This is now bordering on . One month after we heard Fox News boss compare Barack Obama to Osama bin Laden, you would have thought these uniquely personal attacks would have faded into the sunset by now. Now, it looks more and more like this will be the tactic that conservatives use against Obama during the general election, should he make it that far.
As first exposed by , the popular conservative web site Townhall.com features an ad that shows Osama bin Laden holding an Obama 2008 bumper sticker. The ad brings you to Townhall.com's . Here is a look:
It is truly fascinating that Barack Obama is still an optimist after all the disgusting attacks that have been thrown his way.
PBS dropped a documentary for political reasons. 'Islam vs. Islamists' thatwas to air next week, was pulled from more that 300 PBS stations.
Subtitled Voices From the Muslim Center, Burke says his film"attempts to answer the question: 'Where are the moderate Muslims?' Theanswer is, 'Wherever they are, they are reviled and sometimes attacked' "by extremists.
"I was ordered to fire my two partners (who brought me into this project) on political grounds," Burke said in a complaint letter to PBS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which supplied funds for the films.
Burke wrote that his documentary depicts the plight of moderate Muslims who are silenced by Islamic extremists, adding, "Now it appears to be PBS and CPB who are silencing them."
"Key portions of the documentary focus on of
Phoenix and his American Islamic Forum for Democracy, anon-profit organization of Muslim Americans who advocate patriotism,constitutional democracy and a separation of church and state."
Why would a film showing that not all Muslims are terrorists bepulled?
The controversy involves a collection of documentaries financed with $20 millionin federal grants from the corporation, which conceived Crossroads in2004 to enhance public understanding of terrorism, homeland security and othercrucial issues in the post-9/11 era. Independent filmmakers submitted 430proposals. Full production grants were given to 21 of those, including Islamvs. Islamists, which received $700,000.
It appears that PBS has entered into the world of right wing propaganda.
Nancy Pelosi is getting quite a bit of coverage from the conservative mediaand the Republicans regarding her "unauthorized" diplomatic trip toSyria. First of all a republican was part of the group that went.
Newt Gingrich had a bit of his hypocrisy exposed on FOX News Sunday by ChrisWallace. During the Clinton administration, Speaker Gingrich took a trip toChina
Articlefrom : ""
Back then, the media treated Gingrich like he was the American PrimeMinister, and his right-wing supporters had no problem with the House Speakertravelling and expressing his own foreign policy views which deviated from theClinton administration's
"
In 1997, Rep. Dennis Hastert (R-IL) led a delegation to Colombia at a timewhen U.S. officials were trying to attach human rights conditions to U.S.security assistance programs. Hastert specifically encouraged Colombian militaryofficials
The hypocrisy needs to stop. I don't care what side of the aisle it is comingfrom, it just needs to stop. It hurts the country and it accomplishes nothing(in the end)
The President's radio address to the troops for Easter sounded like anotheropportunity to tell the country how evil the democrats are. He starts off withsome "rah rah" for the troops which is a bit facetious, then breaks into his oh so predictable "The Democrats Did It" routine.
In his weekly radioaddress President Bush said, "One of our greatest blessings as Americans isthat we have brave citizens who step forward to defend us. Every man or womanwho wears our Nation's uniform is a volunteer, a patriot who has made the nobledecision to serve a cause larger than self. This weekend, many of our servicemen and women are celebrating the holidays far from home. They are separatedfrom their families by great distances, but they are always close in ourthoughts. And this Passover and Easter, I ask you to keep them in your prayers.... Our men and women in uniform deserve the gratitude of every American. Andfrom their elected leaders, they deserve something more: the funds, resources,and equipment they need to do their jobs."
First of all, I wouldn't exactly say that ALL stepped forward to go to war.Take the National Guardsmen for example, the doctor, the dentist, theconstruction worker, basically the regular Joe that wanted to serve their stateand community (normal job description for the National Guard), or just maybeneeded a few extra bucks. As far as they made the noble decision to serve acause larger than self, not all of them joined to serve in Iraq, some werealready enlisted and this was just a "perk"(?)
They DO deserve something more as you mentioned Mr. President: the funds, theresources, and equipment. Just sign the bill Mr. President and they'll have it!!
I recognize that Democrats are trying to show their current opposition to thewar in Iraq. They see the emergency war spending bill as a chance to make thatstatement. Yet for our men and women in uniform, this emergency war spendingbill is not a political statement, it is a source of critical funding that has adirect impact on their daily lives
Just sign the bill Mr. president
Therest of the radio address is pretty much a democrat/congress bashing, he wantsto show how evil those "bastards" are. It's a rather pathetic speech,and I hope the country realizes it is Bush and not congress that needs abeating. Listen to the conservatives bash the democrats and all that's notgetting done (which is a lie to begin with), it's been just 90 days and the newcongress is stirring up the Hill and the Republicans don't like it one bit.
TheComplete Radio Address can be read in the transcript or listened to Here . The audio link is just to the left of the speech.
This is your typical debate on the Fox News show HANNITY & colmes. They bring in a conservative guest to make it two conservatives vs one liberal. The two conservatives then use that chance to take cheap pot shots at anyone that disagrees with them, while the semi-liberal colmes just sits there and takes it. Last night, former Cheney aide Mary Matalin joined the debate:
HANNITY: I will tell you what is outrageous, Mary. And that is stabbing our troops in the back, slow bleed, cutting off their equipment, and emboldening our enemies, and having a policy of retreat and defeat -- that is outrageous. Good to see you, Mary.
Actually Sean, it is this Administration that is sending our forces into battle without the proper equipment. The reported about it this disgrace last January.
Just a sample of how desperate the right-wing is to dig up dirt on Obama. The Nixon Administration was involved in the Watergate break-in. The Bush Administration sends young people to die in Iraq. So what about Obama? Cover your eyes, children. The Illinois Senator forgot to pay his parking tickets. found this:
Obamaattended Harvard Law School from 1988 to 1991. During his time atHarvard, Obama lived at 365 Broadway in Somerville, according to hisparking tickets. Records from the Cambridge Traffic, Parking andTransportation office show that between Oct. 5, 1988 and Jan. 12, 1990Obama was cited for 17 traffic violations, sometimes committing two inthe same day. The abuses included parking in a resident permit area,parking in a bus stop and failing to pay the meter. Twelve of Obama’s17 tickets were given to him on Massachusetts Avenue.
Inone eight day stretch in 1988, Obama was cited seven times for parkingviolations and was fined $45. Thirteen of the 17 violations occurredwithin one month in 1988.Obama’sdisobedience of the rules of the road earned him $140 in fines from theCity of Cambridge. The tickets went unpaid for over 17 years and $260in late fees were added to the tab. On Jan. 26, the fines and late feeswere paid in full. The final tally for Obama’s parking breaches was$400, according to Cambridge Traffic, Parking and Transportation.
Obama spokeswoman Jennifer Psaki said the presidential candidate’s parking violations were not relevant.
Notice the explosive language in this column: "The Abuses", "Obama's disobedience", etc. It reeks of obvious bias.
Wow, Somerville News. You sure exposed him. I hear Bob Woodward wants an assistant.
For the last day, the Hillary Clinton's people have been asking Barack Obama to apologize for a that someone made about the former First Lady, even though that person does not even work for Obama's campaign. In the end, maybe it is Hillary Clinton's staff that should apologize for creating an attack story out of nothing. Imagine if candidates had to apologize for every questionably insensitive comment made by each of their supporters.
Thankfully, late-yesterday Obama not to take the bait:
"It's not clear to me why I would be apologizing for someone else'sremarks," Mr. Obama said, responding to the first question by RadioIowa's O'Kay Henderson. "My sense is that Mr. Geffen may havedifferences with the Clintons, but that doesn't really have anything todo with our campaign."
Even still, during the presidential forum in Nevada, Bill Richardson jumped to Clinton's defense and to apologize.
And then just a few hours later, a Clinton staffer went on Hardball and claimed that David Geffen, who made the comment about Hillary, was Obama's campaign finance chair -- which is not accurate. called the Clinton staffer on the lie:
"Why do you call him his finance chair, when he says that's not his title?"
I am sure that The Blue State is not the only blog discussing this hypocrisy. Clinton's people wanted an excuse to throw fire at Obama. It's a sad way to run a campaign. If you are going to attack Obama on something, have it be substantive -- or even have it be about his perceived lack of experience. But don't just make things up.
Some conservative grassroots activists are previewing how low they will go in 2008. An individual in Miami is selling t-shirts and mugs with the name "Obama bin Laden" on them. Recently, he even tried to have the name trademarked, only to be denied by the U.S. Patent.
A trademark lawyer said that in order to get the name approved as a trademark, the activist would need permission from both Barack Obama and Osama bin Laden. Good luck with that one! The that the man was clearly trying to blur the distinction between the two, and his application was therefore rejected on the grounds of "immoral or scandalous matter."
The activist claims he is not a Republican. "I'm not trying to say Obama's a terrorist. It was something I talkedabout with my friends, and we all had a good laugh about it," he said.
But if it was just something he joked about, then why did he bother paying a whopping $325 for the patent application? Already, some radio talk-show personalities have the Democratic candidate "Obama bin Laden." So my guess is there was more to it than just a silly little prank.
There has been all this fuss on Fox News and conservative talk radio about the fact that Nancy Pelosi sometimes uses a military aircraft to fly cross country. Today on Capitol Hill, Congressman Bart Gordon (D-TN) debunked the smear. After 9/11, the Speaker has had the option of being escorted two and from Washington. She is second in line to the presidency. Shouldn't we protect her? Watch the video below:
Interestingly, as points out, when Dennis Hastert was Speaker he used a military aircraft to fly a Mark Foley page scandal figure to Washington.
(I usually do not write about social issues on this blog, since they can be extremely divisive. But here goes nothing.)
It seems like ever since the embarrassing photographs of Miss America turned up a few months ago, the traditional media has been fixated on the notion that Hollywood celebrities are such a bad influence on teenagers. It perfectly fits the right-wing talking point that 'liberal Hollywood' is destroying America. But that lame talking point is not the real downside. The problem with that reasoning is it assumes that most young people are unable to think for themselves, and rely only on entertainers like Paris Hilton as guides when deciding what is right and what is wrong.
I will be perfectly honest here. I am very biased on this issue for the simple reason that I am only a young adult. Sadly though, the nation has only been hearing one side of this argument -- an argument crafted by a demographic that is an entire generation (sometimes two generations) removed from today's youth.
If you asked most young people what they thought of Paris Hilton, you would get a very negative response. I bet that most adults did not know that. If you asked the same question about Britney Spears, you would get mostly the same reaction. You would get similar answers when asked about whole list of other celebrities from both genders. Teenagers are smart enough to know which celebrities have talent and which ones are begging for publicity. They are also able to distinguish entertainers from mentors.
The teenagers today are more adaptive and more aware of the complexities behind celebrity marketing than the teenagers of the 1990s. Please, let's give teenagers credit and stop demagoguing them. Back when I was a teenager during the early part of this decade, we thought that adults were completely out of touch with our generation because they made baseless assumptions about our interests and styles. After listening to some of the arguments being made about the impact that celebrities have on young people, maybe we were right after all. The latest issue of proves just how lowly some older people think about the intelligence of young Americans. Even the brief summary right below the title of the Newsweek column says it all: "..are we raising a generation of prosti-tots?"
The fact that we are even asking that question shows how many parents and the news media greatly underestimate the teenagers in this country. Yes, they make immature decisions from time to time -- but that is part of being a teenager. Let them learn from those experiences. What they take from their own mistakes will make them more developed human beings in the long-run. And as a news media, let's stop talking about what teenagers don't do, and focus more on what they have done and are capable of doing.
Recent Comments