political_talk

George Will on Media Fascination With Sarah Palin

A surprisingly astute quote by George Will from his article dissecting the media's fascination with Sarah Palin, "Sarah Palin and the mutual loathing society". I especially liked the last two lines.

Political nature abhors a vacuum, which is what often exists for a year or two in a party after it loses a presidential election. But today's saturation journalism, mesmerized by presidential politics and ravenous for material, requires a steady stream of political novelties. In that role, Palin is united with the media in a relationship of mutual loathing. This is not her fault. But neither is it her validation.

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Source:  The Washington Post, George Will

Palin Lies on Leno

On The Tonight Show, Palin spewed her usual gibberish in reference to her Family Guy remarks, and her lack of opportunity (oh, please...) to follow up after the media responded.

I commented and then that gets out there in the blogosphere, it gets out there in the different forms of the mediums that we have today. And then it’s left there, not an opportunity for me to follow up and kind of elaborate on what I really meant and what I really thought of the thing.

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Source:  Andrew Sullivan, The Daily Dish, The Atlantic, 'Lying on Leno'

Howard Zinn on War in Our Time

We need to decide that we will not go to war, whatever reason is conjured up by the politicians or the media, because war in our time is always indiscriminate, a war against innocents, a war against children. War is terrorism, magnified a hundred times.

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Source:  Dr. Howard Zinn, The Progressive Magazine, November 2001
Image of painting [of Dr. Zinn] by Brett Cook

There is no flag large enough......

There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people for a purpose which is unattainable.

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Dr. Howard Zinn

HOWARD ZINN: How Change Occurs

I would encourage people to look around them in their community and find an organization that is doing something that they believe in, even if that organization has only five people, or ten people, or twenty people, or a hundred people. And to look at history and understand that when change takes place it takes place as a result of large, large numbers of people doing little things unbeknownst to one another. And that history is very important for people to not get discouraged. Because if you look at history you see the way the labor movement was able to achieve things when it stuck to its guns, when it organized, when it resisted. Black people were able to change their condition when they fought back and when they organized. Same thing with the movement against the war in Vietnam, and the women's movement. History is instructive. And what it suggests to people is that even if they do little things, if they walk on the picket line, if they join a vigil, if they write a letter to their local newspaper. Anything they do, however small, becomes part of a much, much larger sort of flow of energy. And when enough people do enough things, however small they are, then change takes place.

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Source: Wikiquote
Dr. Howard Zinn

Howard Zinn: Defining Patriotism

If patriotism were defined, not as blind obedience to government, nor as submissive worship to flags and anthems, but rather as love of one's country, one's fellow citizens (all over the world), as loyalty to the principles of justice and democracy, then patriotism would require us to disobey our government, when it violated those principles

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Source: Wikiquote
Dr. Howard Zinn

President Obama: With all due deference to the separation of powers.......

On January 27, 2010, in his first State of the Union address to Congress and the American people, President Barack Obama leveled a strong recrimination at the Supreme Court for the controversial ruling made in the Citizens United case, decided on January 21, 2010.View the video excerpt below. The full transcript, along with the full video of the SOTU is here.

With all due deference to separation of powers, last week the Supreme Court reversed a century of law to open the floodgates for special interests – including foreign corporations – to spend without limit in our elections. Well I don't think American elections should be bankrolled by America's most powerful interests, or worse, by foreign entities. They should be decided by the American people, and that's why I'd urge Democrats and Republicans to pass a bill that corrects some of these problems

GOP Senate Candidate Compares Embryonic Stem Cell Research to Nazi Death Camps

"In March 2009, President Obama issued an executive order that removed President Bush’s limitations on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, ending the tragic politicization of the issue that existed under the former president." [...]

GOP Senate candidate, Gary Coleman [R-AR] attacked President Obama regarding this decision:

Embryonic stem cell research is taking the concept of taking a life and using it to conduct experiments so we can temporarily extend somebody else’s life. Let me tell you what I just described. I just described what the Nazis did to the Jews in the death camps of WWII.

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Source: Think Progress 
Science Magazine

Chief Justice John G. Roberts on Affirmative Action

In a Supreme Court packed with conservatives, this was no surprise. Chief Justice John G. Roberts:

The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.

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Source: Seattle School District case (2007-06-28)

Samuel A. Alito: A judge can't have any agenda......

Faced with the well-founded skepticism of the Democrats during his confirmation hearings in 2006, Samuel A. Alito attempted to present himself to the Senate Judiciary Committee as an "open-minded judge with no agenda other than the rule of law".

A judge can't have any agenda, a judge can't have a preferred outcome in any particular case, and a judge certainly can't have a client.

A judge's only obligation -- and it is a solemn obligation -- is to the rule of law. And what that means is that in every single case, the judge has to do what the law requires.

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Source: NPR - Day One: Alito Stresses Rule of Law

President Barack Obama's Address on The State of the Union, January 27, 2010 - Full Transcript and Video

The Full transcript is below the video.

Madam Speaker, Vice President Biden, members of Congress, distinguished guests, and fellow Americans:

Our Constitution declares that from time to time, the President shall give to Congress information about the state of our union.  For 220 years, our leaders have fulfilled this duty. They've done so during periods of prosperity and tranquility.  And they've done so in the midst of war and depression; at moments of great strife and great struggle.

MICHELLE BACHMANN: A Covenant to Slit Our Wrists....

Speaking to the conservative group, Independence Institute, at a fundraiser in Colorado, Michelle Bachmann (R-Minn.) had this to say in reference to health care reform:

This cannot pass.What we have to do today is make a covenant, to slit our wrists, be blood brothers on this thing. This will not pass. We will do whatever it takes to make sure this doesn’t pass.

Slasher movie, anyone?

Right now, we are looking at reaching down the throat and ripping the guts out of freedom. And we may never be able to restore it if we don’t man up and take this one on.

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Source: Colorado Independent, August 31, 2009

VIDEO & FULL TEXT: TED KENNEDY Speech at the Democratic National Convention 2008

Senator Edward "Ted" Kennedy's speech at the Democratic National Convention in Denver:

August 25, 2008

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Caroline¹.

My fellow Democrats, my fellow Americans, it is so wonderful to be here.

And nothing -- nothing is going to keep me away from this special gathering tonight.

I have come here tonight to stand with you to change America, to restore its future, to rise to our best ideals, and to elect Barack Obama President of the United States.

As I look ahead, I am strengthened by family and friendship. So many of you have been with me in the happiest days and the hardest days. Together we have known success and seen setbacks, victory, and defeat. But we have never lost our belief that we are all called to a better country and a newer world. And I pledge to you -- I pledge to you that I will be there next January on the floor of the United States Senate when we begin the great test.

Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you.

For me this is a season of hope -- new hope for a justice and fair prosperity for the many, and not just for the few -- new hope.

Chris Dodd: I'm not sure America has ever had a greater Senator....

Senator Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) speaking of his friend, Senator Edward Moore "Ted" Kennedy (D-Mass.) after Kennedy's death in 2009:

I'm not sure America has ever had a greater Senator, but I know for certain that no one has had a greater friend than I and so many others did in Ted Kennedy.
I will always remember Teddy as the ultimate example for all of us who seek to serve, a hero for those Americans in the shadow of life who so desperately needed one.
He worked tirelessly to lift Americans out of poverty, advance the cause of civil rights, and provide opportunity to all. He fought to the very end for the cause of his life - ensuring that all Americans have the health care they need.
The commitment to build a stronger and fairer America, a more perfect union, was deeply ingrained in the fiber of who he was, and what he believed in, and why he served.
That's why he stands among the most respected Senators in history. But it was his sympathetic ear, his razor wit, and his booming, raucous laugh that made him among the most beloved.
Whatever tragedy befell Teddy's family, he would always be there for them. Whatever tragedy befell the family of one of his friends, he would always be there for us. And in this moment of profound grief, our hearts are with his wonderful wife Vicki, his fantastic kids Ted Jr., Patrick, Kara, Curran, and Caroline, his grandchildren, and the wide and wonderful extended family for whom he was always a safe harbor.

I will miss him every day I serve, and every day I live.

Sen. Christopher John Dodd, Democrat, 1944-

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Source: The Huffington Post
Image source: Wikimedia Commons

Nancy Reagan on the Death of Senator Ted Kennedy

Former First Lady Nancy Reagan's remarks upon the death of Senator Edward Moore "Ted" Kennedy in 2009:

I was terribly saddened to hear of the death of Ted Kennedy tonight. Given our political differences, people are sometimes surprised by how close Ronnie and I have been to the Kennedy family. But Ronnie and Ted could always find common ground, and they had great respect for one another. In recent years, Ted and I found our common ground in stem cell research, and I considered him an ally and a dear friend. I will miss him.

Nancy Davis Reagan, Republican, 1921-

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Source: The Huffington Post

Sen. Graham Calls Glenn Beck a Cynic

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) called Fox News host, the tearful Glenn Beck, a "cynic"

in his comments to those attending The Atlantic's 'First Draft of History' conference.

Only in America can you make that much money crying. Glenn Beck is not aligned with any party. He is aligned with cynicism and there has always been a market for cynics. But we became a great nation not because we are a nation of cynics. We became a great nation because we are a nation of believers.

Related:

Glenn Beck's sobbing secrets revealed: A little Vicks Vaporub gets the tears flowing

DAVID BROOKS Refutes the Myth of the Power of the Republican Talk Jocks

In his New York Times column, Republican columnist, David Brooks, on the talk radio jocks, and the myth of their power.

The rise of Beck, Hannity, Bill O’Reilly and the rest has correlated almost perfectly with the decline of the G.O.P. But it’s not because the talk jocks have real power. It’s because they have illusory power, because Republicans hear the media mythology and fall for it every time. [.....]

Sarah Palin Claims Her First Amendment Rights Were Violated

According to Sarah Palin, the Republican candidate for Vice President in 2008, her First Amendment rights were violated when the media claimed that Palin was engaged in negative campaigning.

If [the media] convince enough voters that that is negative campaigning, for me to call Barack Obama out on his associations, then I don't know what the future of our country would be in terms of First Amendment rights and our ability to ask questions without fear of attacks by the mainstream media.

Source: ABC News

JEFFREY HART: Both Nixon and Reagan would have agreed with Obama's speech against the Iraq War

Jeffrey Hart¹, Republican columnist for The Daily Beast, and a former speechwriter for both Reagan and Nixon, endorsed Barack Obama during the 2008 Presidential Campaign.

One thing I know is that both Nixon and Reagan would have agreed with Obama’s speech against the Iraq War… But all the organs of the conservative movement followed Bush over the cliff—as did John McCain.

¹Hart is currently professor emeritus of English at Dartmouth College, and he  wrote for the National Review for more than three decades as a senior editor.

ALAN GRAYSON: I apologize to the dead.....

  

Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL), apologized to the Republicans for saying that they want us to "die quickly" if we get sick.

(he said this to explain the Republican lack of support for health care reform)

I apologize to the dead and their families that we haven't voted sooner to end this holocaust in America.