PBS NOW Preview: The Ron Paul Phenomenon

You Tube/PBS

NOW talks to Congressman Ron Paul and his supporters across the country about Paul's extraordinary presidential campaign and the political waves it's causing.

Bill From Portland, Maine CHEERS John Edwards!

From CHEERS & JEERS:

CHEERS to John Edwards. A striking new CNN/Opinion Research poll shows that the populist candidate would pummel the Republicans hardest in 2008. Hey, I've got an idea for the traditional media. I know it's a little crazy, but hear me out. I think you guys should start covering his campaign again! Give it a whirl---it might lead to, like, journalism or something.

Bin Laden: The End Credits

Merry Craigmas!

[To the tune of Jingle Bells]
Tap tap tap
Tap tap tap
Tap tap tap tap tap
Tap tap tap
Ta-tap tap tap
Ta-ta-tap tap tap tap tap. TAP!
Tap tap tap
Tap tap tap
Tap tap tap tap tap
Tap tap tap
Ta-tap tap tap
Ta-ta-tap tap tap tap tap.

This Modern World

100 Million Pennies on Display in Rockefeller Center: Pretty Dumb

The display, called the Penny Harvest Field, includes an estimated 100 million pennies collected by children for charity.

Now, call me crazy, but don't you think it would have been smarter to tell these kids to collect quarters? or even dimes? I'm just saying... the strategy was pretty dumb.

The Unacceptable Status Quo

David Mizner (an Edwards booster) has an excellent post on MyDD this morning that eloquently articulates many of my reservations about Obama, as well as many reasons why I find Edwards to be the most credible candidate for change, despite the ironic fact that he's a white male.

In particular, Obama's insistence on compromise and unity has led him to some pretty terrible anti-progressive positions. Let me put it crassly and wildy overstate things for the sake of argument: if Jamie Leigh Jones was being raped 4 times a day, and some folks wanted it to stop, while others didn't have a problem with it, then Obama's compromise position would be to ratchet down the rapes to just 2 times a day. Compromise. Unity. Everybody's happy.

Whatever.

If you compromise with a corrupt and morally bankrupt system, you're not compromising, you're capitulating and abetting. End of story.

Or, to put it more tactfully, as Mizner does:

[Obama's] selling unity and hope, yet what he's proposing to do wouldn't create much of either. It's progressive policies, not good intentions or expressed desires, that create unity and hope. Obama wouldn't even roll back Bush's tax cuts for the rich; he'd keep them in place until they expire in 2011. Very unifying. The unacceptable status quo--in which the powerful are way too powerful--will only be strengthened if it is ratified by a black "liberal" president. That's my fear.

[Emphasis mine]

Jamie Leigh Jones Undermines the War Effort

As usual, Jon Swift is the voice of reason... well, sort of.

Krugman Responds to Obama's Attacks

Krugman responds via his blog.

I was prepared to leave it at that — Obama’s plan was weaker than his rivals’ because it wasn’t universal, but I hoped that he would fix that in practice.

But then Obama started attacking his rivals from the right, denouncing their proposals using exactly the same false claims that conservatives will use to try to derail reform in the future.

And now, having been caught out on the facts, the Obama people respond with a personal attack, lifting quotes out of context to pretend that I never had problems with the plan. Something is very wrong here.

Obama Disappoints

Jerome Armstrong at MyDD is not what you'd call an Obama booster, but he's got 2 pieces on MyDD right now which I endorse whole-heartedly.

Piece #1 on Oprah's politics:

Back during the end of September 2000, when Gore had Bush on the mat following the bounce from the LA convention and the RATS ad, it was Oprah that picked Bush up off the ground. "My pleasure," he purred when she thanked him for the kiss. The establishment media went gaga after Oprah embraced Bush.

That's what I know about Oprah and her politics.

But the more substantive piece is the one that resonates with me most. Obama is bashing Krugman. Paul Krugman, one of the only honest and courageous voices in the traditional media.

Let's review: Krugman took Obama to task for his healthcare plan. Obama's Healthcare plan does not provide universal coverage, and is deeply flawed in that it doesn't require enrollment, but neither can it deny anyone enrollment, thereby basically encouraging people to opt out when they're healthy, and then opt in when they're sick thus defeating the entire premise of a plan that bases cost savings on economies of scale. When everyone pays in, it's cheaper for everyone. Under Obama's plan, the chronically sick opt in immediately, and then because the pool is smaller, they pay more. Then a some healthy people get sick and opt in, and because they enlarge the pool, it all gets cheaper. Then, some people get better, and opt out again, without penalty, and the cost goes up again because the pool is smaller. Basically, you'd have the sickest people, those most in need of affordable health care subsidizing the healthy Johnny-Come-Latelys. Like I said. Deeply Flawed.

Krugman's also taken Obama to task (rightly so) for embracing the Norquist dog-whistle "Social Security Crisis" meme.

Well, now it seems that Obama is going after Krugman's credibility. Bad move. Krugman's one of the most credible columnists we've got. It's worth going to the NYT's archive of his columns to check out exactly how prescient he's been. Here's a piece published just 3 months after the Iraq invasion, at a time when most of the rest of the media were celebrating "Mission Accomplished."

So now, because Krugman spoke a little truth about Obama's shortcomings, Obama is attacking Krugman. Mr. Obama, maybe you should hire him as a policy advisor instead.

Armstrong notes what's troubling about Obama's statements and raises some worthy questions:

Is Obama is just plain ignorant of the fight we've faced this decade in going after Krugman? Why is he going after the Clinton and Edwards plans to push forward the idea of universal coverage? Does he really have no clue that using the term 'crisis' to describe Social Security is Rovian?

It's mistakes like these that make me think that if Obama gets the nomination, it's going to be disgusting to watch as he turns against progressives in his bid for the middle, and as he says, that's the way he'd govern too.

Amen to that.

Obama has great potential, but it sure looks like he's mistaking 'compromise' for leadership, and capitulation for 'bipartisanship.'

Young Pakistanis: Bin Laden Is A CIA Creation

Good Morning America gets more than it bargained for in a feature on young people in Pakistan

Steve Watson
Infowars.net
Tuesday, Dec 4, 2007

An ABC news piece that ran yesterday morning attracted attention after four Pakistanis who were being interviewed about the attitudes and life of young people in Pakistan declared Osama Bin Laden to be a creation of western intelligence and stressed that Islamic extremist attitudes towards the west were virtually non existent in their country before 9/11.

ABC have since pulled the video footage from their website, but an industrious prisonplanet forum member grabbed the footage and uploaded it to youtube.

"Who is Osama Bin Laden?" One girl asked Chris Cuomo, "He's just a character created by America" she concluded.

Another of the young people, all in their twenties picked up the conversation stating "I would say that 98% of Pakistanis would follow along the same lines, they believe that Osama is basically a CIA agent who is working under cover to put over a bad image of Islam."

Here is the footage interspersed with other evidence to back up the claims of the four young Pakistanis:

Latest Intelligence Estimate Says Iran Halted Nuclear Weapons Program in 2003

The latest National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) report suggests that Iran has halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 due to international pressure. You can view the pdf of the report here. This is in stark contrast to Bush, Cheney, other administration officials, and most of the GOP presidential candidates, all of which have been banging their fists screaming about stopping Iran from getting nuclear weapons.
Raw Story has a great article about Joseph Cirincione, the director of nuclear policy at the Center for American Progress, and his recent appearance on BBC World News. Cirincione basically says that military and intelligence agencies are finally standing up to the president and his propagandizing of the Iranian threat.

"And they of course are now dealing with a lame-duck president...and you're seeing first the military reassert the integrity of its institutions, and now the intelligence agencies," he continued. "So both are now saying 'go slow on Iran, there is no good military option here.' And now, there isn't really an imminent threat. We have time to let diplomacy work."

"It definitely undercuts the case for military action," said Cirincione. "It strengthens the case for direct diplomatic engagement."

Sex on the City!

I'm loving the Rudy Giuliani "Sex on the City" scandal. It's got all kinds of juicy bits, like the possibility that the reason he wanted his Emergency Command Center within walking distance of the Mayor's office (instead of out in Brooklyn where all the security experts suggested it be placed) was that he wanted to use it as a convenient love nest! Fucking hilarious. The Emergency response on 9-11 was a disaster in and of itself because the Emergency Command Center was useless. How many people died so Rudy could get some tail? What's most hilarious about the deaths of all those fire-fighters and police officers is that after his prostate cancer, I don't even think he can get it up anymore. Hah hah. Rudy's impotent. No SuperTube action for him anymore.



Oh, and look! Here's Rudy's Holiday dance with his former prostate.

Super-Tuber pt. 2

The Headline from the Idaho Statesman? "More Gay Men Describe Sexual Encounters with U.S. Sen. Larry Craig."

Here's a quote:

"First he washed and dried my cock. Then he rubbed it with shortening or butter. Finally, he dipped it in his favorite cock condiment (mustard is his favorite)."

Evel Knievel: 1938-2007

Its a sad day for America today. Evel Knievel, our country's most famous daredevil, has passed away at age 69. Evel, dude, you will be missed. We'll never forget that you gave us this: