Lawrence O'Donnell Rips into Liz Cheney For Dover AFB Criticism

From Crooks & Liars:

Lawrence O'Donnell tears into Liz Cheney for her remarks criticizing President Obama for his visit to Dover AFB. Liz Cheney lies again. Chip off the old block.

O'DONNELL: When President Obama honored our Afghanistan war dead by taking part in a military ritual at Dover Air Force Base yesterday, it was easily predictable that a Republican would criticize him for it. And in our fourth story on the Countdown, the former Vice President's pet attack dog, his daughter Liz Cheney, has now done just that. And once again, she wasn't going to let the facts get in the way.

On the John Gibson radio show yesterday, Ms. Cheney was rehashing her father's fact-free critique of President Obama's war in Afghanistan, and then Mr. Gibson asked her about the President's appearance at Dover Air Force Base.

LIZ CHENEY (RADIO AUDIO): I don't know why he went to Dover. I mean, I think that clearly it is very important for a commander-in-chief, whenever he can in whatever way it possible, to pay tribute to our fallen soldiers, our fallen military folks. But, I think, you know, what President Bush used to do was to it without the cameras, and I don't understand sort of showing up with the White House Press Pool with photographers and asking the family if you can take pictures. I just... that's really hard for me to get my head around—I think it's an honorable and important thing for us to pay tribute. There's no greater sacrifice people make to the nation. But, it was a surprising way for the President to choose to do it.

O'DONNELL: As we mentioned yesterday, President Bush never went to Dover Air Force Base to honor dead American soldiers on their final journey. And Vice President Cheney... never did either.

Hey Liz, have you ever lost a relative in battle? I have. My cousin Johnny, West Point graduate like his father before him. I wish the President or the Vice President had met his casket on the way home.

You know what 'never' means, Liz? It means zero. It means that in over seven years of two wars, your dad never left the comfort of his White House office or the Vice President's mansion and got himself up to Dover to bear witness to how his warmongering fell on families of dead American soldiers. Never, not once.

Liz, don't let your dad do this to you. Don't let him parade you onto the stage to defend the indefensible. Let him suffer the full weight of the shame that we know he must feel when he watches Barack Obama do what he never had the decency to do.

President Bush did meet with grieving military families in private, and he went to military hospitals to visit the wounded. As for Ms. Cheney's reference to cameras, the policy of banning media coverage of coffins continued unaltered throughout the Bush administration. Thus, even families that wanted media coverage of their loved one's ceremony were not given any choice in the matter.

Furthermore, President Obama did not make any special requests to any of yesterday's eighteen families as Ms. Cheney implies, I mean lies. The vast majority of those families had already made their individual decisions about media coverage under the current policy before the notification that President Obama would be part of the ceremony.

As for Dick Cheney, when he was Vice President, he sometimes met with the war wounded, but like President Bush, he never went to Dover, either. Never.

And a reminder, Mr. Cheney successfully sought out five deferments from the draft to avoid having to serve his country in the Vietnam War. Mr. Cheney's fifth and final deferment a result of his wife's becoming pregnant with Liz. Mr. Cheney was granted a 3A status, the hardship exemption by his draft board, which was available to men with children at that time.

h/t Hissyspit for the transcript.

Conspicuously absent

Thanks to Atheist Cartoons.

Florida broomsticks agin' a public option

[Broomstick = a human being with the brains of a broomstick]


Florida is full of aged broomsticks who have lost whatever mental acuity they had and now follow FAUX News and the corporatists like pigs to the slaughter, voting against their own best interests. It's really quite an amazing sight.

McClatchy reports on a Miami Herald/St. Petersburg Times/Bay News 9 poll which indicates that 47 percent of Florida voters are agin' a "public option." A mere 40 percent a government-run insurance plan.

The only place in the state where a majority favor a public option is the Southeast corridor, where 54 percent would vote for a public option.

One semi-retired guy who's lived in Florida for 23 years provides a "perfect" example of a broomstick. He don't want no public option. "We've got enough welfare going on in this country. All this is, is another type of welfare."

Hmmm. Seems that his so-called "welfare" has to do with things that actually help people. He doesn't seem too concerned about the REAL welfare programs that hand out billions and billions to rich people and banks and savings and loan companies, and Wall Street bilkers.

Another broomstick, an Air Force veteran (as if that has anything to do with anything) thinks that Medicaid and Medicare (two of the most successful government programs ever!) are failing!


Well, whaddya gonna do? These are the people who elected the Bushes to office, and support wars to beat up other countries for their oil, and don't believe in Global Warming and think Glenn Beck is just the smartest man evah!

Will the Dems finally dump Lieberman

The sleazebag, Joe Lieberman has done it again. Unstripped of his committee chairmanship after stabbing the Dems in the back in the 2008 election, the so-called Independent continues to go on his errant ways, unrepentant and unremittingly stupid.

Joe warns his "friends" he's going to join a Republican filibuster of any healthcare reform bill that contains a public option.

But that's only part of his deviant nastiness. He also plans to campaign for some (unnamed) Repugnicans running for Congress in 2010. Exercising his crooked, slimy grin, he claims to want the "better choice," even if it is a Repugnican.


Enough already. It's time the Democrats lowered the boom on this traitor to the cause of liberal democracy!

A wingnut tells of Halloween dangers

[Image from Charisma Magazine]


Kimberly Daniels is a christianist wingnut who "ministers" to folks "involved in the occult."

She doesn't much like Halloween 'cause it's all about the demonic and devils and stuff. It's not a "holy" day and but is "consecrated and set apart" for Lucifer!

"Who the hell is Lucifer?" you ask. Well, "Lucifer is part of the demonic godhead. Remember, everything God has, the devil has a counterfeit. Halloween is a counterfeit holy day that is dedicated to celebrating the demonic trinity of : the Luciferian Spirit (the false father); the Antichrist Spirit (the false holy spirit); and the Spirit of Bestial (the false son)."

I'll bet you didn't know that!

What makes Halloween really bad is that it is an "accursed season. During Halloween, time-released curses are always loosed. A time-released curse is a period that has been set aside to release demonic activity and to ensnare souls in great measure."

Wow! Isn't that amazing. I wonder how she knows this?

So you better be careful, because "During this period demons are assigned against those who participate in the rituals and festivities. These demons are automatically drawn to the fetishes that open doors for them to come into the lives of human beings. For example, most of the candy sold during this season has been dedicated and prayed over by witches." (My emphasis)

That's true, and Daniels knows all about it! She's really something! So she doesn't buy candy during the Halloween season. "Curses are send through the tricks and treats of the innocent ... " and it doesn't matter where the candy was purchased. The demons are pretty tricky, themselves!

But here's the most terrible thing about Halloween:

"The danger of Halloween," says wingnut Daniels, "is not in the scary things we see but in the secret, wicket, cruel activities that go on behind the scenes. These activities include:

"Sex with demons
"Orgies between animals and humans
"Animal and human sacrifices
"Sacrificing babies to shed innocent blood
"Rape and molestation of adults, children and babies
"Revel nights
"Conjuring of demons and casting of spells
"Release of 'time-released' curses against the innocent and ignorant."


Ms. Wingnut Daniels has more to say, but it is all so goddamn stupid and idiotic and moronic that I'll let you read it for yourself if you wish.

And guess where she's from? Yup. Florida! She and her husband "pastor" Spoken Word Ministries, a church in Jacksonville.

Why anyone would listen to anything this fruitcake has to say is beyond me. But, then, there are a lot of broomsticks out there. Especially in Florida!


The entire article is here.

South Carolina Repugnican snagged

From Crooks & Liars:

Rick Sanchez reports on another Republican sex scandal coming out of South Carolina. Gotta' love that party of "family values".

SANCHEZ: Hey, Roge, let's see how good a move we can make over to the Twitter board real quick, because a lot of people are commenting on this. There it is. Start from the bottom if we can.

Hug bug, "What is in the water in South Carolina?" Now, let's go just above that, where it says, "Another politician with a sex scandal, that is so common nowadays and they're supposed to be role models? Ha!"

We get what you're saying, folks

Let's talk about that. Just last week, I asked this question, what's up with South Carolina Republicans? Beginning with Mark Sanford, the famously wayward governor, why can't they seem to be staying out of trouble these days? There's Governor Sanford, there's Congressman Joe "Big Scream You Lie" Wilson. We just had two county chairmen who essentially said juices are good with money.

And as if on cue now, we have Roland Corning. Who is Roland Corning, you ask? He's a former state legislator, and as of now, his latest performance, former assistant attorney general. Why?

Get this -- a police report obtained by the "Associated Press" is saying that Corning was questioned by an officer after speeding away from a cemetery with a stripper in his car, and with a bag of sex toys. And with some Viagra, Corning, I should tell you, is 66 years old. According to the police: the stripper, 18 years old. She works, by the way, at an establishment known as the Platinum Gentleman's Club.

According to the report, Assistant Attorney General Corning and the 18-year-old stripper gave conflicting accounts as to exactly what they were doing on Corning's lunch hour? In a cemetery? It states that Corning carried the sex toys, just in case.

Neither Corning nor the stripper was charged with anything. But after word reached his boss, Corning was stripped -- pardon the pun -- of the job he'd had since 2000. I mean assistant attorney general, stripper, sex toys, Viagra, cemetery, don't look good. South Carolina -- again?

"Nancy Pelosi You'll Burn in HELL!" FOX and Friends

Kay Baily Hutchison - Wolf in sheep's clothing?

[Photo from here]

For some time, U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), pretended to be some kind of Repugnican "moderate." Those of us who lived in Texas as she struggled out of the swamp of Texas Repugnicanism knew better. There is and was nothing "moderate" about Ms. Hutchison!

She may be out of the Senate soon, which would be a good thing, but might become governor of Texas, which would be a bad thing. In fact, if she continues to hold any political office, it would be a bad thing!

Today we get a glimpse of the real Kay Bailey. From the slime of the Bush administration, former VP, Dickie Cheney, has arisen to give his stamp of approval of Ms. Hutchison in her attempt to unseat the current Repugnican nogoodnik, Rick Perry, as governor of Texas.

Ms. Hutchison, revealing her true colors as she was on her way out to beat up on poor people without health insurance, said: "I am so pleased. I respect the vice president so much. We've worked together. He knows my record as a conservative in the Senate."


Strange? No. You see, to get elected to anything in Texas these days, you have to be an ultra-conservative, Jesus-loving freak, who really believes things were better in the 16th century. Perry and Hutchison, therefore, are going at it tooth and nail. Perry says he's a crazier wingnut than is Ms. Hutchison, and Ms. Hutchison says, no, she's crazier than Perry and Cheney's endorsement proves it!

Methinks if there were a god, surely she has forsaken the state of Texas.

Media Matters discloses right-wing distortions

From Media Matters:

"Numerous right-wing websites, including the Fox Nation and the Drudge Report, have parroted a misleading headline posted on October 26 by Real Clear Politics and Newsbusters asserting that Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) stated, 'We are trying on every front to increase the role of government.' In fact, while specifically discussing financial regulation, Frank actually said, '[W]e are trying on every front to increase the role of government in the regulatory area' [emphasis added]."

This is, of course, not atypical, but the MO of the right wing, especially FAUX News.

Those who engage in this type of "propaganda" are extremely dangerous to our commonweal for it indicates they care neither for truth or integrity or the health of our nation; indeed, they are willing to destroy our community in order to maintain their political power.




The specifics and a transcript of the video is here.

Rick Warren and his god of pain

[Photo from here]

Pain is good, saith Rick Warren. Pain is useful, pontificates Rick Warren. Pain is god's hammer, preacheth Rick Warren.

Rick Warren of the notorious Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California, mighty influential rightwing "evangelical" leader, and noted invocation-giver at President Obama's swearing-in, hath written a guest column for a right-wing christianist rag known as Christian Post.

The column is an attempt to explain the problem of pain from a christianist point of view. The question asked is simple: "Why does God allow pain?"


Mr. Warren claims that he's been asked that question many times, implying that he has studied on it and read up on it and reasoned about it and probably prayed about it, and he has four answers to it.


First of all, says Warren, God gave us "free will". Now, notice that is only tangentially related to the question as to why god allows pain. And ultimately, it means that god set us up.

But Warren claims that god wants his creation to love him "voluntarily," so he gave humans "free will," meaning we can choose to do his will or reject his will. And if we choose wrongly, e.g., experiment with drugs, we are going to feel pain. God doesn't want us to feel pain but, oh well, you get what you pay for!

Heh. Heh. What a great god, huh? Being omniscient, of course, god knew from all time that by giving us free will he/she/it would cause us a lot of pain, but that's no problem. Free will is important so we can love him voluntarily.

But, and this is the proverbial $64 thousand dollar question, why would the creator of the universe and all that exists, an omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent and benevolent being "need" his creation to love him voluntarily? Was he/she/it lonely? Frustrated? Or, maybe just a bit sadistic?


Next, Warren says god "uses pain to get our attention." Yup. Pain, saith the rev, is "God's megaphone." So "Pain isn't your problem, it's a symptom." A symptom of what, you ask, as you struggle with cancer, paying your bills, raising your kids, crazy in-laws, etc.?

Aha! A symptom that you're not following the dictates of the benevolent god who created you out of love. Love? This is love? Using pain to get us to change our ways is love?

What kind of shit is that? What half-way decent parent would do that to his children. We've known for a long time that candy works better than a big stick. Even Warren's god should have heard about the benefits of positive reinforcement!


If that isn't enough, Warren the pastor, says "God uses pain to teach us to depend on him." Aw, that's so sweet. Why not try that at home? Your five-year old child has an independent streak and tends to do the opposite of what you tell her to do. Allow her some pain! Let her walk in front of a car. That will surely make her depend on you and your wisdom and guidance. Right?

Warren quotes that old rascal Paul: "We were crushed and overwhelmed and saw how powerless we were to help ourselves but that was good for then we put everything into the hands of God who could save us and he did help us."

None of this means anything without the context of course, but is another example of how christianists love to quote bible verses as if they are supposed to be relevant to our particular situation.


Finally, "God allows pain to give me a ministry to others." Jesus H. Christ! What kind of god does this clown believe in?

Here's how it works in the dithering mind of the rev: God allows you to have pain; he comforts you in your pain; that motivates you to go out and comfort others in their pain. What a great plan. Couldn't the creator of the universe and everything that exists figure out another, better way to motivate people to help other people?


It's all a crock! If the god of Rick Warren exists, he shouldn't. Why would anyone care about such a despicable, evil deity?

I'd say this god is a pain in the ass!

Rachel Maddow - Notorious military contractors meet under new name

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

Keith Olbermann - Leiberman to block health reform

Joe Lieberman, the weasel, and wholly-paid representative of the health insurance industry, declares he will vote with the Repugnicans to keep the health care bill from being voted upon.

Joe Lieberman is a slime-bucket!

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

States opt out of public option?

It's looking possible that a national health care reform bill may include a public option.

That is driving some legislators nuts. Well, nuttier than they already are. Especially Repugnican legislators.

So, three of these conniving bastards in the great state of Kansas are working on a way to opt out. Their efforts are being duplicated in several other states by legislators who think their states are "sovereign" and cannot be told what to do by the federal government.

Didn't we fight a war about this a while back?

In Kansas, Repugnicans Mary Pilcher-Cook, Brenda Landwehr, and Peggy Mast, have introduced an amendment to the state constitution which would specify that "no law can require individuals or employers to buy health insurance."

Pilcher-Cook, showing off her ignorance, said, "Kansas citizens have a right to make their own health care decisions without federal czars." Heh, heh.


Of course, these morons are currently covered by insurance paid for by the taxpayers of the state of Kansas! And you can bet your bootie that it is good insurance. But, being Repugnicans, and likely beholden to corporate paymasters (insurance and health companies), they don't want their fellow citizens to share that same opportunity.

Landwehr, another ignoramus (where do these morons come from?) cries that they're not against health care reform but they don't want the feds to tell them what to do! "We were created to have state sovereignty," said Ms. Landwehr, full of her own pompous ignorance. "We were not set up to have the federal government tell the states who, what, when, where and how."

God, give this woman a class in civics, government, American history, etc.


Fortunately, the amendment must be passed by a 2/3rds majority of the Kansas Legislature, and, if that happens, must be approved by the voters.

It would be nice to think that the people of Kansas would see through the blithering nonsense of these three Repugs, but the state's recent history doesn't give much hope for that.


Read the article by the Kansas City Star here.

Heat 'em up!

Thanks to Atheist Cartoons.

Rush Limbaargh - The Fat Man Zings, Flails, & Fails

Media Matters has collected some recent derogatory statements about our president, Barack Obama, by the fat man, Rush Limbaargh!

As usual, these statements say more about this hunk of lard and his poisonous mind than they do about Mr. Obama.

For example, Limbaargh, angry because he perceived Obama was attacking FAUX News and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said, "People are finally standing up to this little boy, this man-child president, whose primary -- I think his primary job, if you will, in life has been leisure."

And then, Limbaargh, caught in a trap created by his own stupidity, referred to a "college thesis" which he claimed Obama had written (a claim soon proven false). He said, "And this little boy in college, writing about [the Constitution] with utter disdain, and he still shares those same feelings."

It gets worse. Back in August of 2008, he made the comment, now referring to Obama, that "you can't criticize the little black man-child."

And who can forget his rant about hoping Obama fails, saing "[w]e are being told that we have to hope [Obama] succeeds, that we have to bend over, grab the ankles ... because his father was black."

And then, "in Obama's America, the white kids now get beat up with the black kids cheering."

And also, Obama, saith the fat man, is a "Halfrican-American."


The fact that the Fat Man has an audience is a vivid illustration as to the depths we have sunk as a nation and as a people.

The Fat Man is an uneducated, drug-addicted, promoter of self who distinguishes himself only by his eternal chanting of racist and scatologically outrageous nonsense.

He's also paid millions of dollars a year by corporatists whose hatred for our president and our Constitution is buried in a journalistic pretense that mocks the foundations of democracy.


Read the entire article (with links) from Media Matters, here.

Are You Really Useful?

This is a guest post by Elizabeth Wolynski. We are grateful for the opportunity to share her reflections on Contextual Criticism. Please check out her blog here.


In the movie "Deep Impact" an asteroid is on collision course with earth. When it hits, there'll be a tidal wave all the way to Ohio. Morgan Freeman, the president, announces they have a network of caves and 250,000 Americans can be saved. 50,000 will be handpicked and the rest, by lottery. No one over 50 is eligible, unless they're outstanding.

I have a problem with the lottery part - you should be saved only if you do something useful. There are many jobs in present day America, even without an asteroid coming, that are so useless to society, it boggles the mind.

Take the financial sector - stockbrokers, investors, accountants, financiers, bankers, hucksters, only there to make sure money begets more money and making our lives miserable. When the floods come, a plumber is more important than Donald Trump. To my mind, he's more valuable even without the floods. No, we'll only need a couple of bookkeepers to keep track of the seeds and the rest of the accountants can be hung out to dry.

We don't need businessmen, a rather broad term. My definition of a businessman is a crook gone straight. After the robber barons plundered the land, they couldn't go on calling themselves robbers, so they came up with businessmen, as did the Mob. Nice name to cover a multitude of skullduggery.

A career in marketing - what the hell is this? What is that you do exactly? Take meetings all day with other parasites? Marketing consultants, focus groups, anything to do with sales - a whole plethora of people who call themselves vice-presidents, produce absolutely nothing, but feed off those who do.

After the floods, we won't need salesmen of any kind, insurance or otherwise, or tele-marketers or any agents or middlemen. If you want to sell widgets, first make them yourself. The insurance industry, like Wall Street, is legalized gambling and produces nothing of value. Go back to insuring ships at sea and nothing else.

But the capitalists might argue, look at all the jobs and careers we've created that never existed before. Well, with unemployment officially at 10% (that's unofficially 20%), looks like those bogus careers are bogus after all. When I walk down the street, I can see plenty that needs doing and no one to do it.

Ask yourself, am I really useful? Making money for the sake of making money will eat away at your soul (and that goes for poker players, too). At the end of the day, have I made a difference? If not, have I made one person laugh?

"It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it." - Upton Sinclair

"Accountants hover over the earth like helicopters,
Dropping bits of paper engraved with Hegel's name.
Badgers carry the papers on their fur
To their den, where the entire family dies in the night".

- Robert Bly, "Poems for the Ascension of J.P. Morgan"

Palin got $1.25 million for memoir

Is this a great country, or what?

Where else could a quitter who has the brains of a broomstick, put out a memoir (consisting of about four years of public service) written by a ghostwriter and receive $1.25 million buckaroos as a "retainer."

The publisher who paid her this ungodly sum is HarperCollins. You might consider boycotting anything published by HarperCollins in the future.

Someone else came to this conclusion before I did, but the mere existence of this broomstick from Alaska is pretty good evidence there is no loving god who cares about the earth and its people.

Rachel Maddow on Republicans holding up Surgeon General Appt

From Crooks & Liars:

Oh you've just got to love this. As Rachel notes, right in the middle of a health care crisis with the swine flu, Republicans are playing politics with a Surgeon General appointment to get even with the Democrats for wanting to investigate a health insurance company. Isn't that special?

Maddow: Next up—remember when President Obama nominated a new Surgeon General? If you don’t remember that it’s because it happened a really long time ago, way back on July 13th when the President announced that Regina Benjamin, a family physician from Alabama who’s going to be his pick. Dr. Benjamin was finally and unanimously approved by the Senate Health, Education and Labor and Pensions Committee earlier this month, but she hasn’t received a full vote in the Senate.

Senate Republicans are holding up her nomination as a favor to the health insurance industry. As we reported on this show last month the health insurance company Humana sent out a mailer targeting seniors that was designed to scare them about health reform. The mailer said in part “millions of seniors and disabled individuals could lose many … important benefits and services”. This is not only quite in poor taste and factually dubious, but quite possibly in violation of the marketing rules that Humana has to follow as a provider of part of Medicare.

Rules designed so that Medicare patients won’t be confused about who’s sending them information about their benefits—confused about whether it’s the insurance companies or the government.

Well Democratic Senator Max Baucus responded to that mailer from Humana by urging the Department of Health and Human Services to take action, which they did in the form of starting an investigation into Humana’s mailer. It is still ongoing and as Roll Call newspaper now reports it is because of that investigation that Senate Republicans are holding up the nomination of Dr. Regina Benjamin to the Surgeon General of the United States.

So the time where there have been a thousand deaths from swine flu and the President has declared a national emergency, we as a country don’t need deserve a Surgeon General because Republicans want the health insurance industry to be left alone to scare old people about health reform.

Country first?

No Rachel, I think that would be insurance lobbyist first.

Roman Catholic Bishop Tobin takes low road

Well, actually, Bishop Thomas J. Tobin of Providence, Rhode Island, thought he was taking the high road and standing up for his god and morality by defending the RC church's stance on health care reform.

As we would expect, however, the RC church takes the low road.

It's all about abortion; defending the "unborn"; blah, blah, blah.


According to Boston.com, Patrick Kennedy, son of the late Ted Kennedy, and U.S. Representative to Congress from Rhode Island, strongly supports health care reform "even if it includes public funding for abortion services."

Mr. Kennedy, as a representative of ALL the people of Rhode Island, and not just those who affiliate with the Roman Catholic church, is absolutely right in his stance. Even if he agreed with the hidebound bishop, his stance would still be the correct one.

Kennedy, though, violated one of the main tenets of the RC hierarchy: Thou shalt not speak ill of a bishop or any Catholic demagogue or any stupid Roman Catholic policy.

Kennedy supports a public option. He told the Catholic New Service, "I can't understand for the life of me how the Catholic Church could be against the biggest social justice issue of our time, where the very dignity of the human person is being respected by the fact that we're caring and giving health care to the human person - that right now we have 50 million people who are uninsured."

He went on: "You mean to tell me the Catholic Church is going to be denying those people life-saving health care? I thought they were prolife? If the church is prolife, then they ought to be for health care reform, because it's going to provide health care that are [sic] going to keep people alive."


Now, the right wrong reverend Bishop Tobin didn't like that at all. The nerve of this whippersnapper representative! How dare he question the bishop's wisdom and the church's dogma?

Tobin, you see, like the rest of the hierarchs in the RC church, is much more concerned with the power, authority and control he wields, along with maintaining church doctrine at all costs, no matter how many people said doctrine hurts, than he is about health care reform.

The bishop claims he wants health care reform but only if it plainly excludes any money for abortion services.

And of Kennedy, he said, piously: "Congressman Kennedy continues to be a disappointment to the Catholic Church and to the citizens of the state of Rhode Island. I believe the congressman owes us an apology for his irresponsible comments. It is my fervent hope and prayer that he will find a way to provide morally responsible leadership for our state."

Fascinating, isn't it, that the bishop assumes he represents the people of Rhode Island and not Congressman Kennedy. Even more fascinating is he thinks he should be able to force the RC position on the Congressman! But it's the bishop, not Kennedy, who should be apologizing!

All of this from a man in skirts who represents one of the most corrupt and venal institutions in the history of the human race; an institution that has aided and abetted the destruction of thousands of young lives through its blind eye tactics to the pedophile creeps serving at its altars for damn near 2,000 years.

This from a skirted celibate who knows from nothing what would drive a woman to seek abortion services, but pompously declares her and anyone who assists her in her dilemma to be damned forever to eternal punishment.

This from a bishoprick who stands with others in the hierarchy fighting to ban contraceptives which can and do save hundreds and thousands, if not millions of lives around the world from the scourge of HIV and Aids. All because the church has some godforsaken belief in the sanctity of sperm!

This from a cleric in fancy robes who thinks gay marriage will sink his poor state even though 25-50 percent of the priests in his church body are gay themselves!


Once again, when push comes to shove, the Roman church walks the low road and does its best to beat up on those who score higher than it does on the scales of ethical behavior, morality, and justice.

Rachel Maddow on John McCain and Internet freedom

John McCain, a man seriously lacking in integrity, as we saw and wrote about during the 2008 presidential campaign, has been for years the best friend the Washington lobbyists ever had. Now he's back pushing for an end to the freedom of the Internet in order to benefit his old telecom friends and thereby offer his thanks for their past financial gifts and secure their future financial gifts to bolster his political life.

Remember that McCain is a self-admitted computer illiterate. So, his introduction of a bill to allow the telecoms to "slow down" the Internet in favor of their shows or products is just sickening and reeks of corruption.

And isn't it interesting that in this instance the "big, bad guv'mint," in the form of the FCC, is working to maintain the freedom of the Internet for the people while McCain, who has a tendency to blather on about the importance of freedom for the people wants to take away said freedom so his financial sugar-daddy buddies can get even richer than they are!

No wonder only 20% of the American people now identify with the Repugnican Party. And thank all the gods for all time that McCain and the broomstick (broomstick = a person with the brains of a broomstick), Sarah Palin, were not elected.

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

Scientology - A cult of non-scientific fantasy

Scientology, a horrific cult, cannot bear investigation. Thus, it is highly secretive and extremely aggressive toward those who dare to publicly criticize it. It has nothing to do with science, and everything to do with fantasies that are unrelated to reality. Watch the video to see a how a typical Scientologist responds to basic and quite reasonable questions about it's fundamental beliefs.



You can read more about it here. Religious Tolerance has an excellent article here. Time magazine excoriates Scientology in this article here. One of the best discussions of Scientology is found at Rolling Stone, here.

Rachel Maddow on why Fox News is NOT news

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

Anthony Weiner on Congressional hypocrisy re: the Public Option

What follows is from Crooks and Liars:

From Think Progress: Rep. Weiner Identifies 55 Republicans On Medicare Who ‘Steadfastly Oppose’ The Public Option

Rep. Anthony Weiner’s (D-NY) office today released an internal study showing that 151 members of Congress “currently receive government-funded; government-administered single-payer health care — Medicare.” Of those 151 members, 55 are Republicans who also happen to be “steadfastly opposed [to] other Americans getting the public option, like the one they have chosen.” Included on Weiner’s list are anti-public option crusaders Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ), Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), Sen. Orin Hatch (R-UT), Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL), Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY), Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), and Rep. Peter King (R-NY).

Rep. Weiner talked explained why his office released that study on C-SPAN's Washington Journal.

WEINER: Well it’s more kind of another way of looking at this debate, this discussion about the public option, to put it in focus. We went, just out of curiosity, looked at how many members of Congress get the public option. And I know a lot of people have said, “Well under the new bill, how many of you members of Congress would choose the public option?”

Well there already is one; it’s called Medicare. And we found that 55 Republicans and 151 members of Congress are on Medicare right now. So they’re already getting the same type of public option that we’d like people who are without insurance to be able to get. And I guess the purpose of this list was to kind of point out some of the hypocrisy of this debate.

You have members of Congress thumping their chest how they’re against government health care, against government control of health care, socialized medicine and yet when it’s time for them to accept Medicare, they’re like, ‘Sign me up!’

And part of what I’ve argued in arguing for a single-payer system is that when we have Medicare for those that are 65, why not 64? Why not 24, like, you’re about 24 right?

C-SPAN HOST: Sure.

Weiner: And why not have that type of a system that has lower overhead, lower costs and you don’t have to deal with the 30% of profits and overhead that insurance companies take. So we compiled this list largely to point a bright light on some of the hypocrisy of this debate, but also I hope it gets people thinking—if Medicare is good enough for 151 members of Congress, why shouldn’t a program like it be created for those who want to go out and buy insurance?

I actually did get to hear this live on C-SPAN radio the other day and didn't get a chance to get back to it sooner. I was glad to see Think Progress picked it up. I would have liked for Rep. Weiner to have taken this a bit further and ask if those members of Congress would care to give up their Medicare—since they think that having government administered health insurance is such a terrible thing. I would guess the answer is "No".

Less offensive

Thanks to Atheist Cartoons.

The pity party for FAUX News

That there should be any controversy whatsoever about the declaration from the White House that FAUX News is not a news organization but the propaganda wing of the Repugnican Party is laughable.

Broomsticks are so gullible and so stupid!

Media Matters has a great article relative to this brouhaha. By way of summary, MM says:

"Several right-wing media figures have claimed that the Obama administration is criticizing Fox News because the network asks 'tough questions' and is 'reporting the truth.' This assertion is undermined by Fox News' extensive history of advancing falsehoods, repeatedly passing off GOP materials as news, doctoring quotes, and frequently engaging in outrageous attacks on President Obama, such as Glenn Beck's claim that he is a 'racist' with a 'deep-seated hatred for white people, or the white culture -- I don't know what it is.'"


MM first cites chapter and verse of the right-wing media's pity party: Limbaargher complaining that "'Obama's out there attacking' Fox because it is 'reporting the truth,'" and Karl Rove's whiny, "'If you dare oppose them, they're going to come hard at you. ... Fox is asking tough questions.''

Etc.

MM follows with specific references to FAUX News' constant "falsehoods and smears." Then there's the matter of FAUX News reporting the "truth." Noting numerous instances of FAUX News people simply reading GOP materials over the air, the notion the FAUX News reports the truth could not be further from the truth!

In one humorous instance, FAUX News "passed off [a] GOP press release as its own research -- typo and all." Heh. Heh.

And we must not forget FAUX News propensity for doctoring quotes and it's "outrageous, baseless attacks on President Obama."


My summary, derived not only from this article but from personal study and observation is that FAUX News is not only a propaganda wing of the Repugnican Party, but in some cases flirts with treason. It appears FAUX News is dedicated to the destruction of the Obama administration and President Obama personally.

Lest you think I'm making this up, consider this from MM:

"Beck claimed that Obama's 'civilian national security force' is 'what Hitler did with the SS,' 'what Saddam Hussein' did." And we must not forget Beck's calling Obama a "racist" with hatred for white people and/or white culture.


Day in and day out this crap goes on at FAUX News. It's no secret. It's right out in the open. So when the White House calls FAUX News a duck because it walks and talks like a duck, what the hell is the problem?

Read the entire article with all the gory details, here.

The Maldives - sinking fast

[Photo from here]

According to a recent poll, only about 57 percent of Americans believe that Global Warming is a serious problem. That's down from 71 percent in April of 2008.

It would appear that the broomsticks ["broomsticks" = Americans with the same size brain as Sarah Palin] are being influenced by the Beck's, O'Reilly's and Limbaarghers of the world as it is these creeps from which they get their "news," being, in many cases, unable to read and comprehend the written word.


Consider the fact that streets in parts of downtown Miami are flooded with several inches of water during high tide. Consider the fact that the huge majority of scientists around the world have discovered that climate change is occurring much faster with much deadlier effects than they had previously surmised.

Now, we must help the broomsticks understand that the changing change is not something a bunch of scientists dreamed up. Scientists don't operate like FAUX News. Their views are based upon an overwhelming amount of scientific evidence. Unfortunately, science and evidence are things broomsticks care nothing about.


Just recently, the president of the Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed, and his cabinet "held an underwater meeting to urge U.N. leaders to pass climate change legislation at a December summit in Copenhagen. The archip0elago has warned that rising sea levels triggered by global warming put it at risk of being submerged." (Time, Nov. 2, 2009)

The Maldives is just one of numerous spots around the earth in danger of disappearing forever. Already some leaders are looking at possible havens where their people may relocate.

The science is impeccable.

The broomsticks don't believe it.

The broomsticks ran the government for eight years under Bush/Cheney. We lost a lot of time. We may not be able to make it up. But we must try. Or millions will die. Thank god the Obama administration is moving in the right direction.

Don't buy Sarah Palin's book - she's a quitter!

Sarah Palin, the dim-witted quitter from Alaska, is coming out with a book next month called "Going Rogue: An American Story." Figures. She likes to pretend she's some kind of maverick when she's really nothing more than a christianist rightwingnut who thinks God has called her to become president and remake the U.S. into a Pentecostal version of righteousness. The fact she's got the brain of a broomstick is helping her because so many Americans suffer from that same fate.

You'd be better off, however, reading another book coming out at the same time - November 17. It's called "Going Rogue: Sarah Palin -- An American Nightmare." Written by two editors from the Nation, Richard Kim and Betsy Reed, it is intended to put Palin in perspective, which is to say, nowhere.

Salon indicates that several of their articles on Palin will be included: "The Sarah Palin Pity Party," "The Losers Who Gave Us Sarah Palin," "What's the Difference Between Sarah Palin and Muslim Fundamentalists? Lipstick," and "Sarah Palin: Meet Mahmoud Ahmadinejad."


Palin is indeed the epitome of an American nightmare. So in John McCain. The selection of Palin to be his running mate should forever banish John McCain from America's political life. Nothing shows his lack of integrity more than this choice.

But Palin and McCain, it seems, go on forever, even after they self-destruct. They simply re-create new personnas. And in the American hinterland, broomsticks everywhere rejoice.

The rest of us weep with incomprehension.