Friday Stuff

post from The Liberal Doomsayer on 08 July 2011 11:34:00 PM. © The Liberal Doomsayer

Yours truly was busy with non-blogging stuff today, hence no posts. However, this is the link to last week's Area Votes in Congress (Senate only - really not much to comment about).

Also, Mikey The Beloved's stenography service provided a link to his let-me-hide-so-I-don't-have-to-face-any-cameras "town hall" here. It can be summarized as follows...

Austerity bitches! Taxes are evil, government get its house in order, Obamacare bad, uncertainty, blah blah blah?

You get the idea.

...and now turning to the videos, I think I'll just cheat by grabbing a few from Crooks and Liars, including this one in which Ezra Klein had a good idea...

video details and more

...and kudos to Ed Schultz for giving it to "Saint Orrin" (here)...

video details and more

...and at least Moon Unit Bachmann is honest enough to say what her fellow Repugs are thinking (here - and by the way, she got her "law degree" from the O. W. Coburn School at Oral Roberts U, which became Regent University, where 60 percent of the Bushco DOJ flunkies came from)...

video details and more

...and here's a jaunty little number to commemorate this story.

Read The Full Article:
http://liberaldoomsayer.blogspot.com/2011/07/friday-stuff_08.html

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Open Thread

post from Crooks and Liars on 08 July 2011 11:30:51 PM. © Crooks and Liars

enlarge

h/t Debt Ceiling Cat on tumblr via Steve King on Twitter.

Open Thread below....

Read The Full Article:
http://crooksandliars.com/bluegal-aka-fran/open-thread-82

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Open thread for night owls: Easy energy answers,
and wrong

post from Daily Kos on 08 July 2011 11:30:01 PM. © Daily Kos

At Grist, Dave Roberts writes Bachmann: Energy is the "most easy problem for America to solve":

During a campaign event at Iowa's world-famous (?) Wells Blue Bunny Ice Cream Parlor & Museum this past weekend, Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann said that energy is "the most easy problem for America to solve." How, you ask?
We have 25 percent of the world's coal here. Trillions of cubic square feet of natural gas here. We just built one of the world's largest lines of natural gas here. We have got more oil in three Western states in shale oil than all of Saudi Arabia. Did you hear that on your local nightly news? Are you kidding? We've got it. I say let's go get it.
Now, it's true that Bachmann is always saying crazy sh*t. But this is not Tea Party fringe talk. This is the heart and soul of GOP energy policy. It is their one and only answer to the problem of energy: dig up more fossil fuels. Easy!
I expect most Grist readers understand the deceptions behind this rhetoric: it relies on completely ignoring climate change, exaggerating U.S. fossil fuel reserves, ignoring the size of U.S. energy demand, dismissing the environmental and social costs of drilling, and so on and so forth.
Nonetheless, as a political slogan, it's incredibly powerful. ...

At Daily Kos on this date in 2006:

What's missing in this hard-right GOP calculus for 2006 is what happens to the Independents and the moderate Republicans (yes, they must still exist). Take a gander at this list of recent polls on the public policy priorities for American voters. Iraq and the economy or gas prices top every list. Same-sex marriage shows up just once, as a concern for 5% of respondents in a Fox News poll taken a few weeks ago.
So the GOP seems to be gambling on a low turnout election year, with the vast majority of the population so turned off by politics that only the rabid, those 20% who thought Congressional intervention in the Schiavo case was a good idea, come out to vote.
Can Democrats capitalize on this incredible disconnect with the electorate the Rubber Stamp Republicans have on the issues? Only if we keep the conversation focused on just that disconnect: why is the GOP wasting it's time on a gay marriage ban that's already been rejected by the Senate when the only plan they have for Iraq is Stay and Pray? Why are they worrying about the Pledge of Allegiance when people are having to choose between paying for food or paying for gasoline to get to work?

Top Comments can be found here. High Impact Diaries can be found here.

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http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/fF0ZvA9dPrY/-Open-thread-for-night
-owls:-Easy-energy-answers,-and-wrong

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Sen. Claire McCaskill (D): and you shall know her
by her political enemies, part 2

post from They gave us a republic... - Front Page on 08 July 2011 11:10:17 PM. © They gave us a republic... - Front Page

Previously: Sen. Claire McCaskill (D): and you shall know her by her political enemies (June 22, 2011)

Crossroads GPS, a republican right wingnut astroturf organization, has dumped a ton of money into a television ad attacking Senator Claire McCaskill.

video details and more

Senator Claire McCaskill (D): All of us need to realize the debt is a real problem, the deficit is a real problem.
Announcer: Oh, really, Senator?
[U.S. Debt up $5.6 Trillion Since 2007]
You voted for skyrocketing debt, the failed stimulus...
[Stimulus Bill $830 Billion]
...and Obamacare.
[Healthcare Takeover: $1 Trillion]
You voted for reckless spending. And how'd you pay for it?
[McCaskill Voted To Raise The Debt Limit Six Times]
Billions in new taxes and trillions in crushing debt.
Senator Claire McCaskill (D): The debt is a real problem.
Announcer: Sorry, Senator McCaskill, no more reckless spending, no new taxes, and no more blank checks.
[Paid For By Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies.]

The republicans believe everyone with a television set in America is stoopid.

Failed stimulus? Really?:

From the office of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D).

Gee, that chart shows a very different trajectory from the previous republican administration, don't you think? Or are the republican hacks at Crossroads GPS insinuating that the stimulus wasn't big enough? Just asking, but hardly probable.

Skyrocketing Debt? Who took a budget surplus and wasted it? Waiting, waiting, waiting...

....The Bush Tax Cuts Are The Primary Driver Of Federal Budget Deficits Over The Next Decade....

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r): town hall in Blue Springs, part 2 (April 30, 2011)
We have a "debt crisis" because dubya gave a windfall tax break to the top two percent, thereby increasing the distribution of wealth upward, and significantly decreasing revenue.

Because millionaires and billionaires have suffered so greatly over the last few years, right? That'll sell with everyone else.

And voting on the debt limit?: Pot, kettle deeply acquainted

Yep, republicans think everyone in America is stoopid.

...Total spending on the Missouri effort is more than $219,230...

And they have an unlimited amount of money.

Read The Full Article:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheyGaveUsARepublic-FrontPage/~3/grelLsIStzI/sen-c
laire-mccaskill-d-and-you-shall-know-her-by-her-political-enemies-part-2

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WMD

post from Talking Points Memo on 08 July 2011 11:00:59 PM. © Talking Points Memo

Lawyers for MLK Day bombing suspect question (not altogether unreasonably I might add) whether the bomb he had was really a "weapon of mass destruction." [...]

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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Talking-Points-Memo/~3/18-RcOb3b5E/wmd_2.php

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C&L's Late Night Music Club With The Beatles

post from Crooks and Liars on 08 July 2011 11:00:54 PM. © Crooks and Liars

Title: Act NaturallyArtist: The Beatles

Ringo Starr turned 71 yesterday. Here's The Beatles' version of a Buck Owens classic featuring the 'funny one' on the vocals. Happy Birthday Mr. Starkey!

Help! (Remastered)

Artist: The Beatles Price: $9.06 (As of 07/08/11 08:05 pm details)

Read The Full Article:
http://crooksandliars.com/jared-shade-reynolds/cls-late-night-music-club--11

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The LiberalOasis Radio Show: Everybody Chill
Edition

post from LiberalOasis : The Blog on 08 July 2011 11:00:42 PM. © LiberalOasis : The Blog

Bill Scher and Traci Olsen turn down the volume on the debt limit talks. Plus, Super Special Heritage Foundation Edition of the Stabby Five.

You can download the podcast at these links: (iTunes / XML feed / MP3).

Or you can simply listen below.

Read The Full Article:
http://www.liberaloasis.com/2011/07/the_liberaloasis_radio_show_ev_2.php

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Vengeance is mine sayeth the Governor.

Careful O, this is no time to be abandoning your most loyal constituents. Did you see the unemployment numbers today? Yeah, I know I know, the republiclowns are praying that you fail and that more A-merry-cans stay unemployed (which is sad and pathetic), and the folks with the ability to invest in the economy are sitting on their loot. But honestly, to steal a quote from "The Moments", I am not feeling like "I found love on a two way street" these days.

Anywhoo, I see that our god fearing governor down in that country we know as Texas decided to ignore a plea from the State Department --not to mention the U.N.-- and excecute a Mexican national. It must be nice to be governor big hair.

"Gov. Rick Perry rebuffed criticism Friday from the United Nations and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for Texas' execution of a Mexican man whose lawyers said he was not informed he could have sought legal help from the Mexican government after he was arrested for the murder of a San Antonio teenager.

"If you commit the most heinous of crimes in Texas, you can expect to face the ultimate penalty under our laws," Perry's spokeswoman Katherine Cesinger said a day after convicted killer Humberto Leal was put to death in Huntsville.
In Geneva, the U.N.'s top human rights official said Leal's execution amounted to a breach of international law by the U.S.
The Texas governor has the authority in execution cases to issue a one-time 30-day reprieve, an authority Perry and other governors in the nation's most active capital punishment state rarely have invoked."
That a boy Gov. the wages of sin is death.

Finally, if you are a black woman in Pistolvania, you just might want to pay your parking ticket. If you don't you will be shackled and hauled off to jail....wait,this woman did pay her parking ticket, and she was still shackled and hauled off to jail.

Oh well, it could be worse, the poor lady could have been in Texas.

Read The Full Article:
http://field-negro.blogspot.com/2011/07/vengeance-is-mine-sayeth-governor.html

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Exxon denies MT open government rules, state
pulls out of task force

Now there's the Big Oil that we know and love. It's not unlike what we observed during the disaster in the Gulf but back then, the Obama administration was tripping over itself to help play the game. Even this time, the federal team seems to be comfortable with Exxon and keeping things secret. Well done by governor Schweitzer on his move to remove the state from this charade.

Gov. Brian Schweitzer was to travel to Billings Friday to announce the opening of an alternate state-run oil spill coordination center.

Exxon Mobil security workers have closely guarded access to the command post on the second floor of the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Billings, where the EPA and other federal agencies also are stationed. Attempts by The Associated Press to talk to government officials there have been denied.

"The state will no longer have a presence at the Crowne Plaza because Exxon Mobil tells us they can't respect the open government laws we have in Montana," Schweitzer told The Associated Press. "I can't allow state employees to be in meetings at the Crowne Plaza talking about this cleanup without having it open."

Read The Full Article:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Americablog/~3/6BOohI4qlnI/exxon-denies-mt-open-go
vernment-rules.html

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Late Night: Take the Money and Run (Toward the
Danger!)

Consider yourselves warned. You can only hide for another week. Because next Friday, July 15, Sarah Palin's hired hagiographic film The Undefeated (sadly, probably not based on the Iggy Pop song of the same name) will be released in multiple cities[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/firedoglake/fdl/~3/0n-lPO3rYJ4/

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