Mark Steyn NAILS IT...

in a great piece today in the Orange County register, Steyn demonstrates how the Democratic race is shaping up as gargantuan death-match between two historical liberal guilts...with the voters left which one they think needs remedying the worst--racism or misogyny.

wow. you really should read the whole thing.

he describes the hillary vs. obama race as a new psycho version of "driving miss daisy"...guess which one is which? LOL.

his premise is that the "white boys" never had a chance, and neither did other possible peddlers of "identity politics". for example, his take on bill richardson:

Bill Richardson was the first Hispanic candidate but nobody needs a Hispanic called "Bill Richardson."

what an amazingly simple yet fascinatingly precise observation...i actually thought this myself a loooooooong time ago. i must be brilliant, too...

hillary--the new "comeback kid"!

the pre-election polls showed her up to 12 points behind Barack...with around 47% of the votes in, she's ahead by 39%-37%...women are voting for her (according to MSNBC exit polls) 47%-30%, and women are making up 55+% of the vote.

this is a HUGE surprise to me. and to everyone else.

on the other side, McCain seems to be cruising...5% points over Romney with about half the votes counted...37%-32%...Rudy floundering, Fred floundering...

UPDATE: left-wingers already blaming Diebold for Hillary's mysterious comeback...

UPDATE #2: at 11 o'clock pm EST, MSNBC is reporting that Fred has 1% of the vote...i will have to find someone else to support...and i'm not so worried about the philosophy...no matter who the president is, i'll still be able to have an abortion no matter who wins, and i'll still pay almost no income tax..........

Hillary! to Obama--'No More False Hopes For My Victims'

the Clinton campaign has been in full damage-control mode in New Hampshire to maintain the status quo and keep the poor minorities in line...at the debate saturday night the only real time she demonstrated she had a pulse was when she sensed that Barack was beginning to sound uplifting...and she scolded him for raising "false hope".

according to this piece in the New York Times, her "strategy" in response is edging closer and closer to overt racially-motivated fear-mongering:

Today, in Dover, Francine Torge, a former John Edwards supporter, said this while introducing Mrs. Clinton: “Some people compare one of the other candidates to John F. Kennedy. But he was assassinated. And Lyndon Baines Johnson was the one who actually” passed the civil rights legislation.
The comment, an apparent reference to Senator Barack Obama, is particularly striking given documented fears among blacks that Mr. Obama will be assassinated if elected.

the writer points out that some hack on the Clinton campaign tried to distance them from Torge's comments, but the candidate herself did not seem to flinch at all when the comment was made.

then, Saint Hillary demonstrated that she must not have gotten the talking points memo when she spoke to FOX News. responding to questions about Obama's comparing his message of hope to MLK, Jr., and JFK, Hillary chimed in:

“Dr. King’s dream began to be realized when President Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act...It took a president to get it done.”

SEE? it took the good white liberals to get this stuff done! she went on to sharpen her message later, at another campaign stop

“You know, today Senator Obama used President John F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to criticize me. He basically compared himself to our greatest heroes because they gave great speeches.
“President Kennedy was in Congress for 14 years. He was a war hero. He was a man of great accomplishments and readiness to be president. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led a movement. He was gassed. He was beaten. He was jailed. And he gave a speech that was one of the most beautifully, profoundly important speeches ever written in America, the “I have a dream” speech.
“And then he worked with President Johnson to get the civil rights laws passed, because the dream couldn’t be realized until finally it was legally permissible for people of all colors and backgrounds and races and ethnicities to be accepted as citizens."

here she goofed. she forgot to mention that King was assassinated.

John Edward's "love child" -- is there a Hillary! connection?

the wild and wacky world of american presidential primary politics took another crazy turn when the NATIONAL ENQUIRER unleashed a "world exclusive" yesterday that Rielle Hunter, who formerly worked on the Edwards' campaign and had been romantically linked to Edwards just a few months back, is PREGNANT--and, according to what friends of hers have told the Enquirer, the baby is Edwards', regardless of the cover story that she has concocted. denials, denials all around.

but, who really cares about "the facts" about the baby? much more intriguing is the timing of this.

here we are a couple weeks from the Iowa caucus. Hillary's commanding lead has evaporated, and she's more or less in a dead heat with Obama and Edwards. from the past few weeks, we now know that Obama is a muslim, was a muslim, or for all we know might be some kind of muslim manchurian candidate--at least, according to former Sen. Bob Kerrey (as he announced his endorsement of Clinton..). and, let's not forget that Obama may have been a COKE dealer!

but, what about the "squeaky-clean" Edwards?

luckily for Hillary, a lot of people who might vote for her read the NATIONAL ENQUIRER...or at least i *suppose* they do. lucky for her, one of the key owners of the Enquirer is a guy by the name of Roger Altman, a former Deputy Treasury Secretary in the Bill Clinton administration. interestingly, as this Business Week interview shows, Altman identifies himself as an advisor to Hillary's campaign, which makes the tabloid Enquirer's story that much more juicy and compelling. as the Politico article sez:

What the tabloid's readers, in politics and out, may not know is that a key owner of the Enquirer is a prominent New York investment banker and one of Hillary Clinton's key backers, Roger Altman. Altman was an official in the first Clinton administration, and his name is often mentioned as a possible Clinton Treasury Secretary.

"key backer"? possible Treasury Secretary?

to be this STUPID is a clear sign that all is not well in hillaryland...

Ken Burns endorses Obama

he wanted to stay neutral through the primaries, but the nastiness of the Clinton campaign forced him to come out publicly for B. Hussein...

clinton campaign pushing the "obama is a muslim" line...media matters ignores it...

poor Barack Hussein Obama...he just can't catch a break from this "madrassa" thing. even after the Hillary! campaign fires one of it's county coordinators in Iowa for passing along an "obama is the muslim 'manchurian candidate'" email, which generated apologies from the Clinton campaign and insistence that this type of behavior would not be tolerated...only to have Clinton strategist Mark Penn repeat the "rumor" or whatever on Hardball (along with the cocaine rumors & Obama wanting to be prez since he was in kindergarten "slam"...):



the other day former Sen. Bob Kerrey endorsed Hillary!, and in an interview with the Washington Post complimented Obama using his entire name--Barack HUSSEIN Obama:

"It's probably not something that appeals to him, but I like the fact that his name is Barack Hussein Obama, and that his father was a Muslim and that his paternal grandmother is a Muslim. There's a billion people on the planet that are Muslims and I think that experience is a big deal."

so, Sen. Kerrey, is he or isn't he??? c'mon, mr. "9/11 commission" dude!!

not just the right-wing blogs are hot on this Kerrey/Obama thing...the blog over at ABC News is wondering why Kerrey would use Obama's middle name, and points out the obvious:

A clear attempt to raise an issue while pretending not to raise it.

these Clintonistas are something else. of course, they've used their George Soros-funded, David Brock-run "media watchdog" website mediamatters.org keep tabs on all the
smears from the right on the Obama/madrassa rumor, but are strangely quiet when the source of the smear comes from Team Hillary...

then get a load of the "expose'" they've done over at the other Clinton-run media watchdog site Think Progress, where they really call Kerrey to the carpet:

This evening on CNN’s The Situation Room, former Sen. Bob Kerrey asserted that Barack Obama had spent time “in a secular madrassa” and argued this was a “tremendous strength” for Obama...

...Note to Kerrey: Barack Obama never attended a “secular madrassa” — an inherently contradictory term because a madrassa is, by definition, a religiously-based school.

i don't know any way you can interpret that last sentence besides to suggest that Obama must've received some hardcore Islamic schooling as a child...

Random Thoughts: could americans really be this shallow?

i was listening to limbaugh today and he made the most astounding observation about the presidential campaign:

Does Our Looks-Obsessed Culture Want to Stare at an Aging Woman?

when i heard it, i was like "oh, man, this is sooooo wrong! but, it's really not...

"...but for the rest of you, I want you to understand that I am talking about the evolution of American culture here, and not so much Mrs. Clinton. It could be anybody, and it is really not very complicated. Americans are addicted to physical perfection, thanks to Hollywood and thanks to television. We know it because we see it. We see everybody and their uncle in gyms. We see people starving themselves. We see people taking every miracle fad drug there is to lose weight. We see guys trying to get six-pack abs. We have women starving themselves trying to get into size zero and size one clothes; makeovers, facials, plastic surgery, everybody in the world does Botox, and this affects men, too..."

i was thinking about this, and thinking about how pervasive the advertising is for stuff like viagra, and i think he may be onto something. Americans are becoming obsessed with physical appearance and sexual virility. obesity is being featured all the time on the network news/MSM as 'america's problem'...all the while being fully conscious of young girls looking like they are wasting away...

aide to Sen. Cantwell (D-WA) busted for soliciting sex from 13 year old

28-year old James McHaney was caught in a sting operation Friday where he tried to arrange a sexual encounter with a 13 year old boy while on his lunch break.

The CW (cooperating witness) and McHaney were conversing online Friday afternoon when the CW asked whether McHaney was interested in engaging in anal sex with a 13-year-old boy. "I'll be there," McHaney allegedly replied. He later asked for a photo of the child with whom he and the CW would have sex and whether the boy had "any pubes." When told no, McHaney allegedly replied, "That's hot."

yeah, it's no Larry Craig "gay sex" story by any stretch of the imagination, so this will get neatly swept under the rug by the MSM.

McHaney's an "ex"-aide now, btw...congratulations to Cantwell's office for doing the right thing and getting rid of somebody who has an unhealthy fixation on children. now, if only someone could reign in the hillary! campaign:

In third grade, Senator Obama wrote an essay titled 'I Want To Be a President.' His third grade teacher: Fermina Katarina Sinaga "asked her class to write an essay titled 'My dream: What I want to be in the future.' Senator Obama wrote 'I want to be a President,' she said." [The Los Angeles Times, 3/15/07]

In kindergarten, Senator Obama wrote an essay titled 'I Want to Become President.' "Iis Darmawan, 63, Senator Obama's kindergarten teacher, remembers him as an exceptionally tall and curly haired child who quickly picked up the local language and had sharp math skills. He wrote an essay titled, 'I Want To Become President,' the teacher said." [AP, 1/25/07 ]

Debate plants--ROLL CALL

Brig. Gen. Keith Kerr--works for hillary, worked with Kerry in '04. question--"I want to know why you think that American men and women in uniform are not professional enough to serve with gays and lesbians". here is a press release from the hillary campaign announcing the formation of the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) Americans for Hillary steering committee. Kerr's name is on the list, among others like Billie Jean King. gay moderator Anderson Cooper claimed he had no clue. right.

Adam Florzak--works for Sen. Dick Durbin. question, paraphrased--"what will you do to repay the money congress has stolen from the social security trust fund?" distrusts wall street and hates real work. is obsessed with the social security issue.

Mark Strauss--self-described Bill Richardson supporter, took part in the Democratic YouTube debate. asked the democrats what they were going to do about alzheimer's. for the republican debate, he begged Ron Paul to run as an independent.

Ted Faturos--asked the question about corn subsidies. former intern for congresswoman Jane Harman (D).

David McMillan--question, paraphrased--"blacks agree with the republicans on a lot of issues...why do you think they vote democratic?" lefty blogger, big edwards supporter.

David Cercone, from Pompano Beach. asked the candidates if they would accept the support of the Log Cabin Republicans, and why should the Log Cabin Republicans support them...so, he's a Log Cabin Republican? Nah...obama supporter.

LeeAnn Anderson--asked the question about lead-covered chinese toys. this is a subject she has been championing, using her position in the United Steelworkers Union, who are backing John Edwards...USW YouTube page, prominently features "Edwards '08" sign...

there are probably more...i'm ignoring stuff like "Journey from Texas"...

**UPDATE**"Yasmin from Huntsville" is a former intern for CAIR, and she wanted to know what the candidates would do to repair our image in the Muslim world.

CNN/YouTube Republican debate--nuts and plants

CNN's agenda was on full display last night.

out of over 3000 videos submitted, CNN saw fit to pick videos like the kid in his bedroom with a confederate flag on his wall asking a question about the flag...some texas kook waving his bible to the camera and asking the candidates if they believed "EVERY SINGLE WORD"...a question about the trilateral commission...some guy with a shotgun in the desert threateningly asking the candidates about their thoughts on gun rights...etc, etc, etc....

basically, CNN picked videos which showed a bunch of weird, unhinged types who CNN then presented to the american people as "typical" republican voters. "typical" republican voters who asked questions which sounded suspiciously liberal in their orientation. hardly any questions at all reflecting the issues which concern most conservatives...no, CNN picked questions which reflected their own belief that conservatism is like some strange disease and is something to be quarantined.

oh yeah, and the democrats managed to crash the party...the hillary! camp sent in a gay general to ask the candidates about "don't ask, don't tell"...that topic was big like about 15 years ago or so, right??? anyway, this guy not only gets his video played, but he also was present in the audience! and, coincidentally, anderson cooper found him in the audience, where the gay general had conveniently remembered to wear his microphone, which made it easy to ask a follow-up question after anderson asked him if he felt the candidates had "answered" his question!

in a post-debate panel discussion, william bennett caused anderson to stammer and backpedal when he told cooper that he had been getting a ton of email about the gay general, who reportedly was on some sort of steering committee for the hillary! campaign...see video below...at the end anderson apologizes for CNN not identifying the gay general as a hillary! plant...



bennett was referring to this. the gay general is affiliated with hillary! and worked for Kerry in '04! surprise, surprise!

CNN video of hillary! plant Gen. Keith Kerr insisting that he's not a hillary! plant...Kerr tells FOX News that CNN paid for his trip from California to Florida...

michelle malkin's digging into the background of some of the other questioners, and she's coming up with some good stuff.

CNN debate chicanery from a few weeks ago...can we trust anything this network does???

more at the politico.

debate transcript pt. 1
debate transcript pt. 2

Hillary and Huma...?

though it's been casually tossed around the underground, such as here in the Village Voice (courteousy of Michael Musto), i guess it's officially on, now...the Times of London has taken the much-whispered-about relationship between Hillary! and her beautiful assistant, Huma Abedin, out of the internet rumor mill and into the "old media"...

according to the Drudge Report..

The splash stunned British readers and angered campaign insiders.

"This does not even qualify as tabloid trash... it's ridiculous and reckless," a Hillary confidante explained over the weekend.

i'm not even really sure i buy into this at all...since it was reported a month ago or so that the hillary campaign was wooing the drudge report, to use what had formerly been an "enemy" and turn it into a campaign asset as place to float strategic "leaks"...drudge (who himself is rumored to be gay..."outed" by David Brock in "Blinded by the Right") seems to have been getting a lot of exclusives from there lately...

but, come on...the hillary camp was "angered" by this "latest" revelation? are you telling me that none of them read the Village Voice??? this is what Musto said in the piece i linked to above--

As I recently said on MONICA CROWLEY's radio show, whisper campaigns are claiming that HILLARY CLINTON is GAYLE KING–ing her aide de camp, the glamorous HUMA ABEDIN, an Indian/Pakistani goddess from Kalamazoo, Michigan. In other words, Hillary may be putting Huma out there in the press and purposely making her more visible as a pre-emptive strike that amounts to her hiding in plain sight. This way, no Republican can later say, "Who is this gorgeous babe who spends so much intimate time with Hillary that the Observer called her Hill's 'body person'? Was GENNIFER FLOWERS's book right about Hillary's sexual taste?" And does either of this couple have the balls to bottom?

Of course that whole scenario can't possibly be true, since Bill and Hill have been so lovey-dovey lately for the cameras, and besides, whenever he's been serviced by an intern—or by anyone—he's clearly been thinking of his wife. (They're that close.) But suddenly, Huma—a sort of Muslim SALMA HAYEK—has that spread in Vogue and the accompanying write-up notes that she "oversees every minute of Senator Clinton's day." Every single minute? Even Gayle King takes a break now and then! (PS: If I called for comment, Hillary's camp would surely say, "Just because two powerful women are closer than sardines doesn't make them dykes." And that's so true. Look at MATT and BEN. But now that Crowley has dubbed me the head of Huma Resources, I'm going to pursue this story with every cojone I've got.)

A straight Democrat—sorry, that's a segue—DNC head HOWARD DEAN, guest-starred at a "Democrats and Donuts with Dean" event in Fire Island, where there was no worry that he might outscream the screaming queens. But I was told that press attendees couldn't write up the event, so I'll shut up here and only say that at another point in the weekend, I told one Pines Democrat the Hillary/Huma scenario and he deadpanned, "That's a step up from DONNA SHALALA."
-by Michael Musto
August 7th, 2007 7:58 PM

hillary...you may not like her, but she sure makes politics fun!

another Democratic debate "average voter" plant?

LaShannon Spencer, in a photo from 2003, identified in
this New York Times story as "director of political affairs for the Democratic Party of Arkansas".


LaShannon Spencer, "undecided voter" in Nevada who got to ask a question.

BLITZER: Welcome back to the campus of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. We're at the Democratic presidential debate. Suzanne Malveaux's got another undecided voter with a question.

MALVEAUX: LaShannon Spencer, please stand up for a moment. What is your question?

LASHANNON SPENCER: We constantly hear health care questions and questions pertaining to the war. But we don't hear questions pertaining to the Supreme Court justice or education. (Applause.)

My question is, if you are elected president, what qualities must the appointee possess?

Malveaux redirects the question...

MALVEAUX: ...And in answering that question, also tell us whether or not you would require your nominees to support abortion rights.

(Laughter, cross talk.)

then all the candidates were given an opportunity to voice their support for the "right to privacy".

Ms. Spencer's connection to the state of Arkansas wouldn't be telling, would it?

previous post about debate plants

was last thursday's Democratic debate COMPLETELY phony?

for reference, here is the CNN transcript.

a few weeks back, the Hillary campaign slammed Tim Russert of NBC for being too tough on Nurse Ratchet. then, last week rumor had it that Wolf Blitzer of CNN was warned by the Hillary camp to not repeat the Russert performance.

then you watch the debate last thursday and it was more or less a Hillary pep rally, with the audience cheering wildly for her and laughing at the answers given by her opponents, notably Obama's. was all of this staged?

i just read one of the most amazing pieces of investigative journalism i've ever seen..."CNN goes green, by watering plants", written by "Jenny Bea" over at the The War Against Political Correctness blog. she has taken the trouble to investigate the backgrounds of each and every "average voter" who got to ask questions of the candidates, and provides proof of their not-so-average backgrounds. she finds that these people were all political activists, congressional interns, the head of the Islamic Society of Nevada, etc, etc...

the fakeness of the whole thing, and the crushing blow to the notion that these questioners were anything but plants by the Democratic Party in concert with CNN was best illustrated in this exchange--

BLITZER: All right. Thank you, senator.

Let's go back to Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: We have Judy Bagley here with us. If you would stand for a moment.

You have been working in the casino business for some 27 years now, a cashier?

BAGLEY: That's right.

MALVEAUX: You've seen a lot of people come and go, obviously.

BAGLEY: Absolutely.

MALVEAUX: What is your concern?

BAGLEY: I'm a booth cashier and we moved here over 30 years ago. And I have three children, and as of yesterday, 8 grandchildren.

(APPLAUSE)

MALVEAUX: And what is your -- congratulations. That's amazing.

BAGLEY: Thank you.

MALVEAUX: And what is your question to the candidates?

...

okay, so we've established that this woman, Judy Bagley, has worked in the casino business for 27 years, currently at a cashier position. okay. now--Obama responds to her question, which is basically about how will the candidates deal with the coming crisis in social security...

MALVEAUX: Thank you very much. Very important issue.

(APPLAUSE)

Senator Obama? OBAMA: Well, first of all, Judy, thank you for the question, and thanks for the great work you do on behalf of the culinary workers, a great union here.

we have to assume now that Obama has previously met Ms. Bagley, the "cashier", or was at least provided this information. either way, it stinks of staging.

not to mention the girl that asked Hillary the really tough question which came near the end...

MARIA PARRA SANDOVAL (ph): Maria Parra Sandoval (ph), and I'm a UNLV student. And my question is for Senator Clinton.

This is a fun question for you. Do you prefer diamonds or pearls?

(LAUGHTER)

(APPLAUSE)

CLINTON: Now, I know I'm sometimes accused of not being able to make a choice. I want both.

(LAUGHTER)

(APPLAUSE)

MALVEAUX: Do we get to ask any of the other candidates or I supposed just Senator Clinton?

BIDEN: I'm for diamonds. Diamonds.

SANDOVAL (ph): It's the only thing -- it's the only thing shiny up there.

MALVEAUX: OK. Thank you so much.

"Maria Parra Sandoval", the "UNLV student", was/is an intern for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, as well as being an activist on many other fronts. Maria was miffed about being forced to ask such a frilly question by CNN, which she expressed on a blog at her myspace page. she wanted to ask about Yucca Mountain.

none of this is earth-shattering, because anyone with half a brain knows that politics is pure theater, but you would think that the Democratic party and their media accomplices at CNN would be a tad more careful about it.

UPDATE-
here's some wrestler dude covering the same ground here on YouTube...



the huffington post weighs in...
my live blog of the debate, volume 1
my live blog of the debate, volume 2

"i'm sorry i answered the question"...dem debate vol. 2

...'because from what i've heard on this stage we're not supposed to'...this is paraphrasing Joe Biden, after he gave a detailed answer about his plan for Pakistan. interesting.

Richardson also gets detailed, kinda, and the he name-drops "Halliburton". pathetic. i take back anything nice i've said about him.

Edwards--will get rid of nukes world-wide. O-K.

Obama wants more international cooperation. O-K.

Dodd talks tough to Pakistan, Hillary agrees. both blame Bush for Pakistani problems. solution elusive.

IRAQ/SURGE/TROOP LEVELS

"One American death is too much"--Richardson. One. money should be used for programs in US.

TRADE

hillary got NAILED on NAFTA. NAILED. tried to joke her way out of it, in response to "was ross perot right?". criticizes bush on poison chinese products...

ENERGY

john roberts asks obama whose backyard nuclear waste should go. no answer given in a long monologue. "...we CAN do it", was his answer. "do WHAT?" is my question...

HILLARY--ARE THEY PICKING ON YOU?

hillary gives parts of her stump speech..."glass ceiling", etc... no answer to "who are the 'boy's club'".

"this pantsuit is asbestos tonight", dem debate vol. 1

hillary did not shake hands or even acknowledge the other candidates during introductions. wow. is it HATE, ego, script, low self-esteem, gender????

it was weird...in the pre-debate, Wolf Blitzer made a comment to the effect of "hopefully the internet can inspire these young people to vote"...y'know, i always really thought the candidates should inspire them...

1st question--from campbell brown, about clinton "parsing" answers, generally, and specifically about her answer to illegal aliens getting drivers' licenses.

"this pantsuit is asbestos tonight"--hillary

obama reiterates "drivers licenses".

hillary changes topic to health care, slams obama.

it's obama vs. hillary, TOTALLY. they're waving Wolf off, hillary supporters are trying to shout down obama from the rafters...

wolf brings edwards into the debate, edwards opens with 'none of us is perfect, even me'...powerful stuff, senator....

YOU CAN'T HIT A GIRL...

hillary arguing that pointing out policy differences amounts to "mudslinging", singles out edwards. doesn't rebut the charges, just attacks the messenger...

biden up...sounded good for a second...

edwards makes an effective speech, pandering to the victims of society...dismisses the picking on hillary charge...

dodd...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

richardson--"give peace a chance"...my god. pathetic. i like the guy, but ugh.....

ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

obama says he understands immigrants "frustration". that was his first point. he went on to sound "tough" on the subject, but... he says he supports licenses for illegals, for "public safety". hold on, he DOESN'T support it now, gets boos...

edwards doesn't support it without "comprehensive immigration reform"

dodd strongly supports "comprehensive immigration reform", no to licenses

obama says the american people "desperately" want "comprehensive immigration reform", licenses are "not the issue"

kucinich wants to be overrun.

biden--"no"

TEACHERS, SCHOOLS

"merit pay?"...*crickets* from every candidate.

another reason i'm endorsing hillary

until i saw the preceding video, i had no idea that she was such a renaissance "person"...that aside from being a public policy genius and someone who could run our lives from cradle to grave exactly how we need them run...she's apparently also heavy into physics. just look at how quickly she measured the problem and provided the solution...get on it, boys...

my favorite lesbian feminist writer Camille Paglia is not as enthusiastic towards Hillary as I am. she thinks the media is not doing her a favor by allowing her to skip through life not having to answer tough questions. but...why should she? most of the time these stupid people on the campaign trail already KNOW the answer that THEY want to hear...they just want to see if Hillary agrees with THEM. keep playing it coy, girl! HILLARY! '08


my original endorsement of hillary here.

i endorse Hillary Rodham Clinton for the Democratic presidential nominee

first of all, for her campaign's iron-fisted control of media access, as reported in the liberal New Republic. good stuff...

Reporters' jabs and errors are long remembered, and no hour is too odd for an angry phone call. Clinton aides are especially swift to bypass reporters and complain to top editors. "They're frightening!" says one reporter who has covered Clinton. "They don't see [reporting] as a healthy part of the process. They view this as a ruthless kill-or-be-killed game."

ahh, yes, the "vast right-wing conspiracy" is alive and well, even in the left-leaning press.....

i also like the fact that even though she's counting on the support of working-class women, she can't be bothered to actually tip a waitress she spoke to and later used her story in stump speeches (reported by NPR).

Anita Esterday waited on the New York senator and her entourage at a Maid-Rite restaurant in Toledo, Iowa. Esterday posed for photos with Clinton and spoke of her plight as a single mother forced to work two jobs to make ends meet.

Clinton later incorporated Esterday's story into her campaign stump speech. Pictures of their meeting appeared in newspapers and on TV newscasts.

In the NPR interview, Esterday said that while she had enjoyed meeting Clinton, she hadn't gotten much out of her 15 minutes of fame.

"I mean, nobody got left a tip that day," Esterday said, adding, "I don't think she understood at all what I was saying."

then, Tim Russert committed the cardinal sin of actually asking her a yes/no question about whether she supports New York Gov. Spitzer's plan to give driver's licenses to illegal aliens, she calls that a "gotcha" question...

When, in the waning moments of the debate's "lightning round," NBC's Tim Russert asked Clinton why she had told a New Hampshire editorial board that Spitzer's plan "makes a lot of sense," Clinton credited the governor with "filling the vacuum" in the absence of comprehensive immigration reform on the federal level.

Only after Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd came out against the license plan did Clinton attempt to clarify her position. "I just want to add, I did not say that it should be done, but I certainly recognize why Governor Spitzer is trying to do it," she said.

When Russert asked Clinton to pick a side, she accused him of playing "gotcha" - and her opponents were ready to join the game. "Senator Clinton said two different things in the course of about two minutes," former North Carolina senator John Edwards said.

and then, of course, Slick Willy came to the rescue, accusing the other candidates of "piling on" against poor defenseless Hillary.

but i especially love the way she combats all of this unfair coverage by planting questions in the audience in "town-hall meeting" campaign stops...

you GO, girl!! HILLARY! '08

what in the world is going on??? PART 2

the amazing thing to me about this video is that Gov. Richardson would allow himself to be videotaped seriously discussing this issue.

to make things weirder, let's go to last night's Democratic presidential debate, moderated by Tim "Meet the Press" Russert and Brian "NBC Nightly News" Williams...Rep. Dennis Kucinich was asked in a presidential debate if he had seen a UFO! his answer: yes. but he clarified that it was an "unidentified flying object", this being just days after he had questioned W's mental health regarding comments Bush has made about the prospect of WW3 in relation to Iran's nuclear arms program.

"I seriously believe we have to start asking questions about his mental health...There's something wrong. He does not seem to understand his words have real impact."

neither does Kucinich, apparently...



Russert points out in the video that 14% of Americans claim to either believe in UFOs or have seen one. Kucinich said that that is a higher percentage of people than those who approve of President Bush (wrong). Russert could've come back with "no, it's really closer to the approval ratings for the Democratic-led Congress", but, alas...he didn't. what a missed opportunity.

honestly, though, i don't even think it's crazy to claim to have seen a UFO or believe in extraterrestrial life. i've seen something i couldn't explain, myself. i just think it's bizarre that we've reached a point where Tim Russert will ask a presidential candidate about this in a public forum. unless, of course, it's all an effort by the Hillary! team to start knocking off the lower-tier candidates...

previously discussed here on NGNG...

Hat tip to former President Clinton

that's one of the best reactions to the 9/11 "truther" kooks i've seen. nice job, Mr. President.

i should give Bill Maher props, too:

Rep. Charley Rangel rips Giuliani: "cheating goddamn husband"

make that, Rep. Charley Rangel, long-time Hillary! supporter...

did i miss something? pot? kettle?