March, 2008 archive
Oh, My 3
Words fail me.
Joy Douglas says she dyed Cici, her white miniature poodle, to call attention to breast cancer. She says she used beet juice and Kool-Aid.
She was ticketed March 1 under a Boulder ordinance that makes it illegal to dye animals. The ordinance is designed discourage people from dyeing rabbits and chicks for Easter.
She’s No Ferrari, Not Even a Fiat 1
As a matter of policy, I refuse to address name-calling between candidates in this space.
I can do my own name-calling quite well, thank you.
I’m going to point you towards this post from Josh Marshall, which does address the current kerfuffle involving Geraldine Ferraro, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama, because I think it’s worth reading as a thoughtful consideration of the situation.
Full disclosure: The first ballot I cast for a Presidential Candidate was a write-in for Shirley Chisholm.
Most of the same points could be made about the advantages and disadvantages Sen. Clinton is under because of her gender. In fact I think there’s a pretty striking symmetry. It’s clearly helping her with her big advantage among women voters, especially her generational peers. But we’d be foolish not to realize that some of Obama’s big margins among white men are not simply a reflection of support for Obama.
You might support Obama or not, think he’s qualified or an empty suit but suggesting he’s only where he is now because he’s black is something much worse than outrageous. It just seems obviously false.
Nativists Attack 0
If I weren’t old, I wouldn’t have seen this article:
While Todd’s case is rich in irony, she is one of tens of thousands of Americans who are falling victim to a new federal rule—aimed at keeping illegal immigrants off the Medicaid rolls—requiring that recipients prove their citizenship and identity with documents many don’t have.
(snip)
“This rule was the answer to a problem that really doesn’t exist,” says Donna Cohen Ross, an analyst with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington, a nonpartisan research organization.
In fact, the year the rule was passed, Mark McClellan, then the administrator for CMS, said that a report by the CMS inspector general did “not find particular problems regarding false allegations of citizenship, nor are we aware of any.” Most states agreed with that assessment.
This would seem pretty typical of the Republic Party. Claiming that it is protecting American citizens, it solves a problem that doesn’t exist, thereby damaging American citizens. It also is able to throw a bone to those amongst its constituency who don’t like brown people by raising, then tilting at the windmill of fraudulent Medicaid enrollments.
(Haven’t they figured out that the last thing a sane illegal immigrant is likely to do is to join a government program, for heaven’s sake?)
It’s sort of like their phony voter fraud campaign. (Election fraud historically has not occurred at the polling place; it’s occurred at the counting place).
Hell, what about the War in Iraq–claiming to protect Americans, the Republic Party has (failed to) solve a problem that didn’t exist, created a whole slew, maybe two or three slews, of problems that didn’t exist before, all the while causing the death, injury, and displacement of hundreds of thousands of persons.
The Republic Party is clearly not fit to govern.
Empty Suit, Redux 0
Corporatism 1
Food for thought from Delaware Watch.
Home-Grown Hatred 0
From the Southern Poverty Law Center (Morris Dees is the real deal–send him a check today):
The end of 2007 brought to a close another year marked by staggering levels of racist hate in America. Even as several major hate groups struggled to survive, other new groups appeared, and the radical right as a whole appeared to grow.
Bushonomics 0
Ensuring the future of our children . . .
(Support the troops, go shopping).
. . . will be crap.
In 2008, its sixth year, the war will cost approximately $12 billion a month, triple the “burn” rate of its earliest years, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph E. Stiglitz and coauthor Linda J. Bilmes write in a new book.
Beyond 2008, working with “best-case” and “realistic-moderate” scenarios, they project that the Iraq and Afghan wars, including long-term U.S. military occupations of those countries, will cost the U.S. budget between $1.7 trillion and $2.7 trillion – or more – by 2017.
Interest on money borrowed to pay those costs could add $816 billion to that bottom line, they say.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has done its own projections and comes in lower, forecasting a cumulative cost by 2017 of $1.2 trillion to $1.7 trillion for the two wars, with Iraq generally accounting for three-quarters of the costs.
Drinking Liberally 0
Tomorrow, 6 to 9 p. m., Tangier Restaurant, 18th and Lombard, Center City, Philadelphia, right behind Jeff.
I can tell you right now that I would much rather be there tomorrow night, instead of at the meeting I am scheduled to attend.
Moe Mentum 0
On the Media looks at whether or not the idea momentum in a nomination campaign is anything other than a steaming pile of media fantasy:
Go to the website or listen to the story here:
Talk of the Nation explores the question of “experience.” The guest pretty much concludes, as I did, that it is irrelevant. From the website:
Presidential historian Robert Dallek talks with guest host Robert Smith about the experience previous U.S. presidents had before they took office. Callers weigh in with what they would like to see on the next president’s resume.
Meanwhile, Dick Polman does the math:
In the competition for pledged delegates last week, she gained almost no ground on Barack Obama. And she will probably lose ground again tomorrow.
No spin can mask that fundamental fact. For instance, the latest CBS-tabulated results show that, for all her electoral success in Ohio, Texas, and Rhode Island last Tuesday, she has managed to trim Obama’s lead by only six delegates. Then, when you factor in the results of Saturday’s Wyoming caucuses (where she lost by another landslide), her net gain over the past week stands at four delegates. And when you factor in tomorrow’s Mississippi primary (where African-Americans will vote heavily), and the resulting delegate allocations, Clinton’s March gains are likely to evaporate completely.
(snip)
But enough of that. The most significant moment yesterday came when Tim Russert asked (Pennsylvania Governor–ed.) Rendell whether he thought that Obama was qualified to be president. Rendell replied, “I think he’s qualified” – certainly qualified enough to be vice president, and, moreover, if Obama turns out to be the nominee, Rendell said he would work his heart out for him.
Well, those were certainly inconvenient remarks – given the fact that Clinton during the past week has suggested precisely the opposite about Obama’s creds. Here she was last Monday: “I think it’s imperative that each of us be able to demonstrate we can cross the commander in chief threshold, and I believe that I’ve done that. Certainly Senator McCain has done that. And you’ll have to ask Senator Obama with respect to his candidacy.”
Rendell was then asked to square his assessment of Obama as “qualified,” with Clinton’s intimation that Obama is not.
His response: “Well, I, I think he’s ready. He’s not nearly as ready as Hillary Clinton is, there’s no question about that. But, look, make no mistake about it, he’s a talented, dynamic politician and, and a, and a good senator, and I think he would make a fine president…”
Rule of Law 0
Over at Susie’s place.
Who Was Responsible for 9/11 0
Follow the trail.
Cold Case 0
Fridigaire:
Detectives found the fully clothed and “well preserved” body late Thursday after arresting a guest at the Fairmont Newport Beach for investigation of selling and possessing cocaine on the hotel grounds, police Sgt. Evan Sailor said.
Rule of Law(less) 0
And this surprises us–not.
“This is political,” Iglesias recalls Texas U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton telling him shortly after he was ousted. “If I were you, I’d just go quietly.”
Iglesias, a former U.S. attorney in New Mexico, is one of nine federal prosecutors whose firings triggered a yearlong controversy at the Justice Department and led to the resignations of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and 11 other Justice Department officials.
Primary Colors 0
From Pam’s House Blend:
In 2008, Hillary Clinton is desperately trying to become the first Washingtonian insider white woman with years of experience who voted for Iraq, voted for Iran, and voted for the PATRIOT ACT to face a Washingtonian insider white man with years of experience who voted for Iraq, voted for Iran, and voted for the PATRIOT ACT.
Afterthought: Josh Marshall on experience.
