I note with interest today, John McCain's new tactic of associating Barack Obama with oversexed and/or promiscuous young white women. (See today's new ad and this from yesterday.) Presumably, a laHarold Ford 2006, this will be one of those strategies that will be a matter of deep dispute during the campaign and later treated as transparent and obvious once the campaign is concluded.
And yes... I will sink even lower than the conservative side to fight back, tit for tat, on their terms.
[update] I posted this over at dKos to try and verify the image origins (You can see what they had to say here) but one comment relayed a useful link:
Paris' Parents to McCain: How Dare You! This has gotta hurt. We did some digging and found Rick and Kathy Hilton gave the John McCain campaign $4,600 this year, and Johnny boy has now taken a shot at their lil' girl.
According to the Federal Election Commission website, the Hiltons contributed the dough last March. Initially, Rick put up all the $$$ but in April it was split between him and his wife.
Now McCain is taking a shot at Obama, using Paris as his ditzy weapon.
Today, Father Coughlin -- er, sorry, frog in my throat -- Bill O'Reilly is planning another in his ongoing attacks against Daily Kos and YearlyKos. Fox News has apparently been emailing the Democratic campaigns asking them for "comment" on Bill's ongoing Jihad of Jackassery: the following email was sent on to us from one of those Democratic campaigns:
From: Mitchell, Ron [mailto:xxxxxxx@FOXNEWS.COM] Sent: Friday, July 27, 2007 To: xxxxxxx Subject: Fox News Request
This is Ron Mitchell with Bill O'Reilly at the Fox News Channel.
The O'Reilly Factor plans an update on issues involving DailyKos website the story for Monday.
There are some disturbing images on the DailyKos depicting Sen. Joe Lieberman and others along with some very offensive language. We are asking for statements regarding this issue from each of the Democratic candidates planning to attend the YearlyKos convention.
The image attached is from an active posting. I think that most people would agree that this sort of thing has no place in mainstream political discourse.
So, what was this abominable photoshopped image, the one that was supposed to "bury" Daily Kos by the mere fact that some commenter once put it on the site? Well, here it is, but I warn you, it is very graphic and mean and abominable and it causes puppies to cry, so we don't dare post it.
DailyKos had been so afraid of this fight that they feared posting the shockingly disturbing image... Well? Maybe not.
Front page space ain't cheap at dKos so they only snarkily supplied a space saving link to the hyper-offensive photo. But here at my little brewery not only is front page space cheap but it is also found in plentiful abundance for anyone with access (that would be me!) and has shown a willingness to poke fun at R (Idiots) like bush and Joe neocon Lieberman (that would be me, again!) any chance they can:
Truthfully, this could not really be the BIG O'Reilly story that everyone really wanted to talk about last year, could it? It had to be a minor distraction from the real news of the day, right? Opening Crooks and Liars today (among the many great Blogs I start my day with) was a reminder of the significance of today and, of course, the real reason for last year's bloviating Bill O'.
During the course of O'REILLY's telephone monologue on August 2, 2004, he suggested that Plaintiff ANDREA MACKRIS purchase a vibrator and name it, and that he had one "shaped like a cock with a little battery in it" that a woman had given him. It became apparent that Defendant was masturbating as he spoke. After he climaxed, Defendant O'REILLY said to Plaintiff: "I appreciate the fun phone call. You can have fun tonight. I'll appreciate it. I mean it."
When Plaintiff responded that she never engaged in phone sex, Defendant BILL O'REILLY professed disbelief, and told her that the sexual stories he told were all based on his own experiences, such as when he received a massage in a cabana in Bali and the "little short brown woman" asked to see his penis and was "amazed." Defendant BILL O'REILLY then suggested that he tell Plaintiff the same sexual stories, which he knew she would "just love." Shocked and embarrassed, Plaintiff ANDREA MACKRIS informed Defendant in no uncertain terms that she was never experienced in nor interested in gaining experience in telephone sex. Defendant expressed disbelief.
Falafel Day
Line 54.
If any woman ever breathed a word I'll make her pay so dearly that she'll wish she'd never been born. I'll rake her through the mud, bring up things in her life and make her so miserable that she'll be destroyed. And besides, she wouldn't be able to afford the lawyers I can or endure it financially as long as I can. And nobody would believe her, it'd be her word against mine and who are they going to believe? Me or some unstable woman making outrageous accusations. They'd see her as some psycho, someone unstable. Besides, I'd never make the mistake of picking unstable crazy girls like that.
Line 55.
If you cross FOX NEWS CHANNEL, it's not just me, it's [FOX President] Roger Ailes who will go after you. I'm the street guy out front making loud noises about the issues, but Ailes operates behind the scenes, strategizes and makes things happen so that one day BAM! The person gets what's coming to them but never sees it coming. Look at Al Franken, one day he's going to get a knock on his door and life as he's known it will change forever. That day will happen, trust me.
Yes... I think O'Reilly's ranting and raving and foaming at the mouth over a little picture on dKos may have been a distraction from what was really going on in the news that day.
Maybe I should try crossposting this over at dKos just to see if the streetfighter, Bill O'Reilly, and his behind the scenes, strategizing boss destroyed the dKos community after he raked them through the mud?
[update] Just like O'Reilly failed to cover up his sordid phone sex scandal, it appears that he has failed to take down dKos. I wouldn't be a real Blogger if I didn't fact-check these things, would I?
The Bush administration and its stepchild John McCain have opted for a bold new strategy to counter the overwhelming success of Barack Obama's whirlwind foreign policy world tour: they've declared victory in Iraq.
This could preserve the neocons' aim of establishing a permanent military footprint in the geographic heart of the Middle East. Their only problem will come when the American public starts believing we've won and begins to expect the administration to draw down the troop presence in Iraq for real."
"Three female suicide bombers and a roadside bomb struck Shiite pilgrims taking part in a massive religious procession in Baghdad on Monday. Police said at least 32 people were killed and 102 wounded. The attacks occurred in quick succession in the early morning in the mainly Shiite Karradah district, as tens of thousands of Shiite worshippers streamed toward the pilgrimage site in Kazimiyah, northern Baghdad. Meanwhile at a Kurdish rally in the northern city of Kirkuk, A bomb blast killed at least 15 people and wounded 170 others. The attack occurred while demonstrators gathered to protest a provincial elections law being debated in Parliament. The law would limit the Kurds ability to control oil-rich Kirkuk which they consider to be part of their historical land. Last week Kurdish parties walked out of the Iraqi parliament in protest over the proposed law. Though the law was passed 127 to 13 it was later vetoed by President Jalal Talibani, who is also a Kurd. Though many reports claim violence in Iraq to be at its lowest point in three years, the political situation is still very volatile."
"It appears that what brought him to this horrible event was his lack of being able to obtain a job, his frustration over that, and his stated hatred for the liberal movement," Chief Owen said.
"It appears that the church had received some publicity in the recent past regarding its liberal stance on things and that is at least one of the issues we believe caused that church to be selected."
The Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church describes itself on its website as working for social change since the 1950s, including desegregation, racial harmony, fair wages, women's rights and gay rights.
But how do conservatives so corrupt a nation with their poisonous ideas that they can consistently cut back on liberal social safety nets like the food stamps that this man was about to lose, and that set this man off on his terrorist tirade, while simultaneously convincing the downtrodden citizens that their true allies, liberals that support safety nets, are to blame? A man who thinks that he is being discriminated against for his age, a man that would have had natural allies in today's left for this issue, taking it out on liberals when it is the conservatives and the GOP that have created the disposable employee society that favors corporations and makes many groups of employees obsolete by these conservative standards.
And, undoubtedly, conservatives will blame the evil liberals for all of the failed bush policies, conservative driven deregulation, and GOP created deficits that got us here. And, clearly, there are people that are crazy enough to buy their divisive propaganda and will act on it.
This is a worse problem than the simplified version of the GOP purposively creating a failed, bloated bureaucracy and then pointing to it when they are out of power and saying "government is bad" and blaming liberals for all of it as some vote getting tactic.
As with the church shootings in Colorado last December, the right will find some way to spin this story and turn Adkisson into an anti-Christian liberal whack job and blame it on the liberal media.
In response to the tragic church shootings in Colorado, Family Research Council head Tony Perkins naturally pointed the finger of blame at the “secular media.” The senseless massacre of several deeply religious people by one of their own reflected, he claimed, “hostility that is being fomented in our culture from some in the secular media toward Christians.” Of course, Perkins has it almost exactly backwards. Whether concerning abortion, gay Americans, immigration or judicial appointments, the line connecting the rhetoric of the Republican Party and the mainstream conservative movement to right-wing terror is a very short one.
[update deux] Scholars & Rogues seems to be writing about the same thing today, and it is well worth the read:
It would be simplistic and wrong-headed of me to blame a particular person or institution for Adkisson’s actions. I don’t know what Rush had to say last week - although I’m sure it was hateful and stupid - but Rush didn’t load up the shotgun and pull the trigger.
However, Rush is one of the people who has helped poison the waters in the sea that is American culture. FOX “News” and its hatefuck parade of gleefully toxic talking heads have dumped billions of gallons of rhetorical bile into the streams feeding the ocean of public opinion. Karl Rove has taught a new generation of bright-eyed Typhoid Marys to bathe in the waters that the rest of us drink.
Jim Adkisson was an unbalanced man, and perhaps it was only a matter of time before he snapped. But two questions to ponder: first, who created the conditions that hastened the snap? And second, when the train jumped the tracks, who created the bogeyman that the diseased brain latched onto as the cause of all the pain?
Inside the house, officers found “Liberalism is a Mental Health Disorder” by radio talk show host Michael Savage, “Let Freedom Ring” by talk show host Sean Hannity, and “The O’Reilly Factor,” by television talk show host Bill O’Reilly.
All he is missing is some Beck and Coulter on that hate monger's reading list.
The State Elections Enforcement Commission adopted a stipulated agreement today to settle a case which originated from a referral by the United States Attorney.
The settlement was reached with two attorneys from the Danbury area: Jack Garamella and Christopher Leonard. Both are partners in the law firm Collins, Hannafin, Garamella, Jaber & Tuozzolo, P.C. Each attorney paid the maximum $2,000 civil penalty under these facts for making a contribution in the name of another. Jack Garamella gave $500 to Chris Leonard and asked him to make a $500 contribution to the 2004 re-election campaign of State Senator David Cappiello, because he did not wish to be identified as giving a contribution to a Republican while he was seeking the Democratic office of Judge of Probate.
Leonard made a prohibited contribution by accepting the money, and then writing a check in his name to the Cappiello campaign. The Commission imposed the maximum civil penalty as it considers this a serious violation. Concealing the true source of a candidate contribution frustrates the purpose of disclosure laws.
UPDATE:Click here to read the stipulated agreement between Garamella, Leonard, and the State Elections Enforcement Commission.
UPDATE 2: Cappiello speaks...and his comment is predictable:
And look for the confirm the Blog owner link on the right side collumn... It would be nice to have it confirmed before the day is out. :) And please feel free to join my blog network if you are so inclined.
"Shays' stated views on which taxes should be lowered: slightly decrease corporate income taxes, slightly decrease the capital gains tax, (meaning even further), and greatly decrease the inheritance tax, which I take to mean doing away with it altogether.
As a side note, it's interesting that Shays wants to increase spending across the board, except for agricultural spending and a national missile defense.
Combining the two, does that make Chris Shays a borrow and spend Republican? It sure seems to!"
Is there any other kind of republican these days? As for Jim Himes position on this? He put out his Middle Class Tax Relief plan on July 22nd:
Today in Stamford, Jim Himes announced a plan for middle-class tax relief plan that will help middle-class families in three important ways: by expanding college tuition tax credits to make college affordable again, by creating a new tax credit for first-time homebuyers to make it easier for families to buy their first home, and by expanding the saver's credit to help middle‐class families build wealth for the future. The plan would restore opportunity and the American Dream for middle-class families by helping them afford college, buy their first home, and save for the future.
Paris Hilton Exposes Her Neocon McBush...
