CNN host uses anti-black slur on the air

Oreo Cookie? Gee, will CNN hosts starting using the n-word next? And we have the honor of this cretin moving over to ABC's Good Morning America soon, since apparently ABC would like to continue its tradition of airing the views of far-right loons.

But Oreo Cookie on Martin Luther King's birthday? That's really a new low. Read the rest of this post...

Open thread

67 degrees outside. Global warming is SWEET. Read the rest of this post...

Senate passes legislation stripping convicted lawmakers of pensions

Brought to you by the new Democratic Congress. Read the rest of this post...

UK Conservatives move to cut emissions by 80%

Can you even imagine the GOP promoting such policy? The US knuckle draggers prefer pretending as though there is no problem while soaking up contributions from those who want to spread confusion.

The Conservatives are considering a plan to beef up the Climate Change Bill to be published shortly, which will include the Government's goal of cutting emissions by 60 per cent by 2050. A Tory policy review group favours an 80 per cent reduction and the Tories may table an amendment to the Bill along these lines.

Ministers are worried that such a move would put Labour on the defensive and allow the Tory leader, David Cameron, to make the running on the issue. They fear that many Labour MPs and the Liberal Democrats would vote in favour of an 80 per cent cut, which could result in an embarrassing defeat for the Government.

Read the rest of this post...

Honey, AP shrunk the Republicans

Note AP's interesting use of the term "some" in this paragraph about Bush's new escalation plan for Iraq:

Democrats in Congress -- along with some Republicans -- were unimpressed and frustrated. Beyond promising to go on record in opposition to the president's approach, the Democratic leadership is considering whether, and how, to cut off funding for additional troops.

In fact, Democrats and Republicans, both, were unimpressed and frustrated - not "some" Republicans, but rather, REPUBLICANS with no qualifier. There was a meeting of Republicans with the president at the White House - Friday was it? - and only one Republican said he was on board, ONE. All the rest had misgivings. That's not "some" Republicans, that's most Republicans, or even better, just Republicans (since not all Democrats oppose the policy - aka Lieberman).

Yet again the media prefer to make this a partisan battle, rather than simply reporting the truth, namely, that it's now Bush against the world. Having said that, the more the media portrays this as Democrats vs. Bush, the better it is for us. Democrats will be seen by the American public as the only ones with the courage to stand up against the idiot. And that can only benefit us come the next elections.

Still, it'd be nice if AP would simply stick with the truth. If only "some" Republicans have misgiving about Bush's "surge" escalation, then I look forward to AP naming the overwhelming majority of Republicans who apparently proudly and publicly support the president's "new" policy. In the Senate, I can only think of three: McCain; Graham; and McConnell. Read the rest of this post...

Bush on 60 Minutes lies about lying about Iraq

Okay. I forced myself to watch the 60 Minutes interview with Bush last night. You should know that your President feels "blessed" to have his job. The rest of us don't quite share that view.

The best exchange came when Scott Pelley recited a litany of lies from the Bush administration about the Iraq war. Because polite people don't call other people liars even when they are, Pelley used other language like "not been straight" and "not been honest." But basically he challenged Bush on the lies about the Iraq war:

"You know better than I do that many Americans feel that your administration has not been straight with the country, has not been honest. To those people you say what?" Pelley asks.

"On what issue?" the president replies. "Like the weapons of mass destruction?"

"No weapons of mass destruction," Pelley says.

"Yeah," Bush says.

"No credible connection between 9/11 and Iraq," Pelley says.

“Yeah,” the president replies.

“The Office of Management and Budget said this war would cost somewhere between $50 billion and $60 billion and now we're over 400,” Pelley says.

“I gotcha. I gotcha. I gotcha,” Bush replies.

“The perception, Sir, more than any one of those points, is that the administration has not been straight with…,” Pelley says.

“Well, I strongly disagree with that, of course,” Bush says. “So I strongly reject that this administration hasn’t been straight with the American people. The minute we found out they didn’t have weapons of mass destruction, I was the first to say so.”

So, yeah, yeah, yeah. He gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. Bush basically admitted all his major arguments about Iraq were lies. Then, he lied again saying he hasn't lied. In Bush world, just because something is a lie doesn't make it a lie.

How can anyone believe anything the guy says? Read the rest of this post...

Bush to veto Medicare legislation

What is with the GOP and their hatred of all things related to competition? Their Soviet style attacks on competition are un-American and shameful. Why do they always insist on blocking all attempts to introduce competition into the American market? I know that Bush owes his position to Big Pharma, Big Oil, Big Banking, etc, but is it really that difficult to support good old fashioned competition? With all of the money that Bush and the GOP wasted over the last six years, why is it wrong to try and reign in costs that benefit the average tax payer? Does the GOP have to be so obvious with their handouts to their corporate friends over regular people? Why does Bush and the GOP hate the American way? Read the rest of this post...

Monday Morning Open Thread

It's Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday. In April of 1967, King gave a speech called "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break the Silence." A brief excerpt gives the sense of the eerie and disturbing parallels between then and now.

At this point I should make it clear that while I have tried in these last few minutes to give a voice to the voiceless in Vietnam and to understand the arguments of those who are called "enemy," I am as deeply concerned about our own troops there as anything else. For it occurs to me that what we are submitting them to in Vietnam is not simply the brutalizing process that goes on in any war where armies face each other and seek to destroy. We are adding cynicism to the process of death, for they must know after a short period there that none of the things we claim to be fighting for are really involved. Before long they must know that their government has sent them into a struggle among Vietnamese, and the more sophisticated surely realize that we are on the side of the wealthy, and the secure, while we create a hell for the poor.

Somehow this madness must cease. We must stop now. I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor of Vietnam. I speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes are being destroyed, whose culture is being subverted. I speak for the poor of America who are paying the double price of smashed hopes at home, and death and corruption in Vietnam. I speak as a citizen of the world, for the world as it stands aghast at the path we have taken. I speak as one who loves America, to the leaders of our own nation: The great initiative in this war is ours; the initiative to stop it must be ours.

Even if the silence is broken now, there's no guranatee George Bush will hear it. Read the rest of this post...

Lettuce may have been source of E.coli outbreaks

Investigations for both the Taco John and Taco Bell outbreaks are both pointing towards lettuce from California. Despite the numerous serious food problems, to date, there is no serious movement to repair the federal protections that twelve years of GOP rule trashed. Talk is just talk. Let's see what the Democrats will do about this. Read the rest of this post...

Two more hangings in Iraq

But don't worry, the Iraqi spokesman said they were dignified. So does that mean no videos or is does that mean no taunting and dancing?

CORRECTION: Apparently it was a very dignified decapitation. Read the rest of this post...