Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Headlines - Wednesday

For now, White House plans to restore (not release) emails from Plame cover-up period: http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/12/14/white-house-to-restore-emails-from-plame-cover-up-period/
 
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Yesterday, the SCOTUS declined to review an Appeals Court decision that ruled that Rummy and 10 other DOD officials are immune from suit for torture.

As Adam Serwer points out, SCOTUS' refusal to review the immunity ruling once again deprives the American justice system of a definitive ruling that torture is wrong. 

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The climate denial industry is out to dupe the public. And it's working

Think environmentalists are stooges? You're the unwitting recruit of a hugely powerful oil lobby: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cif-green/2009/dec/07/climate-change-denial-industry

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One of the few things growing as fast as health care costs is the income of the richest 1%.

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How about you keep your kids away from dangerous things?

The Consumer Product Safety Commission and the window blind industry are recalling virtually every Roman blind and roller shade on the market -- around 50 million sets -- because the cords pose a strangulation hazard to children. http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/ConsumerNews/50-million-blinds-recall-child-deaths/story?id=9336171

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New computer modeling suggests the Arctic Ocean may be nearly ice-free in the summertime as early as 2014, Al Gore said Monday at the U.N. climate conference. This new projection, following several years of dramatic retreat by polar sea ice, suggests that the ice cap may nearly vanish in the summer much sooner than the year 2030, as was forecast by a U.S. government agency eight months ago.

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Redneck Christmas float - h/t Sage:

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Liz Cheney, daughter of Satan himself (who shamefully outed a covert CIA operative), accuses Obama of slandering the CIA in Nobel speech. Says it was "shameful."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/13/liz-cheney-accuses-obama_n_390215.html

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"If the left manages to drive through a bill which is opposed by 65 percent of the country on health care, our commitment should be simple - when we get a majority, we're repealing the whole thing. And I want every Democrat who is about to sacrifice their seat for socialized medicine to understand: after you lose your seat, you're going to lose the socialized medicine too." Gingrich, pretending 65% of America loves the cost of the health care they're not getting Link  

The real message is - if you're going to lose your seat, why not go down fighting?

The Demo cowards caved in to the Fascist dogs in 1994 and lost everything - will they do it again? 

"The other side has no answers. The other side is not going to improve anything. And if we are not careful the other side is going to turn the whole country into Detroit. Then we will all be uneducated, we will all be poor, and we will all live in dangerous places." Gingrich, refusing to admit the lack of affordable health care killed Detroit,    Link  

If we had affordable health care, Detroit could compete with Japan, 
but the GOP loves their insurance bribes more than they love their country.

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"I did not run for office to be helping out a bunch of fat cat bankers on Wall Street." Obama on 60 Minutes

Taibbi: Obama's Big Sellout

So Matt, how do you feel about all those vicious lies you told to get him elected?

Remember when Hillary won New Hampshire, and you said you felt like you'd just gotten cancer?

Both Matthew Yglesias and Tapped accuse Taibbi of exaggerating to the point of fictionalizing.

Taibbi responds.

Of course Taibbi's right about the extensive ties to Robert Rubin and Citi that were there before Obama was sworn in. That's why things like this happen:

IRS gives Citibank massive $38 billion dollar tax break to "wean it off" first bailout:
 
What will the IRS be giving YOU this year? 

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"We are cooling. We are not warming. The warming you see out there is part of the cooling process. Michael Steele, saying what his white masters tell him to say Link 
 

 As you know, new glaciers are being formed every day. 

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"The federal government is gang-raping the people. We're headed where the people will have no recourse but to take things into their own hands." Teabagger Mark Carpenter, to Rep. Robert Wittman (R-VA), at a town hall Link

"Mark, that's a good point." Rep. Robert Wittman (R-VA), green lighting Obama's murder Link

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merrill lynch bull

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Here comes a new civil war!

Brother against brother, a house divided against itself. Goober peas and Johnny Reb. Rhett and Scarlett. Banjo vs. fiddle. Turns out it's all going to happen again...

EU Times:

Poster for 'Gone With the Wind'Russian Military Analysts are reporting to Prime Minister Putin that US President Barack Obama has issued orders to his Northern Command's (USNORTHCOM) top leader, US Air Force General Gene Renuart, to "begin immediately" increasing his military forces to 1 million troops by January 30, 2010, in what these reports warn is an expected outbreak of civil war within the United States before the end of winter.

According to these reports, Obama has had over these past weeks "numerous" meetings with his war council about how best to manage the expected implosion of his Nations banking system while at the same time attempting to keep the United States military hegemony over the World in what Russian Military Analysts state is a "last ditch gambit" whose success is "far from certain".

This isn't the start of a second Civil War, but the birth of a new wingnut meme. The gullibility of some people seems to be endless. If I ever want to generate a whole bunch of traffic to this blog, I'll post the shocking revelation that Barack Obama plans to sell Alaska back to Russia. The credulous teabagger masses will flock like sheep to the site.

Keep reading: http://griperblade.blogspot.com/2009/12/here-comes-new-civil-war.html

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Media Matters recaps the lies, racism, homophobia, and xenophobia of Fox News in 2009. Watch this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lQhwKu7mT4&feature=player_embedded

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Well, You Can Shut Up, Matt: http://www.theleftcoaster.com/archives/014629.php

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Going Rogue Without A Condom: http://margaretandhelen.wordpress.com/2009/12/07/going-rogue-without-a-condom/

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The doubt industry

There are many reasons why no binding agreement will likely emerge from the United Nations climate conference in Copenhagen. We would put near the top of the list the ongoing, cleverly orchestrated and well-funded campaign of junk science designed to mislead people into thinking that there is a difference in scientific opinion about climate change.

It's not a particularly new tactic. The tobacco industry perfected it years ago. They called it "manufacturing doubt."

http://www.reformer.com/ci_13981983?source=most_emailed

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Hackers paid by climate sceptics, UN says: http://www.theage.com.au/national/hackers-paid-by-climate-sceptics-un-says-20091207-kfck.html

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The most popular game on the boardwalk An Arcade owner in Surrey, England has taken the old Whack-a-Mole game idea and adapted it to Whack a Banker - and it is not only the most popular game in the arcade, patrons smack the priggish-looking little plastic fellows so hard that the proprietor has to keep replacing the mallet.  

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Obama thanked Lieberman today for saying he would only support the health care bill if Medicare opt-in and public option were dropped 

Thanked him. Basically for extortion. And for killing the number one promise our President made during the campaign on this issue.
 
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So the Obama administration just helped guarantee that you get to pay three to five times more for you prescription drugs. 

There is another winner in the Senate health care bill, besides the insurance companies. That would be the drug industry. The Senate just rejected an effort led by Senator Byron Dorgan to allow for the importation of drugs:
The Senate has narrowly rejected a plan to allow Americans to import low-cost prescription drugs from Canada and other countries.

The amendment by North Dakota Democrat Byron Dorgan failed on a 51-48 vote. Sixty votes were needed to prevail.
The Senate roll call is here.
 
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Time to put it out of its misery: http://brilliantatbreakfast.blogspot.com/2009/12/time-to-put-it-out-of-its-misery.html
 
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160 villages in Alaska are threatened by not climate change, really, it's not.
 
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The Catholic Church has a couple more months before they follow their "moral convictions" and stop helping poor people....
 
Gay marriage passed by wide margin in Washington DC.
 
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Two phrases that should scare the crap outta anyone:

  • Jingle Bell Rock
  • Billy Idol's facelift
Go there, but don't say I have not warned you.
 
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Would you give this man $50?

Bush

The Chimpy McStagger Preznintial Lie-berry will include your name in the Freedom Registry on permanent display for $50, American.

FWIW $50 is something which few Americans have thanks to Chimpy McStagger, so it all works out like Karma.

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By a vote of 412-12, the House yesterday overwhelmingly approved "sanctions legislation aimed at forcing Iran to freeze its nuclear program by depriving the Islamic republic of gasoline." As The Wonk Room's Matt Duss has noted, there are few analysts — on the left or the right — who believe these sanctions will be effective.

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On his radio show today, an African-American caller questioned Glenn Beck's deification of the Founding Fathers by bringing up the fact that the Constitution "didn't even recognize my people as even human." The caller was referring to the three-fifths clause - a provision which counted slaves as three-fifths of a person for purposes of congressional representation and taxation. Beck hit back with a full-throated defense of the three-fifths law, saying it was actually an abolitionist provision: http://thinkprogress.org/2009/12/15/beck-three-fifths/
 
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Oral Roberts, dead as the dickens: http://wonkette.com/412754/oral-roberts-dead-as-the-dickens
 
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Always enough money to kill people
 
In addition to the 30,000+ troops, up to 56,000 more contractors heading to Afghanistan.
 
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Not from The Onion:
 
Helicopter Ben Bernanke, who is partially responsible for causing the financial crisis named Time's person of the year: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/16/ben-bernanke-time-person_n_393824.html
 
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Dean's clever move

Yesterday, Traitor Joe implied that his real reason for rejecting the Medicare buy-in part of health care reform was the enthusiasm for the plan on the part of liberals like Rep. Anthony Weiner.

This exposes and confirms two long-standing accusation from liberals:

  • President Obama and Congressional Democrats lost the health care reform battle a year ago when they rejected their best negotiating point: single-payer.
  • Traitor Joe wants to ensure a gargantuan taxpayer handout to his buddies in Big Insurance, but his real motivation is fucking over liberals, regardless of the consequences.

Then last night, Howard Dean advised Democrats to kill the Senate bill.

For the physician, long-time reform advocate and former Democratic Party Chair, who just last week strongly endorsed the Medicare compromise in order to save the bill, to recommend starting over, was stunning.

Dean is generally considered to be part of the "policy wonk" faction on health care reform, emphasizing getting even a flawed bill that can be improved later, rather than the "political activist" faction insisting that only a strong public option will prevent a Democratic bloodbath in the 2010 elections.

But this statement makes me wonder if Dean, the architect of the 50-state strategy that achieved Democratic victory in 2006 and 2008, might just be playing rope-a-dope with Traitor Joe.

But don't listen to me, President Lierberman. You stick to your principles. Whatever they may happen to be this morning.

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