Sunday, November 28, 2010

Coffee Time


The Real Story of Thanksgiving and Socialism

Nixon With Lipsick

Et Tu Time Magazine?

PZ Meyers:  I Get Email

Did Glenn Beck Watch the Same Movie We Did?

Dumb as a Box of Rocks

Sunday Talk SHow Lineup

Meet the Press: Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL); Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ); Roundtable: E.J. Dionne (Washington Post), Republican Strategist Ed Gillespie; [#10] Peggy Noonan (Wall Street Journal) and Mayor of Philadelphia Michael Nutter (D).
Face the Nation: Author Edmund Morris ("Colonel Roosevelt"); Author Ron Chernow ("Washington, A Life"); Bob Woodward (Washington Post); Arianna Huffington (Huffington Post).
This Week: Berkshire-Hathaway Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett; Bill and Melinda Gates (Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation); CNN Founder Ted Turner; Hedge Fund Manager Tom Steyer.
Fox News Sunday: Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC); Sen. Claire MacCaskill (D-MO); Roundtable: [#17] Bill Kristol (Weekly Standard), Mara Liasson (NPR/FNC), Sociopath Liz Cheney and Juan Williams (Fox News).
State of the Union: Sen. John McCain (R-AZ); Former President George W. Bush (R); Former Gov. Jeb Bush (R-FL); Sen. Byran Dorgan (D-ND); Rep. David Obey (D-WI).
The Chris Matthews Show: John Heilemann (New York Magazine); Norah O'Donnell (MSNBC); Anne Kornblut (Washington Post); Reihan Salam (National Review).
Fareed Zakaria GPS: Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen; Ronald Reagan's OMB Director David Stockman.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Lord Help Us.....

Well, election over. Republicans will chair the house committees.  Who better than a car thief and arsonist  to start investigations of the Obama administration. But honestly, it was just research for the car alarm company that would make him millions down the road.   It's party time for Darrell Issa!!  All I can say is.....you've got to be fucking kidding me. 

Back on Track

Back on  track.  I had to take some time to get back  in the swing after losing my  Mom. I've been enjoying life here in paradise and working through some issues.  So here we go.......

The Urban Politico:  Feds Up, Ho's Down: Ahmed Ghailani'sConviction and the Military Tribunal Myth

Market Watch: Kamikaze Capitalism: GOP out to destroy

Africana Online:  Kucinich Bracing For House Fight

Pushing Rope: Quote of the Day

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Sunday Talk Show Lineup

Wow.......it's a Wingnut Sunday!  No doubt the bullshit flying out of their pieholes will be about cutting spending by ......  destroying healthcare, tax cuts to  the rich, getting rid of those pesky bank regulations, privatizing social security, no more unemployment benefits extensions.  Meet the new Republicans..... just like the old ones.    

ABC's "This Week" — Sen.-elect Rand Paul, R-Ky.; Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind.
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CBS' "Face the Nation" — Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.; Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C.
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NBC's "Meet the Press" — Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., and Gov. Chris Christie, R-N.J.
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CNN's "State of the Union" — Gov. Rick Perry, R-Texas; Gov. Tim Pawlenty, R-Minn.; Sen.-elect Pat Toomey, R-Pa.; Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md.
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"Fox News Sunday" — GOP Reps. Eric Cantor of Virginia, Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and Darrell Issa of California.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

A Little This, A Little That

I've been working like a dog this week.  First chance I've had to really read anything. Here's to a relaxing weekend!!  Gonna try and get some fishing in!


Reverand Manny asks John Boehner:  Where's the Jobs???

John Boehner is a Crybaby

I Won the Election, and Now I'm Going to........Israel!

Pittsburg Tells the Gas Industry:  No Fracking Way!

Karl Rove: 'Climate is Gone'

Who's Heading Up Scott's Transition Team?

10 Things to Do Now

An email from Credo:

10 things to do now
Dear Friend,
What a truly brutal election. One rare exception was the crushing of Texas Oil's Proposition 23 in California (see CREDO's campaign at stoptexasoil.org), which proves that even unlimited corporate cash can be beaten back — if it is disclosed and fought by grassroots mobilization.
At CREDO, we fight hard on the issues, but we don't take sides in partisan elections. As someone who cares about progressive issues, there is no doubt that Tuesday's results will make for even harder times for our country. It is crazy making to realize just how extreme and misinformed much of the new Congress will be.
There is little reason to expect any useful legislation from the Tea Party-dominated House or the dysfunctional Senate. Swing votes in the Senate have really troublesome names: Lieberman, Nelson, Manchin, and Pryor. In fact, this Congress will do damage to anything even remotely progressive.
So let's take a look at what happened and what we can do now. Bear with us as this is a bit longer than our usual missives. The media, unfortunately but not surprisingly, will be of no use in making sense of Tuesday's results, and even less so in helping chart a course for the future.
There is a lot of evidence that the state of the economy, and employment in particular, drive the results of elections — and this one was no exception. As the saying goes, "If you think the economy is working, ask someone who isn't." We have an economy stuck in a deep ditch, with corporate profits and bank bonuses soaring while long-term unemployment is at near Depression levels.
The Republicans shrunk the first "stimulus" package and filled it with tax breaks, even as corporate Democrats helped them along, blocking any effort to restructure mortgages in bankruptcies, freeze foreclosures or force banks to lend money. The election outcome was partially baked in early 2009, when the White House preemptively conceded on the scale and provisions of the stimulus package and chose to coddle the banks. To watch this unfold was simply maddening.
Making matters worse were other factors. Among the most damaging were the actions of the conservative majority on the Supreme Court, which seemed energized by the new President, and took the radical step of rehearing a campaign finance case — now known forever asCitizens United. In ruling 5-4 that corporations have the right to spend unlimited amounts of money for and against candidates, the Court transformed the electoral landscape in a way potentially more profound than its 5-4 ruling that seated George W. Bush as president. As many predicted, the Citizens United ruling unleashed the greatest wave of corporate spending in history, though it's a safe bet to say that their spending in 2012 will make this year's outlay look modest.
In an astonishing turn of events, the right wing was able to kill — essentially murder in public view — the organization that registered millions of poor and working class African-American and Hispanic voters in the last six years. I am speaking of ACORN, of course. By editing video completely out of context, and using the right-wing media machine to perfection, Andrew Breitbart was able to convince the mainstream media and eventually Congress, that ACORN was an election-stealing organization that had no qualms giving advice to pimps on how to increase revenues. Fulfilling Karl Rove's wildest dreams, Congress, including most Democrats, voted to block public funding for any of ACORN's laudable and effective housing or tax assistance programs, and ACORN died a quiet death. There would be no millions of new registrants.
Traditions are important in the Senate, but almost always to the detriment of progressive change. The health care reform effort was a victim of Senate conventions. Sen. Max Baucus of Montana, who chairs the critical Senate Finance Committee solely due to his long tenure, stalled development of a health reform package for many months in order to "negotiate" with Republicans on his committee. They weren't interested in the least, and walked away from the discussions muttering bizarre comments about reforms "killing grandma" and setting up "death panels," because Sarah Palin says so. The behavior of Baucus would be laughable if it were not so utterly destructive.
No matter what one thought of FOX News in the 2008 election, Murdoch's monster went on a rampage over the past two years. Serving as both an instigator and an amplifier for the craziest and most offensive pundits, FOX News misled and misinformed the American people on every issue, and effectively became the public face of the Republican Party. Glenn Beck's show became so toxic and spewed so much venom that one of his devoted fans took it upon himself to plot the execution of key leaders of the Tides Foundation and the ACLU, who had figured prominently in Beck's rants. Fortunately, the madman (the fan, not Beck) was stopped before he accomplished his mission.
We could go on, of course, on all the missed opportunities, the cave-ins, the sell outs, and the unpopular and misguided war in Afghanistan.
But the results are in. The House of Representatives is in the hands of the most corrupt Speaker-in-waiting ever, the Tea Party is ascendant, and the U.S. Senate, however dysfunctional it has been, is poised to be much worse.
For those of us who had hopes that the Obama Administration could seize the moment and enact popular progressive changes, this is a bitter pill. And like many, we grieve at the lost opportunities.
But now we need to brush off the dust, suck it up, and plunge back into substantive fights. Politics is not fair — indeed, U.S. elections are rigged in profound ways! But walking away is not an option at CREDO Action, and we hope you will join us in some of the actions below we think are strategic in the new political landscape:
1. Commit to Taking Down FOX News. So long as FOX News has any credibility within the Beltway, it will be a pipeline for malicious material that will poison our political culture. Join our friends at Color of Change: turnofffox.org/landing?credo.
2.Tell the Senate to pass the DISCLOSE Act during the lame duck session. We were able to defeat the Texas Oil Initiative, Prop 23 in California, in part because we knew who the enemy was — having disclosure of corporate contributions brings the enemy out in the open for us to take on and fight. The DISCLOSE Act passed the House and came within a single vote of passing the Senate. One vote. You can join this fight by taking action with Public Citizen atcitizen.org/disclose-act-action.
3. Keep fighting to end the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. This issue will get resolved during the lame duck session. Take action atact.credoaction.com/campaign/bushtaxcuts.
4. Sign up for the fight for a constitutional amendment to reverse the Citizens United decision by declaring that corporations do not have the legal rights of humans. This may take years, if not decades, but we should start now. Please join Free Speech for People:freespeechforpeople.org/.
5. Tell the FCC to use its existing authority to establish and defend net neutrality. Our friends at Free Press are leading this charge: act2.freepress.net/sign/put_up/.
6. Demand that the Department of Justice and the Internal Revenue Service investigate the political organizations set up by Karl Rove to launder millions of dollars in secret cash to change the outcome of elections. Act now atact.credoaction.com/campaign/investigate_crossroads.
7. Defend the EPA from castration by pro-coal interests in Congress. The EPA accomplished almost nothing during the Clinton years because the Gingrich-led Congress used the budget process to prohibit the agency from doing its work. This battle has already started. The Sierra Club's Beyond Coal campaign is a great way to join this fight: sierraclub.org/coal.
8. Convince the Obama administration to stop appealing progressive court rulings on matters like the Defense of Marriage Act, Don't Ask Don't Tell, and the state secrets defense against torture and wiretapping. Urge the Department of Justice to change its approach atact.credoaction.com/campaign/stop_appealing.
9. Urge Democratic senators to do away with lifetime tenure for committee chairs and open up all chair positions to majority vote elections. This will go a long way towards more progressive legislation. Take action with us atact.credoaction.com/campaign/end_seniority_system.
10. Demand that the Department of Justice enforce the provisions of the national voter registration law that require state governments to offer to register all voters at departments of public welfare and motor vehicles. Many state governments simply ignore these requirements and this is a cheaper and more inclusive way of registering voters than the campaigns of the now dead ACORN. Urge Attorney General Eric Holder to expand voter registration:credoaction.com/campaign/enforce_motor_voter.
I suspect you are angry and exhausted at this point. I know I am. But let us not forget that the values and ideals we fight for are greater than any one election. They still endure, and so must our fight. We have a lot of work to do.
Michael Kieschnick, CEO
CREDO Action from Working Assets