Yes Virginia, There is a Transvaginal Clause

Professor Cynthia Tucker and Marjorie Dannenfelser joined Chris Matthews' Hardball this evening where Dannenfelser essentially said mandated contraception coverage is wrong, but state mandated transvaginal rape is acceptable. Even women in the GOP have gone mad.

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Remember When...

...these two fabulous lefty's were back-to-back on MSNBC? I truly miss those days. Lawrence O'Donnell can be interesting to watch and as a former insider, he understands the reality of what can actually be done as opposed to what we want done yesterday. Yeah, yeah, the same can be said about Chris Matthews except that O'Donnell isn't annoying about it. Still, Lawrence lacks Keith Olbermann's pizazz and the fiery in your face force that we need on the left to combat the loud mouth crackpots on the right. Lawrence can get passionate about certain subjects, but Keith rarely brought a story to the viewer that he didn't feel was egregious in some way. Rachel's our happy warrior, our thoughtful intellect. Always ready with the facts, a smile and a twinkle in her eye, carrying a scalpel as opposed to a machete' to get her point across. Keith and Rachel were our one-two punch, our Yin-Yang, our superheroes. Tonight, a glimpse of what we had from October 2008-January 2011. Keith's video covers something I've been talking about for months, that Republican voters vote against their own best interest because they think that winning Powerball ticket is a drawing away. And Rachel finally covered a topic I did on April 11 --- the budget proposal from the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Maybe she finally got around to reading my blog!
Who needs Al Jazeera or BBC?!

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Lincoln's Party Now Comprised of Right Wing Zealots

I'm still not a Chris Matthews fan, the man generally exasperates me, but the recently introduced segement "Let Me Finish" is often a concise and accurate synopsis of whatever topic he chooses on a given day. I have a tendency to catch it since it's shown in the last few minutes. I thought this was a very good commentary about the state of todays Republican party. This is no longer the party of Lincoln, and haven't been for a very, very long time.

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There's Not a President #46 in This Group

Here's some of the brilliance we witnessed this week from the right wing. These are the "stars" of the party. How can anyone in their "correct" mind vote for any of these narcissistic crackpots? While I still think they're going to roll out Jeb Bush when they get serious, this is the lot we've seen so far. I have some great friends who I adore, who think the country isn't dumb enough to vote for another Bush. They are such hopeful people --- always seeing the glass half full. Bless their hearts. They forget that we live in a country where people stand in front of a microwave oven screaming, "HURRY!" Me on the other hand? The glass fell over. You can never underestimate the stupidity of the American people.
Just sayin...

Newt for President!

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Palin for President!

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Bachmann for President!

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Power To The People! Wisconsin Getting It Done!

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Union busting Chris Christie wannabe, Scott Walker is finding out that screwing the middle class instead of making the wealthy pay their fair share has consequences. The unions and their members are fighting back...finally! I had almost given up hope that Americans would finally see how the politicans and the wealthy are turning the US into a third world nation--and are starting to fight for what is right! I am in solidarity with the people on the streets of Madison and I hope for their success.

Tuesday’s mid-day protests drew crowds estimated at 12-15,000, but Wednesday's mid-day rally drew 30,000 according to some estimates. This protest is getting stronger, not weaker, even under the threat of National Guard intervention threatened by the new governor who has stopped just short of calling for Marshall Law. Madison Police Chief Noble Wray, a veteran of 27 years on the city’s force, said he had has never see a protest of this size at the Capitol.

Maybe this is what we needed to get people to wake up; a Republican govenor acting like a fascist dictator. These guys will destroy America unless they're stopped and that means more demonstrations. It was unions who made this country strong, not the obscenely wealthy. I hope this is an awakening for all non-millionaires. These demonstrations could become more frequent and possibly violent if Republicans, blue dog Democrats and Obama keep cutting social programs instead of making the wealthy pay their fair share. That means no loopholes, no rewards for off-shoring jobs and a decent living wage. Are they watching or listening?

I will say that with the exclusion of MSNBC, the news outlets have been extremely slow to cover this uprising, if at all. It's interesting that if 10 teabaggers gather in a liberal state, it gets national media attention, but thousands of angry union members who's lifestyle could be changed forever with negative impact barely gets mention. Another example of the liberal media lie.

Thanks to MSNBC, Ed Schultz who has been donating entire shows to this ongoing event, Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O'Donnell, Cenk Uygur and even Chris Matthews for giving this the attention it deserves.
Go Badgers!

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Clinton Believes Obama Should Have Struck Back Sooner

Chris Matthews interviewed former President Bill Clinton in what I thought was an excellent interview...amazing that Matthews finally showed some respect and didn't continuously interrupt! I wish Obama would've asked the former president for advice at some point in the last 20 months instead of allowing the Republicans to control the dialogue. I just hope it isn't too late. Just thinking of the senate and congress full of teabaggers, John Boehner third in command with Mitch McConnell as majority leader makes me ill. Democrats, liberals and moderates, listen up --- maybe we've been disappointed in more than a few things that have not been done, but we can not go back to not just the GWB years, but mix in some Andrew Jackson!  On November 2nd, get out and vote!

The Front Lines in Afghanistan

Rachel Maddow, on the ground in Afghanistan speaks with Chris Matthews about whether Afghan citizens are willing to fight for their country after the United States leaves.  I thought the questions and answers provided gave some basic insight that we never hear about.  The show Rachel did last night (another show will air live from Afghanistan tonight) got even deeper into the weeds, but this 10 minute synopsis was well done by both anchors.

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Stop Calling This a Leak - It Is A Gusher!

Hey MSM - call this disaster for what it is. This is not an oil leak, it's an oil gusher! The term "leak" is understating the ongoing and long term disaster to our environment. An oil leak drips out of an older cars' oil pan and can be absorbed with kitty litter; a gusher is an underground volcano full of dirty crude that no one knows how to stop. This oil disaster isn't ending any time soon. I get more angry every single day and I'm not sure if it's due to BP's initial arrogance and current incompetence, our government not putting the boot heel on BP's neck sooner or the plain disgust that nothing has gotten better in 35 days. I don't live there and I'm not a seafood eater and I'm pissed. I can't even imagine how the people this really affects are feeling. Mike Papantonio passionately describes his position on Chris Matthews' Hardball earlier today. Seems like we could learn a lesson from Saudi Arabia where they had a disasterous spill in 1994 and sucked up roughly 85% of the crude. Wait until you hear why we're not in a position to do the same.
Hint: It starts with a "G" and ends with a "D".

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Rand Paul Can't Make Himself Stop Talking, So GOP Does It For Him

Rand Paul was supposed to appear on Meet The Press Sunday, but canceled - only the third guest ever to do so. His handlers claim it's do to exhaustion, but internet rumors claim that the GOP told him to stop talking! As bad as his interview with Rachel Maddow was, he wasn't finished. The next day he went on Good Morning America to cry that he wasn't getting a honeymoon and whined that Obama was un-American in his criticism of BP by putting his boot heel on the throat of BRITISH Petroleum. He added that the President's reaction is "part of this sort of blame game society" where "it's always someone's fault. Maybe sometimes accidents happen." He actually included the recent mining "accident" where 30 miners were killed do to unsafe working conditions as part of his "shit happens" interview on GMA. When will the GOPers learn that when they say something stupid, it's very likely going to be on video?

Back to the nest: So RaPaul slept on TRMS interview and realized what an asshat he made of himself on her show Wednesday night so he did what every foot-in-mouth politician does, run to the womb of safety and shoot the messenger! He went on Laura Ingraham's radio program crying what a mistake he made going on Rachel's show and mama countered with a mild swipe at Rachel exclaiming, "What did you think you were going to get when you go on Rachel Maddow's show, that's the kind of question you're going to get." Seriously? She asked him to clearly state his positions. The nerve! I'm sure Fox News would've asked the important questions that people really want to know of their right wing politicians: Coke or Pepsi? McDonald's or Burger King? Maryanne or Ginger? The fair and balanced network, they report, you decide.

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I have to say that Chris Matthews was a class act in his praise for Rachel after her interview with Rand Paul. He discussed the controversial remarks on the Civil Rights Law and Obama's handling of the Gulf oil spill with Clarence Page and Jonathon Martin.

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Not surprisingly, there's a Fox in the Nielson house

Last week saw the release of the quarterly ratings performance data for television programming. Most of the reporting yammers on and on about the dominant position Fox News retains in the cable news sector. The claim is that Fox News smothered the competition and experienced rapid growth while other news programmers stagnated or declined. The reason I decided to write about this topic is that it's an ongoing battle on Huffington Post and other lefty blog sites that I frequent. Every time the new numbers are released, the right wing trolls decide to taunt all of us MSNBC viewers and I really get sick of it.  They never argue about content, it's always about ratings.  Here's part of my response to that.  If Chris Matthews, Ed Schultz, Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow are so insignificant, why are conservatives so unnerved by their reporting?  Matthews plays to whoever's in the room, so I don't think a whole lot of him...and he voted for Bush, which says plenty.  Schultz is making a name for himself as being Joe Everyman, which you'd think would be a good thing except that he's an admitted Democrat.  Olbermann gets hammered by righties for exposing right wing lies, especially those coming from Fox, Limbaugh and other hate talkers.  I'm glad someone's doing it because CNN, HLN, ABC, CBS and PBS sure aren't willing to take them on to set the record straight.  Maddow not only exposes the lies, she digs deeper and presents the hypocrisy.  Guess what wingnutz?  When politicians are naming you and attempting to discredit you with even more lies, they know you're not insignificant!  My other point about ratings?  Last week, over 20 million people watched both American Idol and Dancing With the Stars. I'm guessing the Discovery Channel and The History Channel didn't do quite that well.

Before I send you off to the possible Fox fraud situation, let's look at some other facts. Check out the poll conducted by DailyKos/Research2000.  Republicans and southerners almost completely shut out any cable news source other than Fox News.  They are the most sharply segmented groups in the survey when asked on viewing of CNN and MSNBC.  The rest of the nation doesn't much care for the right-wing hack network.  78% of the northeast never watches Fox, 70% of the midwest never watches Fox, 68% of the west never does and even 51% of the south doesn't!  Also notable is the terrible performance of Fox amongst young voters (18-29) and minorities, at least 80% of whom report that they never watch Fox News.  If Nielsen data were to confirm this, advertisers might alter the way they allocate their budgets. Also, cable operators might adjust their channel offerings, which could help to resolve the distribution problem that MSNBC has been hampered by.  And why won't Nielson do that?

This might be why.  Do you ever wonder how Fox News can be so consistently lead the ratings despite their obvious position and programming focus on a small segment of the viewers? The last time I saw a poll, only 23% of registered voters admitted to be Republicans. Evidently, Nielsen entered the high-tech era of TV market research in the early 2000's with People Meter methodology.  It was during this time, that Fox News began its climb to ratings dominance. It has recently been discovered that the Wegener Corporation, the manufacturer of the set-top devices that Nielsen uses, has a long association with Rupert Murdoch and the News Corporation, the parent of Fox News. It would not be difficult to encode an electronic device so that it would purposefully miscalculate survey data. Diebold anyone?  So you have to ask; with a continuous 24/7 right wing propaganda effort, if Fox were as persuasive as they claim, why haven't they been able to move the country to their far right positions?  Yes, they've got the teabaggers doing some of their dirty work now, but they're just Foxbots.  This is not the large anti-government, anti-Obama pushback that Fox is selling to their viewers. According to the following article, Murdoch has paid millions for his cover-up of various media manipulations. Not only are there allegations about Nielson, he has also undermined competitor Dish Network.  For those out there who dispise this man, and are considering satellite tv, you should know that he owns DirectTV as well.  The connection to Murdoch's covert operations and his history of unlawful corporate espionage should not continue to be ignored. If Nielsen doesn't want it's credibility completely dismissed, it should investigate their equipment providers and perform intensive examinations of the devices they place in viewers' homes.  To be fair, the suspicions have not been confirmed, but it really makes you wonder.  Don't forget, this is the man who was continuously rebuffed in 1996 from putting his new network on NY's cable systems.  It wasn't until he got Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, Gov. George E. Pataki and Dennis C. Vacco, the State Attorney General involved.  Source: NY Times

For more detail, read Fox News Caught In Massive Ratings Fraud at DailyKos (their compilation of various articles).  I figured I better use that disclaimer before I get the, "what would you expect from a leftist, socialist, marxist blog like DailyKos."

The Saga of a Father of Fallen Marine Caught in Legal Battle Continues

Since my full time job isn't blogging, there are days (many of them) that I don't have time to write (or vent), but want you to be aware of a certain issue or story. Tonight is another one of those times. On March 16, I wrote about fallen Marine Matthew Snyder's funeral, awash with anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church protesters --- a really disgusting display of so-called humanity by people who claim to be children of God. On tonight's Hardball, Chris Matthews interviewed the soldiers father, Al Snyder and Michael Smerconish about this important and to date, unjust story. Mr. Snyder was ordered to pay the legal fees of the WBC that he sued for protesting at his son's funeral. Talk about blind justice. In this ongoing battle, I hope Mr. Snyder and true justice will prevail.

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Donations to http://www.matthewsnyder.org/ can be made here.

Hate Speech Now Encouraged by U.S. Churches

These are the kind of stories that really bother me. How can anyone call themselves "Christian" while promoting these kind of "rallies?" There is absolutely nothing in the Bible about God hating homosexuals. Since this often repeated falsehood has always bothered me, a while back I looked up the passage of the infamous famous quote below and read it in it's full context.

"If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them." — Leviticus 20:13

As far as I can interpret, two angels disguised as men came to the town of Sodom one evening. Abraham's nephew Lot met them at the city gate and invited them to stay with him. That night, all the men of Sodom, gathered at Lot's door and demanded that he release the strangers to them so that they could "know" them. Lot, being a good host, refused this request and offered the mob his two virgin daughters instead saying, "do to them whatever you like." What a great dad! Because of the widespread and largely accepted interpretation of the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, two cities God allegedly destroyed, the word "sodomy" has made it into our lexicon synonymous with anal intercourse and God's wrath. What I get out of this story is, the Bible teaching that it is ok to rape (including gang rape) and dehumanize women (even your own flesh and blood), but not men - because that would just be wrong! These idiots with their stupid, ignorant, hateful signs have never opened any book, including the Bible. Mahatma Gandhi said it best, "I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ."

One of the Republican radio personalities I respect is Michael Smerconish. He really is a middle-of-the-road kind of guy. Even when I disagree with his points, he's at least made a logical case as to why I should consider those positions. In this instance, he nailed it! Smerconish wrote an Op-Ed about how Albert Snyder, the father of a fallen soldier is suing the Westboro Baptist Church and Fred Phelps for picketing outside his son’s funeral. According to a lower court’s recounting of the facts: “They traveled to Matthew Snyder’s funeral in order to publicize their message of God’s hatred of America for its tolerance of homosexuality.” Oh, and for the record, Synder’s son was not gay! Please take a few minutes to read what these radicals did at his son's funeral: Head Strong Free and hateful speech vs the right to gather Then watch the Smerconish interview on Hardball with added details.

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This appalling photo was taken at the Snyder funeral. These kids are not old enough to even understand what the ramifications of these signs are. They won't have a chance to grow up as compassionate human beings. Very sad.

Republican Solution To Deficit - Keep Shafting The Middle Class

All of this deficit talk is starting to get on my nerves. Of course it’s an issue, but this didn’t start last January. Why is the military/defense budget exempt from spending cuts? It’s our biggest source of wasteful spending, it always has been. Of course Cheney's Halliburton would suffer greatly and we can’t have that. Those mercenaries employed by Blackwater and KBR are real American heroes. Next, make the rich pay the same share as they did before Reagan gave them the keys to the Kingdom. Their pre-1980 tax wasn’t denting their lifestyle. Tax the hell out of U.S. corporations manufacturing outside of our borders. Oh wait, that would make sense. Our politicians are more concerned with who’s funding their next election, which brings me to my desire for term limits. We will need a national referendum or ballot proposition or whatever it’s officially called to ever have any hopes of that happening.

Last night I watched Texas Representative Jeb Hansarling (R) go on Chris Matthews Hardball. He blamed the Democrats for everything naturally, but that's not the thing he said that set me off. He basically called for a cut to Social Security benefits for anyone who is currently under age 55. Since this affects me…and many others, I’m concerned. I’ve been paying into that system for more years than I care to remember and this fool is basically saying “tough luck, sucker!” Yes, I’m well aware of the fact that I can’t live off S.S. alone, but since I paid into this agreement, not getting anything back basically means the country downright stole from me and everyone else who falls into our category. We need to start taking care of our own citizens and stop policing the world. How about we try that?!

We spend at least $607 billion annually for military expenditures. The next closest country in spending is China…at $85 billion. Do we actually have to spend seven times more than another country to be safe? Those big bad Russians spend a whopping $58.6 billion. We are 41.5% of the whole world’s share of military expenditures! Just cut the spending in half and we’ll still have the biggest d***s in the world. Isn’t that what this is really about? Seems like a simple enough solution. The deficit would be under control in about 5 years. Furthermore, Bush lied when he said, “They hate us for our freedoms.” That’s not why they hate us. They hate us because we meddle in other country’s policies without being asked. The U.S. really needs to take a look in the mirror and think about what our reaction would be if another country, say China, comes here and starts telling us how to live. I'm guessing we wouldn't take kindly to it.

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Limbaugh's Take on Hate-e

While this man knows no limit to the depth he’ll dive, he may have reached a level this week that even Jacques Cousteau would be jealous of. After the 7.0 Earthquake annihilated Haiti on Tuesday, Rush Limbaugh decided to make political rhetoric out of thousands of deaths to his simple minded hate-filled listeners. On Wednesday Rush declared;

"This will play right into Obama's hands. He's humanitarian, compassionate. They'll use this to burnish their, shall we say, "credibility" with the black community -- in the both light-skinned and dark-skinned black community in this country. It's made-to-order for them. That's why he couldn't wait to get out there, could not wait to get out there." "Now, I want you to remember, it took him three days to respond to the Christmas Day Fruit of Kaboom Bomber, three days. And when he came out after those three days, he was clearly irritated that he had to do it. He didn't want to do it. He comes out here in less than 24 hours to speak about Haiti."

Where do you even begin? Is he suggesting that Obama has some kind of connection upstairs to coincide this tragedy with his falling approval numbers? And that humanitarian, compassion stuff is for sissy’s, not for real Americans. Burnishing his credibility with the black community? That one actually made me start laughing. I’m pretty sure he’s already got them sewed up. No offense to anyone meant, but really? I’m certain the black community aren’t closet McCain fans. The Christmas Day bomber? Um, thousands didn’t die. Luckily the would-be bomber was incompetent. Obama waited until he had his facts straight before speaking publicly about it. Funny how they always forget Bush waited six days after the Shoe Bomber, a virtually identical attack. Ah, but that was just the day after the quake…
On Thursday Rush told his empty headed sheep not to donate to any Haitian relief charities. You’ll love this reasoning:

“We’ve already donated to Haiti! It’s called the US income tax! There are people who do charitable work every day in Haiti. It’s not as though… it’s our fault. There are people that have been trying to save Haiti, just as we’re trying to save Africa. You just can’t keep throwing money at it, because the dictatorships there just take it all. Besides, even if the people did get the money, that would just stop them from bothering to support themselves. It’s a simple matter of self-reliance.”

There’s nothing I can say about such a mean, ignorant statement. The last two sentences are all you really need to read. Even Joe Scarborough was shocked and horrified by Limbaugh’s lack of compassion. This man is one of the most vicious hateful people ever to be given a platform. The fact that his followers actually think he is a “real American hero” is nauseating. Those are the same people who call Keith Olbermann evil and hateful because he was the first MSM personality to start reporting on Bush’s Evil Empire. These are the same people who just weeks ago attacked non-Rush fan bloggers that hoped for a poor outcome with Limpballs health scare. While I would never go there (that Karma thing), I found it amazing that the same people dancing on Ted Kennedy’s grave while cheering were appalled and downright angry at some of the non-Rush fans’ reactions. All I will say is, I wouldn’t miss him. It would actually be more satisfying if he got fired, but he brings in too much money with all these ignorant idiots tuning in.
Wait, we’re not done, Friday came…

“This is about domestic U.S. politics. Haiti is about domestic U.S. politics, in addition to the humanitarian effort that is behind this. By the -- of course, we are not suggesting that we shouldn't send soldiers to Haiti. Do not misunderstand. But why is there no concern about the cost from the White House, when there was so much concern about Afghanistan? After all, isn't the job of the U.S. military, first and foremost, to protect the national security and interests of the United States? No, it's not. The U.S. military is now Meals on Wheels. It always is with Democrat presidents.”

Those bastard Democrats. Always trying to help out the less fortunate. Especially in a time of dire need. Rush says “f**k ‘em.” He honestly thinks our soldiers should just be killing people, not helping them! Again, he’s speaking to people who can’t even spell Afghanistan or Haiti. Hell, some of them probably can’t spell America. Notice how he never mentions that it’s always the Republicans that start the wars and tension. Notice how he doesn’t mention the economic disasters are always started by Republicans and the next poor Democratic President ends up with a big hot turd in every corner to try and clean up. And when the Democrat can’t get it cleaned up within one year after an eight year (or twelve 1980-1992) reign, they’re labeled a failure.  What's worse is many dumb voters buy it!

Given their general lack of empathy, let’s be grateful Fox News isn’t even covering the event. With a tragedy so horrific just 700 miles off Florida’s coast, Fox has decided to just continue doing what they do best; their relentless journey of doing their part to destroy President Obama. They featured national security experts Liz Cheney and Sarah Palin this week. The only thing I have witnessed on Fox so far was earlier today when they were bemoaning the fact that illegal Haitians currently in the U.S. have been granted an eighteen month stay. I'm sure as this "rescue and recovery" moves forward, Fox will find stories more in line with what Limbaugh would find acceptable. The human crisis will not be witnessed by their minions. Given the mentality of an average Fox viewer, I'm betting their compassionate Christian disciples find Haitians to be sub-human anyways.

And for all the knocks MSNBC has gotten through the years for their poor weekend news coverage (which has been deserved), they have shined throughout this tragedy.  Not only did Rachel Maddow, Chris Matthews and Ed Schultz do two live shows per night during the week dedicated to this event, MSNBC has kept teams on it all day today as well.  They're outshining CNN in my opinion.  Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's statement of U.S. commitment was carried live. I've watched live video of some of the planes landing at Edwards Air Force Base in Homestead, Florida with passengers. I've watched interviews with evacuees. Those have been some extremely grateful people!  Only those who are U.S. residents, have green cards or some type of legal claim here, have been transported here so far. Fox will probably wait until some severely injured "aliens" are transported to a Miami hospital before they decide to cover the story.