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Crazy numbers: Six in 10 Americans tuned in live to the presidential inauguration ceremonies on Tuesday. Another 20% heard or read news reports of the event, while 20% (no doubt the Bush and Cheney families, Halliburton employees, and dittoheads) caught none of it.
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Why do Republicans hate the environment?
GOP senators are bottling up two of President Obama's key environment appointees and appear to be gunning for Carol Browner, the enviro czar in the White House.
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Fun fact: Chief Justice John Roberts spent weeks practicing the oath he flubbed for Obama.
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President Obama's rejection of American cowardice: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-cesca/president-obamas-rejectio_b_159861.html
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Rush Limbaugh Joins Ayman al-Zawahiri and Osama###
While I find the new Whitehouse.gov website a refreshing breath of fresh air, here's how the religious "right" views it - proving that they are neither christian, religious or right:
White House Website Now 'Sodomite Publication,' says Religious Right
The editor of CovenantNews.com wrote:Oh for god's sake. This is getting ridiculous.
The White House policies published on its new website confirms that Barack H. Obama intends to use his office to promote and maintain the sexual deviant criminal behavior of homosexuality (with malice aforethought).
... Civil officials who approve of homosexuality, make the civil government a vile cesspool from which the abominations vomit out across the land. By displaying such a contempt for the administration of Justice by promoting this criminal behavior, "such civil officials are not only the source of the defilement, they are the criminals, and a hostile enemy authorizing the destruction of the society in which we live."
In an American Family Association Action Alert, the Rev. Wildmon stated that "This is only the beginning of Obama's plans to reshape society. His view is that unborn babies aren't worth protecting and that homosexuals deserve special rights."
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Just reading and hearing and seeing the change in people's overall attitude – here in the US and just as importantly abroad – in the past 48 hours has been simply amazing. Except for an incredibly small, unimportant and quite honestly, laughable minority trying desperately to sound relevant, the mood has changed pretty drastically. Which is so important as much of the machine that put the republican Party in power recently is the divisive, petty crap that, quite frankly, got us all into this mess we are now in.
We can finally exhale.
We are on the road to respectability around the world. Our President personally reached out to different parties in the Middle East, is ready to sign Executive Orders reversing some of the worst policies of the last 8 years, completely eviscerated the entire premise of the Bush administration in his Inaugural Address and put a freeze on the eleventh hour Bush regulations.
In his first day.
Keep reading: http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2009/1/22/65959/6494
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As his final act of madness, the outgoing ###
In early 2008, just as Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain was preparing to slash expenses, cut thousands of jobs and exit businesses to fix the ailing securities firm, he was also spending company money on himself.
Thain spent $1.22 million of company money to refurbish his office at Merrill Lynch headquarters in lower Manhattan.
- $800,000 to hire famed celebrity designer Michael Smith, who is currently redesigning the White House for the Obama family for just $100,000.
- $87,000 for an area rug
-a pair of guest chairs for $87,000
- fabric for a "Roman Shade" for $11,000.
- a $15,000 sofa
- a $5,000 mirror
- a "parchment waste can" for $1,400.
Keep reading: http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-01-22/john-thains-87000-rug/
I think these people should be arrested, and their trials outsourced to China.
Here he is:
Financial Terrorist
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Hey, Bushies, suck on this!
Executive Order not up on the WH website yet, but this is the gist of it:
Executive Order revokes Executive Order 13440 that interpreted Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions. It requires that all interrogations of detainees in armed conflict, by any government agency, follow the Army Field Manual interrogation guidelines. The order also prohibits reliance on any Department of Justice or other legal advice concerning interrogation that was issued between September 11, 2001 and January 20, 2009.
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When last we left America, the economy was continuing its downward slide, there are now three wars in the Middle East, and boatloads of turds and klingons still to clean up from the Bush follies. America's crack reporters – the White House press corps - are showing the world how they really care about the average American. It is the new administration's first press conference and those reporters are in the trenches asking the tough and critical questions of the Obama administration – how is he going to handle all these crises at once?
WRONG.
They have asked Robert Gibbs (who already makes "what is the Cuban Missile Crisis" Dana Perino look like a reject from American Idol) almost 20 questions about Obama taking the oath of office for a second time.
This is what is important to them.
You have Chris Wallace yesterday vomiting words like "Who really knows if Obama is President?" You have Rush Limbshit encouraging his listeners to insure that the Obama Presidency is a failure – and you have the MSM basically pushing the latter to ensure the former. And they wonder why their influence wanes as bloggers and the internet have more and more relevance.
On tomorrow's episode of As the Stomach Turns, Fox News, Reuters, AP, and others will ask whether Michelle has the White House staff put the toilet paper – rip from the top or rip from the bottom.
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House passes TARP reform and accountability act: http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2009/01/houses-passestarp-reform-and.html
The final count was 260 to 166, with 10 Democrats voting in opposition and 18 Republicans voting in support.
By a vote of 270-155, they denied giving Obama the second half of the funds: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jan/22/in-symbolic-vote-house-blasts-the-bailout/
Just four of 175 House Republicans voted to give the new administration the funds, joining 151 Democrats.
Ninety-nine Democrats voted to block the $350 billion release.
Apparently the vote was only symbolic, and the money will be released anyway: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/first100days/2009/01/22/house-votes-release-bailout-money-symbolic/
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George W. Bush wasn't going to be the president forever. That seems obvious to most people, but it almost seems to have caught Republicans in Washington by surprise. The president who brought his party to near irrelevance is gone now, but his actions linger on. Bush, having brought even more disaster to the Republican party than he did to the nation, leaves behind a legacy of crime and scandal. Having once hoped he would rebuild American government to match his vision, Bush left DC in worse shape than he found it -- the nation is impatient to see the vision undone.
Still, some Republicans seem to be completely unaware of these new realities, behaving as if nothing had changed, as if the Republican party were still wildly popular, and as if Bush's legacy is anything other than one of failure.
http://griperblade.blogspot.com/2009/01/not-prosecuting-torture-is-crime-in.html
Jesus' General is concerned about this too, and puts out the call to stop justice from pursuing justice:
I'm very worried about Eric Holder, Obama's pick for attorney general. Last week, during his confirmation hearing, he did something that sent shivers down my spine--he called torture, "torture."
I'm not the only one who was rattled by that. The current AG, Michael Mukasey, worries that once you start calling torture, "torture," you create the possibility that torturers will be prosecuted for it.
He's right, but it's even worse than he thinks. You see, it's a slippery slope. Once you call torture, "torture," and start prosecuting torturers, what's to stop you from calling rape, "rape," and murder, "murder" and prosecuting rapists and murderers. Before long, a good chunk of Pentagon's command structure and its associated contractors could be under indictment. Heck, after that, there'd be no one left to bring democracy and freedom to the countries we bomb.
And that's just a part of the problem. Prosecuting torturers and rapists would also wreak havoc on our fundraising and legislative efforts.
So get on the phone and call your Senators. We have to stop Holder before he forces Justice to pursue justice.
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Whenever I read about the fringe wack job survivalists, skin heads and other organized hate groups over at Dave Neiwart's Orcinus, it gives me the chills. There's nothing funny about these folks. In his latest piece, Dave covers the increased anxiety among the gun-crazed loons afraid of Barack Obama taking away their guns are gearing up...for something. In November of last year the number of background checks was 42 percent greater than in November 2007.
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New "green" news site is pretty newsy: Mother Nature Network.
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Excerpt from the Rude Pundit regarding bipartisanship:
Here's what bipartisanship meant to Republicans: let's say a Republican and a Democrat are stuck on a desert island. The Republican knows how to survive in the wild, the Democrat knows how to build a raft. They need each other, right? They're stuck there, and while they may hate each other, they gotta work together or they're gonna die on the island. While the Democrat is, you know, building the raft, the Republican is gathering coconuts, keeping the fire lit, you know, that kind of shit. It's all nice and cooperative. And then, when the raft is done, the Republican slits the throat of the Democrat, eats his flesh, drinks his blood, and uses his bones and his clothes for a sail. Bye-bye, island.
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Banana Republicanism
Senator Lindsey Graham: "The idea for prosecutions is coming from the hard left."
Well, let's hear it for the "hard left." Because accountability for torture is not in fact all that outrageous a concept. Indeed civilized nations ought not to use torture at all.
That this opinion seems to have become "controversial" is mostly the result of banana Republicanism. And in this respect, even while Graham's assertion is absurd, he's not nearly as bananas a Republican as, say, Senator John Cornyn (R-Arkham Asylum), who is upset that Obama Attorney General nominee Eric Holder holds the absurd view that waterboarding is torture just because it is, and wants him to swear not to prosecute anyone who did that sort of thing or anything similar.
Cornyn paid little heed to the political risk of holding up new leadership at the Justice Department just to stand behind Bush advisers who gave the legal go-ahead for torturous tactics that were used at Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere. I asked how he would proceed if Leahy moves forward with a committee vote on Holder before his prosecution query is answered, and Cornyn said he would place a Senate "hold" on the attorney general nominee if he has to.
He can rest assured that nobody will be hunting witches. The nation I believe will be satisfied with prosecuting torturers.
And you gotta love this:
"Holder put himself in a position of legal and rhetorical checkmate when he unequivocally described waterboarding as torture yet refused to tell the committee whether he would prosecute members of the intelligence community," the GOP aide said. "Holder can't have it both ways."
Sure he can. The GOP is the minority party. And while I have as little faith in Harry Reid as anyone, he's not going to honor Cornyn's hold over the wishes of the wildly popular new president. Actually I sort of hope he does, because that would get him canned as majority leader.
Anyway, all you need to know about the Republican party is that the first fight they're willing to pick with the new administration is quite literally based on the moral principle that nobody should be prosecuted for torture. That's actually quite a radical, dare I say extremist position to be taking, except of course from the point of view of an apparatchik for a vicious totalitarian regime or a member of the Washington Post editorial board.
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Norm Coleman Has A New Job!
Norm Coleman, the humanoid Flowbee and lizard-king who represented Minnesota in the Senate, once, would like to be a senator again but the nasty courts are still legislating from the bench. So while he waits for whatever legal stuff to confirm that he is, in fact, a loser, he has taken a(nother) new, awesomer job.
Yes, America! There is still a single job left to be had in this country, and Norm Coleman took it.
He will be a consultant and strategic advisor to the Republican Jewish Coalition — a group so powerful that it managed to persuade a full 21 percent of Jewish voters to go for McCain in the 2008 presidential election. Norm Coleman will only add to their sterling lineup.
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According to conservative columnist and Cheney biographer Stephen F. Hayes, writing in the Weekly Standard, "Bush's decision not to pardon Libby has angered many of the president's strongest defenders. One Libby sympathizer, a longtime defender of Bush, told friends she was 'disgusted' by the president. Another described Bush as 'dishonorable' and a third suggested that refusing to pardon Libby was akin to leaving a soldier on the battlefield."
Yes, because no one needs a pardon more than someone convicted for lying and obstructing justice relating to outing a covert CIA operative (treason).
Hayes quotes Cheney himself as saying, "Scooter Libby is one of the most capable and honorable men I've ever known. He's been an outstanding public servant throughout his career. He was the victim of a serious miscarriage of justice, and I strongly believe that he deserved a presidential pardon. Obviously, I disagree with President Bush's decision."
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The lead story on Drudge right now reports, in all caps, "No Bible Used At Obama Re-Swear."
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From Funny or Die: It's the High Five Inauguration!
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The nation's oldest library is in danger of closing: http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/nations-oldest-public-library-danger-
Thanks, Bush-O-Nomics!
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Charlie Cook writes:
At a time when Republicans should be starting to think about how they can expand their party to reclaim those who abandoned it, the party is instead lurching ever more to the right, exacerbating its problems. Many people who watched the recent debate between contenders for the chairmanship of the Republican National Committee came away thinking that the only memorable moments were when each candidate expressed love and devotion for Ronald Reagan and when all but one bragged about how many guns they own. Not to belittle the importance of Reagan's iconic status or the Second Amendment, but when the only takeaways are about the importance of a political figure who last won an election a quarter-century ago and how big a person's arsenal is, these guys are not hot prospects to chair the GOP's Welcome Wagon, much less to lead the party out of its wilderness.
And TPM reports:
The Politico reports that South Carolina GOP chairman Katon Dawson has publicly traced his political coming of age to the civil rights movement — that is, opposition to 1960's busing policies. "Government reached into my life and grabbed me and shook me at the age of 15," Dawson told a University of South Carolina audience in 2003.
The star of this particular show has been Chip Saltsman, who sent out a CD to committee members containing a song called "Barack the Magic Negro."
In recent decades, the Republican Party has won by catering strongly to a certain demographic of voters–mostly lower-income, less-educated whites. They have become the Republican base and the GOP had electoral success by turning out huge numbers of those voters. But now that base is shrinking and is too small to win elections.
But almost no Republicans currently in office see this; they think hollow sloganeering and a facelift are all their party need. How many elections will the GOP effectively cede to the Democrats before they realize they, too, need to embrace change? Or will it take an entirely new generation of Republicans to get elected before the GOP realizes that the tactics which got them elected 29 years ago don't work anymore?
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Hillary Clinton was given what the LA Times dubbed a "celebrity welcome" yesterday at the State Department.
Condi was compared by staffers to the Wicked Witch of the West from the Wizard of Oz.
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Sen. James Inhofe claims victory over the UN/MoveOn/Soros global warming conspiracy
You see, people are now saying 'climate change' instead of 'global warming', so he won! http://thinkprogress.org/2009/01/22/inhofe-global-warming-prevailed/
People might call you other names than a**hole, but it doesn't mean you aren't one, James.
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Yesterday during a press conference, House Minority Leader John Boner was asked about Obama's order to close Guantanamo:
BONER: I don't know that there's a terrorist treated better anywhere in the world than what has happened at Guantanamo. It is — we have spent hundreds of millions of dollars to build a facility that has more comforts than a lot of Americans get.
I'm afraid I'm one of those Americans who wouldn't find too much comfort in being tortured or force-fed with a feeding tube. But then I'm a bleeding heart liberal.
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Army accuses KBR of negligent homicide: http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Army_accuses_KBR_contractors_of_negligent_0122.html
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A guest on Chris Matthews' Hardball cited a blog, and Tweety cut her off by saying, "Let's stick to journalism. I don't do that here. If it's just blogging let's drop it."
Here's journalism in action:
Re: Bush (Mr. 22%):
"Sometimes it glimmers with this man, our president, that kind of sunny nobility."
"He looks great in a military uniform. He looks great in that cowboy costume he wears when he goes West. We're proud of our President. Americans love having a guy as President, a guy who has a little swagger, who's physical, who's not a complicated guy like Clinton.... Women like a guy who's President. Check it out."
Re: Obama: "I felt this thrill going up my leg. I mean, I don't have that too often….And that is an objective assessment."
Re: Willard Romney: "He has the perfect chin, the perfect hair, he looks right. He looks like a Mountie. He looks like from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police."
Re: Fred Thompson: "Can you smell the English leather on this guy, the Aqua Velva, the sort of mature man's shaving cream, or whatever, you know, after he shaved? Do you smell that sort of -- a little bit of cigar smoke?"
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Yesterday Congress struck a blow against pay discrimination, undoing a pet cause of the Bush Administration -- and of the Roberts court -- by passing the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.
Senators that didn't think women deserved equal pay for equal work - every single one of them a Republican:
| Alexander (R-TN) Barrasso (R-WY) Bennett (R-UT) Bond (R-MO) Brownback (R-KS) Bunning (R-KY) Burr (R-NC) Chambliss (R-GA) Coburn (R-OK) Cochran (R-MS) Corker (R-TN) Cornyn (R-TX) | Crapo (R-ID) DeMint (R-SC) Ensign (R-NV) Enzi (R-WY) Graham (R-SC) Grassley (R-IA) Gregg (R-NH) Hatch (R-UT) Inhofe (R-OK) Isakson (R-GA) Johanns (R-NE) Kyl (R-AZ) | Lugar (R-IN) Martinez (R-FL) McCain (R-AZ) McConnell (R-KY) Risch (R-ID) Roberts (R-KS) Sessions (R-AL) Shelby (R-AL) Thune (R-SD) Vitter (R-LA) Voinovich (R-OH) Wicker (R-MS) |
4 Republicans did think women deserved equal pay, and they were women. Arlen Specter was the only one to vote with the ladies.
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George Bush's America is alive and well.
You do not live for eight years led by a man whose stock in trade was hate and fear and loathing and have it just disappear just because the titular head of bigots and crazies has gone back to Texas, as evidenced by what one Obama supporter endured last Sunday: http://brilliantatbreakfast.blogspot.com/2009/01/george-w-bushs-america-is-alive-and.html
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