President Barack Obama addressed the nation from the Oval Office Tuesday evening, announcing the formal end of combat operations in Iraq. The announcement comes more than seven years after the initial invasion, initiated by the George W. Bush ad... […]
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs riled the Obama administration's progressive critics, complaining about the latter to Sam Youngman of The Hill. Within Youngman's Aug. 10 post, Gibbs makes his frustration with the "profressiona... […]
The sad political-media fiasco that brought about the forced resignation of Shirley Sherrod from her USDA post is far from over. At the crux of the controversy is a video clip, posted by conservative political operative Andrew Breitbar... […]
Earlier this week, President Obama declared, in his oval office address to the nation, that the US combat operations in Iraq were officially over. This is obviously an effort from the President to convince Americans, right before the November elections, that he has fulfilled one of his key 2008 campaign promises: To end the Iraq […]
Pat Robertson used his program as a platform for anti-Muslim activists and participated in spreading propaganda and misinformation capable of fueling actions such as the vandalism and arson committed only days later. […]
By Anthony Zeitouni Recently, I read a short piece of news in Arabic that the Emir of Qatar has officially approved the establishment of the Doha International Center for Interfaith Dialogue (DICID) as a “private institution for public benefit”, known in America as a Public Benefit Corporation (PBC). This pushed me to ask: can interfaith […]
2009: University of Oregon running back LeGarrette Blount sucker-punches Boise State linebacker Byron Hout in the immediate aftermath of Boise State’s 19-8 win over the Ducks at Bronco Stadium, a game in which Blount carries the ball eight times for minus-5 yards. Then, while leaving the field, Blount initiates another confrontation, this time with Broncos f […]
By AP | June 8, 2010 - 8:21 am - Posted in History, Politics
I included this TRMS clip in my June 2 Care2 post regarding media calls for Obama to show more emotion in dealing with present Gulf spill, but I felt it was worthy of reposting here.
From the transcript:
[T]he stuff that did not work back then is the same stuff that hasn’t worked now. Same busted blowout preventer, same ineffective berm, same underwater plumes, same toxic dispersants, same failed containment domes, same junk shot, same top kill – it’s all the same technology.
The Ixtoc well, which couldn’t be plugged for nine months, was in roughly 200 feet of water. Now, in 2010, we’re using the same exact techniques to try to plug a well that leaking in 5,000 feet of water…
It’s worth noting that lessons of the Ixtoc I disaster – the largest oil spill in history – haven’t been lost on everyone. Canada, for example, requires oil drillers to demonstrate their ability to drill relief wells “in the same season as the original well…” according to a source cited by NPR.
Incidentally, the NPR post also illustrates that BP “sought to ease Canada’s policy” within a month of the Deepwater Horizon explosion in the Gulf. According to a June 4 Vancouver Sun post, BP’s lobbying effort was effective as the relatively modest precautionary language is absent from newly released regulatory policy.
As it stands, the recent “top hat” mechanism deployed by BP captures some of the oil flowing into the Gulf. Their relief wells — two are being drilled because, as was the case with the Ixtoc I, initial efforts aren’t always successful — slowed by a lack of preparedness, won’t reach the necessary depth until August.
By AP | April 21, 2010 - 10:39 am - Posted in Politics
Rachel said Paul Krugman is whom she most wanted to discuss financial reform with, and with good reason. Considering that those opposed to the pending legislation have already circumvented the debate by lying about it, it’s supremely important to discuss it with someone whom doesn’t use his ass as a hat.
President Barack Obama outlined his administration’s proposal Wednesday, seeking to bring reform of the American health care system to a successful conclusion. Considering the recent spurious criticisms from reform opponents, it appears that, indeed, the arduous process of steering health care reform through Congress may well be nearing its end.
It’s really only become apparent in the last week or so. Leading up to and during the White House bipartisan health care summit, Republican politicians have repeatedly acknowledged the need for reform, but that Democrats should scrap their health care bills and “start over.”
Meanwhile, the Democrats began to show some spine leading up to the summit, signaling their willingness to use the budget reconciliation process to pass reform, if necessary. Consequently, Republicans’ concerns over the use of reconciliation became more prominent within their media talking points, and at the Blair House summit where the issue was frequently raised. Since the summit’s conclusion, however, GOP concerns over reconciliation have evolved into what appears to be panic.
Republicans are decrying the potential use of the parliamentary measure, attempting to gloss over the GOP’s historical record, having happily employed the measure when it suited them.
Further, in their attempts to rationalize their hypocrisy — insisting that the pending health care legislation is beyond the parameters of reconciliation — they have engaged in a campaign of historical revisionism. Senator Orin Hatch (R-UT) wrote an op-ed, published Mar. 2 in the increasingly subjective Washington Post, is a prime example of how Republicans are falsely framing the historical use of reconciliation.
Regarding Hatch’s opinion piece, Steve Benen of The Washington Monthlywrites, “Hatch is simply and unambiguously wrong. And the Post published his demonstrably false arguments anyway…” From Benen’s Political Animal blog, Mar. 2:
The whole pitch is absurd to the point of being insulting. Hatch has repeatedly supported up-or-down votes on legislation large and small. Indeed, he thought it was a great idea for delivering massive tax breaks for the rich — packages that cost far more than health care reform now — but whines incessantly when Dems consider the same procedure to pass a modest fix related to health care.
Hatch really ought to be embarrassed.
But Hatch, and those who mimic his intellectually dishonest argument, aren’t embarrassed, as Rachel Maddow deftly explains in this clip from her Mar. 2 MSNBC broadcast:
Adding emphasis to his lack of shame, Hatch tweeted his response to Maddow’s damning assessment. Here’s his tweet by way of PoliticusUSA:
@maddow ran me down on her show last night over my views on health care reform. Wonderful badge of honor.
However, if you watched the above clip you’d know that Maddow’s assessment had nothing to do with his “views.” Rather, as Maddow indicated in her response tweet, it was Hatch’s misstating of the facts which were at issue.
Sadly, no matter how plainly the GOP’s efforts to falsely frame reconciliation are laid out, they’ll continue beyond the bill’s passage. And, as Maddow put it in the above clip, “It’s going to pass.”
What I’m struggling with is, how could Republicans expect anything different from the Democrats? It seems to me that consistently obstructing Democratic efforts on health care — and everything else, for that matter, guaranteed that reconciliation would be used.
They’ve already telegraphed their intentions to use health reform’s passage as a campaign issue in the 2010 midterms, asserting that using reconciliation will cost the Democrats votes. However, wouldn’t a failure by the Democrats to use any means at their disposal to conclude a year’s worth of work cost them more?
Frankly, the GOP needs to get over it. I think is was Jon Stewart who put it best. Following Obama’s 2008 election to the presidency, Stewart reminded the already whining congressional Repbulicans of what their electoral losses meant. “You’re in the minority,” Stewart said. “It’s supposed to taste like a s#!t sandwich.”
Source: New York Times (9-2-10)Simon Wiesenthal, a Holocaust survivor who gained worldwide fame for decades as a one-man Nazi-hunting operation, was in fact frequently on the payroll of the Mossad, Israel’s spy agency, a new biography asserts. The assertion, based on numerous documents and interviews with three people said to be Mr. Wiesenthal’s Mossad handl […]
Source: Salt Lake City Tribune (9-2-10)The LDS Church and Jewish leaders in New York are looking forward to working together on relief efforts and other endeavors after announcing Wednesday the resolution of a sticky dispute: posthumous proxy baptisms by Mormons of Jewish Holocaust victims. But not everyone is convinced the problem is settled. The Utah-based […]
Source: Associated Press (9-2-10)A chaplain killed in Afghanistan this week was the first Army clergyman killed in action since the Vietnam War, the military said Thursday. Capt. Dale Goetz of the 4th Infantry Division at Fort Carson, Colo., was among five soldiers killed by an improvised bomb on Monday. Before Goetz, the last Army chaplain to die in action […]
Disillusionment in the early days of the trouble-plagued Hubble Space Telescope led famed astronomer James E. Gunn to dream of creating a “million-galaxy” digital sky survey. […]
Armed with markers and correction fluid, Jeff Deck and Benjamin Herson—co-authors of “The Great Typo Hunt”—are on a mission to rid the world of misspelled words, mislaid apostrophes, and other impediments to clear communication. […]
