BECK IS WORSE THAN THE SWINE FLU

(h/t Kevin Drum)

I've heard Glenn Beck state several times that the Apollo Alliance wrote the stimulus bill and that's why the bill gives almost all of its fundS to Democrat voting blocs. I didn't hear him say anything linking Apollo to health care reform but one of the rubes who believes Beck did that all by himself.

Who Is Van Jones?
By Pareene, 12:44 PM on Fri Sep 4 2009, 20,264 views
Gawker.com

Here is the message machine in its platonic form: Glenn Beck introduces his audience to a group Jones once belonged to called "The Apollo Alliance" on August 24th. 72 hours later a constituent is asking his (Republican) representative if this Apollo Alliance wrote the health care bill. The Rep has no idea what the guy is talking about, but the rest of the audience certainly does ("Van Jones!" they shout).

I'M NOT AN ISOLATIONIST...

but when I read something like this coming on top of more failure in Afghanistan, isolationism starts to look more palatable.

Anti-Americanism rises in Pakistan over U.S. motives
By Saeed Shah | McClatchy Newspapers
Posted on Monday, September 7, 2009

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — For weeks now, the Pakistani media have portrayed America, its military and defense contractors in the darkest of lights, all part of an apparent campaign of anti-American vilification that is sweeping the country and, according to some, is putting American lives at risk.

A survey last month for international broadcaster al Jazeera by Gallup Pakistan found that 59 percent of Pakistanis felt the greatest threat to the country was the United States. A separate survey in August by the Pew Research Center, an independent pollster based in Washington, recorded that 64 percent of the Pakistani public regards the U.S. "as an enemy" and only 9 percent believe it to be a partner.

SAME SONG, 73 YEARS LATER

I noted below a critique of the New Deal by a reactionary and the wingers are using the same kind of argument today:

#2765
Sep. 7, 2009 - 7:42 PM EST
dale954: Sep. 7, 2009 - 7:32 PM EST

Everyone has a right to an attorney and that doesn't divide the county



Attorneys are a big part of the problem.

The middle class which is already shrinking, will shrink even further.

The burden of most of these social policies comes on the backs of hardworking middle class people.

Just watch and see the future...we already have the next generation of slackers upon us!

Everyone has a right to go out and work for their healthcare..why should someone who works parttime get the same benefits as I who work full time? Why should someone who does not work at all get those benefits.

Initiative has been taking out the american dream!

It is to enable those who do not want to work and cripple those of us who do!

TALK RADIO INCOME?

On more than one of my local wingnut radio stations (KNST, KQTH, KVOI), instead of commercials during all the breaks, some breaks have little political comedies about McCain, Kerry, Gore, Bill Clinton and some liberal issues. These aren't identified as being paid for by anyone, so I'm wondering if they get any income from these spots.

KVOI runs spots by Bruce Ash, a member of the RNC, but at least he identifies himself by name.

HEADS I WIN, TAILS YOU LOSE

The wingers are up to their old tricks. Now that Pres. Obama released the text of his school speech, some of them, such as Tammy Bruce and this guy, are claiming victory for changing the speech.

TAMMY BRUCE IS STILL IGNORANT

I'm listening to her internet broadcast and she just said that Cass Sunstein may be in a position that requires Senate confirmation. NEWSFLASH: Sunstein "cruised through" the confirmation hearing this summer.

She also said that she will be on Glenn Beck's TV show tomorrow.

I THINK IT'S TOO LATE FOR US

We can't seem to stop killing Afghani civilians and now we even terrorize people in hospitals. I don't think any change in strategy can overcome the years of killing.

THE POLICE HAVE ANOTHER VICTORY IN THE WOT

I still recall the wingers lambasting Sen. Kerry for his assertion that terrorism is primarily a police problem so when I come across news that police forces busted a terrorist ring, I post there here.

Three guilty of airline bomb plot
BBC
Page last updated at 18:22 GMT, Monday, 7 September 2009 19:22 UK

Police installed a hidden camera in the Walthamstow flat used as a bomb factory and saw both Ahmed Ali and Hussain recording jihadist suicide videos denouncing the West.

In his, Ahmed Ali warned the British public to expect "floods of martyr operations" that would leave body parts scattered in the streets.

The head of the Metropolitan Police Counter-Terrorism Command, Deputy Assistant Commissioner John McDowell, said officers had to balance the desire to collect sufficient evidence with the need to step in before the plans could be put into action.

WE'RE OH-FER-TWO

First, we gave some credence to the "death panel" smear by removing a section of one of the Senate's two health care bills. Then, we give some credence to krazie Glenn Beck by not standing by Van Jones. I'm worried that we've given the krazies enough evidence to support their claims.

GLENN BECK IS STOKED!

Now that he's gotten rid of Van Jones, he tells Politico that there are others who also have to go:

"I continue to be amazed by the power of everyday Americans to initiate change in our government through honest questioning, and judging by the other radicals in the administration, I expect that questioning to continue for the foreseeable future."

David Brock knows that giving in to freaks like Beck is a really bad move:

"As we've seen before, succumbing to these types of propaganda attacks from the right wing only emboldens the aggressors. This controversy will go away and they will trump up another one tomorrow,” said David Brock, founder and chairman of Media Matters for America, a group that has taken on conservative commentators. “No good comes from appeasing a lunatic bully like Glenn Beck."

IRAQ AND SPREADING FREEDOM

Once in a while, I still come across the claim by some wingers that the primary justification for the war in Iraq was spreading democracy. These two NRO posts should put a nail in that argument:

Not So Fast
A response to Andy McCarthy on the democracy project.

By Mark R. Levin
September 4, 2009 12:00 PM
National Review Online


The decision to invade Iraq was not motivated exclusively or even primarily by the democracy project. Indeed, the Bush administration’s case to the international community, presented over a period of months, was mostly based on national- and international-security arguments.

Andy McCarthy replied to Levin and said he agreed:

Mark's points on the George Will Fray [Andy McCarthy]

Mark is at pains to point out that democracy promotion was not the reason we went to Iraq. That has been my contention all along. I’ve respectfully disagreed with the argument, most forcefully made by the great Norman Podhoretz, that democratization was a principal aim of the war in Iraq.

JANE HAMSHER HAS A GREAT POINT

In a post discussing the resignation of Van Jones and the marginalization of liberals in the Obama Administration, she reminds us that we dropped the ball on the bailouts:

When the White House met with bankers after the AIG scandal and they said they didn't want to be criticized for getting huge bonuses paid for by taxpayers, the White House complied and "cooled their rhetoric." The President told the public that Timothy Geithner had been instructed to do everything in his power to claw back those bonuses, and the House passed a bill doing just that. But it died in the Senate.

You remember all those campaigns by the unions, by the online groups, by liberal economics and finance organizations pushing the Senate to take it up?

Yeah, me either.

Which means that the teabaggers were in perfect position to harvest all of the discontent over the bank bailout, and no coherent liberal critique was offered. I heard it over and over again -- if you wanted to criticize the White House on financial issues, your institutional funding would dry up instantly.

We had a great opportunity to turn this discontent with the bailouts into support for a progressive agenda but it's gone now.

MORE HISTORY I DIDN'T KNOW

You may recall that wingers have been defending Sen. Joe McCarthy for decades, beginning with Buckley & Bozell in 1953 and going on to Ann Coulter in 2003. What I didn't realize was that McCarthy didn't expose ANYONE at all...

McCarthy was a quiet and undistinguished senator until February 1950, when his public charge that 205 Communists had infiltrated the State Department created a furor and catapulted him into headlines across the country. Upon subsequently testifying before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, he proved unable to produce the name of a single “card-carrying Communist” in any government department.

McCarthy was reelected in 1952 and obtained the chairmanship of the Government Committee on Operations of the Senate and of its permanent subcommittee on investigations. For the next two years he was constantly in the spotlight, investigating various government departments and questioning innumerable witnesses about their suspected Communist affiliations. Although he failed to make a plausible case against anyone

SOURCE:
McCarthy, Joseph R.. (2009). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved September 6, 2009, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online: http://search.eb.com/eb/article-9049641

LIKE OTHERS AT FAUX NEWS, BECK'S GOT AN OLDER AUDIENCE

TVNEWSER has the Nielsen ratings for Thursday, Sept. 3rd and Glenn Beck's show has a total of 2865K viewers but only 664 in the 25-54 demographic. This is about the same percentage as the rest of the FAUX News whores get.

A BONE OR A BEGINNING?

The wingers are pretty excited about the resignation of Van Jones:

and if you read the comments on this FAUX Nation thread, the resignation seems to have whetted their appetite for more.

THIS IS FRIGGING GREAT!

There are no "death panels" but the financial engineers on Wall Street have something even better - DEATH BONDS. Has anybody on the Street thought about the "optics" of this?

Wall Street Pursues Profit in Bundles of Life Insurance
By JENNY ANDERSON
Published: September 5, 2009
NY Times

The bankers plan to buy “life settlements,” life insurance policies that ill and elderly people sell for cash — $400,000 for a $1 million policy, say, depending on the life expectancy of the insured person. Then they plan to “securitize” these policies, in Wall Street jargon, by packaging hundreds or thousands together into bonds. They will then resell those bonds to investors, like big pension funds, who will receive the payouts when people with the insurance die.

REPORTING ON VAN JONES'S RESIGNATION

I've heard 3-4 radio reports about the resignation and none of them mentioned the wilder accusations that Glenn Beck made against Jones. The reports, like this one, mentioned that he used a "crude epithet" to describe Republicans and/or signed a truther petition about 9-11 but no mention that he's an unrepentant Communist.

BAD NEWS

From Steve Benen:

Scandal-plagued TV preacher Pat Robertson underwent 10 hours of surgery this week "to repair an irregular heartbeat." He returned home on Thursday to recuperate and will be fitted with a heart monitor. The 79-year-old televangelist is expected to make a "full recovery."

DO WE NEED MONEY FOR HEALTH CARE REFORM?

One easy way to raise tens of billions is to repeal the estate tax cut. Given the growing disparity in wealth, I think this would be politically popular.

JUSTICE IS OFTEN DELAYED

You may recall that over 1,000 people were swept up in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 and the worst crime that any of them committed was overstaying their visas.

Judge Orders U.S. to Release Names of 9/11 Detainees
by Neil A. Lewis
Published on Saturday, August 3, 2002 in the New York Times

WASHINGTON, Aug. 2 — A federal judge ruled today that the Bush administration had no right to conceal the identities of hundreds of people arrested after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, and she ordered that most of their names be released within 15 days.

The ruling by Judge Gladys Kessler of Federal District Court dealt a significant setback to the government's policy of secret detentions, mostly of immigrants, in connection with the Sept. 11 investigation. Judge Kessler rejected the Justice Department's arguments that disclosure of the names would impede its investigation of terrorists.

The opinion noted that the government said on Nov. 5 that it had detained 1,182 people in connection with the Sept. 11 investigation. But Judge Kessler suggested that the numbers were confusing and that the Justice Department has never given a full accounting of who had been arrested.

"As of this moment," she said, "the public does not know how many persons the government has arrested and detained as part of its Sept. 11 investigation, nor does it know who most of them are, where they are and whether they are represented by counsel."

Amid the uncertainty, the judge noted that the Justice Department had provided some numbers, notably that 751 people were arrested for immigration violations. As of June 13, only 74 remained in custody, the rest having been released or deported.

Now, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that John Ashcroft, who was the Attorney General at the time, can be sued by some of those who were detained:

Ashcroft can be sued over arrests, appeals court rules
By Carol J. Williams
September 5, 2009
LA Times

Then-Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft violated the rights of U.S. citizens in the fevered wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks by ordering arrests on material witness warrants when the government lacked probable cause, a federal appeals court said in a scathing opinion Friday.

Members of the panel, all appointees of Republican presidents, characterized Ashcroft's detention policy as "repugnant to the Constitution, and a painful reminder of some of the most ignominious chapters of our national history."

MARK LEVIN IS NOW #1

Now that Tammy Bruce is only available on the Internet, Mark Levin is the shrillest wingnut gasbag on the air.

THERE'S BEEN SOME FUSS OVER AN AP PHOTO

The AP distributed a picture of a Marine in Afghanistan who was dying of his wounds and Sec. Gates was very upset. I don't know why the AP deserves to be attacked because the decision to publish is left to the AP's subscribers. I also don't understand why we need to be shielded from the real effects of war. That wasn't the case in WW II, as you can see from this famous example:

The photo of three dead American soldiers lying in the sand on shoreline near half sunken landing craft on Buna Beach, Papua New Guinea was now considered a war classic. Taken by George Strock in February 1943, it was not published until its September 20th 1943 issue. In that September, this photo and other equally gruesome and graphic pictures of WWII were finally OK’d by the Office of War Information’s censors, in part because President Roosevelt feared that the American public might be growing complacent about the war and its horrific toll.

The Washington Post argued that the pictures “can help us to understand something of what has been sacrificed for the victories we have won.” Images of dead soldiers appeared regularly after that. Efforts were made to crop the photos or obscure the victims’ faces, name tags and unit insignia.

PILING ON VAN JONES

Gateway Pundit highlights this remark by Van Jones -

No American would put up with an Israeli-style occupation of their hometown for 53 days let alone 54 years.

and concludes that Jones is a "Jew-hater." Which leads me to ask: Since when is the Old Testament a legally binding document?

ON INSURANCE AND THE COMMERCE CLAUSE

Commenter sunkawakan at Peach Pundit noted that there is a Supreme Court decision that bears directly on whether or not under the Commerce Clause, Congress may regulate insurance companies. The decision, U.S. v. SOUTH-EASTERN UNDERWRITERS ASS'N, 322 U.S. 533 (1944), is unambiguous:

No commercial enterprise of any kind which conducts its activities across state lines has been held to be wholly beyond the regulatory power of Congress under the Commerce Clause. We cannot make an exception of the business of insurance.

OK, I THINK THIS IS A GOOD IDEA

I recall reading decades ago a short book by Alice Rivlin which I think was published in the late 60s or early 70s and she argued that we should try pilot programs before doing a fully national roll-out of new Federal programs. I agreed with her then and I still do. It looks like this approach to the public option is gaining some ground with some progressive House Democrats.

Key House Dem. Clyburn: 'half a loaf' on health care better than nothing
By James Rosen | McClatchy Newspapers
Posted on Thursday, September 3, 2009

WASHINGTON — House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn is pushing a compromise on the most contentious part of President Barack Obama's bid to provide medical benefits to uninsured Americans.

Instead of a nationwide government insurance program, Clyburn is urging other Democrats to accept a scaled-down public option that would be tested as a pilot program in several parts of the country.

Rep. John Larson of Connecticut, the No. 4 House leader as head of the Democratic Caucus, and Rep. Louise Slaughter of New York, the chairwoman of the House Rules Committee, are strong supporters of using regional pilot programs to test a public option for expanding government health insurance, Clyburn said.

I HAVE TO GIVE THE NEWS MEDIA SOME CREDIT

(h/t Byron York)

So far, they haven't bought into the whole Glenn Beck inspired movement against Van Jones:

Total words about the Van Jones controversy in the New York Times: 0.
Total words about the Van Jones controversy in the Washington Post: 0.
Total words about the Van Jones controversy on NBC Nightly News: 0.
Total words about the Van Jones controversy on ABC World News: 0.
Total words about the Van Jones controversy on CBS Evening News: 0.

JANET PARSHALL: STILL LYING

Today, she accused the Sec. of Education of instructing teachers to urge their students to advance Pres. Obama' s political agenda.

YES, THIS IS WHAT I WAS EXPECTING

Below I noted that the Wall Street Journal published a report that stated the stimulus bill has helped the economy and I wonder what a Freeper would say. Just now, I got the answer on this Poltico thread:

FUBO

Member Since: Apr. 28, 2009

Party: Conservative

Last Visited: Sep. 4, 2009 - 4:46 PM EST

#3112

Sep. 4, 2009 - 4:46 PM EST

piniella: Sep. 4, 2009 - 4:21 PM EST

Well, I imagine that's what a Freeper would say about this article.

WSJ is very liberal except for their editorial board.

Of course you wouldn't know that.

Come to think of it you don't know much about anything.

Sorry Skippy.

---

Rasmussen/Zogby Daily tracking polls now show 58 percent of Americans racist

Back in 2005, I got a similar response from an LGF commenter.

RUFFINI JOINS HENKE

They both think that conservatives should put plenty of distance between themselves and World Net Daily, especially the birthers. I've read some of Ruffini's posts in the past and he's pretty much a hard core winger, so this is a notable rebellion against the krazies.

MEDIAITE SHOWS CONCERN FOR FREAKSHOW BECK

There's an internet rumor going around that Glenn Beck raped and killed a young woman in the 1990s. It's obviously false and was designed to point out the illegitimate tactcis Beck himself uses to attack others, notably Pres. Obama.

I think this kind of response to Beck and others like him is both necessary and unfortunate. We have to show the freaks that we can push back and it's unfortunate that the freaks have made this line of attack necessary.

MARYLAND AND THE PUBLIC OPTION

A sane caller to a wingnut radio show brought this to my attention yesterday: the state of Maryland has had a public option for auto insurance since 1972 and there is still private sector insurance. This is at least one relevant counter-example to the winger's claim that a public option for health insurance would eliminate private insurance.

FATS LIMBAUGH'S FLORIDA

You may recall that Fats was so incensed that NY state was going to raise his taxes that he said he was going to move out and stay in wonderful Florida. It turns out that Florida is not the tax paradise Limbaugh made it out to be, at least not for the middle class.

Behind Florida's Exodus: Rising Taxes, Political Ineptitude
By Tim Padgett / Miami Wednesday, Sep. 02, 2009
TIME

The region — Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties — lost 27,400 residents between 2008 and 2009, while Florida as a whole lost 58,000. That's not exactly a mass exodus for a state of 18 million; but it's the first net outflow in 63 years for a state that considers itself the new California. "It's difficult for the working middle class to justify living here," Mike Jones, president of the Palm Beach County Economic Council, conceded to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

...Florida's relentless and miserably planned growth spawned problems that the peninsula is struggling to handle, including skyrocketing property taxes and hurricane-insurance premiums. Governor Charlie Crist has tried in recent years to rein in those twin vampires, but together they can still exceed what folks in many other states pay for state income tax, local property tax and homeowner's insurance combined.

WORSE THAN 1928

Prof. Emmanuel Saenz has updated his work on the concentration of wealth using data throuhg 2007. It's not that the rich are getting richer, it's that the obscenely rich are getting richer. (h/t Paul Krugman)

HANNITY ♥ THE COAL INDUSTRY

On his radio show, Hannity's been talking up a big rally/concert on Labor Day and what got my attention was the expected crowd size - 60,000. If these people were tea baggers, I'd say that was a HUGE rally. But they aren't.

WSAZ-3, a local TV station, noted on August 31st that the rally is "organized by the coal industry" and the tickets are free. The rally has its own web site and you can see for yourself what the real point is:

WHO'S IN HANNITY'S POWER ROTATION?

I used LexisNexis and looked at just the guests, not the panelists, over the last month and there is a lot of repetition. Repeats are in bold.

Sept. 2 - Michelle Malkin, Karl Rove, Ann Coulter
Sept. 1 - Liz Cheney, Jonah Goldberg, Dana Perino
Aug. 31 - Bob Beckel, Dick Morris, Tom Ridge
Aug. 27 - John McEnroe, Mike Huckabee, S. E. Cupp
Aug. 26 - John Kasich, Michelle Malkin, John McCain
Aug. 25 - Frank Luntz, Karen Hanretty, Tim Pawlenty
Aug. 24 - Karl Rove, Dick Hedrick, Dick Morris
Aug. 20 - Oliver North
Aug. 19 - Michelle Malkin, Rick Scott, George Allen, Bernard McGuirk
Aug. 18 - Frank Luntz, Dana Perino, Michelle Bachmann
Aug. 17 - Mark Steyn, Katy Abram, Dick Morris
Aug. 14 - Karl Rove, Tony Blankley, Doug Schoen, Sarah Carter
Aug. 13 - Mike Huckabee, Kimberly Guilfoyle, S.E. Cupp, Frank Luntz, Steve McMahon, Noelle Nikpour, Anthony Cumia
Aug. 12 - Michelle Malkin, Craig Anthony Miller, Diane Thurber-Wamsley, Mercedes Viana Schlapp, Ann Coulter
Aug. 11 - Katy Abram, Sam Abram, Pat Toomey, Tim LaHaye, John McWhorter, Penny Lee, Devin Munes, Paul Rodriguez
Aug. 10 - Dick Morris, Dana Perino, Cheryl Casone, J. Mark Campbell, Dan Henninger, Steve Crowder
Aug. 7 - Leeann Tweeden, Hugh Hewitt
Aug. 6 - Newt Gingrich, Kimberly Guilfoyle, S.E. Cupp, Stuart Varney, Don Imus, Deidre Imus
Aug. 5 - Michelle Malkin, Jonah Goldberg, Joe Piscopo, Leslie Sanchez, Caroline Heldman
Aug. 4 - Steve Murphy, Sam Haskell, Star Parker, Alexis Glick, Dana Perino, Frank Luntz
Aug. 3 - Dick Morris, Karl Rove, John Campbell, Tony Blankley

SEN. GRASSLEY IS OK WITH GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION

If it helps the farmers. It seems his son Robin has gotten almost $700,000 in USDA subsidies from 1995 through 2006.

I DON'T KNOW IF THIS IS A GOOD SIGN OR A BAD ONE

Watching Glenn Beck is becoming amusing. I no longer feel any outrage at his paranoia.

(h/t Nicholas Graham at HuffPo)

THE DNC DOES GOOD

(h/t David Tencer at Raw Story)

This short & sweet 30-second ad points out very clearly why we simply cannot trust Dick Cheney about torture.

WHAT DAVID BRODER DOESN'T UNDERSTAND

In his column that argues against holding the people who authorize torture to account, he writes this:

Cheney is not wrong when he asserts that it is a dangerous precedent when a change in power in Washington leads a successor government not just to change the policies of its predecessors but to invoke the criminal justice system against them.

The REAL dangerous precedent is having rabid ideologues like David Addington and John You anywhere near the Executive Branch. Broder seems to be unaware of how extreme the GOP "mainstream" has become and I think he implies that politics justifies violating the Constitution because he worries about "a major, bitter partisan battle over prosecution of Bush-era officials," seemingly unaware of the current GOP fear campaign ("death panels") against health care reform.

BIG PHARMA FAILS US AGAIN

There really is a pattern of misconduct in this industry.

Pfizer Pays $2.3 Billion to Settle Marketing Case
By GARDINER HARRIS
Published: September 2, 2009
NY Times

WASHINGTON — Top aides in the Obama administration announced a $2.3 billion settlement on Wednesday with the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. over the company’s illegal promotion of its now-withdrawn painkiller, Bextra.

Wingers sometimes complain about the fraud and waste in Medicare and Medicaid but neglgect to mention that the private sector is most often the culprit:

It is the largest fine ever levied for fraud in the Medicare and Medicaid programs, and Obama administration officials — criticized by Republicans on Capitol Hill for failing to crack down on fraud in the government’s health programs — sought to highlight the case by having Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of health and human services, make the announcement. The agreement also includes some promotional practices involving other Pfizer drugs — Zyvox, Geodon and Lyrica.

(h/t Atrios)

INFLATION? NOT SO MUCH, REALLY

A lot of the wingers claim that we are currently experiencing inflation because of the stimulus money. As usual, they are wrong....

	Current Inflation Rate
Year Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Ave 2009 0.03% 0.24% -0.38% -0.74% -1.28% -1.43% -2.10% NA NA NA NA NA NA

WHAT SOME OF THE WINGERS THINK

This fellow said twice on this thread that liberals were Marxists intent on a revolution. Later, he finished one of his diatribes with this:

The founders of the nation were all gun owners and strongly defended the right. They knew about people like you. You oppressive Statists. You freedom haters. You insufferably arrogant “bastads” that are about as useful as **** on a boar hog. You smug little creeps.

There's a lot of resentment packed in here and I suspect that he has self-esteem "issues."

LISTENING TO GLENN BECK'S CALLERS

I caught a couple of them this morning who happen to be part of his 912 Project and they sound like morons. It's pretty clear that they aren't constitutional scholars and have little or no training in economics.

I'M NOT SUPRISED BY THIS

In the early 70s, I visited some friends in upstate NY, near the Canadian border. One of them was working at a local fast food place and had been cheated out of overtime pay. There are so few employment opportunities in the area that he didn't feel he could complain.

I also recall some of the low wage jobs I've had and sometimes the boss tried pretty hard to either short us on money or make us feel as if we were worthless. So much for the righteousness of the small businessman.

Low-Wage Workers Are Often Cheated, Study Says
By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
Published: September 1, 2009
NY Times

Low-wage workers are routinely denied proper overtime pay and are often paid less than the minimum wage, according to a new study based on a survey of workers in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.

...68 percent of the workers interviewed had experienced at least one pay-related violation in the previous work week.

In surveying 4,387 workers in various low-wage industries, including apparel manufacturing, child care and discount retailing, the researchers found that the typical worker had lost $51 the previous week through wage violations, out of average weekly earnings of $339. That translates into a 15 percent loss in pay.

UH OH, THE WSJ HAS GONE COMMIE!

Well, I imagine that's what a Freeper would say about this article.

U.S. Economy Gets Lift From Stimulus
By DEBORAH SOLOMON
SEPTEMBER 2, 2009
WALL STREET JOURNAL

WASHINGTON -- Government efforts to funnel hundreds of billions of dollars into the U.S. economy appear to be helping the U.S. climb out of the worst recession in decades.

Economists say the money out the door -- combined with the expectation of additional funds flowing soon -- is fueling growth above where it would have been without any government action.

Many forecasters say stimulus spending is adding two to three percentage points to economic growth in the second and third quarters, when measured at an annual rate.

NOW, WHO IS IT WHO HASN'T READ THE BILL?

The wingers often claim that proponents don't know what's in the health care bill and then go on to lie about the bill. One lie that's getting some traction is that there's no provisions to increase the number of medical workers. In fact, there are provisions, as you can see on page 4 of HR 3200:

MAYBE MEXICO IS #1

At least a few Americans are moving to Mexico so they can get affordable health care.
What will Hannity say?

Mexico's health care lures Americans
By Chris Hawley, USA TODAY

MEXICO CITY — It sounds almost too good to be true: a health care plan with no limits, no deductibles, free medicines, tests, X-rays, eyeglasses, even dental work — all for a flat fee of $250 or less a year.

To get it, you just have to move to Mexico.

As the United States debates an overhaul of its health care system, thousands of American retirees in Mexico have quietly found a solution of their own, signing up for the health care plan run by the Mexican Social Security Institute.

"It was one of the primary reasons I moved here," said Judy Harvey of Prescott Valley, who now lives in Alamos, Sonora. "I couldn't afford health care in the United States. … To me, this is the best system that there is."

A POST THAT GOT A LOT OF ATTENTION

On this Politico thread, I noted that the stimulus bill saved 500,000 jobs and several other posters doubted that so I posted my source, an Al Hunt column at Bloomberg News. This goes so far against the prevailing wingnut meme that the bill was a failure that the only thing the wingers cna do is attack the source:

conserv
Member Since: Jul. 15, 2008
Party: Conservative
Last Visited: Sep. 2, 2009 - 6:00 AM EST



#1089
Sep. 2, 2009 - 5:57 AM EST
piniella: Sep. 2, 2009 - 5:54 AM EST

500,000 JOBS SAVED SO FAR



If you believe this leftist media at this time in our history you have missed the part of education that teaches critical thinking.
Conserve

PILED HIGH AND DEEP

The wingers are really starting to mass produce krazy memes and especially on health care, the normal news media aren't helping much. One key to their success is that on first read, some of the claims are plausible and most people won't go beyond that.

ANOTHER KRACKPOT WINGER MEME

They now accuse Speaker Pelosi of being unpatriotic because the on-hold music for Congress went from Sousa marches to soft jazz. Like almost all their memes, this one is also BS but you won't hear Limbaugh or Hannity telling their listeners the truth.

BOORTZ HAS NO REGRETS

He called the poorest people who were driven out of New Orleans by Katrina debris on his radio show, repeated that claim on Twitter, and yesterday re-affirmed his statement.

LISTENING TO BECK IN THE MORNING IS TOUGH

His paranoia is disturbing. I can blunt the effect by imagining I'm just listening to another episode of Coast to Coast AM but I can't forget that some people believe his insanity. Just now, he came close to repeating McCarthy's "a conspiracy so immense" by claiming that the people who want to take over America have their tentacles all over our society.

MAYBE WE CAN GET THE SENIORS BACK

AARP is started to fight the agit-prop from the wingers about health care and maybe this will stop the bleeding.

The AARP and Seniors: Clashing on Health Reform
By Kate Pickert Tuesday, Sep. 01, 2009
TIME Magazine

A national television advertising campaign got underway in August, 8 million pieces of direct mail related to Medicare and health reform will be sent out after Labor Day and the September issue of AARP Bulletin, which reaches some 40 million households, will include a cover story on health-care myths.

ANOTHER CRANKY OLD WHITE GUY IS PISSED OFF

Catholic League President Bill Donohue is on FAUX News again pushing his new book that claims athiests and apostates are being meanies to the Fundies. Well Bill, how about you take care of your own crew first? Like maybe you should try to calm down Wiley Drake (here and here) and that krazie from Tempe, Steven Anderson.

BANKS: "I KNOW SOMETHING YOU DON'T....

and that's why I can charge you a higher price!" OR "free markets for me but not for thee." Investment banks make a killing selling credit default swaps because there isn't a public market, so only they know what the real costs of a CDS, not their customers. As a result, they can charge higher margins.

The Obama Administration is planning to make the CDS market a public exchange and the banksters don't like that.

COMIC RELIEF FROM A POLITICO THREAD

Just_saying

Member Since: Sep. 24, 2008

Party: Democrat

Last Visited: Sep. 1, 2009 - 6:46 AM EST

#675

Sep. 1, 2009 - 6:43 AM EST

"Where the hell is Rush with the drugs, he's been gone for like 3 hour now!!!"

A LITTLE COMIC RELIEF IN ARIZONA

Carmona is a truth-teller and isn't someone to mess with but I guess teabaggers aren't to frigging bright.

Crowd attentive, at times rowdy
Giffords hears often-heated views at Sierra Vista forum
By Stephanie Innes
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 09.01.2009

Before the members of the public spoke, former U.S. Surgeon General and Tucson resident Dr. Richard Carmona told the crowd that health-care reform is essential to contain escalating costs and to change a system that focuses on "sick care" rather than health.

He added that he's been disappointed at how many of the forums on national reform have devolved into shouting matches.

"Shut up!" one audience member responded.

CHENEY VS. HOEKSTRA

In Dick Cheney World, the criminal Bush regime did GREAT in the WOT. But according to GOP Rep. Hoekstra, the answer is "not so much, really."

EXCLUSIVE: Lack of translators hurts U.S. war on terror

By Rowan Scarborough
Originally published 04:45 a.m., August 31, 2009, updated 05:40 a.m., August 31, 2009
Washington Times

U.S. national security agencies remain woefully short of foreign-language speakers and translators nearly eight years after the Sept. 11 attacks resulted in a war on an enemy that often communicates in relatively obscure dialects, current and former officials say.

Rep. Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, the senior Republican on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, told The Washington Times that U.S agencies remain "behind the eight ball" in catching up to dialects not deemed important during the Cold War.

"We've been pushing the language issue for an extended period of time. The agencies just didn't respond," Mr. Hoekstra said in an interview. "They'd come in. We'd talk about language capability. We'd beat them up. They'd leave. They'd come back a year later, and it wouldn't be a lot better. We'd beat them up again.

"I can't explain it. No. 1, Congress has been pestering them. No. 2, you would think it's important for them to do their job. You could understand it immediately after 9/11. This takes a little time to do to get it right. But still talking about it in 2009 makes no sense at all," he said.

SOME CONSERVATIVES ARE FED UP WITH THE KRAZIES AT...

World Net Daily. In fact, John Henke at The NEXTRIGHT has called for a boycott of WND advertisers.

THE FREE MARKET FAIRY AT WORK

(h/t Atrios)

It's kind of neat that people who are the sons or daughters of established folks don't have to work their way up the ladder. Of course, using that same logic, having someone like Sonia Sotomayor getting all the way to the Supreme Court is an affront to the capitalist system. Perhaps this explains why some of the Chosen get so upset when someone points out that they are incompetent.

More on this scandal here.

YES, PRES. OBAMA IS BI-PARTISAN

He hasn't appointed any movement conservatives (i.e., freakshows) but he has 6 Republicans in his Administration.

Analysis: Obama keeps Bush nominees in top posts
By TOM RAUM
The Associated Press
Monday, August 31, 2009; 8:44 AM

In what may be the top two national posts in light of today's crises at home and abroad, Obama stuck with the picks of former President George W. Bush in reappointing Fed chief Ben Bernanke and Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

- Sheila Bair as holdover chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. She has played a major role in the management of the financial crisis. A one-time unsuccessful candidate for a Kansas House seat, Bair was first appointed by Bush in June 2006. Forbes Magazine ranks her as the second most powerful woman in the world behind German chancellor Angela Merkel.

- Ray LaHood, a former congressman from Illinois, as transportation secretary. He was elected as part of the "Gingrich Revolution" of 1994 and was so trusted by both Republicans and Democrats that he was selected to preside over the House during the impeachment vote against President Bill Clinton.

- Former Rep. John McHugh from upstate New York, as Army secretary. McHugh was known by his House colleagues for an even temperament and willingness to work with Democrats.

- Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, who was a Mormon missionary in China in his youth, as ambassador to China.