Screw you Limpballs. I've got a line up FULL of nasty and negative, but it can all wait until tomorrow. Suck on some hope there butterball. Just two years ago, this young man made a speech.
Showing newest 60 of 231 posts from 2009-02-22. Show older posts
Showing newest 60 of 231 posts from 2009-02-22. Show older posts
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Not going to go there
Obama: Policies make 'big difference' to African Americans
By GottaLaff
President Barack Obama told an annual forum on black America that his policies will make a “big difference” to African-Americans who are harder hit by the economic downturn than the rest of the nation.I do believe that's exactly what the president called for (red highlighted text). And is anyone else tired of those who continue to juxtapose "savior" and "Obama"?
"Tough times for America often mean tougher times for African Americans. This recession has been no exception," Obama said. “The unemployment rate among black Americans is a full five points higher than the rate among Americans as a whole. At the same time, we know that government cannot and will not succeed alone. It will take all of us stepping up and doing our part."
Obama skipped the State of Black America forum - the White House aides said his busy schedule required him to speak by video - but he was very much the topic of conversation at the day-long event, which features black activists, academics and elected officials. [...]
His comments, filmed in the White House were met with applause. [...]
Yet, speaker after speaker pushed back against Obama as the savior of the black community and instead called for personal responsibility.
Paul Harvey passes away
By GottaLaff
paul harvey, RIP 1918-2009I'm looking for a link.
So far, this is it. And here, but only as a breaking news headline.
UPDATE:
Paul Harvey, a radio legend who began his career in 1933 while he was still in high school, has died, ABC News reported Saturday. Harvey was 90. [...]
He was known for his unique, staccato-style delivery of news combined with commentary, which resonated with tens of millions of Americans for more than five decades. [...]
Among the dozens of professional honors Harvey received, he was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame and, in 1992, received the Paul White Award, the highest honor presented by RTNDA, the Radio-Television News Directors Association. President George W. Bush bestowed the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Harvey in 2005.
PhotObama: NBA edition
By GottaLaff
We desperately need to cleanse our palates after being exposed to this. Here you go. Eat it up:
U.S. President Barack Obama attends an NBA game between the Chicago Bulls and Washington Wizards on February 27, 2009 at the Verizon Center in Washington, DC.
VIDEOS: Rush Limbaugh at CPAC... for those with strong stomachs only
By GottaLaff
Forgive me. I am about to expose you to the biggest tub of noxious slime on the airwaves. Believe it or not, this isn't all of it. He spoke for over an hour. This is enough for now. Have a drink and/or a Valium handy, hold your nose, and be glad you're not a Republican:
Bush deputy White House counsel agrees to testify at commission
Shallow Thoughts: CNN/Rush Limbaugh edition
By GottaLaff
CNN is ecstatic. They are already gushing about all the new Rush clips that they can loop ad nauseam instead of those pesky anti-coal ads.That was today's Shallow Thought. Thank you for wading in.
Romney wins CPAC straw poll; Palin? Tied for 3rd behind... Jindal
By GottaLaff
In one of the opening skirmishes in the long – and almost certainly bloody – GOP battle for the 2012 nomination, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney won the annual Conservative Political Action Convention straw poll Saturday.Total disarray. Let's hope they run Rush. That would be splendid.
While hardly a scientific poll, the CPAC straw vote offers early insight into conservatives’ thinking as Republicans find themselves shut out of power in the White House and Congress for the first time in 16 years. And Romney's victory will give some credence to growing sentiment that he has quietly put himself in strong position for the 2012 contest after losing to John McCain last year.
Romney took 20 percent of the vote, followed by Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal with 14 percent, Texas Rep. Ron Paul with 13 percent, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin with 13 percent, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich with 10 percent and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee with 7 percent. Others on the ballot included South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Florida Gov. Charlie Crist. Nine percent were undecided.
Obama taps Sebelius for HHS secretary
By GottaLaff
A White House source says Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius is President Barack Obama's choice for secretary of health and human services.The source, who was not authorized to speak on the record, says Obama will formally announce the nomination on Monday.
There goes Kansas.
VIDEO-- Myth-Information: Coal-sponsored CNN rejects anti-coal ad
By GottaLaff
Anyone who thinks that the news media are not bought and paid-for is delusional:
Academy Award-winning filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen created the anti-coal ad to harpoon the coal industry’s greenwashing campaign. Today, Politico’s Mike Allen reported that CNN rejected the ad [...]No bias in the media. Nope. Ridiculous. Absolutely crazy.
As ThinkProgress has reported, CNN’s presidential campaign coverage received significant backing from the coal industry. The Wonk Room’s Brad Johnson has also tracked CNN’s Ali Velshi’s promotion of so-called clean coal.
CPAC: Rush Limbaugh's autoeroticism
By GottaLaff
Dear Leader Oxy LimpDong is so clearly infatuated with himself, I fully expect that he calls out his own name in the unlikely event that his Viagra takes hold. I am currently watching the Tee Vee Machine's airing of his CPAC speech (Speech? No, masturbation) as he explains "who we conservatives are" in his "first national address to the nation" (We'll post video asap):
"We love people."Ohhh, you mean these people?
"We conservatives think they're [founding documents] under assault."Screams, cheers, standing O, fists in air, shrieks of approval. No, I'm not kidding.
"We don't want to tell anyone how to live."Oh really? Really?
"We don't hate anybody... The racism in our culture was exclusively on display in the Democrat primary last year. It was not us..."
"We didn't ask if Barack Obama was authentically black."Um:
"The racism, bigotry, sexism we were all charged with doesn't exist on our side."
Coulter on Obama: "It's shocking that ... he's probably going to be our next president, President Hussein." His "first big accomplishment" was "being born half-black... he wouldn't be running for president if he weren't half-black."Er.
Ummmmm.
How could we have misjudged these people? Oh yeah. Here's how.
It's so easy to debunk hypocritical, uncouth gasbags like Oxy as they flatulate volumous clouds that their needy, mouth-breathing groupies voraciously inhale.
The links in this post took me all of 5 minutes. I'd go on, but I'm betting you can all Google as well as I can.
White House Adds Vimeo for Video
By GottaLaff
The first Saturday presidential address on Jan. 24 was made available at the White House as a YouTube file.How cool is Team Obama?But by the next week, on Jan. 31, an administration whose innovative use of YouTube videos had helped propel it into the White House quietly began offering video of President Obama through Vimeo, as well -- and in so doing began a low-key push back at the near-total dominance of Google-owned YouTube in the political video market.
A video-sharing social media site that offers standard and high-definition video options, Vimeo was founded before YouTube, in 2004. But a series of pointed editorial choices has kept the company small while YouTube, founded in 2005, exploded into national consciousness over the next few years. Instead of becoming a cultural byword for online video, Vimeo became a niche favorite among artists and other creative types, particularly in the New York area, where the company is based. [...]
One reason the administration has stuck with YouTube, beyond its incredible popularity and mindshare, is the law. Section 508 of the 1998 Rehabilitation Act requires government entities to make electronic communications accessible to people with disabilities. YouTube files have an easy-to-use closed captioning function, which makes the president's weekly Saturday addresses available to the deaf.
In addition to Vimeo and YouTube, the White House makes the presidential addresses available as mp3 audio files and mp4 video files that can be uploaded into any video player.
VIDEO: That Katrina lie Bobby Jindal told? Seems he told it a year ago, too.
By GottaLaff
Now, Jindal's reps are still in high dudgeon over this, saying Jindal was totally on the level, claiming some mix of it not making any difference whether Jindal made up his role in the story or not or that what Jindal actually said was never meant to imply that he was part of the story rather than someone who heard about it later. But that's pretty preposterous if you look at what Jindal actually said.
But now there's this. TPM Reader EA just flagged this youtube video that appears to show Jindal telling the same story last year, only with even more embroidery about his own part in the drama...
Governor Bobby Jindal tells a now-debunked story about famed Sheriff Harry Lee in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in late 2008.Mr. Toast.
Quickie: Twitter-pated
By GottaLaff
That is all.
Race and the ape image
By GottaLaff
This morning I opened my L.A. Times and found this op-ed piece. It was written by two social psychologists, and addresses what lies beneath the uproar over the New York Post chimp cartoon. What a disturbing eye-opener. The good news, if any? Awareness is the precursor to change:
Some racial associations are embedded so deeply that they are difficult to recognize, much less eradicate -- and they continue to shape our behavior and ideas. [...]We have a lot of undoing to do, or a lot of doing to undo. Whatev, please let's just start doing the undoing already.
In the 19th century and well into the 20th, popular media from movies to fiction to political cartoons frequently portrayed blacks as more simian than human. It was an association that provided cover for slavery itself, as well as anti-black violence. Lynchings in the United States were often justified by relying on this dehumanizing association, and it surfaced in the Rodney King controversy in Los Angeles: LAPD Officer Laurence Powell had referred to a black couple as "something right out of 'Gorillas in the Mist' " moments before he was involved in the King beating. Like nooses, the "N-word" and white sheets, referring to blacks as apelike is among the most violent and hurtful legacies of our nation's difficult racial past.
The negative association -- this linking of two ideas in the human mind -- goes far beyond historical legacy. In multiple studies on ape and African American associations, using different experimental approaches with white and nonwhite subjects, we have found that the link persists and can be triggered in the most egalitarian of people. Our research also suggests a particularly disturbing consequence: When the association was called to mind, even in the absence of conscious awareness, participants in our laboratory experiments were more likely to endorse violence against African Americans.
[W]e tallied the number of ape-related metaphors that appeared in print -- things such as "an urban jungle" and "aping a victim's screams." Not only were black men and their crimes much more likely to be described in apelike terms, but the number of ape-related metaphors predicted the likelihood that a defendant would be sentenced to death.
It is important to note that in every study in which we measured people's racial attitudes, using varying techniques, those views about blacks did not influence the results. In other words, the measurable presence of anti-black prejudice did not dictate how strongly people associated blacks with apes.
Instead, we believe that even among people who aren't particularly prejudiced, the association between blacks and apes is still strong, held in place through "implicit knowledge," the result of a lifetime of conditioning, rooted in historical representations of blacks as less than human.
All of this suggests that it was not simple racism, or just a desire to liken the creation of the stimulus bill to an out-of-control chimp, that was reflected in the Post cartoon. It was a kind of racial programming, a legacy even something as progressive as Obama's election cannot obliterate.
Obama shoots hoops … at Department of the Interior
By GottaLaff
President Obama returns from a game of basketball on Saturday.
President Obama and long-time friend Marty Nesbitt shot hoops Saturday at a basketball court inside the U.S. Department of the Interior.Must be a really slow news day.Press aide Ben Finkenbinder, who left the game drenched in sweat, teamed up with Obama on the court. Another Obama staffer and Reggie Love, an Obama aide and former basketball player at Duke University, were also seen leaving the game.
Obama wore workout clothes and a White Sox hat to the game.
Study: Utah Leads Nation in Online Porn Purchases, Sales Higher Nationwide in Religious Areas
By GottaLaff
A study of the online porn purchases nationwide by Harvard Business School uncovered something surprising (or maybe not). Residents of right-wing religious areas purchase more porn than those in liberal areas:
Those states that do consume the most porn tend to be more conservative and religious than states with lower levels of consumption, the study finds.
“Some of the people who are most outraged turn out to be consumers of the very things they claimed to be outraged by,” [Benjamin Edelman of Harvard Business School] says.
I'm not surprised. Are you surprised? I'm not surprised. I already said that, but I said it again for emphasis.
And guess which religion appears to be the most porn-obsessed? Yup, Mormons:
The biggest consumer, Utah, averaged 5.47 adult content subscriptions per 1000 home broadband users; Montana bought the least with 1.92 per 1000. “The differences here are not so stark,” Edelman says.
Number 10 on the list was West Virginia at 2.94 subscriptions per 1000, while number 41, Michigan, averaged 2.32.
Eight of the top 10 pornography consuming states gave their electoral votes to John McCain in last year’s presidential election – Florida and Hawaii were the exceptions. While six out of the lowest 10 favoured Barack Obama.
Repressed much, righties?
Of course, this study was done by the Harvard Business School, so we should completely discount it. We all know that they're all nothing but a bunch of gay atheist sex addicts with nothing better to do than... reveal the truth.
Residents of 27 states that passed laws banning gay marriages boasted 11 percent more porn subscribers than states that don’t explicitly restrict gay marriage.
Let's recap:
Rightie wingnuts: Gay = bad. Porn = dandy.
Let me rephrase that:
Healthy, loving same-sex relationships = Immoral sexual behavior.
X-rated online voyeurism = Religious Rightie version of monogamous, hetero loving relationships.
Moral: If you vote Republican and pray a lot, you get to regularly enjoy the company of your favorite cyber boinkers, as long as you condemn it publicly.
H/t: Wendy
"A thoughtful and careful president who doesn't make rash judgments"
By GottaLaff
Waiting can work tooHere's what comes to mind whenever I see Jonah Goldberg's name mentioned:
Re “Obama finds the Bush center,” Feb. 24
Barely a month into President Obama's term, Times columnist Jonah Goldberg lambastes the president for not changing all of President Bush's policies.
I'm guessing that Goldberg is an academic policy wonk with little or no experience in the real world.
As a Marine platoon sergeant, I learned never to change anything immediately when I took over a platoon. I watched how the platoon functioned and how the men interacted. Most successful businessmen follow the same guidelines when being put in a new position of management.
Obama's decision to not change Bush's policies immediately are by no means an endorsement of those policies, as Goldberg would like us to think. Rather, it is the sign of a thoughtful and careful president who doesn't make rash judgments and decisions based on his gut.
That's something that was missing in the Oval Office for the last eight years, and something that is always missing from Goldberg's columns.
Bobby/Kenneth 2012
ANTI-HIGH-SPEED RAIL
We have a slower pace of life down here, and we get madder than a bag of cut snakes when these bureaucrats come in with their death trains. Last time we saw a "magnetic levitation," it was our college girlfriend floating above her daggum bed when the Devil (see below) got in her. That doesn't sound like the kind of train hardworking Americans need.
Pawlenty urges GOP outreach to 'Sam’s Club voters'
Good lord, it doesn't matter which low budget retail outlet you try and rename them as!! I'm with John, go lick your wounds for a while and just STFU. Really, the stupidity is blinding.
(CNN) – Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty told the Conservative Political Action Conference Saturday that Republicans must do a better job of reaching out to working class voters, a group he said agrees with the GOP on most issues, from gun rights to heath care to education.
The problem, Pawlenty said, is that lower and middle income voters — a group he terms “Sam’s Club voters” — don’t believe Republicans “are for the working person.”
He said the party must stress its commitment to job creation and market itself “with a feel and concern and tone and an understanding of the importance and the challenges of the working class of this country.”
“And it doesn’t mean we have to sacrifice our principles to do it,” Pawlenty said.
Louisiana to seek New Orleans-Baton Rouge passenger rail line from federal stimulus pot that Jindal called wasteful
No clue what they're doing, just lashing out.
BATON ROUGE - Louisiana's transportation department plans to request federal dollars for a New Orleans to Baton Rouge passenger rail service from the same pot of railroad money in the president's economic stimulus package that Gov. Bobby Jindal criticized as unnecessary pork on national television Tuesday night.
The high-speed rail line, a topic of discussion for years, would require $110 million to upgrade existing freight lines and terminals to handle a passenger train operation, said Mark Lambert, spokesman for the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development.
Jindal on Tuesday delivered the official Republican Party response to President Barack Obama's address to Congress. He criticized the stimulus package passed by the Democratic-majority in Congress and the president and noted examples of projects that he found objectionable.
"While some of the projects in the bill make sense, their legislation is larded with wasteful spending," Jindal said. "It includes ... $8 billion for high-speed rail projects, such as a 'magnetic levitation' line from Las Vegas to Disneyland."
All Aboard The Fail Train!!
Cartoon of the Day
To celebrate the last day of Black History Month. This cartoon really got to me. Via.
Saturday Linkage
I've really truly got some IRL work to do this am, so posting will be sporadic until Gotta gets here. If there is anything interesting, leave me a comment since that's usually the most time consuming part of all this. Extra Obama candy for being good. Viva Saturday!!
Caught On Tape: Cop Attacks Teen In Cell
Yeti evidence is 'convincing' says wildlife expert Sir David Attenborough
National Guard Pulling Out Of New Orleans
'Great Depression Cooking With Clara' videos are a YouTube sensation
Do these mysterious stones mark the site of the Garden of Eden?
Campus Anit-Semitism On The Rise
The most useless inventions ever (unless you fancy a motorised ice-cream cone or an ear-dryer)
Gel may protect soldiers from bullets
Friday, February 27, 2009
President Obama at Chicago Bulls Game 2.27.09
Face it, he's just that cool. Pics from the game here.
On a housekeeping note, we have new ads so click through and check them out. You can also always make a donation through the PayPal button to the right, and if you are thinking of buying anything from Amazon, if you use the links over to the right, just using one of those links to buy anything gets us a couple pennies a transaction.
RNC finance director quits
By GottaLaff
From the Department of Falling Apart at the Seams:
The finance director for the Republican National Committee resigned abruptly Friday afternoon, POLITICO has learned.There's no word on why he quit. Maybe he just wanted to avoid any future Michele Bachmann verbal overtures to his boss.
Reince Priebus, who's running the transition team for new RNC Chairman Michael Steele, confirmed that Tim Crawford resigned Friday after just two weeks as the committee's interim finance director.
Going once... going twice! Rachel Maddow sold, for $800!
By GottaLaff
Last night in Times Square, Bailey House had its annual auction which featured several tvnewsers as items up for bid, including Meet & Greets and studio tours with Katie Couric, Charlie Gibson, Brian Williams, and Rachel Maddow as well as VIP tickets for the Today show and GMA Summer concert series. The last we looked they were each in the $700-$800 range. In the not-so-silent Auction portion, a dinner with CNN's Anderson Cooper went for $7,500 up from $4,500 last year.What, no Keith?
Yet another Quote-O'-The-Day: Eugene Robinson edition
By GottaLaff
Yet another...
"This is some sort of psychic implosion happening to one of our parties."
--Eugene Robinson on Countdown, re: CPAC participants (e.g.: Joe the Wurtzelface, Jim DeMint, Tucker Carlson, Cliff Kincaid, etc.)To say the least, Eugene.
Court of Appeals Denies DOJ Attempt to Hide Evidence of Warrantless Wiretapping
By GottaLaff
An appeals court disagrees with the Obama Department of Justice on the subject of wiretapping:
A U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco today rejected the Obama Justice Department’s attempt to continue to conceal evidence of warrantless wiretapping. [...]
[T]he government filed an emergency appeal last week hoping to halt the release of documents showing that the National Security Agency, under President George W. Bush, had secretly wiretapped the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation [...] Al-Haramain and its lawyers, who claim they were also wiretapped, need the documents (which they’ve already seen because the government released it accidentally) to proceed with their lawsuit against government officials.
Today, they got a significant step closer. [...]
The Ninth Circuit’s refusal to consider the emergency appeal is significant because it also leaves the district court’s ruling in effect. The lower court had rejected the government’s argument that the “state secrets privilege” allows executive agencies to disregard the requirements of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
Coke heads
By GottaLaff
Mark Lennihan / AP; Olivier
Some people think this is really, truly, awesomely, overwhelmingly important.
So important that they're rummaging through the recycling bins to see what kind of soda cans Team Obama tossed out.
Secret Coleman-Lawyer E-Mails Reveal Intentional Hiding Of Witness
By GottaLaff
This has gone on so long, I've forgotten what started it all. Oh yeah. An election. It nearly slipped what's left of my mind, what with all the drama. But wait! Here's more!
All hell just broke loose in the Minnesota courtroom, with Al Franken's lawyers catching Team Coleman in the act of yet more concealing of evidence -- and they've now made a motion to totally strike the Coleman camp's claims about double-counting of ballots, which the Coleman camp has hoped to use to subtract over 100 votes from Franken's lead.When will the judges finally kick Toker Norm out of the courtroom and declare Al Franken the winner already:
[I]t turns out there's more evidence related to Coleman's lawyers' contact with this same witness that they still hadn't divulged until Franken's lawyer brought it out this morning on cross examination of the witness. [...]It's surprising he's lasted this long.
It's pretty clear the three-judge panel has had it with Coleman's lawyers. It'll be interesting to see whether this latest episode exhausts any remaining benefit of the doubt they have in favor of Norm's team.
Quote-O'-The-Day-- Newt: Obama = Bush = Obama
By GottaLaff
"The great irony of where we are today is that we had a Bush-Obama big-spending program that was bipartisan in its nature. We got big spending under Bush, now we've got big spending under Obama."
-- Newt Gingrich, quoted by the New York Times.
*Kidding. I'm kidding. Come on.
VIDEOS-- President Obama to Jim Lehrer, et al: Read my lips
By GottaLaff
Okay, the blog title isn't a direct quote, but that's the gist. Here's more of what he said:
Despite touting the military’s victories in Iraq during his Friday speech in North Carolina, Obama isn’t prepared to declare the American invasion a success.Here are a couple of longer videos of the interview:
“I think what we can say unequivocally is that our military succeeded in every mission that was given to them,” Obama said. “I don’t think we can rightly say that the strategy cooked up by our civilian leadership, with respect to either going in, in the first place, or how the war was managed, was a success.”
On the whole, however, the president sounded a hopeful note in his conversation with Lehrer.
“If we get it right over the next few months and years, ... there is a strong possibility we can leave Iraq as a stable, peaceful partner in the region,” said Obama.
Dobson resigns as chairman of Focus on the Family
By GottaLaff
Conservative evangelical leader James Dobson has resigned as chairman of Focus on the Family but will continue to play a prominent role at the organization he founded more than three decades ago. [...]May the big, intolerant ship finally spring a leak and sink.
Dobson, 72, will continue to host Focus on the Family's flagship radio program, write a monthly newsletter and speak out on moral issues, Daly said. [...]While Focus on the Family emphasizes that it devotes most of its resources to offering parenting and marriage advice, it is best known for promoting conservative moral stands in politics.
Dobson, a child psychologist and author, has gotten more involved in politics in recent years. He endorsed Republican John McCain last year after initially saying he would not, and also sharply criticized Democratic candidate Barack Obama. [...]
Gay-rights and liberal groups issued statements Friday warning that Dobson is not leaving the scene. Americans United for Separation of Church and State portrayed the move as Focus on the Family "merely rearranging the deck chairs on its big, intolerant ship."
UPDATE:
Steve Benen looks at Dobson's legacy: "Few modern figures on the political scene hate quite as many people, with quite as much intensity, as James Dobson. Gays, minority faiths, the First Amendment, Girl Scouts, SpongeBob Squarepants ... if you don't think, act, or believe as Dobson does, you're an enemy. (One of my personal favorites is when Dobson insisted that gay marriage 'will destroy the Earth.' He wasn't kidding.)"
You knew it was coming...
Here you go-
How to get Michelle Obama's toned arms
... Rylan Duggan, a personal trainer who runs Go Sleeveless, a blog that instructs women how to tone up flabby arms and "eliminate bat wings," said that in addition to asking how to get "Madonna arms" or "Kelly Ripa arms," clients are now asking about getting "Obama arms."
"The Obama effect has been that women of all ages have been inspired to take responsibility for their health and their body," said Duggan. "As the first lady of the United States, at 44 years old, and with two young children, Mrs. Obama has shown the world that you are never too busy to take care of yourself and look good doing it too," he said.
Exercise advocates are also fans. "She's a great role model," said Jessica Matthews, a continuing education coordinator for the American Council on Exercise. "Women shy away from strength training, because they're afraid of big muscles. She shows nice toned arms and that it's not going to lead to this myth of a bodybuilder type."
Future of the Party Jonathan Krohn Addresses CPAC
Ahem, from the comments at the YouTube post-
"What's funny is if this kid was a pro-choice, pro-labor, peace-loving progressive, Bill Oreilly would want to kill the parents for indoctrination."
Everyone else is making my points today...
LAWRENCEVILLE - Jonathan Krohn has been told he is a 35-year-old living in a 13-year-old's body.
Ask him about conservatism, a topic about which he is particularly passionate, and he may seem even older than 35.
The Duluth resident's belief in the conservative political viewpoint has led him to pen a primer on conservatism. Based on research and interviews with politicians he conducted himself, Krohn has outlined four principles on which he believes conservatism is based: respect for the U.S. Constitution, respect for life, less government and personal responsibility.
Speech Boosted Obama's Approval
Time to rethink that "Great Communicator" title.
A new Gallup Poll found President Obama's nationally-televised address this week boosted his approval rating to 67% from 59%. This is just two points shy of his highest recorded approval rate.
Key finding: Obama's support among Republicans rose to 42% from 27%.
First Lady Michelle Obama's Official Portrait
Officially a dork here, I'm literally tearing up. As a commenter said over at Oliver's place, "Nice to finally have a first lady with light behind her eyes." Amen.
Ed McMahon hospitalized
By GottaLaff
Reports: TV personality Ed McMahon has been hospitalized in serious condition with pneumonia and other medical problems.Wishing him the best...
Jindal Admits Katrina Story Was False
By GottaLaff
Looks like the game is up.
Remember that story Bobby Jindal told in his big speech Tuesday night -- about how during Katrina, he stood shoulder-to-shoulder with a local sheriff who was battling government red tape to try to rescue stranded victims?
Turns out it wasn't actually, you know, true. [...]
[A] Jindal spokeswoman has admitted to Politico that in reality, Jindal overheard Lee talking about the episode to someone else by phone "days later." The spokeswoman said she thought Lee, who died in 2007, was being interviewed about the incident at the time.
This is no minor difference. Jindal's presence in Lee's office during the crisis itself was a key element of the story's intended appeal, putting him at the center of the action during the maelstrom. Just as important, Jindal implied that his support for the sheriff helped ensure the rescue went ahead. But it turns out Jindal wasn't there at the key moment, and played no role in making the rescue happen.
There's a larger point here, though. The central anecdote of the GOP's prime-time response to President Obama's speech, intended to illustrate the threat of excessive government regulation, turns out to have been made up.
Busted. Mr. Toast. Mr. Burnt Toast.
Good Odds that Rupert Murdoch Will be Responsible for the Next Timothy McVeigh or Assassination Attempt
By GottaLaff
Our pal Mark Karlin has something to say about the simmering mess of Republicans who are trying their best to stir up a revolution:
He refers back to our post about Sean Hannity's website of armed rebellion, military coup, and secession. In fact, he refers to a lot of things, and goes on to suggest what we should do about all this:Yes, with the civil war talk on the program of the recently acquired FOX News demagogue, Glenn Beck, inflammatory talk by Sean Hannity, and Rush Limbaugh's nativist rants that equate Obama to something akin to an amalgamation of Karl Marx and Adolf Hitler, the right-wing media is stirring up the dangerous angry white male resentment to a dangerous frenzied pitch.
And we all know where that ended up with Timothy McVeigh and the militia movement of the '90s, which was enabled by the right-wing media barons -- such as Rupert Murdoch -- to create a literal armed militia movement against the government of the United States.
Call it treasonous, call it demagoguery, call it treachery: it is what comes down the pike when the wealthy Democratic elites are more content to fund organizations that criticize the apocalyptic, brown-shirted Murdoch media barons rather than buying up media and delivering an alternative message that emphasizes loyalty to the truth, Constitution and democracy. [...]Strong words. I'm glad he spoke them. Your turn.The reality is that the only thing that matters in media is owning it. Murdoch knows that and couldn't give a horse's fart for what Media Matters has to say, nor does CBS which just hired a Democratic-hating Republican stalwart as their senior communications executive.
Nor do any of the mainstream corporate media: including radio, television and print. They will just keep on doing what they are doing because they own it and they know what they want: an oligarchy.
The troops for this formidable army of images, mistruths, and emotional manipulation are the angry white males, the guys who have felt displaced by minorities and women and immigrants ever since the Civil Rights and Feminist upheaval began in the '60s.
And these displaced white guys are armed to the teeth, courtesy of the NRA and the senators and representatives who lie down like doormats for the gun lobby in Congress.
And bristling with guns -- including the .50 caliber sniper rifle that is legal in all but California -- they feel enabled and patriotic in rising up against the legitimate Constitutional government of the United States. [...]
This is what we saw in the Clinton administration that led to the domestic terrorist Oklahoma bombing and trumped up impeachment.
And before the right-wing media was as consolidated as it is today, we saw our liberal leaders gunned down one by one in the '60s, resulting in the election of Richard Nixon -- and the beginning of the well-funded corporate mainstream media consolidation owned by people beholden only to the oligarchy, not the American public.
Yes, there are exceptions, but they are few in number, far too few. [...]
But when the armed angry white males decide to act because of the Murdoch/Limbaugh et al. incitement to rise up ringing in their ears, the blood will be on the hands of Rupert and his fellow right-wing corporate media barons -- and he won't be sorry for it.
He'll only feel one thing: Mission accomplished.
Obama: The Un-Rove
By GottaLaff
Changechangechangechangechangechange:
Andrew Sullivan: "I've learned for two years now not to under-estimate Obama. I watched from the very start of the campaign how he strategized a path to achieving his goals partly by eschewing the kinds of tactics that Washington has come to see as political skill. I think of him in some ways as the Un-Rove. Karl Rove mastered the art of petty and nasty political tactics in the South of the post-Reagan era. And he never had a solid grip on conservatism as a political philosophy or of political strategy. And so Rove today endures as the architect of the biggest and deepest political implosion since the Democrats in the 1970s. It was all tactics, no strategy; all politics, no governance. He remains the worst single political strategist of modern times."Apparently, Sully doesn't get the message that Prez O is a socialistic commie. Someone Twitter him. Now.
"Now look at how Obama has framed the debate since the election. Every single symbolic act has been inclusive and sober. From that speech in Grant Park to the eschewal of euphoria on Inauguration Day; from the George Will dinner invite to the Rick Warren invocation; from meeting the House Republicans on the Hill to convening a fiscal responsibility summit; from telegraphing to all of us Obamacons that he wasn't a fiscal lunatic to ... unveiling the most expansive, liberal, big government reversal of Reagan any traditional Democrat would die for."
VIDEO: August 31, 2010
By GottaLaff
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
President Obama: Our combat mission will end on August 31, 2010.
Oh, and Prez O did the impossible. He connected with his military audience. Imagine, a Democrat doing that and ending combat operations. What Communisty, unAmerican things he's doing.
The president did allow for flexibility, but he was far from reckless.
I'll add video as soon as it becomes available.
UPDATE: Text of speech. Plus, he's getting accolades from all the talking heads on MSNBC, including a tidbit about how the top military guys have a lot of respect for Prez O and his grasp of things.
One more thing: He called Bush prior to the speech.
Did Ethical Issues Trip Up Gregg's Nomination?
By GottaLaff
Now they tell us:
Perhaps Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH) didn't back out of his nomination to be Commerce secretary due to Republican party pressure or his principled stands on the issues after all.
An Associated Press investigation finds President Obama's former nominee "steered taxpayer money to his home state's redevelopment of a former Air Force base even as he and his brother engaged in real estate deals there."
Gregg personally invested in his brother's office projects and collected "at least $240,017 to $651,801 from his investment" in the former Air Force base "while helping arrange at least $66 million in federal aid for the former base."
Sen. Jim DeMint at CPAC: Pres. Obama is "the world’s best salesman of socialism... take to the streets"
By GottaLaff
DeMint, a fierce opponent of government expansion, told the CPAC crowd that conservatives might have to “take to the streets to stop America’s slide into socialism.”
His remarks comes a day after Mike Huckabee told the conference of conservative activists that “the Union of American Socialist Republics is being born” with the president’s stimulus package.
“Lenin and Stalin would love this stuff,” Huckabee said of the government bailing out financial institutions.
Republicans are obstructionists, yes. But even worse, they are also destructionists. They care nothing about their own country, and are irrationally giving this kind of dangerous spew way to much momentum. They have to be stopped.
Russian bomber neared Canada before Obama visit
WTF is this about?
OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canadian fighters scrambled to intercept an approaching Russian bomber less than 24 hours before U.S. President Barack Obama's visit to Ottawa last week, Canadian Defense Minister Peter MacKay said on Friday.
The Bear bomber did not enter Canada's Arctic airspace but the two Canadian F-18 fighters had to order the plane to turn back, MacKay told a news conference.
(snip)
"I'm not going to stand here and accuse the Russians of having deliberately done this during the presidential visit but it was a strong coincidence, which we met with the presence, as we always do, of F-18 fighter planes ... and sent a strong signal that they should back off and stay out of our air space," MacKay said.
GOP govs raise money off Jindal speech
Okay, I have to admit that I've been enjoying the utter meltdown of the GOP, whether it's Steele and Bachman trying to bring the hip or JTP and Cliff Kincaid shoving the worst of the intertubes into Republican politics. BUT, this stuff is just jarringly disturbing, as if they really, really have no clue whatsoever.
The Republican Governors Association liked Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal's (R) Tuesday night speech enough to feature it in a new fundraising campaign — despite the criticism it received from both sides of the aisle.
Open your Gmail account and you might see a banner ad for a sponsored link reading simply, "Bobby Jindal's Response," referring to Jindal's speech after President Obama's address to a joint session of Congress. The link goes to TheGOPComeback.com, a new site the RGA launched this week to tout the party's governors as the foundation for the GOP's long march back to prosperity.
Joe the Plumber suggests some members of Congress should be shot.
This is the face of the GOP? Huge kudos to Think Progress for even getting near to this crazed neanderthal.
Back in the day, really, when people would talk about our military in a poor way, somebody would shoot ‘em. And there’d be nothing said about that, because they knew it was wrong. You don’t talk about our troops. You support our troops. Especially when our congressmen and senators sit there and say bad things in an ongoing conflict.
Friday Links
So, all the snow is gone and the wind is whipping up like crazy. Can't wait for real spring, not this dull, dreary crap.
Half of Americans skimp on healthcare
A giant leap for the first man: Earliest human footprints made 1.5million years ago show ancestors walked like us
Obama, Sarkozy Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize?
'Combatant' Case to Move From Tribunal To U.S. Court
Need the loo? That could soon be a £1 to spend a penny if you're flying Ryanair
Right-handers are more playful and adventurous than lefties
'Unrestored' copy of first Superman comic book for sale
CNN: Congressmen want more info on ‘burn pit’ claims
Concerns about the effects of potentially toxic emissions from burning trash at military installations in Iraq and Afghanistan has members of Congress demanding more tests and research from the military.
New Americans United for Change Unveils GOP True Leader
I was kind of grumpy over blogger giving me a headache, but now I'm actually cheery!!! Via Ben-
"Rush Limbaugh is the leader of the Republican party - he says jump and they say how high," says AUC's Brad Woodhouse. "He is better known among Republicans than any of the leaders and when he speaks they listen and follow just as they did on the recovery package. If you look at the polls he led them off a political cliff on the recovery package - and now they are - at his instruction - lining up to oppose the Obama budget and the rest of his agenda just like they did the recovery package hoping - as Limbaugh does - that Obama fails. Of course - the vast majority of Americans want Obama to succeed and they know if he fails America fails. Republicans have adopted this strategy and this ad and a bunch of other stuff our side in planning is gonna make them own it and Limbaugh."
'Conscience' rule on abortions to be overturned
I am tickled pink, Wonderful, wonderful news. If you can't do your job, get another job.
Reporting from Washington -- Taking another step into the abortion debate, the Obama administration today will move to rescind a controversial rule that allows healthcare workers to deny abortion counseling or other family planning services if doing so would violate their moral beliefs, according to administration officials.
The rollback of the so-called conscience rule comes just two months after the Bush administration announced it late last year in one of its final policy initiatives.
The new administration's action seems certain to stoke ideological battles between supporters and opponents of abortion rights over the responsibilities of doctors, nurses and other medical workers to their patients.
Seven states, including California, Illinois and Connecticut, and two family-planning groups have filed lawsuits challenging the Bush rule. They argue that it sacrifices the health of patients to the religious beliefs of medical providers.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has reported cases, such as that of a Virginia mother of two who became pregnant after she was denied emergency contraception. In Texas, according to the group, a rape victim had her prescription for emergency contraception rejected by a pharmacist.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
President Obama to pull combat troops from Iraq in 2010
By GottaLaff
All combat troops out by 2010:
President Obama told congressional leaders Thursday he's planning to pull all combat troops out of Iraq by August 2010, which falls short of his campaign promise of bringing all combat forces home within 16 months, according to three Congressional officials familiar with the meeting. [...]I'm not sure why the media keep emphasizing the three month difference when the real news is that we're finally ending a fraudulent war/occupation. Did it ever occur to them that once he got in office, Prez O was given additional information that he may not have been privy to prior to January 20th, that may have affected the time frame? Or am I just being overly sensitive?Obama also revealed to lawmakers that after combat troops are out, he plans to keep a range of 35,000 to 50,000 support troops on the ground in Iraq, the officials said.
All U.S. troops have to be out of Iraq by December 31, 2011, under an agreement the Bush administration signed with the Iraqi government last year.
I'm all for getting out of there as quickly as possible, but I'm also for cutting the president a little slack. He's been in office for a month.
Hmm... I didn't see Bush promising troop withdrawal before 2011, and the punditiots were fine with that. In fact, did anyone notice anything other than gag-inducing slobbering all over Bush when he got us into this mess?
H/t: Dr. President
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