The United States has the second worst newborn mortality rate in the developed world.
Culture of life, bitchez.
USA! USA!
Bush to Little Old Ladies: "Screw You."
Prezint Insulty McTalkdown had a few words today for senior citizens worried about paying for their health care, including those sitting in his audience. (bolds mine)
UN CITY CENTER, Fla. - President Bush has heard pleas for an extension of the deadline to sign up for new Medicare drug coverage from lawmakers, seniors advocacy groups and finally two women in his audience Tuesday. He's rejected them all.Yes, it's your friend and mine, the ever popular Presidential "I'll Explain it to You as if You We Children" attitude!
"Deadlines are important," the president said at a retirement community, less than a week before the last day for most seniors and the disabled to enroll in the program without facing higher prices. "Deadlines help people understand there's finality and people need to get after it."
I'm amazed the Republicans haven't simply locked him in a closet until after the elections. This is a great way to win seniors over to your side; send the President out to speak to them in a condescending manner. There were probably people in that "retirement community" that are younger than he is, and yet he's pulling this "I'll explain it to you slow so you don't get confused, grandma" crap.
On second thought... keep him talking, Republicans. It helps you. Would I lie to you?
("Deadlines are important." Ahem. Right. Unless they're his, of course. Jeezus.)
"We want people to understand there are really good benefits," the president said. "If you haven't looked at the program, take a look."
Bush's aggressive promotion of the Medicare benefit — and his refusal to push back the deadline — is likely about politics as much as policy.
No!!!
The White House and congressional Republicans are hoping that the glitches of the program's early days and the confusing signup process will have faded to a distant memory by the fall midterm elections, replaced by widespread satisfaction with having help from Medicare with prescription drug costs for the first time.
As the controlling party in Congress, Republicans hope seniors — who play an outsize role in non-presidential elections — will give them credit in the voting booth for enacting a popular new benefit.
So, in other words, more smokescreen.
This is an incredibly complicated plan, with some having more than forty (Forty!) "plans" to choose from. Phone lines and the internet are jammed with people asking questions and rushing to complete their applications in time. But "deadlines are important," so you'd better figure it out and bash your way through... because if there's one thing Prezint 31% and the Republicans need, it's a "victory" to point at come November.
Just keep that lifetime penalty fee in mind when you're trying to get signed up. Think of it as Bush's way of lighting a fire under your ass.
After all, you don't want to be late rushing on to that sinking ship.
(More here. E-Z version here.)
(You're livin' in your own Private Cross-Post...)
We’re in Remake Hell
Noooooooooooooooooooo!
Knight Rider, Magnum, PI, and The Fall Guy?! Glen Larson, you’re a dirty whore.
Recommended Reading
The greedy truth about media consultants—You may have to watch an ad to read it, but it’s worth it. Here’s a bit:
Psst! You with your checkbook in one hand and a political fundraising letter in the other. Are you sure you're being shrewd instead of being screwed when you send your money to this particular campaign?ARGH. The good news is that some Dems are beginning to wise up and require flat-fee agreements with media consultants. Nonetheless, go read then come back and discuss…
…When the White House or control of Congress is at stake, a political campaign should be more than an income-transfer program from contributors to consultants. But, in a sense, that is precisely what happened during the John Kerry campaign. As outlined in Joe Klein's new book, "Politics Lost," Shrum and his firm ended up receiving between 4.5 percent and roughly 6 percent of the money Kerry spent on TV ads from the end of the primaries until Election Day. While precise figures are unavailable, it is a conservative guess that Shrum and his partners made more than $6 million (plus reimbursement for production costs) from the effort to oust George W. Bush from the White House.
Do you know what it takes to raise $6 million in politics? Picture a political gala in the largest hotel ballroom in the country -- an event so crammed with tables that there is risk of a fire hazard, with everyone in the room giving the maximum legal contribution ($2,000 in 2004). Now imagine the outrage if everyone at that dinner had been told that their money was not going to elect John Kerry president, but to pay the fees of his media consulting firm.
Caption This Photo
U.S. President George W. Bush speaks about the Medicare Prescription
You might feel a couple of big pricks...
Think Progress reports that Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) and Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert (R-IL) allowed vaccine industry lobbyists to write their own multi-billion dollar giveaway in the form of a provision steathily inserted into a Defense Appropriations bill "that granted vaccine manufactures near-total immunity for injuries or deaths (even in cases of 'gross negligence') caused by their drugs during a viral pandemic, such as an outbreak of the avian flu."
How did the industry get such VIP treatment from First and Hastert? Generous campaign contributions always help. Another key component: the vaccine industry was represented by a lobbying team that included three former Frist staffers and Dennis Hastert’s son, Joshua Hastert.Delicious.
Cue the spin: "But Democrats took money from Junior Hastert, err, Jack Abramoff, too!"
(Crossposted at AlterNet PEEK.)
Someone finally gets Colbert right.
And, more importantly, gets liberals’ reactions to the coverage of Colbert’s performance right. It is, of all people, Doug Elfman, a television critic for the Chicago Sun-Times.
How did Bush tickle reporters? He made fun of the fact that he can barely speak English (he is quite simply the worst communicator of all U.S. presidents), that our vice president is a heartless face-shooter, and that Bush is basically an idiot.Spot-on. Absolutely spot-fucking-on. But what member of the press, except for perhaps Helen Thomas, could write that lead without shouldering some of the blame for leaving Bush snuggly protected inside his precious bubble? And that’s the real story, which, of course, the press refuses to write. They don’t just admire Bush; they’ve aped his shtick—staying the course, eschewing accountability, and refusing to apologize for their own failures. It’s oh so much easier to cast liberals as crazy-rabid-irrational, so much easier to write about imaginary reasons for their anger, or pretend there aren’t any and it’s all just so much delusional madness. As Toast said in comments, “They simply cannot get past the fact that we're pissed off and address the bill of specifics that has us so pissed off.” Exactly right.
Ha ha, our "war president" knows he's a village idiot? To members of the White House press corps, that's some real funny stuff. To non-insiders, this looked like another example of good old boys and gals slapping each other on the back.
Colbert's routine was more remarkable for its unique and creative brazenness. He joked that Bush's presidency is like the Hindenburg; that Bush's wiretappers were monitoring this very event, and that the White House press corps, sitting in front of Colbert, gave Bush a free pass, scandal after scandal, until recently (when his polls numbers dropped).
How's this for a newsworthy lead? It was perhaps the first time in Bush's tenure that the president was forced to sit and listen to any American cite the litany of criminal and corruption allegations that have piled up against his administration.
Elfman goes on to critique the conservativization of the news, noting, “To liberals, this must be somewhat puzzling, since the rest of the conservative media primarily sides with a president whose approval ratings stand at 32 percent, a whisker better than Nixon's before he resigned in disgrace.” Too true. At least, it used to be puzzling. Now it’s all too easy to see why refuse to deviate from their sorry tale—they were wrong; wrong about Bush, wrong about Iraq, wrong to indulge “the most powerfully staged photo ops in the world,” wrong to shill at every turn for an administration that’s bad bad bad for America. And we—the raging, frothing, mad-haired loonies—were right.
(Thanks to Shaker Constant Comment for passing along the article.)
I love you for your lesbian brain
It's the kind of report that, at first blush, makes you say, "Yeah, and...?" That is, it doesn't come as much of a surprise. You'd be wrong to stop there, however, as this study of sexual attraction in the brains of lesbians could - given time and follow-up analysis - have societal implications:
Lesbian and heterosexual women respond differently to specific human odours, a brain-scanning study has found. The homosexual women showed similar brain activity to heterosexual men when they inhaled certain chemicals, which may be pheromones, the researchers say. [...]The pattern of activity in the brains of lesbians for both chemicals was similar - though not identical - to the pattern for heterosexual men. In May 2005, the same team showed that the brains of heterosexual women and homosexual men reacted in the same ways when they smelled either AND or EST.
The immediate reaction in many quarters of Blogistan is to hail the findings as proof of a biological basis for homosexuality. This response is almost certainly premature. Even the study's head reseacher warns that it's unclear whether the findings indicate a chicken...or an egg:
"Our study can't answer questions of cause and effect," cautions lead researcher Ivanka Savic at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. "We can't say whether the differences are because of pre-existing differences in their brains, or if past sexual experiences have conditioned their brains to respond differently."
Critics of the study dispute the nature of the chemicals used, suggesting that they may not be pheremones and that in any event the concentrations used were too concentrated compared to natural human levels.
As suggested at Mombian, a website dedicated to providing "relevant, useful, and just plain fun reading for lesbian moms," further studies are needed before firm conclusions can be drawn, and the research team indeed intends to conduct additional work.
In the meanwhile, the next time you hear people spouting off about homosexuality being "just a lifestyle," suggest that they might want to hold off on that until all the facts are in.
(Product of a rigorous, double-blind cross-post...)
The Tyrannasaurus of Turpitude Gives Hayden the Thumbs-Down
In addition to the Republican chairs of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees balking at Bush's nomination of Michael Hayden to replace erstwhile CIA chief Porter Goss, Speaker of the House and hacktacular pot o’ crap Dennis Hastert is making decidedly unfavorable noises, too, calling Porter's, ahem, resignation "a power grab" by Negroponte. Roll Call's got the scoop, though it's sub-only. AMERICAblog provides the quote:
Hastert’s opposition to Hayden is not based on any personal reservations about the nominee. Rather, Hastert is concerned that installing a top-ranking military official at the "CIA would give too much influence over the U.S. intelligence community to the Pentagon."Looks like Hayden's in for a rough time...as well he should be.
"I don't know anything about him. He has never darkened my doorstep," Hastert told reporters on Monday in Aurora, Ill., when asked about Hayden. "I don't think a military guy should be head of CIA, frankly."
Shades of the Harriet Miers SCOTUS nomination. Let’s hope Hayden is crying over beers with the unceremoniously ditched Miers in no time.
Iraqis Resorting to Selling their Blood For Money
And it doesn't end there. Just go take a look.
Just clap your hands, holler "Freedom," and it'll all be okay, eh Chimpy?
Bumper Sticker Time.
(Tip 'o the Energy Dome to August.)
(Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the cross-post...)
(Tip 'o the Energy Dome to August.)
(Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the cross-post...)
Lunatic homobigot falls out with Fall Out Boy
Pam, by way of Brady at Some Guys Are Normal, points to this this story about an unhinged mom who has decried a Fall Out Boy concert as a "liberal homosexual rally" after bassist Pete Wentz made a statement against sexism, racism, and homophobia.
Wentz: "The only thing I said in Charlotte was, 'You can leave this show and say, I think this guy is an arrogant jerk or think, This band is better than this one, because these are your opinions. The only thing we consider unacceptable is for you to engage in sexist, racist or homophobic behavior. If you do, we don't want you as a fan. Return our merch and leave.'"
Crazy Mom, in an email to Wentz: "The ticket said 'all ages,' and your band was very foul-mouthed and anti-morals. Charlotte is not the demoralized city that liberal San Francisco and other cities across the North and West are...I had looked forward to this concert with my girls for months [and] I didn't spend over $200 on gas, food and, unfortunately, shirts for you to give your own personal political testimony. ... This was a concert, not some liberal homosexual rally."
Yeah, just shut up and play your music, monkey-boy! Damn you and your "foul-mouthed" tolerance!
As Pam says, "You would have thought that he was about to drop trou and start humping some male concertgoer in front of this mom's eyes."
Which is, perhaps, what Wentz may have felt like doing in response, if he's got a sick sense of humor like I do. But, instead, he issued the following response: "I encourage fans of our band to grow up to become good people and to change the world. Unfortunately, I don't believe that treating other people as inhuman is acceptable. If that is offensive to you, I apologize, but we don't want you to be part of our fanbase. [Our show] is not a liberal homosexual rally, but at the same time, it will never be a Ku Klux Klan rally. We don't need to sell tickets that badly."
Right on.
My only question is what Crazy Mom is really angry about. Fall Out Boy made it clear they don't want her bigoted ass as a fan, anyway, so all she need do is take their advice and move along. And something tells me that's what's really sticking in her craw. Moralizing bullies like her are so used to being able to cause a huge fuss by tossing around a few accusations of--gasp!--liberalism or--swoon!--homosexuality, but, in this case, the targets of her ire simply don't give a flying shit. She can scream until she's blue in the face, and they'll continue to shrug. What a downer. Don't they know her game is no fun unless they indulge her, unless they treat her bigotry as the snow-white morality she asserts it to be? Harrumph!
(Crossposted at AlterNet PEEK.)
Cohen whines and moans, but doesn't get it
After writing a rather unfavorable critique of Stephen Colbert's Correspondents' Dinner performance, the WaPo's Richard Cohen received thousands of emails, and decided to write a column about "the hatred" with with they were laden--even though, "Truth to tell, I peeked into only a few of the e-mails." That didn't stop him from drawing some wide conclusions about all of the senders, though. Of course not.
The e-mails pulse in my queue, emanating raw hatred. This spells trouble -- not for Bush or, in 2008, the next GOP presidential candidate, but for Democrats. The anger festering on the Democratic left will be taken out on the Democratic middle. (Watch out, Hillary!) I have seen this anger before -- back in the Vietnam War era. That's when the antiwar wing of the Democratic Party helped elect Richard Nixon. In this way, they managed to prolong the very war they so hated.After opening "only a few" of the emails he received, how, exactly, is he coming to such conclusions? And why on earth is he making this about the Iraq War and its dissenters? Is he really that dim, or has he truly missed the irony of a member of the press being dismissive of Colbert's having taken the press to task for its failings, thereby justifying the very performance for which he showed contempt?
The hatred is back. I know it's only words now appearing on my computer screen, but the words are so angry, so roiled with rage, that they are the functional equivalent of rocks once so furiously hurled during antiwar demonstrations. I can appreciate some of it. Institution after institution failed America -- the presidency, Congress and the press. They all endorsed a war to rid Iraq of what it did not have. Now, though, that gullibility is being matched by war critics who are so hyped on their own sanctimony that they will obliterate distinctions, punishing their friends for apostasy and, by so doing, aiding their enemies. If that's going to be the case, then Iraq is a war its critics will lose twice -- once because they couldn't stop it and once more at the polls.
PSoTD hits the nail firmly on the head.
I'd be willing to accept the news media's growing "the left bloggers are so mean and angry" if they would even try to figure out why we're angry. They take no responsibility. Is it because we've watched these people fritter away their responsibilities, year after year, to speak truth to power, or just the plain truth for the sake of truth? Is it because we see many of them as fattened guinea pigs held in the cages of Washington politicians, with no effort to do anything for themselves? Is it because we see many of them culpable in spreading the lies, and hiding the truth, of the current Republican regime? Is it because we believe that many of them as holding their jobs as a matter of privilege and not retaining it based on any marketplace value analysis?Cohen's not just blithely ignorant of why we're angry, though. He's also irritated by being accused of having a political agenda, which Digby deftly handles, noting: "But far be it for me to say he has a political agenda. I frankly don't think he does. He is just easily upset by human beings who object to being treated like imbeciles by sniffing sycophants like Richard Cohen and don't feel like taking his condescending shit anymore." Heh.
Yes, yes, yes, yes. … You're everything you complained Colbert was except honest. So shut up about it already.
There could be a moral to this story: A Beltway journalist actually listening to his critics, finally understanding from whence their anger comes, and writing a column about that, resolving to be the kind of journalist the country wants and needs. But something tells me that isn't going to happen. It's just so much easier to draw useless parallels between war dissenters then and now.
(Crossposted at AlterNet PEEK.)
Senators and Reps bungle anthem
Nightline was interested to see if the lawmakers who were so passionate about making sure the National Anthem is sung in English could, you know, sing it. Or say it. Or anything.
Crooks and Liars has the results. Maybe they'd do better in Spanish.
If that whole presidenting thing doesn't work out for McCain, he ought to try out for American Idol.
(Crossposted at AlterNet PEEK.)
CIA #3 Quits
Anyone feel like a game of dominoes?
CIA Director Porter Goss' No. 3 man at the agency, facing investigation as part of a congressional bribe probe, quit Monday, an official said.Foggo is being investigated for getting into bed with Cunningham, too.
Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, the CIA's executive director, announced his resignation in an e-mail message to agency staff, a U.S. official told United Press International on condition of anonymity.
Meanwhile, Goss’ nominated replacement, Hayden, is linked to MZM, a contractor whose owner, Mitchell Wade, has admitted bribing Cunningham to the tune of $1.4 million.
Wow. Just wow.
“The Mood in Colorado Springs”
The Broadmoor resort spans 3,300 lush acres at the foot of the Rocky Mountains.Ha—suck it, buttfors.
It was a beautiful setting for a mood-dampening dollop of pessimism.
RNC chairman Ken Mehlman, generally one of the party's premiere strategic optimists, warned GOP state chairs that the party would lose seats at every level of government.
Not "if" they didn't do X,Y, or GOTV. But "would lose," period.
I’m still not as optimistic as they are pessimistic, but as I’ve said before, it doesn’t prevent me from enjoying watching them squirm in the interim. Wah wah wah.
(Thanks to Gideon for passing that one along.)
Meet the Martyrs
David and Tonia Parker are suing because their 5-year-old son brought home a book from school that features a gay family. The basis for their suit is the claim that “officials violated their parental rights to teach morals to their own children.”
Morals that don’t include tolerance of homosexuality, but do allow for David Parker to throw a shit-fit and subsequently be arrested “for refusing to leave a Lexington school after officials refused to meet his demand that he be notified when homosexuality was discussed in his son's class.”
Wev, assholes. Gay families exist. Your preposterous temper tantrums aren’t going to change that, so just shut the fuck up and get with the program. There are a lot of people who have “moral” objections to divorce, too, but it’s hardly feasible to pretend it doesn’t exist.
Seriously—these people are deranged. They’re acting like they’re required to get into the mechanics of homosexuality with a 5-year-old when all they have to say is that some families have two mommies or two daddies. I don’t imagine they felt obligated to haul out copies of Hustler to explain the concept of marriage to their kid, so why are they acting like a book on gay families necessitates anything more? “Oh, great! Now we’re going to have to buy a buttplug and other stereotypical homosexual visual aids to explain gay families to Junior!” Yeesh.
(Hat tip to Holly.)
I 
Gore
Everyone who knows what a Gore-freak I am is sending me the link to this article, which basically doesn’t say anything new but gives hope to those of us who still fancy Gore rotten that he may yet run again.
He really needs to get on the ball now preparing a 15-minute campaign video called “If I’d Been President,” just listing all the disasters that have happened, how he would have responded, what differences that would have made for the country (e.g. “$X dollars would not have been spent in Iraq, but on making sure our government agencies, like FEMA, were properly staffed and funded”), and then send it out, so we can viral the shit out of it.
Get Your Snark On
Challenge: Name George Bush’s future think tank for him.
I’m thinking The George W. Bush Think Tank for the Oxymoronic and Criminally Insane. What’ve you got?
