Salon.com Recaps the Republican Debate – with panache

Posted on by TL

If you don’t subscribe to Salon.com, you might want to reconsider. The writing is smart, snappy, and never misses the mark. Much food for thought.

Today’s issue gives a wrap-up of the most recent Republican Presidential Debate. And it’s a riot. Michael Scherer’s piece is titled What you missed while watching “Deal or No Deal”: Salon watches the third GOP debate so you don’t have to: God frowns on Giuliani, Romney does weird math on Iraq, Thompson proposes a Bush morality tour, and more.

We get a minute-by-minute summary of the highlights and lowlights. Among my favorite:

2 minutes. “My name is Thompson, Tommy Thompson,” says the former Wisconsin governor, in his best James Bond impersonation. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who is worth $350 million and does not live in your neighborhood, introduces himself as a “neighbor.” Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee apologizes to the crowd for his hometown, Hope, Ark., which birthed Bill Clinton. “All I ask is give me one more chance.” People laugh.

4 minutes. The first question goes to Romney. It is concise. “Was it a mistake for us to invade Iraq?” Romney won’t answer. He calls the question “a non sequitur.” He also calls it “a null set,” which is a term from mathematical theory that means something complicated involving X, if X is a measurable space, and the “sigma ideal.” Instead, Romney attacks Democratic Senate leader Harry Reid for saying the war is lost.

5 minutes. Undeterred, a reporter from the Manchester Union Leader asks Romney the same question again. “Was it a mistake for the United States to invade Iraq?” Romney says “null set” again, maybe with more feeling this time. Then he says, “That I think is an unreasonable hypothetical.”

6 minutes. The question is asked a third time, but now to former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. “Absolutely the right thing to do,” Giuliani says without hesitation. Ouch. That must hurt for Romney.

10 minutes. Arizona Sen. John McCain is asked what will happen if generals report that the surge of troops in Iraq is failing. McCain says he met this morning with the family of a fallen soldier. Then he attacks Hillary Clinton for saying Iraq is “Mr. Bush’s war.” “I didn’t say that Bosnia, our intervention there, was President Clinton’s war,” McCain explains. This is how it is done. If asked a tough question, treat Democrats like pincushions.

A bit later on:

55 minutes. Huckabee reveals the darker side of his faith. Answering a question about gays in the military, he calls homosexuality an “attitude.” “It’s about conduct,” he says, endorsing the current policy that bans gays and lesbians from serving openly. “It’s not about attitude.”

59 minutes. The gays in the military question goes to McCain. He soars. “We have the best-trained, most professional, best equipped, most efficient, most wonderful military in the history of this country. And I’m proud of every one of them.” But McCain also says that the current policy, whose net effect is expelling gays for being gay, “is working.”

And on English as the official language of the United States, which, for some reason is an issue with Republicans, we learn the horrifying possibilities of people speaking Spanish:

100 minutes. Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo explains why Spanish speakers may soon destroy America, and why he would never advertise in his campaign for president in Spanish, which Romney does. “English is the language of this country,” he says. “We should not be ashamed of that.” Blitzer intervenes, “Sen. McCain, I’d like you to respond.”

101 minutes. “Muchas gracias,” says McCain.

Read more here.  It’s worth it.

We’re Back!

Posted on by TL

Sorry about the extended absence from Turning Left. The past several weeks have been extremely busy, and a nasty Google Analytics plugin was the reason all of you were getting blank browser windows when trying to access this site. Didn’t have a lot of time to troubleshoot.

But we’re back now. Leftward, ho!

My Big Secret: I’m Sick of Oprah

Posted on by TL

Queen

Watching Oprah Winfrey this morning only reaffirms for me how out of touch the poor gal is. Her show is airing her road trip with best friend Gayle. We’re being treated to their crazy high jinks in, Oprah and Gayle’s Big Adventure, a la Pee Wee Herman. We get to join the fun as the dynamic duo as they get in a car and <gasp> drive someplace.

In this riveting documentary, we watch as Queen “O” does such shocking things as:

Pump her own gas. In this compelling segment, Queen “O” actually learns how to pump gas. She confesses that the last time she pumped her own gas was during the Reagan years, 1983. Here the audience laughs merrily. They love their Queen.

Pays for her own gas with <gasp> CASH! Here we learn how shocked Queen “O” is to learn that she actually misread the pump display. She thought the gas cost just over $29. But pal Gayle informs her that she pumped over 29 gallons, and actually owes over $129 for the gas! Again there is merry laughter from the audience, especially when Queen “O” opens her wallet to actually show us that she does not have $129!? Oh, can we all relate to that.? She’s just one of us after all.

Oprah is really becoming a sad commentary on our worship of wealth in this country.? Her Big Secret? just reaffirms how out of touch the gal really is.? That’s where we learn that the sick and the poor of the world are actually sick and poor because they don’t visualize themselves any better.? This road trip simply reaffirms my Big Secret:

I’m sick of Oprah.

The Right-Wing Media Must Be Idiots

Posted on by TL

Matt DrudgeThe right-wing media must be idiots, and their readership not much better.

Now they’re comparing King George II Bush to Bill Clinton: we should not pay any attention to White House involvement in the firing of 8 U.S. attorneys because Bill Clinton did the same thing. In fact, Bill Clinton fired all U.S. attorneys!

Salon.com tells the tale:

From the Drudge Report to the Fox News Channel to the Wall Street Journal editorial page, the usual suspects are shrieking in unison:

Bill Clinton fired a lot of U.S. attorneys too! In fact Clinton was worse because he fired all of them at once! And the Democrats didn’t complain when Clinton did the same thing!

What’s very sad is that the mainstream media just picks this nonsense up and runs it. Here we are with Blame Bill Part XLI, and the “responsible” media doesn’t seem to get it. I suppose it’s much easier to simply report what other people have said on their blogs or websites than it would be to actually go out and investigate whether anything at all on any particular website is the least bit true or hopelessly full of shit.

And why anyone would publish anything Matt Drudge says without checking for veracity first is beyond the scope of reason. Nothing from Drudge, a gay man who backs the gay bashers, should not be taken at face value.

And yet, the song remains the same.? The “Right” speaks, and the mainstream media publishes as if everything that trickles off a blog is a press release.

What a country.

The Passive Tense is Loved by Me

Posted on by TL

Attorney General Alberto GonzalesI love the passive tense. I can make any observation I want, and really not take responsibility.

“The car was driven into the lake.”? I could’ve said that years ago when I almost literally drove my car into a lake when I mistook ice fishermen on a frozen lake one night for people camping out.

“People are being killed by second-hand smoke.”? Yes, we’ve heard that before.? Philip Morris is so nice to tell us that in their commercials, and then tell us how much they care about those people, and how much overtime they’re working to make sure fewer people die.

What a way to report on the most outrageous, horrifying experiences! The passive tense softens the blow, draws attention away from the caustic. Soon, the screams of the soldiers dying are hardly being heard, uh, by us. The blast of countless explosions in the midst of war are ignored, by us. And justice is denied, by us.

Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales took the cake today, “under criticism from lawmakers of both parties for the dismissals of federal prosecutors, insisted Tuesday that he would not resign, but said, ‘I acknowledge that mistakes were made here.'”

“Mistakes were made here,” the New York Times reported.

What a colossal understatement. He refused to resign, or to take further responsibility. Time to pass the buck. After all, Gonzales isn’t going to take the fall for Karl Rove.

“The White House did not play a role in the list of the seven U.S. attorneys,” said Dan Bartlett, describing President Bush’s role in the active voice.

You see, we can say with great authority that the President did nothing, was completely inactive in this matter. However, we can only nebulously assert that “mistakes were made” by someone, or perhaps a group of people. We’re not quite sure about that yet.

We further learn:

On Tuesday afternoon, at a press conference in an ornate chamber adjacent to his office, Mr. Gonzales pledged to “find out what went wrong here,” even as he insisted he had no direct knowledge of how his staff had made the firing decisions. He said he had rejected an earlier idea, which the White House said was put forth by Ms. Miers, that all 93 of the attorneys, the top federal prosecutors in their regions, be replaced.

“Find out what went wrong here.” We can do that eventually. Something went wrong, and, dammit, we’re going to get to the bottom of what went wrong by someone. And we have to be concerned about King George II:

But inside the White House, aides to the president, including Mr. Rove and Joshua B. Bolten, the chief of staff, were said to be increasingly concerned that the controversy could damage Mr. Bush.

“They’re taking it seriously,” said the other of the two Republicans who spoke about the White House’s relationship with Mr. Gonzales. “I think Rove and Bolten believe there is the potential for erosion of the president’s credibility on this issue.”

We will get to the bottom of this, mind you.

Sorry. Too active.

What went wrong will be discovered by us. Leave your name and email address if you want to know how this ends.

You will be gotten back to on that by us.

Our Deafening Silence

Posted on by TL

I blog about a war I don’t like.? Others blog.? We run to our computers and read each other’s blogs.? And the terrible war goes on.

I don’t understand the silence — the goddamn deafening silence.? I don’t understand our level of comfort letting this all continue.? Do we really feel that helpless?? Have we become that sensitive to what is political, to getting our people back in office and keeping them there, that we persist in doing nothing?? Are we really that helpless?

America stands by and watches while civilians die, while soldiers die, while children die.? We watch childred die, and really don’t ruffle a feather when the President of the goddamn United States says we should go shopping — shopping — so the terrorists don’t win.

3,189 American soldiers dead.? Soon, it will be time for another moment of silence on Turning Left as soldier 3,200 dies.? 11 to go, and another young man or woman checks out early.

Dulce et decorum est?

I think not.

And neither did Wilfred Owen.

We’re all part of the goddamn, deafening silence.

Oprah off the Deep End

Posted on by TL

Oprah’s gone off the deep end. She’s selling snake oil.

I almost filed this under humor, if what she was doing wasn’t so harmful. This article on Salon.com is worth the read. It details how Oprah has bought into the pseudo-philosophy of “The Secret,” by Rhonda Byrne.

“The Secret” espouses a “philosophy” patched together by an Australian talk-show producer named Rhonda Byrne. Though “The Secret” unabashedly appropriates and mishmashes familiar self-help clichés, it was still the subject of two recent episodes of “The Oprah Winfrey Show” featuring a dream team of self-help gurus, all of whom contributed to the project.

The main idea of “The Secret” is that people need only visualize what they want in order to get it — and the book certainly has created instant wealth, at least for Rhonda Byrne and her partners-in-con.

That’s it, just visualize it. Worse, if you’re poor, it’s because you’re blocking wealth with your mind.

From the article again:

Why “venality”? Because, with survivors of Auschwitz still alive, Oprah writes this about “The Secret” on her Web site, “the energy you put into the world — both good and bad — is exactly what comes back to you. This means you create the circumstances of your life with the choices you make every day.” “Venality,” because Oprah, in the age of AIDS, is advertising a book that says, “You cannot ‘catch’ anything unless you think you can, and thinking you can is inviting it to you with your thought.” “Venality,” because Oprah, from a studio within walking distance of Chicago’s notorious Cabrini Green Projects, pitches a book that says, “The only reason any person does not have enough money is because they are blocking money from coming to them with their thoughts.”

Blame the victim.? The poor deserve their lot in life.

The entire article is worth reading and digesting.

Wil Wheaton In Exile

Posted on by TL

Well, we may remember him from other things (Stand By Me, Star Trek: The Next Generation), but Wil Wheaton has developed quite a blog. And, as opposed to other celebrity blogs, this one has substance, and we like it at Turning Left.

I like his politics.

This entry from January of this year is especially telling:

regarding hersay and coercion

I read at Netscape earlier today that the Pentagon has new rules for detainee trials:

“The Pentagon has drafted a manual for upcoming detainee trials that would allow convicted terrorists to be imprisoned or put to death using hearsay evidence and coerced testimony.”

It should come as no shock to anyone who’s read my blog for more than fifteen minutes that I find this appalling, and I figure the reasons should be obvious to all but about 30% of Americans (give or take 3-5%.)

He goes on to liken the new laws to what may happen in China. Very interesting read.

And I just may purchase his book.

Anglican Prelates Refuse Communion with U.S. Brethren Over Gay Issues

Posted on by TL

Unbelievable. The NYTimes reports today on the very strange choice made by Anglican archbishops visiting the Tanzania:

Seven archbishops who say they represent more than 30 million Anglicans worldwide refused to take Communion here on Friday with the new head of the American Episcopal Church, to protest her support of gay clergy members and blessings for same-sex unions.

Their action demonstrated the deep gulf between conservative and liberal wings of the Anglican Communion, the world’s third largest Christian denomination, with 77 million members. Conflict over the American branch’s acceptance of an openly gay bishop and same-sex unions has dominated a high-level Anglican meeting here.

Disagreement is one thing, but refusing to sit down and share communion? This type of a theological posturing is truly sad. Even if one disagrees with another, even if one actually believes the person at the table is a sinner of the worst kind (as these right-wing cone-heads obviously do), then certainly a cursory reading of one’s own scriptures would reveal the example of a simple Rabbi who not only ate with sinners, but entered their homes to do so.

But we’re not talking about sinners here. We’re talking about bishops refusing to share the Eucharist with bishops. Has it really come to that? Again? And again?

Hats off — or miters off — to the American Anglican bishops who have the courage to stand by their convictions and reach out to all in love.

And shame on the Tanzanian Seven who refused Christ.
How sad, and how silly it all is.