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: 33 0 59 4457

Articles from The Liberal Doomsayer

Patrick May Regret This 2007-08-21 17:42:00 I’m not sure it was particularly wise on the part of Patrick Murphy to endorse Barack Obama as the Democratic Party nominee for president at this moment.Oh sure, he’s entitled to do what he thinks is best, even though it means denying John Edwards of his well-deserved endorsement. And this fits in with Patrick’s M.O. of charging forward and doing the right thing with the courage of your convictions, which is otherwise laudable (and Obama did show leadership, I thought, in this speech calling for an end to our utterly ridiculous embargo of Cuba, and I have to admit that I think Obama was right to keep the door open for discussion with unpopular leaders in a potential first year of a first term, despite the “slapping down” he got from Hillary among others).But as a TPM commenter noted, this is awfully early in the process to come out in favor of a nominee. And though there has already been more presidential candidate saturation than this time four years ago (sometimes too much, ...

So Release The Damn Report Already! 2007-08-21 15:28:00 According to the Washington Post today…Former CIA Director George Tenet (pictured) did not marshal his agency's resources to respond to the recognized threat posed by al-Qaeda before the Sept. 11 attacks, the agency's inspector general (John Helgerson) concluded in a long-classified report released today.…A 19-page executive summary of the report, completed in June 2005, said it could not find a "single point of failure nor a silver bullet" that would have prevented the attacks, but went on to fault the senior management of the CIA for failing to deal with the al-Qaeda threat. "The agency and its officers did not discharge their responsibilities in a satisfactory manner," a team led by (Helgerson) found.The report, which in part sought to determine whether any intelligence officials should be held accountable for pre-Sept. 11 failures, said that as early as December 1998, Tenet signed a counterterrorism memorandum declaring, "We are at war." But neither Tenet nor his deputy "foll ...

Pity For Vick Won't Do The Trick 2007-08-21 13:43:00 I really have tried to avoid saying anything about Michael Vick, the quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons who has just accepted a plea deal involving prison time for his involvement in a dogfighting ring, since that really isn’t the sort of thing I want to devote time to here. But after reading this HuffPo column from Earl Ofari Hutchinson about Vick today, I felt like I had to respond (and some of this may sound strange coming from me, I’ll warn you in advance).My gripe with Hutchinson can be boiled down to this single quote in his post…“Should we feel pity for Michael Vick? Yes and no.”How is there a possible yes answer to that question?How did Michael Vick not totally squander a lucrative living and a position of influence granted among media personalities and other figures in the public eye only by virtue of the fact that he can run with and pass a football?Is it because he’s black? (cue the dramatic incidental theme music…).Spare me the “200-plus-years-of-oppression ...

Sick Kids Pay The Price For Bushco 2007-08-21 11:02:00 Coming from President Brainless, this is not surprising. And frankly, at a certain point, I have to state that I don’t know why people are outraged any more (this is a prior post on this subject).If it isn’t obvious by now that George W. Bush is a delusional, narcissistic, arrogant psychotic, then it never will be, and this latest SCHIP nonsense is typical. The only remotely sane policy he has advocated of late is a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, and of course that was hooted down by his wingnut base (what’s more, he could not have come up with that on his own; he was told to stand for it because it suits the cheap labor needs of his corporatist constituency, the only one that matters in the Republican Party).Is it beyond repugnant that he is making the rules to qualify for children’s health insurance through SCHIP more cumbersome, since trying to underfund the program to the point of killing it in favor of private carriers has resulted in the current stalemate, re ...

Monday Videos 2007-08-20 22:50:00 Soundgarden ("Fell On Black Days")......Happy Birthday to John Hiatt ("Alone In The Dark," with The Goners including Sonny Landreth)......Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy would have been 58 today ("Rosalie" - great band, "Spinal Tap" '70s flourishes and all)......and Happy Birthday to Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin of course ("Since I've Been Loving You," live from 1973, one of their peak years). ...

Hello, I Must Be Going 2007-08-20 17:22:00 Last Thursday marked the 30th anniversary of the death of Elvis Presley, and yesterday marked the 30th anniversary of the death of Julius Henry “Groucho” Marx, and I felt I should commemorate it here.Among other things, Groucho Marx largely educated himself, reading voraciously and becoming a man of letters. There’s a lot to be said about the comedy of the Marx Brothers, much of which has already been pointed out, including Groucho’s wordplay with others, most notably film “foils” such as actress Margaret Dumont as well as his brothers (ammunition provided by such legendary screenwriters as S.J. Perelman, George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind).I would hate to think of the Marx Brothers as “dated,” though I suppose they are in a way, but to me, their comic energy is unmatched. And it’s a shame that, for many people, their only recollections of Groucho Marx are feeble parodies of him in decline during some of the admittedly-self-indulgent Dick Cavett interviews shortly b ...

Oil, Food, Crime and Justice 2007-08-20 16:44:00 For anyone who remembers the histrionics of Sen. Norm Coleman and his confrontation with British MP George Galloway over the Oil For Food scandal, whereby Iraq was allowed to trade some of its oil for humanitarian assistance in the wake of sanctions after the first Gulf war (though Saddam Hussein ended up exploiting the program as well as many others), it should be noted that the first individual convicted on charges related to the scandal was an American (Coleman didn’t exactly enhance himself with his baiting of former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan at that time either).As the New York Times reported on Saturday (echoed in this exhaustive Wikipedia article)……David B. Chalmers Jr., admitted that he and two companies he ran, Bayoil USA and Bayoil Supply and Trading, made millions of dollars in kickbacks to the Iraqi government — as well as huge profits — while trading oil under the $65 billion aid program.In April 2005, Bayoil USA became the first American company to be in ...

Stop A Scandal Before It Starts 2007-08-20 15:08:00 On the one hand, reporter Leslie Wayne of the New York Times here is holding John Edwards’ feet to the fire, as it were, in what could be an appropriate manner by reporting that...“Mr. Edwards would divest his portfolio at a New York hedge fund of investments in subprime mortgage companies that have foreclosed on victims of Hurricane Katrina. But the campaign said he would keep his $16 million investment in the hedge fund, the Fortress Investment Group”...Edwards has (faithfully, I believe) campaigned as the candidate who will go against special interests who (he believes, and I, again, agree) have held sway to our detriment during this dark Bushco years.On the other hand, it is crystal clear that Wayne is looking for a scandal. The problem is that, as someone said, “there’s no ‘there’ there,” though with lines like, “Mr. Edwards’s relationship with Fortress has become a recurring campaign issue,” she plainly wishes there was.So what exactly is, “the issue”? T ...

Rudy! And "The Queen Of Mean" 2007-08-20 13:38:00 Another notable from the ‘80s bit the dust today, and that would be hotel magnate Leona Helmsley.It’s difficult to find sympathy for someone who fired a former manager in her employ because he was gay (as noted here), as well as the fact that she tried to stiff her landscaper of $100,000 and sued the Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx for $150 million because they planned an expansion for 2,000 more – ahem – “arrivals,” thus (allegedly) “disrupt(ing) the serenity she was promised for her family's eternal resting place” (her son and husband were buried there).And we all know about the “only the little people pay taxes” quote, and she denied speaking those words (but would it have been truly surprising if she admitted that she had?).But in spite of all of that, I would ask that you read this column from Paul Craig Roberts that appeared at the National Review Online about Helmsley’s trial in which she was convicted of tax fraud.Now I realize we’re talking about the NR ...

The Man Behind The Curtain 2007-08-20 12:02:00 I realize that “redemption through death” is a common narrative for a great many public figures, and that seems to be the case with the passing of Reagan confidant Michael K. Deaver, reported by the New York Times today here.Though people like Deaver and James Baker seemed to be a bit of a buffer (just a bit, though) between Reagan and some of the full-mooners in the Republican Party, with the latter group blocking Deaver’s appointment as chief of staff to Reagan in 1983 (as the Times notes), Deaver still helped craft the blueprint that Repugs who were somewhat centrist followed a bit under Ronnie Baby’s presidency, with that blueprint being expanded to sickening proportions under Dubya by the very people Baker, Deaver et al tried to keep away from The Gipper lest he end up looking too stupid (yeah, I guess it’s true; the Repugs really don’t understand irony after all).What I mean in particular is Deaver’s talent (I reluctantly call it that) for putting Reagan in the best ...

More WaPo Stenography On Iraq 2007-08-20 11:14:00 So U.S. Army Major General Rick Lynch tells us here that “about 50 members of an elite Iranian military unit are training Shiite militias south of Baghdad, the first time the U.S. military has alleged that Iranians are aiding insurgents from inside Iraq.”And, as noted here, Dubya recently designated Iran’s Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization to be covered under the 2002 Authorization to Use Military Force.Given this, is it altogether surprising that Gen. Lynch, among others, has advocated that we “splurge on” forever in that quagmire?And I would question Lynch for no other reason than that I don’t trust him based on how he handled the “investigation” into the killing of a Reuters journalist by our troops near Baghdad in September 2005. Apparently, the “crime” committed by driver Waleed Khaled that warranted his death was to shift his car quickly into reverse upon nearing a military checkpoint; Lynch said that "that car approached at a high rate of speed ...

Friday Videos 2007-08-17 20:21:00 Happy Birthday to Steve Gorman of The Black Crowes (performing "Twice As Hard," with the Stereophonics).....a belated wish for a Happy 82nd Birthday to the one and only (truly) jazz virtuoso pianist Oscar Peterson (his rendition of "Sweet Georgia Brown"; un-freaking-believable)......Happy Birthday also to Belinda Carlisle, formerly of The Go-Gos ("Heaven Is A Place On Earth" - hey, it's Friday, so it's time for '80s music; OK, so the dancers are wearing black raincoats and masks and doing some kind of cardio workout with the inflatable globes - act like nothing's wrong)......Happy Birthday also to Cream drummer Ginger Baker ("Outside Woman Blues," from the Royal Albert Hall Reunion Concert)......Happy belated Birthday to Bill Spooner of The Tubes ("Talk To Ya Later," perfect "attitude" song to begin the weekend for real)......and Happy Birthday on Sunday, Bubba, marking No. 61, an occasion worthy of this flashback. ...

Bye, Snowy 2007-08-17 16:44:00 I think the week began with the news of Karl Rove’s exit, and it’s now ending with the news of the departure of White House Propaganda Flak Tony Snow Job (here).I hope this isn’t due to health reasons, but it seems as if White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten has his own “magical September” plan in mind (whereby, anyone still on board by then has to endure working for this nightmare of an administration until the end, as opposed to the September report due to be issued by Gen. Petraeus Dick Cheney…and by the way, is anyone else out there as baffled as I am by the lack of vocal protest over the MoveOn Cheney video from 1994? Or do we just have “outrage fatigue” at the moment?).Well, in case anyone missed it, here it is again.And let's not forget to Impeach Cheney First, by the way.So, with Snow’s departure (and I neglected to note the dropping out of Tommy Thompson from the Repug presidential field earlier, by the way - guess he expected problems due to his less-than- ...

Bob Casey Responds On FISA 2007-08-17 16:39:00 I received this in my Email yesterday…Thank you for taking the time to contact me regarding legislation amending the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) of 1978. I appreciate hearing from you about this important issue.After careful thought and deliberation, I voted for two competing versions of temporary legislation to fix the FISA on Friday, August 3rd, and voiced my extreme discontent with the Bush Administration’s irresponsible handling of this issue. Before the Senate adjourned for the August recess, I wanted to ensure that our intelligence community has the tools it needs to target terrorists while a larger review of the FISA law is conducted. The version of the bill introduced by my colleagues, Senators Bond and McConnell, gained the necessary 60 votes for final Senate passage while the language introduced by Senators Rockefeller and Levin, fell short. On Saturday, August 4th, the House of Representatives passed an identical version of the Bond-McConnell bill and Pr ...

R2-D2's Got A Gun 2007-08-17 15:56:00 Isn’t it amazing the things our corporate media doesn’t tell us (found this at Der Spiegel)…The US Army's latest recruits are 1 meter (about 3 feet) tall, wear desert camouflage and are armed with black M249 machine guns. They also move on caterpillar tracks and -- thanks to five camera eyes -- can even see in the dark.The fearless fighters are three robot soldiers who, unnoticed by the general public, were deployed in Iraq in mid-June, charged with hunting down insurgents. As if guided by an unseen hand, they hone in on their targets and fire at them with their machine guns. It's the future of war -- and it's already here."It's the first weaponized robot in the history of warfare," says Charles Dean, an engineer with Waltham, Massachusetts-based Foster-Miller, the manufacturer of the new devices. Dean and the 70 employees in his department are eager to find out how their three protégés are holding up on the front. Because the three robots, dubbed "Swords," are being used i ...