See more over at I’m Voting Tea Party

(via Clusterflock)

 
Best meme ever. Causes me infinite mirth and glee. It’s clearly a follow up to the below:
 

 

 
Thx Carmel !

 
In a case of you have to see it to believe it, this mindboggling video, shot by Chris Barret, is further evidence that the theory of de-evolution is more than a theory, it’s a fact.

“Fuck you Obama.” The kid in the video opts to smack down our President while ignoring Bin Laden and Sadaam Hussein. Hate is a virus and it’s spreading.

Via gawker

 
I’m sorry to stain our lovely blog with even the mere whiff of S. Palin but it’s worth suffering through her typically moronic straw-man attack to witness the high road being taken in a most marvelous way by El Presidente. He ain’t even remotely perfect but it’s hard not to love him for this kind of thing.

via Talking Points Memo, Thx Jeff Copas !

AlterNet reports on a group of protesters who have been incarcerated for protesting the continued operation of Guantanamo Bay. The protest comes in the wake of Obama missing his stated deadline for closing the prison facility. (Something, one may remember, that formed part of his campaign platform.)

Washington, DC: In a dramatic protest, 42 activists with Witness Against Torture were arrested this afternoon at the U.S. Capitol. The protest comes on the eve of the since-voided deadline President Obama had set for closing the prison camp at Guantanamo.

Those arrested on the Capitol steps held banners reading “Broken Promises, Broken Laws, Broken Lives.” Inside the Capitol, 14 activists performed a “memorial service” for the three men whose deaths at Guantanamo in 2006 were initially reported as suicides and callously described as “acts of asymmetrical warfare” by military officials. New reports provide strong evidence that the men may have been tortured to death at a CIA secret prison in Guantanamo.

The ceremony brought the names of the men—Salah Ahmed Al-Salami, Mani Shaman Al-Utaybi and Yasser Talal Al-Zahrani—into the Capitol Rotunda, where deceased presidents have lay in state. “We perform this ceremony to recognize the humanity of those whose lives have been broken by our government’s policies of torture and indefinite detention,” says Jerica Arents of Chicago, Illinois, one of those arrested in the Capitol.

Witness Against Torture has called for an immediate, independent investigation of the deaths, as it has called for the criminal investigation of all those who allegedly designed, executed, and carried out torture policies.

(AlterNet: 42 Arrested)

(Bonus Fun: Jello Biafra: The Audacity Of Hype)

Say what you will about Barack Obama, I have to say that taking responsibility for the Christmas terrorist plot intelligence failure is, well, the most (by which I mean the only) mature act I’ve seen from a president, ever. Call it the kinder, gentler face of fascism, but this?¢‚Ǩ‚Äù“As president, I have a solemn responsibility to protect our nation and our people. When the system fails, it’s my responsibility”?¢‚Ǩ‚Äùis how grown-ups handle their shit. I’m shocked, I actually am.

Reporting from Washington - Declaring the “buck stops with me,” President Obama on Thursday released results of an internal investigation into the Christmas Day terrorist plot and ordered a series of incremental measures meant to close gaps in the U.S. intelligence system that failed to detect it in advance.

The president avoided blaming any particular agency or official for the breakdowns that allowed a Nigerian extremist to board a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit armed with explosives, leaving a series of warning signs along the way.

“As president, I have a solemn responsibility to protect our nation and our people. When the system fails, it’s my responsibility,” Obama said.

(LA Times: Obama takes responsibility for intelligence failure)

The ACLU took a hard swing at the Obama administration today for upholding the Bush administration’s torture policies. Almost a year on into the Obama administration (quite hard to believe), we’re opening more secret prisons and upholding all the torture doctrines that got us into this mess. What next, starting more wars? Oh wait…

“The Bush administration constructed a legal framework for torture,” Jameel Jaffer, Director of ACLU’s National Security Project, said in a conference call with reporters. “Now the Obama administration is constructing a legal framework for impunity.”

While he credited Obama for having disavowed torture under his watch, Jaffer said that “on every front, the administration is actively obstructing accountability by shielding Bush officials from civil liability, criminal investigation and even public scrutiny for their role in authorizing torture.”

“It’s the last month of 2009, and not a single torture victim has had his day in court,” said ACLU Attorney Ben Wizner. “Not a single court in a torture case has ruled on the legality of the Bush administration?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s torture policies.”

In response to a question from Raw Story, Jaffer said refusing to prosecute past acts of torture sets “an extremely dangerous precedent” in the legal system. “Torture victims can be denied their day in court solely based on assertions made by their torturers,” he said.

(ACLU: Obama creation a ‘sweeping immunity doctrine’ for torturers)

Great article from Climate Progress on fixing the economy with green jobs. The score’s been clear for almost 18 months: Obama’s New Deal needs to be employing the out-of-work citizenry of the United States to develop a green infrastructure for the country. With energy independence as the goal, not only would we employ the unemployed and stimulate huge economic growth, we would also have work already provided for the vets coming back from the Middle East instead of a bottle of gin and a place in the soup line. We’d also undermine the need for future energy wars.

The challenges facing President Obama and the U.S. Congress have not gone away. Paul Krugman worries that ?¢‚Ǩ?ìunemployment is likely to stay near its current level for a year or more,?¢‚Ǩ¬ù because ?¢‚Ǩ?ìmuch of the political establishment now sees stimulus as having been discredited by events, so that it?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s very hard to come back and scale the policy up to where it should have been in the first place.?¢‚Ǩ¬ù But there remains a pathway out of Krugman?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s dire vision of ?¢‚Ǩ?ìa process of defining prosperity down?¢‚Ǩ¬ù ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äù if enough politicians embrace the alternative vision of a green economy, promoted by political leaders as far apart on the ideological spectrum as Van Jones and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC). The basic concept is simple, as [the above] video from Repower America shows ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äù heat up the economy by cooling down the planet.

The Recovery Act made a down payment for clean energy jobs, primarily through public spending. But the creation of a carbon market would drive private investment away from pollution and into clean energy. A Political Economy Research Institute clean energy economy report found that public-private investments of $150 billion a year could be sustained over ten years and create 1.7 million net jobs in the U.S. economy. Fossil-based energy production sends money overseas and sinks money into capital-intensive projects like mining and drilling, whereas clean energy and energy efficiency requires greater local and labor investment.

The stronger the carbon cap is in a carbon market, the greater the investment. A $150 billion carbon market would be about double the size of what is being considered by Congress. That investment would be sufficient to construct a nationwide smart grid, retrofit every building in America for energy efficiency, and produce 20 percent of electricity from renewable sources ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äù all by 2020.

(WorldChanging: How to Create 1.7 Million Clean Energy Jobs)

As we prepare to go back to war in Afghanistan, voices of dissent are ringing loud across the country and the Internet. Michael Moore:

Following President Obama’s announcement on Tuesday of a short-term troop surge in Afghanistan, an emotional Michael Moore told CNN’s Larry King, “I feel very bad for him.”

“I feel even worse for our troops,” Moore went on, blinking back tears. “And I feel a real sadness for the parents of those soldiers.of ours over the next eighteen months who will not come back home.”

“Our own CIA says there’s less than a hundred al Qaeda in Afghanistan,” Moore explained. “What are we doing in Afghanistan? This is absolutely insane. ... We have been in this war for twice as long now as the US was in World War II. ... We’re going to have 100,000 troops there to find these killers—who aren’t even there!”

And, even more to the point, Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY):

The Bush administration permitted the world’s most notorious terrorist mastermind to escape because it needed additional justification to invade Iraq, according to a Democratic lawmaker from New York.

Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) leveled the allegation during an interview with MSNBC host David Shuster on Monday afternoon.

“Look what happened with regard to our invasion into Afghanistan, how we apparently intentionally let bin Laden get away,” he said. “How we intentionally did not follow the Taliban and al-Qaeda as they were escaping. That was done by the previous administration because they knew very well that if they would capture al-Qaeda, there would be no justification for an invasion in Iraq.”

“They deliberately let Osama bin Laden get away?” asked an incredulous Shuster. “They deliberately let the head of al-Qaeda get away right after he, right after the 9/11 attacks? You really believe that?”

“Yes, I do,” Hinchey replied. “There’s no question about that. The leader of the military operation in the United States called back our military, called them back from going after the head of al-Qaeda because there was a sense that they didn’t want to capture him.”

Time will tell how much longer America can keep this up. Hard to play World Police when you can’t pay your cops. Bad, bad times indeed.

I recently watched the pilot episode of the new V series just cause, you know, you gotta keep up on your mass brainwashing. It was stupendously bad. However, I did have to laugh that the reptilian alien visitors in the show come bearing promises of “change” and then offer humanity… wait for it… wait for it… UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE. Sweet holy f*K, is that what it’s going to take to get the U.S. up to the baseline quality of life standard of the rest of the “first” world? Space lizards? Well, if so, I for one welcome our new overlords. (Wink wink)

Asylum points out the similarities to the Obama administration:

1. The aliens come to Earth using Obama-campaign watchwords hope and change, and offer the most literal form of universal health care. Aided by a complicit news media, they assuage rabid protesters through a sweet-talking figurehead. Skeptics try to warn everyone of the impending danger, but nobody listens.

2. Of course, the most striking comparison is that, while many Obama opponents are sure he’s concealing an alien birth certificate, the seemingly benevolent V’s are pretending to be just like us, but (spoiler alert) are hiding lizardy evidence that they just aren’t.

3. The whole thing could have been lifted from the minds of Glenn Beck and Lou Dobbs.

For bonus points, check out this fundie blog going off about the show, and this video from C-SPAN of the White House reacting to the show.

WASHINGTON ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äù Seven former directors of the Central Intelligence Agency asked President Obama on Friday to shut down the new Justice Department inquiry into past abuses during interrogations of terrorism suspects, arguing that it ?¢‚Ǩ?ìwill seriously damage?¢‚Ǩ¬ù the nation?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s ability to protect itself.

In a letter to Mr. Obama, the former C.I.A. chiefs said the cases under study had already been examined by career prosecutors who found that no criminal charges were warranted. To reopen cases based on a change in which political party controls the government, they wrote, will make it harder for intelligence officers to take risks without worrying that some future attorney general might investigate them.

God forbid if CIA agents can’t “take risks” i.e. violate human rights.

(C.I.A. Chiefs Ask Obama to Stop Abuse Inquiry via New York Times)

It’s eight months into Obama’s administration, and not only is Guantanamo still open (and amid new revelations about doctors being used to facilitate torture procedures), but Obama is now attempting to open a new one in Afghanistan.

The Intelligence Daily reports:

On Monday, a day after the New York Times and the Washington Post reported that the Obama administration was planning to introduce tribunals for prisoners held at the US prison at Bagram airbase, Afghanistan, the reason for the specifically-timed leaks that led to the publication of the stories became clear.

The government was hoping that offering tribunals to evaluate the prisoners?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢ status would perform a useful public relations function, making the administration appear to be granting important rights to the 600 or so prisoners held in Bagram, and distracting attention from the real reason for its purported generosity: a 76-page brief to the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, submitted yesterday, in which the government attempted to claim that ?¢‚Ǩ?ìHabeas rights under the United States Constitution do not extend to enemy aliens detained in the active war zone at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan.?¢‚Ǩ¬ù

Meanwhile, Stateside, Obama is attempting to get a time extension on the powers of the Patriot Act, including library record appropriation.

Like, seriously?

Seriously?

Is anybody paying attention?

Is anybody steering?

Is anybody home?

Oh wait… I think Kanye just did something funny!

Sign Obama’s petition to get your reps to back health care here, and win at life. And likely live a longer one.

Working state-run health care is the bare minimum for a functional, civilized 21st-century society. All you need to do is leave the U.S. for half a second to see how woefully, miserably behind the rest of the world we are, and just on bare minimum quality of life issues.

Also, all you have to do is take a quick trip to, say, Canada, to realize that state-supported health care, in general, produces people who are Fucking Hot. It’s not even funny.

Sign it, and strike a blow against ignorant Republican motherfuckers who want you to die young and live in misery while being dependent on corporations who don’t give two fucks about you or your life, and who also don’t want you to get laid by hot people! Help bring America up to speed with reality instead of regressive corporate troglodytism! Help your fellow wo/man!

Tell Your Members of Congress to Support President Obama’s Plan for Health Reform

_{(If you get why the above picture is funny, you really are going to hell.)}

Oh, lord have mercy. Lord have mercy you people!

A White House environmental policy adviser who specialized in “green jobs” resigned on Sunday after an uproar over his previous affiliation with a September 11 conspiracy group.

Van Jones, special adviser on green jobs at the White House Council on Environmental Quality, apologized on Thursday after videotape surfaced of him using a crude epithet to describe Republicans and amid revelations he had signed a petition suggesting U.S. government involvement in the 2001 attacks in New York and Washington.

The apology did little to quell Republican criticism, however, and President Barack Obama’s chief spokesman gave only tepid support to the adviser on Friday.

1. Lord forbid a person entrusted with thinking clearly think for themselves.

2. Lord forbid they criticize the previous administration (who everybody knows were Lying Curs Who Would Sell Their Own Grandmothers for Toll Bridge Fare).

3. Lord forbid they criticize the opposition party?¢‚Ǩ‚Äùfor the last time, Democrats are Spineless Jellies Who Turn a Permissive Hand to Evil and are Therefore Complicit In It.

4. Lord forbid that, in general, Mr. Stone act anything like a Republican?¢‚Ǩ‚Äùyou know, criticizing the opposite party and harboring conspiracy theories?¢‚Ǩ‚Äùwhich is about what every Republican in this country does. (For God’s sake, Bush thought that he was sacrificing countless lives and resources to fight mythical beings called “Gog and Magog” in the Middle East and we kept that Cephalopod around for eight years.)

5. And since every Republican seems to think that Global Warming is a Democrat conspiracy, and gets away with this Regressive, Head-in-the-Sand thinking, how dare the Democrat in charge of fixing it have conspiracy theories about the Republicans?

In short, shame on you, Mr. Obama, for being such a Party Line Pussy.*

_{* No offense intended to God’s finest creation.}