The Monster Still Lives

We're still not out of the woods. Via Newsweek:

"Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase have reported huge profits, the Dow has made it past 9000, and Barack Obama has moved on to health care. The horror show seems to be over. But as in one of those clichéd Hollywood endings, the monster in this story isn't really dead, even if most people think he is. Lost amid all the premature self-congratulation is the fact that the deepest underlying problem that caused the financial disaster is not being solved.

The problem: how to control and keep tabs on the market activities of giant firms that cause such a disruption to the system they can't be allowed to fail."

This is the United States of Amnesia. We tend to forget all the meaningful details in no time. The heavy lifting always seems to be pushed off to the next guy. I hope we can stick to getting real change this time and maybe our approaches to future problems will reflect this shift.

Source: Newsweek

Top Ten Things Heard At Palin Farewell

Letterman gets the last laugh.

RNC Health Reform Strategy = Where Was Obama Born

Newsweek's Howard Fineman was on MSNBC's "Countdown" last night talking about the RNC [Rush, Newt, Cheney] plan "committed to stoking 'racial fears and resentments' and talking about 'where Barack Obama was born'" rather than deal with health care reform.

"I talked to people on the Hill all day today. Talked to Republicans as well as Democrats. Republicans claims they have a plan. They don't. They claim they're going to have a plan. They won't. Their whole strategy ... is to stand on the sidelines with their arms folded while the Democrats try to work this thing out. That's their whole strategy."

Source: Washington Monthly

Chappelle Predicted Gates Arrest

Dave Chappelle predicted the Henry Louis Gates Jr incident in Cambridge.

Mind you, Gates is a slight "5 Ft. nothing" and walks with a cane because of a hip surgery. Glad the cops were heavy handed.


Dave Chappelle Stand Up - Scared Of The Police - A funny movie is a click away

Source: http://www.oliverwillis.com/

John Yoo Gets Punk'd

Australian comedy show The Chasers War On Everything punk torture memo writer John Yoo.

And in America, he gets hired as a lecturer at Berkeley and a columnist at The Philadelphia Inquirer. WTF? So depressing.

Lou Dobbs Birther Nonsense

Kitty Pilgrim, guest hosting for Lou Dobbs, thoroughly debunks the Obama "birther" myth on July 17. Then Lou Dobbs on July 20, back on his show, says there are still questions. Jon Stewart nails it.

WTF, CNN? Is this news or opinions?



Source: http://mediamatters.org/

Public Option 40% Cheaper, Republicans Still Oppose

Republicans making the case for a public option, without any idea they are doing it.

"Approximately 114 million Americans are expected to leave private health insurance. Why? Their employers will drop the insurance because the taxpayer-subsidized plan will be 30 to 40 percent cheaper." -- Rep. Michele Bachmann accidentally making the case for the public option.

Since when is something 30-40% cheaper a bad thing. Does she not realize that every paycheck, if my employer offers health care, a payment goes toward health insurance? Now if that payment is 30-40% less, not only is that good for me, but it's less overhead for my company. For individuals and businesses alike, this is great news.

Having a cheaper, more competitive public option perplexes the Republicans because they won't know how to get paid off by the lobbyists and the Medical companies.

Source: Minnesota Independent

Beware "Birthers": Code For Lunatics

Chris Matthews rips into a Republican birther, Rep. John Campbell.

"You're playing to the crazies."

Republicans refuse to outright deny whether Obama is a citizen, playing the "it's not what I think" bullshit game, because they want to foment their wacko base into spreading this fallacy. They can not take on his policies or his leadership, so they are reduced to petty racism and attacks on his ethnicity.

All these "birthers" are rural hayseeds living off the grid. Imagine that.

I could understand if this was about a guy in your office, but do they think that Presidents of the United States are not vetted by the FBI or the State Department? That somehow this has eluded our top intelligence agencies, but Bob and Martha Dipshit from Bumfuck, Iowa have cracked the code?

Maybe they learned this from the UFOs they boarded as they were drinking rubbing alcohol in their pick-ups out in the fields by the bonfires.



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

Conservatives Just Make Up The Numbers

This is the kind of information you get from the conservative right wing, where all relevant details to their claims are either demonstrably false or wildly misleading:

"...the right's claim that the administration used $1.19 million of taxpayer funds to buy just two pounds of ham. In the real world where the grown-ups live, the Department of Agriculture actually spent $1.19 million of taxpayer funds to buy 760,000 pounds of ham -- that's 380 tons -- to be distributed to local organizations that assist low-income Americans through food banks, food pantries, and soup kitchens.

They were only off by 759,998 pounds.

And then there is the story of the door fixed for $1.4 million at at Dyess Air Force Base. Glenn Beck, via Drudge, of course flies off his little Fischer-Price handle in outrage. Turns out his reporting is completely false.

Of the $1.4 million, "$1.2 million to replace gas mains on the base, and $246,100 to repair doors in Building 5112." These are hangar doors at an Air Force base!

I guess Glenn thinks you can go to Home Depot and buy these.

Source: MediaMatters

Maddow: Deconstructing The Buchanan Falsehoods

Rachel Maddow corrects some of the massive erroneous "whites do everything in America" statements by professional old white guy, Pat Buchanan. Too bad the corrections come after the fact and Pat is allowed to make these subjective mistruths on every show he is on.

Why is Pat even on TV? Squinting up there like a morally blind Mr. Magoo. I know there is an old, racist, bigoted demographic out there, but do we need someone to always represent them?

But that goes to show that MSNBC, while reviled by the right wing as biased, allows guests with opposing views on their shows. Does Fox allow someone like Maddow on their shows?

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

Source: HuffPo