Politics Archive
These posts are all in this one category.
Sinclair stations to air anti-Kerry documentary
Calling it news, the Sinclair ownership group is requiring as many as 62 of its TV stations to preempt prime-time programming to air "Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal," a documentary highly critical of John Kerry's anti-war activities in the early 70s. But Sinclair's news division did not produce the program.Kerry campaign spokesperson: "It's beyond yellow journalism"
Reply from the FCC:
FCC COMMISSIONER COPPS CRITICIZES SINCLAIR CORPORATE DECISION TO PREEMPT LOCAL STATIONS FOR POLITICAL BROADCAST
Commissioner Michael J. Copps reacted to reports that Sinclair Broadcast Group will preempt more than 60 local stations across the country to air an overtly political program in the days prior to the Presidential election.
Copps stated: “This is an abuse of the public trust. And it is proof positive of media consolidation run amok when one owner can use the public airwaves to blanket the country with its political ideology -- whether liberal or conservative. Some will undoubtedly question if this is appropriate stewardship of the public airwaves. This is the same corporation that refused to air Nightline’s reading of our war dead in Iraq. It is the same corporation that short-shrifts local communities and local jobs by distance-casting news and weather from hundreds of miles away. It is a sad fact that the explicit public interest protections we once had to ensure balance continue to be weakened by the Federal Communications Commission while it allows media conglomerates to get even bigger. Sinclair, and the FCC, are taking us down a dangerous road.”
It doesn't end there:
In an interview on CNN about this, Sinclair Vice President Mark Hyman said other TV networks were "acting like Holocaust deniers," prompting even more complaints, including this one from the Anti-Defamation League:
Anti-Defamation League
Letters to the Editor
The Washington Post
October 11, 2004
To the Editor:
The statement by Mark Hyman, vice president of the Sinclair Broadcast Group, that the television networks were "acting like Holocaust deniers" with regard to coverage of anti-Kerry veterans groups is grossly inappropriate ("Sinclair Stations to Air Anti-Kerry Documentary," Oct. 11).
Regardless of Mr. Hyman's opinion of the quality of news coverage relating to Presidential campaign issues, his analogy to those who deny the Nazi murder of 6 million Jews and millions of others is insensitive and painful. Usage of Holocaust imagery to score a political point is unacceptable. He should repudiate the comment.
Sincerely,
Abraham H. Foxman
National Director
John Eisenhower, son of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, joins other notable Republican families, such as the Reagans, in endorsing John Kerry for president and speaking out against Bush.
John Eisenhower's own words: Why I will vote for John Kerry for President
This is a unmodified snapshot from the Michigan absentee ballot.
As you'll notice, the arrow by Bush/Cheney is missing. But if you look carefully at the full ballot (click on it to see the full thing), you'll notice that all of the arrows are down one notch, meaning a vote in the arrow next to Kerry/Edwards will actually go to Bush/Cheney. Sneaky!
How does this stuff get by?
How backwards is this?
A U.S. Senate candidate who said recently that homosexuals should not be teaching in South Carolina's public schools has added another group to his list of poor role models for children -- pregnant women with live-in boyfriends.
Continued... (CNN.com)
This isn't some loon running for office, this is Republican Jim DeMint, who's already been in the Senate for three terms. What's next? No overweight teachers, because they don't teach good eating habits? No Jewish teachers, because they don't believe in Jesus?
Remember back when America was about freedom?
Last night's debate was even better than the first one:
- Edwards was calm, funny, quick-thinking and full of facts and numbers.
- Cheney was grumpy, off-topic, and spewed so many lies that there's hundreds of blogs dedicated to them.
Some of his lies didn't even make sense, such as:
"The first time I ever met you was when you walked on the stage tonight."
Here's a photo of them together at a political event in 2001:
Obviously they have met, why would he say that?
And then there's the little things Cheney didn't do. He didn't smile. He did his famous "evil smirk" a couple times, but I'm sure that only made the Dr. Evil's out there proud to see their clone do his job well. At the conclusion he didn't thank Edwards after Edwards thanked him. And he didn't even use all of his 30 second opportunities to reply to Edwards. It was like he gave up.
CHENEY: Well, the reason they keep mentioning Halliburton is because they're trying to throw up a smokescreen. They know the charges are false.
CHENEY: Well, the reason they keep mentioning Halliburton is because they're trying to throw up a smokescreen. They know the charges are false.
They know that if you go, for example, to factcheck.com (sic), an independent Web site sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania, you can get the specific details with respect to Halliburton.
It's an effort that they've made repeatedly to try to confuse the voters and to raise questions, but there's no substance to the charges.
Well, actually the site is FactCheck.org - FactCheck.com is a anti-Bush site, but that's not the worst of it. If you are able to get into FactCheck.org (it seems to down at the moment, probably getting a bazillion hits thanks to Cheney), you find out that what Edwards was saying was true. Here's what he was saying:
According to all major polls, the number of Bush supporters continue to drop, however he still has enough electoral votes to win.While he was CEO of Halliburton, they paid millions of dollars in fines for providing false information on their company, just like Enron and Ken Lay.
They did business with Libya and Iran, two sworn enemies of the United States.
They're now under investigation for having bribed foreign officials during that period of time.
Not only that, they've gotten a $7.5 billion no-bid contract in Iraq, and instead of part of their money being withheld, which is the way it's normally done, because they're under investigation, they've continued to get their money.
"It's on!"
During the debates Bush used Poland several times as an example country in the coalition in Iraq, and even interrupted Kerry when Kerry listed several countries involved and didn't mention Poland.
Well, I guess Poland didn't want to be associated with Bush's mess over there any longer as they just announced that they are pulling out of Iraq. They only had 2,500 troops there, but that made them the fourth-largest contributor, behind the US, England, and US-hired mercenaries.
Did you miss the first debate?
This funny-yet-pitiful Bush debate remix sums up pretty all of Bush's talking points about national security, which was supposed to be his best topic.
It was like watching Abe Lincoln debating Alfred E. Newman.
Okay, this is just freaky.
Remember back when the Constitution had this thing about Separation of Church and State? Since when is spending money on "Healthy Marriage" (aka: no gays allowed) the responsibility of our federal government?
What about the more important things that need funding and aren't getting it?
While personally I think Kerry could have done an even better job (next time speak to the camera, not the moderator), the President once again showed how non-presidential he can be.
Too often Bush ignored direct questions like "Will you invade another country for the same reason you invaded Iraq?" with a unrelated details about Iraq being safer, totally dodging the questions. Kerry did this a couple times, but not on practically every question, and he came back to the question more often than Bush did.
Bush also invoked his famous blank stare accompanied with some mumbling. The worst of this bad habit was after interrupting Kerry to get his own two cents in. His blank stare lasted so long I'm surprised Jim Lehrer didn't speak up to remind him where he was.
Bush repeated several times a meaningless attack on Kerry: "You see, my opponent had the same intelligence as me!". It just made Bush look even less informed.
Finally, Bush's misleading statements are already becoming frequent blogging topics. For example, "75% of known members of al Qaida have been captured" is misleading because nobody knows how many unknown al Qaida members there are. These statements show him to be untrustworthy.
He mispronounced a few words, and I'm sure you'll never hear the word "peninsula" in a Bush speech again. On the good side, Bush didn't make make up any new words, but that's not the sort of thing we should be concerned about when deciding on the next president.
As of about 2am eastern time, America seems to agree that Kerry easily "won" this debate:
- MSNBC: Bush: 31% Kerry: 69% (620986 responses)
- CNN: Bush: 12% Kerry: 87% (40151 responses)
- CNBC: Bush: 23% Kerry: 77% (11076 responses)
- ABC News: Bush: 36% Kerry: 45% Tie: 17% (531 "random" phone calls)
- FOX News: What a shock, they aren't showing their results.
Note: None of these polls are scientific, and the results may change as thousands of blogs link to them and people start voting for the favorite candidate despite how they feel about his performance.
The next debate is next Friday, and the one following that will be on Saturday. Personally, I wish there were more debates, as it seems America spends more time and effort deciding on the the next "American Idol" than deciding on the president.
Tonight's the first debate!
Don't forget to print out your Debate Bingo Card!
Hit Reload to get a new card.
Update: An even better Debate Bingo, this one with funny pictures and works for both Bush and Kerry fans!
Remember - there's another debate next Friday, and then the Saturday after that.
From an AP report on Bush's visit to Virginia yesterday:
Bush criticized Kerry's plan to eliminate the tax cuts for those making more than $200,000 a year, saying that the "the rich in America happen to be the small business owners" who put people to work.
I don't see what the two have to do with each other. Are most people with personal income over $200k/year small business owners? I'm a small business owner but I don't make $200k/year. How about giving the tax cut to the small business instead of all rich folks?
Bush also said high taxes on the rich are a failed strategy because "the really rich people figure out how to dodge taxes anyway."
What wonderful logic! Instead of fixing the problem, shift the responsiblity to those who don't have the resources to get around it.
If this is true, the spirit of the Olympics has officially been drained, bottled, and sold to the highest bidder, and I don't want any part of it.
Strict regulations published by Athens 2004 last week dictate that spectators may be refused admission to events if they are carrying food or drinks made by companies that did not see fit to sponsor the games.
Sweltering sports fans who seek refuge from the soaring temperatures with a soft drink other than one made by Coca-Cola will be told to leave the banned refreshment at the gates or be shut out. High on the list of blacklisted beverages is Pepsi, but even the wrong bottle of water could land spectators in trouble.
See the full article.
Found this on AdRants.
For the month of July, the Bush Administration estimated that their tax cut plan would generate 200,000 new jobs.
The US Labor Department reported today that the number was a paltry 32,000.
DOH!
Guess who said this yesterday:
Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.
Of course this quote came from Bush. Was it a Freudian slip? That wouldn't surprise me. So who still trusts this guy to run our country, and lead us at a time of war? Even if he just mixed some words up, he sure doesn't make me feel safe. What else is he messing up? What crazy things is he saying to other world leaders?
Whitehouse.gov has the full speech, which Bush gave after signing a $417 billion Halliburton contract defense spending bill.
More Bush quotes: DubyaSpeak.com & Dubbia.com.