[Ninong]

Originally Posted by Aragorn

Ghouliani scares the hell out of me when I see him up there spouting "It's our moral obligation to spread our freedom and democracy to the world"...We are Empire.

Here's the deal on Giuliani: He knows he's too soft on the social issues for the Republican primary voters, so he's trying to make up for it by being more gung-ho than anybody on the war issue.

He's parroting the Bush Administration line that we're spreading "freedom and democracy" in the Middle East. That's the line the Bush Administration adopted after it was discovered that Saddam did not possess any weapons of mass destruction. What's so amazing about this is that this is so contrary to everything the Republican Party has stood for for the past hundred years!

It was the Democrat, Woodrow Wilson, who famously said it was our responsibility to "make the world safe for democracy." Wilson was totally ineffective in foreign affairs in his day. He allowed Britain and France to screw up the entire Middle East follwing World War I. And Britain and France ignored him at Versailles.

George W. Bush is doing exactly what he said he would not do when he ran for office in 2000. He said he would never engage in "nation building," but that's exactly what he's doing now. For better or worse, the Republican Party has always been more of an isolationist party in the past. They were the guys who were most willing to tolerate ruthless dictators as long as they were our ruthless dictators. Look at Latin America for examples of this. Or look at our friendship with the Shah of Iran, who was a brutal dictator but he was our guy.

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by Aragorn

I recently made a vow that I will no longer, EVER, vote for the lesser of two evils...I will always vote my conscience. I can't go back.

There is no such thing as a perfect politician, so in that sense, we are always choosing between the lesser of two evils.

I voted for John F. Kennedy over Richard Nixon and that was probably my easiest decision. I was too young to vote in 1956 (I was only 18 and the voting age was 21 then) but I probably would have voted to reelect Eisenhower. Eisenhower was sort of a grandfatherly figure to young people then. He wasn't very controversial and he wasn't all that confrontational politically. The most scandalous thing that I recall from his administration was the scandal over his chief of staff, Sherman Adams, accepting a vicuna coat from someone trying to gain influence with the White House for a defense contract or something.

I was a little too young in 1953 (15) to remember much about the Iran coup. I do remember the Suez canal mess, when Eisenhower stopped Britain and France from retaking the canal from Nasser.

I remember Pearl Harbor. That's my earliest memory. And I remember the start of the Korean War because there were photos of Saber jets on the front page of the paper and I was a 12-yr-old paperboy at the time.

So, I win. I'm older than you.

[Ninong]

And now, back to our regularly scheduled programming:

Here's something else I found funny about the GOP candidates debate yesterday evening.

Wolf Blitzer, who has to be the worst political debate moderator in the history of Western civilization, asked the candidates how they would use former President George W. Bush if they were elected president. He began his question by explaining that he wouldn't ask them how they would use former President Bill Clinton. Haha! Very funny, jackass!

One of the candidates, I can't remember which one, said that he admired former President George H. W. Bush for his trips around the world visiting disaster areas. That same guy said that Bill Clinton was not a good example to follow as an ex-president. I hate to tell these morons, but Bill Clinton and George H. W. Bush went together on most of those trips. Bush the Elder did make a follow-up trip to the earthquake damaged region of Pakistan (that was NOT reported in the press at the time) but the initial trip was a joint trip with Bill Clinton. And Bush the Younger appointed both his father and Bill Clinton to take on the task of aiding the tsunami victims.

But here's where the laughs came in: Sam Brownback said he would send former President George W. Bush to disasters around the world!

Yeah, right. Like he's an expert on disasters thanks to the wonderful job he did following Hurricane Katrina.

And Tom Tancredo was extremely blunt in saying that he would tell former President George W. Bush the same thing Karl Rove once told him when he took a position contrary to Rove's wishes, and that was "don't darken the steps of the White House." So Tancredo, who will never be nominated anyway, wouldn't invite George W. Bush to the White House if he were elected Deciderer-in-Chief, or Commander Guy, whatever.

P.S. -- Speaking of our Brilliant Invincible Commander Guy, he's in Germany right now for the G8 meeting. Hopefully he won't embarrass us again by trying to give Angela Merkel a shoulder massage. I wish he had tried that on Elizabeth II; she hates his guts. She would probably have whacked him upside the head with her substantial purse. The last time the Queen was over here as a visitor to the White House, Bush the Elder was in charge but he invited Dubya to the state dinner in honor of the Queen. Dubya asked her which of her children was the black sheep of the family. OMG! She told him to mind his own business.

[Ninong]

Rudy Giuliani just picked up a new endorsement.

I wonder who Mary Carey is backing? Maybe we could talk her into volunteering for Sam Brownback? If you don't know who Mary Carey is, she's a Republican gubernatorial candidate in California. Just google her name, but not at work. She also contributed $5000 to the Bush campaign twice! And she has appeared at at least two GOP fundraising dinners where she got more attention that Karl Rove. (P.S. -- Her website is MaryCarey [dot] com but it's not worksafe or family friendly.)

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by Ninong

A new answer to the question: What would Jesus do?

The gentle folk from the Westboro Baptist Church showed up at Jerry Falwell's funeral with their bullhorns and colorful signs for one of their typical God Hates Fags protests.



A student at Falwell's Liberty University decided he was going to bomb the Westboro Baptist protesters with his "homemade gasoline-based napalm bombs."



Mark Uhl, a student at Liberty University, was arrested today for possessing several homemade bombs which he told authorities he made to disrupt protesters at the funeral of Jerry Falwell.

The 19-year-old student, reportedly had six devices on his person or in his car when he was arrested. Some reports say the devices were gasoline-based "napalm" bombs.

Authorities were alerted to Uhl's plan by a relative.

Update:

Boy, this kid Mark Uhl is seriously messed up!

He's a graduate of Jerry Falwell's Liberty High School and a first year divinity student at Falwell's Liberty University where he is in studying to be a military chaplain. He's accused of making homemade "napalm" bombs to attack the kind, gentle folk from dear, sweet Rev. Fred Phelps' Westboro Baptist Church. The Westboro Baptist Church congregation likes to show up at funerals to wave their colorful signs quoting Leviticus. They're really a lovely bunch of coconuts and mean no harm. In fact, they're so off-the-wall crazy that they're entertaining.

Anyway, here's the latest on Mark Uhl:

ROANOKE - Testimony at a court hearing in Roanoke today painted a deeply troubled portrait of a Liberty University student charged with carrying five napalm-like bombs in his car trunk one day before the May 22 funeral for the Rev. Jerry Falwell.

Federal investigators testified that they found bizarre images of Hitler, gang-related photos and "a bunch" of pornography after searching Mark David Uhl's laptop computer. Uhl was arrested on May 21 after Campbell County sheriff's deputies found the devices in his car at a business on Timberlake Road.

Uhl, 19, of Amissville, faced his arraignment in federal court today (May 31, 2007) on charges of unlawful possession of a destructive device. Prosecutors said the teenager should be kept in jail until his trial, saying the disturbed Uhl has hatched plots to bomb a high-school prom. Defense attorneys said that if released, Uhl would be under the watchful eye of his stepfather and employed at a restaurant in Gainesville, near his Northern Virginia home.

Drawing a parallel to the April 16 massacre at Virginia Tech, U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael Urbanski said Uhl could still be a danger to the community and ordered him to stay in jail until the trial.

P.S. -- If the "bizarre images of Hitler and the gang-related photos" can be tied to some violent white supremacist group, that might be revelant to his case since he was caught with homemade "napalm bombs" in his possession. The pornography is not worth mentioning unless it was child pornography. If they start arresting every teenage boy with pornography on his computer, they're going to have their hands full.

[Ninong]

Someone asked Mitt Romney about Fred Thompson yesterday and Romney said that he welcomed Thompson's entry into the race because it will provide a "Hollywood aura."

Of the three major GOP candidates, I think Romney has the most to lose from Thompson getting into the race. Thompson is expected to make it official on July 4th.

Meanwhile, the Straight Talk Express is gathering steam. Sort of. Check it out, less than 3 min.

[Aragorn]

I'm actually looking forward to Freddie's entry. He's gonna send the neo-cons into further disarray. Awesome link Ninong. Thanks.

[Ninong]

It's about politicians, so I guess we can stick it in here.

ROSTOCK, Germany -- President Bush returned to the Group of Eight summit this morning after missing the group photo and the final morning session because of what the White House called "some sort of bug."

"After having an opportunity to rest, he feels rejuvenated," said White House counselor Dan Bartlett, who said the illness was "probably more viral in nature and highly unlikely to be anything related to food or anything he ate."

P.S. -- He had a private meeting with his good buddy, Vladimir Vladimirovich, a couple of days ago. I hope he didn't drink the tea!

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by Ninong

Someone asked Mitt Romney about Fred Thompson yesterday and Romney said that he welcomed Thompson's entry into the race because it will provide a "Hollywood aura."

Of the three major GOP candidates, I think Romney has the most to lose from Thompson getting into the race. Thompson is expected to make it official on July 4th.

The latest AP-Ipsos poll was released yesterday and it included Fred Thompson even though he hasn't formally entered the race yet.

Here's the way it breaks down on the Republican side:

Rudy Giuliani ---- 27%
John McCain ---- 19%
Fred Thompson -- 17%
Mitt Romney ----- 10%

Just as I expected, Romney is taking the biggest hit from Fred Thompson's entry in the mix.

This poll may not mean much a few months from now but it's interesting nonetheless right now. Don't forget, Romney has a lot more money on hand than either McCain or Thompson. That equals a lot of attack ads.

[Ninong]

"The real Romney is clearly an extraordinarily ambitious man with no perceivable political principle whatsover. He is the most intellectually dishonest human being in the history of politics." -- Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), June 11, 2007 in an interview with New England Cable News.

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by Ninong

The latest AP-Ipsos poll was released yesterday and it included Fred Thompson even though he hasn't formally entered the race yet.

Here's the way it breaks down on the Republican side:

Rudy Giuliani ---- 27%
John McCain ---- 19%
Fred Thompson -- 17%
Mitt Romney ----- 10%

Just as I expected, Romney is taking the biggest hit from Fred Thompson's entry in the mix.

This poll may not mean much a few months from now but it's interesting nonetheless right now. Don't forget, Romney has a lot more money on hand than either McCain or Thompson. That equals a lot of attack ads.

Another day, another poll, another result:

The latest NBC/Wall St. Journal poll released today:

Rudy Giuliani ---- 29%
Fred Thompson -- 20%
Mitt Romney ----- 14%
John McCain ----- 14%

The biggest difference between the AP/Ipsos poll and the NBC/WSJ poll is that McCain does much worse in the second poll.

Oh, and Bush's approval rating in the NBC/WSJ poll is at 29%, a new all-time low for that poll.

Congress' approval rating is slipping, too. It's all the way down to 23%. This isn't as bad as the 16% rating Congress received in October 2006, just before the November elections, but it's a lot lower than it was just a couple of months ago. I think it's because Democrats are unhappy with the fact that the war is still being funded and Republicans are unhappy with Bush's immigration reform ideas.

[Ninong]

Rudy Giuliani knows what's wrong with the Bush Administration:

Speaking at a Flag Day rally in Wilmington, Del., Giuliani told more than 200 supporters: "What we're lacking is strong, aggressive, bold leadership like we had with Ronald Reagan."

[Aragorn]

That dude is getting scarier which each appearance.

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by Aragorn

That dude is getting scarier which each appearance.

Rudy Giuliani may be scary but at least he's right about the leadership failings of the Bush Administration. I have a feeling he's trying to run the same sort of campaign that was successful for Nicolas Sarkozy in France. Sarkozy, a conservative, ran a campaign that trashed the administration of Jacques Chirac, a fellow conservative. He defeated the socialist candidate, Segolene Royal, by disassociating himself from the unpopular incumbent administration.

I have a hunch all of the GOP candidates will adopt that approach as things get worse over the next several months. John McCain will have the most difficult task in adjusting to the reality of the campaign because he is the candidate most closely aligned with Bush's failed Iraq policies.

And speaking of McCain, I think the guy is really exhibiting signs of early onset Alzheimer's. He shoots his mouth off constantly without remembering what he said on the same topic just a few months before. For example, McCain trashed Sen. Harry Reid for saying that Gen. Peter Pace was "incompetent" and that Gen. David Petraeus "could be a little more candid" in his reports to Congress on what's actually going on in Iraq.

Harry Reid told Gen. Pace to his face in a private meeting that he had done a poor job as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff mainly because he had gone along with the failed policies of Donald Rumsfeld without expressing any opposition based on his military expertise and that he had failed to keep the Congress fully informed of the actual conditions in Iraq. Gen. Pace has been intimately involved in the Iraq war from the beginning. He was previously Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff before he became Chairman two years ago.

How is this criticism any different than what John McCain said about Gen. George W. Casey, Jr., the previous commander of coalition forces in Iraq? McCain made numerous public statements about Gen. Casey's "failed leadership" in Iraq and during Casey's Senate confirmation hearing to be Army Chief of Staff, McCain savaged him again. We talked about that previously in this forum.

Here's a direct quote on what McCain said in public prior to Casey's confirmation hearing: "I have very serious concerns about General Casey's nomination. I'm concerned about failed leadership, the message that sends to the rest of the military."

And, at Gen. Petraeus' Senate confirmation hearing in January, McCain said: "We needed a new military leadership in Iraq for some time." Later, in February, McCain said that "military leaders" had been too optimistic in describing the conditions in Iraq. That's exactly what Harry Reid is saying.

A couple of days ago, McCain told Brit Hume on Fox News, "I don't think we ought to say anything disparaging about people who spend their lives in the service of their country, risking their lives."

[Ninong]

I think I see a trend here.

Another GOP presidential candidate has apologized to Mitt Romney for an email attacking Romney's Mormon religion. This time the GOP candidate who was shocked by the actions of one of his campaign staffers is Sam Brownback. One of Brownback's staffers sent out an email last week that included the following comments:

"The only thing Christianity and the LDS Church has in common is the name of Jesus Christ, and the LDS Jesus is not the same Jesus of the Christian faith." It also said that "those who claim that LDS is a Christian denomination don't know Mormon or Christian theology."

Brownback announced today that he personally plans to call Romney and the leadership of the LDS Church to apologize.

Sen. Brownback is a very religious person and, who knows, one of these days he might even decide to join the LDS Church. He was a Methodist when he was elected to the House in 1994. When he ran for the Senate two years later, he was an evangelical. Now he's an ultra-conservative Roman Catholic, having been converted by Opus Dei. He was baptized in an Opus Dei chapel on K Street, where he attends the noon Mass daily whenever possible. Opus Dei was founded by a priest who thought Generalissimo Francisco Franco was the ideal head of state.

Brownback becomes the third GOP presidential candidate to apologize to Mitt Romney for comments made about his Mormon faith by their staffers. One of Rudy Giuliani's staffers sent out a story by The Salt Lake Tribune asking whether Romney was the fulfillment of a disputed Mormon prophesy that predicts that a Mormon on a white horse will save the nation from disaster in the End Times. Giuliani personally called Romney to apologize for that email and said that he has instructed his staffers to lay off Romney's religion in the future.

Giuliani is another Catholic but, unlike Brownback, Giuliani is on his third wife. Giuliani is famous for dating his current wife while still married to his second wife and for publicly announcing his decision to divorce his second wife on live national TV without having told her about his decision in advance. You have to give Rudy credit for his devil-may-care attitude. Taking your mistress to Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral while you're still married to your second wife takes you know what.

Sen. John McCain announced publicly in January that he condemns any attacks on a person's faith. That was after McCain supporters in South Carolina circulated copies of an article by Daddy Dobson questioning whether any member of the LDS Church should be considered for the presidency.

So that makes three GOP candidates so far who have publicly apologized AFTER a staffer sent out an email attacking Romney's Mormon faith. It always makes news both when the first story hits the media and then again when the candidate makes a big deal of publicly apologizing for something his staffer did without his knowledge or consent. And every time this happens, the spotlight shines on Romney's religion again. Hmmm... I wonder which candidate will be next to have a staffer send out an email asking if a Mormon is really a Christian?

[Ninong]

Hey, guess what? Mike Bloomberg, multi-billionaire mayor of New York City, is no longer a Republican!

He's considering a run for the presidency as an independent. He said he's willing to spend $500 million of his own money on his campaign should he decide to run.

That's an interesting development. It's hard to say which party his candidacy would hurt the most. I guess that depends on which candidates the two major parties nominate. Bloomberg used to be a Democrat before he became a Republican, and now he's neither. Well, Ronald Reagan used to be a Democrat before he became a Republican, so that doesn't mean much. In fact, Hillary Clinton was a Barry Goldwater supporter in her youth. And Laura Bush was a LIBERAL (OMG!) supporter of Eugene McCarthy!

And if Bloomberg enters the mix, he adds a new religion for staffers at the Giuliani, Brownback and McCain campaigns to talk about in their emails.

And, speaking about Rudy Giuliani, looks like there's a vacancy in the position of South Carolina state chairman of the Giuliani for President campaign.

This guy was Rudy's South Carolina state chairman until today:

Thomas Ravenel, South Carolina State Treasurer, Republican, and state chairman of Giuliani's presidential campaign.

Mr. Ravenel has stepped down from the Giuliani campaign position due to personal reasons and the fact that he was just indicted by a federal grand jury for distribution of cocaine!


COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP, WLTX) -- South Carolina Treasurer Thomas Ravenel has been suspended from office, following his indictment by a federal grand jury for distribution of cocaine.

P.S. -- Rudy will now turn to his bestest buddy and former business partner, Bernie Kerik, for suggestions on a replacement.

[Ninong]

Mitt Romney's Schutzstaffel Chief in Trouble Again

Romney evidently loves this guy, Jay Garrity, since he has employed him as his top personal security chief for several years, but the guy's a regular Nazi. He has a long history of getting in trouble with the law for impersonating the law. I guess that's something he and his boss have in common -- impersonation. Garrity impersonates a law enforcement officer and Romney impersonates a conservative.

Now he has taken to pulling over reporters on the freeway and threatening them and even placing threatening phone calls to companies posing as "Trooper Garrity." The Giuliani campaign is doing everything in their power to keep this story alive.

Romney's campaign denies everything but, as usual, they're flat out lying!!! Romney himself has a history of lying. Right now he's flat out lying about what he believes now and when he first believed it.

[Ninong]

Rudy, Rudy, Rudy...

From the NY Daily news:

Former Environmental Protection Agency boss Christie Whitman says she urged Ground Zero workers to wear respirators, but then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani blocked her efforts.

She also said city officials didn't want EPA workers wearing haz-mat suits because they "didn't want this image of a city falling apart."

In an interview scheduled to run the day before Whitman testifies in front of Congress on Monday, she told WNBC-TV she warned the city of the risks almost every day.

And she said she believes illnesses killing first responders can be blamed on the city's lack of action.

"I'm not a scientist ... but I do [believe that]," she told WNBC's Brian Thompson.

"I mean, we wouldn't have been saying that the workers should wear respirators if ... we didn't think there might be health consequences."

She said the city had the responsibility to make sure workers wore respirators. But many took them off, complaining of heat. She said workers without respirators were barred from cleanup efforts at the Pentagon.

[...]

Whitman also criticized Giuliani's handling of a suspected anthrax attack at NBC's Rockefeller Center headquarters weeks after 9/11.

"There was concern by the city that EPA workers not be seen in the haz-mat suits," she said. "They didn't want this image of a city falling apart. I said, 'Well, that's not acceptable.'"

So Christie's now blaming Rudy. That's interesting. I'm sure it's true but she's going to catch hell for her own statement on September 18, 2001, reassuring the people of New York and Washington, D.C. that their air was "safe to breathe."

And we now know that Rudy's sidekick, former New York Police Commissioner and later partner with Giuliani in Giuliani Partners, Bernie Kerik was spending a lot of his time during this period carrying on not one but two simultaneous extra-marital affairs. One of his girlfriends discovered the existence of the other girlfriend when she found a love note in the city-owned apartment Kerik used for his love nest. No wonder Rudy and Bernie were such good pals, both of them enjoyed the same pastimes, except that Rudy usually dumped the current mistress before taking on the next one.

Rudy did carry on two flagrant extra-marital affairs while he was the chief resident of Gracie Mansion but he found a cushy $250,000/year job for the first mistress before moving on to the next one, who is now the third Mrs. Giuliani. Capo Kerik, on the other hand, managed to balance two mistresses and a wife simultaneously for several months.

[Ninong]

The Republican presidential contenders all seem to have strong opinions on immigration reform but the California Republican Party has no qualms about hiring aliens -- even illegal aliens -- for top positions:

"Somebody who has been imprisoned, faced deportation, has never worked on a state political campaign ... and who is suing the government for harm inflicted by his deportation order defies description,'' Schmidt said.

"The bylaws of the Republican Party invest enormous authority in the position of chief operating officer -- and it's clear that this person brings no experience and qualifications to run a state party of the size of California, not to mention the assorted legal issues involved.''

What are they talking about? They're talking about the the Chief Operating Officer of the California Republican Party who resigned last night after the San Francisco Chronicle ran a story the previous day pointing out that he was ordered deported in 2001 and that he is currently suing the United States government for $5 million because he was jailed for 30 days as a result of that deportation order.

The California GOP managed to get green cards for this guy and one other top honcho in their party. I guess they couldn't find any Americans willing to take the job?

I'm sure the Governator will have a lot to say about this. He and the state GOP have never been on the best of terms.

[Ninong]

I don't know why this is suddenly news, but the wing-nut blogosphere is all aglow over the discovery that Mitt Romney received Vietnam-era draft deferments while living in (OMG!) FRANCE!

I suspect someone on either Rudy Giuliani's or WALNUTS! McCain's staff of sending out another of those ubiquitous emails to alert us to this recently uncovered act of treason on the part of the flip-flopping former governor of the most liberal state in the nation.

Yes, it's true that the LDS Church secured religious draft deferments for Mitt during the two and a half years he spent Mormonizing the French. He also received the regular academic draft deferments for the year he attended Stanford prior to his missionary mission to Paris and for his three years at Brigham Young, followed by four years at Harvard. Newt Gingrich received academic draft deferments during the nine or ten years he attended Tulane pursuing a Ph.D. in history and Deputy Leader Dick received academic deferments during the year he attended Yale before he was invited to leave after flunking one too many courses. He resumed his education at some community college in Wyoming before transfering to another regular university but Deputy Leader Dick was out of college in five years and this became a problem for him when married men became eligible for the draft. He and Lynne were suddenly overcome with passion and she became pregnant within a week or two after that change. He then filed for an exemption as a father. His five deferments were granted during the five years it took him to finish four years of college. As Deputy Leader Dick would tell us later on, he had "other priorities" at that time. I'm not sure if collecting DUI's counts as one of those "other priorities."

I think it's the idea that Romney was actually living in FRANCE for 30 months that has the right-wing Republicans all up in arms. Oh, the horror of it all! Should we tell them that he's fluent in French? They made a big deal when they learned that "Jean" Kerry was fluent in French. And the Democrats have two candidates who are fluent in Spanish: Chris Dodd, who spent two years in the Peace Corps in the Dominican Republic, and Bill Richardson, whose mother crossed the border for a few hours just so he could be born in the United States. Hey, I guess Richardson has something in common with Mitt Romney. Romney's father was born in Mexico but claimed U.S. citizenship because his father had been born in Utah before his extended polygamous family moved to Mexico in the late 19th century after polygamy was outlawed by the LDS Church.

P.S. -- This draft deferment stuff is an interesting topic. The first Republican president ordered a draft of 300,000 men in 1863 but he included a provision that would allow anyone to buy their way out of the draft for $300. It was this obviously unfair provision that sparked the draft riots in New York City.

Today's College Republicans continue in their proud tradition of fighting the war by going to the movies and watching "24" on Fox. In Switzerland, every male is required to go through a 15-week military training period at the age of 19. He has a total military obligation of 260 days which is made up of the initial 15-week training period and then intermittent follow-up training over the next two decades. Switzerland has compulsory military service for all men in addition to having voluntary service. You can volunteer for the Swiss army or air force at the age of 17 but all 19-year-olds must report for military duty.