Condemned for saying "Happy holidays"

75 Republicans in the House of Representatives want to pass a resolution condemning people for saying "Happy holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas."

I'm not making that up.

But wait, there's more.

The sponsor basically only wants to get a dig in at the president, and it turns out the congressman is a big, fat hypocrite:

Declaring that the Obamas' holiday card doesn't mention Christmas, Brown said, "I believe that sending a Christmas card without referencing a holiday and its purpose limits the Christmas celebration in favor of a more 'politically correct' holiday." Brown's fight to preserve Christmas and shun "happy holidays" has earned him the title of "patriot" from noted culture warrior Bill O'Reilly.

However, Brown's 2008 December newsletter wished a "happy holiday" to his constituents for the "holiday season." Although the newsletter had a link to the White House Christmas tree website, it made no other mention of Christ or Christmas. And as Slate's Chris Beam has observed, Brown didn't introduce his resolution last year, even though President Bush's 2008 holiday card didn't mention Christmas either.

Question about Limbaugh

Did entertainer Rush Limbaugh exaggerate his chest pains for publicity? You know, like he accused Michael J. Fox of doing with his Parkinson's?

More bad news for right wingers

Good news for the country makes right wingers upset.

Jobless claims hit 17-month low

432,000 jobless claims filed last week for lowest level since July 2008.

Rush Limbaugh update

CNN is now reporting that Limbaugh is "alert" and "resting comfortably." Pretty lucky that he's able to get good health care in the "foreign" and "un-American" Hawaii.

Another report says that Limbaugh told paramedics he was taking "medication" for his back. Recall that Limbaugh claimed he had become addicted to Oxycontin because of "back problems."

Rush Limbaugh rushed to hospital

Rush Limbaugh has been admitted to the hospital in Hawaii with chest pains. Thank goodness he has good health insurance.

I understand medical experts are being called in to try and locate his heart.

Giddy

I haven't seen Republicans this happy in years. They are positively GIDDY after the attempted Christmas Day terrorist attack. Their faces are shiny again, their skin is glowing, they look ecstatic. Dick Cheney jumped out of his Dr. Strangelove wheelchair and danced a jig!

White House slaps down Dick

The White House issues a very strong slapdown of Dick Cheney.

[I]t is telling that Vice President Cheney and others seem to be more focused on criticizing the Administration than condemning the attackers....

First, it’s important that the substantive context be clear: for seven years after 9/11, while our national security was overwhelmingly focused on Iraq – a country that had no al Qaeda presence before our invasion – Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda's leadership was able to set up camp in the border region of Pakistan and Afghanistan, where they continued to plot attacks against the United States. Meanwhile, al Qaeda also regenerated in places like Yemen and Somalia, establishing new safe-havens that have grown over a period of years....

To put it simply: this President is not interested in bellicose rhetoric, he is focused on action. Seven years of bellicose rhetoric failed to reduce the threat from al Qaeda and succeeded in dividing this country. And it seems strangely off-key now, at a time when our country is under attack, for the architect of those policies to be attacking the President....

President Obama doesn’t need to beat his chest to prove it, and – unlike the last Administration – we are not at war with a tactic (“terrorism”), we at war with something that is tangible: al Qaeda and its violent extremist allies.

Update on TSA nominee

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will force the confirmation of a Transportation Security Administration chief back into motion as soon as the Senate reconvenes on January 19th.

Talking Points Memo reports: "Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will schedule a formal Senate roll call vote on the nomination of Errol Southers," the Obama appointee who Republican Senator Jim DeMint has blocked for the past four months over worries about TSA employees being able to unionize. Reid will file a cloture motion to overcome DeMint's block.

Reid's promise to act comes in the wake of widespread Democratic outrage over DeMint's continued politicization of the confirmation, even after the recent terror attempt on a trans-national airliner headed to Detroit.

Who's in charge at the TSA?

One of the people who might rightly come under questioning and criticism in the aftermath of the failed Christmas Day plot to blow up an airliner bound for Detroit is the head of the Transportation Safety Administration... If there was one.

President Obama had nominated Errol Southers -- the former top cop at LAX and counterterrorism official in California -- to head up the TSA, but he hasn't been able to take his position. That's because Republican Senator Jim DeMint has placed a hold on Southers' appointment.

Why?

Southers has refused to pledge he would stop a unionization effort at the TSA so DeMint has put the brakes on the nomination. Because there might be a move to bring in a union, DeMint believes we're safer not having anyone in charge of the TSA while terrorists are trying to sneak bombs onto planes.

And that's why no one's in charge at the TSA.

Rewriting history

Recently, former Bush press secretary Dana Perino said, with a straight face and totally oblivious to the facts, "We did not have a terrorist attack on our country during President Bush's term." And the Fox News hosts offered not a word of correction.

At first I thought it was just Dana being stupid, trying to claim that 9-11 didn't happen on Bush's watch. But now it looks like a deliberate attempt by right wing pundits to rewrite history, because Mary Matalin has just joined in the fun.

Matalin, speaking of the Bush presidency, said, "We inherited the most tragic attack on our own soil in our nation's history."

I always thought that Bush was sworn into office in January 2001, and according to the unidirectional nature of this particular time-space continuum, September 2001 came AFTER that. Are right wing pundits are now trying to tell us that 9-11 happened in 2000, maybe?

Some other reasons for the season

Let us now somberly remind ourselves of the true reason for the season.

His birth was announced by a bright star in the east on December 25th. Three wise men came to him. His mother was a virgin. He died, and was resurrected. He was the Son of God.

Jesus? Uh, no, Horus. Horus did this before Jesus, like, way back in ancient Egypt.

Let’s try again.

He had twelve disciples. His mother was also a virgin. He walked on water. He fed five hundred people with a small amount of food. He went around healing the sick and performing miracles.

Jesus? No, sorry, that was Buddha. Again, predates Jesus by about 500 or so years.

Damn, let’s try again.

His mom was, you guessed it, a virgin. He was the son of a carpenter. He was baptized. He went around performing miracles and even raised people from the dead. The authorities persecuted him, finally succeeded in crucifying him. But he came alive again on the third day, and then in front of many witnesses, ascended to heaven.

Jesus? Heh, don’t get ahead of me. No, this one was Krishna. His story predates Jesus by about a thousand years.

Okay, let’s see if we can get this right. I know you’re getting upset.

He was born on December 25th, attended by shepherds. He had twelve disciples. Went around doing miracles. They called him “The Lamb.” He was also called “the way, the truth and the life.” Some other names he was called: “Logos,” “Redeemer,” “Savior,” “Messiah.” He died, and was resurrected on the third day. He was the Son of God.

That’s GOTTA be Jesus! Nope, sorry, that was Mithra. And Mithra’s story was told about 600 years before Jesus.

Alright. We’ll try again next year.

Instant gratification and the public option

I'm noticing something interesting. President Obama was never forceful about the public option. In fact, that was something that a lot of progressives slammed him for it. During the campaign, he hardly mentioned the public option at all, and barely supported the idea when the health care debate started. But the meme has changed. Now that the public option is apparently out of both the House and the Senate versions of the health care reform bill, Obama's being slammed for having "promised" a public option at all costs. Both memes cannot be true. But that's not stopping the progressives from engaging in the same kind of Obama Derangement Syndrome we see on the far right -- bashing Obama no matter what he does. Maybe the real story here is that when all is said and done, perhaps this country is impossible to govern. We're too divided, too ready to pounce, unable to accept incremental steps forward, wanting all or nothing, total glory or absolute destruction, and all of it right now. In today's culture, Martin Luther King's followers turn on him for daring to say, "I might not get there with you," as they screamed at him, "Whaddya mean? We're not going to get there TODAY? You're a COMPROMISER! YOU'VE FAILED US!" The right wing will never go along with the left wing. The left wing cannot go along with the right wing. The centrists are becoming as volatile as the fringes. The right is turning on itself, as is the left. The moderates are learning not to care. Maybe the culprit here is the our consumerist culture of Instant Gratification. It has now corrupted our political will. Perhaps it has destroyed the possibility of good government and wise leadership -- not because there are no wise leaders, but because we wouldn't have the patience for them.

Obama on the public option

President Obama on the public option:

I've been in favor of the public option. I think the more choice, the more competition we have, the better.

On the other hand, I think that the exchange itself, the system that we're setting up that forces insurance companies to essentially bid for three million or four million or five million people's business, that in and of itself is going to have a disciplining effect.

Would I like one of those options to be the public option? Yes. Do I think that it makes sense, as some have argued, that, without the public option, we dump all these other extraordinary reforms and we say to the 30 million people who don't have coverage, "You know, sorry. We didn't get exactly what we wanted"? I don't think that makes sense.

Did Obama campaign on the public option?

Here's a good article examining the question, "Did Obama campaign on the public option?"

The short answer: No, Obama did not campaign on the public option. As a matter of fact, the Senate bill is pretty close to the plans he outlined.

However, he did campaign against a mandate, and he has apparently broken his promise on that. Ironically, it was Hillary Clinton's position that there should be a mandate, and her plan was seen at the time as being more liberal than Obama's. Irony, indeed.

It's okay to steal

A parish priest in England says it's okay to shoplift, but only if you're poor, you only take what you need, and it's from a big chain store.

Obama’s in trouble

Uh oh. At a press gaggle just now, President Obama said, “Merry Christmas.” The GOP will now excoriate him for promoting a religious holiday.

The bad news

Here's the bad news, in the starkest of terms:

For the kind of health care reform progressives want,

we. do. not. have. the. votes. Not in the House, not in the Senate.

Some Democrats are blaming Barack Obama for that. Could he have come out stronger? Sure. Could he have tried to strong-arm some Democrats? Sure. Would it have made a difference? No, I don't think so. At least, not enough.

The Democratic and Republican Senators and Congresspeople absolutely, thoroughly against the idea of a public option, and certainly against single-payer, most likely would not have changed their minds just because Obama gave a rousing speech about it. (And he did. Several.)

So blaming Obama for the House bill, and for the proposals we're hearing from the Senate, is irrational and illogical.

President Obama, pragmatist that he is, may have really, really, really, really wanted a public option. He said so in the campaign. He said so at his town halls right before Congress took up the question. But because he's a pragmatist, seeing that there just would not be enough votes, no matter what, to pass a public option, that's probably why he seemed to back off of it. Why pound your head against the wall for something you're never going to get? He IS Spock-like, after all, and Spock would not waste time asking for something he can't get.

Bad guy: "Spock, if you value your life, you'll send this message!"

Spock, "Since it is logical to assume you're going to kill me anyway, I choose not to cooperate."

Perhaps eight years of Bush got us all addicted to watching presidents have temper tantrums. And now we miss it.

More bad news for Republicans

Housing construction rebounds in November — all areas of U.S. show strength. This is horrible, horrible news for the GOP.

Whatever liberals like, Lieberman's against it

Lieberman admits it. If liberals like it, then he's against it, even if it was something he proposed himself.

In an interview with the New York Times, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) revealed Tuesday that he decided to oppose a Medicare buy-in in part because liberals like Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) liked it too much.

[I]n the interview, Mr. Lieberman said that he grew apprehensive when a formal proposal began to take shape. [...]

And he said he was particularly troubled by the overly enthusiastic reaction to the proposal by some liberals, including Representative Anthony Weiner, Democrat of New York, who champions a fully government-run health care system.

"Congressman Weiner made a comment that Medicare-buy in is better than a public option, it's the beginning of a road to single-payer," Mr. Lieberman said. "Jacob Hacker, who's a Yale professor who is actually the man who created the public option, said, 'This is a dream. This is better than a public option. This is a giant step.'"

Lieberman's comments go a long way toward validating the prevalent theory in progressive blogger circles -- that he, as the Washington Post's Ezra Klein put it, "seems primarily motivated by torturing liberals."

Washington Monthly blogger Steve Benen speculated just on Monday about what would have happened if liberals had expressed disappointment with the Medicare buy-in, rather than enthusiasm. "Would Lieberman -- who not only ran on a Medicare buy-in platform in 2000, but also signaled some preliminary support for the idea last week -- be willing to kill reform over the idea now?"

Lieberman had supported a Medicare buy-in as recently as three months ago.

Fighting for the first downs

The problem with health care reform, as I see it, is that most of the Democrats in DC were not committed to the full-on total reform we really need. What they, and Obama, are ready to be satisfied with is extending coverage to a few hundred thousands of uninsured people. It's a good thing that more people will get covered, and some of the reforms remaining in the bill are good reforms... even though I'm disappointed that the whole health-care-for-profit system is still in place. I'm disappointed that there will still be Americans who won't be covered.

But a step in the right direction is still a step in the right direction. But hey, if the ultra lefties among us (myself included) keep turning on Obama, we'll eat all available Democrats, ensure that Republicans take back Congress and repeal ANY reforms that are made, and actually make the whole system even worse. That'll teach us! <s>

We've got to realize that PROGRESS is really about taking the steps to get there one at a time. We've got to fight for the first downs; we'll get the touchdown eventually. But we Democrats, we kill the quarterback because he doesn't make EVERY play a hail Mary pass.

Gun laws are loosening

Visit any right wing discussion forum or blog and you'll hear much rending of garments and gnashing of teeth over Obama's secret commie conspiracy to take all their guns away. When Obama was elected gun sales went through the roof. Sellers ran out of ammunition, prompting right wingers to shit their pants and scream about yet another Obama conspiracy to take away their ammunition.

But in reality, Obama has made absolutely no move whatsoever to take anyone's guns away. In fact, gun laws are loosening.

In fact, it now appears that all the "Obama's gonna take our guns!" paranoia was deliberately fanned by the NRA just so that they could chip away at remaining gun restrictions.

A nationwide review by The Associated Press found that over the last two years, 24 states, mostly in the South and West, have passed 47 new laws loosening gun restrictions.

Among other things, legislatures have allowed firearms to be carried in cars, made it illegal to ask job candidates whether they own a gun, and expanded agreements that make permits to carry handguns in one state valid in another.

The trend is attributed in large part to a push by the National Rifle Association. The NRA, which for years has blocked attempts in Washington to tighten firearms laws, has ramped up its efforts at the state level to chip away at gun restrictions.

Among the recent gun-friendly laws:

• Arizona, Florida, Louisiana and Utah have made it illegal for businesses to bar their employees from storing guns in cars parked on company lots.

• Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, South Carolina and Virginia have made some or all handgun permit information confidential.

• Montana, Arizona and Kansas have allowed handgun permits to be issued to people who have had their felony convictions expunged or their full civil rights restored.

• Tennessee and Montana have passed laws that exempt weapons made and owned in-state from federal restrictions. Tennessee is the home to Barrett Firearms Manufacturing, the maker of a .50-caliber shoulder-fired rifle that the company says can shoot bullets up to five miles and is banned in California.

Obama’s Nobel speech

So some conservatives are offering (backhanded) praise to Obama for his "Bush-like" Nobel speech yesterday.

I'll concede there were lines in the speech Bush could have uttered, but the overall speech and Obama's overall point would have burned Bush's tongue if he tried to say them.

As for me, I might not have liked Obama's conclusions, but I find upon reflection that I agree with him about the use of military force in this imperfect world. Yes, I have a streak of idealism, but I try not to let my idealism get in the way of seeing the real world for what it is. And I can find no logical way to disagree with Obama's assertion that it took force to stop Hitler, and that sometimes the use of military force is morally and ethically justified.

Where there is (and must be) debate is about WHEN that use of force is justified.

I do think it's interesting that right wingers have latched onto only that part of his speech and dub it "the Obama Doctrine," as if that was all the president talked about. It's interesting that they're unable (or unwilling) to catch any of the nuance in what the president was saying about balancing the love of peace and nonviolence with the realization that there are still times when pacifism won't stop evil. Right wingers don't do nuance. And increasingly, some left wingers aren't doing nuance either.

Are liberals unhappy with Obama?

While it's true that there are voices on the left taking public issue with some of Obama's decisions, the narrative forming in the media that liberals are turning on him doesn't quite hold up. The president still enjoys strong support from his base.

From Public Policy Polling:

His approval rating with liberal Democrats is 95%, with only 3% disapproving of him.

On health care 88% of voters in that group say they're with Obama and only 7% are opposed. We simply are not seeing any broad evidence of push back toward him from the left for not advocating for single payer.

There is a little more unrest with him on Afghanistan. 68% of liberal Democrats support his approach there with 22% opposed. Even with those who disagree with him on the issue 81% express approval of his overall job performance so it doesn't seem to be a deal breaker by any means.

Right wingers want gays to die

Christian political conservatives in America are deeply tied to a plan in Uganda to execute gay people. The blood will be on their hands.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Alan Grayson tells Dick Cheney to STFU. Literally.

I think I’d move to Florida just to vote for this guy.

Hell awaits us!

Wow… just voting for Obama is going to send me to hell? And dirty dancing???

[click on the pic to embiggen and get the whole story]

A black hole of idiocy

I love a football game where two winless teams meet... The anti-drama of who, by sheer virtue of trying to fuck up less than the other winless team, can manage to improve their record by one win.

It's the same thing when two politicos who both can lay claim to the Biggest Wingnut title. When they meet, one of them will look slightly, ever so slightly, somehow less crazy than the other.

Or, perhaps the craziness, the insanity of both of them will combine, and form a black hole of idiocy from which nothing can escape, not even light itself.
Such is the case tonight when right wing nutjob Michele Bachmann meets right wing whacko Sarah Palin.

Good news for America pisses off the GOP

Good news for America means the GOP will be PISSED and angrier than ever. They HATE when something good happens in America. So get ready for the screeching... But it appears the banks are paying back their bailout money faster than expected, and the bailouts themselves are going to cost the American taxpayer about 200 billion dollars less than the Obama administration originally estimated. I predict the headline on Fox News and Drudge will be, "Obama WRONG about cost of bailout! IMPEACH THE MUSLIM COMMIE!"

Obama Derangement Syndrome

A mayor in Tennessee illustrates his knee-jerk hatred of Obama, his full-fledged Obama Derangement Syndrome, on his Facebook page.

"Ok, so, this is total crap, we sit the kids down to watch 'The Charlie Brown Christmas Special' and our muslim president is there, what a load.....try to convince me that wasn't done on purpose. Ask the man if he believes that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and he will give you a 10 minute disertation (sic) about it....w...hen the answer should simply be 'yes'...."

In Wiseman's extensive thread that attacked the president, his supporters and Muslims, he stated "...you obama people need to move to a muslim country...oh wait, that's America....pitiful."

At another point he said, "you know, our forefathers had it written in the original Constitution that ONLY property owners could vote, if that has stayed in there, things would be different........"

This is starting to get coverage in the mainstream media too.

So this mayor believes that President Obama decided to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan, announce an exit plan, and deliberately timed it to interrupt the "Christian message" of a Charlie Brown special?

Wow. Just wow.

Fundies write Bible in their own image

Conservative Christians want to remove from the Bible all that crap about Jesus forgiving his enemies, because that's a "liberal" idea.

No, I'm not making this up.

The Gospel of Luke records that, as he was dying on the cross, Jesus showed his boundless mercy by praying for his killers this way: "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do."

Not so fast, say contributors to the Conservative Bible Project.

The project, an online effort to create a Bible suitable for contemporary conservative sensibilities, claims Jesus' quote is a disputed addition abetted by liberal biblical scholars, even if it appears in some form in almost every translation of the Bible.

Obama's going to make everyone gay!

From the "you can't make this stuff up" department:

Family Research Council Claims Obama Has A ‘Plan’ To ‘Impose Homosexuality’

Earlier this month, the far-right Family Research Council (FRC) sent a fundraising action alert fearmongering about the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), which has been introduced in both the House and Senate and President Obama says he is “pushing hard to pass.”

“This law would punish anyone in the workplace who dares oppose homosexual behavior, cross-dressing and other unhealthy behaviors,” said the FRC alert.