When triangulating hurts people
I've never liked the Clintons. It started on that dark day- January 24, 1992- when Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton left the campaign trail to oversee the execution of Ricky Ray Rector, a man so brain damaged that he left the dessert from his last meal so that he could have it after the execution. A columnist from the San Francisco Chronicle
said in 2002
On that day in Arkansas, the Democratic Party also died. Its body is still with us, to be sure, but its heart and soul died 10 years ago.
In 1993, the heart and soul was put in its grave when President Clinton signed NAFTA.
In 1996, the grave was spat upon when Clinton signed the Telecommunications Reform Act. At the time, Clear Channel owned 40 radio stations. Today Clear Channel owns about 1200 stations, and the media business is dominated by a small handful of companies.
In 2000, the gravestone was kicked over when Clinton signed Permanent Normal Trade Relations with China. Do your kids like their lead-tainted toys?
Hillary Clinton has done nothing to lead me to believe she is a different politician than her husband. She supported the war in Iraq "with conviction." Until September,
she supported torture. In 2005, she went to Israel, and while
standing at the apartheid wall, she stated, "This is not against the Palestinian people." At a recent debate, after Barack Obama said that we should not be scapegoating immigrants for our economic problems, Mrs. Clinton scapegoated immigrants for the plight of unemployed, urban African Americans.
Like her husband, Hillary is a politician who will inflict harm on others for her political gain. I support Barack Obama because he is willing to stand on principle. He opposed the war in Iraq from the start and he has always opposed torture.
Which brings me to cluster bombs. In 2006, an amendment was introduced to a defense bill to block funding for the Pentagon for cluster bombs unless it could ensure that the bombs would not be used in civilian areas. Cluster bombs contain small "bomblets" that explode on impact. Sometimes these bomblets do not explode on impact. When they are later found, sometimes by children, they can detonate.
Obama voted for the amendment to block the funding.
Clinton voted against it.
David Rees, creator of the brilliant cartoon
Get Your War On, said
at HuffPo this week:
Amendment No. 4882 was an easy one to vote against: Who'd want to risk accusation of "tying the hands of the Pentagon" during a never-ending, global War on Terror? As is so often the case, there was no political cost to doing the wrong thing. And there was no political reward for doing the right thing.
But Senator Obama did the right thing.
Democrats have a cult of personality around the Clintons that I do not understand. Either they don't care about the issues I've mentioned here, which I don't believe, or they just don't know the Clintons' record.
Labels: Barack Obama, cluster bombs, death penalty, Hillary Clinton, NAFTA, PNTR with China, Ricky Ray Rector, Telecommunications Reform Act
Why am I doing this?
Ok, I can't resist. I really don't want to write another post about Clinton and Obama, at least for a little while, but I just feel a pull to get this down. It must be the sports-like (or soap opera-like) tendencies of politics that makes it such a draw to watch and comment on.
Yesterday there was quite a dust-up between the campaigns of Senators Clinton and Obama. The Clintons were PO'ed that producer David Geffen, a former supporter and now Obama supporter, took shots at both Hillary and Bill in
a column by Maureen Dowd of the NY Times (subscription required).
Geffen:
"Obama is inspirational, and he’s not from the Bush royal family or the Clinton royal family. Americans are dying every day in Iraq. And I'm tired of hearing James Carville on television."
"I don't think anybody believes that in the last six years, all of a sudden Bill Clinton has become a different person," Mr. Geffen says, adding that if Republicans are digging up dirt, they'll wait until Hillary's the nominee to use it. "I think they believe she's the easiest to defeat."
"It's not a very big thing to say, 'I made a mistake' on the war, and typical of Hillary Clinton that she can't(.)"
"Everybody in politics lies, but they do it with such ease, it's troubling."
The Clinton camp, through the mouthpiece of communications director Howard Wolfson (who, frankly, should be fired immediately), suggested that Obama should apologize and return the money he brought in at a fundraiser sponsored by Geffen. Mind you, Geffen has no official position with the Obama campaign. He's just a high-profile supporter.
Then
Wolfson went on Hardball last night and stated that when he speaks he speaks for "the campaign," not Hillary.
So break this down scientifically: The Clintons are suggesting that Obama should apologize for the comments of a supporter who has no position with the campaign, but when Clinton's communications director speaks, he is not speaking for her, he's speaking for "the campaign."
What this whole thing makes clear is that the Clinton campaign is scared, damn scared, that Obama resonates with the American people and is on the express to the nomination. And after garnering the support of Geffen, yesterday
former Senator Tom Daschle endorsed Obama.
Hillary (or was it "the campaign"?) took some shots from the blogosphere for all of this.
The Huffington Post:
Hillary's campaign would rather mudsling than get the facts straight
This wasn't the only ludicrous claim Wolfson made. He also suggested that the Obama campaign "put Mr. Geffen up to this." Does Wolfson really expect anyone to believe that David Geffen is taking his marching orders from the Obama campaign?
America Blog:
Hillary is Sistah Souljah'ing the entire Democratic PartyIt started with Hillary's unique experience on 9/11 - the day she witnessed the world falling apart while the rest of us went to Disneyland. Then yesterday we heard about how Hillary thinks terrorism is a bad thing, while her fellow Democrats think it's no big deal. And today we get an earful about those nasty rich Hollywood Jews - oh, sorry, I mean fags.
Could Karl Rove have written a better script?
It's becoming increasingly clear that Hillary isn't running as a new Democrat, she's running as as a non-Democrat. Her strategy seems to be attacking everything and everyone associated with the Democratic party, and especially its base - and using Republican talking points, at that - in order to somehow position Hillary as a modern-day Diogenes, independent, above-the-fray, alone in the wilderness, forever on the look-out for honest politics.
In other words, Hillary is Joe Lieberman.
(Note: America Blog, for those who are unfamiliar, is serious about LGBT rights. It's founder was one of the organizers of the Stop Dr. Laura campaign. Hence the sarcastic use of the word "fags.")
On top of all of this, Obama is asked to apologize for the comments of a supporter while Clinton refuses to apologize for her complicity in the deaths of 3,000 Americans and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. Classy.
Labels: Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton
Iraq, Hillary's albatross
Senator Clinton's stance on Iraq and her explanation on her resolution vote are not flying. Prediction: Clinton will not win the Democratic presidential nomination due to Iraq.
In the last week, she has taken hits from
Huffington Post,
Daily Kos, and
America Blog.
Perhaps most disturbing of all is the Clinton team invoking 9/11 as justification for her Iraq war resolution vote.
Arianna Huffington:
Its latest explanation/rationalization? 9/11 made her do it! That's right, the Clinton camp is now reading out of the Bush administration's wing-and-a-prayer book.
John at America Blog:
I have no idea what Senator Clinton was trying to telegraph in her speech - who exactly doesn't think that we're engaged in a war against heartless enemies? - but speaking as a blog that has a pretty damn good record of treating her fairly, she really crossed the line on this one.
Don't question our patriotism, and don't talk like George Bush, or this is going to be a very problematic race.
And Markos at Daily Kos:
Arguing that since New York was hit, we had to bomb the fuck out of a country that had nothing to do with it, then invade it and lose what will eventually be a trillion dollars and countless lives is really not an endearing argument.
It seems the Clinton team doesn't realize that they are in a different world than they were in 1996. What you could get away with then you cannot get away with now.
Labels: America Blog, Arianna Huffington, Daily Kos, Hillary Clinton, Iraq
The contrasts could not be greater
Senator Barack Obama today in Springfield, Illinois,
announcing his candidacy for president:
And when all else fails, when Katrina happens, or the death toll in Iraq mounts, we've been told that our crises are somebody else's fault. We're distracted from our real failures, and told to blame the other party, or gay people, or immigrants.
NY Times:
In New Hampshire, Clinton refuses to denounce her war voteWhile she tried to keep the audience of 300 people here focused on Mr. Bush’s war management, she was forced at one point to account for her own history on Iraq, as an audience member asked her to say plainly and “without nuance” that her Senate vote to use force in Iraq in 2002 was “a mistake.”
“Until we hear you say that, we’re not going to hear all these other great things you’ve said,” said the questioner, Roger Tilton of Nashua.
Mrs. Clinton has not been willing to go as far as some of her Democratic rivals, like former Senator John Edwards of North Carolina, and say that her 2002 vote was a mistake. And she did not do so on Saturday. Instead, she repeated her standard talking points about that vote, saying she would never have cast it if she had had the intelligence information in 2002 that she had now.
“I’ve taken responsibility for my vote,” Mrs. Clinton said. “The mistakes were made by this president.”
Labels: Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Iraq
Who said that?
It's time to play "Name that Speaker!"
Who said the following?
Israel is a beacon of what’s right in a neighborhood overshadowed by the wrongs of radicalism, extremism, despotism and terrorism. We need only look to one of Israel’s greatest threats: namely, Iran. Make no mistake, Iran poses a threat not only to Israel, but to the entire Middle East and beyond, including the U.S.
...
But Iran is a threat not only because of the hateful rhetoric spewed by its president, not only because of its nuclear ambitions, but because it uses its influence and its revenues in the region to support terrorist elements that are attacking innocent Israelis; and now we believe attacking American soldiers. Hezbollah’s attacks on Israel this summer using Iranian weapons clearly demonstrate Iran’s malevolent influence even beyond its borders.
It is essential to those of us who care deeply about what is happening in and to, Israel, to recognize that Israel’s struggle is a struggle on behalf of a future where people will be able to live with peace and security.
...
Hezbollah is second only to Al Qaeda to the number of American lives it has claimed. We know too of the deep and dangerous connections these terrorists share with the governments of Syria and Iran; and we are seeing the reprehensible consequences of having these terrorist beachheads along Israel’s borders.
...
The highest priority of any government is to ensure the safety and security of its citizens and that is why, as I have said, I’ve been a strong supporter of Israel’s right to build a security barrier to keep terrorists out. I have spoken out against the International Court of Justice for questioning Israel’s right to build that fence of security.
Was it...
A) George W. Bush
B) Dick Cheney
C) Mel Gibson
D) Hillary Clinton
If you guessed A, B, or C, you're wrong. That's right, ladies and gentlemen, the warmonger
who said these words is none other than the so-called Democratic presidential front runner, Senator Hillary Clinton.
According to Senator Clinton, "Israel is a beacon of what's right" when it...
...bulldozes people's homes (with bulldozers bought from Caterpillar and made in York County).
...fires missiles into civilian areas.
...destroys an entire country's infrastructure because two soldiers were kidnapped.
...blocks off an entire region and an entire group of people, denying access in and out and leaving people desperate.
...destroys average farmers crops, leaving them with nothing.
Apparently, Senator Clinton believes in The Other Bush Doctrine: The way to people's hearts is to beat the hell out of them.
Let justice flow...
Labels: Hillary Clinton, Israel, Palestine
Clinton dead wrong on the "proper debate"
Senator Hillary Clinton
told this to the AP on Sunday, regarding her vote to authorize the war in Iraq:
"I take responsibility for having voted to give him that authority," she said. "My focus is on what we do now. That is the proper debate."
Wrong....sort of. Yes, we need to discuss what we do now. But we are considering our next president. In order to make an informed decision about who our next president should be, we need to consider each candidate's past actions. And Senator Clinton has some explaining to do about that vote, along with Senators Dodd and Biden.
At least John Edwards had the strength to admit, "
I was wrong."
America's leaders -- all of us -- need to accept the responsibility we each carry for how we got to this place.
Obama gets off lucky since he was not in the Senate at the time, but he was a public opponent of the war.
I haven't done a full inventory of every presidential candidate on the authorization vote, but my hunch is that only
Rep. Dennis Kucinich comes out totally clean on this since he was there for the vote
and voted against the authorization.
Senator Clinton, you helped get us into this mess, and I suspect you did it for political gain. Please tell us why we should trust you in the White House.
As an aside, the person who deserves posthumous respect on this issue is Senator Paul Wellstone (D-Minnesota). In the heat of a difficult re-election campaign and worrying that opposition to the war in Iraq could cost him his Senate seat, Wellstone took to the floor and gave the speech of his life in opposition to the war. After the speech, his poll numbers went up. For a thorough look at the life of this remarkable public servant, check out the documentary
Wellstone! You can get
a 5-10 minute preview online.
Labels: Barack Obama, Christopher Dodd, Dennis Kucinich, Hillary Clinton, Iraq, Joe Biden, Paul Wellstone
Obama for president
During the early speculation about the presidential race,
I was a Russ Feingold guy. The senator from Wisconsin made some appearances around the country that gave the appearance that he was laying the groundwork for a presidential run.
The country needs a candidate like Feingold in the race. The senator is not afraid to tell it like it is, and he is a champ on defending the Constitution and standing up for justice.
But at this point, it does not appear that Feingold is running. We are still almost a year away from the Iowa caucuses, so there is time.
But assuming Feingold is out, Barack Obama is my guy, even though a) PA's primary is so late that it is irrelevant in the nominating process (
at least for now) and b) I'm registered "no affiliation" anyway.
Although I will not have a vote, I am fully behind Senator Barack Obama. (And let's face it, all of the candidates are chasing the highly-coveted Nasty Little Man endorsement.) There are two main reasons I'm an Obama supporter.
First, Senator Obama appeals to my better person, to my Buddha nature. The public dialogue is too often corrosive, and I'll admit that I've engaged in that kind of behavior myself. Obama is attempting to go beyond that to a place where you can stand for something and still engage in respectful dialogue with others. This doesn't mean that you stand for nothing. You simply have enough respect for the other person and recognize his/her inherent worth to give his/her ideas a full public airing. (And then crush them with your own brilliant ideas.)
Second, there are few politicians that have the street cred that Obama has. That might sound silly since he gets knocked around for growing up in Hawaii, going to Harvard, etc. But how many politicians have been a community organizer in an urban area like the South Side of Chicago? I appreciate the fact that he has been out there in the neighborhoods and the streets working directly with people.
Some of
my friends and acquaintances have been talking up Hillary, but my problem with Hillary is the same problem I had with Bill. She appears to be a political opportunist, and I'm not certain that she stands for anything. I see politics as a means to an end, i.e. achieving some level of justice in our country. Hillary seems to see politics as the end, not a means to an end.
Plus, what state is Hillary going to win that Kerry didn't win?
Barack Obama for President.
Labels: Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, politics, Russ Feingold
