Sunday, April 01, 2007

Clinton Supporter Markos Moulitsas Zúniga Of "Daily Kos" Blows It - Intentionally Misquotes Barack Obama



"Markos Moulitsas Zúniga, I salute you!" - Senator Hillary Clinton

Markos Moulitsas Zúniga -- the founder and head guru of the popular political blog "Dally Kos" picked up the recent USA Today, saw Senator Barack Obama's face, and since "Kos" as he's called gets about $4,900 a week from Hillary Clinton , (enough to buy two Mercedes Benz sedans!!) he decided to do what any fanatical supporter of the New York Senator would do: misquote Senator Barack Obama.

On Sunday, Senator Obama was quoted in the USA Today as saying this:

"SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — If President Bush vetoes an Iraq war spending bill as promised, Congress quickly will provide the money without the withdrawal timeline the White House objects to because no lawmaker "wants to play chicken with our troops," Sen. Barack Obama said Sunday.

"My expectation is that we will continue to try to ratchet up the pressure on the president to change course," the Democratic presidential candidate said in an interview with The Associated Press. "I don't think that we will see a majority of the Senate vote to cut off funding at this stage."

The Senator was speculating on what he believes Congress -- which has a razor-thin Democratic majority -- would do if the bill is vetoed by the President. He never stated he supported the war -- never has But think about it. Stop for 30 seconds. If funding was cut off without a timetable for getting out of Iraq, what would the troops do? Ah, leave on a jet plane for home, defying orders? Go postal? What?

Are you paying attention? Are you thinking? Good!

Now this is what "Kos" wrote:

Obama caves to Bush
by kos

Sun Apr 01, 2007 at 10:57:18 AM PDT

I wish this was an April Fools Day joke:

If President Bush vetoes an Iraq war spending bill as promised, Congress quickly will provide the money without the withdrawal timeline the White House objects to because no lawmaker "wants to play chicken with our troops," Sen. Barack Obama said Sunday.

What a ridiculous thing to say. Not only is it bad policy, not only is it bad politics, it's also a terrible negotiating approach.

Instead of threatening Bush with even more restrictions and daring him to veto funding for the troops out of pique, Barack just surrendered to him.

Let me repeat that -- Obama just surrendered to Bush.


Note that "Kos" quoted only part of what the Senator said, not the whole deal. But considering that Kos is bought and paid for by Hillary Clinton, this comes as no surprise. My point is, his blog post can't be trusted at all. I like his work and his rise to pop-culture icon, but I don't like this way of playing fast and loose with the truth.


But since Kos isn't one to get the nuance of public policy, nor has he been confused with a policy wonk, I should not be surprised with this huge blunder. But, I forgot, he's paid by Hillary, who's been buying the support of everyone from a prominent Black preacher to the Iowa governor , and perhaps even several stray dogs.

Ah, maybe not -- stray dogs can't be bought.

What bothers me is there are people on his board who just blindly went along with what Kos wrote without doing any digging at all.

What the hell ever happened to critical thinking?

Raiders Head Coach Lane Kiffin Looks To 2007 Season

Nothing to Look Back on, Raiders Only Look Ahead

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: April 1, 2007
When Lane Kiffin took over as the Oakland Raiders’ coach, one of the first things he told his new players was that he did not want to dwell on what went wrong last season.

For the players who went through a 2-14 campaign that led to the Raiders being the butt of jokes on late-night comedy shows and Coach Art Shell being fired, that was a welcome approach.

“That’s exactly what I wanted to hear,” offensive tackle Robert Gallery said. “He said it before I even had to. I didn’t want to have to talk about it. It’s over, we’re on to new things.”

That was especially true for Gallery and the offense, which had one of the worst seasons in league history. The Raiders scored 168 points — fifth fewest in a 16-game season — had 12 offensive touchdowns, allowed a league-worst 72 sacks and failed to score a touchdown in their final three games.

Gallery, the No. 2 overall pick in 2004, looked lost at times as he moved from right to left tackle. He said he feels much more comfortable under the new assistant Tom Cable’s direction than he did under the inexperienced Jackie Slater.

“The system didn’t fit the offensive linemen that you had,” said the new fullback Justin Griffith, who played for the Falcons last season when Cable was the offensive line coach. “I think it was more the system than it was the players.”

There is plenty of excitement in Oakland about the regime and a new start as the team tries to rebound from four straight losing seasons.

But this is the time of year for optimism for all teams with new coaches, when everyone hopes the change will lead to success and no one has lost a game yet.

“Right now everybody is happy, the sun is out, everything is good,” cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha said. “But when adversity hits you never know what you are going to get. Like always, I can’t predict the future. I don’t know what is going to happen, but right now he has been very positive and seems like a guy that can take control.”

Kiffin said more than 90 percent of the players have been at the voluntary workouts, showing up at least four days a week. One notable exception has been the disgruntled receiver Randy Moss, who expressed a desire to be traded at various points last season.

Kiffin and the coaching staff have begun putting in some of the new offense, which will include elements of the West Coast offense that the coordinator Greg Knapp has used in the past, with some wrinkles Kiffin has brought from U.S.C.

But much of the final product will depend on who is playing quarterback, which remains up in the air.

Andrew Walter is the only quarterback with N.F.L. experience on the roster. The team could select quarterback JaMarcus Russell of Louisiana State or Brady Quinn of Notre Dame with the No. 1 overall draft pick, and also bring in another veteran.

Kiffin has talked with the former Houston quarterback David Carr, who was released by the Texans. Kiffin was a graduate assistant at Fresno State when Carr was on the team.

But for now, Walter is the quarterback. The Raiders thought so highly of Walter that they did not use their first-round pick a year ago on Matt Leinart or Jay Cutler.

But given a chance to play when Aaron Brooks went down with an injury in the second game, Walter struggled last year.

Philip de Vellis Explains How And Why He Created The "1984-Hillary" Video

In this video, Philip de Vellis -- aka ParkRidge47 of YouTube -- talks to YouTube's news and politics editor Steve Grove about the "Vote Different" ad and the future of online video. This is a good resource for videobloggers.

In the clip, he explains that he used a MacBook, Final Cut Pro, and Motion 2 to create the video, and that the effort was rather easy. What he was not prepared for was the viral response.