Posts by Oliver Willis

Oliver Willis is the blogmaster at Like Kryptonite To Stupid

Obama Wins Dems Abroad Vote, Now Virtually Tied with Hillary in Texas, Ohio
Posted by Oliver Willis, Oliver Willis.com on February 21, 2008 at 2:55 PM.

This may be the end for Sen. Clinton as the ABC/Washington Post poll confirms what these other polls are saying.

In Ohio, Clinton leads Obama in the new poll by 50 percent to 43 percent, a significant but tenuous advantage given the shifts that have taken place elsewhere as candidates intensified their campaigns in advance of previous primaries. In Texas, the race is even, with Clinton at 48 percent and Obama at 47 percent.

UPDATE: Obama Wins Democrats Voting Abroad Contest

(CNN) - Barack Obama has won the Democrats Abroad Global Primary, according to the International Chair for the Democrats Abroad, Christine Marques.

Marques tells CNN the results of the week-long vote were:

Barack Obama - 65 percent, Hillary Clinton - 32 percent, with the rest of the candidates pulling in less than 1 percent of the vote each.

Democrats Abroad will send 22 delegates to the Democratic Convention, with half a vote each, carrying a total of 11 votes.

Clinton Campaign Co-Chairman Resigns Over "Drug-Baiting" of Obama
Posted by Oliver Willis, Oliver Willis.com on December 14, 2007 at 7:25 AM.

Shaheen resigns. Good.

Bill Shaheen resigned today as Hillary Clinton's campaign co-chairman in New Hampshire after Clinton apologized to Barack Obama for Shaheen saying that Obama's drug experimentation as a youth would be an issue in the general election.

"I would like to reiterate that I deeply regret my comments yesterday and say again that they were in no way authorized by Senator Clinton or the Clinton campaign....I made a mistake and in light of what happened, I have made the personal decision that I will step down as the co-chair of the Hillary for President campaign," Shaheen said in a statement released by the campaign. "This election is too important and we must all get back to electing the best qualified candidate who has the record of making change happen in this country. That candidate is Hillary Clinton.

The whole episode has just been sooo stupid and insulting.

UPDATE: Clinton personally apologizes for Obama drug flap

Well, a personal apology is certainly better than the lame release they dropped off last night that talked more about Sen. Clinton's campaign than the attack. I'd like to think that this was freelancing by a frustrated operative and not something ordered from the top, but the Clinton campaign has so far been marked by a cohesive messaging unit that you don't exactly believe someone came up with this alone. Up until now their message discipline has been an asset, not a liability.

The Cartoon Mitt Romney Doesn’t Want You To See [VIDEO]
Posted by Oliver Willis, Oliver Willis.com on December 12, 2007 at 4:32 AM.

I don't know enough about Mormon theology to know if this bit of propaganda is accurate or not (I know more about the people and the movement than what they worship) but it's clear distinction from mainstream Christianity and the fact that it's got over 500,000 views on YouTube can't help someone like Mitt Romney.

Perhaps if the mainstream press and the right would have been even remotely in opposition to the attacks on John Kerry's faith in 2004 I would be a bit more sympathetic about people asking Romney about his church's practices.

UPDATE: For an alternative point of view on this, please click here.

The National Review: Trashing Nobel Prize Winners Since 1965
Posted by Oliver Willis on October 16, 2007 at 1:00 PM.

This post, written by Oliver Willis, originally appeared on Like Kryptonite to Stupid

Thanks to reader "Dr. Victor Davis Handjob", comes this story written in the conservative National Review a few months after Martin Luther King Jr. won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964:

"For years now, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King and his associates have been deliberately undermining the foundations of internal order in this country. With their rabble-rousing demagoguery, they have been cracking the "cake of custom" that holds us together. With their doctrine of "civil disobedience," they have been teaching hundreds of thousands of Negroes -- particularly the adolescents and the children -- that it is perfectly alright to break the law and defy constituted authority if you are a Negro-with-a-grievance; in protest against injustice. And they have done more than talk.

They have on occasion after occasion, in almost every part of the country, called out their mobs on the streets, promoted "school strikes," sit-ins, lie-ins, in explicit violation of the law and in explicit defiance of the public authority. They have taught anarchy and chaos by word and deed -- and, no doubt, with the best of intentions -- and they have found apt pupils everywhere, with intentions not of the best. Sow the wind, and reap the whirlwind."

Will Herberg, "'Civil Rights' and Violence: Who Are the Guilty Ones?", The National Review Sept. 7th, 1965

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DiCaprio, Clooney to Star in Film Based On Howard Dean's '04 Campaign
Posted by Oliver Willis on October 12, 2007 at 2:00 PM.

This post, written by Oliver Willis, originally appeared on Like Kryptonite to Stupid

No. Really. Really. I kid you not.

Leonardo DiCaprio and George Clooney are to star in a film loosely based on the rise and fall of presidential hopeful Howard Dean. The Warner Bros production will be based on a stage-play written by Beau Willimon, a former assistant on the Dean campaign.

Entitled Farragut North, after a Washington Metro station in the heart of the lobbyist district, the film sounds like darker version of Joe Roth's Primary Colours. It tells the tale of a youthful communications guru working for a principled but unorthodox politician who finds himself undone by a slick and corrupt Washington establishment. Currently in rehearsal, Willimon's stage-play is set to open on Broadway in the run-up to the 2008 presidential election. Mike Nichols is directing.

DiCaprio and Clooney will produce the film as well as starring. It is believed that DiCaprio will play the young communications chief while Clooney stars as the Dean surrogate.

Gonzales Secretly Authorized CIA Torture
Posted by Oliver Willis on October 4, 2007 at 5:00 AM.

This post, written by Oliver Willis, originally appeared on Like Kryptonite to Stupid

(click for larger version)

Your government, on Conservative Republicans.

When the Justice Department publicly declared torture "abhorrent" in a legal opinion in December 2004, the Bush administration appeared to have abandoned its assertion of nearly unlimited presidential authority to order brutal interrogations.

But soon after Alberto R. Gonzales's arrival as attorney general in February 2005, the Justice Department issued another opinion, this one in secret. It was a very different document, according to officials briefed on it, an expansive endorsement of the harshest interrogation techniques ever used by the Central Intelligence Agency.

The new opinion, the officials said, for the first time provided explicit authorization to barrage terror suspects with a combination of painful physical and psychological tactics, including head-slapping, simulated drowning and frigid temperatures.

Mr. Gonzales approved the legal memorandum on "combined effects" over the objections of James B. Comey, the deputy attorney general, who was leaving his job after bruising clashes with the White House. Disagreeing with what he viewed as the opinion's overreaching legal reasoning, Mr. Comey told colleagues at the department that they would all be "ashamed" when the world eventually learned of it.

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Anita Hill on Clarence Thomas: "I Will Not Stand By Silently and Allow Him to Reinvent Me"
Posted by Oliver Willis on October 2, 2007 at 1:00 PM.

This post, written by Oliver Willis, originally appeared on Like Kryptonite to Stupid

Eugene Robinson hits the nail so hard on the head about just how dumb Clarence Thomas is.

There are, as he ought to know, plenty of black conservatives. There are plenty of African American parents teaching their children the same lessons of hard work and self-reliance that Thomas's grandfather taught him. The black church, I would argue, is one of the more socially conservative major institutions in the nation.

Black America has never been monolithic in its views, but black Americans do vote almost monolithically for Democrats. That wouldn't necessarily be the case if Richard Nixon hadn't built an electoral strategy on a race-based appeal to Southern whites -- and if every Republican presidential candidate and party leader since Nixon hadn't followed suit. Just last week, the four leading contenders for the Republican nomination all skipped a forum at historically black Morgan State University. As long as snubbing black voters is seen as smart politics in the Republican Party, black conservatives have good reason to stick with the Democrats.

Robinson goes on to explain why, until the cows come home, black conservatives like Clarence Thomas will be known as the self-loathers they are.

UPDATE: Professor Anita Hill, the woman that this... troll... sexually harassed has written an op-ed in the NY Times to counter his slander of her in his book pimping tour.

ON Oct. 11, 1991, I testified about my experience as an employee of Clarence Thomas' at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

I stand by my testimony.

Justice Thomas has every right to present himself as he wishes in his new memoir, "My Grandfather's Son." He may even be entitled to feel abused by the confirmation process that led to his appointment to the Supreme Court.

But I will not stand by silently and allow him, in his anger, to reinvent me.

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Will Young People Doom Barack Obama?
Posted by Oliver Willis on October 1, 2007 at 12:00 PM.

This post, written by Oliver Willis, originally appeared pn Like Kryptonite To Stupid

So many campaigns in the last twenty years were supposed to be the ones that finally expressed the will of young people, except that when it comes time to do actual work and actual voting, the majority of the young fail time and time again. Last cycle it was the groundswell of support behind Howard Dean that never appeared at the polls in Iowa, and this cycle it looks like Sen. Barack Obama is on pace to get screwed by the youth vote that doesn't show up.

The campaign's challenge will be converting the excitement of Kizzie and other students into votes. Candidates who have charmed young voters in the past have largely failed when it came to mobilizing them. Interviews with two dozen students as they went back to school at three black colleges found support for Obama, but with summer breaks having ended only recently, the campaign's fledgling student organizations do not match the enthusiasm.

About 18 students showed up for the first meeting of Students for Barack Obama at Clark Atlanta University in Atlanta. The group's volunteer coordinator Kevin Heard, 19, was disappointed with the showing.

"We have to get more people here," he said. He joined the group, Heard said, because it offers an opportunity "to help a black man who is showing positive images of African American men. By helping someone as positive as he is, I'll show America that I am positive, too."

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Will Fred Thompson's Campaign Be Over Before It Starts?
Posted by Oliver Willis on August 22, 2007 at 6:13 AM.

This post, written by Oliver Willis, originally appeared on Like Kyptonite To Stupid

Hollywood actor Fred Thompson seems to have thought he could just slide on to the political stage without trying, but the facts are not lining up with the spin.

Lost this week amid other news was the lackluster trip to Iowa made by the candidate-in-waiting. Notes GOP analyst Jennifer Rubin on the American Spectator's campaign blog: "It was a cringe inducing day for Thompson in the MSM and blogosphere coverage.

There was Carl Cameron picking up on the Gucci loafers and the golf cart ride through the Iowa fair. Politico picked up on the lukewarm reception and the crowd's disappointment that more substance wasn't offered. MSM coverage echoed the same. He then gave a remarkably muddled interview with John King, leading to guffaws at Campaign Spot and confusion about what he meant with this response to a question on abortion and gay marriage."

Clearly the Thompson campaign knows he screwed the pooch on the abortion/gay marriage question as they quickly emailed this liberal blogger - no friend of the campaign - their spin on the issue. So far the campaign looks much more competent than the candidate. Or is he a candidate? There's an FEC complaint about just that issue right now.

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Jon Stewart Is The Only Real Journalist In America
Posted by Oliver Willis on August 15, 2007 at 5:55 AM.

This post, written by Oliver Willis, originally appeared on Like Kryptonite To Stupid

Last week the mainstream media went wild with Kenneth Pollack and Michael O'Hanlon, describing them as anti-war when in fact Pollack wrote a book arguing in favor of invading Iraq and both are on record in favor of the surge. Nobody in the mainstream media seriously challenged this dominant theme:

*Purporting to document Pollack's evolving views on Iraq, CNN left out his original gung-ho Iraq "tune"

*CBS Evening News falsely described proponent of Iraq "surge" as former opponent of it

*Fox News Sunday is latest program to call Iraq invasion proponents "critics" of the war

But then on Monday night, on what is - theoretically - a "fake" news show hosted by a comedian, conservative pundit Bill Kristol tried to get away with the line about Pollack / O'Hanlon and Jon Stewart did what the mainstream media refuses to do time and time again as they roll over and play complicit lapdog for the Bush administration: He said nuh-uh. Jon Stewart does not have superpowers.

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Romney Thinks He Can Buy Victory in Iowa
Posted by Oliver Willis on August 10, 2007 at 12:23 PM.

This post, written by Oliver Willis, originally appeared on Like Kyptonite to Stupid

My main takeaway from this story about Mitt Romney's ridiculous spending on the Ames, Iowa straw poll is that he kind of screwed himself. If Romney wins, as is likely, that's going to be expected - he's spent the most, organized the most, and none of the other serious contenders are competing there with him. But if he loses, or it's close, doesn't he look really stupid and weak?

This is, I think, why Mitt Romney has to keep shoveling so much of his own vast personal wealth into his campaign - he's not very smart about managing money. He's spent millions on ads, and has been unable to move the needle nationally, while in some polls he's been left as an also-ran by Hollywood actor Fred Thompson's not-yet real campaign.

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Bush's Latest Screw You to the American People
Posted by Oliver Willis on August 9, 2007 at 5:30 AM.

This post, written by Oliver Willis, originally appeared on Like Kryptonite To Stupid

Who does he want to cut taxes for? The middle class? The lower class? No sir, he wants to cut taxes for corporations. Right before the little bugger skips out of office, he wants to screw us over financially one more time. Any Democrat who votes for this, and the Republicans who I'm sure will, is a turd.

President Bush said yesterday that he is considering a fresh plan to cut tax rates for U.S. corporations to make them more competitive around the world, an initiative that could further inflame a battle with the Democratic Congress over spending and taxes and help define the remainder of his tenure.

A turd.

Bush will try to sell this as a boost to small business, but make no mistake - this is targeted at the GEs, Exxon-Mobils and other fattest of fat cats that in turn fill up Republican party coffers with their filthy lucre. We're in the middle of a war, a war whose costs are sinking us day in and out in debt, and the response of the Republican party is to give the robber barons another truckload of free money.

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To Be Or Not To Be Mormon? That Is Romney's Question
Posted by Oliver Willis on August 6, 2007 at 2:55 PM.

This post, written by Oliver Willis, originally appeared on Like Kryptonite To Stupid

Romney is questioned and challenged again on his faith by yet another conservative, this time it's Iowa talk show host Jan Mickelson. This continues to show that Hugh Hewitt's repeated assertions that Romney is being mostly attacked from the left on this to be fallacious - a lie.

Furthermore, the Romney boosters like Hewitt and his lap-sitting blog partner Dean Barnett seem to have convinced themselves that questions about the less mainstream beliefs that are central to the Mormon faith (like the idea of biblical-style miracles happening here in America, or that the messiah will return and show up in Missouri in some capacity) are off limits. Bull. I don't see why theological questions are off the table. I think it's perfectly legitimate to ask Barack Obama, John Edwards, and Hillary Clinton if they believe that Jesus was the son of God, performed miracles, and that he'll return on the day of reckoning. They're all Christians, so I think it's safe to say that they believe those things in one form or another.

The difference here, of course, is that much, much more Americans subscribe to the beliefs that Obama/Edwards/Clinton have than to Mitt Romney's church's beliefs. I don't care that Romney is a Mormon. I think he's unqualified for the office for a lot of other reasons (He's a wrongheaded flip-flopping slimy eel of a politician) completely unrelated to his religion.

But to assert, as Hewitt and a few others do, that it exhibits bias to simply ask a candidate a theological question about his or her professed belief, is ridiculous. Especially when the candidate in question has made his religious convictions one of the central justifications for his entire candidacy!

Romney's defenders real goal here is to insulate the candidate. Right or wrong, many of the traditions and beliefs of Mormonism will strike many Americans as "weird" (sadly anything not falling under the line of mainstream Christianity or Judaism is considered weird by Americans, let alone the Hell-bound atheists and their pals the agnostics like me. Hi Mom!) - for instance the continued splintering of the faith that happens when people seem to get visions and believe that their brand of Mormonism is in the true spirit of the church's founders (read Jon Krakauer's phenomenal Under The Banner Of Heaven for more details) - and they don't want Romney to have to wade into those weeds. But I don't see these questions as remotely out of bounds for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who happens to be a Mormon, so how are they out of line for Romney who is a presidential candidate? They're not.

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