Morning Open Thread
Good morning.
President Barack Obama high fives with a boy. Photo by Pete Souza.
Comments (106) «
Iraq probes 'Blackwater bribes'
Iraq has ordered an investigation into whether the US security firm Blackwater paid bribes to officials following the fatal shootings of 17 people in 2007.
Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani told CNN that he had asked the appropriate commanders to look into the matter.
The decision came after former top Blackwater executives told the New York Times they had sent $1m to its office in Iraq in a bid to silence criticism.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8356734.stm
It makes one think how much they paid those in Washington to keep doing business during the Obama Administration. Just because they change the name Blackwater to XE does not change there facts.
Why would we allow any company to give bribes overseas and not do any thing.
I had another friend say that she has been trying to get hold of me on Hotmail and failed, She stated, "I have sent you many emails on "hotmail, but you never replied, so I was always just wondering how you were." How can a company like Microsoft that wants to be the Post Office Email Service have such horrendous delivery service. Does not Congress control the email service and its services like it does the Post Office? If not Congress needs to get legislation that demands Post Office guarantees between U.S. citizens.
Jobless Claims Post Another Drop as Picture Improves
Published: Thursday, 12 Nov 2009 | 8:34 AM ET
The number of U.S. workers filing new claims for jobless insurance fell to the lowest since January, government data showed on Thursday, pointing to improvements in the labor market.
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped last week to a seasonally adjusted 502,000 from a revised 514,000 the prior week. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected initial claims to fall to 510,000 from an initially reported 512,000.
"It shows that companies are cutting jobs at a slower pace than during the financial crisis," said Gary Thayer, chief macrostrategist for Wells Fargo Advisors in St. Louis. "We're trending in the right direction, but we are probably several months away from (rising) monthly payrolls numbers," he said.
Initial jobless claims peaked in March at 674,000, nearly double what they were at the start of the recession in December 2007
White House to Lower Deficit Using TARP Repayments: Report
Published: Thursday, 12 Nov 2009 | 9:52 AM ET
The White House is looking to cut its budget deficit by using some unspent funds from the the U.S. government's Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter.
Members of the Obama administration are still debating the idea, the paper said, adding that the administration would still like to keep some of the unspent money in case of emergencies.
A U.S. Treasury source told Reuters that it was shifting the focus of the TARP program toward helping small business and the housing sector rather than large banks.
"As that focus shifts, we expect to use significantly less TARP funding than authorized," the source said. "We will maintain the flexibility to deal with a future crisis, and uninvested TARP money is dedicated to reducing the debt."
The U.S. budget deficit soared to a record $1.4 trillion in the fiscal year that ended on Sept. 30 and is expected to be about the same this fiscal year as the economic slump caused tax revenues to plunge and spending soared.
Budget experts project deficits will remain stubbornly high over the next 10 years even as the economy improves, which could lead to increased borrowing costs, further weakness in the U.S. dollar and runaway inflation.
But on Thursday, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told CNBC that the government will borrow substantially less than initially expected, as banks are repaying the emergency funds they received during the crisis, and more "significant repayments" are ahead.
"We are likely to have to borrow substantially less than we initially anticipated to help repair the damage to our financial system," Geithner told CNBC in Singapore.
The Journal added that the projected long-term cost of TARP will likely be lowered from $341 billion to as little as $200 billion.
—CNBC staff contributed to this report
US Will Borrow Less as Banks Pay Back Funds: Geithner
Published: Thursday, 12 Nov 2009 | 6:24 AM ET
The US government will likely borrow substantially less than initially anticipated, with banks repaying the funds they received during the crisis with interest and more "significant repayments" are ahead, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told CNBC Thursday.
"We are likely to have to borrow substantially less than we initially anticipated to help repair the damage to our financial system," Geithner told CNBC in Singapore.
There is also confidence that the US government will bring its fiscal balance in line as growth recovers, he said.
There are signs that stability is returning as Americans save more, the current account imbalance is coming down and there is much greater confidence in the stability of financial system, Geithner added.
He also reiterated his stance that a strong dollar is in the country's interests.
"We are committed to working with countries around the world to make sure that we have a recovery in place, we have a more stable financial system, we have a more balanced pattern of growth globally," he said. "A strong dollar is part of that commitment."
Geithner attended a meeting of finance ministers from Asia-Pacific countries in Singapore, ahead of the start of US President Barack Obama's visit later Thursday.
There is very strong consensus regarding the importance of the Asia-Pacific region moving, over time, to "more flexible market-driven exchange rates," Geithner said after the meeting.
Some analysts have said one of the causes of the global financial imbalances was the fact that the Chinese currency was kept artificially low because of China's restrictions on capital flows and the fact that the yuan is not a free-floating currency.
This has helped Chinese exports, creating the huge trade imbalance between China and the US, according to analysts.
Growth led by domestic demand and a shift to more market-oriented, flexible exchange rates over time are very important for the Asia-Pacific region and for the world economy, Geithner said.
The dollar was flat on Thursday but it has dropped at a steady pace over the past weeks as traders bet that the Federal Reserve will not raise interest rates any time soon.
Geithner did not want to comment on the dollar's current value, but said markets have recovered from the period when the world was facing risks of depression, deflation and financial collapse, which had caused a big rush into US financial assets.
"You're seeing as confidence returns, investors, savers around the world starting to take risk again, that's a fundamentally healthy thing, it's encouraging," he said.
Progress is being made on the legislative front to make sure banks will no longer be able to take the risks that plunged the world into crisis, Geithner said.
"We're going to make sure we put in place comprehensive, fundamental reform of the financial system so you don't see a repeat of the kind of excessive risk-taking that led to this crisis cause so much damage to economies including the US and around the world," he said.
"We've got to do it on a global basis, these markets are global," Geithner added.
Chimpy burned down the house and sold the fire truck to the lowest bidder, and pocketed the cash, dummy.
Jobs are a lagging index because the people who have been cut down to 32 hours a week are now working more hours, When it becomes too expensive to start paying overtime on a regular basis is when the new hiring starts, moron.
Unemployment is still lower than what it was under Sponge Brain Pee Pants.
Good morning, all.
These are the people that our trolls courted and then allowed to take over the GOP....
Tract searched for bodies, telltale jars
The Associated Press
11/12/2009
LEXINGTON, MO. — An excavation was scheduled to resume Thursday at a rural western Missouri property where authorities believe they may find bodies and buried glass jars with notes written by children who may have documented sexual abuse.
The property, about 30 miles east of Kansas City, was once owned by two of five family members arrested Tuesday.
"There has been an indication that there are body or bodies in numerous locations," said Lafayette County Sheriff Kerrick Alumbaugh, although he would not say whose bodies they might be.
The five family members are charged with several felonies, including forcible sodomy, rape with a child younger than 12 and use of a child in a sexual performance. The allegations, which include bestiality, forcing children into fake marriages with relatives and making an 11-year-old have an abortion, date from 1988 to 1995.
Three of the five men are lay ministers in the Community of Christ church whose licenses have been suspended, church spokeswoman Linda L. Booth said...
It's time to suspend the licenses of all these sadistic religious cults/RNC political operatives.
Take a good look at those Birthers at the next Michelle Bachmann tea party/news conference. This is the face of today's Republican Party.
They are the same people who taunt grieving family members at the funerals of our fallen soldiers, shout down local citizens at town halls, carry guns to youth sporting events, and conspire to defeat moderate candidates in other states.
They call it free speech and exercising their rights. I wonder what they call sexually abusing children?
And then you have these political hacks/spiritual leaders...
Carlson tapped archdiocesan fund to fight gay marriage in Maine
BY TIM TOWNSEND
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
11/12/2009
The St. Louis Archdiocese contributed $10,000 to a voters' initiative that overturned a Maine law last week legalizing gay marriage, campaign finance records show.
Only two other dioceses in the country — Phoenix and Philadelphia — contributed more ($50,000 each). The dioceses of Newark, N.J., and Youngstown, Ohio, also contributed $10,000.
In a statement Wednesday, St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson said the money came from a "special needs" account tapped at his discretion. That account is funded by "private gifts."...
With so many suffering locally with the effects of this Second Great Depression, this "holy" man used funds desperately needed by the poor and sick to wage a political campaign against others...in another state? His compassion knows no bounds or is it his arrogance?
Whatever happened to the mercy of God within the largest American religious establishment? I can ask because I was raised in that faith and left it when I detected a growing trend toward intolerance for any but the very richest white men like these bishops. I bet those were "private" donations.
There are far more "special needs" in society today than those of the RNC.
Why did Chimpy leave a request for 30,000 more soldiers to be sent to Afghanistan sitting on his desk for 8 months, and finally sent ~2,500 followed by ~3,500 as he was walking out the door?
President Obama sent the rest of them in March (21,000).
Chimpy was a failure with everything he touched, and after a while he just kept kicking his problems (that HE caused) down the road for someone else to fix, or just ignored them altogether.
AZCactusDanTheMan on November 12, 2009 at 10:50 AM
You had no problem watch our troops die in Afghanistan after Bush ignored the warnings of 911 and let Bin Lauden escape from Toro Bora. Now you are worried about them?
If you were really worried about our troops, you'd tell to Senator Tom Coburn (R), Okahoma to stop stalling on the Veterans benefits bill.
Once they are wounded or have come home with disabilities they are not longer useful to Blackwater's operation and the military industrial complex ...just a drain on your bottom line profits?
Wealth living heartbeats dance upon time’s dimension
Width of knowledge’s diverse acquired interpretations
Length reaching out exploring one’s spirit mental ascension
Depth of a miracle soul in God given gifted germination.
Thank God I am not a (Tory) Republican!!
American Scales of Justice John Yoo edict redefinitions,
Automatic declarations of guilty by Presidential proclamations
That denies the Human and Civil Rights due process definition
Of the Declaration of Independence Civil Liberties demonstrations.
Oh Ben Franklin, scream aloud, your dire warning of Liberty
In a school system that denies our History and proud Heritage
With birthrights to the deed to this country equal rights poverty
To toil this soil inside the wealth of the heart beats proud vintage
Thank God I am a Liberal Constitutionalist!!!
And then we have these patriotic American corporate war profiteers who don't even want to make their weapons in this country any longer.
Emerson CEO blasts government, says firm will expand overseas
BLOOMBERG NEWS
11/12/2009
Emerson CEO David Farr said that the U.S. government was hurting manufacturers with regulation and taxes and that his company would continue to focus on growth overseas. "Washington is doing everything in their manpower, capability, to destroy U.S. manufacturing," Farr said Wednesday in Chicago at a Baird Industrial Outlook conference. "Cap and trade, medical reform, labor rules."
St. Louis-based Emerson, the maker of electrical equipment and InSinkErator garbage disposals with $20.9 billion in sales for the year ended September, will keep expanding in emerging markets, which represented 32 percent of revenue in 2009. About 36 percent of manufacturing is now in "best-cost countries" up from 21 percent in 2003, according to slides accompanying his speech.
Companies will generate jobs in India and China, "places where people want the products and where the governments welcome you to actually do something," Farr said.
The unemployment rate in the U.S. jumped to 10.2 percent in October, the highest level since 1983. Emerson, which Farr said employed about 125,000 people worldwide, has eliminated more than 20,000 jobs since the end of 2008 to lower expenses.
"What do you think I am going to do?" Farr asked. "I'm not going to hire anybody in the United States. I'm moving.
These American "patriots" would rather share our military secrets with Communists and make sure the next generation has no idea how to manufacture the weapons we would need in a real war?
This sort of thing used to be called treason but the Republicans "deregulated" patriotism and "privatized" our war effort so more filthy rich old goats like this guy could have multi-million dollar bonuses and stock options.
He's lived off government contracts his entire working life and he has the nerve to say we taxpayers are shorting him?
So he wants to continue to have government subsidized medical care for HIS family, breathe clean air, not have to worry about work related-injuries, and continue to have the right to exercise free speech against government policy? He won't find it anywhere in those developing new socialist monopolies.
Perhaps it's time for him to be forced to live in the countries where he wants to operate?
I say good riddance and don't think you or your family will ever be allowed to come back once you declare you are citizen of the world instead of an American who is proud to support our economy. Go ahead and follow the the jobs you send overseas and just wait and see how those "socialist" governments treat you once they don't need you any longer to build their factories and train their managers. They will nationalize all of them.
And, these greedy corporate bastards think they are doing God's work?
Goldman Sachs boss says banks do "God's work"
Nov 8, 2009
LONDON (Reuters) - The chief executive of Goldman Sachs, which has attracted widespread media attention over the size of its staff bonuses, believes banks serve a social purpose and are doing "God's work."
http://www.reuters.com/article/ousivMolt/idUSTRE5A719520091108
Send them all to China and let the Communists take care of our REAL problem.
Gotta run. later.
Good afternoon fellow Americans. Good morning to the other time zones.
SandyH on November 12, 2009 at 12:00 PM
Quite frankly, we ought to consider nationalizing these traitor's companies. These are the Benedict Arnold CEO's Sen Kerry (D-MA) referred to in the 2004 POTUS campaign. The reason they want to move to China and India is because of cheap labor and no regulation. They can pollute all they like, pay people a couple bucks a day and tell them to live on that. CEO's like David Farr are only beholden to money. They care nothing about their fellow Americans and we should start treating them as such. It's time to start using the treason statute of the Consitution against these outsourcers.
This suspected possible payolla deal between Iraqi officials and blackwater people comes to me as no surprise. Just another dirty little scandal left over from Americas worst presidential administration. As we all know, the Bush Admin was all about deal making and paying favors to bushes buddies. Making them rich, while making America far less secure. I sincerely hope that those in the Justice Dept grow some cajones and prosecute the SOB's to the fullest extent possible. Hey!! I just saw Carrie Prejean's bobbled interview with Larry King. She apparently didn't like a certain question fielded by King. She was hen preparing to walk off the set, thus ending the interview. Geez Louise! It's just a freakin interview you stupid Palin loving mororn. Me thinks her is kinda embarrased about the SHE_BOP tape. Damn Carrie!!! Cover your Assets better next time. LOL continuously
Harpo_TheWatchman on November 12, 2009 at 12:53 PM
Hello Harpo. I'm not confused at all. You're the one giving the appearance of being against something before you're for it. At first, you were against MAJ Hasan receiving a fair trial. Then you contradict yourself a while later and are for it. So which is it, Harpo? Who deserves a fair trial in America? Who gets to decide?
Are far as defending MAJ Hasan goes, he deserves the exact same constituional rights as everyone else in American custody. Anything less reduces this great nation of ours to that of the Soviet Union or the Chinese Communists whom you, and those in your party, like sending American jobs to. MAJ Hasan will have his proverbial day in court. He will be represented by legal counsel. He will be tried by a jury of his peers and unless we've been misled by the press, he will be convicted and sentenced to either life without parole or the death penalty for his heinous acts. We are still a nation of law, not men.
As much as the Major deserves the death penalty, assuming he is found guilty, life would be a more appropriate sentence because the death penalty does nothing but elevate him to the status of a martyr amongst his fellow terrorists. Furthermore, a life sentence will give us the opportunity to intensely study him so we can are better prepared to recognize the next MAJ Hasan in our ranks. It's time we start using our heads, first, instead of our trigger fingers in this war on terrorism.
chassie321 on November 11, 2009 at 06:39 PM
Bob, i mean really BOB who really gives a shit that he made a valid point???He is a worthless coward, that DESERTED his country in the time of WAR. He's a first class prick plain and simple. You sound like Obama, kissing the pugs asses.
If we ever get to the point that our partisanship trumps intellectual honesty then we have no business being partisans. Frosty may be a worthless coward, a deserter, and a first class prick but, IMHO, he made a valid point about bringing up that eleven amendments were defeated in House that would've opened up the FEHBP to all Americans. The FEHBP should be available to all Americans under the same terms it is to the Congress and federal employees. What makes a federal employee any better than the rest of us?
And if I'm sounding like the POTUS then I'll take that as a compliment, my friend. Right is still right no matter where the source hails from or who it is and I kiss no arses, on either side.
Paratrooper's Mom Begs Obama: 'End It'
Benjamin Sherman Died In Afghanistan Trying To Save Another Soldier
POSTED: 6:48 am EST November 11, 2009
UPDATED: 6:10 am EST November 12, 2009
PLYMOUTH, Mass. -- As family and friends mourn a fallen U.S. paratrooper on Veteran's Day, his mother made an emotional plea to President Barack Obama that it's time to either bring home the troops or end the war in Afghanistan.The body of Benjamin Sherman, 21, was recovered in Afghanistan Tuesday.
"It's time we do something. This has gone on too long. They either need to come home or we need to end it," a tearful Denise Sherman said.
Sherman was on his second tour of duty when he disappeared in Afghanistan last week during a mission to resupply troops in the western part of the country. He was a paratrooper with the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, based in Fort Bragg, N.C...
http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/21581554/detail.html
While I'm sure we all mourn the loss of Ms. Sherman's son as well as his compatriots, Ms. Sherman needs to remember why we are in Afghanistan. We are not there because of lie like we are in Iraq. We are there because the Afghan government was complicit in the attacks of 11SEP01. And we should remain in Afghanistan until member of Al-Qaeda and the Taliban have been brought to justice. Anything less is a disservice to the nearly three thousand that died on 11SEP01 and the over four thousand that have given their lives following the orders of their CIC.
Harpo_TheWatchman on November 12, 2009 at 01:23 PM
Perhaps you'd like to sit idly by and watch all the fat cats gut the American economy by selling out to the Chinese Communists. I do not. And CEO David Farr, based on his rhetoric in the previous post, is nothing more than a traitor and should be treated as such.
But you go right ahead and defend him. Go ahead, Harpo, tell us all why CEO's like David Farr are good Americans for pulling up stakes and moving their operations overseas? Tell us how outsourcing American jobs for the sake of cheap labor and higher profits is good for American workers. I'll be right here waiting for that answer.
The_Evil_Dr*Burd on November 12, 2009 at 01:31 PM
That would explain Sarah Palin's popularity on the political right.
do trolls only exist here? do they have lives beyond this blog? it seems doubtful.
Harpo_TheWatchman on November 12, 2009 at 01:47 PM
You wouldn't know a socialist if one walked up and hit you in the mouth. And you claim you are not defending the traitors of American society and business yet you constantly support those who do namely, the Republican Party.
All it would take would be one major company, like Emerson, to be nationalized for selling out Americans and the rest would finally see we mean business. Until we put an end to sellouts like Farr and those that support the draining of American assets, we will find that America will keep getting weaker and places like China will keep getting stronger until your grandchildren wake up one day and find themselves sitting in a grass hut being forced to learn Mandarin or Hindi.
So you call me a socialist or a peanut butter sandwich if you like and it will make no difference. I am an American citizen just like you. The difference is that people like I seem to care more about our nation's future than those like you.
The_Evil_Dr*Burd on November 12, 2009 at 01:51 PM
Each post rises or fall on its own merits. Johne's opinions are just that, Johne's.
Obama’s first China visit highlights tricky ties
For president, defining exact relationship with Beijing proves challenging
When President Obama arrives in Shanghai and Beijing next week, he will face a prickly question that has vexed presidents since Richard M. Nixon first visited Mao Zedong in 1972: How exactly does the United States define its relationship with China?Over the decades, U.S. leaders have run through a kaleidoscope of terms, from "tacit allies" against the Soviet Union in the early 1970s to "strategic competitors" at the start of President George W. Bush's administration.
When Obama took office, his advisers spent weeks haggling with Chinese officials over what to call a relationship that has left China holding more than $1 trillion of American debt, turned the United States into China's single-biggest export market and enmeshed the nations in an ever-tighter web of mutual dependence.
Washington and Beijing finally came up with a bland characterization, declaring their ties "positive, cooperative and comprehensive." This replaced a Bush-era label that had also defined the relationship as "candid," a word Beijing disliked because it suggested that the two sides might criticize each other.
Such verbal machinations involve far more than semantic quibbling. Words frame how the two sides confront very real issues such as trade, climate change and human rights. "It's something we have always had with the Chinese, dating back to the 1970s," said Jeffrey A. Bader, Obama's senior director for East Asian affairs at the National Security Council. "You can't really go through an administration without having some label that provides a general characterization."...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33878178/ns/world_news-washington_post/
Let make this real easy for you, Mr. President. Tell China to enact human rights, a living minimum wage, and keep a tighter leash on N. Korea or we're going to raise the tariffs on their imports so high we could pay for zero deductible health insuarnce policies for all three hundred million American citizens. Make China come up to our standard of living, Mr. President. Don't let them drag us down to theirs.
OPRAH owns the trademark for Harpo, you ignorant ass. It's her name spelled backwards.
Unemployment % By Month Jan to Dec
1981:
7.5 7.4 7.4 7.2 7.5 7.5 7.2 7.4 7.6 7.9 8.3 8.5
1982:
8.6 8.9 9.0 9.3 9.4 9.6 9.8 9.8 10.1 10.4 10.8 10.8
1983: 10.4 10.4 10.3 10.2 10.1 10.1 9.4 9.5 9.2 8.8 8.5 8.3
(etc.)
Bureau of Labor Statistics - Dep't of Labor Data Base
I even says in that article you posted that the number is bigger than it was in 16.5 years. Yeah, it was 10.1% in September 1982, you fool.
s/b 26.5 years
As for Chimpy sitting on a request for 30,000 extra Soldiers for 8 months, why weren't you complainng about it back then?
The latest request for more cannon fodder was made shortly before the Afghan election, so we didn't know who or what we would be dealing with afterward. It is called Prudent Judgment. Would they have an entirely new government? Who would be the Defense Minister, and would he be a weak yes man or a strong leader?
All things needed to be considered, and even now ALL options need to be looked at.
Chimpy just operated under the philosophy of "screw things up and let someone else clean it up later".
Like the simple minded moron he was he used force instead of brains.
"When the only tool you know how to use is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail". That's the Pug mantra.
Well, fuckwad, prove you own the rights. Show your papers of incorporation.
Good afternoon, all.
scours the daily news in search of any tidbit of dire news....
I have to scour around to find dire news? I see it all around me in America since the Reagan Revolution flopped not to mention seeing it posted at the top of CNN and YahooNew headlines every morning.
How's things in the bunker and/or RNC call center, stooge? I bet the phones are ringing off the hook with contributions and good news from the field.
We got our good news from our insurance carrier yesterday. They are not only raising co-pays on some routine charges but also bumping up our premiums by 20%.
Just imagine what this is going to cost us in another five years. Double what we are paying now sounds like a good deal to you conservatives? You're going to tell me this will create new jobs when we all know the profits got right into the pockets of the chief operating officers.
Only one company now controls 74% of all coverage in Missouri. This is a monopoly and it must be broken up with either anti-trust prosecution or a public option to create ANY competition if we are to hold down costs. The status quo is not acceptable to anyone accept the greedy bastards who run this confidence racket and the Republicans they bribe to vote against reform.
Our insurance carrier will be auctioning off coverage to the highest bidder on craigslist soon if this situation is allowed to continue.
Harpo_TheWatchman on November 12, 2009 at 02:46 PM
China is more than welcome to do whatever it wants. But they don't have to sell their substandard products here. Let them sell their widgets to the billion, or so, peasants they have out in their rice paddies.
This is America. We are more than capable of being self-sufficient. We do not need food or durable goods imports. We can do that right here and we did up until President Clinton and the Republican Congress sold us out on so-called free trade agreements such as NAFTA which threw open the flood gates of outsourcing.
Being stupid is your job. Apparently your ONLY job until your UI runs out.
BobVADemocratHawk on November 12, 2009 at 01:56 PM
Hi, Bob.
You'd think the teabaggers would want to join Democrats to stop these multinationals from sucking us dry. But they seem to like the idea of becoming slaves. I guess it's some weird sort of bondage fetish?
Those that continue to defend their abusers need some serious mental health intervention. If we could a get universal health care coverage bill passed in the Senate soon, maybe whatever it is that is really tormenting these individuals can be finally addressed?
I wonder what the Chinese will rename their new colony? Or will they just make us a protectorate? Do you suppose there is any chance they will let sally* keep his guns? How long do you think he could hold out when over two billion of them keep coming at his shack? Nobody has that much ammunition. And we don't make it in this country any longer anyway.
And we all know what the Communist Chinese do to what they call "anti-social" individuals. Even we know that's his problem.
I guess his new career as a "motivational speaker" didn't pan out, and he chickened out of debating Bill Clinton, so now Chimpy is embarking on a path of Stand-Up COmedy.
In a speech at Southern Methodist University, home of his future library and museum, the former president will kick off the new George W. Bush Institute as a forum for study and advocacy in four main areas: education, global health, human freedom and economic growth.. .
George W. Bush, Apparently Unironically, to Unveil Public Policy Institute Today at SMU
HAHAHAHAA!!
I hear he really slays. Stop it, your killing... a million people.
BobVADemocratHawk on November 12, 2009 at 03:04 PM
Outsourcing is the real bee in the bonnet of the Far Right lunatic fringe but they would be the last to admit that they were tricked into it.
The Birthers and their conservative Republican Party don't like to face the reality of the moment. They'd rather complain that we are making up all the dire news. We are trying to make things worse than it really is? Everything is so wonderful in PalinLand America...even though she and her husband want to separate from it?
The teabaggers contend that everyone who really wants to have health care coverage can have it if they are willing to pay "substantially" for it with the Republicans in the Senate having the best "socialist" government-run coverage. Most of them are even double dipping in socialist health coverage.
Why doesn't it bother these people that the rest of us don't have the same opportunity to partake in their good fortune? We are not worthy?
Frosty may be a worthless coward, a deserter, and a first class prick...
BobVADemocratHawk
He's not any of those. It's just what Pammy claims he is because she twists his every word
Kindly post your email addy, Thomassssss, and I will go through my extensive files of Stevie boy's posts from the last 6 years, and I shall post the one where he claimed he First got out of being drafted by pouring some kind of Strong detergent on his body to make a horrendous rash, and then later, said it was because he faked the hearing test !!!
I will then also send you the posts of his Felony Charge,(ain't no twisting of this one, either) which goes into the court case of how he and his brother would take orders for his tin cans, collect the money and screw the farmers out of their tin can. When caught, they would file bankruptcy ! Cute trick until they got caught. THEN he blames his brother for it all, and court has to wait till he gets out of the mental nut house because the brother tried to commit suicide.\
I will give you word for word----Stevie admitting to screwing his ex wife out of child support. The one where he posts that his kid is taking turns posting filth and attacks.
LET'S SEE IF YOU STILL THINK I OR ANYONE HERE TWISTS HIS WORDS !!!!!!!!!
Nice guy you hang around with. Birds of a feather tend to flock together. WHAT crimes have YOU been guilty of? WHY did TORO kick your ass out----was it because you were caught cheating them out of paid time----posting hate on a blog during work time? I SENT them your filthy remarks and attacks, along with the dates and times and even their IP. All they had to do was to do an inner review of times you were on the computer----to see it was true.
You, Thomass, along with your dirty ilk, do not need anyone to twist your words !!!!! You see, many of us have it all in black and white print!
btw, we know Dufus and Stevie will be here all day on Thanksgiving again----WHERE will YOU be? hmmmmmmmmmmm? Or are those many friends and family inviting you already for festivities?????? LOL!
SandyH on November 12, 2009 at 03:34 PM
You would think so until you realize the intellect, or lack thereof, of the teabaggers. It's the exact same mentality of the auto workers in the southern states working for foreign manufacturers.
Doo-Bee-Doo-Bee-Doo on November 12, 2009 at 03:34 PM
DPD,
What does he know about any of those four areas? Taht's why they want to study the issues? I guess they are building the Institute so Spunky can finally figure out why it all went so bad?
Education - He wasted a Ivy League one.
Global health - He wouldn't allow universal
coverage in this country.
Human freedom - He set up Gitmo and foreign
renditions to torture people.
Economic growth - This does not compute with
conservatives and especially
Republicans.
BobVADemocratHawk on November 12, 2009 at 03:51 PM
Bob,
What's the excuse of all these highly educated, conservative MBAs who still insist that trickle down will eventually work...after global warming kills us all off? I suppose the insects will be rich. All of them will have a big screen TV to flutter around the light?
Pres Obama and the democrats were voted in to accomplish at least two things. Stop the war,NOT ESCALATE and provide the nations citizens with National Health Insurance. As of today neither is taking place.
The Public Option is anything but National Health Insurance.... it is however a ton more profit for the industry = failure.
The issues to emphasize to Obama and Congress are:
* The 2008 election provided a mandate to end the war and focus on the economy at home. It is important for the Obama administration to bring home all U.S. troops, not just combat troops, and all private security contractors which number even more than U.S. troops. It is time for jobs at home not war jobs abroad.
* The economic collapse makes the cost of the war even more important than it was. The U.S. cannot continue to hemorrhage more than $10 billion per month on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. These are costly and failed war quagmires that the U.S. must extricate itself from as quickly as possible.
* Beyond the current wars, the U.S. needs to reduce military spending. The United States currently spends as much as the whole world combined on the military. The chairman of the Financial Services Committee, Barney Frank WAS calling for a 25% cut in military spending and an internal board appointed by Donald Rumsfeld is telling the president-elect that military spending cannot be sustained. The military budget, including the two wars being fought, is now approaching $1 trillion per year.
Despite the mandate, and overwhelming reasons why Bush lost the White House for John McCain, hard tasks lay ahead to convince the president-elect to really end the Iraq war, not escalate the war in Afghanistan and reduce military spending.
This is all achievable but only if those who worked together to elect Obama work together to force him to make Peace and follow the American voters mandate to get out of Iraq. Former Reagan advisor Pat Buchannan a dedicated Republican and somewhat Bush supporter was the first to admit that the 2008 election gave Obama a mandate to get out of Iraq.
Sincerely,
Kevin B. Zeese
Executive Director
Voters for PEACE
DPD,
What? The Thriller in Wasilla is not going to happen?
I was going to bet on Spunky over Bill as he's hired Palin to be his debate coach. She has big time experience in these sort of events not to mention Tina Fey's SNL playbook to work off.
Did Laura find out before they signed the papers? I don't blame her. She's been humiliated enough by that Bush clan. It's not easy being married to Sarah Palin.
DooBee, that would really have been unfair---pitting a great debater and intelligent man like Clinton against the dumbshit anyways. Even with a black box under his coat like he used to wear, he always came across like a dumbie!
merrill, you make some good points but Obama is no longer the President-elect. I wish we could have the last nine month back so our agenda could have been pushed harder by the new President?
His bi-partisan approach has yielded only one Republican vote in either house in that time...and that was from a guy who won a Democratic district in a corruption scandal. Even he's figured out he should never have gotten involved with them. They do nothing.
The good news is that the Commander-in-Chief isn't allowing the Pentagon to roll over him. He's digging in his feet. Let's hope this is not just a strategic move.
bbl.
Harpo_TheWatchman on November 12, 2009 at 04:19 PM
Besides, what's left to debate? Spunky destroyed the economy, our military strength, committed war crimes, and ran up the deficit.
Clinton left a surplus, won the Bosnian War, and everyone was gainfully employed with a nice nest egg. He insured that Al Gore won the Nobel Prize.
So, how's Bush's Blunder doing for you these days? Is FDR's safety nets keeping you afloat? Or have you married into money? I guess their is no woman that blind.
The debate between Bill Clinton and George W. Bush has been canceled "because the promoter overhyped it as a death-match faceoff between the men," according to the New York Post.
But Bush spokesman David Sherzer told Fox News ...
So, the ONLY TWO root sources for that "reason" were, Murdoch, and Murdoch.
Yeah, right. Chimpy didn't want to get his ass handed to him n a platter, and the Kangaroo is covering for him.
Gawd---how true is this one!!
"How much do we really know about Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the 39-year-old Army psychiatrist who went on a killing spree yesterday at Fort Hood, Texas?
Not much. He was born and raised in Virginia, was medically trained by the Army, became disillusioned with his career and employer when ridiculed by fellow soldiers about his religion -- Islam, and had psychologically counseled returning soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan and was resisting his own deployment into a war zone.
"He was doing everything he could to avoid that," his cousin told the press. "He wanted to do whatever he could within the rules to make sure he wouldn’t go over," which included retaining legal counsel to find a commission-releasing loophole, but the attorney couldn't. (The Army might want to rethink that reg, not for the benefit of future Maj. Hasans, but for their colleagues.)
Other than that, we know that an Army spokesman, Lt. Gen. Robert Cone, doesn't know much, either. He informed the press that "terrorism was not being ruled out, but that preliminary evidence did not suggest that the rampage had been an act of terrorism."
So, we really don't know. It seems that the man simply snapped. But "seems" is about the best we can do for now -- unless, of course, we go to the source of all human wisdom: right-wing Web sites.
And not just the main sites themselves. No, no, no. To arms, to arms, to the Comments Sections! -- where rarely is a qualifier employed, where rarely there surfaces any expression of self-doubt, and where rarely is even the slightest hesitation encountered in "Telling it like it is," which, after years of reading the main right-wing sites and listening to Rush Limbaugh and watching Fox News, the commenters appear to have a very capable handle on.
Naturally, The (otherwise unspoken) Truth is bound to come across as a trifle demented -- it dares to go, you see, where the cravenly thoughtful do not -- which, just as naturally, is why I never visit Comments Sections; they are generally bathed in the warm, rabid saliva of unmoderated hostility and unsophisticated snarkiness. Except in cases like this -- then I visit, since learning The (Unknown) Truth behind such a prominent story is something I just can't resist.
http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1102811644026&s=5274&e=001TufTqtsDLOj12RaKUoHerV-KTvwCLwd-Iy52dlr6166Vy-td20NN7p5KETwHpOK6oJY_Q5xBYgGUlHwtYPcoZAIKadL-G2AzjFTaifZsvBw-494FbviF3aRF20y8O-dfCzZhseDsjzo=
http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1102811644026&s=5274&e=001TufTqtsDLOj12RaKUoHerV-KTvwCLwd-Iy52dlr6166Vy-td20NN7p5KETwHpOK6oJY_Q5xBYgGUlHwtYPcoZAIKadL-G2AzjFTaifZsvBw-494FbviF3aRF20y8O-dfCzZhseDsjzo=
The Kangaroo can now add another dimwit to this stable of jackasses....
Anchor Lou Dobbs resigns from CNN
By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
November 12, 2009
Lou Dobbs, the most opinionated and divisive anchor at a cable network that bills itself as a straight-news oasis, resigned from CNN on Wednesday night, saying in his final broadcast that he wants "to go beyond the role" of a television journalist in tackling the country's problems...
Lou wants to go beyond the ROLE of a television journalist? He's been impersonating one? I hardly noticed as he was always overacting.
When will they be making the announcement over at "fair and balanced"? I can't wait till Murdock trots out his new six-jackass hitch for a trial run at a teabagger event before their Midterm follies begin.
So I guess it will be high drama over at Faux News till we see which of The Kangaroo's media whores/divas comes out with top billing?
I love that...The Kangaroo. You are so wicked, DPD.
later.
If Dobbs wants to go beyond Reporting to fix the country's problems---- Look for him with an Uzzi at the Mexican border, shooting Women and children as they try and enter the country!!!!
The stinkin bigot !
Top al Qaeda leader blames Blackwater for Peshawar blasts
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/11/12/pakistan.peshawar.blasts.blackwater/index.html
It seems that Blackwater firms are hurting America's image overseas. Why does the government hire mercenaries to protect the State Department?
www.seiu.org
SEIU is doing some great work on Health Care
Did you see blips of Palin on Oprah, as shown on MSNBC? What a liar she is, you have to give her that !!!
And then Chris was talking about her bus tour, and how the bus has her book cover with her picture plastered all over it, and she is headed----not to the big cities----but to all these little rural hick towns, to whet up more Hate and anti-Americanism. Chris Matthews is sure she is running for President, 2012, and said for Romney and Huckabee to watch out! Let's just say, if the Republican Party is stupid enough, to put this Extreme Right Wing moonbat on the ticket-----I can hardly wait for the games to begin!!!
"The feisty former governor of Alaska is set to embark on a whirlwind campaign-style "Going Rogue" book tour that in its first week will take her to half a dozen battleground states.
Palin will make two to three stops a day traveling in a bus emblazoned with the cover of her book. The imagery and pace of her travel is almost certain to evoke images of an early presidential campaign foray, especially as she plans a December 6 visit to Iowa, site of the first in the nation presidential caucuses.
The book is also likely to include some juicy tidbits about the drama inside the McCain-Palin campaign. Steve Schmidt, McCain's campaign manager, recently said nominating Palin in 2012 would be "catastrophic" for the GOP. Palin's advisors have indicated privately that there will be some score-settling in her autobiography.
"There's nothing we didn't talk about," Oprah Winfrey reported last night in a video linked to her Twitter account. "Lots of her supporters didn't think she should come here." Oprah said they talked about Palin's daughter Bristol's pregnancy, Levi Johnston, Palin's infant son Trigg, and the state of Palin's marriage. "It was really an interesting interview," Palin said.
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/11/12/2125424.aspx
Eleven of those first stops are in battleground states. Her first visit to Grand Rapids, Michigan, is a nod to the fact that she threatened to "Go Rogue" by diverting her plane to Michigan after the McCain campaign decided to write off the state.
ahhhhhh, so you don't want to see the truth with your own beady little eyes, Thomasssss?????
Too bad, because they are word for word pulled off the computer as he said them.
I don't blame you though----to see the truth means you have to judge Stevieboy harshly, and lord knows, you don't want to have to do that.
Cover your eyes to the truth, Thomasss, but underneath, you KNOW what I say is the truth.
FUNNY isn't it, that a small person like yourself, who came in here 3 years ago almost to the day, who was so upset over the 2006 turn of majority to Dems, should mention that I might have an obsession with a Cyber abuser like Stevie, Dufus and yourself. (I don't count the German, because he is just a joke from another country). Your constant 24/7 obsession with posting your gut filled with Hate, with your Anger, is an example of a mental illness. You watch Dufus and Stevie----KNOW you are right there with them.
You did not answer me about your Thanksgiving invites, or will you be here, as usual, expressing more hate, instead of Thanks for blessings like the rest of us will be !!!
I am also waiting for your Bible extended hand----swearing on your Mother's soul, that you are NOT MN Thomass from TORO !!!! Any idea when that will be???? goodness knows---you don't want to appear weak on here, now do you?
uh oh! This one is going to make Stevieboy look stupid again !
Warning sign: Record highs are double the lows
'Our climate is already shifting,' researcher says, citing U.S. temperatures
Climate scientists normally are wary of associating daily weather events to longer term climate change, but new research does just that by showing that daily record high temperatures across the continental U.S. occurred twice as often as record lows over the last decade.
"Climate change is making itself felt in terms of day-to-day weather," Gerald Meehl, a researcher at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, said in a statement announcing the research. "The ways these records are being broken show how our climate is already shifting."
Moreover, that 2:1 ratio is likely to increase dramatically if greenhouse gas emissions keep rising, the experts said.
From Jan. 1, 2000, to Sept. 30, 2009, the continental U.S. saw 291,237 record highs and 142,420 record lows — reflecting a decade of unusually mild winter weather and intense summer heat waves.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33887745/ns/us_news-environment/
(Now how do you dispute FACTS like these?)
ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahaaaaa...........gasp..............
thanks, I needed that tonight ! Make sure you post your name and address, so I can send much of your stuff to them.........
bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaa.....OMG, that is rich!
Give Joe Lieberman my regards, too. He gets emails and faxes daily from me, he knows me well!!!! LMAO!
Fox News Regular Bo Dietl: ‘Ten Years Ago, [Katie Couric] Looked American. Today, She Looks Oriental’
On Monday during an appearance on Don Imus’ radio show, which is simulcast on the Fox Business Network, former George H.W. Bush appointee and Fox News regular Bo Dietl used sexist and racist language to attack CBS News anchor Katie Couric. “Katie Couric, the cougar,” said Dietl. “If she gets her eyes done anymore, she’s going to look like a split face.” As Imus meekly attempted to defend Couric, saying “she’s fine,” Dietl unleashed a derogatory rant about Couric:
IMUS: I’m just saying that if she wants — leave Katie Couric alone. She’s fine.
DIETL: Oh no no no. You like her eyes the way they look?
IMUS: She looks fine to me.
DIETL: They’re getting smaller and smaller.
IMUS: She looks fine.
DIETL: Ten years ago, she looked American. Today she is an oriental.
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/11/11/dietl-couric-imus/
Funny how these Republicans think that looking Chinese is unAmerican, but they have no problem outsourcing our entire economy to China and going into debt to them ...just as long as they get to skim a nice share of cream off the top of the profits made by multinational corporations.
After over 50,000 American troops died to stop the Chinese influence in Vietnam, they are just giving them the assets of the United States outright?
It's treason pure and simple. Then they insult their new masters by making fun of their eyes?
Stupid treasonous Republicans.
Order now for Christmas.
"Going Rouge" Takes On the Palin Nightmare
Sarah Palin's autobiography will be released the same day as a more critical perspective in "Going Rouge: Sarah Palin - An American Nightmare." (Photo: Tricia Ward; Edited: Jared Rodriguez / t r u t h o u t)
Next Tuesday, when Sarah Palin's already-bestselling memoir, "Going Rogue: An American Life," hits shelves, another much-anticipated look at the Palin phenomenon will also debut: "Going Rouge: Sarah Palin - An American Nightmare" (available exclusively at orbooks.com). The book includes both new and classic essays by the likes of Max Blumenthal, Eve Ensler, Katrina vanden Heuvel, Jessica Valenti, Juan Cole, Jim Hightower, Robert Reich, Naomi Klein and many more.
Hey Sandy-----Looks like Palin blaming Couric for her demise. Just because she came across as a bimbo hillbilly, with no education, no knowledge of world affairs, does not mean she was all that stupid !!!
Palin: Tensions ran high with McCain aides
In book ‘Going Rogue,’ former Alaska governor also criticizes Katie Couric
updated 20 minutes ago
NEW YORK - The rumors are true, according to Sarah Palin. The McCain-Palin campaign was not a happy family.
In Palin's "Going Rogue," Palin confirms reports of tension between her aides and those of the 2008 Republican presidential candidate, Sen. John McCain. The vice presidential candidate confirms that she had wanted to speak on election night, but was denied the chance and says she was kept "bottled up" from reporters during the campaign.
Palin also writes harshly of CBS anchor Katie Couric, whom she describes as "badgering" and biased. Palin's series of interviews with Couric were widely regarded as disastrous, leaving the impression of an ill-informed candidate who was unsuited for the job.
Evening all good Dems,
What a flaming be-ach. She actually said that failin and bachman are brilliant women. She didn't like Larry's questions so she took off her earphones so she couldn't hear him. janet parschall the flaming bitch religious retard actually put her fingers in her ears chanting lalalalalalalalala. What a childish thing to do in both cases. This bitch is pushing a book and I think she plans to run for office. Can you imagine her in any position of power when she puts her fingers in her ears and goes lalalalalala. She is a true neotard religious f'ing freak.
Prejean stops Larry King interview after 'inappropriate' question
http://www.fox5sandiego.com/news/kswb-prejean-king,0,5213905.story
She remembers being a voracious reader, favorites including John Steinbeck's "The Pearl" and George Orwell's "Animal Farm."
As was mentioned on Hardball----THESE are books given to 11th graders on their English literature book lists. Big freaken deal she read them 35 years ago.
these are so funny, I want to repost them a second time, in case some of you missed them!
In a recent study, the United States was ranked the 114th happiest country in the world. Then Sarah Palin stepped down. Now we're at 17." --Conan O'Brien
"Now how about this, ladies and gentlemen? The Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, has announced she is stepping down. She will no longer be the Governor of Alaska. First thing, she woke up and went out on her porch and waved goodbye to Russia." --David Letterman
PamB on November 12, 2009 at 05:45 PM
Pam,
So Palin is going to be driving around the countryside in her Weenie Mobile trying to impress the yokels? How many marketing and communications majors interned with Oscar Mayer that way?
I suppose Granny and all the rest of the Palin clan are going to do their impression of a Willy Nelson tour with Levi’s mother selling meth from the back of the bus? Hey, didn’t Saddam have one of those traveling drug labs…or so Bush said. It makes sense that this would be the only thing that caught Spunky’s attention.
If they wait a month or two, they could chuck the Weenie Mobile and Todd could just throw her hide over the front of his snowmobile to tour Grand Rapids. Her Moosehead would make a fine trophy for the hood.
And do they expect to take along Palin’s African spiritual advisor? He could drive the devil out of all those teabagger witches as she signs their copies of her book.
This is going to be one big traveling circus. You betcha.
yuk, yuk.........
"Former governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, is promoting her new book and she's going to appear on the Oprah Winfrey Show. Sarah and Oprah. On the one hand, a very powerful woman qualified to be President of the United States, and on the other hand, you have Sarah." –David Letterman
"But if you think about it, Sarah Palin and Oprah Winfrey have a lot in common. They both helped get Obama elected." –David Letterman
"Sarah Palin's book is big, 400 pages. She wrote the book herself and agonized over every word, and so will you." --David Letterman
"Sarah Palin's new autobiography doesn't come out until November, but it is already No. 1 on Amazon. And if you go to the website, it says, 'People who bought this book also bought no other books in their entire life.'" --Jimmy Fallon
"It's an emotional day. A lot of us are still mourning the loss of one of America's most entertaining figures, who left us all too soon. But don't worry, folks, Sarah Palin will be back. Comedians everywhere are praying." --Conan O'Brien
"President Obama right now is in Russia. Obama went there because from Russia you can actually see Sarah Palin cleaning out her office in Alaska." --Conan O'Brien
(AND YOU GIRLIES THINK IT IS JUST HERE---WHO HOLD HER IN SUCH LITTLE REGARD !!!!!) ;0
johhne on November 12, 2009 at 06:15 PM
Hi, johne.
He asked her to bare her breasts or just do a voice over of a clip of her earlier prono film?
Palin also writes harshly of CBS anchor Katie Couric, whom she describes as "badgering" ...
Pam,
Imus says Couric is only a rodent. Either she is the mouse that roared or Palin is the ding bat that would doesn't read (or write her own book).
I watched that interview, Sandy, and Couric was so freaken sweet and nice to her, I was gagging!
Couric has long shown a Right wing favoritism, and took it way too easy on Palin.
Just because Palin ended up looking stupid had nothing to do with couric
BTW, ANOTHER LIBERAL TRYING TO HELP OUT OLE THOMASSSSSS
-- Rep. Joe Sestak (D-PA) wants to extend by 6 months the amount of time fired workers can receive a 65% COBRA reduction
THAT OHIO DEM PARTY HAS A REAL SENSE OF HUMOR !
Ohio Democratic Party Sends Letter To Sarah Palin, Invites Her To Campaign For John Kasich
COLUMBUS - Today, the Ohio Democratic Party sent the following letter to former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, inviting her to campaign for John Kasich during her upcoming book tour stop in Columbus on November 20:
November 12, 2009
The Honorable Sarah Palin
123 Tea Party Lane
Anywhere, IA
Dear Governor Palin:
The Ohio Democratic Party cordially invites you to campaign for Republican gubernatorial candidate and former Lehman Brothers Managing Director John Kasich during your upcoming trip to Ohio.
Based on your recent success of promoting an ultra right-wing candidate in the special Congressional election in New York, we believe your engagement in the Ohio gubernatorial race would be invaluable.
You have a lot in common with John Kasich, and we believe you would enjoy his company. For instance, you are both darlings of FOX News. You are both high-priced national speakers. You have both distinguished yourselves as celebrities. And John Kasich ran for President for a few months, so he could offer you some pointers as you prepare for your 2012 presidential bid.
We look forward to working with your office and the Kasich for Governor campaign to schedule a mutually agreeable time.
Sincerely,
Chris Redfern
Chairman, Ohio Democratic Party
ISN'T THAT CUTE, HOW THEY NAME THIS GROUP OF THEOCRACY LOVING, RELIGIOUS NUT CASES 'THE FAMILY'. LIKE IT IS SOME GROUP OF REAL SWELL GUYS ! INSTEAD OF A BUNCH OF NAZIS TRYING TO TAKE WOMEN'S AND GAYS RIGHTS AWAY!! SHOULD BE CALLED DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILY! CRAZY FOOLS
Bart Stupak Says He Just Rents a Room at the C Street House, But Actually He's a Member of the Family
Rep. Bart Stupak knows that the first rule of the Family is that you're not allowed to talk about the Family. And the Michigan Democrat's silence has been golden for the secretive group behind the infamous C Street House.
"I don’t belong to any such group," Stupak told reporters during a recent conference call. "I rent a room at a house in C Street. I do not belong to any such group. I don’t know what you’re talking about -- [The] Family and all this other stuff."
Stupak is consistent in his reticence as far back as 2002, when he told the Los Angeles Times, "We sort of don't talk to the press about the house."
But things haven't always been so quiet. The complex, which used to be a convent but now functions as a church that offers housing to Christian congressmen in Washington D.C., gained a great deal of media attention earlier this year, after three lawmaker-residents were marked by separate scandals.
Despite the way the organization rose to prominence in the 1940s by gathering as many influential men into its ranks and prayer circles as possible, the current leaders of what is sometimes referred to by members as The Fellowship and the Christian Mafia have decided their best course of action is to lay low. The Family's leader, Doug Coe, has been widely quoted as telling other evangelical organizations that "the more invisible you can make your organization, the more influence it will have."
"Disputes are raging within the Obama administration over how to continue the US war effort in Afghanistan. A new leak tells us that Washington's ambassador in Kabul, former four-star Gen. Karl Eikenberry, has cautioned against adding more troops while President Hamid Karzai keeps disappointing American policymakers. This is the extent of the current debate within the warfare state.
During a top-level meeting Wednesday afternoon in the White House, The Washington Post reports, President Obama "was given a series of options laid out by military planners with differing numbers of new US deployments, ranging from 10,000 to 40,000 troops. None of the scenarios calls for scaling back the US presence in Afghanistan or delaying the dispatch of additional troops."
No doubt, there are real tactical differences between Eikenberry and the US/NATO commander in Afghanistan, Stanley McChrystal, the ultra-spun, brainy Spartan who wants to boost the current US troop level of 68,000 to well over 100,000 in the war-afflicted country. But those policy disputes exist well within the context of a permanent war psychology.
What's desperately needed is a clear breakaway from that psychology, which routinely offers "kinder, gentler" forms of endless and horrific war. But predictably, in the days and weeks ahead, some progressives - from the grassroots to Capitol Hill - will gravitate toward Eikenberry's stance.
Fine-tuning the US war in Afghanistan is no substitute for acknowledging - with words and with policy - that there will be no military solution. Adjusting the dose and mix of military intervention is a prescription to do more harm on a massive scale.
http://messenger.truthout.org/ss/link.php?M=181559&N=357&C=e5cedf15aa0be2c656f9aa698a4a3404&L=3243
Please listen to Eikenberry, Pres. obama
Sandy,
That piece on Gorbachev was fantastic. raygun had nothing to do with the wall being torn down. Wasn't it the West Germans who took hammers to it and knocked it down.
If bush had been there he would have praised raygun. What an ass.
I heard on the radio news this afternoon that the heritage foundation said that it has cost the federal government $1.5 billion to run Amtrak. The creep said Why do we continue to run Amtrak when it is just used by the little people.
Amtrak has had increasing profits each year until the Great Republican Depression of 2009. Why does the MSM report crap from these people. This group should be banned. It's as bad a pnac.
Doesn't Amtrak have that high-speed train that runs between New York and Washington, DC? Is it the Ocella or something like that?
52
PamB on November 12, 2009 at 05:45 PM
Pam, I don't know WHY those glorified Pug stenographers of the MSM don't realize that her trip to Grand Rapids is to use Gerry Ford as a cover.
The REAL reason she is going there is because Grand Rapids is the home of AmWAY which is owned by the DeVos family which also owns a huge chunk of BLACKWATER.
She is building her Fundie Army.
Pam,
President Obama should pull out just like Gorbachev did. Read Sandy's piece from yesterday evenings open thread. Gorbachev was a great man and risked his political career doing the right thing.
I still have the debate between Gorbachev and raygun on video. I really enjoyed their debate. If I remember correctly, they had audiences in Russia and the US asking each other questions.
Johne, I hope the reason it is taking him so long, is that he is looking for an Exit Strategy.
Russia had ove 100,000 troops in there, and THEY could not win a military victory! WE will not win anything, so why are we throwing away more troop's lives?
It was a failure from the beginning---when Bush pulled out all those troops and shipped them over to Iraq ! Now there are less than 100 AlQaeda in there ! WTF are we fighting? Drug Lords and Taliban? There is not one US boy's life worth it.
bbiab........
johne,
The corporates don't want Amtrak slowing down freight moving raw materials to Asia and then moving the finished products they send back to our markets. How they think Americans are going to be in a position to afford the cost of that freight as products go up in price and our salaries go down is beyond me.
I guess they don't care. They are going to extort as much money as they can from what's left of our economy and then run to Europe to retire with the heads of all the rest of the multinationals...who btw enjoy excellent passenger train service.
How Americans get from one place to another is of no concern to them. They are citizens of the world...more like citizens of the underworld/underbelly of the top 2% of world industrialists. I sure hope the Asians kick their asses real good when the time comes.
If the President wants to hold a forum on jobs, he might as well conduct it in Asia while he's over there, because that's where they all went.
Outsourcing is the only issue that Democrats should be talking about and drafting legislation to end.
Pam,
I think that is what he is doing. He said today that he isn't sure if the Afgan government is a valid government.
A top general said today that we should get the hell out. How many good men and women have we lost in the last month and there are only 100 taliban in the country? Staying is utterly asinine.
PamB on November 12, 2009 at 07:29 PM
Pam,
The Soviets were in Afghanistan ten years. We are fast approaching that benchmark and have less to show for it.
The Taliban hasn't done very well either. After we leave, the real war will begin and they will finally have to hold their own without the invaders holding back the opposition...and massive support from our CIA for that opposition.
Blackwater actually won this war over all the other factions in Afghanistan...the day Spunky gave them all those no-bid war profiteering contracts. And we all know they hirer the cheapest local and foreign laborers.
Sandy,
I heard on progressive radio today that a bill has been introduced in Congress by a DEMOCRAT to outlaw sweat shops, child labor and other abuses in the countries of our trading partners. If they don't outlaw these practices we will not trade with them.
It has been known for years now that tom delay along with a lot of other neocons is invested in sweat shops in American Samoa.
If we had a high speed train across the US it would be very popular. Flying by air sucks these days.
Even our Roadrunner is fast and is far from a high-speed train. It takes about two hours to go between Santa Fe and Belen a distance of 100 miles and costs about nine dollars. It is really sweet.
We took the high speed train between Lyon and Paris in 1998 and it is FAST. Then we caught chunnel train between Paris and London. What a pleasure.
Screw the freights. Didn't the American people pay for all these tracks? I know we gave the railroads millions of acres of land. Maybe we could build a track from Los Angeles and New York using stimulus money. Just think of all the jobs this would create. We could put the tracks alonside the interstate highways or in the median. We already own the land and there is plenty of room in the medians of our freeways.
A job of this magnitude would last for years like some of Roosevelt's super sized jobs. It is mind boggling to think of all the jobs this would create making track, concrete, and all the other materials required then building the engines and cars. This is all providing the materials and trains are manufactured in the US and not Canada or China.
We could pay for it by downsizing our military to where it should be. We would save billions.
johne,
We are never allowed to think big any longer in this country because the conservatives always cry about the cost or taxes. That not really their problem at all. R & D and new ventures are the oil that makes investment work and they don't have a clue how the people who work those miracles think. Risk is alien to them.
The Republicans like to control things. The unknown scares the hell out of them. That someone might come along and start a new industrial or information revolution and they didn't have a stake in it financially terrifies them. The rest of the knuckle draggers are afraid that their god might cut THEM out of any new miracle.
The nation will die a long, slow death if we don't find a way to either circumvent the conservastives or show them how they could be cut in to make a big profit.
I'd like to circumvent them, but it will take a lot of faith in the future. I hope we raised most of our kids with hope and determination. They will need it to pull this country kicking and screaming into the 21st century when many of the conservatives feel secure only in the 19th.
Gotta get dinner on the table. Catch you later.
Good night, everyone.
I just got an email the other day from my insurance company. My auto and home insurance company is United States Automobile Association otherwise known as USAA. They made their services available to all VETERANS now with an honorable discharge. The are rated #1 in Consumer Reports for customer service. They say they can beat 5 out of six companies for price. Check out their website where you can compare policies against one another. One friend emailed me back after I told him. about, them
they saved him $1000 year. This outfit isn't some fly by night joint either. No, I do not receive a commission or anything like tat. I just want other veterans the opportunity to have what I have. Usually when I call them, I am talking to a live person in under a minute.
good evening. it is nice that lou dobbs is gone. he was always a weird crank but he got weirder and weirder....it is possible that now that he is unleashed to go nuts on his radio show he might just become more of a shrill right wing wacko than rush and company. i heard one rant he did awhile ago about obama and it sure sounded nuttier than the anal cyst boy. but it was sweet to see lou get the ax.
Once again the troll and the Gas Bag Pud Nut via Jonah Goldberg's doughy mother are displaying their ignorance.
National anthem Flag Etiquette:
Military in Uniform = Salute at first note and hold it for the duration
Former Military in Uniform = same thing
Military not in Uniform = hand over heart
Retired Military not Uniform = hand over heart
Never been in the Military = Stand erect with hands clasped in front or at the sides.
Haven't you ever been a Boy Scout?
And is THIS all you have?
Chimpy started TWO wars of choice and ignored them when things got rough. He killed the economy, took a surplus and made it into the largest deficit in history and all you can complain about is due solely to your own stupidity and ignorance about things most people are taught when they are 8 years old.
If you or the Pud Nut even bothered to look at that picture you would have seen Secretary of Defense Gates (Retired Military) with his hand over his heart.
Apparently THEY ALL know the rules, and YOU don't because you are an America Hating Pug.
Pres Obama and the democrats were voted in to accomplish at least two things. Stop the war,NOT ESCALATE and provide the nations citizens with National Health Insurance. As of today neither is taking place.
The Public Option is anything but National Health Insurance.... it is however a ton more profit for the industry = failure.
However the battle for National Health Insurance will continue as will the battle for JOBS,PEACE instead of WAR. IF incumbents choose to dump on the tax paying citizens IT IS TIME to dump incumbents. Congress NEEDS new faces NOT more of the same.
National Health Insurance does not remove competition from the actual health care industry. It will be alive and well. Profits will be based on customer service and clinic performance based on the clients experience. This is my perception of competition.
The nations consumers could have excellent National Health insurance for all.if one would remove:
*elected officials as shareholders
*special interest campaign funding
*the insurance industry recklessly spending health care dollars to bribe votes
*the news media offering misinformation ( their large advertising revenue is at stake)
Remember it is the most expensive medical insurance in the world that denies care and/or cancels coverage after taking ones money for years and years. National Health Insurance for All would not allow such arrogance.
A family of four making the median income of $56,200 would pay about $2,700 in payroll tax for all health care costs.
National Health Insurance ends deductibles and co-payments and would save hundreds of billions annually by eliminating the high overhead and profits of the private health insurance industry and HMOs.
National Health Insurance for All (HR 676)
http://www.healthcare-now.org/
Doctors for Single Payer(HR 676)
http://www.pnhp.org/
Unions for HR 676
http://unionsforsinglepayerhr676.org/union_endorsers
Organizations and Government Bodies Endorsing HR 676
http://www.pnhp.org/action/organizations_and_government_bodies_endorsing_hr_676.php
Health Care In the USA
http://www.dollarsandsense.org/healthcare.html
Consumer Reports On Health Care
http://blogs.consumerreports.org/health/health_reform/
Morning Dems......
I have noticed while driving on different highways in the State these last weeks, big signs at Road Construction sites, announcing the work is being done as part of the American Recovery Act of 2009. It makes me feel good that those dollars are being used to create jobs here. Plus, it is work that has been needed for a long time. CT has some really bad stretches of highway. Our Republican Governor has always decided that she needed to build up our 'rainy day fund' more than she needed to fix anything in this state. Luckily she has announced she will not run again next year.
FINALLY-----WE CAN GET THESE GUYS TRIED, FRIED, AND THEN CLOSE UP GITMO, AS OBAMA PROMISED !!
AP Source: Gitmo 9/11 suspects to NY for trial
WASHINGTON – Self-proclaimed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other Guantanamo Bay detainees will be sent to New York to face trial in a civilian federal court, an Obama administration official said Friday.
The official said Attorney General Eric Holder plans to announce the decision later in the morning.
The official is not authorized to discuss the decision before the announcement, so spoke on condition of anonymity.
Bringing such notorious suspects to U.S. soil to face trial is a key step in President Barack Obama's plan to close the terror suspect detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Obama initially planned to close the detention center by Jan. 22, but the administration is no longer expected to meet that deadline.
Why those dirty little RNC employees have been having their abortions paid for all this time !
GOP chairman ends abortion insurance for employees
WASHINGTON – A chagrined GOP Chairman Michael Steele has told Republican National Committee staff to immediately stop providing RNC employees with insurance for elective abortions — an option that Republicans strongly oppose as Democrats try to pass a health care overhaul bill.
"Money from our loyal donors should not be used for this purpose," Steele said in a statement late Thursday after learning of the abortion coverage from a news report. "I don't know why this policy existed in the past, but it will not exist under my administration. Consider this issue settled."
Steele instructed staff to inform the insurance carrier that the RNC wanted to opt out of elective abortion coverage, RNC spokeswoman Gail Gitcho said. She said the policy has been in effect since 1991.
Now if only Forbes had run this award when Chimpy was in office-----but named it the Most Despised and disrespected peope in the world, The Chimp would have been on it for sure !
Obama tops Forbes list of world's most powerful people
SINGAPORE (Reuters Life!) – U.S. President Barack Obama can add another accolade to his already long list of awards after being named the world's most powerful person in an inaugural ranking by Forbes magazine.
Obama, whose popularity at home and abroad has boosted the image of the United States according to numerous surveys, topped the list that also features al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and TV talk show host Oprah Winfrey as people wielding some influence over the world.
In compiling the inaugural ranking, Forbes said it had narrowed the list to 67 people, "a number based on the conceit that one can reduce the world's 6.7 billion people to the one in every 100 million that matter."
"The goal in compiling this list is to expose power and not glorify it, and over time reveal how influence is as easily lost as it is hard to gain," the magazine said.
World and industry leaders dominated the top 10 of the list, which Forbes said was assessed on the number of people the person influences, their ability to project power beyond their immediate sphere of influence, their control of financial resources and how actively that person wields power.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091112/lf_nm_life/us_powerful_list
And Fox gets so upset when they are told they are NOT Fair and Balanced !!!!!!!!
Did Fox News alter footage of a conservative rally?
"The Daily Show" host Jon Stewart pointed out inconsistencies in alternating "Hannity Show" shots of a recent conservative rally on the steps of the Capitol Building. This has led to accusations of Fox News splicing video footage shot at a larger Glenn Beck rally held in Washington two months ago with video shot at last week's rally, thus falsifying footage to make the more recent protest appear bigger than it was.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/20091111/ts_ynews/ynews_ts977
Now WHY do they have to do this, anyways????
From Palin's book-----and McCain and his aides say this is an absolute LIE!!!
"And she says that most of her legal bills were generated defending what she called frivolous ethics complaints, but she reveals that about one-tenth of the $500,000 was a bill she received to pay for the McCain campaign vetting her for the VP nod.
She said when she asked the McCain campaign if it would help her financially, she was told McCain's camp would have paid all the bills if he'd won; since he lost, the vetting legal bills were her responsibility
109
PamB on November 13, 2009 at 07:40 AM
Pam, Focus on the Family does too.
Since those hypocrites want to overturn Roe, and since Roe was a PRIVACY CASE, we should demand to see the names of ALL the Pugs and Focus zombies who have had abortions.
Oh, Gawd, How I would LOVE to be the Claims Rep at CIGNA who serviced the RNC employee's claims, or the one who did Focus on the Family's.
The hypocritical Republicans and Fake Christians make me sick. There was this from Commoon Dreams a while back:
"The contradictions between the anti-abortion rhetoric and political reality have been glaring. Republicans who talked about the sanctity of life in the wake of Roe v Wade also supported the Vietnam War. Reagan may have rushed to the defense of the fetus, but he also cut social programs to lower-income families, including access to health care. Many ardent pro-life Republicans have also supported the death penalty. As the Massachusetts Democrat Barney Frank said: "For Republicans, life begins at conception and ends at birth.
Don't know if you ever read this one, and although it is a long read, it very clearly shows what Hypocrites and phonys the Religious Right Wing is!!! Written by Abortion Doctors.
Run it off and read at your leisure:
"The Only Moral Abortion is My Abortion"
When the Anti-Choice Choose
Good morning Doo-Bee, Pam, and all.
TOP OF THE MORNING TO YOU.
On this Friday the 13th.
CHUCKLE:
Lou Dobbs, August 14:
"It's just killing the left wing in this country that they can't force CNN to fire me. "
Lou Dobbs, today:
.............
the big news is that lou dobbs just landed a new job in a diorama at the metropolitan museum of natural history playing a neanderthal in the mastodon exhibit!! you go lou!
Published: Friday, 13 Nov 2009 | 8:37 AM ET
The U.S. trade deficit widened in September by an unexpectedly large 18.2 percent, the most in more than 10 years, as oil prices rose for the seventh straight month and imports from China bounded higher, a U.S. government report showed on Friday.
A separate report showed non-oil import prices up 0.7 percent.
The monthly trade gap grew to $36.5 billion, from a slightly revised estimate of $30.8 billion in August. Wall Street analyst had expected the shortfall to grow modestly in September to around $31.65 billion.
Both U.S. exports and imports had their best month since December 2008. But in a sign of renewed U.S. economic growth, imports grew 5.8 percent in September, the biggest monthly gain since March 1993, while exports rose 2.9 percent.
Imports of industrial supplies and materials showed the biggest gain, suggesting that U.S. manufacturers are ramping up for production.
The average price for imported oil leapt to $68.17 per barrel and imports from the Organization of Petroleum Export Countries increased to $11.9 billion in September, both the highest since November 2008.
The closely watched U.S. trade deficit with China widened 9.2 percent to $22.1 billion as imports grew 8.3 percent to $27.9 billion, both also the highest since November 2008.
The overall U.S. trade deficit, including with China, has fallen significantly this year in response to the worst economic downturn in decade.
But the gap with China narrowed just 15.9 percent in the first nine months of the year, compared with much bigger declines for Canada (79.6 percent), the European Union (42.0 percent) and OPEC (71.8 percent).
That has reinforced ideas that China's currency remains overvalued against the dollar, giving Chinese companies an unfair trade advantage.
President Obama is expected to raise concerns about China's exchange rate regime when he meets with Chinese leaders next week in Beijing. On Friday he was in Japan for talks before heading to Singapore for this weekend's annual summit meeting with leaders of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.
With U.S. unemployment the highest in 26 years, Obama has said he would press for a rebalancing of world economic growth where countries in Asia would open their markets to more American goods and rely less on exports to the United States and more on their own domestic demand.
Import Prices Higher
U.S. import prices rose for the third straight month in October, pushed up by a jump in the cost of fuel imports and the depreciating dollar, a government report showed.
The Labor Department said import prices advanced 0.7 percent after a revised 0.2 percent increase in September that was previously reported as a 0.1 percent gain. However, the increase in import prices was below market expectations for a 1.0 percent rise.
The price of fuel imports jumped 1.8 percent after declining 1.5 percent in September, while the cost of non-fuel imports rose 0.4 percent last month, reflecting the U.S. dollar's sharp depreciation.
So far this year, the dollar has lost about 7 percent of its value against a basket of major currencies.
However, overall import prices were down 5.7 percent compared to October last year, pointing to muted inflation pressure even as the economy grows after the most brutal U.S. recession in 70 years.
The Labor Department report also showed prices for U.S. exports rose 0.3 percent in October, a touch above market expectations for a 0.2 percent increase, after falling 0.2 percent the previous month.
Prices for agricultural exports fell 1.0 percent, while those for nonagricultural exports rose 0.3 percent. Compared to October last year, export prices were down 3.4 percent
Good morning, all.
Doo-Bee-Doo-Bee-Doo on November 13, 2009 at 08:20 AM
DPD,
But that would be admitting they have sex and all their pregnancies aren't immaculate conceptions.
We all know that conservative men only have sex with their wives for procreation purposes (who they mainly marry for maid services and/or money) or with their prostitute or mistress (whose value they respect a lot more).
It's right there in their bible under King Solomon and David who had loads of concubines. These fundie doorknobs all think they are kings in the eyes of the Lord…or at least in the eyes of women, whom they feel their have a right to abuse and and exploit.
This woman needs to get to work.
bbl.
Castellanos Whacks Crist, Questions Palin's Appeal
One of the Republican Party's most respected and relied-upon consultants has serious reservations about two the party's biggest names.
Alex Castellanos, a conservative media strategist and regular presence on CNN, raised questions of Sarah Palin's viability for office and took major swipes at Florida Senate candidate Charlie Crist during an appearance at Bloomberg News' Washington Summit Thursday.
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Sam Stein stein@huffingtonpost.com | HuffPost Reporting Become a Fan Get Email Alerts from this Reporter Castellanos Whacks Crist, Questions Palin's Appeal
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First Posted: 11-13-09 08:59 AM | Updated: 11-13-09 09:24 AM
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Share Print CommentsOne of the Republican Party's most respected and relied-upon consultants has serious reservations about two the party's biggest names.
Alex Castellanos, a conservative media strategist and regular presence on CNN, raised questions of Sarah Palin's viability for office and took major swipes at Florida Senate candidate Charlie Crist during an appearance at Bloomberg News' Washington Summit Thursday.
But Castellanos wasn't done throwing haymakers at fellow Republicans. Asked if former Gov. Sarah Palin, about to embark on a book tour, was she the future of the GOP, Castellanos was skeptical.
"[She's a] fascinating character and that is what the news loves to play," Castellanos observed. "I think [Obama] is stopping by Alaska as he begins this week-long trip to Asia. I don't think he is going to announce that he is resigning from politics," he said, in reference to Palin's abrupt resignation from office.
"I think it is going to be very tough for Sarah Palin, who has stepped back from the governorship under the explanation that her state would be better off without her, to now explain why the other 49 states would somehow be better off with her," he concluded.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/13/castellanos-whacks-crist_n_356601.html
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