Really? Then what DID he mean by "banana-eating jungle monkey"?

(CNN) -- A Boston, Massachusetts, police officer who sent a mass e-mail referring to Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. as a "banana-eating jungle monkey" didn't intend to express bigoted views or cause pain, his attorney said in a statement Thursday night.

Attorney Peter T. Marano wrote. "Justin Barrett ... has made a mistake -- his poor choice in words is that mistake. Justin never intended for these words to bear such a racial connotation."

Really? What did he mean? That Dr. Gates is a potassium-weilding super-hero? Like Grape Ape or King Kong, but more nutritionally-minded?

Obama wants to kill old people

The scare tactics continue.

The right is trying to convince people that any government health plan will include killing old people.



There is a section in the House bill that allows Medicare to reimburse providers for consulting with patients about end-of-life issues. However nothing in the section mandates a consultation. This is an optional benefit. Optional, as in "choice." Benefit, as in something "good" or "helpful."

The shame here is two-fold. One, the right is trying to skew the debate by scaring the bejesus out of people. With a lie, I might add. Two, this does damage to the idea of living wills.

Have we forgotten Terri Schiavo? Living wills are one of the best things one can do for their family. Removing doubts about the end-of-life care wishes we'll all have to deal with is a GOOD thing.

This type of outright fear-mongering shows how far the right will go to lie their way out of a bill that will hurt their corporate masters.

This is a lie on par with the whole birther movement. They've even suckered Chris Matthews.


How long until Robot Insurance?

Americans do NOT prefer private insurance; unsure on hypocrisy

Republicans are tripping all over themselves to get busted in an extra-marital affair convince people that Americans don't like government health care. Unfortuantely, the numbers don't back them up.



Today, you've got Mike Pence displaying the hypocrisy of the Republicans and the Blue Dog Democrats on the issue:

PENCE: This is not a deal that will go over well with the American people. They understand what a governmentment run insurance plan will mean.

PENCE: A government run insurance option that the President’s insisted on is going to amount to a government takeover of our health care economy.

PENCE (challenged by Andrea Mitchell on support for Medicare): Oh, no, I support Medicare, and have supported the program.

This is like saying, "I hate meat. Despise it. Meat is shit. But I love beef!"

The Lou Dobbs Problem at CNN

Lou Dobbs, at odds with his own network's coverage of the "birther" non-issue, is becoming an increasing liability. Why? Because he's turning from a covert racist into an overt one.



And Chris Matthews says Beck is "talking to" the "hating tribalists ... living in nightly fear of the black helicopters"

Amazingly, Scarborough gets one right

I've been trying to avoid this because it's just too much crazy. But the other day, Glenn beck called President Obama a "racist". Said he had a problem with white people and white culture.

Now, remember, Obama is HALF-WHITE! But why would silly things like facts stop the by-now-clearly-insane Beck?

Today, Morning Joe, sans Joe, weighed in on the subject.


Joe couldn't stay away, taking to his Twitter account:

ARE YOU SERIOUS??? did Glenn Beck really say the president has a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture?" Outrageous.

and 7 minutes later:

Conservatives attacked the Dixie Chicks for saying much less about President Bush than what Beck said about President Obama.

Didn't rants like this used to cost the ranters their jobs?

Jon Stewart couldn't resist

Goodbye to the Thrilla from Wasilla


Then Jason Jones reports live from Alaska with a message for the media:

Sarha Palin's farewell address

"And getting up here I say it is the best road trip in America soaring through nature's finest show. Denali, the great one, soaring under the midnight sun. And then the extremes. In the winter time it's the frozen road that is competing with the view of ice fogged frigid beauty, the cold though, doesn't it split the Cheechakos from the Sourdoughs? And then in the summertime such extreme summertime about a hundred and fifty degrees hotter than just some months ago, than just some months from now, with fireweed blooming along the frost heaves and merciless rivers that are rushing and carving and reminding us that here, Mother Nature wins. It is as throughout all Alaska that big wild good life teeming along the road that is north to the future. That is what we get to see every day. Now what the rest of America gets to see along with us is in this last frontier there is hope and opportunity and there is country pride."
—Sarah Palin in her farewell address

I went north to the shoes through the boundary of lettuce and we soared on eagles feet through the sunlit sunlight until God's rain of freedom fell upon the roads and the people and the snails and the flags and the caribou and the paper towels.

This is a totally random interjection of military references, 150-degree weather forecasts, descriptions of "merciless" rivers -- just outstanding oratory.

Merciless rivers?

Seriously? Did she just accidentally erase a bunch of words that used to be in the speech?

How is bi-partisanship supposed to compete with this shit?

The Bush Tax Cuts

I referenced these figures from Citizens for Tax Justice regarding the Bush Tax Cuts in another post, and then started looking more.

In June of 2001, Bush signed a bill cutting taxes by $1.3 trillion - more than the cost of the House Health Care Bill and less than the Lie In Iraq has cost. Here are some really interesting figures.

Although everyone's taxes went down, look at the percentages. Look at whose dropped the most. The upper 1%'s taxes dropped by almost double the next closest demographic.

Next, look at the change in share of total taxes paid. The Top 1% paid 2.4% less. Those in the top third of wealth (upper middle class, from 61-99) paid more.

But it's the true middle and lower classes that interest me the most. Their share didn't change much at all. They still carry the same amount of burden. The truly interesting part is that these are the people being duped by the GOP. These are the Palin-ites. These are the teabaggers. These are the people who have been fooled into thinking that the Republicans represent their issues, are fighting for their tax dollars.

It's all bullshit. They're fighting to protect the interests of the very, very, very wealthy.

It's all a con and still some people are dumb enough to buy it.

Questions I have, part 1: when is a trillion not a trillion?

When Bush signed his $1.3 trillion tax cut in June of 2001, a cut that largely benefited the super-wealthy, who screamed and complained?

When Bush took us to war with an unknown price tag, who wondered 'how will we pay for it'?

So now, why does the right wing get so breathless about a health care plan that provides what should be a basic human right, and according to the CBO, will generate a surplus?

Why are wars and handouts to the rich preferable to basic health care for all?

** benefits of the Bush tax cuts here (Center for American Progress) and here (Citizens for Tax Justice)

Questions I have, part 2: what's worse, being stupid or hypocritical?

Thinking about Lou Dobbs and the birther nonsense, and then thinking about Hannity and Limbaugh and Beck, I wonder this:

Would it be worse if they really believed the nonsense and hate and animus and lies that they spit, or would it be worse if they were just feeding their audience?

As former CNN producer Chez puts it:

What's worth elaborating on when it comes to Lou Dobbs's alliance with the birther movement, though, is this: There's just no way Dobbs really believes the horseshit he's spouting in this case. He may be a demagogic buffoon; he may even enjoy playing the fascist paranoiac afraid of Mexicans infiltrating his precious bodily fluids; but he's by no means a blithering idiot. There's simply no way Dobbs is dumb enough to believe that Barack Obama isn't a U.S. citizen -- or even that the jury is still out on the issue. Like a lot of the nonsense Lou Dobbs spews, this is simply another case of a popular talking head knowing his audience and playing it like a badly tuned fiddle.

So is it worse that Dobbs will continue to spout what he knows are un-truths, just so he can keep up with the nutjobs who are beating him in the ratings?

I think it might be. We can't fault the insane for their insanity, but a sane man should know better.