"Dear Abby" is in favor of gay marriage

God bless her. Read the rest of this post...

Larry Craig's "Super Tuber"

You just can't make this stuff up. Read the rest of this post...

Republican Senate Leader MItch McConnell's office led attack on 12 year old

This says almost everything you need to know about Republicans. Major hat tip to Think Progress for exposing the heartless, sick, callous bastards.:

ThinkProgress has obtained an email that congressional sources tell us was sent to reporters by Sen. McConnell’s communications director Don Stewart.

On Monday morning, Don Stewart sent an email with the following text to reporters:

Seen the latest blogswarm? Apparently, there’s more to the story on the kid (Graeme Frost) that did the Dems’ radio response on SCHIP. Bloggers have done a little digging and turned up that the Dad owns his own business (and the building it’s in), seems to have some commercial rental income and Graeme and a sister go to a private school that, according to its website, costs about $20k a year ‹for each kid‹ despite the news profiles reporting a family income of only $45k for the Frosts. Could the Dems really have done that bad of a job vetting this family?

In the email, Stewart attacks Democrats for allegedly doing a bad job “vetting this family.” That effort to blame Democrats for the smear campaign seems to have swayed some reporters, as CNN this morning claimed that the real story is that “the Democrats didn’t do as much of a vetting as they could have done.”

The New York Times reported yesterday that “an aide” to Sen. McConnell “expressed relief that his office had not issued a press release criticizing the Frosts.” No, what the McConnell staffer did was worse — he used the power and privilege of the Senate office to secretly propagate a baseless smear campaign against a 12-year old boy and his family simply because they disagreed on policy.

And, let's be clear. McConnell's staffer is the voice and the conscience of his boss. This is what the GOP leadership office spends time on -- bashing sickly 12 year olds. Well, the GOP leader is also doing everything he can to stay the course in Iraq, too.

One other thing: Someone in McConnell's office basically lied to the NY Times. When the communications director is sending text messages to reporters, it's hard to understand how the unnamed "aide" to McConnell can claim "relief" over their non-involvement. The Times reporter got duped. So, why would any reporter trust McConnell's office? But, then again, the entire Washington press corps has simply regurgitated the lies of Bush and his GOP allies for years. Read the rest of this post...

NeoCon Gold

Brilliant. Read the rest of this post...

Army needs three to four years to recover from Iraq

Well, let's just hope that Iran and North Korea and China are nice enough to give us that four year break we need because Bush broke the US military. From AFP. Read the rest of this post...

Blogging in Cuba

Fascinating article from Reuters about political (and other) blogging in Cuba. In spite of severe government restrictions on Internet access, Cuba appears to have a real political blog culture where they trade in real criticisms of the government:

...the reaction to television programs in December that honored notorious censors from the early 1970s - when Cuba adopted Soviet policies and cracked down on writers, artists and homosexuals - showed the potential of the Internet to effect change.

There was such a flood of e-mail messages from Cuban intellectuals, academics and others with Internet access that the government was obliged to meet with them and issue an apology for the program.

Here are a few of the blogs mentioned in the story:

- Generación Y
- Mi Isla al Mediodia
- Luis Sexto
- Havanascity Read the rest of this post...

Marines want to leave Iraq

The Marines want out of Iraq. They'd rather be fighting in Afghanistan. You remember Afghanistan? The country we've been totally ignoring since we decided to invade Iraq. The country the Taliban and Al Qaeda are taking over again. The country in which George Bush let Osama get away. Yes, that Afghanistan.

So, if the US pulls out of the Coalition of the Willing, then who will lead it? Togo? Read the rest of this post...

NBC's anti-Semitism

Leave it to NBC, the Nothing But Coulter propaganda network, to again give Republican leader Ann Coulter a space to air her bigoted views. NBC always does this, they always have her on, regardless of who she attacks, who she insults, regardless of how bigoted she gets. NBC doesn't care, they want to help Coulter sell books and get ratings, so they always have her back to spew her hate every time she gets a new book deal. They know what she's going to say, but they put her on anyway - that means they endorse it, or at least have no problem with it. Well, this time Coulter says America would be a better place if we could just "fix" those pesky Jews and convert them all to Christianity.

From Editor & Publisher:

Appearing on Donny Deutsch's CNBC show, "The Big Idea," on Monday night, columnist/author Ann Coulter suggested that the U.S. would be a better place if there weren't any Jewish people and that they had "perfected" themselves into -- Christians.

It led Deutsch to suggest that surely he couldn't mean that, and when she insisted she did, he said this sounded "anti-Semitic."

Asked by Deutsch regarding whether she wanted to be like "the head of Iran" and "wipe Israel off the Earth," Coulter stated: "No, we just want Jews to be perfected, as they say. ... That's what Christianity is. We believe the Old Testament."

Read the rest of this post...

National Guard Troops Denied Benefits After Longest Deployment Of Iraq War

FURTHER UPDATE: Cong Tim Walz is all over this.

UPDATE: Read the end of this article. The military appears to be kind of claiming that they've fixed the problem, but it sounds like they're claiming it will be fixed, but it may not be fixed yet. It doesn't read like they're 100% being honest.

Oh my God. The Bush administration sent these guys to fight for 729 days instead of 730 days, because had they been sent for 730 days they'd have gotten education benefits. My God. Okay, Democrats, you've been handed another opportunity to blow up in the GOP's face their lack of respect for our troops. Let's see what you do with this. [crickets]

From WCSH6.com, Minnesota:

When they came home from Iraq, 2,600 members of the Minnesota National Guard had been deployed longer than any other ground combat unit. The tour lasted 22 months and had been extended as part of President Bush's surge.

Casco Bay Ford

1st Lt. Jon Anderson said he never expected to come home to this: A government refusing to pay education benefits he says he should have earned under the GI bill.

"It's pretty much a slap in the face," Anderson said. "I think it was a scheme to save money, personally. I think it was a leadership failure by the senior Washington leadership... once again failing the soldiers."

Anderson's orders, and the orders of 1,161 other Minnesota guard members, were written for 729 days.

Had they been written for 730 days, just one day more, the soldiers would receive those benefits to pay for school.

"Which would be allowing the soldiers an extra $500 to $800 a month," Anderson said.

Apparently they screwed Iowans too. Read the rest of this post...

Iraq-China weapons deal a reproach to U.S. policy

Some guy named Rossmiller has a piece up at the American Prospect analyzing the highly symbolic -- and completely overlooked -- arms deal between Iraq and China announced last week. The author sounds like your standard loser Very Serious Person (fellow at a think tank, former intel officer -- obviously just masquerading as a real progressive), but the article isn't half bad (if I may say). It discusses the $100 million agreement for China to supply Iraq with weapons, saying that the move is basically a big middle finger from Iraqi government leadership to the U.S., a nonverbal message disapproving of our political and military strategy there:

This small assertion of independence -- involving the only nation with an economy and military to rival the United States, no less -- reflects increasing Iraqi dissatisfaction with U.S. policy. The Shia-dominated Maliki government is profoundly concerned about the recent U.S. strategy of arming Sunnis, ostensibly against al-Qaeda, in Iraq's western, Sunni-controlled Anbar province. Shia leaders have warned against this program, complaining that arming and training "former" insurgents serves to arm a dissatisfied and rebellious anti-government force . . .

Perversely, as the United States is triumphant about Sunni efforts against jihadists, Maliki and his allies recognize that al-Qaeda is a far less potent threat to the central government than Iraqi Sunnis. This dissatisfaction remained below the surface for some time, but no longer . . . The UIA demanded a halt to the outreach, and it is clear that the Shia are gravely concerned about the possibility that the United States may seek to expand the Anbar plan to Baghdad.

It continues to baffle me that analysts focus on micro military questions. Body counts. Territory. The "surge." The issues that will change the direction of the country are political, and we really need to start looking at (and thinking about) it in that context.

Anyway, the whole thing is worth a look. Go check it out. Read the rest of this post...

Bush immigration crackdown found unconstitutional

Lou Dobbs, Tom Tancredo and all their immigrant-bashing friends must be apoplectic right now. A federal judge ruled against the Bush plan to target illegal immigrants:

A U.S. federal court judge on Wednesday blocked a key part of the Bush administration's stepped-up efforts to crack down on illegal immigrant workers and those who employ them.

Judge Charles Breyer of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California granted a preliminary injunction against a program that would force employers to verify Social Security numbers and fire workers whose numbers did not match official records.

The federal program developed by the Department of Homeland Security is at the heart of a new crackdown on the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the country, after Congress failed to pass comprehensive immigration reform.

But the "no-match letter" program was challenged in a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union, the AFL-CIO and other labor groups claiming it was unlawful and hurt all workers, including legal ones affected by errors in the data base.

Read the rest of this post...

Thursday Morning Open Thread

This already feels like it's been a long week. And, it seems far from over.

Five years ago today, the U.S. Senate voted on H. Res. 114, "A joint resolution to authorize the use of United States Armed Forces against Iraq." Pretty clear from the title what it was attempting to accomplish. The roll call vote is here. Read the rest of this post...

Bush administration again drags feet on food recall

What exactly does it take to get this administration to take action? How many people have to get sick or even die before they think it's time to announce a problem? How many more examples such as this does Congress need before they modernize the food recall system? Let's take an honest look at what the Gingrich-GOP Congress "let business self-regulate" has delivered. Businesses hate to report problems like this because it's embarrassing and bad PR which is bad for business. They have too much to gain hoping that it somehow blows over, as it easily can since the government has no authority to announce recalls and must wait in the business to deliver a recall.

Meanwhile, people are becoming ill and we even see the extreme cases where consumers even die. Is it so difficult to find a middle ground here? Can we not find a solution that protects consumers and makes it easier for businesses to cooperate? The administration loves to talk about how they are keeping Americans safe though with food, they only people they want to protect are corporate food executives. Somehow relying on a grocery store chain to provide the first line of support for consumers is not very comforting. Read the rest of this post...

Look Laura, just like George!

Maybe the junta in Myanmar also calls it "enhanced interrogation" just like George. So does this mean Laura will also be speaking out against torture by the US or is she just another fraud who thinks torture is OK when it's done by Americans?

A Myanmar opposition leader who was arrested during last month's mass protests against the junta died due to torture during interrogation, an activist group said on Wednesday.

Read the rest of this post...

McCain to deliver boring new health care plan with more of the same

No wonder this guy is so far behind, but then again, the rest of the GOP team running is clueless about health care as well. If this is his radical new plan to address the "perfect storm" that in his words "will cause our health care system to implode" if not addressed by the next president, then we are in trouble. There are plenty of health insurance companies out there today, all of whom make avoiding payment very profitable for their executives and shareholders, so providing access to even more, well, how is that going to really open up competition?

I think my favorite part of his plan is the old favorite "tax credit" which is somehow supposed to be helpful. Anyone who has ever filled out their 1040 knows that a tax credit of this size is a sorry joke that tries to give you the illusion of being meaningful but we all know it makes such a small amount of difference to most people. McCain and the Republicans still prefer the after-tax tax which means that you pay your taxes and then you pay money out of pocket for crappy and expensive health insurance. Wow, but don't forget about that "tax credit" that is going to save you so much money at the end of the year.

Because you've already paid your standard taxes before you pay out of your own pocket for your insurance, this will be much more expensive compared to a national plan which yes, it is a tax. Big deal, so what if it's a tax? Just because you are not calling it a tax (with McCain's plan) doesn't mean it's not having the same or worse impact on your own personal budget. It's obvious the GOP doesn't understand this point considering their spending binges but money does not just fall from the sky and competition doesn't just happen. Considering how jury-rigged the GOP has made American business (think Halliburton, think telecoms, think health care) this is a bunch of fluff and wishful thinking. They always love to get caught up in words like "tax" and "socialism" instead of focusing on what this means and the actual end result. Grow up and focus on the damned facts.

Looking at the plan that McCain is promoting, you just have to wonder if this is the case of yet another Washington insider who has never filled in a tax form or paid for his own insurance or battled with insurance companies over payments, deductibles and what is even covered. While the GOP all blasts any plan related to the government, they miss the point that if you have a government backbone to the system, this provides you with an enormous tool for leveraging power to negotiate. (Of course, this is an alien concept to the GOP as we discovered with handing out contracts in Iraq, post-Katrina and pharmaceuticals for Medicare.) Importing drugs from Canada or elsewhere is not a long term solution and only burdening the Canadian system and delaying the real issue which is negotiating for pharmaceuticals. Negotiating used to be part of the business process in America but now seems so old fashioned if not useless to the GOP.

People in the real world are looking for a real solution and are fed up with the same tired old plans that have been swirling around for decades. All of the GOP candidates think that if they somehow tweak the system here and there it's going to miraculously save the system but because Washington has foot-dragged for so long, we're well past that stage. The damned thing has been busted and needs to be modernized. Whether we have a pure government run system or a hybrid (as we have here in France, WHO #1 system in the world) is something we need to debate but it's obvious to most that it's time for change. The American health care system has the potential to be great but to any honest observer, it is far from great today and the McCain plan does nothing to change this. Read the rest of this post...