VIDEOS- Sen. Rockefeller slams Big Insurance: "They don't care. They don't have to care"

By GottaLaff



Senator Jay Rockefeller says Big Insurance can't kill the bill, it's too late. They may make some people nervous, but that's it, he says.

Here he is discussing the health care reform bill, saying that the public option is the only way to rein in insurance companies:

VIDEO- George H.W. Bush: ‘You may have gotten my ass email’

By GottaLaff

One for the blooper reel:



I tend to think he was right the first time.

VIDEO- Bill Maher: The Year in GOP

By GottaLaff

Beck: "Special needs cousin of Rush Limbaugh" indeed...




So Maher, so good, so annoying that he's off for three months.

Obama’s DOJ Indicates It May Fight Release Of Cheney’s CIA Leak Transcript

By GottaLaff

A one-two punch by my pal Jason Leopold. First, this major disappointment, now this ObamAdministration backtrack:

The Obama administration indicated in court papers it may appeal a federal judge’s ruling ordering the Justice Department to release portions of the transcribed interview between former Vice President Dick Cheney and Patrick Fitzgerald, the special prosecutor appointed to probe the roles Bush administration officials played in the leak of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson six years ago.

The resistance from the Obama administration has left some of its supporters shaking their heads. Not only does the obstruction go against President Obama’s pledge of government openness, but it is protecting the reputation of Cheney, one of Obama’s most vocal critics.

Court papers filed by Obama’s Justice Department in July revealed that Bush and Cheney were in contact about the scandal, including what is described as “a confidential conversation” and “an apparent communication between the Vice President and the President.”

That court filing also revealed that Fitzgerald questioned Cheney about his participation in the decision to declassify parts of a 2002 National Intelligence Estimate regarding Iraq’s alleged WMD. It ultimately fell to Bush to clear selected parts of the NIE so they could be leaked as part of the White House campaign to disparage Wilson.

White House "Ordered" Lawmakers to Amend FOIA in Order to Conceal Torture Photos

By GottaLaff

My bff Jason Leopold has written up another well-researched, thorough piece over at Truthout, his new digs. This one is about how President Obama is close to signing, sealing, and delivering a lock on the torture photos he had earlier agreed to release:

The Obama administration will likely drop its Supreme Court petition challenging the release of photographs showing US soldiers abusing prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan now that lawmakers are set to pass legislation authorizing the government to continue to keep the images under wraps.

On Thursday, the House approved a Department of Homeland Security spending bill that included a provision to amend the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and grant Defense Secretary Robert Gates the authority to withhold "protected documents" that, if released, would endanger the lives of US soldiers or government employees deployed outside of the country.

According to the bill, the phrase "protected documents" refers to photographs taken between September 11, 2001 and January 22, 2009, and involves "the treatment of individuals engaged, captured or detained" in the so-called "war on terror." Photographs that Gates determines would endanger troops and government employees could be withheld for three years.

The legislation now heads to the Senate for a vote, which is expected to take place as early as Thursday. Obama indicated he would swiftly sign the bill into law when it passes. [...]

Civil libertarians and advocates of open government, however, were sharply critical of lawmakers - and the Obama administration - for covering up what they said were serious crimes by allowing the provision, the Protected National Security Documents Act of 2009, to be included in the bill.

"It is disturbing that the House would pass legislation that so blatantly undermines the Freedom of Information Act," said Michael Macleod-Ball, acting director of the ACLU's Washington legislative office. "Authorizing the suppression of evidence of human rights abuses perpetrated by government personnel directly contradicts Congress's oversight obligations." [...]

The Obama administration indicated earlier this year it would abide by a court order and release at least 44 of the photographs in question, but President Obama backtracked, saying he had conferred with high-ranking military officials who advised him that releasing the images would stoke anti-American sentiment and would endanger the lives of US troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. [...]

According to the petition and other documents, the photographs at issue include one in which a female solider is pointing a broom at a detainee "as if [she were] sticking the end of a broomstick into [his] rectum."

Other photos are said to show US soldiers pointing guns at the heads of hooded and bound detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan. [...]

Obama's decision to conceal the photos marks an about-face on the open-government policies that he proclaimed during his first days in office.

On January 21, Obama signed an executive order instructing all federal agencies and departments to "adopt a presumption in favor" of Freedom of Information Act requests, and promised to make the federal government more transparent.

"The government should not keep information confidential merely because public officials might be embarrassed by disclosure, because errors and failures might be revealed, or because of speculative or abstract fears," Obama's order said. "In responding to requests under the FOIA, executive branch agencies should act promptly and in a spirit of cooperation, recognizing that such agencies are servants of the public."

These photos are needed as evidence. Fayiz al-Kandari and his lawyer, Lt. Col. Barry Wingard, are not allowed access to photos that prove that Fayiz was tortured. So much for transparency and a just legal system.

Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-New York):

"I believe that we had turned a page from the cloud of suspicion and secrecy that marked the previous administration," Slaughter said. "It runs so counter to our principals and stated desire to reject the abuses of the past. The FOIA laws in this country form a pillar of our First Amendment principles."

Slaughter said in her floor statement that the provision to amend FOIA was stripped from an earlier version of the bill, but the language was quietly reinserted in recent weeks "apparently under direct orders from the administration."

"We should never do anything to circumvent FOIA, and I believe that our country would gain more by coming to terms with the past than we would by covering it up," Slaughter said. "I hope that the president will follow judicial rulings and consider voluntarily releasing these photos so we can put this chapter in history behind us."

There should be a provision, at the very least, that allows limited viewing of the photos.

*****
All my previous posts on this subject matter can be found here; That link includes 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.

Lt. Col. Barry Wingard is a military attorney who represents Fayiz Al-Kandari in the Military Commission process and in no way represents the opinions of his home state. When not on active duty, Colonel Wingard is a public defender in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

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.

More of Fayiz's story here, at Answers.com.

"You should go to some city that's a little more Klan friendly"

By GottaLaff

Mr. Laffy went to the market today. As he entered, he noticed a tall, young, blond-haired man and a spaced-out-looking twentysomething woman standing next to a poster of Obama. The poster read, "I've changed", and depicted President Obama with a Hitler mustache. The young man rattled on, saying something about Lyndon LaRouche, but Mr. Laffy was so put off that he cut him short.

One reason (other than the obvious) Mr. Laffy was so taken aback was that this was a highly unusual occurrence in our neck of the woods. The guy wanted to talk to him some more, but Mr. Laffy interrupted with, "I don't talk to people who have pictures of Obama with a Hitler mustache."

Hitler Guy retorted, brimming with wit, "Well, then he should shave it!"

Mr. Laffy SO wanted to mock him with, "Well if you like it so much, why don't you marry it?" But he took the high road.

Instead, Mr. Laffy retorted, "You picked the wrong town to put up a picture like that. You should go to some city that's a little more Klan friendly," and went inside to shop. As he walked away, he heard the blond man say, "A lot of people are listening to us."

Mr. L went straight to the store manager and told him that he hated being accosted like that, and could he do anything? The manager said, "There's no law against it, we can't prevent them from standing there. Maybe if enough people complain to the county supervisor or other local representative, maybe they could pass some kind of law."

While we wait for that to happen, wingnuts continue to hang out at our grocery stores and harass people with their vile hatred.

Happy Saturday.

VIDEO: Maddow and Olbermann respond to Bush Sr.'s "sick puppy" namecalling

By GottaLaff

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Down thread I posted about Rachel Maddow's squaring off with a piddly bowl of slime named Tim Phillips, wiping the floor with what was left of his facade. That took skill, knowledge, and more self-restraint than I could scrape up in a year.

But according to Bush 41, Rachel (and Keith Olbermann) is a "sick puppy". Why? Because she knows how to express herself and isn't afraid to do it publicly, in the very faces of those she calls out.

Of course, had Rachel had the opportunity to interview Boy Georgie directly, she most likely wouldn't have had to say a whole lot. 43 pretty much dug himself into a hole every time he opened his yap, with no help from anyone.

But Boy 43 had eight years at the controls of this country, and drove it straight into the ground. I guess 41 doesn't want anyone to mention that out loud. Instead, we should all acquiesce to the reckless, misguided whims of the Tim Phillipses, Dickless McHeartStents, and Boy Georgies of the world.

Dissent is unAmerican.

Note to 41: Intelligent discourse and healthy disagreement are different than vitriolic screed.

PhotOh! HuffPo posts ad by AFP, astroturf group Rachel Maddow exposed

By GottaLaff

Original post about Tim Phillips getting bitch slapped by Rachel here.

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

Rachel Maddow took Phillips on, and for good reason. Just watch the videos. I could barely tolerate the exposure to the sleaze oozing from this guy, but Rachel's tenacity, thorough knowledge of all things AFP, preparedness, and obvious intelligence got me through the interview.

I am not exaggerating when I say my blood boiled watching the exchange. In fact, Rachel said something similar about her own feelings. She is the best example of solid, reliable TV reporting that I can think of. She took a risk by confronting Phillips head on, and it paid off. Rachel Maddow did her homework and made mincemeat of a very small man with not even a part of a leg to stand on.

She took on the big guys and made a difference.

That's called patriotism.

After seeing that Tee Vee moment, you'd think that most clear-thinking people would avoid AFP like the plague, especially more liberal types. Why, you'd have to be a fool to support a slimy bunch of phony corporate astroturfers like them. Carrying one of their ads would be akin to a slap in the face, to say the least... especially in light of Rachel's heroic efforts.

Wait. I'm sorry, give me a sec. I'm having a WTF Moment:

I took a screen shot of that HuffPo page just minutes ago. See the "bloody red hand" (as Rachel refers to it) on the right? That's an ad for Americans for Prosperity, the very group Tim Phillips represents.

Now, granted, it may be a rotating ad that they have little control over [we at TPC are well aware of unappealing ads displayed here, too], but this is more than a little bit disconcerting startling nauseating.

Dear HuffPo, Any way to dump that despicable eyesore? Love, Laffy.

H/t: baxterblogs

UPDATE: Please go to BuzzFlash for this commentary.

Sharpton threatens suit against Limbaugh

By GottaLaff

Boss Limpdong is a big fat idiot:

Reverend Al Sharpton and his lawyers say they are preparing to file a defamation lawsuit against conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh for an op-ed published Saturday, which Sharpton alleges "erroneously" characterizes his (Sharpton's) role in a string of violent incidents in New York in the early 90's.

In the op-ed published in Saturday's Wall Street Journal Limbaugh writes Sharpton "played a leading role in the 1991 Crown Heights riot (he called neighborhood Jews ‘diamond merchants’) and 1995 Freddie's Fashion Mart riot." [...]

According to a statement put out by Sharpton’s media consultant, a study New York Governor Mario Cuomo commissioned showed Sharpton was not involved in the Crown Heights incident until after the rioting concluded. [...]

Sharpton said unless Limbaugh apologizes or clarifies his remarks, the Reverend’s attorneys will move forward with a lawsuit.

Follow the link for the details.

Two very vocal, gigantic personalities at each other's throats. Yep. Just another news day.

British court orders release of U.S. document about Guantanamo detainee

By GottaLaff

Judges seem to side with Gitmo prisoners a lot, as you know from some of my previous posts (links to those below). There's a reason for that:

Former Guantanamo Bay inmate Binyam Mohamed says U.S. and British agents knew he was being tortured. Britain said releasing a summary of his treatment would harm relations with U.S. intelligence.

An American document that allegedly describes the torture of a former Guantanamo Bay inmate should be made public, a British court ruled Friday, dismissing Britain's argument that it was suppressing the information to preserve its intelligence-sharing relationship with the United States and to uphold national safety. [...]

Mohamed, 31, a British resident, alleges that he was subjected to torture, including beatings and sexual mutilation, by interrogators in Pakistan and elsewhere with the full knowledge of American and British intelligence agents. The high court ruled that the secret synopsis, which had been blacked out in previous court filings, had no intelligence value and could be released.

"No intelligence" seems apt here. How smart is it to have tortured these people, considering that torture provides no reliable information, and often results in lies?

Oh, and any statements made under those circumstances isn't admissible in a court of law anyway... unless of course it's a military commission... which is a joke.

Rather, the judges wrote, "the public interest in making the paragraphs public is overwhelming," because the summary could shed light on illegal activities carried out by the U.S. and British governments.

IMHO, this was a very wise judge:

"It cannot be suggested that information as to how officials of the U.S. government admitted treating [Mohamed] during his interrogation is information that can in any democratic society governed by the rule of law be characterized as 'secret' or as 'intelligence,' " the court said, adding that "the risk to national security . . . is not a serious one."

*****
All my previous posts on this subject matter can be found here; That link includes 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.

Lt. Col. Barry Wingard is a military attorney who represents Fayiz Al-Kandari in the Military Commission process and in no way represents the opinions of his home state. When not on active duty, Colonel Wingard is a public defender in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

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.

More of Fayiz's story here, at Answers.com.

Obama artist Shepard Fairey admits to wrongdoing in AP lawsuit

By GottaLaff

Hopeless:

Fairey said in a statement issued late Friday that he knowingly submitted false images and deleted others in the legal proceedings, in an attempt to conceal the fact that the AP had correctly identified the photo that Fairey had used as a reference for his "Hope" poster of then-Sen. Barack Obama.

Well now, that's disappointing.

He added: "I am very sorry to have hurt and disappointed colleagues, friends, and family who have supported me in this difficult case and trying time in my life."

Fairey's statement said he regretted that his actions would distract from the issue of fair use for artists. "Regardless of which of the two images was used, the fair use issue should be the same," he said.

VIDEO- Sen. Bernie Sanders Unfiltered: Return to the Gilded Age

By GottaLaff

Bernie Sanders is consistently plain-spoken and accessible. I listen to him every Friday morning on the Thom Hartmann Show, where he takes questions from callers for an hour.

VIDEO: Reid tweets video from health bill meeting

By GottaLaff

Just a wild guess, but I bet Harry Reid's tweets are really boring:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) took to Twitter on Thursday to share a video from the first health bill merger meeting held yesterday with top Senate Democrats and administration officials.

Here's what he tweeted:

Here's the video that he linked to in his tweet:

See how transparent he is?

The effort to share footage from the meeting may be an effort to increase transparency in response to criticism from some Republican lawmakers that the final health bill will be drafted behind closed doors.

Why is it that Rushpublics are always putting us on the defensive, when it should be the other way around?

Mid Day Distraction

Obama aide fires back at Beck over Mao remarks

Snap.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- White House communications director Anita Dunn fired back at criticism from TV commentator Glenn Beck on Friday, saying that a Mao Tse-tung quote Beck took issue with was picked up from legendary GOP strategist Lee Atwater.

"The Mao quote is one I picked up from the late Republican strategist Lee Atwater from something I read in the late 1980s, so I hope I don't get my progressive friends mad at me," Dunn told CNN.

(snip)

On Thursday night's program, Beck showed exclusive video of Dunn discussing the communist leader, who was responsible for a cultural revolution in 1966 that included re-education camps and setting the army and students on witch hunts against his opponents.

Video- Rep Alan Grayson on Real Time

Thanks to Heather for the vid.

Video- Pro Public Option Med Student Pwns Glenn Beck

Perfect. As Oliver says-

He makes the case really easily in a way you never see on Fox News, and Beck ends the show… QUICK!

Cartoon of the Day

Click to enlarge, via.

Saturday Links

It's never a good idea to have nothing but chipotle bean dip for dinner...

U.S. bank failure tally hits 99 for 2009

Beer ads star 'Ho White' and dwarves

The Secret New York Minute: Trains Late by Design

Plants Recognize their Siblings

Neighbors thought dead man's body was part of Halloween display

Canadian colleges may offer biggest bang for the buck

Lessons from the Massachusetts healthcare experiment

Web surfing reduces depression in seniors

Video- President's Weekly Address: Taking the Insurance Companies on Down the Stretch

VIDEO: Same sex marriage a socialist concept? There's a rep. for that

By GottaLaff



H/t: T1

Mika Brzezinski: Pat Buchanan ‘Says What We’re All Thinking’

By GottaLaff

If Pat Buchanan said what we were all thinking, he'd say, "I quit. I will never show my face on the Tee Vee Machine again."

Via Dave Weigel, Mika thinks Pat's the bestest guestest ever:

Brzezinski jumps at the chance to name Pat Buchanan “because he says what we are all thinking.”

Then again, if Pat said what Mika had going on inside her little noggin, we'd hear this:

One step closer to 60 votes

By GottaLaff

Lieberman: Signs point to yes...

Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) says he would probably vote to bring the bill to the floor, reports The New Haven Register.

PhotOh! Rape enabler KBR's ads appear on DC Metro

By GottaLaff

Rapists and their enablers are advertising on the DC Metro now. This photo was taken by one of my Twitter pals, Rizzz:

"We're with you every step of the way!" Yesireebob.

KBR: The stellar group that made stories like this, this, this, and this possible.

This is off the rails... literally.

Here are the 30 Republican Senators Who Voted to Enable Rape

By GottaLaff

Your Daily Dose of BuzzFlash, via my buddy Mark Karlin (please also see yesterday's prequel):

Rape is a horrific crime. So is the American corporate news media, which so skews the news between entertainment and GOP hit jobs that serious public policy discussions, with real information, are largely missing from public discourse.

And the names of 30 GOP Senators who stood up for rape remain largely unknown to anyone who wasn't in the Senate chamber at the time of the vote.

Much more here.

Cindy McCain Bankrolled Conference That Called for Ban on Mercenaries

By GottaLaff

The always excellent Jeremy Scahill dug up a tidbit on J-Sid and Cindy Lou:

A little-publicized US Naval Academy conference named after Senator John McCain and bankrolled by his wealthy wife, Cindy, issued a call earlier this year for the US government to ban the use of armed private security contractors like Blackwater in US war zones, stating bluntly, “contractors should not be deployed as security guards, sentries, or even prison guards within combat areas.”

But wait! There's more!

According to the Fall 2009 newsletter, “Taking Stock,” published by the US Naval Academy’s Stockdale Center for Ethical Leadership—the host of the McCain Conference—among the speakers at the 2009 event was none other than Erik Prince, the owner of Blackwater. Prince’s company is the most infamous of those engaged in the type of armed activity explicitly condemned by the conference’s leadership.

My Xe primer, "Blackwater for Dummeez", is here. That post will tell you a little bit about who these people [sic] are.

Despite the fact that the McCain conference, which publicly advocated against the use of armed contractors in combat areas bears Sen. McCain’s name and was bankrolled by his wife, when it has come to making this a major issue on Capitol Hill, the Arizona Senator has been largely silent. [...]

The McCain campaign hired people with deep ties to the mercenary industry to work on his presidential bid. [...]

Moreover, the International Republican Institute, which has deep ties to McCain, hired Blackwater as its private security force in Iraq, paying Blackwater an average of more than $17 million a year since 2005 for security services, according to records.

Go here for the rest. Leave it to Scahill to fill us in when nobody else can... or will.

Fox Fires Liberal Analyst Marc Lamont Hill

By GottaLaff

Hill on O'Reilly's show last week:




Here's your opening Lou Dobbs. Anyone else want to defect from CNN/MSNBC? This could be your big chance:

Mediaite has confirmed Marc Lamont Hill has been fired from Fox News Channel. The liberal commentator was a regular on the network, most recently appearing as a guest on The O’Reilly Factor one week ago, according to TV Eyes. [...]

Murdoch made the announcement after a shareholder asked about Hill’s “reputation of defending cop killers and racists.”

Hill, who is also currently a professor at Columbia University, recently got into a nasty back-and-forth with conservative author David Horowitz, who called him a “an affirmative action baby.”

The Vicks VapoRub Channel strikes again.

VIDEO: President Obama at Dem fundraiser in San Francisco

By GottaLaff

President Obama speaks at a Democratic fundraiser held at the Westin St. Francis Hotel last night:

Balloon Boy was apparently more important than this speech.

H/t: muttlikemeblog

VIDEO: Noam Chomsky Compares Right-Wing Media to Nazi Germany

By GottaLaff



You can see the complete video here.

Linguist and political activist Noam Chomsky criticizes right-wing media outlets, which he describes as delivering a message of paranoia and economic populism comparable to Nazis during the Weimar Republic. "There were people with real grievances," says Chomsky. "The Nazis gave them an answer."

-----

World-renowned intellectual Noam Chomsky has been pushing change in language, politics and culture for decades. The controversial expert on modern language explains why "the smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum." - Commonwealth Club of California

Noam Chomsky, a professor of linguistics and philosophy at MIT, is the author of numerous books on U.S. foreign policy, including American Power and the New Mandarins, Political Economy of Human Rights (two volumes, written with Edward Herman), Fateful Triangle: The United States, Israel, and the Palestinians, and Pirates and Emperors, Old and New: International Terrorism in the Real World. His most recent books are Failed States and Perilous Power.

H/t: Hippie_Cyndi

D$CC Outraises NRSC in September

By GottaLaff

Don't you wish we could all rake in the bucks like this?

After outraising its Democratic counterpart for two straight months, the National Republican Senatorial Committee lagged behind the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in September by $2.7 million. [...]

“Despite the troubling economic conditions, Democrats across the country are energized and united heading into the mid-term elections, which is reflected in the continued strength of our fundraising numbers,” DSCC Executive Director J.B. Poersch said.

Mo. Men. Tum.

And while we're at it, let's replace the Conservadems with some real progressives. I'm sick and tired of our own party having to talk others (supposedly) in our own party into supporting them.

VIDEO: Grayson/PCCC deliver nearly 90,000 public option petition signatures to Harry Reid

By GottaLaff



I get e-mails. This is one of the better ones. Go Rep. Grayson (again)! And go PCCC!

---

Laffy,

Bold progressive Congressman Alan Grayson (D-FL) helped us deliver nearly 90,000 petition signatures to Sen. Harry Reid on Wednesday.

We demanded that Reid stand up to conservative Democrats who are threatening to help Republicans block an up-or-down vote on the public option. CNN, ABC, Huffington Post, Washington Post, and others covered the event.

During the delivery, we ran into Sens. Russ Feingold (D-WI), Herb Kohl (D-WI), and Kent Conrad (D-ND) and talked with them about the petition! Oddly, Kent Conrad was holding a poodle during the entire conversation -- you have to see it.

Thanks for being a bold progressive.

--Adam Green, Stephanie Taylor, Andrew Perez, Michael Snook, and the PCCC team

P.S. Many thanks to PCCC fellow Max Berger for making this video.

Indicted: Man Who Threatened To Kill Obama, Scrawl "Fed ..." On His Chest

By GottaLaff

(click to enlarge, but warning, strong language... entire document here)

TPM has a scary-as-hell story about someone who apparently considered the Census Bureau Worker "Fed" Killer a role model:

[A] California man has been indicted by a federal grand jury after allegedly writing a deranged and racist email screed that urged recipients to "kill the 'president,'" and seemed to invoke the recent death of a Census Bureau worker in an apparent act of anti-government violence.

The scoffers who ridicule those of us who find the increasing crescendo of public hate speech and threats terrifying and worthy of reporting to the Secret Service, read this indictment in full.

It's pretty obvious that acts of violence trigger more acts of violence, that hate speech can push an unstable person into committing a crime, and that we're headed in a very wrong, very worrisome direction.

This has to stop. Memo to public officials: Let Americans know that it's time to tone down the toxicity. Now.

Resisting Injustice in Guantánamo: The Story of Fayiz Al-Kandari

By GottaLaff

Fayiz al-Kandari, a Kuwaiti, still held in Guantanamo, who has maintained for nearly eight years that he is an innocent man.(Photo: International Committee of the Red Cross)

What would we do without people like Lt. Col. Barry Wingard, Jason Leopold, and Andy Worthington to tell this very important, ongoing story until somebody listens:

However, although Fouad al-Rabiah regained his innocence (if not yet his freedom, as, astonishingly, the government is considering whether to appeal Judge Kollar-Kotelly's ruling), the dark charade of Guantánamo, conceived by Dick Cheney and his close advisers, whose arrogance and disdain for the law allowed them to construct a detention policy in which it was impossible to be innocent, has not come to an end for numerous other men held in Guantánamo, and has, in fact, continued under President Obama.

Obama's motives are different, to be sure. Spooked by the inflexible opposition with which his decision to close Guantánamo and "regain America's moral stature in the world" has been received by Republican lawmakers and by members of his own party, the president and his advisers have approached Guantánamo with extreme caution.

Instead of seizing the initiative, the administration has generally been content to behave as though Bush were still in power, opposing the prisoners' habeas corpus petitions in the district courts, and letting judges expose the tortured lies, false confessions and feeble intelligence that the Bush administration passed off as evidence. [...]

Time moves slowly in the world of the habeas petitions, even though the outcome for the prisoners has generally been worth the wait. Despite the fact that Justice Department lawyers have been doing all in their power to obstruct the prisoners' defense teams, judges have ruled on 38 petitions, and in all but eight have found that the government failed to establish that the men in question were either al-Qaeda terrorists or soldiers for the Taliban. However, 185 prisoners have not had their cases heard [...]

One of these men, who has maintained his innocence throughout nearly eight years in US custody, is Fayiz al-Kandari, a 30-year-old Kuwaiti, from a wealthy family, who has always maintained that he was a humanitarian aid worker who arrived in Afghanistan in August 2001, was caught up in the chaos following the 9/11 attacks and the US-led invasion of October 2001, and was seized by Afghan forces and sold to the US military in December 2001 as he tried to cross the mountains to Pakistan. [...]

For more information about Fayiz Al-Kandari please see this report at The Political Carnival.

Please, please go read the rest here. These snippets barely scratch the surface.

*****
Lt. Col. Barry Wingard is a military attorney who represents Fayiz Al-Kandari in the Military Commission process and in no way represents the opinions of his home state. When not on active duty, Colonel Wingard is a public defender in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

All my previous posts on this subject matter can be found here; That link includes 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.

More of Fayiz's story here, at Answers.com.

Harkin: Final health care bill will have public option

By GottaLaff

Hark!-in:

Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin, the Democrat who chairs one of the Senate committees tasked with developing health care legislation, promised Friday that a health care bill will be on President Obama's desk before Christmas and will include a so-called "public option."

But is so-called Harkin saying that it will it be so-called "robust"?

"I believe we are in an irrevocable position," Harkin said on a conference call organized by the health care reform group Families USA. "The momentum is there. We will not get stopped by the obstructionists. We will have the votes."

That sounds awfully so-called promising.

Pointing to a Thursday meeting of Senate Democrats in which most members of the caucus expressed support for a government-run insurance plan, Harkin said only five members of his party are holding up progress toward a such a plan.

Those must be the so-called Conservadems.

But Harkin also said he was open to legislation that includes health care co-ops, as long as they are offered as a choice alongside a public option.

Just pass a strong public option already. Many of us are getting so-called antsy.

Kansas State. Rep. Bill Otto (R-LeRoy): “Opossum--The other Dark Meat.”

By GottaLaff

A sharp-eyed reader, mdyerstudio, grabbed a screen shot of a now-deleted YouTube of a Rushpublic state representative from Kansas. See his hat? See the blog title? Now you know why it was deleted: [UPDATE: I just went to YouTube. It says it was deleted due to copyright infringement. The link sent me to a "locked" site.]

State Rep. Bill Otto, R-LeRoy, sang his song on a YouTube video. At the end of his song, Otto points to his hand-lettered hat and says, “Opossum, the other dark meat. A little greasy, but hey ...”

Nah, that's not racist at all.

A southeast Kansas legislator on Thursday said he wasn’t making a racial reference as he sang an anti-President Obama “Redneck Rap” while wearing a hat that said: “OPOSSUM the other Dark Meat.”

State. Rep. Bill Otto, R-LeRoy, sang his song on a YouTube video.

Senate Democratic Leader Anthony Hensley of Topeka called him out, and said this was not a one-time thing:

“If Opossum is the other dark meat, what is the original dark meat he is referring to?” Hensley asked.

Hmm, thinking... thinking... who on earth could he have been talking about?

Hensley added: “After a nearly three-minute rant about President Obama and his administration, it is only logical to presume that Otto was making reference to the President’s race. It is not only thoughtless, but outrageous for an elected official such as Bill Otto to make this reference to describe any person, let alone the President of the United States."

Okay, now let me know if you've heard this one before. Otto says it's not about race. Honest it isn't! Otto said that he just didn't see how a "reasonable person could think that."

Color me unreasonable.

Here's Otto's own very logic in his own very words:

“Rednecks eat possum. The possums are associated with rednecks,” said Otto.

Much more here. Go ahead, pop over to see how not-racist Otto is.

"Die Quickly" Pay$ Off for Alan Gray$on

By GottaLaff

(via)

What took us so long? When a Congress member speaks clearly, loudly, confidently, and has the facts on his side, it pays off. Are you listening, Democrats who could take lessons?

Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) "netted $114,108 in the first day after he became a liberal sensation last month by using the House floor to deride GOP health care plans as amounting to a prescription for Americans to die quickly," reports Politico.

"The money couldn't come at a better time for Grayson, whom Republicans believe they can defeat in an Orlando-based swing district."

Mid Day Distraction

This could be very handy.

Video- Glenn Beck Gets Choked Up Talking About Common Sense and Breaking Curfews

Oh. My. God. I hope Mean Joe Green sues his ass.

Video- VP Biden on the Recovery Act

Halliburton's Profit Falls 61%

Very tasty, no wonder Big Dick is going back to the think tank trough.

Halliburton Co.'s third-quarter earnings slumped 61% as results were hurt by weakness in the North American drilling market amid the decline from last year in commodity prices.

But results exceeded Wall Street views.

Oil-services companies have been hurt by sharply lower demand, especially in the North American market, with its high vulnerability to plunging natural-gas prices.

Worker at Kansas company claims he was fired for supporting Obama

Yeah, because Democrats are so known for their lack of "humor" when it comes to voter intimidation. I'm sure we'll be hearing about this on Fox & Friends asap.

Elliot Snell believes he was fired from KK Office Solutions in Kansas City, Kan., because he voted for Barack Obama.

As evidence, in a lawsuit filed this month in Wyandotte County District Court, is an e-mail sent by the company's president and CEO, Matt Brandt.

A week before the November 2008 election, Brandt sent a "Notice to All Employees" outlining "new policies" if Obama was elected. It concluded with: "If for any reason you are not happy with the new policies, you may want to rethink your vote on November 4th."

Snell, who said he was a vocal Obama supporter, was fired two weeks after the election.

William Tretbar, Brandt's attorney, said the e-mail was a forwarded joke and "obviously a poor decision and one he already regrets."

Tretbar said the company didn't know whom Snell voted for and "given the outrageous statements in the e-mail, any reasonable reader would conclude it was an attempt at humor."

Lawrence Williamson, the attorney for Snell, said it didn't look that way to Snell.

"The company president signed his name to it," Williamson said. "You just shouldn't see something like that from a company president."

Cartoon of the Day

Click to enlarge, via.

Video- Hannity's Latest McCarthyism Smears And Distorts Obama's Muslim Advisor

Because the guy behind this is so legit. John Conyers does slap back though-

"It shouldn't need to be said in 2009, and after the historic election of our first African-American president, but let me remind all my colleagues that patriotic Americans of all races, religions, and beliefs have the right — and the responsibility — to participate in our political process, including by volunteering to work in Congressional offices," Conyers, a Michigan Democrat, said in a Thursday statement. "Numerous Muslim-American interns have served the House ably and they deserve our appreciation and respect, not attacks on their character or patriotism."

Unfortunately it does need to be said, especially with those wingnuts.

Palin’s Popularity Sinks To A New Low

Sargent strikes again. Where does he find the time in the day?

A fun nugget buried in some new Gallup numbers suggests the slow and clumsy rollout of the new Sarah Palin isn’t going all that well:

Palin became a bit of a sensation after John McCain tapped her as his running mate last August. But over the course of the campaign, her image suffered, going from a 53% favorable rating immediately after the 2008 Republican National Convention to 42% by the end of the campaign.

Palin’s ratings have not recovered, and her current 40% favorable rating is the lowest for her since she became widely known after last year’s Republican convention.

Not only is Palin at her lowest favorability yet, her unfavorability ratings have hit a high of 50%. She’s also tanking among independents: Only 41% view her favorably, versus 48% who view her unfavorably.

Video- First Lady Speaks About Service In Miami

MUST-SEE VIDEOS: Rachel Maddow destroys Tim Phillips

By GottaLaff

If you missed this, you missed the Demolition Derby of MSNBC talk.

Tim Phillips, the president of Americans for Prosperity, either underestimated the genius of Rachel Maddow, or didn't realize that if you show up ill-prepared (including mentally) on TRMS, you get pureed.

This is an exquisite lesson in worthwhile Tee Vee:

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

US House votes to allow Guantanamo transfers to US

By GottaLaff

Oh great. Now the bad guys will be wandering all over the place, playing in our back yards, escaping into our cities, spreading terrorism all over the country via those lax supermax prisons... what a mess! What could our representatives be thinking?! Hide the kids! Get out the assault weapons! Pull out the terror alert color charts!

Gaaaa!

The US House of Representatives voted Thursday to allow Guantanamo Bay detainees to be brought to US soil for trial, boosting President Barack Obama's efforts to close the notorious facility.

The green light came in a 42.7-billion-dollar 2010 spending bill for the US Department of Homeland Security, which cleared the House by a 307-114 margin, setting the stage for a political battle in the Senate.

VIDEO: 4th-Grader To Obama: Why Do People Hate You?

By GottaLaff

(Sorry for the double video... I can't seem to get around that)

Via TPM:

It took an astute fourth-grader to have the courage to ask that question right out loud in front of the whole wide world.

Had this been at a Rushpublic town hall meeting, or some corporate astroturfy tea tantrum event, the poor kid would have been assaulted with nasty, vicious words, and quite possibly, with lethal weapons.

Good thing it was a friendly crowd of fellow Marxists.

Rep. Weiner: Sen. Chuck Grassley's pulling it out of his... Gr-ass-ley.

By GottaLaff

"A lot of my Democratic friends" are the problem with health care reform, said Rep. Anthony Weiner to Keith Olbermann just now on Countdown.

"I just don't get it, and soon Americans will weigh in... I'm glad Nancy Pelosi is hanging in there the way she is."

Me-oh-my! He just said Chuck Grassley is pulling stuff out of his... (he instructed us to fill in the blank).

Oh, yes he did.

I heart Anthony Weiner.

New Study: Teabaggers Out Of Touch

By GottaLaff

Has there ever been a more obvious blog title than that? HuffPo has the scoop:

From the press release:

Washington, DC. October 15, 2009. On Friday afternoon, Democracy Corps will be releasing a controversial, comprehensive report on focus groups conducted last month among conservative Republican base voters in suburban Atlanta, with parallel groups conducted among blue collar independents in suburban Cleveland. [...]

The study explored the relevance of the 'race issue' among these voters and revealed they're not just critical of President Obama, but worried he is deliberately trying to deceive the American public in order to advance a secret socialist agenda. The study also explored a variety of recently media-covered including TEA parties, as well as surprising findings about how the conservative Republican base views their own party officials, the Republican Party, and conservative media pundits like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh. These voters have a strong self-identity, are critical of the Republican Party, and share few views with the 'Macomb-County-like' swing voters in the middle.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/15/teabaggers-targeted-by-ca_n_322451.html

Why would anyone ever think these people are out of touch?

H/t: Ellen