I watched the whole thing.

The so-called Healthcare Summit has just ended. All the Federal fuckwits are standing around making small talk, slapping each other on the back and laughing too loud.

Nothing got done. There were a few priceless moments when The Big O slapped various rightwingers around verbally. TPM Muckraker has them in video form.

I am trying to decide whether I learned anything from these 8 or so friggin hours...

Ask me later. It's happy hour at my house, as of right now. Whew...what a waste of a day.

Gut wrenching.

It was simply gut wrenching to watch. KO makes tonight’s Special Comment about tomorrows ‘healthcare summit’  very personal. His father is going downhill fast, and I send both of them my love and prayers. He lost his mother last year. ;(



Leave your egos at the door, like KO says, gentlemen. Do NOT bring that political horseshit in w/you either. Healthcare for all Americans is a moral obligation, you sons of bitches.

Political analysts serve whom exactly?

The Political analysts that appear on Fox, MSNBC, CNN and other news outlets will have you believe that they are all fair and balanced in their analysis of specific issues or incidents.
Nothing could be farther from the truth in most cases. Many times, these folks have another job as a Lobbyist, Consultant or sit on the Board of huge corporations. This is known as, per The Nation, The Media-Lobbying Complex. Fits don’t ya think? And this happens on both sides of the political aisle. From The Nation:

For lobbyists, PR firms and corporate officials, going on cable television is a chance to promote clients and their interests on the most widely cited source of news in the United States. These appearances also generate good will and access to major players inside the Democratic and Republican parties. For their part, the cable networks, eager to fill time and afraid of upsetting the political elite, have ofteBut n looked the other way. At times, the networks have even disregarded their own written ethics guidelines. Just about everyone involved is heavily invested in maintaining the current system, with the exception of the viewer.

While lobbyists and PR flacks have long tried to spin the press, the launch of Fox News and MSNBC in 1996 and the Clinton impeachment saga that followed helped create the caldron of twenty-four-hour political analysis that so many influence peddlers call home. Since then, guests with serious conflicts of interest have popped up with alarming regularity on every network. Just examine their presence in coverage of the economic crash and the healthcare reform debate, two recent issues that have engendered massive cable coverage.

I realize that not all lobbyists are carpetbagging fucks. Some actually have the best interests of the public in mind when they go on these shows. But the problem is…how do we know, if full disclosure isn’t made, when introducing the so-called analyst?

We don’t know. And therein lies the problem. An example would be Richard Wolffe, a left-leaning contributor on MSNBC. I like Wolffe and usually agree with his assessment on whatever issue he is contributing to at the moment. He is part of a public relations group, Public Strategies, that helps corporations fix their images when they go south. The problem lies in the fact that we are bombarded with these ‘contributors’ when there is a specific issue heating up. Again, from The Nation link:

Janine Wedel, an anthropologist in the School of Public Policy at George Mason University and author of the new book Shadow Elite, told me in a recent interview that while these influence peddlers are not necessarily unethical, they “elude accountability to governments, shareholders and voters–and threaten democracy.”

“When there’s a whole host of pundits on the airwaves touting the same agenda at the same time, you get a cumulative effect that shapes public opinion toward their agenda,” she said.

Frequent television news commentators are also often given access to policy-makers, who may find that they are meeting with not just a TV pundit but also a paid lobbyist. This past March, for example, the White House held an exclusive “communications message meeting” for high-profile Democratic strategists with top presidential aide David Axelrod. Of the eighteen attendees, almost all television regulars, a third were lobbyists or public relations flacks, such as Kelly Bingel, a lobbyist for AHIP and a partner at mega-firm Mehlman Vogel Castagnetti, and Rich Masters, a partner at PR/lobbying outfit Qorvis Communications, where he works on behalf of trade group Pharmaceutical Researchers and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA).

It makes you wonder every time you see one of these fuckers on tv….who are they representing…we the people..or some fucking corporation. As Wedel explains, these assholes can shape public opinion…and that can be a dangerous thing when it’s done undercover by someone acting as a knowledgeable, unbiased expert.

Todays number: 112

That is the number of Rethug and Democrap Senators and House Reps that have so far tried to take credit for the Recovery Act advances in their districts, yet voted against it in DC. From Bloomberg:

Alabama Republicans Jo Bonner and Robert Aderholt took to the U.S. House floor in July, denouncing the Obama administration’s stimulus plan for failing to boost employment. “Where are the jobs?” each of them asked.

Over the next three months, Bonner and Aderholt tried at least five times to steer stimulus-funded transportation grants to Alabama on grounds that the projects would help create thousands of jobs.

They joined more than 100 congressional Republicans and several Democrats who, after voting against the stimulus bill, wrote Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood seeking money from $1.5 billion the plan set aside for local road, bridge, rail and transit grants. The $862 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act passed last year with no Republican votes in the House and three in the Senate.

Bonner said opposing the stimulus doesn’t mean he shouldn’t help Alabama projects compete for grants. “It is my role to ensure that their request is considered by the federal agency,” he said in an e-mail.

Alan Simpson, a former Republican senator from Wyoming named by President Barack Obama as co-chairman of a new deficit- reduction commission, said about-faces on government funding aren’t surprising. “It’s the original sin of Washington — it’s hypocrisy,” Simpson said. “You can’t do that then say you go out and cut the other stuff.” (emphasis mine)

Ain’t that some shit? Alan Simpson is calling it what it is…HYPOCRISY. Now, check out the ThinkProgress article on  this same issue. From the ThinkProgress writeup:

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) Said Stimulus Funds Would Create “Much Needed Jobs.” Minority Leader Boehner: “The stated intent of the so-called stimulus package was to create jobs, and certainly a $57 million slush-fund studying projects did nothing to achieve that goal. With Ohio’s unemployment rate the highest it’s been in 25 years, I’m pleased that federal officials stepped in to order Ohio to use all of its construction dollars for shovel-ready projects that will create much-needed jobs.” [Boehner Statement, 6/15/09]

-Congressman Boehner Voted Against The Recovery Package Twice [Roll Call Vote #46; Roll Call Vote #70]
-Congressman Boehner Regularly Blasts The Stimulus And Instructed His Caucus To Oppose It. [Huffington Post, 1/27/09]

Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) Held A Job Fair Where Nearly Half The 30 Organizations Received Stimulus Funds; Cantor Also Supported Using Stimulus Funds To Build A Washington To Richmond Rail. Washington Post: “For months, Democrats have dubbed U.S. Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia a hypocrite for strongly opposing the federal stimulus package only to promote aspects of it later. Here’s the latest example: Nearly half of the 30 organizations participating in a job fair Cantor is holding Monday in Culpeper were recipients of the stimulus…In the summer, Cantor came under fire after he talked about his support of using stimulus money to build a rail project from Washington to Richmond.” [Washington Post Virginia Blog, 11/18/09]

- Congressman Eric Cantor Voted Against The Recovery Package Twice [Roll Call Vote #46; Roll Call Vote #70]

Simply wonderful right?  I do love how the Rethugs and the DINO’s think bashing, then touting at home, the Recovery Act will get them reelected. Personally, I really hope the voters in all those districts have the ability to see through the fuckery. I also hope that left-of-center candidates can unseat the bastards…..both the Rethugs and the DINO’s.

Crossposted at Sirens Chronicles. 

Turley on the DOJ report

Maher: Teabaggers are a cult.

Last night saw the return of Bill Maher and his HBO show, Real Time w/Bill Maher. His New Rules section had the following pronouncement on the teabaggers and I agree!

The Teabagger part starts at 2:22 if you are in a hurry. 

Oh,the hypocrisy of those fuckers!

Hypocrisy isn't limited to the Democraps..oh hell no, it aint. But just for one, small, minute, let us concentrate on the dozen or so rethugs denouncing the Stimulus Bill, while they sing it's praises at fucking home. From Think Progress":

Today marks the one year anniversary of President Obama signing into law the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, better known as the stimulus. As the economy continued to crater after President Bush left office, Obama’s stimulus sought to provide tax cuts for 95% of working Americans, funds to buoy cash-strapped state governments, new construction and infrastructure projects, and other programs to create jobs, retrain workers, and promote economic activity throughout the country. In December, the Congressional Budget Office reported that the stimulus had successfully created up to 1.6 million jobs, and today, a report shows the Recovery Act will ultimately create 2.5 million jobs. Even the conservative American Enterprise Institute found that the stimulus had boosted the U.S. economy by 4 percent.

House Republican leaders have fought to maintain partisan unity in their effort to kill the stimulus. And they were largely successful. Every single Republican in the House and every single Republican in the Senate — with the exception of Sens. Olympia Snowe (R-ME), Susan Collins (R-ME), and then-Republican Sen. Arlen Specter — voted against the Recovery Act. By drawing a sharp distinction between Obama and the GOP, Republican leaders gambled on casting the stimulus as a failure in order to win elections in 2010. In a coordinated effort, Republicans have used every opportunity to attack the stimulus for allegedly failing to create “a single job.”

Last month, President Obama admonished Republicans for going to “ribbon cuttings for the same projects that you voted against.” It’s true: Last year, Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO) appeared at a ribbon cutting event for GetAbout Columbia’s MKT Plaza, a pedestrian walking and recreation area funded by the stimulus. (See picture at top right.)

ThinkProgress has investigated opponents of the Recovery Act, reporting throughout the year that many of the lawmakers who tried to kill the legislation have been returning to their home states to claim credit for popular stimulus programs. In a new research report, ThinkProgress finds that over half of the GOP caucus, 110 lawmakers — from the House and Senate — are guilty of stimulus hypocrisy. Among some of the key findings:

– Top Republican Senate Recruits Are Stimulus Hypocrites: As ThinkProgress reported, Rep. Mike Castle (R-DE), a candidate for Senate, touted over $5 million in stimulus programs he voted to kill. Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL), the GOP nominee for Senate in Illinois, signed a letter urging Gov. Pat Quinn to provide “Recovery Act (ARRA) funding to expand the Illinois Community College Sustainability Network.”
– GOP Leadership Leads The Way In Hypocrisy: Although he regularly slams the stimulus as a waste while in DC, McConnell has returned to Kentucky to take credit for stimulus programs, even taking time to request more funds. ThinkProgress attended two job fairs held by Cantor, where we found dozens of employers able to hire directly because of the stimulus. Indeed, even Boehner’s office released a statement boasting that the stimulus will create “much needed jobs.”
– The Audacity Of Hypocrisy Knows No Bounds: Many opponents of the stimulus have been quite brazen with their ability to try to claim credit for the program. For instance, Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA) spent the morning of July 28th railing against the stimulus, yelling “Where’s the stimulus package? Where’s the jobs?” on the House floor. On the same day of his rant, Kingston’s office sent out multiple press releases bragging that he had secured hundreds of thousands in stimulus funds to hire additional police officers in his district. Other stimulus opponents, like Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-GA) — who has called the stimulus a “trillion dollar debt bill” — have printed out jumbo-sized ceremonial stimulus checks to present to local communities to try to garner positive press.

Individually, over half of the entire Republican caucus has hailed nearly every aspect of the stimulus as a success — from infrastructure funds, to food programs, to education grants. But politically, admitting its success might harm the GOP’s chances in November. So with Republicans fixated on winning politically, they have focused on deceiving the public by calling the stimulus a failure, while pretending successful programs aren’t stimulus funded.

The entire Think Progress piece is posted here. That asshole, Senator Cantor, really expects the American Voting Public to miss his attacks on the Stimulus Bill, while he sings it's praises at fucking home. I am so sick of the Rethugs counting on the 'stupid quotient' being in play here.

All of the bastard Rethugs are pulling this shit. Countdown has a poll on these hypocritical fuckers.

If the Dem's do not play this Republican Hypocrisy Card during th 2010 elections, then the fuckers deserve to lose all their seats..senate and house.

These bags o' batshit deserve to be exposed...the only question is...will the Corporate Media expose them? I ain't holding my breath on that one.

Best Special Comment evar!!!!

Video when it's available either C&L or KO's spot on Msnbc.

Its available!

This is a great Special Comment. It’s long,but aren’t they all? KO speaks truth to power regarding racism. Doesn’t it make you physically ill that the TeaBaggers don’t fucking get it? It’s common sense people…common-fucking-sense.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Lawrence O’Donnell goes after ex-Shrub speechwriter

On Morning Joe, which is a rightwing nutter-led show, Lawrence starts foaming at the mouth over the lies and obfuscation being spewed by the Bushie Mark Theissen…all the while Joey Scar is backing the Bushie Bullshit as laid down by Theissen. Calm down Larry, you are going to stroke out over these assholes..and it ain’t worth it as they will never tell the truth or admit that The Shrub fucked up everything he and The Big Dick Cheney™ touched.



Crossposted at SirensChronicles.

The Big Hurt retires...

Yep, this is a baseball post. For all you hardcore politico's move on to the next blog if you are so inclined.

Frank Thomas called it quits after 19 MLB seasons. My hope is that TBH (The Big Hurt) will be the first DH to make it into the Hall of Fame. The Chicago White Sox will retire his number 35 this summer when they host the NY Yank$. He deserves to be in the Hall and here is why:

First, Thomas was a staunch proponent of drug testing. He was there from the get-go, he never wavered from his belief that baseball was tainted by steroid use. Sadly, the man was right-on.

Second, his career numbers:  He ranks 18th on the all-time home-run list with 521 and is one of only four players to hit at least .300 (.301 lifetime) with at least 500 homers, 1,500 RBI, 1,000 runs and 1,500 walks. The others are Hall of Famers Mel Ott, Babe Ruth and Ted Williams. He is in great company ain't he?

His White Sox numbers are phenomenal. Thomas' 448 homers with the Sox rank first on the team's charts. He's also the team's all-time leader in doubles (447), RBI (1,465), runs (1,327), extra-base hits (906), walks (1,466), total bases (3,949), slugging percentage (.568) and on-base percentage (.427).

I like to think I am a purist and that would mean I despise the DH, but in Thomas' case I believe he deserves to go into the HOF as no one in the DH era maintained their superior numbers season after season like Frank Thomas did. Sure, he probably should of retired a few years ago..but who retires when they think they 'still got it'?

Frank was a gamer, that fact can not be denied. Four years from now, he will be eligible. If he doesn't get in on the first ballot I will be highly pissed.

I hope you open the HOF door for other DH's Frank..ya did good dude. Thanks for the memories.

Illegal immigrant population declined last year.

Why this is a fucking surprise I don’t know. We are going through a recession that shows few signs of abating for Joe and Jill Public. That also includes Joe and Jill Immigrant. We have a major water shortage in California, which means the farmers aren’t planting much because their water rations have been cut in half, just for starters. From the Jurist link:

The Office of Immigration Statistics of the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released a report [text, PDF] Wednesday estimating that the total number of illegal immigrants living in the US fell to 10.8 million during the year ending in January 2009. The DHS calculates the “unauthorized resident population” by subtracting the number of legal permanent residents, asylees, refugees, and non-immigrants from estimates of the total foreign-born population. The seven percent decline from 11.6 million in January 2008 is attributed by many to the economic decline during that period. According to DHS estimates, 10.8 million is the smallest population of unauthorized residents since 2005, when there were an estimated 10.5 million [report, PDF]. A Pew Hispanic Center report [text, PDF] released in July showed a similar decline in the Mexican immigrant population in the US. The report clarified that although the recession has hurt employment of Latino immigrants, the decline resulted from decreased immigration into the US rather than from immigrants leaving the US to go back to Mexico.

In December, Democratic lawmakers introduced an immigration reform bill in the US House of Representatives that would give undocumented immigrants an easier path to seek legal status in the country. The proposed legislation, which is titled the Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America’s Security and Prosperity Act of 2009 (CIR ASAP) [bill summary, PDF], follows the Obama administration’s announcement that it would seek immigration reform early in 2010. In November, DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano said that the proposed reform legislation would be a “three-legged stool” that combines effective and fair enforcement, an improved process for legal immigration, and a “firm but fair way” to deal with illegal immigrants who are already in the US. The proposed bill is also the first attempt at immigration reform since the failed Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill in 2007. At that time, detractors called the bill too lenient on illegal immigrants and said that by granting legal status to illegal aliens, the US was granting “amnesty.”

I am so fucking sick and tired of everyone who blames the brown people for anything and everything. Having a bill that the idiots, Rethugs and racist’s call ‘too lenient’ sounds about right because anything those fuckers hate, must be a good thing.

How corporations have laundered campaign money.

RawStory has a how-to regarding the corporations and how they have managed to fund political ads inspite of the FEC laws. Of course it utilizes Swiss bank accounts and the assholes at the Chamber of Commerce. The new ruling from SCOTUS just makes it that much easier for these greedy carpetbaggers to affect our public elections for their own personal gain. From the RawStory link:

The Supreme Court’s seismic January ruling that corporations are free to spend unlimited amounts of their profits to advertise for or against candidates may have been the latest shakeup of campaign finance – but gaping holes already allow corporations to spend enormous sums without leaving a paper trail, a Raw Story investigation has found.

Campaign finance experts confirmed that though disclosure rules remained intact in the new Supreme Court decision, there are effective methods to circumvent them.

Ciara Torres-Spelliscy, an attorney and campaign finance expert at New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice, said corporations already effectively end-run campaign finance law by shuffling money through trade associations.

“One of their favorites right now is spending through trade associations,” Torres-Spelliscy said.

Trade associations are considered tax-exempt non-profit organizations under US law. While they must report contributions received from other corporations to the Internal Revenue Service, the document itself remains confidential and is not made available to the public.

“Money coming through the trade association doesn’t get disclosed,” Torres-Spelliscy explained. “You can’t tell if it came from particular corporations.”

For example, she said, “The disclaimer form is likely to just say, ‘This is brought to you by the Chamber of Commerce,’ with no extra ability to see behind that.”

The Chamber of Commerce is the world’s largest trade association representing at least 300,000 businesses and organizations.

A fellow non-profit that works on campaign finance, the Center for Political Accountability, calls trade associations “the Swiss bank accounts of American politics.”

God Bless those Fucking Loopholes! But the corporations don’t have to rely loopholes now..oh hell no..SCOTUS made it legal for them to lie and obsfucate against candidates that represent the people instead of the Corporatocracy.

It’s an educational read over at RawStory. Check out the entire piece here.

Jon Stewart on Bill0's show.

It's worth seven minutes of your time to watch Stewart hold his own w/ nutter OReally. 

Trouble for TeaBaggers?

From TPM Muckraker:

CNN has a lengthy (for TV) report on the infighting that, as we’ve detailed, is besetting the Tea Party movement.

The high-note comes when CNN gets on camera the GOP consultants who run the Tea Party Express to answer charges that their “grassroots” Tea Party group is little more than a front for the Republican Party.
Says Joe Wierzbicki of Russo, Marsh:

I think what you’ll find is, at Tea Party rallies, a lot of the people who are mad at the Republican Party, many of them are Republicans themselves.

We’d asked similar questions of Russo, Marsh, which is run by California Republican political operative Sal Russo, but never gotten a response.

The gloves come off in Cali's governor race.

Its..surprise..the rightwing nutters eating their own! From McClatchy:

  The so-far snooze-inducing GOP gubernatorial primary race heated up Monday, with charges of political extortion leveled at one candidate and questions of mental stability raised about the other.

In what was touted as a "major announcement," Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner leveled charges that a top adviser to rival Meg Whitman's campaign attempted to bully him out of the two-way race by issuing "crystal-clear" threats.

Poizner called on state and federal law enforcement officials to investigate what he characterized as potentially criminal intimidation tactics.

"This is not an attempt to be hardball and to be aggressive, but this is an attempt to effectively manipulate the election process, the integrity of the election process, by issuing these threats behind the scenes to get me not to run," Poizner said.

The campaign cited an e-mail in which Whitman adviser Mike Murphy asked a Poizner campaign consultant if there is any chance Poizner will reconsider his run.

The e-mail, provided by the campaign to reporters and in a letter to law enforcement officials, says the Whitman camp can spend $40 million "tearing up Steve if we must" and suggests that if Poizner were to drop out, Republicans could "unite the entire party" behind him for a 2012 Senate bid.

"I hate the idea of us each spending $20 million beating on the other in the primary, only to have a damaged nominee," Murphy wrote.

In the letter to law enforcement officials, Poizner also details several other claims, including that Murphy told a senior adviser that the campaign would "put (Poizner) through the wood chipper" if he did not drop out of the race. 

He is gonna go all 'Fargo' on Poizner's ass? wow wee... Pull up a chair and make some popcorn folks! ;)

America’s secret prisoners in Afghanistan.

Bagram  Prison isn’t a secret, but evidently who is being held there IS a secret. There are, according to the article, secret prisons in Afghanistan. From The Nation:

One quiet, wintry night last year in the eastern Afghan town of Khost, a young government employee named Ismatullah simply vanished. He had last been seen in the town’s bazaar with a group of friends. Family members scoured Khost’s dusty streets for days. Village elders contacted Taliban commanders in the area who were wont to kidnap government workers, but they had never heard of the young man. Even the governor got involved, ordering his police to round up nettlesome criminal gangs that sometimes preyed on young bazaargoers for ransom.

But the hunt turned up nothing. Spring and summer came and went with no sign of Ismatullah. Then one day, long after the police and village elders had abandoned their search, a courier delivered a neat handwritten note on Red Cross stationery to the family. In it, Ismatullah informed them that he was in Bagram, an American prison more than 200 miles away. US forces had picked him up while he was on his way home from the bazaar, the terse letter stated, and he didn’t know when he would be freed.

In the past few years Pashtun villagers in Afghanistan’s rugged heartland have begun to lose faith in the American project. Many of them can point to the precise moment of this transformation, and it usually took place in the dead of night, when most of the country was fast asleep. In its attempt to stamp out the growing Taliban insurgency and Al Qaeda, the US military has been arresting suspects and sending them to one of a number of secret detention areas on military bases, often on the slightest suspicion and without the knowledge of their families. These night raids have become even more feared and hated in Afghanistan than coalition airstrikes. The raids and detentions, little known or understood outside the Pashtun villages, have been turning Afghans against the very forces many of them greeted as liberators just a few years ago.

The Big O™ appears to be continuing the BushCo bullshit once again. Makes me quite heartsick and very angry. The Nation article is very good, and I hope people read the entire piece as it shows us how Obama is keeping intact more of the status quo ideologies held by the last administration.

The more things change..the more they stay the same.

Crossposted at Sirens Chronicles.