Posts by Jane Hamsher

Jane Hamsher is the founder of FireDogLake. Her work has also appeared on the Huffington Post, Alternet and The American Prospect.

Jerome 'Swift Boat' Corsi Taken to Task, Arrested in Kenya
Posted by Jane Hamsher, Firedoglake on October 7, 2008 at 11:01 AM.

Jerome Corsi was arrested in Kenya yesterday (and will soon be deported) evidently in the midst of a publicity stunt regarding Obama's extended family.

But he and I did a bloggingheads session last week that is up today on the website.  Over the course of the discussion, we establish that:

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Bill Maher Kicks Zucker's Conservative Ass at the Box Office
Posted by Jane Hamsher, Firedoglake on October 6, 2008 at 3:33 PM.

I'll put on my Hollywood hat just for a minute so I can lead a chorus of righteous laughter at the colossal failure of the persecuted Hollywood conservatives behind An American Carol.

Here's how it fared over the weekend, when stacked up against Bill Maher's Religulous:

What does this tell us?

Both films were in their first week of release, which means that it's apples to apples. Both had the benefit of their opening week marketing pushes.

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GOP In Disarray, Won’t Follow McCain
Posted by Jane Hamsher, Firedoglake on September 30, 2008 at 10:25 AM.

No matter what you want to say about the bailout, the Democratic leadership managed to actually lead.  The Republicans agreed to a bill and then couldn't deliver the votes they promised.  Now every Republican congressman you've never heard of is engaging in triumphalism before the cameras, claiming success in bringing the bill down.

This morning John Shadegg (R-AZ) was just on Morning Joe saying Boehner's excuse for the bill not passing -- GOP House members having their tender feelings hurt by Nancy Pelosi's speech -- was a crock of shit. He said he couldn't name one member of the House who pulled their vote because of it.  That lack of total discipline never would've been imaginable in the GOP just a short while ago.

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McCain Brittle, Grumpy; But Controlled Debate
Posted by Jane Hamsher, Firedoglake on September 27, 2008 at 4:17 AM.

McCain controlled the debate tonight. He came off as a brittle, grumpy, mean-spirited old coot, but on the economy -- which should have been Obama's strong suit -- McCain managed to divert the conversation to tax cuts and kept Obama off the kitchen table issues where he excels. McCain was allowed to paint himself as a crusader for reform, and no mention was made of the Keating 5 -- though Obama did manage to tie him to voting for all of Bush's budgets. (McCain's only rejoinder was to refer to himself repeatedly as "no Miss Congeniality." Huh?)

But the biggest problem for me was that McCain had a grab bag of adjectives he consistently used to characterize Obama -- "naive, inexperienced" -- and every time he repeated them, it was like money in the bank. He worked them in at every opportunity, and their cumulative effect wore into Obama as the evening went on. Obama missed the opportunity to do the same and characterize McCain as brittle, rash, impulsive and out-of-touch. His critiques were all over the place, and his failure to tie them together into a coherent narrative about McCain meant that he never really grazed the old buzzard.

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Whose Ad Is More Effective, McCain or Obama's?
Posted by Jane Hamsher, Firedoglake on September 15, 2008 at 9:55 AM.

Obama:

McCain:

Discuss.

AlterNet is a nonprofit organization and does not make political endorsements. The opinions expressed by its writers are their own.

McCain Cheats His Own Public Financing Laws ... Again
Posted by Jane Hamsher, Firedoglake on September 11, 2008 at 4:46 AM.

Forget "lipstick on a pig" and "bridge to nowhere" -- one of the most grating untruths of this campaign is that Barack Obama somehow cravenly decided not to accept public financing while the honorable John McCain did.  Anybody paying 2% attention could figure out that McCain accepted public financing during the primary then tried to pull a fast one when he became the nominee by completely flauting the law and withdrawing without permission.  When FEC chairman David Mason said he couldn't do that, George Bush replaced him.

And now we see that he is doing exactly what everyone knew he was going to -- ignore the public financing laws once again:

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Nice Work if You Can Get it: Palin Paid Herself to Live at Home
Posted by Jane Hamsher, Firedoglake on September 9, 2008 at 10:28 AM.

The Washington Post has an article this morning on the 312 nights Sarah Palin spent in her own home -- and still charged the state for 312 days of "per diem" allowance (which is supposed to cover expenses while traveling).

The media narrative is that Palin cut back wasteful government spending in Alaska and took on her own party to do so.  But that becomes less compelling when you factor in that she paid herself $16,951 to live at home.  And it's not like she can toss her hair and say that "this is just the way things are done in Alaska":

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Why are the Police Protecting Big Money from Public Scrutiny in Denver?
Posted by Jane Hamsher, Firedoglake on August 28, 2008 at 4:00 AM.

Hillary Rosen, who does commentary for CNN, told me yesterday that despite the fact that cable news has decided the war between Clinton and Obama supporters is the story of the convention, they're actually having trouble finding delegates who reflect that.

From here on the ground, the real story is the unhealthy relationship between Democratic politicians and their bigwig donors, but woe to anyone who wants to look into it:

Police in Denver arrested an ABC News producer today as he and a camera crew were attempting to take pictures on a public sidewalk of Democratic Senators and VIP donors leaving a private meeting at the Brown's Palace Hotel.

Police on the scene refused to tell ABC lawyers the charges against the producer, Asa Eslocker, who works with the ABC News investigative unit.

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Bloggers Bust Up Telecom Blue Dog Party in Denver
Posted by Jane Hamsher, Firedoglake on August 25, 2008 at 11:11 AM.

Last night I was at a party with Matt Stoller when he found a notice in the paper announcing a party that AT&T was having that night for the Blue Dogs.

Glenn Greenwald instantly became a man with a mission: he wanted to go interview the guests and see how they felt about their telecom hosts and the retroactive immunity delivered to them by the Blue Dogs, at bargain basement prices.

We had no invitation, but nobody really cared. AT&T, Blue Dogs, Denver

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McCain's Veep to Be ... Lieberman?
Posted by Jane Hamsher, Firedoglake on August 19, 2008 at 3:02 PM.

Noted Duran Duran scholar Kathryn Jean Lopez says Rush Limbaugh no likey Lieberman for VP:

If John McCain picks Joe Lieberman as his running mate, he would “snatch defeat from the jaws of victory,” as radio talk-show king Rush Limbaugh put it in an e-mail last night.

Obviously, I have an elaborate nightmare where Joe Lieberman gets the VP nod, McCain wins, then dies -- and we're looking at a President Lieberman. At which point me, Tim Tagaris, Maura Keaney, Ed Anderson and a host of others all wind up in Guantanamo Bay.

Now I may just be engaging in extraordinary cynicism here. But over the years, I've watched Arlen Specter set himself up as conscience of the Senate and rail against the administration's abuse of executive powers, at which point everyone invests him with the moral authority to adjudicate the situation and then he lets 'em off the hook. And I worry that KJ and the Sacred Sperm Patrol are being likewise suckered.

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FDR's Grandson Says Happy Birthday to Social Security by Knocking McCain
Posted by Jane Hamsher, Firedoglake on August 14, 2008 at 4:58 PM.

The AFL/CIO has a new flyer hammering John McCain on his wealth and his contempt for Social Security.

It's going out to seniors in battleground states and is part of a critical effort because as the WaPo notes, Obama has a voter age gap that could be troublesome in places like Pennsylvania. He may have the hearts of all voters ages 18-29 (63% nationwide), but with 33% of white voters over the age of 65 he's lagging behind Kerry 2004 (44%) and Gore 2000 (46%):

With polls showing Obama dominating among those under 40 and running even among middle-aged voters, Republican John McCain's lead among those 65 and older is the main reason he remains close overall. His margin is largest among older white voters without a college education, accounting for much of Obama's problem with the white working class.

(Click through to the flip side for a message from FDR's grandson)

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McCain to Send Lieberman to Georgia
Posted by Jane Hamsher, Firedoglake on August 14, 2008 at 4:34 AM.

The war that's broken out between Georgia and Russia is just the international incident that McCain needed to switch the discussion from the economy and healthcare onto national security. Now McCain is dispatching Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman to Georgia (ostensibly as members of the Armed Services Committee).

The Bushies insist they knew nothing about what the Georgians were planning, Condi Rice phoned it in despite the fact that she's a Russia specialist who met with Saakashvilli on July 9, and Karl Rove was suspiciously in the area with Saakishvilli shortly thereafter. Throw in McCain's lobbyist ties to Georgia and you've got quite a constellation of events that just happened to play to McCain's perceived strengths.

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Health Care or Offshore Drilling? You Decide
Posted by Jane Hamsher, Firedoglake on August 13, 2008 at 12:43 PM.

Well you have to say something for the #Dontgo twits -- they know how to carry Big Oil's water and back down the Democrats. Now Nancy Pelosi says that she's open to having a vote in September on mo' drilling, despite the fact that a majority of Americans think it is "more likely to enrich oil companies than to lower gas prices for American consumers."

I guess we have to take it off the table as an issue in November to insure we get subpoena power. Or more and better parking spaces for Democrats, I'm not sure which.

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Citizen Journalist Deported from China for Filming Free Tibet Protest
Posted by Jane Hamsher, Firedoglake on August 11, 2008 at 12:49 PM.

Noel Hidalgo, a blogger who caught footage of a pretty tame protest in Tiananmen Square and put it up online, was deported from China.

Matt Browner-Hamlin, sometime FDL contributor and veteran of the Ned Lamont, Chris Dodd and Mark Begich races was also ejected from an Olympics equestrian event for trying to unveil a Tibetan flag but was not deported.

This comes on the heels of China's revocation of Joey Cheek's visa. (Former Olympic gold medalist Cheek formed Team Darfur to protest the crisis in Darfur, and will be on the Colbert Report tomorrow).

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Caught on Radio: Joe Lieberman Flushes Toilet While Doing Phone Interview
Posted by Jane Hamsher, Firedoglake on August 6, 2008 at 7:03 AM.

"Brutal Islamist extremist terrorists ..."

[flush]

Gives a whole new meaning to the term "sitting Senator."