It's tempting to apply that old term to the Republican party, but these days it's become inapt. Not that they aren't all about distracting you from how much trouble you're in, it's just that they're ideologically opposed to giving away bread. That's a government handout and that's bad -- so all you're going to get from them are circuses. Mostly clowns, actually.
http://griperblade.blogspot.com/2009/07/just-circuses-no-bread.html
One of Obama's first foreign policy decisions as the commander-in-chief was to copy Bush's Iraq troop "surge" with a surge of his own in Afghanistan. The U.S. troop presence has drastically increased from 32,000 at the start of 2009 to about 57,000 presently with an anticipated cap around the 68,000 mark (which would more than double the U.S. commitment to the region). Like the salesman on a late-night infomercial typically proclaims, "But wait — there's more!" Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced that the number of boots on the ground could climb even beyond the 68,000 number: http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/usnews/foreign-policy/1450
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QOTD from Oliver Willis: "Harry Reid is a joke. A laughable, sick joke that is allowing Americans to have a substandard way of life."
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Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (NV) just made the announcement:
The top Democrat in the Senate says lawmakers won't vote until after August on health care, a blow to President Barack Obama's ambitious timetable.
[...]
The Nevada Democrat says the decision to delay a vote was made Wednesday night in the hopes of getting a final bipartisan bill.
Count this as a win for obstructionist Republicans, the health care industry and their puppets.
This delay in passing health care reform is going to have serious consequences for the American people. Keep in mind that, by the time the August recess is done,
143,000+ will lose their health care.
53,000+ will file for bankruptcy because of medical bills.
1,265 will die because of lack of coverage.
And here's some more evidence of just how dire the health care crisis is becoming:
A survey of more than 29,000 individuals in June by Gallup shows that 16 percent of Americans over the age of 18 are currently without health insurance. That number reflects what the survey's authors describe as a "small but measurable uptick in the percentage of uninsured adults."
[...]
According to 2007 U.S. Census data, the population of those 18 years or older stood at 228,196,823. By using that figure, in September of 2008, the number of uninsured adults would have totaled approximately 31.7 million. Today, the figure stands at 36.5 million — meaning that 4.8 million adults have, in less than a year, lost their insurance coverage.
22,000 Americans die every year because they lack adequate health care coverage. That's a basic, verifiable fact. That's about 60 Americans every day, or six 9/11's every year.
GOP obstructionists and the health insurance industry will continue to go all-out in order to block health care reform; they're hoping that the recess will give them time to kill reform once and for all.
President Obama and Congressional Democrats (at least those Democrats who aren't owned by the health insurance industry) need to use this recess to both complete a strong health care reform bill and to sell that bill to the American people.
A month's delay is a long time; if Congress can't hit the ground running on health care reform come the fall, it's quite possible that we may have to delay universal health care for a generation or more once again.
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h/t Jeff: (the entire article) Rolling Stone: Inside the Great American Bubble Machine
Matt Taibbi on how Goldman Sachs has engineered every major market manipulation since the Great Depression
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/28816321/inside_the_great_american_bubble_machine
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If I had a hammer, I'd .....Romanian man comes up with home remedy for constipation
This is a case where there is no one to sue, let alone to blame, beyond yourself. Viorel Firoiu was having constipation problems after eating cherries and decided to try to work things out with the use of two hammers that had to be removed by doctors. This may come as something of a surprise, but he had been drinking. It brings a new meaning to being hammered.
The hospital was a bit surprised when they gave him an x-ray for stomach pain only to see the above hammer heads in his body.
Yes, in case you were wondering, he used the second hammer to try to dislodge the first hammer. Fortunately, there was no local hardware store available so that was not a further proliferation of lower-bowel tools.
These doctors are not unique in finding surprise objects in rectal surgeries, though at least they did not film the event here.
For the story, click here.
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America's Most Trusted Newsman
Half the Republicans' opposition to a public health care option comes not from policy differences with the Democrats, or fundamental philosophical differences about the role of government, but purely from a desire to score political points against President Barack Obama, a senior Republican senator has admitted.
George Voinovich (R-OH) said on CNBC Wednesday that a desire to prevent the Democratic president from scoring a historical victory with a public health plan accounts for at least 50 percent of the GOP opposition to the plan.
It's probably more like 99 and 44/100ths%. Screw health care for Americans that doesn't make the health 'insurance' industry richer, more money for less value, and don't forget to re-elect us, you freaking morons, for wanting this President and this country to fail.
This tells you everything you need to do know about our elite media. From MSNBC's First Read (via Politico):
Honest question: Is there a point when the president knows too much about an issue?
That's what it's come to: we'd be better off with a president who knew less about the issues.
And this from the same people who were saying "Ho, snap!" and high-fiving every time John McCain shouted "bear DNA!" at a confused American public.
Sometimes I think we are really screwed.
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As per usual, Marcy Wheeler does a damned fine job unpacking the fairy tale that Time magazine is floating in tomorrow's edition about Bush getting' all manly there at the end and standing up to Cheney, who wanted Libby pardoned. It's all bullshit - the pardon was never on the table - the commutation kept him out of prison, but it also keeps his lips zipped, and we all know it.
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The Birther Movement (BM - heh) now can proudly claim G. Gordon Liddy, famous Watergate burgler and notorious thong-wearing creep ....
Convicted felon G. Gordon Liddy says Obama is an 'illegal alien' born in a hospital in Mombasa: http://thinkprogress.org/2009/07/23/gordan-liddy-birther/
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Roll Call reports that Senate Democrats are "increasingly frustrated by the secrecy and duration of Finance Chairman Max Baucus' (D-MT) bipartisan talks on health care reform." One unnamed Senator appeared irritated that Baucus " is unlikely to run any deal by his caucus before he shakes hands on an agreement with Republicans." OpenLeft then wondered how Baucus's campaigns are financed and found that from 2005 to the present, the health insurance industry has significant representation among his top-ten donors:
Also today, Politico reported that many of the industries opposing President Obama's agenda are contributing heavily to the House's 52-member Blue Dog Coalition, which has been consistently trying to weaken efforts to pass health care, clean energy, and economic recovery legislation.
More on the Blue Dog Coalition raking in corporate cash here.
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FEMA worked so hard on behalf of the victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and gave these people lovely little formaldehyde-soaked trailers, but do they ever get any thanks? No, they do not. AP
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A fellow sailor has been charged with murdering a gay Navy guy and then setting the remains on fire. Houston Chronicle
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Exhausted from his tight schedule of dodging minions, furtive overseas travelling and mistress-wrangling, repug Gov. Mark Sanford has decided that a two-week European vacation is exactly what he needs to unwind. Never mind the fact that he and his wife, ol' whasshername, just returned from a five-day out-of-state trip Monday night.
[The European] trip also is the fourth time Sanford has left the state on personal travel in the last six weeks, including his mid-June trip to Buenos Aires to bop the bejeebus out of his busty boofykins.
Bonus: he pins the latest fiasco on his kids:
Sanford said he considered canceling the trip, but that his children had raised money to help pay for the excursion by selling lemonade.
Good fucking gravy. Under a huge American flag, no doubt. While "My Country Tis of Thee" played from loudspeakers on the front porch. Next to th' spittoons. And how much fucking lemonade do you have to sell to pay for a 2-wk family trip to Monaco, for crying out loud? If I could sell lemonade like that I'd quit my day job. Honestly.
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The Pentagon is not amused by Ralph Peters shooting his mouth off and giving aid and comfort to the Taliban even as they hold one of our Soldiers captive. Congressional Veterans are pissed off, too, and signed a letter to Fox News demanding an apology for the young man's family. One of the congressmen, Eric Massa of New York, who achieved the rank of Commander in the United States Navy went so far as to demand Fox News fire Peters and O'Reilly.
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4,328 soldiers killed in Iraq. Deaths by year:
2003: 486
2004: 849
2005: 846
2006: 822
2007: 904
2008: 313
2009: 108
753 killed in Afghanistan.
2001: 12
2002: 49
2003: 48
2004: 52
2005: 99
2006: 98
2007: 117
2008: 155
2009: 123 so far
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