Today's "Silly Season '08" Lowlights

First up, Hillary Clinton tells us the following concerning the economy (from here)…

“I have continued to sound the alarm,” she said at an airport press conference in Burbank, Calif. “Sometimes I feel like Paulette Revere: the recession is coming, the recession is coming. I hope someone will do something about this besides wring their hands which is not in the best interest of our country.”

I take her at her word, but the problem is her continued wish to rely on the “Delphic oracle” who helped get us into this mess to begin with, as noted by Will Bunch here (and somehow I don’t think future generations of school children will be reading a poem called, “The Midnight Ride Of Alan Greenspan” – just sayin’).

Update 4/4/08: Glub, glub, Hillary...I hope you can tread water.

Next up, we have Joke Line of Time weighing in as follows on Barack Obama…

Patriotism is, sadly, a crucial challenge for Obama now. His aides believe that the Wright controversy was more about anti-Americanism than it was about race. Michelle Obama's unfortunate comment that the success of the campaign had made her proud of America "for the first time" in her adult life and the Senator's own decision to stow his American-flag lapel pin — plus his Islamic-sounding name — have fed a scurrilous undercurrent of doubt about whether he is "American" enough.

God, no wonder my “A” list “betters” hate this guy so much (and he gets paid for this too)!

OK, so…patriotism is a “problem” for Obama even though he gave that rousing speech about race and has distanced himself every way possible from The Rev. Jeremiah Wright (and I’m STILL waiting for a fraction of the coverage of Obama/Wright for McCain/Hagee/Parsley, by the way), and there is also an “issue” about what Michelle Obama said that Michelle Malkin so pungently attacked (witness the cycle of “news” from freeper agit-prop avatars to “legitimate” corporate media outlets), and also Obama’s flag-lapel pin remains an issue somehow even though a Repug criticizing him over it wasn’t wearing one either, and finally, we must hear AGAIN about Obama’s middle name.

Wow, Joe, I’m sooo glad you didn’t feed “the scurrilous undercurrent of doubt,” or else we really would have had a problem…

I have to admit, though, that when it comes to attacking Obama, Klein has nothing on Jack Kelly, who even used Obama to prop up his own preferred Republican (African American, of course), former Lieutenant Colonel Allen West, currently running for Congress representing Florida’s 22nd district…

"The West family is an example of the triumph of the civil rights movement, as well as Ronald Reagan's challenge to the black community," he said. "My parents were middle class, inner city Atlanta people. They were raised in the segregated South, but had a vision for their three boys...They did not sit back and wait for anyone to give them a handout, and that sentiment permeated throughout our extended family."

There are many blacks who share the sentiments of Allen West, more, I suspect, than who share those of Jeremiah Wright. But they tend to be ignored by the news media, who tend to view as "authentic" only the voices of anti-American radicals.

Um…yeah, OK (that’s about as much of Kelly as I can tolerate).

(By the way, I don't know if you could call it an "advantage" to be cued into the latest right-wing noise by reading the Bucks County Courier Times Op-Ed page on a somewhat regular basis, but that's what happens, and Kelly of course is a chronic offender.)

There’s a problem with West, though (Kelly thinks that, “if (West) wins, he'll do more for racial healing than any speech by Barack Obama“), as noted here by Wikipedia…

While serving in Taji, Iraq on August 20, 2003 as commander of the 2d Battalion 20th Field Artillery, Fourth Infantry Division, Lieutenant Colonel West was in charge of the interrogation of an Iraqi police officer who was suspected of having information about planned attacks on American forces. During the interrogation, soldiers under West's supervision assaulted the detainee attempting to get him to talk.

The police officer insisted that he did not know anything about planned attacks and was loyal to the United States Army. When the detainee didn't talk, Lieutenant Colonel West fired his 9mm pistol close to the man's head. At this point, the man gave information about an allegedly planned ambush, resulting in its being thwarted. According to West, there were no further ambushes on U.S. forces in Taji until he was relieved of command on October 4, 2003.

In an interview with the New York Times the Iraqi police officer, Yehiya Kadoori Hamoodi, said he felt he must have been falsely implicated by another alleged informant as being a plotting assassin. Then, when Hamoodi next went on an assigned patrol with the 4th Division, Hamoodi was bound and beaten by the Division troops and told that their leader was coming to kill him. Hamoodi said that when he heard of West's coming, he felt relief, due to West's reputation with local officials and tribal leaders as a rational man of even demeanor.

When West arrived, West held a gun to Hamoodi's head and threatened to kill Hamoodi unless Hamoodi divulged names of would-be conspirators.[1][2] West discharged his weapon near Hamoodi's head. Thereafter, according to Hamoodi, although in actuality he knew absolutely nothing about any planned attacks, Hamoodi offered "meaningless information induced by fear and pain".[3][4]

The Wikipedia article also notes that…

West was processed through an Article 32 hearing in November 2003, but was never Court-martialed. Instead in a deal with the prosecution, he admitted wrongdoing, was fined $5,000 over two months for misconduct and assault. He then submitted his resignation, and was allowed to retire with full benefits in the summer of 2004.

So yeah, if you want “racial healing” under the threat of gunpoint, West is your man.

And we should take Kelly at his word on this. After all, he’s been so right in the past, hasn’t he?