More Hillary Hoodwinking....

You know how Hillary Clinton repeatedly said she dodged sniper fire in Bosnia at a tarmac reception.

Well.... no sniper, just a stop with Chelsea in tow where Hillary schmoozed and accepted a poem and hug from a child.

Only when video of the event surfaced showing her version was pure invention did she admit she "misspoke" (WaPo).... even though the misspeak was included in prepared, written and vetted remarks.

You've heard Hillary tell the story of the poor uninsured woman in Ohio who was refused treatment at a hospital (NYTimes) leading to the woman's miscarriage and death.

Well.... it turns out the woman was insured and wasn't refused treatment. Even after Hillary's campaign had reason to know the story was false, she continued to use it on campaign stops.

In worker-decimated Ohio Hillary touted how she did, and still does, oppose the trade agreement NAFTA.

Well....it was later revealed she was a leading advocate for the agreement when Bill was president.

Hillary has also said she is against the Bush-promoted pending trade agreement with Colombia.

Well... her campaign's chief strategist and long-time Clinton insider Mark Penn "has asked to give up his role" because the Wall Street Journal surfaced last week that Penn, as president of his public relations firm Burson-Marsteller, had met with Colombia's ambassador to the United States to discuss the promotion of the free-trade agreement. (WaPo)

The Colombia government "hired Penn's lobbying firm last year under a $300,000 one-year contract to help secure passage" of the trade pact. (NYTimes)

Of course, the Clinton campaign has denied knowing about this conflict of interest, even though the agreement was a year old and in the news at least a month ago.... and, it's not the first time such a Penn conflict of interest has come to Hillary's attention.

Union leaders have long complained about Penn. The Change to Win, a federation of labor unions including the service workers SEIU and the Teamsters, have called for Hillary to fire Penn for his representation of union busting employers like Cintas.

Even old Clinton loyalist Leon Panetta complains of Penn's role in the Clinton campaign, comparing him to Bush's "Turd Blossom" saying Penn "comes from an old school, like Karl Rove...." (Observer)

So Penn's gone. Right?

Well.... while Penn ducks for cover and Clinton says she is furious with Penn, his polling firm will continue providing polling and he will continue to advise the Clinton campaign.

And, while Colombia's President Uribe is lauded as the friend of the U.S. in Latin America.... as The Decider today pushes forward the trade pact legislation.... Uribe is in truth the emblem of narco-corruption and violent repression of unions although both the Bush and Clinton administrations have turned a blind eye to his brutal dictatorship.

Bill Clinton is still chummy with Colombia's Uribe. Last June Bill was "honored" with the country's "Colombia is Passion" award.

And, last September Bill hosted Uribe as a "featured attendee" at the Clinton Global Initiative annual meeting in New York although Al Gore cancelled has appearance at a Miami conference because he didn't want to share a podium with Uribe, the hemisphere's poster boy for state-sponsored terrorism. (DailyKos)

As always with the Clintons, things aren't as they want you to believe when they're telling the story. This latest Penn/Colombia-gate dustup is just another fog in the long litany of Billary winks-and-nods.

Unmasking Hillary

Hillary Clinton's record.... she boasts of "35 years of experience" ....includes most importantly her claims to have played a pivotal role in decision-making and foreign policy during Bill's presidency.

We'll put aside the fact that she had no top security clearances, and her just-released White House schedule reads more like redacted tea-pouring events. Let's weigh her experience, her judgement, her character, and her claims against the actual record:

Dangerous foreign trips. Last week, during a written speech at George Washington University, Hillary said if "a country was too small, too poor,or too dangerous the president couldn't go, so send the First Lady."

To prove her point, she described a trip to Yugoslavia in 1996 where she said the plane had to land "corkscrew"-style to avoid surface-to-air threats and "I remember landing under sniper fire. There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base."

Good story. But, this week firsthand reports.... and video tapes of her visit contradicting her account.... continued to surface. (YouTube)

Others on the trip said there was no "corkscrew landing," no "sniper fire," and video clips show Hillary walking across the tarmac, greeting a Bosnian girl and well-wishers.... no run "with heads down" to get into vehicles.

U.S. Air Force journalist, Don Jackson, who was on the tarmac when she arrived, said "there was no enemy fire, and no imminent danger."

This oft told story.... in dramatic fashion at her campaign rallies.... always includes "sniper fire."

Hillary now says she just "misspoke." In a recent interview with the Philadelphia Daily News she dismissed it as a "minor blip." Brings back memories of "what is, is." She learned how to fog from the master. But, she isn't the master, and her words and deeds are coming back to haunt her.

NAFTA. In a January 2004 news conference, Hillary said she thought Bill Clinton's NAFTA legislation "on balance has been good for New York and good for America." But, needing to win primary states stomped on by NAFTA.... Ohio and upcoming Pennsylvania and Indiana.... she now says that she has "long been a critic of the shortcomings of NAFTA"

No Child Left Behind. Hillary voted in favor of The Decider's 2002 education bill hailing it as "a major step forward." Now, with student performance plummeting and teachers raging against the limitations the bill places on their ability to perform, she now attacks the law as a "test, test, test" approach.

War in Iraq. Hillary voted for the war, and defended that vote until her last debate when cornered by moderator Tim Russert.

Ending the war in Iraq. In June 2006 Hillary restated her long standing opposition to a timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops in Iraq.

Now.... faced with the continuing unpopularity of the war and Barack Obama's promise to withdraw troops in a responsible way she's trying to catch up with his Iraq stance. She now says she'll "start withdrawing" troops within 60 days of her inauguration, bring out "one or two brigades a month" and have "nearly all of the troops out" by the end of 2009.

Drivers licenses for illegal aliens. In a campaign statement in October 2007, Hillary initially expressed support for New York governor Eliot Spitzer's plan to offer limited drivers licenses to illegals. Yet, in a presidential debate two weeks later, after first trying to defend her stand, she finally said "No" when asked if she approved of the unpopular drivers license idea.

Florida and Michigan delegates. In September 2007, the Clinton campaign formally pledged not to participate in primary or caucus elections staged before February 5, 2008 in defiance of DNC rules. She now says delegates from those states should be seated at the Democratic convention, flaunting the rules that all the major Democratic candidates endorsed.

Foreign policy. "There is no doubt that I played a major role in many of the foreign policy decisions." Hillary interview with NPR, March 13, 2008. (WaPo)

Northern Ireland. Hillary claimed to be "intimately involved" in the Northern Ireland peace process although the chief negotiator, George Michael, said that Clinton was "not involved directly" in the diplomatic negotiations, and a former northern Ireland chief minister, David Trimble, described Hillary as more of a "cheerleader" than a "principal player."

Macedonia and Kosovo. Hillary claimed that she had "negotiated" with the Macedonian government to persuade it to re-open its border with Kosovo during the NATO air war against Yugoslavia in May 1999. Actually, the border was re-opened the day before she arrived in Macedonia. She did press the Macedonia president to keep the borders open. But she didn't "negotiate" to open them.

Hillary's "35 years of experience"-resume reminds me of a New Yorker cartoon where the applicant being interviewed for a job was told: "I'm afraid your M.B.A. loses some of its lustre in light of the fact that you were home-schooled."

As Bill and Hill pursue their scorched-earth campaign tactics.... "the audacity of hopelessness".... Hillary's overinflated resume is being exposed for what it is. Truly, she's a legend in her own mind.

NAFTA-Gate: Clinton Not Obama

According to a report in today's U.K. Guardian, "A storm of reports in the Canadian media say that the NAFTA-gate flap last week involving Barack Obama was started by a key aide to Canada's prime minister who told journalists that Hillary Clinton's campaign.... not Obama's.... had contacted the Canadian government to play down its NAFTA-bashing."

When the aide, Ian Brodie, "stopped to chat with several journalists, and was surrounded by a group from CTV.... The conversation turned to the pledges to renegotiate the North American free-trade agreement made by the two Democratic contenders....

"Mr. Brodie, apparently seeking to play down the potential impact on Canada, told the reporters the threat was not serious, and that someone from Ms. Clinton's campaign had even contacted Canadian diplomats to tell them not to worry because the NAFTA threats were mostly political posturing."

So, Hillary had it both ways.... she was the one playing wink-wink with Canada on her public NAFTA hard-line stance, while Obama got the blame.

Do you really want 4 more years of these Billary games and dishonesty?!

And, speaking of dishonesty.... you've all heard Clinton's excuses for not releasing her tax returns. But, in 2000 when she was running for the Senate in New York, she hounded her opponent, Rick Lazio, for his tax return.

The Clinton campaign's Howard Wolfson even resorted to a dirty trick to make misleading headlines. The episode highlighted the effort by the Clinton campaign to question Lazio's character.... "It was a cheap political stunt."

You can read the full story here. (NYTimes)

Is GOP Picking Dem Candidate?

Where is the "mean"-stream media's reporting on the Canadian NAFTA memo leak that undoubtedly hurt Barack Obama in the March 4 primaries, especially in job-devastated Ohio.

We turn to Michal Blanchfield of The New Republic to give us the lowdown about the NAFTA discussion in Chicago between Obama's economic advisor, Austan Goolsbee who was asked for the meeting by Canadian diplomat, Ian Brodie.

It was Brodie who leaked the diplomatic cable reporting on the meeting, alleging that Obama's public tough position on renegotiating the NAFTA treaty was a wink-wink. This was later denied and retracted by the Canadian government.... but not before the damage was done to Obama.

Conservative Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper's denial said that neither he nor anyone in his office had anything to do with the leak, and called it regrettable and "blatantly unfair" to Obama's campaign and promised a full internal investigation. Yeah. Like that will happen.

Why the cynicism? Harper's domestic foes think "Harper was trying to do a favor for the GOP by tossing a piece of political dynamite in front of Obama's train as it was barreling down on Ohio..... leaks from the Harper government are rare. It is well known that Harper's office keeps cabinet ministers--not to mention diplomats abroad--on a tight leash."

Have you noticed that Brat Bush is doing a lot of dancing these days. He's obviously happy. He loves frat-boy pranks, especially against the Democrats. Here's why.

Besides NAFTA-gate, conservative shill Rush Limbaugh was urging his ditto-heads to vote for Hillary Clinton last Tuesday to throw a monkey wrench into Obama's campaign. GOP crossovers to Clinton were uncharacteristically high in the Texas primaries, and Obama's very narrow loss there gave Clinton bragging rights.

It's to the GOP's benefit to keep the Democratic nominating fight going, so.....Florida's GOP Governor Crist is promoting another Democratic primary there in order to seat the rule-breaking Florida delegation at the Democratic convention.... all these moves help Clinton and keep the Democrats from focusing their fire on GOP nominee John McCain.

After all, Billary is much more beatable in the general election as she would galvanize turnout for the GOP. And, McSame is viewed by many of the conservative faithful with distrust, so he needs all of the help he can get. A poll yesterday showed Obama would beat him by 12 points, but Clinton only 6 points.

Brat Bush will throw everything including the White House sink at Obama to put Billary on the ballot. His legacy depends on McSame winning the general election to carry on, and justify, his monstrous policies.

So the question remains, are the Democrats going to allow Republican dirty tricks to define and name their candidate.... Billary. If so, they're more likely to be subjected to Brat Bush's dancing at McSame's inaugural ball.

Hillary's Political Hell

Hillary Clinton's latest incarnation this campaign season is part tent revivalist, part ruler-wielding schoolmarm.... and, crowding into John McCain's territory.... part Horseman of the Apocalypse.

From her lips to your ear.... "I could stand up here and say, 'Let's just get everybody together, let's get unified, the sky will open, the light will come down, celestial choirs will be singing, and everyone will know we should do the right thing and the world will be perfect,'.....you are not going to wave a magic wand and have the special interests disappear." (WaPo)

Maybe this rant was because it was Sunday and she felt it was time to test Holy Sarcasm.... roasting Obama's fresh message of hope.

That riff followed her Shillary of Saturday night where she went on the attack, angrily accusing her Democratic opponent of "using tactics that are straight out of Karl Rove's playbook," unleasing scowling disapproval as she scolded.... "Shame on you, Barack Obama."

What brought about this latest broom ride? Mainly it was an Obama mailing pointing out that if Hillary claims part of her "35 years of experience" was her time in the White House where she voiced her support of NAFTA, she can't now claim to not support NAFTA.

As Obama pointed out.... "Yesterday Senator Clinton also said I'm wrong to point out that she once supported NAFTA. But the fact is, she was saying great things about NAFTA until she started running for president. A couple years after it passed, she said NAFTA was a 'free and fair trade agreement' and that it was 'proving its worth.' And in 2004, she said, 'I think, on balance, NAFTA has been good for New York state and America."

After declaring "Mission Accomplished" as the inevitable candidate last fall, her campaign seemed unprepared for the post-inevitability unruly movement toward Obama after his landslide in the Iowa caucus in January. Hillary tried everything.

There was the whisper campaign that Obama was a ghetto dope user.... and, the constant refrain that he's unvetted, and last week that he was a plagiarist for lifting a paragraph from a speech by his friend and supporter who told him to use it.

Her misty-eyed vulnerable woman approach in New Hampshire met with success.... so perhaps that is why in last week's debate she ended by extolling Obama as everything but the second-coming, looking at him all in smiles with a honeyed "I really respect Obama."

Obviously she was just softening Obama up for this week's shrieking-surge.

With the many faces of Hillary, it's hard to get a handle on which Eve-face is the real Hillary. But her latest Danteish incarnation... "Eternal and eternal I endure, All hope abandon ye who enter here".... can't be the glimpse of political Hell that voters are looking for.

It's the Ordinary People, Stupid

You've heard The Decider parroting the phrase over and over.... "I say that the fundamentals of our nation's economy are strong."

Just what does that mean? What are the "fundamentals." Economists say the fundamentals for a strong economy are growth in jobs, incomes and number of new households.

Obviously, either The Decider doesn't understand the fundamentals, or he's purposely whistling past the graveyard of our economy.... 17,000 jobs were wiped out last month according to the Labor department, and real wages fell last year according to a just-released study by the Economic Policy Institute.

And, new households?.... how about existing households.... people are losing their homes as home values fall and bait-and-stick-it-to-them mortgages come due.

The GOP's one-note solution to this problem is to cut taxes. What these well-heeled politicians don't realize is... IT TAKES AN INCOME TO PAY EVEN THE LOWEST TAX!

Not that the Democrats are much better.... they swarmed to The Decider's stimulus package life boat, abandoning the mother-ship of fiscal responsibility and long term solutions like.... a return to progressive taxation, higher wages and real government oversight of lending and credit practices.

As Barbara Ehrenreich points out in today's "The Boom Was a Bust For Ordinary People." (WaPo) "For years now, that strange stimulus-crazed beast, the economy, has been going its own way, increasingly disconnected from the toils and troubles of ordinary Americans."

In a far-off time, before NAFTA and "trickle-down" economics, job-creating titans like Henry Ford realized that his company would only prosper if his own workers earned enough to buy a Ford. No more.

Today, consumer behemoth's like Wall-Mart haven't figured out that their poverty wages will eventually curtail their own growth and profits, while Ford's once-thriving auto industry shipped manufacturing overseas and a rusting Detroit builds casinos to replace them.

It's the ordinary consumers.... the poor, and the struggling middle and working class.... who "have become a tripwire in the American economy - generating defaults on debts, depressed consumption and global market turmoil."

Our war-president Bush, and the GOP's next-in-line war president John McCain, can envision only spending hundreds of billions of borrowed dollars on their bloody crusades while at home the country is imploding.

It's this type of "leadership" that is the real threat. Fundamentally flawed policies that favor the wealthy and bloated corporations while "eating our seed corn".... the working middle-class.

A strong national economy depends on ordinary people.

Disasterous Bush Beat Goes On

With the presidential primaries taking all of the oxygen from the room, you may not have heard that:

The Decider again defied Congress, allowing Mexican 18-wheelers to begin traveling freely into the United States after previously being confined at a 25-mile border zone. Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND), who authored the provision that shut down the NAFTA Mexican trucking program, wrote to the Secretary of Transportation saying that the administration's violation of the law is arrogant and wrong.

The Pakistani government announced that it will not allow any country to conduct military operations on its territory after the New York Times reported the U.S. government was considering far more aggressive operations in Pakistan. The lawless tribal belt on the Afgan border is a haven for al Qaeda and Taliban terrorists. The Pakistani forces are engaging these militants, but an alliance with the U.S. in these operations would be deeply unpopular, and viewed by Pakistanis as doing the bidding of the United States... and these are our allies.

The unemployment rate soared and job growth came to a near-halt in December. Just 18,000 net jobs were created, and it takes about 125,000 a month just to keep up with population growth. "We are on the verge of a recession," said senior economist Robert A. Dye. This is just another economic jolt felt from the housing downturn and related crises in the financial markets. So much for The Decider's supply-side economics the NAFTA-ization of our job markets.

And, in an op-ed in the Washington Post today, George McGovern opines: "Why I Believe Bush Must Go..... Nixon Was Bad. These Guys are Worse." His opening salvo.... "As we enter the eighth year of the Bush-Cheney administration, I have belatedly and painfully concluded that the only honorable course for me is to urge the impeachment of the president and the vice president."

McGovern's reasons: "Bush and Cheney are clearly guilty of numerous impeachable offenses. They have repeatedly violated the Constitution. They have transgressed national and international law. They have lied to the American people time after time. Their conduct and their barbaric policies have reduced our beloved country to a historic low in the eyes of the people around the world. these are truly 'high crimes and misdemeanors,' to use the constitutional standard."

He then talks about some of these "high crimes and misdemeanors," a sad recital of "killing, immorality and lawlessness."

Still, McGovern thinks impeachment is unlikely although he insists we must still urge Congress to act. All the more reason the primaries and general election are so important.... we must cleanse our government of these criminals and those who would try to follow in their shoes.

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