After investigators said an engineer in last week's collision had been texting on the job, regulators temporarily banned the use of all cellular devices by anyone at the controls of a moving train.
If you’re Jerome Corsi, you’d follow that up with a series of books, each crazier than the last. First there was Atomic Iran, which alleges that various Democratic politicians are deliberately trying to help Iran obtain nuclear weapons. Corsi followed that with Black Gold Stranglehold, in which he claims that petroleum is not a finite resource produced by millions of years of compression and heating of organic material, but is instead a fairly common product of ongoing biochemical reactions beneath the earth’s surface (a “fact” that is kept secret by a vast conspiracy, of course). Then came The Late Great U.S.A., in which Corsi warns of an imminent merger of Canada, Mexico, and the United States. And just before the election, Corsi published Obama Nation, in which he accuses President Obama of being a radical leftist Islamic jihadist.
And while he was writing crazy books, collecting fees for giving speeches to far-right organizations, and making frequent appearances on Sean Hannity’s show, Corsi still found the time to allege that John McCain has ties to organized crime and that 9/11 was an inside job.
Now Corsi has yet another deranged theory. According to him, Barack Obama was admitted to Harvard Law School thanks to “radical Islamic influences” at the university. Corsi also claims that radical Muslims paid for Obama’s education at Harvard.
So now I have a question for all those people who voted for George W. Bush in 2004 because they believed Corsi’s lies about John Kerry: don’t you feel a bit foolish now, having been duped by such an obvious lunatic? And given the damage that Bush wound up doing to the country at home and abroad, don’t you think you should start evaluating your sources just a bit more carefully before making up your mind about a given candidate or political issue?
It seems that Sarah Palin wasn’t done resigning on July 3, so she decided to celebrate our nation’s independence by resigning some more. Let’s have a look at her second resignation speech and play ‘count the lies’ (lies in bold):
For months now, I have consulted with friends and family, and with the Lieutenant Governor, about what is best for our wonderful state. I even made a few administrative changes over that course in time in preparation for yesterday. We have accomplished so much and there’s much more to do, but my family and I determined after prayerful consideration that sacrificing my title helps Alaska most. And once I decided not to run for re-election, my decision was that much easier - I’ve never been one to waste time or resources. Those who know me know this is the right decision and obvious decision at that, including Senator John McCain. I thank him for his kind, insightful comments.
The response in the main stream media has been most predictable, ironic, and as always, detached from the lives of ordinary Americans who are sick of the “politics of personal destruction”. How sad that Washington and the media will never understand; it’s about country. And though it’s honorable for countless others to leave their positions for a higher calling and without finishing a term, of course we know by now, for some reason a different standard applies for the decisions I make. But every American understands what it takes to make a decision because it’s right for all, including your family.
I shared with you yesterday my heartfelt and candid reasons for this change; I’ve never thought I needed a title before one’s name to forge progress in America.
Fox News, where environmentalism is treason, and rooting for Bin Laden is patriotism
Check out this discussion between certifiable lunatics Glenn Beckkk and Michael Scheuer. Beckkk is one of the craziest and most ignorant people at Fox News, which is saying a lot. Scheuer served as the Chief of the Bin Laden Issue Station under Bill Clinton, and as Special Advisor to the Chief of the bin Laden unit under George W. Bush:
Yes, that was a former CIA official saying that he hopes bin Laden succeeds in launching an apocalyptic attack on the US, and a Fox News analyst agreeing.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen right wingers go on Fox News to say that they hope Bin Laden succeeds in attacking the US, only to have a Fox News analyst agree. At this point, can there be any doubt that Australian transplant Rupert Murdoch secretly hates his adopted country?
Kim Jong-il: ‘I refuse to conform to normal standards of behavior!’
North Korea conducted an underground nuclear test, provoking international condemnation. Unlike North Korea’s test in October 2006, this latest attempt at detonating a nuclear weapon appears to have been successful.
So why test now, a year and a half after North Korea’s failed test? Most American sources I’ve read agree with an analysis offered by Xu Guangyu, of the China Arms Control and Disarmament Association:
“North Korea’s strategic objective has not changed. That objective is to win the attention of the Obama administration, to push the North Korea issue up the agenda.”
A former South Korean foreign minister, Han Seung-joo, added: “It’s one way of breaking in the new US administration to the North Korean way of doing things … If and when negotiations take place with the US, they want to make it into disarmament or arms control talks between nuclear weapons states, which assumes the US recognises or at least reckons North Korea as a weapons state.”
In other words, the North Koreans seek to force Obama to the bargaining table by using a tactic that seems likely to make it more difficult politically for Obama to meet North Korea’s demands. It seems to me that an explanation offered by Richard Lloyd Parry, Asia editor of the Times, is more likely:
Even the best-equipped spies cannot see the workings of North Korea’s internal politics, but there are good reasons for believing that the 67-year old Mr Kim is more than usually vulnerable at present. We know with some certainty that he was gravely ill last summer, with something like a stroke. Now there are signs that he is preparing one of his three sons to succeed him.
Hereditary successions in oppressive monarchies are often moments of uncertainty, when courtiers compete to be more on-message, and when the old king feels most susceptible and afraid. Yesterday’s test may have been a calculated attempt to raise the stakes in negotiations with the new US Administration - or it may have been Mr Kim’s effort to win favour with his own military hardliners, the only people who can guarantee his family’s hold on power.
Confrontation of the kind in which North Korea specialises is the last refuge of the politically bankrupt - but it is a failure of imagination to to award Mr Kim the domestic prestige that he seeks. Any man with a gun is dangerous, but he is easier to deal with if his weakness is recognised and not mistaken for strength.
In other words, Parry says, “It’s not about us at all - it’s about him.” And the best way of dealing with this latest provocation is probably to avoid strengthening Kim’s hand by either acceding to his demands or by engaging in Bush-style ‘bullhorn diplomacy’, and instead working quietly with the Chinese (who supply most of North Korea’s energy and food) to pressure Kim into allowing international weapons inspectors and restarting the six-party disarmament talks that North Korea withdrew from last month.
Republicans aren’t even trying to appear sane anymore
I knew that the Republicans’ collective psyche couldn’t endure the election of a smart, popular black man. It seems that Barack Obama’s ascension to the presidency has driven the party’s leaders and chief apologists completely around the bend. Here are a few examples of what I’m talking about:
Binyamin Netanyahu, the once and future prime minister
Right wing Israeli politician Binyamin Netanyahu, who is poised to regain his former position as prime minister, seems determined to attack Iran. And according to a former Reagan official, he’ll probably be able to drag the United States into the fight:
The Israeli prime ministerial frontrunner will win a US blessing to enter war with Iran, says a source familiar with US Mideast policies.
Aaron David Miller, the US State Department’s top analyst in the 1980s, said Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu will be able to convince President Barack Obama that a military attack is the only solution to the Iranian nuclear issue.
“The Israelis will be pushing [Washington] to ensure that Iran never gets to that point and failing that, they will consider a military strike,” Reuters quoted Miller — who is a former US Middle East peace negotiator and is currently an analyst at the Woodrow Wilson Center — as saying late Friday.
“It need not be conclusive or threatening, but it will be very serious and … scare the daylights out of the president that unless the international community mobilizes to address the situation, the Israelis will,” he said.
This seems to be yet another effort by the Neocons to persuade the American people that war with Iran is inevitable. I’d take this very seriously if McCain had been elected, but I’m confident that Obama is smart enough to avoid attacking Iran. But I’m not surprised to see a former Reagan official trying to push us into this lunacy.
To get an idea of how crazy it would be to attack Iran, consider the fact that Iran is larger, in terms of both area and population, than Iraq and Afghanistan combined. Consider also the fact that Russia would not sit idly by and watch the US and Israel turn the entire Middle East into a de facto colony. They share a border with Iran, and there would be no way to prevent them from getting weapons to the Iranian government (or, in the case of a ground invasion, to the Iranian resistance).
We’re already in the midst of a gigantic financial crisis, and we’re already fighting two wars. Opening up a third front right now would likely mean the end of America’s position as the world’s premier military and economic power. Thank goodness we voted for the right man last November. Because we know what McCain would have done:
It may well be that even after seeing this you still can’t believe it.
Huge hat-tip to a good American friend, Doug Watt.
Doug also gave us this.
The UpTake
is opening up a call for Opinion/Editorial videos. To kick this off, we bring you all the first video by Dennis Trainor, who will be providing a regular voice to our media palette. We do not have a name for the show yet, and look forward to hearing ideas for the show’s name from our audience. We also hope that more people feel inspired to send us “video op/eds” and will be providing guidance in the near future on how to submit your own opinions to our site.
For more about Dennis, here is what Steve Grove, the head of news and politics at YouTube had to say about him:
“I first met Dennis when he started his channel on YouTube under the moniker “Davis Fleetwood”. Playing the role of an angry hermit in the basement of his home, Dennis’ character was a unique bird to the Internet community - combining the satire of a Lenny Bruce with the performance style of an Andy Kaufman, all the while offering an acerbic social commentary that resonated with a large audience on the site. “Davis Fleetwood” soon became one of the most prominent voices in YouTube politics, posting daily videos that were thoughtful, provocative, and darkly humorous.
When YouTube teamed up with CNN to host a part of presidential debates, we tapped “Davis” to come to the debate and produce commentary from the scene on YouTube’s behalf - and a question he’d submitted online was posed to Dennis Kucinich in the live televised debate. It must have been a sign - within weeks, Dennis had been hired by the Kucinich campaign to do reporting and commentary for the campaign. To my knowledge this was the first time a video blogger had been plucked from YouTube and hired by a presidential campaign. Demonstrating he could shift from theatre to politics, Dennis produced some great online and on-air video content for the Kucinich campaign, breathing a fresh perspective into the campaign.
In the new an undefined field of online video, Dennis has proven he knows both how to create compelling work, and how to distribute and promote it.
This is pathetic. After more than a decade of providing the example, they still have to point their fingers at someone else. They can’t find a more fitting target than a freshman Senator who just squeaked by in his first election?
According to Carleton College political scientist Steven Schier, Franken’s record as a “flamboyant and aggressive partisan” would make him ripe for criticism back home.
“I think it’s impossible to overstate the hostility Minnesota Republicans feel toward Al Franken,” Schier said. “He will be a very useful fundraising tool.”
Republicans outside Minnesota are equally apoplectic when it comes to Franken. Prominent conservative Rush Limbaugh, who Franken mocked in the title of one of his books, has already jabbed Franken on his radio show, telling listeners in December that Franken “won’t quit [the Senate race] because he doesn’t know how to get a real job…He’s a pathetic figure.”
I guess that SNL did a far too good a job on Palin. I find it hard for Limbaugh to accuse anybody else of not having a real job. Oh sorry, I guess he is a fiction writer, and he certainly is a “flamboyant and aggressive partisan”, himself, providing exactly the example for the kind of trash he throws at others. Limbaugh doesn’t seem all that good at taking what he dishes out, either, neither do the rest of the GOP conservatives. When they were in the driver’s seat nobody else’s input mattered, now they are demanding a full share in the decision making, despite being tossed out on their ears by most of the country.
