"What the hell was Rand Paul doing on MSNBC?" - Joe ScarboroughPoliticians on the right will not venture beyond the safe confines of Fox News. "Meet The Press" had to be skipped as to preserve Rand Paul's cocoon. That being said, we all lose when politicians can not go on national TC to explain and debate their views that face the country.
Monday, May 24, 2010
Rand Paul Taking Page Out Of Palin Playbook
This rhetorical question says it all:
The Fascination With Fluff
"If Sarah Palin endorsed me I would be too embarrassed to tell anyone…. I don’t know how you quit as the governor of your state and get taken seriously."
Republican strategist Matt Rexroad
via brooklynmutt.com
At what point do you put aside "we like her because it pisses off Democrats" and realize you have a dim-witted, rambling sportscaster with a sexy bun hairdo? All surface , no substance.
The Family Guy On US Immigration Policy
The Family Guy on US immigration: They [people of Arizona] don't want you, unless you are cheap labor. This 18-second clips nails it.
Rand Paul Not So Reality Friendly
Typical son of a privileged white guy
"Rand Paul's philosophy got in the way of reality." -- RNC Chair Michael SteeleMD [ophthalmology] from Duke University Medical School? Father was a surgeon turned Congressman? Elite? Who cares, but this guy should realize that not everyone has his options in life. Libertarians are just race conscious Republicans who have not drank the religious right kool aid, yet. It's a a label that gets slapped on everyone from Idaho militia members to Silicon Valley utopians to pro-choice Republicans in Greenwich.
Friday, May 21, 2010
James Carville Takes On Obama: He's 'Risking Everything' On BP
Democratic strategist James Carville and MSNBC anchor Chris Matthews, two reliable supporters of President Barack Obama, have issued withering critiques of the administration's handling of the Gulf oil spill.
Carville, the famously outspoken Louisianian who was a chief political aide to Bill and Hillary Clinton, told CNN's Anderson Cooper on Thursday that the administration's response to the spill has been "lackadaisical" and that Obama was "naive" to trust BP to manage the massive clean-up effort.
"I think they actually believe that BP has some kind of a good motivation here," he said. "They're naive! BP is trying to save money, save everything they can... They won't tell us anything, and oddly enough, the government seems to be going along with it! Somebody has got to, like shake them and say, 'These people don't wish you well! They're going to take you down!'"
Big business and free markets have no interest in doing the right thing without some law telling them to do it. Carville is an opportunist a lot of the times when it comes to Barack, so add a miracle clean-up of a monumental oil spill to the list of grievances he has against the President.
While this is not Obama's Katrina, his administration has to kick it up a notch. Hurricane season is just around the corner.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Gov. Jindal's Flickr Pics From Louisiana’s Coast
Drill, baby, drill.
Photo courtesy of Governor Jindal’s Office. See his entire flickr account for more.
There's your oil, Brit Hume.
Photo courtesy of Governor Jindal’s Office. See his entire flickr account for more.
There's your oil, Brit Hume.
The Proud Ignorance of Rand Paul
via theatlantic.com
Ta-Nehisi Coates writes: "Does Paul know anything about blockbusting? Does he think banks should be able to have a policy of not lending to black businesses? Does he think real-estate agents should be able to discriminate? Does he think private homeowner groups should be able to band together and keep out blacks? Jews? Gays? Latinos?Andrew Sullivan writes:
I think there's this sense that it's OK to be ignorant about the Civil Rights Act because it's a "black issue." I'm not a lawyer, but my sense is that for a senator to be ignorant of the Civil Rights Act, is not simply to be ignorant of a "black issue," but to be ignorant of one of the most important pieces of legislation ever passed. This isn't like not knowing the days of Kwanzaa, this is like not knowing what caused the Civil War. It's just embarrassing--except Paul is too ignorant to be embarrassed."
"This is what makes the tea-party movement un-conservative. It is dealing with the world as it would like it to be, not as it is. It has an almost adolescent ideal it cannot compromise."
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
The Fallacy Of False Equivalences: "Ideological Purification"
Former Bush speechwriter Marc Thiessen, now a Washington Post columnist, takes a look at yesterday's primary results, and finds that his suspicions have been confirmed.
The Democrats voted for mainstream candidates. The Republicans purged and voted for less mainstream candidates. Not the same.
The "ideological purification" which Thiessen tries to paint broadly really only applies to his own party. Look at a guy like John McCain. He is trying so hard to re-brand himself, going against his own immigration stance he had for years, to appeal to the anglo-racists of AZ.
Always the victim, the Republican mindset is forever pointing out how unfair everything is. Republicans get heat for going far Right, but Democrats get a free ride in their primaries. Well, that is what you call reporting and not changing the facts to fit your predetermined narrative. Deal wit' it.
"Last night two centrist Democratic incumbents failed to stave off challenges from the left in Democratic Senate primaries. Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter was defeated by left-wing challenger Rep. Joe Sestak. And Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln was forced into a runoff by her left-wing challenger Gov. Bill Halter [sic].
But don't hold your breath waiting for commentators to decry these shameful efforts at the ideological purification of the Democratic party. When Sen. Bob Bennett is challenged from the right, it is an ideological purge. But when centrists like Specter and Lincoln are challenged from the left, it's democracy in action."The fallacy of false equivalences. Specter and Lincoln were not loyal Democrats, Specter [80 years old!] just flipped a year ago from Republican. They needed to go. Whereas Bennett was a loyal Republican but was voted out because he was not extreme enough. The GOP base decided they wanted someone even less open-minded.
The Democrats voted for mainstream candidates. The Republicans purged and voted for less mainstream candidates. Not the same.
The "ideological purification" which Thiessen tries to paint broadly really only applies to his own party. Look at a guy like John McCain. He is trying so hard to re-brand himself, going against his own immigration stance he had for years, to appeal to the anglo-racists of AZ.
Always the victim, the Republican mindset is forever pointing out how unfair everything is. Republicans get heat for going far Right, but Democrats get a free ride in their primaries. Well, that is what you call reporting and not changing the facts to fit your predetermined narrative. Deal wit' it.
Dale Peterson Ad Spoofed
Republicans love the actor type, the macho airhead who tells them how great they are: Ronald Reagan, George Bush, Sarah Palin, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Fred Thompson.
I'm sure you heard of Dale Peterson from Alabama running for Dept of Agriculture. He made a commercial worthy of Will Ferrell, but it's not a spoof. Guns, horses, the phrase "don't give a rip". Well, now that ad has been smocked. See below:
I'm sure you heard of Dale Peterson from Alabama running for Dept of Agriculture. He made a commercial worthy of Will Ferrell, but it's not a spoof. Guns, horses, the phrase "don't give a rip". Well, now that ad has been smocked. See below:
Oklahoma Doctors Allowed To Withhold Health Info From Expecting Mothers
the Oklahoma legislature voted to overturn Gov. Brad Henry's veto of two new anti-choice laws. One requires a woman seeking an abortion to undergo an ultrasound and listen to a description of the fetus before aborting. According to the New York Times, the law mandates that "a doctor or technician set up the monitor so the woman can see it and describe the heart, limbs and organs of the fetus. No exceptions are made for rape and incest victims."
And if that weren't cruel enough, the second law is more chilling--it prevents women who give birth to a disabled child from suing a doctor who knowingly withheld information about birth defects. In essence, the law gives a green light to anti-choice physicians to lie to patients--a clear violation of medical ethics and a shocking breach of the doctor-patient relationship.
Everyone gets a say except women. If doctors can lie about birth defects, what else will they be allowed to lie about to women, if they deem the truth too "inconvenient" to their personal beliefs?
Don't even start with sanctity of life. These conservative types are pro-war, pro-death penalty and probably pro-torture. And what about the life of the baby after it's born? They vote against health care and underfund education for children. They think their cloud god myth wants it that way.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Glenn Beck Posting New Ratings Low
Not only that, but there are increasingly days where Beck no longer hits the two million mark. Like on April 9, when, according to Nielsen data, the show drew 1.97 million viewers, which set the year's low mark. Then on April 22, the show dipped down further, to 1.82 million viewers. And now Glenn Beck has set yet another ratings low: May 14, the show attracted 1.77 million viewers. That is almost exactly half the audience the show was getting at its peak in late January.
via mediamatters.org
Glenn Beck receives Fox News welfare. His show keeps losing advertisers and sponsors so the rest of Rupert's network has to prop him up.Fake history lessons, fake crying, fake news, fake outrage.
Keith Olbermann pointed out last night that Beck, during his speech to the phony Liberty University, said he wouldn't let his kid accept a trophy he didn't earn. Right before the speech, Glenda accepted an honorary P.H.D.... which he didn't earn. Priceless! A fake degree from a fake university.
Monday, May 17, 2010
Brit Hume Shrugs Off Oil Spill: ‘Where Is The Oil?’
HUME: Let’s see if that happens. There’s a good question today if you are standing on the Gulf, and that is: Where is the oil?
What a massive idiot. This is how you want your news?
“Scientists are finding enormous oil plumes in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, including one as large as 10 miles long, 3 miles wide and 300 feet thick in spots.”
What use does Hume or Fox have for science?
G.M. Earns $865 Million Against GOP And Tea Party Wishes
DETROIT — General Motors said Monday that it earned $865 million in the first quarter, its first profit since 2007, after last year’s government-sponsored bankruptcy allowed the carmaker to wipe away many of its longstanding burdens.
G.M. said revenue was up 40 percent, to $31.5 billion, and it had positive cash flow of $1 billion.
The results show that G.M. is on track to become a public company again as soon as the fourth quarter, allowing the government to recover more of the billions of dollars it spent preventing G.M.’s collapse.
via nytimes.com
Shove this up the collective conservative ass of America. All those people wanted the US car industry to fail and hated Obama for getting the Federal Government involved.
We are Americans, not American'ts.
GOP Senators Say Bailouts Worked: Just Please Don't Tell Anyone!
"Perhaps the most fascinating political conundrum of the 2010 election is one faced by GOP senators, almost all of whom voted for TARP and supported some of the other bailouts in the thick of the financial crisis. The good news is that, for all their shortcomings, the bailouts did the trick, preventing a deeper economic crisis. The bad news is those bailouts are now considered political poison by the tea partying conservative base."
Boxed in now by the fringe, GOP Senators John Cornyn (R-TX), John McCain (R-AZ), Bob Bennett (R-UT), Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Judd Gregg (R-NH) are unable to say the legislation failed, but at pains to distance themselves from their pro-TARP vote nonetheless.
Ask Bob Bennett (R-UT) about it.
Making up bumper stickers...easy.
Actually governing...not so easy.
D.C. Douglas, Fired From Geico, Fires Back
D.C. Douglas [AKA Lance Baxter], the once voice of GEICO fired for leaving a sharp-toned message on a FreedomWorks answering machine, uses his talents to make a PSA.
Enjoy and pass it on.
Enjoy and pass it on.
A Sobering Quote From Abraham Lincoln
"I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. . . . corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed."
-- U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, Nov. 21, 1864
via ratical.org
Lincoln foresaw corporations "enthroned" and fond of re-writing the laws defining their existence: in 1864!
As long as we continue to participate in and support this greedy-corrupt system, we are nearly as much to blame as the corporate whores who own you and everybody and everything else.
How many more massive disasters by corporations, from Wall St to the Banks to BP in the Gulf, before we realize this is not working. Big business is not working and Government should not keep protecting them.
We need a shift in consciousness.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
When Not Being Conservative Enough Goes Wrong
Future historians tracing the crackup of the Republican Party may well look to May 8, 2010, as an inflection point.
That was the day, as is now well known, that Sen. Robert Bennett, who took the conservative position 84 percent of the time over his career, was deemed not conservative enough by fellow Utah Republicans and booted out of the primary.
This is what happens when unelected extremist become the voice of your party. Governing and working in Congress is much different than spouting off on an entertainment cable show.Less well known, but equally ominous, is what happened that same day, 2,500 miles east in Maine. There, the state Republican Party chucked its platform -- a sensible New England mix of free-market economics and conservation -- and adopted a manifesto of insanity: abolishing the Federal Reserve, calling global warming a "myth," sealing the border, and, as a final plank, fighting "efforts to create a one world government."
Think tanks got us involved in the neo-con wars of Bush. Look what the Tea Party offers:
The Maine Republicans a week ago rejected a platform proclaiming that "we believe that the proper role of government is to help provide for those who can not help themselves"; that "we believe in ensuring that our children have access to the best educational opportunities"; and that "every person's dignity, freedom, liberty, ability and responsibility must be honored."
In its place, they approved a document invoking the Tea Party movement and Ron Paul and insisting that "health care is not a right." The new platform demands: "Eliminate motor voter"; "Reject the UN Treaty on Rights of the Child"; "Eliminate the Department of Education"; "Arrest and detain . . . anyone here illegally, and then deport, period."
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