Green Eagle

Michael Givens, Commander in Chief of the Sons of the Confederacy: "While there were many causes of the war, he said, “our people were only fighting to protect themselves from an invasion..." Michael, I don't quite know how this fact escaped your notice, but if they hadn't seceded, they couldn't have been invaded.  Think about it.

These guys have really been getting on my nerves lately, but we can't afford to just ignore them, sad to say.  Here's a sample of their hate-filled lunacy from the last couple of weeks: World Net Daily Exclusive:  "Are Americans playing around with the end of civilization?    For a long time it was an article of faith among Christians, conservatives and other traditionalists: They believed that when homosexuality becomes widely accepted and even celebrated in a society, that society starts to die. But such a notion, at least according to today's secular progressive culture, is worse than a bad joke. It's bigoted. It's paranoid. It's insane. Or is it?" Well, yes it is.  On to the next nonsense: World Net Daily Obama Watch Special:  "Is Obama unhinged?  On the flight home from the European Summit today, Barack Obama stopped in the press cabin of Air Force 1 and joked that he was stopping the plane in South America to see Hugo Chavez.  Q...

This sickening story from the New York Times: "President Obama announced a two-year pay freeze for civilian federal workers on Monday as he sought to address concerns over sky-high deficit spending and appeal to Republican leaders to find a common approach to restoring the nation’s economic and fiscal health. The president’s proposed pay freeze would wipe out plans for a 1.4 percent across-the-board raise in 2011 for 2.1 million federal civilian employees, including those working at the Defense Department. But the freeze would not affect the nation’s uniformed military personnel. It would also mean no raise in 2012 for civilian employees. The pay freeze will save $2 billion in the current fiscal year that ends in September 2011..." Two billion out of the $1.7 trillion deficit that Bush and the Republicans left behind.  That is a really substantial move, paid for on the back of federal workers.  After all, Republicans have been screaming the last couple of years about ...

From Reuters: "(Wikileaks) documents show Saudi donors remain chief financiers of militant groups like al Qaeda" Who knew?  Now why on earth did the last guy in the White House attack the wrong country in response to 9-11?  I guess we'll never know, huh?

Here's an excellent article about the current batch of Republican traitors which our oh-so-wise electorate has seen fit to send to Washington, via a link at Daily Kos: "The Republican Party that Honest Abe helped to found - that is, in its current Limbaughian form -- does not give a hoot about American global security.  All it wants to do is remove Barack Obama from the White House, and it does not care if its actions - that is, its inactions - wreck the painstakingly constructed goodwill between the U.S. and Russia and push the entire world back toward the shadow of possible nuclear annihilation." Unfortunately, they also do not care if they push the country into economic annihilation either.  We are facing a real test here in this country, which we have never faced before- whether we can survive a major political party which is willing to destroy us all so they can claim ownership of the shattered remains.  Republicans have entitled themselves to engage in the mos...

Carl Sagan: "Billions of years from now, there will be a last perfect day on Earth. Thereafter the Sun will slowly become red and distended, presiding over an Earth sweltering even at the poles. ... Eventually the oceans will boil, the atmosphere will evaporate away to space, and catastrophe of the most immense proportions imaginable will overtake our planet." A catastrophe of the most immense proportions imaginable?  What, Sarah Palin will finally be elected president? By the way, Carl didn't have to worry about waiting billions of years for the Earth to be sweltering at the poles.  With Republicans back in the driver's seat, our grandchildren may live to see that.

I have given up on Obama.  I no longer have faith that he has any intention of doing the right thing, and am beginning to strongly suspect that he is a tool of Wall Street and the rich, who got us to vote for him by using a more sophisticated version of the lies and distortions about himself that people like Sarah Palin and Ron Paul use to delude right wingers. Have I reached this point due to his refusal to advocate real financial reform?  His caving to the Republicans, and coming up with a health care bill that, whatever its good points, still was a huge reward to the criminals in the insurance business?  His unconscionable failure to close Guantanamo, stop illegal detentions and get us the hell out of Iraq and Afghanistan? These are all gigantic failures which, with his large majorities in Congress (now lost because of his squandering of his power) he could have avoided if he had been willing to use a quarter of the insistence and force that Bush or Reagan used to ...

Headline in the Los Angeles Times this morning: "Insiders Suspected of Rigging Wall Street" Now what could ever make a person think a thing like that?

From the Hollywood Reporter: " Sarah Palin's Alaska fell 40% on Sunday night... Not many were in the key adult demo either. Only 885,000 viewers were ages 18-49, dropping 44% from last week. In fact, the median age of the show is 57 -- that's 15 years older than TLC's average." I had a suspicion this would happen.  After all, most of us enjoy a visit to the zoo every decade or so, to see the silly animals, but not that many of us go every week. I wonder if the press, which reported her first week's high ratings as proof that she is the Most Awesome Politician Ever, will have anything to say about this.

 This is going to be a long post, and I hope some people will have the patience to read it, as it is by far the most important thing I have ever written.  It is going to consist largely of quotations, as I wouldn't expect anyone to take my word for what I am going to conclude.  The quotations below are from Arthur Schlesinger's The Crisis of the Old Order , which I heartily recommend, in conjunction with John Kenneth Galbraith's short book, The Great Crash, which lays out a similar scenario.  As you read this, I beg you to think about what has gone on in this country since the days of Reagan. I will begin with a comment by Schlesinger about Andrew Mellon, Coolidge's Secretary of the Treasury, and one of the richest men in America:  "The government is just a business," said Mellon, "and can and should be run on business principles."  The first necessity, accordingly, was to balance the budget, and the second to pay off the debt.  But Mellon's...

From the anything-but "Astute Bloggers:" "Once Kosovo, stolen from Serbia and given to muslims, is joined with Albania, what next? The EU will allow the muslims to annex Bosnia, so that will create an islamic block in south east Europe. There will only be Macedonia and Greece between them and Turkey. If Turkey becomes a member of the EU, that will be the end of Europe." How many racist lies can one person tell?  Let me count the ways: First, Kosovo was not "stolen" from Serbia.  It was taken from Serbia because the Serbs (or as the Astute Bloggers would probably have it, the Christians) were engaged in genocide against the population of Kosovo, many of whom were, it must be admitted, Muslims, and therefore apparently not entitled to remain alive. Second, being as how countries, not religions, annex other countries, "the muslims" will not be annexing Bosnia or anywhere else.  Third, being as how Bosnia occupies approximately 1.3% of t...

They always take care of their own.

This story in the New York Times today, about the Very Republican State of South Dakota: "South Dakota is nearing the end of an unusually punishing year of weather. The year began as residents were still digging out of a record-setting statewide dump of 15.4 inches of snow, and the ensuing months have delivered a parade of ice storms, tornadoes, floods and, with a climactic thud, the nation’s largest hailstone. The seven presidential disaster declarations issued here — part of a record 78 nationwide so far this year — more than doubled the number in any previous year, naming all but 10 of the 66 counties as a disaster area; some many times over...The disaster declarations allow the state and local governments to recoup up to 75 percent of the costs for uninsured losses from the federal government." Yes, this would be the same State of South Dakota whose Republican elected officials have worked happily to see that not a cent is spent on you-know-what, but are perfectl...

From the L.A. Times: "Cold hard numbers hardly are the best way to tell the story of a season slipping quickly into the abyss." The Clippers- an unchanging presence in a world of uncertainty.

This news just in:  Fox news broadcasters, thinking they are off camera, call Sarah Palin's TV show "like The Sound of Music without Nazis." Wrong as usual, Fox News.  Sarah Palin's new show is like The Sound of Music starring the Nazis.

I always start the day with Atrios, who mainly covers economic news.  Boy, his blog was depressing today, featuring a number of stories about mortgage crookedness by banks.  But none of it hit me as hard as this item: "Ambac Assurance, whose parent company filed for bankruptcy earlier this month, said Thursday that banks that assembled a dozen poor performing mortgage bonds that it insured must pay for some of those losses. Ambac said it was reviewing loans in residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) issued by the Countrywide unit of Bank of America [and affiliates of Citigroup among others. The company may be riding the growing momentum of mortgage "putbacks" - forcing banks to buy back mortgage securities - driven by Pacific Investment Management and other big investors. Those investors have forged alliances to fight banks they claim shoveled faulty loans into mortgage bonds." Boy, don't you wish that, if you made a stupid investment, you could ...

Richard Burt, Ronald Reagan's chief arms control negotiator, about the Obama START treaty with Russia: “there are only two governments in the world that wouldn’t like to see this treaty ratified, the government in Tehran and the government in North Korea.” Well, three countries, actually.  Iran, North Korea, and the one the Republican party intends to give us as soon as possible. In the last few weeks, we have seen the Republican party sell out the economic interests of the United States in order to collaborate with the Chinese Communists.  Now, after years of accusing the Democrats of not taking the supposed nuclear threat from Iran and North Korea seriously, the Republicans are collaborating to make it easier for these two countries to get nuclear materials and technology. We are dealing with massive subversion and treason from within our country, being carried out by one of the two major political parties.  Anyone who can't see that at this point is really livi...

Over this: "White House to put up to 5,000 salad bars in schools" The bastards!  One more step toward Communism!

Fox News head Roger Ailes: "(The staff of NPR) are, of course, Nazis," Ailes said. "They have a kind of Nazi attitude. They are the left wing of Nazism." Boy, they sure don't make Nazis like they used to.

What made it onto the front page of the Los Angeles Times today: "Furor over Palin- Bristol that is...'Dancing with the Stars' viewers vote her into the finals.  Critics contend it's a 'tea party' conspiracy." What wasn't important enough to make it into the Los Angeles Times today: Republicans block major strategic arms control treaty for partisan political gain. Keep your eyes on the ball, guys.

The Republican party voted today to allow the unregulated proliferation of nuclear material and weapons around the world.  This, to them, is preferable to allowing Obama to have any victory of any kind. They are willing to risk the lives of every person on earth in order to seize power.  They are traitors of the worst kind and there are millions of them. That is the truth we live with today, and we are all going to see our way of life destroyed if Barack Obama and the Democrats do not start openly acknowledging this reality and act accordingly. It is time that these people are destroyed. 

Well, the sickness never ends. Here's today's dose: Caroline Glick, Town Hall:  "What the Palestinians Buy with American Money" Let me guess...whatever it was, it was made in China. Roger Chapin, Town Hall:  "A Political Grand Bargain to Save America" I love this one.  Mr. Chapin suggests that Obama go along with the Republicans in bombing Iran, in return for which Republicans would go along with him in "collaborating on substantial reductions in spending and the size of the deficits."  There's the bargain- doing two insane things that the Republicans want instead of one.  Bipartisanship, Repubican style. Town Hall says:  "Roger Chapin has had a distinguished and varied career in both the nonprofit and entrepreneurial worlds." Apparently he also has a distinguished career as a Republican liar. Laura Hollis, Town Hall:  "We Need an Entrepreneur President" Laura, we just had one.  How did that work out? Ru...

From Crooks and Liars, which has a transcript and a link to the video, here is an absolutely brilliant special comment from Keith Olbermann about the wretched state of American journalism today. Besides smashing the claims of objectivity that we hear from the likes of Ted Koppel (whose remarks prodded Keith to make this comment) this is a magnificent example of why, ex-sportscaster though he may be, he now stands head and shoulders above any other broadcast news professional, and if permitted to continue by MSNBC's new owners, may very well enshrine himself in the company of two figures whose reporting features prominently in his remarks- Walter Cronkite and Edward R. Murrow. TV news channel or not, this is real reporting.  And that is something we have just about forgotten about in this country.  Please take the time to read or watch what he has to say.

Paul Krugman: "For once, I’m being outdone in the cynicism department here: Stan Collender predicted all this back in August, on the grounds that Republicans would oppose anything that might help the economy on Obama’s watch. That is, they’re opposing QE not on the grounds that it won’t work, but because they’re afraid that it will." I want to repeat this in the terms it deserves.  The Republican party and their adherents have determined that it is perfectly acceptable for them to engage in a years-long campaign of subversion and treason against our government, with the intent of replacing it with a plutocratic dictatorship. And, Mr. Barack Obama, it's about time that you admitted that to yourself and began to act accordingly.

I have written occasionally about the foolish right wing cant that claims that Democratic States are supported by Republican States.  This is, of course a lie.  However, the data I have relied upon were a couple of years old. Here, and here are two sites with more current information, the second one illustrated with some very nice maps.  Nothing new, really, to report, but further evidence if you need any that virtually every Democratic State contributes to the support of virtually every Republican State.

This interesting information, from Crooks and Liars: "Keith Olbermann seems to be the guy everyone at NBC News loves to hate. Stories about his suspension from MSNBC are beginning to emerge that paint an ugly picture of power plays and alignments in anticipation of the pending Comcast merger. ...the incoming bosses at Comcast, which will soon close a deal to buy NBC from General Electric, are a more buttoned-down crowd, and people at the network expect less tolerance for Olbermann than Zucker has shown over the years." I don't want to spend too much time saying "I told you so," but at the time, I am the only person I remember coming out and saying that this was all about the Comcast buyout.   Well, it was.

I've given Wingnut Wrapup a little rest, while the worst of the teabaggers' crowing about their wonderful victory in having voted to sink themselves further into third-world poverty dies down.  But now, it's time for mighty Green Eagle to sink his beak in again.  I hope you're ready.  The fate of the whole free world may depend on one lonely, but very angry parrot.  Wherever that free world is these days: Let's start off with the Conservative Quote of the Day, from Renew America: "I have often been accused of putting my foot in my mouth, but I will never put my hand in your pocket." — Spiro Agnew" No, he'll never put his hand in our pockets.  This would be, in case you have forgotten, convicted extortionist and bribe taker Spiro Agnew. Guy Benson, Town Hall:  "Is There a Battle Brewing for the Soul of the GOP?" Come on, get serious...What soul? Ken Connor, Town Hall:  "Hell No, She Won't Go...Since (with the exceptio...

In so few words: "REPUBLICANS LOVE LIMITED GOVERNMENT. YOU KNOW, LIKE YEMEN AND AFGHANISTAN."

In case you haven't noticed (lucky you) Glenn Beck has been engaged in a week long contemptible attack on George Soros, accusing him of having collaborated with the Nazis (when he was a child) and indulging himself in a host of other classic antisemitic attacks on Soros. If you are interested, here is an excellent article from Media Matters about the subject, by Simon Malloy.  A couple of remarks from the article: "As close as I've heard on mainstream television to fascism...This isn't a country where people go on TV and national radio and talk up bigots who blame Jews for collapsing economies or fomenting communism in the United States....Nothing like it has ever been on American television before."  Well, that's America, 2010 style.  If the rich can't get the right to loot the entire economy through fair means, then I guess this is an acceptable alternate strategy.  And of course, the "liberal" press is content to just look the other way w...

Obama yesterday: "On extending Bush-era tax cuts at home, he said, "I want to make sure that taxes don't go up for middle-income families on January 1. That's my top priority." He reiterated that he opposes a permanent extension of those tax breaks for the wealthy." Kos takes this as good news.  Sorry, I don't.  I've learned the hard way that he is signaling to the Republicans that if more tax giveaways to the rich are the price of keeping the middle class tax cuts, he's ready to do it. Get ready for another sellout, any day now.  And then get ready for Obama's spokesmen to beat up on the left for not loving his gutless betrayal of them.  That's been his pattern all along.  Why should we expect anything different now?

We'll see.  As far as I can tell, he's acting the same way he always acts before he caves. And just to keep things on a positive note, here's a little tidbit from Paul Krugman about Obama's shreikingly horrible "deficit commission:" "Matters become clearer once you reach the section on tax reform. The goals of reform, as Mr. Bowles and Mr. Simpson see them, are presented in the form of seven bullet points. “Lower Rates” is the first point; “Reduce the Deficit” is the seventh. So how, exactly, did a deficit-cutting commission become a commission whose first priority is cutting tax rates, with deficit reduction literally at the bottom of the list?" Paul, Paul, Paul, since when does a "government commission" have any other goal than cutting taxes for the rich? "this proposal clearly represents a major transfer of income upward, from the middle class to a small minority of wealthy Americans. And what does an...

Wisdom from paid Republican liar Alex Castellanos: "We are in a connected society now. Can you tax just the rich people's side of the water bucket? Can you take money out of that? We've just seen Wall Street melt down and everybody's homes lose value." Let me remind you of something, Alex:  The meltdown you are talking about happened after Republicans managed to lower taxes on the rich to their lowest point since...1929, the last time we had a meltdown after Republicans slashed taxes on the rich. No meltdowns under Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Clinton, when taxes on the rich were far higher.  (I leave Reagan out because he is significantly responsible for recreating the same economic environment that caused the Depression.)  Meltdowns just seem to happen whenever Republicans succeed in absolving the rich of their tax burden.  Maybe there is a lesson to be learned there. Not one our leaders are likely to learn, unfortunately....

From Bloomberg: "Pessimism about the impact of Obama’s policies on the investment climate is common to respondents everywhere, the latest Bloomberg Global Poll shows. At the same time, those outside the U.S. have favorable views of the president himself, while U.S. investors overwhelmingly have an unfavorable view Investors around the world say President Barack Obama is bad for the bottom line, even though U.S. corporations are on track for the biggest earnings growth in 22 years and the stock market is headed for its best back-to- back annual gains since 2004." We all know that Democrats are bad for business and Republicans are good for business, because Republicans and the press tell us so every single day, as they have been doing for the last hundred years, even though it's Republicans who sent the world into depression twice in that period, even though Republicans just destroyed half the value of American stocks, which Democrats promptly restored, even though onc...

Senator James Inhofe: "The problem is the public has been brainwashed into thinking — and a lot of these are the very liberal, uh, members of Congress — into thinking that earmarks are somehow all bad." Yes indeed, it is the liberals in Congress who spend their time railing against earmarks, which, let me remind you, make up less than 1% of the budget, and whose total elimination would do almost nothing to help our financial situation.  Yes. of course, this is a liberal issue. The Republicans are predictably announcing, less than two weeks after the election, their intent to betray their teabagging supporters on this issue, which ten days ago was vital to budgetary discipline.  Now, of course, it turns out that eliminating earmarks was nothing but a cynical left-wing trick. How willfully blind will Republican voters prove to be?  I suspect that they will take this, and the long, sordid campaign of betrayal that is to follow, without a thought, as an acceptable ...

For ninety years now, we have had to listen to people like you shouting about how Democrats and Liberals are nothing but dupes and collaborators with Communism- claims that played a large part in your campaign strategy this year. Well, what have we come to in the United States now?  The Fed is proposing injecting $600 billion into our economy.  This plan is approved of by a wide range of economists (many of whom don't think it goes far enough) and our government.  Who is strongly against it?  The Communist government of China. We are now being treated to the spectacle of Republican politicians, who, as we know, just took large sums of laundered Chinese money to use in their campaign, siding en masse with the Communists, and against our own government, not even waiting until they are sworn in to begin their capitulation to the Communists. Now we know who the real fellow travelers are.  I hope you are proud of yourselves for working so hard to turn our gover...

That great American Pat Buchanan, preaching to his very evil choir over at Town Hall: "The Murderers of Christianity Sunday, on the eve of All Saints' Day, Nov. 1, 2010, the faithful gathered at the Assyrian Catholic Church of Our Lady of Salvation in Baghdad. As Father Wassim Sabih finished the mass, eight al-Qaida stormed in, began shooting and forced him to the floor. As the priest pleaded that his parishioners be spared, they executed him and began their mission of mass murder. When security forces broke in, the killers threw grenades to finish off the surviving Christians and detonated explosive-laden vests to kill the police. The toll was 46 parishioners and two priests killed, 78 others wounded Where is the outrage?" I don't know, Pat, maybe the outrage died when Christian invaders, with your support every step of the way, killed a million innocent Muslims in Iraq.  Sort of makes 46 dead seem like pretty small potatoes, but I don't remember you s...

From Yahoo: "Indonesia's pious information minister, Tifatul Sembiring, is in hot water for touching the hand of First Lady Michelle Obama, in what he describes as forced contact. The politician flaunts his conservatism as a Muslim and claims to avoid touching women who aren't family members...Indonesia -- which has the world's largest Islamic population, the vast majority moderate -- had been debating how to handle encounters between the first lady and observant Muslim officials far in advance of the Obamas' arrival in the country Monday." Although, in all fairness, I must say that he just barely beat out the Christian loon in the post below.

Prominent right wing Christian Bryan Fischer, zooming right to the heart of our real problem here in America, from Talking Points Memo: "...there is no number of live grizzlies worth one dead human being. If it's a choice between grizzlies and humans, the grizzlies have to go. And it's time.  Of course there is a simple answer: shoot these man-eaters on sight. "God makes it clear in Scripture that deaths of people and livestock at the hands of savage beasts is a sign that the land is under a curse. The tragic thing here is that we are bringing this curse upon ourselves." Yes, the fact that two people were killed by bears is a sign that our land is under a curse.  Listen, you ignorant idiot, if you want a sign that our land is under a curse, how about the fact that our economy has been destroyed by the depredation of rich Republicans, or the fact that supposedly religious people like you cheered when our last president sent our army to kill a million in...

News from the Lone Star State: "Legislature likely to cut deep to meet possible $25 billion budget gap AUSTIN – Texas faces a budget crisis of truly daunting proportions, with lawmakers likely to cut sacrosanct programs such as education for the first time in memory and to lay off hundreds if not thousands of state workers and public university employees. The gap is now proportionately larger than the deficit California recently closed with cuts and fee increases" When I recently reported on this fact, of course one of our right wing commentators was quick to deny the whole thing.  Well, sorry, guy, it's true. Of course, unlike California, the legislators of the Republican State of Texas have a simple way to deal with this problem.  They are going to simply refuse to fund the things that they as a State are responsible for.  Screw everyone else- see how easy it is to balance the budget?

Courtesy of Daily Kos, this little tidbit: Rand Paul before the election: "Rand Paul has made a ban on wasteful earmark spending in Washington D.C. one of the key points of his campaign ..." Rand Paul now, days after the people of Kentucky elected him: "In a bigger shift from his campaign pledge to end earmarks, he tells me that they are a bad “symbol” of easy spending but that he will fight for Kentucky’s share of earmarks and federal pork" A "shift from his campaign pledge."  That's a nice way of saying that he lied, and the teabaggers lapped it up like a pack of thirsty dogs. Boy, are the you guys in for some surprises in the next few months. The only thing that remains to be seen is what argument you are going to buy into so you can blame it all on the Democrats.

Anyone who has paid any attention to the teabag tantrums has noticed the many "don't tread on me" flags that they like to wave.  I'm sure that the great majority of us just assume that this is a reference to the "don't tread on me" banners that were displayed during the American Revolution, and that the display of these flags is simply one more pathetic attempt by the teabaggers to claim nonsensically that ther racism and greed make them just like the people who fought in the Revolution. I certainly assumed that to be the case.  Well, never underestimate the ability of these miserable people to engage in "dog whistle" politics, where things that seem benign to the rest of us have a totally different meaning to them. Here is something I found a couple of days ago.  It is described in the engraving as ""The first Flag of Independence raised in the South, by the Citizens of Savannah, Ga. November 8th 1860"  Sort of gives a who...

We learn from World Net Daily: "The man chosen to replace Keith Olbermann during the host's suspension from MSNBC for unapproved political contributions has now been struck from the network 's lineup, following disclosure that he, too, made political donations to Democrats.  MSNBC had chosen Chris Hayes, editor of the Nation, to host the network's prime-time political show "Countdown," the Wall Street Journal reports.  But Hayes also made a series of donations to Democrats, to former Alabama candidate for the U.S. House Josh Segall and former Illinois primary candidate Thomas Geoghegan." Do you get what is going on here?  Chris Hayes made these donations when he was not an employee of MSNBC.  Now the rule, created by Republicans, and apparently accepted by the "liberal" press, is that no one who has ever made a donation to a Democratic candidate can host a show on a news network.  In the meantime, it is perfectly okay for the Republican...

When the Republicans win the House of Representatives, it represents a total mandate to do whatever they want, without a thought to what anyone else thinks, but when the Democrats win the House, the Senate and the White House, it means absolutely nothing. The Republicans are allowed to have a multibillion dollar foreign owned cable "news" channel devoted to 24 hour a day lying propaganda on their behalf, but if a liberal commentator gives a political contribution to a Democrat, he has to be banished from TV forever. Republican leaders can, one after another, announce that they intend to pursue their goals ruthlessly without a concern for Democratic ideas and positions; in the face of which, the appropriate response from our "liberal" press is to write several hundred opinion pieces savaging the Democrats for not doing enough to be bipartisan. If someone saves you from a depression, the right thing to do is to throw him out and replace him with leaders that hav...

I've been giving the wingnuts a rest for a few days, but I thought you would like to see this petition that I found online today: " To:  U.S. Congress As Constitution loving God fearing citizens of the Unites States of America we demand an end to the collaboration and secret agreements being made between our government and alien beings from outer space and subterranean hollow earth. We declare these agreements are HIGH TREASON against the Constitution and the people of the United States. We demand that ALL joint human and alien underground bases such as Dulce Base in Dulce, New Mexico be destroyed and the thousands of innocent people being held as prisoners in them be set free. We demand a thorough congressional investigation of these underground bases by honest legitimate constitution loving elected officials (the few that there are) and we demand an end to the conspiring to replace our constitution with a New World Order. We declare our nation "one...

Keith Olbermann has been "suspended indefinitely" from MSNBC, allegedly for giving a couple of contributions to political candidates. I can guarantee you that this has absolutely nothing to do with contributions.  MSNBC has done nothing to Joe Scarborough or Pat Buchanan for the same "offense."   Here's what I am absolutely positive is happening:  Comcast intends to get rid of Olbermann for good, as soon as they take over, and bring an end to any TV news in the country that is not totally made up of right wing lies.  Comcast made it a condition of completing the sale that MSNBC do its dirty work and get rid of Olbermann (MSNBC's highest rated host) before they would go through with the deal, and so out he goes, on the most pathetic of excuses. This is a clear sign of what to expect from MSNBC in the future.  Rachel and Ed, you're next. But Wait, There's More:   Randi Rhodes was knocked off the air today due to a bomb threat. The worst result of...

This thought from the L. A. Times:  There are now two teams in the NBA that haven't won a game this season, and the Clippers aren't one of them. Take it from me: it's all downhill from here.

...on blue dogs and the election.  21 of the 34 house Democrats who opposed the health care bill lost on Tuesday. Of course, the lesson that people in Washington are going to take from things like this is that Democrats need to listen more to Republicans, and do what Republicans tell them to do, which is to collapse and support Republican positions.

The Republicans win November 3 The Clippers Win Every Dog Has His Day.

David Broder just can't stop this sort of thing.  What in God's name is wrong with people like this? "Somewhere along the way, Obama lost sight of his campaign pledge to enlist Republican ideas and votes. Maybe they were never there to be had, but he never truly tested it." And it's Obama's fault that Republicans never came up with an idea that didn't involve pandering to the rich?   The Republicans had no ideas to offer, but it's still Obama's failure that he didn't run with them?  Don't the Republicans bear any responsibility at all for not having any ideas, except let's steal some more from the American people?  Apparently not in David Broder's world. At least David Broder will not be accusing the Republicans of the same thing- their campaign pledge was to totally ignore the Democrats and do whatever the hell they want.  And that's just the sort of manly behavior that serious people like David Broder love. The Republ...

Try this

"MOUNT MERAPI, Indonesia – A deadly Indonesian volcano spewing lava and smoke for more than a week erupted Wednesday with its biggest blast yet...carcasses of incinerated cattle littered the scorched slopes." Just like in the House of Representatives. "Women screamed" Well, at least we didn't have to deal with any of that, except maybe at Meg Whitman,s house, when it occurred to her what else she might have done with that $140 million dollars.

The Democrats seem to have lost 57 seats in the House, and 6 in the Senate.  You know that the Republicans and the mainstream press are going to characterize this as the worst, most complete electoral defeat in the history of the Human Race.  So I thought I would look at the numbers from some previous midterm elections: FDR, 1938:  -71 in the House, -6 in the Senate Harry Truman, 1945:  -45 in the House, -12 in the Senate Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1958:  -45 in the House, -13 in the Senate Lyndon Johnson, 1966:  -47 in the House, -4 in the Senate Gerald Ford, 1974: -48 in the House, -5 in the Senate Bill Clinton, 1994:  -52 in the House, -8 in the Senate So, all things considered, Obama's losses were not all that out of line, particularly for a nation in economic distress (that accounts, for example, for the losses Eisenhower suffered in 1958, or the disastrous election of 1938, which resulted from the severe economic downturn the economy experie...

29 blue dogs in the house will be gone in January, leaving only 25 left. Four progressive house members lost their seats, out of 79 in the progressive caucus. In case you wondered, that means 53% of blue dog house members lost their seats.  5% of progressives lost.  So, what kind of Democrat do the people of this country want to see in Washington? Obama is out there today, still blabbing about compromise with the Republicans. You know we are going to hear ten thousand times over in the coming weeks that Democrats need to move to the center. Remember these numbers when you hear things like this.  Democrats who act like Democrats win elections.  Democrats who act like weak little pussycats lose.

From an interview with George W. Bush: "MATT LAUER: Not everybody thought you should go to war, though. There were dissenters. PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: Of course there were...I was a dissenting voice. I didn't want to use force. I mean force is the last option for a President. And I think it's clear in the book that I gave diplomacy every chance to work." What in the name of God is wrong with these people?  And why are they out flogging their lies instead of spending the rest of their lives in prison?

Well, the Dems were slaughtered in the house.  If you want my opinion (okay, I know you don't, but I'm dishing it out anyway) there are two reasons for this.  First, the Republicans had the collaboration of the press and the Supreme Court- the first in convincing the American people to buy into a total lie about who is responsible for the mess we're in now, and the second in perhaps fatally corrupting the American electoral process, so that the Republicans, who have been screaming about Communism for seventy years, were able to let the Communists finance their overthrow of the government.  I guess the "Chicoms" can turn out to be pretty good friends when they're dishing out the money. But there is another side to this story.  The (as usual) pathetic Democrats should have spent every day of the last two years reminding us that it was REPUBLICANS and their bogus economics that, as usual, got us into a near depression, and DEMOCRATS who, as usual, got us out.  ...

From Henry Makow (no, I don't link to his sort) a perfect example of  the phenomenon of Republicans endlessly launching attacks on Obama which have nothing to do with Obama himself, and are totally designed to convince people that the behavior of their hero in a flightsuit, the worst president in history, was normal: "In a series of interviews with someone called "Ulsterman", a former White House Insider confirms what I have been saying about Barack Obama since before his election in 2008. Obama is a light weight, a front man, an impostor, unfit to be President. "Everything was handed to him."  He doesn't like to govern. He's lazy and prefers to watch sports. He's not that smart. He doesn't have the gravitas to be President." Could you think of a more perfect description of George W. Bush, or a worse one of Obama? And of course, it comes from an unidentified "former White House insider" who has chosen to tell his explosiv...

I have nothing to say about the election today.  We've heard it all a million times in the last few months, and there's no one left that might have any interest in hearing any more about it. If the American people are going to sell themselves into slavery to the rich, there's not much we can do about it now.  We'll just have to live with it. I'm moving on to keeping my eyes open for our country's next stab in the back from the Repubicans.  Don't worry- we won't have to wait long.

Foreshadowed in this exchange: "PALIN: At this point in time -- O'REILLY: Yes. PALIN: With the state of the union, no. O'REILLY: Yes. You can't be too far right. PALIN: A far right bent would be a healthy." You can't be too far right. No, I guess not.  You can't be too far right for some people, I guess.  I just never knew that many of them lived in the U.S.

From the New York Yimes, in 2002: " Vice President Dick Cheney flew to Yemen today amid extraordinary security to press for joint efforts against remnants of the organization called Al Qaeda. A senior American official said Mr. Cheney had used his meeting with Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh primarily to discuss assistance to prevent Yemen from becoming a haven for terrorists"  Well, I'm sure glad that worked out so well.  Dick Cheney, the king of fighting terrorism, saving the country once again.

Try to guess who said the following, found by a website called The Mystery of the Haunted Vampire: “As for the Republicans—how can one regard seriously a frightened, greedy, nostalgic huddle of tradesmen and lucky idlers who shut their eyes to history and science, steel their emotions against decent human sympathy, cling to sordid and provincial ideals exalting sheer acquisitiveness and condoning artificial hardship for the non-materially-shrewd, dwell smugly and sentimentally in a distorted dream-cosmos of outmoded phrases and principles and attitudes based on the bygone agricultural-handicraft world, and revel in (consciously or unconsciously) mendacious assumptions (such as the notion that real liberty is synonymous with the single detail of unrestricted economic license or that a rational planning of resource-distribution would contravene some vague and mystical ‘American heritage’…) utterly contrary to fact and without the slightest foundation in human experience? I...