July 2010

Daily Dolt: IL GOP

ArchPundit July 28, 2010 0 Comment

Because lying by the Kirk Campaign wasn’t enough:

For Immediate Release – July 28, 2010

Contact 312-201-9000 info@ilgop.org

Mob Banker Giannoulias Silent on Radical Left-Wing Ties

Does Giannoulias believe President Bush allowed 9/11 to happen?

Does Giannoulias support the legalization of marijuana?

Does Giannoulias stand with J Street against Israel?

Last week, Alexi Giannoulias flew to Las Vegas to speak to the Netroots Nation, a radical left-wing group of bloggers.  Giannoulias announced on his Facebook page that he would be “leading the Illinois Caucus” at the Netroots Nation.  The Netroots website showed Giannoulias confirmed to attend the conference’s candidate event as well.

But as of today, Alexi remains silent on why he would associate with such a far-left wing group – and whether he stands with some of his fellow presenters at the conference.

Does Alexi Giannoulias believe President Bush allowed 9/11 to happen?

The conference agenda included a “conversation” with 9/11 “truther” Van Jones who resigned his post as “Green Jobs Czar” last year after news reports revealed he had signed a petition accusing former President Bush of allowing September 11^th to occur.  Columnist Charles Krauthammer wrote, “You can’t sign a petition demanding not one but four investigations of the charge that the Bush administration deliberately allowed Sept. 11, 2001 — i.e., collaborated in the worst massacre ever perpetrated on American soil — and be permitted in polite society, let alone have a high-level job in the White House.”

No, and neither does Van Jones as I discussed yesterday.  Van Jones not only immediately rejected the notion that Bush was responsible for 9-11 upon the petition with his name attached was brought forward, the kooks at 911truth.org can’t produce any evidence he signed, or for that matter, a couple other people who insist they never signed or agreed to any such statement.  Netroots Nation doesn’t tolerate truthers and Daily Kos banned them years ago-Netroots Nation started out as Yearly Kos hence the relevance.

You can argue over the petition all you want, but Van Jones has made it abundantly clear he doesn’t agree with it, so why is the Illinois GOP trying to raise it as an issue?

Does Alexi Giannoulias support the legalization of marijuana?

A second panel, “Marijuana Policy and Politics,” was scheduled to discuss how the left-wing can make marijuana legalization a mainstream political

issue.

Alexi is against legalization, though to be fair, it’s largely a mainstream issue now.  However, because a panel exists at a conference doesn’t mean everyone who attends agrees with the point.

For example, Mark Kirk caucuses with the Republican Party many of who advocate the privatization of Social Security.  Does that make Mark Kirk a right wing radical?

Does Alexi Giannoulias stand with J Street against Israel?

A third panel, “Israel Palestine Caucus,” was scheduled to be presented by J-Street staff members Isaac Luria and Amy Spitalnick.  J-Street is a controversial group known for its harsh criticism of Israel.  Earlier this year, Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz said, “I reject J Street because it spends more time criticizing Israel than supporting it.  They shouldn’t call themselves pro-Israel.”

On this one Alexi probably is closer to the AIPAC position, but let’s make it clear, J Street isn’t anti-Israel.  It’s just more moderate than AIPAC.  J Street argues for a 2 State Solution with permanent borders–the same position as that crazy nutjob George Bush.  J Street also thinks that attacking Iran and starting another war in between our two current wars might just be a bad idea, but does support a multilateral effort to stop Iran from gaining nuclear weapons.

Lying Liars Mark Kirk Edition

ArchPundit July 27, 2010 0 Comment

Another panel, “Israel Palestine Caucus,” was scheduled to be presented by J-Street staff members Isaac Luria and Amy Spitalnick.  J-Street is a controversial group known for its harsh criticism of Israel.  Earlier this year, Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz said, “I reject J Street because it spends more time criticizing Israel than supporting it.  They shouldn’t call themselves pro-Israel.”

Of course, Van Jones isn’t a truther.

I UNDERSTAND how Shirley Sherrod, the Agriculture Department official who was forced to resign last week, must have felt.

Last year I, too, resigned from an administration job, after I uttered some ill-chosen words about the Republican Party and was accused — falsely — of signing my name to a petition being passed around by 9/11 conspiracy theorists. Partisan Web sites and pundits pounced, and I, too, saw my name go from obscurity to national infamy within hours.

Our situations aren’t exactly the same. Ms. Sherrod’s comments, in which she, a black woman, appeared to admit to racial discrimination against a white couple, were taken far out of context, while I truly did use a vulgarity.

But the way we were treated is strikingly similar, and it reveals a lot about the venal nature of Washington politics in the Internet era. In my case, the media rushed to judgment so quickly that I was never able to make clear that the group put my name on its Web site without my permission. The group finally admitted that it never had my signature, but by then it was too late.

Just can’t stop lying.

Of course, not every position at the conference is held by many who attend or even most.  Truthers were banned from Daily Kos years ago and Netroots Nation certainly doesn’t tolerate them either.

Another lie, another day.  It’s a hell of a streak for Mark Kirk.

It’s Such a Simple Question

ArchPundit July 26, 2010 0 Comment

How can voters trust your word….

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5w9HYaw8XA[/youtube]

I’m still baffled why he doesn’t try and be human instead of talking around this.  His response from the article was this:

Pressed on the timing of the rescue, Kirk told the Tribune the magazine reporter must have made a mistake. Informed the interview was recorded, Kirk then said he did not watch the sunset but denied embellishing his story.

At some point you just have to admit you screwed up — people are far more forgiving of that then trying to talk your way out of it. 

DGA on Brady’s Economic Views

ArchPundit July 26, 2010 0 Comment

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIxhtjp6xhA[/youtube]

Biko, ohoohh Biko…

ArchPundit July 26, 2010 0 Comment

What a moron:

My family immigrated to America in the same year that South African police murdered Black Consciousness leader Steve Biko. The racist regime that destroyed him viewed him as a threat because of his simple credo: “I write what I like.” Biko understood that freedom of thought and expression were the greatest weapons against tyranny.

Last week, my opponent, Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), called on me to denounce Andrew Breitbart and to end any further association with his website, BigGovernment.com.

Her attack was typical of a corrupt Washington elite that believes it is entitled to tell people what to say and where to say it. It was that kind of behavior that convinced me to run against Schakowsky to begin with, after she collaborated with paid organizers in shutting down questions from constituents at her town hall meeting last August.

Actually, the attack is to point out you are writing at a place that just trashed an innocent woman using a selectively edited video.  The question is why would you want to publish there?

Bob Dold’s Gaffe

ArchPundit July 26, 2010 0 Comment

Michael Kinsley defined a gaffe in politics as being “A gaffe is when a politician tells the truth.”

Bob Dold just made a gaffe on Facebook:

This is especially interesting since Dold is running as a ‘moderate’ while he keeps getting endorsed by nutters on the right like the Eagle Forum.

From a Seals press release a brief summary of Ryan’s plan:

Ryan’s proposal would:

·               Raise taxes on the middle class in order to slash taxes for multi-millionaires

·               Privatize Medicare and Medicaid and gradually eliminate both programs

·               Eliminate Children’s Health Insurance Program and replace it with vouchers that decline in value

·               Privatize Social Security

·               Institutionalize the federal government bailout of private investment account if the stock market crashes

·               Even with all these drastic cuts to essential programs, the plan actually fails to control the debt.

Under the Republican budget plan, “about three-quarters of Americans — those with incomes between $20,000 and $200,000 — would face tax increases” according to the fiscally-conservative Center for Budget and Policy Priorities.  CBPP concluded “The Ryan Proposal would abolish Medicare in its current form” and “would cut in half the taxes of the richest 1 percent of Americans.” They also state “as a result of its costly new tax cuts for the wealthy, the Ryan plan would allow the federal debt to continue rising in relation to the size of the economy for at least four decades.”

Boehner himself ran away from it because it is toxic to the average voter—and it appears that Dold realized that by telling the truth, he made a big mistake given how quickly it disappeared.

UPDATE:  Mixed up Bruce/Bob in the original–haven’t made fun of Bruce in a while.

Kirk and Memory

ArchPundit July 23, 2010 0 Comment

My first reaction to the Mark Kirk story in today’s Tribune is that most of this is an entirely different story than the military and teaching issues.   Memory is a very unstable human characteristic.  Memories tend to change when accessed and so stories tend to change over time as you recall them and try and fill in the details each time.  So when Mark Kirk says he had a body temperature of 82 degrees, he’s obviously wrong, but probably not lying in the traditional sense of the word.  He is literally misremembering.

From a political point of view this doesn’ t matter much because he’s screwed since the press now believes nothing he says and innocent errors will be turned into tests of character.

And here’s where Kirk gets himself in trouble to the point where I have little sympathy with him even if I think the misremembering isn’t a big deal:

Pressed on the timing of the rescue, Kirk told the Tribune the magazine reporter must have made a mistake. Informed the interview was recorded, Kirk then said he did not watch the sunset but denied embellishing his story.

This is just like when he issued a correction for the New York Times, he tries to blame someone else when he could just sit respond with–“oops, I’m human and I screwed up a really old memory and I apologize.  It was a traumatic event for me and I clearly don’t have the best recall of it.”

“…the government in their case proved my innocence.”

ArchPundit July 21, 2010 0 Comment

He probably believes this even.

Stupidest Governor Evah!

ArchPundit July 21, 2010 0 Comment

The State Police swept his office for bugs the day before Blagojevich’s arrest.  Now, Rob (the brother) says he didn’t order it and was unaware of Rod ordering it, but the State Police don’t randomly sweep the Governor’s Campaign office for bugs without an order.

After the news about Wyma came out, Robert testifies, someone on the governor’s team had the Illinois State Police sweep the Friends of Blagojevich office for bugs on Dec. 8, 2008 — but Robert said he wasn’t concerned.

“Having the place swept for wires and bugs didn’t matter to me. We were doing nothing improper,” Robert testifies. “I never directed it. if Rod did, I’m not aware of it.”

Robert testifies that the order came from Chrissy Jacobs, a “politically connected” administrative assistant who was “very concerned about eavesdropping” and “a very excitable personality.”

Sure, it was her.  I buy that.  LOL.  But anyway, despite this sweep this genius was talking openly on the phone while plotting multiple extortion schemes.

Via Capitol Fax

Paranoid Coke Addict Jerks Media Around

ArchPundit July 21, 2010 0 Comment

Hysterical from Breitbart:

You tell me as a reporter how CNN put on a person today who purported to be the farmer’s wife? What did you do to find out whether or not that was the actual farmer’s wife? I mean, if you’re going to accuse me of a falsehood, tell me where you’ve confirmed that had this incident happened 24 years ago. […]

You’re going off of her word that the farmer’s wife is the farmer’s wife?

Just from public appearances and utterances, it’s friggen’ clear that Andrew Breitbart needs prescribed medication, a good rehab program, and 12 step program.  Why does the press let him jerk them around?