The Magic Word is "Theoretically"

And so we get this dreadful note from MSMBC (as if on cue):

Oil prices have steadily rose over the last year, and experts are worrying further increases could snuff out an already-fragile global economic recovery.

President Barack Obama is expected to announce Wednesday his plan to open oil and natural gas drilling off the Atlantic Coast and Gulf of Mexico. The proposal aims to reduce the nation’s reliance on foreign oil, which theoretically could hold down prices for U.S. consumers.

It's not peak oil, it's price fixing - big oil is now telling the press that it's the Euro that is the cause of their national price-fixing scam (and make no mistake, it's a con-job). So now we see that supposed Democrat, Prez Obama doesn't mind playing this game with the American people either. Everything Obama is doing is a big a lie, just like Bush and Dick Cheney were doing, every time those two opened their mouths.

Frank Rich is Hoodwink by Frank Rich

I'm telling you, if it say's liberal on the label than Frank Rich is loving it on his table, as do all the stupid netroots people. I don't know whose more stupid, the tea party people or the netroots people.

Frank Rich does gets this part right:

As no less a conservative authority than The Wall Street Journal editorial page last week, the bill's prototype is the health care legislation Mitt Romney signed into law in Massachusetts. It contains what used to be consider Republican ideas.

"what USED to be considered" - Jeebus, Obama's health care bill is STILL a Republican idea that health insurance companies everywhere must be in great celebration over right now, (socialism, my ass because there has never been a more capitalist, corporate friendly idea, ever) and it's all back-up no less by the unforgiving IRS goons.

And now it appears that Obama is going to:

"open up new vast expanses of water along the Atlantic coastline, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and the north coast of Alaska to oil and natural gas drilling, much of it for the first time, ..."

Can ANWR be far behind? I'm sure that the ever stupid Al Gore is going to get right in line with this wonderful new liberal idea same as those netroots idiots are bound to love it as well. If nobody in the netroots has figured out by now that Obama is not a liberal or a Democrat of any kind - it's because they're every bit as stupid as the those tea party people and that's a fact. Obama never was a liberal - he is a stealth Republican who doesn't have a liberal bone in his body.

Does anyone remember that Obama wis supposed get Americans OUT of Iraq in three more months from now?

Texas wants to “Secede" from the US

But...but...but... does ExxonMobil know about this? Does British Petroleum know about this? What about T. Boon Pickens, does he know about it? Does Texas think it's Saudi Arabia now?

The major oil companies would have to give up control of Wall Street and the US congress and we all know that that ain't never, ever going to happen, not in a million f*** years. But wait, let us think about Texas seceding for a moment, okay. If Obama allows the US to own GM, why then make another oil powered car, ever? I mean really, if one could find a way to turn saltwater, for instance. into a combustible, well would not that make oil obsolete and over-night roo, wouldn't it?

This guy found a way to separate particles and ignite saltwater compounds, and of course, saltwater is the most abundant resource in the world. Si kets umagine a world without oil dictatorship, - no more war for oil ever again. Imagine what freedom fells like without slavery to the gas pump and the profit eating, rabid price fixing done by oil companies.

So now we can see that under Rush Limbaugh's flags of stupid hatred in Texas, Texas would surely secede into just another Mexico, really. I mean it's a right to work state, because in Texas you have the right to work for nothing at all, particular if oil should go belly up, so that like all those masses of poor that make up the Banana Republic of Mexico, Texans could work like dogs with no rights whatsoever and like it or not, I guess Texans could join a drug cartel and sell drugs or work for nothing. Whatever Texans - but please, oh please don't ask ExxonMobil about seceding from the US, because they aren't with Texans on that issue or even on the same page as I can guarantee all by my lonesome ro Texans that Big Oil would freak out, and that isan unfortunate matter of fact.

Texans, please. please try not to get stupid on us here.

The Labor Union Workers Sucked GM Dry?

Oh RIGHT!

If only more American workers would give up their standard of living so Rick Wagoner and all those unnamed board members that got the axe right along with Mr. Wagoner could get more money after looting the company and all it's shareholders. JEEBUS! One must ask, what did Ford do right? They have labor union workers too.

Took a snapshot of this from the Wall Street Journal (must say, I'm surprised Murdock allowed the WSJ to back stab another member of the AEI like that, really)!

Mr. Wagoner, like other top GM executives, doesn't get severance, according to a GM filing on March 5. The filing says Mr. Wagoner was eligible for GM's executive-pension plan at the end of 2008. The filing lists the value of the pension as of Dec. 31, 2008, at $20.1 million.

According to the filing, Mr. Wagoner also had accumulated almost $535,000 in deferred compensation -- though that balance shrank from $766,000 during 2008.

Mr. Wagoner is also eligible to receive equity grants valued at roughly $366,000, according to the filing. A GM spokeswoman said those grants were long-term incentive compensation awarded in earlier years.

But still, Obama won't do a thing about those piano wire threatening bank bonus guys, except of course, to tell everyone, via sending his beloved loyalist, Mr. Summers out to tell us all that they can break contacts between rich people and taxpayer money. These are bonus that would NEVER have happened if bailouts weren't possible, even as as we all saw that Preznut Obama had no problem selling out the 4th Amendment of the US Constitution because huge telecoms, oil companies, big pharma and all those too big to fail banks own Obama and his administration, same as they owned the Bushies and all the GOP.

And furthermore, we all know that GM will end up in bankruptcy court anyway, right? The GOP will push for labor union busting court doctrine because the GOP would never dream of working with Obama and certainly not the average working class citizen of the US either because if you ain’t a member of the AEI, than you just don’t matter to that crowd – and because we can't compete with foreign countries unless a lot more Americans are living like people in third world countries. So, I'm waiting till we all get to the point where we’re ready to tell our congress that we're in control here and not their crooked, rich friends. It hasn't happened yet, however, when the unemployment numbers get closer to 15%, and they will, perhaps by then, enough Americans will start to wonder what the hell is going on in DC? Yeah, that and WTF ever happened with the damn press members and supposed acts of journalism in last few years?

The New Face of the Republican Party

A Republican that looks and acts nothing like a Bush family member!

Whatever were those Florida voters thinking when they elected this guy? Was it in respite of the supposedly popular Gov. Bush? I guess those homeless Floridians think the same as the rest of the nation does. So on that note, good-bye Rush Limbaugh Republicans - ain't going to miss you one bit at t-all.

OMG

This straight from the oilfields of Texas.

Professor Michael Economides, Univerisity of Houston:

Economides said he sees the price of oil going from $40 per barrel now to near $200 per barrel in 18 months partly due to geopolitical issues. But he said some of the problem in the oil industry is the fear factor.

"They always want to believe the worst," Economides said.

As a result, a downturn feeds on itself.

"It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy," he said.

Economides said the one thing that will certainly send prices up toward $200 is the headline, "Israel attacks Iran."

Barring that, Economides said that by September 2009, he is expecting the natural decline in production due to the aging of oilfields coupled with the reduction in drilling activity to bring the supply and demand into equilibrium.

And now we know exactly WHY it was that Dick Cheney wanted Israel to attack Iran.

But frankly, at $ 200.00 a barrel for oil, that kind of price would generate an end of fossil fuel domination, simply because some Americans would refused to be a slave to that kind of consumer price raping. More than a few Americans would go into their collective garages and come up with somehing else, something other than fossil fuel energy, so Mr. Economides better hope that Israel doesn't ever bomb Iran. Those old Mad Max movies really were works of fiction and if Mr. Economides wants to find out how to go out of business overnight, that my gosh, by all means, bring on the $ 200.00 a barrel crude oil and lets see where that leads.

Broder: The Republican Mafia is Losing it's Stronghold

Broder at da WaPo:

"It will obviously take much more than that to put the GOP into a position to challenge the blue wall -- "

The message is clear. Rush Limbaugh "tear down that Democratic communist wall"? The commies are taking over American as opposed to Broder's beloved capitalist controlling mafia members on the Hill. I don't know what Broder fears so much as long as those Repugs were able to preach tax cuts in order to tear down the Stimulus Bill into something no honest, non-senile American could possibly believe in. At this point perhaps it far better to let the banks fail, after all, Americans are getting nothing out of this new funny money business debt bill. There is nothing that makes the Stimulus Bill a stimulus or what it really is, a contract with American to pretend the funny money has any meaning, something that no half-wit US citizen should sign on too.

Right now, we are being lead to believe that poor Nancy Pelosi's misconception of a Stimulus Bill has Barack Obama furious about it's creation since it had too few corporate tax cuts. What was she thinking? Perhaps now, Obama should apologize for Nancy the way he did for that old spineless majority leader of the past, Tom Daschle, or better yet, just pick some Republican congress member to fill Tom's empty post in more examples of his bipartisan love-fest, and then, invite the GOP for more drinks at the Whitehouse.

Mean while TMP is wondering why Reid doesn't make Repugs filibuster?

The comical thing about Harry is that he never seems to know when to quit or when to quit. Harry Reid plays this mournful scene over and over again. I called it "the resigned loser," - take one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine.... At some point, I have to wonder why Democrats like this kind of non-leader/loser so damn much? It must be because its quite the act really, and citizens or at least the netroots fall for it time and again. Those mean old Republicans! Dems only want to pretend its all the Repugs fault so they picked this hapless, lovable old loser, Reid to play the "beaten-up old man" over and over because, frankly it's quite the boon for Dems that don't like creating bills that only help average Americans citizen any more than those Repugs do. I mean, just look at all those grand influence peddled gifts and the people that Republicans always party with as they write off the nation bit by bit, that as oppose to the non-party Dems get for helping out the average boring American citizen. Oh wait, they had the AT&T Telecom Party, didn't they?

At this point in time, we do need Ronald Reagan after all. Its time to just let the banks go, just let em fall, because they're going to fall anyway. When you get right down to it, money is merely an illusion.

Stimulus Bill becomes Tax Cut Bill

Compromising Away One Million Jobs...Or Is It Two?

The so-called "moderate compromise" in the Senate cuts $140 billion in spending from the stimulus legislation, but leaves in place between $300 billion and $350 billion in tax cuts.

Most Americans will get a one time check, pay their rent/mortgage for one more month, that they'll have to move into a tent city. Krugman is right, Republicans are pushing the nation off a cliff.

Maybe with Nevada's falling unemployment numbers fall fast toward double digits, Reid can find himself a lobbyist job after his post senate vote out. Harry Reid leads the nation to cowardly defeat every chance he gets.

Tax Cuts - Pork Barrel spending by any other name.

Arnold Schwarzenegger once said on ABC's This Week to, "look at what McCain does and not what he says".

Arnold says this ONLY because McCain has a big stupid mouth, and thus, usually spills the beans in his sleepy, senile old way, exposing the sinister and ugly truth behind those Bush Republicans and their shell games.

Lets take the word "pork barrel" for instance.

Republicans have refined the art of loaded terminology. Some of the examples are: socialism, entitlements, special interest, and let's not forget that string of words, "Social Security privacy accounts" which has morphed into the word "entitlement" of late. To illustrated this fact, McCain shows how Repugs think you shouldn't be entitled to social security benefits even if when the government takes out funds from your payroll check every week to pay for social security benefits. BTW, those social security privacy "gambling" accounts would have amounted to nothing in today's Wall Street post-Bush collapsed economy, so be forewarned about tricky Repugs and their multi-underhanded snake oil marketing schemes. You know this, I know this, we all know this about the shell games Repugs love to play with taxpayer money.

Just listen as McCain talks about the mortgaging of your social security benefits.



McCain shows how the government, and particularly it WAS the Bush Administration and it's THOSE Bush Republicans that are now belly aching about the Stimulus Bill in congress, after having mortgaged everything to those guys on Wall Street, Repugs now want to mortgage Pell Grants and your child's K-12 education funding to their Wall Street campaign contributors, the same guys that got the bonuses and all the like minded, wealthy corporate special interest that support Repug campaigns and corporate influence peddled goodies.

The Pell Grant isn't "pork barrel" spending - but bonuses on Wall Street are in fact "pork barrel" spending projects, projects that Repugs NEVER, EVER complain about - or hasn't anyone notice? Obama talks about the Wall Street bonus heist but Republicans don't say a word about those Wall Street guys and the taxpayer robbery.

I have to say that McCain looks like he's almost crying in his latest TV media rounds, and it's all because Obama hasn't been bipartisan enough to let Republican's decorate his Stimulus Bill "Christmas Tree" with their rich and corporate friendly tax cut ornaments.

The Down Under Blues of the Dow Jones

Poor old Ruppy! The old man is singing the blues.

All that work he did for the Bushies - gone up in smoke, as Ruppy appears to have gotten burned. No honor among propagandized and thieves, I guess. Not sure Ruppy can count on Obama at all, as it looks like a blood bath for anyone. So Ruppy should just let Faux news keep on singing tax cuts, parading that lip glossed over, Neiman Marcus fashion elephant Palin and her co-star, Joe dim-wit toilet fixer on the tube. Yeah, that should seal the deal, pal.

Rupert Murdoch isn't easily outfoxed. But the Bancroft family, which sold him Dow Jones, publisher of the Wall Street Journal, looks to have got the better of the media mogul.

If Obama is Wise....

THE worst thing Obama could do right now would be to ask Nancy Pelosi to simmer down, as she has a huge majority so really isn't it quite nasty of the House Republicans to continue to resort to name calling games - as the party of Bush has been banished for good reason, it isn't Nancy's problem. The GOP House Republicans are basically irrelevant - so play nice or don't play at all. It's up to Republicans to do that and not Nancy Pelosi's issue.

Now would be a good time for some old fashion, economic revival in Martin Luther King, Jr style of righteous indignation. Obama should let loose, in stronger terms that he did in the WaPo today. Republicans are clearly NOT interested in bipartisanship, but instead only in Rush Limbaugh style exploiting BS alone.

Pat Buchanan illustrates this clearly in his latest column.

FDR exploited the Depression to launch his New Deal, bring an end to a Republican hegemony of seven decades and make Democrats the majority party, until Richard Nixon picked the lock. While the debate is endless over whether the New Deal ended the Depression or caused it to endure until World War II spending pulled us out of the ditch, few deny that FDR left a monumental legacy.

And that Pat ends with this:

If Obama gets this one wrong, and all this pork and welfare fail to generate real growth, his party could face a wipeout in 2010, and his opportunity could be lost forever. Does he really want to bet the farm on the nag Nancy Pelosi just trotted out of the House?

Obama needs to draw the attention back to himself, as the GOP is trying to demonize Nancy, divide and conquer (not that she hasn't been the coward for far too long), but Nancy shouldn't have to give into a small minority of fringe GOP at all, period. This latest dust up isn't about Nancy, it's about the GOP continuing to play ugly games that should have ended when Bush left office. Obama will need to use his high poll numbers, use that capital or lose it as Republicans chip away at it, so long as Obama pretends that the GOP is interested in bipartisanship. They aren't.

This House Member gets it right.

Rep: Barney Frank: ""Barack Obama has this desire to be widely liked way more than is helpful. He should look to Franklin Roosevelt, who said he 'welcomed their [Republican] hatred'. We have real differences with the Republicans and, like FDR, we should draw the line."

We're done with the GOP's nasty games and we can't afford to play those games anymore. So now, Obama needs to say so in no uncertain terms. The GOP in the house has problems all right, but it's THEIR PROBLEM. It's time for Obama to Party like it's 1933.

Daschle: "Please don't call me an Obstructionist"

Former Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle is a former senator for good reason, because Americans gave him the boot. When it came time for re-election angry voters didn't show up to vote for him at all - left him to the Republican wolves.

Now, I think it's time that Mr. Daschle had the decency to do what New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson did, withdraw his nomination, and failing that, Barak Obama should ask him to resign his nomination.

Thomas A. Daschle, fighting to defend his nomination to be secretary of health and human services, released a letter early today apologizing to the top lawmakers on the Senate Finance Committee for mistakes on his personal income tax returns that resulted in $146,000 in back payments.

When will our esteemed celebrity members of today's corporate owned press going to ask Obama about the "change we can believe in" with this pick for secretary of health and human services? We should have listen to Paul Krugman, as he did try to warn us about Obama, particularly when it came to health care issues? As we can see, Obama speaks more and more with a forked tongue. Promises are everything and actions are none. If Obama is wise he would have learned a lesson from Daschle's demise. A lesson that if Obama disappoints those faceless donors, they will fed him to Republicans and we know that Republicans have no mercy. Republicans don't want to be bipartisan and they are not Obama's friends, even as Obama wants to pretend they are. Obama will either serve the American people or he'll serve Republicans and himself, but he can't do both. Obama wants to be like Tom Daschle, pretend the American people won't notice the spinelessness, the double talk, the sell outs and therefore talks big but does nothing. If Obama doesn't find his spine fairly soon, it's going to be a short, ugly and bitter four years.

Ah yes, as if on cue again:

But Obama, asked today if he still backed the embattled Daschle, told reporters, "Absolutely."Insiders doubt that any of this will derail the nomination. Daschle has stored up a lot of goodwill during his years on Capitol Hill. And Obama is riding the crest of a honeymoon of public support. Still, as Arizona Republican Jon Kyl said the other day, "I just wonder if President Bush had nominated these people, what folks would be saying about that."

Sen. Jon Kyl knows exactly what people would say, something like "heckuva job Brownie" and that's not to mention what people said about Rummy and Gonso too, but then again, Kyl does have a grinning Wolfe like Republican point here. We, the people know about the kind of goodwill that Daschle stored up on Capitol Hill, thanks to liberal news blogger Glenn Greenwald, for all that liberal news that Americans can't seem to find in today's corporate owned media, the very truth itself. So Obama is indeed, riding a crest of a honeymoon of public support, a crest that will no doubt, start to receded. Than the Kyl Wolfe gang will start to move in, and the netroot people will be saying, will Jon Kyl is basically right, you know. Like how it was true that John Kerry really did flip-flop on that war issue.

It's like the FISA Bill lie over and over and over again, yeah, too bad, but it's not like we voters didn't see it coming I guess, or that we had any real choice between McCain vs Obama. Obama is an empty shirt that tries to please everyone but please nobody. This soap opera is getting rather sick and twisted right now as the worm turns in Washington DC.

GOP Stimulus Bill for the RICH?

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell wants to fix the bill.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said he doubted the economic stimulus bill can pass the Senate in its current form. He said the bill needs to "put lead on the target immediately" with a specific focus on the housing sector and tax relief.

Okay, he's right, we need to dump the adjustable rate mortgage for GOOD, and really, Obama talks about the middle class all the time, but what about the poor? The poor working class Americans could REALLY use a bigger tax break right now so we should give it too them. Ye happy yet Mitch?

Somehow, I bet not!

Because we all know that Mitch really ONLY wants tax relief for his rich friends, don't we? Otherwise we can all brace for another round of lay-offs if we don't give into the Bush Mob Administration again, Bush is gone but still not out of office yet. It isn't Bush - it's the GOP that help Bush drive the country belly-up.

Frank Rich gets it right.

The Republicans do have one idea, of course, but it’s hardly fresh: more and bigger tax cuts, particularly for business and the well-off. That’s the sum of their “alternative” stimulus plan. Obama has tried to accommodate this panacea, perhaps to a fault. Mainstream economists in both parties believe that tax cuts in the stimulus package will deliver far less bang for the buck than, say, infrastructure spending. The tax-cut stimulus embraced a year ago by the G.O.P. induced next-to-no consumer spending as Americans merely banked the savings or paid down debt.

Mitch McConnell and Republicans want one thing and one thing ONLY - a big tax cut for their rich friends and this is the ONLY reason why Republicans have become the Party of NO. Tax cuts for big business and the wealthy is the ONLY reason Republicans are ganging up to hold the Stimulus Bill hostage, and therefore the American people hostage to the GOP's lobbyiest representatives for exactly the same kind of Wall Street crooks that have given themselves TARP bonus.

Broder sez: "Obama wants to be Reagan?"

Really!

The Ronald Reagan I remember would NEVER dream of bailing anyone out and would never have created a stimulus bill no matter how bad ecomonic times got.

So, Broder sure bought into the kool-aid, didn't he?

Nothing was more central to his victory last fall than his claim that he could break the partisan gridlock in Washington. He wants to be like Ronald Reagan, steering his first economic measures through a Democratic House in 1981, not Bill Clinton, passing his first budget in 1993 without a single Republican vote.

The first way leads to long-term success; the second foretells the early loss of control.

Gosh darn, it always the sex thing with the Repugs and their armchair pundits as oppose to the criminal acts of wiretapping, torture, those un-bid contacts and all the HUGE lies about an oil war in Iraq that the Broderetts of our media world are utterly indifferent too. If Bill Clinton hadn't pardon Marc Rich, Bill Clinton's mug would most likely be on the face of American currency today, that is how much Americans really valued Clinton, that he actually serve American rather that himself, unlike the way Republican politicans do it everytime they get into office. So minus the sex thing, I'm sure Obama would love to have a Clinton like legacy, even as I know such a thought would really chap Broder's hide?

The only thing Repugs want in that stimulus bill is a great big tax cut give-away to their corporate pay masters, a big tax break in exchange for big campaign money, otherwise Repugs might go out of business, go extinct as it were.

It must be unbearable to Broder that all those "foul-mouth" lefty bloggers became the huge "faceless donors" behind the Obama campaign fund, making it hard for corporate controlled Repugs to compete, especially in a slow economy. Thus is the reason for the latest Repug isolationist temper tantrum, because Repugs might go extinct if they don't get corporate funding, so they band together to try to enforce their corporate greed policies. It is a desperate survival act, the GOP is that close to demise, really. This is why Obama made the "mistake" of pointing to Rush Limbaugh as the head of the Republican Party, (a card trick, really) and as long as Obama doesn't cave to tax-cuts for the wealthy, and plays his political cards just right, Dems might not have to worry about Repugs at all by 2010, especially if the economy doesn't pick up, and with Repugs whinning and fighting the Stimulus Bill, the economy probably won't pick-up. A lesson on how to starve the GOP 101.

Now it's looking more and more like a Sarah Palin far-right radical third party type future for Repugs. I'm just wondering how well funded Sarah Palin's Neiman Marcus war chest will be in 2012? AND, I have to wonder too, what takes on the future of the GOP Mr. Broder will write about once he figures out that Barack Obama doesn't want to be the second coming of Ronald Reagan at all? I'm sure it'll read just like the funny papers, I can't wait because I could really use a good laugh, especially after what the Bush Administration did to this country, all whilst Broder harped on about those foul-mouth lefty bloggers.

Is Steele too White to be Black?

Steele becomes first African-American RNC chairman

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Michael Steele, a former Maryland lieutenant governor, was elected chairman of the Republican National Committee on Friday

The GOP wanted to asked the public if Obama was indeed too "White too be Black" so I'm just asking "is Steele too white to be black" working for the GOP in a rather questionable capacity? In the RNC, symbolism is everything from lapel pins to bibles so I wonder if they pick Steele exclusively by race to go up against Obama. the GOP seems to want Steele to attack Obama while avoiding being called a racist. It's the kind of appearence I'm think the GOP fears most from the left. Okay fine, but then we should ask, is Steele simply the GOP's pit-bull dog asking his boss man how to go about trashing Obama, I mean it does look rather like that is their whole intention?

How does the GOP deal with uppity Negroes 101, Jeebus, these guys, they never change, do they? The shame of it all. I wonder if Rush Limbaugh will deal with this new RNC guy like he did with his short lived ESPN career, cause you know, the GOP does stupid, ugly things all the time?

Well, Somebody Has Good News

Big Oil had a RECORD breaking year.


Friday, January 30, 2009

HOUSTON - Exxon Mobil Corp. on Friday reported a profit of $45.2 billion for 2008, breaking its own record for a U.S. company, even as its fourth-quarter earnings fell 33 percent from a year ago.

The previous record for annual profit was $40.6 billion, which the world's largest publicly traded oil company set in 2007.

The difference between Clinton's Administration and Obama's is that when Clinton took office, Western oil companies had fallen into business oblivion and the nation was receiving all it's energy needs from foreign countries for a fair price. This happened to be the reason why the nation prospered under Clinton's term in office. Domestic oil companies were not the global threat that they are now, even as Western oil companies had tried domination in the 70's. We, Americans can’t have a recovery with big oil dominating the entire economy and thus, calling all the shots, because than, nobody else can make a profit except for oil companies.

Already, haven't we seen what happens when banks get into the same big oil like-minded act of price gouging with those adjustable rate mortgages that are exactly like adjustable rate oil prices, volatile and destructive in exactly the same way? It is time to stop talking about "our economic security" and start talking about liberation, liberation from big oil's economic servitude, that which is slavery by any other name. It is time to scheme in order to supplant our bloody dictator, big oil. Personally, I would like to see a vehicle that never, ever has to stop at another ExxonMobil gas station again, and really, shouldn't we all want one of those. We had Bush's ugly supply side, his and the GOP's cap less price gouging that, in the end, broke the banks, broke the nation, so now isn't it time for demand, the demand of new paradigms, an economy without big oil in the equation anywhere at all? Sure it is, sure it is.

Rachel Maddow and Carl Bernstein

None of the netroot blogs of note have made any comments about this awful interview between Rachel Maddow and Carl Bernstein so I thought I'd say a few words myself. Like for instance, what I think is most notable about Bernstein comments is his requirement that this whistleblower, the former NSA agent Russell Tice, (not a hidden questionable whistleblower like Deep Throat, mind you,) is somehow not to be taken seriously or is basically uninformed about what he is saying or finally that congress was spineless - didn't do it's job, so therefore whatever Mr. Tice's claims should simply be dismissed outright because that isn't a reporters job to do what congress failed to do. Rachel Maddow is no journalist really, so she failed utterly to asked the right questions with this interview. Carl Bernstein is also holding his fellow journalist to a far higher standard then he held himself during the Watergate stories of Ricard Nixon's Presidency.


Russell Tice's report states thus:

Former National Security Agency analyst Russell Tice, who helped expose the NSA's warrantless wiretapping in December 2005, has now come forward with even more startling allegations. Tice told MSNBC's Keith Olbermann on Wednesday that the programs that spied on Americans were not only much broader than previously acknowledged but specifically targeted journalists.

Now, I would think that any reasonable journalist might be truly alarmed by the claims coming from Mr. Tice, so Mr. Bernstein's indifference is quite shocking, really. If indeed today's journalist are at all interested in protecting their sources as well as themselves in the profession, why then wouldn't they demand to know the truth from the Bush Administration? But oh no, can't have that, unlike Bernstein did with his source, when Deep Throat started talking about the Watergate story way back when journalist used to do their jobs and wanted to find the truth by demanding that the President answer questions, nope, none of type of journalsim now a days. I'm fairly sure that Mr. Tice must be Dana Priest's source for her wiretapping story, so when are we going to throw Dana overboard for not vetting Russell Tice thoroughly the way Bernstein explains it on the Rachel Maddow Show, and before Maddow can jump to any conclusions about the reliability of Russell Tice’s claims?

If congress didn't do it's job, as Bernsteins iterates here in this video, it is only because today's journalist don't do theirs. Anymore don't we need a lawyer like Patrick Fitzgerald to throw a few journalists in jail to get at the facts that today's press members feel no responsibility whatsoever to find. Congress doesn't have a spine because our press members don't have one either, and thus fail to back up any investigation of the Bush Administration that congress might undertake if a press existed that kept the public informed about the truth, which we clearly do not have any longer.

People, the wiretapping story can't get much uglier than it is right now. And, sadly there does not seem to be a single journalist out there that cares enough about the safety of his/her source or his/her own safety to be bothered with Mr. Russell Tice’s alarming news.

I'm also wonder why it is that ever since the Russell Tice came forward with his claims, Salon columnist and Constitutional Lawyer, Glenn Greenwald has not written a word about Tice's admission either? What gives, what gives???

Dahlia Lithwick's Latest Slate Article

Dahlia Lithwick's Slate article starts out thus:

Javaid Iqbal is a former cable installer and Pakistani citizen who was swept up along with more than 700 Muslim and Arab men in the massive post-9/11 terrorism dragnet. Not one of them was ever charged with terrorism-related crimes. Some of those deemed, like Iqbal, to be of "high interest" were detained under a "hold until cleared" policy at a high-security facility in Brooklyn. Iqbal claims that during 150 days of detention based solely on his religion and national origin, he was subject to solitary confinement, repeated cavity searches, denied medical care, and brutally beaten. He pleaded guilty to immigration charges (unrelated to terrorism) and was sent back to Pakistan in 2003. He then sued 34 current and former government officials, right up the chain of command from the prison staff to John Ashcroft and Robert Mueller.

The defense is that John Ashcroft and Robert Muller are to "busy" to stand trail and it's a dismal read of the poison of partisanship that exist in today's US Supreme Court. There is no doubt, at least not to my mind, that if Aschoft or Mueller were associated with the Democrat Party rather than the Republican one, than US citizens would see those same, so-called conservative ideologist whom park their collective partisan butts in our nation's highest court, suddenly employ their strict constructionism legal standards to the current legal case that Dahlia is reporting here in her latest Slate column. It isn't Democrats that are above the law, it's only Republicans that have that right.

John Aschoft once talked about those "phantoms of lost liberty", but with Cheney's resent admission of torture (and waterboarding IS torture according to past legal cases), and the very real act of the Bush Administration and telecom's wiretapping along with the recent FISA Court's claim that oversight of Bush's wiretapping was not necessary, than lost liberty is not "phantoms" at all, but as real as the buckshot from Dick Cheney's gun that struck 78-year-old Harry Whittington in the face on Feb 13, 2006.

Today's Republican Party is a corrupt sickness so vast that I wonder how it is than anyone can ever vote Republican again if they value liberty. We can all see how evil and deadly the malignancy of unlawful acts are when protected by highly noticeable partisanship practiced among so-called conservative Justices, whom never see anything wrong with illegal acts so long as these crimes are committed by people belonging to the Republican Party. How is it that anyone can really deny that the Republican Party is not a mob controlled party anymore? It cannot be anything else that can explain why it is that Republicans are held unaccountable at all times.

Bone Head

Rep. Boehner doesn't want any stimulus money.

Okay! Fine!

Congressman Boehner represents the 8th District in Ohio, but clearly Boehner's district doesn't want any stimulus money, after all it is debt, so I say, FINE. We should leave Boehner's distinct out of the stimulus funding plan, it is as simply as that, after all, its what the people of the 8th District in Ohio want, right? Boehner won't mind, I'm so sure, since Ohio is doing so great these days anyway (not). Boehner wants to have his cake and eat it too, I say let em, as it should be interesting to see if his voters want to eat the no-stimulus cake as well. Somehow, since it's Ohio that we are talking about here, I bet Boehner's constituency would be none to happy about being left out of the stimulus package deal, but HELL, what do I know as I don't live in Ohio. If Rep. Boehner is really representing his district, than Boehner should agree NOT to partake of ANY of the stimulus money, right?

Tricks of the Trade

Republicans are plying their usual tricks of the trade, hard at work, using the same old, tired old tricks, but it works so well on cowardly Democrats.

Obama promised bipartisanship and he is not working with Republicans, but as we can see, it's because there is no way in hell Republicans are EVER going to work with Obama, not even just a little bit.

House Republicans urged to oppose stimulus bill

In a gesture of bipartisanship, Obama on Monday urged Democrats to delete money from the bill for family planning funds for the low-income.

The House bill includes about $825 billion in tax cuts and spending. Republicans say much of the spending is wasteful and will not stimulate the economy.

It'll be a short four years for Barack Obama, as he just can seem to run far enough away from the scary GOP, so our new cowardly Preznut is going to have a Tom Daschle like ending. And, what about poor ole Joe Biden!

Biden: I have to think about everything I say

Biden doesn't want to make any misstatements because our timid Preznut Obama doesn't want FOX News to unleash all out evil upon him, so, as we can see, it's going to be a long, skate on thin ice, do nothing four years. Just another Jimmy Carter era really. That's too bad, but this is why Howard Dean needed to campaign as an independent, because, frankly, I'm tired of cowardly, do nothing Democrats who know only how to bow to criminal Republicans no matter how much money those "faceless" American citizens gave to buy back their freedom. It's going to be a disappointing four years. Americans need more choices than to choose between being a member of the criminal, double talk Party, the GOP, or the cowardly, bow to the criminal, doubt talk Party, the Democrats.

We're getting nowhere fast here, everything is still corrupt, from the banking industries' blatant misuse of taxpayer money to questions about real acts of torture that will go unanswered even after all of Obama's big talk about laws and whatnot. Obama isn't willing to do a damn thing about any misuse of office or moneys, except, to bow deeply to the will of the minority party. Yeah, some change that is. Obama has shown the GOP than he bows deeply in his vast fear of the them, so Republicans will, no doubt, play Obama like a violin from here on out. It's going to be ugly four years watching Obama bow every time the going gets tough. Americans need a leader right now, not another one of Bush's "yes man" on the job for Bush's third term in office.