More like, the unvarnished state truth

Sen. Tom Harkin praising liberal radio host Ed Schultz on Schultz's show this past Friday --

I gotta tell ya, Ed, a lot of us have talked around here and we just say thank God for Ed Schultz. I mean that sincerely. He's getting the truth out to the American people, the unvarnished state, straight truth of what's going on around here and we're grateful for that.

And we're really, really stateful, uh, grateful for that, Ed.

ABC News: Hasan sought contact with al Qaeda, according to two US officials

Bombshell revelation today I learned while listening to Laura Ingraham, as reported by ABC News. But not only was the suspect in Fort Hood massacre trying to make contact with the terrorist network --

U.S. intelligence agencies were aware months ago that Army Major Nidal Hasan was attempting to make contact with people associated with al Qaeda, two American officials briefed on classified material in the case told ABC News.

A story that makes me more dumbfounded by the day.

Needless to say, Che would be a huge fan

By way of National Review's NRO blog --

Is this even possible?

From "What's News" briefs on front page of today's Wall Street Journal --

A Russian court ruled against Stalin's grandson in a suit alleging a newspaper damaged the dictator's honor.

By what, running an accurate story about him?

Took 'em only 40 years to acknowledge this

Not something I can ever recall hearing a liberal admit -- that Nixon began withdrawing troops from Vietnam in his first year in office. The liberal in question? John Nichols, Washington editor and blogger at The Nation magazine, appearing on Ed Schultz's radio show on Oct. 9, as I describe in a blog post tonight at NewsBusters ...

Ed Schultz. Clueless. Again.

This time about Dear Leader's unease with "notion" of "victory" in Afghanistan, as I describe in a post at NewsBusters.

Doctors given white labcoats to wear for White House photo-op with Obama

An example of where real life and the world as seen by The Onion are indistinguishable. As reported in today's New York Post --

A sea of 150 white-coated doctors, all enthusiastically supportive of the president and representing all 50 states, looked as if they were at a costume party as they posed in the Rose Garden before hearing Obama's pitch for the Democratic overhaul bills moving through Congress.

The physicians, all invited guests, were told to bring their white lab coats to make sure that TV cameras captured the image.

But some docs apparently forgot, failing to meet the White House dress code by showing up in business suits or dresses.

So the White House rustled up white coats for them and handed them to the suited physicians who had taken seats in the sun-splashed lawn area.

All this to provide a visual counter to complaints from other doctors that pending legislation is bad news for the medical profession. ...

Heck, why stop there? How about asking the assembled doctors to wear stethoscopes, lest anyone confuse them with pharmacists? Better yet, have the dutiful doctors put on those shiny reflectors they use to wear.

Double whammy makes for Obama's worst day

Sure looks like it, between unemployment hitting an official 9.8 percent and Chicago coming in fourth out of four entries for the 2016 Summer Olympics. A friend of mine, blogger Brian Maloney at The Radio Equalizer, had it just right when he said we may look back on this day as the turning point of Obama's presidency.

Obama as Ubiquitous Leader

Appears on "60 Minutes" just over a week ago, then hits five -- count 'em, five -- Sunday morning talk shows yesterday, to be followed by a schmooze with Letterman on tonight's show. Anyone else think this guy is eminently overexposed? What next, a cameo on upcoming Brady Bunch reunion in Hawaii flick?

Gee, what a surprise

Radio host Ed Schultz, who also has a TV show on MSNBC, talking today about Obama's speech before Congress on health reform --

We're waiting to see what the president says tonight, the pregame show well underway, we're 7 hours and 53 minutes and 16 seconds before the speech. You know, we're the only network, MSNBC, that's giving us a countdown on exactly when the big show's gonna start.

Yes, the man is easily amused.

Kennedy abandoned pursuit of presidency after '80 campaign? Not so

Among the revisionist myths aired after Ted Kennedy's death, one that comes around frequently -- that after Kennedy's disastrous run for president in 1980, he gave up his dream of restoring Camelot at the White House and focused on becoming a great legislator in the Senate. Two examples of why this isn't true --

First, from the "People" column of Time magazine, Feb. 2, 1981, of Ted and Joan Kennedy announcing plans to divorce. Note the timing of the announcement --

With the exception of Rose Kennedy, 90, who was informed early Wednesday, and a few intimates, no one expected the announcement they were to issue 24 hours after Ronald Reagan took office. ...

... Clearly with an eye toward the '84 campaign, with Kennedy wasting no time shedding what he perceived as baggage.

Even after Kennedy decided against challenging Reagan in 1984, speculation continued that he would seek the presidency a second time, in 1988, until Kennedy announced otherwise in December 1985. As reported by the Associated Press on Dec. 20 that year --

BOSTON -- Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's much heralded bid for the presidency ended before it began with the leading Democrat's surprise announcement that he will not be a candidate for the White House in 1988.

"I know that this decision means that I may never be president, but the pursuit of the presidency is not my life. Public service is," Kennedy said in an unusual, paid political announcement televised Thursday evening in his home state of Massachusetts. ...

"September 1, 1939" resonates still

"I sit in one of the dives
On Fifty-second Street
Uncertain and afraid
As the clever hopes expire
Of a low dishonest decade ... "

The rest of Auden's poem here

Rest in peace, Senator Kennedy

Didn't agree with his politics but interviewed the man several times over the years, mainly during my time as political reporter at the Cape Cod Times, and he was invariably gracious. He will probably always loom large to me if for no other reason than being the brother of JFK, my boyhood hero.

At left, a photo I took of Kennedy in April 2003, meeting with the troops at Otis Air National Guard Base on Cape Cod a few weeks after the outbreak of war in Iraq.

It's the most won-der-ful time of the year ...

One kid back in school today, the other following tomorrow. Ah, autumn!

Gentlemen, you can't fight here, this is the war room!

Caller on Ed Schultz's radio show today who identified himself as "Raymond," chairman of town Democratic committee in Dartmouth, Mass., describing his approach to moderating town hall forum on health reform Aug. 18 attended by Bay State congressman Barney Frank --

As chairman of the party, in chairing that meeting, I made a statement at the beginning that I won't tolerate political stances.

Guess this means Barney Frank remained uncharacteristically silence through the meeting.

Remember the Indianapolis

An op-ed I wrote that ran in the Providence Journal-Bulletin on Aug. 15, 2006 to coincide with V-J Day, a state holiday in Rhode Island --


Visiting the Truman Library several years ago, I bought a reprinted copy of the Aug. 15, 1945 Philadelphia Inquirer. ‘PEACE’ read the banner headline over stories of Japan surrendering to end World War II.

It was a story tucked beneath the fold that caught my eye, with this headline -- "U.S. Cruiser Sunk With Every Man Lost or Wounded."

Many veterans of World War II know the name of the ship, as will students of history. It was the USS Indianapolis.

Others are familiar with the Indianapolis from the movie "Jaws." The shark hunter Quint, played by Robert Shaw, describes the sinking of the Indianapolis during a night of drunken reverie with Amity Police Chief Martin Brody and oceanographer Matt Hooper.

"So, 1,100 men went into the water, 316 men come out, the sharks took the rest, June the 29th, 1945," Quint said, lost in the horror of his memories. "Anyway, we delivered the bomb" -- a reference to the atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

It turns the movie got the date wrong -- the Indianapolis was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine on the night of July 29 and sank in 12 minutes. Its loss came so close to the end of the war that it was not reported to the public, as by the Inquirer, until Aug. 15 -- the day after Japan surrendered.

The sinking of the Indianapolis is significant in another respect: it remains the worst loss of life for a US Navy vessel at sea -- ever.

Only one other American warship suffered heavier losses -- the battleship Arizona in Pearl Harbor, just after the start of the surprise attack by Japan in December 1941 which brought the U.S. into World War II. Most of the 1,102 men killed on the Arizona died in an instant when a bomb exploded in the ship's forward magazine.

In other words, the two worst losses in the history of the Navy came only minutes after America abruptly become a combatant in World War II -- and just weeks before the war ended. And the sinking of the Indianapolis is a prime example of just how dangerous Japan remained to the end of the war.

Revisionists claim that President Harry Truman's decision to use the atom bomb makes him no better than Islamist suicide bombers of today. Only an ethos long seeped in moral relativism could believe such an absurd proposition.

Far from inflaming conflict in the manner of jihadists, Truman's decision led to an abrupt end to conflict -- and the bloodiest war in history at that. Emperor Hirohito announced on Aug. 14 that Japan would surrender -- less than a week after Nagasaki was attacked. The second bombing, often criticized as gratuitous, showed that the destruction of Hiroshima three days earlier was not a fluke.

Truman's critics cite the horrifying death tolls in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, where casualties ran in the hundreds of thousands, and point out -- accurately -- that most of those killed were civilians.

But what these critics rarely acknowledge is how many civilians were killed as the result of the brutal, ongoing Japanese occupation of China, Korea, Manchuria, Taiwan, southeast Asia, Malaysia, Burma (now Myanmar) and the Dutch East Indies, known to us today as Indonesia.
Historian Robert Newman and others have calculated that 250,000 to 400,000 people, overwhelmingly noncombatants, were dying every month as a result of Japanese barbarity.

Revisionists also claim that Japan was ready to surrender before the atom bomb. An examination of the pattern of conflict in the Pacific leads to the opposite conclusion.

Japan was a formidable opponent from the start of the war, but never fought with more ferocity than at Saipan in the summer of 1944. Until, that is, February 1945 on Iwo Jima, when the carnage was even worse. Until that spring at Okinawa, when more than 200,000 people, combatants and civilians, were killed, wounded or never heard from again.

The pattern was clear -- the closer the Allies came to Japan, the greater the losses on both sides.
As with Islamists we fight today, the Japanese resorted to suicide bombers -- kamikaze pilots. In both cases, the fanaticism of our foes in no way validates their perverse beliefs.

While we can only wonder what might have been had Truman not used the bomb, what occurred after he did is indisputable -- the unconditional surrender of Japan in a matter of days.

Truman rarely gets credit for another aspect of his decision worth noting: atomic weapons have not been used in war since 1945. Why no other leader has pulled the nuclear trigger is fair game for speculation, but I count myself among those who believe that Hiroshima and Nagasaki demonstrated the fearsome power of these weapons, which have only grown in number and intensity. A nuclear conflict today would make the loss of two cities pale by comparison.

The decisive manner that Truman ended the war had another positive effect -- it purged Japan of the militarism which held sway in the country for more than a decade, and provided the foundation for the modern, industrious Japan we now consider an important and respected ally.

A Japan that few fear will attack them out of the blue on a quiet Sunday morning.

Possible deal in House on health reform

As reported by CNN -- follow this link for details

Update, 3:30 -- some "deal" -- the only news here is Blue Dog Dems getting House leaders to agree on holding off a vote on health reform until after the month-long August recess.

Cambridge police release Gates arrest recording

The Boston Herald posted the audio at its website today. Didn't add much to story, in this man's opinion, though Sgt. James Crowley sounded professional throughout and little of Professor Gates's alleged unhinged rant could be heard.

A theory making the rounds -- was the question about Gates at Obama's July 22 press conference planted with a sympathetic reporter (Lynn Sweet of the Chicago Sun-Times) to divert attention from Senate Majority leader Harry Reid announcing the next day -- as Obama surely knew was coming -- that the Senate would not vote on health reform before the August recess?

What better way to rile up liberals than with a timely opportunity for self-righteous indignation about racial profiling?

Report: Obama calls Cambridge cop who arrested Gates

A sign that Obama knows he shouldn't have waded full bore into the controversy after first acknowledging he wasn't sure on specifics. Reporting today from The Hill --

... Obama said the five-minute conversation confirmed that (Sgt. James) Crowley is a good man and that the sergeant and the professor are "two decent people," though he still believes that Crowley and Gates both overreacted. The president further said that he contributed to the "ratcheting up" of the story.

Obama said it was "unfortunate" that his word choice "maligned" the police department and Crowley.

"And I could have calibrated my words differently." ...

Read the full story here.

Cop who arrested Gates teaches racial profiling class

More great coverage from the Boston Herald --

Cambridge police Sgt. James Crowley, the cop at the center of a firestorm over the arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., has taught a racial profiling class at the Lowell Police Academy for five years. ...

Granted, the police academy isn't Harvard and, hence, one is more likely to encounter a robust exchange of ideas there. On how every arrest of a person of color isn't the result of racial profiling, for example.

This story just keeps getting better.

Alleged racist cop who arrested Henry Louis Gates

A story in today's Boston Herald that surely has Professor Gates cringing in embarrassment --

The Cambridge cop prominent Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. claims is a racist gave a dying Reggie Lewis mouth-to-mouth resuscitation in a desperate bid to save the Celtic superstar’s life 16 years ago Monday.

“I wasn’t working on Reggie Lewis the basketball star. I wasn’t working on a black man. I was working on another human being,” Sgt. James Crowley, in an exclusive interview with the Herald, said of the forward’s fatal heart attack July 27, 1993, at age 27 during an off-season practice at Brandeis University, where Crowley was a campus police officer. ...

You know, as racist cops are wont to do.

Schultz sidekick Norman Goldman getting radio show

Radio host Ed Schultz announced on his show today -- or more accurately, announced at a town hall meeting he moderated in Madison, Wisc., on Sunday which was rebroadcast on Schultz's show today -- that his longtime "senior legal analyst" Norman Goldman (in photo at right) is getting his own radio show.

Details are still sparse but according to Goldman, who guest hosted the final hour of Schultz's radio show today (Schultz also hosts a TV show weeknights on MSNBC), told listeners that he'll be broadcasting from his adopted home of Los Angeles as of September.

Nuttiest theory yet for Palin stepping down: She may have "done something" to Michael Jackson, claims caller to Sharpton radio show

... And Rev. Al says of the theory, "that's interesting." Almost as much as extent that Sharpton is willing to consider delusional conspiracy theories. This one comes by way of Brian Maloney at The Radio Equalizer.

Weeks of rain and drizzle, followed by a glorious July 4th weekend. Fair enough.

This photo wasn't taken over the holiday weekend -- I took it at a 9/11 anniversary observance in Buzzards Bay a few years ago -- but it's one of my favorite photos of the flag and the weather at the time was much the way it was this morning, after the endless rain, drizzle and fog of spring and early summer.

Bill Clinton, ever the sensitive one

From an essay by Bill Clinton titled "Getting it Right" in Time magazine's "Annual Making of America Issue," with its theme of "What Barack Obama Can Learn From FDR" --

Roosevelt understood that in a complex and perilous situation, you have to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time, and he was masterful in doing a variety of difficult things simultaneously.

Scandal, celebrity deaths crowd Iran out of news

Hard to believe idiocy of South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford winging off to South America to hang with his mistress for a few days, leaving the constituents of his state in the dark as to his whereabouts -- was this the politica equivalent of self-immolation? -- and wall to wall coverage this afternoon of sudden death of singer Michael Jackson at 50 (same day as Farah Fawcett). Meanwhile, in Iran, word that has filtered out in recent days was of brutal crackdown getting worse. Looks like the revolt could be going way of China in '89 instead of eastern Europe. Even if true, however, Iran is no longer the country is was only weeks ago.

Internal friction at MSNBC?

Joe Scarborough cancels appearance on "The Ed Show" after locking horns with Ed Schultz earlier that day on "Morning Joe," as I describe in NewsBusters post earlier tonight ...

Obama gets this one right

It's not often I agree with Obama, but when it comes to Iran, I do. Fastest way for mullahs in Iran to brutally suppress this revolt is if US is seen as taking sides and fomenting upheaval.

Catalyst for change in Iran? It's not Obama

... any more than George H.W. Bush was catalyst for the collapse of communism in Europe. No, much of the credit for both goes to their predecessors -- Reagan and George W. Bush -- though media meme of Obama taking office as basis for upheaval in Iran will surely take hold instead.

Just as Reagan was the pivotal figure in bringing down Iron Curtain, even though it did not occur until after Reagan left office, the younger Bush was pivotal in bringing down Iran Curtain, if that is what we are witnessing. And to carry analogy further, Obama is reacting with much the same caution as George H.W. Bush after the collapse of the Berlin Wall.

Faces of hope in Iran

"Iran on Fire"

So reports foreign correspondent Michael J. Totten, whose incisive blog I discovered tonight ...

Arianna Huffington on demise of newspapers: Don't blame me

... so said HuffPo founder to journalists in NYC after receiving a lifetime achievement award from Syracuse University's Newhouse journalism school ...

A stolen election in Iran?

Came across this amazing footage at Andrew Sullivan's blog tonight, where I found the most comprehensive coverage so far of the disputed presidential election in Iran. Chillingly reminiscent of China 20 years ago.

Obama at Normandy: Self-referential as usual

Can Obama get through a speech without gratuitous references to Dear Leader himself? Here he goes again, this time at Normandy in ceremonies marking the 65th anniversary of the D-Day invasion. After the obligatory nods to other dignitaries, Obama started his speech with this --

I'm not the first American president to come and mark this anniversary and I likely will not be the last.

How about that, gratuitous self-reference and banal. Then again, they often go together.

Here's how Reagan began his remarks 25 years earlier in the same place --

We're here to mark that day in history when the Allied armies joined in battle to reclaim this continent to liberty.

Listening to Obama's speeches and their inevitable turns of compass toward Self, I'm reminded of a book review of Hemingway's posthumous novel "The Garden of Eden" in 1986 by one of Hemingway's granddaughters, who made a wager with herself that Papa couldn't go a full page without mentioning an aperitif (she lost the bet, as I recall).

George Tiller, rest in peace

Do I take any pleasure or satisfaction in the shooting death of abortion doctor George Tiller? Not in the least. A horrific crime, in a sacred setting, that can't be justified or excused. I pray for Mr. Tiller and his survivors, and for the soul of the man who killed him. This is not the way to resolve our differences on abortion.

Back to blogging, here

Update, June 8: As for obligating myself to blog here every day -- easier said than done!

I've been blogging at NewsBusters since last October but not spent nearly as much time here as I'd like in recent months. That will change as of today, with daily quota of at least one post a day. Now that I've pledged to do it, I have no choice but to follow suit.

Report: Kennedy's cancer not in remission

Looks like Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was prematurely optimistic about the prospects of his ailing colleague, according to a story in Tuesday's Cape Cod Times --

U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy's office says a report that the Massachusetts Democrat's brain tumor has gone into remission and he is returning to the Senate full time next month is unfounded.

A Boston staffer who did not wish to be named for this story said the senator continues to balance a treatment regimen with work, adding that his schedule is determined on a day-to-day basis.

A Washington, D.C., publication, The Hill, reported yesterday that Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Kennedy's brain cancer is in remission and he would return to the Senate full time in early June.

The Great Recession

Can't recall where I read this, but I think it'll stick in describing what we're living through now.

Report: GOP Sen. Arlen Specter Switching to Democrats

As being reported by CNN, according to an email blast I received a few minutes ago. If true, hardly a surprise but begs the question -- will Specter continue crossdressing?

Update, 2:20 pm -- Guess this means Michael Moore won't be doing any documentaries about Specter's long-suspected role in JFK assassination ...

In new book, Wendy Kaminer describes ACLU censoring itself

Why does this not come as a total shock?

As described by John Leo in his "Bookshelf" column in today's Wall Street Journal, reviewing Wendy Kaminer's new book, "Worst Instincts: Cowardice, Conformity, and the ACLU" --

In 2006, the ACLU descended into self-satire by drawing up a gag order to cover its own board members -- no public criticism of policies or personnel, because speaking out might hurt fund raising. When word got out, a storm of ridicule forced the withdrawal of the plan. But Ms. Kaminer notes that only six of the 53 ACLU affiliates protested the no-dissent policy; the ACLU apparently couldn't be bothered to defend its own right to free speech.

I especially like that last sentence.

There was something in the air that night, the stars were bright ...

Paraguay's president Fernando Lugo admits to fathering child while a Catholic bishop, as reported here by the Christian Science Monitor.

The inevitable response

Matt Foley returns!

You remember, the best character ever on "Saturday Night Live"? Going by a different name this time around -- radio and MSNBC host Ed Schultz, as I describe in a blog post at NewsBusters.

No thanks to you, Mr. President

"From getting rid of Saddam, to reducing violence, to stabilizing the country, to facilitating elections -- you have given Iraq the opportunity to stand on its own as a democratic country. That is an extraordinary achievement" -- Obama in Baghdad during photo-op visit with American troops.

An "extraordinary achievement" that would have been squandered had the United States done what Obama wanted and turned tail before the surge.

It's official: Ed Schultz gets show on MSNBC

... And as I asked aloud back on March 22, Schultz is bumping David Shuster from the 6-7 pm slot, with the nomadic Shuster co-hosting a two-hour show at mid-afternoon.

Inexplicably -- though perhaps not, considering this is MSNBC -- the network will continue showing repeats at 10 and 11 p.m., of earlier shows by Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow.

Rachel Maddow, more bizarre than usual

On her show last night, the ever-smarmy MSNBC pundit talked about Obama in London for the G-20 summit and "dancing on the grave of the Cold War with the Russian president."

You know, kinda like socialists are inclined to do.

A headline you never thought you'd see

For lead story in today's New York Times --

OBAMA WILL FACE A DEFIANT WORLD ON FOREIGN VISIT

True lefty indeed

Caller on Ed Schultz's radio show today --

I'm what you'd call a true lefty and when I debate with centrist Democrat friends, I feel myself beginning to lose it at a certain point, I'm so sure I'm right.

Ed Schultz to bump David Shuster on MSNBC?

It's no secret that liberal radio host Ed Schultz is negotiating with MSNBC for a weeknight show, with Schultz having guest hosted for David Shuster on "1600 Pennsylvania Avenue" twice in the last couple of weeks (and again tomorrow night).

But is something more in the works at MSNBC? Possibly so, based on what Schultz told his listeners on Friday --

Somebody must have the flu over there or something. I don't know, they just wanted me to do the show and I think Shuster's going to be doing another show and so the musical chairs there for just a few days I think continue.

Report: Fannie Mae Doling Out $1 Million Bonuses

... With Freddie Mac planning to follow suit, according to a Moneynews story this morning --

Fannie Mae plans to pay retention bonuses of at least $1 million to four key executives as part of a plan to keep hundreds of employees from leaving the government-controlled company.

Rival mortgage finance company Freddie Mac is planning similar awards, but has not yet reported on which executives will benefit.

The two companies, which together own or back more than half of the home mortgages in the country, have been hobbled by skyrocketing loan defaults. Fannie recently requested $15 billion in federal aid, while Freddie has sought a total of almost $45 billion ...

Timing is everything

"Freddie Mac Puts Restrictions on Refinances" -- headline of story in today's Wall Street Journal, page A3

Ah, thanks for clarifying that

Correction in today's New York Times --

An article on March 2 about President Obama's plan to sign a $410 spending bill that included thousands of lawmakers' pet projects misstated his campaign promise about projects of this type, known as earmarks. Mr. Obama promised to reform the earmark process, not to end it.

After all, Obama was still engaged in the "process" when he made that promise.

The real purpose behind Obama's health care reform initiative

When health care reform falls short, as it invariably does, Obama will claim that failure to enact the specific reforms he sought is why the stimulus plan failed to revive the economy to the extent he claimed it would.

Not if you keep handing them out

"Will these bailouts ever end?" -- liberal talker Ed Schultz, guest hosting today on "1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, referring to GM and Chrysler seeking $35 billion more in federal largesse.

MSNBC possibly grooming Ed Schultz for TV show

Wouldn't surprise me in the least, seeing how Schultz's politics dovetail so neatly with those of MSNBC hosts Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow.

As reported today by The New York Observer --

On the morning of Monday, March 9th, liberal talk radio host Ed Schultz, who bills himself as the "most listened-to progressive radio talk show host in America," announced on his Web site that he would be guest-hosting MSNBC's 6 p.m. show 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue the following evening.

Word of the announcement promptly touched off a fresh set of rumors among MSNBC staffers that the network's president Phil Griffin might be grooming Mr. Schultz to join the channel on a fulltime basis ...

Follow this link for the rest of the Observer story.

Limbaugh challenges Obama to debate

Seeing how Rush Limbaugh now leads the Republican Party, at least according to the Obama White House, and Obama's willingness to negotiate with nearly anyone, will Obama accept Limbaugh's challenge? Not a chance in hell.

We're crazy, but not that crazy

Former DNC chairman Howard Dean on Rachel Maddow's show last night, commenting on Rush Limbaugh saying he wants Obama to "fail" --

"I didn't want George Bush to fail, uh, even as a Democrat."

Is Obama trying to wreck the economy?

Capping carbon emissions, thereby increasing energy costs -- in this economy? And having the gall to also claim, as Obama did last week in his first speech before Congress, that anyone earning less than $250,000 a year won't see their taxes increase "by a dime"? Maybe so, but energy costs are certainly going up under Obama's proposal, which White House budget chief Peter Orszag could not deny when challenged by George Stephanopoulos on "This Week" this past Sunday.

As Newt Gingrich said at this year's CPAC gathering over the weekend, taxes won't go up for anyone earning less than $250,000 annually -- unless you use electricity. Or buy gasoline. or home heating oil ...

50,000 'residual' troops in Iraq -- for how long?

None of the news I've seen so far answers this obvious question. Will 50,000 troops remain in Iraq indefinitely, as in Europe, Japan and South Korea? Or until the first suicide bombing after combat troops are withdrawn?

Update, Sunday March 1 -- all remaining troops to be withdrawn by end of 2011, according to Obama in his remarks at Camp Lejeune on Friday. Why the lack of clarity on this point from media coverage remains a mystery.

How much will market drop after Obama's speech to Congress?

Three hundred points -- or perhaps only 200? Then again, it's slumped so much since Obama was elected -- more than it did in September and October -- that a rebound could be inevitable at some point. Still, how will those already paying most of the taxes respond to Obama's plan to milk them further, and to carbon cap and trade?

'Slumdog Millionaire': Why Its Big Night at Oscars is Good for America

My annual Oscar-watching ritual ended years ago, coinciding roughly with parenthood, but I caught the end of the awards Sunday night after watching "The Dark Knight" on DVD in anticipation of the late Heath Ledger winning for best supporting actor (and deservedly so from what I saw).

By the time Steven Spielberg announced Best Picture, "Slumdog Millionaire" had already snagged a half-dozen awards. And even though I've yet to see it (again, waiting for the DVD), it was moving to see so many people from India on stage after the film won the top award.

Why does this matter? Because India is likely to become our most important ally in this century, if it isn't already. We share a natural kinship -- another English-speaking democracy and former British colony that places great value on education, innovation and entrepreneurial spirit, situated in a most volatile part of the world. It was only a matter of time before the jihadists took notice, as they did in Mumbai last December. All the more fitting it was the setting for "Slumdog Millionaire."

Many people resent that when they call for tech support, the person on the other end is most likely in India. Not me, I'm glad. That the tide is rising there and wherever else people have languished in poverty for centuries is a good thing. And thanks to a big Oscar night for "Slumdog," millions of our brothers and sisters in India have seen once again how the West offers far more than the jihad's cult of death.

Implosion at libtalk radio Nova M

All hell breaking loose over at Nova M Radio, as described in a startling post by Brian Maloney at The Radio Equalizer -- Nova M boss and Air America co-founder Sheldon Drobny attempting suicide, guttersnipe host Randi Rhodes off the air, the ever-unhinged Mike Malloy left hanging.

Stock market less than thrilled with stimulus plan

... and shows it with the Dow Jones dropping nearly 300 points, almost 4 percent, today ...

Revealing Freudian slip by unhinged lefty Mike Malloy

Listen to it here in audio for NewsBusters post by Karen Hanna about radio host Mike Malloy, a man so fringe he was once fired by Air America Radio. Here's where Malloy trips himself up --

Rush Limbaugh is a bigger threat to this country than Bar-, uh, Osama bin Laden.

Great days in LWE history

On this day in 1975, Margaret Thatcher is elected leader of Britain's opposition Conservative Party.

Haunting "American Experience" on death of Lincoln

Watched last night, most of it well-trod ground, and struck by how the assassination of Lincoln saddens me more as I get older. Available at the "American Experience" website in case you missed it.

Winter of our discontent

Harsh weather ... flu, stomach and cold bugs making the rounds, and hitting hard at this home ... the sudden and unexpected death of a beloved novelist, John Updike ... growing and justifiable opposition to a bloated liberal boondoogle masquerading as a "stimulus" bill ... to paraphrase that old Chinese saying, we live in interesting times, indeed ...

Nice try, Thom

Subtle revisionism by Air America's Thom Hartmann on Friday in observing the anniversary of FDR's birth in 1882. Here is what Hartmann said before playing two audio clips from speeches by Roosevelt --

HARTMANN: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, speaking of what he saw when he became president ...

ROOSEVELT: I see one third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished ...

HARTMANN: ... And what he proposed to do about that, he said we have, that generation, and I would say again ...

ROOSEVELT: There is a mysterious cycle in human events. To some generations, much is given. Of other generations, much is expected. This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny.

HARTMANN: There you go.

What Hartmann neglects to mention is that Roosevelt made the first remarks cited above in his second inaugural in January 1937, fully four years after he took office, and not "when he became president" as Hartmann claims. That four year time span, not incidentally, dovetails with the time it took for FDR's predecessor, Herbert Hoover, to allegedly cause the Great Depression.

Nor did Hartmann mention that Roosevelt's famous "Rendezvous With Destiny" speech was delivered at the Democratic National Convention in June 1936, in the last year of FDR's first term.

Get down and give me 50!

Complaining about a steep rise in his health insurance costs, radio host Ed Schultz made an alarming suggestion Wednesday after citing government laws on speed limits, vehicle emissions and smoking in public places --

In fact, you don't have to look very far to find mandates in your own back yard, from your own local folks. Yet when it comes to health care, all of us are allowed to just take a free ride. And you know what? You look at the financial situation, the crisis that we are in globally, you look at the financial crisis that we are in trying to save our financial structure and Wall Street and the trillion dollars that's going to have to be put into infrastructure, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And you can take apart the budget all you want and say, well, this is pork, that is pork. You know what? You and I are pork. Because we are unwilling to accept a mandate from the government that would order us to exercise! I'm serious about this!

Starting with largely sedentary talk show hosts!

Five years blogging

As of today -- my first post was on Jan. 27, 2004 while political reporter at the Cape Cod Times, making the Political Notes column published Mondays a continuous online offering from the paper.

First post was about ubiquity of rock n' roll theme songs in presidential campaigns and a few suggestions along those lines --

Will any of us ever again hear John Mellencamp's "Small Town" without thinking of Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards, he of the po' boy roots in South Carolina who went onward and upward to Grishamesque fame as an exceedingly well-compensated trial lawyer?

Or U2's once powerful rocker, "Beautiful Day," rendered threadbare by John Kerry's determined overuse?

Or, going back a few years, the Clinton-Gore team's branding of Fleetwood Mac's "Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow" to the point it is nearly impossible to hear the tune without conjuring up images of Al and Tipper shedding their erstwhile disdain for rock n' roll to Munster-dance across stage.

In the interest of adding diversity to campaign theme songs, some suggestions for aural alternatives. More to follow as circumstances warrant ...

For Joe Lieberman -- "Living on a Prayer," Jon Bon Jovi; "Happiness is a Warm Gun," "If I Were a Rich Man," the Beatles; soundtrack to "Fiddler on the Roof"

Howard Dean -- "We're Not Going to Take it," Twisted Sister; "Sorry Seems to be the Hardest Word," Elton John' "I Musta Got Lost," J. Geils Band; "Money for Nothing," Dire Straits; "Yesterday," Beatles.

Wesley Clark -- "Billy, Don't Be a Hero" (by one-hit wonders from early '70s who returned to much-deserved anonymity); "I Love a Man in Uniform," Gang of Four

The Rev. Al Sharpton -- "Play That Funky Music," Wild Cherry; theme from "Shaft," Isaac Hayes; "Papa Was a Rolling Stone," Temptations

John Kerry -- "The Ballad of John and Yoko," Beatles (agreed, list is top-heavy with Fab Four); "The Ballad of the Green Berets," Sgt. Barry Sandler; "Bat Out of Hell," Meatloaf

John Edwards -- "Southern Man," Neil Young; "Walking on Sunshine," Katrina and the Waves

Dennis Kucinich -- "Start Me Up," Rolling Stones; "People are Strange," the Doors; "Four Dead in Ohio," Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young; "Smells Like Teen Spirit," Nirvana

Add to that the rampant hyberbole ...

Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, a rare lefty who doesn't disavow the socialist foundation of his beliefs, gets a bit carried away Friday in telling Air America's Thom Hartmann about challenges facing Obama --

Then you have just the overall collapse or disintegration of our health care system with 46 million Americans uninsured.

And is it my imagination or is that figure of 46 million marginally larger than it was in the early '90s, when the Clintons sought to nationalize health care, while our population has increased by tens of millions?

Rove giving Bush his due

Great column by Karl Rove in yesterday's Wall Street Journal. After initially describing the sentimental plane ride back to Texas, Rove wrote --

Yet, as Mr. Bush left Washington, in a last angry frenzy his critics again distorted his record, maligned his character and repeated untruths about his years in the Oval Office. Nothing they wrote or said changes the essential facts.

To start with, Mr. Bush was right about Iraq. The world is safer without Saddam Hussein in power. And the former president was right to change strategy and surge more U.S. troops.

A legion of critics (including President Barack Obama) claimed it couldn't work. They were wrong. Iraq is now on the mend, the war is on the path to victory, al Qaeda has been dealt a humiliating defeat, and a democracy in the heart of the Arab world is emerging. The success of Mr. Bush's surge made it possible for President Obama to warn terrorists on Tuesday "you cannot outlast us."

Hmm, wasn't there another political figure at the White House confined to a wheelchair?

Once again, Caroline has dropped out

So says The Daily Beast after a night of conflicting news

Update, to add snarky comment -- Caroline we hardly knew ye

Take a deep breath for this one ... ACLU suing Muslims over publicly-funded madrassa

As described by Michelle Malkin ... change I can believe in!

Caroline Kennedy withdraws from consideration for NY Senate seat

... as reported by the Daily News. Not surprised it all, her heart wasn't in it.

Cause of Flight 1549 crash revealed

So much for market swoon every time Obama speaks

Slumps more than 300 points on first day of Obama presidency.

Among the changes to come, via President Obama

Democrats and liberals no longer blithely disparaging prevention of another terrorist attack as a minor achievement. And media reports that our economy has turned the corner cropping up within days.

Well put, Pastor King

"I want to be the white man's brother, not his brother-in-law" -- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Congressman Keith Ellison, representing the Democrats' clown caucus

One of the most insipid interviews I've heard, between liberal radio host Ed Schultz and Congressman Keith Ellison, D-Minn., the sole Muslim in Congress as Schultz invariably describes Ellison. Choice morsels from their schmooze on Thursday --

Schultz: All right, congressman, you're on the Financial Services and Judiciary committees. They're going to get a lot of attention in this next session. The incoming Obama administration, should they launch a criminal investigation into the Bush administration officials to see whether they broke the law in the name of national security. Are you for or against a Sept. 11-style commission with subpoena power?

Ellison: Yes. And that's a complete sentence.

And I sincerely mean that, Ed ...

After regaining his bearings, Ellison went on to say that, yes, by all means, let's pursue show trials of Bush junta hooligans for putting the lives of American citizens ahead of the comfort of jihadists.

Schultz and Ellison also talked about proposed Treasury Secretary and tax scofflaw Timothy Geithner, with Ellison playing role of Obama's ventriloquist dummy, mouthing the president-elect's words nearly verbatim but with a vintage Ellison observation to boot --

Ellison: If our standard for being appointed is perfection, then somebody's going to be appointed. There's nobody who is not messed up, screwed up or goofed and I don't think we should have an unreasonable standard.

And the "messed up, screwed up or goofed" are deserving of the most consequential jobs in our government.

Next up, discussion of alleged need for Obama economic stimulus package, seeing how previous government initiatives to print reems of currency and dump it from airplanes have met with resounding success --

Ellison: We had a couple of economists come in last week and month and (what) they said is that time really is of the essence and every day that we delay, you know, more people are going to get laid off, and if you're laid off then you don't want to spend no money 'cause you don't know if you're going to have any money and if you don't spend any money, then people, somebody else is going to get laid off because their company isn't making any money. So there's this ugly, vicious cycle.

Yet despite dire situation warranting immediate attention, the specter of show trials for Bush, Cheney, et al., is impossible for Ellison to shake. Schultz points out that Obama appears lukewarm to such a spectacle.

Schultz: Is this front and center? I mean, I know that the Congress can multitask, we got a lot of things going on, but do you think this will happen in a timely fashion?

Ellison: Well, if I have anything to say about it, it will. I think that there's a number of members of, in Congress, in the Progressive Caucus, in other things like that ... As a matter of fact, earlier today, you know, we had a presentation from some professors on this issue who have studied it quite a bit who said, look, you know, if you guys let this, you know, we've had impeachments based on a president lying about sex. Now if you say that this guy doesn't have to, that there's no rebuking of what he did, we're essentially greenlighting everything he did. And so there is, there's a strong (sic) people in the community who want something done and there's a number of members of Congress who want something done. So around here, you know, things happen if you put effort behind them and I'm willing to do that.

Among those who want "something done" is the legal arm of al Qaeda, whose members are following developments with keen interest.

Details, details

From front-page story in today's Boston Globe under headline, "Treasury pick failed to pay taxes" --

President-elect Barack Obama's pick for Treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner, failed to pay more than $30,000 in Social Security and Medicare taxes over a four-year period, a revelation that could damage his credibility and hurt his chances for an easy confirmation.

Treasurer Geithner, meet Senator Franken. I'm sure you'll have lots to talk about.

Timeless wisdom from Edmund Burke

"It is not, what a lawyer tells me I may do; but what humanity, reason, and justice, tell me I ought to do" -- on the 280th anniversary of Burke's birth

Let me try again to say how refreshing it's been

National Air Traffic Controllers Association vice president Paul Rinaldi, speaking with radio host Ed Schultz on Friday about air traffic problems --

Schultz: Do you think that Obama is open to updating the system?

Rinaldi: Oh absolutely, I know he stands for it. His transition team has been open with us. You know, we have to continue to grow the system. So it's really been, it's been a fresh of breath air. I really, I mean, a fresh of breath air.

Harry Reid too puny to admit he was wrong about the surge

Arguably the most inept Sunday talk show appearance in memory, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on the most recent "Meet the Press," especially when new host David Gregory hammered away at Reid's claim in the early stages of the surge that the war in Iraq was "lost" --

A transcript of Reid's remarks, with an accompanying video link, from the MTP website --

MR. GREGORY: Let me ask you about the war in Iraq. In April of 2007, this is what you said: "I believe myself that ... this war is lost and the surge is not accomplishing anything." Were you wrong?

SEN. REID: David, I first met General David Petraeus in Iraq. He was training the Iraqi forces at that time. At that time, he knew it wasn't working. After he became the commander in Iraq, he and I sat down and talked. He said to me, and he said within the sound of everyone's voice, "The war cannot be won militarily." I said it differently than he did. But it needed a change in direction. Petraeus brought that about. He brought it about--the surge helped, of course it helped. But in addition to that, the urging of me and other people in Congress and the country dictated a change, and that took place. So...

MR. GREGORY: But you said the surge was not accomplishing anything. Even Barack Obama said last fall that it exceeded everyone's expectations and succeeded beyond our wildest dreams.

SEN. REID: Listen, at that--the time that statement was made, the surge--they weren't talking about the surge. Petraeus added to the surge some very, very interesting things that changed things. He said a lot--just simply numbers of troops is not going to do the deal. What we need to do is work with the Iraqi people, which we haven't done before. That's where the Awakening Councils came about, as a result of David Petraeus' genius. He's done--he will be written about in the history books for years to come. My original statement was in keeping what David Petraeus said; that is, the war cannot be won militarily.

MR. GREGORY: Do you believe that the war in Iraq has been lost?

SEN. REID: I don't think at this stage we can talk about that with any degree of sensibility. That has to be something that will talked about in the history books to come. We...

MR. GREGORY: So you spoke to soon in 2007?

SEN. REID: David Petraeus and Harry Reid spoke at the same time. David Petraeus said that the war cannot be won militarily, I said what I said. Who, who phrased it the best is...

MR. GREGORY: You said that the war is lost. Today, in 2009, that's no longer your view?

SEN. REID: David, listen, someone else will have to determine that as the years go on. What has the war done? It's brought about--it's destabilized the Middle East. We have a civil war going on in Israel. We have a civil war in Iraq, as indicated today, more than 50 people killed with a bomb in Iraq today. We have Lebanon, a civil war there. We have Iran thumbing their nose with every, everyone. And if that weren't bad enough, our standing in the world community is so far down as a result of this war, so--and that doesn't take into consideration the tens of thousands who have been injured...

MR. GREGORY: Mm-hmm.

SEN. REID: ...and the thousands have been killed in the war. So it's, it's--historians will have to talk about what the war in Iraq did. But I think historians today indicate, as I have, the outline that I've given.

Reid said "this war is lost and the surge is not accomplishing anything" in April 2007. On Sunday Reid claimed when he made this statement, "they weren't talking about the surge." All except Reid, and apparently apropo of nothing. The opposite is true -- "they" sure as hell were talking about the surge, meaning just about everyone who gave a damn about the war.

How about this dandy -- "That's where the Awakening Councils came about, as a result of David Petraeus' genius." Correct me if I'm wrong, but haven't liberals said repeatedly that the Sunni Awakening came before the additional troops from the surge?

Nice to see Gen. Petraeus belatedly getting his due, however, seeing how he was slandered by the morons at Moveon.org -- "He will be written about in the history books for years to come. "

Then there was this -- "We have a civil war going on in Israel. We have a civil war in Iraq, as indicated today, more than 50 people killed with a bomb in Iraq today. We have Lebanon, a civil war there."

Got that? Three simultaneous civil wars in the Middle East -- when the actual figure is zero. Until you count the one looming between Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.

Harry Reid convicts Blagojevich of corruption before trial even held

Perhaps if Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was an accused al-Qaeda terrorist, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid would accord him the presumption of innocence. Instead, here's what Reid said on yesterday's "Meet the Press" --

"Blagojevich is obviously a corrupt individual. I think that's pretty clear."

This from a former trial lawyer, no less.

Buy now before we give it all away!

Dubious plug in commercial for skin care product Hydroxatone as heard on Air America Radio --

The results are so impressive, Hydroxatone was given away in the VIP gift bags at the Sundance Film Festival!