Bush vetoes S-CHIP, and I’m paraphrasing Kanye West.
Bush opposes S-Chip because it works. Because it delivers affordable healthcare, and Bush cannot countenance this. It might adversely affect the revenues of insurance companies, a parasitic industry that did not even exist 70 years ago.
Eric Prince, owner of the mercenary organization Blackwater Security, donated $10,000 in 2006 to corporate stooge, and erstwhile Green Party candidate for Pennsylvania US Senate seat Carl Romanelli.
Mr. Romanelli was thankfully unsuccessful, because the petitions collected by a for profit service funded by Republicans and corporations to get his name on the ballot were largely fraudulent.
I was thinking about this today, when I heard a statement on the radio by a Green Party representative saying that they were not “beholden to corporate money”.
Looking at the list of donors to the Romanelli campaign, I would argue that they are tied more tightly to corporate money that the Republican party.
It appears to me that the Green party is very much the military industrial complex’s bitch.
FWIW, there was one campaign donation not connected to military-industrial complex interests, $30.00 from Carl Romanelli, the candidate.
Well, Mr. welcome to America Mr. Romanelli*, where any man can tart themselves up for dirty corporate money.
Friends don’t let friends support the Green Party.
News stories collected from TPMmuckraker and Attytood.
*He’s a native born American…It’s an ironic metaphor.†
†I know that most of you get this, but the humorless corporate whores that are the Green Party probably won’t, hence the footnote.
As you are no doubt aware, Senator Larry Craig has not resigned on September 30 as he said he would, so they are threating public ethics hearings on his behavior.
My guess is that Craig is putting Senator David Vitter on his witness list.
Pass the popcorn.
Californians for Fair Election Reform accuse Giuliani of setting up a front group to funnel illegal donations to support the California “Give Republicans 20 Electoral Votes” initiative, which has not failed for lack of support.
It was too transparent a ploy, I guess.
Juxtaposing an Italian name and “money laundering”, along with the fact that his favorite cop (Kerik) was mobbed up.
If the Dems don’t use this give, they don’t deserve to win.
Given that Edwards has opted into public financing, Chris Bowers asks why he shouldn’t go with cable, as opposed to over the air broadcast:
One estimate from PQM Media estimated that in 2004 the commercial advertising world put 4 dollars of advertising dollars on cable for every 5 for traditional broadcast television. This study found the ratio in politics to be 1 dollar on cable for every 18 on broadcast. (check). Given the billions spent in politics every two years on television advertising, this was clearly a problem that needed addressing.
Our research showed that the reason why the commercial world had shifted tens of billions of advertising dollars to cable was simple – more people today watch cable than broadcast, and it offers much more precise demographic and geographic targeting than traditional broadcast television. The latter is particularly important for politics, since geographic targets do not fit neatly into the more than 200 media markets across the country.
The answer is very simple: the corrupt nature of the political consultant class. Political consultants are paid on the basis of a percentage of ad buys, at least on the Democratic side (I think that this is changing on the Republican side).
Simply put, it’s not in the personal best interest of those consultant to look at cable. More bang for the buck means less profits for them. These people are very comfortable win or lose, and so they frequently lose.
Iran’s parliament votes to label CIA, U.S. Army ‘terrorist’ groups.
Considering the fact that the US Senate has done the same with units of the Iranian military, this is unsurprising.
Of course, this means that Iran does not feel bound by the requirements of POW status, and they could set up their own little Gitmo for our troops, which is, of course, the implicit threat here.
The worst kept secret in the Middle East is that US special forces, and possibly CIA operatives are operating in Iran, and by our actions, we have given the Iranians license to abuse them.
His campaign has more turnover than the DC Madame’s phone list, his fund raising is anemic, and now he’s saying that Saddam Hussein “clearly had had WMD”.
This guy is supposed to be the savior of the Republican party?
Following his second place finish in the Iowa Republican Party extortion straw poll, Mike Huckabee is the top of the second tier Republican Presidential Candidates, and unlike Ron Paul, is considered a serious candidate by Republican power brokers and rank and file. The fact that he is now calling out Bush on his execution of the Total War Against Terror* is significant.
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee leveled some of the harshest criticisms of the Bush administration’s foreign policy yet from the GOP presidential field, saying it has mismanaged relations with Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.
Laying out his foreign policy platform in Washington on Friday, Huckabee restated his support for continuing the war in Iraq. But the bulk of his speech was devoted to the United States’ and Bush’s shortcomings.
Huckabee said the U.S. is ignoring options besides armed conflict with Iran, has trusted the Saudis too much and has allowed Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to go back on his commitment to allow American forces to root out terrorism within his borders.
“Just like Musharraf, since 9/11, the Bush administration has played both ends and the middle, assuring the American people that it’s doing everything it can to protect them, while tiptoeing around our supposed ally,” Huckabee said. “It’s been afraid of upsetting the apple cart, even though the cart contains poisoned apples destined for export to the United States.”
If his statements get any serious air time, it should boost both his name recognition and his poll numbers.
Bush is profoundly unpopular even with Republicans, and in the context of a multi candidate primary could very well give him a leg up.
Additionally, it’s tough to find anyone, except for the “very serious people” at places like the council for foreign relations, who does not realize that the source of 911 in particular, and terrorism in general is Saudi money and Saudi policies.
It should be interesting to see how this shapes up in the next few weeks.
*Check out the initials.
It appears that folks like James C. Dobson of Focus on the Family, Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, and Richard A. Viguerie are threatening a 3rd party bid if Guiliani gets the nod.
This is an empty threat. The religious right’s attachment to the Republican party is based almost entirely on hostility towards non-whites, and Rudy has the best bone fides in this area of any of the Republicans. The right wing Christo-Fascists’ followers will follow Guiliani because he has made an implicit promise to keep the black and brown man down.
The religious right’s entry into politics did not begin with Roe v. Wade, but rather it began with rulings that segregated religious schools could not be tax exempt 501(c)3 institutions.
This should surprise no one. It appears that the dam is causing landslides, plagues of displaced rate, collapses on the shore of the reservoir, etc.
And in a few years, as the lands that are fertilized by the silt carried in the Yangtze start to grow poor, the silt will now settle in the reservoir,it’s just going to get worse.
See the picture of him by the photojournalist “Majikthise” Beyerstein at the Clinton Global Initiative.
This is not the face of a man who is running for office. He’s relaxed, happy, and a bit chubby. He’d be doing the treadmill like a maniac, and he’d be stiff as a board were he running.
He is not running.
Verizon decided not to carry text message updates sent by NARAL, though they subsequently reversed themselves.
This is why we need open access. They are using public airwaves, and as such, they should function as common carriers for all communications.
Almost missed noting it.
Of course, he’s still in the senate, in all his foot tapping glory (hole).
Schadenfreude.
Edwards is now saying that he won’t use public financing in the general if the Republican does not too.
My guess is that a bunch of his supporters just told him how stupid it was, but he is still disarming in the primary. My assessment stands, put a fork in him, Edwards is done.
From the article, I also realize that Joe Trippi is on his team…he is so doomed.
Representative Terry Everett (R-AL) Will Retire.
This happened in 1994, where there was a flood of Democratic resignations. Basically, it’s not as fun being in the minority.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came to the US a weak man. His promises on the economy are unfulfilled, his ability to govern a joke. He left a hero to the Iranian people and probably a hero to much of the Arab world too.
Bollinger clearly had an American audience in mind when he denounced the Iranian leader to his face as a “cruel” and “petty dictator” and described his Holocaust denial as designed to “fool the illiterate and the ignorant.” Bollinger’s remarks may have taken him off the hook with his domestic critics, but when it came to the international media audience that really counted, Ahmadinejad already had carried the day. The invitation to speak at Columbia already had given him something totalitarian demagogues — who are as image-conscious as Hollywood stars — always crave: legitimacy. Bollinger’s denunciation was icing on the cake, because the constituency the Iranian leader cares about is scattered across an Islamic world that values hospitality and its courtesies as core social virtues. To that audience, Bollinger looked stunningly ill-mannered; Ahmadinejad dignified and restrained.
Back in Tehran, Mohsen Mirdamadi, a leading Iranian reformer and Ahmadinejad opponent, said Bollinger’s blistering remarks “only strengthened” the president back home and “made his radical supporters more determined,” According to an Associated Press report, “Many Iranians found the comments insulting, particularly because in Iranian traditions of hospitality, a host should be polite to a guest, no matter what he thinks of him.
It’s more than that the Presidency of Iran is a very weak office. One need only look at his the failure of predecessor, Mohammad Khatami, an erstwhile reformer, to engage in even the most mild of anti-corruption activities.
Newt is Out. It’s a pity, if just because the progression of the Republican Presidential primaries into the absurd is slowed.
The bogus Republican voter ID laws, specifically.
Anyone want to guess about how Alito and Roberts, political hacks who lied their asses off to get confirmation are going to vote on this?
Expect to see about 50 years of civil rights legislation rolled back.
Edwards will be using public financing.
This is because he has no money left.
He was the presidential candidate I most liked, but it’s over, so I can say that now and not “jinx” him.
He is credible on the war, and on issues of social justice, more credible than the alternatives, and it’s over.
Damn.
The Republicans were attempting to allocate California electoral votes by congressinal districts, handing 20 votes to the Republicans. They just flamed out. No support, no money.
Good.