Green Eagle

The last load of garbage for the year. Yes, Green Eagle never sleeps (more than 14 or 15 hours a day, on average) when it comes to rooting out right wing lunacy: Ted Nugent: "I think that Barack Hussein Obama should be put in jail. It is clear that Barack Hussein Obama is a communist. Mao Tse Tung lives and his name is Barack Hussein Obama. This country should be ashamed. I wanna throw up." Ted, Green Eagle wants to throw up, too. Not for the same reason, no. Hogan, Red State: "40 Republicans May Be a Temporary Blessing" Right on there, Hogan. 30 or 35 would be even better. And dare we hope for the ultimate blessing? That would be zero Republicans. Confederate Yankee: "Our President risked his own safety, the safety of his family, his friends and the lives of the Secret Service staff for an impromptu dash across the island so that a friend could attend to a very minor injury. I wonder if local police officers placed their lives on the line to race out i...

Because I, like so many people, repeated the Associated Press story about the two former Guantanamo inmates who were allegedly involved in helping the underpants bomber, I want to report that this story has now come under serious suspicion, like so much crap that has come from the AP in the last few years. When I think I can sort out the truth, I will let you know what I have learned.

Reported by Yahoo: "The number of new claims for jobless benefits dropped last week to 432,000, the Labor Department said Thursday, down sharply from its late March peak of 674,000. The decline signals that the economy could begin adding a small number of jobs in January, several economists said." Two things I would like to note: First, this is the lowest number since July, 2008. Next time someone tries to tell you that unemployment is Obama's doing, remind them who was president in July, 2008. Second, March of this year is about a month and a half after Obama took office, and happens to coincide with the time that the gigantic Bush stock market collapse began to turn around. It took Republicans eight years of corruption and willful mismanagement to create this problem. Democrats are not going to repair the damage in a few months, but let us never forget- it only took them a month and a half to start the healing, and, bit by painful bit, things have started to get b...

From TPM: "TheConservatives.com, the Washington Times Web project that was billed as an ambitious "multiplatform" venture to allow "the Joe the Plumbers of the world to speak up to major thinkers, like Newt Gingrich," has gone silent. Brian Faughnan, editor of the site, tells us the Times has officially canceled the project. When the site launched in the fall, then- Times editor John Solomon told the Washington Independent he envisioned TheConservatives.com's role as an aggregator of the best content of conservative blogs..." Well, don't worry, guys. You still have Wingnut Wrapup.

Here are a couple of fine examples of the way to behave if you want your newspaper to go from being one of the nation's finest news sources, to nothing but a sick joke: Jo-Ann Armao, Washington Post: "By staying in Hawaii, the president has sent the message that the situation really isn’t all that serious, that things can proceed just fine until he’s back. And isn’t it that kind of reasoning that emboldens our never-vacationing enemies into thinking Christmas Day is the perfect time for them to strike?" Did you, or any of your fellows there at the WaPo, have anything remotely similar to say, Jo-Ann, when our last president spent a third of his term on vacation while the nation collapsed around him? No? Well then, maybe you should just shut up when Barack Obama takes Christmas off. But wait, there's more: Washington Post: "Republicans are jumping on President Obama's response to the attempted Christmas Day bombing of a U.S. airliner as the latest evidence ...

That utter failure, Dick Cheney is at it again, shooting his lying mouth off as usual. From Politico: "Former Vice President Dick Cheney accused President Barack Obama on Tuesday of “trying to pretend we are not at war” with terrorists, pointing to the White House response to the attempted sky bombing as reflecting a pattern that includes banishing the term “war on terror” and attempting to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center. “[W]e are at war and when President Obama pretends we aren’t, it makes us less safe,” Cheney said in a statement to POLITICO. “Why doesn’t he want to admit we’re at war?" Let's take a stroll down memory lane: George W. Bush did not interrupt his month long vacation when he got a memo entitled "Bin Laden Determined to strike in U.S." and he waited six days to make a single comment about the "shoe bomber." I guess, to Dick, underwear is a lot more scary than shoes. And by the way, Dick, if we are still at war seven years a...

I would like to amplify a comment I made on a post below, which was based on the following*: 3 4 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: 35 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: 36 Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. 37 Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? 38 When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? 39 Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? 40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. 41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed,...

It just wouldn't be right to end the year without one more visit with the Queen of Birthers, and America's most Prominent Ex-Russian Loon, Orly Taitz. Gearing up for next year, she has this to say: "What is the real intention of this Kenyan, Indonesian communist usurper? Is it to provide security for us or to destroy our security? Judge for yourself. Seeing targeted destruction of our economy, our security, dissipation of American jobs, massive corruption in the Government, Congress Department of Justice and Judiciary, it might be time to start rallies and protests using our second amendment right to bear arms and organise in militias." Well, whatever 2010 brings, at least we will still have Orly to kick around. Until she is disbarred and sent to jail, something which moves closer every time she opens her mouth.

A big load of garbage today, the results of several days' right wing maundering, so let's dive right in: First, let's start out with a special certificate for projection: Dick Morris, Town Hall: "Griffith's Party Switch Illustrates The Death Of Moderate Democrats...Griffith's decision to step out of line and refuse to drink the Democratic Kool-Aid illustrates the Achilles' Heel of the Democratic regime in Washington." Death of moderate Democrats. You've got to laugh- when you get done gagging. And now the extremely small statue of Ronald Reagan, for the delusion of the day: Jim Hoft, Gateway Pundit: "The Drudge Report may have a right-wing reputation, but it leans left." Uh huh, Jim. Leans left, compared to whom? Joseph Goebbels? Dick Cheney? Moe Lane, Red State: "It may seem a Scrooge-like message for this time of year to point out that you cannot spend money that you don’t have" Unless you're a Republican, I guess. ...

Almost unbelievable, but here it is- this quote from Air America, but the story is on a number of websites. I wonder if the mainstream press will be interested in it: "Brian Ross of ABC News reports that two of the four men behind the plot to blow up a U.S. airliner on Christmas Day were actually prisoners of the United States and that, under the leadership of President George W. Bush, were released into a Saudi art rehabilitation program." An art rehabilitation program. That, I guess, is an example of the harsh treatment that Republicans believe in for terrorists, as opposed to Obama's weak-kneed, cowardly approach of putting them in maximum security prisons. As always, and I want to repeat that, As ALWAYS, Republican pretense of giving a damn about the country or being equipped to deal with our defense is a despicable lie. There's really not much more to say- anyone who trusts Republicans in any way is either a corporate CEO, and in on the joke, or they are a w...

Can this possibly be much of a surprise? From TPM: "The political action committee behind the Tea Party Express (TPE) -- which already has been slammed as inauthentic and corporate-controlled....directed almost two thirds of its spending during a recent reporting period back to the Republican consulting firm that created the PAC in the first place." Well there you go. The teabaggers- suckers for the rich and powerful, from beginning to end. It's not enough that they are serving the purpose of their corporate masters every time they get out and march around calling themselves patriots. They couldn't even donate money for their beloved tea parties without being robbed blind. Well, what do you expect?

A couple of days ago, I promised to report back to you about the inevitable plague of right wingers screaming about how Obama was responsible for the recent underpants bomber. Well, here's a sample. There was too much to include it all, so I left out the most boring ones. Before beginning, I want to point out that TSA appropriations, including money for a new generation of bomb scanning equipment, failed in Congress last June, due to Republican opposition. Rep. Pete Hoekstra: "It's not surprising," U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra, a Holland Republican, said of the alleged terrorist attempt to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight in Detroit. ... "People have got to start connecting the dots here and maybe this is the thing that will connect the dots for the Obama administration," Hoekstra said." Maybe it will connect the dots for your fellow Republicans, Pete. I doubt it, but maybe. American Thinker: "The passengers of Northwest/Delta Airlines Flight 25...

From Disaffected And It Feels So Good, this trenchant observation: "On this fake blessed day it's time to remember the one group of people whom even jesus hated and distrusted; Bankers." Unfortunately, the people who need to remember this have a great talent for only remembering the parts of the Bible that suit their interests, and even then they usually remember them wrong.

From The Hill: "Obama scores well for first year on ethics, say watchdog groups" Lots of good news from a number of sources in this article. I particularly want to emphasize this, because one of the consistent themes on right wing blogs the past few months has been the claim that the Obama administration is incredibly corrupt. Of course, we know that they are making this charge because their hero, George Bush, presided over what will be remembered as the most corrupt presidential administration ever, in which what would have been considered a major scandal previously became the normal order of business. Imagine what an uproar there would have been twenty or thirty or fifty years ago if the Vice President made tens of millions of dollars in stock options on "no-bid" contracts given to his corrupt company. So, the right wingers have to convince themselves that Obama is worse. That's a lie, guys, just like everything you say. Read the article.

From Huffington Post: "Sen. Joseph Lieberman, (I-Conn) a renowned hawk and one of the foremost champions of the invasion of Iraq, warned on Sunday that the United States faced "danger" unless it pre-emptively acts to curb the rise of terrorism in Yemen. "Somebody in our government said to me in Sana'a, the capital of Yemen, Iraq was yesterday's war. Afghanistan is today's war. If we don't act preemptively, Yemen will be tomorrow's war," Lieberman said, during an appearance on "Fox News Sunday". "That's the danger we face.... Lieberman also argued that the botched attack should compel the Obama administration to abandon efforts to transfer suspected-terrorists out of the holding facility at Guantanamo Bay..." So, lets take our eyes off the ball again, and have another unwinnable war. That sounds like a really good idea. Was there ever anyone on Earth who combined stupidity and sheer hatred for what's right in th...

Well, by now most of us will have heard of the incident today in which a particularly incompetent Nigerian, who claims to be an Al Qaida operative of some sort, attempted to blow up a plane near Detroit. Green Eagle is willing to bet that, by Monday, he will be able to assemble an entire Wingnut Wrapup consisting of nothing but right wingers savaging President Obama for this incident, and demanding his resignation for not having personally prevented it from happening. Of course, it will not occur to any of them to reflect on the similar incident at about the same time into George W. Bush's term, and its rather different outcome.

Green Eagle thought that he would give his mindless sarcasm a rest for Christmas. Don't worry- he'll be back tomorrow, twice as angry as ever.

Obamacare- it's only a few hours old, and the wingnuts are already in full whining mode. Here's a sample: Red State: "The grand Republican strategy to have a vote on Christmas Eve was accomplished at 7:15AM (Eastern) this morning, while most Americans slept - and just like a thief in the night, the Senate has slipped in to your home to steal away your freedom and your right to care for your family as you see fit." The Grand Republican Strategy apparently consisted of having their defeat occur while we were asleep. Way to go, with the grand strategy thing, guys. By the way, 7:15 AM isn't exactly the middle of the night. Anyway, congratulations on the success of your strategy to set the time of your humiliation. And by the way, what the Democrats stole was your right to die on the street with no medical care. That's one right that most Americans might willingly give up. Pammy Geller: "Whatever sick gloss they smear on this monster, "work makes y...

In case you haven't heard, the health care bill, or at least what remains of it, passed the Senate: 60 Dems for, and 39 Republicans against. Jim Bunning, who probably got lost on the way back from the rest room, didn't vote. Well, at least holy Joe didn't stab us in the backs this time. In the near future, when this bill is as much a part of our social fabric as social security and the minimum wage, some of us will remember the behavior of the Republican party over the last eight months. Unfortunately, a lot of us won't.

Governor Tim Pawlenty, frequently mentioned as the sane Republican candidate for 2012. from Little Green Footballs: "Well, you know I’m an evangelical Christian. I believe that God created everything and that he is who he says he was. The Bible says that he created man and woman; it doesn’t say that he created an amoeba and then they evolved into man and woman. But there are a lot of theologians who say that the ideas of evolution andcreationism aren’t necessarily inconsistent; that he could have “created” human beings over time." Sometimes it's hard to tell whether every single one of them is an ignorant, lunatic cracker, or whether a lot of them are just liars. Either way, anyone who would trust a Republican to walk their dog, let alone run the country, must be very deep indeed into self-destructive denial.

As a result of wingnuts' recent commitment to boring us all into comas, it has taken a few days to put together this compendium of mendacity. Remember the "happy times" when they could easily come up with this much lunacy every single day? It seems so long ago, but it was only last summer! Confederate Yankee: "It Is Time To Treat Climategate As A Crime" Following the great Republican tradition of treating all truth as crime. Remember the yellowcake and the WMD's and the links between Saddam and Al Qaida? It was treason to tell the truth about that. Leon De Winter, Pajamas Media: "Mr. President, You Can't Save the Economy and Save the Planet" Starve or die, suckers. Take your pick. Ron Rosenbaum, Pajamas Media: "Bill Clinton: Lower Than a Yard Dog" They never give up, do they? Jim Hoft, Gateway Pundit: "We Will Never Forget — Democrats Vote to Nationalize Health Care Tonight" Don't worry about that, Jim. We are ...

Here is an article from Politico (which some idiots still insist on considering nonpartisan) that will provide you with a few moments amazement at the continuing self-deception practiced by our "liberal" press, in order to do everything they can to maintain the viability of the pathetic Republican party: " GOP obstruction a step in the right direction By LAWRENCE A. HUNTER & LEWIS K. UHLER" Well, I would agree that it's a step in the right direction, if by that you mean oblivion for the Republican party, but I don't think that's what Larry and Lew have in mind. "... more than simple bribery was required to obtain Nelson’s vote to reach 60. Reid had to resort to fraud and deception...Reid played Nelson for a chump. Contrary to Reid’s assurances to Nelson, the language will lead to federally subsidized abortion." Bribery, fraud and deception. First of all, can I point out that, apparently, Ben Nelson can't read, since it is perfectly a...

From a NBC/Wall Street Journal Poll about the Bush administration (via Think Progress: ) "37% said it lost ground on the environment, 46% said it lost ground on health and well being, 50% said it lost ground on peace and national security, 54% said lost ground on the nation’s sense of unity, 55% said it lost ground in treating others with respect, 66% said it lost ground on moral values, and a whopping 74% said it lost ground on economic prosperity." Nice job, guys. Of course Republicans are out there desperately trying to rewrite history, and make people think Obama is responsible for all of this. Remember Dana Perino a few weeks ago claiming that no terrorist attacks occurred on U. S. soil during the Bush administration? Or Karl Rove running all over the place to claim that the Bush administration had no responsibility for the current budget deficits? They've tried this before. Decades of unremitting lies have succeeded in blotting out, in many people's minds, th...

Those of you who have read Green Eagle lately may have noticed that I have been pretty hard on Barack Obama because of the endless wrangling and watering down that produced the weak health care reform bill that now seems likely to pass the Senate. Well, I was doing some research on previous votes in the Senate on major legislation creating programs that are now considered essential, such as Social security, the FDIC and medicare, when I found the following long article online. It is a history of the struggle leading up to the establishment of the minimum wage in 1938, from the Department of Labor. I hope you will click on the link and at least scan through it. It tells a story of endless stalling, misrepresentation, and exactly the same sort of obstructionist tactics, not all from the other side of the aisle, that were used against the current health care reform bill. And it also details the painful, and seemingly endless series of compromises which Roosevelt had to make, to get ...

Here is a collection of the whining, self-delusion, hypocrisy, accusations of Democratic corruption for daring to assemble 60 votes to pass legislation, smears, lies, and all of the other standard Republican ploys which I found today, on my usual right wing websites, in response to the apparent imminent passage of some sort of health care bill. The list is so long (for one day!) that I am just going to reprint it without my usual sarcastic comments. I don't even expect you to read your way through the whole list. I just want you to see the magnitude of filth that we are fighting against. Town Hall: "Dem Sen: Opponents of Health Bill Are Birthers, Right-Wing Militias, Aryan Groups- Shock video: Liberal politician characterizes conservatives as racists." Roger Schlesinger, Town Hall: "Time Has Not Run Out!" Meredith Turney, Town Hall: "Bribing and Blackmailing for Historic Change" Erick Erickson, Red State: "From my vantage point, the GOP thr...

Paul Krugman, from an as-usual great column in the New York Times this morning: "The political scientist Barbara Sinclair has done the math. In the 1960s, she finds, “extended-debate-related problems” — threatened or actual filibusters — affected only 8 percent of major legislation....after Democrats retook control of Congress in 2006 and Republicans found themselves in the minority, it soared to 70 percent." We are dealing with an unprecedented event in our country's history- the utter refusal of one of the major political parties to engage in any real effort to deal with the nation's problems. I am not sure that this nation can survive the subversion which has become the go-to solution of the Republican party. But I am sure that it will not survive if Democrats do not start answering dirty politics with hardball politics. Doing away with the current filibuster rules, as Krugman advocates, is one possible answer. Whether that is the solution, or just forcing the ...

From Talking Points Memo: "A self-styled Nevada codebreaker convinced the CIA he could decode secret terrorist targeting information sent through Al Jazeera broadcasts, prompting the Bush White House to raise the terror alert level to Orange (high) in December 2003, with Tom Ridge warning of "near-term attacks that could either rival or exceed what we experience on September 11," according to a new report in Playboy." It is a national scandal, if you believe Republicans, that a harmless couple managed to enter an Obama event. I wonder how much outrage will be expressed at this very real display of malfeasance in the handling of our safety. It is clear by now that a good deal of the constant Republican harping on the imaginary incompetence of the Obama administration, whose problems are largely generated by an out of control opposition party dedicated solely to making Obama fail, are a desperate attempt to obscure the mammoth disaster that was the administration of ...

In the name of science, I feel a need to bring to you this sterling contribution to the global warming debate, from that eminent expert, Dr. Sarah Palin: "arrogance of man2think we can change nature's ways.MUST b good stewards of God's earth,but arrogant&naive2say man overpwers nature" There. Aren't you glad we got that settled? And thanks again to Twitter, for allowing us to deal with any issue with a sound bite.

Daily Kos: "Do they know what they’ve thrown away? Do they know that their constant conciliations to those who would like nothing more than to block success are seen as weakness, when strength is required? Do they know how bad it looks that they are caving to a man who campaigned against them, yet loudly criticizing one who built the infrastructure that allowed them to succeed? Gibbs, Axelrod sounding like idiots talking about insanity? What madness is this?" I disagree. These things are not seen as weakness, they are weakness. Their caving to their enemies doesn not just look bad, it is bad. At this point, with all of his audacity and hope apparently exhausted by election day, Obama doesn't just look like a failure, he is a failure. After the worst president in history, Obama had within his grasp the chance to be one of the great presidents. Instead, he chose to ally himself with the self-serving, valueless likes of Rahm Emmanuel, Max Baucus, Joe Lieberman ...

From the New York Times: "G.M. Plans to Close Saab After Sales Talks Collapse" The end of a highly respected car company, at the hands of the manufacturing masters at G. M. One more innocent victim of the cesspool of incompetence that is American management, where the worse you do for your company, the better you do for yourself.

I hope I may be permitted the liberty of quoting this line from Josh Marshall in its entirety: "After months in which the Senate health care bill was held up over efforts to find some form in which she would agree to sign on to it, Sen. Snowe (R-ME) now says she will oppose it because it is being "rushed." May I reiterate what I have said before: there is NO SUCH THING as an honest Republican. The best that supposedly exist (that would be you, Olympia) are corrupt, lying traitorous criminals, totally in thrall to the rich, and loving it that way. There is no such thing as an honest Republican.

Is there no end to Democratic weakness? From Politico: "An aide to Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) coordinated opposition to the Senate health bill’s abortion compromise this morning with the Republican Senate leadership, according to a chain of frantic emails obtained this morning by POLITICO...The emails suggest a previously unseen degree of coordination between the offices of Stupak and McConnell." We have a Republican party today that has abandoned any commitment to the welfare of our country, in service of its own interests and those of its rich backers. Are we to tolerate people in our own party who are destroying both its interests and the interest of the nation, in order to form a league with those who will willingly betray us? When is enough enough? And when will someone in authority make it clear that there is at least one American political party that will not provide a haven for crazed, corrupt religious fanatics?

John McCain, on Fox News (where else?) "[Obama] said there would be a change in the climate in Washington. There's been a change. It's more partisan. It's more bitterly divided than it's been..." So, it's all Obama's fault, huh? Why don't you try looking in the mirror once in a while, you lying dick?

Well, Obama is about to get his health care bill. It is going to be interesting to see how hard the news media works to convince us that a failure is a success, compared to the massive effort they put forth to present Bush's epic failure in Iraq as a glorious triumph. So it snowed a lot on the east coast. Depending on which right winger you listen to, this proves either that God is doing what he can to stop the Senate from passing health care reform, or else that God hates climate change science, rather preferring to see human greed be permitted to destroy his creation. Just another day here in the greatest country in the history of the world.

This great story from Think Progress (via Atrios:) Mc Cain Now: "McCAIN: I’ve been around here 20-some years. First time I’ve ever seen a member denied an extra minute or two to finish his remarks. … I just haven’t seen it before myself. And I don’t like it." McCain then (2002:) "Mr. DAYTON. I ask for unanimous consent that I have 30 seconds more to finish my remarks. Mr. McCAIN. I object." Given what we've seen lately, from the likes of St. John and former Democrat you-know-who, I sort of wonder if "moderate, willing to work with the other side" isn't just a euphemism for lying, self-serving dick.

In case you aren't ready to go be sick in the bathroom from the news lately, this headline from Politico: "Monica's Back" Luckily, like most things in Politico, it wasn't true.

Green Eagle is very apologetic that he has been so neglectful of his task of rewarding those on the right who lead the way in childish tantrums, sick delusions and outright lying. So here he is, trying to catch up on the workload: A special Whiny Little Baby award for Erick Erickson, for this outbreak of synthetic misery over the Dems finding a way to stop the Senate Republicans from wasting two days in the Senate reading a 700 page bill: "As so many of us have tried to tell Mitch McConnell for weeks and weeks and weeks, the Senate GOP must throw everything they can at killing the health care bill. Instead, we have seen the Senate Republicans working collaboratively with the Democrats" "But then something curious happened — something that violates the sacrosanct nature of the Senate’s rules; rules so inviolable that until yesterday neither Democrat nor Republican ever risks crosses the rules in over 200 years....One of the chief rules of the Senate is that when one Sena...

Another example: "Morgan Stanley ... plans to relinquish five San Francisco office buildings to its lender two years after purchasing them from Blackstone Group LP near the top of the market. “This isn’t a default or foreclosure situation,” [Alyson Barnes, a Morgan Stanley spokeswoman] said. “We are going to give them the properties to get out of the loan obligation.” To get out of the loan obligation. But it's not a default. Well, there you go.

It's not often that I give a commendation of merit for exceptional misuse of 9/11. Rudy Giuliani set the bar so high for this award that it's really hard to earn it these days. However, I think I have found a worthy recipient for such a coveted award: "House Minority Leader John Boehner said Tuesday that the Obama administration’s plan to move some Guantanamo detainees to Illinois shows that the White House "must've forgotten" about the Americans who died on Sept. 11." So, for the unusual feat of extreme jingoism, combined with filthy smears and an utter disregard of the real issues involved, I hereby salute House Minority Leader John Boehner for his contribution to the degradation of our nation's political discourse. I can't say that it will receive the same glorious reception that Republicans gave Obama's Nobel Peace Prize, but at least in this case, there is no question that Boehner has earned his accolades. At the rate he is going, it...

So Sarah Palin has finally gone off the edge- now she's taking on the Governator. Here's a picture from a right wing website: Are you kidding me? Take a look at those two people. Little girl, if I were you, I'd put that gun down and back away very slowly. And by the way, Sarah, Arnold has had a lot of trouble to deal with as governor, but I don't notice that he ran away crying to mama in the middle of his term.

Well, it took them a few days, but here's some idiocy from the right. I think they're too busy celebrating their great victory in denying health care to millions of Americans, to put a lot of effort into broadcasting their lunacy. Town Hall: "Iran to try 3 Americans who crossed Iraqi border" I hope they are not going to try them in a civilian court, or else millions of Iranians will be killed by terrorists, right? Confederate Yankee: "Obama Dithers. Will the Middle East Burn?" Not as much as it did under you-know-who, Mr. Yankee. Pammy Geller, Atlas Shrugs: "Queen Elizabeth banned from making state visit to Israel, says historian- The eminent historian Andrew Roberts has said that the British government had a de facto ban in place on state visits by Queen Elizabeth II to Israel. "The true reason of course, is that the FO [Foreign Office] has a ban on official royal visits to Israel, which is even more powerful for its being unwritten and unackn...

Thomas (never been right in my life) Friedman, from his apparently tenured position as most deluded columnist at the New York Times: "Let’s not fool ourselves. Whatever threat the real Afghanistan poses to U.S. national security, the “Virtual Afghanistan” now poses just as big a threat. The Virtual Afghanistan is the network of hundreds of jihadist Web sites that inspire, train, educate and recruit young Muslims to engage in jihad against America and the West." Thomas, how about a column about the hundreds of websites right here in America that teach right wingers that our government is a communist Muslim monster, and that it's alright to advocate or engage in any kind of violence or attacks on the rest of us, rather than admit that Democrats won the last election? They are every bit as hateful and self-righteous as any Muslims; and at least Muslims don't have a political party in this country egging them on. Maybe we could call it a virtual Reich.

This news: "Asked if Obama is as demanding of Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn), whose opposition to a public option and Medicare buy-in provision led to their removal, as he has been of progressives like Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), both staunch supporters of a public plan, Gibbs affirmatively replied: "Yes." Yeah, sure. When are we going to find out what concessions Lieberman made? I'm sure we all would like to hear that. Maybe this is what they were talking about, from CNN: " BASH: Any chance Joe Lieberman would run as a Republican? LIEBERMAN: I don't know what I'll run as. I like being an independent, so that's definitely a possibility, but I'd say that all options are open. BASH: Really? LIEBERMAN: Yeah. It's unlikely that I would run as a Republican, but I wouldn't foreclose any possibility." Maybe that's the promise: Joe can humiliate the Democratic leadership on their most important issue, as lon...

From Americablog: "We lost real health care reform not because we don't have a "real" filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. We lost health care reform because we don't have a real leader anywhere in our party. It's not going to get better if we elect more Democrats to the Senate and it's not going to play out any differently should we try to revisit this issue in the future. And one final point. What do you think is going to happen if, during the House-Senate conference, a combined bill is returned to the Senate that even vaguely improves upon the garbage they're currently debating? Joe Lieberman, Ben Nelson, Mary Landrieu and Evan Bayh will threaten the same filibuster. We're not getting anything better than the crap they just came up with last night. It's over. The next three years are going to be abou mediocrity, broken promises, and striving for second best. That's not the America I grew up in. And it's not what I voted for, ...