I Hope You're Happy

Doing a little article housecleaning here, and the holidays are keeping me very busy.  Whatever your holidays, have a celebration this year, and let’s make this thing better next year, OK? Oh, and can we vote out Lieberman now instead of 2012? That’s my Christmas wish.

Speaking of which, here he is confused as to what party to run with in 2012

Um, the Aetna Lobby party? Oh, no wait, the satanist party?

Living the stereotype

White supremacist wanted for murder in Texas, nickname is Bubba, drives a pickup, Nazi tattoos, Republican party sticker in the window. You can’t write it any better than this folks.

White house changes F-22 at press conference with F-15

Well, since the F-22 is such an engineering failure, I can hardly blame them.

Pranksters use GOP URL shortener for mischief, bring down the site

So the GOP has GOP.am as a device to share links between followers. More savvy members of the public at large used it to link to porn sites and liberal sites, and the GOP had to take it down less than 24 hours after it launched. Good work, everyone. If you want to put some of these articles through that and spread it to the Republican end of the spectrum, feel free.

Republican Filibuster use this year is unprecedented

They’ve used the F-word on every major piece of legislation. Hm, “party of no” anyone? I’ll be highlighting this idea a bit more in the new year, I think.

Orrin Hatch: Republican Standard operating procedure under Bush was to no pay for things

Hence the GOP belief that the deficit doesn’t matter, except when the Democrats are in office. Hypocrisy and political credibility don’t go well together, my friends.

When pressed, they can’t even admit to their hypocrisy

Just the usual talk around and blather.

Blackwater founder was a CIA operative?

I’m not sure this ever actually played out, but I’m not surprised. The line between Blackwater and CIA did blur greatly as the war in Iraq wore on, and it played a nice trick by renaming itself Z industries, making it practically impossible to track in defense spending reports.

Just goes to show, don’t rely on God for anything

GOP Prayer leader believes gays are possessed by demons, really

Author of “Cure the Gays” B.S. gets a tongue lashing on Rachel Maddow

Worth the view.

Minnesota could lose a congressional seat in census

Hm, if only the redistriciting could cost Michele Bachmann her seat, our long national embarrassment would be over.

Al Franken beginning to use his satirical side in the Senate

My question is, if our politicians are the best at what they do, successful in such a large national intellectual sport as politics, why can’t they match wits with a comedian with no training in doing this? The flip side, of course, is can Franken control his tongue enough to be able to do business in Washington? This will get interesting.

What? TARP Profits at $16bn so far?

Well, until it’s all repaid, there isn’t really a profit in my book, but this is looking a bit better than we had hoped. There is a light at the end of the tunnel. and it isn’t a freight train.

The al Qaeda leader behind the underoo bomber was released by the U.S. from Gitmo in November 2007.

Thanks, for keeping us safe, George!

Illinois Republican Senate Primary challenger runs ad claiming opponent is gay

Keep it classy guys. Really, isn’t this the slum of elections? The Republicans in my home state of Illinois (motto: Politics, we like ours dirty) are resorting to dirty tactics early.

Karl Rove granted a divorce

I think we should demand proof he was married in the first place.

2,000 years on, an impoverished itinerant preacher has been made into a rich man

And just a little more perversion to that fun institution we call religion. I can’t wait until somebody comes up with a ministry of the rich Buddha.

The world is ending in 2011 if you’re a Christian who makes shit up about the bible

AIG’s emails as the company crashed and burned

And an exec at AIG quit over pay limits

To be fair, she handled HR, Corporate Communications and the like, not SubPrime loans. I’d rather she got paid a comparably fair wage, and the morons who got us into this got paid even less than the Federally mandated maximum.

Iraq

Obama hints at Iraq/Al Qaeda link

Hard to deny since we did a lot of leading them there.

Afghanistan

Karl Rove says Obama can win in Afghanistan

It’s a nice thought, but Rove doesn’t exactly have a great track record in being right, if you know what I mean. Didn’t he also say Iraq would be a breeze?

Gen. McChrystle: Hey, how about we go for Bin Laden?

Yes, that would be a welcome change to the war strategies of the last 8 years.

Switching Sides

Why Little Green Footballs is leaving the Republicans behind

Charles Johnson doesn’t like being associated with conspiracy theory wingnuts and haters, for some reason.

Andrew Sullivan in rather more words and eloquence

Maine politician leaves GOP over Health Care Reform

Maine State Rep. Jim Campbell leaves his party because his party left him behind.

Parker Griffith, Democrat from Alabama switches to Republicans because of Pelosi

He’s fed up with the deficit spending, but he specifically named Pelosi.

Anti-socialist Michele Bachmann took $250K in Federal farming subsidies.

Fun with Climate Change

Al Gore can’t get the facts straight

While I admire his dedication to the political aspects of this, because of the position he has put himself in, he needs to have bulletproof facts.  Otherwise, he opens himself to mockery.

Another

Proof he’s going to get pushed harder than anyone else on this.

James Inhofe: Climate change denier denied

As theatrically as a Republican with his panties in a bunch, he flies to Copenhagen to give an interview to one reporter. Message received, Jim.

DOE: Windfarms don’t hurt property values

So what else you got? And don’t give me any Wind Turbine Syndrome Bullshit.

Skepticism is not the bane of science, despite what the press will tell you

This is a major story that many lay people who oppose many issues are trying to create. Don’t believe any of it. Science likes skepticism. It’s just a shame the American education doesn’t teach the scientific method well enough for people to get it.

Diane Feinstein wants to kill 13 solar and wind power projects to protect Mojave Desert

Yet another reason not to like her. There’s no reason why we can’t build an ecologically sensitive green energy plant, figure it out.

Iran

Note to Obama: the diplomacy didn’t work

Iranian document says they tested a bomb component. They’re using the North Korean school of diplomacy where they pretend to give a concession then stall and never do. How much line will we give them before we try something else?

Revolution is imminent

Opposition forces taking control of police weapons and vehicles.

Fox News: Give me a poorly forged Iran nuclear document and I’ll give you a war

You guessed it, that document proving Iran is making warhead components was a fake.

Ayatollah Kadivar is putting his money on revolution because the people know the government is Bullshit

Republicans take note.

Alan Grayson

Well, somebody had to tell Cheney to STFU

Not too into this one Alan. This is America and we have free speech

The unfunny Palin

Media guidelines for a Palin book tour appearance

No foreign journalists, no taping, no interviews. Maybe the Canadian chick got to her.

Going birther

Leave no lunatic stone unturned.

She got an award! Biggest lie of the year

Death panels wins her the honor.

Blogger on her banned list

And he’s rightfully proud. I would be, too.

The logic is perfect

Bachmann: A year ago, 100% of the private economy was private

Um, yes, it sure was.

Lou Dobbs: NOW I’m for Amnesty for illegal immigrants

Hm, I’m smelling a sellout to an election demographic that isn’t going to vote for him anyway.

Fox News: We know this is a lie, so we no longer will officially follow our official no tolerance truth policy

Apparently rules and journalistic ethics are only for amateurs.

Another Republican politician can’t accept modern societal sensitivity

The quote was, “Really, your son is a homo?” This continued insensitivity to those who aren’t “like them” further distances the Republicans from modern reality. This time it was Mecklenburg County South Carolina commissioner Bill James.

Republicans in Indiana are kicking out people who aren’t conservative enough

Yeah, that makes perfect sense, kick out the majority middle folks. I like the quote that people are inherently conservative. That’s a pretty big assumption, there buddy, and what do you have to back that statement up? Huh buddy? People aren’t inherently anything, there’s no conservative political gene, and this assumption is part of what is wrong with the Republican party, too much assuming they are right, and not enough actually going out and finding out if they are.

To start things off, I have a new proposal. I won’t say all of Congress, but all those who vote for whatever plan comes out of Congress must take it. If a plan fails to pass, ALL members of congress should be forced to do without.

From the Facts and Figures Dept.

Now, that being said, here’s the best thing I have heard said about the health care debate by a Congressman, and it happens to come from Al Franken. For an Ultra-Liberal, he’s very middle of the road and practical here (and way better than Norm Coleman).

Obama may drop public option

Word is that the public option is so sticky, Obama may drop it.

Then again, maybe Obama is ready to take the wheel on this monster truck

Well, then, finally change we can believe in.

Does Preventive medicine really make savings?

In this article, no.

Excellent Bill Moyer editorial about the whole debate

It’s hard to argue with the coverage on this

The rates of denial of claims on various insurance plans

I won’t usually link to DailyKos, but this is fairly free of bias and the figures are all quotes. Feel free to visit this page without being a Democrat.

Claims denial rates by leading California insurers, first six months of 2009:

• PacifiCare — 39.6 percent 
• Cigna — 32.7 percent 
• HealthNet — 30 percent 
• Kaiser Permanente — 28.3 percent 
• Blue Cross — 27.9 percent 
• Aetna — 6.4 percent

Democrat Hoyer on voting for the bill

No tax hikes, fully paid for or no vote from me. That sounds fair to me, really.

Meet the opposition

Rep. Jenkins of Kansas (who hasn’t read the bills) laughs at a single uninsured mother

Ok, now this is just cold.

How We’re Blowing it

Medicare pays four times the value to rent a motorized wheelchair than to buy it

Come on guys, what are you getting these at Rent-a-Center?

Religion was very interesting in this election cycle, and it gets more interesting every campaign year. Obama had Reverend Wright, McCain had ultra-conservatives that were intolerant bastards. Mitt Romney had the unquantifiable Mormon thing. All of this was an issue because their religion wasn’t acceptable to a voter demographic. The candidate wasn’t one of “them”, whoever the “them” happened to be. And don’t even try to get into politics if you’re an atheist. You obviously have no morals. So here’s my topic, and it is an open debate. Is religion becoming such a polarizing force that it is now a liability? Would it be better to not disclose your beliefs and let voters decide based on track record alone whether you uphold their principles?

Let’s look at some basic points of history. Religion has always been important to the American voter. No way around that. In the past, we were also much more conservative than we are now. And yet, the religious backgrounds of our previous presidents have been varied within the Christian spectrum. I think Jefferson was atheist or agnostic, but that was also back in a period of high public acceptance of atheism. The anti-atheist movement hadn’t kicked in yet, though there were certainly similarly conservative forces at work. The smear campaigns were also much more bitter, directed at the morals of a candidate. But at the same time, having a Christian affiliation essentially qualified a person for being, well, Christian. There were some reservations between the sects, but at the national level, some brand of Chrsitianity was good enough for most people.

Now things are different. Christians are divided on what the right brand of Christianity is, and the most vocal at the moment, the conservative sects, are very intolerant of any interpretation of the divine that isn’t their own.

So here’s the question: how much is faith now dividing voters, and how much is it now a liability to a candidate?

Continue reading

McCain said he wouldn’t go after Wright in Pennsylvania, the same low-lifes that brought out the Nazi card. Apparently the rest of the Republican party decided to follow his wishes, at least until the day before the election. Looks like they’re going all Mavericky on McCain. From the Boston Globe.

Here’s the link: http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/11/04/ad_blitz_links_obama_wright/

Here’s the key bits of the story:

Pennsylvania Republicans and an independent group called the National Republican Trust have blitzed the television airwaves in recent days with ads that link Barack Obama with his controversial former pastor, the Reverend Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., in a last-minute effort to turn voters against the Democratic presidential nominee.

Both ads show Wright making inflammatory statements such as “Not God bless America, God damn America!” and calling the country the “US of KKKA.” Obama was once close to Wright, considering him a spiritual mentor and the man who brought him to embrace Christianity, but Obama broke off the relationship in April after Wright continued making controversial statements. Obama condemned Wright’s words as “appalling.”

[...]

But Porritt said McCain would not try to stop the Pennsylvania GOP and the National Republican Trust political action committee from airing the Wright ads, saying McCain “is not going to be the traffic cop for every independent organization, state party, or state-level candidate that chooses to use these in advertising.”

The National Republican Trust has made enormous advertising buys to put the ad on several national television networks in the final days of the campaign. The group spent $1.2 million on Thursday and $2.5 million more on Friday.

Desperation brings out some interesting character traits, doesn’t it?