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.

Forget the Birth Certificate; Now We Want College Records

Here's what I wrote within two hours of President Obama releasing the longform version of his birth certificate:

Do you think this will finally shut up the small group of bigots, haters and anti-American unpatriotic fools who are trying to destroy the country by their weak attempts to disparage the President of the United States?   Of course not.  The bigots and America haters will find new ways to try to do their damage.

Read it for yourself in the post below this one. And notice the time stamped on the entry.  Am I psychic?  No.  I just know how the hateful Regressive brain works.

Now, after having his no-birth-certificate-theory shot to hell, Donald Chump and a few rightwing Fox mouthpieces are yapping again, this time calling for Obama's college records.  "Somebody told me he was a terrible, terrible student," Chump said yesterday.  "How does a bad student go to Columbia and then Harvard?"

The unspoken yet obvious implication is, "how could a black guy possibly have gotten into Harvard?"

Well, Donald, go ask one of your many black friends.  You're very popular with "the blacks," as you put it, right?

(For the record, President Obama graduated magna cum laude.  That's Latin, you know.  It means "with great praise".  And 80% of Harvard graduates do not attain this high level of honor.)

President Obama said this was "a sideshow" perpetrated by "carnival barkers."  I knew releasing the birth certificate wouldn't end the nonsense from the crazies.  It's just the next step.  But Keith Olbermann summed it up this way:

They’re carnival barkers. They don’t stop selling tickets just because there isn’t a real mermaid back there. If you prove there’s no mermaid, tomorrow they’ll tell you there’s a Martian.

Don't expect it to stop for the next six years.

Birth Certificate Nonsense

The White House released President Obama's longform birth certificate this morning.

Do you think this will finally shut up the small group of bigots, haters and anti-American unpatriotic fools who are trying to destroy the country by their weak attempts to disparage the President of the United States?   Of course not.  The bigots and America haters will find new ways to try to do their damage.

Back during the campaign in '08, the US State of Hawaii had Democratic and Regressive officials state that this is the official certificate issued in their state.  That should have settled it.  Then he ran against the Clinton Machine, which nothing gets past.  Then he ran against McCain with all the money and power of the Regressives behind him.  Don't the idiots think if there was anything that needed to be exposed it would have been found under all those microscopes?

It was a stupid issue and, as the President said, "a sideshow presented by carnival barkers."

I'm glad this whole issue exploded in their rightwing faces. But on the other hand, I'm disappointed the America haters on the far right cannot continue to embarrass themselves. It's been very entertaining for rational people for two years!

Record Oil Profits and Taxpayer Subsidies

Last year, the oil companies made a lot of money. Lots of money. Profits were higher than ever before. They actually made more money than any company anywhere, in the history of the world.  Let that sink in for a moment. They made bigger profits than any company, anywhere on the globe, ever.

And yet, we taxpayers are subsidizing them to the tune of 4 billion dollars a year.  Just handing it over, with a nice pink bow on it.  The obvious question is why?  Maybe decades ago, before they became the most profitable business on Earth, they might have needed government assistance to get the ball rolling.  But now?  Still?

President Obama and former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi say it's got to stop.  Orange John Boner, the current Speaker, said it might be time to consider ending the corporate welfare for oil companies.  The ball is in his court.  Here's the letter Nancy Pelosi sent to The Boner:

April 26, 2011 

The Honorable John BoehnerSpeaker of the HouseH-232 US CapitolWashington, DC 20515

  

Dear Mr. Speaker:  

House Democrats have long advocated eliminating outdated and costly taxpayer subsidies that provide billions of dollars to highly profitable oil companies.  As you know, the President today called upon Congressional leaders “to take immediate action to eliminate unwarranted tax breaks for the oil and gas industry.” 

As you also know, we have had several votes on this subject in the House, and have been disappointed that these proposals have not been supported by the Republican leadership.  Your comments yesterday acknowledged that oil companies ought to be paying their fair share.  It makes little sense for American consumers -- who are now paying over $4 a gallon for gasoline in most parts of the United States -- to have billions of their taxpayer dollars subsidizing oil companies that are making record profits. 

For these reasons, I am writing to request that you schedule a vote on ending these tax breaks on the House floor upon our return to Washington next week.  I look forward to our working together to achieve this necessary change. 

Thank you for your consideration of this request.

best regards,                                                                
NANCY PELOSI

House Democratic Leader

Another Day, Another Fox Lie

This time Anderson Cooper was the target.

In a show where they were determined to show "liberal media bias" where there is none, Sean Hannity and the Fox Noise Channel carefully edited tape of Anderson to make it sound like he said something he did not.

In the clip, Cooper is shown calling the attacks on Joseph Wilson, the former Bush administration ambassador who set off the Valerie Plame scandal, "a victim of a Bush administration smear campaign." But, as Cooper showed, Fox started the clip in the middle of a sentence. Cooper was actually saying that Wilson was claiming to be a victim of a smear campaign, not stating his own personal opinion.

This is a commonly used tactic by the foreign owned, Saudi financed Fox channel to purposely mislead their gullible viewers.

Keith Olbermann Announces New Show on CURRENT TV

America: "Don't Touch Medicare! Raise Taxes on the Wealthy!"

It couldn't be more clear.  

In 2 polls released this week, Americans have stated, in huge numbers, that they don't want Congress to screw with Medicare and Medicaid.  One poll reports 78% say "don't cut Medicare."  Another poll reports 80% say "no cuts to Medicare."

And the vast majority does want taxes raised slightly on those who make over $250,000. 

Yet this is the centerpiece of the budget the Regressives are trying to foist on taxpayers, so that they may give millionaires even bigger tax breaks. 

The poll above is the latest Washington Post / ABC News poll; below is the latest McClatchy poll.

Unnecessary Censorship

The latest from Jimmy Kimmel on ABC: