Just remember: Republicons aren't racists:
At the 2000 Republican convention, Chambliss — along with then-lawmakers Bob Ney and Tom DeLay, who have both faced significant legal and ethical troubles — hosted a golf event for lobbyists at Aronimink Golf Club in Philadelphia, which has a long history of discrimination against people of color. As the New York Times reported in 1993:
Unable to meet the requirement that clubs must have nondiscriminatory membership policies to host tournaments, the Aronimink Golf Club has asked to be relieved of its agreement to be the site of the 1993 P.G.A. Championship, the Professional Golfers’ Association of America said tonight.
Aronimink, a private club in Newtown Square, Pa., near Philadelphia, has no minority-group members. […]
O’Brien said the club had told the P.G.A. it had a seven-year waiting list for new members, but asked that it be considered as the site for a future championship when is is able to conform to the national association’s policy on membership.
ThinkProgress reports that, ten years later, Chambliss's pet golf club still hasn't made clear progress on the non-discrimination front.
More in whites-only golf:
Somehow, Dawson spent twelve years there without ever finding out that the reason there were no black people golfing with him was that the club didn't allow them membership. My bullshit detector is twitching.TPM Election Central notes today that South Carolina Republican Party Chairman and recently declared candidate for RNC chairman, Katon Dawson, was formerly a member of a the 80-year-old whites-only Forest Lake country club:
Back in September, when Dawson was first quietly laying the groundwork for his RNC run, The State newspaper reported that he resigned his membership in the nearly 80-year-old Forest Lake Club. Members told the newspaper at the time that the club’s deed has a whites-only restriction and has no black members.
Dawson claimed to the paper that he’d actually been working since August to change the club’s admission practices after reading about them in the press.
Why not screaming? Because it's feeling rather smug about having called the "but of course we would never spy on anybody but terrorists!" bullshit:
And to think, some of us nervous nellies were concerned that the NSA might abuse its surveillance powers and listen in on communications it shouldn't have.
A former communications intercept operator says U.S. intelligence snooped on the private lives of two of America's most important allies in fighting al Qaeda: British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Iraq's first interim president, Ghazi al-Yawer.
David Murfee Faulk told ABCNews.com he saw and read a file on Blair's "private life" and heard "pillow talk" phone calls of al-Yawer when he worked as an Army Arab linguist assigned to a secret NSA facility at Fort Gordon, Georgia between 2003 and 2007.
Last month, Faulk and another former military intercept operator assigned to the NSA facility triggered calls for an investigation when they revealed U.S. intelligence intercepted the private phone calls of American journalists, aid workers and soldiers stationed in Iraq.
Faulk says his top secret clearance at Ft. Gordon gave him access to an intelligence data base, called "Anchory," where he says he saw the file on then-British prime minister Tony Blair in 2006.
Faulk declined to provide details other than to say it contained information of a personal nature.
Surveillance on foreign heads of state is not especially uncommon, but as Zachary Roth reminds us, "the U.S. and Britain have pledged not to collect information covertly on each other."
Yeah. That Tony Blair, man - total terrorist. And, of course, every spy knows that important terrorist secrets might slip out when our ostensible allies are talking dirty on the phone.
In other bullshit news, Republicons are still stuck in the tax-cut rut:
In a time of severe economic crisis, it's important that all of us -- voters, policy makers, investors -- remember to do two key things. First, keep a cool head and avoid panic. Second, pay absolutely no attention to congressional Republicans, who have no idea what they're talking about.
Republicans quickly criticized the idea of such a vast [stimulus] initiative, saying Congress should instead cut taxes to spur economic growth.
"Democrats can't seem to stop trying to outbid each other
-- with the taxpayers' money," House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) said in a statement. "We're in tough economic times. Folks are hurting. But the American people know that more Washington spending isn't the answer."I realize that Boehner and congressional Republicans don't want to deliberately hurt the country, so perhaps it's best if they take this opportunity to enjoy a little quiet time.
We need to sit these children in the corner and keep their noses to the wall for, oh, say, the next four years. They can't behave, they're threatening to throw tantrums because they can't get their way, and they just keep screaming the same words over and over again. Useless fucking baggage.
It would just be nice if they'd have at least one new idea once in a decade or so.
Two pieces of good news when it comes to right-wing fucktards, though. Virgil Goode's on his way out, even though they're having to drag him kicking and screaming:
Here's one Republican Congressman who just won't give up, no matter how long the odds.
A source close to Rep. Virgil Goode -- the colorful Virginia Republican best known for fiercely denouncing the 2006 election of Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) as the first Muslim member of Congress -- tells Election Central that Goode will call for a recount at a press conference set to begin shortly, after the state elections board today certified a 745-vote margin of victory for Dem opponent Tom Perriello.
The final numbers: Perriello 158,712 votes, Goode 157,967.
And we're soon going to be celebrating a funeral:
The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports today that Freedom’s Watch, the right-wing advocacy group founded by Ari Fleischer and funded by Sheldon Adelson, “is pretty much kaput.” Freedom’s Watch spokesman Ed Patru “confirmed that much of the staff was on its way out,” but refused to say if the group would continue in the future:
As for the organization’s future, Patru maintained it was yet to be decided by the board of directors, which includes former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer and Sands Corp. President Bill Weidner.“In the coming weeks and months, the organization will downsize,” Patru said.
“In terms of the future and what role the organization will play, those decisions will be made in the very near future.”
It couldn't have happened to a more deserving group. Our national discourse will improve by a factor of 10 overnight.
It's nice having adults in charge and screaming fucking infants being put to bed, isn't it?
2 comments:
Dana, that first link needs to be edited. The "http://" on the end shouldn't be there. Here is a correct version.
I'm pleasantly surprised at Freedom Watch's demise. Apparently, there are actually right-wing fearmongering groups that one will support. It's a small victory, but I'll take it.
I have to say that the fact that we were listening in on Tony Blair's communications doesn't shock me at all. Some day, I suspect we'll learn just how much we and our allies are listening in on each others' conversations. It will be probably far in the future, though, after we no longer need to do such things.
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