Hollywood, CA – In a nod to both Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenegger, John McCain has gone Hollywood. With a deal secured to star in a upcoming sequel to Rambo, Rambo VI – Total Conquer, McCain will join the ranks of Republican actors. Though it might conflict with his duties as President, McCain said he can easily handle both and still answer the phone at 3 a.m.
“What is truly special about this,” said McCain, already ripped out for his new role, “is to be part of this special franchise. Film after film, Rambo wins a former war for America. I plan on taking the full enchilada like the hot tamale I am.”
The script is being hastily written by some hacks who actually still live in Hollywood. The basic plot is McCain singled handedly conquers the whole world, bringing peace on Earth.
“A peace with honor, at that,” McCain grinned out, oiling up a vast array of awe-inspiring weapons. “Sylvester Stallone not only endorsed me, but also gave me a chance to strap on the headband of John Rambo. Let’s roll.”
John McCain will star as McCainbo, as the elite solider is known in the screenplay, and the list of countries he brings the final peace solution to is impressive. Somalia, Indonesia, China, Russia all fall to the fury of McCainbo. He also ties up loose ends in Iraq, Afghanistan, Colombia and North Korea.
“And don’t forget Cuba,” said McCain, smearing war paint on, relishing in his role as the ultimate warrior. “And Iran, you are officially on notice. And so are you France.”
There are also rumors of McCain and Stallone are teaming up for yet another sequel called Rambos: Ageless Warrior, where the dynamic duo go back in time to not only destroy ancient Rome, but slay Alexander the Great himself.
Rambo VI – Total Conquer is set for release in Christmas, 2010 and will be the first movie rated MV, Mandatory Viewing.
Over at Talk Left, BTD is arguing that if, as his supporters and surrogates say, Obama has locked this thing up, he should attempt to unify the party–that it is not Hillary who should do this (as Kos and Meteor Blades argue). http://www.talkleft.com/story/…
I argue the opposite. I believe if Obama gets the nomination, not only does he not try to gain the consent of Hillary supporters, and not only does he not request Hillary to help in his campaign (much less ask her to be his v-p), he throws Hillary under the bus.
My prediction is that Hillary will become the token of what is characterized as “old school” politics, divisiveness, and the belt way. I think Obama determines that Hillary supporters, in the end, will not vote for McSame no matter what he does and that he will run to the right (to the extent he cannot simply run on hope, change and unity) in the general election.
The world is made up of nearly seven billion people. In order to change it, you have to change the minds of those people. That’s a LOT of changing! Should we try to sit down and have a conversation seven billion times to change each individual mind? Obviously not. The travel expenses alone are prohibitive.
Margaret Mead said:
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.
So how does this small group change the world? By indeed, the only method that has ever worked.
Propagating ideas.
If an idea is specific but not simplistic, but can still be stated relatively simply, and the truth behind it is potent enough, iow if it resonates with enough people…if it changes enough minds….it changes the world.
But there is a problem….or two…hundred.
The first problem is, distribution. In order for an idea to change the world, it first has to achieve momentum and critical mass. It has to go viral.
Second: The world is so complex ….and cynical….that a single idea, expressed simply, without sufficient context and education, is no longer effective. In todays world, the idea must be marketed.
Third: Competition. See marketing above. See my sig line….”Reality is the result of war between two rival groups of programmers.” Put differently, the world is a battlefield of ideas. Whichever idea has won the current battle is the one that “rules the world.” Right now that idea can be expressed VERY simply, in one word in fact……”mine”
On this little website we seemed to have reached somewhat of a consensus that the idea we are marketing in competition to “mine” is ….”ours.” Cooperation instead of competition. The Greatest Good for all concerned.
This idea blankets just about every issue of the day that concern us. Peace over War. The defense of the Constitution, the document that codifies The Greater Good of the People over the good of the government or our rulers. Social Justice of all kinds, said social justice being predicated on the idea that we are all equals, that justice is “ours.” Go down the list of everything that is wrong with the world and you will find that everything we object to is based on the idea of “mine.”
Ideas are energy. The more people who agree that an idea is good, the more energy that idea has/contains. The more people work on refining, expressing and spreading that idea the more powerful that energy grows. The more that idea and it’s energy grows, the more like minded people that energy attracts. These people become a community, joining together so that (among the many other benefits)when one member of the community is tired, the momentum of the energy is not lost. IF that momentum can be kept rolling, eventually it will join with and reinforce the efforts and energies of others around the world who have the same idea. It will become viral, it will achieve critical mass.
I have heard all the pundits that have been saying that Hillary should just drop out of the race, so that the Party can get to work on McCain. Also we have heard that this back and forth between Clinton and Obama is good conversation. IMO, I do not see the campaigns as a conversation, more like he said, she said petty argument.
But let us look at the problems that face Clinton:
1–Penn had to resign.
2–The Ohio hospital story
3–The sniper mis-speak
4–$109 million income for the last several years. Hard to say you speak for those making $35,000 or less.
5–The super delegate trickle toward Obama.
6–Michigan Dem voters say no do-over
7–Lagging delegate count and popular vote
8–Her support for NAFTA before she opposed it
This list is not everything, but it is the must quoted. My question is can she truly get the nomination with these problems. Will a squeeker in Pennsylvania, will she be pressured to drop out? Can she survive without a large win in Pennsylvania?
Quality, as it relates to journalism, and the inclusion of people like John Yoo and Doug Feith on the faculties of major universities
New diary: Hillary has a hidden strategy to win the general election
Talk about the electoral College. Do some research to see how those electors are pledged. Compare and contrast that with Hillary’s declared intentions about pledged delegates.
New diary: the fact is, not conspiracy, defeat Hillary
Discuss how the fact of Mark Penn’s work for Columbia, as opposed to the lie about old bomb is involvement with the Canadians, worked against her. Similarly, discuss how the fact of her Bosnia sniper story proved to be so inconvenient; also, the story about NAFTA and North American Free Trade Agreement. Also, the story that she opposed the Iraq war before old mama did. Also, the fact of her fund-raising shortfalls. Also, the fact of her poor decision-making surrounding her campaign, undercutting her “experience” and “judgment” strategies.
The more they try to get it right, the more they get it wrong. Anyone who plays golf knows the rule of opposites. If you try to hit the ball to the right, it goes to the left, hit to the left, it goes right. If you try to hit UP on the ball it goes down, hit DOWN on the ball and it goes UP! This all defies conventional wisdom and is completely wrong in the annals of common sense.
Conservative ideology is filled with conventional wisdom, common sense, and the famous “gut feeling.”
“Asked on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’ whether he thought Iran was trying to develop a nuclear weapon, Hayden said, ‘Yes,’ adding that his assessment was not based on ‘court-of-law stuff. . . . This is Mike Hayden looking at the body of evidence.’
“He said his conviction stemmed largely from Iran’s willingness to endure international sanctions rather than comply with demands for nuclear inspections and abandon its efforts to develop technologies that can produce fissile material.
“‘Why would the Iranians be willing to pay the international tariff they appear willing to pay for what they’re doing now if they did not have, at a minimum . . . the desire to keep the option open to develop a nuclear weapon and, perhaps even more so, that they’ve already decided to do that?’ he said.”
Conclusion by rhetorical question. When have we heard that before?
You couldn’t try and get it that wrong IF YOU TRIED!
From Dana Milbank via Dan Froomkin also in the WAPO on Monday.
Dana Milbank writes in The Washington Post about how Kevin Rudd is one of the many foreign leaders who owe a lot to the president. Rudd unseated Bush favorite Prime Minister John Howard last fall.
Writes Milbank: “Bush may be a loathed figure in much of the world, but one group owes him a debt of gratitude: the many opposition leaders who came to power after Bush-friendly ruling parties were voted out. Howard took his place alongside Jose Maria Aznar of Spain (whose party was dumped in 2004), Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi (tossed out in 2006), and Britain’s Tony Blair (stepped aside in favor of a Bush-skeptical understudy in 2007). Ruling parties in Poland and Japan also paid for their leaders’ friendships with Bush with big defeats.
“Bush’s pariah status has turned his Coalition of the Willing into a retirement community and given the president an unusual role in the domestic affairs of other countries. In Australia, one of Rudd’s predecessors as Labor leader, Mark Latham, got the top job after describing Bush as ‘the most incompetent and dangerous president in living memory.’ He further described members of Howard’s government as a ‘conga line of suckholes’ to Bush.
“Howard, in turn, expressed a view that al-Qaeda terrorists would be praying for a 2008 victory by Democrats in general and Barack Obama in particular.
Reality has shown that the law of opposites applies here too when actually al-Qaeda is quite happy with the current regime and is rooting for McCain to continue the conflict for “100 years.”
More from Milbank:
“Bush enjoyed this mutual affection. ‘I can tell you, relations are great right now,’ he said last year in Sydney, which was all but shut down by security measures needed to keep him safe.”
I’m telling you, the harder you swing….. Here’s one in the “Swing easy, hit it hard” category:
Pete Yost writes for the Associated Press: “The CIA leak probe cost $2.58 million, the Government Accountability Office disclosed Monday, wrapping up an investigation that ensnared Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff for perjury, obstruction and lying to the FBI.
By contrast, as Carol D. Leonnig noted in The Washington Post in 2006: “Independent Counsel Kenneth W. Starr’s investigations of President Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica S. Lewinsky and his ties to the failed Whitewater land investment cost $71.5 million and took eight years.
But I know those guys were fighting harder and they just KNEW they’d find something if they could just hit it a little HARDER!
Here’s one from Jon Stewart on the Daily Show, describing the Bush administration line on Iraq: “So if the violence goes down, that is because of the success of the surge. And when the violence goes up, that is because of the success of the surge.”
On and on… The smaller they try to make the government the more they spend to do it, The harder they try to win “hearts and minds” the more hearts and minds they lose, the more they try to get government out of our private lives the more they intrude, and the more religion they get, the bigger the sins they commit.
Posted by Foon Rhee, deputy national political editor, The Boston Globe
April 7, 2008 10:02 AM
On the eve of the key appearance before Congress by General David Petraeus, the top US commander in Iraq, presumptive Republican nominee John McCain will argue today that the new counterinsurgency strategy backed by the “surge” of American troops last year pulled the war-torn country back from the abyss and “opened the way for a return to something approaching normal political and economic life for the average Iraqi.”
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“Much more needs to be done, and Iraq’s politicians need to know that we expect them to show the necessary leadership to rebuild their country,” McCain continues. “….But there is no doubt about the basic reality in Iraq: we are no longer staring into the abyss of defeat, and we can now look ahead to the genuine prospect of success. Success in Iraq is the establishment of a generally peaceful, stable, prosperous, democratic state that poses no threat to its neighbors and contributes to the defeat of terrorists. It is the advance of religious tolerance over violent radicalism. It is a level of security that allows the Iraqi authorities to govern, the average person to live a normal life, and international entities to operate. It is a situation in which the rule of law, after decades of tyranny, takes hold. It is an Iraq where Iraqi forces have the responsibility for enforcing security in their country, and where American troops can return home, with the honor of having secured their country’s interests at great personal cost, and helping another people achieve peace and self-determination.”
BAGHDAD – The prime minister issued his strongest warning yet to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to disband his Mahdi Army militia or face political isolation. The Sadrists said Monday a move to ban them from elections would be unconstitutional.
The U.S. military, meanwhile, said two more soldiers died in roadside bombings Sunday, raising the day’s American death toll to at least five. The announcement comes a day before the two top U.S. officials in Iraq are scheduled to brief Congress on prospects for the eventual withdrawal of American troops.
Gunbattles also continued Monday in Baghdad’s main Shiite district of Sadr City, a day after fierce clashes broke out when some 1,000 U.S. and Iraqi troops began an operation to push deeper into the Mahdi Army’s largest stronghold.
…
With tensions rising, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, himself a Shiite, told CNN Sunday that al-Sadr’s followers would not be allowed “to participate in the political process or take part in upcoming elections unless they end the Mahdi Army.”
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The inability of the Iraqi forces to curb the militias has cast doubt on their ability to take over their own security. The top American officials in Iraq – Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker – are to start briefing Congress Tuesday on the prospects for further reductions in the U.S. troop presence in Iraq.
The single most dishonest and propagandistic tactic of establishment journalists is to take their own opinion and assert as a fact that “most Americans” agree with them, even when that assertion is indisputably false. David Brooks is probably the single most frequentpurveryor of this deceit, but the bulk of establishment pundits regularly deploy the same method — simultaneously holding themselves out as Spokesmen for the Regular People while showing complete contempt for what they actually think by lying about their views.
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Is there any limit on the willingness of establishment spokespeople like Cokie Roberts to lie about the state of public opinion on the war? How much more conclusive can their dishonesty be demonstrated? Here is a post I wrote just a couple of weeks ago documenting how false the claim is, after The Politico announced that the Iraq War was going to be a great asset for McCain because Americans are starting to love the war again. Just compare the statement Cokie Roberts has the audacity to make with a straight face to all of that…
…
Public opinion on the question of whether we should withdraw from Iraq is unambiguous and it has been for a long time. Large majorities of the public favor withdrawal regardless of whether we’re “winning.” To say otherwise — as establishment journalists like Roberts continuously do — is just rank deceit. How else can one phrase that? And why shouldn’t ABC News make that clear, retract that statement the way they would any other factually false claim made by one of their journalists?
What these journalists actually do — as they prance around as Spokespeople for the Regular Americans — is attempt to render public opinion completely inconsequential. When it comports with what the political establishment wants, they tout it as democracy in action, as the establishment speaking for The American People. When public opinion rejects what they’re doing, they just lie about it and pretend that people agree with them. The more honest establishment mavens just ignore public opinion altogether and insist that they know what’s best for the People.
Yesterday I wrote an essay titled Women of the World, Rise Up. We had some interesting discussion and some fun in the comments. And then this morning, the synergy breaks out because I got an email forwarded by a friend from Eve Ensler (author of “Vagina Monologues”) about her “V to the Tenth” tour to stop violence against women. I wanted to share a bit of it here as a follow-up to our discussion yesterday.
I have seen the faces of hundreds of activated, vital, committed, diverse women and men who are literally giving their lives to end violence against women and girls. Women and men who have changed their cultures, told their stories and helped others do the same. I have met the V-Day activists who have raised money, raised hope, raised hackles, raised the V flag in community after community.
…
I heard the stories of three women in the military, April Fitzsimmons, Suzanne Swift, Dorothy Mackey, who flew in to Austin Texas to be honored at a V-DAY in an Enchanted Forest. I learned from them that one out of three women in the military will be raped and that very few men are every held accountable. I learned that there is something called Military Sexual Trauma. This is a condition in which, after suffering terrible trauma on the battlefield leading to PTSD, women, and some men, are then raped by their own comrades who they were trained to trust. This secondary betrayal and violation throws them into multiple layers of trauma, often resulting in severe depression and suicide.
And I was crushed by story after story of women who have been raped, beaten, incested, date-raped, or who have daughters or friends of daughters who were murdered. Whether it was the 18 year-old in Providence, Rhode Island, who told me that at 15 she had gone to a doctor, been raped by him under anesthesia, developed a dangerous eating disorder and was sent to a clinic where she met many other women who were there because they, too, had been abused, such as the anorexic girl who was actually pregnant with her fathers baby. Or the woman whose sister had become a serious drug addict since her father raped and sodomized her and was now in a lock-down facility. Or the18 year old woman who broke down in my arms because she had only learned recently that she was the product of her mother being gang raped in the army.
I would say that at least one out of every three women told me stories of abuse. This was in front of a camera as we documented the tour. In some places almost every single woman told a story of abuse.
I know that our movement has had huge victories, even the ability of women to tell these stories is progress, but I must say that after 22 states I feel shell shocked.
I no longer believe violence against women is random, individual or accidental. After 50 countries,10 years, thousands of women’s stories and this 22 state tour, I know there is a global pattern destroying and undermining women through violence.
Many would like to think that this type of systematic violation of women does not happen in America. I want you to know that indeed it does. In homes, colleges, streets and armies, thousands of women are being raped, beaten, dishonored, and undermined.
I am not sure the language has yet been invented to describe the breath, depth and insidiousness of violence towards women. This global pattern of raping and abusing one out of three women in every village, town and city on this planet (a UN statistic), has got to be named. Femicide is a word that was used by the brave and visionary women in the early feminist movement to describe the systematic killing of women. I want to enlarge the definition to include the innumerable violations that destroy not only women’s bodies, but their souls, their spirits, their dreams, their ability to trust, love and prosper.
Eve’s last event will be in New Orleans at the Superdome on April 11th and 12th. You can learn more about her work at V Day. And here’s the PSA for the event.
The matchups are set, and the playoffs start on wednesday. We’re still on the lookout for an online hosting of playoff pick’em of some sort…time’s ticking…
Speaking of online pick’ems, Undercovercalico won the Docudharma bracket tourney for March Madness….woot!!…even before the championship game (which is tonite).
As of this auto-pub, only one playoff team has any games remaining, and i dont think they can catch the team ahead of them….so i think these are the matchups. but ive been wrong before…
if we do find a pick’em, we wont have much time to waste…so study up!! 😉 i, for one, will probably post my picks here either way….just to give y’all yet another chance to mock me (like you’ll need one after this table probably breaks the blog again…i swear it is BEAUTIFUL in preview!!)
Eastern
Conference
Montreal (1)
Boston (8)
Pittsburgh (2)
Ottawa (7)
Washinton (3)
Philadelphia (6)
New Jersey (4)
NY Rangers (5)
Western
Conference
Detroit (1)
Nashville (8)
San Jose (2)
Calgary (7)
Minnesota (3)
Colorado (6)
Anaheim (4)
Dallas (5)
Home Team (seed)
Visiting Team (seed)
(i accidentally auto-pub’d for the wrong time….deleted and re-auto-pub’d…if this posts twice, well, youll have yet another thing to mock me about!! but sorry if it does…)
Protesters have forced police to extinguish the Olympic torch amid heavy demonstrations as it set off across Paris.
Officers in jogging gear who had been escorting the flame put it out and took it on a bus, apparently to get it away from the protesters.
The flame, which started out at the Eiffel Tower amid tight security, was being carried down a road next to the Seine near demonstrators carrying Tibetan flags when the relay was stopped.
Sky News has footage of the security guarding the torch, including the police on rollerblades:
There are official outlets in France who are dubious, at best, about the sybolism of the Olympic torch today:
“The flame of discord” was how two national French newspapers described it in their front-page headlines, while the front of the left-leaning Liberation daily was covered with a picture of the Olympic rings turned into handcuffs.
Paris City Hall, which is on the route, has hung a banner saying “Paris Defends Human Rights Throughout the World.” Only a handful of demonstrators gathered near the foot of the Eiffel Tower for the start of the relay.
It is being widely reported that the Paris-based group, Reporters Without Borders, has promised a day of “spectacular” protests.
Stay tuned.
Please keep all sides of this conflict in your thoughts, prayers and meditations.
UPDATE: It appears the protests are working, as IOC President Jacques Rogge has made his strongest statement yet regarding the need for a peaceful resolution of the conflict in Tibet:
Jacques Rogge’s statement – his strongest to date – comes in the wake of repeated attempts to disrupt the Olympic torch relay. Police in London arrested 37 people for public order offenses as the flame passed through the city yesterday and protesters have already gathered along the route through Paris today.
snip
“I’m very concerned with the international situation and what’s happening in Tibet,” he told today’s meeting.
“The torch relay has been targeted. The International Olympic Committee has expressed its serious concern and calls for a rapid peaceful resolution in Tibet,” he said.
He said that violence “for whatever reason” was “not compatible with the values of the torch relay or the Olympic Games”, adding: “We need the unity of the Olympic movement to help us overcome the difficulties. Our major responsibility is for offering good games to the athletes who deserve them.”
UPDATE (2): It is now being reported that the torch has been extinguished on three separate occasions in Paris:
Despite beefed-up security, anti-China protests have forced officials to stop the Olympic relay in Paris for a third time, extinguish the flame and put the torch aboard a bus.
The latest suspension came after police spotted a crowd of demonstrators on a bridge they were approaching, the Associated Press reported.
The relay, which resumed shortly after each of the two interruptions, began from the Eiffel Tower, where several hundred people carrying Tibetan flags and signs reading “Save Tibet” gathered to demonstrate.
The torch seems to be heading through Paris in fits and starts, which may make this a very long day for French police attempting to escort it through the streets, “…akin to what would be given to a high-profile head of state”. Stay tuned.
UPDATE (3): Reuters is now reporting that the torch relay has been called off in Paris:
PARIS (Reuters) – Chinese officials called off a chaotic relay of the Olympic torch through Paris on Monday after thousands of pro-Tibet protesters tried to block its path and the flame had to be extinguished at least twice.
Police said the Chinese authorities organising the five-hour passage of the torch had decided to give up the road relay after demonstrators protesting against China’s crackdown on Tibet constantly snarled its progress and forced lengthy delays.
Separately, Chinese officials also cancelled a reception at Paris city hall:
Mayor Bernard Delanoe told reporters the Chinese had cancelled a planned reception for the torch at Paris city hall at the last minute after a banner supporting human rights was hung from the facade of the building.
“The Chinese officials decided they would not stop here because they were put out by Parisian citizens expressing their support for human rights. It is their responsibility,” he said.
Hillary’s destructive coup attempt: it’s a good thing for the Democratic Party.
By Markos Moulitsas | NEWSWEEK
Apr 14, 2008 Issue
Hillary Clinton has proved during the past few months that she is a fighter, that she is tenacious, and that she is in the race to win. There’s just one problem. She’s already lost.
No matter how you define victory, Barack Obama holds an insurmountable lead in the race to earn the Democratic nomination. He leads in the one metric that matters most: the pledged delegates chosen directly by Democratic voters. But he also leads in the popular vote, the number of states won and money raised. Still, Obama’s advantages aren’t large enough to allow him an outright victory. He needs the 20 percent of party delegates who aren’t bound to a candidate. It’s with these superdelegates that Clinton has staked her ephemeral chances.
Clinton’s near-lone chance of victory rests with a coup by superdelegate, persuading enough of them to overcome the primary voters’ preference. Yet a coup by elite Democrats would be ill-received, to put it mildly. Obama’s base spans the party’s most loyal and engaged constituencies: African-Americans, professionals who generate hundreds of millions in small-dollar donations and a conventional-wisdom-defying outpouring of youth support.
My impressions shortly…
If I may summarize-
Hillary can only win by sundering the party, which would be far more damaging to party building efforts than Dean’s loss in 2004.
While the extended contest is bothering the Washington establishment, it is resulting in registration gains and local party building.
The pressure has improved Obama as a candidate.
Don’t bother with the third page, it’s just credits.
It’s not the most extensive or in depth analysis Markos has ever written, and the points are all very conventional to us, but it is in keeping with the general theme that the Obama candidacy represents the best chance for the Netroots to change the Beltway Establishment culture this cycle.
Enjoy your morning, discuss your conclusions below.
“What is truly special about this,” said McCain, already ripped out for his new role, “is to be part of this special franchise. Film after film, Rambo wins a former war for America. I plan on taking the full enchilada like the hot tamale I am.”
