The Hollywood Liberal

Black Politician Named as GOP Chairman

Could this be the Republican Party’s attempted answer to Barack Obama? Or is that too cynical a read on the new appointment of the GOP’s first African-American party chairman, former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele?

AP via Google News:

“As a little boy growing up in this town, this is awesome,” said Steele, the most moderate candidate in the field and considered an outsider because he’s not a committee member.

In a brief acceptance speech, the new GOP chairman struck a tone of inclusiveness.

“We’re going to say to friend and foe alike: We want you to be a part of us, we want you to with be with us, and for those who wish to obstruct, get ready to get knocked over,” Steele said.

Read more

READ THE WHOLE ITEM

Related Entries

• January 31, 2009 Republican Governors Press for Passage of Stimulus Package
• January 30, 2009 ‘Left, Right & Center’: Socialism or Protectionism?
• January 30, 2009 Obama Gives Labor Unions a Boost
• January 29, 2009 The GOP’s Soundproof Room
• January 29, 2009 Let the Limbaughs Whine

When Did We Stop Caring About Civilian Deaths During Wartime?

I wonder if we are “normalizing” war. It’s not just that Israel has yet again gotten away with the killing of hundreds of children in Gaza.

READ THE WHOLE ITEM

Related Entries

• January 30, 2009 Army Suicide Rate Highest in Decades
• January 28, 2009 Gates Changes Afghanistan Tune
• January 28, 2009 Israel Blocks Aid Supplies
• January 27, 2009 NATO: Dead Man Walking
• January 27, 2009 Israel Sends Tanks Back to Gaza

GOP Governors Press Congress To Pass Stimulus Bill
NEW YORK — Most Republican governors have broken with their GOP colleagues in Congress and are pushing for passage of President Barack Obama’s economic aid…

Charles D. Ellison: Steele’s Slippery Slope
Word bonded, that last week carried enough political theater to fake an Emmy, all politics really all perception. Party-line stimulus vote in the House, from…

New RNC Chair Steele: Bipartisanship Is Overrated
The new chairman of the Republican National Committee praised House Republicans Saturday for their universal opposition to President Obama’s stimulus bill and used his family’s…

Obama Says Stimulus Spending Strategy Coming Soon
This morning I’d like to talk about some good news and some bad news as we confront our economic crisis. The bad news is well known to Americans across our country as we continue to struggle through unprecedented economic turmoil. Yesterday we learned that our economy shrank by nearly 4 percent from October through December. That decline was the largest in over a quarter century, and it underscores the seriousness of the economic crisis that my administration found when we took office.

Only Islamic Radicals Can End War with the West
WASHINGTON — President Obama repeatedly extended his hand to the world’s Muslims in his first 10 days in power. His respectful tone and gestures toward Arab states in particular were as welcome as they were deft. But it would be a mistake to conclude that the gears of history have shifted and what Americans have come to call the war on terror is over. Let’s be clear: Americans did not initiate the conflict with al-Qaeda and other Muslim extremists, and Americans will not be the ones to declare an end to the struggle against violent extremism practiced in the name of jihad.

State To Blackwater: It’s Over Between Us (At Least In Iraq)
Et tu, State Department? Earlier this week, we told you that the Iraqi government had decided not to renew Blackwater’s contract to operate in Iraq, thanks to a 2007 incident in which Blackwater guards opened fire in a Baghdad square,…

Clinton Lawyer On Bush’s Exec Privilege Claim: “There’s Only One President At A Time”
So does that letter Newsweek obtained, sent January 16 by the Bush White House to Karl Rove’s lawyer, instructing Rove not to respond to any subpoenas that might be issued, change the state of play as to whether Rove will…

UPDATED: Report: Cuomo May Demand Return Of Merrill Bonuses
Bloomberg has a few more details about the developing investigation, conducted by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, into the bonuses awarded last month by Merrill Lynch. It reports, sourced to “a person familiar with the matter,” that Cuomo may…

Long-Term Returns to Stimulus: Education
The fiscal stimulus debate is currently hampered by confusion over its objectives. On the one hand, one purpose of the stimulus is to generate economic activity quickly in order to boost aggregate demand and break the recessionary spiral we seem…

Holder’s Challenges: Restoring Law to Government, Eliminating Politicization in Justice
When Bobby Kennedy became Attorney General he inherited a sound department with an apolitical law enforcement tradition. His relationship with the president gave the department additional prestige and influence when it came to law. His only management problem was…

The Arizona Cardinal who won?t be on the field tomorrow.
Marcy Wheeler reminds us that “the most famous [Arizona] Cardinal” won’t be playing in the Super Bowl tomorrow, when his team takes on the Pittsburgh Steelers: I speak, of course, of Corporal Pat Tillman, who left the NFL after 9/11 to serve in the Army Rangers. Tillman was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan on […]

Marcy Wheeler reminds us that “the most famous [Arizona] Cardinal” won’t be playing in the Super Bowl tomorrow, when his team takes on the Pittsburgh Steelers:

I speak, of course, of Corporal Pat Tillman, who left the NFL after 9/11 to serve in the Army Rangers. Tillman was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan on April 22, 2004. For months after his death, he was used as a propaganda tool to glorify Bush’s failed wars. The exposure of the truth behind Tillman’s death has since turned him into a symbol of the duplicity of the Bush Administration, the fight for the truth, and the futility of the war itself.

The New York Times writes that Tillman will not be forgotten this weekend. Soldiers will watch the game “from a U.S.O. center in Afghanistan that bears Tillman’s name and was built with money donated by the N.F.L. in his memory.” Tillman’s jersey, emblazoned with his number 40, is the best selling item on the team’s website. “It’s great,” said former Arizona quarterback Jake Plummer, who was Tillman’s college and Cardinals teammate and a close friend. “But in the grand scheme of things, it all kind of stinks because he’s not around.”

Out of Gaps In Treaties, First Salvos Of Trade War
The world may be on the brink of a gentler kind of trade war.

Daschle Delayed Revealing Tax Glitch
Thomas A. Daschle waited nearly a month after being nominated to be secretary of health and human services before informing Barack Obama that he had not paid years of back taxes for the use of a car and driver provided by a wealthy New York investor.

From the Second City, An Extended First Family
A bus filled with about 50 of President Obama’s friends and in-laws arrived at the White House just after midnight, as Inauguration Day came to a close, for what they called a “housewarming party.” The group had celebrated more than a dozen moves together over the years, usually with casual dinners…

8 Questions on the Stimulus Package