Filtered news 10/18/09
Obama cuts Teabaggers off at the knees
President Obama was in my hometown of San Francisco Friday for a fundraising dinner and apparently was in a feisty mood. While teabaggers greeted him at the entrance of the hotel, Obama took the time to address his dinner crowd with some of the most partisan words I’ve ever heard from him:
“….Another way of putting it is when, you know, I’m busy and Nancy is busy with our mop cleaning up somebody else’s mess –- we don’t want somebody sitting back saying, you’re not holding the mop the right way. Why don’t you grab a mop, why don’t you help clean up. You’re not mopping fast enough. That’s a socialist mop. Grab a mop –- let’s get to work.”
Wanker of the Day Ralph Lauren
This is America? Court Rules Government Can Continue to Suppress Detainee Statements Describing Torture and Abuse
Worst. Comparison. Ever. Using the same tough standards, I find that I am quite a bit like Gandhi and the Buddha. Gandhi and I are both bi-pedal and wear glasses and facial hair. Buddha and I both have round bellies and smile a lot. And, of course, MLK and I have the same last name and both have black children. My, my…. I feel so much better about myself.
National deficit, take a deep breath First, it’s actually lower than it was projected to be just two months ago. Second, as a percentage of the GDP, it’s not that big of a deal, historically speaking. Third, Obama’s efforts at stimulating the economy come in a distant third as a contributor to the deficit.
And finally, let’s also not forget that it only makes sense to run large deficits given the circumstances. We’re dealing with an economic collapse and two wars, following eight years in which we were led by “the most fiscally irresponsible president in the history of the republic.”
Bush inherited the largest budget surplus in American history and turned it into the largest deficit in American history. Obama, in contrast, found a fiscal fiasco waiting on his desk on his first day on the job. Before anyone blasts the president for the mess, perhaps they ought to grab a mop.
Neocon media at play The New York Times has outsourced its fact-checking work to a Web site that was launched a little over two years ago.
Best comment on the Balloon Boy non-news story
whether or not the drama was staged, it certainly served as a perfect metaphor for cable news: America spent hours riveted by a powerful and gripping story that turned out to be totally meaningless, and will have no significant impact on anybody’s lives going forward.
(just have to forgive the redundant “whether or not” phrase)
The change we voted for “… the Bush Doctrine and the other primitive policies of violent aggression adopted over the past decade made America less safe.”
Corporate Accountability and WorkPlace
The top 1 percent owns more wealth then the bottom 90 percent. CEOs of large corporations earn 400 times what their workers make. That is not what America is supposed to be about
Republicans in Congress as iPhone apps — briliant
A glimpse into the frigid abyss where a soul should be
a conservation between Pat Robertson and Bill Donohue discussing how “intellectually, morally, and spiritually bankrupt” liberals are trying to “tear down society” consists entirely of a five minute rant from Donohue declaring “we’re not going to allow gay people to adopt children, that’s against nature, it’s against nature’s god,” saying that the Catholic Church’s sex abuse scandal was due entirely to gays, and finally asserting that those who don’t share his views are nothing but “termites” who are “no more Christian than the Man on the Moon”
The audio below should be played for every teenager in America.
And how ever many of us haven’t been completely stripped of our morality, turned into so many grubby Gosselins or hot air balloon publicity hounds or teabagging lunatics, should band together and pledge to “snitch” on every bastard who threatens to further destabilize our already unstable society. Listen, if you can get through it, to the screams of a kid who spoke up, and who still might pay for it with his life. Michael Brewer is 15 — and 15 is just a kid, as you’ll hear from his screams after jumping into a pool, on fire. **WARNING: This audio will make you cry (or at least it should…)
CIA Blocking Access to Lee Harvey Oswald Files
The Glenn Beck spectacle gets weirder and weirder. It’s becoming clear that this guy is headed for a very ugly sort of meltdown, and it’s going to happen in public.
Obama defends Bobby Jindal – the young star of the GOP and a potential rival to Obama in 2012 – against the crowd’s booing. And it’s not a half-hearted defence either – it’s warm and heartfelt, and if anyone needs an example of how genuine this president is when he says he wants to encourage civility in political debate, it’s this.
It’s easy to paint American Christians as right wing free-marketeers -– but the truth is far more complex. Especially considering its founder was way out on the Left.
Emanuel: U.S. Starting From ‘Scratch’ In Afghanistan
Another Bush administration official is heads to jail.
The Right always gets around to violence The bizarre right-wing accusations against the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) have apparently produced at least one death threat.
Faux apology from faux religious leader
it may be ungracious to criticize someone trying to show regret, but this isn’t much of an apology. Land didn’t “intend” to equate reform with “anything related to the Holocaust”? He said Democratic efforts are doing “precisely what the Nazis did.” What, exactly, did he “intend”? He “regrets” the Mengele reference? When given a chance to walk it back, Land said “the analogy is apt and I stand by it.”
What’s more, Alex Koppelman noted, “Land didn’t apologize for the substance of his comments, and reiterated allegations about the Obama administration’s proposals that are demonstrably false. And he doesn’t seem to have apologized to Emanuel himself.”
The Man is always trying to keep the white conservatives down. “It’s nice of this multi-millionaire who managed to avoid jail time after a series of drug felonies to explain this to us.” Dear God, smite me with such oppression!
The hypocrisy, stupidity and fear of Liz Cheney
War on Christmas hoax The wingnut rumor mill is saying the White House won’t have a Christmas tree this year. It’s another steaming pile of bull.
A new ad from the American Values Network, hoping to promote health care reform from the perspective of the religious left.
The GOP and its lunatic fringe faction
…Republicans believe there’s an “underground movement” assembling to resist the coming dictatorship, and believe Fox News and the Tea Parties are “manifestations of this nascent uprising.”
In the larger context, it’s not exactly shocking to know a sizable portion of the Republican Party’s base has gone stark raving mad. What’s of greater interest, though, is what the Republican Party is going to do about it. As far as the GOP base is concerned, constructive cooperation and/or negotiation with the White House is intolerable. Indeed, the report suggests the activists are annoyed with their party — it isn’t nearly unhinged enough for their tastes.
For a party that believes base mobilization is the key to electoral success, it poses something of a challenge — follow the un-medicated whims of enraged nihilists who stand “a world apart from the rest of America,” while pretending to be a mainstream political party that has the capacity to appeal to a broad national audience. I don’t envy them.
US Secret Service is overwhelmed: should its mission be narrowed?
Because racists usually ignore the law AZ Sheriff Conducts Immigration Sweeps Despite Federal Curb
Not all Republicans are racist
and not everyone who opposes immigration is a nativist. However, misrepresenting the Party’s platform and presenting the GOP as something it’s not is shamefully disingenuous. It also fails to fundamentally address the xenophobia which plagues and divides the GOP and may one day render the Republican Party obsolete if left undenounced and untethered.
Hi, I’m the new COO for SEC enforcement. Be scared, be very scared
This is Adam Storch, the just appointed COO of the SEC enforcement division. I know, you’re thinking, he’s not old enough to shave, has no experience in this kind of enforcement, and isn’t isn’t even a licensed broker. But you’re forgetting his most important qualification. He’s a Goldmanite and apparently has enjoyed a speedy rise through the ranks, so Goldman Sachs must indeed think he is the Right Stuff.
Federal Judge Rules That VA Violated Voters’ Rights In ‘08
The Right always gets around to violence Indicted Man Threatened To Kill Pres. And Scrawl “Fed …” On His Chest
You’ve Got Fail: The Daily Show On The New GOP.com
Weasel of the Week Award: First Premier Bank for charging 79.9% interest on credit cards
This is America? Louisiana Justice of the Peace denies marriage license to interracial couple
Just plain old fashioned bigotry…. in Congress
Racist email doc shows up on Beck as an “expert”
The iron-clad logic of the blackboard, these associations can only mean one thing about Glenn Beck. Who will tell the people?
Maddow and Olbermann respond to George H.W. Bush’s attack on them as ’sick puppies.’
Militia madness: Online game based on American civil war in 2011 after ‘Obama’s coup fails’
Obama Threatens Insurance Companies’ Anti-Trust Exemption
The costume is a sick sign of the times we are living in this country where those who are not “people like us” might as well be from another planet and are considered less than human. I am surprised Target would promote such a mentality.
Buchanan says what we’re all thinking?
Does that mean that we’re all a bunch of misogynistic, isolationist , Hitler-apologizing bigots, or can we just limit that to Uncle Pat and Mika?
