Well Done FOX, Your Lies are Working

Americans are not the 'sharpest knives in the international cutlery drawer.' This is well known world wide. I travel a lot, believe me. If you doubt me, watch this video. Now, lets try to figure out why Americans are not really known for their superior gray matter.

Two polls came out this week, one by Daily Kos and the other by NBC. By joining these two polls - the first about who watches FOX News, MSNBC or CNN and the later which shows the misconceptions on Obama's health bill - one can deduce that Republicans are most often wrong about the issues surrounding the proposed health bill and they are getting the majority of their news from FOX. The grain of salt to take along with these numbers is this: the first poll is by a progressive organization and the second by FOX's competitor. So read this from the pro-corporate, conservative Wall Street Journal:

Nearly half of Americans believe that a proposed overhaul of the health care system means the government will decide when to stop providing medical treatment to senior citizens, according to the latest polling by NBC News released this evening.

Some 45% said they believe the plan is likely to include such a provision that has become known as “death panels” despite bipartisan efforts by President Barack Obama and the provision’s author, Republican Georgia Sen. Johnny Isakson to dispel the idea. (Isakson, in a recent interview with the Washington Post called the confusion “nuts.”)

To be sure, 50% of respondents said they believe the bill was unlikely to include such a provision, but the deep split over the veracity of “death panels” underscores the difficulty Democrats have had in selling their overhaul to the public.

Further, a majority of Americans (55%) believe the bill will extend health insurance coverage to illegal immigrants even though no proposals currently under negotiation would do so. An equally high number (54%) believe the overhaul will lead to a “complete” government takeover of the health care system, although there is also no actual proposal for that, either.

Additionally, 50% believe that the overhaul will use federal tax dollars to pay for abortions. While it is unclear if the final bill would do so, current law bans federal funds from being used to fund abortion except in cases of rape, incest, or to save the mother’s life. The president has said he is not interested in expanding abortion rights in the health care package. “I’m pro-choice, but I think we also have the tradition in this town, historically, of not financing abortions as part of government-funded health care,” Obama said in a July interview with CBS.

Americans are also sharply divided on the town hall meetings taking place during the August recess, with 43% of respondents saying the often disruptive and angry encounters with lawmakers—focused mainly on health care—are doing “more harm than good” while 42% said they are doing “more good than harm.” The meetings, however, have also captivated Americans, some 85% of which said they have “seen, heard, or read” news coverage of the events.

As for the president’s approval on handling the health care issue, his numbers are virtually unchanged from last month with 41% saying then and now that they approve of the job he’s doing. While 46% in July said they disapprove, now 47% said the same.

Despite the headwinds Democrats are facing on health care, the NBC poll offers little in the way of good news for their Republican opponents. By a nearly three-to-one margin, 62%-21%, Americans said they disapprove of the way Republicans in Congress are handling health care reform.

The poll, conducted Aug. 15-17 of 805 adults, has a 3.5% margin of error. The full poll results are posted at msnbc.com.

Wall Street Journal

And the War on... Something Continues

Within hours of Barack Obama's swearing into the office of the presidency, unmanned American drones like the one above, called Predators, honed in on villages in Pakistan, near the border with Afghanistan, striking like silent intruders in the night, against suspected terrorists.

Early accounts of casualties varied from a dozen to more than 20 dead and wounded. One Pakistani security official told THE WASHINGTON POST that perhaps ten insurgents had been killed, maybe even a high value target, a senior member of al Qaeda or the Taliban.

Then the TIMES of London quoted locals who said "... three children lost their lives" when the missiles destroyed several homes. Since last August, 38 suspected U.S. missile strikes have killed at least 132 people in Pakistan.

One of the main problems, for those keeping track, is we are not at war with Pakistan. In fact, for those listening carefully, Pakistan is our ally who we have given over $6 billion dollars to since 2001. According to CNN:

Pakistan is the largest recipient of payments from the Coalition Support Funds, which gives money to 27 partner countries to help combat terrorism.

Still waiting for that change Obama. I know our allies are as well.

Much of this was taken from Bill Moyers Journal, January 30, 2009.

Accountability Returns to Washington

What?!?! A president who takes responsibility for a possible mistake and apologizing? I knew this country would fall apart if the liberals took control. Obama, who campaigned against 'business as usual' in Washington, apologized for his support of Tom Daschle after Daschle dropped out as a possibility for Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Daschle, the former Senate Democratic leader, is in trouble for not paying taxes on a "gift" of a limo and driver. I heard a good Republican joke that went something like this, "Why do Democrats favor raising taxes? Because they don't pay them themselves."

I'm beginning to accept that most who enter politics will eventually get corrupted, but the irony in this case is amusing. So Daschle "forgot" to pay $146,000 in taxes for this limo/driver while not too long ago, ran this ad in South Dakota.






Daschle's withdrawal came just hours after Nancy Killefer, Obama's nominee to be chief performance officer, withdrew her nomination following the revelation that she had a $946.69 lien on her property in 2005 for failure to pay taxes.

A President Who Gets It

Rep. John Murtha: President Obama took the first key step in restoring America's image and credibility in the world by issuing an Executive Order to close the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay and to prohibit the use of torture by U.S. personnel. I applaud his judgment and I wholeheartedly support this decision. The Bush administration never understood what the Guantanamo detention facility symbolized to the rest of the world. They saw it as simply a prison, and just weeks ago, Dick Cheney commented that he thought "Guantanamo has been very well run." The problem with Guantanamo was never about its bricks and mortar. The problem with Guantanamo is that its very existence stains and defies the moral fiber of our great nation.

Read more of what this congress person has to say here at the Huffington Post

(Murtha was the first Vietnam War veteran elected to the U.S. House)

America's Credability Comeback

On November 4th, the front page of the Pravda online newspaper's lead story's headline read:

Eight years of hell are over

Well, Russia may not be our best friend after eight years of Bush, but what is the rest of the world thinking? If you are not a regular reader of international press, this video sums it up pretty well.

The ROP is Even Mean to Kids!

Thanks Mark Z. of Chico

Bush Street Renamed

From the SFist (thanks for sending this Erika):

In the spirit of change, Bush Street got a makeover over the weekend. We suspect Hogarthian vandals at work here.

Update: Tim Redmond has the scoop: This is the work of local artist Alex Zecca. It seems Zecca "managed to get all the way from Presidio to Grant" with this rechristening effort before the fuzz made him remove all the stickers. Heh.

Bush Street highlighted in red.

The Fall of Capitalism

I remember when the Ronald Reagan myth was being created, the one where the fearless cowboy flew like Superman across the Atlantic in his red, white and blue spandex to single handedly punch the lights out of Communism/Socialism. I remember thinking, "this is a survival-of-the-fittest war between Socialism and Capitalism and Socialism died a minute before Capitalism fell to its knees and perished." Well, it seems that minute has passed.

Now we have an airport named after this bad man, but that is besides the point. The point is this: where does capitalism go from here, if it can go anywhere? The banks failed us due to deregulation. This is a fact that most sane people understand. These people who failed us, bankers and politicians on both sides of the isle (if you really still believe there are two sides) are not clipping coupons this morning. They are not wondering how they are going to pay for their x-rays like I was two days ago. They are not wondering how they will support their soon to be retired mother. I promise you, they are not. But, we the tax payers are going to give them over $800 billion for their crimes. Americans are not viewed as the sharpest knives in the cutlery draw.

So our banking system is nationalized (that's a soft word for socialism). We are borrowing money for a socialist country to bail out our failed capitalist system. Let me repeat that with a bolded font isolated on the white 'page' of this blog with the Block Quote button:

We are borrowing money for a Socialist country
to bail out our broken Capitalist Economy!

I have listened to some of the smartest economists in the world and they are all saying the same thing. I don't think this can be debated, at least amongst truthful, non-partisan, half intelligent, sane people.

I bring this up not only for the irony, but also for this question: where do we go from here? Even if this country pulls its head out of its behind and actually elects Obama, how can he turn this country around like Clinton did in the early 80s? That is my question. How?

If the World Could Vote

If the world could vote for the president of the USA, Obama would get nearly 100% of the vote according to this Economist Magazine web poll. And why shouldn't they be allowed to vote? When our polititians deregulate the financial markets, the world suffers. When we illegally invade other countries, the world balance is thrown off.

Georgia, Moldova, Macedonia and the Communist island of Cuba are the only four countries that would vote McCain and those are by narrow margins. Interesting website (thanks Thea for sending it).

Voting Has Started in Ohio

Please, please make sure you are registered to vote. In California, you can find out if you are registered in about 3 minutes at this site: Vote For Change.

Voting as already begun in Ohio and this NPR radio story gave me some hope: Quirk in Ohio Law Permits Same-Day Voting. You can stream this story for free at that site.

Here is a good streaming NPR story about ex-pats voting in Isreal: Obama, McCain Court Voters in Isreal.

Please checked that you are registered TODAY! Our country could depend on it.

Should We Be Surprised McCain is Lying?

I'm really not sure what scares me more, the fact that John McCain is lying and distorting truth so much it is tough to keep count, or that I accept it as something Republicans do? After almost eight years of the Bush Administration's lies, I am used to being misled. It is what the US government does. When I hear the Department of Defense claim that they killed thirty suspected Taliban fighters in Afghanistan, I instinctively translate that to mean something more like ninety Afghan civilians, including over fifty children (which was what Afghan officials are claiming happened in a US led air strike in the village of Azizabad last week). Ironically it seems a man named Oliver North is the one in the center of the lies this time. This now Fox News correspondent was indicted and then later pardoned in the 1980s for lying to Congress about the Iran-Contra scandal during on of our past Republican administration under Ronald Reagan.

Why are the left so surprised that McCain is lying? Shouldn't we expect this from these Rove Republicans?

One Step Closer to True Equality in the USA

Last night the Democratic Party made history by nominating the first major-party African-American candidate for President, Barack Obama.

If anything, this decision gives me hope that over 500 years of European centric racism could be coming to an end in the USA. Won't end overnight but I feel that if Barak can be our president, we will see a light at the end of the tunnel. I've encountered way too many racists this year, some my own blood. Segregation continued in this country legally until the year I was born, 1967. This campaign gives me hope that we are turning a corner to realize Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream, similar to the dream of Ethiopean President Haile Selassie as illustrated in a speech to the UN in 1963:

That until the philosophy which holds one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned: That until there are no longer first-class and second class citizens of any nation; That until the color of a man's skin is of no more significance than the color of his eyes; That until the basic human rights are equally guaranteed to all without regard to race; That until that day, the dream of lasting peace and world citizenship and the rule of international morality will remain but a fleeting illusion, to be pursued but never attained...

Assasination Attempt on Obama (Already?) or Racism Still Strong in America

This from the Huffington Post:

[An] update from CBS4 in Denver: "CBS4 has now learned at least four people are under arrest in connection with a possible plot to kill Barack Obama at his Thursday night acceptance speech in Denver. All are being held on either drug or weapons charges. CBS4 Investigator Brian Maass reported one of the suspects told authorities they were 'going to shoot Obama from a high vantage point using a ... rifle ... sighted at 750 yards.'

"Law enforcement sources tell Maass that one of the suspects 'was directly asked if they had come to Denver to kill Obama. He responded in the affirmative.'"

The rest of the story is here.

Inflating Tires Does Beat Drilling

Coastal and Arctic National Wildlife Refuge drilling combined will save you six of these in 2030, that's a plan!?

I couldn't have said better than Bill Scher who wrote this on The Huffington Post:

Yes Conservatives, Inflated Tires Beats Coastal Drilling

Posted August 4, 2008 | 01:01 PM (EST)

The latest conservative lie -- regarding Sen. Barack Obama and fuel efficiency -- actually has a great amount of truth to it.

On Thursday, conservative radio host Sean Hannity claimed Obama said, "All you need to do is inflate your tires. That's all you need to do. If every American would join in this effort, of inflating one's tires, then it's all going to be fine. And we can still import 70% of our oil from Saudi Arabia. Just keep those tires inflated."

Conservatives -- lovers of childish mockery over substantive ideas -- later today are apparently planning to distribute tire gauges at an Obama energy event.

And earlier today on MSNBC's Morning Joe, conservative hack economist (who does not hold an economics degree) Larry Kudlow, a very loud advocate of coastal drilling, said of Obama's comments about tires, "That's not really much of a policy."

No, it's not. That was Obama's point.

Obama's actual comment last week was:

...we could save all the oil they're talking about getting off drilling, if everybody was just inflating their tires, and getting regular tune-ups. You could actually save just as much.

He was decidedly not saying "all you need to do" is inflate your ties, or "my entire energy policy" is inflating your tires.

(Obama has a much larger energy plan -- articulated in a sweeping speech today -- centered on investment in renewable energy and fuel efficiency technology. Similarly, it would not be fair to say Sen. John McCain's "entire" energy policy is coastal drilling, when he is also advocating loosening regulations on nuclear power and a contest to promote battery technology.)

Obama was observing that coastal drilling would save us so little oil and so little money even twenty years from now, that you can actually save more money immediately by doing "simple things" such as keeping your tires properly inflated.

Where did he get that crazy idea? From George Bush's Energy Department and Environmental Protection Agency. (hat tip: Get Energy Smart! Now!)

Their joint site fueleconomy.gov is loaded with fuel-saving, money-saving tips. Keep your tires properly inflated, for example, and you can save up to 12 cents a gallon.

Compare that immediate savings from that single tip, with what coastal and Arctic National Wildlife Refuge drilling combined would get you two decades from now: 6 cents a gallon.

And that's being generous, because Bush's Energy Department says we can't expect any impact on prices from coastal drilling until the year 2030.

In their knee-jerk mockery, conservatives are flying closer to the truth then they intend to.

Inflating your ties does not amount to an energy policy. It's just more of a policy than coastal drilling, since unlike drilling for a tiny amount of oil, it would at least save us some money now.

A real energy policy would provide us consumers with a energy choice besides buying huge amounts of increasingly expensive oil. Maybe if conservative Senators stopped filibustering every proposal that would help provide such choices, and force their Big Oil donors to face some competition, we could get somewhere.

Check out Campaign for America's Future Making Sense alerts on coastal drilling and gas prices for more.

Freedom Juice for Saudi Arabia

Paris Hilton for President

I have been receiving some of the most ridiculous videos attacking Barack Obama from conservative relatives of mine (NeoCons, not fiscal conservatives. Those are other relatives of mine). One went on and on about Barack's middle name, Hussein (hope none of these NeoCons drink Coors beer. It was invented by Adolph Coors). Is that the best these petty aggressors can do?

John McCain recently made a ludicrous attack advertisement comparing Obama to Paris Hilton. Guess McSame forgot that Paris Hilton's parents have donated a fair amount of money to his campaign. Now he has made another enemy.

Here is McCain's attack ad.

And lets remember, Obama is a 'celebrity' because the people like him. McCain tried to be a celebrity by making cameos in movies like Wedding Crashers and TV shows like 24.

Some of Barack Obama's Accomplishments

The whole 'Barack Obama has no experience' is getting a bit tired. Here is a bit of what Senator Obama has done in his life.

1983 B.A. Columbia University political science with a specialization in international relations

Worked as a community organizer for three years in Chicago
(During his three years as the program's director of this church-based organization, its staff grew from 1 to 13 and its annual budget grew from $70,000 to $400,000, with accomplishments including helping set up a job training program, a college preparatory tutoring program, and a tenants' rights organization)

Obama traveled to Europe and Africa on a personal trip.

1991 J.D. Harvard (magna cum laude)
(Obama entered Harvard Law School in late 1988 and at the end of his first year was selected as an editor of the law review based on his grades and a writing competition. In his second year he was elected president of the law review, a full-time volunteer position functioning as editor-in-chief and supervising the law review's staff of 80 editors. Obama's election in February 1990 as the first black president of the Harvard Law Review was widely reported and followed by several long, detailed profiles.)

Obama directed Illinois Project Vote from April to October 1992, a voter registration drive with a staff of 10 and 700 volunteers that achieved its goal of registering 150,000 of 400,000 unregistered African Americans in the state, leading Crain's Chicago Business to name Obama to its 1993 list of "40 under Forty" powers to be.

Obama taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School for twelve years, as a Lecturer for four years (1992–1996), and as a Senior Lecturer for eight years (1996–2004)

Served on the Board of Director's of:

Public Allies (also founded this organization)
Woods Fund of Chicago
The Joyce Foundation
Chicago Annenberg Challenge
Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
Center for Neighborhood Technology
Lugenia Burns Hope Center

7 years in the Illinois Senate
Obama was elected to the Illinois Senate in 1996. Obama was reelected to the Illinois Senate in 1998, and again in 2002. In January 2003, Obama became chairman of the Illinois Senate's Health and Human Services Committee when Democrats, after a decade in the minority, regained a majority. During his 2004 general election campaign for U.S. Senate, police representatives credited Obama for his active engagement with police organizations in enacting death penalty reforms. Obama resigned from the Illinois Senate in November 2004 following his election to the US Senate.

US Senate
In the November 2004 general election, Obama received 70% of the vote to Alan Keyes's 27%, the largest victory margin for a statewide race in Illinois history. Though a newcomer to Washington, he recruited a team of established, high-level advisers devoted to broad themes that exceeded the usual requirements of an incoming first-term senator according to The Washington Post and Chicago Tribune.

Some of Obama's work in the Senate:
As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Obama has made official trips to Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. In August 2005, he traveled to Russia, Ukraine, and Azerbaijan. The trip focused on strategies to control the world's supply of conventional weapons, biological weapons, and weapons of mass destruction as a first defense against terrorist attacks. Following meetings with U.S. military in Kuwait and Iraq in January 2006, he visited Jordan, Israel, and the Palestinian territories. At a meeting with Palestinian students two weeks before Hamas won the legislative election, Obama warned that "the U.S. will never recognize winning Hamas candidates unless the group renounces its fundamental mission to eliminate Israel." He left for his third official trip in August 2006, traveling to South Africa, Kenya, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Chad. In a speech at the University of Nairobi, he spoke about political corruption and ethnic rivalries. The speech touched off controversy among Kenyan leaders, some formally challenging Obama's remarks as unfair and improper, others defending his positions.

Time For Some Campainin'

If there are conservatives reading this, you may actually agree with some of this.

Be sure to check out the cat at about 1 minute, 53 seconds.

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Thanks to Van Nguyen for sending this