Headlines For Today: Headlines

President Obama is being urged to get ready to strike Iran, and he's sending another 1,000 soldiers to Iraq. Oh, and Admiral Mullen says more troops and 'much more time is needed in Afghanistan.'

Despite promises during the campaign that he would review certain of the most intrusive portions of the PATRIOT Act, President Barack Obama's Justice Department today is calling for Congress to extend all three expiring provisions, though they were "willing to consider" civil rights protections "as long as they don't weaken" the president's powers under the act.

Fun fact: National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair revealed a long-secret piece of information today, that the United States is spending roughly $75 billion a year on "intelligence activities." - aka spying on us.

The Obama Administration made it clear today that "rights" for detainees in Bagram (the new Guantanamo) don't extend very far.

Top US defense officials say that roughly 3,000 additional troops, which are classified not as combat troops but rather "combat enablers," will be deployed to Afghanistan in the coming days. Officials say the decision was made roughly two weeks ago, which puts it at about the same time that the Pentagon was publicly announcing that it was pulling 14,000 support troops from the nation to add 14,000 more "trigger pullers" to the conflict.

###

Greenwald: In Iraq, freedom is marching backward.

###

###

"We need to be discussing issues specifically to help the American people. And that would not include illegal aliens, these are people-- I'm for immigration, legal immigration, I've been an immigration attorney. But people who have come to our country and violated laws, we should not be providing full health care services." Rep. Joe Wilson

Note to Joe: "You lie!!!"

###

Glenn Beck's reaction was immediate when he heard Alex Jones say, "Your bizarre and clownish antics of fake crying ...are doing nothing but reinforcing the stereotype that the conservative right is insane."

###

The GOP's wasted effort

This weekend, the right had what can only be described as a big (but not nearly as big as they claim) whine-fest on the national mall. The idea was supposedly to recapture the non-partisan unity that followed 9/11. although I don't remember that unity being expressed as a belief that President Bush was an Indonesian Muslim terrorist who was instituting death panels and FEMA work camps to spread communism, like Hitler. The fact was that the 9/12 rally wasn't actually about anything in particular, other than a wish that someone else had won in November. Healthcare reform, creeping socialism, taxes, take your pick -- the protests were about everything and nothing, as focused as bare light bulb, it's light spreading out in every direction.

Writing about this new wingnut rage in general, Henry Hertzberg writes in The New Yorker:

http://griperblade.blogspot.com/2009/09/gops-wasted-effort.html

###

Only 35%?

A new Public Policy Polling survey of New Jersey voters has some shocking results: 21 percent either believe or aren't sure that President Obama is the Anti-Christ. Twenty-nine percent of Republicans and 35 percent of "conservative" voters also either believe he is or aren't sure.

Not surprisingly, this meme has also been pushed by Fox News host Glenn Beck, who brought on controversial pastor John Hagee last year and asked, "There are people– they say this about Bill Clinton — he might be the Antichrist. Odds that Barack Obama is the Antichrist?"

###

Bernanke says Recession "Very Likely Over," Despite a Rumor to the Contrary Being Spread by 15.6 Million Unemployed Americans

###

The Rude Pundit: Moments from Yesterday's Brief Dance of the Damned:

From the floor "debate" over the resolution that Representative Joe Wilson not be given a pudding cup after his din-din unless he eats his peas:

Joe Wilson: "However, this action today will have done nothing for the taxpayers to rein in the growing cost and size of the Federal Government. It will not help more Americans secure jobs, promote better education, ensure retirement, or reform health insurance. It is the Democrat leadership, in their rush to pass a very bad government health care plan, that is bad medicine for America. It has muzzled the voices we represent and provoked partisanship. When we are done here today, we will not have taken any steps closer to helping more American families afford health insurance or helping small businesses create new jobs. "

Eric Cantor: "I don't understand how it is a priority that we are here on this particular resolution. The resolution, as has been pointed out, creates no job. The resolution does nothing to do anything to increase access to quality health care. The resolution does nothing to address the issues of national security. Plain and simple, this resolution does not reflect the priority of the American people." Cantor then went on to explain why he thought Barack Obama was lying.

Candice Miller: "The resolution that we are considering today will not create one job. It will not help one person get health care for their family. It will do nothing to allay the concerns of seniors who are worried about their Medicare. It will do nothing to get our economy moving again."

Mike Pence: "Last Wednesday was not a good day in the House, but today is worse. Today we see politics overwhelming this institution. The American people are tired."

Those were all Republicans, lamenting the time spent on ridiculous non-job-creating, non-health-care-solving, non-national security-improving resolutions.

Other resolutions discussed and voted on yesterday by the House of Representatives include:

Re-naming a post office in Iowa to the "Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans Memorial Post Office." That was co-sponsored by Republican Darrell Issa.

Recognition of and support for American Legion Day. Widely approved of by Republicans.

Recognition of an area of Missouri as "the Kansas City Animal Health Corridor," because it is, apparently, "the national center of the animal health industry based on the unmatched concentration of animal health and nutrition businesses and educational and research assets."

Now you can ask yourself if any of these things produce jobs, make the nation more secure, or do anything for health care for, you know, human beings. You could say this shit happens everyday in Congress. And you'd be right. But then you'd be accusing Congress of wasting time. And when such weighty matters are at hand, why would you bother punishing someone for a breach of the rules of the very body that is wasting time?

###

Teen birth rates higher in religious conservative states

Shocking, isn't it? Besides everyone outside of these backwards communities, who ever would have imagined such results?

U.S. states whose residents have more conservative religious beliefs on average tend to have higher rates of teenagers giving birth, a new study suggests.

The relationship could be due to the fact that communities with such religious beliefs (a literal interpretation of the Bible, for instance) may frown upon contraception, researchers say. If that same culture isn't successfully discouraging teen sex, the pregnancy and birth rates rise.

Mississippi topped the list for conservative religious beliefs and teen birth rates, according to the study results, which will be detailed in a forthcoming issue of the journal Reproductive Health.

###

And the "No shit, Sherlock, what was your first clue" award goes to: http://eb-misfit.blogspot.com/2009/09/and-no-shit-sherlock-what-was-your.html

###

"I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man, that he's African American."

"I live in the South, and I've seen the South come a long way and I've seen the rest of the country that shared the South's attitude toward minority groups at that time … and I think it's bubbled up to the surface," Carter said, "because of a belief among many white people, not just in the South but around the country, that African-Americans are not qualified to lead this great country." President Jimmy Carter

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs: "The president does not believe that that criticism comes based on the color of his skin."

"The president does not believe that that criticism comes based on the color of his skin."

Ha ha geddit???? Because who would let a black person be president?

"The president does not believe that that criticism comes based on the color of his skin."

"The president does not believe that that criticism comes based on the color of his skin."

.......

In a remark extraordinary even by the standards of conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh, the right-wing radio heavyweight declared on his program Wednesday that the United States needed to return to racially segregated buses.

Referring to an incident in which a white student was beaten by black students on a bus, Limbaugh said: "I think the guy's wrong. I think not only it was racism, it was justifiable racism. I mean, that's the lesson we're being taught here today. Kid shouldn't have been on the bus anyway. We need segregated buses — it was invading space and stuff. This is Obama's America."

http://rawstory.com/08/news/2009/09/17/limbaugh-we-need-segregated-buses/

###

So the real question is ....

Max Baucus surreal

…does Senator Max Baucus have to return all the millions of dollars in Healthcare PAC money ($3,973,485 from the health sector) he so graciously accepted before he started on his star-crossed journey of betraying everyone? I would think his corporate paymasters expect a better return on their investment.

The Baucus bill is truly an abysmal piece of work. However, Noz is right – the final product is not likely to look anything like it. Ezra Klein:

Baucus's bill retains the noxious "free rider" provision on employers. Rather than a simple employer mandate that forces every employer over a certain size to provide health-care insurance or pay a small fee, the free rider approach penalizes employers for hiring low-income workers who are eligible for subsidies. That will create an incentive to do one of two things: Don't hire low-income workers (hire a teenager looking for a job rather than a single mother, or hire a housewife looking for a second job rather than an unemployed breadwinner), or hire illegal immigrants.

And it actually gets worse. The employer pays more if the low-income worker needs subsidies for his family as opposed to just himself. So it not only discriminates against low-income workers, but it particularly discriminates against low-income parents. Single mothers will get the worst deal, as they have lower incomes, and as you might expect, children who need health care.

Marcy says Ezra has it wrong, but in a different way. Go read.

###

All George W. Bush wanted was to build a missile shield in the Czech Republic or Poland but Obama—because he doesn't want the typical semester abroad experience—would rather the shield be somewhere less like, banal, like Turkey or southern Europe. New York Times

###

R.I.P. Mary Travers, 72, of Peter Paul & Mary.

###