Justice Roberts still trying to figure out his "pager." Scalia stumped on texting.

Dylan Ratigan noticed how horrifically out of touch our supreme court justices were when it came to the tech age. This is extremely bad news for those expecting our justices to navigate the anticipated advances in technology and how that will affect future law .

Justice Roberts asked what the difference was between an email and a pager. Oh my god...pager?

GM Expecting to Pay Off Government Loan. Still a Bad Idea Republicans?

Ed Schultz takes a bow touting the GM loan payoff. After all, if the Republicans had their tough love way, GM and Chrysler would be gone. 240,000 workers kept their jobs. Of course, we could have had just Toyota and Honda building cars in the deep south with all the profits going out of the country.

Oh well, "government motors" is back on its feet employing Americans. Only the GOP could see something wrong with that.

Rep. Blackburn Receives Hail of Criticism For Lying on Meet the Press

Rep. Marsha Blackburn tries like hell to get away with lying on Meet the Press, but even David Gregory had to jump in to correct her. Reporter Ron Brownstein discredited everything Marsha tried to push.

If the media had been this attentive during health care reform, we wouldn't have had to even think about "death panels" past the first day of Palin's idiotic declaration.

I'm Tired of the Republicans Telling ME What the People Want. Stop it! Stop it NOW!

I've been waiting to put together a good video clip to demonstrate this tired one liner from the GOP, "the people don't want this," but haven't come up with a compilation yet. Too much work in the edit room.

Suffice it to say, these authoritarians dictators would love to tell us what the American people "want" and "don't want," but they can't speak for everyone.

So please stop it. It's driving me mad.

HUNDREDS Showed up at Gun Rallies near Capital! The Failure to Attrack More Gun Nuts Ignored.

So what if they held a protest and no one came? That was a question from the 60's that came to mind after I read this ABC News story:

Carrying loaded pistols and unloaded rifles, DOZENS of gun-rights activists got as close as they could Monday to the nation's capital while still bearing arms and delivered what they said was a simple message: Don't tread on me. HUNDREDS of like-minded but unarmed counterparts carried out a separate rally in the nation's capital. Daniel Almond ... organized the "Restore the Constitution" rally in Virginia."

After watching the extensive media coverage of the approaching gun rallies, only a few hundred showed up? It should make the ones who did attend think a little bit harder about how crazy they really look to Americans.

Departing planes frequently drowned out speakers, and reporters nearly outnumbered rally participants. Wes Wdzieczny of Essex, Md., said people are unduly alarmed if they see rallies like these as promoting violence.

I don't know about you, but when I extrapolate out what our country might look like in 10 or 20 years, I can't help but think of third world countries where armed civilians walk around with rifles hanging over their shoulders and guns dangling from their hips. But gun toting advocates always point to the Swiss open carry laws, but is that really such a great example?

ABC.net: Police are hunting for a gang of 10 machine-gun and pistol-toting thieves who made off with hundreds of thousands of dollars from a Swiss casino.

Or…

Washington Post: A gunman stalked through three villages in southern Switzerland, shooting residents as they answered their doorbells and killing six people in one of the worst mass murders in the country's history.

Of course once you limit the second amendment rights of citizens to bear arms, who knows where that will lead us:

National Review: In the Nineties, Britain banned guns - and found … instead of shooting each other, Britons started stabbing each other - to the point where makers of school uniforms now offer them in Kevlar. So naturally the government began cracking down on knives.

What gun story is complete without mentioning the poster guy himself, Mike Vanderboegh:

Among the speakers in Virginia was former Alabama Minuteman leader Mike Vanderboegh, who has been denounced in recent weeks after calling for citizens to throw bricks through the windows of local Democratic party headquarters across the country. "We are done backing up. Not one more inch," Vanderboegh said to cheers … Vanderboegh said he considers armed resistance justified only "when they send people to our doors and kill us" … an arrest at the hand of federal government is tantamount to a death sentence and that he would fight back in such a case … he outlined a scenario in which people who refuse to buy health insurance under the new health reform law would be subject to arrest and that such confrontations could turn violent.

To get a better idea of how armed a few gun nuts want us to be, and their complete contempt for Americans who are naturally afraid of people with guns and don't want us to look like a third world dictatorial "regime," Chris Matthews went to the craziest; Larry Pratt of Gun Owners of America, and "Skip" Coryell, the founder of the Second Amendment March. Did you know we should all be able to buy machine guns? See for yourself:

Google Ignores Their Popular Blogger Site like an Absentee Landlord. Exodus Starts...

While Googles "blogspot.com" experiences more technical problems brought on by recent updates to it functionality, bloggers who have their own tech problems cannot easily report those problems and are instead sent to forums to basically talk amongst themselves.

For example, a problem I've had since mid-January involves video uploads that no longer feature a thumbnail picture in the frame to create visual interest. Instead, the reader is presented with a black box. Is it on Googles radar to fix?

No.

Like so many others who have appreciated the ease of creating blogs and the free space to do our thing, many are reluctant to say anything. Myself included. But the time for blog sites to appear dotted with big black holes is long past.

Some of us who are professionals want our blogs to reflect that. Like one forum user wrote recently:

My blog is fairly new and I find their lack of response to this issue massively irritating. I've already got a lot of time and energy invested in my blog, and I've done a lot to promote it. But using another blogservice sooner, rather than later, will really minimize the damage. What a drag! Good luck to all of you, whether you decide to move your blog or keep putting up with this.

Gun Madness! Armed Americans United, say NRA not "battling hard enough for their rights."

Just how crazy dangerous have the anti-Obama protesters got in the last year and a half? Check out the anger level among gun owners and open carry advocates now that we have a black liberal president. For them, the NRA isn't trying hard enough against the forces of socialism!

WSJ: Some gun owners, saying that the National Rifle Association isn't battling hard enough for their rights, are taking the fight into their own hands. "More and more the gun-rights movement is moving toward a stand-up-and-shout approach," said Jeff Knox, director of the Firearms Coalition, a for-profit, loose-knit coalition of activists. "There's a lot of general frustration with NRA not taking a hard enough line."

Gary Marbut, a life member of the NRA and president of the Montana Shooting Sports Association, an NRA affiliate (said) "The NRA is running the risk of becoming insignificant, of fading into the background."

What did the NRA do that made them so irrelevant?

Dudley Brown, executive director of the National Association for Gun Rights, said … the NRA had been too quick to compromise with gun-control advocates. He pointed to the association's endorsement of a law to check mental-health records in background checks for gun purchases following the killing of 32 people in 2007 by a suicidal gunman at Virginia Tech.

Even the "timid" NRA is taking a wait and see attitude with the angry mod like open carry protest in D.C.

The NRA hasn't endorsed the campaign, which it fears may divert attention from its goal of expanding rights to carry concealed weapons for self-defense, or trigger a backlash against guns.

In a not too distant future, a simple heated political discussion will be a thing of the past. Think about it; Who's going to want to go for the win against a pissed off guy carrying a gun. Let's face it, the country is unwinding around the second amendment and a flimsy interpretation of the tenth.

I believe the Daily Show took an indepth look at this issue:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Open Carrier Discrimination
http://www.thedailyshow.com/
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

Republicans Complain Democrats are Traitors for taking Goldman Sachs Campaign Contributions, then Filing Fraud Charges? Are you Kidding?

Imagine my double take when I read this headline: "Republicans Question Timing, Target of SEC Case Against Goldman."

Beyond surreal, Republicans appear to be doing the impossible, accusing the Democrats of not doing Goldman's bidding after receiving huge campaign contributions. No really!

The Obama administration is biting the hand that fed it for political gain, Republicans say, accusing the White House of going after Goldman Sachs and then using the fraud charges filed against the Wall Street heavyweight to build the case for financial regulatory overhaul. Goldman Sachs was President Obama's top Wall Street contributor during the 2008 campaign, with employees donating nearly $1 million, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Considering the source of this story, Fox News, I guess I shouldn't be to surprised at its down the rabbit hole logic. They must be messin' with our heads on purpose:

"Just whose side is President Obama on?" House Republican Leader John Boehner said in a statement drawing attention to the donations and questioning the announcement from the Securities and Exchange Commission that it's going after the banking behemoth.

You can't make this stuff up. There's more head scratching ponderings by Republicans who can't figure out why Democrats don't give in to Goldman's electoral payoff:

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., ranking Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, accused the administration of using "theatrics and tactics." "It must be nice for the Democrats that the SEC's filing against Goldman Sachs so conveniently fits into their political agenda," Issa said in a written statement.

So the government shouldn't go after Goldman Sachs?

The SEC is accusing Goldman Sachs of defrauding investors by failing to inform them that certain mortgage investments were devised with help from someone who was betting on their failure. "We want banks to be banks, we don't want them to be casinos. And I'm glad the SEC is doing their job," Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., said on CBS' "Face the Nation" Sunday. "And they should bring those charges because it's wrong and we should do something about it."

It should be noted that Scott Brown opposes reform. Another words, deregulate Wall Street and let them fail with no public bailouts, that'll teach them. Of course if any huge bank fails, they'll take down every other one around them, globally as well, ushering in a 2nd great depression.

And that, my friends, is the GOP solution based on free market principles and no new regulation.

Tea Party Protesters get Tax Cut, but Didn't Conveniently Notice.

It should be noted right off the bat that the tea party movement grew out of town hall meetings where citizens shouted down politicians over completely fabricated health care reform lies. Had it not been for the Republican campaign of reform myths, we wouldn't have seen the fearful knee jerk public reaction to saving lives and preventing health care bankruptcies.

The same can be said for the recent tax day protests across the country, where tea party protesters demonstrated their outrage over rising taxes, even though they most likely saw a dramatic downsizing in their federal taxes paid in. The facts be damned when it comes to anti-government rhetoric. Rachel Maddow sums it up well here tea party Dodo's:

McCain's J.D. Hayworth Ad Skewers Republican Party too.

As much as I dislike John McCain, his ad against whack job J.D. Hayworth is a classic,. Having been in the advertising business, I think this is slick and effective. Man horse marriage wouldn't normally be an election issue.

Thank God Judicial Crisis Network Holding Obama in Check over Supreme Court Nomination.

It's amazing how conservative judicial activism goes so unnoticed by Republicans. If any other court had decided so many major issues geared toward a specific ideology, you wouldn't hear the end of it. But as we all know, the founding fathers are channeled spiritually through conservatives, who's philosophy supersedes all others.

So what's so wrong with replacing Justice Stevens with a conservative? Carrie Severino, of the Judicial Crisis Network, doesn't want an Obama rubber stamp on the court, spreading their liberal activism all over the place.

The Siren Song of Victoria Jackson and the Tea Party Movements New Voice of Reason.

Is Victoria Jackson the new face of the tea party movement?

David Cay Johnston on Poor Paying No Federal Tax: "I would think the tax cuts promoted by Pres. Obama Would be Popular for her (Palin)."

In the video below, Lawrence O'Donnell clearly defines the tea party movement from the recent NY Times poll results. Journalist and author of "Free Lunch," David Cay Johnston, offers up a bunch of tea party criticisms, including the following:

"They (tea partiers) think they're pursuing their own interests...The reality is they would be much better off under a system that is truly progressive. They would see that they would have a lower burden, they would have fewer risks, and their families and their children would be better off and they could save more money to do what they wanted to do with their lives. Those are fundamental issues that are being ignored here, but you've got to remember, the news media has done a lousy job of explaining anything."

I received this reminder in an email from Mr. Johnston about the poor's actual tax burden:

"Subtle but important point -- the poor do not pay federal income tax, but they do pay plenty of federal taxes if they work. About 3/4ths of Americans pay mors in payroll taxes than income taxes."

Tony Blankley on Tea Party Protesters Spitting and Using the N Word on Black Congressmen: "Nonproven event."

So did one black congressional lawmakers get spit on and another called the n word? Can we believe black congressmen? Is it so hard to imagine them lying to us to make us think racism fuels the tea party movement?

Tony Blankley doesn't know, because to him, it's not at all clear.

Blankley: "But we understand what this drill is, this is a drill, the conversation, the repeating of the nonproven event, is an effort to increase the energy on the left side of the equation because that was the problem in the election coming up that conservatives are more energized than the left, so these kinds of messages, these claims..."

It's a formula that has worked many times before. It's also a form of "projection," a "defensive mechanism by which their own traits and emotions are attributed to someone else."

If conservatives can muddy the waters enough to diffuse the issue, they can get racist tea party members off the hook for their actions, while vilifying a few lying black lawmakers. Joan Walsh is on point and exposes the ploy on the Ed Show.

Does Fox News' Bill O'Reilly Lie? Without a Question!

I know I'm posting this a little late, but it's too good not give some added blog space to this outright gotcha.

Bill O'Reilly flatly lies about his network never suggesting that people would be hauled off to jail if they don't buy health insurance or pay the tax. Despite the video proof, days later O'Reilly continued to make the claim. How do you debate or take seriously a party that ignores reality?

Oddly, that's why they're winning the message war.

Racism at Tea Party Rallies? Kevin Jackson at Theblacksphere.net says "It flatly doesn't occur." Roll the tape..

This is unintentionally funny stuff. While Kevin Jackson, of Theblacksphere.net, went on and on about having never seen any signs of racism at tea party rallies, the video footage running beside him was anything but.

Kevin Jackson: "It just flatly doesn't occur. You know all the racism that supposedly occurs, I would love to see it. I've been chasing the tea party races for quite a few months now, and I've yet to find anybody from the right that I would declare as a racist."

MSNBC host: "We're looking at some pictures, obviously these are the fringe elements which we refer...but there's Obama being painted a mustache on to look like Hitler there..."

National Day of Prayer? "Get that socialized prayer out of my government!"

Do we need a government designated "day of prayer?" Why does this feel good declaration by the government work for tea party patriots? This over reach by the government into religion is okay for them. Are they cafeteria constitutionalists? Does the constitution say anything about "a day of prayer?"

CNN: A federal judge on Thursday struck down the federal statute that established the National Day of Prayer, ruling that it violates the constitutional ban on government-backed religion. "[I]ts sole purpose is to encourage all citizens to engage in prayer, an inherently religious exercise that serves no secular function. In this instance, the government has taken sides on a matter that must be left to individual conscience," wrote the judge, Barbara B. Crabb.

The Obama administration said Obama intends to recognize this year's National Day of Prayer, which is May 6.

The lawsuit, brought by the Freedom From Religion Foundation, says the president
will designate one day "on which the people of the United States may turn to God in prayer and meditation at churches, in groups and as individuals."

Simply put, "day of prayer" boosters want everyone else to be a part of their life style choice. It reassures them that they have the governments endorsement, an "establishment" of prayer, that legitimizes their faith against those who have chosen a different path.

Conservative v. Liberal Justices from the Huffington Post

Piercing the Myths:
For 30 years, conservative commentators have persuaded the public that conservative judges apply the law, whereas liberal judges make up the law. According to Chief Justice John Roberts, his job is just to "call balls and strikes." According to Justice Antonin Scalia, conservative jurists merely carry out the "original meaning" of the framers. These are appealing but wholly disingenuous descriptions of what judges -- liberal or conservative -- actually do.

To see why this is so, we need only look to the text of the Constitution. It defines our most fundamental rights and protections in open-ended terms: "freedom of speech," for example, and "equal protection of the laws," "due process of law," "unreasonable searches and seizures," "free exercise" of religion, and "cruel and unusual punishment." These terms are not self-defining; they did not have clear meanings even to the people who drafted them. The framers fully understood that they were leaving it to future generations to use their intelligence, judgment and experience to give concrete meaning to the expressed aspirations.

Click on the link above for the rest of this really good article. Oh, and don't forget to send to a conservative friend.

Business Lobby Whines About Losing Manufacturing, Jobs and Low Wages, After Pushing Free Trade and Deregulation!

Starting with Reagan, government was trimmed back and vilified, free trade agreements off shored jobs and manufacturing and the rules running Wall Street were done away with and relaxed. We started seeing higher unemployment and lower wages. So knowing that, the tea party protesters and Republicans are pushing for greater deregulation and faith in the free market system, under the ill conceived rantings of freedom and liberty.

It doesn't make any sense. Mike Ivey wrote as much in this Capital Times piece, using the argument I just made above in the words of the conservative business lobby, Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce. How ironic is that?:

"Unemployment is high. We lost 120,000 jobs in 2009 alone, which wiped out 15 years of employment growth. We have fewer people employed today than at any time since 1995. Personal income declined by 2 percent in 2009, the first such decline since 1949. "We have experienced a 4.3 percent decline in the number of private business establishments since 2006, a loss that surpasses those of all neighboring states and the nation. And we have lost so many manufacturing jobs that for the first time in state history more people are employed by government than the manufacturing sector."

Hard to argue with those numbers. But hasn't the free market, no regulation, no tax crowd pretty much had its way the last 30 years? I'd argue that trickle-down economics has been an utter failure, widening the gap between rich and poor while rewarding excessive greed and risk taking.

My favorite recent factoid is that the amount of money paid to the top 25 hedge fund managers last year was enough to hire 658,000 new teachers. You tell me whose priorities are skewed.

Tea party complainers in the video below, about 4500 of them, have no real solutions, just liberty and freedom.

The Poll number below proves tea partiers oppose a health care plan they don't understand, simply because they thinks its "big government."

A new Associated Press-GfK poll finds Americans oppose the health care remake 50 percent to 39 percent. Only 28 percent said they understand the overhaul extremely or very well … And a big chunk of those who don't understand it remain neutral.

Jim Fall, 73, a retired computer consultant: "I don't like the idea of the government dictating what health care should be like. Nor do I like them taking money out of Medicare."

Oddly, government Medicare dictates health care to seniors and uses the private sector for care.

New NYT/CBS Poll Profiles Tea Party Activists.

NY Times: Tea Party supporters are wealthier and more well-educated than the general public, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.

The 18 percent of Americans who identify themselves as Tea Party supporters tend to be Republican, white, male, married and older than 45. Tea Party supporters are more likely to classify themselves as “angry.”

The Tea Party movement burst onto the scene a year ago in protest of the economic stimulus package, and to block the Democratic agenda on the economy, the environment and health care.

Most describe the amount they paid in taxes this year as “fair.” Most send their children to public schools. A plurality do not think Sarah Palin is qualified to be president, and, despite their push for smaller government, they think that Social Security and Medicare are worth the cost to taxpayers.

Tea Party supporters’ fierce animosity toward Washington, and the president in particular, (and) policies of the Obama administration are disproportionately directed at helping the poor rather than the middle class or the rich. The overwhelming majority of supporters say Obama does not share the values most Americans live by … 25 percent think that the administration favors blacks over whites — compared with 11 percent of the general public. They are more likely than the general public, and Republicans, to say that too much has been made of the problems facing black people.

Asked what they are angry about, Tea Party supporters offered three main concerns: the recent health care overhaul, government spending and a feeling that their opinions are not represented in Washington.

Elwin Thrasher, a 66-year-old semiretired lawyer in Florida, said in an interview “I’m sick and tired of them wasting money and doing what our founders never intended to be done with the federal government.”

Ninety-two percent believe Mr. Obama is moving the country toward socialism, an opinion shared by more than half of the general public.

“I just feel he’s getting away from what America is,” said Kathy Mayhugh, 67, a retired medical transcriber in Jacksonville. “He’s a socialist. And to tell you the truth, I think he’s a Muslim and trying to head us in that direction, I don’t care what he says. He’s been in office over a year and can’t find a church to go to. That doesn’t say much for him.”

Tea Party supporters … say their personal financial situation is fairly good or very good … while most Americans blame the Bush administration or Wall Street for the current economy, the greatest number of Tea Party supporters blame Congress. The percentage holding a favorable opinion of former President George W. Bush, at 57 percent, almost exactly matches the percentage in the general public that holds an unfavorable view of him.

Dee Close, a 47-year-old homemaker in Memphis, said she was worried about a “drift” in the country. “Over the last three or four years, I’ve realized how immense that drift has been away from what made this country great,” Ms. Close said.

And nearly three-quarters of those who favor smaller government said they would prefer it even if it meant spending on domestic programs would be cut.

But in follow-up interviews, Tea Party supporters said they did not want to cut Medicare or Social Security … Some defended being on Social Security while fighting big government by saying that since they had paid into the system, they deserved the benefits. Others could not explain the contradiction.

“That’s a conundrum, isn’t it?” asked Jodine White, 62, of Rocklin, Calif. “I don’t know what to say. Maybe I don’t want smaller government. I guess I want smaller government and my Social Security.” She added, “I didn’t look at it from the perspective of losing things I need. I think I’ve changed my mind.”