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Showing posts from September, 2011

Green Eagle Supports a Charity

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It's not every day that Green Eagle finds a charity so amazing, so revolutionary that he will take time out from his squawking to bring it to your attention, but today is the day, and here is this worthy cause: Now, doesnt this make you feel all good inside about the benevolence of the American people?

Sarah Palin Is An Unbelievable Pig

The latest evidence: "I'm going to keep repeating, though, Greta, through my process of decision-making with my family and with my close friends as to whether I should throw my name in the hat for the GOP nomination or not for 2012 -- is a title worth it? Does a title shackle a person? Are they -- someone like me, who's a maverick -- you know, I do go rogue and I call it like I see it." She added: "Somebody like me -- is a title and is a campaign too shackling? Does that prohibit me from being out there, out of a box, not allowing handlers to shape me and to force my message to be what donors or what contributors or what political pundits want it to be? Does a title take away my freedom to call it like I see it and to affect positive change that we need in this country? That's the biggest contemplation piece in my process." She's too big and too important to be shackled by a position as menial as President.  No wonder she abandoned h

Perry's History...

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Bachmann's history, Pawlenty's history, Trump's history, Huckabee's history...apparently, the only person the teabaggers have left is Ralph Kramden.

The Stupidity (Or the Lying) Knows No End

Michelle Bachmann: "There is reports that have come out that Cuba has been working with another terrorist organization called Hezbollah. And Hezbollah is looking at wanting to be part of missile sites in Iran and, of course, when you are 90 miles offshore from Florida, you don't want to entertain the prospect of hosting bases or sites where Hezbollah could have training camps or perhaps have missile sites or weapons sites in Cuba." Hezbollah missile sites in Cuba.  I just don't even know where to begin.   Truth, honesty, they just mean absolutely nothing when they stand in the way of what these infantile, tantrum throwing people want.  And thanks to Obama and the Democrats' failure when they had majorities in both houses of Congress, these people seem to be in control of our country.

Concentrating on the Important Things

Two adjacent headlines at Yahoo today: "1,700 slain prisoners found in Libya mass grave Lady Gaga turns up at Obama California fundraiser"

Muslim Control of America Advances

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Some of you may be familiar with the right wing claims that the design for the monument commemorating the 9-11 plane that crashed in Pennsylvania is being used by the evil Muslim Obama to erect a monument to the success of the terrorist attack.  This is proven by the crescent shape to be found in the design.  Here is a graphic from (who else?) Pam Geller illustrating this hideous betrayal: But wait, the horror doesn't end there.  As Andrew Breitbart and others have pointed out, Obama is cramming another Muslim insult down our throats, with the new design for a missile defense logo for something or other:  (Ignore the fact that this logo actually shows what I presume to be the missile in the act of striking the crescent, which might leave the design open to a whole different interpretation.) Well, Green Eagle has just uncovered another loathsome Muslim insult to freedom-loving Americans everywhere.  Yes, Green Eagle is currently in Charleston where, much to his horror, he c

Wingnut Wrapup

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You know, politics in this country has come down to nothing but a vain attempt to combat the evil lunacy of the right.  I've come to hate a lot of what I read from the right (well, okay, I always hated it) but it's what our country is about today, so here's another load: Town Hall:  "Perry Present Favorite Among Florida Republicans" That would be the people who elected a convicted criminal to be their governor.  Oh yeah, we should pay a lot of attention to what they think.  Anyway, Town Hall was wrong.  It turns out they liked the pizza guy better.  Go figure. Steve Chapman, Town Hall:  "The Wrong Way To Help the Unemployed" Oh, you already know what that is.  It's anything that makes corporations do anything they don't want to. Barry Rubin, Pajamas Media:  "Obama's Dangerous and Incompetent Middle East Policy" Yes, a total failure that has only seen the removal of two long-time dictators in Middle Eastern countries at p

You Can't Win

Wayne LaPierre, head of the National Rifle Association: "[The Obama campaign] will say gun owners -- they'll say they left them alone," LaPierre told an audience at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) Friday. "In public, he'll remind us that he's put off calls from his party to renew the Clinton [assault weapons] ban, he hasn't pushed for new gun control laws... The president will offer the Second Amendment lip service and hit the campaign trail saying he's actually been good for the Second Amendment." "But it's a big fat stinking lie!" the NRA leader exclaimed. "It's all part of a massive Obama conspiracy to deceive voters and destroy the Second Amendment in our country." "Obama himself is no fool. So when he got elected, they concocted a scheme to stay away from the gun issue, lull gun owners to sleep and play us for fools in 2012...the lying, conniving Obama crowd can kiss our Constitutio

Hey, I've Got an Idea...

Why only once a week?  Why don't the Republicans have a debate every day between now and the Presidential election?  That way, Barack Obama would never be allowed to give a speech in the whole campaign.

Debate

Just a little observation:  Tonight, we are having the second Republican presidential "debate" since the one a couple of weeks ago which was so important that they had to force President Obama to move an address to Congress for the first time in history.  I guess that debate was just such a monumental, unique event that it was more important than dealing with the country's worst economic crisis since the great depression.  And I put the word "debate" in quotes because these Republican clowns aren't debating anything except who can get away with telling the most vicious lies about the President. You know what?  Who gives a damn what the Republicans have to say in their debate?  Everyone knows that no matter what candidate is selected, the result is going to be the same corrupt, corporate-serving agenda that has been all the Republican party has had to offer as long as any of us have been alive.

Wingnut Wrapup

Yes, Green Eagle has been neglecting his duty to ruin your day with selected tidbits of right wing thinking.  He admits his failing, and is back on the job, so heeeere we go! Town Hall:  "Donald Rumsfeld: 'I Feel Privileged to Have Served' " Well, Donald, we do not feel privileged for having had you serve.  Deal with it. Town Hall:  "Friday Fun: Jon Stewart Slams Obama for Solyndra Implode" Nothing funny about this; I just wanted to point out again how inconceivable right wingers find it that liberals would ever disagree with their leaders.  Nothing like that allowed among Republicans. Pat Buchanan, Town Hall:  "The Democracy Worshipers ...At the Constitutional Convention of 1787, Hamilton explained: "Real liberty is not found in the extremes of democracy, but in moderate governments. If we incline too much to democracy, we shall soon shoot into a monarchy, or some other form of dictatorship." "we shall soon shoot into a mona

Another Step to Doomsday

Some of you may have heard about a speech Andrew Breitbart gave the other day in which he pretty much advocated mass violence against liberals.  Here are a couple of excerpts from an article about Breitbart's speech (the first from a conservative source which agreed with him and which I won't link to, the others just quotes from Breitbart himself.)  Please take the time to read them: "Conservative media provocateur Andrew Breitbart, speaking to a Tea Party crowd of over 60 people in Lexington, Ma. on Friday...told the crowd that he sometimes thinks to himself, “Fire the first shot” in a hypothetical civil war with liberals, explaining that “We outnumber them in this country, and we have the guns.  Bring it on. Because I know who’s on our side. They can only win a rhetorical and propaganda war. They cannot win. We outnumber them in this country, and we have the guns.  I’m not kidding. They talk a mean game, but they will not cross that line because they know what they’re

Well, At Least She's Honest About It

Michelle Bachmann offers us this piece of classic Republican wisdom: "Michele Bachmann argued that President Obama should have tried to stop Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak from falling, saying that “we saw President [Hosni] Mubarak fall while President Obama sat on his hands.”  Further proof, in Republican eyes, of Barack Obama's unworthiness to be President:  He just stood there and did nothing while the people of a foreign country removed their dictator. It used to be that Republicans had at least enough shame that they only supported dictators in private.  No more- they are proud of it now.  Makes you think about what they have in mind for us, huh?

He's right, in a way

From Kos's pundit roundup today: " Sam Tanenhaus drops by from the NY Times Book Review to explain how the latest book about Sarah Palin doesn't say a lot to resolve the fate of Schrödinger's candidate, but takes a giant leap forward (if you can call it that) in the race to turn political journalism into low quality celebrity gossip."  But you see, Sam is right- Sarah Palin is not a politician anymore, she is a low quality celebrity, and deserves to be treated accordingly.  Nothing about what she does or says has any more meaning than whether she had a one night stand with a basketball player, so it doesn't represent any higher level of journalism to pay attention to her drivel.

A Tiny Dose of Truth

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From a post at Daily Kos, this informative chart: As is not only usual, but almost invariable over the last half century or so, everything the Republicans talk about is actually accomplished by Democrats, while Republicans, when they are in control, utterly ignore their supposedly most cherished principles. Of course, the press, which is far more interested in pushing the corporate agenda than in reporting the actual inconvenient facts, totally goes along with hollow Republican claims. And that's how you end up where we are today.

Ha

Why do I find this so funny? "WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange denounced an unauthorised autobiography as it hit bookshops in Britain on Thursday, after he failed to prevent the publisher printing an unfinished manuscript. Publisher Canongate said the book "Julian Assange: The Unauthorised Autobiography" was a first draft delivered to them in March. They admitted Assange had tried to stop its publication, but said they were proud to publish the "passionate, provocative and opinionated" book. But in a lengthy, furious statement issued late Wednesday, Assange condemned the move and said Canongate had acted in breach of contract and personal assurances that it would not publish the manuscript." In general, I approve strongly of what Wikileaks has done, but I still got a laugh out of this story.

Who Won the Cold War?

Can any of you remember when Reagan forced the Soviet Union to spend itself into collapse, and then the hawks in this country spent years crowing about Capitalism's immense victory over evil Communism?  Well, how is that economic mastery looking now, thirty years later? It turns out that we couldn't afford the cold war and what followed any more than the Soviets could; Republican presidents just kept on spending anyway, and put it all on the credit card.  Now, with a fourteen billion dollar debt, over 80% of which was piled up under three Republican administrations, the bill is due. It turns out that the American right's fifty year war against a largely impotent enemy did as much damage to us as it did to them; the only difference is that we took out a substandard mortgage to avoid confronting the cost for a couple of decades. Maybe I'm crazy, because I am saying something I've never heard anyone say before; but from where I'm sitting today, I think both s

Green Eagle's 9-11 Commemorative Post

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Well, we are, of course, already deeply immersed in an absolute orgy of jingoism surrounding the 9-11 attacks on Wall Street, so I suppose I've got to get my two cents in too, seeing as how, like most people these days, two cents is about all I've got left.  I'll leave it to you to figure out whether that was the fault of the perps or the victims of the 9-11 attacks. First of all, I've made this crude but handy chart trying to put into perspective those deaths: Well, as you can see, the Al Qaida deaths are barely visible at this scale, and even the little red line shown here overstates their number.  Yet I never hear any of the people who are still filled with such rage about 9-11 show any similar reservations about guns or tobacco.  In fact, in general, those two things are just fine with them, as long as the campaign contributions keep rolling in. Now to my main point.  The grievous injury done to us justified the then-President going into an entirely innocent c

Pretty Much The Story

From Digby , who sums up the situation in Washington today: "The difference between the Democrats and the Republicans on entitlements comes down to this: Democratic elites want to pretend that they are asking for equal sacrifice from rich, middle class and poor alike so that they can assuage their consciences for inflicting pain on the more vulnerable members of society. Republican elites have no such need --- they enjoy inflicting pain on the more vulnerable members of society. " That's about it today.  With the election of Obama, we now have a choice between the guy who rapes you at knifepoint in the street and the guy who feeds you drinks and then claims you wanted it. I am getting to the point where I don't even see much point in bothering to fight a useless battle any more.  No one who has any power is on our side any more, and it pretty much looks to me like the nation is ready to commit suicide.  The people of Germany in 1933 used to seem so crazy t

Now We Know What Corruption Is

Mitt Romney, the "reasonable," "moderate" Republican, from an interview on CNN: "When unions are allowed to collect money from members, and then one person, the chief executive of that union could give that to whichever candidate they want, that's simply a violation of the personal rights of that individual, and that shouldn't be allowed. And number two, I really have the problem with the idea that one person is able to collect money from all their members and then give it to a party or an individual who that person made them be the one that decided on matters of legislation directing that union. It's almost like a form of corruption. So the power of unions in influence elections is a real problem and the place I would address it is with legislation saying that individual union members may not have money taken out of their paycheck to go into funds, which can then be directed by an individual in a way that might be different than what

The Truth About Reaganomics

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In a single chart, courtesy of Robert Reich, from the New York Times yesterday: As I have stated so often, the entire reason for the existence of the Republican party is to thieve whatever the rest of us have, and give it to the rich.  Ronald Reagan was the "inspirational" figure who found a way to convince large numbers of Americans to accept that vicious concept as a good thing.  The country has been run on that basis ever since.  The result can be seen by anyone that can read this single graph.  That is why the country is in the condition that it is today, and only a massive seizure of the ill-gotten gains of the rich, and an equally massive redistribution of it to the vast number of workers to whom it really belongs, can save us. The truth is no more complicated or obscure than that.  People who cared to open their eyes have been warning since Reagan that Republican plundering of the economy would lead us to this place, but they were shouted down by the greed-madde

Obama Finds One More Way Not To Create Jobs

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From Robert Kuttner at the American Prospect , this report of an utterly cynical ploy: "There is a lot of circumstantial evidence that President Obama is planning to include in his eagerly anticipated post-Labor Day jobs speech a variation on a truly lame state program called Georgia Works. The program, begun in 2003, pays people on unemployment insurance a small additional stipend, currently $240, if they agree to work 24 hours a week, for no wages, for a private employer while unemployed, in exchange for some form of training by the employer." Do I even need to point out what this program produces?  First of all, it does absolutely nothing to create one single job, so what the hell would it be doing in Obama's speech, except as a time-filler to obscure the fact that he doesn't intend to make any meaningful inroads into joblessness between now and his defeat next year. Secondly, it provides free labor to companies, subsidized by taxpayers, including oth

Harmful to Whom?

"Vatican: Comprehensive sex ed in NYC schools is ‘useless and even harmful’ Harmful to whom?  Catholic priests hoping to get lucky?

Who Needs Republicans

When we've got Barack?  From the New York Times this morning, in case you haven't heard: "On Friday, in a move that shocked enviros and public-health advocates, President Obama asked the Environmental Protection Agency to withdraw its proposal to tighten a key air-quality standard. The request, Obama said, is part of the administration's efforts to reduce "regulatory burdens and regulatory uncertainty." The EPA has been at work on new rules on ozone pollution, better known as smog, since September 2009. The agency rolled out new tougher draft standards in January 2010, only to have the release of the final rules repeatedly delayed. In a statement, Obama said he has asked the agency to wait until 2013—you know, after the next election—to improve the standard. ...environmental and public-health groups are, as you might guess, flabbergasted at Obama's announcement. "This is a huge win for corporate polluters and huge loss for public health

Your Aim Had Better Be Good, Dick

This interesting comment from Politico: "Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is firing back at Dick Cheney for what she called an “attack on my integrity” in the former vice president’s memoir." Dick, your aim had better be a whole hell of a lot better than when you shot your friend in the face.  Condoleeza Rice's integrity- that's a damned small target.