Democrat Wins Ultra Conservative District in Upstate NY

Her name is Kathy Hochul, and in a shock to Regressive Republicans nationwide, last night won one of the reddest, far rightwing districts in the country, beating her Regressive challenger as well as a third party Teabagger, to win New York's 26th District with 47% of the vote.  The Regressive got 43% and the Teabagger won 8% of the vote.

It all came down to one thing: protecting Medicare.  Hochul vowed to vote against the Kill Medicare Bill that House Republicans have embraced. This bill would eliminate Medicare as we know it, replacing it with a voucher program.

The reason Medicare exists in the first place is because no insurance company (which is in business to make a profit) would ever choose to insure the health of people in their 70s, 80s and 90s.  The Kill Medicare Bill would instead give seniors a check for $15k and a handshake for good luck to find some company, somewhere, to insure their health needs.  Can't find one?  Too bad.  It would go into effect in ten years, for people who are currently under 55.

The Kill Medicare Bill was brought to a vote in the Senate today. It failed 40-57.

From Huffington Post:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid held a vote today on the Paul Ryan budget, and Republicans were only able to muster 40 votes for it -- each and every one of which will immediately be turned into a campaign commercial by the Democrats (although not all 40 are up for election next year). Nancy Pelosi has a snappy new slogan she's testing out, in response to Republican complaints that Democrats "have no plan." Pelosi's response? "We have a plan -- it's called Medicare." Not bad, as slogans go.

Read more by clicking here. 

Rightwing Hate Talk Loses 33% of its Audience

Is America finally getting tired of "all hate, all the time" radio?  Seems like it. The bloated granddaddy of them all, Rush Limbaugh, has lost a full third of his audience over the last several months according to Arbitron, the definitive radio ratings service.  Sean Hannity's radio show lost 28%, and Glen Beck has already been fired from the Fox Noise cable channel (his final show has yet to be scheduled.) He has lost 30% of his audience and over 300 advertisers.

Is this the beginning of the end of the lies, inflammatory rhetoric, and race baiting?  Not really.  Just several fewer carnival barkers screaming, and millions fewer paying attention.

Republican Jackass of the Week, Part 2

Rick Santorum.

There are 100 US Senators. Only one has been tortured after being captured. That was John McCain. He is against waterboarding and other forms of abuse, because it produces false information, and it's not what this country is all about. Here's what he had to say:



But Rick Santorum apparently knows better. Santorum claims, "he [McCain] doesn't understand how enhanced interrogation works."

Here's a one-minute clip from msnbc's Ed Show:

Republican Jackass of the Week

Newt Gingrich.

You may remember him as the thrice-married hypocrite who led the charge against President Clinton over a personal matter while he himself was doing exactly the same thing -- except he was cheating on his second wife with what would become his third.

Now that he's running for a spot on the Regressive ticket to challenge President Obama in the presidential election next year, he's proving once again what a hypocrite he is.

Last Sunday, on NBC's Meet the Press, host David Gregory asked this:

"Should Republicans buck the public opposition and completely change Medicare to turn it into a voucher program where you give seniors some premium support so they can buy private insurance?"

In other words, should Republicans ignore the vast majority of Americans who say they don't want Medicare, as we know it, to be destroyed?

He replied, "I don't think rightwing social engineering is any better than left wing social engineering," and referred to Republican Paul Ryan's kill-Medicare-plan as "radical." Watch for yourself.




Within two days, after being blasted by fellow Republicans for badmouthing the Kill Medicare Plan they have agreed to embrace -- and worried that the clip would be used in Democratic political ads -- he immediately began backpedaling.

"...so I'm gonna say, on the record, any ad which quotes what I said on Sunday is a falsehood, because I have said publicly, those words were inaccurate and unfortunate." -Newt Gingrich.

Got that? If you quote him verbatim, you're lying.

Headline

As heard on the Stephanie Miller Show:

Did you hear how Fox headlined the killing of Osama Bin Laden?

"Obama Kills Elderly Religious Man on Dialysis"

The Bin Laden Spin / Republican Jackass of the Week

Apparently Rupert and the Fox Noise Channel were caught by surprise.  Never expecting Bin Laden to be killed, they didn't have any contingency plans or talking points typed up.

You can tell because they are not focused in pretending this is a bad thing and their attacks on President Obama are scattered.

Keep in mind that if Dubya had captured and killed Bin Laden, Fox would have been celebrating and organizing rallies all over the country. They wouldn't have been able to control themselves. But it wasn't Bush.  It was Obama who got the job done. So this must be presented as bad news...

First, they congratulated President Bush, of all people, for his "part" in the capture of Bin Laden.

Huh?  Only 6 months after 9/11 Bush said he didn't know where Bin Laden was, didn't spend much time on him, and said he's not that concerned about him. The following clip was from March 2002, just six months after 9/11.



Next, they used the capture of Bin Laden as an excuse to support illegal torture all over again, even though torture had nothing to do with the intelligence used in the capture of Bin Laden.

CIA Director Leon Panetta said the US gathered intelligence from a variety of sources, but stopped short of saying anything valuable was gotten through illegal torture.  Donald Rumsfeld, Bush's Secretary of Defense (who would be most apt to defend torture) plainly said critical info was not obtained through torture; Sen. Dianne Feinstein, chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Tuesday that none of the information that led to the killing of terrorist Osama bin Laden came from torture or harsh detention policies practiced under the Bush administration. But the right loves that torture and will do anything to defend it.

But the most bizarre rant came from Andrew Napolitano, the guy with hair growing out of his forehead on the Fox channel. He's trying to make President Obama out to be a dangerous killer!  Wow.  "This business of the President deciding to kill people is very dangerous...it may lead to him killing on a whim. Who's he gonna kill next? Colonel Khadaffi? Fidel Castro?  Me?"



So let me get this straight. After an 8 year failed attempt by the Bush administration to kill Bin Laden, now that President Obama was successful at it, he might just go on an uncontrollable killing rampage!  Look out!  He's after you!

Sounds to me like somebody has jumped on the Crazy Train and is auditioning for that opening once Glen Beck is gone!

Andrew Napolitano, our Republican Jackass of the Week.

NOW It's "Mission Accomplished"

From the Associated Press:

Osama bin Laden, the face of global terrorism and architect of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, was killed in a firefight with elite American forces Monday, then quickly buried at sea in a stunning finale to a furtive decade on the run.

 

Congrats to President Obama -- and the Navy Seals who carried out his orders -- in the killing of Osama Bin Laden.  He was able to do in 2 years what the previous administration failed to do in 8 years. And he was very funny Saturday evening at the White House Correspondents' Dinner, all the while knowing what was about to happen.

DNA tests confirm the death.








Indeed, while the crazies have been screaming about birth certificates, President Obama was actually doing his job, working with intelligence officials, catching the most wanted terrorist in the world.

Management and consultants at the foreign-owned, Saudi-financed fox channel have been in locked conference rooms since the President announced the killing of Bin Laden, trying to figure out how to spin this as bad news.

So far, incredibly, they've been saying "this is a victory for President Bush."

Huh?  If by "victory" you mean not getting him for 8 years, I guess.