The Daily Pulse- Letters Tuesday Editor

For those unfamiliar, The Daily Pulse was at one time, and is now again, a regular feature. It surveys local papers' editorial pages to capture the "pulse" of Americans froma local point of view, rather than seeing what the beltway and the national media TELL us to think. Over time, it recognizes trends you might not otherwise see coming. It also lets you know just how effective the national media is in pushing memes, be it the New York Time or FAUX NEWS. It's Tuesday, so it's time for Letters Tuesday Editor. Today we look at the Nevada and South Carolina papers to see what people are writing about. You need to take the big leap to find out for yourself. As always, and because I can't drop the rest behind the fold, please go to The Daily Pulse for the letters and commentary.

Iowa Caucus: Like Passing A Kidney Stone

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing click to enlargeThe day has come and I can't wait for it to be over. I have said this before but I think it needs repeating - Americans are so hungry for change in their government they somewhat embraced a Presidential campaign that started in 2005. Here are my "official" predictions. Feel free to call me an idiot tomorrow. (Or start early!) Hillary - losses big. Huma comforts her. Bill comforts the Iowa State Cheerleaders. Obama - Finally learns that having a FIRM STANCE on issues is really audacious. Edwards - wins by a small margin and that changes the face of the campaign for New Hampshire. Thompson - who? Romney - does well and find himself with an unlikely competitor. Ron Paul - finally shocks the shit out of Sean Hannity with a good solid turnout, competing now with Romney. Rudy - gets issued a one-way train ticket back to New York. Huckabee - warmly embraced by every crazy, screaming Christian Fascist in Iowa - all of them swinging plastic baby fetuses nailed to a cross.

Ron Paul, more of an anti-war leader than Pelosi!

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing click to enlargeRon Paul is the new Six Million Dollar Man: Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, raised an astounding $6 million and change Sunday, his campaign said, almost certainly guaranteeing he'll outraise his rivals for the Republican nomination in the fourth quarter and likely will be able to fund a presence in many of the states that vote Feb. 5. Paul's campaign spokesman late Sunday announced the campaign had eclipsed the $5.7 million that John Kerry raised the day after he locked up the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination – arguably the largest single-day fundraising haul in U.S. political history. Paul's single driving position behind the fundraising, including the November 5th, $4.2 million haul is his stance on the Iraq war and his rallying against the Bush civil liberty destruction machine. His supporters see themselves as true patriots and many of them are. Paul has the highest number of active military as donors than any other candidate. Go figure. Should we be surprised others in the GOP are fed up with BushCo and the war? For instance, he said 24,940 new donors contributed during the Dec. 16 haul. It was timed for the 234th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, a day meant to resonant with the Libertarian sensibilities of his supporters. What is terminally sad is he is doing more to get us out of Iraq than Nancy Pelosi. The mind boggles.

Hillary: Master Politician, it is OK to admit it.

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing click to enlargeAfter watching last night’s debate from Las Vegas on CNN, I solidified my theory on one of Hillary’s key campaign strategies. She may seem to be equivocating on the issues surrounding foreign policy, but what I think what she is really doing is allowing the rest of the Democratic field to paint her as strong on defense… and the field seems to have fallen right into the trap. We all know the winner of the next election will be whoever wins over the every growing number of disgruntled independents and even though they may be against the war, as Hillary has said before in public, they may still be on the fence about Democrats being spineless or soft. I can understand why this is since most Democrats are spineless as woolly worms and not as cuddly. What better way to position yourself as strong on defense than allowing your fellow Democrats to continuously paint you as supportive of the military and strong on defense? Her pant suit may be flame retardant but her mind is sharp as a tack. You must hand it to her, she is a MASTER politician. Master.

What is Hillary Really Thinking?

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing click to enlargeThis must have been "pile-on week" for Hillary. No one runs a perfect campaign and the longer a campaign goes without a bump, the larger the faux pas will seem when it does happen. Concerning the double-speak at the last debate about driver licenses for illegal aliens, I didn't think it was that much of a big deal. Frankly, it seemed to be the status quo from the Clinton Camp - not ever really simply stating a position like Kucinich can. Kucinich can tell you what his position is in under 8 words and 99% of the population will understand exactly what he means - they may not agree however. Face it, he is a better communicator. Back to Hillary, this past week, both sides of the aisle and the great vast "middle-wing" conspiracy of independent populists led by Lou Dobbs all dumped on Hillary and the results were shocking, at least to me. Her drops in polls, specifically Iowa, I think showed how really weak she is as a candidate. Don't get me wrong, she has a ton of cash, and is still considered a front runner, but if a slight mistake like the one in the last debate can cause such a whirl wind of negative results, maybe she is not bulletproof. Kucinich, now that guy IS bulletproof, but that is another blog entry. P.S. Credit for today's strip has to go to DKos user Common Cents, from this diary comment. It has been reported by Members of Congress and the media that Hillary can, on occasion, cuss like 20 sailors being waterboarded. However, this is a fictional cartoon and not a direct quote.

Sean Hannity - Great Soviet

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing click to enlargeIf we are going to have freedom of speech then it has to apply to everyone. Certainly Ron Paul is not my candidate of choice but just because he doesn't suit my elective tastes does not mean he should be shut out. Congressman Paul had one helluva weekend, hauling in $4.2 million in what I would call a genius fund raising strategy and if that kind of HISTORIC event should guarantee anything, it should guarantee Ron Paul a seat at the Iowa GOP Debate, but it seems it will not. The same day that Ron Paul made presidential fund raising history, the Iowa GOP announced that its December 4th Republican Debate in Des Moines Iowa to be aired by Fox News, would only include candidates polling at least 5% in presidential polls. The move by the Iowa GOP and Fox News to exclude candidates based on polls at this early stage of the presidential race has outraged Ron Paul supporters and may provoke a large demonstration at the site of the debate. Paul supporters feel the move is a deliberate attempt to censor Ron Paul from the debate. Messages of outrage have been posted on websites and are spreading by email about the debate. At the current pace of fund raising it is possible that Ron Paul may end up with more cash on hand at the end of the quarter than any of the other candidates running in the Republican primary. Sean Hannity after the last debate, continually derided Paul supporters and expressed his disbelief in the polls that featured Ron Paul doing well. This past weekend should come with a good helping of crow, but Sean probably could care less. He has other things to lie about. Democracy only works when all voices are loosed upon the populace. We The People have always done a good job when we hear all sides. When we don't hear all sides, we get things like the Iraq War, Bush listening to every phone call in America, Rove reading all of our emails, and all the rest of it. When we do not hear all voices, we get the corrupt Congress we have today. Now, if I could only loosen up Al Gore's tongue...

Ron Paul, Meet Guy Fawkes

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing click to enlargeRon Paul, and what will go down in history as a genius fund-raising idea, raked in 4.2 million dollars over this past weekend in honor of Guy Fawkes. With a barage of YouTube videos (best one IMO), MySpace comments, emails and the assorted MeetUp set a goal of 100,000 people donating $100 on Guy Fawkes Day. Who is Guy Fawkes and why does he have his own day? The Gunpowder Plot of 1605, or the Powder Treason, as it was known at the time, was a failed attempt by a group of provincial English Catholics to kill King James I of England and VI of Scotland, his family, and most of the Protestant aristocracy in a single attack by blowing up the Houses of Parliament during the State Opening on 5 November 1605. The conspirators had also planned to abduct the royal children, not present in Parliament, and incite a revolt in the Midlands. The Gunpowder Plot was one of many unsuccessful assassination attempts against James I, and followed the Main Plot and Bye Plot of 1603. Some popular historians have put forward a debate about government involvement in the plot. Guy Fawkes Night (more commonly known as Bonfire Night and sometimes Fireworks Night) is an annual celebration on the evening of the 5th of November. It celebrates the foiling of the Gunpowder Plot of the 5th of November 1605 in which a number of Roman Catholic conspirators, including Guy Fawkes, attempted to blow up the Houses of Parliament. It is primarily marked in the United Kingdom, but also in former British colonies including New Zealand, parts of Canada, and parts of the British Caribbean. Bonfire Night was also common in Australia until the 1980s, but it was held on the Queen's Birthday long weekend in June. Festivities are centered around the use of fireworks and the lighting of bonfires. There was also a movie made about Guy Fawkes recently titled V for Vendetta derived form the comic book of the same name - a cautionary tale about the Thatcher government. TCD has a character called The Magic Talking Mask Of Guy Fawkes. At the local liberal Apocalyptic Lodge of Allied Mystical Oddfellows, hangs the magical talking mask of Guy Fawkes. The mask will give advice and philosophical wisdom to those that tends the strange artifact. Sometimes it talks to itself. So this was the inspiration behind the super-whammy fund-raising weekend of Ron Paul. To go on the record, I agree with only one of his positions and it is to get out of Iraq YESTERDAY, otherwise, he makes me nervous. I do like the karma of the Ron Paul money, especially since Sean Hannity is doing everything he can to undermine the Paul campaign and its message of "war is bad." Anytime we can get more egg on Hannity's face, the more I like it. P.S. Just a reminder to vote for The Bilerico Project for the best LGBT Blog of 2007. The poll can be freeped HERE

Hillary “Supports” the Troops, Troops Support Ron Paul and Obama

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing click to enlargeI am truly sick and tired of this God-awful war. Maybe I am overly critical of the Bush Administration's policy of preemptive war - Roman Style, but since I have a brother in the service who has had two missions in the alleged "War On Terror," I am open to the idea that I might be overly sensitive to the pure and utter waste of human life under the Bush Regime. What's a million refugees and a few hundred thousand dead bodies among friends? This makes it doubly painful when the Democratic Congressional Leadership and Presidential front-runner Hillary can't seem to fall out of love with war. Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are abysmal excuses for leaders and should lose their seats in Congress for their total disregard of the people's voice at the ballot box a year ago. Hillary's drum beat towards a showdown with Iran is just as inexcusable. I have seen this movie before and it doesn't end well. Condi was emphatic last week saying the US will gladly participate in "open negotiation" with Iran. How about closed? How about behind closed doors like we did during the halcyon days of the Cold War? Yeah, same movie. I think we are hosed - hosed on a monumental scale of complete and total fuck-up. Rome didn't go this bad, this quick. The plebs are pissed and the Legions are even more upset. When the only Republican, Ron Paul, who is running on the platform of "Get The Hell Out" and gets the most troops donating, it should be telling somebody something. It should really tell Hillary something since the troops are bypassing her up to dump cash on Obama who has a more rational idea of preemptive war "it's a bad idea." Much more rational I say to you. It is so bad and so upside down in circumstance, peace-nik, hippie-like San Francisco might become Ron Paul territory. That should be a wake-up call. But then again, San Francisco is prone to earthquakes. P.S. Please take my blog reader poll.