Mario: McCain aide Mark Salter responded to Rick Santorum's statement that John McCain "doesn't understand how enhanced interrogation works."
"For pure, blind stupidity, nobody beats Santorum. In my 20 years in the Senate, I never met a dumber member, which he reminded me of today."
Are you enjoying the Republican in-fighting as much as I am? That said, "pure, blind stupidity" sounds like a fair description of most Republicans in and out of Congress.
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Mario: Political hypocrisy on a grand scale.
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GOP defeats Obama judge nominee for being too critical of Bush judge nominee.
Liu's confirmation battle is a symptom of a much larger problem — the GOP's success in blocking Obama's judicial nominations. There are 110 vacancies on the federal bench, a vacuum that leaves the judiciary ideologically skewed to the right.
The lack of Democratic appointees has allowed a more conservative federal bench to interpret the law in ways that drastically affect Americans' daily lives. Only 133 of Obama's nominees have been Read the rest of this post »
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Jill: Losing our democracy
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The Patriot Act and President George W. Obama
The Congress seems to be moving forward to once again extend the Patriot Act, which, among other things, gives the FBI carte blanche to rummage through your bank records, library records and all of the rest on their say-so.
I'd like to see one concrete case where rummaging through library records let to any tangible leads. What I have seen is that there are libraries which, in order to address their patrons' privacy concerns, no longer keep such records at all-- once you return what you have borrowed, the record is purged.
It has been clear for some time that the FBI has used these "anti-terror" powers for every frakking investigation they can. All that has to happen for some punk-ass special agent to show up at a bank, demand to see the records and they let him pore through their systems.
But there is no appetite in any administration for giving up any police powers. You can bet your ass that even if Hell were to freeze over and Ron Paul were elected, nothing would change.
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Netanyahu is one of the worst specimens humanity has to offer. What he lacks in likability he makes up for with hysterical paranoia. He has no interest in peace. In his heart of hearts, he wants a "final solution" for the Palestinians. He's just too cowardly to say it out loud in no uncertain terms.
This nonsense with Israel has been going on my entire life, and I am just fucking sick of it. I hate all the players involved, including all the neighboring Arab states that have used the Palestinians as political pawns to further their own ends. I'm exhausted with it and I live in the American midwest. I can't imagine if it was my day-in, day-out reality. At some point, you would think that reality would have to dawn on even the most thickheaded, but it doesn't seem to be happening here.
But I really, really, really despise Bibi. Of course that jackass had a hissy fit when the President said out loud that Israel needs to give up the occupied territories and pull back to 1967 borders. It pissed me off to read that before he boarded his plane to Washington where he will meet with the President today that he said he "expects to hear a reaffirmation from President Obama of American commitments made to Israel in 2004 which were overwhelmingly supported by both Houses of Congress."
Gosh, I'm skeered.
Why, if President Obama doesn't walk back the position he staked out yesterday, there will be consequences! He might even cut off all that military aid that Israel sends to the United States!
Oh wait...it's the other way around, so fuck him. He can stop whining like a little bitch and get with the program. Nobody rides for free.
I hope President Obama keeps his ass waiting for hours and then lets him know, in no uncertain terms when he does finally enter the room, that his expectations will remain unmet and unless Israel wants to go it alone in a hostile region, he can apologize for his impertinence and stop acting like a drama queen. Then I hope the President throws his fat ass out of his office.
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After pushing the government to brink of shutdown last week, Republican Congressional leaders are now preparing to push America to the edge of default by refusing to increase the nation's debt limit without first getting Democrats to concede to large spending cuts.But while the four Republicans in Congressional leadership positions are attempting to hold the increase hostage now, they combined to vote for a debt limit increase 19 times during the presidency of George W. Bush. In doing so, they increased the debt limit by nearly $4 trillion.
So Republicans are hypocrites. And the sun came up this morning and will go down again this evening.
At the beginning of the Bush presidency, the United States debt limit was $5.95 trillion. Despite promises that he would pay off the debt in 10 years, Bush increased the debt to $9.815 trillion by the end of his term, with plenty of help from the four Republicans currently holding Congressional leadership positions: Speaker John Boehner, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl. ThinkProgress compiled a breakdown of the five debt limit increases that took place during the Bush presidency and how the four Republican leaders voted:June 2002: Congress approves a $450 billion increase, raising the debt limit to $6.4 trillion. McConnell, Boehner, and Cantor vote "yea", Kyl votes "nay."
May 2003: Congress approves a $900 billion increase, raising the debt limit to $7.384 trillion. All four approve.
November 2004: Congress approves an $800 billion increase, raising the debt limit to $8.1 trillion. All four approve.
March 2006: Congress approves a $781 billion increase, raising the debt limit to $8.965 trillion. All four approve.
September 2007: Congress approves an $850 billion increase, raising the debt limit to $9.815 trillion. All four approve.
Database searches revealed no demands from the four legislators that debt increases come accompanied by drastic spending cuts, as there are now. In fact, the May 2003 debt limit increase passed the Senate the same day as the $350 billion Bush tax cuts for the wealthy.
And not a goddamned word in the major media. Just imagine how great this country would still be be if only journalists were still journalists instead of just another gaggle of overpaid mannequins reading from prepared scripts.
Here's some hott Harriet Miers news from the nation's top Harriet Miers blog: She's now working as a lobbyist for Pakistan! Cool! Dealing with terrorist-coddlers like Pakistani officials is pretty much just as bad as working with Antonin Scalia, so President Obama should totally appoint her to the Supreme Court again. Just look at Pakistan getting off the hook for abetting Osama bin Laden. She's earned it!
She is registered lobbyist for the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, Pakistan People's Party and Pakistan President and co-chair of the PPP Asif Ali Zardari. Miers even reps Zardari's kids, according to her Justice Dept. filing.
She began working for Pakistan, a $75K a month account for LLS, in August 2008 during the wind-down of Bush II's second term.
Is there some way we could also implicate her in this funny old Cindy Sheehan sex scandal we came across? That would be great. Retro Day!
Welcome Back, Harriet Miers, Pakistan Lobbyist [O'Dwyer's]
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The real rapture is this: America is no longer a Christian nation. They are truly vanishing — not by being snatched up by The Lord, but through the more common exits of death and disillusionment.
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