Wednesday Stuff

post from The Liberal Doomsayer on 25 May 2011 11:44:00 PM. © The Liberal Doomsayer

Here is the testimony of Elizabeth Warren before asshat Patrick McHenry that I noted earlier; I think Warren?s shocked expression as McHenry calls her a liar speaks volumes, and if there?s any justice, his sorry ass will get voted out of office (though expecting many voters to remember this in November 2012 is a stretch, I?ll admit?guess it?s my job to make sure they do)?

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?and get a load of this; McHenry?s fellow House Repug Rob Woodall was all about having people do for themselves recently (here, at about :26 - God, and people actually applauded...I feel ill)?well, I guess he?s all about ?them?s that got shall get? now based on the rest of this right after his applause line...kudos to that lady who put him on the spot; Woodall really is an idiot if he thinks his health care is "free"...

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?on literally a wholly other note, Miles Davis would have been 85 tomorrow (I believe this was broadcast on The Steve Allen Show in 1964, also featuring John Coltrane?not sure of the other musicians)?

?and even though I stand by what I said last night about Bob Dylan, I was probably a bit dismissive, so here is another excerpt from his legendary body of work (no video).

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http://liberaldoomsayer.blogspot.com/2011/05/wednesday-stuff_25.html

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Open thread for night owls: Says McGovern5 hours
to debate NPR, 5 minutes to debate Afghanistan

post from Daily Kos on 25 May 2011 11:30:02 PM. © Daily Kos

Rep. Jim McGovern (MA-03) tweeted tonight: "The GOP debates defunding NPR for hours, but limits debate on Afghanistan to 5 minutes."

That "debate" will happen Thursday when the House takes up the Afghanistan Exit and Accountability Act. Sponsored by McGovern and Walter Jones (NC-03), if passed, the amendment would require:

? A plan and time-frame on accelerated transition of military operations to Afghan authorities;

? A plan and time-frame on negotiations leading to a political solution and reconciliation in Afghanistan; and

? A new National Intelligence Estimate on al Qaeda.

As Robert Greenwald writes:

The McGovern/Jones amendment won?t end the war by itself, but it?s a necessary first step to reining in a war policy that up to this point has utterly failed to deliver on the promises of its backers to the American people. Supporters of Rethink Afghanistan and other organizations are urging Congress to pass this amendment this week, and the vote may happen as early as today. If you want the war to end, please use our petition to send a note to your representative immediately.
This weekend, many Americans will mark Memorial Day at barbecues or other patriotic events, but thousands of families will spend the day dealing with the heartbreaking absence of a loved one. Others will spend the day like they spent every day for the last decade: hoping there?s not a phone call or a knock at the door to tell them their deployed family member won?t be coming home.
This should be the last Memorial Day we put military families through this agony for a war that?s not making us safer.

Not much time between now and the vote. But there's enough for you to get on the phone early in the morning and urge your Congressperson to say "aye" on McGovern-Jones. You can remind him or her that it's a bipartisan amendment.

? ? ? ? ?

At Daily Kos on this date in 2005:

Sen. Brownback (R-KS) [flip-flopping] on judicial filibusters:
But should no deal emerge to break the stalemate, the region's other Republican senators, Kit Bond and Jim Talent of Missouri, and Sam Brownback of Kansas all said they would back Frist [...]
Brownback pointed out that "we've been hung up now four years" on several of the nominees.
"There's no sign of it ending," Brownback said. "We're kind of at the end of the string. I don't know what else we can do" other than change the rules.
Brownback on stem cell research:
"We're going to do everything we can to stop it," said Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan. He vowed to mount a filibuster, which allows a minority of senators to block a vote on the measure.

? ? ? ? ?

See High Impact Diaries here. See Top Comments here.

Read The Full Article:
http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/7dDTSz5m6bw/-Open-thread-for-night
-owls:-Says-McGovern—5-hours-to-debate-NPR,-5-minutes-to-debate-Afghanistan

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BREAKING: Senate resoundingly rejects Ryan
budget, 57-40

post from Crooks and Liars on 25 May 2011 11:16:07 PM. © Crooks and Liars

Sure, it's political theater -- but it's smart political theater:

In what amounted to political theater rather than legislative action, the Senate on Wednesday rejected a House budget plan that included a controversial provision to overhaul Medicare and also unanimously voted down President Barack Obama's 2012 budget proposal.
The House budget measure had been expected to fail in the Senate due to overwhelming opposition by majority Democrats, plus wavering support for its Medicare overhaul among Republicans. The Senate GOP has recognized the provision's unpopularity with senior citizens enrolled in the government-run health insurance program.
Senate Democrats forced Wednesday's vote in order to make Senate Republicans go on record in support of the Medicare overhaul.
The final vote on the proposal originated by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, was 57-40, mostly along party lines. Republicans who joined the majority Democrats in opposing the measure were Scott Brown of Massachusetts, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Rand Paul of Kentucky, and Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine.

Scott Brown was whining:

The Massachusetts Republican had announced Monday that he would oppose the GOP plan after previously saying he would vote for it.
After taking the vote, Brown immediately faulted Majority Leader Harry Reid for "playing divisive political games with our nation?s financial future."
Brown said the Nevada Democrat should instead allow senators to work on "a bipartisan budget that is fiscally responsible and can pass the Senate."

Read The Full Article:
http://crooksandliars.com/breaking-news/breaking-senate-resoundingly-rejects

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Late Night: Join FDL as a Member, Dammit!

post from Firedoglake on 25 May 2011 11:06:16 PM. © Firedoglake

Become a Member of FiredoglakeGOAL: 1,000 New Members Support our one-stop shop for in-depth news coverage and hard-hitting activism. Yes, it’s a pledge drive. But unlike the ones they do for NPR, it is a fucking pledge drive. I’ve been[...]

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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/firedoglake/fdl/~3/SOsWOx2j3dw/

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Fighting Back

post from Kmareka.com on 25 May 2011 11:00:48 PM. © Kmareka.com

It’s hard to definitely connect a disease to an exposure to a toxin. There are various estimates of how many children got thyroid cancer after Chernobyl, the International Atomic Energy Agency, in a strangely upbeat post , says four thousand. The World Health Organization says five thousand, with a little more consideration of the implications. Other cancers also were increased after the disaster.

Yan Leyfman suffered painful, relentless and unexplained illnesses all during his early childhood. Now a student in the US, he is researching cancer as his mother survives cancer treatment. They believe they are victims of radiation exposure.

STONY BROOK, N.Y. ? Yan Leyfman was born in Belarus in 1989, three years after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. His family lived only about 75 miles from the nuclear plant, and as a toddler, Mr. Leyfman had a constellation of mysterious symptoms: cysts that covered his entire body, fingernails that fell out, limbs that were swollen and skin that itched torturously.
Though he recovered his health after moving to Brooklyn at age 5, Chernobyl still followed him.

Leyfman is a young cancer researcher, driven to find a cure for his mother and answers for himself.

At this time, the ruins of Chernobyl are still dangerous, Ukraine and the international community are trying to raise the 2 billion it will cost to entomb the reactor before the temporary structure fails.

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http://kmareka.com/2011/05/25/fighting-back/

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Under siege!

post from field negro on 25 May 2011 11:00:47 PM. © field negro

*

"A new study by researchers at Tufts University and Harvard Business School shows that whites believe they are victims of racism more often than Blacks.

While that may elicit a raised eyebrow from most people, the title of the study 'Whites See Racism as a Zero-sum Game that They Are Now Losing,' shows that many whites believe that as racism against Blacks has decreased, racism against them has increased much more.

'It?s a pretty surprising finding when you think of the wide range of disparities that still exist in society, most of which show black Americans with worse outcomes than whites in areas such as income, home ownership, health and employment,' said Tufts Associate Professor of Psychology Samuel Sommers, Ph.D., co-author of the study." [Source]

I am not surprised. When you read blog posts like this one you can't help but feel the frustration and pain of my melanin challenged friends. (h/t brohammas) I mean first Harry Potter and now Charlie's Angels. Is nothing sacred in A-merry-ca anymore? Folks are even writing about "the end of white America." The majority is under siege. Our poor Founding Fathers must be turning in their graves.

I blame that Obama guy. Don't worry folks, he won't be president forever. Things will be back to normal soon.

*Pic courtesy of NewsOne.com

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http://field-negro.blogspot.com/2011/05/under-siege.html

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C&L's Late Night Music Club With World Party

post from Crooks and Liars on 25 May 2011 11:00:46 PM. © Crooks and Liars

Title: Put The Message In The BoxArtist: World Party

I love this song from Goodbye Jumbo, World Party's second release. How many songs can you think of about 'sending a message' to someone?

Goodbye Jumbo

Artist: World Party Price: $5.78 (As of 05/25/11 07:01 pm details)

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

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Dave von Ebers is a God Damned Obamunistofascist

post from Jesus' General on 25 May 2011 11:00:05 PM. © Jesus' General

Unfortunately, it's come to my attention that one of our long-time commenters is a stooge for the World-Wide Amish Obama Conspiracy to Force America to Accept the Unrighteously Hued as our Equals (WWAOCFAAUHE). The proof of Mr. von Ebers' treachery lies here, in a post in which he questions a TV station's decision to run an interview with a patriotic Birther-American as balance to the OBAMUNIST USURPER's birth certificate announcement.

That patriot is Rick Biesada, founder of the Chicago Minuteman Project, and as Comrade von Ebers notes, a radio host:

That?s right ? Biesada?s radio show on WJJG is called ?Perspectives on Our Heritage ? The Angry White Male Hour.? Gee, no racial overtones there, eh?

Comrade von Ebers, a pointy-headed, college-trained, bar-approved attorney, took issue with Mr. Biesada?s self-taught legal approach, arrogantly declaring that scholarly interpretations of Article II and the 14th Amendment of the Constitution are somehow more valid than folk interpretations:

Article II says nothing about a president?s parents; it only says that any ?natural born Citizen? of the United States (over age 35 and residing in the country for at least fourteen years) is eligible to be president. And while the Constitution, as originally drafted, did not define the term ?Citizen,? the Fourteenth Amendment does..

Thankfully, Mr. Biesada has his own forum to promote his ideas. It's called "The Federalist Observer." Proudly Aryan patriots may recall its scathing expose of Alexander Hamilton which begins:

Hamilton was a rat from the get go. His real name was Alexander Levine; the son of a Jew...Alex was groomed at age 15 when he was sent back to Europe from the Isle of Neveus, to be trained in banking by the Bank of England, and the Rothchilds, knowing that he would be Washington?s aid, as Secretary, when the con job was put into place.

Mr. Biesada responded to Comrade von Ebers in the Observer by making the following points:

Dave von Ebers looks like an anteater
Rick Biesada is not a racist
Apostrophes are the most effective element of argument; use them everywhere
Rick Biesada works in the "city?s most murderous neighborhood;" everyone there loves him; Dave von Ebers better be careful
Obama is a 14th Amendment citizen and is therefore ineligible to be president

That last point is important. It's based on scholarly research conducted back in the nineties by the legal eagles behind the sovereign citizen movement and the Montana Freemen. In essence, only "organic" citizens, those who were afforded citizenship by the original Constitution, are eligible to be president. All others who obtained citizenship through the Fourteenth Amendment are lesser citizens who do not have all of the rights of organic citizens. Here's how Mr. Biesada puts it:

Obama, if born in Hawaii, therefore did not inherit his U.S. Citizenship from his natural parents but rather acquired it by positive law, ie.,the 14th Amendment, or 8 U.S.C. Section 1401 (a), which naturalizes persons who are born in the United States but lack two U.S. citizen parents to be U.S. Citizens at birth, hence, Obama can be a citizen under the 14th Amendment, or 8 U.S.C. Section 1401(a) but he is not an Article II Section, two natural born citizen, as required by our founders as a condition of allegiance.

As for whether Mr. Bethesda is a racist, I prefer to call him a "proudly white" American. Certainly proudly white Stormfront readers and proudly white radio listeners would agree.

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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/daKDW/~3/WWWJUe4DZZI/dave-von-ebers-is-go
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Scientist Pwns Climate Deniers

Via ClimateCrocks.com, scientist Dr. John Abraham destroys climate deniers to the point they have to bail out with a meek "we're gonna have to leave it there"-type cut-off before he can answer their last question:

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I Don't Think "Life" Means What The Right Thinks
It Means

**The Right: Very Respectful Of Human Rights

Yesterday, I pulled up to a drive-through ATM, and sitting in front of me in the line was a car with a license plate that simply stated, "Choose Life".

Who can argue with that? I support life, don't you?

The problem, of course, is the relationship between that phrase and the US right wing. You know, the ones who are petrified of everything from black presidents to black helicopters to Black Sabbath.

Yes, they piously claim to be "pro-life", but it is a simple platitude, for - to paraphrase Inigo Montoya from The Princess Bride - I do not think that word means what they think it means.

To those not steeped in US politics, being pro-life might seem like it means what one would expect - to oppose policies and endeavours that duly result in a loss of human life. But, in the US political arena, it means something quite different. Generally, it is a way of telling everyone that it's your business to give a woman her marching orders - that she must eventually carry a three-day-old embryo to term, even if it's the result of rape or incest.

Or its corollary, that you're some kind of Nietzschean Superman for ensuring that 91-year-old patients in terrible pain due to pancreatic cancer must stick a tube in any empty orifice to force themselves to stay alive and suffer, even against their own wishes.

The sad reality is that, to be pro-life in the US today, which is to be conservative in almost all cases, is to love thy enemy by supporting illegal wars - or just plain stupid ones - that kill hundreds of thousands of innocents, cutting health-care benefits and nutrition programs for children and the poor, and turning the other cheek ? of the person you're torturing.

It is also to cut funding for bridges that are falling down to make room for slashing the tax on yacht shoes, make a best faith effort to ensure criminals, the mentally unbalanced and terrorists have access to assault weapons and explosives, and to love thy neighbour - to love them so much as to give him or her a lethal injection if you think they killed someone.

"Think" is the operative word here, as it seems the conservative Governor of Ohio, John Kasich, may be about to put an innocent man to death. Shawn Hawkins, the man in question, is to be executed on June 14, 2011. This, even though there are serious enough concerns he may be innocent that on May 11, the Ohio Parole Board unanimously recommended that the governor grant him clemency due to increasing doubt over his guilt.

But hell, what's a little faulty eyewitness testimony, evidence destroyed before it could be DNA tested, and lack of placing the defendant in possession of the murder weapon between friends? So, in other words, the morning-after pill is murder, but taking a human being who very likely might be innocent - and killing him - that is just so pro-life!

The truth is that those on the US right are about as "pro-life" as Arnold Schwarzenegger is pro-wife. Or Dominique Strauss Kahn is pro-maid.

It is an empty phrase they throw around to attract a core demographic of foaming mouths, those who hate the very idea of a woman choosing to have sex and having any control over her body. Because presumably, Jesus, who talked about love and brotherhood, would have taken the time to stop walking on water and curing the infirm to rabbit punch any woman contemplating a life of self-determination.

This is not to say there are not legitimate concerns with late-term abortions. I have these concerns. Or underage girls making this decision without adult guidance. I have those ones too.

But this is not what this particular battle's about. Because if it were, I probably wouldn't have once argued on a television show with a conservative, who in one sentence told me that abortion was murder, and in the next that we should eliminate the Environmental Protection Agency (the guys who, you know, make sure we can breathe) - and turn Iraq into a "glass factory" (See: sand and extreme heat).

Now maybe you're reading this and asking: "I already know all of this, why is he wasting my time?" Well, perhaps this is just my way of saying I'm tired of the platitudes, particularly on the licence plates of portly, pale, Rush Limbaugh-imbibers who take way-too-much time at the drive-through ATM because they're still working their way through fractions.

You can pick whatever political slogan you want. But pro-life is pro-life in any language. And you're probably a bit closer to actually being pro-life if you care about how a pregnant woman will get health care, and aren't the guy trying to cut it, while wearing your wife-beater t-shirt and holding up the Obama sign with the Hitler moustache.

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A slightly different version of this column first appeared at Al Jazeera English