Damned if you do

Since Republicans can be relied upon to demonize any Supreme Court nominee as a socialist-leaning, immigrant-loving, America-hating, abortion peddler, then why should president Obama worry too much about offering a choice as reasonable as Judge Sotomayor for consideration?

Why not go ahead and pick an "activist judge" with great big liberal talons and jam the choice down their protesting paunches, a judicial foie gras if you will.

Libertarian Paradise

I like to tell the type of Christian that wishes to impose his beliefs on others that if they will only travel to Saudi Arabia or Pakistan they can live in a theocratic paradise without waiting.

A new YouTube video employs that approach with Libertarians:

The Body

Jesse Ventura casts pearls before swine in this defense of the rule of law.



Thank you Mr. Ventura.

The Wind Beneath his Wings

In April George F. Will wrote a column called, "America's Bad Jeans" in which he characterized an adult wearing denim as "an obnoxious misuse of freedom".

In my new socialist homeland (America according to Gingrich) the professional journalists have begun to emulate amusing cranks like Donald Mills ("The Problem With Young People Today Is...").

I like George Will, but not as much as I like wearing jeans.

The Law of the Jungle

Here is a summary of the health-care plan now taking shape in Washington:

Let wolves cull those unable to afford insurance.

Liberals aren't expected to object since the plan will be good for the struggling wolf population and the process is all-natural.

Conservatives aren't expected to object since they could care less what happens to poor people.

The insurance industry is expected to back the plan since it makes their offerings more palatable by comparison.

Fox News is happy about the prospect of airing, "When wolves attack."

Everybody wins!

Life of the Party

I have often thought that Dick Cheney might be suffering from the effects of Dementia, and is perhaps more worthy of pity than scorn. However, until such suspicion becomes validated, I feel as though I must treat his statements as intentionally expressed, however paranoid, delusional, or self-destructive.

When Dick Cheney recently insulted Colin Powell I found myself wondering all over again if he ought to quit driving and check into an adult daycare center.

Lawrence Wilkerson, in the video below, seems to hold Dick Cheney responsible for his insults to Mr. Powell and offers this admonition:



Whether Dick Cheney is intentionally harming his party or deliberately harming his party is the question here. There seems no debate as to if he is harming the party.

Neither a disgruntled postal worker or VP be.

The Bush Years: A Holocaust of Truth

It is an insult to The American Way to treat Dick Cheney as if he were other than a disgraced, dishonest, hypocrite. To compare what he once said about torture with his words now, and his deeds then, is to understand the worthlessness of words that escape his lying pie-hole:

"The United States is a country that takes human rights seriously. We do not torture. It’s against our laws and against our values. And we expect all those who serve America to conduct themselves accordingly, and we enforce those rules...America is a fair and a decent country. President Bush has made it clear, both publicly and privately, that our duty to uphold the laws and standards of this nation make no exceptions for wartime. As he put it, we are in a fight for our principles and our first responsibility is to live by them. The war on terror, after all, is more than a contest of arms and more than a test of will. It’s also a war of ideas."

There is a great post over at Obsidian Wings where you can read this, and other quotations on the topic of torture. The men we consider great today are the ones that lived by their words.

Quotations on Torture

Gullibility in its lesser-known form is the failure to believe things that are demonstrably true. Dick Cheney, for instance, is a bald-faced liar and the things which he says are dishonest. At this point it takes mountainous gullibility to believe him.

Perspective

Here are a couple of numbers to keep in mind.

The attacks of September 11, 2001 killed about 6,000 people (5948 fatalities and 24 people missing). You can get the full details here:

Wikipedia 911

Researchers at the Institute of Medicine in D.C. say that 18,314 adults die in the USA each year because they are uninsured and can't get proper health care:

Care Without Coverage: Too Little, Too Late


This summary shows the penalty incurred when society favors profit to human life:

"The main findings of the report are that working-age Americans without health insurance are more likely to receive too little medical care and receive it too late; be sicker and die sooner; and receive poorer care when they are in the hospital, even for acute situations like a motor vehicle crash. "

It is findings like these that force me to hope that president Obama is sincere about solving the health-care emergency we face. I think the measure of his sincerity will be a publicly-funded single-payer-style plan. I know that Ted Kennedy will fight for that with his dying breath, but I'm not convinced president Obama is willing to upset the lobbyists just to please the people that voted for him.

But...

1 in 7 American adults are uninsured.
70% of personal bankruptcies are medically related.
18,000+ annual deaths are caused by the absence of insurance.

and I hope those number can no longer be ignored.

Commentary from the dustbin

David Letterman recently offered up this look back at the wisdom of Cheney:

How'd He Do?

Remember those pictures of Saddam Hussein ironing his own shirts in his underwear? That's my mental picture of Dick Cheney. He's just a sad, publicly disgraced dictator, uncomfortable in his new role.

Black and Bill

Here is an interview that Bill Moyers conducts with William Black, who was formerly a senior regulator that cracked down on banks during the S&L crisis of the 1980s. In the interview Mr. Black does not wear kid gloves or sugar coat a thing. It is a very entertaining interview:

You can watch it here

I would like to see Mr. William Black take over for Mr. Geithner, since Timothy continues to act as if there is a marketing crisis rather than a banking crisis.

In Obama's Shadow

It is time someone said this, "Hillary Clinton is doing a great job as Secretary of State, and she is leaving all the old Clinton baggage out of sight."

I half-wondered if it was going to be a freak-show over there at State, but Hillary seems head-down, working hard, and capable.