation of government decisions favorable to their company, you might be surprised to hear about this. . .

The host committees of 2008’s biggest political gatherings are soliciting corporations, wealthy individuals and others with a lot at stake in government decisions for seven-figure payments. In exchange, the givers receive all sorts of goodies, including access to lawmakers and other politicians. The more money the donors spend, the more access they get.

A million or five will get you a good meal and some face-time with the man, or woman. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. It does raise money necessary to conduct a campaign. It just seems like campaign finance reform is the one thing that politicians really don’t want but say they do.

The premise that special interests, aka money, are corrupting the politicians and that laws need to be made to limit the money, totally misses the point. If anyone is corrupt, it is the politician that does a quid pro quo or who otherwise breaks the law in money laundering and/or takes bribes like William Jefferson (D-La) did. It’s not the donor, it’s what the recipient does. Don’t re-elect a crook.

IMHO McCain-Feingold should be repealed. Despite what the SCOTUS says, limiting political speech is unconstitutional. Besides, it doesn’t work anyway.

WaPo: Convention Party Favors Include Face Time