faboo mama

Senator Arlen Specter, a longtime Republican Senator announced today that he was switching parties.  He stated that he will be running for his seat in 2010 as a Democrat. 

Here’s part of Specter’s release, excerpted from the Wall Street Journal:

I have been a Republican since 1966. I have been working extremely hard for the Party, for its candidates and for the ideals of a Republican Party whose tent is big enough to welcome diverse points of view. While I have been comfortable being a Republican, my Party has not defined who I am. I have taken each issue one at a time and have exercised independent judgment to do what I thought was best for Pennsylvania and the nation.

Since my election in 1980, as part of the Reagan Big Tent, the Republican Party has moved far to the right. Last year, more than 200,000 Republicans in Pennsylvania changed their registration to become Democrats. I now find my political philosophy more in line with Democrats than Republicans. (WSJ)

While this is a major boon to the Democrats in the Senate, giving them a filibuster-proof 60-seat majority (if Al Franken ever gets sworn in), we rank-and-file Democrats will do well to remember Specter’s actual voting record and how that rarely matches the speeches and statements he has made. Too many times in the past has Sen. Specter step outside party lines to make announcements that he’s unhappy with the Republican goal, how he doesn’t think the people he represent would like him to adhere to party lines. Yet, when it was time to vote, Specter more than ofter, voted along party lines. Sen. Specter has crafter faux-outrage into an art form.

More from his annoucement:

My change in party affiliation does not mean that I will be a party-line voter any more for the Democrats that I have been for the Republicans. Unlike Senator Jeffords’ switch which changed party control, I will not be an automatic 60th vote for cloture. For example, my position on Employees Free Choice (Card Check) will not change.

Whatever my party affiliation, I will continue to be guided by President Kennedy’s statement that sometimes Party asks too much. When it does, I will continue my independent voting and follow my conscience on what I think is best for Pennsylvania and America.

Admirable on the surface, but we already have more than enough Blue Dogs in the Senate.  I’m not going to get excited over this, but I will be watching Specter more closely. The last last 14 or so years, I’ve taken everything he says with a grain of salt. This change of party affliation will be no different.

The Black Snob shares with us that it’s official, the Obamas are ‘uppity’.

Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, R-Ga., was chewing the fat with reporters in the U.S. Capitol and was asked to compare Sarah Palin and Michelle Obama.

“Just from what little I’ve seen of her and Mr. Obama, Senator Obama, they’re a member of an elitist-class individual that thinks they’re uppity.”

“Asked to clarify that he used the word ‘uppity,’ Westmoreland said, ‘Uppity, yeah,’ ” the newspaper The Hill reported.

-Seattle Post-Intelligencer

They even trying to hide it any more. Shocker? Nope.  Par for the course in the GOP.

Considering that all the speeches we saw tonight were disjointed messes, it was only natural that Palin’s speech would follow the trend.

Considering that all the speeches we saw tonight were chock full of blatant lies the records of the candidates, it was only natural that Palin’s speech would follow the trend.

Considering that Palin was a virtual unknown 5 days ago, the speech she needed to give to win over America, was not given tonight.  Instead, we got a red meat speech geared toward corporate and the fringe “religious” right.  In other words, tonight was another wasted night at the Republican National Convention.  Palin needed to introduce herself to America and assauge our fears that she was a credible pick for the VP slot.  Unfortunately, she turned herself into that friend you bring to a party who proceeds to insult everyone else at the party and their mamas.

While this made for great political theater in the Xcel Center and on TV, the reality is that instead of looking tough, she came off catty and shallow.  That’s very unfortunate and as a female, it was offensive and embarrassing.  Palin’s speech tonight put a very public and demeaning face on female executives across the country.

For someone with no national experience she touted what little experience she does have as more than Obama or Biden.  The only problem is that McCain’s experience is similar to Biden’s only less.  How do you walk that back?  How does the GOP, logically, say “Well, she has more experience than the Democrats, but not enough experience to be President.”?  How do you convince me that a person who left a town of 6000 with a $22M deficit is responsible?  How do you convince America that she’s a “reformer” when she not only asked for, but kept the earmarks McCain deplores and she lied about denying?

I wish I could be happy that the RNC finally broke it’s own cathedral high glass ceiling by nominating a female for Vice President.  But like with Hillary Clinton, it’s the wrong woman for the job.  There are many female Republicans who are not only part of the mainstream, but are smart, efficient capable females who would appeal not just to the fringe “religious” base of the GOP,  but to a wider swath of the electorate; moderate Democrats and Republicans and many independents.

As I looked in on blogs, twitter and friendfeed during her speech, I heard the same refrain from most of the Republicans, “This woman is scary.”  They felt insulted that her speech mocking Obama also mocked them for their actions.  They felt insulted that instead of telling us what they would do without lies and fear, they just repeated the GOP actions of lies and fear.  They felt insulted that because they live in big cities, they seem no longer welcome in their own party.

I want to thank Gov. Palin.  Tonight’s speech could have been very good and impressive.  Clearly, that’s not what the GOP was going for and the speeches leading up to hers proved that.  But what her speech did do was not only convince a lot of Republicans and Independents that the GOP is no longer for them, but she also energized the Democratic base.

Image via Wikipedia

Suh-weet.

I’m super giddy over this y’all.  CNN is reporting that Sen. John McCain has pick Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate.  On the surface people will think it’s a cynical pick because he’s trying to catering to nutjob PUMAs. That may be the case, for those PUMAs were never Democrats in the first place, and only come off as cultish children.

But I have another theory:  I think he went with an untested newbie to counteract Sen. Joe Biden.  Picture Biden wiping the floor in debates with Romney, Giuliani and Pawlenty.  Now imagine Biden attacking a woman.  Not a pretty picture is it?  No matter if Biden is factually correct, if he comes off as “attacking” Palin–and you know the kooks that make up the GOP will spin any statement as such,–he’s be painted as a misogynist.

This also puts a stop on McCain’s baseless attacks on Obama of being too young and too inexperienced.  After all, Gov. Palin only has 2 years as a governor under her belt.  She’s younger than Sen. Obama too. Others will go into greater detail into Palin’s experience, or lack thereof, what I just read was this:

In an interview just a month ago, she dissed the job, saying it didn’t seem “productive.”

In fact, she said she doesn’t know what the vice president does.

Larry Kudlow of CNBC’s “Kudlow & Co.” asked her about the possibility of becoming McCain’s ticket mate.  Palin replied: “As for that VP talk all the time, I’ll tell you, I still can’t answer that question until somebody answers for me what is it exactly that the VP does every day? I’m used to being very productive and working real hard in an administration. We want to make sure that that VP slot would be a fruitful type of position, especially for Alaskans and for the things that we’re trying to accomplish up here for the rest of the U.S., before I can even start addressing that question.”

And I know is that if I was Cindy McCain, I’d be watching McCain like a hawk.  After all he cheated on his first wife to be with Cindy.  And the silly news report in February showed that his aides were worried about his relationship with  lobbyist Vicki Iseman, going so far as to try to stonewall Iseman when she had to work with the Senator.

IOKIYAPOW on 12seconds.tv

And apparently, that’s a-okay for a lot of people. I mean, clearly it’s a non-issue what with (yet another) religious sect in Texas and Clinton’s campaign drama taking up the news. It seems very few almost no news outlets are interested in getting into the hard work of investigating war crimes by the executive branch.

In dozens of top-secret talks and meetings in the White House, the most senior Bush administration officials discussed and approved specific details of how high-value al Qaeda suspects would be interrogated by the Central Intelligence Agency, sources tell ABC News.

The so-called Principals who participated in the meetings also approved the use of “combined” interrogation techniques — using different techniques during interrogations, instead of using one method at a time — on terrorist suspects who proved difficult to break, sources said.

Highly placed sources said a handful of top advisers signed off on how the CIA would interrogate top al Qaeda suspects — whether they would be slapped, pushed, deprived of sleep or subjected to simulated drowning, called waterboarding. (ABCNews)

This is after the protestations of these same US officials that “the United States does not torture”. Granted those of us with brains and not living like ostriches were well aware that these people were lying and committing crimes and for our troubles we were called unpatriotic or treasonous by the flat-earth types who refused to allow logic to dwell in their heads.

Dan Froomkin at the Washington Post seems to be another reporter who is paying attention:

If you consider what the government did to be torture, which is a crime according to U.S. and international law, Bush’s statement shifts his role from being an accessory after the fact to being part of a conspiracy to commit.

He even points out the media’s lack of interest in this “old news”:

The mainstream media by and large seem to agree with Bush that the ABC News Report wasn’t so startling, and they have given Bush’s remarks almost no coverage. There was no mention of Bush’s admission in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal or the Los Angeles Times. There was nothing on the major wire services. And nothing on CNN, CBS or NBC.

What kind of world do we live in when the President can get on TV, admit to high crimes and no one in the media bats an eye and Americans, by and large, are more consumed over their reality shows and campaign silliness? Still don’t care? Let’s look at it another way: I have two children who have never lived in a United States where torture was not allowed.

Sucks, don’t it?

The ACLU has called on Congress to investigate, though I’m still unclear as to why Congress feels they can’t. I understand that Nancy Pelosi must have made some strange backroom deal with Bush to remove impeachment “off the table“, but surely there are other Congressmen and women who have backbones, who believe in the ideals and moral authority of America to move this forward.

“Long after the Bush administration is history, our nation will continue to be tarnished by its record of disregard for the rule of law and human rights.

“If there is a redeeming factor, it is the exposure of these illegalities and the determined effort to prevent a recurrence.

“To that end, the American Civil Liberties Union has called on Congress to investigate.

“Given the record of the Bush administration, including the political manipulation of the Justice Department under disgraced Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, the request is entirely reasonable. We urge our elected officials to embrace it - and to restore our country’s dedication to moral leadership.” (Tuscaloosa News)

I heartily agree and urge you to write your Representative and ask them to push for investigation into these heinous crimes. Do it so that I can tell me kids that the US doesn’t condone torture.  For reals.

So, I was telling him about Klepto Cindy McCain trying to pass off Food Network recipes as her own (click that link for screencaps and h/t to TPM) and I said, “You know that woman has cooked a meal in like 35 years.  Who’s she foolin’?”  Which lead me to explain to him how rich she is.  I said, “I think she’s an heiress.”

My husband replied, “Why can’t I be an heiress?”

“Um…because you’re a boy and your parents aren’t rich.”

He sighed and said, “Okay, an heirloom.”

Well, it made me laugh.

From NBC’s Kelly O’Donnell
Campaigning in Connecticut today, McCain pledged to have a news conference once every two weeks if elected president.

“You’ve gotta have a conversation with the American people,” he said.

Oh my goodness.  The suicide rate in this country would skyrocket if McCain forced himself on the American people every two weeks.  People don’t even want to listen to him now.  My YouTube videos would get more coverage than McCain [s]newsers.  He’s not even half as interesting as Abe Simpson either, so it would be more painful than anything.

I won’t even touch the dunderheadedness of “you’ve gotta have”.  Ugh.

h/t to The Field Negro on this one…

Seems, some asshat over at Fox has compared Sen. Obama to Hitler. Crooks and Liars gives me audio. Media Matters gives transcripts. Sullivan spends a few moments to blame the caller for the comparison. Another caller calls in to…um, call Sullivan out on his BS and part of the conversation:

CALLER: — you would compare Barack Obama to Hitler, because we need leaders that can inspire us, to hope for the future. We need people like him.

SULLIVAN: I love the — I love his speech. I told you I sat there and I went — I’m going — I’m listening to his speech –

CALLER: Why would you bring Hitler in on it?

SULLIVAN: I didn’t. The caller brought Hitler in on it. The caller said he sounds like Hitler.

CALLER: Well, why would you even pick it up? It’s denigrating his character.

SULLIVAN: No, it’s not.

That’s all we need to know. Sullivan thinks that comparing Hitler and Obama is funny. He changes his reasonings throughout the phone but ends with:

SULLIVAN: I think — don’t you think I’ve made a very good point of the difference between his leadership speaking style and Ms. Clinton’s speaking style?

CALLER: Yeah, I think you do. If you had left Hitler out of it, you’d have had a perfect show.

SULLIVAN: All right, we won’t play Hitler any more, then.

CALLER: Oh, I –

SULLIVAN: One time — oh, come on, one more time? Can I, please, one more time? Just one more time? Then I won’t do it again.

Isn’t that precious?

Remember way back when Sen. Dick Durbin compared Gitmo to a gulag? The Republicans in Congress and all those dolts on Fox were besides themselves. They were pissing their pants and crying in their beers because the big meanie from Illinois upset them. Needless to say, Durbin caved and apologized. Remember all the other stupid bits of head exploding drama you’ve heard from the Republicans these past 14 years because they have no ideas and no willingness to actually make the government work for the people?

Good.

Now, I want you to remember the silence.

No shocker here. First Read is telling us that the GOP members of the house have had their heads temporarily removed from their asses to get new orders:Line up behind McCain.

Standing with GOP House leaders John Boehner, Roy Blunt, and Adam Putnam, McCain said that he met with the group this morning and agreed that there was a lot of work to be done towards uniting the party.

This after Mr. 28% has, once again, lied to the American public and said that McCain is a “true conservative”. Of course, anyone who is unfortunate enough to be represented by those 3 already know that having their own thoughts goes against everything being an elected GOP politician is all about.

Because this is what the Washington post reported this morning:

At the request of his campaign, McCain (Ariz.) will visit the House Republican Conference, whose members include some who have said they felt physically ill at the prospect of the senator heading the ticket.

Isn’t that an endorsement? I wonder if they changed their tunes because Cheney offered to take them on a hunting trip. Or maybe the Washington Post was incredibly wrong:

House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) will endorse him, citing his role as chairman of the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis. House Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), whose rural district went heavily for former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee on Feb. 5, will also decline to endorse, as will House Republican Conference Chairman Adam H. Putnam (R-Fla.), who has stayed neutral since his first choice, former senator Fred D. Thompson (Tenn.), dropped out. Only the chief deputy whip, Rep. Eric Cantor (Va.), is on the McCain team.

Notice some similar names there? Talk about a 180 in less than a few hours.