Letters to the Editor
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Hillary was there...
She voted wrong. She was there for the Iraq vote she voted wrong. It all shows how inexperienced her opponents are...they can't figure out how to spin being wrong pretty consistently into being a strong leader.
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"Present"
First off, I like the "Incurious George" joke.
But ... parading Clinton talking points about how voting "present" demonstrates Obama's inability to make a stand on issues is pure bullshit. It's similar to trumpeting "Obama is a Muslim," Joan, and it's fairly uncool of you.
This blog from The Chicago Trib debunks this whole ridiculousness:
http://blogs.chicagotribune.com/news_columnists_ezorn/2007/12/disparagement-o.html
And, Obama missing the Kyl-Lieberman vote was (I imagine) a very calculated measure since on key votes prior to that (ie, Iraq war funding) Clinton always voted after Obama, mirroring his votes. He had to find a differentiation since she was playing political games. So, her tactic on this is right out of Rove's playbook ... accuse the enemy of exactly the issue you are guilty of ... in this case Clinton has no real "stand" on issues ... she merely triagulates it based on poll data.
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Cripes, just a day ago Salon writers were ridiculing Stephen Hadley for questioning the 2007 NIE, and now Joan Walsh says the 2005 NIE was the bad one...
Sheeeesh! Talk about shooting the OLD messengers!
Anyway, I know what to think about at least some of the 2007 NIE contributors, based on this:
http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110010946
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"Floyd Leverett"
Joan, who is "Floyd Leverett"? Is he the NIE's staff pharmacist in Mayberry?
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Obama's Missed Vote
Certainly it hurts Obama's position regarding Iran that he missed the vote on the Kyl-Lieberman amendment.
But one key detail that almost is never mentioned - Sen. Obama said immediately after the vote that he was assured by Democratic Senate leadership that they did not expect a vote on that ammendment to take place in the immediate future. It was under this assumption that he continued with his planned campaign event in NH.
It is unfortunate that he was not there to oppose the legislation with a vote, but many commentators, and of course those clearly in the Clinton camp fail to detail the circumstances surrounding his missed vote.
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Maybe the intelligence community..
Is undermining Hillary instead. have we thought of that?
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Hillary and the NPR debate
I found it interesting that Hillary tempered her recent attacks on Obama for the NPR debate. As a question of judgment and tactics she obviously realized she can't pull her recent attacks in the NPR forum and didn't want to appear shrill to the NPR audience. To do so would have allowed Obama to address point by point, which she obviously didn't want. Elephantman...you really need to get a life..seriously.
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My condolences, Elephant
There is yet another issue where you will look like a complete fool in discussing. For example:
Cripes, just a day ago Salon writers were ridiculing Stephen Hadley for questioning the 2007 NIE, and now Joan Walsh says the 2005 NIE was the bad one...
It wasn't Joan Walsh who made this declaration. She was referring to the subject matter expert on this one, Flynt Leverett, a top Middle East expert and former senior director on Bush's National Security Council. According to Leverett:
And in 2005, the intelligence community succumbed to that [political pressure to support military action against Iran] -- hook, line and sinker. This time, you had some different people in charge of the process, and some of the pressures from 2005 -- you had Donald Rumsfeld at the Pentagon then -- were no longer there, although I think there was still some pressure applied.
So, Elephant, do you have some reason to contest this statement by Leverett? Or are you just having a hard time letting go of the idea of another disastrous invasion in the Middle East? It's okay, you can admit it to us.
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uncool of whom, Totoro?
Uncool of you to equate Obama/Muslim on the same level with Joan's reporting accurately enough, that Obama appears to miss a lot of key votes and votes "present" instead of yea or nay.
Yes, turns out there was a reason for his doing it: Parliamentary maneuvering. Fine. But how many people would actually know the wonky reasoning behind those "present" votes without looking it up?
It's uncool of the Obama camp not to have put out a memo on that a long time ago and that would have killed Hillary's talking point before it ever got legs.
But getting yourself all itchy and disgruntled over such a small matter and accusing Joan or anybody else of being a bigot is unfair, in addition to being uncool.
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Opinonjounal
Great place for panty sniffing, crackpot theories about how Clinton murdered Vince Foster, where Saddam hid all his invisible weapons when he wasn't giving them to OBL, and why the CIA is a liberal fifth column.
Actual news, based on verifiable fact? Not so much...
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Is she kidding?
The difference is "she was there"?? What the hell difference does it make if she was there or not, when she cast THE WRONG VOTE? Sounds to me like it would have been a much BETTER day for America if she'd gone off to do something else that day.
I know you like Hillary, Joan, but for the life of me I can't imagine why. She's completely untrustworthy, and her habit of hyping her "involvement" with her husband's presidency, when she wasn't elected and had no business running anything, is getting really REALLY irritating. Besides which, I'd be more impressed with that claim if more of the things she was involved with had actually worked. As it stands, she's got a record of going a lot of stuff that didn't go anywhere. Not something I'd brag about, myself.
This woman has got to learn the difference between Republican "reality" and real life reality. Don't ask me to sympathize with someone who can't tell the difference.
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Follman article left out interviewee
Joan, I mention it to you since you're an editor. The Follman article doesn't mention who he was interviewing. I couldn't tell if it was an interview or he wrote his article in a Q&A format. I didn't know until I saw your blog.
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Huckabee has his own Willy Horton. Nice.
But ol' Huck can just point to all the people he put to death and shrug, "Hey, one got away."
What I really like is how both Huck and Willard (Romney. I won't call him Mitt), have tried to leverage their religion and now they are going to have to answer a lot of questions like:
1. If you take the Bible literally, how long after your inauguration as president do intend to start stoning homosexuals? How about Rudi and Judi Giuliani, the flagrant adulterers? Stoning? Good!
2. What about Revelations? Do you believe we are in the end times? Of course, you must, if you are true to your beliefs. How will that affect your foreign policy decisions? Do you want to hasten Armageddon, convert or kill the Jews and wait for the Anti-Christ to come back?
3. Will you pass a Federal Law, or leave it up to the 50 states to require women who are menstruating to go away from the house while they are "unclean" and not come back until they've performed the mikva rituals? And men too! It says in the Bible that if a man has, uh... "spilled his seed" in any way, either while in copulation with his wife, or in the immoral act of onanism, or even an unwelcome wet dream, he too is unclean and must go away from everyone and perform the mikva and not come back until sunrise the next day. Now I don't know about you, Huck, but that's going to be kind of hard to do if a guy has to get up and go to work in the morning.
And then there are questions for Willard Romney:
1. OK Willard, what are you wearing under that stupid looking business suit with white shirt, red tie, and an sharply creased dress pants: Do wear boxers? Briefs? Or that Mormon Holy underwear with the secret symbols embroidered on them?
2. Reagan and Nixon had the "Western White House" and the Bush's had their Texas and New England retreats. Are you going to make Salt Lake City your headquarters?
3. Will you pardon Warren Jeffs?
4. Would you require American teenagers to go on a two-year mission in lieu of military service?