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: 12 0 60 4272

Articles from The Liberal Doomsayer

Chertoff No "Top Banana" Here 2007-08-03 14:16:00 (I know this is disturbing, even by my lax standards – sorry…).Via McClatchy, I have an update to this post from March that told of how Jeffrey Taylor, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, filed charges against Chiquita Brands after the company admitted paying protection money to a Colombian paramilitary group that happened to be on our government’s terrorist organization watch list. The Department of Justice is now conducting a criminal probe into the matter.As noted here (from yesterday - registration may be required)…(Chiquita board member) Roderick M. Hills, who had sought the meeting with former law firm colleague Michael Chertoff, explained that … he knew that such payments were illegal, according to sources and court records, but said that he needed Chertoff's advice.Chiquita, Hills said, would have to pull out of the country if it could not continue to pay the violent right-wing group to secure its Colombian banana plantations. Chertoff, then assistant att ...

Broken English 2007-08-03 12:26:00 I’m trying to play catch-up a bit on the story that broke earlier this week of Repug U.S. House Reps. Phil English (Erie) and John Peterson (Pleasantville, Venango County) doing their best to fight the proposed tolls along Interstate 80 in Pennsylvania. The purpose of the tolls, backed by Gov. Ed Rendell, would be to fund bridge and highway improvements as well as mass transit.(By the way, as noted here, I-80 was one of the roadways impacted by last February’s severe snow and ice storm, along with I-81 and primarily I-78. Is it too much of a stretch to imagine that money could be used to make those highways easier to access or exit in the event of another weather emergency of that type?).The stupidity of this exercise by English and Peterson is matched only by the horrifically bad timing of their antics; the recent bridge tragedy in Minnesota (pictured) only underscores the importance of trying to repair the crumbling infrastructure in this country, particularly our highways.Anyway ...

One Fraud Guilty Of Another? 2007-08-03 11:19:00 Gosh, it seems like those pesky little voting troubles for little Annie Coulter just refuse to go away, don’t they? As noted here...(The Palm Beach Post's Jose) Lambiet wrote that the sheriff's office "punted a voting fraud probe in April" but "the Florida Elections Commission now is investigating" the February 2006 incident in which Coulter -- who's also an author and lawyer -- allegedly cast her ballot in the wrong precinct in a Palm Beach election after registering with an address that wasn't hers."The Coulter voting saga is now known as FEC Case No. 07-211," Lambiet continued. "The investigator assigned, Tallahassee's Margie Wade, wouldn't confirm she caught the case; FEC complaints are supposed to be confidential. Still, [I'm] told Coulter already has been notified she's under investigation.…'I actually saw her vote at St. Edward's (Church), and she looked in a hurry,' [Campaign consultant] Richard Giorgio, whose stable of candidates includes mostly Democrats, said ...

Uh, HuffPo? (a few updates...) 2007-08-03 10:27:00 As you can see from the headline in the photo, it looks as if Our Man Arlen Specter is calling definitively for the ouster of Abu Gonzales as Attorney General at long last.The problem is that, when you read the story from the link, you find out that that bears not the slightest resemblance to what Specter actually said.This excerpt tells you what you need to know…Democrats, who control Congress, would allow the messages from foreign targets to be intercepted, but only after a review by the special FISA court to make sure the surveillance does not focus on communications that might be sent to and from Americans.They reject the Bush administration's proposal to give Gonzales speedy authority to decide if the surveillance properly targets people overseas _ and not in the United States.In a counteroffer, the White House proposed that Gonzales share that power with the national intelligence director, Mike McConnell. That proposal, however, did not appease Democrats. They want court revie ...

Thursday Videos 2007-08-02 20:57:00 The Long Blondes ("Once And Never Again")......and Happy 50th birthday (ye gods!) to Mojo Nixon ("619-239-KING" - was that Kris Kristofferson? Some topical '80s references thrown in and spoofed accordingly, and Michael Jackson beat you to it on Lisa Marie - bleaugh!)....a couple I forgot earlier; Ahmet Ertegun, the founder of Atlantic Records, would have been 84 yesterday (here's Booker T. and the M.G.'s performing "Time Is Tight" from 1970 on the Stax label, which was part of Ertegun's empire, and I know the video is beat up a bit; I'll have to catch the "American Masters" program about Stax that recently aired at another time - also, drummer Stu Cook and John Fogerty of Credence Clearwater Revival were looking on)......and Happy 75th Birthday to actor Peter O'Toole, shown in this clip which is a trailer for the movie "Lawrence of Arabia" from 1962 (possibly my favorite film; it's right up there on the list - would that Dubya had bothered to watch it and pay attention before he ...

$22 Billion Versus This? 2007-08-02 16:58:00 Hey Dubya, before you attack Nancy Pelosi over what you want to spend versus what people living in something closer to reality want to spend in budgetary appropriations, tell us how you’re going to start getting this number under control…And Pelosi is a “career politician,” huh? As opposed to you? Too funny…And here’s something worth a chuckle…“If Congress doesn't pass the spending bills by the end of the fiscal year, Cabinet secretaries report that their departments may be unable to move forward with urgent priorities for our country”…Congress has passed a bunch of bills already – as noted here, however, you’ve suddenly decided that you don’t like any of them.Once more, then, I give you “Back Talk”… ...

Hardly A Cause For Celebration 2007-08-02 16:39:00 From Editor and Publisher (here)…For two days, the press has touted the notion that July was an encouraging month for the U.S. in Iraq, partly because American deaths declined from previous months this year. Maybe this meant the surge was working?Closer (but usually ignored) analysis shows something else, however.Actually, the number of fatalities made it the deadliest July yet for the U.S. side.The number of confirmed deaths, 78, was indeed the lowest for any month in 2007, but it easily topped the worst July ever, with the previous mark of 54 in both 2004 and 2005.Only Bushco (or O'Hanlon and Pollack) would even imagine that a lesser quantity of a negative number as opposed to a greater quantity of a negative number represents progress concerning anything. ...

Walking The Walk, Again 2007-08-02 14:27:00 As noted here, Patrick Murphy authored two measures for inclusion into the Veterans Health Care Improvement Act of 2007 recently: a permanent program that would identify active duty military members at risk of homelessness, and a proposal for the Veterans Administration to make its homeless veterans programs more accommodating for female veterans (which this story describes as growing in population as well as men).As also noted in the story…Young, alienated and often living on their own for the first time, Iraq and Afghanistan veterans increasingly are coming home to find that they don't have one. Already, nearly 200,000 veterans—many from the Vietnam War—sleep on the streets every night, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs. But young warriors just back from the Mideast—estimated around 500 to 1,000—are beginning to struggle with homelessness too. Drinking or using drugs to cope with PTSD, they can lose their job and the support of family and friends, and start a ...

Tell Me Where That Finger Has Been, Brit 2007-08-02 13:43:00 Based on this post from Taylor Marsh (via Atrios), it seems that Faux News spin boy Brit Hume is just so full of outrage at those nasty, unkempt liberal bloggers again (I’ll watch the video later).I have a question, though. Is it safe to assume that Hume and his crowd are ideological fellow travelers with sites like, say, Little Green Snotballs?I can’t imagine any other honest answer to that question except yes, so with that in mind, here is a link to a recent post by James Wolcott (don’t check with him nearly as much as I should) in which he notes that someone named Shamela of the freeper site Atlas Shrugs managed to snag a photo of herself with Cindy Sheehan in which Shamela extends the middle digit to Sheehan without the latter’s knowledge.(For the purposes of full disclosure, I should note that I have employed that image in posts frequently, with the gesture often originating from President Nutball. However, I personally have only used it towards Christopher Hitchens who pr ...

At Least Tierney Didn't Get It 2007-08-02 10:18:00 (Not that he had a shot anyway…).I’m referring of course to the purchase by Rupert Murdoch of the Dow Jones empire, including Barron’s, The Wall Street Journal, and the debt of the parent company (for whatever it’s worth, I already posted on this some time ago here thinking it wouldn’t happen, forgetting of course that Murdoch usually finds a way to get what he wants).In the May post, I included a recent update with a link to an excellent Daily Kos post featuring an excerpt from an interview Keith Olbermann conducted with Rachel Maddow that I thought was very interesting (here).I’ve also included this link to a column in today’s Inquirer by journalist Claudia Rosett of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies about Murdoch’s purchase. The column is absolutely startling in that it provides no insight whatsoever into the potential ramifications of the deal and instead contains the typical boilerplate you would expect from Philadelphia’s conservative paper of record ...

Wednesday Videos 2007-08-01 22:49:00 The Dandy Warhols ("We Used To Be Friends"; after watching this video, I've never felt more alive - get it, felt?)......Happy Birthday to Robert Cray ("Bad Influence")......Jerry Garcia would have been 65 today (interesting take on "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" from the movie "Smoke" with Harvey Keitel - seems to end all of a sudden, though)......and last but far from least, a great big Happy Birthday goes out to Pierre Robert of radio station WMMR in these parts and around the world (delivering his "Beer Baptismal" during that station's "Day Off At The Slopes" earlier this year, with commentary by Preston and Steve and Jerry playing in the background, appropriately enough). ...

Another Red State Triumph 2007-08-01 17:33:00 (I should be fair and state, though, that similar laws as the one noted in this story exist in Arizona, Indiana, and Michigan.)It looks like voter ID will be required for a special election to be held in Georgia in September after ongoing legal battles that are on hold for the moment (the story also notes as follows)…Opponents claim the photo ID law will disenfranchise minorities, the poor and the elderly who don't have driver's licenses or other valid government-issued photo IDs. Supporters say it is needed to prevent voter fraud.The Georgia Supreme Court threw out the case, but it will be appealed to federal court where a judge had blocked enforcement of the law last September but stayed his ruling pending a decision in the state court of appeals.This article from Barbara Burt and Jonah Goldman provides more background on how ID laws are used to discourage minorities from voting, and it also notes the role that the supposed problem of voters showing up at the polls with incorrect ...

Today’s Visit With The Missing Texas Idiot 2007-08-01 15:51:00 Just in case you missed it, I should let you know that President Clouded Vision represented our country by insulting BBC political editor Nick Robinson yesterday…Robinson, who has asked Bush pointed questions in the past such as whether the president was “in denial” over the Iraq war, posed a question to Bush about whether he could trust visiting British Prime Minister Gordon Brown not to “cut and run” from Iraq.Bush replied with a dismissal: “Are you still hanging around?”Later on, Bush poked fun at the bare-pate of Robinson, joking, “You’d better cover up your bald head, it’s getting hot out.”The respected British reporter shot back, “I didn’t know you cared.”Bush responded with a cool, “I don’t.” The Mirror reports that Bush then “snorted disdainfully” and “walked away to laughter.”"Walked away to laughter" from Dubya’s equally brain-damaged minions I’m sure.And if he’s making fun of bald people now, I just have three words - watch out ... Texas

Patrick And The Dems Keep A Promise 2007-08-01 15:21:00 There is good stuff coming from the Democrats despite that last post, such as acting on the 9/11 Commission’s homeland security recommendations (Patrick Murphy talks about it here)...The ($4 billion) 9/11 bill would require screening of all cargo on passenger planes within three years. It also sets a five-year goal for scanning all container ships for nuclear devices before they leave foreign ports.The legislation shifts money to high-risk states and cities, rather than spreading it equally across the country. The bill expands the screening of air and sea cargo and puts money into a new program to ensure that security officials at every level can communicate with each other.I think the five-year cargo screening bill is a bit ambitious, but it’s definitely worth a try.And to see homeland security funds distributed in a manner that totally disregarded the 9/11 Commission recommendations in typical Repug fashion (as was the case in New Jersey two years ago, a vitally important state i ...

Another Profile In Cowardice 2007-08-01 13:53:00 I read this story from James Risen of the New York Times today, and I simply could not believe my eyes.It seems that the Democratic Party “leadership” in Congress has “a new willingness” to work with Dubya on expanding the wiretapping powers of our government, altering FISA law in the process.(In the unlikely event that someone from the Democratic congressional leadership is actually reading this, please click this link to a prior post today that explains how domestic spying has been taken over by Repug corporate benefactors as a reward from the person taking up space in the Oval Office. This isn’t being driven by national security concerns, it’s being driven by money, as usual – or are you guys in on the scam also?).This paragraph was particularly revolting…Democrats appear to be worried that if they block such legislation, the White House will depict them as being weak on terrorism.“We hope our Republican counterparts will work together with us to fix the problem, r ...