Two days after Christmas, and the Republicans have already forgotten "Peace on Earth, Goodwill to Men."
The Hill is reporting that Chip Saltsman, one of the candidates for RNC chair (and if memory serves, a prior member of a whites-only country club) sent a 41-track CD to members of the RNC, by his friend Paul Shanklin of the Rush Limbaugh Show.
The CD, called “We Hate the USA,” lampoons liberals with such songs as “John Edwards’ Poverty Tour,” “Wright place, wrong pastor,” “Love Client #9,” “Ivory and Ebony” and “The Star Spanglish banner.”
Several of the track titles, including “Barack the Magic Negro,” are written in bold font. The following month, Shanklin debuted his version of the song, sung to the tune of “Puff the Magic Dragon” and performed in Shanklin’s impression of Al Sharpton.
“Paul Shanklin is a long-time friend, and I think that RNC members have the good humor and good sense to recognize that his songs for the Rush Limbaugh show are light-hearted political parodies,” Saltsman said.
Some people know no shame.
We (I for now) have nothing in common with those "people".
Though we ("we" = "me" for now; I hope to get more people aboard before too long) will hold Democrats accountable, we will not be hammering Democrats for "made up" scandals.
What a big disappointment for the cynics. The Obama transition team's report documenting its contacts with the Illinois governor's office on the Illinois Senate seat reveals exactly what we expected: that there was hardly any contact at all between the transition team and Blago's office, and that it was all appropriate. There was no discussion whatsoever relating to any sort of this-for-that, and nobody on the transition team had any idea of what was going on inside Blago's mind. Moreover, it is obvious that the Obama team would have liked to release this report long ago. It was completed on the 15th, but at the request of the U.S. Attorney was not made public until today to allow Fitzgerald's office to complete its interviews, the last of which was conducted on the 20th. At the request of the Office, we delayed the release of this report until such time as the interviews could be completed. The interviews took place over a period of three days: Thursday, December 18, 2008 (the President-Elect); December 19, 2008 (Valerie Jarrett); and December 20, 2008 (Rahm Emanuel). Let me emphasize this point: the reason why the release of the Obama report was delayed was to allow Fitzgerald to complete his interviews with the transition team. In other words, everything that Obama's team has said has been true.
So yes, Blagojevich is corrupt and should be removed. But none of this has anything to do with Barack Obama. Nothing to see here.
Let's say you're at a bar with a group of people. They've been working hard while everyone else is having fun, and they look pretty bored. So you decide you'll be a mensch and buy 'em a round. That'd be pretty decent of you, don't you think? Ah, but this is our greatly esteemed national media we're talking about. And the great defenders of the Republic -- specifically, CNN -- have proclaimed it an unacceptable sin that our President-elect attempted to purchase their affections with a Bud. That Anonymous Guy's diary :: :: Beergate began yesterday, with this rather innocuous pool report from Jeff Zeleny of the New York Times: He chatted for a moment, telling the traveling press pool to have a beer and put it on his tab. No one took him up on the offer. Now, I read this and thought, "Gee, that Obama sure is a decent guy. I'd want to strangle these guys if they'd been hounding me throughout my vacation, and here he's offering to buy them a round!"
HONOLULU (CNN) – Many Republicans already believe President-elect Barack Obama has gotten a free ride from the national media, so they may not be happy to learn the incoming Commander-in-Chief offered to buy a round of drinks for reporters covering his working vacation on the sands of Hawaii's beaches and the greens of its lush golf courses... [T]he key here is reporters covering the President-elect are having more fun here in Hawaii than we had in Crawford, Texas — and 85 degrees in the middle of the afternoon here is way better than the cold winds blowing through Chicago too. But none of the journalists were corrupted by free beer — we pay our own tabs. And just for the record: your faithful correspondent, while enjoying the wonders of Waikiki beach, never drinks — at least not on the job.
Ooooooo! Ed Henry buys his own drinks! He's not about to be corrupted by a Budweiser! Frickin' second coming of Woodward and Bernstein, you are. Now, I thought I'd cut Ed some slack... maybe he was just joking around, right?
Rick Warren was chosen to deliver the invocation at the inauguration. Ok, ok, I don’t care so much about this person being a delusional woo; one person’s superstitious BS is pretty much the same as another. But the message I am hearing is that this sort of attitude is acceptable to Barack Obama:
As we’ve pointed out several times before, in 2004 Warren declared that marriage, reproductive choice, and stem cell research were “non-negotiable” issues for Christian voters and has admitted that the main difference between himself and James Dobson is a matter of tone. He criticized Obama’s answers at the Faith Forum he hosted before the election and vowed to continue to pressure him to change his views on the issue of reproductive choice. He came out strongly in support of Prop 8, saying “there is no need to change the universal, historical defintion of marriage to appease 2 percent of our population … This is not a political issue — it is a moral issue that God has spoken clearly about.” He’s declared that those who do not believe in God should not be allowed to hold public office.
Frankly, I see this as the enabling of bigotry. I can not support the President Elect on this one. Warren is a disgrace, not an example.
Yes, he has done some good things (AIDS, poverty relief) but then again, so has Hamas.
On the other hand, where I’ve been critical of some of Obama’s choices. But I’ve been ecstatic over others; from Science Debate 2008:
We want to congratulate President-elect Obama on continuing to assemble an outstanding science team.
A few days ago we told you about the appointment of Steven Chu as Energy Secretary.
Today we have two more outstanding appointments to announce:
1. We have learned that John Holdren will be President Obama’s Science Advisor. John has an excellent knowledge of science policy, and a deep understanding of how the public needs the government to engage on science policy issues. He is a recent past president of the AAAS and an early and ardent Science Debate 2008 supporter. You can watch a 1-minute video he did for us last February, promoting a primary science debate at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia.
2. Jane Lubchenco, we’re told, will head up President Obama’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Admninistration (NOAA). She is an outstanding choice with a deep background in marine biology. Jane is also a past AAAS president, and also an early supporter of Science Debate 2008. When we issued candidate invitations to an Oregon debate, Jane was a close advisor. Here’s a 1-minute video of her.
In all, I haven’t educated myself on all of his picks, though I’ll do so over the weekend. Here are my initial impressions:
* Department of Agriculture Tom Vilsack: I am leaning favorable here.
* Department of Commerce Bill Richardson: I am very happy; smart and multi-talented
* Department of Defense
Robert Gates: Yes, a Bush holdover but he appears to be smart and competent.
* Department of Education Arne Duncan: Chicago area superintendent; I don’t know much.
* Department of Energy Steven Chu: Nobel Laureate in Physics; head of the Livermore lab, passionate and out of this world brilliant.
* Department of Health and Human Services Tom Daschle: lean favorable but I’ll have to learn more; I didn’t follow his Senate career all that closely though he was minority leader at one time.
* Department of Homeland Security
* Department of Housing and Urban Development Shaun Donovan: really don’t know other than he is from New York.
* Department of the Interior Ken Salazar: mixed; he has political skill and is the Colorado Senator; from reading the stuff he wrote I don’t get the impression that he is all that intellectual. Here is an example.
* Department of Justice Eric Holder: I don’t know all that much about him.
Politically speaking. LaHood will help deflect some of the inevitable Republican criticism of these massive spending projects. And it’s not the job of a Cabinet Secretary to come up with fresh, imaginative solutions to complex problems. In fact, someone too in love with his own ideas could easily become a liability.
That is probably the best defense of this pick that I’ve seen.
* Department of the Treasury Tim Geithner: seems sharp, creative and full of energy. I like the pick, but we’ll wait and see.
* Department of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki: love this pick; he is best noted for falling from the grace of the Bush administration by telling the truth about how hard the Iraq occupation would be.
When the nation’s chief financial officers begged Congress for $700 billion of taxpayer money, they said it was about saving banks. They didn’t say anything about saving bonuses.
Despite monumental losses, some Wall Street firms will still be giving out big bonuses this year — even firms that were bailed out by the government.
Goldman Sachs, which accepted $10 billion in government money, and lost $2.1 billion last quarter, announced Tuesday that it handed out $10.93 billion in benefits, bonuses, and compensation for the year.
Goldman Sachs noted that the figure is down 46 percent from a year ago and that seven of its senior executives are forgoing bonuses this season.
“Bonuses across Goldman Sachs will be down significantly this year,” a bank representative told ABC News. The spokesman refused to disclose the size of the bonus pool or how much of the compensation fund of $10.93 billion was planned for bonuses, but some employees are reportedly being given more than $200,000 in cash.
Make them give it back or make this company go into bankruptcy.
It is great that we did so well in the 2008 election. But let's remember why we did well: our political leaders promised change, which includes:
1. Responsible withdrawal from Iraq. 2. Healthcare. 3. Investment in infrastructure. 4. Focusing on those on the middle or the lower income scales.
We have the executive and the legislative branch and we have a mandate. Now we need action and action in the proper direction.
True, I understand that it isn't Barack Obama's style to steamroll the political opposition; there will have to be some compromises with the minority party on details in order to get consensus.
I also understand that things are not going to change neatly nor change overnight.
But we should NOT tolerate a loss of nerve from our party nor should we tolerate obstructionist Democrats or obstructionist faux-Democrats.
Note: if anyone wants posting privileges for this blog, please contact me; this project will go better if we have more people researching and giving their opinions.
