Phil Donahue on America’s War Fever (Video)
On Piers Morgan Tonight of all places, Phil Donahue (who was kicked off MSNBC for being too anti-war in the wake of 9/11), speaks about the Bizarro world our political leaders live in when it comes to honest discussion about how America goes to war. (Side note: checking out the book Donahue references War Made Easy by Norman Solomon is enlightening.) Discussion starts around 35 seconds into this clip.
Donations To Third Parties Skyrocketing
Do you think people believe that they only have two choices in regards to governance? Break free from the ketchup-vs.-mustard political paradigm, and reach for the tangy BBQ sauce of third parties. Via Parapolitical:
The current issue of Ballot Access News reports a nearly 300-percent increase in individual giving to third parties in the United States during Q1/Q2 2011 versus the same time period in 2010. The data is based on state income tax returns from the thirteen states that let taxpayers designate a donation to their favorite political party. By comparison, the Democrat Party registered only a 2.4-percent bump in giving, while the Republican Party saw a 2.6-percent decline.
Why Are Democrats So Weak? Thoughts on the Weiner ‘Scandal’ (Video)
Rachel Maddow speaks with Cenk Uygur of the Young Turks who has plenty to say:
Political Game Playing Promotes Partisanship Through Polarization
Fox News studio. Photo: Inside Cable News (CC)
Grrrrrrrr.
You can almost hear the growling in the background as the masters of attack politics go into action, virtually every hour on the hour, on the Fox News Channel. The issues they focus on are carefully selected by top executives and then broken down into highly politicized message points.
Their dominant emotion is annoyance, as expressed in sarcasm and scowling. Contempt is the underlying attitude.
The other side is usually not just wrong but plain stupid, almost unbelievable in its soft-headed naivete and distance from reality
A “what do you expect” question invariably tops off the argument which always ends with the Fox host a winner and the Democrat or social critic a loser on every level.
Standing on a podium, driven by self-righteous certainty, the finger pointers view the people they talk about, and talk down to, as below the intelligence threshold of people even worth…
Kucinich Wants to Impeach Obama For Libyan Strike
John Bresnahan & Jonathan Allen write in the Politico:
A hard-core group of liberal House Democrats is questioning the constitutionality of U.S. missile strikes against Libya, with one lawmaker raising the prospect of impeachment during a Democratic Caucus conference call on Saturday.
Reps. Jerrold Nadler (N.Y.), Donna Edwards (Md.), Mike Capuano (Mass.), Dennis Kucinich (Ohio), Maxine Waters (Calif.), Rob Andrews (N.J.), Sheila Jackson Lee (Texas), Barbara Lee (Calif.) and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D.C.) “all strongly raised objections to the constitutionality of the president’s actions” during that call, said two Democratic lawmakers who took part.
Kucinich, who wanted to bring impeachment articles against both former President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney over Iraq — only to be blocked by his own leadership — asked why the U.S. missile strikes aren’t impeachable offenses.
Kucinich also questioned why Democratic leaders didn’t object when President Barack Obama told them of his plan for American…
DNC RIP: 1848 – February 16, 2011
“There was madness in any direction, at any hour. You could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning.” — Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Trumka and McEntee
Well, almost . . . I’m not too confident about defeating Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s junta in the near term. In fact I’m detecting a growing rumble that suggests the earth is about to crack open within the next week and swallow the Madison Uprising whole. However, two other points seem equally clear to me:
1.) If it does, it will likely drag the DNC to Hell along with it
2.) The DNC’s demise may not be all that great a loss for Richard Trumka and Jerry McEntee — or the American people.
Madness
I’m only one lone blogger, an overfed garden gnome with a bad haircut. I can’t possibly hope to convey to those outside of Wisconsin the…
Rachel Maddow Reveals the Hidden Truth Behind the Wisconsin Protests (Video)
Says Rachel Maddow:
Wisconsin is on track to have a budget surplus this year. I am not kidding. I’m quoting their own version of the congressional budget office, the state’s own nonpartisan assess the state’s finances agency. That agency said the month that the new Republican governor of Wisconsin was sworn in, last month, that the state was on track to have a $120 million budget surplus this year. So then why exactly does Wisconsin look like this right now? Why is there a revolt in the American Midwest tonight?
The main headline that you are seeing right now about this remarkable thing — look at these images — this remarkable thing that’s going on in the American Midwest, the headlines you are seeing about this are mostly wrong, because what’s going on right now in the American Midwest is about Republicans versus Democrats. It is about politics. It is about who wins the next election and the elections after that. That’s what’s going on right now in Wisconsin. This is about the survival of the Democratic Party. There are parts of the story that actually don’t make any sense unless you understand that.
What’s happening in Wisconsin right now is not about a budget. This is about elections. This is about the Republican Party going after the institutions that make it possible for Democrats to win elections in America.
Democrats Vote Against Patriot Act Extentions, Then Bash Republicans Over Their Defeat
Check out these two news reports. Hypocrisy, politics, or both?
Simmi Aujla reports in the Politico:
Top House Democrats pounced on Republicans’ mishandling of a routine vote Tuesday evening, which caused a bill to extend provisions of the Patriot Act go down in defeat.
The Democrats said Wednesday morning that the failed vote is a sign that Republican leaders aren’t prepared to handle the practical difficulties of governing.
“I don’t think they’ve found their center yet,” Democratic Caucus conference chair Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.) said. “It seems they’re coming apart at the seams.”
Rank-and-file Republicans threw off Republican leaders’ plans for the measure, which was expected to pass easily, when a large enough number bucked their party and voted no. The measure fell short of the two-thirds vote it needed by 13 votes.
But Greg Sargent reports in the Washington Post:
Yesterday, a vote on reauthorizing three expiring provisions of the Patriot Act failed after most Democrats…
An Anti-War Challenge to Obama in 2012: The Case for Alan Grayson
I will admit to total ignorance of Alan Grayson’s merits, but I’d love to hear input from Disinformation’s readers about any viable alternative candidate for the 2012 nomination. As a starting point, this bit from Mark Pinsky at Politics Daily:
Current Beltway consensus holds that the 2012 race, like 2010, will be a referendum on the economy. But what if, instead, the war in Afghanistan, which Barack Obama has embraced, deteriorates dramatically, requiring a delay in the scheduled troop withdrawal or, worse, forces another escalation? Might Democratic anti-war sentiment — until now a sleeper issue — turn rebellious?
Already, national polls show a plurality (Pew) or a majority (Quinnipiac) opposed to remaining in Afghanistan, with the margins of opposition rising. A Washington Post/ABC News poll conducted Dec. 9-12 found that 60 percent of Americans believe that, “considering the costs to the United States versus the benefits to the United States,” the war…
Democrats, Not Republicans, Added Ban On Gitmo Detainee Transfer To Omnibus Spending Bill
Detainees at Camp X-Ray, Guantanamo Bay.
Rachel Slajda writes at TPMMuckraker:
The Obama administration has loudly opposed a provision of the omnibus spending bill, passed last week by the House, that would ban the transfer of Guantanamo Bay detainees to U.S. soil, even for trial.
“This provision goes well beyond existing law and would unwisely restrict the ability of the Executive branch to prosecute alleged terrorists in Federal courts or military commissions in the United States,” Attorney General Eric Holder wrote in a letter to Senate leadership, calling the provision “dangerous” and asking that it be stripped before the Senate votes on the bill this week.
“We strongly oppose this provision. Congress should not limit the tools available to the executive branch in bringing terrorists to justice and advancing our national security interests,” White House spokesman Reid Cherlin said just before the bill passed.
So you would think, then, that this was perhaps a provision snuck…
Election Day 2010: Voting for a Restraining Order?
MediaMonarchy | mike whitney: Barack Obama rode into office in January, 2008 on a wave of optimism. By the time the ballots are counted in Tuesday’s midterm elections, Obama’s personal approval ratings will have fallen to historic lows and he will be universally recognized as the man who brought ruin on the Democratic party.
While still popular among party loyalists, the president has become radioactive among independents–the critical group of “swing voters” who have fled Camp Obama en masse frustrated with both the lack of audacity and/or change. No one figured they were electing George W. Bush to a third term in office when they cast their vote for the inspiring senator from Illinois two years ago. But that’s what they got. To say that supporters are disappointed in Obama’s performance, is a gross understatement of the pessimism that’s spread like Kudzu among the party faithful. People have become increasingly cynical as they…
Zach Galifianakis Smokes a Joint on Bill Maher’s Show (Video)
On last night’s Real Time with Bill Maher, the panel discussed the lack of Democratic support forCalifornia’s Proposition 19 (Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010).
“It’s a tricky thing, politically, to jump on that bandwagon because I think that maybe people see it as taboo still,” Zach said, and then pulled a cigarette from his jacket pocket and lit it. He took a drag and then passed it across the table to Fox News correspondent Margaret Hoover, who smelled the cigarette, laughed and nodded, and handed it back.
Galifianakis then took a couple more puffs and shouted, “Oh my God, look at those dragons!”
Why You Shouldn’t Vote … Ever
Site editor’s note: This post from DJ Pangburn originally appeared on death + taxes.
What to do if you’re courageous enough to admit the Obama administration and Democrats are full of shit and the Tea Party and Republicans are dangerous and stupid?
Barack Obama the messenger
President Barack Obama soared into the public consciousness with a stirring speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. He then took Howard Dean’s example and used the power of the Internet to create a fundraising juggernaut for his historic 2008 Presidential run. With a swiftness not seen since JFK’s political ascendancy, Obama became president and claimed broad power to affect “change” across the country. But Kennedy only had to surmount his Irish Catholic background — Barack Obama had to transcend the fact that he is African-American.
But appearances are, in the final analysis, immaterial. Just as a magician uses scenery and sleight-of-hand to divert the audience’s attention, Barack Obama has…
Democrats and Republicans Are Both Addicted to Lying, Part 2
You don’t hear much whining from the Cheneys these days now that Obama’s claimed the Presidential right to assassinate American citizens, do you? But back in the summer of 2009:
The Bush team stopped using its harshest interrogation techniques, like waterboarding, years before leaving office. [Supposedly. - G.G.] And in Mr. Bush’s second term, Congress passed legislation bringing federal statutes into alignment with policies like military commissions and surveillance without warrants.
As a senator, Mr. Obama voted for the 2008 bill authorizing the surveillance program, which he has continued since taking office. He voted against a 2006 bill authorizing military commissions, but it passed anyway. While Mr. Obama initially halted the trials, he has since proposed reviving them in a revised form.
Mr. Obama has also drawn fire from human rights advocates for fighting to prevent detainees in Afghanistan from having habeas corpus rights. But his legal team notes that the 2006 Military Commissions…
Fighting For You (Up To A Point): Bill Maher Gives Democrats Slogans To Go With Their New Logo (Video)
I think Bill Maher’s on the money again. Kudos also to Mad Men’s Jon Hamm for his off-camera observation on the recent Real Time. Frances Martel writes on Mediate:
Whenever a major political party tries to “rebrand” itself, aesthetically, it inevitably ends in disaster. Last time it was GOP.com, but to prove the graphic failure is bipartisan, the Democrats have come up with a new logo, and a new slogan (“change that matters”). An exasperated Bill Maher tried to help out the party by offering some new slogans, like “fighting for you (to a point)” and “we got Lisa Ling’s sister out of Korea.”
The logo (which, it should be noted, The Atlantic has already called out for plagiarism from a Midwestern pizza place), is a small “D” in a blue circle. The hours spent thinking up this complex design must be incalculable. Maher presents it without comment, though his face says it all, and to add insult to injury, Jon Hamm of all people deadpans from off-camera, “Radiates power, doesn’t it?”
Democrats and Republicans Are Both Addicted to Lying
This won’t be news to some, but the details are telling. Back in 2006 LiveScience reported:
Democrats and Republicans alike are adept at making decisions without letting the facts get in the way, a new study shows.
And they get quite a rush from ignoring information that’s contrary to their point of view.
Researchers asked staunch party members from both sides to evaluate information that threatened their preferred candidate prior to the 2004 Presidential election. The subjects’ brains were monitored while they pondered.
The results were announced today.
“We did not see any increased activation of the parts of the brain normally engaged during reasoning,” said Drew Westen, director of clinical psychology at Emory University. “What we saw instead was a network of emotion circuits lighting up, including circuits hypothesized to be involved in regulating emotion, and circuits known to be involved in resolving conflicts.”
Bias on both sides
The test subjects on both sides of…
Will Stoners Save the Democrats?
Why not? From New York Magazine:
Democratic voters are not nearly as enthusiastic as Republican voters this year, probably because the former are generally somewhat content with the way things are going, while the latter fancy themselves modern-day revolutionaries tasked with saving the nation from certain destruction, perhaps with the help of zombie George Washington. But what if there were something that could spark the interest (the pun will become apparent shortly) of Democratic voters as much as socialist Kenyan debt-fetishists excite Republicans? Obviously, there is nothing that young, liberal voters love more than the thought of legalized marijuana, and luckily for Democrats, it could be on the ballot in up to six states this November.
According to a couple of political thinkers, Democratic-leaning voters who wouldn’t really care about participating in congressional or gubernatorial elections this year might haul their lazy asses to the voting booth if they can help decriminalize marijuana, in the…
South Carolina’s Going Greene
If someone meets the U.S. Senate candidate requirements (at least 30 years of age, a U.S. citizen for nine or more years, and having residency in the state where campaigning) are they equipped to run for election? South Carolina seems to think so.
Alvin Greene, a 32 year-old unemployed veteran, won 60% of votes at the Democratic primary. His inexperience in politics and minimal campaigning strategy gave rise to many questions and conspiracy theories. Given Greene’s simplistic interviewing responses, the question of why he won is still unanswered. Did Greene win because his name was first on the ballot? Was he planted by the Republican party? How does an unemployed man, living with his father after being discharged from the Air Force fund a $10,440 filing fee with little to no fund-raising? What are the details to his felony obscenity charge from his arrest last year? Keith Olbermann addresses these questions in an interview on MSNBC:
