Thursday, May 15, 2008

News to Use

* This afternoon on MSNBC's Hardball, Chris Matthews had Mark Green of Air America and Kevin James, a radio talk show host. (Please don't confuse this Kevin James with the comedian, Kevin James!) Chris Matthews asked his guests what they thought of President Bush's comments in front of Israel's Knesset. Here is part of what Bush said (CTA):

....Marking the 60th anniversary of Israel's founding, Bush told members of Israel's legislative body at the Knesset that he condemned "the false comfort of appeasement ... that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along."

He then compared such a strategy to speaking with Hitler and the Nazis in the lead up to Germany's takeover of Poland and the start of the Second World War.

While he did not mention Barack Obama by name, Democrats accused Bush of cheap political posturing....

Matthew's guest, Kevin James, said he agreed with President Bush that Obama and the Democrats were "appeasers." Chris Matthews then asked Kevin James what was the historical reference of Bush's "appeasement" remark. Matthews repeatedly asked him if he knew what happened with Neville Chamberlain and Hitler. To make a long explanation short, the right wing radio host had no clue about the history of World War II, Chamberlain, and Hitler. Chris Matthews made Kevin James, the radio talk show host, look like an ignorant putz.

FYI---- Raw Story has more on the Matthews vs. James story along with the video.

(Apparently, to be a right wing radio host you need not be educated---(examples: Kevin James, Limbaugh, etc.).

>>Republican candidate for Ohio's 15th congressional district, Steve Stivers, has been doing some flip-flopping. He voted for the payday lending bill that limits payday lenders to 28% interest. Stivers had been against setting any top interest rate for the check cashing stores. Now there is word that Stivers, who had supported SB305, had now possibly changed his mind. Here is an excerpt from The Other Paper:

...SB 305 would outlaw discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. Four members of the Senate Civil Justice Committee support it, and three are against it.

Two members are on the fence—Republicans Steve Stivers and Bill Seitz, neither of whom was present for Tuesday’s testimony. Stivers was on a plane from Washington, D.C., and Seitz was, for whatever reason, sitting on the Statehouse patio chatting with another senator, Tom Niehaus....

...One conspiracy floated by the SB 305’s supporters earlier this week is that the bill is being secretly killed by Stivers. A Columbus Republican, Stivers is running against Democrat Mary Jo Kilroy for what promises to be a tightly contested congressional race in Ohio’s 15th District. The rumor goes that Stivers doesn’t want to annoy his friends in the gay community or his socially conservative allies in the Republican Party; therefore he’d like to avoid a vote altogether.....

Flippity, floppity, flip!