From Huffington Post regarding Obama’s birth certificate:

Asked directly by King if she actually thought Obama was born in Kenya, Cheney responded, “No, I’m not saying that.” But then she kept going. “I’m saying that people are fundamentally uncomfortable and fundamentally I think increasingly uncomfortable with an American president who seems to be afraid to defend America, stand up for what we believe in.”

Fellow guest James Carville seemed momentarily flabbergasted before responding, “These poor pathetic people are believing stuff just like Ms. Cheney tonight. She refuses to say this is lewd, ludicrous because she wants these people to believe this.

What an absolute trash bag this woman is. The Cheney’s, I’m sure, are very proud of themselves and their child-raising skills. They’ve sired a daughter that’s a chip off the old block.

This family really seems to get off on NEVER answering a question directly, insinuating falsehoods and, in no uncertain terms, allowing them to fester and grow. Dick Cheney did so very cleverly with the Al Qaeda/Iraq connection - wording his answers so carefully as to ensure that the not-so-sharp portion of society (a very large portion) concluded that there WAS direct connection to the two.

This practice is abhorrent. More than abhorrent. Thousands have died as a result of actions taken based on these kind of lies. Unfortunately, most of the news media doesn’t have the balls to call her on it so, like the Bush’s, the Cheney’s get a pass.

In Liz Cheney’s case, she’s attempting more than just question-raising about Obama’s birth home. She’s playing a not-so-subtle game of descrimination that she knows her far right constituents - those who still feel it’s unfair for a black man to have the same rights as they do - will lap it up.

These people are not worthy, nor responsibly capable, of holding any power in our society. They are bottom dwellers of the human experience and morally vacant, content to stir the pot of hatred for their own benefit, the rest of us be damned.

Verbal Paintball Dick Cheney, George W. Bush, Liz Cheney

Many folks have huge issues with profanity on this site. I’ve witnessed comments - some on my posts, some on others - that discredit a post purely based on some of the language used. In fact, on Daily Kos I contemplated titling my post “Sarah Palin is a filthy, lying bitch” with that exact title (did it here). I thought the title, and my description of why I made that kind of statement, are part of the discussion. Didn’t do it because of the PC nature of that site. I felt bad about having to make that choice. I think the post explained in fairly clear terms why I would call her that. Most seemed to “get” that.

Here’s my feeling about all this. Cursing has it’s place. It has a raw emotion to it. It can sometimes wake up a reader at the very point they need it to. It’s not always used for lack of a better vocabulary or unnecessary shock value. Sometimes that shock value is absolutely necessary. While I appreciate the argument that cursing devalues your message - and I understand that many people cannot get past it when reading a post (and, as a consequence, disregards your post), I still feel it is a similar discussion as the one’s people had when debating whether showing simulated sex in movies or extreme violence enhanced or detracted from certain movies. I think it depends completely on the subject and the message - and the openness one has in giving it consideration.

Profanity, at least in my case, can denote a certain trust or lack thereof. I’ve lived in New York and Los Angeles. People in New York curse more. I trust the folks in LA less. When someone tells me to go fuck myself, I know where I stand with them. When they say “have a nice day” and tell others to fuck me over, I’ll give that less credence.

Words. William F. Buckley used words like “dithyrambic” and “tergiversation” to describe the actions of other writers or those debating him. I always thought to myself he could gain more ground by saying something more gutteral, such as “You don’t have a fucking clue what you’re talking about.” It’s not that I didn’t understand him, or felt that he was not expressing himself truthfully - I just felt that his arguments could have benefitted now and again by a display of raw emotion that curse words provide. It’s okay if some members of the audience are offended. Maybe they should be.

It really comes down to Freedom and Truth - the freedom for a writer to say whatever it is he wants to say, be it loving, hateful, smart or stupid - and the truth to not pussy-foot around what it is he’s trying to say with language that cloaks it. While I may not agree with a typical hate-filled rant, I am reminded of the value of freedom of speech and how recently we’ve had people in office who didn’t attach the same value I did to it. When I see a writer curse, I don’t ask whether the word offends me but whether it’s “supposed” to offend me and if it fits the discussion. A poster named The Eyewitness Muse had a recent article titled “f*ck, f*ck, F*ck.” Many posted about their distaste of the title. I read the article and found it to be completely justified. It was about the emotion and frustration he was feeling in firing an employee. Should he have censored himself and titled it something like “Oh, Beans!”? Don’t think so. Others might disagree. Doesn’t mean they’re right.

Sometimes it’s necessary to curse. When I refer to George Bush and Dick Cheney as “pieces of shit” it is justified. They are murderers. Someone needs to get angry about that and say something that resonates. Words have power. Curse words, used skillfully (and sometimes not so skillfully), have extraordinary power.

John Boehner, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity are “scumbags.” Sarah Palin is “gutter trash”. Those who spew racism are “human garbage.” Michelle Bachmann is a “bitch” and Richard Shelby is a “prick.” Granted, some of these people give speeches and rants that might not use profanity (well, with the exception of Boehner), but their rhetoric is hurtful, divisive, ugly, and many times racist - hidden under the cloak of a smile and a few “kind” words.

Personally, I’d rather they tell me to go fuck myself. At least I’d know where I stand.

Verbal Paintball Dick Cheney, George W. Bush, profanity, rush limbaugh, Sean Hannity

Many years from now, a post like that of the following will be a nice little relic of this era, a time when many fearful people stood behind a President who lied to us for eight years and used the good will after a terrible U.S. tragedy to set in motion an agenda that was morally corrupt before it even began. Many of the true believers will not show their face in daylight - and, like Peter in the story of Christ, will deny they ever believed in George W. Bush and his ilk.

But this is not the future, yet. Here’s a few pathetic points from HughS at Wizbangblog.com:

A US leader should not embrace the language of appeasement while we are at war for many reasons, not least of which is that it sends the wrong message to our enemies.

and another one from a second pathetic loser, Shawn Mallow:

One of the tidbits Obama shared with us yesterday was his assertion that the United States is “one of the largest Muslim countries in the world.” Huh? There are estimated to be between 5 to 7 million muslims in the US, about the same number of Jewish Americans. In contrast, we have about 60 million Christians. But, during his European apology tour, he made it a point to state we are not a Christian nation.

and a few comments by idiots who have no concept of reality:

I’m so tired of the president of this nation going around telling the world we tortured people. He is an embarassment to our nation. - WildWillie

In making that foolish statement Obama has confirmed in the minds of Muslims that the United States did torture and linked it to Guantanamo Bay. - Mac Lorry

Obambi isn’t smartest tool in the shed though he was smart enough to fool the dhimmi masses. When the kool aid wears off, it will be one ugly fall from grace for the King. - Kat

Surprisingly, you don’t see a whole lot of counter-argument on this site by the far right-wing. It may be because they don’t have the education, intelligence or articulation capacity to cross swords with anyone here at Daily Kos. It might also be due to the fact that an actual debate might threaten their tenuous hold on this fantasy world they embrace. I’m caught between wanting to shake them and say, “What the fuck is wrong with you, man! Wake up!” and just simply telling them how pathetic they are. Much like the apprehended terrorists, they consider anything contrary to their reality a deadly threat worthy of a fight. Sad.

Years from now, when all this is history, many of them will agree with us, just as many who favored Vietnam have, somehow, revised their own histories to suggest they were never as adamant about the war as we remember them to be. In their revisionist histories, they will tell us they always had doubts about George Bush, knew the Iraq war was based on fear-bating and never were as stupid as we know they are now.

Sorry, idiots. Your ignorance and fear has cost lives. It’s set us on a course that our current President has to spend his entire term fixing. It’s made our fight alot more difficult when it didn’t need to be. We know you’re hard, tough guys now about this and, in the future, when you finally concede that you’re wrong, we’ll forgive you your ignorance - but let it be known that we won’t forget who you were then.

Current News, Politics George W. Bush, republican ignorance

Thank you, Sean Penn, for stating so simply what is childish, simple-minded and seriously wrong with the right’s assessment of Obama’s recent encounter (Huffington Post):

I know President Chavez well. Whether or not one agrees with all his policies, what is certainly true of Chavez is that he is a warm and friendly man with a robust sense of humor. To treat such a man coldly is akin to spitting on him. As a country we’ve done enough of that. Say what you will, but it has only resulted in the self-celebration of our smirking spitters, while costing us international respect, American lives, and left wounds in the hands of our children’s future. The Cheneys, down to the O’Reillys and Hannitys and Limbaughs, effectively hate the principles upon which we were founded. They are among the greatest cowards in all of American history. I applaud an American President who’s tough enough…to smile.

The saddest outcome of our last eight years has been the absence of common sense. Even in a leader we disagreed with there was an assumption that foreign policy required finesse. Reagan knew this. Clinton was a master at it. It’s only been recently, with the advent of GW Bush, that the “bully” approach has been given any credence.

If you asked the average conservative person in 1985 whether nastiness, aggressiveness and arrogance would help us in our relations with our world neighbors, you’d get a quick “what, are you fucking kidding me?” look. Ask the same conservative dittohead back in 2004 and you’ll find you’re in a conversation with a frat boy. It’ll start with a gutteral “yeaahhhh!!!”, move into macho posteuring and end with the suggestion that those who don’t feel the way he does about Bush’s approach are traitors and pussies.

In America (and certainly other countries), with every new Leader comes a new personal style - a style that the country adopts into it’s culture. We saw this with the new Monarchy in Britain during the 1870’s when Queen Victoria gave rise to the buttoned-down “Victoria Era.” We’ve seen in recent times the youth culture’s rise during Kennedy, the down-home southern values that followed Carter’s four years, and the political correctness that followed Reagan. If that leader is a spoiled child, like Bush has been, that same me-first attitude poisons the overall culture. If that person is a true adult, one who takes responsibility for his mistakes and treats other with dignity and respect (unless they absolutely don’t deserve it), then we have a country and a culture that shows some promise and maturity once again. It’s seems that Obama is that man.

All I can say is thank God we’re rid of George W. Bush and his ilk. He’s been a poisonous force so lethal it almost did us in. But American’s are not stupid, even though they can vote that way sometimes. Bullies, in the end, never win.

Current News, Politics Barack Obama, Chavez, George W. Bush, republican losers, republican whiners, Sean Penn

Courtesy Babble.com

While this is nothing new for most of you who argue with that pathetic 22% of dead-enders, it’s important for everyone else to understand how desperate and manipulative some of these conservative blogs have become since Obama’s innauguration.

I’ve posted in the past about WizBang Blog, but I’d like to talk specifically about their new comment editor. While I know nothing about this woman, she’s single-handedly turned WizBang Blog into a joke by not only altering the posts of those with more centrist or left-leading views, but sometimes lying about their intent altogether. Her routine is something like this: a lively debate begins in the thread for some particular post, the right wing crazies say the most inflamatory and insulting things about the left and, when the left tries to defend/debate/provide facts or an alternative opinion to the discussion, they are, very indescriminantly having their posts scrambled, complete with a “comment” by the editor that suggests something even more inflamatory was actually written by this poster (as it is now scrambled, new readers wouldn’t know this to be a lie). Unfortunately for that commenter, his/her response to these false accusations is always eliminated.

Now, if you have a troll in there who’s making a complete mockery of things or trying to flame I can understand, at the very least, the motivation for shutting him/her up. The problem with this woman is she’s not an honest dealer. She targets commenters based on nothing more than her own personal justifications at the time of the post. It’s obviously a power trip for her.

Point in fact: Yesterday’s post, Conservative Speakers Need Body Guards when Speaking at College Campuses had a bit of a a back-and-forth with Liberal Brian and Conservative Marc. Marc, at one point, accuses Brian of twisting his words around and, essentially, diverting from the post. Brian, very smartly, followed up with this:

Let’s see:

Brian: “conservatives need bodyguards”
Kim: “Conservative Speakers Need Body Guards”

Brian: “to protect them”
Horowitz: “taking protection to a college campus”

Brian: “from ‘anti-free speech’ liberals”
Kim: “Leftists … are so … anti-free speech”

Brian: “who are provided a microphone by said conservatives”
Horowitz: “Prof. Cloud stepped up to the microphone … I did her the courtesy … by letting her talk.”

Brian: “that they are hesitant to relinquish.”
Horowitz: “the protocol for such occasions restricts audience participants from making their own speeches”

So my comment followed exactly the claims from Kim and Horowitz, yet you call it a “twist”. Could you be any more transparent that you are not interested in the topic, but only in making snide, insulting, and factless comments?

Marc follows up with a comment essentially calling Brian a serial liar, with a link to a past post to prove it. Brian follows up with a link to a post of his own to refute the claim - a post from a few days before on the Tea parties. Now, he never mentioned this subject, just simply, wrote this:

This is when our pathetic comment editor, Maggie, steps in:

Now I got involved, first responding to the post itself, to the comment editor, and in defense of Brian. Here’s my part of the thread, under the name “Verbl”:

Straight forward, non confrontational and in complete compliance with the site’s rules of sticking to the thread. Nonetheless, when you have a biased comment editor on a power trip, even a reasonable response is a threat. Here is what she did to it:

I followed with a post simply stating “Very professional.” True to form, she pulled it - since it reflects on her and, of course, she won’t have that. It wasn’t inflamatory. Not the slightest bit trollish, but to a sad little person on a power trip - working on a website that caters to the few idiots who still believe George W. Bush was a great President - it is too much to handle. I’ve included these screen grabs since much of this post may be pulled if she catches wind of this. Just for the record, you, the readers, know how this really went down.

This is happening all over the web. It’s sad, but the byproduct of a culture mired in acceptable lies. The republican dead-enders have been exposed and, instead of accepting their falsehoods as having been a bad detour, they’ve embraced them completely - and people like this comment editor have become mini-Karl Rove’s, manipulating their landscape and expecting the public to believe the larger lies. It just won’t work anymore.

And as far as WizBang, I’m hardly the exception here. This woman pulls this stunt continuously. What you have as a result is a political website that has no credibility whatsoever. Fine if they want to control the argument, but they shouldn’t try to present it as having any kind of truth. That’s not their strong point.

Verbal Paintball conservative losers, George W. Bush, right-wing websites, Wizbangblog

From CNN, two quotes from two stubborn, ignorant assholes who are STILL on the wrong side of this argument:

Frankly, federal funding of embryonic stem-cell research can bring on embryo harvesting, perhaps even human cloning that occurs,” Eric Cantor said. “We don’t want that. That shouldn’t be done. That’s wrong.”

Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Alabama, said the Bush policy imposed ethical limits on science.
“My basic tenet here is I don’t think we should create life to enhance life and to do research and so forth,” Shelby said. “I know that people argue there are other ways. I think we should continue our biomedical research everywhere we can, but we should have some ethics about it.”

In the amount of time that George W. Bush had strangled funding for embryonic stem cell research, we could have found cures for debilitating illnesses such as Parkinsons, founded treatments for everything from alzheimers, cancers and other maladies, and possibly have been able to create limbs for those war veterans that have come home from Bush’s war without them.

It’s mind-boggling the advances we would have seen in the past eight years had funding been made a available and strains of available embryos not been essentially “outlawed.”

George Bush and these narrow-minded, wrong-on-every-count-group-of-lock-step-assholes have as much blood on their hands in their obstruction of this measure as they’ve had with the Iraq war. The thing is about this - we KNOW what the potential has been here. Squashing it due to the religious beliefs of a few is truly criminal.

Countless families would not have had to see a loved one go so soon.

Countless parents could have held their sick children a little bit longer.

Countless friends would not have had to have seen their close friends pass away because the cure or treatment for their diseases were a decade away when they could have been right now.

Embryo farms. Cloning. Nice scare tactics from people who do nothing but that. I am forever amazed at the brazen ignorance of this small minority of simple-minded people. While I do not hope ill will on anyone, it’s likely someday soon many of them may find themselves facing a situation that could have been better and less emotionally or physically painful had they approved funding for this. It is, sadly, the only time the stubborn learn when they are wrong. It’s ashame it ALWAYS comes too late for the rest of us.

Current News, Politics embryonic stem cells, Eric Cantor, George W. Bush, republican ignorance, Richard Shelby, stem cell research

Courtesy Lorenblog.wordpress.com

Great article from Robert Reich from Salon: about the curious connections and convenient decisions within Bush’s first bailout program:

When it turns out that people like Lloyd Blankfein, the CEO of Goldman Sachs, who took home $68 million in 1997, was the only Wall Streeter in a meeting last September at the New York Federal Reserve to discuss the initial AIG bailout with Tim Geithner, then New York Fed chair, among others, at the very time Goldman was AIG’s largest trading partner, a distinct scent of self-dealing begins to emanate. When it turns out that Citigroup got a bailout deal last October far more generous than that given to any other distressed bank, when a top Citi executive was advising the Treasury and Fed, the scent increases. Goldman’s past CEO was treasury secretary at that time, by the way, and another former Goldman CEO was a top Citi official and also a former treasury secretary. I am not suggesting anything so crude as corruption. But could it be, given these tangled webs, that — innocently, unintentionally, perhaps even subconsciously — the entire bailout effort was premised on saving these companies rather than protecting the public? Or that the distinction between the two was lost, and still is?

Past experience has taught us not to trust Bush when he’d tell you he was working for “you.” Bush took 8 years of our lives and used them as a money funnel to all his friends and colleagues. From Robert Reich’s perspective here, it appears that, in our darkest financial hour as a country, Bush and his cronies were forming plans to fleece us right out the door, economy be damned.

Why is this a surprise? It shouldn’t be. His dad was the President of the wealthy and connected. The son followed the dad’s footsteps well.

I am so sick and tired of this wheeling/dealing at our expense. It seems to me there are very likely straight-forward options to addressing our economy, but when it becomes one big game for Washington where results mean less than keeping the campaign funders happy, I wonder how we’ll be able to pull ourselves out of this.

It’s as if the most powerful people in the world told the rest of us that they have all the food we’d ever need and none of us will starve if we’re patient. Then, the entire group of them go up to a locked Penthouse suite, divide all of it amongst themselves and devour it all on the spot while we stand on the street below, looking up. Every couple of hours, one of them looks down at us and says, “Don’t worry. We’re making sure you’ll be fine. Just ignore the fact that my face is stuffed like a pig.”

Current News, Politics AIG, Citigroup, George W. Bush, Goldman Sachs, Lloyed Blankfein, stimulus bill, Tim Geitner

No. The quote above is not a recent one from Arnold. It’s from the movie, “The Running Man.” On some level, I think it define his management of California over the past few years - and I’m not referring to his personal aspirations.

On This Week, George Stephanopoulos questioned the Governor on his feelings about “nationalizing” banks and the threat of socialism we know the republicans have been repeating ad nauseum. Scharzenegger didn’t take the bait:

You don’t have to talk about nationalization. All it basically says is that if a bank doesn’t have the money to — to give their customers, so if it, you know, defaults in some way, that the federal government comes in, because it secures those moneys. And so they come in, and they help out, that they go with the bank, because they cannot make the payments anymore, and — and to business. So the federal government always had that right to take over. So it’s not nationalizing anything. I don’t see it as such. There’s a difference of the way it is in Europe, where the — where the federal government owns some of those banks, whereas here only if there is a problem financially that the federal government comes in and takes over and helps out.

…with some banks, [the bailout is] maybe necessary. I think the most important thing is, how do we create stability in this country? And I think this is why it is very important that the administration has a very clear message and not change it.

In this current crisis, where republicans play politics and further lies about the stimulus (full of pork) and the administration’s proposal for regulation of the banks (socialism), it’s refreshing to see someone on that side of the isle actually give a damn about the country ahead of their own narrow-minded concerns.

The more I listened to Schwarzenegger and his view of government, the more I agreed with him. As a made man in areas of weightlifting and entertainment, he is owned by no one. He has not followed the party line from the moment he took office, bucking Bush on climate change and gay rights, stem cell research and border control. He’s made some tough choices in California that were not always popular and values his independence from the party.

I can understand why he is still a republican. He holds true to the fiscal conservativism of Reagan and the distaste for Government programs as a solve-all for our nation’s ills. But unlike the lemmings in his party - a pathetic group of bottom-dwellers who continue to push an agenda that has failed - he will never become a George Bush republican. Sure, the others would tell you they’re not, either. But their actions over the past 8 years defy that statement.

It’s too bad this man cannot run for President 8 years from now. Never in my life did I ever think I’d say that about Schwarzenegger (primarily due to his political affiliation, not his choice of films like “End of Days”), but I’m becoming a convert.

Politics, War Arnold Schwarzenegger, fighting republicans, George W. Bush, Politics

Bush at Elliot's Hardware store, Dallas

From Fox News:

In one of his first outings in Dallas since leaving the White House, former President Bush made a surprise appearance at a hardware store Saturday and joked, “I’m looking for a job.”

Really? Well, so is half the country, fuckhead - thanks to you. This smug, arrogant little man apparently has no perspective of the world beyond his own navel. Sure, he may have been joking with the Hardware store owner. The owner very likely took it that way. But when you leave a country in tatters like this asshole has, the very least you can do is be mindful of your words. Similar to his mother, who never felt the need to burden her ears with the misfortunes of others or the reality she could afford to ignore:

“Why should we hear about body bags and deaths,” Barbara Bush said on ABC’s “Good Morning America” on March 18, 2003. “Oh, I mean, it’s not relevant. So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?”

Her shithead of a son proves once again how indifferent he is to the suffering of others. Not that any of this is a surprise. He and his father both ran their administrations like country clubs, open to the high earners with perks to follow. The rest of us might be good enough to caddy for them but would never be invited to the dinner table afterwards.

Once we pull ourselves out of this economic nadir, this falsely executed war, and this poisonous political climate, lets vow never to hire, elect - or for that matter - talk to George W. Bush ever again. If you need to find some way to communication should you bump into him on the golf course, spitting would suffice.

Current News Barbara Bush, George Bush, George HW Bush, George W. Bush

Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, and Maine Sens. Olympia J. Snowe and Susan M. Collins are the reason we have a stimulus bill - and thank God for them. While the National Republican Trust PAC has put them on their “hit” list for serving the country before the GOP, I suspect in the long run these three will outlast the spineless many that have become our Republican representatives.

Or, as John Ridley of Huffington Post wrote:

Oh, sure, they talk up the swellness of President Obama every chance they get. And will continue to do so as long as his approval numbers are above fifty percent. But most GOPers tend to become like children who dance hysterically in a sandbox when it comes time to play with others.

Obama will rise out of this mess a more respected man, and I believe that while most bills that pass through our government are poorly managed and not exactly what the doctor ordered, there will be some recovery from this.

But what is most disappointing is the depth to which most Republican lawmakers obviously hate their country, or are simply indifferent to it. From the ground, we’re having a bad one here. We’ve gone from the point of knowing people who were laid off to knowing family members who have been. When you have the best healthcare in the country, limos taking you everywhere, money lining your pockets from the scores of people who want your attention and influence, and a future of sitting back and profiting from those connections, sometimes for questionable lobbies, you are not always in a position to understand what is really going on in your country. At that point, it comes down to your philosophy. Democrats, at the very least, have a philosophy that favors the individuals over the corporations. Republicans favor the opposite and, when push comes to shove, that’s not the type of philosophy that will help out the bulk of us, for if we go down, there will be no audience for the corporations to sell their wares to.

And the sad irony is that today we have the “new” Republicans - who fleeced us for 6 of the last 8 years by porking up every bill they rammed through the Congress and Senate (courtesy of a Democratic minority that could barely challenge a fillibuster and a President who, at the time, was allergic to the veto pen) - and suddenly - out of nowhere - become conservatives again.

This time it’s their philosophy stepping on our necks. And they will not change. They will continue to obstruct because it’s the only way a spoiled child knows how to play. If they don’t get their way, they destroy it all for everyone else. Sure, now and again they’ll fein bipartisanship to vote for something that in the fine print isn’t going to be risky for them, but people like Boehner will never, ever be anything but immature nasty assholes who can’t for the life of them put their politics aside and TRY to help govern for the masses.

Politics Arlen Spector, George W. Bush, john boehner, Olympia Snowe, republican lies, republican majority, stimulus bill, Susan Collins