Boy, he may not know what torture, or waterboarding is, but our new Crony General has it down, when it comes to Bag Jobs!
Mukasey won't enforce Contempt Citations"Here is your Friday News Dump™. And boy howdy, is it the sort of thing a failed administration would really try to release after the east coast network news broadcasts ... "
It seems that the See-No-Evil-Hear-No-Evil-Speak-No-Evil Crony General Michael Mukasey will not enforce the Congressional Contempt Citations, against Karl Rove and Harriet Miers, for their roles in the firing of the U.S. Attorneys, because ... Drum roll, please ... "... Mukasey says they committed no crime ..."
Holy Scales of Justice, Batman!
Wasn't it just nearly 35-years ago, in what became known as the "Saturday Night Massacre", when the United States Attorney General resigned, in protest against unitary power, and the Executive Branch usurping the Constitution?
But, then again, times change, and we may have this Crony General all wrong.
He might not know torture, but he, apparently, has a keen eye, and innate sixth sense for being able to determine what is, or isn't a crime
Get this man a Greyhound Hot Seat Special pass!
Ship this Crony General around the country, he can clear up the entire country's court systems' backlog - probably, without breaking a sweat!
It can be like an inspection, kind-of-thing.
With, or without his jackboots, they line up all the wrongdoers, the arrested and indicted, and Crony General Mukasey walks up and down, perhaps giving him a riding crop, for the effect, tapping them on the shoulder ... Guilty .. Guilty ... Innocent ... Innocent, as he goes up and down the lines.
It is, apparently, as easy as that.
Though, this may backfire on them ... I mean, a few guilty ones may slip by him, especially if they are crafty enough to tell the Crony General that "the President said I could do it".
There it is, the Pass Go and Collect $200 magic bullet.
That seems to be about the extent of any investigation that Crony General Mukasey needs.
No gumshoe, pounding-the-pavement for this Crony General.
No hours, upon hours, under a single, hot, glaring light bulb, of interrogation (after all, any type of interrogation, harsh or otherwise, isn't, exactly Mukasy's strong suit).
Just let justice rip ... Shoot it straight from the gut!
Wait a minute ... Again, we underestimate the Bush Grindhouse.
Perhaps the Director of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff, passed along, to Crony General Mukasey, the secrets of "feeling in your gut", after he became the "Human Terror Alert".
Move over McGruff, we have now Crony General Michael Mukasey, not a crime-fighter, rather, a crime-decider!
Bonus Crony General Mukasey Riffs
Eli/Firedoglake: Rule Of Law Still Clinging To Life
CNN: Attorney general declines to investigate Bush advisers
Was The Mukasy Vote Part Of That Rovian New Math?
The Crony General Slinks Away ... "I have seen tyranny, dishonesty, corruption, and depravity of types I never thought possible"
Top Ten Cloves: Other Conditions President Bush Has To Allow Rove and Miers To Testify Before Congress
To the kennels for you, Canine Cop Boy ... There's a new Crime-Decider in town, and he isn't interested in taking a bite out of it
Saturday, March 01, 2008
The Friday Night Bag Job
This Date ... On The Garlic
Garlic History - On This Day
1 March 2007... On The Garlic
This Just In! White House Applying Katrina Strategy To Med Center Neglect; To Gauge Neglect, Problems, President Set To Fly Over Walter Reed, Bldg. 18 Today; Bush Promising Action, "To Press Face Against Window"; Recommends DOD Follow Katrina Strategy
1 March 2006... On The Garlic
The Garlic Receives Three Nominations For 2005 Koufax Awards
1 March 2005... On The Garlic
American Idol, Clear Channel To Go With All-Beyonce Format
Hershey Splitting Company, Changing Name, New Tag
Top Ten Cloves: Other Things Month of March Could Roar In Like
Friday, February 29, 2008
Hilllary Leaps To Dial Up Fearmongering With New Ad
"If one candidate is trying to scare you and the other one is try get you to think, if one candidate is appealing to your fears and the other one is appealing to your hopes, you better vote for the person who wants you to think and hope."
-- William J. Clinton, former President of the United States, October 25, 2004
Well, they did say, before the debate the other evening, they were going to throw the "kitchen sink" at Obama, but, little did we know, they were going to rip one out of the Bush Grindhouse to do so.
Quite the dose of Bush Grindhouse-style fearmongering.
Who did they consult for the, now, growing infamous, 3AM Ad - McCain?, Or, maybe John Boenher and the Republican Caucus?
Actually, TNR's Jason Zengerle, at The Plank, concurs; "I actually thought this commercial was pretty effective--right up until the very end when I realized it was for Hillary. I wonder if McCain can just buy the first 25 seconds of it from her and then recut the ending so he can use it in the general election."
(And one commenter on TNR picked up on something, quite apropos - "Only the Clinton campaign would think mom would be checking on the kids at 3:00 am still dressed in her snazzy business suit.")
With the 3AM Ad featuring sleeping children, nothing like countering your opponents message of uplifting hope, with threatening everyone "If you vote for him (Obama), your children will die!"
Considering how she's run her campaign, it's rather ironic of them calling it the 3AM Ad - it looks more like they don't know what time it is, or whether to piss or wind their watches.
We already used the 'High Noon' theme (and for an earlier, Republican fearmongering effort), otherwise, it would be applicable here, clocks ticking away, at every turn, with the Clinton staffers softly, nervously, singing "Do not forsake me O my darlin' ..."
Hillary may have past experience with getting calls at three-in-the-morning, but I doubt they had anything to do with national security, no matter which house she was living in.
And, what specific experience does Hillary have to infer she should answer the "red phone" at 3AM?
Perhaps its insomnia, again, looking at her campaign to-date.
Pretty ballsy to put this out now, after going 0-11 in February. Did we miss the polls that showed voters are clamoring to find a candidate that can answer a telephone - be it 3AM or 3PM?
Is there some measurable data that shows, if you let the call drop to voicemail, then you are not presidential timber?
What if one of the staffers answers it, and it can be handled by them, or it can wait until the normal work day?
What if it is, simply, someone that misdialed?
And considering she hasn't, necessarily, been on the front lines of fighting the Bush Grindhouse on the Protect America Act, and holding the line of granting Telcom Immunity, she wants to highlight telephone calls, much like her voting for the war ...
Jesus, is the entire campaign asleep, or what?
Besides, if she wanted to do a telephone ad, Hillary should have gone with a "Sorry, Wrong Number" motif ... Perhaps, she could play the terrified Barbara Stanwyck role, tweaking the plot to be overhearing a terrorist plot on her line - on Day One - and snapping into action, thwarting the plans and showing everyone she's The Commander Woman!
Obama, responding to the ad today; "I will never see the threat of terrorism as a way to scare up votes, because it's a threat that should rally the country around our common enemies. That is the judgment we need at 3:00 a.m., and that's the judgment that I am running for as president of the United States of America."
Perhaps, after March 4th, whoever is calling that 3AM telephone, or the Clinton office that produced it, will reach a recording - "The number you have dialed has been disconnected and no longer in service ..."
With crap like this, we can only Hope.
Bonus Hillary Telephone Calling Plan Links
Pam's House Blend: Latest Clinton ad sells experience with fear-baiting
ABC's Political Radar: Clinton Goes Nuclear: New Ad Tests Obama
Erza Klein: IT'S 3AM. AND MY AD IS STUPID
Marc Ambinder: Clinton's "Red Phone"
Chris Cillizza: Clinton's "3 a.m. Phone Call" Ad
Oh, save us Hillary... Save us!
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Last Nights' Dress Boy Sticks His Neck Out
Boy, this took a lot of courage ... And what prescience!
Move over Nostradamus, there's a new kid on the block ...
Maybe he has a "feeling" on how the Cubs are going to do this season ... Or, does he already know who our next president will be? ... Or perhaps, he's holding high over our guilty pleasures, teasing those around him, smug with the knowledge of who is this season's American Idol winner?
Drum roll, please ...
Prediction [Jonah Goldberg]"In the next few days, there will be a wave of liberals — Frank Rich comes particularly to mind — who will use WFB's memory to beat up on today's conservatives ..."
Whoa! ... Ya think so?
Well, Commissar Goldberg, you don't have to wait that long ... And you don't have to worry about "today's conservatives" ...Beating up on Buckley himself will do just fine ...
Barry Crimmins - Burial Right
Dennis Perrin - Socked In The God Damned Face (with bonus videos of Noam Chomsky schooling Little Billy)
Bonus Links
"The morning after always looks grim if you happen to be wearing last night's dress"
Timothy Noah/Slate: Am I a Fascist? Jonah Goldberg's tendentious history of liberalism
Lawyers, Guns and Money: Dear Jonah: I Am Not Serious, Either
Move over, Old Timer, the new kid Jonah is taking over!
Sticks and Stones Will Break My Bones ...
After reading Juan Cole this morning, we may have to change our "Good Post Alert" to "Great Post Alert".
Cole weighs in on the McCain flare up from Cincinnati the other day, when his warm-up act (and that is being extremely generous), local rightwing radio guy Bill Cunningham red-meated the crowd, denigrating Barack Obama in numerous ways, including the repeated use of referring to him as "Barack Hussein Obama" (this years' entry into the deck of Terror Fear Flash Cards).
So, Cole did a little research and came up with ...
Barack Hussein Obama, Omar Bradley, Benjamin Franklin and other Semitically Named American Heroes
A few snippets"I want to say something about Barack Hussein Obama's name. It is a name to be proud of. It is an American name. It is a blessed name. It is a heroic name, as heroic and American in its own way as the name of General Omar Nelson Bradley or the name of Benjamin Franklin. And denigrating that name is a form of racial and religious bigotry of the most vile and debased sort. It is a prejudice against names deriving from Semitic languages!"
"What about other American heroes, such as Gen. George Joulwan, former NATO Supreme Allied Commander of Europe? "Joulwan" is an Arabic name. Or there is Gen. John Abizaid, former CENTCOM commander. Abizaid is an Arabic name. Abi means Abu or "father of," and Zaid is a common Arab first name. Is Cunningham good enough to wipe their shoes? Is he going to call them traitors because they have Arabic names?"
And that First Republican President?"Abraham Lincoln, of course is, named for the patriarch Abraham, from the Semitic word for father, Ab, and the word for "multitude," raham,. Abu, "father of," is a common element in Arab names today.
McCain, the RNC, and more upstanding, respected GOP leaders need (and should) to stand up and put this slime down. It's childish and, as Juan Cole points out, quite un-American.
One of those persons is, in fact, Obama's cousin, Vice President Dick Cheney.
Highly recommended you read Barack Hussein Obama, Omar Bradley, Benjamin Franklin and other Semitically Named American Heroes ... It's highly enlightening!
This Date ... On The Garlic
Garlic History - On This Day
28 February 2007... On The Garlic
Top Ten Cloves: Surprising Things Found In Newly Discovered Jesus Burial Cave
28 February 2006... On The Garlic
Bush To "Kick Back" For 45-Days; Bush To Tackle First Lady's "To-Do" List During Port Review
Top Law Schools Launch Admissions War
Top Ten Cloves: Last Minute Things President Bush Did Before Leaving For India
28 February 2005... On The Garlic
Bush Launches No Pharmaceutical Company Left Behind; Hundreds To Be Laid Off In FDA Reorg
Sirius To Broadcast NASCAR, Other Major Visual Events
New Ken Burns Follow-Up To Baseball; Spotlight On Steroids
Top Ten Cloves: People Who Wish This Year Was A Leap Year
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
The Day After ... Around The Debate-Go-Round
Well, it's the Day After, the, what should be, final Democratic debate of this campaign season (God, it better be!) and the sky hasn't fallen ...
Unless you happen to be Hillary Clinton.
No the sky hasn’t fallen, but the clouds are getting darker, getting bigger, almost shouting out that there ain't gonna be much, or any, sunshine for quite some time.
The Garlic weighed in on the debate last evening, shortly after it, and it was late evening, so links to other takes and reviews were sparse.
So, still dragging, with the ol' energy tank running low (and now, on top of other duties, dogsitting has been added to the list), we go with a look around the World Wide Web, a spin Around The Blogosphere, to offer you what else is being said, were the chips lie, if you will, as to the big finale last evening, between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama
Grab a cup of coffee, or cocktail, and enjoy!
Allasandra Stanley, in the NYT, offers that "for the rest of the evening, the MSNBC debate did look a bit like the “S.N.L.” parody", while The Carpetbagger Report asks "Cleveland rocks? Clinton, Obama spar, but did they connect?" ...
Joe Gandelman, over on The Moderate Voice has a nice round-up of his own ...
As to the storm clouds referenced above, Maureen Dowd writes "By threatening to throw the kitchen sink at Obama, the Clinton campaign simply confirmed the fact that they might be going down the drain", and this;"Actually it’s not forgotten. It’s a hard sell for Hillary to say that she is the only one capable of leading this country in a war when she helped in leading the country into that war. Or to paraphrase Obama from the debate here, the one who drives the bus into the ditch can’t drive it out."
Ouch!
Noam Scheiber, on The New Republic wasn't overly impressed either - "On the other hand, the whole rationale for Clinton is that she's uniquely ready to deal with whatever comes her way. She almost literally stated that tonight, but she didn't do a great job demonstrating it."
But, for you Hillary fans, fear not, Taylor Marsh, on The Huffington Post, has the Hillary Orchestra playing at full volume, in her post "Obama Blows his 'Sister Soujah' Moment";"After a year in the primary season, Hillary Clinton has found her theme: I'm a fighter ... So the winner in political terms was Clinton, because she found her theme and it fits ... Take away of the night: Clinton, the fighter. That's for sure."
Yeah, The Garlic noticed the redundant "fighter" theme from Hillary, and this was our take-away;"Hillary blathered on about being a "fighter" so much, so often, I half expected Burgess Meredith to come rambling out on the stage and grouch "Ya need a manager!" ... Then it's quick cut to Hillary running around Cleveland at dawn and punching sides of beef ..."
Ahhh, moving on ,,,
The Los Angeles Times, and also Jeralyn, on Firedoglake, focus in on the Obama-Farakhan, "was it enough" meme, which was one of the hotter items on the blogosphere ... It's almost played out that they have to dun Obama on something, so this is it ... It appears, anything short of going Yakuza, and cutting of a finger to prove his integrity, doesn't make it ...
Prairie Weather has, perhaps, the shortest post on the debate but it's on the money - "It's Al Gore's fault".
Another On-The-Money post comes from Brilliant at Breakfast;"The kids and novices and bloggers of the Dean candidacy are now far more savvy about Washington and the media and the existing horserace infrastructure surrounding this exercise we go through every four years. Since 2004, they've helped to elect Senators and Congresspeople. This winter bloggers have helped topple a corporatist Congressman whom Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer strongly supported, and now Donna Edwards is in all likelihood going to Congress in Maryland's 4th district.
The problem was never with building a war chest fifty bucks at a time and putting a bat up on your web site, it was sheer inexperience. Add to that maturity and experience a candidate to whom young voters relate, one who's intelligent, charismatic, and very much like the very same biracial people prevalent in their circles, and you have a campaign that may have to tap its donors multiple times, but that offers the kind of free foot soldiers that allow you to manage money more effectively. Mark Penn and Howard Wolfson can't BUY viral video like this"
And, lastly, Barry Crimmins hits us with a punishing, scolding piece of satire - Advise To Youth; "Hey you kids, sit up straight and pay attention! I'm telling you this for your own good and not because I like the sound of my own voice. Get off the campaign trail! It's dangerous for children. So quit volunteering for Barack Obama! Stop joining hands with strangers at those giant events! You don't know where their hands have been But I do. They have been in dirty, dirty places. And stop turning out so many voters!"
Read it, it's hysterical!
A Few More Links
NYT Transcript - The Democratic Debate in Cleveland
Candidates go on the attack in Ohio showdown; Clinton seeks to slow Obama’s momentum in debate on MSNBC
Katharine Q. Seelye/The Caucus: The Last Waltz? The Democratic Debate in Cleveland
Marc Copper: Hillary's Ignominious Finale
This Date ... On The Garlic
Garlic History - On This Day
27 February, 2007... On The Garlic
Breaking News! Cheney Bound By Terror Policy, Told To Not Come Home!; After Bomb Attempt, White House Tells Cheney To "Stay Away"; Belief "They Will Follow The Vice President Home"; Cheney To Get New Secret Bunker "Somewhere In Iraq"
27 February 2006... On The Garlic
The New Strategy For Winning Olympic Medals; Bush Says Would Be Mistake To Pull Out Olympic Team
Top Ten Cloves: Reasons Dubai Ports World Asked For 45-Day Delay In Taking Over U.S. Ports
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Yes, Extra Pillows Will Be Needed ...
Long day and too tired to get into any intricately weaved narrative, about the 20th (or is it 200th) Democratic Debate ...
So, random musings ...
Just listening to the Keith Olbermann-led gang on MSNBC ... Gene Robinson laid down a good vibe, stating Barack Obama came off in the debate as presidential ... The former Nixon-speechwriter Pat Buchanan, essentially agreed with Robinson, going further with drooling over Obama's metaphor for Hillary Clinton, and Iraq, framing it as "driving the bus in the ditch" ...
Olbermann than throws it to Rachel Maddow, who we noted early on wears her Hillary on her sleeve, could offer no such praise, so she dissed the entire debate, calling it dull, how it will drag down what been going on, all the hyper-excitement generated on the Democratic side of these primaries (and the bulk of that delivered by Obama) ... If we ran with a rating system of sourpusses, Ms. Maddow with get four, fully-frowning faces ...
One telling moment - Hillary attempts to diss Obama on Pakistan, that he said he would go in and bomb the country, blah, blah, blah ... Obama, without breaking a sweat (in fact, I think he flashes a wry smile) batted to right back down Hillary's throat, stating (once again) exactly what he said, and then noting how the Bush Grindhouse just recently did exactly what Hillary was trying to score points on against the Big O ...
Tim Russert, in the end, had his little white board ... Only it was one you couldn’t write on, but between his legs, as he "got" Hillary to say she regretted her Iraq vote and wished she could take it back ,,, The MSNBC crew crowed about that, like Russert just discovered the cure for cancer, or figured out the Natalee Holloway case ... Backslapping all around, to the point of palm prints pressed into their suits ...
And Tweety, beating to death a Hemingway riff, of boating a marlin, showing a bit of miff, that nobody was patting him on the back, for making such a great, literary, reference ...
Andrea Mitchell ... I guess her role was to hang around, and when they go to her, she could just restate something someone else said, as if it was her own, and everyone acts impressed ...
Hillary blathered on about being a "fighter" so much, so often, I half expected Burgess Meredith to come rambling out on the stage and grouch "Ya need a manager!" ... Then it's quick cut to Hillary running around Cleveland at dawn and punching sides of beef ...
Obama, throughout the debate was as cool as a cucumber ... West Side Story cool... He went, not like a crazy school boy, he just played it coolly cool ...
Hillary, by all accounts, needed to hit a homerun and knock Obama out of the game with this one debate ... She never hit the ball out of the infield ...
And it didn't help Hillary, to come out, opening moments, right off the bat, whining.
First question of the night went to Hillary and she pounced on Brian Williams, whiningly complaining that why is it she always gets the first question (post-debate, David Shuster checked in with Olbermann and it's only been 6-of-the-last-10 debates), whine, whine, whine ...
Then, she hit herself over the head with her own bat ... She invoked SNL Debate skit from the other night, asking if "we should get Obama another pillow", to make sure he's comfortable ...
You could her booing coming from the audience ... And was it Hillary, or one of her staff consultants, that had her quoting a weekly television comedy show, as her do-or-die debate strategy? ...
Yes Hillary, extra pillows will be needed ... Order them for the evening of March 4th, so you can apply them as a cushion for the big fall coming ... 
Top Ten Cloves: If Monica Goodling's Wedding Plays Out Like Her Last Job
News Item: Breaking: Monica Goodling Is Engaged!
10. In unusual step, the DOJ is notifying all Government contractors of Goodlings' Wedding Registry
9. Reception will be in a Congressional Hearing Room motif
8. Pat Robertson will offer one of his special blessings for the couple
7. All emails about the wedding will be sent "directly up to Goodling and outside the system"
6. Justice of the Peace who will perform ceremony got licensed from Regent College
5. Goodling not sure if she will say "I Do", or plead the 5th Amendment
4. Goodling had Barbara Comstock do a thorough "opposition research" on her prospective husband
3. Bridesmaids and ushers will be chosen strictly along party affiliation
2. Alberto Gonzales will pull her aside, before the wedding, to talk to her about what to say during the wedding
1. Karl Rove is planning the whole thing!
Bonus Monica/DOJ Riffs
Think Progress: Monica Goodling engaged to conservative blogger
Attaturk/FDL: Just Perfect for Marching to Wagner Together
Dana Milbank: Monica's Own Monica Problem
"He aggressively and successfully pursued public corruption ..."
Alberto Gonzales Sings 'Justice For Sale'
Here's Monica, practicing for her ring fitting
Maybe Marvel Comics Can Put Out A Special Edition ... The Results - The Garlic's Weekly Poll
Oh, think of the possibilities ...
The Fantastic Four, descending upon Denver, for the Democrats convention, out and determined to keep the process fair and just.
Then, suddenly, they appear ... The school-bus-yellow-pant-suited Superdelegates ...
Will Sue Storm throw up a force field to hold them at bay?
Does Johnny Storm merely point a flaming finger at them, incinerating the Superdelegates on the spot?
Ben Grimm, will he do his "Thing", thing and crush them?
Maybe, carnage will be avoided, with Reed Richards, as Mister Fantastic (well, Mister Fantastic #2, if Barack Obama happens to be around) stretches out his neck, supervising the Superdelegates, checking all their ballots, snooping on their conversations, and, to the chagrin of Human Torch, and Thing, reasons with the Superdelegates to do the right thing ...
Hmmm ... Maybe Marvel Comics can put out a Special Edition ...
The Results - The Garlic's Weekly Poll February 17 - February 25, 2008
With so much confusing talk about them, most people think Superdelegates are ...
1. Arch enemy to the Fantastic Four Tally 28%
2. New strain of the Flu Tally 26%
3. Brand of steroids Roger Clemens took Tally 22%
4 (Tie). Retro 1970's disco group Tally 12%
4 (Tie). What Heather Mills wants in her divorce from Paul McCartney Tally 12%
This week’s Poll - For Mitt Romney to jump back in the Presidential Race, he needs to ...
Scroll up to the top right corner to place your vote
Super Bonus Links
2008 Democratic National Convention
2008 Democratic Convention Watch
Walter Shapiro/Salon: A non-paranoid's guide to superdelegates; Rather than an anti-Obama cabal, these Democratic insiders are the ultimate tiebreakers
CNN: Superdelegates loom over Democratic race
Sarah Lai Stirland/Wired: Superdelegates Under the Spotlight
David Welna/All Things Considered: Superdelegates May Break Democrats' Dead Heat
Gail Russell Chaddock/CSM: If superdelegates pick nominee, Democrats face backlash
Monday, February 25, 2008
"...And Your Mother Wears Combat Boots!"
Boy, Frank Rich's timing couldn't have been better ... The Audacity of Hopelessness
Hillary's down to taunting Barack Obama, with, basically, a "Your mother wears Army boots" mentality.
So much for the "And, you know, no matter what happens in this contest -- and I am honored, I am honored to be here with Barack Obama. I am absolutely honored" thing, from the debate the other night.
Perhaps the operative phrase here is "no matter what happens", that it was not the emotional, conciliatory outreach most took it for, but a warning, throwing down a "I'm coming after you".
While it could register a movement on the satire meter, in looking at the video, the tone gives it away ... Hillary comes off cowardly, like a bully trying to rally support behind their oafishness.
And it's disingenuous.
While Obama, true, with uplifting, soul-stirring oratory, has moved the masses, I haven't heard him say it will be easy, that it's a cakewalk, or that on Day One, he'll wave a magic wand to disappear all the special interests, as Hillary mocked.
In this "My Sister-My Daughter" campaign of the Clinton camp, I half expect to see breaking news today of Hillary, cheeks puffy and red, breaking down in tears again, on how game she is, how hard it is ...
No, strike that ...
She'll wait until March 3rd to do the waterworks, to follow her New Hampshire strategy, maybe cite that she is "reclaiming her voice", since she had previously found it, and has been talking six-ways-from-Sunday with it.
There is an article this morning - "Clinton assures donors after losses."
Assures them of what?
That she'll be carrying around her "Campaign Joke Book for Dummies"? ... That she'll put thumb tacks on Obama's chair before the next debate? ... Or a Whoopee Cushion? ... Is she going to get some her staff, get their "Bitch" on and go all "Mean Girls" on Obama?
If Hillary's strategy, her "assurances to donors", is to merely taunt Obama, time for her to bow out now.
We don't need to hear this juvenile pap from now, to the convention.
It reeks of desperation.
Maybe a few of those celestial angels that she mocked, can come down, in the bright light that she mocked, and tap Hillary on the shoulder, whisper a few words in her ear and tell her the "weight-challenged" lady is singing.
Bonus Hillary Mockingbird Riffs
Skippy the Bush Kangaroo: rovian highschool mocking mentality
maxnyc/Daily Kos: UPDATE w/video Clinton Now Mocking Obama
Maureen Dowd: ¿Quién Es Less Macho?
Andrew Sullivan: The Clintons' Last Stand
Shaun Mullen/TMV - The Slow-Motion Implosion of Hillary Clinton’s Campaign: It Took a Village
Hillary's Smelling Burning Rubber! ...Or: The Garlic Was Right - Hillary Has Built Her "Field of Voices"
This Date ... On The Garlic
Garlic History - On This Day
25 February, 2007... On The Garlic
Cue Fox Promo "If You Don't Laugh, That Must Mean You're Aiding The Terrorists" ... The Results - The Garlic's Weekly Poll
25 February 2005... On The Garlic
Cardinals Stymied, Looking For A New Signal
Suede Magazine Shutting Down
MTV Launches In Africa
Top Ten Cloves: How Martha Stewart Plans To Be Nicer When Released From Prison
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Well, It's A Destiny of Sitting at The Presidential Kids Table
Getting lost in the booming news of the week (take your pick - Obama trouncing Hillary, Hillary blowing smoke about Obama's "plagiarism", Here's Johnny Boy McCain and his Lobbyist Love Fest), is that our current, the 42nd President of the United States has set a new record, unparalleled, unprecedented (even worse than Nixon, for Christ's Sake!).
19%
Nixon was only at 23% during Watergate and the worst rating, Harry Truman, was only 22%, that during the Korean War.
The Commander Guy might want to put a parachute pack on the back of the flightsuit, he's plummeting so badly.
From Attytood;"Worse than Richard Nixon in the days before he resigned in disgrace during Watergate, worse than Jimmy Carter during the Iran hostage crisis, much worse than Bill Clinton when he was impeached. Just as Roger Bannister raced through what once seemed the unreachable 4-minute mile, Bush has burst through a barrier once also thought impossible, below the 20-percent mark."
If this isn't, yet, more ammunition for the Congressional Democrats to stay strong on the Protect America Act and deny the Telcom Immunity (and, of course, the soul-less Bush Grindhouse continues to lie and play with a stacked deck of Fear Cards).
As Snagglepuss might yelp, Heavens-to-Murgatroyd!, do they want to go down, caving to a President that has 4-out-5 Americans disapproving of him?
When, in the future, the living, former Presidents get together, they'll have no choice but to place this "Cascading Conservative" at the kids table, that is if such ratings even gets him in the door.
Again, from Attytood;It takes more than unpopularity to become the worst president ever, but this may be the straw that broke the camel's back on that front. It should remind us all what the 2008 election is all about, and it's not about Hillary's wardrobe or an off-the-cuff remark or who is the Second Coming of Ronald Reagan.
It's only about who can undo the damage of the last eight years. It's amazing so many people wanted such a difficult task."
The sooner he exits - be it stage right, or stage left, the better we will all be.
Read The Survey - Concerns over Economy Push George W. Bush's Overall Job Approval to New Low
There's Sucker's Born Every Minute ...
We already did our riff on the shooting down of that wayward spy satellite (see Top Ten Cloves: Things About U.S. Plans to Shoot Down Broken Spy Satellite) last week.
First, there was the news that the Navy nailed it on the first shot.
Ooookayyyyyy ...There isn't, necessarily, independent verification of such, so, we'll take their word for it (but reserving the right to raise an eyebrow, or two).
And, I suppose, we can expect, certainly by November Sweeps, some major, blockbusting, television movie-of-the-week, hyping the shit out of this ...
Tight, close-ups of pensive actors wearing Admiral uniforms, with quick cuts to children frolicking in playground, and the new, young couple, with their 2-month-old baby, that just moved into their dream house - RIGHT IN THE PATH OF THE FALLING SATELLITE!All with the prerequisite talk of "Emmy" before the first commercial break.
Then, the money shot, inside the Oval Office, the Mark Harmon-portraying-Bush, President giving the order, against a backdrop of "danger music" - "SHOOT IT DOWN!"
(If they really want to have some fun, bang out "Armageddon II", and bring back Bruce Willis, Ben Affleck and the asteriod-drilling crew for another space adventure; Since the Bruce Willis character died in the first movie, the storyline will have to involve him not dying, but catching a ride and stowing away on this spy satellite, and it's up to his old crew to race up there and drill him out - he's gotten stuck - before the Navy pushes the button to shoot it down ... You can just feel the drama, and there'll be Oscar buzz, no doubt.)
Rather than big, or little screen heroes, we have the Rightwing Freakshow, the Ronnie Reagan groupies, taking center stage, and getting all excited and plump over it.
You see, shooting down this dead satellite is exactly, exactly the kind of thing Reagan had "the vision" for, with his fart-of-an-idea, his Star Wars Defense, otherwise know as The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI).
First up, is Little Billy Kristol's rag, The Weekly Standard, where Michael Goldfarb gushes;
"This is a major success for the Missile Defense Agency, the successor to Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative, and it's going to be a tough pill for the program's critics to swallow.
The system will now be an easier sell to allies, and it should be a cudgel for Republicans in the fall. The "rogue" satellite cost more than a billion dollars. One suspects its destruction will be of greater value to this country than any mission it could have performed as a functioning spy satellite."
And the Captain Edward Morrissey, over on Captain's Quarters, was flying his Reagan flag;
"Eventually, this could end the ballistic missile era. If effective defenses become widely available, there will not be much point in maintaining ballistic missile inventories at all. Ronald Reagan had that very vision when he first proposed SDI and tried to get the Soviets to partner with him on it."
Much like Mary Katharine Ham, blogger and managing editor of Townhall.Com, this pair of Reagan worshipers must not be aware of "The Google".
For, it they had looked it up at all, or had a bit of memory to fall back on, maybe they would have chilled, just a little, on their untamed enthusiasm (then again, those on the Right don't, necessarily, bother themselves with facts).
The Star Wars Defense, SDI, was a hoax, a bluff.
The Reagan Administration was blowing smoke at the Russians, goading them into squandering budget in a non-existent space arms race.
From an NYT Editorial ("The Star Wars Hoax"), back in August 1993;
"The revelation on yesterday's front page was enough to rouse even the most cynical student of official mendacity: at great cost, The Times's Tim Weiner reports, the Reagan Administration back in 1984 designed an elaborate deception to mislead the Soviet Union about the "Star Wars" space-based missile defense. The scheme deceived not only the Kremlin but Congress, defrauding the American people of billions of dollars that could have been spent on real defense and domestic programs."And the ruse wouldn't be complete without rigged tests.
"The rigging was done by transmitting a signal from the target missile to a receiver on the interceptor, in effect helping the interceptor to home in on the missile by broadcasting: "Here I am. Come get me."Finally;
Congress was not told the test had been rigged. It was also fed other phony data attesting to Star Wars's magical protective powers. These actions clearly crossed the line of normal Pentagon misrepresentation. They denied Congress the information it needed to exercise its constitutional authority over spending.:
"But more than Congress's pride and authority is at stake. The whole history of Star Wars is now thrown into question. Millions of Americans are still walking around with the impression that Star Wars was designed to protect them. But to some of its original proponents, like President Reagan's national security adviser Robert McFarlane, Star Wars was always, from first to last, an elaborate ruse to induce the Soviets to divert money and manpower into space-based defenses."
"A cudgel for Republicans in the fall"?
With the country in a recession, and the quagmire of Iraq, with billions being spent monthly, I'd love to hear Mike Huckabee or Mitt Romney (presuming, that McCain sinks with his armada of lobbyists) fly this balloon out there.
As The Commander Guy would say - Bring it on!
Bonus Links
Noah Shachtman: Wham! Navy Blasts Rogue Satellite
Noah Shachtman: Video: Satellite Shoot-Down, Simulated (Updated)
Robert Burns: Video: Navy Missile Hits Spy Satellite
Top Ten Cloves: How Bush Administration Reacted To News of The Death Star Galaxy
A hoax, delivering a hoax
