Hate Speech vs Free Speech

The recent ruling regarding the rightwing nutters of Westboro Baptist Church and a dead soldiers father, Albert Snyder, has once again brought up the issue of hate speech being protected as free speech.

Personally, I have always held that hate speech should not be protected under the first amendment. I realize the horrific job of determining what is free speech and what is hate speech is a daunting, overwhelming one...but with today's technology, hate speech can be widely disseminated to anyone...including those who aren't playing with a full deck mentally.

Hate speech can and always has incited violence. If I have to give an example, Hitler, three letters: KKK, and the SPLC has plenty of cases to choose from.

I must acknowledge Bill O'Reilly...as impossible as that might seem m'dear reader. Bill-O has volunteered to pay the entire $16K court-ordered ruling recently handed down by the 4th Circuit Court in the Snyder/Westboro case. Thank You Bill-O, and I really mean it.

What that tells me is that this issue spans the political spectrum..and we all can't be fucking wrong!   This bullshit needs to be fixed whether that comes from a SCOTUS ruling or a bill in Congress..fix it you fucks!

Bushie lied under oath in Ohio vote supression case.

From RawStory:

Caroline Hunter, a Bush-appointed Federal Election Commissioner who remains in office, provided misleading statements under oath in an effort to conceal Republican National Committee involvement in vote suppression activities during the 2004 presidential election, a Raw Story investigation has found.

Legal experts say Hunter's submission of misleading statements under oath is a serious ethical and professional breach which could warrant a bar review and potential disbarment. At the time, Hunter was serving as deputy counsel to the Republican National Committee.

This took place during a trial regarding the Ohio voter caging issue in 2004. Her affidavit, which can be read here (pdf), was given under oath.

The irony for me is that she is a lawyer. Sadly, there is a five year limit on perjury. But there isn't a time limit on disbarring this worthless douchebag.

3 nutters arrested by FBI

These nutters are special nutters…as in religious extremists. From The Detroit Free Press, via Slate:

The FBI arrested three people with suspected ties to Christian militias in a series of raids over the weekend, the Associated Press reports. The raids were conducted in Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana and were reportedly targeting the Christian militia Hutaree, who were believed to be illegally selling pipe bombs. According to a spokesman from the Southeast Michigan Volunteer Militia, a member of Hutaree called the Volunteer Militia on Saturday to say that their hideout was being raided by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. “They said they were under attack by the ATF and wanted a place to hide,” spokesman Mike Lackomar said. “My team leader said, ‘no thanks.’ ” Lackomar added that Hutaree—which means “Christian warrior”—was a religious cult and is not considered part of the “militia community.” “They are more of survivalist group and in an emergency they withdraw and stand their ground. They are actively training to be alongside Jesus,” Lackomar told the press. Hutaree’s MySpace page corroborates with this, describing the group’s mission as “preparing for the end time battles to keep the testimony of Jesus Christ alive.” Gawker reports that Internet trolls have since covered the page with gay porn and sacreligious images and that a mysterious user named “David” posted a warning saying that the world hasn’t seen the last of Hutaree. “Lots of men are in the backwoods at the moment. Bunkers exist that’ll keep a few for months,” David wrote. Arrested members will appear in a Detroit court later today.

Homegrown Terrorists of the religious variety….how quaint. Religious extremists on parade!

You have got to be kidding me...

The Party Of Hell No is driving their collective train off a cliff these days...and it looks fucking fabulous from here.  No way they get enough elected fuckwits to repeal shit this November. So...why are they screeching and/or wasting time on it?


Cuz they got nothin'...nothing at all.


And as an added bonus..McSame is so damn desperate he calls in The Quitter..Sister Sarah. She only appeals to the uneducated base...which is a minuscule group within the big political picture.

You go Sister Sarah..keep on dumbing it down for the dumbasses, because anyone with two brain cells to rub together knows you ain't got what it takes to run a government..at any level above the Mayor of Wasilla.







Oh...Thank You Lawrence O'Donnell..for a job well done during KO's absence. You need your own show dude..seriously.

When nutters attack!!!!

The post below this one contains the ravings of two nutters from the extreme right. They really went off the deep end and it was comical to say the least. Don't feed/respond to them as it will only encourage them to spew more skewed horseshit all over my humble little blog.

But let's allow them their justifications/delusions...onward and upward! Rachel's piece on the Rethugs who loved the mandate before they hated it:



The mandate is nothing more than corporate welfare for the insurance corporations. Oh, the Steve King video below is priceless! A blurb from the C&L piece:

Things aren't looking too good for the Republican Party's messaging machine when a Republican law maker is having to run away from Dana Bash of all people and even former Rudy Giuliani staffer and Wingnut false equivalency king John Avalon is admitting Sarah Palin is inciting violence given the real threats to members of Congress this week.

Chickenshit nutters can bitch about Bill Ayers all they want..at least the Weather Underground warned, via the press, before they bombed a building during a war that killed thousands and thousands of American's for nothing. All the Dem's did this week was pass a bill. 



He can't get away from her fast enough, can he?

Oh wtf is this crap?

It's almost mind-boggling how ignorant the extreme rightwing nutters are. 

I said almost. All these fuckwits have to fall back on is threatening violence and hurling racial and/or homophobic or gender-based epithets. How friggin pathetic is that?

I hope to hell the intelligent, centrist voter has had enough of this horseshit. It's only going to get worse and the corporate media will continue to keep it in the news...this is a good thing of course.  Keep these fucking idiots front and center until November. Rachel's take below:



The FBI is going to be very busy, if they aren't already. These homegrown fuckwits have a very itchy, collective trigger finger. The violence has begun with the bricks through the windows of elected officials. The calls to violence are ringing loud with the help of Palin, Limpballs and Beck.

CBO numbers are in for HCR bill.

Politico has the 411 from the CBO, regarding the so-called health care reform bill:

The bill would cost $940 billion, and reduce the deficit by $130 billion over the first 10 years and $1.2 trillion in the second 10 years. The deficit numbers Democrats have been most worried about, and will be key to convincing moderates to coming on board with the bill.

Here are the details, according to House Democrats:

1. CUTS THE DEFICIT Cuts the deficit by $130 billion in the first ten years (2010 – 2019). Cuts the deficit by $1.2 trillion in the second ten years. 2. REINS IN WASTEFUL MEDICARE COSTS AND EXTENDS THE SOLVENCY OF MEDICARE; CLOSES THE PRESCRIPTION DRUG DONUT HOLE Reduces annual growth in Medicare expenditures by 1.4 percentage points per year—while improving benefits and lowering costs for seniors. Extends Medicare’s solvency by at least 9 years. 3. EXPANDS AND IMPROVES HEALTH COVERAGE FOR MIDDLE CLASS FAMILIES Expands health insurance coverage to 32 million Americans Helps guarantee that 95 percent of Americans will be covered. 4. IS FULLY PAID FOR Is fully paid for – costs $940 billion over a decade. (Americans spend nearly $2.5 trillion each year on health care now and nearly two-thirds of the bill’s cost is paid for by reducing health care costs.

It’s getting harder for me to have any faith in the Democrat’s. Like Kucinich, I think this bill is bullshit and more corporate welfare for the insurance companies. Uninsured folks, like my son who has never had health insurance as an adult, will not be able to sign up for healthcare until 2013.

Obama goes on Faux Noise..

Lawrence O'Donnell opens Countdown talking to Chris Hayes about it. The interviewer was a interrupting fool..which is putting it mildly.

Video when the Countdown piece becomes available. My ramblings will also be included at that time.

To watch Faux's own video of the interview...go here.

It's up!



Personally, I think badgering someone who is trying to answer a question is really friggin bad form. Everyone should refrain from cutting in on someone's response..regardless of which side of that fucking aisle they sit on.

I think The Big O did an decent job, but I wonder what his blood pressure was when he left the room. The man has some big brass ones....once in awhile anyway.  I have to have a drink or two before I actually watch the entire interview on Faux's website.

Teabaggers hit a new low in DC

From C&L's video site:

 Even by Tea Party standards this one seems pretty low. Report by Dave Harding at Progress Ohio.

Video shot by the Columbus Dispatch from today's Honk and Wave in Support of Health Care at Congresswoman Mary Jo Kilroy's district office contains a segment wherein the teabaggers mock and scorn an apparent Parkinsen's victim telling him "he's in the wrong end of town to ask for handouts", calling him a communist and throwing money at him to "pay for his health care".
The segment starts at 51 seconds into the video.

Video and report from the Columbus Dispatch. Here's a sampling of Teabagger "logic":

"I don't see anyone laying in the street dying. We provide care for everyone," said Janet Popa, 61, of Upper Arlington.

"No one is turned away," said her friend, Ruth Phelps, 50, of Upper Arlington.

The women and others noted that hospitals cannot deny care to those who show up at emergency rooms.

Supporters dismissed concerns about cost and expanding the role of government.

"If we can find the money to kill people in wars, we can pay for this," said a Republican business owner from Westerville who declined to give her name.

"We are paying anyway (with charity care for the uninsured)."

There are some seriously sick fucks at that...cough..rally. 

Contractors are hired guns..who knew?

The title is tongue in cheek of course, we all know why the mercenaries are in Iraq and Afghanistan. But this piece in the NYT really lays it all out. From the writeup:

Under the cover of a benign government information-gathering program, a Defense Department official set up a network of private contractors in Afghanistan  and Pakistan  to help track and kill suspected militants, according to military officials and businessmen in Afghanistan and the United States.

The official, Michael D. Furlong, hired contractors from private security companies that employed former C.I.A. and Special Forces operatives. The contractors, in turn, gathered intelligence on the whereabouts of suspected militants and the location of insurgent camps, and the information was then sent to military units and intelligence officials for possible lethal action in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the officials said.

While it has been widely reported that the C.I.A. and the military are attacking operatives of Al Qaeda and others through unmanned, remote-controlled drone strikes, some American officials say they became troubled that Mr. Furlong seemed to be running an off-the-books spy operation. The officials say they are not sure who condoned and supervised his work.

Jesus H. Christ…how does our government allow wingnuts like Furlong to stay employed? It’s immoral as hell, not to mention illegal, to hire contractors as spy’s and assassins.

Furlong also funneled money from a legit program to finance this horseshit. He is now the object of a DoD criminal investigation, according to the NYT writeup:

Officials say Mr. Furlong’s operation seems to have been shut down, and he is now is the subject of a criminal investigation by the Defense Department for a number of possible offenses, including contract fraud.

Even in a region of the world known for intrigue, Mr. Furlong’s story stands out. At times, his operation featured a mysterious American company run by retired Special Operations officers and an iconic C.I.A. figure who had a role in some of the agency’s most famous episodes, including the Iran-Contra affair.

The allegations that he ran this network come as the American intelligence community confronts other instances in which private contractors may have been improperly used on delicate and questionable operations, including secret raids in Iraq and an assassinations program that was halted before it got off the ground.

“While no legitimate intelligence operations got screwed up, it’s generally a bad idea to have freelancers running around a war zone pretending to be James Bond,” one American government official said. But it is still murky whether Mr. Furlong had approval from top commanders or whether he might have been running a rogue operation.

This should not surprise anyone as the Bush Administration had no problem breaking laws and of course the Geneva Conventions. James Bond? Hell..it reminds me of other activities our CIA has taken part in over the decades…like trying to kill Castro and half the leaders in South American countries.

As for Mr. Furlong…guess what the fuckwit does now..go ahead guess. Alright I will tell ya..

Mr. Michael Furlong is now a senior civilian employee in the military, a full-time Defense Department employee based at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio.

No surprise there either.

Neocons in TX change school books.

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts...except in TX evidently. From the NYT:

After three days of turbulent meetings, the Texas Board of Education on Friday approved a social studies curriculum that will put a conservative stamp on history and economics textbooks, stressing the superiority of American capitalism, questioning the Founding Fathers’ commitment to a purely secular government and presenting Republican political philosophies in a more positive light.

*snip*

In recent years, board members have been locked in an ideological battle between a bloc of conservatives who question Darwin’s theory of evolution and believe the Founding Fathers were guided by Christian principles, and a handful of Democrats and moderate Republicans who have fought to preserve the teaching of Darwinism and the separation of church and state.

Since January, Republicans on the board have passed more than 100 amendments to the 120-page curriculum standards affecting history, sociology and economics courses from elementary to high school. The standards were proposed by a panel of teachers.

“We are adding balance,” said Dr. Don McLeroy, the leader of the conservative faction on the board, after the vote. “History has already been skewed. Academia is skewed too far to the left.” 

Have you noticed how the neocons stamp everything they hate as a liberal ideology?  Isn't this fuckery getting old? Yet, Texas' Hispanic population's request to include more information on historical latino's has been consistently voted down by the school board for years. Again from the NYT article:

Efforts by Hispanic board members to include more Latino figures as role models for the state’s large Hispanic population were consistently defeated, prompting one member, Mary Helen Berlanga, to storm out of a meeting late Thursday night, saying, “They can just pretend this is a white America and Hispanics don’t exist.”

“They are going overboard, they are not experts, they are not historians,” she said. “They are rewriting history, not only of Texas but of the United States and the world.” 

Years of education for students in TX will now be skewed and frankly..completely fucked up and outright bullshit. Oh, and did you know that Phyllis Schlafly, the NRA and the Heritage Foundation are important historical figures and groups as well?

They also included a plank to ensure that students learn about “the conservative resurgence of the 1980s and 1990s, including Phyllis Schlafly, the Contract With America, the Heritage Foundation, the Moral Majority and the National Rifle Association.”

Neither did I...adding balance my brown ass.

Give em hell Patrick!!!

He blows me away. You go dude! The Corporate Media is worthless when it comes to speaking truth to power.

Massa's 15 minutes are about up.

The rightwing nutters, Beck and Limpbaugh, really were hoping this fuckwit would break a corruption story..god, they got hard just thinking about it I bet....

But Massa gave them nothing. Below is Lawrence O'Donnell on Countdown, showing Becky's pathetic attempt today.



I love it! Adio's Massa...you fucking douche nozzle.

Liz Cheney- douchebag McCarthyite

This nasty skank really takes the cake. She has the audacity to go after the lawyers who upheld their oath and provided the best representation they could for their clients.  She is a lawyer and therefore very familiar with the oath. The following video from Friday's Countdown show, hosted by Lawrence O'Donnell, highlights military minds from the Bush administration that believe this skank is so full of shit...her damn eyes better be brown.


Folks on the right are also duly pissed about the video produced by Lizard Cheney's website, Keep America Safe. One of the Powerline bloggers Paul Mirengoff wrote a piece about this heinous horseshit, although he did detract some of what he wrote later. John Bellinger III, legal advisor to Condi Rice has also weighed in on this fuckery:

“I think it’s unfortunate that these individuals are being criticized for their past representation. It reflects the politicization and the polarization of terrorism issues," Bellinger said. "Neither Republicans nor Democrats should be attacking officials in each other’s administrations based solely on the clients they have represented in the past.”

“We’ve had a long-standing tradition in our country for lawyers to represent unpopular causes, and they shouldn’t be attacked for doing so," Bellinger added.

Peter D. Keisler, who headed the Civil Division of the Justice Department under the Bush43 administration, has also defended the attorneys in a piece printed by the NYTimes:

“There is a longstanding and very honorable tradition of lawyers representing unpopular or controversial clients,” Mr. Keisler said. “The fact that someone has acted within that tradition, as many lawyers, civilian and military, have done with respect to people who are accused of terrorism – that should never be a basis for suggesting that they are unfit in any way to serve in the Department of Justice.”

I have no problem with the request to name the attorneys, it's called transparency, but what jerks my chain is the sliming of these attorneys as the "Al-Qaeda 7". It's a purely political motivation on the part of Cheney and her co-horts in slime. Even Ted Olsen, Bush43's Solicitor General, and widower, who's wife was killed on 9/11 and the lead attorney for The Shrub in Bush v Gore, wrote (pdf) a scathing piece in the Legal Times in 2007 about the witch hunt for lawyers that represented Gitmo detainees. HuffPo has more on Mr. Olsen's pov along with the reprint of the LT piece. A few quotes from Mr Olsen  and Mr. Neal Katyal's 2007 article, which rings as true today as it did in 2007:

"The ethos of the bar is built on the idea that lawyers will represent both the popular and the unpopular, so that everyone has access to justice. Despite the horrible Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, this is still proudly held as a basic tenet of our profession," Olson wrote.

"When government officials are called 'war criminals' and when public-interest lawyers are called 'terrorist huggers,' it not only cheapens the discourse, it scrambles the dialogue. The best solutions to these difficult problems will emerge only when the best advocates, backed by weighty resources, bring their talents to bear. And the heavy work of creating solutions for these complicated issues can only move forward when the name-calling ceases."

*Snip*

"One of the wisest things the administration did after Sept. 11 was to permit lawyers to do their jobs in defending detainees," he and Katyal wrote. "From the enormously talented judge advocates general who directly represented Guantánamo detainees to the hundreds of private practitioners who took on individual cases, they have upheld our best principles by providing a vigorous defense. Patriotism is believing that the American system, not whim and insult, will reach the right results." (emphasis mine)

That last line should be engraved in stone, in my humble yet vocal opinion. The ABA (American Bar Association) has weighed in on the video as well, from TPM Muckraker:

In response to the Liz Cheney Web ad that questions the loyalty of lawyers who have represented Guantanamo detainees, the president of the American Bar Association said it is "a divisive and diversionary tactic" to impugn "the character of lawyers who have sought to protect the fundamental rights of unpopular clients."

In a statement to TPMmuckraker, ABA President Carolyn Lamm said that lawyers have an ethical obligation to "provide representation to people who otherwise would stand alone against the power and resources of the government--even to those accused of heinous crimes against this nation in the name of causes that evoke our contempt."

Lamm added: "The American people understand this obligation, and the corollary principle that representing a client is a commitment to a legal system that requires justice, not to any one client's political, economic, social or moral views or activities."

So fuck you Liz Cheney and the burro you rode in on. If brilliant minds on the right lambast your fuckwitted ass for this politically-motivated shit...you sincerely deserve it..and I hope you rot in hell sooner than later, ya worthless cunt.

And take Charles the douchenozzle Grassley with you.

Bart Stupak can kiss my brown ass.

I am tired of seeing Bart Stupak's dumb ass on the telly. This sumbitch wants to make health reform all about abortion. Well, Rachel is willing to give this homophobic fuckwit an additional 15 minutes of fame. She is going after him and his connection to the C Street group known as The Family. Slap him around a bit woman...he fucking deserves it. Worthless fuck would take down the entire health reform bill just to make sure he gets his horseshit language regarding abortion into the bill. This isn't about abortion, that federal fuckery was settled long ago.




If Stupak wants to push his anti-choice agenda the sumbitch needs to introduce a bill….so the majority of the Democrats can laugh at him and bury the damn thing. From ThinkProgress, some truth about Stupak and his anti-choice agenda:

While much of the attention on the health care debate in recent days has focused on the Senate, the House will have to vote to pass a reform bill as well, and Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) is threatening to torpedo the whole effort if his unreasonable demands on abortion restrictions are not met. To reconcile the differences between the House and Senate bills, Democratic leaders will likely have the House pass the Senate bill, then use the budget reconciliation process to “fix” the Senate bill, before sending it President Obama later this month. But due to two resignations, a death, and a likely vote switch by the only Republican who voted for health care reform the first time around, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has lost at least four votes, bringing the whip count to 216 — a majority of 217 is needed. But Stupak — who led a charge last November to insert a draconian abortion amendment to the House bill — is threatening to sink the effort again. Stupak claims there are “at least 12” House members who voted for the first bill that will switch their votes if the final bill includes the Senate’s abortion language. Stupak, his pro-life allies, and a leading group of Catholic bishops who have been deeply involved in the health care fight, falsely claim that the Senate bill will allow the use of taxpayer dollars for abortion and are demanding that the final bill include Stupak’s provision. Republicans have made similar accusations, but since they are unwilling to even consider voting for health care reform, it is Stupak’s bloc that would be responsible for killing health care reform, should it die in the House. Stupak’s amendment failed in a Senate vote, but the upper house included its own strict prohibition on public funding for abortions. Abortion language cannot be altered through the budget reconciliation process, meaning the final bill will look more like the Senate’s. The Catholic bishops “signaled” yesterday that they are willing to negotiate, saying “that if agreement is reached with House leaders on anti-abortion language, the church would work to get the votes needed to protect the provisions in the Senate,” even if it would require 60 votes. “Whether it would be enough to get to 60 votes, I can’t predict. We would certainly try,” Richard Doerflinger, an associate director of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, told Politico. But Stupak is still not satisfied. “In the present form, the Senate health care bill is going nowhere in the House of Representatives,” Stupak threatened yesterday on the Fox Business Channel.

WHAT THE BILL SAYS: It is clear that the final health care bill will not use taxpayer dollars to fund abortions. Neither the House nor Senate bills included outright public funding for abortion, but Stupak and other pro-life Democrats feared that taxpayer money would indirectly fund abortions, especially through government subsidies for low-income people to buy health insurance. Stupak’s amendment would have prohibited insurance plans that accept subsidies in the new exchanges from providing abortion services, except under the most extreme circumstances, even if women used only private money to pay for their abortion coverage. The Senate bill includes a deal orchestrated by Sen. Bill Nelson (D-NE) that does allow private health plans in the exchanges to offer abortion coverage, but only if their customers write two checks each month — one for the share of their premium that’s allocated for abortion services and one for all other health care coverage. Both checks would come from the customers’ personal funds, not government coffers. The Nelson provision also included language that encourages states to pass their own version of the Stupak Amendment, prohibiting insurers from offering plans with abortion coverage through the new state exchanges. The White House’s plan for health reform maintains Nelson’s approach in its entirety and is consistent with existing abortion restrictions, creating “a firewall between publicly- and privately-funded premiums and only allow[ing] private money to cover abortion costs.”

MOVING THE GOAL POSTS:  Stupak has consistently invented new demands when his old ones are met. Last year, Stupak first demanded that public funding for abortion be removed. It was. Then he demanded an up-or-down vote on his onerous amendment. It passed the House, but failed in the Senate. Still, Nelson’s provision was crafted with Stupak’s objections in mind, and it won the support of every pro-life Democrat in the Senate. Now, in order to keep up his crusade, ”Stupak has relied on a fundamentally dishonest interpretation of the Senate bill to argue that it would allow for public funding of abortion,” as the Wonk Room’s Igor Volsky noted. Stupak appeared on MSNBC yesterday to argue his case, claiming, “In the Senate bill, it says ‘you must offer insurance policies that will be paid for by the federal government that covers abortion.’” In an interview with ABC’s Good Morning America the next day, Stupak cited pages 2069-2078 of the Senate bill, claiming, “You will find in there that the federal government would directly subsidize abortions.” But those pages do the exact opposite, and clearly prohibit federal funding for abortions. In yesterday’s ABC interview, Stupak also objected to a provision that supposedly mandates that “every enrollee must pay one dollar per month into a fund to help fund abortions.” While it’s true that people who choose to purchase insurance with abortion coverage through the exchanges will pay the nominal fee, one can simply choose to purchase a plan that doesn’t cover abortion, and thus not pay the fee. Moreover, the $1 provision was included to allay the fears of pro-life lawmakers in order to make sure only private money is spent on abortion. The $1 comes from private premiums payments — not public dollars — and is a way of ensuring that carriers have sufficient funds to cover the services they offer. As Slate’s Timothy Noah observes, Stupak’s claims are “empirical, not ideological. And Stupak happens to be wrong.” There are a number of ways Stupak could try to get the results he wants in later legislation, and his stonewalling here shows that he cares more about his agenda than health care reform. But even if Democrats decide to change the Senate’s abortion language through a separate non-reconciliation measure, it’s still unclear that Stupak would vote for reform. On Monday, he told the Wall Street Journal that “abortion isn’t the only issue that will keep him from voting for the Senate bill if Speaker Nancy Pelosi brings it to the House floor.” “It’d be very hard to vote for this bill even if they fixed the abortion language,” he said. Asked whether there was any way he would vote for the current package, he had one word : “Nope.”

MOVING FORWARD: Americans are not interested in getting bogged down in an abortion debate on health care reform. A recent poll found that a large plurality — 47 percent — agreed that “[p]olitical differences on abortion should not prevent us from moving forward on an otherwise good health care reform plan.” Pelosi, Obama, and other leaders want to move forward as well. “Let me say this: This is not about abortion! This is a bill about providing quality, affordable health care for all Americans,” Pelosi said yesterday. “Let me say it clearly…there is no federal funding for abortion. That is the law of the land. It is not changed in this bill.” Indeed, independent observers agree. Timothy Jost, a law professor at Washington & Lee University, and an independent “leading expert on health policy and law” recently released the findings of a “a thorough examination” of the Senate abortion language. While he found “significant differences between the House and Senate” bills in general, “the provisions governing abortion (Sec. 1303 of the Senate bill, pp. 2069-2078) are not among them. Both bills prohibit federal funding of abortions.” In other words, the Senate language is as effective as the House language, which Stupak wrote and voted for. Indeed, even the Catholic Hospital Association endorsed the Senate abortion language. The association, which represents hundreds of Catholic hospitals across the country, said in a statement in late December that it was “encouraged” and “increasingly confident” that the abortion compromise in the Senate health care bill “can achieve the objective of no federal funding for abortion.” Despite his unreasonable stand, House Democrats are still trying to court Stupak. After meeting with Stupak yesterday, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) told TPMDC that “[s]eparate pieces of legislation could be passed” outside the reconciliation process to appease Stupak. “That’s a possibility,” said Hoyer. “I talked to Mr. Stupak today, and I’m going to be talking to him next week and he indicated he wanted to have some discussions with people. And I will do that.”

Now, sit down and shut the hell up dude.

RIP Jon Swift

Found this during a google search for something..don't remember what exactly. I have missed Jon Swift and wondered what was up with his lack of blogging over the last year. From the FireDogLake link:

Jon Swift’s mother broke the news to us in the only way she knew how to: Buried deeply in the comments section of her son’s last, tragically brief post on the death of another friend. In it, she said,

 I don’t know how else to tell you all who love this blog. I am Jon Swift’s Mom and I guess I’m going to OUT him. He was Al Weisel, my beloved son. Al was on his way to his father’s funeral in VA when he suffered 2 aortic aneurysms, a leaky aortic valve and an aortic artery dissection from his heart to his pelvis. He had 3 major surgeries within 24 hours and sometime during those surgeries also suffered a severe stroke. We, his 2 sisters, his brother, his partner and his best friend since he was 9 years old were with him as he took his last breath. We have all lost a shining start who warmed our hearts, tormented us and made us laugh as he giggled at our pulling something over on us. He passed away on February 27, 2010. My beloved child will live on in so many hearts. I miss him more than I can say. If you are on Facebook, go to organizations and join "Friends of Al Weisel, Unite!" It will give you just a taste of how special he was. Farewell, Jon (Al)

He always answered emails I sent him, and occasionally put in a good word for my blog with the 'big blogs', thus getting a post of mine linked to by the big guns in the blogosphere. He was a good human and a great blogger. His humor was magnificent and usually the rightwing nutters that happened onto his site never got 'the joke', thinking he was truly a neocon...which of course couldn't be farther from the truth.

Here is a personal blog post from a close friend..it contains more information on Jon/Al and explains why some of us really loved him and his humor.

My heart is heavy today..You will be missed Jon... ;(

"collateral damage to their procedural games."

This week's Fuckwit of the Week is gonna be hard to single out. There are just so many of them! Two however, stand out...

Jim Bunning - Former MLB pitcher and all-around bag of batshit is our first nominee. This asshole was asked by his own party to retire. His stubborn, ignorant fuckery has now cost two thousand people their jobs, removed the safety net for unemployed workers and triggered a 20% cut in pay for Doctors whose patients are on Medicare. From the link:

Bunning was able to block the bill because Democratic and Republican leaders in the Senate had signed off on passing it without a floor vote, instead asking that it be approved by unanimous consent - consent that Bunning withheld.

The federal Transportation Department said it was temporarily laying off 2,000 employees without pay starting yesterday and would begin suspending construction projects nationwide because a highway funding program ran out of money. That could be alleviated in days if the Senate acts or if the House passes another bill that extends the program.

While most Republicans distanced themselves from Bunning's action, Democrats on the Hill painted the GOP as obstructionist and used the occasion to marshal public support for using a controversial tactic - budget reconciliation - to pass a health-care overhaul bill later this month.

"Bunning's done more in the past few days to call attention to Republican procedural abuses in the Senate than anything we've seen before," said Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D., Md.).

The blocked bill also would have kept Medicare reimbursement rates at current levels.

As the result of the hold, the government yesterday began paying 21 percent less than before to doctors who see Medicare patients. Hoping the Senate would act soon to stave off the cuts, the Obama administration directed Medicare billing contractors to hold off processing claims for 10 business days. Medicare normally takes 14 days to pay doctors, so there would be no cuts in reimbursement if lawmakers move quickly.

The American Medical Association issued a blistering statement saying the Senate had made senior citizens "collateral damage to their procedural games." (emphasis mine)

Bunning then refused to speak to the press that was hounding him for an explanation to his fuckwitted game.  If that sumbitch wants to play games he should, at the very least, have the fucking balls to stand up for his...cough...convictions and face the media.

Fucking pussy.

Next up is Jon Kyl. Kyl made a simply lovely statement regarding unemployment and the people that are receiving unemployment checks during this most horrible recession. The reason this fuckwit is holding up the bill is that he wants the estate tax to continue favoring those folks inheriting over 7 million bucks...gotta protect those uber-rich folks, don't ya Jonny?

Guess we know where Kyl's priorities are. I hope the unemployed in AZ remember this shit when they are in the voting booth. From HuffPo:

 Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona, the Republican whip, argued that unemployment benefits dissuade people from job-hunting "because people are being paid even though they're not working."

Unemployment insurance "doesn't create new jobs. In fact, if anything, continuing to pay people unemployment compensation is a disincentive for them to seek new work," Kyl said during debate over whether unemployment insurance and other benefits that expired amid GOP objections Sunday should be extended.

"I'm sure most of them would like work and probably have tried to seek it, but you can't argue that it's a job enhancer. If anything, as I said, it's a disincentive. And the same thing with the COBRA extension and the other extensions here," said Kyl.

This bastard gives me a migraine.  Protecting the money of the uber rich whilst throwing the working class under the bus. Kyl is a douche nozzle of the highest order and our second nominee.

If you, my dear reader, have someone else that deserves the honor of being the Fuckwit of the Week, by all means, let me know in the comments section.