Headlines - Tuesday

Rush Limbaugh is an asshole

 

 

While the planet turned off their lights for an hour for "Earth Hour", here's how the Vulgar Pigboy planned to participate: 

"I have the ability from my couch, wherever I happen to be, I can turn on very light in the place, on all five houses. I can turn on the air conditioner and I can regulate the air conditioner. So I lit my place up like a Christmas tree last night.

"At 8:30 on Saturday night, I'm going to do the same thing. I mean, I might even put a Christmas tree up! I might even put Christmas lights on the outside lights, on the outside landscaping. I mean, I'm going to go just the opposite way, because I, El Rushbo — as you know — resist the tug of popular sentiment."

Did I mention he's an asshole?

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Don't eat pistachios - salmonella scare.

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Dayana does Guantanamo

Miss Universe, Dayana Mendoza, visited Gitmo last week and here's what she reported:

We arrived in Gitmo on Friday and stared going around the town, everybody knew Crystle and I were coming so the first thing we did was attend a big lunch and then we visited one of the bars they have in the base. We talked about Gitmo and what is was like living there. The next days we had a wonderful time, this truly was a memorable trip! We hung out with the guys from the East Coast and they showed us the boat inside and out, how they work and what they do, we took a ride around the land and it was a loooot of fun!

We also met the Military dogs, and they did a very nice demonstration of their skills. All the guys from the Army were amazing with us.

We visited the Detainees camps and we saw the jails, where they shower, how the recreate themselves with movies, classes of art, books. It was very interesting.

[.....]

I didn't want to leave, it was such a relaxing place, so calm and beautiful.

Paging Miss Teen South Carolina: your tutor is here.

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If there's one thing the Obama's know how to do, it's walk the walk. In a move that bucks past presidential tradition, the Obamas have chosen to decorate the White House using their own hard-earned money (according to New York Magazine, the couple reported $4.2 million in household income on 2007 tax returns) and the talents of Hollywood decorator Michael S. Smith.

Incoming presidents are allotted $100,000 to re-decorate the White House residence and the Oval Office - a sizeable amount of taxpayer cash, particularly in this economy -- as well as access to the White House Historical Association, "a privately funded foundation that paid for a $74,000 set of china shortly before Laura Bush left town." But, according to Camille Johnson, director of communications for the First Lady, this First Couple will wisely "not [be] using public funds or accepting donations of goods for redecorating their private quarters."

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"It's Time to Say NO to Biased Media and Say YES to Fair Play and Free Speech."

Because listening to Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Bill O'Reilly, Karl Rove, Mike Huckabee, et al, 24/7 is just not enough...

Faux News is launching a new opinion site, which will attempt to emulate the social aspects of Facebook - as well as MySpace, which, like Fox, is owned by Rupert Murdoch (and is rapidly losing its popularity) - by encouraging readers to post comments and argue with one another. And the hook will be columns, blogs and videos from the likes of Bill O'Reilly, Greta Van Susteren and Hannity, which will likely draw their strongest followers.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/29/AR2009032902102.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns

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I think if we're going to keep handing money out to the bankers and automakers, we need to cut back on this crap:

We give foreign aid to 150 countries, and the total does not include funding the two wars we're in. Here are the top 16 recipients in 2005:

1. Israel 2.58 Billion
2. Egypt 1.84 Billion
3. Afganistan 0.98 Billion
4. Pakistan 0.70 Billion
5. Colombia 0.57 Billion
6. Sudan 0.50 Billion
7. Jordan 0.48 Billion
8. Uganda 0.25 Billion
9. Kenya 0.24 Billion
10. Ethiopia 0.19 Billion
11. South Africa 0.19 Billion
12. Peru 0.19 Billion
13. Indonesia 0.18 Billion
14. Bolivia  0.18 Billion
15. Nigeria 0.18 Billion
16. Zambia 0.18 Billion

Source: http://shelby.senate.gov/legislation/ForeignAid.pdf

From CNN.com

"America's $84.8 billion in aid to Israel from fiscal years 1949 through 1998, and the interest the U.S. paid to borrow this money, has cost U.S. taxpayers $134.8 billion, not adjusted for inflation.

Or, put another way, the nearly $14,630 every one of 5.8 million Israelis received from the U.S. government by Oct. 31, 1997 has cost American taxpayers $23,240 per Israeli.

Good thing for the defense contractors that virtually all of this money we give to Israel goes towards buying weapons (up to 75% made in the U.S.). Beginning in 2009, the U.S. plans to give $30 billion over 10 years.

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After six years, Britain will surrender its main base in Iraq to the US army, clearing the way for a full withdrawal by early summer.

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"Can't we get a guy who can put two thoughts together?" that's Rush, complaining about Obama's brain not working.  

Really, Rush?

After eight years of "Put food on your family," you're fed up with Obama?
After eight years of "So GYNs can practice their love on their patients," you're fed up with Obama?
After eight years of "Is our children learning?" you're fed up with Obama?
After eight years of "My Pet Goat" and "Won't get fooled again," you're fed up with Obama?
After eight years of "The levees will hold" and "The economy is sound," you're fed up with Obama?
After eight years of "Threats turning into mushroom clouds," you're fed up with Obama?

Really, Rush?

Gosh, it's almost like facts mean nothing to you.

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The latest little wrinkle in the Greed Is Good Sweepstakes: remember all those banks who refused to allow homeowners in default to restructure their mortgages, mortgages often made fraudulent by greedy lenders? Like, um, banks? Remember how they wailed and whined and gnashed their teeth about how the debtors might get away with not having to pay, oh, say, as much as 5 or 6% of the full value of the (usurious) interest payments? And maybe even (dawg forbid!) 10% of the bloated price? Remember how they pounded the table and demanded every last penny they were owed had to be paid in order to protect the (cue the choir) sanctity of contracts?

Here's what's actually hapening: they're walking away from the foreclosed properties because they're worth less than the value of the mortgage they foreclosed, and they're telling the previous owners they screwed over that they're responsible for them again. http://casadelogo.typepad.com/factesque/2009/03/pigs-in-space-6-whatever-bankers-want-homeowners-get-fucked.html#more

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Kissing the Sacred Purple

His Eminence,Daniel Cardinal DiNardo
Archbishop of Galveston-Houston

Most Revererend Eminence,

Thank you for denouncing the University of Notre Dame for inviting Obama to speak at their commencement ceremonies in May. Hopefully, the University will rescind the invitation and invite someone more in keeping with the current Pope's values - perhaps someone like John Yoo, or better yet, Dick Cheney.

Unfortunately, I doubt such a rescission will occur - Obama is the President of the United States, after all. You should be prepared for that. You need to create a competing event to distract attention away from Obama's heretical commencement speech.

I'm thinking you should produce one of those old-style variety shows to premier on Cinemax at the same time as the commencement. Yes, I know what you're thinking, "Why would anyone want to watch a Catholic variety show and why would Cinemax want to air it?" Well, the answer is in my proposed title for the show "Kissing the Sacred Purple."

That's right. It's the same phrase one is supposed to use as a closing for letters written to cardinals, but, I think it can have another meaning, one that will please viewers and Cinemax as much as it's pleased the priesthood and the Pope over the years.

Think about it. It could begin with America's newest Catholic superstar, Newt Gingrich, sharing that wonderful story about how a friend kissed his sacred purple in the front seat of a car while his children scurried past.

Next up, you could feature a musical number by The Altar Boyz, and maybe get Bill O'Reilly to do a juggling act featuring falafels, loofahs, and his ReamMaster 5000.

Of course you'd want to end it with something big--something you could use to tease the public for weeks before the event--and what would be better than a video of Monsignor Georg Gänswein fluffing the papal mitre.

I'd be glad to try to put it together for you, but I'd need at least three million dollars to begin.

Kissing the Sacred Purple,

Gen. JC Christian, patriot

 

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Why does IBM hate America?

As IBM was firing thousands of American workers last week, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published Big Blue's application to copyright a computerized system that calculates how to offshore jobs while maximizing government tax breaks.

In their application to patent a "method and system for strategic global resource sourcing," five Hudson Valley IBMers describe how it weighs such plans as "50 percent of resources in China by 2010," against such factors as labor costs, infrastructure and the "minimum head count to qualify for incentives." - timesheraldrecord

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The Perfect Storm

Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation...the unsung casino gambling highroller with Americans future at stake...is heading for financial drowning in red thanks to new "gambling"...I mean "investment" strategies.

Just months before the start of last year's stock market collapse, the federal agency that insures the retirement funds of 44 million Americans departed from its conservative investment strategy and decided to put much of its $64 billion insurance fund into stocks.

Switching from a heavy reliance on bonds, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation decided to pour billions of dollars into speculative investments such as stocks in emerging foreign markets, real estate, and private equity funds.

The agency refused to say how much of the new investment strategy has been implemented or how the fund has fared during the downturn. The agency would only say that its fund was down 6.5 percent - and all of its stock-related investments were down 23 percent - as of last Sept. 30, the end of its fiscal year. But that was before most of the recent stock market decline and just before the investment switch was scheduled to begin in earnest.

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation may be little-known to most Americans, but it serves as a lifeline for the 1.3 million people who receive retirement checks from it, and the 44 million others whose plans are backed by the agency. http://mail.google.com/mail/?shva=1&ui=1

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In case you were wondering, the Israeli Military finished its investigation of itself and finds no misconduct in the Gaza War! 

The Israeli military's top lawyer on Monday closed an investigation into alleged misconduct during the recent three-week war in Gaza, concluding that charges made by graduates of a military preparation school were "based on hearsay" and had been "purposely exaggerated."

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A new and potentially worrisome fight for power and control has broken out in Baghdad as the United States prepares to pull combat troops out of Iraq next year.

The struggle, which played out in fierce weekend clashes, pits two vital American allies against each other. On Sunday, Iraqi soldiers backed by U.S. combat helicopters and American troops swept into a central Baghdad neighborhood, arresting U.S.-backed Sunni fighters in an effort to clamp down on a two-day uprising that challenged the Iraqi government's authority and its efforts to pacify the capital.

But the fallout from the operation is already rippling far beyond the city's boundaries. Both the Iraqi security forces and the Sunni fighters, known as the Awakening, are cornerstones in the American strategy to bring stability. The Awakening, in particular, is widely viewed as a key reason violence has dramatically dropped across Iraq.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/29/AR2009032902551.html?hpid%3Dtopnews&sub=AR

So the very people we rented some temporary loyalty from with cash, guns and ammo are the same people that L. Paul Bremmer foolishly made into insurgents when he disbanded Saddam's army.  Today's Awakening members are yesteryear's highly trained soldiers.  

When the Iraqi army was disbanded and these guys were out of work before, they turned their guns on their sectarian rivals and the United States military.  Now, all this time later, they have not only a lot more experience under their belts, they have a lot of American weapons hanging off them, too.  

This has the potential to get out of control, really fast, and in a big, big way.

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Welcome to Vietnam, Mr. President: http://www.consortiumnews.com/2009/032809a.html

And speaking of Afghanistan, the opium trade has prospered, cronyism is rampant, women's rights are disappearing and those who support them are going to prison. And now, Karzai has signed legislation that legalizes rape: The Independent.

I'm sure glad we're sending more troops and will continue to spend American money and blood to support this country.

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Lest you feel too bad for GM's Rick Wagoner losing his job, he's heading into the sunset with a $20M retirement package.

Tighty righties have their panties in a knot over the firing of Wagoner, because the job of a rich white man is more important to them than the jobs of the tens of thousands of working people that Wagoner's mismanagement has eliminated.

But then, the Republicans are is the party of rich white men, and every single policy is intended to benefit rich white men at the expense of, well, the rest of us. So now they huddle together and whine in defense of yet another rich white man while saying not a yelp about the millions of Americans who've been thrown out of jobs over the past year by the Bush Depression. How suprising.

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Gun nuts can stop whining and planning a revolution: the assault rifle and ammunition ban - Isn't going to happen.

 

 

 

Headlines - Monday

After 2 months, RNC chair Michael Steele says he's 'done' with Obama: http://crooksandliars.com/john-amato/michael-steele-says-im-donewith-preside

 

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Dick Armey, who wasn't scared when he had a president that invaded another country that wasn't a threat to the United States and was the most intellectually incurious presidents in the history of the United States is now scared of President Obama: http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/dick-armey-first-time-i-have-president-scares-me

 

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Michele Bachmann wins close contest for poster girl of Raving Lunatics of America

 

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Bottom line - Link:

 

While reporters hooted at the comically simplistic charts and lack of details in the House Republican leadership's budget plan, the green eyeshade types at Citizen's for Tax Justice crunched the numbers (PDF). They conclude that a quarter of all households, most of them poor, would pay more taxes under the GOP plan, while the richest one percent would pay $100,000 less.
 

But at least it's not SOCIALISM!

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Police in Fort Lauderdale, Florida are facing scrutiny and criticism after police officers beat a man in an elevator and then charged him with assaulting them. What is most disturbing is that internal affairs investigated Joshua Daniel Ortiz's, 22, claims and completely cleared the officers — yet never appeared to have reviewed the surveillance tape (below) that clearly contradicts by the officers. The department, however, will not discipline the officers for a clearly bogus criminal charge and either intentionally misleading or false reports. http://jonathanturley.org/2009/03/29/video-shows-police-officers-beating-man-without-provocation-and-then-charging-him-with-assault/#more-9434

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The most important story in the blogosphere right now, according to Memeorandum, is this, from the Catholic News Agency:

Hillary Clinton leaves flowers for Our Lady of Guadalupe, asks 'Who painted it?'

Yeah, I guess that's still the official Catholic answer - that the image was miraculously imprinted on the cloak of a peasant named Juan Diego in 1531. Sure, the secretary of state should be briefed better about the lore before doing one of these photo ops. But no one's going to tell me that all the righty bloggers snarking off about this knew the first thing about the painting 24 hours ago, or had even heard of it. 

But, you know, there is an answer to Clinton's question that apparently isn't the Church's.

Oh well, at least she didn't ask how condoms cause AIDS.

And in a related story, an Italian group on the social networking Web site Facebook is urging people to post condoms to the pope in protest over his remarks.

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shampoo in the water supply triggers growth of deadly drug-resistant bugs. Fabric softeners, disinfectants, shampoos and other household products are spreading drug-resistant bacteria around Britain, scientists have warned. Detergents used in factories and mills are also increasing the odds that some medicines will no longer be able to combat dangerous diseases. - London Observer

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farm bug found in hospitals. A deadly new form of MRSA is believed to be spreading from farm animals to human for the first time. The bacteria already has been found in hospitals abroad. Experts believe excessive use of antibiotics in factory-farmed animals may be behind its development. - London Sunday Express

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Shorter Jennifer Rubin:

Barack Obama is making a big mistake by not implementing the policies of the people the public rejected in November

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Tristan Anderson is a young American fighting for his life 5000 miles away in a hospital after being shot in the face. Upon learning of what happened, his parents rushed to Tel Aviv. The family is holding hope and a vigil at his bedside. Mom is holding one of his hand while his girl friend, Gaby Silverman holding the other hand.

Tristan–38 years old and of Oakland, California–was shot by Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) on March 13th while peacefully protesting against the "separation wall" deemed illegal by the International Court of Justice in the Palestinian West Bank village of Bi'ilin. Israel was ordered to halt building the wall and compensate Palestinians for land illegally annexed. The wall–longer and taller than the infamous Berlin wall–zigzagged into Palestinian lands, thus preventing farmers and villagers from reaching their farms, hospitals, and schools.

Keep reading: http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/TPV3/Voices.php/2009/03/29/tristan-anderson-deserves-medal-of-freed#more3127

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"I believe that very few men are capable of estimating the immense amount of torture and agony which this dreadful punishment, prolonged for years, inflicts upon the sufferers; and in guessing at it myself, and in reasoning from what I have seen written upon their faces, and what to my certain knowledge they feel within, I am only the more convinced that there is a depth of terrible endurance in which none but the sufferers themselves can fathom, and which no man has a right to inflict upon his fellow creature. I hold this slow and daily tampering with the mysteries of the brain to be immeasurably worse than any torture of the body; and because its ghastly signs and tokens are not so palpable to the eye and sense of touch as scars upon the flesh; because its wounds are not upon the surface, and it extorts few cries that human ears can hear; therefore the more I denounce it, as a secret punishment which slumbering humanity is not roused up to stay," - Charles Dickens on solitary confinement, 1842.

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Photo: the feet of a chained Jose Padilla, a US citizen tortured and abused by his own government before formal charges or a trial.

Relieved that Guantanamo Bay is closing? Don't rest easy. Until we accept our collective responsibility for torture, and the fact that it requires not just the torturer's denial, but ours, it will prevail.

http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/rdpulpit/1249/rdpulpit:_torture_needs_you/

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Mitch McConnell is as insincere and duplicitous as they come. When Obama reached out to the Republicans, the Republicans shut him down. So, Obama is moving ahead to pass the agenda of change, which is what the American people want. McConnell doesn't like that.

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CNN: As part of the bailout, administration officials have requested that GM CEO Rick Wagoner step aside, and he has resigned.

Wagoner, who oversaw more than $73 billion in losses since 2005, will not leave immediately because, if he does, "he is entitled to a multimillion-dollar pension that the government does not want to pay."

If Geithner had come from the auto industry instead of Wall Street, I wonder how many other CEO's would be asked to step aside.

This just in ...GM's CEO resigns, to join AIG! 

"After Obama forced me out, I decided to follow my business philosophy of 'creating lemons out of lemons', and go to an organization where failure is rewarded."

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The NRA has decided to push for a law allowing students to carry handguns on college campuses in Texas. Because, if only we had more handguns at our colleges and universities, we wouldn't have had that terrible massacre at Virginia Tech.

"As one faculty person told me, 'Do you think I want to pass out those F's and D's with somebody in the classroom having a gun?'" said Rep. Lon Burnam, D-Fort Worth.

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As Newt Gingrich converts to Catholicism, a leading Catholic conservative says his sins—including an affair with a congressional aide—"no longer exist." Is he gunning for 2012?

From a Catholic point of view," Hudson told me, "Newt's sins no longer exist–they've been absolved. He's made a fresh start in life. So Newt will continue to sin and confess but there aren't going to be a lot of Catholics who will hold that against him. They understand why being a Catholic makes a difference.  http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-03-29/newts-resurrection/

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Earlier last week at a House Subcommittee on Energy and Environment, Rep. John Shimkus (Republicon - IL) tried to argue that the United States doesn't need a cap-and-trade system to limit CO2 emissions in the atmosphere. (In the past, he has called cap and trade "a shell game to hide the cost from the ultimate person who is going to pay.") Here is Shimkus's newest theory:

SHIMKUS: It's plant food. … So if we decrease the use of carbon dioxide, are we not taking away plant food from the atmosphere? … So all our good intentions could be for naught. In fact, we could be doing just the opposite of what the people who want to save the world are saying.

Of course, as the National Wildlife Fund points out, the excessive burning of fossil fuels has not been good for Earth's plant life at all. Matt Yglesias adds, "The point about our CO2 emissions is that the rate at which fossil fuel use puts new carbon into the atmosphere greatly exceeds the rate at which plants remove it. The aim is not to eliminate the CO2 from the atmosphere but to stabilize the amount of CO2, which means curtailing emissions to a level much closer to the rate at which plants consume it."

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Oil $50.25 per barrel. It's going up just in time for summer!

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A US sergeant convicted of murder for executing four bound and blindfolded prisoners in Iraq and then dumping their bodies in a Baghdad canal:  http://rawstory.com/news/afp/US_sergeant_convicted_of_executing__03302009.html

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GOP's more detailed budget to be written in invisible ink

"The American people also get a secret decoder ring to figure out WTF we're talking about, or better yet, a cone of silence so they don't realize we're never going to Get Smart."

 

 

 

Headlines - Sunday

 

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The state of Utah, that didn't vote for Obama, and whose reps all voted against the stimulus package (except the one Democrat), is bellying up to the trough to get $2.9 million of stimulus money for their medical clinics! Spectacular!  

 

The clinic in Bicknell got $154,155!

http://www.sltrib.com/ci_12011549?IADID=Search-www.sltrib.com-www.sltrib.com  

 

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Once forced to resign in massive fraud case, Rick Scott reborn as leader of anti-healthcare reform lobby: http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/once-forced-resign-massive-fraud-case

 

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The GOP's Underpants Gnome Budget:  http://firedoglake.com/2009/03/28/come-saturday-morning-the-gops-underpants-gnome-budget/

 

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You might want to think about planting a garden

 

A new film, Food, Inc., will be shown at several film festivals this spring and summer and will open in select theaters across the U.S. Here's a clip:                                                                   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqQVll-MP3I&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fchristyhardinsmith%2Efiredoglake%2Ecom%2F2009%2F03%2F28%2Fpull%2Dup%2Da%2Dchair%2D8%2F&feature=player_embedded

 

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The Age of Reverse Darwinism is upon us

Each morning I read my newspaper - the one already on the endangered species list - and get validation of the theory that truth is indeed stranger than fiction. But lately, I've seen cracks in that previously sacrosanct notion. It seems that truth is now so weird it doesn't even make good fiction.

We've entered an age where Darwinism is derided as mere "theory" subordinate to the "truth" contained in a book of implausible fables designed to scare the caftans off ancient peoples. We're in the age of Reverse Darwinism – an epoch wherein our slow upward evolution is giving way to rapid devolution. By this time next year, everyone will lope about in a simian, half-erect posture like a crafty chimp saving rocks to chuck at intelligence-challenged zoo visitors. A year after that we'll be single-celled fossils brought to life in a primordial soup. A year after that the sea and simple plant life will devour the Earth. A year after that and the Big Bang will be nothing but a galactic whimper recapturing the rock called Earth.

How do I know this? Just look around.

The Parade of Stupendous Stupidity: http://www.teambio.org/2009/03/27/the-age-of-reverse-darwinism-is-upon-us/

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When David Addington, 'Cheney's Cheney', learned that he may soon be subject to arrest in 24 European countries for war crimes, he decided to take his family on vacation this summer to Wally World.

 

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Giant seabird's fossilized skull found in Peru.

 

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Can't we make Texas secede?

It isn't bad enough that Texas, in the form of the Texas GOP Platform, gave us wars, famine, pestilence, and a global economy it broke into thousands of little pieces. It wasn't enough that it shoved George W Bush, Iraq, torture, unprecedented corporate corruption, the egregious executions of innocent men, and the likes of Tom DeLay and John Cornyn down our throats. No, now it wants to force creationism into our schools by forcing it into Texas textbooks. 

Is there no end to Texan perfidy? Why can't they leave the rest of us alone? http://casadelogo.typepad.com/factesque/2009/03/cant-we-make-texas-secede.html#more

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Check out what a Brazilian archbishop has to say about the holocaust:

"The Jews talk about six million people killed. But how many Catholics were victims of the Holocaust? They were 22 million in all."

Huh? About 3 million Catholics were killed by the Nazi regime in camps…but it wasn't for being Catholic. It was for being Polish. I don't know where this mysterious "22 million" number comes from — there were 42 million total civilian casualties in World War II. Is he trying to include every single dead Catholic as a direct victim of the Holocaust? Since by far the largest fraction of the casualties in that war were borne by the Soviet Union, shouldn't we then be complaining that atheists were the true martyrs? (Not that I would, I think the reasoning of this archbishop is specious.)

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"Our road to recovery is easier than AA's: only three steps instead of twelve. That's a 75% reduction!"

 

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Michelle Malkin is a hypocrite

 

Back in 2006, Michelle Malkin decided to publish the names, phone numbers, and email addresses of three UC Santa Cruz students who led a protest against military recruiters on their campus. When the students got pounded by threats of violence, Malkin washed her hands of it, saying that it's up to individuals how they respond to the information she has made public.

Then in 2007, Michelle Malkin stalked the family of a twelve year-old boy who almost died in a car wreck, even going to their home. Her point? That they owned things and thus didn't need SCHIP.

In her latest "column", she is outraged at the idea that people would be angry enough to threaten violence or suggest punishments for AIG executives. Scrawls Malkin, "The radical ACORN mob and its corporate shakedown allies chartered a bus — with twice as many outrage-stoking MSM photographers in tow — to menace AIG executives in their homes." Imagine. Going to harass people you think are evil at their homes. Malkin also cites "the families who received [death] threats through AIG's website." It must give her the vapors.

The point here is not about AIG's employees or mob rule. The point is that if you yourself have whipped the mob into a frenzy and been lead torch carrier when it suits your purposes, then you've probably lost the moral high ground on the issue. 

 

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It's ok to cry about the Bush-wrecked stock market. Get yourself a Dow Jones Hanky for just $28 here.

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You can watch Glenn Beck on tv, listen to him on the radio, and buy him by the bottle.

 

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Another not miracle

 

So this little girl fell into a sinkhole and wasn't killed because she landed on a pipe, which kept her from dropping another 16 to 20 feet into the hole. Her mom's take? "She's got an angel watching." If I had an angel that let me fall into a sinkhole and I barely escaped with my life, I'd ask for a new angel. What, the angel couldn't have opened up the sinkhole before that kid fell into it?

This story reminds me of that skydiver woman who did a 50 MPH face-plant in a parking lot and lived. She claimed she was saved by a miracle and her god was looking out for her. Um, her god slammed her face first into a parking lot at 50 MPH. Her god hates her. A god who liked her would have opened her parachute properly.

 

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Sounds Familiar   [James S. Robbins] National Review Online:

I was interested in the number of times Presdent (sic) Obama invoked 9/11 in his Afghanistan speech. Wasn't that something President Bush took a lot of guff for from the left? And given the number of snarky cheap shots he took at Bush, the substance of Obama's strategy seems little different than that which was laid out in 2004.

For the last time, you blockhead ....Bush caught hell from both the left and the sane people on the right for saying "9/11" and "turrest"  in the context of Iraq because Iraq didn't have one thing to do with 9/11 and we all knew he was lying to our faces, and it pissed us off.

President Obama gets to cite 9/11 in the context of Afghanistan because, you know, that is where Osama bin Laden was hangin' out and recording his little messages and plotting to kill 3000 of us using our own planes and he found safe haven there. And Bush blew him off. Stopped thinking about him.  Went and settled a personal score instead.  Killed a million Iraqis, and in the process pissed away three trillion dollars that he funded with tax cuts and unicorns, and got over 4000 Americans killed.  All the while citing 9/11 and lying about connections between the secular Hussein and the fundamentalist freakshow that is al Qaeda.  

And we knew the mangy cur was lying, but gullible morons bought his phony, folksy brand of bullshit and shouted down the sane people who were right all along and fearmongered the hell out of a tragedy he had a chance to stop and didn't.  And then he let the bad guys get away and went off to start an unjust, illegal war.  

How insulting to the memory of that day.

But he wasn't done yet.  He neglected Afghanistan, and that allowed the fundamentalist freaks who throw acid in the faces of little girls who have the temerity to want to learn to read to make a comeback.  You know - the enablers of bin Laden and his merry band of murderers.  Those guys.  They were all but crushed.  Now they're back.  Because Bush ignored Afghanistan. What about this do these deliberately obtuse jackasses not understand?  

So no. They don't get to pull this crap because it isn't the same thing. And indolent, intellectually dishonest assholes like James Robbins need to be set straight every single time they try this crap.   

Because it isn't the same thing.  

Not even close.

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Don Davis - GOP leadership to replace busted ShamWow pitchman

"We've got the ultimate ShamWow - with the amazing reusable tax cuts, you can soak up all the resources in the country ...and actually leave a bigger mess!"

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A judge in Spain, who sought and caught Pinochet, has issued subpoenas for torture to Alberto Gonzales, David Addington, Douglas Feith, William Haynes, John Yoo and Jay Bybee.

Shocking news: torturing Abu Zubaida foiled no plots:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/28/AR2009032802066.html?hpid=topnews

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The rich are not that different from you and me

…they eat ramen noodles too. Harrod's Pot Noodles ($43) come in a hand-flocked gold leaf cup.

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Kudos to you if you participated in Earth Hour last night - it was a big success:           http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/29/environmentalists-hail-ea_n_180422.html 

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How many wars can we fight at the same time?

White House won't rule out sending troops for Pakistan war: http://blog.wired.com/defense/2009/03/white-house-won.html

 

 

Headlines - Saturday

 

Turn off the lights tonight!

It's that time again: Earth Hour! Don't forget to turn out the lights wherever you are at 8:30 p.m. (your time zone) and keep them off for the next 60 minutes.

Earth Hour 2009: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zd1BsNvEXqo&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Epensitoreview%2Ecom%2F&feature=player_embedded

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h/t Dick

 

Nice to know hard times haven't hit everyone

 

Breguet diamond-encrusted "double tourbillon" watches that cost about $710,000 are selling within days of their delivery to the U.S - a sign that demand for the most-expensive luxury goods still exists.

 

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Cool astronomy website: http://www.heavens-above.com/

 

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Brazilian president:

 

"This was a crisis that was fostered and boosted by the irrational behaviour of people who were white and blue-eyed, who before the crisis they looked like they knew everything about economics, but now have demonstrated they know nothing about economics," he said, mocking the "gods of wisdom" who had had to be bailed out. "The part of humanity that is responsible should be the part that pays for the crisis," he added.

 

And I would add white and blue-eyed 'men.'

 

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671 soldiers killed in Afghanistan.

In addition to the 17,000 troops President Obama has already committed to add to the war effort in Afghanistan, his new "comprehensive strategy" will include another 4,000 troops and hundreds of "civilian advisers," bringing the US military presence in Afghanistan to nearly 60,000.

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h/t Dick

 

 

 

A new study shows that crabs feel pain when they are boiled alive: http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20090327/sc_livescience/boilingmadcrabsfeelpain 

 

Wow. Who knew?

 

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When it learned it shared approximately 97% of its genetic makeup with Glenn Beck, the orangutan lost its appetite and began to gradually waste away.

 

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Visit Factropolis for a new fun trivia fact every day.

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"Take Michelle Obama...please. Every time I turn around, there she is on a magazine cover. If the First Family gets a female dog, will she be the First Bitch or will she have to settle for second place?" Bert Prelutsky, writing for The Christian Radio Network Link 

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An update on that charming Dallas cop who prevented Ryan Moats (black) from seeing his dying mother-in-law ...

The Dallas Police Department has placed Mr. Congeniality on administrative leave, ripped up the ticket and formally apologized to Moats, none of which will give him back that moment in time.

Moats plays for the Houston Texans, and rushed for 94 yards last season, a paltry sum by NFL standards. And yet thanks to those 94 yards, millions of citizens were able to see an injustice that might otherwise have been ignored. This exchange is likely to get at least one bad cop off the street, reinforce the notion that we don't tolerate crap like this as a society and perhaps get us to take one more look at the issue of race, even if it's just for an instant.

For Moats, however, that must be small consolation as he woke up this morning, screwed over.

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GOP Budget Theater: http://griperblade.blogspot.com/2009/03/gop-budget-theater.html 

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If you are looking for a nice alternative to AAA ... 

Better World Club provides nationwide roadside assistance. They are the nation's only environmentally friendly auto club. Membership includes eco-travel services, discounts on hybrid car rental, insurance services, free maps, auto maintenance discounts and bicycle roadside assistance. They donate 1% of annual revenues toward environmental cleanup and advocacy. http://www.betterworldclub.com/?source=adwords+bwc&gclid=CPfmnLS1xJkCFR0SagodYV2eug 

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Greg Gutfeld: The Ultimate Young Republican

Greg Gutfeld
Fox Redeye

Dear Gut,

Well, your apology hasn't worked. Our northern allies are still angry with you for mocking the sacrifice--the lives of one hundred and sixteen Canadian fathers, sons, husbands, and brothers--they've made in a war Our Former Leader waged as if it were a mere hobby, a distraction from other more important things.

Part of your problem is due to your lack of credibility as a war supporter. Many would argue that you have no standing to criticize the service of those who fought and died in Afghanistan, because you've limited your own participation to simply telling jokes about those who fail to express a sufficient degree of blood lust. Your phony pro-war chauvinism, your Potemkin patriotic fervor, is seen as an affront to those who feel the loss of each young man or woman in their guts and mourn each sacrifice made in the name of saving the Bush legacy.

But hey, who cares? We love you (in a heterosexual kind of way). You're almost as big as Joe the Plumber.

Heterosexually yours

Gen. JC Christian, patriot
 

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For two years, German police have been stalking the most prolific serial killer in its history — a rare female serial killer connected to 39 murders with DNA traces to Germany, Austria, and France. They offered 300,0000 euros to anyone who would help find her and hundreds of detectives interviewed 800 women convicted of crimes in the country. They have finally found her. Story here.

 

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It's like Katrina except with white people: http://www.pensitoreview.com/2009/03/27/its-like-katrina-except-with-white-people/

 

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After all the attention Texas got for their creationist curricula, Florida must have been feeling neglected, so they slipped in another creationist education bill. It's like this is a competition for craziest, most ignorant state in the union.

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The Pope, under the spell of infallibility and religious delusion, recently declared that condoms "increase the problem" of HIV transmission in Africa. This would be news to the CDC. And now the Lancet speaks out.

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Fred "The Rotting Cryptkeeper" Phelps and his band of christian zombies now seem to have a problem with Walt Whitman.

They're planning to demonstrate next month outside Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda because the school, which opened in 1962, is named for a man who may have been homosexual.

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Hmmm, lots of Republicons made the Boston Phoenix's list of the top 100 unsexiest men of 2009. 

 

The Vulgar Pigboy made #1!

 

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GOP budget

 

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Democratic leader tells Democrats to shut up

 

Wow. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Friday that liberal groups targeting moderate Democrats with ads should back off, saying pressure from the left wing of his party won't be helpful to enacting legislation.

 

Also not helpful? The Democratic Leader going to a newspaper to complain about Democrats exercising a benefit of living in a democracy."

 

 

Why do I know more than Harry Reid does? 

 

I knew there was no massive program of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, but Harry Reid didn't - and voted to authorize our invasion of that country. I knew that John Roberts was an extreme right-wing conservative, but Harry Reid didn't. And now he's bemoaning the fact that we're stuck with him.

 

Perhaps Sen. Reid should read something other than the crap written by the Beltway press corps that slavishly serves the interests of the GOP. Then perhaps he might not also be saying in the same article that he hopes the Republicans don't filibuster all of Barack Obama's judicial nominees.

I already know they will do just that. Why doesn't Harry Reid? 

 

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Pro-choice christian group fires back at Obama protesters

 

Rev. Dr. Carlton W. Veasey, president and CEO of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, said:

 

"It's unacceptable that so-called pro-life groups should try to set the agenda for a noble academic institution. Our nation was founded on religious tolerance and the separation of church and state. People of all faiths and no faith are citizens of this country. The protest over President Obama speaking at Notre Dame because of his views on abortion and stem cell research shows a weak understanding of the nature of our democracy and an intolerance for diverse viewpoints."

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Prochoice_Christians_fire_back_at_ObamaNotre_0326.html

 

Amen to that.

 

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What can brown do for you, Bill O'Reilly? It can stop advertising on your show:  http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3803822    

 

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Michele Bachmann appeared on Sean Hannity's radio show on Wednesday, and sharply reiterated her calls for revolution in America, warning against the imminent dangers of tyranny under Barack Obama.

 

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/03/bachmann-blasts-obamas-economic-marxism-calls-for-revolution-to-save-freedom.php

 

Matt Taibbi: "You know it's funny this morning outside of Penn Station I saw a guy huffing glue out of a paper bag, and he was making more sense than Michelle Bachmann was making. I can't believe it. You need to pass a written test to drive a car in this country but I bet this woman can't even write her name in the ground with a stick. I mean it's just unbelievable to me that this person is in the Congress."

 

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"You owe the American people every penny of your fortune and your family's fortune."  CNN's finance guru Suze Orman, to Bush, telling him to take responsibility for his economic crisis, Link  

Suze, don't forget he owes Hitler, too, for giving the family fortune their start.

 

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Bush's big victory in Iraq - by Boston handjob Jeff Jacoby Link

Excerpt: "Markets without bombs. Hummers without guns. Ice cream after dark. Busy streets without fear." 

So began ABC's Terry McCarthy in his report from Iraq as the war reached its sixth anniversary...

Paging Jeff: 

Iraqis sell kidneys to survive: http://www.thenational.ae/article/20090327/FOREIGN/967836593/1002/NEWS

Twenty-Five Killed in Suicide Attack on Iraqi Funeral - Link

Hey Jeff, if Iraq is safe and Bush gets the credit for victory, why don't you and Bush take an announced trip to Baghdad and walk thru the streets and go shopping at the bazaar? Mike Pence says it's just like an Indiana market, and Lindsey Graham says you can get a really good deal on rugs there.

If you do that, I'll write "Iraq is a safe place to visit, thanks to Bush."  

Of course, it was much safer to visit before Bush invaded and stole their oil...

And don't forget about the 4,261 American soldiers and 1+ million Iraqis killed.

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Dear children of the eighties and nineties,

Tuesday, the President gave a press conference. He has spoken to the press many times since he was elected. Believe it or not, this used to be what most every President did. They didn't have handpicked crowds who had 
signed loyalty oaths, they didn't confine most speeches to military bases, and most of them were pretty decent orators. They gave speeches, the press asked questions, and we had some idea of what was happening.

The thing I want you to know is that this is the way it should be. 
Government gets pretty rotten when it is conducted in dark rooms. 
President Obama is allowing some sunshine in. He has a long way to go,
but give him a chance. At least he is talking to you. 
Steve in Montana  

Bartcop says: And did you notice Obama was able to answer questions with precision and clarity. Bush generally would reply, "I'll have my people look into that," because he was so stupid.

If Bush managed to remember the name of the Prime Minister of some land, he'd smirk and puff his chest out like he had just hit a home run - and the whore press coddled him and told him he was great. 

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"Obama inherited an ungodly mess: a $1.2 trillion deficit, an economy that was careening from recession into depression. That's not to mention Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, North Korea and the Mexican drug war.  If this were "Sesame Street," the announcer would be saying, 'This program brought to you by the letters G, O and P.' "  Paul Begala Link

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"Crime can only be alleviated by a noose and a stout tree limb."  
George Lambus, a black, pro-lynching Republican mayoral candidate in Jackson, Mississippi, Link 

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"Too many Catholic bishops are treating parishes as if they were Starbucks franchises. It's about more than money." Christene Schenk, a Cleveland-area nun, denouncing a spate of church closures due to depopulation and rape-related financial strains, Link  

Bartcop says:

Ma'am, I hate to break this to you but it IS all about money. The difference between Starbucks and the Vatican is Starbucks would get shut down if they ran a worldwide, organized system to rape little boys.

If they closed a Starbucks every time a priest got caught raping a kid
you wouldn't be able to get a Peppermint White Chocolate Mocha anywhere.

Ouch.

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Lebanon, Syria, West Bank, Gaza, and now Sudan. The T-shirt design possibilities are endless!

Israel has conducted three military strikes against targets in Sudan since January in an effort to prevent what were believed to be Iranian weapons shipments from reaching Hamas in the Gaza Strip:  http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2009/03/exclusive-three.html  

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AP: more than 100 people reported getting sick after eating at an Applebee's restaurant near Syracuse. They ate something contaminated with fecal matter and got Shigellosis.

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Shorter David Broder:

Although I didn't criticize President Bush for running up a huge deficit to give tax cuts to the wealthy, it really, really worries me if Democrats do it.

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Bill Kristol launches sequel to PNAC that will be the same thing as PNAC

http://wonkette.com/407332/bill-kristol-launches-sequel-to-pnac-that-will-be-same-thing-as-pnac#more-407332

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Rep. Darrell Issa (Republicon-CA) and his conservative allies are pushing for legislation that would limit the first lady's ability to do substantive policy work. Issa had originally proposed the bill last year, in fear of Bill Clinton moving back in to the White House. But he insists the bill is only about ensuring "transparency" for the work of first ladies, adding, "We are trying actually to protect the historic role of the first lady." Or, as Gawker summed up Issa's proposal in its headline, "Congressman Wants Michelle Obama To Shut Up And Look Pretty." 

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Fried chicken and waffles

More delicious food here: http://thisiswhyyourefat.com/

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A romp through the Republican budget

Here's a snip from a piece by PM Carpenter in response to their tone-deaf, hysterical presentation yesterday:

What difference would numbers have made? I mean, just how does one quantify, "We haven't a bloody clue"? How does one numerically characterize, "Jesus, this just dawned on us - We can't believe we fell for this trick"? Just how, in heaven's name, can one slap a cold, impersonal figure on the red-faced human realization, "Oops, we're more stunningly hapless than we - even you - thought"?

I'll also offer Republicans a little sincere advice: Go away. Just go away for a long, long while. Grab whatever cash you have in the RNC account and hasten thee to a faraway exotic spa, or go on a year-long drunk, or simply hide yourselves at home, shutter the blinds, and STFU.

It's not your critics doing you harm. It's you and your non-budgeting budgets which advocate spending freezes during a deep freeze. It's Dick Cheney running around defending torture and denouncing social progress. It's Sarah Palin babbling about deficiently prayerful McCainites. It's your Cantors and Pences and Boehners looking and sounding so insufferably goofy. It's Michael Steele strategizing with God but genuflecting before Rush. For those fond of reifying brevity, it can even be just two words: Michele Bachmann.

Come on, boys. Give it a merciful rest.

Amen to that.