A Liberal's Hit List: Sep 12, 2009

‘$64,000 Question’ Email Says Congress is Exempt from Health Reform. They're Not.

Saturday, September 12, 2009

By Angie Drobnic Holan
PolitiFact

A chain e-mail claims that Congress has exempted itself from health care reform.

The e-mail appears to have been created shortly after President Obama appeared in a forum on health care with Charlie Gibson of ABC News, an event that took place on June 24, 2009.

It has the subject line, "The $64,000 Question." (For you young whippersnappers, The $64,000 Question was a popular game show that aired in the 1950s and revived in the 1970s as The $128,000 Question.)

Here's the text of the e-mail:

"Finally ... The $64,000 question was asked ... Yesterday on ABC TV (better known as the all Barack Channel) during the 'Network Special on Health Care' ... Obama was asked:

"'Mr. President, will you and your family give up your current health care program and join the new "universal health care program" that the rest of us will be on????' ... (Bet you already know the answer) ... There was a stoney silence as Obama ignored the question and chose not to answer it!!!

"In addition, a number of senators were asked the same question, and their response was ... 'We will think about it.' And they did. It was announced today on the news that the 'Kennedy Health Care Bill' was written into the new health care reform initiative ensuring that Congress will be 100 percent exempt!

"So, this great new health care plan that is good for you and I ... is not good enough for Obama, his family or Congress...?? We (the American public) need to stop this proposed debacle ASAP!!!! ... This is totally wrong!!!!!

"Personally, I can only accept a universal health care overhaul that extends to everyone ... Not just us lowly citizens ... While the Washington 'elite' keep right with their gold-plated health care coverage. If you agree please pass this on ... "...(Remainder.)

Abortion Protester is Killed in Michigan

All I can say is...GOOD!

By Emma Graves Fitzsimmons
The New York Times

A man who had long opposed abortion and was known nationally among anti-abortion protesters was shot to death Friday morning while staging a protest outside a Michigan high school, the authorities said.

Leaders of anti-abortion groups said they knew of no other instance in which a person protesting against abortion had been killed. In May, Dr. George R. Tiller, an abortion provider in Kansas, was shot to death in a crime that renewed debate over the use of violence in the abortion battle.

The protester, identified as James Pouillon, 63, was one of two people, the authorities said, who were shot dead Friday by the same man in Owosso, a city of fewer than 15,000 people about 10 miles west of Flint, Mich. The other victim, a local businessman, was not connected to the anti-abortion movement, the authorities said.

A suspect was arrested and charged in both killings.

Troy Newman, the president of the national anti-abortion group Operation Rescue, which had condemned Dr. Tiller’s death, said he was saddened by the death Mr. Pouillon, whom he had known for more than 15 years.

“There is very little, if any, common ground between pro-abortion and pro-life people,” Mr. Newman said. “One thing we had in common after Dr. Tiller’s death, there was a unilateral cry against violence....(Remainder.)

New Push to Outlaw Germany's Neo-Nazi Party

By Spiegel
Photo: Reuters

Right wing extremist political party, the NPD, was re-elected in Saxony two weeks ago. Now a leading politician in Bavaria wants to seek a national ban on them. But his push is causing political conflict. Because while most German politicians want to stop the NPD, they can't decide how best to do so.

The far-right National Democratic Party (NPD) recently made gains in state elections in Saxony. Now a politician in the German state of Bavaria wants to launch a new bid to ban them.

"Bavaria will not just look on as the NPD, an enemy of the constitution, drives to establish itself," Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann, a member of the conservative Christian Social Union (CSU), told the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper.

By pushing to take the case to Germany's highest court, the CSU, which rules Bavaria in a coalition with the Free Democratic party (FDP), is breaking ranks with its sister party, Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU). The CDU in no way supports or endorses the NPD and would be pleased to see it disappear from the political stage altogether. But the CDU wants to avoid another failure to ban the group at Germany's Federal Constitutional Court. They would prefer simply to wait until the party is pushed back into the margins of society or for a more opportune time to launch another offensive against them....(Remainder.)

Washington State Towns Battle Over Glenn Beck, Jon Stewart

By Daniel Tencer
The Raw Story

Two Washington state cities are taking the battle of the news pundits personally.

Responding to a plan by the city of Mount Vernon, Washington, to declare September 26 "Glenn Beck Day," in honor of the Fox News host and radio personality, the mayor of nearby Bellingham has decided to retaliate by offering the key to his city to Daily Show host Jon Stewart.

While it may seem odd for there to be a political battle over two national TV figures in small cities along the Interstate-5 corridor north of Seattle, both Stewart and Beck have connections to the places. Beck is a native son of Mount Vernon, and attended middle school and high school in Bellingham. Jon Stewart attended the same New Jersey high school as the current mayor of Bellingham, Dan Pike.

"Jon Stewart's a much better journalist than Glenn Beck is and he doesn't pretend to be," Pike told KGMI radio in Bellingham. "Glenn Beck frankly is an entertainer, from my perspective, who doesn't rely on accuracy in what he does."

Pike told the Bellingham Herald: "I actually think Jon Stewart does a lot better reporting."...(Remainder.)

Sarah Palin: Neocon Pawn?

The same old hawks recruit Palin to pressure Obama on Afghanistan, while ignoring their own past.

By David Corn
Mother Jones

Here come the neocons again—and this time with Sarah Palin.

A group of conservative foreign policy advocates—including a bevy of neoconservatives—this week sent President Barack Obama a letter urging him to stand firm in Afghanistan and vowing their support for him (on Afghanistan) if he did so. The letter was organized by the Foreign Policy Initiative, a think tank put together by leading neoconservatives Bill Kristol and Robert Kagan, and signers included the pair and such neocon stalwarts as David Frum, Max Boot, Robert Kagan, John Podhoretz, Clifford May, Danielle Pletka, Randy Scheunemann, Dan Senor, and Gary Schmitt. But two high-profile right-wingers also added their names: Sarah Palin and Karl Rove.

The letter is reminiscent of the neocons' efforts before the Iraq War to whip up support for US military action against Saddam Hussein, an effort promoted by Kristol's think tank of the time—the Project for a New American Century. But Palin's involvement makes this recent letter more intriguing than the usual rerun. After all, some conservative intellectuals dismissed Palin when she was Senator John McCain's running mate—partly because of her apparently flimsy knowledge of foreign policy (she once referred to Afghanistan as "our neighboring country")....(Remainder.)

Boustany & Other Republicans Say Health Care Plan Would Create 53 New Gov't Bureaucracies

By Robert Farley
PolitiFact

In the Republican response to President Barack Obama's address on health care before a joint session of Congress on Sept. 9, 2009, U.S. Rep. Charles Boustany, R-La., a heart surgeon by profession, repeated a popular Republican talking point, saying the health care reform bill introduced in the House would "create 53 new government bureaucracies."

This claim originates with a detailed list complied by the House Republican Conference, which you can view here.

Fifty-three new bureaucracies sounds like a lot, and the list is so specific, we decided to dig into it to see if it's legitimate.

"Bureaucracy" can mean different things to different people, so we began with a trip to the Merriam-Webster dictionary to set some parameters. It defines it like this: "a body of nonelective government officials; an administrative policy-making group; government characterized by specialization of functions, adherence to fixed rules, and a hierarchy of authority; a system of administration marked by officialism, red tape, and proliferation."

So, to the list...

The first two are no-doubt-abouters. No. 1 is a Health Benefits Advisory Committee (Section 123, Pg. 30). This is a new panel of experts that will make recommendations to the secretary of Health and Human Services on covered health benefits. It's an advisory board, but a new entity nonetheless. New bureaucracy, check.

No. 2 on the list is the creation of a Health Choices Administration (Section 141, Pg. 41). This is a biggie. The Health Choices Administration would be an independent executive branch agency charged with establishing qualified plan standards, creating the health insurance exchange and administering affordability credits for low-income people. New bureaucracy, check....(Remainder.)

The Retarded Baby Jesus Likes to Spend Time at Whorehouses

From the Bunny Ranch in Nevada.

From a Joe Wilson Town Hall

By Jed Lewison
Daily Kos

Outgassing

By Pat Bagley
Salt Lake Tribune

David Frum: GOP Surrenders to Beck's Mob Rule

By Mark
News Corpse

In a column that portends a possible recovery by Republicans from their lunatic stupor, David Frum, resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and erstwhile conservative icon, has composed a defense of sanity over the "recklessness and political cowardice" represented by the Glenn Becks of the world. Frum's commentary is supportive of the Cass Sunstein nomination (confirmed yesterday by the Senate) that has drawn attacks from Beck despite being hailed by respected conservatives and free-market economists. Here are a couple of excerpts:

"Glenn Beck is not the first to make a pleasant living for himself by reckless defamation. We have seen his kind before in American journalism and American politics, and the good news is that their careers never last long. But the bad news is that while their careers do last, such people do terrible damage."

~~~

"We conservatives are submitting our movement to some of the most unscrupulous people in American life. This submission disgraces conservatism, discredits Republicans, and damages the country. It's beyond time for conservatives who know better to join us at NewMajority in emancipating ourselves from leadership by the most stupid, the most cynical, and the most truthless."

Well said, David. But on this morning, when much of the conservative rabble is applauding the childish antics of Rep. Joe Wilson (who heckled President Obama's speech on Wednesday), it may be tougher than you think to wean these wankers off of their adulation of clowns like Beck, Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachmann, and Joe the Plumber. But good luck to you....(Remainder.)

Reichsführer Beck's Vision for Ground Zero

By Glynnis MacNicol
Mediaite

Today Glenn Beck unveiled his vision for Ground Zero. If Beck were in charge, One World Trade Center would take the form of two towers, each twenty-five stories taller than the original with a “big fat ‘come and try that again’ sign on top.” Also, they would have been completed years ago — using the “bare hands” of Beck and his viewers — and would “built them in a way that they would have resisted attack.” Furthermore, the towers would have retained the name “Freedom Tower” because Beck does not kowtow to the Chinese. Details of this ambitious vision begin at 6:33....(Original.)

Don't let this bastard's false emotion fool you. He doesn't give two shits about the United States and 9/11. Case in point:

Colo Radio Host Boyles ‘Spends Hours‘ Studying Health Bill, Gets EVERYTHING Wrong

By Joseph Boven
The Colorado Independent

On Thursday's radio show, KHOW's right-wing host Peter Boyles claimed that the Democratic health reform bill, H.R. 3200, contains Orwellian euphemisms. He said that, contrary to Pres. Obama's statements to a joint session of Congress last night, the bill finances abortions and covers illegal aliens but that it calls abortions "pregnancy reversals" and illegal aliens "undocumented visitors." But Boyles was either making that up out of whole cloth or he was led astray by an unreliable source, just as he was leading his own listeners astray.

The terms "pregnancy reversal" and "undocumented visitor" appear nowhere in the text of H.R. 3200.

Commenting on Pres. Obama's address to Congress, Boyles agreed with Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., who screamed "You lie!" during the president's address. Wilson believes undocumented immigrants would be awarded benefits under the Obama health-reform package.

Boyles made a show of fact-checking the president:

The president also follows up with how it doesn't cover abortions. I have read the bill, it covers pregnancy reversals. It doesn't cover illegal's but it covers undocumented visitors. Challenge me…..call the show tell me where I am wrong. I spent hours doing this. Tell me where it doesn't cover illegal's. The treatment of non-citizens in H.R. 3200 states definitely there are no restrictions on non-U.S. citizens."

Nadler, Baldwin & Polis to Introduce Legislation to Repeal DOMA

By 365 Gay

Next Tuesday, Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Chair of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), and Congressman Jared Polis (D-CO) will introduce legislation to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), a law which discriminates against lawfully married same-sex couples.

The legislators will be joined by married same-sex couples harmed by DOMA and many of the country’s premier LGBT and civil rights advocates in a press conference to announce the new bill, at 11:00am on Tuesday, September 15, 2009, at the House Triangle, near the southern steps of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.

Through DOMA, which was signed into law 13 years ago, on September 21, 1996, the federal government singles out legally married same-sex couples for discriminatory treatment under federal law, selectively denying them more than 1,100 federal protections and responsibilities – including Social Security and immigration benefits – that otherwise apply to married couples. This policy is discriminatory and harmful to families, preventing the government from honoring its legal commitments and the needs of families, even though these couples have assumed the obligations of civil marriage under state law and contribute as citizens and taxpayers.

President Obama has said recently: “I stand by my long-standing commitment to work with Congress to repeal the so-called Defense of Marriage Act. It’s discriminatory, it interferes with States’ rights, and it’s time we overturned it.” Married gay and lesbian couples pay taxes, serve their communities, and raise children like other couples. Their contributions and needs are no different from those of their neighbors. The new legislation will ensure that couples who assume the serious legal duties of marriage are treated fairly under federal law. The specifics of this legislation will be announced on Tuesday....(Remainder.)

Dem Leaders Push for Wilson Censure

By Glenn Thrush
Politico

Joe Wilson’s flat refusal to apologize to the entire House for heckling President Barack Obama rekindled a push by some top Democrats to introduce a censure resolution — despite Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s refusal to consider the idea on Thursday.

Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) are considering the move after Wilson adamantly refused to offer a mea culpa in the well of the House.

Clyburn buttonholed him on the floor and asked him three times to publicly renounce his “You lie!” outburst, according to my colleague Victoria McGrane.

“If he had just said he was sorry, nobody would be considering any of this,” added a senior Democratic aide. The aide said it was too late to push for a resolution this week — and that any resolution would hit the floor next week, giving Wilson more time to reconsider his decision.

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), who has also leaned on Wilson, has been talking to Hoyer about the possible scenarios, staffers say.

Boehner himself pressured Wilson, but it’s highly unlikely any Republicans would back a censure resolution, GOP aides tell me....(Remainder.)

Fox's Morning Idiot Fest, Fox & Friends, Lies in Saying DOJ Not Pursing Outing of CIA Assets

By Media Matters

While discussing the John Adams Project -- an ACLU initiative that allegedly took pictures of CIA interrogators and allowed defense lawyers for detainees at Guantánamo Bay to show them to detainees -- frequent Fox News guest and former CIA operative Wayne Simmons claimed that the Justice Department will "stand idly by and allow this illegal outing of potentially covert CIA operatives," to which Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade agreed that the "White House, the administration, should move against" the group. In fact, the Justice Department reportedly already opened an investigation into the allegations, which was not mentioned by any Fox & Friends host....(Remainder.)

Fox & Frauds Advances Lie of Democratic "Double Standard" Over Joe "KKK" Wilson's Outburst

Uruguay Allows Same-Sex Adoption

By BBC News

Same-sex couples in Uruguay will be able to adopt children following the approval of a controversial bill by the country's senate.

The move means Uruguay becomes the first Latin American country to allow gay couples the chance to adopt.

Some 17 of 23 senators voted in favour of the new legislation, AFP reports.

The change - opposed by the Catholic Church - is the latest in a series of liberalising measures supported by left-wing President Tabare Vazquez.

The archbishop of Montevideo, Nicolas Cotugno, said before the vote that it would be a "serious error to accept the adoption of children by homosexual couples".

"It's not about religion, philosophy or sociology. It's something which is mainly about the respect of human nature itself," he said in a statement quoted by AFP.

Under the new law, the power to make decisions on adoptions shifts from judges to the national Institute of Children and Adolescents....(Remainder.)

Anonymous Calls Scientology About Homosexuality

The Retarded Baby Jesus Tells More Bald-Faced Lies: Koh Wants Sharia Law

By Media Matters

In the past four editions of his Fox News program, Sean Hannity has claimed that State Department legal adviser Harold Koh "advocates the use Sharia law in America." In fact, that characterization -- originated by a lawyer who claimed that at a 2007 event, Koh said that Sharia law "could, in an appropriate instance ... govern a controversy in a federal or state court in the US" -- has been disputed by both the host of the event where Koh purportedly spoke about Sharia law and by Koh himself....(Remainder.)

Partisan Hacks at Reichsministerium für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda, aka Fox News, Accuse Obama of Partisanship

By Media Matters

Responding to President Obama's September 9 speech to Congress on health care reform, in which Obama denounced "bogus claims spread by those whose only agenda is to kill reform," Sean Hannity, Karl Rove, and Fox News legal analyst Peter Johnson Jr. asserted that the speech was, in Hannity's words, "full of partisan hackery." But Hannity, Rove, and Johnson have each repeatedly fearmongered or advanced false attacks while discussing health care reform, including the charges that reform would deny care for the elderly or that the administration is encouraging military veterans to end their lives....(Remainder.)

Portland's Bishop and Homophobic Ass-Weasel, Thinks His Fairytale 'Sacrament' Too Good For Gays

By Querty

Watch Portland's Roman Catholic Bishop Richard Malone, who's been very busy attacking Maine's same-sex marriage laws, deliver his latest argument for protecting the institution of the highway to divorce. And here's what you'll come away with: The reason religious types cannot back down from the gay marriage debate is they fail to see the separation between church and state. They want their tax-exempt status, but won't stay out of purely secular matters. Marriage, friends, has only as much to do with faith as you want it. But for legal purposes? Jesus has no say.

In your church, Mr. Malone, marriage may have been "elevated as a blessed sacrament." But in our world, it's just a piece of paper, responsible only to man-made governments, that gives us our rights. If any person of faith — gay, straight, or otherwise — wants to attach religious meaning to marriage, that's their choice.

But to actively denigrate gay Americans, as somehow being less than and unworthy of your "blessed sacrament" is, pastor, very un-Christian of you....(Original.)

Democrats Could Go It Alone on Health Care, Udall Says After Obama Meeting

By Ernest Luning
The Colorado Independent

Senate Democrats could be ready to draft health care reform legislation without the help of Republicans, according to Colorado Sen. Mark Udall, who spoke with reporters Thursday afternoon following a meeting Udall, Sen. Michael Bennet and 15 other Democratic senators held with President Barack Obama.

“At some point, after you’ve extended your hand for a number of months and it’s not reciprocated,” Udall said, “I think it is incumbent on us as the majority party, with responsibility to govern and solve problems, to act.”

The group of self-described centrist Democrats summoned to the White House the day after Obama’s congressional address on health care reform has virtually the same membership as a working group formed in March “to pursue moderate, mainstream and fiscally sustainable policies.”

Health care legislation will have to rein in spending and has the potential to make the country more competitive by draining less of the nation’s wealth, said Bennet, who also spoke with reporters on the brief conference call after the White House meeting.

“I am extremely confident that we are working toward a piece of legislation that, when it is passed, will be able to achieve those objectives,” he said.

The group of senators didn’t spend much time talking about the public option — a flash point for opponents of Democratic proposals and a sticking point for some conservative Democrats balking at Obama’s plan — even though there was a range of opinions in the room, Bennet said....(Remainder.)

The Retarded Baby Jesus Wrongly Claims Obama Called Insurance Execs "Bad People"

By Media Matters

On his Fox News show, Sean Hannity falsely claimed that President Obama said during his health care speech that insurance company executives are "bad people," and that Obama's remarks "took [Hannity] back because it was so harsh." In fact, as was made clear by the video Hannity himself showed, Obama said just the opposite -- that "[i]nsurance executives don't [treat their customers badly] because they're bad people; they do it because it's profitable."...(Remainder.)

Caroline Heldman Slams The Retarded Baby Jesus' "Idiotic" Death Panel Claims

King of Right-Wing Nazi Jingoism, The Pig-Man, Pushes Death Panels & Compares Obama to Castro

Rachel Maddow Examines Reichsführer Beck's Exploitation of 9/11 for Propaganda Purposes

Jim "Donkey Smegma for Brains" Quinn Says Sunstein is a "Nazi"

Obergruppenführer & Traitor, Ralph Peters, Claims Obama Doesn't Think 9/11 a "Big Deal"

Reichsminister Rove Advances Fascist Propaganda & Lies About Obama's Address

By Media Matters

Purporting to examine President Obama's health care speech, Karl Rove claimed that while discussing "the so-called lies and misstatements about his proposal," Obama "made a series of very glaring misstatements or distortions." In fact, it was Rove who was advancing falsehoods and distortions....(Remainder.)

Rep. Barney Frank Says No Point in Talking to Repiglickins and GOP

By Heather
Crooks and Liars

Rachel Maddow talks to Congressman Barney Frank about the President's speech, the Republican response and whether there's any point in negotiating with them given how far to the right the Republican party is now.

Some of the better parts of this interview- Frank on Joe Wilson’s outburst:

I’d say what Wilson did was a mark of their frustration and you know, Barack Obama is a big boy. I think I must say that any Republican, particularly a Joe Wilson who’d want to get into a debate with Barack Obama is tugging on Superman’s cape and pulling the Lone Ranger’s mask, but if that’s what he wants to do… free country.

On bipartisanship:

The Republicans represent an extremely conservative faction and the notion that those of us who won the election with a solid majority should compromise 50/50 with those who won’t… well then why have elections?

[…..]

[T]his annoys me a little bit, this kind of like, I’m above the battle. I think the President underestimated when he came into office exactly how right wing the Republicans are and I’m glad he asked them today to join. I have no great hopes for it because they are in the control of the most conservative, knowing how right wing the Republican party has become, my only bad moment with Barack Obama during the campaign was when he said he was going to be post-partisan, and I got post-partisan depression, because I knew that that meant dealing with these people.

[…..]

Again, I think they forced him to get to the basics. I think he may have thought that they were more reasonable than they are. This collection of loons that you scrolled down there, I’ve got to say those people, if anybody needs a health plan in America, it’s those people who are in severe need of mental health services.

Reichsministerium für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda, Fox News, Continues to Attack Sunstein With Lies

By Media Matters

Continuing Fox News' witch hunt against Obama administration nominees and officials whom they have labeled "czars," Glenn Beck falsely claimed that Cass Sunstein, President Obama's nominee to head the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, has said "you must be an organ donor" and "you should not be able to remove rats from your home if it causes them any pain," and Fox News reporter James Rosen also distorted Sunstein's writings about organ donation and animal rights. In fact, Sunstein advocated for reforms to the organ donation system, but not for mandatory donation, and he did not advocate against rat removal....(Remainder.)

Right-Wing Hack Stossel Leaving ABC for Faux News

By The Huffington Post

John Stossel is leaving ABC News for Fox, where he'll host a weekly show on Fox Business and host a series of specials for Fox News.

TVNewser reports that the libertarian "20/20" host is expected to sign a multi-year-deal with Fox, where he'll host a two-hour weekly show on Fox Business and make appearances on Fox News in both the daytime and primetime hours.

Stossel's departure comes on the heels of last week's announcement that Charlie Gibson is retiring from ABC News.

ABC released the following statement on Stossel's departure:

John has been an important part of the ABC News family for decades and we will miss him. He has engaged, and occasionally enraged, our audience with thought provoking opinions and analysis. John is a unique figure in American journalism and will be an asset to Fox News in this next chapter of his terrific career. We wish John the very best and look forward to hearing his take on the great issues of the day from his new home at Fox.

Reichsministerium für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda Spreads Teabagging Propaganda Against Dems

By Media Matters

Since Barack Obama's inauguration, Fox News has frequently engaged in political advocacy against the Democratic Congress and White House. Specifically, Fox News personalities have promoted and encouraged viewers to "join" tea party protests, Glenn Beck's organization The 9-12 Project and its September 12 "March on Washington," and town hall meetings; engaged in a witch hunt seeking to "get rid of" Obama administration officials and nominees; implored viewers to call Congress and the White House to protest Democratic policies; and celebrated "victor[ies]" when Democratic legislation has been stalled....(Remainder.)

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