Back in the U.S.S.R?

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While the aging media are pursuing their long-overrun horserace on the Democratic side of the ticket, with occasional asides to note that they loves them some John McCain, the world is spinning on without us.

I won't say that for the past seven-plus years, thanks to Team BushCo and the corp media backup dancers, we have been as isolated from reality as North Korea, but... Well, let's just say I won't say it.

Meanwhile, perhaps there are signs that said media are actually looking out at the world again. The first is interesting. Fareed Zakaria has been signed by CNN to host a show on international affairs. May we say: long overdue!!!! [CNN's International Hour is far too small a slice of their broadcast pie] with a side of: please get rid of the Screeds: Dobbs and Beck.

The second is alarming.

Now, coming from the world of fiction, I'm a believer in foreshadowing, especially in real life. Yes, I tirelessly, even tiresomely, repeat that bite of Bush's: I don't care about dictatorships as long as I get to be dictator....

So the Breaking News this morning that the president of Belarus has named Vladimir Putin as his prime minister gives me pause.

Something tells me Minsk is not a place Rochelle, Rochelle is going to want to visit anytime soon.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

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Respect is not something you are given.

Respect is something you earn.

And yet Hillary supporters are going around right now demanding respect for her.

While she goes around blaming everyone else but herself for her appalling RFK assassination reference. A reference she has made multiple times. A reference that has now given license for the likes of Liz Trotta of Fox News to suggest that "knocking off" Obama would be just swell.

Let us dispense with the niceties.

I do not respect Hillary Clinton.

She has not earned my respect. She lies. She makes up facts. She tries to change rules after the game has been played. She pulls out meaningless scorecards...for example, winning the "popular vote." That is meaningless, because it has not been one single election in one time frame. No, it has been caucuses and primaries, votes among 2 candidates, votes among 8 candidates, votes among 7 candidates, votes among 6 candidates, votes among 5 candidates, votes among 4 candidates, votes among 3 candidates....

I do not respect Hillary Clinton because she bases her metrics not on herself, but on the likelihood of her opponent being struck by catastrophe. And since her oppo research team doesn't seem to be finding something sufficiently nasty to use, then has she got an alternate idea for you.

I do not respect Hillary Clinton because even now she is lying to us via her supporters who say this will all be wrapped up in mid-June after the primaries. If her supporters believe that, they're nuts. This woman has absolutely no intention of quitting...subconsciously or otherwise...she references back to 1968 because that campaign season was undecided into the convention. She intends to proceed there with a fight over rules or the floor or the price of the catered coffee.

She is "in it to win it..." and anyone who believes otherwise, well, let me introduce you to another politician who foreshadowed: "I don't have a problem with dictatorships, as long as I get to be dictator." How's that workin' out for ya?

We Honor

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On this Weekend of Memorial, we honor those who have served and fallen in defense of liberty and justice for all.

From the founding of this nation by those brash young upstarts, our founding fathers and mothers and their families who sacrificed much, we remember the times of honor of this nation…and the not-honorable times, that leave a Trail of Tears which also must never be forgotten. Our own fathers and mothers served, too—in the War to End All Wars and the Greatest Generation and the bitter cold of Korea and the heat of Viet Nam.

We honor their legacy of service in defense of this nation.

Our sons and daughters serve today, too many fallen, too many maimed, too many home in body but not in spirit. We watch Arlington on CNN, but are mind-full of Walter Reed and rehabilitation centers in San Antonio, and Florida, and triage hospitals in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the great global hospitals like Reinsdorf and Tripler, where medical teams work relentlessly to stabilize the wounded so they may come home for healing.

The nation, too, is in sore need of healing right now.

This weekend, as more Americans choose what CNN has dubbed “staycations” instead of “vacations,” we are mind-full of the deep debt we all owe those who put life and limb on the line in service of this nation’s defense and their families.

We honor the Senators who put forth the 21st Century G.I. Bill, a modest “thank you” for those who give so much.

We reject and shun the mindset that says “we don’t need to do anything more” whether it comes to that education bill or payroll or… the mindset that says we must take great pallets of dollars and drop them in the pockets of Iraqis who turn around and turn those dollars into weapons to use against us. We reject those leaders who still stubbornly hold to their vote in support of this Iraq War.

We have squandered much in lives and national treasure on this current war. This weekend, take time to remember the honorable service of our troops, and honor them not just in words, but in deeds. Bring them home…alive and whole…now.

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Call this a modest proposal in support of our troops and the security of the nation: Slow Down this Summer. Drive under 60. Go ahead, it won’t hurt you. After all, you’re cutting down your distance travel, so driving under 60 won’t take longer than you were willing to spend going farther away.

Since nobody else seems able…or lacks the will to cut the high cost of oil lest oil barons and sheikhs have to give up their gold-plated palaces, you be the change. It doesn’t have to be just politics, you know. We can start from the bottom up and accomplish honorable things.

Slow Down this Summer…the ‘roots way to support the troops…and stick it to the Greedy Oil Pushers.

What was She Thinking?!?

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That's the question making the rounds right now about Hillary Clinton and her intemperate reference to the assassination of RFK..."took place in June"... TPM has YouTubes here of her comments to the Sioux Falls Argus Leader and her followup "revise and extend" remarks in a grocery store later.

Intemperate, of course, doesn't begin to describe the appalling depth of making this kind of reference. And it's beyond troubling to me that she exhibits in the followup clip all the emotional authenticity of Mike Dukakis' clinical response to a what-if debate question about his reaction if his wife were raped.

Maybe it's because I was in Los Angeles...in June...that night. Not working for RFK, but for Senator Eugene McCarthy, and I remember the visceral pain of that night for all of us.

But for Hillary Clinton to use that event in some glib justification for why she should keep on with her campaign just leaves me absolutely, well, not speechless. But certainly more determined than ever to do my part to elect Obama, and his sound judgment and judicious temperament, as the next President. And more and better Democrats across the land, in this election, and those to come.

What Was She Thinking? What is she saying?

I want no part of her. Not on the ticket. Not in any leadership position at all.

Is this Hillary's "macaca moment"?

How Many?

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As the Democratic primary season drags on, enabled by the media lovin' the horserace ratings ad bucks narcissistic gasbaggery. As the presumptive Republican nominee McCain tries to distance himself from the fanatic fundamentalist Hagee. As the Current Occupant and his Rethuglican cronies try to stymie Jim Webb's 21st Century G.I. bill....

I have just one question.

To Hillary Clinton, John McCain, each and every one of their campaign surrogates, supporters and spokesmen. To Tim Russert, Rupert Murdoch, Roger Ailes and the rest of Faux News, George Stephanopoulus, Charles Gibson, Brian Williams, Katie Couric, Bob Shieffer, each and all of the print media who allowed themselves to be co-opted, embedded, spun, propagandized, b-b-Qued. To Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, the rest of your ilk.

How many of the lives sacrificed for Bush's Iraq bamboozlement do you take responsibility for? How many deaths in action? How many maimed? How many permanently PTSD-ed? How many suicides? How many who've been made monsters of torture?

How many? One? Ten? A thousand?

Because it's on all of you. Just as it's on me, and enabling, or blowing it off, or saying well, after November... just doesn't cut it. Cut the lies. Stop lying to us. Tell us the truth. So that we may clean and bind up our wounds as a nation, healed, but never unscarred.

And let us never forget. Never.
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UPDATE: Was just steered to an interview on Democracy Now with Mary Tillman, mother of Pat Tillman. During that, a clip of Jessica Lynch was played, and she had this to say:

I’m still confused as to why they chose to lie and try to make me a legend, when the real heroics of my fellow soldiers that day were legendary: people like Lori Piestewa and First Sergeant Dowdy, who picked up fellow soldiers in harm’s way, or people like Patrick Miller or Sergeant Donald Walters, who actually did fight until the very end.

The bottom line is the American people are capable of determining their own ideals for heroes, and they don’t need to be told elaborate lies. I had the good fortune and opportunity to come home and to tell the truth. Many soldiers, like Pat Tillman, they did not have that opportunity. The truth of war is not always easy. The truth is always more heroic than the hype.

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h/t to commenter LS at emptywheel

Hysteria in Hillaryland

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Today Hillary and her followers didn't just jump the shark, they're starting to drown the bunny in the hot water.

There, I said it.

I am beyond fed up with the rants of "it ain't fair" coming from the Hillary camp.

I am beyond fed up with the posturing by Clinton and her surrogates trying to whip into a frenzy the Florida voters, the super delegates, the rules committee so that she can fulfill her own destiny.

I am beyond fed up with the threats that smack of BushCo style bullying and cheating.

Get over yourselves.

If you tell us you can act like one of the guys, toss back the shots, stand toe to toe, be a fighter, then stop with the below the belt kidney shots.

When Edwards knew he couldn't win, when Dodd knew he couldn't win, when Biden knew he couldn't win, when Richardson knew he couldn't win...each in their turn had to suck it up, and step aside graciously.

But not Hillary.

There's a difference between "fighting" and wanting special circumstances...wanting the loophole...wanting the bending of the rules...the technicality...the unwinding of the process...the changing of the game at the end of the season.

Just say no to Hillary, Rules Committee. Just say no to Hillary, super delegates. Just say no to Hillary... like 54% of the voters always will to Hillary.

Put us out of her misery...leave the fuzzy math with the Republicans...after all, it hasn't done them—or the country—so good the last almost-eight years.

'cause sometimes life ain't fair...until it is.

The Company He Keeps

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Judge a man by the company he keeps.

By that marker, Hamilton Jordan lived a life of integrity, intelligence, wit, grace, and good company.

The chief of staff for Jimmy Carter, Jordan was the political strategist who built a Georgia peanut farmer's rise to the highest office in America. Jordan's life was cut too short yesterday when the cancer he endured for 22 years finally claimed him.

In the sturm und drang of political spinning and campaigning and shouting and punditizing, it's easy to get distracted from the basic truths about the people who lead us. Or mis-lead us.

The greatest honor and respect we can pay to the legacy of Hamilton Jordan is to choose wisely now and this fall. Based on information, not fearmongering. Who walks the walk, not just talks the talk.

Hamilton Jordan walked with a giant's step in politics and life, and we honor his legacy...in politics and in public service.