POLITICS

A completely vain and redundant expression of my raves and rants.

• Home
• Family Matters
• Travels
• Politics
• Environment

• Poipu Condo

• Send Email

 

Some Good News
	Absolutely better than Christmas!  Both this gem and the O'Reilly piece below within 24 hours.        8 April 2009
Thoughts on Bill O'Reilly and Squeaky the Chicago Mouse By Roger Ebert / To: Bill O'Reilly From: Roger Ebert Dear Bill: Thanks for including the Chicago Sun-Times on your exclusive list of newspapers on your "Hall of Shame." To be in an O'Reilly Hall of Fame would be a cruel blow to any newspaper. It would place us in the favor of a man who turns red and starts screaming when anyone disagrees with him. My grade-school teacher, wise Sister Nathan, would have called in your parents and recommended counseling with Father Hogben. Yes, the Sun-Times is liberal, having recently endorsed our first Democrat for President since LBJ. We were founded by Marshall Field one week before Pearl Harbor to provide a liberal voice in Chicago to counter the Tribune, which opposed an American war against Hitler. I'm sure you would have sided with the Trib at the time. I understand you believe one of the Sun-Times misdemeanors was dropping your syndicated column. My editor informs me that "very few" readers complained about the disappearance of your column, adding, "many more complained about Nancy." I know I did. That was the famous Ernie Bushmiller comic strip in which Sluggo explained that "wow" was "mom" spelled upside-down. Your column ran in our paper while it was owned by the right-wing polemicists Conrad Black (Baron Black of Coldharbour) and David Radler. We dropped it to save a little money after they looted the paper of millions. Now you call for an advertising boycott. It is unusual to observe a journalist cheering for a newspaper to fail. At present the Sun-Times has no bank debt, but labors under the weight of millions of dollars in tax penalties incurred by Lord Black, who is serving an eight-year stretch for mail fraud and obstruction of justice. We also had to pay for his legal expenses. There is a major difference between Conrad Black and you: Lord Black is a much better writer and thinker, and authored a respected biography about Roosevelt, who we were founded to defend. That newspapers continue to run your column is a mystery to me, since it is composed of knee-jerk frothings and ravings. If I were an editor searching for a conservative, I wouldn't choose a mad dog. My recommendation: The admirable Charles Krauthammer. Bill, I am concerned that you have been losing touch with reality recently. Did you really say you are more powerful than any politician? That reminds me of the famous story about Squeaky the Chicago Mouse. It seems that Squeaky was floating on his back along the Chicago River one day. Approaching the Michigan Avenue lift bridge, he called out: Raise the bridge! I have an erection! http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090407/COMMENTARY/904079997
	Letterman slamming O'Reilly and Limbaugh.        31 March 2009
Associated Press Scientists cheer Obama's stem cell reversal Scientists are cheering President Barack Obama's lifting of federal funding restrictions on embryonic stem cell research, hopeful the move will open the financial floodgates to speed new treatments. 10 March, 2008
New York Times Criminal Investigation of Bush Administration's Acts A USA Today/Gallup poll in February found that 62 percent of Americans favor a criminal investigation or an independent panel to look into the use of torture, illegal wiretapping, and other alleged abuses of power by the Bush administration. But that idea has been dismissed by many as politically infeasible. And President Obama has said he was “more interested in looking forward than I am in looking backwards.” Still, that hasn’t deterred Sen. Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, from calling for a “truth commission” and scheduling a hearing on the issue this Wednesday. Already, Rep. John Conyers Jr., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, has introduced a bill to set up an inquiry panel. 3 March, 2009
The Wall Street Journal Obama to Review Bush's Endangered-Species Rule WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration is expected to announce Tuesday that it will reconsider a Bush administration rule that environmentalists say weakens protection for endangered species and their habitats, the latest in a series of moves that reverse Mr. Bush's policies. 3 March, 2009
IrishTimes.com Obama will not condone use of 'waterboarding' US Attorney General Eric Holder has ruled out the use of 'waterboarding' as an interrogation technique for terrorism suspects today, calling it a form of torture that the Obama administration could never condone. Under President George W. Bush, the United States faced sharp criticism from human rights groups around the world for employing methods such as "waterboarding," which simulates drowning, on suspects held in Mr Bush's war against terrorism. "Waterboarding is torture ... My Justice Department will not justify it, will not rationalize it and will not condone it," said Mr Holder, who is heading a review of the treatment of terrorism suspects, said in a speech to the Jewish Council of Public Affairs in Washington 2 March,2009
CNN.com Obama orders Guantanamo detention closed WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Promising to return America to the "moral high ground" in the war on terrorism, President Obama issued three executive orders Thursday to demonstrate a clean break from the Bush administration, including one requiring that the Guantanamo Bay detention facility be closed within a year. 22 January, 2009

 

Stupid Republican Tricks	Stupid Democrat Tricks
"The dirty little secret is that every Republican in this country wants Obama to fail, but none of them have the guts to say so. I do." Rush Limbaugh Feb/Mar 2009. As the the favoured mouthpiece (see their presentation) of Conservative thought, his words which were echoed by Tom deLay and others point to the depravity of the conservative mindset.  When the country is hanging by a thread and a President has presented a rescue plan, they want this plan to fail.  And how does that help out the people of the country?  He boomed this message as the keynote speaker of CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference).  On one level, I recognize that Limbaugh, Hannity, O'Reilly, Beck, Coulter, et. al. are in the entertainment business, spewing their rhetoric to those unwilling to question the dogma.  But on another, the fact that a person who's shtick is spreading hate and deception is honoured by a major force of the republican party sends shivers down my spine. I can come to a sole conclusion: people of this mindset would gleefully see the U.S. in further ruin to support their ideology which they espouse to be about individual responsibility but is really about personal greed.  See their PowerPoint presentation of their opinions concerning 2012 elections, view of Obama, and others. At least Limbaugh told the truth: it is very dirty.	Obama Admin. Seeks Dismissal Of Wiretap Lawsuit       Apr 6, 2009 12:48 pm US/Pacific SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) ― AP The Obama administration Justice Department has asked a federal judge in San Francisco to dismiss a lawsuit that alleges the government engaged in illegal "dragnet surveillance" of American's telephone and e-mail communications.