But It's Not About Racism (The Dan Rather Edition)

Seriously, Dan Rather? Is this the first metaphor that came into your mind? You couldn't use "can't punch his way out of a paper bag" or "can't hit the broad side of a barn" or "couldn't hit the water if he fell out of a boat"? Nothing like that? The first thing that came out of your feeble brain was this?!

"...part of the undertow in the coming election is going to be President Obama's leadership, and the Republicans will make a case, and a lot of independents will buy this argument, 'Listen he just hasn't been...' Look at the health care bill. It was his number one priority, it took him forever to get it through and he had to compromise it to death, and a version of 'Listen, he's a nice person, he's very articulate' this is what's going to be used against him. But he couldn't sell watermelons if you gave him the state troopers to flag down the traffic."

I'm watching this clip over and over and trying to wrap my head around Rather's rambling. Is he stating that this will be the Republican argument or was that last line a little joke gone wrong? I think it's the latter, which is very sad indeed.

Socialist Sarah?!

This weekend, Sarah Palin, who not four months ago said Canada should switch to a privatized health care system, admitted in a Calgary speech that she and her family would "hustle" over the border into Canada to take advantage of their government health care.

"We used to hustle over the border for health care we received in Canada. And I think now, isn't that ironic?"

What's ironic is her use of the word "hustle." She certainly knows about that, doesn't she? I suppose she forgot to scribble not to disclose that little tidbit of information on her telepalmer.

Supporting establishment politician John McCain, calling the Tea Party illegitimate and how they should choose one of the establishment parties and now this? How soon before the teabaggers jettison Socialist Sarah after realizing that she is nothing but a grifter who will do or say whatever it takes as long as it works to her advantage?

Unfortunately, the answer is "never." Palin will laugh this off like she tried to justify the GOP crib notes on her hand, actually comparing it to God using a Bic on His hand,  and all the Palin puppy dogs will lap it up.

Eve Harrington had nothing on this opportunistic sociopath.

Stupak Abortion Lie is Getting Coverage

Via JHW22:
...Jonathan Karl and Diane Sawyer took action at ABC World News. They covered Rep. Stupak’s lies in their truth squad segment Friday night.

Jonathan Karl: "We've taken out the 10 pages or so that deal directly with abortion. It begins on page 2069 and sets out very specific rules on abortion coverage...

[Nancy] Pelosi is right in that the bill makes it clear, there can be no federal money for abortion except in the cases of rape, incest or to protect the life of the mother... There's a provision that says if you choose a policy that covers abortion you have to pay $1.00 a month out of your own pocket to pay for the abortion coverage. The insurance company is supposed to keep that dollar separate, but Stupak says that line will always be blurred.

Stupak makes a further claim: 'When you read the legislation, one dollar per month for all enrollees must go into a fund for reproductive care, which includes abortion coverage.' That's actually wrong. In fact, you only pay the one dollar abortion fee if you choose a plan that covers abortion. To anti-abortion advocates like Stupak, the only acceptable solution is a complete ban on abortion coverage by any insurance company that accepts any federal money at all."

Kudos to Jennifer for being on top of this story. She pounded the pavement... er, keyboard, and made phone calls until someone listened and the story picked up steam. There is a large list of media contacts on her Kos diary if you'd like to rattle the cage as well, or thank ABC for getting the story right.

Must Reads

Veritas Nihilum Vincet: Meet The Palins

Paul Krugman: Senator Bunning's Universe

Glenn Greenwald: The Full-Scale Collapse: From Murrow to Blitzer

Rep. Anthony Weiner: Let's Put the Public Option to a Vote

Steve Benen: Cheney Faces Blowback Over Cheap DOJ Smear

driftglass: What?

Michael Moore: An Open Letter: President Obama: Replace Rahm with Me

President Obama's Weekly Address - March 6, 2010

What Health Reform Will Deliver – This Year

Republican Hypocrisy: The Judd Gregg Edition

Senator Judd Gregg: "If reconciliation is used, it will be a clear signal to Americans that the administration and the Democratic majority are willing to trample the spirit of the Senate in order to pass a highly partisan policy, regardless of the damage it does to the concept of representative government."

Hypocrite says what?

Fear May Win Again

The terrorists have already won. Even if any planned terrorist attack is thwarted, just the thought of another possible attack inside the US has so freaked out some of the public and elected officials that they are willing to drop Constitutional rights at the snap of a finger as is being demonstrated with the 9/11 trial location.

In a potential reversal, White House advisers are close to recommending that President Barack Obama opt for military tribunals for self-professed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed...

In addition to local opposition to a trial [in New York City due to costs, security and logistical concerns], the administration faces pressure on its goal of closing Guantanamo on another front. Republicans in Congress have proposed barring prosecutions of terrorism defendants in federal courts or in reformed military commissions located in the United States.

...The Obama administration views civilian trials for terrorists as an important demonstration of the U.S. commitment to rule of law. Officials also have cited the numerous terrorism trials already held successfully in U.S. criminal courts.

..."If this stunning reversal comes to pass, President Obama will deal a death blow to his own Justice Department, not to mention American values," said American Civil Liberties Union Anthony D. Romero. "Even with recent improvements, the military commissions system is incapable of handling complicated terrorism cases and achieving reliable results. President Obama must not cave in to political pressure and fear-mongering. He should hold firm and keep these prosecutions in federal court, where they belong."

Agreed. If there is no way to be able to hold this trial in a civilian court because of logistics, then they should at least attempt to have some kind of civilian trial at a military base as an end around to costs and security.

Using the Federal Court System the right thing to do and it's also successful and has been used in over 300 terrorism trials by the previous administration, which has been conveniently forgotten by the opposition party. Not only would this be a political loss for the Obama administration but more importantly, a tragic loss for the rule of law.

Stupak is Back and Getting Media Coverage

My friend, who shall be known as JHW22, wrote a piece on Stupak and his lying ways on abortion funding yesterday on her DailyKos diary. Seems she was ahead of the curve since the story's been picking up speed today. Here it is in its entirety.

JHW22:

Last night on Hardball with Tweety, Bart Stupak made two dramatic statements that he has made before and will continue making as long as he is given a platform (Tweety loves this topic so one action we can take is tallying the number of times Tweety mentions the Stupak language between now and the final vote). We need to understand the language in this section of the bill thoroughly and then bombard the office with calls and show up at any meetings and raise hands to challenge him in a civil, yet factually correct manner.

Here’s what Tweety and Stupak discussed:

MATTHEWS: Well, let`s take a look at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at Blair House last week. Let`s listen. See if you agree.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: Leader Boehner, the law of the land is there is no public funding of abortion, and there is no public funding of abortion in these bills. And I don`t want our listeners or viewers to get the wrong impression from what you said.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTHEWS: Is the Speaker correct?

STUPAK: No.

MATTHEWS: Explain.

STUPAK: The Speaker is incorrect. In the Senate bill -- in the Senate bill, and that`s what they`re telling us the vehicle we`re using. In the Senate bill, it says you must offer insurance policies that will be paid for by the federal government that covers abortion. You must do so. Also in that same language, if you come in the Senate version, in the OPM, Office of Personnel Management, policies they`ll be putting forth, you must pay -- every enrollee must pay one dollar per month into a fund to help fund abortions.

It`s very clear. I direct the Speaker`s attention to pages 33 to page 44 of the Senate bill as written in the Senate and passed on Christmas Eve.

This is not true. Aside from the fact that the "Senate bill as written in the Senate and passed on Christmas Eve" discusses abortion MUCH later than pages 33-44, the Senate bill says that states can choose whether companies in the exchange cover abortion or not.

SEC. 1303. SPECIAL RULES.

(a) STATE OPT-OUT OF ABORTION COVERAGE.—

(1) IN GENERAL.—A State may elect to prohibit abortion coverage in qualified health plans offered through an Exchange in such State if such State enacts a law to provide for such prohibition.

2070

HR 3590 EAS/PP

(2) TERMINATION OF OPT OUT.—A State may repeal a law described in paragraph (1) and provide for the offering of such services through the Exchange.

(b) SPECIAL RULES RELATING TO COVERAGE OF ABORTION SERVICES.—

The bill also states

(i) nothing in this title (or any amendment made by this title), shall be construed to require a qualified health plan to provide coverage of services described in subparagraph (B)(i) or (B)(ii) as part of its essential health benefits for any plan year; and

(ii) subject to subsection (a), the issuer of a qualified health plan shall determine whether or not the plan provides coverage of services described in subparagraph(B)(i) or (B)(ii) as part of such benefits for the plan year.

As for federal funding, the language abides by current law – currently that is the Hyde Amendment – but the language is written to accommodate any future changes to the existing law. It repeatedly refers to section (1)B(i) which clarifies what is prohibited from federal funding.

But Stupak stated that each policy holder would have to pay $1 into an abortion fund – yep, he said each policy holder would pay for abortions. But that is not what the heading (1) VOLUNTARY CHOICE OF COVERAGE OF ABORTION SERVICES says to me.

Stupak interprets the language to be:

If one buys any health plan through Company A, one pays into an abortion fund.

I interpret the language to be:

If one buys Plan Q with an abortion Rider through Company A, then one pays a separate rider premium. If one buys Plan R without an abortion Rider through Company A, then one DOES NOT pay a separate premium.

Now, this diary isn’t about whether the existing language is something we like or hate. This diary is about a Democrat distorting language in order to make an already difficult process passing this bill even more difficult and frankly, he’s manipulating voters by misrepresenting the language.

For the most part, the language in the bill is more about the logistical segregation of premiums that would pay for abortion services coverage from the premiums that would not. And more specifically it’s primarily about keeping premiums that would go toward non-Hyde Amendment abortion allowances segregated from other premiums. The whole gist of the language is about FEDERAL FUNDS NOT TOUCHING abortion coverage as required by existing law. But Stupak wants people to think that anyone who pays a premium funds abortions. He says all of this while saying he is fine with the Hyde Amendment language.

Where the $1 line comes in is during the actuarial part. If you have the abortion coverage Rider, all kinds of calculations have to be done to decide the premium value based on what’s covered under the Hyde Amendment and what isn’t. If it’s not covered under the Hyde Amendment, then that coverage value is determined and you have to pay a separate abortion Rider premium so as not to touch abortion coverage premiums with regular premiums. These premiums are kept in separate accounts by the insurance companies.

The bulk of the section in the bill that discusses this is found on pages 2069 through 2078 in the FINAL Senate Bill.

I have summarized the language but since the main issue here is all about "interpretation" I ask you to please print it out, read it, mark it up and learn it inside and out (if you don't already). Then call Representative Stupak’s office and leave messages telling them that you understand the language and that you’d be happy to explain it to him.

They will be quite prickly over at his DC office, I know because one of the staffers threatened to turn me over to the Capitol Hill Police if I didn’t stop calling today when I was trying to figure out why Stupak told Tweety that this language was on pages 33-44. A staffer later returned my call with the correct page numbers.

When they know you’re right and feel smug, they will ask you where you’re from because they don’t want to hear from anyone in any other district, despite the fact that this is a NATIONAL health care bill he’s willing to stop. And they do have caller ID so they will know if you’re calling from out of state, or from a cell phone that was bought out of state even if you’ve moved to his district. If you know anyone in the district, ask them to call.

Finally, if you feel that you have been brushed aside, call Speaker Pelosi. Her staffer was pleased to hear from me. Ask that Speaker Pelosi speak to Stupak to "educate" him on the language and ask that she make a public statement if he continues his appearances on national TV misrepresenting the language.

If you live in his district, get to a meeting.

Catskill Julie provided the following useful information in the comments of a Daily Kos diary:

Call (202) 225 4735
Fax (202) 225 4744
in District call Toll Free: 800-950-7371 

Alpena, (989)356 0690 Fax(989)356 0923
Escanaba, (906)786 4504 Fax(906)786 4534
Marquette,(906) 228 3700 Fax(906) 228 2305 

GO to meetin' Tawas City, March 8 

For Immediate Release
March 3, 2010 Contact: Michelle Begnoche
(202) 225-4735
STUPAK TO HOLD TOWN HALL MEETING IN TAWAS CITY
WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Congressman Bart Stupak (D-Menominee) will host a town hall meeting in Tawas City on Monday, March 8 from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. (EST) at the Tawas Area High School cafeteria. The meeting is open to the public and will provide an opportunity for constituents to ask Stupak questions on a range of issues. Stupak will also provide an update on health care reform, job creation, the economy and other issues pending before Congress. 

Tawas Area High School is located at 255 W. M-55, Tawas City, Mich.
"This town hall meeting in Tawas City is a chance to meet with constituents, address their concerns and answer questions about the work I am doing in Congress to strengthen our economy, create jobs and provide Americans with access to affordable health care," Stupak said. "I enjoy the opportunity to receive feedback on these critical issues and hope my town hall meetings spur additional dialogue in communities across northern Michigan." 

Out of respect for all those wishing to attend the town hall meeting, only credentialed media will be permitted to record the event. 

The Tawas City town hall meeting is a continuation of Stupak’s travels around the First Congressional District, which has included town hall meetings in Negaunee, Petoskey, Cheboygan, Escanaba, Standish, Ironwood, Ontonagon and Houghton. Last month Stupak held a telephone town hall meeting reaching 3,390 constituents in all 31 counties in the First Congressional District. 

Residents of Michigan’s First Congressional District can sign up to receive email notice of Stupak’s town hall meetings and to be included in the next telephone town hall meeting by visiting www.house.gov/stupak and selecting "E-mail and Telephone Town Hall Sign-Up" or by calling Stupak’s office at 1-800-950-7371.

UPDATE SINCE ORIGINALLY POSTED AT THE DAILY KOS: As I said he would be, Stupak is everywhere spewing this incorrect information. HOWEVER, after my calls to his office yesterday telling them he was citing the wrong pages and how could anyone check him if he didn't provide the correct pages, he is now CITING THE CORRECT PAGES. Now I need help getting him to properly represent what those pages actually say.

Music Break! Jamie Cullum

My sister was able to score and extra ticket to Jamie Cullum playing at Joe's Pub last night (a show that sold out in about a minute and crashed their website) and what a great show it was! Usually, I'm pretty low key at these things with regards to recording, but when Cullum climbed off the stage with his bassist to roam around the small room and sing I Get a Kick Out of You (without a mic), I had to pull my BlackBerry out and record it.

Enjoy.

Cartoon of the Day

Pretty Cool

"The latest images of the Earth are the most true-colour images of the entire world released to date, according to Nasa scientists."

Mitt Romney Thinks ER Care is Free

Mitt Romney graced the Morning Joke™ team with his presence this morning and basically lied for about ten minutes. It was a sight to see.  Not only did he participate in the obligatory GOP bashing of President Obama for his "apology tour," which he also pushes in his new book (Scarborough is all to eager to jump in), but claims that Bush kept us safe, that the health care reform proposal is going to cut $500 billion from Medicare Part D, and that Sarah Palin is qualified to be President.

The thing that really got to me is that Mitt Romney believes that hospital care in an emergency room is free and the patient bares no responsibility having to pay the bill.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Mike Barnicle: "...Do you believe in universal coverage?"

Romney: "Oh, sure.  Look, it doesn't make a lot of sense for us to have millions and millions of people who have no health insurance, and yet who can go to the emergency room and get entirely free care for which they have no responsibility, particularly if they are people who have sufficient means to pay their own way."

Clueless.  Obviously, Mitt Romney has never been to an emergency room.  And no one even called him to task because they're all inside the beltway members who have absolutely no sense of the real world.

Why I Don't Watch Jay Leno

Well, Sarah Palin made an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (at least it's Leno this week). And not only did she continue her contradiction of supporting the Tea Party's "uprising against the government" while simultaneously announcing she would campaign for an establishment party hack like John McCain, she had the audacity to insult probably every comedian on the planet by doing a little stand up routine of her own. (I say every comedian because Dennis Miller stopped being funny a long time ago.)

Jay posed a couple of reasonable questions and Palin was quick on the answers which makes one hardly wonder whether those questions were pre-screened. Palin was surprisingly self depricating for a second when speaking about the "poor man's teleprompter" on the palm of her hand, but basically justified it.

And this is the main reason I don't watch Jay Leno. His interviews pretty much suck. I know he's not a journalist, but if you're going to have pre-selected questions ready for each and every interview on your little blue cards, wouldn't you want to actually listen to the answers and maybe have a follow up ready? Palin explained she had written three things down on her hand. She always takes notes and will now continue to do so on her hand just to "wee-wee up" the Democrats. (Yes, she used the phrase "wee-wee up" again.) But maybe a Leno follow up could have been, "But Sarah, in all due respect, 'Energy' and 'Tax Cuts' are the staple of the Republican Party. Did you really feel the need to write those specific notes down?" But not Jay. He'll just barrel on to the next question and instead prefers to make little, cutesy comments.

The really sad part of the whole event was the reaction of some in the crowd. In my opinion the David Letterman audience is a little hipper, more in tune and can put things in perspective, while Jay Leno's audience seem to be mostly older, conservative Republicans, and apparently judging by the reaction of some in the crowd, sprinkled with some Teabaggers.

Watch if you dare.

Quote of the Day

"The Rahm Emanuel that Obama hired is the poster child for the timid, pseudo-pragmatism that is inimical to the idealistic Obama agenda so many excited voters responded to last November. And it's a pragmatism that is absolutely killing the Democratic Party in the long run, because American voters have an intrinsic distrust of politicians they see as tacking with the polls or shying away from a fight."

~Dan Froomkin on the latest Obama administration sabotage and the recent Washington Post love affair with Rahm Emanuel.

Completely Out of Touch

If there is a prime example of politicians, namely Republicans, that have absolutely no idea of how the real world works and whose mindset is completely out of touch with reality, it has to be Senator Jon Kyl's (R-Az) asinine comment on unemployment benefits.

Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona, the Republican whip, argued that unemployment benefits dissuade people from job-hunting "because people are being paid even though they're not working."

Unemployment insurance "doesn't create new jobs. In fact, if anything, continuing to pay people unemployment compensation is a disincentive for them to seek new work," Kyl said during debate over whether unemployment insurance and other benefits that expired amid GOP objections Sunday should be extended.

"I'm sure most of them would like work and probably have tried to seek it, but you can't argue that it's a job enhancer. If anything, as I said, it's a disincentive. And the same thing with the COBRA extension and the other extensions here," said Kyl.

I'm going to go out on a limb and take a wild guess in assuming Senator Jon Kyl has never been on unemployment. I'm sure he's pulled himself up by his own bootstraps considering his family didn't have enough money to afford the 'H' in his name. But it's examples like these that show how members mostly if not definitively in the Republican Party have no clue what is goes on in the real world.

It's not about job creation, you fucking moron.  It's about bridging the gap between employment opportunities for citizens who have most likely paid into unemployment insurance their entire working lives until the next job so they don't lose their house, their health care and can feed their families in the meantime. And in nearly all cases, the payments you receive are a fraction of what your actual salary actually was when you got the boot.

To Kyl, anyone who has lost their job, and therefore are in danger of or have already lost their health care benefits are nothing but welfare queens who are sucking on the government teat. How dare they collect on the unemployment insurance that they are legally entitled to and that they've paid into over the years? You goddamn lazy fuckers should be out pounding the pavement looking for a job if you've lost yours despite the fact that there are no jobs to be had. I suppose the current 9.8% unemployment rate is just voluntary. These people could find work if they really wanted to work, right, Jo-n?

Compound this idiocy with Senator Jim Bunning's filibuster of a $10 billion bill extending unemployment benefits and standing in the way of transportation projects that will put 2,000 more out of work because... well, who the hell knows why Bunning does what he does, and this is a microcosm of the GOP perspective.

Adding... Chris Matthews doesn't help his cause in his tacit support of Bunning not for any other reason than he's a Hall of Fame pitcher who played for his beloved Phillies in the 60's. Way to go, Tweety.

Must Reads

The Rude Pundit: A Final Word on the Health Care Summit: President Obama Calmly Fucks the Republicans

Bill McKibben: The Attack on Climate-Change Science: Why It’s the O.J. Moment of the Twenty-First Century

Al Gore: We Can't Wish Away Climate Change

You and Me BOTH, Brother!

George W. Bush: "I have no desire to see myself on television. I don't want to be a panel of formers instructing the currents on what to do..."

(H/T GottaLaff)

Strong On Defense Republicans

The perception, or at least what the GOP would have you believe, is that the Republican Party is the party that will keep you safe from evil, foreign boogeymen while the Democratic Party is weak on national security and defense.

And yet, we see stories like Senator Richard Shelby's, who until recently help up every Obama administration nomination until he got paid off, and even after backing off, still has holds on top positions in the Air Force. And he couldn't care less.

CNN's Dana Bash asked the right-wing senator yesterday whether his actions are justified.

BASH: I spoke with Geoff Morrell over at the Pentagon and just asked him what the impact is of not having these three people in place -- one of whom, as you know, is the number two at the Air Force. He said, "Without these people, we're not firing on all cylinders." And he also said, "It does adversely affect the organization."

Are you worried about that? This is a time of war --

SHELBY: The Pentagon is a big place. I don't think one or two will affect anything except on the margins.

BASH: Do you think that the nominees you have holds on are qualified?

SHELBY: Oh, I don't have any idea.

That's right. Republican Alabama Senator Richard Shelby has no idea if nominees for three top positions in the Air Force are qualified, yet he continues to block them. What would Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Michelle Malkin, or any of the Fox News hacks be spewing if this had been a Democratic Senator during the Bush years? Just another example of the infinite hypocrisy in the GOP.

President Obama's Weekly Address - February 27, 2010

The Olympic Spirit, the Spirit of Bipartisanship, and Health Reform

Gearing Up for Health Care Summit

Schwarzenegger Terminates Tea Party & Van Susteren

I have to give California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger credit for sticking to his guns on this one. Asked about the Tea Party movement, The Governator responded by giving it a shelf life.

...they're not going anywhere with it because nobody is coming up and saying, Here's our candidate, here's our solution, here's what we're going to do, and have a whole policy debate over the various different issues.

...when the economy comes back, I think that the tea party will disappear...

There's something to be said for term limits when someone can be this honest about his/her thoughts.

Van Susteren also tried to get him to trash the stimulus even though he's touted it previously, but Schwarzenegger was having none of it.

Jon Stewart's CPAC Coverage

Comedy gold.

I KNEW! This Would Happen

House Minority Leader and resident Congressional Oompa Loompa John "I Can't Read 2,000 Page Bills" Boehner is now complaining that President Obama's 11 page summary for Health Care Reform is... wait for it... TOO SHORT!

A spokesman for House Minority Leader John Boehner today ridiculed President Obama's health care proposal because it's too short.

"The White House's 'plan' consists of an 11-page outline, which has not been scored by the Congressional Budget Office or posted online as legislative text. So they want to reorganize one-sixth of the United States' economy with a document shorter than a comic book, and they're complaining that they can't find our plan on their own website? C'mon," said the spokesman, Michael Steel, in an email to reporters.

What a bunch of fucking hacks.

Quote of the Day

"I have always been on the record, in fact, since 2003, with the concept of living our values. And I think that whenever we've perhaps taken expedient measures, they've turned around and bitten us in the backside. We decided early on, in the 101st airborne division, we just said, we decided to obey the Geneva Conventions...

...we have found that the use of interrogation methods in the army field manual that was given the force of law by Congress, that that works."

~ General David Petraeus explaining his disagreement with the Dick Cheney doctrine of enhanced interrogation, AKA torture.

Douchebag of the Week: Ryan Sorba

Is this the kind of speaker with which CPAC wants to be associated? Giving credit to the crowd, they booed California Young Americans for Freedom representative Ryan Sorba off the stage after he went off on a tangent and condemned CPAC for inviting GOProud, a gay conservative group to the convention.



So much for the party of inclusion according to Sorba. Why any member of the gay community would associate him/herself with an anti-gay political party is beyond me, but judging by the current state of the Republican party and the collective intelligence of their leaders, I'm really not surprised.

Ryan Sorba: Douchebag of the Week.

Must Reads

Bob Cesca: Happy Anniversary, Recovery Act

Gail Collins: The Wages of Rages

Christopher Brauchli: Republicans - Good Government's Friends

Barnabe F. Geisweiller: Hate 2.0

Glenn Greenwald: Terrorism: the most meaningless and manipulated word

John Cassidy: Tea Party U.S.A.: It’s Still the Economy, Stupid!

President Obama's Weekly Address - February 20, 2010

Premiums, Profits, and the Need for Health Reform

Terrorism?

Yesterday, a man named Joe Stack was so filled with rage at the government and the IRS in particular, he decided to burn his house down and fly a plane into an office building housing an IRS office in Austin, Texas.  It takes a special kind of crazy to be so angry about being taxed (as is everyone else in the country) that you'd kamikaze into a building.  That showed them, huh?

I just have one, simple question: What if someone with the same exact gripe against the government did the same exact thing, but instead of a name like Joseph Stack, it was Yusef Mohammed Abdul-Salaam? You think that the crazies would be calling it a terrorist act?  How soon would they be on their soap box blaming President Obama and a Democratic majority who is weak on terrorism?

Kathryn Grayson Dies at 88

NY Times: Kathryn Grayson, the petite singer and actress whose operatic voice and campus-sweetheart beauty embodied the glamour of Hollywood movie musicals in the 1940s and ’50s, died Wednesday at her home in Los Angeles. She was 88.

WHAAAAH?!

Seems President Obama has been killing too many terrorists according to the MENSA members at CPAC.

"Why have executions increased?" asked Viet Dinh, a professor at Georgetown University Law Center and one of the authors of the USA Patriot Act. Dinh complained that "the president and vice president expound this fact as a fact that they are actually successful in war."

"That doesn't mean I think they are not illegitimate," he added. "No, we have every right to kill the other side's warriors. But at what cost? When we do not have an effective detention policy the only option we have is to kill them before we can detain them. And if we don't detain them, we don't know what they know and what they are up to."

Over the course of the last week or two, the military had taken out or arrested to leaders in the Taliban and has them in disarray in Afghanistan. But now that it's not a Republican president making the calls, somehow Obama is doing it wrong. I thought the Democrats were weak on terrorism. So why is it that these morons at the CPAC conference are cheering at this ridiculous notion that we're "killing too many terrorists"?

Rudy's Henchman Goes Down

NY TIMES: Bernard B. Kerik, a former New York police commissioner who rose to national prominence, was sentenced to four years in prison on Thursday after pleading guilty to eight felony charges, including tax fraud and lying to White House officials.

Under the terms of a plea agreement reached in November on the eve of his trial, the prosecution and the defense recommended that Judge Stephen C. Robinson sentence Mr. Kerik to 27 to 33 months in prison. But the judge departed from the sentencing recommendations, giving Mr. Kerik a longer sentence.

“I think it’s fair to say that with great power comes great responsibility and great consequences,” Judge Robinson said. “I think the damage caused by Mr. Kerik is in some ways immeasurable.”

How much damage would Kerik have caused if the Bush administration went with this mook to head the Department of Homeland Security at Rudy Giuliani's recommendation?

Sarah Palin's Tea Party Convention Check Clears

Asked what her advice would be to conservatives as the November elections approach, Palin first lavished praise on the Tea Party movement, calling it "a grand movement" and adding, "I love it because it’s all about the people."

But she quickly pivoted to the broader question of whether the Tea Party movement might successfully field its own candidates in national elections, and on that point she sounded far from convinced.

"Now the smart thing will be for independents who are such a part of this Tea Party movement to, I guess, kind of start picking a party," Palin said. "Which party reflects how that smaller, smarter government steps to be taken? Which party will best fit you? And then because the Tea Party movement is not a party, and we have a two-party system, they’re going to have to pick a party and run one or the other: ‘R’ or ‘D’."

Shorter Palin: Thanks for the hundred grand, suckers. Now vote Republican because you aren't a real party. And even though every time the so called "smaller government, fiscal conservative" Republican Party has NEVER, EVER come through with smaller government and fiscal conservatism whenever we were in power, we think you're so fucking stupid, you'll fall for the bullshit again, you betcha!

It's Called C-SPAN, Douchebags

Regarding the jobs bill:

The top two Republicans in the House sent a letter Wednesday daring their counterparts — Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer — to engage in a public discussion over ways Congress can provide a boost to the economy.

..."Clearly, we need a different approach to developing legislation that will get Americans back to work," Republican leader John Boehner and party Whip Eric Cantor wrote to Pelosi and Hoyer. "Therefore, in the interest of complete transparency on the single most important issue of the day for most Americans, we ask that you join us for an open discussion so that we can begin to change a process that has not only polarized this Capitol building but this country as well."

Televised debates in the House of Representatives? Gee, where have I seen this before? Oh yeah, it's called C-SPAN you fucking assholes!

Newly Revealed Clinton Assassination Attempt

Looks like maybe Bill Clinton had Osama bin Laden in his sights for more than one reason.

Former President Bill Clinton came within minutes of being assassinated in the Philippines by terrorists controlled by Osama bin Laden, a new book has revealed.  

...The foiled attack came during Mr Clinton's visit to the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in the city in 1996. 

At one point during his stay, he was scheduled to visit a local politician, his route taking him across a bridge in central Manila.

But as the presidential motorcade was about to set off, secret service officers received a "crackly message in one earpiece" saying intelligence agents had picked up a message suggesting an attack was imminent.

The transmission used the words "bridge" and "wedding" – a terrorists code word for assassination.

The motorcade was quickly re-routed and American agents later discovered a bomb had been planted under the bridge.

The subsequent US investigation into the plot "revealed that it had been masterminded by a Saudi terrorist living in Afghanistan – a man named Osama bin Laden".

Why Is The Senate Broken?

Steve Benen knows:

As much as I'm sympathetic to the vice president's entirely accurate concerns [in regards to his statement: "I don't ever recall a time in my career where to get anything done, you needed a supermajority, 60 out of 100 senators.... I've never seen it this dysfunctional."], his omissions make all the difference. For viewers who don't know what filibusters or cloture votes are, they're thinking, "There's a Democratic president and a Democratic Congress. If the system is broken and dysfunctional, maybe it's Democrats' fault."

Except, for anyone interested in reality, that assumption couldn't be more wrong. If legislation received up-or-down votes in both chambers -- the way Congress operated for the better part of two centuries -- the system would work quite well and the dysfunction that drives everyone crazy would largely disappear.

Biden, in other words, needs to name names -- Republicans broke the American legislative process. They did so deliberately, during a time of crises, because they're desperate to undercut the Democratic majority, regardless of the consequences. The GOP's tactics have no precedent in American history, and violate every democratic norm that keeps our system moving.

Suck On It, Cheney

NY Times: The Taliban’s top military commander was captured several days ago in Karachi, Pakistan, in a secret joint operation by Pakistani and American intelligence forces, according to American government officials.

The commander, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, is an Afghan described by American officials as the most significant Taliban figure to be detained since the American-led war in Afghanistan started more than eight years ago. He ranks second in influence only to Mullah Muhammad Omar, the Taliban’s founder and a close associate of Osama bin Laden before the Sept. 11 attacks.

Mullah Baradar has been in Pakistani custody for several days, with American and Pakistani intelligence officials both taking part in interrogations, according to the officials.

It's stories like these that make Dick Cheney look even more foolish than he already does when criticizing the current administration in the "war on terrorISM" on the Sunday show circuit. In one year, the Obama administration has done more to root out anti-American extremists in Afghanistan than the Bush administration had done in the previous seven.

Whether you agree with the increase of troops and our presence in Afghanistan is another issue entirely, but Cheney misinforming the public and never letting go of his fear mongering ways on a seemingly endless basis, makes him look stupid, petty and out of touch with what's actually happening. All to stay in the public eye until his memoirs get published in the next year.

So Much For The "Do Nothing" Congress

A great point was made this morning by Bob Cesca about the unprecedented amount of obstructionism that has occurred since Democrats took over the majority in Congress in 2007 and the "dig your heels into the ground" GOP mentality since President Obama took office. And yet, the President's success rate in Congress on roll call votes is higher than any in presidential history since the stat has been taken, while facing the highest obstruction in history.

The new CQ study gives Obama a higher mark than any other president since it began scoring presidential success rates in Congress more than five decades ago. And that was in a year where Obama tackled how to deal with Afghanistan, Iraq, an expanding terrorist threat, the economic crisis and battles over health care.

...A major reason for Obama's record high score this year: Democrats took away a significant number of seats from Republicans in the 2006 and 2008 elections, resulting in big majorities in the House and Senate for the president's party.

But Sarah Binder, a congressional analyst at the Brookings Institution, says there's another key reason he scored so well. She says he only took an official position on issues that were really important to him — those that he knew he had a very good chance of winning.[*] He picked his battles carefully.

"He can do that because he's been in the Senate, his staff has been in the House and he understands the process here. They are consummate congressional insiders in understanding how this works," Binder says.

Now that's not to say I believe that the President shouldn't push harder for what he wants and hold his hand out in the interest of "bipartisanship" less, but just to point out that the mainstream media meme claiming the President can't close the deal (which started while campaigning against Hillary Clinton) or wingnuts who claim "we need more than a charismatic guy with a teleprompter" is just plain bullshit.

Also, when looking at overall job approval ratings for President Obama, which currently stands at 53%, there's been an uptick in February since he started fighting back and being more vocal about what he wants and calling out Republicans who are blocking every move with filibusters, holds and in most cases, just flat out stupidity.  So when you hear "the American people have spoken" and they don't want this or that as proven by polls, I think the more telling sign is the frustration with the President not because the don't believe in his policies, but because the think he should fight back harder for his agenda.

*Sarah Binder contradicts herself - does Obama take sides when he knows it's an easy win or when it's an important piece of legislation? I personally believe it's the latter.

Adding... My point here wasn't to suggest that the Congress is doing a bang up job (clearly they can be doing much better) but only to point out the Democrats are not doing as horribly as we're led to believe by most reports. There has been some major, positive legislation passed in President Obama's first year in office, despite the Party of No.

Cry Me A River, Joe

Give me a break.

Joe the Plumber is no longer a fan of either Sarah Palin or John McCain, it seems.

Joe, also known as Sam Wurzelbacher, told an audience in Pennsylvania this week that McCain "is no public servant."

"McCain was trying to use me," Wurzelbacher said, according to public radio correspondent Scott Detrow. "I happened to be the face of middle Americans. It was a ploy.”

"I don’t owe him s—," Wurzelbacher continued. "He really screwed my life up, is how I look at it.”

In fact, Wurzelbacher's dislike for McCain is so strong that he no longer supports Sarah Palin simply because Palin will campaign for McCain's re-election.

As for Obama: "I think his ideology is un-American, but he’s one of the more honest politicians. At least he told us what he wanted to do."

You wanted your fifteen minutes, despite lying about the plumbing business, despite owing back taxes, you went on the road with the Mavericks, you tried writing a book (or at least using a ghost writer) and went on a failed book tour and played war correspondent with Pajamas Media.

And McCain ruined your life? You sleep with dogs...

Seriously, Harold Ford?

If you want to run for Senator of New York, being that you've lived here all of four years, wouldn't you think that the first thing you would do is make sure your tax records are in order? Not Harold Fold.

Ford claims to have moved to New York three years ago, and says paying "New York taxes" makes him a New Yorker. But his spokeswoman confirms to Gawker that he's never filed a New York tax return — meaning that he's never paid New York's income tax, despite keeping an office and a residence in New York City as a vice chairman of Merrill Lynch since 2007: "He pays New York taxes and will file a New York tax return in April for the first time," Ford's spokeswoman Tammy Sun told Gawker. "He will file all necessary personal disclosure and tax forms that candidates are required to file if he chooses to run." (According to Sun, Ford admitted to the tax dodge yesterday at a press availability in Albany, but we can't find any news accounts mentioning the remarks.)

Wouldn't this also mean that if he's filing Tennessee taxes and therefore claiming it as his "primary" residence, he's not eligible to run in New York? I suppose by filing in New York in April for the first time makes that point moot since there is no minimum time requirement one must live in a state for eligibility, but what does it say to the constituents whose votes Ford wants to garner?