Must Reads

Alissa Torres: 9/11 Widow: The Media Duped Us

BooMan: Why We Need Tax Cuts for the Wealthy

Jason Linkins: Quran Burning Story: This Is How The Media Embarrass Themselves

Ted Koppel: Nine Years After 9/11, Let's Stop Playing Into Bin Laden's Hands

Raina Wallens: My Husband Didn't Stand for Hate

Chris Kelly: The Secret Relevance of Glenn Beck's 9/11 Show REVEALED

Shameless

NY Post Amps Up Anti-Park51 Rhetoric With "Human Remains" Map



The Rupert Murdoch owned New York Post ratcheted up the fearmongering and Muslim hate with this story, conveniently covered by the Rupert Murdoch owned Fox show, Fox and Fiends that same morning.

But hell, if we're going to show the proximity of the Not-A-Mosque-Not-At-Ground-Zero Park51 project to the still empty these nine years later World Trade Center site, well two can play at that game.

Here's my version:



Not only was Gournd Zero and it's surroundings littered with human remains, but it is still surrounded by multiple adult entertainment spots. Sacred strip joints, anyone? And the kicker is what they plan on the actual center of the WTC site because God knows we can't go without shopping. (See "E")

That's right. The very hallowed Ground Zero everyone is defending against a Not-Mosque-At-Not-Ground-Zero is the new site for a proposed mall under whatever the Freedom Tower turns out to be. So while you reflect on the horrible loss of life on September 11th, you can also swing by Zabars for some hallowed bread and grab a latte at sacrosanct Starbucks.

And none this begins to broach the subject of the possibility that human remains were used to fill potholes.  In the haste of cleaning up the debris after the attacks, "America's Mayor" Rudy Giuliani didn't want to seem like the weak, pathetic man he is, and demanded that the clean up happen as quickly as possible.  Obviously, that meant that the careful search for remains wasn't so careful and some of the debris that was carted away to the Fresh Kills Landfill in Staten Island eventually became filler for potholes.

Hallowed ground indeed.

President Obama's Weekly Address - September 11, 2010

A Day That Tested Our Country

Judge Rules DADT Unconstitutional

NY Times: The “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy toward gay members of the military is unconstitutional, [Judge Virginia A. Phillips of Federal District Court] in California ruled Thursday.

...“The don’t ask, don’t tell act infringes the fundamental rights of United States service members in many ways,” she wrote. “In order to justify the encroachment on these rights, defendants faced the burden at trial of showing the don’t ask, don’t tell act was necessary to significantly further the government’s important interests in military readiness and unit cohesion. Defendants failed to meet that burden.”

The rule, she wrote in an 86-page opinion, has a “direct and deleterious effect” on the armed services.

Obviously this is a good thing. I found the timing of it a little suspect, although the case was filed in 2004. Maybe we're six years behind in the dockets. But already, whether directly or indirectly, I'm sensing a weird spin, including a text I received asking, "Will Obama appeal the decision?"

Here are the facts: the House passed legislation to repeal "Don't Ask Don't Tell" on May 27th, 2010 with the support of the White House and Congressional Democrats. As with most every other piece of legislation, it's been stalled in the Senate. The chamber where legislation goes to die.

And as far as defending the law, as we've seen in the past with DOMA, the Department of Justice is obligated to defend laws that are on the books whether or not the administration agrees with them. Whether that includes the appeals process, I'm not certain, but let's not pretend that the Obama administration hasn't been supportive in the fight to repeal DADT. A Congressional repeal is much stronger and harder to reverse than an executive order.

UPDATE (8:45pm): According to Rachel Maddow on her most recent interview, the Justice Department had to defend it, but they don't have to appeal it.  Let's hope they don't.

Betty White Overload?

I like Betty White as much as the next person, but enough is enough.

Donald Trump is a Dick

Isn't it bad enough that we have to deal with his awful television reality show and the beaver he calls a haircut? Does Donald Trump need to make every issue a desperate grasp for the limelight?

Donald Trump's publicist announced today that the real estate magnate and television reality-show host was prepared to buy out the controlling investor in the controversial Islamic cultural center in lower Manhattan that has become commonly known as the ground zero mosque, but is officially called Park51.

Of course, this was on the condition that the Islamic center be build five blocks away from Ground Zero. His offer was rightfully rejected as a cheap publicity stunt.

Donald, you're fucking fired.

Mainstream Media Suckered Again - UPDATED

You'd think that after Al Capone's vault, yellowcake in Niger, Piltdown Man, weapons of mass destruction and the Balloon Boy - the mainstream media,  who believed a crackpot that said God told him to burn the Qurans on 9/11 and then canceled it on an agreement that Park51 would be moved to a different location, would know better. But they don't. This time they got took by Gabby Hayes.

UPDATE (8pm): Apparently, Pastor Gabby Hayes has now clarified that the Quran burning is "suspended" while he prays to figure out what to do next. And the media is riveted. ...Wow.

What the F&$^ is Wrong with People!?

POSTED BY JHW22

I told Broadway Carl, about three hours ago, that I wasn't feeling sufficiently pissed for posting anything today. Then I went shopping with my kid who annoyed me the entire time asking for toys and refusing to cooperate at any level. The traffic on the way home was ridiculous and I needed to chill out while my husband relieved me of kid duty for a moment.

AND THEN I SAW IT! And I saw it again. And I saw it again. And I saw it again.

In the span of 45 seconds I read, in multiple locations, that the asshole-who-shall-not-be-named who wants to burn copies of the Qur'an canceled his bonfire because HE SAYS the Imam and leadership of Park51 agreed to move Park51 as a quid pro quo.

But Park51 isn't going anywhere. Their official statement via Twitter:

Official: It is untrue that Park51 is being moved. The project is moving ahead as planned. What is being reported in the media is false.

In fact, just earlier today I watched Soledad O'Brien's interview with Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf from last night where he repeatedly, clearly and emphatically said that he believes relocating Park51 would be giving over to those would use that concession as a tool against America. There is no way the Imam would play Clarice Starling to the religious-text-burning-asshole-who-shall-not-be-named's Hannibal Lecter. And they didn't.

So you know what we have here, folks? What we have here is a failure to communicate.

One crazy, despised, disrespected asshole-who-shall-not-be-named said jump and everyone jumped. Media ran with it like it was the biggest breaking news story ever and didn't bother to check with PARK51 FIRST! And then people read the headlines and read the quotes of the asshole-who-shall-not-be-named and believed him. HIM. Seriously?

If that's not bad enough, now people will be going about their day thinking that moving Park51 is even an option all because some asshole-who-shall-not-be-named LIED and everyone FELL FOR IT!

I can't slap my forehead enough or bang my head on my laptop enough over the rapid stupidity that transpired in a matter of moments while I was telling my son that if he asked for a toy one more time, he'd lose a time stick*. Never before have I wished to argue with a four-year-old rather than face the absurdity of America more than just now.

FOR CRYING OUT LOUD. And yes, I am now sufficiently enraged.


*My son earns a time stick when he's good and trades in time sticks when he wants to watch a show. When he runs out of time sticks, he can't watch shows anymore. When's he's really ornery, he can lose time sticks.

Am I Going Nuts?

I've just watched three news stories in a row on MSNBC about how our taxes would go up if President Obama lets the Bush tax cuts expire. Have I gone absolutely insane, or has the President not said that he would let the Bush tax cuts sunset on the top 2% of earners and extend them for everyone making $250,000 or less?

They even used a clip of Obama saying, (paraphrasing) "If we extend the tax cuts to Warren Buffet, he's not going to change his spending habits. If we extend them to a family making $40,000 a year, that could mean a new computer for their kid, or making their mortgage payment."

It seems they completely ignored that quote and all the stories were based on the assumption that the tax cuts would expire for everyone, which as I understand it, has never been on the table. MSNBC is really in the tank for Obama, huh?

Playing Hardball (Facts Are Facts Edition)

Just yesterday, I posted how I was glad to see President Obama finally punching back at the hypocrisy. Here's Rachel Maddow with the facts.

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

Dumbass Quote of the Day

"This is a president that we know less about than any other president in history.

...There is not much known about his time in college or growing up. We don't know if he chopped down a cherry tree. We don't know any of the childhood things we know about Ronald Reagan. I don't say it as an insult or as anything other than an observation."

~Mississippi Republican Governor Haley Barbour on President Obama's myterious past.

Of course, if Barbour can actually read, he could start with President Obama's two autobiographies.

Playing Hardball

This is good news:

President Obama on Wednesday will make clear that he opposes any compromise that would extend the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy beyond this year...

Mr. Obama’s opposition to allowing the high-end tax cuts to remain in place for even another year or two would be the signal many Congressional Democrats have been awaiting as they prepare for a showdown with Republicans on the issue and ends speculation that the White House might be open to an extension. Democrats say only the president can rally wavering lawmakers who, amid the party’s weakened poll numbers, feel increasingly vulnerable to Republican attacks if they let the top rates lapse at the end of this year as scheduled.

Of course, we now have to wait and see if Congressional Democrats will find their spine.

Ultimately, this will get spun against Obama as a tax increase if the Bush tax cuts are allowed to expire for the top 2% of income earners, or if it doesn't come to pass and the cowards actually do extend them, by 2012 everyone will have forgotten and the GOP will call it the Obama tax cuts further adding to the deficit.

But it's nice to see the President playing hardball and calling out the GOP for what it is the last couple of days.

It Takes Two To Be Bipartisan

In today's Rude Pundit post, he brought up an NPR report about President Obama's Labor Day speech in Milwaukee and how someone who was interviewed didn't like it because it sounded like a stump speech. Where was the bipartisanship that Obama promised?

Well, obviously this rube hasn't been paying attention. Time and again, President Obama's commitment to be inclusive has been evident, unfortunately to the to the detriment of key pieces of legislation (public option, anyone?) and shown by his approval ratings. But if you dismiss the Republican numbers, because let's face it, they're going to be negative no matter what Obama would do, the President's job approval rating among Democrats remains strong, contrary to the mainstream media's reports.

Let's see how the GOP reacts to this new $50 billion infrastructure proposal. My guess is that it will go the same way the bill supporting tax cuts to small businesses went.

In a display that can best be described as insane, Senate Republicans demanded all week that the chamber act on the small-business-incentives measure, and not waste time with measures like campaign-finance reform. But this morning, when the small-business package was ready to move, Republicans balked.

To hear them tell it, GOP senators aren't against helping small businesses -- at least not explicitly -- but they're filibustering to get more time for more votes on more amendments to the bill.

In other words, Republicans have gone from complaining about the bill not coming up sooner to trying to drag out the process out.

For all the cries, whether positive or negative, about promises of bipartisanship, the fact of the matter is that it takes two parties to be bipartisan.

President Obama's Labor Day Speech

Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

The Fight for America’s Workers



Transcript here.

Quote of the Day

...we only have to fix Social Security once.

The size of that fix is significant, but not astonishing. Over the next 75 years, the shortfall will be equal to about 0.7 percent of gross domestic product. How much is 0.7 percent of GDP? To put that in perspective, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities calculates that it's about as much as George W. Bush's tax cuts for the rich will cost over the same period. Saying we can afford those cuts -- which is the consensus Republican position -- but not Social Security's outlay is nonsensical. Coming up with 0.7 percent of GDP isn't a crisis. It's a question of priorities.

~Ezra Klein

American Taliban

Every civilzation, society or people have terrorists. And news flash: you don't have to wear a turban or have dark skin to be a terrorist.

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Madera's Planned Parenthood clinic is closed Thursday after someone firebombed it with a Molotov cocktail. The FBI is investigating this case as it continues to search for clues in an attack on a mosque last week on the other side of town.

Can the fundamentalist Christians that were obviously involved in the latest terrorist attack against a Planned Parenthood clinic because of their religious ideological beliefs be called terrorists now? How are they different than any other terrorist? It's time we start calling out these "Christians" for what there are, because blowing up a clinic in retaliation for a completely legal medical procedure that doesn't jibe with their religious ideology isn't the Christian thing to do. It's terrorism. And they may as well be categorized as the American Taliban.

(H/T Oliver Willis)