One reason that politicians and other officials can avoid addressing hard questions at press conferences is because each journalist is usually given the chance to ask just one question. The politician can answer evasively or dismissively and [Read more…]
The Republican party likes to portray itself as defenders of ‘traditional family values’, which seem to many of us to be synonymous with narrow-minded, bigoted, and religiously-motivated ones. But that’s fine. People have their own moral standards and need some measures by which to evaluate candidates and they have every right to expect the candidates they support to have the same values that they do.
But what is odd is that rather than letting the values determine who their candidate should be, many of those voters seem to reverse the process and [Read more…]
Andy Borowitz reveals that in an effort to duplicate New Gingrich’s success in the primaries, Mitt Romney has decided to have an affair.
“Republican voters have sent the message that they want to vote for an adulterous scumbag and I have heard them loud and clear,” he said. “I promise that I will engage in a world-class extramarital affair that will make all of us proud again.”
According to one senior advisor, the Romney campaign was already holding focus groups and conducting special polling to determine the best person with whom Mr. Romney should conduct his extracurricular dalliance.
Will this new strategy reverse Romney’s fortunes? Stay tuned!
Mitt Romney is not a good public speaker. I find it painful to listen to him. Even a short clip of his speeches reveals someone who seems uncomfortable in that role because he lacks the ability to make his points clearly. What has got him so far is money and preparation plus the backing of the party establishment, the media, and the oligarchy, coupled with his willingness to say anything to pander to his audience. This is what makes so puzzling his repeated stumbles on the question of his own taxes, a topic that he must surely have known was coming. His performance on this issue is weirdly awkward for someone who prides himself on his careful preparation.
There seems to be increasing intrusiveness in the political process resulting in the current expectation that candidates for major office [Read more…]
As I wrote about before, it has been clear for some time that the oligarchy wanted the next election to be between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. That is the kind of election they like and almost [Read more…]
There has been some ghastly religious violence going on in Nigeria.
A Muslim group known as Boko Haram has committed massacres of Christians, sometimes with bombings and at other times with automatic weapons, in order to drive them out of the Muslim-dominated north of the country to the Christian-dominated south. One attack on a Catholic church on Christmas day killed 37 people. An explosives attack on a Muslim school is suspected of being a retaliation.
Boko Haram is one of those groups that takes their religious texts seriously.
Its followers are said to be influenced by the Koranic phrase which says: “Anyone who is not governed by what Allah has revealed is among the transgressors”.
Boko Haram promotes a version of Islam which makes it “haram”, or forbidden, for Muslims to take part in any political or social activity associated with Western society.
This includes voting in elections, wearing shirts and trousers or receiving a secular education.
I am sure that these murderous thugs fervently believe that they are good people doing god’s will, as can be seen by the group’s official name which is Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-Jihad, which means “People Committed to the Propagation of the Prophet’s Teachings and Jihad”.
Stephen Colbert and Herman Cain held their joint rally on Friday and drew a big and enthusiastic crowd of thousands, despite the short notice. This may not be surprising since Colbert is a popular TV personality.
I had assumed, given the raucous crowds at the debates, that Republicans are all fired up this year. Supporters of the Democrats [Read more…]
Stephen Colbert says that evangelical leaders who met recently to decide on one conservative candidate to endorse made a mistake in picking Rick Santorum as their standard bearer. They should have endorsed him instead because, among other things, he is much more homophobic than Santorum.
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Chris Hedges sues Barack Obama over legality of the NDAA
I wrote before that one of the consequences of the National Defense Authorization Act that was passed quickly and with little or no debate during the Christmas holiday season was the gutting of the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act that sought to prevent the use of the military in law enforcement activities within the country.
Now Chris Hedges, former foreign correspondent for the New York Times, has challenged in court the legality of the Authorization for Use of Military Force as embedded in the latest version of the NDAA. Hedges explains why he took that action, drawing upon [Read more…]
As always, his impressions are both entertaining and illuminating.