Just now noticed that I received two press releases, one right after the other, from Barack Obama on the subject of John Kerry’s big announcement yesterday. Here’s the second one:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Bill Burton/ Dan Pfeiffer, 202-248-5050
Date: January 24, 2007Obama Statement on Senator Kerry’s Decision Not to Run for President in 2008
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) today released the following statement on Senator Kerry’s decision not to run for President in 2008:"From his earliest days in Vietnam to the Presidential Election in 2004, John Kerry has fought for his country and his ideals. I am proud to call him a friend and a colleague in the United States Senate, and know that he will continue to serve his country with honor and distinction in the years to come."
###
And here was the first one:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Bill Burton/ Dan Pfeiffer,
202-248-5050
Date: January 24, 2007Obama Statement on Senator Kerry’s
Decision Not to Run for President in 2008WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) today released the following
statement on Senator Kerry’s decision not to run for President in 2008:"From his earliest days in Vietnam to the Presidential Election in 2004, John
Kerry has fought his country and his ideals. I am proud to call him a friend and
a colleague in the United States Senate, and know that he will continue to serve
his country with honor and distinction in the years to come."###
Don’t believe me? Tell me so, and I’ll forward the originals to you.
Either way, the once-and-future Obama meant to be nice. Think about what he could have said:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Bill Burton/ Dan Pfeiffer,
202-248-5050
Date: January 24, 2007Obama Statement on Senator Kerry’s
Decision Not to Run for President in 2008WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) today released the following
statement on Senator Kerry’s decision not to run for President in 2008:"Yeah, you better run. Get on outta here, you stiff, stuffy, pompous, SUV-driving, can’t-even-beat-George-Bush LOSER! You think any of us want to look at your sorry chin any more? Take a good look at the new wave, old-timer!"
###
But he didn’t. So give him a break.
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Yeah Brad,
You’re someone to talk about “Shame, cowardice and betrayal”. Kerry has his faults, but at least he isn’t an excuse laden draft dodger like you. Always remember that Kerry did 100% more for his country than you ever did for yours. You make me sick to my stomach.
P.S. In your case the proper term is “draft resister”. I stand corrected.
Mark, you shouldn’t insult Senator Kerry like that. 100% more than Warthen????? That means twice as much as Warthen. You should say something like, a million times more, or a billion times more, or whatever you feel is the right figure. Or, if you share my opinion that Warthen has been a net detriment to the country, you should completely rework the expression you use.
Here is what really happened:
Kerry: Can I have my allowance to run for President?
Tereza HEINZ: No, the last time I gave you your allowance you threw it away pretending to like hunting and guns with those backward hicks from Ohio. No way, Jose. Now go warm up “our” SUV.
Brad, I’ve noticed that quite of few of your blogs have fallen flat lately. Everything seems to migrate toward Iraq and education. Here are some suggested topics:
1. Energy – This affects us all. The current low price for gasoline cannot continue for long.
2. Health Care – The president’s proposal was just plain awful.
3. The RR tracks on Assembly St. Ok, I couldn’t resist. No one but me is interested in this but it’s so darned maddening to get stopped every time I go down toward the Stadium/Fairgrounds/DMV etc.
4. Taxes. Let’s have a tradeoff between cigarette taxes and property taxes. And bring back video poker.
5. Space issues. Why do we continue to fly the space shuttle? Let’s pass a law that would bring Pluto back as a full fledged planet.
6. Securing nuclear stuff. Every other day it seems like we have a new story about Russian uranium/plutonium stockpiles falling into the wrong hands. Why don’t we devote more attention to this problem?
Actually, the draft never came up for me. I registered when I turned 18, I got my lottery number the next year, and they ended the draft when I was 19.
So I never had to report for a physical and be turned away, for which I am grateful.
The great irony in all this fantasy-laden nonsense I get from you hostility factories is that serving in the military is the one great unrealized dream of my life. I’d rather do that than, to quote from “Office Space,” two chicks at the same time.
So on top of the pain of never being able to serve, I have to take this stuff from you people. Lovely world, ain’t it?
Oh, and one other thing. Doesn’t anybody have a sense of humor anymore? I post a silly piece about an innocent mistake by some flack in Obama’s office, and I get this?
Yeah, most of your “great unrealized dreams” involve taking on some burden or sacrifice. The draft ended before you were called, so that rendered you unable to enlist voluntarily, limiting your participation in the Vietnam war to sitting and criticizing its detractors. There is no mechanism to require you to perform service at the VA or in some other capacity easing the burdens imposed by the war you support, so you are somehow unable to do so, thus giving rise to another unrealized dream.
So, frustrated by your inability to realize your dreams of personal sacrifice, you seek to increase the burdens borne by others, and attack those who seek to lessen those burdens. To you, sacrifice is ennobling – so long as the sacrifice is made by someone else.
We criticize you for your silly and supercilious piece because, once again, you have writtne something that is utterly worthless, and the writing of it took valuable time that could have been used to do something worthwhile, like cleaning up blood or vomit at the VA.
Brad, the venom directed at you personally is unreal. I seriously wonder sometimes if you dont have a few mental cases posting on here who have an obsessive hate complex towards you. Luckily for you, nearly all of the peacenik leftists wouldnt have enough cucharachas to actually harm you, but then, a mental is a mental case for a reason. So, be safe and let these idiots thoughts roll off your mind like water off the ducks back.
Dave, Brad seems to be obsessed with ridiculing John Kerry for some reason. This is at least the third time he’s taken a cheap shot at this decorated war hero. (The first time was Kerry’s blown joke right before the election. The second time was the recent “Betrayal, etc. post). And the response has been predictably flat. It’s just not funny to hear the same bad joke over and over again. With all the material available to poke fun at the Decider why does Brad continue to berate Mr. Kerry?
Humor?
Would Someone Give Bush A BJ So We Can Impeach Him?
Dave apparently prefers the nutjobs on the right who are far more likely to do physical harm to their political opponents in reality.
Brad, would you like us to sign our names, addresses AND phone numbers here, also?
(signed)
Harvey Milk
RTH, that’s the mindset of the right. They just can’t accept the fact that problems can be solved through peaceful means. Anytime a problem arrises the neo-con quickly jumps to the conclusion that they must immediately try to render bodily harm to someone. Or in the case of war, make someone else do the bodily harm rendering. After all, isn’t that what courage is all about?
I’ve been in the business for over 30 years. I’m used to the flak.
But Dave, you’ve got a point. Especially about the RR tracks on Assembly. (You think YOU’VE got it tough? I WORK down here.)
On energy — I’ve had this idea percolating lately that I wanted to develop fully before tossing it out. Maybe do a column on it first. But here’s the idea:
Reinvent the Unparty as the Energy Party. Not the Green Party — it’s not just about the environment — but a serious energy party. Go all the way, get serious, make like we actually know there’s a war going on. Do the stuff that neither the GOP nor the Dems would ever do:
— Jack up CAFE standards.
— Put about a $2 per gallon tax.
— Spend the tax proceeds on a Manhattan project on clean, alternative energy (hydrogen, bio, wind, whatever), and on public transportation (especially light rail).
— Reduce speed limits everywhere to no more than 55 mph. (This must be credited to Samuel Tenenbaum, who bent my ear about it yet again this morning, and apparently does the same to every presidential wannabe who calls his house looking for him or Inez).
— ENFORCE the damn’ speed limits. If states say they can’t, give them the resources out of the gas tax money.
— Build nuclear power plants as fast as we can (safely, of course).
— Either ban SUVs for everyone who can’t demonstrate a life-or-death need to drive one, or tax them at 100 percent of the sales price and throw THAT into the win-the-war kitty.
— If we go the tax route on SUVs (rather than banning), launch a huge propaganda campaign along the lines of “Loose Lips Sink Ships” (for instance, “Hummers are Osama’s Panzer Corps”). Make wasting fuel the next smoking or DUI — absolutely socially unacceptable.
— Because it will be a few years before we can be completely free of petrol, drill the ever-lovin’ slush out of the ANWR, explore for oil off Myrtle Beach, and build refinery capacity — all for a limited time of 20 years. Put the limit in the Constitution.
You get the idea. Respect no one’s sacred cows; go all-out to win the war and, in the long run, save the Earth. Pretty soon, tyrants from Tehran to Moscow to Caracas will be tumbling down without our saying so much as “boo” to them, and global warming will slow down within out lifetimes.
THEN, once we’ve done all that, we can start insisting upon some common sense on entitlements, and health care. Whatever works, whatever is practical, whatever solves our problems — no matter whose ox gets gored. Leave the ideologues in the dust, while we solve the problems.
How’s that sound? Can any of y’all get behind that?
Bill, I about fell on the floor laughing on that one. Now that is humor there. Bravo to you. You put tears in my eyes on that one.
Bud, come on, even you have to admit Kerry is a walking caricature of himself. I mean, this guy, pompous, arrogant, and basically an egotistical slob who managed to marry one rich widow, then dump her and marry a richer widow. Now, that is priceless. J effin K is the gigolo of all gigolos. Has anyone ever topped that? If Brad didnt come up with gems on this guy, he would have to be deaf, dumb, and blind.
Bud, one of the numerous unsavory aspects of Warthen’s character is that he takes sad, pitiful shots as those who are more accomplished than he is, in a vain attempt to bring them down to his level. Certainly Warthen resents Senator Kerry for his useful and honorable service in Vietnam – Warthen dreamed of serving in the military, but the lack of a draft combined with Warthen’s cowardice to prevent him from realizing his dream. Are there other reasons for Warthen’s resentment, do you think? Maybe one of the reasons for Warthen’s jealousy is resentment of Senator Kerry for having married such a high-status wife?
Folks, Obama started this, not I. He made a small slip on a release. I passed it on. Get a grip.
What on Earth do y’all think I did to Kerry?
By the way, on the more sober topic I mentioned above — I decided to turn it into a post. I’m serious about this; I think there’s an historic opportunity to turn things around on energy, global warming and our strategic situation. Our elected followers are falling over themselves TRYING to meet this challenge, but their efforts are weak and lame. Somebody needs to tell them how it’s done. Why don’t we do it?
OK, now it’s official. Brad gets a zero on the propaganda section of his professional exam.
Brad, what would be your recommendation for an English teacher who failed an entire quarter of the professional exam?
Meanwhile, Dave get’s the Joseph Goebbels Useful Idiot Award with a gold star for parroting the “Kerry as a gigilo” meme.
RTH, yeah, this “Kerry as a gigolo” idea is just strange, and it tells us a lot more about the people who use it, and their marriages, than it tells us about Kerry. I mean, accomplished, high-status people tend to marry other accomplished, high-status people. What does it tell us about Kerry that an extremely high-status woman like Teresa fell in love with and married him?
Unfortunately, Kerry isn’t running for Prez now. But he is running for Traitor of the Year. Going overseas and condemning his own country as the international pariah is his latest stupidity. Is there a way to revoke his citizenship so he cannot re-enter the country? But, then, look at the laughs we would all miss out on.
Mary, years ago, when the wingnuts started using tabloid techniques of character assassination, I laughed.
I thought that Americans were too savvy to fall for blatantly partisan ad hominem attacks. I was wrong. In retrospect, I should have realized that there is a reason that The Star, National Enquirer etc. are the best selling magazines in the U.S.
People like Dave enjoy malicious gossip– especially if it’s titillating and skewers the “high and mighty.” The chumps’ class envy and resentment of moral superiority makes the slanders quite effective. Stories using jokes and derision are most effective. Simpletons can re-tell the jokes in the guise of hilarity. Any rebuttal only gives the original slander seem more substantial and the debunker seem “humorless.”
Dave professes expertise about the most intimate aspects of Kerry’s personal life. A friend of mine thinks that the Clintons’ marital relationship is an open book.
Why? Because powerful and rich political opponents have paid writers, publications, “talking heads,” and a variety of easily purchased “witnesses” to discredit prominent Democrats.
Their latest attempt to smear Obama was easily debunked by a single CNN report.
In contrast, the Dems just haven’t been as effective (read well-financed and ruthless) in return fire. Witness the re-election of a wealthy, Ivy-League, failed businessman who pretends to be an Everyman “cowboy” despite only buying a “ranch” several years before his first presidential election. The media allowed him to arbitrarily exclude the first 40 years of his personal life from critical examination because he’s been “born again.” Not to mention that he seems to have a neurological problem with his verbal abilities.
Nevertheless, it’s Kerry’s marriages that become the fodder for Dave’s “polly wanna cracker” routine.
RTH, do you really think that’s all of it? Don’t you think a great deal of it is simply an attempt to cover up the burning jealousy and resentment they feel because they aren’t successful and charismatic enough to attract such a wife?
Dave couldn’t marry someone like Teresa Heinz Kerry in a million years. So rather than admit to himself the obvious reason John Kerry married someone better than whatever horrible skank Dave married – namely, that John Kerry is better than Dave – Dave, in his Bizarro World reasoning, sees Kerry’s marrying a highly desirable wife as some sort of evidence of some deficiency in Kerry.
I guess to Dave, the skankier your wife is, the more of a man you are.
When Brad reads your latest hate post above, my guess is he will have the decency to zap it. However, I won’t lower myself to your level. Kerry is a public figure, he chose that, I didn’t. But attacking my family is lower than the lowest and many of us have come to expect that of you.
Hurl – I don’t need to repeat jokes about Kerry, he manufactures new ones every time he speaks. He is even a loser in the Senate. He’s been in there forever and has not committee leaderships, no respect even from his peers. Sheesh, even Lieberman, an independent was give the Homeland Security committee chair. Can you see the facts here.
RTH, I appeal to you. Am I doing anything that Senator Kerry’s detractors have not done? I mean, they look at a marriage involving a successful, high-status woman and, with what seems like no justification at all, claim that no man without something wrong with him would marry such a woman. The opposite would, in fact, appear to be true. Who would be able to even MEET a woman like that, except an extremely high-status, successful man? Who would be able to get someone like that to fall in love with him, except an extraordinary man, one of the most desirable and attractive men in the world?
I, on the other hand, look at a marriage involving a lazy, ignorant, dishonest, cowardly, worthless, freeloading loser, and I ask myself, what kind of woman would marry such a person? I can come up with only one answer – someone with no options and no standards. In other words, a disgusting, diseased, skank.
RTH, I leave it to you. Is my reasoning any different than the reasoning put forward by Senator Kerry’s detractors?
Mary, Dave’s sole rebuttal seems to be that the Kerrys are “public figures” and Democrats; thus, fair game for outrageous insults, slanders, and innuendos.
It seems that he personally doesn’t appreciate the same treatment.
I wonder how he’d feel if he were asked to prove his patriotism because of his religion, as wingnut commentator Glenn Beck demanded of Rep. Ellison.
Here ya go, Brad: from the horse’s mouth.
Watch the video of Mona Charen, Nancy Reagan’s former speech writer and op/ed contributor.
Don’t let your attention wander because at the end she specifically notes the use of derision in the wingnut political strategy.
She’s actually much too modest about the effectiveness of wingnut bankrolled media organs, think tanks, academic groups, astro-turf lobbying outfits and professional organizations.
In fact, the blatantly false scenes from ABC’s Path to 9/11 are being shown on the Faux News Channel.
Feeding the populace propaganda via drama and comedy is a time honored technique. Lampooning the political opposition is a political weapon commonly recognized by acute observers.
Oh, well, I guess that the purple kool-aid causes selective blindness.
Since Brad thinks it’s fun to take cheap shots at pragmatic peace lovers how about this photo of two high ranking members of the war-monger party. This about says it all.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1188858/posts