Archive for March, 2010
Remember Jessica Lynch?
Hard to believe it’s been seven years since the Bush administration used Jessica Lynch to help justify its illegal invasion of Iraq — a war that is now sucking the life out of the United States – and to push the notion that Iraqis were/are terrorists. It’s a significant anniversary because the “liberal media” willingly promulgated W’s propaganda. For that reason, you can be sure you won’t hear a thing about it tomorrow.
The Media is Absolutely Drunk on Sarah Palin
If I hear Sarah Palin’s name again today I am going to tear my hair out. What got me to this point? A report from MSNBC’s Savannah Guthrie this afternoon about Obama opening areas of the coast to offshore drilling.
It was 3:00 p.m. E.T. and Guthrie (MSNBC’s that “liberal” network, right?) was standing on the White House lawn. She was ticking off the various areas that drilling would now be allowed in and then she mentioned something about how Bristol Bay, Alaska was not included — but that oh, Sarah Palin’s daughter Bristol is named after Bristol Bay.
Aaaahhhhh! Let me outta here.
Neil Cavuto Claims Congress is Going to “Execute” CEOs
Man am I glad I’m not monitoring Cavuto anymore. My television might not have survived today’s show and more references from the right to killing people.
See the video at Media Matters (don’t know why I can’t embed their stuff…driving me nuts).
President Obama is “Our First Gay President?”
This from the Family Research Council:
According to a recent 60 Minutes/Vaity Fair poll, 50% of respondents said they would support an openly gay person to serve as president. 44% said they were opposed. However if it was argued during his two terms in office that Bill Clinton was “our first black President” because of his supposed liberal policies that would benefit African-Americans (though I’m not quite sure what President Clinton did, that he wasn’t forced to do, that would benefit any minority except for Chinese monks with political donations to spend.) With that argument shouldn’t Barack Obama already be our “first gay President” due to his liberal policies pushing the homosexual agenda?
First of all, will someone please explain to me what “the homosexual agenda” is? Second of all, only a conservative group like the Family Research Council could think that Obama’s policies have thus far been “liberal” and that the gay community sees him their first “gay president.” I think it’s fair to say that the gay community is very disappointed in him. So this is pretty funny actually.
BREAKING: Bill O’Reilly Does Something Good
I’ve been following this case recently and I am so glad someone — even if it’s Bill O’Reilly — came to this family’s aid:
No. 1 cable news host Bill O’Reilly said Tuesday that he will personally write a check to cover $16,500 in legal costs for the father of a fallen U.S. Marine who sued the members of a church who picketed his son’s funeral.
According to news reports, the members of the Westboro Baptist Church, located in Topeka, Kan., believe that God is punishing the United States because of its acceptance of gay people. The church garners attention for its views by protesting high-profile funerals.
On March 3, 2006, Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew A. Snyder died in a non-combat related vehicle accident in Al Anbar province in Iraq.
“He was a hero and he was the love of my life,” said Albert Snyder, Matthew’s grieving father.
During the wake that was held after his son’s funeral, family members turned on the television to view coverage of the massive procession involving over 1,500 persons. They saw the church members waving signs and protesting the funeral.
“I just stood there in shock,” Albert Snyder told O’Reilly in November 2007.
“I couldn’t believe that somebody would do that to somebody else. I mean, I didn’t know what to say.
“Finally, somebody yelled, ‘Turn off the television.’ But I just stood there in shock. I can’t believe there’s somebody that would actually do that to soldiers.”
Albert Snyder filed a federal lawsuit against the church, and a jury awarded him nearly $11 million dollars for invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress. But the U.S. Court of Appeals overturned the verdict on the grounds that the church’s First Amendment right to free expression must be protected.
Adding insult to injury, the court also ruled that Snyder would have to pay $16,500 to church members, to defray what they spent to defend themselves in court.
Then again, God am I cynical, maybe this is Bill’s way of giving to the Phelps family while avoiding a political backlash.
Willow Palin: Vandalism Ringleader?
Don’t know if this is true but I am seeing more and more information about it scattered around the blogs and tweets I read. Knowing Sarah Palin, I wouldn’t be surprised: Willow Palin: Vandalism Ringleader?:
A couple different blog sites are reporting that Sarah Palin’s daughter Willow is accused of being part of a group of teens who broke into a Wasilla home, stayed for hours (possibly overnight), and caused tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of damage – apparently because they threw a party inside, and directed other teens to the location.
The National Enquirer (not a beacon of credibility, but since the whole John Edwards thing, at least presumably believable) pegged Willow at the scene several months ago, but – shockingly! – the Palin camp denied she could have been involved. But, virtually every other teen involved has not only identified Willow as having been there, but has said she played a big role in inviting people over and directing them there.
NSA Wiretap Program Declared Illegal
The National Security Agency broke the law when it wiretapped two American lawyers working for the El-Haramain Charity Foundation, an influential judge ruled Wednesday.
The government is almost certain to appeal this long-awaited decision, as it touches on subjects ranging from the state secrets privilege to the breadth of President Bush’s “Terrorist Surveillance Program.”
The ruling is a major victory for civil libertarians, and the first time that the TSP has been declared illegal. The case has bounced back and forth from District Court Judge Vaughn Walker, the chief judge for federal courts in Northern California, to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which rejected a government motion to dismiss it entirely.
It will be years before this is finally resolved but this is a start.
Shocker: Republicans Oppose Obama’s Offshore Drilling Plan
This is so predictable, but when will Obama get that it is?
President Barack Obama’s plan to allow expanded offshore oil and gas exploration won rebuke from the top House Republican on Wednesday.
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) dismissed the president’s plan as not going far enough in opening up U.S. waters for exploration.
Obama could say he’s going to reduce taxes to zero, kill Hugo Chavez, bomb North Korea and Iran, and change the name of the country to Reaganland and they’d still oppose him.
Genes Can’t be Privatized
I love this ruling (though it may not stand): Court Strikes Down Patents on Two Human Genes.
As Discover reported earlier this year, the case was brought to court by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on behalf of 20 plaintiffs, including the American College of Medical Genetics, the Association for Molecular Pathology, and various individuals. The lawsuit charged that the BRCA patents—and gene patents in general—violate established laws that prohibit the patenting of products and laws of nature. According to the ACLU, “Human genes, even when removed from the body, are still products of nature” [Discover]. The plaintiffs alleged that the company’s patents also prevented research on the genes and their link to cancer, and was ultimately harmful in the long run.
Essentially, the court ruled that genes found in nature can’t be patented. Bravo. Corporations shouldn’t be allowed to take oh, say the gene of an Oak tree, patent it, and then make a zillions dollars off of it.
A Gated Community in California Goes from Bucolic to Ghetto
Here is a heartbreaking story — that poignantly illustrates the disastrous situations some people are finding themselves in as a result of the “mortgage mess” — about a gated community in Southern California that was advertised as a bucolic, blissful place but that has now become a “gated ghetto.”
I was shocked to learn that one of the families profiled paid $440,000 for their house a few years ago but it’s “probably worth about $170,000 now.” What an unbelievable hit.
ABCNews: Palin’s Awful Poll Numbers = She’s “Gathering Steam”
ABCNews recently claimed that Sarah Palin is “gathering steam” even though a poll released last week showed her lowest approval ratings in 18 months.
What “liberal media?”
Sarah Palin’s New Fox Show Off to a Bad Start
UPDATED
Sarah Palin’s new Fox show, “Real American Stories,” debuts on Thursday (April Fool’s Day, BTW). In a promo, Fox claims that one portion of the show will feature an “In Their Own Words” segment with Toby Keith, Jack Welch and LL Cool J. It then airs a clip of the LL Cool J “interview.” Turns out — according to LL Cool J himself — “Fox lifted an old interview I gave in 2008 to someone else and are misrepresenting to the public in order to promote Sarah Palins [sic] Show. WOW.”
So Fox lifts an old LL Cool J interview and presents it to the public as being a new one, conducted by Sarah Palin?
Journalistic integrity at its finest. Seriously, you can’t believe a thing you see on that network.
UPDATE: Fox removes LL Cool J from the lineup, while simultaneously putting him down.
CNN is Dying
CNN is dying. More on that tomorrow but one immediate thought is why?
Because it can’t decide what it is.
Read This
I admit it. I have a hard time putting energy into knowing what’s going on in Afghanistan and Iraq. I am so tired of war and killing and death and I’m exhausted when I think about the money spent on keeping that machine going.
But every once in a while I drag myself to a post I know I must read – it’s my duty even if it’s only — shamefully — occasionally. If you’re like me, please read: Pacified.
Show Me a Left-Wing Militia
Keith Olbermann opened his show tonight asking, “Whatever happened to those left-wing militias?”
Good question. A free copy of Outfoxed to anyone who can name three of them.
Hate the Idea of Social Security?
Last night, on CNN’s “Larry King Live,” Larry King hosted two Tea Party organizers. At one point the topic turned to Social Security. Dana Loesch, a Tea Partier from Missouri and “yes, absolutely” when King asked whether she would favor abolishing Social Security. When King turned to Wayne Allyn Root, he said, “I’d certainly like to. At best, I do away with it because I could find better ways to spend and save my own $15,000 a year.”
Again, life is so unbelievably simple for these people. Memo to Root: That’s precisely the problem. People find it nearly impossible to save $15,000 (?) A YEAR FOR 30 – 40 YEARS; THEY SPEND IT. And when they reach retirement age, they’re broke or they have very little. That’s why Social Security is such a good thing.
God! Why is that so hard?
Fox Caught Making Up “Breaking News” in Order to Cut Away From Obama
Fox is trying to figure out how to look “fair and balanced” while showing as little of President Obama as possible. Their priority No. 1 is not to let their viewers start liking the guy. Example: today they cut away to a “perfectly fine airplane landing” that turned out to be nothing, later justifying it by saying they “heard the plane might be having flap issues.”
Yeah right.
When George W. was president they covered his every breath. They would break away — with lots of patriotic fanfare (remember the waving flag graphics?) — to show his every move, even mundane things like Bush walking from the back door of the White House to his waiting helicopter. They would even break away to show Laura Bush doing this or that. They couldn’t get enough.
Love English Setters
A friend of a friend of a friend recently purchased an English setter puppy from the same breeder we got our setters from. This is a picture of the darling sleeping puppy on the first day at his new home with his older half-brother, who the friend acquired a few years go.
Is this precious or what?
Joe the Plumber’s Solution to People Coming Across the Mexican Border
Last weekend, at a — natch — Tea Party rally, Joe “The Plumber” Wurzelbacher told the crowd what his solution is to people coming across the porous Mexican border:
I am not politically castrated — new word for political correctness by the way. I am not politically castrated. Put a fence in, start shooting. End of story.
(My emphasis.)
Oh to live in a state of mind where life is so, so simple. It’s a kind of insanity.
Break Time — Earth Hour 2010
Last Saturday evening people around the world turned their lights out for an hour beginning at 8:30 p.m. local time. Here are pictures as to what that looked like.
The caption reads: These two photos show Malaysia’s landmark Petronas Twin Towers before, left, and after being turned off its lights to mark Earth Hour in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Saturday, March 27, 2010. (AP Photo/Lai Seng Sin)
Yo, Michael Steele, Make it Rain!
Here’s a video from Katie Halper called, “Make it Rain: Michael Steele Voyeur Club Remix.”
Hey, he and the GOP have it coming after all their holier-than-thou talk.
If You Think We’re Getting Blanket Sarah Palin Coverage Now, Just Wait
Big news: Sarah Palin’s new Fox show, “Real American Stories” (gag me), debuts on well, Fox, this Thursday.
You know what that means? It means that ol’ Sarah will say or do one or two controversial things Thursday night and the “liberal” media will talk about it for a week until next Thursday when she’ll say or do one or two controversial thing and on it will go, week after week. She’ll never be out of the spotlight.
And of that isn’t enough, we have the debut of “Sarah Palin’s Alaska” on TLC to look forward to.
Ey ey ey. It’s going to be a long summer.
Tea Party Candidates Discover Hard Realities of Campaigns
Here’s a fascinating article about the dilemma faced by the Tea Partiers — and by many of us who are of a different political persuasion but who agree that “Washington is broken” — in terms of backing a traditional candidate from one of the two parties, or trying to run one of their own (and facing the extraordinary time and money commitment that entails):
Jason Meade of New Franklin, Ohio, is among hundreds of political hopefuls looking to ride the “tea party” wave to Washington this year. Like most, he’s finding it a tough go.
Mr. Meade is running in the Republican primary in Ohio’s 13th Congressional District against five candidates while juggling a 50-hour workweek at a plastics plant. His headquarters “is in the second-floor living room in the corner where the computer is,” he says. His campaign has $3,000 to its name.
Mr. Meade’s experience goes to the heart of a debate roiling the nascent movement: Should it back fervent long shots who hew to its antigovernment views, or should it rally around more traditional candidates, even if they don’t perfectly reflect the movement’s distaste for incumbents, taxes and spending?
The question is being asked as homegrown candidates confront brute realities of politics: reluctant donors, limited party support, inexperienced staffers and the uphill fight against incumbents.
At the root of a fix for this (and so much else) is the need for campaign finance reform which would be such a wonderful thing for our country but, sadly, I don’t think will ever happen.
Code Pink Tries to Make Citizens Arrest of Karl Rove
Rove heckled, called “war criminal” at book event.
Too bad they didn’t succeed.
Stretch of the Imagination
Doc Thompson, a radio talk show host who I’ve never heard of, substituted for Glenn Beck on Beck’s radio show today. No wonder. He’s as crazy as Beck is: “Tanning salon tax makes health care reform a ‘racist law’.“
I guess the point of conservative talk radio is to find a way to toss out hot-button words for two or three hours, never mind if they’re couched in a discussion that makes little or no sense.
