Landrieu Reminds McCain That He Lost

via youtube.com

After missing 100's of meetings over the past few months, the Republicans choose politics over policy.

"Instead of coming to the table and working with Democrats to write a bipartisan health care reform bill, Republicans chose to put partisan politics first. Fabricating "death panels", distorting Medicare cuts and undermining and disrespecting the role of government in protecting its citizens, they have engaged in a relentless misinformation campaign aimed solely at using fear to sway public opinion against this bill. Recently, Senator McCain has been claiming that the American people are opposed to reform and speaking about "the will of the majority." I would remind my colleague from Arizona that the will of the majority was heard loud and clear last November." - Sen. Mary Landrieu

Elections have consequences. You lost.

Posted via web from liberalsarecool's posterous

CSPAN Caller Pwns Republican

CSPAN caller goofs on Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) vis-a-vis Sen. Tom Coburn's (R-OK) call to pray that a Democrat would miss the vote on Health Care. The caller, from "a small tea bag group here in Whitecross", questions:

"Yeah doctor. Our small tea bag group here in Whitecross (sp), we got our vigil together and took Dr. Coburn’s instructions and prayed real hard that Sen. Byrd would either die or couldn’t show up at the vote the other night.

How hard did you pray because I see one of our members was missing this morning. Did it backfire on us? One of our members died? How hard did you pray senator? Did you pray hard enough?"

Or maybe it's a real caller. Hard to tell. The Jerky Boys would be proud.



Praying for a Senator to fall ill. Praying for rain in Denver during Obama's DNC speech. Prayer used by a doctor [Coburn] to wish ill health on someone. Tis' the season.

Source: ThinkProgress

Michelle Bachmann: Welfare Queen

Rep. Michelle Bachmann has voted against every Bill that would help average homeowners and has used "Marxist" and "Socialist" just about as much as humanly possible, but has no problem taking more than a few subsidies from the Government. She's even claims to be an opponent of farm subsidies which she benefits from.

"According to the organization’s records, Bachmann’s family farm received $251,973 in federal subsidies between 1995 and 2006."

So it's Bachmann who has a Government job, Government Health Care and receives Government subsidies, all paid by taxpayer money, who is the anti-Socialism poster child? It's the upside down welfare state, “socialism for the rich, free enterprise for the poor.”

Not saying anything she did was illegal, just hypocritical. She has her farm "bailout", FU to the rest of America.

Source: Truthdig.com

Bamboozler Of The Year

Frank Rich makes a case for Tiger Woods being Person of the year. Like most big stories of the year and decade, it's about being bamboozled.

"If there’s been a consistent narrative to this year and every other in this decade, it’s that most of us, Bernanke included, have been so easily bamboozled. The men who played us for suckers, whether at Citigroup or Fannie Mae, at the White House or Ted Haggard’s megachurch, are the real movers and shakers of this century’s history so far. That’s why the obvious person of the year is Tiger Woods. His sham beatific image, questioned by almost no one until it collapsed, is nothing if not the farcical reductio ad absurdum of the decade’s flimflams, from the cancerous (the subprime mortgage) to the inane (balloon boy)."

Enron? WMD? 2000 Election? Steroids in sports? John Edwards? Eliot Spitzer? Bernie Madoff? The entire Bush presidency?

Source: NYT

VIDEO: Advent Conspiracy

Embrace the religious aspects of Christmas and reflect on the consumerism surrounding it. The "war on Christmas" is over. Happy Holidays.



Source: www.adventconspiracy.org

Neo-Theocrats Ask God To Stop Health Care Reform

Separation of Church and State for these Neanderthal Christianist neo-theocrats means you have to have God stop Kings from passing laws in a democracy. Truly villainous use of peoples' superstitions to thwart a normal discourse in Congress. Bending and piecing together religious dogmas to suit there needs. I guess God is a Democrat because it passed. Also, God is omniscient, you can't tell him what to do. Um, hubris?

Top Republicans Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) want God to stop Health Reform. Was Jesus busy? He had no interest whatsoever in healing or helping the sick or the poor, right?

They use abortion, rationing care, medical marijuana and killing people, ALL NOT IN THE BILL, as examples of why they are against it. Specious and misleading and they know it.

Rachel Maddow has a great piece on the "Prayercast" they use to publicly convince their followers of their sincerity. You may ask yourself, "Is this The Onion?"

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Source: Washington Monthly

Lieberman Socks

Lieberman is as charismatic as a sock.

An Empty Prison Looking For Detainees

Chris Matthews and two Illinois Congressman discuss torture, closing Gitmo and bringing convicted detainees to a built, yet empty, $150 million dollar maximum security prison in Illinois.

Rep. Aaron Schock [R] uses the "ticking time bomb" scenario that never exists to justify torture anytime, anywhere. Conclusion: zero principles for his American exceptionalism. I guess Republican exceptionalism means claim all the benifits from American goodwill, "except" do nothing that actually has principled meaning or basis in Rule of Law.

"I don't believe that we should limit waterboarding - or, quite frankly, any other alternative torture technique - if it means saving Americans' lives." Schock doesn't even bother to say "enhanced interrogation techniques," or maybe he just flubs the Orwellian talking point.

Note: 95% of the locals voted for bringing the detainees to the prison and the 3,500 jobs to their area. The fact that Schock never toured the prison, in his own district, did not stop him from getting in completely over his head.

Note 2: Schock is the youngest person in Congress and it shows.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Source: The Daily Dish

Media Bias?

Glenn Beck, Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Fox Noise and Friends, Mike Huckabee, G. Gordon Liddy, Michael Medved, Mark Levin, Neal Boortz, Lou Dobbs, Laura Ingraham, Neil Cavuto, John Stossel, Bill Kristol, Ann Coulter, Peggy Noonan, Jonah Goldberg, John Fund, Brent Bozell, Cal Thomas, Charles Krauthammer, George Will, Sarah Palin, Matt Drudge and Armstrong Williams all agree conservatives do not have a voice in the media.

He didn't mention Michelle Malkin.

VIDEO: Keith Olbermann Explains The “Liberal Media” Bias | Oliver Willis - Watch more Politics Videos at Vodpod.

It Is Never Really About Socialism

Socialism is synonymous in Foxland with "anything that scares me."

So what is it really? It's about the feared redistribution of privilege that these hicks think they've "earned" that scares them. Redistribution of wealth and Socialism are code words in their class warfare. They'll do anything to stop "coloreds" or "homos" from getting their shot at prosperity and equal freedoms. Obama is Marxist, a Muslim, a non-Christian, he wants to socialize the entire country. The same shit as calling Martin Luther King Jr a communist for wanting equal rights back in the 60s or these cretins [pictured] in Little Rock, AR, in 1959.

Why no protests under Bush for creating historic debt, nationalizing all the banks and mortgage companies, wiretapping Americans without warrants, growing the size of the Government to its largest levels ever, all while wasting money on endless wars? It all ties into race and other social objectives and has nothing really to do with taxation, deficits, and big government.



Marriage and access to health care are things that help you become independent of the State. You and your spouse care for each other. Health care keeps you out of expensive hospitals. But why address the real problems when you can call out "socialism" and the lemmings all mindlessly nod on.

The Doomsday Hyperbole v Justice

The Republicans and Neo-Cons broke all the rules for carrying out Justice, now they get to complain when Justice actually happens.

"The Obami, in all their sanctimonious glory, will rise above the mundane concerns for safety and security and throw overboard our own judicial history and precedents. This is nothing more than an exercise in moral preening. We’ll impress our European friends and the academic Left. For the enemy is us," - Jennifer Rubin, on moving detainees to Thompson, Illinois.

John McCain, Colin Powell, David Petraeus, and George W. Bush all supported closing Gitmo. Are they our "European friends" or the "academic Left"? The whole fake war was to spread Democracy and "our values". You eventually have to live up to your words.

Rule of Law is moral preening? Obama is sanctimonious? I think Jennifer needs a dictionary.

Source: The Daily Dish

22 Million Emails "Found"

There is a difference between lost and deleted.

"White House computer technicians have found 22 million e-mails that were believed to have been lost during President George W. Bush’s administration, according to the Associated Press."

These were around the time of the politicized Justice Department firings during the Alberto Gonzales' regime and the Valerie Plame–CIA leak scandal that nailed Dick Cheney's patsy, Scooter Libby.

Their excuse was that they were mislabled. 22,000,000 emails?!

Source: Wired

Moral Reciprocity AKA The Golden Rule

The problem with Bush is that he took American virtue as a given. He thought it was given to him like his last name. Like the rich spoiled kid he is, he never acted with virtue but took full advantage of it for his own use. Morality was always a monologue for him, never a dialogue.

"Harry Truman, who George W. Bush often praised but never understood, once said that “We all have to recognize—no matter how great our strength—that we must deny ourselves the license to do always as we please.” To Bush and Cheney and Palin, the sentiment is offensive. Why should America not do as it pleases? After all, since our power stems from our virtue, the more unrestrained we are, the more good we will do."

Peter Beinart relates that quote to Obama's Oslo speech accepting the Nobel Prize.

"But Barack Obama, in his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech Thursday morning, showed that he understands just what Truman meant. Because he understands, in a way Cheney and Palin never will, that true moral universalism requires recognizing that Americans are just as capable of evil as anyone else. And that means recognizing that we are in just as much need of restraint. For Obama and Truman, the paradox of American exceptionalism is that only by recognizing that we are not inherently better than anyone else, and thus must bind our power within a framework of law, can we distinguish ourselves from the predatory powers of the past."

You can't overturn 8 years of Bush overnight, but this is the step in the correct moral direction.

Source: Daily Beast

The Geography Of AIDS Around The World

An AIDS cartogram. Each square equals 10,000 people:



More education and condoms, less faith-based bullshit.

Source: FlowingData

The "Valid" Concerns Of Glenn Beck

Fanning the flames, looking for his pay-out.

"In a segment about the rising price of gold, [Jon] Stewart noted that one of the major advertisers on [Glenn] Beck's program is Goldline, a company that traffics in the yellow metal. The irony, Stewart notes, is that the price of gold tends to move in inverse relationship to public fear."

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Beck - Not So Mellow Gold
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

In fairness, liberal talkers like Randi Rhodes and Ed Schultz have also personally recorded ads for sponsors who sell gold, but they don't spend all their time predicting Obama will end the world.

Source: RawStory

Feigning Support While Railing Against It

These are contradictory messages out of the GOP Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's website, a day apart.

It's like they want Medicare to stay exactly the same, frozen in time. They don't want to cut waste, because it's great the way it is. They don't want to let more people have it, because I guess more healthy people scares them?

Programs are perfectly fine if the money is going into the pockets of corporations. Programs are wasteful if the money is going to add value to regular people's lives.

"Now, though, Democrats are pondering a Medicare expansion of sorts. They want to let people between the ages of 55 and 64 buy insurance through Medicare. And suddenly, Republicans are stuck in a booby-trapped rhetorical space, defending Medicare from all attackers--real and perceived--and also lashing out at the idea of letting more people benefit from it."

How do the Republicans oppose Medicare for 40 years, then spend six months "defending" it from health care reform, only to turn around and oppose letting more people buy into it?

The GOP's frothing defense of every last Medicare dollar being spent, whether it's wasted or not, is the party's final nail in the coffin of fiscal conservatism.There really isn't a thing that the GOP has done or championed that is fiscally conservative anymore.

And no, championing more tax cuts that get funded by borrowing is NOT fiscally conservative, especially when increasing spending at the same time (see the records of Reagan, Bush I, and Bush II as compared to Clinton).

Mind you, these are the same Republicans who voted for Bush's Prescription Drugs Medicare expansion without a way to pay for it. Do they not understand what "borrow with interest" means?

Source: TPM

Loud Mouths Are Needed Sometimes

The Left HAS to be loud and as vocal as possible:

"We’ve seen how the right in this country gets things done today. They get on TV and scream out “DEATH PANELS DEATH PANELS KILLING GRANDMA”, and you know what happens? Rather than trying to explain themselves, the Democrats remove a perfectly reasonable part of their bill. Like it or not this is how it works."

At this critical moment, we need leadership and activism to get us back to real change. If not now, when? If not Obama, then who?

As Obama is fond of saying, “don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.” We should start of with perfect, then settle for good. In this debate it seems that they started with the good and are now settling for the even less good. And if the left stopped “bothering” them on reform, they’d gut this thing even more.

Source: Daily Dish

The Greatest Generation Paid For Their Wars

For those who like history and facts:

"The top marginal tax rate in 1941 was 81 percent on incomes greater than $5 million (about $72 million in today's dollars). In 1942 and '43, it was 88 percent on $200,000 per year ($2.6 million today). In '44 and '45, it was 94 percent on $200,000 ($2.3 million today).

The Greatest Generation did more than just save pennies to buy war bonds... most everyone paid more in taxes and some 40 million people paid taxes for the first time."

Then you have Bush who started two wars and cut taxes to the richest Americans, thus putting all of America so deep in the red for decades to come. The Right Wing's idea of sacrifice is so focused on helping the wealthy, yet they still have the balls to think they are the military or fiscal superior party. Complete and utter failures beyond any measure.

Even more effed up, the Right's infatuation with the Greatest Generation was under a four-term Democratic President who would make modern liberals look uber-Conservative.

Source: Andrew Sullivan

The Harlem Children's Zone

Geoffrey Canada and his Harlem Children's Zone are breaking the pattern of poverty. Making the "Land of Opportunity" a reality.

"The results are in and are nothing short of stunning."

It costs $5,000 a year to educate someone, about $100,000 a year to incarcerate. You do the math.

Here's a link to donate to The Harlem Children's Zone.


Watch CBS News Videos Online

Source: Oliver Willis

Only Missed by $198 Billion

So much for Fox's zero tolerance policy for wrong information on-screen.

"Earlier Tuesday, President Obama said that at least $200 billion had been saved from the TARP program, savings that he plans to use to help fund his new job creation initiatives.

A few minutes later, Fox took that $200 billion figure and cut it by $198 billion, telling their audience in an on-screen graphic that the TARP savings would be just $2 billion."

"Reporting" on good news from the Obama Administration must be pure hell for them.



Source: DailyKos

Internet v Talk Radio

Truth to power versus echo chamber of opinion.

"We live in parallel universes -- the left on the Internet and the right on talk radio." -- Barney Frank

While the internet has its' wackos, nothing like having some bloated dittohead spoon feed you the "news".

Skull And Bones v Becksters

For all those mentally unemployed people trying to cobble together some "secret" previous life for President Obama, here is a picture of Skull & Bones "tomb" on the Yale Campus in New Haven, CT. [Note: Yale has 5 secret societies on campus]

The Birthers and Becksters would want you to get all mad and suspicious at Obama, he of the secret Kenyan Muslim brown person paranoia they spread.

But what about the suspicion when the the previous 3 Presidents, that's the last 20 years, have all been members of a real secret society. That's Bush 41, Clinton and Bush 43. Add John Kerry and you have the biggest names in politics. All Skull & Bones.

Oh wait, they are rich white people. They are entitled.

Reform Or Else

Paul Krugman points out we will always have a debt crisis until we get our health care expenditures under control. Policy change is a must.

"Health care reform hangs in the balance. Its fate rests with a handful of “centrist” senators — senators who claim to be mainly worried about whether the proposed legislation is fiscally responsible.

But if they’re really concerned with fiscal responsibility, they shouldn’t be worried about what would happen if health reform passes. They should, instead, be worried about what would happen if it doesn’t pass. For America can’t get control of its budget without controlling health care costs — and this is our last, best chance to deal with these costs in a rational way."

As America ages and lives longer, we have to change the current model. And we can't expect am industry that treats health care as profits to make the changes.

And it seems this is the right sort of Bill and the right thing to do at this time:

"The fact that we’re seeing the first really serious attempt to control health care costs as part of a bill that tries to cover the uninsured seems to confirm what would-be reformers have been saying for years: The path to cost control runs through universality. We can only tackle out-of-control costs as part of a deal that also provides Americans with the security of guaranteed health care."

Anyone who is truly concerned about fiscal policy should be anxious to see health reform succeed.

Source: NYT

Unemployment Claims Decreasing

The four-week moving average is trending down. Does this mean job growth in December? Probably with all the Christmas temp jobs, but nonetheless, a good direction out of the recession.

"Tomorrow, the payroll numbers for November will come out, and they are expected to show a decline of about 100,000. It could be the last drop in payrolls for this recession, if these jobless claims improvements hold up. And with four straight months of expansion in the manufacturing sector, this is not entirely unexpected."

Source: Calculated Risk

The Republican Obstructionist Manual Surfaces

This is the bipartisanship the GOP whine about needing?

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid exposes the long awaited Republican plan for Health Care reform: a three-page instructional manual on how to bring the Senate to a screeching halt distributed by Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.). Are the Republicans happier wasting all our time or being so eager to admit it?

"This morning, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) seized on the document: "The good news is that Senate Republicans finally, at long last, have put a detailed plan down on paper. The bad news is that it's not, as we'd hoped, a plan to make health care insurance more affordable; it's not one to make health insurance companies more accountable; and it's certainly not a plan to reverse rapidly rising health care costs and draw down our deficit.

"The Republican plan we've waited weeks and months to see ... [is] not even about health care at all. The first and only plan Senate Republicans could be bothered to write up is an instructional manual on how to bring the Senate to a screeching halt. We knew that was happening anyway, but they had the audacity to put it in writing."

The GOP reduced to obstructionists. No ideas. Paid to do nothing.



Source: Washington Monthly

"Listening, Understanding, Neutralizing"

A Daily Dish reader responds to last night's speech and the constant underestimation of our President.

"The Morning After" is simple, non-hysterical, spot-on analysis. I especially agree that Obama is after bin Laden. No other single action would pay such huge dividends. In this, Obama proves himself again to be, not just the politician as chess master, but the politician as martial artist, always seeking for the fulcrum, the pivot point where four ounces of effort will yield a thousand pounds of result.

It is a very high level skill, far higher and more effective than the brute force men like Cheney, Bush, or Rumsfeld rely on, and it's difficult to attain, because it depends on three subsidiary skills that lesser men simply never recognize, much less master: listening, understanding and neutralizing. Obama is a master of all three -- just think back on his campaign.

It's only after he's listened to, understood, and then neutralized his opponent that he -- or fate -- delivers the coup de grace. What appears to some to be hesitation or lack of engagement on his part early on in any effort is really just preparation: listening, understanding, neutralizing.

And since, as you say, he plays the long game, there is really no way to judge his effectiveness at this point -- although, if one applies the same skills of listening and understanding oneself, as you've done in this post -- and as opposed to the shouting and reacting one sees elsewhere -- one quickly suspects he has maximized whatever potential the situation holds, and only waits for his opponent to walk into his trap and "defeat himself", as they say. In this he is the opposite of Bush and Cheney, who walked into bin Laden's trap -- and defeated themselves.

Obama's nuances and deep thought frustrate the one-dimensional "good/evil" Palin/Bush/Beck followers. They tend to have a 5-minute perspective from the present that centers around themselves.

Source: Andrew Sullivan

McCain Using Enron Hysterics?

Yesterday, John McCain launched an attack on the health care bill before the Senate, calling it "monstrous" and an example of "Enron accounting."

Hysterical? Nonsensical? Fact-free?

You bet.

"But of all people, McCain would know a lot about Enron accounting. Who made the Enron loophole possible? That would be the McCain's BFF and chief economic adviser Phil Gramm. Oh, and Gramm's wife just happened to be on the board of Enron."

Just another example of Palin/Beck Republican leadership not understanding what they are saying, just repeating sound-bytes.

Not really shocking a guy involved in the Keating Five has a "shady accounting" addiction. McCain is an expert.

Source: DailyKos

Brzezinski: What Bonafides Sound Like

Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski and his bonafides on Morning Joe framing the complicated Afghan/Pakistan situation realistically. He praises Obama's positive approach to gradual disengagement.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Bush: The "You Can Always Do Less" Attitude

Like most of what happened the last 8 years, complete bullshit.

"The Taliban [in Afghanistan] is out of business." George Bush, March 15, 2002.

Bush essentially declared victory 7 and a half years ago. His job was over. Thanks, George, for never wavering from your "you can always do less" attitude.

Pretty much follows his lifelong trend of barely doing enough, which leads to completely fucking things up, which leads to the smug smile like he completed a masterpiece. Stupid and cocky. What a mix.

Afghanistan: The "Graveyard Of Empires"

That's all. The title sums it up.

That and Afghanistan is one of the poorest countries in the world with one of the lowest literacy rates.

That and it is rife with divisions between ethnic groups that dwarf current schisms in Iraq.

That and all the groups are lead by warlords who fight over control of the drug trade as much as they do over religion.

Terrorism, narcotics, and regional rivalries. All requiring different strategies.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The Stimulus Is Working

Imagine what a $1 trillion stimulus would have done? Listening to the corporate-back Republicans did no help for "real Americans".

"Between 600,000 and 1.6 million jobs were created or saved through September as a result of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, according to a Congressional Budget Office report.

The data, released Monday, say the real inflation-adjusted gross domestic product was 1.2 percent to 3.2 percent higher than it would have been had the $787 billion stimulus package not passed in February. Also, the stimulus lowered the unemployment by between 0.3 and 0.9 percentage points, according to the report."

As the MSM is camped out Tiger's mansion, hopefully someone will pick up on this good news. And this is all done with only a fraction of the stimulus money doled out so far.

Maybe that new Jobs Bill they have been talking about is in order: spending equals growth equals jobs equals recovery.

Source: Politico

Biden: "Who Do You Trust?"

Attention members of Congress. The people are speaking. Most Democrats are listening, but the Republicans are in full denial and proudly plant their heads in the sand. The two at the top get the message. This is not a pro-corporation race to the bottom.

Vice President Biden asks,

"Do you trust the defenders of the status quo, the people who say you'd be better off if you left things just the way they are? Or would you rather hear from the folks who actually know something about what's happening in our healthcare system because they work in it every day, doctors and nurses?"

Source: Washington Monthly

The Harsh Truth Of Nation Building

On the eve of Obama's Afghan speech at West Point:

"The police always arrest the Taliban, but when they go to court, they pay a bribe and get released." -- Afghan Police Lt. Col. Abdul Qader

The harsh truth of nation building. We can't do it. No exit strategy, no demands on Karzai, no benchmarks, no timetables, just 30,000 troops? FAIL.

Source: http://www.realitychex.com/

Palin Fans: The Mentally Unemployed

The one thing you can count on, America has plenty of mentally unspectacular people.

Sarah Palin in the perfect spokesperson for people who can not gather their irrational thoughts and make sense of reality. The perfect bridge from Bush on the Republican slide downwards to complete intellectual marginalization. Witness the oxygen thieves at her recent book signing.

Far Right Creating "Open Season" On Violence

The Taliban uses out of context passages and verses from the Koran to justify jihad and the death of infidels.

The Far Right are using choice Old Testament Bible quotes to start their own Holy War here in the US against Obama.

What is the difference? Both are radical minorities exploiting the faithfulness and good name of their religions to justify purely self-benefiting political means.

The 22 million deluded Conservative Evangelicals are creating an "open season" for one of their own, albeit an outlier, to kill in the name of their god. They are acquiescing to the extreme elements within their ranks.

Where are their leaders denouncing this potential violence?

Psalm 109:8 And The Unhinged Criticism From The Right

Psalm 109:8 is the new anti-Obama meme making the wacko Christian Right rounds.

"Let his days be few; and let another take his office"

So they mockingly say pray for Obama. I'm sure they also love the next verse, too:

"Let his his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow"

The usual Old Testament vitriol. Nothing from the New Testament these Christians can find from Jesus' ministry on love?

Chilling when you think how much the unhinged criticism from the Right is based on, not just opposing Democrats, but to kill the President. The Beck's and O'Reilly's love trolling the Conservative underworld, stirring up the rhetoric, calling for revolutions and assassins.

Former Evangelical Frank Schaeffer discusses on Rachel Maddow how threatening this Biblical language, the comparisons to unjust Kings of Ancient Israel, is in context to actually bringing harm to Obama. A great segment.

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

Source: MSNBC

Finally A President Not Governed By Fear

The Neocon/Conservative/Republican/GOP mantra was to torture. Shred the Constitution. The judicial process was Cheney's bete noire. Leave that for someone else to figure out.

Now that we have to prosecute all these people they imprisoned and tortured illegally, the Right now cower and get to complain how the court proceedings will harm America. The Right mindset made actual prosecution of any of them extremely hard, and now they don't want the World to see how evil they were. The Al Qaeda propaganda machine has nothing on the GOP.

Andrew Sullivan writes:

"When you listen to the Fox News right speak about this, they reveal amazing levels of fear. They have been truly spooked by these men with long beards and chilling eyes. They are so scared of them they are willing to drop any and all legal principles that the West has historically used with respect to mass murderers. Their fear brought them to institute torture, and to engage in mass brutality against prisoners of war in every theater of combat in a manner that will tragically taint the honor of the US military for a very long time. It led them to establish Gitmo, to create for the world a reverse symbol of the Statue of Liberty, and imprint it on the minds and in the consciences of an entire generation of human beings, whose view of America will never be the same."

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was arrested in 2003. The US has has killed about 20 #3 Al Qaeda guys in the meantime. Is there a real fear? Then you must be totally afraid of Charles Manson, too.

Whatever happened to "nothing to fear but fear itself"? I guess fear and fantastical doomsday scenarios get you GOP votes, so they exploit it.

Bush and Cheney played into the Al Qaeda neme. They helped use 9/11 to take apart our system of checks and balances, habeas corpus and Rule of Law. Now that Obama is restoring all these laws and regained the nerve of doing the right thing in a tough time, it really exposes all the moral and intellectual weaknesses in his oppostion.

Source: The Daily Dish

Obama Bow Vs Bush Puke

As the Republicans try to spin President Obama's bow to the Japanese Emperor, a sign of Japanese etiquette, as weak and unpatriotic, let's not forget George Bush Sr. puking on the Prime Minister back in 1992.

Video clip has Dana Carvey's SNL skit of the same incident with spot-on Chris Farley as Barbara Bush.

Lou Dobbs Paid $8M To Stop Sucking

Lou Dobbs was paid $8 million to stop his racist, xenophobic nonsense. This just points to the grossly mixed up priorities in our country. Some of the least skilled people doing the least useful jobs get paid these obscenely high salaries.

"Although Lou Dobbs has been saying that his departure from CNN was an “amicable parting on the best of terms,” the New York Post reports that CNN wanted him gone so badly that it gave him an $8 million severance package."

Dobbs will be appearing on Fox News tonight to talk with Bill O’Reilly. I wonder where this is heading?

Source: MSNBC

The Neoconservative War Project

The Neoconservatives see the world in terms of enemies and eternal forces that must be destroyed. It allows them to always have a purpose. Peace is the last thing they want. They would have nothing to run on.

In the post-Bush/Cheney halcyon days of war starting, the new players are striking fear in their bread-and-butter warmongering.

Andrew Sullivan writes:

"The neoconservatives have been having a difficult time of late. In particular, the possibility that the American people, via the election of Obama, and the Iranian people, via the Green Revolution, may be moving toward a grand bargain that would avoid war alarms them. That's why Daniel Pipes wanted Ahmadi to win the election beforehand (a view he alone had the admirable intellectual honesty to air in public). The emergence of a Green Movement in Iran that does not share the worldview of the neocons is a terrible threat to the solipsism of the neocon right, in which every global conflict is really about religious war "for ever," to quote Irving Kristol, and in which the Iran-Israel question is actually a "Fourth World War," to quote Norman Podhoretz. If you are an Israeli, this might be plausible. If you are not an Israeli, less so.

In all this, a figure like NIAC's Trita Parsi is dangerous. Charismatic, telegenic, close to the Obama administration and yet a man whose credentials during the Green Revolution are impeccable: he suggests that neocon Manicheanism is far too crude to understand let alone resolve this crisis. Parsi opposes sanctions, for example, as do Karroubi and Mousavi. And, more relevant with respect to the neocons, he opposes war. And so if you want to understand the motives behind the leaked documents behind Eli Lake's recent fair story, you need look no further. Smearing the non-neocon Green opposition as essentially pro-Khamenei solidifies the neoconservative war project."

The Neoconservative War Project. Or the Republican Party of the last 8 years. The article goes on to show how the Parsi smear was put into action through Neocon Right e-mails.

"It's just a rare and small glimpse of how neocons operate. It is warfare abroad and warfare at home. It is a philosophy of attack and force, not dialogue and thought."

That's why a guy like Obama really scares them. Bullets are not his first option.

Source: The Daily Dish

The Preconceived Narrative Of Fox News Exposed

Jon Stewart reports the real Fox News slogan, "We Alter Reality, You Are Sold A Preconceived Narrative".

The Daily Show covers Hannity's apology for deceiving his viewers:



Source: http://www.bobcesca.com/

Buyers' Remorse In CT

Joe must go.

"Some people in Connecticut are upset that Joe [Lieberman] now opposes the public option. Namely, the 64% of people in Connecticut who support a public option. But remember, Joe's party is 'Connecticut for Lieberman,' not 'Lieberman for Connecticut.' Big difference. You see, Joe's a true independent. He's independent of political parties, and he's independent of his constituents. I say, stick to your principles, Joe. And as soon as you can, let us know what those are."
-- Stephen Colbert

Who likes this guy? Seriously, who likes this weasel? Buyers' remorse in CT in full effect. I feel for you Ned Lamont.

Source: http://www.realitychex.com/

A+B=Z Logic Of The Right On Health Care

Context on health care debate.

When people want to compare [pro or con] the US health care system with the British National Health Service [NHS], do they ever mention that the British government own all the hospitals and they employ all the doctors? For example, NHS provides 92% of healthcare in England through its 1,600 NHS hospitals and oversee 29,000 GPs and 18,000 NHS dentists. Only 8% use private health care.

This has nothing to do with American health care which is almost entirely private. Complete apples and oranges.

This whole "socialism" rant from the Righties about the Government takeover is so bogus. They love to predict a completely impossible outcome will happen to put the fear in their followers. A+B=Z logic implies if there is a public option on the insurance side, somehow, every hospital and every doctor will be transformed and owned by the Government.

"If I Wanted To Crush 'Em, I Could"

He drops some info, but dangles even more.

"If I Wanted To Crush 'Em, I Could" - Levi Johnston

Goober on goober violence or When Goobers Attack. Losing the public battle with a unwed father and high school drop-out. That's the GOP for you.

He does say he would take a lie detector to prove Sarah Palin called her special needs baby, Trig, "retarded". Stay classy, Sarah.



Source: The Insider

Accident Victim Tragically Not Glenn Beck

via The Onion:

"She was just a normal kid, she wasn't some fat, dumb, Mormon fuckface who should have drank herself to death when she had the chance. She was so beautiful, she didn't even have little pig eyes"

Nothing worse than Glenn Beck outliving your child.


Victim In Fatal Car Accident Tragically Not Glenn Beck

Source: http://www.bobcesca.com/

The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder

The new trailer for The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder.

Famed Charles Manson prosecutor and three time #1 New York Times bestselling author Vincent Bugliosi stars in this most powerful, explosive, and thought-provoking documentary.

"I would not be doing what I'm doing unless I'm very confident that under the law he's guilty of murder and should be prosecuted," Bugliosi says in the documentary trailer. "Unless this nation is about to be attacked, you don't go to war without telling the people whose sons and daughters are going to die in a foreign land why you're doing to do it."

Reviews seemed mixed. The facts remain: Bush was Worst. President. Ever.



Source: http://www.indiegogo.com/bush

The Life Of A Narcissist

The righteousness of an idiot narcissist.

"Those who would sell their body for money reflect a desperate need for attention & are likely to say and do anything for even more attention."
-- Sarah Palin on Levi Johnston's plan to pose nude in Playgirl

What a complete selfish moral blank. Her lazy cynicism and sneering hypocrisy encapsulates everything wrong with her conservative generation. Her trust factor is zero.

Lest we forget Sarah's earlier strides in narcissism.



Source: http://www.realitychex.com/

The Lying Liars

Just plain making up the news. Ayers and Wright have not visited the White House - just people with the same names. That didn't stop Drudge, Goldfarb, Morrissey, and Mary Katherine Hamm from jumping on the fake story. BUSTED.



Source: Andrew Sullivan

The Cheney Family Values

Lawrence O'Donnell takes on the disgusting Cheney family. A Chickenhawk father and a chickenshit daughter.

Saluting the fallen dead upsets the Cheney's. Think on that.

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

Source: http://www.realitychex.com/

Fox = Shitty Opinions Wrapped In Fear Spread As "News"

The Fox Opinion is on 15 hours a day. Fox News is on 9 hours a day. That is by their own admission.

Can you tell the difference?

Jon Stewart has the goods.



Source: MediaMatters

Public Option Trumps Bipartisanship

More and more Americans prefer a Bill with a Public Option than a Bipartisan one.

"Americans by 51-37 percent in this latest ABC News/Washington Post poll say they’d rather see a plan pass Congress without Republican support, if it includes a public option based on affordability, than with Republican backing but no such element."

Republicans need to get out of the way. The old way of "divide and conquer" fear politics is over. You tried it, you failed. This is not a race to the bottom.

Source: ABC News

Reduces The Deficit? GOP Will Be Against It

Democrats are the Party of fiscal responsibility. End of story.

The House reform bill passes the CBO with flying colors. Not only does the bill qualify below the president's $900 billion price tag, but it also reduces the federal budget deficit by $104 billion over ten years, according to the official word from the CBO. That's better than the Senate Finance bill which only reduced the deficit by $81 billion.

It's also worth mentioning that a "robust" public option would've made for a cheaper bill.

Why are Republicans against lowering the deficit? We all know the answer. Dick "Deficits Don't Matter" Cheney punk'd his boytoy George Bush for 8 years spending on everything in sight while borrowing to pay for it. The Conservatives are the personification of debt.

We learned our lesson, now don't forget it. Republicans do not want to govern, they want to control.

Source: Bob Cesca

The Mob That Wasn't

Just as support for the Public Option is higher than ever, you get news from the other side. The mob that wasn't meets the "government takeover" of health care that wasn't. Pelosi Bill met with about 10 protesters. Yet another teabagger FAIL.

"Tea Party" activists tried to organize a "flash mob" to protest at the Capitol this morning, when House Democrats unveiled their health care reform bill. By most estimates, about 10 right-wing activists showed up.

One Northern Virginia Teabagger, Joann Abbott, a grandmother, said, "If this is organized, we suck."

What are the chances this Grandmother is on some form of government-run health care?

Source: Washington Monthly

Call 'Em Out: Sarah Palin Edition

Palin has no use for empirical evidence, it's all pure politics. Honesty is but a shadow. Her base loves her for that.



Andrew Sullivan: The list of all her lies is here.

True Cost Of War

The true cost of war. Obama honored the return of 18 fallen Americans Thursday at Dover Air Force Base. The dramatic image of a president on the tarmac was a portrait not witnessed in years. An 18-year ban on such coverage was lifted this year under Obama's watch.

The naysayers and Righties will have their opinions, but this is how a President represents his country and reminds himself, as well as all of us, how important one life is. Who else could have spread this message?

Obama's respectfulness and innate decency

threatens his foes. You can't blame the guy for taking the matter head on, either. You don't see him hiding on his "ranch".



Source: HuffPo

Troops Maybe, But More Education: Yes

Making the case for more schools and less troops in his Thursday column:

"It’s hard to do the calculation precisely, but for the cost of 40,000 troops over a few years — well, we could just about turn every Afghan into a Ph.D." -- Nicholas Kristof

The butter versus bullets scenario of how to occupy another country is teaching us again and again, people need something to live for that the military can't supply. Not to say they are our next big trade partner, but stability in that region means something to the world.

Kristof adds:

"In short, there is still vast scope for greater investment in education, health and agriculture in Afghanistan. These are extraordinarily cheap and have a better record at stabilizing societies than military solutions, which, in fact, have a pretty dismal record."

And if someone does not educate these people, the hateful fundamentalist groups will. Denying the importance of education is guaranteeing the next generation of opposition. The Islamic Wahhabi extremists offer scholarships for the best pupils to study abroad before returning to become leaders of their communities. How do you counter that?

Source: NYT

Bush's "Get Motivated" Seminar Over-priced At $4.95

Lifelong mediocre guy and selfish moral blank George W. Bush's "Get Motivated" seminar sounds great, too bad I couldn't afford the prestigious $4.95 admission fee. As Stephen Colbert said, "what am I, made of nickels?"

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
George W. Bush's Motivational Speech
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Religion

A Man Still Fighting For His Principles

Philip Spooner, American.

A lifelong Republican and World War II veteran, making the case for gay marriage in Maine. Equal rights for everyone, a cause worth fighting for.

Chuck Hagel On Target. His Party Shooting Blanks

Republicans don't want to make things better, they just want to destroy the opposition.

"As some Republican senators have said publicly -- that if we kill Obama on this, and we destroy this, and we defeat his, that will drive a stake through his political heart on this administration. I just find that about as irresponsible of a thing as I can think of."

-- Former Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE), quoted by The Hill, on the health care reform efforts.

This kind of stuff happens, you try to weaken your opponent, but usually there is an alternative position, not just the baseless attacks and fearmongering. Just goes to show how Conservatives stay on message no matter the popular opinion or facts. Just keep repeating the same BS.

Hagel was the last of the decent GOP. Too bad he is out of office. The party has lost its' way.

Source: PoliticalWire

75,000 Tea Baggers Does Not Equal 75,000 Activists

A questionable 75,000 Tea Baggers in DC and Fox News covers it 24/7, not to mention has producers hyping the crowd and promoted the rally on-air every day for weeks.

75,000 Gay Rights activists in DC and it gets 3 minutes of coverage, via an ABC feed.

Jon Stewart has a great piece on Fox' idealogical pick-and-choose news service, including covering events with zero protesters just as long as they are anti-Obama.

I know it is not a surprise but just think how much Fox edits their "news" to fit their GOP base audience. How many stories are left out, how many issues they are turning a blind eye towards.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Queer and Loathing in D.C.
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Ron Paul Interview

Source: Daily Dish

Rachel Maddow Puts Perspective On "Deranged" Criticsim

Rachel Maddow puts President Obama's Nobel Peace Prize -- & the "deranged" criticism of it -- in proper perspective.

I understand not liking a guy, but at least Bush critics had 2 failed wars, 9/11, complete meltdown of the economy, torture, secret prisons, warrantless domestic wiretapping, Katrina/New Orleans debacle, turning a surplus into the biggest deficit, blocking stem cell research, denying global warming and destroying the middle class while fiendishly rewarding the uber rich. The Bush defenders who are now Obama haters need a slap.

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

Quote Of The Day: Claire McCaskill

The bizarro world that is the GOP. Pure haterz.

"I feel that I’m in an alternative universe. For eight years some people called anyone who disagreed with the President’s foreign policy or war in Iraq unpatriotic. Then in the course of two weeks, those same people cheer when the United States does not get selected for the Olympics and boo when our President is the unanimous choice for the Nobel Peace Prize."-- Sen. Claire McCaskill

Glad that someone in middle America Missouri is keeping it real. The Bush legacy of divisive politics will take some time getting over. The calm, coolness of Obama is not what immediately attracts the opposition, but over time, they will see that the President is not the boogie man they want him to be.

Source: Constant Weeder

Are You With Us Or Against Us?

For all the douche bag "Country First" and "you're either with us or against us" Bush ball-suckers, try to belittle Obama's Nobel Peace Prize all you want: You FAIL. Obama ran a historic election, was the first black US President, he is the international symbol of hope, all at the worst point in time inheriting a devastated economy and failed global banking markets, and the haters on the Right have a "what have you done?" attitude?

Have some class. You try to undercut the guy every step of the way. Your objectivity is so shot, just step out of the way, you no longer have a clue on how to lead. In your own rhetoric, "why do you hate America?"

The words you're looking for are, "Congratulations, Mr President".

"Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future. His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world's population." -- The Nobel Committee

Rep. Alan Grayson Showing Democrats Have Balls

Rep. Alan Grayson [D-FL]. Keeping it real.

If had given that speech today he could have added how the Republicans will spin Obama getting the Nobel Peace Prize as a bad thing.