Thursday, May 29, 2008

Other Items

The Waterbury Republican American's "Solider sentenced for desertion when he missed flight back to Iraq" notes that US war resister Robert Weiss was "sentenced to seven months in confinement" after being "found guilty of desertion with intent to avoid hazardous duty, and missing movement through design" and briefly notes that Weiss had applied for CO status (seems surprised that he would then deploy to Iraq -- apparently, they're unfamiliar with the process) and that he self-checked out in December of last year. Though it's published today, the verdict and sentencing was May 13th and Courage to Resist noted it then (also his name is "Weiss" not "Weis").

Skip highlights this from the Sydney Morning Herald's "McCain rips Obama over single Iraq visit:"

"Senator Obama has been to Iraq once. A little over two years ago he went ... this is about leadership and learning," the Republican said in Reno, Nevada.
McCain hit out at the Illinois senator for failing to sit down in Iraq with General David Petraeus, the US commander implementing Bush's "surge" strategy, but for offering talks with leaders of US foes like Iran.

Writes Skip: "This must be what confused play-journalists Dahr Jamail and Stephen Zunes, it was Barack that only visited Iraq once." Skip's referring to the twin idiots LIE that Hillary Clinton only visited Iraq once -- in 2005. Loony Zunes got it wrong first, Jar-Jar stole it from Loony (imagine that!) and didn't give credit (shocking! so out of character for Jar-Jar!). Both were revealed to be extreme hacks willing to say anything -- truth be damned.

Loony opened his sentence with: "During her one trip to Iraq, in February 2005,".
Jar-Jar was so giddy about lying, he just rewrote Loony's sentence: ""During her only trip to Iraq in February 2005, a helicopter took Clinton to the Green Zone because the highway between Baghdad International Airport and the city was so dangerous." Idiots and non-journalists. Below is one of many photos from Hillary's Thanksgiving visit to Iraq (2003, Jar-Jar and Loony, 2003).

hrc_82airborne3

But facts don't matter. They lie and then they lie again. They think they can get away with it. (Same way Jar-Jar thinks he can keep putting his name to writing Ali al-Fadhily risks his life to report -- al-Fadhily is in Iraq, Jar-Jar's in the US. Jar-Jar's practicing imperialism by tacking his name on al-Fadhily's Iraq reporting.) Le Monde Diplomatique republished Jar-Jar's garbage which just shows there's a lot of stupid all over the world.

And repeating, a functioning left would have made it really clear to Jar-Jar, "You do not put your name to stories others report from Iraq. You haven't been in the country in two years. Ali is risking life and limb and what you are doing is disgusting." But we don't have a functioning left, now do we?

Jeffrey M. Jones' "Public Says Media Harder on Clinton Than Obama, McCain" (Gallup) summarizes the latest polling:

Although Americans in general think that news media coverage of the three major presidential candidates has been "about right," they are more inclined to say the media have been "too hard" on Hillary Clinton and "too easy" on Barack Obama and John McCain.

Well where would they get that idea? Yeah, we know where. Obviously.

Should I say read Kat? Should I say read Mike? Judging by the e-mails, everyone already has. As Kat noted, when I found out (which was after midnight last night), that link was gone. I've pulled all four. The individual's site, the organization's site, the organization's press release blog, and a radio show. I'll cover the topic tonight and work in page six. (Not a New York Post reference, a bad article in a magazine.) For now, if you're confused (judging by the e-mails, everyone knew before I did), read Kat and Mike. I'm appalled by that nonsense (I'm not referring to Kat or Mike, to be clear to anyone who hasn't read their posts from last night.) The race isn't over. It's far from over. And it's really amazing how interested -- obsessed? -- non-Democratic Party members are with this race. It's really pretty amazing. They will tell any lie, they will offer any smear. They have no shame and they are DISGRACING themselves. We noted Bob Somerby yesterday on exactly this sort of crap and he's supposed to pick up the topic again today so look for that. It's a disgrace. Again, I will address it tonight.

Marci wants something noted but a warning first -- the links in the following are PDF format. With that noted, here's Lindsay Levin's "Why Hillary is the Strongest Candidate" (HillaryClinton.com):

In a letter and memo sent to superdelegates today, Hillary lays out the case for why she is the strongest candidate to put together a winning coalition and beat John McCain in the Fall.

  • Hillary has earned more votes than anyone in the history of the Democratic primaries, and she will lead in the popular vote with more than 17 million ballots cast when the primaries conclude on June 3rd.
  • Not only is Hillary the top vote-getter, poll after poll shows she fares better against Sen. McCain in large swing states than Sen. Obama. She is the only candidate winning in the battlegrounds of Ohio and Florida.
  • Hillary's candidacy has attracted a broad coalition of new voters. In fact, the highest increases in turnout have come among her core supporters--millions of new women, Latinos and people over 45 voted in the primaries for the first time.
  • In the coming days, superdelegates will have a clear choice: who is ready to serve as President on day one and who is best able to beat John McCain in November? When you look at her wins in the important swing states and her strength against Sen. McCain in head-to-head matchups, there’s no question that Hillary is the strongest candidate.

Read the letter to delegates here.

Learn more about General Election match-up data here.

Read the memo for superdelegates here.

Added, at TalkLeft, Big Tent Democrat has another video from Obama's church. The video's a YouTube one and we could post it here but we take trash to the curb, we don't post it. To be very clear, BTD doesn't note that every word said about Hillary in that speech trying to pass for a sermon is in VIOLATION of the law and Trinity needs to lose their tax status. This is not a Jeremiah Wright video. (For chuckles, watch him establish "ancestors" and then flip it to "your generation" as if the two are the same. Ancestors -- I know this is difficult for the uneducated like 'Father Mike' -- are in the past. Also note how he pants like he's having an orgasm. I could go on and on.) Martha called to note BTD's post. One more thing, for those not aware of the crackpot, it's Michael Pfleger who is "Father Mike." Soon to be known as the person that cost the church its tax-free status.


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