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Karl Rove’s corporate-funded American Crossroads outfit is attacking Jack Conway, the progressive Attorney General of Kentucky, for supporting health-care reform, and we've got it before it's been posted online.

In a nutshell, American Crossroads is very angry that Jack Conway wouldn't sue the federal government over HCR. I thought conservatives hate lawyers and lawsuits, especially frivolous ones, didn't you? I forgot, hypocrisy rules for conservatives, and they sure love those lawsuits when they file them. By the way, here's a prime example of American Crossroads' hypocrisy.

Here at American Crossroads, we want to do things a little differently from other political action groups. First of all, we believe that setting a new direction for America starts with you—not with clever political ads, consultants and slick fundraising pitches.

They hate clever political ads except when they try and run them. So typical of Karl. Rove and Rand Paul’s henchmen at the NRSC even put out a press release attacking Jack for being a progressive and of course being a trial lawyer.

What this country needs are more progressives and not more corporate sellouts. That is why Blue America are joining up to support a MoneyBomb for Jack at www.ConwayFightFund.com on Sept. 7 to fight back against Karl Rove and Rand Paul. Can we really afford to have Rand Paul and his Aqua Buddha representing the American people?

I think not, so please join us at ConwayFightFund.com and let's elect someone competent for a change.

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January 16, 2010 News Corp. (h/t CSPANjunkie)

Rep. Peter King must be on a quart of scotch and some blow because only a drunk who's hopped up on cocaine with the shades drawn and is afraid to answer his phone would worry about radical extremists in our frakking milaitary. Yes, the military missed this one and Ft. Hood was a tragedy, but there are disturbed people living and working all over the place. Is King worried about radical Islamic extremists at VA Tech? Maybe we better keep an eye on the post office.

If I was in the military and heard this jackass try to smear the entire military as possible traitors I'd be pretty upset. This is the same crap that conservative4s used during the cold war. Everybody is a soviet spy and communist sympathiser. Oh, and don't drink the water because the Ruskies spiked it with fluoride. Remember, it's all about bodily fluids.

Dr. Strange Love:

God willing, we will prevail in peace and freedom from fear and in true health through the purity and essence of our natural fluids. God bless you all."

--

Ripper:

And as human beings, you and I need fresh, pure water to replenish our precious bodily fluids.

Mandrake:

Yes. chuckles nervously

Ripper:

You beginning to understand?

Mandrake:

Yes. chuckles. begins laughing/crying quietly

Ripper:

Mandrake. Mandrake, have you never wondered why I drink only distilled water, or rain water, and only pure grain alcohol?

Mandrake:

Well it did occur to me, Jack, yes.

Ripper:

Have you ever heard of a thing called fluoridation? Fluoridation of water?

Mandrake:

Ah, yes, I have heard of that, Jack. Yes.

Ripper:

Well do you now what it is?

Mandrake:

No. No, I don't know what it is. No.

Ripper:

Do you realize that fluoridation is the most monstrously conceived and dangerous communist plot we have ever had to face? Window in the office is shot through by automatic weapons fire

Ripper:

Nineteen hundred and forty six. Nineteen fortysix, Mandrake. How does that coincide with your postwar commie conspiracy, huh? It's incredibly obvious, isn't it? A foreign substance is introduced into our precious bodily fluids without the knowledge of the individual, and certainly without any choice. That's the way your hard core commie works.

Mandrake:

Jack... Jack, listen, tell me, ah... when did you first become, well, develop this theory.

Ripper:

Well, I ah, I I first became aware of it, Mandrake, during the physical act of love.

Mandrake:

sighs fearfully

Ripper:

Yes a profound sense of fatigue, a feeling of emptiness followed. Luckily I was able to interpret these feelings correctly: loss of essence.

Mandrake:

Yes...

RiRipper:

I can assure you it has not recurred, Mandrake. Women... women sense my power, and they seek the life essence. I do not avoid women, Mandrake, but I do deny them my essence.

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It looks like David Gregory is reading C&L and many other blogs because I've been saying that for the cost of the wars, America would have health care bought and paid for. David Gregory finally asked a Republican the same question. This clip also shows that republicans are living in a land far, far from reality if they actually go on TV and say Americans aren't dying because they have no health care.

David writes: Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) told NBC's David Gregory that the war in Afghanistan is a "necessity" but health care reform is not as important.

"And is it a necessity to tackle the fact that there are more and more Americans who die because they don't have access to health insurance?" asked Gregory.

Kyl disagreed with the premise of the question. "I'm not sure that it's a fact that more and more people die because they don't have health insurance. But because they don't have health insurance, the care is not delivered in the best and most efficient way," said Kyl.

Talking Points Memo notes that it is indeed a fact that Americans die from a lack of health insurance.

I imagine Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) -- of "Republicans want you to die quickly" fame -- might have a field day with this one.

And for the record, a highly-publicized Harvard study released last month said that 45,000 deaths are linked to lack of health insurance coverage each year -- and that uninsured, working-age Americans have a 40 percent higher death risk than their privately-insured counterparts.

It would have been nice if Gregory followed up and asked Kyl to back up why he thinks Americans aren't dying over health care. That's what he does week after week. Show quotes and news reports to back up his questions, but to just let Kyl ignore the premise of the question is ridiculous. Gregory knows thousands are dying every month. It's not a secret or some super duper liberal code word. And the country shouldn't be spending blood and treasure on the two Bush wars like it is and the country knows it too.

But I don't want to focus on Gregory too much because at least he asked the question. Sen. Kyl is either a stone cold liar or really is that ignorant.

(David helped me with this post)

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(h/t David for helping with this post))

Newt Gingrich debated Howard Dean on ABC's THIS WEEK over health care reform. Gingrich helped destroy it in 1994 and is an expert teabagger from way back. He quickly jumped in and supported Sarah Palin's disgusting Face Book comments when she says that her son with Down Syndrome would be put up in front of Obama's death panel and be killed if health care is reformed are just like two peas in a pod. Stephanopolous argued that the euthanasia talking point is completely made up and is not even in the bill, but Newt, the "Marrying Man" doesn't care what's actually in the bill because he'd never do that, he just attacked the evil government as the boogie man.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Those phrases appear nowhere in the bill. The only thing...

GINGRICH: But...

STEPHANOPOULOS: ... but let me just explain what's in the bill and then get you to respond to that. The only thing in the bill is they would allow Medicare to pay for what they say is voluntary counseling on end-of-life issues.

GINGRICH: I think people are very concerned, when you start talking about cost controls, that a bureaucracy -- we don't -- you're asking us to trust the government. Now, I'm not talking about the Obama administration. I'm talking about the government. You're asking us to decide that we believe that the government is to be trusted.

We know people who have said routinely, well, you're going to have to make decisions. You're going to have to decide. Communal standards historically is a very dangerous concept.

STEPHANOPOULOS: It's not in the bill.

GINGRICH: But the bill's -- the bill's 1,000 pages of setting up mechanisms. It sets up 45 different agencies. It has all sorts of panels. You're asking us to trust turning power over to the government, when there clearly are people in America who believe in -- in establishing euthanasia, including selective standards.

When were Americans against the government trying to help controlling the costs of health insurance? That's more Beckerwocky coming from the teabagger King.

Transcript of ABC's THIS WEEK below the fold:

Continue reading »

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Heather: Dick Morris doesn't exactly understand the definition of subtle, does he? He and Bill-O had themselves a little fear mongering fest on health care reform after the President ended his press conference.

John Amato: You can always count on the toe-sucker to lie with the best of them. Bill O'Reilly actually tries to pretend that he's a guy making 55,000 dollars a year and he's really concerned about his health care. A millionaire gasbag gets to role play as someone he despises. Morris comes in as the snake charmer with his smelly oils and smoothly spews his gunk.

O'Reilly: OK, Look. Just treat me as a guy from Levitown. Alright, I'm making 55,000 a year. OK? And I want to insure my family, my wife and two children. Is Obama's plan gonna help me?

Morris: No, Obama's plan is going to kill you.

O'Reilly: How's it gonna kill me?

Morris: Because it will take away your doctor's ability to decide what care to give you.

O'Reilly: Do my health insurance premiums go down?

Morris: No, your health insurance premiums go up because you have to pay for the cost.

What's gonna kill us is the Dick Morris clan that wants to destroy health care reform. Can you please contact him at: dickmorris@dickmorris.com and tell him to stop the lies. This is too important for Karl Rove politics as usual and offer to send him a gift certificate---redeemable at the next truck stop he finds so he can slip off his shoes and socks and relax a little. Be polite, but send him some facts. Let him know we're there.

(h/t Heather)

President Obama really excels when he goes on the non political TV shows. He's very natural and like-able and displays a very funny side of himself. That's a great audience for him to reach out to since the majority of these viewers don't sit home watching FOX and listening to Limbaugh all day long. The right wingers are saying that Obama hates all "special Olympics" kids now. ABC's Jake Tapper reached into his stupidmatron and said this:

The first appearance by a sitting president on "The Tonight Show" may well end up being the last.

Talk about looking to try to make something out of nothing, but he's a Villager and that's what they do. Sure, it was a slip of the tongue and something one of us would probably say describing our own bowling ineptitude without meaning any harm to the handicapped. He apologized for it right away, but that won't stop the press to try and find hidden meanings in his words.

John Cook from Gawker has a great post up that destroys these so-called pundits titled:

Barack Obama Doesn't Do Gaffes

It's like Obama is holding Tapper et. al. at bay with and extended hand against the forehead, and they keep swinging at air. Aggrieved right-wingers see a double-standard, but the fact is, the only gaffes that will stick to Obama are the ones that shed some light on who he actually is. Ford wasn't unfairly painted as a bumbling doofus—you could hear the reverberations of all those football concussions in his slurred, affectless voice. Bush wasn't unfairly portrayed as a clueless and callow upward-failer—everything about his presidency is a testament to the accuracy of that sketch.

read on

First the press used Coach Mike Krzyzewski's sourpuss joke at President Obama because he didn't pick Duke to win the NCCAA's and now this. Stay tuned for more...

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Fox's Chris Wallace and Brit Hume are certainly trying to paint the stock market collapse as "Obama's bear market" and put it squarely on his shoulders.

They are making the case that since President Obama brought hope to the country when he was elected, the markets would magically rally around him even though the fundamentals are not there and the money changers in The Street hate Obama's policies to the bitter core.

When job losses are as staggering as they are coupled with foreclosers going through the roof and earnings statistics coming in from the 4th quarter of last year that do have an incredible impact on the current decline in the market, but to them, it's all Obama's fault.

WALLACE: Well, as we've been discussing, the stock market is officially in bear territory, down exactly 20% since the Obama inauguration. Brit, John McCain didn't want to answer the question, but I'll ask you. Is this the Obama bear market?

HUME: It's kind of a bear market within a bear market. The market was already down tremendously over the previous year, and I think most people entered this period of the new Obama administration thinking that it probably was bottoming out and that he would give by his very presence and by what he would offer real hope and that it would at least change the psychology a bit. It has changed the psychology, it seems, for the worse and I think he does bear responsibility for that, and the impression that he has managed to leave is that he's too busy with massive new spending and a scatter shot stimulus bill which was reckless and breathless new initiatives.

Have you noticed that they never give us a graphic that shows when the "bear market" started? Here's a graph of the DJI:

On May 19th, the market was at 13,028.

On July 15th the market was at 10,962.

On Oct 10th, the market was at 8451.

On Nov 20th, the market was at 7552

The market lost almost half of its value from May until November, but the stock market talking heads would never blame Republicans. All the bad news is still hitting the fan from the Bush administration, but you would never know Bush had anything to do with it if you watch the news media spin this into Obama's market failure.

He's in office now, so he has to do his best to repair the damage, but I wish these Villagers would tell the truth and let his programs start to work through the system. The media need their talking points, but it's fraking ridiculous. I was surprised Wallace didn't ask McCain something like this.

Wallace: "When is Obama gonna cure cancer?" That was a campaign promise, wasn't it, Mr McCain?

McCain: I'll let the experts be the judge of that.

(h/t David E. for helping write this post)

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Rep. Eric Cantor told ABC's George Stephanopoulos that the Republican Party needed to be more inclusive in a very vague way, especially when it came to issues like gay rights.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But Governor Huntsman says that you’re not going to be reaching out to broaden the base of the party, reaching out to young people who’ve left the Republican Party in droves, unless you do have that positive agenda on the environment, unless you move to the middle on issues like gay rights. Are you prepared to do that in the House?

CANTOR: There is no question the Republican Party has to return to be one of inclusion, not exclusion. And we are a party with many ideas. And we have in that a commitment to make sure that we have positive alternatives, if we don’t agree with this administration or the House Democrats, and to continue to put those ideas forward.

Notice that Cantor never says how republicans will become a more inclusive party. How can he when it's run by the most extreme right wing elitist/religious members of the union? And its own membership is shrinking. Americans have voted republicans out of office for a reason and they will never include gays or pro choice young people because the religious right will not tolerate it. When the base of the republican party is even against civil unions I'd like to know how Eric Cantor is going to persuade gay Americans to join with him?

Back in the fifties, as Paul Krugman observes in his excellent book "The Conscience of a Liberal," Republicans made a comeback because they became moderate in their governing approach. President Eisenhower knew that nobody would be able to mess with Social Security and they didn't try to undo the New Deal, they accepted it.

The right wing media are constantly trying to rewrite history and denounce the New Deal. Yes, Cantor can come up with alternative legislation, but that's not being inclusive to a new generation of Americans. He refutes the Rush "I hope Obama fails" Limbaugh routine outwardly to try and pass himself off as a moderate, but constantly puts forth ideas that would inevitably help make Obama fail. And the complete rejection of President Obama's agenda is a clear indication of just that.

(h/t David E. for helping with this post)

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Rahm Emanuel told Bob Schieffer on Face the Nation that Rush Limbaugh has become the voice of the Republican party.

"He is the voice and the intellectual force and energy behind the Republican party. He has been up front about what he views and hasn't stepped back from that which is he hopes for failure. He said it. I compliment him for his honesty but that's their philosophy that is enunciated by Rush Limbaugh. I think that's the wrong philosophy for America."

John Amato:

I'm no fan of Rahm, but he is correct about the Limbaugh National Committee. Rushbo leads the GOP and is their master of the universe. Remember what happened to Rep. Gingrey when he dared to disagree with King Limbaugh?

Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.) apologized Wednesday to “my fellow conservatives” for comments critical of talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh – saying he sees “eye-to-eye” with Limbaugh and that his remarks defending House Republican leadership came across more harshly than intended.

---

“I regret and apologize for the fact that my comments have offended and upset my fellow conservatives—that was not my intent,” Gingrey said in a statement. “I am also sorry to see that my comments in defense of our Republican Leadership read much harsher than they actually were intended, but I recognize it is my responsibility to clarify my own comments.”

I think the Republican members of Congress got the message loud and clear. Steele and Kyl and Cornyn and McConnell and Boehner will take Limbaugh's orders dutifully, even if they try to distance themselves away from them publicly. For the most part they just recite his talking points anyway.

David Neiwert wrote a great piece about Lieberman already, but I wanted to follow up also. Bayh goes on the Rachel Maddow show and defends Lieberman keeping his committee chair. Obama has said that he wants Joe and Reid to work things out and for Joe to remain caucusing with Democrats and Lieberman supporters are using this, but that doesn't mean the Dems have to keep him just where he is. We have to give Harry Reid credit on this one. He told me straight out in Denver that he doesn't like Joe and wants him stripped of his leadership position since he broke a promise and attacked Obama while campaigning for McCain. That's a sin, "my friends."

Lieberman would be doing this country a great favor if he resigned, but he'd never do that so Bayh's first argument is about as lame as can be made, He ran with McCain to try and remain relevant. It was all about power. And then Bayh is worried that Lieberman would be "embittered" if he stays. Well, that's too bad. Senate Democrats must vote down Joe from his positions of power. Lanny Davis hinted that Joe would be bitter after begging Senate Democrats to forgive Lieberman.

My guess, Mr. Bonin, though I can't speak for Senator Lieberman, is that he will still vote on his principles - but if he is treated badly, it is human nature for his loyalties to party-discipline votes, including cloture, would be less.

Hey Lanny, was it was OK for Lieberman to treat Obama badly? If Lieberman has any real values left, you know, "Country First," then he will take the demotion and vote with his beliefs.

Digby weighs in:

I just watched Evan Bayh try to explain to Rachel Maddow why Lieberman needs to keep his chairmanship. Bayh explained that they have no choice because Lieberman is threatening to leave the Senate if he doesn't get his way --- and the Connecticut Governor will then name a Republican who will never vote with them. And if he stays and doesn't get what he wants, he will be "embittered" and then vote against them on close votes out of spite. So in order to do what's necessary for the country they need to give him what he wants.

I guess that's what putting "country first" means.

Bayh was just embarrassing. He's going to have to pop a fistful of Viagra and watch some "24" just to persuade himself that his testes are still descended after that pathetic performance.

They should just get this over with. Watching these people willingly (pretend to) cower like beaten dogs before Holy Joe's threats is just depressing. Just do it already.

And to think Bayh's name was floated around as a possible running mate.

Chris Cillizza says:

Senator Obama is a gifted and eloquent young man who can do great things for our country in the years ahead," said Lieberman. "But eloquence is no substitute for a record -- not in these tough times."

Can Democratic Senators look beyond these comments -- not to mention the fact that Lieberman was a regular presence on the campaign trail with McCain in the closing days of the race?

We'll find out some of the answers next week when the Senate Democratic caucus convenes. At that meeting, a vote is expected on whether Lieberman can retain his chairmanship of the Homeland Security Committee.

The vote will be a secret ballot and even the most plugged-in Senate operatives acknowledge they have no idea how it might turn out.