Standard & Poors Tells GOP To Grow Up And Accept Obama's Offer Holy cow. This is mind-blowing (and confirms my contention that Barack Obama has been working closely with “Big Money” to pressure the G.O.P. to commit what may be electoral suicide): The credit-rating agency Standard & Poors has released a statement that says, among other things, that merely raising the debt ceiling is not enough to prevent a downgrade of the United States’ credit rating, triggering market instability and causing the interest rate on U.S. debt to skyrocket. What’s more, S&P is attaching numbers and conditions to its statement: to ensure a stable credit rating, any deal between Obama and the Republicans must reduce debt by $4 trillion, should include some balance of cuts and revenues (ie, tax increases), and will involve concessions by both sides (a thinly-veiled repudiation of Eric Cantor’s assertion that merely attending negotiations is the only concession the GOP intends to make). The U.S. “[T]he Republicans are pushing things too far. Read more of M.S.
Teabagger uses racism to explain that the Tea Party is not racist. // Current To Our Faithful Current.com Users: Current's run has ended after eight exciting years on air and online. The Current TV staff has appreciated your interest, support, participation and unflagging loyalty over the years. Your contributions helped make Current.com a vibrant place for discussing thousands of interesting stories, and your continued viewership motivated us to keep innovating and find new ways to reflect the voice of the people. We now welcome the on-air and digital presence of Al Jazeera America, a new news network committed to reporting on and investigating real stories affecting the lives of everyday Americans in every corner of the country. You can keep up with what's new on Al Jazeera America and see this new brand of journalism for yourself at Thank you for inspiring and challenging us. – The Current TV Staff
The Big Fib - Michael Hebert I'm the type of guy the Republicans could have if they really tried. I live in the South, the reddest of Red Country. I am Catholic and anti-abortion, like low taxes, and tend to agree with Jefferson's statement: "That government is best that governs least." I don't trust political do-gooders, and think liberalism too often gets wobbly in the knees when morality comes up. But I'll be shot before I vote Republican this year, any time soon. Last night I sat and watched the entire slate of Republican candidates speak at the convention. Each candidate stood up before the crowd, and in turn spoke the Lie. The GOP has never in recent memory come anywhere near reducing the size of government. In my lifetime, no Republican president has ever left office with a smaller government than he found on Inaugruration Day. Republicans whine about pork-barrel spending, even though they perfected the current system of legislative earmarks, through which they funnel billions. So you do pay more taxes.
A letter to the illiterate. « Fuck the Tea Baggers Dear bug eaters, Shut the fuck up. Just for five fucking minutes. We know you want to end taxation. But you don’t care what experts have to say, do you, knuckle-draggers, because all you care about is what makes you feel better. We know you want to drill for oil in Yellowstone and downtown Detroit and fucking Disneyland and two miles down through the fucking Antarctic ice cap and on Mars and every goddamned place you can think of, until the entire solar system is a polluted piece of steaming shit just like fucking Texas. We know you email each other ape jokes and watermelon jokes and other racist Ku Klux Klan fucking bullshit–just what, three years? Guess what? Like how you think the Internet is a bunch of fucking tubes. How you think evolution isn’t real because the other monkeys haven’t evolved into people yet. How you think we’ll still have roads and courtrooms and jails and people checking for e.coli in your WalMart burger meat without paying any taxes. Liberal media, huh? Go away!
Ending The Afghan War Would Save Taxpayers 40,000 Times More Money Than Defunding NPR By Zaid Jilani on March 17, 2011 at 12:05 pm "Ending The Afghan War Would Save Taxpayers 40,000 Times More Money Than Defunding NPR" Today, two deficit-cutting bills will be voted on in the House of Representatives. One bill, introduced by Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-CO) and fellow Republicans, would end all federal funding to National Public Radio (NPR). The other bill, sponsored by Reps. Conservatives claim that defunding NPR would save taxpayers a great deal of money; former NPR employee Juan Williams even argued that NPR funding was taking away from “school breakfast programs [and] college scholarships.” Assuming that the costs of both the NPR funding and Afghan war would be the same for next year, that means that ending the Afghan war would save approximately 40,000 times more taxpayer dollars than defunding NPR’s grants from agencies such as the National Endowment for the Arts and Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Update During the floor debate on the Afghanistan issue, Rep.
Fox News' Lies Keep Them Out of Canada Robert F. Kennedy Jr. writes: "Fox News will not be moving into Canada after all! The reason: Canadian regulators today announced they would reject efforts by Canada's right-wing Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, to repeal a law that forbids lying on broadcast news." By Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Reader Supported News 01 March 11 s America's middle class battles for its survival on the Wisconsin barricades - against various Koch Oil surrogates and the corporate toadies at Fox News - fans of enlightenment, democracy and justice can take comfort from a significant victory north of the Wisconsin border. Canada's Radio Act requires that "a licenser may not broadcast ... any false or misleading news." Harper, often referred to as "George W. Harper's attempts to make lying legal on Canadian television are a stark admission that right-wing political ideology can only dominate national debate through dishonest propaganda.
This Is What Democracy Looks Like Tens of thousands of people took to the streets around the nation today to protest authoritarian measures by conservative state legislatures to force cuts while giving handouts to the rich and powerful. Over 100 locations saw demonstrations on the steps of state capitols, banks, and other corporations. This popular revolt was initially sparked by harsh anti-union measures in Wisconsin. For instance, in the middle of the night on Friday, Wisconsin Republicans in the state House suddenly sprung the controversial anti-union bill onto the floor. In a coordinated blitzkrieg, they took 19 seconds to pass the measure which didn’t even give enough time for many Democrats to vote. That is not what democracy looks like. The bill not only destroys the collective bargaining rights of public unions, but it sanctions Gov. This bill has now been sent to the Wisconsin Senate, who cannot rubber stamp the measure until at least one Democrat returns to the chamber to give it a quorum. That is tyranny.
The Progressive | Peace and social justice since 1909 Resolution Calling to Amend the Constitution Banning Corporate Personhood Introduced in Vermont | News & Politics January 21, 2011 | Like this article? Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. A year ago today, the Supreme Court issued its bizarre Citizens United decision, allowing unlimited corporate spending in elections as a form of “free speech” for the corporate “person.” "Corporations have no consciences, no beliefs, no feelings, no thoughts, no desires," wrote Stevens. Fortunately, movements are afoot to reverse a century of accumulated powers and protections granted to corporations by wacky judicial decisions. In Vermont, state senator Virginia Lyons on Friday presented an anti-corporate personhood resolution for passage in the Vermont legislature. The language in the Lyons resolution is unabashed. Thus the unfolding of the obvious: “democratically elected governments” are rendered “ineffective in protecting their citizens against corporate harm to the environment, health, workers, independent business, and local and regional economies."
10 Most (and 10 Least) Tolerant States in America March 31, 2001 | Like this article? Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. When "Khady" -- a 14-year-old girl living in Dakar, the capital of Senegal -- was arrested for picking pockets on a bus, she didn't think she had anywhere to turn.