Koch Bros Convention draws plenty of protesters

From LAT

The rich folks in Rancho Mirage were not amused by protesters that showed up to voice their distaste with the Koch Brothers Billionaire Caucus this weekend. To which I say: Too effin bad mutha fuckas! From Dave Dayden’s piece over at FDL:

Twenty-five protesters were arrested in Rancho Mirage, California today, at a protest in front of the Rancho Las Palmas resort, site of the “Billionaire’s Caucus,” an annual meeting put on by the Koch Brothers and other corporate entities and conservative movement operators.

Riverside Sheriff’s deputy Melissa Nieburger said that the sheriff’s department did have contacts with protest organizers, which included the California Courage Campaign, CREDO, MoveOn.org, 350.org, the California Nurses Association, United Domestic Workers of America and the main sponsor, the good-government group Common Cause, prior to the event, and that they were aware that some protesters would seek to be arrested for trespassing. She would not guarantee that all 25 who were arrested were part of that coordinated operation. The police, who wore riot gear, batons and helmets, did put the arrested into plastic handcuffs. Nieburger described them as “passive restraints.” They were being processed at press time, and Nieburger would not say whether they would be released or would spend the night at the jail in Indio.

Nieburger estimated between 800 and 1,000 activists at the “Uncloak the Kochs” event. Event organizers chartered buses from several locations around Southern California and claimed 1,500 people signed up for those buses, on top of any local activists who attended. It appeared from the ground that well over 1,000 protesters were there.

While the sheriff’s deputy claimed no knowledge of who called out the Riverside County sheriffs and the Palm Springs police department to the proceedings, Common Cause was contacted by the sheriff to see what they were planning and coordinate appropriate resources. The city of Rancho Mirage contracts with the Riverside County sheriff’s department for their law enforcement needs.
Van Jones, the former green jobs deputy in the Obama Administration and senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, described the anti-Koch rally as “the beginning of our fight back.” The leadership of Common Cause, generally a far more congenial organization, was a bit unusual, part of a new aggressiveness and penchant for direct action from the group. “I think you’re going to see a new Common Cause.”

The Koch Brothers, billionaires who have generously funded conservative and libertarian causes for over a generation – including the Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute, and tea party groups like Americans for Prosperity – put together an annual meeting, typically held in the California desert, with fellow corporate CEOs and conservative operatives, to plan the year ahead. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and 2012 Republican Presidential candidate Herman Cain were reputed to attend the gathering at the sprawling Rancho Las Palmas resort. The Kochs bought out the entire resort for Saturday and Sunday. Some activists who stayed at the resort Friday night and booked dinners at their restaurants on Saturday had their reservations canceled by the resort, and were given $150 each for their trouble.

Common Cause organized the protest weeks ago, and set up a stage in the parking lot across the street from the Rancho Las Palmas resort. But from the beginning, activists were far more interested in the resort site, and they massed themselves across the street and then eventually in the driveway of the resort. The police, in their riot gear, came out very early to guard the resort, only letting in authorized personnel. Hotel guests, presumably attendees to the Koch Brothers meeting, looked on, holding smart phone cameras and taking pictures of the display. In addition, conservative provocateur Andrew Breitbart, resplendent in shorts and roller skates, mulled around the crowd with a couple lackeys and a small video camera, talking to (and arguing with) attendees. I asked Breitbart exactly who necessitated the riot police, the lady with the papier-maché puppet or the Code Pink lady’s umbrella, and he claimed to have seen unspecified “internal emails” proving the potential for violence and the need for security. Surely that will come out in the next few days. I didn’t want to keep him from his workout, so I wrapped up the interview.

Violence..come on..there was no violence. Breitbart was smoking crack if he alluded to any violence on the left’s side at this event. This time around there was plenty of press of the left’s protest of these heathen bastards. From an LAT writeup:

Protest organizers said they hoped to raise awareness about the Koch brothers and what activists portray as their shadowy attempts to weaken environmental protection laws and undercut campaign contribution limits.

The brothers control Koch Industries, the nation’s second-largest privately held company. They have funded groups pushing a limited-government, libertarian agenda, helped organize “tea party”groups and contributed $1 million to a failed ballot initiative to suspend California’s law to curb greenhouse gases.

At least the LA Times gets it right that the Koch Bros have funded measures to circumvent laws that help save the environment, and that they organized the astroturf group known as the Tea Party.
No one single person or group has worked harder to bring America back into the dark ages than the Koch Brothers.  These guys would spend their last dime to drag us backwards and put The Corporatocracy into control.

Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses - except in AZ

Emptywheel has a post up this morning that really chaps my ass. It's about the new State bills in AZ that want to take citizenship away from babies born in the U.S. to parents who are not citizens. It's the hate that the rightwing nutters have for anyone of color and specifically brown babies born to brown parents that aren't citizens of our nation. First, let me quote Emma Lazarus, from the Statue of Liberty and how people were never questioned when they showed up on our shores:

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"(emphasis mine)

Unless you are a full Native American Indian, the poem above applies to all of you and your relatives, just as it applies to me and I am quite sure it applies to that pile of steaming batshit known as Russell Pearce. From Emptywheels writeup over at FDL:

With the filing in the Arizona legislature of twin bills at the end of this week attacking the automatic citizenship granted to U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants under the 14th Amendment, it seemed like time to return to the matter.

Specifically, we are talking about the following Arizona Legislative measures:

- House Bill 2561 and Senate Bill 1309 would define children as citizens of Arizona and the U.S. if at least one of their parents was either a U.S. citizen or a legal permanent U.S. resident and therefore subject to the jurisdiction of the United States.

- House Bill 2562 and Senate Bill 1308 would seek permission from Congress to set up a system so states can create separate birth certificates for children who meet the new definition of a citizen and those who do not.

These are the provisions engendered by the hateful right wing “anti-anchor baby” effort. Arizona is, as it was with the previous “immigration papers please” law enacted in SB 1070, on the cutting edge of the national anti-immigrant and hatred of brown movement. While Arizona may be the test lab, it is certainly not necessarily the originator for these discriminatory and bigoted efforts. The “father” of the measures, leader and vocal mouthpiece for them in the Arizona legislature is State Senator Russell Pearce, newly crowned President of the state senate. Pearce worked off the template written by national movement conservative Kris Kobach for SB 1070, and the attempt to blow up the 14th Amendment birth citizenship guarantee is also being pushed by national extreme right wing movement conservatives such as Rand Paul and David Vitter.

But the point man and patron saint of anti-immigration hate in Arizona is indeed President of the Arizona Senate Russell Pearce, a former top deputy and confidant of the pernicious Maricopa County Sheriff, Joe Arpaio. When Pearce first arrived in the Arizona state legislature in 2001, it was as a state representative from the heavily Mormon (Pearce’s religion) area of Mesa, and he was known for little more than being a:

…loudmouthed backbencher, unhealthily obsessed with illegal immigration.

Russell Pearce is a horrible, hate-filled little man. He is someone that should not be allowed to decide the fate of anyone other than himself.

Emptywheel's article goes on to tell you why Pearce is a disgusting, worthless human being and how he came into power in the Grand Canyon State. How he got canned from running the Department of Motor Vehicles for tampering with state records. One would think this would be enough to keep his smarmy ass out of politics, but no. Not when rich folks, and high-powered lobbyists love him and his bigoted self.  Hell, its been widely reported in AZ that he is buddies with a longtime neo-nazi supporter and this article contains the picture to prove it. Rachel Maddow did a great piece on Pearce's nazi/supremacist connections and the PhoenixNewTimes has an informative writeup here (link opens in new tab)including the video of Maddow's show.

But in AZ Republican circles, being a nazi supporter and having supremacist associations evidently is a red badge of courage that keeps getting you elected in certain districts. Go read Emptywheels piece to really get a feeling of how ugly it has gotten in AZ with regard to the nutter right and their control there. I have lived in that beautiful state twice now. I was not political both times and must admit I never noticed the rightwing nutjobs, only the gun-toting ones scared me. There were plenty of them btw.

Emptywheel is sad for the 'state' of his state and he quotes and prints a biting Will Bunch piece that was in HuffPo shortly after the AZ massacre that left so many dead and injured including Rep Giffords.  The Bunch piece ate at EmptyWheel and he contacted Bunch to tell him as much,  but he admits that it's true now more than he would like to admit.

And that should bother every friggin one of us.

Federal Judge lets Blackwater case proceed.

How you liking that Erik Prince you disgusting bastard? Eric was still running this group of fucking killers and all around thugs back in 07.  From Jurist:

A judge for the US District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina [official website] ruled Wednesday that a lawsuit against Blackwater [JURIST news archive], now known as Xe Services [corporate website], can proceed in state court. The suit revolves around a 2007 shooting incident [JURIST news report] in the Nisour Square area of Baghdad that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead. A subsequent FBI [official website] investigation revealed that 14 of the deaths were unjustified acts of excessive force [NYT report]. The lawsuit, the last remaining in relation to the shooting incident, was filed by the families of six victims. In his ruling, Judge Terrence Boyle said that nonresidents lack the right to sue in federal court for injuries sustained outside of the country, but that federal courts are obligated to remand such cases to the state level, where North Carolina law permits such suits. 

Foreign governments as well as US courts and agencies continue to scrutinize the role of private security contractors in conflicts abroad as incidents of violence and abuse have raised concerns that the firms operate largely outside of the law. In October, the Afghan government announced that it had disbanded eight private security companies [JURIST report] operating locally and confiscated their weapons pursuant to a decree from President Hamid Karzai [official profile]. In September, a judge in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia [official website] declared a mistrial [JURIST report] in a murder case against two Blackwater defense contractors after the jury failed to reach a verdict following nine hours of deliberation. The defendants were charged with killing two unnamed men in Kabul and argued self-defense. In February, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website] announced that it had launched an investigation [JURIST report] into Blackwater following allegations that the company bribed Iraqi officials with $1 million to allow them to continue operating in the country after the Nisour Square incident. Bribery of foreign officials is a violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) [text, 15 USC § 78dd-1 text].

This is a civil suit, the last avenue left it seems. Some more background on this crime which I call murder: As the Jurist article states, the FBI investigated these murders and they called them..cough..unjustified shootings.. no shit, which I blogged about here. The DOJ did attempt to try the Blackwater murderers for these dead Iraqis but lo and behold a Federal Judge tossed out the case, which I blogged about here.

Lets not forget however, that the Obama Administration awarded Blackwater, now known as Xe Services new contracts in Afghanistan. These contracts were handed out as hearings were being held on smarmy contractors who were getting rich as shit at the taxpayer trough in our forever wars whilst wasting our cash, providing shitty services and goods and basically giving us squat for big bucks.

Ain't that fucking great? Don't you love the stench of friggin irony in the morning?

Bank of America not happy: judge blocks 8,900 NV foreclosures

Bet this news didn't go down too well with the execs at BofA. With all the gnashing of teeth about robosigning and foreclosure fraud in the news, this recent story is important. From WaPo:

Bank of America is aggressively moving to appeal a Nevada county judge's order halting more than 8,900 foreclosures.

In one of a growing number of foreclosure cases across the country in which judges are questioning whether notices and documents were improperly prepared, Nye County District Court Judge Robert Lane issued a preliminary injunction against BofA's ReconTrust subsidiary, blocking it from proceeding with non-judicial foreclosures statewide until a Feb. 28 hearing.

The case involves a borrower, Suzanne A. North, who sued the bank on Jan. 11 arguing that ReconTrust filed foreclosure papers when it did not have the legal standing to do so.

Goodness, gracious! Since BofA bought CountryWide Financial, one of the nations most crooked mortgage companies, I am sure there are plenty of phony loans and phony foreclosures in the mix. Suzanne North uses the word FRAUD in her filing and brotha..I wouldn't doubt it..do you?

Read the rest of my post over at RJ's new blog BofA666. I did the inaugural post. I am so giddy as I hate those Tarp-taking, bonus-lovin fuckers.

Jan 28 1986. Challenger Space Shuttle Disaster. A day that changed my life.

I was the PM for the GBU (Ground Base Unit) for the Gamma Ray Observatory or GRO. being built at Fairchild Space Systems in Frederick MD. Shortly before lunch that day, around 11:30, the Challenger launched. We had it on the intercom at work, Houston Control Center, like we always did. We really didn't pay much attention, as launches had become 'old hat'. Suddenly, it became quiet in the offices and we all realized something had gone horribly wrong. The intercom was shut down and we ran to the tv's and radios to find out what had happened. We were horrified. Grown men begain crying, hell I was crying.

No one who worked in aerospace was ever the same again. Our lives changed forever. The space program changed forever. The Challenger Disaster changed the course of space flight forever and in many ways, it changed it for the good. Safety was never taken for granted again. Manufacturing Sub-contractors were  held to tighter controls and check and balances were put into place and not just signed off anymore.

Because lives were lost due to something so damn fucking simple failing...too many precious live were lost in a second, in the blink of an eye. And thousands if not millions of lives like mine were changed in that second as well.

The Space program was put on hold for what seemed like forever but was really three years. By thanksgiving of that year, the layoffs started taking place. I was layed off right before Christmas and moved back to California with my young son. It was a blessing as his health was alway bad on the east coast, he was an asthmatic and the damp weather was horrible for his condition.

This is gonna hurt..Bank of America that is.

A group of Investors for BofA are highly pissed and to that end, they sued Bank of America. From Jurist:

Twelve plaintiffs on Monday combined to file a lawsuit [complaint, PDF] in the New York State Supreme Court [official website] against Countrywide Financial Corporation[NYT backgrounder] alleging widespread fraud that resulted in substantial financial losses. The plaintiffs invested hundreds of millions of dollars with the Bank of America (BOA) [corporate website] subsidiary between 2005 and 2007, believing the purchases of mortgage-backed securities to be "conservative, low-risk investments." The suit claims that Countrywide "recklessly" misrepresented the stability of the investments and failed to adhere to its stated underwriting and credit analysis procedures, leading the credit ratings of many of the securities to fall significantly. The complaint also names several former Countrywide executives as defendants, and seeks compensatory and punitive damages.

O'Donnell tells us what KO did for eight years every night.

I never thought of it this way and I bet most of us didn't. Thank you Lawrence for putting into powerful words how hard Keith Olbermann worked every day at his craft. KO earned every single, fucking penny he made off the warlords at GE/MSNBC.

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

For-Profit Schools don't like the new rules.So they sue the DOE

The Dept of Education is trying to jerk the chain of colleges that historically graduate more poorly educated students who then carry higher than average debt when they graduate from these for-profit colleges. From Jurist:

The Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities (APSCU) [official website] on Friday filed suit [complaint, PDF] against the US Department of Education(DOE) [official website] in federal court seeking to overturn three regulations promulgated by the department. The challenged rules are a part of the DOE's final regulations [text, PDF] adopted in October. One rule challenged by the suit would stop deceptive advertising by schools. Another bars recruiters from being paid based on how many students they enroll. A third specifies minimum steps a state must take to authorize post-secondary programs that participate in federal student aid programs. In the complaint, filed at the US District Court of the District of Columbia [official website], APSCU claims the DOE's final regulation's violate both the Higher Education Opportunity Act [text, PDF] and the Constitution. Additionally, the complaint accuses the DOE of not granting private sector schools adequate representation during the negotiation rule-making process. APSCU claims that the DOE rushed the regulatory process for proposals that they knew would not be well-received in order to implement a desired outcome irrespective of the concerns of the stakeholders and the public. The DOE has not yet responded to the complaint.

The new regulations are a part of a larger federal crackdown on for-profit schools that are accused of graduating poorly educated students with high student-loan debt. A report [text, PDF] released by the USGovernment Accountability Office (GAO) [official website] accused for-profit colleges of promoting fraudulent practices so their students could acquire federal aid, exaggerating potential salary after graduation and failing to provide clear information about costs and duration of programs. Additionally, a 2009 GAO report found that for-profit college students were more likely to default on federal student loans than were students from other colleges.

We can only hope the Bush-stacked Court doesn't buy into these bastards bullshit.This is not to say all for-profit schools are bad. The ones that use deceptive advertising practices are disgusting carpetbaggers that prey on young wanna be students eager to better their lives. 

Another angle is the student loan companies that let students use their school loans to buy pizza's and beer. Colleges should crack down on this bullshit as well. Colleges that prey on people that cannot get into regular, traditional colleges, even junior colleges are another brand of fuckery. One such member group of colleges, in my view, is APSCU, the group suing the DOE. A list of their member colleges can be found here. Their member colleges are by and large vocational colleges, technical colleges and beauty schools. CNBC did an extensive investigative piece about these types of for-profit colleges and a lot of what they dug up is astounding. From their report:

A message to the left - We are Media Orphans

Robert Parry, who can put his finger on the pulse of the right so very succinctly and eloquently, does it in this Consortium writeup about the left and our shrinking options in the media with the departure of Keith Olbermann. That he calls us media orphans...well, it just friggin nails it. From his article:

The troubling message to progressives is that they remain essentially orphans when it comes to having their political interests addressed by any corporate news outlet. While the Right has built its own vast media infrastructure – reaching from newspapers, magazines and books to radio, TV and the Internet – the Left generally has treated media as a low priority.

Though some on the Left saw hope in the MSNBC evening line-up, the larger reality was that even inside the world of NBC News, the other content ranged from the pro-Establishment centrism of anchor Brian Williams to the center-right views of MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough to CNBC’s mix of free-market extremism and corporate boosterism.

While gratified to be given a few hours each night on MSNBC, the Left surely had nothing to compare with Murdoch’s News Corporation and its longstanding commitment to a right-wing perspective on Fox News and News Corp.'s many other print and electronic outlets.

As I wrote in an article last November, “Olbermann and the other liberal hosts are essentially on borrowed time, much the way Phil Donahue was before getting axed in the run-up to George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq, when MSNBC wanted to position itself as a ‘patriotic’ war booster.

The man ain't lying is he? Does it not all make sense now? We have a mere 14 hours a week whilst the right has tens of hours a week? If you count the scum in talk radio then it bounces the numbers even higher.

Yet, the president who was elected by the voters in 2008, not a panel of leftwing nutters, is father from the right than the left in a vast majority of issues. If you listen to the screaming nutters on the right on Faux, or Limbaugh, Palin,Savage etc he is no where near their beliefs. He wants to bring our nation to it's knees they tell us daily. He wants to kill your granny! He wants to bankrupt Amerika!

But his ratings are higher than Reagan's were at this stage in his presidency, more people trust him to fix things than trust the Republicans.

So why is it that you can not find more talking heads disseminating information with that "famous liberal bias" the right constantly screams about on tv? Why is it that MSNBC has not shown a scintilla of loyalty to the hosts on the left similar to what Faux shows to it's stable of rightwing hosts? Again from Parry's article:

“Unlike News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch, who stands solidly behind the right-wing propaganda on Fox News, the corporate owners of MSNBC have no similar commitment to the work of Olbermann, Rachel Maddow and Ed Schultz.

*snip*

The ongoing significance of America’s media imbalance is that it gives the Right enormous capabilities to control the national debate, not only during election campaigns but year-round. Republicans can deploy what intelligence operatives call “agit-propaganda,” stirring controversies that rile up the public and redound to the GOP’s advantage.

These techniques have proved so effective that not even gifted political speakers, whether the savvy Bill Clinton or the eloquent Barack Obama, have had any consistent success in countering the angry cacophony that the Right can orchestrate.

One week, the Right's theme is “Obamacare’s death panels”; another week, it’s “the “Ground Zero Mosque.” The Democrats are left scrambling to respond – and their responses, in turn, become fodder for critical commentary, as too wimpy or too defensive or too something.

The mainstream media and progressives often join in this criticism, wondering why Obama let himself get blind-sided or why he wasn’t tougher or why he can’t control the message. For the Right and the Republicans, it’s a win-win-win, as the right-wing base is energized, more public doubts are raised about the President, and the Left is further demoralized.

All questions and no answers. It's disheartening ain't it? Don't it piss you the hell off?

Well,  its a mute point now as the era of Comcast starts now....and we will see how that shit unfolds...but one thing is for certain, it will be about ratings..bet the farm on that kids..bet the farm.

So keep watching the few shows we still got on the telly. It's all we got, along with Maher of course. And hopefully KO will return, eventually, on another channel stronger and more eloquently than ever, ripping the right with everything he has.

First Republican straw poll of the season and it's a doozy!

Lawd have mercy, what a selection of Republicans, most right, many way right, to choose from! Politico of course has the 411, see the bottom of the post for how the email alert words the same information:

Romney won with 35 percent, beating second-place finisher Ron Paul by 24 points in the WMUR-ABC News straw poll of members of the state Republican Party. In third place was former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who won 8 percent—just one point ahead of Sarah Palin, who drew 7 percent.

*jump to*

Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann won 5 percent, pizza mogul Herman Cain took 4 percent, and Santorum won 3 percent—tied with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, Indiana Rep. Mike Pence and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.

The Half-Term Governor from AK did better than I expected and Pence the fuckwit did worse.Santorum and Batshit Bachmann should of gotten nothing, but there is no accounting for some folks tastes is there? Now, the news alert I got in my email put it this way:

The full results from the WMUR/ABC/N.H. Republican Party presidential straw poll are: Mitt Romney with 35% of the 273 ballots cast, Ron Paul with 11%, Tim Pawlenty with 8% and Sarah Palin with 7%. The remaining results: Michele Bachmann and Jim DeMint with 5% each; Herman Cain with 4%; Chris Christie, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, Mitch Daniels and Mike Huckabee with 3% each; Rudy Giuliani, Judd Gregg, Gary Johnson and "other" with 2% each; and Donald Trump and Haley Barbour with 1% each. Jon Huntsman Jr. and John Thune were on the ballot but received no votes.(emphasis mine)

I did laugh my brown ass off over Thune's returns or lack thereof. I howled over Haley Barbour's one percent. ;) All, in all, the actual Politico writeup seemed much kinder and gentler to the assholes in the bunch, wouldn't you say?

Keith Olbermann and Countdown are no more.

 Updates at the bottom of the post
About 15 minutes before the end of tonight's show, KO pronounced the end of the run of Countdown in a teaser prior to a commercial break. A very-fucking-short statement released by MSNBC on this development:

MSNBC announced Friday night that its marquee "Countdown" anchor and talk show host Keith Olbermann was out.  The network did not provide a reason for his abrupt departure. "MSNBC and Keith Olbermann have ended their contract. The last broadcast of "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" will be this evening. MSNBC thanks Keith for his integral role in MSNBC's success and we wish him well in his future endeavors," NBC Universal said in a statement.
Olbermann and his bosses have clashed in recent months. He was suspended in November for two days after revelations that he gave donations to a Democratic political candidate, which was a violation of the company's ethics policies for news employees.

The Comcast/MSNBC merger was completed this week. Coincidence? I think not... Sources indicate Lawrence ODonnell will take over his slot. Rachel Maddow has Chris Hayes subbing for her tonite on her show.

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

Update:From what I am hearing from my inside connection @MSNBC, this was most likely KO's move, not MSNBC. They gave him a lot of shit daily, but they would never kill the golden goose.

Update2: From HuffPo - MSNBC released the following statement on their new programming order:


    Starting Monday, January 24, "The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell" will move to 8 p.m. ET/PT and "The Ed Show," hosted by Ed Schultz, will move to 10 p.m. ET/PT on MSNBC. The announcement was made today by Phil Griffin, President of MSNBC. "The Rachel Maddow Show" will continue to air live at 9 p.m. ET/PT.


    Also starting Monday, Cenk Uygur, MSNBC contributor and host of the popular web show "The Young Turks," will be filling in as host of the 6 p.m ET hour.

Rick Santorum - Biggest Idiot this side of the Milky Way.

Ricky wants to be President. That will never happen of course, but to that end he continues to open his piehole and this week was no exception. Playing the race card, Santorum waxed ignorant as is his usual. The following pov is from a rightwing site, the NationalJournal, from their Hotline on Call section:

Referring to Obama's comment during the 2008 campaign that determining when human life begins is "above my pay grade," Santorum tees off on Obama, saying: "Just about everything else in the world, he's willing to have the government do, but he can't answer that basic question, which is not a debatable issue at all. ... The question is -- and this is what Barack Obama didn't want to answer -- 'Is that human life a person under the Constitution?' And Barack Obama says no."

Then, Santorum ices the cake: "Well, if that human life is not a person, then -- I find it almost remarkable for a black man to say, 'No, we're going to decide who are people and who are not people.'"

This over-the-top statement is only the most recent from Santorum, whose 18-point drubbing in his 2006 re-election bid was attributed in part to a string of controversial remarks about gender roles and hot-button social issues like gay marriage and abortion.

Political observers following Santorum's all-but-official campaign have witnessed in recent months a more subdued and calculated Santorum, leading many to wonder if the once-fiery socially conservative senator has turned a corner and learned from the plethora of self-inflicted mistakes caused by his seemingly careless tongue. It appears their question has been answered.

If you like Sarah Palin, you will adore Rick Santorum. We on the left, will have hours of yucks and laughter, not to mention plenty to write that shows how ridiculous the religious right is and how little they have in common with the moderates and the independent voters in our nation. There is a video on NJ's site but really, do we need to watch it here? Do you seriously want to ruin your lunch?

Welcome back Ricky you sick fuck!

What Balls They Have! GOP claims credit for last years economic growth.

These jerkwads just took possession of the House this month and yet to listen to them tell it, the Party of No can claim THEY are the ones that 'did it all' when it comes to last years small but significant economic/job growth. The GOP, who refused to support anything that was put forth in the 111th Congress, except for the Tax Cuts from Hell in the lame duck session in December, have the nads to grab credit for Obama's hard earned work. From MediaMatters' site, PoliticalCorrection.Org(emphasis and links all theirs):

Appearing on Fox News' Happening Now, House Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier (R-CA) credited "positive numbers" on the economy to House Republicans' newly held majority status and their pursuit of "pro-growth policies." 

 REP. DREIER: The notion that many pundits and people on some of those other cable channels throw out regularly that we want to bring an end to health care for people is just preposterous. We are determined to ensure that with a market-oriented approach we can have the kind of chance for people to have access to insurance and we can get our economy growing. And we've gotten some positive numbers. I think it's in large part because we won our majority and we're pursuing pro-growth policies. I think we can make it happen.

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

Dreier didn't specify which "positive numbers" he's been looking at, but perhaps it was the January 7th release of BLS's December 2010 unemployment rate, which at 9.4% was the lowest it's been since May 2009. Or maybe he's referring to the addition of over 100,000 private sector jobs in December alone.

It's hard to understand how Dreier can justify giving the not-yet-implemented policies of the House Republican majority credit for economic growth that occurred when both houses of Congress were dominated by Democrats, but apparently this is a strategy Republicans have decided to embrace. ThinkProgress caught Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) pulling a similar maneuver. Calling the Obama administration "highly anti-business," Kyl credited the December extension of the Bush tax cuts for private-sector business growth that had occurred in the 11 months prior to the passage of the extension.

One 'positive number' you probably won't find Kyl or Dreier slinging around is the addition of over 1.1 million private sector jobs since health care reform became law.

It's fucking amazing ain't it??? These bastards have no friggin shame...they will lie, cheat and evidently..steal. They are Grifters all, and at this point..hell is too good a place for them.

SCOTUS to hear case re: Cali's planned Medicaid reimbursement cuts

Under Ahnold, Cali attempted to cut funding for Medicaid reimbursements to physicians, dentists, pharmacies, health clinics and other medical providers.The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals said hell no to that.

Governor Brown wants to do the same and to that end...SCOTUS will get the case now. This doesn't really bode well for the Medicaid providers and ultimately the citizens of the state that must avail themselves of this form of healthcare as at least four of the Supreme's find fault with the Ninth's logic in how they ruled.  From McClatchy:

The court's decision to hear three combined California legal challenges is good news for Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown, who wants to enact budget cuts similar to those that courts have previously struck down. Potentially, hundreds of millions of dollars in proposed savings are at stake.

"The fact that the court agreed to hear these cases is a big and important step for California," Elizabeth Ashford, a spokeswoman for Brown, said Tuesday night.

The court's decision also could please 22 states that have sided with California, including Florida, Idaho and South Carolina. California and the other states want to restrict the kinds of private lawsuits that can be filed over public benefits.

The Ninth Circuit of Court of Appeals previously rejected California's proposed reimbursement cuts, initially put forward under Brown's Republican predecessor, Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The Supreme Court's decision issued without comment Tuesday means at least four of the nine justices question the Ninth Circuit's reasoning. The impending review by a conservative-dominated high court worries the medical professionals and patient advocates opposed to the reimbursement reductions.

Thanks Jerry, you are looking more like a republican governor every, fucking day.

Politifact truthometer re: Obama campaign promises.

With the Big O coming up on his SOTU speechifying moment, those wonderful folks over at PF have compiled for us a nice set of factoids on how The Prez has done keeping his campaign promises. A short synopsis from their writeup:

PolitiFact has been tracking more than 500 promises Obama made during the 2008 campaign, everything from "Create new financial regulations" (Promise Kept) to "End income tax for seniors earning less than $50,000" (Promise Broken).

Individually and collectively, our Obameter ratings tell the story of his presidency at the halfway point in his four-year term. Measured in raw numbers, the scorecard shows his overall performance, with 133 promises Kept and 33 Broken.

Goodness. Over Five-friggin-hundred promises? Dude made that many? And only 33 broken promises? Ah, but what are the broken ones?  So many questions.. Specific numbers, from them as follows:

    * Promise Kept 134

    * Compromise 41

    * Promise Broken 34

    * Stalled 75

    * In the Works 220

    * Not yet rated 2

Well, we already have a discrepancy as the writeup says 33 broken but their graphic says 34 broken. Which is it assholes?  Check them out at you own risk...and if need be..take your blood pressure meds prior. I will update my thoughts on them later.

Bill Maher- Founding Fathers would of despised the Teabaggers. (video)

New Rules!! Opening his 2011 season on HBO, Maher went off on the Teabaggers and their lack of knowledge regarding what the founding fathers stood for, and in Palin's case, what most of them did for a living. It's shameful how little the extreme rightwingers know about our history. The history lesson begins about the 2:55 into the clip.

BP's oil is still out there, right?

Of course it is, but the government and their pals at BP want you to think its all gone. From Naomi Kleins piece up at The Nation:

For the scientists aboard the WeatherBird II, the recasting of the Deepwater Horizon spill as a good-news story about a disaster averted has not been easy to watch. Over the past seven months, they, along with a small group of similarly focused oceanographers from other universities, have logged dozens of weeks at sea in cramped research vessels, carefully measuring and monitoring the spill's impact on the delicate and little-understood ecology of the deep ocean. And these veteran scientists have seen things that they describe as unprecedented. Among their most striking findings are graveyards of recently deceased coral, oiled crab larvae, evidence of bizarre sickness in the phytoplankton and bacterial communities, and a mysterious brown liquid coating large swaths of the ocean floor, snuffing out life underneath. All are worrying signs that the toxins that invaded these waters are not finished wreaking havoc and could, in the months and years to come, lead to consequences as severe as commercial fishery collapses and even species extinction.

Perhaps not coincidentally, the most outspoken scientists doing this research come from Florida and Georgia, coastal states that have so far managed to avoid offshore drilling. Their universities are far less beholden to Big Oil than, say, Louisiana State University, which has received tens of millions from the oil giants. Again and again these scientists have used their independence to correct the official record about how much oil is actually out there, and what it is doing under the waves.

One of the most prominent scientists on the BP beat is David Hollander, a marine geochemist at the University of South Florida. Hollander's team was among the first to discover the underwater plumes in May and the first to trace the oil definitively to BP's well. In August, amid the claims that the oil had magically disappeared, Hollander and his colleagues came back from a cruise with samples proving that oil was still out there and still toxic to many marine organisms, just invisible to the human eye. This research, combined with his willingness to bluntly contradict federal agencies, has made Hollander something of a media darling. When he is not at sea, there is a good chance he is in front of a TV camera. In early December, he agreed to combine the two, allowing me and filmmaker Jacqueline Soohen to tag along on a research expedition in the northern Gulf of Mexico, east of the wellhead.

Ah, don't you just love the smell of corporate bullshit in the morning?

We're Number One! In guns owned by individuals world-wide.

You might think this is as it should be, but it's not. When you consider that the United States only holds five percent of the worlds population, the fact that american civilians own 35-50 percent of the World's guns is sobering. This means that for every 100 civilian Americans, 83-97 own small arms.

For seven years now, a Swedish group has released their annual report on small arms ownership around the world and the consequences to the public and the world at large. This report is funded by various nations from around the world and it is internationally respected.What this report from 2007 tells us about American's and their guns is this:

 With less than 5 per cent of the world’s population, the United States is home to roughly 35–50 per cent of the world’s civilian-owned guns, heavily skewing the global geography of firearms and any relative comparison (see Table 2.3). Of some eight million new firearms manufactured annually around the world, roughly 4.5 million are bought by the people of the United States (US ATF, 2000, p. 1). With this sustained and unsurpassed level of routine gun-buying, American civilians will become even more dominant in global gun ownership. Therefore, any discussion of civilian gun ownership must devote disproportionate attention to the United States, if only because of the scale of its gun culture.

Exceptional civilian gun habits in the United States distort impressions of global trends. Without the US share, the global civilian total falls from 570–730 million to roughly 320–440 million civilian firearms, and instead of outnumbering military firearms by three or five to one, civilian weapons would outnumber their military counterparts by two or three to one. (Emphasis mine)

After the United States, a few disproportionately armed societies stand out. Only Switzerland and Yemen begin to approach American levels of gun ownership, and both of these cases are clouded by great doubt (see Boxes 2.3 and 2.5). Others also stand out, such as Germany, Finland, France, Iraq, and Serbia. But civilian ownership tends to be more even among other large gun-owning societies, where ownership rates of 5–15 per 100 residents are common.

Table 2.3 in Chapter 2 lists, in descending order, the most gun-toting nations around the world. The U.S. dwarfs the competition. Yemen, in 10th place and with a population of only 19 million, comes in second to the U.S. in the number of small arms owned per 100 citizens. The U.S. population is around 300 million.

The yearly reports are incredibly comprehensive. In other words, they are friggin huge and in-depth. This Press Release from a past year will give you a general over-all look at the state of the world with regard to civilian and military small arms, so that might be a good place to start if you want an overall view. The online magazine Foreign Policy has today released a 9 page writeup about these reports as well, so I can highly suggest that for 'lighter' reading.

The NRA is fond of skewing the numbers of some of these reports to fit their own agenda. For example, they get a woody over the fact that Sweden actually requires automatic gun ownership of a certain segment of it's civilian population and that they also has one of the lowest homicide by gun rates in the world. But just listing those facts alone does little justice to the Swedes and how they approach guns and civilian gun ownership. From the Foreign Policy piece which uses the data from these reports:

But Switzerland's attitude toward gun ownership is a far cry from that of the United States.

All Swiss men are required to undergo military training, and between the ages of 21 and 32, they are considered to be front-line troops and issued M-57 assault rifles and 24 rounds of ammunition to keep in their home. Once discharged, they are allowed to keep the weapon, or if they prefer, trade it in for a bolt rifle. Women aren't required to own guns, but it's strongly encouraged through government-sponsored training programs.  

In 2001, there were about 600,000 automatic rifles and 500,000 pistols kept in Swiss homes. There are few restrictions on the buying of weapons, and the government even sells off its surplus to citizens when new models are purchased. Many Swiss belong to shooting clubs, and marksmanship competitions are popular activities. A number of cantons have laws against carrying guns without a permit, but it's not unusual to see off-duty reservists toting their assault rifles in public.

The country did a bit of soul-searching in 2001 after a disgruntled Swiss citizen opened fire in a regional parliament building, killing 14 people, but the Swiss don't seem likely to part with their firearms any time soon. In most years, gun crime rates are so low that statistics aren't even kept. (Emphasis mine)

The gun culture in all nations differs, depending on the economic, socio and political climates. Whether the country has an ongoing civil war, like many parts of Africa, has a massive effect on civilian gun deaths numbers as well.

But the United States does not have an ongoing civil war. Culture Wars..oh yeah, we got that in spades, but we are not at war within our own borders, like say, Sudan for instance.

One of the Culture Wars we have is with the NRA leadership and their lobbying for less civilian gun control regulations. As a gun owner, I want to be able to own a handgun. But that said, I do not believe we need to own large capacity clips that hold 30 friggin bullets. Only law enforcement and the military should have access to such heinous people-killing mechanisms.

As Mad Mike put it this week, the time has come for America to insist on mental health evaluations when civilians want to purchase any type of weaponry.  Including this type of evaluation into the process of gun purchasing will keep individuals rights to own guns alive, while weeding out the VA Tech type killer and the Jared Loughner's in our population who's only goal is to kill has many innocent people in as short a time as possible.

If the NRA can not sanction this type of evaluation, we need to demand an explanation from them. We need to insist on a straight answer from them, not any ridiculous strawman arguments that detract from the serious need to control who owns weapons of mass destruction and their mental stability.

We also need to control ammo and large capacity clips. That a minuscule amount of gun owners use these clips for their target practice exercises does not lend credibility to allowing anyone outside the military or law enforcement to possess them. If they get heartburn because they have to stop and reload, that's too effn bad. The safety of the overall population is more important than their personal desires to have the ability to blow off thirty friggin rounds in a matter of seconds.

Lives depend on what we do, or if we as Americans do anything about sensibly regulating our love affair with guns. It's an addiction that affects thousands of innocent people every year when we turn a blind eye to who can buy them and what level of firepower we allow civilians to possess.

We are all guilty of murder if we do nothing or allow the NRA to control the national conversation on sensible and responsible gun ownership. Reinstating the federal gun law that was allowed to expire is a good start. The fact that many NRA members disagree with the NRA's leadership stance on responsible gun ownership laws tells us all something important...that the NRA leadership is driven by the gun manufacturing lobby and nothing more.  

For Teabagger Tom - Watch your ilk attack when they lose an election.

Teabagger Tom is a nitwit commenter on the post below this one. Bob Filner(D) is a congress critter from San Diego, you know, Issa's part of the state. The teabagger, Nick Popaditch lost to Bob Filner, so what did they do? Why they went over to Filner and his supporters, as they left election central and started harassing him, spitting on him and actually punching one of Filner's campaign workers in the face.. and lots of other nice friendly things. San Diego's Union Tribune never even covered this act of violence and aggression.

In fact, if you google Popaditch supporter attacks you only get one writeup about it and that is from Southwestern College, a small college in the San Diego area. Below is their writeup:

Violence erupted at San Diego’s Golden Hall Election Central when Congressman Bob Filner was attacked by Republican challenger Nick Popaditch and his supporters. Filner, a Southwestern College reporter and Filner supporters were set upon by a mob of about 100, led by Popaditch. Filner and student journalist Monika Tuncibilek were trapped with their backs to a pillar, surrounded by Popaditch supporters.

At least one member of Filner’s entourage was punched in the face. Filner was shoved and spat at as he grabbed the arm Tuncibilek to keep her from being assaulted or injured.

Popaditch led an angry mob that called Filner a “communist” and chanted “Popa-ditch” then later changed the chant to “Bob’s-a-bitch.”

Popaditch supporters followed Popaditch as he rushed at Filner and his staff as soon as he entered Golden Hall. Filner supporters were overwhelmed by people holding Popaditch signs. Filner was surrounded with his back against a wall as he attempted to make his way to one of the news stations for an interview. Popaditch darted across the hall to get in front of Filner and confronted him.

A Popaditch supporter said the incident was only “one candidate trying to give another a handshake” and that “one ran, one followed.” Filner supporters called the Popaditch camp “childish.”

At one point a Popaditch supporter punched a member of Filner’s camp while Popaditch was seen smiling about 10 feet away. Police eventually established control over the crowd. There were no arrests.

Filner won re-election to the 51st Congressional District with 60 percent of the vote.

What really sickens me is the lack of reporting on this ugly mob rule by all the media outlets in San Diego. As a San Diego native this embarrasses the hell out of me.

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

The Queen of Mean opens her piehole.

She released it in the dead of night (12am AK time) for starters. The transcript of Palin's eight minute, bullshit-laden response can be read here. I can not believe she had the balls to actually use the phrase blood libel. Palin is not Jewish, and evidently she has no knowledge of the phrase and it's meaning, otherwise she would of stayed as far away as possible from it. The uninformed, intellectually-challenged shrew couldn't of found a more explosive term to use in her speechifying:

 But, especially within hours of a tragedy unfolding, journalists and pundits should not manufacture a blood libel that serves only to incite the very hatred and violence they purport to condemn. That is reprehensible.

Palin is once again playing the victim card.It's what she does best. She will attack first and then, when someone responds to her dehumanizing, usually violence-charged rhetoric, she will immediately play the victim.Such is the case with her use of the term blood libel. Tom Diemer at PoliticsDaily spells out the meaning of the phrase accurately and succinctly:

"Blood libel" is an extraordinarily loaded phrase because it recalls the false accusation by Christians against Jews that was used for centuries as an excuse for anti-Semitic persecution. The libel generally refers to the charge that Jews required human blood, and in particular the blood of Christian children, to bake matzoh bread.

Evidently Palin is a follower of the classless and outright lying bag of batshit Andrew Breitbart, as he used the phrase in a tweet yesterday. His use of the term was turned against the GOP itself. Since Breitbart has already been proven to be a thug who generates nothing but lies and then the right, without fact-checking, perpetuates them, we can ignore his bleating.  Palin prattles on, attempting to deflect the criticism of her violent-laden rhetoric:

There are those who claim political rhetoric is to blame for the despicable act of this deranged, apparently apolitical criminal. And they claim political debate has somehow gotten more heated just recently. But when was it less heated? Back in those “calm days” when political figures literally settled their differences with dueling pistols?

Palin has used degrading, illogical rhetoric since the 2008 presidential campaign, it's her stock in trade. Her 'palling around with terrorists' line, used to describe Obama's relationship with Bill Ayers, was unconscionable and an outright lie.You can count on one finger the number of times Obama and Ayers actually spent one on one time together.

Palin actually nails herself to the wall in the following:

As I said while campaigning for others last March in Arizona during a very heated primary race, “We know violence isn’t the answer. When we ‘take up our arms’, we’re talking about our vote.” Yes, our debates are full of passion, but we settle our political differences respectfully at the ballot box – as we did just two months ago, and as our Republic enables us to do again in the next election, and the next. That’s who we are as Americans and how we were meant to be. Public discourse and debate isn’t a sign of crisis, but of our enduring strength. It is part of why America is exceptional.

Palin can say now she meant voting but her rhetoric said otherwise to millions of extremists who began to carry weapons to political meetings. She has shown little, if any, respect to Democratic candidates. Her 'crosshairs' map was nothing more than a visual image of violence for her supporters. Palin of course, did not mention her crosshairs map in her speech. She actually seemed to defend her type of violent speech with the following:

 No one should be deterred from speaking up and speaking out in peaceful dissent, and we certainly must not be deterred by those who embrace evil and call it good. And we will not be stopped from celebrating the greatness of our country and our foundational freedoms by those who mock its greatness by being intolerant of differing opinion and seeking to muzzle dissent with shrill cries of imagined insults.

Intolerance of hate speech is a good thing. Refusing to allow speech that uses words that invoke violent mental images should never be tolerated. Shrill cries of imagined insults? The crazy among us will take her at her word....literally.

If Palin and her ilk can not intelligently speak to the issues without invoking hate or violent mental images, we must stand up and call them out every chance we get.

If we take Palin's words at face value her logic, as always, is skewed and intelligently infantile.Violent rhetoric, according to Sarah Palin, does not inspire violence...but criticism of  the violence-laden rhetoric does.

If you don’t like a person’s vision for the country, you’re free to debate that vision. If you don’t like their ideas, you’re free to propose better ideas.

The Republicans have already created a bill entitled To repeal the job-killing health care law and health care-related provisions in the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010.They do not propose any 'better idea's' in that bill Sarah, not a one. Where are the proposals to replace what the R's want to remove? The also have stated there will be little time for 'debate' on this bill and they will not allow any amendments. As attorney Jeff Golberg notes: No alternative Republican plan to reform the health care system is included or referenced.  Why?  Because Republicans don’t have a plan.

Like her brethren, Palin offers nothing in her speech to replace her negative rhetoric of violence and obfuscation. We should be pissed, but certainly not surprised.

William Rivers Pitt gets it.

Mitch, the rightwingers Bitch

Mr. Pitt has written an open letter to the extremists on the right at TruthOut.org. Bear in mind, he does not paint all Conservatives with his brush, only those that make their living lying, spinning and power-grabbing. I have had several email conversations over the years with Mr. Pitt, as he is quite accessible. I would like to share part of his open letter to the extremists and those culpable media types with you now:

The "mainstream" media is already working overtime playing up the "Disturbed loner" angle with all their might. There is no doubt, from the available evidence, of Mr. Loughner's transformation into a disturbed individual. But here's the funny part: all the crazy crap he spewed, about the gold standard (a favorite of Glenn Beck, the master of Fox "News" fearmongering...so he can sell his gold scam to suckers) and government mind control and everything else before going on his rampage, is straight out of the Right-Wing Insanity Handbook. His personal YouTube ramblings were a mishmash of right-wing anti-government nonsense...the kind that attracts sick minds like Loughner, the kind that only reinforces their paranoia, the kind that finally pushes them over the brink and into the frenzy of violence that took place on Saturday.  The kind that the likes of you have been happily spreading by the day.  

He did not act alone. You were right there with him. You helped.

I'm talking to you, "mainstream" media people, who created this atmosphere of desperate rage and total paranoia out of whole cloth because of your unstoppable adoration for spectacle, and ratings, and because the companies that own your sorry asses agree with the deranged cretins you helped make so famous and powerful. It was sickeningly amusing on Sunday to watch Wolf Blitzer bluster and bluff on CNN about how the media owns no responsibility for this disaster. It was like watching a ten-year-old try to explain how a lamp got broken while he was running through the living room, but no, it wasn't him. It was, in reality, a pathetic display...but that is what you generally get whenever Wolf is on your screen.

"Mainstream" news personalities like David Gergen and John King bent over backwards warning people not to blame Sarah Palin and her ilk for this calamity.  It was a sick man who did this, they said. Bollocks to that.  I hate to break this to the "mainstream" media know-betters, but words matter.  When people like Palin spray the airwaves with calls to violence and incantations of imminent doom, people like Loughner are listening, and prepared to act. The "mainstream" media lets it fly without any questions or rebuttal, because it's good for ratings, and here we are. Words matter. Play Russian Roulette long enough, and someone inevitably winds up dead.

Words matter. Words have consequences. Yet the extreme right and their friends in the corporate media feel no guilt when they issue their declarations of lies that they spin as truth. They know they are lying. It's all politics all the time for them. It's about winning at any cost for them, its about power and control.

What it's not about is governing or putting forth ideas and programs that will help mainstreet americans crawl out of this recession that Wall Street's greed created. That large portions of the corporate media readily goes along for the ride by reporting their bs as truth makes them part of the problem as well.

As Mr Pitt notes, this isn't a new phenomena.  Since the time of Nixon, the extreme right has been polishing and honing their skills of obfuscation. One need only read the sickening but memorable quotes Mr. Pitt includes in his letter to see how long these extremists have been hawking their wares, like a grifter trying to suck in his next victim:

"I tell people don't kill all the liberals. Leave enough so we can have two on every campus - living fossils - so we will never forget what these people stood for."- Rush Limbaugh, Denver Post, 12-29-95

"Get rid of the guy. Impeach him, censure him, assassinate him."- Rep. James Hansen (R-UT), talking about President Clinton

"We're going to keep building the party until we're hunting Democrats with dogs."- Senator Phil Gramm (R-TX), Mother Jones, 08-95

"My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is he did not go to the New York Times building."- Ann Coulter, New York Observer, 08-26-02

"We need to execute people like John Walker in order to physically intimidate liberals, by making them realize that they can be killed, too. Otherwise, they will turn out to be outright traitors."- Ann Coulter, at the Conservative Political Action Conference, 02-26-02

"Chelsea is a Clinton. She bears the taint; and though not prosecutable in law, in custom and nature the taint cannot be ignored. All the great despotisms of the past - I'm not arguing for despotism as a principle, but they sure knew how to deal with potential trouble - recognized that the families of objectionable citizens were a continuing threat. In Stalin's penal code it was a crime to be the wife or child of an 'enemy of the people.' The Nazis used the same principle, which they called Sippenhaft, 'clan liability.' In Imperial China, enemies of the state were punished 'to the ninth degree': that is, everyone in the offender's own generation would be killed and everyone related via four generations up, to the great-great-grandparents, and four generations down, to the great-great-grandchildren, would also be killed."- John Derbyshire, National Review, 02-15-01

"Two things made this country great: White men & Christianity. The degree these two have diminished is in direct proportion to the corruption and fall of the nation. Every problem that has arisen (sic) can be directly traced back to our departure from God's Law and the disenfranchisement of White men."- State Rep. Don Davis (R-NC), emailed to every member of the North Carolina House and Senate, reported by the Fayetteville Observer, 08-22-01

May your God have mercy on all your twisted souls, because I can not show you any mercy, not now, not ever.

Tom Delay sentenced to three years in prison.

Yay!!!! MSNBC is reporting it.TPM has a writeup here. Sadly I figure he won't be wearing prison orange soon as he has years of appeals to file. But still, it makes me giddy that this disgusting jackass finally got some comeuppance.

How the right will spin the AZ shootings: they are the victims.

The reality is this: a mentally unstable person legally purchased a large caliber handgun and a clip that held two dozen bullets.His politics really do not matter at this point. His ability to purchase a gun does matter.

This morning Robert Parry has a good read up about how the right is already spinning this tragedy and trying like hell to distance themselves from it. From his ConsortiumNews article:

We saw this in 1995 when right-wing anti-government extremist Timothy McVeigh bombed the Oklahoma City federal building. Though some on the Left linked that terrorist act, which killed 168 people, to the hateful rants of right-wing radio hosts such as Rush Limbaugh, the mainstream Washington press corps quickly rallied to Limbaugh’s defense.

Similarly, within hours of the Tucson shooting, which left Arizona Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in critical condition with a bullet hole through her brain, former Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz was out with a commentary establishing a defensive perimeter around former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who had put Giffords’s district in a rifle’s crosshairs.

Like others on the Right, Palin also has favored violent rhetoric in discussing the need to strike back at Democrats who supported health-care reform during the last session of Congress, as Giffords had done. “Don’t retreat, RELOAD!” Palin urged her followers.

While deeming Palin’s language and imagery “highly unfortunate” and “dumb,” Kurtz absolved Palin and other right-wingers of any responsibility for the Tucson slayings and termed any linkage a “sickening ritual of guilt by association.”

I do not hold Palin personally responsible for the tragedy in AZ but I do blame her and other rightwing nutters for instilling double-edged rhetoric into the national discussion. A play on words is how the right is spinning the idiot from Alaska's dialog, but to me it's a serious lack of intelligence and the inability to hold a discussion based on facts. With mentally ill people having the ability to purchase large caliber, semi-automatic handguns that are easily concealed I think yahoo's like Palin need to tone down the violent rhetoric and try, for once in their lives, to talk in an intelligent manner about issues that we face as a nation.

Personally, I believe that Palin, Rush, Beck and all the rest of the rightwing nutters can not intelligently speak to important issues. They rely solely on buzz words and bullshit to make their points. They do not have the ability to rationally discuss issues like healthcare reform, the deficit, government control and all the other issues that are part of the national discussion. So they depend on short, ridiculous, double-edged assessments that add nothing to the national debate. They use hysterical, hate-filled verbiage to incite and connect with the uneducated masses that follow them and their every word. Parry also lays out the other way the right controls the conversation: playing the victim:

Yet, while right-wing commentators have often accused African-Americans and other minorities of exploiting their “victimhood,” the Right has learned over many decades the political power that comes from framing issues as “hey, we’re the victims here.” And, often the Right’s exaggerated “victimhood” has been accompanied by violence toward the supposed “victimizers.”

For instance, in the South of the 1950s and 1960s, white segregationists portrayed themselves as the victims of “outside agitators” and a “liberal Northern press” intent on destroying the South’s “traditional way of life,” i.e. white supremacy. Thus, many white racists saw the murder of civil rights workers as a legitimate act of self-defense, the protection of “states’ rights.”

This chip-on-the-shoulder “victimhood” has remained an element of American right-wing politics ever since. Whenever truly discriminated-against groups, such as blacks and women, have demanded their rights, the Right has cast the reforms as attacks on American traditions.

 *snip*

In many other cases, the Right has found “victimhood” a powerful political motivator. For instance, the Right rallied white male college students around their “persecution” from “political correctness,” which often involved a college administration punishing boorish conduct like shouting racial slurs at blacks and yelling sexual insults at women and gays.

The right has honed this skill for decades and it works..plain and simple..it works for them. But how do we, as intelligent individuals, combat this fuckery? Intelligent people know when they are being conned, but we can not rely on the majority of American's seeing through the rights manipulation of the conversation. People want to be seen as a victim, it gives them the right to lash out at the other side, to make the other side the bully when the reality is..they are not the bullies, they are the people that can intelligently discuss an issue using facts and common sense.

We must call the right out every time they use the victimhood premise. We need to bring attention to this type of rhetoric and call it what it is..bs that holds no truth but is laden with violent buzzwords and mental images that incite those who can not speak intelligently to an issue. We need to keep the right from dumbing down the national debate. Our nation's viability depends on it.