Irving Kristol died on Erev Rosh Hashonah. How fitting that he won't pollute the next year with his conservative views.

Shana Tovah to all the other Jews on this blog.

Just for laughs: Orly Taitz remind anyone else of "Lady Gaga", maybe on a low-key day? The difference is, OT is not trying to entertain with her weirdness.

Greatest. One-word take-down. Ever.

Sullivan's response to Brook's aplogetic logorrhea.

Seen this weeks Time?

http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,20090928,00.html

Bury obstruction to healthcare reform with Kristol.

"Irving Kristol, generally considered the father of neo-conservatism, died today"

Those damn Obama Death Panels.

Oh wait.

Shana Tovah to you too, Phoebes!

Here's to 5770! Where does the time go? It seems like just yesterday 5767 was tripping off our tongues!

"Irving Kristol...died today."

Hooray!

I'm very curious as to Benen's total silence over TIME's Beck fellatio.

I can understand how there's enough going around that not every trespass can be mentioned, but when the major newsweekly gives legitimacy to a sociopathic enemy of democracy, it would be useful for prominent bloggers to mention it.

Am I missing something? Steve?
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Dean's "America Can't Wait"

Via TPM:

In a letter to DFA members, America Can't Wait founder Howard Dean wrote: "At least 218 House and 51 Senate Democrats have said they would vote for the final healthcare bill if it included the choice of a public option rather than vote against the bill and kill reform."

Petition and email updates here. Let the schism begin...

Right back atcha, Blue Girl! I will say I am happier THIS New Year than last when I was so worried about the election.

I still need to get in touch with you about putting together an ActBlue page. Maybe next month...

Koryel, above all important to go to war against the 60-vote fraud and get this passed by majorities if need be, as we always used to in the absence of literal filibusters. (Like some say, make the bastards do the actual filibustering, at least.)

BTW people, get on those emails, push the link to petition buttons, etc. It will take all we can give.

garnash, elder Kristol was kind of an asshole (his son really, really is one), but I'd rather we didn't indulge in praising people's deaths.

Pardon msp, koreyel

Aris, SB really can't cover all the bases. REM to check Kevin Drum now and then too.
Get the good Fisking (?) of Time's Beck story here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/greg-mitchell/time-cover-on-beck-mutila_b_289890.html

If you happen to be on Facebook, feel free to join the group: Olympia Snowe - join the Democratic party!

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=166532444687

I realize Drudge links to her stuff, but Camille Paglia really doesn't belong at Salon.

So true! She's so dumb for an intellectual.

Irving's evil spawn: both son and ideology.

Sotomayor asked the right question. Isn't it time to revisit the status of corporations as people altogether?

Orly looks like one of the hit-women in Wild at Heart.

Adding this: from the anniversary review

Years After Katrina: The legacy of Katrina, by the numbers
By Bill Quigley and Davida Finger
Guest Contributors

Number of renters in Louisiana who have received financial assistance from the $10 billion federal post-Katrina rebuilding program Road Home Community Development Block Grant, compared to 116,708 homeowners - 0

Number of hospitals in New Orleans providing in-patient mental health care as of September 2008 despite post-Katrina increases in suicides and mental health problems - 0

Rank of New Orleans among U.S. cities in murders per capita for 2008 - 1

Rank of New Orleans among U.S. cities in percentage of vacant residences - 1

Number of Katrina cottages completed in Louisiana as of beginning of 2009 hurricane season under $74 million dollar federal program - 2

Percent of 134,000 FEMA trailers in which Katrina and Rita storm survivors were housed after the storms which are estimated by federal government to have had formaldehyde problems - 33

Percent of child care facilities re-opened in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina - 35

Percent increase of demand in 2009 at emergency food programs in Orleans and surrounding parishes, "an increase pinned on the swelling ranks of under-employed and rising food, housing, and fuel costs" - 35

Ranking of Louisiana among states for overall healthcare - 50

Percent increase in rents in New Orleans since Katrina - 52

Percent of federal rebuilding money allocated to New Orleans that has actually been received - 52

Percent of children in New Orleans public schools who attend public charter schools - 60

Percent of the 600 New Orleans residents who will displaced by proposed new hospital complex who are minorities - 88

Number of units which will be public housing eligible in the new St. Bernard area after demolition and rebuilding. - 160 [1]

Number of Louisiana homeowners who have applied for federal assistance in repair and rebuilding after Katrina who have been determined eligible for assistance but who have still not received any money - 27,279

Number of children who have not returned to public school in New Orleans since Katrina. This reduction leaves the New Orleans public school population just over half of what it was pre-Katrina - 30,396

Number of Medicaid recipients who have not returned to New Orleans since Katrina - 63,799

Unoccupied addresses in New Orleans. This is 31% of the addresses in the City and nearly as many as Detroit, a city twice the size of New Orleans - 65,888

Number of Louisianians looking for work - 128,341

Fewer people in New Orleans than before Katrina, according to the Greater New Orleans Community Data Center estimate of 311,853, the most recent population estimate in Orleans - 143,193

Dollar amount of federal Medicaid stimulus rejected outright by Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal which would have expanded temporary Medicaid coverage for families who leave welfare and get a job - 9.5 million

Dollar amount of unemployment federal stimulus dollars rejected by Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal that was available to bolster the unemployment compensation funds to assist 25,000 families in Louisiana - 98 million

Dollar amount paid to ICF International, the company that was hired by the State of Louisiana to distribute federal Road Home rebuilding dollars - 900 million

Current vulnerability of New Orleans to storm-related flooding - ? [2]

Davida Finger is a social justice attorney

FACING SOUTH - Online Magazine of the Institute for Southern StudiesSubscribe to RSS

Watchdog warns of far-right militia resurgence
The same week a man with ties to a far-right anti-government group showed up with a gun strapped to his thigh at a New Hampshire town hall meeting where President Obama was speaking on health reform, a watchdog organization released a report documenting a surge among right-wing militias motivated in part by the election of an African-American president.

"The Second Wave: Return of the Militias" was released Wednesday by the Southern Poverty Law Center, a group based in Montgomery, Ala. that monitors hate activity nationwide. It found that almost a decade after largely fading from view, far-right militias are re-appearing in worrisome numbers.

"This is the most significant growth we've seen in 10 to 12 years," according to one unnamed law enforcement authority quoted in SPLC's report. "All it's lacking is a spark."

The day before the report's release, William Kostric showed up with a gun outside the New Hampshire meeting carrying a sign that read, "It is time to water the tree of liberty," a reference to Thomas Jefferson's quote that the "tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants" -- the same quote that was on a T-shirt worn by far-right terrorist Timothy McVeigh on the day in 1995 he bombed the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, an attack that killed 168 people and injured another 680. Kostric's action, it should be noted, broke no laws.

The Arizona Republic reports that Kostric is a "team member" of the Arizona chapter of the We the People Foundation, a group whose website claims the U.S. Republic and Constitution are in danger and that questions the U.S. citizenship of President Obama. The group was founded by Robert Schulz, a prominent figure in the far-right tax protest movement.

In its report, SPLC offers examples of the far-right's resurgence, including a gathering of anti-government activists in Pensacola, Fla., where a retired FBI agent named Ted Gunderson told attendees that the federal government has set up 1,000 internment camps across the country and is storing 30,000 guillotines and a half-million caskets in Atlanta in preparation for a mass killing of dissenters. Gunderson has long promoted conspiracy theories involving widespread satanic ritual abuse of children by U.S. government agents.

SPLC's report also points to a so-called "American Grand Jury" that assembled outside Atlanta and issued an "indictment" of Obama for fraud and treason, alleging he wasn't born in the United States and thus is illegally occupying the White House. The claim that the president is not a U.S. citizen has been repeatedly debunked and dismissed in legitimate courts of law by judges considering lawsuits that sought to challenge his qualifications to serve as president.

But the idea that the president is foreign-born continues to be promoted by by prominent pundits and politicians. They include the 11 Republican House members co-sponsoring the so-called "birther bill" (H.R. 1503) that in response to the controversy over Obama's birthplace would require future presidential candidates to submit a copy of their birth certificate to the Federal Election Commission. The bill's primary champion is Rep. Bill Posey (R-Fla.), and the co-sponsors are Reps. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Dan Burton (R-Ind.), John Campbell (R-Calif.), Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and six Congressmen from Texas -- John R. Carter, John Culberson, Louie Gohmert, Kenny Marchant, Randy Neugebauer, and Ted Poe.

SPLC calls on all Americans -- and especially law enforcement officers -- to take seriously the potential dangers of the militant far-right's resurgence.

"This is equally true for the politicians, pundits and preachers who, through pandering or ignorance, abet the growth of a movement marked by a proven predilection for violence," it says.

Orly Taitz looks like Amy Winehouse's crazy sister.

Camille Paglia really doesn't belong at Salon

Camille is to Salon, what 'Alan Colmes' was to Hannity on Fox News.

The difference being: Colmes knew he was a patsy and not being taken seriously.

Camille genuinely believes she has something substantive to contribute to the conversation.

Camille Paglia really doesn't belong at Salon

You noticed that, did you? And can you think of anywhere that she does belong? There is an institution in east Texas especially for people like her, similar to where Mrs. Robinson went to "stroll around the grounds until you feel at home."

Re Czars. Wasn't it the Communists that overthrew the Czars? Are the Republicans now aligning themselves with the Communists?

"Aris, SB really can't cover all the bases"

You're totally missing the point. Plus, I'm really not in need of your patronizing assistance to find who did and didn't cover it. My point was that prominent bloggers need to raise hell when something this egregious happens. Benen has a prominent position, yet chose to keep silent. The fact that others did a good job covering this does not absolve Benen. If the mainstream media are to feel pressure, criticism must come from large numbers of prominent sources.

BTW, Kevin Drum didn't cover it either. Something to do with being "moderate" (like Benen) I guess -- hey, maybe TIME is a future employer for either or both! Just like with the tools Amy Sullivan and Michael Scherer.
____________________________________________

Irving Kristol, generally considered the father of neo-conservatism, died today. He was 89.

Ohhhh, talk about picking the wrong day to die, being far far right and Jewish. God's gonna be waterboarding ol' Irv for sure, to get all his crimes confessed on the Day of Atonement. Actually, it won't be God most likely, but rather his "senior angel," the fallen one.

Irving Kristol, generally considered the father of neo-conservatism, died today. He was 89.

A better observation, from Oscazr Wilde:

"Some spread joy wherever they go, some whenever they go."

VV Summit?

Venereal Voters Summit?

the 2009 summer arctic ice melt ended with an ice extent close to 5.25million square kilometers, third greatest melt on record, but http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/09/07/how-have-the-scientists-done-on-arctic-sea-ice-forecasts-this-year-maybe-not-so-good/> less melt than predicted. Now soliciting predictions for the 2009-2010 refreeze and 2010 melt.

Europe is suspicious of America's role at Copenhagen.

Always with the typos. A minute ago I dropped the quote marks or something.

Should anyone have forgotten or, even worse, never read this, the ultimate put down:
The late, great, Molly Ivins on Camille Paglia.

Thanks for the Ivins link, Clio. That was great.

I miss Molly.

45,000 a year dying for lack of adequate insurance? Why haven't the Dems phrased the debate around this horrible fact.

115 Americans will die today. 115 will die tomorrow. And each day thereafter, as opponents to health care reform work to line the pockets of insurance executives. Write to these legislators, show up at their town hall meetings, and ask them how in good conscience they can stand by and watch American citizens die. Don't they love America? How quickly would they rally around a solution (and commit vast taxpayer funds) if al Qaeda (or North Korea or Iran or Russia) killed 115 Americans in a day?

Being patriotic is more than wearing a flag lapel pin. Complacency is complicity. Obstructionism is treason. Love America. Save Americans.

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