DebateGate

We were watching the news as we woke up on Saturday morning and happened to be reminded that the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee Meeting was that day and tuned into CSPAN for the unfiltered version.

Seriously, I spent the whole of my Saturday (other than the 3.5 hour break) watching the whole thing.

There were a lot of highlights, ugliness and real democracy at work. Anybody else see it?

Highlights for me included:

Howard Dean's opening remarks which really salved a still open wound for me from his run.  He told of talking to Al Gore in the middle of the night.  Demanding Gore tell him what he owed the Dem Party, Gore told him it wasn't about him but about the country.  That was a real help for me because it always appeared to me that Dean had sort of become "just another politician" who was willing to sell out to further his career by supporting Kerry who had been such a horrible candidate.  I never really felt Dean was pissed about the way he had been treated by the party and its elite.

Clearly, he had been really pissed and I felt better about the whole thing having found that out.

Secondly, obviously it was no secret that Harold Ickes was supporting Hillary Clinton but I found it very shocking the level of spin and politicking he was willing to do in the meeting which I felt should have been the height of objectivity (as much as it could be, of course, since several of the member were out for one or the other candidates).

Ickes was a real bastard, imo.  And he only emboldened the Clinton supporters to act like jerks in the balconies.

The whole thing seemed right on the verge of anarchy at times.  A couple of times, I thought they were about to riot.  I felt really bad that the co-chairs had to call for the security to shut the doors and I suspect the security led that Harriet Christians out.

On the other hand, I remember how angry, disillusioned, whatever I was after the party elites undermined Howard Dean and I can sympathize with the Hillary supporters but when I try to post to them that I sympathize, I generally get a big F U! from them.

All in all, I think what the committee finally decided was the height of wisdom and justice.  Ickes assertion that the committee had "stolen" delegates from Hillary was tenuous at best since the Michigan primary vote was seriously flawed.  No doubt hundreds of voters, not seeing Edwards or Obama simply voted for Clinton to avoid voting for uncommitted.  If the Michigan Dem Party came up with the number, then that was good enough for me.

Obama had the votes to make Michigan a 50/50 split if the delegates and was really nice about it.  It could have gone much worse for Hillary.

I'm glad it ended without anyone throwing a chair. 

Lastly, Ickes said that Hillary and her team reserve the right to take the whole thing to convention committee but the funny thing about that is this:  Guess who the co-chairs of the Convention Committee are?

That's right, Harman and Roosevelt.  The same two people who were the co-chairs were the co-chairs for the Rules and Bylaws Committee.  How open do you think they are going to be to re-opening the whole thing at the convention?  Not at all would be my guess.

White House press release:

Disgruntled ex-employee and possible gay child molester Scott McClellan has pitifully penned a "tell-all" book in which he makes wild and delusional claims of "propaganda" and "self-deception".  It is unclear to the White House exactly why McClellan has fallen into the clutches of the terrorists who have brainwashed him into hating America; but we know that the American People, who clearly DO love America and Support The Troops?, will have the decency and honor to ignore McClellan's left-wing tome of conspiracy theories.

The real reality is that the President and his staff all told then-Press Secretary McClellan to quit playing up WMD, smoking gun mushroom clouds and Saddam Hussein's ties to terrorists but he would go out to the reporters again and again telling them whatever he felt like!  We just couldn't control him!  He was like a mad dog out there!  We mean, this guy was out-of-his-tree nuts!  In the end, that's why he got fired because he just kept lying and lying all the time!  Now, he's just pissed and out there trying to make a dollar by painting our beloved "president" in a poor light.  (Did you hear the "president"'s now only polling with 69% negatives?  That's like a .05% drop!  America loves him!  Clearly, this means that McClellan is a liar out to make a dollar.)

We're sure he needs the money what with how he's blowing it on, what some call, child porn productions.  Oh well, we're just going to stay above it.



Reality found at this link...
http://politicalwire.com/archives/2008/05/28/bombshell_book_rocks_white_house.html


News of the extremely critical memoir from former Bush spokesman Scott McClellan dominates the headlines this morning. What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception

New York Times: "President Bush 'convinces himself to believe what suits his needs at the moment,' and has engaged in 'self-deception' to justify his political ends, Scott McClellan, the former White House press secretary, writes in a critical new memoir about his years in the West Wing."

Washington Post: "Former White House press secretary Scott McClellan writes in a new memoir that the Iraq war was sold to the American people with a sophisticated 'political propaganda campaign' led by President Bush and aimed at 'manipulating sources of public opinion' and 'downplaying the major reason for going to war.'"

Wall Street Journal: "The White House took part in an 'endless effort to manipulate public opinion to their advantage' in promoting the invasion of Iraq, former White House press secretary Scott McClellan declares in a new book."

Los Angeles Times: McClellan writes, "No one, including me, can know with absolute certainty how the war will be viewed decades from now when we can more fully understand its impact. What I do know is that war should only be waged when necessary, and the Iraq war was not necessary."

Yesterday, our old buddy, Mike Fleming wasted his opening monologue reading excerpts from this nutty editorial.

http://www.aspentimes.com/article/2008198091324


I was so outraged, I wasted a solid hour or so re-writing said nonsense to be more reflective of my viewpoint of the world.

If you have the time and inclination to wade through that garbage written by one Mr. Gary Hubbell (whoever he is). Then come back and read the rebuttal here.


THIS Angry White Man

There is one type of guy no one has recognized, and it is the type of guy
that will decide the election: THIS Angry White Man. THIS Angry White Man
comes from a from dirt-poor economic background and his risen to lower
middle class by his wits, hard work and his own choices. He represents all
geographic areas in America, from urban sophisticate to rural redneck,
deep South to mountain West, left Coast to Eastern Seaboard because he's
been a reader and plugged into the American Zeitgeist all his life.

One of his traits is that he isn?t looking for anything from anyone ? just
the promise to be able to make his own way on a level playing field (even
though he knows full well that playing ground no more exists than FOX's
claim of being "fair and balanced"). He has been an independent
businessman but his business was destroyed when a WalMart moved into his
area and provided the same products at half the cost. He pays his share of
taxes and works hard just like everyone else in this country and doesn't
whine if he sees someone getting a deal that he isn't getting.

The victimhood syndrome buzzwords ? ?disenfranchised,? ?marginalized? and
?voiceless? ? do resonate with him because he's lived the last eight years
under the Bush Regime of Cultist Cronies who are prone to steal elections.

?Press ?one? for English? is a sign to him that America is finally
catching up to the rest of the industrialized countries on the planet that
have varied and diverse citizens who aren't too damned stupid to learn a
second language. Sometimes, he wishes that he didn't have to press one for
English and could conduct his business in Spanish rather than just
remembering a few phrases from high school and catching snatches of
conversational Spanish from his co-workers who have been to more countries
the he has or than George Bush had been to before he became "president".

He?s used to picking up the tab on occasion and doesn't pick it up every
time because nobody likes a showoff or a martyr who expects something
(like respect or adoration or subservience) in return for picking up the
stupid check at Ruth's Chris or Owen Brennan's. If he can afford it ,
he'll pay for the company Christmas party (everyone needs a drink at the
end of the year); but most times that party will be little more than a keg
and a party tray from Costco, because he's been working overtime to pay
for his dental insurance that is going to cover those three sets of braces
over the last few years. And he's been putting more into his 401K to pay
for those eventual three college educations or his firstborn daughter's
beautiful wedding. (God, she's already 22?)

He believes the Constitution is not always to be interpreted literally
because no document, no matter how much he respects and honors can
possibly be applied in exactly the same exact way to every single
situation in the human experience. Nor can he always view it as a
?living document? open to the whims and vagaries of a panel of judges like
Alito, Scalia and Roberts who have never worked an honest day in their
lives and believe that Bush has given them power to enforce their idea of
a god's will.

THIS Angry White Man has never owned firearms and has no inclination to
own one. He doesn't begrudge anyone else owning one (though he wishes
they didn't believe they have to own one to feel "safe) but he believes
that he?d be able to though not willing to pick up a gun to defend his
home and his country should there ever come a valid and honorable reason
for doing so. In his lifetime, there has been no reason for doing either.
EVER. He is willing to lay down his life to defend the freedom and
safety of others but NEVER to be party to an illegal invasion of a
sovereign nation for oil barons who would never have the guts to enter the
line of fire without a battalion circling them as they cower in the
floorboard of their overly-armored SUV that gets 20 miles to the gallon.

And the thought of killing someone is absolutely abhorrent to him because
that would make him feel like a failure as a human being; besides, who in
this world is qualified to judge who "deserves killing"?

THIS Angry White Man is not a metrosexual (though he does confess to an
affinity for nice suits, a solid massage and being clean), a
homosexual(though he knows and is related to lots of them and understands
that they helped him learned that one should never wear a black belt with
brown shoes) or a victim (he has no one but himself to blame for his
mistakes). Nobody like him drowned in Hurricane Katrina ? but he
understand that there is so much poverty and ill health in this world that
some people (even a lot in a major metropolitan center like New Orleans)
may have gotten stuck or just flat may not have known it was going to be
as bad as it was. PLUS, this IS America and if we'll send our military
into countries whose citizens are more than willing to shoot at them,
SURELY, we can send some of them into a natural disaster to help our own
citizens, RIGHT?

THIS Angry White Man would have gotten his people together and got the
hell out, then went back in to rescue those too helpless and incapable of
helping themselves, often as a police officer, a National Guard soldier or
a volunteer firefighter.

My last name and religion don?t matter. His background is French but he
considers himself a Human Being, no better and of no more value than any
other Human Being on this planet. Just another organism doing what comes
natural.

He?s no man?s man, those guys are usually testosterone-laden neanderthals
who don't know they're idiots. He is the kind of guy who likes to play
poker, watch football, change his own oil and build things. He is not the
kind of guy who would hunt white-tailed deer (Jesus, we raise and kill
enough meat to feed the world. Why kill one deer?), call turkeys (Uh,
what the hell is that?), play golf (he'd rather play frisbee), spend a few
bucks at a strip club once in a blue moon (Why not just hand the crack
dealer the money and cut out the horrors of prostitution and addiction?).

He coaches baseball, soccer and football teams and doesn?t ask for a
penny. He?s the kind of guy who can put an addition on his house with a
couple of friends, dismantle an oil well, install a new battery in his
Prius, design a factory to produce solar panels and publish books on how
to install them.

He can build a wind farm so that you keep the lights on and never know
what it took to flip that light switch.

Women love him, but they know he?s a man, not a dishrag but he treats them
with honor, dignity and reverence. If they?re looking for someone to walk
all over they've been raised, they?ve got the wrong guy. He stands up
straight, opens doors for women and says ?Yes, sir? and ?No, ma?am.?

He might be a Republican and he might be a Democrat; he might be a
Libertarian or a Green. He knows that his wife is more rational on some
matters while he is more rational on others, and they guide the family in
a rational manner as a team.

He?s not a racist, but he is annoyed and disappointed when people of
certain backgrounds exhibit behavior that typifies the worst stereotypes
of their class. He?s willing to give everybody a fair chance if they work
hard, play by the rules and meet him halfway.

Most important, THIS Angry White Man is pissed off. When his county
becomes flooded with robber barons who don?t pay taxes and his wages drop
like a stone, he gets righteously angry. When his job gets shipped
overseas because the CEO wants to buy another $6000 shower curtain and he
has to speak to some incomprehensible idiot in India for tech support, he
simmers.

When Al Sharpton comes on TV, leading some rally for reparations for
slavery or some such nonsense, he flips to another channel when he
remembers that The Daily Show is on. When a child gets charged with
carrying a concealed weapon for mistakenly bringing a penknife to school,
he takes note of who the local idiots are in education and law enforcement
who get on tv and never mention that parents are to blame for their
childrens' mistakes (especially the little, rich, white kids who think the
rules only apply to poor kids).

He also votes, and THIS Angry White Man loathes Hillary Clinton and George
Bush. Their voices reminds him of lots of other fascist who think the
electorate is too scared and stupid to reject their lies and collusion. He
recoils at the mere sight of them on television. Their very images
disgusts him, and he cannot fathom why anyone would want them as their
leader. It?s not that she is a woman or that he is a moron. It?s that that
they are who they are. It?s the big business, corporate oligarchical
groups they panders to, the ?poor me? attitude that they represent when
someone tells them to go to hell, we're not taking it anymore and their
inability to give a straight answer to an honest question, his tax dollars
that they want to give to people who refuse to do anything for anyone but
themselves in the most vulgar, gilded age manner.

There are many millions of Angry White Men. Four million Angry White Men
are members of the MoveOn.org, and all of them will vote against Hillary
Clinton, just as the great majority of them voted for Barack Obama.

He hopes that she will NOT be the Democratic nominee for president in
2008, and he will make sure that she gets beaten like a drum if she dares
to attempt to steal the nomination through backroom deals and threats
because THIS Angry White Man sick to death of voting against something,
being divided from his fellow humans by political hack strategists; but
most of all, he is sick and tire of being lied to.

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/04/11/bushs-approval-rating-at-all-time-low-of-28-percent/





Bush?s approval rating at all-time low of 28 percent.?
The latest Gallup poll finds that President Bush?s approval rating has fallen to 28 percent ? ?a record low? for his administration. Bush?s approval is ?lower than that of any president since World War II, with the exceptions of Jimmy Carter (who had a low point of 28% in 1979), and Richard Nixon and Harry Truman, who suffered ratings in the low- to mid-20% range in the last years of their administrations.?

I happened to catch that Frisky Dingo a few times on cartoon network after having read and heard about a few times.  I found it EXTREMELY FUNNY.  It just so happened that they were releasing the first season on DVD and I Netflixed it and watched the whole thing from beginning to end and laughed all the way through.

I checked into it and the same people who Frisky Dingo did several seasons of SeaLab 2021 which is really kind of different and a little weirder.  Maybe not for everyone but also humorous in a way.

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/04/10/they-knew/

The discussions in the White House were top secret and sources say, involve some of the President?s most senior and influential advisors, principals of the National Security Council. In dozens of private talks and meetings, sources said that a handful of top advisors discussed specific high-value al Qaeda prisoners and exactly how those prisoners would be interrogated. Whether, for example, they would be slapped, pushed, deprived of sleep or subjected to simulated drowning, called waterboarding. The discussion about the ?enhanced interrogation techniques? were so detailed, sources said, the interrogations were almost choreographed, down to the number of times the CIA could use a specific tactic. Former CIA director George Tenet, in an interview last year with ABC News told Charles Gibson,

?It was authorized. It was legal, according to the Attorney General of the United States.?

It also was discussed and approved in meetings by the National Security Council?s Principals Committee, a group that included Vice President Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell, Donald Rumsfeld, George Tenet, John Ashcroft.

Been following the threads at IMDB about this a little too much.

But these stills look damned good.

http://rss.warnerbros.com/watchmen/