Motley Moose – Archive

I don’t plan to ever log in again. I don’t want this account to get hacked and have words written by others posted under my username.

Take care and God bless,

Andrew

Aides to prominent political figures should NOT allow them to use Twitter.  Absolutely not.  If I worked on Capital Hill, I would not allow my boss to tweet.

Oh, but thank the Lord that they do.  Some politicos have really stepped in it with Twitter.  For example, after an embarassing Tweet sent during the State of the Union address, Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) blamed his “foot-in-mouth” moment on an aide:

Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) had the choicest Twitter moment. “Aggie basketball game is about to start on espn2 for those of you that aren’t going to bother watching pelosi smirk for the next hour,” he Twittered.

Or was it him? Shortly afterwards, another message appeared on his account: “Disregard that last Tweet from a staffer.” Both those messages are missing from his Twitter page, apparently deleted, but they were reported by PC World and several other news sites.

More recently, Newt Gingrich famously called Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor a racist.

This week, GOP Rep. Pete Hoekstra (MI) joined the ranks of the “I really wish I hadn’t tweeted that” when he compared life in the House minority to the uprising in Iran.

Glenn Thrush at Politico has reported that somebody decided to have a little fun with Rep. Hoekstra and set up a website based on the theme of Hoekstra’s over-the-top comparison of life in Congress to life under an intolerant,  repressive, and authoritarian regime.  Here is an image from the website.  It is worth a visit.

Members of a facebook group for the green revolution in Iran just received this email about how the outside world can help the activists fighting for freedom and democracy in Iran.  If any of you are wondering what life is like in Iran, take a look at this just-posted video of a student passing away in a dormitory after being shot by police.

Update at 12:39pm by Psychodrew

Multiple tweets about gunfire by pro-government militia at the Tehran rally.

We have heard what sounds like gunshots in distance. still have people on streets we have not heard from. #iranelection

persiakiwi

AP News alert FROM IRAN: AP photographer sees pro-government militia fire at opposition protesters, killing at least 1.

jaketapper (of ABC News)

OMG! Iranian state TV says gunfire has erupted at the Mousavi rally in Tehran #iranelection

zahrahb

Video update at 11:16 am EDT USA by John Allen

More after the jump

Nearly two years ago, on July 19, 2007, twenty-three South Korean missionaries living and working Afghanistan were kidnapped by the Taliban while traveling by bus from Kabul to their homes in Kandahar.  The Taliban initially demanded the release of twenty-three Taliban prisoners in exchange for the release of the South Koreans.  The US-led alliance of western nations balked and by the time negotiations between the Taliban and the South Korean government resolved the crisis six weeks later, two of the hostages had been executed.  The South Korean government claims to have agreed only to withdraw troops from Afghanistan and ban South Korean missionaries from entering the country again.  Still, other nations criticized Seoul for lending legitimacy to the Taliban and encouraging more kidnappings.

The Associated Press is reporting that Sonia Sotomayor is Obama’s pick for the Supreme Court.

A few weeks ago, James Carville appeared on NPR’s Talk of the Nation to talk about his new book, 40 More Years:  How the Democrats Will Rule the Next Generation.  He argued that the American electorate was evolving demographically in a way that favored Democrats.  In support, he revealed a stunning statistic.  If the American electorate had not undergone any demographic changes since 1992, John McCain would have won the election in 2008.  In other words, if the percentages of white males, white females, blacks, latinos, etc were the same in 2008 as they were in 1992, Sarah Palin would be the Vice-President of the United States.

What is happening is that younger voters are voting heavily Democratic and demographic groups that traditionally support Democrats–single voters and non-whites–are growing.  The groups that support Republicans–married people and white men–are shrinking at the same time that younger voters are rejecting conservatism.  The GOP will certainly evolve to appeal to more of the changing electorate, but as Carville noted, that means moving closer to the principles of the Democratic party.  So while the Democratic Party is highly unlikely to rule America for forty years–and even I believe it should not–the ruling coalition will be ideologically more like Barack Obama than Sarah Palin.

Yes, I’m talking it about here.  Why?  Well, I feel like we are an open community.  So, this has nothing to do with torture, taxes, or Rush Limbaugh, but I posted this at my private blog and I wanted to share with all of you this little piece of me…

As soon as I saw the DialIdol.com stats this morning, I knew that Adam Lambert wasn’t going to win.  And that’s okay.  Last week, few votes separated the top 3 and Danny Gokey’s fans were more likely to go to Kris Allen than Adam Lambert.  But still…

I had a very personal reason for hoping that Adam would win.  And it was actually very selfish.  I grew up in rural WV, raised in a conservative church were gay is bad.  I remember being told in church that many of the Nazis were homosexuals.  At the some time, I love and revered the church leaders.  So for me, the idea that somebody could be labeled “gay” and still win a popularity contest astounds me.  If America can choose between a gay and straight, why would America ever vote for the gay?  I guess that for me and perhaps for so many others, homosexuality is still so wedded to shame that I cannot see it as mainstream.  We still live in a country where THIS is mainstream.

Yeah, Will and Grace was funny.  And every body laughed at the Fab Five (Queer Eye for a Straight Guy).   But even if you are amused by and tolerate gays, can a gay still be the American Idol?  Even if he’s gay, he could win?  

I cried last night during Adam’s performance because I just could not fathom that the gay community had gone from “me being beat up in the locker room” to Adam Lambert in LA.  Wow.  I mean, I know gays and lesbians who still have to pretend to be straight when they go home for Christmas.  Roll your eyes and laugh, but WOW.

Still, it’s not fair that we put this on Adam or Kris.  From a career perspective, it’s probably a good thing that Adam didn’t win American Idol.  He won’t have to do all of the obligatory winner bullshit and he can release his first album on his own timetable, not the “Oh my god, you won, we have to get something out there now before America forgets you” timetable.  And many of his “fuck the establishment” fans will probably appreciate that he isn’t mainstream enough for the conservative Idol crowd.

A part of me actually feels sorry for Kris Allen.  He may be doomed to be plagued with the “Do you think you won because Adam Lambert is gay?” question.  He is going to be asked that repeatedly over the next few months, and that is a shame because he is a damn good artist.  There will be an astrix next to his name on the American Idol Wikipedia page.

So, it’s not really fair that I attach my hopes and dreams to Adam Lambert.  He’s just an artist.  He deserves the opportunity to pursue a career without anyone trying to attach some symbolic meaning to his run on American Idol.  He should be able to live his life and pursue the career he wants without being tagged as “the gay almost-Idol.”

But still, imagine if we lived in a country where identity didn’t matter.

What a beautiful thing.

Grover Norquist, the president of the conservative anti-tax Americans for Tax Reform, is a frequent contributor to Politico’s Arena, a page where political notables offer commentary on the day’s big political story.  With pundits buzzing about the GOP resolution to re-brand the Democratic Party as the “Democrat Socialist Party,” today’s topic is:

Multiple choice: An RNC resolution to rebrand the Democratic Party as “socialist” is:

A) Smart politics   B) Dumb politics   C) A joke