Henry Kissinger, the smartest person John McCain knows (his words, not mine)

Whose words, Kissinger's?

Isn't Michael Savage of the Hebrew persuasion and Jewish faith? What a sell out.

The gated community of Neo-Conservatism keeps getting smaller and smaller and smaller. Of course, I personally was shown the gate long ago for being a female unwilling to be graciously submissive as enjoined by our spiritual overlords, the Southern Baptist Convention. So naturally I'm bitter.

And Mousavi is the Obama of Iran.

That's an outlandish exaggeration that's willfully ignorant of history and designed to disingenuously elicit the world's sympathy and arrogate its thirst for change. If Ahmedinejad is to Bush Jr., then Mousavi is to Bush Sr. at best.

Their exist only shades of difference between the two, and this play, in which the global media seems an ignorant if not willing participant, that Mousavi is some sort of righteous reformer is absurd.

baucus will just reduce the percentage of the federal poverty line eligible for subsidies. since it's currently 500% ($50k in income per person) it will just be reduced to 200 or 300%. 500% was never going to happen but was in there for preemptive purposes. once the fpl number gets reduced a bad bill becomes atrocious. the vast majority of the cost is subsidies anyway. the writing has long been on the wall, the public is going to get screwed on health care. soon it will be time to switch those calls from support single payer or public option to oppose the legislation.

White atheist men named Doctor Biobrain are the only thing good about America, while everyone else sucks eggs. It's a fact!

Their exist only shades... -me

It's things like this that have resulted in a chronic, persistent twitch in my right eye that is slowly driving me mad.

Facepalm.

Continued growth of US renewable energy , while coal consumption declines. At this rate, coal consumption for electricity production will be phased out in 20 or so years, even without new laws. Energy from biomass was stagnant over the year, in part because of conversion to non-food feedstocks (though it does not say so in that article.)

Also

another American city harvests energy from its trash.

* Michael Savage: "The white Christian heterosexual married male is the epitome of everything right with America." Words fail.

As a white Christian heterosexual married male, I hereby and most cordially invite Michael Savage to go f*ck himself.

As a white Christian heterosexual married male, I hereby and most cordially invite Michael Savage to go f*ck himself.

Hmmm. That would be an equally yoked couple for sure.

And what doubtful said at 5:43. My own twitch is in the left eye, however.

37 Iranian TV channels have web feeds,

http://wwitv.com/portal.htm

Michael Savage: "The white Christian heterosexual married male is the epitome of everything right with America."

Wow. He never struck me as a Bill Clinton admirer. Go figure.

On second glance those aren't Iranian tv channels specifically, they just have something to do with Iran.

"The white Christian heterosexual married male is the epitome of everything right with America."

He needs to get out and about in America's immigrant communities, including churches, businesses, and high-tech labs and factories. They have a lot of "epitomes" of what is right with America.

* And finally, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) defended John Ensign today, offering reporters an interesting quote: "I've got plenty of sins that I'm not going to share with anyone else."

God just called. He wants help in figuring out how to put everything he has on Lindsey Graham---on YouTube.

White atheist men named Doctor Biobrain are the only thing good about America, while everyone else sucks eggs. It's a fact!

God mentioned you too, Doc---something about turning you into an adoring, unpaid Michael Savage minion-for-life groupie....

Didn't Lindsey Graham make his name going after Bill Clinton over a blow job?

I guess adultery is OK . . . if you're a Republican.

Times Online reports tonight that there's serious arm-twisting going on in Iran. Khamenei tells Mousavi to toe the line or be cast out.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article6531648.ece

Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee, with help from a few Dems, ignored the administration and approved spending on the F-22.

Don't those republicans realize that the F-22 is nothing more than a government run jobs program? Isn't that very thing they've been screaming destroys the economy?

Of course building something that kills brown people overseas rather than paying for healthcare for people in America is generally considered more patriotic by Republicans.

I think there is a lot more to the ensign story. He should probably get way in front of the story and resign. There is already probable bribery and influence peddling that has gone on. And this is really about prostitution with taxpayer money--those plum jobs he dispensed for sex were paid with our money. THAT'S a real republican. screw taxpayers and a mistress at the same time. Then pull a Jimmy Swaggert when ratted out. . . Nevada's voters better demand a resignation.

Re: Michael Savage...

Some quick (OK, maybe not so quick) math at the US census site and some other sources results in the estimate that there are, in fact, about 18,391,198 married, male, Christians in America. If we then parse out the racial mix, something over 50% of those are white.

So, apparently, the "epitome of everything right with America." even without the gay component, is about 3% of the population.

A noisy fringe argument from noisy fringe people.

I wonder if Lindsey Graham is playing Gary Hart (catch me if you can).

Didn't Lindsey Graham make his name going after Bill Clinton over a blow job?

KC - That's a complete misrepresentation of what happened. The truth is that Clinton got in trouble for lying as a way of sidestepping a multi-year witch hunt turned fishing expedition that culiminated in accusations that he had an affair with his employee which became an issue because of an unrelated frivilous sexual harassment lawsuit that got dismissed by the courts.

Ensign's affair with his employee is an entirely different matter, because his enemies wearn't looking to bust him before he announced it, because they hadn't formed a witch hunt to get him. Rather, he was forthright in admitting to it when it appeared to him that he was about to be outed as part of an extortion plot by his friends. So that's entirely different.

Remember, it wasn't about the sex. It was about the timing of when he lied about it and to whom.

Sen. Lindsay Graham: "I've got plenty of sins that I'm not going to share with anyone else."

Most of us can pretty much guess what they are, dear, and we'd really rather that you spare us the seedy details.

Rather than curry favor, I think Michael Savage should read his Emily Post more if he truly wants to rise above himself. He's doing it all wrong.

What sort of "move toward some form of dialogue to defuse the outrage" did BushCo and friends make in either 2000 or 2004? More like, they accused anyone complaining about voting issues of being a traitor.

I'm nitpicking, but Juneteenth actually commemorates the date when slaves in Texas learned that they were freed (*after* the surrender of the Confederacy to the Union). There are debates about why it took so long for the news to travel to Texas--either the information was suppressed, or the messenger died before reaching Texas.

"* On a related note, here's another interesting item with an alternate look on the DOMA brief." linking to Law Dork's criticism of LGBT pushback on the DOJ's defense of the Defense of Marriage Act.

Well, maybe Law Dork's perspective is interesting, but it's also incredibly, shall we say, legalistic, dismissive, patronizing? He's hellbent on taking apart John Aravosis's statements without considering the larger perspective -- and there are other perspectives and sources than the admittedly self-aggrandizing John Aravosis (try Jennifer Vanasco, the editor in chief of 365gay.com).

I think it exceedingly disingenuous, however, to suggest that simply because the word "incest" itself was not used, the government's motion citing a case of an invalid marriage between an uncle and a niece is intended for any purpose other than raising the heinous specter and comparison of gay marriages to an incestuous one. And the citation regarding the underage girl certainly serves to evoke yet another homophobic canard about gays "recruiting" the young, regardless of whether the case meets the legal standard for "pedophilia," or again, whether the word was used in the brief.

Those citations at best indicate an extreme lack of sensitivity, at worst a sly and slimy slap at a politically disposable constituency. The timing was, of course, bad for the fundraising event intended to milk more dollars from the affected constituency, but that's the way the river runs sometimes.

I think a person would have to be naive or at least not have encountered the kind of pervasive prejudice experienced by lesbians and gay men and manifest in many overt and subtle ways to believe the citing of those particular cases was not deliberate. It wasn't simply that the marriages were considered invalid, but why their validity was contested.

And the best President Obama can do in his ballyhooed memo is offer two - TWO - 'benefits' that most federal agencies already offer their lesbian and gay employees? (participation in the long-term care program and sick leave to take care of a same-sex partner and/or a non-biological, not-officially-adopted child) And do it not as an Executive Order, but simply as a memo or directive? I am not impressed.

Thorin-1, the F-22 is a great plane (once bugs ironed out) but the problem is, it's expensive and more geared to old style theater combat. (I do dig watching them fly around here, one of the few bases.) So why the F-35, anyone, cool as it is?

MatthewRMarler, you're starting to sound rather sensible lately? What happened, conversion experience?

"Juneteenth, which commemorates the emancipation of slaves in 1865."

Wrong!
June 19, 1865 was the day that Union forces took command of Galveston Island. It is nominally picked as the day Texas slaves learned that they were free. Though even that is factually squishy.
Wrong day, month and year for emancipation.

Was Savage saying, "The white Christian heterosexual married male is the epitome of everything Right in America"?

FROM THE F-22 STORY: "Given the plane's crucial stealth technologies, Congress would have to overturn a law that bans any exports."

"Stealth Technology" does not exist, therefore there is nothing "crucial" about it.

* At the start of the Gulf War, when the F-117 'Stealth Fighters' first crossed over the Iraqi border, they lit up on Iraqi radar like a Christmas tree. Each F-117 had to be escorted deeper into Iraq by pairs of F-16's.

* B-2 Bombers have been detected by the low-frequency radar on U.S. Customs planes, which are used to track drug smugglers.

The only thing "stealthy" about the aforementioned planes, is the massive amount of money that the Air Force and defense contractors STOLE from the American taxpayers.

Tons of folks were jailed for major crimes before the DNA testing became viable. Why deny them the right to check that DNA? In this era, isn't that like assigning them a defense attorney who has no law degree? DNA is basic to major crimes.

right wing crazies take note--can you imagine if Iran got involved when republicans in the good old USA had their successful coup in 2000--with democratic candidate Al Gore winning the majority of the citizens' votes, yet the republican charade of delay--then certain dubious republican pretenders crashing the voting arena, demanding an end to the recount--, and the republican supreme court deciding in the favor of republicans to install Bush as president. Beyond the vote of citizens--the Supreme Court decided the election.

The people of the United States have a right to expect due diligence from law enforcement officials. Actual guilt or innocence should be paramount. I wonder what Sotomayor will say about this contemptible decision, or will she plead the fifth?

SHOUTING:

CAN REPUBLICANS PLEASE ACCEPT THE FACT THAT THE GREATEST ATTACK ON AMERICAN SOIL TOOK PLACE DURING THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION,
ON SEPTEMBER 11, 2001.

THUS REPUBLICANS DID NOT KEEP US SAFE FROM ATTACKS DURING THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION.

Interesting story brewing over a North Korean ship allegedly carrying WMD, missile and/or weaponry. Maybe this is one time Somali pirates might be a good thing. If they fail, send out the Steve Irwin from "Whale Wars."

Maybe the North Koreans will be the internationl actors testing Obama, as Biden predicted during the election.

The "Democrats" are essentially removing the public option from the insurance reform bill.

Glad we can count on them to do what a mere 76% of Americans say they support.

I simply cannot believe the power these corporations have in this country. It's appalling.

Hopefully the House Progressive Caucus will be enough to stand against this abomination.

Special Assistant to the Attorney General Wrisley Brown wrote in the June 1913 Harvard Law Review:
"The Impeachment of the Federal Judiciary."
To determine whether or not an act or a course of conduct is sufficient in law to support an impeachment, resort must be had to the eternal principles of right, applied to public propriety and civil morality. The offense must be prejudicial to the public interest and it must flow from a willful intent, or a reckless disregard of duty. ... It may constitute an intentional violation of positive law, or it may be an official dereliction of commission or omission, a serious breach of moral obligation, or other gross impropriety of personal conduct that, in its natural consequences, tends to bring an office into contempt and disrepute.

What is it with progressive blogs and these efforts to stoke panic? "health care reform is going to fail" is a self-fulfilling prophecy, even if its intended to pressure Democrats from the left. Ezra surely had good intentions, but does it really help the cause of health care to have the New York Times pronounce it dead based on his blog posts?

In other news 60% of Americans and 90% of Democrats still approve of Obama's performance, but apparently none of these people hang out on the Internet.

The U.S. Supreme Court, in another 5-4 ruling (natch), rules that "convicts do not have a right under the Constitution to obtain DNA testing to try to prove their innocence after being found guilty."

This is a very distressing decision, which will condemn innocent people to remain in prison in the handful of states that, like AK, have not entered the 21st century.

One important point in this case, DISTRICT ATTORNEY'S OFFICE FOR THE THIRD JUDICIAL DISTRICT et al. v. OSBORNE, is that we can expect that Sotomayor, the former ADA who generally rules on the side of cops and prosecutors, would likely have voted with the majority and against DP rights. I certainly hope she gets asked about this at her hearing.

Michael Savage: "The white Christian heterosexual married male is the epitome of everything right with America." Words fail.

What's truly pathetic is that Michael Weiner (his real name) is JEWISH.

Chris Geidner of Steve's "different look at DOMA" has spent half his paid career adulthood, and a fair amount of his college volunteer time, in Democratic Party jobs. No wonder he's upholding Barney Frank's party line on Obama's DOMA brief.
http://socraticgadfly.blogspot.com/2009/06/taking-doma-orders-from-barney-frank.html

Steve does Joe Nocera the injustice of just a link, when Nocera notes that Obama's "reform" plan will allow "too big to fail" banks to stay in place and do nothing to rein in customized derivatives.

Other than it failing to regulate the two biggest causes of the financial meltdown, it's a great plan, of course.

And, since G. Sachs was Obama's biggest donor through much of his campaign cycle, this is the change we should expect, right?

http://socraticgadfly.blogspot.com/2009/06/bs-of-obama-financial-reform.html

And, since G. Sachs was Obama's biggest donor through much of his campaign cycle, this is the change we should expect, right?

And since that myth is objectively false, we should expect for you to stop repeating it, right?

Of course not, as it's all part of the grand conspiracy theory which dictates that Obama is beholden to a firm whose employees gave him a fairly insignificant amount of his money and wasn't his biggest contributor.

The white Christian heterosexual married male..."

Michael Savage has the God given right to date anyone he pleases.

Great that our President enjoys the perks of not having to drive, but, sometime soon, on one of his trips to Ray's or Five Guys for burgers, could he stop at a gas station and just check the current daily increasing price of gas? Once again, Senator Bernie Sanders is taking the lead to attempt to rein in the speculators who are driving this rip off at the pumps - Geez, even Ben Nelson the RepugDemo has joined him.

Our fine Representative Blumenhauer of North Portland is on C-Span drumming up support for Public Option. Sorry, but Baucus and Daishcle have ripped gaping holes in that infrastructure with Insurance money pouring in to sink that vessel.

RE: Healthcare Debate

According to the CBO, the reform proposal would cost $1.6 Tn over 10 years. Gosh that's more than $160 trillion over 100 years and way more than $1.6 quadrillion over 1,000 years!!! So what?

1) It's 160 billion a year, though I doubt it's a straight line so that number will be less in earlier years. According to the CBO (http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/99xx/doc9924/12-18-KeyIssues.pdf, Page 19) we spend $2.4 trillion on healthcare now. That's a 6.7% increase over current costs. It is also less than $1.50 per person per day - less than a Venti coffee at Starbucks.

2) If we learned anything since the Bush years it's that 10 year forecasts are wildly off most of the time. Remember that surplus Clinton left Bush with? This is not necessarily the fault of the forecasters (though sometimes it is - remember the cost of the Bush Tax cuts?) but policy changes happen - and have a big impact on the result. Costs can increase or decrease but relying on 10 year forecasts is a chumps game.

3) The $160 billion per year is less than insurer administrative costs (CBO report, above), which don't even count Physician administrative expenses battling the insurance companies.

There are 45 million uninsured and probably another 20 under insured. The amount of lost productivity due to illness, not to mention the human suffering, ought to be worth at least that much.

First let's look at the proposal and decide if it does what needs doing and whether there are better ways to accomplish the same thing (can you say single payer?).

Over the years, I have read many a bizarre letter to the editor from those on the far right. However, yesterday, in the Oregonian there was a new Bizarro Winner - He claimed, that due to supply and demand, food stamps were the cause of high food prices. If only, people didn't buy so much, prices would drop. So, the liberals who have taken his tax money and given it away via food stamps are the culprits who have raised prices. And, this from the bastion of learning, Corvallis, OR, proud home of OSU.

MatthewRMarler, you're starting to sound rather sensible lately? What happened, conversion experience?

Nah, it's just part of his pattern...he pretends to comment in good faith in order to establish some credibility among those who don't remember his years of dishonest water carrying for the Bush Administration and its sweet, sweet tax cuts, and then he'll post some bullshit about liberals supporting furlough or art programs because they're soft on crime, not because they reduce fucking recidivism.

There's no conversion experience here. Marler can't resist posting bullshit for very long. And, of course, the pretense of an honest commentator -- with no acknowledgement, let alone atonement for, his years of bad faith -- is itself dishonest.

It's actually kind of sweet, the tacit admission of his own bad faith and lack of credibility, as well as amusing in its futility.

Get bent, Marler.

Neil B: MatthewRMarler, you're starting to sound rather sensible lately? What happened, conversion experience?

I am a global warming "sceptic", not a global warming "denier". I think some reasonably prudent things to reduce the risk of eventual global warming should be undertaken, in the spirit of insurance, and I buy CO2 offsets. I also think that the US should, for numerous reasons (such as ending dependence on oil imports from the Middle East), develop a richer variety of energy sources.

About the immigrants, I have supported increasing the quotas for legal immigration (the Kennedy-McCain bill), and I have worked with immigrants from from numerous countries -- immigrants of all skin colors, N and S origins, E and W origins, and numerous religious groups. I recently wrote a letter in support of a work visa for a (married, well-educated) man from China.

I also, as Gregory noted, oppose furlough programs for repeat violent offenders, and I think that the Massachusetts plan to devote 5% of its penitentiary budget to art education is a complete waste of money.

Yeah, based on the latest move of Dennis Ross to the White House, I would propose the following: Obama is to Israel as the republican moderates are to Rush Limbaugh.

Could someone please forward this sane advice on handling Nkorea to Obama? Sometime before we go to war, please?

Could someone please forward this sane advice on handling Nkorea to Obama? Sometime before we go to war, please?