The World According to C Street

We've glimpsed how C Street Family “brother” Bart Stupak's early morning assault on a woman's legal right to an abortion has become the most serious threat in a generation to pro-choice rights in America. Next come the tawdry revelations involving Family adulterers “brother” Mark Sanford, governor of South Carolina, and “brother” John Ensign, senator from Nevada. Sanford was charged with 37 ethics violations while the cuckholded husband in the Ensign affair gave a tell-all interview about John Ensign's sordid dalliances with the man’s wife.

If these were normal circumstances involving elected officials with an ounce of self-respect, these shameless politicians would have spared themselves and the public further embarassment by resigning. But that is not the way of the Family. After all, Sanford and Ensign are the “chosen ones” living in a bizarre Religious Right elitist world in which they are exempt from the normal rules of society. Doug Coe, head of the Family, explained in a colloquy what it meant to be a “chosen one”:

“Suppose I hear you raped three little girls. What would I think of you?”

“You would think I was awful, a monster.”

And Doug Coe said, “No, I would not, because you’re chosen, and when you’re chosen, the normal rules don’t apply.”

The DINO Holdout Outrage: In Praise of Landrieu but Not Lincoln, Nelson, and Traitor Joe

In electoral politics, what often “dictates” the balance between principle and expediency is the next election. When Senators Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas took the Senate floor to announce they would vote to invoke cloture on the healthcare bill and allow debate to begin, a Martian alien sitting in the gallery would have correctly deduced that, of the two, Senator Lincoln was the one facing a tough reelection campaign in 2010.

Disregard self-serving language about serving the people of [enter state: Arkansas] and not being “dictated to” by outside liberal groups [enter populist language], or the insurance companies [enter wink-and-a-nod to master donors]. Blanche Lincoln vowed to oppose a “government-run public option” even though the people of Arkansas support a government-run public option by 55%-38%. Altogether, the uninsured Americans in the states represented by the four senators in the Democratic Caucus who are threatening to tear down healthcare reform –- Lincoln, Landrieu, Lieberman, and Nelson –- number roughly 2 million people.

The common denominator among these four conservative Senate Democrats are the millions in campaign contributions from the wealthcare insurance industry and Big Pharma. The common denominator between the wealthcare insurance industry and Big Pharma is their intention to kill healthcare reform and the public option, outspending reform advocates by 2-1. REAL Democrats are fed up. Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio has had enough. With a right back at ya to Senator Lincoln, he said 56 Democrats in the Democratic Caucus will not be “dictated to” by four senators.

Way to go, Senator Brown. The President needs to step up to the plate and read these senators the Riot Act. (Sorry for sounding redundant.) The President’s studied indifference (think Waiting for Godot) in taking a strong stand and twisting some arms is showing up in his approval ratings, which will continue their southward slide unless Barack Obama reins in the DINOS with tough Johnson-esque cajoling. Astonishingly, Harry Reid has channeled LBJ much more effectively than President Obama.

Given the large Democratic majorities in Arkansas Senator Lincoln has infuriated, her political posture is, frankly, incomprehensible. Senator Lincoln’s grousing at outside liberal groups is ridiculous and self-serving. First, these groups comprise a substantial portion of Lincoln’s donor base. Second, the message carried by the netroots campaign in Arkansas simply informs voters of the Senator’s refusal to heed the wishes of 55% of Arkansans that support a public option.

What Senator Lincoln calls meddling by outside groups they call bringing sunshine to the process and forcing Lincoln to be accountable to her constituents. With hundreds of thousands of uninsured Americans in Arkansas alone, no apologies are forthcoming for inconveniencing Senator Lincoln. To the contrary, outside liberal groups will continue to ramp up the pressure. Go ahead, Senator Lincoln. Turn your back on the people of Arkansas, and they will defeat you. A strong candidate, Arkansas Lt. Governor Bill Halter, is waiting in the wings to pose a primary challenge on the question of a public option should you vote to destroy healthcare reform.

Conversely, the attacks on Senator Mary Landrieu by wingnut hate pimps Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck are despicable. They called Senator Landrieu an “expensive prostitute” for negotiating with Harry Reid a $300 million natural disaster Medicaid package for Louisiana, ravaged by Hurricane Katrina. The Bush Administration’s criminal neglect of Louisiana, depopulating the state of thousands of destitute residents -- an ethnic cleansing that has colored it lighter and more Republican -- made Senator Landrieu’s intervention on behalf of the poverty-stricken residents that remained an absolute moral imperative. She took the point on this issue, and sustained withering attacks by the wingnut blogosphere, with nothing but obscure, timid support by every Republican in Louisiana, from the governor on down.

Senator Mary Landrieu has received tough but deserved criticism on this blog for her public option flip-flop, but on the question of Medicaid disaster relief for her state she is completely in the right. It should be noted that the depopulation of New Orleans in the wake of the Katrina disaster robbed Senator Landrieu of a large chunk of her Democratic base in Louisiana. She can be forgiven a vote against the public option on an up-or-down floor vote, but should not, under any circumstances, filibuster final passage of the bill.

The worst thing Harry Reid can do is cave to the four DINO holdouts in the Democratic Caucus and accept a watered-down pro-insurance bill. If they do not fall in line, there’s always the simple majority of the reconciliation process. If forced to go this route, Mr. Reid should strip the DINOS of their committee chairmanships and privileges.

What can they do? Threaten to switch parties? Please, DINOS, there's the door. If you cannot support the Democratic Party on procedural votes, what are you good for? Don't let the Caucus door hit you on the way out.

Before I forget, there are two more inductees to The Thinker Hall of Shame: DINO Senators Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas and Ben Nelson of Nebraska. This brings the number of Hall of Shame laureates to four -- Mary Landrieu, Bart Stupak, Blanche Lincoln, and Ben Nelson -- with one non-DINO inductee, “Independent” Traitor Joe Lieberman. Hopefully Landrieu, Lincoln, and Nelson can be persuaded to return to the Democratic fold once more. Bart Stupak the Christian anti-choice stealth crusader, whose allegiance is to the C Street Religious Right mafia, never was a Democrat.

2012: The Rapture or the Apocalypse?

“Rounding Third and Heading for Home”

This is how Senator Tom Harkin, Chairman of Ted Kennedy’s Health Committee where it all began on the Senate side, described last night’s historic Senate vote, 60-39, to break the Republican filibuster and allow debate on Harry Reid’s merged healthcare bill to proceed. Yes, there’s plenty that can happen between third and home but by any measure this was a momentous, historic vote.

The vote concluded with no small drama, as 92-yo Sen. Robert Byrd entered the chamber in a wheelchair pushed by an aide and pointed to the sky indicating his AYE vote, the usually taciturn Harry Reid planted a kiss on Mary Landrieu’s hand, and together with Sen. Schumer, hugged Blanche Lincoln, who blushed. The Senators voted from their desks, giving the proceeding a somber and dignified appearance.

Significantly, the one notable absence was Sen. George Voinovich of Ohio, who elected to attend the 30th anniversary of his Cleveland mayoral election instead. While he remains publicly opposed to the bill, Voinovich is no sure vote for the Republican caucus. This is Voinovich’s last term in the Senate, having announced his retirement, which gives him a great deal of independence. Recently, Voinovich lashed out in disgust at the current Republican Party:

“We got too many Jim DeMints (R-S.C.) and Tom Coburns (R-Ok.). It's the Southerners. They get on TV and go "errrr, errrrr." People hear them and say, ‘These people, they're Southerners. The party's being taken over by Southerners. What the hell they got to do with Ohio?’”

Could this be the first chink in the armor of Republican Senate discipline?

ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE HEALTHCARE DEBATE

Why do Republican Women LIE So Much?

Maybe it’s the Palin tour that’s tipping the scales –- the documented, fact-checked lies in her book and her whining rebuttals mount by the day -– but even so, the scope and nature of female Republican lies is so much more outrageous than that of their male Republican counterparts. It’s not only about Palin’s lying. It’s Liz Cheney, Michelle Bachmann, and the latest outrageous liar, Virginia Foxx:



Nothing gets my blood boiling faster than a lie about settled history (and this woman was an educator!). For the record, the Senate vote for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was 73-27, with 46 Democrats and 27 Republicans voting AYE. At the time of passage, President Lyndon Johnson said prophetically, “there goes the South.”

He was right. Nixon’s “Southern Strategy” was born, the racist Dixiecrats in the Democratic Party moved to the Republican Party, and what has become the modern realignment of the parties took root. As for those moderate Northern Republicans who voted with the Democrats: They were purged by the Republican Party’s lurch to the right, driven out by Southerners and evangelicals, culminating in Ronald Reagan’s election.

One interesting sidebar: Yesterday, Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia, the only Northern Democrat to vote against the Civil Rights Act, made history as the U.S. capitol’s longest-serving lawmaker. Senator Byrd, who will turn 92 on Friday, regrets that vote and has since renounced his segregationist past.

And Virginia, about Jesse Helms … At the time of passage of the Civil Rights Act, Helms was broadcasting racist rants from the local TV station, somewhat like a small-time Glenn Beck. Once elected senator in 1972 until his retirement, Helms never renounced his racist views even after many of his Southern colleagues had softened theirs.

These Republican women –- Foxx, Palin, Cheney, Bachmann -- are pathological liars. They can’t tell the difference between fact or fiction, and they don’t care. What makes them lie with such … brazenness?

Surfing the net, I landed (where else?) on Oprah.com for an answer. Susan Shapiro Barash says in her book Little White Lies, Deep Dark Secrets that “women lie not only more cleverly [than men do] but more often because in our society women are held to such a standard, and a lot of times, they have something to cover up. My theory is they use it as a survival technique and do it because they have been very good at doing it for so long.”

I’ll say, and it’s not only metaphoric. When she belongs to a conservative-to-wingnut white male-centric culture/party that so casually and frequently, and in so many ways, tells her to “stay in [her] place,” the Republican woman’s need to lie as survival mechanism must kick into high gear so early in her repressed childhood that at some point she just loses her grasp on reality and what is and is not, true.

Barash concludes: “I just note the way that women live their lives in this country and what they need to do to feel they aren't disempowered.”

Well, Republican women certainly. The one thing feminism has given Democratic women is, precisely, a sense of empowerment. Offhand, I can’t think of any Democratic women who flaunt their sexuality (nothing wrong with that, mind you) as much as Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachmann. Umm … but it's a certain kind of sexuality: I can imagine Palin and Bachmann pole-dancing, but not much else.

Here's what I mean:

Too stupid to breathe

From Salon: "Fully 26 percent of respondents said they believe ACORN stole the election for Obama, compared to 62 percent who said they think he won it fair and square. 12 percent weren't sure.

The numbers were even more revealing when broken down along partisan lines. A majority of Republicans -- 52 percent -- think ACORN stole the presidency, while just 27 percent said they believe Obama's office is legitimately his."

Really, I want to know. How do their brains function well enough to send signals to their hearts and lungs?

Using CNN's data, Obama got 254 EV's from states he won by 10% or more of the vote, and another 16 from states he won by 9%, which would get him to 270. Really? ACORN stole more than 10% of the votes in one of those 22 states, most of which are hard-core blue?

I want to add a question to their poll - does it hurt being that stupid?

Joe, I mean Andy, McCarthy speaks..

Andrew McCarthy (NOT the bad actor, just an all-around bad guy), the former assistant U.S. attorney and current NRO mouthpiece who mishandled and nearly blew the blind sheik prosecution has been very noisy in a CYA fashion about prosecuting KSM.

Right, we should listen to you, Andy, the genius who bemoaned how ungrateful the Iraqis have been to us. Yup, we killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people, crippled the economy, made thousands of people homeless, subsidized ethnic cleansing, destabilized the region, empowered their arch-enemy, etc. etc. etc., and they are not the least bit appreciative The nerve of them. Just see if we go invading them again, harumph!

New York City to GOP Nervous Nellies: DROP DEAD!

Barring that, Reps. Gohmert, Shadegg, Bachmann, hick wingnut scumbags all, GO FUCK YOURSELVES.

Same goes for all other wingnuts out there who would presume (???) to speak for New Yorkers.

How Dare You! All of you sorry GOP excuses for cowering, subhuman jellyfish, most of whom never set foot in the metropolis you view as Sodom and Gomorrah, FUCK OFF.

Listen up assholes, including the FOX News and hate radio Beck/Limbaugh scum the city must tolerate because that’s where they happen to make their millions off the brain-dead hordes in flyover territory: Forget Paris, London, Rio, LA, Hong Kong, Chicago, SF. Fugheadboutit …

New York City is IT.

New York City is the world’s GREATEST CITY. Period.

NEW YORK CITY IS THE CAPITAL OF THE UNIVERSE.

Pathetic wingnuts -- you really think the City can’t handle Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the human waste that planned the Twin Tower attacks?!?

Take it from New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg:

“It is fitting that 9/11 suspects face justice near the World Trade Center site where so many New Yorkers were murdered.”

And United States Attorney General Eric Holder:

“I’M NOT SCARED OF KSM, AND NO ONE ELSE NEEDS TO BE AFRAID EITHER.”

It is FITTING indeed that New York City, the city that is constantly reinventing itself and being reborn, should emerge from the pit of 9/11, brush itself off, and stand tall, greater than ever to show the world that IT and the United States of America are unbowed and undefeated.

Leave it to New Yorkers.


[Note: apologies for the expletives, not generally my style, but sometimes like Doc, I just need to vent.]

STUPAK AMENDMENT WILL ELIMINATE ABORTION COVERAGE FOR ALL WOMEN

PRO-CHOICE WOMEN, TAKE NOTE: Particularly young women, who do not remember a time when abortion was illegal in this country, and cannot conceive of it ever being unavailable through their private health insurance plans, think again. A new study by the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services has concluded that the effect of the Stupak anti-abortion poison pill amendment is to eliminate abortion coverage “over time for all women.”

If the extent of your involvement in politics was to vote for President Obama, here's some free advice: You know that little device that you keep glued to your ear, prattling on while stuck in traffic? Think about using it for something beyond chatting, texting, and downloading midlessly stupid apps. Find out who your congresspersons and senators are, and call them, expressing your opposition to the Stupak amendment. Do not take your freedoms and rights for granted or you will lose them.

Bart Stupak, who has been preening on the talk show circuit about his new found notoriety, continues his Family-inspired campaign to deceive the American people. This religious extremist is no more a moderate Democrat than President Obama is a Kenyan. His co-sponsor, Republican Congressman Joseph Pitts, has already said he will vote NO for any healthcare bill even if it contains their amendment intact. This is the company that anti-abortion Christian crusader Bart Stupak keeps. 'Nuff said, for now.

This one's for Peter

For Jimbow below

Never hesitate to disagree with me!

I've actually been kicking the hate crime aspect around a bit. If we strip away the "Republicans don't like blacks and gays" aspect of their opposition to hate crimes, there is a reasonable legal point there. The argument is that extant law is sufficient because we criminalize the INTENT TO COMMIT THE ACT (i.e., punch someone in the face or blow up a building) rather than the MOTIVE. A motive may have evidentiary weight but it is not an element of the offense.

But then those same people wail and moan about trying "terrorists" as criminals. The INTENT is the same as your garden variety criminal, as is the conduct. What differs is the MOTIVE, and folks, you can't have it both ways.

"Terrorists" are CRIMINALS

and should be treated as such.

There is no factual or legal distinction that can be cogently drawn between KSM and Tim McVeigh. Both engaged in criminal plotting and actions to destroy a building/buildings and kill people. I have heard it suggested that somehow 9/11 is beyond the reach or scope of ordinary criminal prosecutions.

Hogwash. This is a garden variety crime, a crime that differs from a street shooting only in the number of victims, not in intent or conduct.

I have heard it suggested that this is an "act of war." Double hogwash. Under no recognized construct of international law is this an act of war. The concept of "war" has a definition by consensus. Not every element of the paradigm need be present, as wars can involve asymmetrical conflicts and sub-state units. However, every element of the paradigm CANNOT BE ABSENT as it is in this instance.

We know why they don't want a public trial. First of all, Republicans thrive on fear. If they can't frighten, they can't win. The loathsome John Yoo, who should be in prison, and the cretinous Andrew McCarthy (who wrote that the Iraqis were not sufficiently "grateful" argued that a trial would afford the "terrorists" a treasure trove of intelligence.

First of all, a competent prosecutor and a capable federal judge under the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure can adequately limit discovery (note to Mr. McCarthy, I said "competent.") And of course, the important question isn't what the government knows that it will tell. It is what the defendant knows and will tell that the bleating sheep don't want to see the light of day.

Once again, Doc...

(and a tip o'the cap to Jonathan Swift)

We can solve two problems at once---

USE THE STUPID FOR FUEL!!!

I'm coming very close

Between Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, Lou Dobbs, Rush, Cheney's progeny, Michelle Bachmann, Bart Stupak (I know he's a Democrat, technically), Bow-gate, and all the rest of the stupidity out there, I'm thinking of punching everyone I know in the face, just in case they're thinking of acting like a Republican.

Christian Crusader Bart Stupak, DINO par Excellence, Hall of Shame Inductee No. 2

In its heyday the Christian Coalition, vanguard of the Religious Right, took control of the Republican Party, brick-by-brick, running self-described “stealth” candidates in local races that eventually set the stage for the election of national candidates. They pushed an extremist religious agenda, unknown to voters, to impose through government action a fundamentalist Christian doctrine on all aspects of civil society.

The Religious Right’s agenda blurs the lines between church and state on issues as seemingly benign as prayer in schools, includes Biblical Creationist mythology in our science textbooks, censors school board curricula, and rolls back decades of hard-fought civil rights for gays and women. It has spearheaded well-funded drives against gay marriage, and now a poison pill amendment to the House healthcare bill, introduced by little-known Democratic Congressman Bart Stupak, threatens to severely restrict a woman’s legal right to an abortion, and tear down any hope for meaningful healthcare reform.


Explaining why the Christian Coalition backed “stealth candidates” who would downplay their affiliations to get elected, former Coalition director and GOP strategist Ralph Reed wrote: “It's like guerrilla warfare. If you reveal your location, all it does is allow your opponent to improve his artillery bearings. It's better to move quietly, with stealth, under cover of night.”

The Religious Right’s power and influence hasn’t receded with the demise of such high-profile organizations as the Moral Majority, as some have been lulled into thinking. If anything, it has metastasized, gone underground, and grown stronger. The Religious Right has moved beyond the GOP to infiltrate not only the Democratic Party but government at all levels.

Until the titillating sexual scandals involving powerful Republican politicians Mark Sanford, governor of South Carolina, and Senator John Ensign of Nevada, both touted as GOP presidential prospects, not many people had even heard of the “Family.” Located smack in the heart of our nation’s capital, the Family is a shadowy and -- depending on one’s point of view -- sinister religious “Fellowship” catering to some of the most powerful and connected politicians in town and beyond.

When the sexual scandals broke, Bart Stupak denied any knowledge of the place, saying “I only live there.” Anyone who believes that will no doubt buy the fiction that the Family is simply a Christian frat house for politicians to commune with Jesus and share prayer breakfasts about being good Christian citizens.

Like a good “brother” with the white starched shirt, Bart Stupak kept his powder dry. Unlike his GOP brethren, Stupak was most adept at the stealth game. He was after all a Democrat, if only in name. Secrecy and a low profile were Family members’ guiding principles, which is why the sexual peccadilloes of the “brothers” threatened their mission, and Stupak was quick to distance himself.

The Democratic Party includes in its platform a strong statement preserving a woman’s legal, constitutional right to an abortion. Pro-choice Democrats are a solid majority in the party. Even so-called pro-life Democrats were comfortable with existing law -- the Hyde Amendment -- that forbids the use of any federal dollars to fund abortions.

The Stupak amendment changes all that. It goes far beyond the language of the Hyde Amendment to deny women the right to an abortion even with their own private funds. Most insulting of all, Stupak included a rider which would permit women to purchase “separate” abortion coverage in their choice of healthcare insurance. As if in this most traumatic event in a woman’s life she would have planned ahead of time to have an abortion. This is the modern equivalent of a Scarlet Letter. If ever there was any doubt as to what an arrogant, patronizing weasel Bart Stupak is, this should settle it.

The carefully crafted compromise language to retain the Hyde Amendment in the House bill was rejected as an “accounting gimmick” by Stupak and his allies, the Conference of Catholic Bishops. Incredibly, the CCB were given a seat at the table in the halls of Congress by Speaker Nancy Pelosi. In the minds of most pro-choice Catholics, the Catholic Church is hardly in a position to preach public and private morality to women about sexuality and abortion, in light of the scandal that rocked the Church involving its decades-long, systemic sexual abuse of children.

But this hasn’t stopped them from lobbying Congress and getting into the weeds of actually crafting anti-abortion legislative language. This gross violation of the spirit of separation of church and state, if not the letter of the law, should alarm every American, especially Catholics. How ironic that in Italy, whose government-run universal healthcare system is ranked first by the World Health Organization, abortion has been legal since 1978. There is little the Vatican can do about it. Just recently, Italian health authorities approved use of the abortion pill over the strenuous objections of the Catholic Church, which threatened to excommunicate anyone that uses it. Now there’s a 16th century response to a 21st century issue.

And yet in America, the only advanced nation not to provide universal healthcare for its citizens, we are fighting battles with the Catholic Church for the right of 44,000 people not to die every year for lack of healthcare. Where is the Catholic Church’s concern for them? Where is their concern for the once innocent living children, recipients of hush money, that they damaged for life?

In the wee hours of a Saturday morning the House Rules Committee voted to allow the Stupak amendment an up-or-down vote on the House floor. Pro-choice Democrats were stunned. After roundly defeating the Stupak amendment in Committee in favor of the compromise language, they felt the issue had been settled. Their hastily organized opposition was no match for Stupak, all of the Republicans, and the 40 pro-life Democrats who were Stupak’s ace in the hole.

Stupak’s legislative guerilla tactic, executed in the dead of night, should have come as no surprise. It was pure Ralph Reed. Stupak telegraphed his intentions all along, even boasting of his ability to mobilize his bloc of 40 Democratic votes: “Now, I have not threatened that every time that we went to Rules Committee and we didn’t always get our pro-life amendments, I did not try to take down any rules. You have to pick your fights at the right time. You can’t be crying wolf all the time because you lose your wolfishness. You lose your credibility. So I’m not going to lose my credibility. So you use it at certain times when it’s appropriate.”

Pure, cynical power politics, perfectly executed with stealth, subterfuge, secrecy, and hypocrisy. Pure Family.

The Family’s cult of secrecy and distortion of Christianity, sees it as a doctrine in which the elites or anointed ones, “the new chosen” carry out their mission for Christ by any means necessary, which includes the flouting of laws that apply only to lesser citizens, undermining governments, parties, and presidents, and the application of ruthless power to the greater glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Family is not the benign religious group dedicated to lawful good works within civil society that it seeks to project. Rather, it is a theocracy-in-waiting of Christian crusaders, arrogant in the righteousness of their mission in Christ.

Bart Stupak and “the brothers” live in “Ivanwald,” a sleeper cell of warriors for Christ in the heart of our nation’s capital, hosting lawmakers from both political parties who patiently bide their time before striking. The guerilla spirit evoked by Ralph Reed, the admiration for Mao, Hitler, and Stalin is very much a part of their twisted “theology.” All of these men changed the world through the power of a covenant, they say, but the Family has the covenant of a “total Jesus” of a brotherhood in Christ: “Jesus plus nothing.”

Members include Republican senators Jim DeMint, who vowed to make the defeat of healthcare reform President Obama’s “Waterloo;” Chuck Grassley, the health insurance industry shill who openly perpetuated the lie about “death panels” while pretending to collaborate with Democrats; John Ensign, whose anti-healthcare rants, filibusters and frivolous amendments obstructed and delayed the Finance Committee’s work on its bill; James Inhofe, a fierce global warming denier, opponent of cap-and-trade energy legislation, and contemptuous of environmentalists and President Obama.

Surprise, surprise, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has had since 1993 a personal relationship with the Family’s leader, Doug Coe. Considering her meteoric political rise from New York senator to just a step away from the Democratic presidential nomination, it wouldn’t surprise that her association with the Family factored in her being dropped as a vice presidential prospect and hastened her flight to Foggy Bottom. Keep your adversaries close: despite assertions to the contrary, the President is no dupe.

If there is a pattern to this tale of stealth power politics, it is that the Family is actively engaged in undermining the presidency of Barack Obama. Target One: the President’s major domestic initiative, healthcare reform.

While they might not be monolithic, Family members of both parties work strategically to achieve at least six of one, half-a-dozen of another. And so, if there is to be a healthcare bill, the Family will work across party lines to water it down, to serve the corporate health insurance interests and the Catholic Church. How will Democratic Senator Bill Nelson of Florida, a Family member, vote on the Stupak poison pill amendment? We shall see.

The Religious Right’s threat to the body politic is bigger than anyone could have imagined. Were it not for the sex scandals of religious bigots who believe they live by one set of rules and everyone else by another, and for Bart Stupak’s frontal assault on a woman’s right to choose a legal medical procedure, we might never have known.

Knowledge is power. It’s time to push back, and push back hard against the religious bigotry and arrogance of these Christian mullahs and crusaders who would take us back to the days of back-alley abortions and of intolerance against gays, and who seek to turn our democracy into the Kingdom of Christ on Earth, as they see it.

BOW-WOW ... WOW!

What's all this foaming buzz in wingnut freeperville about the President's bowing to the Japanese Emperor? Did he show too much respect? Project U.S. submissiveness? Or was it just plain courtesy to a kindly little monarch, and ... umm, protocol?

OK, wingnuts, let's take a stroll down GOP presidential history memory lane ...

NIXON: "YOUR MAJESTY, ABOUT PEARL HARBOR, WE HAD NO CHOICE BUT TO NUKE YOU FELLAS."

HIROHITO: "AH, SO ..."

EISENHOWER: "CHARLES, MONSIEUR L'ETAT, I BOW BEFORE YOU WITH HAT IN HAND."

DE GAULLE: "AH, MON GENERAL, L'ETAT C'EST MOI INDEED. FRANCE WELCOMES YOU."

How the GOP looks at the world

Keith Olbermann's Side-Splitting LOL Sendoff of Lou Dobbs

HAHAHA ... KO's MUST-WATCH impression of Lou Dobbs is A CLASSIC, righ up there with his Bill-O the Clown. Don't worry, Keith, you'll still have Lou's radio show to ridicule him.

Lou Dobbs Takes Time Off to Reassess Priorities ... With Tequila Bottle in Hand

Former CNN News Anchor Lou Dobbs was last seen heading for sunnier climes south of the Rio Grande. Here is Dobbs on a party break in Tijuana with his new amigos. Claiming he was desentendido, Dobbs handed out copies of his moving farewell statement to anyone who would take them:

“En este momento estoy considerando varias opciones y direcciones, y les aseguro que se los haré saber cuando fije el rumbo. Realmente creo que los principales temas de nuestra época incluyen el crecimiento de nuestra clase media, la creación de más empleo, atención médica, política inmigratoria, el medio ambiente, el cambio climático, y nuestra participación militar, por supuesto, en Afganistán e Irak.

Pero cada uno de esos temas se encuentra influenciado, en mi opinión, por nuestra capacidad de demostrar la gran resiliencia de nuestra economía capitalista, actualmente debilitada, y de demostrar la disposición política para superar la falta de verdadera representación en Washington, D.C.

Creo que esos son temas profundamente importantes y fundamentales, y continuaré realizando esfuerzos para tratarlos de manera honesta y sin vueltas en el futuro.

Desafortunadamente, esos temas se definen ahora en la arena pública por pertenencia a partidos e ideología en vez de un razonamiento riguroso y empírico y análisis y discusión franca y sincera. Trabajaré con diligencia lo mejor que pueda para cambiar eso. En cuanto al importante trabajo de restaurar la inspiración en nuestra gran sociedad libre y nuestra economía de mercado, me esforzaré también por ser un líder en ese diálogo nacional.”

~ Compañero Louis Dobbs ~

Bears Fix

I may have listened to too many of the callers to B&B this afternoon, but here's what I think is wrong with the team and how to fix it:

People accuse Lovie of being unemotional, but I think that it all starts at the top. Where's Virginia? Why isn't she on the sideline, getting into Cutler's face after every INT? Why isn't she screaming at the D-Line every time they go offsides? How the hell can they expect to win with an elderly woman running the show? What they need to do is sell the team, and get some real emotion going. First, I'd put together an ownership team of Da Coach and JP Morgan, cause he was richer than God. Then I'd hire the reanimated corpse of Genghis Khan to run the offense, Doug Plank to run the D, and I'd bring in Jim Cramer to give the halftime speeches. I'd have a team of rabid dogs on the sidelines and unleash them on any player who makes a stupid penalty. I'd ban any hair that showed outside the helmet, music, and books other than the playbook. Players with tattoos would get cut, unless they were of their mom or Sweetness. I'd turn Soldier Field into a
dome, make it 15 degrees for every home game with 32 mph winds, and get snow machines in to cover the field, while at the same time banning long sleeves.

Oh, and I'd move Chris Zorich to linebacker.

Quotable Carrie Prejean: "You're Being Extremely Inappropriate ..."

This is rich: Carrie Prejean can't handle Larry King's softball questions??? Watch her meltdown:

BREAKING NEWS (GLOATING): LOU DOBBS QUITS, CNN RESIDENT RACIST NO MORE

Lou Dobbs, CNN's resident racist (below) has QUIT, effective immediately!


Joe Wilson and anonymous Dobbs fans (below) were disconsolate:


Heh, exquisite timing ... This blog's work on Dobbs is done, unless and until he once again raises his ugly, racist head. Question: Will Geraldo Rivera quit FOX News if Dobbs lands there? Stay tuned.

For now, no further comment is necessary. WE ARE PLEASED.

Sí Se Puede.

WARNING: Any Offense to Beckistas and FOX News Worshippers IS Totally INTENTIONAL!

Dear Beckistas, (double dipping) TEA BAGGERS, "FOX IS NEWS" Cultists:

If you have a HEART ATTACK watching this video, CALL 911. (NO, NO ... NOT 912!!!)

I'm sure your GREAT HEALTHCARE INSURANCE will take care of you.

PS - SHOUTOUT TO THE RACIST RALLY PARTICIPANTS SCREECHING AGAINST "SOCIALIZED" MEDICINE, INCLUDING HEART ATTACK VICTIM, RESCUED BY GOVERNMENT-RUN HEALTHCARE: WE, THE TAXPAYERS, DEMAND OUR MONEY BACK FOR LIFESAVING SERVICES RENDERED. REFUSAL TO PAY WILL BE CHARGED DIRECTLY TO MICHELLE BACHMANN AND HOUSE REPUBLICAN LEADERSHIP.

Sean Hannity Uses Glenn Beck's Protest Footage

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

125,000 Signatures and Counting: Tell Harry Reid to Punish Joe 'Low-Blow' Lieberman

Progressives and liberal Democrats are united: Senator Joe 'Low-Blow' Lieberman should be stripped of his chairmanship of the Homeland Security Subcommittee if he reneges on his pledge to fellow caucus members to play a constructive role on key votes, meaning no filibuster of Democratic bills. Setting aside his open support for John McCain's presidential bid, this time Lieberman stabbed Democrats in the back at a critical juncture in the healthcare debate by crowing to FOX News he will filibuster any Senate healthcare reform bill with a public option, thus preventing an up-or-down vote.


With this open display of contempt for President Obama and the Party leadership, Lieberman -- the ostensible "Independent"-- gleefully thumbed his nose at 68% of his constituents. He further insulted their intelligence by claiming to take a principled position in order to keep healthcare costs down. This disgusting LIE by the senator from the corporate state of insurance companies is all the more outrageous because it flies in the face of CBO estimates that significant deficit reduction of more than $100 billion would result from a robust public option.

The arrogance of Democratic insurance company shills -- recipients of millions in campaign contributions from an industry that is spending $1.4 million daily to defeat healthcare reform -- senators like Landrieu and Lieberman, is breathtaking. Wallowing in their crass betrayal of the public interest, these senators are still living in the corrupt past, a familiar world of backslapping backroom deals with corporate lobbyists that so diminished the American people's faith in government.

As Lieberman reinforced his tone-deaf politics in yet another losing presidential bid, the people's faith renewed itself and crystallized around the candidate whose promise of "hope" and "change" swept him into office in what was a transformative, generational, paradigm-shifting election. Those fundamental facts have not changed, despite the hard reality of governing in the worst economic climate since the 1930s, amid an obstructionist Republican Party bereft of ideas other than defeating the President of the United States for political gain. To the contrary, pushback from a reactionary coalition of losers at the polls and corporations fearing their imminent loss of power and influence in Washington, makes the need for reform all the more compelling.

The old-style corrupt pols who are standing in the way of reform cannot look beyond the D.C. beltway to the new political paradigm that fueled the Obama victory. In their myopic view, the thousands of white proto-fascist screamers waving racist signs at town hall meetings and Tea Bagger rallies compare to, even supplant, the millions of committed Obama voters -- progressives, independents, and moderates -- that understand the urgent need for reform of our healthcare and financial institutions systems is an economic imperative central to our nation's future growth and prosperity. This reality has not yet sunk in for Lieberman, and never will unless he feels its lasting sting. As President Obama has so often said, change is hard and he cannot do it alone.

Let's send Joe 'Low-Blow' Lieberman a message. There is a grassroots, millions-strong digital network, in his state and around the country, that will not sit idly by while he derails healthcare. Our netroots of committed voters, 21st century activists that can shake out the obstructionists' lies and instantly broadcast them on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and the blogs, is ready to exact a political price from 'Low-Blow' Lieberman for his obstinate stance against the public interest.

Please sign the petition urging Harry Reid and the Democratic Party to punish Joe Lieberman should he stand in the way of healthcare reform. It's time to flex some badass progressive muscle.

Sen. Mary Landrieu, First DINO Hall of Shame Inductee, Gets Target Landrieu Ad

Satan's mistress, Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, needs some mighty strong voodoo magic to break out of her demonic possession by wealthcare insurance company goblins. Seriously now, turning to the upcoming Senate vote on healthcare reform, out netroot friends at ActBlue need contributions to get this target Landrieu ad on the air:

"We’re not pulling punches. We need to turn up the pressure on any senator who might be a Turncoat Democrat who supports a Republican filibuster. It’s time to bring back our hard-hitting ad pressuring Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana to support a public option. If we raise $100,000 by Thursday, we can blanket the airwaves and turn up the pressure for Mary Landrieu back home before she decides how to vote in D.C."

Dovetailing nicely with this ad will be the first Keith Olbermann-sponsored free health clinic in Baton Rouge, La. November 14 to publicize the urgent need to pass healthcare reform with a public option. Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary's ears will be burning ... With all the negative buzz swirling around her, there's an excellent chance she'll flip back to her original position favoring a public option. Please contribute what you can here.

AP Headline Writers: Go Fuck Yourselves

"House health care bill has nowhere to go in Senate (AP)"

1) Of course not. The Senate will introduce and pass its own legislation.

2) The continued media kowtowing and assigning of power to the handful of "Democratic moderates" rather than the actual functioning majority of the Senate is pathetic.

3) If Harry Reid doesn't get a bill with a public option passed by hook or by crook, something that will eventually end up with President Obama's signature, then he should be beaten with Joe Lieberman's face.

Correction, but I'm still right

INN points out in a comment to my post below that most people on a military base don't have weapons on them, and as such, my conclusion isn't valid. He's right, of course, and I probably should have looked it up before posting (considering that any circumstance which could be envisioned wherein I set foot on a military base is one I never want to consider).

I have a couple of responses, and I'm mostly sad that my schadenfreude couldn't bring a positive to a horrible circumstance.

1) I'm still right that they're still wrong. That has been proven. Guns in the hands of ordinary people in that situation only lead to more people getting killed, not less.

2) If there was one MP in the building, he or she would still be more effective than virtually any non-combat trained person with any gun you'd care to mention.

3) One has to wonder if this guy would have gone on a murderous rampage if only the military wasn't filled with hate-filled bigots who can't seem to distinguish between a person of a particular ancestry who's chosen to put his life on the line for the same causes that you have and someone of that ancestry who is trying to kill you.

Historic Vote: House Passes Healthcare Bill

The final vote was 220-215, with ONE Republican vote: Joseph Cao of Louisiana, the Vietnamese immigrant who defeated Democrat William Jefferson. Congressman Cao, below, decided he wanted to be on the right side of history.

Oscar the Grouch Trashes FOX News, Wingnuts Go Ballistic

Not known for their sense of humor, wingnuts cried foul. Here's a typical blog comment:

The message is clear, I can’t even sit my kids in front of “Sesame Street” without having to worry about the Left attempting to undermine my authority. And don’t tell me, “If you don’t like it change the channel.”

Dudes, lighten up. Have you seen liberals complain that ABC's "V", a show about cannibalistic reptilian aliens with human skins promising everyone universal healthcare, is a thinly-veiled anti-Obama allegory? Hey, as long as it's mindless but entertaining sci-fi, who cares!

Quotable Republican: P.J. O'Rourke

“I kept waiting for the Tony Soprano votes to come (for Corzine) in the end, the ones that are in alphabetical order and everyone down the list is dead.”

--P. J. O’Rourke

Ha! Me too, P.J. … Only that half the Democratic politicians in Hudson County, NJ are under indictment. (Rimshot!)

How You Can Help the Victims of the Fort Hood Tragedy

As Americans mourn the loss of life and horrible tragedy of the shootings at Fort Hood, the loved ones of the victims are in our thoughts and prayers. Find ways to help here and here.

Is This the Face of the Republican Party: Hatred and Racism?

At the Tea Bagger rally instigated by Michelle Bachmann, ignorant hate peddlers and racists were bussed in to our nation's capital by corporate astro-turf fat cats to scream “kill the bill” and wave racist, repugnant signs in front of the Capitol. House Republican Leader John Boehner claims he didn’t see any such signs. Oh, really?

This repulsive sign compares healthcare reform to the Nazi death camp at Dachau with a picture of piled bodies and the caption: “National Socialist Health Care – Dachau, Germany 1945.” David Schuster of MSNBC, an accomplished TV journalist and all-round good guy, couldn't have said it better: “Some of us had relatives who were in the piles. Do these wingers have ANY decency?”



Boehner can pretend all he wants that he didn’t see the sign (among so many other open displays of racism and hatred) comparing healthcare reform to the Holocaust. But he can’t deny knowing about them now. Eric Cantor, the House Republican Whip, who is Jewish, also spoke at the haters’ rally. What were you thinking, Mr. Cantor? SHAME ON YOU.

It appears Boehner and Cantor are siding with the wingnut lunatic fringe faction of their Party led by Michelle Bachmann. Still waiting for your denunciations, Reps. Boehner and Cantor.

*CRICKETS*

Come to think of it, Boehner could have some things in common with the Tea Baggers: One is an urgent need for remedial history lessons such that he could pass the standard citizenship test to be an American. Here is Hispanic American Rick Sanchez pointing out Boehner’s ignorance with deadpan mockery:



(Sorry for the slight redundancy, Peter, but it's even more pathetically funny on video.)

What a MORON. Truly. Is Boehner really this clueless? It would explain a lot about the Republican Party’s glaring ineptitude. Not that I'm complaining.

Ladies and Gentlemen, your House Minority Leader

The creepily over-tanned John Boehner held up a copy of the constitution and said he was there to "stand here with our Founding Fathers, who wrote in the preamble: 'We hold these truths to be self evident'..."

Umm, John, those are Jefferson's words from the Declaration of Independence. I know you're probably none too happy with the actual preamble with that whole promoting the "general welfare" stuff.

Meme shot to death, funeral on Saturday

In the wake of today's tragic deaths at Ft. Hood, I find myself asking this question:

Normally, when someone brings a gun into a not-traditionally-armed environment, like a store or a school, the wingnuts start going off on how the tragedy would have been easily avoided, if only everyone was walking around armed. Every teacher and student would turn into Clint Eastwood at the end of Unforgiven and take that gunman down slicker than snot, saving lives and protecting Baby Jesus in the bargain. Today's shooting took place at an army base, right? People carry guns there, right? And they're trained to use them, and trained to shoot to kill, right? So if someone could shoot at least 42 people at Ft. Hood before being taken down, when the shooter was surrounded by trained killers armed with cutting-edge weaponry, what the hell do they expect the rest of us to do when someone walks into a classroom or shopping mall and opens fire?

You can have your rifle back when you pry your head from your cold dead ass, Mr. Heston. And that goes for the rest of you 2nd Amendment morons as well.

We’ll Always Have New York's 23rd

So said Andrea Mitchell to David Axelrod. (Hmm …)

Thanks to the right wing PAC ‘Club for Growth’, the gift that keeps on giving!

The Democratic Party’s BFF just elected another Democrat, Bill Owens, from a safe Republican district to join Nancy Pelosi’s growing army of infidels in the House. The notorious New York 23rd was such a reliable Republican redoubt that no Democrat had been elected there to Congress for the past 140 years.

It all changed yesterday when Caribou Barbie, Tim Pawlenti, the Pigman, and the lunatic Beck intervened to purge the Republican establishment candidate in favor of a wingnut, Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman. The Club for Growth poured $1 million to support Hoffman, and the RNC answered with $1 million for their candidate Dede Scozzafava. All of it down the tubes when Dede dropped out endorsing the Democrat, Bill Owens, who won.

Question: Is the Club for Growth a front group for the Democratic Party? By raising money from Tea Bagger dupes for marginal candidates to knock off Republicans in the primaries, the Club for Growth so far is 0-for-2: They forced PA Senator Arlen Specter to switch parties, and now they’ve elected a Democrat from a 140-year Republican mortal-lock-safe district. Ah, we so love Sarah Palin. She's promising to return, saying the race isn't over, just “postponed” until 2010. Please come back, Sarah, and meddle some more!

Hopefully the wingnuts have enough money in the till to knock off Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, their next target, in his bid for the open Senate seat of retired Republican Sen. Mel Martinez.

Despite Michael Steele’s comic gloating, Republicans would be mistaken to read national implications into the races they won, much less that their governor pickups were a referendum on President Obama. The President’s job approval numbers remain solid with voters in both states.

Virginia and New Jersey reverted to historical form in off-year results electing candidates different than the party controlling the White House. Add to that a weak Democratic candidate (VA), a highly unpopular incumbent (NJ), local issues and low voter turnout, forming the perfect storm that was too much even for President Obama’s campaigning to overcome.

The lesson for Democrats is clear: not delivering on healthcare and jobs for the American people will cost them dearly at the polls in 2010. Had healthcare reform passed Congress with the President’s signature before the elections, I think the base would have been energized to turn out at the polls in sufficient numbers to hold NJ, and make Virginia competitive.

The Democrats need to pass comprehensive, meaningful healthcare reform and a second stimulus that emphasizes jobs. Now is not the time for timidity.

New York’s 23rd District: More Evidence of Republican Madness

The 23rd District in upstate New York is moderate to conservative and a reliable Republican bastion that hasn’t elected a Democrat to Congress for well over one century. This could end tomorrow if Republicans have anything to say about it. The RNC pumped $1 million down a black hole in that district to support the establishment Republican candidate, Dede Scozzafava, a moderate favored to win ... but for the Tea Baggers, that is, with a little help from Sarah Palin.

They decided Scozzafava -- who is pro-choice -- apparently isn’t ideologically pure enough. So they threw their support behind Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman, a wingnut who calls Glenn Beck a “mentor.” Hoffman catapulted to the front with a narrow lead in a three-way race, until Scozzafava dropped out this weekend and threw her support behind the Democrat, Bill Owens.

The race is up for grabs, but whatever the result, it’s a win-win for Democrats: If the Tea Bagger/Palin candidate wins, this could be the first battle of a GOP civil war for the soul of the Republican Party. Succumb to emboldened Tea Baggers and drift even further to the extreme right and over the cliff, or … marginalize their most extreme elements and try to attract moderate independent voters. Because they are still prisoners of an extremist ideology, there are no good choices for the Republican Party.

As Republicans fight over their identity crisis, Democrats can only hope that the winners will be the Palin/Beck/Limbaugh extremist faction. If they win beginning with New York’s 23rd, the Republican Party could become a permanent minority party with a public identification hovering between 20% and 23%.

In other election news, Republicans will capture the governorship in Virginia, which is no bellwether since, historically, the off-year gubernatorial election in that swing state has gone to the party out of power in the presidency. In New Jersey, it's too close to call now, but I predict the Democrat Jon Corzine will win, with a substantial assist from President Obama. Jersey’s a Democratic state, and this election reminds me a lot of Brendan Byrne's re-election in the 70s, where he overcame a double-digit deficit to win with a weak economy and state taxes as the cutting issues, just as they are this year. In the end, voters grumbled but realized taxes fund things they want, like education and services.

Hypocrite of the Week: Remember Joe “you LIE!” Wilson? Well, it seems Wilson is blaming President Obama for the delays in the delivery of H1N1 vaccines. Except that he voted against legislation funding the accelerated efforts to combat H1N1. So, if it had been up to Wilson, the vaccine shortages would have been more severe. The irony of this situation is that his wife is infected with the H1N1 virus. We hope she recovers, of course, but the Religious Right, that believes in divine intervention, might have taken a different view … if Joe Wilson were a Democrat.

Memo to "Anonymous"

If you have a cogent thought, I'll publish it, but save your racist rants for the freepers.

From the Sheeple Corner

We get this masterpiece from Jeannie Doyle Curtin of Elmhurst, Illinois:

For years now, we have had to watch Republicans battle the elite television media for a fair chance at debate, with "panel discussions" stacked five to one, liberal to conservative. Now there is a network, Fox News, that allows both sides to have a fair chance to present their opinions, and this is somehow unfair to Obama's people. Ridiculous. He's only making Fox more popular and interesting to the American people.

You mean the "elite" networks that put Bill Kristol on every week? Where conservative guests on the morning shows always outnumbered those from the left?

I don't mind the existence of Fox "News." Mouthbreathers need love too. Just don't pretend it is a "news" network, and by the way....

More immigration, less crime

http://reason.com/archives/2009/07/06/the-el-paso-miracle

Deja Vu All Over Again

KABUL (AP) — President Hamid Karzai's challenger withdrew Sunday from next weekend's runoff election, effectively handing the incumbent a victory but raising doubts about the credibility of the government.

A divided country is torn apart by a stolen election characterized by massive fraud. The incumbent has done little to inspire confidence in a time of national crisis, and the vast majority of the citizenry have a very low opinion of President Karzai, pictured below.

Lou Dobbs, Racist: The Hatemonger's Slander of an Entire Race of People

There is no greater racism, as Geraldo Rivera said so well, than to “slander an entire race of people.” One the BIGGEST LIES, so damaging to latinos in this country, that is repeatedly and irresponsibly stated by Lou Dobbs is that illegal aliens make up one-third of our prison population, when the figure is less than 7% and closer to 6%. Significantly, noncitizens in federal prisons are mostly being held on immigration violations rather than on crimes such as murder, rape, robbery, etc. This is such a putrid and inflammatory lie that Lou Dobbs should be held personally responsible for inciting hatred and violence against latinos.

Here are the FACTS:

He also said that illegal immigrants were “an increasing part of America’s prison population.”

“Here are the facts, according to the Department of Justice:

- In 2000, 27 percent of the inmates in federal prisons were noncitizens. Some of these noncitizens were illegal immigrants, and some were in this country legally. In 2001, this percentage dropped to 24 percent, and it continued dropping over the next four years, falling to 20 percent in 2005.

Bottom line: illegal immigrants make up significantly less than a third of the federal prison population, and the share has been falling in recent years.

- The share of state prison inmates who are noncitizens is much lower. (This is largely because immigration violations themselves are federal crimes.) In 2000, 4.6 percent of inmates in state prisons were noncitizens. This number remained quite steady over the next five years, right around 4.6 percent.

- Over all — combining federal and state prisons — 6.4 percent of the nation’s prisoners were noncitizens in 2005. This is down from 6.8 percent in 2000.

By comparison, 6.9 percent of the total United States population were noncitizens in 2003, according to the Census Bureau.

Anne Morrison Piehl, an economist at Rutgers, says there are a number of reasons that immigrants have a lower crime rate than the native-born population. (To read a paper by Ms. Piehl and Kristin Butcher on immigrants and crime, click here.)”

Like Father, Like Daughter: Lizzie ‘Mini-Me’ Cheney Is (Surprise!) a Pathological LIAR

It’s still puzzling how often Liz Cheney gets away with manipulating the “soft” media venues into letting her lie with impunity. Lizzie will seize any and every opportunity to trash President Obama while fiercely defending her father’s indefensible record with flat-out LIES. Unchallenged, uncontested, shameless LIES.

Lizzie's devil masquerading as Swiss Miss wholesomeness may explain her license to lie on major media outlets. To some the angelic-looking Cheney family provocateur may make for good television, but at what cost the truth? In the rare instances where Lizzie is challenged, as by Lawrence O’Donnell, she will chalk it off as a learning experience and blacklist the interviewer for the future. When Andrea Mitchell of MSNBC lamely admitted that she’d have to “do my homework” and have Lizzie back with some answers, Lizzie whined, “that’s actually not fair, Andrea …” and kept on moving. She hasn’t been back. And despite repeated requests for interviews, Lizzie refuses to go on the Rachel Maddow show. You see, Rachel’s staff has a penchant for research and preparation, and Rachel’s got her number: “Liz Cheney is still on TV — making news by apparently making stuff up.”



Here’s the latest example, Lizzie ‘Mini-Me’ Cheney's cheap shot at President Obama for attending a late night, early morning ceremony at Dover AFB to receive the war dead from Afghanistan:

Liz ‘Mini-Me’ Cheney: “I think that what President Bush used to do is do it without the cameras. And I don't understand sort of showing up with the White House Press Pool with photographers and asking family members if you can take pictures. That's really hard for me to get my head around...It was a surprising way for the president to choose to do this.”

LIZZIE LIE #6549: President Bush NEVER attended any ceremonies receiving America’s war dead, PERIOD.

LIZZIE LIE #6550: The ban on cameras and media covering these ceremonies was lifted by the Obama Administration. Furthermore, the cameras recorded one ceremony of 18, the one whose family had given its consent to be photographed. The choice was always left to the families, and the President was there to pay his respects and meet privately with the families in a somber and dignified manner.

Lou Dobbs, CNN’s Resident Racist, Falls Victim to Fearmongering Self

Isn’t it invariably true that the media wingnut Carney Criers trafficking in fear and hatred will eventually fall victim to their own self-inflicted irrational paranoia? Glenn Beck never leaves his bunker without an armed bodyguard. Talk radio racist Rush Limbaugh and CNN hater Lou Dobbs have taken similarly draconian measures.

After years of tolerating scurrilous, largely unanswered attacks on latino immigrants from Dobbs, the popular FOX TV tabloid personality Geraldo Rivera has finally had enough. Rivera fired a verbal broadside at Dobbs, blaming him for the “reckless beyond imagining, reckless beyond precedent … defamatory tone” of the immigration debate in this country, adding that Dobbs “is almost singlehandedly responsible for creating, for being the architect of the young-Latino-as-scapegoat for everything that ails this country.”

The slippery Dobbs, who probably viewed Rivera as a fellow traveler, since Rivera’s tabloid brand of sensationalism fits the Murdoch media profile to a T, was clearly rattled by the attack. Rivera is a conservative who appeals to a sizable swath of conservative Hispanic Americans, yes, but one issue that cuts across ideological lines among latinos in this country is immigration. This becomes evident considering that the only pro-Dobbs latinos on his show are so virulently right wing that their ethnic heritage is incidental and exceedingly elitist.

And so, lurking just beneath the surface, the real Lou Dobbs revealed himself: a paranoid coward afraid of his own shadow –- traits common to racists and hatemongers.

After the expected ad hominen attacks on Rivera, avoiding the substance of the criticisms, Dobbs made a sympathy play by claiming he had received threatening phone calls for weeks (which went unreported until now) and that gunshots had been fired at his house. Dobbs linked the alleged threats and gunshots to his “crackdown on illegal immigration and to his opponents’ rhetoric,” Geraldo Rivera most prominent among them. It wasn’t necessary for Dobbs to mention Rivera’s name for the inference to be drawn.

When asked to comment on Dobbs’s complaint of shots fired at his house in Sussex County, New Jersey, a NJ state police spokesperson “chuckled out loud” in a phone interview, and said he “wouldn’t classify the [alleged gunfire incident] as very unusual.” There are hunters in the area and, “at this time of year hunter (shooting) complaints go up.” When asked what he thought of Dobbs’s version of the gunfire incident, the very professional Sgt. Jones said, "I'm really going to leave Lou Dobbs’s assessment to himself.”

LOU'S LUCK RUNS OUT: MEXICAN CHUPACABRA MONSTER FINDS HIM TREMBLING UNDER THE BED!

And so it is. Lou Dobbs is spooked by nonexistent threats and irrational dangers hiding in the shadows and attics of his brain. You’ve made your bed, Mr. Dobbs. Now it’s time to sleep in it with your demons. If you can.

Shep, Shep ... What Are you Waiting FOR?

JOE LIEBERMAN (BACKSTABBER) MEETS WITH HIS PUBLIC

MEMO TO SENATE MAJORITY LEADER REID: If Joe Lieberman follows through with his threat to kill the public option, the least you can do is FINALLY kick him out of the Democratic Caucus and strip him of his seniority and chairmanship. YA THINK?

Because if you don't, there are 30 votes, at least, in the Caucus to do it right now, whether you get out in front of this or not.

Oh, by the way: The people of Connecticut, Joe Lieberman's constituents, favor a public option by a margin of 68% to 21%.

Public Option Will Be in Both Senate and House Bills: The American People Win

Sure, this is Round 1, with several more to come, but it's a big win for progressives and the American people, any which way you look at it. In meetings with Sens. Baucus (Chmn., Finance) and Dodd (transitional chair of Ted Kennedy's Health Committee) Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid produced a combined bill that includes the public option with an opt out provision: states may opt out of offering their citizens a choice to buy into a government-run public health insurance option to compete with private insurance.

Considering that public approval for a public option ranges from 65% and up nationwide, the politicos who have been posturing on behalf of BIG CORPORATE INSURANCE will have to justify this disgusting sellout to the American people, and in particular, their constituents.

That means you, Sen. Mary Landrieu. I'd like to see you tell the people of Louisiana, which ranks first in federal dollars per capita and last in (private) healthcare delivery and quality, why you would want to deny your constituents the public option that blue states will surely opt into. Do you really want to go there, Senator Landrieu? Do you really want to lecture us on how stupid and selfish we are because we think the public option is "free healthcare"?

What a Dickensian DINO -- FROM THE STATE THAT SUFFERED THROUGH HURRICANE KATRINA, NO LESS!

That also means you, Senators Lincoln and Pryor of Arkansas. You have a really TOUGH choice to make: "Hmm ... shall I stand with the special interest private insurers or the American people?" And you, Ben Nelson and Joe Lieberman, let's see just how brave you are when the voters come a-knockin'. And Nelson, cut the crap about being a "Jeffersonian Democrat," 'kay? The only similarity between you and Jefferson is that you're quite willing to make uninsured and underinsured Americans SLAVES of the private insurers -- "small government" ceding its role to the corporate monopolies. Jefferson would quite readily have tossed you into the Federalist camp.

By the way, after the despicable insurance industry vastly overplayed its hand by issuing false reports against the most conservative bill, from Finance, basically threatening to raise their rates sky-high if they didn't get their way, the House and Senate are now considering versions of repealing the insurers' antitrust exemption. You see, even the sellout DINOS don't like it when their would-be masters flaunt their would-be ownership. Hence the DINOS rebelled against their sugar daddies and got themselves a spine transplant.

Olympia Snowe, take thy "trigger" and go jump in a primordial Maine lake. This notion that the Democratic Party won its electoral majority to effect major change only to have its change agenda, including comprehensive healthcare reform, held hostage by a crabby old lady from Maine is ... well, RIDICULOUS.

We've already got bipartisanship, Mr. President. Longtime Republican Arlen Specter loves the Democratic Party so much that he switched parties, and now he's TO THE LEFT of the DINOS! What could be more bipartisan than that?

Next year, the mid-term elections with 37 governorships on the line will have the public option opt out front and center as a campaign issue. You're up, Gramps Grassley. Let's see you and your right wing colleagues put your money where your mouths are on all that talk about a "government takeover" of healthcare. You'll get the town hall crazy screamers vote, though. Good luck!

The public option opt out could well be the Republican Party's WATERLOO, a term diaper-wearing Republican Senator David Vitter used to attack President Obama. The diapers could come in handy when Mary Landrieu's Louisiana colleague craps in them.

Nice, if stinky, bit of irony. Nice move, Harry.

Postcript: For those of us who fought long and hard for a public option, against the inside-the-beltway conventional wisdom of a punditocracy of idiots, this is a sweet win. Nothing charged me up more than watching David Brooks pontificate on PBS's Newshour that the public option was "dead" and liberals were going through "various stages of withdrawal." Here's to you, Brooks, you arrogant jerk.

Progressives must keep up the pressure. We're close and we've pulled ahead. Now we've got to maintain this momentum all the way to the finish line.

Guerrillas Crash AHIP (Ass Hole Insurance Plans) Conference

I Loooove these guys! YES!!!

FAUX "News": A 24/7 Anti-Obama Propaganda Machine

Shep, why don't you bolt that wingnut den of iniquity while you still can? I get it; the money's too good.

Medicare Part E: Keith Olbermann Pitches In

Did anyone catch Keith Olbermann’s commentary on MSNBC last October 7? Keith dedicated the entire hour of his show Countdown to an impassioned plea for passage of meaningful healthcare reform. Personalizing the experience he and his family faced with his father’s hospitalization for a serious illness, Keith made a compelling case for the urgency of reforming our healthcare system with the inclusion of a robust public option.

I recommend that everyone read or view it. But it wasn’t just Keith’s commentary. It was his specific call to action. As a fairly regular viewer and fan of his advocacy style of journalism, I can say that the commitment Keith made is entirely consistent with the decent human being, before journalist, that he is:

I propose tonight one act with two purposes. I propose we, all of us, embrace the selfless individuals at the National Association of Free Clinics. You know them, they conducted the mass health care free clinic in Houston that served 1,500 people. I want a mass health care free clinic every week in the principle cities of the states of the six senators key to defeating a filibuster against health care reform in the Senate. 

I want Sens. Lincoln and Pryor to see what health care poverty is really like in Little Rock. I want Sen. Baucus to see it in Butte. I want Sen. Ben Nelson to see it in Lincoln. I want Sen. Landrieu to see it in Baton Rouge. I want Sen. Reid to see it in Las Vegas.

I'll donate. How much will you donate? We enable thousands of our neighbors to have just a portion of the bounty of good health, and we make a statement to the politicians, forgive me, William Jennings Bryan, "you shall not press down upon the brow of America this crown of insurance, you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of blue."


Lawrence O’Donnell, who guest-hosted Countdown some days later, disclosed that Keith donated a total of $30,000 seed money, $10,000 to kick start financing for each projected free clinic site. As of last night, Keith announced more than $1.2 million has been donated to the free clinics; enough to get them up and running in the following cities and states:

1. Baton Rouge, La. – Home state of DINO Senator Mary Landrieu, who should be on every REAL Democrat’s shitlist as the infamous first inductee to this blog's DINOS Hall of Shame for her craven flip-flop on the public option followed by her contemptuous assertion that people favor it because they “think the public option means free health care.” The free clinics attract 80% working people -- your constituents, Sen. Landrieu -- who do not have and cannot afford health insurance. Free clinic to be held November 14.

2. Little Rock, Ark. – Home state of DINO Senators Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor. Senators Lincoln and Pryor inexplicably oppose the public option even though their constituents are for it. Free clinic to be held November 21.

3. Kansas City, Mo. – The change in location is a function of logistics, and will represent the nation’s need for healthcare reform. This will be a 2-day free clinic to be held December 9-10.

Anyone who wishes to may contribute to the free clinics here. Anyone who lives in the cities where the free clinics will be held, please contribute your time, if you can. They need volunteers. The popular TV doctor, Dr. Oz, will be donating his services as a health professional. I’ll update the story as more details become available.

Keith, you done good. This is a decent and generous act that, to my mind, represents the very best of advocacy journalism. Now it’s up to us to follow through contributing what we can to see this reform to a successful legislative conclusion. But that’s not all. As the public option moves to a vote in the House, it’s been rebranded Medicare Part E -– Medicare for everyone. While the idea may have been floated in Congress with Keith’s colleague, Dr. Nancy, lamenting that if only the public option were named something without the negative connotation of “government-run or takeover,” it was Keith’s commentary that ultimately gave it legs:

Just as "global warming" is really "bad climate change," "The Public Option" is in broad essence "Medicare For Everybody." Frame it that way, sell it that way, and suddenly it doesn't sound like a threat, turning the seemingly solid insurance which people have now, into something "optional" and turning anything "private" into everything "public."

Once you said "Medicare For Everybody," there would be just as much to explain. If you were under 65 you'd be paying for it. You wouldn't have to buy it. You wouldn't have to change from whatever you have now.

Suddenly, mainstream media is reporting a “stunner:” Not only does the public option keep the cost of the reform under $900 billion over ten years, but it actually reduces the deficit over the same period. The story here, though, is why these imbeciles would only now treat as a stunning revelation what public option advocates have known for months and why we've fought so hard for it. It's not ideological; it's mainstream good public policy. If local traditional media is becoming less relevant, this kind of obtuse reporting is one reason why.

A final word to Keith’s corporate bosses: Lift the ban on his hilarious skewering of Bill-O the Clown. After the White House’s frontal assault on the journalistic fraud called FOX “News,” it should have become apparent to you that Keith is doing a service every bit as important as that provided by Pulitzer Prize winners Politifact.com, the nonpartisan political fact-checking arm of the St. Petersburg Times.

Rock Obama Is Back: How to Negotiate with Senators on Healthcare!

The Old “Neighborhood Play”

Last night in the course of the Yankees-Angels marathon playoff game, eventually won by the Yanks 4-3, there was a play at the bottom of the tenth that is seldom called. In a routine double play grounder to second, hardly a bang-bang play – Melky Cabrera was out by the proverbial “mile” on a groundout by lead-footed Yankee catcher Jorge Posada – the Angels shortstop Erick Eybar straddled the second base bag without touching it with his feet.

Result: Cabrera was called safe, and Angels manager Mike Scioscia shot out of the dugout like the cannonball man to jawbone the ump. He had a point, said veteran game callers Tim McCarver and Joe Buck.

“As we’ve seen so often tonight,” McCarver said, “the ‘neighborhood play’ is in vogue at second base. He may be straddling the bag but he was straddling the bag all night. Now, Mike Scioscia’s argument is: Why call it now when you haven’t called it all night?”

Joe Buck noted, “They will give that play at second base always.”

“Always!” agreed McCarver.

“But,” added Buck, “technically speaking, Eybar never touched the base.” Later, recapping the game, McCarver and Buck were emphatic: Umps “never” call that play. Except, of course, when they do.

This reminds me a lot of the foot fault controversy involving Serena Williams in the U.S. Open women’s final. When certain rules are historically finessed, e.g., the “neighborhood play” in baseball and the foot fault in tennis, the worst thing an ump can do is to apply the rule inconsistently.