More Uncovered Protests

In addition to the uncovered protests on Saturday to protect worker’s rights, corporate media also blacked-out coverage of nationwide protests against the banks.

Interesting the crap that the corporate media wants us to know vs what they don’t want us to know about.

The Right Wing strategy is clear.

Thom Hartmann
told a joke this morning (see, it’s funny ‘cause it’s true…)

A Big Business man, a Tea Partier and a Laborer are sitting around a table with a plate of 12 cookies on it. The Big Business guy takes 11 of the cookies and gobbles them up. There is one cookie left. Big business looks at the Tea Partier and says, “Watch out, that Union guy wants part of your cookie.”

I wonder when the Dems will figure out that ‘bipartisanship’ is not the solution?

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Guess What? God Causes Teenage Pregnancy!

Jesus causes teen pregnancy
This I know
Because Sarah and Bristol
Tell me so

Not in so many words, but that is what I got from their beautiful statement, that they had to release because the horrible awful press inquired and there was "erroneous" information flowing around.

Bill McAllister, the governor's office communications director, adds: "The governor's office previously declined to comment to honor the family's wishes that the event remain as private as possible. However, the high volume of press inquiries, along with some erroneous information that was published, prompted the governor to make a statement."

The great news is that Bristol and Levi, because they are so blessed with God's Will and are such hard workers, get to set aside any plans that they ever had for their futures, because God saw fit to bless them with a baby. It really has nothing to do with the fact that Bristol's mother is anti-birth control and anti-sex education. Because, if Bristol had been armed with proper information about her body and had the opportunity to approach her mother and father with honest information about her sexuality, she still would not have been able to prevent an unwanted pregnancy. The baby was God's Will; it had nothing to do with lack of communication or shame inducing guilt trips in the Palin household.

"We are over the moon with the arrival of this healthy, beautiful baby," Governor Palin said. "The road ahead for this young couple will not be easy, but nothing worthwhile is ever easy. Bristol and Levi are committed to accomplish what millions of other young parents have accomplished, to provide a loving and secure environment for their child. They are both hard workers, they're very strong, and have faith they've made the right decision in setting aside their own interests to make this child their highest priority."

For that baby's sake, I am happy that they are both hard workers. Extremely pleased. I hope that they will teach their child the things that were denied them.

Regardless of my snark, at least Sarah Palin has made it clear that God turns "circumstances" (circumstances are unfortunately defined as "an unessential or secondary accompaniment of any fact or event; minor detail") into blessings. I have a really difficult time referring to a "baby" as a circumstance; but, hey, I am just not as close to God as the Palins.

Palin added, "When Bristol and Levi first told us the shocking news that she was pregnant, to be honest, we all at first looked at the situation with some fear and a bit of despair. Isn't it just like God to turn those circumstances into such an amazing, joyful blessing when you ask Him to help you through?"

God's Will - the greatest excuse for shitty parenting, evah!

Crap.

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Another Top Story: Idiot Joe Put in His Place

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

The real reaming starts at about minute 6; but take the time to watch the whole thing, it is well worth it.

h/t to Huff Po

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Step Lightly Congress!

Open Thread

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Holiday Open Thread

OMG, Toyota's posting it's first operating loss since 1950! It's all the Unions fault... damn Unions, causing Toyota to go broke... oh yeah, Toyota doesn't have Union workers.
UPDATE: Just when I get flippant about Toyota and Unions, emptywheel puts out a great article on Toyota being a model for success.

I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, Happy Solstice, Wonderful Kwanzaa and Happy New Year.

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Caption Contest...

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What Does this Say?

Yesterday kiddo and I were working out in the yard (believe it or not our grass is still growing – I even have a very confused Easter Lily that is ready to bloom. I have covered her at night for the last month so that she does not freeze, but we did not have our first actual frost until Saturday.) Anyhow, kiddo and I were working out in the yard and he said to me:

“My friend Anthony’s mom is a big-time Democrat too. She stays in her pajamas and blogs all day when she isn’t working too…[this was not the purpose of his story – his story was actually about Anthony's shirt] …He has a t-shirt that says ‘THINK – it’s still allowed – for now’.”

What does this say? I am still not sure if it is a good thing or a bad thing or if it is just a terribly funny reality.

I did not ask him if Anthony’s mom was sick as well, I just said that he should “hook us up because we would probably get along great,” (as long as we could do it via IM and not actually have to talk to each other, or anything as radical as that.)

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One Guy, 2 Seats, One for each cheek

So I'm reading the summary of Inside Washington from last Saturday . . it occurred to me during a graf from Colby King, about how Kerry wants to be Secretary of State (and that this week its rumoured that Sen. Clinton was asked to be SoS), there's no reason I know of for the Secretary of State and the Vice-President to be the same person.

Vice-President and Secretary of State Biden.

Man, it's ultimate power of the sort that makes you want to flip out and kill someone.

Anyway, the only technical objection I can think of is that the SecState is pretty damn busy - it's not like the Vice-President's duties are a 24/7 position, but the occasional time a guy (or gal) would have to do his VP thing is going to just put one more burden on someone trying to be Secretary of State. The Obama Administration might have to find another permanent stand-in for state funerals, or something.

I've always suspected that what made Dick Cheney so dangerous as the VP was the large amounts of idle time on his hands, his experience, and a complacent boss willing to let his minions do it all. Joe Biden is almost as much of a threat as Cheney except Obama doesn't outsource. However, Cheney's now set the precedent. Giving Joe the State Department would give him something to do rather than sitting in the undisclosed location and hatching nefarious plans.

It's just an idle thought . .

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Caption Contest

The Tongue Lasher!

Which man will be our next President?


Why can't I stop laughing... 7 of 6, get a hold of yourself!

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There is a Solution

h/t TPM

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Beelzebub Still Has His Minions at Work

The headline reads: Justice Staffers Won't Be Prosecuted For Illegal Hiring Practices.

Attorney General Michael Mukasey said Tuesday... "not every wrong, or even every violation of the law, is a crime. In this instance, the two joint reports found only violations of the civil service laws."

I'll use that as my defense if I ever get arrested... should work, eh?

Of course those strong armed Democrats were on the ball with a public tongue lashing:

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy said Mukasey "seems intent on insulating this administration from accountability."

The Vermont Democrat said Mukasey's remarks "appear premature based on the facts and evidence that congressional investigators and the inspector general have uncovered so far" in the hiring scandal. "We must continue to pursue the truth and facts, and hold any wrongdoers accountable," Leahy said.

After Leahy's wag of the finger, I could swear I saw a picture of bu$h doing a tex-ass jig... no, that was only in my head, I guess. But Beelzebub did say in his most hideous voice, "I have many more crimes to commit before I leave office!"

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Seven of Six:

Hope this Helps

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Unicorn Sighted!

Well, kinda.

I have a good friend working for NASA who blogs with Livejournal, and she posted her approval of Kucinich's recent impeachment resolution.

We here at L'n'LPD all shout, About fucking time!, whenever Kucinich does this, even though it's futile. The worst part is that we wish there were other Congressmen to cheer, much less someone who's actually committee member with real weight . . .

But interesting to me is not the original post but this in the comments:

6/10/2008: 07:56 pm Tuesday (UTC)
montieth

Skimming through the articles, it seems like half of the points are just as justifiable against members of congress and the previous Clinton Administration. Especially where it concerns spying, war declarations and other such acts.

Ultimately this is a lot of daft posturing and really a waste of time for congress. I'm not sure, if that's a good thing or not at this point. But if they spend time on this and not on stupid wealth re-distribution plans, then hey.

Well, by golly! It's that rare beast, Conservative Libertarius Extremus! Notable for its propensity to automatically defend itself against current events criticism by rearing on it's hindquarters and invoking a Clinton. And this specimen then does a beautifully rendered counterattack with wealth redistribution. Maginifcent!

This specimen then takes another shot at being the last word following a weak assertion by a well-meaning other poster.

6/10/2008: 08:32 pm Tuesday (UTC)
montieth

The problem is that half of those things cited, Congress (both sides) is up to it's NECKS in. Wasteful spending in Iraq. You want wasteful spending, lets cut the earmarks that EVERYONE in congress plays with. Obama himself got to send what was it, $100,000 to his own church through Federal ear-marks on appropriations bills?

Misspending of funding? Bill Clinton, used appropriations budget money for the Military to pay for the Balkans campaign (does Kucinich think that's an illegal undeclared war?). That is to say, he wanted to do the intervention, Congress blocked him (which I think was wrong, but that's not the point), so Bill used the funding that the military had allocated for purchasing new systems and training budgets and instead used that capital for the costs of the peace keeping missions.

One could probably make an argument that the then 2003 state of body armor and protected vehicles other vehicles were a direct result of the Clinton Administration's decisions on defense spending. To hang THAT on the Bush administration is just utterly specious. It is, technically an argument more on long term planning.

Frankly, what congress needs to spend time on is working out a new budget, fixing a lot of criminal law problems and maybe perhaps addressing the strange balance of tariffs and funding the have for big agro which is in part why they're blocking the new drilling bills.

Lovely, just lovely. I feel like Marlin Perkins. Earmarks and pork are like honey to these beautiful creatures, and Libertarian can rarely resist them. Then follows with another textbook Clinton that is fantastic in its length and breadth. Once finished, the political beast then strides off in the satisfied rhythm of criminal law reform, tariffs, and budgetary abstractions.

After nothing but Hillary and Obama Whackadoodles for the last few months, I find my self giddy!

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Warning: Pee First

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I Thought She Was Gone...

Jeez, just when I thought I'd be free of listening to her, Randi Rhodes gets a new job.

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Let the Balls Roll Where They Fall

It's no secret that this blog and it's mothership have a certain disdain for the echo chamber that passes for a blog at Daily Kos. However, I do read it every weekday morning for one reason - Bill.

I know there are several problems - I'm hetero, he's not. We're both married to our particular spouses already . . etc. But I think you get the idea.

Bill raised a good point today:

I remember hearing back in '04---and the Very Serious People in Journalismland were adamant about this---that "few people really pay attention to the race until after summer vacation." If there's even a shred of truth to that, we can let the primaries play out to their scheduled June conclusion just fine. If Hillary's chances haven't risen to at least 50-50 and she stays in anyway, that's when she'll have jumped the shark and her support will naturally crumble.

What happened to that bit of wisdom about how the American electorate really doesn't pay attention until the fall? Well, it sounds a bit hollow when literally hundreds of thousands of new caucus and primary voters have shown up this year at the polls, setting incredible records and scaring the pants off of the GOP establishment. People are paying attention. And the possibility of a historical landslide election equivalent to 1980, 1976 or even 1932 is exceptional. So is the wisdom still valid? Will there still be the same time after the summer conventions?

Obama, on campaign in PA, went bowling yesterday. Apparently he sucks at it, like most of us, but he took it in stride, focusing on the message and not the gutter balls. But I tell you, the AP photo just looks . . odd.

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