one relatively prominent conservative blogger suggested, in print, that Reid's wife should be "euthanized."

because conservatives are all about the culture of life...

Not a huge fan of Harry Reid, although I guess I should reserve judgment until I see what happens in the next few months. Regardless, he is showing extreme class by not acknowledging the obscene blog from that right wing waste of oxygen. The worst of greedy, ignorant, classless America right there.

Good for the Obama admin rebuking Israel. Enough with the goddamn fighting over worthless land for centuries thing here. Good God Jews and Arabs, MOVE THE FUCK ON.

"Two Blue Dogs -- Texas's Chet Edwards and Florida's Allen Boyd -- voted with Republicans. Both voted against reform in November."

Hmm. I wonder if that would be the same Chet Edwards that Pelosi was enthusiastically touting as a VP prospect back in 2008.

Lie down with Blue Dogs, get up with fleas.

Israel may still have the U.S. congress in its back pocket, but they have lost/squandered the goodwill of a millions of Americans over the past couple of decades.

Since this is an open thread. PLEASE SHOOT ME.
I happen to be watching WAKA-TV news (CBS affiliate, Montgomery, AL) and the anchorman was talking about the Health Care bill and said it would pass with 50 votes "instead of the usual 60". That was so wrong I had to call.

So I called and got a woman there and explained that it only takes 51 votes to pass something in the Senate, it takes 60 to break a filibuster. She asked if I was sure because "I've been hearing all over talk radio that Obama had changed the rules from 60 to 50."

I told her that she shouldn't be getting her news from talk radio, and then explained majority rules to her. She said she didn't know that. And she would have the anchor guy fact check it.

Doomed, we're all doomed.

Government Funding / Research Scandal
(**Updated March 15th** - Participants)

Visit the website that the Canadian House of Commons and many Universities across North America have as well.

---------------------------------------------
It's an ingenious form of white collar crime:

PHD credentials / contacts, an expendable family, participation of a dubious core of established professionals, Government agency funding (identity protected by Privacy Commissioner Office), unlimited funding (under the guise of research grants), PHD individuals linked with the patient (deter liability issues), patient diagnosed with mental illness (hospital committed events = no legal lawyer access/rights), cooperation of local University and police (resources and security); note the Director of Brock Campus Security.

This all adds up to a personal ATM; at the expense of Canadian Taxpayers!
-------------------
Google

Medicine Gone Bad

or

http://medicine-gone-bad.blogspot.com/

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) kicks off his initiative to reform the way Wall Street does business. The White House is pleased. More surprisingly, Elizabeth Warren seems to like the plan, too.

In other words, it might actually be a good bill. Meaing it has zeto chance of passing in its current form.

"predictably, GOP leaders are attacking the Obama administration for being unhappy with Israel."

I think unconditional support for Israel is a fairly bipartisan position.

Republican majority leader resigned...

I thought resignation was reserved for Democrats only. Pubs were supposed to get the high-5 and promoted. Maybe the 15 year old turned out to be a male.

Nate Silver considers the liberal lawmaker's value to the Democratic Party.

Yeah, those liberal lawmakers just embarrass the Democrats with all their principles and stuff.

Shouldn't a "liberal lawmaker" actually, like, make some law?

"In the face of sharp American disapproval of an Israeli plan for an East Jerusalem building project, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu firmly rejected Monday any curbs on new Jewish settlements in and around Jerusalem."

Tell those Jewish Nazis currently running Israel that for every penny they spend in the West Bank we cut off $100 from the annual welfare check (currently running at $3 billion) and you'll get their attention. Of course the Israel Uber Alles Lobby would go batshit over such a move.

Tell them no more toys for the Israeli Luftwaffe and Wehrmacht and you'll really get their attention.

With an "ally" like Israel, we don't need any enemies.

@martin, re the WAKA-TV people. You're surprised that something like this would happen in the IQ swamp of America, Alabama? What the hell is someone like you with a triple-digit IQ doing down there among those hillbilly morons?

What the hell is someone like you with a triple-digit IQ doing down there among those hillbilly morons?

Annoying them mostly;>

Of course, I lived in LA (assuming that is Los Angeles) many years ago. Not exactly a hotbed in intellectual stimulation there, either;>

NCLB was more about profits for McGraw-Hill than it was about educating our children.

To reform our educational system we have to get beyond making money for text-book companies (who also happen to have ties to Iraq war profits), and look at what education is for.

Until we pay for our schools in a sane way, then we will be discouraged.

I say monies for a stricter federal effort should come from bank profits.

Kucinich's crime is not his failure to be sufficiently supportive of the Obama agenda.

Kucinich's crime is that he never sticks with an issue long enough to pass it into law.

Bernie Sanders gets lots of stuff made into law, especially by using the ability to amend bills on the floor. Kucinich neither shepherds bills through the committee process nor uses floor amendments effectively.

And the people who love Kucinich are often these weird activists who don't seem to care about the getting-stuff-done part of politics.

And on a related note, I'm reminded why I don't miss reading right-wing blogs: one relatively prominent conservative blogger suggested, in print, that Reid's wife should be "euthanized." He was apparently making an insane observation about why he hates health care reform.

The bad news - his idiot fans are giggling or they're in a phony moral outrage that he's being criticized.

The good news - he's getting reamed at Little Green Footballs, of all places.

It's still vile beyond belief. RW columnists and some "liberal " ones, have a habit of pointing fingers at the left based on a couple of anonymous posters who lose all decency. I'll guess the folks at National Review or at Fox won't say a word.

Re: Israel - This Foreign Policy piece was very interesting.
http://mideast.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/03/14/the_petraeus_briefing_biden_s_embarrassment_is_not_the_whole_story

It's a potentially explosive story. If Petraus is saying that Israel's behavior is killing American troops - and that's essentially the gist of the piece - it puts the whole Lieberman/AIPAC crew in a pretty unpleasant place. As it points out:

There are important and powerful lobbies in America: the NRA, the American Medical Association, the lawyers -- and the Israeli lobby. But no lobby is as important, or as powerful, as the U.S. military.

Could get interesting.

"...one relatively prominent conservative blogger suggested, in print, that Reid's wife should be 'euthanized.'"

Perhaps he's trying to tell his wife / signifcant other / husband something.

"Bernie Sanders gets lots of stuff made into law, especially by using the ability to amend bills on the floor. Kucinich neither shepherds bills through the committee process nor uses floor amendments effectively."

Mo Udall also got lots of bills passed by being the person on the committee everyone relied on to write the bills -- which he explained by his always being the last person to leave the room.

TEXAS AGAINST THE ENLIGHTENMENT AND JEFFERSON

This is too delicious pass up...

From Andrew Sullivan's Alantic "Daily Dish"

"The Texas Freedom Network live-blogged the Texas Board of Education meeting to revise its social studies curriculum:

"'9:30 - Board member Cynthia Dunbar wants to change a standard having students study the impact of Enlightenment ideas on political revolutions from 1750 to the present. She wants to drop the reference to Enlightenment ideas (replacing with “the writings of”) and to Thomas Jefferson. She adds Thomas Aquinas and others. Jefferson’s ideas, she argues, were based on other political philosophers listed in the standards. We don’t buy her argument at all. Board member Bob Craig of Lubbock points out that the curriculum writers clearly wanted to students to study Enlightenment ideas and Jefferson. Could Dunbar’s problem be that Jefferson was a Deist? The board approves the amendment, taking Thomas Jefferson OUT of the world history standards.'"

I may scream.

Fret not my dear, reason shall once again save the day

[...] the House Budget Committee voted 21 to 16 this afternoon to send the final health care reform package to the House Rules Committee. Two Blue Dogs -- Texas's Chet Edwards and Florida's Allen Boyd -- voted with Republicans. -- Steve Benen

Our House Tokens of Comity. The Heritage Foundation can stop worrying about the next cocktail party.

Off with the munchkin's head

Nate Silver: Kucinich's score of -4.22 is not only worse than that of any other Democrat: it is also worse than that of all but 22 Republicans.

If that's not a WTF...
What the fuck is?

Why aren't Democrats upset over the fact that constructing more settlements on occupied territories is against international law? I think that's the more important thing we should be worried about. Not about our cozy relations with Israel, an apartheid state.

Stay firm and stay angry at Israel. They deserve it, especially if they continue to violate international law.

more fuel from water.

Almost like magic.

Kucinich's score of -4.22 is not only worse than that of any other Democrat: it is also worse than that of all but 22 Republicans.

Now, I know I'm following up on Koreyel, but there is some good news for Kucinich: His score is better than Attila the Hun's.

Oops---my bad; let me get back to you after we fact-check that one....

Dennis Kucinich, a purity troll? Who knew!

Dennis Kucinich: worse than 27 Hitlers

Allen Boyd: just another Blue Dog. go figure

oh, how we pine for the days of WM's Kevin Drumm shilling for the Invasion of Iraq. now there was a Hitler to the 27th Power we could get behind demonizing

Why, in all the discussions of India and Pakistan, does the word "Reunification" come up. It seems to me an outcome that would be extremely beneficial to both peoples.

Reunification of India and Pakistan. India and Pakistan are too big already; they should be breaking up into smaller pieces, not "reunifying" to create a bigger mess.

Why are we giving Israel 3 billion dollars in aid every year?
I always thought that Israel was a rich country - they also have national health care I heard.

http://www.tallahassee.com/article/20100316/NEWS01/3160313/Boyd-opposes-student-loan-legislation

Boyd says his opposition has nothing to do with health care. There are 600 student loan processing jobs in Panama City. Boyd says he is undecided about health care

"Of particular interest: Stevens will retire before the end of Obama's first term."

The article doesn't say that. It quotes Stevens as saying, apparently on March 8, that "You can say I will retire within the next three years. I’m sure of that."

"Retire" can mean either leave office or announce the intention to leave office. Three years from now is March of 2013. Stevens may plan to give Obama the chance to replace him before the end of the presidential term but the article doesn't say that.