http://www.huffingtonpost.com/max-keiser/pumping-and-dumping-the-4_b_191400.html
"Richmond - This morning Republican members of Congress, including Virginia Congressman Eric Cantor (R-7th), announced new legislation that would grant Governors and state legislatures final approval authority before any detainee held at Guantanamo Bay could be transferred, or released, into their state. The bill, H.R. 2294, is titled the "Keep Terrorists Out of America Act".
How dumb do they think we are? How about so dumb we won't notice that GM turned GMAC into a bank right in the midle of the bank bailout so it would eligible for "saving"?
It looks as if one more bank needs a bailout. And, four months ago, this bank was not even a bank.
The company is GMAC, the onetime finance arm of General Motors, which itself seems to be hurtling toward bankruptcy.
The results of bank stress tests disclosed Thursday showed that GMAC is in dire straits. Federal regulators determined that GMAC must raise a staggering $11.5 billion in capital, the equivalent of roughly half its current equity. G.M. is in no position to help.
Uh-oh. And of course the usual argument applies, no matter how foolish it looks in retrospect: http://casadelogo.typepad.com/factesque/2009/05/pigs-in-space-21-when-youve-got-it-flaunt-it.html#more
And in a related story, the U.S. government is pouring billions into General Motors in hopes of reviving the domestic economy, but when the automaker completes its restructuring plan, many of the company's new jobs will be filled by workers overseas.
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A Republican conversation on insanity
Media Matters:
Following President Obama's May 5th visit to Ray's Hell Burger in Arlington, Virginia, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, and Rush Limbaugh Show guest host Mark Steyn criticized Obama as an elitist because he ordered a burger with "spicy mustard" or "Dijon mustard." Hannity claimed that Obama ordered a "fancy burger" with a "very special condiment," while Steyn asserted Obama is trying "to enlighten us" through his order. Ingraham asked of Obama: "What kind of man orders a cheeseburger without ketchup but Dijon mustard?... The guy orders a cheeseburger without ketchup? What is that?" In their discussions of Obama's burger order, Hannity, Ingraham, and Steyn all referenced a Grey Poupon commercial featuring actors portraying wealthy British men expressing desire for the mustard.
Oh for chrissake. It's a damned burger! It's a good thing these guys don't run Burger King or its motto would be "Have it our way or you hate America, you elitist scum!" No wonder these people aren't delivering voters. They're so eager to find fault that the faults they find are inane. How ridiculous is it to draw up a list of politically correct condiments? If I go to a rib joint, do I get sauce or dry rub? I really want to know, because I don't want people to think I'm a commie. Please advise.
If you're a Republican and you've read this far, I've got good news. The party is quietly choosing prudence over insanity. In the Senate at least, Republicans are looking to the center, not the fringe. While making a lot of noise about what a traitorous bastard Arlen Specter is, the next crop of Republican senatorial candidates look a lot like him.
"[T]he National Republican Senatorial Committee's recruitment list for 2010 reads like a roster of some of the party's best-known RINOs (Republicans In Name Only) and squishes -- the derisive terms applied to centrists by movement conservatives," reports Politico. With a long list of names you may or may not know, the emphasis is on moderation and centrism.
"I'm absolutely committed to recruiting candidates around the country that fit their states. Who would have thought we would be looking at states like Delaware, New York, Illinois and Connecticut for Republicans to run -- and have a reasonably good shot at winning?" said National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman John Cornyn. "It really is a recipe for permanent minority status and irrelevance if we don't pay attention to the arithmetic and get back to a position so we can shape legislation."
Dick Cheney, Rush Limbaugh, and Sean Hannity are going to hate these guys. In the long run, that might be the best yardstick Republicans can use to measure all their candidates -- how badly do the nuts hate them? If they fail the wingnut test, they probably have a much better chance of passing the electoral test.
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From the Bush White House website, here is proof that Sean Hannity is right, for once: Eating Dijon mustard is elitist. If the right wing's own aristocratic Dear Leader puts it in his egg salad, it must be fancy:
President and Laura Bush's Deviled Eggs Recipe
12 large eggs, boiled hard and peeled
1 Tbsp (plus) soft butter
1 Tbsp (plus) mayonnaise
1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp Yucatan Sunshine Habanero sauce
Salt to tasteCut eggs in half and set aside. Put egg yolks in food processor and add all ingredients. Process for 20 seconds or until mixture has blended. Check for taste and increase mustard, salt or Habanero sauce if desired. Place mixture in piping bag with star tip and pipe into egg halves. Sprinkle with paprika and chopped parsley. Chill for about an hour before serving.
Note about Yucatan Sunshine Habanero sauce: Habanero is a type of hot sauce, which can be substituted with Tabasco sauce. Yucatan Sunshine and other brands of the sauce can be purchased at most local supermarkets nationwide. The Bushes used the Yucatan Sunshine Habanero when living in Texas, and now the White House chef uses the sauce in a variety of recipes.
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Perhaps the reason Eric Holder doesn't want to investigate torture, is because Republicans are threatening to expose his role in renditions during the Clinton Administration if he does so. Imagine that: raw political retaliation could finally give civil libertarians a full investigation of this country's long-concealed abuses.
It is now clear that our mistake for the last eight years has been to call upon members to follow their conscience and principles. We should have expressed human rights in terms of a good way to embarrass your opponents.
Senators Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and Richard Shelby of Alabama pressed Holder on the CIA's "rendition" program under the Clinton Administration and demanded figures, which Holder promised to supply.
When is Holder going to stop this farce and allow a disinterested special prosecutor to investigate this matter? Until then, we will continue to see political ploys in both parties continue to diminish our standing in the world. At the moment, this entire controversy is being treated as a political contest by both Democrats and Republicans.
Ironically, the muscle play may backfire. Holder and Obama have already been accused for promising Bush officials before the inauguration that they would privately block any investigation or prosecution into torture. Their actions since then have only reaffirmed those statements by Senators and CIA officials. Now, if Holder does not investigate, it will be viewed as knuckling under to avoid personal embarrassment into his own actions during the Clinton administration.
Full story here.
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Porn star Stormy Daniels to run against Senator David Vitter.
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Gay marriage has twice the support today that interracial marriage had when it was legalized in the 1960's: http://www.pensitoreview.com/2009/05/08/gay-marriage-support-double-approval-of-mixed-marriage-in-1968/
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I thought Sarah Palin's state was the only one that charged women for rape kits, but it looks like Texas does too.
I, frankly, find it unconscionable that women receive collection letters for the collection of forensic evidence used to convict the criminals who assault them, while the victims compensation fund has millions of dollars of surplus cash.
In this case, when the woman's story made the local news, the hospital wrote off the bill. But so what? Why are rape victims getting billed in the first damned place?
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It's that time of month again...the Department of Labor released the numbers for April this morning, and they paint a mixed picture. The good news is the pace of job losses slowed down last month, with the economy losing only 539,000 jobs. That is the lowest rate of job loss in six months. The bad news is, the (official) unemployment rate matched economist's predictions and climbed to 8.9 percent, the highest unemployment rate since 1983. The percentage of unemployed is expected to continue climbing to at least 10% before it stabilizes and starts back down.
The economy has lost a net total of 5.7 million jobs. Since the recession started in December of 2007, and the erosion of sales and profits that have taken place have led to layoffs and other cost-cutting measures in order to stay afloat in uncertain waters.
Job loss numbers might have been offset by a few thousand by a spate in government hiring as the Obama administration staffs up and stimulus dollars kick in.
Another bright spot on the horizon that indicates the recession is the number of new jobless claims were filed last week is the lowest it has been in 14 weeks, a possible sign that the wave of layoffs has peaked. But even this is a mixed signal. While the number of new jobless claims is down, the overall number is at a new high of 6.35 million.
Now we all know that I am no economist, so my opinion isn't worth much, but if the rules of common sense apply, it just stands to reason that when the recovery that has to take place is both the worst recession since WWII and the worst housing market since the 1930s, mixed signals of recovery is about the best we can hope for.
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Homophobia trumps national security
Obama on the campaign trail, "We're spending large sums of money to kick highly qualified gays or lesbians out of our military, some of whom possess specialties like Arab-language capabilities that we desperately need."
I guess for some reason he didn't think we desperately needed this guy.
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Steven Green guilty on all 17 counts A Kentucky jury convicted the former Army private of the rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl and murdering all of her immediate family members in 2006. Green was the first ex-soldier to be charged under a US law that allows prosecution in American courts for crimes that are committed by service personnel overseas. The sentencing phase starts Monday, and he could be sentenced to death.
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"Obama will not have a White House ceremony to observe the National Day of Prayer." Ed Henry
"This has been a tradition in our country since 1952 with Truman...I think that we are looking to him today to lead this country and this has been a huge tradition. It has also been one that has been protected in our country through our constitution. We should be able to gather and pray as we see fit." Elisabeth Hasselbitch, who apparently can't pray unless Obama holds a ceremony Link
I find it odd when "Christains" lie about prayer. Isn't anything sacred to them?
No power on Earth can stop a conscious person from praying, so why do they lie about that? If they can't be honest about prayer - can they be honest about anything?
Why can't Christians show a little respect for their religion?
Is Jesus Christ himself showed up - would Hasselbitch lie right to his face?
"I'm not sure which is more annoying - the conservatives' prayer-related dishonesty or their prayer-related whining." Steve Benen Link
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From my own experience visiting the troops in the Middle East, I can tell you this, though: despite how the conflict has been portrayed by our glorious media, if you gave any U.S. soldier a gun with two bullets in it, and he found himself in an elevator with Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Osama bin Laden, there's a good chance that Nancy Pelosi would get shot twice, and Harry Reid and bin Laden would be strangled to death.
The Republicans have a very serious problem. They've fed such hatred amongst their followers that now it's all they have left.
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Saudi Arabia has co-opted the beauty pageant format, with one key change: instead of searching for the perfect swimsuit body and dazzling smile, officials are looking for perfect morals.
The woman who will win the title "Miss Beautiful Moals" need not be attractive, nor particularly well groomed. Judges are not looking for perky breasts or polished nails. In sharp contrast to our own Jessica-Simpson-bikini-clad contestants is Sukaina al-Zayer, a Saudi beauty pageant hopeful, who wears heavy black robes and shields her face with a veil. She looks forward to the pageant as her chance to show the world her devotion and humility.
http://www.mockpaperscissors.com/?p=18129#more-18129
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Duke Energy quits the right-wing National Association of Manufacturers over differences on climate policy: http://thinkprogress.org/2009/05/08/duke-nam/
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Because of a climate disaster, global warming skeptic Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) has been forced to cancel her attendance at the White House Correspondents' Dinner. The Wall Street Journal reports that an "unusually warm spring thaw in Alaska is causing some of the state's worst flooding in decades, with rising rivers wiping out an entire village and bombarding another town with ice chunks as big as houses":
Gov. Sarah Palin on Thursday was scheduled to fly over the stricken areas after canceling a planned trip to the East Coast for primarily state business. The governor on Wednesday had declared a disaster for the flooded areas, including the Susitna River, which runs through her hometown of Wasilla near Anchorage.
The floods resulted from "a rare combination of unusually heavy winter snow and a spring warm-up over the past week that saw temperatures soar into the 70s — a good 20 degrees higher than normal for this time of year." Palin "had planned to attend the White House Correspondent's Dinner this weekend in Washington, D.C., but a spokesman said her husband, Todd, would attend in her stead."
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Out of work and under investigation by Spanish authorities for his role in authorizing the Bush administration's torture regime, former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales will be coming back to Washington, D.C. to attend this weekend's White House correspondents' dinner. The Washington Post's Sleuth reports:
You might think Gonzo would be a little bashful about showing up at a place that will be jam-packed full of the new guard in the Obama administration and the very Democrats in Congress who drove him from office. But no, he'll be there all right this Saturday night. Gonzales is a confirmed guest of the Houston Chronicle, his old hometown paper.
Wanda Sykes is the entertainer for tomorrow night's event, and President Obama will also deliver some (funny?) remarks.
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Cluelessness, rabid bigotry and childish name-calling is no way to win over any converts, son.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20090507/us_time/08599189658800
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