December 28, 2011

The DLC was hired by the US Chamber of Commerce under Tom Donahue

to make certain right wing ideology was pervasive in both parties.

http://mydd.com/2006/12/13/tom-donahue-the-gang-of-6-and-red-america

(snip)

Donahue is really smart, and the Chamber isn't going away. If you read the full article, you'll see that he hired Al From, head of the DLC, to make sure that right-wing policies succeed in both parties.

(end snip)


http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A64725-2005Feb4?language=printer

(snip)

The chamber has hired the Swiss Guard of paid consultants from both political parties. Several showed up at a recent dinner hosted by Donohue at the chamber, including Al From, chief executive of the Democratic Leadership Council; Thomas F. "Mack" McLarty, who was White House chief of staff in the Clinton administration; and Scott W. Reed, who was Bob Dole's 1996 presidential campaign manager.

(end snip)

Koch money? Probably. The Dark Side? Most certainly.

December 17, 2011

Judge to hear campaigner's plea for inquest into Dr Kelly's controversial death

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2075353/Judge-hear-campaigners-plea-inquest-Dr-Kellys-controversial-death.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

A retired surgeon campaigning for a full coroner’s inquest into the death of Dr David Kelly will have his case heard by a High Court judge on Monday.

David Halpin, 71, is seeking permission to challenge the Government’s decision in June not to order a coroner’s inquest into the controversial death.

Dr Kelly, a government weapons inspector, allegedly slashed his wrist and swallowed painkillers in an Oxfordshire wood in July 2003, after being named as the source of a BBC report accusing Tony Blair’s government of lying to take Britain into the Iraq war.

(snip)

Monday’s hearing, which is open to the public, will last two hours and marks the first time that matters relating to the Iraq war, Dr Kelly’s death and the Blair government’s handling of both issues will be before a court rather than a public inquiry.

December 16, 2011

A modern-day fairy tale peddled by Republicans

http://www.gjfreepress.com/article/20111216/COLUMNISTS/111219977/1001&parentprofile=1059

Once upon a time in a country far, far away, truth was told. Prevaricating trolls were locked away in prison towers. The sun shined. There was clean water. Everyone lived happily ever after.

That is a fairy tale. So are the jobs we are being told will be created by the Keystone XL Pipeline. Republicans attached approval of the Keystone XL Pipeline to a bill that would extend the payroll tax holiday for workers and jobless benefits for the unemployed, effectively holding the 99% hostage to a fairy tale.

(snip)

The problem facing Canada is that they can't get all of their potential production to global markets unless they can get it to a seaport and pump it into super tankers. They can't get it to the international marketplace without going through the U.S., because the First Nations People of Canada won't allow the product to be piped across their land into British Columbia. They fear the corrosive nature of the product. For some strange reason, the Republican Governor of Nebraska has the same concern about piping the product through the Ogallala Aquifer.

The Keystone XL Pipeline is simply an extension of an already existing pipeline. The developer's estimate of jobs has a lot of fuzzy math: Some of the jobs would be in Canada; if a job lasts for two years, it was counted as two jobs — one for each year; if stays at a hotel go up or meals served in a restaurant go up during the construction, jobs in the hotel and restaurant are counted as new jobs.

The U.S. State department estimates that the actual jobs created in the U.S. would be 5,000 temporary jobs. So, actual job creation would be 2.5% of the jobs being discussed by Republicans and Fox News. It is not exactly a lie that jobs would be created, but we have been given a big fat fairy tale about the number of jobs.

(snip)

Temporary jobs a fraction of what is promoted, higher oil prices in the midwest of course to pay for the pipeline, and most of the oil will be shipped overseas - the pipeline just gets it to the ports faster...it's all been just a great big fairy tale.

Move on...got to move on

December 15, 2011

Did MSNBC overapologize to Mitt Romney?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/post/did-msnbc-overapologize-to-mitt-romney/2011/12/14/gIQAhbnEwO_blog.html

To hear Chris Matthews tell it yesterday, MSNBC went way overboard on something. Here’s what he said on his “Hardball” program on Wednesday afternoon:

It was irresponsible and incendiary of us to do this, and it showed an appalling lack of judgment. We apologize, we really do, to the Romney campaign.

(snip)


Part 1: Was the allegedly offending statement accurate?

Yes, but let’s break this down into its constituent parts. First, Roberts implied that Romney had used the term “Keep America American.” Based on this story in the Los Angeles Times, that looks accurate. Roberts also linked that phrase to the KKK. Again, there’s solid ground for that conclusion.

(snip)

The unfortunate upshot of that moment is that Romney used a phrase deployed by the KKK in proximity to a reference to immigration policy. Therefore, the reference on MSNBC was fair, even if it lacked a response from the Romney people.

(end snip)

See apology here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/100218659

Tweety is saying (was told to say) we're sorry we reported that Mitt is using a phrase in his campaign that the KKK has previously used. We caused him embarrassment and for that we are not going to get access to his sorry a**, unless we grovel right fricking now.

December 15, 2011

MSNBC apologizes to Romney campaign for mentioning our post about Romney using old KKK slogan

http://www.americablog.com/2011/12/msnbc-apologizes-to-romney-campaign-for.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Americablog+%28AMERICAblog%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

"Keep America American." Here's where Romney said it a few days ago on the campaign trail (and note how Romney, between the lines, calls President Obama a "socialist" in the same quote - but that's okay apparently):

(snip)

And here's what MSNBC said this morning:

So you may not hear Mitt Romney say "Keep America American" anymore, because it was a rallying cry for the kkk group, and intimidation against blacks, gays and Jews, and the progressive AMERICAblog was the first to catch on to that.

(snip)

So what part of that is wrong, and what part of that deserves an effusive apology such as Chris Matthews gaves this evening on MSNBC? And it was one hell of an apology:




WTF? He said it, more than once. AmericaBlog called him on it, and MSNBComcast apologizes to the offender for reporting it.