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.

Wingnut Pillow Talk

From the National Review platform bed, America’s premier wingnut porn Magazine:

Rich Lowry: “I'm sure I'm not the only male in America who, when you, Sarah, dropped your first wink, sat up a little straighter on the couch and said, "Hey, I think you just winked at me." And your smile. By the end, it was so sparkling it was almost mesmerizing. It sent little starbursts through the screen and ricocheting around the living rooms of America. This is a quality that can't be learned; it's either something you have or you don't, and man, you’ve got it.”
NR – Oct. 3, 2008

Sarah Palin: “We still need to 'drill, baby, drill!' And if those in D.C. say otherwise, we need to tell them: 'Yes, we can!”
NR – Oct. 16, 2009

Rich Lowry: “Oh Sarah …”

Hey Rich, I think Sarah’s coming on to you! She just winked … You betcha!

Al Franken's First Amendment Against Gang Rape: 30 Republicans Opposed it

Dear President Obama and Majority Leader Harry Reid:

Why, oh why do you insist on playing bipartisan footsie with Senate Republicans -- THREE QUARTERS OF THEIR NUMBERS THAT VOTED AGAINST THE FRANKEN AMENDMENT?!?

If ever there was justifiable cause for the Democratic Party to STAND ALONE with its filibuster-proof majority in the Senate to pass good -- SLAM DUNK -- public policy on healthcare reform and EVERYTHING ELSE, this is it. IT'S NOT A CLOSE CALL.

Rape-Nuts

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I do not think that word means what you think it does

(Note: It's apparently pick on Louisiana day.)

"I try to treat everyone equally," he said. "He" being Keith Bardwell, a justice of the peace in Tangiphoa Parish in Louisiana.

I'm not quite sure he knows what "equally" means. Mr. Bardwell's name popped up in a news story when it came out that he refuses to marry interracial couples on the grounds that he thinks it will be bad for their children. He has no problem, apparently, with marrying black couples, just interracial ones.

"If he does an interracial marriage for one couple, he must do the same for all, he said."

Why yes, that is what that would mean. And by treating everyone equally, he's discriminating against some couples and not others?

Maybe he's referring to the despicable treatment that the right has given to that downtrodden product of an interracial union, y'know, old what's his name? Oh, yeah, the President of the United States.

Landrieu’s Inferno: A DINO (Democrat in Name Only) Portrait in Infamy

Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu’s craven betrayal of the public interest, core Democratic Party principles, and her own not-so-sacred honor in reneging on a signed pledge only six months ago to support the public option in healthcare reform, has earned her first inductee dishonor to the Thinker’s DINOS Hall of Shame.

In an astonishing display of arrogance and contempt for the taxpayers who pay her salary, Senator Landrieu today dismissed the polls showing consistent 65% public support for the public option nationwide “because people think the public option is free.”

Oh really. Who the HELL do you think you are, Senator? Do you think the public is a deadbeat who wants something (universal affordable healthcare) for nothing? Or do you think the public is too stupid to understand the public option would offer more choice and competition against the stranglehold of the insurance companies, and therefore healthcare affordability.

Whatever the case, Senator Landrieu, your priorities are seriously, perhaps terminally, misplaced.

Six months ago, in a signed letter to the coalition Health Care for America Now (HCAN) you pledged to support a "choice of a private insurance plan, including keeping the insurance you have if you like it, or a public insurance plan without a private insurer middleman that guarantees affordable coverage."

Today, your tune has changed from the lilting sounds of Cajun and Creole to Sympathy for the Devil and Deal with the Devil. You said: “I'm not open to it. I'm not open to a public option. However, I will remain open to a compromise, a full compromise. Public option is not something that I support. I don't think it's the right way to go."

What happened, Senator? Did the insurance lobby get to you?

Your state of Louisiana in 2006 received per-capita the highest distribution of federal spending among states ($16,263). Hayley Barbour’s Mississippi was second ($14,516), followed by Sarah Palin’s Alaska ($13,805). All conservative Republican red states, whose elected officials, hypocrites, clamor the loudest against the evil intrusions of the feds with their “big government.” Is that why your governor Bobby flies around on the state taxpayers’ dime to Mr. Jindal’s neighborhood parishes, distributing oversized stimulus checks as if they came from the state’s own coffers instead of the nation’s taxpayers’ wallets?

How dare you, Senator Landrieu.

You call yourself a Democrat, and yet the only politician to step forward to gleefully applaud your betrayal was Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, who said, “Apparently Sen. Landrieu just made an announcement that a government plan is a bad idea, and so I would strongly recommend to the administration, and to the majority in Congress, that if we're serious about getting a bipartisan health reform bill, the best way to go forward on a bipartisan basis would be to take out the government plan.”

Congratulations for being a Democratic Party and corporate sellout, Senator Landrieu.

To commemorate your betrayal, Senator, you get your very own portrait in Hell to go with your induction to the DINOS Hall of Shame. Pictured below is the Triple-6 Beast standing at your shoulder, while health insurance executives frolic worshipfully before you in a Dyonisian feast of greed and excess. Your constituents are nowhere to be found.

Now Democrats have something to aim for: Senator Landrieu’s defeat in the primaries to a REAL Democrat, and not another penny in campaign contributions.

[Postscript: Honorable Mention goes to Senator Joe Lieberman. The only reason he did not make the cut is that he is not a Democrat, but a nominal “Independent” Republocrat who caucuses with the Democrats.

Senator Lieberman has been keeping his powder dry, if you will, for quite some time since supporting John McCain in the last presidential election and declaring President Obama unqualified for high office. Despite the Democratic Party’s largesse, allowing Lieberman to retain his seniority and subcommittee chairmanship, Lieberman waited patiently for this moment –- the moment of greatest impact -- to stab the President and the Democratic Party in the back.

Said Lieberman: “I mean — yes, I mean a government-run health insurance plan. The public doesn’t support it.” (This, of course, is a LIE.) He continued: “the only opportunity to achieve significant reform with bipartisan support is if the public option is off the table. There will be no shot at 60 votes because I’m not the only one against it.”]

The choice is clear: Passing a watered-down pro-insurance non-reform bill with 60 votes, or passing REAL healthcare reform with 50 + 1 votes on reconciliation that includes a robust public option, a strong employer mandate, and repeal of the insurance companies’ antitrust exemption.

The time is NOW for REAL Democrats to stand up and be counted.

Crappy Network News: Jon Stewart Demolishes Worst Excuse for a "Political Team"

How annoying is it to hear Wolfe Blitzer repeat ad nauseum that B.S. about the "best political team on television." Rarely can I watch CNN before its self-indulgent self-promotion in search of competent political news reporting intrudes with a click. In short, CNN SUCKS!

Thanks to America's most trusted news anchor, comedian extraordinaire Jon Stewart, for exposing the pathetic supercilious excuse for journalism that is AC 360. Among others.

Incidentally, one of the right wing hack regulars on the AC 360 franchise, Dan Castellanos, a Cuban American Cold Warrior cited on this blog for his outrageous reactionary views, runs a political consulting firm that is an ad buyer for the AHIP (Ass Hole Insurance Plans of America) anti-healthcare reform campaign. I wonder how image-obsessed AC 360 (C)oops will handle this glaring conflict of interest.

CNN Leaves It There

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Historical Stupidity

The GOP, in an effort to, do something, has a new website up. On it, they list a bunch of Republican "Heroes," and a sizeable chunk of them are African-American. A quick glance, however, shows that all but one of them were born before the Civil War, and the most recent is Jackie Robinson. I don't know if anyone remembers, but an awful lot of African-Americans were Republican for a very long time, for some reason.

Oh, I know, it's because Abe Lincoln was a Republican.

Then came the civil rights movement, and the southern strategy, and Goldwater and Nixon and then the whole modern GOP, which basically told everyone who wasn't white to go screw themselves.

Methinks it will be a while before any more non-white faces join the list.

Redneck Word for the Day: Embrace Your Inner Hickness

PS - Lula, you can borrow this one for your blog, if you like. :)

Message from the Prez: A Call to Action

Carlos --

This morning, Michelle and I awoke to some surprising and humbling news. At 6 a.m., we received word that I'd been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009.

To be honest, I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many of the transformative figures who've been honored by this prize -- men and women who've inspired me and inspired the entire world through their courageous pursuit of peace.

But I also know that throughout history the Nobel Peace Prize has not just been used to honor specific achievement; it's also been used as a means to give momentum to a set of causes.

That is why I've said that I will accept this award as a call to action, a call for all nations and all peoples to confront the common challenges of the 21st century. These challenges won't all be met during my presidency, or even my lifetime. But I know these challenges can be met so long as it's recognized that they will not be met by one person or one nation alone.

This award -- and the call to action that comes with it -- does not belong simply to me or my administration; it belongs to all people around the world who have fought for justice and for peace. And most of all, it belongs to you, the men and women of America, who have dared to hope and have worked so hard to make our world a little better.

So today we humbly recommit to the important work that we've begun together. I'm grateful that you've stood with me thus far, and I'm honored to continue our vital work in the years to come.

Thank you,

President Barack Obama

REAL Democrat Alan Grayson on a Roll: People's Advocate Lets it Rip

LESSON NO. 2 FOR DINOS (DEMOCRATS IN NAME ONLY): Is this really so hard?

"IF YOU'RE AGAINST HEALTHCARE REFORM, GET OUT OF THE WAY!"