Bon Jovi an elder statesman????

*Snicker*

He calls her "Mrs. C." And she calls on him to add a little celebrity gloss to her presidential campaign.

The rock singer Jon Bon Jovi and Hillary Rodham Clinton have been friends for more than a decade, uniting for state dinners at the White House and campaign fund-raisers.

If it seems strange that a rocker who sings paeans of working-class New Jersey is so friendly with a senator and former first lady who is using a Celine Dion song as the theme of her presidential campaign, consider a few items on Bon Jovi's social calendar in the last few months.

There were dinners with Clinton and another Democratic presidential candidate, John Edwards. Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, her fiercest rival for the nomination, asked Bon Jovi to hear him speak in New York. And the former Vice President Al Gore caught up with him in London for a photo op.

Bon Jovi, 45, whose tousled golden mane and porcelain-white smile have twice helped him earn People magazine's award for sexiest rock star, can lay claim to an unofficial new title these days: the New Jersey's elder statesman.

In New Jersey, it is practically a requirement for any high-ranking politician to attend at least one of his shows. And despite his left-leaning political allegiances, Democrats and Republicans alike seek him out as if he were New Jersey's very own Bono.

He sings paeans of working-class New Jersey so that he can have Bruce Springsteens millions. Just because you sing about the working poor doesn't make you one of them.

And then there's this:

And as someone who sings about his "plastic dashboard Jesus" and performs at concerts to fight global warming, his appeal is broad.

[...]

The two were on a flight to Maryland for a day of horse racing at the Pimlico race course with some friends when someone asked them to compare occupations. "He said, 'Mr. President, which is better, your job or Jon's?' I said, 'I know the answer to that. Mine, because I get to keep the airplane and the house.' "

Hmmm...fighting global warming while bragging about owning airplanes -- there seems to be a disconnect there.

(via)

Hypocrite Romney accuses McCain of not supporting Bushes taxes cuts

Ugh! Here is what happens when you don't appear to have core values and change given the circumstances. From 2003:

Governor Mitt Romney refused yesterday to endorse tax cuts at the heart of President Bush's economic program, but he told members of the state's congressional delegation during a private meeting he also would not oppose the cuts because he has to maintain "a solid relationship" with the White House.

Here is what he had to say about his hypocrisy:

Turning back to 2003, Romney told the man: "You see, I wasn't a U.S. senator. I didn't have to vote on this, didn't get a choice to. I was running my state, so I didn't have a comment on their position. And I said, `I'm not weighing in on federal issues.' But Senator McCain was a senator. He had to vote. He had to decide, `Am I in favor of pursuing these tax cuts or not?' and he voted against the tax cuts — twice. That's a very different position."

If he actually believed in supply-side economics, he would have defended Bush's tax cuts in 2003 and his reply to the question makes it obvious that he doesn't get it now.

I wonder if National Review realized this before they endorsed him. Why would a conservative magazine endorse a candidate who doesn't believe in supply-side economics?

Huckabee on abortion: "It should be left to the states"

Yes, that's an actual quote from Mike Huckabee in the not to distant past. Can you believe that at one time (not so long ago) Huckabee actually espoused the position of both Romney and Thompson on abortion?

John Hawkins: Switching gears again, do you think we should overturn Roe v. Wade?

Mike Huckabee: It would please me because I think Roe v. Wade is based on a real stretch of Constitutional application -- that somehow there is a greater privacy issue in the abortion concern -- than there is a human life issue -- and that the federal government should be making that decision as opposed to states making that decision.

So, I've never felt that it was a legitimate manner in which to address this and, first of all, it should be left to the states, the 10th Amendment, but secondly, to somehow believe that the taking of an innocent, unborn human life is about privacy and not about that unborn life is ludicrous.

(via)

So, I guess that Huckabee isn't the purest of the pro-life candidates and he's also joined the flip-floppers club.

Man, you've got love this race! It's filled with so many gotcha moments!

Al Gore awarded the Peace Prize...

Even though he doesn't practice what he preaches and a British court found that his film contained 9 clear errors. Evidently, being a hypocrite doesn't impact the vote (awarding Arafat proved that):

Climate change campaigner Al Gore and the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have been jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

The committee cited "their efforts to build up and disseminate knowledge about man-made climate change".

[...]

The Norwegian Nobel Committee said it wanted to bring into sharper focus the "increased danger of violent conflicts and wars, within and between states" posed by climate change.

This seems somehow ironic to me. Here they're giving him a Peace Prize for potential wars when we are in the middle of actual wars. Shouldn't we be focused on those who are attempting to broker peace today instead of hypothetical wars in the future?

Oral Roberts University sued by former professors

Talking to God seems to run in the family:

Twenty years ago, televangelist Oral Roberts said he was reading a spy novel when God appeared to him and told him to raise $8 million for Roberts' university, or else he would be "called home."

Now, his son, Oral Roberts University President Richard Roberts, says God is speaking again, telling him to deny lurid allegations in a lawsuit that threatens to engulf this 44-year-old Bible Belt college in scandal.

[...]

At a chapel service this week on the 5,300-student campus known for its 60-foot-tall bronze sculpture of praying hands, Roberts said God told him: "We live in a litigious society. Anyone can get mad and file a lawsuit against another person whether they have a legitimate case or not. This lawsuit ... is about intimidation, blackmail and extortion."

I wonder if God also mentioned 1 Corinthians 6 to Roberts, it seems like it would have been more appropriate:

1 Corinthians 6:1 When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints? 2 Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? 3 Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life! 4 So if you have such cases, why do you lay them before those who have no standing in the church? 5 I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to settle a dispute between the brothers, 6 but brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers? 7 To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? 8 But you yourselves wrong and defraud—even your own brothers!

Three former professors allege that Roberts used students from the university to help a local politician get elected:

Richard Roberts, according to the suit, asked a professor in 2005 to use his students and university resources to aid a county commissioner's bid for Tulsa mayor. Such involvement would violate state and federal law because of the university's nonprofit status. Up to 50 students are alleged to have worked on the campaign.

And they made other charges of malfeasance:

A longtime maintenance employee was fired so that an underage male friend of Mrs. Roberts could have his position.

Mrs. Roberts — who is a member of the board of regents and is referred to as ORU's "first lady" on the university's Web site — frequently had cell-phone bills of more than $800 per month, with hundreds of text messages sent between 1 a.m. to 3 a.m. to "underage males who had been provided phones at university expense."

The university jet was used to take one daughter and several friends on a senior trip to Orlando, Fla., and the Bahamas. The $29,411 trip was billed to the ministry as an "evangelistic function of the president."

Mrs. Roberts spent more than $39,000 at one Chico's clothing store alone in less than a year, and had other accounts in Texas and California. She also repeatedly said, "As long as I wear it once on TV, we can charge it off." The document cites inconsistencies in clothing purchases and actual usage on TV.

Mrs. Roberts was given a white Lexus SUV and a red Mercedes convertible by ministry donors.

University and ministry employees are regularly summoned to the Roberts' home to do the daughters' homework.

The university and ministry maintain a stable of horses for exclusive use by the Roberts' children.

The Roberts' home has been remodeled 11 times in the past 14 years.

If this is true it shows a sense of entitlement that's plagued the American church since the rise of the televangelists. They raise huge sums of money that aren't really needed for their ministry and then use it to support a lavish lifestyle. Though this appears to be more like they used the resources of the university for their own private benefit.

What these leaders fail to realize is that the call of leadership means being a servant of the ministry not it's potentate. The resources that they have been given are meant to be used for God's glory but as we can see they are allegedly being used for personal benefit and God is not glorified by their behavior. It's just one more example to the world of Christians acting as hypocrites. Knowing what the Bible says:

Matthew 6:24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.

And yet ignoring it to pamper themselves with the wealth that is at their disposal.

Is this a ministry that the Lord would bless? I wonder if Roberts would view this as prophetic:

"All over that campus, there are signs up that say, `And God said, build me a university, build it on my authority, and build it on the Holy Spirit,'" Brooker said. "Unfortunately, ownership has shifted.

Too sexy to fly?

A young woman was asked to leave a plane because her outfit was deemed too sexy. See for yourself here.

Apparently the outfit Kyla Ebbert wore on the “Today” show Friday was acceptable for a national television audience of millions, but not quite up to the rigid standards set down by Southwest Airlines.

Ebbert, accompanied by her mom and her attorney, appeared with Matt Lauer to discuss a recent incident in which she was at first asked to leave a flight before it departed from San Diego to Tucson because the flight attendants felt her attire was too revealing. When she convinced them that she would adjust her outfit to meet their requirements, she was allowed to remain onboard.

And here’s the kicker: On the return flight, she not only wore the same outfit and encountered no trouble whatsoever from the Tucson-to-San Diego crew, but she told Lauer that one flight attendant actually complimented her.

I've seen much worse. At least the pilot didn't threaten to kick her off for being too distracting to fly the plane.

Update: Here is a blast from the past of Southwest Airlines. I think I'll add a hypocrite label to this post (via).

Update: There's a report of another incident. I blog about it here.

Al Gore: carbon neutrality for thee but not for me

Do you think that might be his answer for this?

As former Vice President Al Gore waits to hear if he has won this year's Nobel Peace Prize for his tireless effort on climate change, a new video will air this weekend capturing Gore on a fuel-guzzling private jet!

Edwards: Americans give up your SUV

I think politicians should give up their private jets first:

Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards told a labor group he would ask Americans to make a big sacrifice: their sport utility vehicles.

Though, I do agree with him on this:

Edwards got a standing ovation when he said weapons and equipment used by America's military needs to be made in the United States.

Unless the equipment is not able to be made in America.

(via)

The Seattle Times wonders what has happened to McDermott's fiery rhetoric against the war

He's just changed his public posturing, not his agenda. In public he's for supporting the troops, in private he's trying to undermine their mission.

On May 10, a silver-haired member of Congress looked into the C-SPAN TV camera and said, "We have to stand up for the troops."

In a speech a few days later, that same congressman proclaimed, "Nothing less than protecting our troops is acceptable." The next morning, he repeated, "The best way to support our soldiers is to protect our soldiers."

If you weren't looking closely, you would think the speaker was military-friendly Norm Dicks of Bremerton or even Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona.

But it was Seattle's longtime liberal Democrat, Jim McDermott.

"Baghdad Jim." Remember him?

The most colorful man in Congress now speaks in red, white and blue. The politician who visited Saddam Hussein's city in 2002 and denounced the White House's war plans praises America's fighting forces almost daily while also calling for an end to the war.

It's hard to tell whether McDermott has mellowed or that he no longer sticks out from the crowd simply because so many of his colleagues now agree the war was a bad idea. On Thursday, the House voted to withdraw troops from Iraq by April 1.

[...]

McDermott says he no longer looks for opportunities to toss little bombs at the Bush administration.

His party controls Congress now, he said, and "there's different rules for that."

"When you're on defense you play hard. I knocked everyone down I could. But when you're on offense, you want to win.

"I've been on both sides, and you have to know your role."

Well, at least he's being honest about the political posturing. Act patriotic in public when in reality you are giving aid and comfort to the enemy. He's masking his true intentions, there's a name for that. Frankly, I think that he should just be honest and tell us that he doesn't support the troops or their mission, he just wants to bring them home.

BTW, for the liberals who may be tempted to comment that you guys support the troops more because you want to bring them home so that they won't be killed might want to keep in mind that the troops' lives will be put in greater danger if they are driven from the field by scared politicians who fear the voters more than the enemy. America will look weak in the Arab world and that's not something that is helpful in an honor based society and it will only cause greater boldness from our enemies as they realize that we won't stand and fight. I believe that our troops will be put in greater danger if we abandon the field to the enemy.

But we do have to give McDermott props for being smarter than Pelosi:

The Syrians wanted McDermott to take tea with them in Damascus, but Haddadim said no. "I advised him not to go there, because the Syrians would use it for propaganda," Haddadim said. McDermott agreed.

(via)

Tags: McDermott

Don't you think if a Nobel Prize winner threatens a world leader with violence...

Her award should be revoked? It doesn't sound like she's a very peaceful person.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Betty Williams apologized Thursday for saying she could kill President Bush, remarks that drew scorn from Bush loyalists and shook up the International Women's Peace Conference in Dallas.

"My feelings now and again get way ahead of me," Ms. Williams said. "I couldn't kill anybody, but I must confess that I'm extremely angry with the Bush administration and what they have done. To say that was wrong."

Conference organizers immediately sought to distance themselves from her speech Wednesday night, but it brought a swift rejoinder from the White House, dominated some radio talk shows and drew a flurry of hateful e-mails to attendees.

Questioned about her speech Thursday morning, Ms. Williams initially denied making the comment but reversed course after organizers confirmed the quote.

In a speech before 1,000 people Wednesday, Ms. Williams said that violence is a choice and the push for peace takes hard work and commitment. < "Right now, I could kill George Bush," she said. "No, I don't mean that. How could you nonviolently kill somebody? I would love to be able to do that." As she made her point, she chuckled and some members of the audience laughed.

(via)

Wow! Only Bush loyalists are scornful? I would think that the sheer hypocrisy of it was so abundantly obvious that event those on the left would ridicule it.

And then there's this:

"It was an incredible act of bravery to make that statement in Texas," said Lucinda Marshall of Louisville, Ky., who added that the anti-Bush rhetoric appealed to her. "When you have a president that's consistently breaking the law, you do not have a democracy. You have a dictatorship."

If this were a true dictatorship, it would be an act of bravery to stand up to the president and make a statement against him. Let her go to Iran and make a similar comment and she would be arrested. Here she is just another dilettante playing at bravery when the consequences are only ridicule by the right and others who understand the hypocrisy of her words.

BTW, I thought that Bush was hated around the world:

Unda Sigera of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, said people in her country are generally supportive of Mr. Bush – if they talk about him at all – because he increased the amount of U.S. aid to Africa. "I do not know much about America," she said. "Back home, they don't say anything about Bush because this is beyond their say."

RFK Jr. owns a bottled water company

How environmental is that? Maybe we should boycott him.

Reid's sounding a little whiny

It's amazing to me that Reid has the gall to complain about Republican obstructionism when Democrats have yet to vote on Bush's judicial appointees.

While some Republicans are "saying the right things on Iraq," they need to back up their words with votes, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Saturday.

"Voting against a bill on a matter of principle is one thing," the Nevada senator said during the weekly Democratic radio address. "To go forward, we will need far more Republicans to put partisan politics aside and work with us for the American people."

While seeking their votes on defense legislation next week, Reid accused GOP lawmakers of blocking ethics reform and enactment of the 9/11 Commission recommendations.

"Republican obstruction has gotten so bad that now they're blocking bills that they actually support," Reid said.

Trent Lott supported the Fairness Doctrine in the past

There has been speculation that Lott intends to do something about talk radio by reviving the Fairness Doctrine and since he was a supporter of it in the past, this fear is not groundless.

"But Rep. Trent Lott, R-Miss., said the burden on broadcast journalists is minimal.
'We have unfairness now even with the Fairness Doctrine,' he said. 'Heaven knows what would happen without a Fairness Doctrine.' "

Associated Press, June 3, 1987
Communications Daily
October 26, 1987

Since Reagan's veto of the earlier fairness bill, Hollings and House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell (D-Mich.) have vowed to see the doctrine become law by other means. And in case fairness is lifted from reconciliation in the Senate, the lawmakers are said to have a backup. Dingell, reportedly with the blessings of House Speaker Jim Wright (D-Tex.) and minority leaders, Robert Michel (R-Ill.) and Trent Lott (R-Miss.), plans to fasten a fairness amendment to a catch-all spending bill (the continuing budget resolution). The current resolution, which keeps the government operating, expires on Nov. 10, and Reagan would be unlikely to veto such a measure.

Meanwhile, Trent Lott's office is downplaying the controversy over his remarks:

Lott's office is downplaying the uproar over immigration, saying the minority whip wanted to get the Senate to act, not to get talk radio out of the picture. "Sen. Lott is one of the biggest talk radio participants," said Lott spokesman Lee Youngblood. "He's not going to do anything to pull the plug on talk radio."

"He's frustrated over the fact that the Senate is stepping away from trying to do something. He wants to see the Senate produce legislation.

Kind of hypocritical, participating and benefiting from talk radio when it would have been shut down if he had his way. Why do Republicans continue to support politicians who want to shut us up?

Tags: Trent Lott

Clinton said she wanted to take those profits...

And invest them in energy research but it turns out she pocketed them instead.

Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton liquidated the contents of their blind trust upon learning it contained investments of $5 million to $25 million that could pose conflicts of interest or prove to be embarrassing to her presidential campaign.

The blind trust and a bank account valued in the same range place the Clinton's total wealth at between $10 million and $50 million.

The Clintons had to disclose the contents of the blind trust in April under instructions from the Office of Government Ethics and sold the assets in May, according to a disclosure form filed Friday. The Clintons have had a blind trust continuously since 1993 and had no control over its transactions.

Over time, the Clintons' blind trust grew significantly and included stock holdings in oil and drug companies, military contractors and Wal-Mart.

[...]

The blind trust held stock in pharmaceutical companies, including $250,000-$500,000 in Biogen Idec and Johnson & Johnson and $100,000- $250,000 in Amgen, Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline. It also invested in General Electric and Raytheon, two leading defense contractors. The trust had a varied portfolio, with investments in numerous other companies, including Exxon Mobil, BP Amoco, Walt Disney and eBay.

(via)

Can you say hypocrite? I thought you could.

Tags: oil profits