Jim (Con't): First up, Jonas e-mails to say that The Huffington Post was very fair to Hillary in 2008 and that we should highlight them more.
C.I.: In their political coverage? Jonas needs to wake the hell up. Their political coverage -- not their columns -- was overseen by notorious and public Clinton-hater Marc Cooper. He's one of the radical leftists who turned, bit by bit, ever rightward. The political coverage was slanted in the same way that Cooper slanted when he was at KPFK. And it's no wonder they got rid of him.
Ava: And Arianna was well aware of Cooper's hatred of the Clintons. Cooper's one of the people she befriended after she cashed out on her Republican, gay husband.
Betty: And Jim's pointed to me. I'll be asking questions throughout based on e-mails and observations. First up, Rebecca, what is the purpose of your blog? James wants to know if everyone could do that, describe the purpose.
Rebecca: Well I'm covering any number of topics. The Gulf Disaster quite often. It depends. I've got a toddler to raise and it just depends on what I'm in the mood for.
Marcia: Leave out the toddler and substitute LGBT rights for "Gulf Disaster" and you have my site. One of the things I think about is how I weaken other women with my site. Meaning, there's this image of women as lacking focus and along comes my blog. By contrast, C.I.'s always covering Iraq and Elaine's posts are always related to peace. So for me, it's just something I worry over. Ann, I should add, is covering sexism re: Fresh Air. So she's on that select list. And Trina's covering the economy.
Rebecca: I know what you're talking about Marcia and it bothers me as well sometimes. In the early days of 2005, there were times when I'd say, "Okay, Becky, you're going to be more like C.I. this week!" And I'd try to have a single focus but it just didn't work for me. I do think we need more women online who do have that because of the image issue. But I also think that we have to be who we are. And, me, I'm just not that focused.
Kat: I'd apply that to myself as well.
Ty: But you do Congressional reporting.
Kat: That is true. Not as much as C.I., but I do it from time to time. You can see my blog as that, Congressional reporting with a lot of filler in between.
Jim: Alright, the Gulf Disaster continues. True or false?
Rebecca: Of course true. The problems remain. That's the oil that's in the water and in the habitats. That's the chemicals used to disperse the oil. The true damages and effects are still not known. That press conference at the White House Wednesday should have resulted in calls that Robert Gibbs be fired.
Jim: Robert Gibbs is the White House spokesperson.
Ruth: And he is just such a liar. I thought Ari was bad under Bush. But they keep lying and they expect us to forget that. As much as the White House has lied throughout the Disaster, they really cannot be trusted. How many times can you continue to fall for their lies?
Jess: I agree with Ruth. At this point, they have the credibility problem Bush had after Katrina. And I didn't believe Bush before Katrina and I didn't believe Barack before the Gulf Disaster.
Betty: And Jim's pointing to me. Okay, C.I., Gene e-mails wondering if you're "just an apologist for Hillary or someone who constantly defends her or what?"
C.I.: This is in relation to what?
Betty: Jerry Scahill.
C.I.: Hillary can be criticized the same way as any other cabinet secretary in the administration can. She cannot, however, be called out and snarled about while you refuse to do the same with Barack Obama. I'm dam sick of it. Quit attacking Hillary and refusing to call out her boss. And, in terms of Iraq, Hillary's not over Iraq. Barack's farmed Iraq -- including what would be the State Dept role -- out of Hillary's range. He did that before she was ever appointed Secretary of State. I've criticized Hillary before. I will again. But I will criticize her for what she does. I will not use her as a punching bag when I'm frustrated with Barack Obama. You call out the leader or you admit you're nothing but a coward and useless piece of s**t. That's what Jerry Schahill is.
Ava: It should be remembered that C.I. and I have called Hillary out many times. This is not, "No one must say anything bad about Hillary!" This is very much, quit hiding behind her to protect Obama. Barack's the president, start aiming your criticism at him. And Jeremy Scahill is both ugly and stupid and one more White man America doesn't need to hear from. Go away, Jerry, go far, far away. The revolutionary Communists must have some sort of a relocation program for Jerry.
Jim: One hopes. Mike, Wally, Cedric, Isaiah, Stan, Elaine and Ann, Barack's speech on Monday. Start with Cedric?
Cedric: It was like Bush. The same slogans, the same everything. Bush could have given that speech. There is not even a sliver of difference between Barack and Bush and that speech demonstrated it.
Wally: I agree with what Cedric said. To me, I'm amazed that C.I. is the only one who expressed outrage over the fact that 2 US service members were dead in Baghdad before the speech began and the White House worked overtime to hush those deaths up until Thursday night. They got as much press mileage as they could out of Barack's speech. And again that's a lot like Bush. That's a Bush thing to do. It's very telling.
Ann: What I took out of the speech was (a) Barack's lying and saying he met his campaign promise and (b) that's all he's meeting. He was laying the groundwork for the continued occupation and plans to insist, should he run for re-election in 2012, that he kept his promise and the fact that American troops remain in Iraq doesn't matter because he promised so-called "combat troops" out and they're out.
Jim: That's really interesting. Mike, what do you think?
Mike: I hadn't put it together like that but I agree with Ann's assessment. I think Barack's a proven liar. I hope we see someone like Russ Feingold challenge Barack in 2012 but doubt we will. I also hope Hillary refuses to bail out Barack's wilted star power by becoming his running mate. Joe Biden will really be too old to continue as vice president for another term, so they'll need to replace him but I hope Hillary isn't willing to get on the ticket.
Jim: You think Barack can be elected to a second term?
Mike: Right now? No. But I think he'll run for it. And, like Ann pointed out, he'll offer his whiney ass excuse of "I promised combat troops out and they're out," and he'll hedge like crazy and blame like crazy to explain away all his other broken promises.
Stan: I don't see how he could win. I also think that if the pollsters used more people of color, they'd get an honest reflection of the opinion of Barack in the Black community. My uncle was polled recently -- I think ABC News - Washington Post -- and he went ahead and gave positive marks to Barack on some things just because the pollster was, his words, "some White guy." If it had been a person of color asking him, he would have been more likely to be honest. But having a White man ask him made his defenses go up. But the Black community -- a small portion of the electorate -- is thought to be his strongest ally and probably is. Despite the fact that he's a lousy ally to the Black community. But he's lost Republicans who crossed over and he's lost independents. I think we're looking at one term.
Jim: Which brings me to Elaine. In 2007, you said if he got the nomination and made it to the White House, he would be a one term president and you compared him to Jimmy Carter. Now we can all you see you as the visionary you are!
Elaine: I'm laughing at that. But he gave off the Carter vibe. He gave off the "I'll promise everything! Now vote for me!" And he had the same load of crazies pushing him -- from Jann Wenner to Robert Scheer. Whoever these people support for president is a mistake. Like Carter, Barack had no natural ability to lead. He's crankier than Carter but that's about it. More vain too. I never saw Jimmy Carter as vain, whatever other faults he might have had.
Jim: Isaiah, what's the big difference you notice visually?
Isaiah: On Barack Obama. The hair dye or shoe polish or whatever used from time to time to knock out the gray. The return of the lip gloss for some key events. For TV he wears a lot more make up these days. And he's always on TV.
Jim: And Dona's giving me the wind down signal so I'm going right to Trina.
Trina: Yeah, I wanted to point out something. In November 2008, the Status Of Foces Agreement was rammed through the Iraqi Parliament. Our own Congress wasn't allowed to vote on it. C.I. offered a lengthy analysis that Thanksgiving evening. She was right. Last week, more and more people -- journalists and the Brookings Institute among others -- began to point out that the SOFA would be renewed or another agreement would be reached. Elaine was right about Barack looking like Carter and she deserves credit for that. But C.I. got nothing but s**t over her accurate legal analysis of that agreement. We know it because she included that analysis in many, many snapshots that we would reposts at our sites and then get these e-mails trashing us for what C.I. said. She never backed down and she was right. A lot of people in the last two years have lied to you about what the SOFA said and what it meant. Anyone who didn't tell you what C.I. was telling you was lying. You need to remember that and you need to treat everything they say as immediately suspect.
Jim: And on that note, we'll close.