Power Lines Makes the Best Bridges

Over on the Boston Globe's AMAZING photo blog, The Big Picture, they have some very intense photographs of the havoc caused in the Philippines by Typhoon Ketsana last week, including this stressful photo:



I'm not sure how desperate I would have to be to decide to use power lines as a bridge...

Jon Stewart "Schools" Sean Hannity About Fish

In what may be one of Jon Stewart's most beautiful smack downs yet, he mocks Hannity for his apparent belief that small animals, like "this little two-inch" fish, serve no purpose.

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Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Ron Paul Interview

Extra dose of hilarity? The fact that this land is arable only because of a "stimulus package" that was passed in the 30's. "The government should stop meddling in the business of farmers, who would actually still be living in the desert if not for government meddling."

White House Directly Points Out Glenn Beck's Lies

I really enjoy it when I seeI see the White House pushing back against some of the insanity being spewed by some of the wackjobs on the right. This morning, they did it with the nuttiest nut of them all, FOX's Glenn Beck.

RHETORIC: BECK SAID VANCOUVER LOST $1 BILLION WHEN IT "HAD THE OLYMPICS." Glenn Beck said, "Vancouver lost, how much was it? they lost a billion dollars when they had the Olympics."

REALITY: VANCOUVER'S OLYMPICS WILL NOT TAKE PLACE UNTIL 2010. Vancouver will host the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games from February 12 – 28, 2010 and March 12-21, 2010, respectively

RHETORIC: VALERIE JARRETT "WAS LAST SEEN WITH THE NEA." Beck's guest, FOX News contributor Pat Caddell, said, "[Obama] is going to go [to Copenhagen] with Valerie Jarrett who was last seen with the NEA pumping up their use of, you know, money." [Transcript, Glenn Beck Show, 9/29/09]

REALITY: VALERIE JARRETT WAS NOT ON THE NEA CONFERENCE CALL. Valerie Jarrett was not a participant in the August 10, 2009 United We Serve/NEA conference call.

RHETORIC: CHICAGO IS CLOSING THE GOVERNMENT SEVERAL DAYS A WEEK BECAUSE THEY CANNOT AFFORD TO BE OPEN. Beck's guest Caddell said, "Chicago is closing the government several days a week because they cannot afford to be open. They are going to go and reward -- this is the biggest scandal." [Transcript, Glenn Beck Show, 9/29/09]

REALITY: CHICAGO HAS HAD ONE REDUCED-SERVICE DAY IN 2009, AND WILL HAVE TWO MORE ON THE FRIDAY AFTER THANKSGIVING AND ON CHRISTMAS EVE.

RHETORIC: VALERIE JARRETT WILL BENEFIT FINANCIALLY. Beck asked, "Is it possible that she is going to benefit if the Olympics come to Chicago?" Caddell responded, "Well, that’s the word. She has certainly had a lot of dealings going on in real estate."

REALITY: UPON ENTERING GOVERNMENT, VALERIE JARRETT DIVESTED ALL HER REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT HOLDINGS EXCEPT FOR A SINGLE INVESTMENT THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE OLYMPIC BID.

Truth About the Max Baucus Health Care Bill

Sick For Profit is a campaign being run by Brave New Films and Robert Greenwald that emphasizes the absurdity of the way the American health care system currently functions, and they've just released a quick two minute video explaining why the bill proposed by Democratic Senator Max Baucas of Montana isn't going to address the real problems of our system:



They also have a fun little contest going on now where you can vote for what you think is a more accurate tagline for the insurance company CIGNA. Presently, their slogan is "A Business of Caring," but Sick For Profit thinks one of these would be much more suitable:

• A business of caring less
• Walk it off
• Coverage to die for
• We deny. You die.
• Patients try our patience.
• Denying care, one patient at a time
• We love you... to death
• Your pain is our gain
• We put the "Hell" in healthcare
• Bend over

Halloween Comes Early for Humana Insurance!

Americans United For Change are running a great spot in DC and Kentucky (Home of the insurance company Humana AND it's biggest senatorial defender, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell):



This organization has also come out with a few other well-done and hard hitting ads dealing with the opposition to health care reform that is shared by Republicans AND the insurance companies:

The Real Death Panels:



GOP Rx: Wanna Be Healthy? Just Be Wealthy! Like Insurance Execs!

Rachel Maddow Takes on the Birther Infomercial

Rachel Maddow of MSNBC takes on the recent absurd birther 30-minute infomercial in her typically awesome fashion:

Your Science Knowledge Better Than the Average American?

Pew Research Center, an organization that refers to itself as a "non-partisan 'fact tank,'" released this quick 12-question quiz that will help determine your science knowledge relative to the average American.

An explanation from the site:

To test your knowledge of scientific concepts and recent scientific findings and events, we invite you to take this 12-question science knowledge quiz. Then see how you did in comparison with the 1,005 randomly sampled adults asked the same questions. You'll also be able to compare your Science IQ with the average scores of men and women; with college graduates as well as those who didn't attend college; with people who are your age as well as with younger and older Americans.

This quiz was part of the Pew Research Center's new study of science and its impact on society, conducted in collaboration with the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The analysis of the findings from the poll can be found in the full report. (No peeking! If you are going to take the quiz, do it first before reading the analysis.) The discussion of the knowledge quiz can be found in Section 7 of the report.

Meg Whitman's Passion for California Politics Doesn't Involve Voting.

Meg Whitman, former president and CEO of Ebay, is trying to woo voters in California with her lifelong passion for California issues...

Apparently, she's sooo passionate about it that she didn't register to vote until she was 46. Her passion for politics has for some inexplicable reason been unable to compel her to vote in any election in the last 28 years.

Wisely, her opponent is pointing that out in a recent ad:

Glenn Beck Protest At Mount Vernon

A couple of my favorite protest signs from the people protesting Glenn Beck receiving the keys to Mount Vernon, Washington...More at Talking Points Memo:

Susan Hutchison Gets Along With Black People!

Growing up, KIRO 7 news was by far my favorite local news. Susan Hutchison and Steve Raible formed the powerhouse news team of my childhood summers. It's too bad that I had to grow up and find out that Susan Hutchison kinda sucks.

Reason number one: Anti-science. She served as a director of The Discovery Institute. That's the wacko little Christian think tank that came up with the cute little "textbook" Of Pandas and People. Being involved in that organization automatically qualifies as a nutbag. Science is our friend, Hutchison. She does say she is friends with Richard Dawkins, remembers arguing the merits of Jesus Christ with him. Of course, Richard Dawkins recalls it quite differently.

Reason number two: Anti-choice. Hutchison's modus operandi is not taking a stance on anything, but abortion has been giving her some trouble. The furthest she's been able to go so far is to say that she has "no desire to shut [county run clinics] down." Not particularly comforting.

Reason number three: She's a hardcore Republican. She donated to the Bush/Cheney folks in 2004, AFTER it was clear that they screwed everything up. And then in 2007, she donated to Mike Huckabee. That's not even a joke. She actually gave that guy money. And she's been a big friend to Dave "I caught the Green River Killer" Reichert. There's not a Democrat to be seen in the FEC record of her donating.

Reason number four: She's a liar. Back when she worked at KIRO, she sued the organization for age AND race discrimination for hiring a younger Asian anchor to replace her. Obviously, it was because KIRO hates white ladies and had absolutely nothing to do with the Raible/Hutchison nightly broadcast being the lowest rated among the Seattle evening news programs. While the office she is running for is officially nonpartisan, she clearly possesses the persecution complex shared by many conservatives. The troubling aspect is a campaign video that she released blasting KIRO and complaining that she was bound by confidentiality agreements to not speak about the facts of the case. Lawyers from KIRO AND the judge who ruled on the case have made it clear that she is not bound by that confidentiality agreement to speak about the facts of the case.

The Seattle Times highlights some of the funnier points from the documents the judge released:

She believed KIRO executives were out to get her when she was suspended for a week without pay in July 2002. The suspension came after Hutchison was denied a vacation request over the Fourth of July holiday, called in sick and went on a vacation to Bend, Ore., with her husband. "I was deeply humiliated and punished beyond belief for taking two sick days and there was a hatred there among the news director and the general manager," she said in a deposition.

She took medical leave Sept. 19, 2002 — and never returned to work before she was fired Dec. 20 — because she was "totally stressed out" by her situation at KIRO.

Hutchison called the mother of a college student who wanted to intern at KIRO and told her the station would be a bad environment for her daughter. The student's mother, according to a sworn statement, found the call from Hutchison — whom she had never met — "strange."

Hutchison alleged that John Woodin, then KIRO's general manager, was a "sexual predator" and had a "drug problem," according to the mother. Her daughter went ahead and worked at KIRO in the summer of 2002 and told her parents she "had no problems with John Woodin and had seen nothing to corroborate the accusations made by Susan Hutchison."

There you have it. KIRO punished just like they would have any other employee when they really should have been treating Hutchison like a princess. She then throws a tantrum and doesn't come to work for three months because she finds it so offensive that they had the audacity to punish her "beyond belief." As part of her tantrum and as an example of her professional work ethic, she called an intern and told her she would be in grave danger if she worked at KIRO.

That's just the kind of behavior that is missing in King County politics!

The latest polls show Hutchison with a lead, and Horse's Ass is predicting a very strong financial push from Republicans to help offset the party advantage held by her opponent, Dow Constantine...I think it's because of her "tremendous rapport...with people of color."

Dem Approvals Aren't Great, But...

Regrettably, it's true that both Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid have low approval numbers...Conservatives from Glenn Beck to Rush Limbaugh are extremely eager to point that out at every opportunity they get.

What they fail to mention, however, is the fact that Nancy Pelosi is TWICE as popular as her Republican counterpart, House Minority Leader John Boehner.

Harry Reid's approval rating is a disappointing 31%, but when compared to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's 18%, it doesn't look nearly as abysmal.

The Republican Party's numbers don't fair well against the Democratic Party, either, standing at 22% approval for the GOP and 40% for the Dems.

While these numbers are definitely not where I would like to see the Democrats sitting, I think it is important to realize that the competition is doing even worse.

Sarah Palin vs. Dixie Chicks

Remember when The Dixie Chicks had the audacity to say they were ashamed that the President of the United States was from Texas WHEN THE TRAVELED ABROAD?! Conservatives thought that was just terrible.

That is, until Sarah Palin went to Hong Kong last week and blasted President Obama. That's just courageous.

From Flickr:

Conservative Critique of the Obama Administration

Wonkette posted yesterday what I believe is not only likely the most beautiful thing I have ever seen, but also one of the most coherent and damaging critiques of President Barack Obama.

GOPers Say GOP Doesn't Have a Health Care Plan

That same CBS/New York Times poll that I wrote about last week also contained this little gem:

Do you think the Republicans in Congress have clearly explained their plans for changing the health care system, or haven't they clearly explained their plans?

The response of the polled Republicans?

Have Explained 17
Haven't Explained 73
Don't Know/No Answer 10

Yeah. That's right. THREE OUT OF FOUR REPUBLICANS don't even know what Republicans are allegedly proposing. Party of no is holding strong!

Tired of the Lies About ACORN?

Rachel Maddow of MSNBC and Air America takes a fresh and unapologetic look at the ACORN scandal. ACORN has been a target of conservatives for several years, and was even the target of Karl Rove and resulted in the infamous US Attorney firings a few years ago.

Rachel Maddow had an excellent segment on her show last night that goes over some details included in this new report that details the lies being forwarded by Republicans and the misinformation and shoddy journalism being produced by the media.

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Among some of the findings in this report:

In October 2008, at the peak of the campaign season, negative attacks dominated the news about ACORN:

• 76% of the stories focused on allegations of voter fraud
• 8.7% involved accusations that public funds were being funneled to ACORN
• 7.9% of the stories involved charges that ACORN is a front for registering Democrats
• 3.1% involved blaming ACORN for the mortgage scandal

The mainstream news media failed to fact‐check persistent allegations of “voter fraud” despite the existence of easily available countervailing evidence. The media also failed to distinguish allegations of voter registration problems from allegations of actual voting irregularities. They also failed to distinguish between allegations of wrongdoing and actual wrongdoing. For example:

• 82.8% of the stories about ACORN’s alleged involvement in voter fraud failed to mention that actual voter fraud is very rare (only 17.2% did mention it)
• 80.3% of the stories about ACORN’s alleged involvement in voter fraud failed to mention that ACORN was reporting registration irregularities to authorities, as required to do by law
• 85.1% of the stories about ACORN’s alleged involvement in voter fraud failed to note that ACORN was acting to stop incidents of registration problems by its (mostly temporary) employees when it became aware of these problems
• 95.8% of the stories about ACORN’s alleged involvement in voter fraud failed to provide deeper context, especially efforts by Republican Party officials to use allegations of “voter fraud” to dampen voting by low‐income and minority Americans, including the firing of U.S. Attorneys who refused to cooperate with the politicization of voter fraud accusations – firings that ultimately led to the resignation of U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales
• 61.4% of the stories about ACORN’s alleged involvement in voter fraud failed to acknowledge that Republicans were trying to discredit Obama with an ACORN “scandal”

47.8% of the news stories about ACORN in October 2008 linked the organization to candidate Barack Obama, most of them seeking to discredit him and his campaign through guilt‐by‐association.

First Birther Infomercial Ever!

Below, I proudly present to you the first 5 minutes of what is likely the first ever 30 minute infomercial dedicated to the "mystery" of where President Barack Obama was born.

Obviously, this infomercial is running on a station in Texas. Get a bumper sticker and have your demands faxed across the nation for the low, low price of just $30.

SNL Does Glenn Beck

SNL's Thursday Update had a pretty funny opening sketch that highlighted one of the reasons that President Barack Obama granted an interview to every major news network except FOX News: Glenn Beck. While I did find the whole sketch to be pretty funny, the hilarious and spot-on Beck segment can be viewed around 2:10:

Banana Man Edits Origin of Species (Now w/ Nazis and Sexism!)

Kirk Cameron, crazy Christian man, is part of an effort to give out free copies of "The Origin of Species!" Although it sounds like he's embracing science, this is actual a very special edition. Kirk Cameron will tell you about it himself:



The only thing missing from Darwin's work is a a 50-page diatribe drawing strange parallels to Hitler and sexism.

Kirk Cameron's buddy and the author of the 50 page addition is Ray Comfort, the man responsible for presenting the infamous and insane banana analogy, where he asserts that because pop cans are made by a designer, so are bananas:



Ray Comfort has since kind of apologized for the analogy, as he claims he was entirely unaware of the "evolution" of bananas over time:



In that video, Comfort also falsely claims that Darwin thinks aliens are our intelligent designers. He uses a clip from Ben Stein's ridiculous documentary "Expelled," which Richard Dawkins has explained the silly scenario he created to illustrate that evolution is a necessity to any theory of origins:

Another example. Toward the end of his interview with me, Stein asked whether I could think of any circumstances whatsoever under which intelligent design might have occurred. It's the kind of challenge I relish, and I set myself the task of imagining the most plausible scenario I could. I wanted to give ID its best shot, however poor that best shot might be. I must have been feeling magnanimous that day, because I was aware that the leading advocates of Intelligent Design are very fond of protesting that they are not talking about God as the designer, but about some unnamed and unspecified intelligence, which might even be an alien from another planet. Indeed, this is the only way they differentiate themselves from fundamentalist creationists, and they do it only when they need to, in order to weasel their way around church/state separation laws. So, bending over backwards to accommodate the IDiots ("oh NOOOOO, of course we aren't talking about God, this is SCIENCE") and bending over backwards to make the best case I could for intelligent design, I constructed a science fiction scenario. Like Michael Ruse (as I surmise) I still hadn't rumbled Stein, and I was charitable enough to think he was an honestly stupid man, sincerely seeking enlightenment from a scientist. I patiently explained to him that life could conceivably have been seeded on Earth by an alien intelligence from another planet (Francis Crick and Leslie Orgel suggested something similar -- semi tongue-in-cheek). The conclusion I was heading towards was that, even in the highly unlikely event that some such 'Directed Panspermia' was responsible for designing life on this planet, the alien beings would THEMSELVES have to have evolved, if not by Darwinian selection, by some equivalent 'crane' (to quote Dan Dennett). My point here was that design can never be an ULTIMATE explanation for organized complexity. Even if life on Earth was seeded by intelligent designers on another planet, and even if the alien life form was itself seeded four billion years earlier, the regress must ultimately be terminated (and we have only some 13 billion years to play with because of the finite age of the universe). Organized complexity cannot just spontaneously happen. That, for goodness sake, is the creationists' whole point, when they bang on about eyes and bacterial flagella! Evolution by natural selection is the only known process whereby organized complexity can ultimately come into being. Organized complexity -- and that includes everything capable of designing anything intelligently -- comes LATE into the universe. It cannot exist at the beginning, as I have explained again and again in my writings.

Al Franken Provides Refresher on Bill of Rights to the DOJ

While Republicans are still upset that comedian Al Franken is a United States Senator, I find that he's already done an exceptional job. Most recently, just yesterday his questioning during the Judicial Committee Hearing on the reauthorization of the Patriot Act led to him asking a representative from the Department of Justice to explain how roving wiretaps fit into the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution. From The Washington Independent:

Just in case he wasn’t familiar with it, Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) decided to read the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution to David Kris, assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, who was testifying to the Senate Judiciary Committee today to urge reauthorization of expiring provisions of the USA Patriot Act.

Franken, who opened by acknowledging that unlike most of his colleagues in the Senate, he’s not a lawyer, but according to his research “most Americans aren’t lawyers” either, said he’d also done research on the Patriot Act and in particular, the “roving wiretap” provision that allows the FBI to get a warrant to wiretap a an unnamed target and his or her various and changing cell phones, computers and other communication devices.

Noting that he received a copy of the Constitution when he was sworn in as a senator, he proceeded to read it to Kris, emphasizing this part: “no Warrants shall issue but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

“That’s pretty explicit language,” noted Franken, asking Kris how the “roving wiretap” provision of the Patriot Act can meet that requirement if it doesn’t require the government to name its target.

Kris looked flustered and mumbled that “this is surreal,” apparently referring to having to respond to Franken’s question. “I would defer to the other branch of government,” he said, referring to the courts, prompting Franken to interject: “I know what that is.”

Kris explained that the courts have held that the law’s requirements that the person be described, though not named, is sufficient to meet the demands of the Constitution. That did not appear to completely satisfy Franken’s concerns.

The video is available here, and Franken's remarks begin about 95 minutes in. And as always, Senator Russ Feingold's comments during the hearing are definitely worth listening to.

GOP Requests Time for Lobbyists to Review Health Care Reform

Think Progress today uploaded a video of Senator Pat Roberts, Republican from Kansas, urging that a vote on any legislation be delayed for a few weeks and have the legislation posted on the Finance Committee's website for three days. The amendment was proposed by Senator Bunning, the gentleman you can see sleeping during the proceedings in today's Washington Post. Why would Senator Roberts want to do this? To perhaps share it with his constituents? To have additional time to weigh its merits?

Nope.

He wants it delayed so the lobbyists can review it and get back to him. Sounds like a crazy conspiracy, right? Watch the video:



That's actually his argument. "The people that the providers have hired to keep up with all of the legislation" would be...lobbyists.

Lawrence O'Donnell, filling in for Keith Olbermann on MSNBC's Countdown, interviewed Senator Brown about other tactics the GOP is employing in an effort to delay passage of any legislation:

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Please Protect the Insurance Companies

There is one victim without a voice in the health care debate. It is not the 45,000 annual deaths that can be attributed to a lack of insurance. It is not the Americans forced to declare bankruptcy because they need medical care. It is not those who have paid premiums for decades, and then are advised that the procedure they need is not covered. The one true victim that is not getting a voice in this debate: the poor insurance companies.

Will Ferrell remedies that.

Protect Insurance Companies PSA from Will Ferrell

Glenn Beck is Bad For Conservatism

Peter Whener of Commentary Magazine has a great article that makes it clear that he is joining the ranks of the many conservatives that are realizing that Glenn Beck is not good for the Republican Party:

His interest in conspiracy theories is disquieting, as is his admiration for Ron Paul and his charges of American “imperialism.” (He is now talking about pulling troops out of Afghanistan, South Korea, Germany, and elsewhere.) Some of Beck’s statements—for example, that President Obama has a “deep-seated hatred for white people”–are quite unfair and not good for the country. His argument that there is very little difference between the two parties is silly, and his contempt for parties in general is anti-Burkean (Burke himself was a great champion of political parties). And then there is his sometimes bizarre behavior, from tearing up to screaming at his callers. Beck seems to be a roiling mix of fear, resentment, and anger—the antithesis of Ronald Reagan.

Even Joe Scarborough, former Republican congressman from Florida, went off on Glenn Beck this morning:

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I'm not a conservative or a Republican by any means, but I think our national debate and national interest is definitely better served by having two parties capable of presenting a reasonable and logical argument. Right now, as demonstrated by the arguments against health care reform, the GOP is not.

The Beautiful Hypocrisy That is Glenn Beck

The blog over at Another War For Jenkin's Ear has a couple of great posts about the beautiful hypocrisy that is the conservative media darling, Glenn Beck.

The first, Glenn Beck Was For the Bailout Before He Was Against It, reminds everyone that Beck actually supported the bailout after George Bush proposed it. In fact, his only complaint was that it WASN'T BIG ENOUGH:

But these are anything but normal times. I thought about it an awful lot this weekend, and while it takes everything in me to say this, I think the bailout is the right thing do.

The “REAL STORY” is the $700 billion that you’re hearing about now is not only, I believe, necessary, it is also not nearly enough, and all of the weasels in Washington know it

One of the focal points of the 9-12 Project are on these bailouts and how they are representative of a government out of control. Regretting your decisions is one thing, but Beck is pretending that he opposed it the entire time, as is witnessed by his claim that he "hated" Bush for the bailout on his show today:



The second post, "Glenn Beck Was Against Tying Political Movements to Historical Attacks, Before He Was For It" hits on the same point that I was making a couple weeks ago here. Glenn Beck is opposed to capitalizing off a terrorist attack when someone like Ron Paul does it, but when Glenn Beck does it? It's for a good cause.

Barack Obama on The Late Show

One of the benefits of living on the West Coast is the ability to watch a show that doesn't air until 11:30pm much earlier. Such as this funny clip of President Barack Obama on The Late Show with David Letterman:


Watch CBS Videos Online

Plus, David Letterman enumerated the top ten reasons Barack Obama agreed to do the show:

FOX News: Fake and Staged

FOX News, after running nearly non-stop free publicity coverage for the 9-12 Project's March on Washington a bit over a week ago, took out an ad complaining that other networks failed to report on it at all:
Of course, that claim isn't true. But it's FOX, so truth is just something that gets in the way of the story they would like to tell.

The REALLY exciting stuff comes from Media Matters. They obtained footage from the event where it shows a producer from FOX "News" trying to energize the crowd before their live broadcast. They succintly describe the event as "Fair & Balanced? More like Fake & Staged." So much for the grassroots aspect of this protest.

FOX has since apologized for being caught.

Debtors Revolt Victory!

Two weeks ago, Ann Minch posted this video on YouTube, declaring the beginning of a "Debtors Revolt:"



After Bank of America jacked up her interest rate for no apparent reason, Minch decided to revolt and stop paying her bill until they lowered her interest rate to its previous level.

Today, Minch posted another video, declaring victory:



Bank of America contacted her, and after some negotiations, agreed to lower her interset rate to 12.99%. The little guy wins one!

Senator McCarthy's Ideals Are Alive and Well

Over at Huffington Post, they posted a nice little video drawing comparisons between Senator Joseph McCarthy's Communist witch hunt back in the 50's and the rise of the same thing going on in right wing media:

Obama: Kanye West is a Jackass

While it's certainly not the most pressing matter facing the country today, President Barack Obama explaining Kanye West's behavior at MTV's Video Music Awards is still pretty funny, even though it was "off the record."

While the Politico has taken down the video because "We just felt upon reflection that it was more respectful to a fellow news-gathering operation to take it down," I am not a news organization and feel no such obligation to pretend I didn't see Presidential comedy. Either is CNN, apparently:

Importance of Standing Up to Glenn Beck

Excellent article over at Jack and Jill about the importance of confronting the wackos like Glenn Beck immediately and forcefully.

There is no doubt that Glenn Beck has a big platform. But what supports his platform is advertising dollars, and that support is crumbling. To date, 62 companies have pulled their ads from Beck’s show, including six new companies announced yesterday — Aegon, Ashley Furniture, Humana, Luxottica Retail (parent of LensCrafters and Pearle Vision), United States Postal Service and Wyeth Consumer Healthcare. These aren’t liberal activists wringing their hands over Beck’s distortions. These are the bastions of American capitalism saying they don’t want their brands associated with Glenn Beck’s extremism. The only companies left are direct marketers (think Egg Genie and gold coins) and a handful of private companies headed by right-wingers.

In the wake of Van’s resignation, some have wondered whether kicking the Beck hornet’s nest makes sense. I’ve got two thoughts in response. First, Beck and Fox trying to change the topic and counter-attacking with such force is probably a good indicator that we’re getting to them; if anything, now would be the time to go harder. Second, I believe we have no choice. Beck has promised to take his witch-hunt to others in the administration, and has set his sights on Cass Sunstein as his next target. He has no plans to stop, and neither should we.

But it’s not just “czar”-hunting that’s at stake here. The right wing media machine, of which Beck is now one of the leading members, is the single greatest force standing in the way of change. They have already helped derail the conversation on health care, elevating accusations of Obama’s alliance with the Third Reich to some semblance of credibility. And they will do the same to the upcoming debates over clean energy, immigration, and every progressive policy priority. We simply don’t have the luxury of ignoring them. We must challenge them head on, expose their distortions, take away their advertisers, and position their views where they belong: far outside the bounds of any rational political discourse.

Bush Haters vs. Obama Haters

This Modern World takes on what it meant to be disagree with Bush, and what it means to disagree with Obama:

The "Coherent and Unified" Republican Message

Conservatives, instead of being right and forming a coherent argument, are trying to win the argument by preventing debate and shouting down those who disagree. They like to compare themselves to the antics Code Pink conducted during House and Senate hearings, when they would stand up and scream. While I don't necessarily agree with the actions of Code Pink, I do give them credit for trying to start a debate about the Iraq War with their shouting, as opposed to stifling debate on the topic.

The most ridiculous aspect of the Republican defense of the Shout-Down-The-Opposition campaign is that they claim that it is not effective because they are noisier than the Democrats, but they claim it's effective because of the united message the protesters are delivering.

Thank god for Flickr, where we are able to look at just how united and coherent the Republican opposition to Obama is:

Liberals Are Like Nasty Hobos!

Gateway Pundit has a hilarious article over on his site where he tries to draw a comparison of the mess between the failed Project 9-12 rallies that were held on Saturday and the inauguration of Barack Obama last January.

He has a picture of a pristine park with a few old folks milling about from the Project 9-12, and then attacks liberals for the disaster area that remained after the crowds left on Inauguration Day.

Just one tiny problem...Gateway Pundit is working with the patently absurd claim that there were two million protestors at Glenn Beck's rally, when in fact there was far less than 100,000.

Inauguration Day, in contrast, actually did have numbers approaching two million, and is believed to be a record for any event held in Washington, DC.

It's strange that he would post a picture of a nice field and claim that conservatives are opposed to littering, and not actually show a picture of the piles of trash from the cute little rally:

And Gateway Pundit is such a partisan hack that he cannot even imagine that anyone other than those nasty liberals would attend the inauguration of a President of the United States of America. A good conservative always places party above country, right?

Matt Yglesias of the Center for American Progress makes an excellent point about the source of discontent among those at the 9-12 rally...They don't seem to really have a purpose:

As was the case with the bulk of the protesters, there was very little sense that anyone had any actual specific complaint with Obama’s health care proposals. That one woman loves the confederacy. This guy thinks guns are great and diversity is stupid. Many protesters feel that abortion is murder and/or that Barack Obama is in league with terrorists. But nobody had a sign urging the president to adopt more stringent cost control measures, or slamming the concept of regulations to require insurers to cover people with pre-existing medical conditions.

Kanye West Interrupts Obama's Speech

Looks like we have a new meme, folks. Starring Kanye West as Representative Joe Wilson during Barack Obama's health care reform speech last week:

Lunatics Embraced By the Mainstream GOP

Each party has it's share of wackos, but the wackos in the Republican Party are being embraced and applauded. Last week, Rachel Maddow looked inside the bizarre trend of incorporating the crazy into the Republican Party platform:

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Glenn Beck Tomfoolery an Unmitigated Disaster

Conservatives are doing their darndest to pump up the numbers for the unimitigated failure of Glenn Beck's 9-12 Project march on Washington yesterday...Prior to the event, House Republicans were estimating that there would be nearly two million attendees.

Regrettably, generous estimates top out at around 70,000. Seventy thousand is about THREE PERCENT of what they had anticipated. Even with free advertising by FOX News for the last few weeks, being able to muster just three percent of your expectations cannot be considered a success.

Still, the facts didn't get in the way of folks like Michelle Malkin and FreedomWorks from heaping praise on the "success" of the rally and claiming that there were two million people there, and attributing that claim to ABC News which they immediately denied.

To illustrate the difference between the ACTUAL attendance (70,000) and what Malkin, FreedomWorks and other fools claim (2,000,000), someone created this beautiful little visual. Definitely worth a click, and serves as a very effective demonstration of what happens when a political party rejects science, fact and logic.

Nate Silver has more:

But yesterday, someone told a real whopper. ABC News, citing the DC fire department, reported that between 60,000 and 70,000 people had attended the tea party rally at the Capitol. By the time this figure reached Michelle Malkin, however, it had been blown up to 2,000,000. There is a big difference, obviously, between 70,000 and 2,000,000. That's not a twofold or threefold exaggeration -- it's roughly a thirtyfold exaggeration.

The way this false estimate came into being is relatively simple: Matt Kibbe, the president of FreedomWorks, lied, claiming that ABC News had reported numbers of between 1.0 and 1.5 million when they never did anything of the sort. A few tweets later, the numbers had been exaggerated still further to 2 million. Kibbe wasn't "in error", as Malkin gently puts it. He lied. He did the equivalent of telling people that his penis is 53 inches long.

Malkin, who to her credit later corrected the error, frets that it might be used to by liberals to "discredit the undeniably massive turnout". She's right to be worried -- it absolutely will be used that way. If you don't want to be discredited, then don't, as Kibbe did, tell a ridiculous (and easily disprovable) lie.

Health Care: France vs. America

Roger Cohen of the New York Times today looks into some of the arguments being floated by conservatives who fear France and all its greasy socialists:

I don’t think there’s much to debate when France spends 11 percent of its gross domestic product on health care and insures everyone and the United States
spends 16.5 percent of G.D.P. and leaves 20 percent of adults under 65 uninsured. The numbers don’t lie: The U.S. system is wasteful and unjust.

...

The French health system uses a mixture of public and private funding, guaranteeing basic coverage through national insurance funds to which employees and employers make contributions. Most French people supplement these benefits by buying private insurance. The distinctions from the single-payer British system are significant, the results better.

So beyond all the hectoring, the main French-American difference on health care is not ideological but a question of efficiency. Both countries use a mixture of public and private. France is at a very far remove from “socialism.” The United States has already “socialized” a significant portion of its medicine. (Nothing illustrates right-wing ideological madness in the United States better than calls from some to “keep the government out of my Medicare!”)

The real difference is that the French state mandates health coverage for everyone, picks up the tab where necessary (as for the unemployed), holds down costs through a national fee system, and uses mainly nonprofit mutual insurers even for supplemental private coverage. The profit motive is outweighed by the principle of universal health care, with a corresponding effect on doctors’ salaries.

Bill Maher: Listen to the 70% of Americans Who AREN'T Crazy

The Democrats just never learn. Americans don’t really care which side of an issue you’re on as long as you don’t act like pussies. When Van Jones called the Republicans assholes, he was actually paying them a compliment. He was. He was talking about how they can get things done even when they’re the minority as opposed to the Democrats who can’t seem to get anything done even when they control both houses of Congress, the Presidency and Bruce Springsteen.

You know, I love Obama’s civility, his desire to work with his enemies…He’s positively Christ-like. In college, he was probably the guy at the dorm parties who made sure the stoners shared their pot with the jocks.

But we don’t need that guy right now. We need an asshole. Mr. President, there are some people who are never going to like you. That’s why they voted for the old guy and Carrie’s mom.

You’re not going to win them over. Stand up for the 70% of Americans who aren’t crazy.

And speaking of that 70%, when are we going to actually show up in all this? You know that tomorrow Glenn Beck’s army of zombie retirees are descending on Washington. It’s the million moron march. Although they won’t get a million of them of course, because many will be confused and drive to Washington State.

But they will make news because people who take to the streets always do. They’re at town hall meetings screaming at the Congressmen. We’re on the couch screaming at the TV. You know especially in this age of Twitters and blogs and Snuggies, it’s a statement just to leave the house.

But leave the house we must because this is our last best shot for a long time to get the sort of serious health care reform that would make the United States the envy of several African nations.

Americans Blame Republicans

The big news the last few weeks has been how the Obama administration was falling apart, and that everyone is freaking out and flocking to the Republican opposition.

Ignore the fact that the A SUPER-MAJORITY of Americans think a public option is important to any health care plan. Ignore the fact that the opposition is arguing against things that don't even exist. Ignore the patently absurd claim by Republicans that they are concerned about out of control spending.

Instead, look at one of the polls causing this "Obama in free fall" media theme...The poll asked more than one question, and while Obama has certainly taken a hit, he's not taking the blame for the problems in the health care debate.

That honor goes to the Republicans.

Who, coincidentally, are not trusted with health care reform. And are viewed favorably by the lowest numbers since just before they were routed in the 2006 elections. Nearly twice as many Americans think Obama is trying to work with Republicans than think the opposite (59% to 33%). A plurality of Americans also think that Obama is moving at the right pace with health care reform, and a VAST majority want reform now.

One in four Americans think that Republicans have the best ideas on health care, compared to 55% for Obama. One in four Americans still liked Bush at the end of his term. These folks are not going to EVER support anything from a Democratic proposal from a Democratic president.

Republicans, once again, are out of touch. I just wish the media would catch up.

Celebrate the 9-12 Project! First: Remove Brain.

Glenn Beck is a funny boy.

He created this whole silly "9-12 Project" that's supposed to be about Americans taking back their country from that guy stole the presidency by getting most electoral and popular votes. And don't forget about those nasty socialists who maintained their majority in both houses of Congress. Americans don't really want them there. Voting is stupid and in no way reflective of what Americans really think.

The only way we can know what Americans REALLY want is to watch Glenn Beck while he talks about how terrible Obama is while Nazi's march in the background.

Just like a good Republican, Beck's solution for getting attention is to link his little project to the tragic events of September 11th. Which is totally valid right? Let's ask Glenn Beck:

It’s really not the way I would go, tying my movement in with a historical terrorist attack, especially in post-9/11 America.

Oh, but wait! That was different! He was talking about someone other than himself! Ron Paul and his organizers set up a little fundraiser on Guy Fawkes' Day. They weren't ACTUALLY tying their movement into 9-11. Only Glenn Beck is doing that.

Other gems from Glenn Beck:

“And when I see a 9/11 victim family on television, or whatever, I'm just like, "Oh shut up!" I'm so sick of them because they're always complaining. And we did our best for them.”

“And that's all we're hearing about, are the people in New Orleans. Those are the only ones we're seeing on television are the scumbags -- and again, it's not all the people in New Orleans. Most of the people in New Orleans got out! It's just a small percentage of those who were left in New Orleans, or who decided to stay in New Orleans, and they're getting all the attention.”

Senator Graham ALMOST Applauded Obama!

There was a near disaster during President Obama's speech last week...After he was talking about the peaceful co-existence that public and private universities have enjoyed over the years, and drawing a comparison to a public option and private health care insurance, there was a smattering of applause from congressional Democrats. Senator Lindsay Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, ALMOST joined in the love-fest with those nasty socialist pigs!

But fortunately, at the last minute, he was able to bust out the "Oh, I was just rubbing my hands together awkwardly for a second." Pure beauty.

Tim Pawlenty Invoking the Tenth Amendment?

Tim Pawlenty, the current governor of Minnesota and 2012 Republican presidential hopeful, was blustering yesterday that if health care reform passes out of Washington, he may be "asserting the Tenth Amendment."

This has everything to do with him shoring up his anti-government conservative credentials to improve his chances with the base in 2012 and absolutely nothing to do with principles.

The fact that the Constitution does not contain the word health care does not mean that it is outside the realm of what the federal government can do. While the wackos at town halls, and even some in Congress, have been shouting from the rooftops that word is not included in the Constitution, such an interpretation is outrageously foolish. The Constitution also does not explicitely state that either NASA or the United States Air Force can exist, either. But what it did explicitely allow? Slavery.

Government evolves, as does our understanding of it. Congress has the power the "provide for the general welfare of the United States." Definitely sounds like health care could conveniently fit into that category

While he didn't address the issue in the interview, it stands to reason that he also feels the same way about social security, Medicare, and Medicaid. If government has no right to offer a public option, Pawlenty certainly cannot argue that any of those programs should be continued.

Can't wait to see how running on a platform of "Let the old fend for themselves" is gonna work out.

Republicans Are *NOT* Fiscal Conservatives

One of the main arguments that Republicans persistently bring up in explaining their opposition to health care reform is the costs associated with any plan. Regrettably, that's a bunch of BS. Republicans, regardless of how they advertise themselves, are most definitely NOT the party of fiscal responsibility. Fiscal responsibility is simply a cloak they hide behind in order to vote against something that the vast majority of Americans support.

Republicans have absolutely no problem spending money, as can be witnessed by this nice easy-to-read chart documenting the increases of the national debt during Democratic and Republican administrations: (Click the image for a larger version)



Citizens for Tax Justice did a nice little comparison between what Republicans universally supported, the Bush tax cuts, and the health care plan that has been proposed by Democrats in the House.

Newly revised estimates from Citizens for Tax Justice show that the Bush tax cuts cost almost $2.5 trillion over the decade after they were first enacted (2001-2010). Preliminary estimates from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office show that the House Democrats’ health care reform legislation is projected to cost $1 trillion over the decade after it would be enacted (2010-2019).

And yet, many of the lawmakers who argue that the health care reform legislation is “too costly” are the same lawmakers who supported the Bush tax cuts. Their own voting record demonstrates that health care reform is not a matter of costs, but a matter of priorities.

The tax legislation enacted under President George W. Bush from 2001 through 2006 will cost $2.48 trillion over the 2001-2010 period. This includes the revenue loss of $2.11 trillion that results directly from the Bush tax cuts as well as the $379 billion in additional interest payments on the national debt that we must make since the tax cuts were deficit-financed.

Republicans are all about fiscal responsibility when it means saying no to something that will benefit the poor and middle classes. But when a bill with nearly three times the cost that has more than FIFTY PERCENT of the benefit going to LESS THAN FIVE PERCENT of the people, Republicans have no such moral obligations.

Joe Wilson Thinks It's Rude If You Attack Him.

Representative Joe Wilson, after his amazing "You lie!" performance on the floor of the Congress of the United States yesterday, has been blasted nearly continuously for the last 24 hours. He held a little presser this morning where he revealed that the Republican leadership told him to call the White House and apologize. He didn't look like he was holding up too well:



Now that his opponent in the upcoming election has earned $500,000 since Representative Wilson's shout-out, he's trying to strike back and even came out with his own cute little YouTube video where he whines about people attacking him much like he attacked the President.

Health Care Reform Loving Glenn Beck

Cute little Mount Vernon, Washington has suddenly found itself a subject of a story in the New York Times, and they have Glenn Beck to thank for it.

The conservative mayor of Glenn Beck's hometown has unilaterally decided to give a key to the city to the the guy who is in some hot water with advertisers for his recent assertion that President Barack Obama is a racist and hates white people.

Would I give Glenn Beck a key to my city if I was mayor? Hell, no. He's a fool. Before Obama was sworn in, the guy was railing against our health care system and was shocked at how terrible it was when he actually had to use it:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Glenn Beck's Operation
www.thedailyshow.com
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I think The Daily Show's Jon Stewart said it perfectly:

"The hole that they stitched up in Glenn Beck's ass hasn't healed enough for him to stop talking out of it."

Representative Joe Wilson: Class All the Way

Representative Joe Wilson of South Carolina, being the classy guy that he is, decided to shout "You're a liar!" to the President of the United States in the middle of his speech to a joint session of Congress. Classy, right?



At the time of this writing, it seems that his website is down, but you might be able to send him a message later...

Is Obama a liar? HotAir cites a Congressional Research Service report that suggests that it's possible. But The Washington Post says the claim that illegal immigrants will receive health care under this plan is blatantly false:

Despite many claims to the contrary by opponents of the universal health care proposals, fact-checkers have repeatedly established that the bills' universal coverage provisions would not extend to illegal immigrants. In Section 246 on page 143, the House's bill states that "undocumented aliens" will not be eligible for credits to help them buy health insurance -- and these credits are the provision that lies at the heart of expanding coverage to the uninsured. And Medicaid already is limited to those who can prove legal residency. For that matter, even the universal health care program in Massachusetts -- one of the most liberal states in the country -- does not cover illegal immigrants.

**UPDATE** Representative Wilson apologizes:

“This evening I let my emotions get the best of me when listening to the President’s remarks regarding the coverage of illegal immigrants in the health care bill. While I disagree with the President’s statement, my comments were inappropriate and regrettable. I extend sincere apologies to the President for this lack of civility.”

Ted Kennedy's Final Letter to Obama

Obama's address to Congress this evening ended with a reference to a letter that Ted Kennedy wrote to him to be delivered upon his death. After the speech, the White House has released the full text of that moving letter:

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]