Call It A Comeback
Dan Zanoza helps underscore the race baiting going on with Obama over at Illinois Review:
I don’t think there’s any problem with using Obama’s middle name. It’s part of his heritage. It’s part of who he is. And, if that heritage, combined with some of the recent comments made by Obama and his wife, Michelle, shed light on this man’s true world view, the American people have a right to know it or hear it.
I would normally say that it was that he got several facts wrong, but instead of asking questions that illuminate a position, he tried to ask gotcha question after gotcha question after gotcha question.
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It wasn’t good questioning because it didn’t allow for clarification or nuance instead insisting on yes or no answers that had little to do with substance.
Mister Answer Man, Greg Sargent seems awfully flip about this. He seems to think that Obama is now completely off the hook, and that the question itself was “inane.” I’m not so sure. Aren’t the American people entitled to know whether Barack Obama, as a Muslim, approves of another Muslim who thinks Judaism is a “gutter religion,” and shouldn’t Obama reject him even more strongly by rejecting and denouncing him and then repudiating and disdaining him as well? – D. Schlussel, Michigan
Read the whole thing….
Or why understanding transitive relationships should be taught in Journalism 101.
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What the fuck was that? What do you do to assure…blah, blah, blah.
Timmeh took his cue from Richard Cohen in the Washington Post column:
Barack Obama is a member of Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ. Its minister, and Obama’s spiritual adviser, is the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. In 1982, the church launched Trumpet Newsmagazine; Wright’s daughters serve as publisher and executive editor. Every year, the magazine makes awards in various categories. Last year, it gave the Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. Trumpeter Award to a man it said “truly epitomized greatness.” That man is Louis Farrakhan.
Except, Timmeh, got the facts wrong on top of it. Wright didn’t say Farrakhan epitomized greatness, that was a part of the Trumpet Magazine award to Farrakhan. Wright is the CEO of the magazine, but his daughter Jeri is the publisher. While those ties might be relevant, it’s very different from Jeremiah Wright saying that. And, in fact, the magazine split off from the congregation in September of 2005.
The thing is, everyone is missing the point about how fucking stupid this line of questioning was. When was the last time Timmeh took on some right wing fundamentalists for being anti-semitic? So why isn’t George Bush asked about every anti-semitic rant by LaHaye or Wildmon since by the transitive property Timmeh is invoking, Bush has close spiritual adivisors who work closely with them?
The Council on National Policy alone contains a whole host of anti-semitic right wing Christians who hobnob with the Tony Perkins and the Richard Lands and the Dobsons of the world, but that transitive connection would never be brought up would it? This isn’t just a connection of someone who goes on a trip with or says something nice, it’s a working group of conservative fundamentalists who welcome anti-semitism into their efforts to bring about a Christian government. Of course, the Bush administration has routinely played footsy with Wildmon, not just had a friend of his be nice to him on occasion.
This would never be an issue for a white candidate and shame on Timmeh for trying to do it to Obama. If Timmeh wants to be concerned about anti-semitism he should start asking the Mike Huckabee’s of the world about their supporters who they actually work with to get elected.
I think that breaking down Russert’s Wright/Farrakhan questioning helps illuminate how truly bizarre it is:
1. The title of Obama’s book, “The Audacity of Hope,” came from a sermon delivered by Jeremiah Wright. Wright is Obama’s pastor.
2. Wright is the “head” of United Trinity Church.
3. Wright said that Louis Farrakhan “epitomizes greatness.”
4. Wright went with Farrakhan in 1984 to visit Muammar Gaddafi in Libya.
5. Farrakhan has said that Judaism is a “gutter religion.”
6. Wright said that when Obama’s political opponents found out about the Libya visit, Obama’s Jewish support would dry up “faster than a snowball in Hell.”
Russert’s question is then “What do you do to assure Jewish Americans… you are consistent with issues regarding Israel and not in any way suggesting that Farrakhan epitomizes greatness.”
The first question about Farrakhan—and Russert’s insistence on mentioning Farrakhan’s views regarding Judaism after Obama had already denounced Farrakhan’s bigotry—was all foreplay leading up to this masterstroke in which Russert synthesizes the six discrete facts into a knockout punch of innuendo and guilt by association: perhaps Obama thinks that Louis Farrakhan, the man Obama explicitly denounced not one minute before, is the very epitome of greatness.
All of the stuff about going to Libya, Farrakhan’s “gutter religion” comment, and Jewish supporting drying up like a snowball in hell—that was all totally unnecessary to reach the ultimate question, but wasn’t it fun?
DCCC Release:
Jim Oberweis, the Republican Congressional candidate in IL-14, appears to have broken federal election law by triggering the Millionaires’ Amendment without notifying his opponent as required by law. This would not be the first time Oberweis broke the law or tried to deceive voters.
“Jim Oberweis has a disturbing pattern of violating federal election law and deceiving voters” said Jennifer Crider, Communications Director at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “This time, it looks like Jim Oberweis personally and deliberately failed to follow the law, pouring money into this race that he made investing in Chinese companies that threaten American jobs. Jim Oberweis acts like the rules and law don’t apply to him – Illinois voters deserve better.”
According to his most recent FEC filing, Oberweis put in $640,000 of his own money. [http://query.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/dcdev/forms/C00436642/324695/sc/ALL]
- $300,000.00 on February 7, 2008
- $340,000.00 on February 11, 2008
The Millionaires’ Amendment is a part of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform law. McCain-Feingold increases contribution limits for candidates facing opponents who put substantial sums of their personal funds into their own campaigns. An individual who puts in more than $350,000 into their House race risks triggering the Millionaires’ Amendment. Once the millionaire candidate trips this threshold, the candidate must notify his opponents and the FEC by filing a FEC Form 10 within 24 hours. The opponent can have access to higher limits depending on his or her own spending and fundraising. [http://www.fec.gov/press/bkgnd/MillionairesAmendment.html]
Jim Oberweis’ Pattern of Violating Federal Election Law and Deceiving Voters
- Oberweis was previously fined $21,000 by the FEC for breaking federal election law. The FEC said Oberweis benefited from a television ad he appeared in for the Oberweis Dairy in the 2004 Senate race and that the ad constituted a corporate contribution which is prohibited by federal campaign laws. [Associated Press, 7/27/07]
- Oberweis used fake headlines in his 2006 gubernatorial campaign. Oberweis ran two TV ads that use made-up newspaper headlines to attack his opponents integrity. The words were displayed as if they appeared on the front pages of the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun-Times, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the State Journal-Register. The St Louis Post-Dispatch ran a story with the headline “Ads for Oberweis using Fake Headlines…” after TV spots he ran attacking is opponent used replicas of real newspapers with fake headlines.” [St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 3/2/06] [Chicago Tribune, 3/1/06]
Candidates That Violate the Millionaires’ Amendment Receive Significant Fines
- $91,000 Fine for Former Representative Charles Taylor. In December 2006, the FEC Taylor On December 27, the FEC fined Taylor, R-Brevard, $91,000 for failing to properly report loans and contributions totaling more than $800,000 that he made to his 2004 congressional campaign. [Asheville Citizen-Times, 1/6/07]
- $71,000 Fine for J. Edgar Broyhill II (NC-05). In July 2006, the FEC fined for J. Edgar Broyhill II, a candidate in the 2004 primary election, for violating the reporting requirements of the Millionaire’s Amendment, along with other reporting requirements of federal election law. [$71,100 CIVIL PENALTY PAID BY BROYHILL FOR VIOLATIONS OF MILLIONAIRE’S AMENDMENT States News Service July 19, 2006 Wednesday]
- $68,250 Fine for James R. Socas (VA-10). In March 2006, the FEC fined James R. Socas, a candidate in the 2004 general election for for violating the reporting requirements of the Millionaire’s Amendment. [SOCAS PAYS CIVIL PENALTY FOR VIOLATIONS OF MILLIONAIRE’S AMENDMENT States News Service March 16, 2006 Thursday]
Going back to October, a poster at Illinois Review argued that such groups as Pharmacists for Life unfairly are tagged with being extremists by Planned Parenthood.
This is how toxic these loons are.
Eaton tries to lie herself out yesterday’s lie. She claims the below proves that Ginsburg thought the ERA would eliminate survivor benefits for women who choose to stay home.
“Congress and the President should direct their attention to the concept that pervades the Code: that the adult world is (and should be) divided into two classes – independent men, whose primary responsibility is to win bread for a family, and dependent women, whose primary responsibility is to care for children and household. This concept must be eliminated from the code if it is to reflect the equality principle.”
Of course, this is directly contradicted by the text of page 45 in which the recommendations for Social Security changes include making the language gender neutral so that men and women have equal access to survivor benefits regardless who who works and who might stay at home.
But what is even more telling is how she uses the quote above that doesn’t even make the argument she claims it makes. It talks about making the code gender neutral, not eliminating benefits for women who didn’t work outside the home.
What Fran cannot do is cite the next paragraph that demonstrates just how much of a liar Fran is:
Underlying the recommendations made in this report is the fundamental point that allocation of responsibilities within the family is a matter properly determined solely by the individuals involved. Government should not steer individual decisions concerning household or breadwinning roles by casting the law’s weight on the side of (or against) a particular method of ordering private relationships. Rather, a policy of strict neutrality should be pursued. That policy should accomodate both traditional and innovative patterns. At the same time, it should assure removal of artificial constraints so that women and men willing to explore their full potential as human beings may create new traditions by their actions.
Combine this with the recommendations on page 45 and what is clear is that Ginsburg argued for expanding benefits to widowers as well as widows, not to eliminate benefits to widows.
Why Eaton feels the need to lie about the report is beyond me, but she clearly did. And the Southtown Star helped her in that endeavor.
Hiram: Jim Oberweis Believes In Health Care For Cows – Not People
Jim Oberweis supports health care for all cows in his business. But the Chicago Tribune points out Jim Oberweis is against employers providing health care insurance for people – he says employees should go it alone. Cows get guaranteed health care while people go without. Should we treat cows better than people? Yes, it sounds strange, but you know where Jim Oberweis stands.
Here’s the Skinny:
What’s fascinating is that Oberweis is talking about a health care system that existed 20 years ago and not what exists today. There are incentives to avoid overusing health care, but more importantly health care now is starting to focus on more preventative care which is the only way to truly reduce the rising health care costs.
As some of you may have noticed, I’ve been performing some updates on the site.
I moved to a new host and am very happy with it, but I also put some maintenance in on a bunch of features including the feeds which are much improved and now includes a comment feed. You’ll also notice the favicon if you bookmark the site and and the feeds include more branding. Also, a bunch of features have been added to each post from Feedburner in each post both on the site and in the feed.
Finally, you can sign up for a daily e-mail with the posts from AP in it down on the right hand column.
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Check out the tag scum
I cannot wait to visit on March 5th.
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