Powell Has Praise for Obama – New York Times:
“‘I thought that Senator Obama handled the issue well,’ Mr. Powell told ABC’s ‘Good Morning America.’ ‘He didn’t abandon the minister that brought him closer to his faith, but at the same time he deplored the kinds of statements that the Reverend Wright had made.’”
(Via NY Times.)
I wonder with the hit job on Rev. Wright and his church, if Powell’s statement will have an effect.
Cheney, others OK’d harsh interrogations – Yahoo! News:
“Bush administration officials from Vice President Dick Cheney on down signed off on using harsh interrogation techniques against suspected terrorists after asking the Justice Department to endorse their legality, The Associated Press has learned.
The officials also took care to insulate President Bush from a series of meetings where CIA interrogation methods, including waterboarding, which simulates drowning, were discussed and ultimately approved.”
(Via Yahoo! News.)
I actually saw this on The West Wing. General would fall on his sword if Bartlett’s assassination of a terrorist is found out. Great drama, but highly disturbing in real life. It’s always easy to go along when they aren’t coming for you. That’s why we have to stand up against torture regardless of whose the target. Even if you have no morals whatsoever the poem First they came… provides good enough reason to do so. Ashcroft’s quote at the end of the story is great.
“Why are we talking about this in the White House?” the network quoted Ashcroft as saying during one meeting. “History will not judge this kindly.”
“In Eugene, Ore., Saturday. Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., attempted to change the measure by which anyone might assess who criticized the Iraq war first, her or Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., by saying those keeping records should start in January 2005, when Obama joined the Senate. (A measure that conveniently avoids her October 2002 vote to authorize use of force against Iraq at a time that Obama was speaking out against the war.) She claimed that using that measure, she criticized the war in Iraq before Obama did.
But Clinton’s claim was false.”
(Via Political Punch.)
Is it me or is Hillary turning into George Bush in Democrat drag? This isn’t even a clever misleading lie half-truth. It’s an easy fact check call. Wow. Talk about looking desperate.
Heavy Troop Deployments Are Called Major Risk – washingtonpost.com:
“Senior Army and Marine Corps leaders said yesterday that the increase of more than 30,000 troops in Iraq and Afghanistan has put unsustainable levels of stress on U.S. ground forces and has put their readiness to fight other conflicts at the lowest level in years.”
(Via The Washington Post.)
What are you left with when you kill the goose to get more and more of those golden eggs?
AlterNet: The Top 10 Myths Keeping Hillary in the Race:
“Myth: Well, I say they are disenfranchised, and Hillary Clinton is their champion.
Only when it suits her. Last fall, when the decision was first made to flush 100% of Michigan and Florida delegates, Clinton firmly ratified it.”
(Via AlterNet.org.)
Usually, I’m not a fan of AlterNet’s writers. So liberal, they lose touch with reality a bit too often for my taste, but this piece was amusing with a good ol’ fashioned sprinkling of—gasp!—facts thrown in!
(Via The Huffington Post.)
If Hillary misspoke, how can you misspeak in a book? How do you misspeak repeatedly? I don’t think I’d ever forget, misremember being shot at, ever.
My problem isn’t that she did the ol’ resumé puff up. After all, she is trying to sell herself to us voters by the very definition of political candidate. I expect puffery and I’ll even tolerate a small fish story here and there. But this is about substantiating her central claim to in her own words, “crossing the commander-in-chief threshold.” She has repeatedly belittled Obama on this score. My take: you live by the sword, you die by the sword. Her experience warrants scrutiny and if it is found lacking, whether because of lies, misspeaking, or faulty memory, it’s still lacking.
University of Chicago: Obama was a ‘professor’:
“The [Clinton] campaign also sent out a press release quoting a 2004 Chicago Sun-Times column that stated of Obama’s professor claim: ‘Several direct-mail pieces issued for Obama’s primary campaign said he was a law professor at the University of Chicago. He is not. He is a senior lecturer (now on leave) at the school. In academia, there is a vast difference between the two titles. Details matter.’
But in a statement, the university said its senior lecturers are considered professors.”
(Via CNN Political Ticker.)
Yes Hillary, details do in fact matter.
Colmes speaks to a mixed-race couple about Rev. Wright and the media smear of Obama.
What happens when the little guy gets a voice in politics. Wow. For the first time in my adult life I’m proud of my country! 😉
UPDATE:
Crazy!
msnbc.com video: Obama on the economy:
(Via MSNBC.com.)
Wages and incomes for middle class America have been flat for far longer than Obama intimated. In real dollar terms, they’ve been stagnant for decades where the top earners’ incomes shares of national income have quintupled. So in terms of basic fairness and even sound long term economics, you’ve got to pay the piper. Rich folk: do you want to be pigs who get fat or hogs who get slaughtered?
