Supernova Remnant E0102-72 Credit: X-ray - NASA / CXC / MIT / D.Dewey et al., NASA / CXC / SAO / J.DePasquale;
Optical - NASA / STScI
Explanation: The expanding debris cloud from the explosion of a massive star is captured in this multiwavelength composite, combining x-ray and optical images from the Chandra and Hubble telescopes. Identified as E0102-72, the supernova remnant lies about 190,000 light-years away in our neighboring galaxy, the Small Magellanic Cloud.
Thanks to all who have said they enjoy these pics, because I love them. Click to enlarge, via.
On a housekeeping note, You can also always make a donation through the PayPal button to the right, and if you are thinking of buying anything from Amazon, if you use the links over to the right, just using one of those links to buy anything gets us a couple pennies a transaction.
The last Polaroid films expire next month. The Observer gave eight of today's leading photographers a Polaroid camera for a day and asked them to capture their final instant images.
See how she cares about Alaska? She caused them to spend even more money that they don't have:
Early estimates by the Associated Press put the cost of Sarah Palin's midterm resignation as Alaska governor at a minimum of $40,000.
"Not included in the tally is the estimated cost of more than $100,000 for a one-day special session held last month in which state lawmakers confirmed Palin's surprise pick to replace Parnell as lieutenant governor and overrode her May 21 veto of $28.6 million in federal stimulus funds intended for energy efficiency projects."
Hmm. $28.6 million minus $140,000... carry the 1, times pi.... Not quite as bad as I thought.
Q: President Obama plans to deliver a national address to school children on the importance of them taking responsibility for their own success in school. Do you think it is appropriate? Or not appropriate? For President Obama to deliver this address? A: Appropriate 63% Not Appropriate 30%
Q: Do you think it would be appropriate? Or not appropriate? For ANY President to deliver this address? A: Appropriate 64% Not Appropriate 30%
Q: If you had a child attending a school that was going to show the address, would you tell your child to pay attention? Would you tell you child to NOT pay attention? Or would you keep your child home? A: To Pay Attention 78% To NOT Pay Attention 5% Would Keep Child Home 14%
Q: Who should decide whether to show President Obama's national address to school children? School districts? Or individual teachers? A: School Districts 52% Individual Teachers 28%
Q: President Obama plans to deliver a national address to school children on the importance of them taking responsibility for their own success in school. Do you think it is appropriate? Or not appropriate? For President Obama to deliver this address? A: Appropriate 63% Not Appropriate 33%
Q: Do you think it would be appropriate? Or not appropriate? For ANY President to deliver this address? A: Appropriate 65% Not Appropriate 29%
Q: If you had a child attending a school that was going to show the address, would you tell your child to pay attention? Would you tell you child to NOT pay attention? Or would you keep your child home? A: To Pay Attention 70% To NOT Pay Attention 4% Would Keep Child Home 21%
Q: Who should decide whether to show President Obama's national address to school children? School districts? Or individual teachers? A: School Districts 57% Individual Teachers 23%
There's that naggy little 20something per cent that still believes Boy Georgie was a swell president who protected us from evildoers, and Sarah the Quitter was the most persecuted, bestest evah! candidate who ever donned hip waders. I believe these are the same people who think V.P. Dickless McHeartStent is strong-like-bull, and that waterboarding was one big ol' silly frat prank that effectively forced confessions out of 12-year-old hostages.
I'll give you only one paragraph so that you'll go over to Motley Moose (one of my faves) and read the rest:
On the call was the President, Rahm Emanuel, Lynn Woosley, Raul Grijalva, Mike Honda, Barbara Lee, Nydia Velazquez and whoever else from the caucuses who wanted to join in. [...]
Now, on the public option, the President did confirm that he was considering a trigger in the Senate bill and reminded them that a trigger was better than having no public option coming out of the Senate into conference. They agreed, but pressed further that they would really prefer a strong public option coming out of the Senate. The President said whether or not we get triggers in a final bill depends on how far they willing to compromise. He then asked them how far they were willing to compromise. They answered this was as far as they would go, but that it was entirely possible for some members of their ranks to compromise further only after it appears the public option cannot pass both Houses. The President suggested that being unwilling to compromise would put progressives in a better position in conference, but that they might have to swallow a bill with a trigger coming out of the Senate into conference. He would have to try. The President discussed reconciliation and said the only way to push the Senate leadership on that would be if a public option came out of the House first. They further suggested the possibility of putting triggers to a vote in the House and letting it fail to pressure the Senate. The President suggested that might be a bad idea from the PR standpoint to see anything fail in the House.
Blahblahblah. Just pass a public option already. Do something, you know, constructive. I'm too weary of this to rant again at this point.
Florida GOP Chairman Jim Greer said he has no regrets about accusing the president of spreading 'liberal lies' before Greer even knew what Obama was going to say. (COURTESY OF JIM GREER)
There once was a political operative who loved to tell crowds he had a simple way of explaining to children the difference between Republicans and Democrats.
"Republicans get up and go to work," he would tell his son. "Democrats get up and go down to the mailbox to get their checks."
This man not only talked to his son about Republican values, he went into public-school classrooms and talked about them as well.
That man is Jim Greer — the same Jim Greer who, as chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, just threw a nationwide hissy fit, claiming that the classroom is no place for politics and Barack Obama's "indoctrination."
One Seminole County mother, Barbara Wells, remembers the day Greer spoke to her son's sixth-grade class. "My son said he made some sort of Hillary Clinton joke," she recalled.
But you know what? Wells didn't pitch a fit.
She didn't call up the local TV station to scream about Republican indoctrination.
Instead, she advised her son: "Whatever you are told in life, remember there are two sides to every story." [...]
There's no longer any question: Greer is a hypocrite. [...]
This country needs a healthy two-party system with smart debate.
But there's nothing healthy or smart about Greer's claim that the president's pep talk about succeeding in school was really an attempt to "indoctrinate America's children to his socialist agenda."
Presidents have been talking to schoolchildren ever since we've had schools.
See my previous rant/comments about this topic here. It dovetails perfectly with the next sentence:
In fact, as I sit here, rereading the previous two paragraphs, I find myself amazed that I even had to kill trees to print such obvious statements.
Are we really so far removed from reality that we don't understand the value of a president encouraging children to work hard?
One of the last times Obama spoke to schoolchildren, he said the following: "No one has written your destiny for you. Your destiny is in your hands. You cannot forget that."
Heavens to Betsy! The indoctrinator in chief must be stopped! [...]
In fact, Greer actually believes that, had he not called Obama out, the indoctrination would have taken place.
And he didn't see any fair comparison between his own school visits and the president's. The main difference, Greer said, is that he didn't have the Department of Education organizing lesson plans meant to idolize him the way he's convinced they would have for Obama, had Greer not stopped him.
But Jim, Thursday night on Hardball you said: "Before anybody talks to my children from a political perspective, I want to know what they have to say." And yet you didn't run your opinions by any of the parents before you started molding young minds, did you?
"That was different," he said. "I wasn't using lesson plans."
Here's an idea, media: Start airing quotes from normal people instead of neurotic, self-centered hypocrites. Miracles could happen, as in, the public processing and understanding the facts instead of being force-fed irrational b.s.
During the question-and-answer session, an attendee ask Posey, “Why should taxpayers pay for your insurance when you clearly make enough money to pay for it on your own?” After reading the question aloud, Posey quipped, “One of the perks of the job I guess!” A member of the audience yelled out, “You’re welcome!” Posey concluded by saying that he “needed to get a more detailed breakdown to better answer the question.” [...]
Of course, Posey is for Medicare; it appeared that a majority of the crowd on Wednesday night consisted of seniors. Nevertheless, he supports a “tenther” provision that would theoretically declare Medicare unconstitutional in Florida. And he refuses to give all Americans the option to buy into quality, affordable coverage that both he and seniors enjoy.
We're still not having a conversation in this country about what the public option really means to Americans. No, instead we're seeing coverage of what being a dick really means.
U.S. President Barack Obama announced new measures on Saturday to encourage Americans to save more money for retirement, a move the White House said would put the economy on a stronger footing in the future.
Why? Why is he encouraging them to do that?? Because he wants...to... take... their... money? Tax their hard-earned savings??
What next?? Encouraging them to use that money for... planning their own deaths???
Obama, in his weekly radio and Internet address, said the government would enact rules making it easier for small businesses to let workers automatically enroll in Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) and 401(k) retirement plans.
Not...so...fast there, Barry Hussein. What does "IRA" really stand for? "Individual Resting-place Accounts"? Hmmm?
And what is the symbolism behind the number "401"? Is that code for the number of suicides per week Barry Hussein will order? Aha! So now there's a Death Quota??
Quick! Freedom Watch! Fund a new tea party for... for... Retirers! Um, no.. Suiciders! Nah... needs to be snappier. IRAers! Still thinking... Quota-ers!
Payments for unused vacation time and sick leave could be converted into retirement savings under the new measures and Americans would be able to have tax refunds directly deposited into their retirement accounts or used to buy savings bonds.
"Sick leave"?? More like.... "Death leave"! And those "tax refunds"? We all know those will be deposited into.... ::dun dun dun-n-n:: Death Accounts or used to buy Death Bonds!
The measures do not require congressional approval and most will take effect immediately.
No congressional approval required? We all know what that really means: Dictatorship!!
Contrary to a yesterday's CNN report, a senior administration official tells Chuck Todd the White House is not drafting its own health-care bill.
"The White House is, however, contemplating using 'legislative language' in the president's speech on Wednesday, which pulls together the 80% they believe all of the four Congressional bills agree on. But even THAT hasn't been decided on yet. As one person said to me, anyone who is claiming we're writing our own health care bill is 'leaning over their ski tips.'"
Great. Now I'm relying on Chuck Todd.
Oh, and CNN? You're apparently "leaning over your ski tips."
My very caring, impassioned 72-year-old Twitter pal, who goes by the name 42bkdodgr, would like to share his feelings about President Obama's upcoming education speech, and I am more than happy to oblige.
This one really got to me.
Take it away, 42bkdodgr:
A Speech Can Have an Impact
I’m sure many of you have found the uproar from the right wing of the Republican party regarding President Obama upcoming speech to the students of this country about the benefits of getting a good education quite disturbing and disgusting.
In fact, in several states, school districts are blacking out the President’s televised speech and many parents aren‘t allowing their children to go to school that day. I would like to tell you how a speech can have a very positive impact on a student.
I have a friend who is a Holocaust survivor, was in six concentration camps during the war, and lost all of his family, except for a sister. He often speaks of his experiences by giving speeches to high school students; and I would like to tell you about one such event.
He recently spoke at a high school that was in a large black and Hispanic area, that has many gangs. He related to the students his experiences in the concentration camps and how he eventually became a very successful business man. He told them when he came to this country he didn’t speak the language, was basically penniless, hadn’t completed his education, and lost his teenage years; but through hard work and getting an education, he lived the American dream.
He ended his presentation by telling them how lucky they were to live in such a great country where they can accomplish anything they set their minds to through hard work and study. He encouraged them to go home and hug and kiss their parents and siblings and pursue the American dream. Over 100 hundred students, after a six hour presentation, waited outside to thank him for coming to their school.
About a week later, he received a call from one of the parents. She said, “What did you do to my son?” My friend became apprehensive thinking he did something wrong.
The parent said, my son came home kissed me, his father and brother and sister; and all he wants to do now is study and make something of himself. She said, we could never get our son motivated to do his school work; and she went on to thank my friend for the impact he had on her son's life.
I’m sure his presentation had similar impact on other students.
If my friend can have such an impact on a student, you can only imagine the effect the President will have on students when he makes his speech on Tuesday.
The uproar about the President giving the speech is another example, of the hate that is going on in this country. I wonder what effect it will have on students knowing the President is making a speech but they aren’t allowed to hear it; sure sounds like censorship to me.
Great thanks again for a relevant, heartfelt, touching, and thought-provoking piece, 42bkdodgr. We need 100 more like you.
According to BushCo and many who are against a thorough investigation of BushCo, this isn't torture:
Part of a protest of caged prisoners at Whitechapel has involved replicating some of the torture techniques used on prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. One of these is being painfully hog-tied with hands behind the legs, as shown here.
How long could any of Team Torture hold that position, much less any other stress position? A minute? Five minutes? An hour? Can any of them even do a sit-up?
Then please explain to me how that kind of abuse was legal. If it wasn't, then why is it that we are told to keep looking forward, and not back? And why does the media overlook nearly every example of torture except waterboarding? Because it's easy to say? Because it's shiny and marketable on the Tee Vee Machine?
As an added Torture Watch bonus, here's a little peek at the criminal, paranoid, embroiled little mindset of those responsible, heavily influenced by the Dickless Cheney himself, via Jane Mayer on The Rachel Maddow Show:
All my previous posts on this subject matter can be found here; That link includes one specific to only Fayiz al-Kandari's story here. Here are audio and video interviews with Lt. Col. Wingard, one by David Shuster, one by Ana Marie Cox, and more. My guest commentary at BuzzFlash is here.
If you are inclined to help rectify these injustices: Twitterers, use the hashtag #FreeFayiz. We have organized a team to get these stories out. If you are interested in helping Fayiz out, e-mail me at The Political Carnival, address in sidebar to the right; or tweet me at @GottaLaff.
If you'd like to see other ways you can take action, go here and scroll down to the end of the article.
Then read Jane Mayer's book The Dark Side. You'll have a much greater understanding of why I post endlessly about this, and why I'm all over the CIA deception issues, too.
This isn't "reform"; it's looting of the public treasury when Medicare has shown that a government option that negotiates and sets healthcare costs -- and doesn't need to make a profit -- dramatically reduces the costs of medical care.
Right now, the WH is leaking that it wants a deal, just about any deal. Obama can't afford to walk away without the appearance of a "win."
But the real winners will, it appears, once again be the corporations who pull the strings in D.C., with the cooperation of the White House.
Axelrod and Emanuel are also "anonymously" telling the press that it will be good for Obama to slap down progressives to show that he's a centrist.
But when given accurate information, more than 3/4 of Americans support a government option -- before FOX and Limbaugh get to them with lies.
Obama is buying the "centrist" mythology created out of a GOP disinformation campaign, as have his Democratic predecessors.
We need a Democratic President for Supreme Court appointments, but as far as anything related to Wall Street or business, it's business as usual.
Those excerpts don't do the piece justice. Please read the entire post here.
Paddy and I were on the phone this morning, literally sputtering to each other about the sheer idiocy of the "indoctrination" meme. These extremists are so fundamentally wrong that I find myself thinking my retorts-- so basic in their logic, so painfully obvious, so simple in nature-- must be deficient, that there must be some rebuttal I'm not remembering. But no.
My dad, a renowned doctor in these here parts, once told me, there is no way to win an argument with a neurotic, because they have their own logic. Bingo.
That said, all I can think of when I see this is, "Leave Brittany alone!"
But there is no similar way to rationalize the bizarre controversy now raging over President Obama's plan to deliver a brief televised address on Tuesday to the nation's grammar school children. [...]
One group is urging parents to demand that their children be excused from watching the president and be sent instead to the school library to read the Founding Fathers. (The theory, one supposes, is that a good dose of the Federalist Papers will inoculate the young against Obama's attempts to subvert the republic through good grades.)
Kathy Miller, president of a statewide school monitoring group in Texas:
"I wish our elected leaders were responsible enough to denounce this kind of wild-eyed paranoia. But the problem is too many of them are actually feeding this kind of nonsense -- like when the governor flirts with secessionists and state Board of Education members say the president sympathizes with terrorists."
Miller has identified precisely the process at work in the healthcare hysteria and, increasingly, elsewhere where the GOP thinks it can shove the Obama administration into a ditch. Republican officials such as the Florida state chairman are playing a dangerous game with an unhinged segment of public opinion that regards Obama not as an elected official with whom they disagree, but as an illegitimate usurper of the presidency.
That paranoid fantasy is what's really behind the "birther" movement and the allegations that the president is -- take your pick -- a secret Marxist or a secret Muslim.
It's the kind of fanciful anxiety that produces comments like this, posted on a conservative website this week: "Barack Obama and his left-wing Chicago machine regime are putting into place laws and institutions which will insure that there will never again be free elections in America."
These are the people who are stockpiling ammunition and keeping their children at home next Tuesday.
Gotta and I are going to be posting less than usual this weekend because a) there ain't nothing going on and b) we have a funny feeling that it's going to get real busy in the news world next week. So we're going to recharge the jet packs, maybe leave the house for two consecutive hours (gasp) and be all preparedy for what looks to be an interesting week. We'll be here, but it will be lighter posting.
Oh, and it wouldn't hurt you to get out of the house either.
Up, down and all over the place. What would have happened to make it jump 5 percentiles in 2 days? NADA. The only polls that matter will be in November '10 and '12.
Going to Bach-s**t Crazy for counseling is like going to Sarah the Quitter for speech lessons. File this under the blind leading the blinder:
Let's start with the revelation that Bachmann's own Christian counseling business, founded in late 2004, doesn't provide health care benefits to its employees, who strongly incline toward applying Biblical principles to family counseling. One representative sample:
My goal as a Christian therapist is to help clients find hope, healing and freedom in Christ by offering empathy and encouragement in a sage, supportive atmosphere. I seek to combine my passion for God's Word and the practical application of Scriptural principles with my processional training and life experiences in a way that comforts clients with the comfort that I have received from God. (2 Corinthians 1:4)
A federal appeals court ruled Friday that former Attorney General John Ashcroft can be held personally responsible for the wrongful detention of an innocent American, Abdullah al-Kidd, a U.S.-born American citizen, who was on his way to Saudi Arabia to study when he was unlawfully detained and arrested in Washington’s Dulles Airport on March 16, 2003 as a material witness in the trial of Sami Omar Al-Hussayem.
Al-Hussayem, a native of Saudi Arabia, was arrested in February 2003 in Idaho and accused of running websites that supported terrorism and terrorist organizations. He was acquitted of all charges against him and deported to Saudi Arabia in July 2004
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit also ruled that the federal material witness law cannot be used to “preventively” detain or investigate suspects.
The American Civil Liberties Union represents al-Kidd in the case, al-Kidd v. Ashcroft.
[...] Al-Kidd was held for more than 13 months under these conditions without ever being charged with any crime or asked to testify.
At the time of his arrest, al-Kidd had already shown that he was not a flight risk and would cooperate as a witness. He had voluntarily met with the FBI repeatedly, never missing a scheduled appointment. For six months prior to his arrest, al- Kidd had not been contacted by the FBI, and he had never been told that he was prohibited from traveling abroad to pursue his studies.
Writing for the majority in Friday’s decision, Judge Milan D. Smith, Jr., wrote:
“Framers of our Constitution would have disapproved of the arrest, detention, and harsh confinement of a United States citizen as a ‘material witness’ under the circumstances, and for the immediate purpose alleged, in al-Kidd’s complaint. Sadly, however, even now, more than 217 years after the ratification of the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution, some confidently assert that the government has the power to arrest and detain or restrict American citizens for months on end, in sometimes primitive conditions, not because there is evidence that they have committed a crime, but merely because the government wishes to investigate them for possible wrongdoing, or to prevent them from having contact with others in the outside world. We find this to be repugnant to the Constitution, and a painful reminder of some of the most ignominious chapters of our national history.”
“The court made it very clear today that former Attorney General Ashcroft’s use of the federal material witness law circumvented the Constitution,” said ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project Deputy Director Lee Gelernt, who argued the appeal. “Regardless of your rank or title, you can’t escape liability if you personally created and oversaw a policy that deliberately violates the law.” [...]
Friday’s ruling comes after a U.S. district court in 2006 found that the material witness law may only be used when an individual is genuinely sought as a witness and where there is a real risk of flight. The district court also ruled that the law does not allow an end-run around the constitutional requirements for arresting someone suspected of a crime. Former Attorney General John Ashcroft appealed the ruling and asked for complete immunity from liability.
The ACLU lawsuit names former Attorney General John Ashcroft, the United States and several federal agents.
One day.... one day... something will stick.
****************
All my previous posts on this subject matter can be found here; That link includes one specific to only Fayiz al-Kandari's story here. Here are audio and video interviews with Lt. Col. Wingard, one by David Shuster, one by Ana Marie Cox, and more. My guest commentary at BuzzFlash is here.
If you are inclined to help rectify these injustices: Twitterers, use the hashtag #FreeFayiz. We have organized a team to get these stories out. If you are interested in helping Fayiz out, e-mail me at The Political Carnival, address in sidebar to the right; or tweet me at @GottaLaff.
If you'd like to see other ways you can take action, go here and scroll down to the end of the article.
Then read Jane Mayer's book The Dark Side. You'll have a much greater understanding of why I post endlessly about this, and why I'm all over the CIA deception issues, too.
Okay, so the White House is circulating an upbeat polling memo citing a bunch of public surveys showing that public opinion still tilts heavily in Obama’s favor on health care. [...]
But here’s the funny thing: We went back and checked, andvirtually every poll cited in this memo also found strong support for the inclusion of a public plan. [...]
The White House memo did cite one poll that didn’t find majority support for the public option: : This MSNBC poll that found only 43% support for it. But that’s the one that generated all that controversy because it didn’t tell respondents that the public plan was a “choice.”
"The goal is to begin to control the message over the weekend and, in addition, float some trial balloons, see how things play with the public," said one Democratic official who is involved in the prespeech campaign spin. "This is sort of the start of that effort to arm us with information and see how it plays," added the official, referring to themes and talking points provided by the administration to supporters in Washington. [...]
The talking points, however, suggest that Obama will stick to a largely nonconfrontational approach that focuses on reforming health insurance, cutting costs, and helping find insurance for those without it. For example, he is expected to note that in all the reform bills before the House and Senate, there is about "80 percent" agreement on some elements that he also supports. He'll suggest that lawmakers focus on that to begin "pulling together" strands of the bills to produce "a final product that reforms our health insurance system."
The White House is hiding polls that show how popular the public option is, while taking a non-confrontational approach in the Big Speech. Where's the fight? Where's the push that we so badly need? Where's the Obama we voted for? At this point, I am less than enthused.
Yes, I will wait and see... in an unenthusiastic kind of way.
Sidebar: If I used the term "passive aggressive" incorrectly, let me know, but it seemed, in an un-technical sense, to fit here.
Obama is letting the Hill slug it out while he gets busy:
CNN has learned that the White House "is quietly working to draft health care legislation after allowing Congress to work on its own for months."
White House aides "are preparing for the possibility they could deliver their own legislation to Capitol Hill sometime after the President Barack Obama's speech to a joint session of Congress Wednesday."
Obama will "lay out a path to reform in his speech next week that the White House hopes can bridge the various differences in the competing proposals. Sources expect the president to emphasize the message: If Congress passes something now, it will serve as a foundation to pass further reform in the future."
We already have a foundation, and it's crumbling. It's time to build, not to patch or repave.
John Harwood "showing no mercy" re: The parents who are fretting about "indoctrination" enough to keep their kids home from school for the president's speech:
"I'm not sure they're smart enough to raise those kids..."
How refreshing to hear the truth on the Tee Vee Machine.
Davis Shuster just commented on how tough it is to have a real debate on health care because of the hostile, out-of-control environment at the town halls.
Instead of reporting on how difficult it is to have an exchange of ideas on health care because of the Republimobs, how about reporting on the ideas themselves? That would most likely put a major dent in the effectiveness, and therefore, the visibility of the crazies.
That was today's Shallow Thought. Thank you for wading in.
On Mike Gallagher's radio program yesterday, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) offered a novel theory as to why Democrats want her out of office: They don't want her to become the first woman president.
BACHMANN: Also with women politicians, they want to make sure no women, no woman becomes president before a Democrat woman, and so they're doing everything they can to, I think, sabotage women like Sarah Palin, perhaps women like myself, or similarly situated women, to make sure that we don't have a prominent national voice.
Yes, Michele Bats**t, it's all about a race to get the first woman into the White House. It has nothing to do with your complete and utter loss of touch with reality and the ineptitude you share with Soul Sis Sarah.
First Read: "Finally, here's one more thought about the entire controversy over Obama's education speech on Tuesday: Since the White House has said the text of the speech will be available for 24 hours before he delivers it and since they altered the lesson plan language, why is this still a controversy? The ability of the conservative media machine to generate a controversy for this White House is amazing. In fact, this is an example of a story that percolates where it becomes harder and harder for some to claim there's some knee-jerk liberal media bias. (Does anyone remember these kinds of controversies in the summer of 2001?) The ability of some conservatives to create media firestorms is still much greater than liberals these days."
Hmm, why would that be? What could be missing from that analysis? Think... think...
Ooo! Ooo! I know! ::waves hand wildly, jumps up and down like a fool:: And the answer is....
Nearly all of them enable the "conservative media machine"! Dingdingdingdingding!
Read my lips: If drooling corporate employees like those who contributed to the above piece didn't run like rabid Pavlovian dogs to cover the likes of TeaDeathers, Birthers, Tenthers, other -Ers, Rushpublic windbags, and wingnutty punditiots-- and actually offered the same amount of air time to facts, substance, information, and, you know, more progressives-- guess what? They wouldn't have had to write that paragraph!
Wow that was easy. Way to avoid responsibility, guys.
A Raritan, New Jersey woman has taken to YouTube to expose something fishy on her cable listings. The woman has her DVR set to record Fox News Channel's Glenn Beck. But when she looked at her scheduled listings last week, the show comes up as Glen I F"ck.
Finally, accuracy on the Tee Vee Machine! Or is it a ::dun dun dun-n-n:: vast left wing conspiracy?
I got to witness something really special. About a dozen tea party activists had staked out Franken's booth, and confronted him loudly when he arrived. But within minutes, he'd turned an unruly cr...
I got to witness something really special. About a dozen tea party activists had staked out Franken's booth, and confronted him loudly when he arrived. But within minutes, he'd turned an unruly crowd into a productive conversation on health care. The discussion went from insurance reform, to the public option, to veterans benefits, to cap and trade. He made a few laugh and even told a touching story that moved a few to tears. A whole lot of common ground was found.
See what being reasonable can accomplish? It's not that hard, and so, so productive.
Gibbs dismissed any idea that the president's remarks were political, noting that the National Basketball Association has a similar message for students.
"If staying in school is a political message, then somebody should tell the NBA," he said.
The Rushpublics would never dare stand up to a powerful group of players who are bigger and stronger than they are.
ABC News has decided to air a Republican response to Obama’s big health care address to a joint session of Congress next week, a network spokesperson confirms to us, all but ensuring that the other major networks will follow suit.
The decision will alter the politics of what promises to be a major political event with potentially dramatic consequences for the White House and for reform, and could set off a scramble among Republicans to be selected for the role of delivering that response.
The idea of a public option is such a pain. Fighting that Rushpublic minority is way too hard. Besides, we wouldn't want to make Big Insurance compete with unsuccessful Big Scary Government programs like Medicare. It's so much more preferable to continue this kind of thing:
California Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown is joining state regulators in scrutinizing how HMOs review and pay insurance claims submitted by doctors, hospitals and other medical providers.
His announcement came Thursday as regulators said they had stepped up scrutiny of the payment practices of the state's seven largest health plans in response to complaints from physicians and hospitals.
The increased attention also comes on the heels of a first-of-its-kind report issued this week that said the California health insurers reject 1 in 5 medical claims.
Six of the state's largest insurers rejected 45.7 million claims for medical care, or 22% of all claims, from 2002 to June 30, 2009, according to the California Nurses Assn.'s analysis of data submitted to regulators by the companies.
Nope, wouldn't want to disturb that trend. That would be unAmerican.
The rejection rates ranged from a high of 39.6% for PacifiCare to 6.5% for Aetna for the first half of 2009. Cigna denied 33%, and Health Net 30%.
Anthem Blue Cross, the state's largest for-profit health plan, and Kaiser, the state's largest nonprofit plan, each rejected 28% of claims.
Blue Shield, a nonprofit with 3.4 million California members, is the only large health plan that does not report claims-denial figures in its annual report to the state Department of Managed Health Care.\
Yep, TeaDeathers, we have the best system in the whole wide world. How could we have ever doubted you?
4. Ten ways to feed ten people for less than $20, including homemade pizzas and stew with fresh bread, from TheKitchn.
5. The best big-bottle "jug wines," which have double the vino of typical bottles, cost $14 or less, and are perfect for barbecues and outdoor parties, from the WSJ.
6. How to feed a group on location—say, at a beach house—without spending a fortune or making three dozen trips to the supermarket, from CheapHealthyGood.
7. Make it a wine and chips party, featuring wines under $15. (Cheese may or may not be in your budget.)
8. Marine Corps Railroad-Style Barbecue Sauce, a simple, inexpensive recipe made for spicing up (salvaging?) just about any piece of cheap meat, from The Dollar Stretcher.com.
A new state law requires that Texas public schools incorporate Bible literacy into the curriculum, but it provides no specific guidelines, funding for materials or teacher training. So high schools are left scrambling to figure out what to teach and how to teach it.
A handful of North Texas districts are offering an elective class, but most are choosing instead to embed Old and New Testament teachings into current classes.
Such broad parameters leave one of the most controversial topics in public schools virtually unregulated, say religious scholars and confused educators. They warn that the nebulous law may have thwarted its purpose — to examine the Bible’s influence in history and literature.
George Stephanopoulos reports that House Republican Leader John Boehner is asking the broadcast networks to make time for a GOP response to President Obama's Joint Session speech next week.
He points out that Governor Carroll Campbell of South Carolina was given time to respond to President Clinton's September 1993 health care speech.
Again, there is an in for someone to lead and get back the high road (and the poll numbers) but they have to step up and freaking do it.
WASHINGTON (CNN) — Despite the drop in President Barack Obama's approval ratings, Republican policies are still not as popular as Democratic policies, according to a new national poll.
A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Friday morning indicates that the GOP has gained some ground in polls in recent months, but Democrats still hold the advantage on key issues like the economy and health care.
Fifty-two percent of people questioned say the president's policies will move the country in the right direction. An equal percentage feel the same way about the polices of the Democrats in Congress. What do Americans think of Republican policies? Forty-three percent say the GOP's policies will move the country in the right direction. Nearly half of those polled said congressional Republicans would move the country in the wrong direction.
Wonder what took them so long? I'm sure my Polish father who fought and was imprisoned in the war that was "Poland's fault" would have a couple choice words for Mr Buchanan. Media Matters has more.
Pat Buchanan has received a lot of criticism recently for his column marking the 70th anniversary of the Nazi invasion of Poland, where the conservative pundit questions whether Hitler has gotten a bum rap.
By extension, MSNBC, where Buchanan is a commentator, has taken heat for promoting the column on its website. In the revisionist piece -- "Did Hitler Want War?" -- Buchanan argues that other countries, such as Poland, should be held responsible for the invasion, and later escalation of World War II. Hitler, he claims, wanted peace and wasn't out for world conquest.
David A. Harris, President of the National Jewish Democratic Council, condemned MSNBC's promotion of the "deplorable" column and urged that it be removed from MSNBC.com.
CNN: FreedomWorks, Tea Party Patriots head for the Hill Members of Congress — returning to work after a chaotic August recess — may be welcoming a return to their D.C. offices and a schedule free of visits to town halls, the district-level gatherings that have provided the stage for some of the summer's fiercest faceoffs. But their break is likely to be a short one: Next week, a flood of those town hall protesters are planning to head to the Hill.
New York Times: Firefighters Become Medics to the Poor Peeling off his latex gloves after treating a 4-year-old boy having a severe asthma attack, J. R. Muyleart sighed with a touch of frustration. It was 3 a.m. and in the past 24-hour shift, Mr. Muyleart, a firefighter, had responded to at least one emergency call per hour.
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