“Some of the comments that have been uttered about Islam do not reflect the sentiments of my government or the sentiments of most Americans. Islam, as practiced by the vast majority of people, is a peaceful religion, a religion that respects others. Ours is a country based upon tolerance and we welcome people of all faiths in America.”

Remarks by President George W. Bush in a statement to reporters during a meeting with U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan
The Oval Office, Washington, DC
November 13, 2002

I never thought that the modern GOP would need to take a page from the playbook of George W., though these modern T-Baggers have decided to ignore the only decent things their former leader did. The ideas of tolerance and acceptance are now hated ideals in the GOP. Un-Christian perhaps, rude and ignorant as well, or perhaps they have just become susceptible to demagogues like Sarah Palin.

Losing an election is hard, believe me, we had to endure two Bush victories (both under wide-spread allegations of fraud). However the things that make us American are not embodied in telling Muslims to get lost. They are embodied in the simple fact that our …

California Gubernatorial hopeful Meg Whitman, the self-styled business Republican who has run on a platform that derides out-of-control government spending, is well on her way to winning the Republican nomination, and it only cost her $81 million so far with $71 million coming straight from her very own bank account. She will then go on to face Jerry Brown which will probably cost her another $80 million.

So let me get this straight, Meg Whitman has shattered spending records in California to prove that California spends too much?

Oh now I get it. Whitman is the Paris Hilton of politics. They’ve both spent a ridiculous amount of money on building their own fame! They’re both famous, connected to global corporate empires and know absolutely nothing about government.

Even worse, she spent $71 million of her own money to have what is probably the worst job in the country. California is ungovernable, thanks to a ridiculous rule in the Constitution that requires a two-thirds super-majority to approve a budget.
So no matter who wins the governorship, it’s a certainty that they will face a brick wall of opposition.

Democrats …

Mr. President. I can’t even comprehend how hard your job is and I know you are trying hard to do the right thing. That being said, you are swimming with piranhas. They are circling you, taking your every move and using it to their advantage. Taking ownership of this crisis was the wrong move. BP owns this disaster. You need to own the outrage. Your intentions were good, though the public is fickle and quite frankly, stupid.

I know you love history, so read the tales of Czar Nicholas II. His predicament is not far from your own. Isn’t that ironic. While your opponents label your efforts to save capitalism, “socialist", the enemies that face you are taking a page from the playbook of Lenin.

Please Mr. President, plug that damn hole! You now own this crisis and I will be hoping that you can make BP suffer. Take the advantage and have a public “change of heart", oppose coastal oil drilling and change with the public mind. Have PR photos of your outrage and you holding a dead oil covered bird change the mindset of this country to support offshore windfarms. You know that …

Keith Olbermann recently talked about Glenn Beck’s uncanny similarity to Dave Foley of Kids in the Hall fame. If you haven’t seen it, be prepared to laugh at the similarities. It is absolutely uncanny that this comedian some 15 or so years ago could see that far into the future. Or is Beck simply ripping off something from 15 years past?

How can you take this guy seriously when just today, Glenn Beck went off on an anti-Mother’s day tirade?

No wonder Glenn Beck’s ratings are falling, …

Not long after McDonnel’s stunning omission of slavery from Confederate History Month, he was forced to make an apology and once again include slavery in what very well may be the darkest chapter in American history, the Civil War. The pundits are calling it a stumble and the armies of pro-confederate Americans have not rushed to his aid. By all accounts, the rising star McDonnel is now a falling star. Yet I see a greater issue in this debacle: the future of the Republican Party.

Understanding how one can be fascinated with the bloody conflict is not very hard. Those four pivotal years witnessed the greatest and worst natures of men and women alike, from brave abolitionists that risked everything to grant freedom to their fellow human beings to Southern prison camps, like Andersonville, that produced walking corpses unlike anything the world had and would see until the Holocaust. Brothers were literally fighting against brothers, for and against the keeping of men, women and children locked in absolute bondage. There are great characters in two presidents, generals, soldiers, freedom fighters, journalists, …

Recently arrested scam artist James O’Keefe has been caught doing what we all knew he did, fabricate lies about ACORN.

Racheal Maddow recently aired the unedited tapes, fresh off the heals of CA Attorney Gen. Jerry Brown’s investigation, which cleared ACORN employees of any wrong doing.

Not only did he not wear the now infamous pimp outfit, he was wearing a long sleeve button up shirt, ACORN employees asked questions of the phony pimp and immediately called the police. This is clearly displayed in the video. He also used editing tricks and what sounds to me like voice overs (I do sound engineering and work in a studio so this is an educated guess).

It makes sense. O’Keefe was caught recently trying to tap Sen. Mary Landrieu’s phone and plans to plead guilty, proving that he will stoop to deceit, lies and criminal actions to prove his little point. It also makes sense that a clean, Conservative looking white boy (you know how they often have this creepy, Pat Boonish, Anglo and phony look) would not be taken seriously when dressed like a super fly 70s pimp (although the mugshot does suit …

Virgina Governor, Bob McDonnell has declared April ‘Confederate History Month‘ in Virginia.

You remember McDonnell? He’s the guy who gave the response to Obama’s state of the union by holding a speech in the Virgina legislature, filled with friends and allies so it looked like more than what it was: an ambitious Southern politician, interested in higher office, spewing the same old, tired Republican talking points, pretending to be President.

This is a new low, however, and a clear sign that things may be moving in the wrong direction when it comes to race in this country.

Confederate history is illegitimate. You cannot discuss one side of a war as if it were it’s own history. You must include the Union’s story as well and discuss the issue of slavery, impoverished Virginians fighting to keep plantation-slave owners rich (who didn’t have to serve) Jim Crow and the tragedies of Reconstruction. Civil War History month would have been fair, otherwise it is purely political.

(SEE UPDATE BELOW FOR MORE)

This is politics at its worst, pure and simple. He’s using a divisive issue to push impoverished and middle class white Virginians away from the growing Democratic …

Our dear friend and RNC chairman Micheal Steele today is facing another crisis. Politico is reporting that a mailer sent out by the RNC, disguised to look like a Census form (get the joke? wow the right has such a weak sense of humor), accidentally contained a return number that connects directly to a phone sex line.

Simply dial up the RNC contact number to be greeted with “live, one-on-one talk with a nasty girl who will do anything you want for just $2.99 per minute.”

I know that the RNC is having trouble raising money but this is ridiculous! Having to resort to hot nasty girls to do the bidding of major corporations and the super rich elite is a new low, even for Republicans.

Just imagine the conversation:
“Oh yeah baby! I’ll do anything you want! Oh wow, you’re so hard big daddy! Why don’t you come a little closer, there’s something I wanna whisper in your ear: Barrack Obama is a socialist who wants to destroy freedom and your way of life by sticking the long arm of the government down your throat. Which reminds …

Republican National Committee Chairman Micheal Steele has recently come under fire for wastefully spending GOP donations on a host of expensive and lavish activities. From private jets to expensive hotels, nothing but the best was acceptable for Steele’s army, as he plotted the GOP’s 2010 election comeback. One of his staffers even hosted an RNC outing at a West Hollywood bondage strip club to attract young, up and comers (no pun intended).

Despite all this folks, Steel is ready to keep control of the party reigns and is more than ever ready to lead the charge to combat the lack of morality, honesty, integrity, fiscal, elitism, irresponsibility and hypocrisy that exist today in Washington.

He even had time to write this snappy response:

Don’t worry loyal family value, fiscally-responsible conservatives. You can still put your trust and hard earned money into the GOP!

Just because we blew your money before on topless-bondage strippers, booze, private jets and fancy hotels, doesn’t mean that we will do it again.

So please send us more of your money so we can hold back the crazy spending problem that Obama has. Please put more of your faith in us so we can curb …

Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman recently wrote an article attacking California’s so-called Tax Revolt of 1978, California’s Proposition 13. He claims that if California is the trend setter, than the U.S. is in deep trouble. I agree, and have agreed for most of my politically aware life, especially since I am a product of California’s senseless butchering of the education system.

Nobody likes paying taxes. It’s about as fun as paying rent (or mortgage), bills and getting a colonoscopy. That being said, these are all the painful things we need to do to stay a float in life and there is little any of us can do about them.

California Republicans thought otherwise. They used an issue that was sure to win: telling California they could have lower taxes and everything would be all right. That’s like promising people they can lose weight and eat all that they want. Sadly people fall for that one too!

Ignoring reality, listening to the advice of hucksters like Ronald Reagan, Howard Jarvis and Paul Gann, California passed Proposition 13 in 1978. It cut taxes primarily for apartment building owners among other large …

I’m sure many Republicans feel all enthusiastic about their chances this Fall. I’ll bet they think that Americans are rejecting the policies of Obama and the Democrats. I’m sure they think that their party has found it’s new direction and that it’s going to be 1994 all over again. However if there is one thing I’ve known to be a constant in Republican thinking, it’s that they are always wrong.

They were wrong about cutting taxes helping the economy, wrong about Iraq, wrong about deregulation, wrong about security, wrong about Medicare Part D, wrong about Afghanistan and the list goes on and on.

Besides this, as mentioned in the previous article, there are alarming signs for Republicans that I just know they are too blinded by overconfidence to notice.

The most troubling sign for the GOP is that they have no direction, no cause, no platform and no ideas. They simply don’t have anything to offer the American people but fear, panic and more hate. There is no plan to fix health insurance, they simply want the status quo (oh and tort reform which would, according to the CBO, have almost no impact …

Not since the ascension of Barrack Obama to the Presidency has the Republican brand faced such a crisis. As the town hall shouting matches grow ever more distant and “Obama’s Waterloo” strategy continues to recede into oblivion, the right-wing party has become the ‘party of no’, no cooperation, no ideas and no hope.

It seems that everywhere you turn the news is grim, Republican identity has continued to slide. Less Americans consider themselves Republicans than any time in recent history, down to around 20%. The Birther movement has not only stalled, their foreign born leader, Orly Taitz, got smacked down in Federal Court. Judge Clay Land, appointed by George W. Bush I might add, hit Ms. Taitz with a $20,000 sanction and ruled that her conduct “boarders on delusional” and “demonstrates bad faith.” Even the darling of the Radical Right, Sarah Palin, has watched her approval ratings dip (40%) and her disapproval ratings soar to (53%). It seems all their numbers are down, everywhere you look and while they take glee in Obama’s ratings slip a bit, they are facing levels of low that make Dick …

Remember Betsy McCaughey?

She’s the woman who came up with the death panel argument that Sarah Palin made famous. It looked like she had some traction too, until she got smacked down by Jon Stewart last month. The results forced her to resign from her job (indirectly or directly). You can see all that here.

Yet she’s back. Getting smacked down once more, this time by MSNBC Morning Meeting host Dylan Ratigan and Congressman Anthony Weiner.

The Conservative argument for health insurance is generally emotion based without any facts. Yet Betsy is a rare exception, she deliberately uses her facts to deceive. Ratigan doesn’t let her get away with it, however, and calls her out. McCaughey’s argument degenerates into name calling and blaming Ratigan for his biased moderation.

“This may go down in history as one of the most brow-beating interviews in television history.” declared McCaughey.

“I hope it does” remarked Ratigan.

Biased or not, it is most satisfying to see her get the smack down she deserves. As Jon Stewart declared, her interpretation of Obama’s health reforms is “dangerous” and “misleading".

/>Weiner really drills her too. He get’s her to admit …

Have you ever heard a Bible-thumper tell you that the Bible was written by God and only God? Did they try and tell you that you must take the Bible literally and any attempts to do so otherwise was a violation of God’s law? Did they tell you that the Bible has not changed since its conception? Well get ready to watch these theories thrown out the window.

A Conservative group called Conservapedia (because we all know how knowledge has a Liberal Bias), has founded the Conservative Bible Project. Which is attempting to eliminate the Liberal passages in the Bible to better suit the Conservative political agenda. It is a Wikipedia-like project with a clear objective: to eliminate the possibilities of Jesus’ clear Liberal bias.

Imagine, that! Changing the Bible outright because the original author was too Liberal. Wait, doesn’t that mean God?

Steven Colbert has asked his viewers to add him to the re-authored Bible:
The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c…

Republican Minority Leader, John Boehner (R-Ohio) must be having some serious social problems these days. With such a lovely mug and wonderful scowl, who would have guessed? He declared today that he hasn’t met one “Real American” who supports the Public Option. As political writer Glenn Thrush noted, he said it with a “semi-straight face".

Even Republican leaning polls (which effectively ask “Do you still support a Public Option if it radically alters your health experience, which is so laughably deceitful but anyway) still claim at least 43% in favor of a Public Option. So in order to believe that he has not met a single one we must assume that he’s been hanging around with nothing but tea-baggers lately. LOL

“I’m still trying to find the first American to talk to who’s in favor of the public option” claims the Boehner.

When you are in a position to miss as much as %65 of the country, it is clear that you’ve fallen in with the wrong crowd.

So I decided to correct this little problem and introduce myself to the ill-informed Republican Leader. You can warm his cold lonely heart …

I have been debating on YouTube with Conservatives lately. Most of it is “you Lefty wacko” nonsense, which seems to be the typical response to anyone they disagree with, even Progressives like me. However I did get one intelligent responder who wanted to go beyond the entrenched political boundaries and discuss the differences.

I tried to convey the point that we need to work together and that I see the Democratic Party as a means to an end and not an ideology. I don’t know if I succeeded, yet the effort was there.

Question: If your not a lib and I’m not a neo con what the fuck are we arguing over than?

Good point. As a Progressive, I believe first and foremost in getting things done. In the spirit of Teddy Roosevelt, we need to work from the center to create a peaceful revolution, and our great nation is in serious trouble after the disastrous 8 years of Bush. The Conservatives of Teddy’s time worked against him and the Dixiecrats did too. We must come together to create positive change as democracy is like a …

It appears that pleasing your whacko-Conservative base may not be the end-all, be-all when it comes to Republican politics, even in the Red-State districts of South Carolina.

The big S.C., fresh of its heals from the its “next big thing” governor-turned-scandal-prone-embarrassment, Mark Sanford (here is the Fox, I mean Fixed, News story) is growing tired of its high profile morons and the tide may be turning for entrenched Republicans. Huff-Po did a story on the logistics and it doesn’t bode well for the Rightie Whackos.

Could it be that the Republican line of BS is not playing well, even in the Red-States?

I wouldn’t buy property in rural Alabama just yet. Still, the tide seems to be turning even regionally against the Republican’s grand strategy of appealing to Middle-Class White Voters in the South.

Let me put it this way. Picture the Cleveland Indians stacked full of Dominican and Puerto Rican players. One day, the owner completely insults Latin America as an affront to American civilization. How hard do you think said employees will fight to make their boss rich?

LOL

The tide has turned, the world has changed. Republicans, however, still believe in Reagan’s dying city on the hill. Too bad …

At long last, video has surfaced that shows Fox News manipulating the backdrop. Footage showing a Fox producer rallying an audience to show support during a reporter’s story that is supposed to be about the unbelievable outrage of the crowd. In other words, they took a crowd of folks, told them they’d be on TV and even gave them the big’ol applause sign.

You know what’s cool? Try to align the video so you can see the event happen real-time. It is hilarious as hell. Huffington Post has a page that pulls this off. You can see that nerdy chick do the “producer” role, than cower at the camera that she notices managed to capture her likeness.

No big deal you say? Reporters have coaxed audiences before, surely. Yeah, on crappy local morning shows who struck a deal with a movie or event. Those are mainly fluff stories that show a bunch of nerds at a Star Trek convention getting all revved up. This is clearly different.

This was supposed to be a grass roots …

The recent flap over Obama’s televised speech to public schools across America is the latest grave miscalculation from the Right, who’s strategy to oppose everything that Obama and the Democrats stand for is so transparent, so reactionary, it is drawing fire from it’s own side.

Conservatives from the main to the fringe (although mostly fringe) have been calling Obama’s speech to the schools as a platform to push his socialist agenda. The media tells us off families and even whole school districts that were pulling away from Obama’s speech. This, of course, turned out to be nothing more than the media’s love of controversy, as the decidedly apolitical speech that encouraged kids to stay in school and take personal responsibility caused all rational criticism to evaporate. When a transcript of the speech was released yesterday, even the Florida Republican Party Chairman Jim Greer, one of the speech’s most loud opponents backed off his early remarks and even allowed his children to see the speech. What remained was a bunch of fringe loons who looked as if they went too far.

Did the fringe Conservatives back themselves into a corner? Did they get the party worked …

A moment of silence for one of the greatest, most-effective and prolific politicians in our nation’s history, Senator Edward Kennedy:

…

His passing is a tremendous loss not only to our country, to others as well. From his fight against the Vietnam war, to leading the cause to sanction South Africa for apartheid, from voting against the Iraq War and fighting to end it to his large part in securing a peace treaty in Northern Ireland that ended decades of battle between the I.R.A. and the United Kingdom. He was even knighted (honorarily) for his role in the affair.

He has been a champion of the common man, despite his wealthy status, from his fight to bring justice to the underprivileged to social programs that helped to elevate the social status of many Americans. His life-long fight to bring health care to all Americans has left a legacy of hope and generosity that has inspired many Americans, like myself, to not give up the dream of creating a better world.

(Here is a brief listing of his accomplishments.)…

Just a quick update on the fanatical Glenn Beck’s recent loss of sponsors first mentioned in this article.

The total number of sponsors who have pulled out of Beck’s program has ballooned to 36, including a FOX News-wide ban from UPS. Among the losses are CVS Caremark, Clorox, Sprint and even the Right-leaning Wal-Mart Stores Inc., a clear sign that Beck is facing a crisis.

Despite his popularity, I mean Sarah Palin is telling people to watch Glenn Beck (isn’t that so typically reactionary of the dwindling celebrity politician?), the fact is ratings may not help Beck if he doesn’t bring in the cash. He will certainly be advertising poison for atleast the forseeable future.

Here are 10 reasons why.

Can he survive? Probably. Roger Aisles, head partisan dingbat over at Faux News, has stacked his lineup with whacko fringe lunatics anyway. I’m sure he loves Beck and will ride him out, that is, as long as Rupert Murdoch doesn’t get involved, which in all likely hood will not happen.

This may be a watershed moment for Fox News however. The point …

A new survey conducted by Survey USA (whose data tends to be used by conservative news sources like NewsMax) concludes that support for a public option remains high even among Republicans. 58% of all those surveyed support having a public option.

58% of Republicans and 56% of those who identify themselves as Conservative felt a public health insurance plan was extremely important to be in the final bill. 70% of Liberals support the public option while Only 60% of Democrats and 54% of Independents strongly support the measure, suggesting that the greatest doubts of the public option are coming from the Center-Left.

Most remarkably is that the support numbers, much like the ones above, read pretty similarly across the board. Age, region and ideology change the numbers very little.

Overall, with 58% of the country in favor of the public option, is there any reason it should not pass? I mean, the Republicans have thrown everything they had at destroying the bills reputation, and while they have damaged Obama’s perceived ability to handle health care (which …

To my Progressive and Liberal allies:
This is MUST SEE TV and I don’t mean a rerun of Friends. Watching Jon “the man” Stewart cream both Fox (Faux) News and the lady that originated the “death panel” argument, Betsy McCaughey .

To my Conservative counterparts:
I dare any whacko right-wing gun-totting, over-weight, fast-food eating, Fox News watching, WalMart shopping, god’s creation hating, under educated, wasteful, redneck, war-mongering, poverty-stricken-capitalist who wanders on to this site looking to leave a big flawed radical right-wing talking point…
to watch John Stewart’s latest assessment of your beloved, low-standards, gossip source a.k.a. the Fox (so-called) News Channel. I dare ya, I double-dare ya!

I bet you don’t have the cojanes to watch it!

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE VIDEOS.
The Daily Show With Jon StewartMon - Thurs 11p / 10cFox News: The New Liberalswww.thedailyshow.com…

John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods, decided he has the perfect solution for health care reform: A series of tax breaks, less regulation of the insurance industry and a series of other idiotic ideas including Health Savings Accounts (you know those 401k styled bank accounts that pay for health services). He said as much in a Wall Street Journal OpEd piece that takes aim at the Public Option and Obama’s health care reform efforts in general.

Mackey, whose clientele and demographic, tends to skew to the Left, decided to come out of the closet and declare himself a conservative Republican who dislikes socialism (his article starts out with a quote from ultra-conservative Margret Thatcher) and even has the nerve to say that health-care IS a privilege! Amazing.

I for one will never shop at Whole Foods again. To think that my money goes into this CEOs happy-go-lucky pocket and all the while is behind and in front of the scenes pushing conservative policies on ignorant Americans.

I decided to leave a rather long comment on his CEO blog as well.

__ UPDATE: While many Comments were allowed that were critical. Mine was rejected, and I …

Notorious Right-Wing fanatic Glenn Beck has gone so far off the edge recently in his criticisms of Obama that he very well may be fired from the Radical Right Fox News. Could we be witnessing a backlash to the Conservative’s attempts to derail health-care?

You may have heard Beck’s name a lot in the news lately. He has been the loudest, most obnoxious cheerleader against Obama’s health care attempts. His unabashed criticism of those who wish to change what he calls, “the best health care system in the world” has garnered him footnotes in major media news stories while his support for the disruption of town-hall meetings has earned him open criticism from all across the gambit even in the town-hall meetings themselves. Congressman Rick Larson (D-WA), responded to criticism of health care at his town-hall meeting by saying “I’ve got the facts on my side, you’ve [criticisers] got Glen Beck on your side!”

Where Beck stepped over the line however, was when he went so far as to call Obama a racist who doesn’t like White people, among many other disturbing criticisms, on an episode of Fox and Friends. Co-host Brian Kilmeade actually …

From the whacko domestic terrorists to the pundits that spurred them on, recent events that have painted a picture of just how radical the Right Wing has become.

When I said a few months back that the Right Wing had lost its mind, I had no idea that they had lost all sense of reality as well. There has been a recent string of domestic terror attacks in this country directed towards African-Americans, Jews and the Pro-Choice movement. One example, is the shooting in Binghamton, New York a few months back. Another example, is the murder of abortion doctor George Tiller by an anti-abortion activist and most recently, the shooting at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum that left an elderly security guard dead.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and …

In only took six seconds to prove to pro-waterboarding talk show host Mancow that waterboarding is torture and to prove that Sean Hannity is not just stupid, he’s a coward as well.

Erich “Mancow” Muller used to be among the ranks of Conservative and phony Libertarian talk show personalities that considered waterboarding, often called the “water cure", torture. He once so arrogantly proclaimed that having a little water poured on your head was not really that big of a deal. So when he volunteered to experience a very softened version of the integration technique as part of his radio show, he never thought that 6 seconds of the experience would convert his view on the subject 180 degrees, but it did!

After only 6 seconds of the exercise, his hands unbound, surrounded by friends and not subjected against his will, Mancow gave up. His initial response proclaimed that while he was not happy to say it, waterboarding is “absolutely torture.”

Visit msnbc.com for …

Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman recently wrote an article attacking California’s so-called Tax Revolt of 1978, California’s Proposition 13. He claims that if California is the trend setter, than the U.S. is in deep trouble. I agree, and have agreed for most of my politically aware life, especially since I am a product of California’s senseless butchering of the education system.

Nobody likes paying taxes. It’s about as fun as paying rent (or mortgage), bills and getting a colonoscopy. That being said, these are all the painful things we need to do to stay a float in life and there is little any of us can do about them.

California Republicans thought otherwise. They used an issue that was sure to win: telling California they could have lower taxes and everything would be all right. That’s like promising people they can lose weight and eat all that they want. Sadly people fall for that one too!

Ignoring reality, listening to the advice of hucksters like Ronald Reagan, Howard Jarvis and Paul Gann, California passed Proposition 13 in 1978. It cut taxes primarily for apartment building owners among other large …