The seals get a reprieve

We wrote the other day about the San Diego seals who were being evicted. They just got a reprieve. Read the rest of this post...

Letterman says his goodbye to Palin

Tomorrow is Palin's last day...
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Bush considered sending troops to Buffalo, NY

Those were different times, right after September 11, but still. This is how great nations descend into... well, something else. Read the rest of this post...

Obama to have Harvard Prof and arresting cop to White House for a beer

Personally, I find it a bit odd. But if it works to quell the uproar, then I guess that's a good thing. Still... What do you think? Is this helping us all put this behind us, or is it just feeding the flames even more? Read the rest of this post...

Those wacky Europeans

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Rachel Maddow corrects Pat Buchanan about race in America

She really gets rolling the second half. It's definitely worth a watch.

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How Cheney tried really really hard to pardon Scooter

From TIME:

Hours before they were to leave office after eight troubled years, George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney had one final and painful piece of business to conclude. For over a month Cheney had been pleading, cajoling, even pestering Bush to pardon the Vice President's former chief of staff, I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby. Libby had been convicted nearly two years earlier of obstructing an investigation into the leak of a covert CIA officer's identity by senior White House officials. The Libby pardon, aides reported, had become something of a crusade for Cheney, who seemed prepared to push his nine-year-old relationship with Bush to the breaking point — and perhaps past it — over the fate of his former aide. "We don't want to leave anyone on the battlefield," Cheney argued.

Bush had already decided the week before that Libby was undeserving and told Cheney so, only to see the question raised again. A top adviser to Bush says he had never seen the Vice President focused so single-mindedly on anything over two terms. And so, on his last full day in office, Jan. 19, 2009, Bush would give Cheney his final decision.

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Saturday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

John Lundberg, who writes the poem of the week blog, had a great column over at Huffington this week. It's titled, Sarah Palin, the Anti-Poet. Fun read. Unlike poets who offer enlightenment, John explains that Palin "offers delightenment--if that were like, you know, a word. Quote unquote. All those things."

There hasn't been much enlightenment in politics from any this past week. The Democrats on Capitol Hill should be ashamed, especially the Blue Dogs and some of the wimpy Freshmen. Max Baucus, too. They're trying so hard to punt on health care reform, it boggles the mind. They're doing the dirty work of the GOP. Again. Democrats have power for a reason. They were elected to deliver. Democrats cannot go on vacation without passing health care reform. They just can't. It makes one wonder if our leaders have the capacity to solve problems anymore.

At least it's the weekend... Read the rest of this post...

Sestak and Specter to appear together at Netroots Nation

Be there or be square.

Senator Arlen Specter and primary challenger Joe Sestak have both agreed to hold a joint candidate forum next month, I’ve learned, their first joint appearance since Sestak committed to the Senate race and a sign that this hotly anticipated Senate campaign is rapidly becoming a reality.

Making the joint appearance more interesting, it’s set to take place on August 14th at Netroots Nation, an unlikely forum for Specter given his decades as a Republican, meaning the event will pique intense blogospheric interest.

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When Grassley Tweets

GOP Senator Chuck Grassley keeps tweeting about health care. It's all a bit odd. You''ll recall that Senator Grassley is the guy who thinks that if you want better health care, you should just go work for the government. Yet now he's afraid of a big government takeover, after he told every American to go work for the government. Not to mention, if the government is so bad, then why does Chuck Grassley work for it himself? I think Grassley is getting a bit confused. Read the rest of this post...

Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) rears her ugly, stupid head -- again

As a rule, we don't use terms like "ugly" and "stupid" very often. But, sometimes, there's no other way to describe some people.

Most Americans had never heard of Congresswoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) until she infamously said on the House floor that Matthew Shepard's murder was a hoax:

this -- the bill was named for him, hate crimes bill was named for him, but it's really a hoax that that continues to be used as an excuse for passing these bills.

Stupid and hateful.

She's back with more stupidity -- this time on health care. Via Think Progress, here's her latest gem:

There are no Americans who don’t have healthcare. Everybody in this country has access to healthcare

That should be of great comfort to all those Americans who think they don't have access to health care. The Republicans don't live in the real world. Read the rest of this post...