5/11/07

Bush Resigns?

For a few seconds watchers of CNN International were about to pop the cork on champagne:

Following up on this post, it did happen. Here's a screen grab from CNN International around midnight ET:



This appeared on screen for 12 seconds. (Two seconds before, President Bush had appeared on screen, but the chyron accurately said "Pressure over Iraq.")
I am sure they all slammed their fridge doors as they put their champagne away. Is CNN practicing for it just in case or do they know something we don't know? heh

White House and GOP Reps Chasing Their Tails


This is good one from The Hill:
Top Bush administration officials lashed out at a pair of House Republicans at the White House yesterday after details about a contentious meeting between President Bush and GOP legislators were leaked to the media earlier this week.

The confrontations are the latest indications of an intensifying rift between Bush and congressional Republicans.

Reps. Ray LaHood (R-Ill.) and Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) attracted the ire of White House officials for allegedly speaking to reporters about a Tuesday meeting between Bush and centrist Republicans on the Iraq war. Details of the contentious meeting first emerged Wednesday evening and attracted Page 1 headlines yesterday.


Sources said that Dan Meyer, Bush’s liaison to the House, confronted LaHood while White House political strategist Karl Rove rebuked Kirk. It is unclear if LaHood or Kirk were the originial sources for the stories, but LaHood was quoted in one of the articles.

Regardless, LaHood and Meyer got into a shouting match as emotions ran high and voices were raised yesterday morning in the White House while lawmakers were waiting to meet with first lady Laura Bush, according to two legislators who witnessed the exchange.


No word yet on when someone is going to get chewed out for leaking that Rove chewed them out for leaking that bush got chewed out.

"“The White House is not happy,” said a Republican lawmaker"

No kidding? They are not very grown up either... Then again, neither are LaHood and Kirk... They voted for unending war after all of their "dog'n'pony bush visit" waste of the public's time.

The GOP candidates play CYA for the next elections, and soldiers are still dying. Frickin' children... The lot of'em.

General Petraeus Denounces Torture

Via the Washington Post:

The top U.S. commander in Iraq admonished his troops regarding the results of an Army survey that found that many U.S military personnel there are willing to tolerate some torture of suspects and unwilling to report abuse by comrades.

"This fight depends on securing the population, which must understand that we -- not our enemies -- occupy the moral high ground," Army Gen. David H. Petraeus wrote in an open letter dated May 10 and posted on a military Web site.

He rejected the argument that torture is sometimes needed to quickly obtain crucial information. "Beyond the basic fact that such actions are illegal, history shows that they also are frequently neither useful nor necessary," he stated.

Why doesn't the GOP support the troops?

The White House and GOP members of Congress say they've reached some level of compromise to break the deadlock over detainee treatment legislation. The deal, however, does not appear to solve a key disagreement over the use of classified information in terror prosecutions.

White House adviser Steven Hadley called the deal struck between the White House and three conservative GOP senators a "framework of agreement," while Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) called it a “conceptual agreement.” Nothing has been signed, however, and no specifics have been confirmed.

What a concept! The USA abusing prisoners with torture is wrong, and it hurts our soldiers if they are captured. Blame the Republican controlled White House, House, Senate, the DoJ idiots like Gonzales that advocated skirting the Geneva Conventions, and all of the far right wingnut children in the blogosphere that cheered on the GOP's failed policy of torture.

Impeach the traitors.

FIC Blog Suffering From Stick Envy

Via tessa at MLN:
This just in from the Family Institute:

Tell Your State Senator and State Representative: Vote No on Same-Sex "Marriage"
We hope to see as many of you as possible at our May 23rd Rally and Lobby Day for Marriage, which begins at 10:00 a.m. on the steps of the state capitol in Hartford. Your willingness to fight for the protection of marriage will make the difference between victory and defeat--and pro same-sex "marriage" activists know it.

Then they quote from Love Makes a Family's Anne Stanback (email from Monday, May 7) ---
Here's an excerpt from one of their messages:


Opponents of marriage equality, who are well organized and well funded, have been generating huge numbers of calls and emails and supporters must show our support too.
Pro-family voters are doing such a good job making their voices heard that our opponents are forced into claiming it's because FIC is "well-funded." In fact, we are vastly outfunded by our opposition.


Then it gets funny:

Consider this excerpt from a Courant column on a pro same-sex "marriage" fundraiser held last month:



While those at the Bushnell were getting their groove thing going, Love Makes a Family's "Eat, Drink & Be Married" event had a whole lot of dinner parties going on around town, aimed at raising money to continue efforts toward marriage equality for same-sex couples.

At the West End home of Michael Wilson (Hartford Stage's artistic director) and his partner, Jeff Cowie, the theme was "Let's Stick Together" and dinner did that - literally. From asparagus-studded choux pastry puffs to Korean beef, all of the food was served - you've got it - on a stick.

"The seven cooks in the kitchen has been a challenge," said Wilson, who was more than willing to show off the 105-year-old house that was once the residence of Life magazine photographer Arthur Rickerby and his author wife, Wanda Rickerby.

Unlike our opponents, FIC does not owe its success to an ability to put seven cooks in one kitchen. Whatever we have accomplished we owe to you: your willingness to pray for us, to contact your legislators, to attend our rallies and to donate to our matching grant campaigns.

In fact, the difficulty in meeting our matching grant campaign goal of $50,000 by the end of this month is making it harder for us to stop same-sex "marriage" and other threats to the family. That's why we need your help.


Read More...


Yep!

Some of us are so well funded that we don't get a penny for any of the Blogging and activism we do. Unlike the bigoted and overpaid "asparagus-studded choux pastry puffs" at the FIC Blog that are obviously suffering from stick envy.

5/10/07

BIG TELCOs Illegally Spy on You For bush?

If you are unsure just how much you are ILLEGALLY being spied upon by the bush administration than you need to see this:



Former AT&T technician Mark Klein and Internet expert Brian Reid describe an NSA listening room that Klein discovered while working at the company's operations center. In "Spying on the Home Front" FRONTLINE talks to intelligence insiders and asks: Is the Bush administration's domestic war on terrorism jeopardizing our civil liberties? Coming May 15 to PBS and here online.

In "Spying on the Home Front," coming May. 15, 2007 at 9pm (check local listings) Reporter Hedrick Smith presents new material on how the National Security Agency's domestic surveillance program works and examines clashing viewpoints on whether the President has violated the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and infringed on constitutional protections.

In another dramatic story, the program shows how the FBI vacuumed up records on 250,000 ordinary Americans who chose Las Vegas as the destination for their Christmas-New Year's holiday, and the subsequent revelation that the FBI has misused National Security Letters to gather information. Probing such projects as Total Information Awareness, and its little known successors, Smith discloses that even former government intelligence officials now worry that the combination of new security threats, advances in communications technologies, and radical interpretations of presidential authority may be threatening the privacy of Americans.

You have to remember that the phone companies have been sued for illegally providing information to the corrupt bush administration even BEFORE 911. The lying bush administration and the BIG TELCOs have absolutely no regard for the rule of law, nor your civil rights.

The rundown on lawsuits against BIG TELCOs via ThinkProgress:

This morning, USA Today reported that three telecommunications companies – AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth – provided “phone call records of tens of millions of Americans” to the National Security Agency. Such conduct appears to be illegal and could make the telco firms liable for tens of billions of dollars. Here’s why:

1. It violates the Stored Communications Act. The Stored Communications Act, Section 2703(c), provides exactly five exceptions that would permit a phone company to disclose to the government the list of calls to or from a subscriber: (i) a warrant; (ii) a court order; (iii) the customer’s consent; (iv) for telemarketing enforcement; or (v) by “administrative subpoena.” The first four clearly don’t apply. As for administrative subpoenas, where a government agency asks for records without court approval, there is a simple answer – the NSA has no administrative subpoena authority, and it is the NSA that reportedly got the phone records.

2. The penalty for violating the Stored Communications Act is $1000 per individual violation. Section 2707 of the Stored Communications Act gives a private right of action to any telephone customer “aggrieved by any violation.” If the phone company acted with a “knowing or intentional state of mind,” then the customer wins actual harm, attorney’s fees, and “in no case shall a person entitled to recover receive less than the sum of $1,000.”

(The phone companies might say they didn’t “know” they were violating the law. But USA Today reports that Qwest’s lawyers knew about the legal risks, which are bright and clear in the statute book.)

3. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act doesn’t get the telcos off the hook. According to USA Today, the NSA did not go to the FISA court to get a court order. And Qwest is quoted as saying that the Attorney General would not certify that the request was lawful under FISA. So FISA provides no defense for the phone companies, either.

In other words, for every 1 million Americans whose records were turned over to NSA, the telcos could be liable for $1 billion in penalties, plus attorneys fees. You do the math.

– Peter Swire and Judd Legum

UPDATE: Many of you had questions about this legal analysis. Peter provides the answers here. We’ll continue to address your questions as this story develops.

UPDATE II: Orrin Kerr agrees with our analysis in the New York Times:

Orin Kerr, a former federal prosecutor and assistant professor at George Washington University, said his reading of the relevant statutes put the phone companies at risk for at least $1,000 per person whose records they disclosed without a court order.

“This is not a happy day for the general counsels” of the phone companies, he said. “If you have a class action involving 10 million Americans, that’s 10 million times $1,000 — that’s 10 billion.”


Too many Americans don't even realize just how much their rights to privacy are being ignored and the means they have to remedy this gross injustice.

New Richardson Ad HILARIOUS!

I opened up Crooks & Liars (After starting my day at MLN) as per usual and saw this...
Governor Bill Richardson's new ad just hit the airwaves, and it's freaking great. Informative, original and hysterical.



It is a great ad and WAY TOO FUNNY!

5/9/07

A Little More on the Bus Strike

According to the Danbury NewsTimes All Star Transportation released a statement today:

"Over the past year, the company has met continually with the union to iron out a fair economical contract that both sides could live with. Both sides have bargained in good faith and have a respectable relationship with each other. The company and the union understand that this is a new contract with several obstacles. A final proposed contract was offered to the union negotiating team on Friday. The union refused to recommend the contract, so it was withdrawn. All-Star Transportation urges the drivers to return to their job, which is servicing the students, parents and the Board of Education of the community of New Milford."
Here I thought it was All-Star's job, "servicing the students, parents and the Board of Education of the community of New Milford", since they were the company that signed the contracts with the city's school system. The drivers job is to drive a bus for All Star. Anyways...

The schools were handing out flyers directing everyone in town to their website for updated information on "how and when" to drop off and pick up your kiddies at the schools.

I stopped by and talked to the drivers that are picketing out front of All-Star and asked them about the situation from their POV. Their complaints stem from the fact that they are paid about $2 per hour less than bus drivers in nearby communities. All they were asking for was a $1 raise.

All-Star has, in recent times, had a hard time keeping on drivers over the long term because as soon as they get an opportunity to work for one of the higher paying companies the drivers leave All Star. They must be wasting a lot of money on constantly training new drivers and could, likely, save quite a bit of money on that just by raising the salaries to something a little more competitive. They might even save more than the 60 cent difference between the raise they were offering the drivers and what the drivers wanted. Penny wise and pound foolish, I guess?

I transcribed a flyer that the drivers were giving out to parents at schools. I figure if the newspapers will print out the corporate side of it verbatim from their press release... Maybe someone ought to give the drivers the same benefit for the sake of "BALANCE IN THE NEWS":

We are sorry for the inconvenience this strike is causing all of our families. The purpose of this leaflet is to give you the facts concerning the current unfair labor practice strike.

  • Each day, you entrust us with the safety of your children and we take this responsibility very seriously.


  • We are all professional drivers who have undergone extensive safety training and possess Commercial drivers' Licenses.


  • We are paid $11.40 per hour, which is $2,00 per hour less than surrounding communities.


  • We receive NO FRINGE BENEFITS.


  • New Milford bus drivers voted to join Teamster Local 677 in May 2006.


  • For the past year we have attempted, without success, to negotiate a fair collective bargaining agreement.


  • On Monday, May 7th, 2007 All Star withdrew its offer of a 3.5% wage increase, which equals 40 cents per hour.

  • THIS STRIKE COULD HAVE BEEN AVOIDED IF
    ALL STAR WOULD BARGAIN IN GOOD FAITH


  • Most of us drivers are New Milford residents


Our Children attend New Milford schools and ride New Milford Buses.
We are New Milford taxpayers.
We deserve a fair contract.
We appreciate your support.

They also ask that you call All Star and tell them you support the drivers.
All Star Transportation can be reached at (860) 354-2705

Not only are these drivers required to get driving and safety training, but they must pass a background check through the police to get the job to begin with. A safety precaution that has been put in place in the last few years for the benefit of your children's safety.

As a side note, I did a quick check on the math (assuming the pay they make and the % raise offered is correct in this leaflet?) and the raise is really only 39.999 cents per hour raise. Can you say cheap?

Again, the video that ctblogger uploaded for our benefit:



[updtae] It appears that today the NewsTimes put up a story that is, at least, a little more than just a press release from All Star Transportation. Some might even call it news... heh
(h/t to Ghengis Conn at CLP)

"We're fighting them there so we don't have to here"


Oh really?


Part I
6 Charged With Plot on Army Post in N.J.:

"Six Islamic militants from Yugoslavia and the Middle East were arrested on charges of plotting to attack the Fort Dix Army post and 'kill as many soldiers as possible,' authorities said Tuesday.

In conversations secretly recorded by an FBI informant over the past year, the men talked about killing in the name of Allah and attacking U.S. warships that might dock in Philadelphia, according an FBI criminal complaint."

Whoops! They are already over here. Another terrorist attack courtesy of the failed bush and GOP foreign policy.... Fortunately this group was thwarted by the FBI.

Part II

Is This Another Republican Terrorist?

The NY Times had a little blurb up from the AP news service on someone planning to attack Hillary Clinton:
A Louisiana State University student told another student that he was planning a violent attack against Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, the police said. The student, Richard R. Wargo, 19, of Shreveport, was held on $1 million bail.

snip

Mr. Wargo had asked another student whether he wanted to commit arson, a “terrorist act” that he described as a “national event.” “He reportedly went on to say it was political and it involved Hillary Clinton,” Chief Adams said.

I went to do a little poking around to see if maybe, JUST MAYBE, this crackpot terrorist wannabe was an LSU College Republican... But for some reason the site is temporarily down?



It might be a coincidence, BUT it might also mean they will "be right back" after scrubbing their site of references to Wargo... Might be worth some digging to find out.

If you go to the LSU student directory he lists his name as "Ryan Wargo".

ABC news is reporting about the student that brought this plot to the attention of the school's authorities:

The classmate later learned Clinton had scheduled a Baton Rouge appearance. Police said the student reported Wargo to the university after a second conversation in which Wargo made another remark indicating he planned violence against Clinton.

That remark "was something along the lines of, 'Have you ever heard of a dead president?'" Adams said.

Police arrested Wargo in a traffic stop Thursday night. Officers searched his dormitory room and found documents that made the classmate's accusations appear credible, Adams said. He declined to give details, but said officers also seized Wargo's computer and marijuana and drug paraphernalia.


Yesterday the idiot was released from jail on $50,000 cash bond and a $50,000 property bond:
Making threats toward presidential candidate U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton was a “stupid thing to do,” but in time it will be clear the LSU student behind the threats had no intention of carrying them out, his attorney said Monday.

Richard Ryan Wargo, 19, 10301 Evangeline, Shreveport, was released Monday from Parish Prison to the custody of his parents, attorney Frank Holthaus said.

The release is subject to conditions, including one that requires Wargo to undergo a mental health evaluation and get treatment if recommended by the therapist.


What kind of penalties could he face for his threats?
Under Louisiana law, a terrorizing conviction carries a sentence of up to 15 years in prison and a fine up to $15,000, while communicating false information of a planned arson carries a sentence of up to 20 years in prison.
Wow! More of them are already over here!

Part III

A terrorist story from last December:
Usually we are talking about the right-wingnut-crack that freepers are smoking. Crooks & Liars reports on the white powder that one freeper was desperate to share with anyone that held oposing viewpoints to the failed Republican agenda.

C&L reported earlier on the guy who sent the fake anthrax around. Who would have thought that a right wing conservative would be involved in terrorist activities?


HMMM? Who would have thought that the wingnutty Free Republic was guilty of supporting terrorists other than Mr. Bush?
Can you believe how many of those terrorists are over here? Can't be more, can there?

Part IV

And what about the card carrying Republican party Al Qaida insider:

Ok... So the terrorism part first:
Terrorism charges brought Friday against the administrator of a loan investment program claimed that he secretly tried to send $152,000 to the Middle East to buy equipment such as night vision goggles for a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan.

Abdul Tawala Ibn Ali Alishtari, 53, of Ardsley, N.Y., pleaded not guilty in U.S. District Court in Manhattan to an indictment accusing him of terrorism financing, material support of terrorism and other charges. The charges carried a potential penalty of 95 years in prison.


But would you really believe me if I told you he was a Republican?
CBS News has confirmed that Alishtari is a donor to the Republican Party, as he claims on his curriculum vitae. Alishtari gave $15,500 to the National Republican Campaign Committee between 2002 and 2004, according to Federal Election Commission records. That amount includes $13,000 in 2003, a year when he claims to have been named NRCC New York State Businessman of the Year.

Alishtari also claims to be a lifetime member of the National Republican Senate Committee's Inner Circle, which the NRCC describes as "an impressive cross-section of American society – community leaders, business executives, entrepreneurs, retirees, and sports and entertainment celebrities – all of whom hold a deep interest in our nation's prosperity and security."


The Republican party needs to be placed on "The List" of terrorist related organizations and watched very carefully.

It is pretty apparent that the FBI and Homeland Security are wasting their time watching us liberal/peacenik/Quaker/progressive/etc. types. Just ask Ken Krayeske...

[updates] Thank you to those that got this story moving. Raw Story, Crooks and Liars, and Josh Marshall, whose his readers have been dig, dig, digging:

Choice artifacts they have dug up?

This:
Never too Late for this Story Update: Oh that's interesting. Cunning Realist found this CV purportedly posted by Mr. Alishtari. In addition to other GOP donor awards, Alishtari says that he was appointed to something called the "White House Business Advisory Committee" in 2003. And CR ends with this point, referencing Alishtari's CV: "Note the entrepreneurial business background with a focus on technology/security. Have any of those businesses ever received government contracts or funds? Any direct or indirect contact in the past with anyone from the Bush administration or Congress?"
That:

It tuns out Mr. Alishtari, the GOP campaign contributor indicted for sending funds for terrorist training camps in Afghanistan, had a fairly lively life online. TPM Reader TDP points to what purports to be Alishtari's blog. And in a rather rambling post there's a reference to an alleged meeting with VP Dick Cheney. "When I went to DC in the Fall of 2003 and met with VP Cheney, I was first in a room full of advisors where I asked how to resolve this and they advised me to talk to counsels which led to this solution."

Now, we can't be certain that this is actually Alishtari's blog, though I think the weight of evidence suggests that it is.
And the other thing:

He contributed a decent amount of money to GOP congressional campaign committees in the 2002 and 2004 cycles and managed get named to a number of 'committees' and 'councils' set up as perks for GOP campaign contributors, including something called the "White House Business Advisory Committee."

Now a reader of the Cunning Realist blog has dug up the archived version of the website of Mr. Alishtari's company, GlobalProtector, which shows that at the same time Alishtari was giving money to the GOP he was bidding on multiple government contracts -- including ones with the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security.

This story should have had legs of its own... What the heck was the NY Post doing trying to pass this guy off as a "Peace Activist"?

"A Westchester businessman and purported peace activist was nabbed by the feds for allegedly plotting to funnel more than $150,000 to terrorists at training camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan."


Peace activist my ass! This guy is so up to his eyeballs in the GOP and full of it.
As it turned out Alishtari actually donated more than the originally reported $15,500 to the Republican party coffers... About $35,000 in total.

Abdul Tawala Ibn Ali Alishtari, indicted two weeks ago for financing terrorists in Afghanistan among other charges, gave more than $35,000 to Republican campaign committees, not $15,000 as was reported earlier.

A $20,000 contribution from Alishtari to the National Republican Senatorial Committee on August 29th, 2003, was not previously reported because his name was misspelled ("Allshtari") on the NRSC's disclosure form to the Federal Election Commission (unfortunately, such misspellings are fairly frequent). Alishtari's online CV stated that he was named an "Inner Circle Member for Life" of the NRSC.

Part V

And in a strikingly similar case to the Alishtari one:

Can't get enough of Republican terrorists? Neither can the NRCC.

Paul Kiel at The Daily Muck has managed to find more Republican Terrorists Fundraisers of the Year:
"Oops! Building on my last post on the NRCC's bogus Business Advisory Council and 'Businessman of the Year' program, it turns out that Abdul Tawala Ibn Ali Alishtari isn't the first member of the council to be indicted on charges of supporting terrorism.

Yasith Chhun, the head of the Cambodian Freedom Fighters, a group designated by the State Department as a terrorist organization, was indicted in May of 2005 for charges of plotting to overthrow the Cambodian government. He was also, The Los Angeles Times reported, a member of the NRCC's Business Advisory Council:"


Chhun is set to go to trial next month and has been indicted for "attempting to kill the prime minister, attack government buildings and launch small-scale attacks on karaoke bars and fuel depots in an effort to galvanize opposition to the Phnom Penh government," according to the La Times.

Attacking Karaoke bars? Some might argue that he was doing a public service there. (JK)

The Daily Muck has more on how much money Chhun was pouring in to the Republican party and his other terrorist group.

When will the United States government outlaw the GOP for their ties to global terrorism? heh


No matter how you look at it... We will always be fighting them OVER HERE, regardless of the political party in charge. The one other thing that is becoming increasingly clear is that while we are fighting them over here already, many of them clearly are REPUBLICAN TERRORISTS.

Figure the odds, eh?

So the Republican party can shut their gaping pieholes when they try and label liberals, progressives and dems as "emboldening", "giving comfort to," "etc. ad nauseam," the enemy in any way related to terrorism.

You lying and incompetent fuckwads in the Republican party have done more to further terrorists' causes "OVER HERE" than most of the other terrorist leaders in your GWOT combined.


The one and only thing that has kept us safe "OVER HERE," so far, is the fact that the FBI and the CIA don't buy the GOP's ridiculous talking points. And nobody else is buying your propaganda either.

5/8/07

A Little on the Bus Strike


When my wife told me there might be a bus strike the first thing I said was that they would likely use the cost of gas as a reason for a low profit margin and the need to hold down wages... Sure enough they did use it as one reason for that. My beef with this tactic is that anyone with a half a brain has known that gas was going to continue to skyrocket so the bus companies should have made considerations for that when they worked out their last contracts for the services to the cities and schools.

ctblogger at Hat City Blog was nice enough to upload this video for us New Milford folks:



Kids get one day off from school but they will be back tommorrow so get used to driving them in to school until the bus drivers go back to work. Who knows how long this strike will be?

Tweety Hits a Homer Inside the Beltway

And the name of that Homer is bush:



Doh!

Local Cavemen Speak

Caveman O'Brien speaks:
Bill O'Brien, president of Connecticut Right to Life, said the group wants Rell to veto the bill. O'Brien said "the state has no business" telling Catholic hospitals to do something that goes against the church's teachings.

"We can't kill a person that was conceived of rape," O'Brien said.

Nothing like a baby that comes from a good old fashioned clubbing over the head!

Caveman Peter (FIC tribe) speaks:
As we have noted before, the next likely step will be a lawsuit based on the Connecticut Religious Freedom Act. Watch for more information.

Nothing like a caveman starting a lawsuit that will wind up cutting off all state funding to the hospital's medicine man. But that isn't what this post is about.

A quick look at the others that enjoy their women barefoot and pregnant, clubbed and dragged off to be raped and FORCED to bear them children... The leaders an outspoken members of some anti-woman groups as yanked from the FIC Blog:

The Rev. Deacon Tom Davis

Caveman

And JI editor Chris Powell

Caveman

the Catholic Church’s Dave Reynolds

Another caveman

Brian Brown

Might be more closely related to the chimps... But not as honest as his furry brothers.

Reverend James J. Cronin
And another caveman
The bishops of every state but New York fought the sort of law that is being advanced in the Connecticut legislature [emphasis added]. New York, for some reason, was the only state where Catholic lobbyists had no objection to such a law.

A whole lot of cavemen!


Notice a pattern here? I think you do...



(Edited with my apologies to Sen. Ed Meyer whose quote I misread when I addedhim here originally and my thanks to Maura! heh)

5/7/07

Sexist Racist Homophobic

David Horowitz at his best...

Sexist:
He defended former Harvard University President Larry Summers, who stepped down amid an outcry at his remarks to the effect that women are biologically impaired in math and science. In a public lecture at the University of Texas, Horowitz claimed that the fact that Oprah Winfrey—whom he called “a fat Black woman”—has made it to the top of society proves that racism is no longer a barrier to success for most Black Americans. He has argued that Blacks benefited from slavery.


Racist:
One year ago, conservative activist David Horowitz (pictured) seemed convinced that an occasional contributor to his FrontPage Magazine website – Lawrence Auster – trafficked in “racist” ideas. And he seemed to cast Auster out.

I take credit for that.

I had sent Horowitz and Jamie Glazov (FrontPage’s managing editor) an 11-page letter detailing Auster’s views on race, as expressed on Auster’s blog. (For example, his description of black people collectively as “the savages.”)

Concerning my letter, Horowitz emailed Glazov and myself on May 14, 2006. He wrote: “I think it’s a persuasive argument for not running Auster unless he publicly repudiates these positions which are racist and offensive.”

Sure enough, Auster’s essays didn’t appear in FrontPage Magazine after that.

Until today.

Yes, Lawrence Auster is back at FrontPage, alerting Horowitz’s readership to an epidemic of black-on-white rape.


Homophobic:
If you really want to piss off David Horowitz, call him a racist. Nothing makes him hit the roof faster. A few years ago at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Horowitz was outraged at a flyer calling him “Racist, Sexist, Anti-Gay.” Horowitz wrote: “I didn’t regard this as speech so much as a gesture like kicking me in the groin. It seemed extremely perverse of her to be defending her right to slander me to my face. So then and there -- in front of her and the university official -- I ripped down her sign.”

When Jack White wrote an opinion column calling Horowitz “A Real, Live Bigot” in Time magazine, Horowitz reports that he contacted Time’s publisher Walter Isaacson and falsely threatened to file a libel suit. Isaacson turned out to be a Horowitz fan, and Horowitz reported that Isaacson “sent columnist Margaret Carlson as an intermediary to an event I was holding in Colorado over Labor Day weekend. Our meeting led to a phone call from Isaacson and a meeting with Time’s editorial board.” Isaacson then ordered Time’s editors to run a review of Horowitz’s book Hating Whitey. (Not surprisingly, Time published a glowing account of Horowitz’s book soon after getting marching orders from the boss.)


Are you sure Homophobic?
David Horowitz's first charges against me were that I am a homosexual who pushes for gay rights, sexually harasses students in doing so and that I treat Christian students unfairly. When I heard that those charges were brought by two students (the President of the College Republicans at URI and his vice president) to the chair of my department, it was I and not the students who demanded a full investigation by the Affirmative Action Officer at the University and, of course I was vindicated.

Failing at these charges, now Horowitz moves to my credentials and as he has done with a number of the 101 Most Dangerous, he charges that we are not qualified to teach those subjects we have been assigned by the University to teach.


Yep...
David Horowitz is sexist, racist AND hompohobic:

5/6/07

GOP Death Spiral Continues - Moderates Leaving Them

Newsweek covers the continued hemorrhaging of moderates from the GOP that end up joining the more fiscally responsible and moderately conservative Democratic party.
Susan Eisenhower is an accomplished professional, the president of an international consulting firm. She also happens to be Ike's granddaughter—and in that role, she's the humble torchbearer for moderate "Eisenhower Republicans." Increasingly, however, she says that the partisanship and free spending of the Bush presidency—and the takeover of the party by single-issue voters, especially pro-lifers—is driving these pragmatic, fiscally conservative voters out of the GOP. Eisenhower says she could vote Democratic in 2008, but she's still intent on saving her party. "I made a pact with a number of people," she tells NEWSWEEK. "I said, 'Please don't leave the party without calling me first.' For a while, there weren't too many calls. And then suddenly, there was a flurry of them. I found myself watching them slip away one by one."

I am sure that some of them will end up in the Libertarian party, and or backing other non-GOP, and therefore more likely real, conservative candidates and parties, but the truth is many will follow on the heels of those like former Reagan Republican Markos Moulitsas and try and make the Democratic party even more conservative than it already is.

The fact is that the Republican party has continued to margenalize itself by pandering to radicals, continuous efforts to be unethical whenever given the oportunies, their inability to accept responsibility for any of their inumerable failures, and showing a complete lack of logic in their unending support of bush.

Little wonder why moderate voters are jumping ship from the GOP. It won't be long before the political rats in office start following their base in an effort to hide from their sinking GOP ship. It won't help them much because those rats have already been tagged with "GOP failures tracking devices" throughout the Blogosphere. Thanks Tehnorati! heh