Another challenge to health care reform dismissed

A federal judge has dismissed another challenge to health care reform. The challenge came from a Christian institution -- Liberty University. The founder of the Christian religion allegedly talked a lot about caring for the poor and the sick, but Liberty University apparently believes that the poor and the sick should just go fuck themselves.

A federal judge on Tuesday dismissed Liberty University's lawsuit challenging the Obama administration's new federal health care law, declaring that a provision requiring most individuals to obtain insurance is constitutional.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Norman K. Moon in Lynchburg is the second court decision upholding the law, following one in Michigan in October. University law school dean Mathew Staver said in a telephone interview that he will promptly appeal the ruling to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond.

GOP: nothing BUT obstruction

Proving EXACTLY what I said was true, that the Republicans have NO plans to help improve our economy or put people back to work, because they have a vested interest in the failure of the country so they can blame it on Obama, they plan to block virtually ALL Democratic Party-sponsored bills.

Senate Republicans intend to block action on virtually all Democratic-backed legislation unrelated to tax cuts and government spending in the current postelection session of Congress, officials said Tuesday, adding that the leadership has quietly collected signatures on a letter pledging to carry out the strategy.

If carried out, it would doom Democratic-backed attempts to end the Pentagon's practice of discharging openly gay members of the military service and give legal status to young illegal immigrants who join the military or attend college.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has made both measures a priority as Democrats attempt to enact legislation long sought by groups that supported them in the recent midterm elections.

Anderson Cooper destroys birther

Birther idiot Republican Rep. Leo Berman went on Anderson Cooper thinking he knew all the answers. Anderson Cooper DESTROYED him.

See the video here.

Does Joe Barton want to shoot President Obama?

Sounds like Texas Republican Representative Joe Barton wants to shoot him some Obamas.

Barton's nine-slide PowerPoint presentation, sent to NBC by a Democratic aide and confirmed by Barton's office, reads like a laundry list of accomplishments and GOP priorities -- that is, until the last slide.

That slide, titled "What's in Store for the Obama Administration, states that "Speaker Boehner is our Dwight Eisenhower in the battle against the Obama Administration. Majority Leader Cantor is our Omar Bradley. I want to be George Patton - put anything in my scope and I will shoot it."

With those parallels, Barton aligns himself and congressional Republicans with American military heroes of the Second World War. By that comparison, he could be perceived as likening opponents of congressional Republicans to Germany's Nazi regime.

DADT study released

The Pentagon's study on repealing DADT has been released, and the opponents have no further ammunition to continue to oppose gays serving openly in the military. I doubt, however, this will stop John McCain, who will find some other excuse to keep shaking his fist at the sky and yelling, "Get off my lawn!"

The Pentagon released its much-anticipated study on repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell (DADT) on Tuesday, finding that 70 percent of servicemembers believe the change in policy would have a positive, mixed or no effect. The announcement was accompanied by a full-throated endorsement of allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly by the study's co-authors, who concluded that there is little risk of disruption to the military if implementation is properly carried out.

Co-authors Defense Department General Counsel Jeh Johnson and Army Gen. Carter Ham told reporters in a press briefing on Tuesday that the study found strong support for implementing repeal, and activists are hoping that lawmakers who were waiting to see the findings will now come out in support of allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly. Furthermore, they made clear that much of the opposition to repeal springs from misinformation.

It needs to be pointed out again

It needs to be pointed out again, but Mohamed Osman Mohamud, the 19 year old Oregon man accused of plotting to blow up a tree-lighting ceremony, was flagged by the FBI because members of the mosque he attended contacted them and warned them about his violent intentions and rhetoric.

Liz Cheney throws Cheney/Bush under the bus

Liz Cheney has thrown her father's... er, I mean, George W. Bush's administration under the bus, blaming Bush for North Korea's recent attack on a South Korean island.

Liz Cheney, a former State Department official and the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, said Sunday that the Bush administration was to blame for the recent attack by the North Korean military on a South Korean island.

During a discussion on Fox News Sunday, Cheney, who has adamantly defended Bush's policies when others tried to attribute current events to his administration's actions, said that the 43rd president failed to adequately sanction North Korea in the wake of some key incidents.

President Obama freezes federal pay for 2 years

President Obama has just announced a 2-year pay freeze for federal employees. But before Fox News starts lying about it, and the meme starts spreading on Facebook, the pay freeze will NOT affect the military.

Recently I've seen numerous friends who usually know better spreading the story that the president is going to freeze military pay. It's not true.

Obama economic recovery is gathering steam

The Obama economic recovery is gathering steam. More terrible news for the teabaggers and right wingers, who absolutely loathe the fact that the American economy is improving.

Shoppers were back in a Black Friday bargain-binging mood, snapping up hoodies and computer laptops at stores, in a turnout that could give the economic recovery more steam.

In contrast to the past two years, shoppers said they were buying more for themselves and less focused only on price, while also saying the deals were not as deep as in the past.

Teen shoppers were also out in force, another good sign for the holiday season between U.S. Thanksgiving Day, celebrated on Thursday, and Christmas on December 25, retail executives and analysts said. Consumer spending accounts for about 70 percent of the U.S. economy.

We've got to look out for one another

What's sadly ironic is that it's teabaggers and right wingers who claim to be Christians who will be most vocal about condemning the president's words that during hard times we need to "look out for one another." The Jesus they worship doesn't like the idea of looking out for one another at all. Their God does NOT want you to be your brother's keeper.

President Barack Obama said that the United States was "hurting" Thursday as he used a Thanksgiving address to call for support for US troops and cooperation from his rivals in a divided Washington.

"This is not the hardest Thanksgiving America has ever faced. But as long as many members of our American family are hurting, we've got to look out for one another," Obama said in his address.

"We won't do it as any one political party. We've got to do it as one people. And in the coming weeks and months, I hope that we can work together, Democrats and Republicans and Independents alike, to make progress on these and other issues."

Palin’s Korean word salad

Sarah Palin issues forth a torrent of her patented word salad on the subject of North and South Korea, and appears to refer to North Korea as "hers" and "our allies."

“Well, North Korea, this is stemming from I think, a greater problem when we’re all, you know, sittin’ around askin’, ‘Oh, no, what are we gonna do,’ and we’re not having a lotta faith that the White House is gonna come out with a strong enough policy to sanction what it is North Korea is gonna do, so this speaks to a bigger picture that certainly scares me in terms of our national security policy, but obviously some stand with our North Korean allies we’re bound to by freedom; we’re also bound by prudence to stand with our South Korean allies. And to my North Korea, well, we’re not gonna reward bad behavior and we’re not gonna walk away and we do need to press China to do more to improve pressure on North Korea.”

If President Obama is so bad for business...

Right wingers and teabaggers are always screeching in furious rage about how bad President Obama is for business, how he just HATES capitalism, business making a profit, and is a socialist, communist, etc.

If that's true, explain this.

Happy days are back! During the summer months, corporations logged their biggest profits since the government started counting way back in the age of Elvis, and the economy expanded at a slightly faster pace than previously thought. Surely, when Caterpillar and Morgan Stanley are swimming in lucre, life must be getting more wonderful for everyone.

And yet, even though companies are making their BIGGEST profits EVER, they're still not spending that money to hire people.

Word that American businesses sucked in profits at an annualized pace of $1.66 trillion between July and September is certainly better than the alternative. Ditto, the wholly expected news that the economy grew faster than an initially reported 2 percent annual rate, reaching a still modest 2.5 percent. But none of this has translated into the sort of job growth that will be required to cut into an unemployment rate stuck at 9.6 percent. Worse, there is little reason to suspect it will anytime soon.

We have been hearing for so long now that, once companies start making real money, they will feel the urge to expand. Then, they will hire lots of people, and we can stop worrying and resume shopping. Yet so far--this most recent quarter included--all we have gotten is an extended lesson in the modern workings of a stubbornly lean job market and a display of what now stands as American management's core competency: How to rack up profits and reward shareholders while keeping the cubicles empty.

Americans want health care reform, more taxes on the rich

A new McClatchy poll shows that Americans want to keep or expand health care reform, and want taxes raised on the rich.

A majority of Americans want the Congress to keep the new health care law or actually expand it, despite Republican claims that they have a mandate from the people to kill it, according to a new McClatchy-Marist poll.

The post-election survey showed that 51 percent of registered voters want to keep the law or change it to do more, while 44 percent want to change it to do less or repeal it altogether.

As Congress prepares to debate whether to extend the Bush-era tax cuts, the poll showed that 51 percent want to extend the tax cuts only for households making less than $250,000 a year, and 45 percent want to extend the tax cuts for all.

It’s not about control, it’s about money

The recent intrusive TSA screening procedures at our airports have the conspiracy theories flying fast the furious – the new procedures are about “brainwashing” us into “accepting totalitarian control.”

Uh, no.

It’s not about control. It’s not a vast Big Brother conspiracy. It’s not a totalitarian conspiracy. It’s really, like almost everything else, about the money.

The companies with multimillion-dollar contracts to supply American airports with body-scanning machines more than doubled their spending on lobbying in the past five years and hired several high-profile former government officials to advance their causes in Washington, government records show.

L-3 Communications, which has sold $39.7 million worth of the machines to the federal government, spent $4.3 million trying to influence Congress and federal agencies during the first nine months of this year, up from $2.1 million in 2005, lobbying data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics show. Its lobbyists include Linda Daschle, a former Federal Aviation Administration official.

Rapiscan Systems, meanwhile, has spent $271,500 on lobbying so far this year, compared with $80,000 five years earlier. It has faced criticism for hiring Michael Chertoff, the former Homeland Security secretary, last year. Chertoff has been a prominent proponent of using scanners to foil terrorism. The government has spent $41.2 million with Rapiscan.

And, oh yeah, RAPISCAN? Really? What a great name for a company involved in taking nudie pictures of innocent Americans and dosing them against their will with radiation.

Rapiscan.

Wow, this stuff writes itself!

Sarah whines, publisher sues Gawker

Gawker.com has been sued for posting excerpts from a book allegedly written by professional victim Sarah Palin.

Former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's publisher, HarperCollins, has sued a U.S. news and gossip website for publishing excerpts of her new book before its planned release on Tuesday.

A Manhattan federal judge ordered Gawker Media's website www.gawker.com on Saturday to remove 21 pages that it had posted online from Palin's second book "America by Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith, and Flag."

"The publishing world is LEAKING out-of-context excerpts of my book w/out my permission? Isn't that illegal?" Palin, the former Alaskan governor and 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate, wrote on Twitter.

Landline-only polling favors the GOP

A new report confirms what we all know -- landline-only polling heavily favors the GOP.

Jan Brewer’s death panels

Jan Brewer’s death panels are sentencing people to die. Couple of segments on this evening’s Countdown delve into the sickening and appalling story. Is this the kind of country right wingers want? Really?

Video: Death panel invades Arizona

Arizona cut state Medicaid, refusing to pay for transplants for low-income patients that have already been approved. Francisco Felix, his wife Flor and Randy Shepherd and his wife, Tiffany, join Countdown to discuss the effects these cuts have had on them.

Video: A death sentence for Arizonans?

The Nation’s Chris Hayes explains the effects of Gov. Jan Brewer’s decision to cut state Medicaid.

Jon Stewart destroys Glenn Beck

AGAIN!

Part one of “The Manchurian Lunatic”:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
George Soros Plans to Overthrow America
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Rally to Restore Sanity

Part two:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
The Manchurian Lunatic
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Rally to Restore Sanity

What Republicans can do with their tax cut for the rich

Courtesy of Alan Grayson.

Citizens draw voting districts

California has adopted a system that should be adopted in the rest of the country: letting everyday citizens draw voting districts.

State officials Thursday selected a handful of everyday Californians to tackle the politically incendiary task of redrawing the state's voting districts -- a job that voters decided to take away from political insiders.

A retired engineer and city councilman from Claremont, an insurance company principal from San Gabriel and an attorney from Norco are among the eight people selected by the state auditor Thursday to serve on the new citizens commission.

Disappointed at seeing state lawmakers gerrymandering their own districts behind closed doors in ways that protect them from challengers, California voters approved an initiative in 2008 that transfers the job to the Citizens Redistricting Commission.

GOP's message to the unemployed for the holidays

Hey, unemployed people who thought voting for Republicans was going to help create jobs, the GOP just gave a big F--- YOU to you... just in time for Christmas. Happy now?

Republicans in the House have blocked a bill that would have extended jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed beyond the holiday season.

The most recent extension of jobless benefits expires Dec. 1. Two million people will lose benefits averaging $310 a week nationwide by the end of the year.

GOP push to defund NPR fails

The first vote ordered by the GOP was an attempt to silence media they disagree with by defunding NPR. It failed.

The Republican campaign to take away all federal funding from National Public Radio (NPR) was over before it began, with GOP lawmakers' procedural trick to force a vote on the issue failing on Thursday. It was the first GOP-ordered House vote since the election.

The proposal to defund NPR was the latest winning item on the Republicans' gimmicky YouCut site, which allows the public to pick the cuts they would like to see receive an up-or-down vote on the House floor. In order to get these votes, they try to make a procedural vote on an unrelated piece of legislation the vote on the YouCut item.

Statement by the President on the Paycheck Fairness Act

“I am deeply disappointed that a minority of Senators have prevented the Paycheck Fairness Act from finally being brought up for a debate and receiving a vote.  This bill passed in the House almost two years ago; today, it had 58 votes to move forward, the support of the majority of Senate, and the support of the majority of Americans.  As we emerge from one of the worst recessions in history, this bill would ensure that American women and their families aren’t bringing home smaller paychecks because of discrimination.  It also helps businesses that pay equal wages as they struggle to compete against discriminatory competition.  But a partisan minority of Senators blocked this commonsense law.  Despite today’s vote, my Administration will continue to fight for a woman’s right to equal pay for equal work.” – President Obama.

Obama leads in key state

Most polls show Obama leading anyone in the GOP comfortably for 2012, but there's also good news for him in a key electoral state.

A new poll released Tuesday shows President Obama in a strong early position to win Virginia's electoral votes in 2012.

The poll, conducted by the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling Nov. 10-13, found Obama leading against frontrunners Sarah Palin, Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, and Newt Gingrich. Obama held 11-percentage-point leads against Palin and Gingrich and 5-percentage-point leads against Romney and Huckabee in the poll, which has a margin of error of 4.2%.

GOP: do NOT save money on nukes

So, we could save a lot of money but slashing our nukes. And the GOP is all about saving money now, so they should be for this, right?

NO. Because it's something that Obama wants, so that means that Republicans must oppose it at all costs.

An agreement between the United States and Russia to slash their nuclear arsenals was in danger of collapse Tuesday after an influential Republican senator said it should not be voted on this year.

With a terse statement, Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., dealt a major setback to President Barack Obama's efforts to improve ties with Russia and to his broader strategy for reducing nuclear arms worldwide. The treaty, known as New START, had been seen as one of Obama's top foreign policy accomplishments.

Fox News hosts ridicule Sarah Palin

Palin’s daughter uses homophobic slur

Palin’s daughter has has used Facebook to spew homophobic slurs against someone who doesn’t like her mom’s TV show.

McCain vs. McCain

The biggest political battle of all time: John McCain vs. John McCain!

Knives out for Michael Steele

The GOP knives are out for Michael Steele. He'll be lucky if he doesn't find a  severed horse head in his bed.

Politico's Martin reports that one of Steele's top aides, political director Gentry Collins, has quit and skewers Steele in the process.

In a four-page letter to Steele and the RNC’s executive committee obtained by POLITICO, Collins lays out inside details, previously only whispered, about the disorganization that plagues the party. He asserts that the RNC’s financial shortcomings limited GOP gains this year and reveals that the committee is deeply in debt entering the 2012 presidential election cycle.

“In the previous two non-presidential cycles, the RNC carried over $4.8 million and $3.1 million respectively in cash reserve balances into the presidential cycles,” Collins writes, underlining his words for emphasis. “In stark contrast, we enter the 2012 presidential cycle with 100% of the RNC’s $15 million in lines of credit tapped out, and unpaid bills likely to add millions to that debt.”

The short version of the RNC's 2010 troubles as described by Collins: The committee couldn’t afford to run an independent expenditure ad campaign on behalf of their candidates, didn’t fund a paid voter turnout operation for Senate and gubernatorial races, left its vaunted 72-Hour turnout program effectively unfunded, offered only a fraction of the direct-to-candidate financial contributions they made four years ago and dramatically scaled back its support of state parties.

Harry Reid stays at his post

Not only did Harry Reid beat teabagger Sharron Angle -- poor Sharron with all her threatened "second amendment remedies" couldn't even beat Harry in her home town and home county -- but he'll be continuing on as the Senate majority leader.

Repubs to kill ethics office

Because congressional Republicans are so ethical they don't need any ethics office overseeing anything, they're preparing to kill the Office of Congressional Ethics once they take over the House.

John sets Cindy straight on DADT?

John McCain, known for publicly calling his wife Cindy a "c-nt," has apparently set her straight after she "mouthed off" in support of ending DADT.

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) insisted on Sunday that there was no rift of opinion between he and his wife over the issue of repealing the military's 'Don't Ask Don't Tell' policy. Cindy McCain doesn't endorse immediate repeal despite recording an ad accusing political leaders of forcing gay servicemen to live a lie, her husband stressed.

"I respect the First Amendment rights of every member of my family," Senator McCain joked in what was his 59th appearance on Meet The Press.

The Senator was confirming a clarification of position that his wife had made two days prior. Earlier in the week, Cindy McCain appeared in an ad for the NOH8 campaign, an organization that promotes the rights of LGBT youth. But on Friday she said she backed her husband's position on the controversial policy, which is that another study must be done to see whether the law should or should not be repealed.

But the esteemed Senator is known for how he handles disagreements with his wife.

John McCain's temper is well documented. He's called opponents and colleagues "shitheads," "assholes" and in at least one case "a fucking jerk."...

Three reporters from Arizona, on the condition of anonymity, also let me in on another incident involving McCain's intemperateness. In his 1992 Senate bid, McCain was joined on the campaign trail by his wife, Cindy, as well as campaign aide Doug Cole and consultant Wes Gullett. At one point, Cindy playfully twirled McCain's hair and said, "You're getting a little thin up there." McCain's face reddened, and he responded, "At least I don't plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you cunt." McCain's excuse was that it had been a long day.

The ASTOUNDING hypocrisy of Mitch McConnell

As Mitch McConnell was publicly blasting Democrats and accusing them of all manner of vileness and cowardice for calling for troop withdrawals from Iraq, he was secretly asking President Bush to pull troops out TO HELP REPUBLICANS IN THE 2006 MIDTERMS.

The rank hypocrisy of this man is astounding.

Before the 2006 midterm elections in which Republicans ultimately took a clobbering, Sen. Mitch McConnell asked President Bush in a private Oval Office meeting to pull some troops out of Iraq in order to boost the GOP's chances, Bush reports in his new memoir.

And in the same month -- September 2006 -- that McConnell made his private request, he publicly blasted Democrats for calling for a reduction of troops in Iraq, saying that their position endangered Americans.

[…]

Here's the passage from Bush's book, "Decision Points":

In September 2006, with the midterm elections approaching, my friend Mitch McConnell came to the Oval Office. The senior senator from Kentucky and Republican whip had asked to see me alone. Mitch has a sharp political nose, and he smelled trouble.

"Mr. President," he said, "your unpopularity is going to cost us control of the Congress."

Mitch had a point. Many Americans were tired of my presidency. But that wasn't the only reason our party was in trouble. I flashed back to the Republican congressmen sent to jail for taking bribes, disgraced by sex scandals, or implicated in lobbying investigations. Then there was the wasteful spending, the earmarks for pork-barrel projects, and our failure to reform Social Security despite majorities in both houses of Congress.

"Well, Mitch," I asked, "what do you want me to do about it?" "Mr. President," he said, "bring some troops home from Iraq."

Evil George Soros is EVERYWHERE!

Glenn Beck, while being disturbingly intent on making sure we all know he's not into child porn, has been positively obsessed with linking George Soros to every evil conspiracy in the world. I wonder if he's going to start attacking Sarah Palin? Because it turns out one of her advisers lobbies for... GEORGE SOROS! GASP!!!!!!!!!

Is Sarah Palin part of George Soros' supposed left-wing conspiracy to rule the world?

In the midst of Glenn Beck's controversial series attempting to prove that Soros is at the heart of a vast network of progressives who -- according to Beck -- are attempting to ruin the United States, a new link to Soros has emerged, and this one leads straight to Sarah Palin.

Salon.com's Justin Elliott reports that Republican lobbyist Randy Scheunemann has been on Soros' payroll since 2003.

30 Rock takes on teabaggers

Brilliant guest star John Slattery ("Mad Men") and "30 Rock" take on teabaggers in last night's hilarious episode.

Rush Limbaugh in all his racist glory

Limbaugh proposes a new job for Representative Jim Clyburn: “Driving Miss Nancy.”

Ladies and gentlemen, Rush Limbaugh in all his racist glory:

Tea Partiers love them some insurrection and assassination

Nutjob talk show host from Florida Joyce Kaufman directly calls for assassination and insurrection and riles up teabaggers with, “If ballots don’t work, bullets will.”

This entire screed is a call of violent insurrection if elections don’t go their way, but the specific comment comes about 6 minutes into the video.

More Tucker Carlson antics

It looks like Tucker Carlson may be involved in a series of hoax emails purported to have come from Keith Olbermann. This is the kind of immaturity we've come to expect from the likes of Mr. Carlson.

The incendiary emails seemed too good to be true -- and, as it turns out, they were. The emails from "Olbermann" came from keith@keitholbermann.com. That's an address that is not owned by Olbermann, but by Tucker Carlson, conservative pundit and editor of the Daily Caller website. In July, Carlson announced that he had purchased the domain name KeithOlbermann.com, and told Politico that people could email him at Keith@KeithOlbermann.com -- the same address that the emails to Bykofsky came from.

Once people raised their suspicions about the authenticity of the emails, Olbermann quickly denied that he had any involvement in them. "Complete fake," he tweeted. "Email address shown not mine." Bykofsky and Phawker both acknowledged that they had been hoaxed.

Hate pays

Selling hate, paranoia and fear sure is lucrative.

Newsweek has released their "Power 50" list of the 50 highest-earning political figures of 2010.

And no surprise who's at the top of the list: Mr. Rush Limbaugh, bringing in a cool $58.7 million. Yeah, he's just regular folks. Of course, he needs that money because Oxycontin ain't cheap, neither is keeping yourself supplied with plenty of Viagra for those jaunts to the Dominican Republic.

Coming in at number 2 is Glenn Beck with $33 million, followed by Sean Hannity with $22 million. Bill O'Reilly is 4th with $20 million. Yep, they're just like you and me, hard-working middle class Americans just struggling to get by. Cry me some tears, Glenn!

One bright spot on the list is that at least Jon Stewart (5th) beat Sarah Palin (6th). Palin is sure to launch broadsides at Stewart for daring to make more money.

Bill Clinton and Keith Olbermann showed up in the top 10, at 8th and 9th, respectively.

See the entire list here.

Obama approval numbers go up

And this is from the conservative-leaning Gallup poll. Despite the fact that they call it "small," it's a significant increase in a short time, but even more so that it comes after the Republicans gained seats in the Senate and took control of the House.

A new Gallup poll finds President Obama's approval rating at 47% -- up slightly from his 43% approval rating in the three days prior to and including last week's midterm elections.

"While the increase in Obama's job approval rating since the election is small in absolute terms, the fact that it is up at all after his party's major congressional and gubernatorial losses is notable. According to Gallup trends, former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush saw their job approval ratings decline after their parties' midterm election losses in 1994 and 2006, respectively."

I demand to see his birth certificate!

Has anyone seen John Boehner's birth certificate? He's got a strange skin color and his name looks awfully foreign!

GOP sharpening its knives for Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin is being blamed by some top Republicans for the GOP not being able to take control of the Senate.

Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.), recently tapped to become chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, believes that despite the GOP's monumental electoral gains last week, the party left some vital Senate seats on the playing field thanks primarily to the work of Sarah Palin.

This from the Shelby County Reporter over the weekend:

"The Senate would be Republican today except for states (in which Palin endorsed candidates) like Christine O'Donnell in Delaware," Bachus said. "Sarah Palin cost us control of the Senate."

He said Tea Party candidates did well in U.S. House races, but in the U.S. Senate races, "They didn't do well at all."

The rise of MSNBC and the decline of Fox News

MSNBC is on the rise (thank you for reinstating Keith Olbermann, MSNBC) and Fox News is on the decline.

The cable news ratings for the third quarter of 2010 were released today, and Fox News is showing signs of decline as their viewership has decreased by 21%, and their top shows all posted double digit losses, while MSNBC’s shows grew and the network attracted more younger viewers.

Fox News is still dominating the cable news ratings. The network has the top 11 programs in cable news, but there are ominous signs that the empire is starting to crack. Compared to the third quarter of 2009, Fox has lost 21% of their total viewers, and 26% of their younger viewers. The biggest loser on the network was Bill O’Reilly who saw his program The O’Reilly Factor lose 12% of its total viewers and 21% of its young viewers. Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Bret Baier, and Greta Van Susteren rounded out the top five cable news shows, and they each posted double digit declines.

MSNBC has a total prime time audience of 687,000 which is a bit more than a third of Fox News’ total, but they have more than half of FNC demo (age 25-54) audience, with 229,000 younger viewers. I don’t think the summer blues is an answer for the loss of viewership over at Fox. If it was seasonal then why did MSNBC’s viewership increase? The answer I think is rooted in Fox’s shift to the far right. As FNC has become the Tea Party news network, and engaged in straight GOP propaganda, moderate and liberal Republicans along with conservative Democrats, and Independents fled.

Some of these people have probably gone over to MSNBC, which now looks flat out moderate compared to the programming on Fox News, and MSNBC overall is far from moderate. The shrinkage of the Fox News viewership mirrors the shrinking of the Republican Party. As the tilt of FNC’s programming becomes more niche based, fewer viewers will watch. Bill O’Reilly’s show has become one of the more moderate on Fox News, and the lack of teabagger enthusiasm is a likely explanation for Bill-O’s drop. It is fascinating that in a year when Republicans are so excited about the midterm elections, Fox’s viewership would decline so drastically.

Say goodbye to net neutrality

Republican gains in Congress have apparently doomed efforts to pass a "net neutrality" bill that would require Internet service providers to treat all Web traffic equally.

President Obama, Democrats in Congress and Silicon Valley have backed net neutrality but it has met with opposition from telecom and cable companies as well as corporate-owned Republicans.

DADT repeal all but lost

Despite President Obama and Defense Secretary Robert Gates urging them to do so, it looks like Congress will NOT be repealing DADT and getting rid on the ban on gays serving openly in the military. One can thank the jelly-like spines of congressional Democratic leaders as well as the spiteful intransigence of Republicans.

The drive in Congress to repeal the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy appears all but lost for the foreseeable future, with action unlikely this year and even less likely once Republicans take charge of the House in January.

President Barack Obama has repeatedly said he wants to overturn the policy, which bans gays from serving openly in the armed forces. Advocates on both sides believed the issue had a chance of coming up in this month's post-election session of Congress. Now that looks unlikely.

Sens. Carl Levin of Michigan and John McCain of Arizona, the top Democrat and Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, are in talks on stripping the proposed repeal and other controversial provisions from a broader defense bill, leaving the repeal with no legislative vehicle to carry it. With a repeal attached, and amid Republican complaints over the terms of the debate, the defense bill had failed to win the 60 votes needed to overcome a procedural hurdle in the Senate in September.

Rand Paul flip flops, sure to anger Tea Partiers

Rand Paul is the latest Republican to turn his back on the teabaggers, reversing course on an issue ostensibly touted by the Tea Party. Mitch McConnell was the first. So will they target Rand Paul next?

Rand Paul, the next Republican US senator from Kentucky, has done an about-face on earmarks even before taking office.

In an interview published over the weekend with the Wall Street Journal, Paul signaled a major backtrack on a core campaign promise: cutting federal earmarks. The promise is a hallmark of Republican candidates of all stripes, who advocate that a smaller government is in the national interest and that money doled out for special progress is tantamount to backroom dealing.

Olbermann will return

Keith Olbermann has been reinstated. Sweet.

He's scheduled to return to MSNBC Tuesday.

The first thing Republicans do–KILL JOBS

So, for all that talk about jobs, jobs, jobs, the FIRST thing Republicans do when they get power is... KILL JOBS.

I told you that this would happen. Republicans have a vested interest in NOT improving the economy or putting people back to work. The want the economy to tank. They want more people out of work. Why? Because their tactic is to make things worse and blame it on Obama. It's all about getting the president, it's about absolutely nothing else.

After campaigning on a platform of "Where are the jobs?", the newly Republican Midwest will quite suddenly have fewer of them. As zwoof mentioned, Governor-Elect Kasich in Ohio has killed the federally-funded passenger rail project that would have connected Cincinnati, Columbus and Cleveland. Apparently, Kasich does not like the idea of putting Ohioans to work building new infrastructure that would keep a ton of people employed and provide people with a transportation option that would reduce fossil fuel consumption.

Meanwhile, in Wisconsin, 300 people working on the high-speed rail project that would connect Madison and Milwaukee have been let go owing to the election of Republican Scott Walker, who has vowed to kill the $810 million federally funded project over the objections of both mayors, who say that it will revitalize their downtown areas and create and sustain economic development.

Typical, really. Vote Republican, kill jobs. Just like the Bush years.

So how come Scarborough and Buchanan weren't suspended?

So how come MSNBC did not suspend Joe Scarborough and Pat Buchanan? They've made donations to politicians too!

MSNBC suspended host Keith Olbermann today, following revelations that he made campaign contributions to three Democrats in the elections -- a violation of MSNBC policy.

But a search of OpenSecrets.org reveals that MSNBC host Joe Scarborough and MSNBC contributor Pat Buchanan have also made contributions to political campaigns. Here's what we found...

In March 2006, Scarborough, who hosts the show Morning Joe, gave $4200 to Derrick Kitts (R-OR). And, as the Daily Kos points out, a month later Kitts was a guest on Scarborough's show.

Between 2005-2008, Pat Buchanan made five contributions to Republican candidates, totaling $2250.

The voters this time

The election this time can be summed up by the people who stayed home – the non-voters were the game changers in the midterms.

And the group of people who stayed home were younger voters who most likely would have gone for Democratic candidates. The youth vote did NOT come out like it did in 2008. The electorate for this election was mostly older and white.

Also, in this cycle, the percentage of gay voters voting Republican out of sheer spite nearly doubled, which has got to be the stupidest thing I can imagine a voter doing -- voting against his or her own best interests because they’re pissed about one single issue. Astounding.

So what does this mean for President Obama in 2012? Well, here’s where the story is not nearly as bad as you think. A pollster who worked for President Clinton says that Obama is in much better shape at this point than Clinton was in 1994:

In a conference call on Friday, Stan Greenberg pointed to several silver linings for a White House that had just lost 60 seats in -- and control of -- the House of Representatives. Obama, he predicted, has a clearer path to a political comeback than Clinton did 16 years ago.

"In almost all cases here President Obama is doing somewhat better than President Clinton was and that was at a comparable time," Greenberg said, "[Obama's] approval rating is higher, [his] personal favorability rating is a little higher. And the other important piece here was when the Democrats were thrown out in '94, they had been in power for a long time and so the negative feelings on the Democratic Party were stark and reflected the difference on those numbers in '94."

Companies in October added most jobs since April

(Note: something untoward is happening when you try to "share" this story on Facebook -- a completely different story is shared, one that's very negative on the economy. Things that make you say "hmmmm." Seems that AP doesn't want positive stories shared on Facebook.)

Companies created more net new jobs in October than in any month since April, evidence that businesses are shedding their previously cautious attitude toward hiring.

But the unemployment rate remained stuck at 9.6 percent for the third straight month.

Still, the job gains should give Americans a bit more income to spend, providing some support to the sluggish economy. That higher income, combined with the potential extension of the Bush tax cuts and the Federal Reserve's move earlier this week to push interest rates down, could help the economy pick up steam, economists said.

The employment report showed much stronger job gains than Wall Street analysts had expected. READ MORE

Subpoena porn!

Darrell Issa is ready to hand out subpoenas like Rush Limbaugh's doctors hand out Oxycontin prescriptions.

McConnell says “Screw you!” to the unemployed

Mitch McConnell, obviously PISSED that he's not the new Senate majority leader (thank you teabaggers), is breathing fire. He's also admitting that the ONLY thing the Republicans care about is destroying Obama. So to all you unemployed people, there's McConnell admitting that the GOP doesn't give a crap about you. Your problems are NOT their concern. Their only concern is "getting" Obama by hook or by crook.

The silver lining in this is that this will likely ensure an Obama reelection in 2012. But perhaps that’s exactly what McConnell wants – if he’s really upset at the Republican establishment getting in bed with the tea partiers… who cost him the Senate leadership he desperately wanted.

Congratulations to the winners

I, for one, would like to welcome our new corporate overlords.

His lowest moment?

Incredible.

Former President George W. Bush says the lowest moment of his presidency was when Kanye West criticized him in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

What? It wasn’t when he lost New Orleans? It wasn’t the financial collapse? It wasn’t when terrorists killed 3000 people?

Amazing.

Better dead than red

Even dead Democrats are preferable to live Republicans.

"Jenny Oropeza died last month, but her political career lives on.

"The deceased California Democrat won re-election to the State Senate by a comfortable margin, besting Republican challenger John Stammreich, 58% to 36%.

"Oropeza passed away on October 20, too late to replace her on the ballot for the state's 28th Senate district, which includes parts of Long Beach, Los Angeles and the South Bay. She had been battling health problems and died of complications from a blood clot that first developed in May. Oropeza, 53, was successfully treated for liver cancer in 2004.

"Tuesday's result will trigger a special election."

It's not the first time. In 2000 Mel Carnahan beat incumbent Republican Senator John Ashcroft for a U.S. Senate seat from Missouri. Carnahan died in a plane crash on October 16, 2000, three weeks before the election. It was too late to remove his name from the ballot.

Teabaggers? Not so hot.

Republicans did very well, as expected. The teabaggers, on the other hand, did HORRIBLY. They couldn't even beat HARRY REID. Oh. My. God.

The big teabagger standard-bearers – Christine O’Donnell, Sharron Angle, Carl Paladino, had very bad nights. Angle couldn’t even win her home town and home county in Nevada.

I guess they can still hope for Joe Miller.

As I predicted, the GOP has taken the House, and the Democrats retain the Senate.

Woman gets death threats after being targeted by Glenn Beck

Teabagger violence and teabagger threats -- their roots seem to almost always be in Glenn Beck.

An Illinois woman who volunteered to moderate a congressional debate received numerous threats of violence and death threats after being targeted personally by Fox News personality Glenn Beck, according to a report a colleague filed last week with the FBI.

League of Women Voters Illinois Executive Director Jan Czarnik filed a report saying she and Kathy Tate-Bradish, who moderated the debate, had been the target of Internet death threats after being singled out by name on Beck's Oct. 25 program. The League of Women voters moderated a debate between candidates in Illinois' 8th district.

Electoral predictions

My personal prediction: The GOP will take control of the House, the Democrats will maintain control of the Senate. And in the Senate the next two years will be like the last -- nothing but filibusters. The GOP has a vested interest in making sure the economy and the employment situation in the US do NOT get better so that they can blame Obama for it in 2012, so expect nothing to improve. The Republicans aren't going to do a damn thing but obstruct, obstruct, obstruct, and take revenge on that black guy in the White House.

Voter intimidation

Not content to stomp on women's heads for daring to disagree, teabaggers are also engaging in voter intimidation. They're nothing more than Brownshirt thugs, engaging in EXACTLY the same things Nazi Brownshirts did during their rise to power in Germany.

Other voter intimidation efforts the teabaggers are engaging in are racially motivated, as they target elderly black voters.

Fake news hosts make fun of Jon Stewart

The Ken and Barbie dolls on Fox News mock Jon Stewart for not being "a real news person"?

Oh, the irony!

The co-host of Fox News' Fox & Friends mocked Jon Stewart's "Rally to Restore Sanity" in Washington, DC on the show Sunday.

The "Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear" took place on October 30th at the National Mall and was led by Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert.

"There was this big rally put on by comedians, which many people unfortunately think are news people," said Gretchen Carlson.

After her co-host, Steve Doocy, claimed the rally was "not supposed to be political" yet mainly "beat up on the right," the show aired of clip of Stewart speaking at the rally.

"Yeah, it got political," Gretchen Carlson said after the clip. "And he looks fancy in his suit, like he actually is a real news person."

I remember

No matter what happens tomorrow, GOP leaders are in a panic

They're wetting their pants over the prospect of Sarah Palin winning the 2012 nomination.

Top Republicans in Washington and in the national GOP establishment say the 2010 campaign highlighted an urgent task that they will begin in earnest as soon as the elections are over: Stop Sarah Palin.

Interviews with advisers to the main 2012 presidential contenders and with other veteran Republican operatives make clear they see themselves on a common, if uncoordinated, mission of halting the momentum and credibility Palin gained with conservative activists by plunging so aggressively into this year’s midterm campaigns.

There is rising expectation among GOP elites that Palin will probably run for president in 2012 and could win the Republican nomination, a prospect many of them regard as a disaster in waiting.