Thursday Mashup (10/29/09)

This post from John Hannah at Irrational Spew Online points out the following…

As a way of repudiating past U.S. policies toward Pakistan, (Secretary of State Hillary) Clinton told the students "there is a huge difference" between the Obama administration's approach and that of former President George W. Bush. "I spent my entire eight years in the Senate opposing him," she said to a burst of applause from the audience of several hundred students. "So to me, it's like daylight and dark."

To which Hannah (a former Bushie) responds…

Does anyone advising President Obama and the secretary of state really believe that this kind of partisanship and trash-talking abroad about another American president is really going to buy us much long-term goodwill among either our friends or our adversaries?

This Think Progress post tells us the following about Hannah…

As deputy national security advisor to Vice President Cheney, Hannah served as the conduit between Ahmad Chalabi’s Iraqi National Congress and the Bush administration, passing along false information about Iraq’s alleged weapons of mass destruction that the administration relied upon to justify the invasion. Hannah was also a principal author of the draft speech making the administration’s case for war to the UN. Then-Secretary of State Colin Powell and CIA director George Tenet rejected most of the content of the speech as exaggerated and unwarranted.

And when it comes to “trash-talking,” I give you the following from Hannah…

Reprising his role in misleading the country to war with Iraq, Hannah has told a U.S. ambassador that 2007 is “the year of Iran” and that a U.S. attack is “a real possibility.” [Washington Post, 2/11/07]

So Hannah warns Obama of "trash-talking" here?

It is to laugh.

And in another “pot, meet kettle” moment, I give you the following from Fix Noise (here)…

This year, New Jersey’s registered voters can request a mail-in ballot for any reason. (Before 2005, voters needed to provide a reason for why they needed an absentee ballot.) The state received about 150,000 absentee-ballot applications this year.

On about 2,300 of those applications so far, the signature on the request form does not match the signature on the voter’s registration forms with the state.

In a development that is depressingly predictable, the New Jersey Democratic party is asking the state to provide provisional ballots for all these voters. Those ballots could, presumably, be used to overcome any narrow lead by Republican Chris Christie over Democrat Jon Corzine on Election Day.

It sounds to me that events aren’t trending the way Christie wants if the right-wing echo chamber is already making excuses for him.

That aside, I should note that it’s hypocritical in the extreme even for the Republican Party’s media unit to allege “voter fraud” once again, when you consider the following from here about the Florida 2000 fiasco (and the answer to the question is no; even now with a Democratic president, we’re not going to let go of that)…

The Florida Republican Party sent a letter with (former Florida governor Jeb Bush’s) signature and the Florida state seal urging Florida Republicans to vote by absentee ballots. But Florida law (which was made even stricter in 1998) is not a "vote-by-mail" system - voters must have a valid reason for voting by mail. The Republican Party was thus encouraging Republican voters to break the law.

Florida's absentee ballot laws were tightened because of the 1997 Miami absentee ballot scandal that resulted in the voiding of ALL absentees and the overturn of the election. The man who engineered that massive fraud - Mayoral candidate Xavier Suarez - played a key role in the GOP absentee effort in 2000.

…

With the active assistance of GOP Election Supervisors, FL GOP officials sent GOP operatives to illegally alter over 2,500 defective Republican absentee ballot applications, while at least 550 Democratic applications were ignored.

…

(The Bush/Cheney campaign and the Florida Republican Party) pressured canvassing boards in Republican counties to violate Florida's election laws and count clearly illegal overseas Republican absentee ballots, while fighting to prevent Democratic counties from counting similar absentee ballots.

…

(Bush/Cheney and the Florida GOP) forced hand counting of heavily Republican absentee ballots that the machines couldn't read - while delaying and blocking hand counting of poll-cast ballots in heavily Democratic counties that the machines couldn't read, thus treating ballots differently and discriminating against black voters.

All the excuse-making in the world can’t hide the fact that Christie has been an awful gubernatorial candidate, a fact that cannot be obscured by all of the partisan mythology that the Repugs can conjure here.

There’ll be GOP crowing in Virginia in a few days, unfortunately, as Creigh Deeds, who sadly is only a slightly better Dem than the Repug Christie (though still awful in his own right) goes down to defeat. However, Christie had better start tuning up his concession speech as well (and I probably shouldn't predict anything based on this, but I stand by what I say here).

Update 11/1/09: More ethically compromised stuff by Christie (and for more stuff in a similar vein, click here - third video).

Finally, Ben Feller of the AP notes the following about President Obama and his predecessor (here)…

DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. — Standing in the pre-dawn darkness, President Barack Obama saw the real cost of the war in Afghanistan: The Americans who return in flag-covered cases while much of the nation sleeps in peace.

In a surprise midnight dash to this Delaware base where U.S. forces killed overseas come home, Obama honored the return of 18 fallen Americans Thursday. All were killed in Afghanistan this week, a brutal stretch that turned October into the most deadly month for U.S. troops since the war began.

…

The dramatic image of a president on the tarmac was a portrait not witnessed in years. Former President George W. Bush said the appropriate way to show his respect for war's cost was to meet with grieving military families in private, as he often did, but he never went to Dover to observe the remains coming off the cargo plane.

True enough. And that might have been something for Feller to ask Bush about again when Feller concocted this utterly ridiculous puff piece in Number 43 earlier this year, including the following…

WASHINGTON - President George W. Bush will be judged on what he did. He will also be remembered for what he's like: a fast-moving, phrase-mangling Texan who stays upbeat even though his country is not.

For eight years, the nation has been led by a guy who relaxes by clearing brush in scorching heat and taking breakneck bike rides through the woods. He dishes out nicknames to world leaders, and even gave the German chancellor an impromptu, perhaps unwelcome, neck rub. He's annoyed when kept waiting and sticks relentlessly to routine. He stays optimistic in even the most dire circumstances, but readily tears up in public. He has little use for looking within himself, and only lately has done much looking back.

Bush's style and temperament are as much his legacy as his decisions. Policy shapes lives, but personality creates indelible memories -- positive and negative.

Call it distinctly Bush.

And call it distinctly wankerific for Feller and the rest of the Beltway pundit class to be enamored with this egotistical presidential pretender (still too bizarre for yours truly to fathom) to the point where any serious outcry against his ruinous term in office remains as muted as the respectful stillness greeting the 4 AM return of our heroes noted in the story.