The 'birthers' tweets are comedy gold!

THIS BIRTH CERTIFICATE CAMPAIGN IS NOT GOING AWAY, MR. ISURPER

Hilarious emphasis mine.

Here's one you missed:

Obama issues LGBT Pride statement

Now if his actions would just mirror his words.

When I saw that Sen. Max Baucus' (D) constituents were angry about his handling of health care reform, I was afraid they wanted him to be more conservative. As it turns out, the opposite is true.

The big difference between now and the 90s is far more American's have been on the receiving end of insurance company's cost savings procedures. The long waits for services, denial of coverage, massive bureaucracy with byzantine rules and crappy service.

In other words all the Republican's fear mongerring about gov't healthcare is already being experienced by millions of Americans.

"the man accused of assassinating Dr. George Tiller in Kansas yesterday."

Please, lt's not glorify this by calling it anything other than MURDER.

Yes, we can quibble about the killing political leaders vs cold-blooded murder. But the fact remains "assassination" can imply respectability. Murder doesn't.

This was murder. murder. murder.

I watched a bit of Fox News Sunday's panel discussion, and I was amazed by one of Chris Wallace's questions to Bill Kristol. I dont recall the exact quote, but it was something along the lines of "There's the accusation that Sotomayor is too liberal, that she's too much of an activist judge, and that she's a racist. Which of these accusations is the most damaging?"

It was a preposterous question. Why not talk about which accusations are most accurate rather than which (false) accusation is most damaging?

Chris Wallace sounded like he was moderating a focus group for a smear campaign, not a discussion with any journalistic merit.

By the way, I hear Chris Wallace is an anti-Semite, that he's a pedophile, and that he runs a dog fighting ring. Which of these accusations is most damaging? :-P

Kurt said: But the fact remains "assassination" can imply respectability.

Uh, really? I dont know about that.

I think Steve was using "assassination" to make it sound worse than 'mere' murder. I dont know how it makes it sound better.

I hear Chris Wallace is an anti-Semite, that he's a pedophile, and that he runs a dog fighting ring. Which of these accusations is most damaging?

I heard he screwed the pooch because it wouldn't eat pork, and then he called it a bitch. Just sayin'.

"The outlook appears bleak for the Air France jet carrying 228 people from Rio de Janeiro, which apparently crashed into the Atlantic Ocean last night."

Le Bomb ?

A rare correction, Steve: Nevada's new law grants certain rights traditionally associated with marriage to domestic partners, regardless of their gender:

"Nevada’s Assembly voted Sunday to override Gov. Jim Gibbons’ veto and to change state law so that domestic partners, whether gay or straight, have many of the rights and benefits that Nevada offers to married couples."

http://www.365gay.com/news/nevada-lawmakers-reject-veto-of-partnership-bill/

This inclusion is different from most of the "domestic partnership" and civil union laws, which were limited to same-sex partners for whom marriage was not a legally recognized option.

To me, assassination means murder with a poltical motive which could be worse than murder, except that under certain conditions, people who assassinate other people can be raised to the level of martyrs.

This is what I think the many members of the christian-right believes, that violence in the service is the greater good is justified.

Certainly Cheney believes it with torture, certainly the abortion clinic bombers of the last decade believed it ... and we can go back as far as you like, with example after example to the ultimate martyr who taught Christians and others that to die for a cause is awesome Jesus... to find that assassination has a political/religious context.

To call it assassination thus seems to give people the right or duty to take the law into their own hands, something we need to avoid in thie country and a concept much approved by many right wing Christians.

I think that many in this country and our media have been too kind to these groups of Taliban murderers. Funny how its just some individual in their group that does the murdering but then there is not association with them, right? No -- they are indeed murderers and I believe should be charged right along with the actual trigger puller who is doing nothing but implementing the group's agenda. Heck, our country had no problem sending Martin Luther King Jr and many many others who protested peacefully to jail. Why not a--holes like this Terry guy and the other henchmen who speak of and encourage violence?

Dr Tiller was shot in cold blood in his church -- his church. My contempt and bitterness about these creatures is beyond expression. They and their legitimate media cheerleaders such as FOX need to be held accountable.

"Which of these accusations is most damaging?"

Definitely the dog-fighting accusation, TG. Michael Vick did 18 months for his dog-fighting involvement, but the large number of Republicans and Christian evangelicals arrested for for sexual activity with minors certainly hasn't cut into Fox News' enthusiastic support of the GOP.

I'm only partly being a wiseass. If you're interested, visit http://www.armchairsubversive.org/

Katie has good writers. She should stick to the dais and stay away from TV.

Randall Terry seems to be a very strange man.

Yeah, the "pro-life movement" bears no responsibility in this, says Randall Terry, the man who's been throwing gasoline on the fire for 20 years, who "preached" to Scott Roeder for every one of those years. Nope, nothing to see here folks, move along...

"A Muslim convert who said he was opposed to the U.S. military shot two soldiers outside an Arkansas recruiting station, killing one of the soldiers, police said Monday."
USA Today

Apparently not newsworthy here.

* When I saw that Sen. Max Baucus' (D) constituents were angry about his handling of health care reform, I was afraid they wanted him to be more conservative. As it turns out, the opposite is true. -- Steve Benen

Politician's perennial conundrum: with whom do you keep faith? With those who pay for your campaign, or with those who pay for you to legislate for them and who you want to vote for you?

It seems to me that most politicians choose the first option and remain obedient to their campaign contributors. And, from all I've seen, their calculation seems to pay off 9 times out of 10: if you have enough money to bombard the dopes with advertisements, the dopes will vote for you. The intertubes are changing that calculation a wee bit but not a whole lot. Baucus must have felt pretty sure of himself when he blew his constituents off and sent staff substitutes to those Townhalls...

"I didn't expect Katie Couric's speech at Princeton to be quite so ... cheeky"

Boy, how quickly we all forget. Katie C was being Laughed at as the anchor of CBC Evening News, and the main cticism was that there was "No Seriousness" in her reporting.

Her first "Hard Hitting" interview was with Sweet Sarah, no the sharpest of tacks in the Repug Party today.

You could say that Katie C "broke her cherry" with that "hard hitting" interview(?) with a way over her head interviewee!

Has Katie C done anything lately?

"A Muslim convert who said he was opposed to the U.S. military shot two soldiers outside an Arkansas recruiting station, killing one of the soldiers, police said Monday." USA Today

Apparently not newsworthy here. -- tao9, @20:22

Funny. I just checked the NYT and, 20:30, it wasn't newsworthy *there*, either. Might it be that they're trying to get more details before they fire off with something which they might have to walk back later? Naaah... it's the liberal bias in action, fer shure.

You all should see this entry:
http://www.americablog.com/2009/05/pro-life-terrorist-opens-fire-in-church.
Here's a "money quote":
Thank God that the Obama administration caved last month to religious right and GOP demands that it withdraw a new domestic terrorism report that indicated, among other things, that radicals might use abortion as a justification for committing acts of domestic terrorism.

Did the Obamastration actually "withdraw" the fabled DT report because righties whined about how it made them look? If so, for shame. In any case, the report looks vindicated, doesn't it?

BTW exlibra, that sort of thing should be reported on too.

"Birthers" as you call them are just patriotic Americans who want our Constitution followed.

As well as being foreign-born, there is another problem with the BHO presidency that everyone seems to have forgotten about: he wasn't properly sworn in.

Yes, I know. BHO and Roberts later did a retake. But how do we know it was a real oath, and they weren't just saying the words?

Her first "Hard Hitting" interview was with Sweet Sarah

Only with Palin could questions like these be called "hard hitting":

What do you read? Can you name a Supreme Court case besides Roe v Wade? Can you name a time McCain favored regulation?

P.S. I realize barkeleyg is being sarcastic (explaining the quotes), but you do have to laugh at how much credit Couric got for it.

"As well as being foreign-born"

Since when is Hawaii "foreign?"

"But how do we know it was a real oath,.."

What exactly is a "fake oath?"

Al @ 8:46, come on. If you're going to troll here, get some new material. Doing a fast copy-paste of GOP boilerplate that was debunked months ago just makes you look lazy.

"Funny. I just checked the NYT..."
Posted by: exliterate on June 1, 2009 at 8:36 PM

Your problem is you're checking yet another publication that considers the incident not of much importance. Victims (RIP) and perp don't fit the day's JournoList/Ingsoc messaging.

Try here:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/military/2009-06-01-army-recruiter-killed_N.htm

BTW, the OP at Americablog (left-leaning) was being sarcastic, and making fun of BHO for (it is said) withdrawing the report about right-wing extremism. Also, Michelle Malkin was likely not being sarcastic as per below; see my comment at washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_06/018426.php.

Your problem is you're checking yet another publication that considers the incident not of much importance. Victims (RIP) and perp don't fit the day's JournoList/Ingsoc messaging.

No, your problem is that you're desperately trying to change the subject and diminish what happened here.

Do you know why these two stories are not the same? Because the psycho who shot the military recruiters just was just a nut who lashed out at a random military figure. That's it. By contrast, Roeder was affiliated with a fringe political group that works itself up online into a frenzy and targets specific individuals for assassination and purposes of terror.

You may not have checked the news, but six individuals were shot in Chicago over the weekend, one a policeman. In Oregon, a father killed his two children during a murder suicide. Someone shot a moving bus in Cleveland. A policeman was shot in the hand while answering a domestic violence call in Washington. And on and on.

Do you know what all those events have in common? None of them were the well-planned assassination of a well-known abortion provider that has tremendous political implications, which is why that story is on this blog.

To me, assassination means murder with a poltical motive... -Kurt

So how in the hell is did this 'murder' not meet your personal semantic standards for assassination?

Sigh.

But no, let's argue about minutiae.

Sigh.

Can I buy ad space on those rockets we attach to our drones?

Taliban leaders said Sunday that they had tripled their efforts in the region to undermine the election with violence and voter intimidation, and promised to introduce new tactics as the vote nears.

“The Taliban won’t allow people to participate in the upcoming election,� said a top Taliban commander in Helmand Province, speaking on the condition of anonymity. He said the Taliban had the power to enforce that decree, particularly in rural districts.

“I can proudly say that in the districts, where the majority of the people live, it’s impossible to find a single person who will dare to participate in the election,� he said. “It’s impossible for a single person to cast a ballot because the Taliban control most districts.�

Source: U.S. and Taliban to Redouble Afghan Efforts

Back in January, NPR's Talk of the Nation ran a piece entitled: "What's Next For the Anti-Abortion Movement?" Featuring none other than Randall Terry.

If you can stomach it, here's the link:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99409402

Baucus is already claiming it will take 60 votes to get single payer through the senate "and it just won't pass". Well that is because you won't allow it to go througth the senate via the reconciliation process where it would only need 50 votes to pass and it's because you are trying to kill it. There is no reason it can't go way of the reconciliation process if you pushed it that way. You use it as an excuse not to pass 'real' health care reform because you've been bought by campaign donations from private insurers.

We aren't buying it. You could pass it but you won't. 1st you wouldn't allow it on the table; 2nd you say it won't pass without a super majority when you know it could go the way of the reconciliation process and pass easily. Tell your story walking cause you're not listening to your "employers...your bosses" and certainly not acting like a "hired hand" unless you were hired by private ins....Baucus.

"..."Attorney General Eric Holder has ordered increased security for a host of unnamed individuals and facilities in the wake of the slaying of abortion Dr. George Tiller. Jeff Carter, a spokesman for the U.S. Marshals Service, confirmed Holder's move early Monday."

Isn't that how he deals with a terrorist threat...then why aren't members of Operation Rescue whose rhetoric is supporting this terrorism being arrested and sent to Guantanamo for interrogations?

Regarding the Leroy Carhart story: This is great news. The domestic terrorists are going to learn that they can't stop us this easily. I donated $100 to Planned Parenthood yesterday. I plan to do so again, as soon as I can afford it.

Fast, cheap production of PV Cells

oops

There's no helping you, Marler.

Sorry, GM definitely is a significant swath of corporate America. The Atlantic article shows that the one company, GM, is a very small percentage of the total number of US corporations - it is this comparison on the basis of numbers of companies which is insignificant.

If GM did not account for a significant fraction of the US economy we wouldn't be taking it over, would we?

Terry a "strange man"? Strange, yes--Guinness and chicken wings don't usually get paired--but classing it as a "man" may be stretching things a point or ten.

appropos of nothing:
Just thought I'd include a boilerplate item which appears at the end of every article which makes any kind of reference to the Hamas organization, irrespective of content:

"The U.S. State Department has labeled Hamas, a Palestinian Islamic fundamentalist organization, a terrorist group. Its military wing, Izzedine al Qassam, has admitted responsibility for terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians as well as attacks against the Israeli military
"

brainwashing, anyone ? thought crimes ?