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: 28 0 2 4214

Articles from The Liberal Doomsayer

Thursday Political Stuff 2008-01-10 23:10:00 Memo to Al Sharpton: You want to protest something? Then how about helping with this instead of trying to persecute a golf announcer (and yes, I know she was suspended for two weeks, which is ridiculous)......and "The Pap Attack" takes on George Will (awesome). ...

"Duffer" Sharpton Tries To Club His Way To Relevancy 2008-01-10 17:37:00 (Posting is a question mark for tomorrow, by the way – I just don’t know at the moment. And a “duffer” is a term for a really bad golfer, just so you know.)This may all sound strange from someone who calls himself a liberal, but I have to say it; I had a feeling Al Sharpton was going to worm his way back into the spotlight somehow (and he keeps such good company also, as you can see).As incendiary and ultimately annoying a figure as he is, I didn’t really take issue with him over the Imus/Rutgers women’s basketball team brouhaha last year because I thought he was fundamentally on the right side of the issue (primarily because Imus was a repeat offender who made his name doing that sort of thing).But today, we find out that Kelly Tilghman, an analyst for The Golf Channel, made a remark about lynching concerning Tiger Woods, but quickly realized what she’d done and apologized (and Woods, who has been nothing but gracious in incidents like this as far as I’ve ever read, ac ...

Wanna Watch "Seven Days In May"? 2008-01-10 15:19:00 This post from Chris Bowers at Open Left, echoing Matt Yglesias, tells us that the winner of the Repug primary in New Hampshire, along with his fellow party mate Joe Lieberman, believes we……should adjust those (Iraq troop) numbers based on conditions on the ground and the recommendations of our commanders…first and foremost, Gen. Petraeus, who above all others has proven that he knows how to steer this war to a successful outcome.Can someone please notify me when this “successful outcome” in Iraq is finally achieved? Because only then will I make a final judgment as to whether or not Petraeus and our military leadership have been successful (as opposed to those in our political leadership who aren’t so stupidly willing to cede the power they were endowed by virtue of their election to public office; actually, the character played by Burt Lancaster wouldn’t even have to stage a coup since “Senator Honor And Virtue” and his “independent” flunky would hand the power ...

Bear-ly Tolerable Freeper Attacks On Global Warming 2008-01-10 14:13:00 The Philadelphia Inquirer, in its “Lightning Round” editorial segment today, actually made a good observation concerning the delay of Bushco’s Interior Department (under Dirk Kempthorne, who is at least as big of a disaster for the environment as his predecessor Gale Norton) to list the polar bear as an endangered species, allowing the Minerals Management Service to “open up nearly 30 million acres of Alaskan waters to oil and gas leasing in the heart of polar bear country.”By the way, the head of the Minerals Management Service is Randall Luthi, who rose within the Repugs ranks with the mentoring of “Deadeye Dick” Cheney (both came from Wyoming). Need I say more?And in this related New York Times opinion column from last Saturday, Alaska Repug governor Sarah Palin makes a few disingenuous arguments against listing the polar bear as endangered, including this one…“(It would be) based on uncertain modeling of possible effects.”That’s some fancy language that transl ...

Somewhere Dubya Is Loved At Last 2008-01-10 13:04:00 Yes, we all know that George W. Milhous Bush is currently in the Middle East playing president and pretending to care about negotiating peace between Israel and Palestine (even predicting a peace treaty by the time he is FINALLY out of office), but I’d just like to take a moment and contrast this frantic, last-minute scramble by a highly unpopular head of state with the more methodical approach of a president who actually knew what he was doing on this vital issue (aided in a huge way by Anwar Al Sadat of Egypt, who ultimately died because of his recognition of Israel).As this Wikipedia article about the Camp David Accords tells us…(Former President Jimmy) Carter also wasted no time in visiting the heads-of-state on whom he would have to rely to make any peace agreement feasible. By the end of his first year in office, he had already met with (Sadat), King Hussein of Jordan, Hafez al-Assad of Syria, and Yitzhak Rabin of Israel. Carter's and (Secretary of State Cyrus) Vance's expl ...

Wednesday Political Stuff 2008-01-09 21:55:00 "Straight Talk McCain" wants his own "Hundred Years War," I see (aren't you proud of your vote for this clod, you Granite State Repugs? And I'll take a shot at Chris Shays another time)......and Chris Matthews has ALREADY provided us the stupidest pundit blatherings of 2008 so far (h/t Atrios, and here is a response from Molly Ivors to the "Hillary treatment" from Maureen Dowd that applies to Tweety also; MoDo was another offender today, and here is something we can do about it). ...

Patrick Pummeled In Wednesday Wingnuttia 2008-01-09 16:30:00 Wow, check out this joke of a letter that appeared in the Bucks County Courier Times this morning…In a recent interview with the Courier Times, Bucks County Congressman Patrick Murphy speaks proudly of his accomplish- ments during the past year. If only long hours and self promotion equaled accomplishment.The approval ratings for Congress are at an all-time low, mostly the result of Nancy Pelosi's leadership in the House. Murphy was useful initially in Pelosi's anti-war agenda but the Democrats have failed miserably with the execution of their strategy, of which Murphy was an important component. Sixty attempts to force troop withdrawals or de-fund the war resulted in failure.Meanwhile, the Democrat-led Congress conducted some 400 partisan hearings or investigations as part of their real payback agenda to Republicans and President Bush.Murphy can, however, claim distinction for being near the top of the list of freshman Democrats requesting and distributing special interest money o ...

A Question For Mike Huckabee 2008-01-09 14:44:00 This story tells us the following…A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit by journalists seeking to open executions to more scrutiny, saying there was no guaranteed right to see the whole process, including the strapping-down of the condemned inmate and the insertion of needles.U.S. District Court Judge Susan Webber Wright rejected the journalists' argument the public had a First Amendment right to see every step of an execution in Arkansas.In her ruling issued Monday, Wright also noted that executions have “moved from the public square to inside prison walls,” an area where the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled reporters have no special right to access.…A case before the U.S. Supreme Court focuses on a three-drug cocktail used by 37 states, claiming the condemned could suffer intense pain without being able to cry out. That pending case in effect stopped executions in Arkansas and other states until a ruling by justices.If I could, I would ask Huckabee whether or not he thought this w ...

"Channelling" Martin And Roberts On “A La Carte” Cable 2008-01-09 12:29:00 (Note: I’m posting about this partly because there is so much stupid pundit blathering about New Hampshire last night that I’m trying to do something different – and yes, I’ll admit that it was bad news for John Edwards, though we have a ways to go here.)The Philadelphia Inquirer notes here that Comcast CEO Brian Roberts gave the keynote address at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas yesterday, with Roberts using the opportunity to plug “tru2way,” the company’s “new technology to allow electronics manufacturers to develop interactive devices that work on its 25-million-subscriber cable network,” according to the story.However, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, while participating in a panel discussion said that “tru2way” was “a good start, but not the final solution.”Industry analysts who know more about this stuff than I do think that Roberts and Martin aren’t exactly buds these days because of Roberts’ opposition to “a la carte” cable (supported by M ...

Really, Dana? 2008-01-09 10:55:00 Let’s file this one and check back on it later, shall we?According to this post on the ABC blog Political Radar, White House press propagandist Dana Perino communicated the following (re: the support her boss George W. Milhous Bush will provide for the Republican Party presidential nominee)…"Once we have a named candidate," Perino adds, "You will see this president campaign for them vigorously."(Dubya didn’t look very “vigorous” in supporting the New Hampshire primary winner here, did he?).Putting aside the obvious grammatical problem in that sentence, I think that’s an interesting observation, particularly given the fact that the Republican Party presidential candidates have, to date, tried to put as much distance as they could between themselves and President 25 Percent Mandate (as noted here).Well, I’ll just have to revisit this post after the Repug convention and try to hold Perino to her word (and as noted here, she’s just been so “above board” with the journos ...

The Repug "Reckoning" Is In Full Swing 2008-01-09 08:04:00 And now, for the best political analysis I've read in a long time...from Time, the Philadelphia Inquirer - hah! - The New Yorker or "The Old Gray Lady"?Not on your life; it would be here from Bill in Portland, Maine via The Daily Kos...Eight years of Bush/Cheney, six years of brass-knuckled Republican rule in Congress, and a two decade assault by the in-your-face, "do as I say, not as Jesus would do" evangelical screamers have left Americans exhausted by it all. There's really nothing of substance Republicans can point to that has worked. Not in education, defense, security, energy, foreign policy, fiscal policy, infrastructure, health care, planet care, science...nuthin'. Well, okay, there was the $300 refund check we got in the summer of '01. Thanks---the Ramen noodles were tasty.So I think we have a real shot at kicking GOP ass---up and down the ballot---big-time in ten months. I'm excited. Hopeful. Optimistic. [Insert random synonyms from thesaurus here.] Bush promised to "res ...

Tuesday Videos 2008-01-08 23:00:00 Foo Fighters ("Times Like These")......and Elvis Aaron Presley would have been 73 today ("Jailhouse Rock"). ...

Tuesday Political Stuff 2008-01-08 22:32:00 Congratulations to "St. McCain"; actually, this was an easy call for the punditocracy since he won it in 2000 and hasn't appreciably changed much since then, but still, credit where it's due goes with this fitting video......and this is just a reminder as to why "America's Mayor" may have missed out on the Granite State fun tonight. ...

Tuesday Mashup (1/8) 2008-01-08 16:42:00 A group called the California Nurses Association ran a full-page ad in the New York Times yesterday correctly stating that “everyone deserves Cheney care”; to learn more about the group, here’s a Daily Kos diary providing background and further information about HR 676 here, which calls for “Medicare For All” (Edwards is probably closest to supporting something like this among the candidates). Man, how would you like to be Mark Penn these days?I mean, the guy not only gets “taken to the woodshed” by Kagro X here for spinning poll results decidedly giving an advantage to Barack Obama (though, as Glenn Greenwald noted earlier, “trend” stats favor John Edwards – sorry for dwelling on numbers like this, an easy trap to fall into), but his “union-busting” division at mega-PR firm Burson-Marsteller (which he heads, of course) gets exposed for all the world to see by Mark Schmitt here (day-old news, I know).And on top of that, it turns out that, according to this Para ...

"No Cred Fred" Looks For A Hand 2008-01-08 13:51:00 So with all of the electoral hoopla currently going on in New Hampshire on the Repug side with the media pronouncing John McCain the winner, Mitt Romney trying to outspend everyone, Ron Paul supporters declaring war on Faux News (yaay!), Mike Huckabee wondering if cranky New Englanders care about the opinion of Midwest fundies (and Rudy! off to Florida? Wha??), there is one question lurking somewhere in my mind, and America deserves an answer.Where exactly is Grandpa Fred anyway? Did he get lost, or just wake up too late from his nap?Well, Christine Bynum of ABC News has the answer here; it turns out that he’s in South Carolina already.Why (aside from the fact that he has no shot of winning up north)…"Everyone is in New Hampshire … [we're] not playing up there," Thompson told a crowd of about 100 people at a diner in Greenville, S.C. "Still got snow banks six feet high there and we're down here in South Carolina, so I ask you who’s the smartest one?"Dude, you’re not going t ...