Yelling Fire In A Crowded Theater

At what point will the mainstream media start calling out Glenn Beck and his dangerous rhetoric? Are they really going to stand on the sidelines and wait for people to get killed after he gins some crazy asshole up enough to have them go out and commit murder because they are living in the fearful bubble he is creating? We already have several incidents which are likely linked to him but I guess that isn't enough huh? Somebody is going to have to explicitly say Glenn Beck told them to kill somebody before our media wakes up and points out that the son of a bitch is inciting violence with his listeners.

This shit makes my stomach turn and our media can't fucking die soon enough for me.

Why Glenn Beck Is Dangerous

Everyone should take the time out to watch this "The Young Turks" video because Cenk is exactly right about what Glenn Beck is doing and the violence he is trying to inspire. The question is will people just wait for the inevitable, or will SOMEBODY in the mainstream media finally have the balls to call him out with no false equivalence and ask that he be taken off the air?

Gibbs Serves April Ryan A Big Cup Of STFU!!!

Man if I had been in that room I would have stood up and applauded as Robert Gibbs PWNED April Ryan. She is in the frikkin White House press corps and she acts like she is a fucking TMZ journo. Its dumbasses like her that make it harder for "urban" media to be taken seriously.

OF COURSE He Didn't Read The Bill!

Maybe its just me but I don't think anybody should be surprised that Dick Armey didn't read the stimulus bill. To revise a Chris Rock riff, these days Republicans "love to not know shit". If anything I am mildly surprised that he admitted it. But then again being against reading probably ups his cred with the wingnuts.

How They Will Come After Alan Grayson

Cenk Uygur of the Young Turks makes an interesting observation about how it appears the right wing will try to discredit Congressman Alan Grayson, because he has a lot of money. As Cenk points out, it will have absolutely nothing to do with all of the things he is fighting for but they will bank on the mainstream media not noticing. Take a look.

We Have A Right To Be Fearful

Remember the black guy who showed up with an AR 15 semi automatic assault rifle at one of President Obama's townhall meetings a week or so ago? Check out this clip of The Young Turks as Cenk Uygur exposes who and what the guy listens to for "spiritual advice"






Talking Points Memo has more

I am really praying that the Secret Service is paying attention to all this and responding accordingly.

Chuck Todd, Card Carrying Villager

Jeremy Scahill of the Nation ate Chuck Todd for lunch on Bill Maher's show. But bigger than that Chuck Todd revealed himself to be a hack on national TV. By his own admission he doesn't care about the facts of any criminal case against torture. All he gives a shit about is how Republicans will react to any prosecutions. So in his world its more important for President Obama and his administration to shield themselves from attack than to enforce the rule of law. And Chuck Todd basically endorses this point of view rather than pointing out that this is not the way our country was founded.

I remember a time when people were saying Chuck Todd would be a better host than David Gregory on Meet The Press. Well Gregory is abysmal so that isn't saying much but if Todd would be better than him it wouldn't by much.

Meet The Torturers

This story just keeps getting worse. And you just have to know that if nobody is ever brought to justice for this, it WILL happen again.

Give Bernie A Microphone So He Can Rip It

Well we know there is at least one guy in Congress who doesn't mind busting people in the mouth when it comes to debating health care reform and the need for a public option.

That guy is named Bernie Sanders.

It just goes to show that if you take the marketing firm generated talking points away from the Republicans, even one as seasoned as Orrin Hatch, they got nothing.



I don't know what it means that one of the best spokespersons for true liberal and progressive health care reform isn't even technically a Democrat, but I'll take it, thats for DAMN sure!

Big ups to Cenk Uygur and The Young Turks for posting the video.

Perfect Timing

I know that a lot of liberals and progressives are dissappointed and anxious about the news that health care reform will not be voted on before the August Congressional break but I think since there isn't much we can do about that now, we try to turn that lemon into lemonade so to speak. Right now we should be gearing up for a war. And that war is over public opinion polling for health care reform. We already know that some people who want to vote for reform on our side of the aisle are afraid to because they represent purple or red leaning districts or states. There are also those on our side of the aisle who don't want to piss off their benefactors in the health insurance industry. But if we can drive up public opinion in the interim we not only give cover to those Democrats who are worried about how it will play with their constituents, we also take cover away from those corrupt Democrats who have their hand in the cookie jar.

Now quite obviously massive forces will be lined up against health care reform during this time as well. And the truth is some of our ConservDems may not put up their own ads opposing reform but they will wink and nod as the GOP does as well as health insurance industry backed advocacy groups. So to kill the anti reform agenda we have to effectively kill their arguments and we have now been given the tool by which we can usher in their destruction.

Sam Stein of Huffington Post is reporting on internal polling from an outfit called On Messaging Inc which was commissioned by the GOP to come up with a media strategy to kill health care reform. But on the way to typing up talking points for the Republicans, OMI discovered a few inconvenient facts about how the public views health care right now and the need for reform.

The study, put together by the Virginia-based On Message Inc., didn't sugarcoat the landscape. Listing the White House talking points -- that health care reform would be budget-neutral, that a public plan was necessary to stimulate competition, that consumers would be able to keep their coverage, and that Republicans are being obstructions -- the survey concluded: "If Obama Is Allowed To Sell This... He Wins."

Since then, the Republican Party has worked mightily to avoid that Obama victory. And many of their moves appear to have been derived from that OMI survey. Turning to time-tested rhetorical devices, the GOP has shifted the debate onto more friendly terrain.

For example, Republican officials have begun stressing that America has "the best health care in the world" (a sentiment supported by 54 percent of the OMI survey respondents) while simultaneously insisting that the system is "badly in need of reform" (which 70 percent of respondents said was true).

Case in point: "You know the bottom line is that we have the best health care system in the world, there's no doubt about that," RNC Chairman Michael Steele declared two weeks after the memo was finalized. "But this is a health care system that needs reform, and the reform that we've been trying to focus on is the cost side of this."

According to the OMI survey, Republicans are at a significant disadvantage when it comes to the health care debate. For starters, 48 percent of the public said they trusted Democrats to "fix the health care problem in America." Only 29 percent said the same for Republicans. Meanwhile, 58 percent of respondents said that they favored "creating a government run health insurance agency that will compete with private insurance companies," while only 35 percent were opposed.

Now if you ask me there are TONS we can do with this information. Primarily we can get our folks to put together web ads on youtube and blast out press releases to the major networks to drum up interest as well as the major blogs. These ads could be thrown together quickly at very low cost. Here is how I would envision an ad of this sort.

You start off with Republicans using their talking points on health care reform and the are all saying the same thing. You start off with one at a time and then after you have 4 or 5 different Republicans using the same talking point you superimpose them saying the same thing at the same time. And then you ask the question "what is the source of their ideas on health care reform. Is it doctors? No. Is it Nurses? No. Is it patients? No. Its from a messaging group. The same messaging group found x statistics showing public support for health care reform. Its time to recognize that Republicans are not working in good faith for the American people."

Thats a rough script of course but I am sure that people a lot more talented than I can could come up with better dialogue. Then at the end we give a link to honest information not only on health care reform but also on public polling about health care reform. And give the numbers of Democratic Leadership telling people to call and express their support for health care reform.

A similar ad can be made about the Frank Luntz talking points as well. I would especially love to see an ad of all the many Republicans using the words "government takeover" of health care over and over again and then the voice over can point to Frank Luntz as the person who came up with that phrase and then illuminate quotes where he himself admitted he doesn't know a thing about health care reform.

If we get enough people watching videos and seeing that the Republicans are not working in good faith then we can at the least get them to tune out all of the coming attacks on health care for the whole month of August. And so if we can turn them away from GOP attacks then we have the opportunity to convince them about the advantages of health care reform for everyone.

I really hope we can work together to pull this off so that once Congress comes back in September we will have removed any obstacles having to do with public opinion to Democrats in Congress being able to do the right thing and passing health care reform in the fall.

If anybody has any other ideas please let me know.


Here is Cenk Uygur talking about the report about OMI,

Yep, That'll Do It

I think this attack ad against Judge Sonia Sotomayor may just be the nail in the coffin for the foreseeable future with the GOP's relationship with Hispanics.

Democrats Are The New Repubicans

I want to fully associate myself with everything that is said on this clip from Bill Maher and also Cenk Uygur. At some points we are going to need for Democrats to get back to being Democrats and for the media to start being honest with their coverage of the health care debate!

Gog And Magog

I am not sure how true this story is that Cenk Uygur of the Young Turks dug up but the sad thing is, knowing President Bush, its entirely plausible.

More Is Less

As I watched this TYT clip with Cenk Uygur discussing the disgusting and despicable Liz Cheney who appeared on FauxNooz I remembered a part of the Soufan testimony from earlier today.




Now one of the contentions she made on FoxNews was that by limiting interrogators to following the Army Field Manual somehow President Obama was making us less safe by allowing terrorist to know what was coming should we capture them. But check out what Soufan had to say about this issue.

The harsh technique method doesn't use the knowledge we have of the detainee's history, mindset, vulnerabilities, or culture, and instead tries to subjugate the detainee into submission through humiliation and cruelty. The approach applies a force continuum, each time using harsher and harsher techniques until the detainee submits.

The idea behind the technique is to force the detainee to see the interrogator as the master who controls his pain. It is an exercise in trying to gain compliance rather than eliciting cooperation. A theoretical application of this technique is a situation where the detainee is stripped naked and told: "Tell us what you know."

If the detainee doesn't immediately respond by giving information, for example he asks: "what do you want to know?" the interviewer will reply: "you know," and walk out of the interrogation room. Then the next step on the force continuum is introduced, for example sleep deprivation, and the process will continue until the detainee's will is broken and he automatically gives up all information he is presumed to know.

There are many problems with this technique.

A major problem is that it is ineffective. Al Qaeda terrorists are trained to resist torture. As shocking as these techniques are to us, the al Qaeda training prepares them for much worse – the torture they would expect to receive if caught by dictatorships for example.

This is why, as we see from the recently released Department of Justice memos on interrogation, the contractors had to keep getting authorization to use harsher and harsher methods, until they reached waterboarding and then there was nothing they could do but use that technique again and again. Abu Zubaydah had to be waterboarded 83 times and Khalid Shaikh Mohammed 183 times. In a democracy there is a glass ceiling of harsh techniques the interrogator cannot breach, and a detainee can eventually call the interrogator's bluff.

The truth is as Soufan pointed out that the terrorists train for shit that would never under any circumstances be legal even in Dick Cheney's world for us to do to them. And because they know this then when we torture them we actually give them the upper hand. So unless the pro torture crowd is prepared to go the full Syrian and break out the thumbscrews and pull out fingernails doing "harsh interrogation" probably does more harm than good in terms of trying to keep us safe. It would help if somebody in the media would point this out.

Condi Rice Channels Richard Nixon

Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks obtained a copy of a tape of a student asking Condoleezza Rice whether torture was illegal. Her answer was straight out of "Frost/Nixon". Check it out.



Now that we know Condi had a central role in approving of torture I really hope she gets shunned by the academic community and at some point has to face public questioning over the issue.

Have You Ever Held A Press Conference? Have You Ever Held A Press Conference ON WEED?!

During the online townhall press conference yesterday President Obama addressed one of the questions that had been voted on the most about legalizing marijuana. Now President Obama took great liberties with how the question was actually worded but even at that I don't think anyone is surprised that he said he was against legalizing marijuana. But here is the problem, whether you smoke weed or not at this point its almost indisputable that legalizing marijuana would both help the economy by creating jobs, generating tax revenue, and cutting down on the cost of prosecuting crimes involving possession of marijuana. Literally the only reason marijuana is still illegal is because no politician has the political will to legalize it except for medical uses. If you look at the facts there is no way to justify why alcohol is legal and marijuana is not. Especially when marijuana actually helps with many different physical ailments. Then there is the issue of hemp based products which could be used for many different industries like making rope or even in different clothing fabrics. And by taking weed off the streets and putting it in stores you reduce crime in this country just like when prohibition was repealed and the bootleggers went out of business. I am 100% with Cenk on this one.

Is Michele Bachmann A Terrorist?

Cenk Uygur makes a good case that she is in light of her recent comments about armed revolution.

Rush Limbaugh Thinks You're A Peasant

Rush Limbaugh came out in favor of allowing AIG executives to keep their fat cat bonuses. For all of you out there who are outraged over them using the bailout money in such an irresponsible fashion Rush thinks you and the rest of your "peasant" friends to kick rocks and get over it or risk being labeled communist like those lefty librul Democrats.

TYT and Cenk Uygur are on the case



Now the question of course is not if but WHEN the Republican leadership will totally change their tune and endorse paying out the bonuses so they can continue to kiss Rush's fat ass. Right now I am putting the over under at 9 am tomorrow morning. So by that time someone in the Republican "leadership" (yeah I know thats an oxymoron) in either the House or the Senate will come out and say its wrong to try to limit the pay for AIG and people on Wall Street. Now I am sure that people like Gov Sanford in South Carolina or Gov. Perry in Texas probably won't even take that long to flip the script. But like I saide earlier about the angry populist mobs, it doesn't take much to get them to turn on you after you have gotten them riled up. And when they notice that the "conservatives" are trying to protect the fat cats all hell is bound to break loose. I will definitely be watching these developments closely.

Glenn Beck Is Teh Crazy!

Cenk Uygur is on the case!



Just want to make one point. Isn't it rich that a person calling our President kinda Jesus but kinda not, a socialist, a communist and someone who is soaking the rich to give a crack pipe to a kid complains about the Left "demonizing" him?

The Evolution Of An Open Mind

Since Israel started their military actions in the Gaza Strip I have published several videos of Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks talking about it. I don't work for him nor get paid by him for doing it, I do so because he says a lot of the things I would say if I had that kind of platform. But even Cenk in my opinion at first was making moral equivalencies so as not to take sides. I am sure part of that was due to our media's and our elected official's portrayals of how everything went down. But the great thing about him is that on most issues he will keep an open mind and as he learns new information he allows himself to evaluate it and not just dismiss it out of hand because it doesn't line up with his first impression.

One of the most frustrating things in the past week or so since all this started for me is that when I have had conversations with people whether on line or in person about it they simply do not want to hear anything that challenges their long held beliefs. I can link to/email/present however many fact based articles to them and rather than actually evaluating what is right in front of them they will just fall back to their original position even when they know and its apparent that they have nothing factual to support it. Well I thought it might be a good idea to contrast how Cenk was looking at the situation a week ago with how he has come to feel about it today.

First here is the video from last week. Now mind you he did feel that the response from Israel was disproportionate right off the bat, but he also somewhat felt that Hamas had been asking for it by their actions.



Now contrast that with his words today on the subject a week later and after he has done more research on the subject and therefore has a much better informed opinion.



Now I know that some of the subsequent actions by Israel has colored his opinion, of that there is no doubt. But also he now knows the real truth behind what precipitated this whole situation. And he allowed himself to allow for the fact that he might have been wrong to begin with. Honestly that's all I am asking for here folks. I don't want people to say that the people of Israel are evil or that they are murderers or anything over the top like that. From the beginning I have been clear on this, no matter what happened for years and years before Hamas got elected, in this situation Israel is wrong. Its as simple as that.

That doesn't mean they are bad people or evil or any other derisive term. What it means is the leadership in Israel are wrong and have been wrong and are continuing to be wrong in this particular situation. I said this on someone else's blog, but I will repeat it here. There is pretty much a consensus now that we never should have gone into Iraq and that we wrongly tortured some of our enemy combatants. Does that make America evil? Or does that make our leadership evil? If you can criticize President Bush over Iraq you should DEFINITELY be able to criticize the leaders of Israel for their treatment of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. It is what it is, truly.