Keith Olbermann Suspended

The more you think about this, the more ridiculous you realize it is.

It was discovered that Keith Olbermann, host of msnbc's Countdown with Keith Olbermann, had donated the legal amount of $2,400 to three Democratic candidates just before Election Day of this year. Apparently this violates NBC's rules against contributing to political campaigns, which msnbc's president claimed was the reason for his suspension. Yet, other political commentators (Joe Scarborough and Pat Buchanan) at this same network have done the same in the past, but donated to Republican candidates. And GE, the corporation that owns NBC and msnbc, has given millions to political campaigns for years.

Rightwingers who revile Keith are giddy at the suspension. Yet they have no answer when reminded that one of Fox's hosts, Sean Hannity, has given over $5,000 to Michele Bachman's political committee this past summer.

It’s a good thing Fox doesn’t have the same journalistic standards as msnbc, or they wouldn’t have been able to give ONE MILLION DOLLARS to the Republican Governors' Association this past summer.

It’s a good thing Fox doesn’t have the same journalistic standards as msnbc, or Bill O’Reilly wouldn’t have been able to pay off Andrea Mackris to the tune of 2 MILLION DOLLARS to make his sexual harassment suit disappear.

Seems like Keith's measly $2,400 donations would be the last thing to worry about. But hey, look how much free publicity he's getting on the Fox Noise Channel and CNN.

Hey Keith, CNN's new 8:00 show is doing horribly in the ratings. Looks like there may be an opening there soon...

Elections 2010

It's not as bad as expected.

This “tsunami” of Regressives and Teabaggers some have predicted just hasn’t been as “overwhelming” as had been predicted. Yeah, we’re stuck with Rick Scott as governor and Marco Rubio as senator in Florida, and Regressives took back the House, but not in the huge, massive numbers they all expected and bragged about.

The Republicans now have 4 more governor seats; they have 54 more House seats.

Good for them.

But they didn’t win back the Senate! And they don’t have ANYTHING close to a veto-proof majority in Congress. This means that the day the new Congress takes office, it will be business as usual.

Regressives have a majority in the House and the Democrats have a majority in the Senate. But now Republicans can’t sit on their hands and scream "no" on every bill like petulant children. If things don’t get better soon, it will, in part, be THEIR fault.

If the few extremist Teabaggers who actually won think they’re gonna get their radical agenda through with the run-of-the-mill Republicans in Congress, and the Dem-controlled Senate, and have it signed by the President, they’re in for a rude awakening. Ain’t gonna happen. All those threats of eliminating the Dept of Education, the IRS, Civil Rights Legislation, etc are not gonna happen. And since NOT ONE OF THEM has ever been specific about what they’d cut, now they’ll have to deal with reality. Quite a sobering day coming up for them.

In addition, none of the most extreme fringe far rightwing nutjobs won.

• The Delaware meatball-eating witch with mouse brains was soundly defeated.
  
• So was Palladino, the guy who threatened the NY Post reporter.
  
• Angle, the one who thinks it’s not a bad idea to use “second amendment remedies” on congressmen she disagrees with was soundly defeated (thank goodness for her, since the second amendment remedies would therefore be applied to HER as well).
  
• And the guy who needs a shave in Alaska (whose rented thugs fake arrested and illegally held a reporter) was not elected either.

“I am not a witch.” Well guess what, honey? You’re not a Senator either.

Rally to Restore Sanity

As a response to all the rightwing violence and nastiness that has defined this election cycle, and to show that not everyone in America is as extreme and angry as the 80,000 Teabaggers who attended the recent Glen Beck Fox rally, The Daily Show's Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert from Comedy Central held their own "Rally to Restore Sanity" yesterday. Official estimates from the Parks Department, and estimates from Canada's CTV, and CBS News state that 250,000 were in attendance to help "take it down a notch, America."

People who are fed up with the bigotry, racism and mob-violence mentality came from all over the country to support the non-political rally that was mostly musical and comedic in nature, with a serious plea for sanity from Jon at the rally's end.

Some of the more amusing signs (taken from the Huffington Post):

Violent Dangerous Teabaggers -- Again

They claim they're not racist, but for 2 years we've seen hundreds of their disgusting, racist signs at rallies all over the country.

They claim they're not violent, but we've seen

• rented goons assaulting and illegally detaining a reporter at a Joe Miller (Republican Teabagger Candidate) rally in Alaska
• Carl Palladino (Republican Teabagger Candidate) threatening to "take out" a NY Post reporter
• Sharron Angle (Republican Teabagger Candidate) claiming we need "Second Amendment remedies" -- bullets -- to use on duly-elected members of Congress
• Rand Paul's (Republican Teabagger Candidate) campaign workers gang up on a young woman with the "wrong" opinion, wrestle her to the ground and stomp on her shoulders and head -- video above
  
• Half-term governor Sarah Palin (Republican Teabagger Candidate) circulating maps with gun sites over Democratically controlled districts
  

Republican Party Taken Over By Fringe Extremists

Republican Teabaggers.

You have to hate the president, be middle aged, angry, white, insecure, turn your back on science, have a disdain for education, and have a deep-seated hostility toward Hispanics, women, gays and blacks to be a so-called American by this fringe rightwing group.

Look at their leaders..

• Sharron Angle, who looks to "Second Amendment remedies" (shooting) Congressmen who Teabaggers disagree with
• Ron Paul's crazy son "Rand" who is against Civil Rights Legislation
• Mr Morality, Carl Paladino, a homophobe who claims gays are "disgusting" while he raises 2 sets of kids with his wife and mistress, sends out racist emails, and threatens the life of a NY Post reporter with cameras rolling
• Christine O'Donnell, who was a witch, thinks there are mice-people running around, wonders why monkeys don't turn into humans right before our eyes, has weird sexual hangups, and believes she has secret information on China's plan to take over America
  
• Rich Iott, who likes to dress up like a NAZI
• They all want to CHANGE the First Amendment to preclude a legal Muslim cultural center from being built 2 blocks away from Ground Zero
  
• They want to CHANGE the 14 Amendment to exclude Mexican babies from being US citizens when born here like everybody else
• the whole bunch of them oppose a woman's right to an abortion even in the case of incest and rape

THESE ARE THE CRAZY PEOPLE.

They have taken over the Republican party. They may seem funny, but if they regain the majority in Congress, they will undo all the progress made since they were kicked out. That means Health Care Reforms disappear, and insurance companies will once again be able to drop anyone who gets sick or refuse to cover anyone with pre-existing conditions. It means deregulation of the financial industry which caused the economic meltdown in the first place. And it means a return to all the UNCONSTITUTIONAL antics of the previous administration, like

• illegally spying on US citizens without a warrant
• illegally waging war against a country that never attacked us
• illegally outing a CIA officer during wartime
• lowering the USA to the level of Iran with illegal torture
  

Send a link to this blog post to everyone you think might even be considering voting for a Regressive Republican on Nov 2.

Economy Slow, But Moving in Right Direction

The fact is we lost 95,000 jobs last month. But they were government jobs -- temporary census workers, cuts at the state and local level, etc. This should make rightwingers do cartwheels! Smaller government! Less money from taxpayers. Fewer on the government dole, etc.

PRIVATE FIRMS ADDED 64,000 jobs last month. That's good news also. Instead of continuing the Bush/Cheney tradition of losing 750,000 jobs a month like at the height of the recession (quarter 4 of 2008) we are now gaining back jobs in the all-important private sector.

Fox Gives Another Million to Republicans

Because it's "fair and balanced," that's why. From Politico:

News Corp., the parent company of Fox News, contributed $1 million this summer to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the business lobby that has been running an aggressive campaign in support of the Republican effort to retake Congress. It was the second $1 million contribution the company has made this election cycle to a GOP-aligned group. In late June it gave that amount to the Republican Governors Association.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0910/42989.html

Christine O'Donnell

She has nothing to do with anything important on a national level; she's running to be Senator of Delaware. But she's been such a cartoonish figure since the national spotlight hit her, that we just can't stop looking. Kinda like passing a bad car accident. That's Christine O'Donnell, Regressive Senate candidate.

She has claimed she "dabbled in witchcraft."
She has some weird sex hangups.
She would stop everyone from masturbating, if she could.
She wonders, "if evolution is real, why don't we see monkeys turning into humans today?"
She believes we have mice-people running around.

UPDATE: New quotes from Christine as of Oct 4, 2010:
She would have become a Hare Krishna (they're vegetarian) but she loves meatballs.
She claims she had classified intelligence about China plotting to take over the US.

Not making any of this up. Now she claims to have gone to several colleges that have no record of her ever attending. "Christine who?" is becoming the usual response. That's been the case with Claremont Graduate University as well as University of Oxford and Farleigh Dickinson University.

Christine who?

Last weekend, Saturday Night Live opened the show with cast member Kristen Wiig playing the part of Christine O'Donnell. It's a riot.

Republicans Unveil their Plague on America

Calling it a "pledge to America," the Regressive Party unveiled a super-secret, 21 page magic formula to fix the economy they broke in the first place with massive, unnecessary tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and two unwinable, unpaid-for wars.

What's in this new "pledge"?

"Cut spending, slash taxes," blah blah blah. Cut what, exactly? Who knows. Their plan doesn't say. But they do say the first thing they want to do is eliminate the new Health Care Reforms that went into effect today.

As of today, 9/23/10, insurance companies

• can no longer drop children because of pre-existing conditions
• cannot cancel your coverage if you get sick
  
• must allow young adults (up to age 26) to be covered on their parents' health care plan
• cannot deny your right to no-cost preventative care. That means you won't have to pay out of pocket to go and get a flu shot, physical, or a mammogram
• must rescind lifetime limits on coverage

IF YOU VOTE FOR REPUBLICANS IN THE NOVEMBER ELECTIONS AND THEY WIN A MAJORITY IN THE HOUSE OR SENATE, THEY WILL ELIMINATE THOSE AND OTHER HEALTH CARE REFORMS.

Republicans Refuse to Fund American Troops

Lt. Dan Choi, Arab Linguist, Iraq Veteran, West Point Graduate, Infantry Officer... fired under Don't Ask Don't Tell

They hate gay people and Hispanics so much, they VETOED a bill that would have funded the troops, because an amendment to end "Don't Ask Don't Tell" and an amendment called the "DREAM Act," were part of the bill.

The DREAM Act (Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act) would have provided more paths to citizenship for children of illegal immigrants by letting them earn residency and eventual citizenship after serving in the US Army or graduating from college.

And despite the vast majority* of Americans favoring the end of institutionalized discrimination against patriotic American gays and lesbians in the armed forces, including the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Defense Secretary Robert Gates agreeing it should end, Regressives in Congress vetoed the bill today.

__________
*In a 2008 Washington Post–ABC News poll, 75% of Americans – including 80% of Democrats, 75% of independents, and 66% of conservatives – said that openly gay people should be allowed to serve in the military.

A February 2010 Quinnipiac University national poll shows 57% of American voters favor gays serving openly, compared to 36% opposed, and 66% say the current policy of not allowing openly gay personnel to serve is discrimination.

A CBS News/New York Times national poll done at the same time shows 58% of Americans favor gays serving openly, compared to 28% opposed.

Too Much Caffeine? Or just plain crazy?

He's been a Republican in times good and he's been a Republican in times bad.

Enjoy these 6 minutes.

The REAL Culprits of the Record-Breaking Deficit

Chart based on numbers from the Congressional Budget Office.

It's not the paltry sums used for unemployment benefits or stimulus programs as the Regressives would have you believe. (Economists agree the best way to stimulate the economy is to provide continued unemployment benefits to those out of work.) People who have no jobs tend to SPEND EVERY DIME that comes in on things like food, electric, mortgage payments, etc., and put the money back into the system. But giving wealthy people special tax cuts just means they stash more away and invest more.

No, the real causes of the huge deficits are Bush's unnecessary tax cuts and the unnecessary wars. The chart shows, in light and dark brown, the real culprits of the record-breaking deficit.

Why, Oh Why?

2 Polar Bear Ads

One for an electric car from Nissan, the other for the Environmental Defense Fund.