Yesterday I kept up with comments and had returned all my visits except half a dozen when I pooped out. I’ll finish today. I’m cooking dinner for my disabled friend and watching Olympics this afternoon. It’s been suc a slow nws day that there will be no short takes today.
Today’s Jig Zone puzzle took me 3:46. To do it, Click Here. How did you do?
Here’s your cartoon:
Get love today!
Let’s give him a big ‘thank you’.
Political analyst Lawrence O’Donnell is known for his strong opinions and occasional passionate outbursts. In 2004, he repeatedly shouted down [wing-nut delinked] Swift Boat Veterans spokesman John O’Neill with cries of "liar," leading conservative blogger Michelle Malkin to describe him as "unhinged."
Now O’Donnell has repeated the performance by confronting Marc Thiessen, a former speechwriter for Donald Rumsfeld and George W. Bush, staunch defender of "enhanced interrogation," and author of Courting Disaster: How the CIA Kept America Safe and How Barack Obama Is Inviting the Next Attack.
During an appearance Friday on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Thiessen began by telling host Joe Scarborough, "Barack Obama has eliminated the CIA’s interrogation program, which is the single most successful and important intelligence program in the war on terror and possibly in the history of the CIA. … You’ve got to think back to the period after 9/11. We didn’t even know who hit us. … This program is why we did not have another 9/11."
O’Donnell wasn’t buying it, however. He told Thiessen, "You actually published a book that says that the president of the United States … ‘is inviting the next attack.’ Isn’t it true that the president you worked for invited the first attack by having no idea what was going on with al Qaeda?"
By this point, Scarborough had already begun attempting to cut O’Donnell off, repeatedly saying, "Lawrence, that’s ridiculous," but O’Donnell continued inexorably.
"You just admitted that when you were hit on 9/11, you just said, ‘We didn’t know who hit us,’" O’Donnell stated. "You were told who was going to hit you before we were hit on 9/11, and your administration invited the first attack — for which you should live in shame!"
As Thiessen attempted to respond by counting up the number of terrorist incidents under the Clinton administration and O’Donnell continued to talk over him, Scarborough finally jumped in to say, "We’re going to break, right now … and I’m going to be interviewing Marc by myself."
When the show resumed, Scarborough could be heard saying to Mika Brzezinski, "…if you don’t balance the meds just right, crazy Lawrence…"
This time Thiessen was allowed to make his argument that we were "caught blind" by the Christmas bomber because we no longer have the ability to torture terrorists. "The Obama administration has thrown that out and gone back to the pre-9/11 approach," he concluded.
Given just 30 seconds to respond, O’Donnell asked Thiessen, "I’m wondering about your own personal experience with torture. I know you grew up in the richest zip code in America, on the Upper East Side. You went to the only boarding school in Connecticut that I know of that has a golf course … and, of course, like all the torture-mongers in the White House, the Cheney family included, you never served a day in the military. … With that background, what is it that gives you an expertise in torture? What makes you love it so much?"
"I actually met with the actual interrogators," Thiessen replied. "That’s my expertise."…
Inserted from <Raw Story>
Thiessen lied when he said we didn’t know who hit us. When Thiessen tried to list Clinton’s shortcomings when confronted with the Bush/GOP failure responsible for the catastrophe, Thiessen was using deferment. This is a criminal thinking error I teach prisoners and former prisoners to avoid. Rather that face up to it, Thiessen deferred by changing the subject. Of course the ‘interrogators’, actually torturers, believe what they did was worthwhile. Without that belief, how could they sleep at night? Thiessen thus based his so-called expertise on the least reliable possible source.
Scarborough should be ashamed for trying to allow Thiessen to parrot his GOP lies unopposed, and his ‘balance the meds’ comment was despicable. I will be calling MSNBC later today to complain. If you care to join me, their number is (212) 664-4444.
Keith Olbermann also debunked Thiessen’s bogus claims, and discussed the incident with Lawrence O’Donnell.
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Obama killing too many terrorists? Whatever he’s drinking, it must be mighty strong!
Why is the GOP so intense in their support for torture? Here’s why:
A New York Times / CBS poll confirms the findings from other polls that I reported here yesterday: The public approves of Barack Obama’s handling of “the threat of terrorism” far more than it approves his performance on any other issue.
But the new poll asked a couple of question that the earlier polls I linked to did not, and the results are kind of startling.
“How likely do you think it is that there will be another terrorist attack in the United States in the next few months?” — not next few years, next few months. 58% say very or somewhat likely.
“What do you think is the most important problem facing the country today?” 1% say “terrorism.” One percent!
If my math is right, 57% of the respondents — presumably a representative cross-section of the American people — expect a terrorist attack here in the next few months but do not think it’s the most important problem we have to deal with. I suppose they expect to happen somewhere else, not where they live.
Yet, as I noted yesterday, Obama’s political standing depends rests heavily on public approval of the way he’s handling terrorism. If he didn’t have high marks in that department, he might very well be even lower than the 46% overall approval that this Times / CBS poll gives him… [emphasis added]
Inserted from <AlterNet>
Since Karl Rove took over GOP strategy, attacking strength and falsely portraying it as weakness has been their standard ploy, and it’s been quite effective. For example, John Kerry was a war hero running against GW ChickenHawk, who used GHWB’s influence to get into the Air Guard, opted out of foreign deployment, and even ducked out of that commitment. Rove attacked Kerry’s strength with the Swift Boat lies, and they worked well enough for Diebold creativity in Ohio to enable Bush’s second theft of the White House. What the GOP is doing now in their quest for totalitarian power is no different. The good news is that Lawrence O’Donnell heroically refused to let Thiessen propagate their lies unchallenged.
Let me start with some good news. Past President Bill Clinton is now at home after two stents were successfully installed in a coronary artery.
Trying to take political advantage, Faux Noise falsely claimed that he would not have gotten such care had HCR passed.
This morning, Fox & Friends covered President Bill Clinton’s hospitalization by asking if the President would have been treated for his heart problems “if the health care reform had gone through.” “Would he have gotten those stents?” host Brian Kilmeade asked in-house health reform expert Peter J. Johnson Jr [Faux Noise delinked].
Johnson admitted that “under a lot of protocols he would have gotten those stents,” but suggested that if the government adopted best practice methods using comparative effectiveness research, “perhaps hundreds of thousands of people like the president” would receive a cheaper, less effective, treatment:
JOHNSON: If the government decides to adopt the Peter Orszag, budget director, architect of health care, method and put in regulations that say there is a gold standard, there is a best practice based on the literature, perhaps hundreds of thousands of people like the president, I’m not going to make a determination…if the new standard is save money, best practices, does President Clinton or you or I who needs it get the stent under the new regimen of health care effectiveness?
Watch it:
Conservatives have long used comparative effectiveness research (CER) to further their claim that health care reform would ration treatments based on cost, impose a one-size-fits-all standard for medicine, and keep doctors from prescribing more expensive and effective procedures. But this line of thinking misunderstands the purpose of CER and ignores legislative language that specifically prohibits the government from applying research findings to coverage decisions. CER is a recommendation, not a mandate. (See pg. 1652 of the Senate bill or pg. 769 of the House bill).
Rather than making arbitrary decisions based on cost, CER — which compares clinical outcomes of alternative therapies used to manage the same condition — would provide doctors with unbiased information about the most effective treatments, help doctors and patients make better informed decisions, and improve the quality of care. Properly conducted CER will actually promote faster adoption of personalized care, not one-size-fits all medicine…
Inserted from <Think Progress>
The GOP and their ministry of propaganda know only how to lie. In response, we must arm ourselves with the truth.
If ever there were a GOP poster boy, he’s it.
The Massachusetts man charged this week with stockpiling weapons after saying he feared an imminent "Armageddon" appears to have been active in the Tea Party movement, and saw Sarah Palin, who he said is on a "righteous ‘Mission from God,’" as the only figure capable of averting the destruction of society.
As we reported yesterday, Gregory Girard, a Manchester technology consultant, was found with a stash of military grade weapons, explosive devices including tear gas and pepper ball canisters, camouflage clothing, knives, handcuffs, bulletproof vests and helmets, and night vision goggles, say police. They believe Girard, who pleaded not guilty at his arraignment, was "preparing for domestic and political turmoil," and feared martial law would soon be imposed.
Girard’s wife said her husband had recently told her: "Don’t talk to people, shoot them instead," and "it’s fine to shoot people in the head because traitors deserve it."… [emphasis added]
Inserted from <TPM>
Only a true GOP Sweetheart could believe so much of what he saw on Faux Noise.
Yesterday I completely caught up on replying to comments here. Today, I plan to catch up on returning visits.
Today’s Jig Zone puzzle took me 3:36. To do it, Click Here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
Today I have a couple videos for you.
A Canadian legislator forgot how polite Canadians are:
He reminds me of a Republican!
Keith Olbermann introduces the next Anchor Hottie on Faux Noise:
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Here’s your cartoon:
Are you all set for Valentines Day?
Too much is enough, according to Nancy Pelosi.
In an interview with Roll Call [sub req] Nancy Pelosi makes the case for using a "majority vote," or reconciliation, for getting healthcare reform done.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is pinning the blame on Republicans for a lack of bipartisanship in Congress and plans to bypass them if they continue to oppose efforts to enact near-universal health care.
"A constitutional majority is 51 votes," Pelosi said in an interview Tuesday with Roll Call. "If in fact the Republicans are going to say nothing can be done except by 60 percent, then maybe we all should be elected with 60 percent. It isn’t legitimate in terms of passing legislation."
….
"There is some unease when you talk about, well, what’s happening to the initiatives to help the American people?" Pelosi said. "Is there never anything that can be done without 60 votes?"
….
[I]n her interview with Roll Call, Pelosi stopped short of saying the filibuster should be done away with altogether, but she used some of her bluntest language yet to defend the use of reconciliation as something that has been used with regularity by Republican and Democratic presidents alike.
"We have set the stage for that. It’s important for us to remind the American people of the inconsistency that the Republicans have in saying this is unusual. No, five times President Bush used it. … This is what the Republicans did to pass their bills, their tax cuts for the rich," Pelosi said.
"It’s up to us to make sure the public knows that this is not extraordinary. And the public knows that a constitutional majority is 51. It would be a reflection on us if we could not convince people that this is not an unusual place to go."
And Pelosi complained about the never-ending filibusters by Senate Republicans going far beyond the health care debate.
"Yes, the filibuster has its place, it may even have its place in health care — it’s a very big issue. But does it have its place on every appointment and every piece of legislation? We have over 200 bills over there that haven’t been taken up. Most of them, 70 percent of them, were passed with over 50 Republican votes in the House. …
"We haven’t gotten as much done as we should and one of those reasons is because of what the Republicans are doing. … The American people have to make a judgment about the conduct of the Republicans in insisting on that on every vote, and the Democrats in the Senate have to deal with the challenge that they have."
….
Pelosi also said she is open to Republicans presenting new ideas at the Feb. 25 bipartisan health care summit called for by Obama, but she said she’s already seen the Republican health care alternative offered on the House floor and said it only provided insurance for an additional 3 million people instead of the more than 30 million in the Democratic bill.
It’s an important political message to set up going into the February 25 meeting–Republicans not only have obstructed the process every step of the way. The summit is pretty unlikely to change that dynamic, and the summit can be used, if Obama and Reid are willing to go along with Pelosi in this messaging, to get the bill done through reconciliation… [emphasis added]
Inserted from <Daily Kos>
It’s certainly time for reconciliation, but more. Rachel Maddow and Howard Dean make one of the best cases I have heard for ending the filibuster.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
This bill will never pass, because the GOP will filibuster it. But it only takes 51 votes to change the Senate rules if they do so on the first day of the next new session in January.
Off Topic: I’m adding a new feature to the daily Open Thread. Short Takes are brief news references with links. Cjeck it out.
I’m shocked to see this one coming from a mainstream source.
This world view’s modern-day prophets include Texas radio host Alex Jones, whose documentary, The Obama Deception, claims Obama’s candidacy was a plot by the leaders of the New World Order to "con the Amercican people into accepting global slavery"; Christian evangelist Pat Robertson; and the rightward strain of the aforementioned "9/11 Truth" movement. According to this dark vision, America’s 21st-century traumas signal the coming of a great political cataclysm, in which a false prophet such as Barack Obama will upend American sovereignty and render the country into a godless, one-world socialist dictatorship run by the United Nations from its offices in Manhattan.
Sure enough, in Nashville, Judge Roy Moore warned, among other things, of "a U.N. guard stationed in every house." On the conference floor, it was taken for granted that Obama was seeking to destroy America’s place in the world and sell Israel out to the Arabs for some undefined nefarious purpose. The names Jeremiah Wright and William Ayers popped up all the time, the idea being that they were the real brains behind this presidency, and Obama himself was simply some sort of manchurian candidate.
A software engineer from Clearwater, Fla., told me that Washington, D.C., liberals had engineered the financial crash so they could destroy the value of the U.S. dollar, pay off America’s debts with worthless paper, and then create a new currency called the Amero that would be used in a newly created "North American Currency Union" with Canada and Mexico. I rolled my eyes at this one-off kook. But then, hours later, the conference organizers showed a movie to the meeting hall, Generation Zero, whose thesis was only slightly less bizarre: that the financial meltdown was the handiwork of superannuated flower children seeking to destroy capitalism.
And then, of course, there is the double-whopper of all anti-Obama conspiracy theories, the "birther" claim that America’s president might actually be an illegal alien who’s constitutionally ineligible to occupy the White House. This point was made by birther extraordinaire and Christian warrior Joseph Farah, who told the crowd the circumstances of Obama’s birth were more mysterious than those of Jesus Christ. (Apparently comparing Obama to a messiah is only blasphemous if you’re doing so in a complimentary vein.) To applause, he declared, "My dream is that if Barack Obama seeks reelection in 2012 that he won’t be able to go to any city, any city, any town in America without seeing signs that ask, ‘Where’s the birth certificate?’"
Many of the tea-party organizers I spoke with at this conference described the event as a critical step in their ascendancy to the status of mainstream political movement. Yet with rare exceptions, such as blogger Breitbart, who was reportedly overheard protesting Farah’s birther propaganda, none of them seems to realize how off-putting the toxic fantasies being spewed from the podium were.
Perhaps the most distressing part of all is that few media observers bothered to catalog these bizarre, conspiracist outbursts, and instead fixated on Sarah Palin’s Saturday night keynote address…
Inserted from <Newsweek>
Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!
The whole country needs to know this.
The private military of Bush, Cheney and the GOP is in hot water again.
Two former employees of Blackwater Worldwide have accused the private security company of defrauding the government for years by filing bogus receipts, double billing for the same services and charging government agencies for strippers and prostitutes, according to court documents unsealed this week.
In a December 2008 lawsuit, the former employees said top Blackwater officials had engaged in a pattern of deception as they carried out government contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan, and in Louisiana in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
The lawsuit, filed under the False Claims Act, also asserts that Blackwater officials turned a blind eye to “excessive and unjustified” force against Iraqi civilians by several Blackwater guards.
Blackwater has earned billions of dollars from government agencies in the years since the Sept. 11 attacks, when the company won contracts to protect American diplomats in Iraq and Afghanistan. The former employees who filed the lawsuit, a married couple named Brad and Melan Davis, said there was little financial oversight of the money.
Last year, an audit by the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction and the State Department’s inspector general found that the State Department had overpaid Blackwater $55 million because the company had failed to adequately staff its teams assigned to protect American diplomats in Iraq.
The documents detailing the Davises’ accusations were unsealed after the Justice Department declined to join in the case against Blackwater, which last year changed its name to Xe Services. A Xe spokeswoman did not return a message seeking comment about the case.
In an interview on Wednesday, Ms. Davis said that she and her husband had decided to proceed with the case because “it’s the right thing to do,” and that it was time for “the truth from inside the company” to be made public. If the government is able to recover money from Blackwater as a result of the lawsuit, the Davises could claim a percentage as whistleblowers.
Mr. Davis, a former Marine, performed a number of jobs for the company, including working as a private security guard in Iraq.
Ms. Davis was fired from the company, and she is challenging the legality of her dismissal. Mr. Davis voluntarily resigned from the company.
According to the lawsuit, Ms. Davis raised concerns about the company’s bookkeeping with her bosses in March 2006, when she was handling accounts for the company’s contracts with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Homeland Security. The lawsuit claims she was told to “back off,” and that she “would never win a medal for saving the government money.”
Ms. Davis also asserts that a Filipino prostitute in Afghanistan was put on the Blackwater payroll under the “Morale Welfare Recreation” category, and that the company had billed the prostitute’s plane tickets and monthly salary to the government…
Inserted from <NY Times>
Keith Olbermann had some excellent background on this story.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Now I know that prostitutes in US Embassies are a common occurrence, but extending that recreation from diplomats to hired thugs at taxpayer expense is absurd. And that is the least of the complaints. Using mercenaries to protect our diplomats is nothing but Bush/GOP scheme to transfer wealth from the lower and middle classes to corporate cronies. This company costs several times what military personnel used to cost. They are a stain on our reputation, and their GOP storm-trooper tactics put our diplomats even more at risk. Obama is clearly on the wrong page by continuing to use them. Isn’t it time we fired America’s foulest and returned it to America’s finest?
