I remain puzzled by Glenn Beck and his acolytes.  

Even if America is going ”socialist” like France — which I don’t think is happening — is that necessarily a bad thing?  They seem pretty happy over there.  And I’m reasonably sure that the vast majority of “conservative” French politicians are well to the left of Ronald Reagan.  (They don’t want insurance companies ushering them to their graves any more than I do.)

Perhaps French-style socialism CAN work for the benefit of the people.  UNLESS. . .

Dial down the hysteria, Glenn.  Big government is never going to get any smaller.  Citizens simply need to decide whose interests it will serve.  (But I think you probably know that.)

Exiting Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.

On Monday, Eric Boehlert highlighted Time’s upcoming cover story on Sarah Palin, titled, “The Outsider: Where is Sarah Palin Going Next?” While Palin has certainly received her share of bad press, a great deal of it has been the inevitable result of her own statements and actions. Interpretive articles like this one, however, are different and provide journalists with the chance to use their judgment to put past actions and ongoing trials in a broader context that will help readers better understand the subject at hand.

Which is why this article is so problematic. In it, Time’s David Von Drehle and Jay Newton-Small go to immense lengths to create a story out of thin air. In this case, it’s “The Renegade,” a tale about an unconventional politician making waves with her unpredictable behavior. The piece is deeply flawed, advancing conservative narratives without challenge and ignoring obvious realities about Palin, her home state, and the problems she faces. It’s an account that flies in the face not just of progressive criticisms of the governor, but of a growing chorus of conservative ones as well.

And it is exactly the kind of ratings-driven journalism that is, ironically, making magazines like Time less and less authoritative at a time when serious journalism couldn’t be more needed.

Fictions about Alaska

In order to allow themselves to argue that Palin’s decisions aren’t as bizarre as they seem to many observers around the country, the article’s authors begin by turning her home state into a land of mystery and wonder that inherently embraces the hands-off philosophy championed by the political right. Alaska is “remote, extreme, unfamiliar — and free.” It is a “land of self-invention, where no one bats an eye at a mom-deckhand-governor-whatever-comes-next.” We are told that in Alaska, “you make each day from the materials at hand.” The result of the unique realities confronting its citizens is an “ingrained frontier skepticism of authority — even one’s own.” Indeed, a “person learns in the Alaska vastness that humans can respond to events but never control them.”

Palin is, therefore, supposedly much like her homeland. She is “a modern-day version of the captive specimens hauled back to Europe by explorers of old,” someone who “remains, on some level, unknowable.” The conclusion becomes unavoidable. If you thought her resignation speech seemed strange, it’s just because you aren’t from Alaska, for “this was the place where her answer finally made sense.”

It isn’t helpful to offer a critique of the Alaskan ethos, which is entirely subjective. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t examine the idea that Alaska is an island unto itself, where people don’t need or want outsider help and where different norms and standards of behavior apply. The fact of the matter is that despite its physical isolation, Alaska isn’t independent of the lower 48 states at all. In fact, it is the nation’s number one recipient of federal earmarks, currently averaging more than $500 per person per year. Disgraced former Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens became chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee for a reason, a position he held until 2006. In 2008, his last year in Congress, he secured more than $200 million dollars in earmarks in the defense appropriations bill alone, and his name was attached to more than $522 million dollars in total requests.

Nor was Palin opposed to this kind of federal intervention. Operating in a state famous for spreading the wealth around through revenue sharing, Palin followed Stevens’ lead. In 2008, she requested 31 federal earmarks totaling $197 million. The same principles applied regarding the “Bridge to Nowhere” that Palin claimed she rejected. The truth is that she didn’t want to turn the money down. Instead, she advocated using (another) $200 million in federal funds Stevens procured for it for a host of public works involving transportation. Going back even further, we find that while still mayor of Wasilla, Palin successfully obtained a total of $27 million dollars for her town of about 8,000.

So much for the idea that Alaskans passively “respond to events but never control them.”

Why does this matter? Because understanding how willing the authors are to begin from a false starting point allows us to better assess how far afield of serious analysis they plan to take us. Indeed, throughout the article, one dubious narrative leads to another. Consider one final related example: the idea that Alaska politicians have an “ingrained frontier skepticism of authority — even one’s own.” That certainly doesn’t apply to Palin, who, as Wasilla’s mayor, reportedly threatened to fire a librarian, Mary Ellen Emmons, because she had refused to go along with a plan to censor library books at Palin’s whim. Anyone who argues that Alaska’s soon-to-be former governor is skeptical of authority is seeing what they want to see, not what’s in front of their eyes.

Fictions about American Politics

Many assessments of Palin’s relevancy with the voting public have hinged on her cultural appeal, and the Time piece is no different:

But for those who don’t get it, here’s a thumbnail sketch of her rightward appeal: For the pro-life movement, this cheerful mother of a Down-syndrome baby is a rousing affirmation. For the gun-rights movement, she’s a glamorous, moose-hunting shot of adrenaline. She hates on the media, never forgets the troops and is a walking middle finger to the BosNYWash élite. As Rush Limbaugh interrupted his vacation to declare, “She is going to continue to fire up people in the conservative Republican base as often as she speaks to them.”

Let’s set aside the fact that such assessments are simply stated without challenge; for example, apparently, there is a universal definition of “supporting the troops,” and Palin’s actions embody it. A question more relevant to an article about the governor’s political prospects is whether voters with priorities like these will become more or less prevalent in the years ahead.

Objective realities, such as the fact that Barack Obama was the choice of 66 percent of voters aged 18 to 29, seem to indicate that the answer is “no.” But Time draws the opposite conclusion. “Résumés ain’t what they used to be,” we are told. “[T]hey count only with people who trust credentials — a dwindling breed.” The authors imagine a future in which Palin “somehow channels this grim and possibly gathering sense that America’s institutions and authorities are no longer worthy of deference.” Without any sense of comparison, the piece notes that conservative commentator Glenn Beck’s most recent book is “selling like vampire lit” — a good thing, in this case.

All of these arguments are put forth in spite of the fact that nearly 70 million voters just “picked the lofty, cerebral liberal” for president, as the article concedes — a liberal with an exceptional Ivy League pedigree who ran a campaign focused on restoring faith and confidence in the government’s ability to tackle big problems.

Predictably, the essay soon attempts to advance a classic and easily disprovable conservative canard: that America is still a fundamentally conservative country wary of progressive ideas and programs:

A recent Gallup survey asked American adults whether they have become more conservative or more liberal in recent years, and the answer might suggest a bumpier road ahead for the Administration. Despite the Democratic sweep in 2008, “more conservative” prevailed 2 to 1. Being strong with the right is not a bad place for a woman of ambition to get started.

This often misinterpreted poll in and of itself proves only one thing: that more Americans think of themselves as conservative than think of themselves as liberal. This is the case largely because the terms themselves are fluid, as well as because the conservative onslaught against the liberal brand has been both relentless and effective. But when polled on an issue-by-issue basis, a clear majority of Americans support a wide array of progressive principles. While this reality isn’t hard to see, it is routinely ignored, as it was here, by those who are deliberately seeking to create a future tension-packed narrative that they can exploit for dramatic effect: Obama vs. Conservative America. That may be the stuff of summer movies, but it isn’t the stuff of serious political journalism.

Of course, building up the “Conservative America” side of that fight requires creating a fighter, and that’s exactly what Time is doing with articles like this one. No wonder, then, that Palin is quoted at length without any form of rebuttal, advocating what is deemed to be “a robust indictment of the Obama agenda.” An example:

“One thing reporters aren’t asking the Administration is … President Obama, how are you going to pay for this one- or two- or three-trillion-dollar health-care plan?”

It’s a transparently false statement, seeing as funding questions are routinely focused on by the press, but that fact isn’t mentioned by Time. And when she isn’t pushing the party line, the authors do it for her: “Suppose that the Obama Administration’s expansions of government don’t prove as popular — or successful — as Democrats hope,” they hypothesize. And again: “Democratic health-care proposals, [Palin] says, look increasingly like the ideas that McCain proposed during the campaign.”

By the time that Palin is allowed to pontificate on how President Obama’s “growth-of-government agenda needs to be ratcheted back,” there is no point in even asking if her assessment will be challenged. It won’t.

Fictions about Palin

Nor can we expect to receive any kind of serious evaluation of Palin herself.

To begin with, consider again the timing and premise of the article, pronounced so clearly by the image on the cover. This was written, after all, in response to the news that Palin is stepping down as governor of Alaska. We all know someone who has quit a job on principle. But elected officials are different. They are public servants, selected by the people to attempt to achieve a necessary set of goals. Nobody forced Sarah Palin to run for governor of Alaska. She chose to run, presumably because she felt that she could help her state. But now, we are being told that abandoning that responsibility and that trust makes her a renegade, instead of the opposite: an individual without the fortitude or commitment to see her work through when the going started to get tough. Many have rejected that logic — again, even conservatives. But not Time.

The article allows effusive praise to be heaped on Palin, rarely presenting a countervailing point of view. While conservative commentator Fred Barnes is mentioned as having “glumly” determined that Palin’s resignation has cost her a run for the White House, we are also regaled with the tale of the first meeting Barnes and William Kristol had with her. They are described as having been “delighted to have found a Republican fresh as a glacier breeze, seemingly tough as a sled dog, and unsullied by the internecine battles raging within the fracturing GOP.” Even her much-maligned resignation remarks were apparently a coup: “Sunlit against an Alaskan waterfront, it was as telegenic as her boffo acceptance speech.”

Investigations of Palin are portrayed as largely illegitimate, having “ranged from the bizarre … to the humiliating.” The only publication mentioned by name as having sent reporters to Alaska in order to investigate her past is the National Enquirer. Her assailants, in turn, are often pure political operatives. Credence is given to the view of Meg Stapleton, Palin’s spokeswoman, that, as the authors express it, “the anti-Palin offensive seems lifted straight from The Thumpin’, which describes the political strategies of Rahm Emanuel.” Indeed, they go even further, printing the governor’s argument that “enemies stirred up by her sudden prominence — and orchestrated, she believes, by the Obama White House — would bury her in unfounded ethics complaints.” No effort to investigate the veracity of this claim is made. What is more, the complaints themselves are painted as frivolous at best. “One complaint,” we are told, “was filed under a pseudonym borrowed from a British soap opera. Most were quickly dismissed.”

And, finally, if those behind what Time calls “silly-season attacks” aren’t vindictive Democratic politicos, then they’re simply clowns: “Despite rave reviews for her Republican National Convention speech, Palin soon became the target of late-night comics and snarky columnists.” No wonder, then, that she can’t help but respond when “the attack[s] involved family.” “In recent months,” the authors write, “she has been in an unseemly tussle with Levi Johnston,” not to mention her spat with David Letterman, after which “Palin demanded multiple apologies.”

All of this completely ignores a host of undeniable realities. First, Alaska is a state with serious corruption problems — so serious that Palin herself ran on a reformist platform. While Ted Stevens’ felony convictions were overturned this year because of prosecutorial misconduct, numerous other Alaska legislators and those associated with the state government have recently been convicted of crimes or are under investigation.

And while Palin has taken some praiseworthy steps in the name of responsible government, she is also dogged by well-deserved controversy. Her problematic involvement in the firing of Alaska state trooper Mike Wooten, her former brother-in law, was Exhibit A during the campaign. But beyond that, she has well-established difficulty telling the truth about her record. Combined with obvious examples of her questionable management style, it is impossible to argue that she shouldn’t be seriously investigated by legislators and journalists alike.

Nor is it true that only tabloids and comedians are after her. The New Yorker, The New York Times, the Associated Press, The Washington Post, CNN, and numerous other major news outlets sent reporters to her home state during the campaign to assess the validity of the accusations she faced. Extensive reporting was also, of course, provided by the Anchorage Daily News.

And regarding her supposed righteous defensiveness when her family is insulted: Well, it should be easy to see that Palin played the fabricated Letterman controversy for all the publicity it was worth — not the reaction one would expect from a parent seeking to keep her family out of the news.

A Duty Unmet

The September 2008 New Yorker article linked to above mentioned a conversation between Time’s Washington bureau chief and Nicolle Wallace, who was then a spokeswoman for the McCain campaign. As the magazine tells it:

On a talk show, the Washington bureau chief of Time told Nicole [sic] Wallace … that it was still unclear whether Palin was ready “to answer tough questions about domestic policy, foreign policy.” Wallace laughed. “Like from who? From you?” And she asked, “Who cares if she can talk to Time magazine?”

This shows the kind of reverence Time still commands. The McCain campaign was, by its own admission, “not about the issues.” And, so, its top people thought that it should steer clear of hard-hitting journalism.

But articles like “The Outsider” make such caution appear to be either a misjudgment or a rouse, indeed, flipping the question on its head: not why would Palin talk to Time, but why wouldn’t she?

Time has a circulation of more than 525,000. It has nearly 1.9 million readers, and its stories are covered by countless other publications and news programs. It is a platform most political commentators and analysts can only dream of. The magazine has, therefore, an immense responsibility — and an immense opportunity — to provide serious journalism to the public. “The Outsider” is an example of the opposite: faulty reasoning and superficial reporting packaged as edgy analysis, all done in the name of entertainment, not investigation. It’s a story that has become all too common.

The article is also a perfect example of how conservatives work to exploit the “liberal media” that Palin has made such a point of deriding. The strategy is simple: attack with one hand, infiltrate with the other. Unfortunately, that’s just politics. But it doesn’t mean the media needs to go along with it. Rather, it has a duty to the public to resist, and to maintain the objectivity and seriousness of a truly free press.

“Cut loose from her obligations to her huge and awesome homeland,” Time concludes, “[Palin's] message remains quintessentially Alaskan. Where she comes from — the last American frontier — the past is irrelevant, the rules are suspended, and limitations are for losers.”

That may define the psychological landscape of some residents of Alaska, but it shouldn’t describe the landscape of the American media.

John Santore
Media Matter for America

Check out people getting mad at Mike Castle:

And remember what I said.

Go Delaware!

While the left in government fiddle with health care Rome is burning. We are told that defense cuts are for our own good.

Yet over 1,000 missile defense workers just got their pink slips:

“Our hearts and compassion certainly go out to our employees” and others affected by the layoffs, [Boeing VP Tony Jones] said Thursday.

In a statement, Boeing said layoff notices will be issued to about 250 employees working in GMD [Ground-based Midcourse Defense, i.e. long-range ICBM interceptors]at various locations, including Alabama, Alaska, California and Colorado. They are to receive an official 60-day advance notice today, but Jones said it won’t be a surprise.

“We’ve talked to all of our employees,” he said. “We’ve done a lot of work” to try and minimize the impact, find jobs in other programs for as many as possible and provide other assistance.

The cuts are part of 1,000 jobs Boeing’s Integrated Defense Systems said this week it plans to eliminate at various locations because of changes in defense spending.
Huntsville Times, quoted by Closing Velocity.

The multiple kill vehicle, KEI and Airborne laser got the ax as well. They would have added to our growing missile defense. These patriots reward for serving their country as opposed to Wall Street? Getting bounced out on their butts in the midst of the worst economy since 1929.
Once this expertise is gone its gone forever, we just can dust it off or turn it back on. Only in the movies does some mothballed airplane or missile get a second chance.

The cuts of the Clinton and Carter years ate at our military. Both times retention, maintenance and combat performance fell because the doves and accountants in Congress wanted to save a few pennies. They hate a strong America and/or want to spend money on other programs. They had their chance. Ever since the 1960’s we’ve heard the refrain “A nation that can go to the moon…” (fill in the socialist pipe dream of your choice).

We don’t need universal anything. They had their chance, the “Great Society” was made of EPIC FAIL. Socialism is a joke. The European countries of NATO are just now facing a world where they have to step up to the plate and they are having trouble.

Our enemies are upgrading, our gear is wearing out but the “peace at any price” crowd want to gut our military. In. A. Time. Of. War. Even Wired magazine has to admit that missile defense works.

Change indeed.

For the record I am not fully behind Republican plans for health care reform, but Senator Kyle is on point in describing the Democrat’s plan.  More debt and higher taxes helps no one during this recession.

Obama Administration May Create New Team of Terrorism Interrogators (FoxNews)

Now this is the scary line in this story

‘Who would be overseeing these new efforts remains unclear, but it would not be the Central Intelligence Agency, marking a clear shift from Bush-era policies.’

Guess Obama is testing the waters for his own private intelligence  group right here right now. Think about it what a great place to start–who on the left is going to call him on this without looking like their siding with GWB’s policies, they can tell the masses it’s a new day–we’ve changed the way we treat terrorist–the evil lying CIA is no longer involved and he’ll get his pass and that will be it. And to continue:

‘The team’s efforts, for example, would focus more on gathering intelligence than on assembling evidence suitable for use in a criminal trial.” Against who?

The CIA cannot work against citizens inside the US that’s the job of the FBI..soooo if you take it out of their hands and give it to whoever–Where will they work and against whom??

Sound paranoid—remember the NKVD? You’ll never see it coming.

Every time I read stuff like this, it disgusts me to the point of total despair.

Apparently, the American Conservative Union is involved in a pay-for-play operation in an attempt to shake down FedEx for a few million in exchange for access to ACU executive director David Keene’s column in The Hill and other outlets. FedEx is opposing legislation that would make it easier to force unionization down the throats of the company, something that is dragging down its major competitor, UPS, which supports the legislation.

When FedEx refused to cough up the extortion money, the ACU flipped sides, sold out its principles and sided with UPS.

Mike Allen of The Politico has the exclusive story here.

Ed Morrissey has more here, including counterclaims by the ACU which do little to dispel the original charges. As Ricky Ricardo would say: “Lucy, you have some ’splainin’ to do.”

Michelle Malkin tells Republicans and conservatives — no, they are not one and the same — to clean up their own house.

We’ve got major battles on the Hill and fundamental principles to defend.

Show the corrupted, Beltway-infected, power-drunk Republicans the door.

And get back to work.

Over at Red State, Erick Erickson reminds us of just what a sellout David Keene is:

When Dave Keene lends his name to a project, whether right or wrong, the implicit understanding is that ACU is backing the project.

It was, you will recall, this method by which Dave Keene and ACU helped sink Pat Toomey’s bid against Arlen Specter the last time. ACU stayed out of the race, but Dave Keene made sure everyone knew he was supporting Arlen Specter and that he was the head of the American Conservative Union.

No real conservative would have backed the Magic (Bullet) Man over Pat Toomey.

And via Conservatives4Palin, we learn that Keene is just another tool of the Beltway insiders, the blueblood countryclubber Rockefeller/Bush Republicans, lining up to trash Sarah Palin.

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Michael Steele, chairman of the RNC, has a new strategy to bring the youth into the republican tent.  Few days ago, he suggested part of his strategy might be to lure African Americans in with chicken and potato salad, unfortunately I hate eating chicken and I’m impartial to potato salad, so looks like I wont have the opportunity to be targeted with it.  Another part of his strategy apparently called, “hip hop storm” strategy where goes on networks like BET and popular RadioOne stations and universities to start a “conversation”.

The truth is that, though I think it’s “honorable” that Steele is reaching out and the GOP needs to do that, but the strategy isn’t going to work.  First, putting the word “hip hop” in the name of even political strategy is insulting.  You really can’t assume that just because something is hip hop that it’ll lure African American and youth of all backgrounds.  Also, that’s assuming the actual word hip hop is still cool for a 40 something year old to say, heck, 20 somethings hardly use the word as much as they used to.  Also, to add here, it’s not hip hop if you have to constantly tell everyone it’s hip hop!

Pres. Obama is a nerd, but he was still came off as cool because he wasn’t trying to prove he was “hip hop“.  It’s really the entertainment industry that voluntarily got the word out about him and then people started checking him out for themselves.  Steele is going to need help from music artist if he thinks something hip hop(ish) is the way to go.  50 cent didn’t necessarily jump on the Obama wagon so maybe he’d be happy to help Steele.  Also, lets not forget the Daddy Yankee supported McCain during the campaign, maybe he’d help.

Also, another factor that helped Pres. Obama amongst the young crowd was that he had 20 somethings working in his campaign.  It wasn’t just volunteers handing out fliers that were younger, but his speech writer, campaign policy directors, and those that worked in the main offices.  The RNC and state headquarters have none of that.  The young people that do participate get passed over for high positions to a nearly 40 something that endorses racism and spread bigotry.  I’m sure there’s exceptions out there, but they obviously aren’t the mainstream of the GOP.  Then on top of that, the loudest and most popular of republicans are the ones making racial and extreme comments, basically sounding like some backwoods cabin nutcase that doesn’t realize it’s 2009.  Anyways, here’s what Steele said to a caller on a radio show, audio via Think Progress.

WordPress.com Political Blogger Alliance

The Republican Party: Who can we offend today? Hmm.
Michael Steele: “Ya’ll come,”
Rove: “The liberal Congess cannot be trusted.”
Lynnn Cheney: “SUCK MY DAD’S COCK, HE DOES WHAT HE PLEASES.”
Well, that is a start.
Let’s meet the day ahead.

 Last night when I read Walter Cronkite had died I felt a real sense of sadness. He is the last of his kind. He was once named the “Most trusted man in America ‘’. This is a title that no journalist will ever receive in our time. We live in the age of instant news and we have very few real journalists in our newsroom. We have talking heads, blowhards and egomaniacs sitting at our news desks. We no longer just have the big three networks. We will never respect or trust a journalist like we trusted Uncle Walter. His death is not an end of an era because that era ended a long time ago. Walter Cronkite mattered because in his time and during turbulent times in this country he sat at the desk and gave it to us straight. No false indignation, no opinion, the facts plain and simple told by a reliable source and that is what is missing from the news today.

Note: I had a link to something; it turned out to be a hoax and it was therefore deleted.

The Congressional Budge Office PDF report is here; this is legitimate.

Yes, you’ll hear lots of stuff from the other side.

So, just ask yourself a simple question: just what have they been right about, ever? How about: what have they been right about during the previous administration? Listen.

Who’s right? There’s no real way to resolve this debate without examining the content of these amendments, and the committee has yet to officially release them. But a Senate Republican source sent Slate a summary of many of the amendments, with a short description of each. (Download the Excel file.) Disclaimer: This is an incomplete list.

Of the 788 amendments filed, only 437 appear here. And of the 161 GOP amendments passed or accepted, we have confirmed only 80 as such. We hope to update the document as more information becomes available.

That said, some context: Of the 788 amendments filed, 67 came from Democrats and 721 from Republicans. (That disparity that Republicans were trying to slow things down. Another explanation may be that they offered so many so they could later claim-as they are now, in fact, claiming-that most of their suggestions went unheeded.) Only 197 amendments were passed in the end-36 from Democrats and 161 from Republicans.

And of those 161 GOP amendments, Senate Republicans classify 29 as substantive and 132 as technical.

Video:

Honoured link: there

Bad news for the unemployed, Texas’ unemployment fund will be empty by next week.
Bottom line, if you’re one of the 822,000 Texans claiming unemployment, just hang in there. Read More

Yep! Just hang in there while you lose all your savings and belongings! Just hang in there while Obama spends billions of your tax money on banks and car companies such as GM. Just hang in there while Obama and his family travels around the World with your tax money! Yep! Just hang in there while Obama keeps spending, spending and spending!
It will not be long before 4 million or more workers join you in the unemployment lines if Obama gets his way and taxes small businesses for his Obamacare plan!

Under current law, the federal budget is on an unsustainable path, because federal debt will continue to grow much faster than the economy over the long run. Although great uncertainty surrounds long-term fiscal projections, rising costs for health care and the aging of the population will cause federal spending to increase rapidly under any plausible scenario for current law. Read More

Obama are you listening? People maybe he has cotton in his muslim ears! Wait a minute so does all the democrats in congress has cotton in their ears. The voters should remember this come 2010 election!

While Charles W. “Chip” Pickering Jr. was the Congressman from Mississippi’s 3rd District, the Republican, a former Baptist missionary, lived at the Fellowship Foundation residence at 133 C Street SE in Washington. He also used that convenient Christian pad to bed a woman not his wife, according to divorce papers filed by Leisha Pickering, mother of the ex-congressman’s five sons.

“C Street” was also home to philandering Republicans Mark Sanford and John Ensign. The building is the site of frequent Bible study meetings where “Love thy neighbor” seems to have acquired an interesting interpretation that trumps the Ten Commandments.

The other woman in the Pickering affair is Elizabeth Creekmore-Byrd, whose family owns the Cellular South corporation. Mr. Pickering is Cellular South’s Washington lobbyist.

Outside fundamentalist and telecom circles, Mr. Pickering is know as the son of a controversial judge and for his cameo in the Borat movie.

Selected coverage of the Pickering scandal:

“Leisha Pickering v. Elizabeth Creekmore-Byrd,”  Ipse Blogit

“Chip Pickering’s ‘Family’ affair,”  Facing South

“Yet Another C Street Republican Cheated On His Wife,” Gawker

“C Street Christians: When Good Congressmen Go Bad,” Politics Daily

“Pickering Affair Raises New Questions About ‘Revolving Door’ Of Secretive Fellowship Group,” Think Progress

The bunny logo is a registered trademark of the GOP Playboy Enterprises and is used here under the satire provisions of the Fair Use Doctrine.

Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

A group committed to establishing an international Islamic empire and reportedly linked to Al Qaeda is stepping up its Western recruitment efforts by holding its first official conference in the U.S.

Hizb ut-Tahrir is a global Sunni network with reported ties to confessed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Al Qaeda in Iraq’s onetime leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. It has operated discreetly in the U.S. for decades.

Now, it is coming out of the shadows and openly hosting a July 19 conference entitled, “The Fall of Capitalism and the Rise of Islam,” at a posh Hilton hotel in a suburb of Chicago. Click SOURCE to read more.

Bin Laden said that the next attack on America would come from within its own government, people what do you call the spending gone wild ways of Obama if its not an attack on our economy and way of life? Now where is Obama and Homeland Security when it comes to allowing this Islamic group to have meeting inside America which is against the Country and its people? When will congress and our laws stand up and say enough is enough?

LINKS:

(1) Republicans: Clean your own house

(2) Obama’s America Bashing Continues

The director of the Congressional Budget Office issued a warning to Democrats Thursday that their health care proposals would raise costs, not lower them.

One day after a Senate panel approved its version of the health care reform plan, the first committee to do so, CBO Director Doug Elmendorf gave a dose of bad medicine to a separate committee.

Asked by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., whether costs would be lowered — also known as “bending the curve” — Elmendorf responded: “The curve is being raised.”

Subsidies to help uninsured people would raise federal health care spending, which is already growing at an unsustainable rate, Elmendorf explained at the hearing. The Medicare and Medicaid cuts that lawmakers have offered to pay for the coverage expansion aren’t big enough to offset the cost trend, particularly in the long term, he said. Read More

Like I have said, the truth is coming out and the American people should keep speaking out against tax increases and losing their private insurance!

Centrist Democrats are threatening to oppose their party’s healthcare legislation unless House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) accepts changes that make the bill more to their liking.

Seven Blue Dogs on the House Energy and Commerce Committee have banded together to draft amendments that they’ll co-sponsor in the committee markup, which starts Thursday. Rep. Mike Ross (D-Ark.), the Blue Dogs’ point man on healthcare, says if those changes aren’t accepted, they’ll vote down the bill. Read More

Its time to start contacting your congressmen letting them know that you don’t want your private Insurance taken away and not to raise your taxes. Most Americans do not want government ran healthcare!

It didn’t take long to run into an “uh-oh” moment when reading the House’s “health care for all Americans” bill. Right there on Page 16 is a provision making individual private medical insurance illegal. Read More

Hello! Truth coming out!