Ironic Follow-Up to Truth vs. Optics

Last Sunday the New York Times ran a story in its Week in Review section titled, “The Label Factor: Is Obama a Wimp or a Warrior?,” intoning gravely that “like every Democratic president since John F. Kennedy, President Obama is battling the perception that he's a wimp on national security.” The article focused on the criticism and debate around the President’s handling of the foiled Christmas Day terrorist attack aboard an airliner headed for Detroit as well as his overall job performance combatting terrorism. In a nod to the optics of the issue the article noted that “labels count.”

One could reasonably conclude that CNN’s Jessica Yellin probably scanned the headline at least, thereby making her idiotic remark about the Democrats’ “history and baggage on national security.” The possibility of her reaching a similar independent conclusion would be much too coincidental as it pertains to the lazy electronic media. Then, the very next day Ms. Yellin’s network, CNN, actually polled a subset of the issue: 57% of respondents approved of the way President Obama handled the botched Christmas Day bombing of the airliner, against 39% who disapproved. Among Independents, 55% approved of how the President handled the situation.

A separate CBS News poll finds that 52% of the public approves of the President’s job performance on terrorism. So much for the “history and baggage” of Democrats on national security or, for that matter, uncritically believing the headlines in “all the news that’s fit to print.” Gray Lady down. Whoops.

Jesus and Mary in an Orange

Stories like this inevitably make me think of Sarah Palin, the dumbest vice-presidential candidate in American history, whose monumental ignorance of basic fifth-grade level history, geography, and the simplest concepts she brushed off as “God’s plan” . . . sort of like finding a religious apparition in snack food.


Welcome to Sarah Palin’s America. “I wouldn’t know,” shrugged the dishonorable John McCain. At least an orange is healthier than a potato chip, and there are no plans so far to sell the resin-preserved edible “religious” artifact on eBay.

Truth vs. Optics: Truth is the Casualty

Heard on John King's State of the Union program from CNN's Jessica Yellin:

“Lincoln notwithstanding [I love the ‘notwithstanding;’ it leaves the impression that Ms. Yellin has more than a superficial knowledge of U.S. history], the Republican Party has a different history and baggage” on civil rights. Okay, true statement, as far as it goes. But then the Anderson Cooper school of subjective reporting kicks in. It goes something like this: Truth is not the objective, parity is. And so a pseudo-scientist arguing for “intelligent design” gets equal time with a scientist explaining the truth about evolution. And history competes with revisionism, because if we don’t hear “the other side,” even if it’s patently false, CNN will hear complaints from THE STOOPID, which their suits don’t like.

And so, in the next part of her statement Yellin adds the Cooper qualifier: “. . . just as the Democrats have their own history and baggage on national security.” Tell us, Ms. Yellin, exactly what history is that? Is it the history of:

• World War I (President Wilson, Democrat);
• World War II (President Roosevelt, Democrat);
• Korea (President Truman, Democrat);
• Cuban Missile Crisis (President Kennedy, Democrat);
• Cold War (Presidents Truman-D, Eisenhower-R, Kennedy-D, Johnson-D, Nixon-R, Ford-R, Carter-D, Reagan-R, Bush I-R: Four Democratic presidents and five Republicans who kept us out of a global thermonuclear war with the Soviet Union);
• Vietnam (Presidents Kennedy-D, Johnson-D who escalated the war, Nixon-R who started "Vietnamization" and de-escalation, and Ford-R who presided over the fall of South Vietnam to the Communist North Vietnamese regime);
• Bosnia (President Clinton, Democrat: The U.S. and its NATO allies successfully ended genocide and ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia, without a single American service personnel killed –- “the best indicator of success we could ever have,” according to Sen. John McCain on the very program in which Ms. Yellin shoved her foot down her throat -- resulting in a negotiated peace among the warring parties);
• Iraq I (President Bush I-R, a limited war to liberate Kuwait and keep the oil lanes flowing to the West); and
• Iraq II and Afghanistan. (President George W. Bush-R: This war of choice started by George W. Bush has passed Vietnam as the longest war in U.S. history. It ranks as the most catastrophic foreign policy disaster in our history as well. President Obama, as is so often the case with Democratic presidents, inherited the wars and ruined economy left by GWB and is in the process of cleaning up the Republican mess.)

That's the history of the wars, Ms. Yellin; tell us where the Democrats were less tough or less effective than Republicans. During World War II many Republicans were isolationists, and prominent right wingers such as Charles Lindbergh expressed open admiration for Hitler. The Republican Party, driven by its right wing much as it is today, made it a political cause to press FDR and the Democrats to stay out of the war, complicating assistance to Britain in its darkest hour of need, lest this betray our “neutrality.” We should be thankful that FDR and the Democrats (with some rational Republican support, yes) did the right thing then, just as the Democrats are presently doing the right thing with increased government spending, unpopular but necessary bailouts of the financial system and our auto industry, and healthcare reform.

Let's turn now to the baggage, Ms. Yellin. What baggage is it that Democrats have on national security? Was it President Clinton's botched intervention in Somalia early in his administration? How does that compare any less favorably with the terrorist bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut, under Ronald Reagan, which claimed the lives of hundreds of Marines and caused the U.S. to withdraw from Beirut with its tail between its legs? Have you conveniently forgotten who was president when we were hit on 9/11? Considering all of the ignored intelligence and warning signs, that dark day was the single worst “national security” failure in our nation's history. It was further compounded by George W. Bush's war of choice against Saddam Hussein's Iraq, with its rising death toll of more than 4,000 American troops and tens of thousands of injured. The war has continued to bleed our national treasury, boosted Iran's power and nuclear ambitions, and vastly increased the number of terrorist recruits in the region, especially after Bush allowed OBL to escape Tora Bora when he diverted his attention to Iraq.

Is this your definition of not having baggage on national security issues, Ms. Yellin? If so, I will gladly take the Democratic Party's baggage and be thankful for it. But the larger problem, because it infects a broad swath of the electronic media, is its incapacity to process truth from Republican propaganda, history from gross Republican revisionism, fact from fiction, and reality from the perception of it. There’s a new buzzword for this that unfortunately has entered our national political lexicon: Optics.

Optics is the buzzword Republican propagandists and image shape shifters like Frank Luntz live and die for in the business. In the world of optics the truth is irrelevant; all that matters is the perception of what is the truth. Our political discourse has become a battle of who is best at twisting the facts and rolling the media. Historically, the Republicans own this battlefield.

Just recently, George Stephanopoulos had to eat crow when liberal bloggers blasted him for not correcting Rudy Giuliani’s colossal lie that we have not had a domestic terrorist attack during George W. Bush’s regime -- a Republican talking point. Would he have corrected himself had the bloggers not called him on it? Not likely, considering Stephanopoulos has made a career as a weekly network TV “interviewer” of providing a platform for unchallenged Republican talking points and propaganda that continued with the GMA Giuliani interview. On his last (?) Sunday show Stephanopoulos featured the odious partisan liar Liz Cheney on his roundtable discussion. The contrast with more serious journalists was jarring. It's not often that conservative George Will and liberal economist Robert Reich join in scolding Liz Cheney for outrageously accusing Democratic “elites” (whatever that means) of racism. I'm sure it plays well with the Teabaggers, though.

And today on John King’s State of the Union, Jessica Yellin characteristically dropped her offhand, ignorant remark regarding the Democratic Party's fictitious history and baggage on national security.

No matter how often we are reminded (most recently by Senator Al Franken) that Republicans are not entitled to their own facts, this reminder has obviously not filtered down to Jessica Yellin and much of our disgraced mainstream electronic media whose job it is, precisely, to report the facts. Were it not for the blogosphere and the advocacy TV journalism of the few (a journalism of necessity in the current environment of lies, i.e., optics), the truth would be in greater peril. Instead, because of these alternative means of communication providing a counterpoint to mainstream optics reporting, the truth may be the first casualty, but it is not the last. We should be thankful for small victories. Don’t get me wrong. Truth is not yet in balance, not as long as optics controls what is reported by the Yellins of this world in an increasingly visual medium. But the truth is still out there. Try as they might, it’s a tough thing to kill. For now, that’s the best we can do.

Obama: The Musical

Submitted without comment. Set to premiere later this month in Germany. Curiosity: Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton are played by the same person. What's the message there? Hmm . . . And who is that woman singing in German -- Angela Merkel? Think I'll wait for the reviews.

RACHEL MADDOW CRASHES TEA PARTY!

Organizers of the FIRST EVER Tea Party Convention (to be held in Opryland) are taking NO CHANCES. In a preemptive strike to discourage dangerous liberal attack dogs, the timorous Teabaggers posted the following WARNING under the banner, “LIBERAL TROLL ALERT!”:

Please be advised that over the coming weeks, as the National Tea Party Convention draws near, we will in all likelihood be invaded by liberal trolls looking to disrupt the site.

Rachel Maddow joined this morning and we banned her 7 minutes after she joined. I have little doubt she will mention this on her show.


Note to Prospective Liberal Trolls: TPN does not tolerate liberal trolls. If your sole purpose is to join this site in order 
to disrupt the flow of constructive dialogue against liberalism, 
you will find your time here very short.

You can and will be banned
 for being a liberal.

If you wish to debate the virtues of
 liberalism (as though [harrumph] there were such a thing), there are many
 other sites on the web who will tolerate you. TPN is not one of
 those sites.

Tea Party Nation reserves the right to ban anyone for any reason we feel necessary to ensure the well being of the site and
 our members.

When they show up -- ignore them, report them and we will ban them.

Thank you all for your patriotism and support!

Tea Party Nation

Ah, this takes me back to the days when me and my buddy ReaganIsSatan joined a Republican discussion group to shake up their echo chamber. Just the two of us against minions and minions . . . we felt it was an unfair fight. First time I was “banned” for being a liberal; but it was fun!

MSNBC’s swashbuckling wingnut SLAYER, Rachel Maddow, fired back that the Teabaggers made it up “as a publicity stunt.” And she added: “Of course, this idea of me trying to join their listserv is completely made up, but still -- I'm flattered the Tea Party folks think I'm well known enough to help their cause. I wish them all best luck with their conference.”

Meanwhile Rachel’s partner in crime, Kent Jones, could be seen lip-synching the updated lyrics to an old Liberal Standard by John Lennon:

Instant Rachel

Instant Rachel’s gonna get you,
Gonna knock you right on the head,
You better get yourself together,
Pretty soon you're gonna be dead,
What in the world you thinking of,
Laughing in the face of love,
What on earth you tryin' to do,
It's up to you, yeah you.

Instant Rachel’s gonna get you,
Gonna look you right in the face,
Better get yourself together darlin',
Join the human race,
How in the world you gonna see,
“Rachel be Laughin' at fools like me!”
Who on earth d'you think you are,
A super CZAR,
Well, right you are.

Well we all shine on,
Like the moon and the stars and the sun,
Well we all shine on,
Ev'ryone come on.

Instant Rachel’s gonna get you,
Gonna knock you off your feet,
Better recognize your brothers and sistahs,
Ev'ryone you meet,
Why in the world are we here,
Surely not to live in pain and fear,
Why on earth are you there,
When you ain’t nowhere,
Come to Sarah, PAY your share!

Well we all shine on,
Like the moon and the stars and the sun,
Yeah we all shine on,
Come on and on and on on on,
Yeah yeah, alright, uh huh, ah-.

Hey There, Georgie Boys!

Oh, how the mainstream media just LO-o-o-VE-s-s-S to aid and abet the Republican Party’s relentless campaign to whitewash the Bush regime’s abysmal record on protecting us from terrorist attacks on American soil -- from Missy Dana (“the exits are there and there and there”) Perrino to Rudy (“a noun, a verb, and 9-11”) Giuliani.

Appearing on Georgie “BOY” Stephanopoulos’ GMA, Rudy the Liar said:

“The-a wa no domethtic atta-ks und-a Bush. Wethve had one unth-a O-ba-ma.”

Excuse me?

Georgie BOY said nothing to question or correct the Rudester, so relieved (perhaps?) was he to be sitting on his gotta-be-taller-than-the-girls jump seat. Pal Rudee was only following the script of LIES laid out by Bush crapagandist Dana Perrino on FAUX News: “America did not have a terrorist attack on our country during President Bush’s term.”

Really??

Catching his colossal gaffe too late, Rudy sought to correct himself:

Giuliani said: “I did omith tha worths ‘sinth Septh. 11.’ I apologith foh that.”

Again: Excuse me???

But this wasn’t an isolated thing. The Republicans, with their primitive prominent reptilian brains, were all over the airwaves politicizing the foiled Fruit of the Boom terrorist attack over Detroit and grossly mischaracterizing President Obama’s rational, swift, and comprehensive response to the systemic intelligence failure.

Despite the President’s repeated references to our “war” with Al Quaeda “terrorists” from his inaugural address to the present, the Republican attack-crapaganda machine tried once more to whitewash the truth. With some notable dissents –- Senator Dick Lugar, for one, who said President Obama was “focused” –- Republicans took their cues from Dark Lord and Liz Mini-Mee Cheney’s attacks on the President that he “is trying to pretend we are not at war” with a “low-key response” to the Christmas Day attempt to ignite a bomb aboard a flight to Detroit. The President’s sharp rebuke of the traitorous Cheney Clan –- who seemed disappointed the airliner hadn’t blown up over Detroit –- was “this is not the time for partisanship, but for citizenship.”

He spoke as if he were scolding a child.

Correctly assuming that most Americans are grown-up enough to process serious information, President Obama candidly and forcefully outlined the intelligence lapses and ordered that immediate corrective action be taken. It was a noteworthy departure from the incompetent Orwellian Bush regime whose actions -- letting OBL escape after we had him cornered in Tora Bora, invading Iraq, and creating the global eyesore and prime terrorist recruiting tool known as Guantanamo prison -- actually. increased. our. vulnerability. to. terrorist. attacks.

Following is a LIST of all the terrorist attacks that occurred on George W. Bush’s watch after (and including) 9/11, courtesy of Media Matters for America (don’t you just HATE them, wingnuts?):

September 11, 2001 attacks. As CNN noted, “On September 11, 2001, four U.S. planes hijacked by terrorists crashed into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania killing nearly 3,000 people in a matter of hours.”

2001 anthrax attacks. A March 2004 State Department report on “Significant Terrorist Incidents, 1961-2003” quotes then-Attorney General John Ashcroft saying of the letters containing anthrax mailed to various targets: “When people send anthrax through the mail to hurt people and invoke terror, it's a terrorist act.” Five people were killed as a result of those letters in the autumn of 2001.

2001 shoe bomber attempted attack. In June 2008, then-Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff described Reid's December 2001 attempt “to blow up a trans-Atlantic plane with a shoe bomb” as an attempt to “carry out terrorist operations for Al-Qaeda.”

2002 attack against El Al ticket counter at LAX. In July 2002, Hesham Mohamed Hadayet opened fire at an El Al Airlines ticket counter at Los Angeles International Airport killing two people and wounding four others before being shot dead. A 2004 Justice Department report stated that Hadayet's case had been “officially designated as an act of international terrorism.”

2002 DC-area sniper. The state of Virginia indicted Washington, D.C.-area sniper John Allen Muhammad -- along with his accomplice, a minor at the time -- on “an act of terrorism” for one of the murders he committed during a three-week shooting spree across Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. Muhammad was convicted, sentenced to death, and subsequently executed for the crime.

2006 UNC SUV attack. In March 2006, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill graduate Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar drove an SUV into an area of campus, striking nine pedestrians. According to reports, Taheri-azar said he acted because he wanted to “avenge the deaths or murders of Muslims around the world.” Taheri-azar also reportedly stated in a letter: “I was aiming to follow in the footsteps of one of my role models, Mohammad Atta, one of the 9/11/01 hijackers, who obtained a doctorate degree.”

This list omits several terrorist attacks committed against Americans and American targets outside United States territory while George W. Bush was president.

But wait! All’s well with the world: A chastened Georgie BOY Stephanopoulos owned up to the gotcha from those pesky liberal bloggers: “All of you who have pointed out that I should have pressed him on that misstatement in the moment are right,” he blogged. “My mistake, my responsibility.” Awww.

So, here’s a musical tribute to the GEORGIE BOYS and all those Bushistas, Beckistas, Palinistas, and Teabaggers who believe Dim Son actually kept us safe from terrorist attack. (Or was it just dumb luck as he counted the days to the end of his term?) For best results, drink some Kool-Aid while watching:



Imagine, if you will, the list (above) of terrorist attacks that occurred during George W. Bush’s regime scrolling down the video screen. Capische?

Artistic Quilts

Need to stay warm in a work of art this winter? These are beautiful museum quality quilts. The artist is Luke Haynes.

Parker Griffith Postcript: Staff Quits en Masse

This just in: When quisling ex-Democrat (yes, it's an oxymoron) Parker Griffith of Alabama switched over to the GOP his entire Congressional staff resigned, refusing to make the move over to the party of NO. Said his Chief of Staff, Sharon Wheeler, in a stinging rebuke of her boss:

"Parker Griffith has abandoned the legacy of conservative leadership provided by Bud Cramer, Ronnie Flippo, Bob Jones, Howell Heflin, Jim Allen, Lister Hill, John Sparkman, Big Jim Folsom, and so many more. I appreciate Congressman Griffith's being a very dedicated congressman. But we believe he made a mistake -- a well-intentioned but misguided mistake that is not in the interest of the great people of North Alabama who elected him a year ago as a Democrat."

Even Mr. Griffith's intern joined the mass resignation of his staff. What makes this noteworthy is that Congress wouldn't run without congressional staffs. It's the staff people who put in the long hours, accept ruined social lives, endure gasbags and inflated egos and lesser intellects than they, and take constant abusive treatment with little or no recognition, for . . . what?

Not for the money. But for a set of principles, an idea called good government and American democracy, an idealistic desire to serve the American people and help make our lives a little better. Anyone who has ever watched C-Span knows this.

Congressional staffs are fuckin' awesome, and I hope someday they'll get the recognition they deserve. In the meantime, there are some really good people on Parker Griffith's former staff who would make great additions to any congressional (I hope, Democratic) staff.

House of Horrors

I’ve been remiss in overlooking 2009’s most outrageous members of Congress:

1. Topping the list of psycho House members is Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann.

   She gave Glenn Beck a run for Lunatic of the Year honors, if only she hadn’t confined her lunacy mostly to the House. Some of Michelle’s greatest hits:

   • Called for an investigation of Democratic members of Congress with “anti-American views,” which she accused President Obama of harboring;
   • Linked Democrats to the Swine Flu (she did not say H1N1 was a laboratory virus, but let the conspiracy hang out there to curry favor with Glenn Beck loons);
   • Vowed not to participate in the Census –- “Why does the government need our phone numbers?” –- Um, Michelle, you are “the government” . . . not only that, but when you complete your tax returns, or sign up for Medicare, or the VA, or apply for a government loan or grant, you typically include your phone number;
   • Joined Sarah Palin in making the “death panels” allegation viral;
   • Called school-based health clinics “sex clinics” and treated the public to an X-rated teen confessional of alleged promiscuity on the hallowed well of Congress. Goes down as “One of the Great Moments in Congressional History”;
   • Said global warming was “all voodoo, nonsense, hokum, a hoax”;
   • Argued for the teaching of “Intelligent Design,” aka Creationism, in schools, and I don’t mean in religion class;
   • Promised to “slit our wrists, be blood brothers on this thing. This will not pass. We will do whatever it takes to make sure this [healthcare] doesn’t pass.”

   Too bad Michelle didn’t follow through with her promise.
   

2. Joe (I LIE!) Wilson. No member of Congress, not one, not during the Civil War, the Great Depression, the world wars, the “Red Scare,” the Cold War, not one has ever disrespected a sitting President addressing Congress the way Joe Wilson did. Is it just a coincidence that it was our first African American president and Wilson is from a Southern state? ‘Nuff said.
3. John (“the Preamble to the Constitution said, “We hold these truths to be self-evident . . .”) Boehner. Known for holding irrelevant press conferences, for his dour expression, like he just drank a garlic milkshake, and for a perpetual tan that is said to have inspired a provision in the Senate healthcare bill taxing tanning salons. The problem is, as President Obama joked, Boehner’s is a fake spray-on tan.
4. Bart (the Crusader) Stupak. DINO par excellence, the C Street cult “brother” is using healthcare reform to try to repeal the law of the land and drive women back to the days of back-alley abortions. Grilled by constituents at a town hall, the stealth Michigan Congressman had a hard time explaining why he consorts with right wing Republicans at the C street flophouse for discreet encounters, and contributed money to the gubernatorial campaign of fellow “Family brother” Zack Wamp, a Tennessee Republican. Not that it fazes Stupak. One thing all “Family” members, the chosen ones, have in common is utter contempt for their constituents. That’s why you’ll never see them resigning in the wake of the most egregious ethical and sexual scandals.
5. Virginia (“We [the Republicans] were the people who passed the civil rights bills back in the 60s.”) Foxx. Then she had the audacity to add: “They [the Democrats] love to engage in revisionist history.” Hahaha . . . For pure jaw-dropping chutzpah, this lying reactionary Congresswoman takes the prize. Only in America, THE STOOPID where the vast majority of the population are totally clueless about their country’s recent history could such an outrageous pack of lies go by unnoticed. Or noticed, but not understood for what it is: A LIE. I call it the Sarah Palin syndrome. (It could easily be called the Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh symdromes, too.) Joseph Goebbels would be proud and amazed.
6. John (global warming is good for the world’s plants) Shimkus. Claiming Al Gore and “enviro extremists” are alarming people with inconvenient truths, the Illinois Congressman reduces his energy policy to one illogical phrase: “If drilling is good, drilling and mining is better.” His bat-shit crazy argument for increased carbon emissions is that because plants need carbon dioxide for photosynthesis, limiting our man-made carbon dioxide emissions would actually kill the world's plants. “It's plant food ... So if we decrease the use of carbon dioxide, are we not taking away plant food from the atmosphere? ... So all our good intentions could be for naught. In fact, we could be doing just the opposite of what the people who want to save the world are saying.”
7. Charlie (fuggeabouit) Rangel. Charlie’s a great and colorful member of Congress, but he’s also from one of the safest districts in New York (re-elected with 88% of the vote) and a product of the rough-and-tumble world of backroom deals in Noo Yawk politics. He’s a throwback. Charlie’s troubles stem from failure to disclose rental property, campaign law violations, and ownership of a beachfront villa in the Dominican Republic whose rental income he has failed to disclose over a number of years. Might be politics as usual for local political bosses, but a definite no-no for the Chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee. Even if he has a different definition of “ways and means” than the rest of us. (Note: the list of corrupt and ethically-challenged House members [mostly Republican] is long and tawdry, but this is about those members who “distinguished” themselves for truly outrageous headline-grabbing. Charlie qualifies as the most colorful of the ethically-challenged.)
8. Anh Joseph (“Louisianans need real options for primary care, for mental health care, and for expanded health care for seniors and children.”) Cao. You got it. The only Republican to vote for the House healthcare bill, the first Vietnamese American elected to Congress, whose election was hailed as “a major blow against the reputation of Louisiana as a corrupt state,” Cao replaced convicted Democratic politico William Jefferson who was caught with a load of dough stuffed in his refrigerator. Cao also voted for the stimulus bill. As the only member of the Party of “NO” to vote “AYE” for President Obama’s major initiatives, Cao deserves a place of honor in the list of most outrageous members of the House. Sometimes things have a way of working out for the best in a bipartisan way.
9. Alan (“Captain Cojones”) Grayson. When the Florida Democrat took to the House floor to denounce the Republicans’ healthcare non-plan as “1. Don’t Get Sick” and “2. If you get sick, DIE QUICKLY,” he ignited a firestorm that still rages through the Internet and right wing media. For the first time the wingnuts were at a loss for words, never expecting a Democrat -- who usually plays fair, gets the facts right and naively expects same from Republicans, believes in the better angels of people’s nature, and turns both cheeks when Republicans attack below the belt –- to strike back so hard at them. Progressives all over the Internet stood up and applauded Captain Cojones –- At last, a Democrat with balls! -– and reveled in the knowledge that the wingnuts can dish it out, but they can’t take it. In fact, they’re cowards, wimps, weak-kneed and jelly-chinned. Some old Democrats huffed about the new Democratic members not observing the niceties of Congress. They just don’t get it. Democrats from coast-to-coast stood up and cheered when Alan Grayson exposed the Republican fraud on healthcare –- they have no plan -– Senator Al Franken told Joe Lieberman to sit down and shut up, and Senator Sheldon Whitehouse slammed the wingnuts to kingdom come. Hail the fighting Dems (the Three Musketeers, new members ALL): A rarity in Congress and therefore worthy of most outrageous member honors . . . in the BEST way.
10. Peter (Who said politics, much less fundraising, stops at the water’s edge?) Hoekstra. The top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, responsible for leaking classified briefings to embarrass Speaker Nancy Pelosi, is now using the foiled terrorist attack on a flight bound for Detroit to raise money for his Ohio gubernatorial campaign: “If you agree that we need a Governor who will stand up the Obama/Pelosi efforts to weaken our security please make a most generous contribution of $25, $50, $100 or even $250 to my campaign,” he wrote in a fundraising letter. Nice. Stay classy, Republicans.

Edit: This is a partial list.

Recycled Racist Image Nabs Senior Citizen

This disgusting image has rightfully landed a 73-year-old Colorado state worker in deep shit.

First, if no other explanation surfaces, I hope the maximum punishment is applied to this jackass: immediate termination and, if possible, curtailment of her (no doubt) generous Colorado state retirement benefits, thanks to the taxpayers who pay her salary.

Second, the question needs to be asked: Why is this senior still working at 73, 13 years past the age she could be collecting Social Security benefits, once again, thanks to the taxpayers? It's unseemly that someone well past the age of retirement should be taking a younger person's job, when unemployment is at 10% or more, particularly in light of this incident. Many seniors need to work past retirement, that's understood. But not those who abuse the taxpayers' trust and standards of nondiscrimination that every worker, especially older workers, should know.

Third, this particular image surfaced on the Internet more than one year ago, in August of 2008. That it should still be making the rounds in the white racist underworld of chain emails is indicative at the very least of how sick, obsessive-compulsive, and unimaginative these pathetic racists are.

Latino News Anchor Gives Anglos a Clinic on Journalism

For those of us bemoaning the decline of pure, tough, truth-seeking journalism in our increasingly puff-piece, rumor & gossip, celebritycentric, corporate, lazy & unprepared media wasteland: Cuban-born, Latino American CNN news anchor Rick Sanchez gives us some cause to celebrate. Here Sanchez, the first-generation son of Cuban immigrants, gives his wimpy (especially Anglo/European) colleagues -- as well as aspiring journalists everywhere -- a clinic on what it means to be a journalist serving as the watchdog and eyes and ears of the public:



This exchange is symbolic of how CNN stumbled upon the right thing by firing (euphemistically called an “amicable” parting) anti-immigrant racist demagogue Lou Dobbs in favor of anchors like Soledad O'Brien and Rick Sanchez, who not only reflect the cultural diversity of America -- which is our great strength -- but also are (quick, pass the smelling salts!) real journalists.

By the end of his grilling Sanchez had Ensign babble the proverbial Freudian slip: “I have done nothing ethically or illegal in this matter.”

Good riddance, Lou. Bravo, Rick!

The Joys and Perils of Living in THE STOOPID Country

As 2009 winds down, it’s time to reflect on the perils of the enemy within –- THE STOOPID. THE STOOPID so outnumber the rational that they pose a greater threat to the people’s welfare, healthcare, and pocketbooks, than any realistic threat of terrorism; a threat, incidentally, which THE STOOPID enabled then politicized with fear and loathing and hypocrisy.

SCUMBAG OF THE YEAR: Dick Cheney

Only in America, THE STOOPID can a lying hypocrite and coward who took seven deferments to stay out of serving his country in Vietnam pound his chest and criticize the Obama administration for the national security train wreck Bush/Cheney created.

LIAR OF THE YEAR: Sarah Palin

Only in America, THE STOOPID can a truth-challenged MORON like Sarah Palin perpetuate the biggest lie of the year about nonexistent “death panels” in the healthcare reform bills, then parlay her lies into a best selling book that she didn’t write for THE STOOPID white people who don’t care that it’s filled with more STOOPID LIES.

Runners-Up: Liz (like father/like daughter) Cheney, Joe (I LIE!!!) Wilson, Jim (I WISH I’D LIED TOO) DeMint, (also nominated in other categories) GOP, Teabaggers, “Truthers,” Dick Armey, Joe Lieberman, lobbyists, Rush Limbaugh, FOX “News” (collectively), Glenn Beck . . . really, too many to mention.

GRAMPS OF THE YEAR: Chuck Grassley and John McCain

When these doddering old fools keep repeating Sarah Palin's lies about “pulling the plug on Grandma” to incite their STOOPID constituencies, it makes one wish we could pull the metaphorical plug on them.

LUNATIC OF THE YEAR: Glenn Beck

It doesn’t take a licensed psychiatrist to realize this dude’s seriously delusional, clinically insane bordering on psychotic. And the scariest thing is he has a loyal following of THE STOOPID who actually believe Beck is a well person. THE STOOPID are in dire need of mental health services. Can we build some insane asylum gulags in Alaska to warehouse them? (Kidding!)

CULT OF THE YEAR: The C Street “Family”

The revisionist “Christian brotherhood” in the heart of D.C. spawned anti-abortion DINO crusader Bart Stupak, hosted and encouraged adulterous GOP politicos (because, as the chosen, the rules don't apply to them), sponsored parallel track renegade foreign policy, promoted a Ugandan law to criminalize and kill gays, and saw its tax-exempt status as a “church” revoked by the IRS after decades of sinister freeloading. What would Jesus do? Hmm.

STOOPID OF THE YEAR: Teabaggers

These Caucasian tools are the very embodiment of THE STOOPID. They can’t read (always finding what’s not there in the health bills), they can’t spell (those signs are enough to make kindergarten teachers question their vocation), they don’t know their own history, the difference between the (“U.S.S.”) Constitution and the Declaration of Independence (neither do Republican party leaders, for that matter), let alone that socialist and fascist are not one and the same, and President Obama is neither.

Oh, and they can't count either, unable to distinguish between 20,000 (the average size of their D.C. protests) and one million (their slightly inflated claims of their numbers). In short, the Teabaggers get a failing grade in the three Rs -- reading, writing, and arithmetic -- the minimum necessary education to function in society.

(Arne Duncan, Sec. of Education: can you spare any stimulus funds to give these people remedial courses in the three Rs? Their protest rallies would be a good place to sign them up. And they could start by correcting the typos in their hate signs!)

GUTTERSNIPE OF THE DECADE: Rush Limbaugh

Only in America, THE STOOPID would such a sleazy, repulsive pig make millions broadcasting his daily vomit of lies, sophistry, demagoguery, and racist hate speech, attaining such power and notoriety that he is hailed the BOSS of the GOP.

STOOPID OLD PARTY: GOP

The party of “NO” has no ideas, no policies, no plans, except to defeat President Obama and prevent the Democrats from governing by resorting to the filibuster more than at any time in the history of the republic. Shameful.

STOOPID NEW PARTY: Tea Party

If New York’s 23rd District is any indication, the new party of THE STOOPID could well prove to be THE STOOPID/GOP/Beckista “Waterloo.” After all, wouldn’t the short, rotund, wild-eyed Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh look just perfect in a Napoleon get-up?

Debunking the “liberal media” myth: MSNBC’s Identity Crisis

“Newt Gingrich, despite not having held any position in government for over a decade, was the single most frequent guest on "Meet the Press" in 2009 of any political figure in the United States. Literally.

From March to December, Gingrich appeared on “MTP,” on average, every other month. No one else in American politics was on the show this often.

MTP didn't have the actual Speaker of the House on at all this year. It also featured zero appearances from all of the other living former House Speakers (Hastert, Wright, Foley) combined.”

- Steve Benen, Political Animal

Why should this be? For one thing, David Gregory, the host of MTP, was anointed by legend-in-his-own-mind Tom Brokaw, the guy from the Charlie Rose school of corporate media, the stiff who presumed to write a book about the 60s and made snarky comments about the advocacy journalism of Keith Olbermann, who not only happens to be speaking truth to power, but is carrying NBC’s cable outlet MSNBC in the ratings with his fellow advocates.

David Gregory who is adept at corporate ass-kissing -- which KO is not (one of his finer qualities) -- seems to have the same fascination with Newt Gingrich’s bullshit as Tom Brokaw had with Henry Kissinger’s.

CNN, which despite its Orwellian claims to the contrary, truly has the worst political team in television, is an utter irrelevancy in political reporting. John King and David Gergen can’t save a network fronted by a pallid corpse in suspenders, a narcissistic pseudo-journalist who cackles like Larry, and stupid touch-screen tricks. Pathetic.

Ratings-wise, MSNBC is a tale of two networks: Its middle-of-the-roadkill shows and news programs are faring poorly, while the liberal advocacy opinion journalism of Olbermann-Schultz-Maddow-Matthews is ultra-competitive, posting first and second in the ratings depending on how the demographics break down. Ed Schultz, MSNBC's ballsy populist liberal is riding high because he brings the issues into sharp relief and isn't afraid to take a stand. On the other side, the nebulous Dr. Nancy show, that failed to take a firm position on healthcare reform, let alone educate the viewers on these issues and hold politicians’ feet to the fire, got axed.

MSNBC, cable’s allegedly “liberal” network, is nothing if not schizophrenic. (Where’s Carlos Watson been hiding? They could use him.) Once MSNBC stops the pretense, sends Tom Brokaw back out to pasture, tells Charlie Rose to STFU, and truly becomes the anti-FOX, then we can talk about one cable media outlet that is progressive.

Memo to the DNC: Ad Campaign Against DINO Parker Griffith Set to Roll thanks to the RNCC

Alabama Congressman Parker Griffith's party switch from Democrat to Republican went over like a lead balloon. Who cares. The guy voted against the stimulus, funding our troops, and healthcare reform. Paul Krugman calls him a “dinosaur” who is the “last of the Dixiecrats.”

Good riddance.

The Republicans welcomed him with open arms, but this is what they really think about him:





Listen up, DNC. You've not only rid the party of another Southern scumbucket, but if you're smart you don't need to fund a new ad campaign opposing Griffith. Just use the GOP ads above with the following voice-over: “Er . . . the Democratic National Committee is responsible for the contents of this ad (SMIRK).”

Since President Obama Is a Flamengo Fan . . .

(Here he is in beautiful Maracanã Stadium celebrating Flamengo's 2009 Championship:)

. . . I won't give our President a hard time for claiming he never campaigned for the public option!

Thanks, Santa!

Happy Xmas, everyone

This year has been a terrifically long one, with pain and sickness and death and loss and grief for so many, many people I know. I don't know how we make it through at times, except for the gift of each other. Thank you for all your kindnesses and support through all our travails this year. As a friend elsewhere said today, "Merry Christmas, and I hope that whatever your struggles may be, you find some measure of peace."

I'll leave you with a song that I think represents the best of the spirit that so many try to hold this time of year. Regardless of your beliefs, hoping for a year without fear seems like a good thing.

Happy Xmas (War is Over) - John Lennon

So this is Christmas
And what have you done
Another year over
And a new one just begun
And so this is Christmas
I hope you have fun
The near and the dear ones
The old and the young

A very Merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear

And so this is Christmas
For weak and for strong
For rich and the poor ones
The world is so wrong
And so happy Christmas
For black and for white
For yellow and red ones
Let's stop all the fight

A very Merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear

And so this is Christmas
And what have we done
Another year over
A new one just begun
And so happy Christmas
We hope you have fun
The near and the dear ones
The old and the young

A very Merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear
War is over, if you want it
War is over now

Happy Christmas

Senator Whitehouse Slams the Wingnuts

And they go apopleptic on the Net . . . I love it! He struck a raw nerve on these mutants, now didn't he? Here's the Senator's must-see slam:



The Right reacted with feverish and wimpy whining. Here's a sampler:

“Resorting to polemical and outrageous claims of racism is the last refuge (or sometimes the first) of liberals who can’t win substantively on issues.”

Hahaha … gotta laugh: pot meet kettle. The vitriol against President Obama has been NOTHING BUT RACIST, beginning with Glenn Beck, FAUX News, birthers, Teabaggers, etc. etc.

“Sheldon Whitehouse becomes Alan Grayson.”

And this is bad . . . How?

Then there were the usual lame and stupid expletives: “uber moron,” “clueless clown,” etc. whine/whine/whine . . .

My very favorite: “Video: Sheldon Whitehouse Calls ObamaCare Opponents Racist, Then Denies!”

And they have the video to “prove it!” Here’s the setup: A breathless Washington Times reporter corners the Senator and tries to score a gotcha moment. But this foolish tool of the Right was hardly the Senator’s intellectual equal; he swatted her down:

“I didn’t say that, you should listen more closely. I’ll stand by the speech.”



While the wingnuts play this short clip ad nauseum –- there's a breathless and desperate tone to their whining -- the full speech can be viewed above, in its total, magnificent context.

One is hard-pressed to find a more toxic, “malignant and vindictive” subspecies of human than these practitioners of the “paranoid style in American politics.” Senator Whitehouse exposed the truth about them in eloquent and contextual history. The wingnuts can't handle the truth; they never could. So they get hysterical and cling even more tightly to their guns, racism, and paranoia.

Responding to Carlos

Well, they did get their 60 votes last night, and yes, they did drag Byrd out at 1 am to do it, but they'll get through the other two votes, and we'll be off to conference by Christmas. The more I read about the bill, the more I'm sad for the bill that we're not getting, but I'm an optimist at heart, so I have to hope that the good parts of this bill (and there are a bunch) make a real difference. I think that the more we learn about Obama, the more it's revealed that he's no idealist, and that he's not actually driven by the fierce urgency of much of anything, but he is (at least in his own mind) a pragmatist, and only targets what he thinks *can* get done, not what *should* get done.

So let's say at the beginning of the process, he believed that he'd never get a couple of senators (say, Lieberman and Nelson) to vote for the bill that he had said publicly he wanted. Given the monolithic nature of the GOP, I suppose the options were (1) that Harry Reid would grow a spine and somehow do enough arm-twisting to get it done, which certainly would have involved giving them something, although I know not what, or (2) this, or (3) put forth a good bill and let the conservatives kill it. I might have gone for (3), except that since it would have been a bipartisan (there's the magic word) effort to kill the bill, and out media is a bunch of morons, it almost certainly would have been painted as the fault of Obama and liberalism (read: Kenyan socialism) and a victory for "real" Americans, who will try their damnedest to follow Sarah Palin off a cliff.

Question: Is there an electoral defeat so convincing that at least *some* Republicans would be willing to break ranks with the teapartiers of the world, and is there a Democratic mind out there who can engineer it?

Healthcare Kabuki Theater and President Obama's Waterloo

The Democrats will have their healthcare bill, barring any unforeseen circumstances, including supernatural interventions invoked by Senators Brownback, DeMint, Vitter, Coburn, and House GOP loon Michelle Bachmann. Apparently they have turned the evil eye on venerable Senate Dean Robert Byrd, who is frail and ailing. Shame on them for forcing Senator Byrd onto the Senate floor at one a.m. in a wheelchair to cast his vote. Such unbecoming lack of “comity” is enough for progressive Democrats to give the bill qualified, but unenthusiastic, support.

It’s far from perfect. It’s not even a good bill. In fact, it’s an insurance companies and Big Pharma bonanza, unless it is drastically improved, amended, and its implementation closely monitored by Congress. The Chicago Tribune has the nitty-gritty.

Progressive Democrats argue that this is a first step toward universal coverage, that they can revisit it later and make it better. Perhaps. But history shows that bad social legislation either ends up in the historical dust bin or compounds its flaws. The best social legislation is that which is done right at the outset, or is designed from scratch: Social Security, Medicare, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Social Security was a limited, generational pension plan that could be built upon and improved over time. Medicare, I would argue, was more progressive in its original form, with Parts A and B –- hospital and outpatient care –- than with Part C, the so-called “Medicare Advantage” adopted in 1997, and the prescription drug sellout to Big Pharma in Part D, passed in 2006. Both Parts C and D were enacted by a Republican Congress.

Part C was Newt Gingrich’s backdoor scheme to privatize Medicare, which he said should “wither on the vine.” Part D was a deficit-busting transfer of wealth to Big Pharma rammed through during the Bush regime. Adding insult to injury, Obama Democrats voted down the pro-consumer drug reimportation amendment, which would allow the government to negotiate drug prices down by importing the same drugs from the same manufacturers for a fraction of their U.S. price. These drugs in countries like Canada and Germany are priced as much as 3-1 and 4-1 or more cheaper. A clear slam-dunk for the consumer was defeated solely because of the White House cheapskate $80 billion deal with Big Pharma.

Has anyone noticed those obnoxious anti-healthcare reform doom-and-gloom TV commercials with a darkened warehouse, a morose, supposedly unemployed worker or two, and the ominous voice-over about an “economy in crisis,” lost jobs, etc. urging us to call Congress and tell our representatives to vote down healthcare because “we just can’t afford it”? It got so that those commercials, paid for by the insurance companies and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, were so ubiquitous and patently false that I was compelled to dive for the remote and change the channel every time they came up. Which was often.

I mention this only because the sudden relief from the absence of such scummy crapaganda was instantly noticed, recorded and recalled here. It couldn’t be for lack of funding –- the anti-healthcare lobby has outspent proponents of progressive, pro-consumer legislation by roughly a 2-1 ratio. So what gives? For one thing, the ads stopped running right after Joe Lieberman’s despicable grandstanding in which he shot down the public option and Medicare buy-in for those 55-and-over, that he had publicly endorsed only two months before, in one fell swoop.

Was Traitor Joe really responsible for the sudden cutoff of the noxious anti-healthcare reform ads? Hmm . . . Not coincidentally, immediately following Lieberman’s sashay down the walk of infamy, President Obama Consiglieri Rham Emanuel was locked in Harry Reid’s office browbeating the Senate Majority Leader to cave to Traitor Joe’s demands, all of them.

Who the hell is Joe Lieberman anyway? He’s not too smart, he’s lazy, he hasn’t read the bill and doesn’t know what’s in it, and he’s a lousy campaigner. Clearly, he was enjoying the limelight, not fully realizing (I believe) the depth of anger he provoked in the progressive community, until Senator Al Franken took him down on the Senate floor and the netroots reacted with (surprise, surprise, corporate shills) characteristic ferocity. In the space of a few days, MoveOn.org has raised $1 million to defeat Traitor Joe.

Senator Sherrod Brown, one of the good guys, said of Traitor Joe in an unguarded moment, the time for retribution is not now, it can come later. I’ll buy it. Traitor Joe should know by now that his petty pique will have its consequences at the ballot box. He’s in the progressive movement’s crosshairs for defeat by a real Democrat who will fight for consumers and against the insurance companies. Opponent X to Traitor Joe can expect a sizable campaign fund of millions, thanks to good governance netroots fundraising. President Obama could find himself busy raising money from fat cats to offset the other DINOs targeted for defeat by the fighting progressives.

As that old SNL skit proclaimed, “believe me now or believe me later” . . . the message was heard loud and clear. Not only by puny Joe, who has all but gone underground, but in the White House too. Consiglieri Emanuel unleashed Capo Uno David Axelrod to discredit, rather hysterically, Dr. Howard Dean, who suggested that if the bill were not improved or fixed in Conference it should be killed. One of Dr. Dean’s objections is the bill’s onerous non-denial of pre-existing conditions if insurance companies are permitted to raise premiums at a 3-1 ratio for certain categories of older individuals. Well, argued Senator John Kerry, taking to the floor to insinuate that Dr. Dean didn’t know of what he spoke, prior to this reform this ratio could be as high as 10-1 or 25-1.

Wow. The problem is, Mr. Kerry, not every American is a multimillionaire heir to a ketchup fortune. The point Dr. Dean made is this: If the average policy is $15,000 and an older American with a pre-existing condition, say diabetes, is suddenly charged at the higher 3-1 ratio for insurance coverage, would you consider it onerous for someone making $80,000 or less? Is this the Senate’s idea of affordable healthcare? Do the math.

Watching the Republicans posture politically against a bill they don’t really oppose is like watching GOP kabuki theater. When Mitch McConnell came out to oppose the bill, he was not surrounded by the usual coterie of Republican Senators. Why? Make no mistake about it: The insurance companies and Big Pharma want this bill, and the Republicans know it. So does President Obama, who gave little more than lip service to the public option. Senator Russ Feingold, another good guy, laid the blame squarely on Don Obama’s shoulders:

“Unfortunately, the lack of support from the administration made keeping the public option in the bill an uphill struggle. Removing the public option from the Senate bill is the wrong move, and eliminates $25 billion in savings. I will be urging members of the House and Senate who draft the final bill to make sure this essential provision is included.”

Frank Rich of the New York Times, analyzing the President’s actions during the bank bailout earlier this year, argued that President Obama is a corporatist at heart. Watching the President charge on 60 Minutes that Wall Street bankers “don’t get it,” then deliver a different, more sedate message to bank CEOs in a White House meeting in which three CEOs stiffed the President and didn’t bother to show up, was too cute by half. The President’s pulled these stunts quite a bit lately, and they’re beginning to wear thin with his erstwhile progressive Democratic base, which has grown increasingly restless. Do not forsake us, Mr. President.

Glenn Greenwald of Salon argues in a provocative piece that President Obama

“clearly intended from the start that the final health care reform bill would contain no [public option] and was actively and privately participating in efforts to shape a final bill without it. From the start, assuaging the health insurance and pharmaceutical industries was a central preoccupation of the White House -- hence the deal negotiated in strict secrecy with Pharma to ban bulk price negotiations and drug reimportation, a blatant violation of both Obama's campaign positions on those issues and his promise to conduct all negotiations out in the open (on C-SPAN). Indeed, Democrats led the way yesterday in killing drug re-importation, which they endlessly claimed to support back when they couldn't pass it. The administration wants not only to prevent industry money from funding an anti-health-care-reform campaign, but also wants to ensure that the Democratic Party -- rather than the GOP -- will continue to be the prime recipient of industry largesse.”

Senator Feingold was one of the few Democrats to speak truth to power: "This bill appears to be legislation that the president wanted in the first place, so I don’t think focusing it on Lieberman really hits the truth."

In a weird way, the most vociferous GOP opponent of this legislation is one of the Senate’s most conservative members, Dr. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma. Senator Coburn is perhaps one of the few remaining honest Republicans in opposition. The guy is obsessive about deficits, above all, and shows no sign of even regarding government as a necessary evil. He is a bona fide nutcase who would probably be better off as a full-time self-described “country doctor.” But Coburn is honest in his convictions, and McConnell is more than willing to let him take the point in opposing the bill with rambling, semi-coherent diatribes.

In a bit of Kabuki drama, Senator Coburn said the American people should pray that someone doesn’t show up to vote. Senator Dick Durbin called him out on this, noting that senators should not wish ill upon any member. The assumption was Coburn had referenced the ailing 93-year-old Senator Robert Byrd, who everyone hopes can make his entrance into the Senate chamber in a wheelchair to cast his vote. Ooops . . . Much to Senator McConnell’s chagrin, Coburn hasn’t been seen since.

What a mess. Back to those ubiquitous and obnoxious anti-healthcare ads: They ceased airing because the insurance companies, in their own words, “won!” Thanks to President Obama and allies like Traitor Joe, who carried substantial water for the President, Max Baucus, and the rest of the DINOs, the insurance industry and its wheel-greasing lobbyists will get the sweetheart deal of their dreams. Given his MO, the President probably genuinely believes he can compel the insurance execs to “do the right thing,” suddenly transforming themselves into good corporate citizens and honest, caring stewards of our nation’s healthcare.

The insurance companies and Big Pharma played a shell game of both sides, Republicans and center-right Democrats against progressive Democrats. As usual, progressives, consumers, and the American people were sold down the river to corporate interests. Who do they think they’re fooling? Is the White House still in a post-campaign hubris of “yes we can”? Have they checked their numbers lately? Have they forgotten who elected the President? Senator Byron Dorgan, another good guy, who introduced the drug reimportation amendment, that was implicitly defeated by President Obama, said of the Senate: “My father always told me never to buy anything from someone who’s out of breath. And there’s a breathless quality around here, with all the deal-making.”

Indeed, all the wheeling and dealing makes Clinton’s “triangulation” look like child’s play. Is President Obama on-track to be the greatest president since FDR? Not likely, despite the premature Nobel Peace Prize. The President now seems less like an FDR and RFK Democrat than a strange blend of wonkish fellow Illinoisian Adlai Stevenson and mini-me triangulator Bill Clinton, an Obama ally who said failure to pass this –- any -– healthcare bill would be a “colossal failure” for Democrats. Master politician that he is, Bill Clinton is right. Not passing this bill after all that’s transpired would be a surefire electoral bloodbath for Democrats.

There's always the chance of redemption. Failure is truly not an option. Yet, the conundrum is the inherent danger in passing such a flawed bill and the insurance companies reverting to what they do so well -- gouge their customers -- in spades. Ironically, President Obama might get his healthcare bill and his Waterloo too, after all.

High stakes. It didn't have to be this way. I hope it works out, but I'm not optimistic.

Something's Rotten in Denmark . . .

President Obama cuts a deal behind closed doors with China, India, South Africa, and Brasil, makes a few tough-sounding statements, then admits there are no binding provisions, before hightailing it out of Copenhagen.

Sound familiar?

What's the melting of the polar ice caps, species extinction, underwater Pacific island-states, water wars, floods, violent weather, continental dust storms, and tropical populations collapsing from the blistering heat . . . in the greater scheme of things?

Whatever happened to the fierce urgency of now?

The other day, Gail Collins wrote:

I used to cover Lieberman when he was the majority leader of the State Senate in Connecticut. We got along very well, except for one interview, during which he talked about working for J.F.K., and how he kept a Mass card from Robert Kennedy’s funeral to remind him of the principles to which he had dedicated his career. Showing me the card, he remarked casually that he hadn’t looked at it for some time.

I wrote an article using the neglected Kennedy card as a metaphor for Lieberman’s fall from his old ideals into the pragmatic politics of a party leader. He was outraged and wounded, and I believe I apologized.

Taking back the apology now.

We really miss Ted Kennedy's feral voice in the Senate on behalf of healthcare for the American people. And I keep coming back to John Lewis's question whenever he was confronted with a issue of principle over politics, of justice over expediency: "What would Bobby do?"

I could tell you, but you can guess the answer.

The cutting edge of journalism

CNN.com's lead story when I checked it this morning was headlined: "Debate over 'war on Christmas' claims"

The lede: "Is there a "war on Christmas"? Some Americans say so, arguing that there are continuing attempts to devalue the spiritual nature of the holiday. But others dispute these claims and say Christmas is not under attack."

1) Why the hell are we discussing this as if it's news?

2) Was that paragraph originally written for some sixth grader's report?

3) Isn't that structure applicable to any topic, anywhere? To wit:
"Is the world flat? Some Americans say so, arguing that the world looks flat from where they're standing. But others dispute these claims and say that the world is round."

What fucking uselessness we're surrounded by.

Edit: Two stories below that, there's a clearly scintillating article: "Opinion: Hate-based violence must stop".

Enlightening, this is not.

Good for Al Franken

This counts as a slap-down in the Senate. It may not be much, but Senator Franken made his (and our) point. In a legislative body that likes to wallow in the gallows of its traditions -- I say bring back caning -- the so-called "comity" of the Senate in search of an SNL comedy skit got caned thanks to Senator Al Franken's exquisite actor's sense of timing:



Senator Al spoke for millions of us who are itching to get back at Traitor Joe, the most loathsome, despicable, and petty member of a pretty loathsome deliberative body . . . That is, save for the saving grace of Al Franken, who answers to no one but the people of Minnesota -- which is as it should be -- a point he made quite clear to the insurance company shill standing before him.

P-Span: Joe Lieberman Socks

A little humor goes a long way ... MoveOn's anti-Lieberman ad with sock puppets:

Not to leave out his colleagues

I didn't want to insult the Democratic leadership in the Senate, so I have included a picture of them as well:

For Emperor Lieberman

A lyrical tribute to the gentleswine from Connecticut (pictured below):

Big man, pig man
Ha, ha, charade you are
You well heeled big wheel
Ha, ha, charade you are
And when your hand is on your heart
You're nearly a good laugh
Almost a joker
With your head down in the pig bin
Saying 'Keep on digging'
Pig stain on your fat chin
What do you hope to find
Down in the pig mine?
You're nearly a laugh
You're nearly a laugh
But you're really a cry



(h/t to the Pink one)

Demoralized

Why are the 80% of the Dems who have a clue caving in to the 20% who don't? Is it because just like the GOP, they're only in it for themselves?

This is more passive failure than the active destruction of the country that went on under the GOP, but failure it is nonetheless.

Memo to Harry Reid: Run Joe Lieberman OUT of the Democratic Caucus On a Rail!

And strip him of his Homeland Security chairmanship NOW!

This unprincipled jerk had the gall to go on Face the Nation and rail against the Medicare buy-in for people 55 and over WHEN JUST LAST SEPTEMBER HE WENT ON RECORD AS PROPOSING THE EXACT SAME THING!



HOW MANY WAYS ARE THERE TO SPELL HYPOCRITE?

This is personal; it's not about the national interest, it's not about principle. It's all about Joe Lieberman sticking it to liberal Democrats for casting him aside in his last election, so he's opposing the liberals' major agenda item -- because HE CAN.

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.

Kick Traitor Joe out, Mr. Reid, take away his chairmanship NOW, and go to reconciliation. His presence in the Democratic Caucus has become toxic and viral. Healthcare legislation is too damned important a NATIONAL issue to be held hostage by a gang of reactionary corporate shills from small states who are bought and paid for by the insurance industry.

Go to reconciliation and BE DONE with Lieberman, Landrieu, Lincoln, Nelson, and Stupak. NOW.

And don't listen to MIA President Obama, when Rham Emanuel reportedly tells you to cut a deal with Traitor Joe. I don't think so. Progressives have had enough. We will compromise no more. Grow a spine -- and a set of cojones -- while you're at it Mr. Reid, or we'll find someone who HAS.

GOLDFINGER . . .

This one's dedicated to the Beckista patsies: How many gold bars have you stored in your own private Forts Knocks to date???

Beck - Not So Mellow Gold

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We Need a Little More Irish in the U.S. Senate

For those who still read this blog (where have all our friends gone?), I think we may agree that the U.S. Senate needs a little more blunt language directed at its most heinous members. Can we start with Traitor Joe Lieberman?

Here's a script the American people, the lobbyists, the despicable corporate interests, and immoral insurance companies can understand (where's any mention in the Senate of Aetna dropping 600,000 "customers" to protect its obscene profits?):

The Public Option Is Dead, Long Live Medicare for 55 and Other Cave-ins Along the Way

This is not what progressive Democrats and Obama voters bargained for:

• First, a bailout of Wall Street -- Big Banking and too-big-to-fail investment firms -- with no strings attached, no curbs on indecent bonuses, and no regulatory reform (waiting, waiting . . .);
• Second, a watered-down stimulus bill with inadequate funds, few job-creation measures (paging FDR and the WPA) thanks to the President's sought-after vote of a Republican dope from Maine, Senator Susan Collins; as if she and her colleague Olympia Snowe suddenly controlled the entire progressive agenda in their stupid, half-measures middle-of-the-roadkill hands;
• Third, the healthcare reform soap opera, still in progress with tumbling ratings, and a Democratic compromise (cave-in?) with itself behind closed doors to get the votes of reactionary senators Ben Nelson, Blanche (what she does with every mention of a government-run public option to compete with the private insurers and keep prices down) Lincoln, malleable Mary Landrieu, not to speak of Traitor Joe, the Democratic Caucus court jester, who is biding his time to deep-six healthcare with much fanfare for his insurance lords; and
• Finally, the heavy medal Nobel (in anticipation of a swift) Peace Prize President, who seems determined LBJ-like to consume the entire Democratic progressive domestic agenda in the execution of foreign wars, the pursuit of terrorists, protecting the nukes of a failed state from falling into the wrong hands -- which is it or all of the above?

No, this isn't what the voters bargained for, although as they say, the devil's in the details. Is the Democratic compromise to kill an already watered-down beyond recognition public option in favor of extending a Medicare buy-in to those uninsured Americans 55 and up a good thing? Some prominent progressives -- Howard Dean, Dennis Kucinich, Anthony Weiner -- say yes, which is reason enough to believe the reactionary insurance ("we won!") industry shills in the Senate won't back it once the CBO numbers come in . . . or they'll water it down beyond all recognition so Harry Reid can slap a reform tag on it, and the President can hold his extraordinary "I've achieved healthcare reform for the American people" signing ceremony with insurance executives, just offstage, the only ones smiling broadly at the prospect of 30 million more customers to gouge.

"We won!" Did we?

Where in the World Is Our Path to Success in Afghanistan? This Pentagon Flowchart Has the Answer

This is no joke, folks, it's the genuine article, uncovered by NBC's Richard Engel. And just yesterday, Afghan President Karzai helpfully offered his own timeline. He wants to keep the family in the drug trade with USAID and the world’s finest military to protect his brother’s narco-trafficking ass and Swiss bank accounts courtesy of the American taxpayer for AT LEAST 15 MORE YEARS!


Here’s my version of the Pentagon flowchart for VICTORY in Afghanistan:

The World's Greatest Fans!

Carnaval 2010 in Rio is coming early this year. Flamengo, Brasil's most beloved (“o mais querido”) football club with a 40-million-strong fanbase in the Scarlet & Black Nation, a club whose 115-year history is as rich and storied as the history of football itself, became Champions of Brasil Sunday.

The title ended a 17-year drought for Flamengo in 2009 as the team capped a Cinderella season vaulting from 14th place to 2nd, with three games to go, then to first place with one game left in the season. In its last 17 games, as it made its victorious run at the title, the team’s record was a dazzling 12 wins, 4 ties, and 1 defeat.

Yesterday, with the team playing its last game at home, in majestic Maracanã Stadium, they needed one more win to make the fans explode in an awesome display of color and improvised pageantry. And they did. Flamengo won its last game, 2-1, and the celebration was on. The poet Nelson Rodrigues (who rooted for another team but could never hate Flamengo) said, as he gazed upon a sight such as this, “Flamengo, this force of nature, is like the wind, the rain, thunder and lightning”:


From the very beginning, Flamengo was the club of the people, representing the everyday struggles of the common man and woman against seemingly impossible odds with faith, perseverance, and hard work. Game day Sunday with Flamengo playing at Maracanã is a foil for the great expression of joy from the masses.

And when Flamengo wins, things just don't seem as gloomy as they did just a day ago. It's no accident that Saint Jude, patron saint of impossible causes, is also Flamengo's guardian angel, or so the fans believe. As everyone's favorite passage in the team anthem goes, “I'd have a profound sadness, If there were no Flamengo in the world.”

It’s a special thing, and once you fall in love with Flamengo, it’s a forever thing. For me, it's a trip back to my childhood when I would go to Flamengo games with a home stitched red-and-black flag on a bamboo pole, soaking in the atmosphere, feeling the energy and the excitement approaching the stadium, that force of nature of 100,000 souls breathing, sweating, crying, bleeding scarlet and black.



League MVP Adriano "The Emperor," powered Flamengo's road to the Championship with an awesome offensive display of goals:



Once Flamengo . . . always Flamengo!

Comic Relief: Chinese TV Recreates Tiger Woods Accident With Alleged Vixen Mistress

Is President Obama Making a Mistake With His Troop Escalation in Afghanistan?

Eerie shades of LBJ's Vietnam troop escalation in the President's decision to increase America's military presence in Afghanistan by more than 30,000 troops. Let us hope Mr. Obama has learned the lessons of history (Vietnam) and his decision won't come to this:

Soccer Diplomacy: Take Note U.S., Brazil Is on the Rise

This is the kind in-depth diplomatic analysis that you won't get anywhere in the North American-Eurocentric media, which is unfortunate, because it is spot-on. In effect, the rise of Brazil as a major actor on the diplomatic stage heralds the death of the Monroe Doctrine and U.S.-European hegemonism in Latin America.

The reaction in this country to Lula's meeting with Ahmedinejad has been predictable: hysterical and hyperbolic. For so long, the United States has cornered the market on the projection of raw power as a substitute for diplomacy in pursuit of its vital interests that it is shocked!, I say, shocked! when a putative ally decides that its own vital interests do not always conform and align with those of U.S. military belligerence in the greater Middle East. In short, the critics should sit down, take a look in the mirror, and STFU. The days of dictation in place of conversation are over.

Brazil is speaking and doing business with Iran for the same reason the United States sold weapons of mass destruction to Saddam Hussein; poured millions in aid to the Pakistani military which openly collaborates with the Taliban and gave direct assistance to the 9/11 terrorists; and held hands with Saudi despots whose nationals perpetrated the greatest terrorist attack on U.S. soil, and who fund madrasas that breed suicide bombers to kill U.S. troops.

Brazil's nuclear program is much more advanced than Iran's, with the caveat that Brazil made public its determination to renounce development of a weaponized nuclear program. Brazil wasn't forced or intimidated to do so. It was a rational and civilized state decision: It isn't threatened militarily by any of its neighbors, and it can't possibly compete with the nuclear might of the United States any more than India, Pakistan, Israel, France, Britain, and China can. These are all regional nuclear states that are not on a par with the United States and its only credible nuclear deterrent state, Russia.

Brazil supports the U.S. goal of non-proliferation, containment of the nuclear states club to its current status quo, and gradual draw-down of nuclear weapons held by the nuclear states. At the same time, Brazil asserts it has earned a seat at the UN Security Council. It has a constructive diplomatic role to play toward achieving real and lasting peace in the Middle East for these reasons:

• Brazil can be a genuine honest broker;
  
• Its growing economic ties with the Middle East and absence from U.S.-European colonialist history in the region give it real bargaining power and influence to effect a lasting peace among warring parties; and
  
• As a non-nuclear power with an advanced peaceful nuclear energy program, Brazil has more credibility with Iran to move it away from weaponization than nuclear powers that seek to impose their will on Iran with threats of military intervention.

The suggestion that Brazil could play a leading role in promoting an overall easing of tensions in the Middle East through soccer diplomacy has genuine promise of success. Kids over there don't play much baseball or basketball. But they love their soccer, and they're often seen wearing the jerseys of their favorite stars on the Brazilian national team.

Let the games begin!

Lest We Forget What AMERICANS, And the WORLD, Are Thankful For

More on Andy McCarthy

See my post below for starters.

This clown is ABSOLUTELY CRAZY. I don't care about his prosecutorial experience. He is as credible as the San Francisco street people who yell at you on Market Street.

He is a birther. He STILL holds to the absurd "Atta in Prague" lie. Iraq was the home of al-Qaeda.

Absolutely crazy train, but he is EVERYWHERE.

Sad.