America Welcomed Pope With Resumption Of Death
Penalty & With Immigrant Raids

post from Texas Liberal on 22 April 2008 10:57:22 AM. © Texas Liberal

Pope Benedict was welcomed to the United States over the last week with a Supreme Court decision opening the way to resumption of the death penalty and with stepped up immigration raids. Both these actions are contrary to Catholic teachings.The church has long been opposed to the death penalty.The Pope spoke about the need for humane treatment of immigrants [...]

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http://texasliberal.wordpress.com/2008/04/22/america-welcomed-pope-with-resumptio
n-of-death-penalty-immigrant-raids/

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Rock Bottom

post from Talking Points Memo on 22 April 2008 10:57:00 AM. © Talking Points Memo

President Bush sets the all-time Gallup record for presidential disapproval: 69 percent. [...]

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Fearguth’s Great Snark Hunt

post from American Street on 22 April 2008 10:51:00 AM. © American Street

Disney Character Blamed for Rise of Plutocracy

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http://www.reachm.com/amstreet/archives/2008/04/22/fearguths-great-snark-hunt-135
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Hillary Clinton doesn't wear a flag pin, too;
BuzzFlash was first to spot that; MSM is slowly catching up

post from BuzzFlash.org - Progressive News and Commentary with an Attitude | Fight Ignorance: Read BuzzFlash on 22 April 2008 10:46:16 AM. © BuzzFlash.org - Progressive News and Commentary with an Attitude | Fight Ignorance: Read BuzzFlash

If we are going to judge character by who doesn't wear a flag pin, can't we judge character of those who do -- in their mug shot? This is Larry Craig's mug shot and look at what he's wearing. Thanks to The Smoking Gun for the picture.

Eric Zorn is a very good columnist for the Chicago Tribune. He has the ability to catch things others in the MSM miss. But he wasn't the first one to focus on the hypocrisy of why the patriotism questions were focused on Obama and not Sen. Clinton (or Sen. McCain). (Here's a hint: It was BuzzFlash.)
Bookmark/Search this post with: buzzflash | delicious | digg digg | technorati Technorati Tags: Be-Elected 2008 race Barack Obama Hillary Clinton John McCain flag pins Larry Craig patriotism Eric Zorn Chicago Tribune

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http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/election08/151

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MCCAIN AND GLOBAL WARMING.

post from Ezra Klein on 22 April 2008 10:43:00 AM. © Ezra Klein

In general, John McCain's a pretty straightforward politician. More wars, less health care; more tax cuts, fewer social services. But on global warming, he's a bit complex. The McCain-Lieberman Bill was a serious, if somewhat insufficient, attempt to[...]

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http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/ezraklein_archive?month=04&year=2008&base_name
=mccain_and_global_warming

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Umbrella Of Deterrence Part II

post from TalkLeft on 22 April 2008 10:42:00 AM. © TalkLeft

By Big Tent Democrat

Speaking for me only

In some ways, reactions like this one to Hillary Clinton's "umbrella of deterrence" proposal explains why some Dems shiver in fear at any mention of national security issues in an election. Matt Stoller writes (see also Matt Yglesias' flip flop, he did not object to this proposal BEFORE it became a Hillary proposal; CDS strikes again):

A massive new security commitment in this volatile region is just insane. And the belligerent rhetoric - 'totally obliterate them' - what the hell? It's like 7th graders with nuclear weapons. I'm having a harder and harder time seeing the difference between McCain and Clinton. Perhaps Clinton will be more saddened than McCain's gleefully militarism as she launches an attack on Iraq [sic], but that's just tone.

Perhaps Stoller's comment just reflects ignorance or perhaps something more, but to equate a proposal that would actually obviate the possibility of a preemptive attack against an Iran that acquires nuclear weapons with John McCain's neocon view that the U.S. must take military action PRIOR to Iran's gaining nuclear weapons has the concept upside down.

Let me quote again from Harvard Midde East Studies article I discussed earlier:

At one end of the spectrum is the view that Iran’s religious elites would order an offensive nuclear attack against the United States or U.S. forces or Israel, despite the certainty of suffering a catastrophic response, because they would be willing to die to eliminate Iran’s infidel enemies. (Some critics of the Bush administration accuse it of adopting this eschatological understanding of Iran’s strategic calculus.) It is difficult to envision any effective U.S. deterrent to a nuclear Iran if this view is accurate.

(Emphasis supplied.) You see it is the neocons and the Bush Administration that has rejected deterrence theory against Iran. It is Matt Stoller who is sounding like a Bush Administration neocon. It is Matt Stoller who sounds like John McCain. While it is true that the remedy that Stoller would propose for the Iran problem is different than the solution McCain would propose - McCain would attack Iran, Stoller would allow Iran to run unchecked in the Middle East - the analysis of the effectiveness of deterrence is the same.

If and when Barack Obama speaks favorably of the Clinton proposal, what then will Matt Stoller and other Obama supporters say? Will it become a reasonable proposal again? Or will Stoller call Obama insane? Oh BTW, anyone wondering why Obama is not denouncing this proposal from Hillary Clinton? Does it ever cross the mind of these folks that if Obama thinks this is insane, perhaps he might want to say so? There is certainly a type of insanity afoot here, but it is not from Hillary Clinton.

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http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TalkleftThePoliticsOfCrime/~3/275424308/84661

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Encore: Ode to Eliot Spitzer’s Wife

post from The Ointment on 22 April 2008 10:39:00 AM. © The Ointment

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http://theointment.com/?p=604

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Ashcroft Compares Waterboarding To Being
‘Interviewed By Jon Stewart’

Yesterday, former attorney general John Ashcroft spoke at St. John’s University on “Leadership in Challenging Times.” In his speech, Ashcroft aggressively defended the Bush administration’s policies on the Iraq war, wiretapping, and interrogation. At one point, he “joked” about waterboarding, comparing the torture to being interviewed by Jon Stewart:

Going to a high school dance, having to listen to loud music, to me that’s torture. I was on the Daily Show once. I was interviewed by Jon Stewart. That was torture.

Ashcroft appeared on The Daily Show on Oct. 18, 2006. Is he saying that he would rather have traded places with a detainee and been waterboarded that night? During a November 2007 speech at the University of Colorado, Ashcroft also claimed that he was willing to be waterboarded: “The things that I can survive, if it were necessary to do them to me, I would do.”

In addition to Ashcroft, conservatives have repeatedly tried to make light of waterboarding in order to downplay the severity of the tactic:

– GWEN IFILL: Do you think that waterboarding, as I described it, constitutes torture?
SEN. KIT BOND: There are different ways of doing it. It?s like swimming, freestyle, backstroke. [12/11/07]
– “At one moment, bursting into laughter, he [Sen. John McCain (R-AZ)] exuberantly explains why, after ‘a short period of waterboarding to find out what they did in their absence,’ he would take back some of the staffers who fled his campaign at its low point.” [2/25/08]
“I?m finding just out how long I can go sleep deprived. You know, running for office is sort of like being waterboarded, I think.” [Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, 2/16/08]
“And I see, when the Democrats are talking about torture…they talk about sleep deprivation. I mean, on that theory, I?m getting tortured running for president of the United States. That?s plain silly. That?s silly.” [Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, 10/24/07]
“It is not like putting burning coals on people?s bodies. The person is in no real danger. The impact is psychological.” [Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-CT), 2/15/08]

Despite their braggadocio, it doesn’t appear that any of these conservatives have actually been waterboarded. Those who have, say it is clearly torture.

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http://thinkprogress.org/2008/04/22/ashcroft-torture-stewart/

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The true measure of racism

It’s stupid to define Bill Clinton as a racist. Serious racism is far more observable in GOP circles. And while I’m certain that pockets of racism exist in every state in the nation, there are some communities where few make any attempt to hide it. And there are entire states where it’s abundantly clear. In [...]

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http://www.reachm.com/amstreet/archives/2008/04/22/the-true-measure-of-racism/

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EREV PENNSYLVANIA.

It's the eve of the Pennsylvania primary, or as the Jews say, Erev Pennsylvania, and something should probably be said. So here's Dan Balz saying the conventional wisdom. And on the other end of the spectrum, here's Terry Samuel's arguing that Obama will[...]

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http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/ezraklein_archive?month=04&year=2008&base_name
=erev_pennsylvania

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