Probably about as well as abstinence is working out for your family. Marc Perkel
A Republican had to write down "Tax Cuts."
A Republican had to write down "Tax Cuts."
A Republican had to write down "Tax Cuts."
President Obama's bipartisan health care summit "is no time for bipartisanship," bleats rightwingnut talking heads/asses.
Event "is nothing more than a trap" – a sneaky trap by the Islamofrancosocialist Kenyan to show up the Party of No as the Party of No Ideas. So instead of proving him wrong, the Party of No will not attend. Thereby not only making his case but screwing over millions of Americans in the process. Gee, good move, assholes! But I can't say I'm surprised.
Once again, we see the Democrats playing patty-cake while the GOP plays hardball. They impeach our guy for having a girlfriend while we give them a pass for rape, torture and invasions. Obama's refusal to lead is killing his chances at sucess and his party's chances in November..
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"What a great country it is where a mentally retarded woman can become speaker of the house." Ann Coulter
I wonder if Palin will call her on it? Oh, that's right - Coulter has an "R" after her name so there's no foul.
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From Instant Tea, the official blog of the Dallas Voice:
Iowa's right wing is pushing for a vote on same-sex marriage. They're using a new tactic.It only stands to reason that any state that has gay marriage is going to be filled with wingnuts trying to overturn it, just as it stands equally to reason that any state Supreme Court ruling that protects LGBT students and people in general will be opposed by the same wingnuts who would seek to remove those protections.
In their decision, the Iowa Supreme Court cited state laws such as the anti-bullying law that includes protections for LGBT students.
So two Republicans in the Iowa House, Jason Schultz and Matt Windschitl, now want to remove protection for LGBT students to pave the way for an anti-same-sex marriage vote. They have filed the Exclude Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender (LGBT) Students from Safe Schools Law.
Opponents of equality are showing just how desperate they have become. If other tactics don't work, file a law that tells bullies to beat up LGBT kids. Simply, incite violence to get their way.
Less Elton Johns and George Takeis and more Mathew Shepards! Huzzah!
Is anyone else waiting for the divine word to come down from on high to herd the Republicans in the showers and break out the Zyklon B or is that a bit much?
(You can learn a lot by lurking in the political forums on Craigslist.)
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Every Goldman Sachs employee knows that right about now is when the bonuses arrive, and even though this year's take will be heavily weighted toward restricted stock, some Goldmanites are already putting your tax dollars to good use!
Take Goldman managing director Henry Cornell: http://gawker.com/5467901/this-goldman-house-bonus-season-means-its-time-to-add-a-new-floor-to-your-townhouse
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GOP terror attack machine: WTF is their problem?
Well, that's all they've got.
"Criticism of Obama is irrational, irresponsible and painfully partisan," says Richard Clarke, chief counterterrorism adviser on the National Security Council for President Bill Clinton and Pretzaldunce George W. Bush:
The evidence is clear that the GOP talking point machine, repeated by Fox television commentators and others, does not bother to learn the facts about terrorism before they leap to attacking the party in power's handling of the issue. They are wrong on the facts and they are wrong morally to attempt to make political gain on the damage inflicted by terrorism.More here.
There may well be another successful terrorist attack in the U.S. someday soon. No system can stop all of the attempts all of the time; ask Israel. When and if that attack does come, let us hope the American people will reject any attempt to make it a partisan issue. It is not conduct worthy of real patriots.
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Wisco: A story too good to let die.
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Gmail Goes Social
Today Google is expected to announce a new Gmail feature that will mimic many of the features of Facebook and Twitter. Via Mashable: Gmail users can already update their statuses — sort of — through Gmail's chat feature. Currently, this feature is more akin to the traditional IM "away message." However, with this new social push, Gmail will offer a timeline-view of your friends' status updates, just like on Facebook and Twitter. Those updates might come from both Gmail and third-party services. According to WSJ, Google (Google)-owned YouTube and Picasa will be integrated into the stream. The huge question then is whether or not the new feature will include updates from Twitter and Facebook. If so, the new features could be thought of more like a TweetDeck or Seesmic, looking to provide an aggregate view of your friends' social media activities along with the ability to push status updates to the services you use from inside of Gmail. If not, it could be thought of as a major competitor to Twitter and Facebook as Gmail looks to covert its millions of e-mail users into adherents to a whole new breed of social media service.
Sarah Palin is making the rounds claiming to be an "energy expert" due to Alaska's contribution of 20% of the nation's energy needs. That's about a ten-fold exaggeration, Alaska only produces 2.9%. Don't expect the teabaggers to call her out. ###
NPR reports that a billboard depicting Dubya and the words "Miss Me Yet?" has gone up along an They should put these up all over the country to remind people just how bad it could still be.
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The greatest tree-houses evar.
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IAEA Inspectors Monitoring Iran 20 Percent Enrichment Attempt
You're not going to see this in the mainstream U.S. media, which is currently partying like it's 2002 and they know an attack on a Middle-East nation is forthcoming.
International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors are at Iran's nuclear facility in Natanz today checking the startup of production of highly-enriched uranium.
Iran says it has begun enriching uranium to 20 percent in 164 centrifuges, a laboratory rather than industrial scale of output for, it claims, research purposes in its reactor in Tehran.
Got that? 164 centrifuges, and the product will be under IAEA seal so it can't be diverted for weapons use without the balloon going up.
So can the many war-hypers in the Obama administration, Congress, neocon rags and the mainstream media now please STFU?
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Colbert on Palin.
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Most see Republicans as unwilling to compromise
Next time someone asks a question like this in a poll they should next ask "What do you thing the consequences to Republicans should be for their unwillingness?" Be interesting to see that. Via Taegan-
A new Washington Post/ABC News poll finds that nearly six in 10 Americans say the Republicans aren't doing enough to forge compromise with President Obama on important issues; more than four in 10 see Obama as doing too little to get GOP support.
In addition, nearly two-thirds of Americans say they want Congress to keep working to pass comprehensive health-care reform.
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Obstruction fetish: Rebooblicans block another routine nomination:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/09/carl-levin-filibuster-cou_n_455814.html
How's that whole bipartisanship thing working out for ya, Hopey?
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Hey Sarah Palin: in honor of the American soldier, how 'bout you quit makin'stuff up?
It says something about the state of our politics that a couple of big stimulus welfare queens like Palin and Perry get to prance around and tell a bunch of demonstrable lies at major campaign events and it's not a scandal at all.
'Hey Sarah Palin' reminds me of this.
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A program whose purpose is to get rid of smoking, funds studies which consequently find that all things nicotine are harmful!
BBC:
Lingering residue from tobacco smoke which clings to upholstery, clothing and the skin releases cancer-causing agents, work in PNAS journal shows.
Berkeley scientists in the US ran lab tests and found "substantial levels" of toxins on smoke-exposed material.
They say while banishing smokers to outdoors cuts second-hand smoke, residues will follow them back inside and this "third-hand smoke" may harm.
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Farms in China are even worse polluters than factories.
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I'm not the only one who's had it with Rahm:
...It's time to can the little bastid. Repeating Digby's quote:
Emanuel has presented himself as the all-powerful. He's led Obama's presidency into a tailspin (and Obama let him). While Emanuel hasn't worked in the Senate, his Deputy Chief of Staff, Jim Messina, is a long-time former Senate staffer. How Emanuel and his crew destroyed the Obama brand so quickly will be the subject of debate for years to come.
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... You don't keep a nasty henchman who makes enemies of everyone and inspires loathing by his very presence if he can't even get the job done ...It's all about results and the record so far is pretty dismal. There are a lot of Dems in Congress (Blue Dogs) who needed a nut-crushing by the White House and never got it. Republican obstruction means nothing if you can't get your team on the same page.
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Perhaps because of the media love affair with the aging beauty queen from Alaska with the unmistakable maniacal gleam of insanity in her eyes, Minnesota nutball Michele Bachmann advocacy of repeal of Social Security received little attention at the Teabaggers' Ball last weekend: http://brilliantatbreakfast.blogspot.com/2010/02/memo-to-michele-bachmann-you-already.html
Elsewhere, she says God will curse America if it opposes Israel.
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"That's part of [the GOP's] job, to recast the emotions of the American people." -- Newt Gingrich.Gingrich claimed that the reason why it was OK to read the Shoe Bomber his rights was because the Shoe Bomber is an American citizen. Stewart checked, of course, the Shoe Bomber is a British citizen.
"I think that's wise and don't let reality get in the way." -- Jon Stewart
Personally, I'd like to see Gretchen Carlson in a burka.
Climate expert Dr. Jeff Masters notes, "It's not hard at all to get temperatures cold enough for snow in a world experiencing global warming. … Global warming theory predicts that global precipitation will increase, and that heavy precipitation events…will also increase," he said, adding that this "occurs because as the climate warms, evaporation of moisture from the oceans increases, resulting in more water vapor in the air." Indeed, the IPCC has said that atmospheric moisture has increased 5 percent over the last century.
Sen Inhofe's grandchildren build igloo, call it 'Al Gore's new home'
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You don't blow a bunch of cash on Vegas when you're trying to save for college. You prioritize. You make tough choices. – President Carebear
One can only wonder what these tough choices are? Could they be to close down Gitmo maybe this year, or leave it as is for a non-election year?
Perhaps the tough choice is whether this is the year to pursue the fantastically discriminatory Don't Ask Don't Tell policy like the Furies on a meth binge, or cynically to abandon it for yet another study.
Maybe he meant finishing up the clusterf*** that is Healthcare Reform (mysteriously rebranded as Health Insurance Reform in the State of the Union address), or leave that alone for a non-election year?Decisions, decisions… I'm sure he will decide about what not to do, it seems to be his strength.
It is interesting to note that the doomed invertebrate Senator Harry Reid, of Nevada, took umbrage at the language President Carebear used. Harry Reid, who would let the GOP, Traitor Joe, Ben Nelson, and too many others to list, the same Harry Reid who let everyone and his brother walk all over him and prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that he is a useless tool, took The Carebear to task about calling out Nevada: "There is no place better to have fun than Vegas, one of our country's great destinations!"
And indeed it is. Where else can reality-denying Americans go and expect to get something for nothing, which is our national pastime. Where else can you go with your life savings in hand and honestly believe that you can walk away a millionaire? One of my Brit friends told me that he considers Las Vegas to be the most American of cities. We hardly speak any more. On the plus side, Soylent Blonde says Vegas is her favorite city, too.
Harry seems to have struck a nerve, as the president responded to him:
I was making the simple point that families use vacation dollars, not college tuition money, to have fun.
Which brings us to college tuition — the public University of California increased fees by 30% — is now approaching the level where only the children of the captains of industry and the politically connected can afford to attend. Maybe you can spend that tuition money after all. College, once considered the gateway to the middle class is somewhat meaningless when there is no middle class.
Which brings us to the subject of the economy, especially now that the Titans of Wall Street are once again running scared as the Dow dips below 10,000. It seems that several governments in the Euro Zone are on the verge of tipping into insolvency, and as they cannot deficit spend their way into the black (the Euro currency is not controlled by any one government, and what is happening now is exactly the reason the UK did not want to participate in that great experiment), it seems very likely we are watching the great unravelling, and it will come here, too.
Spain and Greece are first up at bat, and if they fail, watch the ripple affect. While we can deficit spend, it seems unlikely that we will be able to get a stimulus or jobs bill passed as the GOP (who now run the country somehow with 41 Senate votes to the Dims 59, because they used that Super Majority so well…) are only interested in watching the country fail as it might lead them back to power. Politics is the new Football: meaningless distraction.
So there we have it: spend your tuition money in Greece or Spain, you're sure to find a bargain; or you can go to Las Vegas as Harry Reid suggests. It is, as President Carebear noted, a tough choice.
