Entries from October 2007
It’s been more than 24 hours and things are beginning to settle down after the debates. And they should..
Go read Jane and newly-converted Democrat John Cole. That’s all. Oh, except for John Amato of Crooks and Liars who, while watching the debate with Jane last night, said to her of Russert, "“Why doesn’t he just ask her if she killed Vince Foster?” This nonsense that Hillary did not do well in the debate, contradicted herself, flip-flopped or whatever is media hype and desperate, wishful thinking by supporters of [...]
Categories: Bush Administration · Clinton
Just a collection of links I found interesting, browsing through Bloglines while watching TV tonight. Don’t forget, if you’re reading this on the old site, we will likely be moving to krilefiles.wordpress.com shortly. Let us know of any issues!
The Army began its recruiting year Oct. 1 with fewer signed up for basic training than in any year since it became an all-volunteer service in 1973, a top general said Wednesday [...]
For what they’re worth, there are three new national polls of the Democratic and Republican presidential primaries out today [..]
The right wingers are going for the jugular, filing FEC complaints against Clinton…
The word began filitering out into the internet shortly after Matt and I posted the entry. The notarised complaint is now on its way to the FEC, and so we’ll soon see some action – from what I understand, the [...]
So glad to have John Cole over on our side!
And saying “Why the hell didn’t I think of that”: An IDF soldier fled an interrogation room by exposing her breasts to a stunned officer. The soldier was interrogated at the Biranit army base on the northern border after she refused to undergo a drugs test. A short while after her questioning began the soldier was seen [...]
Tags: Army Recruiting, Clinton, Giuliani, FEC
Categories: Bush Administration · Iraq War
And, it’s the correct thing to do. These people are out of control…
Jury awards father $2.9M in funeral case
A grieving father won a $2.9 million verdict Wednesday against a fundamentalist Kansas church that pickets military funerals out of a belief that the war in Iraq is a punishment for the nation’s tolerance of homosexuality. Albert Snyder of York, Pa., sued [...]
Powered by Qumana
Categories: Iraq War
Nope. Not one little bit. I’d be po’d, too.
Angry US Diplomats On Forced Iraq Posts: It’s A "Potential Death Sentence"
Several hundred U.S. diplomats vented anger and frustration Wednesday about the State Department’s decision to force foreign service officers to take jobs in Iraq, with some likening it to a "potential death sentence." In a contentious hour-long "town hall meeting" called to explain the step, these workers peppered the official who signed the order with often hostile complaints about [...]
Tags: U.S. Diplomats, State Department
Powered by Qumana
Categories: Bush Administration · Iraq War
This is a positive development! The AMT was poised to nail a bunch of additional taxpayers.
Tax Writers Tell IRS to Count on Enactment of AMT ‘Patch’
Congressional tax writers from both parties and both chambers have told the Internal Revenue Service – and about 20 million taxpayers – not to worry about any new hit from the alternative minimum tax this year [...]
Tags: IRS, Tax Code, AMT
Powered by Qumana
Categories: Bush Administration · Economy
Will the Administration listen?
Private Note to Bush from Hagel Calls For Direct, Unconditional, Comprehensive Talks with Iran
I have just secured a private letter — not yet publicly released — from Senator Chuck Hagel to President Bush and copied to Condoleezza Rice, Robert Gates, and Stephen Hadley. I should add that I did not receive this letter from Senator Hagel but from other sources. The letter urges the President to pursue "direct, unconditional, and comprehensive talks with the Government of Iran." In the letter, [...]
Tags: Hagel, Bush, Rice, Gates, Hadley, Iran
Powered by Qumana
Categories: Bush Administration · Iran
I have a really difficult time understanding our economy. On one hand, I woke up this morning to a business person on MSNBC explaining how cable companies are noting that customers are dropping premium services, trying to trim their bills as far as possible. Yup. Me, too. Then, catching up with some bloglines over lunch, I ran into the economic info that has bloggers on the Right just jumping up and down. As for me, I’m wondering just where these numbers really come from…
“U.S. Economy: Growth Unexpectedly Accelerated”
More bad news for John Edwards, Economic growth in the U.S. unexpectedly accelerated in the third quarter as increases in exports, consumer spending and business investment made up for another plunge in home construction. Gross domestic product grew at an annual rate of 3.9 percent, the most in more than a [...]
Hmmm. The Fed must not be convinced that the numbers will continue…
Fed Cuts Rates By Quarter Point
The Federal Reserve, confronted with surging oil prices and a slumping housing market, on Wednesday cut a key interest rate by a quarter-point, the second rate reduction this year. The central bank lowered the federal funds rate to [...]
Indeed, analyzing the big picture brings one frightening forecast:
Today’s Housing Bubble Post – The Fuse Is Now Lit
Oh, by the way,
NEW YORK (AP) Gold has traded above $800 for the first time since 1980.
Tags: Economic Growth, Home Construction, Consumer Spending
Powered by Qumana
Categories: Economy
Making and breaking the rules. Here we go again.
White House withholds 600 pages of Abramoff docs.
Today, House Oversight Committee chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) wrote to White House Counsel Fred Fielding and requested that the administration hand over more than 600 pages of documents relating to the White House’s activities with fallen lobbyist Jack Abramoff. From Waxman’s letter: "Despite the refusal of key witnesses to provide testimony, the Committee has [...]
Tags: Abramoff, Waxman, Fielding, Missing Documents
Powered by Qumana
Categories: Bush Administration
However, these new numbers are from BEFORE last night’s debate..
Poll: Clinton widens lead on Obama
New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has significantly widened her lead over Illinois Sen. Barack Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination in the wake of a dispute over handling foreign policy, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds. The survey, taken Friday through Sunday, puts Clinton at 48% — up 8 percentage points from three weeks ago — and Obama at 26%, down 2 points. Among Democrats and independents who [...]
Tags: Clinton, Obama, Presidential Poll, USA Today/Gallup Poll
Powered by Qumana
Categories: 2008 Election · Clinton · Edwards · Obama
It’s not quite a daily occurence, but the stories sure do seem to be hitting fast and furious..
Yet another Republican falls victim to yet another gay sex scandal
Given the Republican sex scandals of 2006, it seemed reasonable to assume 2007 would be a little quieter. No such luck. Examples like these keep popping up. The headline is a real attention-grabber: “Cross-dressing state lawmaker blackmailed following late night tryst.” State Representative Richard Curtis says he’s not gay, but police reports and court records indicate [...]
Tags: Richard Curtis, Cross-Dressing
Powered by Qumana
Categories: Republicans
Farewell. Another one bites the dust…
Rats, Ship, Etc.
Karen Hughes edition: Karen Hughes, who led efforts to improve the U.S. image abroad and was one of President Bush’s last remaining advisers from the close circle of Texas aides, will leave the government at the end of the year. Hughes told The Associated Press that she plans to quit her job as undersecretary of state and [...]
Hey, did you realize that a lot of conservative pundits didn’t think much of Hughes? Sure ’nuff. Michelle Malkin links to a multitude of comments:
Goodbye, Karen Hughes
And, if the right didn’t like her for THOSE reasons, is this what’s around the corner?
Does Karen Hughes Resignation Signal A Strike On Iran?
Tea leave reading is clearly not an exacting science…but if I were asked to interpret the announced resignation of longtime Bush crony Karen Hughes, I would conclude that it signals the likelihood that stealth president Dick Cheney has succeeded in convincing his presidential placeholder, George W. Bush, to launch a strike on Iran prior to [...]
Tags: Karen Hughes, State Department, Bush Administration
Powered by Qumana
Categories: Bush Administration
How can they get away with it, day after day, with no repercussions? It’s a topic, obviously chosen because it would push some emotional buttons, particularly when you twist the story all out of proportion. It really does make you feel for the folks who live and die by Fox News; folks who honestly trust them to deliver the truth.
Fox & Friends, Doocy Lies About Flag Folding Change
Today on Fox and Friends they were in an uproar about something changing in the U.S. flag folding for burial ceremonies. Of course they had Col. David Hunt (Ret), a very outspoken, favorite guest to talk about it. Hunt was, of course, having a hissy fit. They said they were upset about the 11th statement being taken out which coincides with the 11th fold. But Doocy actually said something at the top of the second hour that was an out and out lie. He said the government was taking the word God out of the document when it still remains [...]
As long as we’re ganging up on Fox News, let’s join Media Matters for another solid punch:
Kondracke: Waterboarding "doesn’t result in any lasting damage"
During the "All-Star" panel segment of the October 29 edition of Fox News’ Special Report with Brit Hume, Roll Call executive editor Morton M. Kondracke, referring to the interrogation technique known as waterboarding, stated, "I’m sure it feels like torture, you know, it doesn’t result in any lasting damage, but it feels like torture." However, as Media Matters for America has noted, Dr. Allen S. Keller, M.D., director of the Bellevue Hospital Center/New York University Program for Survivors of Torture, wrote in Senate testimony about the "long-term health consequences" of waterboarding. In written testimony dated [...]
Might I suggest Mr. Hume invite this gentleman on his program? It might make it, for a brief moment, "fair and balanced."
Former Navy SEAL Instructor Offers Another Waterboarding Primer for Mukasey
So Michael Mukasey’s new line is that waterboarding may be "repugnant," but he’s not sure if the Spanish-Inquisition-era torture technique is illegal. Or, to put it another way, he can’t say for sure if the practice is illegal until he’s confirmed as attorney general. Mukasey should listen to longtime counterterrorism expert Malcolm Nance. Nance, a veteran of counterterrorism operations in Iraq, has written a moving post for the counterinsurgency blog Small Wars Journal explaining, in more detail than anyone else has in public, what exactly waterboarding is. And Nance knows what he’s talking about. As an instructor at [...]
Tags: Flag Folding, Fox News, Doocy
Tags: Waterboarding, Kondracke
Powered by Qumana
Categories: Uncategorized
That’s really what it seems to boil down to. This Scott Beauchamp story has bothered me from the beginning, with neither side being able to build a rock solid case. However, this blogger says that’s not the most important point out of it all..
Scott Beauchamp and the Outrage of the Right
I talked to a veteran soldier recently, and he confirmed for me that the following story is true: "A soldier told one of the prisoners to jump off the bridge to the rocks 50 feet below. The prisoner refused, so the soldier shot him and kicked the body off the bridge. Then the soldier ordered the other prisoner to jump, and he did. This incident was our first interchange with a unit that had been under attack for some time. Later that day we received word from that outfit to [...]
Tags: Beauchamp, Haditha
Powered by Qumana
Categories: Iraq War
I didn’t watch it, having survived "Hardball" and "Countdown", I needed something non-political while I worked on last night’s posts. So, a day later, the bloggers are trying to sift through the performances. From what I picked up with an ear to the TV early this morning and from skimming through bloglines tonight, Hillary Clinton came up short. Here’s a quick collection of reviews:
Clinton On The Ropes
One thing that strikes me about these debates: the Democrats are much more boring than the Republicans. I’m not entirely sure why. My hunch is that the Democrats actually think they may need to govern the country, and the Republicans [...]
Observations on the Debate
Here is what I learned in the debate, and spin appearances after the debate, about each of the candidates that I didn’t know before: Chris Dodd is for decriminalizing bong-hits and John Edwards thinks that sends the wrong message to children. Edwards is a wimp on this issue, as were several others that raised their hands as opposing the decriminalization of bong-hits. Bill Richardson is running for vice-president (which is why he leaped to defend Hillary Clinton from a tag-team led by Edwards, Obama, and Dodd). Dennis Kucinich saw something [...]
Barack Obama’s very, very, very bad week didn’t get any better last night and other debate postmortem
The media have been treating the Democratic presidential race as a two-person game for practically the last six months. Granted, a fight to the [political] death between a serious woman candidate and a serious black candidate, particularly when played against a sea of Gray White Saber-Rattlers on the Republican side, makes a more compelling story than do the white guys in the Democratic race. But as Barack Obama’s peculiar flavor of [...]
I watch the debates, so you don’t have to
Not since the first debate for the Democratic presidential candidates, way back in April, has there actually been some anticipation about what might happen. Last night, in Philadelphia, it was obvious that Hillary Clinton’s rivals would be more aggressive towards the front-runner, but how much? Who’d benefit? Would it make a difference? We gained some insights [...]
Over at Newsweek, Richard Wolfe boils it all down to this:
A Drop of Blood in the Water
Watch out, Hillary: The feeding frenzy has just begun
[...]
Tags: Democratic Debate
Powered by Qumana
Categories: Uncategorized
But, much to do before then, since it’s only Wednesday. A couple of quick reminders – Sunday is the beginning of Daylight Savings Time. Clocks go back an hour at bedtime Saturday night. I’m noting that today, mostly as a mental reminder to myself, since I really wanted to do it LAST weekend! Also, let me point out a couple of interesting things over in the vertical panel on the right side of this blog. The Graboid software continues to impress me. They still have a free level. If you’re into movies or TV, check it out. And the Blogrush widget is much more useful now that they’ve cleaned up their member list. It’s a good way to find other bloggers who write about similar topics.
With that out of the way, a quick Halloween note. It’s likely too late for most of you, but it really does confirm the absolute lunacy of the attempts to cut back on staffing and funding for the safety inspection of things we come in contact with on a daily basis.
"100 times the US standard on lead in paint " in Halloween costume
It doesn’t even need a quote. The headline says it all. Just take a moment to read it and shake your head in disbelief. And, then, you’ll understand why this news conference was necessary.
Pelosi: We Must Do More to Protect Our Children From Unsafe Toys
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Representatives Bobby Rush, Rosa DeLauro, Bart Stupak, and Diana DeGette and consumer advocate Donald Mays held a news conference in the Capitol yesterday afternoon on Democratic efforts to promote consumer product and toy safety [...]
Tags: Graboid, Blogrush, Halloween Costume, Lead in Paint
Powered by Qumana
Categories: Uncategorized
They’re smelling blood. Going after Huckabee. Actually, it’s just good reporting.
Huckabee Is Lying
Huckabee is lying. He was deeply involved in the release of Wayne Dumond, the serial rapist who, upon his release, raped and murdered at least one woman. And the mainstream press – by refusing to do even the most basic investigation into the Huckabee case – is colluding with Huckabee in his lies. By the press, we’re not talking [...]
Tags: Huckabee, Dumond
Categories: Uncategorized
The Arkansas Times blog has updated information on the latest West Memphis 3 developments. This story is far from over. Earlier posts are here…
No DNA from the convicted West Memphis Three was found in evidence in the murder case. But now we know that DNA from the stepfather from one of three slain children WAS found at the scene. His knives and whreabouts have made news previously. Add to this today Mara Leveritt’s report of his previous arrest on a sexual assault charge. The folks in Northeast Arkansas, [...]
Tags: West Memphis 3, WM3, Echols
Categories: Uncategorized
And proving the car experts wrong. There is hope for the future!
Doing what Detroit says is impossible
This story is so incredible, I had to do additional research to confirm that it was indeed true. It centers on Kansas City auto mechanic and inventor Johnathan Goodwin. "Two years ago, Goodwin got a rare chance to show off his tricks to some of the car industry’s most prominent engineers. He tells me the story: [...]
Tags: Johnathan Goodwin, Auto Mechanic, Modified H2, Biodiesel
Powered by Qumana
Categories: Uncategorized
This’ll earn him brownie points from some folks.
Kucinich Doubts Bush’s Mental Sanity
Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich questioned President Bush’s mental health in light of comments he made about a nuclear Iran precipitating World War III. "I seriously believe we have to start asking questions about his mental health," Kucinich, an Ohio congressman, said in an interview with The Philadelphia Inquirer’s editorial board on Tuesday. "There’s something wrong. He [...]
By the way, the Kucinich camp says he’s not as far back in the pack as you might think…
Kucinich Rides Wave of Improving Poll Results Into Presidential Debate
Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich goes into tonight’s Democratic Presidential debate riding a wave of positive polling results that put him in fourth place nationally, second in a major California straw poll, and leading among declared Democrats in an online survey sponsored by [...]
Tags: Kucinich, Bush’s Sanity
Powered by Qumana
Categories: Uncategorized
Arkansans really are important, politically!
Arkansas Swinging Back To Blue
Mike Huckabee likes to say he’s a lonely Republican voice back home in Arkansas, and while the state may send two Democratic senators to Washington and 3 out of 4 of its congressional seats may be held by Democrats, since Clinton, Arkansas sure has acted like a red state at the presidential level. In 2000, Bush won by 6% and then in 2004 he won by 9%. But all that could change in 2008. The new Arkansas Poll (754 adults, 10/07, MOE 3.5%) just released indicates the state may be shifting back to a healthy shade of blue. For one thing, there’s clearly [...]
Tags: Arkansas, 2008 Elections
Powered by Qumana
Categories: Uncategorized
