Happy Hour Roundup
* New WaPo/ABC News poll: Belief in global warming is declining almost exclusively because of the drop in belief among conservatives and Republicans.
* Shocker of the day, from Adam Nagourney: The new plan by conservatives to force the RNC to purge strong candidates because they don’t pass an ideological litmus test might not be the party’s best route back to power.
* The White House takes a serious political risk, puts arugula on the menu at tonight’s State Dinner.
* Gallup: Obama’s poll slide driven by drop among whites; down to 39% among that group.
* Interestingly, he’s fallen nine points among white Democrats.
* Also striking: He’s down 24 points among Republicans, which was perhaps inevitable, an indicator of the bipartisan goodwill Obama enjoyed upon taking office after his historically unpopular predecessor.
* Nancy Pelosi warns that we have to “shed any weakness.” Not in the fight against terrorism; in the battle against unemployment.
* Obama advisers like to say the President thinks he knows a little something about writing. Well, it looks like White House senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer, wielding the tools of the blogosphere on behalf of his boss, thinks he knows a little something about blogging.
* Bonus shocker of the day: Sarah Palin is getting media attention by claiming Obama hates the troops, or something.
* Here’s today’s installment in the Michele Bachmann chronicles.
* Here’s the White House’s full list of expected attendees at tonight’s State Dinner. Among them: Katie Couric. Must be another effort to humiliate Palin, right?
Got anything else?
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I LOVE that Katie Couric is going.
From your Politico link Greg, it’s nice to see them give someone a chance to respond to SP’s claims about Obama and the troops. And I have a great link coming up BTW.
“Democratic National Committee Communications Director Brad Woodhouse responded: “It’s not surprising that someone who doesn’t know the difference between Iraq and Iran, whose outrageous claims on health reform have been repeatedly debunked and whose book has been called ‘fiction’ by members of her own party would get the facts wrong or, worse, simply lie on this.”
“Just in the past four weeks the president has met with troops on bases in Jacksonville, Alaska and South Korea and the Corps of Cadets at Texas A&M,” Woodhouse said. “While it’s not surprising that Sarah Palin will lie and ignore the facts to appeal to the right wing, tea party fringe of the Republican base, what is surprising it that anyone else would pay attention to what she has to say.”
Pharma is running ads in CT asking Lieberman to support the Senate bill, now that’s interesting I think. Doesn’t his wife represent some of the big drug companies? They’d rather have the Senate bill than something stronger that the progressives might try to push through. The ad is in the link.
“I suspect if PhRMA were 100% confident Joe Lieberman could successfully remove the public option and still ensure the rest of the bill would pass intact, they would be supporting his efforts. The fact that PhRMA is asking Lieberman not to fight indicates to me that they actually fear the possibility that the progressive block might kill the current bill because if it lacks a public option. Whether health care reform dies completely or is forced to go through reconciliation, both would be equally bad news for PhRMA. This is the first indication I have seen that an industry player fears a possible revolt on the left and is starting to take the progressive block seriously.”
http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2009/11/24/is-phrma-afraid-of-the-progressive-block/
Not much has really changed:
Now Obama has decided to not sign the treaty to ban land mines , and to leave the Bush policy in place. Nice company we are keeping, just like we do on the Death Penalty.
What ever happened to?
“Change we can believe in”
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/11/24/obama-administration-decides-sign-treaty-banning-land-mines/?test=latestnews
“WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has decided not to sign an international treaty banning land mines.
State Department spokesman Ian Kelly says the administration recently completed a review and decided not to change the Bush-era policy.
More than 150 countries have agreed to the Mine Ban Treaty’s provisions to end the production, use, stockpiling and trade in mines. Besides the United States, holdouts include: China, India, Pakistan, Myanmar and Russia. “
Liam-
Sad, aint it?
Does anyone know what our existing policy is or if there was a reason given why he didn’t sign it?
ChuckinDenton,
Yes it is.
Did you catch the PBS Program, “The Warning”. It showed how this woman;
“”We didn’t truly know the dangers of the market, because it was a dark market,” says Brooksley Born, the head of an obscure federal regulatory agency — the Commodity Futures Trading Commission [CFTC] — who not only warned of the potential for economic meltdown in the late 1990s, but also tried to convince the country’s key economic powerbrokers to take actions that could have helped avert the crisis. “They were totally opposed to it,” Born says. “That puzzled me. What was it that was in this market that had to be hidden?” ”
Foresaw the looming Wall St Banking Crash, and set about preventing it.
The Wall St. Bankers turned their dogs loose on her, especially Tim Geitner and Larry Summers, and they got her efforts blocked, and now we have those two inside the White House, calling all the shots.
We have put the foxes in charge of the hen house.
No wonder the banks are still getting away with murder.
I am very disillusioned with President Obama.
From Pollster…
“…But support for Obama has not plummeted among independents, and that needs to be clarified before it becomes erroneous conventional wisdom.” http://www.pollster.com/blogs/obama_and_indepedents.php
msinca | November 24th, 2009 at 07:14 pm
Does anyone know what our existing policy is or if there was a reason given why he didn’t sign it?
Our existing policy is to continue to use landmines and cluster bombs, which continue to kill many people, especially children, all around the world, decades after the conflicts have ended. It is disgusting, and only a few nations still use them, just like we are also one of the very few nations that still use the death penalty.
@Liam % Chuck…yes it is sad. I realize Obama views himself as a pragmatic but at some point morality and common sense have to win out..even over pragmatism and the desire to unite and be bipartisan.
Surely by now even Obama realizes that bipartisanship is an illusion that will never work..at least without massive change in the Repub party and that’s not happening soon.
Some things require a partner..the Repubs do NOT Wish to partner…they view any Obama defeat as good or them even if that defeat is bad for the country. And as Liam and others have pointed out who is he going to partner with in Afghanistan…the corrupt Karzai regime…that’s not even pragmatic much less immoral. Karzai does not control enough of the feudal empire of Afghanistan to even be an “efficient” partner…again repeating a pattern where the U.S. not only partners with corrupt despots but inefficient ones…can you say Diem of Vietnam…the Pshah of Iran…what is it about our nation that makes governance such an incredible challenge? Some of these choices are truly obvious yet we can’t exert the political will to make the proper choice.
Again I conclude with Einstein’s famous definition of insanity…”doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome”. When the F will we learn from our history?
Edit…choose pragmatic person or pragmatist
Nate Silver weighs in on Matthew Dowd’s column… http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2009/11/how-bad-can-obama-screw-up-and-still.html
OT..at least not in the roundup…
Am I the only one who goes nuckin futs over this kind of incredibly trashy behavior? Racist pigs who have nothing better to do than make sure the first pic up on a google of Michelle Obama is a pic of her as a chimp. Really we truly have some disgusting trash living amongst us….
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/24/michelle-obama-photo-goog_n_368760.html
@Rukidding,
Only the most insecure of people need to belittle other people because of the color of their skin, in order to feel confident about their selves.
That type of behavior comes mostly from people with huge inferiority complexes, and who feel the need to overcompensate, by lashing out at other people.
Liam, rudkidding et al – if you’d like a Canadian’s perspective…
Your political system in the US has become seriously degraded and corrupted to the point where any imaginable Dem president will be stymied and blocked at every turn. The combination of huge corporate monies funneled to very effective lobbyists and astro-turf operations, a opposition party which has lost all real integrity and honesty and which has regaining power through nearly any means as its fundamental operating policy, and a separate media machine which functions as a propaganda arm of that party and the interests it represents all represent obstacles to Dem governance and success which are extremely difficult to surmount.
I understand your dissatisfactions (I share much of it) but it is simply the reality of the situation that if the Obama administration does not succeed in its goals and in the next election, then you ARE going to have someone like Sarah Palin as your president and you ARE going to have a political system which is perhaps irretrievable. I do think it is that serious.
My suggestion, for what that’s worth, is to recognize the obstacles which are in place for any imaginable Dem leader or administration, and then to organize and push in whatever way you can think of to support this administrations efforts understanding that they must be incremental, and then pushing for the sort of policies you desire. Rant terminated.
@Liam…I agree with your observations…I would add that many..perhaps most..are also major hypocrites who go to church on Sunday and talk about the Bible endlessly.
Which reminds me of a famous story about the black janitor who cleaned a Southern Baptist Church but was not allowed to attend the services there because of his color. One day on his knees he prayed..”Dear Jesus why won’t those folks let me attend church and pray with them…to which Jesus replied..”Don’t worry they don’t let me in there either.”
Andrew Sullivan’s quote for the day is a good one…
“There is a reason you don’t have Mexican beer cartels planting fields of hops in the California forests,” – Bruce Merken, Marijuana Policy Project.
ps on the rant…
We ought to keep in mind that there’s a primary goal in play here which has two hoped-for consequences:
1) enthuse and activate the right wing base
2) demoralize and de-activate the liberal base
I’m not willing to play along.
@Bernie…”My suggestion, for what that’s worth, is to recognize the obstacles which are in place for any imaginable Dem leader or administration, and then to organize and push in whatever way you can think of to support this administrations efforts understanding that they must be incremental, and then pushing for the sort of policies you desire”
I take your point. I think your observations about the difficulties facing we rational folks are as always astute and to the point. I agree the challenge of cleaning up the mess are indeed huge, and the opposition from the corporatists is truly formidable
.
I still support Obama..and will..however if he screws up Afghanistan and doesn’t get us out of Iraq soon..I would certainly be open to a primary challenge from his left by a pacifist/populist who is ready to take on the corporate interests. Perhaps someone like Alan Grayson.
Just so I don’t offend or depress Tena I readily confess that this is all premature…I shall give Obama a chance..and am hopeful that as you suggest Bernie he’s simply moving incrementally towards a common goal.
But he is one year in with three to go and he DOES need to put an end to our expensive and immoral invasions of other countries and our military jingoistic adventurism.
“There is a reason you don’t have Mexican beer cartels planting fields of hops in the California forests,” – Bruce Merken, Marijuana Policy Project.”
I read that earlier Bernie and like you thought it was a prescient quote.
I realize my intellectual challenge or lack of enlightenment when I struggle trying to figure out why our nation has such difficulty with the obvious. It’s like my 300lb sister in law who keeps going to the Doctors for what she feels are a plethora of ailments.
I keep waiting for just one Doc to say to her honestly…before we try and diagnose the mysterious…let’s begin with the obvious…you are about 125lbs overweight…first lose the weight and then we’ll see how you feel.
@Bernie,
I do not see it the way you do. I saw Candidate Obama presenting himself as one who would stand up to the establishment, and end the practice of doing business as usual. I saw Senator Clinton campaigning as a Hawk, and now she is heading up the state dept. and it is her foreign policy, and not the one that Senator Obama campaigned on, that I see being put in place.
Hillary got her way on the Troop increase, and it is her State Dept. that is refusing to sign the treaty to ban the use of land mines.
I see no reason not to take President Obama to task, for straying so far from what he promised to do. He has more than three years left, and I will be damned if I will just muzzle myself, out of fear of ending up with Palin.
If President Obama is not going to regulate the Wall St. Robber Barons, and if he is going to sign on to a war escalation, with no set wind- down timeline(Troops still engaged in the Afghanistan Quaqmire; ten years from now, is what is now being tossed around), then I am not about to remain silent.
The best way to make him do the right thing, is to let him know that we are not just going to give him a pass, out fear of Palin.
I have no fear of that addled whiner.
edit;
out of fear of Palin.
“Only the most insecure of people need to belittle other people because of the color of their skin, in order to feel confident about their selves.
That type of behavior comes mostly from people with huge inferiority complexes, and who feel the need to overcompensate, by lashing out at other people.”
Re: Gallup poll — The above statement could be an explanation for the “white flight” Obama’s experienced. It’s curious that his numbers have dipped so severely among whites. And it’s time to ask why. The huge approval discrepancy between whites (39%) and people of color (79%) suggests some underlying racial issues…
When you add in the data from the study released the other day that white people perceive a biracial candidate to be lighter-skinned when they agree with him and darker-skinned bolsters the argument that some underlying racial matters are driving, in some part, the negativity with which many whites are now perceiving Obama’s job rating.
It was controversial when it was suggested at the time, but did many white people believe that Obama was indeed “magical?” Did people of color have more realistic expectations?
If I remember my West Wing well enough, the primary reason for not signing the treaty is because of our current troop deployment in Korea. The US hasn’t had maintains no minefields anywhere in the world, including Korea. The mines along South Korea’s section of the DMZ belong to South Korea.” and we deployed landmines in limited use in Iraq and a few other places (see site). This seems to be more of the Pentagon insisting that there is no weapon system it does not need in its arsenal (muck like the F-22). If we are budgeted to make them then the US can’t really sign off on the treaty, and we maintain significant stockpiles of landmines even though we use them in a limited capacity.
It is infinitely frustrating that we can’t stop the stupid fighting that the culture wars began. This nonsense about acting “tough” when it comes to diplomacy and things like a “war” on everything that moves only serve to burden the nation with self-induced problems rather than solving real ones like unemployment, failing schools, etc. All of this is compounded by one of two parties refusing to enter into actual debate and no accountability from the supposed “fourth estate” that once served to protect its consumers rather than feed their insecurities or obsessions.
Liam said: “I am not about to remain silent.”
Not at all my suggestion. As FDR famously said to someone pushing him, “Make me do it”. Speak louder. But at the same time, recognize that whatever level of disappointment you are feeling right now will look positively heavenly given possible outcomes up the road. You’ve only got two parties and one of them is insane.
Our excuse for keeping huge stockpiles of landmines is very convenient for us. We appear to have one set of rules for all the other nations, and a different one for ourselves.
We maintain massive stockpiles of Nukes, and are the only country to have ever used them, and we did it twice.
Meanwhile we keep telling other countries that they are not allowed to have them, even though we are the one country that nuked two cities into obliteration.
We are like that character in the Seinfeld show:
“No Nukes For You!” The Nuke Nazi
Paul W. Your 8:21PM post is spot on!!! I am in total agreement with your thoughts!
@rukidding – I despise war, warmongers, war industry profiteering and America’s broad and continual denial of what its military initiatives have done in many places in the world. But changing all of this around must be rather like trying to redirect a carrier with a kayak. I’m guilty, commonly, of wanting stuff right now (perhaps a failing of our generation) but we just can’t get all these things quickly. Years, decades will be required.
@Bernie,
When it is campaign time, I campaign. Now is not the time for that. Now is the time for governing like he promised to do. What he is doing now is far more likely to get him ousted, than if he stuck to his original script. After all, that is what got him elected, in the first place.
If he thinks that he no longer has to dance with “what brung him’ then he will find out, come election time, that “what brung him” will not show up for him, at the next big dance.
Ed Kilgore on the polling of Republicans on Acorn…
“But in talking about this so many times, it never really occured to me that a majority of Republicans bought into the ACORN Derangement Syndrome, with only a quarter of them rejecting the idea that this group stole the 2008 elections. Analogizing this to the Democratic reaction to Florida 2008 is ludicrous; Gore did win the popular vote, Florida was incredibly disputed, and the Supreme Court did shut down the recount to get Bush across the finish line. There is not a shred of evidence that Obama didn’t legitimately and decisively win the election, and no significant Republican spokesman doubted it at the time. It took a full year conservative shrieking about ACORN to instill this crazy theory into the consciousness of rank-and-file Republican, nicely validating their hatred of Obama, their bizarre claims that he’s some sort of totalitarian revolutionary determined to destroy the Constitution.
It’s a case history in viral demagoguery of the most toxic sort, and reputable Republicans should be even more upset about it than I am.” But in talking about this so many times, it never really occured to me that a majority of Republicans bought into the ACORN Derangement Syndrome, with only a quarter of them rejecting the idea that this group stole the 2008 elections. Analogizing this to the Democratic reaction to Florida 2008 is ludicrous; Gore did win the popular vote, Florida was incredibly disputed, and the Supreme Court did shut down the recount to get Bush across the finish line. There is not a shred of evidence that Obama didn’t legitimately and decisively win the election, and no significant Republican spokesman doubted it at the time. It took a full year conservative shrieking about ACORN to instill this crazy theory into the consciousness of rank-and-file Republican, nicely validating their hatred of Obama, their bizarre claims that he’s some sort of totalitarian revolutionary determined to destroy the Constitution.
It’s a case history in viral demagoguery of the most toxic sort, and reputable Republicans should be even more upset about it than I am.” http://www.thedemocraticstrategist.org/
I keep waiting for those reputable Republicans to show up. They aren’t showing up.
@Bernie…I suspect we are mainly in agreement about everything except perhaps the timeline and possibilities.
Although I readily concede that history probably proves you correct and my Alan Grayson desires make me a bit of a pollyanna.
But as they say Bernie…”Hope springs eternal”
The Republicans are using ACORN like they used Willie Horton. It is their way of playing a subliminal race card.
Good night all. Will the last one here, please turn out the lights, and lock up the place.
So it is Republicans’ fault that Obama isn’t changing policy on landmines.
His approval ratings are falling because whites are racists.
And only Democratic Presidents are obstructed by a noncompliant opposition — whose tentacles of power are as omnipresent as they are nefarious.
All is right in la la land, where nonstop Democratic whining and paranoia reign.
For the benefit of Canadian intermeddlers who may not know any better, this country’s constitutional and political system is actually designed to resist radical change.
“I despise war, warmongers, war industry profiteering and America’s broad and continual denial of what its military initiatives have done in many places in the world.”
Americans despise arrogant foreigners who treat this country as a force for evil rather than the indispensible force for good that it has been.
Feel free to mind your own business.
“His approval ratings are falling because whites are racists.”
Of course there’s no racial component to opposition against Obama! What kind of fool actually believes objective data (and anecdotal evidence in the form of racist photos & racist suggestions that Obama is “lazy”)? Who cares about that!
It’s perfectly normal for there to be a 40% gap in what whites and nonwhites think about an issue or person.
I like having my head in the sand too.
Liam-
Or, to quote a saying from the Vietnam era, “will the last one here turn out the light at the end of the tunnel”.
Americans are embarrassed by the jingoistic losers like QB who reveals his profound lack of intelligence by defending Palin and comparing her intellectually to Obama.
I know lots of us here were freaking out over Afghanistan today and land mines but there are at least a few things to be thankful for. Here’s one of them below. Another one is that Pharma is running ads in CT pressuring Lieberman to vote yes on the Senate HCR bill. And as screwed up as our government is and as beholden as they all are to special interests, financial regulation is still moving through Congress. And at least the Dems are in charge again so maybe we should be grateful for small successes this Thanksgiving.
Have a nice Thanksgiving, and I’ll talk to you all next week.
“While the GOP/Media clowns were babbling about bowing, US President Barack Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao were hammering out a climate-change deal in advance of the great Copenhagen climate summit.
Because of this deal, President Obama is now able to go to Copenhagen with the following good news:
The news that President Obama will seek a emissions target at global talks in Copenhagen has animated a once-moribund meeting and given hope to environmentalists that something tangible can come from them.
The emissions target is expected to correspond to numbers that have been discussed on Capitol Hill, namely a reduction of 17 to 20% below 2005 emissions levels by the year 2020.
This is a direct result of the meeting with China’s Hu Jintao and was expected by those news outlets that were actually paying attention instead of freaking out over bows. As I mentioned last week, both the US and China have now agreed to stop playing climate-change chicken.
And it’s not just China that’s agreed to join the US in working to curb emissions. Obama has met with the leaders of India as well, and got commitments from them on this.
This may be the most significant news of the last decade.”
If anyone wants a really good family recipe for a chile relleno casserole, let me know and I’ll try to post it tomorrow before I start my TD preparations.
Americans don’t seem to realize that their sense of entitlement in “pursuit of happyness” has percolated down to rest of the world especially in countries like China & India. Their dreams of ‘ruling of rest of the world’ has been turned into ashes thanks to the inept shrub and the corrupt darth and the neocons. So they are now lashing out at whoever is in power and Obama seems to be the ideal candidate for such venting given the underlying racism in US.
Until the americans accept the reality that days of living well with borrowed money are truly over, there will be lot of ugly faces that US will be showing to the increasingly annoyed rest of the world. Obama realizes this and hence his reconciliatory overtures to other countries.
It’s time,
Do you actually think you just made a logical point?
In reality, it is almost hard to count the fallacies in your statement.
The 40% reported approval gap proves nothing. But set that aside and assume that it is purely due to racial bias. You are still assuming that 79% — the black approval rate — is the objectively “correct” rate. But that assumption has no more validity than the opposite assumption — that 39% is the correct rate. Ask yourself which one is likely more in line with historical Presidential approval ratings.
Then ask yourself how you would explain all those whites who obviously voted for and approved of Obama a short time ago but no longer approve. By your logic, they all became racists.
You’re statement is a typical example of liberal nonthinking.
opps you forgot this one!!
Census worker in Kentucky killed self, officials conclude
A U.S. Census worker whose death in a secluded Kentucky cemetery sparked worries about a backlash against the federal government killed himself but tried to make the death look like a homicide, authorities have concluded
Census worker in Kentucky killed self, officials conclude
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Never miss a McClatchy story
A U.S. Census worker whose death in a secluded Kentucky cemetery sparked worries about a backlash against the federal government killed himself but tried to make the death look like a homicide, authorities have concluded
mcclatchydc.com/crime/story/79420.html
You’re statement is a typical example of liberal nonthinking.
hehe qb, this blog is a typical example of liberal nonthinkng that time and time again is proven to be wrong.
remember the comments out here when the story broke on the census workers death? they attacked like the dogs they are. of course now that it is official the dude hung himself but made if look like murder to commit insurance fraud.
most everything liberals/progressives follow like a religion turn out to be some type of fraud or scam.
climategate makes madoff look like a common street thief.
If obamacare passes the dems will have pulled of the biggest ponzi scheme in the history of man. Reid is already buying votes with taxpayer dollars.
All the dems social programs that eat up over 60% of the federal budget are huge failures.
bottom line we are being screwed with our pants on by the elite snobs who could not run a lemonade stand let alone realize that for billions of years the earth has been freezing and cooling. heck the earth has even flipped magnetic pole and these yahoo’s think their cr*a*p hollywierd junk science is gospel and obama is their savior.
it’s would be laughable if their brainfart agenda was not being forced down our throats. forced with lies, lies and more lies.
Belief in global warming is declining almost exclusively because of the drop in belief among conservatives and Republicans.
That figures. As time passes the GOP becomes more and more a fantasy-based political party.
haha amk
you must not realize that obama loves his credit card always has and now he has an endless credit limit to continue his way of life. I’m sure you have no idea of the presidents spending habits using nothing but credit was pre whitehouse and 2004 book sales.
check it out you will find obama fits to the tee your complaint. he’s wee weed up on credit cards
Here’s a (wow, long) link to a story about the Kentucky census worker (yippie, ya beat me to the punch):
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091124/ap_on_re_us/us_census_worker_hanged;_ylt=Ag4n3Lx7LlTF8W9tixB55VqzvtEF;_ylu=X3oDMTJxMWJvN2NmBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMDkxMTI0L3VzX2NlbnN1c193b3JrZXJfaGFuZ2VkBGNwb3MDNwRwb3MDNwRzZWMDeW5fdG9wX3N0b3JpZXMEc2xrA3BvbGljZWt5Y2Vucw
What was it folks here were claiming about this story . . . oh yes, it was Michelle Bachmann who was responsible for the “murder” of this man.
I’ll tell you what qb. Lets say this cancels out the attacked by black men McCain campaign worker in PA that ended up being a fraud that the entire right wing attack machine latched onto.
Never heard of it, Mike. Happy to look at it if you have some actual proof of this terrible hoax.
Re global warming polling…
Two aspects: first, a majority of even Republicans and independents (54% and 71%) hold that it is a reality and 55% of independents hold that the US should curb carbon output even if other polluting nations do not.
Second, the polling shows a decline in all groups including Dems. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2009/11/24/ST2009112403099.html?hpid=topnews
These figures are unique to the US and that’s a function of the propaganda efforts (and money) being poured into the US media (rightwing media very particularly) over three decades with a big push recently by effected industries to counter cap and trade and other such regs.
The strategy follows the model set earlier by the tobacco industry as scientific findings on health consequences became increasingly understood and revealed to consumers. Those companies saw these findings (that is, the public acceptance of the scientific findings) as a threat to their profits and so – in noble business tradition – set out to discredit the science so that consumers would continue buying cigarettes. As the leaked internal memo from one tobacco company put it, “Our product is doubt”.
“The Prime Minister’s Office is expected to announce Wednesday a 10-month freeze on construction in settlements in the West Bank, sources in the American administration told Haaretz.”
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1130636.html
There are exemptions here but it’s something.
Had to note this one… http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1130509.html
“A shock wave to your privates can be more effective for erectile dysfunction than Viagra or Cialis, a study by Rambam Medical Center in Haifa has found.
Low-energy shock waves can actually reverse the problem, unlike drugs, which can also require extended therapy, claim the scientists.”
Turn of the century Sears catalogues offered electrical belts like the one in the following link. Many of them featured a wire with a loop at the end that extended down from the belt-front… http://www.museumofquackery.com/ephemera/heidelberg.htm
Okay, mike, I looked up this campaign attack hoax. I didn’t understand your reference but remember it well after googling.
That was a case of a mentally disturbed woman (who had been kicked out of the Ron Paul campaign earlier in 2008 after another hoax she pulled) who made a false report that was picked up by the media. There were conservatives including Michele Malkin who started calling bs immediately.
In this Sparkman case, on the other hand, a man was found hanged in the woods, and people here (as well as libs like Andrew Sullivan) immediately began blaming it on Bachmann and the GOP “terrorists.” Just search Bachmann and census worker and you’ll find threads here.
Not exactly the equivalency you were grasping for.
And, really, this is about the irresponsible accusations made by liberals here. There were a few like Liam and Imsinca who withheld judgment, for which they deserve credit. Most of the liberal crew here, however, behaved disgracefully, including Greg with his repeated baiting posts.
All,morning roundup posted:
http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/political-media/the-morning-plum-19/
Drum and Yglesias on obstructionism.
“The point is that Dems, for better or worse, never tried to make every single bill a destruction test of the opposing party’s governance. Republicans are doing exactly that, and that is something new under the sun. Unfortunately, as Matt says, it may be a shrewd calculation on their part: if you make the government look incapable of accomplishing anything at any time, and if the media generally treats this as politics as usual, it’s the party in power that suffers the most regardless of who’s been throwing the pies around. So why not throw pies at every opportunity?” http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2009/11/new-obstruction
I’d make the additional point that aside from the effectiveness of such a strategy (an “effective” way of handling the immigration problem would be to round up and execute all Spanish speakers) there is a subsidiary benefit here to the “government cannot work” ideology forwarded on the modern right. If effective governance can be thwarted, the resulting popular anger at such ineffectiveness serves the purposes of that ideology quite perfectly.
“The point is that Dems, for better or worse, never tried to make every single bill a destruction test of the opposing party’s governance. Republicans are doing exactly that, and that is something new under the sun.”
What childish hyperbole.
“Here’s the White House’s full list of expected attendees at tonight’s State Dinner. Among them: Katie Couric. Must be another effort to humiliate Palin, right?”
No, they just saw the pictures of shawty dropping it like she ain’t got manners and the decided to liven the place up.
Katie Couric lost me when she gave right wing extremist Rush Limbaugh an open and unopposed microphone the first week she was the CBS News anchor.
http://mediamatters.org/research/200609080002
But this is the same CBS “News” that has the increasingly right wing sycophant Bob Schieffer climb up Republican fraud McCain’s @ss every couple of weeks.