The Liberal Doomsayer My blog deals primarily with national politics in the U.S. as well as, on occasion, local politics in Pennsylvania. From time to time, I may have something to say about sports and entertainment as well. I try to interpret information that shapes the news and provide context to current events. I am definitely left of center politically, but as far as I'm concerned, neither major party is perfect. Statistics Unique Visitors: Total Unique Visitors: Outgoing: Total Outgoing: 6 0 17 5696

Articles from The Liberal Doomsayer

Legitimizing "Terror High" Intolerance 2007-11-26 17:34:00 This AP story courtesy of the San Diego Tribune tells us that the Islamic Saudi Academy K-12 school in Fairfax County, VA should be closed pending a review of its curriculum and textbooks based on a recommendation from the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (which includes a chairperson and two vice chairs).The story also tells us…The teachers, administrators and some 900 students at the Islamic Saudi Academy in Fairfax County have heard the (terror high) allegations for years – after the Sept. 11 attacks and then a few years later when a class valedictorian admitted he had joined al-Qaeda.OK, that’s not a good thing, I’ll grant you that. But before we rush to judgment here, I would ask that we think about how many students from the entire school have joined an organization that encourages killing Americans and all non-Muslims; if it’s only a fraction of the student body, then what is the issue exactly? Don’t non-Muslims join al Qaeda or related groups also? ...

Fairy Tales From The Old Gray Lady 2007-11-26 15:19:00 No sooner do I finish posting on Trent Lott than I notice this from kos; he tells us that the New York Times reported that the Senate’s Jim Crow descendent……has made no secret of his deepening frustration in the Senate, not only because his party is in the minority but also because an increasingly bitter partisan divide this year has left little use for his skills as a deal-maker.I really wish that, for moments when the Times decides to shill for the Repugs, they run a disclaimer next to the affected copy just so we know what they’re doing (“oooh, such partisanship in Congress!! Harrummph!” And no, I don’t like it either, but the “P” word is Beltway code for the Dems standing up and actually telling the Repugs from time to time that they’re a bunch of full-mooner crazies, as kos tells us).Well, since the Times has chosen to play this game, I should point out two similar instances of “carrying the GOP water” over the weekend.The first appeared here on Saturday fr ...

A Lott Of Bombast Departs 2007-11-26 13:29:00 So the latest Repug to leave us is none other than Trent Lott, huh?As Daily Kos blogger DHinMI tells us here, one of the stated reasons for Ol’ Trent’s departure is because of the ban members of Congress will face on lobbying within that body after they leave office; by departing now, Lott exempts himself from that ban.So the man who once compared illegal aliens to livestock but then hypocritically blamed talk radio for the poisoned immigration debate in this country (to the point where Trent actually called for the return of the “fairness doctrine”) is outta here, huh?And this CNN story tells us…Lott feels he has vindicated himself and has helped guide his state through the difficulties of Hurricane Katrina's destruction…I don’t know about that (I'm tempted not to believe it, though I can't find contrary evidence at the moment), but at least I hope the experience of Katrina has made Lott rethink his efforts to fight limits on casino construction on his state’s envir ...

Good Luck On The Peace Talks, Condi 2007-11-24 09:14:00 I read this in the Washington Post yesterday, and I thought that it was one of the most damning commentaries on Dubya I'd read in awhile concerning the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in Annapolis, MD next week (sometimes the inadvertent remarks are the ones that say the most)...Dennis Ross, a senior U.S. negotiator through most of this peacemaking period, is skeptical that much will emerge from the Annapolis talks.Speaking at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Ross doubted Bush would follow Carter and Clinton's precedent for direct involvement in the talks. "This president will never be like Clinton. He will never know the issues. He will not throw himself into it."And by the way, I'm trying to avoid discussing the whole Israeli-Palestinian thing because that's the subject of a long post all by itself; as I've said before, you'll have to work really hard for me to feel sympathetic to the Palestinians, but on the other hand, this is the most Israel-sympathetic preside ...

Friday Videos 2007-11-23 23:08:00 Before we begin the festivities, I have a message in song for that moron Fred Thompson who said that New York doesn't represent America, or some such nonsense, and the messengers are Frank Sinatra, Gene Kelly and Jules Munchen from "On The Town" (sure, NYC is good enough for the Repugs to have their 2004 National Hatefest and pose for photo ops over at the WTC site - which in itself is repugnant beyond words - but not much else as far as they're concerned)......Kula Shaker ("Shower Your Love")......a belated Happy Birthday to George Grantham of Poco ("You Better Think Twice," from "Something Else" in 1972 starring John Byner - John Byner? And what klutzy comedy to boot)......Happy Birthday to Chris Hayes of Huey Lewis and The News ("I Want A New Drug" - pass it along over here, willya? Kind of a funny song in a way for such a clear-cut-looking bunch; ends in a hurry too, but that's OK)......and Happy Birthday to Bev Bevan of the Electric Light Orchestra ("Fire On High," a trippy hom ...

Treating "The Signature Wound" 2007-11-23 17:13:00 I may revisit this story later, but for now, Editor and Publisher tells us here (based on a USA Today story) that there could be as many as 20,000 uncounted brain injuries suffered by veterans of war in Iraq and Afghanistan.What caught my attention in the story, bad punctuation and all, was the following…"Soldiers and Marines whose wounds were discovered after they left Iraq are not added to the official casualty list, says Army Col. Robert Labutta, a neurologist and brain injury consultant for the Pentagon."Why not? If the effects are delayed somehow or questionable until it is determined that the individual treated has a head injury, why aren’t they added to the casualty list?This also gives me an opportunity to link to Operation Helmet (here), which notes that the House has approved a defense appropriations bill that “mandates the testing of combat helmet pad systems for comfort as a follow on to the impact test that was done earlier.” However, the bill is facing opposition ...

Where The Rubber Meets The Road (11/23/07) 2007-11-23 15:48:00 As reported in last Sunday's Philadelphia Inquirer, here is how Philadelphia-area members of Congress were recorded on major roll-call votes last week.House War funds, Iraq pullout. The House passed, 218-203, and sent to the Senate a bill that paired $50 billion in war spending with a nonbinding call to pull most U.S. troops from Iraq by Dec. 15, 2008.A yes vote was to pass HR 4156.Voting yes: Robert E. Andrews (D., N.J.), Robert A. Brady (D., Pa.), Chaka Fattah (D., Pa.), Tim Holden (D., Pa.), Patrick Murphy (D., Pa.), Allyson Schwartz (D., Pa.) and Joe Sestak (D., Pa.).Voting no: Michael N. Castle (R., Del.), Charles W. Dent (R., Pa.), Jim Gerlach (R., Pa.), Frank A. LoBiondo (R., N.J.), Joseph R. Pitts (R., Pa.), H. James Saxton (R., N.J.) and Christopher H. Smith (R., N.J.).Hey Repugs, this CNN story tells us that 68 percent of those polled opposed the war, a record high. And support for the war has dropped from 34 percent to 31 percent (probably those who think “the surge” is ...

Anti-Immigration Hysteria Friday 2007-11-23 15:34:00 So it looks like Homeland Security Secretary Mike (“City Of Louisiana”) Chertoff is going to antagonize our Mexican friends some more as he seeks to extend the “fence” further along our border with that country (with the Mexican government having issued a report stating the environmental risk to shared habitat).As this Washington Post story tells us…Last month, (Chertoff) said Congress had granted him authority to waive environmental laws in the interest of national security and build seven miles of border fence in Arizona. A federal judge had previously halted construction, saying the agency had not studied environmental impacts.The Mexican report, which includes chapters by U.S. environmentalists and Mexican researchers, says the United States is ignoring environmental laws in the border region while forcing the Mexican government to comply. It raises the question of whether "the United States is a country of laws or not."Our reputation under Bushco precedes us here, people ...

More Thanksgiving Videos (Plus One) 2007-11-21 22:34:00 The latest from Luke Powers to commemorate the 44th anniversary of "that day in Dallas" tomorrow (you can still check out Kakistocracy, by the way - here's more on the song)......some stuff in the spirit of the holiday now, starting with John Hiatt ("Thank You Girl")......a message from John Edwards (yep, I zinged him earlier, but don't think that my support is in question in any way)......and "The First Thanksgiving, with Celebrity Bric-A-Brac Theater" (I thought it was kind of cute)... ...

A Pointless 2004 Rehash 2007-11-21 15:38:00 Memo to Clark Hoyt based on this – keep working on your John Edwards coverage; you still don’t have it right.I’m not sure why it is of any importance whatsoever to Kate Zernike of the New York Times that Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry told audiences at campaign stops in 2004 that “help is on the way,” when John Edwards, campaigning as the vice-presidential nominee said “hope is on the way” because Edwards wasn’t comfortable with “help.”Thus begins yet another thinly sourced piece of hit “journalism” aimed at Edwards in the Times today (and on the front page, no less), portraying him as a cagey opportunist who used his chance on the ticket with Kerry to promote his own eventual presidential bid, questioning his allegiance to Kerry in the process.I would save my disgust only for the Times and Zernike (admitting that covering the ’04 campaign is fair game without the innuendo from a newspaper that, at this point, would probably be doing Edwards a serv ...

A Simple Man Who Spoke Up 2007-11-21 14:38:00 The New York Times reports here that Milo Radulovich, 81, an Air Force Reserve officer who was fired during the anti-Communist fervor of the 1950s, passed away due to complications from a stroke.For anyone who has seen the movie, “Good Night, and Good Luck” with David Strathairn as the pioneering T.V. journalist Edward R. Murrow and George Clooney (who directed) as his producer Fred Friendly, it isn’t really necessary to explain Radulovich’s importance.As the Times article tells us…Mr. Radulovich’s tribulations began in August 1953, when he was a student at the University of Michigan, as he baby-sat and studied a physics book in his home in Dexter, Mich. Two Air Force officers came to his door and handed him an envelope. He opened it to read that he had been removed as an officer in the Air Force Reserve because he was a security risk.His own loyalty was not questioned. His father and sister were accused of being Communist sympathizers, and he was summarily judged to be ris ...

Enemies Pretending To Be Friends 2007-11-21 13:19:00 This takes you to a report by writer Jon Lee Anderson in the November 19th issue of The New Yorker on the effort to “secure” Ghazaliya, a western Baghdad suburb singled out by Gen. David Petraeus as “an area where the military has made pro- gress” (Anderson’s report also covers Amiriya, another Sunni neighborhood, but it notes that much of the rest of Diyala province remains a collection of “horrific battlegrounds”).(By the way, I know the New Yorker link is a bit screwed up – I wish they’d fix that.)One of the most important points of Anderson’s report is that we are basically arming Sunnis who used to fight us and hoping that they now will support us in “the surge” (at least one Shiite official said we were arming them without adequately looking into their backgrounds, though the Shiites are hardly blameless either of course).As Anderson tells us…A few days before Gen. Petraeus testified before Congress, I met with Sheikh Zaidan al-Awad, a prominent Sunni tr ...

Bang Bang, They Shot Him Down 2007-11-21 11:46:00 Even before PA Governor Ed Rendell was given the opportunity to testify yesterday to get the state legislature to pull its thumb out and move on pending gun legislation (here), his efforts were politically dead. However, this is an issue where you need to “fight the good fight” anyway, and I thought Rendell did so valiantly.And I know, “in other news, the sky is blue,” but I’m harping on this again anyway (having posted on it already here).So let’s hear from the wingnuts then and get their nonsense out of the way, shall we?"I respect everything he's trying to do, but we do not believe these will help reduce crime," said Melody Zullinger of the Pennsylvania Federation of Sportsmen's Club. "The one gun a month, it's not been seen to work. Three states have that, and it doesn't work."Oh brother (here)…On December 31, 1998, the New York Daily News reported that gun deaths have dropped in New York City from more than 1,500 in 1992 to their lowest level since 1963. New York ...

Pre-Thanksgiving Videos 2007-11-20 22:44:00 This is a video that Staff Sergeant Glenn Read filmed from Camp Anaconda in Allad last November to commemorate a Thanksgiving away from his family and friends in Albany; no word on whether or not he's stateside at this moment, but our best wishes and prayers go with him and all of our military overseas of course, and I would like to thank him for his simple eloquence......also, T.J. Rooney, Chairman of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party, forwarded this to us which puts a lot in perspective as far as I'm concerned, and I hope you feel that way also. ...

Two More Great CAP Ads 2007-11-20 22:16:00 I featured two American Progress ads last night, and here are two more; please go to MoveOn to pick a favorite and help get the contest winner on TV (here). ...