Smell It? The Stench of Crazy In The Air

I am sticking to my self imposed blackout of all things Glenn Beck and 9-12 Project today as I value my health, but I couldn't help but click on a 50 second AP video, and this sign just made me chuckle.



If you can't make it out, it reads:

OBAMA
WE HAVE WAKEN (sic) UP
TO YOUR EVIL PLANS
TO DESTROY OUR
COUNTRY. TAKE YOUR
RACIST UN-AMERICAN
ACORN GROUPS AND
ARROGENT (sic) WIFE
BACK TO YOUR OWN
COUNTRY AND STRIP
THEIR RIGHTS AWAY!

Well, looks like they surely have "waken" up.

Two things:

1 - I don't know about you, but if I happen to make up a sign for public display, I'd think about spellchecking it and making sure the words I use actually exist in the English language first.

2 - I was under the impression that Glenn Beck's 9-12 Project was intended to make people feel the way they did the day after September 11th, "when even French newspapers proclaimed: 'We’re all Americans' — we were united." It was all about unity. Looking at some of these pictures, looks like Beck missed the mark by a little bit.

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Rep. Barney Frank: Post-Bipartisan Depression

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Larry Gelbart Dies at 81

NY TIMES: Larry Gelbart, the writer whose caustic wit was a creative force behind the enduring success of the television series “M*A*S*H,” Broadway hits like “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” and film comedies like “Tootsie,” died Friday at his home in Beverly Hills, Calif. He was 81.

President Obama's Weekly Address - September 12, 2009

Losing Insurance Can Happen to Anybody

A Day of Remembrance

There is no need for pictures.
I don't need video to remind me.
The event is seared in my memory as clear as if it were yesterday.
When I heard about the first plane, I thought it was an accident.
When I heard about the second plane, I knew it wasn't.

I could feel the collective fear.
I saw the horrified faces.
Shock. Disbelief. Anger. Sadness.
The hope that it was some sort of nightmare.
The numbness in knowing that it was real.

We watched as the heroes ran in to save us.
We watched as the cowards who ran away would later exploit us.
Noun verb 9/11. Noun verb 9/11.
That would soon be their rallying cry.
Those cowards who talked the talk but never walked the walk.

And then the giants fell.

Wary zombies covered in grime and soot staggered away northbound.
Even if you weren't physically there, you still felt that way, like a staggering zombie as the world watched.
But to them, they didn't see two giants fall.
They saw three.
And it seemed we were all Americans that day. That we were all united.

Until the cowards acted with their Shock Doctrine.
Go shopping. WMD. Aluminum tubes. Yellowcake from Niger. Can we attack Iraq now? After all, it's been in the plans since the beginning.
Osama. Saddam. Al Qaeda.
It was all the same to them.
Noun verb 9/11.

The cowards have come and gone.
Well, most of them anyway.
Some still lurk around in the diluted notion that they were the heroes, not the cowards.
And after all that's happened, they're still admired by some.

This has become a day of remembrance.
But it's not the only day of the year that some remember
As they pass by the hole where the giants once stood.
Eight years later, the hole remains.
Even when they finally fill it, it will always remain.

Ted Kennedy's Letter to President Obama

May 12, 2009

Dear Mr. President,

I wanted to write a few final words to you to express my gratitude for your repeated personal kindnesses to me – and one last time, to salute your leadership in giving our country back its future and its truth.

On a personal level, you and Michelle reached out to Vicki, to our family and me in so many different ways. You helped to make these difficult months a happy time in my life.

You also made it a time of hope for me and for our country.

When I thought of all the years, all the battles, and all the memories of my long public life, I felt confident in these closing days that while I will not be there when it happens, you will be the President who at long last signs into law the health care reform that is the great unfinished business of our society. For me, this cause stretched across decades; it has been disappointed, but never finally defeated. It was the cause of my life. And in the past year, the prospect of victory sustained me-and the work of achieving it summoned my energy and determination.

There will be struggles – there always have been – and they are already underway again. But as we moved forward in these months, I learned that you will not yield to calls to retreat - that you will stay with the cause until it is won. I saw your conviction that the time is now and witnessed your unwavering commitment and understanding that health care is a decisive issue for our future prosperity. But you have also reminded all of us that it concerns more than material things; that what we face is above all a moral issue; that at stake are not just the details of policy, but fundamental principles of social justice and the character of our country.

And so because of your vision and resolve, I came to believe that soon, very soon, affordable health coverage will be available to all, in an America where the state of a family’s health will never again depend on the amount of a family’s wealth. And while I will not see the victory, I was able to look forward and know that we will – yes, we will – fulfill the promise of health care in America as a right and not a privilege.

In closing, let me say again how proud I was to be part of your campaign- and proud as well to play a part in the early months of a new era of high purpose and achievement. I entered public life with a young President who inspired a generation and the world. It gives me great hope that as I leave, another young President inspires another generation and once more on America’s behalf inspires the entire world.

So, I wrote this to thank you one last time as a friend- and to stand with you one last time for change and the America we can become.

At the Denver Convention where you were nominated, I said the dream lives on.

And I finished this letter with unshakable faith that the dream will be fulfilled for this generation, and preserved and enlarged for generations to come.


With deep respect and abiding affection,
[Ted]

30 Seconds of Morning Joe in 5 Easy Steps

Step One: Turn on TV and tune in to MSNBC.

Step Two: Wait for Joe Scarborough to say something stupid (it doesn't take long).

Step Three: Hear Scarborough say, in reaction to Rep. Joe "You Lie!" Wilson (R-SC), "It was stupid, but he's apologized for it... strange that he would apologize to Rahm... Maybe he should have apologized to Axelrod or Valerie Jarrett."

Step Four: Yell at the TV machine, "How about apologizing to the PRESIDENT, instead of writing a weaselly note like a fucking third grader, you DOUCHEBAG!" Your household pet might scurry away in the process as mine did.

Step Five: Turn off TV before you burst a blood vessel.

Nothing like a little Morning Joke™ to get your blood flowing in the morning.

President Obama's Message for America's Students

A Message of Hope and Responsibility for America’s Students
September 8th, 2009



Now I know why the wingnuts were freaked out at the prospect of their children listening to this speech. Their kids would finally figure out their parents are complete morons.

Framing the Health Care Debate

We've been listening to what classifies as health care [air quotes] debates [end air quotes] nonstop from the talking heads on the television machine for months and there's one thing that's been driving me absolutely insane. Not one, single, solitary person has categorized the public option as a compromised position.

Whether it be a Democrat (save Anthony Weiner) or Republican politician being interviewed, a round table pundit, or a cable studio desk jockey, every time the public option is mentioned, it's framed as what the left wants. Actually, no. What the left would like is a single payer plan. HR676. Medicare for all.

This framing has shifted the overall center of the sad notion of "bipartishanship" from a public option to some half-assed scheme of co-ops, triggers or what's become apparent, a Max Baucus Bill that has taken a month to be crapped out of the wrinkly asses of the Gang of Six. When will the mainstream media correct the fantastically stupid notion that independents and moderates don't want a public option? When explained and polled, 77% are in favor of a public option. 80% of AARP members are in favor of it. Even 60% of Republicans are in favor of it. When did 77% become the "liberal left"? That looks like a majority to me.

In anticipation of tonight address to a joint session of Congress, I'm hoping President Obama will actually frame the debate correctly. I'm also hoping against hope that he'll call out by name, those that have been fear mongering with the egregious death panel lies, the "government-run" health care misinformation, and the protecters of the health insurance industry.

Enough is enough. There's no problem with disagreeing with certain positions on this debate, but when you have to resort to flat out making shit up like pulling the plug on grandma or inclusion of illegal aliens as the first step toward evil Obama Socialism, you just lose credibility with the 77% of the population that knows bullshit when they hear it.

More Of This, Please

It's time to start calling a spade a spade, or in these cases, a moron a moron.





I do disagree with Tom Brokaw on one point: he said that this is not a partisan issue. I think that is complete bullshit. The is ALL about partisanship and unfortunately, it's about racism. Previous presidents have spoken to students without incident. Of course, those previous presidents weren't black; their citizenship wasn't ridiculously questioned; their religion was never questioned or brought up as an issue, save for Kennedy.

The problem today is that with a 24 hour news cycle, there is too much time to fill with actual news, so we became witness to the ushering in of the era of Infotainment. What used to be a public service has now become a for-profit news industry that has to be controversial and titillating, and if there isn't any "news" that fits that description, the media manufactures it.

All one has to do is to look at last month's town hall meetings full of disinformed, idiotic, tea party freaks blubbering about how they "want their country back." All you have to do it witness the hyperventilating about health care reform to know that as far as the mainstream media is concerned, "if it bleeds, it leads." The uneducated town hallers protecting the insurance company sodomizers in comparison to actual polls showing that a majority of Americans want a public option included in health care reform is a perfect example of the blind leading the moronic, otherwise these people would realize that they are opposing something that would benefit them... not that that's anything new for middle and lower class Republican voters.

So I'd like to see more of this, please. More of so called "journalists" actually being reporters instead of stenographers. I want them to start calling a spade a spade again. I want them to earn their paychecks and dig a little deeper to show their audience the facts, instead of showing the truth and a damnable lie as two equal sides of an argument.

It's not only time to take our country back from the 30% freaks, it's time for journalists to take their journalism back.

President Obama Addresses AFL-CIO

Via Bob Cesca