There's Something Happening Here...

It looks like the media's waking up and deciding to start telling...the truth.

I KNOW. It's really bizarre, but look at the proof. Yesterday, USA Today called for the killing of the filibuster in this terse editorial which includes:

The filibuster is a Faustian bargain that undermines the will of voters. The promise of change that swept Barack Obama into the presidency and padded Democratic majorities in the House and Senate last year has been largely derailed by the Senate's Republican minority, which has kept a broad array of legislation from coming to a vote.

More than outrageous, this legislative tyranny holds hostage our democracy to the whims of a political party that was on the losing end of an election cycle. The voters who gave Democrats control of Congress and the White House in the recent elections expect results, not inaction. They expect Congress to bring bills to a vote, not allow a mean-spirited minority to filibuster them to death.

If Democrats won't use the majority voters gave them to end this bad practice, then they deserve to suffer their wrath in November's elections.

"Legislative tyranny holds hostage our democracy..." That's today's GOP. We knew it. Our friends knew it. Now the nation knows it (we hope). Here's a recap of yesterday's filibuster news from Rachel Maddow.

Today, we get an assessment on how successful last year's much-derided stimulus program was. Apparently, it could not have worked any better than it has - and (shocker!) it HAS WORKED.

Imagine if, one year ago, Congress had passed a stimulus bill that really worked.

Let’s say this bill had started spending money within a matter of weeks and had rapidly helped the economy. Let’s also imagine it was large enough to have had a huge impact on jobs — employing something like two million people who would otherwise be unemployed right now.

If that had happened, what would the economy look like today?

Well, it would look almost exactly as it does now. Because those nice descriptions of the stimulus that I just gave aren’t hypothetical. They are descriptions of the actual bill.

Perhaps the best-known economic research firms are IHS Global Insight, Macroeconomic Advisers and Moody’s Economy.com. They all estimate that the bill has added 1.6 million to 1.8 million jobs so far and that its ultimate impact will be roughly 2.5 million jobs. The Congressional Budget Office, an independent agency, considers these estimates to be conservative.

Word is getting out: The GOP has been spoon-feeding its constituents and the media enough bullshit that it's being thrown up back in their faces. See? Journalism is possible in these days of the Fox News business model.

Biden Cracks Down on Cheney

Bravo.

FoxNews.com Gets Anti-Freeped!

LOVE THIS.

The Payoff to This Got a Longer Ovation Than Palin Got

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Sarah Palin Uses a Hand-O-Prompter
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Economy

Dick Morris on Palin: FABulous!

Yeah. Someone of presidential timbre is "FABulous"! We do indeed look for fabulousness in our leaders. Simply fabulous!

MORRIS: You know, I think Sarah Palin was fabulous during the campaign. I'm not one of those that think she hurt the ticket. I think she gave McCain a lead for three weeks, and that was terrific. And I think the stuff she's doing now with the tea parties and everything is fabulous.

Stemwinder

I missed the beginning of the speech. Here it is.

REMARKS BY FORMER ALASKA GOVERNOR SARAH PALIN (R) AT THE NATIONAL TEA PARTY CONVENTION

NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE
9:00 P.M. EST, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2010

MS. PALIN: Thank you, guys! Thank you! (Cheers, applause.) Thank you so much! God bless you! (Cheers, applause.) Thank you so much!

I'm so proud to be an American! Thank you so much for being here tonight!

Do you love your freedom? (Cheers, applause.)

If you love your freedom, think of that. Any of you here serving in uniform, past or present, raise your hand. We're going to thank you for our freedom. God bless you guys. We salute you, we honor you. Thank you. (Applause.)

Inspiring, you guys.

A Mashed-Up Sack of Snotty

Wow. I had to watch the Tea party keynoter to remove all doubt. For once I can finally say that Ronald Reagan would still be vomiting eleven minutes after it ended.

And that ovation at the end! It had to be what - 14, 15 seconds? YIPES!

The GOP is still looking for their 2012 candidate. It ain't gonna be her.

From Those Socialist Liberal Tree Huggers at the Department of Labor

Here's a pesky little fact they're not going to show at the Tea Party.

 

Mocking Vietnam Veterans: The Tea Party Faithful Shows Its Colors

Disgusting.

There was another who dressed in a leather veteran’s vest with medals festooned on it. He also wore a Vietnam Veteran hat.

“I just dressed this way to get attention,” the man said, halfway through a scotch at an “Irish pub” 200 feet from the ballroom where Palin will be speaking, down a casino-style carpeted hotel hallway. “I’m really a retired millionaire.”

He admitted to just wanting to get on TV or at least get his message out. And there were cameras from all over interviewing him all day. It was certainly believable that he wasn’t wanting for money. He threw a $20 bill down for his scotch, but when the bartender told him it was $22, he put down another $20 and said, “Makes no difference to me.”

Taking out the $20, it was impossible not to notice the roll of $100s. He talked in detail of the Mercedes he drove here; the Rolls Royce he bought in Florida that he won’t drive on rainy days like today, and that he’s a major donor to the National Republican Senatorial Committee. “Just sold my last business for $3.3 million,” he said, laughing, seemingly taking great delight in his get up and the gag he was pulling.

Any gathering that attracts this sort of assbag just cannot be taken seriously - even by the most hardcore Republicans.

Whoa. Wait a Minute...

Less than 600 people are attending this tea party thing? 600!?!

The Super Bowl party I'm going to will have more people than this. But Fox News ain't covering it.

Tea Party Convention: Seeking the Right to be Douchebags

And we're off!

Really? This is what the tea (Taxed Enough Already) partiers are all about? I mean, we knew it all along, but Tom Tancredo pulled it out of the closet and into the spotlight. Let the racism begin!

The opening-night speaker at first ever National Tea Party Convention ripped into President Obama, Sen. John McCain and "the cult of multiculturalism," asserting that Obama was elected because "we do not have a civics, literacy test before people can vote in this country."

The speaker, former Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., told about 600 delegates in a Nashville, Tenn., ballroom that in the 2008 election, America "put a committed socialist ideologue in the White House ... Barack Hussein Obama."

Tancredo did not stop at the Democratic president -- ripping McCain, R-Ariz., the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, for shaping up to be a repeat of "Bush 1 and Bush 2."

"Thank God John McCain lost the election," he said, voicing his belief that McCain would have presided over big budgets and lacked a tough stand against immigration.

Thank God. Praise the Lord. Good use of the Almighty, Tommy.

Furthermore, to galvanize their desire for douchebaggery, the organizers lashed out at the critics from within the movement - and threw them into the Obama camp without batting an eye.

"When somebody steps up and says their purpose in putting on a convention like this is to make a profit, that's really the antithesis of a grass roots movement," said Mark Meckler, of the Tea Party Patriots faction.

In a mid-January post on his blog, "Riehl World View," Riehl questioned whether Phillips "wants to be a tea party millionaire."

"[Tea party activists] generally are not the type of people who would gravitate to some very expensive hotel to dine on lobster and steak and listen to someone speak," Riehl said in an interview Wednesday.

Convention spokesman Mark Skoda acknowledged Wednesday that Phillips and his wife, Sherry Phillips, founders of the for-profit Tea Party Nation Inc., will "make a few bucks" on the event. But Skoda questioned why that should be anyone's concern.

"Have we gone so far in the Obama-socialist view of the nation that 'profit' is a bad word -- in particular, if we're using it to advance the conservative cause?" Skoda asked.

Um...please don't tell him the it's conservatives who are doing the criticizing here.

Holy crap. Looks like this whole movement if flying off the rails, off the cliff and into the sea. And Skoda will wonder if America has reached such a level of Obama socialism where a trainwreck is a bad thing.

Permission to be douchebags? Granted. You guys stay classy and stay on whatever that thing is you call a message.

A Drinking Game You Can Play Watching Stewart on O'Reilly

Every time there's an edit in the middle of a Jon Stewart point, take a drink. You'll be on the floor before you even see the second clip.

They're Just Not Even Trying Any More

Fox News' marketing at least used to give off the impression of being non-aligned with any party. All bets (if there ever were any) are now off. Moreover, the GOP is seeking knowledge and enlightenment from this guy with a radio show. Yipes.

Fox News anchor Sean Hannity will deliver the keynote address at the National Republican Congressional Committee fundraising dinner next month. Officials said the television star would offer them insight into their quest to win back the House of Representatives this fall.

NRCC Chairman Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) hailed Hannity as fighting for conservative values when announcing his speaking slot for the March 23 dinner at the National Building Museum in Washington.

"As a best-selling author who reaches millions of viewers and listeners on a daily basis, Sean Hannity fights for conservative values and serves as an important voice for our party," Sessions said in a statement.

"Well there you have it, a rather long answer to a question about health care from a recovering cancer patient."

Holy schnike, Fox did it again. They broke away from an Obama town hall on health care to get back to the narrative. Or as Jon Stewart would say, "CUT THE FEED! CUT THE FEED!"

The White House Has Heard Enough BS

After hearing the screams of "failure" from the wingnuts and the rest of the GOP base for an entire year, the Obama administration is fed up and is now trying to school these nimrods. Good luck with that. Seriously.

By the way, as predicted, the GOP isn't handling last Friday very well. Now they're obstructing against their own ideas that the Dems are offering to try. Is America paying attention?