Must Reads

Bob Cesca: The Impeachment of President Obama

Naomi Klein: America's Teacher

Laura Flanders: Oops! ACORN Ban could snag Lockheed Martin & Christian Charities

Bill Maher: New Rule: If America Can't Get it Together, We Lose the Bald Eagle

John Amato: Will the media ever report about how low in the polling Republicans have sunk?

Rude Pundit: A Note on an Absence of Hysteria Regarding a Possible Terrorism Plot

Steven D, Booman Tribune: Michelle Malkin - Ace Reporter

President Obama's Weekly Address - September 26, 2009

Progress with the G-20 in Pittsburgh

John Kyl Is A Scumbag

What. The. Fuck?! I wonder if Kyl was against the Family and Medical Leave Act for expectant fathers because they don't have a uterus? What a narrow minded, little bastard he is. So he doesn't want maternity care covered, but I'm sure Viagra and Cialis are okay with this First Class Asshole.

Good for Senator Stabenow to call him out on it with a kick to the nads. And look as his face as he is interrupted yet again. He can't stand it! They should take turns and do it to him every time he speaks just to drive him mad.

I always had a feeling Kyl was a jerk, but man, he's really shown himself to be a real dick these last couple of days.

Big C-Span Day on Health Care - Liveblogging

I don't know if I'll be able to sit through the entirety of the mind numbing experiment that is the Republican opposition to any health care bill, even one that favors what the GOP wants, but today is a big day for the Senate Finance Committee Health Care Bill Markup, or as I like to call it, The "How Many More Pages Can I Use To Wipe My Ass?" Baucus Bill.

Senators Chuck Schumer and Jay Rockefeller are introducing amendments to include a public option in the Baucus bill today. So I'm hoping that whatever induced coma I fall into while watching the debate, I'll be startled awake to some fireworks similar yesterday's little tiff between Baucus and Senator John "I'll Crap My Cage If You Don't Let Me Repeat Things Ad Nauseum As A Delay Tactic" Kyl.

Although I'm not holding my breath, when some of these morons speak, I sometimes hope to see something like this.


The Caning of Senator Charles Sumner

You can stream the proceedings here.

UPDATE: Since I've neglected my blog over the last couple of days, and since this session is only supposed to last until 12:30pm, I thought I'd do a little live blogging.

Liveblogging:

10am - Senator Ensign explaining his "Transparency in Czars" amendment. What that has to do with health care, I don't know. Awaiting for the bitchslap forthwith.

10:04am - Baucus: "The problem I have is that the job title of 'Czar' does not exist." BOOM!

Ensign: "This is about a balance of power. These Czars have broad powers." No, they don't, Senator. They are advisors, just like Karl Rove was an advisor. He had no actual "power" to do anything. Maybe Ensign's just wondering if he can be Extramarital Affairs Czar?

10:11am - Rockefeller: "If you want to create that 'Czar' that's in your mind, and put them through a Senate confirmation process, then you will in effect give them power. Currently, they are facilitators available to all of us. I don't think you want to do that."

10:16am - Baucus: Paraphrasing "Currently, there are holds on every health care nominee. The administration complains that they can't get work done with all the holds on these confirmations. How are they going to get anything done if we have to confirm everyone?"

10:22am - Roll call vote on Transparency in Czars Amendment: 13 - 11 against. Down the line party vote. ...Surprise.

10:24am - John Kerry speaking against higher health care premiums on customers based on age by a 4 to 1 margin. Yep, if you are older and therefore maybe need more medical attention, you get to pay four times as much than a healthy young person. Kerry's trying to get it down to no more than double the premiums and states true health reform wouldn't discriminate based on age.

10:37am - "The Young Immortals" and "The Young Invincibles" are how they describe young Americans to whom they'd like to make health care affordable. I now have a superhero group in my head. Would they be required to wear costumes as proof of coverage?

10:49am - Now they are comparing what insurance companies would charge if older customers weren't charged more than double than younger people. Isn't this a moot point if a public option were in place?

10:51am - John Kyl is appalled at the amount of regulation we are shoving down the poor insurance companies' throats when it comes to the prices they are dictating. That's the point, moron! Where's that cane?

10:58am - Kyl is still up in arms about a possible doubling of premiums for those who are mandated to get health care. Guess he doesn't realize that 2 to 1 is better than the current 8 to 1 or in some cases 28 to 1 ratio.

11am - John Kerry wants to meld this into the HELP bill later on and therefore withdraws the amendment.

11:03am - Baucus: "I'm committed to get a CBO score after all amendments have been adopted." I wonder if they'll get done before they have to go on the campaign trail?

11:06am - Baucus is afraid that John Cornyn's amendment to require every amendment to have a CBO score during the process will cause incredible delay. Is Cornyn on crack? He's saying since we have until 2013 before this gets in place anyway, why not use that time? Jebus, John! Let the process work itself out and then get a final score at the end. If we have to wait 2 or 3 days per amendment on 564 amendments for the CBO to score, let alone the redundacy that I'm sure will occur on multiple amendments, it would take about 4½ years without a day off. GET THE CANE!

11:17am - DINO Kent Conrad backs up Baucus as he calls Cornyn's amendment ridiculous.

11:20am - Roll Call vote on Cornyn Amendment C-23: 12-11 against. DINO Blanche Lincoln voted aye.

11:24am - At this point, I don't know how they'll get to the public option amendments. Did they get pushed off until Tuesday? I do need to take a break to walk the dog. That's not a euphemism. Be back later.

60

Paul Kirk was just named interim Senator from Massachusetts to fill the late Senator Kennedy's seat.

[Paul] Kirk, backed for the post by Kennedy's wife Victoria and his two sons, will fill the seat until voters in Massachusetts elect a permanent replacement in January. His appointment will restore a 60-seat Senate majority for the Democrats that could help President Barack Obama's push to overhaul healthcare.

Lawmakers in heavily Democratic Massachusetts passed legislation in the past few days allowing Governor Deval Patrick to name an interim senator, something Kennedy pushed for before he died in August from cancer so his party would not lose a key vote during the healthcare debate.

"The issues before the Congress and the nation are too important for us to be one voice short," [Massachusetts Governor Deval] Patrick told reporters as he appointed Kirk after signing the legislation.

Music Break! John Coltrane

Happy Birthday, Trane.

On Green Dolphin Street

The Comic Stylings of Barney Frank

Well, Limbaugh Should Know from Fat Asses

Posted by Fraulein

This week we read that known hard-body and fitness expert Rush Limbaugh has apparently been making insulting comments about the size of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's behind.

Yeah, I know, I've got nothing. Please add your own Limbaugh fat ass joke in the comments.

Pot, Meet Hypocritical Douchebag.

Raw Story:After years of angling to be the GOP's favorite broadcast outlet, one Fox News executive now thinks that it is "useful" to remind staff to avoid bias.

"At news events, we’re supposed to function as dispassionate observers, not active participants," writes Bill Sammon, Fox News Vice President of News and the network's Washington editor. "We are there to chronicle the news, not create it."

The letter, obtained by Mediaite, appears to be in response to a recent incident in which a Fox News producer was caught on video coaching a crowd of "tea party" protesters in D.C., signaling them to cheer when the cameras were rolling.

"We do not cheerlead for one cause or another," Sammon claimed. "We do not rile up a crowd. If a crowd happens to be boisterous when we show it on TV, so be it. If it happens to be quiet, that’s fine, too."

Really? Then what do you call this ad in the Washington Post?



Not only is this ad inaccurate (other news outlets did cover this rally) but it's just further promotion in a newspaper that most Fox viewers probably don't read to push the astroturf tea parties. So when a Fox News vice president reprimands a Fox producer for riling up the crowd, it stinks of hypocrisy. My guess is that according to Fox, it's okay until you get caught.

What The Right Was Waiting For?

Sorry to be so cynical.

Ambulances and fire trucks were dispatched to the Northern Virginia home of Sen. Robert Byrd Tuesday morning.

A neighbor of the 91-year-old West Virginia Democrat said several ambulances were outside his residence in McLean, Va., and a Byrd spokesman said the senator suffered a fall in his home.

Protect Insurance Companies

A public service announcement.

Protect Insurance Companies PSA from Will Ferrell

Cartoon of the Day

Scarborough Weighs In On Beck

I think it may be that Glenn Beck has jumped the shark with this Katie Couric interview. He rails on Barack Obama for months, incites an astroturf tea party with his 9/12 Project when he was initially in favor of the $700 billion Bush bailout, and now says that John McCain would have been worse for the country because he's a "weird progressive like Theodore Roosevelt"?!

Wow, that's some special kind of crazy there.

Adding... What's up with Mika at the very beginning of the clip? She mumbles that perhaps they shouldn't air the Beck/Couric tape and then rolls her eyes just before they start. Is she a Beck fan too?

Music Break! Beethoven

Symphony No. 9, Second Movement

Behold! The Stupidity!

As If Being An Hispanic Republican Wasn't Embarrassing Enough

Ivan Marte, "the chairman of the Rhode Island Republican Hispanic Assembly and member of the Republican Central Committee says he has quit the GOP because he was embarrassed by South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson's outburst during President Obama's address to Congress on Sept. 9."

It took Joe Wilson to embarrass Marte? Michele Bachmann and Steve King are okay, but it was Wilson that put him over the edge?

Now He's Just Saying Shit To Freak People Out

Self destruction in 5... 4... 3...


Watch CBS Videos Online

So, Douchey McNutball said he "thinks John McCain would have been worse for the country than Barack Obama." Who do you suppose he voted for?

Steele: Obama Hates Black People!

Shorter Steele: "I'm not saying they're pressuring him because he's black, I'm saying it's strange that they're pressuring him because he's a black man."

Steele is sooooo fucking stupid. Keep it up, RNC!

The Rude Pundit Gets It

Last week I wrote briefly on the attacks coming Jimmy Carter's way because he dared mention the possibility that some might be opposed to President Obama because of racism. GASP!

The Rude One is on the same track and puts it better than I ever could.

...The election of a black president, who embraced the word "liberal," both confirms their suspicions and undermines them in a way that they can't deal with. Indeed, right now they can't even allow Obama to accomplish what he wants to do because, if he's right and he succeeds, their entire worldview crumbles. Conservatives in power, who watched George W. Bush get nearly everything he wanted and it turned to shit, have staked their last chance at regaining power on making Obama into that nigger who wants to hurt the white people. Fuck him and his nigger-loving accomplices.

What Carter was reacting to, among other things, was the yell of "You lie" from Representative Joe Wilson at President Obama. That yell was the barbaric scream of impotence from an exiled warrior; implicit with it was that no black man was going to tell him how the world runs, especially when it comes to Hispanics. Jimmy Carter knows what he's seeing. He listened to it for most of his life. He knows stupid fucking rednecks wearing their suit jacket collars high when he sees 'em.

Read his whole post.

Quote of the Day

"We figured Fox would rather show 'So You Think You Can Dance' than broadcast an honest discussion about health insurance reform," - White House spokesman Josh Earnest on the omission of Fox during the current Presidential media blitz

Of course, imbeciles like Chris Wallace don't get it. They don't understand why President Obama wouldn't use his time to go on their network to promote health care reform after the network decided not to air his joint session of Congress on the very same topic.

"They are the biggest bunch of crybabies I have dealt with in my 30 years in Washington," Wallace said on the Fox News program "The O'Reilly Factor."

Well, somebody's crying, but it sounds like Chris Wallace.

Douchebag of the Week: Rush Limbaugh

When choosing the weekly douchebag, I try to make it a point to avoid the normal douchebags, otherwise it would be way too easy. I stay away from the Three Stooges: Rush, Glenn and Sean, because if I paid attention to even one tenth of the horseshit that comes out of their mouths I would never have the need to pick anyone else. But I couldn't bypass this week's little nugget of wisdom from the leader of the Republican party; or should I say, dingleberry of wisdom?

Referring to an incident in which a white student was beaten by black students on a bus, Limbaugh said: “I think the guy’s wrong. I think not only it was racism, it was justifiable racism. I mean, that’s the lesson we’re being taught here today. Kid shouldn’t have been on the bus anyway. We need segregated buses — it was invading space and stuff. This is Obama’s America.”

This comment was made after local police said the attack was probably not racially motivated. But that didn't stop Limbaugh from pushing the meme. For anyone who still believes that racism isn't alive and well in America because we elected a black President, just think of this statement and the 20 million listeners who sit through this incredibly vile crap for three hours a day.

But he doesn't stop there. Why stop when you're on a roll? To top it off, Limbaugh decides to compare racism to homosexuality.

“If homosexuality being inborn is what makes it acceptable, why does racism being inborn not make racism acceptable?” the talk show host asked. “I’m sorry — I mean, this is the way my mind works. But apparently now we don’t choose racism, we just are racists. We are born that way. We don’t choose it. So shouldn’t it be acceptable, excuse — this is according to the way the left thinks about things.”

Just because your Oxycontin riddled mind works that way doesn't make it true, Rush. We are not inherently racist. We are taught to hate. We are taught to fear the "other." We are taught that the "other" is lesser.

The left doesn't assume that opposition to Obama automatically labels one a racist. When the perpetrators of racism decide to leave their Obama as witch doctor signs at home, when they decide to stop viewing him as a non-citizen and therefore an illegitimate Commander in Chief because of his "otherness," when they start arguing the policy points they disagree with instead of calling him a "lyin' African," then maybe we won't assume those making the racist statements are racist.

But so long as they take your lead, Rush, so long as they agree with segregation, so long as they accept your infantile premise in equating homosexuality and inherent racism, they will continue to circle the drain into GOP irrelevance.

Rush "We Need Segregated Buses" Limbaugh: Douchebag of the Week.