Glenn Beck conspiracy generator.
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The American Center for Law and Justice says it filed a petition Wednesday challenging a city panel's decision to let developers tear down a building to make way for the mosque. The Washington-based group is representing a firefighter who survived the terrorist attacks. Opponents say the mosque plan insults the memory of those killed by Islamic terrorists nearly nine years ago. Supporters see it as a monument to tolerance.
Main Street may be about to get its own gigantic bailout. Rumors are running wild from Washington to Wall Street that the Obama administration is about to order government-controlled lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to forgive a portion of the mortgage debt of millions of Americans who owe more than what their homes are worth. An estimated 15 million U.S. mortgages – one in five – are underwater with negative equity of some $800 billion.
I can't fully describe how huge this would be.
That's great, but once again, those of us who signed up for sensible mortgages and kept up with our payments get nothing.
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As triple digit heat continues to spread ###
Guns don't kill kids, kids kill kids
This kid was either defending himself from a dangerous 3-year old or trying to protect his future liberties from a known future islamocommunofascist. Wonder when the Open Carry nutjobs will be lobbying for kids to pack heat to protect themselves from their playmates?
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Just as BP shuts down the undersea gusher, some drunken redneck smashes his boat into a small wellhead in the Gulf of Mexico. What are the odds that this could happen? Well they have a lot of boat-driving drunken rednecks down there in the Gulf, and a lot of wells and pipelines…
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Maybe those who read the Fox News website aren't as unenlightened as they could be, given that they read the Fox News website. Check out the results of the non-scientific Fox News website poll about gay marriage. Does this mean that Fox News propaganda just ain't what it used to be? Oh, nooooo……..
H/T Queerty
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Christopher Hitchens is very sick with esophageal cancer, but he still writes like a fiery angel in describing his situation.
These are my first raw reactions to being stricken. I am quietly resolved to resist bodily as best I can, even if only passively, and to seek the most advanced advice. My heart and blood pressure and many other registers are now strong again: indeed, it occurs to me that if I didn't have such a stout constitution I might have led a much healthier life thus far. Against me is the blind, emotionless alien, cheered on by some who have long wished me ill. But on the side of my continued life is a group of brilliant and selfless physicians plus an astonishing number of prayer groups. On both of these I hope to write next time if--as my father invariably said--I am spared.
I'm reminded of Stephen J. Gould, who was also afflicted with cancer, who wrote one of his best essays ever, The Median Isn't the Message, on the subject. How do atheists face death? As we see from the examples of Hitchens and Gould, with courage and reason.
Gould, by the way, outlived his diagnosis by 20 years.
Also, if you'd like to see some examples of the people wishing Hitchens ill, simply browse this cache of conservative comments at Politico. The contrast is astonishing: there's Hitchens, the wounded lion, writing beautifully and strongly, and there are the nattering mice, blathering about 'atheists in foxholes' and praying for a conversion in their thuggish and clumsy cliches and blind dogmas.
I look at the two sides and I know which one I want to be on when I grow up.
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Elena Kagan was confirmed as the newest Supreme Court justice today, with senators voting 63-37 to approve President Obama's second nominee to the high court. Her confirmation will put three women on the bench for the first time ever -- a statistic that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid hailed as "real progress" on the Senate floor before his colleagues took the rare step of casting their votes from their desks.
The Democrats were nearly united in support, with only Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) voting "No." There were 5 Republicans who voted "Yes," breaking with the majority of their party.
In a related Ben Nelson story: he just voted to extend the Bush tax cuts permanently and massively increasew the deficit.
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What? A gay judge ruling on gay rights? Absurd!
You probably thought U.S. District Chief Judge Vaughn Walker (originally nominated to the bench by Ronald Reagan) struck down Proposition 8 based on sound legal judgment. Well, if you did, you were probably wrong…at least according to some on the right.
American Families Association: "It's also extremely problematic that Judge Walker is a practicing homosexual himself. He should have recused himself from this case, because his judgment is clearly compromised by his own sexual proclivity. The fundamental issue here is whether homosexual conduct, with all its physical and psychological risks, should be promoted and endorsed by society.
National Organization For Marriage: Here we have an openly gay (according to the San Francisco Chronicle) federal judge substituting his views for those of the American people and of our Founding Fathers who I promise you would be shocked by courts that imagine they have the right to put gay marriage in our Constitution."
Pat Buchanan: It is unnatural….an older white guy handed down the decision and he happened to be gay. That might have had something to do with it.
See? It's unnatural. A gay judge rendering judgment on matters involving gay rights makes about as much sense as a female judge hearing a case on abortion…or an African-American judge rendering an opinion on matters involving black civil rights.
This nonsense has to end or the next thing you'll have is older white judges involving themselves in court cases where the defendant is another older white guy. How ridiculous would that be? Clearly his judgment would be compromised by his own age/color/gender proclivity.
Leave it to Buchanan to speak the truth.
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Here's just a short list of some of the bills that Republicans have blocked, or attempted to block, since Obama became President.
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The seven types of Republicans.
More lucky duckies:
With the American economic recovery hanging in the balance, private employers added 71,000 jobs in July, up from a downwardly revised 31,000 in June but below the consensus forecast of 90,000. The unemployment rate stayed steady at 9.5 percent.Over all, the nation lost 131,000 jobs in July, but those losses came as 143,000 Census Bureau workers left their temporary posts, the Labor Department said. June's number was revised dramatically downward to a total loss of 221,000 jobs. The Department of Labor originally reported that the nation lost 125,000 jobs in June.
Maybe they could get some IT training. Oh wait, Obama is paying people in other countries for that.
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"Whaddya mean telling that kid,###
Today's long read: Let Us Speak of Pheasants and Peasants.
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Bend over. Here comes some more of that change......
"The president does oppose same-sex marriage, but he supports equality for gay and lesbian couples, and benefits and other issues, and that has been effectuated in federal agencies under his control," Axelrod said on MSNBC.
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I think [President Obama]'s quite complacent, and I think he's in over his head, and he has poor advisers around him. And I think he's really in flux when it comes to what his governing philosophy really is. Some of this, though, is a result of him not having much experience.
– Mooselini, who quit being Governor of Alaska about half-way through it.
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Oh, let's just say it was a shock when a wife learned on Facebook that her husband married someone else over the weekend. Is there no privacy anymore?
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Here is Senate candidate Sharron Angle accidentally telling the truth about why she only talks to Fox News and other members of the right wing press:
We wanted them to ask the questions we want to answer so that they report the news the way we want it to be reported and when I get on a show and I say send me money to SharronAngle.com, so that your listeners will know that if they want to support me they need to go to SharronAngle.com.Okey doke. Even Fox's Carl Cameron had a little trouble swallowing this, but let's face it: this is the wave of the future. The traditional old school press grilling used to be the price you paid because you needed traditional old school press coverage. Today you don't really need that, so why not skip the whole thing and just appear in places that let you set the agenda and openly beg for money? I expect liberals to follow suit quickly.
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These are our kind of billionaires "Jim and Virginia Stowers, Kansas City residents known for their financial help to start and finance the Stowers Institute for Medical Research, have pledged to donate more than 99 percent of their wealth to philanthropic ventures. ... The couple is one of 40 signers who have taken the Giving Pledge, a public challenge from Bill Gates and Warren Buffett to the nation's wealthiest people to give away more than half of their net worth. ... "Virginia and I wanted to give back something more valuable than money to the millions of people who made our success possible with American Century Investments," Jim Stowers wrote in the pledge. "Our vision is to make a significant contribution to humanity through medical research by expanding our understanding of the secrets of life and by improving life's quality through innovative approaches to the causes, treatment and prevention of diseases." ... Launched in November 2000, the Stowers Institute focuses on gene-level research aimed at finding cures for cancer, diabetes and other illnesses."
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Anti-choice group says its 'prayers' have been answered when abortion clinic closes due to doctor's leukemia.
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Bush pushed back publication of his memoir until after election so the GOP isn't tarnished.
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