In keeping with my last article, I've decided the following is a law of nature: If you repeat something often enough, people will decide it's true. Even smart people. People like the reporters at the Washington Post, who reported yesterday Barack Obama is a closeted muslim. THAT urban legend has made its rounds through the world wide web, even prompting brain- dead CNN to run a spot in January saying, No, Obama was not educated at a Madrassa school while living with his parents in...
Do we define ourselves by the candidates we support? And, do we define others by the candidates they choose? I've noticed some people will support Bush no matter what facts are presented, facts questioning his basic ability to lead. I think, 'boy they've been sold a bill of goods'. Have they? Have the ardent ditto heads been sold a brand, packaged and advertised like Gap jeans or (my favorite) Abercrombie & Fitch shirts? ( I see Abercrombie anything and I think naked -- this des...
Good bye, Trent Lott. Today, the number two in the US Senate, announced his retirement. Completing his fourth term in the Senate, and before that, belting 16 years in the House, Lott was a Washington fixture since before my political memory. Lott is the ultimate politician. Smiling a big toothy grin as he pumps your hand while sporting a sear -sucker suit, he'll say one thing and do another as quick as an oil slick spreads under the Mississippi sun. Of course, Lott ran into trouble a ...
Oh come all ye faithful, Joyous and triumphant! Oh, come ye Democrats, fresh from a win. Never mind we can't seem to get anything done, Nancy Pelosi is GOD Nancy Pelosi is GOD! N A N C Y P E L O S I IS A G O D. Oh, come all ye faithful, Let's support Hillary She's gonna win she's gonna win so just accept that. Oh come all ye faithful, Obama has a bad name. It sounds like Osama so we can make fun of him! What else can we say? What else can we say? He has no exper...
When George and Laura Bush decide to weigh in on the Demoncratic race, my thoughts tend to race. The other day, Laura Bush promoted a key reason for Clinton's White House run, saying her predecessor's experience as first lady would be "very helpful" in the Oval Office. Hmmm. Bush agreed with her. Uh Oh. I've also heard Newt Gingrich speak extensively about the former first lady, suggesting she was the toughest candidate the Republicans could face. Likewise, at a major Republican annu...
I repent! I am on my knees! (Mind out of the gutter). I have been convinced. I see the light! I have sinned! Forgive me, please, forgive me! Bush is a great man. He is the finest example of a leader I've ever seen. Let's start from the start, even before W was elected. He knew he was incompetent on foreign policy, so he enlisted the help of a top, unbiased expert in the field: the ambassador of Saudi Arabia. Yes, he got private tutoring sessions from the Ambassador, and was...
In my last political posting, I suggested Bush was one of the worst Presidents in history. My reasoning was straight forward: no matter what your position on the war in Iraq, his handling of the planning up to war, the execution of the war itself, and the poor after-thought about the conflict's aftermath, make him a nominee for Lousy Prez. So, many more conservative bloggers took me to task on the intelligence leading up to the war. "No," they write, "hind sight is 20/20, and it's easy to see...
You know, it's easy to get everyone riled up. Post an article on "President Bush is the worse President in history" and, BAMM you go from moderate to nut case in four paragraphs. Kinda fun, though. I know this posting will recieve few comments, and that's ok. I'm thinking out loud. Today, after six days in the hospital, my partner comes home, perhaps. I could have lost him. Jesus, how can that be? How can someone go from healthy to hurt in just a few days? I started this blog las...
[I ]"The reasons why we went to war in Iraq don't matter any more, we are there and that mission is accomplished."[/ I] That's a quote from a fellow blogger, buried under 99 other responses. Of course, I think he's wrong. The reasons we went to war in Iraq are central to our mission, and those reasons are changed and manipulated at the whim of this administration. Measures of success, in a similar fashion, are "evolved". Today, Bush cites the lower death tolls and levels of violenc...
A week has past now for me on Joe User. A strange week, I admit -- between work, my parnter in the hospital, and finding my dead neighbor -- I'm hoping the last gasps of 2007 are clearing the fog for the new breath of 2008. A year, by the way, I'm planning on starting in Athens: with my partner and a view of the Acropolis. A few weeks ago, I photographed a group of veterans at a defense forum. It wasn't a partisan event, it was a matter -of -fact examination by the military of veteran hea...
As a member of the press, this is an area I have some expertise. However, one disclosure: my days of working for hard news media are few and far between. I've joined the money train. Yup, that's right: most of my work centers on photos taken for groups interracting on Capitol Hill with membes of the government. Is that a fancy way of saying I work for a bunch of lobbyists, and it's my job to make them and our leaders look good for the photos. Yup. And I make a fine good living doing i...
Who did you vote for in the Primary Election of 2004? And why? How does that vote -- or the reasoning behind that vote -- affect your actions this go around? Remember in November of 2004, Howard Dean was the annointed frontrunner and presumptive nominee of the Democratic Primary. Poll after poll showed Dean ahead -- he was the Internet money raising darling and the new type of candidate. Then......".....EEEEEEAAAAAAWWWWWHHHHHHHH!!!!!!" Now, Dean is the Chairman of the DNC. And the ...
I knew it. I knew it, I knew it, I knew it. I often thought political commercials could just substitute names for any candidate running. "Doug Smith cares about you. He cares about children, and the environment. He'll keep your taxes low, the parks clean, and every four years, Doug will make sure the road in front of your house is paved. Doug. Doug is a proud American." Sure enough, yesterday, National Public Radio reported on a firm that provides canned advertisements to (mainly lo...
So today, after I wrote my initial thoughts on this subject, John McCain came out and called for an end to the third party, 501-C-4 advertisements supporting his campaing in South Carolina. For those of you not up on this subject, Rick Reed, who helped produce the famous Swift Boat ads during the doomed Kerry campaign, has been running spots supportive of McCain in South Carolina. Today, McCain denounced these advertisements. As I wrote earlier, I couldn't believe he would support the run...
Like it or not, the now famous Swift Boat advertisement in the last Presidential election harpooned John Kerry. The result: brace yourself for an entire season of off-based, dishonest commercials. It's already started. On the Democratic side, Move On published the now infamous "General Betrayus" advertisement -- lampooning a decent man's testimony even before he took the stand. On the Republican front, "The Foundation for a Secure and Prosperous America" (a group started by Rick Reed wh...