Boston To Honor Bill Russell

From ESPN.Boston:

The Boston Celtics announced Wednesday that, at long last, Bill Russell will be honored with a statue in the city of Boston.

"We are honored to play a role in paying tribute to such an extraordinary athlete, leader and legacy," Celtics managing partner/co-owner Stephen Pagliuca said. "Bill Russell will forever be remembered in Boston, and it's fitting that the ultimate benefactors of his legacy will be future generations of our beloved city's youth."

Said Mayor Thomas M. Menino, who convened and hosted the first meetings of the newly formed Bill Russell Legacy Committee: "I am so proud to be part of an effort to honor Bill Russell. He is not only one of the greatest champions the sports world has ever seen, he is a man who has stood by and delivered for our young people through his support of mentoring programs. I want all Bostonians and all who work or visit here to recognize Bill Russell and all his accomplishments."

The team also announced the creation of a mentoring program in Russell's name.

For his part, Russell was humbled by the honor.

"I am uncomfortable with honors such as this but my years as captain of the Boston Celtics were the proudest moments of my career," Russell said. "Mayor Menino's Boston has proven to be a city that embraces the diverse contributions of all its people and neighborhoods. I am thankful to the Celtics and all the contributors for the effort to create such a wonderful mentoring program."

During a White House ceremony earlier this year in which he awarded Russell a Medal of Freedom, President Barack Obama said he hoped Boston would build a statue of Russell.

"I hope that one day in the streets of Boston, children will look up at a statue built not only to Bill Russell the player, but Bill Russell the man," Obama said.

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Red, White & Brew

H/T: TruthDig

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Mutiny On The Bounty

From Kevin Drum of Mother Jones:

Have I mentioned my favorite part of Obama's speech yesterday? Here it is:

America’s finances were in great shape by the year 2000. We went from deficit to surplus. America was actually on track to becoming completely debt free, and we were prepared for the retirement of the Baby Boomers.

But after Democrats and Republicans committed to fiscal discipline during the 1990s, we lost our way in the decade that followed. We increased spending dramatically for two wars and an expensive prescription drug program — but we didn’t pay for any of this new spending. Instead, we made the problem worse with trillions of dollars in unpaid-for tax cuts — tax cuts that went to every millionaire and billionaire in the country; tax cuts that will force us to borrow an average of $500 billion every year over the next decade.

To give you an idea of how much damage this caused to our nation’s checkbook, consider this: In the last decade, if we had simply found a way to pay for the tax cuts and the prescription drug benefit, our deficit would currently be at low historical levels in the coming years.

But that’s not what happened. And so, by the time I took office, we once again found ourselves deeply in debt and unprepared for a Baby Boom retirement that is now starting to take place. When I took office, our projected deficit, annually, was more than $1 trillion. On top of that, we faced a terrible financial crisis and a recession that, like most recessions, led us to temporarily borrow even more.

Translation: Fuck you, Republicans.

Hey, that's my line!

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Can Barack Come Out & Play?

So the government didn't shut down after all, like it did in the mid-90s. Seinfeld isn't on in primetime anymore, either. Ezra Klein reminds us that 2011 is not 1995:

The substance of this deal is bad. But the way Democrats are selling it makes it much, much worse.

The final compromise was $38.5 billion below 2010’s funding levels. That’s $78.5 billion below President Obama’s original budget proposal, which would’ve added $40 billion to 2010’s funding levels, and $6.5 billion below John Boehner’s original counteroffer, which would’ve subtracted $32 billion from 2010’s budget totals. In the end, the real negotiation was not between the Republicans and the Democrats, or even the Republicans and the White House. It was between John Boehner and the conservative wing of his party. And once that became clear, it turned out that Boehner’s original offer wasn’t even in the middle. It was slightly center-left.

But you would’ve never known it from President Obama’s encomium to the agreement. Obama bragged about “making the largest annual spending cut in our history.” Harry Reid joined him, repeatedly calling the cuts “historic.” It fell to Boehner to give a clipped, businesslike statement on the deal. If you were just tuning in, you might’ve thought Boehner had been arguing for moderation, while both Obama and Reid sought to cut deeper. You would never have known that Democrats had spent months resisting these “historic” cuts, warning that they’d cost jobs and slow the recovery...

...The Obama White House is looking toward the Clinton model. After all, Clinton also suffered a major setback in his first midterm, Clinton also faced down a hardline Republican Congress, Clinton also suffered major policy defeats, and yet Clinton, as the story goes, managed to co-opt the conservative agenda and remake himself into a successful centrist. The Obama administration has even hired many of Clinton’s top aides to help them recapture that late-90s magic.

The piece is here.

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The Middle Of Nowhere

All The Shit Unfit To Print

Excerpted from Patrick Goldstein's The Big Picture in the Los Angeles Times:

Only in the nutty world of Fox News is there anything possibly controversial about celebrating a renowned chief. But apparently the Fox News crew hadn't managed to fill the daily quota of anti-Obama screeds, so the Fox's website got hold of a typically bland USA Today story about (President) Obama's new book, zeroed in on the one potentially controversial angle and came up with this headline: "Obama Praises Indian Chief Who Killed U.S. General." Fox even managed to get that wrong, since there is zero evidence that Sitting Bull actually killed George Armstrong Custer at the famous Battle of the Little Big Horn. If you go to the post, you'll see the headline now reads: "Obama Praises Indian Chief Who Defeated U.S. General."

Stay tuned; Glenn Beck is surely on the case.

Oh, For Christ's Sake...

From NBC Sports:

Look, if there's anything that proves President Obama isn't a Muslim, it's the fact that he skipped church to go play golf. That's as American as a fife and drum on the Fourth of July. But despite the fact that Ward Cleaver tried to get away with the same thing in practically every episode of Leave it to Beaver, conservative-leaning blogs are in a holy uproar of Obama's frequent golf outings. Example: he's played 43 rounds of golf -- 23 of them played on a Sunday. That's more than Bush in both terms! That's about every other week. How Christian. NOT.

The Obama's are on a 10-day vacation at Martha's Vineyard. From the Boston Herald:

Instead of attending church services at one of the dozens and dozens of quaint, island Christian churches yesterday morning, the commander in chief hit Our Lady of the Fairways, aka the Vineyard Golf Club, yet again, to play 18.
It was Obama's second outing to the posh, private golf club since landing Thursday on The Rock. The prez teed off at 8:30 a.m. under cloudy, drizzly skies. A perfect day to be inside. Like, say, in church!
Now you'd think, with polls showing that one in five Americans believe Obama is a Muslim -- and with the furor over the president's flip-flops on the Ground Zero mosque -- that his White House handlers might have orchestrated a nice little photo op of the first family doing a little vacation worshiping yesterday morning.
Because, despite the administration's insistence that Barry is a Christian and that he prays daily, most Americans have noticed that Obama rarely attends church. That's a noticeable departure from previous presidents, such as George W. Bush and Clinton, who were on their knees every Sunday.
Of course, the last time Obama had a regular church, it was Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright fame, and, well, we all know how that turned out.
The president's handlers have said Obama doesn't attend services regularly because he doesn't want to be "hugely disruptive to congregations." This is apparently not an issue on the golf course.

Heartening to see the media focusing on the pressing matters of the day, isn't it?

Matt Drudge Ponders The Big Issues.

Bill O'Reilly Steps In It Again.

Flipping around between NBA games tonight, and I land on Fox News for ninety seconds I'll never get back.

Bill O'Reilly and former comedian Dennis Miller are yammering on about President Obama's failure to name a single favorite White Sox player, even though he is the Pale Hose First Fan.

(First health care reform, now this!)

Anyway, O'Reilly and Miller mockingly prattle on; Miller in his smarmy, self-satisfied, Trivial Pursuit-like style, and O'Reilly simply as the asshole he always is.

O'Reilly--chuckling still--then attempts to one-up Obama by naming a couple of White Sox players he really likes, one from the Paleolithic Age (Minnie Minoso, which O'Reilly mispronounces as "Min-o-sah") and the other--Jimmy Piersall-- who was a Sox, all right---albeit a Red one.

If Miller even knew the difference, he was too busy laughing at his own non-sequiturs to notice.

I immediately flipped it back to the ESPN commercial break.

Dr. Jack Cassell Is Bad Medicine.

This guy took an oath?

From the Orlando Sentinel:

A doctor who considers the national health-care overhaul to be bad medicine for the country posted a sign on his office door telling patients who voted for President Barack Obama to seek care "elsewhere."

"I'm not turning anybody away — that would be unethical," Dr. Jack Cassell, 56, a Mount Dora urologist and a registered Republican opposed to the health plan, told the Orlando Sentinel on Thursday. "But if they read the sign and turn the other way, so be it."

The sign reads: "If you voted for Obama … seek urologic care elsewhere. Changes to your healthcare begin right now, not in four years."

Cassell may be walking a thin line between his right to free speech and his professional obligation, said William Allen, professor of bioethics, law and medical professionalism at the University of Florida's College of Medicine.

Allen said doctors cannot refuse patients on the basis of race, gender, religion, sexual orientation or disability, but political preference is not one of the legally protected categories specified in civil-rights law. By insisting he does not quiz his patients about their politics and has not turned away patients based on their vote, the doctor is "trying to hold onto the nub of his ethical obligation," Allen said.

"But this is pushing the limit," he said.

Cassell, whose lawyer wife, Leslie Campione, has declared herself a Republican candidate for Lake County commissioner, said three patients have complained, but most have been "overwhelmingly supportive" of his position.

"They know it's not good for them," he said.

Joe Biden Loves Him Some Health Care Reform!

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs agreed:

The Art Of The (Backroom) Deal.

Sarah Palin's Hand Job.

H/T: HuffPo.

Sarah Palin chided President Obama (again) about his Teleprompter use in her snarky speech to Teabag Nation Saturday night. As for Simple Sarah, all she knows can be written in the palm of her hand.

Afghanistan Blues.

General McQuagmire.

Gee, Pat, Funny You Mention A Noose...

The God Squad--(AKA the Religious Right), embodied above by insane charlatan Pat Robertson--prayed and prayed and prayed that their right to openly act upon their hatred for their fellow man remain unfettered. I mean--Christ!--WWJD?

Well, all that wasted time spent pleading with their imaginary friend was for naught, because Satan (played here by President Obama) signed the hate-crimes bill that so threatens a religious person's right to cause bodily harm and/or death to people that don't look, think or act just like them.

Gee, thanks, Satan!

Dancing With Myself: Limbaugh Caught In Another Lie.

File under: "I'm a liar, and I'll lie about why I'm not."

Yet another example of deranged, circular logic from a dim bulb selling himself as a bright, shining light.

Armed & Dangerous: The Ugly American.

That there are tons of insecure, pissed off white people who hate the fact that a black president was elected almost a year ago is obvious. Right-wing media have been especially eager to exploit the hatred (right, Teabag TV?), as it's both its stock in trade and one of its profit centers. Combine that with nutbag America' s twin obsessions with guns and racism and what do you get?

From Talking Point Memo:

The Boston Globe reports that a new internal Congressional Research Service report and government sources say there are an unprecedented number of death threats against President Obama -- and that the Secret Service is insufficiently funded and staffed to deal with them.

According to The Globe, a report issued by the Congressional Research Service shows that the Secret Service is investigating more threats against government officials than ever before, and questions whether the 144-year old agency should continue probing financial crimes, as was its original mandate.

In total, the Secret Service regularly protects 32 people and arranges security for high-profile events. But the election of Barack Obama has increased threats against the president's life by 400 percent from his predecessor, according to "In the President's Secret Service," Ronald Kessler's account of presidential security. The Secret Service has looked into a number of race-based threats since Obama took office, and a Facebook poll that asked "Should Obama be killed?" President Obama also had a Secret Service detail 18 months before the election, the earliest of any Presidential candidate.

As Bryan Bender at The Boston Globe reports, some government officials are calling for a review of the way the agency is run, and suggesting that some of its financial investigations be transferred to the Treasury Department so the Secret Service can focus on terrorist and assassination threats.

The Southern Poverty Law Center issued a report back in August that found that the number of white supremacist militia groups has spiked by 35% since 2000. The Secret Service has, in turn, increased its employees from 6,700 two years ago to a projected 7,055 in the coming fiscal year, almost entirely devoted to protecting national leaders. But that's a staff increase of just 5.3 percent -- nowhere near the 400 percent increase in threats to the president's life.

A 400 percent increase in death threats directed at the president, spurred on by radio racists and an irresponsible, fake news organization who use terms like "socialist" because the FCC frowns on "nigger."

This is your country.

Kids Say The Darndest Things.

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'If Barack Obama Has A BLT Tomorrow, Republicans Will Try To Ban Bacon.'