Random Political News

[nacho]

Another clearinghouse style thread to keep the no-reply posts down....

We'll start off with a note on the continuing fall of The Smiler:

You know all those Elizabeth Edwards supporters who said her philandering husband ought to be charged with criminally no-goodnik behavior? They might yet get their wish: Former presidential aspirant John Edwards has confirmed to his hometown paper that he's under federal investigation.

[RottingCorpse]

"There are two Americas; One running for president and one railing out some whore while his wife is getting treatment for cancer."

[nacho]

Republicans appear to have secured a major victory over the Obama Administration and the Democratic leadership of Congress on the president's request for $81 million to close the terrorist detention center at Guantanamo Bay. Democrats dropped President Obama's request for the closure money from the text of a $94 billion supplemental appropriations bill to fund operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Democrats dropped the provision in the face of criticism from Republicans over the Administration's as yet unannounced plans for housing the detainees once the facility closes.

Iowa Rep. Steve King (R) summed up Republican criticism of President Obama's plan to close Guantanamo Bay, framing it as a national security issue.

    "[Closing Guantanamo] just never stood up to logic. There is no place on the planet to take the worst of the worst that would treat them as well as they are treated at [Guantanamo]."

    The bottom line really is that [if the prisoners are released], innocent people will die and some of them likely will be Americans."

A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, said that Republican obstructionism was to blame for the funding being removed from the war supplemental. But as the minority party, Republicans have little or no ability to influence legislation in the drafting stage. That the funding was removed is far more indicative of the political pressure Democrats are feeling as a result of Republican criticism than of any organized effort by Republicans to cut the controversial provision from the bill.

President Obama signed an executive order to great fanfare in the earliest days of his Administration directing that the detention center at Guantanamo Bay would close within one year. It was billed as the fulfillment of a campaign promise, and a major break with Bush Administration policies in the war on terror. But critics have always asserted that the move was incomplete absent a plan for what to do with the detainees held there, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammad and some of the plotters of the September 11th attacks. Now Democrats in Congress appear to be responding to that criticism by quietly denying the president the funding to close Guantanamo Bay. Congress can still provide the money in a separate appropriation. But it is clear now that President Obama will have to provide more details about his plans for housing terrorists currently held at the facility if he wants the money necessary to turn his rhetoric into action.

[Cassander]

the article i read today made it a little less of a "republican realism vs. democratic idealism" issue.  basically the $50 mill was just earmarked in case they had to build and staff some new facility in america or for vague logistics.  one committee member basically said "when they have a real plan, we'll be glad to hear it."  so....better start working on that plan.  but i have a feeling what will happen is there will just be a regime change in Gitmo and new, friendly guards and overseers will be touted.  i don't think it's really obama's fault.  once bush put them all there, there's not really any going back.  even if these detainees were innocent, no country is going to want a cell-created madman angry at life, fate, or, at the least, government (any government) wandering around their country. 

[nacho]

Whatever happened to HST's idea with the Cuban lunatics that Castro sent over on the boats?  Give them five bucks and a switchblade and drop them off in downtown Miami.  We can do the same with the Guantanamo terrorists, except in cities throughout the US.

[Cassander]

dude, you could totally just drop them all off in detroit.  it's the same kind of thing as miami in the 70s.  no industry, no real middle class, a high percentage of sympathetic immigrants...a city on the verge. 

seriously, i just spoke at length with a person who was there for the final four tournament as a city representative...forget buffalo and cleveland.  Detroit could turn into what "Escape from LA" looks like within 10 years.  it's a fucking post-WWII city within 21st century american borders. 

of course, that'll never fly with anybody.  not even i would suggest just dropping these guys there.  but still.  detroit.  man.

or, fuck.  take them to guam or a tiny shelf island in hawaii.  let them forge their own prisoner colony. 

[nacho]

Prisoner colonies are fun!

[Tatertots]

NEWSFLASH: Palin is a fucking moron. More at 11.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/07/03/palin/index.html

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Gov. Sarah Palin announced Friday that she will step down as Alaska's chief executive by the end of the month. She will not seek election to a second gubernatorial term in 2010.

As the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee, Palin had been considered one of the front-runners for the GOP nomination in 2012.

"People who know me know that besides faith and family, nothing's more important to me than our beloved Alaska," Palin said at an announcement from her home in Wasilla. "Serving her people is the greatest honor I could imagine."

Palin was elected governor in 2006. She was tapped as Arizona Sen. John McCain's vice presidential running mate last year.

Palin said she was transferring authority to Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell, who will be sworn in at the Governor's Picnic on July 26.

Palin added in a statement that she was "determined to take the right path for Alaska even though it is not the easiest path. ... Once I decided not to run for re-election, I also felt that to embrace the conventional lame duck status in this particular climate would just be another dose of politics as usual, something I campaigned against and will always oppose."

A Republican source close to her political team told CNN's John King that it was a "calculation" she made that "it was time to move on." The governor's "book deal and other issues" were "causing a lot of friction" in her home state, the source said, adding that he believes she is "mapping out a path to 2012."

Another source, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Palin "thinks she has accomplished goals she has set forward. ... She sees what a positive influence she has had on people's lives from traveling the country in the last year."

Following Palin's announcement, the Democratic National Committee blasted what it called her "bizarre behavior."

"Either Sarah Palin is leaving the people of Alaska high and dry to pursue her long shot national political ambitions or she simply can't handle the job now that her popularity has dimmed and oil revenues are down," DNC spokesman Brad Woodhouse said.

"Either way, her decision to abandon her post and the people of Alaska who elected her continues a pattern of bizarre behavior that more than anything else may explain the decision she made today."

Republican strategist and CNN contributor Ed Rollins said, to a certain extent, Palin's announcement makes her look "terribly inept."

"I think everyone is shocked by this, and I think to a certain extent everyone is going to assume there's another story. You don't just quit with a year and a half to go. You certainly don't do this as a stepping stone to run for president. You finish the job that you're in, and obviously she's not doing that," he said.

"I think people are going to be very suspicious because of the timing. You don't quit on the Friday of a three-day holiday. If you are going to do this, you think it through, you give a good speech," Rollins said.

However, CNN Republican Strategist Mary Matalin said she thought the move was "really brilliant" on Palin's part, though she admitted she was surprised when she first heard the news.

"Her delivery was incredible, if you're a less charismatic person, you probably couldn't pull it off," Matalin said. "[Now] she will be freed up and liberated the way Mitt Romney is to raise money and get political chips by spending it and getting political capital. And she is still raising the kinds of crowds and money she always did."

Now, Matalin says, Palin must focus on "putting up with the conventional wisdom" that this was a bad move and travel the country to drum up support for a presidential run.

"She takes that target off her back with a good record to launch from," Matalin said.

When asked about whether it's possible Palin stepped down because of something negative we hadn't heard yet, Matalin referenced Palin's own words that investigators have dug through research in the ethics investigation.

"We presume if there was anything else we would know it by now," Matalin said.

In an interview last month with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, Palin said she was unsure about her re-election bid because she needed to focus on her state and her family.

"So, no decision yet on either 2010 or let alone 2012?" Blitzer asked.

"No decision that I'd want to announce today," Palin responded.

Palin catapulted on the national stage last August when McCain, the Republican presidential nominee, chose her as his running mate.

[nacho]

haha... Man, what a freakshow.

[RottingCorpse]

She's a man. That's her big secret.

[Tatertots]

I'm hoping that we'll finally get an admission that Trig or Twig or whatever the little bastard's name is is not her's, but her daughter's.

[nacho]

I'm hoping for a Playboy spread.

[Tatertots]

FEH. I see enough cankles at the supermarket, thank you.

[nacho]

How about a spread with all three daughters?

[Tatertots]

Warmer!