When They're Full of Shit, Do They Know It?

And the old joke about politicians goes like this: "How do you know when a politician is lying? When his lips begin to move!" This week, two GOP politicos, one we all thought we would never see again, the other is the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee have both resorted to the tried-and-proven scare tactics the Republicans have become masters at.

Former Governor Sarah Palin began with the "death panel" talking point last week, when she claimed President Obama's health care plan would kill her special needs baby, Trig.

The Democrats promise that a government health care system will reduce the cost of health care, but as the economist Thomas Sowell has pointed out, government health care will not reduce the cost; it will simply refuse to pay the cost. And who will suffer the most when they ration care? The sick, the elderly, and the disabled, of course. The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s “death panel” so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their “level of productivity in society,” whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.

I've gotta hand it to Sarah on this one. Her bullshit became the right-wing's talking point of the week. Too bad it isn't even remotely true.

Q: Does the health care legislation bill promote "mercy killing," or euthanasia?

A: No.

Q: Then what's all the fuss about?

A: A provision in the House bill written by Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., would allow Medicare to pay doctors for voluntary counseling sessions that address end-of-life issues. The conversations between doctor and patient would include living wills, making a close relative or a trusted friend your health care proxy, learning about hospice as an option for the terminally ill, and information about pain medications for people suffering chronic discomfort.

The sessions would be covered every five years, more frequently if someone is gravely ill.

Now, I know what you're gonna say: 'What an idiot that woman is!' or, 'Doesn't that dumb bitch even read the fucking bill that was presented in the House!?' or even, 'How could the people of Alaska voted for that manipulative woman?'. Sure, all three might be the appropriate thing to say and it makes us feel better about ourselves, but it's too simple, and you fall into the trap. Mrs. Palin is part of the reason why I detest the current leadership that passes in the GOP - people like her are the true cynics; she knows better than to make this false accusation, but she also knows that her base - the ignorant, the narrow-minded, the people who hate everything that doesn't fit into their world view - don't know any better, so she'll lie and yell and whip up false outrage to defeat our country's real chance to reform a broken health care system that cares more about making a profit than taking care of the family of a little boy that has asthma and pray that he has a few flare-ups as humanly possible because they might have to take out their second mortgage to pay for another hospital visit. And hey, if that means she has trot out and exploit her baby to do it (which she did), she'll practicably turn baby Trig into a human puppet.

But as the title suggests, I've come to learn that the former Governor of Alaska is completely full of shit. Palin, as it turns out, was for these supposed "death panels" before she was against it....kind of like when she said "Thanks, but no thanks to that bridge to nowhere," when in reality, she already said yes to it during her term!

WHEREAS, Healthcare Decisions Day is designed to raise public awareness of the need to plan ahead for healthcare decisions, related to end of life care and medical decision-making whenever patients are unable to speak for themselves and to encourage the specific use of advance directives to communicate these important healthcare decisions. [...]

WHEREAS, one of the principal goals of Healthcare Decisions Day is to encourage hospitals, nursing homes, assisted living facilities, continuing care retirement communities, and hospices to participate in a statewide effort to provide clear and consistent information to the public about advance directives, as well as to encourage medical professionals and lawyers to volunteer their time and efforts to improve public knowledge and increase the number of Alaska’s citizens with advance directives.

Now onto Chuck Grassley. He also latched onto the talking point this week, after Obama praised his willingness to work with him on health care reform during a town hall meeting this week.

"There is some fear because in the House bill, there is counseling for end-of-life. And from that standpoint, you have every right to fear. You shouldn't have counseling at the end of life. You ought to have counseling 20 years before you're going to die. You ought to plan these things out. And I don't have any problem with things like living wills. But they ought to be done within the family. We should not have a government program that determines if you're going to pull the plug on grandma."

But the Chuck Grassley in 2003 would probably scold the Grassley currently riding on his high horse now, along with 42 colleagues from the Senate during that time. You guessed it, he voted for those so-called "death panels" in the '03 version of the Medicare drug bill.

So, Mrs. Palin and Mr. Grassley: when you two are full of shit, do you both know it?

Hypocrite...Opportunist, Part II

Ah, Sarah Palin.

I thought with your departure from the job of Governor of the great state of Alaska, we would no longer have to put up with your incoherent speeches about putting lipstick on a pitbull, or watch you embarrass yourself in front of Katie Couric (though the endless supply of jokes and spot-on impersonations of you from Tina Fey would be missed greatly).

Just as we believed that you were out of our lives, you suddenly jumped right back into ours, only this time you gave us a warning about what the future of Obama's health care bill might entail not only for baby Trig, but for every child who has Down Syndrome.

The Democrats promise that a government health care system will reduce the cost of health care, but as the economist Thomas Sowell has pointed out, government health care will not reduce the cost; it will simply refuse to pay the cost. And who will suffer the most when they ration care? The sick, the elderly, and the disabled, of course. The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s “death panel” so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their “level of productivity in society,” whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.

Besides the fact that the former Governor of Alaska is spouting off the standard right-wing talking points that are trying to kill our chance of revamping a fucked-up system that places money and profit over human life itself for the first time in 15 years, Palin sinks to a brand-new low here.

Mrs. Palin, during your final speech to the people of Alaska, you asked the media to lay off your family, and the family of the newly appointed Governor. And yet, weeks later, you're exploiting your own child to inject fear of the president's health care bill. Your own flesh and blood! Doesn't that bother you in the slightest?

In the immortal words of Thom Yorke: "Hypocrite / Opportunist / Don't infect me with your poison."

The Outrage Game: Memorial Day Edition

Never a dull moment with partisan hack extraordinaire Matt Margolis of Blogs For Victory.com. Today's faux outrage against President Obama? He went golfing on Memorial Day!

Really, Barry? Really? According to a White House pool report, posted on Drudge Report:

Subject: Pool report 5/25/09

POTUS is, reportedly, golfing with Marvin Nicholson. No actual glimpses of the presidential golf game. Aides say POTUS paused at 3 p.m. to observe a moment of silence.

The jerk won’t let Memorial Day get in the way of his golf… sounds like Bill Clinton, who passed up the chance to get Osama bin Laden so his golf game wouldn’t get interrupted.

The president's agenda on Memorial Day:

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama begins Memorial Day hosting a breakfast at the White House for families who have lost loved ones in military service. The Gold Star family members will be honored in the State Dining Room.

Later this morning, the president will participate in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery.

Afterward, Obama will deliver remarks at the Memorial Amphitheater at Arlington.

Now it is true that the president played some golf today, but Matty left out one important detail: this was after he performed his mandatory rituals on Memorial Day!

FORT BELVOIR, Va., May 25 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama relaxed on the links Monday after taking part in a Memorial Day service at Arlington National Cemetery.

Aids said the president spent about 4 1/2 hours on the course at Fort Belvoir in Fairfax County, Va., out of sight of a pool reporter who was kept in a roped-off area of the base PX food court. He then returned to the White House.

Obama's aides said the president paused at 3 p.m. to observe a moment of silence.

Obama ventured out on the course despite rain falling as his motorcade arrived on base. It wasn't disclosed who accompanied the president on his outing.

So not only did President Obama play some golf after taking part in the traditional Memorial Day service in Arlington, he even paused his golf game at 3p.m. to honor a moment of silence for the fallen veterans of the U.S. Military, just like he asked all Americans to do the same.

But since Matt wants to play the outrage game, let me throw him a 'what's worse scenario:'

What's worse? Obama playing a few founds of golf after he completed his traditional duties.......

....Or former President Bush playing the guitar and his Secretary of State Condelezza Rice going shoe shopping while the citizens of New Orleans were drowning in their homes and dying when Hurricane Katrina hit?

Please, spare me your false outrage, you fucking hypocrite.

Here's another installment of Political Hypocrisy Theater

Remember when Hillary Clinton blasted rival Barack Obama for his condescending remarks about bitter working class Americans who cling to their guns and religion, saying "Pennsylvanians don't need a president who looks down on them," she said. "They need a president who stands up for them, who fights hard for your future, your jobs, your families."?
Well, it looks like the former First Lady has some explanin' to do.

In January 1995, as the Clintons were licking their wounds from the 1994 congressional elections, a debate emerged at a retreat at Camp David. Should the administration make overtures to working class white southerners who had all but forsaken the Democratic Party? The then-first lady took a less than inclusive approach.

"Screw 'em," she told her husband. "You don't owe them a thing, Bill. They're doing nothing for you; you don't have to do anything for them."

So what you were saying about that whole "I don't think [Obama] really gets it that people are looking for a president who stands up for you and not looks down on you," again, Mrs. Clinton?

New Rule: Hannity Needs to Look Into a Mirror

The next time he goes off on one of his self-righteous, holier-than-thou, reverse racism "reports".

This week, conservative commentator Sean Hannity was confronted about his own racist past on a Thursday edition of Hannity & Colmes by Malik Shabazz, of the New Black Panther Party.

Shabazz responded, “Let me ask you this. Are you to be judged by your promotion and association with Hal Turner?”

Hannity waved his arm around. “I don’t know anybody named – this is nonsense. I don’t…” Then Hannity changed his tune. “Sir, sir… That was a man that was banned from my radio show ten years ago, that ran a Senate campaign in New Jersey.”

Then, as Shabazz refused to stop talking or back down, Hannity, in a tacit admission, said, “I’m not running for president.”

“A neo Nazi, you backed his career,” Shabazz said.

Hannity answered, “That is an absolute, positive, lie and you’ve been reading the wrong websites (presumably, he meant ours), my friend. Good try.”

As noted by Max Blumenthal of The Nation magazine, Hannity did have relations with one Hal Turner, back when he wasn't the pompous, nationally syndicated jackass we all know and love today.

Turner was once a prominent activist in New Jersey's Republican Party. To area conservatives, he was best known by his moniker for call-ins to the Sean Hannity Show, "Hal from North Bergen." For years, Hannity offered his top-rated radio show as a regular forum for Turner's occasionally racist, always over-the-top rants. Hannity also chatted with him off-air, allegedly offering encouragement to Turner as he struggled to overcome a cocaine habit and homosexual leanings. Turner has boasted that Hannity once invited Turner and his son on to the set of Fox News's Hannity and Colmes. Today, Turner lurks on the fringes of the far right, spouting hate-laced tirades on his webcast radio show. Hannity, meanwhile, remains mum about his former alliance with the neo-Nazi, homing in instead on the supposed racism of black and Latino Democrats.......

During an August 1998 episode of the show, Turner reminded Hannity that were it not for the graciousness of the white man, "black people would still be swinging on trees in Africa," according to Daryle Jenkins, co-founder of the New Jersey-based antiracism group One People's Project. Instead of rebuking Turner or cutting him off, Hannity continued to welcome his calls. On December 10 of the following year, Turner called Hannity's show to announce his campaign to run for a seat in the US House of Representatives from New Jersey, and to attack his presumptive opponent, Democratic Representative Robert Menendez, as a "left-wing nut."

Normally, Hannity's past dealings with a white supremacist would be swept under the rug, and it has been for quite sometime....that is until Hal Turner himself announced on his own blog that Sean had a relationship with him and said that they were friends at one time!

Yes, we were friends and yes, Sean agreed with some of my views.
Recently, Barak Obama has come under serious scrutiny for attending a church whose Reverend Wright espouses anti-American and racist views. One media outlet that has been especially critical of Obama has been the show "Hannity & Colmes" on Fox News Channel.....I was quite disappointed when Sean Hannity at first tried to say he didn't know me and then went on to say that I ran some senate campaign in New Jersey. In fact, Sean Hannity does know me and we were quite friendly a number of years ago.

But, wait, there's more from Turner!

When Hannity took over Bob Grant's spot on 77 WABC in New York City, I was a well-known, regular and welcome caller to his show. Through those calls, Sean and I got to know each other a bit and at some point, I can't remember exactly when, Sean gave me the secret "Guest call-in number" at WABC so that my calls could always get on the air.

When I utlized that call-in number, Sean would very often come onto that line during commercial breaks so we could chat before I went on the air. Our off-the-air chats grew to an exchange of other phone numbers, me giving Sean my home and cellular number and Sean giving me his direct dial-in number at Fox News channel.

But that's not the worst of it, folks!

I can tell you from my firsthand, personal experience that Sean Hannity does, in fact, agree with many of my political and social views. I can also tell you that Sean Hannity disagrees with some of my political and social views. I won't go subject-by-subject to say which he agrees with and which he disagrees with. You can figure that out easy enough on your own! Suffice it to say that my recollection is that when Sean and I spoke by phone, while no one else was listening, he and I exchanged the kinds of views that most White, Irish-Catholic guys hold, but won't speak in public.

In my opinion, based on my first hand experience, I believe Sean Hannity is, in fact, a Hal Turner sort of guy. It seems to me that a big difference between Sean and me is that I am willing to say publicly what I think about savage Black criminals, diseased, uneducated illegal aliens and the grotesque cultural destruction wrought by satanic jews while Sean and many others keep quiet to protect their paychecks.

Another big difference is that I am perfectly willing to use force and violence against my enemies while Sean Hannity and others are not. Those using me as a prop to attack Sean Hannity would do well to remember this fact.

Sadly enough, even with this whopper, i'm betting that there's still gonna be some right-wingers who will find some inane way to defend this son of a bitch, unaware that they're the same people who were pissing and moaning about Obama's comment about his white grandmother.

Go figure.

Starting September Off Right

Jeez. I have reached a new low since starting this online journal. In the month of August, I have only poster three blogs. And I haven't been keeping up with the presidential campaign of Rapture Ralph/Blat. Damn you, life!

Anyway, for the umpteenth time, I apologize for my lack of blog postings. With Senior year in full swing, I won't have all the time that I want to blog. Thankfully, fall break is fast approaching and depending on how non-lazy I am, I might be able to crank out a few a week, so pray that I don't fall ill to laziness.

And the hypocrite of the month goes to......: Senator Larry Craig, a (i'm shocked, i'll tell ya, shocked!) Republican representing Idaho who plead guilty to soliciting oral sex from an undercover cop in the bathroom of a Minneapolis Airport. Ironically, Senator Craig, in the past has voted against both gay marriage and civil unions for gays, and voted to impeach Bill Clinton for lying under oath about his affair with one Monica Lewinsky. If the GOP should take anything away from this latest scandal it should be the following: if you're going to keep preaching you're the party of traditional family an moral values, then lead by example.........on second thought - don't. You're not the party of traditional values. You never have been.

The race to the post season: has begun. And this time, just about every race is up for grabs, and there's no way to tell which teams gonna win which division. Will A-Rod carry the Bronx Bombers to to another post-season appearance? Can Jake Peavy, Milton Bradley, and the pitching staff lead the Padres to another Western Division win? Are the fighting Philies good enough to make it to the playoffs? Who is the team everyone will fear come playoff time? And which team will win it all this year? You gotta love September baseball - the drama, the action, and the teams showing themselves if they're pretenders or contenders. Stay tuned, folks.

Lord of the Ring: One Ring to rule them all. One Ring to find them. One Ring to bring them all, and in the Darkness, bind them. OK, i'll admit, it's really dorky of me to recite this, but dammit, we're the graduating class of 2008! With the Senior rings we're picking out, then receiving in 4-6 wks., we might as well be the Masters of our school! My ring will look something like this:

class ring - heritage with school chest
ring model - lexington (H33)
metal choice - 14-kt. yellow gold
metal finish - antique (traditional)
stone color - birthstone
birthstone color - september fire blue spinel (chose school color)
accent stone - cubic zirconia
stone cut - sunburst
ring side 1 - school mascot (mustang)
ring side 2 - name (chose my nickname, radio) and design (paw print)
ring band options - full name inside and smooth band
ring year date/size - 2008/9.5
outside initials - JH

This is going to be a bitchin ass ring!

Fall Movie Season: It's fall, and the awards will be in full swing, and there are some great movies this time round. Here are my top 3 movies to watch for:

The Darjeeling Limited


No Country for Old Men


Lions for Lambs

The Religious Right and contraception/abortion: Ignorance is bliss

If you want to know just how stupid and ignorant the right-wing Christian zealots (and the Catholic Church) are, check out this discussion on abortion and contraception.

At any rate, we won't set our sights on contraception AFTER we get abortion banned because our sights are ALREADY set on contraception...though we have a lot of work to do among Catholics, first, because after Vatican II it was mistakenly assumed by most Catholics that contraception was no big deal. It is, of course, a big deal and now the Church is starting to re-emphasise that if you don't want children, don't have sex.

First Noonan, abortion is not - I repeat - is not going away for the following reasons:

1st reason: it's noting short of political suicide! Unless the GOP can manage to win an election (without resorting to the tricks they pulled in Ohio in 2004) without the majority of women who support abortion, there is no way you guys will overturn Roe vs. Wade.
2nd reason: God forebid this abortion is outlawed, it will only be a matter of time before the pressure of protesters force govt. to make it legal again.
3rd reason: you're only putting women in more risk to turn to the old days of getting an abortion..........and we really don't want to go down that road.

Second, just telling someone to not to have sex isn't the be-all-end-all treatment against unwanted pregnancy and preventing STD's. People (especially young people) need to be educated about the risks of having sex and they need to hear all the choices that are given to them, not just your own.
And third, Mark, ".......but contraception is wrong........." what bullshit, contraception's the thing that would prevent me from Jonathan Jr. or from having VD, and btw: who the fuck are you to shove your holier-than-thou views onto others, from a man who lives in...........Las Vegas, a place riddled with gambling, prostitution, and sex?
Noonan, just remember: "Judge not, least ye be judged."

Ass kisser, thy name is Mark Noonan

Here's another brilliant example of partisanship from an extreme Bush Apologist: last week, the Senate failed to pass Bush's immigration bill, largely with the help of Republican lawmakers who distanced themselves from the president because the bill wasn't tough enough on border security.

On June 7, Mark Noonan expressed his pleasure at what took place in the Senate.

It isn't completely dead, but its pretty dead - and while Reid and other Democrats are trying to downplay this, the fact remains that leftwing hispanic groups had large input into the Democratic part of the bill, and they won't be happy that the Democratic leadership failed to move this bill forward - especially since it is certain that the next immigration reform bill will almost certainly be strong on border security before any thought is given to what to do about the illegals already in country. Amnesty, under any guise, is likely dead - even if the Democrats win it all in 2008, because to pass any sort of amnesty bill would be political suicide.

Notice the joy and glee Mark shows through in his post about the death of the bill through GOP lawmakers, but as President Bush stuck to his guns on the immigration bill, Noonan sung a different tune than the one he presented last week.

It might be that we can't get this bill to a point where it commands sufficient support to be passed - but to just damn the bill and demand that it be stopped entirely is to abdicate our responsibilty as Americans; we must have immigraiton reform, and such reform must be passed through the government have, not the government we wished we have - the President is 100% right about one thing: the status quo is unacceptable. Kill this bill and you might be happy - but the illegals will still flood across the border; if you want that stopped, then we have to start somewhere - and here's the starting point.

Wait a sec: You were full of glee when the bill wasn't passed, and now you're demanding that your GOP blogger friends stand by Bush's side on immigration?

Let's face the truth Noonan: You're a blind loyalist hack who'll accept anything the president will say at face value and take it as the Word from God Almighty.

Are Bush backers really this ignorant and stupid?

It is utterly amazing how divorced from reality Bush supporters are. From his job approval, to his handling of the Iraqi War, that small minority of Americans are still by his side, even though 2/3rds of Americans clearly see just how incompetent and untrustworthy the Bush administration have, and continue to be. Case in point: conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh talking to Dick Cheney:

RUSH: It may not just be Iraq. Yesterday I read that Ike Skelton, who chairs -- I forget the name of the committee -- in the next defense appropriations bill for fiscal '08, is going to actually remove the phrase "global war on terror," because they don't think it's applicable. They want to refer to conflicts as individual skirmishes, but they're going to try to rid the defense appropriation bill, and thus official government language, of that term. Does that give any indication of their motivation, or what they think of the current plight in which the country finds itself?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Sure. Well, it's just flawed thinking. I like Ike Skelton. I worked closely with Ike when I was secretary of defense. He's chairman of the Armed Services Committee now. Ike's a good man. He's just dead wrong about this, though. Think about it. Just to give you one example, Rush. Remember Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian terrorist, an Al-Qaeda affiliate. He ran a training camp in Afghanistan for Al-Qaeda, then migrated after we went into Afghanistan and shut 'em down there, he went to Baghdad. He took up residence there before we ever launched into Iraq, organized the Al-Qaeda operations inside Iraq before we even arrived on the scene and then of course led the charge for Iraq until we killed him last June. He's the guy who arranged the booming of the Samarra mosque that precipitated the sectarian violence between Shi'a and Sunni. This is Al-Qaeda operating in Iraq, and as I say, they were present before we invaded Iraq. There's no way you can segment out and say, "Well, we'll fight the war on terror in Pakistan or Afghanistan but we can separate Iraq. That's not really, in any way, shape, or form related." It's just dead wrong. Bin Laden has said this is the central battle in the war on terror...

That same day, the Pentagon issues a report, debunking the claim that Saddam Hussein had ties to Al-Qaeda terrorist network. Unfortunately, this is not the first time Cheney out and out lied about the link between Saddam and Al-Qaeda. A year after the president declared "Major combat operations in Iraq have ended," the 9/11 Commission Report found that

the panel had no credible evidence that Saddam Hussein had assisted al-Qaeda in preparing or executing the 9/11 attacks. The Report notes in Chapter 2 that "Bin Laden had in fact been sponsoring anti-Saddam Islamists in Iraqi Kurdistan, and sought to attract them into his Islamic army."

And yet, Cheney is still lying about the debunked link, and lied about it again on Limbaugh's show.

What's even more amazing are the levels of blatant hypocrisy coming from the mouth of Cheney and the right-wing water carriers about Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's trip to Syria.

RUSH: A couple of quick more things before you have to go. What's the administration's view today, what's the emotion, what are you thinking about Speaker Pelosi's trip to the Middle East, specifically the conveyance of the incorrect message to Bashar Assad in Syria about peace talks with Israel?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, it's not helpful. I made it clear earlier that I thought this created difficulties, if I can put it in a gentle form. Obviously, she's the speaker of the House and ought to travel to foreign nations and ought to conduct visits.

RUSH: She's not entitled to make her own foreign policy, is she?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: She's not entitled to make policy. She, in this particular case, by going to Damascus at this stage it serves to reinforce, if you will, and reward Bashar Assad for his bad behavior. He's done all kinds of things that are not in the interests of the United States, including allowing Syria to be an area from which attacks are launched against our people inside Iraq. He obviously was heavily involved, right now, in supporting an effort by Hezbollah to try to topple the government in Lebanon. This is a bad actor, and until he changes his behavior he should not be rewarded about visits by the speaker of the House of Representatives.

Oddly enough, neither Cheney, nor Rush dare spoke of the three Republican Senators who visited Syria and talked to President Assad, just like Pelosi did.

And yet, with all the evidence of the lies and hypocrisy coming from Cheney's mouth, that minority still defend the Administration's load of bullshit, lies, and spin.