Green Eagle

Yes, again.  They won't stop because they are too stupid and vicious, and Green Eagle won't stop because he's too stubborn.  And because he's a parrot.  Did you ever try to shut up a parrot?  Fat chance. So, here we go: Daniel Doherty, Town Hall:  "Obamacare is an "Inequality Godzilla" What the hell does that mean?  I guess they have just run out of even their usual pathetic arguments against Obamacare, so now they are reduced to just stringing scary words together and hoping they can inspire panic in the lizard brains of their followers. Daniel Doherty, Town Hall:  "McCain: Thanks for Censuring me, Now I Feel Even More Motivated to Run in 2016 " Oh, please!  Please let the Republicans nominate this senile old fool to run against Hillary.  That would be almost as much fun as if they go with Ted Cruz.  Think McCain would pick Sarah Palin again? Ben Shapiro, Town Hall:  "How Hollywood Is Killing Same-Sex Marriage" This is ...

Green Eagle rests his case. Update:  Of course, this is all it took to provide an opportunity for right wingers to direct an endless series of vicious invective against this slightly left of average Pope.  Here's a link to a Daily Kos article with some of the hatred unleashed by a photo of the poor guy holding a parrot.  Man, we are saddled in this country with a whole lot of sick, perverted people.

Is a dead Indian.  Remember that lovely saying?  Well, apparently, when it comes to Muslims, even being dead is not good enough: "A Tennessee congressman recently called it “unfortunate” that state laws allowed a local mosque — a victim of arson that gained national attention several years ago — to build a new cemetery on its grounds. Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R-TN) took to Facebook last Friday to inform his constituents that he had heard their concerns about the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro being permitted to construct a cemetery on its grounds loud and clear and shared their worries. “Friends, I have received numerous calls over the last couple of weeks regarding the Murfreesboro mosque cemetery,” DesJarlais wrote. “Although this is a state issue, I am deeply concerned over the impact it might have on our community.” He is "deeply concerned" over the impact it might have on his community, if some dead Muslims are buried there.  And what impact might that be? ...

A nice chart , courtesy of Atrios: One more sign of how truly terrible things are in the Greatest Country On Earth.  As if you needed more evidence. And just remember, the next time some jerk tries to tell you that racism doesn't exist in this country, that George Zimmerman is not a part of this statistic.

Here's some news about the formaldehyde found in the water in West Virginia after the Freedom Industries chemical spill: "An environmental scientist in West Virginia said in a Wednesday legislative hearing that water samples he had taken from a downtown Charleston site contained formaldehyde—and that this had convinced him not to drink the water. The scientist, Scott Simonton, attributed the findings to a byproduct of the Jan. 9 Freedom Industries' spill of MCHM, a coal-cleaning chemical. Early Wednesday evening, the state Department of Health and Human Resources issued a statement that called Simonton's comments regarding formaldehyde "totally unfounded" and said his testimony "does not speak to the health and safety of West Virginians."  Dr. Letitia Tierney, commissioner of the Bureau for Public Health, said Wednesday evening that the chemists the state had consulted with all said the formaldehyde could not have come from the MCHM." Oh, ...

This is just bound to reassure you that you are in safe hands: "WASHINGTON (AP) — Air Force Secretary: 92 nuclear officers implicated in proficiency test cheating scandal." Maybe when they all get kicked out, they can get jobs running the Fukushima cleanup.

It is with considerable sadness that I report the announcement that Representative Henry Waxman, who, over his career has been one of the most consistent and outspoken defender of liberal values in the House, has announced that he is retiring at the end of this term.  This is a safe Democratic seat, but there are Democrats and Democrats.  Given the sort of weak Congressmen who have represented adjacent Democratic districts, it is very unlikely that Waxman's replacement will be anything like his equal.

I must say that the wingnuts have been particularly boring the last few weeks.  Well, here is the best of a bad lot, today dedicated to the great Republican patriots in Arizona who voted to censure their Senator, John McCain, for not being conservative enough: Daniel Doherty, Town Hall:  "New Study: It’s Cheaper for Young People to Opt Out of Obamacare than to Enroll" Until they get sick.  Come to think of it, it's cheaper not to have health insurance than to have it, until you get sick.  That's sort of how health insurance works, dumbass. Conn Carol, Town Hall:  "How Should Conservatives Respond To Obamacare's Medicaid Expansion?" By hating the black guy, of course.  That's how Conservatives respond to everything these days, isn't it? Bob Owens, Bearing Arms:  "The Barrett effect: it’s time to stop selling firearms to government agencies in California" Hey, I thought the right of the people to bear arms should not be abridged...

Here's a video of Bernie Sanders "debating" Michelle Bachmann, which provides a truly outstanding example of what happens when someone tries to reason with right wingers.  It is really painful to see, so I don't expect anyone to watch it all (I couldn't take it) but take a look at a little of it, because it is such a great example of the techniques which Republicans use to prevent any kind of meaningful, fact-based conversation from taking place.  I first noticed this on talk radio in the late 1960's, and I have seen it ever since.  Anyone who thinks this pathetic behavior is the result of stupidity or ignorance on Republicans' part is deeply mistaken.  It is a systematic behavior which can be seen again and again, ad nauseum. So, here is the strategy: 1.  As soon as you get hold of the microphone, rattle off as many lying Republican talking points as possible, harshly criticizing your opponent as a boor if they dare to say anything while you are tal...

Published at long last- the love letters of Heinrich Himmler! Such a romantic A brief excerpt: “I’m heading to  Auschwitz,” he wrote in one missive. “Sending you kisses. Your Heini.” What a passionate guy!

I don't have much to say about this, but I had to post this absolutely surreal image from the Kiev protests: It looks like a still from some Tolkienesque movie.  Life imitates art.

For people like Green Eagle, anyway.  Uber-warmonger John Bolton has announced his intention to make a run for the Republican Presidential nomination!  Of course, it will never happen, but wouldn't that be a treat?  Green Eagle is so excited that he is already at work on his campaign material (as well as having picked the perfect vice-Presidential candidate.)  Here you go: Now, wouldn't that be a great day for American Patriots everywhere?

As exemplified today by this article from Talking Points Memo , generally assumed to be a major source of sense in the left wing blogosphere: "The Heritage Foundation Might Be Shedding Some Of Its Crazy Soon... In its first year under former senator and tea party godfather Jim DeMint, there was a growing consensus -- and concern -- that the foundation once renowned for its intellectual rigor might now be more of a political advocacy outlet than a home for scholarly research, albeit of the conservative variety...Heritage's most recent hire could mark a potential return to normalcy and respectability for the foundation. The new man is Stephen Moore, most recently of the Wall Street Journal's editorial page, who is joining Heritage as its chief economist. He has previously worked at Heritage in the 1980's, the Cato Institute, and Club for Growth before spending the last nine years at the Journal." "It absolutely portends a change over there at the Heritage F...

How unsurprising is this? "Oh, by the way, says Freedom Industries, there was a second chemical leaking from that tank...Daniel Horowitz, managing director of the CSB, said, "we were told about another component in the mixture that had been added to the Crude MCHM, a product called 'PPH' consisting of polyglycol ethers, at about 5.6 percent."  (Mike) Dorsey, (director of homeland security and emergency response for the state Department of Environmental Protection) said he was "extremely disappointed" to be learning only Tuesday -- 12 days after the leak -- about the presence of PPH in the tank that leaked." Freedom Industries, according to an earlier report from the Charleston Gazette, initially refused to tell what was really in the spilled mixture, citing its right to keep proprietary information secret.  Apparently, they realized what a public relations nightmare that was going to cause, and have now relented.  Otherwise, people in West Vir...

In case you didn't notice it, yesterday was what was supposed to be the high point of the anti-abortion movement's year, the "March for Life" on Washington.  This event has been held for many years, often with fairly substantial turnouts due to the active participation of the Catholic Church in turning people out. Well, this is a strange thing, but there are almost no photos I can find showing the extent of the crowd that showed up for this event.  Press reports uniformly mention that "thousands" of people turned out, and a couple of views of the crowd that I could see in videos of the speakers seemed to bear this out.  I'd put the size of the turnout as roughly 3-6,000.  Well, it sure beats the 130 that Larry Klayman managed to get to Washington; and the bad weather on the East Coast certainly affected the turnout, but still this is a minimal number compared to the crowds assembled for previous years' marches. Once again, evidence of a point tha...

This graphic, from a new report from Oxfam: How do you feel about that?  Well, here is Green Eagle's solution to this problem:  Those 85 rich people should be executed, and every penny of their net worth should be seized and distributed among the 3.5 billion poor people, thereby doubling their net worth. Sounds like a plan to me.  I'm sick about being lectured about how we are supposed to care about the welfare of rich people, when they don't give a damn about us.  Do you for one second think that a single one of these 85 people would hesitate for a second if offered a deal to double their wealth, at the expense of the death of 3.5 billion poor people?

I was struck by a post at Daily Kos yesterday that detailed Mitt Romney's rather troubled attitude toward his father: "Writing about Mitt in the Washington Times, conservative columnist Byron York was struck by Romney's pessimism and lack of confidence. But even more striking was the son's acknowledgement that he didn't measure up to the father and the path the AMC magnate turned Michigan governor blazed for him...Romney's poignant confession would have been touching if he had been heading to a therapist's couch rather than the chair in the Oval Office. And Mitt might emerge as a more sympathetic character if he hadn't just spent all of 2012 using his father's rags-to-riches story as a substitute for his own life of privileged detachment." What interested me about this was the following:  We all know that this story parallels the relationship between George W. Bush and his father, who was in so many ways a more successful man than W.  Bu...

In honor of Martin Luther King day, I'd like to present you with this quotation on the occasion of King's death, from that great Patriot and Saint, Ronald Reagan: "it's the sort of great tragedy when we begin compromising with law and order and people started choosing which laws they would break." He deserved it.  Demand equality and you deserve to be murdered.  Well, I'm glad we finally got that straight. And may I point out that this racist son of a bitch wouldn't even be close to hate filled enough to compete in today's Republican party?

For Republicans, anyway.   Maureen Dowd, in the New York Times this morning: "A Republican fund-raising operative even told BuzzFeed that donors are so worried about 2016 now, many tell him, “I think we need Mitt back.” I mean, that is a miserable thought, huh?

Man, they must have some kind of good drugs up there in North Korea.  Sounds like Kim Jong Un drunk him under the table.

I'm not really interested in getting into this nonsense in any detail, but let me just state the obvious:  President Obama's speech yesterday about NSA spying was nothing but an attempt to obscure the obvious fact that he intends to do as close to nothing as he can get away with to deal with this grossly out of control agency.  At this point, all he seems to be up to is hanging on for dear life, trying to finish out his term without giving the Republicans an excuse to impeach him. Not really what we voted for.

If there is a person on earth who really doesn't understand what kind of a sick thing conservatives are thinking of when they constantly rail about "freedom," this should straighten them out: "Water-Poisoning Freedom Industries Files for Bankruptcy! Hold on to your hats, people – Freedom Industries, the company that poisoned 300,000 West Virginians with a chemical leak is now immune against any civil complaints or judgements that may be brought by the people and businesses suffering losses... The company’s assets and liabilities are “unknown,” according to the filing. Under the bankruptcy code, Chapter 11 permits a company to reorganize and continue operating." In other words, there is no public information that this company is actually bankrupt, i.e. broke, but they are allowed to do this so they can stay in business without paying a penny to the people they damaged.  And this is all perfectly legal.  Under conservative political principles, companies are...

More!  There's always more! Katie Pavlich, Town Hall:  "The Dishonesty of Democrats' Push for an Extension of Unemployment Benefits- For months, in an effort to shift focus away from Obamacare, Democrats have argued that the economy is recovering and that jobs are being created.  But if this is the truth, then why is it necessary to continue the extension of unemployment benefits?  Democrats cannot honestly argue an unemployment benefit extension is necessary because jobs aren't available for the unemployed while also touting a successful economy and growing jobs." Talk about dishonesty.  There are still three times as many job seekers as there are new jobs, and Katie knows this perfectly well.   Sure the economy is recovering from the Republican crash. But Democrats are hardly being dishonest if they still care about the people who have been left behind.  To Republicans, compassion is dishonesty.  Well, they don't have any themselves, an...

Via Little Green Footballs, this wonderful chart detailing the peer-reviewed papers published in scientific journals last year: Yes, the climate change deniers managed to get one paper out of 2259, or by my calculations, 4.43 100ths of one percent of the total. Yet people with a direct financial interest in climate change denial will continue to spend billions to delude the American people about this vital subject: "Conservative groups may have spent up to $1bn a year on the effort to deny science and oppose action on climate change, according to the first extensive study into the anatomy of the anti-climate effort." The result of their malicious work?  From the American Association for the Advancement of Science: This carefully nurtured intransigence among Republican voters is sufficient to see that the scientific evidence produced by an overwhelming percentage of climate scientists can do nothing to get the government to act to save us from disaster.  And ...

I very much enjoyed this article from the Los Angeles Times, laying out the Republicans' brave new plans to deal with income inequality in the United States: "Republicans call for a new approach to fight poverty   On the 50th anniversary of President Johnson's War on Poverty, Republicans seek to address voter anxiety about an uneven economic recovery in a midterm election year..   Prominent Republicans are working to recast the party's message about tackling poverty and boosting the middle class amid concerns that a relentless focus on the troubles of Obamacare will not be enough to guarantee electoral success." Before I really tear into them, note that this new found interest of the Republicans has nothing whatsoever to do with the country's welfare, and everything to do with the fact that, after 2012, most Americans correctly identify them as the servants of the rich.  So, recasting the party's message, not changing anything, is the whole point ...

Okay, I'm succumbing to the urge to get my two cents in on Chris Christie. What this bridge embarrassment reminds me of is the resignation of Nixon.  After that happened, some European friends of mine expressed their incredulity that such a seemingly small thing (compared, say, to Reagan's Iran-Contra treason) could result in driving a President from office.  What they didn't understand was this:  There were always two views of Nixon in the country- Nixon, the brilliant politician and master statesman who could guide the country through any crisis, and Nixon-well not to mince words- the crook.  What Watergate did was make it impossible for most people to believe in the first alternative.  Watergate played right into the most negative stereotypes about Nixon. Well, that is the reason that this bridge scandal is going to do so much damage to Christie.  There is already a well-established narrative of Christie as a belligerent bully, and this incident play...

Well, here I go again, bringing you a prime specimen of the lunacy/stupidity/hate that makes the right in this country a viable institution.  This one, found by Esquire, features Charles Goodson, the "Commanding General" of the New Confederate Army.  I strongly recommend that you watch at least a little of this video, because seeing one of these guys live gives an insight into just how intellectually inadequate and detached from reality these people are.  Not that they do not represent a danger.  Sad to say, it doesn't take much mental capacity to pull the trigger of a gun.  In this case, all it takes is enough synthetic anger, and that they have in apparently inexhaustable quantities. The author of the Esquire article, Lieutenant Colonel Robert Bateman (from our real army) has this to say about "General" Goodson: "I myself would not have believed that such a thing could even exist... I think it is so flipping funny and pathetic that it needs to be...

WINGNUT WRAPUP 2014 Aah, a new year.  Perhaps this is the year that Republicans decide to act sane. ...Nah.  Let's get on with it, and set the tone right from the beginning: Walter Williams, Town Hall:  "Here's a question that I've asked in the past that needs to be revisited. Unless one wishes to obfuscate, it has a simple yes or no answer. If one group of people prefers strong government control and management of people's lives while another group prefers liberty and desires to be left alone, should they be required to enter into conflict with one another and risk bloodshed and loss of life in order to impose their preferences on the other group? Yes or no. My answer is no; they should be able to peaceably part company and go their separate ways." Secession!  All the Koch Brothers and Rove money in the world couldn't buy the government, they couldn't persuade more than a couple of hundred jackasses to show up for their various rebellions in ...

From one of the, uh, more strident websites I have found: Yes, the Pope is a Jew.  And: " Jew-appendage Francis made the announcement during his weekly Sunday blessing, has he ha signed a Jew pact with Jews to go to meet on having all Catholics become Jew-communists... The visit is so far his only foreign trip planned for 2014. The Pope will celebrate Mass at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, with the ecumenical patriarch, Bartholomew, to keep Catholics "stupid" while he meets in secret with the rotten Jew, and can't wait to lick and suck Satan's wailing wall, where all Jews make pelvic motions as they pray, screwing Satan, and the human race" You know how hard  Green Eagle tries to keep you up to date on news that others won't touch.  I hope you appreciate things like this.  Without Green Eagle, you would never know about the pelvic motions, let alone signing Jew pacts with Jews.

Is there nothing he can say that is so stupid, and so pretend wise, while in fact pushing the fantasies of the rich so assiduously, that disqualifies him from blaring his worthless opinions to the American people? Who else could I be talking about?  Thomas "The Mustache of Irrelevancy*" Friedman, of course, who gets another opportunity to beat us down with his worthless opinions. Here's a taste of his "Centrist" drivel today, in which once again he refuses to identify the obvious source of this nation's problems, the Republican party: "Congress should be borrowing money at these unusually low rates to invest in a 10-year upgrade of our crumbling infrastructure...But this near-term investment should be paired with long-term entitlement reductions...and tax reform that would be phased in gradually as the economy improves" Friedman's idea of compromise seems to boil down to this:  Every time we enact a good Democratic policy, we have to l...

Yes, it's a Call to all Eagles!  Or at least some Eagles, seeing as how Green Eagle had to do his usual trolling of wingnut idiots to find out about it, and you can be sure he is deeply insulted to have been left off of the Eagle List. And what are they Calling to the Eagles to do?  Why, of course, to swarm down on Washington to drive Mr. Obama out of the White House: "Mission: Restoration of Constitutional government, rule of law, freedom, liberty "of the people, for the people, by the people" from despotic and tyrannical federal leadership.   Assumptions: Millions of Americans will participate. American veterans and patriots are energized to end the tyranny, lawlessness, and shredding of the US Constitution. Those in power will not hesitate to use force against unarmed patriots exercising their constitutional rights. Patriots may be killed" Millions of Americans will participate!  I am not sure at this point if that includes the eagles or if millions ...

Really, there has been effectively no news for days worth complaining about, so Green Eagle is reduced to mocking a proposed new Constitutional amendment that's making its way around the Wingnut world lately.  Here's the text, followed by some incisive commentary from that noted Constitutional scholar, Green Eagle, who is said to have reduced more copies of the Bill of Rights to shreds with his beak than any other know parrot. Note: Please swallow any food or drink before continuing.  Green Eagle will not be held responsible for accidental choking. "The 28th Amendment to our United States Constitution should read as follows:  The Congress, the Supreme Court, the Executive Branch of United States nor the Congress of any of the fifty states of the United States of America and all municipalities, counties, or any other body politic associated with government within the jurisdiction of all fifty U.S. sovereign States shall not, in any way, shape, form or fashion abridge ...