T. Boone Pickens, lying hypocritical bastard

While speaking at a 2007 dinner, T. Boone Pickens offered $1 million to anyone who could disprove even one claim made by the misnamed Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, the group that smeared John Kerry and lied about his military service in an effort to keep him from winning the presidential election in 2004.

Kerry took Pickens up on the challenge.

Pickens backtracked.

Kerry called bullshit.

Now several Navy veterans who actually served with Kerry recently attempted to collect on Pickens's Swift Boat Challenge. (.pdf link to their 15 page letter)

Unsurprisingly, Pickens again moved the goalposts, went back on his word, and refuses to pay.

I think we can now agree that Boone Pickens is a lying fuck who lied about Kerry and continues to lie about having lied.

Media flaks for McCain, as always

Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson is a jackass.

Gerson criticized Al Franken, Democratic candidate for the US Senate from Minnesota, for what he called Franken's "offensive vulgarity". According to Gerson "at its best, politics can offer examples of civility and generosity that challenge selfishness and prejudice -- the tradition so far embraced by both John McCain and Barack Obama."

First, Al Franken was a comedian and satirist, not a politician. The context matters.

Second, Bwah ha ha ha ha ha!

Does Gerson not know that McCain said this in 1998? "Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly? Because her father is Janet Reno."

How about this exchange from late 2007?

An older woman stood and asked McCain, "how do we beat the bitch?"

"May I give the translation?" McCain asked. Then he said "but that's an excellent question."

Or how about this, also from late 2007?

Republican presidential candidate John McCain took one look at a nursing school's training mannequin and asked if the dummy's name was Hillary.

Campaigning Thursday at the University of South Carolina Upstate nursing school, McCain couldn't resist a swipe at Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton. "I was very glad to meet the dummy, named 'Hillary,'" McCain said to laughter after a tour of the school. "Is that the name?"

Or how about this?

In his 1992 Senate bid, McCain was joined on the campaign trail by his wife, Cindy, as well as campaign aide Doug Cole and consultant Wes Gullett. At one point, Cindy playfully twirled McCain's hair and said, "You're getting a little thin up there." McCain's face reddened, and he responded, "At least I don't plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you cunt."

John McCain. Keeping it civil since...well, never. And why would he, when he's got guys like Gerson lying on his behalf?

The meme of Hillary Clinton's "inevitablity"

Look, can we stop saying that Hillary Clinton regarded herself as inevitable when it came to the Democratic presidential nomination?

To hear the current conventional wisdom, you'd think that Clinton was at 90 percent in the polls and Obama came from single digits to overtake her.

Bull. Shit.

"Inevitable" was a meme pushed by a mainstream media that built up Clinton so that they could later tear her down.

In February 2007, Clinton was at 36 percent in the polls, Obama had 24, Gore 14, and Edwards 12. That was the month that Obama made known his intention to become a candidate.

At the same time, Clinton's favorability rating was at 49 percent, with a 48 percent unfavorable. Obama's favorability was 53 percent, with a 30 unfavorable.

The month before, when Obama wasn't yet a candidate, Clinton was at 41 percent and Obama 17.

Isn't it obvious Obama was a credible candidate from the moment he entered the race and that the race was always between two strong candidates, Clinton and Obama?

So Obama is the nominee, fine. He won. Clinton didn't. But the numbers don't lie. Let's give the "Clinton was arrogant because she saw herself as inevitable" bullshit a rest, OK?

John McCain -- That's not too important

I had not been able to watch Keith Olbermann for the last several months. I found his constant attacks on Hillary Clinton and pumping up of Barack Obama to be too grating.

Now that Clinton has conceded the Democratic nomination and Olbermann is back to slamming the guys who really deserve it, I think I might be able to watch again.

Last night's special comment was pretty good. It goes on for almost 12 minutes, but it's worth the time it takes to watch because it makes the case for why John McCain has no business being president.

Clinton's Legacy

I really liked this post by Ian Welsh at Fire Dog Lake.

Clinton’s Legacy: Never Quit

By: Ian Welsh

Tuesday June 10, 2008 9:59 am

I've been thinking back to Clinton's campaign as all the post-mortems have been flying around and wondering about how she came out of it so strong. And contrary to the common media take that this has somehow "destroyed the Clinton legacy" I think the reverse is true.

Clinton was strong with whom she was strong, I think, in part because of the most important contrast between her and Obama, which centers around the word "fight". Or perhaps, "brawl". Obama is smooth, ironic and even hip. He's deft and agile, and he handles problems by trying to finesse them. That's not an insult, Obama's great speech on race in America was a finesse approach, where he tried to actually explain, in nuanced terms, what race means in America. It was the right thing to do, even if, arguably, it didn't work.

Clinton didn't start out as the fighter or brawler. She started as "Senator Inevitable." But when she was down, when she was on the mat with the referee trying to 3 count her out; when she struggled to her feet through a barrage of body blows, put her fists up and came out swinging, she became the fighter.

Every time some media or blogger weenie screamed for her to quit they built Clinton's legend. Every time something went wrong, and Clinton shook the blood out of her eyes, and refused to go down; every time she came out swinging one more time, she built her legend.

For Clinton the fight wasn't over till the chance of her winning was zero. Not "small". Not "miniscule". Not "tiny". But nonexistent. Clinton was what we all say we admire, someone who didn't quit till the bell had rung. Once Obama had won, fine. But until he had won, no way, no how.

I grew up in Canada's British Columbia more than any other place. At the time about half the province's economy was forestry based, and the third largest industry was fishing. My father was a forester, and one of my uncles was both a farmer and a commercial fisherman (and a hunter, as well, though almost everyone I knew hunted, so that didn't mean much.)

When I was growing up we called it having sand. Even if someone lost a fight they were greatly admired if they didn't give up till there was no chance of winning. Clinton's refusal to bow out "gracefully", to fight to the end, is what bonded her people to her. It wasn't her great weakness and it certainly didn't destroy her legacy. Instead it has turned her into an iconic figure. Hate her, love her, it doesn't matter. In losing she affirmed that she had the endurance, guts and heart to go the distance, to take the body blows, and to bear up under any storm.

Some people want that in a leader. And Clinton showed them that all her talk about toughness and fighting wasn't just talk. She lived it, she embodied it, and that's why she closed stronger than she started. Sometimes a second wind comes too late. It did for Clinton's chances at the Presidency, but it didn't come too late to turn her into the embodiment of an ideal.

What media "balance" really means

I really like this post at horsesass.org.

Goldy uses a Seattle Times editorial about the New GI Bill to show how "the media" frames an issue to assign blame equally to both sides, when in fact only one side is at fault.

Check it out and see what "on the one hand..." and "some say" get us when it comes to accurate reporting.

Please kick Lieberman out of the "Democrat" caucus

Senator Joe Lieberman (DICK, Connecticut), in a McCain for President campaign message:

As you know, I caucus with the Democrats as a United States Senator and was the Democrat Party's nominee for Vice-President of the United States against President Bush and Vice President Cheney.

What a DICK.

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Hertzberg noted that Republicans "as far back as the Harding Administration" have referred to the "Democrat Party," including late Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R-WI), who "made it a regular part of his arsenal of insults," and former Sen. Bob Dole (R-KS), who "denounced 'Democrat wars' ... in his [1976] Vice-Presidential debate with [former Sen.] Walter Mondale [D-MN]."

Further, Hertzberg wrote that "among those of the Republican persuasion," the use of "'Democrat Party' is now nearly universal" thanks to "Newt Gingrich, the nominal author of the notorious 1990 memo 'Language: A Key Mechanism of Control,' and his Contract with America pollster, Frank Luntz." While Hertzberg noted that Luntz "road-tested the adjectival use of 'Democrat' with a focus group in 2001" and "concluded that the only people who really dislike it are highly partisan adherents of the ... Democratic Party," he also wrote that Luntz had told him recently that "[t]hose two letters ['ic'] actually do matter," and that Luntz "recently finished writing a book ... entitled 'Words That Work.'"

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Democrat Party is a political epithet used in the United States by some people (in many cases, conservative commentators or some members of the Republican Party in speeches and press releases) instead of the name (or more precisely, the proper noun) Democratic Party.

Many members of the Democratic Party object to the term. New Yorker commentator Hendrik Hertzberg wrote: "There’s no great mystery about the motives behind this deliberate misnaming. 'Democrat Party' is a slur, or intended to be - a handy way to express contempt. Aesthetic judgments are subjective, of course, but 'Democrat Party' is jarring verging on ugly. It fairly screams 'rat.'"

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Can we PLEASE kick Lieberman out of the caucus now?

Assholes

Just assholes.

ABRAMS (5/29/08): Roy, does tonight’s news, do you think, change things?

SEKOFF: No. Hillary–it’s going to be over by next week and Hillary will just be there in the wings, kind of like a Miss America runner-up waiting for the nude pictures to come out, you know.

ALTER: Which happens.

ABRAMS: Roy is going to be a poster–

SEKOFF: Don’t forget, RFK was assassinated in June but Vanessa Williams’ pictures didn’t come out until July.

ABRAMS: Roy just guaranteed himself a picture on the sexism Web sites with that comparison. Welcome, Roy.

SEKOFF: It’s a metaphor, Dan.

ALTER: Come in. The water’s warm.

ABRAMS: Craig Crawford, Roy Sekoff, Jonathan Alter, thanks a lot. Appreciate it.

Way to keep it professional at MSNBC, Abrams. Remember these remarks from Roy Sekoff the next time an Obama supporter complains about how Hillary Clinton is "attacking" The Anointed One.