An NFL football coach once said - "if you're gonna talk the talk, you better walk the walk." This blog is nothing more than the rantings of a proud military vet and pissed off liberal who's had enough of the right-wing bullshit that is tarnishing America's image not only at home but around the world. Time to fight back and tell the conservative assholes exactly where they can shove their plans for an un-democratic America!
Ok -- here's the stark, unadulterated difference between myself, other liberals and the far right wingers.
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Conservative U.S. radio commentator Rush Limbaugh, hospitalized in Hawaii with chest pains, faced a battery of medical tests on Thursday after a "good night's rest," his substitute host told listeners.
Limbaugh, 58, fell ill on Wednesday while vacationing in Honolulu, said economist Walter Williams, filling in for America's top-rated talk radio personality since the start of Limbaugh's annual Christmas break last week.
Honolulu television station KITV reported on Wednesday that Limbaugh was listed in serious condition at Queen's Medical Center after being treated at a hotel by paramedics.
I could be a heartless ass and wish Rush Limbaugh ill will with whatever medical issue he currently is afflicted with. But I won't and I wouldn't. As much as I despise Rush's viewpoints and his penchant for being a callous, conceited prick, I honestly hope the guy is ok and recovers.
Besides, if Rush croaks, that's one less right-wing toad whose pernicious lies I get to debunk on my shitty little blog here.
If you're going to go on television and play the blame game for the recent Christmas day attempted terror attack on Flight 253, at least have some semblance of facts on your side. But then again this is Fox News so right off the bat you have to expect a nominal level of dishonesty and obfuscation.
Here the Fox buffoons bleat that it's all that evil Obama's fault for the near Christmas terror incident on the NWA flight from Amsterdam to Detroit. Never mind the small detail that the would be suicide bomber evaded detection in several non-U.S. airports to get as far as he did (in wingnut world though Obama is in charge of ALL the world's airports so it's still his fault).
The Fox buffoons go on to screech about news reports that two of the masterminds of the plot had been released from Guantanamo Bay. Of course, true to their deceitful form, they neglected to mention that the released thugs they were talking about had been paroled in November of 2007 into the custody of the Bush family patriarchs - the Saudi Arabian goverment. Hmmmm -- I wonder who was President and Vice President in November of 2007?? Care to take a wild guess?
Family values Nevada Senator and admitted adulterer John Ensign gets hoisted on his own ethically challenged petard by CNN's Rick Sanchez. Good for you Rick -- people of Ensign's smarmy, dishonest character shouldn't be given a free ride in interviews much less be trusted to give honest viewpoints on the subject matter they're being grilled about. Beautiful ambush.
KABUL – The Taliban claimed responsibility Thursday for a suicide bombing at a base in eastern Afghanistan that killed eight American civilians and one Afghan, the worst loss of life for the U.S. in the country since October. A U.S. congressional official said CIA employees are believed to be among the victims.
Four Canadian soldiers and a journalist also were killed Wednesday by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan's south, the bloodiest single incident suffered by that country's military this year.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told The Associated Press that a Taliban bomber wearing a military uniform and a suicide vest entered the base in Khost province Wednesday evening and blew himself up inside the gym. A U.S. official who was briefed on the blast also said it took place in the gym.
That official said eight U.S. civilians and one Afghan were killed; it was not clear if the Afghan victim was military or civilian. Six Americans were wounded, the official said.
REPUBLICAN HACK: President Obama right now has suffered very greatly in the last few months because of the fight over health care, and he has very little political capital right now. So Republicans feel it is in vogue to criticize this president.
And then lastly, you have to also remember the fact that the president being on vacation in Hawaii, it’s much different than being in Texas. Hawaii to many Americans seems like a foreign place. And I think those images, the optics, hurt President Obama very badly.
This is exactly the sort of stupid, repugnant, divisive garbage that your modern day conservative Republicans excel at. Hawaii is not as "American" as Texas. Lovely.
Republicans are jumping on President Obama's response to the attempted Christmas Day bombing of a U.S. airliner as the latest evidence that Democrats do not aggressively fight terrorism to protect the country, returning to a campaign theme that the GOP has employed successfully over the past decade.
Makes sense. Fear-mongering, alarmist politics before national security. It's a hallmark strategy of the shameless con-men who permeate the ranks of American conservatism.
It must be acknowledged though -- it is one of the few things conservatives and Republicans actually do quite well. Exploit people's fears, cynically manipulate the craven media, manufacture panic and hysteria where it's not needed. Basically demonstrate to the world what bed-wetting, irrational fraidy cats Americans are. Why it is that your average American would want these smirking, cuckolding conservatives to be the representative face of the United States to the rest of the world on the subject of how to deal with terrorism is beyond my comprehension.
The Europeans, who've been dealing with terror attacks on their shores and people for many more years than us, must be watching the Republican chickenheart parade with a combination of rapt bemusement and utter derision.
Having said that, it wouldn't surprise me one bit if the Europeans were also breathing a huge sigh of relief simply knowing that a mentally stable head of state is in charge of the U.S. government at this serious time in history instead of a dry-drunk cowboy and Vietnam war draft evader or a deranged ex-POW (who sings songs on the campaign trail about bombing other countries) and his clueless, fundamentalist christian sidekick.
Gee -- somewhat of a shock considering ol' "Turdblossom" used the the sacred ideals of "family values" and "traditional marriage" like a sledge hammer to pound Democrats and liberals over the head with throughout his political career.
Mmmm -- on second thought -- no, it's not a shock. It's everything one should expect from a world-class hypocrite and scumbag.
This is pretty much why I lost interest in college football over the years. The corporate sponsorship crap run a muck pretty much ruined it for me. When I was a kid it was simple -- Gator Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, Cotton Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Orange Bowl, Rose Bowl. Done.
And now: The Chick-fil-A Bowl, The Auto Zone Bowl, The Capital One Bowl, The PapaJohns.com Bowl, The San Diego County Credit Union Bowl, and my favorite -- The International Bowl (WTF??).
The slimy tentacles of corporatism have extended their money grubbing reach into just about every major sporting platform in this country. And in doing so, in my view, they've ruined the simple purity of the sport and games - just to make a buck.
Last Sunday Republican Jim DeMint appeared on Fox News and used the alleged Christmas Bomber issue to attack President Obama and the TSA because the agency's screeners might *gasp* unionize.
As it turns out, DeMint was really trying to deflect attention away from the fact that he voted against TSA funding earlier this year and has put a hold on Obama's nominee to head the department - hampering the agency's ability to put leadership in place:
Politics over national security. Yeah -- way to fucking go conservatives!!
If America and the rest of the democratized world plays it's cards right and shows some mature patience, Iranian regime change quite probably can be accomplished without ever having to drop a single bomb or putting a single U.S. soldier's life in danger over there.
It's likely wishful thinking on my part, but who knows. Maybe people will finally see the futility of endless war as a perennial foreign policy.
“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” ----Yoda
Stunning. The lies that continue to percolate from the right wing nutosphere, even nearly a decade later, truly demonstrates what a deceitful and vile class of people they are.
MATALIN: I was there, we inherited a recession from President Clinton and we inherited the most tragic attack on our own soil in our nation’s history. And President Bush dealt with it and within a year of his presidency within a comparable time, unemployment was at 5 percent.
Hey Mary Matalin, you shameless fraud! Why must you resort to bald-faced lies to bolster your argument?
The NBER (National Bureau of Economic Research), a non-partisan, widely acclaimed and respected American economics research organization says the recession started in March of 2001 (3 months into Bush's first term). So tell me Mary Matalin -- how many Nobel Prizes do you own in the field of economics? What's that?? None? Oh -- because the NBER numbers 19 Nobel winners amongst it's ranks. So please don't tell me that you Mary Matalin are a more prestigious source of economic truthiness than the career economists and Nobel laureates of the NBER. As for the unemployment rate, it was at 4.2% in January of 2001. Therefore it is a truthful statement that that is the unemployment rate that George W. Bush "inherited" from Bill Clinton. By the time November of 2001 rolled around, the unemployment rate stood at 5.4%. In upside down, right wing nutball Mary Matalin world, 5.4% unemployment is better than 4.2% unemployment. Go figure.
First batch of right-wing lies destroyed.
Next --
Last time I checked my history, September 11, 2001 occurred 9 months in to the Bush/Cheney administration. Tell me Mary Matalin - is there a cutoff point when a new administration can no longer claim that fuck-ups that occur on their watch were "inherited" from a previous administration? 9 months? 10 months?? A year??? Regardless of what your answer is Mary Matalin are you going to extend the same free-pass courtesy to the Obama administration? Somehow I doubt it you finger pointing hypocrite.
And just to put a damning exclamation point on your idiotic buffoonery Mary Matalin -- the day you fucking right wing assklowns truthfully explain to Americans and the rest of the world why the Bush/Cheney crowd ignored repeated warnings from former counter-terrorism czar Richard Clarke in the early months of 2001 that Al-Qaeda should have been the top priority for the incoming administration to deal with, instead of Iraq, then perhaps I'll listen to what you have to say without the level of disdain I have for you now. And while we're waiting for that explanation Mary Matalin, let's also review why a Presidential Daily Briefing that was delivered to President Bush on August 6, 2001 with the working title of "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S." was also ignored by the Bush/Cheney crowd in favor of on-going preparations to attack Iraq. That PDB according to testimony culled from the 9/11 Commission investigation indicates this very prescient bit of information was delivered to George Bush, Dick Cheney, Condi Rice and Donald Rumsfeld:
The classified briefing delivered to President Bush five weeks before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks featured information about ongoing al Qaeda activities within the United States, including signs of a terror support network, indications of hijacking preparations and plans for domestic attacks using explosives...
Just curious Mary Matalin - are you of the view that that warning was "inherited" from Bill Clinton too? Checkmate!
Second batch of right-wing lies destroyed.
Fucking history revising, lying assklowns. It's the primary reason this shitty little blog exists. Expose the dissembling frauds for who and what they are. Hey Mary Matalin! Thanks for a world-class example that proves my charges of blatant and shameless right-wing lying and hypocrisy (not that I need much help).
Senate Democratic leaders inched closer to attaining their goal of passing a health care bill by Christmas as Ben Nelson, the Nebraska senator who had been skeptical of the bill, jumped on board, winning major concessions for his state, and the Congressional Budget Office released an optimistic cost estimate of the legislation. Share Senators plan to work through the holidays to get a health care bill passed.
The Senate health care bill will reduce the deficit by $132 billion over the next 10 years and will cost $871 billion over the same time period, according to the CBO report released today. The revised health care bill would expand coverage to about 94 percent of eligible Americans under age 65, excluding illegal immigrants.
President Obama today hailed the legislation as "the largest deficit reduction plan in a decade," and praised the changes for making the health care bill stronger.
On one hand this version of "health care reform" that's been raped and bastardized by the GOP obstructionists and the Blue Dog Dem back-stabbers is nothing more than a great big ol' shit sandwich from a pure progressive standpoint. On the other hand, the hard-core conservatives are are having a major league shit fit about it and since there's 60 votes in favor of it, they are powerless. My conflict about how to feel about it is quite obvious.
It starts out as a pretty decent smackdown of Bill O'Reilly's faux outrage over a television drama linking his name with Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and the despicable act of using one's public media platform to incite hatred and violence. It segues into a biting tirade with Olbermann providing a rundown (and just a sampling btw) of the current crop of conservative screechers that saturate print, television and radio media. It was a bravo demolition of the tired myth that the poor, repressed conservatives have no voices in the "liberal media."
It's absolutely refreshing to actually see and hear a mainstream television pundit be so brutally honest about this issue.
We freed 50 million people in Iraq?? Minor detail I know, but I wonder how the between 100,000 and 500,000 dead Iraqi civilians are enjoying their "freedom."
Sometimes right wingers just make me want to fucking go beserk . . .
Mortgage rates in the United States have dropped to their lowest levels since the 1940s, thanks to a trillion-dollar intervention by the federal government . Yet the banks that once handed out home loans freely are imposing such stringent requirements that many homeowners who might want to refinance are effectively locked out.
The scarcity of credit not only hurts homeowners but also has broad economic repercussions at a time when consumer spending and employment are showing modest signs of improvement, hinting at a recovery after two years of recession.
Refinancing could save owners hundreds of dollars a month, which could be spent, saved or used to pay down debts. Extra spending would help lift the economy, and lower payments might spare some people from losing their homes to foreclosure.
The plight of homeowners has become a volatile political issue. On Friday, as the House passed a series of new financial regulations, it narrowly defeated a provision that would have allowed bankruptcy judges to modify the terms of mortgages. The measure was strongly opposed by the banking industry.
I say nationalize these big banks. Nationalize them, cap the CEO and upper management salaries, regulate them up the ass and make these pricks feel some of the pain they've caused so many with their reckless gambling spree. Nothing will change otherwise and they will continue to criminally pick the pockets of the honest, hard working American people and that should not be allowed to happen.
So here’s the plan. On Tuesday, December 15 at 8:45 AM thousands of us will meet in Washington, DC at the fountain in Upper Senate Park. From there we will march to the Senate offices, go inside, and demonstrate our opposition to the government takeover of health care. We call this plan “Government Waiting Rooms”. The intention is to go inside the Senate offices and hallways, and play out the role of patients waiting for treatment in government controlled medical facilities. As the day goes on some of us will pretend to die from our untreated illnesses and collapse on the floor. Many of us plan to stay there until they force us to leave. A backup location for this demonstration will be announced if they block us from entering the offices.
We need as many of you as possible to be there to make our point loudly and clearly. Please make plans to attend. We know it’s a sacrifice to do this right before Christmas. But throughout history American Patriots have made far greater sacrifices than this to protect our liberty. Now the burden (and the honor) falls on us.
Truth be told, if these troglodytes truly gave a sincere flying fuck about the state of the health care situation in America, they'd be marching into the offices of the obscenely compensated CEO's of the health insurance companies demanding they allow a public option plan to fairly compete in the marketplace. But those of us who actually pay attention and have studied the issue instead of getting our information from the mouths of Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity know of course that the health insurance industry would much rather maintain it's profit-driven business model and monopoly just the way it is. And they will spend millions of dollars out of the obscenely costly premiums that they charge people to purchase the preservation of their mafioso-like operation in the halls of Congress.
Let's face it folks, the teabaggers are not about taxes - under Obama the majority of American's taxes have remained the same or diminished. They are not about preserving the constitution -- can we say "rendition", "torture", "domestic surveillance", "manufacturing evidence to go to war"??? Please. And they certainly are not about opposition to a "government takeover" of health care (Medicare has been around for 45 years) -- duh. No -- the teabaggers are not really about any of those issues.
Here's why.
These people did not give a flippant shit while Bush and Cheney ransacked the U.S. treasury with their ill-advised tax cuts for the wealthy, their trillion dollar wars of choice in Iraq and Afghanistan and their supremely destructive mismanagement of the nation's economy. Nope --not a single goddamn peep. From my point of view these armchair patriots with their faux indignation, their suck-ass conservative ideology, their anti-intellectual mindset and myopic ignorance are simply a bunch of piss-poor fucking electoral losers who, all sputtering denials aside, just can't stand the fact that a black Democrat from Chicago with the middle name of Hussein is now President of the United States of America.
That, in a nutshell, is what the teabagger's and their juvenile, douchebag movement are all about.
Hey teabaggers --- you know what? You fucking lost the election. Get over it finally!
On Thursday, I hosted my MSNBC "Ed Show" from the Kansas City Convention Center. There have been few days in my thirty year broadcasting career that have moved me as much as this experience did. I saw the real America. In the middle of the country, two thousand miles from the beltway, I witnessed middle class Americans standing in line for hours waiting to see a doctor. Some had not seen a doctor in years. They have jobs, some working two jobs, but can't afford the cost of insurance and basically are on the GOP plan: pray you don't get sick.
The stories were gut wrenching. I couldn't help but think this is where the Senate needs to do their business. Do it right in front of the eyes of the people in their own country who are struggling to make ends meet and live in dignity. The Senate should do business in front of the families that have played by the rules and have been dealt a personal set back for one reason or another. Have the guts to tell these people to their face that they aren't worthy of health care because they don't have money. They may see these faces briefly on the campaign trail, but they make no decisions in front of them when they are standing in line in pain, in agony and in desperate need.
America has a heartless side to it as well. That is demonstrated when U.S. Senators put the God Almighty Dollar in front of people who put them in office. How any law maker could deny full access and full health care coverage is beyond me. Senators who put themselves ahead of the people and who have been spoiled by the Washington good life have lost their soul and what it means to be an American. We throw billions of dollars at wars, often without hesitation, but some in the Congress are willing to treat humans in their own country like a piece of machinery that can be left in a junk yard.
What's happened to America Ed is that America has lost it's collective mind and soul. This country has jettisoned it's moral compass in the pursuit of capitalist nirvana. What can be said about a society that allows 45,000 of it's citizens to die unnecessarily EVERY YEAR simply for lack of access to basic health care? That's the equivalent of 15 9/11's every year.
Here's how bad it is -- the elites in this country have actually convinced their handpicked lackeys in the judicial system, all the way to the Supreme Court, that corporations are "people." And when a precious word like people is reduced to such a degraded, emotionless, legal concept as such, is it any wonder then that the state of affairs in America today is in the sorry condition that it is?
Wake up folks. Wall Street and corporate America DO NOT have your best interests at heart. They never have. I would even go so far as to say that they DO NOT have America's best interests at heart.
Get involved, speak out. Protest. Pick a side (hopefully the good one) and stand up and fight for the principles of justice and righteousness. And while doing it, do not forget that we're all part of the human family.
Now that George Carlin is down in Hades smacking Beelzebub around, the title of "My Favorite Living Comic" has to go to Lewis Black. Here Lewis makes some profound observations on American arrogance, health care, and milk. Take it away Lewis!
I can't say that I disagree with the core message of this cartoon.
Obama is a gifted politician and an unquestioningly clever man, but I find it hard to believe he will accomplish that which the Soviet empire could not do, that which the British empire could not do and that which the Turkish and Mongol empires could not do -- namely tame a hellish, fractious land who's people are constantly at internecine war, but who somehow find the will to band together to repel outside invaders when the occasion arises.
I've resigned myself to the view that the outcome of this conflict is preordained. And that's not being pessimistic, it's called being realistic.
CHARLESTON, S.C. — South Carolina's first lady, a former Wall Street vice president who helped launch her husband's political career, announced Friday she is filing for divorce months after his tearful public confession of an affair with an Argentine woman.
"This came after many unsuccessful efforts at reconciliation, yet I am still dedicated to keeping the process that lies ahead peaceful for our family," Jenny Sanford said in a statement.
A spokesman for her husband, (Republican) Gov. Mark Sanford, had no immediate comment. The divorce complaint was filed Friday in Charleston County Family Court.
Question: "What do you think President Obama would like to do with the extra bank bailout money -- save it for an emergency, spend it on government programs that might help him politically in 2010 and 2012, or return it to taxpayers?"
Wink, Wink, Nudge, Nudge, say no more!
The obvious insinuation of course is that one of Obama's considerations of what to do with the surplus bailout (taxpayer) money is to give it away to the ni66ers, spics and ACORN.
On occasion I get approached by folks and am asked why I have such a visceral dislike for Sarah Palin. My answer to that query basically has not changed from the day that I did my homework on her and discovered where she stands on the important issues of the day and what she really seems to be all about.
To state it bluntly -- I think she's an uninformed, blithering, deeply dishonest fucking demagogue and if the years 2001 thru 2008 weren't proof enough as to what transpires when you put an uninformed, blithering, dishonest fucking demagogue in charge of America's domestic and foreign affairs, then I'm sorry because I don't believe there is much I can do to help you see the light on that subject.
Having said that - one thing that must be noted, which ironically is a good thing about Sarah Palin, is that she keeps opening her mouth. And in the process of doing so she exponentially enhances her dishonesty and idiocy credentials which correspondingly provides her detractors (such as me) with an ever burgeoning stack of evidence demonstrating what an uninformed, blithering, dishonest fucking demagogue she is.
And as for these people that I constantly see being interviewed on television news at Palin's book signings who are fawning over her and gushing about what a great President she would be -- I gotta tell ya -- those people scare the living shit out of me. Honestly they do.
What it boils down to is this -- I don't want the individual who is to be burdened with running the world's greatest democracy elected based on the idea of whether they might be fun to have a few beers with or how "regular" or "down home" they appear to be or how impressively they mouth the "family values" meme. That is precisely the kind of foolish, non-thinking attitude and mind-set that got us saddled with GWBush and we can all see where that got us.
I want a President who's actually cracked open a history book at some point in their life, read what was in it and seriously pondered the ramifications of past mistakes. I want a President who has read newspapers. I want a President who has traveled internationally and experienced other cultures and peoples. I want a President who has risen to power on their own initiative instead of on the coattails of wealthy, politically connected family members. I want a President who at least makes an honest effort to serve the needs of all of the people instead of only the elite few. And last but not least, when the going gets tough (because politics is a tough business) I want a President who, through hell or high water, is going to stick around and finish the job that the people elected him or her to do.
Needless to say, it's my fervent hope that the American people are intelligent and thoughtful enough to see thru the Palin "aww shucks/you betcha" smokescreen and send her and her fundamentalist religio-whacko, isolationist, science-hating supporters shuffling off into the twilight of irrelevancy where they rightfully belong.
Alan Grayson drives the right-wingers into frothy-mouthed fits of rage because he does what every other Democrat in Washington and every liberal media pundit is too spineless to do -- he goes on national television and tells Dick Cheney to Shut The Fuck Up and laments the fact the corrupt prick wasn't impeached.
Just read the title of this article, bypass the body of it, then go directly to the reader comments section and peruse some of the comments.
And there you will find, in all of it's exquisitely monstrous glory, an open window into your modern day, conservative neanderthal's mindset. Acknowledging of course, that I've made the necessary leap of faith here in even conjecturing that your modern day conservative has a "mind" to begin with.
Nonetheless -- read it -- and fear for your country if these troglodytes ever gain the levers of political power.
COLUMBIA, S.C. – South Carolina lawmakers voted down a measure to impeach Gov. Mark Sanford on Wednesday, but recommended a formal rebuke that said his travels and trysts with an Argentine mistress brought the state "ridicule, dishonor, disgrace and shame."
Most of the seven legislative panel members said the Republican should resign, though his affair, use of state planes and a 2008 taxpayer-funded trip to Argentina were not serious misconduct that merited removal from office.
Instead, the lawmakers unanimously approved a resolution saying he has "brought ridicule, dishonor, disgrace, and shame not only upon Governor Sanford but upon this state and its citizens which rises to a level which requires a formal admonishment and censure."
Sanford has been under scrutiny since June when he tearfully revealed a yearlong affair. Ensuing probes of his travel and campaign spending led to more than three dozen state ethics charges and the potential for $74,000 in fines. His second and final term ends in January 2011.
"We can't impeach for hypocrisy. We can't impeach for arrogance. We can't impeach an officeholder for his lack of leadership skills," said Rep. James Harrison, the Columbia Republican who headed the panel.
State Rep. Jenny Horne, a Republican, sobbed as she spoke of Sanford hurting his family. "I can only imagine the pain that they have endured and will continue to endure," Horne said.
Haha! Wow -- if conclusive evidence ever existed proving the hypocrisy superiority of American conservatives and Republicans in general -- this has to be it.
Can you imagine if S.C. Governor Mark Sanford had the letter "D" after his name instead of an "R"? Oh my -- the hue and cry that would have burst forth from the GOP morality police would have been deafening!
And check out those hilarious quotes from the crestfallen South Carolina Republicans in the article (bold lettering)! Comedy Gold!!
Funny thing -- I can't seem to recall any Republicans poo-poohing the hypocrisy, arrogance and lack of leadership when it came to Bill Clinton's Monica dalliance. On the contrary -- those transgressions were central tenets of the GOP's argument in favor of Clinton's impeachment.
Nor do I recall any Republicans sobbing crocodile tears on the floor of the House while lamenting the spiritual and emotional damage Clinton's affair may have had on poor Hillary and Chelsea.
What a bunch of soulless, hypocritical, phony bastards your modern day conservatives have become. It's why I despise them and mock them so mercilessly.
There's been a long-standing internet acronym that describes this kind of political hypocrisy from conservatives/Republicans -- it's IOKIYAR (It's OK If You're A Republican). As of today I'm modifying that acronym -- to me it shall hence forward be changed to IAOFKIYAR (It's A O Fucking K If You're A Republican).
HOUSE GOP IS PRO-CHRISTMAS.... It was just six weeks ago that House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) decided he was fed up with empty, meaningless congressional resolutions. These largely symbolic measures are taken up all the time -- it's been routine fare for years -- but Boehner decided they're now evidence of Democratic negligence. "These are your hard-earned tax dollars at work," Boehner scoffed.
He apparently didn't persuade his own caucus. This week, 19 House Republicans unveiled a resolution (H. RES. 951) to make it clear that Congress likes Christmas.
Right. Because the single most critical problem facing America and Americans today is the life & death question of whether some people lovingly embrace Christmas more than others.
You really have to applaud the unbridled and arrogant cynicism of the conservative Republicans in pushing this juvenile meme. I surmise that since they are out of power and have absolutely no constructive or intelligent ideas to add to the debates on health care, education, the economy, foreign policy, and the housing crisis that they might just as well stomp their feet, throw tantrums, obstruct everything, play childish games and rile up the Fox News rubes. Pathetic.
Details are still unconfirmed, we should note. But a woman appears to have suggested to police that Rod Jetton, a Republican who now works as a political consultant, may have slipped something into her drink, then beat her up during sex, after she failed to use the safe word they had agreed upon as a signal to calm things down.
...The woman added that she and Jetton had agreed on the phrase "green balloons" as a "safe word" that she could use if things got too rough during sex. That's not uncommon among people who enjoy sex that involves dominance and submission.
Why does it not surprise me to see yet another story of a married with children, "family values" spouting, church-going Republican involved in kinky sexcapades? If these right wing holier-than-thou assholes actually spent as much time trying to come to terms with their own internal demons as they do in attempting to pass laws restricting other people's sex lives, maybe I wouldn't get such delirious enjoyment out of hearing about their creepy episodes.
Jon Stewart brilliantly captures the "essence" of Fox News. The calculated and deliberate dumbing down of the news and political discourse that Fox & Friends engages in directly equates to a more ignorant and easily manipulated public. Think about it -- it actually makes sense. Because the very last thing the conservative movement wants is an educated, well informed electorate that is able to see thru the smoke and mirror bullshit of the conservative/unbridled capitalism ideology to realize how badly the right's economic, social and foreign policies are fucking all of us in the ass.
An Iraqi taxi driver may have been the source of the discredited claim that Saddam Hussein could unleash weapons of mass destruction within 45 minutes, a Tory MP claimed today.
Adam Holloway, a defence specialist, said MI6 obtained information indirectly from a taxi driver who had overheard two Iraqi military commanders talking about Saddam's weapons.
The 45-minute claim was a key feature of the dossier about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction that was released by Tony Blair in September 2002. Blair published the information to bolster public support for war.
At some point the truth will be in full view for all to see and my hope is that it occurs in my lifetime and that I have the privilege of seeing certain politicians and media moguls sitting in a docket at the Hague for their crimes. Having said that though and knowing how "justice" actually works in this country, I won't be awaiting that day with an overabundance of anticipatory expectation.
BEIJING (Reuters) – China on Tuesday executed a former securities trader for embezzlement, the first person in the industry to be put to death, but millions of yuan are still missing, a state newspaper said.
Harsh? Yes. Unnecessary? I'm not so sure. After seeing how the greedy and corrupt money-changers of this country destroyed an economy and the lives of so many it's difficult for me to think that perhaps if a few of these American Bank and financial institution CEO's could be seen hanging by their necks from a public gallows, maybe, just maybe, a message of unambiguous nature would be conveyed to those who aspire to commit the same crimes at some future date.
Orrin methinks has got the Ronnie RayGun disease. He seems to have forgotten exactly who it was that had control of all three branches of government between 2000 and 2006.
Proof that American popular culture isn't culture at all -- more like a mass, swirling cesspool of pubescent celebrity groupies. It's so depressing.
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Michael Jackson's three children, reality TV mom of eight Kate Gosselin and former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin were picked Wednesday as some of the most fascinating people of 2009...
It's assholes like this guy that turned me off to organized Christianity many, many years ago. And I haven't regretted it for a nano-second.
Excerpt (more like excrement) from said asshole's hate-filled column:
Barack Hussein Obama's deity is the god of the Koran — Allah. His personal savior is Allah, though he professes to be a Protestant via his membership in the theologically liberal United Church of Christ (Congregational / UCC). That would make him out to be a witness to Jesus Christ; of course, that is bogus, including his testimony that at an altar at Chicago's Trinity UCC he discovered Christ. If it was Christ, it is not the Christ of the New Testament.
Obama's so-called holy writ is the abominable Koran. His hope for eternity is unknown; but if he becomes a suicide bomber for Allah, he will be guaranteed pronto a score of virgins for everlasting. His hope for the present seems to be his reliance upon Islam's Koran furthered by his clandestine support of Islam World Rule via czars and a shadow government given to overthrowing our Republic.
In January 2009, Marxist Muslim's Obama seemed to be riding high on mob hysteriacs seating him proudly in the Oval Office. Recall he told the world, "I won." Countless devotees showed up at his inauguration. He was applauded throughout Congressional halls as the new messiah promising "hope" and "change."
Not yet a year later, he has not produced productive "change" for America; therefore, there is no grassroots "hope" in the Pied Piper who led millions into his lying machine.
Today he is below par in polls. He has not accomplished anything worthwhile, per Saturday Night Live spoofs, for example.
Today he is on the verge of submerging America into the trenches due to his pro-Islamic policies installed by crooks and Muslim cronies surrounding him 24 / 7.
These are the people who've hijacked the Republican party since the "Reagan Revolution" and their sick mindset permeates the ranks of the core establishment.
I have no doubt that if there is any single group of people that will be the incendiary catalyst for future civil conflict in this country it's going to be these fuckheads.
Having said that though, they had best be careful for what they wish for. Last time I checked, fundamentalists were still a fairly insignificant minority of the church-going public.
I don't think it's too off base to think though that it's a good ass whooping by us heathens and sane Christians could be the dose of reality that's needed to keep these assklowns in line.
Holy shit! Rush Limbaugh can't even hold his ground in a simple debate with Captain Kirk of the Starship Enterprise! What a fucking loser (and the same goes for his mindless Klingon ditto-head army too)! I've always been of the opinion that Limpballs was a phony, pathetic piece of shit -- this video simply confirms that view.
I was not impressed with Obama's speech on escalating the conflict in Afghanistan. As a matter of fact, I was fairly disgusted with it.
Keith Olbermann made some observations about Obama's plans to send more troops into that shit-hole the other day and I'm more in his corner of the dissension spectrum.
Let's see the conservanuts try to spin this report:
WINNIPEG–One of Canada's top northern researchers says the permanent Arctic sea ice that is home to the world's polar bears and usually survives the summer has all but disappeared.
Experts around the world believed the ice was recovering because satellite images showed it expanding. But David Barber says the thick, multi-year frozen sheets crucial to the northern ecosystem have been replaced by thin "rotten" ice that can't support weight of the bears. "It caught us all by surprise because we were expecting there to be multi-year sea ice. The whole world thought it was multi-year sea ice," said Barber, who just returned from an expedition to the Beaufort Sea.
... The ice is unable to withstand battering waves and storms because global warming is rapidly melting it at a rate of 70,000 square kilometres each year, he said.
Multi-year sea ice used to cover 90 per cent of the Arctic basin, Barber said. It now covers 19 per cent. Where it used to be up to 10 metres thick, it's now 2 metres at most.
The findings, soon to be published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, come as a shock to experts worldwide.
It's a known fact of life that some people learn life's lessons through hardship, pain and misery. I'm of the belief that the climate change deniers are firmly ensconced within that foolhardy mindset of the human species.
Genius may have its limitations, but stupidity is not thus handicapped.
Some lawyers who defend homeowners against foreclosure assert that mortgage companies are merely stalling, using trial loan modifications as an opportunity to extract a few more dollars from borrowers who would otherwise make no payments.
“I don’t think they ever intended to do permanent loan modifications,” said Margery Golant, a Florida lawyer who previously worked for a major mortgage company, Ocwen Financial. “It’s a shell game that they’re playing.”
I'm truly beginning to believe that the time has come for "we the people" to throw the thieving money changers from the temple plaza. Perhaps even, and I know this may sound harsh, take a page from the Chinese justice book on how to deal with greedy businessmen who do deliberate harm on a mass scale in pursuit of profit.
Republican Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona believes that a massive military invasion of Afghanistan is the solution to all of America's woes in that shit-hole of a country. Well imagine that!
"Let's don't have talk of a phased deployment," Kyl said. "We'll send a few troops immediately, and then we'll see what happens, see how it plays out, maybe send some more. That's kind of reminiscent of Vietnam. That escalation, that slow escalation didn't work there. You need to put in everybody you can as quickly as you can and deliver a knockout punch to the enemy."
Why yes - how silly of the ditherers not to see the unbridled, simplistic brilliance of such a plan? I mean it worked like a charm with Bush and Cheney's "shock & awe" invasion of Iraq right?
And of course, to "balance" out the debate, you have the Blue Dog (aka moderate Republican) Democratic Senator from Indiana Evan Bayh there to nod his head like a dashboard bobble head doll and hold hands with Kyl and more or less add to the sickening spectacle of the two of them behaving like teen lovers on their prom date.
If these are the types of "leaders" in Washington, D.C. that the people of this country are relying on to move America forward into the 21st century -- all I have to say is -- we're all fucked.
I wholeheartedly agree with what Atrios observes -- "so many assholes in this country." Click thru to the link from the NYT on the soaring use of food stamps in America.
What with Glenn Beck publicly urging the U.S. gov't to commit war crimes, and Rush Limbaugh openly pining for the U.S. military to stage a coup to remove a democratically elected U.S. President, I am seriously beginning to believe that perhaps the Tea-baggers may very well be looking in the wrong places for the real traitors that they've been searching for to string up from a tree.
But try to talk to your average Tea-bagger about how colossally stupid (not to mention seditionist and anti-American) that both of Beck's and Limbaugh's wet-dream fantasies are and all you'll get is a glassy-eyed stare and an Obama = Hitler sign waved in your face.
[The Beckster]
[The LimpBalls]
Sometimes I think we've got the wrong people rotting away in Gitmo.
So basically that horror episode which happened 9 months into George Bush's and Dick Cheney's term on September 11, 2001 was just a bad dream?
Well I'll be a suck-egg mule! Imagine that!
9/11 and everything that resulted thereof must have happened on that philanderer Bill Clinton's watch eh? Or maybe -- maybe -- maybe it actually happened on Obama's watch and Obama, using his Muslim, Kenyan powers of mystical, psychological manipulation hypnotized the world into thinking that Al-Qaeda's attacks really happened on Bush's watch. Ingenious! Obama truly is the Messiah!!
Honestly, I don't know what to say. These right-wing fucks lie with such flagrant impunity, it's nearly impossible to address their bullshit with any measurable level of purposefulness any more.
And of course, that smug prick Sean Hannity sat there nodding his head in mindless agreement and the thought of even mildly correcting Perino's howler of mendacity never even flitted across his barren wasteland of a brain.
What incredible fucking arrogance and dishonesty. I can't even wrap my mind around it it's so astonishingly detestable.
Oh right -- because the last guy I want to hear pontificating about how we must honor our troops is Dick Cheney. Here's a guy who willfully sought out and received 5 draft deferments to avoid having to serve in Vietnam when it was his time. "Shotgun Dick" was also the "mastermind" behind the policy to manipulate intelligence and deceive Congress and the American people into backing the very stupid invasion of Iraq, which if you ask any sane and honest historian, will tell you was one of the worst foreign policy blunders in this country's history.
So yeah -- I have no respect for Dick Cheney. And his long "career" in government service is meaningless to me. His chickenhawk past and his horrible judgement on Iraq trump whatever "accomplishments" he and his sycophantic supporters love to bellow about.
Frankly, anytime I see Cheney's sneering face on television these days it just makes me want to pull off one of my Caterpillar, steel toed boots and toss it at the tv screen.
Glenn Beck has passed the threshold of parody --- he's now just a stupid fucking jerk. Oh -- and you fools who think Beck has something interesting to say --- try reading Thomas Paine's Common Sense or Paine's The Rights of Man. Then come talk to me about what a great "mind" Glenn Beck is.
I've been of the opinion for quite some time that the right-wingers haven't much of a cognizant sense of comedy. I mean really -- show me the equivalent conservative version of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart that is just as successful.
Anyway, please watch this video clip. It is not satire, it is a real video trailer from a real documentary that the Tea-baggers think is just the fo' shizzle. Funniest doggone shit I've seen in a very long time.
