Green Eagle

Courtesy of Ellen Meade at American Thinker, where they are always on the cutting edge of Conservative ideology: "Work 'til You Drop: Is that such a bad idea?...maybe it's time for politicians to stop pandering when it comes to shoring up the system and instead rethink the retirement entitlement altogether. Maybe we just need to look back at our history. In the early 1900s, nearly 80 percent of Americans over the age of 65 had a job.  Dora Costa, an economic historian at UCLA, says people stopped working only if they were no longer physically able to.  They expected to work as long as they lived. Is that such a terrible thing?" And what could make more sense than going back to that?  Work till you die.  Not so bad for Mitt Romney, whose "work" consists of collecting $20 million a year for doing nothing, but how about those eighty year old ditch diggers and waitresses?  Well, they do have another option- in the coming Republican America, where only ...

They never stop... Let's just start out with the most preposterous right wing lie of the day: Town Hall:  "Obama Overrides Congress in Order to Send $192 Billion to Palestinian Authority" $192 billion!  Yes, that's what Obama is giving to the Palestinians! One seventh of our entire national budget!  By comparison, the 2012 budget for the Department of Education is $79 billion, for the Department of Energy it's $43 billion, for the Homeland Security department it's $46 billion, a grand total of $13 billion for the Department of the Interior...I could go on here, but I bet you already got the point.  Can anyone be stupid enough to believe the lie that Obama can just send close to $200 billion to any foreigners he chooses?  I guess they can. And just in case you think I am kidding about this: Daniel Daugherty, Town Hall:  "Charles Krauthammer: “There was No Reason to Make [Bin Laden Ad] Negative"...Of course, as shown in the segment above, C...

Reuters reports this rather unsurprising finding: "A nearly three-year-long investigation by Senate Intelligence Committee Democrats is expected to find there is little evidence the harsh "enhanced interrogation techniques" the CIA used on high-value prisoners produced counter-terrorism breakthroughs." Unsurprising, but wrong headed.  To this day, virtually no one is ready to accept the ugly truth about the Bush Administration's degradation of our country by resorting to torture.  In fact, the torture was extremely successful.  This is because its purpose was never to discover the truth.  When the miserable lies Bush, Cheney, Colin Powell, et. al. told to get us into our Iraq aggression became painfully clear, they needed something, anything to justify what they had done.  Torture was used not to find the truth but to force the victims to tell lies- the lies that Bush wanted to hear- the lies that Saddam did have weapons of mass destruction, that he did h...

Just go here and watch the short compilation of excerpts from two speeches, by Obama and Romney, delivered at colleges over the last few days.  It is hilarious.

In a single char t, from (whom else?) Paul Krugman: In the world of economics, where everything is affected by everything else, this is an absolutely stunning correlation.  "Austerity," like so many pro-business, conservative doctrines is nothing but a gigantic lie to justify making the 99% pay for the sociopathic greed of the rich.  The very serious people who populate our news media insist over and over again, that austerity is the only path to economic recovery, even though, in every case where it is applied, the exact opposite happens.  And so we continue down the slippery and, as you can see from the above chart, quite steep slope toward the destruction of our way of life.

By the ever-accurate Swift Boat master Jerome Corsi, who has the following to report at World Net Daily: "With the release this July of Joel Gilbert’s full-length documentary, “Dreams from My Real Father: A Story of Reds and Deception,” the mystery deepens regarding who Obama really is. Gilbert rejects the official story that the Kenyan-born Barack Obama was the president’s father. Instead, he argues, Frank Marshall Davis, the radical poet and journalist who was a card-carrying member of the Communist Party USA, was the real, biological and ideological father of Barack Obama. “I decided to investigate Frank Marshall Davis. His close physical resemblance to Obama was shocking, while Obama little resembled the Kenyan Obama,” Gilbert said. “How could this be?” Gilbert launched into what became two years of research..." And here, in the clearest pictorial form, is the result of that research.  Sit down before you read any farther- you are in for a dreadful shock: Yes, th...

It may be three or four hundred years before I would have a chance to report something like this again, so I'm not going to miss the chance: 2012 STANDINGS American League Central Cleveland Indians Chicago White Sox Detroit Tigers Minnesota Twins Kansas City Royals And this is the season when the Clippers almost won their division.  I don't know if we can blame this on global warming, or what, but it sure is strange.

Think it ended sometime back around Charles Dickens' time?  Think there are some things that are so barbaric and destructive that even the most greedy and hateful among us would never turn the clock back to when they existed?  Think again: "How did breast cancer survivor Lisa Lindsay end up behind bars? She didn't pay a medical bill -- one the Herrin, Ill., teaching assistant was told she didn't owe. "She got a $280 medical bill in error and was told she didn't have to pay it," The Associated Press reports. "But the bill was turned over to a collection agency, and eventually state troopers showed up at her home and took her to jail in handcuffs." Although the U.S. abolished debtors' prisons in the 1830s, more than a third of U.S. states allow the police to haul people in who don't pay all manner of debts..." No contraception.  No Social Security or Medicare.  No college for the poor, and for that matter, not much of any ...

Yes, finally we can see the proof - the Bush administration policy to bring illegal immigration to a standstill has paid off: "Net Migration from Mexico Falls to Zero—and Perhaps Less...The largest wave of immigration in history from a single country to the United States has come to a standstill. After four decades that brought 12 million current immigrants—more than half of whom came illegally—the net migration flow from Mexico to the U.S. has stopped and may have reversed." And all Bush and Cheney had to do to accomplish this amazing feat was crush our economy so there were no jobs to be had here!  Why couldn't those Democratic smarty pants elitists have thought of that?  Once again, proof of the superiority of Republican policy.

Long time Wingnut Wrapup readers (if there are any, which I doubt...) may have noticed that it's getting longer and longer between editions.  As election season gets under way, I'm afraid that right wingers have gotten so vicious that it's hard to find much humor there.  The lies and the smears are the same, but they are so filled with bitterness and antagonism that I can't imagine anyone finding them amusing.  So, here's the best of a bad crop from the last couple of weeks.  I don't expect that this is going to get any easier before November, sad to say: Star Parker, Town Hall:  "Barack Obama won 95 percent of the black vote and 67 percent of the Hispanic vote in 2008 – is there anything Republicans can do to turn around what seems to be an inevitable train wreck for their Party?" Yeah, Star.  Republicans could stop being a pack of racist slime.  Fat chance of that, huh? Katie Kieffer, Town Hall:  "Christ recognized as “good” a legitimate f...

Eric Cantor, in this case, the only Jewish Republican in the House of Representatives: "Cantor Suggests Anti-Semitism Is A Problem Within The House GOP Caucus...Calling it the “darker side,” Cantor responded to Politico’s Mike Allen’s question of whether there is anti-semitism in Congress by trying to avoid commenting. But eventually he let up: “I think that all of us know that in this country, we’ve not always gotten it right in terms of racial matters, religious matters, whatever. We continue to strive to provide equal treatment to everybody.”  Funny, they only seem to notice it when it is about them.  Otherwise, racism is just fine.  So Republican.

This story has been in the news for a couple of days, but here is part of an account of it from Daily Kos: "No walkback for Bishop Jenky and his 'Hitler' claim After Catholic Bishop Daniel Jenky compared the president of the United States to Hitler and Stalin, you'd think that maybe someone in the church would tell the good bishop to ix-nay on the itler-hay already. No, proposing that your church follow the same laws as the rest of the country is not an insult on the order of genocide; if you think so, the problem lies more with you than with the United States, where the issue of "do hospitals founded by specific religious groups still have to follow employment laws" has been fairly settled for a good long time now. No such luck. There will be no reprimand from Jenky's superiors. On the contrary, his archbishop understands the dear bishop's consternation at having to follow laws and having to watch as non-Catholic employees are allowed to be d...

It is with great sadness that I report the death of Levon Helm, the drummer and main singer of the Band. I saw The Band several times.  I remember so well the first time- I had never in my life seen a group play with such force and precision.  I was so mesmerized that I found my way down in front of the stage with a couple of hundred other people, when Bill Graham came crawling out from under the stage and, half crankily, half in amusement, chased us back to our seats. I had never seen Graham before, and that was almost as stunning as the music.  People who missed the Band in their heyday missed one of the great rock experiences of all time. I gave away my tickets to the Last Waltz to go to see the Meters.  I know I got the better musical performance of the night, but I've always regretted it.  The band had already seen two members fall before today, and Levon Helm is the third.  I guess this is just one more of the great experiences of past music t...

I found the following story , as reported at Talking Points Memo, so revealing: "In a major escalation of a slowly building fight over funding the government, the White House has warned House Republicans, in no uncertain terms, that the government will shut down in September if the GOP does not adhere to an agreement they cut with Democrats in August during the standoff over raising the nation’s debt limit... The development sets up a confrontation between GOP leaders and their right-leaning rank and file members, who will rebel if Republicans blink and adhere to the debt limit caps." They will rebel if Republicans "blink" and, despite right wing demands, keep their word for once.  Obviously, it is too much for the right to tolerate for Republican leaders, for one time, to prove themselves to be honest negotiators.  Such a thing is intolerable.  Republicans are there to help the rich thieve the country blind, not to engage in the legislative process.  Anything...

From Yahoo: "While the Los Angeles Clippers continue their push for a Pacific Division title..."

Hey, another reason to vote for Obama.

Jackie Robinson's role in a major incident in the history of this country's desegregation is pretty well known.  Who would think that Jackie Robinson would be able to provide some incredible insight on the nature of Sanford, Florida, the place where Trayvon Martin was gunned down? Here is a link to an absolutely amazing story from Digby about Robinson's role in integrating major league baseball that involves Sanford.  Please read it- I know you will find it fascinating.

The arguments presented by Democrats, the #Occupy movement and others on the left for raising taxes on the rich are based on notions of fairness- the gross inappropriateness of someone like Mitt Romney, making hundreds of millions in an economically useless "job" which no one outside of the children of the very wealthy could ever hope to have, and yet paying a far lower tax rate than the average teacher or industrial worker.  This argument is perfectly valid, so far as it goes, but it does not deal with the real reason that this country faces endless brushes with economic doom if it doesn't massively raise taxes on the rich. The true damage done by the combination of low taxes for rich people and little or no regulation occurs as follows:  The economic world is governed immutably by the law of supply and demand.  Accordingly, the prices of commodities, be they real estate, stocks and bonds, manufactured goods, antique furniture, or anything else, are a reflection of t...

Faced with a moderate, business-friendly Democratic President who is gradually, despite endless obstruction, healing the damage caused by a decade of Republican government, the Republican party seems to be descending into a bottomless pit of madness.  Here are a couple of recent examples of this frightening phenomenon. The first comes from Congressman Alan West.  This guy totally amazes me.  In furtherance of the right's jingoistic feigned adulation of the military, the Republicans decided to run an ex-military man for Congress.  Well, okay, but did they have to pick one who was forced to leave the military because he was caught abusing prisoners?  Sad to say, to Republicans, that's apparently a feature, not a bug.  Well, Mr. West took it upon himself a couple of days ago to state the following: “I believe there’s about 78 to 81 members of the Democratic Party (in the House of Representatives) that are members of the Communist Party.” Note that he d...

For saying that Ann Romney doesn't work.  Here's the proof that this just isn't true by a long shot: "In the rarefied world of upper-level dressage, Romney has achieved goals many amateurs only dream of. Riding her beloved Baron, a 19-year-old, Austrian Warmblood gelding, and coached by her long-time trainer and friend Jan Ebeling, Romney earned her U.S. Dressage Federation silver and gold medals in 2006. That same year, she was the New England Dressage Association Adult Amateur Champion at Grand Prix level, on a score of 63.33 percent." All those poor women out there are obviously just too damned lazy to go out and win medals from the U.S. Dressage Federation on their warmblooded geldings.  So, you miserable feminists, show us your horse trophies before you complain again.

The indictment of George Zimmerman for second degree murder. Here are the real facts, so far as I can tell:  In the time preceding the Trayvon Martin shooting, Zimmerman, who was not a neighborhood watch member as often described, but an out of control maniac with a gun, made several dozen 911 calls, many of them alleging that a suspicious black man was lurking around the neighborhood.  It is clear that Zimmerman was looking for a black person that he could murder with impunity, counting on the willing incompetence of the racist Stanford, FL police department. Well, that is sort of a textbook case of malice aforethought, and what's more, Zimmerman is nothing but a thrill killer.  In any kind of just world, given the State of Florida's record, Zimmerman would be convicted of first degree murder with clear special circumstances of stalking, and would be executed as quickly as possible.  That would be justice, Florida style. Fat chance.

Evidence of the day, from Quinnipiac: "Men would vote for a Romney-Christie ticket 50 - 42 percent, while women would vote for President Obama and Vice President Joseph Biden 55 - 35 percent, the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University poll finds." No wonder we've even got Republicans now talking about what a mistake it is to let women vote.

In the face of an impending humiliating rejection by the voters of his own State, Rick "Never Met A Lie I Wouldn't Believe" Santorum has withdrawn from the race for the Republican Presidential nomination, giving a near sure lock on the nomination to Mitt "Never Met A Lie I Wouldn't Tell" Romney. Of course, this must be making for a lot of joy in the camp of Newt "Never Met A Lie I Didn't Tell First" Gingrich. And the Republican race for the Presidency rolls on.

We decide what a pack of vicious asses they really are.   Courtesy of Little Green Footballs, which has been all over this story, here is a shot of the website of the Orlando Fox affiliate, reporting on the neo-Nazi group which has taken it upon itself to patrol the streets of Stanford, FL: Yes, the self-styled Nazis in the "National Socialist Movement" are now described by Fox as a "civil rights group."  This would be the same Fox which constantly describes blacks and liberals as racists.  There is just no level of despicable behavior that right wingers will not willingly sink to.

I thought I was going to devote this edition of Wingnut Wrapup to the Republicans' screaming bloody murder over Obama's mild comments about the Supreme Court last week, despite their years long history of attacking the court with death threats, demands for impeachment, incitement to violence and any other low thing they could think of.  And boy did they deliver.  But, you know what?  It was all so tedious and predictable that I couldn't be bothered.  So let's just move on to a few of their other quaint notions: Let's lead off with another version of the great lie of modern Conservatism:  Derek Hunter, Town Hall:  "Progressives are the embarrassed children of fascism who changed their name solely because Hitler used it. But a name change is all it is." Well, first off, Hitler didn't use the term Fascism, except when he was talking about Mussolini. That's because, unlike Derek, he knew what it meant.  But then, who can expect a right wing jerkof...

When this is the headline of a Yahoo featured story: "Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race halted by swimmer"

This story , from the Miami New Times: "Armed Neo-Nazis Now Patrolling Sanford, Say They Are "Prepared" For Post-Trayvon Martin Violence...Neo-Nazis are currently conducting heavily armed patrols in and around Sanford, Florida and are "prepared" for violence in the case of a race riot. The patrols are to protect "white citizens in the area who are concerned for their safety" in the wake of the Trayvon Martin shooting last month, says Commander Jeff Schoep of the National Socialist Movement." Only trying to do their best to make this a better country, I'm sure.  Here's a picture of some of these jackasses on patrol: Ain't that sweet.  This is a good chance to repeat something I've said before:  When these guys get the race war they want so badly, and they find themselves fighting with the Crips and Bloods, they are going to be running back home crying for Mama in about five minutes, no matter how much camo they are wearing an...

Rubio.  The same ridiculous, out of control Republican primary process that brought us Michelle Bachmann, Herman Cain, Donald Trump, etc. etc. etc. seems to be fixated on Marco Rubio as just a wonderful choice for a vice presidential candidate.  Here's an example of the mainstream press hyping this story, from Monica Crowley in Time Magazine: "Now that Mitt Romney has, in an important psychological sense, clinched the Republican nomination, the conversation is turning to the question of his running mate. And everyone seems to agree that Florida Senator Marco Rubio is a compelling option: young, telegenic, Hispanic and from a critical swing state. There’s just one problem–Rubio insists he doesn't want to be vice president."  One problem?  I'll tell you what:  I can think of two others.  First of all, though Marco Rubio was born in the United States, neither of his parents was a U.S. citizen at the time of his birth.  How will that go down with ...

Jim Marshall died today, at 88. Here's a video of some guy playing through a couple of Marshalls, as a tribute:

I guess none of us can think of a period in the history of our country when one of its major political parties embarked on a campaign of complete obstruction of the functions of Congress, as we are seeing today from the Republican party.  It is always instructive to look at historical parallels to current events, so lacking similar conduct in United States history, it is of interest to look for examples of this sort of behavior in other countries, and to think about where such behavior eventually led.  Here is one parallel I've found, from around 1924: "Hitler was still letting it be known that he opposed the activities of the Volkischer Block in the forthcoming Reichstag elections...soon after the election, he told Kurt Ludecke that policy would have to change, and that 'we shall have to hold our noses and enter the Reichstag...' But participation should not be "positive cooperation", as was unfortunately carried out by the Volkisch parliamentarists with v...

Mitt Romney today: "I think there is in this country a war on religion. "I think there is a desire to establish a religion in America known as secularism." If Rick Santorum said something like this, you might be tempted to think that he really meant it.  When Mitt Romney says it, it is nothing but a lie.  Get ready- lies are all we are going to get from Romney for the next eight months.

Maureen Dowd surpasses herself this morning in an opinion piece about the corrupt Conservative majority on the Supreme Court.  This is a near must-read.  Please take the time to look at it.  An excerpt: "How dare President Obama brush back the Supreme Court like that? Has this former constitutional law instructor no respect for our venerable system of checks and balances? Nah. And why should he?  This court, cosseted behind white marble pillars, out of reach of TV, accountable to no one once they give the last word, is well on its way to becoming one of the most divisive in modern American history.  It has squandered even the semi-illusion that it is the unbiased, honest guardian of the Constitution. It is run by hacks dressed up in black robes." And let me make it clear, there are no false equivalencies here about which side is at fault for causing this situation.  I'm not always the biggest fan of what Maureen Dowd has to say, but sh...

I feel I have to clear the decks here, for the avalanche of Conservative abuse we are expecting, in response to President Obama having dared to tell the truth about Republicans today. Let's start out with a general assessment of the American condition, by regular commenter Chuck Baldwin at Renew America: "For all intents and purposes, the US Constitution is dead; the Bill of Rights is dead; the vision of the Founding Fathers is dead; and federalism and republicanism are also dead. What we have left is a blend of socialism, welfarism, fascism, statism, and warfarism, with fascism becoming the dominant "ism" of the bunch." Man, things are tough.  Chuck goes on, of course, to imply that Obama is just like Hitler.  I won't bother you with that.  So, let's just move on, shall we: Newt Gingrich:  "Why does the president behave the way that people would think that [he’s Muslim]? You have to ask, why would they believe that? It’s not cause they’re s...

Please listen to this, maybe a couple of times (it's only 15 seconds long) and tell me what you think Rick Santorum was trying to say here: And it's only April.  As time marches on toward November, God only knows what they will stoop to.

I had been intending to write some more about the corrupt "Conservative" justices on the Supreme Court (who today issued another abominable mangling of the Constitution, by their usual 5-4 majority,) when I read the following up-is-down distortion of reality in a comment by Silverfiddle, who seems to have dedicated himself to defending the indefensible: "The author should be asking that of our congress, because they've been going rogue for a long time now. The progressive stretching of the commerce clause is what is rogue. Under liberal interpretation, there is nothing government may not do." By way of reply to this tendentious nonsense, I would like to quote from an article in the Los Angeles Times, titled  "Signs of Supreme Court activism worry Reagan administration lawyers." "If the court were to invalidate the healthcare law, "It would be more problematic than Bush v. Gore," (Reagan Solicitor General, and current Harvard L...

In relation to my previous comment, I would like to recommend an excellent article at Consortium News, by Sam Perry.  Here's a small sample: "What happens to a Republic under a written Constitution if a majority of the Supreme Court, which is empowered to interpret that Constitution, goes rogue? What if the court’s majority simply ignores the wording of the founding document and makes up the law to serve some partisan end? Does that, in effect, turn the country into a lawless state where raw power can muscle aside the democratic process? Something very much like that could be happening if the Supreme Court’s five Republicans continue on their apparent path to strike down the individual mandate at the heart of the Affordable Care Act. In doing so, they will be rewriting the Constitution’s key Commerce Clause and thus reshaping America’s system of government by fiat..." The rest of the article is excellent, and I recommend that you click on the link and read it.  I wa...