What do Sarah Palin and former Miss California have in common?

I think Fridays will be my day to wrap things up for the week. Here goes …
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1. These are the people I will not be talking about from this day forward (use Keith Olbermann's opening "Countdown" voice and say that phrase aloud again). Anyway, these people are: Sarah Palin and former Miss California, Carrie Prejean.
Why? Because they stand for mediocrity and for that matter, they stand for nothing. They add nothing to the conversation, and they use their looks and not their brains to get noticed. What's worse, they are opportunists posing as Christians; and unfortunately, they are also the shells I talked about in “Women’s Rights Opponents – Pro-Lifers”. Too bad that they’ve volunteered to be the shells.

2. Today is a day of significance for the Iranian people, and especially the young Iranian people. Whatever happens today, this is a significant step toward positive change in that region. Hopefully, the election of Barack Obama has made Americans think more deeply about their own politics and government. They certainly need to bone up on geography, American and World History and political issues and their own political representatives. Americans criticize other nations, but it is most unfortunate that they themselves have absolutely no clue how their own government works. Totally clueless. See: How Stupid Are We?
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3. I am disappointed with the Obama administration’s choice for GM CEO. Rahm Emanuel probably had a hand in the decision; which is probably why, to my dismay, the choice is former AT&T retired executive, Edward E. Whitacre Jr. Whitacre is a veteran Republican fundraiser.

A bundler for the 2004 Bush-Cheney campaign, Whitacre and his wife Linda have donated a total of $81,000 to political candidates since 1990. To the President’s credit, none have gone to him; however, 80% of the Whitacre’s contributions have gone to the GOP. Yes, my wonderful union workers, my wonderful UAW … the President has chosen a supporter of union busters. Do you think he did that on purpose? Could be … I’d definitely be calling him to have him explain why? Then I’d get my union members together to see how to get a bigger stake in GM. If you want to know what the next move should be, leave me a comment or e-mail and/or call Michael Moore. http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/message/index.php

4. The fact that Republicans are saying they have to reach out to minorities if they are to ever win national elections again, sort of underscores the racism factor and amplifies their current description … “right-wing” or "far right". The fact is, that once the 1965 Voting Rights Act was signed, the southern racist dixiecrats ran kicking and screaming from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party and have largely remained there ever since; and, in fact, their voices control the Republican side of the Senate and the Republican side of the Congress.

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Who_were_the_Dixiecrats

http://www.democracynow.org/2005/8/8/sncc_activist_ekwueme_michael_thelwell_people

5. I think Joe Scarborough just loves to rattle people’s cages because he is constantly saying dumb, ignorant things.
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This morning Joe goes on and on about James W. von Brunn, trying to decide if he was a left-wing or right-wing extremist. Then the guests on “Morning Joe” and I believe Joe himself, decide to say that Mr. Brunn was mentally ill.
That really burned my but. My response:
“So now you want to give any cold-blooded killer, extremist cold-blooded killer, fixated cold-blooded killer the mental illness label. Ignorance does abound on your set today; and people want to label it anything other than what it is … cold-blooded killing. How dare you try to give these killers an insanity defense.”

6. I hope some group decides to name a humanitarian charitable fund in Stephen Tyrone Johns' name (slain Holocaust Museum guard). I’d be the first to donate.

7. Finally, I’m sick and tired of politicians over-reacting and chalking their paranoia and fears of not being re-elected, up to “so called” fears coming from their constituents.
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Do you really think that Americans are scared to death to have terrorists in our prisons? We've got our own "home-grown" ones there now in addition to foreign terrorists. I can understand the hesitancy surrounding suspected terrorists roaming our streets; but fear over imprisoning convicted terrorists in the United States is ridiculous. No wonder other countries call Americans "soft". I'm more afraid of the home-grown" ones, because, like Brunn, they're all around us and they lie in wait ready to inflict cataclysmic harm.

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http://www.kwch.com/Global/story.asp?S=10514580

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-cesca/what-doesnt-kill-the-far_b_143398.html

JOE SCARBOROUGH AND "MORNING JOE" PROGRAM- TOTALLY IRRELEVANT

Joe Scarborough of "Morning Joe" is at it again. What you ask? ... Talking about things he is completely clueless about.

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He has Congressman John Shadegg on his program and says that Shadegg needs to be a leader in the Republican Party because Shadegg initially came out against the bailout as did many Democrats.

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Well ya'll, who caved on voting for the bailout? ... yep, John Shadegg.

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Then he brings out Senator Bayh a moderate Democrat ... a ConservaDem (God help us)... saying moderates are going to reform things [more like obstruct].* Other ConservaDems have been discovered as obstructionists ... Mary Landrieu and Mark Begich.

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Remember my previous post? I'm pissed! The politicians in the United States of America will cause the WORKING CLASS to disappear with their dribble. Starting with Reagan, we've been seeing a decline in class upward mobility. The politicians whose only concern is getting re-elected have sold out labor.

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Currently, the United States has the greatest income inequality among developed nations.[84][94]

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[2006 statistics] The top 1% pays 27.6% of all federal taxes; the top 10% pays 54.7%.[95] Wealth, like income, is highly concentrated: The richest 10% of the adult population possesses 69.8% of the country's household wealth, the second-highest share among developed nations.[96] The top 1% possesses 33.4% of net wealth.[97]; and basically, the top 2% control 80% of the wealth.

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First you have Republican deregulation, now you've got a bunch of Democratic moderates who say they want to modernize financial regulations [uh uh] and tighten their right-leaning spending belts at the worst time since "The Great Depression".

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I don't know about ya'll, but I think I'm moving to Denmark. I'll write later.

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Please turn off/pause music player to the right of this page before viewing video.

About 3 minutes, 59 seconds into this video is where

you will hear Rachel talking about Bayh and the ConservaDems.

This is getting ugly!

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

*http://campaigndiaries.com/2009/03/11/lines-are-drawn/

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States

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RIGHT ON JON STEWART! SHAME ON YOU CNBC, JOE SCARBOROUGH, AND JIM CRAMER!

We love this. We email the President, email MSNBC's "Morning Joe" with Joe Scarborough (see previous post-"CAN YOU REALLY TRUST CABLE NEWS"), then everybody gets involved with CNBC and Jim Cramer and Joe Scarborough.

Hey, you need to understand this NBC ... the people are not going to stand for your sheinanigans anymore. Your night-time MSNBC slots and a few others like Andrea Mitchell are the only decent things you do. Get your crap together losers!

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Please turn off/pause music player to the right of this page before starting video.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Basic Cable Personality Clash Skirmish '09

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Economic Crisis

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/10/jon-stewart-slams-jim-cra_n_173738.html


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REPUBLICANS CONTINUING TO MISLEAD THE PUBLIC ABOUT THE CBO, JAPANESE STIMULUS PLAN AND TAX CUTS

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First let me give a Kudos "shout out" to "Morning Joe"'s frequent guest, Dylan Ratigan and to CNBC's Maria Bartiromo for their insightful and enlightening remarks this morning. We need more people getting angry with what's going on in the financial world, in corporations, and in the Congress and the Senate. You guys keep up the good work; and I urge citizens/consumers to keep a "watchful eye" on these entities and hold them accountable.

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"Rolling Stone" writer claims no one came forward to address corruption regarding Blagojevich. Not true ... Jesse Jackson Jr. did speak to certain federal investigators when the Governor asked for a donation of $25,000 from Jesse in exchange for hiring his wife. Kudos to Jesse.

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/12/16/jesse-jackson-jr-may-have_n_151514.html?page=6

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Yesterday, I sent quite a few emails to the House and the Senate dealing with myths, lies and half-truths.

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1. Republicans state study by CBO shows vast majority of money in stimulus package won't be spent until after 2010.

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The facts:

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"Reports of a recent study by the Congressional Budget Office, showing that the vast majority of the money in the stimulus package won't be spent until after 2010, have Democrats on the defensive and the GOP calling for a pullback in wasteful spending.
Funny thing is, there is no such report.

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"We did not issue any report, any analysis or any study," a CBO aide told the Huffington Post.

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Rather, the nonpartisan CBO ran a small portion of an earlier version of the stimulus plan through a computer program that uses a standard formula to determine a score -- how quickly money will be spent. The score only dealt with the part of the stimulus headed for the Appropriations Committee and left out the parts bound for the Ways and Means or Energy and Commerce Committee.

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Because it dealt with just a part of the stimulus, it estimated the spending rate for only about $300 billion of the $825 billion plan. Significant changes have been made to the part of the bill the CBO looked at. ..."

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See entire 1/23/08 post at:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/01/23/a-controversial-cbo-repor_n_160495.html

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2. Republicans claim that stimulus didn't work with the Japanese therefore it won't work now.

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The facts:

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The Journal [conservative "Wall Street Journal"] editorial listed stimulus policies enacted by Japan between 1992 and 1999 and concluded that "Japan's economy grow [sic] anemically over that decade, but as the nearby chart shows, its national debt exploded ... Now we're told that a similar spending program -- a new New Deal -- will revive the U.S. economy. How do you say 'good luck' in Japanese?"

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Contrary to the Journal's suggestion that stimulus spending was ineffective in Japan, Adam Posen, deputy director of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, wrote in his September 1998 book, Restoring Japan's Economic Growth, that "the 1995 stimulus package ... did result in solid growth in 1996, demonstrating that fiscal policy does work when it is tried. As on earlier occasions in the 1990s, however, the positive response to fiscal stimulus was undercut by fiscal contraction in 1996 and 1997."

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He concluded:
Similar contractions undertaken both openly and by hidden means in 1994, 1996, and 1997, with reference to announced but unimplemented spending, had destructive effects. Future government packages must recognize that when the Japanese government paid for fiscal stimulus in 1995, it got economic growth, and that when it mistakenly pursued fiscal austerity in most of the remainder of the 1992-97 period, it got economic contraction.

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A 1999 budget brief from the Japanese Ministry of Finance demonstrates that the consumption tax was indeed increased from 3 to 5 percent in 1997. Other economists and media figures agree with Posen that the positive effects of the mid-decade stimulus packages were curtailed by these attempts to scale back spending and increase sales taxes.

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For the entire December 22, 2008 article:

http://mediamatters.org/items/200812220005

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3. John McCain says broadband spending will not stimulate the economy.

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The facts:

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Rachel Maddow caught John McCain stating (during the campaign) that spending on broadband would stimulate the economy. She even played the video with those words flowing out of his mouth.

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4. Republicans claim that (supply side, etc.) tax cuts help stimulate the economy more than spending. They have even front loaded up the Internet search engines directing you to blog posts and articles (that were non existent a few days ago) that repeat distorted/misleading assumptions, trying to sway you to their side.

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The Facts:

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Go to:

http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2009010527/economic-stimulus-bill-sound-policy-vs-dc-bipartisanship

 

http://www.americanmanufacturing.org/infrastructure-investment/

 

http://controlcongress.com/deficit-spending/poll-results-suggest-tax-cuts-wont-help-stimulate-economy

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/01/27/stimulus-features-tax-cut_n_161170.html

http://pr.thinkprogress.org/2009/01/pr20090123/index.html

http://www.manufacturethis.org/2009/01/23/morning-news-roundup-63/

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Tune into GRITtv with Laura Flanders

http://lauraflanders.firedoglake.com/

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JOE SCARBOROUGH and the "GITMO" PROBLEM

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Joe Scarborough co-host of "Morning Joe" doesn't have a problem with "Gitmo", or former President Bush's policies on detention and torture; and was visibly extremely angry with people who do not believe as he does.

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My response to Joe:

There you go getting your “knickers twisted up” Joe. No one has a problem prosecuting terrorists. The problem was/is, a group of people of Muslim descent who we thought/think may be linked to terrorist organizations weren’t prosecuted; they were detained indefinitely and in secret; and some even tortured.

Let me ask a question. Was it ok to detain Japanese Americans?
Is it ok to profile Muslims, African Americans and Hispanics, etc. by virtue of their ethnicity or color of their skin? Do you absolutely know the face of Al Qaeda, what they look like?

How about domestic terrorists … those groups who want to kill and have killed Americans, African Americans, gays, Jews, Hispanics, etc … it’s their mission … ok, is it ok to detain or detain indefinitely and in secret, members of those groups?

You’re walking a really fine line here Joe. Look, no one has ever profiled you … you walk a line of privilege. Therefore, it appears that you aren’t real worked up when people of another race, ethnicity and/or color are profiled and detained ... worse, profiled, detained, tortured in secret.

The Bush/Cheney administration by virtue of its policies of profiling, torturing and detaining indefinitely and in secret have created this huge problem for America and how Americans are perceived in the Muslim world and other parts of this world.

We are a young country in a big world and a global economy. We were seen as a leader of the “FREE” world.

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What happens here, in the United State, spreads to the rest of the world. We are largely responsible for the mess in this global economy. We must also bear some responsibility (due to our policies) for this world not being a safer place.

President Obama (and it is President Obama, not Obama ... since you love civility, tradition and respect) is extremely aware of the violations of all people’s rights and liberties.

If you want to go there, Joe, my suggestion is you don’t travel anywhere outside of the United States, because one day, someone may not like the fact your Caucasian, see Caucasians as aggressors; who they may view as a people seeking to advance their own interests over the interests of others, and willing to use military force to advance it; and then they confine you indefinitely and secretly in some foreign country. Perhaps we’ve been seeing that backlash for some time now.
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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036789/#28792403

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The Facts:

http://law.shu.edu/media/fourteen_myths_of_gtmo_final.pdf

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http://lauraflanders.firedoglake.com/2009/01/28/investigating-war-crimes-the-san-francisco-8-and-geithners-goldman-connection/

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*I want to add that I do not think Joe is a racist; but his remarks were insensitive and not well-thought out.

He simply represents the growing fear in the United States regarding America's safety. That said, policies such as what occurred during the Bush administration, may cause those who witness, are tortured or hear about what we've done, to lash out and retaliate.

Dear President Obama,

Please invite GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt to the White House and listen to his vision for America and especially the corporations in America. On “Morning Joe”, Monday, January 19th, I listened to Mr. Immelt talk about “clean energy” and the years ahead being about innovation, technology and productivity. He focused on infrastructure, technology and health care.

I agree totally with him. This thinking that America was going to be about services … see where that got us.

This is a new era and age. I love to call it the Age of Obama.
Seize the opportunity to change America and thus “change the world”.

Love to you and your family

THINK BEFORE YOU SPEAK MITT ROMNEY

Why oh why did "Morning Joe" have Mitt Romney on their show?

Mitt Romney looks good, presents himself well, and his words flow out of his mouth … but least we forget, he comes from a political perspective and a particular party ideology. What else is the man going to say?

Mitt has a problem with regulation. Regulation works if there are no political ties, greed, corruption and cronyism. Hell, his party appointed most of those regulators who looked the other way. He argues for tax cuts for large corporations. Tax cuts for large corporations in this global market are a no win situation. Large corporations have been flocking to 0% tax havens for some time; and they look for cheaper and cheaper labor costs. They have no sense of patriotism. Pure profit and managerial greed drives them.

I don’t want to get into the “arms” industry, but they bear a huge responsibility in the fighting and unrest all over the world.

Mitt says shareholders should decide about salary and bonuses. Look, most shareholders don’t even look at their proxy statements and most don’t vote. Give me a break; the stockholders who possess the largest block of shares run the show.

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The CEO’s, [management] have run their companies into the ground and still they walk off with huge separation packages, huge stock options and bonuses.
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The small business company or owner is where the business tax cuts should go.

One other thing I want to say separate from Mitt; everyone knows that Bush didn’t inherit a recession. The minute that guy got into office, the stock market started to decline. It rallied back in 2003 and fluctuated until the disaster in 2008. Bush and his "inmates running the asylum" party almost devastated this country.

Last, 9/11 happened on Bush’s watch; and terrorist attacks usually happen in cycles. We saw a more minor attack, in comparison to 9/11, during Clinton’s term. You’ve already seen in 2008 a major attack in south east Asia (India) even before President-elect Obama comes to office.

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PRESIDENT BUSH ON FOREIGN POLICY

Sorry guys, yes we’re back to commenting on topics talked about on “Morning Joe” again. President Bush has spoken regarding his foreign policy.

It’s amazing to me that these "so called leaders" have such a lack of creativity and can only envision one way of engaging or dealing with a crisis. It boggles the mind!

I’m sure there have been many points of view on foreign policy and many differing views that don’t involve torture or trampling on the Constitution that would have been just as effective in our efforts to keep this Nation safe.

It is unfortunate that often, stubborn ideology gets in the way almost every time.

Whenever there is crisis, cool heads must prevail and every effort must be made to look for peaceful and effective means to deal with it.

Once that happens, and a consensus is formed, their case must then be made to the American people.

SARAH PALIN UNLEASHED and UNHINGED

Did you see that television segment about Sarah Palin? She spoke about her trials and tribulations on the campaign trail (smile).

So what did "Morning Joe" do this morning? ... they were sympathetic and agreed somewhat with Ms. Palin's views.

Now, I think Mika, Joe and Willy just wanted to "shake things up"; at least, that is what I hope. I would hate to think that those three were temporarily deranged.

Ms. Palin thinks that if she had run as a Democrat, she would have been embraced.

This is what I wrote "Morning Joe" [I must have an obsession with "Morning Joe" this week]

"Ok, now I think I know why you guys supposedly are sympathetic to Palin.
You really wanted Democrats to go bonkers. Here is why “that woman” would have never been chosen by a Democrat:

1. Sarah Palin would have been "fully vetted", and there’s no way she would have been chosen presenting a pregnant teen-age daughter. It's not a good political move for a Democrat since Republicans are always trying to prove that Democrats are immoral.

2. She’s anti-pro choice. She doesn’t believe in sex education.

3. Her husband belonged to, or used to belong to a secessionist group.

4. She would have been perceived as lacking intelligence. Heck, the minute she opened her mouth, she would have been given the ax. Democrats like intelligent people.

5. Most Democrats are not gun toting, "kill wolves, moose, and bears" kind of people.

6. Democrats are environmentally friendly.

Need I go on? Come on.

Turn music player off/pause before starting the video.

Below: Keith Olbermann, Friday, January 9, 2009

http://www.clevelandssecretclub-wheredreamscometrue.com/sarahpalin