Congresswoman calls Barack, Michelle, others, anti-American

Can anyone say, Joe McCarthy?

After she was on, Matthews asks Pat Buchanan his thoughts and whether any members of Congress were "anti-American." He doesn't think so. When you're way out further than Pat Buchanan, you're pretty crazy! Minnesotans have been waiting for Rep. Michele Bachmann to make an embarrassment of herself since she was elected in 2006. She gets into the anti-American accusation after the three minute point.

She also attacks Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, college professors, students, and leftists, and their friends.

God bless America

We have freedom of speach, apparently still, in this country.  So it's great to see people exercise it, but  it would be better if they used their brains first.

According to the A-P, these real boxes of waffle mix were selling like, uh, hotcakes, at the Family Research Council's Values Voter Summit this past weekend.

But they are satire!  That's what the mix makers are saying.  According to the Encylopedia Britannica, satire is "human or individual vices, follies, abuses, or shortcomings are held up to censure by means of ridicule, derision, burlesque, irony, or other methods, ideally with the intent to bring about improvement."  I don't know how reinforcing a distasteful stereotype and outright lie (that Obama is Muslim) among the constituency that has invented and benefits from the racism and anti-Muslim sentiment is holding anything up to censure.  It's less clear to me how the creators intend to bring about an improvement.

But of course I'm playing into their hand.  This kind of thing should generally be ignored, but for the fact that millions of voters are swayed by racism and hateful lies.

A little worse than "monkeys"

Republican congressman, Geoff Davis, put the recent mini-controversy over a Democratic convention delegate referring to kids climbing a tree as "monkeys" into perspective.

Rep. Davis talked about participating in a "highly classified, national security simulation” with Sen. Barack Obama.

Davis went on to say:

“I'm going to tell you something: That boy's finger does not need to be on the button. He could not make a decision in that simulation that related to a nuclear threat to this country.”

Yes. Davis called Obama a "boy." Davis did have the wisdom to apologize quickly after the Obama campaign took him to task.

via Pol Watchers

Making mountains out of molehills

It is the presidential election after all. It's time to make mountains out of molehills! (Or children into monkeys...)

• Illinois delegate for Obama resigns after 'monkeys' remark
  

She complains to her neighbors about their children climbing in the tree, which she sees as dangerous. She tells the father "the tree is not there for them to be climbing in there like monkeys." The mother calls the police, she gets a $75 ticket, and is now resigning as a delegate to the national convention because she has been labeled a racist.

Referring to children of another race climbing in a tree as monkeys is apparently verboten.

Namecalling in politics

I think there is not enough substance in politics and too much name calling. Just turn on the television or radio, and name calling is what you hear. It's unhelpful and immature.

I generally try to refrain from name calling. Even those who deserve it. This week, my resolve has been tested. lI've resisted two days, but I can't any longer.

Tim Pawlenty is a dick.

Fightin' Joe fights himself

Way back in 2006 Ned Lamont successfully challenged incumbent Joe Lieberman in the Democratic primary for the Connecticut Senate seat. Lieberman went on to run in the general election as an independent and won the three-way race with 52% of the vote.

The day before the August primary, the Lieberman campaign's website crashed. They blamed the Lamont campaign and their supporters for a "hack attack" and asked for a criminal investigation. They got a bunch of media out of it.

Guess what? The Stamford Advocate has learned the real story. A criminal investigation did ensue and discovered quite quickly that the website crash was the result of a badly configured server designed only to handle 100 emails an hour. An FBI memo dated BEFORE the 2006 general election stated their findings quite clearly. And yet, a Lieberman representative was still pointing fingers at the Lamont people in December. (Lieberman ain't just a sore loser, he's a sore winner too!)

Why are we finding this out a year and a half later? It's because the government authorities finally responded to a Freedom of Information Request filed in late 2006. Clearly the Lieberman people would have been told this at the time the investigation was closed in October 2006, but Senator Virtue himself hasn't come clean about making this mistaken allegation at a key moment of the nasty campaign. I think it's safe to say that Lieberman values playing the victim more than he values honesty.

Politicians often invent straw man arguments. Joe Lieberman makes himself the victim to his aggressor self.

It's this kind of thing that makes me actually hope McCain would pick Lieberman as his running mate. He'd elicit many opportunities to take him down. Playing the victim in this way doesn't play well in the race for the White House.

Today's Quote: Divisive politics

Clinton campaign staffers have apparently distributed a 2006 photo of Barack Obama in traditional Somali clothes when he was on a trip in northern Kenya. (Available here) Of course, we know photos like this feed into the racist misconceptions about Obama's background. Via Politico, here is the response from Obama campaign manager, David Plouffe:

“On the very day that Senator Clinton is giving a speech about restoring respect for America in the world, her campaign has engaged in the most shameful, offensive fear-mongering we’ve seen from either party in this election. This is part of a disturbing pattern that led her county chairs to resign in Iowa, her campaign chairman to resign in New Hampshire, and it’s exactly the kind of divisive politics that turns away Americans of all parties and diminishes respect for America in the world," said Plouffe.

It does indicate how low the Clinton campaign may go this next week as we approach the Texas and Ohio contests on March 4. Clearly, the Clinton campaign is no longer worried about damaging Obama in such a way that may dramatically hinder him in the general election.

This latest controversy started when someone form the Clinton campaign emailed the photo to the Drudge Report. The fact that the Clinton people are using Drudge as a dissemination tool may further irritate Democrats who often see the website as the lowest of the lows. Ironically, it was Drudge who broke some of the initial allegations of the Lewinsky scandal.