Politics Blog

Hillary promises to end war if elected President:

“Believe me, I understand the frustration and the outrage,” Clinton said in a speech to the Democratic National Committee meeting that brought the party’s nine White House hopefuls together for the first time. “You have to have 60 votes to cap troops, to limit funding to do anything. If we in Congress don’t end this war before January 2009, as president, I will.”

Only a democrat can say things like this. Even though she voted FOR the war, as President she wouldn’t have gone TO war:

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday she would not have attacked Iraq if she were president in 2002 and would end the war if elected, as she tried to blunt rivals like John Edwards who are stoking anti-war passions in the Democratic Party.

Other democrat candidates talked ‘cut & run’ policies:

Barack HUSSEIN Obama:

Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois reminded the party’s rank-and-file - twice - that he was against the Iraq invasion from the beginning.

“But whether you were for it or against it then, we all have a responsibility now to put forth a plan that offers the best chance of ending the bloodshed and bringing the troops home,” Obama told the audience.

John “2 Americas”Edwards:

Edwards voted with Clinton in 2002 to authorize Bush’s war against Iraq, a vote he defended during his 2004 presidential race but has since said was a mistake. The former North Carolina senator has gone from being a war apologist to one of the most outspoken critics of the invasion in this campaign.

“Silence is a betrayal,” Edwards said, one of 11 times he used the word betrayal in his 18-minute speech. “It is a betrayal not to stop this president’s plan to escalate the war when we have the responsibility, the power and the ability to stop it. We cannot be satisfied with passing nonbinding resolutions that we know this president will ignore.”

Ted Kennedy’s drinking buddy Chris Dodd:

“I don’t believe spending a week debating a nonbinding resolution is the change that America voted for” in November when Democrats won a majority in Congress, Dodd said. “With all due respect, a real bill and real teeth and real accountability is what is needed in our country again.”

Calls Hillary ‘timid’ towards Iran

BALTIMORE (AP) - Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney on Friday accused Democratic front-runner Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of “timidity” regarding the security threat posed by Iran.

In a speech to a retreat of conservative congressional Republicans, Romney lashed out at Clinton for telling a pro-Israel dinner that a dialogue with countries hostile to Israel - including Iran and Syria - is needed to promote peace in the Middle East.

“At this point, We don’t need a listening tour about Iran,” Romney told the Republican Study Committee. “Someone who wants to engage Iran displays a troubling timidity toward a terrible threat of a nuclear Iran.”

Hillary wants to taaaalk to them:

“We need to use every tool at our disposal, including diplomatic and economic in addition to the threat and use of military force” when dealing with Iran.

As politics becomes more and more like wrestling, Dem presidential hopefuls choose entrance music:

WASHINGTON (AP) - Everyone needs a soundtrack - even politicians.

The presidential candidates who addressed the Democratic National Committee’s winter meeting Friday got to choose their tunes, and it was an eclectic mix that reflected personal favorites and not-so-subtle messages.

Some candidates requested two songs, one that blared as they approached the stage and another that played as they left the podium.

The selections:

_John Edwards: “This Is Our Country” by John Mellencamp.

_Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut: “Get Ready (Cause Here I Come)” by the Temptations and “Reach Out,” also by the Temptations.

_Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York: “Right Here, Right Now,” by Jesus Jones and “Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet” by Bachman-Turner Overdrive.

_Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio: “America the Beautiful”

Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois decided against using any music in keeping with the somber tone he sought to convey. Wesley Clark, who hasn’t indicated whether he will run, entered to Johnny Cash’s “I Won’t Back Down.”

In case anyone was wondering, my ring entrance music is the Beastie Boys’ ‘No Sleep Till……Brooklyn’, as that is whereI am from.

Yes, they’re looking to fool the electorate into voting for them again

Sequestered in a gated resort, House Democrats are considering the direction their caucus will take on issues including the minimum wage, global warming and Iraq.
…
At the start of their retreat at Kingsmill Resort & Spa, a posh hotel operated by a subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc., a number of House moderates invoked the memory of Clinton’s centrist dealmaking and said they hoped his keynote address would help to move Democrats to the middle on a range of issues.

“A lot of things Bill Clinton did that were centrist could be examples for this Congress,” said Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas.

The party of the people, hard at work. At a spa.

In Britain:

Women now make up 57 per cent of university entrants, and they outnumber menin every subject — including maths and engineering. This thing is huge, and it is happening at every level, and no one seems to be thinking about the consequences.

Most trainee barristers and two thirds of medical students are now women — compared with 29 per cent women in the early 1990s. If current trends continue, most doctors will be female by 2012. It is ludicrous for the Equal Opportunities Commission to keep droning on about “glass ceilings” at the top of corporate Britain, or in the judiciary, when you think how fast this transformation has been.
…
Obviously a neanderthal corner of my heart worries about some aspects of the coming feminisation. Will we all become even more namby-pamby, elf-n-safety-conscious, regulation-prone and generally incapable of beating the Australians at anything than we already are? Hmm? And even if the feminist revolution is good and unstoppable (and it is both), we should perhaps consider some of the downsides — and the most interesting is that greater equality between the sexes is actually leading to greater division between the classes.

Interesting piece. The same thing is happening in America and of course nobody, especially liberals, thinks or cares about the consequences. College=good, women in college=really good! Seems to be the operating assumption.

Oh well, civilization be damned. Wymen’s studies lives on.

Out today:

The U.S. economy added a modest 111,000 jobs in January, but the job picture was much brighter than first estimated in the final quarter of last year, a government report showed on Friday.

While the January jobs gain fell short of economists’ forecasts, upward revisions to prior months’ data indicated the economy was on solid ground. A separate report found consumers – whose spending fuels two-thirds of economic growth – were more upbeat in January than they have been in two years.

Larry Kudlow notes more at The Corner

At $16.76, average hourly earnings are nearly 20 percent above year 2000 levels, and 44 percent above the $11.65 level in the fifth year of the Papa Bush/Clinton business expansion cycle.This is the fifth year of the GWB cycle.

Even in inflation adjusted terms, real average hourly earnings are slightly higher than the 2000 peak, and nine percent above the 1995 fifth year average level.

Hoverville indeed.

More on consumer confidence from US News.

On the Duke lacrosse rape case (of course she later deleted the post):

“Naturally, my flight out of Atlanta has been delayed. Let’s hope it takes off when they say it will so I don’t miss my connecting flight home.

“In the meantime, I’ve been sort of casually listening to CNN blaring throughout the waiting area and good [deleted] god is that channel pure evil. For awhile, I had to listen to how the poor dear lacrosse players at Duke are being persecuted just because they held someone down and [deleted] her against her will—not rape, of course, because the charges have been thrown out.

“Can’t a few white boys sexually assault a black woman anymore without people getting all wound up about it?

“So unfair.”

“Yes, how dare a rape victim act confused and bewildered like she was raped or something.”

As noted, Edwards used to work for the same firm as Collin Finnerty’s lead attorney, yet he has remained silent on the matter.

Coward.

Democrat Congressman to Democrat Congresswoman: She’s a “whore.”

Rep. Loretta Sanchez has quit the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, accusing the chairman, Rep. Joe Baca, of telling people she’s a “whore.”

Baca denied the charge.

In an interview with The Politico Wednesday, Sanchez, a California Democrat as is Baca, also cited concerns about whether Baca was properly elected Hispanic Caucus chairman in November and about his general attitude toward female lawmakers. The caucus represents 21 Hispanic Democrats in Congress.

“I’m not going to be a part of the CHC as long as Mr. Baca illegally holds the chair … I told them no. There’s a big rift here,” Sanchez said. “You treat the women like shit. I have no use for him.”

In a statement to The Politico, Baca said Sanchez “has decided to resign from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC), and has chosen to air baseless statements. Let me be clear; her comments are categorically untrue.”

Where’s the call for his resignation and sensitivity training for offending whores from around the world ???

Or in this case, his campaign managers wife:

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom’s re-election campaign manager resigned Wednesday after confronting the mayor about an affair Newsom had with his wife while she worked in the mayor’s office, City Hall sources said.

Alex Tourk, 39, who served as Newsom’s deputy chief of staff before becoming his campaign manager in September, confronted the mayor after his wife, Ruby Rippey-Tourk, told him of the affair as part of a rehabilitation program she had been undergoing for substance abuse, said the sources, who had direct knowledge of Wednesday’s meeting.

Rippey-Tourk, 34, was the mayor’s appointments secretary from the start of his administration in 2004 until last spring. She told her husband that the affair with Newsom was short-lived and happened about a year and a half ago, while the mayor was undergoing a divorce from his then-wife, Fox News host Kimberly Guilfoyle, said the sources, who spoke on condition they not be identified.

Has a “Kennedy” moment:

Reports of the affair come at a particularly sensitive time for Newsom, who is embarking on his campaign for re-election in November. The mayor’s personal life has come under scrutiny in recent weeks. In December, several witnesses at a late Friday night vigil for a mortally wounded police officer at San Francisco General Hospital reported that Newsom appeared to have been drinking when he arrived. A spokesman for the mayor declined to comment on those reports.

Nice guy.

Virginia on verge of passing an apology for slavery measure:

Virginia moved forward on Wednesday to apologize for slavery, something no president or legislature has done.

The Virginia House Rules Committee unanimously approved a measure that expresses “profound regret” for the state’s role in the slave trade and other injustices against African-Americans and Native Americans.

The original proposal by Del. Donald McEachin, a Democrat, called for “atonement.”

“This is a good first step,” says McEachin, whose great-grandfather Archie was a slave.

He says the wording was changed because some lawmakers said an apology could lead to reparations, or cash payments, to descendants of slaves.

He says the bill, though softened, is important as Virginia celebrates the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown, America’s first permanent English settlement and an entry point for African slaves.

A proposal in the state Senate expressing “profound contrition” won unanimous approval from a subcommittee Monday.

House Speaker William Howell expects both chambers to pass the measure, says his spokesman, G. Paul Nardo. The Legislature is scheduled to adjourn Feb. 24.

Congress has apologized to Japanese-Americans held in camps during World War II. President Clinton, in Uganda in 1998, said U.S. participation in the slave trade was “wrong.”

An apology alone does not heal wounds, says Bruce Gordon, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He says it’s important to recognize past wrongs, but it’s more essential to fix lingering racial inequities.

1- First admit guilt.
2- Watch the lawsuits pile up
3- Reparations anyone ?