Saturday, September 19, 2009

Headlines - Saturday

beckrally5
 
The last time right-wing hatred ran wild like this a president was killed 

It's a demented national jihad, the likes of which this country has not seen in modern times.
 
 
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Jesus. Obama again denies racism is a factor: http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN1827490320090919
 
martin luther king jr.
 
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h/t Laura
 
Citigroup CEO says $100 million annual pay is too much: http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=8607279
 
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Cool. How monopoly boards were used to free Brit POW's during WWII.
 
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h/t Dick: no doubt Max Baucus is taking notes on this man's life story.
 
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Thanks, Dubya!
 
Moody's Investors Service predict it could take more than 10 years for housing prices to recover. 
 
Unemployment over 12% in five states.
 
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In her maiden Supreme Court appearance last week, Justice Sonia Sotomayor made a provocative comment that probed the foundations of corporate law.

During arguments in a campaign-finance case, the court's majority conservatives seemed persuaded that corporations have broad First Amendment rights and that recent precedents upholding limits on corporate political spending should be overruled.

But Justice Sotomayor suggested the majority might have it all wrong -- and that instead the court should reconsider the 19th century rulings that first afforded corporations the same rights flesh-and-blood people have.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125314088285517643.html

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Who knew? The FCC is still investigating NippleGate (via):

The FCC has reasserted its power to regulate fleeting nudity and says it wants to further investigate "whether CBS' indecency violation [in the Janet Jackson/Justin Timberlake Super Bowl reveal] was willful."

"The evidence in this case strongly suggests that CBS had access to video delay technology at the time of the 2004 Super Bowl," the commission said Tuesday in a brief to the Third Circuit Appeals Court in the Janet Jackson Super Bowl reveal case. The FCC asked the court to remand the decision back to the FCC so it could investigate further its assertion that the violation was "willful."


Maybe there was a second nipple on the grassy knoll.

A tassle-covered boob that was shown for a split second is not acceptable, but it's A-OK to show horny couples in bathtubs, Bob's wife smiling because he takes penis enlargers, and to subject us to those idiotic ExtenZe commercials.

If everyone's so worried about what to tell the children about the boob, how in the hell are they explaining what that couple is going to do after they get out of their bathtubs or why the guy has to go to the ER after 4 hours?

This country is messed up.

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Why we must do this

Seven past directors of the Central Intelligence Agency have signed a letter to the President to ask that he overrule the Attorney General and stop the probe of the use of torture by the CIA and other agencies.

First the minor reason as to why they are wrong: The Department of Justice under the Bush Administration was a badge-toting goon squad which functioned at the behest of the Republican party. That is a point which is beyond debate.

Second, and more importantly: The underlying criticism of war crimes tribunals ever since the
Nuremberg Tribunals has been that war crimes trials are "victor's justice", in that you have to be defeated in order to be tried for war crimes. If you win the war, you stay in power and nobody touches you. As the argument goes, nobody sought to try Stalin for invading Poland, Finland or the Baltic nations. Admiral Donitz was sent to prison for ten years because on his orders, U-boats sank merchant ships without warning, yet the exact same practice was carried out by American submarines against Japanese shipping and no American naval commander was ever tried for ordering that practice.[1]

If holding people accountable for war crimes and crimes against humanity is to ever mean anything, it has to be more than a legal way to hang defeated enemy leaders. It has to be more than a punishment levied against lesser-rank nations, whose leaders manage to get themselves arrested. Beyond that, the Bush Administration's Justice Department tried and convicted Chuckie Taylor for the use of torture against his own people in his own country. If we are not going to hold our own people accountable for the use of torture, then the Federal anti-torture law is a joke.

We have to do this, we have to investigate our own use of torture and, where appropriate, bring the miscreants to trial. If we do not, then we betray our own principles as a nation.

[1]One submarine captain torpedoed and sank a Japanese hospital ship. His boat was ordered to terminate its patrol and return to base. Upon arrival, he was immediately relieved of his command, court-martialed, convicted of negligence and received a letter of admonition, which had no effect on his career whatsoever, as he was a lieutenant commander at the time and retired as a flag officer.

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Media courage award recipient Bill O'Reilly bans the media from his speech

Members of the press were dismayed to find out that they were banned from Bill O'Reilly's speech at the Values Voter Summit tonight. The Washington Independent's Dave Weigel snapped a picture of the sign letting them know that they couldn't get in:

r1dr

Ironically, O'Reilly was receiving a "Media Courage Award."

Update Liberal blogger-activist Mike Stark was kicked out of O'Reilly's speech. The crowd loudly booed him when he began protesting O'Reilly, and then cheered when security took him out. 
 
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Poor-people-helping organization ACORN is the single most corrupt group in America, we know this. The Senate and House know this too. Why can't they just be like a good organization, such as any bank or corporate law firm in the country, which are very respectable employers? ACORN, you may know, is headquartered in New Orleans, where there are many poor people, especially with the spikes in seasonal weather. And yesterday Governor Bobby Jindal made sure that they will have NO CONTRACTS with the state government, which they do not currently, but still, because of their corruption in humoring childish fake pimps in Baltimore. MORE »

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Rep King thanks Sen Assley as 'single most important factor' in obstructing health care reform

Yesterday, Sen. Chuck Assley (R-IA) lashed out at President Obama, saying he "resents" the administration "associating" him with "extreme" claims about "the end-of-life situation." Of course, Grassley actually did spread radical smears against health reform, including myths about death panels and "Obamacare." As ThinkProgress has documented, Grassley — who prides himself as a self-described "obstructionist" — has been a dishonest member of the Gang of Six negotiations. Rather than making positive contributions to the process, he has delayed legislation with the ultimate goal of killing meaningful reform. Rep. Steve King (R-IA), one of the most vehement opponents of reform, took to the House floor Thursday to personally thank Grassley for his job of effectively preventing the passage of any bills all summer and raising the chances of stopping health reform:

KING: Mr. Speaker, at this point, I want to thank my senior Senator, Chuck Assley [...] It may well have been the single most important key factor that allowed for the debate in health care to be extended through the month of August and past Labor Day to get us to this point in September where we are.

Watch it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZBfe6JO6mE&feature=player_embedded

Note to King and Assley: A new study released by researchers at Harvard Medical School has calculated that 45,000 Americans a year die because they lack health insurance — nearly one every twelve minutes. "We're losing more Americans every day because of inaction…drunk driving and homicide combined," said Dr. David Himmelstein, a co-author of the study.

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David Brooks went running on the mall and saw no racism!

http://wonkette.com/411181/david-brooks-went-running-on-the-mall-and-saw-no-racism#more-411181

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Oh this is amazing, you should watch. (IF YOU ARE AT WORK THEN PUT ON HEADPHONES.) The lovely Values Voters Conference is taking place in DC this weekend, and every Republican worth his or her salt is there, telling off the gays. The organizers of this event, however, appear not have set up a satisfactory reporting section for the credentialed news networks, like MSNBC and even Fox(!), whose correspondents are being accused of RUDENESS while one wingnut or another is trying to speak on stage. YouTube

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Anti-government tea party attendees demand better government-run transit.

Tea baggers who feel they're 'taxed enough already' gripe about inadequate service in… public transit:

"These individuals came all the way from Southeast Texas to protest the excessive spending and growing government intrusion by the 111th Congress and the new Obama administration," Brady wrote. "These participants, whose tax dollars were used to create and maintain this public transit system, were frustrated and disappointed that our nation's capital did not make a great effort to simply provide a basic level of transit for them."

Keep yore goverment hands offn my Medicare! An' my Social Security! An' my highways! I'm callin' the po-leece!

Morons.

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Poll: majority of Americans hate America

In a survey sure to enrage freetards, socialist Marxist fascist race-baiter voted the "best living ex-President."

For nearly one-out-of-three voters (32%), Jimmy Carter is the living ex-president who has done the best job since leaving the White House, according to a new Rasmussen Reports poll. Carter, who served in the White House from 1977 to 1981, ranks first among the four surviving presidents.
Big Bill got 29% and George Bush the Slightly Smarter came in 3rd with 22.

Dead last? Smirky McStupid, with a whopping nine percent.