Inspire Political Discourse

The Colbert Report Video: Blackwashing

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
The Word - Blackwashing
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Protests

Will the Republicans Attempt to Impeach President Obama? Yes.

From Bob Cesca, on the Huffington Post:

If the Republicans ever manage to retake Congress, they will absolutely try to impeach President Obama. And it'll be based upon a supremely ridiculous charge such as, say, the president refusing to nourish our crops with a sports drink instead of water.

Okay, so maybe the Idiocracy example is over-the-top, but if we follow the current trajectory of far-right attacks to their logical yet insane conclusion, it makes sense in a very eerie way. Have you seen the television commercials solemnly defending our right to poison our kids with "juice drinks and soda?" There you go.

I've been following the Republican descent into the realms of the bizarre for some time now, and it wasn't until the "czars" thing broke that I became convinced that if they retook Congress the Republicans might try to impeach the president. The grounds for both the impeachment and the language used to sell it will likely be fabricated by either Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh.

I mean, 100 Republican members of Congress have signed onto Rep. Jack Kingston's cartoonish czar bill. 100 House Republicans out of 177 have attached their names to a bill that was essentially invented as a television bit by Glenn Beck without any regard for the fact that "czar" is a nickname invented by the press, and that every president -- all of them! -- has employed policy and political advisers within their administrations. But it functions as an effective Beck attack because he knows his audience isn't bright enough to distinguish "czars" from "communists." By the way, not to be out-crazied by his House colleagues, Senator Ensign introduced an amendment to the Finance Committee health care reform bill called "Transparency in Czars." This might as well be "Transparency in Hobbits" because it's just that ludicrous.

Nevertheless, there's a growing conventional wisdom in the press alleging that both sides of the political spectrum are equally guilty of wackaloon attacks and conspiracy theories.

Granted there might be one or two very fringe exceptions but this is otherwise a false equivalency written by the establishment media as part of their self-conscious effort to seem balanced. The distinction is that any "fringe" attacks from the left during the Bush years weren't mainstreamed and legitimized the way the wingnut attacks are today, even though the fringe attacks from the left turned out to be mostly accurate.

Continue reading http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-cesca/the-impeachment-of-presid_b_297330.html

Dancing With the Czars

Those silly Republicans are at it again. Making themselves look completely stupid, and wasting taxpayer dollars.

Jason Linkins:

Over the past few days, I've written about the wildly outsized claims of czars in the Obama administration undermining the government. Republican Senators are sending letters and GOP House members are holding up posters and attempting to pass thoroughly baffling bills to prevent the Obama White House from appointing advisers.

These elected officials seem to be unaware of some basic facts. Many of the people they insist need to be confirmed by the Senate already have been confirmed. Many of the people they consider to be holding unprecedented appointments are merely filling well-established positions. In some cases, these lawmakers seem to have forgotten that they themselves passed laws that mandated the appointments. And in a few cases, they just select some established functionary at random -- like a State Department envoy or the Deputy Secretary of the Interior -- and call that guy a "czar" just for fun!

All of these fears and complaints are indicative of either a powerful desire to mislead or an advanced mental disease that hopefully Dr. Charles Boustany will be able to treat, with some sort of Louisiana voodoo poultice.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/16/dancing-with-the-czars-de_n_289465.html

Teabagging Liars

In case you missed the gathering of the teabagging wingnuts yesterday, here's a pic from Crooks and Liars. Please note that the wingnuts greatly exaggerated the number of them in attendance at the Hate Fest in DC.

ABC News also called them out for claiming greater numbers than were actually there.

Get rid of Joe Wilson!

There is a larger issue than health care, and that is the morality of those who govern us. I am tired of the white sheeters, and I won't be silent.

Ignoring the T R A S H  won't make it go away, it just ends up stinking more.

Donate to WIlson's opponent:   http://www.actblue.com/page/kossacks4miller

Contribute to an ad to censure Joe Wilson: https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/targetwilson?refcode=pof_e1#&key=25182547

info on Wilson:  http://www.vote-usa.org/Intro.aspx?Id=SCWilsonJoe

UPDATE – SEPT. 12, 2009

Wilson, once considered one of the safest of the Republican incumbents, is now in a dead heat with his opponent, Rob Miller, according to polls.

Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) finds himself electorally vulnerable in the wake of his "You lie!" outburst during President Obama's address to a joint session of Congress, according to the latest numbers from Public Policy Polling.

Rep. Wilson (R-S.C.) trails challenger Rob Miller 44 to 43 percent in the poll. Wilson defeated Miller 54-46 in the 2008 election. […..]

TEXT-TRANSCRIPT: PRESIDENT OBAMA SPEECH TO CONGRESS ON HEALTHCARE REFORM SEPT. 9, 2009

Click here to watch the video.

PRESIDENT OBAMA:
“Madame Speaker, Vice President Biden, Members of Congress, and the American people:

When I spoke here last winter, this nation was facing the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. We were losing an average of 700,000 jobs per month. Credit was frozen. And our financial system was on the verge of collapse.

As any American who is still looking for work or a way to pay their bills will tell you, we are by no means out of the woods. A full and vibrant recovery is many months away. And I will not let up until those Americans who seek jobs can find them; until those businesses that seek capital and credit can thrive; until all responsible homeowners can stay in their homes. That is our ultimate goal. But thanks to the bold and decisive action we have taken since January, I can stand here with confidence and say that we have pulled this economy back from the brink.

VIDEO : PRESIDENT OBAMA SPEECH TO CONGRESS ON HEALTHCARE REFORM SEPT. 9, 2009

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

Click here to read the transcript.

BLACKWATER aka XE Contracted With Foreign Operatives to Staff Secret CIA Program

Blackwater, who recently changed it's name to XE. the world's most powerful private army, owned by Erik Prince, a right-wing Christian, hired foreign operatives to implement a secret CIA operation. The question here is WHY would the CIA hire Blackwater for an operation well within it's own bailiwick.

WASHINGTON — When the CIA revived a plan to kill or capture terrorists in 2004, the agency turned to the well-connected security company then known as Blackwater USA.

With Blackwater's lucrative government security work and contacts arrayed in hot spots around the world, company officials offered the services of foreigners supposedly skilled at tracking terrorists in lawless regions and countries where the CIA had no working relationships with the government.

Blackwater told the CIA that it "could put people on the ground to provide the surveillance and support – all of the things you need to conduct an operation," a former senior CIA official .....

Continue reading article.

VIDEO: President Obama Eulogizes Ted Kennedy

Click here to read the transcript of President Obama's eulogy to Ted Kennedy..

 

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

2008 Democratic Convention Tribute to Senator Ted Kennedy

Video and Text of Ted Kennedy's Speech at the 2008 Democratic Convention

TRANSCRIPT of Kennedy speech at the 2008 National Democratic Convention in Denver, Colorado.

Senator Edward M. Kennedy:

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Caroline.

My fellow Democrats, my fellow Americans, it is so wonderful to be here.

And nothing - nothing is going to keep me away from this special gathering tonight.
I have come here tonight to stand with you to change America, to restore its future, to rise to our best ideals, and to elect Barack Obama president of the United States.

As I look ahead, I am strengthened by family and friendship. So many of you have been with me in the happiest days and the hardest days. Together we have known success and seen setbacks, victory and defeat.

But we have never lost our belief that we are all called to a better country and a newer world. And I pledge to you - I pledge to you that I will be there next January on the floor of the United States Senate when we begin the great test.

Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you.

For me this is a season of hope - new hope for a justice and fair prosperity for the many, and not just for the few - new hope.

And this is the cause of my life - new hope that we will break the old gridlock and guarantee that every American - north, south, east, west, young, old - will have decent, quality health care as a fundamental right and not a privilege.

We can meet these challenges with Barack Obama. Yes, we can, and finally, yes, we will.
Barack Obama will close the book on the old politics of race and gender and group against group and straight against gay.
And Barack Obama will be a commander in chief who understands that young Americans in uniform must never be committed to a mistake, but always for a mission worthy of their bravery.

We are told that Barack Obama believes too much in an America of high principle and bold endeavor, but when John Kennedy called of going to the moon, he didn’t say it’s too far to get there. We shouldn’t even try.

Our people answered his call and rose to the challenge, and today an American flag still marks the surface of the moon.

Yes, we are all Americans. This is what we do. We reach the moon. We scale the heights. I know it. I’ve seen it. I’ve lived it. And we can do it again.

There is a new wave of change all around us, and if we set our compass true, we will reach our destination — not merely victory for our party, but renewal for our nation.

And this November the torch will be passed again to a new generation of Americans, so with Barack Obama and for you and for me, our country will be committed to his cause. The work begins anew. The hope rises again. And the dream lives on.

Oh Pleaseeee.........

Newt Gingrich, advising Sarah Palin on the rehabilitation of her political career. Gag.

FYI, Mr. Gingrich, Palin is just soooo much less than you give her credit for. She is a typical redneck Republican woman with a poor education, and a penchant for talking too much and reading too little. She is not worthy of your time or anyone elses' time either. Not that I like you either, Mr. Gingrich; however, I do certainly understand that the chasm between your intellect and Palin's intellect, is oh so wide and deep.

Paul Begala, a Democratic political consultant and former Clinton Administration consultant, had this to say about Gingrich and Palin, during an interview aired on CNN:

He is trying to treat her like a serious person. She is not. OK? She is about half a whack job. She does not have the intellectual heft of Newt Gingrich or almost anyone else in the Republican Party, and I think she has proved that