Politiks As Usual: In The News 3/24/14

Source: Flight 370's Altitude Dropped After Sharp Turn

Mary Landrieu Is Paying—and Getting Paid Big—for Her Stance on Global Warming

Obama's Destruction Of The Military Is By Design

Dad Who Fathered 98 Kids Offers Free Sex 

Cruz: GOP Should ‘Continue to Defend Life’ and ‘Defend Traditional Marriage’ 
 
Giuliani: de Blasio Turning New York City in Wrong Direction
 
If It's Sunday, The Washington Post Is Promoting Fellatio In the Movie 'Nymphomaniac'
 
Nate Silver: GOP Has 60 Percent Chance to Take Senate in 2014

Colorado House To Consider Controversial Vaccination Law 

Jimmy Carter Thinks The NSA Monitors His Emails
 
Drudge, White House in Twitter Spat over Obamacare Mandate Payment

Joe Scarborough Blasts Conservative Media: Don’t ‘Antagonize’ Black Voters ‘Just Because You Hate Al Sharpton’

He's right. Some conservatives do not believe in compromise, much less have a 'gray area'. These people are extremists and they exist on both the Left and the Right. While the Left has far more extremists than does the Right, both sides hurt their cause due to their blatant self-righteousness (i.e. ignorance) refuses to allow them to admit to being wrong, even when the facts stare at them in the face. Granted, in the case of George Zimmerman, conservatives who believe his trial was race-motivated and nothing but another attempt by white liberals to play the race card, do have a point. And sure, there are many conservatives who believe that no matter hard they try, they will never win over black Americans, esp. those who knowingly choose 'victimhood' and government aide over hard work, family values and education. Hence their hate/anger at the race-baiters on the Left. But still, a little empathy here, at least, for two parents who lost their child:

You know it’s bad when you’re looking back fondly on Richard Nixon’s share of the minority vote.

That was Joe Scarborough’s point when he linked the conservative press’ coverage of the Trayvon Martin story to the GOP’s inability to break into double-digits with African American voters. 

“Why is it that Republicans, certain elements of our party, seem to go out of their way to inflame minority voters?” Scarborough asked his panel Tuesday morning. “I know I can count on conservative outlets to have a one-sided view, and to talk about how a dead boy had it coming, and he was on marijuana, he was on pot, he was this, he was that…I would like in my lifetime for the Republican Party to get more than six percent of the African American vote.”

“It wasn’t always this way,” Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson said. “Republicans used to get a huge chunk of African American vote. Now they don’t.”

Former RNC Chairman Michael Steele argued that the possible gains in minority votes were so slim, whatever the reason, that the GOP had little incentive to chase them. “Can we put on the table getting more than six percent is not going to happen in the next four years?” Steele said. “Even if those same voices you’re alluding to, Joe, had come out and were reasonable in their response as opposed to extreme in their response in some cases, there’s still a heck of a lot more that needs to be done than just saying something nice or politically correct in the Trayvon Martin case.”

Both Steele and Robinson agreed that stereotypes were in play, but Robinson made the point that with a conservative electorate growing whiter and whiter with each demographic shift, conservative outlets had even more reason to tailor coverage to racially-specific expectations.

“I have a suggestion: just because Al Sharpton is doing something and you hate Al Sharpton, doesn’t mean you help your party or your cause by going in the complete opposite direction,” Scarborough said. “Maybe sometimes discretion is the better part of valor. Maybe sometimes conservative outlets should sit back and not purposefully antagonize African Americans.”

Steele argued that the spin was spun on both sides. “It’s easier to fall into the stereotype and continue to project that than to actually sit back and recognize the reality that racism is still a sinister part of the culture and environment that African Americans, and quite frankly a lot of Americans, still have to live in,” Steele said. “It’s easier to project outward that that just doesn’t exist, because ‘I’m not that way, therefore anyone who brings this up must somehow be trying to stoke these flames, et cetera.’ I think it happens on both the right and left. I watched, as you did, to my great frustration, some on our network as well as other networks, stoke the flames in different directions, raising up images of the past with no linkage at all to the case.”

RELATED:  Jimmy Carter Agrees With Zimmerman Verdict: ‘Jury Made The Right Decision’

Likely Voters: Jimmy Carter Was a Better President than Obama

WeeklyStandard.com:

According to a Newsweek/Daily Beast poll of likely voters, Barack Obama now rates behind Jimmy Carter in the pantheon of great presidents.  The poll asked likely voters to list the two best and the two worst presidents the history of the United States.  Here are the tallies, based on net results:

Voters’ list of the 10 best presidents: 

1. Abraham Lincoln, +27 points (28 percent place in top-2, 1 percent place in bottom-2)
2. Ronald Reagan, +25 points (31 percent place in top-2, 6 percent place in bottom-2)
3. Franklin D. Roosevelt, +22 points (23 percent place in top-2, 1 percent place in bottom-2)
4. John F. Kennedy, +19 points (19 percent place in top-2, 0 percent place in bottom-2)
5. (tie) George Washington, +15 points (16 percent place in top-2, 1 percent place in bottom-2)
5. (tie) Bill Clinton, +15 points (28 percent place in top-2, 13 percent place in bottom-2)
7. Thomas Jefferson, +6 points (6 percent place in top-2, 0 percent place in bottom-2)
8. (tie) Teddy Roosevelt, +5 points (5 percent place in top-2, 0 percent place in bottom-2)
8. (tie) Harry S. Truman, +5 points (5 percent place in top-2, 0 percent place in bottom-2)
10. Dwight D. Eisenhower, +4 points (5 percent place in top-2, 1 percent place in bottom-2)

RELATED: Carter: My fellow Nobel Peace Prize winner is a “widespread” human-rights violator, you know

Jimmy Carter Says He'd Be "Comfortable" With A Mitt Romney Win

Ok, Jimmy Carter was a horrible president, he's hella old and he's made a great living (i.e. cheapened whatever's left of his legacy) consistently making a buffoon of himself since leaving the Oval office, but still...WTF!!!:

Former President Jimmy Carter said he expects President Obama to win reelection, but Mitt Romney would be his top choice on the Republican side. 

"I think of all the Republican candidates who are prominent, I think Romney would be the one I would rather see have a slight possibility to be president," on MSNBC's "Jansing & Co" in an interview that aired Wednesday. 

When pressed on whether he would be "comfortable" with a Romney presidency, Carter responded, "I would rather have a Democrat, but I would be comfortable." 

 "I think Romney has shown in his past, in his previous years as a moderate, a progressive that he was fairly competent as a governor and also running the Olympics. As you know, he has a good solid family," Carter said. 

Carter accused Romney of going to the "extreme right wing" to win in the GOP primary, but said he believes candidates on both sides of the aisle tend to move toward the middle during the general election. "I think he's gone too far in the conservative positions to suit the average American, that's why I think President Obama is going to be reelected," he said. 

RELATED: Carter: I’m comfortable with a Romney win

Jimmy O'Bama

RELATED: Romney compares Obama to Carter

Jimmy Carter: "My Biggest Failure Was Not Getting Reelected"

Who knows, maybe Barry will soon be feeling the same way.

Jimmy Carter Getting Senile In Old Age: Blames '3rd Party Candidate" For 1980 Loss To Ronald Reagan

RELATED: America Hasn't Improved Much Over Past 3 Decades, Jimmy Carter Says

NBC's Brian Williams Gives Jimmy Carter A Platform to Denounce Fox News

Newsbusters.org:

In selecting which excerpts, from his sit-down with former President Jimmy Carter, to showcase on Monday's NBC Nightly News, Brian Williams began with the not so humble boast from Carter that “I feel that my role as a former President is probably superior to that of other Presidents, primarily because of the activism and the injection of the Carter Center into international affairs,” but also decided to highlight Carter's blast at Fox News for “totally distorting everything possible concerning the facts” and having “no regard for the truth.” 

Williams cued up Carter, who is making the rounds of friendly media to promote his new book, White House Diary: “How do you think it came to be that such high numbers of people believe that this American-born Christian President is either foreign born or a Muslim or both?” Carter answered:

I think the number one factor is Fox News. It's totally distorting everything possible concerning the facts. And I think their constant hammering away at these false premises about our incumbent President has a major impact on the consciousness of America. A lot of well-meaning people, including many of those in the Tea Party movement, believe what is said in this constant hammering away by Glenn Beck and by others who have no regards for the truth.

Jimmy Carter: Ted Kennedy Killed My Health Bill

CNN.com:

The late Sen. Ted Kennedy is widely hailed for devoting his political career to the cause of providing health care to all Americans. But in an interview set to air on 60 Minutes Sunday, former President Jimmy Carter says Kennedy is the one to blame for delaying legislation to provide such care. 

"The fact is that we would have had comprehensive health care now, had it not been for Ted Kennedy's deliberately blocking the legislation that I proposed," Carter told CBS correspondent Lesley Stahl. "It was his fault. Ted Kennedy killed the bill."

Carter said Kennedy blocked the bill out of spite in advance of the Massachusetts senator's unusual, yet ultimately unsuccessful 1980 bid to unseat him.

"He did not want to see me have a major success in that realm of life," Carter said.


Kennedy at the time was pressing for a health care program run by the federal government, comparable to the so-called "public option" that many progressives fought for last year. Carter preferred to enact smaller changes over time to improve the existing health care system, similar to the legislation signed by President Obama in March. In the end, both of their plans failed to gain traction and the issue was put on the back burner when Ronald Reagan was elected president.

The liberal myth of Ted Kennedy The Great Crusader gets exposed for the BS that it really is.

Supreme Court Upholds Patriot Act, Bans Aid To Terrorist Groups

CSMonitor.com:

The US Supreme Court has put international humanitarian workers on notice that any assistance to a US-designated terrorist group could land them in an American prison.

On Monday, the high court upheld a federal law that outlaws providing “material support” to any group on a State Department list of terrorist organizations.

The prohibition extends beyond knowingly facilitating illegal operations. The law – part of the USA Patriot Act – makes it a federal crime to provide any help or support to a terror group – even support designed to teach a violent group how to use legal and peaceful means to achieve political change.

Violators face up to 15 years in prison.

Organizations and individuals involved in international peace and humanitarian efforts expressed disappointment with Monday’s ruling.

“The ‘material support law’ – which is aimed at putting an end to terrorism – actually threatens our work and the work of many other peacemaking organizations that must interact directly with groups that have engaged in violence,” said former President Jimmy Carter, founder of the Carter Center.

For former President Bush the Patriot Act was about putting the safety of Americans first. Thanks to the Supreme Court Jimmy Carter and the rest of his terrorist-enabling friends on the Left can go screw themselves now.

Rush Limbaugh Compares Obama To Jimmy Carter

Not a fan of Rush, but when it comes to the sheer ineptitude of Barry and Carter he makes some good points here.

Mark Halperin Compares Inept Obama To Jimmy Carter

Newsbusters.org:

Things must really be going bad for Barack Obama if the likes of longtime liberal journalists Mark Halperin and Jonathan Alter are comparing him to that glorious failure of a president - Jimmy Carter.

Appearing on MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell Reports on Friday to discuss the President's handling of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Halperin initially defended the President against his colleagues, claiming that he's gotten a "bum rap from the press" because he has gotten"most of the substance right" on the spill but because he has gotten "stagecraft" wrong Obama has "created this story line that he's Jimmy Carter."

Alter initially balked at this point, arguing any Carter comparisons were "too easy," but then went on to say the comparisons were "relevant" in how Obama is in danger of letting the Gulf spill cripple his presidency in the same way the Iranian hostage crisis seized "control" of Carter's in 1979.

It's come to this.

"Miss Me Yet?" Billboard Now Features Jimmy Carter

AOLNews.com:

Those mysterious "Miss Me Yet?" billboards have gone Democrat. This time, someone has put Jimmy Carter front and center -- with toothy grin and parted hair -- above Interstate 45 in Ennis, Texas, in an editorial slap at President Barack Obama.

Carter is just the latest former president to be featured in a spate of apparently unrelated "Miss Me Yet?" political billboards that have cropped up on the country's highways in the past few months.

Conservative bloggers were first to discover the latest "Miss Me Yet?" ad, whose authenticity AOL News has confirmed with the company that owns the billboards.

"It's real," Paul Covey, president of KEM Outdoor Media, said in a phone interview this morning. Covey leased the billboards through an ad company and said he doesn't know who is behind the message. But he said he knows what their politics are.

Really now, folks would rather have the worst President of my (and many others) lifetime than the current version? That's so bad, it's sick.

George W. Bush Takes Swipe At Jimmy Carter

CBSNews.com:

Former President George W. Bush joked about his intelligence, said Dick Cheney is doing well following his fifth heart attack and took a shot at Jimmy Carter at a breakfast for the Bush-Cheney Alumni Association Friday morning. "This is going to come as quite a shock to people up here that I can write a book, much less read one," the former president said, according to Politico.

Mr. Bush is currently working on a memoir. He also reportedly told an audience of administration alumni that Cheney, who had planned to come to the meeting, was not able to attend following his recent heart attack. He said the former vice president is "feeling well" and "has a fierce constitution."

Added Mr. Bush: "I have no desire to see myself on television. I don't want to be a panel of formers instructing the currents on what to do...I'm trying to regain a sense of anonymity. I didn't like it when a certain former president -- and it wasn't 41 or 42 -- made my life miserable."

That appears to be a shot at former President Jimmy Carter (#39), who said back in 2006 that the Iraq war had been "a flat disaster" and that the Bush administration "and particularly the vice president and the secretary of defense have, I think, quite often deliberately misled the American people about the danger in Iraq to begin with, the causes for going to war in Iraq, and they have also misled the American people about what is happening in Iraq since we invaded."

Carter was also exceedingly critical of Cheney and called the Bush administration the "worst in history" from the perspective of its "adverse impact on the nation around the world," though he later walked back that comment as "maybe careless or misinterpreted."

Nice of W. to finally out against Jimmy "Worst President Ever" Carter's insane and reckless comments during his terms. Carter wasn't just an embarrassment as a President, but made himself into a jealous, prick for daring to criticize President Bush so openly. Then too, President Bush has shown a lot of class not responding to Barry as Obama continues to blame him for all the problems he promised to "change". Once again, Bush comes out on to here.

Jimmy Carter Apologies To The Jews

Newsmax.com:

Former President Jimmy Carter apologized for any words or deeds that may have upset the Jewish community in an open letter meant to improve an often-tense relationship. He said he was offering an Al Het, a prayer said on Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement. It signifies a plea for forgiveness. "We must not permit criticisms for improvement to stigmatize Israel," Carter said in the letter, which was first sent to JTA, a wire service for Jewish newspapers, and provided Wednesday to The Associated Press.

"As I would have noted at Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, but which is appropriate at any time of the year, I offer an Al Het for any words or deeds of mine that may have done so."

Carter, who during his presidency brokered the first Israeli-Arab peace treaty, outraged many Jews with his 2006 book "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid." Critics contend he unfairly compared Israeli treatment of Arabs in the West Bank and Gaza to the legalized racial oppression that once existed in South Africa.

Israeli leaders have also shunned him over his journey to Gaza to meet with Hamas, considered a terror group by the U.S., the European Union and Israel.

Carter apologizing for a book he wrote just 3 years ago? Doesn't seem right to me. Of course it couldn't possibly have something to do with his grandson running for a Senate seat in a heavily Jewish district, could it? Right.

Politiks As Usual: In The News 12/14/09

Obama Gives Himself 'Solid B+' Grade For First Year In Office

Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi Struck In Face At Rally

Senate Approves Government Funding Bill

Judge Rules Effort To Strip ACORN Of Federal Funds Unconstitutional

Newsweek Writer: Open Marriages Key To Ending 'Cheating Scandals'

Harry Reid And Slavery

The Left, From Progressive To Oppressive

Elin Woods Can Learn From Jenny Sanford

Houston Becomes Largest U.S. City With Gay Mayor

Chinese Minister Links 'One-Child' Policy To Climate Change

IRS Hires Hundreds For New Unit Targeting Rich

Copenhagen Climate Summit: 1,000 Anarchists Arrested

Jimmy Carter: Abuse Of Women? Blame The Catholics And Southern Baptists

Jimmy Carter Denies Saying Obama Protesters Are Racist

Hey, at 85, maybe he's just suffering from dementia--that way he can just stay away from the Tv screen and no one will ever have to worry about taking him seriously again.

J.C. Watts, Black Guy: Criticism Against Obama Isn't Racist

Of course, Watts is a Republican, so despite being a former congressman (who happens to be Black!) and his use of something we conservatives like to refer to as FACTS, his opinion here will no doubt be dismissed by the loons on the Left still playing the race card when it comes to any criticism geared towards The One:

There is an inherent feeling among many in this country that an African-American should not be president."

That comment comes from former President Jimmy Carter, which is fascinating considering Carter once ran for governor of Georgia proclaiming himself to be a "Lester Maddox Democrat." (Maddox, a former Georgia governor, was an avowed segregationist who opposed integration under the Civil Rights Act.)

In fairness to President Carter, I do believe in redemption, and that people can change. But more and more people are inclined to say anyone who disagrees with Barack Obama must be racist.

It hurts me when the left and the right use race for political gain, and it depresses me further that it's so awkward for us to talk about honestly and objectively about race. However, the implication that disagreeing with the president is racist also saddens and perplexes me.

Donna Brazile, campaign manager for Al Gore in 2000 and now a CNN analyst, nailed it when she said, "No one wins in touching race in such a shallow way. It raises defenses and creates backlash."

The race issue blew up two weeks ago when Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., called Obama a liar on the floor of the House during the president's address to a joint session of Congress. Although Democrats booed President Bush in that same chamber during a State of the Union a few years ago, it was still wrong for Wilson to do this.

He called the president's chief of staff and apologized. I would have preferred he do it on the floor of the House, which is where the incident occurred.

There has always been a certain decorum in the people's House. Boos and yelling "You lie!" are not part of that decorum.

Some try to defend one yelling "You lie!" because others boo, but two wrongs don't make a right. Of course, we see this logic in politics from Democrats and Republicans both.

Be that as it may, was Wilson's outburst racist? The congressman said it was not, so I take him at his word, and the opposition we've seen to the president's agenda would not equate to racism based on the data released in the last year.

-- President Obama did not get the majority of the white vote in 2008. Is that evidence of racism? No. This has been the case with Democrat candidates for years, including President Carter.

-- President Obama did slightly better with the white vote in 2008 than John Kerry did in 2004.

-- Before President Obama proposed a government takeover of the health care system, his approval rating with white voters was 57 percent.

-- Between Election Day and the launch of Democrats' health insurance reform efforts, President Obama did well with independent voters. But he has lost about 18 points with this demographic in the past two months. Most of these independent voters are white.

The data simply do not support President Carter's claim.

Politiks As Usual: In The News 9/21/09

Mitt Romney Taunts Democrats With Memories Of Jimmy Carter

Will Olympia Snowe Bolt The GOP?

Ex-aide Says John Edwards Fathered Mistress' Child

Obama: Missile Defense Decision Not About Russia

Strangers To Dissent, Liberals Try To Stifle It

Jimmy Carter: U.S. Behind Coup Against Hugo Chavez

Obama: Legalize Illegals To Get Them Health Care

Lawyer Promotes Muslim Prayer Rooms, Opposes Display Of Ten Commandments

John Boehnar: America In Political Rebellion

Neo-Conservative Writer Irving Kristol Dead At 89

Congress, Obama Team Up To Kill Marriage Protections

Sen. Graham: Obama's Big Media Blitz Too Much

Did Jimmy Carter Think It Was "RACIST!" When He Referred To Barack Obama As 'This Black Boy'?

Hypocrisy in action, any wonder this man was such an utter FAIL as President?


RELATED: Analysis: Democrats Run From Carter On Race Comment