March 13, 2008
March 12, 2008
THE OTHER OBAMA
Obama and Me
It was the year 2000, and I was a young, hungry reporter in Chicago with a young, hungry state legislator on my speed dial
By Todd SpivaK
Published: February 28, 2008
It’s not quite eight in the morning, and Barack Obama is on the phone screaming at me. He liked the story I wrote about him a couple weeks ago, but not this garbage.
Months earlier, a reporter friend told me she overheard Obama call me an asshole at a political fund-raiser. Now here he is blasting me from hundreds of miles away for a story that just went online but hasn’t yet hit local newsstands.
It’s the first time I’ve ever heard him yell, and I’m trembling as I set down the phone. I sit frozen at my desk for several minutes, stunned.
Harriet Miers, You’ve Been Served!
Harriet Miers, You’ve Been Served!
Mon Mar 10, 2008 at 11:55:12 AM
Harriet Miers fought the law — and the lawmakers ain’t havin’ none of it, finally. Miers, the former White House counsel and Dallas city council member now keeping a chair warm as a partner at Locke Liddell & Sapp on Ross Avenue, is named in a federal lawsuit filed today by House Democrats tired of her dodging subpoenas issued by the U.S. House Judiciary Committee. Also named in the suit, which involves the U.S. Attorneys’ firings last year, is White House Chief of Josh Bolten.
Comments Off
BARACK OBAMA’S OWN WORDS
Barack Obama Running on his Religion
[IT WORKED FOR BUSH!]
During his triumphant campaign in South Carolina, Barack Obama distributed a flyer in which he announced the spiritual dimension of his mission, running as a “committed Christian.” This caused a certain amount of consternation on the secular left.
(more…)
David Sirota: The False Assumptions In the “Electability” Arguments
David Sirota, Credo Action, March 11, 2008
It seems the longer the presidential nominating contest goes on between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, the more idiotic the pontificating and candidate spinning – especially when it comes to the so-called “electability” argument.
The Clinton campaign, as exemplified by surrogate Gov. Ed Rendell (D-PA) this morning on Meet the Press when he said:
“She’s clearly the strongest candidate in the states that Democrats must win to have a chance. Look, it’s great that Barack Obama is doing wonderfully well in Wyoming and Utah and, and places like that, but there’s no chance we’re going to carry those states. Whether he gets 44 percent as opposed to 39 percent doesn’t matter, but we’re not going to carry those states. We do have a chance to carry the big four. We’ve got to in three of the big four. Hillary Clinton’s the strongest candidate to do that. That’s been proven by the voters in the–those states and hopefully by Pennsylvania as well.”
Let’s put aside the fact that the Clinton campaign is insulting the importance of a huge swath of the American heartland – a talking point that has been repeated throughout this campaign by Clinton surrogates. Let’s just take a look at the two questionable assumptions inherent in this “electability” claim.
Comments Off
March 11, 2008
McCain’s Next Big Test: Economics 101
Jonathan Martin, Politico, March 11, 2008
When the February jobs report came out on Friday, economists grimaced and Wall Street blanched.
John McCain, however, said the news was “not terrible” – and Democrats pounced.
“Once again, John McCain demonstrated just how little he understands about the economy,” the Democratic National Committee declared in an e-mail to reporters.
McCain suffered in the Democratic translation of his remarks at a campaign stop in Georgia, as he had acknowledged the jobs news was “not good” and was not terrible only because the overall unemployment rate didn’t rise.
But the broadside was yet another example of what is already among the most popular lines of Democratic attack against McCain: that the Arizona senator lacks expertise on the economy and will be uniquely vulnerable on what is shaping up to be the overarching domestic issue of the campaign.
ABOUT THAT CLICKING ON YOUR PHONE
The FBI is hell on catching HOOKERS and ANTI-WAR GRANNIES and locking them up.
To bad they aren’t as gung-ho on the war mongers and crooks in government.
Anyone remember OSAMA?
EXCERPT FROM AN ARTICLE THAT EVERYONE
WHO VALUES PRIVACY SHOULD READ;
So what does it take to be an Ericsson Spook?
Not much really. Unlike real spooks who put their lives on the line, these creeps work in the comfort of an office where they easily get lost in muddled thinking and on top of all that probably get paid more for only being able to read data logs. Thanks to the digital revolution and the paranoia from September 11th, telecommunications companies have this wonderful suite of software to track and record everything you do on a network (fixed line, mobile, radio, and internet). It’s so easy, here’s a brief rundown.
- Billing System
Also reveals who your contacts are, when you call them and how often. - Recording System
This simply records all your communications – voice, SMS/MMS, internet activity. It’s usually kept for a week unless other arrangements are made. Data can be “lifted” without anyone knowing about it. - Tracking System
This is a log of the base stations your mobile phone has binded to and with what strength. Using simple algebra can pinpoint your location reasonably accurately and also the route you have taken your phone. (I also read somewhere that satellites can track SIM cards, but I’m not yet convinced this is really plausible).And the little known sneaky systems - Hot Microphone
Some mobile phones allow the carrier to discreetly turn on their microphones – even when the phone is switched off! - (more…)
Comments Off
BLAME THE WATER
Will some divorce lawyer jump on this excuse? I wouldn’t doubt it.
Prescription drugs found in drinking water across U.S.
Officials in Philadelphia say testing there discovered 56 pharmaceuticals or byproducts in treated drinking water.
(AP) — A vast array of pharmaceuticals — including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones — have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans, an Associated Press investigation shows.
Map: See the cities where drugs were found in drinking water »
Robert Scheer: Spitzer’s Shame Is Wall Street’s Gain
Robert Scheer, TruthDig, March 12, 2008
Tell me again: Why should we get all worked up over the revelation that the New York governor paid for sex? Will it bring back to life the eight U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq that same day in a war that makes no sense and has cost this nation trillions in future debt? Will it save those millions of homes that hardworking folks all over the country are losing because of financial industry shenanigans that Eliot Spitzer, as much as anyone, attempted to halt? Perhaps it provides some insight into why oil has risen to $108 a barrel, benefiting most of all the oil sheiks whom our taxpayer-supported military has kept in power?
Sure, the guy, by his own admission, is quite pathetic in all those small, squirrelly ways that have messed up the lives of other grand public figures before him, but why is an all-too-human sin, amply predicted in early Scripture, getting all this incredible media play as some sort of shocking event? The answer is that, while having precious little to do with serious corruption in public life, it does have a great deal to do with stoking flagging newspaper sales and television ratings.
The sad truth is that reporting on major corruption, say, the rationalizations of a president who has authorized torture, doesn’t cut it as a marketing bonanza. Just days before this grand exposé, the president vetoed a bill banning torture, and instead of being greeted with horrified disgust, the president’s deep denigration of this nation’s presumed ideals was met with a vast public yawn. Torture, unlike paid sex, doesn’t have legs as a news story.
Sex sells, and frankly it would seem far more exploitative for the news media to pimp this tale to the public than anything that VIP escort service did with the pitiable governor. His behavior was not really any more wretched than messing around with a young and vulnerable White House intern who didn’t even get paid for her efforts, yet Bill Clinton survived that one, whereas Spitzer was presumed dead on the arrival of this “news.” The New York Times, which editorially has supported the candidacy of Hillary Clinton, whose vast White House experience clearly did not include corralling her husband, now editorializes contemptuously about Spitzer’s betrayal of the public trust as well as about his exploitation of his “ashen-faced” wife, who, like Hillary, stood by her man.
Read More Here