| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| For Fox Sake! | ||||
| ||||
Friday, October 30, 2009
Opin-u-tainment
Jon Stewart took Fox News to task again last night. Job well done sir, Job. Well. Done.
The Defining Moment.
Paul Krugman is a Nobel Economic Prize winner and a columnist for the New York Times (Commie, Liberal Smut Rag). I try to catch him whenever he is on TV and absorb as much knowledge as possible.
His latest blog takes on the health care issue and where it currently is at in the legislation process, he says:
The odd thing about this group is that while its members are clearly uncomfortable with the idea of passing health care reform, they’re having a hard time explaining exactly what their problem is. Or to be more precise and less polite, they have been attacking proposed legislation for doing things it doesn’t and for not doing things it does.What's the next excuse Joe?
Thus, Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut says, “I want to be able to vote for a health bill, but my top concern is the deficit.” That would be a serious objection to the proposals currently on the table if they would, in fact, increase the deficit. But they wouldn’t, at least according to the Congressional Budget Office, which estimates that the House bill, in particular, would actually reduce the deficit by $100 billion over the next decade.
You can read the rest of the Op-Ed Here.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Coburn Is Concerned About Garage Doors -- Rape Victims, Not So Much
by BarbinMDTom Coburn (R-OK) [Seen above, if I had time, I'd super impose something funny] has earned a permanent spot in the Misplaced Outrage Hall of Fame for this one:
Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., has sent a letter (PDF) to Defense Secretary Robert Gates asking why contractors under criminal investigation were able to obtain millions of dollars in work from the federal stimulus program.
Recall that earlier this month, Coburn became a corporate sponsor of rape when he, along with 29 of his fellow Republicans, voted no on the Franken Amendment, but now he's worried:
"If somebody fixed your garage door and they defrauded you—or, rather, you thought they defrauded you—would you give them more business? Nobody else in the country would do that."
Well, sure. But if a company allows someone to be drugged, gang-raped, and held prisoner in a barely-ventilated shipping container for days, it would be downright irresponsible to stop doing business with them. What are you people, some kind of freakin' morals police?
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Monday, October 26, 2009
When Voting Records become inconvenient.
I thought this was interesting:
Sometimes, I just don't have the words.
Rep. John Culberson (R-No Shit) was among hundreds of people lined up to get the swine flu vaccine at a public clinic at the Arlington County Public Health Division headquarters Wednesday morning.Until I read this:
That in itself isn’t terribly newsworthy — the Texas Republican was there to get his daughter vaccinated, a spokeswoman told HOH.
But our tipster noted Culberson’s visit to the clinic was "a little ironic since the Congressman voted against the funding that was used to purchase the vaccines in the first place."
Sometimes, I just don't have the words.
Friday, October 23, 2009
Pentagon Instructs Officials to Cancel Contracts with ACORN. The Problem: They Don't Exist
From Jeremy Scahill @ Rebel Reports:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On Tuesday night, US Undersecretary of Defense Shay Assad, the Pentagon’s top contracting official, sent a memo to the commanders and directors of all branches of the military instructing them to cease all business with the embattled community organization ACORN and to take “all necessary and appropriate” steps to prevent future contracts with the organization. Assad’s brief memo [PDF] contained the two-page guidelines issued October 7 by Peter Orszag, the director of the Office of Management and Budget. Orszag’s guidelines were issued following the passage of Congressional legislation aimed at “defunding ACORN.”
Orszag’s guidelines were sent on October 7 to “the heads of Executive Departments and Agencies” and instructed them to “immediately commence all necessary and appropriate steps” to comply with the terms of the Defund ACORN Act. These include: no future obligation of funds, suspension of grant and contract payments and no funding of ACORN and its affiliates through Federal grantees or contractors. “Your agency should take steps so that no Federal funds are awarded or obligated” to ACORN, wrote Orszag.
While the DoD memo sent by Assad is basically a formality initiated by Orszag’s guidelines to all federal agencies, it is nonetheless remarkable given that ACORN is not a Defense Department contractor. According to an ACORN spokesperson, the group has not received Pentagon funds, nor has the community group even considered applying for such funds. “Of course we were hoping to win the contract to build the B-1 bomber, but we didn’t get that one,” says Brian Kettering, ACORN’s Deputy Director of National Operations, sarcastically. “This is all just silly, but the travesty here is that once again the witch-hunt against ACORN continues while there is a total neglect of [the misconduct] of the likes of Blackwater and Halliburton.”
While the DoD sends out memos regarding an organization that it does not contract with, the Pentagon currently does business with a slew of corporate criminals whose billions of dollars in annual federal contracts make the $53 million in government funds received by ACORN over the past 15 years look like, well, acorns. The top three government contractors—all of them weapons manufacturers—committed 109 acts of misconduct since 1995, according to the Project on Oversight and Government Reform. In that period, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin and Boeing paid fines or settlements totaling nearly $3 billion. In 2007 alone, the three companies won some $77 billion in federal contracts. There has been no letter sent around to federal agencies instructing them to cancel contracts with these companies that have ripped off taxpayers and engaged in a variety of fraudulent activities with federal dollars.
Also, it is not just the Defense Department that continues to hire corporations with real rap sheets. Contracting fraud and abuse is a corrupt cancer that permeates the federal bureaucracy. Overall, the top 100 government contractors make about $300 billion a year in federal contracts. Since 1995, they have paid a total of $26 billion in fines to settle 676 cases stemming from fraud, waste or abuse. According to the 2008 Corporate Fraud Task Force Report to the President, “United States Attorneys’ offices opened 878 new criminal health care fraud investigations involving 1,548 potential defendants. Federal prosecutors had 1,612 health care fraud criminal investigations pending, involving 2,603 potential defendants, and filed criminal charges in 434 cases involving 786 defendants. A total of 560 defendants were convicted for health care fraud-related crimes during the year.” Last month, the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer settled a series of cases, including Medicaid fraud and illegally marketing banned drugs, in what the Department of Justice said is “the largest civil fraud settlement in history against a pharmaceutical company.” The company has also been ordered to pay a criminal fine of $1.195 billion, “the largest criminal fine ever imposed in the United States for any matter,” according to the DoJ.
ACORN, which, like all recipients of federal dollars, certainly should be subjected to scrutiny, but these stats are a damning commentary on the upside down priorities when it comes to fighting contracting corruption.
Florida Representative Alan Grayson has argued that the Defund ACORN Act as written by the Republican geniuses on the Hill should actually apply to all government contractors. As he told Salon’s Glenn Greenwald after the bill passed: “The barn door has been opened, and the horses and the cows have both left. It’s done. It’s passed; there’s nothing they can do. There’s not take-backs in legislation; that’s not the way it works. And if they were sloppy in writing up this bill, then maybe they should have read the bill before they went ahead and tried to ram it through the House. Read their own bill, for a change.”
If the law is to be applied equally, then Peter Orszag should be firing off memos instructing all federal agencies to cease business and cancel contracts with massive financial institutions, weapons manufacturers, mercenary firms and pharmaceutical companies. Given the incredible government reliance on corporations, particularly in the defense industry and in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, don’t hold your breath waiting for such a memo on DoD stationary any time soon.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On Tuesday night, US Undersecretary of Defense Shay Assad, the Pentagon’s top contracting official, sent a memo to the commanders and directors of all branches of the military instructing them to cease all business with the embattled community organization ACORN and to take “all necessary and appropriate” steps to prevent future contracts with the organization. Assad’s brief memo [PDF] contained the two-page guidelines issued October 7 by Peter Orszag, the director of the Office of Management and Budget. Orszag’s guidelines were issued following the passage of Congressional legislation aimed at “defunding ACORN.”Orszag’s guidelines were sent on October 7 to “the heads of Executive Departments and Agencies” and instructed them to “immediately commence all necessary and appropriate steps” to comply with the terms of the Defund ACORN Act. These include: no future obligation of funds, suspension of grant and contract payments and no funding of ACORN and its affiliates through Federal grantees or contractors. “Your agency should take steps so that no Federal funds are awarded or obligated” to ACORN, wrote Orszag.
While the DoD memo sent by Assad is basically a formality initiated by Orszag’s guidelines to all federal agencies, it is nonetheless remarkable given that ACORN is not a Defense Department contractor. According to an ACORN spokesperson, the group has not received Pentagon funds, nor has the community group even considered applying for such funds. “Of course we were hoping to win the contract to build the B-1 bomber, but we didn’t get that one,” says Brian Kettering, ACORN’s Deputy Director of National Operations, sarcastically. “This is all just silly, but the travesty here is that once again the witch-hunt against ACORN continues while there is a total neglect of [the misconduct] of the likes of Blackwater and Halliburton.”
While the DoD sends out memos regarding an organization that it does not contract with, the Pentagon currently does business with a slew of corporate criminals whose billions of dollars in annual federal contracts make the $53 million in government funds received by ACORN over the past 15 years look like, well, acorns. The top three government contractors—all of them weapons manufacturers—committed 109 acts of misconduct since 1995, according to the Project on Oversight and Government Reform. In that period, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin and Boeing paid fines or settlements totaling nearly $3 billion. In 2007 alone, the three companies won some $77 billion in federal contracts. There has been no letter sent around to federal agencies instructing them to cancel contracts with these companies that have ripped off taxpayers and engaged in a variety of fraudulent activities with federal dollars.
Also, it is not just the Defense Department that continues to hire corporations with real rap sheets. Contracting fraud and abuse is a corrupt cancer that permeates the federal bureaucracy. Overall, the top 100 government contractors make about $300 billion a year in federal contracts. Since 1995, they have paid a total of $26 billion in fines to settle 676 cases stemming from fraud, waste or abuse. According to the 2008 Corporate Fraud Task Force Report to the President, “United States Attorneys’ offices opened 878 new criminal health care fraud investigations involving 1,548 potential defendants. Federal prosecutors had 1,612 health care fraud criminal investigations pending, involving 2,603 potential defendants, and filed criminal charges in 434 cases involving 786 defendants. A total of 560 defendants were convicted for health care fraud-related crimes during the year.” Last month, the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer settled a series of cases, including Medicaid fraud and illegally marketing banned drugs, in what the Department of Justice said is “the largest civil fraud settlement in history against a pharmaceutical company.” The company has also been ordered to pay a criminal fine of $1.195 billion, “the largest criminal fine ever imposed in the United States for any matter,” according to the DoJ.
ACORN, which, like all recipients of federal dollars, certainly should be subjected to scrutiny, but these stats are a damning commentary on the upside down priorities when it comes to fighting contracting corruption.
Florida Representative Alan Grayson has argued that the Defund ACORN Act as written by the Republican geniuses on the Hill should actually apply to all government contractors. As he told Salon’s Glenn Greenwald after the bill passed: “The barn door has been opened, and the horses and the cows have both left. It’s done. It’s passed; there’s nothing they can do. There’s not take-backs in legislation; that’s not the way it works. And if they were sloppy in writing up this bill, then maybe they should have read the bill before they went ahead and tried to ram it through the House. Read their own bill, for a change.”
If the law is to be applied equally, then Peter Orszag should be firing off memos instructing all federal agencies to cease business and cancel contracts with massive financial institutions, weapons manufacturers, mercenary firms and pharmaceutical companies. Given the incredible government reliance on corporations, particularly in the defense industry and in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, don’t hold your breath waiting for such a memo on DoD stationary any time soon.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Fiscal Conservative?
Here is a political cartoon from last year I found on my HD. The myth of Republican Fiscal Conservatives has been going on for nearly 30 years.
.jpg)
The difference between their spending and Obama's?
Obama's budget is projected to give us a return in the long run (okay, fine...the VERY long run). The GOP's budgets were inflated by tax cuts to the rich and rampant Defense spending. Two things that have never given us a return on investment.
.jpg)
The difference between their spending and Obama's? Obama's budget is projected to give us a return in the long run (okay, fine...the VERY long run). The GOP's budgets were inflated by tax cuts to the rich and rampant Defense spending. Two things that have never given us a return on investment.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Premature Celebration.
Republicans and Conservatives have for the past several months been gloating that they are poised to take back Congress in the 2010 midterm elections. With the media portraying tea parties, angry town halls and and massive "grassroots" movement brewing by the GOP, it's no wonder why the average Fox News viewer would believe this.
But the numbers just don't add up.
First of all, a few facts for you:
- The Democrats currently control the House by a 79 seat margain (Minus 2 current vacancies) and Republicans would have to gain 40 seats to once again control the House.
- With the Democrats up 60-40 in the Senate, the Republicans would have to win 11 seats to once again control the Senate.
History does not seem to appear on their side. Only a handful of times has a lead so large been surmounted by the minority party. In 1994, the Republicans gained 54 seats in the House. So what would stop the Republicans from doing it again? Besides lacking the leadership and direction they had in 1994 with Newt Gingrich, the polls show the Republican party approval rating is at the bottom of the barrel.
In a recent poll by ABC/WaPo, only 20% of adults identify themselves as Republican (A 26 year low), and only 19% express confidence in Republicans to make the right decisions.
Of course though, ABC/WaPo is liberal commie smut. So lets look at another poll. Research 2000 says below:
And really, I'd rather be the party at -10 than the one at -46. Wouldn't you?
While it's true, Obama's numbers are down along with the Democrats, the Republican numbers are catastrophic anywhere but the south.
This is a base election and the Republicans seem to be more energized, but it is just not translating into numbers. The House and members of the Senate fought hard this summer and did not back down from the lies and smear campaigns that were conducted by the right. The Tea Bagging movement is appearing to lose steam and the media is already wearing thin with the Republicans appearing to offer no solutions and merely conduct themselves as a "Party of No".
Throwing all these factors on top of the fact that the Republicans trail on virtually every issues on every credible poll (Even with the South boosting their numbers), the idea that the Republicans are taking back Congress seems to be a myth.
The party remains a regional stump party with no new ideas that is doing nothing but pandering to their far right extremist base.
But the numbers just don't add up.
First of all, a few facts for you:
- The Democrats currently control the House by a 79 seat margain (Minus 2 current vacancies) and Republicans would have to gain 40 seats to once again control the House.
- With the Democrats up 60-40 in the Senate, the Republicans would have to win 11 seats to once again control the Senate.
History does not seem to appear on their side. Only a handful of times has a lead so large been surmounted by the minority party. In 1994, the Republicans gained 54 seats in the House. So what would stop the Republicans from doing it again? Besides lacking the leadership and direction they had in 1994 with Newt Gingrich, the polls show the Republican party approval rating is at the bottom of the barrel.
In a recent poll by ABC/WaPo, only 20% of adults identify themselves as Republican (A 26 year low), and only 19% express confidence in Republicans to make the right decisions.
Poll respondents are evenly divided when asked whether they have confidence in Obama to make the right decisions for the country's future, but just 19 percent express confidence in the Republicans in Congress to do so. Even among Republicans, only 40 percent express confidence in the GOP congressional leadership to make good choices.
Only 20 percent of adults identify themselves as Republicans, little changed in recent months, but still the lowest single number in Post-ABC polls since 1983. Political independents continue to make up the largest group, at 42 percent of respondents; 33 percent call themselves Democrats.
The wide gap in partisan leanings and the lack of confidence in the GOP carries into early assessments of the November 2010 midterm elections: Fifty-one percent say they would back the Democratic candidate in their congressional district if the elections were held now, while 39 percent would vote for the Republican. Independents split 45 percent for the Democrat, 41 percent for the Republican.
Of course though, ABC/WaPo is liberal commie smut. So lets look at another poll. Research 2000 says below:
Since January 8, Dems have gone from +8 net favorability to -10 -- an 18-point drop. Republicans have gone from -28 to -46 -- an 18 point drop.
And really, I'd rather be the party at -10 than the one at -46. Wouldn't you?
While it's true, Obama's numbers are down along with the Democrats, the Republican numbers are catastrophic anywhere but the south.
This is a base election and the Republicans seem to be more energized, but it is just not translating into numbers. The House and members of the Senate fought hard this summer and did not back down from the lies and smear campaigns that were conducted by the right. The Tea Bagging movement is appearing to lose steam and the media is already wearing thin with the Republicans appearing to offer no solutions and merely conduct themselves as a "Party of No".
Throwing all these factors on top of the fact that the Republicans trail on virtually every issues on every credible poll (Even with the South boosting their numbers), the idea that the Republicans are taking back Congress seems to be a myth.
The party remains a regional stump party with no new ideas that is doing nothing but pandering to their far right extremist base.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Obama's Czar's
A lot of hooey is being made about the number of "Czars" that Obama has in his administration. Of course this is being propagated on Fox News insinuating that this is a clue to his secret Socialist agenda. In case you are unaware, I put the Czar's description via Wikipedia below:
So how did this term find our way into American Politics?
Easy. The termanology was popularized by Ronald Reagan and is media slang to shorten the officials full title. In fact, a number of the Obama "Czar's" have been confirmed by the Senate, by some of the SAME REPUBLICANS WHO ARE MAKING THESE STATEMENTS!!
I wonder why Glenn Beck and Fox News don't explain this in their commentary.
Originally, the title Czar (derived from Caesar) meant Emperor in the European medieval sense of the term, that is, a ruler who claims the same rank as a Roman emperor, with the approval of another emperor or a supreme ecclesiastical official.
So how did this term find our way into American Politics?
Easy. The termanology was popularized by Ronald Reagan and is media slang to shorten the officials full title. In fact, a number of the Obama "Czar's" have been confirmed by the Senate, by some of the SAME REPUBLICANS WHO ARE MAKING THESE STATEMENTS!!
I wonder why Glenn Beck and Fox News don't explain this in their commentary.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Center-Right Country
The GOP loves to make the claim that the United States is a center-right country.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you, exhibit 1(A) in the form of the county voting trends for the 2008 election:
I rest my case.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you, exhibit 1(A) in the form of the county voting trends for the 2008 election:
I rest my case.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
