Pennsylvania: Bush

November 22, 2009 - 08:50 am

Jack Kelly Sunday

Now THIS is interesting.

This week's column, by Jack Kelly, seems to be in two versions. There's the first published over at the Toledo Blade and a second edited version published by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Here's the opening in Toledo:
WHAT were President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder thinking when they decided to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the chief architect of the 9/11 attacks, and four other al-Qaeda bigwigs in a civilian court in New York City?

From the standpoint of politics, this decision makes no sense. According to a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll released Monday, only 34 percent of Americans support the decision to try the al-Qaeda leaders in a federal district court.

November 18, 2009 - 08:48 pm

Religious Wingnuts Strike Again

From The Christian Science Monitor:

There’s a new slogan making its way onto car bumpers and across the Internet. It reads simply: “Pray for Obama: Psalm 109:8”

A nice sentiment?

Maybe not.

The psalm reads, “Let his days be few; and let another take his office.”

Presidential criticism through witty slogans is nothing new. Bumper stickers, t-shirts, and hats with “1/20/09” commemorated President Bush’s last day in office.

But the verse immediately following the psalm referenced is a bit more ominous: “Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.”

This part I don't understand at all:

Still, that doesn’t push the Psalms citation into the realm of hate speech, says Chris Hansen, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

November 16, 2009 - 06:40 am

Jack Kelly Sunday

I never thought Jack Kelly would be so anti-US Military. But check out this week's column.

After a gratuitous slap at "America's self-anointed elite" Jack heads straight towards the US Army (Note: Jack thinks that The Army is "America's self-anointed elite"??)

The column starts out about Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the alleged Ft Hood shooter and winds up indicting the Army as "PC." His argument is that because there were so many "red flags" in Hasan's record, there was a "willful blindness" and a "gross negligence by his superiors permitted him to be in the position to do so much harm."

Perhaps. But let's look at the evidence that Jack presents to see if all his dots connect.

November 8, 2009 - 11:58 am

Jack Kelly Sunday

Not much fact-checking in this week's column by Jack Kelly.

There IS this:
But if you're one of the 84 Democrats who represent districts carried either by George W. Bush in 2004 or John McCain last year, the time to ponder this is before casting a potential career-terminating vote on health-care "reform." [emphasis added.]
That's a bit of a cheat, isn't it? I mean why include the districts of House Democrats carried by Bush in 2004 if only to beef up the number of "Dems at risk"?

Especially since there were only 49 Democratic House Districts voting for McCain in 2008.

I guess Jack really doesn't think anyone will check his work.

October 31, 2009 - 01:58 pm

Why Don't Facts Matter To The Wingnut Right?

Case in point. Liz Cheney, Reality and Dover Air Force Base:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Crooks and Liars has a transcript.

Here's the gist of the latest GOP lie-fest. Liz Cheney (Dick's daughter) complained about President Obama's appearance at Dover Air Force Base:
I don't know why he went to Dover. I mean, I think that clearly it is very important for a commander-in-chief, whenever he can in whatever way it possible, to pay tribute to our fallen soldiers, our fallen military folks. But, I think, you know, what President Bush used to do was to it without the cameras, and I don't understand sort of showing up with the White House Press Pool with photographers and asking the family if you can take pictures.

October 12, 2009 - 06:03 am

Fact-Checking Ruth Ann Dailey

A quick Fact-Check (as I am running late this morning) on Ruth Ann Dailey's column today. She writes:
The best way to do so is to keep the focus strictly on the issues. Exit polling released just before New Year's Day and easily overlooked in the left's post-election euphoria showed that despite voters' support for Mr. Obama, they feared the possible results of Democratic Party hegemony.

Target Point Consulting's in-depth poll of 1,000 voters sought to determine why they voted the way they did. As reported by the Wall Street Journal's Political Diary, there was plenty of bad news for Republicans: Voters faulted them for the bad economy, the prolonged war in Iraq, a too-strident position on immigration, and bailouts for big corporations.

October 4, 2009 - 05:01 pm

Jack Kelly Sunday

Not sure what to make of this week's column by Jack Kelly.

It's a confusing mush as he seems to be advocating a "strategy" that doesn't have the support of the general he describes as nothing less than "no greater expert in the U.S. military on this strategy".

But first, some fact-checking.

As always, Jack just can't help himself. In a gratuitous slap more or less completely beside his point, he spins on Health Care in a column on Afghanistan. Take a look:
If President Barack Obama supports the recommendations of Stanley McChrystal, the general he picked to run the war in Afghanistan, he'll have done a very brave thing.

October 1, 2009 - 09:28 am

How they got here

1. I couldn't figure out why this old post from three years ago

‘Katrina Kids’ Sing ‘Congress, Bush and FEMA…Have Come to Rebuild Us’ at White House Egg Roll

was getting so many hits the last few days until I started seeing this story on a few blogs.

I still like the poster:


(Click on image for larger version)

(Keyword searchs: "katrina kids sing to laura bush" "katrina kids with laura bush" "katrina kids sing about bush")

2. I couldn't be prouder that when folks google image "Michele Bachmann" this

is the third image that comes up. It's from the post:

Michele Bachmann prepares to make her next pronouncement

3.

September 22, 2009 - 05:48 am

Torture.

The AP is reporting:
A new scientific paper asserts that the CIA's harsh interrogation program likely damaged the brain and memory functions of terrorist suspects, diminishing their ability to provide the detailed information the spy agency sought.

The paper, published Monday in the scientific journal "Trends in Cognitive Science: Science and Society," says the harsh techniques used by the CIA under the Bush administration were biologically counterproductive to eliciting quality information.

The report says extreme stress, the kind caused by the extended use of waterboarding — a form of simulated drowning used on three CIA prisoners — can also cause suspects to make up and believe false memories, a phenomena known as confabulation.

September 13, 2009 - 12:23 pm

Jack Kelly Sunday

It's Sunday. Jack Kelly's got a column in the P-G. Said column that shows, yet again, that NO ONE AT THE P-G FACT-CHECKS JACK KELLY.

Good lord, this is getting redundant.

This week's column is about the resignation of Van Jones, scary black man.

Jack's opening:

Around midnight on the Saturday of the Labor Day weekend, the White House announced Van Jones had resigned as President Obama's "green jobs czar."

"On the eve of historic fights for health care and clean energy, opponents of reform have mounted a vicious smear campaign against me," Mr. Jones said in his resignation letter. "They are using lies and distortions to distract and divide.