Rep. Tom Tancredo announced Thursday he is dropping out of the race for the GOP presidential nomination and endorsing rival Mitt Romney.
Tancredo, a five-term congressman from Colorado, has consistently polled at the bottom of the nine-person Republican field. He based his campaign on fighting illegal immigration and has run television ads that link lax border control to terrorist attacks, rape and other crimes.
He announced his withdrawal in downtown Des Moines two weeks before Iowa begins the presidential nominating process with the state's precinct caucuses.
I knew her time was up. She peaked with the Godless controversy. So I guess now she has nothing to do, but worry about the criminal case against her. Crain'sNewYork.com...
The auction for Karl Rove's memoir drags on a month after the Republican strategist made the rounds of publishers with Washington power lawyer Robert Barnett at his side.
“It's very, very slow,” says an executive at one of the few houses left in the bidding. Early reports had predicted a $3 million sale, but some insiders are wondering if Mr. Barnett has had trouble getting to that number. He declined to comment.
Mr. Rove isn't the only conservative meeting a backlash. The latest tome by right-wing scribe Ann Coulter, If Democrats Had Any Brains They'd Be Republicans, hasn't caught fire with book buyers.
The title spent just four weeks on The New York Times' best-seller list—compared with 12 for her previous book—and has sold 97,000 copies in the last 10 weeks, according to Nielsen BookScan, which tracks about 70% of the market.
Ms. Coulter's last effort, Godless, sold 233,000 copies over the same time span, according to BookScan.
As I noted a few weeks ago, Democratic Party Chairman, Howard Dean came to visit UW-Milwaukee, which is where I attend classes. He came to speak on various subjects relating to the Democratic Party. He spoke very well and took some questions at the end.
He spoke on why the Democrats have not been able to accomplish much, why more Democrats must be elected, and why he needs the youth to get out and support the Democratic Party. The speech was a lot of fun and Dean was very interesting.
I videotaped the entire speech, and much like my promise on the John Edwards speech, I promise to get that online -- as soon as I have time to get it on my computer. My videocamera tapes onto Hi-8, so it will take some time. Hopefully, I will get all this online over winter break. I also took some photos...
Of course, some of my fellow Peace Action WI members showed up, as did someone with an "Impeach Bush" sign. That, I think, is always a damper. Although I believe Bush should be impeached, it should not be a priority at this point. And when people bring such a sign, it gives the local media a chance to paint any mainstream Democratic or Left-leaning event as a extreme and irrational.
All in all, seeing a prominent political figure (who was my choice in the 2004 Presidential election) give a speech is a definitely something to remember, and I was quite happy to be there.
One more thing, although I did not get a picture with Mr. Dean, something surprising did happen. Before he came on stage, cards to write questions on were passed out. I wrote "What is your plan for victory in 2008?". I figured it would be a question he was likely to answer -- and I was right! He answered my question! When the question was read, I got to stand up and he looked me in the eye as he answered. For me, that's pretty cool. You can watch what happens on the video... as soon as I upload it.
Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean on Tuesday urged University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee students to start knocking on doors in preparation for the 2008 election, while he also blasted Republicans on issues such as health care and the war.
"Democracy, like every other invention of mankind, dies if you don't nurture it," Dean told an audience of about 250. "We need you in politics to win elections for your generation."
Dean zeroed in on Wisconsin's record of getting out the young vote. The state had the second highest turnout among young voters in 2004 and 2006, behind Minnesota. But voting alone is not enough; he wants young people to engage voters personally by knocking on 40 doors, four times, before the election.
"What happens in Wisconsin is going to make a big difference," he said.
The students asked questions, such as: How will Democrats make college more affordable?
Dean recommended a voluntary national service program in which students would serve two years and then reap cash for college.
Carthage College student Steve Horn asked for Dean's plan for getting out of Iraq.
Get the National Guard and reserves home now, Dean said. Divert some troops from Iraq to Afghanistan. Keep Special Operations troops in the Middle East. Bring home up to 60,000 other troops within a year and a half.
"It wasn't the response I wanted to hear," said Horn, who wants the troops home sooner.
UWM student Nicole Morales, 20, said Dean's Iraq plan was the best part of his speech. "I thought it was really good," Morales said. "The only thing I have a problem with is beating up the Republicans so much."
Dean criticized what he described as an "obstructionist Republican minority" in the U.S. Senate that has prevented the country from getting out of Iraq. He disparaged President Bush's October veto of legislation that would have expanded the State Children's Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP.
"We need to restore the moral leadership and moral authority in this country and the world," he said. "The Republicans have squandered our moral currency."
Republican National Committee spokesman Chris Taylor disputed Democrats' moral authority.
"This is the party that advocates cutting funding from our troops in harm's way. I wouldn't say that screams morality," he said.
Dean ended with a charge to students to get involved in a campaign. "There has been a tendency to be pessimistic about the future of America," he said. "I am not pessimistic about the future because of you."
Former Vermont Governor and Chairman of the Democratic National Committee Howard Dean implored young voters to make an impact on the 2008 election races, while criticizing Republicans on several key campaign issues during a speech at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee campus Tuesday.
Dean, who unsuccessfully ran for President in 2004, called the Republicans “the party of the past” and identified Democrats as the only party that can unite the country.
He also spoke proudly of the diversity evident in the Democratic presidential primary race, noting that an African-American, female, and Hispanic candidate are among the party front-runners, adding that the candidate pool reflects the diversity of the country.
“You see your generation in our candidates when they get on the stage. The Republican Party is like the 1950s, where if you were of color, or a different religion, or gay, you were an invisible person,” said Dean. “We are not going back, we are moving forward.”
Dean’s criticism was met with staunch opposition from the Republican Party.
“Howard Dean's insinuation that the Republican Party lacks diversity is completely false. President Bush has surrounded himself with a very diverse group of people from Colin Powell, Elaine Chao, Alberto Gonzales, Condoleezza Rice and numerous others,” said Kirsten Kukowski, Communications Director for the Republican Party of Wisconsin.
In order to move forward as Dean hopes, he asked students to get involved in campaigns and contribute more than just their votes in the upcoming election year, introducing a Neighborhood Leadership Program as a way to build positive relationships with voters.
The program focuses on supporters pledging to knock on doors across the state and the country three to four times between now and November in an attempt to build a relationship that will result in party loyalty and votes.
“What happens in Wisconsin is going to make a big difference,” said Dean. “It is a big deal that you get out and vote and knocking on those doors is going to do the trick.”
Dean asked members of the crowd to “help all over the state” by electing three more Democratic state representatives in 2008, which would give the state senate, house and governorship to the democrats.
“That will put Wisconsin back on the path away from the financial problems that were left to us by Republicans, and away from the right-wing social agenda that has been foisted upon us,” said Dean.
Kukowski stated that, “Democrats have passed more bills naming post offices and highways than important legislation affecting the American people,” noting the 11% approval rating currently carried by the Democrat-led Congress.
Shifting focus toward the primary race thus far, Dean has been pleased with the decorum of the Democratic candidates heading into Iowa, feeling that much of the supposed conflict between the candidates has been overblown by the media.
“A lot of what you read about is really a hyped-up version of what people are saying. But remember, journalists fan the flames,” said Dean, who unsuccessfully ran for the nomination in 2004.
“The level of ugliness is really not what you think, and is nothing that alarms me,” he added.
Wisconsin primary elections are slated for Feb. 19. Chairman Dean’s appearance was sponsored by UWM’s College Democrats.
This morning on Fox NFL Sunday’s pregame show, co-host and former NFL player, Howie Long, decided it would be a good idea to insult Al Gore to make a point about sports. Not only is this moron’s statement wrong, it’s unprofessional and he should be called out for it. Why do people like Howie and Al Michaels feel the need to mix politics with sports? You can write to FOXSports and tell them what you think about Howie’s hackery.
Long:”…Mike Martz suffers from a rare form of the Al Gore syndrome, where Al still thinks he’s the president and Mike Martz still thinks he’s the head coach…”
*Note to Keith Olbermann - If you’re looking for someone for your Worst Person In The NFL segment tonight, I think Howie is your man…
So this "buckethead" has the nerve to insult Gore about wanting to "still" wanting to be the President even though Gore was never President and he is not currently running (although, he did win once...)?
Now granted, Howie was a spectacular football player, and I am proud to own this football card of him... ...but, it ridiculous of him to attempt to insert a *very* poor politically charged joke into the world of football.
So, all this means is that his political career is the same as his movie career: lame.
Also, check out this video of Howie losing it on air at commentator Joe Buck.
Fox News featured two onscreen captions during a segment on escalating violence in Iraq that read: " 'Upside' To Civil War?" and "All-Out Civil War in Iraq: Could It Be a Good Thing?"
Evangelist and political activist Pat Robertson is stepping down as chief executive officer of Christian Broadcasting Network and will be replaced by his son Gordon, the elder Robertson announced today.
Pat Robertson, 77, founded the network in 1960 and grew it into a national powerhouse, with cable and broadcast outlets across the country. He'll stay on as chairman.
"I thought that some of this day-to-day operation was important to pass down the line, especially to somebody a little more adept at figuring out the new technologies coming at such a bewildering speed to all of us," Pat Robertson said in his announcement on The 700 Club, which Gordon Robertson produces.
After purchasing the Wall Street Journal, Rupert Murdoch has now acquired Beliefnet.com. MediaBistro reports...
Steve Waldman's belief paid off today when News Corp. purchased Beliefnet.com, the spirituality-based Web site Waldman founded in 1999 and has run as editor-in-chief since.
In response to an anonymous tip we received, a call to Waldman resulted in a return call from a Fox spokeswoman requesting that this item be held until tomorrow morning to be supplemented by further information. When offered the opportunity to deny the story, the response was "Okay, we're not going to comment."
Beliefnet.com, which boasts over 3.1 million unique visitors a month, won the General Excellence Online Ellie in 2007 this past May, beating out Slate and ESPN.com. On November 12, they launched a beta social networking portal aimed at religious devotees, spiritual leaders, and faith-based groups.
Beliefnet, Dow Jones, Myspace, and FOX? That's only the beginning: NewsCorp is a monster. This, of course, begs the question: Will Murdoch attempt to manipulate faith, too?
Don Imus returned to the airwaves Monday eight months after he was fired for a racially charged remark about the Rutgers women's basketball team, and introduced a new cast that included two black comedians.
As he did several times in the days after his comments, Imus condemned his remarks and said he had learned his lesson.
"I didn't see any point in going on some sort of `Larry King' tour to offer a bunch of lame excuses for making an essentially reprehensible remark about innocent people who did not deserve to be made fun of," he said Monday during his debut on WABC-AM.
Again, Imus apologized to the basketball players and called the ensuing furor a "life-changing experience."
"I will never say anything in my lifetime that will make any of these young women at Rutgers regret or feel foolish that they accepted my apology and forgave me," he said. "And no one else will say anything else on my program that will make anyone think that I didn't deserve a second chance."
His debut Monday completed a comeback that seemed improbable at the height of the uproar last spring over his calling the players "nappy- headed hos." CBS Radio fired him on April 12, pulling the plug on his "Imus In the Morning" program that had aired on more than 70 stations and the MSNBC cable network.
Imus' lineup of guests Monday featured two presidential hopefuls, Democrat Chris Dodd and Republican John McCain.
McCain, who called into the show, answered questions about gays in the military (he said he would continue the "don't ask, don't tell" policy unless military leaders said it wasn't working), the recent surge in Iraq (he said it was doing the job), and the 2008 presidential election.
"Thanks for having me on," McCain said upon signing off. "Welcome back, old friend."
An hour before the 6 a.m. show began, more than a dozen fans—all of them white—waited outside the Town Hall theater for the sold-out show. The $100 tickets benefited the Imus Ranch for Kids With Cancer.
Shortly after the program began, Imus introduced his new cast, including two black comedians, Karith Foster and Tony Powell. Returning was Bernard McGuirk, the producer who instigated the Rutgers comment and was fired as well.
On the air, Imus said that every time he would get upset about getting fired, "I would remind myself that if I hadn't said what I said, then we wouldn't be having this discussion."
He talked about when he and his wife, Deirdre, met with the team, their coach and some of the players' parents and grandparents, for four hours the night he was fired from CBS Radio. The team members accepted Imus' apology that evening.
"I was there to save my life. I had already lost my job," he said. "They said they would never forget and I said I would never forget."
He talked about his experience over the past 20 years as a recovering alcoholic and drug addict and said that participating in recovery programs had given him the opportunity to be "a better person ... to have a better life."
While saying he had learned his lesson, he added—to applause from the live audience—"The program is not going to change."
His guests also included historian Doris Kearns Goodwin and political analysts James Carville and Mary Matalin.
While Imus pledged to use his new show to talk about race relations, he added: Other than that, not much has changed. Dick Cheney is still a war criminal, Hillary Clinton is still Satan and I'm back on the radio."
Imus' resurrection is just the latest in his four-decade career. The veteran shock jock has emerged intact in the past after assorted firings, bad publicity and a disastrous appearance at a Washington dinner before President Clinton.
Just three months after he was fired, the Rev. Al Sharpton, one of the strongest voices calling for his firing, said Imus had a right to make a living and could return to radio. Sharpton planned a news conference later Monday.
The prospect of Imus' return had outraged critics including the National Association of Black Journalists and the National Organization for Women.
Just before his dismissal, Imus signed a five-year, $40 million contract with CBS. He threatened a $120 million lawsuit after he was fired, but he settled in August for an undisclosed amount of money.
A conservative radio talk show host sued an Islamic civil rights group on Monday for copyright infringement over the organization's use of a portion of his show in which he called the Quran a "book of hate."
Michael Savage said the Washington, D.C.-based Council on American- Islamic Relations, or CAIR, violated his rights by wrongfully using a 4-minute segment of his Oct. 29 "The Savage Nation" show in a letter- writing campaign directed against talk radio advertisers. Audio from the show remained on CAIR's Web site Monday.
In the broadcast, Savage called the Muslim holy book "a throwback document" and a "book of hate."
"What kind of religion is this? What kind of world are you living in when you let them in here with that throwback document in their hand, which is a book of hate," Savage said during the portion of the broadcast highlighted by CAIR. "Don't tell me I need reeducation. They need deportation."
In an interview with The Associated Press on Monday, Savage said he was talking about Iran president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his dangerous and violent brand of Islamic extremism, not about the religion in general.
Savage said he strongly supports freedom of speech, but "it's another thing to take away a man's millstone and try to put him out of business."
A CAIR spokeswoman, who said the audio was not a four-minute segment, but a series of clips separated by beeps, called the suit, filed in federal court in San Francisco, "bizarre, sloppy and baseless."
"We expect to prevail based on the facts, the law and the Constitution," Amina Rubin said.
The group's "repackaging" of Savage's comments was "deliberately designed to obscure the specific message conveyed by Michael Savage," according to the suit. "The actual message, while highly provocative and strongly worded, was not intended as an attack on people of faith."
CAIR claims advertisers have stopped airing or refuse to air commercials during Savage's show.
Bill Crawford, a spokesman for Talk Radio Network, which syndicates the Savage show, said "there have been advertisers who've canceled Michael's show because of the CAIR situation." He refused to identify the companies or reveal the amount of lost revenue. Savage said he's lost at least $1 million in revenue.
The suit alleges CAIR is not a civil rights group, but a political organization funded by foreigners with ties to Hamas and other terrorist groups. CAIR denies those claims, saying it opposes terrorism and religious extremism.
In the interest in gaining alliances in the blogging world, I present "Greg from the Left", a fellow blogger who is out of Nashville, TN. It is styled in a way very similar to mine; so if you like this blog, then "Greg" should be something you may want to look into.
He states...
This is the G-Funk from Nashville, Tennessee. Instead of mass emails, I decided to post my criticism of the fascist Right on this blog. You'll find my favorite people here...Marsha Blackburn (my Congressman...yes, she prefers to be called CongressMAN Blackburn), Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, and others! If you aren't already there with me, greetings from the Left!
Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott's resignation announcement on Monday was the latest in a wave of retirements to hit congressional Republicans, making an already difficult 2008 electoral landscape even more complicated for the minority party.
Party officials insist that the retirements -- 17 members of the House and six senators -- are simply the result of individual decisions and not indicative of a broader negative sentiment within the party. "I don't hear a drumbeat that 'We're not effective and I don't like it here anymore,' " said National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Tom Cole (Okla).
But with so many lawmakers -- including a large number from competitive states and districts -- heading for the exits, it's hard not to point to the GOP's newfound minority status in Washington, the turnover in party leadership and the perilous political environment heading into 2008 to explain the exodus.
Another surprise yesterday came from Rep. J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), who was toppled from the speaker's chair by Republican losses in 2006 and had said in August that he would not run for reelection. Hastert revealed that he is leaving immediately, allowing Illinois to hold a special primary election for his seat Feb. 5.
"The one thing the open seats have in common is that there is no one who can squeeze [an incumbent] into an uncomfortable place to convince them to stay," said Dan Hazelwood, a Republican direct-mail consultant who has worked on dozens of House campaigns. "There was always a cogent and powerful person to say: 'The team needs you.' There is less of that, but it's also unclear that the team needs them."
Regardless of the reasons for the retirements, Republicans find themselves in serious danger of falling deeper into the minority in both the House and Senate in 2008.
Many retirements have come in seats and states that are competitive between the parties. Republican senators' retirements in Virginia, Colorado and New Mexico have created races in which Democrats are favored to win next November. The same holds true in the House, where open GOP districts in Ohio, Arizona and Illinois are primed to go to Democrats.
Emboldened by the House and Senate majorities they won last year, Democrats have had almost no retirements. Five members of the House are stepping down or running for higher office in 2008, but none of the vacated seats is expected to be competitive. No Senate Democrat up for reelection this cycle has announced plans to retire.
Republicans also face a daunting financial gap at the congressional level, the likes of which they have not seen in decades. At the end of October, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee had $29 million in the bank to spend on House races -- roughly 14 times the $2.56 million its Republican counterpart had at that time.
The disparity on the Senate side is smaller but no less significant. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee showed $23.4 million on hand at the end of October, compared with $9.5 million for the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
"The challenge is that [open seats] spread thin resources even more thinly," said Glen Bolger, a prominent Republican pollster. "Places you'd like to play offense, you might not play because you have to play defense" elsewhere.
Pointing to millions spent on open-seat contests in recent years, one senior Republican strategist was blunt. "Open seats are bought, not won," the source said.
I am an outspoken progressive that enjoys debate and discussion regarding politics and philosophies. My current project is on a documentary called "School of the Americas: Return to the Scene of the Crime".
I'm not sure if Romney would even want this guy's endorsement. However, who remembers this priceless moment? Anyway, Tancredo will be remembered (briefly) by his ridiculous and offensive ad campaign.
