More on Tobias

Think Progress provides an update on Tobias:

"Former U.S. AID director Randall Tobias, who resigned yesterday upon admitting that he frequented a Washington escort service, oversaw a controversial policy advocated by the religious right that required any US-based group receiving anti-AIDS funds to take an anti-prostitution “loyalty oath.”

Aid groups bitterly opposed the policy, charging that it “was so broad — and applied even to their private funds — that it would obstruct their outreach to sex workers who are at high risk of transmitting the AIDS virus.” But President Bush wouldn’t budge. He signed a 2003 National Security Presidential Directive saying prostitution “and related activities” were “inherently harmful and dehumanizing.”"

More Illegal Sex With Bushies

The Blotter gets the scoop on Tobias:

"Deputy Secretary of State Randall L. Tobias submitted his resignation Friday, one day after confirming to ABC News that he had been a customer of a Washington, D.C. escort service whose owner has been charged by federal prosecutors with running a prostitution operation. Tobias, 65, Director of U.S. Foreign Assistance and administrator of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), had previously served as the Ambassador for the President’s Emergency Fund for AIDS Relief.

A State Department press release late Friday afternoon said only he was leaving for 'personal reasons.' On Thursday, Tobias told ABC News he had several times called the 'Pamela Martin and Associates' escort service 'to have gals come over to the condo to give me a massage.' Tobias, who is married, said there had been 'no sex,' and that recently he had been using another service 'with Central Americans' to provide massages.

Tobias' private cell number was among thousands of numbers listed in the telephone records provided to ABC News by Jeane Palfrey, the woman dubbed the 'D.C. Madam,' who is facing the federal charges."

These guys just can't seem to get enough of the Randy "Duke" Cunningham treatment.

The DC Madame, with noted GOP clientele and connections, has promised to drop dimes on many more of her pant dropping District of Columbia elite customers in the hopes of avoiding jail time and because she isn't "shy about bringing in the deputy secretary of whatever."

The real kicker on this one?

As the Bush administration's so-called "AIDS czar," Tobias was criticized for emphasizing faithfulness and abstinence over condom use to prevent the spread of AIDS.

Another fine chapter in "the never ending lies" as more extreme hypocrisy eminates from the stink pile of the failed and unethical bush administration.



Sure he does... The only time bush has a problem with their ethics is when they get caught with their pants down...

Some Outrage for Rush "Parody" Of Obama

ctblogger points to C&L concerning some noise coming from employees that are outraged by Oxy-Rush Limbaugh's insulting parody:

Oh, this man has lost his mind.

Rush Limbaugh has angered many black employees over this parody song called "Barack the Magic Negro"

[...]

I've been told that they have held meetings internally to deal with a ground swell of anger at Rush because of this…A caller noticed there was a disclaimer added to the station she listens to and asks Rush why.

If you are unsure what this is about, I posted this about Oxy-Rush the other day:

Via Stormbear at A Town Called Dobson:

This is a head-shaker. Imus gets canned for calling some college women basketball players “nappy-headed hos” and yet Rush Limbaugh plays “Barack The Magic Negro” on his show and he is still on the air?

How is that even possible?

To hear the song yourself, hit this YouTube link.

It is a parody by Paul Shanklin impersonating Al Sharpton and based on the Peter, Paul, and Mary hit song “Puff, the Magic Dragon”. I am really at a loss of words. I heard it for the first time yesterday on the radio and was sickened.

Again, how is this man on the air?

Here is a YouTube of the song Oxy-Rush calls a parody:



It is sad to think that Oxy-Rush is just playing to his base of support in playing up this statement. But the fact is Oxy-Rush didn't invent the term:

LIMBAUGH: David Ehrenstein, the L.A. Times today, "Obama the 'Magic Negro.' " It's just infuriating. It is the left that continues to besmirch these people. It's the left that continues to question their so-called authenticity. These people are all human beings. Talk about Sharpton, Reverend [Jesse] Jackson, these people are all human beings. Now some of them are in the race business. I understand that. But look at who it is that keeps focusing on whether they're authentic enough. Authenticity based on skin color. Who is it doing this? It's the left. You know what, I got a suggestion for those of you at the L.A. Times. Let's cut to the chase. Go get an old-fashioned auction book and put it in the town square. Put it somewhere where it looks like it's real and just bring all these black people up there and auction them off and find out who it is that sells for the highest price. That's essentially what you're doing with all of these nonsensical categorizations -- Obama's not black enough, Obama doesn't have -- he's not down for the struggle, Obama doesn't have a legitimate civil rights -- civil right background. Obama's ears don't look like a black person's ears, they're too big, Obama doesn't sound like a black person, he's clean and articulate. The left's saying all these things. Now he's the "Magic Negro," which is a convenient trick for the L.A. Times to blame a bunch of white people for being racist. OK. Let's find out who the -- just get an auction block and grab as many blacks as you want to put them up there and let's start the sales, L.A. Times, and let's see who it is that fetches the highest prices. Isn't that essentially the way they're approaching this? These are commodities. These human beings are simply commodities, and they are there for some purpose other than their own human existence? You doubt the racism and the groupthink and the superiority of the leftists in this country, you'd be making a grave error.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: For example, you could take 10 seconds of me saying, "Obama is the Magic Negro" and make it look like I said it, rather than the fact that I'm repeating it from an L.A. Times column today.

10 seconds? How's about years of playing to his racist listeners? He talks about it from the point of view that the left says "Obama's not black enough"??? We could just point to the fact that Oxy-Rush Limbaugh refered to Obama as a "Halfrican American":

LIMBAUGH: Hey, Barack Obama has picked up another endorsement: Halfrican American actress Halle Berry. "As a Halfrican American, I am honored to have Ms. Berry's support, as well as the support of other Halfrican Americans," Obama said.

He didn't say it, but -- anyway, there are those out there -- greetings.

Trying to pawn this off on the left when his own words betray Oxy-Rush Limbaugh's deep seeded bigotry, and the way he perpetuates this bigotry for his bigoted listeners "benefit", is pitiful and disgarceful.

Keep talking Limbaugh... The left understands that you really do want to own these words even if you didn't say it first. It plays to your listeners ingrained bigoted beliefs BUT it also publically exposes the true nature of you and your listeners beliefs to everyone.

Maybe Rush has had his final "Imus moment"?

Actively Serving US Officer Condemns Iraq Strategy

Ok... So this is from an ACTIVE DUTY commander with two Iraq tours under his belt:

BBC NEWS
US officer condemns Iraq strategy:

Lieutenant Colonel Paul Yingling said US generals had failed to prepare their troops properly and had misled Congress about the resources needed for the war.

Writing in the Armed Forces Journal, he said the US had repeated the mistakes of Vietnam and so faced defeat in Iraq."

snip

"For reasons that are not yet clear, America's general officer corps underestimated the strength of the enemy, overestimated the capabilities of Iraq's government and security forces, and failed to provide Congress with an accurate assessment of the security conditions in Iraq," he wrote.

The generals had gone into Iraq in 2003 with too few soldiers and no coherent plan for post-war stabilisation, having spent a decade "preparing to fight the wrong war", he said.

"The intellectual and moral failures common to America's general officer corps in Vietnam and Iraq constitute a crisis in American generalship."

These are scathing words coming from an active duty officer. As for his key recommendation to alleviate the real problems?

Lt Col Yingling has not singled out any individual for criticism but has urged Congress to take a greater role in monitoring officers' performance and holding them accountable.

Oversight...

Congressional oversight.

Far right wingnuts better start questioning the patriotism of this soldier ASAP. You know they will. Speaking of which... I wonder what Joe neocon Lieberman will have to say about this?

I can see it now:
"The US troops are undermining the mission in Iraq!"

That's the Joe neocon Lieberman we know so well...

Riverbend is leaving Iraq

Via Riverbend at Baghdad Burning:

"I always hear the Iraqi pro-war crowd interviewed on television from foreign capitals (they can only appear on television from the safety of foreign capitals because I defy anyone to be publicly pro-war in Iraq). They refuse to believe that their religiously inclined, sectarian political parties fueled this whole Sunni/Shia conflict.

snip

I remember Baghdad before the war- one could live anywhere. We didn't know what our neighbors were- we didn't care. No one asked about religion or sect. No one bothered with what was considered a trivial topic: are you Sunni or Shia? You only asked something like that if you were uncouth and backward. Our lives revolve around it now. Our existence depends on hiding it or highlighting it- depending on the group of masked men who stop you or raid your home in the middle of the night.

On a personal note, we've finally decided to leave.

snip

The problem is that we don't even know if we'll ever see this stuff again. We don't know if whatever we leave, including the house, will be available when and if we come back. There are moments when the injustice of having to leave your country, simply because an imbecile got it into his head to invade it, is overwhelming. It is unfair that in order to survive and live normally, we have to leave our home and what remains of family and friends… And to what?

It's difficult to decide which is more frightening- car bombs and militias, or having to leave everything you know and love, to some unspecified place for a future where nothing is certain."

I am saddened but, sadly, not shocked that it has come to this for her and her family. It has only gotten worse in Iraq with the surge, the walls, the death, the destruction.

People like bush and Lieberman are the cause of all of this. They are barbarians. If you support those idiots and their failed policy then you are a barbarian too. I am sorry that you far right GOP talking pointy head wingnuts don't realize it yet. But the rest of the American public is well ahead of the curve on this.

GOP's David Cappiello Limps Into 5th District Race

Hobbled by his connection to the most corrupt group of politicians ever assembled under any political party's history, the GOP's David Cappiello will toss his name into the meat grinder that almost every GOP candidate will have to face in the state of Connecticut because of the meat grinder they have created for the soldiers in Iraq.

Unofficially it began Nov. 7 of last year. Officially the race for the state's 5th District Congressional seat started Wednesday when five-term state Sen. David Cappiello announced - more than 18 months before Election Day - that he's challenging freshman U.S. Rep. Chris Murphy.

"I've accepted that I'm the underdog and that I'm going to have to reach as many voters as I can," Cappiello said in telephone interview during a break from Wednesday's marathon session at the state Capitol. The Danbury senator, a 38-year-old mortgage broker, may be the first Republican to file paperwork for the 5th District contest with the Federal Election Commission, but it's likely he won't be the last.

The state's Republican party took a hit in 2006 when 12-term incumbent Nancy Johnson lost to Murphy and three-term incumbent Rob Simmons lost the 2nd District race to Democrat Joe Courtney.

The GOP... Just call them the hamburger party. No word yet if Joe neocon Lieberman will have any beefs with his fellow Republican David Cappiello, and if he will cross the aisle and support Murphy in the first truly bipartisan move of his recent career.

The Led Zeppelin Report

28 %
President Bush’s approval rating in a new
Harris survey, the lowest of his presidency.

How can this be?

“In a somber and wide-ranging assessment,” Britain’s top counterterrorism officer Peter Clarke said that Al Qaeda and its supporters have established “an inexorable trend towards more ambitious and more destructive attack planning.” “The only sensible assumption is that we shall be attacked again.”

Could the failed bush administrations' policies have anything to do with his continuously dropping polling numbers?

Conyers needs support for HR 676: Single Payer Universal Healthcare

Via Rep. John Conyers' Blog:

The health care crisis we face today affects everyone, overwhelming America's workers and businesses. Many low-wage earners do not receive health benefits and cannot afford insurance. Higher salaried workers know that the cost of their health insurance may lead to the next round of layoffs.

More than 46 million Americans lack basic health care coverage. Millions more face high deductibles and staggering costs leaving essential care out of reach.

We can no longer seek gradual reforms or provide insurance companies with financial incentives to solve the problem. The time has come for a single payer national health care system that provides complete care to all Americans.

Since the 2006 elections, we have heard plenty of new voices calling for universal health care. Unfortunately, many of these claim to be universal health care, but are merely bandaids to the problem.

One proposal has the federal government giving billions of dollars to insurance companies to cover the uninsured. Other proposals only cover children or shift the entire burden of healthcare to employees in the form of health savings accounts.

Unfortunately, patchwork fixes like these will not work. The only way to provide a lasting solution to our health care crisis is through single payer universal health care. We must not let the movement toward universal health care be co-opted by proposals that serve to enrich those seeking to extend the status quo at the expense of true reform.

To address this need, I have introduced H.R. 676, the United States National Health Insurance Act. My bill would create a single payer universal health care system by strengthening and extending the Medicare program to cover all Americans.

Please help me enact this important legislation by signing this statement of support. We must have real reform through a single payer universal health care program if we are to solve our nation's health care crisis.

I signed it... This goes above and beyond the bandaid solutions offered by Connecticut politicians who seem to think that they can fix the "healthcare for profit" system that needs to be eliminated before anything will get better.

If you have any doubts about this fact, Maura at MLN will give you the scoop:

The creative and scrappy Working Families Party of CT is headlining another great visibility event to raise awareness about how badly broken our current health care system is.

No one is sure yet how high their 2007 profits will be, but in 2006 Aetna had profits of $1.6 billion. Billion. And Aetna's CEO earned $30 million last year, while health care expenses went way up for average consumers and small business.

A significant portion of our health care dollars are not going toward actually keeping people healthy or taking care of sick people -- they're going toward huge profits and obscenely high executive compensation packages like this. That should make us all sick.

Hope some MLNers will be able to attend this fun and important event - spread the word! Read more from Joe at the CT Working Families Blog.

Again... Go show your support for HR 676. It is good for your Health!

Kucinich and Ellison on Impeachment:

Last week Ct Bob put out advance warning of this Kucinich move... And now, for your impeachment porn viewing pleasure...

Kucinich via Raw Story:

After a series of delays, late in the day on Wednesday, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), a candidate for president in 2008, announced a series of charges against Vice President Dick Cheney in Washington, DC. Kucinich alleged that the Vice President had committed a series of impeachable offenses and stated that he was therefore introducing Articles of Impeachment against Cheney in the Congress today.

Kucinich started off by reading the opening words of the Declaration of Independence, commenting that they were "instructive at this moment."

"Whenever any government official becomes destructive of the founding purposes, that official must be held accountable," he said.

The Ohio Democrat described his move as intended to provide a "defense of the rights of American people to have a government that is honest and peaceful."

Kucinich excoriated the Vice President who he said was "a driving force for taking us into war against Iraq under false pretenses, and is once again rattling sabers of war against Iran, with the same intent to drive America into war, again based on false pretenses."

The Ohio Congressman, who is running for president for the second time, noted three charges in his Articles of Impeachment, which were submitted as House Resolution 333. The first concerned manipulation of intelligence about Iraq's threat to the US. The second concerned manipulation of intelligence on the Iraq-Al-Qaida relationship. The last concerned what he called having "openly threatened aggression against the Republic of Iran."

Kucinich claimed in the press conference that the charges were "deeply researched" and insisted that his accusations were not just a political stunt.

"This is not brought forth lightly. I've carefully weighed the options available to Members of Congress, and I have found this path the path that is most important to take," he explained.

Kucinich dodged a question about whether or not he had the support of fellow Members of Congress.

As for possible support? Check out Ellison via OpEdNews:

Four members of ImpeachforPeace.org met with the Honorable Representative Keith Ellison (D-MN 5th) in his Minneapolis offices Saturday morning, April 22nd to discuss the impeachment of President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

Early in the meeting, Ellison made clear that his opinion hasn't changed since he introduced a Resolution for the impeachment of President Bush as a Minnesota State Legislator by saying: "Impeachment should be on the table".

snip

The topic quickly shifted to impeachment, with Rep. Ellison affirming that he is "with the impeachment movement", yet making clear that in order for him to consider supporting impeachment hearings, the charges spoken into the Congressional Record must be strongly grounded in verifiable facts and evidence as well as understood by and backed by the majority of the American people.

Not eager to be assailed by the radical right's bevy of partisan media shills as "the poster child for loonie leftists", Ellison said that the most important thing he and his fellow members of Congress need from constituents is that they "keep the drumbeat up" for impeachment.

Ellison named fellow Representative Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) as "a good friend", saying "we talk every day" during the week in Washington. With Kucinich reputedly poised to introduce Articles of Impeachment against Vice President Dick Cheney this week, Ellison was measured in his commitment to join Kucinich. He made clear that he was supportive of the idea, but not if it only becomes a symbolic gesture. Ellison is only interested in seeing impeachment proceedings actually becoming a reality.

Look for the right wing whackosphere to label these guys as "Communists/Islamofascists" any moment now! They are so predictable (and lame)...

Why is Oxy-Rush still on the air?

Via Stormbear at A Town Called Dobson:

This is a head-shaker. Imus gets canned for calling some college women basketball players “nappy-headed hos” and yet Rush Limbaugh plays “Barack The Magic Negro” on his show and he is still on the air?

How is that even possible?

To hear the song yourself, hit this YouTube link.

It is a parody by Paul Shanklin impersonating Al Sharpton and based on the Peter, Paul, and Mary hit song “Puff, the Magic Dragon”. I am really at a loss of words. I heard it for the first time yesterday on the radio and was sickened.

Again, how is this man on the air?

Here is a YouTube of the song Oxy-Rush calls a parody:



It is sad to think that Oxy-Rush is just playing to his base of support in playing up this statement. But the fact is Oxy-Rush didn't invent the term:

LIMBAUGH: David Ehrenstein, the L.A. Times today, "Obama the 'Magic Negro.' " It's just infuriating. It is the left that continues to besmirch these people. It's the left that continues to question their so-called authenticity. These people are all human beings. Talk about Sharpton, Reverend [Jesse] Jackson, these people are all human beings. Now some of them are in the race business. I understand that. But look at who it is that keeps focusing on whether they're authentic enough. Authenticity based on skin color. Who is it doing this? It's the left. You know what, I got a suggestion for those of you at the L.A. Times. Let's cut to the chase. Go get an old-fashioned auction book and put it in the town square. Put it somewhere where it looks like it's real and just bring all these black people up there and auction them off and find out who it is that sells for the highest price. That's essentially what you're doing with all of these nonsensical categorizations -- Obama's not black enough, Obama doesn't have -- he's not down for the struggle, Obama doesn't have a legitimate civil rights -- civil right background. Obama's ears don't look like a black person's ears, they're too big, Obama doesn't sound like a black person, he's clean and articulate. The left's saying all these things. Now he's the "Magic Negro," which is a convenient trick for the L.A. Times to blame a bunch of white people for being racist. OK. Let's find out who the -- just get an auction block and grab as many blacks as you want to put them up there and let's start the sales, L.A. Times, and let's see who it is that fetches the highest prices. Isn't that essentially the way they're approaching this? These are commodities. These human beings are simply commodities, and they are there for some purpose other than their own human existence? You doubt the racism and the groupthink and the superiority of the leftists in this country, you'd be making a grave error.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: For example, you could take 10 seconds of me saying, "Obama is the Magic Negro" and make it look like I said it, rather than the fact that I'm repeating it from an L.A. Times column today.

10 seconds? How's about years of playing to his racist listeners? He talks about it from the point of view that the left says "Obama's not black enough"??? We could just point to the fact that Oxy-Rush Limbaugh refered to Obama as a "Halfrican American":

LIMBAUGH: Hey, Barack Obama has picked up another endorsement: Halfrican American actress Halle Berry. "As a Halfrican American, I am honored to have Ms. Berry's support, as well as the support of other Halfrican Americans," Obama said.

He didn't say it, but -- anyway, there are those out there -- greetings.

Trying to pawn this off on the left when his own words betray Oxy-Rush Limbaugh's deep seeded bigotry, and the way he perpetuates this bigotry for his bigoted listeners "benefit", is pitiful and disgarceful.

Keep talking Limbaugh... The left understands that you really do want to own these words even if you didn't say it first. It plays to your listeners ingrained bigoted beliefs BUT it also publically exposes the true nature of you and your listeners beliefs to everyone.

CBC may leave Fox Republican News Channel in the dust

The Hill is reporting that

Spurred by liberal activist groups such as MoveOn.org, the three Democratic presidential frontrunners, Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) and Barack Obama (Ill.) and former Sen. John Edwards (N.C.), have withdrawn from the debate, citing what they call Fox News’s conservative bias.

“I do think that the CBC should seriously consider pulling out because Fox almost always chooses the opposite position of our caucus and members are continuously badmouthed on there,” a member of the black caucus, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.), said. “That would be my position inside the caucus. However, I in the final analysis would support the caucus’s decision.”

Another caucus member, Rep. Diane Watson (D-Calif.), said: “Fox News brings the right-wing side of the news, and there’s no sense in participating in that kind of game-playing.

“We’re very serious about taking the administration in November and I wouldn’t trust getting an accurate and true portrayal of our views on the issues if Fox News is coordinating it,” she said in reference to Democratic hopes of taking back the White House in 2008.

Members of the Congressional Black Caucus may raise the issue at a weekly meeting scheduled for today.

Now here is the only reason there may still be some support within the CBC and the CBC Institute to keep the debate date with Fox Repeublican news:

CBC leaders feel some sense of obligation to Fox because it was the only news network that agreed to televise a black caucus-sponsored debate before the 2004 Democratic presidential primary.

CNN is already carrying a CBC Institue sponsored debate, so this time the left has a chance to make a serious statement about about the GOP talking pointy heads' right wingnut "news agency" and the fact that Fox Republican news should be required to register as a major donor to the GOP for the biased and unethical political spin they give to the far right wing GOP agenda.