There we have Drudge pushing a story about nine murders/suicides in Chicago over the holiday weekend. This has been an obsession of Drudge since Obama became our President. Somehow Drudge thinks that it all reflects upon our President. Interesting considering we never pinned crimes in Texas on Bush.
The story of the White House party crashers is apparently the only thing that has happened over the extended weekend if you listen to MSNBC, so let me take a moment and bring up my thoughts.
There is a lot of finger pointing going on with this. Some are blaming the Secret Service, while others point the finger at the White House. The latter is completly obscene, but if the right wants to travel that path then let’s remind them of a man who posed as a reporter for a fake publication and sat in the White House press briefing room for a couple of years under Bush. Jeff Gannon not only sat in the briefing room, but also was in attendance when countless foreign leaders were visiting. Security at these events are much more relaxed than they are during a state dinner.
But I really want to focus on the Secret Service. Yes there was an apparent failure here, but what caused that failure? People seem to be ignoring the fact that President Obama has received more threats than any other president, so the Secret Service is stretched thin trying to keep the President safe as it is. The fact that Obama has been such a big target of threats has become a laughing issue for the right, which it is not. It’s a very serious issue, and one that the Secret Service takes very seriously. Perhaps it’s time to increase the size of the Secret Service.
Then there is the issue of what to do with the couple. Many are calling for criminal charges. I’m sure prosecutors can find something to charge the couple with, but will it stick? The most I can think of charging them with is trespassing and that is a rather minor crime. Instead of being out for blood we should be looking for solutions, like not allowing this to happen again.
I’m sorry but these congressional campaign committees should stay away from primary battles. We saw what happened in NY-23 a few weeks ago, but the DSCC apparently didn’t:
Secretary of State Elaine Marshall is leading other candidates in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate by a wide margin.
Marshall is the choice of 42 percent of voters in a poll conducted by Public Policy Polling. Chapel Hill lawyer Kenneth Lewis has 7 percent and unofficial candidate and Lexington lawyer Cal Cunningham has 5 percent. There's plenty of room to grow: 45 percent of poll respondents were undecided, according to the survey of 667 likely Democratic primary voters that was conducted Nov. 23-24.
The poll may prove helpful to Marshall, who is still trying to convince the national Democratic establishment that she is worth the investment of the millions of dollars it would take to defeat Republican Sen. Richard Burr. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee unsuccessfully lobbied U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge of Lillington to run for the seat.
The committee is now lobbying Cunningham, who previously announced he would not run, to reconsider.
Very powerful, especially this line:
With just one speech tomorrow night you will turn a multitude of young people who were the backbone of your campaign into disillusioned cynics
I have always broke with the rest of the left on Afghanistan, but I do believe that the situation requires less troops – not more. This is a perfect situation for highly trained strike forces to go in and take out terrorists, not a situation for nation building. History alone will tell you that any attempt to restructure the country of Afghanistan has been a major failure. Of course we might have had a different outcome if Bush didn’t ignore the war to invade Iraq.
I absolutely love Family Guy. It’s by far one of my all time favorites. Last night they really had some fun with Chris Matthews, and Matthews apparently enjoyed it since he did his own voice in this segment:
Absolutely fucking amazing. Scarborough dishonored the memory of the slain officers just to protect his BFF Huckabee. MSNBC should hang their head very low in shame today and Morning Joe should be cancelled.
UPDATE:
Within 8 minutes of his show starting, Dylan Ratigan started covering the shootings. NBC even has a reporter on the scene, yet Scarborough couldn’t be bothered to go to him. Ratigan even has Eliot Spitzer on to talk about Governors and clemency. Drop Scarborough and give Ratigan the morning show – that would be a big help for MSNBC.
Maurice Clemmons wasn’t the first person that Huckabee released from Prison, only to have them go out and continue a life of crime. Wayne Dumond was a rapist who Huckabee released, only to go out and rape and kill a woman shortly after being freed:
New sources, including an advisor to Gov. Mike Huckabee, have told the Arkansas Times that Huckabee and a senior member of his staff exerted behind-the-scenes influence to bring about the parole of rapist Wayne Dumond, who Missouri authorities say raped and killed a woman there shortly after his parole.
Huckabee has denied a role in Dumond’s release, which has become an issue in his race for re-election against Democrat Jimmie Lou Fisher. Fisher says Huckabee’s advocacy of Dumond’s freedom, plus other acts of executive clemency, exhibit poor judgment. In response, Huckabee has shifted responsibility for Dumond’s release to others, claiming former Gov. Jim Guy Tucker made Dumond eligible for parole and saying the Post Prison Transfer Board made the decision on its own to free Dumond.
Again – Huckabee denies any wrongdoing on his part. This is beyond the pale, and for this man to be the GOP’s front runner for 2012 spells nothing but trouble for the opposition party.
While going on about Tiger Woods again this morning, Joe Scarborough started defending Woods from the onslaught of media coverage and said it reminded him of balloon boy. What’s interesting is that this is happening on the very morning when Scarborough could only take 10 seconds to talk about the slaying of the Washington police officers by a man released from prison by Mike Huckabee. Instead of talking about this big story, Scarborough has decided to talk about the White House party crashers and Tiger Woods.
Exit question – How much longer before MSNBC cuts their losses with the major ratings bomb that is Morning Joe? All they cover is fluff pieces.
I’ve been watching Morning Joe for over an hour and they didn’t mention the killing of the Washington State cops or Huckabee’s involvement. They talked about Huckabee being the front runner in the GOP polls for 2012 and him maybe not running, but it wasn’t until guest Donnie Deutsch mentioned the case that Scarborough could bring himself to talk about it for 10 seconds. I guess they can’t be bothered to talk about one of the biggest stories in the nation now.
Adding….They are getting ready to cover the White House party crashers again, after spending about 30 minutes last hour on it. No wonder Morning Joe is the worse rated morning show on TV.
The man wanted for the slaying of four Washington State police officers should have been behind bars, but he wasn’t. Mike Huckabee, then the governor of Arkansas, decided to let the guy out of jail – a criminal with a very violent history. In a statement released by Huckabee, he decides to blame everyone else:
