Saxby Won, America Looks Forward to More Filibusters and Obstruction

Republicans can celebrated a resounding win by Sen. Saxby Chambliss as a win for the Senate "filibuster," a ploy the Republicans vilified when the Democrats threatened to use it to block their crazy legislation. Now conservatives have a chance to prevent the country from moving forward and progressing out of they hole they put us in. That preventive measure will prove the Democrats can't pass legislation or govern, and believe it or not, the public will again fall for it hook line and sinker.

Chambliss portrayed himself as a firewall against Democrats in Washington getting a blank check. Chambliss seems to think the overwhelming win by Obama was a vote for obstruction and economic tinkering, leaving alone the free market freefall and crisis to work itself out.

"You have delivered a message that a balance in government in Washington is necessary and that's not only what the people of Georgia want, it's what the people of America want."

That’s right, the people of American voted in, a majority of Democrats to Congress and the White House because they wanted more of the same roadblocks and filibusters to get in the way of digging us out of the hole the party of carnival barkers have got us into.



You've got to be tired of the same old rhetoric...

Chambliss: "What you're gonna see is a lot of liberal judges, activist judges goin on the bench.."

Like that's any worse than having conservative activist judges "goin'" on the bench.

Chambliss: "I think you're gonna see a universal health care plan that'll take away the right of people to choose their physician, that they'll want to go to get treatment from..."

Think about it for a second; we're talking UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE, meaning you've got coverage everywhere you go in the country, any doctor you choose in your plan or any doctor nationwide in a government plan. How can you NOT choose your doctor? How can they say you won't be able to choose your doctor when most insurance plans already tell you who you can or cannot see? I AM TIRED OF THE BULLS**T!

It's time we move past the party of partisan dinosaurs.

Last minute chaos from Bush

Taking a page from Bill Maher’s “new rules” bit, Bush has decided to make the Obama administration spin its wheels for sometime to come with regulations so irresponsible, it would be hard for any normal human being not to be appalled. If Democrats were smart, they would summarize the following list into a talking point and marketing plan to forever keep the Republican Party back on its heels. According to the Washington Post:

In a burst of activity meant to leave a lasting stamp on the federal government, the Bush White House in the past month has approved 61 new regulations … will have an economic impact exceeding $1.9 billion annually.

A new rule would ease constraints on environmentally damaging oil shale development throughout the West.

Regulation inhibiting the ability of Congress to halt logging, mining, and oil and gas extraction on public lands.

The White House on Tuesday approved a final rule that will make it easier for coal companies to dump rock and dirt from mountaintop mining operations into nearby streams and valleys.

Another rule would allow federal agencies to proceed with development projects without undergoing independent scientific review under the Endangered Species Act.

A new Health and Human Services rule cuts an estimated $2 billion in state Medicaid reimbursements for outpatient services. State officials had complained that it would jeopardize dental care for children, certain lab tests and speech and occupational therapy.

A controversial Justice Department rule approved Nov. 19 orders accelerated judicial review for death sentences. Legal groups had argued that speeding up executions makes errors more likely.

L.A. Times-

A broad new "right of conscience" rule permitting medical facilities, doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other healthcare workers to refuse to participate in any procedure they find morally objectionable, including abortion and possibly even artificial insemination and birth control. The new rule would go further by making clear that healthcare workers also may refuse to provide information or advice to patients who might want an abortionin addition to a surgeon and a nurse in an operating room, the rule would extend to an employee whose task it is to clean the instruments. It will protect doctors who do not wish to prescribe birth control or to provide artificial insemination. Critics of the rule say it will sacrifice patients' health to the religious beliefs of providers.

Thinkprogress.org-

New Source Review changes. The rule would change the Environmental Protection Agency’s New Source Review program, which requires new facilities or renovating facilities to install better pollution-control technology, by making fewer facilities subject to its requirements.

NY TImes-Factory farms could let their runoff pollute waterways without a permit. (The rule circumvents the Clean Water Act, allowing for self-regulation.)

Another rule would exempt factory farms from reporting air pollution emissions from animal waste.

A new rule that would make it much harder for the government to regulate toxic substances and hazardous chemicals to which workers are exposed on the job. The rule…has strong support from business groups.

Rules that didn’t make it (but the intent was there): ordered the Energy Department to kill new regulations that would have forced the federal government to buy more-energy-efficient lights, appliances, and heating and cooling systems.

The White House also ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to withdraw a new regulation mandating that truck manufacturers install equipment to monitor vehicle pollution.

It blocked the Department of Veterans Affairs from issuing new promised "user-friendly" guidance on burial and survivors benefits.

Great Wienerschnitzel Hot Dog Ad. Did They Actually Play the Ad on TV?

This ad for the hot dog restaurant Wienerschnitzel may stir up some interesting teenage fantasies. But there's one problem...

...good luck finding an animated talking hot dog. To catch a predator take-off and at work harassment ads follow.

Obama Foreign Con Man? Republicans Were Right

I was wrong. My wacky born again conservative friend in Milwaukee warned me about Barack Obama’s citizenship, and I laughed in his face. It looks like he’s having... the last laugh. According to reliable sources at the Onion:

International Con Man Barack Obama Leaves U.S. With $85 Million In Campaign Fundraising. In a devastating blow to millions of unsuspecting Americans, newly elected president and international con man Barack Obama fled the country Wednesday with nearly $85 million in campaign funds. In addition, three unconscious Secret Service agents were discovered at the scene, along with two lit cigarettes still burning in an ashtray, and Obama's daughters, who authorities now believe were taken from an Alabama foster home six years ago.

The only item found inside the metal safe was a letter, handwritten with a fountain pen and titled "An Explanation, My Dears."

"To my tender little pawns, the all-too-trusting people of America," said FBI lead investigator Ray Hilland, quoting the letter at a press conference Wednesday. "If you are reading this, then I have already left your silly country in my private jet, and am right now sipping fine champagne with my lovely associate, a woman you have come to know as 'Michelle.'" "I assure you, this was the most pleasurable and fulfilling con I have ever pulled off," the note continued. "Not since the Moroccan elections in 1984 have I taken so much joy in raising, and then crushing, the hopes and dreams of so many pathetic, disenfranchised, and downtrodden people."

Everyday Americans, whom Obama referred to as "so many unwitting chess pieces in my elaborate game," also expressed shock Wednesday. "I'm devastated," Pennsylvania resident and Obama donor Denise Bell told reporters. "I just hope he comes back soon so he can be our president."

We can only hope.

Finally, Economic Braniacs finally Admit, It's the Recession Stupid.

CNBC discussed the revelation that we’ve been in a recession since December 2007.

I've also included part of Ben Bernanke speech to business leaders in Austin, Tex., where he admits there is still a problem with companies being too big to fail. He suggests regulation as a possible solution and one he thinks "might" be enough to manage their size. Below the video is a NY Times piece dealing with the recession, throwing in a few more of the gory details.



The United States economy officially sank into a recession last December, which means that the downturn is already longer than the average for all recessions since World War II, according to the committee of economists responsible for dating the nation’s business cycles. In declaring that the economy has been in a downturn for almost 12 months, the National Bureau of Economic Research confirmed what many Americans had already been feeling in their bones.

But private forecasters warned that this downturn was likely to set a new postwar record for length and likely to be more painful than any recession since 1980 and 1981.

“We will rewrite the record book on length for this recession,” said Allen Sinai, president of Decision Economics in Lexington, Mass. the Dow Jones industrial average plunged nearly 680 points,

Bush Ideologues Ignored Wall Street Warnings. Remember When they Ignored the Presidential Daily Briefing...

I’m not going to throw my two cents in on the following story, except to say it defines the last eight years of conservative ideology. When you read the responses of Wall Street know-it-alls, is it any wonder we are in the economic crisis of our lifetimes. When you see the Grover Norquist’s of the world continue to push their failed philosophy without the slightest adjustment to many of its shortcomings, that should tell you something. MSNBC’s “Bush administration ignored clear warnings” says it all:

The Bush administration backed off proposed crackdowns on no-money-down, interest-only mortgages years before the economy collapsed, buckling to pressure from some of the same banks that have now failed. It ignored remarkably prescient warnings that foretold the financial meltdown, according to an Associated Press review of regulatory documents.

"Expect fallout, expect foreclosures, expect horror stories," California mortgage lender Paris Welch wrote to U.S. regulators in January 2006, about one year before the housing implosion cost her a job. "These mortgages have been considered more safe and sound for portfolio lenders than many fixed rate mortgages," David Schneider, home loan president of Washington Mutual, told federal regulators in early 2006. Two years later, WaMu became the largest bank failure in U.S. history.

By the time new rules were released late in 2006, the toughest of the proposed provisions were gone and the meltdown was under way. The proposal reads like a list of what-ifs:

Regulators told bankers exotic mortgages were often inappropriate for buyers with bad credit.

Banks would have been required to increase efforts to verify that buyers actually had jobs and could afford houses.

Regulators proposed a cap on risky mortgages so a string of defaults wouldn't be crippling. Banks that bundled and sold mortgages were told to be sure investors knew exactly what they were buying.

Those proposals all were stripped from the final rules. None required congressional approval or the president's signature.

The administration's blind eye to the impending crisis is emblematic of a philosophy that trusted market forces and discounted the need for government intervention in the economy. Its belief ironically has ushered in the most massive government intervention since the 1930s. Many of the banks that fought to undermine the proposals by some regulators are now either out of business or accepting billions in federal aid to recover from a mortgage crisis they insisted would never come. Many executives remain in high-paying jobs, even after their assurances were proved false.

Federal regulators were especially concerned about mortgages known as "option ARMs," which allow borrowers to make payments so low that mortgage debt actually increases every month. But banking executives accused the government of overreacting. Bankers said such loans might be risky when approved with no money down or without ensuring buyers have jobs but such risk could be managed without government intervention.

"An open market will mean that different institutions will develop different methodologies for achieving this goal," Joseph Polizzotto, counsel to now-bankrupt Lehman Brothers, told U.S. regulators in a March 2006. Countrywide Financial Corp., at the time the nation's largest mortgage lender, agreed. The proposal "appears excessive and will inhibit future innovation in the marketplace," said Mary Jane Seebach, managing director of public affairs.

One of the most contested rules said that before banks purchase mortgages from brokers, they should verify the process to ensure buyers could afford their homes. Some bankers now blame much of the housing crisis on brokers who wrote fraudulent, predatory loans. But in 2006, banks said they shouldn't have to double-check the brokers.

"It is not our role to be the regulator for the third-party lenders," wrote Ruthann Melbourne, chief risk officer of IndyMac Bank. California-based IndyMac also criticized regulators for not recognizing the track record of interest-only loans and option ARMs, which accounted for 70 percent of IndyMac's 2005 mortgage portfolio. This summer, the government seized IndyMac and will pay an estimated $9 billion to ensure customers don't lose their deposits.

Last week, Downey Savings joined the growing list of failed banks. The problem: About 52 percent of its mortgage portfolio was tied up in risky option ARMs, which in 2006 Downey insisted were safe — maybe even safer than traditional 30-year mortgages. "To conclude that 'nontraditional' equates to higher risk does not appropriately balance risk and compensating factors of these products," said Lillian Gavin, the bank's chief credit officer.

Congress is considering further tightening, including some of the same proposals abandoned years ago.

A Look Back: Jonathan Turley and John Dean Weighing in on Bush and the Republicans

Here are two interesting views of the Bush presidency and Republican Congress.

Jonathan Turley was beside himself after Bush deep sixed Habeas Corpus, and who could blame him.



Keith Olberman let John Dean, author of Broken Government, take off on his own party for its authoritarian way of governing. He's one of the few to state unequivocally the Republican Congress failed to check the Bush administration, allowing it to go off the tracks, even aiding and abetting one disastrous policy after the next.

Cardinal Threatens Obama, Calls Him "Aggresive, Disruptive and Apocalyptic"

The Catholic Church's extremist positions and authoritarian edicts should be enough for many members to switch religious affiliations. Wouldn't it be strange if Lutherans, or any religious denomination, to advertised their value system to fill up their pews with new parishioners?

Vatican Cardinal James Stafford, without consequence from Catholics everywhere, was able to say, "His (Obama) rhetoric is post-modernist, and marks an agenda and vision that are aggressive, disruptive and apocalyptic ... what should we do with our hot, angry tears of betrayal?" Some might consider it a requested threat to the president elect. The Cardinal tries to sidestep the "hit" by saying, like most conservatives, the comment was taken out of context. He assumes we're all idiots and idol worshippers. He also says he stands by his comments. Can he have it both ways. Only to his followers it would appear.



Rev. Carlton, who has had his own run ins with authority, had this to say about the age old problem with the Roman Catholic religion.



Enough said.

Who is the "Angry Left?"

While cleaning out all the news clips piling up on my computer I came across this gem from the owner of Sinclair Broadcasting, Mark Hyman, on his explanation of the "angry left." Some of the more comedic moments include a shot at "nutty academics" and "so many (liberals) hope that only tradgety befalls our service men and women." Truly surreal.

Bill Collectors A Part of Republican Health Care System

The obvious answer to fixing health care in the U.S. is a single payer system, culling from the best plans around world, and making it our own. But strong ideological opposition from the Republicans has so far managed to destroy lives, bankrupt families and wipe out the middle class under a sea of high premiums and bills.

The conservative answer is break up large groups of buyers, put everyone out on their own into the market place, and shop till you litterly drop from your illness. They would also do away with regulation, letting the buyer beware. If you make a bad decision, you have only yourself to blame, so stop whining. But while free marketers distract everyone with the promise of people "making their own decisions," insurance companies and providers are also making their own decisions on how to maximize profits and lessen their risks with patients.

Watch this horror story from Bill Moyers Journal about hospitals dumping patients with late health care bills into the market place of bill collecting, with interest. This is a glance into the future of patient care; paying your bills even when you may never be able to and destroying a persons credit rating. All because you got sick. And this is just the beginning of shifting the burden onto the needy.

Eve Bunting's "The Wall," IncredibleTribute to Vietnam Veterans Memorial

When my son and I were watching PBS's Reading Rainbow one day five years ago, I found myself sad and shaken by their reading of "The Wall," by Eve Bunting. I'm tearing up just typing in the below quote from the School Library Journal.



From School Library Journal:

Grade 1-4-- A boy and his father have come to the Vietnam War Memorial to look for the boy's grandfather's name among those who were killed in the war. They find his name surrounded, but far from lost, in the rows of print that "march side by side, like rows of soldiers." "I'm proud that your grandfather's name is on this wall," says the boy's father. The boy agrees, adding, "but I'd rather have my grandpa here."

Right Wing Four Year Talking Point: Obama not a Citizen

I rarely deal in tin foil hat conspiracies churned by the right wing nut press and blogs, for reasons that are obvious. Yet the issue here has touched me personally: My old best friend and conservative born again, is yabbering about it now incessantly, calling me at least twice a day to see what I might have turned up in my research.

Not only is the following down the rabbit hole, and crazy to boot, it’s funny as well. So enjoy this “news” story from the conservative voice, the Sonoran News, whatever the hell that is.

Foreign national certified as presidential candidate: On Wednesday, Nov. 19, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas distributed Leo C. Denofrio’s renewed application for a stay of the election for conference on Dec. 5. If four of the nine justices favor review, a hearing will be scheduled. His first application was denied by Justice David Souter on Nov. 6. However, rules of the court allow for the renewed submission to a justice of choice.

Beginning in October, Denofrio made his way up through the ranks of the courts until his constitutional question as to the meaning of “natural born citizen” reached the Supreme Court.

He submitted an application for an emergency stay to prohibit the use of what he called “defective ballots” in the state of New Jersey because they contained ineligible candidates for the office of President of the United States, and asked that the court order New Jersey Secretary of State (SOS) Nina Mitchell Wells to remove the names of Republican candidate John McCain, Democratic candidate Barack Obama and Socialist Workers Party candidate Roger Calero from New Jersey ballots.

According to Denofrio, the three candidates are not “natural born citizens,” as required by the Constitution to hold the office of President of the United States.

I know, it’s crazy over the top stuff, but this is what you get when you go deep into the upside down thinking of people who still believe there’s a war on Christmas and Democrats are aiding the terrorists. Now for the "facts," as they’re presented by Denofrio:

Denofrio contends Obama, even if it were proven he was born in Hawaii, because his father was born in Kenya, having been born with split and competing loyalties, is not a ‘natural born citizen’ as required by Article 2, Section 1, of the U.S. Constitution.” The Naturalization Act of 1790 stated, “… the children of citizens of the United States that may be born beyond Sea, or out of the limits of the United States, shall be considered as natural born Citizens ...” However, Denofrio points out the Naturalization Act of 1795 specifically repealed the 1790 act and replaced it with the same clause except with the words “natural born” deleted.

Denofrio states, “McCain is in the class of citizens who obtain their citizenship at birth, but not from the Constitution, but rather federal statute.” The Foreign Affairs Manual also addresses the issue of eligibility for president as such: “It has never been determined definitively by a court whether a person who acquired U.S. citizenship by birth abroad to U.S. citizens is a natural born citizen within the meaning of Article II of the Constitution and, therefore, eligible for the Presidency.”

This isn’t the first time someone has tried to use this Act to discriminate against political parties. Who could forget the Aliens and Sedition Act or:

The Naturalization Act of 1798 permits Federalist President John Adams to deport foreigners deemed to be dangerous and increases the residency requirements to 14 years to prevent immigrants, who predominantly voted for the Republican Party, from becoming citizens. In 1802: The Jefferson Administration revises the Naturalization Act of 1798 by reducing the residency requirement from 14 to five years-Harvard.edu

Oh, and who’s Leo C. Denofrio: He retired his license to practice law to become a professional poker player. Picture above.

Republican Medicaid Solution: Some Will Die But Government Will Definitely Save Some Money

Cutting the cost of federal programs like Medicaid only shifts the cost to the individual. Who seriously believes this cost shifting solves the problem of health care or saves money? The Bush administration, that’s who. Behold the cold hard facts from the NY Times:

A new federal rule gives states sweeping authority to charge premiums and higher co-payments for doctors’ services, hospital care and prescription drugs provided to low-income people under Medicaid. The rule is expected to save money for the federal government and the states … But public health experts and even some federal officials predicted that many low-income people would delay or forgo care because of the higher charges. Many Medicaid recipients have chronic illnesses, use numerous prescription drugs and frequently visit doctors, so the burden of even modest co-payments can become substantial.

Are the experts right?

The administration acknowledged that “some individuals may choose to delay or forgo care rather than pay their cost-sharing obligations.”

Sounds like a “difficult but necessary” decision from the Republican administration. So some people lose, excluding fertilized eggs, and die a painful unnecessary death. Their grieving families will understand.

David P. Sloane, senior vice president of AARP, said, “Denying necessary care to people who are unable to pay is unconscionable,” as well as fiscally unwise.

But will it save money?

Public health experts said such delays could cause serious health problems, requiring more expensive care at a later date. But Jeff Nelligan, a spokesman for the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said: This rule gives states more tools to help slow spending growth, while maintaining needed coverage.

Here’s the breakdown: Medicaid recipients will pay more than $1.3 billion in co-payments over five years, and the federal government will save $1.4 billion, while states will save $1.1 billion. The savings would result not only from the collection of co-payments, but also from reduced use of services.

That’s right, the federal and state governments will save money from the reduction of service, the ones people will forgo or won’t be able to pay for. This is the Republican free market plan for health care. You’ve heard it before, “The co-payments will help Medicaid recipients become “more educated and efficient health care consumers,” the administration said.”

Oh sure, being forced to pay money you don’t have to become a more educated consumer about a system that changes the rules every year, in legaleze only a lawyer could decipher. What could go wrong?

The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that 13 million low-income people, about a fifth of Medicaid recipients, will face new or higher co-payments. Most of the savings result from “decreased use of services,” it said.

Needy people are desperate and frightened. So who holds all the power? Another example of Republicans preying on helplessness.

The Bush Rogues Gallery 2001-2008

As we close out the Bush administration, an undisputed nightmare, wouldn't it be fun to look back on just how criminal the last eight years were? Now we can.

Rachel Maddow pleasantly reminds us with her "rogues gallery" list of Republican hypocrites and lawbreakers.

Remember this: The Republicans cannot deny the Bush years ever existed by replacing it with their own reality, and they cannot escape the inconvenient truth that Bush was the worst president in history. It's a legacy they will have learned nothing from.

It’s Okay to Be a Partisan Republican Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice. Gableman Zealotry out of Closet

As the right wing tears into the justice system for “legislating from the bench,” it has been not so quietly taking charge of that system so it can legislate from the bench and interpret law their way. And, like running for political office, lying is a justifiable means to an end. Enter Justice Michael Gableman. According to the Wisconsin State Journal:

No other Wisconsin judge has faced the ethics violations now confronting Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman … no judge has ever faced Judicial Commission allegations that he or she made false statements about an opponent. Gableman has indicated he will fight the accusation on First Amendment grounds … If he maintains that position throughout the proceedings, that could mean he would have to answer questions under oath.

Am I being just a partisan blogger, going after a conservative Justice? Read this from the Capital Times Online:

If there was any question as to where newly elected Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman stands on abortion or, for that matter, on a host of other social issues, his choice of attorney should provide some clues. Gableman, who is facing charges that he violated the Wisconsin Judicial Code of Conduct during his spring race against incumbent Justice Louis Butler, is being represented by prominent Republican attorney James Bopp Jr. who serves as counsel to the National Right to Life Committee and the James Madison Center for Free Speech.

A lead partner in the Terre Haute, Ind., law firm of Bopp, Coleson & Bostrom, Bopp has become a familiar figure in national conservative battles. He recently represented Wisconsin Right to Life, the state's leading anti-abortion group, in its successful effort to rein in the scope of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law, which was intended to regulate the disclosure of political money, especially close to an election.

Opposing campaign finance laws has, in fact, become a specialty of Bopp's. According to his columnist bio, Bopp has "argued numerous campaign finance cases in defense of pro-life, pro-family, conservative and Republican Party groups, including four cases in the U.S. Supreme Court."

Wisconsin’s Supreme Court is a sad partisan joke, to say the least. The last two conservative Justices took their jobs under a cloud of ethics problems. We have another election coming up, and already the Republican candidate has accused his liberal opponent of “legislating from the bench,” as if he wouldn't.

Republicans are attempting to break down the legal glue that holds this country together, replacing it with a promise that they'll take care of us when the time is right, and you're at your most desperate. Of course, there will never be a "right time" to help, and that's the beauty of a small do nothing government of elitist conservative ideologues.

Thank You John McCain! Palin, like the Bush Years, Will Be Haunting Us For Years

Krauthammer Believes (hopes?) Obama WIll Be Crushed by Lobbyists

Fox News' Charles Krauthammer thinks everyone is as corrupt and power hungry as Republicans. Despite running against power and influence, Barack Obama won't be able to resist being bribed. Krauthammer ignores Newt Gingrich's K-Street project and shutters at the thought that lobbying is now "life and death" in Washington. It will be "the greatest lobbying effort and frenzy," "an explosion of lobbying." Hey Chucky, who made it like that?

Four years from now, he can say "you were warned."

What if the Right Wing Bizarro's Were Right About Obama?

Check out the rest at Salon.

Make this A Power Steering Fluid Christmas

Have you ever found yourself zoning out during the commercial breaks, waiting patiently for your show to return, when suddenly you realize something strange just happened. This is an ad that struck me "strange," considering these tough economic times, when you know most families are finding it hard to make ends meet. What do you reach for in times of need...power steering fluid leak stopper.



Hey, sometimes you've got to advertise to get noticed.

We are Watching the Historic Mother of All U.S. Bailouts.

The fiscally conservative Bush Administration are racking up dollars spent on a historical level. In this clip, Rachel Maddow puts in perspective the money spent on U.S. disasters. At least Bush and the Republican Congress are on the right list of debacles.