Arrogance

This is ridiculous. I'm sorry, but how does one forget to pay a $128,000 tax bill?

First this year there was the problem with Timothy Geithner's taxes. Now Tom Daschle's nomination for health secreatary is in danger because he apparently forgot to inform the Obama team of a $128,000 tax bill during the vetting process. The President is standing behind his nominee and Robert Gibbs, Obama's press secreatary has said the president understands that nobody is perfect.

Fair enough.

Yet, Daschle knew about the taxes last June. How come it took so long to pay this? Is there a bigger grace period for somebody's as opposed to guys like me? You know darn well the IRS would come after me pretty quick if I fell behind paying my taxes.

Republican and Democrat alike have been guilty of this arrogance. I thought the Obama administration would be unlike the previous one and expect a higher standard of ethics and performance from its members.

So far, not good Mr. President.

Update: And having read this post by Glenn Greenwald, I must say I am very disaappointed. There must be someone better than Daschle to lead the fight for health care for all?

And also, this is straight from Greenwald's post. I have written previously of the hypocrisy of Republicans. I can do no less when it is a Democrat exposed as a sleazebag.


I also can't help but contrasting this passage detailing how Tom and Linda ended up married, from The Washington Monthly article . . . :

Yes, it's true: Before Mrs. Daschle was Mrs. Daschle, she was Miss Kansas, 1976.

Petite and blond, with perfect, straight white teeth, Daschle is still strikingly beautiful at 46. But she has a vise-like handshake you wouldn't expect from a beauty queen that suggests the steely interior necessary to survive in Washington power circles. . . .

She met Tom Daschle on a work trip to South Dakota. At the time, Tom Daschle was a freshman congressman, married to the woman who in 1978 had helped him ring 40,000 doorbells and go on to unseat an incumbent by 14 votes. By 1984, Tom had divorced his first wife, with whom he had three children, and married Linda . . .

. . . . with this 2003 clip of Tom Daschle, explaining to Jon Stewart that gay marriage must not be allowed because "a man and a woman have a sacred and a traditional cultural bond within this country. . . it's a statement of fact: society is embracing the marriage of a man and a woman, and by and large, that's the way it should be . . . DOMA is the statute and I don't think it's unconstitutional":

Tom Daschle Pt. 2

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When Are We Going to Get Over It

by Andrew M. Manis

For much of the last forty years, ever since America "fixed" its race problem in the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts, we white people have been impatient with African Americans who continued to blame race for their difficulties. Often we have heard whites ask, "When are African Americans finally going to get over it? Now I want to ask: "When are we White Americans going to get over our ridiculous obsession with skin color?

Recent reports that "Election Spurs Hundreds' of Race Threats, Crimes" should frighten and infuriate every one of us. Having grown up in "Bombingham," Alabama in the 1960s, I remember overhearing an avalanche of comments about what many white classmates and their parents wanted to do to John and Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King. Eventually, as you may recall, in all three cases, someone decided to do more than "talk the talk."

Since our recent presidential election, to our eternal shame we are once again hearing the same reprehensible talk I remember from my boyhood.

We white people have controlled political life in the disunited colonies and United States for some 400 years on this continent. Conservative whites have been in power 28 of the last 40 years. Even during the eight Clinton years, conservatives in Congress blocked most of his agenda and pulled him to the right. Yet never in that period did I read any headlines suggesting that anyone was calling for the assassinations of presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan, or either of the Bushes.

Criticize them, yes. Call for their impeachment, perhaps. But there were no bounties on their heads. And even when someone did try to kill Ronald Reagan, the perpetrator was non-political mental case who wanted merely to impress Jody Foster.

But elect a liberal who happens to be Black and we're back in the sixties again. At this point in our history, we should be proud that we've proven what conservatives are always saying -- that in America anything is possible, EVEN electing a black man as president. But instead we now hear that school children from Maine to California are talking about wanting to "assassinate Obama."

Fighting the urge to throw up, I can only ask, "How long?" How long before we white people realize we can't make our nation, much less the whole world, look like us? How long until we white people can - once and for all - get over this hell-conceived preoccupation with skin color?

How long until we white people get over the demonic conviction that white skin makes us superior? How long before we white people get over our bitter resentments about being demoted to the status of equality with non-whites?

How long before we get over our expectations that we should be at the head of the line merely because of our white skin? How long until we white people end our silence and call out our peers when they share the latest racist jokes in the privacy of our white-only conversations?

I believe in free speech, but how long until we white people start making racist loudmouths as socially uncomfortable as we do flag burners? How long until we white people will stop insisting that blacks exercise personal responsibility, build strong families, educate themselves enough to edit the Harvard Law Review, and work hard enough to become President of the United States, only to threaten to assassinate them when they do?

How long before we starting "living out the true meaning" of our creeds, both civil and religious, that all men and women are created equal and that "red and yellow, black and white" all are precious in God's sight?

Until this past November 4, I didn't believe this country would ever elect an African American to the presidency. I still don't believe I'll live long enough to see us white people get over our racism problem. But here's my three-point plan: First, everyday that Barack Obama lives in the White House that Black Slaves Built, I'm going to pray that God (and the Secret Service) will protect him and his family from us white people.

Second, I'm going to report to the FBI any white person I overhear saying, in seriousness or in jest, anything of a threatening nature about President Obama. Third, I'm going to pray to live long enough to see America surprise the world once again, when white people can "in spirit and in truth" sing of our damnable color prejudice, "We HAVE overcome."

My mother sent me this editorial written in the Macon Telegraph by Andrew M. Manis, an associate professor of history at Macon State College in Georgia.

Refreshing Change

Dennis C. Blair, retired admiral and President Obama's choice as top intelligence official is a refreshing departure from the psychopathic lackeys employed by the previous administration. On the disturbing surveillance activities previously supported Blair said:

I do not and will not support any surveillance activities that circumvent established processes for their lawful authorization. I believe in the importance of independent monitoring, including by Congress, to prevent abuses and protect civil liberties.

Ah, civil liberties. And regarding these and basic human rights, you know those things that America has been respected for upholding in past times, Blair said:

The intelligence agencies of the United States must respect the privacy and civil liberties of the American people, and they must adhere to the rule of law.

He added that torture is “not moral, legal or effective” and said any interrogation program would have to comply with the Geneva Conventions, the Convention against Torture and the Constitution.

And lastly, what impressed me most was Blair will not simply sugarcoat his message and try to please the president by providing intelligence he thinks the president wants to hear. Instead, he said:

There is an obligation to speak truth to power.

He added that he would honestly present “unpleasant” facts to the president.

This sort of openness and honesty is going to dismay the incurious crowd.

Inauguration Spending

There having been cry and hue over the estimated $40M spent for George Bush's second inauguration, it seems fair to question why an estimated $150M will be spent for the Barack Obama swearing-in festivities.

I understand the uniqueness of this event. Obama is our first minority President and the numbers of people attending are expected to shatter records. Still, security money aside, it's a heaping amount of cash. Fortunately, most of it is paid for through individual and corporate gifts.

Bill Ayers Reveals His Side of the Story

Bill Ayers has finally responded to the unfounded allegations from the right nut-wing that he and President-Elect Barack Obama (I love writing that) were pals who liked nothing better than to pal around – that in fact, these BFFs were likely conspiring to take over the government and have a Muslim theocracy installed soon after. The allegations of course were nonsense.

Ayers states, in his op-ed piece published in the New York Times on Dec. 5, that he refrained from commenting during the campaign because he saw no way to have a rational discussion. I agree. He writes:

Unable to challenge the content of Barack Obama’s campaign, his opponents invented a narrative about a young politician who emerged from nowhere, a man of charm, intelligence and skill, but with an exotic background and a strange name. The refrain was a question: “What do we really know about this man?”

And it continues. Witness the article in Conservapedia by Andy Schafly and the accompanying approval of its contents by local blogger, dad29. One must be capable of rational thought to be able to comprehend a rational discussion. On the subject of Obama and Ayers, Schafly and dad29, and generally the right-side of the cheddarsphere are found sorely lacking.

I was 14-years old in 1970; at that time six years older than the future President-Elect Barack Obama (nice sound to it). While I and friends shared thoughts about the war, we were only vaguely aware of larger protests. I remember reports of bombings and knew that an uncle of mine had gotten caught in a sweep in Milwaukee of protestors by the police and had been arrested. Guilt by looks; he had the long hair and beard popular then. But these all happened elsewhere. In much the same way that small northern communities were shielded from the civil rights movement and meeting black people in general, we did not feel the impact of the explosions of anger toward the war. Regarding these assaults on the establishment, Ayers writes further:

I never killed or injured anyone. I did join the civil rights movement in the mid-1960s, and later resisted the draft and was arrested in nonviolent demonstrations. I became a full-time antiwar organizer for Students for a Democratic Society. In 1970, I co-founded the Weather Underground, an organization that was created after an accidental explosion that claimed the lives of three of our comrades in Greenwich Village. The Weather Underground went on to take responsibility for placing several small bombs in empty offices — the ones at the Pentagon and the United States Capitol were the most notorious — as an illegal and unpopular war consumed the nation.

I'm very troubled by these acts of rebellion. Innocent people could have been killed by these weapons, as did occur with the Sterling Hall bombing in Madison in 1970. In the United States these sorts of deeds are looked at with disdain and opprobrium. Even Ayers admits, “The Weather Underground crossed lines of legality, of propriety and perhaps even of common sense.” He is fortunate that no lives were lost due to his actions, otherwise he would not be writing this opinion in a major newspaper, let alone being the unfocused and often delirious attention of many.

Regarding the dishinesty of the right, however, Ayers is right on when he writes:

The dishonesty of the narrative about Mr. Obama during the campaign went a step further with its assumption that if you can place two people in the same room at the same time, or if you can show that they held a conversation, shared a cup of coffee, took the bus downtown together or had any of a thousand other associations, then you have demonstrated that they share ideas, policies, outlook, influences and, especially, responsibility for each other’s behavior. There is a long and sad history of guilt by association in our political culture, and at crucial times we’ve been unable to rise above it.

Ayers is exactly correct. What would have happened if Prescott Bush's very tenuous ties to Fritz Theissen, an early financial supporter of Adolf Hitler, had succeeded in being blown totally out of proportion. Would we have had two Presidents Bush? For all their sins, especially those of the younger Bush, that would have been wrong.

Ayers concludes by writing that “President-elect Obama and I sat on a board together; we lived in the same diverse and yet close-knit community; we sometimes passed in the bookstore. We didn’t pal around, and I had nothing to do with his positions. I knew him as well as thousands of others did, and like millions of others, I wish I knew him better.”

Fortunately, the minions of intolerance and despair failed to sidetrack the Obama Express. With good fortune we all will have eight years to get to know President-Elect Barack Obama better.

Andy Schlafly an Idiot

If you want a good laugh, you should follow the link to this article, written by Andy Schlafly (yes, he is the son of the notorious nutbag, Phyllis) found in his bastard creation Conservapedia. It is hilarious, unintentionally. Here are the first two paragraphs for the entry on Barack Obama. Remember, Conservapedia calls itself the trustworthy encyclopedia.

Barack Hussein Obama II (allegedly born in Honolulu, August 4, 1961) served as a first-term Democratic Senator from Illinois (2004-2008) and then, along with his running mate Joseph Biden, won the presidential election after twenty-three months of campaigning, raising and spending an unprecedented $650 million, most of which came from anonymous donors. An apparent Muslim, Obama could use the Koran when he is sworn into office.

Obama has espoused the socialist idea of "spreading the wealth, in other words raising the tax rates on business and the wealthy to a burdensome level in order to redistribute their income to low income individuals, many of whom don't currently pay income taxes. His health care plan forces employers to purchase health care or pay a fine and will force many into a poorly run single payer system. To announce his trip to Berlin in July 2008, Obama used posters which show a marked similarity to posters of Lenin. During Obama's youth in Hawaii, he developed a strong, almost Father/Son relationship with Frank Marshall Davis, a known Communist. For these reasons and others, he is generally considered to hold Marxist/Socialist views - views directly contrary to those of most Americans. And it is because of these beliefs that he has kept hidden from the view of the general public that many are suspicious of his agenda for the future of the US.

Oh my.

Conservapedia then provides 15 bullet point items that purport to prove that Obama will likely be the first Muslim president. Aside from the utter falsity of these items, I can't help but wonder who cares and what is the big deal if we were to have a Muslim president? I believe the Constitution provides for religious freedom.

Oh, and tell this young man's mother a Muslim cannot become president.

Is This a Threat?

In the comments section at Boots and Sabers, Peter DiGaudio of Texas Hold 'em Fame, is more than a little upset by the outcome of the elction.

You can go to hell as far as I am concerned. He is not my president. And you can take this country and shove it where the sun don’t shine. Screw you. You are not my fellow countryman as far as I am concerned. I want nothing to do with your damn country.

I don’t hope for his success. In fact, I seriously hope this country gets attacked by terrorists over and over again and every possible bad thing that can happen does happen ... to people like you.

If I had the money, I’d put a bounty on his melon. Seriously.

I guess, sadly, we've come to expect this sort of lunatic behavior from Peter. And, this is the third comment I've seen from a conservative threatening the life of President-Elect Barack Obama. Seriously, should we contact the Secret Service.

And while I don't advocate deletion of comments, I would have expected Owen Robinson to at least have said something about Peter's outburst. Owen's wife did!

UPDATE: Owen added a comment replying to Peter's outburst, after I had written this post. I apologize, Owen. You did the right thing.

I hope that your statements are the product of emotion on a tough night and that you will retract them. Regardless, they are completely inappropriate. I agree that America chose the wrong guy, but he is our duly elected president (almost) and the office and our nation deserve respect. We can vigorously oppose his policies while not wishing the man or the office ill will.

We Won!

The reign of terror is over. Now let's get to work.

I Voted, Too

Well, just got back from voting. It's none of your business who I voted for (like it's a mystery), but I can say my 22-month old daughter voted for Barack Obama and she has the "I Voted" sticker to prove it.

I'm waiting for the cries of voter fraud.

Who's Unethical

Fred Dooley, owner and operator of the amusement blog, Real Debate Wisconsin, has a problem with unethical behavior. And well he should. Unethical behavior is something that should be stamped out. Especially when it's a blogger doing it because the actions of one do affect the actions of the others.

More on this later in this post -- read on.

Red State, a nationally-known conservative blog reported this little tidbit this morning at 8:36 am.

The Democrats are passing out a flyer in Wisconsin that tells people just how easy to vote in Wisconsin.

One of the bullet points is this:

No proof of residence? You can still register to vote if you bring an eligible voter from your municipality who shows proof of residence and affirms that you live at your address.

There is just one problem. That's not the law in Wisconsin. Having a character witness cannot get you registered to vote.

But who cares. Law, scmaw as far the Democrats are concerned.

The problem with this is, as pointed out by one of Red State's commenters, it's inaccurate. Just to provide proof (you know, for the sake of truthiness) of what the flyer from the Obama/Biden campaign said, below is a scan.























Now, let's go to page 27 of the Election Day Manual for Wisconsin Election Officials. It states:

Corroborating Witness
If an Election Day registrant or a voter with an “ID required” notation is unable to provide proof of residence, they may have another qualified elector of the municipality corroborate his or her residence by signing the Voter Registration Application (EB-131) as a witness. The corroborator must be a qualified elector of the municipality and provide proof of residence. The corroborator is not required to be a registered voter.

There's more, but the gist of the flyer is absolutely accurate. Turns out those Democrats are actually quite ethical.

Hmmm. Kind of makes you wonder where Red State got this wrong information? Why, the link to the source is right there in the body of the text. The link encompasses the words “...are passing out a flyer in Wisconsin.” And where does the link lead to -- nowhere anymore because the offensive post has been deleted. But before that deletion occurred, the link quite clearly jumped to here:

http://realdebatewisconsin.blogspot.com/2008/11/Obama-camp-encouraging-vote-fraud-in.html

Say it ain't so Joe the Plumber. Fred Dooley at Real Debate Wisconsin is playing fast and easy with ethics? Yep. Fortunately, due to the timely actions of a local person, we have the text of the original Dooley post.

The attached document is encouraging activity in violation of Wisconsin's already loose election law.

I quote, "No proof of residence? You can still register to vote if you bring an eligible voter from your municipality who shows proof of residence and affirms that you live at your address."

Sorry folks, they made that up. Here is a link to the State of Wisconsin Elections Board rules, nowhere does showing up to register with someone to vouch for you come into play.

This flyer was paid or by the Democratic Party of Wisconsin so they are obviously complicit in encouraging people to break election law.

Why do Democrats keep trying to cheat?

Why won't any of the major media call them on it?

Can you imagine the outroar if Republicans were passing fraudulent information about Wisconsin election law? Hell, they are after AG Van Hollen for daring to ask the "accountability" board to follow the freaking law.

The unethical Democratic party is at it again, and they'll continue to get away with it until enough people raise hell about this problem.

All gone.

Nowhere to be found.

Vanished into thin air.

Pffft.

Of course, it's not the first time either. Next time Fred has anything to say about anything, don't you believe him. I'll bet Red State will think twice.

I think Fred deserves a big old F-bomb for this prank. Thanks Fred, for making us all look bad.














Update: Zach has a nice take on this, though he stole borrowed my bomb picture.

Just Sickening

A comment left at Plaisted Writes, where Mike has been forced to moderate comments because of the writer.

"Early morning, November 4th a shot rang out in the Chicago sky, the Newspapers shouted Obamas has died!!!!!!!Free at last from the socialist democrat joke, The liberals whined, the liberals cried, the rest of the country cheered! They said he has died, who gives a fuck about his pride, let him have his pride, he has died! Now capitalism has survived, and socilalism has also died. Obamas memory will survive as liberals are afraid to lie, they hold the line, afraid to cross the line, as they fear they may be next!! So this message is clear, for all to hear this socialists time is short, hope someone is out there for me to cheer, I hope someone not me, will take him out!! So this country can stay free.

Those are some great lyrics, LMAO

Sick.

Vote With Courage and Vision

See more Ron Howard videos at Funny or Die

h/t Caffeinated Politics

New York Times Endorses Obama

Must read. Fairly devastating opinion about the candidates' differences.

It will be an enormous challenge just to get the nation back to where it was before Mr. Bush, to begin to mend its image in the world and to restore its self-confidence and its self-respect. Doing all of that, and leading America forward, will require strength of will, character and intellect, sober judgment and a cool, steady hand.

Mr. Obama has those qualities in abundance. Watching him being tested in the campaign has long since erased the reservations that led us to endorse Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Democratic primaries. He has drawn in legions of new voters with powerful messages of hope and possibility and calls for shared sacrifice and social responsibility.

Mr. McCain, whom we chose as the best Republican nominee in the primaries, has spent the last coins of his reputation for principle and sound judgment to placate the limitless demands and narrow vision of the far-right wing. His righteous fury at being driven out of the 2000 primaries on a racist tide aimed at his adopted daughter has been replaced by a zealous embrace of those same win-at-all-costs tactics and tacticians.

Voices

I'm not ashamed to play this video, nor am I ashamed of the sentiment expressed. There is nothing frightening about people singing. Those on the right can mock us all they want, but the fact is -- they're just jealous because they can't carry a tune. Yuk yuk.

All right, mostly they're jealous because somewhere deep down inside most of them yearn for the same things – Peace, Prosperity, Respect.

Obama Yard Sign

Well, just put up our Obama yard sign here in conservative Brookfied. I was back in the house no more than ten minutes when I spotted one of the neighborhood residents, who was walking up the street, spit at the sign.

I went out the door and asked what the issue was. He mumbled something about not liking Obama, then he apologized and continued walking up the street, quickly.

Now, admittedly, this person is just a bit "off". He's also the son of a very fundamentalist family that lives up the street. They've always been friendly though distant. This kid, I think he's 20 or so, has put up home-made and crudely drawn anti-gay marriage signs in his family's front yard in the past, so I guess I'm not entirely surprised by his reaction. Nonetheless, it will be interesting to see if there will be other reactions from neighbors.

I would think not, everyone is fairly nice around here. I'll take a picture of the sign after I return from taking our 21-month old to her doctor appointment. I hope it will still be in place.

Mr. Outrage and Yippee Discuss Barack Obama

Two local conservative bloggers, Mr. Outrage and Yippee the Chattering Chihuahua, recently joined forces with the McCain campaign and discussed the Democratic candidate, Barack Obama, as only they could.

As always, special thanks to the genius of Tom Tomorrow.

Help on Deciding for Whom to Vote

My mom just sent this link to me. It's kind of fun. If you are undecided about who to vote for in the presidential race, answer the questions provided by the ABC Match-o-Matic.

I'm apparently a Barack Obama supporter.

It does clarify one thing for me, I knew I was not a supporter of Hillary Clinton or any of the Republicans.