Liberals Are Cool Wishes You A Happy New Year

Happy New Year from me to you. Here's to a great 2009!

Thanks to everyone for checking out my blog the past few months. 2008 was the first year I started blogging and I hope next year, Liberals Are Cool will be on your daily stop for news and insights.

With all the obvious bad things in the headlines, I am opting for a posting about the things I'm happy about on this the last day of 2008:

Obama is our next President
The Yankees signed CC Sabathia and Mark Teixeira
My family is less politically divided these days
The NY Football Giants have home field throughout the play-offs
My Mom's eye operation went well
My brother Stephen is happily married since December 17
Science is back in vogue
Notre Dame won a Bowl game, after losing 9 straight
Ashlee got her stolen Blackberry back, minus SIM
My Dad and VOTF are going strong
Dunkin Donuts coffee is still good
Curb Your Enthusiasm Season 6 DVD, the new Season 7 in 2009!
Dick Cheney is out of office in 20 days

I'll add more as I think of them. Comment your own if you'd like.

May your next 12 months be happy and healthy, with just the right amount of truth, vice, humor and politics from Liberals Are Cool.

Scarborough Pwned

Zbigniew Brzezinski to Joe Scarborough:

"you know, you have such a stunningly superficial knowledge of what went on that it's almost embarrassing to listen to you."

Joe lives in the world of 24 and slogans, he sees no consequences for horrible Bush policies for the past 8 years and their ambivalence toward a peace process, then mocks the guy who schooled him.

Full disclosure: Co-host Mika Brzezinski is Zbigniew Brzezinski's daughter. Maybe that's why Joe held back and didn't pull an O'Reilly.

Bush: Quote Of The Day

"President Abbas and Prime Minister Olmert, I pledge to devote my effort during my time as president to do all I can to help you achieve this ambitious goal. I give you my personal commitment to support your work with the resources and resolve of the American government."

- President Bush, November 2007, at the Middle East summit in Annapolis

This was a personal pledge. 13 months later, zilch.

With the recent violent activity between Hamas and Israel, the worst in 40 years, Bush has not even put in a formal statement for restraint, choosing to stay on vacation instead.

Shit eating grin of a sociopath from that day.

You Can Have Your Scandals, I Want My Money Back

Say what you will about scandals and Presidents: Nixon had Watergate, Carter had hostages in Iran, Reagan had Iran-Contra, Bush 41 had the S&L crisis, Clinton had Monica Lewinsky. They were men of weakness.

What effect did those scandals have on your life savings?

Now we have the mother of all scandals. George W. Bush defies just one scandal, he administration ideology embodies the entire meaning. His life is one big scandal. He is so good at what he does, that, regardless of your political affiliation, he has crushed your life savings, single-minded-ly and with extreme success. Don't mess with a man's money? Bush took that next level, that's the big difference here.

Through his monetary policy, his horrendous spend and borrow tactics and subsequent bailouts of entire industries, he will weaken whatever dollars you even have left.

Bush was in charge with our economy and crushed it. He softened oversight and let Wall St. crush itself. He started a war and cut taxes. He pushed ownership and increased our need to borrow. He attacked countries and crushed their economies. His policies effected gas prices which effected real prices of goods around the globe.

All around the world, Bush has taken what people had and halved it.

Yes, Presidents are capable of weak moments. But George Bush is the first President in a long time to take your money as he is committing his scandals.

John Lennon Brought Back To Life

John Lennon's likeness and voice are used in the latest OLPC ad. I like the program, just think the fake voice and use of "imagine" are lame.

Another questionable decision by Yoko.



Source: http://laptop.org/en/

If Only Bush Treated Katrina Like Terri Schiavo

Mother Jones has a great piece on the recent Vanity Fair article on Bush's mishandling of Katrina and how it killed his Presidency:

"I think this is only half right. I've long believed that what really killed Bush was the contrast between his handling of Katrina and his handling of the Terri Schiavo case, which had come only a few months earlier. It was just too stark. What the American public saw was that when the religious right was up in arms, the president and the Republican Party acted. Bill Frist performed his famous long-distance diagnosis; Tom DeLay fulminated on the floor of the House; Republicans tried to subpoena both Terri and Michael Schiavo; and President Bush interrupted his vacation and made his famous midnight flight to Washington DC to sign a bill transferring the case to federal court. It was both a whirlwind and a political circus.

And it showed that Bush could be moved to action if the right constituency was at risk. It wasn't just that Bush was mostly MIA during the early stages of Katrina, but that he was plainly capable of being engaged in an emergency if it was the right kind of emergency. But apparently New Orleans wasn't it. And that was the final nail in the coffin of his presidency."

Wiping out New Orleans was not enough for Bush, he wanted to add "wiping out your savings" to the list.

They are all nails in the Iraq coffin. Thank you George Bush for not caring.

Source: Kevin Drum

VIDEO: Peter Schiff On CNBC 12.29.08

Peter Schiff on CNBC 12.29.08. We squandered our wealth, let our infrastructure and industrial base decay, borrowed and spent too much, we still have over-valued assets and have people employed in sectors that shouldn't be.

Part 1:
Run away from the dollar! It's being inflated by the Fed. Going to collapse. Substitute "inflation" for "stimulus". Commodities is what Peter likes.



Part 2: [starts around 2:30]
Government is forcing us to borrow, substituting Government debt for private debt, pouring gas on our inflation worries. We need to pay off our debt. Buy gold!

Lee Camp: Say It Ain't So

Hilarious list of contradictions by Lee Camp. If you're going to do crime, go big.

* After having a few drinks, Dick Cheney shoots a man, Harry Whittington, in the face nearly killing him. Result: the victim gives a press conference on the steps of the hospital apologizing for causing his would-be killer so much grief. Cheney will live out the rest of his life in a mansion in an undisclosed location swimming through a pool of gold coins.

* Plaxico Burress shoots himself in the leg. Result: he is charged with criminal possession of a firearm. He will likely spend time in jail.

The difference between these two incidents seems to be that unlike Harry Whittington, Plaxico Burress was shot by a black man.

and

* The Bush administration permits the use of dogs in interrogation and torture of suspected terrorists. This is a violation of the Geneva Conventions. Result: none except that Bush's Scottish terrier Barney occasionally gives him the stink eye.

* Michael Vick gets convicted of helping to run a dog fighting ring. Result: he's sentenced to 23 months in federal prison.

So if you use dogs to harm dogs, you're sentenced to jail time. If you use dogs to harm humans, you receive no repercussions except a moderate grilling on Meet The Press.

Source: Lee Camp

Six Degrees Of Bernie Madoff Gets Kevin Bacon

Six degrees of Kevin Bacon is apparently not a good think when your investments are linked with Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme. Looks like that Footloose money is gone.



Source: NYMag

Dick Clark Is Not Rockin'

Walker? Wheelchair? Let it go.

350 Dead In Four Days, Rinse, Lather, Repeat.

Would any other country get away with this?

Israel continued to launch airstrikes against Hamas targets in Gaza on Tuesday, one day after Defense Minister Ehud Barak told Parliament that Israel is engaged in an “all-out war with Hamas.”

Hamas killed 4 Israelis with rockets, Israel killed 350 [60 of them civilians] with F-16s.

Substitute any country for Israel.

Iran continues airstrikes?
Russia continues airstrikes?
China continues airstrikes?
Syria continues airstrikes?
North Korea continues airstrikes?
Cuba continues airstrikes?
Pakistan continues airstrikes?

Bombing a smaller population, with more powerful weapons? WTF?

Hamas was democratically elected. [Remember Condi Rice said she couldn't see it coming] Why is there no active diplomacy?

Ex-Aides Finally Take On Bush

Ex-Bush aides grow balls after 3 years and critique their old boss about his handling of Katrina:

"Katrina to me was the tipping point," said Matthew Dowd, Bush's pollster and chief strategist for the 2004 presidential campaign. "The president broke his bond with the public. Once that bond was broken, he no longer had the capacity to talk to the American public. State of the Union addresses? It didn't matter. Legislative initiatives? It didn't matter. P.R.? It didn't matter. Travel? It didn't matter."

Dan Bartlett, former White House communications director and later counselor to the president, said: "Politically, it was the final nail in the coffin."

Poor W, never recovered from the death of New Orleans. Trouble is, neither did New Orleans.

More to come in the February issue of Vanity Fair. I'm particularly looking forward to Colin Powell's former top aide and later chief of staff, Lawrence Wilkerson, and his take on Cheney.

"He became vice president well before George Bush picked him," Wilkerson said of Cheney. "And he began to manipulate things from that point on, knowing that he was going to be able to convince this guy to pick him, knowing that he was then going to be able to wade into the vacuums that existed around George Bush _ personality vacuum, character vacuum, details vacuum, experience vacuum."

Cheney knew what a mental lightweigh Bush was and played him like a fiddle.

We all knew Bush was a joke in 2000, we on the Left all saw this coming. The Republicans, on the other hand, seem to only want to talk about it now after all the damage has been done.

Thanks, but no thanks. Your fate is sealed. Your hindsight is worthless.

Source: HuffPo

Bush: Clown Or Villain

Bush and his two biggest objective surrogates, his wife Laura and second-wife, the invisible Condi Rice, are pushing hard to have us think long-term about his presidency. That one day we will be thankful.

Don't get caught up in his failed wars, horrible foreign policy, his out-of-control spending, his massive debt, his lack of oversight, his cronyism, the fact that 9/11 happened on his watch, his federalizing of the financial, mortgage and banking industries, his shredding of the Constitution, his torture policies, his contempt for Rule Of Law, his undying loyalty to massive failures like Rumsfeld and Cheney, his warrantless wiretapping, his choice of Alberto Gonzales, his handling of Katrina, his handling of Climate Change and the environment, his banning of stem cell research, his hatred of science, his handling of Wall St [how's your 401k?], and even his real failures like privatizing Social Security, nominating Harriet Myers for the Supreme Court and pushing for Constitutional changes for marriage.

The Three Banditos are using the "you'll see" approach. We've got absolutely nothing now, but somehow through time, this shit will turn to gold. But is this lying? Delusional, yes. Deceptive, yes. Denial, yes.

The facts are he lied about most everything. Why would he stop now?

History will be most cruel toward the Bush posse. His supporters, we'll call them close family and inner-circle political incompetents, will still find him folksy and more of a clown. His detractors, or people who like truth and facts, let's just called them carbon-based lifeforms, will find him a villain.

And the worst kind of villain. The one who does it with a smile. The one who spends all the money. The one who stokes fear to help only his agenda. The one who thinks "if only they had tried harder of believed in me more, this would have worked". That last line sounds better in German.

Maybe for some, being the worst villain isn't enough.

Seems Bush has spent the most effort trying to predict how people will think of him in 20 years then by actually doing his job now.

Source: Washington Monthly

VIDEO: The Prosecution Of George W. Bush

Donald Trump, Vincent Bugliosi, Mike Gravel, Dennis Kucinich, Sean Penn, Ralph Nader, Joe Biden and Naomi Wolf chime in.

Impeachment is over, January 21, 2009 we can start the prosecution.



Source: BuzzFlash

Teen Abstinence Oxymoron For Moronic Conservatives

If it wastes money and has negative results, it has the GOP stamp of approval. Conservatives pass their hypocrisy on to their kids:

Teenagers who pledge to remain virgins until marriage are just as likely to have premarital sex as those who do not promise abstinence and are significantly less likely to use condoms and other forms of birth control when they do, according to a study released today.

The new analysis of data from a large federal survey found that more than half of youths became sexually active before marriage regardless of whether they had taken a "virginity pledge," but that the percentage who took precautions against pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases was 10 points lower for pledgers than for non-pledgers.

"Taking a pledge doesn't seem to make any difference at all in any sexual behavior," said Janet E. Rosenbaum of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, whose report appears in the January issue of the journal Pediatrics. "But it does seem to make a difference in condom use and other forms of birth control that is quite striking."

So take the pledge, promise your parents to wait, end up having sex, but use fewer condoms and partake in more dangerous sex. Sarah Palin must be so proud.

Bush and his GOP policy makers have spent the past 8 years with this experiment of teen abstinence and their social experiment has failed. The one thing you can count on is that when you have hormones raging through your body, you're going to want to have sex. It's nature, it's science, it's survival.

You think the Jonas Brothers and their phony promise rings, or go back to Britney Spears and n*sync, are having any effect? What about Jamie Lynn Spears learning from big sis?

By denying proper education through federally funded programs you are giving "ownership" to celebrities and urban legends to teach your kids about sex.

And what it the rationale for no condoms? The church? Does the Church deliver babies, does the Church treat sick babies? Do priests know how effective condoms are? Are they contemplating if they can afford a pregnancy?

When I want an opinion on how not to have a sexual identity, to never have sex and to never have a relationship with a woman, I'll ask a priest. He'll give me a Bronze Age perspective based on anonymous texts translated and edited by Emperors and misogynists, based on zero experience.

Source: WaPo

Detroit Goes Winless

Sort of fitting that the same year Detroit's car industry takes a hit, it's hometown football team, the Lions, set a record for going winless in a season, 0-16.

First time a team has lost all 16 games in a season.

At least they manned up, unlike wimps like Bush:

“I think the record speaks for itself,” said their stone-faced coach, Rod Marinelli, adding, “We have nobody to point a finger at other than ourselves.”

Stalin Still Has That Tyrannical Charm

I posted the other day about Hollywood's fascination with Che Guevera. Despite being a conformist anti-artist known to hunt down creative types and have them put to death, Che t-shirts are seen ubiquitously.

Seems the Russians have the same problem with Josef Stalin. He was voted third most popular Russian. His resume': "millions of Soviet citizens perished from famine during forced collectivization, were executed as 'enemies of the people' or died in Gulag hard labor camps during Stalin's rule which lasted for almost 30 years until his death in 1953."

Trivia: His real last name is Jughashvili, he was born a serf in Gori, Georgia and choose his nom de guerre, Stalin, because it means "steel". More like steal.

At the top of the list was 13th century prince Alexander Nevsky, who defeated German invaders, followed by Pyotr Stolypin, a prime minister in the early 20th century known for agrarian reforms and a clampdown on leftist revolutionaries.

Source: Reuters

Stiglitz: Capitalist Fools

Great article by Nobel-laureate economist Joesph Stiglitz in January's Vanity Fair. Behind the debate over remaking U.S. financial policy will be a debate over who’s to blame. Stiglitz, who co-authored The Three Trillion Dollar War, identifies five key mistakes under Reagan, Clinton, and Bush II.

Here is just a brief recap of the five points:

No. 1: Firing the Chairman
"Greenspan presided over not one but two financial bubbles."

No. 2: Tearing Down the Walls
"The deregulation philosophy would pay unwelcome dividends for years to come. In November 1999, Congress repealed the Glass-Steagall Act—the culmination of a $300 million lobbying effort by the banking and financial-services industries, and spearheaded in Congress by Senator Phil Gramm."

No. 3: Applying the Leeches
"Then along came the Bush tax cuts"

No. 4: Faking the Numbers
"Meanwhile, on July 30, 2002, in the wake of a series of major scandals—notably the collapse of WorldCom and Enron—Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. The scandals had involved every major American accounting firm, most of our banks, and some of our premier companies, and made it clear that we had serious problems with our accounting system."

No. 5: Letting It Bleed
"The final turning point came with the passage of a bailout package on October 3, 2008—that is, with the administration’s response to the crisis itself. We will be feeling the consequences for years to come."

Stiglitz sums it up:

"The truth is most of the individual mistakes boil down to just one: a belief that markets are self-adjusting and that the role of government should be minimal".

Republican capitalism is dead.

Source: Vanity Fair

The Iceland Bubble

How did a whole country become insolvent? I know things are tough here, but at least our dollar is not valueless like the krona.

"Iceland is an extreme casualty of an era in which it became extraordinarily easy to borrow money. But it was more than that: An examination of the nation's banking system, which collapsed over about 10 days this autumn, reveals the degree to which Iceland was one of the international financial bubble's most enthusiastic players. Home to fewer people than Wichita, Kan., Iceland became so leveraged and so deeply intertwined with the global financial infrastructure that its collapse has rattled the world from Tokyo to California to the Middle East."

Source: WSJ

POLL: Who Will Be Indicted First?

Added a poll to the right column of this blogger template, who in the Bush Administration will be indicted first?

Your choices are George Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Karl Rove and Condi Rice. So many to pick from, it was tough limiting it to 5 people.

Be sure to vote.

Bush Never Met A Fraud He Didn't Like

The Bush Administration turned a blind eye towards corruption for 8 years and we all paid for it. I won't even mention honorary Bush Cabinet member  Ken Lay and Enron:

"Federal officials are bringing far fewer prosecutions as a result of fraudulent stock schemes than they did eight years ago, according to new data, raising further questions about whether the Bush administration has been too lax in policing Wall Street."

It's like we learn nothing from our previous mistakes when Republicans are in charge, greed always wins out.

"At a time when the financial news is being dominated by the $50 billion Ponzi scheme that Bernard L. Madoff is accused of running, federal officials are on pace this year to bring the fewest prosecutions for securities fraud since at least 1991, according to the data, compiled by a Syracuse University research group using Justice Department figures."

Lowest since 1991? I wonder who was President back then?

Source: NYT

Healthcare For All And To All A Good Year

Let the re-booting of America begin.

In Canada, the universal health care system is simply called medicare -- and that's what it should be in the U.S. And instead of the 1342-page proposal Hillary Clinton put together that was a politically jerry-rigged, confusing plan -- or the Obama proposal that would leave insurance companies pretty much intact (whose goal is to make money by reducing care as much as possible) -- it would be the simplest and boldest political move to simply propose to Congress this sentence to become law: "All Americans under the age of 65 will be covered by Medicare Part 'E.'"

This is far from solving all the problems with pharmaceuticals and lobbyists, not to mention cynicism, but this is the direction we need to be heading.

Critics always point out the flaws in otter countries' universal healthcare, why do you think we'll make the same mistakes here, why assume the negative?

Read on: Source: BuzzFlash

Waterboarding Or Waterbeds?

This is how you win the hearts and minds of the Afghans.

The Afghan chieftain looked older than his 60-odd years, and his bearded face bore the creases of a man burdened with duties as tribal patriarch and husband to four younger women. His visitor, a CIA officer, saw an opportunity, and reached into his bag for a small gift.

Four blue pills. Viagra.

"Take one of these. You'll love it," the officer said. Compliments of Uncle Sam.

The enticement worked. The officer, who described the encounter, returned four days later to an enthusiastic reception. The grinning chief offered up a bonanza of information about Taliban movements and supply routes -- followed by a request for more pills.

Thinking "out of the box" has become "get into the box" thinking.

All that waterboarding when all you needed was a waterbed.

Next up, Gillette razors for the ladies.

Source: Washington Monthly

Bah Humbug To Retail Sales

Deflation: why buy now when you can buy later at a cheaper cost? Not really a big story on CNBC or the MSM, the cheaper prices arer good for consumers, but not so great for earnings. I wonder why it's a buried story? *wink*

Price-slashing failed to rescue a bleak holiday season for beleaguered retailers, as sales plunged across most categories on shrinking consumer spending, according to new data released Thursday.

Despite a flurry of last-minute shoppers lured by the deep discounts, total retail sales, excluding automobiles, fell over the year-earlier period by 5.5% in November and 8% in December through Christmas Eve, according to MasterCard Inc.'s SpendingPulse unit.

[C]onsidering individual sectors, "This will go down as the one of the worst holiday sales seasons on record," said Mary Delk, a director in the retail practice at consulting firm Deloitte LLP. 

"Retailers went from 'Ho-ho' to 'Uh-oh' to 'Oh-no.'"

Will be interesting to see the retail landscape in March and April. Lots of lay-offs and store closings.



Source: WSJ

Obama: My Only Real Gift

The only thing I wished for I got.

Happy Festivus

Happy Festivus [for the rest of us] A brief History. As told by George Costanza.

Meanings Behind Christmas Traditions

What's behind Christmas traditions – and just how traditional are they? Should be good dinner table fodder amongst the traditionalists, the neo-gnostics, the secularists and the strict consumerists.

Just one of the UK-centric examples:

Why is Christmas Day on 25 December?

The Bible offers no date for the birth of Jesus, which probably was not in the year 1AD, but a few years earlier, and may or may not have been in December. The celebration of the birth of Christ on 25 December dates back to the fifth century, when Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire.

The date was chosen to coincide with the winter solstice and the Roman festivals associated with the shortest day of the year, which falls between 22 December and 25 December. This was seen as the day when the Romans celebrated Dies Natalis Solis Invicti – "the birthday of the unconquered sun". It was also Jupiter's birthday and, further back, the birthday of his Greek equivalent, Zeus. In Eastern Europe, the various Orthodox churches – the Russian, Greek, Armenian, Serbian et al, follow the old Gregorian calendar, and in which Christmas Day is 7 January There is no Santa Claus in the Gospels.

Source: Independent UK

Holidaze Greetings

From me to you.

Elisabeth Hasselbeck's 25 Most Annoying Moments Of 2008

The IQ of a small stone.



Source: Jezebel

Christmas Personified

Christmas greetings from the GOP. Probably shot last week in Arkansas. Maybe Wasilla?

Henrietta and Merna. Classic



Source: BoingBoing

Cheney Arrogance Should Lead To Investigations

Investigative reporting still exists! The War Criminal exposed:

"Vice President Dick Cheney, according to a still-highly confidential FBI report, admitted to federal investigators that he rewrote talking points for the press in July 2003 that made it much more likely that the role of then-covert CIA-officer Valerie Plame in sending her husband on a CIA-sponsored mission to Africa would come to light.

Cheney conceded during his interview with federal investigators that in drawing attention to Plame’s role in arranging her husband’s Africa trip reporters might also unmask her role as CIA officer.

Cheney denied to the investigators, however, that he had done anything on purpose that would lead to the outing of Plame as a covert CIA operative. But the investigators came away from their interview with Cheney believing that he had not given them a plausible explanation as to how he could focus attention on Plame’s role in arranging her husband’s trip without her CIA status also possibly publicly exposed. At the time, Plame was a covert CIA officer involved in preventing Iran from obtaining weapons of mass destruction, and Cheney’s office played a central role in exposing her and nullifying much of her work."

The small picture is the timing of the outing. Did Dick Armitage actually out Plame some will argue. The big picture is Cheney stops at nothing to get his wars started. Not the Geneva Convention, not the Constitution. Rule of Law was stymied.

Seems Cheney is slipping in his final days, a need to talk to explain his evil just like a common criminal. From authorizing the waterboarding of KSM, to expressing his support for torture, and now this: the ego, the arrogance.

Christmas pardon?

Source: Murray Waas

Hollywood's Sick Love Affair with Che Guevara

Before there was one named stars like Oprah, Bono and Madonna, there was Che.

Che's revolution forced conformity on Cuba as he signed death warrants for independent artists and writers, ordered hunted down by the secret police.

So why the ubiquitous t-shirts? Ironic veneration of tyrants?

Mao but not Hitler?



Source: reason.tv

Al Gore's New Video

Al Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection and the “Reality” coalition have a new ad out today on the myth of “clean coal.”



Good thing Bush and Cheney are getting lumps of coal for Christmas.

Source: http://www.thisisreality.org/

Obama To Use Lincoln Bible

President-elect Obama will take the oath of office using the same Bible upon which President Lincoln was sworn in at his first inauguration, according to the Inaugural Committee.

Though there is no constitutional requirement for the use of a Bible during the swearing-in, Presidents have traditionally used Bibles for the ceremony, choosing a volume with personal or historical significance. President-elect Obama will be the first President sworn in using the Lincoln Bible since its initial use in 1861.

2008 Greek Riots In Pictures

The death of 15-year-old Alexander Grigoropoulos in Athens on December 6, 2008, has not been covered that much in the US. These pictures tell quite a massive story.



37 more photos at the link below.

Source: Boston Globe

Putin Brings Holiday Cheer, Russian-Style

Putin, right on time, with that Christmas spirit:

"The era of cheap gas is coming to an end, Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has told ministers from the world's major gas-exporting countries. Mr Putin said the cost of extracting gas was rising sharply, therefore 'the era of cheap energy resources, of cheap gas, is of course coming to an end'."

Russia is the world's largest exporter of gas, so Putin's warning carries weight. The good thing is, Bush looked into his eyes and saw a good man. So we have that going for us.

With oil prices tanking, it will be interesting to see how the world's suppliers scramble to make fake quotas, try to drive up price, then navigate around them. Can they all keep tabs on each other? We're talking Algeria, Bolivia, Brunei, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Libya, Malaysia, Nigeria, Qatar, Russia, Trinidad and Tobago, the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela.

Me thinks greed will win out.

Source: BBC

iBoobs: Rejected

Nerds need love too.

An application that lets iPhone users jiggle a pair of animated boobs was rejected by Apple, because of some “objectionable content”.

Games where you kill people are OK, shaking some babylons is bad?

The internet would be nowhere if it were not for illicit activities pushing speed, storage and overall usage. Napster made a generation get high-speed cable modems and bigger hard drives. Now think about what porn and gambling did. Vice is nice.

Keith Olbermann's Favorite People Of 2008

Keith Olbermann ran down a list of his favorite people of 2008 Monday night on "Countdown."

Barack Obama:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Sarah Palin:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

4 more videos at the link below.

Source: MSNBC

Obama An Elusive Target For GOP

With Obama competently running the country in lieu of Bush the past 2 months, Republicans are finding it hard to be douche bags, raging with hypocrisy.

"Two months after Barack Obama’s election, Republicans are struggling to figure out how — or even whether — to challenge or criticize him as he prepares to assume the presidency."

The GOP knows they have it in them, the ability to pull a 180 and say the opposite of what they used to say to Bush. Support the President, he's our leader, will now be dissent is key, he has to be held accountable. They are pretty much becoming Democrats in their desire for oversight and real leadership.

The only blip on the map has been Rick Warren and the fading moral majority have no problem with out-of-step religious leaders.

Partisan politics will always be, but now we have a leader avoiding strict ideology and making sound decisions and putting quality people in place. Bush divided this country like no other President, Obama is putting it back together.

Before they start targeting Obama, conservatives and Republicans have to figure out who they are. McCain and Palin were defeated, Hannity and Limbaugh are tired, old, worried men, Bush and neo-conservatism is dead.

The GOP is a broken old record: taxes, abortion, guns, identity politics and malice. They need an entirely new philosophy. Maybe read the Constitution for some ideas.

Source: NYT

Palin's Biggest Mistake

Idiot. So much ambition, so little ability.

"The biggest mistake made was that I could have called more shots on this: the opportunities that were not seized to speak to more Americans via media. I was not allowed to do very many interviews, and the interviews that I did were not necessarily those I would have chosen... But if I would have been in charge, I would have wanted to speak to more reporters because that's how you get your message out to the electorate." -Sarah Palin

Every time you opened your pie hole you made anyone with a 70+ IQ wince. Your base was well insulated so you never noticed. Just because you can produce run-on sentences does not mean you are saying anything.

But she really is the ideal Republican: mentally unspectacular, totally out of touch, all surface, no substance, rewriting favorable history hoping no one else catches on.

The last line about talking to reporters helps get your message out. No shit. Thanks for that, Sarah. You rival John Madden in blatant observations and obvious statements.

Continuing on that note of spreading the message, talking to your kid about sex education helps prevent unwanted pregnancies. Same goes for your future in-laws and narcotics. Let them know it's illegal.

Source: Human Events

Republican Capitalism Is Dead

Trickle-down economics is a myth, a fraud, and it's dead. Arianna Huffington seconds that emotion.

"The collapse of Communism as a political system sounded the death knell for Marxism as an ideology. But while laissez-faire capitalism has been a monumental failure in practice, and soundly defeated at the polls, the ideology is still alive and kicking.

The only place you can find an American Marxist these days is teaching a college linguistic theory class. But you can find all manner of free market fundamentalists still on the Senate floor or in Governor's mansions or showing up on TV trying to peddle the deregulation snake oil."

Let's end what Ronald Reagan started and Bush finished us off with. Arianna continues:

"It's time to drive the final nail into the coffin of laissez-faire capitalism by treating it like the discredited ideology it inarguably is. If not, the Dr. Frankensteins of the right will surely try to revive the monster and send it marauding through our economy once again.

We've only just begun to bury the financially dead, and the free market fundamentalists are already looking to deflect the blame.

In a comprehensive piece on what led to the mortgage crisis and the subsequent financial meltdown, the New York Times shows how the Bush administration's devotion to unregulated markets was a primary cause of our economy to ruin. But the otherwise fascinating piece puts too much focus on the "mistakes" the Bush team made by not paying attention to the warning signs popping up all around them.

"There is no question we did not recognize the severity of the problems," claimed Al Hubbard, Bush's former chief economic adviser. "Had we, we would have attacked them."

But the mistake wasn't in not recognizing the "severity of the problems" -- the mistake was the ideology that led to the problems. Communism didn't fail because Soviet leaders didn't execute it well enough. Same with free market fundamentalism. In fact, Bush and his team did a bang-up job executing a defective theory. The problem wasn't just the bathwater; the baby itself is rotten to the core.

Even more sinister is the Federal Reserve. While unregulated markets will tear themselves limb from limb, the Fed sets up the bubbles to acerbate the pain. Throughout history, from the 1929 crash, to 1980s stagflation, to the S&L scandals of the 1990s to Greenspan's sub-prime scam we're living though now, the Fed is at the bottom of it.

Remember, the Federal Reserve is no more federal than Federal Express and was set up as the central bank in 1913 by the banks themselves. Maybe it's time we start looking at changing those 90 year-old institutions.

Source: HuffPo

Jim Cramer: "Where's The Reporting?"

Jim Cramer was on Hardball on Monday. Pretty entertaining to see tragedy up front. We have a class of banking, financial and government officials who are outright criminal.

"Where's the reporting?" asks Cramer, then goes to town on Citigroup's Bob Rubin, reveals that the AIG money went mostly to bailout foreign banks, and finally stands up for auto unions. Is this too little too late for Cramer's new "character" in this bailout fiasco?

He suggests getting the Justice Department out of the Commerce Department [where Bush put it] to actually independently investigate these crimes. The New York Times has given a blueprint on who to go after.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

United States Of Amnesia

Some people have to chill, take a long look at our current situation and try to put the pessimism and cynicism of the past 8 years behind them. Division was Bush's method. We're looking forward now. We're coming together.

"Two years from now, I want the American people to be able to say, "Government's not perfect; there are some things Obama does that get on my nerves. But you know what? I feel like the government's working for me. I feel like it's accountable. I feel like it's transparent. I feel that I am well informed about what government actions are being taken. I feel that this is a President and an Administration that admits when it makes mistakes and adapts itself to new information, that believes in making decisions based on facts and on science as opposed to what is politically expedient." Those are some of the intangibles that I hope people two years from now can claim."

- Barack Obama, president-elect.

2 Pillars Of Bush Adminstration

The two biggest legacies of the Bush Administration:

1. Bush had to destroy free market principles to save the Free Market.

2. Bush [and Cheney] had to destroy the principles of the Constitution in order to protect it, per his oath of office.

via Wikipedia:

"Cognitive dissonance" is an uncomfortable feeling caused by holding two contradictory ideas simultaneously.

A powerful cause of dissonance is when an idea conflicts with a fundamental element of the self-concept, such as "I am a good person" or "I made the right decision." This can lead to rationalization when a person is presented with evidence of a bad choice. It can also lead to confirmation bias, the denial of disconfirming evidence, and other ego defense mechanisms.

Alaska: Not Just For Meth

Alaska: It's not just for crystal meth.



People move to Alaska for a reason,they don't care for the lower 48. It is what it is. Not all people are bad, but as Governor, Palin should be looking at her own family and stop palling around with a drug dealers before she starts her "real America" speeches.

Cheney As Snake In The Garden Of Eden

No love lost between these two:

"It's presumptuous to feel sorry for another man. But I feel somewhat -- I feel somewhat badly for him... I think that President Bush and, unlike Vice President Cheney, is, upon reflection beginning to acknowledge some of the serious, if not mistakes, misjudgments that he made."

-- Vice President-elect Joe Biden

Bush was always the Zoolander of the bunch, just a nice face to front the real evil being pushed by Cheney and his counsel. Never asked questions, just did as he was told.

Just remember the Bible story about the snake in the Garden of Eden. His punishment for screwing up the whole paradise situation Adam and Eve had was to walk his remaining years on his belly. A snake already does this!

The moral being true evil just gets to be true evil, no real punishment, everyone else pays the price. Cheney will just live out his days in Wyoming while we toil the Earth.

Quote Of The Day: Gary Ackerman

"Rembrandt was a great artist. His brother Murray, on the other hand, Murray Rembrandt wouldn't paint a house."

-- Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-NY), on Face the Nation, making the case against dynasty politics and appointing Caroline Kennedy to the U.S. Senate.

Obama Appoints Global Warming Experts

NYT Op-ed on Obama's respect for science, a massive departure from Bush's ideology.

"Mr. Obama’s earlier appointments — in particular Steven Chu, a Nobel laureate in physics, to run the Department of Energy — these choices solidly affirm Mr. Obama’s commitment to aggressively address the challenges of energy independence and global warming.

The broader point, though, is what they say about his appreciation for the processes of science. That was not much in evidence in the Bush administration, some of whose appointees edited and suppressed scientific documents to serve the administration’s political agenda.

As Ms. Lubchenco observes, identifying a problem is not synonymous with solving it. But Mr. Obama has at least surrounded himself with serious scholars of some of the most critical issues of our times."

By just appointing a global warming expert, Obama has already done more for climate change then Bush did in past eight years.

Source: NYT

A Real US Car Ad

2008 Daily Dish Awards

Andrew Sullivan has announced his 2008 Daily Dish Awards.



"Click the links and you can vote for the 2008 Malkin Award, Moore Award, Von Hoffmann Award, Yglesias Award, and Poseur Alert. Also - for the first time - the Hewitt Award and the 'Mental Health Break Of The Year' are on the ballot."

Source: Andrew Sullivan

Cheney: Best Moment Was 9/11

During their contrived interview, host Chris Wallace asks Darth Cheney what was the highlight, the "highest moment", of the last 8 years.

Cheney's answer? 9/11



The best and worst moment was 9/11? Dicky Boy sure had a lot of great moments to choose from, so many of his sterling policies to ponder. Even shooting someone in the face didn't make he list. To be fair he did say it was the most "important" moment, but it was in response to being asked to name his highest moment.

via Daily Kos:

"[I]t tells you something about the darkness of Cheney's mind that this was the first thing to come to his mind when looking for bright spots over the past eight years was 9/11."

Source: Washington Monthly

Obama's Weekly YouTube Address

He blinded me with science!



On December 20, 2008 President-elect Obama introduced the team of men and women who will head up the nation's major scientific departments.

"Because the truth is that promoting science isn't just about providing resources -- it's about protecting free and open inquiry. It's about ensuring that facts and evidence are never twisted or obscured by politics or ideology. It's about listening to what our scientists have to say, even when it's inconvenient -- especially when it's inconvenient. Because the highest purpose of science is the search for knowledge, truth and a greater understanding of the world around us."

Source: http://www.youtube.com/user/ChangeDotGov

Oxycontin Charges On Palin's Baby Daddy's Mama

I know it's tough to say, and maybe not right, but say it with me, "dirt bag".

WASILLA, Alaska — Wasilla resident Sherry L. Johnston, mother of Bristol Palin's boyfriend, faces a Jan. 6 court date for an oxycontin-related arrest at her home by Alaska State Troopers.

Little additional information was available Friday on the case as authorities remained unusually tight-lipped about details. But Palmer court records listed Johnston's scheduled court date and a troopers spokeswoman said in a release late Friday afternoon that the charges "are in relation to the drug oxycontin."

I wonder if fellow drug runner Rush Limbaugh has any comments?

You can't buy class. You can't put lipstick on a pig. Humbling.

Source: McClatchy

Rick Warren Is Just As Bad As All The Rest

So Rick Warren is a bad choice for Obama. Gays and lesbians are offended. Warren has some Bronze Age ideas about society and has missed out on 2000 years of empirical evidence.

I personally find that no matter who you pick, any religious leader, is "anti-something" that is long in need of a current day viewpoint. Whether it be gays, or condoms, or women, or stem cells: you name it, they are out of touch and, at most times, offensive.

What if Obama had Pope Benedict? He's a former Nazi youth, he spent 25 years denying that priests had raped young children, he denies the rights of gays and a whole host of deplorable out-dated laws, yet he is the leader of a billion Catholics out there. You just can't win.

The fact that Obama is so different and his message is above the fray of organized religion, yet has to align himself with some faith, is the problem. He lives a great life, yet is let down by his religious choices. Rev. Wright? Now Rick Warren. As progressives, we like him because he is secular. He's not God Squad like Bush and Palin.

No one cared when Bush used Billy Graham. He's a nut but it made sense. Bush is a Jesus freak, Billy Graham is an Evangelical Christian. Even worse, he's a Southern Baptist. No outrage there.

Offering Warren a place gets millions of Evangelicals excited about Obama and about the next 8 years. There is an upside to that.

At least Obama does not have to worry about the Muslim and swearing in on the Koran rumors anymore. Face it, religion is the cause, and not the solution, to a lot of problems.

On January 21, this will not be an issue.

Rooted in 1997, A Housing Bubble Has Many To Blame

Capital gains is a complex issue these days. The housing bubble is at heart a capital gains issue. While fingers are easy to point, figuring out how you got here helps you assess blame.

“Tonight, I propose a new tax cut for homeownership that says to every middle-income working family in this country, if you sell your home, you will not have to pay a capital gains tax on it ever — not ever.” — President Bill Clinton, at the 1996 Democratic National Convention.

So the stage was set. Sell your home, don't pay taxes on the profit. As the tech bubble burst, housing was viewed as safe. Easy credit led to bad lending, not because of the initial loan, but the securitization of those mortgages. Crazy underwriting standards ensued. Cash and debt was not a strong enough "currency".

Wall St. needed a new way to maximize, to margin, to leverage at multiples of the original loan. The housing market was their experiment. Derivatives and credit default swaps were the fuel. It was all funny money.

But cheap money was not the only cause. We still had homeless in record numbers, rents were untenable. Homes were built when the market demand was not really there. Laws from the 80s gave the capacity of real estate owners to write off their real estate property as losses and make more money by doing so than they would if they rented at a modest price.

So yes, many factors got us to where we are. Although rooted in previous administrations, the current Bush Administration was at the wheel and it's de-regulatory, "let the markets run themselves" approach, coupled with no government oversight, made things worse.

Pushing their "ownership society" through home ownership was just another way to get you tethered to a bank for the next 30 years of interest payments. Republicans have an evil way about them like that. Remember Reagan tried to crush social programs like welfare through overspending, claiming no funds were left. Make government ultimately fail is their goal, just ask Grover Norquist.

We are always so proud of the wealth we have in America. How much is just manipulating tax codes? Creating bubbles? Distorting markets through taxation policies. How much is made at the expense of someone else?

Not to mention the special interests. The banking world is so powerful they get to lose all the money, break the system, show no remorse, point fingers at everyone else and then get bailed out by taxpayers. That's cajones!

What do you think?

NOTE: One thing left out was the massive amounts of cash pumped into the ststem around Y2K. People thought ATMs would fail, planes would crash, etc. All the cash fueled the internet bubble a bit.

Source: NYT

Condi Rice: I Need Who, When, Where And How To Do NSA Job

Condi Rice was National Security Advisor from the beginning of Bush's first term through 2005. What exactly was her advice to the President knowing an attack was imminent? Oh, she needed exact specifics, but isn't that in the episodes of 24? She need a "ticking time bomb" in order to do her job.

"Outgoing Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has acknowledged that she was responsible for the security failures that made possible the 9/11 attacks. However, she did so only fleetingly and in a backhanded manner before returning to justifications of her actions.

"I do take responsibility -- but this was a systemic failure," Rice told CNN's Zain Verjee during an exit interview on Wednesday.

Verjee had begun pressing Rice with a question about whether she had ignored warnings of the forthcoming al Qaeda attack.

"This is simply not true," Rice replied, saying that there had been only "a single item that said bin Ladin determined to attack – not when, where, how."

The worst breach of national security in the history of the United States came under her watch. Was she fired? Did she think of resigning? She became an idiot because her boss was an idiot. Bush need his daily briefing reduced to one-page and read aloud to him.

That's how you know they were all in this together. No one was ever called out for doing the absolute worst at their job.

Source: Raw Story

Bristol Palin And Levi Johnson Have Great Parents

Baby daddy's mama drama. Grandma drama! Ah, the "small town values" of "real America".

Considering Wasilla is the meth Capitol of Alaska, it's not surprising to be pregnant at 18 and have your 42 year-old mother busted on drugs charges.

"A 42-year-old Wasilla woman was arrested Thursday at her home by Alaska State Troopers with a search warrant in an undercover drug investigation. Sherry L. Johnston was charged with six felony counts of misconduct involving a controlled substance.

Johnston is the mother of Levi Johnston, the Wasilla 18-year-old who received international attention in September when Gov. Sarah Palin and her husband, Todd, announced their teenage daughter was pregnant and he was the father. Bristol Palin, 18, is due on Saturday, according to a recent interview with the governor's father, Chuck Heath".

Troopers charged Johnston with second-degree misconduct involving a controlled substance — generally manufacturing or delivering drugs — as well as fourth-degree misconduct involving controlled substances, or possession.

Asked how long the investigation had proceeded before Johnston’s arrest, Troopers would only say “a while.”

Christmas pardon from Bush?

Source: HuffPo

W. Mark Felt, Watergate Deep Throat, Dies at 95

Who knows where would be if it were not for "Deep Throat"?

"W. Mark Felt, who was the No. 2 official at the F.B.I. when he helped bring down President Richard M. Nixon by resisting the Watergate cover-up and becoming Deep Throat, the most famous anonymous source in American history, died Thursday. He was 95 and lived in Santa Rosa, Calif."

There will no need for anonymous sources to bring the Bush Administration to justice. They were brazen in their shredding of the Constitution thinking they have a Rovian run of the house.

Source: NYT

Christopher Hitchens: Cheney And Torture

Christopher Hitchens on Cheney and torture.

Cheney claims torture's success, the "results speak for themselves".

Michael Smerconish is a tool. He has a radio show? He lives in the world of Fox's 24. The "ticking time bomb" scenario does not exist.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

The Bush Two-fer: Ultimate Insults Combined

The ultimate insult to American politics [Bush] combined with the ultimate insult [sole of the show] in Iraq.

The real Bush legacy in the Middle East.

Bush = Torture = Prosecute

The Senate Torture report exposes the Bush Administration for what is is, Anti-Constitution, Pro-torture radicals. Just because your own counsel gives you the thumbs up to use "illegal tortures devised by Chinese agents during the Korean War", that does not mean they are lawful:

"These top officials ignored warnings from lawyers in every branch of the armed forces that they were breaking the law, subjecting uniformed soldiers to possible criminal charges and authorizing abuses that were not only considered by experts to be ineffective, but were actually counterproductive.

The officials then issued legally and morally bankrupt documents to justify their actions, starting with a presidential order saying that the Geneva Conventions did not apply to prisoners of the “war on terror” — the first time any democratic nation had unilaterally reinterpreted the conventions."

When rounding up all this criminals and War Crimes enablers, don't stop at former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, his legal counsel, William J. Haynes and other top officials, including the former White House counsel Alberto Gonzales and David Addington, go right to the top.

via Andrew Sullivan:

The NYT takes a stand, the only credible legal stand, given where we now are:

"A prosecutor should be appointed to consider criminal charges against top officials at the Pentagon and others involved in planning the abuse."

That must include the commander-in-chief and his vice-president. This is where the criminality came from and it's unjust to punish people down the line more than those at the very top. If Obama wants to avoid even the appearance of retribution, he should first appoint a Truth Commission of independent, outside but experienced public officials from both parties - along the lines of the 9/11 Commission - to establish the full facts of the past seven years. In my view, it should be restricted to war crimes alone - far graver than the question of warrantless wire-tapping.

Prosecute them all!

Source: NYT

VIDEO: The Making Of Band Aid in 1984

Very interesting documentary on the evolution and recording of "Do They Know It's Christmas?". Proper Crimbo!

The Band Aid Story (part 1/3)
Amazing acoustic segment with Bob Geldolf.



The Band Aid Story (part 2/3)



The Band Aid Story (part 3/3)

Trust In GOP Reaches Record Low

What's with the last sentence?

"Just 23 percent in a new Washington Post-ABC News poll said they trust Republicans more than Democrats to handle the main problems facing the nation, the lowest level reached by either party in surveys dating back to 1982.

A majority, 56 percent, trust the Democrats to handle the nation's top issues over the next few years, also a record in Post-ABC polling. But the GOP's recent losses have not translated into big Democratic gains, instead the proportion who trust neither party has climbed to 15 percent."

Have not translated? Um, the GOP has been crushed in elections in 2006 and 2008. Obama crushed McCain.

Source: WaPo

Cheney Quote: Control The VP

Advice from the guy who was wrong on WMD, "last throes" of the insurgency, "greeted as liberators", elections in 2006 and 2008, and countless other decisions:

"The best thing you can do is keep your VP under control."

-- Vice President Dick Cheney, quoted by CNN, giving advice to White House chief of staff-designate Rahm Emanuel.

Is this an attempt at humor? The Prince of Darkness must have really liked the Bush Chief Of Staffs, but haven been one himself in the Ford administration, he knew exactly how to ignore them.

Republicans are hypocritical to the end.

Rwandan Mastermind Convicted of Genocide

A precursor to the War Crime trials of Cheney, Bush and Rumsfeld?

A senior Rwandan military officer charged with being one of the masterminds of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda in which bands of Hutus massacred hundreds of thousands of Tutsis and moderate Hutus, was convicted on Thursday by a United Nations court in Tanzania of genocide and sentenced to life in prison.

In a statement, the United Nations tribunal said that it had sentenced the officer, Col. Theoneste Bagosora, and his accomplices, two other Rwandan military officers who were also on trial, Maj. Aloys Ntabakuze and Col. Anatole Nsengiyumva, to life imprisonment for “genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.” A fourth co-defendant, Gen. Gratien Kabiligi, was acquitted of all charges against him and the court ordered his release.

Colonel Bagosora, 67, was the cabinet director for Rwanda’s Defense Ministry at the start of the slaughter by Hutus of 800,000 Tutsis and Hutus in 1994. The three other senior army officers had been on trial with him since 2002 at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, which is based in Arusha, Tanzania.

The court said that Colonel Bagosora had been “the highest authority in the Rwandan Defense Ministry with authority over the military” in the days after the death of President Juvenal Habyarimana on April 6, 1994.

Source: NYT

I'm Off

Off to my brother's wedding at City Hall!!!!! I'm his witness.

Be back manana.

Naming Your Kid Adolph Hitler

For anyone who wants to defend New Jersey in the battle of the Tri-State:

A guy in Holland Township, NJ names his kid Adolph Hitler. Says it's just a name. Sad.

Source: LehighValleyLive

Omama: Person Of The Year

Barack Obama: Time's Person Of The [Next 8] Year[s]



Source: Time

"Americans Had To Die"

"Constituted a mortal threat"

Frank Gaffney, right-wing commentator, is in way over his head with Chris Matthews.

He said Iraq posed a mortal threat to Americans because they killed Americans? When? Gaffney is still trying to link 9/11 to Iraq.

He then jumps to biological weapons and Hussein's intent. Yes, Hussein used biological weapons on his own people, in the 1980s. After the first Iraq War in 1991, those were destroyed and Iraq was never allowed to rebuild that program through US and UN monitoring.

Then the kicker. Gaffney, responding to Matthews stating 4,000 lives were lost based on all these mistakes:

"My position is that it’s regrettable that any Americans died. It is regrettable that they had to die, but I believe they did have to die."

The ultimate Right Wing Chickenhawk NeoCon.



CrooksAndLiars adds:

"It astounds me that people like Gaffney can continue to cling to the idea that Saddam really did pose an imminent threat/that he really had WMD/that the intelligence wasn't cooked etc. and still be regarded as some sort of foreign policy expert who should be taken seriously. It's 100% clear now that the administration "fixed the facts around the policy" by cherry-picking dubious intelligence reports that supported their case while ignoring others (that were far more credible) that disproved it. Not only should Gaffney and his ilk be laughed out of town, they should be committed and/or indicted."

Source: ThinkProgress

George W. Bush's Nightmare Before Christmas

From Brave New Films.



Source: http://santabush.com

Obama To Undo Bush-Era Rules On Abortion, Birth Control

Command + "z" = undo on a mac. I hope they use that a lot.

The Fox Wall Street Journal reports:

The outgoing Bush administration this week will finalize a regulation establishing a "right of conscience" allowing medical staff to refuse to participate in any practice they object to on moral grounds, including abortion but possibly birth control and other health care as well.

In transition offices across town, officials in the incoming Obama administration have begun considering how and when to undo it.

"We have a lot of work to do to fix the damage the Bush administration has done," said Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America.

"Right of conscience" to deny services? Don't you take the hippocratic oath as a Doctor to ethically help everyone? The third part of the oath reads: "Never to do deliberate harm to anyone for anyone else's interest." Seems Bush opened the door on a slippery slope of refusal to just about anyone.

Right to privacy. Separation of Church and State. 40+ years of legal choice. Women's health and safety. Bush attacked them all.

Source: WSJ

Fed Cuts Benchmark Rate To Near Zero

The Fed had to set a record to battle the epic Bush failure. We need a zero interest rate to fight a zero President. Not the first time "record new low" and "Bush" end up in the same sentence.

At what point are they just giving money away? Oh wait, that was in Iraq.

"The Federal Reserve entered a new era on Tuesday, setting its benchmark interest rate so low that it will have to reach for new and untested tools in fighting both the recession and downward pressure on consumer prices."

Worst. President. And. Administration. Ever.

Source: NYT

Quote Of The Day: Bill Baroni

Just tax it.

"The people who are asking us to do this today, these are people who can't play piggyback with their 3-year-old. These are people who get up every day and battle HIV/AIDS. They are people who wonder if their chemotherapy is going to work. I can't look at those folks and let them be perhaps the only ones who don't have the ability to have less pain,"

- New Jersey state senator, Bill Baroni, on why he voted for a medical marijuana bill.

Parino Takes One For Team

Dana Parino, shoe terror victim. Although not hit by the actual show, she was hit with a microphone in the ensuing scuffle.

No pictures of coffins or military fighting in Iraq, but this will make the front page.



Source: HuffPo

Throw Stuff At Bush

Throw stuff at Bush and listen to his inane babbling. Over 30 items to choose from: pretzel, Bill of Rights, New Orleans, the economy, stem cells. Click the link below.



Source: http://duckduckbush.com/

Child Poverty: Let's Talk About It

Not knowing is one thing, not caring is another.

Check this chart from the OECD. While not the entire world, mostly Europe, Australia, NZ, US and Canada, not the kind of thing you want to be #1.



Also, keep in mind Norway has 4,796,700 people, Sweden has 9,234,2094, The US has 305,904,000.

Matt's point:

"There are things we could do to get more out of our school system, but ultimately it’s inconceivable to me that we’ll ever get a first-rate levels of educational attainment with these kind of child poverty rate — it basically guarantees that portions of the system will be overburdened by too many children with too many problems. That’ll be fine for those getting the long end of the hyper-inequality, but it’s sad to see the extent to which we’re slouching toward that future without any public acknowledgment of it or debate about the wisdom of our priorities. You would think that something like being by far the world leader in child poverty would dominate the political agenda — instead you never see it mentioned."

Education is the key, uniting people is the key. Getting rid of "No Child Left Behind" standardized assessments is key. Paying teachers and supporting unions is key.

This is not an "us and them" problem. This is our problem.

Source: Matthew Yglesias

Bull Markets Meets Bullsh*t

Bernard Made Off Madoff. Where the Bull Market meets bullshit.



Source: BAGnews

The "Official" Official Story

George Packer at The New Yorker has read the two official documents on Iraq and the war on terror: a bipartisan inquiry by the Senate Armed Services committee into treatment of detainees, and a report by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction.

"The trouble is, the information in these reports doesn’t tell the whole story, and it doesn’t tell it as a complete story. The reports only give us fragments, which will be too easily overlooked or forgotten. The official sanction of torture and the woeful management of occupied Iraq are related pieces of a much larger epic: the first is marked by criminality, the second by bureaucratic ineptitude, but they are joined together as expressions and outcomes of the ideas and habits of mind of the highest officials in the Bush Administration. Eventually the country will need, even if it won’t entirely want, the whole story to be told."

I thinks it's buy one $3 trillion dollar war, get one FREE Congressional Commission.

With a democratic administration coming in, you know better questions will be asked than by McCain and Palin. You betcha.

Source: The New Yorker