Month: November 2012

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Republican senators' criticism of U.N.
Ambassador Susan Rice over her initial account of the deadly Sept. 11
attack in Libya smacks of sexism and racism, a dozen female members of
the House said Friday. Dozen House Women Defend Rice over Libya Comments:

In unusually personal terms, the Democratic
women lashed out at Sens. John McCain and [his puppet boy] Lindsey Graham who earlier
this week called Rice unqualified and untrustworthy and promised to
scuttle her nomination if President Barack Obama nominates her to
succeed Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

"All of the things
they have disliked about things that have gone on in the administration,
they have never called a male unqualified, not bright, not
trustworthy," said Rep. Marcia Fudge, D-Ohio, the next chairwoman of the
Congressional Black Caucus. "There is a clear sexism and racism that
goes with these comments being made by unfortunately Sen. McCain and
others."

At a Capitol Hill news conference,
the female lawmakers, the majority of them African American like Rice,
suggested that the Republicans are bitter about Obama's re-election and
taking it out on U.N. ambassador.

"To batter this woman because they don't
feel they have the ability to batter President Obama is something we the
women are not going to stand by and watch," said Rep. Gwen Moore,
D-Wis. "Their feckless and reckless speculation is unworthy of their
offices as senators."

The Democratic women directed particular ire
against McCain, who said Rice was "not being very bright" in her
comments. The women pointed out that Rice was a Rhodes scholar who
graduated tops in her Stanford University class whereas McCain was in
the bottom of his class at the U.S. Naval Academy.

In fact, the only reason John McCain ever attended the Naval Academy is because he was "legacy" pick: he received special treatment because his father and grandfather were admirals in the Navy. He thus deprived a far more qualified and deserving candidate an appointment to the Naval Academy. Johnny failed to achieve the rank of admiral because of his record of being a complete fuck-up in the Navy. He only got as far as he did because of nepotism.

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Neocon war monger and cheerleader for the Iraq war, Robert Kagan of the Brookings Institution and contributing columnist for the Neocon Washington Post, writes Scapegoating Susan Rice does U.S. no good:

The president should know that there are Republicans willing to work
with him in addressing these crises and that he will be stronger
overseas if he has broad support at home. But Republicans also need to
do their part to show that the partisan sniping of the recent campaign
season is over and that they know it is time to get serious again. One
place to start would be to back off their promises to oppose the nomination of U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice as secretary of state.

I say this not because I carry a particular brief for Rice. Both she and Sen. John Kerry
(D-Mass.), the two people most often mentioned for the position, are
well-qualified. Were the president to choose either of them, the Senate
should vote to confirm.

But the idea that Rice should be disqualified because of statements she made on television
in the days after the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. Consulate in
Benghazi, Libya, strikes me as unfair. It seems pretty clear now that
she based her statements on information the CIA provided at the time.
That information proved erroneous, and why the CIA was giving faulty
information to senior administration officials remains unclear. I
haven’t seen persuasive evidence to support the theory that Rice’s
statements were part of a coverup to hide a terrorist attack. The fact
that Rice was working from information provided by the CIA would seem to
undercut such a theory.

Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Arizona election workers have More than 111,000 Ariz. ballots yet to be tallied, including 85,618 in Maricopa County: Friday was the deadline for counties to complete their work, but Maricopa and Pima counties sought and received more time from the Arizona Secretary of State's Office. The other counties have finished counting. Arizona … Read more

Posted by AzBlueMeanie: In another race decided on Saturday, Democrat Stefanie Mach won the LD 10 House seat in Tucson when her opponent, incumbent Rep. Ted "tort reform" Vogt finally conceded the race. Mach led by more than 2,000 votes before counting the thousands of provisional ballots in Pima County began. But after the first … Read more

Posted by Bob Lord

Americans have a depressing ability to collectively fool themselves. The situation in Gaza is a disgusting example of that. The mainstream American media describes the actions of Israel as Israel "defending itself." So, Americans watch as Gazans, forced to live in squalor for by their Israeli subjugators, are bombed into oblivion. And they think "it's ok," becasue Israel must defend itself. Even their President says it's ok.

No, it's not ok. And it's deplorable that America, by blindly supporting Israel at every turn, is allowing a humanitarian crisis to continue in perpetuity.

Anyone with even the most basic analytical skills and a grain of common sense would realize that could not possibly be the case. With just a little digging, the ugly truth comes to light. There is no shortage of coverage on the subject, as long as you're willing to (1) move past television as your information source and (2) read beyond the mainstream newspapers and weeklies. But you don't have to go far. Salon has covered it well, as has Truthdig.