Check The Diagonal

Hypocrite watch...

From the annals of being not surprised:

GOP opposes plan then seeks money

Billions of dollars worth of Defense Department stimulus money is paying for repairs and construction at military installations in areas represented by lawmakers who said "no" to the legislation, according to an analysis by The Associated Press.

The DCCC has a new Hypocrisy Hall of Fame that details 32 Republicans who voted no, but say yes to the money:

The House Republicans' Hypocrisy Hall of Fame is getting jam-packed as even more Republicans - 32 and counting - are celebrating the benefits of President Obama's economic recovery bill and the 2009 Omnibus Appropriations bill in their districts even though they voted against it in Washington. 

More MSM Fail.  Not one lede on any of these stories locally in Georgia or in the MSM. 

Who is the GOP really mad at?

Fantastic, truth telling article by Bruce Bartlett at The Daily Beast.  It is worth reading in its entirety.

"I think conservative anger is misplaced. To a large extent, Obama is only cleaning up messes created by Bush. This is not to say Obama hasn’t made mistakes himself, but even they can be blamed on Bush insofar as Bush’s incompetence led to the election of a Democrat. If he had done half as good a job as most Republicans have talked themselves into believing he did, McCain would have won easily."

And this

In my opinion, conservative activists, who seem to believe that the louder they shout the more correct their beliefs must be, are less angry about Obama’s policies than they are about having lost the White House in 2008. They are primarily Republican Party hacks trying to overturn the election results, not representatives of a true grassroots revolt against liberal policies. If that were the case they would have been out demonstrating against the Medicare drug benefit, the Sarbanes-Oxley bill, and all the pork-barrel spending that Bush refused to veto.

I think this is exactly right and I am finding it very hard to respect Republicans these days because of it.  It is as if Republicans are living in a self-induced fantasy land where the Bush/Cheney years didn't happen.  Despite my obvious Obama bias I believe that our system of government would be healthier with a strong opposition party.  A little honest reflection would go a long way:

Until conservatives once again hold Republicans to the same standard they hold Democrats, they will have no credibility and deserve no respect. They can start building some by admitting to themselves that Bush caused many of the problems they are protesting.

Word. 

Unfortunately, he neglected to say things like "DeathCare" and "Death Panel" so this fantastic and amazingly on point article will get very little air play.

Sotomayor Confirmed!

I couldn't help but hug my daughter.  I hope this means her glass ceiling as a female minority just got a little bit higher.  The hard truth remains that she will still have to work twice as hard and be twice as good as a less than equal white male.  We will do what we can as parents to prepare her for that but it is just the sad state of our nation today. 

But, I think today is a day for great celebration.  The original constitutional framers never accounted for Barack Obama or Sonia Sotomayor.  When America was founded slavery was intentionally allowed to remain legal and a woman wasn't legally considered equal until 1920.  In that light I think its fitting and wonderful that America's first Black president nominated America's first Latina justice to the Supreme Court.

Its unfortunate that America is still a country of so many of these firsts.  It seems like every major election cycle brings the same tired meme of another major milestone for women and minorities and with it the sexism and racism that always follows.  It is so contrary to what we Americans espouse as what makes us great and special; as if we are more simply, a nation of hypocrites.  Give us your tired and poor as long as they don't look or sound different from the average white male or need any help, at all....

Judge Sotomayor's confirmation process was no different.  78% of Republican Senators, a great many from traditionally racist southern states, voted against confirmation for Judge Sotomayor despite her long and outstanding record of academic over-achievement and fairness on the bench.

Keep this list of their names.  Watch for their re-election campaigns.  Obama proved to us that Yes We Can isn't a slogan, its proof that we can each individually make a difference.   If you are one of their constituents call and write your representative, express your displeasure, canvass in direct opposition to racism and Rovian politics, write letters to the editor of your local paper, tell your friends and for gods sake vote. 

The Party of "Family Values"

My first reaction to both the Ensign and Sanford scandals was to laugh. Watching the post-Bush Republican Party is honestly more entertaining then a Real World Episode after MTV buys the drinks. They are the petulant, rich kid, frat boys who think of only themselves regardless of the consequence to others. In both cases, they only came clean because they had to. Ensign couldn't afford the blackmail and Sanford is an idiot. After the fact though, I feel bad. I especially feel bad for the wives and kids. Sanford has 4 boys who didn't see or hear from him on Father's day. I've been there and it sucks. But, what made me laugh still remains. These guys are all arrogance and no game. Mucho espuma, poco chocolate. Tu sabes? TNC gets it perfectly here:

The religious right isn't what's wrong with the GOP. It's the pervasive, unthinking, unreflective nationalism. It's the arrogance of thrice-divorced adulterers reaching for the banner of traditional families, and it's the arrogance of men who prosecuted a poorly planned war, on weak intelligence, presuming to lecture us on national security.

What concerns me most about the obvious lack of moral turpitude and more obvious hypocrisy in the Republican Party is that our children are learning these values from them. These are the "successful people". And so, our children see clearly that it is OK unless they get caught. My kids are smart enough to do the math. The game is called, don't get caught! Right?

Joe Klein Does the Right Thing

And so I finally forgive Joe Klein for his New Yorker review of Do The Right Thing. The whole post on Swampland is here:

To put it as simply as possible, McCain--and his cohorts--are trying to score political points against the President in the midst of an international crisis. It is the sort of behavior that Republicans routinely call "unpatriotic" when Democrats are doing it. I would never question John McCain's patriotism, no matter how misguided his sense of the country's best interests sometimes seems. His behavior has nothing to do with love of country; it has everything to do with love of self.

Anyone else out there find it interesting that the same crew of neocons that are attacking the President today for not being supportive enough of Iranians were the same bunch that wanted to bomb them 6 months ago?

Your words are as feeble as an old woman's

Newt's letter is titled "Real Change Requires Real Change" but the only thing he seems to be changing these days is his words as the wind blows. After marching in lockstep with Rush like good Conservative and calling Sotomayor a racist Newt wants to apologize and stick to the real issue, the fact that Judge Sotomayor is a racist. I kid you not.

My initial reaction was strong and direct -- perhaps too strong and too direct. The sentiment struck me as racist and I said so. Since then, some who want to have an open and honest consideration of Judge Sotomayor’s fitness to serve on the nation’s highest court have been critical of my word choice. With these critics who want to have an honest conversation, I agree. The word “racist” should not have been applied to Judge Sotomayor as a person, even if her words themselves are unacceptable (a fact which both President Obama and his Press Secretary, Robert Gibbs, have since admitted). So it is to her words -- the ones quoted above and others -- to which we should turn, for they show that the issue here is not racial identity politics. Sotomayor’s words reveal a betrayal of a fundamental principle of the American system -- that everyone is equal before the law.

He goes on to say:

Father’s Day is coming up on June 21 and Newt.org is running specials on autographed books. And speaking of Father’s Day, Jackie is asking for your help with for a Father’s Day gift for me. Sure sounds mysterious. Go to 5principlesoflife.com and she’ll tell you all the details.

Bleh. I for one hope Newt, his size 10s that fit so perfectly in his mouth, his snake oil autographed books for sale and his 36% favorable rating, run in 2012. If only to hope the beating he will get be SO bad that it runs him out of public life so we don't have to listen to the bullshit anymore.

Son, they shook

Perennial blowhard Frank Rich enters the 3rd stage of grieving as he attempts to prolong the demise of his paycheck at the NY Times in his latest op-ed piece.

Yes, journalists have made tons of mistakes and always will. But without their enterprise, to take a few representative recent examples, we would not have known about the wretched conditions for our veterans at Walter Reed, the government’s warrantless wiretapping, the scams at Enron or steroids in baseball.

Tons of mistakes is a massive understatement and so his "but" is offensive. So called journalists were LATE on Walter Reed, warrentless wiretapping, Enron and the steroid mention a joke. They were also completely absentee on torture, WMD intelligence, the run up to Iraq and countless other stories. Embittered, he concludes:

By all means let’s mock the old mainstream media as they preen and party on in a Washington ballroom. Let’s deplore the tabloid journalism that, like the cockroach, will always be with us. But if a comprehensive array of real news is to be part of the picture as well, the time will soon arrive for us to put up or shut up. Whatever shape journalism ultimately takes in America, make no mistake that in the end we will get what we pay for.

I won't mock the old mainstream media, I just don't buy it. And, that's just the point isn't it? Americans no longer pay for the self-appreciating "stenography" pushed out by a newspaper industry that thinks us too stupid to realize what they do is no longer important or relevant. I'll take the "bloviating" blogosphere as Rich calls it. For not being news gathering, they've taken the lead and been uncompromisingly vocal and right about a very many issues in recent memory. The MSM has been relegated to the follower position and in this economy I'd rather just save my money and prefer they just shut up.

"Just Keep Walking"

It's interesting to watch the MSM jump clear of the transparency bandwagon as soon as things threaten to potentially compromise the very sources that have owned them for the past 8 years. The MSN know they are complicit in the sins of the Bush Administration and want to sweep as much under the rug as possible. They are much more content covering handshakes and Easter egg rolls and dinner parties. Check the clip. I'm stunned that these people can get away with calling themselves journalists. Where is the outrage? Cokie Roberts says in regards to the destruction of the waterboarding tapes "it was the wrong thing to do, but I'm glad they did it." And Peggy Noonan says in regards to the reason for NOT releasing the CIA memos "Sometimes in life you have to just keep walking......life has to be mysterious" It is no wonder why The Pulitzer for Investigative Journalism went to the NY Times for the Elliot Spitzer banged a hooker story.

...and the sum of the suggestions is the child's mind.

Question of the day people. Who polices the press? Who holds the NBC/CNN/FOX axis of evil emendation accountable? Today was let's be tough on the slow kid day at The White House. That's the GWB year's MSM for you. They want us to remember them as tough, embittered and confrontational. Let's forget their enabling of Florida in 00' and the windsurfing/swiftboating of 04' and 9/11 and Katrina and Iraq. Let us forget the "news cycle" that turns any story they feel like into a feeding frenzy as they flood our consciesness with like stories the world over until our psyche can bear the thought no longer.... ...and then they feed us something else and we are grateful for that in order to forget how terrible the truth made us feel. Kids dying in Iraq, 2 second name run on a Sunday talk show, Blago a 30 minute talking head session. It's all about the optics and the last thing we will remember. After all, ending is better than mending.