Former major league pitcher Geremi Gonzalez, who pitched for the Boston Red Sox in 2005, was killed yesterday by a lightning strike at a beach in his native Venezuela. He was 33.Considering the omniscient they who say don't hide under a tree during an electrical storm, this is pretty, uhm, striking.
Having saddled the military with a botched, unwinnable war, having squandered soldiers’ lives and failed them in so many ways, the commander in chief now resists giving the troops a chance at better futures out of uniform.That they're reacting like this to the New York Times is delightful. And how 'bout the Times stepping away from their years-old sycophancy with regard to the Iraq occupation, eh?
“The U.S. military must remain apolitical at all times and in all ways,” wrote the chairman, Adm. Mike Mullen, the nation’s highest-ranking officer. “It is and must always be a neutral instrument of the state, no matter which party holds sway.”
The Field can now confirm, based on multiple sources, something that both campaigns publicly deny: that Senator Clinton has directly told Senator Obama that she wants to be his vice presidential nominee, and that Senator Obama politely but straightforwardly and irrevocably said “no.” Obama is going to pick his own running mate based on his own criteria and vetting process.----------
"[T]here's a risk that if she isn't invited on the ticket, Hillary's political and financial supporters may not feel compelled to be as integrated and involved in the Obama campaign in order to provide the maximum support that he'll need to prevail in November."
"One more point," continued Behar, pulling out a prepared statement. "It's very interesting and ironic that George Bush, Senior's -- er, George Bush, this one -- his grandfather -- this one -- the late -- I don't like to speak ill of the dead, but in this case it's fun -- he was a United States senator, Prescott Bush. Okay -- he was a director and shareholder of companies that profited from their involvement with the financial backers of Nazi Germany."You go, grrl!
"My friends, we are sooo screwed!"At one point, someone in the crowd shouted an expression of love at Obama. He broke his speech for a moment: "I love you too," he said.
"If you vote for me on Tuesday," he said, "We won't just win Oregon. We'll win this nomination, we'll win this general election. And you and I together, we'll change this country, we'll change the world."
Seventy-five thousand people seemed to like the sound of that.
Hillary Turns Fire On MediaWait! This is this the same Hillary who cozies up to the likes of Rupert Murdoch and Richard Mellon Scaife, right?
Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign is increasingly aiming its punches not at her front-running opponent Barack Obama, but at the media.
Was it the right decision to back Obama? Hard to say for certain, but on balance my guess is still yes. I miss the days when we could play all three top candidates off each other. Unfortunately, that ship sailed the day Edwards failed to win Iowa, and the campaign lurched to the right as a result.Basically it's Obama exhibiting his need not to appear beholden to the progressive base (a.k.a., the Democratic wing) of the Democratic party, seeing as how the corporate media will use it in any event as a hook upon which to hang their corporate hats. Hey, more power to 'im. We beat Hillary the Bush/McSame symp, and that'll keep me sated well into the fall -- knock wood!
Huckabee's announced support of McCain is unequivocal, and he is regarded in the McCain camp as a friend and ally. But credible activists are spreading the word that Huckabee secretly allies himself with the bitter-end opposition. That hardly seems possible considering his public backing, but critics of Huckabee's 10 years as governor of Arkansas say he is all too capable of playing a double game.Of course I'm rooting for the li'l Christianists on this front thinking they're just so far out there that they'll succeed only at a further hollowing out of the Republican party, i.e., what's left of 'em come 2012.
Audience member: This question goes to mental health and mental health care. Previously, I've been married to a woman that was verbally abusive to me. Is it true that you called your wife a (expletive)?Goes to credibility and character, yerronner.
McCain: Now, now. You don't want to... Um, you know that's the great thing about town hall meetings, sir, but we really don't, there's people here who don't respect that kind of language. So I'll move on to the next questioner in the back.
[I]f he truly thinks his show hasn't become an outlet for Bush administration figures to push their message uncontested (as Huffington suggests), then shouldn't he bring Huffington on and challenge her assertions? Or, at the very least, allow Huffington to go on another NBC show?It says here that any reference to a "liberal media" is likely offered by the ignorant or one with a right-wing agenda.
Probably not, since that would mean Russert would have to ask tough questions for a change.
Police Issue Zero Tickets During Annual Marijuana CelebrationThe days are indeed getting longer.
"A moment I've been dreading. George brought his ne're-do-well son around this morning and asked me to find the kid a job. Not the political one who lives in Florida; the one who hangs around here all the time looking shiftless. This so-called kid is already almost 40 and has never had a real job. Maybe I'll call Kinsley over at The New Republic and see if they'll hire him as a contributing editor or something. That looks like easy work."
Charlton Heston: 1923 - 2008Poll: Obama would be tougher candidate against McCainA reality-based headline from CNN for a change, and good news t'boot...
I must say, I'm a little envious. If I were slightly younger and not employed here, I think it would be a fantastic experience to be on the front lines of helping this young democracy succeed.Hard to say which of the two Dubya is more of; assuming, for the sake of this exercise, he's not both.
It must be exciting for you ... in some ways romantic, in some ways, you know, confronting danger. You're really making history, and thanks.
-- President George W. Bush, March 13, 2008
Only a fool or a fraud sentimentalizes the merciless reality of war.
-- Sen. John McCain, March 26, 2008
Petraeus: Iran did it!We saw it coming. We've seen it before. They could stand and look you in the eye and say "We're lying thru our teeth!" Do a 360 in-place, then say "this time it's so." And now they'll go out and do it all over again.
“Just to be perfectly clear here, I did ask them are you following any of the republican candidates?…Do you want to talk about John McCain? Within that whole group, not one wanted a republican in the US presidential seat. They were all for a democrat. They were all for that type of change because they said they were living a republican war.”Would surely like to see Barack Obama pound McCain over the head with this, i.e., after he beats Hillary's ass.
So, McCain needs an insurance policy. If conditions on the ground in Iraq offer some optimism, he can tell voters, “See? I was right; all we need to do is stay the course and reap the rewards.” If conditions are deteriorating, he can tell voters, “See? I was right; our enemies are acting up to influence the U.S. elections. They’re afraid I’ll win and keep Bush’s policy going indefinitely, so they’re sending a message.”
Heads I win, tails you lose.
"This ought to clear up any misunderstanding about our interest and the committee's role," Grassley said. "We have an obligation to oversee how the tax laws are working for both tax-exempt organizations and taxpayers."
[T]he object of Specter's NFL ire has been the NFL Network and its exclusive relationship with DirecTV. The Philadelphia-based Comcast cable company is in a war with the NFL over whether they can charge their customers for the NFL Network, unlike DirecTV.Uh huh! Doing the bidding of another fascist, anti-net neutrality media corp.
It's looking more and more like Obama will officially win Texas.
Leonardo has often been described as the archetype of the "Renaissance man" or universal genius, a man whose seemingly infinite curiosity was equalled only by his powers of invention. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest painters of all time and perhaps the most diversely talented person ever to have lived.So I was just thinking: Would I prefer to be known as this or as something more akin to, say, the Son of God?
Lobster Telephone (also known as Aphrodisiac Telephone) is a surrealist object, created by Salvador Dalí in 1936. Dalí wrote of lobsters and telephones in his book The Secret Life, demanding to know why, when he asked for a grilled lobster in a restaurant, he was never presented with a telephone.I've often wondered the same thing.
According to [Catholic League Blowhole Bill] Donohue, Hagee has "made a lot of money off bashing the Catholic Church and blames Catholics for the Holocaust." What does it say about McCain that he would embrace such a figure? "This doesn't speak well for him. He's tolerating an endorsement by an inveterate bigot, and it's been brought to his attention."Here're the strait-talker's options: 1) He doesn't repudiate Hagee and he loses the Catholic and, by extension, the, uhm, Latino vote... BIG time! (And do we really fear traditional media will ignore the bellowings of Bill Donohue?); or 2) He does repudiate Hagee, losing his money & organization while getting hammered by him, as well as by those other blowholes Rush Limbaugh & Sean Hannity, essentially the Republican base.
"This is about what you say when you answer that phone. What judgment you show...She, John McCain and George Bush gave the wrong answer."Ooo! Snap!
William F. Buckley: 1925 - 2008I do feel that when you're born into the world, you're given a ticket to the freak show, and when you're born in the United States, you're given a front-row seat.
Well, in 1992 I had that piece called "The Planet Is Fine, the People Are Fucked" arguing that the creation of humans may have been nature's way of finding out how to make plastic.Is why I love this guy!
To watch video in the new MSNBC.com player, you will need to update your version of the Adobe Flash Player.Then it provides instructions on how to quickly install the device.
Dana Perino, Dubya's bottle-blonde press B.S.er bot, asks A Question:"Do you trust the intelligence community more than you trust Democrats who are beholden to their left-wing?"Speaking as a so-called left-wing blogger (who, in reality, is actually conservatively progressive and/or progressively conservative):
"[F]ool me once, shame on ... shame on you. It fool me. We can't get fooled again."
An update to a story on which I blogged, figuring it to be metaphoric of Dubya's world:The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Sunday ordered the recall of 143 million pounds of frozen beef from a California slaughterhouse, the subject of an animal-abuse investigation, that provided meat to school lunch programs.
