| Franken wins another round, but victory still eludes A Minnesota trial court today ordered Norm Coleman's campaign to reimburse Al Franken nearly $95,000 in costs accrued fighting the battle to this point. Coleman had asked the trial court to stay ruling on the legal expenses until after the state supreme court hands down it's decision, and today's ruling was just one more in a long line of stinging judicial defeats that Coleman has suffered since taking the election to the courts.
Timing could be better here, don't you think? The very day that a white supremacist and right wing extremist committed murder at the National Holocaust Museum, the Missouri State Highway Patrol told a special interim House panel that the state 'fusion center' will not be producing any more intelligence reports. Never mind the fact that the report that was leaked to the press last spring about third-party supporters and militia involvement was every bit as on-the-mark as the DHS report on right-wing extremists. (I'm sure it's just a coincidence that wingnuts of the batshit-insane variety hold the Missouri House, the state patrol was before a House panel, and the people the patrol was concerned about make up the base of the deranged idiots the patrol was testifying before.)
I have been saying this for years Health care professionals want single payer, and most of us who have initials behind our names other than M.D. wanted it in 1993, but who listens to us? Maybe someone will listen to the physicians who have been squeezed by insurance companies from every direction for years who said it to a House panel today. "Single-payer is the only reform that can control health care costs," said Walter Tsou, a University of Pennsylvania professor and an adviser to Physicians for a National Health Program. The last 50 years of government policy have protected insurance industry profits at the expense of taxpayers, doctors and hospitals, he said. "Our most famous radical document begins with the words, 'We the People.' Not 'We the Insurers,'" he said. "It is time for our own generation's revolution."
So don't put too much stock in the A.M.A.s bluster about opposing a public option. They opposed Medicare, too, remember, and these leopards are far too old to change their spots. It is also worth noting that less than 40% of all physicians in this country are A.M.A. members. The bulk of their membership is over 70, white and conservative. The A.M.A. hasn't enjoyed majority membership or been taken seriously by anyone who isn't a fellow old white guy for at least the two and a half decades that my career spanned.
This is what successful terror-fighting looks like Terror suspects apprehended in Germany's largest terrorism case in a generation decided Tuesday to plead guilty to plotting a series of deadly bombings that were thwarted by diligent and competent police work.
Well, Duh! Anyone who has ever spent so much as five minutes in the comments section knows that The Politico is wingnut bait. I actually kinda thought it was a given that they manipulate their headlines a la Drudge, to draw the halibut with two right eyeballs to their site.
Never in a million years Operation Rescue's overtures that they want to buy Dr. Tiller's clinic are just a desperate attempt to keep their name in the media and the donations coming in. The Tiller family will never - let me repeat - NEVER sell the property to those terrorist sympathizers and murderous criminals. But for anyone who had any lingering doubts about just how fetid, vile, debased and craven those misogynistic assholes are, this stunt ought to clear them right up.
One down, one to go We unloaded one of the car companies we own today when the deal between Fiat and Chrysler was finalized.
Another Bachmann conspiracy theory, shot to hell If shutting down car dealerships based on political affiliation of the person holding the dealership was really a factor, why would a Democratic Senator step in and help save a dealership owned by a partisan republican? (Maybe because it isn't a political issue, and never was? Pardon me for a sec, but I have a mini-rant to get off my chest...that allegation never made any sense - and if you have ever met a car dealer, you know what I mean...of course a majority of the dealerships that were closed donated to republicans...since most car dealers are republicans.)
While Villagers watched Newt and Sarah not fight...Huckabee worked Iowa. While all eyes were on the NRSC/NRCC fundraiser, Mike Huckabee was making his third trip to the state since he won the 2008 republican caucus. My rural Missouri grandparents warned me about preachers, but I never grasped what they were saying until this guy popped up in my radar. Now I get it.
The display of backbone by Contessa Brewer was nice and refreshing and all but really, if John Ziegler wasn't booked to appear on camera, the host wouldn't have to get pissed off at his predictable asshattery and tell the sound tech to 'cut his mic.' He continues to act like a jackass because he pays no penalty for acting like a jackass; and so long as the former holds, the latter will remain true as well.
He really is the gift that keeps on giving Michael Steele, proving once more that he has no idea what the fuck is going to fall out when he opens his mouth, has declared that nobody knows what the hell "big tent" means, and instead made the analogy that the GOP is "like a hat." Then it gets weird...Some wear it backwards, he added, echoing a past statement, "because that's how they roll." But "the strength of the party is in this: ... the fact that you're willing to put the damn thing on... The problem we've had as a party is: too many of our friends, neighbors, colleagues are taking the hat off, because we've decided we don't like the way they wear it... The GOP is not about how you wear the hat, but the fact that you want to wear the hat."
The Donald to Miss California: "You're fired!" Donald Trump, who owns the "Miss USA" pageant, issued a statement today saying that controversial, homophobic Ms. California USA Carrie Prejean had been fired for 'failing to honor her commitments' that accompany the tiara. Tami Farrell, the first runner-up to Prejean, will take over the duties of the position, although I don't know what those entail when we get past 'waving from the back of a convertible during parades.'
Imagine that! Mitch McConnell has his dainties wedged in his taint again! This time he is issuing dire warnings about "consequences" if Democrats "rush" the confirmation hearings for Judge Sotomayor. Consequences...consequences...that word has a familiar ring to it...Oh yes! I remember now! Consequences are those things that republicans, when they were in the majority, used to delight in telling Democrats go hand-in-hand with elections! Right, Minority leader McConnell?
Smart money says he apologized to Rush but not to Dick South Carolina Governor Marc Sanford thinks it "probably isn't" good that Cheney is the voice of the GOP, and that Cheney and Limbaugh should both shut up and let some other voices emerge.
And finally...
Quote of the day This little nugget was my reward for slogging all the way through a Zogby poll that measured the use habits and attitudes of Americans toward the internet and emerging technologies: Finally, we asked whether people thought the average 10-year-old or their Congressperson knew more about the Internet, 83% chose the child and 9% the Congressperson. |
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Best New SoapBlox - 2008
