Saturday, February 19, 2011

Headlines - Saturday February 19

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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President Obama is said to be debating calls by officials to add another 73,000 troops to the long-term size of the Afghan military, sparking concerns that the US will be spending upwards of $12 billion annually just on the Afghan military. 
 
Millions homeless, hungry, without heat and health care in this country. Thanks, Hopey.
 
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Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA), gives an awesome response to the remarks from Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) regarding the GOP's war on reproductive rights. 
 
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The culture of life
 
 
Thanks, Republican (and 10 Dem) shartwafers for blocking federal aide for Planned Parenthood. I'm sure the impending spread of teen pregnancies and STDs will really boost your pharmaceuticals portfolios.  

Some kids aren't fortunate enough to have the grifting gene.

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House slips health care repeal into spending bill.
 
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Minnesota Rep. McCollum receives death threat over NASCAR bill.
 
It's Marxist to request that the US government not fund a private race car team? I think maybe this person doesn't know what the word "Marxism" means.

But I suspect he (or she) does know what the rest of the epithets in his threatening fax mean. He seems quite comfortable with the language.

Update: After voting to defund Planned Parenthood 240-185, the "concerned about out of control spending" House votes 241-148 to continue federal funding for NASCAR teams.

 

 

 

 

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Focus on the Family worried it may soon have to destroy Justin Bieber

NPR would be a hedonistic mistake too.

16-year-old Canadian person Justin Bieber is opposed to abortion but doesn't hate gays, as anybody who follows politics now knows, somehow. This does not sit well with Focus on the Family, which is worried he is being corrupted by the black people and their "grooving" black-people music. Here's their Chad Hillis: "Bieber's only a kid, and he's being swept directly into the center of the extremely profane, hyper-sexualized, violent and self-indulgent culture of R&B. Moreover, Justin's being 'mentored' by the very crude and sexually explicit R&B icon, Usher." Surely rhythm is bad enough, but rhythm and blues? That's dangerous. What exactly is this Usher ushering in? Focus on the Family is going to have to have to intervene if this kid continues to be part of our culture in such a way. And thus alienate preteen girls from the Christian religion forever. READ MORE »

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Hackers Group Warns Westboro Baptist: You Will Face Our Vicious Retaliation
 
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Christian groups formed joyous prayer circles outside the Wyoming Senate chamber this afternoon to thank Jeebus for the action of their lawmakers, who today voted to ban the recognition of out-of-state gay unions.
 
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The just-launched Draft Trump 2012 site begins:
Donald Trump is one of the most successful business leaders in the world; he would bring a unique perspective to a Republican primary field populated with has-been and never-were politicians eager to curry support with traditional political horse-trading and backroom favors. As a global manager and executive, owing no favors to any political boss or party, Trump would bring needed credibility and independence to a presidential campaign. His candor and honesty are never in question; Trump is famous for saying what he believes and has decades of phenomenal success in business to validate his judgment, eye for talent, and ability to manage people, which are the key qualities required in a Commander-in-Chief.
No mention of his numerous bankruptcies or marriages.
 
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Late last night, House Republicans voted to reverse the net neutrality rules passed by the previous House which never became solid law because of the ineffectual nature of the Senate. The measure to reverse the new rules was included in the Republican's draconian assault on the poor which they are referring to as a "budget." The reversal will open the door to Telecomms. throttling even land-line connections and grant them the power to charge for bandwidth priority.

Clearly the inability to charge people more money for lower quality service was an affront to the rights of freedom-fries-loving real 'merikans

Last night, the U.S. House voted to reverse the compromise Net Neutrality rules passed by the FCC in December. Today, the same politicians plan to vote to eliminate funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the institution that distributes federal funds to some 1,300 local public broadcasting stations and other noncommercial media. The cuts were made as part of a larger budget bill that proposes to slash $100 billion in federal funding to numerous valuable public programs.

Even for this Congress, today's vote is a low water mark. The Net Neutrality rules are already a watered down half-measure that don't come close to preventing the largest phone and cable companies from censoring or blocking what you see and do online. Last night, phone company lobbyists got congress to vote down what was already a shell of what President Obama promised when he said he would "take a backseat to no one" on Net Neutrality.

John McCain (R-Old) suggested that the new rules simply inhibited free-market forces. Funny, because the country would be a much different place if the free-market actually existed. That's another topic though...

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Remember all of the fringe wingnut screeching about "czars?" We learned rather quickly that all recent presidents have special assistants -- nicknamed "czars" by the press, not the White House. Crazy wingnut meme debunked.

But now, the Republicans have resurrected this ridiculousness. This time as an actual budget amendment.

WASHINGTON -- House Republicans are ramping up efforts to hamstring the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. One key amendment to the GOP's 2011 budget plan seeks to strip federal salaries from President Barack Obama's so-called "czars," effectively removing them from their offices -- as well as Elizabeth Warren, the consumer watchdog tasked with setting up the CFPB -- while another would prevent the bureau from hiring any staff at all.

Rep. John Carter (R-Texas) has authored an amendment that would prevent Warren and 24 other top administration officials from drawing a salary.

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"Read my lips, we're going to cut spending." John Boehner

Thank you, sir, for the bottomless cup of 2012 campaign commercials.

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"Fox lies." Hilarious 
 
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The Real Cost Of Religious Faith - Atheist Experience 696
 
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Funny Presidents Day Ecard: Presidents Day is just another Monday I'm celebrating Sarah Palin not being president.
 
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Republicans are adding all sorts of "hate pork" to the continuing resolution, the legislation needed to keep the government open through the rest of this fiscal year (aka until October 1).  They've already added amendments taking money away from Planned Parenthood, banning implementation of health care reform, and gutting the EPA's ability to regulate dangerous greenhouse gasses.

Note the chutzhpah.  New congress, they don't even wait before they pander to the far right that controls their party. And note how none of these amendments has anything to do with creating jobs - the thing the Republicans were supposedly elected to do (so they claimed right before the election, now they're less interested in the whole job thing).

And what does this all mean?  It means that either the Senate needs take all of this extraneous garbage out of the spending bill, or the President will be forced to veto the bill and risk sending the government into a shutdown, all because the Republicans decided that their first month on the job had to pander to the Palin/Bachmann/Limbaugh wing of the party, rather than focus on the American people.
 
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Let's create more unwanted children that parents can't afford, so the Republicans can cut any sort of assistance for them ....
 
Introduced by House Republican Bobby Franklin, the same guy who wants rape victims to be called "accusers", says Georgia can do whatever it damned well pleases regarding abortion. Oh, and you'd better be able to prove your miscarriage was natural or face felony charges.
 
Here's another woman for whom Republican men think THEY should have the power to make decisions.

Fortunately, there is something you can do Click the link and make a donation to Planned Parenthood in Mike Pence's (or some Republican)name, even if it's just five bucks.
 
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Of course they lied early and they lied often. It's what they did on every subject, though especially the charge to war. Who really can believe anything that George Tenet has to say? Saddam Hussein's spokesman is more believable so it shouldn't be a surprise that the former German minister is calling out Tenet on "Curveball."
 
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Firefighter Refused Call To Giffords Shooting Because of 'Political Views'

The first-grader who just likes the siren has more guts.

Congratulations to former Tucson city firefighter Mark Ekstrum, a 28-year veteran who retired last month as the world's worst firefighter because he, according to the Associated Press, refused to respond with his crew to the shooting of Gabrielle Giffords. He's officially the world's worst firefighter. Why? He said "he had different political views than his colleagues and 'did not want to be part of it.'" Yeah, if a group of people are shot, and your job is to save people's lives, you shouldn't be a part of it. Shooting victims should be very careful not to be political in any way, because if they are, they shouldn't expect any first responders to show up. Also: "Mark Ekstrum's insubordination may have delayed his unit's response because firefighters had to stop at another station to pick up a replacement for him." Always good when people are bleeding to death on the pavement.

This story is a bit more odd, however:

Ekstrum also said in the statement that he had no problem with Giffords and even voted for her in the last election.

Yes, no problem except for that problem he had helping her when she had a bullet shot through her head.

Capt. Ben Williams wrote in a report that when Ekstrum first said he would not go on the call, "he mentioned something about 'political bantering' and he did not want to be part of it."

What exactly does he mean by "bantering"? He didn't go because his crew mentioned something about politics on the way over? What if one of the shooting victims liked cats? "I will not be a part of this bantering about cats!" What if one of them was a fan of Star Wars? "Let them bleed to death! I'm not going to respond amidst all this talk about Wookies!"

Seems like perhaps somebody was just a little afraid to go to a shooting. But knowing Arizona, he probably shouldn't be surprised if a person angered by this story shows up on his doorstep and shoots him in approximately five minutes. Because most Arizonans aren't cowards. Just this guy and John McCain. [AP]

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They are too illegal, and everybody knows it. "The US has vetoed an Arab resolution at the UN Security Council condemning Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territories as an obstacle to peace. All 14 other members of the Security Council backed the resolution, which had been endorsed by the Palestine Liberation Organisation. It was the first veto exercised by the Obama administration which had promised better relations with the Muslim world. A Palestinian official said the talks process would now be "re-assessed". Washington was under pressure from Israel and Congress, which has a strong pro-Israel lobby, to use its veto."
 
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Breitbart will save Scott Walker from ordinary working Americans! 

You're too fat to stand. admit it.

WHO WILL RESCUE SCOTT WALKER FROM ALL THOSE PEOPLE STANDING AROUND PEACEFULLY? asks Ban Ki-moon, in a Facebook status update that doesn't actually exist. (Haha, we imagine that Scott Walker is probably just relaxing quietly at home, maybe even masturbating to his favorite Brooks Brothers catalog, the one with the dolphin tessellation neckties and fancy springtime Cashmere Depends or whatever.) Maybe that John Galt guy will pop out of a cake and save Scott Walker and Free Enterprise from the evil unions? (Sadly, no. John Galt is just a fictional rapist from one of Ayn Rand's horror stories, used during the CIA's MK-ULTRA mind experiments to give horrible nightmares to small children and woodland creatures.) Uh, how about that drunken oaf who is always touching us, "Andrew Breitbart"? Maybe he has a fake YouTube video that proves Wisconsin public school teachers are racist against white farmers? That or something equally retarded, yes! READ MORE »

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Mark our words. Kansas will be the Mississippi of the Plains by the end of Brownback's second term. "Kansas legislators are now considering a bill that would make discriminating against the LGBT/GLBT community a legally protected right, so long as the individual can claim they are exercising a religious belief. ... [W]e have state legislators considering a bill that would make Fred Phelps' viewpoints a part of our state law. ... "

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Today's required video: Chomsky: Wis. may be 'start' of US revolt

Just a brief comment for discussion: The way MSM framed this whole debate has back-fired. They basically are calling the union workers lazy, greedy parasites. Really? Police officers and firefighters? Garbage collectors and state park workers? Teachers?

The corporate media indirectly is saying the hard working people should give up pensions, retirement plans, social security, give all that up just so the elite can skim that money. The very elite who caused the crash.
Good luck with that, asswipes.
It's time.
To walk like Egyptians.