It's been said by some that the GOP likes to rewrite history, and Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele appears to be no different. At a GOP fundraiser in Connecticut on Thursday, Steele, while responding to a question about the resignation of Gen. Stanley McChrystal, stated that the war in Afghanistan "was a war of Obama's choosing" that America had not "actively prosecuted or wanted to engage in."
"The McChrystal incident, to me, was very comical. And I think it's a reflection of the frustration that a lot of our military leaders have with this Administration and their prosecution of the war in Afghanistan," said Steele. "Keep in mind again, federal candidates, this was a war of Obama's choosing. This is not something the United States had actively prosecuted or wanted to engage in."
Watch a video, but note that Steele is not all that audible in the clip.
An Alabama geometry teacher has used his lesson plans to target Barack Obama, and it turned out to interest the Secret Service. The unnamed Corner High School teacher used the example of where to stand and aim if shooting Obama, to teach about angles.
Joseph Brown, a senior in the geometry class, said, "He was talking about angles and said, 'If you're in this building, you would need to take this angle to shoot the president.' "
U.S. Secret Service agents, informed of the event "through the grapevine," questioned the teacher but determined no credible threat existed. Superintendent Phil Hammonds said the teacher remained at work, and there were no plans for termination. However, Hammonds added,
"We are going to have a long conversation with him about what's appropriate. It was extremely poor judgment on his part, and a poor choice of words."
A Florida doctor has decided he doesn't want to treat Democrats, at least those who voted for Barack Obama. Florida urologist Jack Cassell posted a sign on his office door telling those voters to go away.
"If you voted for Obama ... seek urologic care elsewhere. Changes to your health care begin right now, not in four years."
William Allen, professor of bioethics, law and medical professionalism at the University of Florida's College of Medicine said that Cassell's sign is pushing the limits of professionalism.
Allen said doctors cannot refuse patients on the basis of race, gender, religion, sexual orientation or disability, but political preference is not one of the legally protected categories specified in civil-rights law. By insisting he does not quiz his patients about their politics and has not turned away patients based on their vote, the doctor is "trying to hold onto the nub of his ethical obligation," Allen said.
"But this is pushing the limit," he said.
No big loss really. Vitals.com, which rates doctors via patient rankings, says Cassell has a 1 out of 4 star ranking. It seems that it might be a good idea to avoid him anyway; he might snip the wrong tube.
Of course, Jack Cassell did backtrack as knowledge of this reached the public. "I'm not turning anybody away — that would be unethical," he told the Orlando Sentinel on Thursday. "But if they read the sign and turn the other way, so be it."
Right, sure. At any rate, there are a couple of things that Jack Cassell is forgetting in his (modern) Hippocratic Oath. They include:
I will respect the privacy of my patients (which means you shouldn't be able to ask, even in an implied manner, who they voted for)[...]
I will remember that I remain a member of society, with special obligations to all my fellow human beings(not just certain voters), those sound of mind and body as well as the infirm.
Funny or Die is back with more political satire. This time they've done a great job of organizing a SNL presidents reunion, gathering a large cast of comedians (most of which are Saturday Night Live alumni) doing POTUS impersonations to educate viewers about the banking industry and the need for financial reform.
The SNL presidents reunion video is described as follows:
Barack Obama gets a surprise visit in the night from ex-Presidents Bush Sr., Bush Jr., Clinton, Ford, Reagan and Carter to get a few pointers about the Consumer Financial Protection Agency and why it's so important.
Here is the SNL Presidents reunion cast. The video is embedded below.
Former Secretary of State Colin Powell, who famously came out as supporting President Barack Obama during the 2008 presidential campaign has offered his support to an Obama plan. That plan is to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."
As the nation’s top military officer in the 1990s, Colin Powell opposed allowing gay men and lesbians to serve openly in the military. On Wednesday he switched gears, saying in a statement:
“In the almost 17 years since the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ legislation was passed, attitudes and circumstances have changed. I fully support the new approach presented to the Senate Armed Services Committee this week by Secretary of Defense Gates and Admiral Mullen.”
On Tuesday, Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as well as Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, told lawmakers that they supported President Obama’s proposal to repeal the 1993 law. Admiral Mullen is the first Joint Chiefs chairman to ever take that position.
As noted on Tuesday, however, any change in the DADT policy would not come any time soon. Both Mullen and Gates told lawmakers that there would be a Pentagon review of up to a year to study how to implement any change before they expected Congress to act on repealing DADT.
A Colorado Department of Transportation worker faces discipline over an e-mail of Obama as shoeshine boy, and Sarah Palin as the recipient of the shoeshine. The email, originally sent from outside the CDOT and distributed by the worker using his official email, said, "It appears he (Obama) has found his niche" and contained the above obviously doctored image.
The sender of the email is a 73 year-old CDOT supervisor. While the name of the sender has not been released, reports indicate it is a woman, and that she is a registered Democrat who works as a program assistant. She supervises one other person and is a step above an administrative assistant.
The employee involved forwarded the e-mail to co-workers as well as outside email addresses on Dec. 22. Someone outside the CDOT who received a copy of the e-mail, with the CDOT e-mail address attached, complained to agency officials about it on Tuesday.
Mindy Crane, spokeswoman for the CDOT, noted that, politics aside, "state resources cannot be used for personal use, and that includes internet, computers, and email."
"It's certainly an inappropriate email to begin with, but its the fact too that it's being sent on state time and using state resources and for that we find that very unacceptable. It's very disappointing for us that employees are taking advantage of those resources available to them."
The worker, a 29-year veteran of state government who earns $51,684 a year, could face discipline ranging from a written reprimand to a suspension or firing, Crane said.
Ted Nugent is a die-hard Republican, but as such he certainly isn't a fan of Barack Obama's. He also obviously too big a fan of history or dictionaries either.
He told Royal Flush magazine, that "I think that Barack Hussein Obama should be put in jail. It is clear that Barack Hussein Obama is a communist. (Former Chinese leader) Mao Tse Tung lives and his name is Barack Hussein Obama. This country should be ashamed. I wanna throw up."
"Communism is a social structure in which classes are abolished and property is commonly controlled, as well as an ideology and social movement that advocates and aims to create such a society."
Those on Main Street should be angry at this statement. It is obvious from the bailout of Wall Street (a process, we should recall, that was initiated by the Bush Administration) that the class system is alive and well in America.
As Barack Obama has made no changes in regards to Wall Street, this is obviously a misinformed statement. No, Ted Nugent is definitely off base. The class system is functioning on all cylinders. He himself in is the "privileged but ignorant" class.
Zazzle, a website that allows users to customize not just products for themselves, but products to sell to others, is selling t-shirts and bumper stickers with racist comments and veiled death threats against President Barack Obama.
Zazzle vendors are like those at CafePress. They can upload their own content and create their own products that they can purchase for themselves or be sold by Zazzle.
The majority of the products that were first found by RightWingWatch and are the work of a single Zazzle designer named NOBAMAMAN. Obviously an anti-Obama activist, his products include such lines as "Abort Obama," "Send Barack Obama Shooting With Cheney," and more.
Now, Zazzle has deals with both the Walt Disney Company and the Library of Congress allowing them to use their imagery on their customized products. Perhaps they need to re-think that.
It should be added that the Zazzle FAQ on "Acceptable Content Guidelines" says the following (among others):
No content that is libelous or defamatory
No content that can reasonably be viewed as harassing, threatening, or otherwise harmful
No hate speech
No content that can reasonably be viewed as discriminatory based upon race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, or disability
No content that violates or encourages anyone else to violate any law
Based on this, this guy should be banned, permanently from Zazzle. Why has he not? Certainly his content is "not acceptable" per their guidelines.
Ah, the joys of people reading early releases of upcoming books, and the joys of Sarah Palin's somewhat strange comments. As the release of her new memoir, "Going Rogue," approaches, we now know that Palin agreed to her famous interview with Katie Couric out of pity.
The interview with Couric became the stuff of legends, exposing Palin as someone totally unprepared for national office. The fact that some of her comments were able to be used, almost word-for-word by SNL to spoof her idiocy speaks for itself.
According to her new book, Sarah Palin was told by a top McCain aide that Couric had low self-esteem, prompting Palin to take pity on the CBS anchor and agree to an interview. Couric may have low ratings, but low self-esteem?
At any rate, a McCain adviser has adamantly denied the claim. As hard, as it is to believe anyone associated with politics on either side of the aisle, it's not hard to believe this one.
In fact, the adviser admitted what already known: that the McCain campaign tried to shield her from the media to hide her incompetence:
“She lacked the knowledge base to stand in front of the press corps that was traveling with her and answer questions.Because of the success of the convention speech, the feeling was that she should be exposed to as many people as possible directly, not through a media filter. The way to do that was to do interviews with the anchors.
“The truth is, she refused to prepare for the Katie Couric interview. She refused to engage in any preparation. And it was a disaster.”
A disaster for one campaign, and a gold mine for another. However, truthfully, would you rather that a prepared Palin would have been able to hide her faults, or would you prefer to see her as she truly was? I vote for the latter.
We already knew that President Barack Obama was distantly related to both former president George W. Bush and former Vice-President Dick Cheney. But did you know he was related to all other U.S. presidents, save one?
In fact, according to seventh-grader BridgeAnne d'Avignon, who attends Monte Vista Christian School in Watsonville, CA, they are all related to each other (save one). With the help of her 80-year-old genealogist grandfather, she determined that Obama and all other U.S. presidents, with the exception of Martin Van Buren, are related to John "Lackland" Plantagenet, a king of England and signer of the Magna Carta.
The two spent the past summer designing the first known family tree chart in history that shows the presidents' direct relationship. In fact, she also discovered that Obama is her own 11th cousin. BridgeAnne has written to Obama, in hopes that she will get a chance to present the president with the chart.
The U.S. Presidents Family Tree is set to be on display Oct. 28 at Monte Vista Christian School.
The Facebook page of the Republican National Committee displayed some revolting, racist photos, one nearly for a week, before they were taken down after a liberal website publicized their existence.
The first picture brought to light was one of President Barack Obama eating fried chicken, captioned with the following: "Miscegenation is a CRIME against American Values. Repeal Loving v. Virginia."
Miscegenation refers to the "marriage or cohabitation between a man and woman of different races." Loving v. Virginia was the landmark Supreme Court case that struck down laws against interracial marriage. By the way, you can't actually repeal a Supreme Court decision. That photo was posted on Oct. 20th.
Another troubling photo was of Mother Teresa, in which she is shown feeding a child. The caption beneath read, "Enabling scab-eating mouth breathers will do them no good. How do we expect them to take care of themselves?"
While none of the photos in question appear to have been posted by the administrator of the GOP's Facebook site, it's interesting that the administrator did not remove them, and that there was no uproar among the Republicans visiting the site. Either they did not disagree, or did not care, or there were no visitors (doubtful).
Both of those photos were posted by a Facebook user named "Gee Dub," apparently in reference to President George W. Bush. They have both been removing, but it is still troubling that they were there in the first place.
Appearing on CNN's "Reliable Sources" on Sunday Morning, Huffington Post national editor Nico Pitney debated the White House "campaign" against Fox News. Pitney said:
"If the Republican National Committee had a television network, how would it be any different? And Fox admits it. [...]
The senior vice-president of programming, say in an interview that Fox News is the voice of the opposition. They parade as objective journalists, and some of them do good journalism, but by and large, the network is a 24-hour campaign against the Obama administration."
Jane Hall, a contributor to Fox News for over a decade, while saying isolating the network was a bad idea, and that Fox has both news and commentators (like O'Reilly and Hannity), freely admitted that Media Matters had exposed, via a video montage, that Fox News (or Faux News) had campaigned to paint President Obama as a socialist, racist, a communist, and that was both on news shows and commentary shows.
The problem is that there are many who don't do any vetting, simply watch Fox News, and take commentary as real news.
Michelle Obama appeared on Jay Leno's new primetime show (via satellite feed from the White House) last night. When asked about the most annoying habit President Barack Obama has, the First Lady brought up his prowess at a sport: tennis.
"He has no annoying habits, right Jay? None, you know; he's perfect. But you know what, when he beats me at tennis, that gets to be pretty annoying. And he beats me quite often."
Michelle should take him on in bowling. As many probably recall, the President is quite bad at that sport.
Michelle Obama showed she shares the President's good sense of humor. When Leno told her she looked beautiful, she replied "You look beautiful, too," but then added "I can't see you."
A study published in the Public Library of Science (PLOS One) examined the results of the 2008 Presidential Election. In this case, however, the results were examined using a different metric than most: testosterone level.
The study, "Dominance, Politics, and Physiology: Voters' Testosterone Changes on the Night of the 2008 United States Presidential Election" examined the testosterone levels of 183 voters, who provided multiple saliva samples before and after the winner was announced on Election Night. The study noted:
Political elections are dominance competitions. When men win a dominance competition, their testosterone levels rise or remain stable to resist a circadian decline; and when they lose, their testosterone levels fall.
Voters for both candidates, McCain and Obama, had similar testosterone levels when polling stations closed on the East coast. Once Obama as declared the winner, however, the levels in McCain backers fell.
Since, as the study noted, men's testosterone levels follow a circadian cycle, and drop at night, since the levels among men who voted for Obama remained stable, the study said their level was actually equivalent to a rise.
A recent ad on the the Pennsylvania Republican Party's website, since replaced, showed a message with the O in Obama replaced with the hammer and sickle from (guess where) the U.S.S.R.'s flag.
The ad asked: "Tired of Barack Obama, (Pennsylvania Governor) Ed Rendell and (Pennsylvania Senator and former GOP member) Arlen Specter ruining our nation? Hit them where it hurts. The voting booth!"
As you can see, the ad promotes Joan Orie-Melvin, a Republican candidate for the state Supreme Court in the November election. It appeared on the PA GrassRoots website late last week.
Unfortunately for those afraid of the "Red Menace," as noted by John Micek, "We looked pretty hard at Orie-Melvin's life story, and we couldn't find a single thing in there about her promising to fight the Red Menace if elected."
It's another example of hate-mongering and scare tactics among GOP candidates. The idea of equating liberals with the "Red Menace" isn't new, but isn't any truer than before, either.
Out of the mouths of babes, they say. At a town hall in Louisiana today, Barack Obama received a question that would have taken some people aback. Despite that, he acted with aplomb.
He was asked by Tyren Scott, of Paulina, LA, "I have to say, why do people hate you? And why ... they supposed to love you, and ... God is love." A good question. It should be asked thusly: why does the GOP hate you?
Obama's response:
"Hey, that's what I'm talking about. Tyren, I appreciate that. What grade are you in? (answer: 4) Well, now, first of all, I did get elected president, so not everybody hates me now ... I got a whole lot of votes.
But, what is true is, if you were watching TV lately, it seems like everybody's just getting mad all the time. And you know, I think that you've got to take it with a grain of salt. Some of it is just what's called politics, where once one party wins then the other party feels it needs to poke you a little bit, to keep you on your toes. So you shouldn't take it too seriously.
"And as I said before, people, I think, they're worried about their own lives, a lot of people are losing their jobs right now, a lot of people are losing their health care or they've lost their homes to foreclosure, and they're feeling frustrated, and when you're President of the United States, you've got to deal with all of that; that's exactly right. And, you get some of the credit when things go good, and when things are going tough, you're going to get some of the blame, and that's part of the job.
But, I'm a pretty tough guy. Are you a tough guy? You look like you're pretty tough. And so, you just gotta keep on going even when folks are criticizing you, as long as you know you're doing it for other people. Thank you; you're a fine young man. I appreciate you."
Tyren is a fine young man. Those who have participated in hate crimes against Obama or have made racist remarks should be looking pretty sheepish right now, compared to this young man.
The Secret Service is investigating a swastika found carved into the grounds at the Lakeville Country Club in Massachusetts, next to the name of President Barack Obama.
The message was discovered Monday morning; officials believe it was carved sometime Sunday night. The message consists of a “I”, a swastika, and “Obama” and covers a 10-foot by 10-foot area on the 18th green.
“I said, ‘This is sick.’ They are going to do this stuff and cause a problem just to be anti-establishment or just to be tough guys. Their minds are probably demented enough to think of anything.”
Mosca's home is also at the 18th hole.
Whether intended as a prank or not, Lakeville Police Chief Mark Sorel said the vandalism likely constitutes a hate crime.
“It’s being investigated,” said Steven Ricciardi, the special agent in charge for the Secret Service’s Boston office. He declined further comment.
Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL), who has been the most visible member of the House of late, what with his bombastic comments about the GOP's health care reform plan ("don't get sick and if you do, die quickly") as well as his refusal to apologize to the GOP, has his own theory of why the GOP is so angry about President Barack Obama's Nobel Peace Prize win: because they have no chance themselves.
On MSNBC's "The Ed Show" on Friday, Grayson told Ed Schultz (emphasis mine):
"I think I understand their disappointment. They're not going to be winning the Nobel Peace Prize anytime soon. They probably wish there was a Nobel prize for fear, a Nobel prize for hatred, a Nobel prize for racism. Then they'd be in the running."
It's true that many, on both sides of the aisle, have been critical of the Nobel Committee's choice of Barack Obama for the Nobel Peace Prize, but it should be remembered that the Nobel Committee consists of five people only, they are all of one country (Norway), and Norway is considered quite eclectic. Don't blame the president for something he did not campaign for.
Following last week's opening sketch which mocked President Barack Obama's accomplishments so far (they said "none," but vetting by real news media showed that was sorely incorrect), Saturday Night Live skewered Obama's win of the Nobel Peace Prize earlier this week:
"This prize bestowed by the Nobel committee in Norway is given annually to individuals who have made significant contributions to world peace. Jimmy Carter won it for decades of trying to find solutions to international conflicts, Al Gore won it for his years of education [the] U.S. about climate change, and us? Well, I won it for not being George Bush."
To be honest, while there is perhaps reason to be perplexed over Obama's nod, which is more about the promise of the future than the past, it's not as though the U.S. president campaigned for the award.
Also, as the Washington Post points out, the Nobel Prizes are picked by 5 Norwegians. 5 humans, only 5 (emphasis mine):
The Nobel Committee consists of five Norwegians, selected by the Norwegian parliament. In his will, Alfred Nobel, the Swedish dynamite tycoon who thought up this whole thing, specifically wanted Norwegians to choose the winner, apparently because Norwegians, being outside the European mainstream, would be less likely to be politically corrupt. The trouble is that Norwegians, being outside the European mainstream, are also more likely to be eccentric. Norway is a wonderful country and Norwegians have some of the highest living standards in the world -- thanks to their low population numbers and their large deposits of oil and gas – but the last time I was there, I got in an argument with someone over which country was more evil, the United States or North Korea. This being a few years ago, at the height of the Bush Terror, you can guess which side the Norwegian was on.
If you want to be angry at someone, don't target Obama. Target Norway. Oh, and don't, as Michael Steele seems to want us to believe, even think that it's about the "Democrats and their international leftist allies (who) want America made subservient to the agenda of global redistribution and control." Maybe Norwegian control.
At any rate, the SNL sketch was funny, which is what it is intended to be, although the part about not being Bush rings true, when you remember the blurb from the WaPo above.
Finally, according to SNL, Obama also had another run of luck: the Powerball.
"The funny thing is it's the first Powerball ticket I've ever bought. I was driving Sasha and Malia home from school and we stopped at a 7/11 for sodas. We all chose two numbers and there you have it: $70 million."
He can use that $70 million to pay down the national debt.
The message "Kill Obama" was spray-painted in purple letters on campaign signs at two locations in Cave Creek, which is a suburb of Phoenix in Maricopa County, Arizona. Neither campaign sign is connected to national politics or connected to anything related to Obama or his policies.
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, himself in the news of late, said "This is a complete disgrace and gross act towards our president. My deputies are looking into all avenues of the incident, and it is a top priority."
On of the two signs supports a school budget increase, aimed at lowering class sizes in the kindergarten through third grades. The other supports a measure that would allow Walmart to open a location in Cave Creek.
This is reminiscent of the hate-filled rhetoric and actions that were part of the 2008 Presidential campaign, and even now. Some examples include:
Speaking to a former AZ resident, Maricopa County and the Phoenix area are extremely conservative, and racially biased. Meanwhile the areas of Tucson and Bisbee are considered liberal.
The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office (MCSO) indicates that at this time, there are no known suspects or witnesses. Anyone with information is asked to call MCSO at (602) 876-1011.
Here's what Steele said:
