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: 27 0 62 5011

Articles from The Liberal Doomsayer

It's "Take A Stand Day" 2007-08-29 10:15:00 Prof. Marcus notes the latest Dubya insanity here, and I thought it was interesting that, even given all of the Larry Craig stuff, the preznit’s latest attempt to scare us yesterday in front of an American Legion audience (and why exactly did they grant him a forum anyway, and the same with the VFW?) rated no mention at all yesterday at CNN online.It’s over, Dubya. When even our corporate media doesn’t want to give you a lap dance anymore, you know it’s time to just go crawl into a hidey hole somewhere and wait it out for the duration (for as long as it last, impeachment notwithstanding - and here's actually some constructive information on the Iraq catastrophe).Also, here’s an important message from mcjoan, and related thoughts set to music and pictures appear below from Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath. ...

Tuesday Videos 2007-08-28 22:14:00 Happy Birthday to Hugh Cornwell of The Stranglers ("Walk On By," their take on the Burt Bacharach/Hal David standard; ultra-trippy graphics for an ultra-primitive video)......and today marks what would have been the 90th birthday of comic book master Jack Kirby, featured in this short video (this is a great editorial if you have Times Select). ...

Staying “On Message,” Bushco Style 2007-08-28 15:42:00 This recent USA Today editorial chided Dubya and his entourage for “confront(ing) and eject(ing)” a couple wearing anti-Bush T-Shirts at an appearance in Charleston, West Virginia where Dubya gave a speech on Independence Day in 2004.As the editorial notes…(Jeffrey and Nicole Rank) refused demands to take the shirts off, turn them inside out or leave. Though they were on public property and not being disruptive, they were handcuffed, arrested and charged with trespass. The charges were later dropped, and with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union, the Ranks sued the White House advance personnel for violating their First Amendment rights.Last week, the government settled the case, admitting no wrongdoing but agreeing to pay the Ranks $80,000. That avoidable expenditure of taxpayer dollars speaks volumes about who was wrong here.A recent New York Times editorial noted that Bushco has written a crowd control manual to make sure nothing contrary to the party line emerges in ...

"Monkeying Around" WIth The WLF 2007-08-28 14:59:00 While reading the editorial page of the New York Times yesterday, I came across this ad which I scanned for the purposes of this post.As you can read, the headline states, “Lawyers seek ‘victims’ for class action lawsuits,” with two unidentified well-dressed men and a whole bunch of other individuals dressed as men and women with the heads of chimps superimposed on their bodies (sorry the size of the ad is so big), implying you-know-what about the plaintiffs in these suits.This insulting garbage is brought to us courtesy of the Washington Legal Foundation, which, as noted here by SourceWatch, was established in 1977 by Chairman and General Counsel Daniel J. Popeo to "fight activist lawyers, regulators, and intrusive government agencies at the federal and state levels, in the courts and regulatory agencies across the country."This 1998 interview with Popeo noted that the WLF, at that time, had received about $3 million in contributions from about 500 companies, though the Source ...

Lap Dog Arlen Barks Again 2007-08-28 11:07:00 The Philadelphia Inquirer informs us today that PA Sen. Arlen Specter is just so magnan- imous at this moment now that Abu Gonzales has departed (and what a GOP “two-fer” yesterday, by the way, with ‘Berto taking a hike and the revelation of Larry Craig’s little escapade in the men’s room).As the Inky notes…"This is a very tough day for Alberto Gonzales," said Specter, the senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee and the person who presided over his confirmation. "I'm only going to say positive things about him. He has had considerable criticism. Today, we're ready to start a new chapter in the Department of Justice."Awww, boo-hoo for Abu. What I’d like to know, though, is why he caved at this particular moment in time (we may find out exactly why later; all this stuff “comes out in the wash” eventually).And regarding the prospective replacement as Attorney General, who would be Mike (“City of Louisiana”) Chertoff…"I think he is a first-rate prospec ...

Memories, With Larry Craig 2007-08-27 22:30:00 In light of this and this, here is a denial on the part of Larry Craig from 1982 that he engaged in any kind of inappropriate conduct with congressional pages (predating Mark Foley, of course), even though he had not been named by anyone (protesting just a bit too much, I'm sure - his argument that he was persecuted because he was a single man is startling in its stupidity...I mean, I saw a few "last call" moments in my time also, but picking up undercover cops in the rest room would have been the furthest thing from my mind).Update 8/28: Based on this detailed post, I think we can expect to hear from former Democratic Sen. Patricia Schroeder of Colorado saying, in effect, that Larry Craig is a liar (though I think that's pretty apparent at this point anyway). ...

Monday Videos 2007-08-27 20:25:00 ALO ("Lady Loop," a little Monday funk)......Happy Birthday to Tony Kanal of No Doubt ("Don't Speak")......The Living Elvis celebrated a birthday on Saturday ("Radio, Radio" with the Attractions from waaay back on SNL, including the false start)......and we lost SRV 17 years ago today ("Riviera Paradise" on "Austin City Limits," featuring a wonderful solo by keyboardist Reese Wynans). ...

King For One And All 2007-08-27 17:01:00 Am I the only one who thinks the outcry against the selection of Chinese sculptor Lei Yixin to carve a three-story monument to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is utterly ridiculous?This story in the Independent tells us…The rumpus is over the ethnicity of the sculptor who will carve the monument (which) will be placed between the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials. But a loose-knit and growing group of critics is demanding that a black sculptor, or at least American, should have been chosen. The protestors have been joined by human rights advocates who say King would have abhorred the Chinese government’s record on religious and civil liberties.So how is China’s atrocious record on human rights somehow the fault of Lei Yixin?The story also tells that 10 of the 12 people on the committee who chose Yixin are black. Yixin is also working closely with two black sculptors, and the overall project is being directed by a black-owned architectural firm.But still, this all isn’t “bla ...

Speaking Truth To Power, At A Cost 2007-08-27 14:02:00 This article by Fred Kaplan appeared in the Sunday New York Times magazine, and it has to do with the push-back our generals are starting to receive from some junior officers on the Iraq war. Kaplan notes the courage it takes for people like Lt. Col. Paul Yingling to write an article published in last May’s Armed Forces Journal titled, “A Failure In Generalship” in a culture that is at best only occasionally receptive to bottom-up feedback.As Kaplan tells us…Yingling’s article…noted that a key role of generals is to advise policy makers and the public on the means necessary to win wars. “If the general remains silent while the statesman commits a nation to war with insufficient means,” he wrote, “he shares culpability for the results.” Today’s generals “failed to envision the conditions of future combat and prepare their forces accordingly,” and they failed to advise policy makers on how much force would be necessary to win and stabilize Iraq. These failures, ...

Fredo Takes The Boat Ride 2007-08-27 13:07:00 (Hat tip to BarbinMD at The Daily Kos for coming up with that one which I stole…).Here’s the reaction from the John Edwards campaign (asking for more $ I know - do or do not what you think is best)…Breaking news: Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has finally heeded the will of people like you—and resigned.You spoke out week after week, month after month—and now, the man who oversaw a political purge of U.S. Attorneys at the Justice Department, who approved torture techniques at Guantanamo Bay and who approved illegal spying on Americans has stepped down.This is a victory for all of us—your calls for change, your energy and your passion helped make this happen.But as pleased as we are to see Gonzales go, the fight is far from over. While Bush has named a temporary replacement, reports are coming in that he may try to permanently replace Gonzales with another crony from his administration—someone like Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.That's right—Bush may act ...

Garbage In, Garbage Out 2007-08-27 10:36:00 (And by the way, HuffPo, good job to confer a legitimacy on this guy that he doesn’t deserve with this headline.)While everyone was paying attention to the exit of Abu Gonzales (took long enough, didn’t it?), it seems that James Dale Guckert has wormed his way back into the spotlight (here).You remember Guckert, don’t you? If not by his real name, then his adopted alias of “Jeff Gannon,” then?Well, in case anyone has forgotten, I’ll let Leonard Pitts, Jr. explain once more in this column from February 2005…Three weeks later, I'm still waiting for a good explanation of what Jeff Gannon was doing in the White House. And for you to be upset about it.Gannon is the fellow who made himself memorable during last month's presidential news conference by asking about Democratic pessimism regarding the nation's economy.Specifically, he asked if President Bush could work with ``people who seem to have divorced themselves from reality.''The unusually partisan phrasing prompted re ...

No Thanks Are Necessary, Luttrell 2007-08-26 22:47:00 As is typical for Sundays in The Philadelphia Inquirer, Smerky's column appeared with the same sense of inevitability as the gaper delay that follows the multi-vehicle accident on any of our major roadways.Today, he profiled Lead Petty Officer and Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell, author of the book The Lone Survivor. It depicts Luttrell’s courageous struggle to stay alive after surviving a Taliban ambush in Afghanistan in which his three fellow SEALs were killed.As Smerky tells it...When four U.S. Navy SEALs surreptitiously tracking a high-level Taliban official in Afghanistan encountered three wandering goatherds, they faced a dilemma with perilous consequences: Were the herders harmless civilians or Taliban scouts? What should be done?...Luttrell recounts that the SEALs voted on whether to let the goatherds live or to kill them. According to Luttrell, the tally was 2-1, with one abstention, in favor of letting them go. Petty Officer Second Class Matthew G. Axelson was in favor of killin ...

Saturday Videos 2007-08-25 22:45:00 Support Larry LaRocco for the Senate, you Idahoans......and don't forget Darcy Burner's online town meeting next Monday (while Dubya is doing his "9/11, Terra, Iraq 4 Evah!" bit for the cretinous Dave Reichert in Washington state)......and here is an excerpt of "Real Time with Bill Maher" last night with Tim Robbins, Michel Martin and Stephen Hayes of The Weekly Standard"And regarding Hayes, by the way, I give you the following from YouTube Commenter HoustonRockets87...Hayes is full of shit:Michael Scheuer explains more fully in the revised edition of his 2002 book the exhaustive study of the evidence of Iraq-al-Qaeda cooperation that eventually led him to the conclusion that there was no relationship between the two forces:For a number of reasons, I was available to perform the review of Agency files on Iraq and al Qaeda, and the chief of the bin Laden unit handed me the assignment. I was delighted with the task, eager to begin, and sure that my research would support the analysis I ...

Friday Videos 2007-08-24 22:49:00 Shinedown ("I Dare You"; I think this is the video for "Heroes" with a new song, but it's good anyway)......Happy belated birthday to Roland Orzabal of Tears For Fears ("Mad World"; indeed)......Doug Fieger of The Knack also celebrated a birthday on Monday ("Good Girls Don't," just a bit derivative of The Fab Four here - this is loud)......and to commemorate what would have been the 61st birthday yesterday of drummer extraordinaire Keith Moon (party guy extraordinaire also, of course), here's "Won't Get Fooled Again" by The Who, from "The Kids Are Alright" (the great retrospective 1979 film of the band contained lots of concert footage, but strangely enough, they didn't have any of this song, so it was performed just for the movie; though I hear Nicky Hopkins on keyboards, I don't see him, unless they just dubbed it in - Moon died a few weeks after this was recorded...after enduring Bushco, this song will never mean the same thing to me again). ...

They'll Never Trust Us Again 2007-08-24 16:00:00 This link takes you to a New York Times analysis yesterday of the latest dunderheaded nonsense from Dubya in comparing the Iraq war to Vietnam (glad to see “the old gray lady” clarifying the latest stupidity, such as his claim that our exit from southeast Asia gave birth to the Khmer Rogue, when in fact they had already existed and were defeated by the Viet Cong in 1979; I’ll grudgingly admit that our presence was a factor in their ascent, though).It’s not my intention to dissect everything in this column, but I want to highlight this excerpt…“If one is really concerned about the Iraqi people, and the fate that may be awaiting them as this war winds down, then we ought to get serious about opening our doors, and to welcoming to the United States those Iraqis who have supported us and have put themselves and their families in danger.”Those words were spoken by Andrew J. Bacevich, a platoon leader in Vietnam who is now a professor of international relations at Boston Univer ...