Archive for March 19, 2010
Glenn Beck Doesn’t Have the Balls to Take on Jon Stewart
In light of Jon Stewart’s perfect take-down of Glenn Beck last night, I began to wonder whether Becky has ever reciprocated.
Nope. Not that I can find.
Google it.
Rage USA
From the Sun-Sentinel:
As Josie Lou Ratley remained in a medically-induced coma Friday, stunned family members struggled to understand why someone she barely knew could become angry enough to allegedly try to beat her to death.
“She’s not with us,” said Ratley’s aunt, Linda Sarmiento, describing 15-year-old Ratley’s condition at Broward General Medical Center. “She can’t respond to us. She’s in a coma.”
Ratley was taken to the hospital Wednesday after Wayne Treacy, 15, a student at Deerfield Beach High School, attacked her at a Deerfield Beach Middle School campus bus stop, according to prosecutors. Treacy, accused of beating Ratley with his fists and stomping on her head repeatedly while wearing steel-toe boots, is in a juvenile detention center facing an attempted-murder charge.
The Tea Party’s Strength is a Figment of the Corporate Media’s Imagination
I swear to God, the more I learn about the internals of the “tea party” the more I realize the “movement” and the hype about their “rallies” is a creation of the corporate media.
Take this for example:
Here’s a screenshot of an email I received on February 9, 2010 from the Tea Party Express asking for money to promote and host the “Showdown in Searchlight,” set to begin on March 27:
Note the second to last paragraph: “To meet our fundraising goal, we need to raise $150,000 in the next 9 days. We’ve so far raised $21,450 of that amount, so we have $128,550 left to raise.”
Fast forward, not 9 days but 38 days, and here is a screenshot of a Tea Party Express email I received today:
Note the fourth paragraph: “We still have a little more than $52,000 that we must raise to fully fund our efforts…”
On February 9, the Tea Party was looking to raise $128,550. Today, it’s short $52,000. That means that in 38 days, it raised $76,550.
Compare that to this:
•• Just days after launching a petition drive to raise funds for primary challengers against Democrats who help defeat health care reform, the progressive activist group MoveOn.org has raised more than $1 million.
•• As of Tuesday night, the combined efforts of four liberal groups — MoveOn.org, Daily Kos, Democracy for America and Progressive Change Campaign Committee — had raised $1 million for [Bill] Halter in just 36 hours. (MoveOn was responsible for $900,000 of that.)
So take a look, goddamn corporate media and your Republican backers, at where the fucking energy is.
“Demon Pass”
You’re hearing what sounds like “demon pass” tossed around in the media a lot these days with respect to the health care bill. Problem is, if corporate media types spoke a wee bit slower, you’d know it as “deem and pass:”
It’s a procedure called a self-executing rule, and if it is used, the Senate healthcare reform bill will be “deemed” to have passed the House whenever the House passes a package of fixes to the Senate bill.
[...]
In March 1996, Republicans used a similar procedure to pass a controversial measure to raise the national debt limit…
But no. They have no problem with you equating Democrats with demons.
March Madness
Republicans are claiming that the Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) numbers showing that the health care bill will reduce the deficit aren’t to be believed. As a matter of fact, they’re trashing the CBO altogether.
They might want to take a look at what Sen. Chuck Grassley, big shot Republican from Iowa, said about the CBO in the past. Hint: The CBO is “God.”
src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/pktR8Y2Vk7c&hl=en_US&fs=1&” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowscriptaccess=”always” allowfullscreen=”true” width=”425″ height=”344″>
Break Time
One animal on Earth has found a way to be immortal.
The turritopsis nutricula species of jellyfish may be the only animal in the world to have truly discovered the fountain of youth.
Since it is capable of cycling from a mature adult stage to an immature polyp stage and back again, there may be no natural limit to its life span. Scientists say the hydrozoan jellyfish is the only known animal that can repeatedly turn back the hands of time and revert to its polyp state (its first stage of life).
Typical of Mother Nature — the beautiful color combination.
Alan Grayson on Republican Lies
Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) was on “The Ed Show” minutes ago talking about — what else? — health care, and the barrage of hysterical, desperate spin coming from Republicans. As usual, he nailed it: Republicans, “make-up lies, they destroy people’s reputations. They don’t care.”
Sarah Palin Wants $1 Million Per Episode in TV Deal
Should I type that headline again? Sarah Palin’s asking for $1 MILLION PER EPISODE for the reality television show she’s shopping:
Sarah Palin is closer to landing a deal for a reality show.
Sources say A&E Networks and Discovery Communications want to acquire Palin’s project, which focuses on the ex-governor giving a guided tour of her native Alaska — visiting fishing boats and taking a trip to a gold mine, to cite a couple of examples. Mark Burnett is executive producer of the project, whose working title is “Sarah Palin’s Alaska.”
A&E Networks hasn’t officially put in a bid for the show, but sources indicate that the company is interested in the project for several of its brands — A&E, History or Lifetime.
Discovery Communications is likewise vying for the project for one or more of its outlets, such as TLC. Some sources say the flagship Discovery Channel is no longer in play, while others say otherwise.
The former vice presidential candidate is asking for between $1 million and $1.5 million per episode, a hefty amount for a first-year cable series.
Says a lot of not very good things about her. And what a great way to gain exposure, huh? She gets paid a million bucks per show for two or three years and reshapes her image into one of America’s cutesy sweetheart, and then she turns around and runs again? This could be a good deal for her (but for us, not so much) in more ways than one.
Malcolm X’s Killer Granted Parole
After being turned down for parole 16 times, Malcolm X’s only confessed assassin is about to gain his freedom.
Thomas Hagan has been held since moments after shots rang out in the Audubon Ballroom in 1965. He has been on work release for more than two decades, but he still spends two days a week locked up at the Lincoln Correctional Facility on West 110th Street in Manhattan.
On March 3, however, on his 17th try, Mr. Hagan was granted parole, the State Division of Parole said. His final release date is tentatively scheduled for April 28. The news was reported Thursday on The Village Voice’s Runnin’ Scared blog.
Mr. Hagan, who turned 69 in jail on Tuesday, was a militant member of the Nation of Islam on Feb. 21, 1965, when Malcolm X was shot while giving a speech at the Audubon, in Washington Heights. Mr. Hagan, then known as Talmadge X. Hayer, was captured by the crowd and shot at and beaten before being rescued by the police.
Handy, Side by Side Guide to the Health Care Bill
In case you’re interested, ProPublica has a short, easy-to-read comparison of the health care bill as passed by the Senate in December, and the bill as it stands now, after the changes made through reconciliation.
Insane Weather
Yesterday I was outside, raking leaves off my perennial beds. It was sunny and the temperature was 67º. Today I crossed my fingers and made my way — barely — back and forth to my volunteer job at the food bank. The temperature is 29º, we have 11′ of snow on the ground and it’s still coming down — near white-out conditions at times.
Crazy!
At Fox, the Terror Threat Level is High
Fox News pulled away from President Obama’s health care “pep rally” today — too good; he might actually convince a Fox viewer or two — to go to John Boehner Boner for an emergency lobotomy to remove any positive feelings the audience may have had. Video here.
RE: Politico and a Potentially Fake Memo
If you’re a political junkie like me, you’ve heard about and maybe read the blog, Politico. Bear this reprehensible act of stenography in mind the next time you hear that name: Politico Publishes First — “Verifies” facts Later.
More on the “hoax” memo here.
John Boehner Boner — I’m lookin’ at you.
$747.3 Billion Dollars and Countless Lives Later…
The war in Iraq goes on, and on, and on…
This from Brave New Foundation:
It’s True: Tea Partiers Really Are Totally Ignorant of the Facts
Sorry Tea Partiers but you really don’t know what you’re talking about (but I have to respect those of you who admit it). See 9 minutes, 52 seconds of ignorance here.
(Watch something other than Fox people and you’ll be doing yourselves a big favor.)
Seven Years
Today is the seventh anniversary of Shock and Awe.
I don’t know how George W. Bush (and a lot of other people, actually) can live with himself.
Progressives are Irrelevant
Great post by Glenn Greenwald about how, by caving on the public option, congressional progressives just made themselves irrelevant.
