Saturday, March 22, 2008

Clueless John 'More Wars' McCain

Here's a mashup I made for the new website 'StraightTalkMcCain.com' on McCain's recent statements alleging that Iran has been offering support to al Qaeda in Iraq.

Center for American Progress:
The Maverick Makes It Up
This week during a trip to the Middle East, McCain severely undermined his frequent claims to be "the one best to address a national security crisis" by repeatedly stating that Iran was supporting al Qaeda in Iraq. McCain claimed that Iranian operatives were "taking al-Qaeda into Iran, training them and sending them back." He insisted that it was "common knowledge...that al-Qaeda is going back into Iran and receiving training and coming back into Iraq from Iran." McCain's confusion over Iran and al Qaeda puts him in lockstep with the rest of the Bush administration. As the Washington Post notes, "The last five years have produced ample evidence that American leaders were woefully ill-informed about the country they came to rescue." [...]

THE FACTS: Though Iran is 90 percent Shiite and al Qaeda is a Sunni group, it is not inconceivable that some aspects of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard are supporting some aspects of al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), or that AQI members have ever crossed the border into Iran. However, there is simply no evidence to support McCain's claim that Iran is "training" AQI in Iran. Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno stated last July, "We don't see any evidence, significant evidence, that shows that [Iranian-controlled] groups that are funding and providing arms to Shi’a extremists are directly related to al Qaeda." In a CNN interview on Wednesday, Gen. David Petraeus backed away from CNN's Kyra Phillips's statement that "it stands firm that Iran is funneling weapons and supporting al Qaeda." Petraeus said, "We're concerned very much about the lethal accelerants...that do come from Iran," but also emphasized that "the flow of foreign fighters and of suicide bombers that help al Qaeda typically is through Syria." "The point is that John McCain’s misstatement is typical of conservatives, who have, through intentionally deceptive language, constantly tried to elide the differences between groups with different goals and ideologies in order to create the illusion of a united Islamofascist enemy.

"WHERE'S THE STRAIGHT TALK?: After press coverage of McCain's gaffe, his campaign issued a statement claiming the senator "misspoke and immediately corrected himself." In an interview, McCain himself insisted that he "corrected it immediately," and that he "just simply misspoke." However, as video proves, it was not until Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) whispered a correction in his ear that McCain corrected his mistake. Moreover, McCain conflated Iran and al Qaeda at least three times, not including another time last month -- hardly a case of "misspeaking." By Thursday the McCain campaign had reversed course, insisting McCain did not misspeak at all. McCain advisor Max Boot asked Thursday, "[W]hat gaffe?" and insisted, "There is copious evidence of Iran supplying and otherwise assisting Al Qaeda in Iraq and other Sunni terrorist groups (including Al Qaeda central)." Randy Scheunemann, McCain’s senior foreign policy adviser, told the New York Sun, "There is ample documentation that Iran has provided many different forms of support to Sunni extremists, including Al Qaeda as well as Shi’ia extremists in Iraq. It would require a willing suspension of disbelief to deny Iran supports Al Qaeda in Iraq." ...(more)

Friday, March 21, 2008

The Media Attacks Obama

Fox spews it, and the rest of the media picks it up and runs with it.

MoveOn (via email):
Media watchdog group Media Matters has chronicled how FOX spent months trying to smear Obama by associating him with Reverend Wright's words. Greenwald's new video shows how the attacks successfully migrated to the mass media—Tim Russert repeated Sean Hannity's smears virtually word-for-word!

Meanwhile, the big networks all but ignored Pastor John Hagee, whose endorsement John McCain was "honored" and "proud" to receive. Hagee says Katrina was God's punishment for homosexuality, Jews are to blame for anti-Semitism, and Catholicism is the "Whore of Babylon" and "a cult."

It gets worse. At the same time they relentlessly reported on Obama's pastor, most network journalists also ignored Rick Parsley, a televangelist who McCain called his "spiritual guide" when accepting his endorsement last month. Parsley has said:
I do not believe our country can truly fulfill its divine purpose until we understand our historical conflict with Islam. I know that this statement sounds extreme, but I do not shrink from its implications. The fact is that America was founded, in part, with the intention of seeing this false religion destroyed...
Ignoring McCain's spiritual advisers while going after Obama's is what we expect from FOX, which is more a Republican mouthpiece than a real news organization. But when real news outlets follow FOX's lead, we have to hold them accountable. Otherwise, FOX will continue to elevate smear after smear against Democrats into the mass media in 2008. Click here to see the new video and sign the petition.
The attacks on Obama are so bad that this morning Fox anchor Chris Wallace called the network out and Brian Kilmeade even stormed off the set (in part) because of it. Just take a look at this unedited version of a sermon by Obama's pastor Wright and compare it to what all of the networks have been playing over and over:

There's a war going on, our current administration is corrupt and drunk with power, the future of the planet is being ignored, our economy is teetering, and all that's on the tv is what Obama's pastor said. Our media is corrupting the entire electoral process. Enough is enough.

Monday, March 17, 2008

Jim Cramer: "No! No! No!" Don't Sell "Bear Stearns is not in trouble!"



Jim Cramer, March 11, 2008, reading "Mad Mail":
Cramer:
Peter writes, 'Should I be worried about Bear Stearns in terms of liquidity and get my money out of there?'

(screaming, of course) No! No! No! Bear Stearns is fine! Do not take your money ou.. -- This is rea.. -- If there's one takeaway other than the plus four hundred (garbled). Bear Stearns is not in trouble! I mean if anything, they’re more likely to be taken over. Don’t move your money from Bear! That's just being silly! Don't be silly!

When Cramer said that Bear Stearns was still trading at over $60 a ahare.

The news, six days later:

JPMorgan to Buy Bear Stearns for $2 a Share
(Reuters) JPMorgan Chase & Co said on Sunday it would buy stricken rival Bear Stearns (nyse: BSC - news - people ) for just $2 a share in an all-stock deal that values the U.S. investment bank at the centre of the credit crisis at about $236 million. [...]

Bear's stock closed on Friday at $30.85, valuing it at $3.5 billion, after tumbling 46 percent that day. Shares in the fifth largest U.S. investment bank hit a record high of more than $171 in January 2007...

Saturday, March 1, 2008

O'Reilly Defends Saying Arianna Is No Different Than a Nazi

Pot, meet kettle.



Why does Bill O'Reilly still have a job?

Even if we leave out the fact that Bill O'Reilly himself is just as guilty of doing the exact same thing he's slandering Arianna Huffington for (which is nothing other than allowing anyone to post an offensive comment on her website that only stays up until a moderator is able to edit or delete it), how is calling someone a fascist, racist, genocidal murderer not much worse than calling a women's basketball team slutty with racial overtones?