Green Eagle

And here are some excerpts, from some jackass who is so irrelevant and idiotic that I won't even bother you with his name, let alone a link to this article: "I don’t understand the commotion over oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico when a drilling operation went sour." No, apparently not. You probably can't figure out why people were upset about that tsunami a few years ago, or World War I, for that matter. I mean, it didn't hurt you, right, so who cares? "Oil has always oozed out of the ground to foul land, lakes, and oceans." Yeah, but not ten thousand gallons an hour from one hole, you blithering idiot. That doesn't really count as "oozing," you know. "The Dead Sea was called Lake Asphaltites because of the gooey pebbles that floated onto the surface from underwater seeps. This asphalt was used on Egyptian mummies." Why do you think they called it the Dead Sea, you pathetic ignoramus? And really, the fact that they put t...

From Truth 101: "DELUDED REPUBLICAN FOOLS WANT THE TEN COMMANDMENTS POSTED EVERYWHERE. BE NICE IF THESE HYPOCRITICAL ASSHOLES WOULD READ THEM" Short and sweet.

Buzz Flash asks today: "Is there a conspiracy of Corporations Run by Felons Running the World?" The answer: No. It's not a conspiracy. They're doing it right out in the open. They don't give a damn what you think about it. Deal with that, sucker.

From the New York Times: "WASHINGTON — The system the United States used for the past five years to rate the readiness of Afghanistan's Army and police force was seriously flawed and there was no reliable way to measure any progress, according to a report by a special inspector general that was released on Monday." I know I have said this before, but the Republicans left Obama a hopeless, unwinnable disaster in both Afghanistan and Iraq. There was clearly only one rational approach for him, and that was to be honest with the American people from the day he took office, and refuse to waste another American life in either one of those countries, for the sole purpose of trying to save the Republicans from a humiliation of their own making. I'm afraid it's too late for that. Obama bought into these wars because he was too gutless to stand up to a couple of months of Republican abuse, and now he and the rest of us are going to pay a much higher price than being ...

Via a piece at Daily Kos, here's Republican leader John Boehner describing the future he and his fellow Republicans have in mind for us: WARNING: Not suitable for people with weak stomachs "If Republicans retake control of the House, Boehner promised a vote on a bill repealing the health care law and replacing it with a scaled-down package of tax breaks and court reforms" Replacing the health care reform bill with more tax cuts for the rich, and limitations on people's ability to sue corporations! Is there no issue, no crisis so great as to derail these people from their relentless pursuit of advantage for the rich, no suffering so great that it can't be forced on the American people in order to benefit the most privileged among us? "Boehner criticized the financial regulatory overhaul compromise reached last week between House and Senate negotiators as an overreaction to the financial crisis that triggered the recession. The bill would tighten restrictions ...

Here is something that I don't understand. Why are we not seeing every Democrat in the country saying that the recent BP oil disaster is proof positive- all the proof that the world will ever need- that the endlessly repeated Republican cant that the "free market" can do no wrong, that the free market will produce the best results for all of us, is a gigantic, self-serving lie. Here we have the free market in action. Here we have corporations freed by Republicans from any kind of regulation or oversight, producing the inevitable result of conservative economic theory: huge profits for the rich, disaster for the rest of us. From now until the end of time, whenever right wingers spout their nonsense about the wonders of the free market, the BP oil disaster should be all the refutation we need- total proof that, when you let people do whatever they damn please, a lot of them are going to turn into crooks in short order, and the rest of us are going to end up paying the p...

The Washington Post's Ombudsman's response to the firing of Dave Weigel, about which I have posted: "Weigel bears responsibility for sarcastic and scornful comments he made in e-mails leaked from a supposedly private listserv called “Journolist"...The e-mails made negative comments about Pat Buchanan, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, and conservative radio commentator Rush Limbaugh, among others." God in heaven above, what does "neutral" mean to people like this, other than ignoring the obvious truth that these conservative figures are corrupt, lying monsters? "Weigel’s blog seemed to confuse many conservatives who contacted me. Was he supposed to be a neutral reporter, some wondered? Others complained that he was a liberal trying to write about conservatives he disdained." First, if you don't disdain these figures, you are an idiot. Second, is it now an established rule that liberals are not allowed to write about conservatives? I haven...

From Britain's The Independent : "The last post: McChrystal's bleak outlook President Obama lost patience with Runaway General's failed strategy... Sacked US General Stanley McChrystal issued a devastatingly critical assessment of the war against a "resilient and growing insurgency" just days before being forced out. Using confidential military documents, copies of which have been seen by the IoS, the "runaway general" briefed defence ministers from Nato and the International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) earlier this month, and warned them not to expect any progress in the next six months. During his presentation, he raised serious concerns over levels of security, violence, and corruption within the Afghan administration. " This policy, which was inextricably tied to McChrystal, has been a colossal failure. As I said a couple of days ago, this cowardly general found himself a way to escape before he could bear the blame for what he has w...

From a post at Daily Kos: "Florida Republican leaders have begun crafting anti-illegal-immigrant legislation modeled after an Arizona law that has incited widespread protests and fueled national and international debate over U.S. immigration policies. Under the proposed bill, police would have broad power under state law to ask suspects for proof of legal residency, said Rep. William Snyder, a Republican from Stuart who plans to introduce the legislation in November. "We have significant components from the Arizona bill that I plan to incorporate,'' he said. "We have the beginnings of it.'' The beginnings of it. Well, here is what I wonder. Being brown is enough to make you a "suspect" in Arizona- I guess that's what the guy is referring to when he says "We have the beginnings of it." Will the great Southern state of Florida manage to take this sort of legislation to its logical conclusion, and see to it that being bla...

Leon Panetta on This Week this morning, via Atrios: “Winning in Afghanistan is having a country that is stable enough to ensure that there is no safehaven for Al Qaeda or for a militant Taliban that welcomes Al Qaeda,” Panetta told host Jake Tapper. “That’s really the measure of success for the United States.” Leon, let me point something out to you: you guys can't even see to it that there is no safe haven in this country for abortion doctor murderers, would-be Nazis and open race haters, let alone the Crips and the Bloods. How the hell do you think the weak Afghan government is ever going to eliminate the Taliban, which, unlike the Crips and the Bloods is being financed and given haven by the country next door? If that's what winning is, we've lost already. (note- that's exactly what we have done- Bush and Cheney lost this war years ago.) So the only sensible thing to do is to give up and pull out before we waste any more lives and money over there. Can't h...

If you've been following the news from the right lately, you will have heard stories like this, from Gateway Pundit: "Governor Jan Brewer (R-AZ) met with President Obama on June 3rd to discuss our broken border with Mexico. President Obama promised he’d get back with her in two weeks. He didn’t. He blew her off. But, she did find out from Ecuadorean TV that his administration planned to sue her state. In the meantime, the federal government has ceded three southern Arizona counties to the Mexican drug cartel due to violence and smuggling." The horror! Of course, what has happened that the Federal Government has declared off limits the border area of something called the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge (I bet you have never heard of that- I sure never did) because of violence related, apparently, to drug smuggling. Now, what are we talking about here? Below is a map from Fox news: The area that is closed is the little part colored in yellow, at the bottom of the...

David E. Sanger , in the New York Times today, about Obama's decisive actions this week, and his success in passing a meaningful, if weak, financial reform bill: "This is a clear respite from the theme that Obama had lost control," said David Rothkopf, a former Clinton administration official..."He sent a loud and clear message to the generals about who is in charge. And he has engineered a pivot-point in U.S. economic history, an end, or at least a big change, to the ‘leave it to the markets’ era." Are you kidding me, David? Do you honestly think that any success that Obama has will ever turn off the Conservative screams that he is an incompetent, corrupt fool? What planet have you been living on the last few decades? Nothing will turn off their lies and their smears, and the better Obama does, the louder the lies will be. If you haven't figured that out by now, maybe you'd better get a job delivering pizzas. Of course, maybe you've just taken ...

Many of you may have missed the story last week of the firing by the Washington Post of a guy named David Weigel, a libertarian who had the task of reporting on the Conservative world. Weigel was fired because some e-mails he sent privately were revealed. Here's the content of some of them, from the Daily Caller: “Honestly, it’s been tough to find fresh angles sometimes–how many times can I report that these [tea party] activists are joyfully signing up with the agenda of discredited right-winger X and discredited right-wing group Y?” Weigel lamented in one February email. “There’s also the fact that neither the pundits, nor possibly the Republicans, will be punished for their crazy outbursts of racism. Newt Gingrich is an amoral blowhard who resigned in disgrace, and Pat Buchanan is an anti-Semite who was drummed out of the movement by William F. Buckley. Both are now polluting my inbox and TV with their bellowing and minority-bashing. They’re never going to go away or be depri...

I cannot resist blatantly stealing this chart from Crooks and Liars. I hope I will be forgiven as I think it is something every American needs to see: Boy, we sure can be proud of the wonderful medical care brought to us by the all-seeing, all-powerful, totally benificent free market system that is everything here in the good ol' U.S. of A.

Green Eagle would not like to be accused of just reporting one side of the news, or only one opinion about world events, so in the spirit of fairness and toleration, he brings you this tidbit from a right wing website entitled the Vanguard News Service: There! I am sure that conservatives everywhere will be pleased to see that their viewpoint is being presented on this Blog, which is run by one of the fairest-minded parrots you will ever meet.

I was going to post a bunch of right wing screaming about the firing of General McChrystal, but it was all such predictable junk that I can't bear to deal with it. Any one of you could guess what lies they had to tell. Anyway, this one issue hasn't stopped them from lying about everything else on the planet, so let's take a look: Mona Charen, Town Hall: "The Trouble with World Opinion" The trouble with world opinion is that they still like Obama. Maybe some rich people need to pay for tea parties everywhere else. In the course of her maundering, Mona had this sage observation to make: "Jefferson had never attended a session of the United Nations Human Rights Council." Thanks for letting us know that, Mona. Left to our own devices we would have never figured out that Thomas Jefferson, who died over a hundred years before the UN was founded, never attended any of its meetings. Mary Catherine "radicallyright" Sibley, Red State: "Elena ...

In case there is anyone out there who thinks the Republicans expended all of their hateful slime on Obama's last Supreme Court nomination, just cast your eyes on this beautiful photoshopped portrait of Elena Kagan, from the Washington Times: Yes indeed, that is a picture of Kagan with a turban added to her attire. I guess this is some sort of implication that she is really a Muslim like Obama, or maybe just a Muslim-sympathizer (an intolerable thing to be in Republican world.) The Republican party has saved so much time by refusing to participate in rescuing the economy from their depradations, that they are easily able to fit craft activities like this into their daily schedule. More, and uglier to come, I am sure.

Forgive the ever-cynical Green Eagle for this take on the McChrystal firing, but as usual, I fear that not just the mainstream media, but everyone has missed the real story here. This is my account of what I think really happened. I've been reading some books lately about World War I, which I never knew too much about. The early years of the war were filled with an unending series of failures, on all sides, by generals. The Germans in their initial attack on France, both the French and the English in their response, the Russians in their sweep through Poland, the Austrians every chance they got, the Turks in their pathetic winter assault on Russia, across the Carpathians, and their attempt to attack Egypt through the Sinai peninsula- every step was marked by generals making promises which they spectacularly failed to keep, and which, in the aggregate, resulted in the stalemate and slaughter that followed. And this failure was accompanied by attempts by all of the generals invol...

And no, I'm not talking about the battle of the bulge. Senator Whitehouse: "The notion that you're going to cut off somebody's unemployment insurance and have them go out and find a job is just plain nuts" Any more nuts than thinking that Obama deliberately caused the BP disaster? Or that the health care reform bill includes death panels? Or that Obama is creating a secret army to take away all of your guns? Or that global warming is some sort of gigantic hoax? Or that the world is six thousand years old? That's what they are: Nuts. Nuts, and very, very nasty. Deal with it, Sheldon.

You read that right- Obama kicked the jerk out. Luckily for our great democracy, conservatives have prepared their attacks on Obama both in the event that he fired McChrystal, and if he didn't. So, instead of a couple of weeks of Obama-the-Wimp, we can sit back and enjoy a couple of weeks of Obama-the Thug. Politics is so easy when you do it the Republican way.

Longtime readers of my blog (both of you) will know that sometimes I come across such an incredible example of wingnut idiocy that it would be doing its author an injustice by restricting it to a brief mention in Wingnut Wrapup. So often, these special posts come from Renew America , and today's example, by Joan Swirsky is no exception. Let's just see what the intellectual hothouse that is Renew America has produced today, with appropriate exegesis by Mr. Green Eagle: "The Obama disaster machine: unfortunate coincidences or malevolently premeditated? Is it only me, or do the multiple disasters that have struck both well before and ever since the disastrous election of Barack Obama seem fishy to you?" Well, Joan, I wish I could say that it's only you, but a bunch of your lying, malignant friends are saying the same thing. "I won't discuss the stock market crash of September 2008 here, although if anything seemed suspiciously timed and deliberately manipu...

An interesting observation today by E. J. Dionne, in the Washington Post: "What's remarkable is the extent to which the Tea Party movement has displaced the religious right as the dominant voice of conservative militancy. The religious conservatives have not disappeared, and Sarah Palin, a Tea Party hero, does share their views on abortion and gay marriage. But these issues have been overshadowed by the broader anti-government themes pushed by the New Old Right, and the "compassionate conservatism" that inspires parts of the Christian political movement has no place in the right's current order of battle." It has been a basic tenet of Green Eagle thought that, in the end, American conservatism is about one thing and one thing only- greed. Cut my taxes- that's all they really care about. I believe the whole religious thing is nothing but a front to con themselves into believing that they hold the moral high ground, but in the end, all they care ...

From Politico: "A new 527 group conceived by veteran GOP hands Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie and launched this year with predictions that it would raise $52 million to support Republican candidates has thus far failed to live up to the fundraising hype. The group, American Crossroads, raised only $200 last month, according to a report it filed Monday with the Internal Revenue Service" The brilliant political operative Rove shows his stuff! Yes, at this rate, they will have raised their money by the year 4177, when the Republicans will come surging back. Democrats, tremble in your boots!

From an e-mail that Green Eagle got today: "Contact Now!!! ... From: WORLD BANK ... To: info@guarantee.com You've been granted with the sum of $2,000.000.00 USD." Who would have thought that the World Bank would have $2 million for me? Here I thought they were still in hock from paying off Paul Wolfowitz's mistress.

They just never stop lying, do they? Town Hall: "President Barack Obama on Saturday pinned blame on Republicans for making life harder for the unemployed and for those who could lose their jobs without new federal intervention." So? You got a problem with that? Because it's true, you know. Dan Benishek, Red State: " This administration is going to push the Senate to pass a cap-and-trade bill this summer. Then, with the same arrogance we have seen before from this administration..." I.e. they are going to actually try to pass legislation. The abomination! Exercising the power you were given by the American people- Communism, I tell you. When Democrats do it. Red State: "Kagan May Have Compared NRA to KKK" And? What's your point? Red State: "Celts should have won that game!!!" They didn't. Michael Ledeen? "We're in a real shooting war with Iran. We have to admit it." We are? On what planet? Kevin Price, Renew Am...

Governor (and former Republican party chairman) Haley Barbour, on Meet the Press yesterday: "But, you know, one of the things that they've got to come to grips with that's very true...it's good for BP. BP-- that was to their advantage to get taken out of the claims business. The $20 billion, once it was done, where BP could continue to operate as a, as a going concern and pay their bills that they owe Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida and Alabama, that also was a good deal for BP." So, apparently having failed to convince people that Obama's having gotten $20 billion out of BP was some sort of outrageous extortion, the Republican party is now going to claim that Obama actually gave them some sort of sweetheart corporate deal by agreeing to take their money. The fact that they were all saying the exact opposite the day before means absolutely nothing to them. Really, there was never a bigger bunch of organized liars on the face of the earth.

From TPM: "Conservative talk show host Mark Williams, chairman of the California-based Tea Party Express, said the White House went too far by pressuring BP to create the fund while the Justice Department is conducting criminal and civil probes of the spill. "I'm accustomed to mobsters behaving that way, I'm just not accustomed to it from the president, especially when he's standing there with the attorney general threatening legal action," Williams said. "Where I come from, they call it extortion." That's funny, Mark. Where I come from they call it law enforcement.

Case in point: a certain governor Bobby Jindal: "Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal and state Attorney General Buddy Caldwell asked a U.S. judge to lift a six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico within 30 days" Bobby, while you're at it, why not ask the Judge to lift the ban on armed robbery and vehicular homicide too. Really- just when we were so sure that Sarah Palin set the standard for combined stupidity and corporate collaboration.

Atrios: "We should lift the moratorium on wells of Mississippi's coast, withhold all federal aid for the effects of the spill, and send the bill to Barbour if any new wells cause problems. I'm not being serious..." Well, I am. I am sick of living in a country where Republican states are kept afloat by tens of billions of dollars of federal largesse with tax money taken from Democratic states, and then these dicks sit there and tell us how worthless we are. Let them live in the sick world they claim they want, and see how they like it.

And this just in: "Republican U.S. Senate candidate Rand Paul on Friday urged Americans who have been unemployed for many months to consider returning to the workforce in less desirable jobs rather than continue relying on government unemployment assistance." Or how about this as a viable alternative? Why don't they set up their own medical licensing organization, and just declare that they are doctors? It's worked before.

Fox Nation: "Obama Gives Back Major Strip of AZ to Mexico" That's what they said! You can't make this stuff up. This is the preposterous level that the right wing lie machine has reached: Obama has given a part of our country to Mexico. Unbelievable.

Barack Obama recently pulled off an immense coup by forcing BP into posting a $20 billion dollar escrow account to begin to pay for the damage it caused in the gulf. This is one of the most stunning examples of the use of the presidency that we have seen in decades- well, a stunning example of positive use of presidential power. Look at Iraq and the Republican economy if you want to be really stunned. I just wanted to document a small part of the gracious response from the other side of the aisle: Town Hall: "Another problem with Obama's address was his arrogant announcement that he would inform BP's CEO "that he is to set aside" an asset amount ($20 billion) for the government-run escrow fund to pay for the spill damages. Trouble is, there are no laws to permit our government to force such financial retribution. " "Arrogant" apparently being when a Democrat actually shows leadership, or does something that works. David "My Brother Made M...

Conservative thinking at its finest - from North Carolina Republican Congressional candidate Bill Randall: "Republican congressional candidate William "Bill" Randall is suggesting that the Obama administration and BP conspired to intentionally spill oil in the Gulf, resulting in 11 deaths and the worst environmental disaster in the nation's history. "I don't think enough investigation has been done on this," Randall said at a media conference on Tuesday. "Someone needs to be digging into that situation. Personally...I feel there is a possibility that there was some sort of collusion. I don't know how or why..." "I don't know how or why." Well, at least the rest of us are with you on that part, Bill.

Here's a link to a very appropriate piece at Talking Points Memo, about the bizarre negativity from the left that followed Obama's speech a couple of days ago. I want to amplify this sentiment. I have been involved on the left for a long time, and one sad thing that I have always observed is how many people on the left seem to be motivated primarily by a need to feel intellectually and morally superior to other people, and how many of them react in really childish ways when they don't get exactly what they wanted. A good example of this was the reaction of many gay leaders when Clinton failed to get them a better deal concerning gays in the military. I saw them turn on Clinton, and attack him for the whole rest of his term, even though they must have know that Clinton was totally on their side and that it was totally the responsibility of Republicans in Congress that more progress couldn't be made. Maybe I'm too cynical, but I think Obama is doing whatever can ...

Green Eagle is on the road again. How will the world ever live without his sage opinions?

Nevada Republican Senate candidate Sharon Angle: "You know, our Founding Fathers, they put that Second Amendment in there for a good reason and that was for the people to protect themselves against a tyrannical government." I've written about this before, so I won't repeat myself, but this is completely false. If Ms. Angle, and the rest of the dimwit conservatives who repeat this talking point, and who squawk on and on about the founding fathers, had bothered to read Federalist Paper #29 , they would know that they are completely wrong about every aspect of the "well regulated militia." Ignorance is bliss. For the ignorant, I guess. Not for the rest of us.

As reported by Yahoo: "MONROE, Ohio – A six-story-tall statue of Jesus Christ with his arms raised along a highway was struck by lightning in a thunderstorm Monday night and burned to the ground, police said. The "King of Kings" statue, one of southwest Ohio's most familiar landmarks, had stood since 2004 at the evangelical Solid Rock Church along Interstate 75 in Monroe, just north of Cincinnati." And here it is- or was. Do you think the stupid evangelical "Christians," who are so quick to blame every natural disaster on God's hatred of gays or liberals or someone, will give a little thought to what God might be trying to tell them here? No, I don't think so either. But Wait- There's More: A small selection of comments on the yahoo article: "He is alive--Amen! He is alive--Amen! JESUS is alive forever! He is alive--Amen. He is the alpha and omega! The beginning and the end! NEVER YOU DOUGHT THAT JESUS IS THE LO...

As Atrios would say, "Teh Stupid! It Burns!" Rich Galen, Town Hall: "Obama in the Bunker" Thanks, Rich, for this new creative way to compare Obama to Hitler. And just when we were getting bored with the Obama-Hitler thing. Mike Adams, Town Hall: "Who Knows Anything Anyway?" Not you guys, that's for sure. Steve Chapman, Town Hall: "Not long ago, Barack Obama was pilloried for being too activist, too meddlesome and too inclined to see himself as the messiah...But that was a different guy, from a parallel universe. The President Obama we all know is a passive, detached do-nothing." Because no matter what he does, no matter how he acts, you guys are going to attack him incessantly, without a thought about how much harm you are doing. And thanks for that patriotic contribution to our country's welfare. Erick (Rhymes with you-know-what) Erickson, Red State: "Yet Again the NRA Sells Out Freedom to the Democrats" Now even the NRA ...

A directly on target remark from Atrios: " In the early 80s Uncle Alan Greenspan had a cunning plan to deal with Social Security, which was to jack up regressive payroll taxes and collect a surplus in the form of obligations from the general fund which will then be paid down as the boomers retire. The deficit scolds will claim that they essentially can't afford to pay this money back, stealing your promised retirement money." And this is exactly what they have done. Reagan's cynical plan to collect revenue without raising income taxes was to raise the taxes for social security, and then raid that money to create the illusion that his deficits (gigantic by historical standards) were smaller than they really were. This has become standard Republican practice, with the result that they can now claim that the social security system doesn't have enough money to keep its promises. The alleged social security shortfall is totally the result of this Republican th...

From a hilarious article in the Louisville Courier-Journal: "U.S. Senate candidate Rand Paul says he is a "board-certified" ophthalmologist -- even though the national clearinghouse for such certifications says he hasn't been for the past five years. Rand Paul, who practices in Bowling Green, says he is certified by the National Board of Ophthalmology, a group that he incorporated in 1999 and that he heads. But that entity is not recognized by the American Board of Medical Specialties, which works with the American Medical Association to approve such specialty boards." He is certified by a group that he incorporated! Just imagine what we would be hearing if it turned out that, say, Obama had only passed a bar exam given by an organization that he created himself- the howling would never stop. But mark my words, this incredible story will go almost unnoticed by the "liberal" press.

As reported in Time Magazine: "Buoyed by recent public opinion polls suggesting they're on the right track with illegal immigration, Arizona Republicans will likely introduce legislation this fall that would deny birth certificates to children born in Arizona - and thus American citizens according to the U.S. Constitution - to parents who are not legal U.S. citizens." In an attempt to deny these children United States citizenship, which, of course, they are guaranteed in the constitution. A blatant example of malice combined with patent illegality- the perfect Republican legislation. And then, when the Supreme Court strikes down this ugly, hateful legislation, they will rail against the liberal judges who attack the will of the people. By the way, while I am on the subject, let me remind people that this section of the constitution, in the fourteenth amendment, which was passed in 1868, was totally the product of government attempts to guarantee citizenship to free...

Al Hunt, in Newsweek: "If the Angles and Pauls prove too controversial, and most of the November Republican winners are more mainstream conservatives, it will have two immediate effects: Pressure the congressional party to think more in Graham’s terms and selectively work with Democrats, and provide a more compelling case for a more moderately conservative presidential nominee" What in the name of God gave you that idea? What planet are you living on anyway? If the Teabaggers do poorly in November, it will just cause them to scream more loudly for impeachment or armed rebellion- they have eaten up their bogus propaganda about how mighty a movement they are, and a poor showing will only convince them that the election was fixed by the alien negro and his Communist infiltrators. Take my word on this one, guy- you obviously have not even come close to figuring out how detached from reality these people are.

Rand Paul, speaking about mountaintop removal: "I think whoever owns the property can do with the property as they wish, and if the coal company buys it from a private property owner and they want to do it, fine. The other thing I think is that I think coal gets a bad name, because I think a lot of the land apparently is quite desirable once it’s been flattened out. As I came over here from Harlan, you’ve got quite a few hills. I don’t think anybody’s going to be missing a hill or two here and there " The land is quite desirable once it's flattened out. Well, this is the country that we are going to have if Republicans have their way- and we're halfway there already, after Reagan and W. A couple more of them, and the United States could be flat as a board from coast to coast.

The New York Times notes: "On his return (from visiting the oil spill), Mr. Obama will speak to Americans from the Oval Office, a setting that past presidents have often used but which Mr. Obama never has..." Any bets about how many of my usual right wing suspects will be howling in outrage about this? What right does Obama have to politicize the sacred Oval Office , where our great leaders like Richard Nixon and George Bush have worked so hard to save us all? Why, this is as disgusting as Bill Clinton's blow job! I'll keep you posted.

These people have become so tedious. Remember back in the golden age of right wing lies (last year) when Green Eagle could fill up a whole Wingnut Wrapup column every day? Sad to say, they have deteriorated to the point where they are just as crazy, but only a quarter as funny. Well, here is one right wing outrage I won't deal with: The wingnuts are fuming that President Obama said something about "kicking ass." This will, in their opinion, form one of the key counts of the impending impeachment charges against Obama. Go figure. Well, here we go: J. R. Dunn, American Thinker: "Rumors of a Coup- We've been hearing a lot of comments recently about a national coup d'etat scheduled for sometime in late summer or early fall and designed to circumvent the coming Democrat debacle in the 2010 elections...my interest was piqued by the fact that it has been mentioned several dozen times in the comment threads of essays of mine in recent weeks." Mentioned se...

How about this news: "CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico – At least 30 gunmen burst into a drug rehabilitation center in a Mexican border state capital and opened fire, killing 19 men and wounding four people, police said. Gunmen also killed 16 people in another drug-plagued northern city." When I said a couple of weeks ago that Mexico was starting to remind me of Afghanistan, I think people believed I was way overboard. Well, how about this horrible news, which is happening more and more often, just a couple of hundred miles from the United States? We read about a suicide bomber killing dozens at an Afghan wedding- how is this any different? I'm convinced that we are going to wake up one day soon and discover that decades of supporting dictatorial oligarchs right next door have bred a nightmare that we are going to live with for a long time. This will be one more heavy burden on working Americans, caused by our government's long term capitulation to multinational corporations...

A selection of the events going on around our country today: How surprising is this? I'd say about as surprising as the war on Christmas: "A government panel on Thursday essentially doubled its estimate of how much oil has been spewing from the out-of-control BP well, with the new calculation suggesting that an amount equivalent to the Exxon Valdez disaster could be flowing into the Gulf of Mexico every 8 to 10 days." How many times, now, has BP lied about how much damage its spills are doing? But of course, it would be outrageous to expect them to pay for the disaster they caused. BP CEO Hayward: “This demand is chilling,” said one executive in the meeting. “The administration keeps pushing the boundaries on what we are responsible for.” Listen, you're responsible for all of it. Get that through your head. It is likely to destroy your company. Tough luck, jerk. Better your company than our coastline. And while we are on the subject, I notice that everyone s...