GOP's idea of fiscal responsibility: Cutting the President's teleprompter, decorating budget

While we're at it, let's cut Paul Ryan's hair gel (and dye, as if we didn't notice) budget, and John Boehner's tanning salon membership. As for Eric Cantor, time to cut off his subscription to Martha Stewart Living and all those Broadway musicals. Fair is fair. Read the rest of this post...

Is Jabba-the-Limbaugh really taking pot shots at Michelle Obama's diet?

Not that Limbaugh has been listening, but Michelle Obama has often talked about everything in moderation. Limbaugh obviously doesn't subscribe to that theory, whether it's food or illegal drugs. Michelle Obama may not look like someone Alex Rodriguez would date (he actually brought that up, though it's not terribly clear that it's a bad thing), but Limbaugh is hardly the definition of a fetching catch. He may have a bank account, but Michelle has a brain. And a damned good one at that.

CNN:

Michelle Obama is taking heat from talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh after a report in the Vail Daily that she consumed a not-so-healthy-meal of ribs for dinner while on a recent visit to the Colorado resort, the latest example of conservative angst directed at the first lady's healthy-eating initiative.

"The problem is, and dare I say this, it doesn't look like Michelle Obama follows her own nutritionary, dietary advice," Limbaugh said Monday on his radio program. "And then we hear that she's out eating ribs at 1,500 calories a serving with 141 grams of fat per serving."

"She is a hypocrite," Limbaugh continued. "Leaders are supposed to be leaders. If we are supposed to go out and eat nothing, if we are supposed to eat roots, berries, and tree bark, show us how."

If you read on in the article, you see that Limbaugh's attack on the First Lady is capping off a week-long attack on Mrs. Obama by Palin, Bachmann and Breitbart. It's clearly part of a larger strategy from the right, to attack the wife of the President because she's urging our obese country to eat better. It's weird. Maybe they're trying to tee the President off for some reason. But it's rather juvenile. It's also part of the misogyny that permeates the GOP. The party has a serious problem with strong women. Forget strong - they have a problem with educated women. Otherwise, how would someone like Palin, who can't even speak proper English (it's her first and only tongue), rise to the head of the party? As for Bachmann - Mensa she ain't. They did the same thing to Mrs. Clinton. And Nancy Pelosi. It's what they do. Demean. Read the rest of this post...

Egypt aftermath: Eastern Libya may be in hands of opposition, Qaddafi's son promises 'rivers of blood'

From a knowledgeable reader:

It is looking like the butchers bill is already in the thousands and will likely reach the tens of thousands before it is done.

Libya is a lot larger by area, but in terms of population is smaller than Tunisia (6.5 million vs 10 million). If the regimes in Algeria and Libya both fall and there are fair elections in all the countries toppled so far, that means a total of about 135 million people living under democracies rather than dictatorships. Or about 2% of the total global population.

CNN reports that eastern Libya appears to be under opposition control.

Groups of men in civilian clothing, armed with weapons ranging from shotguns to machine guns, guarded streets in eastern Libya on Monday as opposition leaders appeared to be in firm control of much of the region.

Opposition groups formed "popular committees" to maintain some sort of order after pushing out government forces in a spreading revolt against longtime strongman Moammar Gadhafi, who has led the north African country since 1969.

From Bloomberg, Qaddafi's son promises rivers of blood.

Libya erupted into violence last night after Muammar Qaddafi’s son threatened “rivers of blood” and deployed security forces on protesters, some of whom claimed control of the second-biggest city, Benghazi.

At least 250 people died in Tripoli alone, al-Jazeera reported, citing witnesses. Troops attacked “terror” hideouts and urged citizens to fight back the “organized gangs that are destroying Libya,” state television said. Amid the violence were signs that some officials and troops were deserting.

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George Lakoff: What the right-wing assault on women, unions, the environment, health care and PBS is all about

Democratic message guru George Lakoff on Alternet:

Above all, the authority of conservatism itself must be maintained. The country should be ruled by conservative values, and progressive values are seen as evil. Science should have authority over the market, and so the science of global warming and evolution must be denied. Facts that are inconsistent with the authority of conservatism must be ignored or denied or explained away. To protect and extend conservative values themselves, the devil's own means can be used again conservatism's immoral enemies, whether lies, intimidation, torture, or even death, say, for women's doctors. Freedom is defined as being your own strict father - with individual not social responsibility, and without any government authority telling you what you can and cannot do. To defend that freedom as an individual, you will of course need a gun.

This is the America that conservatives really want. Budget deficits are convenient ruses for destroying American democracy and replacing it with conservative rule in all areas of life.

What is saddest of all is to see Democrats helping them.

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Me on CNN re: Obama budget, Chris Christie and WI

I had a bad cold (and still do), but it seems to have done what no one else could do - slow me down.


(H/t to Jed at DKos) Read the rest of this post...

Undercover TSA agent gets through security with gun, again

Feeling safe now? Remember that this is not the first time and it's likely that there are many more cases that we don't know about. It's a good thing the new budget includes a few hundred million dollars for more porno-scanners. If Washington wants to make a fuss about the budget, maybe they can spend millions on programs that actually work instead of failures like this. Read the rest of this post...

Texas may let kids brings guns to class - what do you mean I didn't get an A?

How could anything possibly go wrong with this?

Texas is preparing to give college students and professors the right to carry guns on campus, adding momentum to a national campaign to open this part of society to firearms.

More than half the members of the Texas House have signed on as co-authors of a measure directing universities to allow concealed handguns. The Senate passed a similar bill in 2009 and is expected to do so again. Republican Gov. Rick Perry, who sometimes packs a pistol when he jogs, has said he's in favor of the idea.

Texas has become a prime battleground for the issue because of its gun culture and its size, with 38 public universities and more than 500,000 students. It would become the second state, following Utah, to pass such a broad-based law. Colorado gives colleges the option and several have allowed handguns.

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Flames from Egypt spread to Morocco, thousands protest change

Another day, another new protest against an entrenched government in North Africa and the Middle East.

Calls for change sweeping the Arab world have now spread to the kingdom of Morocco, where thousands of people have taken to the streets in the capital to demand a new constitution.

The demonstrators shouted slogans calling for economic opportunity, educational reform, better health services and help in coping with rising living costs during the march on central Hassan II Avenue in Rabat on Sunday.

A protest organiser said the turnout at the rally was more than 5,000. But police said fewer than 3,000 people had marched.

Many in the crowd waved Tunisian and Egyptian flags, in recognition of the uprisings that toppled the two country's long-standing rulers.

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GOP Gov. Rick Scott: Keeping Florida safe for drug dealers

NOTE FROM JOHN: I'd like to welcome my friend John Moyers to the blog. John's been a radio and newspaper reporter, and then in late 1998 founded TomPaine.com where, among other things, John created a series of "op-ads" for the opinion page of the New York Times. Basically, every week Tom Paine would buy a quarter page ad on the opinion page of the Times. The ads were quite aggressive and smart, and often inspired their own spin-off news stories (for example, John helped us take on Dr. Laura back in 2000, and got a lot of coverage as a result). John escaped DC for Vermont about eight years ago. We're very glad to welcome him to the blog.
___________________________

John Moyers

In 1513, Ponce de Leon explored what is now Florida in his search for the mythical Fountain of Youth. In modern-day America, pill junkies and the pushers who exploit them find Florida the "Fountain of Use" -- the easiest place to score huge amounts of OxyContin, Xanax and other commonly abused pharmies.

Florida is home to scores of "pain management clinics" where, under the thinnest of pretense, anyone with cash and a bit of patience can get ridiculous numbers of pain pills in one prescription -- literally hundreds in one script. What makes it all possible is Florida's lack of a computerized prescription tracking system like those used in virtually every other state.

Little surprise, then, that people from all over the eastern U.S. flock to the Sunshine State to do a little doctor-shopping before heading back home with bags full of party favors. The consequences are disastrous. For the whole criminally tragic story, check out the compelling, Peabody Award-winning, 2009 documentary from Current TV,The OxyContin Express. The first half reports from Florida, the source, and the second half travels to eastern Kentucky to survey the carnage.

In 2009, after years of complaints from other states, Florida's then-governor, Charlie Crist, finally signed a law that would create a "Prescription Drug Monitoring Program."

And now the news: Florida's current governor, Republican Rick Scott, reportedly intends to repeal the law. Florida will once again be safe for the legalized drug dealers who retail the goods for Big Pharma.

At least one elected official from Kentucky is protesting. "On behalf of my constituents, who continue to suffer from out-of-control and escalating prescription drug diversion originating from your state, I respectfully ask that you reverse your position," wrote Rep. Hal Roders (R-KY) in a letter to Scott.

And White House Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske will tour Kentucky this week to view the problem from there.

Ah, Tea Party Values as personified by Rick Scott: Create a state tracking system so people can't abuse powerful drugs? God forbid the government get in the way of private profit, even if that profit is extracted from the misery of our citizens, and at great cost to all taxpayers.

I need a Valium.

(h/t to CDH in Brooklyn for the tip. When I read CDH's post, the Current TV report came to mind -- it really is a must-watch now.) Read the rest of this post...

Stop blaming unions for the Wall Street recession

Ezra Klein is completely correct. The union-blaming has to stop because they did not cause the recession. If the Democrats weren't so reluctant to lay blame where it should be - Wall Street - and implement real policies that would tame the beast, it would be a lot easier to combat such ridiculous attacks by the GOP. The Republicans have blamed everyone from the poor, minorities, Freddie/Fannie and the stimulus for the bad economy but everyone with open eyes knows that the recession and current bad economy had everything to do with excessive gambling by Wall Street.

Let’s be clear: Whatever fiscal problems Wisconsin is -- or is not -- facing at the moment, they’re not caused by labor unions. That’s also true for New Jersey, for Ohio and for the other states. There was no sharp rise in public workers’ wages in 2006 and 2007, no major reforms of the country’s labor laws, no dramatic change in how unions organize. And yet state budgets collapsed. Revenues plummeted. Taxes had to go up, and spending had to go down, all across the country.

Blame the banks. Blame global capital flows. Blame lax regulation of Wall Street. Blame home buyers, or home sellers. But don’t blame the unions. Not for this recession.

Of course, the fact that public employee pensions didn’t cause a meltdown at Lehman Brothers doesn’t mean they’re not stressing state budgets. But the buildup of global capital that overheated the American housing sector and got packaged into seemingly riskless financial products that then brought down Wall Street, paralyzing the economy, throwing millions out of work, and destroying state revenues even as state residents needed more social services? The answer to that is not to end collective bargaining for public employees. A plus B plus C does not equal what Gov. Scott Walker is attempting in Wisconsin.

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Krugman: The trouble in Wisconsin isn't about budgets, 'it's about power'

Paul Krugman on the unfolding Cairo in Wisconsin (my emphasis throughout):

Last week, in the face of protest demonstrations against Wisconsin’s new union-busting governor, Scott Walker[,] ... Representative Paul Ryan made an unintentionally apt comparison: “It’s like Cairo has moved to Madison.” ...

Mr. Ryan was more right than he knew. For what’s happening in Wisconsin isn’t about the state budget, despite Mr. Walker’s pretense that he’s just trying to be fiscally responsible. It is, instead, about power. What Mr. Walker and his backers are trying to do is to make Wisconsin — and eventually, America — less of a functioning democracy and more of a third-world-style oligarchy. And that’s why anyone who believes that we need some counterweight to the political power of big money should be on the demonstrators’ side.

Ah, the Billionaires' Coup (Frank Rich's phrase). The Professor doesn't mince words — he says it all:

In principle, every American citizen has an equal say in our political process. In practice, of course, some of us are more equal than others. Billionaires can field armies of lobbyists; they can finance think tanks that put the desired spin on policy issues; they can funnel cash to politicians with sympathetic views (as the Koch brothers did in the case of Mr. Walker). On paper, we’re a one-person-one-vote nation; in reality, we’re more than a bit of an oligarchy, in which a handful of wealthy people dominate.

Given this reality, it’s important to have institutions that can act as counterweights to the power of big money. And unions are among the most important of these institutions.

Ah, the Koch brothers; the gift that keeps on taking.

Mr. Krugman points out the "irony" that the fiscal crisis was in fact caused by "the oligarchy" that's now trying to exploit it. Some wouldn't call that irony. Some would call that the plan.

GP Read the rest of this post...

Even more violence in Libya - death toll may be over 500

The protests continue to spread in Libya and AFP now reports that the state run television station has been sacked and set on fire. Gaddafi's son went on TV last night to warn protesters though he remains an unconvincing force in the country. He's promising the same old reforms that we've heard elsewhere but after decades of rule, who could believe such promises? Al Jazeera's live blog of the news from Libya can be found here.

A son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has promised a programme of reforms after bloody protests against his father's rule reached the capital, Tripoli.

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi also hit out at those behind the violence. He said protests against his father's rule, which have been concentrated in the east of the country, threatened to sink Libya into civil war and split the country up into several small states.

Appearing on Libyan state television early on Monday morning, Seif al-Islam said his father is in the country and backed by the army. "We will fight to the last minute, until the last bullet."

He said his father was leading the fight, although he added that some military bases, tanks and weapons had been seized.

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Wife of Nobel peace prize winner held 'hostage' in China

Considering the financial links these days between the US and China, there's little chance of putting much pressure on China to right this wrong. The Guardian:

The wife of the jailed Nobel peace prize laureate Liu Xiaobo said she and her family are "hostages", according to a friend. The comment is thought to be her first contact with the outside world for four months.

Supporters have been unable to reach Liu Xia since shortly after October's announcement that her husband had won the award. It was initially thought she was under house arrest at the couple's home in Beijing, but it is now believed she may be being held at her parents' house.

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UK Uncut stages peaceful sit-in at Barclays bank

What another great idea from this group. The protests are completely peaceful and use the office space of the business freeloaders for more useful purposes. (Here's a bit more background from a few weeks ago.)

At Tottenham Court Road, one of eight branches of Barclays in London to be targeted, some 40 to 50 people heard comedian Josie Lawrence pledge her support, before a group of people held a two-hour sit-in in the bank.

Supporters of UK Uncut said the plan was not to shut the banks down but to "open them up", occupy them and transform them into "something people need but will be cut".

Ruth Griffiths, 36, a UK Uncut supporter, said: "Today we are transforming the banks into schools, leisure centres, and libraries and forests, because it's society that's too big to fail, not a broken banking system."

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