The Hollywood Liberal

McCain Campaign Calls; A Nonprofit Steps In
For weeks, Republican presidential candidate John McCain had been hammered for supporting the Air Force’s February decision to award a $40 billion contract for refueling tankers to Northrop Grumman and its European partner. Democrats, labor unions and others blamed the senator for a deal they say…

Senate Set Capt. McCain on a New Path
David Kirkpatrick, New York Times

McClellan, McClellan, McClellan
First Read notes that coverage of Scott McClellan’s White House memoir, What Happened, continues to dominate the news and “the White House has done nothing to try to push this story out of the headlines.”

“McClellan will appear on Olbermann tonight, as well as on Meet the Press on Sunday. This is turning into a five-day news story — minimum. And that’s not just unhelpful to Bush as he attempts to repair his image even a little, but also to John McCain, who doesn’t need White House Bush drama eating into his coverage. Also, nevermind how McClellan has stepped on Clinton’s final attempt to bring attention to the Florida-Michigan process.”

In an interview on the Today Show, McClellan indicated it was his use as a “pawn” in the Valerie Plame case that caused him to become disillusioned with the White House.

Quote of the Day
“The White House would prefer that I not talk openly about my experiences… I have a higher loyalty than my loyalty necessary to my past work. That’s a loyalty to the truth.”

— Former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan, quoted by Politico, on why he wrote What Happened.

FDL Late Nite: Mission Accomplished II
When Preznit Bush gave his speech yesterday to the Air Force Academy graduates in Colorado Springs, it became a chance of sorts for him to trot out his codpiece and pretend once again that he was a great War President…

Associated Press photo

When Preznit Bush gave his speech yesterday to the Air Force Academy graduates in Colorado Springs, it became a chance of sorts for him to trot out his codpiece and pretend once again that he was a great War President:

After World War II we helped Germany and Japan build free societies and strong economies … These efforts took time and patience, and as a result Germany and Japan grew in freedom and prosperity and are now allies of the United States. . . . Today we must do the same in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Right. Because, you know, Al Qaeda — like the Nazis and the Soviets — has this massive army capable of overpowering ours and destroying America existentially. Uh huh.

As the Denver Post observed:

World War II was a necessary war, for America, England, France and the rest of the free world. With Hitler’s dictatorship and accompanying inhumanities, the U.S. had no choice but to join forces with its allies. The freedom of the world was at stake. But Iraq, as we now know, was an optional war. We had a choice.

That’s certainly become crystal clear in recent days, thanks to Scott McClellan. But really, this event — like the original “Mission Accomplished” photo op, and the toppling of Saddam’s statue, and the constant trotting out of those propaganda generals on TV — was part and parcel of the continuous stream of bullshit coming from this White House as part of another military operation: a “psychological operation”, or “psyops” as they call it in the military, with the American public as the target.

It worked back in 2003. Now, well, maybe not so much. But as Bush reportedly said early on in his tenure: “Who cares what you think?” Especially when he can substitute thought with his own special brand of bullshit.

Michigan Calls Out DNC For Its Hypocrisy On “The Rulz”

Great letter from Michigan to the DNC’s Rules and Bylaws Committee:

. . . .While Michigan Democrats were disappointed that our state was not selected for one of the pre-window contests, we appreciated the new rule for adding a bit of much-needed diversity to the early nominating process, and as a first step toward breaking the Iowa-New Hampshire lock on the process. We notified the DNC that we would abide by the new calendar and its sequence provided that other states did the same. To be clear – the key issue which the new rule resolved was the sequence of the pre-window states, not just the number of pre-window states.

More…

But at a press conference in Dover, New Hampshire last August 9, the New Hampshire Secretary of State indicated he was going to schedule his state’s primary before the date specified in the DNC rule, clearly defying the sequence and timing the Rules and Bylaws Committee had set. Michigan Democratic leaders wrote to Governor Dean asking if the DNC intended to enforce the rule against New Hampshire, but the DNC refused to act or even to answer our letters for months.

The Democratic National Committee then proceeded to selectively enforce its calendar rule. On December 3, the Rules and Bylaws Committee voted to give New Hampshire a waiver to move from third to second place in the sequence. Michigan requested a waiver and was denied. When the Rules and Bylaws Committee itself decided not to follow its own newly adopted, hard-fought for rules and granted a waiver to New Hampshire, it set the stage for the present situation.

(Emphasis supplied.) Exactly. Call em out Michigan!! Let Donna Brazile explain that. Rulz are Rulz!!! Except when they are not.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

Comments closed

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEARGH
I was writing a post about the primary. But, well, screw it.

…adding, I’ve been writing a political blog without doing much politics for several months now. I CAN’T TAKE IT ANYMORE.

In
Hey, I got my official DNC blogger credential notice.

Funny thinking about 4 years ago. My secret identity was still a secret. I’d just left academia and joined up with Media Matters (with a long planned 3 week Italy trip in there somewhere). I showed up in Boston just a couple of days after returning from Italy with nasty laryngitis. Spent days telling people that wasn’t my normal voice. Bloggers were the (stupid) “big story” of the convention because we were such a novelty. A reporter for a Florida newspaper got the “big scoop” of my real name without realizing that it was actually a scoop.

…and Barack Obama gave a speech. And I lost a jacket. And I ate Chinese food late at night with Eric Alterman and Garance Franke-Ruta and some other people. And my hotel was way outside of town. And Ezra Klein was 13 years old. And Jesse Taylor was still blogging. And I went to a Creative Coalition Event where Media Matters was handing out fliers because O’Reilly was there. And I met Alec Baldwin but not Natalie Portman. And I was riding in a cab with young Ezra and others of similar age when one of them looked at the next car and asked “who’s that old dude who’s trying to look like a rock star?” I responded that it was Kevin Bacon, and that his wife was driving. And Tom Tomorrow called me to whisk me into Jimmy Carter’s skybox, where I had a nice chat with Amy Carter and THE GREAT EVIL ONE MICHAEL MOORE was also there. No one had any idea who I was. And I met Jimmy. And I ran from Samantha Bee and the Daily Show when they showed up to the blogger area. And George Bush was re-elected and lord help us all.

Voting Rights Lawyers Defeat Texas’ Bogus Voter Fraud Prosecutions
Texas Attorney General agrees to settlement that would have blocked his prior prosecutions.

How the World Is Realizing that Water Is “Blue Gold”
Increasingly it is being asked: Which countries are water rich, which are water poor, and who should manage water resources?

Pro-Hillary 527 On The Air In Montana And Puerto Rico
Although all analysts give Hillary Clinton long odds to win the nomination, her major union backers and other big donors clearly haven’t given up. The American Leadership Project, the pro-Hillary 527 group, is running a new pair of ads in…

Still Have Don Young to Kick Around
Rep. Don Young (R-AK) today officially filed to run for reelection to a 19th term as Alaska’s sole representative in the House. Here’s a portion of the statement from Young that his campaign released: “I know I may come off…

Obama at Low Point in Polls, Yet Still Ahead

Josh Orton at MyDD looks at the Pew Poll — which has Obama up 47-44 over McCain — and sees Bush being a major albatross for McCain.

Matt Stoller at Open Left says Orton is “missing the picture,” because Obama’s numbers came down three points thanks to “women, specifically, white women, who are unhappy and switching over to, mostly, undecided .. white women between the ages of 30-64, with a specific heavy loss among women between the ages of 50-64. In other words, this is Clinton’s bread and butter.”

But that’s 1) an understandable development of the protracted primary and 2) most likely a temporary development that won’t leave lasting damage to Obama’s prospects.

McCain has nothing to offer on women’s issues. Nothing to offer on reproductive freedom, equal pay, child care, or Social Security (very much a women’s issue as longer living women are more reliant on the benefits.)

Further, Marc Ambinder reports: “It’s an open secret in Republican and Democratic circles that less ideological Republican women and independent women are openly disdainful of John McCain in focus groups; they find him angry; they don’t believe that he’s equipped with the proper temperament to do the job.”

These voters shouldn’t be taken for granted and presumed to be eventual Obama voters. But after a little time for healing, and with more prominent women leading the charge, it’s likely that these women will return to the fold.

This is more evidence that Obama is at his low-point in the polls, yet he remains ahead.