Riding with an Abortion Foe Who Once Targeted Tiller

By David Corn | June 2, 2009 10:00 AM | | Comments (81)

With the murder of Dr. George Tiller, an abortion provider, Randall Terry is back in the news. For years, he has been one of the leading antiabortion extremists, and he has at times directed his fury at Tiller. On Monday, while essentially justifying the slaying of Tiller, Terry compared himself to Martin Luther King Jr. Yes, he did.

In 1998, I did a piece on Terry for The Nation. It's not easily available online. So I'm posting it below. At the time, he was running for Congress in upstate New York. He didn't win the seat, but while campaigning he was--as he always is--quite candid (perhaps too candid) about his fundamentalist views. Because Terry has re-emerged as a public figure after years of obscurity and personal scandal--he led the recent protests against President Barack Obama's commencement address at Notre Dame--I thought this profile would be useful to anyone trying to understand the fellow and other extremists, including Scott Roeder, the antigovernment, anti-abortion fundamentalist who is the key suspect in the Tiller murder.

FAITH AND COMMANDMENTS ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL
THE NATION magazine, September 29, 1998

Operation Rescue founder Randall Terry's run for a GOP congressional slot is giving party bosses fits. Meet the Religious Ultraright.

By David Corn

"Do you believe in Law? Capital L."

It's 7:30 in the morning. I'm driving a red rented sporty 1999 Oldsmobile Alero east of Binghamton, New York, speeding on Route 17 ("America's most scenic highway, 1964-1965," reads a sign). The morning fog is lifting from lush green valleys--and practically the first thing my passenger, Randall Terry, the notorious antiabortion activist now running for Congress in the Empire State's 26th Congressional District, asks me is the most fundamental question there is for him.

"Biblical law?" I ask.

"Transcendent law," he replies. "Law from above."

Unprepared for theology before breakfast, I mutter that if there is transcendent law, it's tough to trust self-proclaimed transcribers down here.

"You don't believe God gave Moses the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai?"

"I'm agnostic on that point."

"So we're basically free to make law in that [nontranscendent] world system? We are pretenders to the throne?"

Over the next few hours, Terry, the charismatic and in-your-face founder of Operation Rescue, which targeted and harassed abortion clinics across the country, will argue that without biblical law one cannot "absolutely" condemn the Nazis; that secular law should be based on the Bible; that the total tax burden on a citizen should not surpass 10 percent of income; that a government that forces people to pay income tax is a "tyrant" that must be defeated; that adultery should be prosecuted; that the Bible commands patriarchy ("in every house there has to be a tie-breaker, and I be that"); that his views are in line with those of George Washington, Patrick Henry and John Adams (and other patriots who considered American democracy and Christianity intertwined); that a reporter who is not "covenantal"--meaning not a Christian who accepts the inerrancy of the Bible--cannot portray Terry accurately; and that people who raise questions about his religious beliefs and their relationship to his policy prescriptions are "petty Bible-phobes and Christophobes."

"In the Christian worldview, God gets 10 percent," Terry remarks, referring to tithing. "The civil government gets less.... I have a master. He was born in Bethlehem. For the state to be my savior, it has to be my lord. That's why, if I can use really politically charged words, Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong and Bill Clinton are political kissing cousins. You're just talking about degrees."

We're zooming down Route 17, late for an interview Terry has on the east side of this sprawling district, which runs 150 miles from the college town of Ithaca through scruffy Binghamton through rural farmland to quaint Kingston. I punch the accelerator, and the car jumps with a bolt of power.

"Man," exclaims Terry, eyes wide open. "You gotta let me drive this car at some point. You know, I used to sell used cars."

Randall Terry, 39 years old, is not the average Republican candidate. In fact, the GOP, locally and nationally, is not pleased with his bid to become its nominee against Representative Maurice Hinchey, a 59-year-old, consistently liberal Democrat. It is tempting to suggest that the September 15 primary-in which Terry's main foe is William "Bud" Walker, a 42-year-old radio-station and apple orchard owner who tries to straddle the line between moderate and conservative--reflects the ongoing tension within the GOP between the religious right and mainline, Chamber-of-Commerce-type Republicans. But Terry's politics are militia-style, outside the borders of that ideological tug-of-war. Terry resides on--and leads--the far side of the religious right, the opposite end of this subspectrum from, say, Ralph Reed.

He does not fit easily within the party, nor does he wish to. That's why, in part, he has received the official blessing of James Dobson, the influential Christian right leader who heads Focus on the Family. Dobson, who does not usually endorse candidates, has complained that the Republicans have short-changed religious conservatives. Terry shares that sentiment. In 1995 he groused that Republican leaders "throw a bone to Christians and then ignore it." He called Newt Gingrich's Contract With America a "joke, because it does not alter the direction of this country one iota." And he dismissed the Christian Coalition's agenda for being too mild. In this race, he is making a run not just at Congress but also at the GOP. Terry's Dobson-backed campaign--fueled by donations from across the country--provides clues as to what the Dobsonite religious right wants and whether it poses a serious challenge to the Republican establishment.

On the campaign trail, Terry pushes proposals that would make Gingrich blush. He calls for a constitutional amendment to end all property taxes ("land taxes are inherently immoral because God forbids them") and a total phaseout of Social Security. (His campaign video claims the retirement system will be bankrupt by the year 2010--which is decades off the conventional estimates.) He does not shrink from discussing abortion, but the subject is not front and center in his public soundbites. He advocates repealing the federal income tax and slashing the government by about two-thirds. By his estimate, 62 percent of the federal government is devoted to "savior programs." That's his code for social spending. Since there is only one Savior--and He is not a government bureaucrat--all these functions of government are out of bounds and warrant the ax. Terry questions whether the Environmental Protection Agency and the Centers for Disease Control are legitimate government agencies, since the Constitution does not specifically provide for their establishment.

The Republican Party, no surprise, is not cheering for him. A senior official at the party's headquarters in Washington says, "We're watching him, and we're not hoping for him." A group of moderate Republicans--including California Governor Pete Wilson and New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman-have been airing television ads against Terry, claiming he promotes hate and intolerance. Bud Walker (who urges increased military spending and says he is "pro-choice with restrictions") has collected almost two dozen local Republican committee endorsements; Terry has none. Asked if he will endorse Terry should Terry win the primary, State Senator Thomas Libous, a prominent Republican in the district, replies tactfully, "We'll address that if we have to." Seven GOP House members in New York have backed Walker. One of them, Gerald Solomon, signed a letter comparing Terry to David Duke. (This makes Terry livid; he has adopted two biracial children.)

The GOP does not want Terry representing it, but it may not have a choice. "We know what can happen when you have an in surgent candidate with a devoted following and lots of money," says the national GOP official. "And he has both." As of the end of June, Terry had raised close to $700,000--mostly through direct mail. He estimates he can bag about $1.5 million by November 3. (Walker had raised only $75,000; he pumped $168,000 into his campaign by lending it money.) Terry's campaign office in the two-block town of Windsor has attracted "covenantal" staff from across the country, many of whom, naturally, were initially drawn by his antiabortion work. His two-dozen-person phone bank is managed by a young woman from Nebraska. A math teacher and antiabortion activist from Long Island took time off to volunteer. ("My union would kill me if they knew," he says.) A 17-year-old Web site whiz kid left his computer and consulting business in Michigan to assist Terry. The campaign press secretary is Gary McCullough, who in a 1993 article called Michael Griffin, who murdered abortion provider Dr. David Gunn, "a hero." McCullough added, "In America we have failed to protect the preborn infants. When violence comes it will be justified."

At the local cable news station in Middleton, Terry chats easily with a reporter. Standing near a satellite dish, a tall and blue-eyed fellow wearing a dark suit and wire-rimmed glasses, he looks like a candidate. His hair--once worn in an Afro--is well coiffed, his manner amiable. Without resorting to biblical explanations, he predicts that his call to eliminate property taxes and Social Security will drive people to the polls. "Endorsements don't win campaigns," he says. "Voters do, and we have a get-out-the-vote machine." Then it's on to Kingston, where, in a ninety-second interview, he again bangs away on property taxes and Social Security. He then drops in at the local newspaper and encounters Representative Hinchey, who was first elected in a tight contest in 1992 and then re-elected in 1994 with a margin of victory of 1,248 votes. Though Hinchey trounced his opponent in 1996, Republicans still eye his seat as a potential pickup.

"I hope you're working hard," Hinchey says with a grin. "I'm rooting for you. But you haven't shown me much. I hope there are things you're doing that are subterranean." Hinchey leaves, and Terry grits his teeth. "I'11 show you, and I'll see you on September 16," he says. Even if Terry loses the GOP primary, he will be on the November ballot, on the Right to Life Party ticket. He's also battling Walker for the Conservative Party nomination. Should Republicans spurn him, Terry says, he won't bow out. That's good news for Hinchey, who can expect an easier time in a three-way race.

Terry wangles a few minutes with Hugh Reynolds, the cynical political editor of the Kingston Freeman, and moans that Hinchey has accused him of being violent. (A Hinchey campaign leaflet quotes a Terry speech: "When I or people like me are running the country, [abortion providers] better flee because we will find you, we will try you, and we will execute you.") Reynolds is not sympathetic. "You called Hinchey evil," he says. Indeed, in a letter to Democrats, Terry described Hinchey as "an extremist for evil" because he voted against a measure prohibiting late-term abortions (with no exceptions for a woman's health and welfare) and against a ban on gay marriage. Terry defends his use of the word and vows to keep pounding Hinchey on social issues. He adds, "Hinchey has voted 100 percent with Representative Bernie Sanders, a socialist."

During the ride to his next stop, Terry signs fundraising letters and hums an old Monkees tune to himself. "Do you believe in spiritual warfare?" I ask. That's a religious notion that holds that the conflicts of the secular world reflect the greater struggle between Satan and God. Terry becomes angry: "I'm not going into that stuff." When he calms down, he says: "I believe the nature of the battle is covenantal." Which means? "You have people who believe in Law." And people who do not. Are there enough covenantal voters for him to win? "Absolutely." But he is not relying on true believers. If a voter appreciates Terry's attack on the beer tax or Social Security, he explains, that "voter doesn't care if my premise is the Eighth Commandment. He's going, `Yes! I get to keep my money!'"

At the Rondout Country Club, Terry is greeted by Pastor Alan Miller, who has organized a luncheon with pastors. Miller sent out 140 invitations, but it's summer and only three ministers have shown up, one with his brother. Terry provides an upbeat briefing on his campaign, yet he shares a disappointment: "the lack of enthusiasm among the Christian right." Dobson's endorsement, it seems, has not yet mobilized masses of local Christian conservatives. The brother asks about reports that Terry did not pay his state taxes for three years and then covered his tax debt days before announcing his candidacy. Terry says he had a cash-flow problem, noting, "Who better to represent people than someone who hates taxes?" He adds that the progressive income tax is immoral, for it violates the Tenth Commandment (thou shalt not covet) and that the Christian right, obsessed with abortion, has become a "one-commandment movement." He explains: "Four commandments deal with money. We have to broaden our mission."

Terry has been broadening for years. In the early nineties he withdrew from the stress of leading Operation Rescue and started a radio show. Today his program airs on fifty-four stations, none reaching his district. He has stretched his political horizon beyond abortion, bashing Clinton for proposing that gays be allowed to serve in the military and organizing a bus tour that called for the President's impeachment in response to the Whitewater and Arkansas state trooper revelations. Upset with the GOP for doing little to end abortion and for being timid "on the homosexual issue," Terry began studying libertarianism and hooked up with the US Taxpayers Party, an archconservative, libertarian-leaning, ardently pro-life outfit, which holds that the Republican Party is compromised beyond repair. He established the Christian Leadership Institute to train activists at his farm outside Binghamton. And last year Terry led others into bookstores to rip up art books he considered child porn.

For this race, Terry concluded that he could only reach Congress via the GOP. He also recruited six other "righteous" men to seek House seats and christened the band the Patrick Henry Men. The other candidates have mostly crashed and burned, with the exception of Joseph Slovenec, a USTP Senate candidate in 1994, who, as a Republican, is challenging Representative Dennis Kucinich, a progressive Democrat, in Cleveland. Terry's political expansion brought him to the point where he says the federal government has become "our civil master" and Americans now live in a time of "chaos and violence." The choice is "freedom based on Christian ethics" or "the financial and social collapse of our nation."

Terry returns to his campaign headquarters. Volunteers are listening to Elton John. "I am not a fringe candidate," he shouts, and heads to his office. "How many times today did he use the word `Beelzebub?'" an aide asks me. None, I say. "Good," he replies.

Sitting at his desk, Terry listens to the music of Rez, a heavy-metal Christian rock band. ("Twenty years of raising the dead," the cover proclaims.) A good-humored, sometimes goofy man, when not damning evil, Terry genially continues our theological discussion. But when I ask about some of his past statements, he starts to bark, claiming that they have nothing to do with this race and that only an anti-Christian bigot would refer to them. But what about his previous assertion that religions other than Christianity are "false"? Could that put off voters? "First of all," he replies, "I haven't declared that in this campaign.... I'm a preacher.... What you're trying to say is that an orthodox Christian can't serve unorthodox Christians and non-Christians." Yet he had uttered this remark at a 1995 USTP event. Where does theology end and politics begin'?

Then there was a private meeting in 1995 at which he said that striking or cursing a parent is a "capital offense." What did he mean by that? Terry is outraged by the question: "I was quoting the Torah.... Are you asking me do I think that teenage rebels should be stoned today? The answer is no.... I was a rebel teenager." It is unfair, he maintains, to "take a speech, a sermon in a church about the Law of Moses and try to implicate me on a policy level." There is Terry the Bible-believing preacher, and there is Terry the politician with policy proposals. The roles, he claims, are distinct. The remark about rebellious teens, he protests, is unrelated to his attempt to become a lawmaker.

But according to a videotape obtained by researcher Jonathan Hutson, this is what Terry said about teenage rapscallions: "Our enemies would throw the tough cases up in our face...and say, `Do you actually mean that you would support the stoning of a rebellious teenager?' Well, you know what? I might not understand everything, but I know that God is perfect. And if God spoke those words out loud, audibly, to Moses, so that Moses could write them down--which God did--who am I to say that God is unjust? I fear God, and I think that we would have a heck of a lot fewer rebellious teenagers if a law like that existed in America today." The remark suggests that Terry's advocacy of "Law" is relevant in considering how he might behave as a civil lawmaker. "There were liberties that 1 was able to take before that I cannot take now," he concedes. "I have a lot of baggage."

Can he escape this baggage? The Republican establishment is against him. The Ithaca Journal publishes an editorial headlined, "Terry Is Scary." Bud Walker, who does not have the money to match Terry's television ads, is apparently counting on GOP endorsements, claiming that "not even $5 million will get Terry elected." But in a low-turnout election--which is expected--a well-funded outsider with motivated volunteers can surprise.

It is night in Apalachin, a small town west of Binghamton. Terry has come to the home of Edward Podlinsek, a car salesman, to meet a dozen potential contributors. On a deck painted baby-blue, Terry talks about a trip he took to Rome in February. On his last night, he and his pals went to the Colosseum around midnight. Terry climbed the security fence and found his way to the levels beneath the stadium floor. "I was overloaded with emotion," he says. "They murdered Christians here." He followed a passage that led to the center of the Colosseum. There he stood in the dark and shouted to the bleachers: "We beat you! You said the Roman Gods and the Greek Gods were gods. They were not the real gods. Jesus is Lord!" Then, he grabbed a piece of brick as a souvenir and fled.

The men and women on the porch gaze in awe at Terry. "Sometimes we get discouraged," he tells them. "We see the Clintons, Planned Parenthood and all the wickedness. They"--the ancient Christians--"had it way worse and they won. They toppled an empire. We can, too." As thunder cracks and lightning flashes, Terry asks the faithful for money. He gets worked up describing Hinchey's record. He pauses to consider how to sum up his opponent. Then he has it: "Maurice Hinchey is to the left of Beelzebub." And Randall Terry, who hopes to lead the Law-believing adherents of the extreme religious right into the halls of civil lawmaking, sounds as if he means it literally.

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Tags: abortion, conservatives Religious Right, George Tiller, Randall Terry, Scott Roeder

    Comments

  1. There are some who want people like Randall Terry in a place in power in US Government. There are a lot of folks, in fact, who want this. It is a little scary, to say the least.

    I met Maurice Hinchey at a local Democratic Committee meeting in Kingson. I told him that when I moved here, I exchanged him for James Sennsenbrenner. I think I got a good trade. I am very thankful that Randall didn't win. I don't thank God - I thank the people of this district.

    Posted by: flan Author Profile Page | June 2, 2009 11:14 AM

  2. This man seems very volatile. It is scary to think of him holding some sort of political office, but it is scarier to know he is in the background, influencing people who are.

    Posted by: flan Author Profile Page | June 2, 2009 11:29 AM

  4. John Fugelsang mentions in his stand-up routine:

    "If God is all powerful - what's the deal with foreskins?"

    ------

    "I am not a fringe candidate," - Reminds me of "I'm not a crook"

    -----

    "How do you define God? Like this. A God I could understand, at least potentially, was infinitely more interesting and relevant than one that defied comprehension."

    Robert J. Sawyer (1960 - ), "Calculating God", 2000

    Posted by: capt Author Profile Page | June 2, 2009 12:14 PM

  5. Chinese Uighur Terrorists Ask Is Obama a Democrat or a Communist ?

    Those innocent Chinese Uighur terrorists who trained in Al-Qaeda camps in Tora Bora told FOX News reporter Catherine Herridge at Gitmo.

    They told her Obama was communist just like what they have in China.


    Unfortunately, the Uighurs are off on this one.

    The government in China understands capitalism. Team Obama doesn't.

    In fact China even started preaching to democrats about free market economics this year.

    Hope and change.

    Posted by: freddie Author Profile Page | June 2, 2009 1:16 PM

  6. Poll: Most oppose closing Gitmo


    WASHINGTON — Americans are overwhelmingly opposed to closing the detention center for suspected terrorists at Guantanamo Bay and moving some of the detainees to prisons on U.S. soil, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds.

    By more than 2-1, those surveyed say Guantanamo shouldn't be closed. By more than 3-1, they oppose moving some of the accused terrorists housed there to prisons in their own states.

    The findings underscore the difficult task President Obama faces in convincing those at home that he should follow through on his campaign promise to close the prison in Cuba, especially in the absence of a plan of where the prisoners would go.

    In many parts of the world, however, Gitmo has become a symbol of U.S. arrogance and abuse, and Obama has cited its closure as a way to lay the foundation for better relations. He is scheduled to deliver a major address aimed at the Muslim world on Thursday from Cairo.

    It is one of the few subjects on which most Americans side with the views of the Bush administration over its successor.

    Posted by: freddie Author Profile Page | June 2, 2009 2:02 PM

  7. Scott Roeder has mental illness and was CRAZY!!

    But, Abdulhakim (the muslim fundamentalist ) was just a peace protester that hated our military.


    Confirmed: Little Rock Recruiter Killer Abdulhakim Muhammad Trained In Yemen

    TERROR STRIKES IN LITTLE ROCK.

    Muslim convert studied in Yemen before gunning down Army recruiter in Little Rock.


    The man who shot dead an Army recruiter and wounded another in Little Rock trained in Yemen.
    Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad converted to Islam and went to Yemen to study.

    He told police earlier that he hated the US military.
    ABC News reported:


    The suspect arrested in the fatal shooting of one soldier and the critical injury of another at a Little Rock, Ark., Army recruiting booth today was under investigation by the FBI's Joint Terrorist Task Force since his return from Yemen, ABC News has learned.

    The investigation was in its preliminary stages, authorities said, and was based on the suspect's travel to Yemen and his arrest there for using a Somali passport.

    The suspect, Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, 24, had changed his name from Carlos Leon Bledsoe after converting to the Muslim faith.

    Law enforcement sources said he offered no resistance when Little Rock police arrested him today.
    It looks like Robert Spencer was correct.

    As of November 2007, the US had thwarted 19 terrorist attacks inside the US.

    Yesterday was the first terror attack by an Islamic radical on US soil this year.

    It was the first successful terrorist attack against our military personnel on US soil since 9/11.

    ~~~~~~~~~~~

    No terrorist attack in US for 7 years under Bush Cheney.

    6 months for the Dear Leader......

    Posted by: freddie Author Profile Page | June 2, 2009 2:31 PM

  8. The right wingers will make a lot out of this just as it has already started. That is what they do.

    Terrorism is bad no matter who does it and under whose watch.

    Bush created the environment we now live, not the terrorists and not Obama. He chose to react to the 9/11 terrorist attacks - which happened on his watch and with fair warning which he ignored - with torture and illegal wars. He and Cheney created a lot more terrorists than bin Ladin ever could.

    And some think that Dr. Tiller's murder was a terrorist attack. I am certainly among them.

    Posted by: flan Author Profile Page | June 2, 2009 2:52 PM

  9. Cheney: "There Was Never Any Evidence ... Iraq Was Involved In 9/11" (VIDEO)

    http://tinyurl.com/lbvct4

    So, why did we invade Iraq again? Oh yeah, the WMD's?

    Posted by: capt Author Profile Page | June 2, 2009 3:43 PM

  10. Cheney Blames 9/11 On Richard Clarke: "He Obviously Missed It

    [...]

    Cheney and others in the Bush administration have accused the former CIA director of producing the war's faulty rationales before. But by Tenet's own account, Cheney was running with intelligence that everyone knew to be far from concrete. Most contemporary reporting, moreover, suggests that it was the vice president's office who was applying pressure on the CIA to find a tie between al-Qaeda and Iraq.

    http://tinyurl.com/nlbpsw

    Cheesus! These liars can't seem to decide on which lie to tell.

    Now it was Clarke who missed it?

    Talk about taking responsibility for ones own actions?

    Posted by: capt Author Profile Page | June 2, 2009 3:47 PM

  11. Cheney: "There Was Never Any Evidence ... Iraq Was Involved In 9/11"

    (that makes all of his supporters willing dupes eh?)

    Posted by: capt Author Profile Page | June 2, 2009 3:48 PM

  12. And some think that Dr. Tiller's murder was a terrorist attack. I am certainly among them

    ~~

    Some think Dr Tiller was a terrorist. However, the murder he committed was legal. The real terrorist are the politicians, like Obama, who allow late term abortion to be legal.

    We'll see what kind of womens rights Obama stands for when he goes to Egypt on his American apology tour

    Posted by: freddie Author Profile Page | June 2, 2009 4:04 PM

  13. So, why did we invade Iraq again? Oh yeah, the WMD's?
    ~~~~

    That's what your guy Colin Powell told us!

    Posted by: freddie Author Profile Page | June 2, 2009 4:05 PM

  14. Cheney: "There Was Never Any Evidence ... Iraq Was Involved In 9/11"

    (that makes all of his supporters willing dupes eh?)


    ~~~~

    If your referring to the entire Democratic party that voted for the war, then yes!

    Posted by: freddie Author Profile Page | June 2, 2009 4:06 PM

  15. "If you don't accept responsibility for your own actions, then you are forever chained to a position of defense."

    ~ Holly Lisle, Fire In The Mist, 1992

    Posted by: capt Author Profile Page | June 2, 2009 4:16 PM

  16. The RWNJ's have no self respect.

    "Character - the willingness to accept responsibility for one's own life - is the source from which self respect springs."

    ~ Joan Didion (1934 - ), "Slouching Towards Bethlehem"

    If the illegal and unwise invasion of Iraq was such a great thing why won't Busheney take full responsibility? (rhetorical - obviously)

    It was Clarke, Powell, the congress, etc. Anybody except Bush and Cheney?

    lollers!

    Posted by: capt Author Profile Page | June 2, 2009 4:18 PM

  17. Bush didn't authorize the war Capt- your fearless leaders in the Democrat party did!

    LOL

    Posted by: freddie Author Profile Page | June 2, 2009 4:52 PM

  18. It was Clarke, Powell, the congress, etc. Anybody except Bush and Cheney?

    Bush inherited the war on terror from Clinton -

    Gee, where have I heard that before?

    Posted by: freddie Author Profile Page | June 2, 2009 4:55 PM

  19. Early Reviews of Obama's GM 'Gamble' Don't Look Good

    The Washington Post ^ | June 2, 2009 | Ben Pershing


    Scan the coverage today of GM's bankruptcy and you'll see a wide range of reaction, from predictions of certain doom to sheer uncertainty about the company's eventual fate. The word "gambling" comes up a lot in reference to President Obama's plan, never a good thing when you're talking about amounts of money ending in 10 zeroes. What you don't see this morning are predictions of success.

    It's difficult to find more than a handful of analysts or commentators in the mainstream media (outside of Detroit) who believe that this blueprint is likely to work. Not that it might work, but likely to work. And that is worrying news for the White House, which is working desperately to forestall the company's complete collapse -- and the subsequent economic shock wave -- but may instead be fostering the public perception that it is throwing good money after bad without a clear endgame in mind.

    A Rasmussen poll released Sunday pegged support for the GM plan at just 21 percent, with 67 percent opposed. A clear majority of respondents would rather let the company go out of business than provide any more government funding. All of which helps explain why the Washington Times reports Republicans think Obama's actions on this front may help them in 2010. As the Los Angeles Times puts it, "there was increased criticism Monday that President Obama had committed far too many taxpayer dollars, most of which may never get repaid, to a company lacking an answer to its most profound problem: how to get more car buyers to choose its cars and trucks."

    ~~~~~~~~~~~

    Coming soon to a Government Motors Dealer near you " The Peoples Car" approved by our Dear Leader....

    It will only cost $40,000 and will seat two people less than 100 pounds each. This new car will get a whopping 40 miles to the gallon but please jump out of car in case of accident, because air bags are not an option (they weigh too much).

    Posted by: freddie Author Profile Page | June 2, 2009 5:19 PM

  20. The sense of deja vu gets tiresome after a while. Each time it is a Republican administration that screws up the economy (savings & loan crisis, banking crisis, mortgage meltdowns, auto industry, massive deficits), and a Democratic administration that has to cleam up the mess.

    And all the Republicans can do is stand around and complain about how much the buckets and mops are going to cost.

    Posted by: Antidote Author Profile Page | June 2, 2009 5:50 PM

  21. Antidote - Great analogy

    Posted by: flan Author Profile Page | June 2, 2009 6:13 PM

  22. Antidote,

    I guess you weren't born during the Carters years of 17% inflation and gas lines. It was Reagan who brought the economy back from Carter hell. Bush Sr f_cked it up by going along with Democrats and raising taxes with increased spending. Read my lips (I'm a democrat in secret) no new taxes.

    Clinton almost f_cked up the economy when he raised taxes (slowed the recovery) but came to his senses when he went along with Repubs to balance the budget and cut welfare (Clinton + Gingrich = record budget surplus).

    Bush came in with a down turn of the economy and lowered taxes which brought in some of the highest tax revenues evah and then f_cked up by letting the repubs and Demorats spend us into hell.

    Now there's your Dear Leader the Marxist that has tripled the deficit in 6 months bought a bankrupt GM, Citibank, tanking the bond market and screwing the dollar. Dear Laeder = worst president evah! Worse than Jimmy the peanut farmer!

    Posted by: freddie Author Profile Page | June 2, 2009 6:54 PM

  23. There will be no one to fix the economy when Obama gets done screwing us all!!!!

    Posted by: freddie Author Profile Page | June 2, 2009 6:56 PM

  24. Biden on the stimulus: Some money’s being wasted, some people are being scammed

    So it is and so it’ll be with anything that government touches — except GM, of course! — although rare’s the government that has as its number two a doofus willing to admit it.

    Mary Katharine Ham snarks ruthlessly but forgets the upside to this scammy waste, i.e., the number of jobs that are being “created or saved” by the spending. Which, as former deputy White House press secretary Tony Fratto reminds us, is a number pulled straight from Team Barry’s derriere:

    ~~~~~~~

    I don't think Biden likes Barry much.......

    Posted by: freddie Author Profile Page | June 2, 2009 7:02 PM

  25. And all the Republicans can do is stand around and complain about how much the buckets and mops are going to cost.

    ~~~~~

    Barry's solved this problem, he's buying in bulk now to save us $100,000. Yeeeeehaw!

    Posted by: freddie Author Profile Page | June 2, 2009 7:06 PM

  26. America's debt burden has reached staggering levels. In 2008, the government took on $6.8 trillion in new obligations, pushing the total owed to a record $63.8 trillion. This current fiscal year will likely see the tab climb all the more higher. Federal obligations are now at a record $546,668 per household. That's quadruple what the average U.S. household owes for all mortgages, car loans, credit cards, and other debt combined. This number includes everything from Medicare to military pensions.

    Russia's Pravda newspaper featured an article this week that warns of American's economic doom. It states: "The final collapse has come with the election of Barack Obama. His speed in the past three months has been truly impressive. His spending and money printing has been a record setting, not just in America's short history but in the world. If this keeps up for more then another year, and there is no sign that it will not, America at best will resemble the Wiemar Republic and at worst Zimbabwe."

    Our debt situation is made all the worse by the fact that there has been a huge decline in tax revenues. Federal tax income plunged $138 billion, or 34 percent, in April versus a year ago. It was the biggest decline in twenty-seven years. The lack of income could mean that the projected $1.8 trillion dollar deficit for 2009 is too low.

    The dollar has been in a nosedive the past week. Sterling approached $1.62, almost an eight-month high. The euro has been rising steadily against the greenback as investors worry about our nation's debt load.

    The U.S. bond market has had an equally rocky road. The ten-year Treasury note has seen a 1.4-percentage-point rise in yield this year. Treasuries have lost 5.1 percent in their worst annual start since Merrill Lynch & Co. began its Treasury Master Index in 1977. As interest rates rise, the government's cost of operation rises too.

    The fate of the U.S. economy may ultimately be decided in Beijing. The Chinese government's purchase of U.S. Treasuries has been critical in the ability of our government to fund its debt obligations. As old debts come due and new Treasury notes come up for auction, the Chinese may finally say, “Thank you, we've had enough.”

    In interview with C-SPAN, President Obama made a rather surprising statement when asked about the government’s ability to spend more money. He said, "Well, we are out of money now." Any fool can tell you we never had money in the first place. It is rather chilling to have one of the most liberal, spend-happy politicians in Washington admitting we lack the ability to generate new cash. ~~~~


    Bout sums it up!

    Posted by: freddie Author Profile Page | June 2, 2009 7:34 PM

  27. Freddie, I'm probably older than you. Perhaps you don't remember the staggflation of the NIxon/Ford years (Remember "Whip Inlfation Now" buttons? That was Ford's helpful solution. Inflation so bad and so fast under socialist NIxon that he had to impose price controls.), which had so sapped the economy that Carter was left with rampant inflation and stagnant wages to clean up.

    And, once agian, you've got it exactly backwards about he effect of cutting/raising taxes on economic growth. If business is the engine of the economy, targeted government investment in education, etc. is the lubricant that keeps the engine functioning.

    Do I have to keep making the analogies more and more basic for you to understand the principles?

    Posted by: Antidote Author Profile Page | June 2, 2009 7:51 PM


  28. In the last year of the Bush administration there were 396 harassing calls to abortion clinics. In just the first four months of the Obama administration that number has jumped to 1401.

    And so the execution of Tiller, 67, is not only tragic but ominous. He was born into an era when being an abortion provider meant saving women's lives. And the cold-blooded murder in church and in front of his wife of this stalwart defender of women rights and beloved physician, comes as a message for others, as well as tragic deja vu.

    Battered women are at greatest danger of being killed by their abusers when they are most strong--that is, when they muster the courage to leave. The same phenomenon may be true in the abusive political abortion debate. The pro-choice movement, specifically our abortion providers, are in the greatest danger of violence when we take power. When the anti-abortion movement loses power, their most extreme elements appear to move to the fore and take control. The murder of Dr. Tiller suggests that violence against abortion providers may be far more linked to the power, or lack thereof, anti-abortion groups have politically than to laws designed to increase penalties against such acts.

    History has another disturbing lesson for us. The escalation of anti-abortion rhetoric plays a direct role in instigating violence. When anti-abortion groups ratchet up the rhetoric, they know exactly what they're doing and the results it will have. Even if they maintain deniability, as Operation Rescue recently did saying, in effect, we wanted Tiller gone, but didn't want him murdered, they have inflamed the rhetoric. And suddenly people Like Dr. Tiller's murderer become inspired. On this issue, history is instructive.

    Eleanor Bader, author of Targets of Hatred: Anti-Abortion Terrorism, in an article in March for RH Reality Check about clinics bracing for an uptick in violence after the election of Obama wrote, "immediately after Obama's election, Douglas Johnson, Legislative Director of the National Right to Life Committee, called him a "hardcore pro-abortion president." The American Life League dubbed him "one of the most radical pro-abortion politicians ever," and Father Frank Pavone of Priests for Life warned that Obama will "force Americans to pay for the killing of innocents." Americans United for Life, the Family Research Council and Operation Save America quickly joined the chorus."

    http://tinyurl.com/prare5

    Posted by: flan Author Profile Page | June 2, 2009 8:31 PM

  29. Antidote,


    You may need to go back to the basics when preaching to thr progressive sheeple, but a few facts might be needed.

    Yes, Nixon recorded a average inflation rate of 6.4% and raised inflation by 3.6% during his term. Carter on the other hand has the worst record ever recorded at an average of 10.1 and raised inflation by 3.8% under his watch.

    Dang those silly facts!!!!

    Posted by: freddie Author Profile Page | June 2, 2009 11:07 PM

  30. which had so sapped the economy that Carter was left with rampant inflation and stagnant wages to clean up.

    ~~~
    Clean up?

    Never happened Antidote - you must have been on an acid trip during the Carter years!

    Posted by: freddie Author Profile Page | June 2, 2009 11:09 PM

  31. Wasn't Jimmy a one termer?

    Now how could that be if he clean up those stagnant wages and rampant inflation?

    Now that's funny.......................

    Posted by: freddie Author Profile Page | June 2, 2009 11:11 PM

  32. Cheney Linked Hussein to Al-Qaeda, Ex-GOP House Leader Says in Book

    A GOP congressional leader who was wavering on giving President Bush the authority to wage war in late 2002 said Vice President Cheney misled him by saying that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had direct personal ties to al-Qaeda terrorists and was making rapid progress toward a suitcase nuclear weapon, according to a new book by Washington Post investigative reporter Barton Gellman.

    Cheney's assertions, described by former House majority leader Richard K. Armey (Tex.), came in a highly classified one-on-one briefing in Room H-208, the vice president's hideaway office in the Capitol. The threat Cheney described went far beyond public statements that have been criticized for relying on "cherry-picked" intelligence of unknown reliability. There was no intelligence to support the vice president's private assertions, Gellman reports, and they "crossed so far beyond the known universe of fact that they were simply without foundation."

    Armey had spoken out against the coming war, and his opposition gave cover to Democrats who feared the political costs of appearing to be weak. Armey reversed his position after Cheney told him, he said, that the threat from Iraq was actually " more imminent than we want to portray to the public at large."

    Cheney said, according to Armey, that Iraq's "ability to miniaturize weapons of mass destruction, particularly nuclear," had been "substantially refined since the first Gulf War," and would soon result in "packages that could be moved even by ground personnel." Cheney linked that threat to Hussein's alleged ties to al-Qaeda, Armey said, explaining that "we now know they have the ability to develop these weapons in a very portable fashion, and they have a delivery system in their relationship with organizations such as al-Qaeda."

    "Did Dick Cheney . . . purposely tell me things he knew to be untrue?" Armey said. "I seriously feel that may be the case. . . . Had I known or believed then what I believe now, I would have publicly opposed [the war] resolution right to the bitter end, and I believe I might have stopped it from happening."

    http://tinyurl.com/6rn35h
    =======================
    Armey is just one of those liberal/traitor/commies that lie about chainee, right?

    Posted by: Alan Author Profile Page | June 2, 2009 11:12 PM

  33. Cheney Led Briefings of Lawmakers To Defend Interrogation Techniques

    Former vice president Richard B. Cheney personally oversaw at least four briefings with senior members of Congress about the controversial interrogation program, part of a secretive and forceful defense he mounted throughout 2005 in an effort to maintain support for the harsh techniques used on detainees.

    The Cheney-led briefings came at some of the most critical moments for the program, as congressional oversight committees were threatening to investigate or even terminate the techniques, according to lawmakers, congressional officials, and current and former intelligence officials.

    http://tinyurl.com/plbvb9


    ******

    I'm certain it is all Clarke or Powell- lol

    Posted by: capt Author Profile Page | June 3, 2009 7:16 AM

  34. DNC Chair Believes Texas Will Soon Be Blue

    DNC Chair Tim Kaine emailed supporters today to announce that the committee's fall meeting will be held in the Lone Star State. In the email, Kaine likens Texas to Virginia, arguing that it is poised to shift to the Democrats. He says Dems should have every reason to feel "bullish" about their hopes in Texas.

    http://tinyurl.com/lsyyk5

    *****

    As long as the RWNJ's stay nuttier than nutty - Texas will turn blue. Maybe the hispanic vote means nothing to the GOP but it counts.

    Posted by: capt Author Profile Page | June 3, 2009 7:33 AM

  35. White Supremacist Group Posts Doctored Photo Of Sotomayor With KKK Hood

    John Aravosis at AMERICAblog notes that the Council of Conservative Citizens — a group the Southern Poverty Law Center calls a “brazenly racist group” — has put up a doctored photo of Supreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor. In the picture, Sotomayor is wearing a KKK-type hood. On her robe is a raised fist and the words “La Raza”:

    http://thinkprogress.org/2009/06/02/ccc-sotomayor/

    *****

    The real question is: Why would anybody want to associate themselves with this kind of racist hate?

    Posted by: capt Author Profile Page | June 3, 2009 7:40 AM

  36. Manuel Miranda: Latinos are ‘not like African-Americans. We think just like everybody else.’


    Manuel Miranda, who was busted for hacking into the files of Senate Democrats while he served as an aide to former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN), is leading the conservative charge against Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination to the Supreme Court. At a Heritage Foundation lunch for conservative bloggers today, Miranda discussed how conservatives could attack Sotomayor’s qualifications without alienating the Latino community. Miranda, who is Latino himself, argued that Latinos had concerns similar to those of “everyone else,” but then appeared to suggest that African-Americans somehow think differently from other people. Latinos are “not like African-Americans. We think just like everybody else”:

    ""Hispanic polls, Hispanic surveys, indicate that Hispanics think just like everyone else. We’re not like African-Americans. We think just like everybody else. When I was on the leader’s staff, someone called me once and asked me: ‘What’s Senator Frist’s Hispanic agenda?’ I said, ‘low taxes, better education, more jobs … what are you talking about?’ And that’s how Hispanics are. This is an opportunity to educate them on all of our issues and they will resonate in the way that they resonate with everyone else.""

    Adam Serwer remarks, “I’m interested to hear Miranda’s explanation of the cognitive differences between black people and the rest of America.”

    http://thinkprogress.org/2009/06/02/manuel-miranda-african-americans/

    *****

    Racists can offend even when they are trying real hard to sound like they aren't against Hispanics - just against the African Americans.

    Posted by: capt Author Profile Page | June 3, 2009 7:42 AM

  37. The Biggest Debtload Since Something Comparably Debt-Inducing Happened


    Nial Ferguson’s indignant observation that “a deficit this size has not been seen in the US since the second world war” is an interesting exercise in rhetoric. Conveniently, it’s completely accurate! But what’s missing here is that the deficit projected for next year is way smaller than WWII deficits:

    http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/obamabudget2.gif


    To say something like “Obama is going to run a deficit slightly bigger than what we saw in the Reagan years” is a lot less terrifying than “a deficit this size has not been seen in the US since the second world war.” But we’re looking at a debt level that’s much more comparable to what was wracked up in the 1980s and early 90s than to what we saw in the late-1940s.

    What’s more, by definition some level of deficits has to be “the biggest deficit since World War II.” What we have right now is the most several global downturn since World War II. That seems to me like a perfectly reasonable candidate for biggest deficit since World War II. What would be a better time?

    http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/

    Posted by: capt Author Profile Page | June 3, 2009 8:03 AM

  38. Cheney Edges Away From Claim That CIA Docs Will Prove Torture Worked

    http://tinyurl.com/mc6ymd


    Roh row - the wheels are coming off that bus!

    Posted by: capt Author Profile Page | June 3, 2009 8:10 AM

  39. How to Stay Out of Sight While Making Millions from the War in Iraq


    http://tinyurl.com/qx4ynm


    *****

    Any war profiteers out there?

    (in my best Ben Stein voice)

    Cheney? Cheney? Cheney?

    Posted by: capt Author Profile Page | June 3, 2009 8:14 AM

  40. Former CIA station chief challenges claims that torture thwarted terror attacks


    [...]

    Two active CIA officers agree

    Two other CIA officers, who have asked to remain anonymous due to their ongoing involvement in covert operations, seconded Bearden’s skepticism that any domestic plots of significance were disrupted during the Bush administration.

    “Certain officials of the Bush administration would have had no qualms about exposing any of our officers, operational methods and sources of information if it meant scoring political points,” said one CIA covert officer, whose focus is the Middle-East, referring to the outing of CIA officer Valerie Plame Wilson. “The fact that [the Bush administration officials] continue to use the protection of sources and methods as a reason for why they can produce no evidence of a serious plot is not believable given what they have already made public.”

    Another current CIA officer who works the Near East agreed that if any plot had actually been disrupted, someone from the Bush administration would certainly have leaked the proof, noting, “Nothing is sacred to them.”

    http://rawstory.com/08/news/2009/06/02/cia-chief-questions-claims/

    *****

    Well the Busheney WH did out Plame to try to salvage the lies.

    Posted by: capt Author Profile Page | June 3, 2009 8:38 AM

  41. So, why did we invade Iraq again? Oh yeah, the WMD's?
    ~~~~

    That's what your guy Colin Powell told us!

    Is that the Colin Powell, Republican, Secretary of State appointed by a Republican President? Whose guy was he? Surely it is obvious that he was the Communist Party representative on Bush's team. Bush's transition team simply failed to uncover his Communist past and his training as a covert spy for which was it? Soviets or China?

    How stupid is the person who revises history to match up with his ideology? About as stupid as that vicious jerk Dick Cheney.

    Posted by: kalpal Author Profile Page | June 3, 2009 9:46 AM

  42. Or worse:

    "Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity."

    ~ Martin Luther King Jr. (1929 - 1968), Strength to Love, 1963

    Posted by: capt Author Profile Page | June 3, 2009 10:23 AM

  43. When Will Dick Cheney's Tower of Lies Finally Come Tumbling Down on Him?

    [...]

    But eventually the pile of lies may get so high that it will tumble down on him. For instance, it's not a very smart idea to go around saying that Richard Clarke missed the warning signs on bin Laden and 9/11 when there is email after email after email from the spring and summer of 2001 showing that it was actually Cheney and Bush who ignored the warning signs on bin Laden.

    You know what they say about people living in glass houses? Well, people with a paper trail that proves they ignored the looming threat of al-Qaeda, sanctioned torture, and used lies and manipulated intelligence to get us into a war, shouldn't be so fast to throw stones either.

    http://tinyurl.com/pgofo4

    *****

    The RWNJ's who "create" their own reality will never admit what their RWNJ leaders admit to.

    Posted by: capt Author Profile Page | June 3, 2009 10:31 AM

  44. Cheney's Role Deepens

    Former NBC News investigative producer Robert Windrem reports that the vice president’s office suggested waterboarding an Iraqi prisoner who was suspected of knowing about a relationship between al Qaeda and Saddam.

    Robert Windrem, who covered terrorism for NBC, reports exclusively in The Daily Beast that:

    *Two U.S. intelligence officers confirm that Vice President Cheney’s office suggested waterboarding an Iraqi prisoner, a former intelligence official for Saddam Hussein, who was suspected to have knowledge of a Saddam-al Qaeda connection.

    *The former chief of the Iraq Survey Group, Charles Duelfer, in charge of interrogations, tells The Daily Beast that he considered the request reprehensible.

    *Much of the information in the report of the 9/11 Commission was provided through more than 30 sessions of torture of detainees.

    http://tinyurl.com/ojzrea

    Posted by: capt Author Profile Page | June 3, 2009 10:39 AM

  45. What Cheney Told Congress

    The debate over "enhanced interrogation tactics" is likely to rage on, particularly in light of The Washington Post's new discovery that former vice president Dick Cheney personally oversaw at least four briefings on the matter to senior members of Congress in 2005. According to an official who attended the briefings, Cheney defended the program but did not outline specific interrogation techniques. The briefings were held at a time when congressional committees had threatened to investigate and possibly end the program. Last month, the CIA delivered documents to Congress purporting to list every lawmaker briefed on the tactics. Yet, as the Post writes, "For meetings that were overseen by Cheney, the agency told the intelligence committees that information about who oversaw these briefings was 'not available.'" The CIA declined to comment on the matter.

    http://tinyurl.com/olamxv

    ******

    Seems the CIA's memory is worse than anybody thought?

    Posted by: capt Author Profile Page | June 3, 2009 10:42 AM

  46. Kablam! by Kalpal!

    Posted by: flan Author Profile Page | June 3, 2009 11:45 AM

  47. Hey Kalpal,

    It wasn't Cheney or Powel who authorized the war.....

    It was your fearless leaders - Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden along with 27 other democrats that gave us the Iraq war.......

    Without them the Iraq war wouldn't have ever started.

    Posted by: freddie Author Profile Page | June 3, 2009 12:26 PM

  48. Bin Laden threatens Americans in new tape
    Terror leader criticizes Obama over 'destruction' in Pakistan's Swat Valley



    NBC News and news services
    updated 1 hour, 38 minutes ago

    CAIRO - Osama bin Laden has threatened Americans in a new audio tape, saying President Barack Obama inflamed hatred toward the U.S. by ordering Pakistan to crack down on militants in Swat Valley and block Islamic law in the area.

    Bin Laden claimed U.S. pressure led to a campaign of "killing, fighting, bombing and destruction" that prompted the exodus of a million Muslims from Swat Valley in northwest Pakistan.

    ~~~~~~~~

    Move over Bushie, we have a new terrorist recruiter in town and his name is Barry..........

    Posted by: freddie Author Profile Page | June 3, 2009 12:34 PM

  49. This ones for the sheeple:

    Chavez to Castro: 'Comrade' Obama Farther Left Than Us

    Wednesday, June 3, 2009 8:08 AM


    Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez said on Tuesday that he and Cuban ally Fidel Castro risk being more conservative than U.S. President Barack Obama as Washington prepares to take control of General Motors Corp.


    During one of Chavez's customary lectures on the "curse" of capitalism and the bonanzas of socialism, the Venezuelan leader made reference to GM's bankruptcy filing, which is expected to give the U.S. government a 60 percent stake in the 100-year-old former symbol of American might.


    "Hey, Obama has just nationalized nothing more and nothing less than General Motors. Comrade Obama! Fidel, careful or we are going to end up to his right," Chavez joked on a live television broadcast.

    ~~~~~~~~~~~

    I'm starting to see why progressives like this guy- he's damn funny!

    Posted by: freddie Author Profile Page | June 3, 2009 12:44 PM

  50. The US lost another half million jobs in May.
    Reuters reported:


    U.S. private employers chopped more than half a million jobs in May, signaling job conditions remain tough and dashing some hopes the economy was not deteriorating as rapidly as thought, a report on Wednesday showed.

    U.S. companies axed 532,000 jobs last month, though this was fewer than the revised 545,000 jobs lost in April, according to the ADP National Employment Report.

    The April figure was originally a decline of 491,000.
    The US economy lost 598,000 jobs in January.
    The US economy lost 706,000 jobs in February.
    The US economy lost 742,000 jobs in March.
    And, in April, 545,000 jobs were lost.

    Thanks Barry.

    Posted by: freddie Author Profile Page | June 3, 2009 1:11 PM

  51. Obama Indicted At Birthers' "Citizen Grand Juries" (VIDEO)

    The Washington Independent's Dave Weigel -- who, like a Jane Goodall of political madness, has logged many an hour studying the panicky paranoid fringe in its natural habitat -- highlights the latest "birther" craze: the formation of "citizen grand juries" devoted to exposing the truth that Barack Obama is not an American citizen. In other words, having failed to get any actual legal bodies to take an interest in this nonsense, these people are just making up their own! And possibly meeting in tree forts or something! Who knows? It's called folie à plusieurs, people!

    Anyway, here is a video of Carl Swensson, talking about the awesome pretend indictments that an ad hoc, Aaron Copland-inspired Star Chamber has handed down, accusing Barack Obama of fraud and treason! And he's standing in front of an actual courthouse, because WOO, GRAVITAS! Did you know that these citizen grand juries are operating in all sorts of states, too? Well, five states, so far. And more to come! They will keep on convening pretend grand juries and handing down ersatz indictments until either someone finally starts paying attention or until ... you know -- Obama has them all disappeared or something.

    [WATCH.]

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mAGfunfpNU

    http://tinyurl.com/qpgc8l

    *****

    Cracks me up!

    Posted by: capt Author Profile Page | June 3, 2009 1:13 PM

  52. Dick Cheney: George W. Bush passed buck on GM


    Former Vice President Dick Cheney says that former President George W. Bush did not want to be the one who “pulled the plug” on General Motors and instead decided to pass on the issue to President Barack Obama.

    “I thought that, eventually, the right outcome was going to be bankruptcy

    ,” Cheney said of the company during the second part of interview with Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren that aired Tuesday night.

    “[GM] had to go through such a dramatic restructuring to have any chance of survival that they had to be able to renegotiate labor contracts and so forth,” he said. “And the president decided that he did not want to be the one who pulled the plug just before he left office.”

    http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0609/23283.html

    *****

    It just keeps getting better and better!

    Even Cheney knows how cowardly Bush is. I hope they keep Cheney talking - getting as much MSM airtime possible.

    Posted by: capt Author Profile Page | June 3, 2009 1:16 PM

  53. Of course we can add GM to the MANY things bush screwed up.

    As for Afghanistan and Pakistan, wow, isn't it GREAT that we are FINALLY fighting the REAL war on terror?!!!

    Posted by: Alan Author Profile Page | June 3, 2009 1:42 PM

  54. What was that guys name? You know the one that Bush didn't care about, couldn't catch but played as the fear card?

    Hmmmmmm

    I think it was Osama something . . .

    Posted by: capt Author Profile Page | June 3, 2009 1:48 PM

  55. Book: Bush Needed Condi To Explain 'Articulate' Flap During Dem Primary


    Did George W. Bush really summon his African-American secretary of state for a lesson on junior-high-level racial politics?

    http://tinyurl.com/p66xgn

    *****

    "Readers are plentiful; thinkers are rare."

    ~ Harriet Martineau (1802 - 1876)

    Posted by: capt Author Profile Page | June 3, 2009 1:53 PM

  56. Another Republican gets Obama nod

    President Obama has announced that he's tapping former congressman Jim Leach, an Iowa Republican, to head the National Endowment for the Humanities.

    "I am confident that with Jim as its head, the National Endowment for the Humanities will continue on its vital mission of supporting the humanities and giving the American public access to the rich resources of our culture," the president said in a statement.

    Leach, 66, represented an eastern Iowa district for 30 years in the House before losing his seat in 2006 to Rep. Dave Loebsack, D-Iowa. He endorsed Obama in last year's presidential campaign and spoke at the Democratic National Convention.

    http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2009/06/67594599/1

    *****

    Socialist! Lefty!

    Oh - wait a minute . . .

    Posted by: capt Author Profile Page | June 3, 2009 2:46 PM

  57. Bush screwed up GM? I guess Obama shouldn't have fired the CEO if it was Bush's fault.

    Alan's knowledge of how a company runs a profit - loss is coming from the same book Antidote read.

    Eghhhh!!!!

    Hey Capt, 77% of taxpayers side with Bush and not doing anything with GM -- NO BAILOUT!!!!!

    Posted by: freddie Author Profile Page | June 3, 2009 3:28 PM

  58. As for Afghanistan and Pakistan, wow, isn't it GREAT that we are FINALLY fighting the REAL war on terror?!!!

    ~~~

    So far the only accomplishment Barry's had in Afgan is bombing innocent women and children with targeted drone attacks. Not to mention the 650 detainees he's have torrured in an Afgan GITMO.........

    My how things have changed!

    Posted by: freddie Author Profile Page | June 3, 2009 3:30 PM

  59. What kind of torture exactly is still being done. If it really is torture, then Obama needs to be called out on it. What is the source of your information? All of these exclamation points and so there's don't do anything, by the way.

    What is your position on the issues and what do you think should be done? I am interested to know if you can say it without using the words "lefty or liberal".

    Posted by: flan Author Profile Page | June 3, 2009 3:56 PM

  60. Governor Bush told Houston Journalist: If Elected. "I'm Going to Invade Iraq"


    Two years before the 9/11 attacks on America, George W. Bush told a Houston journalist if elected president, “I’m going to invade Iraq.”

    Bush made the comments about starting an aggressive war to veteran Houston Chronicle reporter Mickey Herskowitz, then working with Bush on his book “A Charge To Keep,” later brought out by publisher William Morrow.

    This disclosure was uncovered by Russ Baker, an award-winning investigative reporter when he interviewed Herskowitz for his own book, “Family of Secrets” (Bloomsbury Press) about the Bush dynasty. However, Baker says, when he approached The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times with the potentially devastating story to President Bush prior to the 2004 presidential election, they declined to publish it.

    http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=13829

    Posted by: capt Author Profile Page | June 3, 2009 4:01 PM

  61. ‘Lefty’ Obama signs Reagan tribute as Nancy looks on


    Nancy Reagan, radiant in a red pantsuit, rested her hand on President Barack Obama’s shoulder as he signed a bill to honor her late husband and icon of the right Ronald Reagan.

    Obama, as is usual, signed with his left hand.

    “Oh, you’re a lefty,” Reagan said, to scattered chuckles in the room.

    “I am a lefty,” Obama replied evenly, adding: “Well, I think that President Reagan’s signature was more legible than mine.”

    The bill creates a panel to plan and carry out events to honor Reagan’s 100th birthday in 2011. He died in 2004.

    http://tinyurl.com/q8zb58

    Posted by: capt Author Profile Page | June 3, 2009 4:07 PM

  62. Sorry, I just had to.

    lol

    Posted by: capt Author Profile Page | June 3, 2009 4:08 PM

  63. Liberals register support for public option, Bush investigations


    With a Democrat in the White House, the liberals gathering this week in Washington for the Campaign for America's Future conference had no presidential contest on weigh in on a la their CPAC counterparts.

    But the confab's straw poll -- conducted by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research -- did reflect the left's support for two issues currently being debated in the Democratic family.

    63% of those who participated in the poll said they would not support a health care plan that lacked a Medicare-style, government option -- even if that not including such a public plan were the only way to get the bill passed.

    Further, 66% of those who voted said they supported congressional investigations into Bush administration terror policies.

    http://tinyurl.com/pt2wqq

    Posted by: capt Author Profile Page | June 3, 2009 4:18 PM

  64. Stealth War: Barack Obama sabotages Republicans

    Tuesday’s announcement of Rep. John McHugh (R-N.Y.) as President Barack Obama’s nominee for Army secretary makes perfect sense from a policymaking standpoint. It’s hard to find a member of Congress who’s more well-respected or more steeped in military personnel issues than McHugh, a senior House Armed Services Committee member who has wrestled with issues ranging from recruitment to base closure to the role of women in combat.


    Yet it’s also hard to find a choice better calibrated to meet the Obama administration’s political imperatives. All at once, Obama has selected a nominee who burnishes his bipartisan credentials, opened up a seat prime for Democratic pickup and drained the GOP reservoir of one of the few remaining Northeastern moderates.

    http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0609/23253.html

    ****

    Gobama!

    Posted by: capt Author Profile Page | June 3, 2009 4:22 PM

  65. Jeremy Scahill: “Little Known Military Thug Squad Still Brutalizing Prisoners at Gitmo Under Obama”


    Jeremy Scahill reports the Obama administration is continuing to use a notorious military police unit at Guantanamo that regularly brutalizes unarmed prisoners, including gang-beating them, breaking their bones, gouging their eyes and dousing them with chemicals. This force, officially known as the Immediate Reaction Force, has been labeled the “Extreme Repression Force” by Guantanamo prisoners, and human rights lawyers call their actions illegal.


    Jeremy Scahill, award-winning investigative journalist and author of the bestseller Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army. His writing and reporting is available at RebelReports.com. His latest article written for Alternet is titled ‘Little Known Military Thug Squad Still Brutalizing Prisoners at Gitmo Under Obama’

    ~~~~~~~~~

    From a lefty about a Lefty!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Posted by: freddie Author Profile Page | June 3, 2009 4:57 PM

  66. US air strikes in Afghanistan 'kill dozens of women and children'

    Air strikes by US forces in Afghanistan on Tuesday are now thought to have killed dozens of civilians including women and children, the Red Cross has said.

    By Miles Amoore in Kabul
    Published: 11:49AM BST 06 May 2009

    The American military has announced it will investigate reports that the strikes killed scores of Afghan civilians sheltering from fierce fighting between Taliban militants and government soldiers.

    Afghan officials say up to 120 non-combatants were killed when US warplanes dropped bombs on two villages in Bala Baluk, a Taliban-controlled district in the western province of Farah.


    Afghanistan: Hamid Karzai accuses America over civilian deaths

    Women and children 'killed by coalition forces in Afghanistan'If confirmed, the civilian death toll would be one of the highest since the US-led invasion toppled the hard-line Taliban regime in 2001.

    ~~~~

    Barry the baby killer?

    Posted by: freddie Author Profile Page | June 3, 2009 5:02 PM

  67. THE CHOSEN ONE - THE MESSIAH - THE SAVIOR OF THE HUMAN RACE -

    the man who campaigned on being the anti-Bush is affirming a Bush Administration policy denying Constitutional rights to detainees being held at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. It seems the view from the other side of the fence is a lot clearer than the one he had from the cheap seats as the Junior Senator from Illinois. He now suddenly realizes that individuals sworn to destroy all things American including our Constitution being held outside the borders of our nation are not protected by our founding document. Why then close Gitmo?

    In a related story posted on FoxNews.com, a report prepared by Adm. Patrick M. Walsh to POTUS Barry Obamaramadingdong concludes that detainees being held at the terrorist detention center Guantanamo Bay Cuba are being treated humanely. This is a stark contrast to the picture that candidate Obama painted of US treatment of these same terrorists at this same detention facility during the ‘08 campaign.

    These two stories represent evidence that the American people have bought a bill of goods sold to them, not by the Obamassiah, but the media who hand picked Obama as their candidate. The media’s role in selling Gitmo as a den of torture led to public outcry that Obama then fed upon to draw votes. As I stated above, he is now in a position to see the truth and is in fact agreeing with Bush Administration policies governing these facilities.

    Perhaps, we should transfer the campers at the Guantanamo Bay resort and recreation center to the detention facilities at Bagram Air Base. At least if we were to do that we know that Obamaramadingdong won’t try to apply the protections of our Constitution to individuals who are sworn to destroy it and everything it stands for.

    Referenced Stories from FoxNews.com:

    Posted by: freddie Author Profile Page | June 3, 2009 5:04 PM

  68. Young Freddie -

    Did it ever occur to you why inflation ramped up all through the '70s and on into Carter's term? Couldn't have anything to do with that massive spending by Nixon on another ill-considered war, could it? (Even though Nixon kept telling us, "I have a plan to end the war." -- which he didn't.) That spending, plus inciting an Arab oil boycott, set the US economy up for a decade-long inflationary trend.

    Repubs as economic wizards? Give me a break. As ol' 5-Deferment Cheney tells us, "Deficits don't matter."

    Posted by: Antidote Author Profile Page | June 3, 2009 5:05 PM

  69. Hey Flan, had enough yet?

    Posted by: freddie Author Profile Page | June 3, 2009 5:05 PM

  70. What is your position on the issues and what do you think should be done?

    ~~~

    I think Barry should be impeached and prosecuted for his war crimes!

    Posted by: freddie Author Profile Page | June 3, 2009 5:06 PM

  71. What does the Geneva Convention say about targeting women and children in targeted bombing?

    Posted by: freddie Author Profile Page | June 3, 2009 5:07 PM

  72. Antidote,

    I am not defending Nixon, it's just that your boy Carter had no clue how to fix the problem. Which is why Reagan won by a landslide.

    You're the one who said Carter came in and fixed the stagnant inflation problem.

    ~~~~

    That spending, plus inciting an Arab oil boycott, set the US economy up for a decade-long inflationary trend.

    So Nixons spending is bad for inflation?

    But, Barry's spending is good for inflation?

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Repubs as economic wizards- no - just less taxes like China for instance.

    No - I don't believe in economic wizards or they would have told us the economy was going to tank before it tanked. Free markets-yes, wizards-no.

    Posted by: freddie Author Profile Page | June 3, 2009 5:18 PM

  73. As ol' 5-Deferment Cheney tells us, "Deficits don't matter."

    ~~~~

    Cheneys wrong! Just as Barry is wrong - times 1000

    Posted by: freddie Author Profile Page | June 3, 2009 5:20 PM

  74. Antidote,

    Guess which president was one who had the lowest inflation rate during his term?

    Yes, it is Kennedy and did he raise taxes -no, he gave a real tax cut not a phony one like Barry.

    Kennedy's Tax Cuts
    In the area of taxation, there is probably nothing that drives Democrats crazier than when they hear Republicans praise John F. Kennedy's tax cut and compare their tax cuts to his. Unfortunately, Democrats keep running up against Kennedy's own statements and actions, which show a clear parallel to Republican tax policies since 1980.

    Of course, liberals don't deny that Kennedy wanted to cut taxes. But they say that Kennedy was only interested in expanding the budget deficit to give a boost to consumption -- pure Keynesian economics. This is the gist of recent articles by historians David Shreve and David Greenberg.

    While there is no denying that most of Kennedy's economic advisers were Keynesians, it is worth remembering that he exiled his most Keynesian adviser, Harvard professor John Kenneth Galbraith, to India, where he served as ambassador:

    In his book, Ambassador's Journal (1969), Galbraith tells how he tried to talk Kennedy out of the tax cut.
    He wanted to raise the deficit and give the economy a Keynesian kick by boosting government spending, not lowering revenues.
    Greenberg and Shreve really have no good explanation for why Kennedy didn't implement Keynesian theories by raising spending, implementing a temporary tax cut or some kind of tax credit scheme, rather than reducing marginal tax rates. Most Keynesians would say that reducing marginal rates--especially for the rich and for capital gains--is just about the worst possible way of stimulating aggregate demand. Indeed, they made this same argument against the Bush tax cuts.

    Kennedy was a better economist than his advisers -- he cut tax rates for supply-side reasons, but used Keynesian arguments to sell them, explains Bartlett.

    Source: Bruce Bartlett, "Kennedy's Tax Cuts," National Center for Policy Analysis, January 28, 2004.

    Posted by: freddie Author Profile Page | June 3, 2009 5:26 PM

  75. Too funny, I had almost included the exclusion of the word Barry in addition to liberal and lefty.

    As clear as day...

    Posted by: flan Author Profile Page | June 3, 2009 6:48 PM

  76. REPUBLICANS vs. DEMOCRATS ON THE ECONOMY....Did you know that Democratic presidents are better for the economy than Republicans? Sure you did. I pointed this out two years ago, back when my readership numbered in the dozens, and more recently Michael Kinsley ran the numbers in the LA Times and came to the same conclusion.

    The results are simple: Democratic presidents have consistently higher economic growth and consistently lower unemployment than Republican presidents. If you add in a time lag, you get the same result. If you eliminate the best and worst presidents, you get the same result. If you take a look at other economic indicators, you get the same result. There's just no way around it: Democratic administrations are better for the economy than Republican administrations.

    http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2005_05/006282.php

    Posted by: flan Author Profile Page | June 3, 2009 6:55 PM

  77. The results are simple: Democratic presidents have consistently higher economic growth and consistently lower unemployment than Republican presidents. If you add in a time lag, you get the same result. If you eliminate the best and worst presidents, you get the same result. If you take a look at other economic indicators, you get the same result. There's just no way around it:

    Until Barry who, all by his lonesome, blows these figures out of the universe.....


    U.S. private employers chopped more than half a million jobs in May, signaling job conditions remain tough and dashing some hopes the economy was not deteriorating as rapidly as thought, a report on Wednesday showed.

    U.S. companies axed 532,000 jobs last month, though this was fewer than the revised 545,000 jobs lost in April, according to the ADP National Employment Report.

    The April figure was originally a decline of 491,000.
    The US economy lost 598,000 jobs in January.
    The US economy lost 706,000 jobs in February.
    The US economy lost 742,000 jobs in March.
    And, in April, 545,000 jobs were lost.

    Thanks Barry.

    Posted by: freddie Author Profile Page | June 3, 2009 7:10 PM

  78. I especially like the first chart in this article. Over the past 10 administrations - over 50 years, when the Rebuplicans were in control, there was between a 2% to 0.50% growth between the 95th and 20th percentile (95th being the really rich people). It is practically a straight line, like someone used a ruler.

    Whereas when the Democrats were in control, it is almost a straight line,,but in a different direction from 2.75% and 2.0%growth, between the 20th and 95th percentile. The lower classes do slightly better, but all do much better than under the Democrats. hmmmm...

    I think the next two charts say it all. Republicans only care about rich people, except on election years. It's even more dramatic. Check it out for yourself.

    Skeptics offer two arguments: first, that presidents don't control the economy; second, that there are too few data points to draw any firm conclusions. Neither argument is convincing. It's true that presidents don't control the economy, but they do influence it — as everyone tacitly acknowledges by fighting like crazed banshees over every facet of fiscal policy ever offered up by a president.

    The second argument doesn't hold water either. The dataset that delivers these results now covers more than 50 years, 10 administrations, and half a dozen different measures. That's a fair amount of data, and the results are awesomely consistent: Democrats do better no matter what you measure, how you measure it, or how you fiddle with the data.

    http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2005_05/006282.php

    Posted by: flan Author Profile Page | June 3, 2009 7:17 PM

  79. mumble, mumble, mumble Barry. Mumble, mumble, liberals, mumble, leftys! Mumble, mumble, old pal, mumble, your guy, mumble!!!

    Posted by: flan Author Profile Page | June 3, 2009 7:18 PM

  80. The truth has left you speechless-

    I love it!

    Posted by: freddie Author Profile Page | June 3, 2009 7:26 PM

  81. By the way, DC has answered your question about Barry's torture camp in Afganistan at the new post.

    Posted by: freddie Author Profile Page | June 3, 2009 7:27 PM

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