In case you've been on Mars, amid a recession, two wars, concerns over health care, etc. conservative talk show hosts and some Republicans have been making a big deal over the fact that President Barack Obama dared to put Grey Poupon mustard on his hamburger.
Republicans didn't cut the mustard in the last election — and they have been "poupon-ing" independent voters for several years.
But no matter, here is the fun email and press release from Grey Poupon:
May 8, 2009
The Honorable Barack H. Obama
President of the United States
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20006
Dear Mr. President:
We applaud you, Mr. President, for exercising your freedom of taste when recently ordering a burger with Dijon mustard. We're always happy to see people use Dijon mustard to add flair and flavor to their favorite foods. The right to choose condiments freely is quintessentially American and embodies the spirit of our democracy.
So we urge you to respond to "Dijon-gate" by issuing a "pardon" to any American who has ever been criticized for putting a liberal spread of Dijon mustard on a burger or a conservative dollop on a ham & cheese sandwich. These "Pardon Me for Loving Dijon" proclamations will empower the millions of Dijon mustard-loving Americans to ask for their favorite condiment with pride.
Respectfully yours,
The GREY POUPON Team
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There's a systemic problem with secretly briefing the Gang of Four, or Gang of Eight, whatever, when they can't discuss or refer what they learn to any legal authority. What good it is? How is this "oversight?"
I suppose in theory the idea is that they can make recommendations about future legislation, what to fund and what limits to place on the conduct of secret operations — but what on earth is a legislator supposed to do if they hear a clear admission of criminal behavior? And in the end, without the ability to explain to their fellow lawmakers what they know, theirs is only one vote among many who decide in ignorance.
Would an option of referring such a case to something akin to the classified FISA court work in such cases? Would that just lead to Congress becoming even more mushroom-like, kept in the dark and fed bullshit?
I really don't have an answer, and as Churchhill said, "Its not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what's required." Yet even in the face of Britain's possible distruction, he did not resort to the kind of barbarism that will define the Bush Administration's legacy.
• CIA agents are a group of professional liars. I don't even think that's slanderous, it's pretty much their job description. They exist to collect intelligence but the means they have used, and the missions on which they have embarked, have strayed far from this purpose and into the areas of disinformation and false flags and just out and out lying.
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Chemical maker W.R. Grace and three former executives were acquitted yesterday of charges that they knowingly exposed residents of a small Montana mining town to asbestos over many years and concealed the deadly threat.
The jury, which received the case Wednesday, returned its verdict yesterday morning, quickly dispensing with the government's long-running effort to hold Grace criminally responsible for high rates of lung disease in the mountain community of Libby.
Controversies about evidence loomed large over the case. The federal judge presiding over the trial in Missoula barred prosecutors from using much of the evidence they hoped to introduce, and the government apologized for withholding evidence from the defense.
Complaints of misconduct in the Justice Department's handling of the case echoed similar allegations in the recently dismissed ethics conviction of former senator Ted Stevens, the Alaska Republican.
Clever. Nobody wants to start prosecuting lawyers for making mistakes. Of course when the "mistakes" are fundamental, Legal Procedures 101-type "mistakes", maybe somebody ought not be allowed to practice law in the first place. Or prevented from practicing if they slipped through the system by, say, attending a Xtianist "law school".
I don't know about you, but there is no SuperMax in my community, but we are already holding some pretty damned dangerous terrorists in the one in Florence, CO. The worst terrorist this country has ever produced, Timothy McVeigh, was held in the SuperMax until he was executed for his crimes, and we still hold his accomplice, Terry Nichols, as well as another infamous right-wing terrorist, Eric Rudolph, in the SuperMax.
"Whether these terrorists are coming to a prison in Kansas, or a halfway house in Missouri, or any other state -- I can tell you this: Americans don't want these terrorists in their neighborhoods."
Excuse me, but what? I haven't heard a single word about placing terrorists in a "halfway house in Missouri" and I am pretty sure that even if we bring them to the SuperMax or a military brig or the DB at Leavenworth or anywhere else in this country - I'm pretty confident that I am not going to run into one of them shopping at the Target in Ward Parkway or standing in line at the coffee shop in Westport or at the green grocer in the City Market.
Do these fear-mongering reichtards not realize that the one thing that this country does better than any other is imprison people? Seriously. Nobody does it better. Even the old Soviet gulags would be red-faced with shame at the stellar success of Americans when it comes to snaring people and getting them in the system and keeping them there.
And one last thing Kitster - not only are Americans not a bunch of weak-kneed, terrified ninnys - but not a single one of the terrorist suspects has been determined to have superpowers. These guys aren't even on a par with Lex Luthor or The Joker - let alone Brainwave or Magneto, so chill the bleep out and let our corrections professionals do what they do so well.
And these numbers don't even take into account the massive gender gap that Democrats enjoy. Female voters in every age group self-identify as Democrats far more frequently than as republicans - 42% to 27%. Male voters are pretty evenly split, but then again, consider that men don't perceive that autonomy over their very bodies is at stake if they choose wrong, the gender gap is at least understandable.
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President Obama at the White House Correspondents dinner re: the press:
"Your ultimate success is essential to democracy..."
Now: it would appear the Obama administration is on the verge of reestablishing controversial military commissions the Bush administration used to try terror war prisoners, a Saturday report revealed.
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Court allows cops to track cars with GPS.
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Prejean's father William Prejean told E! that the Gov called his daughter to offer up her support, albeit before controversial topless photographs of his daughter went online.
"She called her directly to offer support," says the 58-year-old William Prejean.
Unfortunately he had no details on the conversation and no word if she thought the nudey photos were mavericky.
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U.S. Admits Civilians Died in Afghan Raids
United States officials acknowledged Thursday for the first time that at least some of what might be 100 civilian deaths in western Afghanistan had been caused by American bombs. In Afghanistan, residents angrily protested the deaths and demanded that American forces leave the country.
Initial American military reports that some of the casualties might have been caused by Taliban grenades, not American airstrikes, were "thinly sourced," a Pentagon official in Washington said Thursday, indicating that he was uncertain of their accuracy.
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Margaret and Helen: Shit Happens
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Arlen Specter isn't really having a good couple of weeks. Today, Specter is under fire for his http://www.specterforthecure.com/ website. Until recently, the site presented itself as a fundraising site for medical research when it was (and remains) a fundraising site for Specter's re-elect fund. A Specter aid defended the site, telling "Politico that no one could be 'genuinely confused about where contributions to this website go.'"
But this morning, Adam Green breaks the story that the site has been quietly changed and asks a good question:
Today, I have to ask: Where's the media outrage over a true scandal, Arlen Specter's Cancergate? (Yes, I'm coining that term - to describe Specter tricking the public into donating to a cancer cure website that actually funds his political campaign.)Also today, I believe I'm first to break some news: Arlen Specter's campaign has quietly changed his "Specter for the Cure" website after initially denying it was a scandal.
The media has, in fact, started to pick up on it (here and here for example), but Cancergate is a broader problem than just changing the language. For one, the site is more clear but it still serves a strange and vaguely shady purpose- suggesting that medical research will be funded if you contribute to Specter's re-elect. And clearly the Specter campaign recognized this since they changed it and hoped nobody would notice. Second, we'll never know how much money was donated through the site before the changed language which may have been given with the intent of funding medical research directly, which is a shame to say the least.
And after declaring he won't be a loyal Democrat and won't even be consistently with Democrats on procedural votes, this is just another reason on the pile that Specter needs a healthy challenge. If he's going to change nothing but the letter next to his name, he hasn't really changed anything at all, and he shouldn't get a free pass back to the Senate because he hit on a shrewd way to preempt a challenge from a Democrat.
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Bush would have given him a Medal of Freedom
The director of the White House Military Office submitted his resignation on Friday, less than two weeks after he authorized a flyover by an Air Force One backup of the Statue of Liberty that terrified thousands of people in New York City.
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Though more than 4,000 Louisiana homeowners have received rebuilding money only in the last six months, or are struggling with inadequate grants or no money at all, FEMA is intent on taking away their trailers by the end of May. The deadline, which ends temporary housing before permanent housing has replaced it, has become a stark example of recovery programs that seem almost to be working against one another.
President Obama has been in office since JANUARY. Tornado season is blazing away in the south and midwest, Katrina survivors are about to be tossed out of what sub-standard housing they do have and NOBODY'S IN CHARGE? How is that even possible?
Craig Fugate, FEMA Nominee, Blocked By David Vitter
This asshole is the gift that keeps on giving, isn't he?
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Hmmm, over the last few weeks, a number of banks successfully lobbied the Fed to make the stress tests less stressful:
The Federal Reserve significantly scaled back the size of the capital hole facing some of the nation's biggest banks shortly before concluding its stress tests, following two weeks of intense bargaining.
In addition, according to bank and government officials, the Fed used a different measurement of bank-capital levels than analysts and investors had been expecting, resulting in much smaller capital deficits.
The Wonk Room's Pat Garofalo notes that one interesting element of the announcement last week is that the banks will now have the opportunity to convert government debt into equity if the need arises, leaving the taxpayer on the hook for a larger bailout of the banks.
Fun fact: The White House is seriously considering a proposal that would make the Federal Reserve the supercop for "too big to fail" companies.
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George Bush refused to put polar bears on the endangered list, and now we see that Obama's so-called "empathy administration" doesn't have much empathy for the nation's polar bears either.
The Endangered Species Act is really of no particular use in this case, as the argument for putting the Whitey Bears on this list was that global warming is affecting the ice-ursine habitat. And while that's not really in doubt - except amongst the WingNuts, who know Alaska used to be a magical swamp full of dinosaurs who lived with Jesus and his Dino-sciples, which proves there's no such thing as climate change — the cause of global warming is, well, kind of global.
The ESA basically gives Fish & Wildlife the ability to go after specific people/companies/whatever to stop them from doing harm to endangered species. If your factory is dumping toxic filth in the river where the Endangered Night Toad spawns, then the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service can stop you from doing that. It's not so helpful when the culprit is, say, all smokestacks and diesel trucks and coal-burning plants all around the world.
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Pakistan faces biggest exodus since 1947.
Meanwhile, we killed at least another 10 with our drones.
4,287 soldiers killed in Iraq; 682 in Afghanistan.
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The Liberal Media
I'm going to share with you fine people something that apparently has escaped the notice of the producers and bookers of the Sunday news shows: The Democratic Party won last election day. Not just a little - but decisively. Democrats now hold the White House and a (theoretically) filibuster-proof majority in the Senate and House. A whopping percentage of Americans not only support our (say it with me now, Democratic) president, but think the country is going in the right direction.
Pretty decisive, wouldn't you say? I'd call that a mandate...some actual political capital, if you will. So who would be the natural choices for Sunday's shows? Why, Newt Gingrich, John McCain and Dick Cheney! That's right, the old faces that have been thoroughly rejected by citizens will be on to talk about the new face of the GOP.
Stunning. Here we sit, with crisis after crisis: economy, banking, auto industry, health care, climate change, Iraq, Afghanistan, (need I continue?) and what the bobbleheads think we should care about is the health of the GOP? There's a big WTF for you.
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