Screw You Joe

Meet the new almost boss, same as all the old bosses.

From Biden on prosecuting Bush officials for torture: ‘I think we should be looking forwards, not backwards.’:

On ABC’s This Week, host George Stephanopoulos asked Vice President-elect Joe Biden whether high-level Bush administration officials should be prosecuted for prisoner abuse. “The questions of whether or not a criminal act has been committed…is something the Justice Department decides,” Biden responded. “That’s a decision I’d look to the Justice Department to make.” While stating he was “not ruling it in and not ruling it out,” Biden underscored that he and Obama are are “focusing on the future.” “I think we should be looking forward, not backwards,” he argued.

I’m all for reason, restraint, and letting the Justice Department do their job, but we simply can’t ignore the past eight years, and hold no one accountable.

I condemn the past that is the Bush administration, I do not want to repeat it.

How Much Change Will Obama Bring?

From Iraq War Supporters Have Bad Judgment Until They Work for Obama by W. James Antle, III:

So who does Obama turn to when he starts hiring people for major positions in his administration? Joe Biden for vice president, even though Biden voted to authorize the Iraq war. Rahm Emanuel for White House chief of staff, even though Emanuel supported the war and says he would have voted for it even if he knew there were no weapons of mass destruction.

A Contest Of Reason

Sarah Palin wore a great big flag pin. Now that the most important thing about last night is out of the way, let’s move on.

I like this definition of the word debate:

Debate is a formal method of presenting arguments in support and against a given issue (expressed in a form of a debate topic) in which debaters present reasons and evidence to persuade an audience or a group of judges.

How much evidence did we see last night? It all depends on who you believe. One side says one thing, the other side says it’s not true. The other side says something else, the other side says it’s not true. This is a debate? What is gained by this?

Perhaps the debates could stand to have a panel of referees. Someone to point out what is true and what is false. This is especially true in the case of someone’s voting record. The senators themselves probably don’t really know what they are voting for half the time, how are we supposed to figure it all out? How many members of Congress read the Patriot Act before voting on it? How do you weed out what’s really going on when there is so much pork attached to everything they vote on? Like wooden arrows for children. Last nights bickering about who voted for what does not add clarity, it only muddies things up even more. What is the average American voter supposed to make of all of this?

“Analysis” from the talking heads does not help at all. Style trumps substance in their world, and they try as hard as they can to make it be that way in our world as well. So the meme that spreads about last night is that Sarah Palin held her own. I think that Sarah Palin is Bush redux. Not only in substance, but also in style.

A debate is supposed to be a contest of reason. That’s not what I saw last night.

Update:
From George W. Palin by digby:

Last night Palin appeared to have mastered the art of George W. Bush style gibberish --- obnoxious, confident and dumb. And the conservative elite are all relieved. They were afraid they had a real problem on their hands --- a candidate who was timorous, insecure and dumb and that is a sure loser.

I'm going to start referring to her as George W Palin. She has every one of the characteristics that people thought were so refreshingly "authentic" when he ran in 2000 and which led us to disaster. This arrogant, empty, anti-intellectual faux populism has just proved itself to be inadequate for the presidency and yet they've put up another one.

Pit Bull Or Weasel?

Lipstick on a weasel?

From Pact on Debates Will Let McCain and Obama Spar by Patrick Healy:

The Obama and McCain campaigns have agreed to an unusual free-flowing format for the three televised presidential debates, which begin Friday, but the McCain camp fought for and won a much more structured approach for the questioning at the vice-presidential debate, advisers to both campaigns said Saturday.

At the insistence of the McCain campaign, the Oct. 2 debate between the Republican nominee for vice president, Gov. Sarah Palin, and her Democratic rival, Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., will have shorter question-and-answer segments than those for the presidential nominees, the advisers said. There will also be much less opportunity for free-wheeling, direct exchanges between the running mates.

McCain advisers said they had been concerned that a loose format could leave Ms. Palin, a relatively inexperienced debater, at a disadvantage and largely on the defensive.

Read the rest here.

Why is Sarah Palin getting special treatment? Glenn Beck says that "Palin's career has been filled with executive experience. She's the only one of the four in this race who has run a business, town, and/or state (a state that gives her crucial energy experience in the middle of an energy crisis)."

Pit Bull Or Weasel? Or just bull?

Turd Blossom Lets Loose

“Bush’s Brain” does not strike me as being any more intelligent than Bush’s brain.

From Rove: Obama's inexperienced; Biden's a 'big, blowhard doofus' by Jessica Alaimo:

Maine's Republican delegation got a surprise visit from former White House political operative Karl Rove at its convention breakfast this morning.

During his speech, he talked up John McCain's Republican presidential bid and criticized Democratic nominee Barack Obama for his inexperience.

When the topic of running mates came up, he referred to U.S. Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) as a "big, blowhard doofus."

Can you imagine what a conversation between George W. Bush and Karl Rove in the Oval Office must have been like?

And they were supposed to be the ones who were going to return dignity to the Oval Office.

We Are CNN And We Are The News

How lame is this? CNN tries to make itself part of the news.

From CNN forces Obama to release VP pick early by Mark Preston:

Barack Obama planned to name Joe Biden as his running mate by text message at 8 a.m. ET Saturday morning, but was forced to move up the announcement when CNN broke the story after midnight, a senior Obama official said.

Read the rest here.

Joe Biden

From VP choice Biden unpopular in Iraq for autonomy plan by Peter Graff and Khalid al-Ansary:

Senator Joe Biden may be one of the only U.S. politicians that can get Iraq's feuding Sunni, Shi'ite and Kurdish politicians to agree. But not in a good way.

Across racial and religious boundaries, Iraqi politicians on Saturday bemoaned Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama's choice of running mate, known in Iraq as the author of a 2006 plan to divide the country into ethnic and sectarian enclaves.

"This choice of Biden is disappointing, because he is the creator of the idea of dividing Iraq," Salih al-Mutlaq, head of National Dialogue, one of the main Sunni Arab blocs in parliament, told Reuters.

"We rejected his proposal when he announced it, and we still reject it. Dividing the communities and land in such a way would only lead to new fighting between people over resources and borders. Iraq cannot survive unless it is unified, and dividing it would keep the problems alive for a long time."

Read the rest here.

Straight Talk From Joe Biden

From Biden calls Bush comments 'bulls**t':

The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Joe Biden, D-Delaware, called President Bush’s comments accusing Sen. Barack Obama and other Democrats of wanting to appease terrorists "bulls–t” and said if the president disagrees so strongly with the idea of talking to Iran then he needs to fire his secretaries of State and Defense, both of whom Biden said have pushed to sit down with the Iranians.

“This is bullshit. This is malarkey. This is outrageous. Outrageous for the president of the United States to go to a foreign country, sit in the Knesset…and make this kind of ridiculous statement,” Biden said angrily in a brief interview just off the Senate floor.

Excuse me Senator Biden, but EVERYTHING Bush says is bullshit.

Our Foolish Mission In Iraq

From Joe Biden Just Obliterated Every Administration Argument About Iraq by dday:

The Ambassdor to Iraq just admitted that Iraq is not the central front in the war on terror. He just admitted that the potential for Al Qaeda to gain a beachhead in Iraq should the United States withdraw is miniscule compared to the already-established beachhead along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. He admitted that the global fight against terror is currently misdirected.

Whether the military is lowering casualties in Iraq or not, or whether political reconciliation is occurring or not, or whether Prime Minister Maliki won in Basra or Muqtada al-Sadr did, none of this is germane given the new information we just received here. We invaded Iraq to attack a group that did not attack us on 9-11, and we are continuing in Iraq and continuing to ignore the group that did attack us. So our policy is being held captive to developments inside Iraq while the terrorist threat that was supposed to be the impetus for this war and occupation in the first place goes on literally unabated.