Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Headlines - Tuesday November 16

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"Last year, Exxon-Mobile (Makes $10,000 profit per minute) PAID NO FED INCOME TAXES. General Electric (War profiteer making trillions) PAID NO FED INCOME TAXES.  But America is so broke, Obama's Commission wants old people to work until they are seventy years old? Give me a fucking break!"- Michael Moore, speaking the truth on Bill Maher friday  

Bartcop said last issue, "
What we need to do is make the tax system less friendly to the super-rich. 
If you're going to plug the loopholes, why not plug the GIANT ones?"

America voted to have Grandma eat dog food twice a week so Warren Buffet could add another $100K to his $40B empire?


"We must meet the GOP in the middle - that's what America wants."
 
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Mitch McConnell backs earmark ban after requesting nearly $1 billion in pork.
 
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haiti_cholera_over900-1115.jpg
 
Death toll from cholera in Haiti reaches 900. 
 
I wish we could help, but we need all of our money to kill people in other countries and give the rich their tax breaks. 
 
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Sarah Palin now influencing the English language too
 
 Click here to read Sarah Palin Now Influencing the English Language, Too
 
We have the new truthiness! The Oxford American Dictionary announced today that Palin's Twitter malapropism "refudiate" is its 2010 Word of the Year. Good job, guys. Let's just keep rewarding this woman. There's no way it could possibly end badly.
 
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Wisco: Lame Duck Day.
 
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The Muslim rumors? Obama's fault.

This bit of nonsense brought to us by the obviously "liberal" Washington Post:

The president, whose middle name is "Hussein," was born in Hawaii and moved to Indonesia at age 6 to live with his mother and stepfather, who was Muslim. While there, he attended Catholic school and Muslim school. He also attended Muslim prayer services with his Indonesian stepfather. According to an interview he did in 2007 with the New York Times, he said that the Muslim call to prayer is "one of the prettiest sounds on Earth at sunset." [...]

...his demeanor and his approach to religion is the cause of most of the problems.

This is so shockingly dumb. Imagine, if you will, the Washington Post publishing an article about how the Clintons were to blame for Vince Foster's suicide. We're through the looking glass now.

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They're not embarrassed
 
Republicans hate the "government take-over healthcare," right? Right.
Sen. John Ensign (R-NV), one of DeMint's anti-earmark supporters, appears to have been playing "Santa Claus" by demanding money from the Affordable Care Act, Obama's health care reform law enacted early this year. Over the summer, Ensign sent a letter to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius requesting grant money authorized by the law for the University of Nevada School of Medicine for "Primary Care Residency Expansion."

The upside is that they will never repeal ARRA. They need it too much.

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We live in a country where we take money away from the old and the sick to fund tax breaks for the super rich. Robin Hood must be spinning in his grave. Marc Perkel

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I'm in favor of dieting until I have to do it

Nate has some info on the TSA backlash, including this poll:

Just as we were posting this item, a new poll came in from CBS News showing 81 percent of Americans supporting the full body scans. So, it does not appear that the high levels of support were an artifact of the timing of the previous surveys, most of which had been conducted shortly after the Christmas Day bombing attempt.

Nevertheless, I would guess that only somewhere between 1 and 5 percent of Americans have so far traveled through a security line where such machines were in use; it will probably take some time before we know where public opinion settles in on this topic.

Another issue is that most of these surveys are asking about the full-body machines in a vacuum. I'd be curious to see what the results were if respondents were asked to pick between full-body machines and traditional metal detectors.

I guarantee that 81% of the people who have had to go through one do not support the use of the machines.

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Dude, where's my healthcare?

Newly minted Congressman Andy Harris (R-Md), defeated his Democratic opponent by railing against Obamacare and championing the brilliant idea that is Republikanz 4 Repealin' Healthkare.

Guess what Congressman Harris wanted to know after he showed up on Capitol Hill today, attended orientation, registered for class, got his Trapper Keeper, and went to his first period class?

"How come it takes so long for me to get my government-subsidized heaaalth insuuuurance! I want it now! NOW NOW NOW."

http://www.balloon-juice.com/2010/11/16/dude-wheres-my-healthcare/

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Activist judge Alito raising money for right-wing magazine.

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That is the proposal: Israel will freeze settlement construction for 90 days if the United States gives it a bribe, er, gift of $3 billion in additional military aid.

$33 million per day. Fuck that.
 
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Michelle Obama starts Indonesian holy war, on Twitter

That's MRS. Flotus to you ...

After making a brief stop in Germany to serve steak to the troops, Michelle Obama has returned from last week's Asian adventure. Our fabulous FLOTUS spent most of the trip starring in a Bollywood movie about an American first lady who takes a vacation to India to dance with children, and is then caught up in a Twitter firestorm when she accidentally seduces an Indonesian information minister with her first lady hands. Of course, many Americans probably did not know about any of this, because they were too busy sneaking Cinnabons and Kool-Aid while the FLOTUS was away to bother seeing this important movie/real-life incident.

So-called conservative Muslim Tifatul Sembiring became enchanted with Michelle Obama at a reception in Jakarta last Tuesday, and was so mesmerized by our FLOTUS that he abandoned all of his values in a moment of fiery passion and touched our Michelle's soft-yet-powerful hands. http://wonkette.com/430136/michelle-obama-starts-indonesian-holy-war-on-twitter#more-430136

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Tonight, I went gone down the Michael Chertoff rabbit hole about how the RWNJs are destroying the country by subjecting us to humiliation by being fingered or microwaved before we board the aluminum tubes of death to fly to wherever, without thinking about it – or at least far enough:

"So… who do you think is responsible for this outrage," my interlocutor pressed.

"Follow the money," I started. "Chertoff's company makes these goddamn machines and…"

"Yes, all true. But who is making the choice to be groped or be radiated?"

"I blame Congress for buying those things…"

"That's not the answer," was the reply. And suddenly I saw my civics teacher from 7th grade standing before me, I saw the trophy that has my name on it — the first person in my school district who won the Civics prize each year from 7th through 12th grades– and I knew the answer: The Executive Branch enforces all laws.

So… direct your complaints to the White House. The Executive Branch alone is responsible for gawking at your junk and/or fingering your privates. The whole paranoid police state that started off with Chimpy McStagger continues, unabated with President Carebear.

We allow our privacy to be invaded, from monitoring our phone calls and emails, to our library habits, to what we watch on Cable TeeVee, what we Google, yes, we have given all of it away, no search warrant required. Think about the RFID chips in our passports, credit cards, cell phones and ask yourself who really wants to know where we are at all times… and why. We gave it all away during the Bush years and no, we do not have it back now that there is a Dim in office. Once you lose a right, it is lost forever until someone fights to have it restored.

It may sound strange that I'm kind of grateful that being groped, or radiated has finally woken us up to fighting for our rights, but in a way, I really am glad.

You can contact the White House here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact Let them know what you think.

Oh, and F**K YOU, Obama. Bite me.

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Why do people suddenly step down from their positions well after their controversy news cycle is over? Perhaps we will never know, but here's another example of this phenomenon: Virginia Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, has given up control of her Teabagger group, Liberty Central (who apparently, based on that name, want liberty to be centralized, not dispersed among the people). Virginia Thomas is stepping down to get away from the "distractions" of now being a public figure who likes to call around to people her husband has sexually harassed, asking for apologies. But she is still going to be part of the group, in the "back seat." So if you were worried that she might actually exit her conflict-of-interest position — that of a Supreme Court justice's wife raising anonymous contributions for a group with stark positions on constitutional issues — you can rest easy. She'll still be part of that group. READ MORE »