U.S. Representative Vito Fossella -- the only Republican Congressman now representing New York City -- has had a monkey wrench thrown in his November 2008 reelection bid. It's not the fact that he has been arrested for DUI, or his disclosure of an extra-marital affair, or his confession to fathering a lovechild: it's the rank hypocrisy of another anti-choice, anti-gay "family values" Republican who has opposed women's reproductive freedom and attacked gay rights with smug talk of "the sanctity of marriage". It's the double standard of a conservative Congressman who voted to impeach President Bill Clinton for having an extra-marital affair. And in this hypocrisy, Mr. Fossella joins a long line of Republican double-talkers, including Senator John McCain.
President Bill Clinton has made another blunder on the campaign trail -- playing the victim card and making exaggerated and inaccurate statements while sticking up for his wife and her fact-challenged tale of Bosnian sniper fire. And he did so on camera, injecting his own bluster and bogus claims, just when the story had started to die down.
During campaign stops in Jasper and Boonville, Indiana, yesterday, Mr. Clinton told voters that his wife had -- just once -- "misstated" the circumstances of her 1996 Bosnia trip, attributing her Tuzla tale of dodging sniper fire to exhaustion. And instead of holding his wife accountable, he castigated the press for overreacting to her inaccurate account.
First, let's go to the videotape. Then let's go over just how many facts Mr. Clinton plowed over in his blundering defense of his wife.
Like a carny barker hawking geek shows, peek shows, freak shows, and funhouse tickets, Vets for Freedom Executive Director Pete Hegseth patters for the Bush/McCain surge propaganda roadshow. When he's unchallenged and uninterrupted, and the rubes are all quiet and mesmerized, he's very slick. Hegseth is a veteran who served in the 101st Airborne Division in Iraq. He's a TV-ready pitchman who wears a shiny flag pin on his lapel; and he is fully committed to holding the Bush/McCain line against all facts and reason.
Last night, he met his match on MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews, as he faced off and fell flat at the feet of a VoteVets.org co-founder and Iraq War veteran Jon Soltz. Soltz launched into a salvo of history and histrionics that collapsed Hegseth's calm composure and trashed his talking points. When Hegseth praised the success of the surge, Soltz called it a huge failure that represented nothing more than a bugle sounding a retreat from the real culprit on the real front lines of the war on terror: Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan.
Then, when Hegseth tried to recover, Soltz turned into the heckler from heck, interjecting more facts and logic and refusing to be talked over or cut off, even by leather-lunged Matthews.
This morning, Senator Hillary Clinton's campaign called on Senator Barack Obama to release all documents related to his 2005 purchase of a home adjacent to land owned by Tony Rezko. The Obama campaign's response -- we did that already -- was swift and hard, and turned the tables on Clinton.
Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor teed up the issue as one of disinformation and blatant hypocrisy.
The enormity of the White House scandal that broke in the blogosphere last Friday, and resulted in the same-day resignation of President George W. Bush's longtime aide Tim Goeglein, has yet to be revealed.
What is at stake is not merely the reputation of Bush's former gatekeeper to the religious right, but four million evangelical votes.
By Karl Rove's calculation, Bush won 15 million out of 19 million evangelical votes in 2000. Rove correctly reasoned that targeting those extra four million votes would be key to winning Bush a second term in 2004. These are votes which, if not secured by the GOP in 2008, could cost the election of its presumptive nominee, Senator John McCain. These are votes that in 2004 and in 2008, Bush and Rove had personally entrusted Goeglein to shepherd. Now that Rove and his right-hand man, Goeglein, have both quit the White House, there is no shepherd to keep these four million evangelical voters in the fold.
VoteVets.org co-founder Jon Soltz has just provided a roadmap to dismantling rightwing talking points and holding Senator John McCain accountable on the Iraq War. Soltz, who served in Iraq and Kosovo, debated HumanEvents.com's Ericka Anderson in a segment hosted by MSNBC's Norah O'Donnell. This is must-see TV because it offers a preview of how the majority of voters who seek to end the Iraq War can effectively frame the issues and priorities in the coming presidential contest. To view the MSNBC segment, click here.
In this bit of earned media coverage, VoteVets is raising issues and concerns of troops and veterans in a brave, blunt way. In short, Soltz accuses McCain of failing America by following Bush's failed policy of retreat from Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan.
When Senator Barack Obama denounced Louis Farrakhan, he publicly deplored anti-Semitic statements by the Nation of Islam leader. Senator Hillary Clinton chided Obama during the Ohio debate for not rejecting Farrakhan as well as denouncing him. Obama said that there is little distinction between denunciation and rejection. Clinton said that he was wrong; rejection, in her estimation, seemed even stronger. Ultimately, Obama graciously conceded the point and said that he both rejected and denounced Farrakhan.
In a late night rally on February 4, 2008, Senator Barack Obama returned to Boston, the city where four years ago his political career soared to national prominence when he spoke at the Democratic National Convention.
At a downtown convention hall on the eve of Super Tuesday, Obama electrified a capacity crowd of nine thousand. This was no mean feat, considering that many in the crowd had already stood on their feet for five hours outside the World Trade Center, patiently waiting in a line that stretched for many blocks through the streets of South Boston.
Boston, Mass., January 8, 2008 – The hotly-anticipated Christopher Curtiss Hutson, released on schedule at 2:57 p.m. today at Brigham And Women’s Hospital in Boston, offers an impressive update to the lovable Christopher Hutson line of American boys.
"Sweetie, you're finally here!" exclaimed Betsy Bury, a New Mama for Obama. "And you're so big and sturdy!"
This is my personal perspective on a breaking story about Fox News commentator Bill O'Reilly manhandling a campaign worker at a rally for Senator Barack Obama in Nashua, New Hampshire today. (Hat tip to icebergslim.)
Over 200 individuals applied for media passes to cover the rally for Senator Obama today. Among them were Bill O'Reilly and me, a photo blogger covering the event in my personal diaries on Daily Kos and BlueHampshire. (Hat tip to the Obama campaign for graciously offering access to bloggers as well as blowhards.)
The press pass came with a few reasonable conditions. Media presets were to be from 8:30 to 9:00 a.m. This means that camera equipment had to be set up before 9:00 a.m. in order to allow the Secret Service to sweep for bombs. All media representatives were required to vacate the gymnasium until the doors opened at 10:00 a.m. I showed up at 8:15 a.m., set up my tripod, and enjoyed a cup of Dunkin Donuts coffee provided by the campaign. O'Reilly blew off the preset, then marched into the rally midway, after other broadcast crews and still photographers had already established their camera positions.
CBS officials have quietly issued a recall of a best-selling holiday toy, but have so far failed to use their mighty megaphone to actually inform consumers that there is a recall, or how to pursue a refund.
Facing a storm of bad publicity, legal action, and government intervention, CBS has reportedly bowed to pressure from public health advocates and, after a delay of over three weeks, issued a quiet recall of its "CSI" Fingerprint Kit, after three independent labs confirmed that the best-selling holiday toy contains deadly asbestos. CBS Broadcasting has asked that all "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation Fingerprint Examination Kits" and "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation Field Kits" be pulled off toy store shelves nationwide. The toy is made in China, where many other recently recalled toys have been manufactured.
Now that Iowa's most widely read newspaper has delivered its highly anticipated endorsement -- giving the nod in the Democratic presidential primary to Senator Hillary Clinton -- there's a new game: arguing over what this endorsement means.
Democratic candidates and their representatives have courted and coveted the Des Moines Register's endorsement through personal visits, telephone calls, and written messages. Members of the newspaper's editorial board have interviewed candidates, pored over position papers, and digested books by or about the candidates.
But it remains to be seen whether the Register, Iowa's statewide newspaper of record, will be a kingmaker (or queenmaker). What do you believe will be the likely impact in the 2007 primary of this highly sought endorsement? What's your opinion of how this will affect key aspects of campaigning, such as publicity, media spin, fundraising, and get-out-the-vote efforts? And, in the end, will this endorsement deliver enough votes to change the outcome in Iowa?
Your immediate action can help convince CBS to swiftly recall a toxic toy that contains deadly asbestos but that is being sold nationwide this holiday season.
An independent laboratory testing for the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO) found tremolite -- a deadly form of asbestos -- in the toy fingerprint powder in the "CSI: Crime Scene InvestigationTM Fingerprint Examination Kit." Although ADAO announced the test results more than two weeks ago, on November 28, the toy -- made in China -- remains on toy shelves across the country and is still available online. The fingerprint kit is one of this holiday season's biggest sellers, according to a November 27 Seattle Post Intelligencer report by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Andrew Schneider.
Among the 8,500 people who came to hear Oprah Winfrey and rally for Senator Barack Obama at 6:30 p.m. on December 10, 2007 in Manchester, New Hampshire, who showed up earliest?
At 12:30 p.m., three intrepid seniors from Newburyport High School in Massachusetts arrived to set up camp outside the doors of the Verizon Wireless Arena. Amber Hewett, Kate Getz, and Adrienne Caesar claimed the first spots in the waiting line. It was their first Obama rally, and they look forward to voting for Obama in their first presidential election. What issues are most important to them?
"Global warming is a big issue," said Amber. "I want to major in environmental policy."
"I care about how the world views us in terms of foreign policy," said Kate.
How do they assess Obama's character? "He's an eloquent speaker, and optimistic," said Adrienne. "He speaks to hope."
Across the ideological spectrum, only one presidential candidate has identified in black-and-white terms the "actual and potential terrorists" who are destroying America. That candidate is Ron Paul (R).
Among those who aspire to the White House, only Paul has informed his closest supporters that "our country is being destroyed by a group of actual and potential terrorists -- and they can be identified by the color of their skin." [FN 1]
Paul published a newsletter that issued those words under his byline. He has also taken "moral responsibility" for those words. Yet nine years later, Paul blamed an unnamed staffer for writing them, and claimed that it would have been "too confusing" for him to denounce those words when they were first mailed to his supporters in the column under his byline in the Ron Paul Political Report in 1992.
Either Paul was lying when he admitted to writing those words, or he was telling a belated and convenient lie when he claimed that they were ghost written by an unnamed staffer. Either way, Paul is a liar. Further, he has repeatedly refused media requests to release all of his newsletters. (Paul published the Ron Paul Political Report from 1985 to 1992, then changed the newsletter's name to the Ron Paul Survival Report in 1993.)
The final score: The Boston Red Sox swept the World Series with a 4-3 victory in Game 4 against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field in Denver.
Since the comments in the first thread have surpassed 400, this is a new thread to continue the trash talk informed analysis of every pitch, hit, and play of Game 4 with your fellow Kossacks. Thanks to Eddie in ME for starting up the live blog for Game 4, and thanks to DemFromCT for front-paging it. Thanks also to dsmilev for continuing this thread in the bottom of the ninth inning, here.
Much as it pains me (I'm no Rudy Giuliani turncoat pandering weasel ferret; I'm a Yankees fan who knows how to lose graciously), give the Red Sox their due and watch the game. -DemFromCT
For anyone who's watching Game 3, here's a live blog.
Before Game 3, the Rockies were down 2-0 in their first World Series. But the Red Sox are playing at high altitude at Coors Field in Colorado. The Red Sox are going with David Ortiz ("Big Papi") at first base. [Update: After Ortiz struck out twice, Youkilis replaced him at first base.] If the Sox win, they will be just one win away from becoming champions again.
Discuss every pitch, hit and play of Game 3 with your fellow Kossacks.
Only rules: every time Fox announcers mention Big Papi playing first base, take a drink. Every time they mention Big Papi's knee, same thing. Every time they mention the DH rule, you know what to do.
Oh, and go Sox!
FINAL SCORE: Sox win 10-5. After the Sox had led 6-0, the Rockies battled for a comeback. But the Sox out-pitched and out-hit the Rockies, who now have their backs to the wall, since they're 3-0 in the series. Game 4 begins tomorrow at Coors Field.
This photo blog contains many cute -- some would say adorable -- photos of kids on the campaign trail: you have been warned.
Senator Barack Obama's wife Michelle and their daughters Malia, 9, and Sasha, 6, were warmly received as they greeted voters at a children's fair today in Londonderry, New Hampshire. Mack's Apples -- a pick-your-own apple orchard and pumpkin patch -- hosted the family event, along with Congressman Paul Hodes (D-NH), who has endorsed Obama.
While children had their faces painted, ate slices of freshly picked Golden Delicious and Rome apples, and joined in a sing-along, parents politicked on issues of health care, education, jobs, and peace. The highlight of the event was a keynote address by Michelle, who touched on all these issues, but also offered voters some insight into her family life. She talked about her father, a blue collar worker who saved to send her to Princeton and Harvard Law. And she talked about her husband's love of family.
CBS officials have quietly issued a recall of a best-selling holiday toy, but have so far failed to use their mighty megaphone to actually inform consumers that there is a recall, or how to pursue a refund.
Now that Iowa's most widely read newspaper has delivered its highly anticipated endorsement -- giving the nod in the Democratic presidential primary to Senator Hillary Clinton -- there's a new game: arguing over what this endorsement means.
Your immediate action can help convince CBS to swiftly recall a toxic toy that contains deadly asbestos but that is being sold nationwide this holiday season.
