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The Gold Standard of Quagmires

Think of “empire” as a video game; Afghanistan is the final level.

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It’s about time someone called Fox News on their lies, but I didn’t expect it to come from CNN

UPDATE: Here’s some video showing Fox News giving stage directions to Tea Party protesters so they would look good for the cameras during the 912 event in DC. As Jed Lewison says:

Although this video provides a clear-cut example of Fox propaganda in action, the only thing truly shocking about it is that it won’t wake up real journalists to the fact that just about every single thing you see on Fox is manufactured. They are an infotainment channel for conservatives, not a real media outlet.

UPDATE 2: Rick Sanchez going after Fox for manufacturing news:

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Obama refuses to be their nigger. And it’s driving them crazy

Excerpt from an opinion piece in The Atlantic by Ta-Nehisi Coates:

For black people, the clear benefit of Obama is that he is quietly exposing an ancient hatred that has simmered in this country for decades. Rightly or wrongly, a lot of us grew tired of Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, mostly because they presented easy foils for Limbaugh-land. Moreover, again rightly or wrongly, they were used to define all of us. …

But Barack Obama, bourgeois in every way that bourgeois is right and just, will not dance.He tells kids to study–and they seethe. He accepts an apology for an immature act of rudeness–and they go hysterical. He takes his wife out for a date–and their veins bulge. His humanity, his ordinary blackness, is killing them. Dig the audio of his response to Kanye West–the way he says, “He’s a jackass.” He sounds like one of my brothers. And that’s the point, because that’s what he is. Barack Obama refuses to be their nigger. And it’s driving them crazy.

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Thanks Obama, I’mma let you finish

Outside an Obama rally for health care at the University of Maryland:

thanks Obama

See the whole photo stream.

UPDATE: Apparently, “Imma let you finish” has become an official meme.

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Late Night Political Humor

“Obama gave his health care speech before Congress, and he was in a mood. He called out some of the liars who have been lying about his plan. And he also said a lot of the opposition to this plan comes from ill-informed crazy people. And to prove it, a shitkicker named Joe Wilson from South Carolina — this asshole with Tourette’s syndrome — screams out ‘You lie!'” – Bill Maher

“You know, I know the president is black, but this is not Showtime at the Apollo.” – Bill Maher

“I thought Obama handled the heckler well. He came with the old ‘I don’t come down to where you work and knock the lobbyist out of your mouth.'” – Bill Maher

“This is unprecedented. This does not go on in the halls of Congress when the president is speaking. Everyone was shocked. Nancy Pelosi was so shocked, she took out her compact and drew in her eyebrows all furrowed.” – Bill Maher

“But to be fair, the next day Joe Wilson apologized, he said he didn’t mean to say ‘You Lie.’ He said he mean to say ‘Go back to Africa.'” – Bill Maher

“Today one of President Obama’s advisers called Joe Wilson, the guy who heckled the president, ‘a pimple on the ass of progress.’ That’s true. Yeah, then the adviser stressed that removing a pimple from the ass of progress would be covered under Obama’s health care plan.” – Conan O’Brien

“What’s so ironic is that the health care plan that Mr. Wilson so angrily opposes would get him the prozac he so desperately needs.” – Bill Maher

“President Obama is continuing to push hard for his health care plan. On Sunday night, Obama will be interviewed on ’60 Minutes,’ or as he calls it, ‘the death panel.’ 32.1 million people watched President Obama’s speech to Congress Wednesday, down 20 million viewers from his last speech to Congress. But to improve ratings for the next one, Obama will replace Nancy Pelosi with Ellen.” – Jimmy Fallon

“It’s the 8th anniversary of 9/11, and Americans today stopped doing whatever they were doing to sit there, reflect, do nothing, say nothing, just like Bush did eight years ago when he got the news.” – Bill Maher

“At the world trade center site, Joe Biden observed a moment of silence, showing Americans really can do anything.” – Bill Maher

“This is the week that president gave his big health care speech to Congress, making it the second time in the week that he addressed a bunch of children.” – Bill Maher

“The Democrats just never learn: Americans don’t really care which side of an issue you’re on as long as you don’t act like pussies. When Van Jones called the Republicans assholes, he was paying them a compliment. He was talking about how they can get things done even when they’re in the minority, as opposed to the Democrats, who can’t seem to get anything done even when they control both houses of Congress, the presidency, and Bruce Springsteen.” – Bill Maher

“Mr. President, there are some people who are never going to like you. That’s why they voted for the old guy and Carrie’s mom. You’re not going to win them over. Stand up for the 70% of Americans who aren’t crazy.” – Bill Maher

“The president keeping busy. Yesterday, at the White House, President Obama welcomed the Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins. Yeah, when asked if he likes hockey, Obama said, ‘What black man from Hawaii doesn’t?'” – Conan O’Brien

“Even though in his speech, Obama said, ‘You lie, I’m not going to kill old people,’ the next day Sarah Palin said on her Facebook page she still believes in death panels. You know what, Sarah, honey, if we were going to get rid of useless people, you would be the first to go.” – Bill Maher

“You can have dinner with Sarah Palin. They’re auctioning it off. Have you heard of it? And the starting bid are $25,000. And this could be exciting. And they say now, unofficially, that for an extra grand, an extra thousand dollars, she’ll actually shoot the main course.” – David Letterman

“The winning bidder gets to have dinner with Sarah Palin. … Dinner with Sarah Palin. I mean, talk about a bridge to nowhere. I mean, my God!” – David Letterman

“Of course, remember those female journalists that were rescued by President Clinton? Well, one of the female journalists freed from North Korea said she’s surprised, ’cause former President Clinton has repeatedly called to check up on her. That’s true. Yeah. Even more surprising, the calls are coming from inside her house.” – Conan O’Brien

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Politicians are protecting insurance industry profits by sacrificing American lives

A new study out of Harvard Medical School shows that lack of health insurance causes an estimated extra 45,000 deaths a year. And thats after taking into account socioeconomics, health behaviors, and baseline health.

Previously a study from the Institute of Medicine estimated the number of deaths at 18,000 annually, but that study was based on 20 year old data. In other words, the situation is getting worse.

In other words, around 123 people die every day because they don’t have health insurance. According to the study, people without health insurance face a 40% increased risk of death. And if you are sick and without insurance, you are more than twice as likely to die as those people with insurance.

The Institute of Medicine, using older studies, estimated that one American dies every 30 minutes from lack of health insurance. Even this grim figure is an underestimate — now one dies every 12 minutes.

At that rate, more people die every month because of our terrible health insurance situation than were killed by terrorism on 9/11.

One of the co-authors of the study had this to say about the health reform bills in Congress:

Historically, every other developed nation has achieved universal health care through some form of nonprofit national health insurance. Our failure to do so means that all Americans pay higher health care costs, and 45,000 pay with their lives. Even the most liberal version of the House bill would have left 17 million uninsured, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The whittled down Senate bill will be worse — leaving tens of millions uninsured, and tens of thousands dying because of lack of care. Without the administrative savings only attainable through a Medicare-for-all, single-payer reform — real universal coverage will remain unaffordable. Politicians are protecting insurance industry profits by sacrificing American lives.

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Hitler’s Diabolical Secret Plan

Ruben Bolling
© Ruben Bolling

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Stephen Colbert explains corporate personhood

Stephen Colbert has gone where no pundit has dared go before — talking truth to the power of corporations. He discussed corporate personhood and the upcoming Supreme Court decision that might put the final nail in the coffin of free elections by giving corporations more free speech rights than actual (human) people.

What, you haven’t heard about that decision? Could it be because the media in this country is all owned by those same corporations that will benefit hugely from that decision? Including Comedy Central, which is owned by media giant Viacom.

In fact, Colbert spent two whole segments of his show on this subject:

UPDATE: Almost unbelievably, new Supreme Court justice Sonia Sotomayor actually questioned corporate personhood today, saying that judges “created corporations as persons, gave birth to corporations as persons. There could be an argument made that that was the court’s error to start with … [imbuing] a creature of state law with human characteristics.” Wow!

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Billionaires for Wealthcare

The Billionaires for Wealthcare — motto:

If we ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Their satire is so close to reality that your average tea-bagger doesn’t seem to be able to figure out what to make of them:

Even Rachel Maddow did a story on the BFW, and she loved them!

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The Spirit of Compromise

Matt Bors
© Matt Bors

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Playing by their own rules?

Yesterday, the House of Representatives reprimanded Joe Wilson for his “You lie!” outbust during the president’s speech, and Republicans denounced the move as partisan. But Politico has an interesting story on how it was Republicans who insisted on the House rule that forbids calling the president a liar.

In fact, it is against the rules to even suggest mendacity on the part of the president, even if he isn’t there. Interrupting the president’s speech to call him a liar is a total no-no.

It is also ironic how much time the Republicans spent attacking the Democrats for wasting time for the reprimand.

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Mad Men

Jon Stewart is back, and he is still a genius.

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The Great Health Care Debate

This Thing On?

Matt Davies
© Matt Davies

I absolutely love this cartoon. It is brilliant!

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Lifestyles of the White and Suggestible

Video from the 9/12 tea party in Washington:

Even more stunning video:

UPDATE: I find it amazing to watch these videos. I mean, these people went to a lot of trouble to go protest, so I don’t doubt that they feel strongly. But when you ask them the simplest questions they seem to have little idea of what they actually want to happen (other than to go back to some non-existent time in the past when things were better).

Even worse, if they claim to know what they want, then they seem to have given it little thought. For example, the people who say they want the government out of “everything”. Do they really want the US to be like Somalia?

Where is all this anger coming from? Is this anger that is being drummed up by people like Limbaugh and Beck? Or are Limbaugh and Beck merely tapping in to an existing anger (about the economy, about having a black president, about loosening morals, etc.). Are these people correctly sensing the decline of American hegemony, but then being manipulated into misdirecting their anger? Or am I just unable to understand their frustrations?

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Pelosi’s Payback

According to Open Left, one day after Nancy Pelosi softened her public stance on a public option for health care, a lobbyist for the health insurance industry announced a fundraiser for her.

Previously, house speaker Pelosi had said that inclusion of a public option was non-negotiable, but according to CNN and AP, she — along with Senate majority leader Harry Reid — have changed their tunes and now reject non-negotiable demands.

Then, just a few hours later, Steve Elmendorf, a registered lobbyist for UnitedHealth announced a reception at his house featuring Pelosi, with an admission fee of $2400 ($5000 for members of Political Action Committees). You can even see a copy of the email sent out by Elmendorf.

But I guess in our neo-third-world country, such bribery is legal.

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