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: 2 0 54 4452

Articles from The Liberal Doomsayer

Still Needs To Be "Schoen" The Door 2007-09-17 16:59:00 And as we discuss the Petraeus/Crocker testimony once more from last week, why, who should appear wagging his finger at those naughty, non-conciliatory Dems again but none other than Doug Schoen.Schoen and his ilk are Exhibit A when it comes to evidence of Democratic legislative palsy about not just setting Iraq funding to a withdrawal timeline, but caving on FISA legislation (and I would add keeping impeachment “off the table” also, per Nancy Pelosi). And of course, I’m sure Schoen was just tickled to see Dems totally throw Moveon under the bus and remain silent in the face of bullying from Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Duncan Hunter, John Cornyn, and other congressional Repugs during testimony on the war (the subject of Schoen’s latest nonsense here).This excerpt is typical...But the Democratic Party is also vulnerable on Iraq, where the lead over the Republicans dropped 10 percent in August to a narrow four percent margin. Rather than harp on the withdrawal, the Democrats should cont ...

Hang Up, Log Off, And Drive 2007-09-17 16:02:00 I have to hand it to Governor Ahh-nold in Cal-Lee-Four-Nee-Aahh; he’s one smart Repug at times.This story tells us that he recently signed a law making it illegal for drivers under 18 to use cell phones, computers, or texting devices while driving.I'll admit, though, that I think it’s a mistake not to allow drivers under 18 to use a hands-free phone, and I think all three standards should be uniform for all ages. But this is a start, and it’s bound to save lives.Texting while driving is a pet peeve of mine going way back to this post (and I can’t track down any further information on the bill introduced by Dem PA State Rep. Eugene DePasquale to ban texting while driving aside from here…I’ll pass along any information I may get on this). ...

Iraq And The Bard Of Empire 2007-09-17 14:16:00 This story tells us that, during his congressional testimony last week, Gen. David Petraeus took comfort from the Rudyard Kipling poem “If,” a copy of which was sent to him by a friend in Cornwall, NY the day the Moveon “General Betray Us” ad appeared.Why does this smell like some kind of a Bushco PR stunt?Well, assuming the story is legit, how appropriate for him to consult the work of one of the greatest propagandists for colonialism when looking for solace (and Kipling paid a terrible price for it, losing his son John in World War I, a young man whose body was never recovered).And you just have to love the AP for sticking little tidbits like the following in their stories…Both Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker spent the bulk of Monday and Tuesday being grilled by members of four House and Senate committees over the progress of the war and plans for the withdrawal of up to 30,000 troops by next July. They then gamely stood through 90 more minutes of questions Wednes ...

Still Wide Open For Bucks Co. Commissioners 2007-09-17 13:18:00 The following update appears from this link (local PA stuff here)…By Scott KrausFrom The Morning CallSeptember 7, 2007For weeks, Bucks County Democrats have said that despite their Republican opponents' 23,600-vote registration advantage, the race for control of the three-member Board of County Commissioners is a toss-up.This week they released internal poll numbers they say confirm that.The late August poll of 400 voters has a margin of error of 4.9 percentage points, and puts Democrat Diane Marseglia in the lead with the support of 34 percent, followed by Republicans Charley Martin and Jim Cawley with 30 percent and Democrat Steve Santarsiero with 28 percent.''To me the poll shows a wide-open race,'' said Jef Pollock, president of Global Strategy Group, a New York City firm that has also done work for U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy. ''This is, I think, more example of how the county is very open to change.''But the numbers also lend support to another theory that has been circul ...

Just Another Beltway Hack 2007-09-17 10:56:00 Paul Krugman of the New York Times weighs in here on how former Federal Reserve bank chief Alan Greenspan greased the skids for Bushco’s record budget deficits by encouraging the utterly ruinous tax cuts that have led to the worst fiscal mismanagement in our government’s history. Krugman’s column is a response to Greenspan’s new book in which he “launches a harshly critical attack” on Dubya and his alleged “economic competence.”(Atrios, by the way, refutes Brad DeLong here somewhat, who actually rallies to Greenspan’s defense a bit. I tend to take the side, though, that Greenspan should have been a lot more direct in discouraging Bushco’s fiscal recklessness. I’m starting to get just a little tired of people now coming out of the woodwork, or so it seems, criticizing this regime when they could have done so a lot earlier and had more impact; see Chuck Hagel and others...Hagel's otherwise odious voting record in support of Bushco is noted here.)I did a little chec ...

Video Of War Protest Yesterday 2007-09-16 22:02:00 My goodness, we certainly heard some bad language from those pro-war types (and by the way, chanting "USA" like that is a standard Bushco tactic for trying to shout people down who have an opinion that actually makes sense)......and here's more evidence (and attacking the camera person also; wow, these people are real brainiacs - I guess they "support our troops" so much that they want to see them keep getting killed and mutilated). ...

The Petraeus P.R. Agency Strikes Again 2007-09-15 13:09:00 In today's New York Times, writers Michael Luo and Jeff Zeleny profile the sometimes-stormy relationship between MoveOn.org and the Democratic Party (and as I've said, the Beltway types like to give MoveOn the back of the hand when it suits them to do so, which is a pretty crappy attitude because, if it weren't for MoveOn and the netroots, the Dems would be a permanent minority party).Well, anyway, the main topic is (of course) the "General Betray Us" ad that MoveOn ran in the New York Times last week, which the writers described thusly...Democratic leaders in Congress and presidential campaigns said they winced when they saw the MoveOn advertisement. While they may have agreed with its overall point, that the troop buildup has not worked, several Democratic officials said privately that the advertisement had been counterproductive.I'm not quite sure how Luo and Zeleny managed to screw that up, but they did (nice photo of Eli Pariser, though).Yes, the fact that "the splurge" has fa ...

Friday Videos 2007-09-14 22:32:00 Ben Lee ("Love Me Like The World Is Ending"; please do - I hope he got combat pay to film this video)......Happy belated birthday to Fiona Apple ("Sleep To Dream," the first of two "relationship" songs by tough women here)......Another birthday by another member of a-ha today; this time it's Morten Harket, so that provides another excuse for Friday '80s music ("Hunting High And Low"; just remember now, if you're going to pursue a beautiful model through rugged but gorgeous natural landscapes, make sure you don't morph into an animal too many times or you may get killed - only in '80s videos...)......and Happy Birthday to Amy Winehouse ("Back To Black"; this is the second of the two songs, of course, and I love the '60, Phil-Spector-Wall-Of-Sound feel to this - and has he been convicted yet, by the way? Now, maybe Winehouse and her boyfriend will stop beating the crap out of each other and get back to making good music).For more videos, please check the WeShow link from the home p ...

Friday Wrapup (9/14) 2007-09-14 17:05:00 Just a few items that I’ve accumulated that I want to pass along…The Daily Kos links to a post by Greg Sargent here that notes the media hysterics over the "botched joke" by this guy (and how much further along would our troop draw-down be had he been at the helm by now?) versus Boehner's (pronounced "bo-ner") "small price" remark about our troops?As the post authors note, it's just another day on the job for our corporate media, ladies and gentlemen. The PA motorcycle helmet controversy stirred again recently (noted in this Inquirer story yesterday)…Despite a call from the National Transportation Safety Board urging states to require all motorcyclists to wear helmets, it will be "an uphill battle" to change the 2003 Pennsylvania law that allowed bareheaded riding, a helmet law advocate said yesterday.Across the country, the number of riders killed in motorcycle crashes has more than doubled in 10 years, according to the NTSB. In 1997, 2,116 motorcycle deaths were reported; in ...

Where The Rubber Meets The Road (9/14/07) 2007-09-14 14:56:00 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.(Yes, they're baaack after about a month or so, in which I hope the Dems got an earful from their constituents about caving to Dubya on FISA and the war – not sure why the Inquirer flipped the Senate and House results, but they did.)SenateForeign affairs. Senators approved, 81-12, a $34.2 billion foreign affairs budget for 2008, up 8 percent from 2007. The bill, which now goes to conference with the House, would provide $17.3 billion in basic foreign aid, $5.1 billion for combatting HIV/AIDS, and $1.35 billion for U.N. peacekeeping missions.A yes vote was to pass HR 2764.Voting yes: Thomas Carper (D., Del.), Bob Casey (D., Pa.), Frank Lautenberg (D., N.J.), Robert Menendez (D., N.J.) and Arlen Specter (R., Pa.).Not voting: Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D., Del.).Sounds like it’s “all good” here.Abortion. The Senate voted, 53-41, to repe ...

It's Giuliani (Pot, Meet Kettle) Time 2007-09-14 13:27:00 As noted previously, the Repugs are tripping over themselves attacking anyone who has dared to criticize the perceived infallibility of Gen. David Petraeus and his latest song-and-dance before Congress on the Iraq war earlier this week with Ambassador Ryan Crocker.And, not to be outdone, Rudy! has leapt to the front of the pack by purchasing a full-page ad in the New York Times today, ostensibly to support Petraeus, though it doesn’t hurt “America’s Mayor” to stick in the address for his web site at the bottom of the page (Ok, showing the site address is fair, I’ll give Rudy! that).Well, for the benefit of anyone who hasn’t seen the ad, it begins at the top of the page with the quote “the willing suspension of disbelief” from Sen. Hillary Clinton in headline type (what she correctly believed to be the requirement to accept what Petraeus was saying). From there, Rudy! then reminds us all that Moveon called Petraeus “General Betray Us” in typed text appearing next to ...

Signs Of Life By The Fourth Estate On Iraq 2007-09-14 11:07:00 While reviewing the commentary and legitimate analysis of Dubya’s latest lies on the Iraq war last night on TV, I came across this link which – surprise! – actually analyzes some of the preznit’s claims regarding this travesty…A Look at the Facts Behind Bush's SpeechBy ANNE GEARANThe Associated PressWASHINGTON - President Bush pointed to political realignment in Iraq's volatile Anbar province as evidence that Iraq is a fight that the United States is winning.A look at some of Bush's assertions in a national address on Iraq on Thursday.BUSH SAID:"Anbar province is a good example of how our strategy is working," Bush said, noting that just last year U.S. intelligence analysts had written off the Sunni area as "lost to al-Qaida."FACT CHECK:Early Thursday, the most prominent figure in a U.S.-backed revolt of Sunni sheiks against al-Qaida in Iraq was killed by a bomb planted near his home.The killing of a chief Anbar ally hours before Bush spoke showed the tenuous and changeabl ...

Is Our Pundits (And Newspapers) Learning? 2007-09-13 21:27:00 I happened to stumble across this review in The Philadelphia Inquirer of a new book by conservative bomb-thrower Laura Ingraham with the laughable title of Power To The People (see, the freepers aren't doing their jobs if they're not trying to turn language traditionally associated with the '60s and left-wing politics inside out). And I'm sure no one reading this is surprised that a conservative screed such as this received such favorable treatment in the Inquirer, right?There is so much about this wretched woman and her bilious garbage that could be answered in this review...the typical wingnut mantra of public schools and teachers unions that celebrate Hollywood decadence and do not show proper deference to corporate America, the fiction that 12 million illegal immigrants - assuming that's the correct number - can be forcibly removed from this country, or in lieu of that they can "deport" themselves, the evergreen Ted Kennedy drunk jokes (as if Ingraham's ideological kinsmen ar ...

John Edwards On T.V. Tonight! 2007-09-13 10:52:00 The latest from the John Edwards campaign (publicizing the appearance more than anything else, and I try not to use exclamation points unless it matters, but I think it does here)...Tonight, after President Bush makes yet another argument for continuing the war in Iraq, John Edwards will speak directly to the American people in a nationwide address on MSNBC.Our campaign has bought airtime on MSNBC immediately following the President's address at 9 p.m., and John Edwards will challenge the President's remarks with a strong call to the nation to end the war now.Please watch in that timeframe—and forward this e-mail to your friends, asking them to watch as well. Each of us has a responsibility to make sure that President Bush and Congress understand that the time for excuses has run out. John Edwards will deliver a strong message tonight on our behalf. It's time to end this war and bring our troops home.Buying this kind of airtime is expensive. But we believe that President Bush's a ...

An Empty Legacy 2007-09-13 08:40:00 I really hadn't planned to say anything about Steve Fossett, but my ol' buddy J.D. Mullane in the Bucks County Courier Times forced my hand here.For the benefit of anyone who has been living under a rock for about the last week or so (and don't worry, I almost qualify myself for that one based on my limited exposure to stories like this), Fossett made his fortune in the financial services industry, and then apparently some time around the mid-'90s, he decided to become an adventurer, and subsequently set a whole bunch of records in skiing, mountain climbing, and flying.He set out for great conquests, and frequently achieved them. However, all I can ever remember about this guy is that, while trying to set some new distance record in a hot air balloon or something, he would inevitably need help from a rescue team because he ran out of fuel, blew off course, or, in the case of his Breitling Orbiter II flight in February 1998, was denied entry into Chinese airspace and thus risked an ...