Republican National Committee: Same Old Song & Dance.

From the New York Times comes further proof that the Republican Party is so far off the deep end that it's scraping bottom:

The battle among Republicans over what the party should stand for — and how much it should accommodate dissenting views on important issues — is probably going to move from the states to the Republican National Committee when it holds its winter meeting this January in Honolulu.

Republican leaders are circulating a resolution listing 10 positions Republican candidates should support to demonstrate that they “espouse conservative principles and public policies” that are in opposition to “Obama’s socialist agenda.” According to the resolution, any Republican candidate who broke with the party on three or more of these issues– in votes cast, public statements made or answering a questionnaire – would be penalized by being denied party funds or the party endorsement

The proposed resolution was signed by 10 Republican national committee members and was distributed on Monday morning. They are asking for the resolution to be debated when Republicans gather for their winter meeting.

The resolution invokes Ronald Reagan, and noted that Mr. Reagan had said the Republican Party should be devoted to conservative principles but also be open to diverse views. President Reagan believed, the resolution notes, “that someone who agreed with him 8 out of 10 times was his friend, not his opponent.”

Hence the provision calling for cutting off Republicans who agree with the party on seven of 10 items. The resolution demands that Republicans support “smaller government, smaller national deficits and lower taxes,” denial of government funding for abortion, and “victory in Iraq and Afghanistan.” It calls on candidates to oppose amnesty for illegal immigrants and repealing of the Defense of Marriage Act.

Invoking Ronald Reagan is still considered a winning formula for the GOP. Why not go really old school, and throw in Herbert Hoover, too?

Holy Sheet.

Teabag Nation.

Stefan Frederick Cook Doesn't Want To Go To Afghanistan.

More lunacy from the birther crowd.

From the Ledger-Enquirer:

U.S. Army Maj. Stefan Frederick Cook, set to deploy to Afghanistan, says he shouldn’t have to go.

His reason?

Barack Obama was never eligible to be president because he wasn’t born in the United States.

Actually, Obama was born in Hawaii in 1961, two years after it became a state.

Cook’s lawyer, Orly Taitz, who has also challenged the legitimacy of Obama’s presidency in other courts, filed a request last week in federal court seeking a temporary restraining order and status as a conscientious objector for his client.

In the 20-page document — filed July 8 with the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia — the California-based Taitz asks the court to consider granting his client’s request based upon Cook’s belief that Obama is not a natural-born citizen of the United States and is therefore ineligible to serve as commander-in-chief of the U.S. Armed Forces.

Cook further states he “would be acting in violation of international law by engaging in military actions outside the United States under this President’s command. ... simultaneously subjecting himself to possible prosecution as a war criminal by the faithful execution of these duties.”

Cook, a reservist, received the orders mobilizing him to active duty on June 9.

A reservist, huh? I wonder if he's been cashing those Unit Training Pay checks since Inauguration Day? And I wonder if he'll be charged with going AWOL when the judge throws this nuisance case based on a discredited premise out of court?

More Sludge From Drudge.

Like many of his right-wing soulmates, media whore Matt Drudge has long been a practitioner of the out-of-context headline, quote or photo. It looks like he's done it again with his screaming headline and image of what he tries to sell as a leering Barack Obama at the G8 summit.

But with his influence likely on the decline, an increasingly desperate Drudge appears to have resorted to his trademark brand of yellow journalism once again, as this video from ABC News seems to show.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, Matt Drudge's portion is spun with fulsome bullshit:

Now, Sarkozy? Sacre bleu!

His Sanity Has Gone South.

GOP Confederate Alert!

From Newser.com:

South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint apparently thinks Barack Obama is a lot like Hitler. “Where we are, we’re about where Germany was before World War II where they became a social democracy,” he said at a National Press Club event last night to promote his new book, Saving Freedom. “You still had votes but the votes were just power grabs like you see in Iran, and other places in South America, like Chavez is running down in Venezuela.”

DeMint said he’d met an Iranian immigrant who was terrified by Obama’s government spending spree, and warned his audience to listen, reports the Washington Independent. “They understand socialism. They understand tyrants. When our immigrants get here, they’re worried, because they see it happening here.” He said in his mind it was the “eleventh hour” for freedom in America, though he ruled out an actual violent revolution.

I'm not surprised by the rantings of this unreconstructed redneck, but I am surprised that he's actually conversed with an immigrant.

When It Comes To George W. Bush, His Silence Is Golden.

Dubya never could tell the truth...

From ThinkProgress.com:

After initially stating that he wanted President Obama to “succeed” and that he owed Obama his “silence,” President Bush yesterday decided to reverse course and criticize the President. The former President took aim at Obama’s desire to introduce a public health insurance option for Americans:

"There are a lot of ways to remedy the situation without nationalizing health care,” Mr. Bush said. “I worry about encouraging the government to replace the private sector when it comes to providing insurance for health care.”

Asked by the evening emcee at the 104th annual Manufacturer and Business Association meeting if he finds the new president’s policies “socialist,” Mr. Bush started then stopped.

"I hear a lot of those words, but it depends on…,” he said, breaking off. He later offered a more diplomatic assessment: “We’ll see.”

From Salon.com:

Former President George W. Bush has said he's not going to directly criticize his successor, at least not in public. And he said it again Wednesday, before making some more indirect criticisms of President Obama and his policies.

From the Washington Times:

Former President George W. Bush fired a salvo at President Obama on Wednesday, asserting his administration's interrogation policies were within the law, declaring the private sector -- not government -- will fix the economy and rejecting the nationalization of health care.

"I know it's going to be the private sector that leads this country out of the current economic times we're in," the former president said to applause from members of a local business group. "You can spend your money better than the government can spend your money."

Repeatedly in his hourlong speech and question-and-answer session, Mr. Bush said he would not directly criticize the new president, who has moved to take over financial institutions and several large corporations. Several times, however, he took direct aim at Obama policies as he defended his own during eight years in office.

"Government does not create wealth. The major role for the government is to create an environment where people take risks to expand the job rate in the United States."

"I told you I'm not going to criticize my successor," he said. "I'll just tell you that there are people at Gitmo that will kill American people at a drop of a hat and I don't believe that -- persuasion isn't going to work. Therapy isn't going to cause terrorists to change their mind."

During a question-and-answer session, Mr. Bush recounted tough decisions he made in office. Still steely, the former president said he left Washington with the same moral resolve. "When I look in the mirror, I say, 'He did not sell his soul for short-term politics.'"

He's right. He sold his soul for his politics of two-term incompetence.

Matt Drudge: Shillin' For The RNC.

The GOP tool splashes this across his homepage...

Click image below to enlarge:

It's really just a town hall meeting...

Urgent Care.

From the AP, via HuffPo:

Fixing the economy requires overhauling the U.S. health care system, a White House report concludes--just the message the administration needs to help implement a sweeping new social welfare program during a recession.

The report by the White House Council of Economic Advisers says that health care costs--now about 18 percent of the gross domestic product--will rise to 34 percent in 30 years if left unchecked, wreaking havoc on the federal deficit, businesses and working Americans.

Obama administration officials, urgently seeking to build momentum for health care legislation, planned to discuss the report's findings at the White House on Tuesday with leaders of the key Senate committees drafting bills.

"Health care reform is incredibly important not just for the American people but for the American economy," said Christina Romer, chairwoman of the Council of Economic Advisers. "Good health care reform is essentially good economic policy."

Critics were quick to dismiss the report.

"Everyone agrees that reducing the cost of health care would benefit our economy, but the administration hasn't offered a credible plan to do so without raising taxes or rationing care," said House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio.

(Editor's note: Boehner's crack about "rationing care" is one of the many lies opponents of health care reform routinely trot out in an attempt to blow smoke up your ass. See McCaughey, Betsy.)

President Barack Obama and his advisers have consistently sought to link health care and the economy but they're turning up the volume as Congress returns from a weeklong recess and turns its attention to health care.

Later Tuesday, Obama was set to meet at the White House with Senate Democratic leaders to "discuss the urgent need to get rising health care costs under control," according to a White House advisory.

On Monday, a coalition of industry groups submitted proposals to the White House they said would reduce the growth of their own costs by 1.5 percent a year, consistent with Obama's goals.

Obama wants legislation that would hold down costs, guarantee choice and extend coverage to the 50 million Americans who don't have it now.

Two Senate committees are crafting legislation: the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee led by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., and the Senate Finance Committee, chaired by Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont.

The Democrats on Kennedy's committee were meeting Tuesday for a first look at an outline of Kennedy's plans. It wasn't clear if Kennedy, who has been diagnosed with brain cancer, would be present.

Neither committee has released a full bill yet. Both have circulated proposals and differences have emerged, leading Kennedy and Baucus to issue a joint statement over the weekend promising to work together.

Majority Democrats in the House and the Senate want to bring the legislation to the floor by August.

Taking A Stroll On The High Road.

The Obamas went to the theater in New York last night.

Yet another opportunity to be reminded that right-wingers are flat-out assholes.

From Politico.com:

The Republican National Committee slammed the outing in an "RNC Research Piece": "As President Obama prepares to wing into Manhattan’s theater district on Air Force One to take in a Broadway show, GM is preparing to file bankruptcy and families across America continue to struggle to pay their bills. ... Have a great Saturday evening – even if you’re not jetting off somewhere at taxpayer expense. ... PUTTING ON A SHOW: Obamas Wing Into The City For An Evening Out While Another Iconic American Company Prepares For Bankruptcy."

The RNC's Gail Gitcho added: "If President Obama wants to go to the theater, isn’t the Presidential box at the Kennedy Center good enough?”

I'm not sure, Gail. But then you're probably not used to anybody going out without a hood, a gas mask or some kind of a f******hose.

Oxy's Moron Is Stuck On "Fail."

But We Already Tried "See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil" And That Didn't Turn Out So Well...

The Shadow Knows...

From Glenn Greenwald on Salon.com:

It's difficult to react much to Obama's complete reversal today of his own prior decision to release photographs depicting extreme detainee abuse by the United States.  He's left no doubt that this is what he does:  ever since he was inaugurated, Obama has taken one extreme step after the next to keep concealed both the details and the evidence of Bush's crimes, including rendition, torture and warrantless eavesdropping.  The ACLU's Amrit Singh -- who litigated the thus-far-successful FOIA lawsuit to compel disclosure of these photographs -- is exactly right:

     The reversal is another indication of a continuance of the Bush administration policies under the Obama administration.  President Obama's promise of accountability is meaningless, this is inconsistent with his promise of transparency, it violates the government's commitment to the court. People need to examine these abusive photographs, but also the government officials need to be held accountable.

Andrew Sullivan, one of Obama's earliest and most enthusiastic supporters, wrote of today's photograph-concealment decision and yesterday's story of Obama's pressuring Britain to conceal evidence of Binyam Mohamed's torture:

     Slowly but surely, Obama is owning the cover-up of his predecessors' war crimes. But covering up war crimes, refusing to prosecute them, promoting those associated with them, and suppressing evidence of them are themselves violations of Geneva and the UN Convention. So Cheney begins to successfully coopt his successor. . .

     From extending and deepening the war in Afghanistan, to suppressing evidence of rampant and widespread abuse and torture of prisoners under Bush, to thuggishly threatening the British with intelligence cut-off if they reveal the brutal torture inflicted on Binyam Mohamed, Obama now has new cheer-leaders: Bill Kristol, Michael Goldfarb and Max Boot. . . .

     Those of us who held out hope that the Obama administration would not be actively covering up the brutal torture of a Gitmo prisoner who was subject to abuse in several countries must now concede the obvious. They're covering it up - in such a crude and obvious fashion that it is actually a crime in Britain.

There's more here.

I watched George Washington University law professor  Jonathan Turley on The Rachel Maddow Show tonight, and he was apoplectic about the Obama administration's about-face on the release of these photos. Turley did posit that perhaps Obama's "out"--at least politically--was that the ACLU would ultimately prevail in winning the FOIA lawsuit, thus compelling the release of the damning pictures.

The bottom line is that people were tortured and abused in our name, and we need to find out the truth. Who, what, where, when, why and how.

Nothing more, nothing less.

"Nowhere Am I So Desperately Needed As Among A Shipload Of Illogical Humans."

This post's title comes from Mr. Spock.

From Salon.com:

     Spock has been on many minds lately, and not entirely because of the new film. Big thinkers in both print media and the blogosphere -- from New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd  to MIT media moguls -- have referenced the Enterprise's science officer in recent months, drawing parallels between the dependably logical half-Vulcan and another mixed-race icon: Barack Obama.

     They're not just talking about the ears. For those of us who watched the show in the 1960s (or during the countless reruns since), (Leonard) Nimoy's alter ego was the harbinger of a future in which logic would reign over emotion, and rational thought triumph over blind faith. He was a digital being in an analog world; the Pied Piper who led our generation into the Silicon Age.

     Anyone who followed the early "Star Trek" with regularity knows how charismatic Spock was. If there were two characters I wanted to be as a young man, they were Spock -- and James Bond. Both displayed total self-confidence, and amazing problem-solving skills. Both traveled to exotic destinations, and were irresistible to women. And both shared a quality that my generation lacked completely: composure.

     "I am a first-generation 'Star Trek' fan, and I've long argued that many of my deepest political convictions emerged from my experience of watching the program as a young man growing up in Atlanta during the civil rights era," declares Henry Jenkins, co-director of the MIT comparative media studies program and author of "Convergence Culture." "In many ways, my commitment to social justice was shaped in reality by Martin Luther King and in fantasy by 'Star Trek.'”

     Obama, Jenkins points out, positioned himself in the primaries as a man "at home with both blacks and whites, someone whose mixed racial background has forced him to become a cultural translator." In this sense Obama even surpasses Spock, whose struggle to reconcile his half-human, half-Vulcan genes is a continual source of inner conflict. In one episode, the entire Enterprise crew (except for Kirk) is infected by alien spores that turn them into doe-eyed flower children. The "cure" is anger -- thus Kirk is forced to provoke his first officer to rage. He succeeds, spectacularly, by insulting Spock’s racial pedigree: "All right, you mutinous half-breed! You’re an overgrown jackrabbit! An elf, with a hyperactive thyroid! A simpering, devil-eared freak whose father was a computer and his mother an encyclopedia!"

     Confronted with a similar insult, Barack Obama would probably just laugh. "The Vulcan side of Obama, the core of his character, and his character, hasn't changed [since the election]," Jenkins believes. "He's tough, he’s cool and he’s rational." His appeal stems from the self-aware integration of all aspects of his personality: black and white, wonk and poet, athlete and aesthete.

Michael Steele: Confederate Soldier.

From HuffPo:

While hosting Bill Bennett's radio show Friday morning, Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele appeared to agree with a caller that President Obama is "the magic Negro."

CALLER: It's just like the LA Times said last year, or two years ago -- he is the magic Negro.

STEELE: Yeah he is -- [laughter]. You read that too, huh?

CALLER: Oh yeah. I read that too. And even when things go wrong, he still manages to come out smelling like a rose.

STEELE: Well, yeah. And it's because he's getting unprecedented coverage -- cover -- by the media.

Steele's amused reaction is somewhat surprising. When former RNC chairman Chip Saltsman released a CD including a parody song "Barack The Magic Negro" in January -- inspired by the same LA Times article -- Steele said it "doesn't help at all ... it reinforces a negative stereotype of the party." Saltsman withdrew from the race to remain chairman in the wake of the scandal.

You Mean President Obama Hasn't Saved The World In The First 6.84462696% Of His Presidency?

So it's been 100 days of the smartest guy in the room speaking in complete sentences. What a refreshing change! Now when I talk with friends from around the world, I don't have to apologize for having an idiot in the White House.

Plus, this revelation: we knew Republicans were into S&M, but who knew they were such teabaggers, too?  

From ABC News:

Barack Obama approaches the 100-day mark with rising economic hopes, the best job approval rating at this point in 20 years, the broadest personal popularity since Ronald Reagan and half of Americans now saying the country's headed in the right direction.

His problem: The other half don't.

For all he and his supporters have to celebrate, overcoming political divisions -- an Obama pledge -- is not among them. His 69 percent job approval rating in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll is almost exactly the average for an elected president at 100 days in polls back to Dwight Eisenhower. But it belies a more modern partisan gap: Ninety-three percent of Democrats approve. Only 36 percent of Republicans agree.

There's a similar split in the sense that the nation's heading in the right direction. It's soared from 19 percent just before Obama's inauguration to 50 percent today -- a stunning advance to its highest in six years. But while right-track ratings have gained 50 points since January among Democrats, they're up by a far milder 9 points among Republicans.

Considering the track record of today's GOP, should any sane person care about what they think, anyway?

The rest is here.

And--of course--those nattering nabobs of negativism at FOX News hate the guy.

We must be on the right track:

Bill Maher--The GOP: Divorced From Reality.

     Bill Maher, in an op-ed from Friday's Los Angeles Times:    

     If conservatives don't want to be seen as bitter people who cling to their guns and religion and anti-immigrant sentiments, they should stop being bitter and clinging to their guns, religion and anti-immigrant sentiments.
     It's been a week now, and I still don't know what those "tea bag" protests were about. I saw signs protesting abortion, illegal immigrants, the bank bailout and that gay guy who's going to win "American Idol." But it wasn't tax day that made them crazy; it was election day. Because that's when Republicans became what they fear most: a minority. 

     The conservative base is absolutely apoplectic because, because ... well, nobody knows. They're mad as hell, and they're not going to take it anymore. Even though they're not quite sure what "it" is. But they know they're fed up with "it," and that "it" has got to stop.
     Here are the big issues for normal people: the war, the economy, the environment, mending fences with our enemies and allies, and the rule of law. 
     And here's the list of Republican obsessions since President Obama took office: that his birth certificate is supposedly fake, he uses a teleprompter too much, he bowed to a Saudi guy, Europeans like him, he gives inappropriate gifts, his wife shamelessly flaunts her upper arms, and he shook hands with Hugo Chavez and slipped him the nuclear launch codes.

     Do these sound like the concerns of a healthy, vibrant political party?
     It's sad what's happened to the Republicans. They used to be the party of the big tent; now they're the party of the sideshow attraction, a socially awkward group of mostly white people who speak a language only they understand. Like Trekkies, but paranoid.
     The GOP base is convinced that Obama is going to raise their taxes, which he just lowered. But, you say, "Bill, that's just the fringe of the Republican Party." No, it's not. The governor of Texas, Rick Perry, is not afraid to say publicly that thinking out loud about Texas seceding from the Union is appropriate considering that ... Obama wants to raise taxes 3% on 5% of the people? I'm not sure exactly what Perry's independent nation would look like, but I'm pretty sure it would be free of taxes and Planned Parenthood. And I would have to totally rethink my position on a border fence. 
     I know. It's not about what Obama's done. It's what he's planning. But you can't be sick and tired of something someone might do.
     Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota recently said she fears that Obama will build "reeducation" camps to indoctrinate young people. But Obama hasn't made any moves toward taking anyone's guns, and with money as tight as it is, the last thing the president wants to do is run a camp where he has to shelter and feed a bunch of fat, angry white people. 
     Look, I get it, "real America." After an eight-year run of controlling the White House, Congress and the Supreme Court, this latest election has you feeling like a rejected husband. You've come home to find your things out on the front lawn -- or at least more things than you usually keep out on the front lawn. You're not ready to let go, but the country you love is moving on. And now you want to call it a whore and key its car.
     That's what you are, the bitter divorced guy whose country has left him -- obsessing over it, haranguing it, blubbering one minute about how much you love it and vowing the next that if you cannot have it, nobody will.
     But it's been almost 100 days, and your country is not coming back to you. She's found somebody new. And it's a black guy. 
     The healthy thing to do is to just get past it and learn to cherish the memories. You'll always have New Orleans and Abu Ghraib. 
     And if today's conservatives are insulted by this, because they feel they're better than the people who have the microphone in their party, then I say to them what I would say to moderate Muslims: Denounce your radicals. To paraphrase George W. Bush, either you're with them or you're embarrassed by them.
     The thing that you people out of power have to remember is that the people in power are not secretly plotting against you. They don't need to. They already beat you in public.

The United States Doesn't Torture...Right?

     Click here to petition Attorney General Eric Holder, asking him to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate torture procedures carried out in your name.

     The torture memos are here.

Getting To The Bottom Of The Bottom Of The Barrel.

Let the hearings begin.

From the AP:

President Barack Obama is leaving the door to open to possible prosecution of Bush administration officials who devised harsh terrorism-era interrogation tactics.

He also said Tuesday that he worries about the impact of high-intensity hearings on how detainees were treated under former President George W. Bush. But Obama did say, nevertheless, he could support a Hill investigation if it were conducted in a bipartisan way.

Obama has said he doesn't support charging CIA agents and interrogators who took part in waterboarding and other harsh interrogation tactics, acting on advice from superiors that such practices were legal. But he also said that it is up to the attorney general whether to prosecute Bush administration lawyers who wrote the memos approving these tactics.

Newt Gingrich: Still Crazy After All These Years.

Tortured Logic.

Defending himself against critics who have said that he is trying to do too much at once, President Obama has said repeatedly that an administration has to be able to tackle multiple issues simultaneously.

They couldn't squeeze this one in?

From Sam Stein of the Huffington Post:

Remarks made by Obama senior adviser David Axelrod on Monday provide the clearest indication to date that the White House is not only uninterested in pursuing investigations of Bush officials involved in torture but views them as a distraction from a larger governing agenda.

Speaking before the Religious Action Center, a Reform Judaism advocacy organization, Axelrod warned against re-litigating the past, arguing that the current White House didn't need such a distraction when it already had so much on its plate.

"The president believes strongly that we need to be looking forward," said Axelrod. "If he had not banned these [interrogation techniques] there would be a different case to be made here. But these practices are a thing of the past. What this should not become is a forum for re-litigating these issues apropos to the last administration and some of the policy makers there, because we have too much work to do to become bogged down in that debate. That's the feeling."

The remarks, which Axelrod acknowledged would come as a disappointment to the largely progressive crowd, are a step further than the Obama White House has largely been willing to go on the issue of investigating the Bush years.

The president himself has said that if illegalities were proven it would be the obligation of his Justice Department to investigate and/or prosecute them. And while, also on Monday, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs stated the president's preference for moving "the country forward" he did not, like Axelrod, qualify why it was that Obama was disinclined to look back.

"The President does believe and the Attorney General said quite clearly that those that believed in good faith that these techniques had been declared legal by the Department of Justice should not be prosecuted," Gibbs explained.

Indeed, the line from the White House, especially in wake of the release of the Bush-era torture memos, has been to stress that those techniques have now been outlawed and pivot to another question. Axelrod tried the line too, stressing that the president closed this "dark chapter in our history" by shutting down Guantanamo Bay and ending the practice of torture. Forgoing investigations, he added, was not an easy one to make, as evident by the four weeks of consultation Obama took to evaluate the matter.

"We do have real threats in the world and a national security apparatus that has to confront those threats every single day," Axelrod added. "And what [Obama] has said is he does not believe we should prosecute those people who were told that these [techniques] were with the legal parameters for interrogation, and then go back and say, 'You know what, they really weren't, so now you are going to be prosecuted.'"