Obama made FOX's apologists cry

About time Obama made somebody cry on the right. You really should read this op ed in USA Today. You see, if the White House finally calls FOX News on its partisan campaign to put Republicans in office, and take Democrats out of office, that means, according to the FOX apologists, that the White House is attacking all of FOX's viewers. Well. Yeah. If "attacking" to you means calling FOX News "Republican News," and thus implying that FOX's viewers are in fact all "Republicans."

Fortunately, this particular writer does a particularly poor job. But his arguments are classic right-wing deflection. Whenever you catch the right doing something wrong, they will turn it around on you at the drop of a hat. If you say the sky is blue, they'll turn around and say you insulted motherhood. It's all lies and deflection, and FOX has it down to a science. The trick is to do exactly what Rep. Grayson did when the right, and even some in the media, tried to Swiftboat him for having the nerve to call the Republicans out on their health care shenanigans. Stick to your guns and call the bully, and the bull, out. Read More......

Broadband internet as a right

Whether you agree with this as a right or not, it's an interesting development in Finland. It also highlights the problem previously raised here about how the US is lagging behind the rest of the world. How can the US be such a world leader in technology yet allow Americans to fall behind like this? It's time to start pushing the industry towards the modern world. They asked for and received exclusive, competition-squashing privileges by Washington.

Time to take it away and move back to a more competitive model that encourages and rewards businesses that provide real benefits. It's silly to think that "socialist" France can offer 100MB internet connections that include calls around the world, internet and TV for less than €50. (The same service with 25MB a connection is around €30 per month.) CNN:

Starting in July, telecommunication companies in the northern European nation will be required to provide all 5.2 million citizens with Internet connection that runs at speeds of at least 1 megabit per second.

The one-megabit mandate, however, is simply an intermediary step, said Laura Vilkkonen, the legislative counselor for the Ministry of Transport and Communications.

The country is aiming for speeds that are 100 times faster -- 100 megabit per second -- for all by 2015.

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CNN won't run Anti-Lou Dobbs ad on CNN

I suspect Dobbs will eventually move to FOX, where he'll be quite at home. More from Media Matters. And here's the ad - it's quite good.

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The Death Panel is IN

David Horsey does it again. Read More......

Justice of the Peace in Louisiana refuses to marry inter-racial couples

I'm sure the Justice Department won't get involved. I hear they have a lot on their plate right now.

A Louisiana justice of the peace said he refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple out of concern for any children the couple might have. Keith Bardwell, justice of the peace in Tangipahoa Parish, says it is his experience that most interracial marriages do not last long.

"I'm not a racist. I just don't believe in mixing the races that way," Bardwell told the Associated Press on Thursday. "I have piles and piles of black friends. They come to my home, I marry them, they use my bathroom. I treat them just like everyone else."

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Senator Udall wants Pentagon to provide repeal plan on DADT in 30 days

Now remember, this isn't asking the president to lift the ban on gays in the military in 30 days. It's asking his generals to provide the Senate with their plans for how they are going to implement lifting the ban. It's a necessary step towards moving ahead on lifting the ban. Hopefully the White House will agree to work with Congress on this - it's going to be along process, and we need to get moving soon if we're going to keep this promise. In principle, the White House shouldn't have a problem responding to Senator Udall's request since the President keeps saying that such cooperation is already happening. And this letter, in addition to Senator Reid's recent letter appealing to Obama to get involved in helping to lift the ban, suggest otherwise. Read More......

Balloon lands, little boy not inside

Weird story. CNN says the balloon just landed and the boy was not inside. Someone else did the math on how many helium balloons you'd need in order to life someone off the ground. Read More......

Some in GOP now saying Obama needs 5, not one, GOP Senator to make health care bill "bipartisan"

Move that goal post, baby. The entire discussion is moot in any case. We got 3 Republicans - not one, three - on the stimulus package, and no one looks back on that as a bipartisan bill. I simply do not believe that having one sole Republican, or even five for that matter, will be perceived as anything other than a Democratic bill. That's why this notion of trying to get a "bipartisan" bill has been silly from the beginning. Read More......

Orrin Hatch says MoveOn is "scurrilous" and he's going to kick them in the teeth

With what, his wingtips? It's like watching Elmer Fudd, or Howdy Doody, get angry. Kiw da wabbit. Whatever.

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Did Delta obtain hacked emails to attack a consumer advocate?

Sounds pretty bad if true. Delta was once a nice airline but in recent years it has become a pathetic shell of its former self. Looking at how nasty the corporate world has been in fighting change - whether health insurance, Wall Street, food - none of this will come as a surprise if it turns out to be true. For much too long, Washington has allowed an "anything goes" policy. This needs to change. Soon. Attacking a consumer advocate who is asking for reasonable treatment of customers is flat out bizarre.

A passenger rights advocate accused Delta Air Lines Inc. in a federal lawsuit Tuesday of conspiring with a Virginia company to obtain hacked e-mails from her computer to help them derail her efforts to protect air travelers from lengthy tarmac delays and other inconveniences.

The suit, filed by Kate Hanni of FlyersRights.org in U.S. District Court in Houston, seeks at least $11 million in damages and a jury trial.

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Bring out your pets!

This Friday, as a twist on Friday Cat Bogging (since I don't have a cat, and only serve as cat guardian the month of August), I'd like to post your pet photos on the blog. I'll use the photo space we have in the upper right corner of the blog (currently we have your and my National Equality March photos there). Send me your favorite pet photo, and I'll post them in the photo box this coming Friday. By sending me a photo you are attesting that you have the rights to the photo, or permission to send it to me, and you give me permission to publish it on the blog for free. Send the photos to:
ablogphotos@gmail.com

I almost hesitated to post this message again, since the last time I posted it we already have several hundred pet photos that have come in! But what the heck.

And if you know how to edit photos, getting it down to under 800 x 800 pixels would be nice, otherwise I can edit them down. Thanks! JOHN Read More......

Even more false outrage from Rupert Murdoch

He's a complete phony across the board so at least he's consistent. The latest false outrage story is exactly what I was thinking when I heard Fox and other content providers griping about Google and others "stealing" their content. Oh please. It's a numbers game online and those horrible, horrible "robbers" happen to be driving numbers in their direction. Despite the cries from Murdoch, his company is proactively driving traffic to Google News. Busted. TechDirt.com has the full details on the code added by Fox and Newsweek has the story.

Now comes the next beat: the folks over at Mike Masnick's must-read blog Techdirt.com picked up on my piece, and a smart reader in the comments section advanced the story. He went to Murdoch's FoxNews.com and took a look at the site's robots.txt file, to see just how far Murdoch goes in his attempts to stop Google from raiding his cupboards.

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Is there anything the administration can't live with?

As the NYT reports this morning, two senior administration officials say the White House likes Olympia Snowe's "trigger" plan that will basically kill the public option, and ensure that we don't have real competition in health care in this country. Big surprise there. The White House isn't willing to fight for a better bill, isn't willing to fight for the President's own promises. Isn't willing to use the President's power - which he most certainly has - to cajole all 60 members of the Democratic caucus into voting the right way. So, President Obama caves, as he so often does when faced with the prospect of having to fight for his beliefs.

If President Obama isn't willing to fight for what he reportedly considers the most important piece of legislation of his entire presidency, then what will he fight for? It's never going to change, folks. This is what the next three years are going to be like - always settling for less, when he could have had more, in order to avoid a fight. Democrats need to start demanding that this White House give Democrats just as much say in legislation as it always seems to give Republicans.

And keep something in mind. The last few weeks we finally had momentum on our side. The "opt-out" proposal took everyone by surprise, and even critics of the public option said they were intrigued. But, rather than use that momentum to get the kind of bill the President promised us during the campaign - to get something better - President Obama settled for a Republican proposal that was being discussed weeks ago, long before we had the momentum on our side. The White House never intended to try to get a better bill, regardless of whether we provided them with the political landscape to do just that. The last month of hard work by health care advocates was meaningless.

At some point, perhaps someone can inform President Obama that he won the election. Read More......

“I think the administration has put [Olympia Snowe] in the driver’s seat; it’s very disconcerting.”

It is very disconcerting. Very.

Last night, John wrote a post explaining how President Obama could and should use his power to pass a strong health insurance reform bill out of the Senate. That require presidential leadership. Yet, for some reason, the White House brain trust has chosen to give its power to Olympia Snowe:

One day after the Senate Finance Committee approved a measure without a “public option,” the question on Capitol Hill was how President Obama could reconcile the deep divisions within his party on the issue. All eyes were on Senator Olympia J. Snowe, the Maine Republican whose call for a “trigger” that would establish a government plan as a fallback is one of the leading compromise ideas.

Two senior administration officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the White House looked favorably on the Snowe plan. But liberal Democrats were maneuvering against it Wednesday, arguing that Ms. Snowe, the lone Republican to vote in favor of the Finance Committee’s bill, was gaining undue influence over the talks.

Who are these "senior administration officials"? And, why are they so eager to cede power to one GOP Senator? Is that what last year's election was about?

Rep. Grijalva, who co-chairs the House Progressive Caucus, said on-the-record what most of us are thinking:

“It’s one vote, she won’t make the commitment on the final product, and she says she’s got to have the trigger,” said Representative Raúl M. Grijalva, Democrat of Arizona, who is leading an effort in the House to round up votes for a government plan akin to Medicare. “I think the administration has put her in the driver’s seat; it’s very disconcerting.”

Very disconcerting.

What's next? Changing OFA from Obama for America to Olympia for America? Read More......

Thursday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

Today, Obama is heading to New Orleans. That city is always going to be synonymous with the failed presidency of George W. Bush. Biden is heading to Missouri.

In the Senate, still waiting for the Defense Authorization conference report to come to the floor. That legislation, which passed the House last week, includes the hate crimes bill. And, of course, talks continue on the health insurance reform bill in the House and Senate. But, we're getting closer.

Let's get threading... Read More......

Bonus gravy train continues - JP Morgan eyes billions

The early news from Goldman Sachs was bad. The Citi energy traders were worse. Now JP Morgan is rubbing it in our noses. What part of "they don't get it nor do they care" are people in Washington missing? The world saved them but you would never know it by the way they act. Apologists continue to cut everyone slack but it's hard to believe people who were working in this field such as Geithner and Bernanke were foolish enough to ignore proper restrictions and controls. If anyone should of known how Wall Street would react it was them. After this swindle, how interested will people be in saving banks (which had to be done) the next time? The Guardian:

JP Morgan Chase signalled today that City firms are preparing to make huge bonus payments after it kicked off the US bank reporting season by smashing profit expectations.

The bank revealed it had set aside $7.3bn (£4.6bn) in the third quarter to pay staff, taking the total remuneration pot for the first nine months of the year to $21bn, 23% more than at the same time last year.

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Time is running out to get serious

The GOP finds the entire debate to be a joke. They're also running scared from the loonies who control the party. You know, the ones who think climate change doesn't exist and that Jesus walked with dinosaurs. Just because they want to live in the new Dark Ages doesn't mean we have to listen to them. AFP:

The Arctic ice cap will disappear completely in summer months within 20 to 30 years, a polar research team said as they presented findings from an expedition led by adventurer Pen Hadow.

It is likely to be largely ice-free during the warmer months within a decade, the experts added.

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