Clipmarks | masbury's clips

Bill Clinton: Older voters "too wise to be fooled" by Obama

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 04:34:21 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: "part presidential politics...part legacy protection"

QUAKERTOWN, Pa. -- Older voters gravitate to Hillary Clinton because they're too wise to be fooled by Barack Obama's rhetoric, former president Bill Clinton told Pennsylvania voters today.

Clinton's comments, to a packed high school gym about an hour north of Philadelphia, were one part presidential politics and one part legacy protection. His beef was with Obama's contention that many of the problems facing the country today were simmering long before President Bush took office seven-plus years ago.

Tags: clinton, politics

Chart: Compare military spending with preventive spending

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 00:10:37 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: If you can find the tiny slice

Clip Source: www.nationalpriorities.org

American taxpayers expect the federal government to provide national security. Achieving that security is a constant and complicated challenge that cannot be met by military might alone. A sound national security policy involves three broad strategies:

preventive measures such as securing nuclear materials abroad and participating in multi-lateral diplomatic and peacekeeping operations;
homeland security such as providing port security and coordinating emergency first responders; and
the military

Tags: military, politics, foreign policy

Graph: Individual vs Corporate Income tax since 1940

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 00:04:00 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Corporations pay less and less of the US tax bill

Clip Source: www.nationalpriorities.org

Tags: economy, taxes, politics, news

Clinton "honest and trustworthy" rating down to 39%

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 19:28:33 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Among Americans nationally; also trails among Democrats by 23 points.

Clip Source: rawstory.com

Clinton is viewed as "honest and trustworthy" by just 39 percent of Americans, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, compared with 52 percent in May 2006. Nearly six in 10 said in the new poll that she is not honest and trustworthy. And now, compared with Obama, Clinton has a deep trust deficit among Democrats, trailing him by 23 points as the more honest, an area on which she once led both Obama and John Edwards.

Among Democrats, 63 percent called her honest, down 18 points from 2006; among independents, her trust level has dropped 13 points, to 37 percent. Republicans held Clinton in low regard on this in the past (23 percent called her honest two years ago), but it is even lower now, at 16 percent. Majorities of men and women now say the phrase does not apply to Clinton; two years ago, narrow majorities of both did.

the Bosnia incident and the way the campaign handled it have left advisers divided over what a candidate can do after such a steep drop in trust.

Tags: clinton, honest, polls, politics, news

Food shortages threaten 100 million

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 19:15:27 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Ban Ki-moon pleads for emergency aid

Clip Source: therealnews.com

Major funding needed to fight rapidly escalating crisis, UN chief says

The doubling of food prices over the past three years could push 100 million people in low-income countries further into poverty, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Tuesday. The UN leader's words echo the sentiments of Robert Zoellick, president of the World Bank, who has called for an injection of $500 million in emergency aid. The UN secretary-general also urged countries to begin long-term efforts to increase the production of food.

Tags: food, news, foreign policy

Washington Post poll: Obama up, Clinton "dishonest"

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 19:12:26 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Among Democrats, he has 2 to 1 electability rating

Clip Source: www.truthdig.com

As the race for the Democratic nomination slogs ahead, a new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows Barack Obama with a 10-point national lead over Hillary Clinton, with the added insult of six in 10 voters seeing Clinton as neither honest nor trustworthy.

He now has a 2-to-1 edge on who is considered more electable in a general contest—a major reversal from the last poll—and has dramatically reduced a large Clinton lead on which of the two is the “stronger leader.”

Tags: politics, clinton, obama, polls, news

The (just joking!) real causes of Pennsylvanians' bitterness

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 19:07:19 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Like: "way Amish wear beards w/o mustaches." Some from every sociological stratum.

Clip Source: www.motherjones.com

Tags: bitterness, humor, politics

McCain 2000: arm, train, equip forces to overthrow gov'ts

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 19:04:00 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Want more Iraqs? McCain's your man. "Rogue State Rollback" policy.

Clip Source: www.motherjones.com

Here's McCain in a February 2000 Republican debate:

"I'd institute a policy that I call 'rogue state rollback,'" said McCain. "I would arm, train, equip, both from without and from within, forces that would eventually overthrow the governments and install free and democratically- elected governments."

Holding positions this extreme and this dangerous ought to be considered worse than ethical or moral transgressions.

his recent statement on "rogue state rollback" was: "I wasn't saying that we should go around and declare war."

Tags: mccain, politics, war on terror

Rightwing Reality: "Economic unease is fear Bush tax cuts might go away"

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 18:59:02 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: That's what those losing their homes are REALLY worried about. Big Gubmunt the problem - tax cuts the answer. Never mind that this mess wouldn't have happened without the deregulation of the industry during the Reagan and Clinton years.

Clip Source: www.motherjones.com

John McCain commemorated tax day by delivering a speech that boosted his promises of tax cuts to absurd levels. Lindsey Graham commemorated it by writing an op-ed in the Greenville News that claimed Americans' uneasiness with the economy stems from their worry that the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy might not be made permanent by Congress. Seriously.

Here's Graham:

[Tax cuts were] the right medicine for an ailing economy and the results were clear. By lowering taxes, the federal government spurred economic development and actually collected more in tax revenue. […]

I believe some of the uneasiness taxpayers feel today about the economy is driven by concerns they are going to be hit with huge tax increases when the tax cuts expire.

Tags: politics, economy, news, graham, mccain

Tehran anti-vice chief nailed with 6 nude women

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 18:51:00 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: But flogs mixed dancers.

Clip Source: www.motherjones.com

Move over Eliot Spitzer... and let us now puzzle over yet another humiliation of a public figure: General Reza Zarei, chief of police in Tehran and (until now) the figurehead for the Iranian regime's crackdown on feminine "immodesty." Zarei was reportedly arrested in an underground brothel in the company of six naked prostitutes. For now, the fallen police chief sits in an Iranian jail, pending further investigation. It's unclear how his arrest might impact Tehran's enforcement of its anti-vice laws, which forbid women from showing their hair or wearing make-up in public and have subjected young people to floggings for the crime of dancing together at house parties. One can only wonder at how the clerics might punish General Zarei.

Tags: news, iran

"The Boss" endorses Obama

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 18:35:41 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: "Speaks to the America I've envisioned in my music"

Clip Source: www.motherjones.com

Just as Senator Barack Obama's connection to working-class voters is being questioned (unfairly) by Senator Hillary Clinton and Senator John McCain (two true populists, right?), the Bard of the Blue-collar America, Bruce Springsteen, has endorsed Barack Obama, declaring that Obama "speaks to the America I've envisioned in my music." Prior to the start of the Democratic primaries, Springsteen was not jazzed by anyone in the Democratic race, according to a source quite close to him. But the Jersey boy has now jumped in with a full power chord, at an important moment in the race. It's doubtful his endorsement--or that of any singer, celebrity, artist, writer or intellectual--can shift large number of voters. But it's sure better to have the Boss on your side that against you.

Tags: springsteen, politics, obama

Cole: Smugglers, NOT IRAN, bring weapons to Iraq

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 18:31:59 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: from U of Michigan's Juan Cole; Iran not to blame for Iraqi instability

Clip Source: www.juancole.com

The recent propaganda push by Bush and his aides to blame Iran for most Iraq's ongoing instability is revealed as grounded in false premises. The Sunni guerrillas who hit Baquba, Baghdad, Ramadi and Mosul were completely unconnected to Iran.

At the very end of the Reuters post quoted below, we see an implicit acknowledgment that what Iranian weapons have come into Iraq have often come in via freelance smugglers using donkeys.

NEAR KHANAQIN - Iraqi border guards clashed with smugglers trying to bring in 170 roadside bombs stacked on mules near Khanaqin in Diyala province, on the border with Iran, a border guard source said. The U.S. military said Iraqi officers discovered a cache of anti-tank mines after taking small arms fire from an unknown number of gunmen on Monday. It gave no location but the incidents appeared to be the same.

Tags: iran, war on terror, foreign policy, news

Surprised anti-war soldier promoted

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 18:18:58 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Will teach Geneva Convention to his troops

Clip Source: www.commondreams.org

SAN FRANCISCO - One of the leading voices of dissent inside the U.S. Army has been promoted.

Sergeant Ronn Cantu — who signed a petition to Congress demanding the U.S. withdraw from Iraq and gave interviews to the news shows ‘60 Minutes’ and ‘Democracy Now!’, as well as IPS detailing his opposition — has seen his rank upgraded to staff sergeant.

Now, as a staff sergeant, Cantu says he’ll teach the soldiers under him to follow the Geneva Conventions and other laws of war.

‘There’s a lot of soldiers out there who wouldn’t recognise an unlawful order if it bit them on the behind,’ he said. ‘So I’m going to make sure the nine guys under me are very aware of the laws of armed conflict. I just want to make sure that they keep their ethics and moral standards and keep out of trouble should anything happen.’

Most service members who speak out are not given the same treatment Ronn Cantu got.

‘I was pretty surprised,’

I’d say honestly I just slipped through some bureaucratic cracks.’

Tags: war, news

Bill Clinton, '91: Blasts Bush for scaring poor whites

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 06:17:42 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: How the tables are turned! Blasted Bush for "scaring the daylights out of" "economically insecure white people" "when the country's coming apart rather than coming together"; they "keep us looking at each other across a racial divide". So that's where he learned it!

Clip Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

"The reason (George H. W. Bush's tactic) works so well now is that you have all these economically insecure white people who are scared to death," Clinton was quoted saying by the Los Angeles Times in September 1991.

"You know, he [Bush] wants to divide us over race.

the same old scam they've been pulling on us for decade after decade after decade. When their economic policies fail, when the country's coming apart rather than coming together, what do they do? They find the most economically insecure white men and scare the living daylights out of them. They know if they can keep us looking at each other across a racial divide, if I can look at Bobby Rush and think, Bobby wants my job, my promotion, then neither of us can look at George Bush and say, 'What happened to everybody's job? What happened to everybody's income? What ... have ... you ... done ... to ... our ... country?'"

Tags: clinton, hypocrisy, politics

Bitter small towns give more to Obama

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 06:08:14 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Obama outraises Clinton in rural PA

Clip Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

Sen. Barack Obama's political opponents charge that his recent remarks on the economic woes and bitterness of low-income voters put him gravely out of touch with small town Pennsylvanians.

But a review of campaign finance records -- conducted for The Huffington Post by the Spotfire Division of software firm TIBCO -- reveals that it is Obama, not Sen. Hillary Clinton, who has received the majority of donations from these very same Keystone State communities.

the figures also cut against some conventional political wisdom: mainly, that Clinton has been challenging Obama almost strictly on the large advantages she has in rural, white communities.

"People who contribute money are going to vote," Massie Ritsch, a spokesperson for the Center for Responsive Politics, recently told The Huffington Post. "I don't think anyone is making a contribution to a candidate and then staying home on Election Day.

Tags: politics, bitter