Archive for November 6, 2009
Big Bad Bully Tough Guy Tom Tancredo Can’t Stand the Heat
Bully boy Tom Tancredo walked off the set of The Ed Show today (w/David Schuster subbing) after Markos Moulitsas got real with him during a discussion about veterans’ benefits — pointing out that he is a vet and Tancredo (who got a deferment) isn’t. Blast off!
The guy who thought he could handle being the president of the United States and who attacks people willy nilly couldn’t take that teeny tiny bit of confrontation, or reality — whatever you want to call it. (That’s where being on Fox News all the time will get you. You don’t know how to think anymore because the questions are like marshmallows.)
Watch. It’s beautiful.
Mental Health Break
“Drench.“ Make the board one color — in 30 clicks or less.
I’m on my third try and I still can’t do it. Aaah. If I could only knock off those three squares at the end!
Someone Should Get Fired for This
Wall Street firms are getting the H1N1 vaccine ahead of, oh, say, school kids:
5 Nov 2009 // Washington, D.C. – Today, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) asked Health and Human Service (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to investigate why the Center for Disease Control (CDC) approved the distribution of the H1NI vaccine to Wall Street firms at a time when the vaccine is unavailable to most Americans.
Recent news reports indicate 13 companies, including Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase and Time Warner, have been cleared to receive the vaccine.
Jesus. What’s going on around here? It really is beginning (or more than beginning) to feel like we average citizens are like poor, ragged serfs forlornly looking over the wall of a castle down into the courtyard while the rich and powerful are holding a big fun party, but of course, we aren’t invited.
Another Tea Bagger “Press Event” Set for Tomorrow
It’ll be interesting to see how much media coverage this ahem, “press event” gets: Steve King to Lead Another March on Congress.
IMHO the Republicans embarrassed themselves yesterday in a big way so I’m surprised they’re going at it again so soon. I guess they’re so angry and hate-filled that they’re oblivious as to how they’re perceived (by the 80%-ers who aren’t the 20%-ers they’re trying to appeal to).
Whatever. Fine by me. They’re living in their own world.
“Grassroots” Tea Partiers? Far From It
Click on the link if you wish but the headline says it all: Right-Wing Billionaire David Koch Pays for 40 Busses to Haul in Protesters.
Shootings, Shootings, Shootings
Got home from my volunteer job at the food bank about 40 minutes ago. Turned on CNN. The only thing they’ve talked about since is 1) the shooting in Orlando, and 2) the shooting at Fort Hood.
Is that all that’s going in the whole wide world?
I Wonder What Jason Rodriguez’s Religious Affiliation Is
Jason Rodriguez, Orlando office shooter arrested.
(Notice that unless the person is a Muslim, or is suspected of being a Muslim, we don’t talk about religious affiliation?)
Was Glenn Beck Cared for by “Radical, Marxist” Nurses?
On Wednesday, Glenn Beck had an emergency appendectomy. Yesterday he tweeted “in praise of the ‘AMAZING drs/nurses’” who were caring for him. Chances are good that those very nurses are members of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), a union Beck was trashing the very day he went to the hospital:
Just hours before his hospitalization, Beck was at work increasing the pitch of his attacks on SEIU and its leaders. On Monday, he warned his Fox News audience that SEIU president Andy Stern is “controlling our country.” On Wednesday, he claimed Stern was spouting “communist, Marxist propaganda” by addressing the need for labor to organize globally in a global economy.
While he’s lying on his back, Beck should take advantage of his illness to begin his self-education. He might ask his “amazing” nurses what they think about their wages and benefits, which are some of the best in the country. He should ask them to talk about the relationship between those wages and their yellow and purple union cards. He might learn that they enjoy some of the highest standards for healthcare jobs in the country, not because of the “free market,” but because generations of 1199 members fought for them.
But of course, that would be too introspective and honest an exercise for Glenn Beck.
Unemployment Rate Tops 10%
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported this morning that the unemployment rate rose from 9.8 to 10.2 percent in October.
And (via Calculated Risk), look at this absolutely shocking chart showing job losses in post-World War II recessions.
