The Terror Trial In New York.....From Last Week

Did you know there was a terrorist trial last week in New York who had a connection to Khalid Sheik Muhammed?

Im sure you probably didn't because only a handful of journalists even wrote about it and of course there was no Right Wing freakout over it either.

And not a thing happened. No mutants with laser beams coming out of their asses broke the terrorist out nor did a bunch of jihadis invade New York and start shooting death rays.

Funny how that works.

And you know what the result was?

A conviction.

I bet you won't see anything about THAT on FoxNews though...

The Kiss Of Death

So today Anthony Weiner basically said Harold Ford Jr would be another Joe Lieberman.....

If Gilibrand's people are smart they will start repeating this theme 1000 different ways.

Update: Come to think of it, maybe this should be the platform of many of the Dems in the mid terms. Instead of running against Bush or running against the GOP, maybe running against Lieberman is the answer...

Making Up Shit

Unfair, Unbalanced, and Untruthful.

Two Words For You, "The Abyss"

I haven't posted much on the NY23 race mostly because I was too busy sitting over here laughing my ass off about it. This is the case study on why I predicted earlier this year that the GOP isn't headed into the wilderness, but into the abyss. This pretty much goes back to John McCain picking Sarah Palin as his VP candidate. She came to embody what a substantial part of the Republican Party thinks they should be, at least from all her rhetoric.

Proud to be stupid, inflexible, dogmatic, irrational, underqualified, and hyperbolic.

That is the "base" of the GOP now. And for them its all fine and good to lose elections as long as they ran as "conservative" a race as possible and polarized people. They don't give a shit about polls, or science, or the will of the people. All they care about is their own ideology and everybody else are the crazy ones for not subscribing to it.

Now you have what should have been an innocuous special election for a House seat in northern New York which by all accounts should have been an easy win for any Republican candidate. But you see Sarah Palin's GOP will not take yes for an answer. For them it isn't about whether or not the GOP can build their numbers back up. No, for them its about the strictest litmus test possible for the Republican candidate. When the woman who was nominated by the local GOP, Dede Scozzafava, didn't fit in that box because she held some moderate positions, the "base" of the party, you know the Tea Baggers who swear they don't care about the GOP, decided to put up their own idealogue, Doug Hoffman, who of course has no idea of what the hell the job entails.

Hoffman is quite simply a Sarah Palin clone. Proud to be ignorant of the needs of that district. Oh so proud to be an idealogue. And built up by people who don't really give a shit about NY23 but instead their own political futures. But hey why let that keep him from ruining the Republicans chances of winning a seat that has been in their possession for literally over 100 years.

I will just let the paper of record from that district, the Watertown Daily, which initially endorsed Scozzafava, take it away now.

The Watertown Daily Times initially endorsed Ms. Scozzafava as the best-qualified candidate in the race. We still think she is. However, in suspending her campaign she released her supporters' commitment to her. That left voters to choose between Mr. Owens and Mr. Hoffman.

Of the two, Bill Owens is by far the superior and only choice.

The Democratic candidate has demonstrated a willingness to listen to people about ways in which he could help the district as their representative in Washington. Mr. Owens has remained focused on the economy and job creation throughout his campaign. At the same time, he has shown an understanding of the military, a keen desire to help dairy farmers, an ability to work with labor unions and an eagerness to learn more about the vast, 11-county district that he hopes to represent.

Mr. Owens seems to approach politics and challenges with an open mind, a generous spirit and a can-do attitude. He has conducted a dignified campaign in comparison to Doug Hoffman.

Mr. Hoffman is running as an ideologue. If he carries out his pledges on earmarks, taxation, labor law reform and other inflexible positions, Northern New York will suffer. This rural district depends on the federal government for an investment in Fort Drum and its soldiers, environmental protection of our international waterway and the Adirondack Park, and the livelihood of all our dairy farmers across the district, among other support. Our representative cannot be locked into rigid promises and policies that would jeopardize these critical sectors of our economy.

For a member of Congress, there may be a time to promote reform in Washington, but there is also a time to work within a system that best serves the people you represent.

It is frightening that Mr. Hoffman is so beholden to right-wing ideologues who dismiss Northern New Yorkers as parochial when people here simply want to know how Mr. Hoffman will protect their interests in Washington.

The race has changed, but voters still face an important choice. Northern New York must send to Congress a representative who serves their interests first and foremost.

The Times endorses Bill Owens for Congress.

Now here is the rub. Should Bill Owens win on Tuesday the right wing base of the GOP will actually count this as a victory. Leave aside the fact that Scozzafava would have agreed with the GOP in Congress on probably something like 98% of issues. Better yet she probably would have voted with them 99% of the time. And we all know that ain't happening with Owens.

No for them as long as they don't have a "RINO" in office that is all that matters.

Now we Democrats have our own problems with DINOs. But the difference is we don't mind folks having a different opinion or point of view, as long as they don't obstruct their own party. The base of the GOP now wants nothing less than blind allegiance to what they claim are conservative views. Doesn't matter that their "god" Ronald Reagan had some of the worst economic ideas in our country's history. Doesn't matter that the "culture wars" of years past are now passing their party up with the younger generation. Doesn't matter that the demographics of the country are changing in such a way that their lack of minority outreach will only increase in importance going forward.

They. Don't. Care.

So if my fellow Democrats are smart we will largely just stay out of the way and let them eat their own. This one fire that doesn't need any more gasoline added. Just let the flame wars go and then sweep away the ashes when its time to count votes.

It is what it is.

See, Its Only Racism When The Black Guy Does It

Man Michael Steele is such a blithering buffoon that I was almost at the point of feeling pity for him because he is in so far over his head. But then this step n fetchit, coonin ass Uncle Tom goes on national television to defend the racist assholes who oppose President Obama and in the next breath has the unmitigated gall to cast racist aspersions on President Obama himself. This muthafucka is beyond useless at this point and I can't see how his Momma could even love him. I wonder how he will react when his own kids get to calling him a sellout when they get old enough to google him. Michael Steele carries water for white racists so much that gives house niggers a bad name. Seriously.

Suprisingly, It Could Have Been Worse

I don't know how serious the AP is about trying to round up people who excerpt their work so I will just link to thieir article and paraphrase.

It turns out that in 2002 Dick Cheney and the rest of his NeoCon brood tried to convince President Bush to use the military to go into Buffalo, New York and apprehend some terrorism suspects instead of the FBI. Its now apparent to me that there is no way to overestimate just how big of a coward Cheney and his wing of the Executive Office were. There are many many good reasons why its against the policy of the United States of America to use our military domestically, especially for police actions. Bush ultimately told them no, at least according to the AP article, but the simple fact that Cheney was advocating this just goes to show you how much of a chicken hawk the man really was.

And this is the guy the GOP is now trying to make into some kind of hero. Give me a damn break.

Montanans Aren't Cowards, Its Just That Their Congressional Representatives Are.

I had to put a fine line on what Gail Collins had to say in her excellent, snark filled column today. The NIMBY fears in Montana are obviously all about their Senators and Representatives in Congress, not about the citizens who put them there:

Instead, consider the case of Hardin, Mont., a community of 3,400 people just down the road from the place where Custer made his Last Stand.

Lately, things have not been going any better for Hardin than they did for the general. Unemployment is rife. “You go look at our downtown, there’s many closed businesses ... you’ll see drunks laying in the street. It’s not a pretty sight,” the head of the town’s economic development authority told National Public Radio. The town built a $27 million, 464-bed prison under the theory that other parts of the state would pay to have Hardin look after their problem residents. But it’s been empty since it was declared open for business nearly two years ago, and the construction loans are in default.

So, with the town council’s enthusiastic support, Hardin volunteered to take the Guantánamo prisoners.

It’s unlikely that the White House would have accepted the offer, but it was certainly an example of pluck and you’d think everyone would give Hardin three cheers. Instead, Montana’s Democratic senators went ballistic.

“We’re not going to bring Al Qaeda to Big Sky Country — no way, not on my watch,” said Max Baucus.

“If these prisoners need a new place, it’s not going to be anywhere near The Last Best Place,” said Jon Tester.

This shows us two things:

1) Montana has given itself many nicknames.

2) Montanans are more easily frightened than Manhattanites.

Think about it. New Yorkers live in the top terror target in the nation. This week four new would-be terrorists were arrested for plotting to blow up synagogues in the Bronx. On the same day, President Obama announced that the first Guantánamo prisoner to be tried in the United States would be coming to court in Lower Manhattan.

Even though it appears the guys involved in the Bronx case were deeply, deeply inept, this is still not the kind of news package you want to hear. But nobody had a fit over it. “Bottom line is we have had terrorists housed in New York before,” said Senator Charles Schumer.

I really believe that if someone were to go around and poll the citizens living in the vicinity of SuperMax prisons you would find that none of them are afraid of having GITMO detainees housed there. Its just that the bubble is so strong in the beltway that CongressCritters, espcially Democrats, are afraid that pulling the trigger will hurt them come election time. You see its not the citizens are afraid, its the lawmakers and that is a very dissappointing development.

Gotta Go, Gotta Go

From Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.

"The President has accepted the resignation of Louis Caldera as Director of the White House Military Office."

For those reading this who are all like "Who?", that guy.

Jon Stewart Tells Limbaugh TO GTFO!

If Rush Limbaugh was expecting some tears to be shed over his annoucement that he was moving away from New York he for damn sure didn't get any from Jon Stewart.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	M - Th 11p / 10c
Rush Limbaugh Leaves New York
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