My God, I Hope This Isn't True

But if it is, the people who ordered it are war criminals.

I'm looking at you, Cheney.

Sotomayor: OUTSTANDING Choice for the Supreme Court

And Kevin Drum explains why the nomination is a win-win for Obama.

BTW, DKos today has some excellent talking points for destroying the slander the right-wingers will be throwing at this distinguished jurist. Some on the Wingnut Right are saying that Sotomayor is no more qualified than Harriet Miers was. Economaniac on Kos answers:

Sonia Sotomayor is to Harriet Miers as:

Barack Obama : George W. Bush

Princeton summa cum laude : SMU (no honors)

Yale law review : SMU law school(no honors)

Prosecutor for Morgenthau : no criminal law experience

6 years as Federal District Court Judge : No judicial Experience

10 years on 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals : No judicial Experience

adjunct professor NYU School of Law : advisory board SMU law school.

Other right-wing fruitcakes are saying that Sotomayor is reversed too often. DavidNYC has the truth here. It seems Sotomayor is reversed LESS than the typical Appellate Court judge. LESS. In fact, of 380+ opinions Sotomayor has written, the Supreme Court has reviewed ONLY SIX, and reversed ONLY 3 of those. Three out 380!! (The typical appellate court judge has about 75% of his/her reviewed opinions reversed.)

Sonia Sotomayor will be a great Supreme Court justice. Don't let the right-wing Lie Machine get away with smearing her. And remember, Rush Limbaugh hates her.

That's enough of a recommendation for me.

ADDENDUM: Slate has an excellent article on the Sotomayor nomination and all the tired, discredited lies the Republicans are going to use against her here.

Note to Anonymous

Charles Krauthammer has enough places to express his views. My blog will not be one of them.

President Obama's Memorial Day Message

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

On Memorial Day 2009

They left their young lives on countless terrible battlefields across the world. They were the men who gave "the last full measure of devotion" in Lincoln's term, and Memorial Day is the day we turn our thoughts to them. Yes, it's a day off for working people, but this isn't a holiday, it's a day of commemoration. It's not "the start of summer", a day for cookouts and picnics. It's a day for us to be reflective and grateful. So on Memorial Day 2009, let me add my small voice to the chorus of gratitude. And let us hope and pray that some day, there won't be any new names for us to add to the roll of the honored dead.

The Ugly Sexism of the Right-Wingers, Part 217,894

Don't like Nancy Pelosi's politics? Hey, why not simply smear her with every vicious anti-woman slur you can think of:

[After the RNC likened Pelosi to "Pussy Galore" of James Bond fame.] These tactics are not, however, limited to the RNC. Right-wing talk-show host Jim Quinn has taken to calling the Speaker of the House "this bitch." Former comedian Dennis Miller was on Fox News calling Pelosi a "shrieking harridan magpie." Neal Boortz called her a "hag." Media Matters had a report on Monday noting the attacks from various far-right media personalities -- including Limbaugh, Michael Savage, and CNN's Alex Castellanos -- all of whom attacked the House Speaker, not over her remarks about the CIA, but because of their dissatisfaction with her appearance.

The women of America voted 56% for Barack Obama last November. Among women 18-29, Obama's support rose to 69%. There's a reason for that. A lot of it has to do with a simple truth: a lot of conservative men essentially hold women in contempt and consider women inferior to men.  The ugly, vulgar attacks on Speaker Pelosi show this with crystal clarity. Don't argue policy with a woman you don't like.

Just call her bitch, pussy, and hag.

Why NY Taxpayers Built a Multibillion Dollar Stadium for the Richest Team in Sports

David Sirota has the story of this outrageous rip-off right here. Excerpt:

Foreign oligarchs use guns to confiscate citizens' wages. American oligarchs rely on government to give theft the aura of legitimacy, and Manhattan's richest man is no exception. As an investigation by Democratic Assemblyman Richard Brodsky documents, Bloomberg used various public agencies to extract between $1 billion and $4 billion from taxpayers and then spent the cash on a new stadium for the Yankees, the wealthiest corporation in sports.

The move followed a Bloomberg-backed 2005 initiative giving infamous investment bank Goldman Sachs $1.6 billion in taxpayer-financed bonds to construct its new headquarters -- and amazingly, this encore rip-off is more spectacular. Mimicking tax cheats' deliberately complex transactions, the city owns the stadium, leases it to an agency, which then leases it to a corporate subsidiary, which then leases it to the Yankees. At the end of the Ponzi scheme, the team is permitted to use the taxes it already owes to pay off the mortgage on its new chateau.

BTW, a similar scam was run in Texas a number of years back. It was run by another publicly-enriched crook:

George W. Bush.

The U.N.'s Map of Human Development Applied to the U.S.

The United Nations has what is called a human development index. It measures the opportunities humans have to create for themselves lives that are dignified and economically secure. (The United States ranks 15th overall on the list.) Now look at the map.

Where are the lowest levels of development in the U.S.? What political party do these states consistently support?

Look at the northeast. What political party do these states consistently support?

Of the 21 states with the highest level of development, 20 voted for a certain presidential candidate. Can you guess who?

Finally, can you guess which of our two major parties has based its support on getting poor and lower middle class people to vote against their own interests? Can you guess which one has the worst record on education, health care, and workers' rights? Can you spot the regions of the United States dominated by this party?

There will be a quiz.

(Via Sullivan)

Yes, How Do They Do It?

(Click to Enlarge)

The Insane Party Strikes Again!

This time it's Texas right-wing buffoon Pete Sessions, who has accused President Obama of secretly plotting to destroy the U.S. economy as a means of grabbing power. (!)

Sessions isn't some dingbat blogger. He's a U.S. Representative and the head of the Republican House campaign committee. In other words, he's a Republican Establishment figure.

And these right-wing idiots are having a hard time figuring out why so many people are laughing at them?

All Out, Hard-Core, Pharmaceutical Grade Lying Right-Wing Idiocy

The pathetic-loser Republicans are trying to make an issue out of the fact that the President has proposed closing Guantanamo Bay and distributing its 250 inmates throughout the U.S. penal system. The radical right has launched an utterly idiotic campaign to try to convince people that Obama "wants to put terrorists in your neighborhood."

My. God. Do these conservative demagogues think that these people are simply going to be released? Is that what they think?? They're going to maximum security prisons that have been holding prisoners without any escapes for years. 

Do these right wing clowns really think that the American people are so stupid that they'll buy this ridiculous effort? I mean apart from the 20% of the American people that still count themselves Republicans.

What Digby Said, Part 9,217

Man, does she nail it here.  Go and see what I'm talking about.

News Items!!

--The Republicans are already getting ready to oppose ANYBODY President Obama nominates to the Supreme Court! Aren't these people gracious and bipartisan?!?

--One of the President's potential nominees is ALREADY being knifed in the back by anonymous enemies! And of course, NRO has picked it up and run with it!

--A lot of right-wingers are simply demented!! (Make sure you read the comments! Priceless!)

--George Will doesn't know what he's talking about a surprising amount of the time! He said that Toyota can sell the Prius because they take a loss on it! WRONG!! Toyota makes $3,000 for every Prius they sell, and have done so since 2001!  Now, is George an incompetent, or is he simply lying?!?

Why is it that so many of these "patriotic" conservatives hate America with such passion?!? And half of all "patriotic" Texas Republicans want Texas to secede!!  And these are the same people that told me for 8 years that if I didn't kiss George Bush's ass I was traitor!!!

Egad, I love exclamation points!!!

Pure, Unbridled, Obsessive Hatred

Obsidian Wings has the lowdown on the Oklahoma Republican Party Platform, which is filled with screeching, frothing-at-the-mouth social conservatism in general and white hot hatred for homosexuality and gays in particular. Read about it, but be prepared to be appalled.

Really, these right-wing knuckle-dragging cretins are so obsessed with gay sex you'd almost think that they were worried about waking up buck naked next to their equally buck naked buddy after a night of alcohol fueled sodomy. I mean, wouldn't you say that anyone who thinks about gay sex as much as the Oklahoma right-wingers do is in the throes of a serious homosexual panic? Come out of the closet, boys, and wave your multi-colored Pride flag!

You moronic scum.

Democrats, GET RID of Arlen Specter

Look, I thought it was fun to watch the Senate Republicans' crestfallen faces when Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter switched parties. But so far, as a "Democrat", Specter has voted against the President's budget, announced he will not support the pro-labor EFCA, and has now come out against a desperately needed public option for health care. We see again the actions of an utterly amoral opportunist who switched parties simply because he knew Pennsylvania's increasingly demented Republican minority wouldn't re-nominate him. 

Remember, Specter voted with his party 65% over the last year. As far as I'm concerned, this mug has two options:

A. Get his ass in line and start supporting President Obama on ALL key issues, or

B. Get his ass thrown out of a job in the Pennsylvania Democratic primary next year.

I want a REAL Democrat in Specter's seat. Specter is merely a political whore who will turn to whomever offers him the best deal.

I say light him up and toss him out.

RIP, Jack Kemp

Jack Kemp, who died today at the age of 73, was an uncommonly decent man. I disagreed with his economic ideas, but Jack Kemp was truly committed to making the Republican Party once again "The Party of Lincoln". He was a voice of racial sanity and moderation in an increasingly ugly and intolerant party. Kemp genuinely sought to help improve the lot of our nation's poorest inner city residents when he was HUD Secretary, and he was the only candidate in 1996 that was out on the trail talking about the concerns of African-Americans and urban residents. He was gracious and a true gentleman, and the nation and his party are poorer for his loss.