Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Headlines - Tuesday

Carrie Prejean: The Bible Allows Breast Implants  - Carrie Prejean spoke to Christianity Today about her breast implants, why she's not homophobic, and what it means to be a Christian beauty queen.
 
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h/t Andy
 
Please read and act, only takes a minute!

On Tuesday, the Senate health committee voted 12-11 in favor of a two-page amendment courtesy of Republican Tom Coburn that would require all Members and their staffs to enroll in any new government-run health plan. It took me less than a minute to sign up to require our congressmen and senators to drink at the same trough!

Congressman John Fleming ( Louisiana physician) has proposed an
amendment that would require congressmen and senators to take the same healthcare plan they force on us (under proposed legislation they are curiously exempt).
 
Congressman Fleming is encouraging people to go on his Website and sign his petition (very simple - just first, last and email). I have immediately done just that at:
 
Please urge as many people as you can to do the same!
 
If Congress forces this on the American people, the Congressmen should have to accept the same level of health care for themselves and their families. To do otherwise is the height of hypocrisy!
 
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Obama gives a speech to the Chinese to be more transparent and open - and then bars the release of any more photos of detainee abuse to the media or public: http://jonathanturley.org/2009/11/16/president-obama-calls-on-china-to-be-more-transparent-and-open-and-then-bars-the-release-of-any-more-photos-of-detainee-abuse-to-the-media-and-public/
 
Fun fact: not many heard his speech, because it was censored.
 
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"The main reason I can't march along with the right wing blogosphere any more is that most of them have succumbed to Obama Derangement Syndrome. One 'nontroversy' after another, followed by the outrage of the day, followed by conspiracy theory after conspiracy theory, all delivered in breathless, angry prose that's just wearying and depressing to read...I realized that there just wasn't very much in common with many of the bloggers on the right. And then, when most of them decided to fall in and support a blogger like Robert Stacy McCain, who has neo-Nazi friends, has written articles for the openly white supremacist website American Renaissance, and has made numerous openly racist statements on the record."  Charles Johnson, of Little Green Footballs, best known for getting Dan Rather fired Link
 
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        David Brooks says Sarah Palin is a 'joke.' Well, as the old saying goes, it takes one to know one.
 
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Does this book come with a barf bag?
 
 
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If you are a lady over 40 and/or a lady over 50, there have been important changes re: scheduling your no-longer-annual mammogram! [Washington Post]
 
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Wonkette live-blogged Sarah Palin's appearance on Oprah: http://wonkette.com/412232/liveblogging-sarah-palin-on-oprah#more-412232
 
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No courage here
 
Khalid Sheik MohammedIn 2001, we all witnessed an American tragedy. The terrorist attack on 9/11 was unprecendented in its damage and loss of life. The plot was deceptively simple, hijack airliners and take them on kamikaze runs. We tend to see such massive loss of life as something that requires a complex mechanism -- a Bond villain with stolen military hardware or some sort of deathray -- and the idea that it was relatively simple just made it all worse. Who else could do this -- and when?

Most of the power that day's fear held over us was spent as political capital by the Bush administration. In terms of pointless waste of life, the Iraq war far surpasses September 11, 2001. After more than 4,000 Americans have been killed and Conservative estimates put the Iraqi body count at around
100,000. Eight years later, 9/11 has become part of the background in America. We live a constant "now" and 9/11 has finally become "then." At least, for most of us.

The news that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four alleged 9/11 co-conspirators will be tried in New York City has demonstrated that some can't -- or won't -- let 9/11 become history. It's always part of their "now." Moments after the decision was announced, many slapped 9/11 on their sleeves and freaked out.
Keep reading:
http://griperblade.blogspot.com/2009/11/no-courage-here.html
 
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Surprise: Drug makers are raising prices in anticipation of health care reform.
 
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Newt Gingrich -- who left his first wife while she was in hospital suffering with cancer, cheated on his second wife, and is now on his 3rd wife -- does a video in support of 'traditional marriage.'
Newt dumped cancer-stricken 1st wife. When his pastor criticized him for not supporting his two kids, he left the church. Newt dumped 2nd wife after cheating on her with the Congressional aide who is now his 3rd wife. The scandal sidelined Newt in 2008. Until now.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73Q4V8WNF6k&feature=player_embedded
 
Bonus: the group responsible for the video originally wanted serial adulterer and drag queen Rudy Giuliani.
 
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Tristero on Sarah Palin's view of evolution:

...

Yes, it is truly hard to believe that such noble species as fish and early primates are the progenitors of an animal group that includes such an ignoramus as Sarah Palin.

Evolution works in mysterious ways.
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Clean Your Plate, Little Hans
Because people are going hungry in America.
James Weill, the director of the food center that pioneered the report, called it a careful look at an underappreciated condition.

"Many people are outright hungry, skipping meals," he said. "Others say they have enough to eat but only because they're going to food pantries or using food stamps. We describe it as 'households struggling with hunger.' "
Any further attempts to help alleviate hunger in this country will be attacked by the party of Hoover and their sycophants in Fox News as "socialism".

The only government spending that Republicans are in favor of is that which buys things that can be used to slay foreigners.
Taking care of the people who did the slaying, well, that's evil government spending as well.
 
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David Broder writes another column

I think someone at the home for elderly pundits needs to have a graham cracker and a nap.

The more President Obama examines our options in Afghanistan, the less he likes the choices he sees. But, as the old saying goes, to govern is to choose — and he has stretched the internal debate to the breaking point… It is evident from the length of this deliberative process and from the flood of leaks that have emerged from Kabul and Washington that the perfect course of action does not exist. Given that reality, the urgent necessity is to make a decision — whether or not it is right.

So, David, 8 years of Chimpy's ever-changing strategy, and finally leaving a quagmire for the next guy to fix, and you were silent. Now that the next guy is there, he cannot even have time to think it through?

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Go back to jail.

That's the message from Bushbama administration lawyers to former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, whose case became a cause célèbre among Bush administration critics as ground zero of alleged political prosecutions.

http://rawstory.com/2009/11/obama-lawyers-democrat-alleging-political-prosecution-jail/

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Palestinianian are seeking recognition for an independent state, but the US is against it: http://rawstory.com/news/afp/US_against_unilateral_Palestinian_s_11162009.html

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Mexican deerhunting gang target and fat dunderhead Lou Dobbs went on Bill O'Reilly's show last night to discuss, let's see here, who gives a bleep. But skip ahead to :35 for a comical moment in which O'Reilly asks, dead seriously and out of nowhere, "Is Barack Obama the Devil?" Lou Dobbs doesn't miss a beat and immediately begins his meandering answer, with utter Seriousness. This is a conversation between two theoretically self-aware adult humans!

And don't you just love how Lou Dobbs or Bill O'Reilly can say, as an established obvious fact — indisputable, common sense! — that the health care reform under consideration is the government fully taking over 1/6th of the economy? Meh. MEH. Dobbs/O'Reilly '12.

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You can't put terrists on trial! It might make us Repiglicans look bad!

"Some" fear Fux Nooze fears that the Bush misadministration will be the target of the 9/11 trials held in NYC. Please. Why, just because they pooh-poohed all of the outgoing Clinton team's warnings, then totally ignored the August PDB that warned "Al Qaeda Determined to Attack in the US," and stayed on vacation? Come on.

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Bringing honor to America

The latest nontroversy by rightwingnuts: 'Obama forgot to put a flag pin on his teleprompter' or bowed to the Prime Minister or something.

The knuckledragging hypocrites of Powerline on the President's visit to Japan: "Every time Obama goes abroad, he embarrasses himself and sells out his country."

Oh really.



Well, at least he hasn't bombed the holy bejeebus out of anybody based on a lie. Some comments from the intarweb:

Has he given any back rubs or thrown up on any heads of state yet? Get back to us when that happens.

It was Rahm's idea. They want all the Republicans screaming about this instead of the new bill he's got going through on Monday. It is called the "Taking Guns From Whitey In Order to Enslave Their White Daughters As Sexual Servants for The ACORN Workers Manning the FEMA Camps Holding the Christian Dissenters Act of 2009"