This Is How Obama Should Respond To McCain's Demand That Obama Go To Iraq

From the Seattle Times:

Sen. Barack Obama is considering a visit to Iraq this summer, his first since becoming a presidential candidate.

Republican rival John McCain has criticized him for failing to visit Iraq since 2006. Obama also declined McCain's invitation for a joint trip, saying he didn't want "to be involved in a political stunt," according to a report Wednesday on The New York Times Web site.

Obama's response to McCain's criticism practically writes itself. Obama should simply say that he is planning to go to Iraq this summer, but not to engage in some fact-finding politcal stunt, because everybody knows that Iraq is a clusterfuck and that George Bush and John McCain's decision to invade Iraq was the biggest foreign policy blunder in American history.

Obama should then say that he is going to Iraq to meet with the troops and assure them that, if he is elected president, then he would get them the hell out of there and would then do everything in his power to ensure that nothing like the Iraq Debacle ever happens again.

Oh, and by the way, although Obama got away with running a pretty clean primary campaign, I really think he needs to start viciously attacking McCain immediately.

Oops

McCain said this in 2000:

"Well, in 2004, I expect to be campaigning for the reelection of President George W. Bush, and by 2008, I think I might be ready to go down to the old soldiers home and await the cavalry charge there."

Hagee's Hitler Hilarity

I laughed out loud when I read this:

The controversy surrounding John Hagee's endorsement has finally gotten to John McCain. In the wake of new quotes being circulated by the Huffington Post in which Hagee called Hitler an instrument of God's will, McCain has now rejected Hagee's support.

"Obviously, I find these remarks and others deeply offensive and indefensible, and I repudiate them," McCain told CNN in a statement. "I did not know of them before Reverend Hagee's endorsement, and I feel I must reject his endorsement as well."

That matter aside, McCain was sure to bring this back to Barack Obama, insisting that his active effort to get Hagee's support originally was not nearly as bad as Obama's associations with Jeremiah Wright.

"I have said I do not believe Senator Obama shares Reverend Wright's extreme views. But let me also be clear, Reverend Hagee was not and is not my pastor or spiritual advisor, and I did not attend his church for twenty years. I have denounced statements he made immediately upon learning of them, as I do again today."

This is going to be one ugly General Election, but it looks like it'll be good for a few laughs as well.

This Hagee guy kills me. It's as if he just sits around all the time trying to figure out what would be the absolute worst fucking thing for him to say, and when he figures it out, he then goes forth and says it.

Big Victory For Democrats Last Night

And no, I'm not referring to Hillary's totally expected (and totally meaningless) win in West Virginia -- I'm referring to this:

Democrat Travis Childers wins a U.S. House seat in Mississippi's deeply Republican 1st Congressional District.

Childers defeated Republican Greg Davis in a special election to fill the final few months of a two-year term in Congress. The seat was vacated when Roger Wicker was appointed to the U.S. Senate after Trent Lott resigned.

The win allows Democrats to add to their 235-199 majority in Congress — if only for a few months until November's general elections.

Childers, Davis and two other candidates face off again in November's general election.

This is the third time this year that a Democrat has defeated a Republican in a special election for a House seat that should have gone to the GOP candidate. Back in 2004, Bush claimed 63% in Mississippi's 1st Congressional District. The Republicans spent a fortune trying to keep this seat, and ran attack ads featuring Rev. Wright and his connection with Obama. Those ads did not work.

This is very good for the Democrats, as was the fact that Obama was actually able to argue against the gas tax holiday and not be hurt by taking such a position.

Interesting Battlestar Galactica Interview

Edward James Olmos ("Admiral Adama") had some intriguing things to say in a recent interview about the final season of Battlestar Galactica (minor spoilers ahead):

Q. I'm not sure there's ever been a show on TV that's so relentlessly dark. Is it bleak on the set?

A. It is. I mean, we really do take it to heart. It is bleak. And it is getting darker. This last season has gotten to the point where we end up crying a lot. Emotional breakdowns. It's human drama. And when you perform in it, you're inside of it. A lot of people are dead. I'm not going to say who, because why ruin it for people, but a lot of us die.

Q. This season?

A. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. [Laughs.] Not very many of us are going make it to wherever it is that they're taking us. So we just mope along. We open the script just like the viewer. We're all taking the journey. Not only is it difficult because you lose the person inside the story, but you also realize that person is no longer going to be on the set. It's over. Unless they're a Cylon.

Q. That leads me to Starbuck's apparent death . . .

A. Oh, it was so sad. Because they didn't tell us that she was coming back. I was angry.

Q. You were snookered like everybody else?

A. Of course, I was snookered. All we know is just what we're being fed. She died, and then she was gone for awhile, and then she came back. And that was so scary because we have no idea why and how she came back.

Q. So you as an actor don't know?

A. Well, we've filmed something that started to explain it. And it's not an uplifting understanding. [Laughs.] I will say that. It's as dark as everything else. You sit there and you go, "Oh my God, you guys are sick!" They're pushing the envelope. And the network is allowing it.

Q. Has there been anything you know of that the network has not allowed?

A. In the first or second season, the whole idea of suicides was really tough for them to take. I put it in one of my programs that I directed. The idea that people aboard ships were committing suicide. Why wouldn't they? Are you kidding me? Suicide rates would have gone right through the roof.

Q. Right, because what are they living for? And the living conditions aren't pleasant.

A. Terrible. Terrible. We're eating green algae. We've been eating green algae now for almost two years.

Q. And now, it seems that anyone could be a Cylon.

A. We're back to that.

Q. If you know who the final Cylon model is, I'm sure you can't tell me . . .

A. I don't know, either. And no one knew when [the other four were revealed.] You should have seen what happened. There was anger. Real anger. The main one was Michael Hogan [who plays Colonel Tigh.] He just couldn't get past it. He said, "I didn't sign up for this kind of stuff." He was so hurt he was a Cylon.

Q. It does pull the rug out -

A. Right from under him. It changes everything. You see the way [the actors] dealt with it. The confusion, the anger that Colonel Tigh handles it with is true.

Q. Back to "Star Trek" and probably before, science fiction has had diverse, expansive casting. Is that because of the nature of the genre, or the kind of creative people who go into it?

A. I think both. One, the window is open and they allow it. And two, it's the imagination of the people that are developing it. They don't get tied down thinking about who would sell this the best. They say, "This is a reality that I'd like to explore."

One of the great things about the show is how the producers aren't afraid to take it in unexpected directions (like the Cylon occupation of New Caprica), and it certainly sounds like we're in for a wild ride for this final season.

Oops

From the New York Times:

[Arianna] Huffington, the liberal blogger, said she had heard Mr. McCain say at a Los Angeles dinner party shortly after the 2000 election that he had not voted for the president he has now publicly embraced in his own quest for the White House. The McCain campaign swiftly quashed the account and said Ms. Huffington had a book to promote and would make anything up.

“She’s a flake and a poser and an attention-seeking diva,” Mark Salter, one of Mr. McCain’s closest aides, told The Washington Post.

Now two other guests at the same dinner, given by the actress Candice Bergen, at her home in Beverly Hills, say they heard much the same thing as Ms. Huffington. * * *

It doesn't surprise me that McCain would say this back in 2000, given all the crap BushCo pulled against McCain during the primaries that year. But this could spell trouble for McCain in this year's election, particularly if more people from that dinner party corroborate Huffington and the other two witnesses. Bush, after all, still maintains a 28% approval rating.

Hillary Won Indiana Last Night Thanks To Rush Limbaugh (With Update)

From Sam Stein at The Huffington Post:

Did Rush Limbaugh actually impact the Democratic primary?

The loud-mouthed radio talk show host has been encouraging Republicans to vote for Sen. Hillary Clinton to continue the "chaos" in the Democratic race. And a sampling of some key exit poll information suggests he may, to a certain extent, be having an effect.

Thirty-six percent of primary voters said that Clinton does not share their values. And yet, among that total, one out of every five (20 percent) nevertheless voted for her in the Indiana election. Moreover, of the 10 percent of Hoosiers who said "neither candidate" shared their values, 75 percent cast their ballots for Clinton.

These are not small numbers. By comparison, of the 33 percent of voters who said Sen. Barack Obama does not share their values, only seven percent cast their ballots in his favor. Basically, more people who don't relate to Clinton are, for one reason or another, still voting for her. These are not likely to be loyal supporters. * * *

I've been complaining about this for a while -- not because I think what Mr. Oxycontin is doing is evil (getting mad at Rush Limbaugh for being evil is like getting mad at a shark for biting your arm off) -- but because of all the factors regarding electability that the uncommitted superdelegates should be looking at, this is a big one in my book.

Given all that has gone down in the last several weeks -- the Rev. Wright controversy, Obama's bitter remark, etc. -- Hillary was still only able to win Indiana by two points, and she won it because the Idiot Limbaugh told his dittoheads to cross party lines and vote for her.

For the first time in this campaign, I heard the talking heads on television last night extensively discussing this "Limbaugh Effect." Even Sen. John Kerry mentioned it on MSNBC during an interview (and check this out). Hopefully all this will sink into the uncommitted superdelgates' heads over the next few days.

In the meantime, I think Obama should shift gears and start going after McCain, not necessarily with attack ads, but with ads that point out the differences between him and McCain. Obama will eventually have to go on the attack, though, because if you thought the Democratic primary fight was brutal, you ain't seen nothing yet.

UPDATE: The Extreme Right is finally starting to realize where the bear goes though the buckwheat on all this. Right-wing blowhard and Oxycontin-aficionado Rush Limbaugh said this on his radio program earlier today:

I am tempted to tell the superdelegates to pick Obama because I now believe that he would be the weakest of the Democrat nominees.

Nice flip-flop there, Rush. What are you going to do next, hang a "Mission Accomplished" banner in your studio? Why don't you instead move on to your next project, which is to convince all your listeners that you really wanted John McCain to be the Republican nominee all along.

Cartoonist Jim Morin

More Political Cowardice From Hillary Clinton

I've long believed that Hillary Clinton's vote to authorize the invasion of Iraq was an act of political cowardice. Well, her political yellow streak is once again on display:

Hillary Clinton is calling for a holiday on the 18.4-cent gasoline tax, and she says she'd make up the funding from that (which funds transportation infrastructure) by taxing oil company's "windfall" profits.

Forget the fact that, as the above-linked article points out, Hillary actually "OPPOSED efforts to cut or repeal gas taxes during her 2000 Senate contest against Rick Lazio." Senator Clinton doesn't care about stuff like that. Forget the fact that this gas tax holiday will only save the average American family about $28 over the course of the summer driving season. That pesky fact doesn't matter to her.

What matters is that this gas tax issue is something she can use against Obama. She's even running an anti-Obama ad which criticizes Obama for not supporting this proposal. Thankfully, many pundits are calling bullshit on this whole scheme:

[A]mong pundits, her proposal (and McCain's similar plan) is getting laughed out of the room. The normally sympathetic Paul Krugman calls Clinton's plan "pointless" and McCain's "evil," while his colleague Thomas Friedman denounces the plan as "money laundering: we borrow money from China and ship it to Saudi Arabia and take a little cut for ourselves as it goes through our gas tanks." Still, it's the kind of pander that could work, no matter how transparent or absurd. If voters associate Clinton with cheap gas, mission accomplished.

I think that what is driving Hillary to do this is the same thing that drove her to vote for Bush's Iraq Debacle, namely, it was the politically expedient thing to do. But I think it is the cowardly thing to do.

Thanks, Senator Clinton, for once again living up to all my expectations.

Five Year Ago Today

If you have the stomach for it, here is a video of Bush landing on the carrier deck and prancing around in his flight suit.


This would be hilarious stuff if it wasn't for the fact that 4064 American troops have died so far as a result of the Bush Regime's colossal fuck-up in Iraq.

Here's what White House Press Secretary Dana Perino had to say yesterday about all this:

"[W]e have certainly paid a price for not being more specific on that banner."

God help us.

And, by the way, check this out:

A new poll suggests that George W. Bush is the most unpopular president in modern American history.

A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Thursday indicates that 71 percent of the American public disapprove of how Bush his handling his job as president.

"No president has ever had a higher disapproval rating in any CNN or Gallup poll; in fact, this is the first time that any president's disapproval rating has cracked the 70 percent mark," said CNN Polling Director Keating Holland.

"Bush's approval rating, which stands at 28 percent in our new poll, remains better than the all-time lows set by Harry Truman and Richard Nixon (22 percent and 24 percent, respectively) but even those two presidents never got a disapproval rating in the 70s," Holland added. "The previous all-time record in CNN or Gallup polling was set by Truman, 66 percent disapproval in January 1952."

What I find most amazing isn't the record-low disapproval rating, but the fact that 28% of Americans actually approve of the job Bush is doing. That's nearly one-third of the country.