SunnySighDown

Partial Retirement

2009-08-04T11:36:00.001-07:00

Hey all.

Not really feeling like engaging in the political debate thing right now. It's far too depressing and I'm far too cynical to pretend to care anymore. The country is broken and cannot be fixed at this point.

So, I repeat my advice: eat, drink, smoke and enjoy life. Might as well.

I'll post intermittently from now on, but I doubt that I'll go back to the full engagement I tried before. Take care.

The New Member of Our Family

2009-08-01T20:38:00.000-07:00

This is Dags:

This is what Gary thinks of Dags:

This is what Gary's brother, Chomsky, thinks of Dags:

We're a happy family:

Olbermann Sells Out Audience

2009-08-01T12:06:00.000-07:00

Glen Greenwald has a fascinating look at the corporate censorship of news at MSNBC and how Keith Olbermann has compromised the trust of his viewers. Apparently, Jeff Immelt, the CEO of GE (which owns MSNBC), and Rupert Murdoch, the CEO of News Corporation (which owns Fox) have agreed that Olbermann and his television nemesis, Bill O'Reilly, would stop attacking each other in order to further their parent corporations' unrelated business interests.

As most of you know, Olbermann spent a lot of time pointing out the hypocrisy and lies routinely dissembled by Fox News, while O'Reilly countered by making public GE's corporate relationship with Iran and their weapons-manufacturing business. Olbermann denies making any such deal, though Greenwald points out that he has not mentioned O'Reilly or Fox but once since the deal was struck at the end of May.

But now, fortunately, Fox News can resume spewing its noxious lies without being called on them and GE can safely return to the profitable business of war and crooked regimes.

On a related note, Greenwald criticizes MSNBC and Richard Wolffe for the network's refusal to disclose the fact that Wolffe is now a paid corporate lobbyist at the firm started by Dan Bartlett, George W. Bush's former White House Communications Director.

What the fuck? I was already growing tired of Olbermann's self-righteous rants and puritanical sense of morality. But I am genuinely disappointed that he has proven to care so little for his own integrity in the interest of maintaining his inflated paycheck.

I shouldn't be surprised and, to a large extent, I'm not. But as Obama's apparent futility has confirmed my decision to withdraw from national politics, Olbermann's greedy acceptance of censorship in the interest of corporate profits has sealed my divorce with traditional media and their loudmouth pundits.

Franken Smacks Down T. Boone Dickhead

2009-07-31T14:43:00.001-07:00

T. Boone Pickens, oil magnate and the drawling dickhead behind the blatantly false and vicious swiftboat attacks against Senator John Kerry, received a warm welcome from pusillanimous Democrat Senators today when he joined their weekly policy lunch.

The inexplicable applause and friendly reception was universal among the Dems, with the exception of one Senator, who managed to display integrity and a backbone, two things that have been conspicuously absent from the Democrat Party in recent years.

Al Franken.

That's right. Apparently, Pickens approached Franken after the lunch to introduce himself. Franken refused to stand to reciprocate the greeting, and began berating the lying douchebag for his douchebaggery. The exchange became heated, reports say.

Fucking great. Perhaps this sort of behavior will rub off on some of his fellow Democrats. God knows the party and the nation could use more of it.

Money from Villains

2009-07-31T10:48:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi called health insurance companies villains and labelled their behavior as immoral. Of course, they're not so villainous and immoral that she's going to return the campaign donations they've given her. But they're really, really bad.

The Jungle Monkey Missive

2009-07-31T10:38:00.000-07:00

Officer Justin Barrett, another shining light of intelligence and decency of the Cambridge Police Department, has been suspended for writing an e-mail in which he refers to Professor Gates as a jungle monkey and suggested that a female writer for the Boston Globe would be better suited serving him coffee and donuts on Sundays.

Below is the full e-mail from Officer Barrett.

Officer Barrett's original e-mail
Don't worry, though. He assures us that he's not really a racist. Whew.

Socialized Medicine Already Corrupting America

2009-07-31T10:34:00.000-07:00

30% of Americans are on some form of government-funded health insurance plan. I wonder what percentage of these socialists are Republican idiots running off at the mouth about the dangers of socialized medicine?

How the Senate Works

2009-07-29T13:54:00.000-07:00

Hunter over at DailyKos imagines the Senate Finance Committee attempting to regulate lead paint.

The time: somewhere in the past. The place: a stuffy office inside the Hill. The lead paint industry is in hot water because of all the problems associated with lead paint; there has been a huge public uproar. There's going to be legislation. Luckily, the lead paint industry has great lobbyists.

Senator: "Golly, Mr. Lobbyist, people are really pissed off with your lead-based paint. We're thinking we're going to have to regulate it to remove the lead, or at least reduce the amount of lead in it or something."

Lobbyist: "Well, you could do that... but that would interfere with the free market."

Senator: "Good point. Well, we're all about being fair to the marketplace here. What do you propose we do instead?"

Lobbyist: "Well, hmm. For starters, I think it should be a law that everyone must buy lead paint every year."

Senator: "Why, that's brilliant! Let's f---ing do it! Problem f---ing solved!"

Lobbyist: "And there's rumor that the government is going to start making paint without lead so people won't get poisoned so often. We don't think we could compete against that without it cutting into our profits, since everyone would want non-leaded paint instead, so you should ban it."

Senator: "Fantastic!"

Lobbyist: "Oh, and my friends in the paintbrush industry are alarmed that people might be getting their paintbrushes for half the usual price in other countries, so you should ban importing paintbrushes so that Americans have to pay the American price."

Senator: "Of course, consider it done! What a spectacular reform effort this will be, the public will love it! Anything else?"

Lobbyist: "Oh, I guess that does it for now. At least this way if we're going to have lead paint reform, it'll be done in a bipartisan way. If you need me, I'll be out back killing a hooker."

and... SCENE.

Sigh.

Rahm and the Blue Dogs: Killing Health Care One Concession at a Time

2009-07-29T13:41:00.001-07:00

The Blue Dog Democrats have done it again. Apparently not ashamed at the revelation that they have been raising heaps of money from health insurance companies while determining whether or not ordinary Americans deserve access to health care, they have now succeeded in watering down and delaying any potential bill. They have basically removed the employer mandate provision from the bill, ensuring that businesses with profits under $500,000 per year will not be required to provide their employees with insurance.

Unsurprisingly, they've been aided and abetted by serial conservative Rahm Emmanuel, who has proven to be one of those dickhead "pragmatists" who would rather pass a useless and compromised piece of shit than ever take a moral stand on any issue. Anyone really think that it's a mere coincidence that both Democratic White Houses he's worked in made abrupt turns to the right upon taking office?

As Matt Taibbi so brilliantly put it, Congress doesn't exist to protect voters from special interests. It exists to protect special interests from voters. This process in particular and Obama's inept six months in office should make crystal for everyone the fallacy of American democracy. Stop wasting your time with the kabuki dance of voting. It doesn't matter what suits call themselves our political representatives, because they have no itnerest in representing us.

I Like Dags

2009-07-29T13:33:00.000-07:00

Sorry that I've been away for a few days, but we just adopted a dog. He's a little Daschund puppy with a serious face-licking problem. Anyway, his name is 'Dags' after a funny line from Snatch.

Observe:

Contempt of Cop

2009-07-23T12:10:00.000-07:00

Here's a great article about the illegal arrest of Professor Henry Louis Gates, detailing the unjust reasons for his arrest. The author explains the concept of "contempt of cop," whereby insecure police officers illegally detain and arrest citizens for basically making cops upset. Gates upset the officer by demanding his name and badge number, a reasonable and perfectly legal request.

There is a concept known as "driving while black" literally synonymous with unlawful racism and racial profiling in America. What appears to have occurred with Gates makes driving while black look like a legitimate and justified police practice in comparison. Professor Gates was in his own home and showed appropriate identification exhibiting the same. At that point the incident needs to end. Period. If Gates demands the responding officer's name, it is a reasonable request, the officer needs to say he is sorry, give Gates his name and badge number and leave. It is really the only reasonable action under the circumstances.

Cursing at an officer is not a crime and one cannot be arrested for it. Of course, cops generally have as much understanding of the law as cats do of geography, which results in numerous arrests on false premises and other cases being thrown out of court because of illegal actions by cops. Anyway, a 9th Circuit judge determined that contempt of cop was not a crime in Duran v. City of Douglas, 904 F.2d 1372 (9th Cir. 1990).

Duran's conduct is not totally irrelevant, however, as it suggests a possible motive for his detention, one upon which law enforcement officers may not legitimately rely. The Durans contend, and the district court held, that Aguilar stopped their car at least partly in retaliation for the insult he received from Duran. If true, this would constitute a serious First Amendment violation. "[T]he First Amendment protects a significant amount of verbal criticism and challenge directed at police officers." Hill, 482 U.S. at 461, 107 S.Ct. at 2509. The freedom of individuals to oppose or challenge police action verbally without thereby risking arrest is one important characteristic by which we distinguish ourselves from a police state. Id. at 462-63, 107 S.Ct. at 2510. Thus, while police, no less than anyone else, may resent having obscene words and gestures directed at them, they may not exercise the awesome power at their disposal to punish individuals for conduct that is not merely lawful, but protected by the First Amendment.
...
No less well established is the principle that government officials in general, and police officers in particular, may not exercise their authority for personal motives, particularly in response to real or perceived slights to their dignity. Surely anyone who takes an oath of office knows--or should know--that much. See Hill, 482 U.S. at 462, 107 S.Ct. at 2510. Whether or not officer Aguilar was aware of the fine points of First Amendment law, to the extent he is found to have detained Duran as punishment for the latter's insults, we hold that he ought to have known that he was exercising his authority in violation of well-established constitutional rights.

And therein lies the problem for the Cambridge Police Department, which has pointedly refused to apologize to Professor Gates for their officer's outrageous and racist conduct. Here's the Statement of Facts from Gates' police report:

On Thursday July 16, 2009, Henry Gates, Jr. ___ of ___ Ware Street, Cambridge, MA) was placed under arrest at __ Ware Street, after being observed exhibiting loud and tumultuous behavior, in a public place, directed at a uniformed police officer who was present investigating a report of a crime in progress. These actions on behalf of Gates served no legitimate purpose and caused citizens passing by this location to stop and take notice while appearing surprised and alarmed.

Signed: Sgt. James Crowley

"[L]oud and tumultuous behavior, in a public place, directed at a uniformed police officer." Shockingly, it seems that Sargent James Crowley was ignorant of the fact that his authority is not absolute and he is not to be treated with the deference owed a monarch.

Amusingly, Crowley is now claiming that he is not a racist, based on the fact that he gave CPR to a dying black basketball star, Reggie Lewis. So that's settled.

Perhaps the Best Street Sign Evur

2009-07-23T11:27:00.000-07:00

Senator Jim DeMented

2009-07-23T11:06:00.000-07:00

Eric Kleefeld at Talking Points Memo offers a good look at Senator Jim DeMint's comments that President Obama has "lowered the discourse" with "false personal attacks."

Of course, if Jim DeMint thinks that Obama's lowered the discourse, what does he call this?

"[America is] about where Germany was before World War II where they became a social democracy. You still had votes but the votes were just power grabs like you see in Iran, and other places in South America, like Chavez is running down in Venezuela."

Nothing like high-brow discourse, eh Senator?

Profiles in Courage

2009-07-23T10:29:00.000-07:00

Another display of political courage from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said today that the Senate
would not attempt to pass sweeping health care reform until after returning from the August recess.

Reid said Republicans, who have shown intense resistance to President Obama’s push for health care reform, had asked for more time to work
out a package.

"We will do what we can to make sure their concerns are not buried," Reid said.

It's a good thing that he's bending over to comply with Republican delay demands, as not a single one of them is going to vote for health care reform anyway. Reid is wonderfully representative of the Democrat Party as whole - incompetent, impotent, but never impolite...

Barbarians at the Gates'

2009-07-23T08:57:00.000-07:00

Dissenting Justice has a quick look at President Obama's comments on the arrest of Henry Louis Gates, Jr., a Harvard professor, as he was attempting to enter his own house. Obama described the cops' behavior as stupid, rightly suggesting that any reasonable person would be upset with the police if he or she was treated in a similar fashion.

Of course, this was all that the conservative chorus needed to hear in order to declare Obama a race-baiting radical who does not respect the police. As usual, Bill Kristol's comments combine the subtle art of hypocrisy with his penchant for irrational reasoning.

Does [Obama] really know enough about what happened to say that? Maybe it was Professor Gates who behaved stupidly, or at least arrogantly. He is, after all, a Harvard professor. I was once a Harvard professor, and my instinct is to side with the Cambridge cops.

Translation? Obama doesn't know enough about the incident to comment. I will mention, for no reason whatsoever, that he was once a Harvard professor. I also was once a Harvard professor. Unlike Obama, I do know enough about the incident to comment on it, and as a white man who has never met a uniformed policeman in my life, I am confident that the black guy deserved it. Did I mention that I was once a professor at Harvard?

There's an obvious disparity here, and it has everything to do with race. Black men, even highly-accomplished black men like Professor Gates, have spent their entire lives dealing with (mostly white) cops who consider them criminals on the basis of their color. We white men don't have that problem. So when an incident like this occurs, the way in which we view it has a lot to do with our race, and white men tend to side with the police.

I was a bit disappointed in the question, as it gave the morons in the media a flashy headline so that they could ignore the larger health care debate. The comments about Gates don't require reporters to do much research or to explain dense policy proposals. Besides, exposes on race in America are so much sexier than the wonky health care debate.

Obama's Netanyahu Problem

2009-07-23T08:37:00.000-07:00

Steve Clemons at The Washington Note has an insightful look at the looming showdown between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Obama over Israel's belligerent anti-Palestinian policies. Netanyahu's government announced that it intends to build settlements - which they call "housing" - in East Jerusalem, a move that is intended to test Obama's resolve and political courage.

The Obama administration - and the rest of the international community - considers Jerusalem an important piece of future negotiations with Palestinians and wants Israeli building there to cease.

The Moskowitz-Netanyahu Plan to expand settlements in East Jerusalem, clearly over the red lines set by previous presidential administration and Israeli prime ministerships, is designed to pommel Obama and deflate his power in the eyes of other regional stakeholders.

The solution? According to Clemons, Obama now needs to "crush" the hawkish Prime Minister.

Obama needs to politely crush Netanyahu -- and do it with a smile, without losing his temper, just as Richard Wolffe -- in his new book Renegade: The Making of an American President -- describes Obama doing to political foes he politely vanquished.

Netanyahu has absolutely no interest in peace with the Palestinians. He would like nothing more than to slowly strangle them out of existence and then out of history. So far, Obama has done a pretty decent job of standing firm in regard to Israel's petulant behavior, not giving an inch when Netanyahu tries to push him. He'll need to continue this strategy now.

You're a Huge, Embarrassing Failure

2009-07-22T15:03:00.000-07:00

Ian Welsh at OpenLeft shares with us his growing doubt that a morally and intellectually compromised President Obama and his corrupt Congress have neither the intention of nor the ability to pass any meaningful legislation, whether on health care or climate change.

I have said this many times, and will continue to preach the gospel of anti-hope. This country has reached a stage in its history where institutional paralysis is the norm. Special interest groups have far too much power and politicians have too many reasons not to stand up to their narrow demands and designs. No legislation of any substance has been passed by Obama and the Congress, despite an overwhelming electoral mandate and high public support.

Perhaps this is just another case of Democrats' inability to govern competently. Perhaps Democrats are too scattered and ideologically diverse to agree on anything. It's certainly the case that lobbying groups' money and influence have compromised many Democratic lawmakers, making them unresponsive and indifferent to public opinion and national need.

The stimulus plan was a horrible waste of money that has resulted in more secretive cash transfers from American taxpayers to giant corporations. The climate change bill is worse than useless, as it completely fails to curb greenhouse gas emissions at all. Health care reform is as dead as the Ottoman Empire. July has seen a horrific rise in the number of American casualties in Afghanistan. Obama will not be closing Guantanamo within a year of taking office as he promised. (No worries, though. To compensate for missing his target date, he has introduced an unjust system of preventive detention for current and future prisoners that he deems to dangerous for the outside world.)

I'm done. Obama has proven ineffectual as a President and a disappointment on every imaginable level. Despite the disarray of the Republican party, voters will tire of Obama and his travelling circus and blame the Democrats for the deplorable state of America. My prediction? Big losses in 2010 and the loss of the White House in
2012.

Don't worry. If Obama has succeeded in doing anything, it's convincing us that the Democrat party should not be given power. Those of us who expected some big improvement in government can stop worrying and accept that Democrats should never win another election. After all, there's absolutely no difference between the last two Democrat presidents and their Republican counterparts.

Except that Republican presidents don't make a habit of routinely lying to their supporters.

Homer's Safety Dance

2009-07-22T14:51:00.001-07:00

Okay. This has nothing to do with anything. Deal with it.

Why We Fight

2009-07-22T13:44:00.001-07:00

Click for a brief history of America.

Whites: The New Blacks

2009-07-22T13:41:00.000-07:00

Since I can't get enough of Stephen Colbert, here's his take on Pat Buchanan defending white men from the unjust oppression of Latina judges.

The Colbert Report

Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Reverse Racism

www.colbertnation.com

Colbert Report Full Episodes

Political Humor

Mark Sanford

Let Them Eat Cake

2009-07-22T13:29:00.001-07:00

President Obama's nominee for Surgeon General, Dr. Regina Benjamin, is under fire from conservatives. These right-wing jackasses aren't complaining about Dr. Benjamin's qualifications, mostly because they can't. According to The Daily Voice, Dr. Benjamin

is a MacArthur grant recipient who holds advanced degrees in medicine and business administration. She is a family practice doctor who runs her own medical practice, the Bayou La Batre Rural Health Clinic that treats predominately poor patients in Bayou La Batre, Alabama. She was the first black woman to be elected to the American Medical Association board of trustees and became president of the Alabama Medical Association, making her the first African American woman to be president of a state medical society in the U.S.

No. Conservatives have fixated on Dr. Benjamin's weight as the reason she is disqualified to serve as Surgeon General. They claim that her weight will prevent her from credibly combating the obesity epidemic in America.

Let's cut the shit, huh? Conservatives are upset with Dr. Benjamin for the same reason they don't like Judge Sotomayor: they don't like minorities and fear that white men's apartheid-like dominance of the federal government is coming to an end. Republicans aren't concerned about Benjamin's weight, just her color.

Besides, if Dr. Benjamin's weight will prevent her from effectively combating obesity, wouldn't have George Bush's obvious retardation have resulted in the country becoming much stoopider?

The Walrus and the Congresswoman

2009-07-22T11:52:00.000-07:00

Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) made clear today that she supports a balanced budget and would not stand by while selfish politicians ruin such a budget by crying "emergency" every time a region is decimated by natural disasters.

Let's agree that we're going to have PAYGO enforcement. That we're not going to cry 'emergency' every time we have a Katrina, every time we have a Tsunami, every time we have a need for extra spending, that we don't go call for a special appropriation that allows us to circumvent the PAYGO rules.

And let's agree that every time we are on a collision course with a pesky asteroid, we don't screw around with the budget through silly attempts at attempting to save the planet.

Idiot.

Obama to America: STFU

2009-07-22T11:45:00.000-07:00

Our Dear Leader is caught in another one of his "I-only-said-it-to-get-elected" moments regarding policy. As a bright-eyed candidate, then-Senator Obama pledged that, as he devised a health-care reform bill, he would be entirely transparent, even to the point of allowing cameras into meetings so that Americans could witness the process.

However, since being sworn-in, now-President Obama has determined that the American people are better off not knowing who has been meeting with him and his staff and helping to shape a possible health care bill.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington sent a letter to the Secret Service asking about visits from 18 executives representing health insurers, drug makers, doctors and other players in the debate. The group wants the material in order to gauge the influence of those executives in crafting a new healthcare policy.

The Secret Service sent a reply stating that documents revealing the frequency of such visits were considered presidential records exempt from public disclosure laws. The agency also said it was advised by the Justice Department that the Secret Service was within its rights to withhold the information because of the "presidential communications privilege."

Take that, you gullible liberals. Being President means never having to follow through on silly campaign promises.

Chuck Todd, MSNBC's Resident Douchbag

2009-07-22T11:37:00.000-07:00

Stephen Colbert eviscerated goateed nimrod Chuck Todd (of MSNBC fame) for his amazing comments regarding possible torture investigations. Todd is just one of the masses of media superstars who are pressing forward with their opinion that there should be no investigations into the various crimes of the Bush administration. Todd is such a brainless doophus that his rationale for opposing such investigations is that television coverage of such investigations would necessarily turn the process into a circus.

Yes. Todd's reason for opposing criminal investigation is because people like him will not offer serious insight or balanced coverage of the event.

The Colbert Report

Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

The Word - A Perfect World

www.colbertnation.com

Colbert Report Full Episodes

Political Humor

Mark Sanford

Where Does Your Food Come From?

2009-07-22T11:28:00.000-07:00

The web site US Food Policy has a fascinating look at ten different sources of food in America. Look at the unbelievable difference between the use of land on both sides of the US-Canadian border.

Worth Paying For?

2009-07-22T11:21:00.000-07:00

Dday at Digby has an important article that explores the massive economic inequality in modern America. He points out that a small group of wealthy corporate executives now earn (or take, if you prefer) more than 1/3 of all pay in America.

Executives and other highly compensated employees now receive more than one-third of all pay in the U.S., according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of Social Security Administration data -- without counting billions of dollars more in pay that remains off federal radar screens that measure wages and salaries.

As dday says, "so much for trickle-down economics." The real problem? An anti-tax fetish that has solidified under nearly thirty years of irresponsible and destructive conservative economic theory. Politicians have a learned fear of even mentioning the possibility of a tax raise, no matter how necessary or for how good of a cause.

The title of the post is, appropriately, "America is Worth Paying For."

Goldman Strikes Back, America Strikes Out

2009-07-17T09:23:00.000-07:00

For those who haven't heard yet, I am proud to share the news that our economy is now officially saved. Goldman Sachs has reported "blowout" earnings for the second quarter, and the well-connected firm has plans to share the wealth.

With themselves, of course.

Sure, the cynical among us can point to rising unemployment, dropping consumer confidence, foreclosures on the rise, the slow death of the American middle class, the skyrocketing price of higher education, unjustifiable interest rates set by the same firms that we bailed out... But thinking about those things will only strengthen America's enemies abroad.

And you don't want to strengthen America's enemies, do you?

So what's wrong with this scenario? Paul Krugman thinks that Goldman's earnings and its lavish bonus spree spell certain doom in the near future.

First, it tells us that Goldman is very good at what it does. Unfortunately, what it does is bad for America.

Second, it shows that Wall Street’s bad habits — above all, the system of compensation that helped cause the financial crisis — have not gone away.

Third, it shows that by rescuing the financial system without reforming it, Washington has done nothing to protect us from a new crisis, and, in fact, has made another crisis more likely.

Is it me, or has his Nobel Prize gone straight to his head? Krugman has been a public critic of President Obama's economic crisis management team, mostly on the grounds that Timothy Geithner and Lawrence Summers are partially responsible for the permissive regulatory atmosphere that allowed this collapse to occur. And because of these two ethically-compromised wunderkinds, we haven't offered any real regulatory schemes designed to prevent a similar crisis in the future.

Goldman’s role in the financialization of America was similar to that of other players, except for one thing: Goldman didn’t believe its own hype. Other banks invested heavily in the same toxic waste they were selling to the public at large. Goldman, famously, made a lot of money selling securities backed by subprime mortgages — then made a lot more money by selling mortgage-backed securities short, just before their value crashed. All of this was perfectly legal, but the net effect was that Goldman made profits by playing the rest of us for suckers.

And Wall Streeters have every incentive to keep playing that kind of game.

The huge bonuses Goldman will soon hand out show that financial-industry highfliers are still operating under a system of heads they win, tails other people lose. If you’re a banker, and you generate big short-term profits, you get lavishly rewarded — and you don’t have to give the money back if and when those profits turn out to have been a mirage. You have every reason, then, to steer investors into taking risks they don’t understand.

In all honesty, none of our hand-wringing matters. We're powerless to stop any of this looting, and it will continue until there's nothing left to steal.

For those of you that want further study on Goldman Sachs and their pernicious role in America, please see my earlier post about Matt Taibbi's brilliant article.

A Wise Latina vs. Idoit Rednecks

2009-07-16T12:50:00.000-07:00

Craig Crawford at Congressional Quarterly has a good summary of the failed and trite Republican strategy against Sonia Sotomayor. He correctly points out that the GOP's obsession with race and increasingly openly racist speech is out of touch with current moods and attitudes in modern America.

Unfortunately for Republicans, their base doesn't reside in America. They're mostly in the South...

The Persecuted

2009-07-16T12:23:00.000-07:00

Thomas Frank wrote another outstanding article in furtherance of his study of the (d)evolution of American conservatism into the anti-intellectual sinkhole it currently is. Frank rightly points out that Palin's entire political platform is the idea that she - a winky metaphor for "middle America" - is a public victim of the pernicious and powerful Left. That is to say, she has no actual beliefs or positions, outside of her wacky religious leanings.

The piling-up of petty complaints is an important aspect of conservative movement culture. For those who believe that American life consists of the trampling of Middle America by the "elites" -- that our culture is one big insult to the pious and the patriotic and the traditional -- Sarah Palin's long list of unfair and disrespectful treatment is one of her most attractive features. Like Oliver North, Robert Bork, and Clarence Thomas, she is known not for her ideas but as a martyr, a symbol of the culture-war crimes of the left.

But this is merely representative of the state of the Republican party as a whole. American conservatives have gleefully accepted fringe status as wingnut conspiracy theorists, prone to accepting the wildest and most baseless accusations about anyone or anything that sounds suspiciously "liberal."

You know, like science.

Fried Chicken and Potato Salad

2009-07-15T13:24:00.000-07:00

RNC chairman Michael Steele took time out over the weekend to share his strategy for winning African-Americans to the GOP. Apparently, his secret weapons are "fried chicken and potato salad." Really. He said that.

This clown is head of the RNC and we can't get health care passed? WTF?

A Leader?

2009-07-15T13:19:00.000-07:00

Today President Obama spoke about the urgency of health care reform at the White House, urging members of Congress to "buck up" and get a sensible bill passed. This is the most direct tack Obama has taken on the health care push, and his leadership is sorely needed. People like me voted for President Obama for many reasons, but chief among those reasons was his ability to lead people to a better future, even if we were unaware that we needed a better future. To date, his presidency has been a steady string of disappointments and broken promises. He has been, in a word, uninspiring.

But lefty critics - myself included - still want to believe that the man for whom we voted was not just a cynical caricature. I want to follow President Obama and help to rebuild our broken nation. I believe that most of us simply want the President that won us over.

Some Countries Just Give It Away... For Free!

2009-07-15T13:11:00.000-07:00

Citizens for Tax Justice have an incredibly detailed and informative look at various proposals for funding universal health care and how such funding would affect individual states. It's a bit dense, but a really good resource for sorting through the bullshit that has thus far dominated the health care debate.

White Man's Burden

2009-07-15T13:06:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Eugene Robinson wrote an insightful article about the racial prism through which Republicans see the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor. He makes the oft-overlooked point that identity politics do not start and finish with racial, religious or ethnic minorities. Being a white male is a distinct identity and carries with it at least as much cultural and historical baggage as any other form of identity in modern America.

Of course, to the old white men that compose the Republican party's base and representation, being a white male is a neutral concept and should be the template against which other identities are judged. Thus white men have the ability to consider questions without prejudice, while a Puerto Rican women simply cannot overcome neither her Puerto Rican-ness nor her womanhood.

It's a good read.

Don't Ask, Don't Lie

2009-07-14T04:56:00.001-07:00

President Obama was interviewed by Anderson Cooper recently, and Cooper asked Obama why he hasn't fulfilled his campaign pledge to repeal "Don't Ask Don't Tell." Obama gave the bullshit excuse that it's the executive branch's duty to enforce laws passed by Congress.

If Congress passes a law that is constitutionally valid, then it's not appropriate for the Executive Branch simply to say we will not enforce a law. It is our duty to enforce laws.

Of course, he had no trouble issuing a signing statement recently (regarding Congress' passing of a law requiring Obama to press for better labor and environmental standards with the IMF and the World Bank) stating that he had no intention of following the law.

It's probably pretty difficult to keep up with all of the bullshit he's been dealing recently.

Take That, Bitches...

2009-07-13T14:13:00.000-07:00

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) delivered a powerful and much-needed rebuke to Republicans and their hypocritical posturing over Justice Sotomayor.

The "umpire" analogy is belied by Chief Justice Roberts, though he cast himself as an "umpire" during his confirmation hearings. Jeffrey Toobin, a well-respected legal commentator, has recently reported that "[i]n every major case since he became the nation's seventeenth Chief Justice, Roberts has sided with the prosecution over the defendant, the state over the condemned, the executive branch over the legislative, and the corporate defendant over the individual plaintiff." Some umpire. And is it a coincidence that this pattern, to continue Toobin's quote, "has served the interests, and reflected the values of the contemporary Republican party"? Some coincidence.

For all the talk of "modesty" and "restraint," the right wing Justices of the Court have a striking record of ignoring precedent, overturning congressional statutes, limiting constitutional protections, and discovering new constitutional rights: the infamous Ledbetter decision, for instance; the Louisville and Seattle integration cases; the first limitation on Roe v. Wade that outright disregards the woman's health and safety; and the DC Heller decision, discovering a constitutional right to own guns that the Court had not previously noticed in 220 years. Some "balls and strikes." Over and over, news reporting discusses "fundamental changes in the law" wrought by the Roberts Court's right wing flank. The Roberts Court has not kept the promises of modesty or humility made when President Bush nominated Justices Roberts and Alito.

So, Judge Sotomayor, I'd like to avoid codewords, and look for a simple pledge from you during these hearings: that you will respect the role of Congress as representatives of the American people.

The Emperor Has No Clothes, The Citizens Have No Money

2009-07-13T11:59:00.000-07:00

Bill Moyers has a fascinating and disturbing interview with William K. Black, a professor of Economics and Law at the University of Missouri, Kansas City and the man largely responsible for exposing the Savings & Loan Scandal of the 80s. Black believes that Wall Street executives knew that an economic collapse was the inevitable result of their irresponsible lending and investment practices, but continued with them anyway in pursuit of personal wealth.

So how was this massive fraud committed?

Well, the way that you [defraud the American people] is to make really bad loans, because they pay better. Then you grow extremely rapidly, in other words, you're a Ponzi-like scheme. And the third thing you do is we call it leverage. That just means borrowing a lot of money, and the combination creates a situation where you have guaranteed record profits in the early years. That makes you rich, through the bonuses that modern executive compensation has produced. It also makes it inevitable that there's going to be a disaster down the road.

Black rightly points out that this massive deregulation scheme was bipartisan in nature, and that Clinton and Larry Summers made sure to gut any regulation of the financial industry in order to secure campaign contributions:

There were two really big things, under the Clinton administration. One, they got rid of the law that came out of the real-world disasters of the Great Depression. We learned a lot of things in the Great Depression. And one is we had to separate what's called commercial banking from investment banking. That's the Glass-Steagall law. But we thought we were much smarter, supposedly. So we got rid of that law, and that was bipartisan. And the other thing is we passed a law, because there was a very good regulator, Brooksley Born, that everybody should know about and probably doesn't. She tried to do the right thing to regulate one of these exotic derivatives that you're talking about. We call them C.D.F.S. And Summers, Rubin, and Phil Gramm came together to say not only will we block this particular regulation. We will pass a law that says you can't regulate. And it's this type of derivative that is most involved in the AIG scandal. AIG all by itself, cost the same as the entire Savings and Loan debacle.

So what now? Under Obama, it's merely more of the same pro-banker bullshit that occurred under Bush. Timothy Geithner is a man who was President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York as this crisis was unfolding, and he did absolutely nothing. Black tells us the reason Geithner is currently employed by the White House rather than rotting away in a windowless cell:

WILLIAM K. BLACK: Geithner is charging, is covering up. Just like Paulson did before him. Geithner is publicly saying that it's going to take $2 trillion — a trillion is a thousand billion — $2 trillion taxpayer dollars to deal with this problem. But they're allowing all the banks to report that they're not only solvent, but fully capitalized. Both statements can't be true. It can't be that they need $2 trillion, because they have masses losses, and that they're fine.

These are all people who have failed. Paulson failed, Geithner failed. They were all promoted because they failed, not because...

BILL MOYERS: What do you mean?

WILLIAM K. BLACK: Well, Geithner has, was one of our nation's top regulators, during the entire subprime scandal, that I just described. He took absolutely no effective action. He gave no warning. He did nothing in response to the FBI warning that there was an epidemic of fraud. All this pig in the poke stuff happened under him. So, in his phrase about legacy assets. Well he's a failed legacy regulator.

BILL MOYERS: But he denies that he was a regulator. Let me show you some of his testimony before Congress. Take a look at this.

TIMOTHY GEITHNER:I've never been a regulator, for better or worse. And I think you're right to say that we have to be very skeptical that regulation can solve all of these problems. We have parts of our system that are overwhelmed by regulation.

Overwhelmed by regulation! It wasn't the absence of regulation that was the problem, it was despite the presence of regulation you've got huge risks that build up.

WILLIAM K. BLACK: Well, he may be right that he never regulated, but his job was to regulate. That was his mission statement.

BILL MOYERS: As?

WILLIAM K. BLACK: As president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which is responsible for regulating most of the largest bank holding companies in America. And he's completely wrong that we had too much regulation in some of these areas. I mean, he gives no details, obviously. But that's just plain wrong.

It's time to accept that the entire American financial system is nothing more than one big Ponzi scheme. It exists primarily as a simple mechanism for removing wealth from ordinary people and shifting it to wealthy Americans. It's a scam, and we're all the marks.

Since the collapse, the Federal Reserve has increased its balance sheet by more than $2 trillion. It uses this money to loan to various banks and corporations as it sees fit, for the Fed itself has never been audited. They refuse to disclose where the money is going to, how much money is being given away, etc. Senator DeMint (R-SC) attempted to introduce legislation that would have allowed the first-ever audit of the Fed, only to have Democratic Senate leaders block the bill from even coming to a vote, citing some obscure procedural rule that wasn't even broken by DeMint.

What are they hiding? I don't know, but I suspect that the disclosure of such information would be beyond scandalous and might result in a second armed uprising by the American people against a tyrannical government that no longer represents them.

A Possible Investigation?

2009-07-13T11:37:00.000-07:00

The Washington Post has a story today regarding Attorney General Holder's newfound willingness to appoint a special investigator in order to look into the various crimes of Bush and his cronies.

The fact that the Washington Post is reporting this is troubling, as the paper is little more than a neoconservative tree house and dickheads only club. This story is likely nothing more than a baseless plant designed to draw loud Republican ire and dissuade the Obama administration from doing the right thing. President Obama has already made it uncomfortably clear that he lacks the political courage and vision necessary to pursue such a politically-tenuous route.

It's likely that the faux outrage that this story will cause will be enough to remind Obama that it's his own life and legacy that primarily concern him and not the American people.

The Little, Non-Existent Mermaid

2009-07-13T11:27:00.000-07:00

Two wars and no clear exit strategy? An economy in shambles and a rising jobless rate? 80 million uninsured Americans? The possibility of a human-animal hybrid being created by mad scientists? While we may have no reasonable response to the first three major crises in modern America, Senators Brownback (R-KS) and Landrieu (D-LA) have the perfect strategy to combat the fourth: a bill banning such hybrids from ever being created.

Really. Mermaids be damned. No human-animal hybrids. This is what our fucking Senators are doing right now as the country slips into the abyss of history.

An Opening Volley?

2009-07-13T11:19:00.000-07:00

Justice Sotomayor's opening statement:

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I also want to thank Senators Schumer and Gillebrand for that kind introduction.

In recent weeks, I have had the privilege and pleasure of meeting eighty-nine gracious Senators, including all the members of this Committee. I thank you for the time you have spent with me. Our meetings have given me an illuminating tour of the fifty states and invaluable insights into the American people.

There are countless family members, friends, mentors, colleagues, and clerks who have done so much over the years to make this day possible. I am deeply appreciative for their love and support. I want to make one special note of thanks to my mom. I am here today because of her aspirations and sacrifices for both my brother Juan and me. Mom, I love that we are sharing this together. I am very grateful to the President and humbled to be here today as a nominee to the United States Supreme Court.

The progression of my life has been uniquely American. My parents left Puerto Rico during World War II. I grew up in modest circumstances in a Bronx housing project. My father, a factory worker with a third grade education, passed away when I was nine years old.

On her own, my mother raised my brother and me. She taught us that the key to success in America is a good education. And she set the example, studying alongside my brother and me at our kitchen table so that she could become a registered nurse. We worked hard. I poured myself into my studies at Cardinal Spellman High School, earning scholarships to Princeton University and then Yale Law School, while my brother went to medical school. Our achievements are due to the values that we learned as children, and they have continued to guide my life’s endeavors. I try to pass on this legacy by serving as a mentor and friend to my many godchildren and students of all backgrounds.

Over the past three decades, I have seen our judicial system from a number of different perspectives – as a big-city prosecutor, a corporate litigator, a trial judge and an appellate judge. My first job after law school was as an assistant District Attorney in New York. There, I saw children exploited and abused. I felt the suffering of victims’ families torn apart by a loved one’s needless death. And I learned the tough job law enforcement has protecting the public safety. In my next legal job, I focused on commercial, instead of criminal, matters. I litigated issues on behalf of national and international businesses and advised them on matters ranging from contracts to trademarks.

My career as an advocate ended—and my career as a judge began—when I was appointed by President George H.W. Bush to the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. As a trial judge, I decided over four hundred and fifty cases, and presided over dozens of trials, with perhaps my best known case involving the Major League Baseball strike in 1995.

After six extraordinary years on the district court, I was appointed by President William Jefferson Clinton to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. On that Court, I have enjoyed the benefit of sharing ideas and perspectives with wonderful colleagues as we have worked together to resolve the issues before us. I have now served as an appellate judge for over a decade, deciding a wide range of Constitutional, statutory, and other legal questions.

Throughout my seventeen years on the bench, I have witnessed the human consequences of my decisions. Those decisions have been made not to serve the interests of any one litigant, but always to serve the larger interest of impartial justice.

In the past month, many Senators have asked me about my judicial philosophy. It is simple: fidelity to the law. The task of a judge is not to make the law – it is to apply the law. And it is clear, I believe, that my record in two courts reflects my rigorous commitment to interpreting the Constitution according to its terms; interpreting statutes according to their terms and Congress’s intent; and hewing faithfully to precedents established by the Supreme Court and my Circuit Court. In each case I have heard, I have applied the law to the facts at hand.

The process of judging is enhanced when the arguments and concerns of the parties to the litigation are understood and acknowledged. That is why I generally structure my opinions by setting out what the law requires and then by explaining why a contrary position, sympathetic or not, is accepted or rejected. That is how I seek to strengthen both the rule of law and faith in the impartiality of our justice system. My personal and professional experiences help me listen and understand, with the law always commanding the result in every case.

Since President Obama announced my nomination in May, I have received letters from people all over this country. Many tell a unique story of hope in spite of struggles. Each letter has deeply touched me. Each reflects a belief in the dream that led my parents to come to New York all those years ago. It is our Constitution that makes that Dream possible, and I now seek the honor of upholding the Constitution as a Justice on the Supreme Court.

I look forward in the next few days to answering your questions, to having the American people learn more about me, and to being part of a process that reflects the greatness of our Constitution and of our nation. Thank you.

Obama Doubles Down

2009-07-11T10:50:00.000-07:00

Physicians for Human Rights, a group that has spent years attempting to the get US government to investigate the massacre of some 2,000 surrendered Taliban prisoners, last night issued a response to the Obama administration after they publicly claimed that they had no jurisdiction to investigate the war crime. (See "Join the Adventure below.)

“For US Government officials to claim that there is no legal basis to investigate this well-documented mass atrocity is absurd,” stated Physicians for Human Rights Deputy Director Susannah Sirkin. “US military and intelligence personnel were operating jointly and accepted the surrender of the prisoners jointly with General Dostum’s forces in northern Afghanistan. The Obama Administration has a legal obligation to determine what US officials knew, where US personnel were, what involvement they had, and the actions of US allies during and after the massacre. These questions, nearly eight years later, remain unanswered.”

“Furthermore,” added Nathaniel Raymond, PHR’s lead researcher on the Dasht-e-Leili case, “The New York Times has shown that the Bush Administration engaged in a coordinated effort to prevent this alleged war crime from ever being investigated. Under the Geneva Conventions, the cover-up of a war crime can itself constitute a war crime.”

Raise your hand if you're surprised that Barack Obama is complicit in covering-up more of Bush's war crimes...

HYPOCRITES, thy is your name! ...

2009-07-11T10:38:00.000-07:00

Every Saturday, Markos at DialyKos prints some of the stranger and funnier pieces of hate mail that he receives during the previous week. This week he offers a "best of" collection of the greatest examples of conservative literary achievement. My personal favorite is the last one from the illiterate claiming to be a member of MENSA.

RUMSFELD!!!!

By the way, the post title is an actual line from one of the letters...

Join the Adventure

2009-07-10T14:52:00.000-07:00

The New York Times printed a story today regarding a 2001 massacre of up to 2,000 surrendered Taliban fighters. General Abdul Rashid Dostom, a sadistic and corrupt Afghan warlord allied with the Karzai administration and currently living in exile in Turkey (after threatening a political opponent with a gun), is reported to have been directly responsible for the murders while on the CIA payroll.

Though the massacre was known to have happened, it is only now apparent the extreme lengths that the Bush administration went to in order to prevent any real investigation of the crime.

American officials had been reluctant to pursue an investigation — sought by officials from the F.B.I., the State Department, the Red Cross and human rights groups — because the warlord, Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, was on the payroll of the C.I.A. and his militia worked closely with United States Special Forces in 2001, several officials said. They said the United States also worried about undermining the American-supported government of President Hamid Karzai, in which General Dostum had served as a defense official.

Now Karzai has invited Dostum back to Afghanistan in order to reclaim his position as military chief of staff to President Karzai, himself deeply unpopular at home due to his corruption and aloof and uncaring manner. Since recommitting America to the morass in Afghanistan, the Obama adminstration has attempted to distance themselves from Karzai, hoping to be seen as somehow independent from the man that America practically installed into office.

A senior State Department official said that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Richard C. Holbrooke, the special representative on Afghanistan and Pakistan, have told Mr. Karzai of their objections to reinstalling General Dostum. The American officials have also pressed his sponsors in Turkey to delay his return to Afghanistan while talks continue with Mr. Karzai over the general’s role, said an official briefed on the matter. Asked about looking into the prisoner deaths, the official said, “We believe that anyone suspected of war crimes should be thoroughly investigated.”

Okay. Ignore the irony of an American official stating publicly that he believed that those suspected of war crimes should be thoroughly investigated. Afghanistan is, for the moment, a much more pressing concern. Obama has sent 21,000 additional soldiers to the war arena, and has pointedly refused to set a ceiling for troop levels. This, of course, is merely the first step in every great military escalation in history. There's a very practical reason why no civilian in this country has ever been made aware of the specific conditions under which the President will declare victory and withdraw, or even simply slow military operations.

I understand that war is not a static endeavor and that it requires quick, dynamic thinking, planning and decision making. I also know that America has a serious cultural problem with recognizing "good enough" and letting go. Our problem is that our misguided sense of idealism and unwarranted feelings of moral superiority combine with our unrestrained nationalism and related bloodlust for horribly destructive encounters with the rest of the world, disguised as exercises in nation building and freedom exporting.

I fear that we see this again, as Obama attempts to "wag the dog" by diverting attention away from his rather lackluster and uninspiring performance with our current domestic disaster by launching ill-fated attacks on a perceived national enemy and existential threat. We've read this book several times before, and I, for one, have grown weary of the ending.

429-2

2009-07-10T10:54:00.000-07:00

There's an interesting article in The Hill today about the House's overwhelming rebuke of President Obama's attempt to use a signing statement to avoid complying with the law. The fight took place over proposed House requirements that Obama "pressure the World Bank to strengthen labor and environmental standards and require a Treasury Department report on World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) activities."

It was this condition, inserted by the House, that allowed passage of a $106 billion supplemental bill supported by Obama that would extend a massive credit line to the IMF. Obama pushed back against any constraints on his imagined kingship, claiming that they would

"interfere with my constitutional authority to conduct foreign relations by directing the Executive to take certain positions in negotiations or discussions with international organizations and foreign governments, or by requiring consultation with the Congress prior to such negotiations or discussions."

Of course, Obama's brother in constitutional pillaging, George W. Bush, frequently employed signing statements as a means to circumvent the law and to offer semi-legal protections for his crimes. Fortunately, members of Congress from both parties have united in a stand against this blatant abuse of power, passing the amendment in question by an overwhelming count of 429-2. They have also threatened to cut off funding for all of Obama's desired projects, setting up a potential war between these two branches of government.

Of course, a legislative war will certainly be avoided, as this skirmish revolves around a simple territorial dispute and our fearless members of Congress have consistently demonstrated an unwillingness to scuffle over silly constitutional questions.

Primate Change

2009-07-10T10:02:00.000-07:00

NASA's leading clilmate scientist, Dr. James Hansen, has concluded that the Waxman-Markey climate change bill is worse than no bill at all. (Warning: This is a link to Huffington Post, so it will load incredibly slowly...) Hansen lays out the dire circumstances in which we find ourselves and our fragile planet:

Science has exposed the climate threat and revealed this inconvenient truth: If we burn even half of Earth's remaining fossil fuels we will destroy the planet as humanity knows it. The added emissions of heat-trapping carbon dioxide will set our Earth irreversibly onto a course toward an ice-free state, a course that will initiate a chain reaction of irreversible and catastrophic climate changes.

The concentration of CO2 in our atmosphere now stands at 387 parts per million, the highest level in 600,000 years and more than 100 ppm higher than the amount at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. Burning just the oil and gas sitting in known fields will drive atmospheric CO2 well over 400 ppm and ignite a devil's cauldron of melted icecaps, bubbling permafrost, and combustible forests from which there will be no turning back. But if we cut off the largest source of carbon dioxide, coal, we have a chance to bring CO2 back to 350 ppm and still lower through agricultural and forestry practices that increase carbon storage in trees and soil.

The problem, of course, is that the Waxman-Markey bill doesn't really address any of these problems, opting instead for the simpleton-politician route of bipartisan bill-gutting to the point of total ineffectiveness. It's nothing more than a rote rehearsal of the pathetic kabuki dance of our government, wherein both sides agree to protect their personal financial and political interests by hiding behind meaningless legislation that offers no real solutions but will suffice as a campaigning tool.

So what does Waxman-Markey actually accomplish?

It guts the Clean Air Act, removing EPA's ability to regulate CO2 emissions from power plants.

It sets meager targets -- 2020 emissions are to be a paltry 13% less than this year's level -- and sabotages even these by permitting fictitious "offsets," by which other nations are paid to preserve forests - while logging and food production will simply move elsewhere to meet market demand.

Its cap-and-trade system, reports former U.S. Undersecretary of Commerce for Economic Affairs Robert Shapiro, "has no provisions to prevent insider trading by utilities and energy companies or a financial meltdown from speculators trading frantically in the permits and their derivatives."

It fails to set predictable prices for carbon, without which, Shapiro notes, "businesses and households won't be able to calculate whether developing and using less carbon-intensive energy and technologies makes economic sense," thus ensuring that millions of carbon-critical decisions fall short.

It's absolutely predictable, in a kind of accepted-powerlessness sort of way. Those of us who pay attention understand that the government has grown far beyond our control. Obama's election proves that point better than any event in recent history. His flowery rhetoric and recitation of progressive ideals during stump speeches galvanized the largest and most energetic grassroots political campaign in recent memory. Cynical liberals allowed themselves to be inspired and sucked into the crushing turbine of the politician's hope machine. It's turned out to be a big, painful practical joke made at the expense of us gullible fools who tricked ourselves into believing in the myth of American democracy.

So what would an effective climate change bill look like? Hansen shares his plan with us:

There is an alternative, of course, and that is a carbon fee, applied at the source (mine or port of entry) that rises continually. I prefer the "fee-and-dividend" version of this approach in which all revenues are returned to the public on an equal, per capita basis, so those with below-average carbon footprints come out ahead.

A carbon fee-and-dividend would be an economic stimulus and boon for the public. By the time the fee reached the equivalent of $1/gallon of gasoline ($115/ton of CO2) the rebate in the United States would be $2000-3000 per adult or $6000-9000 for a family with two children.

Fee-and-dividend would work hand-in-glove with new building, appliance, and vehicle efficiency standards. A rising carbon fee is the best enforcement mechanism for building standards, and it provides an incentive to move to ever higher energy efficiencies and carbon-free energy sources. As engineering and cultural tipping points are reached, the phase-over to post-fossil energy sources will accelerate. Tar sands and shale would be dead and there would be no need to drill Earth's pristine extremes for the last drops of oil.

Of course, this is impractical, at least insofar as our elected officials have no real interest in solving any of these problems. Corporations and well-funded special interest groups have embedded themselves too deeply within the fabric of our government. They have the financial means to ensure that no serious changes are made to the status quo in any area of the country, much less as it concerns an environmental bill that business lobbies believe would have a deleterious effect on business-as-usual.

I don't know. I have no insightful conclusion or bad pun to use to end this article. I'm depressed. I offer a virtual shrug...

Needle and Conscience Exchange

2009-07-10T09:53:00.000-07:00

John Aravosis over at AmericaBlog has an article about a possible House repeal of a nationwide ban on needle exchange programs. Virtually all non-biased (read: Christianist) experts and interested groups agree that needle exchange programs greatly reduce the spread of HIV and other diseases.

Of course, during his rhetorical shooting spree that was the Presidential campaign, President Obama promised to lift the ban, rightly characterizing the program as counter-productive. And, of course, the budget submitted by Obama this year requested that Congress maintain the ban on needle exchange exactly as it was.

Fortunately for America, Speaker Pelosi has no such trouble seeing the ridiculous nature of such a ban and is pushing hard for its repeal. The question is, if the ban is repealed by the House, will President Obama attempt to keep his campaign word and publicly support the legislation as it works through the Senate?

Okay, not much of a question.

Obama, the Great Imprisoner

2009-07-09T16:29:00.000-07:00

Anybody who doubts the utter moral depravity of our Dear Leader should read this brilliant and upsetting McClatchy story. It details the Kafka-esque journey of Haji Sahib Rohullah Wakil, an Afghan citizen who was unjustly kidnapped by uniformed American thugs and imprisoned and tortured for 6 years in Guantanamo without a shred of proof that he was in any way involved with Al-Qaida. In fact, the Pentagon had information which exonerated him of any involvement with Al-Qaida, and it was well-known that he had actively fought against the Taliban and Al-Qaida as a member of the Northern Alliance.

And yet Obama Jong-Il claims the power to keep men like Wakil in prison indefinitely, without recourse, suffering the cruel torture of American interrogators and prison guards. Yet again, the best and the brightest have proven utterly incapable, both morally and intellectually, of decent and effective governance.

Obama is, like Bush, a stain on America and an unconstrainable threat to the world. Perhaps they will one day share a cell at the Hague.

More Change In Which to Believe

2009-07-09T13:53:00.000-07:00

Our Dear Leader has a plan to continue detaining prisoners who have been acquitted of terrorism charges. Obama's strategy for liberalizing detention policy goes something like this:

1. Prosecute in federal courts those prisoners whose cases haven't been tainted by torture and abuse, so long as we can be sure of a conviction.

2. Prosecute in rigged military commissions those prisoners whose cases have been tainted by torture and abuse, so long as we can be sure of a conviction.

3. Hold without charge or recourse those prisoners who our Dear Leader deems too dangerous for trial, even inside of the unjust military commissions system.

4. Hold without recourse those prisoners who, despite the kangaroo court system designed to ensure their continued imprisonment, have been acquitted by a court of law.

With change like this, who needs hope?

In the Kingdom of the Idiotic, Palin is Even Idioticker

2009-07-09T13:47:00.000-07:00

Anonymous Liberal has a fantastic piece about Sara Palin and the disturbing conclusions one can draw about America based on her political ascendancy.

AL's column is worth a read, as it is full of well-written insights like this:

It is nothing short of astonishing what Palin has been able to get away with while still being taken seriously. During the presidential campaign, she was kept completely away from the media for nearly a month after being selected--something that is completely unprecedented. When she was finally permitted to be interviewed, she flamed out in spectacular fashion, displaying a profound lack of policy knowledge and a near total inability to express her thoughts coherently or logically. Her stump speech was riddled with easily falsifiable claims about her record, claims that she continued to repeat even after they had been repeatedly and exhaustively debunked. She never held a press conference or appeared on any of the Sunday news shows. Toward the end of the campaign, polls were conclusively showing that she was a drag on the ticket and her own staff was trashing her in the media. Rather than send her to contested states, the McCain campaign began shipping her off to reliably red states, a clear acknowledgment that she was doing more harm than good in the states that mattered.

Yet despite all of this, many within the media continued to treat Palin as if she was a serious presidential candidate in her own right. They continued to pretend that the Emperor's new suit was, if not spectacular, at least well-tailored.

Take a minute and share in the bewilderment and frustration of so many of us who still have no clue as to why so many people have no clue.

This Would've Been Bad in Alabama

2009-07-09T13:27:00.000-07:00

My hermana over at ecotorium has a good diary about an ugly, racist occurrence yesterday in Philadelphia. Apparently, the City of Brotherly Love has no love for brothers...

The Creative Steps Day Camp paid $1900 to the Valley Swim Club for the right to use the swim club's pool during the summer months. And everything was fine until the campers showed up... in natural blackface!!!

Shocked and offended, white parents pulled their peckerwood children out of the pool, apparently wondering where George Wallace was when you need him. According to a parent of one of the targeted children,

"The pool attendants came and told the black children that they did not allow minorities in the club and needed the children to leave immediately."

Oh, but it gets so much worse. John Duesler, President of the whites-only swim club, explained the reason for the appalling racism displayed by his club:

"There was concern that a lot of kids would change the complexion … and the atmosphere of the club."

You know. First they're swimming, and then the next thing you know 8-year-old white girls turn up pregnant and their brothers get hooked on crack. What the fuck? How is this still possible, at least north of the Mason-Dixon line? What kind of human being believes that sort of behavior is acceptable, particularly when directed at young children?

This must be the post-racial society that Republicans are always crowing about...

Free Rice

2009-07-09T10:53:00.000-07:00

I just found this fantatic site called FreeRice.com. It is a quiz site, and for each correct answer to one of their questions, they donate 10 grains of rice to the UN World Food Program. 10 grains of rice doesn't sound like a lot, but as with everything, it all adds up. Take some time each day and answer a few questions to contribute in whatever way to feeding people.

Loving v. Virginia, Through Fox's Eyes

2009-07-08T15:34:00.000-07:00

Fox & Friends host, Brian Kilmeade, took time today to mention a Scandinavian study that appeared to demonstrate that married individuals can fend off dementia and Alzheimer's better than single or divorced people. His take on the study?

"We are — we keep marrying other species and other ethnics and other ... See, the problem is the Swedes have pure genes. Because they marry other Swedes .... Fins marry other Fins, so they have a pure society."

Ignore for a moment that the study did not purport to reach the eugenics-inspired conclusion of Kilmeade. Focus instead on the fact that this person called interracial marriage inter-species marriage.

After listening to his understanding of this study, inter-species marriage would seem to be when a human marries a conservative...

The Destruction of the Uyghurs

2009-07-07T12:46:00.000-07:00

The Uyghurs (Wee-gers) are an ethnic Turkish group found primarily in western China, in the area marked in red above. They are also Muslim and considered to be terrorists and separatists by the Chinese government. Like most non-Han (the dominant ethnic group in China) groups, China's government has systematically oppressed and violated the Uyghur minority, and has publicly declared its intention to continue its repressive policies.

On Sunday, the city of Urumqi in Uyghur territory erupted in violent riots and communal bloodshed between the Uyghurs and the Han. It is reported that at least 156people have been killed, mostly Uyghurs. Thousands have been arrested and tortured in Chinese prisons, and there is no sign that the situation will improve.

I assume that very few people are aware of this, as our nation's media has been understandably occupied by Michael Jackson's death and Manny Ramirez's return to baseball.

But I think some of the disinterest is due to the fact that these people are Muslim. Can you imagine this happening to a minority Christian group in China without wall-to-wall media coverage and all of the faux-outrage that our politicians could muster? Fortunately for China's government, the Uyghurs are Muslim and therefore somehow deserving of this inhumane treatment at the hands of a totalitarian government.

This situation deserves more attention than it has been getting, which is to say that it deserves attention outside of the liberal blogosphere. I know that it won't, but it should.

Visit Kabul

2009-07-07T12:34:00.000-07:00

Bored with Florida's beaches? Uninterested in the Rocky Mountains? Couldn't care less about the Southwest? In dire need of a new vacation destination?

Try Afghanistan.

The country's young and weak government is pushing a plan to attract tourists to Bamiyan, a village in ethnic-minority Hazara territory which is home to some pristine sites and ecological beauty.

That said, it's fucking Afghanistan. I would love to travel there some day, and rally hope that that day arrives soon. I'm just not packing my bags at the moment.

A Word to Those in Mourning

2009-07-07T10:50:00.000-07:00

I've tried to hold off, but I just can't anymore. Fuck Michael Jackson. Fuck every last empty-headed jackass who feels the slightest emotion, good or bad, at the man's death. Fuck every no-brain shithead who attends the memorial service, wants to attend, or watches it on television. Fuck every single moronic dipshit who observes a moment of silence or waxes nostalgic about the moonwalk. And double-dip fuck every citizen of Los Angeles who has forced a bankrupt city in a bankrupt state to pay overtime for officers and other public officials to be present to herd the crying cattle into queues so they can mourn.

You're all a bunch of numb-minded, knuckle-dragging, shiftless, no acount, g.e.d., bologna-eating mental midgets. Do the world a favor and get Steve McNair'ed.

Oh yeah. Same goes for anyone dropping off flowers in front of McNair's Nashville restaurant. Fucking idiots.

Department of Law

2009-07-07T10:48:00.000-07:00

Speaking to an ABC reporter, Sara Palin pointed out that, if she was in the White House, she wouldn't be having so many problems with "frivolous" ethics violations complaints.

"I think on a national level, your department of law there in the White House would look at some of the things that we've been charged with and automatically throw them out."
Brilliant, except there is not and never has been a Department of Law. Will somebody please take John McCain out behind the shed and shoot him?

Froomkin Rides Again

2009-07-07T10:41:00.001-07:00

Huffington Post has hired Dan Froomkin, the brilliant writer who was recently fired by the Washington Post for having integrity and consistently being correct in his criticism of politicians and journalists. He will head up their Washington bureau, where he will be in charge of four staff writers. He will also write at least two columns per week for the site.

If you pay attention, you can actually watch as on-line news sites begin to replace the aging dinosaurs of print media. It's actually kind of fascinating, particularly when one recognizes that it's not just a new medium and a new approach, but it's also an entirely new generation of writers and thinkers who are now in charge of the dissemination of information.

The more I think about it, the happier I am that the Woodstock generation is getting older and is being pushed out by fresh faces. Those spoiled pricks from the 60s have held our country and, indeed, the world hostage while they fight the same mindless cultural battles over and over again. I bid them good riddance and curse them for the trouble they continue to cause.

Mission Accomplished

2009-07-06T11:30:00.000-07:00

Georgia10 has a brilliant and funny comparison of Sarah Palin's farcical resignation speech and George Bush's ridiculous Mission Accomplished speech. It's a quick read but very entertaining and insightful. Definitely worth the two minute investment required to read it.

Tens Protest Taxes

2009-07-06T11:25:00.000-07:00

Ahhh. Teabagging in Tennessee. As you can see, roughly twenty of the expected thousands of protesters showed up for the second round of pointless protest. It seems that without corporate underwriting and free advertising on Fox, it's difficult to drum up anger at the fictional bogeyman of crippling taxes.

And I was so looking forward to teabagging Meghan McCain.

Schumer Supports Public Option

2009-07-06T11:23:00.000-07:00

Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY), declared on Face the Nation yesterday that any health reform will certainly include a public option.

But make no mistake about it, the President is for this strongly. There will be a public option in the final bill, some form of it. And hopefully Chuck Grassley and I and others can come to an agreement on how that should work. We want it to be a fair level playing field, but you need something to keep the big boys honest. And the only thing that really is out there is a public option. We don’t trust the private insurance companies left to their own devices and neither do the American people. Seventy percent of the American people support a public option.

I am not saying that the public option should be the only option. There are some who do say that particularly in my party. But we shouldn’t say there should be no public option. We should have this insurance exchange and let both sides compete. And let’s see which one does better.

Each one claims to have advantages. I think both will--will exist in the market. A public option may be better for some. A private insurance company may be better for others. No one is going to force anyone who has private insurance to give it up. The President has promised that over and over again. And we can come to--we can come to a middle ground.

Already, John, the House--House has proposed its plan, has a strong public option. The HELP Committee, the other committee in the Senate doing this, has proposed a strong public option. The Finance Committee, we’re trying to come to some compromise. But make no mistake about it, the President is for this strongly. There will be a public option in the final bill, some form of it. And hopefully Chuck Grassley and I and others can come to an agreement on how that should work. We want it to be a fair level playing field, but you need something to keep the big boys honest. And the only thing that really is out there is a public option...

Look, I’ve said to Chuck Grassley and to Kent Conrad and Chairman Baucus, if— I don’t care what you call it, but whatever we have that has to compete against the private insurance companies, and, of course, I prefer a public option, but these are the minimum requirements:

First it has to be available on the first day to everybody. Second, it has to be— so there shouldn’t be a trigger, two years later, maybe we’ll have one.

Second, it has to be national. You know, I know there are co-ops in Iowa. There are even co-ops in New York. I live in one. I live in an apartment building that’s a co-op, so I’m a co-operator. But to just have one little co-op, say in Ogdensburg, New York, and say New York is covered, when 99 percent of the people have nothing, that’s no good.

Third, it has to be transparent. In other words, we want to know— the public option, the advantage is, when it makes a deal with the drug companies or big hospital association, we’ll know what it says and it will keep the insurance companies honest. They don’t make their deals public. And they— since there’s no competition, they jack up prices. And it has to have the clout to go against the big boys. Now if we could get those four things, we could do it.

My fingers are still crossed, but I'm not holding my breath.

Pushing Obama to the Side

2009-07-06T11:03:00.000-07:00

Lat week, President Obama issued a call / demand that progressive organizations immediately cease airing advertisements attacking wayward, corporate-bought Democrats who had publicly opposed a public option for health care reform. Obama complained that the attacks weren't helpful and stated,

"We shouldn't be focusing resources on each other. We ought to be focused on winning this debate."

Fortunately, not only are the targeted groups not backing off, some of them are increasing their purchases of television and radio time to go after so-called moderate Democrats. Greg Sargent, in an article today, reports that the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, Change Congress, MoveOn and Democracy for America united in responding to Obama's complaints with a massive shrug.

I think we have finally reached the end of Obama's honeymoon period with his erstwhile supporters on the Left. We squirmed when he altered his timetable on withdrawal from Iraq, but told ourselves that he had his reasons. We were made uncomfortable by his stark refusal to fulfill his campaign pledges to the LGBT community, but reminded ourselves that he had so many problems to tackle. Our stomachs dropped when he signalled support for Bush-era free trade plans and the NAFTA behemoth, but we reassured ourselves that he was working behind the scenes to improve the proposed deals.

But then he not only incorporated Bush's draconian detention and torture policies, he expanded them. Now he demands that progressive groups sit quietly on the sidelines as he refuses to draw a line in the sand regarding a public option on health care reform.

I'm done squirming. He's lost the benefit of the doubt as far as many of us on the Left are concerned. This last election wasn't about him. It was about us and finally realizing how powerful we are. The country supports most progressive causes, and no president or senator has the right to stand in the way of progress.

If it's a question of leading or getting out of the way, I would much prefer that President Obama leads. If he's unwilling or unable to do so, then I will personally shove his ass out of the way or trample over him.

Burn It All

2009-07-04T12:35:00.000-07:00

Deep breath. Matt Taibbi, the brilliant writer from Rolling Stone, has an article in the magazine's most recent issue entitled The Great American Bubble Machine, detailing Goldman Sach's pernicious influence on the American economy and current plans to enrich itself on the backs of taxpayers. It's a brilliant article, and worth the read.

Here's where it gets more a bit more interesting and incestuous. A blogger who goes by the handle of Tyler Durden at Zero Hedge has been complaining for some time that Goldman has been manipulating the NYSE. To make his case, he looked at the weekly NYSE releases on program trading and found damning proof that he was right.

So how did the NYSE respond to these serious allegations that the program trading market had been cornered and manipulated by a financial behemoth whose irresponsible business practices are largely to blame for our current economic meltdown? They decided to stop releasing its weekly data concerning program trading.

Of course, this is far too important a development to be covered by mainstream media outlets. It's complex and difficult to grasp and doesn't lend itself to a catchy title or heroic theme music. And yet it's the most important thing happening in this country right now.

People do not yet realize it, but the whole beast known as America has already fallen. The country and its economy no longer exist in any recognizable form. The federal government, under the twin corporatist leadership of Bush and Obama has pledged trillions of dollars to the selfish oligarchs that are responsible for this nascent depression. Almost all of these government funds have gone to institutions such as Goldman Sachs and AIG, et al, because, as we were told, these corporations were simply too big to fail.

For our efforts and our cash donations, we have repeatedly been told to mind our business and go fuck ourselves when we gather the temerity to question where our money has gone and what it's being used for. Obama ran on a platform of transparency and citizen-accessibility, and he has gone to great pains since taking office to prove that his words were little more than honeyed lies and progressive propaganda.

Do this. Take whatever money you have and purchase gold. The total amount of financial assets in America is listed at $140 trillion. There is roughly $1 trillion in paper money floating around the country. There is less than $250 billion in the Federal Reserve backing up this ridiculous ponzi scheme that we call America.

If we all convert money into physical assets like gold, the whole decrepit enterprise will collapse like the house of cards that it is. It's time. Like Colonel Kurtz, the system is literally begging to be killed and put out of its misery.

I say it's time. Load up on canned goods and bottled water and set the motherfucker on fire. Let's dance on the flames of global capitalism and sculpt matchstick houses out of the dirt and vines that will cover our once-great civilization. We can hunt deer under the overpasses of I-90 and bathe in the Great Lakes.

Ruins of the Second Gilded Age

2009-07-04T12:27:00.000-07:00

The New York Times has a brilliant slideshow entitled "Ruins of the Second Gilded Age" documenting the economic and physical devastation wrought by the massive economic downturn. The images are haunting, though the unseen damage to people far outweighs that which we can quantify.

The Activist Supremes

2009-07-04T11:51:00.000-07:00

The New York Times has an article todays detailing the Supreme Court's rightward march and its effect onenvironmental groups and their causes. The Supreme Court heard five environmental cases this term and ruled against environmental groups in each case. The Times describes the decisions this way:

The court allowed Navy exercises using sonar that threatened whales off California. It limited the liability of companies partly responsible for toxic spills. It made it harder to challenge Forest Service regulations and easier to dump mining waste into an Alaskan lake. And it allowed the Environmental Protection Agency to use cost-benefit analysis to decide how much marine life may be killed by cooling structures at power plants.

Even with the addition of Sonia Sotomayor as a Supreme, the Court will continue down the dark path to the far-right. Even if Obama gets to make two more appointments to the Court, they will likely be replacements for Justices considered to compose the Left of the Court. This is particularly troubling, as the Court's newfound conservative activism comes at a time when the country as a whole is liberalizing and moving strongly to the Left.

Chief Justice Roberts has proven to be an ideologue rather than a jurist, an activist judge of the type Republicans claim to hate, except that he's activist in their interests. Remember the number one rule of politics in America: it's okay if you're a Republican.

Ding, Dong, The Witch is Dead

2009-07-04T11:48:00.000-07:00

What a great way to celebrate America's independence: Sarah Palin is governor no more! As everyone now knows, the dullest knife in the politician drawer has resigned as governor of the most isolated and least-relevant state in the Union.

The only question is, "Why?"

Scandal? Pressure? Advice? Ambition?

I say scandal, though she has clearly demonstrated that she is unpredictable and irrational. Stay tuned, for this story is far from over.

Unlike her political career.

HELP

2009-07-02T10:04:00.000-07:00

I hesitate to mention this for fear of jinxing it right out of existence, but it seems that the Democrats have released a proposed health care plan that might actually work. The plan would cover 97% of Americans and cost only $600 billion over the next 10 years. Remember, the previous plan proposed by Democrats had a price tag of over $1 trillion.

The plan, released by the HELP committee (health, education, labor and pension), offers a public plan to compete with private insurance companies. Additionally, it levies a tax of $750 on large employers for each employee not covered through work. (Large corporations defined as those that employ more than 25 people.) This tax will raise $52 billion over the next 10 years, money that would go towards the government's plan to subsidize health care for the poor.

Opponents of health care reform now find themselves in a real bind. They can't complain that the price tag is unduly expensive. With massive public support for reform that includes a public option, they should have an interesting time explaining to their constituents why their opposition to the bill is in their best interest.

On the other hand, these conservative politicians do have the full support of the pharmaceutical industry, insurance companies and mainstream media. Let the battle commence.

Newspaper for Rent, Integrity for Sale

2009-07-02T09:46:00.000-07:00

The defenders of journalistic integrity over at the Washington Post have struck again, this time issuing invitations to lobbyists to purchase access to their reporters in order to influence future columns. In fact, the conflict of interest here is so over the top that the flier was leaked to Politico by a corporate lobbyist.

"Underwriting Opportunity: An evening with the right people can alter the debate," says the one-page flier. "Underwrite and participate in this intimate and exclusive Washington Post Salon, an off-the-record dinner and discussion at the home of CEO and Publisher Katharine Weymouth. ... Bring your organization’s CEO or executive director literally to the table. Interact with key Obama administration and congressional leaders ...

"Spirited? Yes. Confrontational? No. The relaxed setting in the home of Katharine Weymouth assures it. What is guaranteed is a collegial evening, with Obama administration officials, Congress members, business leaders, advocacy leaders and other select minds typically on the guest list of 20 or less. ...

"Offered at $25,000 per sponsor, per Salon. Maximum of two sponsors per Salon. Underwriters’ CEO or Executive Director participates in the discussion. Underwriters appreciatively acknowledged in printed invitations and at the dinner. Annual series sponsorship of 11 Salons offered at $250,000 ... Hosts and Discussion Leaders ... Health-care reporting and editorial staff members of The Washington Post ... An exclusive opportunity to participate in the health-care reform debate among the select few who will actually get it done. ... A Washington Post Salon ... July 21, 2009 6:30 p.m."

A corporate lobbyist thought that this offer was dirty and slimy. And nobody disagrees. This comes on the heels of the politically-motivated firing of blogger Dan Froomkin and columnist Dana White's juvenile tirade against President Obama for calling on unprincipled bloggers at a recent news conference.

Old-fashioned media like newspapers are often said to be dying. This is true, but only to an extent. They are committing a slow and brutal suicide, slicing off appendages one at a time. Newspapers very closely mirror the current state of the Republican party: they are dominated by old, insulated, wealthy white people with very little experience of or tolerance for the ignorant masses. They are unimaginative and dull and absolutely incapable of creative thinking or strategy. Both need a new generation of leadership in order to inject fresh ideas and perspectives into the decaying carcass of their once-great institutions.

Of course, they won't change anything. They'll huddle up and go on the defensive, call names and ridicule those who point out their flaws and shortcomings. That's how this works.

Calling for an Attack

2009-07-01T07:53:00.000-07:00

Last night on Glen Beck's televised meltdown, former CIA analyst Michael Scheuer called for Osama bin Laden to save America by attacking it. Uber-patriot Glen Beck agreed with him, saying that "which is why I was thinking this weekend that if I were him (bin Laden) that (an attack) would be the last thing I would do."

Scheuer's exact words were: "The only chance we have as a country right now is for Osama bin Laden to deploy and detonate a major weapon in the United States." Keep in mind that this brilliant soul was in charge of the CIA's bin Laden unit during the presidencies of Clinton and Bush.

Kinda makes you wonder if he didn't see the need for an al-Qaeda attack prior to September 11, 2001, doesn't it?

Numbskullery and Tomfoolery

2009-07-01T07:44:00.000-07:00

Thomas Frank has an enjoyable article in today's Wall Street Journal, detailing Republicans' reliance on dysfunction and myth. He recalls P.J. O'Rourke's classic line: "Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work, and then they get elected and prove it," and then moves from there. Definitely worth a quick read.

Of Cabbages and Kings

2009-07-01T07:21:00.000-07:00

Today California will being issuing IOUs. Illinois has no budget, a massive shortfall, and no plans to resume negotiations. Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell has said that he does not expect an agreement on a budget any time soon, leaving the state incapable of paying its employees. The House of Representatives in Ohio was forced to pass a temporary 7-day budget to fund the state while politicians continued to bicker over how to solve the state's financial crisis. Mississippi's Utility Regulatory Agency is now unfunded and the state's Public Service Commission has publicly admitted that it may cease functioning.

Each state's budget impasse centers around the right-wing--left-wing, to tax or not to tax debates that dominate so much of our political discussion. The argument goes like this: Republicans eschew the very idea of tax increases in favor of slashing social programs intended to provide a flimsy safety net for the more defenseless segments of society; Democrats (or those who vote for them, at least) have souls.

In short, gentle reader, we're fucked. So tonight, have a bottle of wine. Go out to dinner. Watch a foreign movie and giggle at the ridiculous accents. Tomorrow, I want a higher grade of garbage to adorn the alleys, porches, sewers and lawns of our great country. None of these fast food wrappers and magazine subscription cards and abused Kleenex.

I want to see champagne bottles smeared with fingerprints. Noisemakers whose cheap horns have been blown out. Chocolate bar wrappers licked clean, either by the cat or in a drunken stupor. Half-smoked cigars and popped balloons.

Maybe we'll come out of this in tact, with stories of the disaster that almost was. Perhaps our brave politicians will set aside personal vanity, petty disagreements and massive cash injections from special interest groups and begin to serve the interests of their constituents. More than likely, however, this is the tip of the iceberg and things are going to get worse.

So, enjoy. And don't blame tomorrow's headache on me.

Republicans Still Buy Shoes

2009-07-01T06:45:00.000-07:00

Yesterday ESPN aired part of an interview of Tiger Woods by professional sycophant Michael Wilbon. The golfer and his fawning admirer discussed golf, family and miscellanea, but the beginning of the conversation centered on Tiger's upcoming tournament, the Earl Woods Memorial Pro-Am, which is supposed to honor members of the military and their families.

No problem there, right? Noble enough cause, an empty, safe gesture by a plastic celebrity, widespread media coverage - everything's fine.

But then Tiger goes and publicly shadowboxes with the bogeyman of Americans who disrespect soldiers. Woods said of the servicemen and -women: "They’re putting their lives on the line for us. And a lot of people in this country have forgotten them."

Who has forgotten them, Tiger? Who are these terrible, unpatriotic Americans who have forgotten the military? Not that this would surprise anyone, but I'm constantly annoyed at the reverence with which our soldiers are regarded, the mythical status that we've endowed upon them. Their service is well-appreciated, but the hero worship practiced here does more harm than good, as it tends to drive people to imagine them incapable of crimes. A clear-headed recognition that, while their courage and willingness to sacrifice should be commended, the mere fact of being a soldier does not absolve one of human shortcomings and should not preclude social reaction - trial, conviction, imprisonment, where necessary - faced by their fellow citizens.

Regardless, the idea that soldiers have been forgotten is nothing more than a regurgitation of the tripe that super-patriots and nativists of the Right have been trumpeting for years. I don't credit Tiger with enough personality or courage to have endowed this strange utterance with any underlying political significance. To do so would violate Michael Jordan's golden rule - Republicans buy shoes, too. (See here.)

It's unfair that modern black athletes live in the shadow of an immortal like Muhammad Ali. I've still never heard anybody question Peyton Manning's commitment to social change or Steve Nash's political views. But that doesn't excuse the vow to silence and passivity that the modern athlete has made.

There's no question that Ali was an exceptional athlete, though his contributions outside of the ring are what define the man and the legend. Seen through any prism, Ali's willingness to relinquish his title in the prime of his career rather than fight in an unjust war was remarkable. But seen through the prism of the modern, corporate athlete, it seems more and more like a distant dream, an ideal once attained by giants but now unreachable to mere mortals like us.

The Final Countdown

2009-06-30T13:51:00.001-07:00

But before June leaves us in the sweltering bear hug of July, I make a final dedication to my wifey-thing. She has set this god-awful song as my ringtone. George Oscar Bluth, here I come...

EMBED-Its The Final Countdown - Watch more free videos

Fare-Thee-Well

2009-06-30T13:48:00.000-07:00

It is with fond memories that I bid adieu to June, 2009.

That said, I'll never forgive June for the uncomfortable night spent trying to sleep in the San Francisco airport.

Stupid June.

Coleman Exits Stage Right

2009-06-30T13:44:00.000-07:00

Norm Coleman (Cole D'Isle au Man) has conceded. Al Franken is the junior Senator from Minnesota. Yay.

One Crazy Bitch

2009-06-30T13:35:00.000-07:00

Todd Purdum has a great article in Vanity Fair about the cultural oddity that is Sarah Palin. It's a bit long, but an enjoyable read.

One anecdote that Purdum shares that I find to be particularly revealing occurred shortly after Trig's birth.

When Trig was born, Palin wrote an e-mail letter to friends and relatives, describing the belated news of her pregnancy and detailing Trig’s condition; she wrote the e-mail not in her own name but in God’s, and signed it “Trig’s Creator, Your Heavenly Father.”

And that, my friends, might have been the Vice-President of the United States of America.

Fierce Urgencies

2009-06-30T13:00:00.000-07:00

"We seek an America in which no one feels the pain of discrimination based on who you are or who you love, and I know that many in this room don't believe that progress has come fast enough, and I understand that. It's not for me to tell you to be patient anymore than it was for others to counsel patience to African-Americans who were petitioning for equal rights a half century ago. But I say this: We have made progress, and we will make more. And I want you to know that I expect and hope to be judged not by words, not by promises that I made, but by promises that my administration keeps ... We've been in office six months now. I suspect that by the time this administration is over, I think you guys will have pretty good feelings about the Obama administration."

These were President Obama's words yesterday as he took time to commemorate the Stonewall Riots with supporters. Notice the crux of the problem with his statement? In one breath he claims to understand the fierce urgency of now that gay activists and civil rights supporters feel regarding ending a type of apartheid second-class citizenship, and then concludes by asking everyone to wait.

Look. I'm impatient. I don't consider the political practicalities of changing social policy. I have a short attention span and a quick temper. When I feel something, I do so passionately and without reservation. When I hate something, the hate courses through every vein and artery. I make no apologies for this.

Practicalities and their consequences are Obama's problem, not mine. My only goal is to join the tidal wave of protest that demands that Obama fulfill his lofty campaign promises. He wanted the job, and now he has it.

Now it's time to do the job.

Murderers Among Us

2009-06-30T11:58:00.000-07:00

Glen Greenwald has another highly-informative article today, this time examining the many murders of prisoners at the hands of their American jailers. A 2004 CIA Inspector General's Report that was suppressed by the Bush administration and which the Obama administration has unsuccessfully attempted to keep secret is due to be released tomorrow. The report questions the very basis for Bush's torture program and casts doubt on the legal justifications provided by legal hacks like John Yoo. Bush released a heavily-redacted version of the report in response to an ACLU lawsuit, and while many hope that the version that Obama releases will not black out so much, Obama's short history of government secrecy does not offer much promise.

Greenwald discusses several of the more than 100 murders that have taken place at the hands of Americans, and they are gruesome and shameful.

Jamal Naseer, a soldier in the Afghan Army, died after he and seven other soldiers were mistakenly arrested. Those arrested with Naseer later said that during interrogations U.S. personnel punched and kicked them, hung them upside down, and hit them with sticks or cables. Some said they were doused with cold water and forced to lie in the snow. Nasser collapsed about two weeks after the arrest, complaining of stomach pain, probably an internal hemorrhage.

In December 2003, a 44-year-old Iraqi man named Abu Malik Kenami died in a U.S. detention facility in Mosul, Iraq. As reported by Human Rights First, U.S. military personnel who examined Kenami when he first arrived at the facility determined that he had no preexisting medical conditions. Once in custody, as a disciplinary measure for talking, Kenami was forced to perform extreme amounts of exercise—a technique used across Afghanistan and Iraq. Then his hands were bound behind his back with plastic handcuffs, he was hooded, and forced to lie in an overcrowded cell. Kenami was found dead the morning after his arrest, still bound and hooded.

The cases also include that of Abed Hamed Mowhoush, a former Iraqi general beaten over days by U.S. Army, CIA and other non-military forces, stuffed into a sleeping bag, wrapped with electrical cord, and suffocated to death. In the recently concluded trial of a low-level military officer charged in Mowhoush’s death, the officer received a written reprimand, a fine, and 60 days with his movements limited to his work, home, and church.

How much is an Iraqi life worth in America? A written reprimand, a fine, and 60 days with one's movements limited to work, home, and church. So let that be a lesson to other sadists out there: if you murder a defenseless prisoner, you can forget about going to the movies on Friday night.

Let freedom ring.

Welcome, Senator Franken

2009-06-30T11:46:00.000-07:00

Today the Minnesota Supreme Court has unanimously declared Al Franken the new Senator from the state. All that's left is for Governor Tim Pawlenty to certify the election results and get Franken sworn in and down to work.

I would boast about the 60-40 advantage Democrats will now have in the Senate, though I don't really beleive that those numbers mean anything, particularly when it comes to pushing through a progressive agenda. Rgardless, it'll be nice to be rid of Norm Coleman.

Burning Bushes and Fallen Men

2009-06-30T11:37:00.000-07:00

Politico has an article today detailing the curious turn of events that has Bush judicial appointees blocking President Obama's obscene power grab. In three separate recent cases, Bush-appointed judges have struck down Obama's arguments for practically unlimited executive branch power. Politico describes the decisions as follows:

In April, Judge John Bates turned aside the arguments of the Obama and Bush administrations in ruling that some prisoners at the U.S.-run Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan were entitled to challenge their detention in court if they were captured outside Afghanistan.

“Such rendition resurrects the same specter of limitless executive power the Supreme Court sought to guard against: ... the concern that the executive could move detainees physically beyond the reach of the Constitution and detain them indefinitely,” wrote Bates, who was appointed to the district court in Washington in 2001 and is a former aide to Whitewater independent counsel Kenneth Starr.

Earlier this month, San Francisco-based Judge Jeffrey White surprised many legal analysts when he refused to dismiss a lawsuit an alleged Al Qaeda operative and convicted terrorist, Jose Padilla, brought against former Justice Department attorney John Yoo over his alleged involvement in Bush’s decision to hold Padilla in a South Carolina Navy brig for more than three years.

“Like any other government official, government lawyers are responsible for the foreseeable consequences of their conduct,” wrote White, a former federal prosecutor nominated by Bush in 2002. “The specific designation as an enemy combatant does not automatically eviscerate all of the constitutional protections afforded to a citizen of the United States. ... The court finds that the complaint alleges conduct that would be unconstitutional if directed at any detainee.”

Richard Leon was anything but bashful as he second-guessed the Obama and Bush administrations’ claims that a Syrian detainee, Abdul Rahim Abdul Razak al-Janko, could be held at Guantanamo even though he was considered a spy by Al Qaeda and tortured at some length before he was captured by the U.S. in Afghanistan.

“Surely, extreme treatment of that nature evinces a total evisceration of whatever relationship might have existed!” wrote Leon, who was appointed in 2002 and served as a counsel to congressional Republicans in the Iran-Contra investigation in the 80s.

I find it supremely ironic that Bush-appointed judges are now in the position of reigning in Obama's power play. Who'd've ever guessed that a few months ago?

Cracking the CIA's Sordid Past

2009-06-29T10:27:00.000-07:00

Ryan Grim, a reporter from Huffington Post, has posted a fascinating excerpt from his upcoming book, This Is Your Country On Drugs. He details the sordid history of the CIA, the Iran-Contra Affair, and the introduction of crack into black communities throughout the west coast.

The excerpt is a depressing recounting of one intrepid reporter, Gary Webb of the San Jose Mercury News, and his fall from grace after publishing a story that exposed the CIa's role in the import and distribution of crack. His story was published in the summer of 1996 to widespread interest and created quite the buzz.

The reaction from the mainstream press was swift and devastating. The Washington Post responded with a 4,000 word article entitled, “CIA and Crack: Evidence Is Lacking of Contra-Tied Plot.” The only problem is that the Washington Post had in its possession evidence to support Webb's claims and chose instead to ignore it in its quest to maintain its access to the powerful and wealthy.

Webb's life quickly fell apart. His editor succumbed to widespread pressure and killed the story. Webb was reassigned to a post in the middle of nowhere, prompting him to resign and seek work with a small alternative publication. His wife divorced him and what money he had was used for child support. His body was discovered in December of 2004 with two bullet wounds in it, and his death was later ruled to be a suicide.

The article is definitely worth a read. It's informative and terrifying and a necessary reminder of the depraved nature of the incestuous circle jerk that defines our national politics.

150 Years

2009-06-29T10:06:00.000-07:00

Scheister Bernie Madoff was sentenced today to 150 years in prison. Small consolation for his victims, many of whom lost their life savings and are left in financial limbo, but at least he'll die in prison.

Perhaps sentencing him to 30 years might have been better, just to torment him with the idea that he might make it out of prison. I hope that he dies in a particularly painful way, writhing in agony and begging for mercy. I hope that his wife and sons join him in prison and death.

Ciao, Norm

2009-06-29T09:59:00.000-07:00

Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty has signalled that he will certify the election results based on the upcoming ruling from the Minnesota Supreme Court. He stated that he would not defy a decision from the Minnesota Supreme Court, as doing so would be a dereliction of his duty as governor.

Pawlenty has probably concluded that playing along with Norm Coleman's stalling game will not endear him to independents in 2012, when many believe he will run for President. Personally, I could not care less about his motivations for certifying the election and sending Franken to the Senate. I just want Franken to be seated and to be rid of Norm Coleman for good.

A Senator's Sins

2009-06-29T09:19:00.000-07:00

It looks like Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA) has been a naughty little girl . Feinstein is married to Richard Blum, a slimy investment banker who has deep ties to organizations like the Carlyle Group, a private-equity firm staffed by people such as former President GHW Bush, former British Prime Minister John Major, and other luminaries. Feinstein is a relatively powerful Senator, sitting on several important appropriations committees that have decided to give significant business to Mr. Blum.

Until last year, Feinstein was the top Democrat on the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies (or “Milcon”) sub-committee. During that period, companies controlled by Blum received more than $1,000,000,000 in government contracts.

TheHill.com describes the process by which Feinstein defrauded American taxpayers in the following way:

...her chief legal adviser, who also happened to be a business partner of her husband’s and the vice chairman of one of the companies involved, was secretly forwarding her lists of projects and appropriation requests that were coming before the committee and in which she and her husband had an interest — information that has only come to light recently as a result of the efforts of several California investigative reporters.

This adviser insists — apparently with a straight face — that he provided the information to Feinstein’s chief of staff so that she could recuse herself in cases where there might be a conflict. He says that he assumes she did so. The public record, however, indicates that she went right ahead and fought for these same projects.

As an interesting aside, it is a remarkable coincidence that Senator Feinstein quit the committee the same year that her husband sold his interest in two companies that benefited handsomely from Feinstein's corruption.

With any luck, mainstream media outlets will pick this story up and expose Feinstein's remarkable history of corruption and crime. She deserves a prison bed for this, and I truly hope that that's where she ends up.

The Crying Game

2009-06-25T14:15:00.000-07:00

Media Matters has put together a brilliant segment juxtaposing hatemonger Michael Savage's comments on his radio show and his "Why me?" defense of himself as mainstream on CNN.

This is what far-right neo-fascists do when speaking to a more reasonable audience. They claim with such sincerity that they aren't extremists; in fact, they're more libertarian than Republican. They believe in freedom and equality and simply want laws to be obeyed. And then they go on their radio shows and preach the most vile and bigoted political sermons available in modern America.

More from Iran

2009-06-25T14:09:00.000-07:00

A cartoonish expression of solidarity with Neda Soltan, martyr for a better Iran and a better world.
*************************************************************************************

Iran scholar Reza Aslan is reporting that the second most powerful man in Iran, Ayatollah Rafsanjani, is working behind the scenes to oust Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei from power. It appears that it might be working, if through no other proof than that Rafsanjani hasn't been disappeared yet.

Reliable sources in Iran are suggesting that a possible compromise to put an end to the violent uprising that has rocked Iran for the past two weeks may be in the works. I have previously reported that the second most powerful man in Iran, Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani, the head of the Assembly of Experts (the body with the power to choose and dismiss the Supreme Leader) is in the city of Qom--the country's religious center--trying to rally enough votes from his fellow Assembly members to remove the current Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei from power. News out of Iran suggests that he may be succeeding. At the very least, it seems he may have gained enough support from the clerical establishment to force a compromise from Khamenei, one that would entail a run-off election between Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his main reformist rival Mir Hossein Mousavi.

Again, I'm still not optimistic about the potential outcome of this widespread protest movement, and I doubt that the protesters are even sure of what it is they're pushing for. That said, my heart aches for these brave humans and the fear and violence that they must overcome in order to make their country theirs.

A Visual Guide to Republican Sex Scandals

2009-06-25T13:52:00.000-07:00

Defense of Adultery Act

2009-06-25T13:49:00.001-07:00

So Governor Sanford, denizen of the abyss of the religious right, has been carrying on an affair with an Argentinian woman. He has agreed to resign his position as head of the Republican Governors' Association, but says that he has no plans to resign as Governor.

I love the smell of hypocrisy in the morning.

On a related note, isn't now an appropriate time to introduce legislation designed to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act? Who wouldn't enjoy watching Republicans defending traditional marriage after their second adultery scandal in two weeks?

Just the Blond at the Table

2009-06-24T10:14:00.000-07:00

Hahahaha.

Paul Begala, ubernerd of the Left, rhetorically bitch-slapped the annoying Meghan McCain Friday night on Real Time with Bill Maher. McCain complained that President Obama was blaming too many things on the Bush administration and said that he should move on. Begala was icnensed, claiming that Obama should be publicly blaming more things on Bush in order to keep focus on the real culprits. He illustrated his point by reminding everyone of how Ronald Reagan spent years invoking Jimmy Carter as the root of all evil.

When McCain responded with a snotty, "You know I wasn't born yet so I wouldn't know," Begala replied, "I wasn't born during the French Revolution but I know about it."

Democrat Poodles

2009-06-24T10:09:00.000-07:00

Might Obama and the Congressional Dems still cave into the Republicans on a public option for health care, despite enormous public support for it and huge majorities in both houses?

Of course. Congressional Dems reported that, after meeting with Rahm Emmanuel last night, President Obama is willing to compromise on the public option in order to get something done.

Leadership. I love it.

Barbarians at the Gate

2009-06-24T09:38:00.000-07:00

Uh-oh.

Print journalists are miffed that a lowly on-line "journalist" was not only allowed into President Obama's press conference on Tuesday, but he was even given the opportunity to ask a question.

Insert collective gasp here.

Dana Milbank, former journalist and current Washington Post hack, devoted an entire article to his outrage over Nico Pitney, of Huffington Post, and the outrage that he represents.

In his first daytime news conference yesterday, President Obama preempted "All My Children," "Days of Our Lives" and "The Young and the Restless." But the soap viewers shouldn't have been disappointed: The president had arranged some prepackaged entertainment for them.

See? It's just like a soap opera. As an informative aside, Nico Pitney has been one of the best reporters of the protests in Iran, and he has consistently scooped mainstream automatons like Milbank, which explains some of the wrath.

Milbank then attempts to label Pitney and the liberal dogs he represents hypocrites, though as with most of the shit emanating from the Washington Post, it doesn't withstand any intelligent scrutiny.

But yesterday's daytime drama belonged primarily to Pitney, of the Huffington Post Web site. During the eight years of the Bush administration, liberal outlets such as the Huffington Post often accused the White House of planting questioners in news conferences to ask preplanned questions. But here was Obama fielding a preplanned question asked by a planted questioner -- from the Huffington Post.

Yeah. Remeber Jeff Gannon, the gay prostitute who Bush and Rove planted in the White House press room to toss softball questions at an overmatched President Bush? Remember how there were gay escort service websites with Gannon posing naked, and how he had no journalistic credentials, experience or integrity? Pitney, on the other hand, has proven his worth as a journalist, though until he does it as part of the mainstream zombie crew, it won't really count.

Look. Dana Milbank used to be interesting, if not always the smartest guy in the press room. Something happened during then-candidate Obama's campaign that prompted an ideological rightward dive by Milbank, though I'm only insinuating, rather than alleging, that it had something to do with Milbank's latent racism.

The writers at Washington Post are right. Making wild and libelous accusations against people I don't like is entertaining and satisfying. But it's still not journalism.

Where's Sanford? (UPDATE)

2009-06-24T09:28:00.000-07:00

What the hell is up with South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford?

He disappeared last Thursday without his security detail and with no apparent plan for dealing with any possible emergencies - i.e., natural disasters, civil unrest, etc. - and did not return until this morning.

Yesterday his staff reported that he had gone hiking on the Appalachian Trail, an interesting choice over Father's Day Weekend, which is celebrated among the hiking community with National Hike Naked Day. They stated that the governor was surprised at the amount of publicity his disappearance had generated.

Today he returned via the Hartsville-Jackson International Airport, where he told a reporter that he had spent his week in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Sanford, in an exclusive interview with The State Media Company, said he decided at the last minute to go to the South American country to recharge after a difficult legislative session in which he battled with lawmakers over how to spend federal stimulus money. Sanford said he had considered hiking on the Appalachian Trail, an activity he said he has enjoyed since he was a high school student. "But I said 'no' I wanted to do something exotic," Sanford said "... It's a great city."

No chance. Sanford couldn't pass a rudimentary quiz about even the most tacky tourist traps in Buenos Aires or the surrounding areas. I have no idea what actually happened, if he actually was in Argentina, and, if so, what he was doing there.

But he did not travel to Argentina over Father's Day weekend to rest and relax.

Incidentally, does anyone really think that he still has even an outside shot at the Presidency? He can't live this down, and nobody wants an undependable flake running the country.

Well, except for Republicans. Palin in 2012.

UPDATE

ABC’s Joe Goldman reports that a US embassy official in Buenos Aires tells him that the embassy had "absolutely no idea" that Sanford was in Argentina. The embassy official added that this comes "from out of left field -- it would be extremely odd that a US governor would not check in with the embassy."

The President Strikes Back

2009-06-23T11:49:00.000-07:00

Yesterday President Obama held a press conference where he responded rather forcefully to right-wing and media-driven talking points regarding his measured and intelligent reaction to the street protests in Iran and the danger of a public option in health care reform.

As you know, John McCain and Lindsey Graham have embraced the opportunity to publicly demonstrate their complete lack of tact and subtlety by criticizing President Obama's reluctance to be seen as meddling in the internal affairs of Iran. McCain and Graham seem to think that the sheer mythical weight of words from an American President would not only be welcomed by the demonstrators but would have a positive effect on the potential collapse of the regime.

In fact, the opposite is true. Any perceived meddling or interference by Obama will be seized upon by the conservative factions in Iran as proof that the demonstrations are nothing more than an attempted coup perpetrated by hostile western powers. Each one of those demonstrators in Tehran and elsewhere throughout Iran is aware that America supplied Saddam Hussein with the chemical weapons that he unleashed on the Iranian people. They are all aware of American support for the repressive regime of the Shah and the CIA's role in the overthrow of the democratically-elected President, Mohammad Mossadeq. They do not believe us to be beacons of freedom, but rather harbingers of repression and doom.

Republican mouthpiece / Fox News reporter Major Garrett asked President Obama why he hasn't been more forceful in his support of the protesters, and Obama responded with a left hook.

[Obama]Major Garrett? Where's Major?

QUESTION: Right here, sir.

In your opening remarks, sir, you said about Iran that you were appalled and outraged. What took you so long?

(CROSSTALK)

MR. OBAMA: I don't think that's accurate. Track what I've been saying. Right after the election I said that we had profound concerns about the nature of the election, but that it was not up to us to determine what the outcome was.

As soon as violence broke out -- in fact, in anticipation of potential violence -- we were very clear in saying that violence was unacceptable, that that was not how governments operate with respect to their people.

So we've been entirely consistent, Major, in terms of how we've approached this. My role has been to say the United States is not going to be a foil for the Iranian government to try to blame what's happening on the streets of Tehran on the CIA or on the White House, that this is an issue that is led by and given voice to the frustrations of the Iranian people.

And so we've been very consistent the first day, and we're going to continue to be consistent in saying this is not an issue about the United States, this is about an issue of the Iranian people.

What we've also been consistent about is saying that there are some universal principles, including freedom of assembly and freedom of speech, making sure that governments are not using coercion and violence and repression in terms of how they interact with peaceful demonstrators. And we have been speaking out very clearly about that fact.

Chuck Todd, birdbrain White House correspondent for MSNBC, followed up the question with another ignorant query of his own:

MR. OBAMA: Chuck Todd?

QUESTION: Mr. President, I want to follow up on Iran. You have avoided, twice, spelling out consequences. You've hinted that there would be from the international community, if they continue to violate -- and you said "violate these norms." You seemed to hint that there -- there are human rights violations taking place.

MR. OBAMA: I'm not hinting. I think that when a young woman gets shot on the street when she gets out of her car, that's a problem.

QUESTION: Then why won't you spell out the consequences that the Iranian people...

MR. OBAMA: Because I think that we don't know yet how this thing is going to play out. I know everybody here is on a 24-hour news cycle. I'm not. OK?

QUESTION: Shouldn't -- I mean, shouldn't the world...

(CROSSTALK)

MR. OBAMA: I answered -- I answered...

QUESTION: ... present regime know that there are consequences?

MR. OBAMA: I answered your question, which is that we don't yet know how this is going to play out. OK?

I love that smackdown about the 24 hour news cycle and all that it implies about the intelligence and thoughtfulness we get from our intrepid journalists.

Regarding healthcare and the right-wing talking point that a public option would put private insurance firms out of business, President Obama attempted to insert some rationale and reason into the discussion.

QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. President.

Two of the key players in the insurance industry, America's Health Insurance Plans and Blue Cross/Blue Shield, sent a letter to the Senate this morning saying that a government health insurance plan would, quote, "dismantle," end quote, private insurers.

QUESTION: Why are they wrong?

[snip]

Why would it drive private insurance out of business? If -- if private -- if private insurers say that the marketplace provides the best quality health care; if they tell us that they're offering a good deal, then why is it that the government, which they say can't run anything, suddenly is going to drive them out of business? That's not logical.

Now, the -- I think that there's going to be some healthy debates in Congress about the shape that this takes. I think there can be some legitimate concerns on the part of private insurers that if any public plan is simply being subsidized by taxpayers endlessly that over time they can't compete with the government just printing money, so there are going to be some I think legitimate debates to be had about how this private plan takes shape.

But just conceptually, the notion that all these insurance companies who say they're giving consumers the best possible deal, if they can't compete against a public plan as one option, with consumers making the decision what's the best deal, that defies logic, which is why I think you've seen in the polling data overwhelming support for a public plan.

The only problem with that approach is that the other side eschews reason as an effete tool of the left, and is thus unresponsive to its natural pull. I hope that this press conference signals a more aggressive and politically-astute approach by the White House. Until now President Obama has inexplicably ducked responsibility and his natural position as leader on important issues, and Congress has been left floundering wildly and without a plan.

Americans like and trust President Obama. One reason that he was elected by such an incredible margin is that people saw the qualities of leadership and dependability in him, and they wanted him in charge of the nation's problems. It's really time to step up for the President, or we face another term of ideological nonsense and political stagnation.

Stuck Inside of Eugene With the Portland Blues Again

2009-06-22T10:59:00.001-07:00

Sorry all, but I've been at a wedding in Eugene, Oregon.

Alright. Eugene, Oregon.

Parasites in Polyester

2009-06-18T10:33:00.000-07:00

Gary Kamiya, writing in Salon, presents an informative look at the strangely resilient neoconservatives, those foreign-policy wonks who brought us to the brink of defeat in Iraq and a meaningless stalemate in Afghanistan. Kamiya looks at the apoplectic response from the fringe right regarding Obama's nuanced and calm reaction to the turmoil in Iran following what was likely a fraudulent election, rightly calling their new found concern for and solidarity with the Iranian people what it is: hypocrisy of shocking proportions.

After all, these are the same, exact people who, up until Friday, were still loudly and publicly clamoring for a bombing campaign designed to effect regime change. Where was the concern for the people who are now protesting the theft of an election? Tehran, Iran's largest city and host of these political demonstrations, would certainly have been the host of countless targets of the American Air Force's bombers and the Navy's guided missiles. Tens and even hundreds of thousands of these people would have perished from bombing raids, and their surviving relatives would not have thanked us and greeted us as beneficent liberators.

They would have killed us. And they would have been justified.

The tragic joke of the whole neoconservative wet dream is that they are unable to learn anything new, and at times they seem physically incapable of even acknowledging events that don't neatly fit into their ideology. We're still fighting in Afghanistan, and we haven't gained any real ground in several years right now. The state is more or less nonexistent outside of Kabul, and each summer the Taliban launches a military offensive that claims the lives of more western soldiers.

Iraq has been much worse for American soldiers, despite Bush's confident declaration of Mission Accomplished while strutting around in his cock-hugging flight suit. Contrary to the rose-colored scenarios painted by the war's neo-con cheerleaders, we were not welcomed into Iraq on roads strewn with rose petals. We were treated as the arrogant and ignorant cultural chauvinists that we are, and internal sectarian fighting, while significantly lighter now, continues to loom as a distinct reality in the near future.

Inexplicably, these obscene failures haven't cowed them in the slightest bit. They remain loud, obnoxious and uninformed in their quest for eternal and ceaseless war against Israel's enemies. Apparently coupling ignorance with an innate resistance to shame and embarrassment is not a good recipe for designing human beings.

One wonders how much longer it will be until they deem President Obama to be a direct danger to Israel's hegemony and suggest an American invasion of Washington, D.C. You know, removing the democratically-elected President because of your unwavering patriotism?

Don't laugh. If anyone can formulate that argument with a straight face, it's a neoconservative.

The Southern Strategy in the Age of Facebook

2009-06-18T10:02:00.000-07:00

Depending on who you ask, the South Carolina GOP may or may not have a race problem. Rusty DePass, a state GOP activist, responded to an article about the escape from a zoo by a gorilla with the comment, "I'm sure it's just one of Michelle's ancestors - probably harmless." He later admitted that he was referring to First Lady Michelle Obama. Mike Green, an employee with a conservative communications company that is working with the gubernatorial campaign of US Representative Gresham Barrett, posted the following tweet on his Twitter account: "Just heard Obama is going to impose a 40 percent tax on aspirin because it's white and it works."

But state Republicans are convinced that these comments are viewed by the public as the utterances of fringe elements of the state party. Glenn McCall, one of 3 black Republican national committeemen, said about DePass's comment: “I don’t think it has any (lasting impact.) He is a citizen who doesn’t speak for the party. I think people understand that.”

I sometimes marvel at the sheer mental flexibility required to be a black Republican without showing any outward signs of overt self-loathing. For the most part, black Republicans manage to come off as somewhat normal, or, at the very least, no more head-fucked than their white counterparts. But how does one proudly represent a party whose entire basis for national prominence is pure, unadulterated racism?

Would be racial progressives in the Republican party like to point out that Abraham Lincoln was a Republican and that Jim Crow segregationists tended to be Democrats. This is true, though entirely out of context. Abraham Lincoln was a Republican, and his emancipation of the slaves caused a massive political conversion throughout the entire slave-holding South, and the region became a Democratic stronghold dedicated to racial segregation and violent white supremacy.

And Southern segregationists continued to self-identify as Democrats, commonly referred to as Dixiecrats. This lasted until the election of John F. Kennedy as President, when southern Dems began feeling a bit twitchy about the Massachusetts politician's commitment to the doctrine of separate but equal. When Lyndon B. Johnson, Kennedy's successor, passed the Civil Rights Act and the programs of the Great Society, Dixiecrats decided that they could no longer call themselves Democrats, and jumped back to the bigoted arms of the Republican party.

Richard Nixon recognized the racial undertones that characterized Southern support for the Republican party, and he managed to focus the rampant racism into electoral victory by employing what came to be called the "Southern strategy." That is where Republican political candidates subtly express their solidarity with the racist goals of Southerners through the use of code words such as "states' rights." Ronald Reagan also successfully employed this strategy, when, standing at the site where 3 civil rights workers were brutally murdered in Mississippi, he declared his unwavering support for states' rights.

So, yes. Lincoln was a Republican. Dixiecrats were, well, Democrats. And it's all still irrelevant and meaningless. Whether Republicans realize it or not, they are regarded as an elite club of white male privilege, and their reputation is not changing any time soon. That they find this shit funny only confirms their depravity.

Tom Daschle: Profiles in Corporate Whoredom

2009-06-18T09:20:00.000-07:00

Former Senator and former Obama campaign adviser Tom Daschle (D-SD) has joined forces with Bob Dole to ruin any health care reform. Daschle has now publicly opposed a public option, claiming that it is the cause of much consternation among Republicans and should be dropped for bipartisanship's sake.

Why does anyone care what the Republicans and their corporate masters want? They want nothing more than to preserve the unfair monopoly that private insurers have over American health care. They are absolutely uninterested in the best interests of the public.

Health care does not need 60 votes to pass. Health care needs 50 votes to pass. Biden will happily break any tie. It's time that Democrats stop bending over and grimacing as the Republicans continue to lead this country to an early death. The American people have spoken, and we want a public option. These asshats need to start listening.

Pete Hoekstra, Martyr of the Right

2009-06-18T05:21:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Representative Peter Hoekstra (R-MI) attempted in his typically tone-deaf way to liken House Republicans to the Iranian protestors via his Tweeter account.

Iranian twitter activity similar to what we did in House last year when Republicans were shut down in the House.

Twitter users responded with massive heckling. Below are some of the best ones, courtesy of Talking Points Memo.

ArjunJaikumar @petehoekstra i spilled some lukewarm coffee on myself just now, which is somewhat analogous to being boiled in oil

chrisbaskind @petehoekstra My neighbor stopped me to talk today. Now I know what it is like to be questioned by the Basij!

luckbfern @petehoekstra I stand in solidarity with the oppressed rich white men of Repub Party in the House. #GOPfail Allah Akbar!

aciolino @petehoekstra Today I poked my finger on a hanger. Now I know what all those aborted babies go through.

ceedub7 @petehoekstra I got a splinter in my hand today. Felt just like Jesus getting nailed to the cross.

netw3rk @petehoekstra Someone walked in on me while I was in the bathroom. Reminded me of Pearl Harbor.

MattOrtega Walked out onto Constitution Ave in D.C. and was almost hit by a taxi. Reminded me of Tienanmen Square.

tharodge @petehoekstra maybe now is a good time to reconsider whether you are ready for national politics?

TahirDuckett @petehoekstra ran through the sprinklers this morning, claimed solidarity with victims of Hurricane Katrina

paganmist @petehoekstra Had to move all my stuff to a new office w/o a corner view. Now i know what the Trail of Tears was like. #GOPfail

It's really amazing that, in a party of such jackassery as the Republicans, Pete Hoekstra still manages to stand out. What a fucking idiot.

You'll Eat Your Children?

2009-06-17T13:31:00.000-07:00

I had to share this video and get the message out about our vengeful God. I hadn't realized it, but he is really pissed off at a lot of people. I never really understood why God would hate so much of his own creation, but then again, my mortal mind can't possibly comprehend the mysteries of God.

Fortunately for us, these people have divined the true will of God, and, I have to say, we're all fucked.

By the way, anyone else think it's more than a bit fucked up that the song is to the tune of "We Are the World," the song from the 80s that was sold to raise money for starving people in Africa?

Westboro God Hates The World Music Video - Watch more Funny Videos

Transparency Has an Expiration Date

2009-06-17T12:53:00.000-07:00

Glen Greenwald has another highly informative article today, this one listing the many instances where Obama has publicly broken his promises for more transparency and openness.

State Secrets

2009-06-17T12:52:00.000-07:00

Ann Telnaes has a funny take on Obama's transparency lies.

Some Really Pretty Robust Procedures

2009-06-17T12:36:00.001-07:00

Testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee today, Attorney General Eric Holder reassured Senators, Americans, and people everywhere that President Obama's version of indefinite detention will be much better than Bush's version. When asked about Obama's new policy of unjustly imprisoning people for an arbitrary and possibly endless amount of time, Holder responded thusly: "It will only happen pursuant to really pretty robust due process procedures."

When asked what those "really pretty robust" procedures were, he answered that, while they hadn't actually decided on any exact "really pretty robust" procedures, when they did get around to designing said "really pretty robust" procedures, they would be consistent with American values and the laws of war.

Kind of makes you feel all warm and fuzzy all over, no?