Guest Blogger of the Week

American Street

American Street is a group blog that continually brings fresh talent to the fore from all across the country.
05/04/08

Welcome American Street!

American Street is a group blog that continually brings fresh talent to the fore from all across the country. Its contributors have included some of the most recognizable names in progressive political blogging, from Digby, John Amato and Bill Scher to humorists like General JC Christian, the Fafblog trio and Tom Burka. As their guest posts this week will differ in tone and substance, visit them and see who’s authoring what.

05/10/08

The Media and Congress Surrendered Our Weapons to Tyrants and Crooks

Scott Collins opined that Americans already believe the broadcast news media is the propaganda arm of the US government, so the news isn’t new. Glenn Greenwald thinks the story gets no airplay because the networks are covering their sorryass record of lapdancing on Bush’s petard.

Glenn’s closer to the reality on this, but the standout fact that most Americans need to hear over and over and over again is this: Covert domestic propaganda IS ILLEGAL. Specifically:

It violates, for starters, specific restrictions that Congress has been placing in its annual appropriation bills every year since 1951. According to those restrictions, “No part of any appropriation contained in this or any other Act shall be used for publicity or propaganda purposes within the United States not heretofore authorized by the Congress.”

As explained in a March 21, 2005 report by the Congressional Research Service, “publicity or propaganda” is defined by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) to mean either (1) self-aggrandizement by public officials, (2) purely partisan activity, or (3) “covert propaganda.” By covert propaganda, GAO means information which originates from the government but is unattributed and made to appear as though it came from a third party.

Torture. Murder. Rendition. Wiretapping. Funding domestic propaganda. Kickbacks. No-bid contracts passed out to cronies. War profiteering by the very people who ordered the war and propped it up longer than every other US War except the Revolutionary one and Vietnam. These aren’t faux pas. They aren’t business as usual. They aren’t just conscience shocking ethical violations.

05/10/08

Ever see Bob Herbert get angry?

He was profiled a few months ago as being so calm that some found him too boring, But today he cut loose with a major rip on both of the Clintons. I’m not sure about the things he says they took, but it’s pretty clear Mr. Herbert is not going to be considered boring this time around.

And he didn’t even mention Marc Rich.

05/10/08

It’s all over for the presidency: it has to be McCain

They’ve got Obama right where they want him. The whispering campaign has worked. After proving to Democratic voters that he was a Muslim sworn to fly hijacked airliners into every American flag lapel pin, that he was a suicidal bowler, wearing the Quran as a jockstrap to conceal his Imamhood of Mass Destruction, who flips the bird at political opponents while on camera just like all Al Kayda leaders do, then attends the United Church of Bobby Jesse Sharpton Seale, where he plots to siphon the gas of poor people, steal the guns of Rural Americans so they’ll be defenseless against the invading hordes of antler-toting Obambi gee-hoddists, they spread the word that he fathered non-white children utilizng the classic historical means of overcoming these United States of Honkiedom: breeding while having s-e-x.

And the Democrats responded true to their Commie natures, making him their nominee via the unAmerican ritual practice of voting.

Now Stage Two of the Patriotic Neo-Chikkinhock Defense Extra-Special Operation is being deployed so red-blooded Pinkish Real People will finally discover that Barack Hussein Mugabe Duvalier Ali Simpson Jackie Robinson Amin Poitier is secretly Black! Hide your Wimminz booties! Because you know what he’s really after now!

05/10/08

Fearguth’s Great Snark Hunt

“My husband is absolutely opposed to any negative campaigning
at all. That’s why John is disappointed Obama bin Laden was
offended when Hamas endorsed him.”

05/10/08

Happy, Um, Mother’s Day

Pastor James David Manning has been featured on this site before.

He is famous, or perhaps infamous, for calling Obama a mack daddy and the Anti-Christ among other offensive banter. As much as he could merely be an attention whore, this aforementioned clip in particular, where he goes into a nearly ten-minute Anti-Obama tirade, has been viewed nearly two million times on YouTube.

He may be a little too hot to handle for the mainstream media, but I often wonder how much of a voice within the black community he really is. I also wonder why he’s only been a youtube sensation. Considering the problems Obama has gotten into from Jeremiah Wright, I wonder why voices such as Manning have not been given more than cursory attention.

Here are the latest ridiculous rants.

  • Manning rips into Obama for his supposedly trashy white mother.
  • ________________

  • And, one more for good measure, here he castigates the black community for being fickle in their political support.