A Nod's as Good as a Wink ...

Andrew Sullivan opines sweetly about a John McCain candidacy. John Cole disagrees.

I believe anyone who voted for the Military Commissions Act should be closely scrutinized as to qualification to be President. An argument can be made that this legislation would allow the President to hold an American citizen—that he or she deems a terrorist, and taken into custody on American soil—without the right to challenge that detention in a court of law. In other words if the President says you are a terrorist you have NO Civil Rights. Habeas Corpus has effectively been suspended under certain circumstances. Period. None. Nada. This provision of the Act has not been tested in a court of law so we don’t know if it would withstand scrutiny in a court of law … And, as exciting as the thought of Tom Delay being frog marched in shackles—never to be heard from again—is to me, I wouldn’t want it to happen to people I like. So … I guess … I’ll just leave that possibility to my dark, fetid fantasy world.

The Gelding, formerly know as the Maverick,John McCain voted for that legislation. Since he decided he wanted to be President. Again. The Gelding chose the Rovian path of 50% + 1 vote path to the White House. That really broke my heart and he lost my respect when he began this ridiculous trek.

I don’t agree with McCain on many issues that are important to me, but I always thought he would be a good President. These flip-flop’s on war, prisoner treatment, and such, have convinced he would not be a President I could be proud of. The only way I can see myself voting for him is if HRC is the Democratic candidate. Other than that I can’t pull the lever for him.

Of course it could be worse. HRC on one side and Rudy on the other, could quite easily be the signal that the American Dream is on its death bed and life support is being removed from the now terminal patient. But, don’t call me paranoid! One of them could not tell the simple truth if waterboarded and the other would allow your local jack-booted thugs to waterboard you for a traffic ticket. Jesus! Is it really getting that bad? Not yet. Not yet.

But … a nod’s as good as a wink to a blind horse.

Losing the "new HRC"

MoDo makes the case that the "new HRC" is not a distinct entity from the "old HRC". Granted the "new HRC" is more relaxed, wiser, more mellow. To wit:

[HRC]told an Iowa Democrat, Randall Rolph, that “labeling them a terrorist organization gives us the authority to impose sanctions on their leadership. ...I consider that part of a very robust diplomatic effort.”

But I recognize the woman who:

... on Sunday in New Hampton, Iowa, ... lost her cool at last. Sparring with a voter on Iran, she sounded defensive and paranoid.

And so does Ms. Dowd...

If you know the dingbat vice president is agitating for a conflict with Iran, if you know that Condi is chasing after Cheney with a butterfly net on Iran and Syria, if you know you can’t believe anything this administration says, why vote to give them more backing on their dysfunctional Middle East policy?

The "new HRC" is a very careful woman when it comes to publicity; she smiles constantly for the cameras, talks in friendly platitudes , and turns the other cheek to any sign of hostility. She thought she was being the "new HRC"--at least on one level--but on another level she was the "old HRC."

She really does remind me of Nixon in 1968.

(h/t Andrew Sullivan)

Fear and Loathing in the Presidential Campaign of '08

Please STOP THE MADNESS!

This from the party that purports to be progressive?

Huh? What party would that be? Was this email from the DNC? How about some precision in language here! We may infer the person is a Democrat, but even that is at best an educated guess. Could not this person be a Republican or Independent who lives in a state with open primaries? Trivial? No!

...and that's the reason the great religions tell us not to act in anger...

Please! The great religions don't tell us anything! People who have written and spoken about these matters have told us what they think their chosen deity wants. We have absolutely NO EVIDENCE that religion, or the deity of that particular flavor of deism, has ever spoken to anyone. However, I did drop some acid once (back in the 60's) and had an enlightening conversation with Jesus until he melted back into the wall I was leaning on. No honey and locusts for me!

Now as far as Hillary goes: She'll be equally corrupt and wrongheaded as the former Cheerleader and his band of merry neocons, just as devious, and she will be just competent enough to keep the ship of state on an even keel. Then in 2017, she can hand off the controls to the next half-bright disaster in waiting.

See it really isn't all that bad, is it?

Drudging up the Clintonistas

Jack Tapper makes an excellent point about HRC and Drudge:

The Clinton camp masterfully used the new media world to brush away any serious media coverage of the 5th anniversary of the pre-Iraq-war anti-Iraq-war speech by Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, yesterday. LINK

Leaking information about their very successful 3rd quarter fundraising to Drudge, team Clinton managed to suck up almost all of the national media oxygen.

HRC and Drudge need one another? Andrew Sullivan makes a similar point. I am just cynical enough to believe they need one another for their own beastly purposes. Damn.