Green Eagle

I'm not going to get into some sort of mud slinging contest about who showed up when.  Let me just report that the same crowd-estimating company that put the size of the Glenn Beck rally at 87,000, estimated the Stewart/Colbert one at 215,000, or just under 2 1/2 times the number that Beck, Fox News, Dick Armey and the Koch brothers managed to get out with their millions of dollars and months of free promotion on Fox. And this was all done almost on the spur of the moment, without endless provoking of racism, hatred and misplaced anger.  So, just which side is the real silent majority in this country? And this, of course:  I couldn't resist going over to Gateway Pundit to see what Jim Hoft, possibly the biggest perpetual liar about the size of teabagger crowds had to say about this: "Beck’s Restoring Honor Crowd vs. Stewart’s Restoring Sanity Crowd On of the announcers today at the Restoring Sanity Rally in Washington DC said 150,000 people had turned out. That mi...

I want to recommend an excellent article, by Sara Robinson at Alternet , which discusses the tea party in light of what is know about the growth of fascist movements in history.  Here's a small sample: "Paxton laid out the five basic lifecycle stages of successful fascist movements. In the first stage, a mature industrial state facing some kind of crisis breeds a new, rural movement that's based on nationalist renewal. This movement invariably rejects reason and glorifies raw emotion, promises to restore lost national pride, co-opts the nation's traditional myths for its own purposes, and insists that the country must be purged of the toxic influence of outsiders and intellectuals who are blamed for their current misery. (Sound familiar yet?)" There's lots more, and it's just as scary.  Of course, maybe the reason I think this article is so good is that it corresponds exactly to what I believe I have seen the last few years, as the constituency of th...

The Dean of our Washington Press Corps, working as hard as he can to show how little intelligence or knowledge (or common human decency) is required to be a nationally respected pundit these days: "if Obama cannot spur growth by 2012, he is unlikely to be reelected. Can Obama harness the forces that might spur new growth? This is the key question for the next two years. What...might affect the economy? The answer is obvious, but its implications are frightening. War and peace influence the economy." Well, apparently the implications are not too frightening to prevent David Broder from suggesting it. "Look back at FDR and the Great Depression. What finally resolved that economic crisis? World War II." As I pointed out just the other day, this is nothing but a Republican lie.  Can Broder be so ignorant as to not know the history of this period, before deciding to pontificate about it to the entire nation? Or is he nothing but one more cheap Republican s...

How many times have we heard over the last couple of years that California's $18 billion dollar budget deficit was all the fault of those California Hippie liberals and their tax and spend ways?  How many times have we been lectured to by Republicans telling us that this proves that the only way to run government is according to their conservative, teabagging rules? I hardly need say that California's woebegone condition is in stark contrast to the healthy, Republican run State of Texas.  Yes indeed, there they are running a very strong surplus of....wait, just let me check here... WHAT?  NOOOO!  It can't be true!  According to the Wall Street Journal, Texas is facing a deficit of....$18 BILLION DOLLARS! Well, just forget that I said that.  It means nothing.

If you get a package in the mail today from Yemen, don't open it.

I am about to take an extreme liberty and reproduce here a large part of a post at Daily Kos.  I hope I can be forgiven, because it is such a perfect illustration of the sea of delusion spread by the mainstream press against the Obama administration. "Questions: What was the average monthly private sector job growth in 2008, the final year of the Bush presidency, and what has it been so far in 2010? What was the Federal deficit for the last fiscal year of the Bush presidency, and what was it for the first full fiscal year of the Obama presidency? What was the stock market at on the last day of the Bush presidency? What is it at today?  Answers:    1. In 2008, we lost an average of 317,250 private sector jobs per month. In 2010, we have gained an average of 95,888 private sector jobs per month. (Source) That's a difference of nearly five million jobs between Bush's last year in office and President Obama's second year.    2. In FY2009, which...

This is a chart that was at Daily Kos today: It charts  U.S. economic growth in the last couple of years.  The white part was under Republicans and the blue part was under Democrats. I think it would be interesting to take a look at it and keep it in mind when you read the post below about Roosevelt.  Some things never change.

Two bombs mailed from Yemen to the United States were intercepted and never reached our shores. I promise you I will be following the right wing blogs, so I can report back to you as soon as possible how this proves that Obama has no right to be president.

"Halliburton Says BP Is to Blame in Gulf" How quickly they turn on each other.

And who says the teabaggers don't have anything in common with Muslims?

Note: this post is a reply to a comment by Silverfiddle.  I had said: "And for your information (you are just about the only person here that doesn't know this) the economy began to recover virtually from the day FDR and the Democrats took over, and only faltered in 1937, when Republicans convinced Roosevelt that he had provided enough stimulus. As soon as he realized that was wrong, things turned up again." To which Silverfiddle replied:  " The bread lines must have been a sign of the recovery..." I can't put illustrations in a comment, so I will post my reply here. Here is a chart of the GDP during the depression years: You can see that the GDP fell disastrously during Hoover's term, and turned around almost immediately upon Roosevelt's taking office, only faltering in 1937, when Roosevelt was falsely convinced by conservatives that he had done enough to stimulate the economy.  You can also see the gross falsity of the comm...

There is a point when stupidity becomes so gigantic and so egregious that it becomes a form of evil.

Anyone who may have been reading my blog for a while knows my opinion of Harry Reid.  He has been the weakest Senate leader I have ever seen- unable to show enough muscle to get legislation passed with a 58 vote majority, unable to put any pressure at all on the rogue members of his own party who constantly undermined and humiliated him, and constantly betray the core values that supposedly make someone a Democrat, always ready to capitulate to Republican belligerence.  In fact, he has been a key player in the Democrats' fumbling away their chance to really start to correct the damage done by thirty years of corporate-funded Republican malfeasance. Now he seems about to pay the price for his behavior.  Yes, a near lunatic right wing fanatic is now four points ahead of him in the polls, with only days to go.  Unfortunately, the remaining sane people in the country are going to pay the price too, in worse, more corrupt, more irresponsible government. My only hope (...

This is, sad to say, the most important post I have made in a long time. As Mr. T would say, get ready to feel pain. From an article in the Washington Post, this depressing story, featured yesterday at Daily Kos: "In its biggest foreign market, BMW gets skilled workers for less GREER, S.C. - When German automaker BMW put out the call recently to hire a thousand factory workers here, the people who responded reflected the upheaval occurring in the U.S. economy. Among the applicants: a former manager of a major distribution center for Target; a consultant who oversaw construction projects in four Western states; a supervisor at a plastics recycling firm. Some held college degrees and resumes in other fields where they made more money. But they're all in the factory now making $15 an hour - about half of what the typical German autoworker makes...The International Labor Organization has pegged hourly manufacturing wages in Germany at nearly 24 euros, or more than $33....

Sharron Angle: "We as a nation have been walking away from our constitutional freedom and relying on government instead to take care of the widow and the orphan." Which, of course, involves our "constitutional freedom" not to take care of the widow and the orphan. Which one do you think these Republican sons of bitches intend to deliver if they take over again?  They're against Social Security, they're against unemployment insurance, they're against the minimum wage; in fact they're against everything except more money for the rich criminals who paid to put them in office.  What do they care for widows and orphans? And once again, they have managed to plunder the country into near-oblivion, and then succeed, by outspending Democrats 9 to 1, in convincing the American people that the Democrats are to blame for not being able, in a year and a half, to correct the damage Republicans have done to our country in thirty years of dedicated treacher...

Yes, it's that time again. Here we go, down into the sewer: Let's start with some great examples of right wing projection- one of their favorite things: Bruce Bialosky, Town Hall:  "The Road to Serfdom This election will determine whether we surrender to the Washington oligarchy and the media elites or we reassert the values that have been the shining hallmark of this great country for over 200 years." You've got that right, Bruce.  You just really got mixed up about which side is going to turn us into serfs.  Here's a hint:  the party that is trying to turn the whole country over to the rich and leave the rest of us with nothing is the one you should be complaining about, not the one that wants us to have health care and job security.  Figured it out now? Guy Benson, Town Hall:  "Keeping It Classy: The Top Ten Most Disgraceful Democratic Attack Ads of 2010...So Far" He couldn't write this article about the Republicans, because he'd...

From Jerry Brown.  Short and to the point:

This sage reflection from the Rand Paul operative who stomped on a woman's head, giving her a concussion: “I don’t think it’s that big of a deal.”  And astonishingly, asked if he planned to apologize directly the activist Lauren Valle whose head he stomped on, Profitt said, “I would like for her to apologize to me to be honest with you." Apolgize for the brain injury he inflicted on her. I think we owe a big thank you to Dick Cheney, who established that if you are a Republican, it's perfectly okay to assault and seriously injure someone, and then demand that your victim do the apologizing.   I've talked before about the inability of conservatives to accept the least responsibility for the damage they have done.  Could there be a better example?

Right here at Green Eagle. My previous post was a comment on the fact that the Democrats have managed to significantly decrease the deficit, something that Republicans scream about endlessly, but have never been known to do, except in 1930, when it was the one thing calculated to send the country into the depths of the depression. Our new conservative friend Lisa has done everything she can to turn the conversation away from this point, to some tendentious, phony tirade about alleged left wing racism.  The fact remains that, whether it's winning wars, cutting the deficit, protecting the middle class, or anything else that actually serves the American people, Democrats do what Republicans only blab about. The Republican party, as it has existed since the Taft presidency, has done nothing but serve the ultra rich, causing unending suffering to the rest of us.  Whatever the faults of the Democratic party, it still contains many who are concerned about the welfare of our cou...

This: "Democrats shrank US spending, deficit in last fiscal year, figures show...The US deficit shrank nine percent last fiscal year" Nothing to see here.  No need for the press to cover this. We've heard today, also, that less than 10% of the American people know that Obama gave 95% of the American people a tax cut, so I guess no one needs to know about this either.

How about this news: "The Texas Republican Party bought the Texas Green Party for less than $200,000" American democracy in action.

From Think Progress, this (partial, I'm sure) list of foreign energy companies: – Avantha Group , India – The Bahrain Petroleum Company , Kingdom of Bahrain: state-owned oil campany – Gulf Petrochemical Industries Company , Kingdom of Bahrain: state-owned oil company – Essar Group , Mumbai, India – GMR , Bangalore, India ($15,000) – Hinduja Group , London, UK: the Gulf Oil group – Jindal Power , New Delhi, India – Lahmeyer International , Frankfurt, Germany – Punj Lloyd , Gurgaon, India – Reliance Industries , Mumbai, India – SNC Lavalin , Montreal, Canada – Tata Group , Mumbai, India – Walchandnagar Industries , Mumbai, India – Welspun , Mumbai, India What do these companies have in common? They've all given money to the U.S. Chamber of commerce, which is spending tens of millions to support Republican candidates, who are nothing but corrupt corporate stooges. Say goodbye to our democracy.

This interesting statistic from a very good post at Daily Kos today: "47% of the polls released in this cycle have come from GOP or GOP-sympathetic (read: Rasmussen) sources. By contrast, just 8.5% of the polls have come from Democratic sources." Of course, given Americans' hatred of being the loser, these polls may very well prove to be self-realizing, but still, it's an interesting comment on what happens when one party has all the money.

Headline in the New York Times today: Iran Said To Give Top Karzai Aide Cash By Bagful Boy, aren't you glad our government would never stoop to something like that?

The man who wrongly holds that every human right is secondary to his profit must now give way to the advocate of human welfare, who rightly maintains that every man holds his property subject to the general right of the community to regulate its use to whatever degree the public welfare may require it. Theodore Roosevelt Well, it's easy to see why he had to leave the Republican party.  Some things never change.

 Man, these people are starting to bug me.  It's getting harder and harder to read their childish, petulant lies.  But someone has to pay attention to this evil trash, and we sure can't count on real reporters to do it.  Well, here's some of the trash from the last week: Astute Bloggers:  WARNING: IF THE DEMOCRATS TRY TO PASS THEIR LEFTIST AGENDA IN THE LAME DUCK CONGRESS If it passes - and because the 112th Congress is not likely to have override majorities - much of the damage will be hard to undo, then this will make Jonestown look like a church picnic. WARNING: If they do it, then there will be an armed insurrection in the USA that makes the recent rebellion in Iran look like a... church picnic. This is a warning, not a threat." Really, Asshole?  Actually, it's not a warning or a threat.  It's a tantrum.  Just what we expect from people with an emotional age of about 3. Also, Astute Bloggers:  "SHINY SILVER BALLOONS/UFO'S(?) SEEN O...

We all know that's true when we hear news like this: "A U.S. government program aimed at reviving the mortgage-backed securities market returned more than triple what stocks or bonds gained in the past year.  The eight funds created under the Public-Private Investment Program, or PPIP, reported net internal rates of return averaging 36 percent through Sept. 30, the Treasury Department said in a report this week. That compares with the 10 percent return for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index and 8.2 percent for the BarCap U.S. Aggregate Total Return Index of bonds." Boy, doesn't that make you sorry that those damned Democrats won't let you trust your social security money to private enterprise? What a wonder of perfection the market is.  No government bureaucrat could possibly do as well.  We know that, because we have been told it so often by rich people, and who knows more about money than rich people?

Miserable Republican liars, put this in your pipes and smoke it: "This is the 9 th straight month of private sector job growth in the midst of a devastating recession that has put a serious strain mostly on the poor and middle class. There has been a total of 863,000 private sector jobs created in 2010, exceeding the total created under the Bush/Cheney regime." Here's the chart: Didn't know that, huh?  Maybe this should be a topic of conversation when the whole election is supposedly about jobs, and Republican propaganda has them poised to take back power, so they can get on with wrecking the economy.  But no, whether Jerry Brown called Meg Whitman a name, and whether NPR should have fired Juan Williams so he could take his $2 million a year job lying on Fox are so much more important. All Democrats have is the truth, and all Republicans have is their eternal lies.  And the press has decided who has a more important message for the American...

From the Daily Mail: "I left Al Qaeda because they refused to pay healthcare, says Osama bin Laden's former pilot" And which party, exactly, is more aligned with Al Qaida?  Remind me-  Is it the one that wants to keep religion out of politics or the one that wants to keep the government out of medicine?

Put this in your pipe and smoke it. And then bang your head against a wall for several hours. George W. Bush: "In terms of accomplishments, my biggest accomplishment is that I kept the country safe amidst a real danger." Well, except for that once.  And, uh, except for that anthrax thing.  And for making half the world hate us.  And not catching the leaders of Al Qaeda.  And throwing away our military might in the wrong country.  Etc. "(he) signaled on Thursday that he sees not reforming Social Security as his greatest failure from the eight years he served in the White House" His failure being that he didn't manage to find a way for Wall Street rich guys to steal the biggest pot of money we have left, after he destroyed the economy by letting them take everything else. His biggest success: he kept us safe.  Except he didn't.  His biggest failure: he didn't manage to steal every penny from us. And they wonder why we call him the worst p...

A little more on the firing of Juan Williams, and the abuse I took for attacking him: Some good remarks from Michael Tomasky at the Guardian: "what sort of non-conservative – one perceives Williams to be some degree of liberal; he'd probably protest that he's just a reporter; in either case, he's not a conservative – agreed to be an in-house flunky at Fox? ...if you're any kind of liberal at all, even in the softest and most non-political possible sense, it's basically an indefensible thing to do.  Fox News wants liberalism to perish from the face of the earth. Going on their air on a regular basis and lending your name and reputation to their ideological razzle-dazzle is like agreeing to be the regular kulak guest columnist at Pravda in 1929. For "balance". That's because he is not a liberal. And a quote from Williams, courtesy of Talking Points Memo: ""This is evidence of one-party rule and one sided thinking at NPR that lead...

This good news just in: GOP congressional candidate Stephen Broden says violent overthrow of government is 'on the table' ..."We have a constitutional remedy," Broden said then. "And the Framers say if that don't work, revolution." "If the government is not producing the results or has become destructive to the ends of our liberties, we have a right to get rid of that government and to get rid of it by any means necessary," Broden said, adding the nation was founded on a violent revolt against Britain's King George III..."The option is on the table. I don't think that we should remove anything from the table as it relates to our liberties and our freedoms" I'm just so proud to live in a country where the politicians are standing up for our rights.  This is the spirit of true patriotism that built our country, and it could never tempt anyone to do something rash. It's a magnificent thing that hard-headed busines...

"NPR has terminated its contract with Juan Williams, one of its senior news analysts, after he made comments about Muslims on the Fox News Channel." This guy may have a black skin, but I have insisted for years that he is nothing but Rush Limbaugh in a monkey suit.  How anyone could have ever listened to him and not realized that he only played a liberal on TV, but was as big a sellout to the right as anyone at Fox, always puzzled me. Good riddance, jerk. Update:  From the L.A. Times: "Fox News Chief Executive Roger Ailes handed Williams a new three-year contract Thursday morning, in a deal that amounts to nearly $2 million, a considerable bump up from his previous salary" Boy, that didn't take long.  No bad deed goes unrewarded.  If you thought I was over the top in my claim about which side this guy is on, I guess you've been set straight now.

Glenn Beck: "I don’t know why it’s unreasonable to say this. I’m not God so I don’t know how God creates. I don’t think we came from monkeys. I think that’s ridiculous . I, I haven’t seen the half-monkey half-person yet." Forgotten about our last President, have you, Glenn?

So Clarence Thomas wants Anita Hill to apologize for something that he did to her. Well, at least he didn't shoot her in the face.

"Tolkein and Lovecraft stories are more connected to reality than David Broder's perception of actual reality."

Private Enterprise- always superior to anything else on earth: "GMAC admitted to wholesale manufacture of court documents, then promised to fix the practice, then continued that practice unabated for 4 more years. Most of what we have uncovered are criminal violations – false testimony under oath, notary fraud, etc." No need for government regulation there- things work so much better when we just let the free market take care of everything. I mean, just because businesses can make more money by engaging in endless criminal behavior, that's no reason to suspect that our noble minded capitalists would stoop to such a thing, right?  No, better to keep government out of it and let them steal us blind.  Now, that's the American way.

It would have nothing but Jerry speaking and here's what he would say: "I'm Jerry Brown.  I've been the governor.  During my term, I balanced the State budget without raising taxes, and the State generated 1.9 million jobs. My opponent cares so little about politics that she didn't vote for thirty years, but now she's decided to spend $140 million dollars to buy the governor's office for herself. The people of California can't afford to fall for that.  Our state needs someone that has a proven ability to handle the job. I'm Jerry Brown, and I approved this ad.

Here is the sort of idiocy which passes for truth among right wingers, from World Net Daily: "A new YouTube video in support of Colorado's pro-life Amendment 62 – the only "personhood" amendment on 2010 ballots across the United States – links President Obama with the "Angel of Death." The video talks about stopping in Colorado in 2010 what was begun in the state in 1967, when then-Gov. Dick Lamm drafted the first law legalizing abortion in the nation – some six years before the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision. The video blames the "decline" of America on that beginning and asserts that agenda-driven judges in Washington contributed to the advance of the agenda of death." Yes, you read that right.  The decline of the United States had nothing to do with the corrupt Republican plundering of our economy, nothing to do with Republicans allowing the rich to do any damned thing they pleased, nothing to do with the trillions s...

Just sayin'

Get the answer here. Just a taste of this wonderful story: "Now if city officials want to do anything that might disrupt parking meter revenue -- let's say close down parking for a street festival or parade -- they need to get the approval of those meters' shadowy, foreign owners. They also need approval to change parking hours or fees. The new ownership has already made unwelcome changes, ending the previous policy of allowing free parking on holidays." So, maybe you want to hold a march to protest the devastating effect that oil companies' greed has on our country.  Great- free speech, right?  As soon as some Arab oil sheiks say it's okay, you can express your opinion in public! The city has just given some of the most malignant rich foreigners in history a veto over your first amendment rights.  Here's a perfect example of the real respect for our constitution to be found on the right, where money trumps everything. Everything that governmen...

John McCain, on George Stephanopolis' show: But the fact is that this president has not reached out, not one time, on a major issue to Republicans. I hope that he will. We look forward to problem solving with him. But we really need to respond to the anger and frustration that the American people feel today." Stephanopolis' response: "Thanks for being on our show" i.e. "Thank you, oh great hero and patriot for coming on my show and lying right in my face, and thanks so much for giving me an opportunity to join with you and do my part to destroy the country." Our mainstream press at work.

I have noticed, the last couple of weeks, a dramatic increase on the right wing blogs of fearmongering about the virtually nonexistent, phantom phenomenon of Democratic vote fraud.  Despite the fact that, for fifty years, there has been exactly zero evidence of any such thing, Conservative after Conservative is speaking out in terror at this supposed threat. Should it somehow happen that, despite the best efforts of the Democratic party to once again roll over and play dead, and despite the newly found Republican financial resources in Communist China, the American people fail to turn the country back to the corrupt lunatics who almost destroyed us two years ago, the Republicans are carefully preparing the groundwork for a campaign to convince us that the election was stolen by the Democrats through a vast conspiracy of election fraud. And believe me, in a country that cannot even put to death the persistent lies that letting black people buy homes caused a near depression, or ...

John McCain: “When you hear (Barbara Boxer) say that she supports the men and women in the military, my friends, she does not…because she has never supported the mission; she has never supported victory whether it be in Iraq, or Afghanistan, or anywhere else in the world. Barbara Boxer wants to wave the white flag of surrender and endanger this nation’s national security. It’s time she went back to San Francisco with [House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi." And we have  to sit and listen to this, from a traitor that spilled his guts to the Vietnamese and gave up anyone he could to get special treatment in his captivity, who tried to foist off on the American people a corrupt, ignorant demagogue as our Vice President, who has played a dirty game ever since he was trounced in his run for the White House, undermining our president at every turn, and who never gave enough of a damn about our troops to prevent them from dying in a war of aggression run by an incompetent President ...

Some sage words about the rise of right wing terrorism, from one of the great experts on the subject, Dave Niewert: "we actually have seen this happen time after time after time: A mentally unstable person is inspired by hateful right-wing rhetoric to act out violently -- and yet because of that mental state, the matter is dismissed as idiosyncratic, just another "isolated incident." And over the months and years, these "isolated incidents" mount one after another. But simply ascribing these acts to mental illness is a cop-out. It fails to account for the gross irresponsibility of the people who employed the rhetoric that inspired the violent action in the first place, and their resulting moral culpability." Of course, I  am going to grant the title of sage to anyone who agrees with me, but do you think he is wrong? This is something I have talked about repeatedly, when these incidents occur (every week or two these days) and are totally written off...

Their right to destroy our country. In Florida today: "FBI concerns grow over 'citizen extremists' ...authorities arrested Josiah Fornof of Hudson. According to the criminal complaint, Fornof, 30, threatened to "bear arms against" two deputies with the Pasco County Sheriff's Office who were trying to serve a warrant. Fornof posted a video of the incident on the internet called "Sheriff Trespass" which is part of the criminal case against him. On the video, Fornof is heard saying, "...we are in fear of our lives at this moment."  According to the affidavit, he told law enforcement they had no right to be at the home where he lives with his mother and he yelled, "Sir, if you come back, we may bear arms against you." We went to Hudson to visit the property where Fornof was arrested. Careful not to trespass, we were met out front by Nathan Fornof, who defended his brother's actions.  "We were expecting them to co...

Just a couple of examples today, via Daily Kos: Wall Street Journal:  "But among outside campaign organizations, Democrats are being outgunned, helping erase the Democrats' overall financial advantage. This lets Republicans inject money into races where Democrats had a big cash advantage, leaving Democratic candidates more reliant on the get-out-the-vote activities of the largest labor unions." "Outgunned" in this case roughly meaning "haven't been as quick to throw every shred of honesty and decency out the window in their rush to do whatever despicable thing serves the short term interest of the rich." Chris Cilizza, Washington Post:  "The Obama administration's lifting Tuesday of the temporary moratorium on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico brings the first chapter of the devastating spill to a close.  The next chapter -- the spill's political impact -- is in the process of being written. But so far, it appears that if ...

Paul Krugman: "We’ll never know how differently the politics would have played if Obama, instead of systematically echoing and giving credibility to all the arguments of the people who want to destroy him, had actually stood up for a different economic philosophy. But we do know how his actual strategy has worked, and it hasn’t been a success."

From James Lambert over at Renew America: "When debating Prop. 19: Don't tell me marijuana isn't a harmful, gateway drug!" Also, don't tell me that people who don't believe in global warming are stooges of the oil companies, that Republicans want to destroy Social Security and the minimum wage, that Republican corruption on behalf of the rich caused our economic collapse, that giving people health care isn't just like the Nazis, that Saddam didn't cause 9-11...in fact, don't tell me anything that's true because I'M NOT LISTENING...LA LA LA LA LA LA...I CAN'T HEAR YOU!

Some day, oh, around the year 2500, the people of Iraq will elect a democratic government.  The next day, the Washington Post will have some neocon write an op ed piece entitled "See- the Surge Worked!"

Courtesy of Crooks and Liars: "A man seemingly bent on violence and destruction stormed Kelly Elementary School in Carlsbad Friday and fired into a crowd of children on the playground, striking two girls, before being chased and tackled by nearby construction workers.  As time goes by, more and more deranged people are acting out in violent episodes with a target pointed directly at President Obama's back as they try to murder innocent people. The latest episode happened in Calrsbad, California when a man opened fire on young children and was reportedly yelling “Death to Obama" when he went off. One of the witnesses to Friday’s shooting...said he shouted: “Death to Obama. Kill all the little (expletive). Death to them.” Thanks, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and all the others who make a very good living encouraging disturbed people like this to act out their apocalyptic, racist fantasies. 

Via Digby, one of the most preposterous right wing ideas ever. First, a little background:  The State of New Hampshire removed a child from the custody of its parents because the father had a long history both as a wife and child abuser.  Unfortunately, the guy happens also to be a hard core wingnut too, which naturally brought out the usual right wing displays of phony outrage.  Which led one "libertarian" (i.e. idiot) to make the following helpful suggestion: ""The family should be left to resolve it on their own...Or private enterprise - private companies can contact the family and say, 'We heard you were hitting your kids. Can you stop that?' " And just which private companies would that be?  Maybe Comcast, or Halliburton?  And to whom, exactly would those private companies be sending the bill?  Or maybe the first suggestion is the best one- leave the family to "resolve" the situation.  For example, the father could just beat the ...

From Senator Tom Coburn: “There will be no insurance industry left in three years,” Coburn told the Republican Women’s Club of Tulsa County." What a shame that the guy never told the truth in his life, huh?

Mark Halperin on MSNBC this morning: "I'm not sure how they think this appeals to voters to call out the Chamber of Commerce for allegedly using foreign money. It also seems a little strange to be demonizing the foreign. No one's advocating law-breaking but this boogey-word that they're using, 'foreign,' as if somehow anything that's foreign is bad....Also just talking incessantly about making accusations against the Chamber of Commerce, not some shadowy group, the chamber.... it's really mystifying." Oh, of course no one cares if five corrupt Supreme Court justices have seen to it that the Chinese Communists or the Saudis (or Al Qaeda for that matter) can finance Republican political candidates.  American business has demonstrated how easy it is to buy Senators and Congressmen, but it would never occur to f oreigners that spending a couple of billion dollars acquiring a few American politicians of their own might be a lot cheaper than ...

From Crooks and Liars: "Carly Fiorina, in grand political tradition, now says Sarah Palin is qualified for the Presidency" Well, as qualified as Carly was to run Hewlett Packard, I guess.

Oh my God, just when we thought the whole malicious nonsense about Barack Obama's birth certificate has finally receded into oblivion, it has returned to reach a new high of racist lunacy. Here's an almost unbelievably disingenuous post from the website of something calling itself the Western Journalism Center, which leaves Orly Taitz herself in the dust: "It’s High Time to investigate Obama It is high time that legislative bodies and prosecutorial authorities investigate the citizenship status of Barack Hussein Obama II as it relates to his eligibility to the Office of President under Article II Section 1 of the United States Constitution. This includes the determination of his actual identity, which requires genetic analysis. I started my investigation and analysis by deeming nearly every assertion as open to question, including the claimed identity of Mr. Obama’s parents. A certificate that a child was born to Stanley Ann Dunham and Barack Hussein Obama in Honolul...

The case of Byron Williams, shown below.  Mr Williams was arrested after a shootout he initiated with police.  It was later discovered that he was on his way to kill members of the ACLU, and the Tides Foundation, an organization which is a frequent target of Glenn Beck's lying smears. Mr. Williams gave a most interesting interview to John Hamilton at Media Matters.  The whole thing is worth a read, but here are a couple of excerpts: "(He) repeatedly instructs (Hamilton) to watch specific broadcasts of Beck's show for information on the conspiracy theory that drove him over the edge: an intricate plot involving Barack Obama, philanthropist George Soros, a Brazilian oil company, and the BP disaster. Williams also points to other media figures -- right-wing propagandist David Horowitz, and Internet conspiracist and repeated Fox News guest Alex Jones -- as key sources of information to inspire his "revolution." Williams tells Hamilton that ...

Let me just jump right into my dredgings from the sewer that is our government's loyal opposition: Joseph C. Phillips, Town Hall:  "GOP, Don't Fool Us This Time" Fat chance. Town Hall Update:  " Fake Tea Partiers Bankrolled by Dems" Oh, so you're finally admitting that all real tea partiers are Republicans- tea partiers must be fake if they're Democrats. That's novel- a conservative telling the truth for once. Doug Giles, Town Hall:  "I've got another racist lie to tell you" Well, okay, that's not really what he called his article.  That's just what it was. Red State:  "you saw the Marxist March on Washington last weekend." No, I must have missed that one. Confederate Yankee:  "I Feel Sorry For John Amato" I'm sure the feeling is mutual, Mr. Yankee.  If he has a clue who you are. Jim Hoft, Gateway Pundit:  "1,078 Articles Written About Obama’s Philly Speech – Only One Mentio...

From Michigan: "Richard Scott McLeod of Brighton was arrested Monday in Webberville on weapons charges and is under suspicion for potential threats against President Barack Obama. On the outside of the 48-year-old's vehicle were bumper stickers quoting Adolf Hitler. On the inside, police say there was a picture of Obama, a loaded gun, a bullet-proof vest and tips on how to build bombs." Nothing to see here...just move along.

Rand Paul:  "“Half of the people in Kentucky are not poor." Well, I guess that's good enough.

In the New York Times today: "Karzai’s Kin Use Ties to Gain Power in Afghanistan" Thank heaven a thing like that could never happen in this country. In related news, "Jeb Bush to Run for President in '12?"

An interesting comment from the creator of Christine O'Donnell's "I am not a witch ad: "I wanted people to get to know the real Christine," Davis said in an interview. He said the ad was designed to show "that she was not what everyone thought, that she was an everywoman - with one exception. She was one of us, but was so disappointed in our government that she was moved to action, to try and do something about it."   A nice sentiment, except for the patently obvious fact that Christine O'Donnell is not "one of us," she is a lunatic fanatic bent on seizing power which she is totally incapable of yielding, and in the thrall of the forces that nearly destroyed our economy- a person who will do anything and tell any lie to get her hands on a Senate seat, and will then use that seat to drive the country further into oblivion. Needless to say, the Washington Post , from which this quote comes, couldn't be bothered to make that dis...

Yeah, I know they say the same thing about us, but we're telling the truth. Case in point, this guy: Actor in a cheesy Nazi movie?  Pathetic wanker with strange taste in Halloween costumes? No, I present to you Mr. Rich Iott, Republican candidate for the House of Representatives from Ohio, and committed tea partier.  Yes, Mr. Iott enjoys dressing up and pretending to be a Waffen SS soldier. Nothing wrong with that, right?  Why here's a statement of their goals from Rich's little cosplay organization: "It is our aim to bring you a bit of actual history behind the men who fought against the "Bolshevik scourge"; volunteers...who only had a desire to see an end to Soviet Communism. Germany headed a strong movement in Europe to actively campaign (politically and through warfare) against the ideals of Bolshevist Communism. This culminated in 1941, when the German armed forces were pitted against the very home of Bolshevism, Soviet Russia. Nazi...