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Fox News owns the extremist images featured at Capitol Hill rally it promoted

In aggressively promoting Rep. Michele Bachmann’s November 5 anti-health care reform rally on Capitol Hill, Fox News has chosen to associate itself with the offensive and extremist rhetoric emanating from that event. This rhetoric includes the disturbing signs — such as one of a pile of Holocaust victims’ bodies captioned “National Socialist Health Care, Dachau, Germany – 1945″ — displayed at the event.

Media Matters has the photo. Even blurred Nazi death camp pictures are not for the squeamish. There is also a picture of a tea smoker with a sign comparing President Obama to Mao. It might make it easier to think the tea smokers were not short a few essential neurons if they did not keep accusing Democrats, Obama and the few remaining moderate Republicans of being simultaneously at opposite ends of the political spectrum. One cannot be both a communist and a fascist. Wikipedia is not perfect, but they do manage to note the Nazis gathered up the communists along with the Jews, intellectuals, etc and put them in death camps like Dachau. Maybe that is all it takes to be tea bagger, a narrative of history and current events that has no resemblance to reality. Imagine there was a death camp in the U.S. that killed a person every 12 minutes. President Obama is fighting the tea bagger movement/mentality to close that death camp. The fact is that what conservatives are trying to do, keep the death camp open for business, Study links 45,000 U.S. deaths to lack of insurance

Nearly 45,000 people die in the United States each year — one every 12 minutes — in large part because they lack health insurance and can not get good care, Harvard Medical School researchers found in an analysis released on Thursday.

“We’re losing more Americans every day because of inaction … than drunk driving and homicide combined,” Dr. David Himmelstein, a co-author of the study and an associate professor of medicine at Harvard, said in an interview with Reuters.

If these so called true conservatives want to make hyperbolic comparisons, they come out closer to being advocates for the continuation of an American Dachau then those who has trying to pass health care reform. Is there something the tea smoking conservatives are good at. They absolutely excel at denialism. I am genuinely amazed they are able to stay so ill informed in the age of 24/7 cable and the internet. Remember, Remember The Fifth Of November — A Day With The Tea Partiers

“They’re evil,” she said of the people in the Capitol Building that rose before her. “I never used to think that of my government, but that’s what happened — they’ve turned evil.”

Where was Dorothy when Bush and Cheney were lying us into a war that has taken over 4,000 American lives and cost three trillion dollars. Obama wants to help the middle class with a reform bill that is likely to save its costs and she thinks that is evil. You’ve entered the Tea Party Zone where evil is good and good is evil.

Keith, a disabled veteran from Goldsboro, NC, was somewhere in the middle of those two views. He was wandering around the Hill with an empty suit hanging from a pole and an airhorn. (Asked if the suit was meant to represent a specific member, he just said, “pick one.”)

“The lights are on, but there’s nobody home in there,” he said, pointing at the Capitol Dome. “These people don’t know what’s going on out here. We have to tell them.”

Keith, who served his country ( thanks Keith) and gets government health care thinks his lights are on. All the Keiths first need to call Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) and ask him to stop acting like a petulant child and take his hold off of your benefits. Tommy Boy is another one of those let’s pretend to support the military conservatives. Then tell the AMA and AARP why and how in explicit detail please, why they are wrong to endorse health -care reform.

The highly watered down health reform bill, if anything does not do enough soon enough.

Antique North and South America map 1698. The little illustrations on the sides are a kind of travelogue narrative describing trade in the Americas and the indigenous populations.

For those that might not be familiar with him Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit, he is a far right conservative blogger – his protestations that he is an independent libertarian can be safely ignored based on years of posts and links that prove otherwise. In most ways Reynolds was never a blogger, but rather a Twitterer before there was a Twitter. He wrote posts that excelled in the thoughtful equivalent of the bumper sticker. Those insights or lack of, in combination with his Bill Kristol like propensity to be wrong about just about everything from WMD in Iraq to privatizing social security was bound to pay off; conservatives being such cherrios for the concept of compensating based on genuine merit. The instapundit now gets published by that steaming pile of Murdock dung called the New York Post. The Obama magic has faded – By GLENN HARLAN REYNOLDS ( those caps are NY Post, not mine.)

In fact, the elections underscored Obama’s political weakness just one year after his triumphant victory over Republican moderate John McCain. The Obama invincibility that was so much in evidence then seems to have lost its power. People can argue the reasons why these elections, all in places Obama carried handily, were so close. But if he were the political marvel he was thought to be, these races wouldn’t have been contests, but walkovers. So one consequence of this Election Day is the end of his special political magic. That’s no surprise — as that magic was a largely substanceless froth whipped up by campaign consultants and compliant big-media cheerleaders.

If there was a certification for “substanceless froth”, Reynolds would be Captain Crackerjack of the Substanceless Brigade. So maybe we should all pay attention to the master. The only people that ever thought Barack Obama was “magic” were conservatives. Is a tried and true tactic, build someone up so tearing them down seems like an even bigger fall. Reynolds wants to make these little special elections races all about Obama. Yet as is Reynolds habit it cannot bring himself to be intellectually honest – he might be constitutionally unfit for the task. Nor would he, much like the typical con lower himself to do some actual research, Exit Polls

* Per CNN, voters in Virginia did not see their state’s gubernatorial race as an opportunity to voice opposition to Barack Obama. A 55 percent majority of voters said that the President was not a factor in their vote, and an additional 18 percent indicated their vote in Virginia was one of support in the President. Just 24 percent of voters indicated that their vote was one of opposition to President Obama. The numbers out of New Jersey are not terribly different, with 60 percent saying that Barack Obama played no role in their gubernatorial vote, 19 percent saying that their vote was one in support of the President, and 20 percent saying that their vote was in opposition to President Obama.

Concludes CNN, this is not a referendum on Barack Obama.
* Chuck Todd reports that Barack Obama’s approval rating among Virginia voters stands at 51 percent (just under the 52.6 percent of the vote he received in the state last November) and 57 percent in New Jersey (almost exactly the same as the 57.1 percent of the vote he earned in that state last November). In other words, exit polling indicates President Obama has not really lost supporters over the past year.

Reynolds obviously could not handle the NY-23 race head on so we get dry toast.

Dede Scozzafava was a bizarre choice, bizarre enough to inspire a seemingly quixotic third-party run by Doug Hoffman.

Scozzafava, with the exception of a couple cultural issues a far right Republican in a red-purple district. Can we hold Reynolds to the fact that the preferred candidate of Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, Michelle Malkin, former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas) and GOP presidential hopeful for 2012 Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty was “quixotic”. That’s some serious trash talk about the judement of a circle of people who are currently pushing the conservative movement’s agenda. Under the circumstances would it be fair to say that five of the super star opinion makers of the Republican Partay have lost their “magic”. Glenn’s lasting message to America is that any conservative hack can make their way to the top of the wing-nut welfare machine writing tripe.

Since I have friends and family in Virginia just a short take on the governors race. One old definition of insanity is a person that keeps banging their head against the wall hoping for a different result with each bang. Conservatives typify that mentality daily and Virginia’s new governor is a potential poster boy, VIDEO: MCDONNELL REITERATES SUPPORT FOR FAILED BUSH ECONOMICS. McDonnell hide his Salem Witch Trials cultural agenda during most of his campaign, but got the heretic hunters off their ass during the last weeks. Creigh Deeds owes at least part of his loss for running as a Republican-lite candidate. That said young Virginia Democrats and independents were the key to Deeds winning. To their credit they tend to be idealistic, but the downside to that idealism is lack of pragmatism. Sometimes you have to be pragmatic and vote for the less then ideal candidate – a rule in the Republican playbook that has paid off for them and one which young Democrats might want to consider. Given a few months of Bushnomics revival and the reintroduction of the conservative culture of hate from McDonnell, most Virginians will be suffering buyers regret. Though McDonnell, out of the three high profile races is the one Democrats should ponder. never under estimate the conservative movement’s ability to gain traction on divisive cultural issues and the public’s two week long memory when it comes to placing blame for their economic problems.

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Bill Mahr’s latest observations, Is This as Good as It Gets From Obama?

Yeah, I’m disappointed, too. I thought we were sweeping into power; I thought change meant Change. I believed all that talk about another First 100 Days, a la Roosevelt. Well, that didn’t happen. The question is, is this as good as it gets from Obama, or is he pacing himself? He may have a four and eight-year plan and they included a first year of just gettin’ to know you and not gonna rock the boat too much. Well, Mission Accomplished on that.

I’m trying to be patient. The one obvious thing that President Obama has gotten wrong is the way he has gone about managing the economic recovery. Its actually Larry Summer’s recovery and to some degree Timothy Geithner’s, but the buck still stops in the oval office. Progressives would have put workers, homeowners and small banks ahead of Wall St. Its not that Summers’ way is sinking the economy, regardless of what the Party of Glenn Beck says, its a conservative elite’s recovery in which the trickle down will take years to get us back down to 4% unemployment. I’m a little disappointed in Ariana Huffington for her sensationalized headline lead into this story about the release of David Plouffe’s new book – Obama One Year Later: The Audacity of Winning vs. The Timidity of Governing. Obama was elected in November, but was not sworn in until January of this year. Huffington and some of the editors at The Nation ( which goes after Obama quite a bit) do serve a useful purpose; to keep the heat on the administration to not just live up to its promises – which were relatively modest in the details – but to pressure this administration to live up to its potential.

What with time constraints and a minor health issue that’s all I’ve got today.

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Cheney ‘cannot recall’ almost anything about Plame outing. In the Conservative Field Guide it lists rewriting history as one of conservative’s favorite pastimes. Dick is hardly the kind of conservative to break any molds. If he wants to spend his last years of life blowing smoke up America’s backside, well, its not like most of us haven’t built up an immunity.

Cheney also said he “could not remember any reaction he had to the Kristof article at the time it was published,” did not follow subsequent newspaper coverage of Wilson’s claims, was not aware of whether reporters were asking his office about the trip, and only discussed the matter with Central Intelligence Director George Tenet once by phone.

When asked about Wilson’s New York Times editorial of July 6, 2003, Cheney stated that he was “relatively certain he spoke to someone about the article, but he cannot recall exactly who it was.” Even when shown a copy of the editorial with notes in his own handwriting in the margin, he indicated “he has no specific recollection of when he wrote the notes” and that “he cannot recall if he discussed the underlined portions of the editorial with any one.”

Emptywheel beat me to the blog post - Hanging Scooter Libby Out To Dry. That was my first thought, Libby took four felony convictions for the team. Cheney in particular. Bush ended up coming to Libby’s rescue, but now Cheney publicly damns Libby for the sake of Dick’s ego and lifelong habit of redacting what is already well established facts.

Does Glenn Beck understand the words that he sputters. If he does, does Glenn think his viewers are utter morons. If Glenn believes and understands what he says, and his viewers believe what he says, together they might be violating some kind of reality denial barrier hence to unknown to science. Net Neutrality May Be The Next ‘Death Panels’

Last week, the Federal Communications Commission voted to move forward with regulations to preserve the open architecture of the Internet. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski is trying to make our current system’s “net neutrality” official by ensuring that broadband providers “cannot discriminate against particular Internet content or applications” and are “transparent about their network management practices.”

[  ]…Fox News host Glenn Beck has been fear-mongering on net neutrality for weeks, saying that the Obama administration is trying to shut down freedom of speech. “You have a freedom of speech or the government,” said Beck last week. “You can’t really have both.” He’s been getting his talking points from Phil Kerpen of Americans for Prosperity, who also fueled Beck’s campaign against former Obama adviser Van Jones. Some telecom companies — which, along with the cable industry, is driving opposition to an open Internet — have begun astroturfing efforts as well.

The only way to have free speech is for corporations to control the net? The only way to keep dry is to jump in the lake. The only way to keep your family safe is to run red lights. Lucky for Beck and his sycophants that Beck’s claims are not subject to the same rigors of proof we apply to even basic arithmetic.

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Paul Krugman appeals to the conscience of so-called centrists.

Everyone in the political class — by which I mean politicians, people in the news media, and so on, basically whoever is in a position to influence the final stage of this legislative marathon — now has to make a choice. The seemingly impossible dream of fundamental health reform is just a few steps away from becoming reality, and each player has to decide whether he or she is going to help it across the finish line or stand in its way.

….For conservatives, of course, it’s an easy decision: They don’t want Americans to have universal coverage, and they don’t want President Obama to succeed.

….Should progressives get behind this plan? Yes. And they probably will.

The people who really have to make up their minds, then, are those in between, the self-proclaimed centrists….I’d just urge them to take a good hard look in the mirror. If they really want to align themselves with the hard-line conservatives, if they just want to kill health reform, so be it. But they shouldn’t hide behind claims that they really, truly would support health care reform if only it were better designed.

For this is the moment of truth. The political environment is as favorable for reform as it’s likely to get. The legislation on the table isn’t perfect, but it’s as good as anyone could reasonably have expected. History is about to be made — and everyone has to decide which side they’re on.

As Kevin Drums eloquently understates the issue. The public-option along with scores of other measures aimed at efficiency and cost control are “modest”. That Mitch McConnel(R-KY) has taken up once again the health-care reform will kill you meme, a reminder how far off the mental reservation conservatives are. The U.S. health-care system is a rag tag mess of out of control costs in which fewer and fewer people have access. Republicans controlled all three branches of government for six of the Bush years. The let’s help Iraq, but not America party, had six years to do something about health-care and punted. Just like they did on a sane fiscal policy. In a dozen ways conservatives backed the bus over America and lack the sense of shame and humility to admit they really have nothing relevant to contribute to the health-care debate or any other facet of government policy. Judging from their support of a unhinged right-winger in New York the only lesson they learned was they were not further out from the mainstream then they should have been.

Anyway John Dickerson has a run down of the road ahead for Senator Harry Reid and the pursuit of 60 votes. Why 60 Is the New 50. How many votes will it take to pass health care reform in the Senate?

The Senate is the most unrepresentative of the two chambers of Congress. That’s one of the reasons a health-care reform bill with a robust public option would have sailed through the House. Republicans who would rather eat glass then do anything to help working Americans aside, the unrepresentative Senate, with its arcane rules, is why health-care reform is being held hostage by Joe ‘Kamikaze’ Lieberman and a couple contrarian Democrats.

Conservative Orly Taitz, an immigrant, has apparently tried to get witnesses to lie in one of her “birther” lawsuits and without the slightest humility accused just about anyone who does not support her cause as being a traitor. Judge: ‘Birther’ lawyer may have urged witnesses to lie on the stand

A US District Court judge in California has dismissed one of “birther” leader Orly Taitz’s lawsuits challenging President Barack Obama’s right to be president, and expressed “deep concerns” that the lawyer urged witnesses in the case to perjure themselves.

[  ]…As Rachel Slajda noted at TalkingPointsMemo, the judge poured heavy criticism on Taitz’s actions during preliminary court proceedings.

“Plaintiffs have attacked the judiciary, including every prior court that has dismissed their claim, as unpatriotic and even treasonous for refusing to grant their requests and for adhering to the terms of the Constitution which set forth its jurisdiction,” Carter wrote. “Respecting the constitutional role and jurisdiction of this Court is not unpatriotic.”

So a group obsessed with a conspiracy that has possibility been the most thoroughly debunked conspiracy theory in our political history, is herself involded in an actual conspiracy. While she is probably going to eventually find herself in jail for contempt or perjury, I kind of wish Orly luck, its like watching an old episode of the Twilight Zone.

Fox News Viewed as Most Ideological Network

Nearly half of Americans (47%) say they think of Fox News as “mostly conservative,” 14% say it is “mostly liberal,” and 24% say it is “neither in particular.”

Remember the character Frank ( played by Chris Cooper) in the movie American Beauty, the guy that thought battering his son and collecting Nazi memorabilia was all perfectly normal. The Franks of America are that 14% that think Fox is liberal. The rest of the news programs from the networks – CBS, ABC etc are lazy corporate infotainment programs. They only seem liberal to some viewers because Fox in addition to right-wing radio and print has set the bar so low – if you’re not dispensing conservative propaganda then you’re liberal.

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Like sands through an hour glass or probably more like cold molasses through a small funnel, so is the progress on health-care reform. One of the things that we have to look forward to after the Senate finishes whittling reform down to bare bones is the reconciliation process. Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD), one of our stiff backed non-progressive Democratic leaders gives us a hint at the hurdles ahead. Real reformers want to set the rates at which services are paid just above what Medicare pays. This option has the advantage of truly living up to one of the major purposes of the public-option, driving down costs. The Senate’s version has left the door open for negotiated rates – you know out of concern that doctors might not be able to buy a new Euro sports sedan every year. That scenario maims the savings goals of a real public option. There is a rumored compromise as reported by TPM,

There is a third version of the public option under consideration in the House–one that would use negotiated rates at first, but would allow Medicare rates to kick in unless sufficient savings were realized. Hoyer didn’t address that option. But nonetheless, those are some very candid, on the record suggestions that the House bill is likely to include a less-than-maximal public option.

Can Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid perform miracles. Harry did some boxing in his youth, so just for fun let’s not be too cynical and count him out just yet, Reid hopes to sway enough senators on ‘public option’

Reid needs 60 votes to prevent Republicans from using parliamentary tactics that would keep the bill from coming to the floor — and eventually from being brought to a final vote.

Reid needs all 58 Democrats and the two independents who caucus with the Democrats, or some Republican defectors. He is gambling that there are enough carrots and sticks lying around Capitol Hill to line up the votes he needs.

A senior Democrat said that there were about 10 Democratic senators whose support had yet to be nailed down.

Among them is Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh, who says he is worried about the bill’s fiscal impact. But Reid has made him more amenable to it by promising to modify a proposed 10-year, $40-billion excise tax on manufacturers of medical devices, a major Indiana industry.

Anyone feigning outrage at offering incentives to Senators like Bayh needs to get up to speed on the reality of Beltway politics regardless of which party is steering the gravy train – see Delay, Tom – Republican Pay for Play extraordinaire. Dems are still lightweights at the game or we’d have passed a public option in September. The sound tap dancing Senators is frequently the kabuki theater that goes along with pay attention to me and give me some’n or I ain’t gonna vote for your stink’n bill. Don’t hate Joe Lieberman, he will not be gone until 2012, but he will be gone. Somebody Buy Joe Lieberman a Puppy

The reason this is a little scary for Democrats is because the usual things that serve to motivate a Congressman don’t seem to motivate Joe Lieberman.

Would voting to filibuster the Democrats’ health care bill (if it contains a decent public option) endear Lieberman to his constituents? No; Connecticutians favor the public option 64-31.

Would it make his path to re-election easier? No, because it would virtually assure that Lieberman faces a vigorous and well-funded challenge from a credible, capital-D Democrat, and polls show him losing such a match-up badly.

Joe is not an really an independent. He belongs to the Party of Lieberman’s Ego. Part of the rituals of that cult of one is the willingness to not just commit political suicide, but to kill a few of his fellow Americans along the way. Not surprsingly Lieberman does have a Conservative bromide to toss to the press. Which they’re happy to simply repeat without question – reform will cost too much. Only that is not true. A final bill will be at least fiscally neutral and may save the federal budget billions in the long run. The last bill on which the CBO ran numbers also agreed, CBO: New Baucus Deficit Neutral Bill Costs $829B, Will Reduce Deficit By $81 Billion Over Next Decade. The Lieberman and right-wing talking point involves some slight of hand. Its consists of pleading with the public and the media to please pay attention to this hand which is spending about $800 billion dollars. Anti-reformers do not want anyone looking at the big picture because that would include the savings. If you spend a dollar to save ten dollars, most families get that – change the oil for 20 bucks so you do not have to buy a rebuilt engine for a thousand. If some kind of genuine reform is not passed the Politico-Fox- WaPo-Sunday talk show cliched Beltway mentality will kick off with oh my, what a tremendous defeat for Democrats. Its going to be painful to watch as millions more Americans become financially crippled by health-care costs or lack of any insurance at all, but what goes around comes around and it bites. In 2012 who is going to get the blame for the health-care equivalent of the Wall St meltdown. Republicans and conservative Democrats. Lieberman, Fox, the tea baggers etc think they have it all figured out. They’re driving another nail into modern conservatism’s casket.

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Health-care reform news has degenerated into tabloid news bites. That might be a good thing – except for the lies. Some of the most visited WordPress blogs and web sites are about celebrities and gossip. We could called it Raiders of Health-Care the new action adventure film from Steven Spielberg. Then maybe people would look into how much health-care costs families and small businesses. That the current inflation rate of costs means that in the next five years millions more Americans will be crossing their fingers and hoping they stay healthy long enough to reach Medicare eligibility. Yesterday the White House tried to push back against some of the rumors, The Public Option: Rumor Check

In his September 9th address to Congress, President Obama made clear that he supports the public option because it has the potential to play an essential role in holding insurance companies accountable through choice and competition.  That continues to be the President’s position.

The problem with that press release is it did not address the concerns many of us have about including a state opt-out. Today, an unidentified aide has said that Senate Majority Leader Reid(D-NV) will definitely pursue the public option, but with a state opt-out, Aide: Reid likely to include public option in Senate health care bill

Reid is likely to make the move without having firm commitments of support from 60 senators, the number needed to break a filibuster, according to the aide. Describing the move as a “risky strategy,” the aide said Reid believes including the public option is the right approach, and that the senator is “cautiously optimistic he can get the votes necessary.”

So will any Republican support a bill that includes a state opt-out – a tip of the hat to the conservative tendency, suspiciously lacking the last eight years, to mangle the 10th Amendment. As exasperating as it is, President Obama deserves some credit for trying to be bi-partisan – this interview with Cheney demonstrates one of the many reasons America got feed up with Republican arrogance – Obama’s efforts may pay off in the long run. That said, with the possible exception of Senator Snowe it is unlikely health-care reform of any kind will get a Republican vote. Why won’t the highly accommodating public option with an opt-out pass, probably because of Democrats Ben Nelson and Blanche Lincoln. I realize the politics of their prospective states dictates they not be the most liberal Democrats, but their political math might be off. They’re worried they cannot get reelected with moderate independents and conservative Democrats, but if the center-left base stays home because of the senators lack of action on health-care they cut their reelection chances considerably.

Fox News Anchor Yells At Democrat After “Fair & Balanced” Remark (VIDEO). For years the cornerstone of Conservative debate has been to repeat the same lies over and over again. In addition, while they have also had a tendency to think yelling something really loud makes what they say true, Fox makes the tactic official.

Right-wing media claim Obama is criticizing Fox for “tough questions” and “reporting the truth” – Fox, Malkin, Limbaugh and Beck complain that when they smear, lie, distort and go off on shrill tangents its wrong for anyone to fact check them and point out the obvious. When moderate Americans ask “tough” questions of conservatives its portrayed by the Right as an attack. When the Right attacks, they’re just asking tough questions. Orwellian style propaganda seems like the only thing at which most conservatives excel.

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Conservatives are easily duped, recently confirmed by being punked by Anita Dunn and Bill Ayers. Now they’re punking each other with fake stories about President Obama’s college thesis, So desperate they’ll believe anything — the fake Obama thesis debunked

Now, you might be thinking: “Wait a minute, I thought conservatives didn’t like Obama’s elusive thesis because it was on nuclear disarmament.” Well, this is a different thesis, it would seem, and blogger Michael Ledeen wrote about it two days ago:

I missed this first time around.  Brian Lancaster at Jumping in Pools reported on Obama’s college thesis, written when he was at Columbia. The paper was called “Aristocracy Reborn,” and in the first ten pages (which were all that reporter Joe Klein — who wrote about it for Time — was permitted to see).

So Ledeen sources this bombshell to another, more obscure conservative blogger, who wrote — back on August 25, mind you — that Time’s Joe Klein had seen Obama’s damning thesis and was going to report on it for “an upcoming special edition about the President.” No indication was given as to how this obscure blogger came to know that one of America’s premiere journalists had obtained this information. There was no indication as to how this blogger was able to quote material only Klein had had access to. Oh, and let’s not forget that this very same blogger was busted by PolitiFact.com for fabricating stories about President Obama.

But hey, why speculate on whether it’s true or not? Let’s go to the source. Mr. Klein? “A report is circulating among the wingnuts that I had a peek at Barack Obama’s senior thesis. It is completely false. I’ve never seen Obama’s thesis. I have no idea where this report comes from — but I can assure you that it’s complete nonsense.”

Some obscure blogger pulls a tangled pile of garbage from his a*s. Story repeated as completely credible by the conservative media, Ledeen being one of the Right’s leading intellectuals. Conservatives could care less about health care and America’s working families, why should they be expected to care about the truth. Ledeen is a big fan of Machiavelli and the WW II era Italian fascism.

Public health care does work. Dick Cheney’s pace maker is still working. Provided with some extra years of life he seems determined to do as much as he can to undermine American values – more war, more torture, less adherance to representative government by and for the people. So in a way anti health-care conservatives might be correct, public health-care will at times be abused, Biden On Cheney Criticism: “Who Cares?”

Cheney said in a speech Wednesday night at the Center for Security Policy that President Obama is “dithering” on Afghanistan “while America’s armed forces are in danger.” He claimed that “signals of indecision out of Washington hurt our allies and embolden our adversaries.”

The vice president did elaborate on one of Cheney’s arguments — that the last administration left Obama with a review of Afghanistan.

“A whole lot has changed in the last year,” he said. “Let’s assume they left us a review that was absolutely correct. Is that review relevant and totally applicable to today in light of the changes that have taken place in the region, in Afghanistan itself? So I think that is sort of irrelevant. Not sort of — I think it’s irrelevant.”

Dick Cheney and George W. Bush will go down in history as the leaders who managed to turn the victory, of Clinton’s lean and mean modern military, in Afghanistan into defeat. While simultaneously letting the guy responsible for 9-11 get away at Tora Bora.

Georgia Republicans Send Political Mailer Disguised As ‘Official’ Census Survey. The new conservatism, as corrupt and nasty as the old conservatism. Or as the right-wing sites Big Government and Big Hollywood would say EXPLOSIVE BREAKING NEWS, REPUBLICANS IN NEFARIOUS PLOT TO GATHER INFO ON AMERICANS JUST LIKE THE COMMUNISTS DID.

U.S. Travel Promotion Map circa 1939. In the left hand corner one can see the map was commissioned by the WPA _ Works Project Administration.

Just yesterday, Ezra Klein, who usually has the inside track on developments in the health-care circus debate reported Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) seemed to be pushing Senator Schumer’s an opt-out option,

Everyone agrees that they didn’t embrace Reid’s new strategy. Everyone agrees that the White House wants Snowe on the bill, feels the trigger offers a safer endgame, and isn’t convinced by Reid’s math. But whether officials expressed a clear preference for the trigger, or were just worried about the potential for 60 votes, is less clear. One staffer briefed on the conversation says “the White House basically told us, ‘We hope you guys know what you’re doing.’”

Ezra linked to this post by David Kurtz, Death By A Thousand Leaks? In which the bottom line according to one leak seemed to be some kind of “trigger”  point at which some kind of public option health care insurance could kick in. But the White House dismissed that report as premature, a way of leaning on Pelosi to give up any kind of public option. Why do most Democrats and Independents, and a few percent of conservatives prefer a strong public option. The two more obvious benefits to the nation is the downward pressure such an option would have on health-care costs, while the second is getting more Americans insured. Thus the political gamesmanship is unwelcome at best. At a political level the game is dragging down the Republican party, but Democrats failure to show stronger leadership on the health care issue is hardly endearing them to voters either. This report from today’s WaPo has an odd headline under the circumstances,  Prognosis improves for public insurance -OMENTUM SHIFT IS DRAMATIC Top Democrats push option in health-care legislation

Reid’s original inclination was to leave the public option out of a final bill he is writing from measures passed by the finance and health committees. But his liberal colleagues began urging him two weeks ago to reconsider, after insurance industry forecasts that premiums would rise sharply under the Finance Committee bill, which lacked a public option. The report had the effect of prodding Democrats to look for better ways to control costs, and the public option — strongly opposed by the insurance industry — reemerged as a possible solution.

Because a government-run plan would be dedicated to holding down costs and would lack a profit motive, congressional budget analysts predict that it could reduce the cost of expanding coverage to people who don’t have it by as much as $100 billion over the next decade.

In the House, Pelosi was still trying to line up votes for the most cost-effective version of the public plan, one that would pay providers based on Medicare rates. Rank-and-file House Democrats summoned Friday to an early-morning caucus were asked to say publicly whether they would vote for a bill that included such a provision.

Muddying the waters

Senior Democrats said it was still unclear whether that idea would prevail. While support for a “robust” public option is strong, they said, other issues are muddying the waters. For example, as many as 20 votes hinge on resolving a battle over abortion that has pitted an unyielding abortion-rights faction against antiabortion Democrats who want to make sure no federal money is used to pay for the procedure.

House leaders planned to work through the weekend to resolve as many individual concerns as possible, with the goal of producing a bill as soon as next week.

WaPo’s take is that a public option with a state opt-out provision is a long way from the gathering of angry screwballs otherwise known as tea parties. In real world politics where your side seldom gets everything it wants, that glass half full view is true enough. Maybe its too late, maybe not, but it does seem that so many Democrats posting on Democratic blogs or in the comments section have become so disappointed or cynical they have stopped putting pressure directly on Senate Democrats in particular. Cynicism is not going to win this battle. Anyone of any political leaning, regardless of the party of your home state senator should still be sending those e-mails, faxes and post cards pushing for a strong public option. Imagine the effect of say, a million college Democrats, or a million union members, sending a post card and e-mail to their senators this weekend. Combined with media coverage that would create a lot of pressure. Senate Republicans only have two relatively moderate Senators Snowe and Collins. Not often enough, but they will occasionally listen to reason. Snowe gets an earful of pressure from the extreme rightie do-nothing ideologues like  Mitch McConnell (R-KY). How about giving her some thoughtful comments from a million hard working Americans that live in the real world.

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Obama takes on Wall Street at fundraiser

President Barack Obama challenged Wall Street to embrace his proposed financial regulations at a New York City fundraiser Tuesday night.

Obama criticized the “reckless speculation and deceptive practices and short-sightedness and self-interestedness from a few.” The audience included members of the Wall Street community.

Banks and other financial institutions have fought the proposed regulations, including one for a Consumer Protection Financial Agency. Obama has insisted the agency is necessary to prevent another economic collapse.

Its great that President Obama is trying to enact regulation that one hopes will prevent another Great Recession, but for an administration that had such great message discipline during their campaign why the mixed signals its sending the public, see Greenwald’s Another Goldman executive named to key government post as its profits skyrocket. Considering the size of Goldman Sach and its unique position in the financial industry its not unreasonable that the administration should, under the circumstances, have frequent contact with them, but when you add in the the money Goldman spends on lobbying and the extraordinary access they have had to our Treasury Secretary, much of the public is going to have a hard time parsing out giving Obama credit for genuine reform. If Obama is serious about holding Wall St accountable and ramp up public support, he needs to bring back some of that good old days message control. One easy way to do that is not hiring Wall St insiders.

One message in Sun Tzu’s “Art of War” is never underestimate the enemy. If you never watch Faux News you miss a lot. A small sound bite one day turns into next week’s far Right echo. If you just cannot bring yourself to put up with Brit Hume and Bill O’Reilly at least check in at News Hounds once in a while – they watch so you don’t have to. That the White House has pointed out that Fox is simply a propaganda arm of the conservative movement is not earth shattering news. Fox’s feigned hurt and outrage is comical at best. They’ve claimed that President Obama is not differentiating between Fox news segments and the endless stream of opinion programming. There is not enough difference between Fox’s so-called news and its opinion programming to pass a thread through. Not the ultimate throw down of Fox’s poor victim meme, but HuffPo has compiled some “news” clips from Fox in a video, The Ten Most Egregious Fox News Distortions (VIDEO). And related this editorial by Jacob Weisberg, The O’Garbage Factor
Fox News isn’t just bad. It’s un-American.

What’s most distinctive about the American press is not its freedom but its century-old tradition of independence—that it serves the public interest rather than those of parties, persuasions, or pressure groups. Media independence is a 20th-century innovation that has never fully taken root in many other countries that do have a free press. The Australian-British-continental model of politicized media that Murdoch has applied at Fox is un-American, so much so that he has little choice but go on denying what he’s doing as he does it. For Murdoch, Ailes, and company, “fair and balanced” is a necessary lie. To admit that their coverage is slanted by design would violate the American understanding of the media’s role in democracy and our idea of what constitutes fair play. But it’s a demonstrable deceit that no longer deserves equal time.

A few misguided members of the media has defended Fox – the brotherhood of journalist mentality I suppose. A concept I would defend if Fox remotely resembled an actual journalistic endeavor. Also not surprising is some of the brotherhood are saying that Obama pointing out the obvious is unprecedented, The Washington Post’s Ruth Marcus must have been napping during the Bush administration

Marcus must have forgotten, for example, when a top White House advisor to President Bush targeted NBC in May 2008, accusing the network of deceptive editing and blurring the lines between “news” and “opinion.” Officials from the Bush team, around that time, began treating NBC and MSNBC as political opponents.

And let’s not forget that to this day, with the exception of PBS, not one network - ABC, CBS, NBC – has investigated or apologized for presenting highly biased opinions of “military analysts” as news, when all they were doing was helping the Bushies sell the Iraq occupation and the utterly absurd concept that Iraq was the “front” in the “war on terror”.