Speaking of the Lieberman-Warner Act — and if you recall, we were doing that earlier, if only peripherally
— I got a release today from the NRDC supporting said Energy Partyesque legislation. But before I could dig into all the highly persuasive arguments, I got distracted by the NRDC logo. Before I had focused on it properly, my brain went, "Hey, isn’t that Juan Valdez?"
But it wasn’t. It was just a logo that suggests the "mountain-grown" logo to the extent that it causes the casual observer to do a double-take. And once the observer does look more closely, he sees that instead of Juan Valdez in front of some Colombian mountains, it’s actually a bear in front of some trees. Which, just to impose a digression on a digression, would seem to create less-than-savory associations regarding bears and what they do in the woods, but I’m sure the NRDC knows what it’s doing.
Meanwhile, I inadvertently discovered that apparently Juan Valdez is no longer associated with a certain big-name
American grocery-store coffee brand, but has branched out. So good luck to Juan with his new business, especially as it does not conflict with my own (that’s a digression to the third power, for those keeping score).
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Wow, this is cutting-edge stuff. Juan Valdez coffee shops to compete with Starbucks and my coffee pot.
Not only that, but the shops supposedly will benefit farmers in Columbia’s sister community, Colombia. The two places have, well, seven letters in common anyway, and a certain series of sounds.
Who needs real news when you’ve got this and “Sex and the City” to distract you from you from that problematical pulpit in Chicago, where the men who have served Obama as spiritual mentors continue to demonstrate that his church revels in hate speech.
It’s beginning to look like Hillary Clinton is more honest than Obama, and that’s really saying a mouthful.
Here’s hoping McCain lives long enough to win.
Maybe Juan Valdez coffee can keep him going.
Juan has nothing on the civet, an Asian cat, that eats then poops the coffee beans out to be harvested. This coffee sells for hundreds of dollars PER POUND. Would you like cream and sugar with that?!
mcfarland, another asinine and unsupported statement about Obama? How is a visiting preacher (a priest, Brad!) a reflection on Obama’s honesty? Try to answer this without spinning off into some tangent as you have previously.
I bring up Phil Graham lobbying for Big Bank while crafting McCain’s economic policy and mcfarland brings up some obscure preacher. This reflects the desperation of the GOP.
Like Wright, this man Pfleger has been one of Obama’s admitted spiritual mentors, campaigned for him and served on one of his advisory committees.
Do a little research, Randy. Get your eyes off the blue sky, find out how who you’re supporting and how knee-deep in garbage he stands, and quit criticizing me for trying to get you to look at the whole picture.
Add this up: The new pastor that Obama praised lauded this standup comic of a priest after he finished his black racist routine about Hillary. The congregation which has for years included Obama reveled in the remarks of this priest, who actually had Farrakhan speak at his church, and found them hilarious.
Pardon me, but you can judge a man by who he keeps his friends. The people around Obama have started to stink like rotten eggs.
By the way, Randy, Phil Graham looks like a saint compared to your candidate’s choir of spiritual support. Who knew Obama’s church was a hate group?
And, by the way, Mr. Warthen, if, as your editorial today recommends, the offices of auditor and treasurer were appointed, you’d be letting the fox run the chicken coop.
I know that’s how they do things at USC, but if you spread the practice throughout the state, local officials would rob the counties in South Carolina even blinder than they’re robbing them now.
*Hagee – Holocaust caused by God (Hey Israel, sorry about that)
*Parsely (McCain’s spiritual advisor) – Christians called to destroy Islam(let’s alienate more Muslims)
*PHIL Graham – conflict of interest in economic crisis undermining our country that he helped create
Yes p.m., some obscure pastor making a stupid joke about Hillary Clinton is much worse than the economic crisis that has affected most Americans or antagonizing even the moderate Muslims by calling for their destruction. (I’m the one with my head in the clouds.)
Let’s not forget that McCain represents 4 more years of the Cheney-W administration – McCain’s own words.
Indeed Randy. The carefully crafted McCain persona is coming unraveled, or at least it should if the press would get off it’s lazy, sorry collective ass and do some real journalism. Frankly I don’t much care about the preacher stuff. Given that we have accepted the horrors of the pedophilia scandal in the Catholic Church without blinking an eye it doesn’t seem particularly significant when another preacher/priest makes some outrageous comment. So I’ll give McCain a pass on the preacher stuff.
But this Phil Gramm scandal is really disturbing. Think about this. McCain admits he knows little about economic matters. In order to bolster his credentials in that area he turns to Gramm. Gramm is up to his neck in SPECIAL INTEREST lobbying for the banking industry. He effectively succeeds in killing regulations that may have moderated the housing market collapse. And somehow we’re suppossed to continue accepting McCain’s straight-talk express persona? Come on folks, this is the last straw isn’t it? McCain is a fraud, plain and simple. How soon we forget the Keating 5 scandal that McCain skated through with just a slap on the wrist. This man is a grave danger to the economic health of our country. Let’s not give him the chance.
Are you guys gonna stay this worked up, hyperventilating over the assigned talking point of the day (somebody at Obama’s church; either Phil Gramm or Phil Graham) all the way to November?
Tell me now, because if you are, I’m going to tell Juan Valdez to cut you off. No more coffee for you! to paraphrase the Soup Nazi.
Thanks for the contribution about the civet, though, Randy. I’ll be sure to tell them at Starbucks next time that I DON’T want that variety…
Brad, read my lips: I don’t care about the preacher stuff. I don’t care if Hillary made faux paus reference to Robert Kennedy’s assasination. I don’t care if John McCain committed adultery 30 years ago. I certainly don’t care if Obama mentioned that his uncle helped liberate Auchwitz when in fact his great uncle helped liberate Buchenwald. There are many trivial matters that don’t concern me. But let’s not forget it was this media circus of attention to trivia (for the most part false trivia) that helped kill Al Gore’s election possibilities.
What I do care about is the health of the nation’s economy. And it’s becoming increasingly clear that John McCain is pursuing policies that will continue the failed neo-con agenda of enriching a handful of wealthy individuals at the expense of the rest of us and especially our children’s future. Phil Gramm as a lobbyist for the banking industry represents a huge shift in the direction of economics for the wealthy. He was instrumental in helping craft the diabolical health care proposal that will essentially shut down company provided health insurance. It will be replaced by a horrible tax credit proposal that will help the wealthy while ensuring working class Americans will never have health insurance. These are the same type of schemes the Bush Administration has attempted to foist onto the American people. Thankfully the social security scheme failed. But the perseverance of the mighty big industry lobby lurks in the bushes ready to strike out at unsuspecting Americans at any minute. We must be ever vigilant of this creeping privatization to enrich the wealthy onslaught.
So Brad, I’ll put it to you this way, I deplore all the trivial crap that the press foists on the American electorate, probably even more than you do. But Phil Gramm is a very dangerous man who needs to be exposed for the villian that he is. The fact that John McCain has given this evil man such a prominent position in his campaign speaks volumes about the true intentions of John McCain. Thanks to Randy at least the readers of the Brad Warther Blog have been exposed to the truth. Randy deserves an award.
OOPS, Phil GRAMM!!!! In the words of the great poet, Homer, “DOH!”
I confused his spelling with the Phil of Katherine Graham fame.
Brad, the question is why are you, President of the Grown Ups, not hyperventilating over this economic situation involving a lobbyist possibly crafting economic policy for the next president? McClellan criticized the MSM for such apathy.
You’re point is taken, we should get back to herbs and Sex in the City.
your
Are you guys gonna stay this worked up, hyperventilating over the assigned talking point of the day.
-Brad
His face was impassive, slack, bored: Another crowd, another show. Nothing wrong with that, thought I -– just a professional at work.
But then, I saw the thing that stuck with me: In the last seconds as his introduction reached its climax, he straightened, and turned on a thousand-watt smile as easily and artificially as flipping a switch. He assumed the look of a man who had just, quite unexpectedly, run into a long-lost best friend. Then he stepped into view of the crowd at large, and worked his way, Bill Clinton-like, from the back of the crowd toward the stage -– a man of the people, coming out from among the people -– shaking hands with the humble, grateful enthusiasm of a poor soul who had just won the Irish Sweepstakes.
It was so well done, but so obviously a thing of art, that I was taken aback despite three decades of seeing politicians at work, both on-stage and off.
-Brad (explaining his opinion that John Edwards is a phony)
Since Brad started the mother of all “assigned talking points” he has no room to talk. What flagrant hypocricty.
We should all be scared!! McCain made ANOTHER gaffee about the “war”. Come on Brad, staying the course of blissful ignorance about your boy McCain undermines your “Grown Up” status.
Yeah, Randy, the most popular story from your “ANOTHER gaffee (stet)” link hss a headline that says “Alien Video To Be Revealed” right under the Obama T-shirt ad.
Nothing like an unbiased source in an universe of dweebs.
A universe of dweebs, that is.
Bash the site all you want, you can’t dispute what McCain said. It’s a freakin quote, pm. Explain how his QUOTE has been skewed by the source.
Attacking the source. That’s one of the most popular tools in the neo-con tool box. Anything to avoid actually debating anything on the merits.
I didn’t dispute the quote, Randy. I just see McCain, mistakes and all, as the least damning of the three remaining evils.
I’m sorry I spelled Phil Gramm’s name wrong in a previous post. I remember him from a former presidential campaign.
He once said, “Has anyone ever noticed that we live in the only country in the world where all the poor people are fat?”
He has a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Georgia.
He believes in free markets, so I guess I can see why Obama supporters might think him evil.
During a Senate debate over Social Security, Gramm said, “Most people don’t have the luxury of living to be 80 years old, so it’s hard for me to feel sorry for them.”
So maybe he is a problem for McCain, especially from the New York Times’ point of view.
I hope you can tell I really am trying to tone myself down. The ping-pong is wearisome.
Really, it’s not that I’m a gung-ho McCain guy. It’s just another election in the Twilight Zone to me, where all the candidates seem sub-standard for one reason or another.
I don’t like what I’ve seen of Barack Obama’s world away from the stage with his programmed backdrop of people, I think Hillary Clinton and her husband rewrote the rules on political decorum in a way that means I could never trust either of then, and I don’t think having been a prisoner of war qualifies a man to be president.
Still, McCain seems like the safest bet, because, like it does Gramm and Mark Sanford and a lot of other people, the line “I’m from the government, and I’m here to help you” just rubs me the wrong way.
PM, McCain’s own words reveal how poor and dangerous a possible president he could be. The site of the gaffe link I posted, despite the admitted liberal bias of this site, has two revealing QUOTES from McCain that I find profoundly serious.
1. “It’s been quiet in Mosul” but the day he said this, three suicide bombers in the city killed 30.
2. “We have drawn down to pre-surge levels”. When a reporter disputed this, McCain reasserted this. In fact we have NOT drawn down to that level.
PM, how do you and Brad not find this disturbing?! There are two possible explanations. One, McCain is using propaganda to manipulate the American citizens in supporting the war. Two, McCain really has “lost his bearings”.
In lieu of countering with some an Obama pastor story or demagoguing the media, address this on merit. Were his remarks misstatements? Were they calculated? Were they a result of recklessness or ignorance?
If you are a true conservative, how can you not take great umbrage with McCain’s position on the war? $12B/month spent on the “war” yet our bridge and sewer line infrastructure decays.
I can’t speak for Mr. Warthen, but, as I said above, I find McCain less disturbing than either Obama or Clinton.
But you want me to “address” these questions “on merit”: “Were his (McCain’s) remarks misstatements? Were they calculated? Were they a result of recklessness or ignorance?”
I don’t know, Randy, and I really don’t care. As to the 30 dead in Mosul, well, it’s a war zone. Stuff like that happens.
In fact, in that part of the world, stuff like that happens with stunning regularity in places that aren’t war zones.
As to the troop levels, McCain may have been misinformed, but trusted his source more than the reporter questioning him.
Whatever the case, these aren’t the kind of questions on which an election hangs for me. Philosophical matters and voting tendencies mean more.
Obama fails that test, and he fails the sniff test by association thanks to Wright, Pfleger and that friend of his, the one who bombed the Pentagon — what was his name, Ayers, or was it Ayres?
You see, Randy, the words of Obama’s associates have indicated that he’s not the fellow he portrays himself to be in his speeches. His words are pretty, but the actions of his associates are ugly. His wife’s words have betrayed him, too.
When you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas. Between “white entitlement” accusations and his wife having no pride in America, or between the CIA’s alleged AIDS and drugs plots against black America, there is no room for a president.
Maybe Obama will become mayor of Chicago some day and eventually have a show like Jerry Springer’s so he can graduate from 57 states to 57 channels and nothin’ on. I just don’t want him to be president, because I genuinely fear the unknown part of him that his associates have partially exposed.
PM, McCain’s Mosul comment was specifically directed towards a “war zone” which he claimed was safe. That’s the point of citing his comment, his evaluation of conditions in Iraq was contradicted.
Regarding his ignorance towards troop levels, you answered my question. This as an example of incompetence. He offered an evaluation based on troop levels – his own chosen metric. Think about that! His premise is the “war” is improving based on faulty evidence. Shouldn’t we conclude the war is getting worse using McCain’s own metric?!
If Jim Rex boasted education is better in SC because our drop out rate is lower than last year then we discovered the rate actually increased, you certainly wouldn’t dismiss this with “oops, his source made a simple mistake, oh well”.
Ignorance to conditions in Iraq and the resulting faulty evaluation is certainly not as important as a visiting pastor making fun of Hillary Clinton. I am amused that this is actually the argument you are making.
You keep missing the point, Randy, or ignoring it, concerning the environment Obama’s church offers. Time was, Wright denigrated white people from the pulpit. Now, Pfleger has done the same thing. All the while, the choir said amen, or stomped their feet and laughed in the background
That’s racism, Randy. Overt racism. I don’t want a president who attends an overtly racist church.
No matter what mistakes McCain made in speaking about Iraq, they pale in comparison to a presidential candidate and his family regularly attending a church where hate is preached frequently.
And why you keep calling Pfleger merely a “visiting pastor” I don’t understand. He’s an Obama campaigner, another one of the silver-tongued speaker’s supposed spiritual mentors, more than just a visiting pastor.
p.m. a WAR is not the most important issue? A president who confuses Shia with Sunni in terms of AQ will not affect how we approach WORLD safety? Your bias doesn’t change the fact that a visiting pastor’s jibberish is meaningless when compared to war on TERROR and Iran nukes. This is a Juan Valdez thread, so wake up and smell the coffee brother.
Regarding overt racism, the church has not been shown to be racist. The pastor is the one with issues. You clearly don’t attend a church if you can’t separate the two. As much as I esteem my priest, I know there are parishioners who sharply disagree with him on major issues e.g. pro-life or homosexuality.
This doesn’t even take into account McCain’s extremist pastors who HATE gays and Muslims. Your previous smarmy comment about Christians and Muslims indicates how much you underestimate the danger associated with the Middle East. McCain’s “spiritual advisor” who hates Muslims and wants to reconstitute the Crusades is a much bigger deal that some contrived racism you suggest about Obama. Coffee, brother, smell it.
1) Randy, if you can’t see the church is racist, you need to change your definition set. The argument that the pastor has issues but the congregation doesn’t is lame. The two must be inextricably interlinked. Pfleger told the racist jokes; the congregation howled. Wright accused the CIA of causing the plague; the congregation said amen.
2) Obama has no room to talk about the war, and neither do you, because Obama wants our troops to run away.
3) If, hypothetically, they hate white people at Obama’s church, but they hate Muslims at McCain’s church, and I’m a white Methodist, which candidate would make me feel safer?
4) Don’t talke to me about coffee when you’re the one who needs to wake up.
Every one of these videos and recordings of the racist hate-filled “sermons” at the Church of Obama are to the cheers and dancing of the congregation, where Barak Obama was a member and attended regularly for 20 years. One can only presume that he was dancing with the congregation to the beat of hate.
One tall mocha grande with an extra shot for mcfarland!!
You cite 5 sermons given by Reverend Wright and one by some wannabe visiting priest and you deduce a congregation of thousands is racist!?!? Isn’t the Methodist slogan “Open Minds”?
As far as you feeling safer with extremist Muslims than a supposed black racist church; McCain makes fun of Bomb Bomb Bombing Iranians because they are the threat. The Patriot Act, airport profiling, McCain’s spiritual advisor’s call for a Crusade, Bin Laden and AQ are related to “Muslims”. We aren’t spending $12B/month in Chicago to fight racism, but we are in our fight against MUSLIM extremist. Despite this, some black church in Chicago makes you, a “WHITE Methodist”, more afraid than those we fight in two wars. You and maybe David are the only ones drinking that Kool-aid.
I outgrew the Kool-Aid a long time ago, Randy — the kid kind and the college-kid kind.
Now that Obama has quit this church you hold blameless, will it affect your support for him?
No, of course not, any more than mice would quit the pied piper.
Who said I feel safer with extremist Muslims than black racists? What’s the difference, anyway? One says “God damn America,” the other calls America “the great Satan.” Dang, all we did was teach them how to process their oil. Now they hate us because we’re their best customer, or because they’re dependent on us, or because they’re so caught up in the worship of their leaders they’re like Obama’s dittoheads, who suck up every vapid utterance he twirls off his tongue.
Try to bring your reading comprehension past your blind bias, Randy. I never said I feel safer with Muslims than racists. What I meant was that I have more confidence in our ability to handle the war than I have in Obama to find Illinois on a map, much less function in international relations on our behalf as anything other than a Muslim sypathizer.
There were HUNDREDS of racist sermons by Jeremiah Wright in the 20 years that Obama attended his so-called church.
All of them were recorded.
All of them were distributed to home-bound members.
Many of the tapes survive and have been circulating on the Internet.
Obama has been chosen as the puppet candidate BECAUSE he is a vapid know-nothing who can be trained to speak passionately and say nothing concrete.
“Labradoodles are a cross between the Standard Poodle and Labrador Retriever. Wally Cochran first started this cross breed in Australia in the 1970’s. He was prompted to do this by a blind woman who suffered from allergies to dogs. The first mating between the Standard Poodle and Labrador Retriever was successful and produced three low allergy pups. This provoked a surge of Labradoodle breeders in Australia. But, as the first crosses continued, the results were inconsistent with some of the offspring being…