The proof: In the people’s reactions and anyone viewing this video.

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But we have a group of scoundrels creating havoc. If we accept it is happening abroad, why can’t we accept it is happening here.

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False flags, betrayal, vaccines – anything to insure mayhem, fear and lack of fraternity…

How Bad Could Obama Screw Up and Still Beat Sarah Palin?

Bullsh*t Quote of the Month

“We did not have a terrorist attack on our country during President Bush’s term.” —Dana Perino

Let’s see….  Well there was that thing on 9/11 — what was that again?  Oh yeah, only the largest terrorist attack on US soil ever.  Then there were the anthrax attacks.  Perino insists the Ft. Hood shooting — one event by one deeply disturbed man — is an act of terrorism.  OK, by that standard, we must include in Bush’s list of terrorist attacks on US soil the DC sniper (and the guy’s name was Muhammad!), the grenade blasts outside the UK Embassy in NYC (which Fox’s Michelle Malkin declared was “clearly meant to terrorize or worse”), and the Ohio sniper.  Let’s not forget the Glen Beck fan who attacked a Knoxville church for being liberal .  How about the Virginia Tech killings? There were also attacks on abortion clinics that I’d certainly categorize as terrorism: May 2000,  arsonists hit a clinic in Concord, NH;  September 2000, a Catholic priest drove his car into the Northern Illinois Health Clinic then pulled out an ax before being shot at by a security guard; June 11, 2001, a bombing at a clinic in Tacoma, Washington; November 2001, Clayton Waagner mailed hoax letters containing a white powder to 554 clinics; July 4, 2005, a clinic Palm Beach, Florida was the target of an arson; December 12, 2005, Patricia Hughes and Jeremy Dunahoe threw a Molotov cocktail at a clinic in Shreveport, Louisiana; September 13, 2006, David McMenemy of Rochester Hills, Michigan, crashed his car into the Edgerton Women’s Care Center in Davenport, Iowa, then doused the lobby in gasoline and started a fire; April 25, 2007, a package left at a women’s health clinic in Austin, Texas, contained an explosive device capable of inflicting serious injury or death; May 9, 2007,  a Planned Parenthood clinic in Virginia Beach, Virginia, was set afire; December 6, 2007, Dr. Curtis Boyd’s clinic in Albuquerque, NM was destroyed by arson — later that same month, two Planned Parenthood buildings were attacked, with arson destroying a surgery center used for abortion.  In fact, in just the last year of Bush’s term alone, 20% of abortion clinics were attacked, up from 18.4% in 2005 (also a Bush year).  Any others I’ve missed?

Fiscal responsibility! Speaker Nancy Pelosi is keeping the door open to a war tax, to pay for the war in Afghanistan and the potential troop surge

What’s in your wallet? Lehman Bros., Bear Stearns CEOs Walked Away With Millions.

Charges Dropped Against Joe Szakos, Anthem Blue Cross Customer Arrested for Questioning Rate Increases No word on when the real criminal in that story — the BC?BS execs — will be arrested

The high cost of being fat Skip that second piece of pie tomorrow.

Hypocrisy watch Eric Cantor Hosts Another Job Fair That Promotes Jobs Fueled By The Stimulus

Neocon media at play

After playing part of old “Five Deferments” Dick Cheney’s radio interview with right wing radio host Scott Hennen, Andrea Mitchall asks if President Obama is “acting more like Hamlet than the Commander in Chief”. This from the supposed “liberal” network, MSNBC.

Hypocrisy watch Victims: Bishop Who Told Kennedy He Couldn’t Take Communion Should Stop Protecting Pedophiles

The Senate wasn’t design to function this way, it didn’t use to function this way, and the sooner majority-rule is brought back, the sooner the institution can help govern again.

Theater of the Absurd Limbaugh On Obama’s West Point Visit: ‘Will They Detain Him? Hopefully.’  Ya see, Rush, they understand that there is nothing less American than a military coup.  You might want to note how the military personnel supported Obama over McCain in the election, too.

If John McCain wants to talk about “viciousness” and “personalization” in political attacks, we can oblige. Here, too.

Cops gone wild No, dear officer, insulting you is not against the law

Neocon media at play They gave us waaaaay more Palin than we wanted last week.

Independents and Democrats still support the president. Republicans, trapping in their death spiral, are fading fast.

On our national survey in June Obama had an 82% approval rating with Democrats. Now it’s 83%. He had a 46% approval rating with independents. Now it’s 47%. No real change on either of those fronts. But with Republicans he’s dropped from an 18% mark to just 10%. That shift is what put his approval rating below 50% — he’s gone from a small amount of crossover support to a very small amount of crossover supports.

Faux deficit hysteria

White House State Dinner Accommodates Hindu Vegetarianism

There’s the Christmas spirit! Town Decides To Remove Creche Rather Than Permit Atheist and Other Messages.  Cuz if there’s one thing that Jesus kept telling everybody it was the STFU!  What? No?  Never mind.

To rebut a few of the most absurd fallacies that seem to have gained traction--primarily but not exclusively in conservative circles–about the nature of American constitutionalism.

Rand Paul may be Ron Paul’s son, but he is definitely no Ron Paul. A recent press release reveals the truth about this neocon:

Leading United States Senate candidate Rand Paul today criticized the Obama administration’s decision to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center and try terrorism suspects in United States Civil Courts.

[...]

Dr. Paul believes in strong national defense and thinks military spending should be our country’s top budget priority. He has also called for a Constitutional declaration of war with Afghanistan.

I met Rand at a Ron Paul campaign event in Dallas a while back. Something about him raised red flags but I wasn’t sure what it was. It appears my instincts were correct.

The seventh annual NeoCon East brought in 7,331 attendees and 271 exhibitors to the Baltimore Convention Center, Oct. 28-29.
Show officials are reporting a strong exhibitor re-sign rate for 2010.
The show offered 53 CEU-accredited programs, in 14 educational tracks.
NeoCon East 2010 will return Sept. 29-30, 2010, at the Baltimore Convention Center. For more information, call 800.677.6278.

George Washington University School of Public Health which explains why the Stupak Amendment will eventually eliminate abortion coverage for ALL women

Right-Wing American Family Association Misfires In The War On Christmas

AFA’s first shot in the war is a misfire, as Dan Neil of the LA Times points out today. In one of the first lines of Gap’s new holiday ad, the actors yell, “Go Christmas!” (as well as “Go Hanukkah! Go Kwanzaa! Go Solstice!”) … ThinkProgress also checked out the websites of Gap, Banana Republic, and Old Navy and quickly found several items that feature Christmas items including several Christmas books, a pair of boxer shorts that says “Christmas” in several languages and pajama pants that also have “Christmas” written on them…. “The big loser here is the AFA,” writes Neil. “The annual War-on-Christmas drumbeat is absolutely not about defending the sacredness of Christmas. It is instead — transparently — marketing, a ratings gambit for Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity, and for the AFA, the centerpiece of its annual fundraising. This year, thanks to Gap, the AFA fumbled its boycott ball and in the process managed to look both intolerant and out of touch.”

Palin: Are we warming or cooling? OMG

The Right always gets around to violence Crazed Michele Bachmann fan threatens a Ft. Hood-type bloodbath against a Michigan paper

Woman Awarded $3M In Rape Claim Against KBR

Lying liars telling lies House Minority Leader John Boehner’s office:  ”Sen. Reid’s Government-Run Health Plan Requires a Monthly Abortion Fee”

Rewrite history to your own liking Foxx: Republicans ‘Passed Civil Rights Bills Back In The 60s Without Very Much Help’ From Democrats

The mercy of our corporate masters Six-Year-Old Girl ‘On Verge Of Never Hearing Again’ Due To Insurance Company Denial

Even Fox viewers know that it was right for Obama to bow

Neocon media at play

This kind of palaver has become tiresome and pointless, and it’s tempting to just ignore it. But the Washington Post’s Ruth Marcus did something unusual yesterday: she pushed back hard against one of her own colleagues

NY Court Narrowly Upholds Recognition of Gay Marriages

Heckofajob Brownie (and Dubya)! Feds May Receive Billions In Claims Over Katrina Negligence

Colbert Reviews Palin’s Book: A ‘Steaming Pile Of Sh*t’

THAT explains a lot! Palin Answers The Newspaper Question — She Reads Newsmax (for those of you spared the pain, Newsmx is NOT a newspaper, it’s a fringe rightwing web site).

Sarah:  Plain and Lying So many falsehoods and half-truths in Going Rogue and so little time — so TPM hit the highlights.

Old white conservative jihadists! Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT): Republicans are about to launch a “holy war” to derail health care reform.  And just when did sticking up for insurance companies’ ability to deny care and ruin the economy with outrageous costs become a cause ordained by God?

Thank God she lost! Palin: Crackdown On “Iraq” To Prevent Nuclear Iran

“We may have to sacrifice just two more jobs to get millions back for Americans.” Those now held by Summers and Geithner

$1 million per soldier per year in Afghanistan “They’re selling us endless war the way they sell cellphones and Viagra.”

What makes him think he’ll be remembered at all?  Glenn Beck ‘perfectly fine’ being remembered as ‘a complete nutjob’

Considering that this comes amid a rant in which he falsely claims that John Holdren wants “forced abortions” and that Obama was secretly teaching Alinsky to his students, and then rants:  ”They need to fear you — and oh, they will soon.”

The Ku Klux Klan is planning to demonstrate at the Ole Miss-LSU football game this Saturday in full robes to protest Ole Miss’s decision to stop playing “From Dixie With Love” at their football games.  I’m thinking this can’t go well.

Cops gone wild Police In Riot Gear Meet UCLA Protesters After UC Approves Fee Hike

Bigots on parade Senator “prostitutes and diapers” Vitter doesn’t know whether the landmark case knocking down legal barriers to interracial marriage was the “right decision.”  He says he hasn’t read it (like you actually need to read it?).  In any case:

Vitter graduated Tulane Law School in 1988.  Loving v. Virginia, decided in 1967, was a unanimous Supreme Court decision that declared state anti-miscegenation (interracial marriage) laws unconstitutional.  It is one of the bedrock civil rights cases, right up there with Brown.  It is simply not credible for any lawyer to claim ignorance when asked about Loving.

Note of disappointment:  The normally progressive Crooks and Liars site linked to the story by referring to interracial love as “jungle fever.”   Interracial love and marriage are not “jungle fever.”  In fact, that’s the term that racists cooked up as a way of denigrating interracial love.  It’s a way of saying that interracial love is not “real” love, like people of the same color have, just a sweaty sexual attraction.  I find it particularly ugly. Update: My note to the writer and C&L got a swift reply. It seems I’m not grownup because I take offense and because, in his mind, linking to a story that also used that term absolved him of his culpability in repeating it.  Sorta like white people using the N word and excusing it with “hey, they call each other that,” referring to blacks.  I apologized for not being grownup, but I also pointed out that maybe a guy who has been in an interracial family since 1979 (as I have) might have a perspective on this topic that warrants more than knee-jerk defensive “consideration.” Later update: A gracious apology came from the writer.

New Right-Wing Craze Prays That Obama’s ‘Days Be Few’ Well, they bastardize their own party and the US Constitution, so why not bastardize the Bible, too?

Neocon media at play NBC and ABC cite conservative criticism of criminal terror trials but ignore conservative endorsements.  Which means the networks don’t know how to identify “news.”  News is, as the world’s greatest journalism professor told me, “what is not happening.”  For example: You don’t report an airplanes landing safely, because that happens all the time; but you do report on airplanes crashing, because that’s unusual.  So the “news” would be that conservatives agree with the president (it’s an unusual event), not that they disagree with him (their standard position).

Debunking the stimulus myths

Your Life, Your Data. Or Is It?

If you go to Missouri, make sure you’re white But remember — our wingnut friends tell us there’s no more racism in America

This is America?

Sheriff Arpaio Asks Deputy To Defy Judge’s Orders And Risk Going To Jail

Facts On National Debt Don’t Match The ‘Expensive Expansions Of Government’ Narrative

Palin in a nutshell:

“Yesterday I was thinking about how everything she says sounds like it’s just plucked from the tea party talking points of the day, but … they aren’t just talking points, they’re sort of bizarrely, syntactically mashed up talking points. I wonder what really goes on inside her head? Lots of politicians have mastered the art of speaking in talking points and never going off message, but mostly they at least try to sound like they know what they’re talking about. Palin doesn’t. She just spouts the sixth grade version of the talking points with an apparently total unawareness that she sounds like a child.”

Bigots on parade Virginia Governor-elect Bob McDonnell refuses to disavow Pat Robertson’s anti-Islam comments.

Hypocrisy watch Fred Thompson Declares The War In Afghanistan ‘Has Been Lost’

In April 2007, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said that the war in Iraq was “lost” and that the surge was “not accomplishing anything.” Conservatives and war hawks ripped into Reid for the comment, calling it “reckless,” “disturbing” and “playing to the worst elements of the antiwar left.”

Fred Thompson?  Who knew he was still alive?  Or is he….?

Never let a really stupid idea die Senate health bill restores funding for abstinence-only education

Making Ebenezer Scrooge look sweet Feds charge firms with stealing millions from fund to help deaf people make phone calls

Our corporate masters and their politico pawns Republicans Block Dodd’s Effort to Immediately Stop Credit Card Rate Hikes

It’s no wonder they seem so detached from reality — they are! A majority of Republicans think ACORN stole the election for Barack Obama.  Even the wingnut loser in NY’s 23rd is saying his victory was stolen by ACORN.  They’re not all crazy: Republican Election Official And GOP County Chairman Dismiss Hoffman’s Accusations Not everyone is convinced:

Barack Obama received nearly 70 million votes on Election Day, and picked up 365 electoral votes. One in four Americans — and a majority of self-identified Republicans — believes this was made possible due to the secret, carefully-executed, coordinated national efforts of a community group that can’t recognize fake pimps?

I’m willing to believe there are a lot of very confused conservatives out there. I’m even willing to concede that much of the Republican Party necessarily questions the legitimacy of any election in which the GOP candidate loses. But this poll has to be wrong, doesn’t it?

Gee, you’d think that would be big news The stimulus bill has helped millions of Americans avoid falling into poverty.

Fight for the right to beat up gays! ‘Tenther’ Oklahoma Lawmaker Considering Bill To Opt Out Of Hate Crimes Act

Saying the obvious out loud Stewart To Dobbs: Your Views Are ‘Abhorrent And Wrong’

This is among the stupidest things I’ve ever heard any politician say on any subject. Warning: Palin ahead

I hardly know where to start; none of this makes any sense. Palin thinks Reagan wasn’t being literal about the “evil empire.” That’s wrong. The Soviet Union was the existential threat of the 20th century, and Reagan wasn’t trying to “ration down” the rhetoric (whatever that means); he was being entirely literal.

Palin thinks use of the words “evil empire” made it possible to win the Cold War. That’s insane. The Soviets collapsed because they ran a corrupt system based on a misguided ideology, not because of an American catchphrase.

She thinks this relates to her “death panel” nonsense because Reagan wasn’t being literal (except he was), which is similar because she’s also not being literal (except she is). Palin went on to explain that she really does think death panels are real (except they’re not).

And to top it off, she thinks “death panels” were removed from the bill (except they weren’t) because she was right (except that she wasn’t).

I can think of plenty of politicians who are genuinely, unambiguously dumb. I’ve even met a few, and marveled at how they were able to attain any kind of political responsibilities, given their limited intellectual prowess. But I don’t think I’ve ever seen a politician as conspicuously unintelligent as Sarah Palin gain national prominence

And we haven’t even tried to unravel her misuse of English….

Grand Obstructionist Party

If even one Democrat can’t show up for a vote for any reason, the legislative process stops — because majority-rule no longer exists in the chamber (and because GOP moderates have almost entirely disappeared).

The two Rightwing camps on the 9/11 trials

What both camps share, besides a kind of unhinged logic and complete disregard for the legal process, is an obsessive fascination with the accused. The result is a broad willingness to sacrifice our commitment to legal principles in favor of the symbolic satisfaction of crushing the hopes and dreams of a motley group of criminals

Well, why start a family feud? Even after the economic crisis, exactly zero Senate Republicans are expected to support re-regulation of the financial industry.

BillO owes Habitat for Humanity $10,000

Chicken Little’s Tasteless Theater of the Absurd

Texas gay marriage ban may have outlawed all marriages in Texas.

Convicted felon and disgrace to his uniform Ollie North — ho illegally sold arms to our enemies — launches new war against ‘Cap And Tax,’ ‘Bird Eating Machines,’ and the ‘Myth Of Global Warming’

Cops gone wild DC Detective Says Chief Ordered Mass Arrests In ‘02

How do people this classless get elected?

Palin proudly pronounces herself an ignorant bigot who would divert law enforcement resources from where they can do some good and waste them.  On Muslim profiling she says “I’m all for it”

We have idiots on our side, too Jesse Jackson: ‘You Can’t Vote Against Health Care And Call Yourself A Black Man’

More evidence of why Sarah Palin is crack for the GOP: gives a real jolt, is fun and addictive, and is really, really bad for your health.

Neocon media at play Fox caught (again) splicing in unrelated film clips to tell a lie — this time it’s 2008 campaign footage to make Sarah Palin book tour crowd look enormous.

One difference between Right and Left: the Left is not afraid of other people’s words:

“I’m not scared of what Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has to say at trial,” Holder said. “And no one else needs to be afraid either.”

“I have every confidence that the nation and the world will see him for the coward that he is,” Holder said.

“We need not cower in the face of this enemy. Our institutions are strong, our infrastructure is sturdy, our resolve is firm and our people are ready,” Holder said. “It is past time to finally act by bringing prosecutions.”

Quote of the Day Josh on Palin:

What a pity that so many pixels have to die a meaningless death just to spin out narratives about how this ignoramus can cease to be who she is.

One of those rare instances when a Republican recognizes that he’s gone too far over the line into the land of tastelessness.  This one, however, will never make that recognition.

Soros Group Targets Bachmann

via Soros Group Targets Bachmann.

One In Seven Americans Is Short Of Food

The Right always gets around to violence Now Miller, Beck and BillO are threatening it

Barack Obama — is he the devil? BillO to Dobbs.  C’mon guys, we all know he’s the anti-Christ from Kenya!

Angry Dem Alert! Rep. Obey (D-Wisconsin) is really ticked about reports of bad inaccuracies on the web site created by the Obama administration to track the $787 billion stimulus.

Well….. yes.

This is literally true: the Right’s reaction to yesterday’s announcement — we’re too afraid to allow trials and due process in our country — is the textbook definition of “surrendering to terrorists.” It’s the same fear they’ve been spewing for years. As always, the Right’s tough-guy leaders wallow in a combination of pitiful fear and cynical manipulation of the fear of their followers. Indeed, it’s hard to find any group of people on the globe who exude this sort of weakness and fear more than the American Right.

Conservatives:  Too fat to run, too cowardly to fight.

Lower than a convicted felon! Sarah Palin’s unfavorables far lower than Bernie Madoff’s

Neocon media defines “stoopid” Wolf Blitzer tries, and fails, to discuss the economy and federal budget

This is what comes of never challenging conservative economic orthodoxy. Total economic gibberish. The government needs to spend money because nobody is lending but it also has to stop spending because it is in debt. And there ’s something about India buying gold and the value of the dollar and some stuff about China and raising taxes. Meanwhile, unemployment is through the roof and health care is either going to raise the deficit or lower it.

Do you feel informed by that exchange? No wonder people say “the deficit” is the cause of all our economic woes. It might as well be for all anyone knows from watching that.

Cops gone wild

The officer made a mistake because modern torture techniques require that you not leave any marks or break anything. That would be excessive force. Shooting people full of electricity only causes horrible pain and temporary loss of motor funtion and that’s fine.

It’s like watching arsonists call the fire department reckless It is insane that the people who voted for the deficit-financed, $700 billion Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit are allowed to scream about fiscal rectitude this year

Proving he’s an idiot Huckabee On 9/11 Trials: Obama Admin ‘Is Finished’

U.S. Chamber: Lobbying Against the American People Since 1935

The U.S. Chamber opposed the creation of Social Security in 1935, then sought to delay it from going into effect as Americans were in the midst of the Great Depression.

The U.S. Chamber opposed now-essential health and safety regulations for American workplaces.

The U.S. Chamber opposed equal pay laws for American women.

The U.S. Chamber opposed the establishment of a fair, minimum wage for American workers.

The U.S. Chamber defended outsourcing jobs to foreign lands, on the backs of American workers and our nation’s economy

The U.S. Chamber opposed President Harry Truman’s attempt to provide health insurance to all Americans in 1947.

Such fine Americans (cough, cough) IRS Settles With 147,000 Taxpayers Over Secret Foreign Accounts

Why conservatives should start worrying if Republicans don’t learn to love taxes

Neocon media makes us stoopid

Joe Scarborough argued this morning that it’s “unprecedented” for the U.S. to try foreign terror suspects in our federal judicial system. That might be true, if it weren’t for all the other foreign terror suspects that have been tried, convinced, and imprisoned through our federal judicial system.

The ugly thing is all those Americans who don’t know better and actually believe him.

Worst person in the world (an especially good clip)

If it ain’t mainstream religion, you ain’t gonna learn about it in Indianapolis schools

Theater of the Absurd Washington Times op-ed: Obama lacks ‘blood impulse’ for what America ‘is about’ due to his ‘Kenyan father.’

What do wingnut conservatives know about the cultures of other countries? Is this why they are so against diplomacy – they’re afraid that they’ll make a fool of themselves for being so unblushingly ignorant?

ADL report on tide of anti-Obama rage calls out Glenn Beck as ‘fearmonger in chief’

After all the Bluster, Religious Right ‘Rally’ on Hate Crimes a Bust

Why aren’t more leaders talking about our aging infrastructure? Our ability to live and “do” life (especially the business part of life) relies on our infrastructure — which is increasingly unreliable.  And fixing it would create a heck of a lot of jobs.

Twisting reality to their own liking US Chamber of Commerce to hire leading economist to do a “study” to arrive at the conclusions the Camber as already determined.

Tea Party Candidate Bagged for Rx Drug Trafficking

Nice piece from Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) on the inanity of much of the health care debate.

Hypocrisy watch After having opposed judicial filibusters for the last eight years, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) announced today he will filibuster Judge David Hamilton’s appeals court nomination.

Conservatives To GOP: Quit Your Gitmo ‘Scaremongering’

Retired Military Chaplains Announce Support For Repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell

Adolescent machismo fantasies in old white men

Shields was joking, of course, but there are those who certainly do fantasize about the good old days when America was run by a manly, masculine male who knew what it was to be a manly man. God knows those were good times for shriveled men with dreams of vicarious feats of glory…

It would be funny if it weren’t so dangerous. It’s this puerile, masculine insecurity that leads to these stupid proxy wars in the first place.

Arkansas 10-Year-Old Won’t Pledge Allegiance Until Gays Gain Equality

Such nice people The pharmaceutical companies are jacking up their prices high enough to cancel out the savings they promised Obama for the health care bill.

In our deer camp, this would get your butt kicked

Gov. Tim Pawlenty has taken a drubbing from hunters for not tracking down a deer he shot on opening day of Minnesota’s firearm deer season.

A headline on deerhuntingchat.com calls the possible presidential candidate a “slob hunter” for wounding a deer on Nov. 7 and then leaving for a Republican fundraiser in Iowa before the animal could be found.

One contributor wrote: “What kind of slob hunter goes out opening morning and shoots a deer knowing full well you won’t have time to retrieve it or tend to it? One whose presidential ambitions override his hunting ethics, that’s what kind.”

Teabaggers punk’d by anti-racists who get them to cheer rant against European-American immigrants — and then they get violent (of course)

Corruption watch AIG bailout transferred billions from government to counter parties

Those counter parties are, of course, the banksters. This was our money which a compromised and corrupt NY Fed gave to the banksters when they didn’t have to. Among the banks receiving such largesse were, of course, Goldman Sachs.

The then head of the NY Fed, a former Goldman chair, immediately bought 50,000 shares of Goldman and made $5 million. The ensuing uproar forced him to resign. But he was not indicted.

Our neocon media at play CNN:

The Michigan Militia is part of a growing movement. Members say they are not enemies of the state — but are prepared in case the state becomes the enemy. They call themselves patriots, but some observers call them extremists.

Some? Some? Some?

You couldn’t make this up in a million years. Mendacious bigot taking advantage ignorant bigots

After being scolded by a bunch of actual grownups, the Teabaggers call off their effigy burning

Playing to his uneducated, ignorant base Pawlenty Completes Science-Denying Metamorphosis, Now Refutes That Human Activity Causes Climate Change

Poll: Palin Not Qualified To Be President — Hillary Clinton Is So much for the Republican resurgence

Playing to her uneducated, ignorant base In her memoir, Palin says she doesn’t believe in evolution.

Everything you need to know about the descent of the conservative movement into a hypocritical caricature

is illustrated by two of its proudest constituencies: Republican deficit hawks and so-called “born again virgins.” Having already violated the moral strictures they claim to hold dearest, each now asks the American people to join them in pretending their sin never happened. But unlike a generation of Republican leaders who built a mountain of national debt for the United States, the secondary virgins only screwed themselves.

So that even more Americans can die…..? Mitch McConnell Vows to Stall Health Care Bill With a Lot of Amendments Over a Lot of Weeks

Stupid and immoral Dem Alert! Corporatist Dems: Let Us Gut Medicare and Social Security, or We’ll Sabotage Health-Care Bill

Nota previa: pronunciese “mama” y “mamá” mentalmente tal y como está escrito en cada caso.

—¡No hija, ni hablar! ¡Cuando sea tu obligación, y sólo entonces!

—Hombre mama, bromeaba…

—Hija, ni en broma. De ti nadie dirá que eres una puta o muero en el empeño.

—No, mama, no lo dirán.

—De momento tu educación me corresponde. Soy responsable hasta que llegue tu día, cuando estés preparada para hacer feliz al hombre que te protegerá a ti y a mis nietos.

—Sí, mama, te lo prometo.

—¡Serás el más hermoso crisol de su simiente!, habrá quien sepa admirarlo y quien no sepa sino envidiarte. Hija, te lo debo.

—Mama, te haré sentir orgullosa.

* * *

—Mama… hoy me ha dado una bofetada…

—¿Qué has hecho, hija?

—Nada mamá… sólo quemé un poco el pan del desayuno…

—Hija, ¿qué ocurrió anoche?

—Nada, mamá, no ocurrió nada.

—¿Cumpliste con tu marido?

—Sí, mama… yo también quería cumplir…

—…te mostraste más entusiasmada…

—Mama, sí…

—¡Hija de mis carnes! Cuanta juventud todavía en tus venas. Comprenderás cómo complacer a tu marido para que no sospeche que eres sucia o vulgar, es sólo cuestión de tiempo; es tu experiencia vivida en mí, somos la misma cosa. Hija mía, mi niña. Pronto habrá felicidad en vuestra casa cuando traigas al mundo a sus hijos. Cuando todo lo que él te está enseñando para bien tuyo y de los que están por venir tengas tú que transmitirlo. Porque él te defiende hija mía. Te pone a salvo del mundo, te enseña cómo comportarte para que nada te haga daño y por ello puedes estar segura de que defenderá a su prole de todas las amenazas, de todos los males. Es un buen hombre, hija… como tu padre.

—Sí, mamá, es culpa mía.

—Ya aprenderás, hija.

—Sí, mamá, aprenderé.

* * *

IN MEMORIAM: una hermosa criatura que aún no aprendió a sonreír, se retorció de madrugada y hendió el silencio con su vagido. Esa mañana él acudió al trabajo malhumorado por la falta de sueño y a mediodía ella dejaba pegar ligeramente un puñado de lentejas al fondo de la cazuela a causa de que su pequeño volvía a tener retortijones. De vuelta hambriento a casa, él aplastó la cabeza de ella con el mismo cazo levemente quemado y, como es un hombre que reconoce las amenazas que hay agazapadas ahí fuera, llegó a la conclusión de que sin madre el pequeño sólo tenía por delante sufrimiento. Así que tapó la cara del bebé con la almohada hasta que cesaron los retortijones. De lo que hizo después no damos crónica porque no merece aparecer en la historia, apócrifa o no.

Hang  ’em high Palin In objecting to the Obama administration’s decision to subject the accused 9/11 conspirators to American jurisprudence, Palin demonstrates the heart of what is wrong with the Right today.  Her remarks show that her view of justice is immature, that she is ignorant of the US Constitution, and that she holds the American judicial system in disdain.  This vigilante wannabe is an insult to principles that form the heart of what it means to be American.  In short: disgusting.

Cowardly Kit rides in Palin’s Posse Sen. Kit Bond tries to

wrap this into the tragic shooting at Fort Hood and pretend the two issues have anything to do with each other. Maj. Hasan didn’t go on a shooting rampage because he saw terrorist suspects going to trial in the United States. Maybe if we quit dropping bombs on poor people’s heads that are not a threat to our country the terrorists out there would have a few less recruiting tools at their disposal.

Kristol joins Palin’s Posse

Apparently, Kristol is not a huge believer in the Constitution, the Sixth Amendment of which states that “[i]n all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed.”….

This is Salem Witch Trial justice: If the crime is heinous, the accused is automatically guilty. That the evidence may be overwhelming doesn’t matter: You don’t just ’skip’ a fair trial because you feel like it. There’s a word for systems of justice that selectively afford due process — that word is ‘corrupt.’

Rudy’s in, too — and with his own patented brand of hypocrisy!

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed

If he gets a fair trial, you’re pissed. If he gets a show trial, you’re pissed. I understand you disapprove of everything Obama does, but this game of “heads-I-win, tails-you-go-fuck-yourself” gets awfully tiresome.

Neocon media at play King of the Stoopids, Wolf Blitzer, rolls out the Rightwing talking points on terrorist trial decision.

Rudy gives us….  well….  Rudy

…it’s amazing the utter contempt this man has for the American justice system. I can’t even begin to dig out of the pile of nonsense he’s spewing….   I will give Rudy credit for realizing that the most important thing about fighting terrorism is the catch-phrases we use to describe it.

Rudy’s nonsense gets unpacked here.

The GOP civil war rages on Watch Palin on McCain aides who called her ‘diva’ and ‘whack job’

This is a return to the rule of law after the disgrace that was the Bush administration.

The right is going crazy over this of course since they don’t want the Bush administration exposed for the treatment of these terrorism suspects. Limbaugh admits as much in the rant they play in the beginning of the segment whether he meant to or not.

9/11 widow remembers what it means to be an American

9/11 Families Ask for True Justice

Judge Directs US Attorney To Get $20K From Taitz After Failure To Pay Fine How many bad decisions can one person make in a single year?

A rare instance when I agree with David Brooks: Palin Is ‘A Joke’

Mat Staver really does not like the ACLU … or gays … and he really, really hates it when the ACLU gets involved in trying to help gays

Why is it that every time a gay person is being discriminated against and fights back in the name of equality, people like Staver see it as an attempt to “promote lesbianism”?  Apparently, in Staver’s warped view, anything and everything a gay person does is an “exhibition” of their sexual orientation.

Neocon media at play and Tweety is a moron

If you want an illustration of how conservative framing dominates media coverage of politics and policy, you need only watch Chris Matthews talk about abortion each night on Hardball. Since early summer, the Hardball host has been hyping anti-abortion complaints about proposed health care reform, even though the proposals would have done nothing to expand abortion rights. In doing so, he has trafficked in falsehoods, embraced flawed and illogical conservative talking points, and portrayed pro-choice advocates who have already compromised as rigid, unyielding ideologues.

Nothing inspires confidence in Congress more than having lawmakers almost literally reading the script prepared for them by lobbyists.

In the official record of the historic House debate on overhauling health care, the speeches of many lawmakers echo with similarities. Often, that was no accident.

Statements by more than a dozen lawmakers were ghostwritten, in whole or in part, by Washington lobbyists working for Genentech, one of the world’s largest biotechnology companies.

E-mail messages obtained by The New York Times show that the lobbyists drafted one statement for Democrats and another for Republicans.

Equal opportunity bigotry and hate Westboro Baptist Church Turns To Anti-Semitic Picketing

Better conservatives, please The Right’s flipping out over a bow

Now, I won’t pretend to be an expert on diplomatic protocol when meeting foreign leaders, but I am aware of the fact that in Japan, a bow is fairly routine, customary greeting. Obama bowing in Japan upon being introduced to Akihito seems no more interesting than Bush kissing and holding hands with Saudi King Abdullah. Presidents tend to be respectful to foreign leaders, especially during overseas visits. It’s not exactly tantrum-worthy.

Indeed, LG&M found a variety of photographs of then-President Eisenhower in full-on, head-down bows towards Pope John XXIII and Charles De Gaulle. It didn’t seem to undermine American prestige on the international stage, and it certainly didn’t signal American subservience towards the Vatican or the French.

I can’t decide whether the Right is focusing on the absurd because it knows it cannot win on the issues or because it really is that irrelevant and immature.

Why is this such a hard thing to grasp?

South Carolina’s state legislature approved a Christian-themed license plate last year, featuring a cross in front of a stained-glass window, accompanied by the words “I Believe.” This week, a federal court found the plates “clearly unconstitutional,” and chastised state officials for having “embroiled the state in unnecessary (and expensive) litigation.”

Neocon media at play

…the president should worry less about due diligence and thoughtful analysis, and worry more about picking a course, even if it’s wrong. Other than the loss of American servicemen and women, untold billions of dollars, and undermining U.S. interests in a critical region, what’s the worst that can happen?

Obama Admin. Cracks Down On Burrowing — Right Cries Foul

The Right always gets around to violence These GOP street thugs have no idea how to conduct themselves as adults in the American political arena: Tea Party activists plan to burn Reps. Periello and Pelosi in effigy tomorrow.  As Josh says: “I’m so old I can remember when ritualized symbolic execution of public officials wasn’t cool.”

Evangelist Tony Alamo Sentenced To 175 Years On Mann Act Charges

Lying for the fabricated Jesus Ted Haggard Mounts A Comeback By Lying: I Was Never ‘An Anti-Gay Guy’  (Why “fabricated”?  Because every word Jesus is recorded as having said about homosexuality can fit between these brackets [].)

Hypocrisy watch Do Anti-Choice Conservatives Like Cantor And Gingrich Provide Elective Abortion Coverage To Their Employees?

Disgusting faux-religious wanker of the year

Sullivan explained to McLendon and the other attendees that the rise in benefits claims the VA was noticing was caused partly by Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who were suffering from PTSD. “That’s too many,” McLendon said, then hit his hand on the table. “They are too young” to be filing claims, and they are doing it “too soon.” He hit the table again. The claims, he said, are “costing us too much money,” and if the veterans “believed in God and country . . . they would not come home with PTSD.”

US Chamber of Commerce joins NRA as Republican money machine Of the $6 million given by its board members since 1992, 85% has gone to Republicans.  Meanwhile, 83% of the $17 million donated by the NRA during the same time has gone to Republicans.

Hypocrisy watch RNC Health Insurance Provider Promotes End-Of-Life Counseling (aka “death panels”)

Obama and his generals

Less than a year into his presidency, this guy, with no military experience and only a few years in national politics, is sitting in a room with storied military commanders, Pentagon veterans and foreign policy mavens and pressing them to come up with better arguments, to question their own assumptions, to rethink every premise. To put it bluntly, that takes balls. And it’s what a president is for.

No wonder they lose elections and no one wants to join their party Republicans Are Shocked The Public Is Mad At Them For Voting Against Franken’s Anti-Rape Amendment

“Seriously? They voted against an amendment that was prompted by the brutal gang-rape of a young woman by her co-workers while she was working for a company under contract for the United States government, after which she was locked in a shipping container without food or water, threatened if she left to seek medical treatment, and was then prevented from bringing criminal charges against her assailants. And they failed to anticipate the political consequences?”

Neocon media at play David Gregory’s right wing nosedive, Part 2  (Part 1 was here)

Theater of the Absurd G. Gordon Liddy Says ‘I’m Convinced’ That ‘Barack Obama Is A Muslim,’ Gary Bauer Doesn’t Disagree.  So, is being psychotically detached from reality a job requirement for talk radio?

Oh yes, please! Liz Cheney floats her father’s name as a presidential candidate in 2012.  Althought I’ve yet to figure out the GOP’s unspoken motive in insisting on losing elections.

McCain urges town hall attendees to cut up thier AARP membership cards. Hmmmm….  Given the choice between joining the GOP and joining the AARP — which offers actual tangible benefits to senior citizens — I’m figuring the GOP is going to lose.  McCain makes another stupid statement.  How typical.

The Right always gets around to violence Chuck Norris indulges violent eliminationist fantasies about liberals if he ran for office

CNN reports on the secret seociety based at Yale, including how Bonesmen stole the skull of Native American leader Geronimo.

Quote of the Day: “Instead of engaging in adolescent tests of whether a president is ‘tough’ or ‘weak,’ we actually have an adult prepared to allow the various choices in front of us be fully explored.”  – Andrew Sullivan (a conservative)

Slowing down our corporate masters “The Federal Reserve on Thursday released a new rule to prohibit banks from automatically enrolling customers in overdraft protection programs, which charge fees when consumers spend more than they have.”  More here: Banks issuing credit cards still up to dirty tricks; predatory practices Isn’t it weird that we give all our money for safe-keeping to people who prove daily that they’re not trustworthy?

Real Oklahoma Students Ace Citizenship Exam; Strategic Vision Survey Was Likely Fabricated

In detailing some of the evidence against Strategic Vision LLC, a pollster I am now almost certain is disreputable and fraudulent, I pointed in particular to a poll that they conducted on behalf of the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, an conservative-leaning educational thinktank. The poll purported to show that Oklahoma’s high school citizens were deficient in some of the most basic aspects of citizenship. Only 23 percent of them knew that George Washington was the first president, the poll claimed! Just 43 percent knew that the Democrats and Republicans are the two major political parties!

His dog welcomes him home from Iraq Prepare to cry.  More here.

A heart of cold stone Joe Lieberman Filibusters Health Care while Americans Suffer

Business Roundtable: Health Care Costs Would Balloon Under Status Quo This one’s for your crazy aunt who asks “why can’t they just leave it the way it was?”

Neocon media at play ABC’s Brian Ross Cooks Up A Dangerously Inaccurate Story About Hasan and Al Qaeda

Completely Insane Chicken Little Theater of the Absurd Chuck Norris hears black helicopters whupping: Obama planning a ‘one world order,’ health-care bill means feds invade homes.  This has long been one of my favorites.  The administration supports the increased use of home health care nurses to help new mothers learn to be good moms, breaking the cycle of neglect, abuse and poverty.  What an ass.

This is the very definition of immoral Catholic Church To D.C.: Allow Gay Marriage And We’ll Stop Charity Work.

Hypocrisy watch RNC employee health insurance plan covers abortion. (for the past 18 years!)

Good on them! ACORN claims the law Congress recently passed amounts to an unconstitutional bill of attainder.

Does the Catholic Church get to decide

that, government health insurance will pay for the indefinite maintenance of someone in a persistent vegetative state because they’ve suddenly decided to up the ante?

And do Catholic hospital officials intend to override advance directives or medical powers of attorney? Remember, many people live in a community that has only a Catholic hospital. (While my father was dying from excruciatingly painful pancreatic cancer, he was denied a morphine drip by his Catholic pro-life doctor. The Saint said it might make dad might die a few hours sooner than he was “supposed” to, so this is more than a theoretical issue to me.)

Must read:  A glimpse of the president as a man Must see video here.  So nice to have a grownup — and a good one — in charge, regardless of how many policy issues there are on which we disagree.

We are not as ugly as the Right would like us to be Majority of Americans are worried Fort Hood shooting will ‘prompt a backlash’ against Muslims in the military.

Why do Republicans hate America and help people who may be our enemies? Maddow Rips Rep. Pete Hoekstra For Leaking Sensitive National Security Information

Stay classy wingnuts A primer on being racist and sexist at the same time.  (Apparently if you appear to be of Asian heritage, you’re not “American”)  Lord this guy is twisted more ways than an old Slinky.)

Proof that there is a God Dobbs finally leaves CNN.  Crap: The old racist wingnut idiot is being replaced by a younger wingnut idiot whose views on race are as yet undetermined.

The Republicans’ “single-minded campaign to destroy women’s health.”

“They’ve voted against protecting domestic violence victims from being denied health insurance. They’ve voted to allow insurance companies to deny us coverage for life-saving mammograms. They’ve voted to deny our children basic health coverage. They’ve voted against giving women needed time off after having a child.”

Our jobless recovery*

General Electric received 10,000 online applications for 90 $13-an-hour positions assembling washing machines at a plant in Louisville

but it’d be worse were it not for Obama’s stimulus

Davis Construction of Rockville has cut back to 400 employees from 500 over the past year as business has slowed. The bulk of its work these days is government-funded buildings, such as a project at Aberdeen Proving Ground that’s part of the military base’s consolidation effort.

*so nice to know that things are looking up for people who already have it good. ahem

Chicken Little Alert! The wingnuts say the USA may be about to break apart

When a movement, which claims to fight socialist fascism in the name of freedom, promotes the ideas of a former KGB agent as a way to offer some intellectual heft to its arguments, it becomes increasingly difficult to lend that movement any credibility whatsoever. But these are the same people who insist on comparing health care reform to the Holocaust, so perhaps credibility just isn’t what they’re going for.

The “Pulsers”

deserve their own spot alongside the Birthers and Deathers in the grand and glorious tapestry of goofballery that is the contemporary conservative movement …  It’s a sad commentary both on the state of the GOP and on the nature of the U.S. national security debate that Gingrich and Huckabee’s advocacy of these ideas hasn’t prevented them from being taken (kind of) seriously.

Really classy, McCain campaign They sent Palin a bill for half a million to cover her vetting process as the VP candidate.  When she asked for help, she was told she had to pay it because they lost.  No wonder that party has a civil war raging.

“Green building to support nearly 8 million U.S. jobs over next 4 years”

Neocon media at play Scarborough: Anti-Gay Activists Are Just Like MLK And this is at the so-called liberal MSNBC, the lefty equivalent of Fox, where he’s on for 4 hours a day.

On a semi-related note, here’s another short clip of Scarborough on Janet Porter’s radio program saying what while President Obama was “so careful in choosing his words and calling for caution” after the shooting at Fort Hood, “he threw all that to the wind when George Tiller was shot in his church … There was no hesitancy in this particular presidency to immediately assume that there were conspirators … There was a quick jump to judgment in that issue.”

For the record, here is President Obama’s statement on the murder of Tiller:  ”I am shocked and outraged by the murder of Dr. George Tiller as he attended church services this morning. However profound our differences as Americans over difficult issues such as abortion, they cannot be resolved by heinous acts of violence.”

I’m daily impressed with the Right’s ability to just make stuff up and rewrite history to fit their narrative.

CEOs of Aspen Skiing Company and The North Face: “Climate change threatens our livelihoods–and yours”

Global Health: 200 Million Starving Children

This says a lot about sexism in our culture Publishers Weekly puts out a list of the 10 “best” books of 2009, covering all genres. It contains not a single female author.

Debunking viral email hoax on global “cooling”

Screw God’s judgment — the cultural affairs director at the wingnut Liberty Counsel is they guy who decides who is and is not a Christian

Wingnut:  Obama despises America. Mark Hyman is a soulless intellectual lightweight who used to show up on Fox a lot.  It must be lonely being that far removed from reality, that far separated from the rest of America.

Reagan mythbusting, productivity edition

The scientist who predicted global cooling explains what he got wrong, and how his work is being misused.

The Obama administration, knowing that intense far-right blowback is inevitable, does the right thing anyway. Accused 9/11 conspirators to stand trial in NY

Neocon media at play

Henninger’s argument is that the practice of democracy itself set the stage for the Fort Hood tragedy. If everybody would have just shut up after 9/11 and not distracted President Bush with stupid questions about warrantless surveillance and indefinite detention and torture and the Constitution, then maybe the FBI wouldn’t have been so scared of hurting peoples’ feelings.

Sometimes the gutter wears a tuxedo Hedge fund fraud

Blitzer ought to be embarrassed. But he’s too stupid to know that.

As usual, Rep. Paul Ryan doesn’t know what he’s talking about. I am sorry to admit that this lying sack of stupidity comes from my state.

Theater of the Absurd Rep. Steve King calls Obama administration the ‘gangster government.’  You gotta wonder whether that terminology isn’t a wingnut code to express their racism.

GOP civil war Tea Partiers Eat Their Own In Bitter Internal Feud

Defense Sec. Gates ‘Appalled’ By Leaks And Threatens Firings

Chicken Little’s Theater of the Absurd Texas Gov. says Obama Is ‘Interested In Punishing Texas’ And ‘Hellbent’ On Socialism

Republican Cao: Obama Administration ‘Has Been Tremendous’ For New Orleans On Katrina Recovery Effort

Why Are Hawkish Lawmakers Willing To Pay For An Escalation Of The War But Not For Health Care?

Feds Seizing 4 Mosques And NYC Skyscraper From Nonprofit Muslim Org

It takes a pillage (a timely Christmas card)

Defense Bill Likely To Include ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ Repeal and AMA Votes To Oppose ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ and The House Health Care Bill Makes Progress For Gay Rights Tell me again how elections don’t matter and there’s no difference between the parties.

This is posturing for the sake of doofus voters who don’t understand what’s at stake

White House Faith-Based Office Finally Has A Web Presence

Understanding Why Nidal Hasan Did It Makes Us Stronger Why is the Right so afraid of knowledge?

Neocon media at play:  Murdoch says Glenn Beck “was right” to call Obama a racist. Go here to Demand That Murdoch Apologize

Neocon media at play Lawsuit alleges that New York Post DC bureau chief’s goal was ‘to destroy’ Obama

Wingnuts trying to have it both ways on who has kept us safe from terrorism

Wanker Extreme Hannity is trying to suggest that President Obama knew about Fort Hood before it happened.

Neocon media apparently not familiar with American judicial system Blitzer To Hasan Lawyer: How Can You Defend ‘Mass Murder’ Suspect?

Send your best wishes to Fort Hood Hero

Would you buy advice from abject failures?

More petty, pointless obstruction from the Right

The GOP’s civil war Sen. Graham Censured By County GOP For Working With Dems

Krugman makes a funny!

Neocon media caught red-handed Jon Stewart Catches Fox Using Old Footage To Make Tea Party Look Bigger  and Hannity Video Switch-Up Is Only The Tip Of Fox News’ Video-Doctoring Iceberg

Theater of the absurd

Colorado state senator … compared Obama to the al Qaeda terrorists who took over Flight 93 on 9/11 and real patriotic Republican Americans to the passengers who had to retake control of the plane.

Josh notes:

On the one hand, this is textbook feverish, eliminationist incitement. On the other hand, I think back to how paranoid and in the thrall of their own victimization these folks were a few years when they ran the entire country. So I’m not sure we should be surprised that they go totally crazy when they’re largely shut out of power in the country at the national level.

Still, the cowardice of so many conservatives always repulses me.  It’s so….. unseemly.

Neocon media at play The talking heads on Morning Joe wish the president had made cost containment a main and early part of his health reform pitch.  Except he did.

This is America? ACLU Files Lawsuit For Muslim Who Alleged FBI Torture Threat.  Our cops are criminals and the Constitution is nothing to them?

Majority Approve Of Obama — But Pessimism On The Rise

Corruption watch New evidence of Big Pharma’s sweetheart deal.

How wingnutty is Senator David “prostitutes & diapers” Vitter?  He’s being fact-checked by far-right bloggers!

In ‘Act of Despicable Hubris,’ ACCCE Exploits Veterans Groups To Push Dirty Energy Agenda

Well….. yes.

“The funny thing about all of this is that no matter how bad all their ideas are, no matter how disastrous their governance has been, no matter how many horrible things they have done to the economy and this country, what really is killing the Republican party is that deep down, they are just complete assholes.”

Our priorities are so screwed up (any wonder that our kids are, too?)

Neocon media still selling the “GOP lives!” canard — or — Peggy Noonan et al damage their brand by talking with the heads up their asses

131,000 veterans are homeless on any given night. Stuff your sanctimonious praise for our troops and do something about this.  And this:  2,200 Vets Died Last Year Because They Lacked Health Insurance And this:  Almost 20% of Iraq and Afghanistan vets have PTSD or depression

Neocon media at play CBS does its part in fueling the “Blame Obama” mentality

The fundamental difference between neoconservative thinking and thinking undertaken by people with a moral compass

(A) state of peace, prosperity, and physical security is a good thing. Neoconservatives, however, see war and death as good things. Irving Kristol told Corey Robin that market-oriented conservatism is too “boring” (”The notion of devoting your life to it is horrifying if only because it’s so repetitious. It’s like sex.”) so you need to inject some death and destruction into the mix to keep things interesting.

Another apparent difference:  Neocons, according to Kristol, have boring and horrifying sex.  But then, I would have guessed that.

Well… yes. Rep. Kilroy: GOP Shouting Down Democratic Women Was A ‘Sexist’ Attempt To Put Us ‘In Our Place.  At the very least, it’s doubtful that they’d try to bully a group of men that way.

CNN Finally Discovers the Red State Health Care Disaster Better months late than never?  Well, no.  ”Only now, after the narrow House vote this weekend, did CNN look at the Republican Senators committed to blocking health care for their residents who need it most.”

GOP Rep won’t denounce call for backlash against Muslims

Lying about the God’s children we hate for Jesus! Pat Robertson: Islam Is ‘A Violent Political System’

Wanker of the Day

Yesterday Rhode Island’s governor Dan Carcieri vetoed a bill which would have allowed unmarried couples the same right to plan the funerals of their late partners as married couples.  He claims this legislation represents an erosion of traditional marriage.

This is America?

Hans Joachim Keil, a U.S. citizen and Samoan diplomat, was wrongfully arrested by US immigration authorities who thought he was an “illegal alien” and incarcerated for nine days.

Keil alleges that immigration agents confiscated his valid U.S. and Samoan Diplomatic passports and questioned him without providing legal counsel. Keil claims that he was charged with falsely claiming to be a U.S. citizen and is seeking punitive damages for “constitutional violations, unlawfully imprisonment, pain and suffering, emotional and mental duress, and for being denied permission to leave Missouri for 4 months to tend to his diplomatic duties.”

Remember Back When the Right Hated The Filibuster?

Fascinating: How My Lawsuit Against the TSA Made Airports Safe For the Constitution Again

This is America? Feds Wanted Private Data on All Visitors to Liberal News Site

Why Home-Grown Islamic Terrorism Isn’t A Threat

U.S. Muslims also have died to defend us

Deadly corruption watch Blackwater OK’d Hush Money After Iraq Shootings.  Talk to me again about ACORN….

Sometimes the neocon media is so dumb it’s funny!

Are there no other options? Fox host says, if you’re despondent, depressed about being shipped overseas, “you take out yourself.” But you shouldn’t take others with you.  Medication?  Meditation?  Talk therapy?  Prayer?  Fishing?  Drinking?  Surely our choices are not limited to suicide or murder when we’re depressed.

Can all the grownups come back please? Laura Ingraham, on Fox News this morning: “Nancy Pelosi basically did everything except sell her own body to get this bill passed.”

Greatness before our eyes

When your vision is constrained by the blinders of your bigotry, things like this happen. (You mistake a small Greek Orthodox priest for a terrorist and hit him over the head repeatedly with a tire iron.)

How far gone is Palin?  Even Fox is fact-checking her!

D Day, Dooms Day, 9-11-01, 3 Tombstones of Democracy. What will happen if 9/11 truth & justice is not served? Everything points to a huge cover-up… Fiction clip based on facts by Mon Rasz.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIeve1CG_GM

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xar6ly_v01-video-clip-d-day-911_school

Tags: 9-11, 9-11-01, 9/11, 9/11 Truth, Alex Jones, Architects & Engineers, Jean Marie Bigard, 911 Blogger, Bilderberg Group, Charlie Sheen, corruption, D-Day, David Ray Griffin, deaths, democracy, dictatorship, Dooms-Day, drumbeat, end, Enron, Eric Laurent, fear, freedom, history, Hitler, illogic,  justice, lives, logic, Mathieu Kassovitz, monuments, Nazi, Neils Harrit, neocon, peace, police state, politics, society, Sept-11-01, SS, Trilateral Comission, terrorists, trust, truth, Twin Towers, war, World Trade Center, WTC7

“Two days after the GOP’s sweeping victories….” says a TPM writer, apparently having down several quarts of AP’s “GOP Sweep” kool aid and look at who actually won most of the contests and the most important contests this week.
The Dems picked up two seats in Congress, including one that’s been a Republican seat for more than 100 years. Dems have a stronger and more liberal majority in the House — where national policy is being made — now than they did last week. (Making the Dems 5 for 5 in special elections for congressional seats this year.)
Obama’s favorable rating of 56.1% is actually a tad higher than it was on Oct. 6 of last year (56%), just a month before he was elected in a landslide.

Americans prefer Dems over Reps for Congress, and prefer them even more — and by a wider margin – than they did this time a year ago.

In the East, north of the Pennsylvania border, there are 51 congressional districts representing 34 million people. — and Reps have a whopping two seats. In the West, California is trending strongly to the left.

Dems won the big city mayoral races in Seattle, Atlanta, Charlotte (first time in a quarter century here), Minneapolis, St. Paul, Pittsburg, Cleveland, Chapel Hill and Detroit.  In New York, the Republican incumbent outspent his Dem challenger 14 to 1, — spending $105 million and pouring $90 million of his own money into the race — and just barely won an election he was expected to take in a cake walk.

In Maine, a measure that will allow dispensaries to supply marijuana to patients for medicinal purposes easily won approval.  In Colorado, Breckenridge voted overwhelmingly to allow adults to legally possess small amounts of marijuana.

Gay rights meaures won in Washington and Kalamazoo, Michigan, and narrowly lost in Maine, while gay candidates won the day in Akron, Maplewood, Minn., Houston, Chapel Hill, St. Petersburg, Charlotte and Salt Lake City.  Catch that?  Openly gay candidates won in four cities south of the Mason Dixon Line, including in the heart of that most homophobic of religious states, Utah.

Two TABOR initiatives — the precious little project of the neocons who want to drown government in the bathtub — were on ballots Tuesday, and both lost.

In Ohio, voters approved a measure that will allow casinos in Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Toledo.

As for the GOP’s two marquee wins: Back in 2001, at the same point in Duby’a reign of error, the election of Democratic governors over Republicans in those same two states — Virginia and New Jersey — it meant absolutely nothing then, just as it does now. (Back then, the GOP and its talking heads were falling all over themselves to point out that the Dem victories were meaningless on the national scene, and they were right.) In fact, it’s a 30-year trend. In New Jersey, the party in power in the White House hasn’t won the governor’s office since 1985 and the party in power in the White House hasn’t won the governor’s office in Virginia since 1977.

Ruy Teixeira’s numbers should silence the “Obama was repudiated” song and dance:

“In New Jersey…it’s significant that Mr. Obama’s approval rating among 2009 voters (57 percent) was identical to the percent of the vote he received there in 2008. In Virginia, while the president’s 2009 approval rating was 5 points less than his 2008 voting result, the 2009 electorate was also far more conservative than last year’s. Besides being far older and whiter than in 2008, the voters in Virginia on Tuesday said they had supported John McCain last November by 8 points, meaning they were not favorably inclined toward President Obama to begin with. In fact, given that only 43 percent of these voters said they supported Mr. Obama last November, his 48 percent approval rating among them does not indicate a shift away from him but rather toward him.”

In both Virginia and New Jersey, the Dems held their own in the state legislative races, and across the country, Democrats still hold 60 legislative chambers and control 55% of the nation’s partisan legislative seats.

Sweeping victories for the GOP? Please.

And while AP and the talking heads tried to paint the election results as an omen of impending doom for Obama and the Democrats, at least theWashington Post had enough sense (first time I’ve said that in years) to get it right. After last week’s election, it’s clear that a civil war — “a pitched battle in the works between the Republicans’ right flank and even-further-right flank” — is ripping the GOP apart.  If that’s what they call winning, more power to ‘em!

D Day, Dooms Day, 9-11-01, 3 Tombstones of Democracy. What will happen if 9/11 truth & justice is not served? Everything points to a huge cover-up… Fiction clip based on facts by Mon Rasz.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIeve1CG_GM

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xar6ly_v01-video-clip-d-day-911_school

Tags: 9-11, 9-11-01, 9/11, Alex Jones, Architects & Engineers, Jean Marie Bigard, 911 Blogger, Bilderberg Group, Charlie Sheen, corruption, D-Day, David Ray Griffin, deaths, democracy, dictatorship, Dooms-Day, drumbeat, end, Enron, Eric Laurent, fear, freedom, history, Hitler, illogic,  justice, lives, logic, Mathieu Kassovitz, monuments, Nazi, Neils Harrit, neocon, peace, police state, politics, society, Sept-11-01, SS, Trilateral Comission, terrorists, trust, truth, Twin Towers, war, World Trade Center, WTC7

Does the GOP like losing seats in Congress? Steele To GOPers Who Back Health Reform: ‘We’ll Come After You’

Jon Stewart parodies Glenn Beck This is a comedic work of art, an instant classic and a brutal piece of political satire

Yes, yes it does Steele: ‘We Want To Partner As Much As Possible’ With Tea Partiers

Cops gone wild Black guy standing still with his hands on hood of cop car — position of submission — gets tasered in the neck and back by a white cop, and the electrocution goes on for quite some time even after the guy is incapacitated and on the ground.

This short video makes the daddy in me weep with joy

Cash for Kids; Corruption Watch

The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania did a wonderful thing when it expunged the records of as many as 6,500 juveniles in Luzerne County. That’s not a misprint.

Two judges in that county were sent up the federal river for locking up thousands of innocent children over five years, in exchange for $2.6 million in kickbacks from private juvenile detention centers.

In fact, I think they love losing! GOP Health Insurance Reform Bill Insures Almost Nobody

What it is, is a crude attempt at intimidation by officers of a justice system whose shoddy work stands exposed. What it is, is a warning to the next person who dares dig up unwelcome news.

Awesome 66,000 people have donated a total of $3.5 million to support primary challenges against any Democratic senator who joins a Republican filibuster to block an up-or-down vote on health care reform.

Tweety is an idiot

Chris Matthews just implied that modern warfare is much harder on soldiers than wars have ever been before because they are under so much more stress. He called it a “constant booby-trap” because they might be killed by an IED. Cliff Van Zandt agreed that this is worse than soldiers commonly experience.

I certainly don’t disagree that they are under a lot of stress or that these roadside bombs make for a very traumatic experience. And the repeated deployments make for a cumulative effect. But the idea that these wars in Iraq and Afghanistan worse than wars have been in the past is simply mind-boggling.

Has Matthews ever heard of Guadalcanal? Or Verdun?

They’re begging to lose! GOP Rep. And GA Gov. Candidate Asks For Obama’s Birth Certificate  (Um… did he not get the memo?  Birthers are soooo August.)

Privacy For Sale

Ron Peterson has a variety of exciting aliases. “In Florida I’m a female prostitute (named Ronnie); in Texas I’m currently incarcerated for manslaughter,” Peterson, a California resident, said. “In New Mexico I’m a dealer of stolen goods. Oregon has me as a witness tamperer. And in Nevada — this is my favorite — I’m a registered sex offender.” All of this is thanks to the unregulated data aggregation industry.

You know those emails telling us how much greater those old conservative ’50s were?

And the Happy Days era — the real one, which was reflected in the TV show like a fun house mir ror — was dri ven by tech no log i cal and social change, too! Kids had access to cars, tele phones, TV, records and the radio, and dis pos able cash. Cruis ing, malt shops, high school dances, drive-in movies, every thing you see in Amer i can Graf fiti — it might feel like part of the time less social rit ual now, but then, it was a rev o lu tion, a set of truly rad i cal acts. Add the pill, civil rights, and a swelling in the ranks of col lege stu dents, and you’ve got feminism, counter-culture, the sex ual revolution.

Texas as a model of health care reform?  Oh please.

If You Say the Taliban = 9/11 Often Enough, Maybe Someone Will Believe It?

They’re praying that they’ll lose! Newt Gingrich the latest Conservative to bow down to Rush Limbaugh

Unemployment Hits 10 Percent — Are Tax Credits For Homebuyers And Seniors The Best We Can Do?

The GOP Civil War inside Steele’s skull

Selling coal to kids. This causes me to ponder the joys of backhanding some ass across the mouth.

Birther Site Is Already Lying About Ft. Hood Shooter and Obama

Health care = Holocaust Uh, sure.  The Rude Pundit chimes in:

Ask him if he watched his wife get taken to a gas chamber. Ask him if he watched his kids starve to death. Ask him if he’s had to live for months in a sh*t-covered hellhole. Ask him if he smells burning bodies. Ask him if all his possessions were taken away and his town bombed to bits. Ask him if his neighbors are alive. Because, he should be told, however awful what just happened to him was, it wasn’t anywhere near as bad as what the people in his sign went through.

Government-run health care — the scourge the Republicans assembled to denounce – may be poised to contribute to the end of Western civilization, but it can also apparently be pretty helpful and effective.  One of the anti’s had a heart attack at yesterday’s protest and had his life saved by that horrible government-run medial care.

Lying liars telling lies Crazy Shelly says the protest was “organic”   Well, sure, except for her web site, the Fox promos, her planning conference call and

the corporate front group Americans For Prosperity helped coordinate. AFP mobilized about 40 buses to bring activists to DC, with AFP staffers standing at their designated bus drop off point near the Capitol, handing out signs, directions, talking points, petitions, and donuts to protesters….  Freedomworks promoted this week’s event on their Web site DontKillGrandma.com with recommendations for protest tactics.

Wow!  Those Rightwingers are super patriots! Rep. Todd Akin screws up the Pledge of Allegiance (even though he’s saying it from his notes (WTF?); House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) confused the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence .  Akin also argued that the pilgrims gave the country “her first constitution.” Don’t you have to know at least a rough timeline of US history to be in Congress?

Immunity for prosecutors who frame innocent men for murder? And, of course, it’s two young black men framed for a killing in an all white community.  Tell me again how race no longer matters in America.

In Wingnutopia, 4000 = 1 million plus No wonder they wrecked the budget and the economy, they suck at math

Wanker of the Day Senator Coburn places hold on veterans benefits bill.

Painfully Stupid Dem Alert! Nelson: Bad Economy Means We Should Wreck Economy, Destroy Planet, Let Health Care Languish

Astroturf In Action: Right-Wing Billionaire David Koch Pays For 40 Buses To Haul In Protesters

Chicken Little Alert! GOP Rep. King: Dems Health Bill Would Cancel Every Insurance Policy

AARP’s Support On Health Care Is ‘No Small Endorsement’

Priorities

Michael Bloomberg spent a reported 105 million dollars on his re-election campaign, the same amount Norway donated in 2007 to The World Bank for a health care initiative for the poorest nations.

It’s not the Jihad, stupid. Ft. Hood tragedy is horrible enough without poisoning it with bigotry.

Creigh Deeds ran against healthcare reform.

Healthcare reform is easy to sell. You won’t have to worry about not qualifying for insurance anymore. You can start your own business and take your policy with you, or sign up for the affordable public plan. It will create jobs and stimulate the economy and reduce the federal budget deficit. Americans will pay less for insurance.

Blue Dogs — who are actually Yellow Dogs — should take note.

Food, Inc.

Mostly, it confirmed my fears that the worst aspects of the healthcare system are also evident in the food system. Little or no competition. Three or four huge corporations controlling most of the industry. The best foods are prohibitively expensive for working families. No serious regulations. And it’s making us all sick. Oh, and Monsanto is clearly the biggest bastards of the group. They’re arguably more dastardly than the worst health insurance companies combined.

The Right always gets around to violence

“Today, thousands will pour into Washington to tell Nancy Pelosi and the Congress to send Obama to a death panel…” —Wingnut  Erick Erickson

Those fiscally (cough cough) responsible Republicans

According to the report by nonpartisan budget office, the Republican bill would reduce future federal deficits by $68 billion over 10 years, compared to a reduction of $104 billion by the House Democrats’ legislation.

Well praise the Lord and pass tater salad the caviar Bloomberg reports that, according to Goldman Sachs bigwig Brian Griffiths, Jesus’ teachings were an “endorsement of self-interest.” He went on to say, “we have to tolerate the inequality as a way to achieving greater prosperity and opportunity for all.”  Wall Street banks – Goldman Sachs included – are still paying out record bonuses in the billions of dollars. In fact, Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein was one of the highest paid executives in the country last year. All this while millions of Americans are filing for bankruptcy, foreclosures are at record high rates, and unemployment has skyrocketed – largely due to the risky behaviors of these big banks.  Bless their hearts.

A very important article on the electric car

Solar power when the sun goes down Concentrated solar thermal with storage (aka solar baseload) remains “The technology that will save humanity.”

Neocon media at play New York Time’s “baseless hit job on Gore,” plus the story’s origin in a Fox News doctored video

Neocon media at play Newsweek partners with oil lobby to raise ad cash, host energy and climate events with lawmakers — while publishing the uber-greenwashing story, “Big Oil Goes Green for Real”

Getting Americans to wake up to the reality of climate change is no easy task. But experts at Columbia University believe a mix of psychology, anthropology, and behavioral economics can help, and they’ve written a guide with cartoons showing how

Arab, Muslim groups condemn Fort Hood attack

Elections matter Here are just a few more changes for the better over the past 9 months:

Make law the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which has been responsible for creating or saving 650,000 jobs;

Sign into law the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act;

Pass a budget that includes a historic commitment to health insurance reform, and work with Congress to ensure that comprehensive reform passes in 2009;

Appoint cabinet secretaries that working families can count on, including Labor Secretary Hilda Solis and HHS Secretary, Kathleen Sebelius;

Provide a pathway to legal status for young people who were brought to the U.S. as undocumented immigrant children through the DREAM Act;

Pass a sweeping expansion of the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which provides healthcare coverage to an additional 4 million children of working families;

Create a Middle Class Task Force and a Presidential Economic Recovery Advisory Board, and allow working families representatives like Anna Burger on it;

Create a Consumer Financial Protection Agency, to protect consumers from the unfair practices of our largest financial institutions.

Jordan Barab, the new Assistant Secretary for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, replaced the conference room photos of OSHA managers with photos of workers who’ve been killed on the job.

Change we can believe in.

Our corporate masters After Lowe’s Home Improvement settled last month (for nearly $30 million) a class action suit for requiring workers to work “off the clock,” workers were greeted a break room sign telling them to oppose the “Employee FreeForced Choice Act.”   Well, forcing people to work for no pay (“off the clock”) was, back in the day, called “slavery,” and slaves, by definition, have no free choice.  So it only stands to reason…

Looking ahead

While the leftnutbaggers devour Barack Obama for not firing an organic utopia of free marijuana and health care out of his armpits on Day 1, they should be aware that the moron bullet the nation dodged in 2008 is waiting in the wings for a presidential run. Of course, any sane person would assume quitting her gubernatorial position to cash in on book deals would’ve doomed Sarah Palin’s political career, but never underestimate the American propensity for dumb.

AARP is the new ACORN

Wingnut fringe candidate loses Republican congressional seat to Democrat in NY That seat has been in R hands since the “war of Northern aggression.”  Now the wingnuts are setting their sights on a moderate R in Florida and another in California. It seems the civil war in the Republican party is killing the Republican party.

Crazy Shelly too crazy for her own staff? Another rat jumps ship — thuis time her chief of staff

Deep thought Well heck, Dems ought to just fold up the tent and go home after last night’s losses, right? Wha–  What’s that?   The Dems picked up two seats in Congress, including one that’s been an R seat for more than 100 years?   Huh?  You say Obama’s favorable rating of 56.1% is actually a tad higher than it was on Oct. 6 of last year (56%), just a month before he was elected in a landslide?  What’s that?  You say that Americans prefer Dems over Repugs for Congress, and prefer them even more — and by a wider margin — than they did this time a year ago?  Huh.  What’s that?  In the East, north of the Pennsylvania border, there 51 congressional districts representing 34 million people. — and Repugs have a whopping two seats?  What’s that?  You say Dems won the big city mayoral races (Seattle, Atlanta, Charlotte, Minneapolis, St. Paul, Pittsburg, Cleveland, Chapel Hill and Detroit)?  You say gay rights meaures won in Washinton and Kalamazoo, Michigan, and barely lost in Maine, while gay candidates won the day in Houston, Chapel Hill, St. Petersburg and Charlotte?  Oh.  Well then.  Never mind.

Neocon media at play They keep pushing the notion that the election of Republican governors over Dems in Virginia and New Jersey one year into the Obama administration is a “bad sign” for Obama and an indication that he’s weakened politically.  Funny, back in 2001, one year in Duby’a reign of error, the election of Democratic governors over Republicans in those same two states meant absolutely nothing.  Go figure.

Media Matters documented examples of news outlets and media personalities arguing that Democratic victories in 2001 had little national significance. Laura Ingraham, for example, said, “Both sides are going to spin this … but to say — to call this some kind of watershed moment against Republican views is nonsense.”

Not convinced?  How about a 30 year trend?  In New Jersey, the party in power in the White House hasn’t won the governor’s office since 1985 and the party in power in the White House hasn’t won the governor’s office in Virginia since 1977.

Profiles in Cowardice

Don’t make them (wimpy Dems) vote, in other words, on anything that voters might find remotely controversial. Maybe, if they govern from a defensive crouch, and just skip over party priorities, Republicans won’t be mean to them and the public will respect their gumption.

Dems easily hold congressional seat in California

Lying liars telling lies NJ wingnuts claim ACORN was trying to steal the NJ election — but there is no ACORN in NJ!

Wingnuts say Dems slashed tires — cops say wingnuts drove over a bottle Well, duh!  Obviously is was a “democrat bottle”!

A good summary of the Pelosi reform bill

Stimulus ‘Myths’ — Including Cash For Sperm Freezer

GOP’s tax ideas shot down — twice Maine and Washington state both had so-called Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR) initiatives on the ballot. Both went down to defeat. So… nobody’s buying the right-wing, anti-spending, anti-government sentiment.

Neocon (xenophobic) media at play CNBC Reporter: Keflezighi’s Marathon Win Was ‘Empty’ Because He Was An Immigrant Rather Than U.S.-Born

Senator Hatch lets the cat out of the bag: GOP Blocking Health Care to Prevent Permanent Democratic Majority.  Nice to have him confirm what we already knew. Atrios sums it up:  ”Orrin Hatch says we can’t have health care reform because it will be awesome and everyone will love it and they’ll be so grateful that they will vote for Democrats for all eternity.”

Chicken Little Alert! Beck joins the “health care reform is worse than terrorist attacks” parade

This is just too strange Backed by some of the most powerful members of the Senate, a little-noticed provision in the healthcare overhaul bill would require insurers to consider covering Christian Science prayer treatments as medical expenses.  Question:  What sort of god would respond to prayers said by someone who is paid to say them?  That’s just twisted, man.

GOP health bill: Insurers can ignore ‘all of the consumer protection laws’ and ‘restrictions on rate changes.’

Crazy Shelly serves up more crazy with a hint of violence

O.M.G.  This will be a slaughter. Bush and Clinton to face off in ‘uncensored’ debate.  Shame on Clinton for accepting a fight with an unarmed man.

GOP’s civil war goes national

We at Crossville will always mark the last week of October ‘09 in our memories with a pink ribbon.  As one of 25 companies that participated in the 7th annual Tour 4 the Cure at Neocon East last week, we had the honor to distribute 250 pink ribbon wristband/USB drives during the course of this successful show.

The Tour 4 the Cure supports The Common Thread for the Cure foundation (which we wrote about last week), purposed in uniting the furnishings industry in the fight against breast cancer.  This great organization helps families in practical ways, and we’re thankful to do our part to contribute.

Certainly, the full Neocon East experience was immensely positive. It’s always great to be able to connect in person with the design community to share our latest lines, tile trends and ideas.

While in Baltimore, we also sponsored and participated in a beautiful party to celebrate the Robert A.M. Stern Collection.  
Crossville tile is part of this stunning ensemble of architecturally inspired furnishings and materials.  We’re sure the 200 guests at the gala, held at the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, experienced a night as inspiring as the Collection it honored.

We won’t bask too long in the memories of Baltimore.  Next week we’re off to Greenbuild International Conference & Expo, featuring the latest on our Tile Take Back program.  Look for more details on this later this week.

Wingnuts on parade! GOP leaders endorse Crazy Shelly’s plan to lead Tea Partiers through halls of Congress.  What would be the equivalent on the Left?  Maybe some aging Marx-spewing hippies from a backwoods commune in Idaho?  This really is theater of the absurd. Boehner and Cantor are supporting Bachmann’s rallying cry against the “Tyranny” of the Obama administration.  Tyranny?  I don’t think that word means what they think it means. Merriam-Webster says:

1 : oppressive power <every form of tyranny over the mind of man — Thomas Jefferson>; especially : oppressive power exerted by government <the tyranny of a police state>

2 a : a government in which absolute power is vested in a single ruler; especially : one characteristic of an ancient Greek city-state b : the office, authority, and administration of a tyrant

3 : a rigorous condition imposed by some outside agency or force <living under the tyranny of the clock — Dixon Wecter>

4 : a tyrannical act <workers who had suffered tyrannies>

Nothing about the Obama administration comes even close to smelling anything like any one of those definitions.  The GOP is committing suicide by hitching its wagon to these lunatic fringe weirdos. At the very least, when they use words like “tyranny” they should say them with an ironic tone and a wry smile so they can try to pass it off as a bit of hyperbolic humor to make a political point.  But, no, they don’t.  So they can’t.  They say these irredeemably stupid things with a straight face.  No wonder no one takes them seriously any more.

Why the current version of health care reform is missing the boat.

Police officers are routinely resorting to the taser against mentally ill and drunk citizens with catastrophic results.

I guess we all have to understand that in America not being in your right mind is a capital crime for which we aren’t necessarily allowed due process. Good to know.

Chicken Little stars in Theater of the Absurd

Former presidential candidate Alan Keyes has given perhaps his most dire warning yet, saying that the Obama administration is preparing to stage terror attacks, declare martial law and cancel the 2012 elections, which is why they are demonizing their political enemies as criminals and terrorists.

Neocon media at play Cable News Networks Help Spread Republicans’ ‘Highly Misleading’ Stimulus Math

Exactly!

“Any discussion that there’s something untoward in the President greeting dead soldiers is wingnut revisionist crap. Kings and leaders have been doing this since time began. It’s a sign of respect for the fallen and they do it publicly as gesture on behalf of the people. That these so-called patriots think there’s now something wrong with that tells you everything you need to know about their sincerity.”

What we all (including the media) “know” about filibusters is all wrong

A round up Joe’s broken promises – and the assurances so many establishment Democrats made on Joe’s behalf

From the horse’s pig’s mouth: Limbaugh lumps Fox News into ‘conservative media,’ Chris Wallace doesn’t object.

Neocon media at play Phony AP fact check.

Rape Victim Confronts Vitter Over His Vote Against Franken’s Amendment Holding Contractors Accountable

In 2005, Jamie Leigh Jones’ Halliburton/KBR co-workers gang-raped her while she was working in Baghdad. The company then detained her in a shipping container for at least 24 hours without food, water, or a bed, and “warned her that if she left Iraq for medical treatment, she’d be out of a job.” (Jones was not an isolated case.) Jones was prevented from bringing charges in court against KBR because her employment contract stipulated that sexual assault allegations would be heard in private arbitration only.

Chicken Little Alert! Rep. Foxx: Health care reform is a bigger threat than ‘any terrorist right now in any country.’  Anyone who voted for this moron should take a vow never to reproduce.  We don’t need that kind of weakness in the gene pool.

The Absolute All-Time Stupidest Words Ever Spoken by a Homo Sapien: Limbaugh: Palin is ready to be president

One sick, twisted bastard Well, actually, more than one…

Anti-abortion extremists are raising money for the defense of Scott Roeder, the accused murderer of George Tiller, with murder-glorifying art ‘commissioned’ by Roeder while in prison. The group is also auctioning a ‘prison cookbook’ from Shelley Shannon, who is currently serving time for shooting Tiller back in 1993.

GOP takes Clean Energy Bill obstructionism to yet another level And taking dangerous stupidity to an even higher level

Neocon media at play or George Stephanopoulos is Wanker of the Day

Looks like it from here, too

President Barack Obama is “getting bad advice from… clowns” on Afghanistan and “sucking up to the wrong people” on health care, U.S. Rep. John Conyers told a Detroit radio audience this morning, according to show host Rev. Horace Sheffield.

Conyers, a Detroit Democrat, made the comments during a discussion about the effects of the economic recession on the urban poor, Sheffield said. The liberal congressman expressed frustration that health care legislation pending in Washington, D.C., was too solicitous of insurance companies and special interests, Sheffield said.

Be careful what you wish for Has the Public Option been made so emasculated and available to so few people that its premiums will actually end up being higher than private insurance premiums?

What a difference an election makes! In this past week alone:

-HIV/AIDS Treatment Extension Act

-Lifting HIV/AIDS travel ban

-Hate crimes legislation protecting LGBT citizens

-Defeated entrenched military-industrial complex on the F-18 F-22 and other programs

-First positive GDP growth since 2007

-Stimulus created or saved more than 300,000 jobs so far

-Deficit-reducing HCR bills with public option announced in both chambers of Congress

-Restored Intelligence Oversight Board powers

-Ended abstinence-only funding

-$3.5 billion for smart grid technology

Quote of the Day

“I’m also pleased that the bill includes a public option offered in an exchange. As I’ve said throughout this process, a public option that competes with private insurers is the best way to ensure choice and competition that are so badly needed in today’s market.” —President Obama on the House healthcare reform bill

But wait — the neocon media says Obama is agin’ the public option and ticked that it’s been included.

Hypocrisy watch Lieberman in 1994: Filibuster is ‘unfair’ and it isn’t ‘right’ to use it to obstruct major legislation.

Neocon media at play

For the past month, Fox has been claiming that it is not actually a “communications arm” for the Republicans. What do they think about one of their regular contributors advising Republicans on strategy behind closed doors? Will they disclose Kristol’s advisory role when he appears on the air?

Gorbachev: Bush once told me that ‘blockheads and dummies’ were supporting the ‘extreme’ Reagan.

Crazy Shelly calls out the Wingnut troops to rally against health care in DC next week. Why?  Because she’s crazy.

Teacher Suspended For Assigning Article On Homosexuality In Animals How dare he teach them to open their minds!

Is this abject stupidity, a cold heart of stone or both?

Blue Cross sent out mailers to their customers in North Carolina informing them of an 11 percent rate increase — while also asking customers to lobby Senator Hagan against the public option.

We have been enabling these corporate Democrats in their addiction to money for way too long.

Children without health insurance are far more likely to succumb to their illnesses than those with medical coverage.

Hypocrisy watch

Just so we’re clear, Republicans. It’s a bad thing for Alan Grayson to suggest that the GOP healthcare plan is to “die quickly.” But it’s okay for the Senate’s resident sleestak, Mitch McConnell, to say that the public option “may cost you your life.”

An Administration Win on Honduras

Unfortunately, foreign policy achievements have a way of not getting noticed if they don’t involve killing anyone with high explosives. This is too bad, since finding ways to resolve conflicts that don’t involve killing anyone with high explosives is generally preferable to approaches based on death and destruction.

The so-called Christian Broadcasting Network warns of time-released demon possession via Halloween I’ve heard of the devil being in the details, but to think he’s lurking inside a Snickers bar is a little too much.  Leading to, among other things, man-beast orgies.  No, it’s not from the Onion.

Like he’d know a Christian if one tapped him on his empty skull Pat Robertson on hate crimes bill: ‘The noose has tightened around the necks of Christians.’

Robertson, who has a long history of preaching vitriolic homophobia, declared earlier this year that gay marriage would lead to a “legalization of polygamy, bestiality, child molestation and pedophilia.”

The Right always gets around to violence Apparently, the ideas of Pelosi being burned or poisoned are just hilarious

Well, no duh Americans trust Obama and Democrats more than Republicans on health care.  We ain’t stoopid.

Then again, maybe we is stoopid a little We find no clear relation between income inequality and class-based voting.

I think there’s reason to believe that authoritarianism is the main driver of right-wing politics

in the contemporary United States. That’s part of the reason why these days some libertarians are strangely enthusiastic about unlimited government surveillance power (see also Jonah Goldberg who thinks cigarette taxes are fascism, but torture and indefinite detention are great) while others don’t seem very right-wing.

GOP witness details harsh impact Bush-Cheney policies had on U.S. manufacturing jobs

Neocon media at play Wall Street Journal adopts “death taxes” usage in news pages.

Hollywood big shot leaves Scientology, says its a hate-filled and bigoted” church Seems to be a lot of that going around….

Dick Cheney had a severe cognitive impairment during his time in office

Teabaggers, what say you? Do you think that government authorities calmly electrocuting citizens at their discretion is freedom?

The character of the Corprocrats

One hundred percent of credit cards offered online by the leading bank card issuers still include practices that will be outlawed once legislation passed in May takes effect next year, according to a report released this week by the Pew Health Group’s Safe Credit Cards Project.

Lying — it’s what they do Sessions Lies About Unemployment Benefits Going To ‘Illegals’ (by which he means undocumented immigrants or workers — its actually not a crime to be here without documentation)

Wingnuts rewrite history to avoid admitting and error Only the weakest and most cowardly cannot admit error

Charlie Brown’s football When Lucy offers to hold the ball for Charlie to kick, he responds — knowing that she’s going to yank it out at the last second and he’s going to fall flat on his back — “I don’t mind your dishonesty half as much as I mind your opinion of me.  You must think I’m stupid.”  Which is the perfect response to the bank lobbyists who say overdraft fees are “a courtesy,”‘very popular,” keep customers “happy.”

The Chance Of Schwarzenegger’s ‘F*ck You’ Acrostic Being Random: One In A Trillion

Jon Stewart On Fox News: ‘A Perpetual Revulsion Machine’

Liz Cheney lying again (or is it “still”?) Bush and Cheney NEVER visited Dover to honor America’s fallen.  But Reagan did — just like Obama.  And the family of the deceased in the photo gave permission for the photo long before Obama’s midnight visit was planned.  Under Bush’s rules, families had no choice: no photos were allowed, regardless of what the families wanted.  Deep thought:  The only good thing about Liz is she’s biodegradable.

Jeb Bush, after all of his exposure to government and politics, still doesn’t understand what “capitalism” means Were the Bush brothers home schooled by Babs?

Prairie pioneer seeks to reinvent the way we farm

The trend started during the 1980s, once the Regan administration began padding various committees with industry cronies and taking full advantage of the vagueness of the legislative language. Congress began writing longer bills to ensure that its intent would be properly enforced.

Your liberal MSNBC neocon media at play

On MSNBC this morning, Joe Scarborough (conservative Republican) and Pat Buchanan (conservative Republican) were discussing the recent reports on economic growth. Scarborough conceded it may have been the result of “the federal money that’s gotten in there.” Buchanan was more dismissive, calling recent growth “steroids,” adding, “[The president] pushed all of this money into the economy and pumped it up.”

In context, this seemed like criticism, though I haven’t the foggiest idea why. Wasn’t that the point — to inject capital into the system before it collapsed? To fill the hole in the economy with government spending? Shouldn’t Republicans want to see the economy “pumped up,” too?

Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) has a habit of saying remarkably dumb things. This one has layers to it.

Hypocrisy watch If a Democrat had said that the health care debate is more important than the 9/11 attacks, would the Right be all right with it?

So much for death, so little for life Anyone notice that the president signed a $680 billion defense appropriations bill in the midst of our heated debates about $90 billion a year for heath care?

GOP reaction to Pelosi’s health bill

First, going after legislation based on its length, rather than its merit, is pretty silly. Second, calling the reform plan a “government takeover” is a lie, no matter how many times conservatives repeat it.

But most important is Blunt’s invitation to comparison. The Missouri Republican wants to bring attention to the Dems’ 1,990-page bill, based on the assumption that 1,990 pages is too many. But the next question is obvious: “OK, Rep. Blunt. How many pages is the Republican health care reform plan?” For now, the correct answer is, “Zero.”

Crazy Sheriff Joe Arpaio facing FBI investigation for abusing his power by arresting his critics

An anti-Arpaio group called Maricopa Citizens for Safety Accountability, which formed last year in response to investigative reports and studies demonstrating that Arpaio’s insane obsession with illegal immigrants was destroying his office’s ability to actually deal with real law enforcement work, began showing up at county board meetings and asking to speak. Arpaio actually sent out his deputies in force to patrol these meetings, and they arrested people for merely applauding Arpaio’s critics….

 

…more than two dozen complaints against the sheriff from business owners, government workers, mayors and law-enforcement officials.

They claim they spoke out against Arpaio, and shortly after, deputies paid them unwelcome visits.

Among the public officials who have been victimized by Arpaio’s little reign of terror in Maricopa County:

– Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon, who sicced the Justice Department on Arpaio for his racial-profiling practices.

– Mesa Police Chief

– Dan Saban, who ran against the sheriff in 2004 and 2008

– Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard

– Maricopa County Manager David Smith

– The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors

– Superior Court Presiding Judge Barbara Mundell

– ACLU attorney Daniel Pochoda

 

You can hear the wingnuts asking: Why is the Wall Street Journal in the tank for the president?

I thought this was an Onion joke. But no. Walmart is selling caskets.

Using Twitter During A Demonstration Can Make You A Terrorist

Neocon media at play

In their view it’s just terrible that the Democrats are breaking with the White House and their obsession with bipartisanship and catering to Olympia Snowe and her love of the trigger. They’re more worried about advancing the meme that the Democrats are in disarray and everything is smelling like roses for the Republicans.

Of course we’re not going to get any sort of substantive debate about what’s actually in these bills and what those changes might mean to the American public. No, we get horse race coverage and meaningless talking points churned out as Chuck Todd whines about being criticized for the way they’re covering the issue.