You know, in Fox & Friends’ defense, the names Douglas and Douglass look pretty similar on paper.
Yes, that was a portrait of black abolitionist writer Frederick Douglass up there next to Abe Lincoln. Stephen A. Douglas–the guy that Lincoln famously debated–was a politician and, needless to say in the 1850s, white. I’m sure Fox can just blame the mix up on whichever intern was stupid enough to be conned into looking for video clips of the Lincoln-Douglas debates. Of course, this begs the better question of where the heck are they getting their interns?
President Bush and Democrats controlling Congress continued on course toward a veto confrontation Tuesday as Bush said he would veto any attempt to add a popular veteran benefits bill to his $108 billion war funding request.
Wait, there’s no way I read that correctly. He’s going to to veto a “popular veteran benefits bill?” There must be some mistake.
“I made my position very clear to Congress and I will not accept a supplemental over $108 billion or a supplemental that micromanages the war, ties the hands of our commanders,” Bush said. “We will work with Congress on these veterans’ benefits …. But the $108 billion is $108 billion.”
Yep, he needs the money to keep on fighting his war now now NOW, but here’s his message for the brave men and women fighting that war:
Forget that proposed increase in veterans’ college aid, soldier, and get back to work!
Albert Hoffmann, the Swiss chemist who accidentally discovered LSD, died of a heart attack yesterday at the age of 102. He was apparently an outspoken critic of recreational LSD use (after having tried it himself in 1943), but you’ve gotta wonder what kind of miracle drug he discovered to keep himself alive for so long…
The DNC launched a new ad this week targeting John McCain for his pledge for a hundred years of war in Iraq.
John McCain and the RNC are absolutely furious over the ad, claiming that it takes McCain’s words out of context (and, as BarbinMD rightly points out, that’s their job). According to McCain and the RNC, the DNC forgot to include the part where McCain likens the 100 years in Iraq to our occupations of Germany, Japan, and South Korea–in other words, the hundred year clock doesn’t start until American soldiers stop being killed, but McCain doesn’t offer any explanation of how long that part of the Glorious War will take (probably because in GOP fantasy land, the war is already over and we’ve already won).
Gov. Dean responded to McCain and the RNC on Meet the Press:
You can also check out McSame’s well-documented calls for more wars and longer wars.
Update: Via MyDD, another video of McCain trying to compare keeping our soldiers in Iraq where 4,000 have been killed so far to our bases in friendly countries.
Yes, we have military bases in Germany, but no German militia is launching mortars at them 24/7. Keeping American soldiers in the middle of the violent Iraqi civil war for a thousand years is not the same as stationing troops at Ramstein Air Force Base.
There are many people out there, myself included, who have argued that it’s time for this primary race to be over. We’re going to need more than the two and a half months between the convention and the election to reunify the Democratic Party–and yeah, I don’t doubt that Hillary Clinton will fight her way to Denver. On the other hand, there is some good news:
Guest lineup for the Sunday TV news shows:
ABC’s “This Week” — Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.); former Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.); Reps. Artur Davis (D-Ala.) and Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-Texas).
CBS’ “Face the Nation” — David Axelrod, campaign advisor for Barack Obama; Howard Wolfson, campaign advisor for Hillary Clinton; Roger Mudd, author of a book on CBS News.
NBC’s “Meet the Press” — Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean. Panel discussion.
CNN’s “Late Edition” — Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.); Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.); Steve Coll, author of a book on the Bin Laden family; James Rubin, a Clinton campaign advisor; Susan Rice, an Obama campaign advisor.
“Fox News Sunday” — Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.).
Democrats are dominating the news cycle. With the exception of Hoekstra, every person on every single talk show today was a Democrat. Nobody doesn’t like free media.
I know it feels like I just updated, but it’s that time again. WordPress should be updated to version 2.5.1 now. As usual, let me know if anything’s broken.
Police in Congo have arrested 13 suspected sorcerers accused of using black magic to steal or shrink men’s penises after a wave of panic and attempted lynchings triggered by the alleged witchcraft.
…
“I’m tempted to say it’s one huge joke,” [Kinshasa police chief Jean-Dieudonne] Oleko said.
“But when you try to tell the victims that their penises are still there, they tell you that it’s become tiny or that they’ve become impotent. To that I tell them, ‘How do you know if you haven’t gone home and tried it’,” he said.
Okay, so Reuters has it filed under weird news, but still, it’s being reported by Reuters! Freaking Reuters!
Update: In related news, thanks to this post this blog now has a tag archive for “penis” which will hopefully never be used again… Then again, you never know.
It’s official. George W. Bush has the highest disapproval rating of any U.S. president in the 70-year history of the Gallup poll.
In a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll taken Friday through Sunday, 28% of Americans approve of the job Bush is doing; 69% disapprove. The approval rating matches the low point of his presidency, and the disapproval sets a new high for any president since Franklin Roosevelt.
The previous record of 67% was reached by Harry Truman in January 1952, when the United States was enmeshed in the Korean War.
What’s also pretty incredible is how far he’s fallen:
Bush also holds the record for the other extreme: the highest approval rating of any president in Gallup’s history. In September 2001, in the days after the 9/11 attacks, Bush’s approval spiked to 90%. In another record, the percentage of Americans who say the invasion of Iraq was a mistake reached a new high, 63%, in the latest poll.
Assessments of Bush’s presidency are harsh. By 69%-27%, those polled say Bush’s tenure in general has been a failure, not a success.
From the most popular to the least popular in only eight years. Presided over an economic “slowdown”–seriously, you can’t call it a recession?–that eighty-six percent of Americans think is going to get worse. The majority of people now recognize that his war for oil and profit was a mistake. A full three-quarters of Americans think our nation is headed the wrong direction under his leadership. People don’t trust Republicans on Iraq, health care, social security, the economy, or immigration. Most historians think he’s the worst president ever.
The Bush presidency is a disaster. The Bush legacy will be one of failure.
Two different newspapers, two pairs of authors, same day, same headline. Either Barack Obama is actually becoming physically pointier and it’s distracting everyone, or somebody left their thesaurus at home yesterday.
Christian Values: School Founder Offers Diploma for Sex
Ah, there’s nothing like the smell of hypocrisy in the morning. A Houston TV station on Thursday exposed LaVern Jordan, founder of a local Christian school, offering to waive a student’s enrollment fees if the mother will agree to have sex with him.
Jordan: “For the uh, enrollment fee and stuff like that, maybe you and I can do something, you think?”
Mother: “Yeah, what, I mean what, what, you gonna wipe out all the fees?”
Jordan: “All the enrollment fees.”
Mother: “All the enrollment fees?”
Jordan: “Three hundred dollars.”
Mother: “So you gonna wipe everything if me and you get together?”
Jordan: “The enrollment fee, yeah.”
Mother: “Ok.”
Jordan: “If you and I get together.”
Mother: “What you mean? I mean, what?
Jordan: “Excuse me and I don’t mean to be so blunt but I am talking about f—— you.”
Mother: “You talking about what?”
Jordan: “F—— you.”
…
Jordan: “For the $300 I would expect maybe we could get together several times, you think?”
Mother: “Several times, whatcha mean several times?”
Jordan: “Well I don’t know, you might like whatcha getting.”
In regards to the “story” that aired on 4/16- 4/17 of 2008 on Channel 13, we would like to begin by informing you that the “story” was not told in its’ entirety, as no one requested an interview with Mrs. Jordan, nor did Channel 13 accept her offer for one.
Here’s the email that reporter Wayne Dolcefino sent to the school three days before the story aired requesting an interview from Mrs. Jordan. Okay, back to the ridiculous:
The Parkway Christian School,Inc. staff wants to remind you that we are all sinners saved by Grace, and we have forgiven Mr. Jordan for his wrong action.
…
[the school then quotes John 8:7, which includes the line: "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her."] What do you think Jesus was writing in the sand? Was it the names of all the men that had been with the woman, or a list of all of their sins? Either way, it should help us all to realize that we are all guilty of sin and only God can be the judge of us.
Yes, everyone’s guilty. The school released another statement the next day, reiterating the claim that nobody asked them for an interview, but now they’ve been advised by their lawyers not to grant any interviews even if they do ask. Then, the real fun starts:
Furthermore, we would like to add that the woman in question did not handle the situation properly. Had she called to inform me of this incident, the matter would have been handled promptly and properly
…
Channel 13 and the woman in question owe Parkway Christian School, Inc. a public apology for the unjust manner in which the incident was handled. My family, students, and school should not have to suffer the blame for something that we did not know was happening.
Yes, how dare that woman not call the wife of the man who propositioned her in his truck! I’m sure Mrs. Jordan would have dealt with the matter immediately and not accused the mother of slander or ignorance. People always act in a reasonable, rational way when you accuse their husbands of cheating on them by extorting sex from poor women. And how dare she expose the man for being such a pervert! After all, nobody’s perfect. The Christian thing to do would have been to politely thank him for his generous offer, get out of the truck, and pretend that she hadn’t just been treated like a whore.
Now, I don’t have any problem with Christianity because the vast majority of Christians intelligent, reasonable people. The problem is when the really self-righteous ones–the ones who try to impose their beliefs on everybody else–become embroiled in all sorts of sex scandals and then abuse their religion’s concept of forgiveness to get themselves off the hook. By Monday, I’m sure we’ll hear that Jordan has prayed hard all weekend and come to the decision that God has forgiven him and that we should all just forget that the whole thing ever happened. And when we do, someone needs to be there to call him on the hypocrisy.
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