Obama as sports announcer

President Obama does a little college basketball play-by-play, and not a bad job of it either. He also offers a little political commentary. When asked by one of the other announcers about his b-ball prowess, "I know you're a left hander, but do you have any problems going to your right?" Obama answered that he went to the Republican Caucus meeting yesterday so that showed he had no problem going to his right. He also announced that after he retired, he'd be going after the commentators' jobs: "You either have three more years or seven, I'm not sure which. You need to plan accordingly."

God must be mad at them

They spent a lot of time teaching wealth and health and faith as a means to increase your bank account. And now, ultra-rich megachurches are being hit by tough times. How do they explain this to the people they've been teaching the wealth gospel to all these years? If good fortune is a sign of God's favor of your strong faith, how do they explain their current financial hardships?

One example of a megachurch falling on hard times...

Crystal Cathedral makes deep cuts

GARDEN GROVE, Calif. - The Southern California megachurch founded by televangelist Robert H. Schuller Sr. is selling property, laying off workers and pulling its signature TV program "Hour of Power" from some markets to offset a nearly $8 million drop in revenue.

Rush Failblaugh

Follow @RushFailblaugh on Twitter.

Teleprompter?

So much for the "Obama can't talk without a teleprompter" meme.

The most trusted name in news?

There have been several headlines recently about a recent poll showing that Fox News is the most trusted name in news.

Is it?

Er, not so fast.

What the numbers actually show is that right wingers trust Fox News, and ONLY Fox News, and refuse to watch anything else. And the numbers show that the reason they are so loyal is exactly because of the right wing bias of Fox News. Right wingers do not want to hear any other point of view.

On the other hand, moderates and liberals use a variety of outlets. The numbers show that they're spread out over the other sources – network news, CNN, and MSNBC; and the reason they surf a variety of news outlets is because they are seeking a variety of points of view, not just one.

For more, go here.

What's gone wrong and how to fix it

The progressive and moderate left wing base got organized and whipped up during the campaign. But then something happened. Obama won. And the organized suddenly all went home to wait for Obama to fix everything. By himself.

Obama spoke of people STAYING organized, that he couldn't do it without help. The rallying cry was, "Yes WE can!" not "Yes I can!" That's why "Organizing For America" was set up. But it starved because a lot of us went home when Obama won, thinking the job was done.

As a result, the teabaggers, funded by big Republican lobbyist money, organized and shouted everyone down during the initial health care debate, while the progressive base did not. We should have had just as many shouting protesters and rallies. We started to at the end, but the momentum had been lost already.

A lot of us thought that the work was over once Obama won. It was not. It was only beginning. I hope that more of us can realize that and get organized before it's too late. We need to stay in "campaign mode" until more of the problems Obama sought to address are fixed. WE should be out there with massive rallies FOR health care reform, FOR job bills, FOR fixing the economy, FOR ending "too big to fail," FOR protecting consumers from predatory mega-banks. And for replacing "don't ask don't tell," and for gay marriage rights.

Where are our rallies? Where is our movement? It was all in place during the campaign, be we went home too soon!

President Obama blasts Supreme Court decision

Jon Stewart skewers, Keith Olbermann responds

Jon Stewart spent a segment blasting Keith Olbermann Thursday night. And right wingers had a ball getting ready to enjoy the fireworks as Olbermann was sure to respond to the skewering.

Well, Olbermann responded all right.

He played Jon Stewart's ENTIRE segment on his show Friday night.And the

n, he loosed his rhetorical cannons on Stewart. Surely, the big liberal ego of Keith Olbermann was going to blast back with both barrels, and a full-scale war would be on.

And here's what Keith Olbermann said, after playing Stewart's whole segment:
"You know what, you're right. I have been a little over the top lately. Point taken. Sorry."

Masters and slaves

If Republicans act like 41 seats in the Senate is a controlling majority, and the Democrats cave and say, "Oh yeah, you're right, forget health care reform! Tell us what to do, Republicans!" then who deserves to control Congress?

If Republicans wave guns around, threaten armed rebellion and assassination, and the Democrats cave and say, "Oh please, master, we'll compromise with you some more!" then who deserves to be the masters and who deserves to be the slaves?Look.

America does not respect civil discourse and fairness. Americans only respect brute force, which bully can dominate the other, who can belch louder and who's got the biggest gun. If the Democrats want to regain control (and they have lost it), they need to realize what America respects.

Every Democratic congressperson should buy a gun, load it, strap it on, and carry it into the Senate and House chambers. When the Republicans threaten filibuster, or obstruct the work of government, every Democrat should take out his or her gun and point it in their faces and say, "Here. Let us show you what MAJORITY means. Now, sit down, shut up, do as you're told. Here's how you should vote. If you don't vote our way, say hello to my bullets."

In the meantime, every liberal, every progressive should exercise their second amendment rights and wear guns openly everywhere. Anytime a right winger speaks up or mouths off, we should put our hand gently on our guns and say, "Shut the fuck up, minority. You lost the last election. Now sit down and do as you're told."

THAT'S what America respects.

That's what the Republicans and right wingers have taught us. We should learn the lesson.

Freedom of speech has been destroyed

Now that Republicans have won it all…

Republicans,

Now that you have "beaten Obama" with Brown's victory <g>... (love those MISSION ACCOMPLISHED banners!)...

...We expect the economy, health care, and unemployment to be FIXED in one month. Otherwise, you're failures and OUT YOU GO!

Why James Dobson really left Focus On The Family

There's a war brewing between James Dobson and Focus On The Family. Dobson, who'd recently stepped down as head of the organization, has made the extraordinary decision to leave the organization he founded and its radio show, and create a competing organization and program.

Apparently, it has something to do with the by-laws of Focus On The Family. The board took the position that anyone who's been divorced (the Bible vehemently condemns divorce) could not serve on the board and certainly would not be allowed to succeed James Dobson.

James Dobson's son, Ryan, is divorced. Worse, he's remarried. And THAT is expressly forbidden by the New Testament. So the board refused to allow Ryan Dobson to take over after his father stepped down.

Apparently, to James Dobson, biblical commandments are for OTHER people to follow, not him and his family. So because of FoF's stance on divorce, he's starting a competing organization so he and his son can skirt around that very explicit commandment of their alleged Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Just remember that the next time James Dobson issues a pronouncement on how evil it is to be gay, be divorced, or not vote the way he commands.

Bipartisanship

Here's what's wrong with bipartisanship these days:

Democrats: "Okay, even though we have big majorities in both houses of Congress, we're willing to compromise. We're willing to work with the other side of the aisle. We've already put some of your own proposals in this bill. What else can we give up to you?"

Republicans: "WE WANT THE PRESIDENT DEAD! AND HIS WIFE AND CHILDREN MURDERED! AND ARMED REBELLION! AND WE WANT OUR STATES TO LEAVE THE UNION! AND ALL DEMOCRAT POLITICIANS HACKED TO DEATH ON THE CAPITOL STEPS!"

Democrats: "Uh, okay, how about we take the public option off the table?"

Republicans: "OKAY. WE'LL SETTLE FOR HAVING ALL DEMOCRATS JUST HUNG TO DEATH, THEY DON'T HAVE TO BE HACKED. BUT WE DEMAND ALL THE REST OR THIS IS TYRANNY! GAAAAAAAAAA! FEAR! HATE! FEAR! HATE! FEAR! HATE! KENYA! MUSLIM! DEATH PANELS! BIRTH CERTIFICATE! GAAAAAAAAAAA!"

Right wingers trying to talk you out of helping Haiti

Right wing talk show host says that Obama will "steal" the money you donate to the Red Cross.

With each passing day, they get sicker and sicker.

Rush Limbaugh wants the Haitians to die because he hates Obama

Rush Limbaugh's hatred of Obama and anything to do with the president is so all-encompassing, now he's on a kick about NOT donating to the Red Cross. On his show today he floated a conspiracy theory that Obama will gather your personal information for some sinister, nefarious purpose when you donate... Or worse, that Obama will steal your money.

He's already poo-pooed the idea of helping Haiti at all, since he claims they get our tax money so we shouldn't give any more to help them.

In other words, Rush Limbaugh would like the people in Haiti to just die.
It's sickening what hate does to people, isn't it?

And Fox News seems to be ignoring the Haiti earthquake story, giving it almost no coverage yesterday.

Keith Olbermann nails Rush Limbaugh and Pat Robertson

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

Rush Limbaugh and Pat Robertson are despicable

Limbaugh rushes to the bottom by attacking President Obama over Haiti, and makes his attack even more despicable by injecting racism into it.

Pat Robertson slouches toward the pit by claiming the earthquake is Haiti's fault because "they swore a pact to the devil."

Rudy Giuliani is done

Yet ANOTHER one tells the Big Lie

It's definite. They're telling the Big Lie on purpose.

Yet ANOTHER right winger repeats the false claim that there were no domestic terror attacks during Bush after 9/11.

Rewriting history and assuming you're too stupid to get it

It's obvious now that there is a concerted, deliberate effort to blatantly rewrite history, to tell lies so big one can only conclude the liars think their base is too stupid or too taken by Obama Derangement Syndrome to remember what happened or to look it up.

Rudy Giuliani is the latest to attempt this blatant, audacious feat of completely rewriting the entire last decade.

On "Good Morning America" this morning, he claimed that we had "no domestic attacks under Bush," but "one under Obama."

It's not just the irony of Rudy "Noun, Vern & 9/11" Giuliani "forgetting" 9/11, he's also forgetting the shoe bomber, the anthrax attacks, the DC sniper, the attack on the El Al ticket counter, or the guy who drove his car into a crowd of people to "honor" his "hero," Muhammed Atta.

These right winger spokespeople are not stupid. I think they know exactly what they're doing. They know they're telling a lie so big that some of their followers will swallow and regurgitate it. Obama Derangement Syndrome has driven them crazy.

How crazy is Laura Ingraham?

Just how crazy is Laura Ingraham?

This crazy:

President Obama said, "We are at war. We are at war against al Qaeda, a far-reaching network of violence and hatred that attacked us on 9/11, that killed nearly 3,000 innocent people, and that is plotting to strike us again. And we will do whatever it takes to defeat them." [Whitehouse.gov, 1/7/10]

And even after being reminded that's what he said, Laura Ingraham still maintained that Obama did not identify al Qaeda as a threat. She said, with a straight face, that Obama will not admit we're at war with al Qaeda, even after she was reminded that Obama SAID EXACTLY THAT.

Ingraham: Obama did "not really" say "we're at war with Al Qaeda." After O'Reilly stated: "OK, but he did say that today, he did say that, you know, we're at war with Al Qaeda," Ingraham falsely claimed: "No, not really."

Test run for a right wing assassin?

Is this another test run for a right wing assassin?

A man posing as a U.S. Secret Service agent flashed a fake badge and credentials to con his way past security at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, demanding to meet Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, federal authorities said.

Frederick James Nickerson, 46, was arrested Tuesday and charged with pretending to be a Secret Service Special Agent, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. Nickerson appeared in U.S. District Court on Wednesday. He did not have an attorney listed in online court records.

Sebelius wasn't in the building at the time, and he was eventually captured when employees recognized his name from a list of people banned from federal buildings.

Obama's statement on intel failures

"Now is not a time for partisanship, it's a time for citizenship," Obama said. "That's what it means to be strong in the face of violent extremism." He also said "WE will define the character of our country" not the terrorists.

I wonder how long it'll be before the right wingers attack him for talking about terror too much.

Obama: ‘We will not succumb to a siege mentality’

In a wide-ranging and detailed speech, President Barack Obama on Thursday took responsibility for the intelligence failures that led to the foiled Christmas Day bombing attempt, laid out the steps he plans to take to improve air security, and sent out a thinly-veiled retort to his critics who have accused him of ignoring the problem of terrorism.

"Ultimately, the buck stops with me," Obama said in a televised speech from the White House. "As president, I have a solemn responsibility to protect our nation and our people. And when the system fails, it is my responsibility."

As expected, the president didn't announce any dismissals or resignations over the December 25 incident aboard Northwest flight 253. "It appears that this incident was not the fault of a single individual or organization but rather a systemic failure across organizations and agencies," Obama said.

The president's speech also addressed, indirectly, criticism from Republicans that the president is "pretending" that the US is at war, or refusing to admit that terrorism is a security problem for the United States.

"We are at war," Obama said. "We are at war against al-Qaeda."

But the president made it clear he would not allow an atmosphere of fear and hysteria to infiltrate his administration.

"We will not succumb to a siege mentality that sacrifices the values that has made us great," he said. "That is exactly what our adversaries want, and so long as I am president, we will never hand them that victory."

An appeal to the GOP

An appeal to the Republican Party...

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE keep Michael Steele around for a long, long time! PLEASE!

Obama's effigy hung in Georgia

The right wing is ratcheting up the hate.

A doll found hanging off of a building in Plains is causing controversy.

Controversial enough to get the United States Secret Service involved.

Witnesses say it was an image of President Barack Obama with a rope around his neck and the display was found hanging in one of the city's most recognizable sites dedicated to former President Jimmy Carter.

A few people were able to snap pictures of the black doll before it was taken down.

The doll was hanging on a building on Main Street in Plains, Georgia

Another date set for the Rapture

A biblical scholar has set yet another date for the Rapture.

What I'd like to know is, when are the Rapture-believers going to put their money where their mouths are? I am still willing to buy all their personal belongings and wealth for the sum total of one hundred dollars, and they can set a date within ten years of when they think they're going to be Raptured up. I would take possession of their belongings when the Rapture occurs -- or when the date passes, whichever comes first.

Not one Rapture-believer has ever taken me up on my offer. I guess they don't really believe the Rapture is "close at hand."

Montana legalizes doctor-assisted suicide

Montana becomes the third state to legalize euthanasia. Just my opinion, but I believe people have a moral right to decide when to end their own lives.