January 2010
Obama Visits The Republicans VIDEO
via andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com “Barack Obama is a lot smarter and better-informed than his antagonists. A lot. He very calmly and coolly dismantled them.” - Matthew Yglesias Obama’s bipartisanship highlights the difference between disagreement and obstruction. With cameras rolling, this kind of transparency is not a friend of the GOP. Fox News cut away before the event...
Tactics Over Strategy
Larison, as always, is worth reading: Republicans have been treating temporary, tactical political victories as if they were far more significant, strategic victories, when, in fact, they have no political strategy worth mentioning. This is how many Republican hawks have approached problems in Iraq and Afghanistan. Especially in Iraq, the strategy has always been unclear, unrealistic or...
Pay-As-You-Go Voted "No" By All 40 Republicans
PAYGO…. In case we needed additional evidence that bipartisanship is pretty much impossible, we got some yesterday. The Senate took a vote on extending the federal debt ceiling — without which the United States would go into default. All 40 Republicans voted no. The Senate took a vote on requiring Congress not to pass legislation that it can’t pay for. All 40...
Anatomy Of A News Segment
via andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com Charlie Booker on Newswipe on BBC4 in the UK. He breaks down the inanity of the typical “news” segment. Spot on. Posted via web from liberalsarecool.com | Comment »
GDP Report: Economy Grew By 5.7 Percent During...
The Commerce Department said GDP grew at an annual rate of 5.7 percent during the fourth quarter, easily topping economists’ forecast of 4.5 percent. via huffingtonpost.com How will Republicans and Fox spin this news? With the economy getting richer with fewer workers, now is the time to add that Jobs Bill and get things moving forward. The private sector can’t do this alone. ...
Judge Alito: How Partisan Can You Get?
via salon.com His right-wing mask off. Alas, the politicized and intemperate Republican stands before you. Sober judicial reasoning or apolitical restraint were never there, it’s just sad when you see out in the open. “There’s a reason that Supreme Court Justices — along with the Joint Chiefs of Staff — never applaud or otherwise express any reaction at a State of...
James O'Keefe, The Face Of "Conservative...
via mediamatters.org Once the pride of Fox News, now, not so much. Conservatives have zero respect for Democrats in office. The general Teabagging “real Americans” meme, the “you Lie” bullshit screamed at the President. The off-handed comments routinely used at Fox. You play to your crowd A little objectivity and you get in trouble. You think you’re above civility...
"We Don't Quit. I Don't Quit"
via andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com ’s balls have officially dropped. Posted via web from liberalsarecool.com | Comment »
Barack Obama Nuggets From The State Of The Union
On the typical response from the Right: “If we just make fewer investments in our people, extend tax cuts including those for the wealthier Americans, eliminate more regulations, maintain the status quo on health care, that our deficits will go away. The problem is, that is what we did for eight years” On the tone in Washington: “Just saying no to everything may...
Schadenfreude Alert: ACORN Gotcha Man Arrested
Alleging a plot to tamper with phones in Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu’s office in the Hale Boggs Federal Building in downtown New Orleans, the FBI arrested four people Monday, including James O’Keefe, 25, a conservative filmmaker whose undercover videos at ACORN field offices severely damaged the advocacy group’s credibility. via nola.com Live by the new media scandal, die...
The Five Worst Words: "I Work For Pat Robertson"
via farleftside.com Promise everlasting love, deliver nothing. Posted via web from liberalsarecool.com | Comment »
Republican Attack Politics: You Can Count On It
Democrats can be assured that Republicans will attack them, regardless of what they do. Democrats could eliminate the estate tax permanently, slash the capital gains tax, repeal the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts, invade Iran, and pass a Constitutional Amendment outlawing abortion, and Republicans would still attack them — with exactly the same vehemence and vigor that Republicans have...
Conan O'Brien's Life Rule
via thehighdefinite.com Don’t let cynicism get the best of you. Posted via web from liberalsarecool.com | Comment »
Fox News Blows Off Haiti Benefit Concert
“Hope for Haiti Now” will air across ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, CNN, BET, The CW, HBO, MTV, VH1, CMT, PBS, TNT, Showtime, Comedy Central, Bravo, E! Entertainment, National Geographic Channel, Oxygen, G4, CENTRIC, Current TV, Fuse, MLB Network, EPIX, Palladia, SoapNet, Style, Discovery Health, Planet Green, CNN en Español, HBO Latino and Canadian networks, including CBC Television, CTV,...
President Obama Blasts Supreme Court
http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/modules/wh_multimedia/wh_jwplayer/plugins/hat/hat,http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/modules/wh_multimedia/wh_jwplayer/plugins/share/share,http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/modules/wh_multimedia/wh_jwplayer/plugins/captions/captions&captions.file=http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/av_closedcaption/01232010_Weekly_Address.srt”...
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Getting It Done: The Year In Obama-Led Health Care...
via tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com “We’re going to get this done” - President Barack Obama Posted via web from liberalsarecool.com | Comment »
Barry's First Year
via whitehouse.gov Still the man. Posted via web from liberalsarecool.com | Comment »
New Banksy: Forgive Us Our Tresspassing
via thehighdefinite.com Spotted in Salt Lake City, Utah. Posted via web from liberalsarecool.com | Comment »
Obama And The banks: Glass-Steagall Lite
IT IS a fair bet that one of Barack Obama’s new-year’s resolutions was to rattle Wall Street. A week after hitting America’s largest financial firms with a “responsibility” fee, to recoup up to $120 billion in bail-out losses, on Thursday January 21st the president proposed dramatic new curbs on their activities. Keen to show progress in at least one part of his agenda, especially after an...
Why Do People Take Political Jobs?
Political jobs would be torture for most people. You have no freedom. You are underpaid and over-bugged. You lose a lot of your privacy. You have to stop writing emails or saying what you think. You don’t get to read many good books or go for many quiet walks. It’s hard to be a non-conformist. And so on. Yet it’s really hard to get top political jobs. So who gets...
Corporations Are Not People
You can’t get jury duty. You can’t get drafted. Even people have limits to how much they donate to a candidate. It’s time we rethink how corporations have effected society. I know it has allowed a lot of wealth to be created, but when it can be used to change elections so drastically, it’s not a good thing. I’ve really not heard any goods news about this...
Political math: 37 > 63
So in reality, what’s the population balance? Counting the new Republican Senator Scott Brown from Massachusetts, the 41 Republicans in the Senate come from states representing just over 36.5 percent of the total US population. The 59 others (Democratic plus 2 Independent) represent just under 63.5 percent. (Taking 2009 state populations from here. If you count up the totals and split a...
Supreme Court Rolls Back Campaign Finance...
The Supreme Court majority has acted recklessly to free up corporations to use their immense, aggregate corporate wealth to flood federal elections and buy government influence. The Fortune 100 companies alone had combined revenues of $13 trillion and profits of $605 billion during the last election cycle,” Wertheimer wrote. via huffingtonpost.com This sums up my initial feelings: Sen....
Obama: Massachusetts’ Anger
PRESIDENT OBAMA: “Here’s my assessment of not just the vote in Massachusetts, but the mood around the country. The same thing that swept Scott Brown into office swept me into office. People are angry, and they’re frustrated. Not just because of what’s happened in the last year or two years, but what’s happened over the last eight...
Glenn Beck On Scott Brown: 'End With A Dead...
I want a chastity belt on this man. I want his every move watched in Washington. I don’t trust this guy. This one could end with a dead intern. I’m just saying. It could end with a dead intern.via huffingtonpost.com Dead interns never stopped Joe Scarborough [R-FL], sort of slowed down Gary Condit [R-CA]. Stay classy, Glenn. Posted via web from liberalsarecool.com...
Can Threats and Living in a State of Anxiety Push...
“Conservative ideas, like support for the status quo and justifications for inequality, can make the world seem like a more secure place for those who don’t like uncertainty. Over the past year, a conservative right-wing movement has found a loud political voice in the United States. Strongly anti-government, the movement seems largely oriented around a message that anything the...
A Silver Lining, No More Joe
via dailykos.com Now we can get back to work. Posted via web from liberalsarecool.com | Comment »
59 Votes: No More Cover For Stale Opposition
Yeah, it sucks that we lost our 60th vote, but really, what did 60 get us last year? It empowered Joe Lieberman, gave cover to Blanche Lincoln, provided excuses to Harry Reid, and gave a free pass to Max Baucus. Now we don’t have 60. And like the Republican Senate of the 2000s, if Democrats want to get anything done, they’ll have to do it via reconciliation. Given last...
Beneath The Faux Anger, The Reality
“The current versions of health reform are the product of decades of debate between Republicans and Democrats. The bills are more conservative than Bill Clinton’s 1993 proposal. For that matter, they’re more conservative than Richard Nixon’s 1971 plan, which would have had the federal government provide insurance to people who didn’t get it through their job.via...
Biden On Filibuster: ‘No Democracy Has Survived...
Biden criticizes use of filibuster: ‘No democracy has survived needing a supermajority.’ Speaking at a fundraiser this Sunday, Vice President Biden warned that the Senate minority’s routine use of the filibuster to obstruct the majority’s agenda is both unprecedented and dangerous: “As long as I have served, … I’ve never seen, as my uncle once said, the constitution stood on its...
Holding Up Appointees, The Reckless GOP Mindset
“One year into the Bush administration, there were 70 appointees awaiting confirmation. One year into the Obama administration, there are 177. And dozens of those holds are directly affecting the agencies responsible for the United States’ security and foreign policy, amid two wars and an amped-up terrorism threat.”via washingtonmonthly.com President Obama’s nominee to...
Lawrence O'Donnell: Will Scott Brown Ruin...
It is now a given that if he wins a Massachusetts Senate seat on Tuesday, Scott Brown will destroy the Democrats’ plan to pass health care reform. But he will also destroy the Republicans’ not-so-secret plan to pass health care reform. In Washington, where everyone is desperate to know what’s happening behind closed doors, all you have to do to keep...
The Guantánamo “Suicides”: A Camp Delta Sergeant...
Archive > 2010 > Jan · FebJanuary 18, 9:00 AM, 2010 · No Comment · Previous · Next The Guantánamo “Suicides”: A Camp Delta sergeant blows the whistle By Scott Horton This is the full text of an exclusive advance feature by Scott Horton that will appear in the March 2010 Harper’s Magazine. The issue will be available on newsstands the week of February...
The Un-Cheney
GREGORY: In some circles, the President’s been criticized for politicizing this disaster. Do you think that’s fair? BUSH: I don’t know what they’re talking about. I’ve been briefed by the President about the response. And as I said in my opening comment, I appreciate the President’s quick response to this disaster. via andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com If only Bush did not have Cheney as VP,...
Stiglitz: "Materialism Overwhelms Moral...
We have created a society in which materialism overwhelms moral commitment, in which the rapid growth that we have achieved is not sustainable environmentally or socially, in which we do not act together to address our common needs. — Joseph Stiglitz via realitychex.com It’s the divide and conquer mentality of politics. We were taught well by the British. Posted via web ...
Frank Rich: The Great Tea Party Rip-Off
Last week a prominent right-wing blogger, Erick Erickson of RedState.com, finally figured out that the Tea Party Convention “smells scammy,” likening it to one of those Nigerian e-mails promising untold millions. Such rumbling about the movement’s being co-opted by hucksters may explain why Palin used her first paid appearance at Fox last Tuesday to tell Bill O’Reilly that she would recycle her...
Bible Possibly Written Centuries Earlier,...
Scientists have discovered the earliest known Hebrew writing — an inscription dating from the 10th century B.C., during the period of King David’s reign. The breakthrough could mean that portions of the Bible were written centuries earlier than previously thought. (The Bible’s Old Testament is thought to have been first written down in an ancient form of Hebrew.) ...
FBI's Digitally-Enhanced Images Of How Osama Bin...
via huffingtonpost.com Looks a little like an aged, puffy Jeff Goldblum. Posted via web from liberalsarecool.com | Comment »
FT.com - Obama Is Right To Tax Wall Street
The American public dreams of putting bankers on trial. The hearings of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, which started this week, are a spectacle that comes close to that fantasy. With camera flashes firing, the bankers’ journeys to take the stand have had the drama of the “perp walk”. The quasi-defendants were quizzed, among other things, on the White House’s new plan, revealed this...
Obama Weekly Address Slams Banks For Selfishness:...
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Tiger Woods Ad FAIL
via realitychex.com You lose a front tooth and get smacked in the head with a golf club. Right? Posted via web from liberalsarecool.com | Comment »
"Pants On The Ground" Jimmy Fallon's Spot On Neil...
via huffingtonpost.com Posted via web from liberalsarecool.com | Comment »
Liz Cheney And The Problem Of Nepotism
The problem with Ms Cheney is not inexperience, but family connections. Her appointment to powerful State Department positions, like her husband Philip Perry’s appointment as general counsel of the Department of Homeland Security, was part of a self-reinforcing habit of nepotism and insularity that plagued George W Bush’s administration. Mr Cheney famously appointed supremely loyal...
Morning Joe Rips Limbaugh: ‘Deplorable,’...
via thinkprogress.org Rush Limbaugh is a known commodity. He rewards his limited-intellect, white, aging followers with daily nuggets of hate and small-minded politics. Rush, and conservatives in general, have no interest in solving problems, they just want power. They have decided who is entitled to the good life, and Rush and Co believe anything that takes away from white entitlement is...
Haitian Ambassador Raymond Joseph Responds To...
via huffingtonpost.com Instead of making up devil stories like Pat Robertson, Raymond Joseph uses actual history. He argued that the Haitian slave revolt allowed the United States to make the Louisiana Purchase for just $15 million, and that it allowed Simon Bolivar to “deliver Gran Colombia and the rest of South America.” “What pact the Haitians made with the devil has...
Pat Robertson Cites Haiti’s "Pact To The Devil’
via thinkprogress.org Pat Robertson on his 700 Club: ROBERTSON: [S]omething happened a long time ago in Haiti and people might not want to talk about it. They were under the heel of the French. Napoleon the Third and whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, “We will serve you if you get us free from the prince.” True story. And so the devil said, “OK, it’s a...
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American Red Cross: Donate Now
Check out this website I found at american.redcross.org Also, per instructions from the White House, you can donate $10 to the Red Cross by texting “HAITI” to 90999. Posted via web from liberalsarecool.com | Comment »
Customers Who Bought Communion Wafers Also...
via buzzfeed.com I’ll take 1000 communion wafers and some Astroglide? Nothing like getting outed by Amazon. Posted via web from liberalsarecool.com | Comment »
Haiti Earthquake - Video From The Epicenter
via youtube.com I am waiting for the religious leeches to come out and tell these people to repent after losing everything. Maybe Haiti will get an existentialist movement going? Posted via web from liberalsarecool.com | Comment »
How Recession Reshaped the Job Market
via s.wsj.net A breakdown of jobs that were lost and are not coming back. Posted via web from liberalsarecool.com | Comment »