The Daily Pulse

Swing State Pulse- North Carolina

2008-10-15T17:13:00.000-04:00

I used to write The Daily Pulse, well, daily. I am resurrecting a bit in the lead-up to the election. For those unfamiliar, here's how it works. I pick a group of editorial pages (a state, a region, etc.), then go to the editorial pages. If I'm doing an LTE version I just look at those. Then I do not cherry-pick, but select anything on topic, whether I like it or not, and post it with minimal comment. The idea is pretty simple- we get a better idea what voters are thinking, the "pulse" of the electorate, based upon the editorials and letters in small town papers than in national media.

With no more ado, some North Carolina LTEs ...Citizen Times, Asheville, NC

Ayers today is not the Ayers of the 60s.

GOP is misleading with Ayers-Obama connection

The “controversy” that the McCain campaign is whipping up over Barack Obama’s association with former Weather Underground member William Ayers really has me steamed.

...

I could write a different letter protesting the defamation of Ayers, but Ayers is not the point. The “truth,” as John McCain says, is the point, and the truth is that the man Obama knows works at a public university and is serious about justice and reform.

I once had respect for McCain, but clearly, McCain has come to believe that winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.

Christian values noticeably absent from parties and politics

The basic premise, that we are a Christian nation, is flawed. Even more important, though, is the inane fantasy that Christian is the same as "good," or "moral," implying that anything else is less. All that said, the basic message is not bad, particularly the part about how Jesus would be treated today. Of course, the ultimate absurdity is that the people braying the loudest about a "Christian Nation" are the ones who would treat him as described.

Unless we change things soon, this great nation of ours is in a death spiral and we have no one to blame but ourselves. For a Christian nation it is inconceivable that we have two political parties that have absolutely no Christian values. ...

If Jesus Christ were to run for office today, they would accuse Him of palling around with prostitutes, tax collectors, demented individuals, desecration of religious property, slander, disreputable associates, hanging out with thieves and whatever else they could fabricate or dredge up.

...

The Brunswick Beacon, Shallotte, NC

Responds to Creationism and schools debate

This has nothing to do with the election, other than to give you a taste of the local electorate.

I have never written a letter to the editor before but I felt compelled to respond to the Oct. 9 letter about creationism in school. I am a Christian also and while I see their point of view, I can only say, with all due respect and love, I don’t agree.

...

So you see, God is in control of his word and we are only the messengers.

...

Let’s not expose our precious children to evolution (which in some cases is not being taught as just a theory), and books that encourage witchcraft and casting spells and curse words, without also giving them a small taste of God’s life giving words.

Country could sink from proposals

I have always been fascinated when people allow their dogma to blind them to present reality. In this case, the author blames Obama/Biden and "liberals" for a bail-out proposed by a Republican Administration and supported by both Presidential candidates.

...

The liberals already have the federal government managing your educational system, the environment, food consumption and car manufacturing, and now the financial and mortgaging industries. Next is your medical health. You are too stupid or demented to adequately care for yourselves.

With passage of the “bailout” bill, you have lost a little bit more of your freedom to chose your own destiny. The liberals have taken you one more step down the yellow brick road to atheistic socialism.

...

Why let the Republican legacy continue

All is not lost in Shallotte, North Carolina. See this counterpoint:

With so much talk about the upcoming election, I couldn’t help but wonder why an election is necessary. Consider the following:

...

Republicans have controlled the presidency for 20 of the past 28 years.

...

During six of the eight-year Bush administration, the Republican Party controlled the presidency, the Senate, the House of Representatives and, effectively, the Supreme Court. Why didn’t they overturn Roe vs. Wade or eliminate gun control?

...

The only budget surplus of $200 billion resulted from the “tax and spend” term of Democratic President Bill Clinton.

...

The preceding represents only a small fraction of the record of failures and actions directed toward the elimination of the middle class by Republican administrations. As successful as Republican administrations have been, why would we want to change?

...

The Daily Advance, Elizabeth City, NC

Truth can be a victim of elections

...

When Barack Obama’s opponents misrepresent his faith, are they lying or are they ignorant? When they accuse him of befriending terrorists, are they lying or are they ignorant? When his opponents question his patriotism or the service he has rendered, his community and country, are they showing any concern for the truth or is it once again a “win at all costs” strategy that recognizes no values, save those values that lead to a liar’s victory?

The Daily Reflector, Greenville, NC

Political rally hysteria should be stopped

"“Republicandåmmerung.” Love it.

While chronicling the current White House occupant's first term for an article in the New Yorker magazine, Ron Suskind encountered a senior advisor who chided him for belonging to the “reality based community.” He continued, with hubristic élan, proclaiming “we are an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality.”

So this faith-based administration created its own reality, not only with its go-it-alone foreign policy, but also with zealotry to the myth of the benefits of deregulating the financial industry. Inevitably actual reality intervenes. We are witnessing, in true operatic fashion, actual events that are stripping the faÃ§ade of Republican reality and leaving disaster and ruin in its wake. Call it “Republicandåmmerung.”

...

The Dispatch, Lexington, NC

Issue overrides all others

Single issue voters will always find ways to make their issue THE issue. This entire canard is, of course, absurd. The vote at issue had to do with a bad bill intended to reduce all abortion.

You stated in your editorial on Oct. 10 that our votes should be based on the issues. For me there is ultimately only one issue that trumps all the others. Senator (Barack) Obama has voted to forbid medical care to newborn babies who accidentally survive an abortion .... The name for that is infanticide.

On the other hand, from the same paper ...

Keep religious influence out

I realize the separation of church and state argument has been an intense one lately, but I just have to respond to Mr. Joel Smith. Instead of sighting the reasoning of David Smith (which I agree with), I would like to point out perhaps a different angle to this debate.

...

In a country that is based on freedom of religious choice, the only fair way to govern is to keep religious influence out. The government is not in place to dictate morality. The government is in place to protect and serve its citizens, all of them as fairly as possible.

...

If a person chooses to live their life picking and choosing rules from a religious book, based on nothing but that book, fine, that is their choice. A whole country needs to be governed by more practical means.

The Fayetteville Observer, Fayetteville, NC

NC doesn't need a liberal Senator

North Carolina values? I'm not sure she can find North Carolina on a map.

Elizabeth Dole is the best choice for Senate because she stands up for North Carolina values. ...

This year, we need to send the Washington Democrats a message: Massachusetts, California, and New York already have two liberal senators of their own. North Carolina cannot afford to send them another one like Kay Hagan. We need a senator who represents North Carolina interests and values. We need Elizabeth Dole.

Laurinburg Exchange, Laurinburg, NC

Palin has been repeating a stale old Reagan line, "Government isn't the solution. It's the problem.

Then why would she want to become a part of the government? ... Elect someone who is interested in making government work for all of us. ... "Drill, baby, drill!" No, "Invent, baby, invent!!" The McCain/Palin ticket is the problem, and the Obama/Biden ticket is the solution.

The News Observer, Raleigh, NC

We need a medical bailout

...

Our nation needs a medical bailout plan for those who are unemployed or have no insurance. Even if citizens are able to purchase their own private medical plans, a majority cannot due to pre-existing medical conditions. This means our problems will only get worse in the short and long term because our country is doing nothing about health care.

The News Herald, Morganton, NC

Just think about this for a minute, if you will. McCain says Ayres is Obama's good friend. Obama says Ayres is not his friend. Ergo, Obama is running away from his friend?!

You can tell much about a person's character, or lack thereof, by who their friends are. Sen. Barack Obama keeps trying to distance himself from friends that are anti-American. ...

Richmond County Daily Journal, Rockingham, NC

Christians can't vote for Obama

I'm a "natural man."

The most recent polls show Barack Obama up over John McCain by 11 percentage points. I think I can safely say the majority of these poling in favor of Barack Obama are what the Christian Bible calls “natural men.” ...

The Spirit of God says abortion is murder. He also says that homosexuality is an abomination. The Democratic platform embraces both abortion and the gay position. ...

Barack Obama is the most liberal Democrat in Congress. He supports fully this platform. If he is elected President, it won’t be by Christians. It will be by the natural men who do not know God, who are Christian in name only.

The Watauga Democrat, Boone, NC

Rise above partisanship

Many citizens have lost hope and are so disgusted with government corruption they’ve decided not vote.

...

Sarah Palin being selected for his VP is the final insult to womankind’s struggle for equal rights and equal pay.

...

She may be gutsy but no one has accused her of being intelligent. She could not prioritize the issues facing our country much less help solve them.

...

Our country must have a problem solver of the highest caliber to get us back on track.

Obama has the intelligence, integrity, humility and credibility to bring our county back to health.

...

Please rise above partisanship and single issues to elect a leader who will bring intelligence, dignity, integrity and honesty back to the office.

We must do it for our children’s sake.

Wilmongton Star News

Feel-good, not facts

It's all Oprah's fault.

Oprah has finally done it. The meteoric rise of a frighteningly unqualified candidate is now poised to become the next POTUS.

...

How else to explain the monstrous apathy towards Barack Obama's associations, from Bill Ayers to the Rev. Wright to Tony Rezko, if not our complicit willingness to feel good about ourselves? Facts don't matter when there's a full moon of empty, vacuous rhetoric and the emotional tide is rising.

Oprah is triumphant. But what the hell, it's just one more reality show that doesn't really affect our lives. And besides, we can really feel good about ourselves.

Scare tactics

The country needs something more from a would-be president than scare tactics. Real leaders try to show us the way forward by bridging differences and creating unity. They don't try to divide us.

...

If you doubt that this is clear racial code, consider the reaction at one of her recent events in Florida. According to the Washington Post, as Palin gave her standard attack speech, a man in the audience screamed, "Kill him!" Others began shouting epithets at the African-American members of a TV crew.

Is this the sort of presidency that McCain is offering us - one of hatred and division? I want no part of it. You shouldn't, either.

Battlegrounds in Battleground States

2008-10-08T13:33:00.000-04:00

We have all heard of "Battleground States." However, there really are no "Battleground States." There are, instead, battlegrounds within states. Today The Daily Pulse looks at editorial pages from the most hotly contested regions of the country, Florida's "I-4 Corridor," Ohio's "C," and Denver, Colorado. I will try to get to Pennsylvania, Nevada, New Mexico and the rest another time.Florida, the "I-4 Corridor"

Florida isn't a battleground state. North of Gainesville, it is Republican. Southeast of Lakeland it is Democratic. Southwest of Lakeland it is Republican. The real fight is not across the state, but across the swath I-4 cuts across the middle of the State, from Tampa/St. Pete (and Sarasota) on the Gulf Coast to Daytona Beach and Cocoa Beach on the Atlantic. Let us look, then, at what the I-4 corridor has to say about the election and last night's debate:

Old rhetoric, little comfort, St. Petersburg Times

I am not sure this is a valid criticism, that all the debate offered was sound bites. It is true, but that was the format. And with Tom Brokay chastising Obama every time either candidate went over in time, what was there to do but drop a sound bit and keep moving?

On a day when the Dow lost more than 500 points and closed at its lowest point in five years, the presidential candidates sounded oddly out of touch with reality. ...

McCain recklessly floats unfocused big ideas and leaves them hanging in the air without explanation. ... That sounds desperate coming from a politician who argues against big government and only recently embraced more government regulation of financial markets. It offers false hope to Americans when Congress would not even allow bankruptcy judges last week to alter mortgage terms for homeowners facing foreclosure.

Obama sounded more realistic at several points. ... At least Obama recognized "we are going to have to prioritize" and listed energy policy as his top goal, followed by health care.

...

Voters are desperate for candor about the economic crisis and a vision recognizing the challenges ahead. Obama won the debate on points, but we are still waiting for more clarity and fewer sound bites from both candidates.

some letters from the Sarasota Herald Tribune

I confess, I love it when Republican BS gets flung back at them, so when a teacher writes "think of the children" and zings the elephants, well, I smile.

GOP 'low road' has students talking

... On Monday, a number of my students, both former and current, asked me about the campaign ads and rallies held by the McCain-Palin ticket.

The students asked questions like: "Why are they calling Obama a terrorist?", "Can the person shouting 'Kill him!' be arrested for making a death threat?" and "Why didn't McCain or Palin say 'Stop, those chants are wrong!' to his supporters?"

...

As a result of my conversations Monday, I'd like to ask this of all the candidates running for political office: Before you run your slanderous ads or make inflammatory statements to invigorate a crowd at a rally, think about the impact your words and actions will have on the youth of this country, instead of the few votes you might win. After the discussions I had Monday, these ads and actions will not win my vote ever again!

Okay folks, try to read this without laughing out loud. Palin's communication skills are "clearly on a par with Barack Obama's"?!!? Giuiliani was "a noun, a verb, and 9/11." Palin is a noun, another noun, an adverb, and a wink.

Palin shows she has the skill to lead

...

Her communication skills are clearly on a par with Barack Obama's. She outshines the three other candidates in demonstrating her ability to work through complex issues. As a governor, she not only worked through complex issues but also implemented those decisions once made. The difference between voting for something and having to lead the implementation of that something is huge. Her value system is clear by her actions.

There is a saying: What you do shouts at me so loudly that I cannot hear what you say. Apply that test to the other candidates, and see where they fall.

Shouting past U.S. concerns, Daytona Beach News Journal

This, in microcosm, is everything good and everything bad about modern media. The good- it calls out the McCain/Palin attacks on Ayers and Wright as "thinly veild bigotry." The bad- then feeling the need to also call out Obama on the Keating Five, which is (a) not bigotry, (b) not guilt by association but by actual action, and (c) actually relevant, particularly to the present economic crisis.

We don't know who will be elected president. We do know that on Jan. 20, and barring unforeseen calamities, either Barack Obama or John McCain will be inaugurated in an economic climate not as cold as it was in 1933, but worse than it's been for any inauguration since.

...

With all that, what were the McCain and Obama campaigns talking about this week? An orgy of diversions, shaming both candidates into corners of irrelevance.

McCain was ominously asking about "the real Barack Obama." ...

It's a concerted effort at thinly veiled bigotry. Just as offensive: It snubs the most important question of the day, thus snubbing the electorate's biggest concern. It's not Obama's youthful past. It's the country's future. What's John McCain's plan for the economy besides cutting taxes and "waste"? No answer.

Obama hasn't taken the slanders quietly. Nor has he taken the high road in response. His campaign took out of its holster a quarter-hour video it had been saving for a moment just like this, of McCain's part, as a senator in 1987 and during the first Bush administration, with the Keating Five. ...

But that's two-decade-old history. What's Obama's plan for the economy come Jan. 20? Promising more regulations of the markets is fine, but that won't prevent people about to be foreclosed from losing their homes. It won't end job losses. It won't reverse the economy's slide into a severe recession.

...

Letters from The Lakeland Ledger

I think this is a great letter. Why? Well, he agrees with me, that's why.

The Smart Candidate

We elected George W. Bush two times, he often pointed out that he was not a good student and passed with little better than a C average. He liked to point out how well he, as a poor student, had done.

...

McCain, like Bush, was a poor student, and neither was accused of being an intellectual or even smart. Well, we've had almost eight years of Bush and there are many disasters (foreign and domestic policy to start), which will be his legacy.

...

Obama may not be able to deliver all the changes he has proposed, but with our support he can at least allow us to have hope for a better America tomorrow. Please vote for the candidate with the character and intelligence (the smart candidate) we need, vote for Obama.

This writer is disappointed Palin isn't at the top of the ticket, instead of Obama, Biden, or McCain, 'three liberal peas in a pod.'

Sarah Palin Tops

...

As for Sarah Palin, here are the cold, hard facts. Barrack Obama, Biden and John McCain are three peas in a pod. All three are liberals and, when it comes down to brass tacks, their beliefs vary by only about 17 percent.

Sarah Palin is the real deal. Granted, she is not running for president (what a shame). Of the four, she is the only one who knows what it is to be "an average American." The other three are professional politicians. Sarah Palin is an average American citizen who understands what most of us (regardless of party) want.

...

I'd rather see a winning ticket with Sarah Palin on it than anyone else.

Ohio, the other great "Battleground State" is not really at issue statewide, either. Real Clear Politics has a great rundown of what is, and what is not competitive in Ohio:

First, Ohio's mid-sized cities are in the political center. The purple counties in the northwest are near Toledo (in Lucas County). Dayton is in Montgomery County, another purple county. Ditto for Springfield, in Clark County, and Canton, in Stark County.

Second, there are lots of swing counties in the south. We noted last week that Democrats tend to win when they form an inverted "C" on the map - winning the counties along Lake Erie, the Ohio-Pennsylvania border, and the Ohio River. However, such a pattern is not a guarantee. While the eastern border is generally reliable territory for Democrats, the southern border is not.

With that in mind, let's look at the battleground within Ohio:

Mixed messages sent about experience, Ironton Tribune

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU. Finally, somebody points out that "experience" can actually mean doing the wrong thing repeatedly for a very long time. We should care about competence, not experience.

As the presidential campaigns have heated up, Republicans and Democrats have been wielding the proverbial weapon of experience as if it was a tangible blade, but neither want to admit that it is a double-edged sword.

...

So savvy political enthusiasts are quick to pick up on the fact that the campaign is trying to use slight of hand on the voters by saying “Look, John McCain’s experience is important. ... Oh, don’t worry about Sarah Palin’s experience, she knows what she is doing.”

But don’t think this double standard is just on that side of the aisle. The Democrats are in just about the same boat.

...

If you’re looking for an endorsement here for either candidate you won’t find one. I just wonder if both sides are focusing too deeply at experience and losing focus on other qualities.

After all, sometimes years of experience don’t mean much when the results are only so-so. Experience can sometimes translate to a “that’s the way we have always done it” mentality that can stunt progress.

When it comes to experience more can equal better. Or it can equal stagnation.

I’ll take quality over quantity any day. Now it is left to voters to find out which candidate’s experience — or maybe even lack thereof — adds up to success for our nation.

A blog entry from the Chillicothe Gazette

Sarah Palin was brought in (a) to rile up the base, and (b) to appeal to women voters. She's doing (a). Her performance during the debate, particularly at the end, completely screwed her on (b).

I have never been more angry than when Sarah Palin showed just how heartless she truly is.

Joe Biden talked about his trials as a single father raising 2 sons after their mother was killed (yes Sarah you don't own the corner on being a parent) and understanding just where people are when he mentioned not knowing whether his 2 sons would live. Decades later he still tears up just thinking about it. Does Sarah Palin even blink or say anything compassionate after that. No she just goes back on the attack. She is truly the coldest person I have ever seen.

Contrary to your opinion Sarah you are not the only parent in the world and you can't ride into the White House based on you being a Hocky Mom. I am a Baseball Mom and a Football Mom. It doesn't qualify me to be VP.

The hypocrisy of modern-day Republicans, Xenia Gazette

Ouch.

...

Let’s go back a little. Before his tour of duty in Vietnam, McCain married a model from Philadelphia named Carol Shepp. ...

After his return from Vietnam, and while still married to Carol, McCain was promoted to Squadron Commander. In this role he used his authority to arrange flights that allowed him to carouse with subordinates and engage in extra-marital affairs. Such behavior was a violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice rules against adultery and fraternization with subordinates.

In 1979, at a military reception in Honolulu, McCain met Cindy Hensley, an attractive 25-year-old woman from a very wealthy and politically-connected Arizona family. ...

McCain then began an affair with Cindy. He later dumped his crippled wife. He filed for divorce from Carol in 1980, stating in court records that the marriage was "irretrievably broken." A month after the divorce, he married Cindy—his current wife.

...

I do not condemn Edwards or McCain for their infidelities. They are both human. The sin that is more deserving of condemnation is the sanctimonious hypocrisy of modern-day Republican leaders. In the “Inferno,” Dante consigned hypocrites to the next to lowest circle of Hell, the Eighth. ...

Colorado

Boulder goes left, Colrado Springs goes right, Denver splits down the middle. Add an increasing Hispanic population and you understand where the "battle" in "Battleground Colorado" will be fought. Here is a map from RealClear Politics (with a bonus 1940 map):

Round 2: no decision, Rocky Mountain News

The verdit on the second debate was, in a word, "boring." Given that McCain needed to shake things up and Obama just to avoid a mistake, another word is "victory."

Was it just us, or did the second presidential debate seem to slow to a crawl about halfway through and become a surprisingly tedious slog to the finish?

...

Part of the problem, certainly, is that there really isn't much more to discover about these two men after months and months of listening to them campaign. In addition, there was Tom Brokaw's unfortunate choice of questions: For example, did we really have to hear the candidates uncork nearly the identical spiels on several foreign policy issues that they'd offered in their first debate not two weeks ago, such as whether the United States should attack al-Qaida enclaves in Pakistan?

...

Predictably, Brokaw sought to condense their views into a simplistic description of health care as a privilege, right or responsibility. Obama chose right; McCain responsibility. Those choices may please their political bases, but they're a hopelessly vague guidepost for any reform to come.

We'd be surprised if the second debate moves the polling needle much. It was too full of responses the politically aware public already knows. But that offers a clue to the architects of the third and final debate: Expand the topics and give the candidates some new ground to plow.

Campos: McCain's Extremist, Rocky Mountain News

Henry Kissinger, terrorist.

...

As the presidential race enters the final month, an increasingly desperate John McCain is turning to the same culture war tactics that have served the Republican Party so well for the past generation.

...

Ayers has been characterized as an unrepentant terrorist by McCain and his running mate Sarah Palin. At a campaign rally earlier this week Palin accused Obama of "launching his campaign inside the living room of a domestic terrorist."

In fact, Obama doesn't appear to have met Ayers at any time in the past six years. When Obama was running for the Illinois legislature in 1995, Ayers hosted a fundraiser for Obama at his house, and they later served on the board of a community anti-poverty group. Obama claims, quite plausibly, that when he met Ayers he was unaware of Ayers' radical past.

...

Here's a name I'm sure Obama, McCain, Palin and everyone interested in politics is very familiar with: Henry Kissinger.

Indeed, Kissinger is honorary co-chair of McCain's New York campaign, and a foreign policy adviser to McCain himself.

And here's a very simple question that almost no one in the media seems to ask: If we're going to make the crimes of the radical left in the 1960s and 1970s a campaign issue - a time period much of which Barack Obama spent in elementary school - then how about the crimes of the radical right?

...

Kissinger appears to have had every bit as much contempt for the law as Ayers, with the difference being that his brand of contempt led to millions of deaths.

Is it over? Thank God. Denver Post

I wonder how many fiscal conservatives McCain lost, how many will just stay home, after his proposal to nationalize the housing industry?

Like the first debate, judging on style alone, it seemed to me that Barack Obama and John McCain tied. And a draw is a huge loss for the Republican. In fact, it was worse. McCain probably turned off the entire fiscal conservative base tonight, as well. Obama, on the other hand, is steadily improving his nuance on foreign policy. On domestic policy, he’s already at the point where he can make the twin disasters of socialized medicine and collectivized energy policy sound like pumpkin pie.

There were three main areas I noticed. Two as a proponent of free markets and one as an unbiased observer.

...

Two: I did hear one thing that was deeply disconcerting: Did the theoretical Republican candidate actually propose the U.S. Treasury buy up all bad mortgages in the entire nation and re-negotiate them? I hope McCain was simply unable to articulate a more complex position, because it sounded a lot like a comprehensive nationalization of the entire industry, a plan that would almost certainly cost hundreds of billions of additional tax dollars. If you’re going to out-Democrat the Democrats why run for office? Actually, I’ve been asking that very question about McCain since early in the primary season.

...

The Bail Out Edition

2008-09-25T13:48:00.000-04:00

Some might remember The Daily Pulse, a regular column I used to write, rounding up editorial content from around the country and around the world. Now I resurrect it once in a while, when it seems like a good time to look around a bit. This is one of those times.

Today The Daily Pulse takes a trip around America's editorial pages and finds the only issue on the table is the bail out plan. A few papers also touched on McCain's "suspension" of his campaign. Expect more of that tomorrow, as smaller editorial pages tend to run a day behind the news pages.

Odessa, Texas

I have yet to see an editorial page in favor of giving Paulson power that amounts to what this paper so aptly describes as "economic dictatorship."

If there’s a bailout, give some details

For Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke to call for something so drastic as to ask Congress for $700 billion to buy up bad loans from investment banks and others, inserting the federal government into the financial markets in a massive and unprecedented fashion, we suspect they must have believed that the consequences of not acting dramatically would be much worse than the predictable consequences of this bailout.

...

The problem is that administration officials haven't really shared with the rest of us, who will be expected to pay the bills, just what the shape of the cataclysm was. ...

...

That is a simply breathtaking grant of power, more suited to an economic dictatorship than to a constitutional government characterized by checks and balances. This provision has been questioned by people in Congress in both parties, as it should have been, and will presumably not make the final cut. It certainly should not.

...

Des Moines, Iowa

Acting efficiently is not always the same thing as acting quickly. Yes, this paper notes, there is a crisis. But, it goes on, we will be paying for this for decades, so take more than moments to get it right.

Nail down oversight, then approve bailout

"Our entire economy is in danger," President Bush told the American people Wednesday night in making the case for a taxpayer bailout of Wall Street estimated to cost $700 billion.

...

Lawmakers know they have to act quickly. But that can't mean acting irresponsibly.

Therefore, Congress must ensure:

- Adequate oversight

...

- The plan can be paid for

...

- Fat cats aren't rewarded

...

Congress is faced with the huge task of stabilizing American markets as quickly as possible.

But as one Republican lawmaker said: "Just because God made the world in seven days does not mean we have to pass this bill in seven days."

Especially not if the repercussions of such a bill are going to haunt the American people for years to come.

Lufkin, Texas

One gleam of silver lining in this whole debacle is the observation that bipartisanship really is possible in the face of crisis (let's see how long that lasts now that McCain has turned it into yet more Presidential politics). The people who got us into this mess, the paper goes on, should not profit from what it takes to get us out. Amen.

Bailout: Washington can't afford to rush this process

One of the most interesting phenomenons of the economic turmoil on Wall Street and in Washington is that no matter what line of action is discussed, the debate is rarely splitting on partisan lines. What a shame that it takes such a sorry state of affairs to get people focused on issues rather than labels.

...

This sorry episode in America's economic history is one that was abetted by lax regulation and individual greed. To tap in to public resources — essentially the average American's wallet — in an effort to right the wrongs of a generation should require some acquiescence on the part of the people who, in the long run, stand to gain the most from the bailout.

...

In the next few days, the leadership of the administration and of Congress will be sorely tested. Both branches need to show Americans that they can work together to expeditiously, but cautiously craft an historic bailout plan that could shape our nation's global role for decades.

Boston, Mass

This paper, the Boston Herald, not the Boston Globe, applauds McCain's move, saying it sounds the right note. And what note is that?

RETREAT!

It’s not too late for bipartisanship

For more than a week the financial crisis has sent Wall Street into a panic, made world markets wacky and ordinary people just plain scared. Even within weeks of a presidential election, it’s the financial meltdown that has simply sucked the oxygen out of the room.

And throughout this crisis, when the nation needed to hear the calm and resolute voice of its commander in chief, President Bush has done what he made the mistake of doing after Hurricane Katrina. He has hovered in Air Force One, thousands of feet above the devastation. ...

So last night Bush addressed the nation - finally - in an attempt to rally his own party members as to offer some measure of reassurance to the American people.

It was, however, Republican presidential contender John McCain who succeeded in preempting Bush with his own call for a hiatus in the political campaign - and a postponement of Friday night’s scheduled debate - while the nation’s elected leaders hash out an agreement.

And that is exactly the right thing to do.

...

It is precisely the right note to sound and the right strategy to pursue.

Richmond, Indiana

A different message comes from Indiana, where the paper concludes that the last thing we want to do is allow a crisis, even a big one, interrupt the democratic process that makes us what we are. Their message?

Averting panic in all things, even a bailout

The case can be made that hasty action and costly decisions is what helped get this nation into its current financial mess.

Now we are being told that we need to act hastily and in a most costly way to achieve rescue.

...

Then there's the question of democratic processes, which ought not be circumvented, even in crisis. Especially in crisis. Consensus building can be a slower, difficult process, but it remains best suited to achieving the best answers for a bad situation.

Wednesday's announcement by GOP presidential candidate John McCain that Friday's presidential debate be suspended because of the financial crisis is a terrible proposal, part of the panic and thereby part of the problem. Democratic Party nominee Barack Obama comes across as the more presidential of the two in saying the long-planned debate should go forward.

We agree.

...

The world is watching anew for this nation's reassurances that it neither hurries nor suspends democratic process and decision-making in trying times, even where the choice is narrowly and distastefully between bad and catastrophic.

The Daily Pulse- Special Palin Edition

2008-08-31T10:10:00.000-04:00

Some might remember The Daily Pulse, a regular column I used to write, rounding up editorial content from around the country and around the world. Now I resurrect it once in a while, when it seems like a good time to look around a bit. This is one of those times.

Today The Daily Pulse looks at editorial pages around the country to see what they think of the Palin selection. I can summarize it pretty easily. On the left, it is seen as an unmitigated disaster. On the right, well, it is either brilliant or they are better at issuing opinions in lock-step than on the left.Courier-Journal, Louisville, Kentucky

Is McCain even taking this seriously? McCain is 72 years old, and a cancer survivor. This editorial seems to think McCain failed to consider the real ramifications of such an inexperienced VP, not as a candidate, but in the actual position.

Governor who?

Count us among those who are baffled by the selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to run for vice president.

Sen. John McCain celebrated his 72nd birthday yesterday and is a cancer survivor. The most important factor in selecting a vice presidential candidate is fitness to assume the presidency -- a more pressing concern than usual in Sen. McCain's case.

And so he opens the envelope yesterday and announces that the winner is -- a small-state governor with about a year and a half in office?

...

But Gov. Palin's selection occurred at a time when the country faces severe challenges at home and abroad. Let's hope that Sen. McCain is taking all of this seriously.

Rocky Mountain News, Denver, Colorado

According to the Rocky Mountain News, her inexperience is GOOD for McCain (isn't everything good for McCain?), because she's number two on the ticket and Obama is on the top. Also, now they are both "mavericks," and that's great. Isn't it?

Has John McCain given away his advantage of experience over Barack Obama by selecting Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate?

To some extent, absolutely. Palin is even slightly more inexperienced than Obama. Any Republicans who claim that two years as governor of Alaska and several years in the Wasilla town government, including as its mayor, is the ideal preparation to succeed the president may fool themselves if they like, but they're not going to sway many others.

But that's not to say the experience gap has been bridged entirely. By no means. Each party's ticket now includes one person with little foreign policy or military expertise. In the Democrats' case, however, the person with these deficiencies would be making the critical calls in the Oval Office.

"Not ready to be No. 1" is a far more powerful argument than "not ready to be No. 1's replacement."

...

The Republican ticket now boasts two mavericks willing to poke the political establishment in the eye when they feel like it. That's an attractive message at a moment when voters appear so utterly disenchanted with the status quo.

...

The Cincinnati Inquirer, Cincinnati, Ohio

Okay, she's grossly inexperienced, so let's not talk about experience any more.

Pick of Palin breaks another bar

John McCain changed the game Friday when he picked Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his running mate. The United States will have either an African-American president or a female vice president. The bars are torn down; the ceiling not just cracked, but completely removed.

...

It is ironic that McCain, who has said much about Obama's relative lack of experience, would pick a running mate as new to the stage as Palin. The McCain camp argues that Palin's government experience is as an executive, rather than a legislator. True enough, but her executive experience is two terms as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska (pop. 5,470), and two years as governor of a state with a population that is smaller (670,053) than Hamilton County's (845,303).

The fact is, the "debate" on experience has become a superficial talking point. We would prefer the campaigns dig deeper into the substance of what candidates want to do in the future.

The Oregonian, Portland, Oregon

Palin for VP: pandering at its best

Hey dummy, we vote for people, not genitalia.

How dumb does John McCain think women are?

The Arizona senator picked Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his GOP running mate on Friday. She is flatly unqualified to be vice president. Her beliefs on abortion would offend any woman to the left of Clarence Thomas.

Yet McCain seems to believe that millions of women voters will coo indiscriminately over any female candidate who comes along. He wants disappointed Hillary supporters to stampede to his side, followed by all other women who are enthralled by Palin's life story.

This miscalculation could -- and should -- cost McCain the election.

...

There's no question, it's thrilling to have a woman in the race again. (I say that as an Obama supporter.) There's no question some women will vote for McCain entirely because of Palin's gender. I'm sure the media will ferret all 27 of them out and make them seem like a mass movement.

But are women -- particularly moderate pro-choice women -- really as impressionable as McCain hopes? Will they support any woman, at any price, just because it would be soooo exciting to get one step closer to the Oval Office?

No way, no how.

Scratch that. I hope not.

St. Petersburg Times, St. Petersburg, Florida

Experience is off the table, no now it's all about ovaries.

John McCain can forget about trying to make a campaign issue out of Barack Obama's relatively thin foreign policy resume. In an effort to blunt Obama's postconvention momentum, McCain made history Friday by choosing Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate, the first woman to be nominated for vice president by the GOP. It is a risky move that stunned even some party leaders who fear that voters will have trouble imagining the former beauty queen as commander in chief, if it should ever come to that.

...

McCain is betting the farm on gender. He is gambling that his choice will appeal to women voters, particularly disaffected Hillary Clinton supporters, and create an air of excitement at this week's Republican National Convention in St. Paul. But party leaders are concerned that the choice of Palin could complicate McCain's central attack line against his Democratic opponent — Obama's lack of experience on national security issues.

...

Richmond Times-Dispatch, Richmond, Virginia

Palin is not ready to be President. She is therefore not ready to be Vice President either.

History -- II

Yesterday John McCain made history, too, by naming the first woman to a national GOP ticket. Twenty-four years after Democrats nominated Geraldine Ferraro, Republicans will nominate Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. Yesterday Ferraro praised the choice.

McCain did the predictable by doing the unpredictable (or maybe it was the other way around). The precedent-shattering nature of the 2008 campaign compelled him to take a twist. The speculation leading to the Palin announcement proved more frenzied -- and more ridiculous -- than the frenzy over the Democratic veepstakes.

...

On Monday we praised Obama for selecting someone capable of stepping into the Oval Office from day one. Palin may be just as capable, but we cannot with certainty -- or in good conscience -- say so. The next few days will resemble a crucible.

The Dallas Morning News, Dallas, Texas

This was incredibly risky. On the other hand, the choice of Palin is going to make the next ten weeks entertaining.

Palin is a bold, risky pick

You have to hand it to John McCain: That was one bold choice. But was it a good one?

...

This is the person Mr. McCain, 72, would install a heartbeat away from the presidency. The Palin pick means the Republicans have ceded the high ground on the experience issue.

...

Alluding to the high stakes in her selection, Ms. Palin said yesterday, "A ship in harbor is safe – but that's not why the ship is built." The maverick John McCain has chosen a "damn the torpedoes" gambit. It's going to be an interesting 10 weeks.

The News Tribune, Tacoma, Washington

The Palin selection reflects less on Palin than on McCain's judgment, and that is not looking so good right now.

Sarah Palin: Big blunder or brillliant stroke?

Sen. John McCain is either a shrewd judge of fresh political talent or a riverboat gambler who likes long odds. We’ll probably know one way or the other in a few weeks.

...

If that’s ample experience for national leadership, Republicans will have to shut up about Barack Oba- ma’s scant four years in the Senate.

...

The big question is, does someone with Palin’s skimpy credentials belong on any presidential ticket?

...

McCain has put his own judgment under a microscope with this risky choice. If Palin turns out to be a female Quayle, McCain will have committed a stunning blunder. But if she comes across as a smart, skilled, ready-for-prime-time leader, she could help draw centrist Clinton supporters who may already be tempted to vote Republican.

...

Lexington Herald-Leader, Lexington, Kentucky

Sarah Palin is Ronald Reagan and Rambo. With a vagina.

Perfect complement for McCain

Let's face it. John McCain's a loner with a stern, "it's-a-dangerous-world" message and fairly cold eyes. He isn't charismatic. And no one can accuse him of being a sunny guy. In fact, he's better known for his short, hot temper. So how's McCain going to overcome America's infatuation with Barack Obama — a man who has bewitched voters with his smile, enchanted youth with the novelty of his candidacy and lured war-weary Americans with his message of "change" and promises of free, universal everything?

The answer is clear. McCain needs Alaska's Gov. Sarah Palin, who will connect with voters as an authentic American folk hero.

...

Come to think of it, she might actually be able to hunt down Osama bin Laden. And America has loved hunters and deer slayers since at least 1823, when James Fenimore Cooper gave America its first universally accepted folk hero, the Deerslayer, in The Pioneers.

And then, there's the obvious fact that she's a woman. If McCain was going to pull from the Democratic middle-age female base that fueled Hillary Rodham Clinton's candidacy, he needed to look beyond the white male.

...

Her video clips remind you of Reagan's optimism. Her down-to-earth manner exudes the hope that Republicans need to win. We can almost imagine her on the cover of People magazine with her family gathered around her and her gun rack in the background.

Palin is the perfect complement for McCain and the perfect antidote to Obama.

Nanette Everson is a former White House counsel.

The Daily Pulse- the Middle East and an exchange

2008-07-17T11:45:00.000-04:00

Some might remember The Daily Pulse, a regular column I used to write, rounding up editorial content from around the country and around the world. Now I resurrect it once in a while, when it seems like a good time to look around a bit. This is one of those times.

Yesterday Isreal and Lebanon had an exchange. Israel received the bodies of two of its soldiers, and Lebanon received bodies and prisoners, including Samir Qintar. Israel received the bodies with great mourning. Lebanon, and particulary Hizbullah, received Qintar and others with great celebration. Who is Samir Kuntar, and what does each nation's reaction tell us about the ongoing dispute in the Middle East?

Today's Daily Pulse will be a bit different, as it will include front page content as well as editorials. I am limited to English-language papers, so probably miss a lot. Sorry, it's the best I can do.First, who is Samir Kuntar? It is crucially imporant to understand this before reading further.

Kuntar's name is all but unknown to the world. But I know it well. Because almost a quarter of a century ago, Kuntar murdered my family.

...

It had been a peaceful Sabbath day. My husband, Danny, and I had picnicked with our little girls, Einat, 4, and Yael, 2, on the beach not far from our home in Nahariya, a city on the northern coast of Israel, about six miles south of the Lebanese border. Around midnight, we were asleep in our apartment when four terrorists, sent by Abu Abbas from Lebanon, landed in a rubber boat on the beach two blocks away. Gunfire and exploding grenades awakened us as the terrorists burst into our building.

...

Outside, we could hear the men storming about. Desperately, we sought to hide. Danny helped our neighbor climb into a crawl space above our bedroom; I went in behind her with Yael in my arms. Then Danny grabbed Einat and was dashing out the front door to take refuge in an underground shelter when the terrorists came crashing into our flat. They held Danny and Einat while they searched for me and Yael, knowing there were more people in the apartment. I will never forget the joy and the hatred in their voices as they swaggered about hunting for us, firing their guns and throwing grenades. I knew that if Yael cried out, the terrorists would toss a grenade into the crawl space and we would be killed. So I kept my hand over her mouth, hoping she could breathe. As I lay there, I remembered my mother telling me how she had hidden from the Nazis during the Holocaust. "This is just like what happened to my mother," I thought.

As police began to arrive, the terrorists took Danny and Einat down to the beach. There, according to eyewitnesses, one of them shot Danny in front of Einat so that his death would be the last sight she would ever see. Then he smashed my little girl's skull in against a rock with his rifle butt. That terrorist was Samir Kuntar.

By the time we were rescued from the crawl space, hours later, Yael, too, was dead. In trying to save all our lives, I had smothered her.

Einat was 4 years old. Yael was 2 years old.

One of the bodies returned was that of Dalal al-Mughrabi, the leader of the "Coastal Road Massacre." Never heard of it? Let me help. From Wikipedia:

On the morning of March 11, 1978, Dalal Mughrabi and her Palestinian Fedayeen unit of eleven members (including one other woman) landed by Zodiac boats on a beach near Ma'agan Michael north of Tel Aviv, having departed from Lebanon. They killed Gail Ruban (some sources spell Rubin), an American photographer who was taking nature photographs nearby, and then hijacked a bus full of Egged bus drivers and their families on a day outing, on the Coastal Highway.

While driving, Mughrabi and her unit opened fire at the vehicles in the vicinity. An Israeli army unit, headed by Ehud Barak (who, in the 1990s, became Chief of the General Staff and later Israeli Prime Minister) pursued the bus until it was finally stopped near Herzliya. A long shooting battle between the Palestinians and the soldiers ensued. The Palestinians started shooting the passengers that attempted to escape. Eventually, the Fatah members blew up the bus which became a large deathtrap of fire. The attack left thirty five civilians, thirteen of them children, and six Palestinian guerillas killed (38 by some sources) and seventy-one civilians wounded. There is lack of certainty over the fates of all the Palestinian attackers. Extensive searches were undertaken in the Gush Dan area for additional attackers, but they weren't found and were likely killed. Some claim that 2 Palestinians, designated terrorists, were arrested by Israel.[citation needed] Mughrabi's leadership role in the attack marked the emergence of women as full-fledged members of militant movements.

The Palestinian Authority named a Hebron girls' school in honor of Mughrabi. Her name has also been given to summer camps and both police and military courses.

Okay, so how did the Middle East respond to the exchange? Perhaps the naming of a school and summer camps after Mughrabi should give you a hint of what is to come.

From The Gulf Today, in Dubai:

Heros Thunder Back

Five Lebanese prisoners freed on Wednesday by the Israeli authorities, among them was Samir Kantar, crossed into Lebanon, a Hizbollah official said.

"The prisoners are now on Lebanese territory," the official said.

The prisoners were brought across the border in a convoy of four International Committee of the Red Cross vehicles.

Kantar and the other four -- Khaled Zidan, Maher Kurani, Mohammed Sarur and Hussein Suleiman -- were the last remaining Lebanese prisoners in Israeli custody.

Kantar was released after 29 years.

They were released in exchange for the bodies of two Israeli soldiers, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, captured on July 12, 2006.

Earlier in the day, Hizbollah handed over two black coffins containing the bodies of two Israeli soldiers.

...

and here is an editorial from the same paper. Please note, "the Bride of Palestine" to whom they refer is Mughrabi:

Ill-founded belief, misguided approach

YET another chapter in the long-running Arab-Israeli conflict was closed on Wednesday with Lebanon's Hizbollah handing over the bodies of two Israeli soldiers whose capture by its fighters two years ago had sparked a devastating 34-day war.

In return for the bodies of the two soldiers, Israel is handing over the remains of 199 Palestinian and Lebanese fighters and the five remaining Lebanese prisoners in its custody, including Samir Kantar who is the longest serving Arab prisoner behind Israeli bars. Among the remains that Israel handed over through the International Red Cross was the body of a 20-year-old Palestinian girl who was killed during a daring command attack in Israel in 1978 and who is known to her compatriots as "the bride of Palestine."

Predictably, critics in Israel are lamenting that the exchange deal gave a massive boost to Hizbollah, which will use it to promote itself as the most effective Arab group countering the Jewish state. To be sure, Hizbollah, which successfully withstood the Israeli war against them two years ago, is doing exactly that. And no one could deny the group the right to celebrate what it considers as a great victory.

...

It is time for Israel to reflect. Its stubborn refusal to accept fairness and justice as the basis for any peace settlement with the Arabs and its arrogant belief in military power as the solution to all its problems are at the roots of the regional problem and also the reason for the absence of the sense of "security" for the people of Israel.

Did you notice anything missing from the story or the editorial? There was no description of the acts of Kuntar or Mughrabi, no mention that the first beat a four year old girl to death, or that the second murdered unarmed civilians on a bus.

Next, we go to Bahrain, for a look at The Daily News:

Lebanon salutes it 'heroes'

Five Lebanese prisoners arrived to a triumphant red carpet welcome in Lebanon yesterday after being freed by Israel in a prisoner swap after years behind bars. The five - convicted murderer Samir Kantar and Hizbollah fighters Khaled Zidan, Maher Kurani, Mohammed Sarur and Hussein Suleiman - were given a heroes' welcome when set foot on Lebanese soil at the Naqura border crossing between Lebanon and Israel.

...

At the Naqura border crossing, Kantar, who was serving five life sentences for a 1979 triple murder, including of a child, waved at applauding crowds as he and his comrades walked toward the stage under a shower of confetti. One of those attending the ceremony, Nohad Haidar, 47, was dressed in a black chador with a yellow Hizbollah flag wrapped around her head and carrying a bag of white flowers to throw on the freed prisoners.

"We came to celebrate today with Hizbollah, which has allowed us to lift our heads with pride. I came to this celebration of heroes," she said.

Patriotic songs and excerpts of speeches by Nasrallah bellowed during the day from loudspeakers as members of the Shi'ite movement clad in military garb lined the main road leading to the Naqura border crossing.

Lebanon's cabinet declared yesterday a public holiday for the exchange, in which Hizbollah turned over the remains of Israeli soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev in return for the five men and remains of 199 Lebanese and Palestinian fighters.

...

The liberated prisoners were flown by Lebanese army helicopter to Beirut where they were greeted by President Michel Sleiman, Prime Minister Fuad Siniora and parliament speaker Nabih Berri.

...

This was a different sort of article, don't you think? First, it put "heroes" in quotation marks. Second, it pretty explicitly described by Kuntar was imprisoned in the first place.

Next stop, Qatar, and The Gulf Times:

Freed Lebanese get heroe's welcome

Five Lebanese prisoners arrived to a triumphant red carpet welcome in Lebanon yesterday after being freed by Israel in a prisoner swap after years behind bars.

The five — convicted murderer Samir Kantar and Hezbollah fighters Khaled Zidan, Maher Kurani, Mohamed Sarur and Hussein Suleiman — were given a heroes’ welcome when set foot on Lebanese soil late afternoon at the Naqoura border crossing between Lebanon and Israel.
The men changed out of their grey sweatshirts and into Hezbollah military uniforms before marching down the red carpet behind Hezbollah soldiers carrying the yellow flag of the militant group and the Lebanese and Palestinian flags.

Kantar, who was serving five life sentences, waved at applauding crowds as he and his comrades walked toward the stage under a shower of confetti.

...

Lebanon’s cabinet declared yesterday a public holiday for the exchange, in which Hezbollah turned over the remains of Israeli soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev in return for the five men and remains of 199 Lebanese and Palestinian fighters.

...

Kantar’s mother was shown on television embracing the freed man’s brother and crying tears of joy as she awaited him.

“I never gave up hope for a day,” she said, choking back tears.

“This moment makes up for 30 years of waiting. I want to hug and kiss him. My only wish is to see him.” Kantar was sentenced to five life terms for a 1979 triple murder.

...

And an editorial from the same paper:

Prisoner exchange brings joy, but also lasting pain

Yesterday there were tears and celebrations as the long-awaited prisoner swap between Israel and Hezbollah finally took place.
The first of the exchanges came from Hezbollah – two coffins containing the bodies of captured Israeli soldiers. It was also the first official acknowledgment that the soldiers had in fact died. The remains of other Israeli soldiers killed in south Lebanon in 2006 were also returned.
From the Israeli side, the bodies of eight Hezbollah fighters were handed over plus four Palestinians, as part of a deal to transfer nearly 200 Arabs killed. However, the crux of the transaction saw five Hezbollah prisoners freed.

This exchange was hailed as a triumph by the Lebanese who gave the released men a heroes’ welcome.

In Israel, the swap was met with fury, but was seen as a painful necessity if the fate was to be learned of the two soldiers captured in a 2006 cross-border raid that triggered the 34-day war.

...

For their return – either dead or alive – Israel agreed to release its longest-held Lebanese detainee, Samir Kantar. Kantar had received multiple jail terms for a 1979 raid in which three Israeli civilians, including a child, were killed in Nahariya. Along with him, four more prisoners, Maher Korani, Mohamed Srour, Hussein Suleiman and Khodr Zeidan were also freed.

...

Despite the celebrations and the victory speeches, there was no winner or loser in yesterday’s developments.

War is the playground of politicians, extremists and idealists, yet it is the rest of society that has to pick up the pieces.

Once the celebrations have quieted, the speeches have finished and the Press has moved on, the only lasting legacy of this long-awaited exchange will be tears – and they will pour from both sides of the divide.

No winners of losers? Is that really true? Is it disturbing to you that Kuntar and others not only received a heroe's welcome from the masses, but were also welcomed by Lebanon's government?

From Kuwait, and the Kuwait Times:

Joy in Lebanon as Israel mourns

Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, in a rare public appearance, welcomed five Lebanese freed from captivity in Israel yesterday after his guerrilla group returned the bodies of two captured Israeli soldiers. Nasrallah, whose movements are kept secret for security reasons, embraced the ex-prisoners at a rally in Beirut. "The period of defeat is over and the time of victory has arrived," Nasrallah said. "This people, this nation and this country, which gave a clear image today, cannot be defeated," he told the crowd before leaving to deliver a speech by video link from a secure location.

...

The five - Kantar and Hezbollah fighters Khaled Zidan, Maher Kurani, Mohammed Sarur and Hussein Suleiman - stood on a platform as Suleiman spoke and then shook hands with the politicians lined up to greet them. "Your return is a new victory and the future in your presence will be a path in which we will realise the sovereignty of our territory and the liberty of our people," Suleiman said. "I tell Samir and his companions that they have a right to be proud of their country, their army and their resistance.

..

Under the deal arranged by a UN-appointed German mediator, Israel also returned the bodies of eight Hezbollah fighters slain in the 2006 war and those of four Palestinians, including Dalal Mughrabi, a woman guerrilla who led a 1978 raid on Israel. The four were among nearly 200 Arabs killed trying to attack Israel, whose bodies were delivered to Lebanon in ICRC trucks as part of the delicately orchestrated swap. Hezbollah returned the remains of other Israeli troops killed in the south.

...

The Saudi Gazette reported:

Hezbollah, Israel swap prisoners

Five Lebanese militants freed from prisons in Israel, Wednesday, in exchange for the bodies of two captured Israeli soldiers.
Israel released Samir Kantar and four others after Hezbollah handed over two black coffins with the bodies of the Israeli soldiers, closing a chapter from the 2006 war in Lebanon.

Kantar, who had been serving multiple life terms in Israel for a 1979 attack, wiped away tears as he stood before a crowd in the coastal border town of Naqoura.

The five later flew to Beirut, where they received an official welcome from the president and were congratulated by Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, who was last seen in public in January.

...

You read that right, an official welcome from the president.

Okay, but what about in Lebanon? Let's look at The Daily Star:

Tens of thousands celebrate return of detainees in Dahiyeh

Tens of thousands of jubilant people descended into the Rayeh football court in Beirut's southern suburbs, better known as Dahiyeh, Wednesday night to celebrate the prisoner exchange that took place earlier that morning. In the prisoner exchange five Lebanese prisoners were exchanged for the bodies of two Israeli soldiers captured on July 12, 2006. Israel also gave back 188 bodies of dead Hizbullah and Arab fighters and according to the deal is set to release an unspecified number of Palestinian prisoners.

The celebrations organized by Hizbullah were preceded by a ceremony in Naqoura, where the exchange took place, and the Beirut International airport, where the prisoners were flown and greeted by Lebanese President Michel Sleiman and other top officials. After greeting the president at the airport the five Lebanese prisoners were taken to the Rayeh football court where Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah made a brief appearance and later delivered a televised speech.

A large stage surrounded a raised podium, where five chairs were placed for the released fighters who were due to arrive. Large victory banners were placed all over the field, where thousands of chairs were placed to provide seating for those who came. Two large screens provided footage of the prisoners arriving to the airport, eliciting loud cheers from the crowd. A military band performed for the audience, interrupted occasionally by excerpts of famous Nasrallah speeches.

...

and an editorial from the same paper:

Hizbullah will keep on winning until Israel plays by a new set of rules

Hizbullah did more than honor a promise when it wrapped up its exchange of prisoners and bodies with Israel on Wednesday: The resistance movement also closed yet another chapter in the long history of its struggle with the Jewish state - and, again, did so in a manner that prevented the Israelis from dictating the outcome. ...

For the Israelis Wednesday had to have been a humiliating experience. They slaughtered more than 1,200 Lebanese, the vast majority of them civilians, after Hizbullah ambushed a patrol and carried off two Israeli troops on July 12, 2006. They dishonored themselves, betrayed their faith, and violated the norms of civilized warfare by venting their frustration on innocent women and children. They added insult to injury by littering the South with millions of cluster munitions that continue to kill and maim. In the end, however, they did precisely what Hizbullah's leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, said they would. Hopefully, when the humiliation wears off, they will have learned a valuable lesson.

Remember the editorial above about no winners or losers? I don't think so.

So now let us look to Israel, and see how the same facts are being reported and reviewed.

Haaretz

An exorbitant price

If anyone had doubts, they have been removed, and the sympathy is with the families, as it has been all along. But the country has no reason to be proud of what happened yesterday. This was no way to fulfill our duty and bring home the boys - by letting a terrorist organization string us along, right up to the last second.

But Israel is not acting like a sovereign state in almost every way. It agreed, as Hezbollah predicted, to make this humiliating and exorbitantly expensive deal.

...

A moral society doesn't let terrorists abuse it. A moral society doesn't give in to immoral extortion and doesn't pay a price that endangers the future of its soldiers and civilians, while sowing the seeds for the next abductions and ensuing concessions. A strong moral society - as we still are - teaches the kidnappers a lesson and leads them to the painful conclusion that kidnapping doesn't pay.

...

Why magnify the event out of all proportion and broadcast from every point possible, repeating a thousand times trivia and cliches? One would expect the media, at least in the difficult hours during which Hezbollah played with the families and public's feelings, to show a little restraint, to stop externalizing feelings unnecessarily and to refrain from invading privacy and creating a national drama.

After all, the ending of the next chapter, the Shalit deal, could be - if the media keep hurtling with no brakes - much more difficult and expensive than the sad ending of the Regev and Goldwasser deal.

Not only prime ministers and ministers, the deciders, will go down in history as those responsible for the bitter consequences of the terrorists' wholesale release. Public opinion, which supported the releases over the years, despite warnings that many of the released men would once again murder soldiers and civilians, is also a partner.

The Jerusalem Post

A searing contrast

If the Second Lebanon War was characterized by a lack of clarity in execution and result, yesterday brought a rare measure of clarity, and not only to the families of the Israeli soldiers kidnapped by Hizbullah two years ago, who finally learned the fate of their sons.

...

When the heart-sickness subsides, we will all have been left with a searing glimpse of the contrast between two very different cultures.

Lebanon yesterday celebrated the return of four Hizbullah terrorists, along with Samir Kuntar, 45, who in 1979 murdered a civilian, Danny Haran, in front of his four-year-old daughter, before crushing her skull against a rock with the butt of his rifle. Kuntar has never expressed remorse. "My oath and pledge," he wrote Hizbullah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah in a letter reprinted in a Palestinian newspaper, "is that my place will be at the battlefront, which is soaked in the sweat of your giving, and the blood of the most beloved among men, and that I shall continue down the path, until complete victory." In his hometown of Abey, one sign read: "Samir Kuntar is the conscience of Lebanon, Palestine and the Arab nation."

Mocking the notion that much distinction remains between Hizbullah and the Lebanese government, Prime Minister Fuad Saniora and President Michel Suleiman extended an official state welcome, declared a national holiday, and greeted the five freed prisoners at Beirut's airport. (With 11 of the 30 cabinet positions, Hizbullah enjoys veto power in the Lebanese government.)

...

A more undignified and morally offensive spectacle is hard to imagine.

...

Yesterday, however, brought to light something extraordinary: the dignity with which the Israeli side handled enemy remains; the dignity of Smadar Haran, Danny's widow, who had asked the prime minister and cabinet not to take into consideration her pain in their deliberations about the exchange; and, not least, the dignity with which the Regev and Goldwasser families began to mourn their fallen - not in anger, but in sorrow.

...

But Hizbullah's greatest loss, perhaps, has been its standing in the eyes of principled people everywhere, who can now see the difference between a political culture that valorizes brutality and celebrates a killer as its national conscience, and one that manages a quiet dignity even in the most trying of times.

A celebration of evil

Preparations are in full swing in Lebanon to celebrate the return of Samir Kuntar.

Kuntar, who is serving multiple life sentences for one of the most brutal terrorist attacks in Israel's history, is due to be released tomorrow as part of a prisoner exchange with Hizbullah for Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, the two soldiers abducted in a July 2006 cross-border raid that triggered the Second Lebanon War.

...

However, the Lebanese people and government - and those others in the Arab world, including among the Palestinians, so delighted by Kuntar's release - might want to ask themselves whether this monster is worthy of such glorification. Is he the kind of man they want as their idol? And if so, what does that say about them?

...

During his 29 years in an Israeli jail, according to his Israeli attorney, Kuntar has learned fluent Hebrew, married and divorced an Israeli Arab woman (who received a monthly stipend from the government and conjugal visits), and completed a social science degree via the Open University.

He has never expressed remorse, and, according to the Palestinian Authority newspaper al-Hayat al-Jadida, wrote a letter recently to Nasrallah promising not to abandon the jihad against Israel. "I give you my promise and oath that my only place will be in the fighting front soaked with the sweat of your giving and with the blood of the shahids, the dearest people, and that I will continue your way until we reach a full victory," the paper quoted him as writing. The newspaper, incidentally, carried an article calling Kuntar "a beacon of light" and an "authentic role model."

PERHAPS Kuntar's supporters should read the eerie recollection of Smadar Haran Kaiser, now remarried with two children, of his terror cell.

"I will never forget the joy and the hatred in their voices as they swaggered about hunting for us, firing their guns and throwing grenades," she wrote in an article for The Washington Post. "I emphasized the joy and hatred in their voices for a reason.

"It is hard for anyone with normal sensibilities to comprehend how someone can feel joy and hatred while smashing in the head of a four-year-old child. What kind of pathology can cause a society to celebrate such evil?"

Smadar Haran Kaiser gets the last word here.

Letters Tuesday Editor- Obama, Ferraro, and Wright

2008-03-18T12:17:00.000-04:00

Obama just finished his speech. It was a good speech. It will be interesting to see if it changes people's minds.

For those who don't know, I used to write The Daily Pulse, well, daily. It always included "Letters Tuesday Editor," LTEs from papers around the country. I still reanimate the concept once in a while, like right before an election, or in the midst of a big political story. Today, I thought I would take a look at what people were writing in about the whole Obama, Ferraro, Wright flap. It will make an interesting comparison next week, to see if the letters change as a result of the speech, and news about it in the next few days.

So, with no more ado, Letters Tuesday Editor:These were selected with only two criteria - (1) are they about Obama/Ferraro/Wright, and(2) are they LTEs. I selected the first ones I found, without any judgment as to content. I do add my own comments, and hope you will, too, in the comments below:

The Arizona Republic

Is Ferraro being excoriated for telling the truth, but telling it badly? Does it matter? Should a person of her standing not be bright enough, if it is truth (and there is an iota of truth, though no more than that Clinton, too, is there because of who she is), to tell it WELL? And if she fails to do so, and instead loads her kernel of truth with a whole load of ugliness, is it not perfectly appropriate to excoriate her for THAT?

Truth trumps political correctness

Geraldine Ferraro is being excoriated for essentially telling the truth.

...

We may even be in the process of electing a president on this basis without even facing the reality. Political correctness is not a good substitute for the truth. It only serves to bury the reality we need to confront.

The Arizona Republic

This letter shows the damage Wright really has done. It is not Wright's words, but Obamas failure to decry them until it became a political liability, and the belief that flows therefrom that perhaps he does not really decry them at all, that will cause political damage.

Opinion of pastor keeps changing

For 22 years, Barack Obama has defended and supported the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who is his pastor and spiritual and political adviser.

...

But when the speech was played on the Internet recently, Obama quickly changed and denounced him ...

Obama is correct in saying that he is for change, but now we know what he means.

Daily Camera

Okay, this letter really shows why I love LTEs. They show the derangement of so many righties, people who truly believe the garbage that gets shoveled to them on FOX. Wright, you see, is a "liberal media" issue. And then you get the punch line - 'what if McCain's spiritual adivosr made hate-filled comments, the liberal media would be all over it.' Excuse me, sir, but can you say John Hagee?

Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Obama

I find it interesting the lengths to which the Camera and other liberal media go to down play or ignore the rantings of Sen. Obama's "spiritual advisor" the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. ...

Rev. Wright married Obama and his wife Michelle, baptized their two daughters and is credited by Obama for the title of his book, "The Audacity of Hope." Wright also has close ties to Louis Farrakhan, noted Anti-Semite. Now let's image that George Bush or John McCain had "spiritual advisors" who were white separatists and made hate-filled comments anything like the above and we can only guess at the massive uproar from the liberals.

Seattle Times

Personally, I'm not that big a fan of Billy Graham, so don't see the absence of a Graham in the White House as a crisis. That said, this letter, and the one that follows, do show some concern about Wright, and about Obama's honesty and judgment.

Jerry gets around reverence

With all the talk going around about Rev. Jeremiah Wright, personal spiritual adviser to Sen. Barack Obama ["Obama decries pastor's remarks," page one, March 15], has anyone thought far enough into the future to realize who the spiritual adviser to the president of the United States might be if Sen. Obama is elected? It won't be Billy Graham.

...

If Obama is elected, do you think Wright can fill Graham's shoes? Do you think he could ever become "America's spiritual conscience"?

"By their works shall ye know them"

and

He grasps at straws

Anyone who thinks Barack Obama isn't lying about what he knew and when he knew it concerning Rev. Jeremiah Wright's fanaticism is drowning in a deep, deep pool of Kool-Aid.

The Philadelphia Inquirer

The Philadelphia Inquirer ran two different letters on the Wright story, one from each side. These, together, really show something. On the one hand, defenders argue about the truth of Wright's statements. Writers on the other side are more concerned, not about the content, but about Obama's claims that he did not know about them. Is this an indelible impression, or will Obama's speech put that issue to rest?

Pastor's racist views

...

It strains credulity to believe that Obama didn't know, until recently when it became a hot potato, the venomous, irrational and racist views Wright has been spewing during the 17 years Obama has been a member of the Trinity United Church of Christ.

Defending minister

Is it the content or the tone of the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr.'s sermons that some wish to use to reproach Barack Obama (Inquirer, March 15)?

Wright said the Sept. 11 attacks were the result of American foreign policy. There are many academics, journalists and politicians who have presented the same argument. As for the treatment of the African American community, Wright expresses the anger and frustration that many feel.

...

There they are, a few LTEs, to let you know what people are saying and writing in a few spots around the country. Do you have any related LTEs in your local paper? Can you share them here?

I will do this again next week. It will be interesting to see if the trends hold, or if Obama's speech made a difference.

Letters Tuesday Editor

2008-01-29T10:55:00.000-05:00

Letters Tuesday Editor was always a regular feature of The Daily Pulse. It has always been my favorite, because it gets closest to the real "pulse" of the nation. Your national papers, like the New York Times, only publish high-fallootin' letters from muckety-mucks. But your RightHereburg Times Advertiser really posts Letters to the Editor. Sometimes they are brilliant. Sometimes they are hillarious. Sometimes they are terrifying. But they always seem to be real.

One consistent note shining through is how much people "HATE" Hillary Clinton. Why? Mostly because FAUX News and Rush Limbaugh spent a decade demonizing her. What makes you think they won't do the same to WHOEVER our nominee might be come November?

So, with little more ado, The Daily Pulse - Letters Tuesday Editor.San Diego Union Tribune

Choosing a candidate

[I have been around Republicans my entire life, and seriously doubt they will hate Hillary more than they will hate any other Democratic nominee by the time FAUX News and company get done with them. Hell, half the Republicans in the country are sure Obama is "Manchurian Candidate Muslim" intent on turning the nation over to Osma bin Laden.]

... I have been a Republican all my life and am very disappointed with our current president on many areas, including securing our borders, illegal immigration and the profligate spending of recent years. ...

... One of the things you didn't cite as a development that would unite the Republican Party is called Hillary Clinton. Her negatives will catch up with her and create a momentum that will allow us to be successful. ...

-------------------

[How many mindless talking points can you fit into one letter? Everybody thinks they're going to pay the "death tax," not realizing it hits hundreds of people, not millions. As for the health care issue, what a complete load of crapola. Do you really believe people say to themselves, "should I get a heart transplant, or a new Chevy?"]

I ...but was dismayed to hear that the Democrats want to impose tax hikes. Particularly troubling are taxes on estates. For decades people have worked hard to save for retirement and leave an inheritance for the next generation.

As to health care, before any candidate attempts to overhaul the system, I want to see the percentage of people who can afford health care but choose instead to buy a new car, take a vacation, etc. ...

--------------------

[This is the only letter for which I included the author's name, because he self-identifies with credentials. Is this a set-up, or a man seeing the error of his ways?]

As a lifelong Republican and recipient of the National Security Medal from President Ford, as well as former ambassador to NATO and former deputy secretary of defense, it is clear to me that we need change from the policies of recent years. ...

Who can best lead us on the right course? As a charter member of the “vast right-wing conspiracy,” I have concluded that the proven and tested intelligence, imagination and courage of Hillary Clinton offers us the best chance to break the deadlocks that the Bush administration has created.

...

ROBERT F. ELLSWORTH
Del Mar

--------------------

[Funny thing about Hillary- in the media she is a cold robotic calculating politician. But when people meet her in person they fall in love with her. That speaks volumes, but I'm not sure if it is speaking about her weakness or the media's bias, or perhaps both.]

Recently, I was introduced to Hillary Clinton at a small gathering in a San Diego home and found her to be not only warm and gracious but inquisitive, intelligent, knowledgeable and passionate about you, me and our country. ...

On the global stage, Clinton would restore our standing in the world. Because she knows heads of state around the world, she can skip the introductions and get down to business. As she says, “America must remain a pre-eminent leader for peace and freedom, willing to work in concert with other nations and institutions to reach common goals.”

---------------------

[In all fairness to Obama, he did attract "scores of Democrats [and] independents," but Republicans voted in their own primary.]

Barack Obama's opponents claim he's “a talker, not a doer.” Yet Obama has quality experience at community, state and national levels. ...

... He understands that core values that connect us are stronger than differences that divide us, saying that “We don't need more heat in Washington, we need more light.” This isn't false hope; in Iowa, Obama attracted scores of Democrats, independents and Republicans.

Contra Costa Times

The answer to "Why hate Clinton" is actually pretty easy- because FAUX News and Rush told you to for more than a decade.

Why hate Clinton?

There is an extraordinary phenomenon occurring with people declaring they hate or strongly dislike Hillary Rodham Clinton. My curiosity has required me to seek answers as to why they feel this way. The answers are always vague and uncertain.

...

The San Francisco Chronicle's Opinion section Jan. 8 cartoon depicted a serpentinelike creature with a grotesque head that might vaguely look like Hillary, but to make certain there could be no mistake, a badge with the word "Hillary" is affixed to the monster. ...

Why? She seems to be a nice lady and has handled herself nicely through her problems. What generates this hate?

Palo Alto Daily News

Well said.

.... I believe Americans of all political persuasions are proud of their troops and pleased about the success of "the surge" in much the same way that the farmer is pleased about remembering to lock the gate after only 50 percent of his prize heifers are lost.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Nobody can answer the question, because it has no answer. If people REALLY want to return to "traditional" marriage, then we need to start giving away our daughters for a bride's price, treating them as chattel and profit centers. Ladies, how do you feel about that? Oh, never mind, you have no right to an opinion.

How is same-sex marriage a threat?

I'm writing in response to community columnist Nichole M. Gladney's Jan. 24 column, "Traditional marriage deserves protection," in particular where she stated that when traditional marriage between a man and a woman is threatened, society suffers.

... I have yet to hear a solid explanation as to how gay marriage will do this, which she never explained. ...

Now that more than half of marriages result in divorce, infidelity is up, stars like Eddie Murphy end their marriages after two weeks, single-parent households are on the rise and individuals marry several times throughout their lives, haven't we heterosexuals already done more than enough to ruin the institution of marriage on our own?

...

The Coloradoan

The FAUXification of American continues to move forward. "Democrats hate America" is a catch-all for the right, even if they can't string two consistent sentences together to make the accusation.

Dems don't hate America

Tom Bender's Jan. 14 letter goes from self-contradictory to silly to insulting. He claims that liberals caused the "credit mortgage" crisis because they were against government regulation, while the same liberals also caused the health-care crisis because they were for government regulation. ...

...

All silliness aside, I am deeply offended by Bender's insinuation that Democrats "hate" America and that we will surrender our country to our enemies. This is a gross insult to me and millions of other loyal Americans. We need more intelligent commentary on this page and less of Bender's pointless and unceasing malevolence.

Pittsburgh Post Gazette

Ouch!

Show support for the war: Sign up

After reading Rob Altieri's Jan. 10 letter ("Big Anti-War"), I feel compelled to respond. ... He states, "This young voter will pull the Republican lever in the November elections."

I suggest a more concrete show of his support for the president's disastrous Iraq war: Assuming Mr. Altieri is in good health, I recommend that he promptly visit his local Army or Marine Corps recruiting station, enlist and when he has completed infantry training, volunteer for Iraq duty.

...

San Francisco Chronicle

Weren't drivers' licenses for illegal immigrants HILLARY'S problem in the first debate? When did this become Obama's problem?

Senator's wrong move on driver's licenses

Regarding your story, "Obama takes big risk on driver's license issue," (Jan. 28) : It is very generous of Sen. Barack Obama to promise illegal aliens in California driver's licenses.

...

California Democratic voters should use the ballot box to tell Obama that they believe, as the driver's handbook declares, that driving is a privilege, not a right and the future lies with immigration that is legal, controlled and reduced.

(same SF Chronicle link)

Why are "ambitious" and "power hungry" only slurs when directed against women? Isn't ANY person running for President of the United States, arguably the most powerful position in THE WORLD, pretty much by definition "ambitious" and "power hungry"?

Hoping for Hillary

I am disappointed with The Chronicle's endorsement of Sen. Barack Obama. I am a lifelong, true-blooded Republican, but honest enough to realize our only chance to win the White House in 2008 can be summed up in two words: Hillary Clinton. ... She is an ambitious, power-hungry, dirty, race-baiting scoundrel. Her recent campaign strategy to box in Obama on the basis of race would make Pat Buchanan proud. If she wins, Hillary will walk into the convention with the highest negatives any party nominee has ever had. ...

The Daily Pulse- Jewish News

2008-01-24T14:25:00.001-05:00

This story at TPM Cafe got my attention. Are Jews really turning against Obama, and if so, why? Do they disagree with his policies, or are they buying into the "Obama is a Muslim" slurs.

Well, if you follow the links there it turns out to be false. Of the three links, one says Jewish organizations are fighting the false emails, and the other two give entirely unrelated reasons to oppose Obama. That said, it seemed like a good time, what with Florida, California, New York and New Jersey primaries in the offing, to look at Jewish newspaper editorials.

With no more ado, The Daily Pulse - Jew NewsThe Jewish Advocate

This seems like a good place to kick off the conversation. It is a far more fair and complete treatment of the issues than the commentary noted above. As a side note, The Jewish Advocate has a poll about what is most important to Jews for a Presidential candidate, America or Israel. Contrary to what some might think, so far it is 100% America.

Why American Jews are afraid of Barack Obama

In the race for the American presidency, securing support from Jewish leaders has become a valuable tool in swaying Jewish voters. But as Barack Obama campaigns for the Democratic presidential nomination, some Jews have been increasingly skeptical about the Illinois senator’s commitment to Jewish issues, and Israel in particular.

...

While Obama is Christian, both his father – a native of Kenya – and his stepfather were Muslim. And an e-mail circulating throughout Israel and the U.S. seems to be preying on Jewish fears, accusing the Illinois senator of ties to Islamic extremism.

The e-mail was met with a quick response from leaders of nine Jewish organizations, including the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Congress.
“[The e-mail is an] attempt to drive a wedge between our community and a presidential candidate based on despicable and false attacks and innuendo based on religion,” the leaders said in an open letter. “Jewish voters, like all voters, should support whichever candidate they believe would make the best president.”

According to the American Jewish Committee’s 2007 Annual Survey, 38 percent of U.S. Jews have a favorable opinion of Obama, which places him behind only Hillary Clinton and Rudy Guliani in Jewish esteem. ...

But despite broad support from some Jewish Americans, many still question whether Obama is a good choice for the Jewish community and for Israel. ...

Obama has, however, stood behind Israel’s right to defend itself. During the Second Lebanon War, Obama supported Israel’s retaliation against Hezbollah and said the Jewish state should resist any pressure to establish a cease-fire until the threat was eliminated. He also pressed the European Union to recognize Hezbollah as a terrorist organization.
In a speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in March 2007, Obama offered his take on the U.S. role in achieving peace in Israel.

...

But the Jewish community’s concerns do not seem to be tied to outlandish Internet attacks or even Obama’s relationship with the UCC. It is the senator’s relatively unknown status that raises doubts in the minds of Jewish voters, according to Steve Grossman, former chair of the Democratic National Committee and of AIPAC, and a staunch supporter of Hillary Clinton.

...

Still, Obama’s supporters and critics agreed that Jews have an obligation to sort out the facts from the mounting slew of falsehoods peddled on the Internet.

...

The Atlanta Jewish Times

I actually think it is against the law in Georgia to write any column or article that does not mention the Georgia Bulldogs somewhere. Okay, on to the guts of the matter. This guy is right- Romney is yet another old white Christian white guy, and if Mormon is as close as they get to diversity, well, it's the same GOP as ever.

Tech, Clinton Win; UGA, Romney Lose

Scott Sherris, Columnist

As the nights get colder and the twinkling lights of the Atlanta skyline are once again visible now that the summer smog has lifted, we embark on the annual exercise of looking backward and projecting forward.

...

• Mitt Romney will be the Republican presidential nominee. They're going to elect an old, white, Christian guy, then pat themselves on the backs for being so "inclusive" and "diverse" because Romney is Mormon. The truth is, Romney says all the right things to the right people. He's pro-life, he's pro-death-penalty, and he's pro-prayer-in-school. He's anti-sex-ed, anti-gun-control and anti-gay-marriage. Plus, he's in favor of further subsidizing U.S. corn farmers, making him both "environmental" and electable in Iowa.

(I know the Southern Baptists say Mormons are a cult, but they also say I'm going to hell for being Jewish, so let's use my definition, OK?)

• Hillary Clinton will be the Democratic presidential nominee. She doesn't have anything really strongly in her favor, except: (1) She lived in the White House during eight of the most prosperous years in recent American history; (2) Rush Limbaugh has been calling her the biggest threat to the country for at least a decade, which tells Democrats that there must be something good about her; (3) She has wrinkles, people are familiar with her, and she's very good about not saying anything stupid.

...

• In November, Hillary Clinton will be elected our 44th president. Voters have woken up to the fact that Republicans never turned America into Big Rock Candy Mountain and will continue the de-Republicanification that began with the congressional elections in 2006. Americans don't feel safer than they felt in 2004, and they're getting tired of being poorer and less liked in the rest of the world. They're going to look to the past, then head to the polls to vote for their own future of 2009.

The Jewish Journal

Contrary to the initial thesis at TPM Cafe, it looks like the Jewish papers and Jewish leaders are coming out pretty strongly AGAINST the race card played against Obama. Good for them.

Playing a frayed and faded 'race card'

By Joe R. Hicks

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) is making a truly impressive run for the White House, and in doing so is being considered by many as America's first mainstream "black" candidate -- in other words a "black" candidate not running on a near-exclusive agenda of identity politics.

...

However, it didn't take long for this race-transcendent rhetoric to become mired in the same old tired politics of blame and guilt that have for too long been the un-natural state of America's racial affairs. As the race has became increasingly heated between Obama and his chief rival, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), the gloves have come off and race has emerged as an issue that has dominated all discussions of the Democrats' run for the White House.

...

Bill Clinton went on Al Sharpton's radio show to explain his comments, and Sen. Clinton appeared on numerous news shows engaging in damage control. But the racial silliness seemed to have a momentum all its own. While campaigning with Sen. Clinton in South Carolina, Bob Johnson, the founder of Black Entertainment Television, again raised the specter of Obama's drug use while a teenager. Clinton refused to repudiate the comments, even though she was standing on the stage as the over-the-top statements were made.

...

On the other hand, why did it take Barack Obama more than a week to attempt to defuse the growing argument that somehow the Clintons are neo-racists? Only within the past few days has Obama spoken out, saying "Bill and Hillary Clinton have historically and consistently been on the right side of civil rights issues. I think they care about the African American community and that they care about all Americans and that they want to see equal rights and justice in this country."

So will this issue go away now? Most likely it will not. Once unloosed, the beast of racial identity politics will be tamed only with great difficulty.

...

Forward

I have seen this thesis before- Republicans nominate somebody people like, while Democrats nominate somebody who is actually competent, and Republicans win. He calls it "The Stevenson Complex." I call it national suicide.

The Stevenson Complex

The Democratic presidential contest is beginning to take on a seesaw quality, as Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama trade the mantle of frontrunner back and forth between them. Unless something shifts dramatically in the very near future, the race could continue unresolved for a long time. The two main rivals could even split the prizes on Super Tuesday, February 5, when 22 states hold primaries, leaving the Democratic nomination wide open — and the Democratic contenders bashing and weakening each other — into the spring or summer.

...

On substance, the roles are reversed: Obama speaks of transcending ideology and uniting left and right, hardly the stuff of fighting liberalism. His notions of economic fairness don’t seem to include redistributing the pain by taxing the rich. His health care plans wouldn’t require Americans to sign up for insurance, effectively guaranteeing that many will remain uncovered.

But little of that will matter in November. American voters have demonstrated time and time again that they vote for the candidate they find more likable. Democrats repeatedly pick the candidate that they think deserves to win on the merits, and then they try to convince the electorate to take its medicine. No wonder Democrats have won only three of the last 10 presidential elections.

The Jewish Post & Opinion

Contrary to what some think, Jewish Americans are Americans first. This editorial highlights that very simple fact.

Maybe you'll agree

...

Gentle reader, I know you're probably tired of this, but, important as Israel is, I think its security must not be the sole issue that guides our decision on who might make the best president for these times.
If I were a woman, I might well want Hillary Clinton to break that highest of glass ceilings – achieved long ago in Israel by Golda Meir. ...

...

However we decide to vote, I hope we do so having carefully considered the characters of the eventual nominees. I hope we'll have weighed their positions on numerous major issues – not just Israel, but (to name only a few) human rights, the economy, the environment, education, what's best for seniors, what's best for children, what's best for achieving a just and fair health care system, for our men and women in the armed forces and even for our ever-growing prison population.

...

Maybe you’ll agree.

The Jewish Press

The author of this paeon/apologia is a former Giuliani official from NYC. What more do I need to say?

Bush Alone: A Balanced Look at a Much-Maligned President

As George W. Bush begins his eighth and final year in the White House, it’s fitting to step back and look at this president who almost wasn’t, save for the decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to halt the relentless recount process in Florida.

...

Still, despite the sourness and hard feelings that have accompanied these past seven years, it’s inevitable that history will have the final say. So, while it’s still early, perhaps we can get a leg up on the historians by asking what the country has to show, after two terms of George W. Bush, besides the bitter cultural and political chasm that continues to divide us today.

...

After a stunned initial response to the attacks, the Bush administration rallied the nation and put together a response that rolled up terrorist organizations around the world. In Afghanistan we drove the Taliban (supporters and patrons of al Qaeda) from power, while spearheading a comprehensive effort to improve national intelligence and harden our defenses at home. The upshot? We haven’t suffered any follow-on attacks since 9/11 while we have captured or killed untold terrorists and would-be terrorists around the world.

...

More broadly, after hitting back at our attackers by unseating their protectors in distant Afghanistan, Bush decided to unseat Saddam Hussein as well. A Middle East dictator who had become an increasingly destabilizing force in the region, Saddam was believed to have weapons of mass destruction in his arsenal, and had been backing and fomenting terrorism himself.

...

On other fronts, the current president deserves substantial credit for his tax cutting that reinvigorated the economy. Though the economy is now showing visible signs of strain, in the seven years of Bush’s presidency we’ve had roughly six solid years of economic expansion, including strong GDP numbers and record low unemployment. But Bush was manifestly not as good on spending, allowing his Republican Congress to spend more robustly than the Democratic majority it replaced, eventually convincing Americans to return Congress to Democratic hands.

...

Writing recently in the New York Sun, Arthur Brooks of Syracuse University’s Maxwell School noted that Bush’s efforts to help the developing world in Africa have been substantial though they have gone largely unnoticed by the national elite. Bush, he wrote, brought “aid to sub-Saharan Africa to the highest levels in American history” and “raised HIV-AIDS funding by 36% his first year in office.” Added Mr. Brooks, “By 2006, annual American aid to Africa had topped $4 billion.”

...

So Bush gets little or no credit for the good he’s done while the mainstream media echo chamber continues to harp on what hasn’t gone off perfectly. As Bush works the Middle East to try his hand at a little personal diplomacy and possibly nurture peace in a region that hasn’t seen anything like it in more than 60 years, it pays to remember that this president still has nearly 12 months before he enters the history books.

...

Jewish Exponent

Another columnist points out that Jews arose to defend Obama from the Muslim slurs. But he also questions why ANY criticism is off- limits.

The Audacity of Criticism

African-Americans and Jews were joined in a relationship long characterized by mutual respect and shared commitment to civil rights. But it was also one that often foundered on the sensitivities and resentments that both groups often could not rise above.
Yet now that the civil-rights movement, as well as fights over affirmative action and other hot-button issues, have faded from the top of the national agenda, blacks and Jews most often have little to do with each other.

But the presidential campaign of the first serious African-American contender for the White House has brought some of the old sensitivities and fears back to the surface.

...

The truth is that Obama is a practicing Christian. And he is far more a product of Columbia and Harvard, as well as of the same popular culture of the 1970s and '80s on which most Americans were reared, than the Indonesian schools where he spent a portion of his youth.

But it was no surprise that amid all the acrimony of this campaign, the organized Jewish world felt it must speak up strongly in Obama's defense. Last week, the heads of nine of the most influential national Jewish organizations, including the Anti-Defamation League and the United Jewish Communities, signed a joint letter denouncing the rumors about Obama.

...

... when Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen wrote last week about the troubling facts about Obama's membership in a Chicago church, whose pastor was a friend and supporter of Louis Farrakhan, the racist and anti-Semitic head of the Nation of Islam, he raised a question that some people didn't want to hear.

...

What was equally interesting was the response to Cohen, a liberal anchor of the Post's Op-Ed page, from some on the left.

...

So for all the distance we have traveled toward King's vision of a colorblind society, it appears that some view any questions about a black as inherently tainted by prejudice. This is the same sort of false sensitivity that turned an otherwise unexceptionable statement from Hillary Clinton about the roles of both King and President Lyndon Johnson's in passing civil-rights legislation into a controversy.

...

Jews and anyone else who oppose him simply because his father was a Muslim from Kenya offend the spirit of American democracy. But Jews like Chabon, himself a virulent foe of Israel, who insist that not even reasonable questions about his associations should be raised, are just as wrong.

...

Concern about racism should motivate us to speak out when Obama or any African-American is treated unfairly. But even though black-Jewish relations remain sensitive, that shouldn't silence questions about a man who may well become president.

New Jersey Jewish News

This editorial pulls not punches and offers no other critique. It limits the conversation to the lies about Obama being distributed by email.

Lies, damned lies, and e-mails

One of the most dangerous weapons in the current war on civility is the “forward” function, the little click that allows e-mail users to pass on a message, no matter how ill-informed or unwelcome.

Among the most pernicious of such missives is a widely distributed e-mail smearing Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential hopeful from Illinois. Picking at threads of his biography, from his Muslim father to his middle name, it weaves a fantasy of a sort of Manchurian Muslim, intent on waging jihad from the Oval Office.

Obama was forced to address these laughable and easily falsifiable rumors, and it was heartening that so many Jewish leaders rallied to his side. In an “open letter to the Jewish communities,” leaders of nine Jewish organizations spoke out against the “hateful e-mails that use falsehood and innuendo to mischaracterize Senator Barack Obama’s religious beliefs and who he is as a person.”

...

E-mail users have a place for rumors. It’s called the trash.

Jewish Journal

This one is not an editorial on modern politics. It is a story. But given the entire conversation above, Obama's comments about anti-Semitism in African American society, the targeting of Jews for the Muslim smear, perhaps it is a good time to remember we are all on the same side, and we can all be heros for each other.

African-American pilots over Auschwitz

Last week, President Bush remarked that the United States should have bombed the Auschwitz death camp in 1944. Next week, Americans will commemorate the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. and the struggle for Civil Rights.

What do these two occasions have in common? More than one might think.

The link between the two is the Tuskegee Airmen of World War II, the first African American pilots in the United States military.

...

On the morning of Aug. 20, 1944, a group of 127 U.S. bombers called Flying Fortresses approached Auschwitz. They were escorted by 100 Mustang fighter planes. Most of the Mustangs were piloted by Tuskegee Airmen of the 332nd Fighter Group. The attacking force dropped more than one thousand 500-pound bombs on oil targets less than five miles from the gas chambers. ...

...

The Roosevelt administration knew about the mass murder going on in Auschwitz, and even possessed diagrams of the camp that were prepared by two escapees. But when Jewish organizations asked the Roosevelt administration to order the bombing of the camp and the railways leading to it, the requests were rejected. U.S. officials claimed such raids were "impracticable" because they would require "considerable diversion" of planes needed for the war effort.

But the Tuskegee veterans know that claim was false. They were right there in the skies above Auschwitz. No "diversion" was necessary to drop a few bombs on the mass-murder machinery or the railways leading into the camp. Sadly, those orders were never given.

...

The refusal to bomb Auschwitz remains the most powerful symbol of that failure. As President Bush said at Yad Vashem, Auschwitz should have been bombed. And the Tuskegee Airmen are eyewitnesses to the fact that it could have been.

And finally, as long as we're looking at a Jewish point of view, there can be little doubt anti-Semitism is on the rise. Here are reports of three recent incidents:

Anti-Semitic taggers strike in San Fernando Valley

Youth charged in anti-Semitic Vandalism

Shul regroups after suspected arson incident

The Daily Pulse- Jewish News

2008-01-24T14:25:00.000-05:00

Why American Jews are afraid of Barack Obama

In the race for the American presidency, securing support from Jewish leaders has become a valuable tool in swaying Jewish voters. But as Barack Obama campaigns for the Democratic presidential nomination, some Jews have been increasingly skeptical about the Illinois senator’s commitment to Jewish issues, and Israel in particular.

...

While Obama is Christian, both his father – a native of Kenya – and his stepfather were Muslim. And an e-mail circulating throughout Israel and the U.S. seems to be preying on Jewish fears, accusing the Illinois senator of ties to Islamic extremism.

The e-mail was met with a quick response from leaders of nine Jewish organizations, including the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Congress.
“[The e-mail is an] attempt to drive a wedge between our community and a presidential candidate based on despicable and false attacks and innuendo based on religion,” the leaders said in an open letter. “Jewish voters, like all voters, should support whichever candidate they believe would make the best president.”

According to the American Jewish Committee’s 2007 Annual Survey, 38 percent of U.S. Jews have a favorable opinion of Obama, which places him behind only Hillary Clinton and Rudy Guliani in Jewish esteem. ...

But despite broad support from some Jewish Americans, many still question whether Obama is a good choice for the Jewish community and for Israel. ...

Obama has, however, stood behind Israel’s right to defend itself. During the Second Lebanon War, Obama supported Israel’s retaliation against Hezbollah and said the Jewish state should resist any pressure to establish a cease-fire until the threat was eliminated. He also pressed the European Union to recognize Hezbollah as a terrorist organization.
In a speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in March 2007, Obama offered his take on the U.S. role in achieving peace in Israel.

...

But the Jewish community’s concerns do not seem to be tied to outlandish Internet attacks or even Obama’s relationship with the UCC. It is the senator’s relatively unknown status that raises doubts in the minds of Jewish voters, according to Steve Grossman, former chair of the Democratic National Committee and of AIPAC, and a staunch supporter of Hillary Clinton.

...

Still, Obama’s supporters and critics agreed that Jews have an obligation to sort out the facts from the mounting slew of falsehoods peddled on the Internet.

...

Tech, Clinton Win; UGA, Romney Lose

Scott Sherris, Columnist

As the nights get colder and the twinkling lights of the Atlanta skyline are once again visible now that the summer smog has lifted, we embark on the annual exercise of looking backward and projecting forward.

...

• Mitt Romney will be the Republican presidential nominee. They're going to elect an old, white, Christian guy, then pat themselves on the backs for being so "inclusive" and "diverse" because Romney is Mormon. The truth is, Romney says all the right things to the right people. He's pro-life, he's pro-death-penalty, and he's pro-prayer-in-school. He's anti-sex-ed, anti-gun-control and anti-gay-marriage. Plus, he's in favor of further subsidizing U.S. corn farmers, making him both "environmental" and electable in Iowa.

(I know the Southern Baptists say Mormons are a cult, but they also say I'm going to hell for being Jewish, so let's use my definition, OK?)

• Hillary Clinton will be the Democratic presidential nominee. She doesn't have anything really strongly in her favor, except: (1) She lived in the White House during eight of the most prosperous years in recent American history; (2) Rush Limbaugh has been calling her the biggest threat to the country for at least a decade, which tells Democrats that there must be something good about her; (3) She has wrinkles, people are familiar with her, and she's very good about not saying anything stupid.

...

• In November, Hillary Clinton will be elected our 44th president. Voters have woken up to the fact that Republicans never turned America into Big Rock Candy Mountain and will continue the de-Republicanification that began with the congressional elections in 2006. Americans don't feel safer than they felt in 2004, and they're getting tired of being poorer and less liked in the rest of the world. They're going to look to the past, then head to the polls to vote for their own future of 2009.

Playing a frayed and faded 'race card'

By Joe R. Hicks

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) is making a truly impressive run for the White House, and in doing so is being considered by many as America's first mainstream "black" candidate -- in other words a "black" candidate not running on a near-exclusive agenda of identity politics.

...

However, it didn't take long for this race-transcendent rhetoric to become mired in the same old tired politics of blame and guilt that have for too long been the un-natural state of America's racial affairs. As the race has became increasingly heated between Obama and his chief rival, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), the gloves have come off and race has emerged as an issue that has dominated all discussions of the Democrats' run for the White House.

...

Bill Clinton went on Al Sharpton's radio show to explain his comments, and Sen. Clinton appeared on numerous news shows engaging in damage control. But the racial silliness seemed to have a momentum all its own. While campaigning with Sen. Clinton in South Carolina, Bob Johnson, the founder of Black Entertainment Television, again raised the specter of Obama's drug use while a teenager. Clinton refused to repudiate the comments, even though she was standing on the stage as the over-the-top statements were made.

...

On the other hand, why did it take Barack Obama more than a week to attempt to defuse the growing argument that somehow the Clintons are neo-racists? Only within the past few days has Obama spoken out, saying "Bill and Hillary Clinton have historically and consistently been on the right side of civil rights issues. I think they care about the African American community and that they care about all Americans and that they want to see equal rights and justice in this country."

So will this issue go away now? Most likely it will not. Once unloosed, the beast of racial identity politics will be tamed only with great difficulty.

...

The Stevenson Complex

The Democratic presidential contest is beginning to take on a seesaw quality, as Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama trade the mantle of frontrunner back and forth between them. Unless something shifts dramatically in the very near future, the race could continue unresolved for a long time. The two main rivals could even split the prizes on Super Tuesday, February 5, when 22 states hold primaries, leaving the Democratic nomination wide open — and the Democratic contenders bashing and weakening each other — into the spring or summer.

...

On substance, the roles are reversed: Obama speaks of transcending ideology and uniting left and right, hardly the stuff of fighting liberalism. His notions of economic fairness don’t seem to include redistributing the pain by taxing the rich. His health care plans wouldn’t require Americans to sign up for insurance, effectively guaranteeing that many will remain uncovered.

But little of that will matter in November. American voters have demonstrated time and time again that they vote for the candidate they find more likable. Democrats repeatedly pick the candidate that they think deserves to win on the merits, and then they try to convince the electorate to take its medicine. No wonder Democrats have won only three of the last 10 presidential elections.

The Jewish Post & Opinion

Contrary to what some think, Jewish Americans are Americans first. This editorial highlights that very simple fact.

Maybe you'll agree

...

Gentle reader, I know you're probably tired of this, but, important as Israel is, I think its security must not be the sole issue that guides our decision on who might make the best president for these times.
If I were a woman, I might well want Hillary Clinton to break that highest of glass ceilings – achieved long ago in Israel by Golda Meir. ...

...

However we decide to vote, I hope we do so having carefully considered the characters of the eventual nominees. I hope we'll have weighed their positions on numerous major issues – not just Israel, but (to name only a few) human rights, the economy, the environment, education, what's best for seniors, what's best for children, what's best for achieving a just and fair health care system, for our men and women in the armed forces and even for our ever-growing prison population.

...

Maybe you’ll agree.

The Jewish Press

The author of this paeon/apologia is a former Giuliani official from NYC. What more do I need to say?

Bush Alone: A Balanced Look at a Much-Maligned President

As George W. Bush begins his eighth and final year in the White House, it’s fitting to step back and look at this president who almost wasn’t, save for the decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to halt the relentless recount process in Florida.

...

Still, despite the sourness and hard feelings that have accompanied these past seven years, it’s inevitable that history will have the final say. So, while it’s still early, perhaps we can get a leg up on the historians by asking what the country has to show, after two terms of George W. Bush, besides the bitter cultural and political chasm that continues to divide us today.

...

After a stunned initial response to the attacks, the Bush administration rallied the nation and put together a response that rolled up terrorist organizations around the world. In Afghanistan we drove the Taliban (supporters and patrons of al Qaeda) from power, while spearheading a comprehensive effort to improve national intelligence and harden our defenses at home. The upshot? We haven’t suffered any follow-on attacks since 9/11 while we have captured or killed untold terrorists and would-be terrorists around the world.

...

More broadly, after hitting back at our attackers by unseating their protectors in distant Afghanistan, Bush decided to unseat Saddam Hussein as well. A Middle East dictator who had become an increasingly destabilizing force in the region, Saddam was believed to have weapons of mass destruction in his arsenal, and had been backing and fomenting terrorism himself.

...

On other fronts, the current president deserves substantial credit for his tax cutting that reinvigorated the economy. Though the economy is now showing visible signs of strain, in the seven years of Bush’s presidency we’ve had roughly six solid years of economic expansion, including strong GDP numbers and record low unemployment. But Bush was manifestly not as good on spending, allowing his Republican Congress to spend more robustly than the Democratic majority it replaced, eventually convincing Americans to return Congress to Democratic hands.

...

Writing recently in the New York Sun, Arthur Brooks of Syracuse University’s Maxwell School noted that Bush’s efforts to help the developing world in Africa have been substantial though they have gone largely unnoticed by the national elite. Bush, he wrote, brought “aid to sub-Saharan Africa to the highest levels in American history” and “raised HIV-AIDS funding by 36% his first year in office.” Added Mr. Brooks, “By 2006, annual American aid to Africa had topped $4 billion.”

...

So Bush gets little or no credit for the good he’s done while the mainstream media echo chamber continues to harp on what hasn’t gone off perfectly. As Bush works the Middle East to try his hand at a little personal diplomacy and possibly nurture peace in a region that hasn’t seen anything like it in more than 60 years, it pays to remember that this president still has nearly 12 months before he enters the history books.

...

Jewish Exponent

Another columnist points out that Jews arose to defend Obama from the Muslim slurs. But he also questions why ANY criticism is off- limits.

The Audacity of Criticism

African-Americans and Jews were joined in a relationship long characterized by mutual respect and shared commitment to civil rights. But it was also one that often foundered on the sensitivities and resentments that both groups often could not rise above.
Yet now that the civil-rights movement, as well as fights over affirmative action and other hot-button issues, have faded from the top of the national agenda, blacks and Jews most often have little to do with each other.

But the presidential campaign of the first serious African-American contender for the White House has brought some of the old sensitivities and fears back to the surface.

...

The truth is that Obama is a practicing Christian. And he is far more a product of Columbia and Harvard, as well as of the same popular culture of the 1970s and '80s on which most Americans were reared, than the Indonesian schools where he spent a portion of his youth.

But it was no surprise that amid all the acrimony of this campaign, the organized Jewish world felt it must speak up strongly in Obama's defense. Last week, the heads of nine of the most influential national Jewish organizations, including the Anti-Defamation League and the United Jewish Communities, signed a joint letter denouncing the rumors about Obama.

...

... when Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen wrote last week about the troubling facts about Obama's membership in a Chicago church, whose pastor was a friend and supporter of Louis Farrakhan, the racist and anti-Semitic head of the Nation of Islam, he raised a question that some people didn't want to hear.

...

What was equally interesting was the response to Cohen, a liberal anchor of the Post's Op-Ed page, from some on the left.

...

So for all the distance we have traveled toward King's vision of a colorblind society, it appears that some view any questions about a black as inherently tainted by prejudice. This is the same sort of false sensitivity that turned an otherwise unexceptionable statement from Hillary Clinton about the roles of both King and President Lyndon Johnson's in passing civil-rights legislation into a controversy.

...

Jews and anyone else who oppose him simply because his father was a Muslim from Kenya offend the spirit of American democracy. But Jews like Chabon, himself a virulent foe of Israel, who insist that not even reasonable questions about his associations should be raised, are just as wrong.

...

Concern about racism should motivate us to speak out when Obama or any African-American is treated unfairly. But even though black-Jewish relations remain sensitive, that shouldn't silence questions about a man who may well become president.

New Jersey Jewish News

This editorial pulls not punches and offers no other critique. It limits the conversation to the lies about Obama being distributed by email.

Lies, damned lies, and e-mails

One of the most dangerous weapons in the current war on civility is the “forward” function, the little click that allows e-mail users to pass on a message, no matter how ill-informed or unwelcome.

Among the most pernicious of such missives is a widely distributed e-mail smearing Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential hopeful from Illinois. Picking at threads of his biography, from his Muslim father to his middle name, it weaves a fantasy of a sort of Manchurian Muslim, intent on waging jihad from the Oval Office.

Obama was forced to address these laughable and easily falsifiable rumors, and it was heartening that so many Jewish leaders rallied to his side. In an “open letter to the Jewish communities,” leaders of nine Jewish organizations spoke out against the “hateful e-mails that use falsehood and innuendo to mischaracterize Senator Barack Obama’s religious beliefs and who he is as a person.”

...

E-mail users have a place for rumors. It’s called the trash.

African-American pilots over Auschwitz

Last week, President Bush remarked that the United States should have bombed the Auschwitz death camp in 1944. Next week, Americans will commemorate the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. and the struggle for Civil Rights.

What do these two occasions have in common? More than one might think.

The link between the two is the Tuskegee Airmen of World War II, the first African American pilots in the United States military.

...

On the morning of Aug. 20, 1944, a group of 127 U.S. bombers called Flying Fortresses approached Auschwitz. They were escorted by 100 Mustang fighter planes. Most of the Mustangs were piloted by Tuskegee Airmen of the 332nd Fighter Group. The attacking force dropped more than one thousand 500-pound bombs on oil targets less than five miles from the gas chambers. ...

...

The Roosevelt administration knew about the mass murder going on in Auschwitz, and even possessed diagrams of the camp that were prepared by two escapees. But when Jewish organizations asked the Roosevelt administration to order the bombing of the camp and the railways leading to it, the requests were rejected. U.S. officials claimed such raids were "impracticable" because they would require "considerable diversion" of planes needed for the war effort.

But the Tuskegee veterans know that claim was false. They were right there in the skies above Auschwitz. No "diversion" was necessary to drop a few bombs on the mass-murder machinery or the railways leading into the camp. Sadly, those orders were never given.

...

The refusal to bomb Auschwitz remains the most powerful symbol of that failure. As President Bush said at Yad Vashem, Auschwitz should have been bombed. And the Tuskegee Airmen are eyewitnesses to the fact that it could have been.

Letters Tuesday Editor

2008-01-22T16:40:00.000-05:00

Letters Tuesday Editor was always a regular feature of The Daily Pulse. It has always been my favorite, because it gets closest to the real "pulse" of the nation. Your national papers, like the New York Times, only publish high-fallootin' letters from muckety-mucks. But your RightHereburg Times Advertiser really posts Letters to the Editor. Sometimes they are brilliant. Sometimes they are hillarious. Sometimes they are terrifying. But they always seem to be real. So, with little more ado, The Daily Pulse - Letters Tuesday Editor.The Winchester (Kentucky) Sun

I don't think this letter is a plant. If it was he would say "strictly Democrat," instead of "strictly Democratic." That does not, however, mean it is particularly intelligent or persuasive.

I will vote for the first time in November.

My family has always been strictly Democratic, but this election is different than others before it.

...

...Ron Paul is a Republican canidate for the presidency and has the most money of any Republican candidate. ... You could put up a poll about who will vote for which candidates, and a lot of people will say they'll vote for Ron Paul.

Courier-Journal (Louisville, Kentucky)

Cal Thomas, a misogynist? Whodathunkit? But seriously, I agree with everything this lady wrote. The anti-abortion people are in a real conundrum once they look their views straight in the eye, for it is impossible to be consistent without firing up Ol' Sparky for doctors and moms. And just as an aside, and a peek inside the minds of these people, did you see my diary the other day about Indiana legislation, Pharmacist Refusal, Defining Life, Suicide by Death Penalty and more in the Indiana Legislature? Seriously, it is now officialy impossible to satirize these people, for Their reality has lapped our satire.

In his Jan. 17 column, Cal Thomas showed his true colors writing about his views on abortion. He is a misogynist who seems to have little to no sympathy for rape victims.

He also wants to label abortions "immoral," while the political party with which he affiliates himself believes in another form of killing: capital punishment. It's not OK to kill the embryo in a rape victim, but it is OK to let it grow up and then fry it in the chair?

...

and another good letter in response to the same article. I think I love this lady.

As someone who thinks abortion is, on a basic level, morally wrong, nothing upsets me more than how incredibly misguided the pro-life movement is. One thing that disappoints me is their unrelenting attacks on liberal Democrats who protect a woman's right to end a pregnancy. They avoid the real issues.

...

Another is horrendous sex education that focuses on abstinence, a product influenced by the Christian right. These abortion causing policies are not from liberal Democrats, but conservative Republicans.

...

If you vote pro-life, than be sure to vote for a Democrat.

Avoid Republicans, who are from the true party of abortion.

Herald-Citizen (Cookeville, Tennessee)

People just take it as an article of faith that illegal immigrants suck the nation dry. The real truth is that, unless they are being paid under the table, they contribute to Social Security and other programs and never receive the benefit of them. Actually, illegal immigrants probably contribute far more than they take. The idea, though, that only "tax paying American citizens" are footing the bill is absurd. Be sure not to miss the ugly bug comparison at the end. Somehow, the hate always peeks out, not matter how reasonable these people try to seem.

...

Our original TennCare system was bankrupted, in part, by the massive influx of illegal immigrants receiving health care benefits. My question is this, if we should "all" work together to provide care to everyone who needs it, then why are the tax paying American citizens the only ones footing the bill for it? Universal health care is a great idea but someone still has to pay for it. If the illegal immigrants aren't going to pay for it, who is? You and I, that's who. It troubles me that there are people out there that think as Mr. Handlson does. While we should always try our best to help our fellow man, I don't believe the American citizen who cannot get the care they need should have to pay for the non-citizen's healthcare.

...

You can't blame them for wanting more than they have, but they shouldn't be allowed to take it from the mouths of our own citizens. Maybe we shouldn't blame them for invading our shores in search of a better life, after all it's only natural; army ants and Japanese hornets do it everyday.

The Oak Ridger (Oak Ridge, Tennessee)

I truly love it when letter writers refute stock wing-nut myths.

Bill Grimmell’s Jan. 15th challenge to the 600K death toll I sited in the Iraq war is unsubstantiated and contains much misinformation from politically motivated Web sites.

The study published in the Lancet in October ‘06, funded in large part by MIT, was, in fact, subject to extensive peer review by specialists in epidemiology prior to publication. The well-designed methodology used to estimate 655,000 Iraqis dead was the same used in Darfur and Congo. The results from these two countries were not challenged by the Bush administration.

...

According to a spokesman for the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Physicians for Social Responsibility, the 655,000 death toll is "the best estimate we have to date." None of the other estimates of dead have resulted from as well-designed studies by independent scientists as the John Hopkins study.

Now perhaps Mr. Grimmell can answer my challenge. Which pretense of the invasion of a sovereign nation has justified what we have done in Iraq?

Richmond (Virginia) Times Dispatch

A letter writer endorses Obama. These are great letters, because they tell us of truly committed supporters. Who else would bother to write a letter? My only concern is that nobody talking about how Obama can transcend politics and overcome hyper-partisanship can identify a single Republican ready to play along.

Obama Is Offering Us A Better Way

It frustrates me that Hillary Clinton is actually trying to portray herself as an agent of change.

...

The only change I see there is taking President Bush and replacing him with an equally partisan, but more liberal, successor.

...

I think the only credible change agent running for president is Sen. Barack Obama. I'm not naive enough to think Obama can transform the country overnight, but I do believe his words inspire people to believe our current course isn't the only option. It is pleasant imagining a President Obama overcoming some of the hyper-partisanship that is devouring Washington, and actually getting both parties to act in good faith to solve some major issues such as health care, Social Security, Medicare, and our dependence on foreign oil.

...

Richmond (Virginia) Times Dispatch

Well, if Rudy stays in the race until February 12, he will get at least one vote. That's better than he did in Nevada, isn't it? By the way, wasn't Hitler also Times "Person of the Year"?

Voters Should Give Giuliani a Chance

...

Rudy Giuliani has been honored by the Queen of England, has been Time magazine's Person of the Year, and has been a political genius in the city of New York, but he is not on the presidential radar. He single-handedly turned New York City around, from a city full of crime to a clean, safe place. He led the largest city in our country out of the worst spectacle in history. He was a 9/11 hero and does not receive any credit from voters.

...

The Daily Pulse- Florida Edition

2008-01-21T13:22:00.000-05:00

Florida is the next big test for the Democratic candidates. Yes, I know we are supposed to pretend it's not going to happen, because Florida is being punished for trying to be relevant, but it DOES matter. It matter for two reasons. First, even if the delegates are not counted, Florida will be the big story leading into Super Tuesday. Second, there WILL be some sort of compromise and Florida's delegates will count. It would be utter suicide to piss on the biggest swing state of them all. Face it, the entire general election could be decided by picking 11 random voters along the I-4 corridor, because if the race is close it will be decided from St. Pete to Daytona Beach.

So with little more ado, The Daily Pulse leaves frigid (6 degrees) Indianapolis and flies off to the Sunshine State.Florida Times-Union (Jacksonville)

Religion. In Europe, in Canada, in Australia, they're figuring out that religion in a fancy way of saying "I don't know," and setting it aside as we learn better answers. Here in the good 'ol U S of A, we are turning into a damned theocracy. My own take? Let's start today with some cartoons, then we'll get to the opinion pages. The cartoons are my own, because I have yet to figure out a way to post somebody else's cartoon and stay within fair use doctrine:

Extra points to anybody who identifies all the features of stained glass celebrating knowledge, instead of myth.

Can you name the mean in the picture?

Our future. How fucking depressing.

Okay, enough of that. This one is from a local columnist. Politics and religion. They go together like "arbeit" and "macht frei."

Race and religion heat up two Southern primary battles

By MATT TOWERY, The Times-Union

I've got to hand it to Barack Obama. His team managed to take mangled words from Bill and Hillary Clinton and create an explosive racial divide just in time for some major southern primaries. I'll get back to that in a bit.

...

I first need to tip my old political-strategist hat to the directors of a new movie, Article VI. It's magically timed for release just days before the Mitt Romney campaign confronts the so-called "Bible Belt."

...

Separation of church and politics is a different matter. Just ask Bill and Hillary Clinton. They are fighting off an assortment of spins of their comments about Obama; remember Bill's remark about Obama's candidacy being a "fantasy"?

...

With the all-important symbolism of the Martin Luther King Day celebration coming Monday in King's hometown of Atlanta, it looks like Obama has been awarded the pulpit to speak on the eve of the holiday at Ebenezer Baptist Church, where King once was pastor.

The King family has no say in the church event. But the Obama camp will likely use the prized appearance to seal the deal with black voters in southern states.

There may be separation of church and state. But never of church and politics.

Naples Daily News

Do you think MLK Jr. and Jesus are up there somewhere, talking about how disgusted they are about how EVERYBODY is using their names in American politics?

Invoking Martin Luther King Jr., a national icon

Just in time for his birthday and his national holiday, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. made an unexpected appearance in the presidential campaign.

Just before the New Hampshire primary, eventual winner Hillary Rodham Clinton observed that it was President Lyndon Johnson who realized King’s dream of racial equality by winning passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The implication was that to implement lofty ideals requires a seasoned political hand like, for example, Hillary Clinton.

Barack Obama’s supporters, alert to any suggestion that while he talks a good game his record of accomplishment is rather sparse, shot back that the New York senator had dishonored the memory of King by minimizing his role in the passage of that landmark law.

...

The courageous preacher who contributed the “I Have A Dream” speech and “Letter from the Birmingham Jail” to the canon of American ideals has truly become a national icon. His is a mantle worth aspiring to.

Orlando Sentinel

And now for some endorsements.

Sentinel Endorsement: Clinton for the Democrats

Our position: The senator has the strongest record of accomplishment and expertise

...

Mrs. Clinton is best known for her eight years as first lady, but her strongest credentials in this race are her record of accomplishment and expertise on important policy matters as a U.S. senator representing New York.

Elected in 2000 and overwhelmingly re-elected in 2006, she has been an accessible, hard-working lawmaker who has earned respect on both sides of the aisle. As a member of panels responsible for military, health, education and environmental policy, she has steeped herself in those critical areas.

...

Mr. Obama was elected to the Senate in 2004 and still does not have a major legislative achievement to his name. It's not clear from his record that he is ready to lead the Free World.

...

We don't see eye-to-eye with Mrs. Clinton on several issues, just as we don't with Mr. McCain. But she is the best qualified among this year's Democratic candidates.

The Sentinel endorses Hillary Clinton for the nomination in Florida's Democratic Primary.

Orlando Sentinel

Sentinel Endorsement: John McCain in GOP

Our position: The Arizona senator is clearly the most qualified of the contenders

No clear front-runner has emerged among Republican presidential candidates after the party's early primaries. But there is a clear choice when it comes to the most qualified: U.S. Sen. John McCain of Arizona.

...

Mr. McCain is one of the most authoritative voices in Congress on national security and foreign affairs, two core responsibilities for any president. He understands that U.S. influence is rooted not only in military might, but also in maintaining strong alliances and American values such as the humane treatment of prisoners.

...

Ex-Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee deserves praise for injecting a civil tone into this year's campaign, but a series of gaffes has exposed his lack of depth on foreign affairs. His injection of religion into politics is troubling. And his lurches to the right on immigration and taxes mark an unfortunate break from his bipartisan and pragmatic style as governor.

...

Mr. McCain stands out, even in this year's crowded field. He has taken positions with which we disagree, but his qualifications to be president are beyond dispute.

The Sentinel endorses John McCain for the nomination in Florida's Republican Primary.

St. Petersburg Times

Obama for Democrats

After Florida's shabby treatment by the Democratic presidential candidates, you could not blame voters if they decided to sit out the state's Jan. 29 primary. However, this contest is too important to pass on. Florida Democrats face a historic choice, one they will tell their children and grandchildren about some day. Even though the national party has stripped the state of its delegates as punishment for moving up its primary, our votes cannot be denied. They will help determine whether the 2008 Democratic nominee will be an African-American or a woman. Either would be a first.

No wonder many voters are torn, wishing they didn't have to choose one over the other. It is a close call, but as much as we admire Hillary Clinton, we recommend Barack Obama for president in this primary vote.

...

What separates these two candidates are not the issues, where their differences are minimal, but the values and vision they would bring to the presidency and the kind of political character they have displayed so far.

In Clinton, we see the past; in Obama, we see a fresh start. Clinton is a divisive political figure; Obama's appeal transcends racial and party lines. She exudes competence; he radiates optimism. She came to the campaign with a sense of entitlement; he came to it with a sense of possibilities. She can be evasive, even misleading; he can be refreshingly candid about his own shortcomings and his political mistakes. She represents business as usual in politics; he at least offers the hope of something better.

...

Another Illinois politician was elected president with even less experience than Obama. He was a former state legislator and one-term congressman named Abraham Lincoln. We don't suggest that Obama is a Lincoln, only that Washington experience should not be the only standard for measuring a candidate's qualifications to be president.

We don't appreciate the Obama campaign memo spinning the Florida primary, which the Democratic candidates are boycotting, as a non-event that will have "no bearing" on the nomination contest. However, we don't think pique should be the basis for our choice. The Times recommends Barack Obama in the Jan. 29 Democratic primary.

The Sun-Sentinel

I think this is the closest Giuliani is going to get to an endorsement:

Pick Giulianti, Asseff, Furr, Levy, Holodak

Voters in Hollywood face one of the city's most important elections. They must put aside division and and anger to pick four leaders who can guide their city effectively.

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel Editorial Board recommends they re-elect Mayor Mara Giulianti and Commissioner Quentin "Beam" Furr and elect Patricia Asseff and Joshua Levy to the Commission.

Letters Tuesday Editor

2008-01-15T10:30:00.000-05:00

For those unfamiliar, The Daily Pulse was at one time, and is now again, a regular feature. It surveys local papers' editorial pages to capture the "pulse" of Americans froma local point of view, rather than seeing what the beltway and the national media TELL us to think. Over time, it recognizes trends you might not otherwise see coming. It also lets you know just how effective the national media is in pushing memes, be it the New York Time or FAUX NEWS.

It's Tuesday, so it's time for Letters Tuesday Editor. Today we look at the Nevada and South Carolina papers to see what people are writing about. You need to take the big leap to find out for yourself.Las Vegas Sun

We the People? Not any more. Now it's "We the shareholders," at least as far as Republicans are concerned.

Republicans forget about ‘We the people ...’

...

A person who strongly believes in the bulwarks of the U.S. Constitution has to wonder about the first words in its preamble, “We the people ...” Why did that wonderful concept of our Founding Fathers disappear and is no longer a part of the Republican presidential debates? That concept has been replaced with shrill cries for more tax cuts at the corporate level and for the richest in this nation.

It was not that long ago that we heard the famous saying, “What is good for General Motors is good for America.” One can only conclude that the Republican candidates believe the massive layoffs and outsourcing of jobs around the world are good for America.

Las Vegas Review Journal

This guy doesn't like any of the candidates. I cut some for fair use purposes, so you'll have to click the link if you want to know how he feels about Edwards, Thompson, and Paul.

Candidates don't look all that appealing

...

-- An inexperienced if earnest junior senator who looks and sounds good, but you still suspect he's an empty suit.

-- A truly sinister woman who wants the government to own, control and dictate every facet of your life.

On the other side of the aisle, we have

...

-- A bass-playing ex-governor who actually thinks the planet is only 9,000 years old and doesn't understand the United States is a secular republic.

-- A rich-boy former governor who looks the part but is suspected of being the ultimate missionary for his church.

-- A short-tempered, thin-skinned senator who votes like a member of the other party on domestic issues.

...

Elko Daily Free Press

This barely qualified as a letter to the editor, but I included it anyway. It is really more a commentary piece by one of Obama's campaign captains. That said, it was in the LTE section, and now it's in The Daily Pulse.

Obama the best candidate

On Jan. 19 all Nevadans have an opportunity to make history by supporting their chosen candidate in the first Nevada caucus.

Until recently I have never been politically active.

When I saw Barack Obama speak in Elko I realized that he is the embodiment of what politics should and can be.

Honesty, integrity and a sincere desire to change our world to the benefit of all, is the message of his campaign. ...

For these and many other reasons many realize that Barack Obama is the best candidate for President. Negative politics are not a part of the Obama campaign and this in itself is refreshing.

We have an opportunity to change the future of America and portray Nevada as a state of citizens who care. Please attend your caucus on Jan. 19.

Charleston Post and Courier

Welcome to the world of delusion. This writer suggests a "fusion ticket" of Huckabee-Obama. Note, please, that he did not suggest Obama-Huckabee.

Huckabee, Obama

...

We need to reunite and heal as a nation if we are to remain vital and dominant in this increasingly dangerous and competitive world. What we need is a fusion ticket for president and vice president.

After carefully reviewing the strengths, constituencies and politics of each party's front-runners, it is clear that a Huckabee-Obama ticket is the way to heal this nation.

A Huckabee-Obama ticket could also help unite the regional divide (South vs. North, Red vs. Blue) that has been the most dangerous and intractable problem in modern American politics. ...

Charleston Post and Courier

Ahhh, misogyny. Here's a question- how "really glad" is Hillary she didn't marry somebody like YOU 30 years ago?

Reminded why

The Hillary Clinton of today reminds a lot of men of why they're really glad they didn't marry someone like her 30 years ago.

The Greenville News

This writer, on the other hand, thinks Huckabee is their weakest candidate. I agree. Even more important, I think a Huckabee candidacy will mean the death of the modern Republican Party. If McCain is nominated and loses, the religious wing of the party can say "see, you have to obey us." But if Huckabee is nonimated and loses, the money wing can say "go back to your trailers and vote the way we tell you." Should be fun.

Democrats aren't afraid of Huckabee

There are many reasons why conservatives shouldn't vote for Mike Huckabee in the primary. One of them was pointed out by Kimberley Strassel in The Wall Street Journal a couple of weeks ago: As a Baptist minister Huckabee got used to accepting gifts and donations, as an elected public official the silly fellow didn't have the innate good sense to realize he could not continue to accept these gifts. He also forgot to report some of these gifts. In a general election campaign this would go off in the man's face like an exploding cigar, with pious Democrats screeching "culture of corruption."

...

Huckabee also said he feared someone walking across the Mexican border carrying a suitcase nuke. Well I don't mind Hollywood inventing exciting doomsday scenarios with suitcase nukes, but for heaven's sake I expect someone running for president to know that the smallest nuclear weapon in existence is bigger than a suitcase ...

No wonder Mike Huckabee is the favorite Republican candidate of the Democrats.

The Herald

Take a look at Ron Paul

...

Ron Paul endorsers are an impressive group, including chairmen of economics departments at several prestigous universities, respected business pioneers such as Peter Thiel, co-founder and former CEO of PayPal, and hundreds of veterans.

...

I hope my grandmother was right. I hope that South Carolinians will exhibit the courage of our founding fathers and that of Ron Paul. I hope they will vote on the principles in our Constitution.

The Weekend Pulse

2008-01-13T21:31:00.000-05:00

For those unfamiliar, The Daily Pulse was at one time, and is now again, a regular feature. It surveys local papers' editorial pages to capture the "pulse" of Americans froma local point of view, rather than seeing what the beltway and the national media TELL us to think. Over time, it recognizes trends you might not otherwise see coming. It also lets you know just how effective the national media is in pushing memes, be it the New York Time or FAUX NEWS.

Today, The Daily Pulse looks outside its window at Indiana snow, and takes are hard turn south to sunny Florida.St. Petersburg Times

Without even knowing what "Hometwon Democracy" is, this editorial is a good lesson in the ugly reality behind "citizen initiatives." They are ugly fights for signatures, which are treated as purchasable commodities.

A count meltdown and bully tactics

The battle over Hometown Democracy has made gathering petition signatures in Florida look more like trading pork bellies. ...

...

On the ground, both sides are waving checkbooks at petition-gathering firms. But the two business-backed opponents are taking this gamesmanship to entirely new lows.

They first tried simply to outbid Hometown Democracy, inviting the top 60 signature gatherers to a meeting where they were offered three times as much money to change sides. Then they sent petition signers a preposterous letter from former House Speaker John Thrasher: "Unless you want higher property taxes, higher utility bills and Florida's scenic beauty destroyed by Big Developers, you will certainly want to revoke your signature from their petition."

The latest stunt is a coordinated attempt to flood elections supervisors with an alternative petition that the business opponents have no interest in actually seeing on the ballot. Since Jan. 2, according to Floridians for Smarter Growth director Michael Caputo, "hundreds of thousands" of these counter petitions have been submitted.

The devious intent is to overwhelm election supervisors so they lack the manpower to certify Hometown Democracy petitions before the deadline. The business groups have Hometown organizer Lesley Blackner in their crosshairs and show not a hint of remorse.

...

These business groups may succeed in keeping the Hometown Democracy amendment off the ballot in November. But if the amendment ever does make it to the voters, the bully tactics won't be forgotten.

Daytona Beach News Journal

Papers are making their endorsements. The Daytona Beach News Journal likes Edwards.

Edwards a contender who inspires confidence

Long before this month's Iowa and New Hampshire votes, many Democrats decided experience and "electability" are the most critical considerations in choosing their party's next presidential nominee. But after eight reckless years under George W. Bush, it should be obvious that good judgment, above all, is what this country needs in its next president.

John Edwards, in a strong field of Democratic candidates, best inspires our confidence for his sound judgment and thoughtful preparation on issues that matter to most Americans. His policy proposals are more comprehensive than the other contenders, offering carefully detailed and compelling solutions for health care, job security, the Iraq war, global warming, immigration and more.

...

The former U.S. senator from North Carolina also scores well on experience and electability. He is clearly the least polarizing of the top Democratic contenders, comporting himself as a defender of regular Americans not just in this race but throughout his career in politics and as a brilliant trial lawyer fighting political machines and corporate ruthlessness. His consistent refusal to accept campaign contributions from lobbyists resonates with his rhetoric on the stump, and, more important, his Senate voting record.

...

He's not capturing national headlines after Barack Obama's win in the Iowa caucus and Hillary Clinton's comeback in New Hampshire last week. But only a small fraction of the primary votes have been cast. Florida Democrats can give Edwards a deserved boost toward the nomination Jan. 29. John Edwards has the intellectual clarity, values, experience, good judgment and message to represent his party well against the Republican challenger in November.

Pensacola News Journal

In Pensacola, they like Obama because he's inspiring and inexperienced. They like McCain because he's boring and experienced. Go figure.

For president -- our recommendations

...

Our recommendations:

Democrat: Barack Obama

One fear is that Obama is light in the experience department -- especially when it comes to foreign policy and diplomacy (shades of the current White House occupant).

But Obama brings a huge and real breath of fresh air to the race. There is a distinct feeling that when he speaks, we're hearing what Barack Obama thinks, and not what some monied special interests or advisory focus groups think. ...

There doesn't seem to be that much difference on the issues between Obama and Hillary Clinton, the perceived front-runner for the nomination.

But Clinton, as earnest as she might be on policy, is the candidate with feet in the past. If Democratic voters are leery of continuing the current dynastic trend of American politics, they want a new kind of leadership, and that's what Obama offers.

Republican: John McCain

A contradiction here? Certainly John McCain can't be called new leadership -- his Washington roots are deep. But like Barack Obama, McCain offers something voters are desperate for in the White House: integrity.

...

McCain doesn't seem to care if voters don't always agree with him; he's going to say what he thinks. But he has shown a grasp for practical reality. When it became clear to him that his stance on immigration simply was not going to lead to consensus in Washington, he moved toward compromise.

Like it or not, that's how things get done in Washington. And that's how government functions in a way that brings people together, not split them apart in partisan rancor.

...

McCain has earned voters' respect from his service in Vietnam and his experience in the Senate. In being himself, his essential integrity has shone through.

Florida Today

Stand and be counted

Headlines and analyses of the New Hampshire primary and the Iowa caucuses have dealt mostly with who won and why. The more important story is who voted and why.

The most significant political developments so far:

More independent thinkers are calling the shots, rather than dyed-in-the-wool Democrats or Republicans.

More voters of any race or sex are voting without regard to race or sex.

More young people are getting caught up in the political games, as first-time voters or campaign workers.

...

So, the more men and women, young and old, white or black or Asian or Hispanic or Latin or whatever vote, the better served we'll be. We're off to a good start.

The Daily Pulse- Foreign Edition

2008-01-09T14:59:00.000-05:00

The Daily Pulse is a regular survey of editorial content you might not usually see. We don't look at the New York Times or the Washington Post. You already have those saved in your Bookmarks. Instead, we look at The Bolivar Commercial or The New Haven Ledger. Why? Because those editorials, local columns, and letters to the editor tell you what real people are thinking about and talking about. And sometimes, we wander past our borders to see what OTHER people are thinking about and talking about. Today, The Daily Pulse goes north and south of the border, looking at (English language) editorial pages.

We are also looking for contributors. I would give a minor body part for somebody willing to do a weekly survey of American Spanish-language papers, interpreting the highlights with some commentary. Also, a European survey, an Asian survey, perhaps alternative papers (GLBT, African American, Jewish, Lithuanian, etc.). Let me know if you're interested. And, without further ado, the Pulse across our borders.The Edmonton Sun

The columnist puts in his two cents for McCain and Clinton. Why? Foreign policy knowledge and experience. Obama truly stepped in it when he talked about calling "the President of Canada" about NAFTA. Really, folks, remember laughing at Bush because he didn't know the name of the leaders of Asian countries? Obama doesn't even know that our closest neighbor has a Prime Minister?

The ideal White House race

By JOSEPH QUESNEL

The next president of the United States should be very familiar with world affairs.

...

In my ideal situation, John McCain and Hillary Clinton would win each of their respective party's nominations.

My belief is that these two candidates possess the most direct knowledge of foreign affairs and how the world system works than the other candidates.

...

On the Democratic ticket, I look to Hillary Clinton as the only candidate with real world international knowledge. Although this experience is not direct, it comes from living under the first Clinton presidency. Her exposure to many powerful actors within the international system, as well as exposure to how diplomacy works, is impressive. Her fortitude in seeing Iraq through is also admirable. This, unfortunately, sets her apart from her party's hardcore activists (voters in party primaries are more ideological than the average voters for parties). In the Democratic case, this means party loyalists committed to premature withdrawal from Iraq have a big say in their party's nomination.

As I write, Barak Obama has just recently swept the Iowa Democratic caucus. This is the same man who said one of his first actions as U.S. president would be to call the president of Canada about NAFTA.

So much for familiarity with world affairs.

The Globe and Mail

This columnist, too, seems not to be warming to Obama. His point, however, is that Obama is running on persona, not platform, that his platform is boilerplate Democrat. This echos the diaries and comments we see from people who do not support him, that he is long on rhetoric and short on ideas or experience. My own personal opinion (and yes I know, nobody cares) is that he is incredibly charismatic, but little else. People see his charisma, particuarly his fairly blatant attempt to be seen as the next JFK, and build their own individual ideas of what he might be, when he is really a empty suit into which people pour their dreams.

Party darling, yes, but it's Obama's persona, not ideas

JEFFREY SIMPSON

Barack Obama positions himself as the candidate of national unity, hope and reconciliation. It is a conceit, albeit a powerful one.

...

The Illinois senator hasn't proposed anything outside of the party mainstream, which is quite smart, tactically speaking, in primary contests. But it's a stretch and a half to suggest any of his ideas are going to build durable bridges to Republicans, and so create a government of "change" based on the discovery of political unity.

...

His two big promises - again almost identical to those of his Democratic opponents - are the expansion of health-care coverage and aggressive action against climate change.

Nothing that Mr. Obama proposes is particularly arresting within the confines of the Democratic Party. Thus, it's not on policy ideas but, rather, on his persona that Mr. Obama became the party's darling.

The Chronicle Herald

Every time I hear the gnashing of teeth and cries of woe from opponents of Global Warming Science, I think of buggy whips. All they ever say is "it will destroy the economy." When buggies went out of style America responded by being the world's auto manufacturer, stoking the fire of industrialization into a conflagration. Can we do that again, or has America turned into a nation of whiners?

Carbon tax gains traction

WHEN Green Party Leader Elizabeth May laid out her blueprint for a green energy future – the centrepiece of which was bringing in a $50-a-tonne carbon tax – she made an unusual appeal to her political opponents: "Please steal these ideas."

Six months later, Ms. May’s cornerstone proposal is still sitting on her front lawn, ready for the taking. Neither the Conservatives nor the Liberals are ready to risk voter wrath by driving sky-high energy bills further into the stratosphere in order to meet our Kyoto targets.

...

It’s unclear that a carbon tax – even one as jolting as Ms. May advocates – would break the backs, or habits, of most motorists. But it might yet spur a new era of industrial innovation.

Toronto Star

Another carbon tax column. It looks like they're actually talking about something substantive up north. Here, we talk about Hillary's tears. Pitiful.

Straight talk on climate

...

The National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy, a group comprised of businesspeople, academics and environmental experts released a report Monday that offers a blunt assessment of what must be done to reach the government's climate change targets. Those targets call for a 20 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020, and a 60 per cent to 70 per cent cut by 2050.

...

The report suggests that the best way for Ottawa to build a price for emissions into our economy is through a combination of a "carbon tax" on consumers and a "cap-and-trade" system that allows companies that produce less carbon than their caps permit to sell their unused quotas to companies that exceed their caps.

...

Because this approach is the best way to fight climate change, not just for Canada, but for other countries as well, Ottawa should also be pushing for these ideas in negotiations on a new climate change treaty to go into effect when the Kyoto agreement expires in 2012.

The Bermuda Sun

This editorial, even though it is from Bermuda, not South Carolina, or Alabama, is a good reminder that "the past" is not so long ago, and the repurcussions of prior evil continue to echo through the years.

Born into segregation, but I got the last laugh

While canvassing in Paget West I had the opportunity to talk to a white voter of Scottish descent whose only concern about the state of the country was the current discussion of race and privilege in Bermuda.

In her view, there was far too much talk of things which happened 100 years ago. ...

For example, she was unaware that in the industry that she works in, which is health care, that up until 1959-60 the powers that be even mandated babies at the hospital should be separated, based upon race.

...

All of this notwithstanding, the recent Ombudsman's report on the persistence of institutional racism at the Hospital today, only graphically illustrates how far we've yet to travel.

...

One final note: Upon telling the young Scottish Bermudian voter my story about my first hospital stay, her reply, with her still noticeable Scottish accent was, "You mean to tell me Rolfe, they even segregated babies!"...yes - that and a whole lot more.

Buenos Aires Herald

Global warming? Here, it's still a "debate." Elsewhere, though, they actually get it.

Some don’t like it hot

If nearly 13,000 cruiser passengers descended on this city last Sunday, the extremely favourable exchange rate of the last few years should not be considered the only factor — the vast majority of these tourists come from latitudes which leave them shuddering through midwinter and thus delight in the summer temperatures here ... Yet there can be too much of a good thing — the temperatures approaching and even topping 40 degrees in recent days are no longer seen as simply a guarantee of a good tan on the beach but conjure up all sorts of general environmental fears related to global warming and the ozone layer.

...

“Some like it hot” ran the title of the famous 1959 Billy Wilder film and undoubtedly some continue to like it hot today nearly half a century later but certainly not everybody. We cannot blame either the government or ourselves for the extreme heat but both government and society should feel responsible for how they meet the various challenges posed.

The Jamaica Observer

Hillary or Obama? Obama or Hillary? Either way, history will be made, and America will no longer lag behind the rest of the industrialized world in selecting our leaders. As this editorial puts it, perhaps we can put behind us the belief, overt or inate, in "white superiority."

Obama or Clinton - US on threshold of political history

It is difficult not to be enthralled or intrigued by the unfolding presidential contest in the United States, which seems to be on course to create political history, if it elects a Democratic candidate on November 4.

At this early juncture - and it is indeed early - the two front runners for the Democratic Party, Mr Barack Obama and Mrs Hillary Clinton, would smash American political history, should either become president of the most powerful country on earth.

...

Thus far, Mr Obama appears to be drawing significant support across the various divides - race, gender, age and even finance. The son of a Kenyan father is attracting scores of young voters, women and independents and seems to have a well-financed campaign.

That, of course, would be an achievement of no mean order. Huge chunks of the US population have been brought up to believe in white supremacy. ...

It is clear at this point that the Republicans are not generating anything remotely close to the level of excitement of a Barack Obama or a Hillary Clinton.

The months ahead will definitely prove very interesting for America.

Does anybody have a password to The Guadalajara Reporter? They have an editorial entitled The Global Orgasm--Intimate satisfaction aimed at world peace. I don't know what it's about, but it certainly need to be in The Daily Pulse. Wait, I found a website.

The Royal Gazette

In Bermuda, they're worried about inflation. Here, the President says everything is hunky-dory and just ignore the three foreclosures on your block. And gas prices? They're good for ~~contributors~~ the economy.

Economic indicators

At first glance, last week's announcement of strong growth in the Island's economy in 2006 was contradicted by Monday's report of soaring local inflation. In fact they represent different sides of the same coin.

...

That figure dramatically pointed up the problem the Island faced throughout 2007 as inflation had steadily tracked upwards.

To be sure, the fundamental cause of higher prices has been the dramatic increase in the price of oil, over which Bermuda has very little control.

...

The inflationary problem for Bermuda is compounded by its finite size and social and political considerations that demand that the Island needs to control its population growth. Most economic growth leads to the creation of more jobs, which in turn places more pressure on the Island's infrastructure.

...

The Panama News

This review of Gore's book excoriates Bush and modern American politics. Good.

In defense of reason

...

Gore says that truth, and reason, as the method to get to it, are two fundamental elements for the health of a democracy. His country finds itself confronting an authentic attack on reason, led by the Bush administration, characterized by fear, secrecy, partisanship and blind faith, combined with a degradation of public discourse that has created an environment that's hostile to reason, logic and truth.

...

The author says many things, including his proposals for a transformation, in the more than 300 page of his hard-hitting book, and the truth as seen from Panama and this region in general is evident in the visible effects of such US policies as economic vassalage, the free trade agreements and so on. Looking at it from our internal reality, there are similarities in the extreme socio-economic inequality, the crises of parties and institutions, a democracy ever more devalued by political patronage, electioneering and scant space for participation or transparency. We'll see how much they can change this in 2008.

Letters Tuesday Editor

2008-01-08T10:31:00.000-05:00

Once a week The Daily Pulse puts together "Letters Tuesday Editor," a collection of the best, and worst, letters to the editor from local papers around the country. The thought behind The Daily Pulse is simple- we will know more about what real people think if we look at local editorial pages, columnists, and letters, than if we just look at the Beltway and the national press.

Can you contribute to The Daily Pulse? We are looking for somebody to do weekly and monthly columns, for letters, local columnists, foreign papers, alternative papers, etc. Let me know if you're interested.

Magic Valley Times-News

I think this is sarcasm. What do you think?

Bush, conservatives have everything under control

Remember when we saved Kuwait, and the Royal Family was going to allow free elections? ...

Now we are building prison walls between the religious factions in Iraq. Nothing builds friendship and love like prison walls. ...

Rumor has it that our president has a brilliant idea! He is going to borrow so much money from the Chinese that they will not have enough left to continue the build up of their army. ...

So go back to sleep. George and his right-wing, conservative Republican buddies have everything under control.

Times Daily (Florence, Alabama)

This is a good letter, and it speaks pure truth. The "War on Drugs" was never anything but a "War on Blacks."

I believe the so-called war on drugs is going as planned. It's white people who are the unintended victims -- not blacks.

...

Our war on certain (politically selected) drugs has been an ideal system of going after blacks without appearing to do so. Today's racists aren't using fire hoses or ax handles -- they're using the war on drugs.

...

San Bernardino County Sun

This is why I love Letters Tuesday Editor. There is alway at least one pure nut ranting about "one-world government," or "Hillary is REALLY a witch," or something like that. It's pure entertainment, until you realize they, too, get to vote.

World programmed

Will the public finally wake up and open its eyes to what has been taking place in America over the last many decades, as programmed by the one-world government gang - or will we continue to re-elect their puppets who foster their goals?

...

San Bernardino County Sun

Yup. The subprime crisis didn't happen for lack of laws. It happened because Greenspan LET it happen, because he was blindly focused on inflation and nothing else. Apparently, in economics just as in war, we fight the last war rather than the one we're in.

The subprime scam

From news reports in the mainstream media, it seems to me that reporters don't have a comprehensive view of the subprime mortgage meltdown that burst the real estate bubble. They report a narrow view of it that is too often in error.

...

Our Congress recently passed laws against this happening again, but their act is phony. There are already laws. They just weren't followed as Alan Greenspan, head of the Federal Reserve Bank at the time of subprime lending, and his bank regulators looked the other way.

Don't look for any help for subprime borrowers beside tokenism, although worldwide banking will be bailed out by the American taxpayer as our fearless leaders proclaim the glories of deregulation and the free market. There are plenty of reasons for a Justice Department investigation of the subprime mortgage phenomenon. It is another Wall Street scam - although magnificent in its size.

Herald Tribune (SW Florida)

What will happen to Florida and Michigan. Do you really think the Democratic Party will shelve all those electoral votes? I LOATHE the primacy of Iowa and New Hampshire, tiny state that invite independents to skew the results of what is supposed to be the DEMOCRATIC primary.

Democrats' vote

The large turnout of Democrats in the Iowa caucus shows that they should win in November. ...

While Clinton might win the presidency, unfortunately Obama simply could not. What will the Democrats decide in the next few weeks?

Grand Junction Sentinel

Giving up some of our rights could mean losing them all

In response to Dan Thomasson’s column on gun violence, I really try to be middle of the road on most things in life but I do believe that there are some rights that are just too precious to denigrate. I really don’t believe that we can weaken one of our sacred rights without weakening the rest.

...

I, for one, wouldn’t have it any other way. What part of free speech and what part of freedom of religion is Mr. Thomasson willing to part with?

San Luis Obispo dot com

More to fear

...the House has overwhelmingly passed the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act, which is now resting in the equally Bush-compliant Senate.

This act would, if passed, establish a commission that would travel around the country and hold hearings, conduct investigations and designate various groups as “homegrown terrorists.” ... The act only loosely defines terrorist activities and leaves it up to the commission to determine what is terrorism and what isn’t. ...

As a very wise person said, “Be afraid, be very afraid.”

Galesburg Register-Mail

Bush administration dysfunctional

Naturally at this time of year, I (aka Ebenezer Scrooge) would like to remind all persons in festive mood and attire that there is a faraway land called Iraq where our young heroes are dying in a war (“Bush’s folly”) simply for the oil and the money it will generate for the United States and world once it is divided and managed.

...

Clearly, the intelligent people among us agree. The next occupant of the Oval Office will put HER proverbial foot down and again the United States will prosper and thrive.

St. Petersburg Times

Don't let our votes evaporate

...

How can we as Americans preach democracy to the world when we can't even get it right ourselves? We have soldiers dying every day in the name of democracy. Shame on us! Shame on the Democratic National Committee for political schoolyard bullying. Shame on the states for playing political games. Shame on the candidates for playing into the games, and most important shame on all of us as citizens for allowing this to happen!

...

...I want my vote to count.

Monday's Pulse

2008-01-07T13:28:00.000-05:00

What are people thinking about and writing about beyond the Beltway and the national press? That is the question we try to answer here at The Daily Pulse. We do random surveys of editorial pages for political content, with the idea we learn more about what America and Americans are thinking for themselves, instead of what classed punditry is thinking for them.

Would you like to be a part? Can you contribute a weekly, or monthly, Daily Pulse? Are you interested in foreign papers, alternatives (GLBT, African American, religious, ethnic community), or can you translate (I would kill for somebody to do a weekly Spanish editorial pages)? Let me know, and join one of the tubes' longest-running features.Tuscaloosa News

In my opinion, this editorial hits all the high points of Iowa- the strong Democratic turnout, answers to the question "is a black man viable," and what a disaster Huckabee would be for the Republicans.

Winds of change blow through Iowa results

The surprising results of the Iowa caucuses may set the tone for the election season or they may be just a bump on the road to politics as usual.

However, contrary to the spin of a Republican spokesperson who claimed the results signal continued GOP occupancy of the White House and gains by the party in Congress, it's hard to see the result of the caucuses as anything but a victory for Democrats.

...

But Obama's win in a heavily majority-white state shows that a black man can be a viable candidate for president. His electability, along with his lack of experience, has been one of the main questions surrounding his candidacy, which trailed Clinton's by 30 points in some polls only last summer.

...

There's also the fact that 220,500 Democrats participated in the Iowa caucuses, while about 114,000 Republicans took part. In 2004, Bush took the state by a narrow margin.

...

If [Huckabee's] juggernaut continues and he finds himself nominated, however, the Republicans could be in deep trouble.

Democrats won't have to try hard to paint him as what Rolling Stone magazine termed "full-blown nuts, a Christian goofball of the highest order."

Connecticut Post

States' rights? What States' rights? We didn't mean that. At least, not unless it was about them black folk. You see, when it comes to ACTUAL States' rights, like the right to keep air breathable, corporate donors come first.

Emissions change must be allowed

Following California's lead, Connecticut has joined a lawsuit against the federal Environmental Protection Agency over its failure to approve strict vehicle emissions standards. It's a good move, and one that has the backing of dozens of other states where people are concerned that the federal government is not going far enough in terms of environmental standards.

...

The dismissal by the EPA of the proposed changes is nothing but a slap in the face to the supposed "states' rights" crowd. It turns out federalism is only preferred when it's OK with big campaign donors. The courts must rule against the EPA, allow the state regulations to be passed and stand in the way of an administration with no respect for the demands of its citizens.

The Pueblo Chieftain

How many people reading today remember whether they had an odd or even license plate number in the 70s? How many even know the relevance of the question. Ladies and gentlemen, oil prices and the economy are going to only get bigger as issues between now and November.

The really fun part, though, of this editorial is the blame on "radical environmentalists. ANWAR would not have been on line for years even if it was passed the first time around. The blame isn't "radical environmentalists." The "blame" (corporate donors call it "credit") goes the the buffoon in the White House.

Some perspective

LAST WEEK oil traded briefly at about $100 a barrel, 10 times the price a decade ago. Still, analysts don’t expect record-high prices by themselves to send the economy into recession, simply because expensive as oil is, energy doesn’t consume as big a chunk of Americans’ budgets as it did a few decades ago.

...

It would not have had to come to this, though. Oil industry experts say there are huge reserves beneath the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and off our shores below the seas.

That oil is staying put, for the time being, at least, thanks to radical environmentalists. As far as ANWR is concerned, measures to open up that rich energy trove have died in the Senate, most recently in 2005 and 2006.

...

Drilling would not harm ANWR. But drilling there has been precluded time and again by a Big Lie.

Remember that the next time you fill up at the pump.

San Bernardino County Sun

Yes, we need a new surveillance law. No, we don't need retroactive immunity. Not much here to disagree with.

Don't give up freedoms to fears

After spending the holidays on hold, the controversy about government wiretapping practices is about to pick up volume this month.

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) expires on Feb. 1, and Congress needs to revamp it to limit the government's warrantless surveillance powers.

...

In no way is corporate immunity more important than the tried and true American system of checks and balances inherent in requiring judicial approval of the executive branch's use of wiretaps to track private conversations.

...

In the "long war" against terrorism, intelligence is a powerful weapon. But as we defend ourselves from enemies, we must not sacrifice our freedoms to our fears.

Herald Tribune (SW Florida)

Conservation is not a virtue- it is a duty we owe to each other. Would you call the police if you saw a man breaking into your neighbor's home? Every day we steal our children's birthright with every mile we drive.

Energy and the economy

...

When the price of crude oil reached $100 a barrel last week -- hitting a mark 44 percent higher than in August -- economists offered up a timely history lesson.

A few decades ago, they pointed out, a spike like this would have had a much greater impact on the U.S. economy.

...

The change in the share of GDP is little comfort, of course, to low-income Americans struggling to pay for gas for their automobiles or heating oil for their homes. Energy prices play an oversized role in their personal finances.

...

The gains in efficiency should embolden U.S. policymakers to continue to push for more improvements in the years ahead. And those gains should encourage all Americans to make conservation a routine part of their lives.

...

The effect on the economy may not be as severe as it might have been a few decades ago, once inflation and efficiencies are factored in.

But the impact will be felt --and it will be felt more deeply by more Americans if efficiency and conservation don't become a greater part of everyone's life.

The Weekend Pulse

2008-01-06T11:16:00.000-05:00

The Daily Pulse is officially back on line, now that I'm doing the third one in four days. For those who don't recall, The Daily Pulse is a regular survey of editorial content from OUTSIDE the Beltway and OUTSIDE the national press. What are local people and local editorial boards thinking about and writing about? That is the question we try to ask. As we enter a new primary season we are also looking for regular contributors, somebody to pick up one day a week, or even one day a month. In the past we had a once a week "local columnists" entry, "Letters Tuesday Editor," and a weekly international entry (one week Asian papers, another Middle Eastern, etc.). If you have an interest let me know, becase doing this 6 days a week is exhausting.

So, with no more ado, The Weekend Pulse: The Norman Transcript

Legal or no, churches are HUGE players in modern politics. That makes this editorial, though not overtly political, a big story indeed. Underlying it, though, is another question- will Bush's IRS use this power to only investigate "Democratic" churches?

Preachers and profits

Churches are increasingly being visited by tax collectors.

...

... some megachurches are managing real-estate portfolios, sports centers and even shopping malls. Churches and other charities are historically exempt from ad valorem and other taxes but parts of their enterprises can be taxed.

...

IRS officials have also stepped up their efforts to keep politicking out of church pulpits...

During the last campaign season, more than a few churches were being watched for potential politicking.

Traverse City Record Eagle

This may look odd, because it is one paper quoting another's editorial, but it's in the Record Eagle, so the Traverse City readership is seeing it.

Torture suit contorts truth

President Bush's refusal to sign a defense spending bill, in part because it might bolster a lawsuit filed by U.S. soldiers tortured in the 1991 Persian Gulf War, reeks of hypocrisy.

...

Bush's latest contortion shows how hard it is to take the moral high ground when you've been swimming in the gutter.

Philadelphia Inquirer

Decatur Daily

Religion and politics are getting far to close for my own personal comfort. If you want to know why I think combining "Christian" and "America" is dangerous, please see my commentary at Jews on First.

Dangerous signs for religious freedom in 2008

By Charles C. Haynes

Let’s start the New Year with good news: With all of our challenges and flaws, the United States begins 2008 as the world’s boldest and most successful experiment in religious freedom. Where else do citizens of every faith or no faith enjoy as much liberty to practice religion (or not) without government interference?

...

Of the many signs of danger to religious freedom in America, here are my nominees for two of the most disturbing trends in 2007 to worry about in 2008.

First, the unhealthy mixture of God and politics in the presidential campaign:

So religion-saturated is this election cycle that Beliefnet.com created a “God-o-meter” to track the shameless, mostly fatuous, invocation of religion by candidates seeking to appear holier-than-thou.

...

Meanwhile, some Republicans appear to be running for Christian-in-chief. Mike Huckabee advertises himself as a “Christian leader,” Mitt Romney scrambles to prove he’s a true Christian and John McCain tells a reporter he thinks the Constitution establishes a “Christian nation.”

...

We can do better in 2008, but only if enough Americans take seriously their civic duty to defend religious freedom, not just for themselves but for people of all faiths and none.

The Times Journal (DeKalb County, Alabama)

The Election is coming! The Election is coming! Hello? Is anybody paying attention? This stuff is really important, you know.

It’s time to get in the race

What we believe will be one of the most exciting and important election seasons in years opened Thursday.

But this year is about so much more than Iowa, and it’s about so much more than a presidential election. Granted, we in Alabama have been given an opportunity to play a more important role in presidential politics. Our presidential primary, now just a month away, allows us to hear more, learn more, say more and influence more than ever before.

But closer to home, in DeKalb County, we have critical elections upcoming and there is no time to waste. ...

Our earlier primary gives us a chance to be an important player on the national level. It also gives us a chance to take a closer look at all the candidates on both sides.

We cannot waste the opportunity. It doesn’t come around that often.

Beaver County (Pennsylvania) Times

FINALLY! Somebody says out loud that the "Surge" is evidence of GROSS FAILURE, not nominal success.

Power failure: Success of surge in Iraq shows the failed thinking of those who pushed war

Gen. David Petraeus, the U.S. military commander in Iraq, reports the troop surge is having an impact on violence in Iraq. Since June, the number of weekly attacks has fallen by 60 percent to about 500 a week by the end of December.

...

The results make a heartbreaking case for what might have been if President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and the neo-con warmongers had not ignored the Powell Doctrine.

In the months, weeks and days leading up to the invasion of Iraq, members of the State Department, U.S. military and others warned the chicken hawks who were pushing war that the United States needed to use overwhelming military force not so much to defeat the forces of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein but to pacify and occupy a country the size of California.

...

If the United States had gone into Iraq and left no doubts as to who was in control, Iraq might not be the mess that it is today, even with the success of the recent surge.

...

Oh, what might have been.

Friday Pulse

2008-01-04T11:14:00.000-05:00

Second day back, and I'm remembering why I took a year off. But hey, it's primary season, it's getting real again, let's see what is in the air.

The Daily Pulse is a regular survey of editorial content around the country and around the world. Methodology- I pick a group of editorial pages, for example American papers A-G (like today), H-M, etc., or Asian papers, or European, or Middle Eastern, or college, etc., then randomly it editorial pages within that group. Without any additional selection process, I take any editorial with political content of national interest, make a comment or two, boil it down for fair use, and voila!, The Daily Pulse.

Also, if anybody is interested in helping let me know.

Note- You won't find a lot here about last night's caucus. Editorial pages tend to run a day behind the news pages. Look this weekend for a round-up of caucus content.The Gainesville Sun

Down in Gainesville most of the news is still mourning for the Gator's loss to Michigan and wondering whether the defense will look any better in '08. Fortunately, the editorial page seems to have recovered and is starting to look at a few other issues. Voter ID laws exist to disenfranchise likely Democratic voters. Find me a similar law passed in a State run by Democrats and I will rethink it. Until then, that will be my operating assumption.

A bad voter ID law

Election fraud is bad, but the disenfranchisement of citizens is worse. That is the essence of a federal judge's 27-page order Dec. 18 to suspend a Florida voter registration law. The statute denies voter registration to applicants whose names or identification numbers do not match official records.

Continue to 2nd paragraph The problem is the law does not allow for the likelihood of common administrative errors, such as misspelled names, transposed numbers and other data entry mistakes.

Florida's secretary of state, Kurt Browning, has filed an appeal, but we think Judge Stephan Mickle is right.

...

Verification issues remain unsettled in the courts. But the Legislature would be wise to repair the Florida statute to make it both fair and effective.

Tuscon Citizen

In Arizona, Governor Napolitano (GREAT! VP candidate, by the way) is asking for domestic partner benefits. What a wild thought- treating people like equals. Whodathunkit?

Expansion of benefits would make UA more competitive

Arizona is considering a proposal by the administration of Gov. Janet Napolitano to extend domestic partner benefits to state government employees and retirees.

We favor the expansion, and not just because it's the right and fair thing to do, although it is.

Extending benefits is a sound business decision that will make the state's universities more competitive in their attempts to attract and retain top-flight academicians.

...

We would rather that government not "encourage," "discourage" or in any way "define" marriage or any other social institution. Social engineering isn't the province of government. Stay out.

...

Asheville Citizen Times

Our primary/caucus system is utterly inane. That was driven home to me last night watching Obama give a speech trumpeting that "America" has made a new decision. "America"? 200,000 of the whitest people in one of the smallest whitest States is not "America." Yet by the time much of America gets to vote, it will be all over. That, whoever you may prefer, is utterly absurd.

Time to level the playing field on these primaries

In the wake of all the attention focused on about 200,000 Iowa voters’ choices Thursday for Democratic and Republican presidential candidates, it’s worth pondering whether North Carolinians are being shortchanged.

Our voters won’t have an opportunity to make their preferences known until May 6. By then, it’s a very good bet the nominees will be all but anointed, though that won’t happen formally until the party conventions in August for the Democrats and September for the Republicans.

...

How did two states with small, unrepresentative populations end up with so much clout?

...

In 1920, New Hampshire began its still unbroken tradition of holding the nation’s first primary — a tradition that required some jockeying this year. For 30 years, New Hampshire almost always elected slates of unpledged delegates. It was not until 1952 that it played a major role in the parties’ nominations. ...

It’s time for another commission, like the one chaired by McGovern, to create a fairer and more representative system of rotating primaries so that diverse groups and states have an opportunity to be heard early in the process.

The Dalles Chronicle

Apparently, North Carolina is not the only State noting the absurdity of the Iowa caucuses. Here is another editorial headlined, simply, "Iowa, Schmiowa."

Iowa, Schmiowa

...

OK, Iowans are nice, if a bit stubborn sometimes. Why do they exert such an influence in presidential elections?

Here are some reasons why they shouldn’t have that kind of political muscle.

1. Iowa isn’t representative of the nation.

...

2. Candidates devote a disproportionate amount of time catering to Iowa concerns.

...

3. It isn’t a perfect indicator. Candidates who win Iowa caucuses don’t always win their party’s nomination.

...

4. Sometimes a win in Iowa isn’t even considered a win in Iowa.

...

But there are some strong pluses for the Iowa caucuses as well.
It can anoint an unknown and give them vital momentum.

...

Montgomery Advertiser

And finally, a wing-nut LTE, just because it is at the same time so wonderfully entertaining yet terrifying. This, ladies and gentlemen, is how some minds work. Do with it what you will.

Executions not inconsistent with respect for life

...

Two men are sailing uncharted waters. As they approach an unknown island, they can make out the silhouette of a gallows against the sky.

One says, "Well, we don't know anything about the people who inhabit this island except it is obvious that they respect life."

How do we balance a murder, the ending of someone's life? With imprisonment? I don't think so. Any culture which respects life must kill those who do not. It is only fair, and a necessity.

Well, you say, what about errors and injustice in the system? Yes, but would you abolish appendectomies because of their 5 percent fatality rate?

The Daily Pulse- Iowa Edition

2008-01-03T15:21:00.000-05:00

Some of you might remember The Daily Pulse. I used to do it, well, daily. I've been on hiatus since the '06 elections, but I think it is time to dust it off and see what "the people" are thinking. The methodology is pretty simple- I select my target of editorial pages, a state, a region, an international region, or even certain types of papers (college, GLBT, religious, etc.), then take the first few editorials of a political ilk with national interest. I cut them down to fair use, throw in some comments, and there you have it, The Daily Pulse.

What did I learn from today's Pulse? Dodd might have more support out there than we suspect, a lot of people LOVE Obama for his rhetoric and bipartisanship (reasons, as I opine below, that are poor bases to elect a President today), and Iowa takes this stuff pretty seriously. Also, we are being sprayed with poison chemtrails by the same traitors covering up government involvement in 9/11.

Tell me if you like it, or think it useful.

Cross posted at Daily Kos, Blue House Diaries, and Independent Bloggers' Alliance.

Quad City Times

Barack talks to the paper, and has some pretty good things to say. His "first five phone calls" is interesting, and nothing with which I could argue. I personally have some serious doubts that the world will look at America differently the day he is elected, at least in any way monumentally different than the election of ANY of the Democratic candidates.

Sen. Barack Obama: More than hope

(part of a series. See also Sen. Hillary Clinton: Ready for work, Chris Dodd: A legislative technician who aspires to lead, and Bill Richardson can't wait to be president, and more.)

It’s good to be Barack Obama.

...

Obama believes America — and the world — is ready for him.

“I think the day I’m inaugurated the world looks at America differently, and I can speak to the world with an authority and a voice that is unmatched by the other candidates, partly because of biography and experience and the fact I have ties to countries beyond our shores.”

...

Methods, not details, elevate his own health care plan over rivals’, Obama said.

Obama vows a painstakingly open process with hearings and forums. “This will all be on C-SPAN. Nobody may watch it, it may not get high ratings, but it will be an open, transparent process.”

...

The leading candidate who most ardently opposed war in Iraq believes a slow — he says “measured” — withdrawal is best, by 2010 at the earliest.

...

Community editorial board member John Wetzel asked Obama the first two work-related calls he would make after winning the presidency. Obama didn’t stop at two.

“The first is to Joint Chiefs of Staff to call them in to provide them a new mission, which is the phased withdrawal (from Iraq) that I discussed.

“The second call is to my ... attorney general nominee to review every executive order that has been issued ...”

“Third call is to my secretary of health and human services to get that roundtable discussion to get health care going.

“Fourth call is to my secretary of energy to get moving on a cap and trade system to deal with greenhouse gases ...”

“The fifth call is to my secretary of state to ... convene a meeting with Muslim leaders in a Muslim country that I will attend and in which I will speak directly with the Muslim world to how they need to align themselves with the West against terrorism and we, in turn, need to shift our rhetoric so we’re not creating a clash of civilizations.

“... And then I’ll call my wife and find out what we’re doing for dinner.”

Here is a Letter to the Editor from the same paper, extolling the virtues of Edwards:

Edwards will fight for women's rights

Every woman in this country has the right to feel safe — at work or at home. ...

John Edwards has shown true leadership on this issue. He has offered his full support to funding the Violence Against Women Act so that every woman has a resource to turn to in a time of need.

...

The Des Moines Register endorses McCain and Clinton, but you already knew that:

The Des Moines Register's editorial board has endorsed Republican Sen. John McCain and Democratic Sen. Hillary Clinton for the 2008 Iowa caucuses.

The Register, Iowa's statewide newspaper, calls McCain and Clinton the candidates it believes are most competent and ready to lead. ...

"The times call for competence. Americans want their government to work again.

The times call for readiness to lead. Americans want their country to do great things again. They'll regain trust in their government when they see a president make that happen."

In endorsing McCain, who was tied for fifth in the Register's November Iowa Poll of likely caucus-goers, the newspaper's editorial board wrote:

"Time after time, McCain has stuck to his beliefs in the face of opposition from other elected leaders and the public. He has criticized crop and ethanol subsidies during two presidential campaigns in Iowa. He bucked his party and president by opposing the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts. A year ago, in the face of growing criticism, he staunchly supported President Bush’s decision to increase troop strength in Iraq.

...

The Register's endorsement of Clinton comes at a time when polls show she has slipped behind Sen. Barack Obama in Iowa.

"Readiness to lead sets her apart from a constellation of possible stars in her party, particularly Barack Obama, who also demonstrates the potential to be a fine president," the newspaper’s endorsement editorial concludes. "When Obama speaks before a crowd, he can be more inspirational than Clinton. Yet, with his relative inexperience, it's hard to feel as confident he could accomplish the daunting agenda that lies ahead."

...

Here is a Letter to the Editor from a serviceman cut by "don't ask, don't tell," and I don't think he's a Hillary fan:

As a 16-year Army veteran who is currently barred from serving in the military because of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, I've been keenly interested in the various candidates' positions on gays and lesbians serving openly in the military. ...

A studious reading of her purposefully worded response shows us she intends to do just the opposite. Notice that her response focuses on two major issues: the Uniform Code of Military Justice and the behavior of the individual servicemember. ...

Is there hidden support for Dodd? This Letter to the Editor shows at least one ardent supporter:

Thank you, Chris Dodd, for standing up and defending the Constitution and the rule of law when the Senate was debating the FISA bill and was set to pass it with a provision that would have granted retroactive immunity to the giant telecommunication companies for illegally handing the telephone files of American citizens over to the government for the last six years. ...

Dodd canceled all his campaign events so that he could be on the floor of the Senate. To me, the leadership, integrity and convictions of Dodd showed loud and clear. We need this man to be our next president.

How about a few LTEs from the Souix City Journal? I like LTEs. They tell us what the people are thinking, not just the pundits.

Get behind a winner - John Edwards

A John Edwards fan likes his humble beginnings and the fact that he is not a career politician. I'm not so sure. Yes, we all think "career politician" is an epithet, but why not hire a professional to do one of the most important jobs in the world?

Four more years of Republican disasters may forever cripple our nation. ...

Democrats need to pick a winner -- a candidate who hasn't spent decades in Washington. Someone who is not owned by huge corporations and their paid lobbyists; who has not accepted PAC money from those same few rich. We need a candidate who can campaign in every region of the U.S. to help in state elections. Congress is stalemated. A Democratic president will need a true working majority, especially in the Senate, to enact reform.

...

John Edwards.

Why? From a working class, mill worker family, he rose through his own intelligence and hard work. As a lawyer, he fought to protect average people from injustice. He's got ideas and ideals to solve the dilemma of two Americas: the huge split between the very rich few and the increasingly debt-ridden many.

...

John McCain - Honesty and Integrity

The title might have pretended to make sense eight years ago, but the day McCain hugged the man behind the "illegitimate black baby" slander he lost any credibility.

Iowans have an opportunity/responsibility to hand the country and the world our educated decision on who best defines honesty and integrity. It’s clear where our own legendary Col Bud Day stands. He spent more than five years in a POW camp with fellow-pilot John McCain and proudly says, “Without reservation, I know Johnny is the best candidate and most prepared to be our next president and commander in chief.”

...

Mike Huckabee - 'A True Statesman'

This is the only title in quotes. Do you think the editor is having a little fun with this little bit of absurdity? No, Huckabee doesn't make his decisions "based on the political whims." Instead, he bases them on a 2,000 year old fairy tale. That, and whatever will line his pockets.

...

Any Republican candidate would make a good president. One candidate stands out as a true statesman who does not make his decisions based on the political whims, but on the deep personal convictions that every person has been created equal. The government's role should not be to pick winners and losers, but rather create an environment that all Americans can succeed and live the American dream that he has been fortunate to live himself.

Than man is Gov. Mike Huckabee, and I am proud to support his candidacy for president. Governor Huckabee is a humble person that has won the respect of liberals, moderates and conservatives while not compromising his conservative values that life begins at conception and marriage is between a man and woman. The tax code shouldn't be tinkered with, but abolished and replaced with the Fair Tax. ...

Ron Paul: 'He's right for the country'

Hey, more quotes. Okay, this is a perfect example of the utter insanity, and inanity, that is the Ron Paul phenomenon. Really. Read this one. "Ron Paul" sounds a lot like "John Paul," so does that mean he was sent by God?

...

Also, it's ironic and thought-provoking that there is Ron Paul and John Paul, the late pope. Two great men, perhaps? There's the leadership ability factor, both as lovers and defenders of human life, from the moment of conception. They fearlessly speak the truth. Humble men and lovers of their homeland who use power to serve God and man.

Do you suppose there's an ethereal nudge or tip about this particular presidential candidate?

...

The Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier has at least one columnist quite enamored of Obama. I hate his questions, because I think picking a President based upon what mythical beings from fairy tales past might do is beyond absurd, and reaching into evil, based upon how other fantasy answers to the WWJD question have worked out. Also, it seems the questions are not honest, but formed to force the conclusion. But hey, that's just one guy's opinion.

3 questions for Iowans caucusing

...

As we gather and choose, we would do well to ask ourselves three questions: (1) Who is viscerally hated nationally and therefore likely to continue our country's corrosive polarization? (2) For whom would Jesus (or Buddha, or Mohammed) caucus? And (3) Who is most likely to lead us out of our current international quagmires?

...

(1) Visceral hatred seems to swirl around some leaders more than others.

...

As goes Bill, so goes Hillary, or Billary as pundits now call him/her. If she manages to gather enough support and overcome that corrosive hatred enough to get elected, she will polarize the country for years.

(2) Which candidate is the most spiritual?

...

Democrats have to beat the Bible because their candidates fear losing the right-wing religious vote. They're not as obvious about it as Huckabee and Romney, but I don't buy any of them as genuine spiritual leaders. They wear piety like a costume, and Jesus would drive them out of the temple.

(3) Which candidate seems likely to lead us out of our current wilderness? Most candidates offer more of the same: White guys insisting they know what's best for the rest of us. Hillary at least offers women a chance to elect a female president. And Obama offers America and the world a chance at actually recognizing our diversity.

...

So I'll be pulling for Obama (from out of state, unfortunately) next Thursday. He's the least viscerally hated of the leading Democrats and most likely to accomplish positive changes worldwide. Besides, he opposed that damnable Iraq war before anyone else, and many Republicans admit they could vote for him.

That means he could actually become not only our first black president, but this century's first good president.

Here is an interesting anti-Huckabee column from the paper's Republican columnist. Toward the end (click the link to read the whole thing) he theorizes the Huckabee phenomenon is part of a liberal media conspiracy to prop up the weakest Republican. If only it were true. Imagine running against Tommy Thompson.

Huckabee fails test to be next leader:

Given the poor record of our current government, I believe I could support almost any of the Republican candidates who are currently running on the grounds that they would be an improvement over what we currently have --- except one. I cannot support Mike Huckabee in the primary season.

...

If you are in a room and hear a person say "yes," and you read in the paper the next day that the person said "no," then you know that the paper's writer is either uninformed and sloppy, or is a purposeful liar.

Unfortunately, I have had a similar experience with Huckabee.

...

Huckabee said last Sunday on the CBS's "Face the Nation" that he was running to be president of the entire United States, not just the Christian community.

Really.

Is this why his ads in Iowa emphasized that Huckabee was the "Christian" leader, especially when the candidate ahead in the polls at the time was what? Not a Christian?

...

There is another problem.

The media has been generally silent about Huckabee's background and stands on issues when he was governor of the great state of Arkansas.

...

I have personal experience with both bigotry and propaganda. Huckabee doesn't pass the test.

Iowa City Press Citizen

Another Dodd supporter writes a letter. Hey, maybe he has more support out there than we think. Remember, letter-writers are the type of people that show up at caucuses:

Look beyond speeches to Dodd's substance

...

And then there's the criminally ignored Sen. Chris Dodd, who I'm caucusing for because he's clearly the most experienced, charming and electable candidate in the field. ...

The "Children's Senator," Dodd wrote the Family and Medical Leave Act, which is generally seen as one of Bill Clinton's signature accomplishments. Whatever the issue, has produced tangible, meaningful results that even the most disingenuous Republican can't deny. And so on Thursday night, while Iowans debate which Democrat gives the best speech, we should remember that the Democrat who gives us the best chance to win next November may well be right under our noses.

How about a few LTEs from The Hawkeye?

Good judgment

The central meme around Obama seems to be that he is the most likely to create successful bipartisanship. I genuinely do not understand that. He has no Washington experience, no chits to cash with members across the aisle, no relationships to fall back upon, just rhetoric. I wish somebody would tell exactly HOW Barack Obama will lead us back to bipartisanship, which Republicans in their leadership have indicated any willingness to participate in such an exercise, and why Democrats should welcome compromise when we are finally on the cusp of victory.

Our Congressman, Dave Loebsack, has endorsed Barack Obama for president. I imagine the courage it took him to do so. He has risked the ire of the Clinton money and influence machine. ...

Unlike Sens. Clinton and Edwards, Barack Obama and Sen. Tom Harkin had the judgment and wisdom to oppose the rush to war based on lies. Experts now estimate the cost of the Iraq war, including treatment for the injured, will exceed 1.5 trillion dollars and the loss of more than 4,000 brave American military personnel.

...

Our country must stop the dislike that political parties have for each other and work together with a President both parties admire and trust. Hillary Clinton will only continue the divisiveness of the 1990's while Barack Obama will be far less polarizing and able to work with Republicans. He is the best hope for meaningful change in America and is the best candidate the Democratic party has produced for service to America since Franklin Roosevelt. I urge all to join us in truly changing America and the world for the better by supporting Barack Obama at the caucus Jan. 3.

We must win

If Republicans want Hillary then we don't. At least, that's this guy's theory, and who knows if he's right?

My fellow Democrats, our presidential nominee must win in November. ... Ms. Clinton is a good choice and she is vetted, but it scares the heck out of me that she's the Republicans' choice to run against in November. ... We must win.

Okay, if Hillary can't win, who can? This letter-writer thinks she has the answer, in Edwards can win:

...

There are a lot of great candidates running, but for any of their voices to be heard, we need to win the White House. John Edwards has the ideas and the ability to beat the Republicans head to head, and make sure that all the smart people we have in the Democratic Party can make themselves heard.

From the Muscatine Journal, some LTEs:

Obama represents real change

The fun part here isn't the LTE, but the comment to it. Follow the link to read about chemtrails and global criminals.

On 1-3-08 I will be supporting Barack Obama in the Iowa Caucus. Barack is the candidate that represents real change. He has shown the ability to bring people together to find solutions that will benefit all Americans. ...

Dodd might be ’08 political surprise

If LTEs are any indication this guy just might be right. BTW, another fun comment from the same guy as noted above.

It is entertaining to follow the political pundits as they offer predictions about the outcome of the Iowa caucus. Every four years, we hear the national media tell us what we are thinking and who we will support during the caucuses. But they are always wrong, and I believe we will prove them wrong again this year when support for Sen. Chris Dodd produces this year’s political surprise.

...

...Chris Dodd has made our communities safer through his support for first responders.

For seven years, Chris Dodd worked on the Family and Medical Leave Act. ...

Winning the Iowa caucus won’t be easy either. But it is the right thing to do to support Chris Dodd because of what he has meant to our families and communities.

Obama gives Americans hope

Part of the reason I do this is because it helps ME decide who I want to support. I continue to have trouble with Obama, because even his most ardent supporters only note rhetoric. Compare this to the Dodd letter above.

I BELIEVE that our country’s future will finally have a chance to be what it used to be. That I can feel how I did when John F. Kennedy was our president. ...

Barack Obama has the wisdom, passion for a better future and common sense experience to lift us up. Personally, I am very tired of the Washington D.C. “old school.” The politicians who work the system with pay backs and their self interests to obtain an office position. Obama hasn’t needed that and he certainly doesn’t rely on an ex-president to have credibility.

...

An LTE writer to The Sun is having trouble choosing between Obama and Ron Paul. Okay, that's just weird. Again, the reason for Obama is "bipartisanship," but no reason beyond his rhetoric to support the conclusions. Is it enough to simply be inspiring? As we look to undo Bush's damage, do we need inspiration or professionalism? Do we have to choose between the two? Does Obama offer both? Perhaps. Does Edwards? Also perhaps.

Despite ‘muddled’ politics, Obama is the choice

My political philosophy would really seem like a muddled mess to anyone else (it does to me sometimes, to be honest), so describing it here in only a few words would do no good. ...

For several weeks now, I've been torn between Barack Obama and Republican Ron Paul. I see Obama as the best hope for healing the political rifts caused by the current administration. ...

But Ron Paul…the executive excesses of the past seven years have increasingly convinced me that Thomas Jefferson's belief that “that government is best which governs least” is not old-fashioned, but is instead very, very true.

...

That being said, I've decided I will caucus for Barack Obama tonight.

...

[Obama] spoke to me with quiet deliberation, very similar to the way JFK spoke in one-on-one interviews filmed during the 1960 election. At the same time, he has a charisma in his speeches that stirs the soul, never more so when he starts to sound like MLK. It’s the rare combination of intellect and charisma that makes Obama such a refreshing force in American politics. Obama has what it takes to turn the country back onto the right path, and that is the most important thing the next president must do.

The Traer Star Clipper

Biden? He's still in this race? Personally, I will never forgive him for the bankruptcy bill.

Biden is right choice for everyone

The media has decided to direct its main focus on just three of the Democratic candidates who are running for the party’s Presidential nomination on January 3rd. ...

Senator Biden was elected to the Senate 35 years ago when he was only 29 years old. During those years he has worked hard and earned the respect not only of his fellow Democratic Legislators, but from the Republicans as well.

...

Senator Biden is a true public servant. From issues ranging from social security reform during the Reagan administration, legislation to increase access to college, to the Biden crime bill, Senator Biden has a lengthy record of domestic accomplishments.

...

John Edwards is also getting letter. This one gets the "Letter of the Day" prize for using the word "leeches" correctly.

Opportunity of a lifetime

Yes Folks; you have an opportunity of a lifetime on Jan. 3, 2008 to help change the direction of “our” country and your and our future from what has been happening to our government and our lives. ... He is unafraid to tackle the lobbyists and the huge Drug and Insurance Corporations’ hold on government. He has taken on these leeches and defeated them in the courtrooms for the rights of middle and lower classes of citizens of our country.

Larry Craig

2007-08-29T15:57:00.000-04:00

Okay, okay, it hasn't exactly been "Daily" for almost a year now. But I'm dusting it off today, to see what the editorial pages and letters to the editors are saying about Larry Craig. For those not familiar with The Daily Pulse, I look at editorial pages and LTEs, clipping choice tidbits to give you an idea what people are thinking about and writing about.

Today, The Daily Pulse rescurrects itself for a trip to Idaho, with a side sojourn through GLBT papers.

So, with no further ado ...The Idaho Statesman

This is probably the one you've already seen. Craig's not getting a lot of pity here:

Craig has only himself to blame for political mess

During a brief — and largely defiant — public appearance Tuesday afternoon, Sen. Larry Craig apologized for bringing "a cloud over Idaho."

We're sorry, senator.

This cloud does not belong to the people who have elected you for the past 27 years. It's all yours. ...

... for 11 weeks, Craig failed to mention the arrest to his family, his friends, his staff or his constituents.

...

Does Craig's arrest and subsequent guilty plea contradict his public comments about infidelity and homosexuality? When Craig tells Idahoans, "I am not gay and never have been," will they buy it?

...

And when politicians try to turn social and sexual issues into fair political game, they invite scrutiny of their behavior. Craig did not establish these rules of political engagement, but he operated under them.

The Statesman had letters, too:

Craig should quietly resign

...This is now a personal matter between God, his wife, his family; however I believe that Sen. Craig should be honorable and quietly resign from public office.

What will GOP do next?

... Could care less what the man's personal inclinations are, but if all this is true, I do care that there is in this allegation the perpetrator's self-righteousness, hypocrisy and lying from a person who presides in what should be one of the country's most venerated institutions. ...

Rove, Gonzales, now Craig — GOP bailouts in disgrace

...

Last week, Rove; today, Gonzales; tomorrow, Craig. A person needs a scorecard to keep track of the Republicans bailing out of Washington, many in disgrace.

Craig's history proves he's a man with family values

...

He is a man of distinction and has served Idaho and the United States as a champion of family values. I am grateful to have him represent our state.

Craig's guilty, regrets action only after getting caught

... Mr. Popkey is obviously giving the senator the benefit of the doubt using alleged when in fact the title should read, "Sen. Craig pleads guilty to illegal activity and now that he's caught, regrets action."

Take away Craig's pension

... Larry Craig should be impeached and thrown out without a pension as I do not want to pay for his immoral lifestyle for the rest of his shoddy, sad life.

Real crime is taking dollars from out-of-state interests

...

His real crime isn't the obscene hypocrisy with which he has lived and voted; but rather his perverse zeal in taking lobby dollars from out-of-state interests, especially in regards to his voting against salmon and steelhead recovery. ... Dams, mining interests, anti-wilderness legislation, out-of-state electricity, and subsidized farming have always been signaling him "on the other side of the stall."

...

Couer d'Alene Press

Trust violated, there is no future, Senator

The national headline Tuesday from The Associated Press online said it well: "Arrest Clouds Idaho Senator's Future."

...

We don't think that, at this point, it matters. We urge Sen. Craig to remove all the clouds and resign. ...

It is a recommendation based upon the fact that the people of Idaho cannot trust their most powerful representative in the nation's capital.

...

Worse, he tried to keep the whole thing secret. And by all appearances, he nearly got away with it. ...

...

Our thoughts today go out to the many people Sen. Craig has let down. He should give them solace by exercising, in his final act as a public service, true leadership: resigning and letting someone else complete the remainder of his term.

They got letters, too:

No wonder he never returned e-mails

...Silly me, I should have tried the men's room for a personal reply.

Restricts rights, has double life

...

Craig has time and again voted to restrict and deny the rights of others while leading his double life and using his position to protect himself.

I truly hope that everyone that goes through the horrendous effort of putting an X on a ballot will think about what that big red R really stands for and what it has done to our state and country.

Times-News

Guilty or not, Craig has himself to blame

Sen. Larry Craigâ€™s press conference on Tuesday was almost painful to watch. ...

Apart from the visible anguish that Craig's actions in Minnesota caused himself and his wife, Suzanne, the senator on Tuesday didn't seem to grasp the real-world implications of his guilty plea.

...

Voters liked the senator, and they trusted him, rumors of his private behavior notwithstanding. Idahoans are, by and large, honest people who believe in personal accountability.

Now it's time for Craig to take responsibility for his personal conduct instead of blaming the media and the police.

The Lewiston Tribune

The whole thing is hidden behind a password, but here's the first paragraph:

The Question on Craig: How much deception?

Larry Craig is kidding us, isn't he?

Can Idaho's senior U.S. senator expect his constituents, even in ruby-red Idaho, to buy his story that he was arrested for soliciting gay sex in an airport toilet stall on the basis of a misunderstanding, and that even though he was innocent, he pleaded guilty two months later without ever seeking help from a lawyer?

Bonner County Daily Bee

Where is our leaders' moral compass?

We were thunderstruck Monday afternoon at the Bee when we received word that Sen. Larry Craig had pled guilty earlier this month to a charge of disorderly conduct after he was arrested in June at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport by a plainclothes police officer investigating lewd conduct complaints in a men's public bathroom.

...

We deserve some straight answers from our senator and need more than "I should not have pled guilty."

This space in the Bee is reserved for a straight-forward explanation ... or an apology from Sen. Craig.

And now, let's hear from The Washington Blade, a GLBT paper:

Is David Drier next?

...

The most common question that readers are emailing to me: Who's next? It's fair to assume that Craig isn't the only closeted gay member of Congress, but there are members we've described over the years as "openly closeted," meaning they decline to answer "the question." ...

What people need to understand is that living a double life in the closet makes you do strange and self-destructive things, like pleading guilty to crimes you later deny or refusing to answer a simple question about your sexual orientation. ...

Craig's arrest is no surprise

The news that U.S. Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct charges stemming from an investigation into sexual activity at a men's restroom in the Minneapolis airport will not come as a surprise to those like me who have heard the gay rumors about him for years. ...

Craig is a conservative Republican with an abysmal record on gay issues and a 100 percent favorable rating from the Christian Coalition. Oh, and he's married. ...

The hypocrisy of a closeted conservative politician voting against the interests of the gay community while engaging in some of the most stereotypically harmful behavior attributed to gays is maddening. We will now have to endure breathless reporting about tawdry toilet sex on CNN, thanks to Craig.

It's time for Craig to come clean with himself, his family and constituents and stop issuing laughable denials. Then he could begin to redeem himself by signing on as a co-sponsor to ENDA and the hate crimes bill.

O'Reilly Defamed Me- a Follow-Up

2007-08-17T11:25:00.000-04:00

A lot of people saw O'Reilly Defamed Me, about O'Reilly's misrepresentation of my own statements, and anti-Semitism, on Daily Kos.

Well, it earned Bill-O "Morer" on Olberman's Worst Person in the World round-up last night. Bill-O also, by the way, got Worstest, a two-fer.

Flip for more, and action to take.Well, the story is working its way around the tubes now, and you can make your own feelings known about it. AOL Newsbloggers has the story, and A POLL, "Should dhonig 'doing something about it?"

In other brilliant follow-up, see Jeffrey Feldman's Frameshop: Bill O'Reilly's Anti-Semitism, from yesterday.

Can we make this O'Reilly's "Imus Moment"? He certainly deserves it.

That, or he can make an apology and retraction published in a similar manner as the initial defamation. What are the odds of that?

Bill O'Reilly Defamed Me

2007-08-15T17:15:00.000-04:00

Me! I'm not anybody at all, and still the [insert derogatory term of your choosing here] managed to defame me.

Exactly and perfectly wrong. Perhaps even worse, intentionally and knowingly wrong. Flip on over to see why.The quote comes from a diary I wrote back in February, Holocaust Denial, Anti-Semitism, and other Daily Kos HATE Meta.

Ever since the 2006 Lebanon war, anti-Semitism became a significant topic, particularly in the I/P debates. People on one side of the debate cried "anti-Semitism," and people on the other side (in my personal opinion far more) inserted prophylactic demands "don't call me an anti-Semite but ...." It got so heated that I decided to write a diary, ultimately several of them, to distinguish between criticism of Israel, even criticism with which I vehemently disagreed, and actual anti-Semitism. This particular diary was a response to claims that people were too quick to make the anti-Semitism accusation, and that there really wasn't any on Daily Kos. Rather, the theory went, there was just legitimate criticism of Israel, and Israel's supporters were trying to shut it down with false accusations.
Okay, let's go straight to the money quote, shall we?

If Jews love the US so much- how come their #'s in the US military are dismal? Instead of selling ones soul to be diamond brokers, investment bankers

Did I write that? Nope. Actually, that was one of the hateful quotes I was criticizing. It is, of course, also worth noting that it was troll-rating into oblivion, 0 to 15. The whole quote was:

JEWS TOO GOOD FOR US MILITARY (0+ / 15-)

If Jews love the US so much- how come their #'s in the US military are dismal? Instead of selling ones soul to be diamond brokers, investment bankers, doctors, and entertainment smucks (on borrowed grants/loans for tuition) perhaps the US should be like Israel and require some military service. Now this goes for every spoiled Northeast brat as well. Daily Kos bitching would be a little more germane if the bitches could fire an M-16 or take an order ot two. Everyone is a chief in Kos with no good answers.

by PEARSAYS on Mon Jul 17, 2006 at 08:26:30 PM PST

and my response was:

Was there some kind of contest to see how many stereotypes could fit in one paragraph?

Now it is important to note that I post under my own name, not a pseudonym. I think it is probably also worth noting that I am a litigator, and licensed to practice law in three states and many federal jurisdictions, including Courts of Appeal and the Supreme Court. Not only is the O'Reilly broadcast defamatory, but I actually have the skills and wherewithal to do something about it. Whether I will or not is a different story, and one worth thinking about it.

This whole folderol has me wondering, rather guiltily, whether O'Reilly's whole attack meme against us comes from my diaries decrying anti-Semitism on Daily Kos. Don't get me wrong- I'm not apologizing. In a tiny and mostly troll-blasted minority, it actually exists here. And there are a couple of posters who have somehow retained posting privileges. Further, the diaries I wrote were warning this would come to pass. But the really weird thing is, if O'Reilly's producers were relying on Holocaust Denial, Anti-Semitism, and other Daily Kos HATE Meta, Black Men Got Lynched Because They ..., or Dog Whistles: An Anti-Semitism Primer, or my cartoon:

they would have seen that I was NOT anti-Semitic, but in fact the opposite.

I have, as you might have expected, already requested a retraction. I'm not holding my breath. The next demand will go out on letterhead.

So what do you think? Do I blog about this and then let it slide? Do I cough up the filing fee to bring an action? Even worse, what do I do if O'Reilly invites me on, since my own writings demonstrate the existence of a few anti-Semites on Daily Kos (his own theme), but I am quite clearly a defender of the site and not a supporter of his lies? Given a chance, I would clearly state that these are aberrations, trolled into oblivion whenever they pop up.

What would you do?

PDB BlogSwarm

2007-08-06T08:25:00.000-04:00

Blue Gal is having a BlogSwarm to commemorate the six year anniversary of George W. Bush getting, AND IGNORING, the "Osama intends to attack the United States" PDB. We're happy to join, with these cartoons:

and of course

This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Weekly Original Cartoon Round-Up

2007-08-03T16:15:00.000-04:00

CARTOON OF THE WEEK

The newest Cartoon of the Week comes from our newest artist, Kelly Ferguson, of Liberal Angst.

Every day liberal cartoonists are hard at work, doodling while avoiding their real jobs and responsibilities. Sometimes you see the results, and sometimes you don't. At Left 'Toon Lane we think a cartoon is worth a thousand words, and that sometimes the Bush Administration is so perfectly ironic that only a cartoon can capture the reality. This week six different artists produced fifteen different cartoons about today's politics. I hope you enjoy them, and that you'll come to Left 'Toon Lane, not just for the jokes, but for art and artists to punch up your own blogs and publications.

Note- everything here has been sized down to fit margin requirements, so visit

Left 'Toon Lane to see them best.

And here's one more from Kelly. She's great, and we hope to see more of her work.

These are my own Hypnocrites entries from the past week. The first is the latest in a series, "Republican Attack Dogs." You can see them all (three so far, Malkin, Coulter, and Kristol) at Left 'Toon Lane

This is a new concept, and I don't know how long I can stick with it. I'm doing a modern comic book version of Dante's Inferno. It could be fun, deciding which Republicans go in which circles of hell. And, perhaps, a few Democrats as well. By the way, if you don't know who Lenny Bruce is, STOP WHATEVER YOU ARE DOING and Google him.

Dave the Rave is just an amazing talent. I see why he's not more prolific, because with holding down a real job and wasting time on things like food and sleep, there's not much left to produce these AMAZING and time-consuming cartoons. When there is one, just sit back and enjoy it.

StormBear, who posts at A Town Called Dobson, is by far the most prolific of us, yet his content is always top shelf.

Alicia Morgan, of Last Left Turn Before Hooterville, has been with Left 'Toon Lane for a long time, but only occasionally posts. I hope she does more soon.

Mapaghimagsik completely freaks me out. Her style is unique, and her point of view perhaps even uniquer (not a word, but what the hell). She regularly posts her series, Taking Stock at Drunk Duck.

Original Political Cartoon Round-Up

2007-07-18T13:35:00.000-04:00

Cartoon of the Week (actually, about three weeks. I've been busy)

Every day liberal cartoonists are hard at work, doodling while avoiding their real jobs and responsibilities. Sometimes you see the results, and sometimes you don't. At Left 'Toon Lane we think a cartoon is worth a thousand words, and that sometimes the Bush Administration is so perfectly ironic that only a cartoon can capture the reality. This week seven different artists produced twelve different cartoons about today's politics. I hope you enjoy them, and that you'll come to Left 'Toon Lane, not just for the jokes, but for art and artists to punch up your own blogs and publications.

Note- everything here has been sized down to fit margin requirements, so visit

Left 'Toon Lane to see them best.
We've had had some great cartoons at Left 'Toon Lane lately, but before getting to the humor, let me take a moment for a memorial, brought to you by our very own StormBear. Doug Marlette, Pulitzer Prize (and pretty much every other available cartoon prize, too)-winning creator of Kudzu, died in an automobile accident this month. It takes one hell of a lot for me to say anything good about anybody who attended Florida State University (Go Gators!), but I'm willing to make an exception for such an exceptional talent. He will be missed:

And now, on to the rest of the 'toons.

My personal favorite just for making me laugh out loud comes from mapaghimagsik, one of our newer artists. All of her work can be seen at her Drunk Duck site.

Here's another 'toon from from mapaghimagsik. How do you not love this lady?

The cartoon of the week came from the tremendously talented Dave the Rave:

Joseph Kassabian is another new talent from Drunk Duck. Joe might be our biggest picture guy, using the whole world for his cartoons, instead of just the US of A. His two latest contributions are perfect examples:

Okay, my turn. Not because this is in any sort of order, but because I'm saving StormBear for last to make sure you leave with a smile.

This first one almost worked too well, meaning the blending of the cartoon figures and the old black and white picture was so smooth you really had to look to see what it was all about. But I like it.

and two more of mine:

And now for the master, a genius of product and production. Stormbear not only producers great humor and biting wit in A Town Called Dobson, he does it every damned day. Here is what he brought to Left 'Toon Lane the last few weeks:

We have a few more regular Left 'Toon Lane artists not represented above. They just haven't added anything lately, but you can go to their sites to see their work. Monkey Law is flat out hysterical, and one of the best drawn cartoons on the net. Babylon Brothers is another can't-miss political cartoon.

Left 'Toon Lane is an informal group of unaffiliated lefty cartoonists looking for exposure and opportunity. If you see cartoons you want to add to your blog or your publication, please contact me. My contact info is at Left 'Toon Lane. If you want to request art to match a story, go to Left 'Toon Lane, find an artist whose style matches your needs, and contact them for special pieces. And if you are a cartoonist and want to join us, tell me here or contact me from the Lane. We are always looking for new talent to add to the group.