Department of What is WRONG with These People?

Nothing pretty. Hysterical squalling over the airwaves aside, though, the grown-ups brush off the panic and pursue solutions. Read below the fold...

So, here we are once again, we the sappy, economic-raped citizenry, with only two voices of integrity in our Senate right now. Count ‘em. The voices of Democrats Maria Cantwell (Wash.) and Russ Feingold (Wisc.).

Lots of the kabuki of faux reform, though. Appearance-Is-Everything Obama and the horrifyingly-still-prostituted Congress are getting ready to congratulate themselves once again on another legislative hurdle (one lower than a duck's in-step imho) and enjoy their own echoing sound bites from a fawning corporate-shilling press. One more time -- and most conveniently before the mid-term elections!!! Read below the fold...

In November of 2000, Americans sat on the edge of their seats waiting to find out who would be the next president. Protests were held, counter protests were organized to meet the challenge and everyone had an opinion. The 2000 election remains capable of igniting passionate debate. Some look it as the time that the Supreme Court stole an election for George W. Bush. Some mark it up to Al Gore having the campaign skills and spinal fortitude of a slime mold. There are those who rue Florida's hanging chads and aging Jewish voters for Buchanan. Read below the fold...

Once again Fox news is inciting hatred at a specific person. Why do we tolerate radio Radio Rwanda? [no-glossary]The 1934[/no-glossary] act that created the FCC specifically forbids hate speech directed against a specific person. Even if it is the cable property being used in this way, why do we permit corporations who use their cable properties in this way to also hold broadcast licenses? Read below the fold...

Rig Survivors Felt Coerced To Sign Waivers

Lawyers for the oil rig's owner, Transocean, requested that workers who had survived the blast sign the form in the wake of the April 20 blowout on the Deepwater Horizon. This was hours before the workers had been allowed to see their families.

RPT-BP's US Gulf project exempted from enviro analysis Read below the fold...

School for Disabled Forces Students to Wear Backpacks That Deliver Massive Electric Shocks Read below the fold...

Deficit hawks in the United States envision a day when the United States Government will go broke, unless we curb government spending on entitlements. Well, governments can go broke in the sense that they can run out of money they need to pay their debts. But not all governments. Read below the fold...

So, correct me if I’m wrong, but has’t it been the Right that’s bitched about Obama and the Dems turning this country into the next Nazi Germany????

But if you ask the the Arizona Senatorial candidates, apparently it’s a great thing that a new regulation virtually enacts World War II era Germany rules into Arizona state laws. Read below the fold...

GUEST OPINION:The viability of health care reform

Now that the health care reform bill has been signed, it will face legal challenges in courtrooms.

However, the judges in these cases do not possess the authority needed to render a final verdict on health care reform. The success or failure of health care reform ultimately depends upon whether or not it conforms to economic laws, rather than with the opinions of judges. ...

Get that? The test is how it stacks up to economic laws (whatever they may be) not whether it saves lives or improves public health. Health, it seems, is irrelevant.

Read below the fold...

I am slapping this down really fast cuz I am really, really, really angry. I will write a fuller blog later I am sure on the Iran and US situation, but I couldn't let this moment pass. Please indulge me.

I caught part of a podcast of Meet the Press. A part where David Gregory sets up Senator Joe Lieberman to "war monger" once again for war with Iran. That part begins at 30:25 if you access the podcast link for Meet the Press before next Sunday 4/11/10.

David Gregory disingenuously asks Senator Lieberman if Lieberman is AFRAID that the US and the West, in general, are DRIFTING to a war with Iran. Drifting to war with Iran? We all know damn well Lieberman is paddling away like crazy to get us there! Read below the fold...

“The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man falsely shouting fire in a theater and causing a panic. [...] The question in every case is whether the words used are used in such circumstances and are of such a nature as to create a clear and present danger that they will bring about the substantive evils that Congress has a right to prevent.”

Read below the fold...

So all you bitter old PUMAs can just chew on THAT! It's the new math: FDR = LBJ =BHO.

Make it stop. Please. Read below the fold...

McClatchy:

The White House Version 2.0 mortgage-relief plan announced on Friday is a recognition that the moribund housing sector poses a grave threat to the nation's economic recovery. By the administration's own admission, however, the effort may save at best only a third of the homes facing foreclosure in coming years.

Read below the fold...

I was listening to my local, Public NPR station, as I do every day, when Kai Ryssdal ran the below-the-jump commentary by Todd Buchholz. He galvanized in me years of thought. Maybe I am just slow in my galvanizing, but ...

via Marketplace Read below the fold...

A Consumer Bill Gives Exemption on Payday Loans Read below the fold...