Saturday, July 21, 2007

The GOP Hates Civil Liberties

I keep wondering how long it is going to take the general population to wake up to the fact that the GOP hates civil liberties. Just yesterday former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney gave us an excellent demonstration in Denison Iowa:

"I support tough interrogation techniques,
enhanced interrogation techniques, in circumstances where there is a ticking
time bomb, a ticking bomb," Romney said. "I do not support torture, but I do
support enhanced interrogation techniques to learn from terrorists what we need
to learn to keep the bombs from going off."

I'm not sure how the GOP came around to the conclusion that Al Qaeda is more dangerous than Nazi Germany or Imperial Japan but that kind of a comparative is just mind bogglingly nuts. Somehow we managed to fight a two ocean war without torturing people for intelligence. Yes, we herded up and put Asian descendant American citizens in detention camps, but they were not physically tortured and some semblance of trying to meet Geneva convention standards was attempted.

There is nothing like trying to appeal to the lowest common denominator of your base. And the lowest you can get is to use fear as a rallying point for support. In FDR's lowest moment he never even thought of using fear. This administration and the GOP '08 candidates use it like a blunt instrument. In Denison Iowa yesterday Mitt Romney pulled out his club and started beating it over the heads of his listeners. I'm not sure what's more disturbing: the ease Romney succumbed to the temptation and taking the fear route or his listeners buying into that crap. Either way, it's a road the GOP is willing to lead us down.

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Friday, July 20, 2007

Edwards Leading The Way

Sen. Edwards may not be pulling the sexy news stories and early poll numbers that Clinton and Obama are pulling nationally but one thing is for sure, he's the one to beat and rest of the field better realize it. As Taegan Goodard's Political Wire points out, the WSJ today talks about Edwards setting the political agenda for the road to Denver and thereby making the other campaigns react to him. John Edwards gets it. Pretty soon, this tact is going to start paying off for him in national poll numbers and money. In Iowa he's the one to beat despite it being Obama's backyard.

Update: On Wednesday, July 18th, Sen. Edwards wrapped up his 1,800 mile One America tour in Prestonsburg, KY where RFK's 1968 200 mile tour of impoverished regions in southeastern Kentucky ended. The Senator also commemorated Martin Luther King, Jr.'s 1968 Poor People's march to Washington, D.C. with a stop in Marks, Mississippi where MLK began his crusade for the downtrodden. OneCarolinaGirl gets major props for uploading this excellent video she made of the Senator's speech in Prestonsburg. John Edwards crystalizes all the themes in his campaign into one nice tight speech demonstrating once again how he just plain gets it and keeps setting the aganda while the others scramble to catch up.

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Iowa On My Mind

With 178 days left before the Iowa Caucus on January 14th, 2008 it looks like the Hawkeye State is starting to heat up with campaign activity in the past 48 hours.

Gov. Bill Richardson is predicted to win the Iowa Caucus according to the latest USA Elections Polls. This along with the news that Gov. Richardson's second quarter fund raising might be suggesting a tier position swap with former Sen. John Edwards. I'll have to wait and see on that one because the Edwards campaign did in fact meet it's target for the 2nd quarter. Gov. Richardson is also getting attention from the Des Moines Register for his call on Thursday in Des Moines to increase legal immigration: "I think we also need to raise the legal immigration numbers for those workers that we need." So it looks like the Richardson campaign is trying to make a move in Iowa now by boosting his presence there.

There is no doubt Sen. Clinton is putting major resources in Iowa with a few recent moves in the past 48 hours. The Hill's Congress Blog is reporting that her campaign is set to mail a DVD out to Iowa's registered Democrats detailing her stand on Iraq fresh off the news of her endorsement of former Ambassador Joe Wilson. The former Ambassador is included in the DVD as they discuss her views on the war. This move comes fresh of the heels of news her campaign is helping former Gov. Vilsack retire his failed Presidential campaign debts which only furthers speculation on Vilsack's potential as a runing mate.

I'm somewhat taken with the fact that Sen. Barack Obama doesn't seemed to be mentioned very much with what's at stake with him regarding Iowa. As a neighboring state with Illinois Iowa plays a double edged sword for his campaign. USA Today had an interview with him on Wednesday where he was asked whether or not Iowa could be called 'southern Illinois." This is the first mention I've seen linking how important Iowa will be to Sen. Obama.

Polling data still supports former Sen. Edwards' strength there and he is still the one to beat. One hundred and seventy-eight days is still a long way off and a lot can happen. There is no doubt the Edwards campaign is banking on an Iowa win. He needs it to stay with the Clinton campaign and Obama needs it to just stay in the race.

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Welcome Back Markos


It's nice to see Markos back from his vacation, and with a bang as well. He's jumped in with both feet showing what a moron Bill O'Reilly is with his crusade against JetBlue. Markos points out that yet another FauxNews talking blowhole has misinformed us - - again.

Update: Well, looks like JetBlue caved after all and pulled their sponsorship of YearlyKos. Please head on over to Daily Kos now and send an e-mail to corporate headquarters and let them know that caving in to right wing extremists isn't good business. You can bet I'll never fly JetBlue after this. Ever.

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Thursday, July 19, 2007

Digby Hearts Harry Truman

...as only Digby can.

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Big Deal

Ok, so Diane Sawyer apologized for misinforming us yet again. She's still a hack of the first magnitude. The former Nixon speechwriter had loyalties that kept her with him to the very end. So apparently wiping your feet on the Constitution didn't bother her. Sorry, Diane, your mea culpa is as hollow as your respect for the constitution. You and Judy Miller can clink glasses of wine later.

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Gore Watch

Though my blog is representative of the fact former NC Senator John Edwards is my preferred choice for the 2008 Democratic nomination of the declared candidates, my first choice is Al Gore who seems more politically attractive than at any other time in his career. If Mr. Gore becomes a candidate in ths race at any time I wll immediately throw my support behind him. Though the odds are against him running, notwithstanding a Shermanesque statement of denial, I continue to hold out hope against hope. Otherwise I will carry on my current support for the netroots favorite, Sen. Edwards. Hence, the reason for this ongoing blog feature: Gore Watch.

So let's get this started, shall we? I see where Linda in SFNM over at Daily Kos fills us in on yet another early primary state poll where Gore is leading the Democratic field. And it's from Senator Craig's state of all places, Idaho. It seems the former V.P. is the preference of 31% of those polled while Hillary and Obama are in the low 20's. As for Iowa, the Des Moines register seems to be getting it's share of letters to the editior from subscibers calling for somekind of action to get Gore in the race via the draft movement.

Meanwhile, I see where GoreHub is reporting that Al Gore has been named International Statesman of the Year by the UK. This ia a nice honor to go along with the other slew of honors that seem to have no end in sight coming his way. I'm glad to see the rest of the world finally catching up to the kind of human being he is.

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