The Hillary Clinton edition

Maybe Rembrandt didn't have this in mind



Clinton and Scaife... Uh oh! Josh Marshall, Kos, and the Boy Blogz, who have contracted a terminal case of CDS, won't be happy. As eriposte warned, Hillary Clinton meeting with Richard Scaife could stimulate the "sound of several heads exploding" in the netroots Obamasphere.

See snips from The Left Coaster of an article by Scaife on "Hillary, reassessed." One comment from Scaife: "But it does mean that I have a very different impression of Hillary Clinton today than before last Tuesday's meeting -- and it's a very favorable one indeed. . . Call it a 'counterintuitive' impression." Now eriposte's closing, "Very troubling indeed. Sen. Clinton has this ugly and detestable habit of impressing people who get to know her well - especially independents and Republicans! The result? A powerful Republican and media magnate who hated the Clintons came dangerously close to endorsing her! We certainly can't have that! After all, according to The Clinton Rules and The Obama Rules it is only acceptable if Republicans endorse Sen. Obama - he who has courted them aggressively - in support of his campaign of hope, unity and change."

The Goddess will git you for that! Egalia at Tennessee Guerilla Women on McCain's veep pick: "I've seen a number of stories this week suggesting that Condi Rice wants to be John McCain's VP. If the old guard Democrats were to succeed at pushing the woman off the Democratic ticket only to face a Black woman on the Republican ticket, that would mean there really is a goddess and she really is pissed. And it would mean that Democrats might well be waiting another 50 years for their next 2-term president." Go read the rest from Egalia. Truth meter: 100%. M'yeah, the Goddess is pissed!

Destroying Hillary in the press. . .and: Susie Madrak shared notes from EschaCon that included Media Matter's Eric Boehlert, who said, "...it goes back to Gore’s press in 1999 which was 'really unfair and really weird.' What’s happening online now is potentially dangerous: HRC has gotten dreadful press, not fair, 'gotcha,' and so on — there’s a portion of the blogosphere that has ignored that and there’s a portion that has encouraged that." Ya think?!!!! No disrespect intended, but the Boy Blogz have smeared Hillary relentlessly and turned a blind eye to Barry's faults and exaggerations. And what about Hillary bloggers? Boehlert has been "interviewing Clinton bloggers for a book... how bloggers are affecting the 2008 presidential campaign, and was 'shocked' to hear again and again that people felt they could no longer speak freely in the blogosphere. . . bullied into silence." More.

Sexist attacks on Hillary hurts all women! Read and learn: "Why calling out misogyny matters" by zuzu at Feministe, a superb, in-depth post and worth your time. Intro graf: "I’ve gotten a lot of criticism lately whenever I do a post about the primary, and, specifically, about misogynistic language or sexist framing used to tear down Hillary Clinton. Invariably, someone accuses (and it’s always an accusation) me of being a Clinton shill, or grills me about why I don’t write a whole bunch of balancing posts about racist language and framing being used against Obama, or tries to dismiss what I have to say because Clinton did X, Y or Z that the commenter found offensive." Highly-recommended reading. (H/t Susie)

Hillary can seat MI and FL! Barry's BFF Donna Brazile is wrong and Clinton is right. "Clinton can actually gain a majority on [the Credentials Committee], and thus seat the existing Florida and Michigan delegations." Of course, it depends on Hillary winning enough delegates in the upcoming contests. Details at TalkLeft. I wonder if my blogger friend Bryan in Florida has heard about this? Best solution is a revote but Obama's opposition, DNC bias, and those pesky Republican state legislators... Still.

The dream ticket: Mentioned earlier in an update to "Hillary Clinton will go all the way," but worth repeating: The Cuomo Dream Ticket Plan. I'm biased thinking that Hillary should top the tick' for many reasons, but bring it on!

Clinton fact checks Obama and the senator from Illinois has some explaining to do. Nine exaggerations ranging from taking "credit for nuclear leak legislation that never passed" to "his assertion that lobbyists 'won't work in my White House.'" Why am I unsurprised?

A compilation of sources making the case for Hillary from admirals, generals, Ambassador Joe Wilson, Krugman on the economy, lowering taxes on the middle class, veterans, job creation, and more.

Who's the best candidate for fixing the economy? It's not wackydoodle "Let them eat cake" McCain or "cautious and relatively orthodox" Barry. C'mon, you know the answer. Hillary! If you watch the video at the link, notice how Donna Brazile repeats an Obama line about "crisis on main street." M'yeah, she's a DNC shill for Barry and a total disgrace for her cock-up involving the MI and FL primaries. But I digress. If you're worried about the economy, then Clinton is the best choice for prez. "[H]er policy proposals continue to be surprisingly bold and progressive."

The McCain economy

Krugman, Monday, March 24:

[McCain's] chief economic adviser is former Senator Phil Gramm, a fervent advocate of financial deregulation. In fact, I’d argue that aside from Alan Greenspan, nobody did as much as Mr. Gramm to make this crisis possible.

Krugman, Saturday, March 29:

Seriously, the Gramm connection tells you all you need to know about where a McCain administration would stand on financial issues: squarely against any significant reform.

When Republicans talk about free markets and how good deregulation is for competition, just remember, it's a scam.

McCain. Bush III. Fleecing the middle class. Economic doom.

Go read Krugman, March 24, for why Clinton and Obama must address "the need to reform our out-of-control financial system." Troubling how "the securities and investment industry is pouring money into both Mr. Obama’s and Mrs. Clinton’s coffers."

Did Obama read Krugman's Monday column? He expressed similar points in his Thursday speech. Slick recovery to blunt criticism, eh? Or maybe a coincidenk. M'yeah.

A dose of reality

Maybe Rembrandt didn't have this in mind

Housekeeping note -- The Night Watch will take the weekend off and become a weekday thang. I've got some sprucing up to do here at The RealSpiel, other topics to research and explore in-depth. So I'll keep tonight's edition brief.

DNC stupid and mean -- Has the DNC devolved into a total cock-up? Howard Dean can really piss people off. A discrimination lawsuit filed by Donald Hitchcock, the party's former LGBT outreach director, alleges retaliation and harassment by Chairman Dean and Chief of Staff Leah Daughtry. That's bad enough. But intimidation of the Washington Blade's editor and publisher for its coverage of the civil action... just... well, read Pam Spaulding. Michigan, Florida, and now this! I'm frothed.

Jamison Foser -- "Media ignore McCain's finances after obsessing over Dems" at Media Matters.

Twisty's back! With a sexploitation rip on Eliot Spitzer and the untold story, the ignored tragedy of the sex trade, the subverted narrative--"in a patriarchy, all women belong to the sex class, and are defined in terms of men. Men, on the other hand, belong to the default human class, and get to define themselves (and everything else)"--and the "jovial nonchalance with which the subject of prostitution is bandied about — and prostitution, I say again, is a human rights violation." Meanwhile, young liberal male dudes don't think twice about a weekend lap dance at a titty bar. Where's my labrys?

Time's up! Hecate is soooo right about Iraq: "I was driving around Bethesda today, running a bunch of errands, and, as I sat in traffic, I couldn't help but notice a number of completely bleached-out 'Support the Troops' ribbon-shaped magnets on the backs of SUVs.... ...If your war lasts longer than the dye on the cheap Chinese pieces of shit that are sold to promote it, you lose. That's it. War over. Bring the troops home." Go read what she has to say about immigration. Goosebump scale: 10. (H/t to Avedon for referring to Hecate.)

For a dose of immigration reality, Dave Neiwert served up a giant spoonful of facts at Orcinus. You hear teevee rants about how "illegal aliens" are taking American jobs and lowering wages, right? Go read Dave. I wish Lou Dobbs would but he's got a schtick and he's sticking to it.

It's 3 a.m. in America's economic meltdown to paraphrase Tom Watson. "In New York, you can feel the nerves - the big Wall Street failures, and the looming threat... ...There's a slow panic out there, and it's going to hurt the little guy in every corner of the country.... ...[T]he red phone is ringing. Who will answer?"

M'yeah, Digby, Cafferty is a big honking idiot. Greedy bastards, a-holes, egobots, tools, and idiots. That's our media reinforced by the raving wingnut brigade.

BlehPo: I started to skim Saturday WashPo op/eds but why bother? SSDD. One lumped Geraldine Ferraro and Eliot Spitzer together under the headline, "Two Errant New Yorkers," and I thought, besides the Empire State, what do these two have in common? A dumb op/ed. That was enough. I don't have the patience to pick it apart at this late hour. If this is what passes as Serious Punditry at WashPo, then in comparison, Bob Somerby is an off-the-chart editorial genius. Maybe he is. And funny!

With Josh Marshall's latest Clinton blame game, The Stepfordization continues. OFB moolah must be good, no?

I heart Ellen DeGeneres and so does Kevin Naff.

Gays, sexism, bad news, and dumb bloggers

Fact-challenged Allen -- Media Matters eviscerates Charlotte Allen's sexist diatribe point by point with facts. Are facts out of fashion at WashPo's Outlook?

Gay Governor -- Is Florida Gov. Charlie Crist gay? Well, hello! M'yeah. Howie Klein at DownWithTyranny! said he's in the closet but at least he "isn't an anti-gay homophobe like so many Republicans in the closet."

Dumb numbers -- Ed Gilgore points to an estimate by Markos Moulitsas of "of how superdelegates would, roughly, break if they vote according to the primary or caucus winner of the state to which they are assigned." And Ed asks, "But is that the right measurement of the 'popular will'?" First problem: Caucuses don't reflect the will of the people since they disenfranchise those who can't vote by appointment or who are intimidated by group dynamics. Or as Larry Johnson noted, "By its very structure it is an undemocratic process." Second problem: The race is far from over. Third problem: It's Kos. His talk about "civil war" if Hillary convinces superdelegates to break her way is, well. . .look who's divisive now.

Back up! He's gonna blow! John McCain had a meltdown over a report of discussions in 2004 about being John Kerry's veep but St. John losing his temper is SOP. No wonder he finds it "harder and harder trying to do the Lord's work in the city of Satan" when he's prone to one of the seven deadly sins: wrath. See also Jamison Foser's, The media's hero, for the press' love affair with McCain.

Death in Baghdad: "The death toll early Friday morning had mounted to 55, with 131 wounded, but the deaths were expected to mount during the night." More from Juan Cole.

The end of racism, sexism? Really? Check The Black, the Female and the Invisible by Samhita Mukhopadhyay, blogger of Feministing. A nugget: "What is depressing is when women espouse anti-feminist, anti-woman tendencies and confirm the sexism at the root of people's fear in the potential for a woman to become president. There is nothing post-feminist about that, that is old-fashioned sexism." Samhita got an idiotic comment to her thoughtful piece: "...she'll find out that racism and sexism have indeed vanished." Bwahahaha!

Out damn spot! In Justice, a new book by former U.S. attorney David Iglesias could help end Rep. Heather Wilson's political career. We can only hope.

Blog Boyz gone wild! -- A must read via Lambert, eRiposte summarized a development that has caused me to doubt most of what I read in the Blogosphere. Simply put: "There used to be a time when sites like Daily Kos were the ones debunking this kind of garbage against Democrats - so it is nothing short of disappointing to see Markos himself becoming a proponent of unsubstantiated garbage and badly reducing the credibility of Daily Kos to that of sites like Free Republic." Furthermore, "The media that went breathless trying to paint the Clintons as racist earlier in this primary is....um, racist? Well, well. Why read Free Republic and NRO and TNR or watch MSNBC or Fox News...we can get all the 'news' that is 'fit to print blog' in these great 'progressive' blogs (like Daily Kos, AmericaBlog and others) now! On the other hand, it is a sad day when FactCheck.org actually debunks the unsubstantiated crap on allegedly 'progressive" blogs.' " Head over to The Left Coaster for a bookmark-worthy post. Props to eRiposte.

Recession alert: Paul Krugman writes that "payrolls [are] down 22,000 in January, 63,000 in February. Hard to see things improving any time soon, thanks to dramatically worsening conditions in the credit markets." When did the recession begin? December 2007 or January 2008. Heckuva job, Bush.

Read it and weep: Saturday's WashPo on the "frazzled lending markets" and "unexpected job losses" just goes to show that the economy is--glub, glub, glub!--in the drink. And this isn't good: ". . .a particularly worrisome sign, temporary help services cut 27,600 jobs. Often, companies cut temporary workers before shedding permanent jobs, making that category a leading indicator for what is to come." Have a stiff drink before clicking the link. And say a prayer if you're so inclined.