Silenced Majority Portal

Michelle Bachmann in Rift with "Joe the Plumber"

Michele Bachmann vs. "Joe The Plumber" smackdown - Minneapolis / St. Paul News - The Blotter

Here's Joe the Plumber's storybook endorsement commercial for the guy Bachmann is NOT endorsing.  She is endorsing his opponent, who is in the lead, angering the Missouri Tea Party.

Franken at NetRoots - Stop the Corporate Takeover of the Media

Tea Party Crasher - Deprogramming Program

(from Ben Doko) - in the intro he stands in front of a sheet, looks like - dressed a little like Michael Moore only with his Tea Party Patriot hat.  Then it leads into footage of his actual appearance at the Tea Party.  He is holding his Forbes magazine and talking about Germany.  He asks for a hand for all those members who were in WW2.  (Tea Party members are mostly old.)  See how long it takes them to figure out his politics and run him off.

 

Anna Wintour, Vogue Editor, Hosting Private Dinner for Obama

What's up?  Guess the fashion industry, like Hollywood, tends Democrat.

 Anna Wintour - Barack Obama Dinner - Editor Hosts Fundraiser | Styleite

At $34,400/head, it's right up there with the Beverly Hills Michael Steele/Andrew Breitbart event for being pricey.  It's obvious it's getting closer to the mid-term elections in a country that has little reform for political contributing and where money is power.  Donna Karan and Calvin Klein were invited but we weren't.

German Love Parade Tunnel Four Days Later

Gallery: Loveparade 2010: De tunnel 4 dagen later - vkmag.com

 

Obama Coming to Seattle to Help Senator Patty Murray

 So says the Seattle Times 

Local News | Obama plans Aug. 17 visit to aid Murray | Seattle Times Newspaper

President Obama will make his first presidential visit to Seattle on Aug. 17 — primary-election day — to highlight his administration's record on jobs and the economy and to headline a fundraiser for Democratic Sen. Patty Murray, a White House official said Tuesday.  Murray faces a stiff challenge from Republican Dino Rossi. Several other candidates also are competing in the "top two" primary.

Jean Paul Gaultier et Dita von Teese

Michael Steele Hosting RNC Event Featuring Andrew Breitbart

 They are "persona non grata" for everyone else but perfectly appropriate for some types of Republican donors.  All they need now is Mel Gibson.

 The Associated Press: GOP invites blogger Breitbart to fundraiser

Breitbart was behind an edited video clip of a former Department of Agriculture official that suggested Shirley Sherrod, who is black, denied a white farmer aid. The speech, when viewed in full, shows the opposite.

Tickets to the donor retreat in Beverly Hills, Calif., start at $1,000 and go up to $60,800 for a couple. Steele and Breitbart are listed as confirmed guests to the Aug. 12 event to update donors on the RNC's plans for the midterm elections.  Talking Points Memo first reported the invitation on Monday and it was later confirmed by Republicans.  The RNC declined to discuss the event.

 

Oliver North Coming to Seattle - (We Have Wingnuts Too)

 It is via the VITAE Foundation, a pro-life group which is also sending Sarah Palin to Kansas City. The Ollie North event is at the Rennaissance Hotel, Seattle and costs $100/person - half of that is tax deductible.  It's on August 4th.  

(Facebook notifies me of the darndest things..)

Wikileaks on Afghanistan/Pakistan May Be the New "Pentagon Papers"

 ..listening to NPR - it's all about the Wikileaks.  We got this yesterday in the mail (Slugbug used to be a moderator on Kerry's national website during 03-04.)  My bias after listening to NPR is that the shit could rightfully hit the fan, and that the government position will be to cover it's ass, as they are claiming that alot of this information was already out there.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-MA) released the following statement this evening in response to the New York Times story on the leak of classified documents concerning Afghanistan and Pakistan: 

 

"However illegally these documents came to light, they raise serious questions about the reality of America's policy toward Pakistan and Afghanistan.  Those policies are at a critical stage and these documents may very well underscore the stakes and make the calibrations needed to get the policy right more urgent."  (Senator Kerry)

The Center for American Progress sent out a big mailing today called the Afghan War Diaries.  There stuff is generally well-researched.  They report on the 92,000 classified reports from Wikileaks.  They contain reports written from the ground over a six-year period. They were released to the New York Times, the Guardian in the UK and Der Spiegel in Germany, but only reported on yesterday.  

Revelations include use of heat-seeking missiles by the Taliban as mujahadeen used to defeat the Soviets. They report a CIA squad that operated outside the chain of command.  They highlight that the Afghan conflict was shunted aside until recently for the Iraq war, with Afghans unable to be paid promised money.  Pakistan has apparently been playing a double game by aiding insurgents, with spies being paid by the US but then working also for the other side.  Some agents may have plotted against Karzai or plotted to poison the beer of US recruits.

There are shocking, previously unreported accounts of civilians being killed in Afghanistan and Pakistan.  Many were not suicide bombers or insurgents, and these occurrences have taken a toll on civilian morale.  Then there is the issue of Afghan incompetence, from police brutality to drug partying, not to mention friction between soldiers and police.  The official position will be that the revelations constitute a "security breach" and that more money and effort is now going into the Afghanistan conflict.  Some of the reports are vague or not clearly substantiated, but the whole release is highly controversial.  This is going to be a big fucking deal.

(info summarized from email report sent out by Center for American Progress)