Note the highlighted bit. I'm good with street protests, how about you?
Up to 120,000 people have marched in Dublin in protest at how the Government is handling the economic crisis. The march, which was organised by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu), took nearly one and a half hours to make its way from Parnell Square to Merrion Square.
Ictu maintained that the protest today was the first step in a campaign in support of a fairer way to achieve economic recovery.
Addressing the demonstration Ictu general secretary David Begg said that “a business elite” had destroyed the economy and had not yet been held to account for it in any respect.
By GottaLaff
I just saw this on Twitter, and it's been picked up by a few other Tweets:
rt @dmooney9 CNN HLN reported Santelli CNBC rant was scripted. Claiming inside source.I'm still trying to figure Twitter out, since I'm fairly new to it. I just thought this would spark conversation while I go out to an Italian dinner at a place we're trying on the Pacific Coast Highway.
By GottaLaff
Saturday in the suburbs turned a little bit more exciting than usual for some local parents and children here, as President Barack Obama made a surprise visit to an elementary school to watch his younger daughter, Sasha, play basketball. [...]No word on how she did. It doesn't matter. President Dad was proud, and Sasha knew he made time for her bball game, even though he's been kinda busy.
The Obamas have said they intend to become a part of the local community now that they live in Washington, but they are also taking pains to keep Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7, from too much exposure to the press. In a recent television interview, Mr. Obama, an avid basketball player, happily reported that Sasha had decided to take up the sport.
By GottaLaff
Attorney General Holder said that we are a "nation of cowards" and called for a national dialog on race. Surprise! Republicans are appalled. Of course they are. That is absolutely reprehensible! Nearly as reprehensible as this:
These images show members of the Ku Klux Klan as they want to be seen, scary and secretive and waiting in the wings for Barack and his colour-blind vision for America to fail. Anthony Karen, a former Marine and self-taught photojournalist was granted access to the innermost sanctum of the Klan. [...]
Karen’s images of the Klan and its supporters regularly appear on the recruiting websites of the far right. Out of context, the images of hooded Klansmen and their families tell us little of the real story – the inexorable rise in the number of extremist organisations in America. [...]
As people lose their homes to foreclosure and, without the benefit of a safety net, find themselves slipping into poverty, there is already a search for scapegoats underway. Immigrants from central and South America have become particular targets as the grim economic times take hold. [...]
Since the 1930s the KKK has been in a state of disorganisation and today it probably has 6,000 members. But the economic crisis is swelling their ranks and already, a month after the inauguration of the first black president, the tidal wave of interracial harmony that greeted Obama’s election is starting to recede. [...]More than 400 hate-related incidents, from cross-burnings to effigies of President Obama hanging from nooses have been reported, according to law-enforcement authorities and Potok’s organisation, which files lawsuits against hate groups aimed at making them bankrupt.
Late last year, two suspected skinheads who had links to a violent Klan chapter in Kentucky were charged with plotting to kill 88 black students. They were then going to assassinate President Obama by blasting him from a speeding car while wearing white tuxedos and top hats. They were never going to succeed, given the huge security net around Obama, but the fact that they had planned such an outlandish attack may be a harbinger of things to come.
“There is a tremendous backlash to Obama’s election,” says Richard Barrett, the leader of the Nationalist Movement, another white supremacist group. “Many people look at the flag of the Republic of New Africa that was hoisted over the White House as an act of war."
Now, that's appalling.
Yet, how very and awfully uppity of a black cabinet member to even suggest that people are afraid of conversing openly about racial issues. One might even go so far as to say it's presumptuous. I mean, really, what would our African American A.G. know about such things?
To those who would still challenge Holder, I'd like to pose this:
Why is it that, if America is so un-cowardly, so many people still utter the word "black" in hushed whispered tones? "HE'S black, YOU KNOW." "MY BROTHER MET FINALLY SOMEONE... SHE'S black." Gasp!
What if they were overheard? What are they so afraid of? Or am I being presumptuous by asking such a reprehensible question about their cowardice?
(Start listening to Rachel Maddow at about 2:38. She pretty much confirms the need to open up lines of honest communication.)
By GottaLaff
One of the most inexplicable things about the Bush/Cheney clique's utter disregard of those values was that we have our own examples of the legal system's competency to deal with jihadi criminality right here in the United States. Since 1996, another jihadi preacher, the "blind sheik," Omar Abdel Rahman, has been serving a life sentence after he and nine of his associates were convicted of seditious conspiracy for plotting attacks in New York and for their role in the first World Trade Center bombing. The mastermind of that attack, Ramzi Ahmed Yousef -- who happens to be Khalid Shaikh Mohammed's nephew -- was arrested in Pakistan, extradited to New York and sentenced in 1998 to life in prison without parole. (According to some media reports, he's since converted to Christianity.)Yours very sincerely,
Our federal legal system was up to dealing with those conspirators and criminals, as it's up to dealing with Al Qaeda now. When the Bush/Cheney people panicked and forgot that, they granted the jihadis an outsized malevolence, turning them into Islamist superheroes. One of the great things about the bar of justice is that when all are made to stand honestly before it, everyone is cut down to size.
By GottaLaff
Tears.He considers unnecessary what his son Representative Patrick J. Kennedy of Rhode Island calls “the premature eulogizing,” or what Mr. Biden terms “a bordering on an obituary,” that has accompanied his life in recent months.
“Obviously I’ve been touched and grateful,” Mr. Kennedy said in a phone interview Friday from the rented home in Miami where he has spent most of the winter. “Beyond that, I don’t really plan to go away soon.”
Friends who have seen Mr. Kennedy describe him as driven and focused on work as he recuperates in Florida. He sometimes gets angry watching C-Span, pores over memorandums and briefing papers, and speed-dials staff members and colleagues (sometimes from his sailboat, the Mya). He speaks frequently — and often on his trademark issue, overhauling the nation’s health care system — to President Obama; Mr. Biden; the White House chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel; and checks up on the Senate “chatter” with lawmakers.
Between chemotherapy treatments, physical therapy sessions and naps, Mr. Kennedy has been lobbying the White House on possible nominees for secretary of health and human services. (He has heard good things about the leading candidate, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas, though he does not know her well and has been pressing for other candidates.)
While his office said he planned to return to Washington in a few weeks, Mr. Kennedy has been orchestrating efforts from afar, setting the foundation for legislation on what he calls “the cause of my life.”
“What has been essential to his recovery and motivation has been setting goals,” said Dr. Lawrence C. Horowitz, a former Kennedy staff member who has been overseeing his care. The first goal the senator set after cancer surgery in June was to speak at the Democratic National Convention (he did, despite painful kidney stones); then he resolved to attend Mr. Obama’s inauguration (he did, though he had a seizure afterward).
“Now, his goal is to play a central role in health care reform,” Dr. Horowitz said. “That’s what keeps him going.” [...]Mr. Kennedy describes the Senate as a “chemical place,” meaning that reading the chemistry between members is critical to understanding how an issue or a vote will play out. Removed from it, he has been frustrated, fellow Democrats say.
“When he’s not here, things don’t happen the same way,” Mr. Dodd said. [...]
Dr. Horowitz said, “He is doing very well, considering that he has a serious disease.” He added that the “unanimous consensus” of Mr. Kennedy’s team of doctors is that “his disease is totally under control.” [...]After the swearing-in, Mr. Kennedy repaired to the Capitol for a Congressional luncheon, where he mingled with colleagues and ate a meal of pheasant and seafood stew. Before dessert, he was rushed to a hospital after a seizure. The next day, Mr. Kennedy called Mr. Biden to check up on his 15-year-old granddaughter, who had witnessed the incident.
“I’m sorry if I upset your granddaughter,” the vice president recalled him saying. Mr. Kennedy also sent Mr. Biden’s 91-year-old mother flowers (he told her she looked wonderful at the inauguration).
Stories of such gestures from Mr. Kennedy have abounded. [...]
“I got elected to Congress in 1972 running against the Kennedys,” said former Senator Trent Lott, the onetime Republican leader. “Forget liberal, conservative, moderate, whatever,” he said of Mr. Kennedy. “He’s a damn nice guy.”
By GottaLaff
See if you can find a few things in the first two 'graphs that you've been waiting for:
President Obama is putting the finishing touches on an ambitious first budget that seeks to cut the federal deficit in half over the next four years, primarily by raising taxes on business and the wealthy and by slashing spending on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, administration officials said.
In addition to tackling a deficit swollen by the $787 billion stimulus package and other efforts to ease the nation's economic crisis, the budget blueprint will press aggressively for progress on the domestic agenda Obama outlined during the presidential campaign. This would include key changes to environmental policies and a major expansion of health coverage that Obama hopes to enact later this year.
See 'em? I knew that you would.
Reducing the deficit, he said, is critical to the nation's future: "We can't generate sustained growth without getting our deficits under control." [...]
His budget proposal takes aim at the short-term problem, administration officials said, but also would begin to address the nation's chronic budget imbalance by squeezing savings from the federal health programs for the elderly and the poor. [...]
His budget plan would keep the deficit hovering near $1 trillion in 2010 and 2011, but shows it dropping to $533 billion in 2013 -- still high in dollar terms, but a more manageable 3 percent of the overall economy.
To get there, Obama proposes to cut spending and raise taxes. The savings would come primarily from "winding down the war" in Iraq, a senior administration official said. The budget assumes that the nation will continue to spend money on "overseas military contingency operations" throughout Obama's presidency, the official said, but that number is significantly lower than the nearly $190 billion the nation budgeted for Iraq and Afghanistan last year.
Obama also seeks to increase tax collections, primarily by making good on his promise to eliminate the temporary tax cuts enacted in 2001 and 2003 for wealthy taxpayers, whom Obama defined during the campaign as those earning more than $250,000 a year. [...]
Obama also proposes to maintain the tax on estates worth more than $3.5 million, instead of letting it expire next year. And he proposes "a fairly aggressive effort on tax enforcement" that would target tax havens and corporate loopholes, among other provisions, the official said.
Hear ye, hear ye: The Obstructionists are coming!
Republicans, who are already painting Obama as a profligate spender, are laying plans to attack him on taxes as well. Even some non-partisan observers question the wisdom of announcing a plan to raise taxes in the midst of a recession. But senior White House adviser David Axelrod said in an interview that the tax proposals reflect the ideas that won the election last fall.Note to Party of No: Keep it up. You are fast becoming the Party of Shovel Ready, meaning, immediate and sustained digging even more deeply into that hole of yours.
Administration officials and outside experts say the most likely path to revamping the health system is to begin with Medicare, the federal program for retirees and people with disabilities, and Medicaid, which serves the poor. [...] Making policy changes in those programs -- such as rewarding physicians who computerize their medical records or paying doctors for results rather than procedures--could improve care while generating long-term savings, expert say. It also could prod private insurers to follow suit. [...]
The biggest target is bonus payments to insurance companies that run managed-care programs under Medicare, known as Medicare Advantage. [...]
Administration officials also are debating whether to permit people as young as 55 to purchase coverage through Medicare. That age group is particularly vulnerable in today's weakened economy, as many have lost jobs or seen insurance premiums rise rapidly. The cost would depend on whether recipients were offered a discount or required to pay the full price of coverage.
There will be something for everyone to criticize, but overall, I'm proud to say I'm a member of the Party of Yes.
By GottaLaff
Oh goody. He says we only waterboarded people until 2003. That's a relief. I bet he can't wait for those who were brutally tortured to get wind of this... the ones that survived.America's first homeland security secretary has accepted some criticisms of the US "war on terror" made in a recent report by legal experts.
Tom Ridge told the BBC that the report's attacks on extended detention and torture were justified. [...]
The report the International Commission of Jurists said anti-terror measures worldwide had seriously undermined international human rights law.
After a three-year global study, the ICJ said many states had used the public's fear of terrorism to introduce measures including detention without trial, illegal disappearance and torture.
It said the framework of international law that existed before the 9/11 attacks was robust and effective, but had been actively undermined by the US and the UK.
Mr Ridge, who was appointed to the new post of homeland security secretary after the 11 September, 2001 attacks on the US, said the ICJ was on "solid ground" in its commentary "with regard to torture and sustained detention without due process".
In an interview with the BBC's World Today programme he said that regardless of what terrorism suspects had done, the US still needed "to afford them some sense of due process."
"It has taken a while for us to get to that point but we are certainly there now," he said.
He added that there was now a consensus in the US and beyond that water-boarding - a harsh interrogation technique that simulates drowning - was torture, saying there had been no allegations of its use since 2003.
But are we in the due process of dealing with it?However, Mr Ridge also defended US policy, saying counter-terrorism work was now about detaining people before they were able to commit terrorist acts. [...]
Many suspects had "embraced an ideology, a belief system, that said it's perfectly all right in order to advance a cause to kill innocents along the way", he said.
"They had no loyalty to a country so they're not the traditional prisoner of war, they don't wear the uniform of a country so we can't treat them as we have done in previous wars."
Mr Ridge added: "How we dealt with them in terms of returning them to their potential country of origin was a difficult issue that not only the United States but other countries have had to deal with.
"So, we're in the process of dealing with it."
By GottaLaff
While the market for job-seekers in the United States might be sour, for most it isn't as impenetrable as it is for the nearly 3,000 former members of the Bush administration.In that case, I'm sure that the former Bushies will more than appreciate, support, and take full advantage of, President Obama's tax cuts. In the meantime, maybe they can spend some of their spare time volunteering at homeless shelters before, say, enlisting in the military.
Between 70-75 percent who are looking for full-time work still haven't found new jobs, according to a Saturday report by the Wall St. Journal.
"That 'is much, much worse' than when Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton left the White House," Carlos M. Gutierrez, who served as Bush's commerce secretary, told the paper. [...]
The think tanks "lack interest in hiring high-profile Republicans when Democrats control the White House and Congress," said the Journal. "Mr. Bush's low approval ratings at the end of his term don't help, said Leonard Pfeiffer IV, a Washington recruiter for nonprofits."
By GottaLaff
By GottaLaff
Gee, I didn't know that, by ordering my staff to contradict Caroline's story, it would turn all mean and stuff!
For the first time, New York Gov. David Paterson (D) acknowledged "that he personally ordered his staff to contest Caroline Kennedy's version of events in the hours after she withdrew from consideration to be United States senator," the New York Times reports.Well, okay, since you put it that way.
However, Paterson said that he was "bewildered when his staffers subsequently unleashed harsh personal attacks against Ms. Kennedy."
Said Paterson: "The things said about Caroline I found despicable and shocking and very painful. I never would have imagined removing the idea that this is my first choice meant a character assassination."
By GottaLaff
What's the beef again?
Roughly 97% of American households could see tax savings as a result of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, according to a new analysis by a nonpartisan research group. [...]"Never before in our history has a tax cut taken effect faster or gone to so many hardworking Americans," Obama said in his weekly video and radio address.
In addition, the economic recovery plan contains a host of tax breaks for small businesses.
(click on image to enlarge)
The economic stimulus package to be signed today by President Obama includes one of the largest tax cuts in American history -- $282 billion in tax cuts over two years.
Steven Waldman made this point last week, but few others have picked up on it.
Marc Ambinder: "It's hard imagine we won't hear about this four years from now. And if that's not boxing a future Republican candidate in ahead of time, I don't know what is. Think about how many potential Republican arguments are going to be pre-empted by that nice little fact?"
A bonus for Democrats: Nearly every Republican in Congress voted against it.
By GottaLaff
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
By GottaLaff
As the nation's governors prepare to descend on Washington, D.C., this weekend for the annual meeting of the National Governors Association, Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer, the chair of the Democratic Governors Association, has issued a statement on behalf of his fellow Democratic governors calling on all Republican governors to back Barack Obama's economic recovery plan -- or to give up the federal money.Thank you, plain-spoken Governor Schweitzer. Someone has to stand up (loudly) to these hypocrites."You can philosophize in D.C. all you want, but we in the states have to get things done," said Schweitzer in a written statement. "A Governor's job is to deliver for people: to create good jobs, to keep criminals in prison, to educate our children, to make sure we have decent roads. This recovery package does that."
"It's a little late for Republican Governors to get high-minded about accepting federal dollars since this recovery legislation is only a small portion of all the federal money states receive," he added.
Washington Whispers poll up right this fracking minute-
If you had a choice of four daycare centers run separately by Michelle Obama, Sarah Palin, Hillary Clinton, and Nancy Pelosi, which would you choose for your kids?Via Media Matters.
Hmm, Sarah bashful? Wonder why she's not there, for real? Via Taegan-
"I don't know where she's going to be. You'll be stuck with me. There will be no glamour, certainly no snappy dressing. I brought my best two pairs of jeans. There's a little bit of a horse shit stain by the knee. But I've been washing that stuff out."
-- Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer (D), quoted by ABC News, ribbing Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) for announcing at the last minute that she will not be attending a panel on energy policy that the two governors were scheduled to lead at this weekend's National Governors Association meeting.
Really, things are starting to get a little scary with these wingers. Incitement comes to mind. I'm most worried about the videos they get that they won't air. Via Newshounds. Click to enlarge.
Yep, it's that weekend again. Via Politico. Not in the vid, but def "honorable mentions"-
Best Supporting Actor in a Drama
Bill Clinton ("The Good Wife")
Fred Thompson ("The Hunt for Red November")
Roland Burris ("Witness for the Prosecution")
Rahm Emanuel ("Meet the Fockers")
Timothy Geithner ("Crash")
Bill Richardson ("Bolt")
Tom Daschle ("Dude, Where's My Car?")
Judd Gregg ("He's Just Not That Into You")
Yep, keep the Dems in the Senate all tied up begging for those R votes is worth every penny.
The Republican National Committee has invested a quarter of a million dollars in the fight over Minnesota's contested Senate seat, according to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission.**hahahahaha
Amidst the court battle currently focused on the fate of around 3,500 absentee ballots, the RNC handed over $250,000 to the Republican Party of Minnesota on Jan. 26, according to the documents.
(snip)
"The RNC made the Minnesota recount a priority because we think Sen. Coleman has a strong case and deserves to return to the Senate,"** RNC spokesman Alex Conant told The Hill Saturday morning.
The money will go to fund a team of high-priced lawyers including Ben Ginsberg, the Patton Boggs attorney who served as national counsel to the Bush-Cheney campaign in 2000 and 2004, and Minnesota-based attorneys Fritz Knaak and Tony Trimble.
The RNC isn't the only GOP group investing in Coleman's future. The Minnesota Republican Party also got a $142,000 cash infusion from Sen. John McCain's (R-Ariz.) presidential victory committee. Sen. Lamar Alexander's (R-Tenn.) political action committee as well as dozens of individuals has also given to the state party, specifically earmarking their contributions for Coleman's recount efforts.
Mike Huckabee just told me that helping out homeowners in default was like giving an addict a years worth of heroin. And he's the compassionate one.
Abramoff Scandal Yields More Charges
Banks nickel 'n' dime the jobless
Controversial Abu Ghraib prison reopens
Police may be close to arrest in Chandra Levy case
Last ever bag of Woolworths pick 'n' mix sweets to fetch more than £13,000 on eBay
Nasa Needs You To Help Name Space Station
Vitamins may help prevent hearing loss
Jobs Still Elude Some Bush Ex-Officials
By GottaLaff
Just thought you'd like to know: Nothing has changed since my last post.That was today's Shallow Thought. Thank you for wading in.
By GottaLaff
Yesterday, 18 human rights organizations, former State Department officials, and former law enforcement and military leaders — including [ret. Army Maj. Gen. Antonio] Taguba — signed onto a letter asking the President to create a non-partisan commission to investigate the Bush administration’s torture policies. In a new interview with Salon, he explains why:I suspect there will be many a suspected violation of relevant laws.I feel we have to come to terms with policies that have gained such notoriety and have been debated about whether they were in the best interest of our national security, and whether those who created these policies were pressured by their senior leadership. […]
[I support] a structured commission with some form of authority with clear objectives and a follow-on action plan. I’m not looking for anything that is prosecutorial in nature, unless a suspected violation of relevant laws occurred, which should be referred to the Dept of Justice.
By GottaLaff
Striking Pakistan:
With two missile strikes over the past week, the Obama administration has expanded the covert war run by the Central Intelligence Agency inside Pakistan, attacking a militant network seeking to topple the Pakistani government. [...]Well, except for this.Under President Bush, the United States frequently attacked militants from Al Qaeda and the Taliban involved in cross-border attacks into Afghanistan, but had stopped short of raids aimed at Mr. Mehsud and his followers, who have played less of a direct role in attacks on American troops.
The strikes are another sign that President Obama is continuing, and in some cases extending, Bush administration policy in using American spy agencies against suspected terrorists in Pakistan, as he had promised to do during his presidential campaign. At the same time, Mr. Obama has begun to scale back some of the Bush policies on the detention and interrogation of terrorism suspects, which he has criticized as counterproductive.
The Pentagon says the Guantanamo Bay prison meets the standard for humane treatment laid out in the Geneva Conventions, according to a report for President Barack Obama, who has ordered the terrorist detention center closed within a year.Am I the only one who doesn't trust this report?
The report recommended some changes, including an increase in group recreation for some of the camp's more dangerous or less compliant prisoners, according to a government official familiar with the study. The report also suggested allowing those prisoners to gather in groups of three or more, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the report has not officially been released. [...]
The report found the camp to be in compliance with the Geneva Conventions Common Article 3, the international rules that require the humane treatment of prisoners taken in unconventional armed conflicts, like the war on terrorism. The camp's controversial force-feeding of prisoners on hunger strikes was also found to be compliant with the Geneva guidelines, a second government official confirmed.
By GottaLaff
These are "spontaneous, unprompted replies" to a Harris Poll:
These heroes were named spontaneously. Those surveyed were not shown or read a list of people to choose from. The Harris Poll was conducted online among a sample of 2,634 U.S. adults (aged 18 and over) by Harris Interactive® between January 12 and 19, 2009.
DROPPED OFF OF LIST IN 2009How did Bush even get on there? Or Palin? But interestingly, McCain crushes Palin. And President Obama tops ... God.
John Wayne (was 8th), Michael Jordan (was 9th), John Glenn (was 11th), Norman Schwartzkopf (was 12th), Princess Diana (was 16th), Dwight Eisenhower (was 17th), Pope John Paul (was 18th), Jimmy Carter (was 20th), Nelson Mandela (was 21st), Jess Jackson (was 22nd), Tiger Woods (was 23rd), Malcolm X (was 24th), Thomas Jefferson (was 25th), Eleanor Roosevelt (was 26th), Muhammad Ali (was 27th), Venus Williams (was 28th), Neil Armstrong (was 30th)
By GottaLaff
"Rational" and "reasonable" aren't words I'd use to describe this rabid demoniac:
Pot. Kettle. Abomination.
He was at a Crisis Pregnancy Center Fundraiser in Nebraska when this was filmed. The video was released by KHAS-TV.Alan Keyes: One of the bottomest of bottom feeders of the political food chain.
Keyes gets upset when the interviewer does not take seriously his claims that Obama is illegitimately in the presidency. Like a child..he says don't laugh.
He calls Obama an abomination and lies about his views. He is really repulsive.
Here is more on the interview from PFAW. He's a scary man.
Alan Keyes: Doing What He Does Best[...] "Obama is a radical communist and I think it is becoming clear. That is what I told people in Illinois and now everybody realizes it is coming true. He is going to destroy this country and we are either going to stop him or the United States of America is going to cease to exist," said Keyes.
By GottaLaff
This is not helping those of us who are already suffering from crankitude:
The Justice Department told a federal court Friday that it shouldn’t consider legal challenges filed by prisoners being held in Afghanistan by the U.S. military — another example of the Obama administration hewing to one of President Bush’s war-on-terror stances.This is disappointing, to say the least. I'm so ready for this day to be over.
In a short legal filing, Justice Department lawyers said they planned to maintain the Bush administration’s claim that the roughly 600 prisoners held in Afghaninstan have no right to contest their detention in the courts. [...]
Last year, the Supreme Court ruled that war-on-terror prisoners at Guantanamo Bay have the right to file court petitions because the U.S. has “de facto sovereignty” over the base, located on land leased from Cuba.
However, the Justice Department has argued that prisoners in Afghanistan, held at the Bagram Airbase outside Kabul, lack recourse to the courts because the U.S. does not have similar control over that region. [...]
The opportunity the Obama administration passed up today was created by Judge John Bates on January 22, when he issued an order noting the change in administration and offering the government a chance to “refine” its position in the Afghanistan-related cases.
By GottaLaff
By GottaLaff
Sen. Ted Kennedy, wintering in an undisclosed location in Florida, may never return to the Senate, friends say, as his battle with brain cancer enters its final rounds.
“He’s someplace sunny, near the water, where he can rest and sail,” said a pal of the senior senator. “Time is of the essence. It’s very sad.” [...]
“He’s very sick,” said another Kennedy associate. “He’s actually done well to get to this point.” [...]
Because of Kennedy’s condition, off-the-record speculation about the future of his Senate seat has been rampant this week - especially in light of a seven-part Boring Broadsheet opus that is being widely viewed as a premature obituary. And yesterday’s installment was interpreted by some close to the matter as the first step in a torch-passing to Kennedy’s wife, Vicki.
“It appeared to be setting up Vicki’s senate campaign,” said one insider.
The story described the former Victoria Reggie as “a great lawyer” with “tremendous political skills” and “great sense of humor.” [...]
Should Kennedy be unable to finish out his senate term, which ends in 2012, a special election must be held within 145 to 160 days of the seat becoming vacant. The big question is: Will Kennedy make it known that he wants his wife to succeed him - a move that would almost assuredly guarantee Vicki the seat?
My heart is breaking.
By GottaLaff
Advice to Joe Scarborough: If you don't like being lumped in with neo-McCarthyist types, then you might think about adjusting your message. And really, if you're going to mess with our pal Bob Cesca with whining like this...
SCARBOROUGH: You’re not going to get Republicans to line up and support tax cuts for people who don’t pay taxes. That’s taking you to a position now where you have the federal government — and this is very dangerous — just writing checks to people for doing nothing. It’s not even welfare. … If you want pure straight socialism, if you want to buy off people, do that.See, Joe, when you're on the national Tee Vee Machine where everyone can see you and hear you and YouTube you, and you get a reasonable response in which you get two passing mentions, then what's the beef?
On Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough and Willie Geist repeatedly mocked Sen. Barack Obama's bowling performance -- which Scarborough called "dainty" [...] Deriding Obama's score, Scarborough said: "You know Willie, the thing is, Americans want their president, if it's a man, to be a real man." [...] After guest Harold Ford Jr. said that Obama's bowling showed a "humble" and "human" side to him, Scarborough replied, "A very human side? A prissy side."And via the Awesomest of Awesome Bob Cesca:
Unless, Bob, your name is Joe and you don't have a sense of humor... or apparently, of perspective.[SCARBOROUGH:] You have the federal government writing checks to people for doing nothing. For doing absolutely nothing. This is as close to unprecedented of a total all out socialist bill as I've ever seen.[SCARBOROUGH:] But I will tell you, I am personally concerned by any politician that talks about the redistribution of wealth- that the Warren court was not radical enough, I'm concerned when somebody tells a guy that wants to start a small business that he should be for spreading the wealth- these are things that cause concerns, not just conservative -- fiscal conservatives.Maybe Newsweek is right. Maybe socialism is upon us.And so mentioning that Scarborough is reflecting neo-McCarthyism is somehow "name-calling?"
That's funny.
Thanks to the CBS people for getting this up for me.
By GottaLaff
Socks, who reigned as first cat in former President Clinton’s White House, was put to sleep on Friday morning.After suffering from mouth cancer, Socks was euthanized at Three Notch Veterinary Clinic in Hollywood, Maryland. Betty Currie, Clinton’s former personal secretary, had been taking care of the cat since her boss left the White House.
Socks was born in 1989 and would have turned 20 this spring. [...]
An 11-year-old Chelsea Clinton adopted Socks in 1991 after she saw the stray kitten at her piano teacher’s home in Little Rock, Arkansas. The cat moved into the governor’s mansion with the family and later to the White House.
There is no explanation for my taste in music before I went to college, other than the fact that hey, it was the 70's in Miami and I was in the theatre, okay? After that, I got better, but still had a taste for the kitsch. Oh well, what's your secret shame music?
Very nice move. The lack of rural health care is one of those issues that it's very easy to put a literal "face" on.
President Obama might not have a Health and Human Services (HHS) nominee yet, but he announced his choice to lead a lesser-known agency within the department Friday.
Mary Wakefield, a nurse and academic who focuses on rural health issues, is Obama’s nominee to be administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), the White House announced.
“As a nurse, a Ph.D. and a leading rural healthcare advocate, Mary Wakefield brings expertise that will be instrumental in expanding and improving services for those who are currently uninsured or underserved,” President Obama said.
The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.
Excellent explanation that even I could understand. h/t Tim.
I got shivers.
A Tamil Tiger plane on a "suicide mission" has flown into a government building in the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo injuring at least 39 people.
The tax office in Colombo was hit by a plane which detonated a bomb
It smashed into Sri Lanka's main tax office, detonating a bomb and causing a massive explosion.
A second plane involved in the mission was shot down by Sri Lanka's air force as it attempted to get away.
(snip)
Tens of thousands of people have died since the Tigers launched a campaign in 1972 to carve out a homeland for minority Tamils in the majority Sinhalese island's north and east.
Meaning Robert Gibbs. I missed this, but after Chuck Todd described the answer, he made it sound as if Gibby had taken an ax to the Press Room. Video when I get it.**
**UPDATED with a longer video courtesy of FDL.A few minutes ago, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs responded to CNBC's Rick Santelli and his outburst which tapped into populist anger over some of the policies of the month-old Obama Administration.
CBS's Chip Reid asked Gibbs, referring to "that cable rant," about the Obama mortgage plan. Gibbs:
I've watched Mr. Santelli on cable the past 24 hours or so. I'm not entirely sure where Mr. Santelli lives or in what house he lives. But the American people are struggling every day to meet their mortgage, stay in their jobs, pay their bills, send their kids to school, hope they don't get sick or somebody they care for gets sick and sends them into bankruptcy.I would be more than happy to have him come here and read [the mortgage plan]. I'd be happy to buy him a cup of coffee. Decaf. (laughter)
But I also think it's tremendously important that for people who rant on cable television to be responsible and understand what it is they're talking about. I feel assured that Mr. Santelli doesn't know what he's talking about.
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
I'm not all that hopeful about this outcome. The wingers will follow their pattern- distort and twist simple things to set the tone. *sigh*
By GottaLaff
[...] Palin insisted that her inquiries into removing books from the shelves were strictly “rhetorical.”I'm sure Palin can pinpoint the exact day she chose to be straight.In a new biography of Palin released this week, Trailblazer: An Intimate Biography of Sarah Palin, her former campaign manager details Palin’s disgust at the idea of a gay-friendly book. During her 1996 mayoral campaign, Palin questioned the local library director about the “content and selection” of the library’s books. [p. 76]
One book that Palin questioned as not being “appropriate for the public library” was Daddy’s Roommate, a story about a young boy whose father is gay and moves in with his partner. Palin’s campaign manager at the time, Laura Chase, urged Palin to read the book before passing judgment:
I found it to be a sensitive book about showing love for additional family members. I took the book to show the other council members and said I felt it was inoffensive and suggested for everyone to read it, but there were not takers. I said, ‘Sarah why don’t you take it home and read it.’ I could tell by her body language she cringed at the idea.I was shocked. It blew my mind that she wouldn’t look at it. [p. 77]
[...] It’s not surprising that Palin “cringed” at a harmless depiction of a loving gay couple. Palin staunchly opposes marriage equality, publicly supports her church’s promotion of a program designed to “help” gays live as heterosexuals, and maintains that people are gay because they choose to be.
By GottaLaff
Every time I see the name "Vilsack", I automatically think of Jon Stewart and his Aflac duck spoof:
Aflac/Vilsack!Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack is bowing to calls from farm state lawmakers and livestock producers to enforce a food-labeling mandate that they say the Bush administration allowed meatpackers to circumvent.
Vilsack is preparing to dictate new guidance for implementing the farm law’s country-of-origin labeling provisions, according to farm groups that spoke with him Tuesday.
The secretary told the groups he would write a letter to industry requesting that companies not tag U.S. products with mixed-origin labels. Under rules the Bush administration issued in January, meatpackers could choose to label meat from animals born, raised and slaughtered in the U.S. as “mixed origin” if they were simultaneously packing products using meat from imported animals. [...]
The Bush administration rules issued in mid-January covered muscle cuts and ground beef, lamb, chicken, goat and pork, along with a variety of other commodities. Those regulations take effect in March.
Farm law supporters in Congress complained those rules would give meatpackers wiggle room to group U.S. products with mixed-origin products and mark both with “multiple country” labels.
“These loopholes essentially allow processors to label every product — including exclusively U.S. products and entirely foreign products — under the multiple country category,” Sen. Byron L. Dorgan , D-N.D., and six other Senate Democrats told Vilsack in a Feb. 3 letter. “If we are just creating a system to label all products as multiple country origin, there is no value in [country of origin labeling] and no benefit to the consumer.”
Since the Bush administration rule is discretionary — meatpackers have the option of choosing to label their products as mixed origin — new rulemaking will not be required if Vilsack’s guidance is followed.
Vilsack told the producer groups, which included R-CALF USA, the National Farmers Union and the American Farm Bureau Federation, that if businesses do not comply with congressional intent, he will be forced to rewrite the rules, dragging out an already delayed process.
By GottaLaff
A trip down the memory rabbit hole:
Dana Milbank sketches the intellectual godfather of the Bush doctrine and the Iraq war as he disavows neoconservatism. Video by Gaby Bruna.Watch, point, laugh, throw things.
By GottaLaff
Would the country accept another first lady who takes on an activist policy role?No matter what Michelle Obama chooses to do, I'm confident she'll do it well and with style.
"Michelle Obama may well find the country more receptive," Blumenthal says. "It's a very different country with Obama's election." Laura Bush's former chief of staff, Anita McBride, agrees: "I think we are more ready for the first lady to be an active participant."
And Fred Barnes, the conservative Republican pundit, said on his Fox News chat show recently: "I have nothing against her having a policy role in the administration. Just be transparent about it and let people know that's what she's doing. Unlike the Reagan administration, where Nancy Reagan played a big role and denied it."
By GottaLaff
Poll-itics:
In his new book, pollster Stan Greenberg makes the case that campaign polls are better indicators of public opinion than most media polls.Maybe Nate the Great at Five Thirty Eight should chime in.
"The endgame in presidential campaigns brings out all sorts of irrationalities, starting with the media polls. Many are criminally bad. Some are done in one night with no time for callbacks and thus over-represent people who are easily reached by phone, often seniors. They are not carefully weighted and, as a result, show wide swings in voter preference that the media interpret wrongly as voter fickleness. And they usually ask the respondent only for whom they will vote without any prior questions that build trust. With people reluctant to tell a stranger for whom they will vote without being warmed up, many of the media polls report an inflated number of undecided voters. Worst of all, a poll that shows a result sharply different from all the others gets media attention because the difference is 'news' when it is likely the result of normal sampling fluctuations or careless polling practices."
However, Charles Franklin rebuts many of Greenberg's assertions pointing out that polling techniques and methodology are "open source" and that there is little "secret knowledge or methods" that make campaign pollsters any better than media pollsters.
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